June 13, 2014 Coats Museum News
Apparently the Coats Community Building is complete because the men in the Fellowship Club had enjoyed a chicken dinner where Herbert Johnson praised his fellow club members for a job well done by them and other clubs in town (Dunn Dispatch April 8, 1949).
Another young man killed in action on August 21, 1944 was returned home for burial. John C. Ryals, 23, was killed in France. Sergeant Ryals had enlisted on June 22, 1942 and had received training at Camp Blanding, Florida. He went overseas as a member of the 314 Infantry of the 79th Division. He had attended Coats School. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Ryals of Dunn, Route 3 had two brothers who were Staff Sergeant Clyde Lee Ryals of the US Army in Japan and D.C. Ryals of Dunn. His three sisters were Mrs. J.B. Butler, Jean and Elizabeth Ann Ryals.
How many of you remember going to the Godwin Building Supply Company in Dunn? Was that not the place to pick out articles to be used in all construction jobs? Does anyone know when the business was established? According to the Dunn Dispatch the store opened its doors in 1949. One could purchase a screen door with copper wire for $6.85. That is less than what a gallon of ice cream cost today that is if you can find a gallon since most ice cream companies now have replaced gallon containers with 3 quarts and so many ounces instead.
Do you know what a screen door looked like? I am going to conclude that the screen door being sold at Godwin Building was supposed to be superior to other screen doors. First, it had copper wire and second, it was rot proof. Many of the readers may not know what screen doors and sliding window screens were.
Allow me the liberty to enlighten those of you of tender age about flies, bugs, mosquitoes, tangle foot, and reed-paper “shoo-fly” fans of years past. The late Stanton Coats wrote of his memories of such things in the news many years ago. This writer will share some of his thoughts and also a few memories that others have shared in various interviews on this topic.
Up until tractors and electricity came to the area, livestock and other poultry were found in great numbers on the farm and in many cases in the towns. These animals and poultry were necessary servants of humans. The oxen and the mule served as the tractor. The cows, chickens, geese, turkeys, not only provided food, but the geese ate the grass from the cotton fields and their feathers were used to make pillow and mattresses. The turkeys were used to eat the hornworms off the tobacco leaves. The chickens provided eggs and meat on the family table. The cows provided the dairy products of milk and butter.
It is important to note that these farm animals produced a lot of body wastes. In the natural process of things, the flies were always around the waste doing what flies do best “flying”. These flies always made their way to and into the houses and onto things that humans preferred they not be onto. Man is smarter than flies but even that is questionable when a human was trying to swat a fly with a piece of paper, a hat, or any other weapon close at hand when a fly was interrupting a nap or was trying to eat the human’s food before or with the humans.
If one opened the windows to allow fresh air into the house, the flies were swarming faster that Mama could shout,” Close the windows-you’re letting the flies in!” Now that is not the only command that Mamas gave to their young offspring. Children loved to run in and out of the house and Mama would say;”Stay in or out, you are letting the flies into the house!” Hence, many households turned to screen doors and sliding screens on the windows.
The bottom half of the window was raised and the sliding screen would slide out to fit the window and bottom window would drop down just enough to hold the screen in place. The screens were good at night because they also kept the pesky mosquito from singing in the sleeper’s ears and from drawing blood at their leisure as the tired farm families slept.
Sliding screens were available in the Stanton Coats household around 1915. Mr. Coats reminded his readers that his family still had to rely on tangle foot to catch the nasty varmints. Tangle foot was that old “sticky stuff, two sheets glued together with a honey like mucilage. If one were careful in pulling them apart, maybe one would not end up on one’s forearm. When it was finally separated and uncurled, it was hung in the kitchen, on the back porch wash shelf or near the slop bucket to await its unsuspecting captives. It had to be weighted down or a slight whiff of the wind would send it sticking to the ceiling, a nice clean wall or even on Grandpa’s favorite chair next to the fireplace with a few dozen dead flies on a sheet”.
Sometimes, late at night, Coats recalled that the flies sounded like buzz saws or airplane propellers until finally there was no more buzzing.
Some might say, I can’t exactly visualize what “tangle foot” looked like. This writer best understands that a good comparison would be to a roll of 35-millimeter film unrolled and tangling in the air after having one end secured to a ceiling or light.
