Another Time, Another Place G U S ROWING P IN WANNANOA 1929-1950 By Gene Mills 2002 Parkway Publishers, Inc. Boone, North Carolina i All rights reserved. Copyright © 2002 By Carl E. “Gene” Mills Available from: Carl E. “Gene” Mills 211 Pelham Lane Fort Mill, SC 29715-9736 (803) 547-4887 email: [email protected] These are stories about very special people who lived in a very special town. Times were hard, money was hard to come by, but the happy times spent here among good friends will last a lifetime. Swannanoa, Beautiful Valley, was someplace special to all who lived there. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mills, Gene. Another time, another place : growing up in Swannanoa, 1929-1950 / by Gene Mills. p. cm. ISBN 1-887905-57-X 1. Mills, Gene--Childhood and youth. 2. Swannanoa (N.C.)--Social life and customs-- 20th century. 3. Swannanoa (N.C.)-- Biography. I. Title. F264.S94 M55 2002 975.6’88--dc21 2002002921 Editing, Layout and Book Design: Julie Shissler Cover Design: Aaron Burleson F OREWORD My children have heard me talk about growing up in Swannanoa all their lives. I’m sure at times they got tired of me telling some of the stories over and over again. I appreciate their patience, their listening and their interest in the way I grew up, but most of all I appreciate their love and understanding. They somehow knew how important all this was to me. I know where I came from, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I hope they enjoy these stories about my life from the beginning until shortly after their mother and I were married. I just wish they could have seen Swannanoa the way I saw it. This book is dedicated to them, with all my love and thanks for who they are and what they have become. And also to my wife, Patty, who has heard all of these stories until she has “corns in her ears” but still lets me tell them with a smile on her face. Thanks, Honey. I would also like to thank my two sons-in-law, and my daughter-in-law for deciding to become a part of our family. You have made the cycle complete, and you are a very important part of my life. And last, but certainly not least, thanks to my grandchildren for all the joy they have given me. I can’t imagine what life was like before they came along. I could not have written this book without the help of my daughter, June. Her help with the computer was invaluable. I appreciate her patience with me, and the many hours she spent getting everything just right. Thanks, Bug. And also to Donna for helping with the general editing of the contents, putting all the quotation marks in the right place, checking the grammar, etc. The hours she spent doing this meant a lot to me. Thanks to three of the best kids in the world, and their spouses for giving me a computer for Christmas, 1995. Writing this has been fun, and it has taken me back to some very special times in my life. Without this gift I would never have had the wonderful opportunity to reminisce. It’s been like going back in time, and being a kid again. Also a very special thanks to Lois Hall Melton and Wade “Gob” Martin for furnishing most of the pictures. And to Joe Griffin, my friend in Pineville, NC, for taking time out of his busy schedule to scan them for me. They made some of the stories really come to life. I have tried to be as accurate as possible in telling my stories. Over fifty or sixty years sometimes you forget exactly who was in some of the stories at school. Some of the names have been replaced by other people who were real to me, but all of the stories are true. The only names I substituted were Jackie Sawyer and Red Creasman. For the life of me I can’t remember the real names of the persons in these two stories. Also, I chose not to name any names in the class ring story for obvious reasons. iv T C ABLE OF ONTENTS Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Mill Villages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 The Mill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A Yellow Raincoat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Village Kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 The Ball Ground. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Iceman Cometh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Nan and T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 The Station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Saturday Afternoon Baseball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Son, Are You a Christian?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Baptizing in the River. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Hog Pen Beach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Black Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Labor Day, Fun Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Cattle Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Tricks, But No Treats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 What Did You Say, Doc?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Daddy Wanted a Dr. Pepper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Weekends In Tennessee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 The Depot at the Station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 What Did Claude Do?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Rat’s Grandpa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Grandma Mills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Train Wreck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 The Entrepreneur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 A New Bicycle, A Sick Boy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Radio Days. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Hog Killing Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Bulldog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 High School Athletics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Talented People. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 .3 Slipping Into School. