Glenn A. Gurley

Me - Glenn Alexander - 1928

2010-10-31T20:18:00.019-04:00

Edna (1906) was the eldest child in our family she was married and away from home first. George (1908), Fred (1910), and Howard (1912) Howard were the first Three Musketeers. They seemed to always stick together and even married three sisters Beatrice, Nerine, and Bona Lee Carter.

Then came Ola Bell (1915) the youngest sister, she was kinda alone with all boys. She was my second mother, I did not like that. She was a star basketball player along with her best friend Nancy Goodman.

Then came JD (1918), Albert (1920), and Paul (1922) who stuck together like glue. So when J.D. finished high school and left home, Albert and Paul were sure to follow. They all worked a while in the mill and then joined the Navy together on the same day.

That left John William (1924), Mark (1926), and me (1928) to be the last bunch of three. John William died which left Mark and I to be together. Mark liked to hang with the bigger brothers rather than me, so I kinda felt like the little one that no one loved. At times I felt mother should tie a pork chop around my neck so at least the dog would play with me.

I have already written a detailed account of my life. At 82 I am the only one living in my family it has been this way since we entered the 21st century when Ola died in 2000. As I have taken a detailed look back to all I have experienced during my lifetime I realize more than ever how very blessed I am. All my experiences both the good and bad have helped to make me the person today. I try to stay in contact with all my nieces and nephews and their families. Facebook puts us in contact daily. Hazel and I have been married sixty-one years and have three wonderful children, Pamela, Glenn, and Michael. Blessing continue with the growth of the family with the addition of their children and grandchildren.

Pictured here with Hazel and me are Glenn, Michael, and Pamela in 1970 and 2008.

These tables were on display at my 75th Birthday. They were created by three special ladies... Donna Yates, Susan Gurley, and Teresa Randall.

The displays represent the many jobs I have had over my lifetime. I first served in the US Navy and then became a carpenter, painter, brick mason, handyman, fireman, barber, school teacher, and bus driver.

My Brother Mark Lee - 1926-1990

2010-10-26T16:13:00.029-04:00

As I write about my brother, I am thinking wow, where has time gone? It seems it was only yesterday that Mark and I were playing around the house as brothers only two years apart. Mark was two years older than me. He tried to connect the older brothers not the little new kid but we did have much time together. Just like normal kids we fought played and made up like all young boys do. He would take me out into the woods after dark and make out like he was going to leave me and that scared me. One spring day Mark took me with him to school and I remember I had to do the pee when we were out on the play ground so I relieved myself at the edge of the play area. I don't know why but Mark really got mad at me, not sure if I embarrised him in front of his friends but he yelled at me and told me not do that out in the open. That was quick lesson learned. Mark would not take me back again so I was on my own from that day on. The picture to the right is of Mark and me. He is the taller guy.

I spent all of my time with mother while the others was in school and working and by the time I got started to school Mark was in the third grade and would not have much to do with me. It was not long when the older brothers was leaving home and working to make it on their own that we got much closer to each other and started doing all the job that needed to be done.

A couple times a year mother would give us ten cents each to go to Mr Campbell's house and get a haircut at his house. Our brother George had a set of barber tools and would cut hair for the neighbors and when he left home he left the tool with us. One day mom gave us ten cents each to go get a haircut; Mark came up with the idea that if we cut each other’s hair we could go to Beavers store and get a moon pie and a Pepsi which at that time cost five cents each. It sounded like an excellent idea so we took the clippers and all the other stuff that was in the bag he left and went down in the field across the road and I sat on a stump and he cut my hair and it looked so bad that he would not let me cut his. This is the first time that I learned not to trust my older brother, we went on to Mr. Campbell's house and got my hair fixed which had just one alternative, a buzz cut and Mark’s was cut right.

Everything was all about the same until Mark was 14 and I was 12. J.D., Albert, and Paul left home which left the farming for us to do. This was also the time we sold our best mule which left just one to do our farming. Mark and I attempted to do about as much as when the older brothers were at home. It did not take long that first year to fine out we could not do it all. We were able to stay in school and do all of the work around the farm the best we could which meant some things did not get done as often or had to be left undone.

It was not very long before JD., Albert, and Paul would come home on leave, each time they would bring us a lot of stuff, and would help us out at the farm for the short time they were around. We held on the best we could doing the farm work together. When mark graduated from high school he joined the Navy 1944. He was trained in Quantico, VA. He served on two of the AGC Command Ships. He served four years and had the rank Yeoman 2nd Class.

His leaving to enter service left the farming up to me keep going. I did it for one year and saw that I just could not do all that needed to be done I decided to join the Navy. Mother said that she would sign for me to go in early at the age of 17. At that time, Mother sold all of the old farm equipment since there was no way that farming could be continued. The next year the older boys were getting out of the Navy. J.D. went to live with mother and a little later bought the farm.

Mark got out of the Navy about the same time as I did. Soon afterwards married Margaret Houston and moved to Charlotte and lived in Morris Field. He attended a brick mason school a trade school for veterans. Having two older brick mason brothers, he thought that would be a good trade. I also went to Charlotte and attended the school until I got a full set of tools then left and went back to Statesville to live with Paul for one month and then I moved in with Albert and Pauline.

A little later Mark moved back to Statesville too and wanted to build a little house for Margaret and himself. I had just bought a 1941 Chevrolet and I thought it was the prettiest car on the road. Mark had a old pick up truck. He talked me into our taking our vehicles to Charlotte to sell one and then taking the money and building his house. The old truck would not sell but my shinny pretty car sold and I got much more for it than I paid. We went back home and J.D. said he would let Mark have an acre of land down the road I gave Mark my money to build the house and that was the end of that deal. Mark had a house and I was back to working and still living with Albert.

Mark and I did several jobs for different people; he was a good brick layer and did a lot of contracting around Statesville until he was call to be a preacher. He attended Fruitland Baptist Bible College and started preaching. He was a member of a Baptist Church that had a bus ministry. The deacons and pastor of the church wanted Mark to be in charge of it. He decided to go to a trailer park across the street from where he lived and the first Saturday he went over and told that he would take them to church the next day on Sunday. He drove the bus to the trailer park and picked up the children. When he got to church Sunday morning with that bus load of kids, things just did not look so great for him. That afternoon the deacons had a meeting and he was told that the church decided that it did not need a bus ministry.

Mark was married to Vera Strikeleather and later Elizabeth Garrett. He stayed with his ministry and still did some contracting, until one day he was reading his Bible and just went to sleep and never awoke again. His neighbor found him just sitting in his chair with his Bible on his lap dead.

My Brother John William - 1924

2010-10-10T19:43:00.015-04:00

John William, was born September 24, 1924 and lived six weeks and died from pneumonia on December 2, 1924, was buried in Olivet Baptist Church cemetery Long Island,Catawa, NC. Hazel and I drove to visit the site in October 2010. We took pictures of the church and headstones of my father, James William and brother, John William whose graves are side-by-side.

Like my father who died when I was very young, John was the brother that I never knew. He would have rounded out the final three brother cycle; George, Fred and Howard made the first triad; J.D., Albert, and Paul made the second triad. This could have been one with John William, Mark, and I. Well that is just the way it was, I have often wondered what he would have been like and I am sure he would have been a brother I could have close to. I guess it would have been that I would have got more worn out clothes as they were passed down through the boys and me being on the end of the line. Well some day when we get to heaven maybe I will get to be with him and see what he was like. I will just have to wait and see as I am looking forward of that day.

My Brother Paul Daniel - 1922-1982

2010-10-10T08:50:00.024-04:00

Paul was born on July 10, 1922 in Mooresville, NC. The boys in our family seemed to hang around in groups of three and were closer than with the others in the family due to the age differences; George, Fred, and Howard in one group and J.D., Albert, and Paul in the next. Paul was the youngest of his group and seemed to often follow the other two and be part of whatever they were doing.

When I started to school Paul was 12 or 13 years old so I was still in elementary when I started to remember things that the older boys were doing. I remember the time that the boys in the Cooks, Motens, and our family built the pond between our farms since all three properties connected at a point. The pond was about six feet deep. Some of the guys had gone to the saw mill and got a big board for diving it so happen. The board had some rough pieces on the end so the guys had to be careful jumping off. One day the guys were in the pond. Paul, showing off, ran ahead, and tried a quick dive before anyone else could but ended up scraping himself pretty bad on the end of the diving board. I remember thinking how it must have hurt and know he was in pain for a long time.

The Christmas I received my little red wagon, Paul took the wagon from me after I road it down the hill in our yard for the first and only time. Paul jumped in for the next ride which bent wagon in the middle and broke one of the axels, it was like he had squashed a bug. I had great brothers but they played rough a lot of the time like most boys do growing up.

Paul was a good worker around the farm and a great brother to me. He drove a school bus for a little while and would let me drive it around the farm some afternoons. Pictured here is Paul at the lake and both of us showing off the fish we caught that day. The last year Albert, J.D., and Paul were farming they had a big crop of corn that was piled up in a big row out near the barn ready for a corn shucking a few nights later. We got the word out that we were having a corn shuckin'. Now us guys sitting down to a big pile of corn and shucking is work. But when it meant seeing your best girl, that was different and it made it a social event. I was too young but my brothers would pair off with a girl and everybody would line up in front of the mountain of corn. When the corn was shucked, the corn would be thrown over the pile into the grass on the other side and the husk would be tossed backwards. Before the event, my brothers would put small bottles of white lighten and some red ears of unshucked corn through the pile. If you got a red ear, you could kiss the girl of your choice or vise verse. I remember Paul getting hold of a couple bottles and a few ears of red corn that night and having a really good time.

Mom got upset with them but did not fuss too much; that might be the reason they left home to work in the mill because shortly afterwards Paul left home to work in Cannon mills. J.D., Albert, and Paul did not like working in the mill so they joined the Navy.

The three brothers joined the Navy on July 23, 1940. They trained at Quantico, VA Naval Training Camp. All three brothers were assigned to the Battleship USS New Mexico. Paul was later assigned to the Air Craft Carrier Marcus Island, USS Pyburg, and USS Solomon Island. He was Chief Store Keeper Officer. Pictured here are J.D and Paul.

Paul would always bring me something (shoes, socks, dungarees, and underwear) when he came home on leave. He married Edith Kincade (born 5-18-1924) from Kannapolis so he was with her all of the time when he was home. They had three girls: Beverly (3-4-1946), Linda Paulette (7-7-1947) and Kathy Elizabeth (10-21-1950). Edith stayed with us for a while when Paul was away but when Paul was home on leave they would always go to Kannapolis.

About the time he was getting out of the Navy I was going in so for another two years he was not in my life. When I first left the Navy I stayed with Paul and Edith. I bought the 1941 Chevrolet when I was staying with Paul and Edith, they were living about seven miles out on US-64. I am pictured here with this car, I remember being so glad I was able to purchase this car. I only lived with them a couple months; all three of us were working so we did not see each other often. At that time Albert was not working very much and I guess that is why I moved in with him and Pauline. He and I just drifted around for several months before I started to lay brick with Fred in Statesville.

It was not long before Paul and Edith moved to Kannapolis to find work. Shortly after they moved he went to work for a company that made fiberglass fabric. I think his working here caused his life to be cut short; it caused a lot of problems in his breathing and many other things that gave him great discomfort.

While I was living with Paul we decided to go to Myrtle Beach for couple days. We left early one morning and got down around noon, spent the afternoon on the beach, and went and had a big fish dinner. We took a couple old army blankets and went to sleep on the beach. Everything went well until early in the morning; it got cold and we almost froze! We endured the cold and made it till we could find a cafe open. We warmed up by having a good hot breakfast and we drank a lot of hot coffee. Once the sun was up and it was warm again, we had some more good time on the beach and headed back home early afternoon.

I had a lot of good times with Paul and Edith, after Hazel and I got married we would visit them in Kannapolis, I think the last time we were there Kathy was born. Hazel stayed a few days with Edith to help out with the other two children, Beverly and Linda.

Paul and Howard came to visit us in Charlotte from time to time. The two of them got along very well so they spent a lot of time together until Howard passed away. We would visit Paul and family from time to time and we could see how the fiber glass was affecting his life; the last few years were hard years for him. He died at the age of 60 on August 15, 1982 and Edith died the next year on March 18, 1983.

Pictured below are Paul and Edith's three girls with some of their cousins. From Left to Right: Virginia, Brenda, Kathy, David, Linda, and Beverly

My Brother Albert Marlen - 1920 -1995

2010-09-28T07:09:00.024-04:00

Albert born on June 5, 1920 was eight years old when I was born. One of my earliest memories was the time at the Ostwalt Farm when Albert wanted me to go to Moose's store with him. I told him that I had no money and he said just come on, so I went with him. On the way, we had to pass through a farm that was run by a local woman. Albert had a pocket full of shelled corn and when we passed through the barnyard he started dropping grains of corn on the ground. One of the chickens took the bait and started following us into the woods. When we were there, Albert took out a fish hook and put a grain of corn on it. When the chicken grabbed it, he pulled that chicken into the woods and we took it to the store and traded it for some candy for me but I don't know what else he got. He told me that if I ever told Mom about it he would beat me up. It was only in this blog that I shared this story!

When I was eight, he left to work in Cannon mills in Kannapolis and shortly afterwards he joined the Navy on July 23, 1940 with his brothers Paul and J.D. He trained with them at Quantico, VA Naval Training Camp. All three brothers were assigned to the Battleship USS New Mexico. Albert served on the USS Coos Bay, the USS Gladiator Mine Sweeper, and on an APA Transport ship to transport troops back after the war. His was Chief Commissary Officer. We did not have many years together, as I remember he was a good brother and did not boss me around very much. As it was back then as in my family everyone had to fend for himself; Albert helped me to learn that.

One night we had a big rain and the road in front of our house was somewhat of a grade. At 4 a.m. there was a knock on our door; someone was stuck in the ditch of the old dirt road and wanted him to hitch up the mules and pull him out. Albert got out of bed and pulled the man’s car up the hill. The man tried to pay him and he said that he could not take pay for helping someone even though our family could have used the money too. That was Albert, he was always helping everyone all the time expecting nothing in return. Pictured here is Pauline (left) with her sister Jennie Ellis.

When he would come home on leave he would do something special like bringing something to me or doing something special for us. One time he took me to Statesville to Farlay's cafe and bought me a great big T-bone steak and taught me how to cut and eat it, my first steak ever. From time to time he would bring me a pair of shoes and other clothes. He always would buy a car to drive while he was home and then give it to us to drive when he went back, a 1931 A-Model Ford to a 1936 Ford Coupe . I did not get to spend much time with Albert since he had joined the Navy for six years and when he was to be discharged I joined for two years.

Albert married Paulene Catherine Ellis (born 10-31-1914) on March 1, 1947. They had two children, Clyde Sidney (11-25-1948) and Catherine Pauline (9-5-1952). After I was discharged, I drifted around a little while with some of the other brothers. It was not long that Albert asked me to come and live with him. At that time he helped me to sign up for the 52-20 government veterans program; Uncle Sam would pay veterans $20 dollars a week for 52 weeks if they were seeking work. This was a good deal because it was about as much you could make if you were working. I did this for a while, but I started laying brick with Fred and Mark for Joe Brown, a brick contractor doing brick work for G.L. Wilson in Statesville. I was paid $1.25 per hr. and Albert was doing labor, $1.00 per hr. Albert was doing such a great job for Joe Brown that in about two weeks G.L. Wilson ask him to work for him. Albert did and It was not long he became one of G.L's best foremen. As time passed he did most of the larger jobs; the years before he retired he built all of Lowe's big stores. Clyde and Catherine are pictured below.

Living with Albert and Pauline was the best thing that could happen to me, it was God sent. They treated me like I was important. We did a lot together, I was there when Clyde was born and over the years he was like my own boy and I still think of him as that.

While I was still staying with them, one night I met this girl and at breakfast the next day Pauline ask what I did last night and I said that I had met my wife, she ask me what was her name and I had to say I do not know but I knew where she works and was going to call her as soon as I could. I found out that her name was Hazel Gentle. While I was still staying with them, Albert, Pauline, and I would go pick up Hazel and we would go to a drive-in movie a couple times a month. They would sit in the front seat and watch the movie, Hazel and I would be in the back seat not watching the movie, or not much of it.

Albert would let me borrow his car for me date and that was great. One day Hazels co-workers were going to Morrow Mountain Lake for an afternoon picnic and she asked if I would go with her which meant that I would have to miss most of the day at work. Albert said that I needed not to miss work and he would not let me use his car. That struck a nerve so I just walked over to Sunny Sheerl's used car lot and bought a 1941 Ford. It was the prettiest thing that I ever saw other than Hazel; I took her to the lake and had a car for all future dates. Albert understood and all was well with us. I only stayed with Albert and Pauline for the next three months. Hazel and I were married on October 7, 1949. Just a few weeks later I moved to Charlotte since there was not much work in Statesville. We never went to Statesville without visiting Albert and his family.

Albert was always active with the school that his kids attended and other organizations they were involved in. One of Catherine's girl scout leader that ask Albert to be in charge of the cookie sales for the troop. He said OK and asked the girl scout leader how many boxes they were planning to sell. The lady told him being a business man, asked how much money would selling them bring and he wrote the school a check for the whole bunch. He took them to the job that he was working and set them out. He told the workers they were free cookies but if some of them felt they would like to donate to the school, they could just throw some money in the box and he would give it to the school. I heard that the workers gave more money than if they had all the kids out selling the cookies.

Albert built Mother a house behind his house where she spent her last years. Pictured above are Albert and Clyde standing in front of the house.

The little church that Albert attended out on the Salisbury Highway wanted to build an addition and Albert was asked to be the chairman of the building committee. He declined because he was a superintendent of the construction company and thought that it may look like a conflict of interest. However, he volunteered to be the chairman of the finance committee and planned a kick-off for the following Sunday. That day he woke up to a very deep snow. He knew every member of the church and where they lived, so he loaded the back of his pick-up with concrete blocks and start out to visit the members. He knew that they all would be home and before the end of the day he had been to see everyone and had more than enough pledges to build the addition to the church. That is how Albert did things.

