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The art of hollerin'

Submitted by tleonard on 05/14/2013 - 14:20

As the summer festival season gears up, we take a look at one of North Carolina's best known. The National Hollerin' Contest, held each year in Spivey's Corner, will move to September this year to become part of the Hollerin' Heritage Festival. Writer Joel Haas gives us a look back at the early years when it was known simply as the Spivey's Corner Hollerin' contest.

Leonard Emmanuel, 67, a retired farmer from Godwin, shuffled up to the microphone ... and cut loose a high, piercing screech to win the third annual Spivey's Corner Hollerin' contest.

Emmanuel's bespeckled, frail figure, clad in fading khaki, also hollered the hymn "Amazing Grace" for the crowd of 1,500.

He was the best hollerer in last year's contest in a poll held by the Voice of America radio listeners....

Judges for the contest included Thad Eure, secretary of state; C. T. West, the governor's press secretary; Henry Miller, representative of the governor of South Carolina; and Voice of America's director, Phil Ervin. ...

Nobody had any caterpillars to show off when Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham said it was "caterpillar pickin' time," so the issue as to who's the prettiest caterpillar in Sampson county is still undecided.

The biggest foot contest and "possum pickin'" took place as planned. Jenny Strickland of Dunn had the biggest foot entered. The 11-year-old wears size 11 shoes.

"I hope I don't wear size 12 when I'm twelve," she said.

The possum picked was named "And Clyde." Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Jackson of Dunn had entered a brother and sister team of possums named Bonnie and Clyde.

One man lounged about the stage with a possum clinging precariously to his hat. Hordes of small children swarmed over the stage while the judges dutifully examined each "critter."

Jim Graham was trying to keep order. His voice rang out once, "Son, git yo' hand out of that possum cage! He'll bite your finger plumb off!"

When the main event got underway, namely the national hollerin' match, there were all shapes and sizes to be found among the contestants. They were farmers who told, and then demonstrated, how they holler to their dogs or their pigs. There were even college students who hollered.

The state hollerin' champ from West Field, Ind., a barber named Bill Dennis, was on hand to show off his Hoosier yell.
Mrs. Mary Ann Yopp, of Raleigh was the only woman who entered. She let loose her "tomato growing" holler. It (what else) makes her tomatoes grow every night, she says.

Joe Freeman Britt from Robeson County explained various moonshiners' yells to the crowd. He ought ot be familiar with them -- he's the county prosecutor as he explained just before he left the stage.

The Spivey's Corner Volunteer Fire Department, sponsor of the event, sold barbecue, ran watermelon rolling contests and invited Army paratroopers to demonstrate the folding of parachutes.

In addition, James E. Gray of LaGrange, North Carolina state bird calling champion, whistled his art that he said he learned as a child. He can imitate at least 75 birds, not to mention dogs, lions and other animals.

The hollerin' was the main event, however. In the warmups, some of the contestants sounded like a cross between a locomotive whistle and a hound dog baying at the moon, while others were good approximations of what you'd expect from a man falling off a cliff.

To most people, hollerin' is what you do naturally when you spill coffee in your lap or slam a car door on your finger.

But out in the country, where one can make all the noise he wants without being evicted from his apartment, hollerin' is almost an art.

Before Alexander Graham Bell and his followers laced the country together with telephone wires, hollerin' was a necessary means of communication.

A man plowing in the back 40 could let out a loud enough holler to let his wife know when to put the cornbread in the stove.

And in times past when people lived farther apart, people in rural North Carolina used to holler at set times every day, letting neighbors living up to two miles away know they were all right. Distinctive shouts echoed through the hills in the evenings, and if one was missing, his neighbors would hitch up a horse and check on him.

The hollerin' contest began ... as the brainchild of Dunn Banker Ermon Godwin Jr., and in 1970, the contest aroused so much attention that the Voice of America borrowed the tapes, played them overseas and started the international contest.
-- The News & Observer 6/20/1971

Civil Rights demonstrations interrupt the ball

Submitted by tleonard on 05/07/2013 - 14:09

Spring of 1963 was a tense time in the segregated south. The first two weeks of May found the focus of the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama, with fire hoses and dogs being turned on demonstrators. N&O writer Bob Lynch covered the demonstrations that were happening in Raleigh at the same time.

Anti-segregation demonstrations by young Negroes led to arrests ... which taxed the capacity of the Wake County jail.

