The Canady House

A red block house above the cross roads in the hollow behind the Depot in Tryon was of great interest to Carrol. He repeated several times, “That’s our house, but something is different.” He walked up the road past the front to look at it from the other side. He walked back down the road and around to an overlook above a trailer where he heard a couple dogs barking. Carrol waved as a young woman emerged from the trailer and walk down to the creek below the overlook and shouted up, “Hello.”

She said she had grown up in the house below the overlook to the right that was now surrounded by bamboo. She said she didn’t know anything about the red block house, although she said she had lived in the Hollow her entire life. She said she remembers the road above the red house was clear years ago and there were several houses farther up that aren’t there any more.

Carrol walked around to where the road curved back to the railroad tracks and headed in that direction. At the curve behind the house surrounded by the bamboo is a large two-story house set back in the trees. He climbed the stairs to see if anyone was home that could remember the red house or the Waymon family.

When Carrol got up to the porch, I heard polite introductions followed by a loud laughing, “Carrol!” Again, just as the day before, an old friend recognized Carrol from years before. It was Katherine Canady who’s late husband, Prince, was a close friend of Carrol’s older brother, John Irving. Katherine repeated several times, “I can’t believe I’m seeing Carrol Waymon again.” The two visited and Katherine showed Carrol the house and where she had been sitting in the breakfast room watching him walk up the road. “I wondered who you were down there walking up here,” she said.

The two visited and Katherine told Carrol that indeed the house he remembered was the house up on the road. “It’s been remodeled,” she explained. “After a fire burned it down, they added all the block when they rebuilt it.” Carrol was very happy to know his memory was right and to find an old friend and see her once again.

Katherine gave Carrol an old horseshoe as a souvenir that Prince had found near the house before he died. It was one of many that were hanging on the house, but it was the only one hanging on the front porch. Carrol and Katherine said goodbye and he promised to be in touch.

We walked back to the car after walking up and around the road towards the railroad tracks. The Hollow had been hit hard by the recent storm, but Katherine said how much she enjoyed the storm with the trees crashing and the wind blowing. “It frightened everyone else,” she said. “But, I love a good storm.”