Albert would give you his shirt off his back if you needed it; he would give you his last dollar too. He never seemed to think about himself and always of others. He never thought off owning anything permanently and felt free to give away to others in need. He was an excellent example to me.

Albert with his grandson Scott.

My Brother James Duke "JD" - 1918-1987

2010-09-04T21:12:00.040-04:00

James Duke “J.D.” was born on February 26, 1918 and was the middle child in our large family. There are two sisters and three brothers before him and five brothers born after him. Three of them, JD, Albert, and Paul were very close to each other growing up.

Shortly after J.D. finished high school, he left home and moved to Kannapolis to work in Cannon Mill. It was no surprise when Albert and Paul left home to join him working at there too. It did not take them long to find out that working inside a cotton mill was not what they wanted to do the rest of their lives. Soon Albert, with a World War II going on, decided to join the Navy. He asked Paul and J.D. to go with him when he went to sign up to give him support. They all ended up signing up the same day, the three trained at Quantico, VA, and all assigned to serve on the battleship U.S.S New Mexico.

Shortly after their assignment, rules were changed about assigning brothers to the same ship. The Sullivan brothers were five siblings who were all killed in action on 11-13-1942 during or shortly after the sinking of the light cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52), the vessel in which they all served in World War II.

J.D. was a big brother to me when we were growing up on the family farm. I looked up to him as a father figure and thankful that he was a great example to follow. He was a hard worker and could always do more work than anyone else. We share cropped on an old two horse farm where the land was so poor that we could hardly grow enough food to eat. With Moms determination and God's help we made it through the very difficult years. One memory that stands out in my mind is when I was about 13 at hog killing time; there was a job that had to be done. J.D. took me down to the hog pen and gave me a big real sharp knife to carry from the kitchen. When we arrived, he took our rifle and shot the hog in the head and told me to hop into the pen and slit its throat to let out all of the blood. It did not take but seconds for me to look at the hog and hand the knife back to my brother. He did it for me and never told anyone that I had not grown up enough to do the job. He was always there for me. Pictured below - J.D. on the left and

Albert on the right, Paul is taking the picture.

I did not get to see him very much once he left home to work at Cannon Mills and then joining the Navy. Just about the time for him to come home I joined the Navy which made about 8 years we were apart. He was in the navy for the duration of the war. He joined 7-23-1940 with his brothers Albert and Paul. He trained at Quantico, Virginia and served on the battleship US Mexico and air craft carrier USS Swannie. He served on the U.S.S New Mexico which was hit by a Japanese kamikaze suicide plane in the south pacific. Many men were killed; thankfully he was down below decks then. While on the U.S.S. New Mexico he served as Chief Machinist Mate Officer and developed something to distill sea water more efficiently for the ship. He was discharged after the conclusion of the war. He never really shared much about the war though and was glad when he was able to complete his tour of duty and return home.

He came back to Charlotte and worked for the War Assessment Administration for a while. Later, he joined Albert and George in running a restaurant business which was located on Highway 64 in Statesville. When J.D and Albert came out of the Navy they were both chiefs; their experiences changed how the brothers worked together. It did not take long to find out there were too many chiefs trying to run that restaurant. J.D. sold out his share and moved on.

By the time I was discharged from my service with Navy, J.D. had married Colean Stewart (born 8-21-1925) from west Statesville, had a son James Duke Gurley, Jr. “ Jim” (8-19-1946), and lived at the old Propes Farm with Mother. He tried farming for awhile but could not make steady income. His son Jim bought his first bicycle by picking cotton for his father. He was paid the same wages that anyone else that picked for him. J.D. eventually bought the house and 50 acres. They lived there for quite a while. J.D. worked for Southern Fasteners over 20 years before he retired and moved down the hill. Colean enjoyed flying and had her pilot license at one time.

Pictured are Colean and Jim at the old family homeplace, the Propes Farm.

He, like his brothers, loved to fish. His family would go to the coast many a weekend just to fish. I really think that he just liked to be on a fishing pier to talk to everyone. He would walk up and down the pier shouting “here spot – here spot” calling in the fish. He also walked up and down Hunting Creek and the PD and Rocky Rivers catching catfish on the weekends. He loved a good picnic, enjoyed eating and fishing outdoors. Pictured here is J.D. with Colean and Mother.

He and Colean worked full time so I still was not able to spend much time with them. However, I knew he was always there for me if I ever needed anything. When possible we would do a little fishing or just get together and visit. J.D. was a pretty good gardener and always planted too much. He found joy in giving the vegetable away, a good neighbor to everyone around him. One time Hazel and I went to visit him when he was home alone. He boiled a dozen ears of good white corn which I remember was the best corn that I had ever eaten over my lifetime. In the picture below, J.D. and Colean are preparing green beans for canning.

I believe that he never met a stranger and had a little mischief in him. He would hide coins in his gravel driveway and tell any visiting kid that they needed to check out the drive way for buried treasure. He sure had a lot of fun for 30 cents he would hide.

He was a very supportive and patriotic man and father to his son Jim. He and Colean would worry like crazy when their son had to go in service. One of his proudest moments was when his son finally received his degree from Appalachian State University. He definitely was a good family man. He seemed to always wanted to be doing something for someone all of the time.

As I think back over time, I remember when he would come home on leave from the Navy he would always bring me some things like hard chocolate candy and clothes. He gave me my first set of underwear, up until this time I had only outer clothes and in the winter long handles buttons in the front and a flap in the rear. One time when he was on leave, he bought a 1931 Ford and left it with Mark and Mother, and me. Here is a picture of the car in rear of our house showing Mark and Mother, I was behind the camera.

Later on when he was in the hospital with cancer, I would visit him and he always told me not to worry because he had already turned everything over to God and He would do for him what was the best and I am sure that he did. At the same time I was trying to get over about fifteen years of medical problems. We had moved to North Myrtle Beach before he died on 8-4-1987. When you get old you always look back and say why I did not spend a little more time with the ones we love, we just think we are going be around forever, so untrue.

My Sister Ola Bell - 1915-2000

2010-09-01T05:56:00.038-04:00

Ola was was born on May 12, 1915 and was 13 years old when I was born, the age that girls began to think of getting married back then. From the point that I was old enough to retain memories, I remember her very well. For a while I thought that I had two mothers. I imagine that mother gave Ola the job to take care of me so she could do all of the work that she had to do. Pictured Ola with Mother and Ola and her husband Collis shortly after they were married.

I remember Ola as someone that always worked hard; she did her best to stay in school and graduate. Ola had a best friend in school, Nancy Goodman, the two did everything together. They were two of the best players on the basketball team at Cool Spring High School. They remained friends through life. Ola was the first person in our family to complete high school and was the only person in my family that encouraged me to finish high school which I did. See diploma at the end of this post.

I do not remember going to visit Ola when I was very young after she moved from home. However, she would come up to visit us quiet often and would always bring me something. One time when I was around eight or nine, she gave Mark and me a bicycle for Christmas. I remember it being one of the nicest bikes I had ever seen; it had big tires, headlight, horn, and luggage rack. We rode it everywhere we went, when you would see that bike you saw us two on it. It took couple years of heavy use before we wore it completely out.

From about this time, there was not much contact Ola and her family. I would see her again after I returned home from my tour in the Navy. I spent a good bit of time in Kannapolis with Ola, Edna, Paul and others. I remember she seemed to be constantly going to or returning from work. Ola, like the rest of the family, grew up in some very hard times and I guess that had an effect on all of our lives.

Ola married Collis Frank Christian on December 14, 1940. They had three children, Nancy Louise (12-21-1941), Paul Daniel (03-12-1943), and David Ray (03-22-1948).

This is a picture of Mother and the five oldest children. Brothers on the back row left to right are Fred, George, and Howard. Sisters and Mother in the front, Ola, Mother, and Edna.

This is Ola's high school diploma, the first one in our family to graduate from high school.

My Brother Ernest Howard - 1912-1967

2010-08-29T17:29:00.046-04:00

Howard was born on November 26, 1912 and was about 17 years my senior so I did not get to know him very well when I was growing up. The first I remember of him was hearing this story. At the time he was working on the little farm where my family lived. It all started one day when he was walking home from a visit to town. Back then you walked about everywhere you went and as often as you could you would travel as the crows fly so not necessarily staying on the main roads. On his way home he passed through a field and found a maddox pick in a field; he picked it up and brought it home. The next day Father asked where it came from and Howard said that he found in a field on the way from town. Immediately he and his son took the maddox back to the farm, gave it to owner, and Howard apologized for picking it up and taking it home. The two continued their trip as they went on to the general store and bought a new maddox pick. After they returned home, Dad took him down to the new ground that he wanted to cultivate for a garden. He made his son dig up roots and break up clods in the field until the tool was worn out. I think that is what made Howard not like living at home because he soon left and joined the Marines on 7-13-1929. Shortly he left for training at Parris Island, SC. He served in the Republic of Haiti guarding the Presidential Palace. Once he left home, we would not ever see much of him around the old home place.

After being discharged from the Marines he went to work and married Janice Nerine Carter (born 8-2-1917), they had five children. Janie Frances (8-23-1936), Faye Jeanette (12-27-1937), James William (4-26-1941), Linda Dianne (6-7-1944), and Earnest Howard, Jr. (4-14-1949).

Howard, like most those days, had a hard time growing up during the Dust Bowl Depression. He and Fred were pretty close, along with Fred, he took up the brick mason trade and was one of the best. They both enjoyed fishing more than laying brick so the two enjoy many days at the lake.

During the time I was in the Navy he lived in Kannapolis. A short time after I got out of the Navy, some of my other brothers and I helped him to build a house out on Mocksville Highway US-64, just past where Albert lived. Later he moved to Charlotte.

Howard was living on Atherton Avenue off South Boulevard. He learned early in life how to take care of himself and thought others could do the same for themselves and that went for his family. When I moved to Charlotte he helped me get a job laying bricks for a man he knew Rob Mullis who was a good man that treated me really well. Later I started contracting some and Howard laid brick for me from time to time, but work was not on top of his list of things to do. It seemed that Nerine and children sorta had to do for themselves and they sure did a great job.

One Sunday afternoon Hazel and I were over at Howard and Nerine's house. The had moved to another house on Kennelworth Avenue off East Boulevard in Charlotte. He knew that I had been cutting hair and that I had my barber tools in the car so he asked me to give him a haircut. All went well and he liked what I did. He noticed that I needed a haircut and told me that he could return the favor and cut my hair since he cut Jim and Ernest's hair all the time. I agreed and he started but after he cut for a little while I could tell that he was unsure of the cut and that was not going well. He finally said that he had cut off too much and that all he could do was a flat top or crew cut. I told him either would be fine but to do his best and I could tell that he did. On the way home, Hazel said that I would need to wear a cap for a couple weeks if I went anywhere with her. That brought back memories of Mark and I cutting each other’s hair and I remember saying to myself, "When will I ever learn, too late now." Pictured here are Nerine and nephew Wayne at a family reunion.

One thing about Howard he would see that all of the labors that worked with him would always get some food every day. In those days most folks heated with oil. If someone he knew was out of oil he would fill up their tank. I know of a time that one of his neighbors died and he would have Nerine take the best food over to his wife and they took care of her for quiet a while. Howard always remembered how tuff it was when he was growing up so he would try to help others that was having hard times. Sometimes that took away for his family but in the end everything turned out OK. I still remember that no matter how things went, Howard would always have a smile for everyone.

Howard's life was cut a little short and I think he knew that would happen so he lived as much as he could in that short time. From the time that Hazel and I moved to Charlotte until he died in 1967, we spent many Sunday's and other times with their family. Nerine was a great cook and host. She died in August 1990. Eda, George, Fred, and Howard ended an era of hard times. Things started to get a little better, there was hope, a chance for an education, and a better life.

Pictured: Earnest, Faye, Linda, Frances, and Jimmy

My Brother Fred Lewis - 1910-1993

2010-08-29T07:48:00.023-04:00

Fred was born on September 28, 1910 and was eighteen years old when I was born. Shortly after I was born, he joined the marines on January 16, 1929, trained at Parris Island, SC, and spent eight years in service. He served in China during the Chinese Civil War , in Washington at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and on the USS Wyoming. I can remember his coming home looking great in that uniform with the polished shoes and big brass buttons. He would tell us stories about where had been during his tour of duty. One time it was that he had been to China and I thought that was the greatest thing that had happened.

At the end of his time in service, he married Bona Lee Carter (born 9-19-1919) they had Fred Lewis Jr. (7-20-1937), Barbara ( 6-24-1939), Henry Wayne (8-13-1942), Virginia (10-17-1944), and Brenda (7-16-1952). See family pictures below. They moved to Kannapolis, NC for work since Edna was already living there and working in the mill. Fred did not like working in the mill. He decided to partner with Curt Coley, a brick mason, and started laying brick. Fred became one of the best mason around under the leadership of Curt and they became best of friends. The only thing was that our Dad had taught him to fish and I think he liked that more that laying brick. He would work some and than he would fish some. He always said that when the weather was right for laying brick it also was good for fishing.

Later Fred moved to Charlotte, NC to work for the War Asset Administration, it was a job that he could depend on all thought the winter months. With the old car that Albert had left with us we could drive down to see them from time to time; it was something for Mom and me to drive all the way to Charlotte from Statesville. Fred would always take me on a ride on the Duke Power Bus to the grocery store which cost 5 cents both ways. During this time Fred built me quite a few rabbit boxes and this is where he had the five hunting dogs (beagles) that he was going to give to me but sold them before he left home. He was a great big brother to me.

He moved back to Kannapolis and lived about a couple blocks from Edna. When we went to visit him one afternoon, he and I walked to the movie. While we were watching he bought me 12 chocolate covered Popsicles. The movie was 15 cents and the Popsicles were 5 cents each. Fred liked to hunt about as much as he liked to fish, He and some of his friends would come up to the little farm and hunt for rabbits,birds and squirrel's.He liked hunting, fishing, and resting and then bricklaying. Sometimes he with others would go up to Washington, DC where they could make about three times as much and would work 10-12 hours a day for a few weeks and come back home to fish and hunt till he ran out of money.

As time passed I joined the navy. I remember trying to enroll quickly before my older brothers found out because I did not think they would let me join. Around that time Fred moved back to Statesville bought a

farm not to farm but for hunting and fishing. He still followed the brick trade I think just to make enough money to keep him in hunting and fishing equipment and help feed his family. He would have not been able to do this if he had not had Bona Lee as his faithful wife. His children liked to fish, one time two of them were digging worms behind the barn when Virginia bent down to pick up a worm; Wayne was the digger and he dug right into her head. I remember it being pretty bad. The doctor said that if it would have gone in a little bit futher like as thin as a piece of paper it would have killed her. Virgina thinks God wanted to keep her alive to have a longer life. This is where he was living when I got out of the navy. I went to work at the JC Penney's warehouse and that lasted for one week. I went to work before day break and got out after dark; I could not stand to be inside all day so I went to work with Fred and learned to lay brick. I was trained to lay brick under Fred's leadership and worked with for a while with him.

Fred had an old 1934 Chevy and he would let me borrow it from time to time until I was able to buy my own car. One night I wanted to borrow Fred's car. He and Albert wanted to go fishing down in Hunting Creed in Davie County. I took them down and was to meet them at the drop off at 1 a.m. I arrived on schedule and waited for them until 2 a.m. and they never showed up. I went back home. It turns out they were catching fish and would not leave until 3:30 a.m. When they walked back to where I was to meet them, I had left so they had to walk five - six miles home. They were kind of upset at me, but understood and were not mad at me.

Fred was a great big brother,I owe him a lot for what he did for me. When he would come home on leave from the Marines I thought that he was the greatest that ever was. and he always brought me something. I always loved to get to go visit him wherever he lived I had so much fun with his children. Later Fred married Ethel Crater. Both wives died before he did. I got married, moved to Charlotte, and did not have much contact with Fred and family.

Fred is pictured here with his two sons Freddy and Wayne.

Pictured above are Barbara, Virginia, Brenda, Henry Wayne, Freddy

Fred and Bona Lee. A current picture of the children is below:
Virginia, Barbara, Brenda, Wayne, and Freddy taken on October 1, 2010.

My Brother George Monroe - 1908-1971

2010-08-22T18:36:00.041-04:00

My Brother George was born in 1908 on September 23 in Mecklenburg County. Since I arrived on the scene twenty years later, all the things I know about him are hearsay. When George was a young boy somewhere around three or four, our family’s only mule got out of the barn and was eating in the turnip patch. George

took a hold of the mules tail to pull him out of the turnip patch; that old mule kicked him on the forehead which later caused him to have seizures from time to time. This event was the reason he could not do many things that others could do. He was away from home about all the time that I was growing up so I did not know him very well. George is pictured here in our garden with the corn crib behind him.

He married Amanda Beatrice Carter (11-19-1910) on July 15, 1939. This was the first of three brothers marrying three sisters. Beatrice, Bona, and Janice Carter married George, Fred, and Ernest Howard Gurley. Beatrice and George stayed with us for a while before finding a place for their own. They had two daughters, Beulah Estelle, called Cricket (10-9-1944) and Emma Louise (7-18-1946). Beatrice worked in a mill in Statesville and George worked with a crew on men clearing right of ways through the mountains for the Duke Power Company.

One time when the crew was coming home, three of them were in an old Ford pickup truck. They had the windshield opened as wide as it could be to get as much air as possible. It seems that they ran into a swarm of honeybees on the road trip home. I remember thinking that it would have been fun to see them along the side the road getting all those bees off of their skin and out of their clothes. Needless to say, they got stung all over and were hurting pretty bad by the time they arrived home in Statesville.

George was able to make it on his own. He was a good horse trader, one time Henry Carter had an old mule that was so old and skinny that he gave his son-in-law George five dollars to take it off into the woods to kill and bury it. He took the old mule but he didn’t kill it. Instead, he fed the old mule a big mess of dried peas and gave it a lot of water. The old mule swelled up and really looked good! He took it up to Beavers Store and sold it for twenty dollars worth of $1 raffle tickets. In about three days that old mule died. The fellow that won the mule felt like he got cheated so George gave him his dollar back and everyone was happy. He made 24 dollars on the scheme; from that point on, it was obvious to me that George could take care of himself. Listen as I share this story.