Ninety-two Negroes, most of them students at Shaw University, were arrested on trespass charges at the State House, the Ambassador and State theaters, the downtown S&W Cafeteria and the Sir Walter Coffee House.

It was the first mass arrest of Negro demonstrators since a new wave of segregation protests began here several weeks ago.

Three were taken into custody around 1:30 p.m. in the State House restaurant.

Around 7:30, police were called to the S&W where a half dozen Negro youths had gotten into the food line and refused to leave.

Minutes later another group of seven went to the Sir Walter Coffee House, sat at tables and refused to leave.

After the initial groups were arrested, waves of from six to seven tried their luck at each of the two eating establishments and were in turn arrested on trespass charges and taken away to jail.

While officers were kept busy at the Sir Walter and the S&W, more policemen were dispatched to the two theaters where the managements complained that ticket booths were being blocked by lines of Negro youths seeking admission.

The office at the Wake county Jail became so crowded that elevator service had to be halted until the jail staff, police officers and Sheriff's deputies could catch up on booking the Negroes.

As soon as a group could be booked and moved back to the jail cells, another group would be allowed to enter the office. None of the Negroes made any effort to call a bondsman....

The youths sang hymns, offered prayers and chants. Their singing and hand-clapping could be heard clearly more than a city block from the jail. -- The N&O 5/9/1963

Many days of protests and arrests followed, including a demonstration that interrupted Governor Terry Sanford during the North Carolina Symphony Ball held at the mansion. Bette Elliot, women's editor for The Raleigh Times, covered the event.

Protesting segregated eating facilities at the State House, several hundred young Negroes and a scattering of white boys and girls swarmed over the Mansion grounds ... while inside the cream of Tar Heel society waltzed to the N. C. Symphony orchestra music and dined on beef tenderloin.

This latest demonstration by students, right in the middle of the third annual Symphony Ball, ended on a quiet note after Gov. Sanford made a brief appearance on the Mansion's south porch and told the throng, "I'll be glad to take up any problems you may have. I'll be delighted to give you an appointment in my office."

Apparent leaders of the crowd, estimated at from 300 to 450, were Ralph Campbell, president of the Raleigh chapter, NAACP, and Dr. Grady Davis, president of the Citizen's Assn. The young people would not identify themselves. "We're everybody," one boy said....

The crowd sang and chanted and prayed on their knees for the good part of an hour.

Their loudest "freedom songs' coincided with the appearance inside of opera diva Eleanor Steber. She sang arias throughout the demonstration but the Negroes nearly drowned her out with spirituals. A few of the ball guests, some of them women in elegant full-length ball gowns, watched the crowd from the veranda....

Sanford waited about a half an hour before making his appearance. He was inside greeting the 350 orchestra patrons, and at first apparently, had no intention of speaking to the crowd.

But he changed his mind when the Negroes began chanting, "We want the governor!" -- The Raleigh Times 5/11/1963

Student bus drivers were cool in school

Submitted by tleonard on 05/01/2013 - 10:00

A generation of children has now gone through North Carolina's public schools riding school buses driven by adults only. Until 1988, when the Department of Labor forced the state to hire only adults drivers, the experience of the state's public school children was to be transported by high school students.

By 1938, the practice of student bus drivers was well established.

In a state which has a bad highway accident record -- one of the worst -- 4,179 busses were pulling away from 1,226 rural consolidated schools. They were going over main highways and secondary roads, along the edges of canals and around mountain curves. They were freighted with almost 300,000 children -- the biggest peak-hour of bus transportation of any American bus system. And 3,600 of those busses were being driven by high school students.

Amazingly the 3,600 rural boys have improved and not lowered the safety record in North Carolina. In the current school year (1937-1938) to date there has not been a fatality or serious accident in the school bus system. Last year there was only one fatal accident. The year before (1936-1936) there were two fatal accidents, but again in 1934-1935 there was not a single fatality. So far as available records show, there is no highway transportation record equal to this one set by North Carolina's tight-lipped, keen-eyed young drivers.

North Carolina's vast system of state-maintained consolidated schools -- with its record-setting correlative transportation system -- leans heavily upon the economy of this bus operation. The cost this year runs less than $6 per pupil per year. ...

The use of high school boys -- and a few girls -- as bus drivers did not start with the state's taking over control of schools in 1933. Counties already had found that in most instances, students made acceptable drivers and were cheaper than adults. County school boards in North Carolina still have authority to employ adult drivers if they are willing to supplement state pay to make up the difference in schoolboy wages.

