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                                                                                        November 22, 2013 Coats Museum News
Last week you read of the memories of the late Joe Lee as he wrote about his early days on Main Street Coats. Joe wrote that “we didn’t have running water at our house to take showers but at Mr. T.O. Beasley’s Barber Shop there were showers in the back.  Every Saturday it was crowded with workers taking their Saturday baths. The shop furnished soap and towels and this was certainly a treat for us. Working with Mr. Beasley were Mr. Willie Wood and Mr. D.M. (David Marion)Raynor. This was a busy place almost all of the time and haircuts went for 50 cents. Max Hayes Beasley was the shoe shine professional.
“I worked at Mr. Clem Godwin’s City Market for ten years before I decided it was time for a change. I had sold Avalon cigarettes for 9 cents per pack and the good brands like Camels, Luckies, etc. sold for 20 cents per pack. Bread was 10 cents a loaf and all drinks were 5 cents, most being 12 ounces. I worked here through the war and handled the rationing stamps. Meat was cut in small one pound packages so there would be enough for all our customers. Everything was scarce and had to be accounted for. Across the street at Barnes Service Station and Alsie Byrd’s Station, gas was 17 cents per gallon.
“During the last part of my ten years at City Market, I fell totally and completely in love with Eloise Pope and that love has never faded. After she graduated from Campbell College, we were married on June 29, 1952.
“Very little had changed during the first 14 years of my life on Main Street, but now the town was becoming more aggressive, more people were coming in, and another man was hired to help Mr. Godwin patrol the town. Mr. Clarence Moore was hired and before long he had acquired the nickname “Blood-hound”. He could almost sniff out a wrong-doer.
“Mr. W.R. Roycroft, our only druggist, decided to sell his drugstore and Mr. L.E. McKnight, Jr. bought it. The workers were Curtis Williams and Cortez Williams. When Mr. McKnight became owner, Mr. Cortez Williams went along with the change and became a person that I really admired.
“I was asked to come to work for McKnight’s Drug Store and I did, never dreaming that I would be there for 23 years. This was the most enjoyable place that I have ever worked. Mr. McKnight was a gem of a person, teaching me all about prescription drugs and their interactions. Soon I was with him and Cortez behind the prescription counter.
“I really enjoyed the 3p.m. hour when the kids came in from school. We had 5 booths that ran along the side of the store and they were always full of laughing children. They enjoyed our soda fountain and magazine rack. When these children, which are grown up now, come back to town and see me they always mention the good times they had had at the drug store.
“Thirty-seven years later I was to say goodbye to Main Street, my town and go on to another place of work. Since I have worked here, all of my former working partners have passed on. The old Durham and Southern train with its smoke, bell and whistle have long vanished. Streets have been paved, two traffic lights have been erected, water and sewer have replaced Mr. Fred Byrd’s water system and our outhouses are gone forever. Mr. A.J. Godwin and his officers are replaced by a Coats Police Department consisting of a chief and three officers. We now have the best and largest fire and rescue department in the county. We have said goodbye to our high school buildings and erected a new school just south of the town.
“Many good things have happened to our town but it still needs a lot of work on my Main Street. I am sorry to say the Main Street, My Town, no longer holds the esteem that it once had. The Saturday night crowds no longer appear and the teenagers that came to the drugstore to taste my milkshakes and cherry cokes after school and on Saturdays have gone. Who knows the name that some of the teenagers called the cherry cokes? Ninety percent of the stores have lost their glamour and have closed or gone to the suburbs…I have now swept the sidewalks clean for the last time.
“I am now in my twilight years and I probably will not see it in my lifetime but it is my greatest desire that my children’s children will see Main Street, My Town, Coats, North Carolina, as I once saw it.” (Written by Joseph A. Lee, Jr. -2004) WOW—what a journey of memories by a remarkable man!
Wonder if many other people have memories of the main streets of their small towns. I do know that many of those people who walked and shopped on that Coats street have been very generous in helping make the Coats Museum a destination for many people who come to visit to give memorial donations and in many cases bring items for display.
Recently Betty Vaughn came by to order a brick for the family of the late Jimmy Vaughn. The Class of 1956 remembered their classmate Sue Ennis Benner. Cathy Turlington Brice brought her Aunt Delaney Ennis Ingraham from Fayetteville by the museum to bring a top hat that was worn by Sheriff W.H. (Willie) Turlington who was Harnett sheriff in 1916.Another son of Sheriff Willie’s was Thomas Jefferson Turlington who was a game warden for Harnett County and Delaney, his daughter, has loaned the game warden hat that Jeff Turlington had worn on the job. She also brought flashcards her mother Dona  Ennis used when teaching at Oakdale- Awesome other items of Mrs. Dona Ennis Turlington will join the men’s items in an exhibit in the spring. Thank you to all of these folks.
We really enjoyed a visit from Mark Pace who heads up the Granville County Museum in Oxford, N. C.  He called back to say he really was inspired to do some new things at their museum there.
PLEASE BE MINDFUL THAT THIS ARTICLE WAS IN THE DAILY RECORD ON NOVEMBER 22, 2013.