If you would like to know some of the things that my family had to live through, watch the movie Grapes of Wrath. George was the neighborhood barber, every Saturday he would set up shop on the front porch. The men around us would come over for a haircut which cost them ten cents. There were times when George would be gone from home for several weeks at a time while cutting right of ways through the mountains. During those long absences, the men talked me into cutting their hair since we had the barber tools at our house. That is where I got my start cutting hair.

George went to work for Archie Crouch who owned Crouch's Tavern up on Highway 64. It was a restaurant that included several small cabins for tourist to rent that were passing that way and needed a room overnight. Listen as I tell about my experiences working for Mr. Crouch. As Mr. Crouch got older, George took over running the tavern. The tavern was destroyed by a fire. Shortly afterwards, George just moved across the high way and built Gurley's Tavern. Sometime later, someone broke into the Tavern and shot and killed him on April 24, 1971.

Here is a picture of Gurley's Tavern and one of George kidding around in a grass skirt with his friend Tom Thorpe.

Pictured below is a picture of Cricket and Emma taken in 2010.

My Sister Edna Ellen - 1906-1984

2010-08-01T05:50:00.022-04:00

Edna was born on November 14, 1906 in Mecklenburg County, NC, the first child born in our family. I was the youngest of eleven children in our family so she was 22 years old when I came along. This was about the same time she married Seth Odell Sigmon (born May 4, 1904 in Catawba County) on May 17, 1925. and moved to Kannapolis, NC. They had two daughters, Mildred and Ruth during the time they worked in Cannon Mills. This mill, like all mills, was a hard place work. It was a means to putting food on the table and providing for the family.

Their first child, Herman Long (2-23-26) died in childbirth. Mildred Viola (4-7-31) and Ruth Lee (12-8-32) were just a few years younger than me so I was their best uncle. Edna never did seem like a sister, she was more like the mother to of Mildred and Ruth. I always enjoyed going about once a year to Kannapolis to visit then. I remember thinking they were very rich; they bought most of their food from a McNeil Petri Grocery Store and I thought that was great.

The girls would come to Statesville and visit us for a couple weeks in the summer. They would say how lucky we were able to just go out into the garden and get our food. All we ever bought from the grocery store was each year in the fall. Mother would buy a 100 pound sack of pinto beans, sugar, coffee, a little stew beef, and a few other things she needed for baking. One time the girls were at our house visiting, Ruth came down with acute appendicitis. We ended up rushing her to Davis Hospital in Statesville and the doctor took them out as soon as they could. Both family pictures on this page are of the Seth, Edna, Mildred, and Ruth.

One time when I was about six, we were down visiting Edna and mother saw a patch of turnip greens in the yard behind us. She said that she sure would love to have some of them so I went over and pulled some up and brought them to Mother. I got scolded and had to take them back to the lady who owned the garden. The lady was nice to me about what I had done and gave them to me to take back home.

Another thing happened on this visit. Edna had electric lights and they had fuses in a little box on the back porch. The fuses were the same size as light sockets; I took one of the fuses out and screwed it into a light socket. You can imagine what happened! I got a good scare and a good spanking. I think it was about this time Edna did not like to see me coming to her house because she would never know what I would do during my stay.

A little later, Seth and Edna bought a six room house for $900.00 and moved over on Bethpage Road in Kannapolis. This is where they lived happy ever after until Seth died 8-28-54 and later Edna married General Lee Scarborough who was born 8-7-98. I am pictured here with Ruth, Mildred, and Mother.

Edna and second husband, General Lee Scarborough.

My Mother Viola Estelle McKnight - 1888-1973

2010-07-26T06:15:00.025-04:00

Mom and Dad had eleven children nine boys and two girls, I will write something about each of them starting with the oldest through the youngest, me.

As far as I know mother quit school after the third grade and went to work in the cotton mill which was about the only place for a youth to get employed. After Dad got out of the army he went back to college before getting a superintendent job with the mill where she worked. I guess things worked out for them to meet, start dating, and get married.

All I can say about what happened from that time will be just what I remember hearing when I was growing up. They got married September 14, 1905. Mom kept working in the mill until she had her first child Edna. After that she stayed home and took care of the home. They had a new addition to the family about every two years which stopped when I came along in 1928. Dad died in 1929.Being the baby of the family, I guess mom took better care of me than the rest of the children; I followed her around and did about everything that she did. I can remember her making me little gowns from flour sacks and later on making shirts from feed sacks. I don't remember every getting a new shirt from the store until I was in the seventh grade in school.

I would help her do the house work and she always did the gardening. Later I would help her with the plants; as I got older she would make me feed the chickens and the pigs then later cows and mules. As far back as I can remember she would be up before daylight to have breakfast for all of us guys so that we could work in the fields. She always work until after dark since there was so much to do in those days. One time she fell down the steps of our upper staircase and broke her hip. The doctor wanted to put it in a cast but that would keep her from doing the work around the house. This was around this time the older ones were leaving the farm and doing public work. She had to put her knee in a chair and slid it all around the house while she did everything that needed to be done. This picture is Mother with a friend of the family, Lo Campbell pictured at our old home place.

She would try to teach everyone to cook. She would say that we might marry a sorry woman that wanted to sleep all day. She taught me to cook about everything. I did not marry a sorry woman although she did not know how to cook so my cooking came in handy.

I can say mom did a great job keeping the family together after dad died. Some folks wanted to split us up and put us in a home for orphans; she always said that she did not have orphans. She kept us together on a little two horse farm as sharecroppers and with her determination and Gods help she made it. Later on in life some would say that she was a harsh woman but I think she was a hero for what she went through and what she stood for. I guess my being the youngest I could know her better and knew the life she had to live. She did it all for her children and I can vouch for that after having a family of my own to raise. I did not realize how much mom suffered until I got old and have all kind of medication for my ailments, she had none.

She spent her last six or seven years in bed and her two older daughters took care of her and she had many bad days and sometimes she seemed not to be the mother that she surly was. It was my Mother that made me to be what I am today, she taught me the Bible and what it was all about trusting God for everything and never complain about anything. She said that if I truly trusted God, everything would be alright, and at 82 years she was right. She was a great person as a young single mother was able to keep a family of eleven together during the great depression. She did her best and with Gods help she made it. This is a picture of her father, Samuel M. McKnight and some additional pictures of Mother.

My Father James William Gurley - 1877 - 1929

2010-06-06T07:20:00.022-04:00

James William Gurley was born on August 16, 1877 in Union County, NC and died August 27, 1929. He married my Mother, Viola Estelle McKnight, on September 14, 1905 in Charlotte, NC. She was born on January 5, 1887 in Mecklenburg County, NC. She died on December 5, 1974 and was buried in Statesville, NC in the Oakwood Cemetery. See picture of his father below.

My Father served in the Spanish American War and was 27 in this picture. He served and fought on the Philippine Islands. He was sent to Japan to catch a ship to the United States and landed at Hampton Road, Virginia, an army camp at that time. He was discharged March 31, 1901. He was promoted to Corporal.

After serving in the Spanish American War , my Father attended the Balwin College in Charlotte which took place before he was married. He was well educated and a highly intelligent gentleman. He was offered a professorship in a school at that time but refused. He was thirty when he married my Mother who was eighteen. He was the superintendent at the Calvan Mill in Charlotte. Edna was born in Charlotte, George was born two years later. They moved to Concord where Fred was born and my Father worked for Joseph Cannon founder of Cannon Mills. He did not like Concord so they moved back to Charlotte on Belmont Avenue and worked at Chatdwick Hosken Mill where he was a superintendent of mills. A union strike stopped work until workers received a raise. He was head of the union and ran the Union Commissary to feed strikers’ families. After a year, we they moved to Mooresville where he was a superintendent. He worked there until he became too ill to keep the job.

From Mooresville we moved to Sherrills Ford where we the family farmed the Roland Craven farm. One year later there was another move to Long Island on the Brown farm owned by Long Island Yarn Mill. Mother and Edna worked in the mill. My Father and the older boys worked the farm and also worked at the saw mill owned by Captain Brown. Two years later the family moved to the Raymer farm on the Catawba River; my parents liked to fish.

My Father died on August 27, 1929 at Uncle Calvin and Aunt Edith’s home on the Gurley farm. He was buried in the Olivet Baptist Cemetery in Long Island, NC. After his death, the family moved to the Thomas Farm for two years then moved to the Hollon Farm in Oak Dale and Cool Spring Community and stayed there for two year. We moved once again to the Propst Farm where the family stayed and finished high school with outstanding honors. Ola, J.D., Mark, and Glenn graduated from Cool Spring High School. As they were growing up, Edna, George, Fred, Howard, Ola, and J.D. went to eight different schools.
In the upcoming weeks, I will share stories about each of my brothers and sisters. You may want to watch the movie, The Grapes of Wrath. It will let you know what everyone went through growing up back in the 1900 - 1930s. Times were real rough and many folks did not know where their next meal would be. Later, World War II came along and many men joined up to fight for our country. My brothers and I were fortunate but many of the men never returned home, they fought for the freedom that we have today. I encourage everyone to comment and add other information and stories to what I write.

My Grandfather, George Wilkes Gurley

Settling in at 1014 Cathey Road in Charlotte, NC

2009-03-01T21:34:00.011-05:00

We finished moving into our new home. It was an easy move since we had David, Eric, and Glenn Jr. to help us unload everything. On our first Sunday back home, we joined Mulberry Baptist Church; we have always believed when you moved your bed you move your church membership. We felt at home the first day with all of the old friends that were there. We moved back near our old neighborhood and right around the corner from Glenn and his family, it seemed like we were at home again. We did miss our friends that we left at the beach but we have kept in close contact with the beach bunch and visit them as often as we can. It was good to be back in Charlotte and close to our three children and seven grand children and six great grand children which has been a great blessing within itself. We have always been a close family and enjoy time spent together. We started having what we called Family Sunday once a month with a big dinner and an afternoon of fellowship at our house.

After being back in Charlotte for a short while, Hazel felt led to open our home to have a ladies Bible study and asked Betty Peele to lead the group. The ladies Bible study started in September of 2000. Betty taught weekly until her eyes began to fail and she moved to West VA to be near her son in 2005. The Bible

study continued with Lucille McNeil as the teacher and the study is still going strong meeting every Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m.Another highlight on returning to Charlotte are the five new great grandchildren and the many new friends that we would never have had if we stayed at the beach. Pam, Glenn, and Mike's families and many friends gave me a 75th surprise birthday party and we did the same thing on Hazel's 75th birthday. At the time I thought that 75 was old but now I am blessed to be going strong at 82.

I love and cherish my family and dear friends and would not trade them for all of the gold in the world. I realize that without God and you I would be nothing.

In the next series of blog posts, I will be sharing more about my parents and siblings. I will feature one of my family members each week for the next few months.

Moving Back to Charlotte

2009-02-15T18:19:00.008-05:00

In October 1999, Glenn, Pam and Mike and their families decided to have a fiftieth anniversary party for us at Mulberry Baptist Church in Charlotte. It was on a Saturday and we had a great party with many of friends. One of our lifelong friends Tom Worthy was not there. I asked his wife Margaret where he was and she said that He was not feeling good and did not think it wise for him to get out. She shared that he was going to see his doctor on Monday and he would find out was wrong. On Monday night we called Margaret to see what the doctor had to say and Tom answered the phone. He said that I should talk with Margaret; she shared that the doctor said that Tom only had three to six month to live. The next morning at 4:00 a.m. we were on our way back to Charlotte to see them. After a short visit we went by Glenn's house to tell him about what had happened. He was not at home but we saw a house 1214 Cathey Road for sale which was right around the corner from his house. We went on over to Pam and David's house to tell them and after hearing about Tom, Pam ask us if we would move back to Charlotte so we could be together and help each other should something like happen to us. I told her that we would stay at the beach and not consider moving back. She asked us to pray about it I said that I would pray but I would never move back to Charlotte. On the way home we did much praying about what we should do.

That night we called Glenn to let him know what had happened to Tom and the we came by to see him but he was not at home. I also shared what Pam had asked us to consider. He shared that the perfect house was for sale just around the corner and we ask him to see what was the price and let us know. In the meantime he asked a realtor friend of his to check, well she did and set up five other houses for us to look at and asked him if the next Wednesday morning would work. We decided to come on back up and look at them and visit a little with him and Robin. We arrived at Glenn's house a little before nine and met with Lisa Nobles. We first went to see the yellow house on Cathey Road. After looking at the house Hazel said that she did not want to live in this house. I ask the lady if we could come back later that day by ourselves and she said we could. We did not like any of the other four houses that Lisa showed us. After lunch I got a pad and pen for Hazel and ask her to write down everything that she could not live with when we went back to the house. We took a good look around and afterwards she said that she loved it and had decided it would be the house we would buy.

We went back to the beach and in a few days we made an offer on the house. After some going back and forth we finally bought the house and we closed on it after Thanksgiving. The couple needed to stay in the house for a couple weeks which was fine with us. By Christmas we had most of the painting and other things done and were able to move in by the first of January 2000. We could see first-hand how fast God can work in the lives of his people. We are so thankful that Pam asked us to pray about coming home to Charlotte! Listen to me tell about our move to Charlotte.

King's Karpenters in McClellanville,SC

2009-02-10T12:06:00.009-05:00

When returning home from Charlotte after Hurricane Hugo, we discovered that some of the men from North Myrtle Beach First Baptist Church had gone down to McClellanville which had been totally destroyed by Hugo. They took water, chainsaws, and any thing else that that the folks down there may need to keep going.

After getting back home I joined together with other men and went back to help repair damage in the town. After a couple days we saw that there was a small community north of the town that no one was helping so we got as many men together as we could find and went back there to help them. We met Robert and Mary Lennen who had lost everything that they had in their home. They had an old warehouse that was given to them to be used as headquarters for our work teams. They planned on living in the warehouse until everyone had been placed back in their homes then we could help them. Robert and Mary's house was one of the last two homes that we help build.

After a couple days we saw that we could not do all that needed to be done alone so we approached several other churches and we had three others that said that they would go down one day each week. We started repairing the houses that we could complete in the least amount of time and by doing this, let the people know that we would be on a job five days a week untill it was finished and found that they started helping us some. Not too long after we started the other churches kind of dropped off but before they did we had repaired over twenty homes and had built one new one. The men at First Baptist keep on going as much as we could At this time we decided to name our group the Kings Karpenters.

After working in McClellanville for two years we were not needed there any more. We left McClellnaville with memories that will be with us as long as we live. I hope that someday people will read this and say a prayer for those folks, that God will continue to bless them and their children. We returned to North Myrtle and started doing work around North Myrtle and it was not long the need was so great in and around the county we were repairing homes all over Horry county.

I left the group in 2000 and moved back to Charlotte but I will always be a Kings Karpenter. When we were formed as a team our first leader was Ben Martin who led us well for a few years but due to bad health had to turn it over to Leary Baker who let us for couple years untill he fell off his golf cart and had to give it up, but he still worked with us until the end. Bill Taylor took over and led the group until now and they are still doing what he and others can for the needy people in and around North Myrtle. Bill is one of the most faithful men that I have ever known. Even through much sickness and hospital stays Bill just keeps on working every Thursday and sometimes other days of the week. It has been going on over twenty years; may God continue to bless the folks involved in this project. Listen to me tell this story.

Hurricane Hugo

2009-02-01T19:11:00.009-05:00

Shortly after this trip, an event was about to happen that would provide an opportunity for the King's Carpenters to help folk close to home. On September 21, 1989 Hurricane Hugo was on its way to the coast of the North or South Carolina. Hazel did not want to stay at the beach and we chose to come to Charlotte and keep Betsy and Kati while Robin and Glenn went to Raleigh, NC to attend a weekend for educators thinking all would be well. We came to Charlotte and settled in and were ready to have a few days with our two grandkids. We stayed up until midnight to see what Hugo was going to do and wondered if it would come inland near our beach home. At midnight all power went out in Charleston, SC and we decided to go to bed because Hugo would only come ashore for a few miles and then back out somewheres along the coast of North Carolina. Little did we know what Hugo had in mind for its travels! About four in the morning Glenn knocked on my door and ask me if we were going to sleep through Hugo's visit to Charlotte. I got up as fast as I could and boy was the wind blowing and we could see that all of the trees were bent almost to the ground. All of a sudden it got really calm and the winds stopped blowing. We all thought it was all over but just in a little while it started again and this time it was really bad! We saw some green lights as transformers blew out.

When daylight came we could see trees and power lines down everywhere but Glenn and Robin did not have any damage to their home just no power. I got to thinking about the four great big oak trees near Pam and Davids house and envisioned them all down on their house. I told Hazel that I was going to try to get over and help them and would only know how they fared the storm by going there. I started out on the five mile trip and with all of the damage it took me one hour to make the trip and I only was able to get to within about one half of a mile. I ran the rest of the way and was relieved when I got to the house I saw all of the trees around their house were standing tall and was not blown down on the house. However, they did have about twenty five big oak trees to blow down in the woods near the house but no damage was done to their home. This is another way that God was looking after my family.

We told Glenn and Robin to go on to Raleigh to the conference and we would take care of everything. We had a freezer full of frozen food and a camp stove and plenty of gas for the stove. Every one's power was out but Pam had a gas water heater and city water, both were working. With Glenn's gas stove and Pam's water we did real well. Betsy and Kati liked the camp cooking and all the candles as we did our best to make do with what we had. Glenn and Robin made it to the conference, had a great time, and returned to find that all was well. Little did we all know that for the next two weeks they were to be without power. It even took longer for some others.

We went back to the beach to find that Hugo did not do any damage to our home only a few very small limbs down and part of a couple shingles from the roof.

Church Building Trip to Jamaica Pictures/Audio

2009-01-25T08:10:00.015-05:00

For the past two weeks I have shared about my two trips, one to Haiti and the other to Jamaica. I have some pictures this week for second trip so you can see the work that was done for this community in Westmoreland Parish.

