October 13, 2023 Coats Museum News
Where did you grow up? Was it in a rural area, in a small town, in a city, in suburbs, across a border or over the ocean? Our memories of such things as truthfulness, honesty, happiness, loneliness, love, fear and joy are universal regardless of where we grew up, but what about the “hands on” things like barning tobacco, picking cotton, cutting around the fields, shelling peas, robbing the bees, stirring cracklings and the list goes on for those who were raised on the farm in years past in the Harnett County area.
In the distant past, those living in town might have walked to the school, the businesses, movie or a friend’s house. Country kids also walked to visit friends and country stores, but the walk was much longer, sometimes as much as a mile. Some say of the houses being built today in both town and in the country are so close together that one can hand a cup of coffee out the window to a neighbor’s window. That might be a little bit of a stretch. In the rural areas, in times past, one could not hand a cup of coffee out the windows to a neighbor’s house. In fact, hot coffee would have become warm coffee if you wanted to walk to share a cup with a neighbor in the country.
It is called change. Can change be stopped? Do you want it stopped? Did any of you once write letters home from college or military service or to siblings who had started new lives in some distant places? Maybe many of you used a rotary phone to call home to your special ones knowing the party line folks might hear and repeat some of it to others with their version of your story. To top it all, you may have had to walk to the corner pay phone with your dime or quarter to make the call .Do you remember what year it was when you carried your first phone around with you? Was it a flip phone? How many changes of phones have you had since that flip phone? Change?
Don’t you just love making a call and the other end tells you to press 1or press two or press three or press 4 and the lists goes on? Maybe you hear a ding on your phone from your medical providers to confirm a dentist or doctor’s appointment. I guess all these changes can kick in our abstract feelings of confusion, anxiety, relief or anger.
Maybe we are somewhat selective in what we want to change or go back to. My mom, and possibly yours, would sometimes say “Be careful what you wish for!” Maybe in 1993 some farmers were getting what they wished for. Sometimes I imagine the farmers had trouble getting help to barn tobacco. Was this why there was a new way to handle tobacco at the tobacco barn? According to the September 2, 1993 edition of the Daily Record, the barn workers loaded the green tobacco leaves onto a conveyer belt. The tobacco was then baled by the machine and dropped into boxes. Once inside the box, metal rods were placed through the tobacco and then the baled tobacco was place inside a barn.
I never saw this done so it is a bit confusing to visualize it. I guess my “abstract” feeling of confusion is kicking in to play. I do bet some of folks reading this column were saying “Granddaddy would turn over in his grave if he saw how tobacco was being handled today”. Maybe that change would not be the only one that would make Granddaddy and Grandma turn over in their graves. Of course, I’m sure Granddaddy sometimes might have wished he did not have to stay up at night and put wood into the furnace to cure the tobacco leaves to that golden color. Even with that homemade quilt, that tobacco bench surely was hard on his back when trying to get a few minutes of sleep before adding more wood.
Another change over the years was how the kids fed their hunger while at school. Last week you read about Miss Bertha Westbrook and some of Derek Currin’s memories of her. My memory of her is that she taught classes in the basement of the 1920 tri-level brick building on the Coats School campus.
It was in that basement building that the students had their first cafeteria food prepared by hired staff. Prior to that, the students may have carried for lunch a sausage or ham biscuit, cooked sweet potato or bread pudding in a little cloth bag or in little tin can or box. Later Mrs. Roycroft would prepare soup and a sandwich for students to buy for lunch. Also at one time, the Home Economics classes prepared a light lunch for students to purchase. Later in 1957, Coats would have a beautiful new cafeteria on campus with all kinds of made on site choices for students to eat.
Can you still taste the homemade vegetable soup with a grilled cheese sandwich? Can you recall every Friday was fish day with boiled Irish potatoes? That was some good old home cooking and to this day I continue to ponder how they could prepare food for as many as a 1,000 possible meals each day and get the kids through the lunch lines on schedule.
