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Jim and his wife.
Jim hands a visitor a photo: "That’s the only picture I’ve got of Pa working with me.”
It’s dated 1966, which would make Jim 22 and Charlie 57. “I had to saw when I was a boy,” recalls Jim. “You didn’t stand around like kids today do. It was saw or you don’t eat; work or you get the boot.”
What he did under compulsion 40 years ago, he does out of devotion today. “I don’t saw fast; I take my time. It’s our custom to do it right,” he says. “Our” and “we” slip into his speech whenever he’s talking about the sawmill, as if his father were still at his side.
“We don’t do it for money,” continues Jim. “We were taught how to saw right by the best people in Luray. I really admired the people out of Luray who did mill work—you’ll never find more all-around perfect people. Real professionals.”
Jim Hitt now earns his living mowing grass in the medians of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 66. The sawmill is a spare-time occupation, done for people who live nearby or who hear about him word-ofmouth.
The only sawmill in the county that runs full-time is John Dove’s mill on Rt. 522, four miles north of Flint Hill. Mr. Dove is a Rixeyville
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