Listen to me tell about these trips.

The men on the Jamaica Mission Trip formed a group of men called the King's Carpenters. This video shows the results of the efforts of these men and members of the church, taken from video of the trip.

Church Building Trip to Jamaica

2009-01-18T10:03:00.013-05:00

Upon returning from Haiti, we started planning another trip down to the island with a target timeline to prepare and return within one year. We shared the events of our trip and enlisted fifteen of our friends to go. We completed the planning of the trip and before we could make the travel arrangements found that the political situation was getting really bad so we could not return to Haiti due to safety issues.

One of the men, Fred Morris, knew Pastor Moore in Jamaica, he was Fred's yard boy many years ago, was led to the Lord during his time there, and later became a pastor to the people up in the hill country of Westmoreland Parish and Burnt Ground. This area was five miles from the two nearest Baptist Churches. The people had to walk almost five miles to go to either of the churches and they had been working on a church at Burnt Ground for about two years; they just could not get the construction started. We decided to make plans to go down and complete the construction of this church. We shared our plans with Pastor Moore and requested that he send a list of what it would take to build the walls and to put on the roof. The next week we received a letter that contained all the information we needed. In the next few weeks, we raised enough money and planed a trip down.

We arrived on Monday night and were taken to the Baptist Bible College for the night. Early the first day we went to see what we had to do; to be honest we did not think we could do what they needed. The entire team got into a circle and had prayer. Fred and Pastor Moore went to buy the materials. It just so happened that on that day the money exchange was much better than it was on most days. We had taken enough money to put the wall up but now with the extra money we were able to buy enough materials to put the roof on. By noon that day all of the materials were delivered and we had made plans as to how we were going to do the job. I had taken a four foot level and enough line to get the building laid out the best we could. After we had lunch we started laying the concrete blocks and prayed continuously that we had the building level. The blocks were made with equipment that was use years ago when blocks were first being produced in America; the blocks were not uniform. The only sand that we had to mix with the mortar had rocks as big as marbles so we had to learn how to work around that hurdle. By the end of the week we had all of the walls up and when we got to the top we were only two inches out of level and Pastor Moore thought that that was great.

The work went so well that we had our last day to take a trip around parts of the island and were able to see a number of sites. We left them with enough supplies to put the roof on the church. We had made some wooden benches and they held services in the Church the first Sunday after we left even though it did not have the roof and the floor was dirt. On the tenth day we headed back to North Myrtle Beach. It sure made us feel good to have got so much done in just eight days.

Listen to me tell about this trip to Jamaica.

Mission Trip to Haiti

2009-01-12T06:58:00.016-05:00

After we got everything around our new home finished, I was asked by Ralph Schoverlan to go to Haiti and help build a church school. I shared with him that I was not able to go that far away from home with the unpredictable way my back was from time to time. He asked me to pray about it and see what God would want me to do about being part of the team. All went well until the time that I had to let him know. Judge Norwood Gasque had a house just across Eyerly Street and he wanted me to add a very small wash room to the rear of his beach house; I took the job and was able to complete it in a couple days and my back did very well! Later that week when Ralph called I told him that I had prayed about the trip and I feel like I should go. He said that I would have to come up with $550 for my part of the trip. That was a problem until Judge Gasque came down and saw what I did to his house and he paid me twice what I charged which was exactly $550!

Early Saturday morning Ralph Schoverlan, Fred Morris, two young fellows, and I left North Myrtle Beach and spent the day traveling down to Rockledge FL. where Good Shepard Ministries was based. We spent the night and at 4:00 a.m. the next day we were leaving Merritt Island, FL heading for Haiti. We arrived safely and as we landed I was shocked to see all of the little huts that the people were living in. We landed at Cap-Haitian International Airport and were surprised that it was just a small concrete block building with a front and rear door and the toilet was a hole in the floor of a small room. We were picked up and taken to the Good ShepardMinistries compound in a little pickup truck. We were told not to eat or drink anything other than what was in the compound kitchen and not to hug any of the little ones because many of them had AIDS.

We were told that all of the lumber that was sent down for our building was still on the ship and all of the workers were on strike and would not unload it. We were told it was best to stay away from the docks but Ralph suggested that we go and try to get our lumber. We arrived at the dock and talked to one of the men and told him that fourteen men came all the way from the U.S. to build a school up in the mountains for the children. This did the trick and the men got together in a huddle like football and came out in a little while and said that they would unload only the lumber, they even put it on the truck that we rented.

Ralph and I created the layout and made a pattern for the roof trusses, cut all the lumber to fit, and loaded it back on the truck for early next morning. We got up at 4:00 a.m. to a very rainy Tuesday morning. We had breakfast and were told that we should wait and see what the rain was going to do. Ralph and I talked and decided that we should at least take the lumber and look over the building site. Shortly after our meal, we drove up the mountain for about two hours; when we arrived the whole village was out in the rain. They gave us a heartfelt welcome. We were only able to get the truck to within about three hundred feet of the building site. We started unloading lumber and every one that was there tried to help us. We had the truck unloaded in just a little while. Fred said that we should go back down the mountain because it looked that it would rain all day. Ralph got us in a circle and said let us all talk to God and see what he would have us to do. We got in a circle and prayed for about fifteen minutes.Just as we started to walk back up the truck, the sun came out and all the people that were watching us let out a big cheer. We went to work and before the day was over we had done much more that we thought we would be able to do the first day. God gave us a good week, we could feel His presence with us all week and everything that we did was much better than we had planned. We finished the job in six days and had an extra day to work around the compound and fix things that were broken.

We were able to go out into the bush and have Bible study and preaching every night. All of this made me be thankful to God for what I had back home. When I returned home I told Hazel that I would never complain again about any food that I had to eat and I never have. I just had witnessed how God could look after people that did not have another meal to eat. I saw one little kid that had a bug in a can and that was his only food for the day. At the compound school, the children would be served one bowl of rice and beans. The children would take half of it home to their mothers or some old folks that did not have anything all day. The children would follow us around and if we would stop and talk to them they would sit and listen to every word even though they could not understand what we were saying.

We took as much money as we could to buy goats for the little boys. If a kid had a little nanny goat it would give them milk every day. We also bought them each a 10 foot piece of rope. The little children would play with their goats every day and it would sleep with then at night. We were able to buy fifty goats and give them to the kids. When we bought the goats we were also helping out the goat farmers.

Those ten days went by too fast. We got back on the little plane that came down for us and headed back to the US. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale, FL to go through customs and when we got there one of our young boys had not brought any identification with him. We thought that we would not be able to get him back into the country but finally we got through customs and flew on to Merritt Island, FL, spent the night in Rockledge, FL, and headed for North Myrtle Beach early the next day. We sure were thankful to get home safely. Listen to me tell about this trip to Haiti.

North Myrtle Beach - Part Three

2008-12-14T18:46:00.012-05:00

Living at the beach was a great time in our lives. We were making new friends and keeping the old ones that were left behind in Charlotte. We enjoyed when they would come down to the beach and spend some time with us. As time passed, I could tell the living there was helping my back and I was able to do much more work that previously I thought I could. I was able to finish building our house and as I made friends around us, I was able to help them do some the things around their houses. It was not long before the word got around that I could make home repairs which kept me busy and I could get my mind off of my back pain.We joined First Baptist Church the first Sunday after we moved; it was different from Mulberry because we had more visitors than members almost every Sunday morning since so many folks vacationed in the area. We had a good Sunday school class, Thurman McLamb was a great teacher. It did not take long to get adjusted to this church and to get involved in it. We quickly learned all the best places to eat fish and other foods by becoming friends with folks that lived in the area.

After moving to the beach we got involved with a group of senior citizens, the Nifty Fiftys, that met at the First Baptist Church each Tuesday morning from nine until noon. Each week we would have a range of attendance from 100 to 150. We had refreshments and a good program every meeting. There was a group of people that liked to travel, their motto was, " Pay the Travel Agency - Not the Doctor." Everett Beaver was our travel leader and he had us going on trips that we never thought we could do. He had us traveling all over the world! We went on trips to Asia, Europe, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Mexico, and Canada in addition to goingall over the eastern USA. We bought our own bus; I was the bus driver and I got to go freeand with what I was paid for driving, Hazel got to go for a very little which gave us the opportunity to go when and where we wanted. We went on over thirty cruises and many long and short trips. Sometimes we would have as many as 150 going on a cruise at a time and all the trips we had to limit it to the 47 seats that we had on the bus. On a lot of our cruises we had to charter as many as three buses. Some of our best trips were to New York, Maine, Nova Socia, Prince Edwards Island, Canada, Niagara Falls, New Orleans, Mississippi River boat, Texas, Copper Canyon Mexico, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Lisbon, and many others. On those long trips we were able to find some of our best friends that have stuck with us for all these later years. Richard King was the leader of the Nifty Fifty's for most of the time we were there. After he died James Griffith did it for a while and when he gave it up I became the leader but not for long because we moved back to Charlotte in January of 2000.

North Myrtle Beach - Part Two

2008-12-07T06:28:00.006-05:00

Our house at 4504 Lewis Street in North Myrtle Beach was finished in March of 1985 and we moved in on April 1, 1985. Tom and Margaret Worthy who owned Jet Express Delivery said that they would move us for only the gas it took. Before that, every trip down to the beach we would pack the van to the fullest so there would not be so much to take at one time.

We had already taken down our beds and most of our kitchen things and already had them put up just like we wanted. On this last trip, we just had to take all of the big items and all of my shop tools which made for a huge truckload. We had planned to leave Charlotte early in the day just as soon as Tom could get caught up on his deliveries. Work orders just kept coming in; in fact, it was one of his busy days. He did not get caught up until 6:00 p.m. that Friday! We got the truck loaded by 8:00 p.m. and started down the road to the beach. Tom and I were in the truck and Hazel and Margaret in our car. It was sort of a slow trip down so we arrived at the beach around 1:00 a.m. We got a little sleep and the next morning John and Sue Rogers were there early and helped us unload the truck. It was a busy day but we got everything in place and by night fall we all were ready for a good night’s rest.

The first morning after we move in at the beach we had twelve friends for breakfast which included Tom and Margaret Worthy, Jasper and Dixie Forbes, Dale and Candy Lawson, and four kids. From the first day we had opened our home at the beach to anyone that would come to visit. We had always said that it was God’s house because He was the one that made it possible for us to have. The house was not finished, we had not built the front porch or the shop on to the back. It was high enough that I could put all of my shop tools under the house and I had just enough space to do all of the work that I had to do.

It was not long after we moved in that a house under construction caught fire and burned to the ground; it had a big load of lumber that got burned a little on the end and the man gave it to me which was enough to build most of our front porch and the framing for the shop. When Larry Lambert finished the patio homes that he was building he gave me enough cedar siding for my shop on the back of our home so all I had to buy was the roof trusses, roofing, a door, and concrete for the floor. A couple in our Sunday School Class had built a big house and the contractor had put two wrong windows in and had to take them out. They let me have them for almost nothing. Things like this happened from the start to the finish of building our home at the beach, it had to be Gods way of helping us; we could not have done it on our own.

North Myrtle Beach - Part One

2008-11-18T05:57:00.007-05:00

I worked at Metro Center until 1985 when working conditions got so bad that I had to leave. Administration changed and focus of school changed directions with less focus on what was best for the students. The time I spent at Metro Center made up some of the best years of my life; I was able to do so many things that I never thought I could do and was able to work alongside teachers that had so much love for the students that attended the school. As time passed with a change in principals, there came a change of treatment of the kids. I could not remain with the school any longer and my heart was broken when I left. My departure from Metro Center allowed another chapter of my life to open. Soon afterwards, Hazel and I decided to buy a lot and build a house at North Myrtle Beach, SC. See the location.

Our friends, John and Sue Rogers, had purchased a condo at North Myrtle Beach. During one of our trips down to visit with them, we found a lot that was on the market and we could imagine how the house we wanted would look on the lot. I called the real estate agent, Rachel Thompson, and made an offer that was within our means. The agent said that she was sure that the seller would not accept an offer that low. I told her that they could counter our offer and if we could afford it we might just buy it. Three days later we received a call from her that the seller had accepted our offer which meant that we could afford the property so we started planning how we could buy the land and build a house. We had no bank account and only owned the house on Pawnee Drive in Charlotte. We prayed about this move and felt that it was in God’s will. We put a down payment on the lot and got things started knowing that He would do the rest. We were able to get our money out of our investment in Jackson Homes which was enough to pay for the lot and some left to start the house.

With the help of John and Sue and many other friends that we made so quickly, one thing after another happened and everything fell right into place. We met Larry Lambert, a contractor that had about a hundred patio homes he was planning to build. At the time he could not start until some of the completed ones were sold so he had a couple weeks that he had nothing to do. He agreed to frame our house and ended up doing the outside and roof. The weekend after this job was done was when his company had sold the most of the patio homes in one weekend so he was very busy for the next six months. I did not know how we were going to pay him for what the work he did for us but with the help of friends we were able to pay as the house was being built. We met Mr. Edge, a plumber, that volunteered to do the plumbing for cost and the air condition was also installed for the cost of the unit. George Broom, an electrician and friend from Mulberry Baptist Church, and my son Glenn went down and did all of the electoral work in just two days, one to ruff it in and one to finish it.

All this time my good friends were letting us borrow the money that we needed until we could sell our home in Charlotte. When we were ready for the sheet rocking, I went to see Jimmy the guy that was doing the work for Larry Lambert, the contractor, to see what it would cost. It just so happened that he got caught up that day and all of his men would have two days off. He told me that if we could get the sheet rock that afternoon, he would put it up for just labor cost. I called the lumber company and they so happen to have a truck and would have it at our house in one hour, Jimmy and his crew started that afternoon and two days later the sheet rock was hung, patched and ready to paint. Glenn and I painted the inside of the house and he worked with me as I built the fireplace. That same weekend I met Wheat, a man that had a cabinet shop in Statesville. He came over and measured my house and he just so happen to have cabinets for the two bath rooms that he had made and had not sold. He gave them to me and built the rest of the cabinet for cost; one week later the cabinets were delivered to my house in Charlotte. The bill read to be paid at my leisure, every time we needed anything, God was there one day ahead of us meeting our needs. Everything that we did until the house was finished was taken care of in a way that only God could have done it.

Our First Cruise and Trip to Hawaii

2008-11-09T19:54:00.010-05:00

During the winter of 1982, John and Sue Rogers, Bob and Marge Greene, and Hazel and I decided that we would like to go on a cruise. I contacted a travel agency at Belk's and found that we could go on a seven day cruise for a little over five hundred dollars each which this sounded pretty good so we each booked a reservation. We flew to Atlanta, GA and after a short snow delay headed on to San Juan, Puerto Rico and then on to the Cunard Princess Cruise Line.

We sailed all the way to South America and to four islands on the way back to San Juan. We enjoyed the cruise and the land tours very much! The last night on the ship Hazel slipped on some wet stairs and hurt her lower back. We went to see the ship doctor and were given some pain pills. The next day Hazel's back side was hurting but she would not take any of the pain pills which made a bad day for all of us. We got on the plane home and headed for home. The plane was not full so she had five seats that she could lay down so that made the trip home a little better. Later on we found out that we could sue the Cruise line and get a free cruise and some money but we did not think that we should because we did not think it was the fault of the cruise line. I think we enjoyed this cruise best of all over all the ones we went on during our cruise years. After moving to North Myrtle Beach we joined a senior citizen group called the Nifty Fifties and were able to go on many other cruises.

Bob and Marge Green and Hazel and I went to Hawaii in 1980. We were out to dinner one night and someone suggested that we go to Hawaii which sounded good to us all. After we finished our meal we went directly to the airport to check out a flight and found that a round trip would cost us $500.00 each which did not sound too bad so we went on to Bob and Marge house and called the Sheraton Hotel to check on the price and we could get Sheraton Wikkie Beach. We found that we could get the room for $80.00 a night which did not sound too bad so we booked for 10 nights went back to the airport and booked our flights for the same time and we were set for the trip. Pam,Shannon and Christy went to the airport to see us off early one morning and they watched us get on to the plane. They watched it take off and fly into the western sky. When the plane went out of sight, Christy started to cry. Pam ask what was wrong and Christy said that her grandparents disappeared and she wanted them back. Pam assured here that we would come back in 10 days and that helped her understand so she said that she would wait for us.

We arrived in Honolulu that afternoon and were met by a friend who let us rent a car for the time we were on the Island. Upon checking into the hotel we found out that our reservations were made for the next day and they did not have two good rooms for us and we would have to sleep in rooms with only two single beds. That upset me so I told the clerk that I did not come all the way to Hawaii and not to sleep with my wife the first night. I ask him to put the two beds together and he did.

The rest of the time went really well and we had a wonderful time. We flew to five other Islands and spent time on all of them, we were able to tour all of Honolulu and did most everything that could be done! We bought some pineapples, Macadamia nuts,and Kona coffee to bring back home with us. Pam, Shannon and Christy met us at the airport early that morning and Christy sure was glad to have her grandparents arrive back through the skies just like they had disappeared ten days earlier.

Camping Trip with Jr. High Boys to King's Mountain

2008-10-26T18:46:00.008-04:00

Pastor Cecil Seagle asked me to plan a camping trip overnight for the junior high boys that attended Mulberry Baptist Church; I told him I would take care of the physical part if he would take care of the spiritual part. He said that would be fine and that the trip was to be Friday morning until Saturday afternoon. Soon afterwards, we had a meeting one Sunday and I informed everyone that we would leave the church Friday at 5:00 a.m. and head to Kings Mountain State Park for all day and night and return late Saturday afternoon.

During planning, Cecil wanted to know why we were leaving so early in the morning. I shared that one thing I learned growing up on a one horse farm is that if you went to work at sunrise and worked until sunset then you were ready for bed at dark and were able to sleep soundly all night.

