star staff
  jfann@starhq.com

  For 34 years, Fred and Ruth Honeycutt have been selling quality merchandise to antique-savvy customers as far away as Sweden and Stoney Creek. Ask them why they do it and they'll tell you it's all about meeting people.
  "One day I was here alone in the summer and the door darkened this man was so big. He said, 'I'm the Sundance Kid.' They were making a movie down in the gorge, and he was playing the part of the Sundance Kid and that's how he introduced himself," Fred Honeycutt said. Dennis Weaver, as well as other celebrities, have visited The Hackline Shop, which the Honeycutts opened on U.S. Highway 19E in Roan Mountain in 1971. The name was taken from a common term used in the past for the path that buggies traveled to town, the hackline.
  "We just love meeting people as well as preserving the past. We also love old furniture," Ruth said. Antiques available at the shop include old pie safes, dry sinks, rope beds, wash stands, Iron Mountain stoneware and Depression-era glass. Area residents bring in many of the items for sale. The Honeycutts also go to auctions.
  "Sometimes, we'll hear of someone that wants to sell something, and they ask us to come and look at it. They invite us into their home," Ruth said.
  Because Roan Mountain is a popular tourist site, The Hackline Shop has received visitors from places like Germany, England, Sweden and Nova Scotia.
  "We have a lady who comes in from Nova Scotia about once every two or three years to visit and she is the sweetest. Her daughter married a man from Georgia and they live in Georgia now," Ruth said.
  Modest and down-to-earth, the Honeycutts also offer their shop as a place to help those in need of a listening ear or to share fresh corn from their garden.
  "We're able to help people who come in and need help and to pray with people. I've given people cups of tea and cups of water and fed them. I've fed them corn. People's just people, really and truly," Ruth said.
  The cost of merchandise at The Hackline Shop is affordably priced. One rare piece of furniture the Honeycutts carry is an old stand-up desk from the old general store in Roan Mountain built in 1882.
  Most of all, the Honeycutts enjoy being mountain people interested in holding on to their roots and reaching out to the community.
  "It's a joy to see people who graduated from Cloudland years ago and they'll come back and they like seeing someone who knows them and greets them," Ruth said.