Chatham County lost its own “Bill Dance” last Friday afternoon when my neighbor, Bill Poe, passed away at the age of 82.
To say it will be an adjustment not seeing Bill out in the yard, going for walks, or heading out in his black Chevrolet truck is an understatement. He, and his wife of 64 years, Mary Ruth (or “Tom,” as he always called her), have been “across the road” my entire life.
Anyone who knew him will clearly understand this statement: Bill was a character. And I mean that as the utmost compliment. He loved to talk, especially fishing and sports, and the conversations were always interesting, whether listening to him talking to others, or out at the mailbox, in Staley at Mainstreet Grill, or in passing when I rode up on him during his daily walks.
When I was a child, Bill worked in a factory in Liberty, and came home roughly at the same time every day, around 3:30 p.m. or so. But his real passion was fishing and building rods, and he decided to make a business out of it, and thus Bill Poe’s Custom Rods was born.
Now you can imagine being a young tyke and going over to your neighbors with your dad and cousin Dino (yes, Dino as in the Thin Lizzy song “The Boys Are Back in Town” — and with whom our childhood escapades rivaled Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, and would be an entirely separate column) and seeing a man actually building a fishing rod. You want to talk about exciting, I can see him now sitting in his chair, using the hot glue and meticulously spinning the thread onto the rod at various points. I mean, we couldn’t get enough.
At that time, Bill was utilizing a middle room in the house, but as a few years went by, he put an actual shop out beside the house — and that became Bill Poe’s Custom Rods.
For Dino and me, it was like a holy place and we couldn’t wait to get back, and in reality probably annoying Bill at times.
But he always welcomed us in, and we would save up some change and look through his stock which included all sorts of fishing accessories by this point, from bait to weights to whatever you could name. And if there wasn’t a customer, Bill would show us the latest; we were like kids on Christmas morning. Dino and I would always leave with some things, and looking back on it, it’s clear now that Bill would always slip in a little extra, telling us to try out this type of plastic worm or spinner bait while slipping it in our little brown bag.
And we would get up early the next morning with our fishing tackle and six-pack of Country Time lemonade and head out to one of the ponds in the back pastures, or over to the river which surrounded where we lived. Sometimes we caught something, sometimes we didn’t, but we would often report back on our success and Bill would lend an attentive ear and give us a little advice. And that always meant something to us, because in our minds, Bill Poe was the equivalent of Bill Dance, who had burst on to the scene with a television fishing show and his own brand.
As we grew older, we still went fishing from time to time, but other things such as sports, friends, and girls caught our attention. And it was probably a good thing as Bill’s business flourished and basically for decades became a gathering place for area fishermen inside and out of Chatham County. During the day, and especially in the evening, trucks and cars alike were in and out to the point that Bill and Mary Ruth had to add parking. It was a frequent sight to see four or five vehicles parked over there and a truck pulling a boat parked down on the side of the road. And on the weekends, it was a madhouse as the fishermen from far and wide rolled in and out.
With that said, it wasn’t all about the sales, but more about people coming over to sit down and talk fishing, sports, and life in general. It was just one of those places that guys wanted to hang out. The stories would flow, with a lot of laughter, much of which I could hear from across the road. It was just normal and something I miss hearing.
Bill Poe’s Custom Rods meant a lot to a great deal of people; Bill and Mary Ruth are like family to thousands of people. And that’s no exaggeration. I have explained where I live to people in Chatham County, Randolph County, Guilford County, Alamance County, Davidson County, and Montgomery County, only to hear “Oh, you live across from Bill Poe’s”.
I think in his final months and years battling health issues that Bill and Mary Ruth, as well as their son Mike, probably became even more aware of that, and just how much joy they provided through the years to so many, and not as just some business, but as a place to go and that was special and welcoming.
Like many, I’m going to miss Bill. He was a great sportsman and rod builder. But that didn’t compare to the husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, friend and neighbor that he was.