On the day of the trip, we left Mulberry Baptist Church right on time at 5:00 a.m. and began our trip as we headed to Kings Mountain State Park. All the boys helped to set up camp and then we had a big breakfast of chicken gravy, toast, and orange juice. Afterwards, Pastor Seagle led the morning devotion. Around 10:30 a.m. the boys changed into their swim suites and we all headed to the lake for a morning of swimming; they all played hard until the whistle sounded to head back to camp at noon.

For lunch we had a big meal of baloney and cheese sandwiches that ended with lots of deserts. Pastor Seagle had a Bible study at the campsite that ended with the group going on a short hike before returning to the lake to swimming and play nonstop until the swimming area was closed at 5:00 p.m. We had a big meal of hamburgers and hot dogs with all the trimmings ready for them when they returned. There was one more Bible study that took place around the campfire. After the boys roasted a few marshmallows on the fire it was time for everyone to get ready for bed and get into their sleeping gear. To our surprise it did not take long for things to get quiet and everyone was sleeping soundly! Everyone, even the adults were able to get a good night's sleep and the needed rest after a long intense day.

The adults were up at 6 a.m. on Saturday and prepared a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, grits, toast, coffee, and orange juice. The boys started waking up when the smell of bacon cooking was in the air. The campfire was still burning so Pastor Seagle had the morning devotion around the warm fire. Afterwards, the entire group went to the Kings Mountain National Military Park for a long hike and history lesson. After returning to camp, the boys had a big lunch of sandwiches, chips, drinks, and deserts. They had their final Bible study before heading back to the lake for their final swim. Mid-afternoon, we broke camp and headed back to the church to meet the parents at the planned arrival time of 5 p.m.

It turned out to be a great trip for everyone. Cecil said that this is the first time that he had ever taken a group of boys somewhere that he did not have to stay up most of the night trying to get the boys to quiet down and go to bed.

Inspecting Foils and 1976, An Eventful Year

2008-10-20T19:27:00.012-04:00

While working at Metro Center, my good friend Bob Greene secured a contract with the Remington Razor Company to put rails on their electric razor foils and needed a way to ship them to Bridgeport CT. He came to me to see if I could make a box so they could be shipped without damage, I did the job for him and they were very happy with the design. Later, after we had worked on this project, Remington came to Bob and wanted come to town to visit and see how the razor foils were being inspected in Charlotte. They had spent $160,000 on a projector that was created to inspect the foils but it was not doing the job they wanted. They were surprised to find that we were using a $1.99 flood lamp to do the job. Bob came back to me to see if I could do the job for them. Hazel and I took on the task of inspecting ten thousand foils and Remington was pleased with the job. They sent another ten thousand to make sure that we could meet their standards. They were more than happy and wanted us to do all of them through Bob. We started out doing five to ten thousand a week for a while and it grew to 40 to 80 thousand a week. We had to get help! Hazel and I could not keep up with the demand so we hired Mildred Bidwick, Becky Cooke, and Libby Ingram to help us part time. We were even big enough to have a company Christmas party. We made this an annual event at Christmas until we moved to the beach. At that point Bob was able to take over the inspections. This was another way God took care of us when I still could not do much work. This is a picture of Hazel inspecting foils in our "state of the art" lab!

1976 was one year that Hazel will never forget. At the beginning of the year, Hazel was looking forward on having a normal summer with Mike graduating from West Mecklenburg High School and Glenn Jr. graduating from the University of NC - Charlotte. I was having a terrible time with my back and I sure was not any help around the house. As things sometime happen, there were some changes that came, Glenn and Robin set their wedding date to be shortly after they graduated from college. Later, Joe Greene and Pam started dating and decided to get married before Robin and Glenn and we became grandparents to Joe Jr. on their wedding day. Hazel's brother Larry Gentle had leukemia and God call him home during this eventful year. So with all of the graduations, marriages, and Larry's death all rolled into just a couple months Hazel almost could not handle all of that at one time. We took the events, one at a time and made it through that summer and everything turned out just fine. At the end of the summer, we had one son that was getting ready to go to college, new daughter and son in-laws, and our first grandchild who has brought much joy into our lives.

Barber Shop and Metro (Myers) Street Center

2008-10-12T06:22:00.008-04:00

After a few years the work with the school system got to be more than I could do so I looked for other options. I had a chance to open a new barber shop on Moores Chapel Road when Jones Hardware opened. The rent was very low and I thought I could get another barber full time and this would allow me to work as I could. After about a year I could see that this was not working for me.

Gerald Harvey, a good friend I met at Harding High School had taken the job as principal of Metro(Myers Street) Center. He called me and said that one of his teachers had to be gone for four days and asked if would I help him out and be the substitute for the four days. I could not turn my good friend Gerald down so I said yes. I went to work my first day at the Niven’s Center on Nivens Rd. where the older children met. I arrived early and I prepared for the time working with the students. After the buses dropped off the students, they arrived to class. At this time in my life I don’t think I had ever seen retarded children. Here I was with about twenty students and I did not know what to do so I went into the bathroom and prayed telling God to help me get through this day. I was sure I would have to let Gerald get someone else tomorrow since I was unsure if I could make it for even one day. I got through the day and really enjoyed working with the students. In fact, that night I could not sleep because I was looking forward of going back the next day. Gerald wanted to open a vocational class at Metro Center in the old Second Ward School building. He wanted me to come and get it started. The time at Metro Center was the most rewarding time of my life. I had no training working with the mentally retarded children so I did not know that they were not supposed to be able to do a lot of things. I treated them just like anyone else and found out with the right help they could do almost anything I needed them to do. We started out building dog and bird houses. It went so well that we started building small utility buildings and I designed the process so that the students did most of the work. It was not long that, with the right kind of jigs, the students could complete over 99% of the building. I was able to get every one of the children in all of the classes to do some kind of work on the projects. This led to having a basketball team and then sixteen went through driver’s education classes and earned their drivers licenses.

Homecoming Men's Beach Trip

2008-10-05T18:32:00.013-04:00

When Mulberry Baptist Church had homecoming it was a tradition for the men of the church to go on an overnight trip to the beach. It was the fall of 1983 when they went to Ironside Pier on the coast of North Carolina. The men left at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. The guys included David Goggins, Jim and Ron Medlin, Bob Miller, Jasper Forbes, Joe Randall, Bob Green, Lamar Brock and four other men.

After my back injury and knowing to always to be prepared, just in case I brought an old foam mattress that I had been using on our family camping trips and put it in the back of the bus. We were all looking forward to a great weekend when we left the church and started traveling to the beach. Not too far down the road, on Independence Boulevard, we had to replace a fan belt which was the only mechanical problem we had on the trip.

Just a little time after we had planned, we arrived at the pier at 10:00 p.m. and everyone started fishing. It turned out to be a cold night and seemed to get colder every hour. Around midnight, it became too cold for another guy and me so we went back to the bus and soon both were sleeping. We were sleeping well until around 5 a.m. when Jim Medlin came in to sleep a couple hours. He smelled so bad with stinking old fish and bait odors that we had to get up and try to continue our sleeping while sitting in seats in the very front of the bus. After a couple hours of sleep, Jim got up at 7 a.m. and went back to fishing. However, by that time the bus smelled so bad that no one could stay in it. The men fished until a little after noon and we packed the bus and finished cleaning up before we headed home.

We stopped at a fish place at Snead's Ferry to have our first meal since leaving the church parking lot. It was in an old building and we were the first customer's the day. Since we did not get hotel rooms, none of us had cleaned up too much, what a sight! Poor ol' Joe Randall looked worse than any of us and Jim put him at the back of the table. He slipped over and told the waitress that Joe had mental problems and for her not to get too close to him because he would grab and kiss her. We had a big dinner and a good time of fellowship.When we got back on the bus Joe wanted to know why the waitress would wait on everyone else but him. He had noticed that she would always give his food to one of us and we would pass it to him. Jim finely told Joe what he had done, Joe laughed being a good sport. We had a good trip home. This was the first and last fishing trip I ever went on with those guys. Listen to me tell this story.

I am reminded of another of the many time we had fun kidding around with the members of our church. This time, John Rogers and I dressed up as a couple coming into the church off the street. It was on a summer evening service in July 1968 and not long after our family had joined the church. The pastor, Tommy Funderburk was caught by surprise after hearing the reaction of the folks there that night. At the start of the service he asked us if we wanted to introduce ourselves and share with the congregation. John and I jumped at the opportunity take him up on his offer and ham is up for the folks. I remember John answering his telephone that was ringing in his bag; this was long before cell phones.

Family Trip to Florida

2008-09-28T14:27:00.011-04:00

In 1973, we took a trip to Disney World. We started our trip by leaving home around 8:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. In Atlanta, we found ourselves right in the middle of the traffic so it was difficult to find a gas station in the center of that town that time in the early morning. We finally found one, had a little breakfast, filled up the fuel tank, and headed south down the interstate. We had a new 1972 Ford Van that had five seats and in the back, a place for luggage, and a full size bed so some could sleep while others drove. I drove until we got past Atlanta before Pam took over while I got a little sleep then after a few hours Glenn drove the last leg until we arrived in Orlando, Florida.

We found a hotel with one room big enough for all of us. We had planned to rest up Sunday and go to Disney World for the day on Monday. The hotel clerk told us that we should go on Sunday because on that day we could get to see more because the crowds were less than half they would be on Monday. We all went to bed for a couple hours and we were ready to go to Disney World by 10:00 a.m. when they opened. It was a great day for all of us! We enjoyed everything in the park and by the time it closed, we were ready to go back to the hotel and get some much needed rest and sleep.

The next morning after getting a full night’s rest, we headed for Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. We had a good day there and later in the afternoon we headed for Tampa thinking we would drive until we found just the right place to spend the night. We found out that there were not any motels on the Bee Line Express so we just kept on driving until our gas gauge was almost on empty. We soon found out that the night before there was a big storm and all of the power lines were down and the gas stations could not pump any gas. We just decided to drive until we ran out, just as we were back in central Florida and entering the little town of Kissimmee, there was a station open and we had to coast up to the tank. Boy, were we happy.

We were all worn out and we found a little motel that had a room that we could all fit in and we took it. Hazel and I slept in one bed, Glenn and Mike in the other, and Pam on the floor. That was a good arrangement until Pam woke up and saw a big water bug go across the floor which got her off the floor. I got the plywood and the mattress from the van and put it up on the dresser and two chairs and then we all were finally able to get a good night sleep.

We were up early and had a good breakfast before we on to Tampa. We went to Bush Gardens and then to Clearwater Beach to watch the sun go down over the ocean. After spending the day at the beach we went over to a famous restaurant, The Kapok Tree. After waiting for about an hour we were seated and had a big meal fit for a king and for the big price of about forty dollars plus tip! After spending the night just outside of Tampa we headed home traveling all day. We had taken 8mm movies of our trip. After they were developed we enjoyed watching them but most were of the water we passed while going over bridges that Mike had taken. He said it was so beautiful that he just kept on filming. Listen to me tell this story.

Working with Students - Campus Life

2008-09-22T06:01:00.010-04:00

One morning as I was walking passed Principal Ken England's office, I saw a young boy sitting inside his door and overheard Ken tell him that this was the last time that he would be able to stay in Harding High. I motion for Mr. England to come out and ask him the boy’s name which was Keith Massey. He shared that Keith was so mean that he was going to have to expel him for the rest of the year. Something told me to take him in my bricklaying class and so he could give that a try. Ken agreed and said that I could have him for one week and I had to keep him all day which was alright with me I said that I would try. The first two days, Keith was very unhappy and would not cooperate at all. I talked with him and ask him to work with me for just one week and at that time if he was not happy I would turn him back over to Mr. England and he would send him home for good. I started working with him and found out that he was very bright and could learn quickly. After two weeks he was able to lay a pretty good brick; I took him out where construction workers were building some apartments near the school and got the foreman to let him try working. I stayed with him all day and at the end of the day the foreman said that he could use him to back up the walls. We agreed on a price to pay Keith and for the next several weeks I would take Keith out to the job as soon as he got to school and bring him back to school just in time to ride the bus home. When school ended, I gave him a full set of mason tools. I told him how good he was and that he could get a job with almost any mason contractor and that I could be a personal reference. Keith did well from that time on and every Christmas he would come by my house and wish us a Merry Christmas. When we moved to the beach I lost contact with him.

While working at Harding High School and going to church at Mulberry Baptist, I got involved in working with Campus Life, a Christian group of teens working for God which led to working with the senior high students at the church. It was a new experience for me and one that I really enjoyed. We would have all of the youth over to our house every Sunday night after church, most of the time we would have about thirty or forty. We would have sandwiches, drinks, popcorn, and other things for the kids to eat. It was a great time of fellowship with other good Christians. This was the time of the hippie movement and was easy for many of the youth to get involved in that lifestyle. With the students able to gather with a good Christian group, it let them to know that there was a better alternative. The Sunday night meetings lasted until the group was so big that we did not have enough room for everyone and had to move to a larger building.

I became a member of the board of directors which meet for breakfast to make plans for the next month. We made plans to take all of the youth to Jekyll Island, GA. for a winter retreat for the week between Christmas and New Years, We had 500 to sign up for the trip and when we tried to make reservations we were turned down by all of the hotels. Each manager said that 500 youth would tear up there hotels, so we put up a $ 5,000.00 deposit to take care of any damages. We took the youth to Jekyll Island and had a great week with not one complaint, after returning to Charlotte we got a big rebate on our hotels charges saying that each of the hotels did not have damages and we could come back any time that we wanted to stay. The next big trip was to Tacoah Falls, GA. We took about the same number of youth and had a great week of Bible study, preaching, entertainment, and much fun; this trip was trouble free, not one time did we have to discipline someone. Listen to me tell this story.

As time passed, due to my back problems I could no longer be with the students as they met weekly. I had to take a back seat in Campus Life for a while. We had many youth called into full time service for God and many are still in full time service in and around of Charlotte. Working with the youth of Campus Life I learned many thing that helped me to raise my own children, I know that I was never easy on them but tried to let them know that I had much love for them and that I would always be there for them.

Teaching at Harding High School - Part Two

2008-09-14T05:25:00.010-04:00

After the first day I started working at Harding High School, I discovered that Frances Crest was a teacher is the same building that I had been assigned my first class. It made me feel good to have someone that I knew at the school. Frances was only a few year younger than me. Her office was just around the corner; she was glad that I was at the school so we started coming to school a little early to sit in her office every morning to talk and have a cup of coffee together. We were also able to go to lunch together; we spent as much time together as we could. She helped me adapt to the jungle that I was in! It was good to sit with her during the teacher meetings so she could translate the school lingo for me and answer my questions about what was going on.

Everything went very well for the first three weeks in the opening of the school year. One day Mrs. Pattie Greth, the School Administrative Secretary, called me into her office because she needed to talk to me. She shared that all of the teachers were talking about Francis and me and were assuming that we were having an affair since we were together so much and it was beginning to cause some trouble among the teachers. I just sat there and then broke out in laughter! Pattie wanted to know what I was laughing about and then I told her that Frances was my brother Howard's oldest daughter. I shared that after her father, my brother died, we had been there for each other. I ask Pattie not to say anything until we had our next teachers meeting and I would take care of this situation. In the next meeting I stood up and told the staff that I wanted to thank each of them for helping me to get started off well at Harding. I told them that there was one teacher that I found to be extra special; one that I had been close to since the first day and that we were together as much as we could. I shared that Frances was my niece and that we had been very close since her father, my brother Howard had died. This took care of that rumor and I never heard anything else about it. No one but Pattie ever mentioned the suspicions.

Garald Harvey, Jim Silvers, Joe Bryant, and I were in D Building together. We all were vocational teachers. One day we were having lunch in my office when Gerald brought in a dozen ears of the best silver queen corn that I think I have ever eaten. As we were eating our fill, Joe ask Gerald what kind of corn it was and indicated that he wanted to grow some the next summer. Gerald did not bat an eye and said it was Iranian sweet corn; Joe wanted to know where he could get some seed. Gerald told Joe that you had to plant the shoots from an existing plant and let it grow for at least one year before it would produce corn. The next day, Gerald brought a big bucket full of big healthy shoots and told Joe to plant them ten inches apart it in his garden. Joe did that, taking the best of care of the plants. He shared with us that the stalks were growing and spreading all over his garden. He was thankful the plants had taken off and was sure he would have enough corn to share with all of us. The second year Joe was telling a friend about his Iranian corn and took him out to his garden to look and see how well it was doing and told him he had so much that he could share some shoots with him at the end of the season. His friend looked at it and told Joe that it was Johnsongrass and that he better start digging it before it took over all of his back yard. Joe had a big laugh with us and Gerald brought Joe a bushel of Silver Queen since his garden did not produce. This is an example of what we did to each other. Each of us could enjoy a good joke even if it was on us. With all that was going on at Harding High School, it took some things like this for us to keep from going insane and loosing our minds.

Teaching at Harding High School - Part One

2008-09-07T08:33:00.008-04:00

While working at Doug's barber Shop I met Albert and Allen Nance that were building houses on Pawnee Dr. in Watauga Village, a new subdivision off Little Rock Road in Charlotte, NC. This development was near three schools that Pam, Glenn, and Michael would attend. Houses were not selling as fast as they were building them so one day Albert Nance said that they would let me have a house at their cost and would take my house on Barringer Drive as the down payment; this another way that God provided for us. On one Saturday in April, 1968, I went to work at the barber shop. Hazel called me and said that John Rogers, Tom Worthy and several other men were at our house and moving us to our new home and that I should come home to it that evening and I did. The next Sunday we moved our church membership to Mulberry Baptist Church, we remained members there until we moved to North Myrtle Beach, SC. April 1 1985.

Steve Wallens, a friend who worked with the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System in their Math and Science Department, let me know that a brick mason instructor was needed at Harding High School and encouraged me to apply for the position. I completed an application and was interviewed and hired the next day. With one week of training with the instructor that was leaving I had a job of training a bunch of wild kids how to lay bricks and be carpenters. It only took me a few days to learn that these boys needed more than just learning the skills. I got them all in a bunch in the corner of the shop and told them that I was there to help them and if they wanted to learn I would help them but if they decided not to learn, it was their choice and they would have to live with the consequences. This seemed to get their attention and they started to listen to what I had to say. My largest class was the first two periods in the morning and met in the same shop as the industrial arts class. I quickly could tell that the sharing of space was not going to work. I received permission to take the class out on a field trip in my van. I had a friend, Dick Bowers, that was manager of the Hardees on Wilkinson Boulevard that allowed us to meet there. At that time Hardees opened at 11:00 a.m. which was the time the class was over. He let me bring my class over to Hardees every day until it got warm enough for us to work outside.