A second way to “shoo flies” was with a “shoo fly fan made by splitting the end of a reed pole, three or four feet long, folding several sheets of newspaper into it, then a few stitches to hold it fast, then cutting the paper into narrow shreds”. Many children spent hours shooing flies off a sleeping baby or off food that sat on a table waiting for the family to come.
So indeed, many folks likely went to Dunn and purchased a screen door from Godwin Building Supply just as later people found money to purchase fans, air conditioners, and other modern “wonders” to make their lives more comfortable and easier, but some young readers must wonder why they were called “the good old days”.
Wonder if the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Stewart had screened windows for fresh air to flow in as their daughter, Miss Eurice Stewart, married Keith Wayne Stewart. The groom’s sister, Evangeline Stewart, rendered music as did Mrs. Fred Fleming. The bride wore a two-piece pink crepe suit. Jack Reynolds employed Mr. Stewart in aerial crop dusting in Hastings, Florida. He had earlier been employed as an instructor at the River-View Air Service in Erwin. Eurice was previously secretary at the Benner-Robertson Lumber Co. in Coats.
Carsie and Jenny Denning dropped by the museum to give two boxes of his book about M.O. Phillips. So many people loved Mr. Phillips and Carsie shared his many memories of the former community leader and educator. Sales from Jenny’s “Down a Country Road” and Carsie’s book will help pay monthly expenses of the museum. This couple just keeps on giving—thanks! You can, too, by buying a couple of the books packed full of memories as gifts to your family who attended CHS.
Mike and Claudia Tocci of Sparks, Nevada recently visited our museum on a trip to visit Jane Barnes, Margaret Johnson and other relatives in Wake and Johnston County. Upon returning to Nevada, they sent a check to help out with expenses to operate the museum. A big thank you goes to them and we look forward to Mike’s return in July. He has informed us that his younger brother Chuck will be coming from out west in late June and will drop by to see the museum. The Coats Kiwanis Club, Mott Goff, Gary Denning, Randy and Rhonda Stephenson and Hilda Pope have given memorials for Dorsey Daniel. Hilda also remembered Dyan Lee Denning. The museum volunteers really appreciate these contributors.
Apparently the Coats Community Building is complete because the men in the Fellowship Club had enjoyed a chicken dinner where Herbert Johnson praised his fellow club members for a job well done by them and other clubs in town (Dunn Dispatch April 8, 1949).
Another young man killed in action on August 21, 1944 was returned home for burial. John C. Ryals, 23, was killed in France. Sergeant Ryals had enlisted on June 22, 1942 and had received training at Camp Blanding, Florida. He went overseas as a member of the 314 Infantry of the 79th Division. He had attended Coats School. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Ryals of Dunn, Route 3 had two brothers who were Staff Sergeant Clyde Lee Ryals of the US Army in Japan and D.C. Ryals of Dunn. His three sisters were Mrs. J.B. Butler, Jean and Elizabeth Ann Ryals.
How many of you remember going to the Godwin Building Supply Company in Dunn? Was that not the place to pick out articles to be used in all construction jobs? Does anyone know when the business was established? According to the Dunn Dispatch the store opened its doors in 1949. One could purchase a screen door with copper wire for $6.85. That is less than what a gallon of ice cream cost today that is if you can find a gallon since most ice cream companies now have replaced gallon containers with 3 quarts and so many ounces instead.
Do you know what a screen door looked like? I am going to conclude that the screen door being sold at Godwin Building was supposed to be superior to other screen doors. First, it had copper wire and second, it was rot proof. Many of the readers may not know what screen doors and sliding window screens were.
Allow me the liberty to enlighten those of you of tender age about flies, bugs, mosquitoes, tangle foot, and reed-paper “shoo-fly” fans of years past. The late Stanton Coats wrote of his memories of such things in the news many years ago. This writer will share some of his thoughts and also a few memories that others have shared in various interviews on this topic.
Up until tractors and electricity came to the area, livestock and other poultry were found in great numbers on the farm and in many cases in the towns. These animals and poultry were necessary servants of humans. The oxen and the mule served as the tractor. The cows, chickens, geese, turkeys, not only provided food, but the geese ate the grass from the cotton fields and their feathers were used to make pillow and mattresses. The turkeys were used to eat the hornworms off the tobacco leaves. The chickens provided eggs and meat on the family table. The cows provided the dairy products of milk and butter.