Times did change for school food prices also. In the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, under Mrs. Roycroft’s supervision, a student would pay her a dime for soup and a sandwich. Here comes Change- in 1993-94, a school breakfast would cost all students 60 cents and students would pay $1.15 if they were in grades K-3 and $1.25 for lunches if they were in grades 4-12.
Do you wonder if the prices for meals were the same in all schools throughout NC? In our neighboring county of Johnston, students were charged 50 cents for breakfast and 80 cents for lunches for K-3 students and 85 cents for 4- 8 students and $1.00 for 9-12 students. Wonder why.
Some of our readers will remember Mr. Mayton Upchurch. His daughter was Janice Upchurch who was an outstanding basketball player for Coats in the 1960”s. Her daughter was Shannon Lucas. Janice and Roger Lucas announced their daughter’s engagement to Robert Glenn “Bert” Green of Wilkesboro. The bride-elect earned a degree in business administration from JCC. Mr. Greene was a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and the Norman A. Wiggins School of Law. He was an attorney in Wilkesboro.
Another popular student of Coats was to be married. Her mother, Alice Lou Roberts, announced the engagement of Harriet Roberts to Rodger Dale Beasley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Tony Beasley of the Benson area. Harriett’s father was Harry Roberts. Haywood and Ophelia Roberts were his grandparents as were Mr. and Mrs. George Jackson. Harriett was a CCCC graduate with an associate degree in nursing and Rodger was employed by Johnson and Johnson in Benson.
Here are a few changes that I wonder if you have noticed on the Coats Heritage Square. Doesn’t the parking lot look great? How about the beautiful improvements made to the Community Building! There is going to be another change shortly. Kent Hudson of the Coats High Class of 1971 honored his parents-Mack and Juanita Hudson- during the 2005 Coats Centennial by giving the beautiful three tiered fountain in front of the Heritage Museum. Time and weather has robbed the safety of the fountain so very soon it will be replaced with a new fountain as a second gift from Kent. Lots of pictures are taken in front of fountain and many visitors speak of the beauty of the museum and its grounds. Thank you –to Kent for his gift and to Leonard Parker and Jack Johnson who help weekly to keep the grounds beautiful.
Where did you grow up? Was it in a rural area, in a small town, in a city, in suburbs, across a border or over the ocean? Our memories of such things as truthfulness, honesty, happiness, loneliness, love, fear and joy are universal regardless of where we grew up, but what about the “hands on” things like barning tobacco, picking cotton, cutting around the fields, shelling peas, robbing the bees, stirring cracklings and the list goes on for those who were raised on the farm in years past in the Harnett County area.
In the distant past, those living in town might have walked to the school, the businesses, movie or a friend’s house. Country kids also walked to visit friends and country stores, but the walk was much longer, sometimes as much as a mile. Some say of the houses being built today in both town and in the country are so close together that one can hand a cup of coffee out the window to a neighbor’s window. That might be a little bit of a stretch. In the rural areas, in times past, one could not hand a cup of coffee out the windows to a neighbor’s house. In fact, hot coffee would have become warm coffee if you wanted to walk to share a cup with a neighbor in the country.
It is called change. Can change be stopped? Do you want it stopped? Did any of you once write letters home from college or military service or to siblings who had started new lives in some distant places? Maybe many of you used a rotary phone to call home to your special ones knowing the party line folks might hear and repeat some of it to others with their version of your story. To top it all, you may have had to walk to the corner pay phone with your dime or quarter to make the call .Do you remember what year it was when you carried your first phone around with you? Was it a flip phone? How many changes of phones have you had since that flip phone? Change?
Don’t you just love making a call and the other end tells you to press 1or press two or press three or press 4 and the lists goes on? Maybe you hear a ding on your phone from your medical providers to confirm a dentist or doctor’s appointment. I guess all these changes can kick in our abstract feelings of confusion, anxiety, relief or anger.
Maybe we are somewhat selective in what we want to change or go back to. My mom, and possibly yours, would sometimes say “Be careful what you wish for!” Maybe in 1993 some farmers were getting what they wished for. Sometimes I imagine the farmers had trouble getting help to barn tobacco. Was this why there was a new way to handle tobacco at the tobacco barn? According to the September 2, 1993 edition of the Daily Record, the barn workers loaded the green tobacco leaves onto a conveyer belt. The tobacco was then baled by the machine and dropped into boxes. Once inside the box, metal rods were placed through the tobacco and then the baled tobacco was place inside a barn.