The $9.50 a month which the state pays school boy drivers is only a minor reason the posts are eagerly sought. Each driver must be at least 16 years of age. He must be of the highest character and must maintain a good record in studies and deportment, and must have an excellent intelligence rating. Principals nominate eligible drivers, and each of these is given a strict examination by the State Highway Patrol, including actual operation of busses on the regular routes. A written examination is given, covering state laws on driving and bus operation. Those who make the best grades are given special certificates by the Highway Savety division, and no award possible in a rural school is coveted with more eagerness.

This exhaustive preliminary not only reveals the students with desirable qualities, but it acts as a powerful psychological preparation for the drivers' duties. North Carolina's young bus drivers are earnest and alert, keenly aware of their responsibilities, heavily impressed by their distinction. And few have ever let youthful exuberance lead them into any frolicsome recklessness. For swiftly upon this follow dismissal, revocation of certificate and the keenest of disgraces.

Actual driving, however, does not tell the whole story back of the state's safety record. The youn drivers are required to see that their busses are loaded and unloaded with a minimum of risk. Accordingly, many drivers, with the approval of their superintendents, name one or two older students in each bus to act as monitors. These help smaller children on and off busses, and, when it is necessary for youngsters to cross thehighway, the monitors see they are entirely off the highway and safely up the lane before the bus starts again. Some principals require the monitor on each bus to get out and walk ahead of the bus at the crossing of a railway or an important highway.

In the mornings and afternoons, when the busses are on the highways, the state laws throw the protections around them. All school buses are required by law to stop before crossing railroads and before entering highway intersections. All motorists, whether meeting a school bus or approaching it from behind, must come to a complete stop whenever the bus halts to load or unload. The busses are equipped with stop semiphores which a driver raises when he begins to slow down for a stop, and no traffic signal in North Carolina commands such respect and authority as this. -- The N&O 5/1/1938

Several years ago, Wake County parent John C. Simpson described an experience had not changed much by the 1970s:

Selection for bus driver training was in itself an honor, for it symbolized the trust placed in us by adults to fulfill an awesome responsibility. Accordingly, those chosen were honor students, class leaders, student athletes, members of service clubs, etc. From Day One the rules and penalties were made crystal clear: any disciplinary infraction, especially any moving traffic violation, meant immediate termination.

But selection was only the beginning, followed by intensive classroom and practical instruction by a county bus driver examiner who made our assistant principal seem like a pussycat. Decades later I can scarcely recall the names and faces of teachers from first grade through graduate school, but his stands out clearly. Mr. T.B. Nelson, with his trademark brush-cut red hair and dark sunglasses, had one demeanor - intensely serious, all the time.

Unlike the safer purpose-built buses today, a school bus then consisted of a standard medium-duty truck chassis onto which a bus body was dropped. All had manual transmissions, few had power steering. Finesse on the clutch was typically required, as years of hard service takes a toll on gear synchronizers.

No matter - Mr. Nelson expected and demanded perfection. If he suspected a lack of confidence in shifting and controlling the vehicle, the student bus driver had to demonstrate competence in a variety of situations, including starting the bus on a hill at a railroad crossing. Incidentally, boys and girls were considered and evaluated equally, and those selected made equally good drivers. Accidents were rare, and even less often were the bus driver's fault. The pay was about $2 an hour. -- The N&O 2/26/2001

But N&O writer Dennis Rogers best summed up the cachet of the student bus driver, saying, "Bus drivers had social status. They could not be kept after school. Like the wrestling team or the Future Business Leaders of America, they had a group picture in the yearbook. In the closed society that is school, bus drivers had an aura of coolness that ranked them somewhere between football players and drummers in the marching band."


Photo courtesy of the NC State Archives.

Hi-tech honor for the Peanut Man

Submitted by tleonard on 04/30/2013 - 16:40

When is a bench more than a bench? When it has a barcode that teaches visitors about North Carolina history. The State Capitol will unveil a new QR barcode program and host a bench dedication at a public ceremony on Wednesday, May 1, at 10 a.m. Visitors will be able to scan the barcodes on commemorative benches using smartphones to learn about North Carolina governors and other state leaders.

This is the final phase of a Seat of Honor commemorative program which honors men and women who have contributed to the state while working at the State Capitol. Two new benches will be dedicated, one to recognize the State Capitol Foundation, the other in tribute to the "Peanut Man" who had a cart and sold peanuts on the State Capitol grounds for almost 20 years. His name was Jesse Broyles, and he endeared himself to school children and politicians from around the state. The State Capitol Foundation has supported the preservation and educational efforts of the State Capitol Historic Site since 1976.

