June 14, 2024 Coats Museum News
The date on the Daily Record displayed July 27, 1994 and baseball continued to be on the minds of many in the Coats area. The Coats Little League eliminated Angier in the District IV Tournament. Dallas Messer, Gil Stephens, Bradley Pope and William Coats scored in the first. Chris Allen, Chris Pope, Jonathan Hammonds, Stanley York, and Brett Butler impacted the win. Travis Pollard gave a strong pitching performance that in the sixth inning distance allowed only four hits and struck out seven.
That game was thirty years ago, and those young boys are now likely headed into their forties. Many of their parents are retired or are planning for it. Their grandparents could have been youngsters in the late 1940’s when the school lunches were 20-25 cents and a Timex watch cost $6.95.
Their grandparents could have gone to either the Coats white or black schools. They would have been taught by one of the 14 black teachers or one of the 24 white teachers. If the parents worked outside of the farm, the wages could have varied according to whether it required a special skill or not, but the wages would have varied from 70 to 90 cents an hour.
Other numbers would be so different than those of today. To rent the school auditorium would require $1.50, gas would be 25 cents a gallon, milk was 21 cents a quart and fatback cost 15 cents a pound.
Read these 1948 numbers with awe. The cost to build the Campbell College gymnasium was $200,000, $329.00 for a home freezer, $279 for an electric range, $10.35 for a Trailways ticket from Dunn to DC, the average weekly pay of Harnett workers $38.77, 1400 4-H members in Harnett, 22,500 cotton bales @32 cents a pound. These numbers are mind-blowing to me: cost to paint all Harnett Schools classrooms in pastel colors and to put florescent lights in the public schools was $100,000. Did you realize that prior to that year the colors were not pastel. Does anyone know what color they were before?
I do know that Doris Johnson (Nolan) is the only living of the three finalists in the 1949 beauty pageant in Coats. The winner Evangeline Stewart is deceased as is 3rd place finalist Elizabeth R. Beasley (Guy). Yes, married ladies could be contestants. The pageant was held in the Coats Theater and Coats had two stoplights then and does now also.
Bryant Norris could have shared even more information about numbers that had occurred in his 85 years on this earth. He celebrated that big 85th at the Red Hill Church. Mattie and he had been married 65 years. That loving couple had eleven children and a host of grandchildren. They all attended Mr. Bryant’s special birthday party.
Belle Williams shared that Mildred Weaver had fallen at her home and was a patient at Rex. Ray Stewart, Elsie Barnes and Harry Wheeler were also hospital patients. My late husband‘s Uncle Joe Penny was lucky not to be in the hospital after a horse appeared on the hood of his new car as he was traveling down Highway 27 (Daily Record July 28, 1994).
H.L and I loved to travel after we left the classrooms of Harnett County Schools. It was on a trip to New Orleans with a group of close friends that we heard the following information that has made me more observant of the many horse statues in the parks around the world. The story was told to observe the statue and look at the rider on the horse. Did you know that the placement of the horse’s feet tells the story? A person died in battle if the horse has both front feet in the air; that the person died as a result of injuries if the horse has one leg in the air and that the person died of natural causes if all four feet are on the ground. Wonder what the story will be told of Uncle Joe Penny and the horse on the hood of his new car—Lucky?
We have our Board of Directors meeting tomorrow morning. There is so much news to share. Because of the unbelievable support from far and wide we have more items than we have space for them to be shared with our visitors so we are exploring the possibility of adding a second exhibit building that will connect our Cotton Museum to our Heritage Museum so the visitors will not have to go outside one museum to get to the other ones. Three awesome donors have already contributed very generous donations toward the building. We have a new Mack and Juanita Hudson fountain thanks to their son, Kent Huson. The men are replacing the flooring on our handicap entrance on the porch. We have added a tremendous number of donor bricks that our walkways. I will share more after our meeting tomorrow and encourage you to visit and be part of our story of a wonderful, small-town museum.