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.7 Good News, Bad News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 .8 McCormick Field Dreams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.9 No Pats on Back. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 Grocery Boy and Coot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 .4 Soda Jerk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 6 A Very Special Place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7 My Friend Drowsy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 6. 9 Henry Gibbs, a Unique Person. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 71 A Troubled Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..7 .4 1941 Chevrolet Special Deluxe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 December 7, 1941. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 7 Runaway Boys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. 9. Final Days at Swannanoa High School . . . . . . . .. 81 I’m in the Navy Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5 Going into the War Zone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 .7 Heading Back to the States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9. 1 Coming Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 .3 Our First House. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.4 Our Wedding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 9. 6 Leaving Swannanoa Forever. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Epilogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .1 .0 0 vi P ROLOGUE MY PARENTS A VERY IMPORTANT DECISION “They traveled to a strange land to find lifelong friends.” Gene Mills My parents were born in the hills of Eastern Tennessee, near Knoxville, just after the turn of the century. They were both born into poor farming families trying to eke out a living on a few acres of land, raising mostly tobacco and vegetables. My mother was born in Cocke County in 1901, and my father was born in Jefferson County in 1902. Although they were from different counties, they were raised about two miles from each other, between Dandridge and Newport. Both of them came from very large families. My mother had seven sisters and three brothers and my father had four brothers and three sisters. Both were raised on the farm and the children, including the girls, were expected to do their share of the farm work. It was a hard life, and there was very little money. None of my parents’ siblings had much of an education, but they were God-fearing Christian people, and most of their spare time was spent at Church activities, such as singing schools and revival meetings. Both of their families were very strict. There were no movies in those days, and their parents would not allow them to go to dances. Therefore the young people did most of their courting at church functions, and this was how Jesse Mills met Edith Holt and their two-year courtship began. In those days courting usually meant walking a girl home from church, and sometimes this would be a few miles one way. The church was the central part of all social activities. During the week everyone was expected to do their chores and all looked forward to the weekend when it would once again be time to go back to church and resume the courtship. All churches had their own choirs and they took great pride in their singing, and everyone looked forward to the competition to see who had the most people participating and who had the best choir. After courting for a couple of years my parents were married alongside the French Broad River north of Newport, Tennessee on December 21, 1924 by a traveling preacher. The only people present for the wedding were my mother’s sister, Lucy, and her husband, Hobe Campbell. They moved into a house out in the country in a community called Clevenger’s Crossroads and lived there for awhile before moving into Newport where my father got a job in the canning factory and mother went to work in a knitting mill. They moved into a large two-story house next to a canning factory, which they shared with mother’s sister, Lucy, and her family. I was born in this house on August 8, 1926, and two years later, on July 7, 1928, my brother, Kenny, was born. We lived in Newport for awhile after that, but things were getting tough with only my father working now. One of his brothers had heard of a place in viii Western North Carolina, in a town called Swannanoa that had jobs in a textile mill. The name of the mill was Beacon Manufacturing Company, and it was one of the largest blanket manufacturing companies in the country. In 1929 times were hard, and my parents decided this would be the best place for them to go to try to better themselves, and when I was three years old, we moved there. Soon afterwards, one by one, all my dad’s brothers, a sister, and his mother and father moved there too, along with two of my mother’s brothers. This was a tough decision, especially for my mother, since she was leaving most of her family behind. Most of their lives had been spent in rural Tennessee. They had no idea what was ahead of them on the other side of the mountains separating Tennessee and North Carolina. But the thought of a better, more comfortable life far outweighed a decision to stay in the situation they were in. They knew it had to be better than what they were doing. Little did we know at that time that we would never go back to Tennessee to live, and this would be our home for most of our lives. The decision had been a good one, and I’m glad they chose to make this move, because it gave me the chance to be a part of a community that I would remember for the rest of my life. The Mill had as its motto, “Beacon Blankets Make Warm Friends.” Some of the warmest friends I had growing up were the people that made the blankets, and especially their children, who I played with in the streets, swam with in the river, went to school, and shared so much when we all had so little. ix