I ordered 10 yards of sand and 3,000 brick and had them delivered to the school and let them be unloaded in the driveway to the auto shop. Gerald Harvey, the auto mechanics instructor, told me he thought it was not a good idea but I told him to watch and see. We had to move the sand and brick to the back of the school buildings and this took two weeks which kept the boys busy and I could get a little rest from the physical demands of teaching this course. I looked for actual jobs for the students to do as they learned to lay bricks. Marcus Hollbrook had a warehouse that needed a lot of windows bricked up and said that he would pay a good price for us to brick then up. This job kept us busy for quite a while. At first some of the boys did not want to work but when they saw that the workers were getting paid then all of them started working which made for a good class. Listen to me tell this story.

Kids Growing Up

2008-08-30T20:51:00.019-04:00

I worked part-time as a barber at Doug’s Barber Shop on Wilkinson Boulevard for awhile but discovered that standing on my feet was not doing me any good. It seemed that the times that I was hurting were the times that everyone wanted haircuts. I pushed myself to continue working but found that I just could not do it anymore. While I was still working at Doug’s Barber Shop, Hazel called me and said that I should rush home. She said that Glenn was cutting the grass and she had sent Mike out to pick up the sticks after Glenn had started mowing the grass. The lawnmower threw a rock and hit Mike in the eye. I rushed home and we took Mike to the eye doctor. The doctor looked into Mike’s eye and said that he had a blood clot in his eye and would have to stay in the hospital for a few days. He could not raise or turn his head until released from the hospital. After being in the hospital for a week we took him home but after a couple of weeks his eye started hurting again. Mike had to return to the hospital and this time with a detached retina. Dr. Kreashone tried to fix it but could not. This left Mike with only one good eye. Through our time in the hospital, Dr. Kreashone discovered what had recently happened to me with the fire department and he knew that we could not pay for all of this. He told us that he would only charge what the insurance would pay and we were once again very thankful. Michael did not remember any pain, but only bits and peices of the experience. Listen to me tell this story.

While living on Barringer Drive, Glenn Jr. who was only eleven years old, wanted to do his part to help the family and said that he would like to deliver the Charlotte News, an evening news paper at that time. He applied for the job and just as God works, the route that started at our house came open and he got the job. The first day he went to the pickup box and put all of the papers in the news bag and started down West Blvd to make his first deliveries. He left with a big bag of papers that was almost as big as he was, I followed him staying far enough behind for him not to be able to see me. I will have to confess that until he reads this in my blog, he did not know that I followed him all the way up Fordham Rd. to Kimberly Rd. then to Remount Rd. and back down West Blvd., Up Barringer Dr. to Brentwood Pl., down Remount Rd., and back down Barringer Dr. until he reached home. He continued being a paperboy for a very long time. He did such a good job that he was named the newspaper carrier for the year and was taken to Fayettville for a celebration and received some awards for his good work. I only followed him the first couple days until I knew that he knew what he was doing.

Glenn did such a good job that his paper route was expanded and became too large for him to make the deliveries in a timely manner. He was forced to branch out and hired Pam, his sister, to take part of the route that started at our house and went up to Brentwood and lower part of Remount Dr. They both did a great job of helping out. Michael helped Glenn with the paper route too; he inserted the ads and comic sections as well as fold them so it would be easier to make the delivery. Listen to me tell this story.

Long about this time Pam wanted to get her ears pierced and we did not have the money to do that or have her hair cut so I persuaded her to let me cut her hair and the money that we would save would be enough to pay for having her ears pierced. I cut her hair so she would have some of the most beautiful bangs that you had ever saw. However, when she looked at them, she became really mad at me because she did not like them at all. The next day I took her to get her ears pierced but that still did not make her happy about the hair. Her hair eventually grew out but until it did it was a major issue with her.

One day in April, a baby squirrel fell from its nest and we found it in our front yard when it was discovered by a neighborhood cat. We took it in, named it Squeaky, and raised it in our house for the next several weeks. I built a cage for Squeaky, it was little over a foot square and about 3 feet high with a limb in it, so he could climb around. He would eat out of our hands and enjoyed climbing the curtains and sitting on top of them. He made a great pet and we all loved the squirrel. We kept it in the house and played with it until it grew up and we were convinced it would survive in the wild. When we let it outside, Squeaky stayed around for a few days and then disappeared. Listen to me tell this story.

Workman's Compensation

2008-08-24T05:33:00.008-04:00

Shortly after entering barber school I received a letter from the City of Charlotte Treasurer asking me to come to his office to discuss some issues. During the meeting, he shared that the City wanted me to repay them for the Workman's Compensation that I was paid while I worked for the City. I told him that I did not have any money and I could not foresee any time in the near future that I would have the money to repay them. He sent me to see the City Manager who also said that I would have to repay the money. In addition he said that I was to return all of the clothes that the fire department had given me while actively serving on the force. Pointing at my shoes, he stated that he even wanted that pair of two years old shoes and all of the used pants and shirts. He said that the City would work with me by just deducting $125.00 a month from my $250.00 disability retirement check. At this point I got mad and told him that I had a wife and three little children and he was taking away the only way that I had to feed them. I refused to leave and told him that I was going to stay in his office until he told me that he would not take the money from my paycheck. He sharply told me that he had ways to get me out of his office and back on the road. At that point I told him that I had called a reporter from the Charlotte News and shared that I might need him to come down to his office that afternoon. He finely said he would try to work something out but I still would have to return the clothes and shoes, I took off my shoes and placed them on his desk and walked the two blocks back to the barber school which had already closed for the day. On this day I was so glad that I did not have on a pair of Fire Department issued pants. Walking in public in bare feet is one thing, walking in bare feet and boxers is another!

After I left the City I could not keep my health insurance. The City wanted to sever all ties and free them with all other responsible of me. I tried to get some help from Chief Walter Black who I thought up until this time was a good man to help me but all that he said was that his hands were tied and that he could not take sides against the City. He said that their attorneys had taken care of all the legal stuff. He said that he had no say as to how I should be treated.

I called several lawyers and they told me that being retired on disabilities was a new thing for the fire department and that it would cost me more than I could afford. They advised me to take what the city offered and go on with my life. That is just what I did; I turned it all over to God and told him that it was His problem from that point forward. I never had to repay the Workman’s Compensation. Listen as I tell this story.

New Career Opportunities

2008-08-17T07:43:00.016-04:00

As time passed and I discovered that I was not going to be able to do the job with Norris Packing Company, Tom Worthy came by to see me about needing to make a change in his career. Tom told me that the job that he currently was doing was hurting his health and that he was going to have to make a change but he did not know what he should do about it. I told him if I were able to work and needed a job, I thought it would be a good thing to start a local delivery service. I knew that the company that John Rogers was working for would have enough overflow business that would get him started. Tom went to see John and he thought it to be a great idea since there was high demand for local delivery services in Charlotte. Neither of us had much money but each of us managed to put in $500 which bought an old truck. Tom was to be the driver with a salary, John was to provide us business, and I was to be the dispatcher. We named the company Jet Express Delivery. Listen as I tell this story.

The business had a slow start and Hazel ended up doing my job. I decided to revert to being a barber which I had done throughout the time I was in the Navy. I also cut hair for many of the firemen while working at the fire department. Doug Brewer, a barber that I had met while living at Morris Field, had a barber shop near the Park-N-Shop #1. He knew that I hadbeen cutting many of the fireman's hair so he told me that a barber school had opened in Charlotte and if I could attend this school and get my license that he would rent me a chair in his barber shop and I could work anytime that I wanted too.

I went to the barber school and met Mr. Sparks the owner and told him my story and shared about my prior experiences with cutting hair. He said that he needed someone that could help him and that if I would enroll in the school I could help him with the other students and that would pay my way. He shared that anytime that my headaches started and I did not feel like working. I could lie down on a bed that was in the corner of his office.

Eight month later I got my NC Barber License and started to work at Doug's Barber Shop. I also was able to have the telephone line for Jet Express Delivery put in the shop so I could take calls for Jet Express Delivery and cut hair at the same time. This helped Hazel out a little but it was not long that the business grew to need a full time office worker. John and I decided that we would let Margaret, Tom's wife, go to work in that position. By that time we had three trucks, I was unable to work with the company, and John had gotten a promotion and could not work with the company. At this point we let Tom and Margaret take over the business and we remained best friends for life.

Recovery from the Operation

2008-08-02T17:15:00.004-04:00

All went pretty well during the operation. I had to lay flat on my back for twenty-one days before I could get up and then for only a few minutes at a time. Before I go any farther I must tell you about the fourth day after the operation. One of the nurses gave me a big glass of something to drink and said that in a little while for me to call her and she would take care of me. As you can imagine, I had to go so quickly I called the nurse. She came in and got a stainless steel bed pan which I think she stored in the freezer and slid it under my warm bottom. I thought I would jump out of bed knowing that was not a possibility but quickly ended up doing something else. All went well the rest of the time. I insisted on keeping the pan under the covers with me from then on. The three weeks went well and on the twenty-first day Dr. Tracy came in and had me to stand up. I stood up with their help and I was doing so well that he could put the body cast on the next day and let me go home in a couple days if all went well and it did. I was told that I could only stand up or lay down for eight months. Listen to me tell this story.

At this time I had a little Rambler Station Wagon that had a front seat that would fold down which enabled me to get home without sitting up. It was about one month before I had to go back to see the doctor. He told me if I did good for the next month, I could get out and ride laying out in the car. He said that I could go to church if I would lie down rather than sitting so I would lie on a pew on the back row at Westover Baptist Church. Pam had started to play the piano in church and played with organist, Jo Ann Caulder.

During the time that I had my injury and being retired from the Charlotte Fire Department, I tried to return to work several times but there was no way that I could hold up more that a few hours; I looked as healthy as a horse but my back was as weak as water. After leaving the fire department I was able to get a job with Shelby, NC based Norris Packing Company. Mr. Bridges needed someone to work the Park-N-Shop store three days a week for and average of three hours a day. Charlie Reed, owner of Park-N-Shop told him about me and my need for a job to provide some additional income for my family. The company furnished me a car to drive and I went to work after one day of training. God took care of me, with the small retirement check that the city gave I could not afford a car and while working with the meat company, I could get all of the meat that we needed. Hazel learned to cook hot dogs, livermush, bacon, and bologna in every way imaginable for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Listen to me tell this story.

One day I was driving home from a visit to the doctor and passed a house that had an old bed headboard lying on the sidewalk as I drove by. I thought that the walnut wood would be good to make something. I went back to the house and asked if I could have it and the lady said that she had a dresser and chest of drawers to go with it but she just could not get them to the street for the garbage men to pick up. After looking at them I told her I would like to have them and she was delighted that someone could use the furniture. I called Tom Worthy who had just bought an old pickup truck, he picked up the bed room suit and delivered it to my side porch. I started to work on removing the old finish which took me about a year since I could not work but a few minutes at a time on it. I still have the very old bed room suit and it is still good as new. Pictured here is the bed with a Yo-yo quilt that Hazel made.

Times were so hard that I had to call Wayne Carriker, my oil man, to tell him that I could not pay for any more fuel and that I would heat my house with wood in my fireplace; his reply was that my oil tank would never run empty as long as he had an oil business. At the same time, I had to make a call Pam's piano teacher Mrs. Mildred Gaffney to tell her that Pam would have to drop her piano lessons because I could not pay for them and did not have the means to get Pam to her house; her reply was that as long as she could teach she would give Pam lessons and she would come by our home once a week to teach Pam at no charge. During this time Hazel was keeping young children and doing laundry for their families to help us make ends meet.

I kept having some tension and pain in my back. One morning when I got up, I felt sick so I only drank some tomato juice for breakfast and shortly afterwards I had a terrible headache and was sick on my stomach. This is the first time in my life that I had ever had a bad headache; it was so bad that I thought I was dying. I told Hazel that she should call in some of our close friends because I did not think I was going to make it through the day. Hazel called our closest friends, John and Sue Rogers and Tom and Margaret Worthy. They came and sat with us for the most of the day and things got a little better. These headaches came on at random and there was not anything that I could do to stop them. Later, the doctor told me that they were migraine and that there was not much that could be done to relieve the pain they caused. I took some pills but they did not seem to help. As time went on I learned to live with them; my doctor said that he never heard of anyone dying from a migraine headache. The kids quickly became accustomed to staying out of the den and walking quietly around the room when I was feeling bad since walking through the room caused vibrations that make my headaches much worse. Thankfully the headaches became less and less over the years.

Life as a Fireman - The Injury

2008-07-27T07:18:00.013-04:00

Charlotte Fire Station Two was a good place to be during the Shriner and Thanksgiving Parades each fall. The routes started on East Boulevard and went to South Boulevard and then right in front of the fire station. On duty or off, we could bring our families and look out the upstairs window. This made the children feel important since they could be at the station to watch the parade each year and visit their fathers at work.

I took the kids to the fireman's drill tower on East 7th Street where they could see the new firemen being trained to climb ladders and scale up the side of the fire tower. New firemen had to take thirty days of training before they could be assigned to duty. Chief Odis Dowdy was the training officer at this time. There were fourteen men in the class with me when I went through the training. Pam and Glenn still remember seeing me climbing the tower outside as I moved ladders from one floor to the next.

The times that it was not pleasant being a fireman is when you had to carry someone out of a house that had lost their lives, there were only two times that I had to do that. The first time it was an elderly man and the last time it was a little girl and that is something that I will never forget. Most of the time everything was pretty normal for me until one evening we were at a fire at a dry cleaner on Park Road. There was a shed behind the cleaners that was on fire. We had put out the fire but we had to remove everything from the inside of the shed to make sure that the fire was out. Another fireman and I we were moving an old steam iron out. I slipped, fell backwards, and it fell on me. At the time I did not know that I was injured. We went back to the station and I went to bed that night and thought everything would be alright. The next morning I could hardly get up but managed to get out of bed and went home. I put some heat on my injury all day and it seemed to get a little better. I returned to work that evening, we had a fire down off West Morehead Street and when we I started to roll up the fire hose I could hardly bend over to do it. I told the fireman in charge that I could not roll the hoses; he just said if I could not do the work that I should not be there. When we returned to the station, I told them that I had to go home since I could not do the work required for the job.
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I went home and the next day I made an appointment at the Miller Clinic with Dr. Tracy a day later. He did an x-ray of my back and told me that I had messed up my pelvis and three vertebrae and that we would just have to wait and see what was going to happen with it. He sent me home and made me an appointment to see him in one week and told me not to do anything until my next visit. The pain did not ease up at all that week.

When I went to Dr. Tracy's office for my appointment, he told me that I had to have an operation on my back and if I did not I would be unable to walk and could be in a wheel chair. He said that if I did have the operation that he suggested, I still had at least a 25% chance of having to use a cane or crutches to get around. As bad as it was hurting I chose to have the operation; Dr. Tracy set it up for me to go the Charlotte Memorial Hospital and that I would be there for at least three weeks and then therapy for an additional three to four weeks.

Moving to Barringer Drive - Part Two

2008-07-24T05:58:00.004-04:00

It has always been interesting in how we moved from one place to another. When living at Jackson Homes we moved twice into two different units as our family grew. One day we went to the Revolution Pool which was Charlotte's first publicly owned and operated swimming pool, located at 1201 Remount Road, for the kids to swim. They took swimming lessons there each summer and the family enjoyed going to the pool as a family outing.

One day on the way home we went down Barringer Drive and just before getting to West Boulevard we saw a little white house up on this hill for sale, 2327 Barringer Drive (if you click on this link, then click on street view and move the yellow man in front of the house you can have a 360 view of this house. We decided that we just had to stop and look at it. It had a large front yard and a much bigger back yard the bordered the Revolution Park acreage. We found that it had a kitchen, dinning area, living room, and three bedrooms. At that time we were living in a small two bedroom duplex at Jackson Homes so this sure was a great find and possible new home for us now that we had five in our family. We called the realtor that same day and were able to take a tour later that afternoon. This is a picture of me after being under the house checking things out. We found that the payments were small enough for us to work into our budget. We paid a small payment and bought the house! After a few days we were able to move in which gave Pam a bedroom to herself, Glenn and Mike shared a bedroom, and Hazel and I had the third one. We were very happy to have our first house.

Not long after moving into to our new home, I saw a need to have a light put in the big back yard so we could spend time there in the evenings. One day I called Bill Campbell who worked for Duke Power and ask him where could I get a old light pole to put out back. He informed me that when a pole was taken down, it had to return it to the company yard unless the person wanted it that lived where it was removed. Bill informed me that the only way I could get one was to pray that one near me would have to be replaced.He kept reminding me that a serious prayer might do the trick! As soon as I hung up and said Lord you know that I want a pole for the backyard and then suddenly I was stopped mid sentence in the prayer because a car coming down Barringer Drive did not make the curve and knocked a pole down in my front yard. The person was not hurt but the car had a good bit of damage. I called Bill back and he said that he would come right over and get the pole for me and put it up in my back yard. So by the end of the day I had a light in our backyard!

Moving here was a start to many memories while the children were growing up.

Moving to Barringer Drive - Part One

2008-07-20T07:00:00.024-04:00

As the children were growing we realized that we could use some more space in our home so we started looking for a house to purchase. In 1961 we moved from Jackson Homes to 2327 Barringer Drive. We bought a little three bed room house up on a hill with a big back yard that joined Revolution Park. We moved our church membership the first Sunday to Westover Baptist. While at this church we found some of our lifelong friends, John and Sue Rogers, Tom and Margaret Worthy, Sim and Helen Siceloff and many others. We were closer to these three couples than the others and all our children were about the same age. Our families had a lot in common and we would spent much time together. We went on numerous camping trips, cookouts, and vacations with each other and spent many years together as our children grew up.