The date on the Daily Record displayed July 27, 1994 and baseball continued to be on the minds of many in the Coats area. The Coats Little League eliminated Angier in the District IV Tournament. Dallas Messer, Gil Stephens, Bradley Pope and William Coats scored in the first. Chris Allen, Chris Pope, Jonathan Hammonds, Stanley York, and Brett Butler impacted the win. Travis Pollard gave a strong pitching performance that in the sixth inning distance allowed only four hits and struck out seven.
That game was thirty years ago, and those young boys are now likely headed into their forties. Many of their parents are retired or are planning for it. Their grandparents could have been youngsters in the late 1940’s when the school lunches were 20-25 cents and a Timex watch cost $6.95.
Their grandparents could have gone to either the Coats white or black schools. They would have been taught by one of the 14 black teachers or one of the 24 white teachers. If the parents worked outside of the farm, the wages could have varied according to whether it required a special skill or not, but the wages would have varied from 70 to 90 cents an hour.
Other numbers would be so different than those of today. To rent the school auditorium would require $1.50, gas would be 25 cents a gallon, milk was 21 cents a quart and fatback cost 15 cents a pound.
Read these 1948 numbers with awe. The cost to build the Campbell College gymnasium was $200,000, $329.00 for a home freezer, $279 for an electric range, $10.35 for a Trailways ticket from Dunn to DC, the average weekly pay of Harnett workers $38.77, 1400 4-H members in Harnett, 22,500 cotton bales @32 cents a pound. These numbers are mind-blowing to me: cost to paint all Harnett Schools classrooms in pastel colors and to put florescent lights in the public schools was $100,000. Did you realize that prior to that year the colors were not pastel. Does anyone know what color they were before?
I do know that Doris Johnson (Nolan) is the only living of the three finalists in the 1949 beauty pageant in Coats. The winner Evangeline Stewart is deceased as is 3rd place finalist Elizabeth R. Beasley (Guy). Yes, married ladies could be contestants. The pageant was held in the Coats Theater and Coats had two stoplights then and does now also.
Bryant Norris could have shared even more information about numbers that had occurred in his 85 years on this earth. He celebrated that big 85th at the Red Hill Church. Mattie and he had been married 65 years. That loving couple had eleven children and a host of grandchildren. They all attended Mr. Bryant’s special birthday party.
Belle Williams shared that Mildred Weaver had fallen at her home and was a patient at Rex. Ray Stewart, Elsie Barnes and Harry Wheeler were also hospital patients. My late husband‘s Uncle Joe Penny was lucky not to be in the hospital after a horse appeared on the hood of his new car as he was traveling down Highway 27 (Daily Record July 28, 1994).
H.L and I loved to travel after we left the classrooms of Harnett County Schools. It was on a trip to New Orleans with a group of close friends that we heard the following information that has made me more observant of the many horse statues in the parks around the world. The story was told to observe the statue and look at the rider on the horse. Did you know that the placement of the horse’s feet tells the story? A person died in battle if the horse has both front feet in the air; that the person died as a result of injuries if the horse has one leg in the air and that the person died of natural causes if all four feet are on the ground. Wonder what the story will be told of Uncle Joe Penny and the horse on the hood of his new car—Lucky?
We have our Board of Directors meeting tomorrow morning. There is so much news to share. Because of the unbelievable support from far and wide we have more items than we have space for them to be shared with our visitors so we are exploring the possibility of adding a second exhibit building that will connect our Cotton Museum to our Heritage Museum so the visitors will not have to go outside one museum to get to the other ones. Three awesome donors have already contributed very generous donations toward the building. We have a new Mack and Juanita Hudson fountain thanks to their son, Kent Huson. The men are replacing the flooring on our handicap entrance on the porch. We have added a tremendous number of donor bricks that our walkways. I will share more after our meeting tomorrow and encourage you to visit and be part of our story of a wonderful, small-town museum.