Current benches honor governors Beverly Perdue, Michael Easley, James Hunt, James Martin, James Holshouser, W. Kerr Scott, Robert W. Scott, Dan Moore, Luther Hodges, Terry Sanford, John Christoph Ehringhaus and Angus McLean in addition to Secretaries of State Thad Eure and Rufus Edmisten.

All of the commemorative benches were made by North Carolina foundry Carolina Bronze, based in Seagrove, and were paid for by private donations. The QR barcode program was also funded through donations from visitors. Tom Blalock will re-enact the now deceased Peanut Man and the North Carolina Bankers Association will provide freshly roasted peanuts. A light reception will follow the dedication.

The State Capitol's mission is to preserve and interpret the history, architecture and functions of the 1840 building. The Capitol is bounded by Edenton, Salisbury, Morgan and Wilmington Streets. For more information, visit www.nchistoricsites.org/capitol or call (919) 733-4994.

100th anniversary of N&O fire

Submitted by tleonard on 04/24/2013 - 06:53
Tags: Past Times | N&O

Old-timers at The News & Observer remember or remember hearing about the fire of 1980.

But there were other fires in the paper’s history, one of the earliest being one hundred years ago today. As the city entertained crowds for the Carolina League’s opening day baseball game between the Raleigh Capitals and the Durham Bulls, flames were starting in the nearly-deserted newspaper plant, which had stood on West Martin Street since 1907.

Fire that burst upon the city while it was in festive mood yesterday, totally wrecked the News and Observer’s splendid plant and caused its owner, Secretary Josephus Daniels, of the Navy, the loss of more than $75,000.

The mystery of its origin has not been cleared and in the absence of any evidence stronger, the people on the paper have accepted the theory that it began in the basement and shot up the elevator shaft. Along with the cities of Raleigh and Durham, the force had deserted the building and the blaze broke out with ungovernable fury about 6 o’clock as the night shift was preparing to come on.

The alarm was given but the fire had taken the top floor. In a moment the smoke boiled from a score of windows and the blaze had wrapped the six linotypes in a white heat. The firemen did their best with a feeble pressure and a stream that fell with woeful weakness upon the fiercest of flames. The men shifted their positions and braved a glare that literally made their clothes smoke, but the water was no match for the fire and in fifteen minutes the employees of the paper had given up hope. ...

The march of the blaze was undisturbed until it took the floor above. When the alarm was given there was nobody in the building except the devil, the janitor and the Associated Press operator who heard the first roar of the flames. The seasoned timbers above took fire and in a moment the cracking of glass was heard all about. It seems no idle speculation to say what might have been with full streams upon the floor above. The water company must know at last how well Providence has cared for a foolish people.

The disaster overtook the people when they were least able to resist it. The fire could not have chosen a better time for havoc complete. A baseball game of keenest rivalry between ancient foes had set the stage, and the streets were absolutely deserted. The fire companies came into action about the time of the return from the grounds and ten thousand people must have stood and watched the passing of the plant....

It was a spectacular blaze despite the hour of the outbreak. There were fully 1,000 people from Durham who came into the boiling smoke as they returned from the game. For a moment or two it looked as if the firemen might fight on equal terms, the two gasoline trucks had come up reenforced by the horse hose wagons. All streams were put on and plied where the fire was fiercest. But there never was a second when the blaze did not have the advantage, when the water did not appear to be oil feeding the wasting timbers within. -- The N&O 4/25/1913

Editors wasted no time in laying blame at the inadequacies of the waterworks company, saying, “The Wake Waterworks company has again demonstrated to the people of the city its absolute worthlessness and inefficiency when its services are in the greatest demand. By its own acts it writes above its signature: “Ichabod.” In its own scales it has been weighed and found wanting.”

The newspaper was able to continue publishing without interruption thanks to the printing plant of The Raleigh Times.

The loss to the paper is a great one, not alone in the money sense, but in the destruction of valuable records memoranda, files, newspaper cuts, and the great variety of acquisitions of matter of a valuable nature to a daily paper. The battery of six linotypes are nothing but twisted metal, the sterotyping department is but a memory, the case type and forms and all parts of the mechanical department except the great Hoe four decker color press in the basement section, injured by heat and water, are destroyed.