The kids enjoyed the short trip to the park behind our house and often played there. One day, shortly after we moved, Michael wanted to learn to ride a bicycle. He got on while I held the bicycle up for him and he started down the hill in our backyard heading toward the park. He picked up so much speed that I could not keep up with him so I released my grip but did not say anything to him as he traveled down the gentle slope. He traveled on down through the park but then he looked back and did not see me holding on. He panicked, swerved around, and ended up falling off his bike not too far from the creek that ran through the park. I think this is the time that he found out that he could not trust his father all the time! He was surprised when I showed him the distance he had gone all by himself. Shortly after that he was riding his bike everywhere.

Pam, Glenn, and Mike attended Wilmore School while we lived on Barringer Drive which was one mile from our house. They walked to the school and home each day.

John Rogers called me late one afternoon on a day that had been snowing for a couple hours. He asked if I had some extra fire wood that I could share with Sue’s dad. He lived in Smyrna,SC and she did not think that he would have enough to keep him warm through the night, John came over in his old pickup truck and we loaded it full of wood. He wanted me to go with him and I ask him to go by Pat Moser and get him to go with us. We picked up Pat and headed for Sue's dad's home in Smyrna.

Tom, Glenn, Pat, and John

The snow continued and pelted down all the way. We turned off the main highway onto a small road and in a little while John pointed out his mail box and then we turned down a road and went a half mile and backed up to the back porch. Sue was right, they only had one log on the fire and that was the only wood they had. We unloaded the wood on the porch. To get

back up the hill and on the main highway, we had to put a pile of concrete blocks we found in the barn. We made it to the highway, unloaded the blocks but still thought we might not be able to make it back home. The snow was about four or five inches deep by this time. We did a lot of praying and arrived home safely around midnight. It continued to snow and by the time everyone woke up in the morning was a beautiful sight and I was thankful to be home with the family. There is something about snow and being together as a family. We discovered that our front yard was excellent for sledding. The kids spent several hours that day with other children in the neighborhood going down the hill on our sled.

Camping Trips

2008-07-13T08:27:00.010-04:00

Early on we discovered that our family enjoyed camping. We would go with our friends and set up on sites that were close together. There were always memorable experiences on every trip. On a camping trip to Kings Mountain State Park we could not believe all the yellow jackets that were around the campsite. Glenn, Jr. was eating a honey bun and as he was taking the first bite one landed on the honey bun and stung him in the mouth. He remembers dropping the honey bun when he felt the sting in his mouth. He was so sad when he found out there were no more honey buns left to replace the one he dropped. Kings Mountain was nearby so we could go over for Friday and Saturday night and get back home in time to go to church Sunday

From the beginning our family enjoyed camping with friends. Myrtle Beach State Park was a popular camping spot that we enjoyed very much and visited many times. We would leave home around 4:00 a.m. and drive down to get in line on US 17 between 8 and 9 a.m. and wait to see if we could get into the campground. We would always take what we were going to eat for breakfast and lunch because if we could get a spot in the campground it would be around noon before we could get into it to set up. The campground was close to the beach and it had a great big swimming pool and many other things that the kids enjoyed. One time we were camping with Sue and John Rogers. Michael and their daughter Teresa were about the same age and decided to walk around the campground. They found that they were lost and could not remember how to get back to the campsite. A couple saw them walking and asked them if they knew the number of the campsite. They shared that Michael said he was staying at campsite 2 + 2... so they brought them to the right place, 22. As time passed, many campgrounds sprang up around the Myrtle Beach area. We tried them out but liked the State Park the best. We would always go on trips leaving early Monday morning and would return home late Saturday so we would not miss church on Sunday.

Another camping trip that I will never forget is when we were to meet Tom and Margaret Worthy out at a lake, a place they had been before. On the way going out we headed toward Withers Bridge; I was pulling a homemade camping trailer that I had built. It came unattached from the axle and went into the side ditch. We stopped and thought that the world had come to the end as we just sat there. After thinking awhile, I went back up to th Byrum General Store and called John Rogers, back then when we were in trouble we would call our close friends. We took everything out of the trailer and put it all in our little station wagon and went on to the lake. When Tom and Margaret got there they thought we were having a bad time but little later we found that the trouble we were having were not bad at all compared to others. A man pulled his big streamline trailer in the spot next to ours. As he got out to see what he should do, a snake bit him so he went to the hospital to get a shot for the snake bite. A couple hours later he was back. It was dark and as he unlocked his trailer from his car, it rolled back over his foot and broke it. He had to go back to the hospital. We all waited up until after midnight to welcome him back to the campground and to see if we could help him with anything. When he arrived, his foot was in a great big cast. We had a great weekend camping. When we got home we saw that John had picked up my trailer and put it in the backyard. I repaired it and we had many good trips with it. Listen as I tell this story. In addition to Kings Mountain Sate Park, we enjoyed Hanging Rock State Park which has several beautiful waterfalls and Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area where it seemed to stay cool most of the time.

Pam Starts Piano Lessons and Trip to Baltimore

2008-07-06T08:08:00.008-04:00

The year after Michael was born, we had to put Pam on the great big orange school bus and send her off to Berryhill Elementary School. After the bus pulled off, I got into my car and followed the bus to school to make sure Pam arrived safely. Hazel and I spent the day waiting to see if she would make it back home that afternoon and she did! Unto this day she does not know that I followed the school bus all the way to school to see if she got there alright.

That fall, Pam told us that she wanted to learn to play the piano. We thought that she was too young and a couple of the piano teachers we spoke to told us to wait until she was in the third grade and could read. Mrs. Mildred Gaffney, who was teaching piano lessons at Jackson Homes, told us that if she was ready that we ought to allow her to start taking

lessons so we did. We were amazed at how well she did once she got started; we could not keep her away from the fifty dollar second-hand piano that we had bought for her to play. It was a big upright with a mirror on it, so big that it took up most of the space in our little living room. That did not matter as we listened to her play, knowing the enjoyment she was experiencing. As the years passed, the two boys would bother Pam as she was trying to practice when they were playing in our very small home.

We took a trip to Baltimore, MD to visit Billy Warren who was the former pastor of Jackson Park Baptist Church and was called to Landsdown, MD First Baptist Church. We thought he took the job to get away from Jackson Park and to a bigger church. When we got there, we saw the little church that he went to and never again did I try to figure out why a pastor left a church for another. On this trip we went to the Baltimore Zoo and then we spent several days in Washington, DC and went to the zoo there too. We camped in a camp ground on the banks of the Potomac River. While in DC we toured the city and saw all of the sites. We had a great trip, this trip was much better than previous ones to Washington.

Fire Station #2

2008-06-29T06:09:00.011-04:00

I would spend every other week working nights at Fire Station #2 and during the days I could always get out of the house and do some kind of work. I hate to admit this but I think I might have used the church rebuilding as an excuse to get out. I give Hazel all of the credit for how our children turned out. I think that since we were unable to afford vacations, other than camping, we were closer as a family as compared to some other families. When we went camping we would always leave home before daylight on Monday and would come home after dark on Saturday night so we would never miss church on Sunday which has always been an important part of our lives. Being a fireman I had to work every other Sunday during the day. On the Sunday I had to work, I would go with the family to training union and evening services.

I consider the time I spent at Fire Station #2 as some of the best years of my life. Fire Station 2 was Charlotte's first "annexation" station. It was built to protect the first suburb - Dilworth. I had the opportunity to be of service to the people of Charlotte and being a fireman was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Riding Ladder Two was a choice that I did not have to make; I was assigned to this job from the beginning. If I had a choice that is what I would have selected. People always ask me, “How high is that one hundred foot ladder?" I would reply, “From the ground looking up it was one hundred feet to the top but on the top looking down it was five hundred feet to the ground!” Pictured is the Charlotte Fire Training Tower where men were trained to climb buildings. When the fire alarm sounded you never knew what was on the other end; sometimes we would just turn around to return to the station and other times we would be out for hours. Sometimes we would have as many as six to ten runs a night and sometimes not a single run. One thing that kept us busy was the old rock hole that was right off South Tryon Street. Being the cook for our shift, I often made my famous rock hole slum, it was a stew that when you ate it would swell up inside and you could go all night without getting hungry. Ingredients in rock hole slum: hamburger, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, pork 'n beans, tomatoes sauce, and anything else that you have in the kitchen. It seemed that no matter what else was added it would still turn out great! Sometimes we would have to stay at that old rock hole for days and nights, at a time so we could pour water on the smoldering fires.

While on the Fire Department, I would cut the firemen's hair. If a station was short a man, other stations would send an extra man. When our station had to send someone I would volunteer to go so I could give haircuts to many of the men at the other stations. They would give me fifty cents for each cut which was a way that I could make a little extra money.

Many calls and assignments seemed like a waste of time but when you were told to go, you went and did your best. There was one exception for me, not long after I became a fireman. We went on a call where there was a high voltage wire down and it was laying next to the road. It was hanging down the power pole. I was standing there with a fire ax in hand when Chief Hinson told me to go to the wire and chop it into at the pole. I did not think I could cut it into in one chop and I told him that I did not think that would be a good idea to have me do this. He said that he had chopped many wire but when I ask him to show me how I should chop it, he said he was too old to chop live wires. I surprised myself when I told him that I was too young. John Black came to my rescue! He took the ax and took a good swing at the wire. It did not cut the wire in two and ended up ruining a good fire ax. We waited for the power company to come and cut off the power. A few days later, Chief Hinson told me that since there were no lives in danger that we should not have tried to cut the power line.

Trip to Rochester, Minnesota

2008-06-22T06:18:00.008-04:00

In the Spring of 1956 Hazel wanted to visit her sister Helen and her husband Carl that lived in Rochester, Minnesota. She wanted to take her Mother, Father, and younger sister Glenda to see them. Hazel, Pam, Glenn, and I made up the seven people making this long road trip. We packed the car full of about everything we had which included plenty of food since we were going to cook our meals on the way up.

We started out in the wee hours of the morning. When we reached West Virginia, we stopped at a roadside picnic table to have our breakfast. When we stopped and got out of the car, it was not long before we felt that we were about to freeze! We found that the water was not fit to drink and it tasted awfully bad. We hurried and when we finished our meal it felt so good to get back into the warm car and be back on the road. After twelve hours we arrived in Rochester and had no problems finding Helen and Carl’s house. This picture of Hazel's parents was taken at one of our stops on the way to Rochester.

On the way up I drove as fast as I could and the first morning that we were there I discovered that I had blown a head gasket on the 1952 Rambler. I took it to a dealer and got it fixed so it was back in top condition and only cost $14.00. This was the only trouble that I ever had with that car.

Carl was still in the army and his job was recruiting so after work he was able to come home for the evenings. We had a great four-day visit. We all agreed that the trip home was much better that the one going up. Part of that was knowing that we were going to be home and would be able to sleep in our own bed that night after the long trip.

We enjoyed making the trip in the 52 Rambler, later on I sold it to Fred Jr. and bought a brand new1959 Rambler station wagon which cost me $2400.00; I drove until 1968. Listen as I tell this story.

Jackson Homes: A Great Place to Start a Family

2008-05-18T15:58:00.008-04:00

One good thing about Jackson Homes was that everybody had kids! There were: Murle and Mary B. Jones and Don and Lucile Newman with five girls each, George and Helen Ballard with four girls, and Bill and Betty Hurst with two girls. It had me a bit worried that we could only have girls at Jackson Homes. There were a few boys and lots of girls so the kids always had someone to play with in the neighborhood. Every time you looked out in the playground, which was inside the circle of houses, there always was a bunch of kids playing on the monkey bars, skating around the wadding pool, riding bicycles, and running to chase each other. With all the kids, sometimes we had a problem trying to get our kids home when we wanted them to come. My Mother had given me an old hand bell that she had for a long time, so we started ringing the bell and our kids knew that we wanted them home which was at supper time most days. It was during this time that Pam, Glenn and Michael learned to get along with other children so well.

One day in the spring, I heard a little girl screaming her heart out while I was working in the yard. I thought that she had been hit by a car or something else major had happen to her. I ran over to her to see what had happened. I soon discovered that she had been stung by a honey bee! I gently took out my pocket knife, scraped off the stinger, kissed it, and all was well. Unto this day Cindy Jones credits me with saving her life that day. Later, Murle and the five Jones girls sang at my fiftieth birthday party. Listen to me tell this story.

Jackson Homes ended up being the best place that we ever could have lived to bring up our children; they had so many great kids to play with. Since all were so well behaved, it was easy to have fifteen to twenty at a party. There were a whole lot of birthday parties since there were so many kids.

I think every kid could ride a bicycle. A child did not have to own one because at almost any time there were about eight or ten lying around the playground and anyone could ride them if they were not in use. I taught Glenn to ride a bicycle in the field so if he fell it would not hurt like being on concrete. I would run along pushing him then let go and he would be able to keep going. Later, he would go to a little dip in the playground and start himself until he learned to start riding from a standstill. With all of the children I do not remember ever seeing any of them fighting and I never heard any of the adults fighting as you often hear about today. I will always have fond memories of the wonderful times at Jackson Homes with all of the kids.

Jackson Park Baptist Church

2008-05-11T07:57:00.014-04:00

Shortly after we joined Morris Field Baptist Chapel, the congregation changed the name to Jackson Park Baptist Church. The barrack building was not suited for renovation so the church decided to buy the old Officers Club across the road which had been used for a machine shop for the last few years. It was a mess but we saw that it had the right kind of space and had the potential to be made into a great church building. The old shop was almost free because it was not fit for much of anything and the owners just wanted to get rid of it. We envisioned that we could use it much better that our old building. With the help of all of the members we were able to convert it into a fine little church. Since I was a fireman, I had the days off every other week and could work along with many other members of the church to help make the conversion. It did not take us long before we had finished the project and had a place of worship.

One day Murle Jones and I were working on the building. Murle was in the attic and I was working in the bathroom. I heard Murle holler really loudly for me to come into the sanctuary. I ran in and saw two feet just a swinging around! He had fallen through theceiling and with the big tool belt that he had on he could not fall

down and could not climb back up into the attic, he was stuck and at my mercy to rescue him. Once I knew he was OK, I knew this sure was going to be a fun day in the old church house. I got a big step ladder and put it up so he could climb back through the ceiling. After this happened, we decided that there should always be at least two working together at all times. The church was on a hill which made it possible for us to add a downstairs. We dug out the dirt and poured concrete. Mr. Withrow, the man that built Jackson Park homes sent over his brick masons and furnished all of the materials to brick it up at no cost to us. He was not a member of the church but was a good man that the Lord used to get the church building completed and to help make for a great started for the church in this new location. If it had not been for him it may have taken much longer to complete this project. Later on members of the church were able to move the base chapel, which had been used by the Methodist Church, over to our property. That gave us a big worship center to go with the older buildings.

The church still stands and is used greatly throughout the neighborhood of Jackson Park and airport area. It is now Jackson Park Ministries and is being used for a cause that we never dreamed about back when the Chapel and Church were started in the early 1950s. You can see that God can see what is in the future better than we can envision. Listen to me tell this story.

This is the first church that I really got involved in and it was the church where my children got their start. When we started this church we thought that it would be only for a few years before the airport would take it over. However, it is still the heart of the community today. Every time I ride by the church and see how it is being used, I thank God that I had a little part in its beginning. We remained members there until later when we moved to Barringer Drive and joined Westover Baptist Church.

Our Third Child - Michael James

2008-04-26T20:20:00.010-04:00

After Pamela and Glenn were out of diapers, the terrible twos, and playing with the kids in Jackson Homes we were pleased with how our two children were turning out. They enjoyed the playground near the house as Hazel would visit with some of the other mothers in the neighborhood. They enjoyed the monkey bars and being sprayed with water in the 12 x 12 foot concrete splash area. Hazel had two little helpers around the house getting ready to head to preschool.

Before Michael was born we tried to give Pam and Glenn as good a Christmas as we could and they always got too many toys and too much candy. Each year we would try to make Christmas better than the previous one but most of them were about average. Michael's first Christmas was great. He enjoyed the wrapping paper, ribbon, and bows more than anything else. Right after the Christmas holidays we had started planning our first camping trip. We discovered that with three children, camping would be the only way we could afford a vacation. Hazel and I started planning how we were going to go on a family camping trip.We had some great news come our way around Christmas in 1957, we were going to have another child. Things went well and Pamela and Glenn tried their best to help out their mother who would soon give birth to a baby. On June 9, 1958, once again, Hazel told me it was time that we better get over to the hospital. Once we had everything taken care of so we could head to the hospital, Hazel said that she wanted a Coke. I told her that as soon as we got over the train track on West Boulevard I would get her one. After we crossed the tracks, I told her I was stopping but she said that we better keep going because she knew the time was getting close. By the time we arrived to Charlotte Memorial Hospital, there was a nurse waiting and seated Hazel in the wheel chair and ran off with her as she pointed me towards the little waiting room I had previously visited twice. It was not long until I met Michael James, a healthy boy and one that made our life never be the way it was before he was born. Pamela and Glenn were excited when we brought their new little brother home. Both were very good helpers and loved their little brother. Listen to me tell this story.

The winter passed quickly and soon spring came. It was May and the days were getting a lot warmer so we decided that time was right to start camping. We bought a small tent, packed everything that we had set aside for the camping trip, and left for Kings Mountain State Park. When we reached Gastonia, NC, Hazel discovered that she had forgotten the diapers for Michael. We went to a drug store and bought a box of disposable diapers which had just come on the market.

After we arrived at the park, we set up camp, cooked a good meal, sat around the camp fire, and had a great time. It got dark and we settled in for the night. Everything was perfect until around midnight when it started getting cold. We put on all the clothes that we brought with us and covered ourselves with everything that we could get hold of but it just got colder and colder. We actually thought we were going to freeze to death but survived until the next morning. I got up early, built a huge fire, and had a big breakfast ready when everyone woke up. We all finally warmed up and had a great day. However, right after we had our evening meal we packed everything up and headed back home. It sure was great to get to sleep in a bed and be warm thinking about the night before when we slept on top of a gravel pile freezing. So much for our first camping trip, it taught us a lot. We wondered when our next camping trip would be and if we would be ready for what we might face? Listen to me tell this story.

