December 27, 2024 Coats Museum News
Christmas of 2024 is now history but memories of it will linger for years. Do some of your favorite Christmas memories go back to your childhood? My parents always made Christmas so special for us children as they would fill our Christmas Eve boxes placed in front of the fireplace with all kinds of candy, nuts and fruits. Yes, I said boxes. For some reason, we never had stockings hanging from our fireplace mantle. I thought surely my family was the only one in the world who had Christmas boxes until I learned a few years ago that one of my dearest friends, Marie Salmon who grew up in the Coastal section of NC, also had Christmas boxes.
My siblings and I would trade off the various candies we liked and didn’t like with each other. I distinctly recall that the big raisins with seeds inside were not a favorite of any of us but we continued to get them each year until the boxes were no longer placed in front of the fireplace.
Daddy apparently made an annual Christmas trip to Medlin and Dorman’s in Benson and filled a big wooden slatted box with ever kind and color of candy imaginable. Bags of nuts of all kinds of shapes and color found their way into our Christmas box. They were so special because Christmas was the only time we ever saw these nuts.
It seems in our area of Bailey’s Crossroads that many fatal accidents have happened there during the Christmas season. After hearing about them, my mom would often say that it seemed that sad things always happened around Christmas. As a child I just didn’t see it that way at all—I saw candy, presents and lots of visitors at our house. It was not until I was doing family genealogy that I saw the death date of my mother’s father was December 26th. Never in a million years did I think that I would see the death date of my H.L. would be December 27th. Yes, sad things do happen around Christmas, but it is a season of joy, hope and love that we should extend through all the seasons as those who keep the Christmas tree up year round and simply change the decorations to match some seasonal traditions.
The date on the Daily Record printed that it was February 8, 1995, and had I been at my childhood home, my dad would likely on occasion have made a trip to the closet under our stairs and brought out some of that variety of Christmas goodies that we so enjoyed. The innocence of age never put together it was left over from filling our Christmas boxes.
However in Coats in 1995, the CACC had selected the BB&T as its Business Focus of the Week. The bank opened its doors on June 23, 1984. The BB&T occupied the building that the Carolina Bank had opened on May 15, 1979 and later merged with BB&T in 1984. Larry Byrd was Vice President and City Executive. Byrd was a 1965 graduate of Coats High School and the son of Rev. Ralph Byrd.
Curtis and Isobel Gregory had celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary. Elsewhere, many were so excited to hear that Ronnie and Monica Stewart were expecting triplets. Word around town was that Ronnie was carrying around a notepad and was writing down the names of those who said they would help out (Daily Record Feb. 9, 1995).
Bob Hedrick had taken his seat on the Coats Town Commission. Town Clerk Elaine Keene swore him in (Daily Record Feb. 10, 1995). Do you recall reading earlier that he had been in Coats seven years? What brought him to Coats? Does he have family here? Is he the first in his family to give time to serving on the town governing board?
The Dunn-Erwin Rotary Club had honored Jason Lee Patterson as the Student of the Week. While at Triton, Lee had been involved in the Marching Band, Pep Club, and International Club. He was the recipient of many academic awards. Lee planned to attend Campbell University to pursue a degree in pharmacy (Daily Record Feb. 13, 1995).
The year 2024 has come to a close at the museum. It has been another year of happiness and optimism; however, sadness did find its way to the Coats Heritage Square. As the volunteers are mainly a group of retirees, we are experiencing the news of the death of more of our classmates and friends. We feel the ache of having some of our most faithful visitors coming solo to the museum because of the death of a spouse.
The love that many of them had for the museum is verified by the large number of memorials given in their honor to the museum. We lost two former board members in 2024-Gerri Honeycutt and Patsy Avery- whose families designated the Coats Museum as a nonprofit that memorials could be given to remember them. Stacy Avery came by after Patsy’s death and shared that they had specified the museum as one of the beneficiaries in their estate and we were joyfully surprised. He suggested that I mention it because he said that there might be someone reading the column who might be inspired to do likewise.
Do you see why we call the Coats Museum- the people’s museum?
