Truckin' on the Western Branch

Sophie’s landmark tavern

Louis Latham. Image by Sheally

had to lug the crates along long rows of cucumbers where they were stacked on a truck and driven to the pickle factory in South Norfolk. Dad paid us kids 15 cents a crate and thought he was being very generous. If one of us were lucky enough, we got to ride in the truck with Dad and Uncle Charlie. The pickle factory smelled so good.

According to Louis Latham , his wife Myola’s family, the Barnaks, worked in the West Virginia coal mines before settling in Bowers Hill.

I remember every morning that her mother would start up the fire in the cook stove and then go out to cut trees, dig roots, whatever had to be done,” he said. “I never saw her outside without a hoe, shovel, rake, or broom and in work clothes. Myola’s father was a butcher in Norfolk and drove his Kaiser to downtown Portsmouth and ferried over to work. Her uncle, Joe Barnak, ran a gas station and store, and her cousin, Sophia Barnak, ran a neighborhood restaurant and bar.

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