I never saw this done so it is a bit confusing to visualize it. I guess my “abstract” feeling of confusion is kicking in to play. I do bet some of folks reading this column were saying “Granddaddy would turn over in his grave if he saw how tobacco was being handled today”. Maybe that change would not be the only one that would make Granddaddy and Grandma turn over in their graves. Of course, I’m sure Granddaddy sometimes might have wished he did not have to stay up at night and put wood into the furnace to cure the tobacco leaves to that golden color. Even with that homemade quilt, that tobacco bench surely was hard on his back when trying to get a few minutes of sleep before adding more wood.
Another change over the years was how the kids fed their hunger while at school. Last week you read about Miss Bertha Westbrook and some of Derek Currin’s memories of her. My memory of her is that she taught classes in the basement of the 1920 tri-level brick building on the Coats School campus.
It was in that basement building that the students had their first cafeteria food prepared by hired staff. Prior to that, the students may have carried for lunch a sausage or ham biscuit, cooked sweet potato or bread pudding in a little cloth bag or in little tin can or box. Later Mrs. Roycroft would prepare soup and a sandwich for students to buy for lunch. Also at one time, the Home Economics classes prepared a light lunch for students to purchase. Later in 1957, Coats would have a beautiful new cafeteria on campus with all kinds of made on site choices for students to eat.
Can you still taste the homemade vegetable soup with a grilled cheese sandwich? Can you recall every Friday was fish day with boiled Irish potatoes? That was some good old home cooking and to this day I continue to ponder how they could prepare food for as many as a 1,000 possible meals each day and get the kids through the lunch lines on schedule.
Times did change for school food prices also. In the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, under Mrs. Roycroft’s supervision, a student would pay her a dime for soup and a sandwich. Here comes Change- in 1993-94, a school breakfast would cost all students 60 cents and students would pay $1.15 if they were in grades K-3 and $1.25 for lunches if they were in grades 4-12.
Do you wonder if the prices for meals were the same in all schools throughout NC? In our neighboring county of Johnston, students were charged 50 cents for breakfast and 80 cents for lunches for K-3 students and 85 cents for 4- 8 students and $1.00 for 9-12 students. Wonder why.
Some of our readers will remember Mr. Mayton Upchurch. His daughter was Janice Upchurch who was an outstanding basketball player for Coats in the 1960”s. Her daughter was Shannon Lucas. Janice and Roger Lucas announced their daughter’s engagement to Robert Glenn “Bert” Green of Wilkesboro. The bride-elect earned a degree in business administration from JCC. Mr. Greene was a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and the Norman A. Wiggins School of Law. He was an attorney in Wilkesboro.
Another popular student of Coats was to be married. Her mother, Alice Lou Roberts, announced the engagement of Harriet Roberts to Rodger Dale Beasley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Tony Beasley of the Benson area. Harriett’s father was Harry Roberts. Haywood and Ophelia Roberts were his grandparents as were Mr. and Mrs. George Jackson. Harriett was a CCCC graduate with an associate degree in nursing and Rodger was employed by Johnson and Johnson in Benson.
Here are a few changes that I wonder if you have noticed on the Coats Heritage Square. Doesn’t the parking lot look great? How about the beautiful improvements made to the Community Building! There is going to be another change shortly. Kent Hudson of the Coats High Class of 1971 honored his parents-Mack and Juanita Hudson- during the 2005 Coats Centennial by giving the beautiful three tiered fountain in front of the Heritage Museum. Time and weather has robbed the safety of the fountain so very soon it will be replaced with a new fountain as a second gift from Kent. Lots of pictures are taken in front of fountain and many visitors speak of the beauty of the museum and its grounds. Thank you –to Kent for his gift and to Leonard Parker and Jack Johnson who help weekly to keep the grounds beautiful.