It is important to note that these farm animals produced a lot of body wastes. In the natural process of things, the flies were always around the waste doing what flies do best “flying”. These flies always made their way to and into the houses and onto things that humans preferred they not be onto. Man is smarter than flies but even that is questionable when a human was trying to swat a fly with a piece of paper, a hat, or any other weapon close at hand when a fly was interrupting a nap or was trying to eat the human’s food before or with the humans.
If one opened the windows to allow fresh air into the house, the flies were swarming faster that Mama could shout,” Close the windows-you’re letting the flies in!” Now that is not the only command that Mamas gave to their young offspring. Children loved to run in and out of the house and Mama would say;”Stay in or out, you are letting the flies into the house!” Hence, many households turned to screen doors and sliding screens on the windows.
The bottom half of the window was raised and the sliding screen would slide out to fit the window and bottom window would drop down just enough to hold the screen in place. The screens were good at night because they also kept the pesky mosquito from singing in the sleeper’s ears and from drawing blood at their leisure as the tired farm families slept.
Sliding screens were available in the Stanton Coats household around 1915. Mr. Coats reminded his readers that his family still had to rely on tangle foot to catch the nasty varmints. Tangle foot was that old “sticky stuff, two sheets glued together with a honey like mucilage. If one were careful in pulling them apart, maybe one would not end up on one’s forearm. When it was finally separated and uncurled, it was hung in the kitchen, on the back porch wash shelf or near the slop bucket to await its unsuspecting captives. It had to be weighted down or a slight whiff of the wind would send it sticking to the ceiling, a nice clean wall or even on Grandpa’s favorite chair next to the fireplace with a few dozen dead flies on a sheet”.
Sometimes, late at night, Coats recalled that the flies sounded like buzz saws or airplane propellers until finally there was no more buzzing.
Some might say, I can’t exactly visualize what “tangle foot” looked like. This writer best understands that a good comparison would be to a roll of 35-millimeter film unrolled and tangling in the air after having one end secured to a ceiling or light.
A second way to “shoo flies” was with a “shoo fly fan made by splitting the end of a reed pole, three or four feet long, folding several sheets of newspaper into it, then a few stitches to hold it fast, then cutting the paper into narrow shreds”. Many children spent hours shooing flies off a sleeping baby or off food that sat on a table waiting for the family to come.
So indeed, many folks likely went to Dunn and purchased a screen door from Godwin Building Supply just as later people found money to purchase fans, air conditioners, and other modern “wonders” to make their lives more comfortable and easier, but some young readers must wonder why they were called “the good old days”.
Wonder if the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Stewart had screened windows for fresh air to flow in as their daughter, Miss Eurice Stewart, married Keith Wayne Stewart. The groom’s sister, Evangeline Stewart, rendered music as did Mrs. Fred Fleming. The bride wore a two-piece pink crepe suit. Jack Reynolds employed Mr. Stewart in aerial crop dusting in Hastings, Florida. He had earlier been employed as an instructor at the River-View Air Service in Erwin. Eurice was previously secretary at the Benner-Robertson Lumber Co. in Coats.
Carsie and Jenny Denning dropped by the museum to give two boxes of his book about M.O. Phillips. So many people loved Mr. Phillips and Carsie shared his many memories of the former community leader and educator. Sales from Jenny’s “Down a Country Road” and Carsie’s book will help pay monthly expenses of the museum. This couple just keeps on giving—thanks! You can, too, by buying a couple of the books packed full of memories as gifts to your family who attended CHS.
Mike and Claudia Tocci of Sparks, Nevada recently visited our museum on a trip to visit Jane Barnes, Margaret Johnson and other relatives in Wake and Johnston County. Upon returning to Nevada, they sent a check to help out with expenses to operate the museum. A big thank you goes to them and we look forward to Mike’s return in July. He has informed us that his younger brother Chuck will be coming from out west in late June and will drop by to see the museum. The Coats Kiwanis Club, Mott Goff, Gary Denning, Randy and Rhonda Stephenson and Hilda Pope have given memorials for Dorsey Daniel. Hilda also remembered Dyan Lee Denning. The museum volunteers really appreciate these contributors.