15. Summers Spent At the ‘Resort’ of Riverton

By Kathy Buie Vance.

In the summer, we spent our time at the river. We would go to Jolly Bend in the mornings and Dan and Wrae’s landing in the afternoons. Jolly Bend was a gathering place for the whole community. We would pile into the station wagon with our inner tubes and wave to Liza who was always sitting on her porch waiting for us to chorus “Hey Liza!”

The adults would gather on blankets to play bridge, and we would venture out into the freezing water. Once we were old enough to swim across, we would jump off the diving board or climb a tree and swing across the swift current on a rope. Then we’d get out and grab our inner tubes and head for the bridge, walking by Liza’s house (Hey Liza) and onto the paved road. That road was so hot on our bare feet that we gingerly walked on the white stripes in the middle. When we got to the bridge, we would throw our tubes down and try to jump into them. Then we’d enjoy a leisurely float back to Jolly Bend.

(When I told my granddaughter Bailey about jumping off the bridge into the river, she asked “But Mima, what did you do with your phone??”)

There was always a group, so we felt perfectly safe doing this. The adults barely looked up from their bridge game when we returned. The afternoons at Dan and Wrae’s landing were a little more laid back. Dan and Wrae’s children Danny and Carolyn were our friends, and we spent a lot of time at their house and in their river. There was a diving board but no rope swing. We’d go around what was called the short cut, floating with the current and then cutting through the swamp, until we got to the other side. Then we’d float with the current back to the landing. We loved to swim across and stand on an underwater log. There were canoes there so we went paddling too. People came to Riverton from other places and stayed in cabins and we loved seeing them every summer. They would organize Riverton Nights where we would sing and tell stories, and we were always included.

Kathy wading in the Lumbee River at Jolly Bend, with mothers gathering in their conical hats in the background.

Related:

5 Generations at Riverton, Along the Lumbee River near Wagram, NC

Postscript: Catherine Johnson Jackson owned the land by the river where the Jolly Bend “swimming hole” was a community gathering place. The Scotland County Recreation Department developed it in the 1970s as a real county gathering place. But in the late 1980s and 1990s, it declined from neglect and vandalism, and was sold privately to a family. The area is still visible by boat, but the landing has essentially been retaken by nature. A couple of miles upriver, the county and state of North Carolina have since developed Lumber River State Park, with camping sites and hiking trails, a delightful spot.

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