Christmas of 2024 is now history but memories of it will linger for years. Do some of your favorite Christmas memories go back to your childhood? My parents always made Christmas so special for us children as they would fill our Christmas Eve boxes placed in front of the fireplace with all kinds of candy, nuts and fruits. Yes, I said boxes. For some reason, we never had stockings hanging from our fireplace mantle. I thought surely my family was the only one in the world who had Christmas boxes until I learned a few years ago that one of my dearest friends, Marie Salmon who grew up in the Coastal section of NC, also had Christmas boxes.
My siblings and I would trade off the various candies we liked and didn’t like with each other. I distinctly recall that the big raisins with seeds inside were not a favorite of any of us but we continued to get them each year until the boxes were no longer placed in front of the fireplace.
Daddy apparently made an annual Christmas trip to Medlin and Dorman’s in Benson and filled a big wooden slatted box with ever kind and color of candy imaginable. Bags of nuts of all kinds of shapes and color found their way into our Christmas box. They were so special because Christmas was the only time we ever saw these nuts.
It seems in our area of Bailey’s Crossroads that many fatal accidents have happened there during the Christmas season. After hearing about them, my mom would often say that it seemed that sad things always happened around Christmas. As a child I just didn’t see it that way at all—I saw candy, presents and lots of visitors at our house. It was not until I was doing family genealogy that I saw the death date of my mother’s father was December 26th. Never in a million years did I think that I would see the death date of my H.L. would be December 27th. Yes, sad things do happen around Christmas, but it is a season of joy, hope and love that we should extend through all the seasons as those who keep the Christmas tree up year round and simply change the decorations to match some seasonal traditions.
The date on the Daily Record printed that it was February 8, 1995, and had I been at my childhood home, my dad would likely on occasion have made a trip to the closet under our stairs and brought out some of that variety of Christmas goodies that we so enjoyed. The innocence of age never put together it was left over from filling our Christmas boxes.
However in Coats in 1995, the CACC had selected the BB&T as its Business Focus of the Week. The bank opened its doors on June 23, 1984. The BB&T occupied the building that the Carolina Bank had opened on May 15, 1979 and later merged with BB&T in 1984. Larry Byrd was Vice President and City Executive. Byrd was a 1965 graduate of Coats High School and the son of Rev. Ralph Byrd.
Curtis and Isobel Gregory had celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary. Elsewhere, many were so excited to hear that Ronnie and Monica Stewart were expecting triplets. Word around town was that Ronnie was carrying around a notepad and was writing down the names of those who said they would help out (Daily Record Feb. 9, 1995).
Bob Hedrick had taken his seat on the Coats Town Commission. Town Clerk Elaine Keene swore him in (Daily Record Feb. 10, 1995). Do you recall reading earlier that he had been in Coats seven years? What brought him to Coats? Does he have family here? Is he the first in his family to give time to serving on the town governing board?
The Dunn-Erwin Rotary Club had honored Jason Lee Patterson as the Student of the Week. While at Triton, Lee had been involved in the Marching Band, Pep Club, and International Club. He was the recipient of many academic awards. Lee planned to attend Campbell University to pursue a degree in pharmacy (Daily Record Feb. 13, 1995).
The year 2024 has come to a close at the museum. It has been another year of happiness and optimism; however, sadness did find its way to the Coats Heritage Square. As the volunteers are mainly a group of retirees, we are experiencing the news of the death of more of our classmates and friends. We feel the ache of having some of our most faithful visitors coming solo to the museum because of the death of a spouse.
The love that many of them had for the museum is verified by the large number of memorials given in their honor to the museum. We lost two former board members in 2024-Gerri Honeycutt and Patsy Avery- whose families designated the Coats Museum as a nonprofit that memorials could be given to remember them. Stacy Avery came by after Patsy’s death and shared that they had specified the museum as one of the beneficiaries in their estate and we were joyfully surprised. He suggested that I mention it because he said that there might be someone reading the column who might be inspired to do likewise.
Do you see why we call the Coats Museum- the people’s museum?