BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

From his front yard along Guntersville Lake, former N.C. Congressman Bill Hefner can see the Tennessee River bridge.

Barges come down the river from Chattanooga and pass under the bridge as they chug through Alabama’s Cumberland Plateau. Hefner and his wife, Nancy, grew up in these parts, and now they’ve returned here to retire.

This picturesque region seems far removed from Washington and North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District, which Hefner served for 24 years before stepping down last December. The relocation has taken up most of their retirement days to date. The couple had possessions and properties scattered in Washington and North Carolina that they had to gather together or dispose of.

It also has meant that Hefner hasn’t been able to golf yet. And neither he nor Nancy has had a chance to fish, though Hefner says his wife could fish out of a bucket – she enjoys it that much. Right now, they have a boathouse but no boat.

The house they purchased in Guntersville along the lake has an expansive yard and landscaping. Hefner admits to spending most of his free time tending to the yard, which takes almost three hours to mow.

Otherwise, he says he has been visiting some flea markets and ‘‘piddlin’ around.’’

The Hefners left their quiet surroundings today for a trip back to North Carolina, where the Salisbury VA Medical Center will be named for Bill Hefner during Friday ceremonies.

Secretary Togo West Jr. of the Department of Veteran Affairs will be on hand with hundreds of other invitees to cap off Hefner’s long congressional career, during which he forged a reputation for helping veterans, the Salisbury National Cemetery and the Salisbury hospital.

Always armed with a country sense of humor, Hefner said friends have told him that a man has to die before a building can be named for him.

‘‘I wouldn’t go along with that,’’ he said.

Hefner always felt tied to the Salisbury hospital, even before he became a congressman in 1974. After he first moved to North Carolina, the former gospel singer and the rest of his quartet often sang for patients at the hospital. Nancy served as a frequent volunteer.

Hefner recalls playing golf, volleyball and basketball at the hospital before becoming a congressman from Concord and building strong friendships with the hospital’s directors.

In Congress, Hefner served on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, the House Appropriations Committee and, when Democrats controlled the House, he became chairman and ranking member of the House Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee.

Hefner has forsaken Washington’s faster pace and his North Carolina constituents for small-town life in Guntersville, where ‘‘everybody knows everybody,’’ he said.

Hefner said he met a man Tuesday who is the Chevrolet dealer in town. After they talked awhile, they realized they had gone to school together. It has happened like that with other people.

‘‘They’ve gotten older,’’ Hefner said, hinting that he hasn’t.

Plenty of family still lives near Guntersville, including Nancy Hefner’s 85-year-old mother. A sister and her husband live about 15 miles away. Hefner’s brother resides in Birmingham, about 60 miles from Guntersville. Another sister is in Tennessee, some 50 miles from Hefner.

Many cousins also claim kinship.

The Hefners are back in their small home church, started by Bill Hefner’s great-grandfather. Hefner’s brother-in-law is the town undertaker, coroner and Civitan poobah. Hefner expects he’ll be joining the local Civitan Club in the near future.

Hefner has already registered to vote in his new digs. And a week ago, local Democrats asked him to speak at their monthly meeting. The experience only proved to Hefner that people – and Democrats – are the same all over the country.

A clear message came out of the meeting, he recalled. Democrats have to get out and work.

Hefner finds that he and his fellow Alabamians often tune out what’s happening in Washington these days. Hefner said he watches a little television to keep updated on NATO’s action against Yugoslavia.

But he said ‘‘the Clinton thing got so redundant.’’ Often, he finds himself embarrassed over what goes on in Washington, he added.

Most of the people around him are more concerned about what the Tennessee Valley Authority will do about getting the weeds out of Guntersville Lake, Medicare and Social Security, according to Hefner. Politics doesn’t excite them.

Folks in the Guntersville area are doing well and have plenty of work, Hefner also reported.

While the Hefners have severed their property ties to North Carolina – they will close the sale of their Uwharrie Point house May 15 – one daughter and her family live in Greenville.

As part of their trip north for the hospital naming this week, the Hefners will be visiting with daughter Shellie in Greenville and daughter Stacye in Virginia.

Hefner hopes grandson David has time in the near future to visit him in Alabama for some fishing. Maybe they also can find time to piddle around.