Our Second Child - Glenn Alexander

2008-04-19T20:24:00.029-04:00

When Pam was nine month old she could say anything she wanted and was able to run all around the house. Our second child, Glenn Alexander Gurley, Jr. was born 18 months after Pam on July 9, 1954. It was one of the hottest summers on record so we relied on our window fan to keep from getting too hot in the house. Pam was able to help her mother do a lot of the little tasks around the house; at this time Hazel did not think it was much help to her but allowed her to be momma’s little helper.Sooner more than later, we found that we did not learn much with the birth of Pamela and discovered that with two children we learned more how to trust God for taking care of us. He gave us the strength to do things that we never thought we could do. With two children we were able to move from the one bedroom apartment to a two bedroom apartment which gave us enough space to live comfortably with our two children. We did not have to move very far, just over to the building beside the one we were living in.

At this time I was working for myself and from time to time I had several men working for me. In this role, I had to spend more time each day getting everything ready for the job so I had to work about ten or twelve hours a day and was not much help around the house; I did as much as I could when I was home to help out. Earlier while working with Herman Mullis he started a new job working with the Charlotte Fire Department. We remained good friends and he encouraged me to become a fireman. He shared that firemen worked one week (10 hours) days and one week nights (14 hours) with one day a week off. He said that it paid very little but indicated that when we worked the night shift and did not have many calls we could lay brick the next day. It all sounded good and I always wanted to be a fireman so I put in my application which placed me on the waiting list to be a fireman. About a year later I became a fireman after having one month of training. I was assigned to Ladder Two at Station Two, Sam Werner went through training with me and he was assigned to Engine Two at the same station. We were the new men on the block and we sort of caught it from ever one else. Sam got the bathroom cleaning duty and I was assigned to work in the kitchen. I liked to cook and my assignment allowed me to do that. We both did our best while doing our assigned tasks. Soon they found out that I was a good cook so I became the cook for our shift. Jessy Atkins, the previous cook, sure was glad to give me his job cooking. It did not take long to find out that after spending a lot of time each night going on calls and not sleeping that I was unable to do work during the daytime. However, this did give me a lot time to help around the house.

During the time that I was working on the Charlotte Fire Department and living at Jackson Homes, I had numerous days at home which allowed me to do some small jobs around town for many friends to help supplement my income. The job also gave me many days that I spent with Hazel and the kids. To celebrate my birthday on May 21, I gathered all the kids in the neighborhood and took them to Freedom Park for a fun day playing and eating ice cream and cake. Sometimes Hazel and I would have close to twenty kids pile into the station wagon to go with us on the trip. Listen to me tell this story.

After being on the team for a few months it was the time for the city employees to give to the United Way. The leaders wanted everycity employees to give one day’s pay to the organization to help meet the city's goal. Sam and I were barely making ends meet so we decided that we just could not give anything at all that year. You cannot imagine all of the harassment we had to go through over this decision. We were visited by a couple of the Chief Officers and were told that we might not be able to stay with the city if we did not give. Sam shared that this sure would make a good story for the local newspaper, the Charlotte Observer. After a few weeks it all blew over and we were treated well. Listen as I tell this story.

The summer after Glenn was born, we took our first trip to the beach as a family. I was able to plan it for the week I had most time off between shift change and with some of my shifts covered by other firemen. We went with Calvin and Peggy Carter and their children. Calvin was my best friend growing up. We decided to take our vacations together that year and go to Windy Hill in North Myrtle Beach. We both had children about the same ages so we thought it was a good time to reconnect. We stayed on the beach at the

Double Dip Inn which got its name from a couple of two-story buildings that stood side-by-side. It was located near the old Windy Hill Pier. Both families agreed that this was one of

the best vacations we had ever had and were glad to have shared it together. When we moved to North Myrtle Beach years later we settled in Windy Hill four blocks from the Double Dip Inn.

Pictured here is Glenn Jr. in his first picture by a professional photographer. Shortly after he was born we started calling him Little Glenn.

Our First Child - Pamela Elaine

2008-04-12T21:55:00.020-04:00

Morris Field was a good place to live and we made quite a few friends while living there. Bill Draddy, was the manager of the housing there and lived close by in Stonewall Jackson Homes, which were eighty-five one story brick units. To live in this development the family had to buy into the cooperation before they were permitted to move in. Bill liked me and said that he would keep a close check to see if anyone wanted to sell and would let me know if he found an opening. It was not very long before Bill told us that Harvey Basset wanted to build a house and would sell his membership to me for three hundred and fifty dollars, the rent was only thirty dollars a month. After completing and submitting all of the paper work, we moved in during the spring of 1952. It was in the building right beside Bill and Bernice who had a house full of girls.

At this time we did not have much furniture and what we had was very old, pass downs that had been passed down one too many times. It was so bad that we tried to move in after dark and before daylight so our neighbors would not see our stuff. We were very pleasantly surprised that after we got all the castoffs into the house and placed the furniture, that our new home did not look so bad after all. This is another time that God was looking out for us. This is a picture of me outside our new home. We were ready to have our first child and could not until we were settled here.
After moving in Stonewall Jackson Homes it did not take long for us to make many new friends. Shortly after moving in, we discovered a little Baptist Chapel starting to meet in an old army barrack building. It was a church plant by the First Baptist Church in downtown Charlotte. It was only about two blocks away from our new home so we joined and became very active members. As a brick mason, I worked all around Charlotte doing various jobs. Hazel was at home and spent a lot of time with all of the women that lived around our new home.

It was not long after we moved in that we found out that we were going to have our first child. During Hazel's pregnancy, every one of her new friends was eager to help. That summer was extremely hot so we went to Sears in downtown Charlotte and bought a window fan. This is the first time in our lives that we had any kind of cooling system and we sure did like it. Our first child, Pamela Elaine Gurley was born on the January 14, 1953. The day she was born was nonstop. It started when Hazel said that we better call the doctor and get on over to the hospital. We collected everything we planned to take to the hospital and put it all in the car before we sped on to the Charlotte Memorial Hospital, knowing that we may not make it. When we got there, the nurse wheeled Hazel into the building and sent me into a little waiting room which was standard procedure back then, fathers were not involved like they are today. Fourteen hours later we had a baby girl. This is when our lives changed dramatically; we did not really know how to take care of ourselves let alone a baby. We had started our adventure as parents! Listen to me tell this story.

Early on during our first year we met a really great couple, Richard and Naomi Iverster, which lived just across the yard and we became good friends. One weekend we went to see the Grand Ole Opry by going over to Tennessee to the Ryman Auditorium. We drove most of the day over and spent about all night in the Auditorium since at this time the show lasted all night and we did not want to miss anything. I had listened to the Grand Old Opera on the radio when I was small but did not know what it was all about until we got to see it in the huge, beautifully decorated auditorium. I think that night, along about four in the morning; I got my fill of the country music so I never did listen to it much anymore. The next morning we headed back to Charlotte. Listen to me tell this story.

Newly Weds - Part Three

2008-04-05T10:34:00.012-04:00

After we got back from Washington, DC, Brad and I found jobs with different mason contractors. Eventually Brad and Vivian moved back to Salisbury, NC for work and to be near his relatives. Hazel and I remained in Chalotte and Hazel and lived at Morris Field in Building 8 Apartment 225. I worked for several small contractors until I bought into Stonewall Jackson Homes where I worked building eight apartments. These were not far from Wilbur Fushee’s Grocery Store and Mr. Neal's Soda Shop.

With my new 1950 pickup truck paid in full, Hazel and I made a trip to Statesville to spend a few days and when we returned we brought my Mother back to Charlotte with us for a week. Since we only had two rooms in the house, we let mother sleep in our bed and we slept on the floor. Instant coffee had just come on the market; when we showed it to Mother she commented that she would never drink anything but perked coffee. Since the only coffee we had was instant, we put a few spoonfuls in percolator coffee pot and perked it on the stove. We were amazed that she did not know the difference and we did not let her know what we had done.

During the week we went to a drive-in movie on South Boulevard and on the way home when we were traveling down West Boulevard, a horse ran in front of us and I hit him on his left front shoulder and head. He wobbled down the road for a little ways, fell over in a ditch,and died. I call the county police to report the accident. Officer Keith Beatty came out to make the report. On his report, he indicated that I had knocked the horse for three hundred yards and it took me a hundred yards to get stopped. When I saw that, I explained to him that when I hit the horse I stopped right then and I just let my truck roll down the hill to get it out of the road. I told him if I had hit that horse as hard as he recorded we would all have been killed, but that did not seem to make any difference to him. He was the son to the Beatty’s that I lived with on Tuckaseegee Road. He said that I did not treat his Father very well by moving from his house to the housing barracks on Morris Field just because it had more room in the unit there. Neither one of us was hurt in any way. Keith took us on home and called a wrecker to tow my truck to City Chevrolet to be fixed and I had it back in three days. When I took Mother back home, I saw my brother Fred and he indicated that he wanted the truck. He had just bought a farm near where we lived and needed the truck. He had a 1950 Nash Ambassador so we just traded even and that is the car in these pictures. The picture of is front of our home at Morris Field. Listen to me tell this story.

Julian and Ann Laura lived right behind the Beaty’s in a small one bed room house. We were good friends and we would do many things together. One night we were in our little kitchen playing cards. Neither of us had children so we were free to do anything, anywhere, at anytime. One night about midnight someone said that they would love to go to the mountains and at once we decided to go right then. Shortly afterwards we were on the road in our new Nash Ambassador. Julian and Ann Laura did not own a car; Julian drove a truck and Ann Laura rode the bus to her job downtown. We arrived in Cherokee at 3:30 a.m. and at that time there were no rooms to be found. We ended up pulled over to the side of the road. We laid the two front seats backs flat down and we had a bed big

enough for us. Hazel and Ann Laura were in the middle and Julian and I were on the outside. We were doing really well until Hazel let out a big scream that woke us to see a big Indian with his face plastered right against the wind shield. When he saw us waking up in a state of shock, he ran away. At that point there was no going back to sleep! We found a place where we could wash up, get a good breakfast, and started on our way to have a great day driving through the mountains and looking at all of the natural beauty. This is a picture of me at the outdoor theatre for Unto these Hills shortly after it opened during the summer of 1950. We returned home later that evening. The next day we attended Enderly Park Baptist Church just a few blocks from home. We remained friends with Julian and Ann Laura until they moved back to Georgia and we lost contact with them. Listen to me tell this story.

Newly Weds - Part Two

2008-03-29T21:23:00.013-04:00

After arriving back to Charlotte I got my job back working for Rob. Hazel and I rented a three room upstairs apartment in the old army barracks at Morris Field. It had a living room, bedroom, bathroom, and small kitchen. Before we moved from Statesville to Tuckeseegee Road in Charlotte, I went to Peoples Saving and Loan Bank and borrowed four hundred dollars to buy a small gas stove, wringer washer machine, gas heater, table with four chairs, and refrigerator. All I had to do was sign a note indicating that I would pay it back in six months or renew the note for six more months. I paid it back in four months and that is when I bought my forest green 1950 Chevy Truck.

I worked for Rob for about six months until I got my truck paid for in full. I decided to get a job with a general contractor so I would not have to work so hard and I could make more money. Since I came back to Charlotte I had been working forty to fifty hours during the week and then I would take on side jobs every Saturday and Sunday so that I could get everything paid off.

At Morris Field, the Newhouses lived under us; he was a mason too. We became good friends with them. We later met another couple, Brad and Vivian Bradshaw, who lived near us and Brad was a mason too. Brad encouraged me to apply to work with his company and told me I could make a little more money. I started working for his company and it was not long before an addition was being built onto the Barringer Hotel in downtown Charlotte. We were asked to work for them. The only thing we did not like was that we had to work two weeks before we would get a check.

We went to work on the new addition of the hotel, and Brad and I were to be the lay out masons. We were to lay out the rooms on each of the twelve floors and the other masons would come along and finish the rooms. When we got to the last floor, I told Brad about the time I went to Washington, DC. Brad wanted us to go up for a week and make some of that good money. We decided to go after talking it over with Hazel and Vivian. Our plan was to finish the twelfth floor on the hotel by Friday and then we would go up on Saturday. We ask the boss man to give our pay for two weeks that they held out so we would have enough money to go on. He said the only way that we could get our pay when we left was to get fired. We thought about that for a little while and then Brad and I started to build a big pier of bricks right in the middle of the room we were working on. After about an hour, the boss came around and asked us what we were doing. We told him that the roof looked like it was going to fall in so we were building piers up to it before it fell. He looked at us and wrote out a slip of paper for us to take to the office and get our full pay because he had fired us. We got our pay and then we went back up on the twelfth floor and took down the piers. When we were telling everyone goodbye, the boss came to use and said when we got back home to look him up since he needed good bricklayers that could think on their feet.

The next morning we headed out for Washington, DC. After we arrived, we went to 14^th Street NW and got a room in the same building that we had before. It had two beds with a curtain hanging between them. We got up Sundaymorning and ate leftover food before Brad and I headed out to look for work. It was our lucky day! We saw a man working on a house that needed bricking up. We stopped and he said that he really needed someone to do the rest of his brickwork. We said that we would do even if it took us all week. He was a seven day Adventist and that we could work every day except Saturday. We said that we would start immediately if he would mix our mortar and bring us the bricks. We told him that he would have to pay us at lunch time for the mornings work and at the end of the day pay us for the remainder of the day we worked. He agreed and we went to work making twelve dollars an hour working from daylight until dark. We finished his house that week before Saturday! He was happy and pleased. He gave us each an extra hundred dollar bill for our good work.

Vivian and Hazel stayed in the room or walked around the neighborhood all day while we were working. There was a little grocery store a couple blocks from our room. The girls would buy food that did not have to be cooked since there was no place to prepare the meal. We worked on another job for the next week, got our money, and headed home. The first couple days after we arrived home we went out to the fish camp and any other place where we could get a good hot something to eat. Listen to me tell this story.

Newly Weds - Part One

2008-03-22T09:56:00.029-04:00

Hazel and I dated about once a week until we set October 4th as our wedding date; later we picked Friday night October 7th. Hazel's parent's anniversary was November 2. We were married at the Reverend Wendall Davis’s house at seven p.m. Afterwards we went to Beaver’s Store, the place where all of our friends hung out. We had hotdogs for our wedding dinner and we spent the night at Albert and Pauline house. They left their house and spent the night with Pauline's parents. The newspaper reported their engagement, bridal shower, party, and wedding.

The next day we left on our honeymoon to Fayetteville NC. With fifteen dollars in my pocket and full tank of gas, we left to spend a day with Hazel's sister then back to our one room apartment we rented from Mr. and Mrs. Beaver across the highway from their store; we shared the kitchen and bath room with them. This is a picture of the Beaver house as it looks today which is about the same as when we stayed there.

After one month, Hazel and I moved to 3800 Tuckaseegee Road, Charlotte, NC – See aerial view of house - you will need to zoom in. Our apartment had a kitchen and a bedroom; we shared the bath and living room with the Mr. and Mrs. Amos Beaty. Construction was booming in Charlotte compared with Statesville. I got a job with Rob Mullis, a brick contractor, and was able to make $2.25 an hour laying brick. I met Rob’s twin brothers, Herman and Vernon, who were my age. I worked with them for several years and we become very good pals. Our families would go to Riverview Inn Fish Camp almost every weekend. Hazel and I ordered the pan trout for one dollar twenty-five cents and the kids ate free. For two dollars and fifty cents plus a twenty-five cent tip we could eat our fill of fish, hushpuppies, and fries! Listen to me tell this story.

Before we got married, Paulene and some the other people gave us a wedding shower. We received a lot of can food and staples, like pinto beans, rice, and pasta. We were given an electric iron, an iron frying pan, and an assortment of other pots and pans along with linens and many other things. We had all of that stuff in our one room that we had rented from the Beavers. On Monday when I was to go back to work we decided that Hazel to have supper ready when I got home at six p.m. and that she could cook some of those pinto beans because I sure liked them and liked a lot. Midmorning Hazel got out the small two pound bag of pintos, rinsed them well, and prepared to cook them. The two pound bag did not look like a lot of beans. She thought that since we both liked them so well that she had better cook the whole bag. She started cooking those beans in the largest pot we had so she would have plenty of room. When the bean swelled and the pot got full, she divided them into two pots. After a while she had four pots full and by the time I returned home she had every pot Listen to me tell this story.

After working with Rob Mullis for a while, one day I came up with the idea to go to Washington, DC; bricklayers were getting ten dollars an hour. After I arrived home that Friday evening, I ask Hazel if she would be willing for us to go there for me to work and she supported my decision to go. I had just bought a brand new green 1950 Chevrolet truck; I had traded my old Ford and got a loan for the additional nine hundred dollars it cost. I had twelve payments of a little less than ninety dollars a month. We ate supper, packed our bags, and early the next day we headed for Washington, DC. When we arrived we found a room to rent on 14th Street NW. On Sunday I went out and got a job working on a housing project making $10.50 an hour.

I went to work Monday morning at eight o'clock scared to death because I had never worked on such a big job. I worked hard and did my best to be best worker I could but the boss man kept looking at me. After my first hour on the job he motioned for me to come down. I did not know why but kept thinking I was going to get fired. He took me a little ways from the work area and told me that I was laying too many bricks and if I did not slow down he would have to let me go. He shared that I was working on a union job and the masons in Washington did not work as hard I was use to working back in North Carolina. He told me to get back up on the wall and lay a brick every time that the masons did on ether side of me, no more or no less. I found this boring since I had been used to laying up to two thousand a day back home. The union men would lay seven to eight hundred a day. I worked till Friday; after I received my pay for the week Hazel and I headed back home. I found myself in a traffic circle on my way out of Washington. I went around that darn thing about twenty times before I could figure how to get out of it to head back to Charlotte. I made more money working there in one week than I could in Charlotte working five weeks but I sure was glad to get out of that town with all of their traffic problems. Listen to me tell this story.