But we "thank God and take courage," for the best asset of The News and Observer remains. That is its thousands of friends and patrons throughout the State. From its ashes it looks with confidence to them, feeling secure in their friendship for the "Old Reliable." The equipment has gone. That will be replaced with dispatch. Many of its valuable possessions are gone. But the people of North Carolina, whom it has tried to serve in season and out of season are still here, and this paper knows that they will rally to it in increasing number as it faces this greatest disaster in its history. -- The N&O 4/25/1913

Bringing books to the people

Submitted by tleonard on 04/19/2013 - 20:28

In 1915, the Guilford County Commissioners appropriated funding for free services to county residents living outside the Greensboro city limits. In addition to opening library use to rural residents and offering telephone and mail service, the library placed stations in various places, including post offices, each with a bookshelf holding 50 books. The postmasters often served as librarians. Greensboro was the first public library south of Maryland to take books to rural residents. This is the book deposit station at the post office in Jamestown.

Carnegie in Carolina

Submitted by tleonard on 04/19/2013 - 03:24

This Carnegie building, no longer in existence, housed the library from 1906 to 1939. The library was segregated, and a Carnegie building for the African-American population opened in 1924. Greensboro had the second bookmobile in the state (Durham had the first in 1923). In 1926, Greensboro’s library obtained a Dodge truck, with a charging desk formed by letting down the back of the truck. The library won fame when the Saturday Evening Post ran an article about the use of the local dog tax to fund bookmobile service.

Along with the two in Greensboro, public libraries in Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Rutherford College, Hendersonville, Andrews, Murphy, Durham, and Hickory were built with Carnegie funds. In addition to this building, the Carnegie libraries in Andrews, Charlotte, and Rutherford College have been torn down. The surviving buildings are no longer used as libraries.

Reading room in Charlotte's Carnegie Library.

Wilmington Library in Thalian Hall

Submitted by tleonard on 04/18/2013 - 05:39

The Wilmington Public Library opened in 1906 on the second floor of City Hall/Thalian Hall. The building, constructed in 1858, had formerly housed the Wilmington Library Association (1858-1893). Wilmington’s earliest library dates back to 1755. This photo, courtesy of the New Hanover Public Library, was taken about 1910.

Bookmobiles reaching out to rural areas

Submitted by tleonard on 04/17/2013 - 06:31
Tags: Past Times

Durham County Library's first bookmobile, presented by the Kiwanis Club of Durham, was nicknamed "Miss Kiwanis."

In 1926 librarian Clara Crawford embarked on a program to provide library services to the rural population and to improve county extension by hiring a county librarian and sending the truck to every farm possible. "Miss Kiwanis" carried fiction, non-fiction, and children's books. The county librarian provided guidance for those seeking advice about what to read, but many already knew what they wanted: the most requested author was Zane Grey.

The bookmobile provided books to the rural community in Rockingham County at Bakers Cross Roads. The leashed dog (Jim) belongs to the head librarian, Ms. Marianne Martin, who allows Jim to ride out with the bookmobile to greet the community.

Wake County readers enjoyed the bookmobile from the Olivia Raney Library.

Tiny library is a favorite

Submitted by tleonard on 04/16/2013 - 16:23

Last month, when the state House of Representatives unanimously passed House Resolution 216 to honor the Robeson County town of Proctorville on its one hundredth anniversary, one of the "Whereases" noted that the town had once held the distinction of being the smallest town in the United States with its own public library. That public library was, and continues to be, pretty small itself.

The W.R. Surles Memorial Library was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. W.R. Surles had been a teacher, principal, and later Robeson County superintendent of public instruction. Records from the N.C. State Historica Preservation Office explain the connection between Surles and the library building.

In the 1930s, Mr. Surles owned and operated a grocery and drygoods store. Admiring his grandfather’s business, his fifteen-year-old grandson Harry asked for a store of his own, and in 1935 Mr. Sureles hired Mr. Remus Davis of Proctorville to build Harry a small frame, store building. Harry sold crackers, candy and nick-nacks to local children. He soon became tired of the confinement of running the store and not having time to play with his friends, so the little store closed. Mr. Surles moved the supplies to his drygoods store and gave the store to the town of Proctorville for a library. Books were donated by Mr. Surles and the women of the community. Mrs. Evelyn Clyburn became the first librarian, and the one-room library was open two afternoons each week.

In 1939, the R. C. Lawrence Book Club in Proctorville was organized with twelve charter members. ... The Book Club’s primary mission was to promote cultural awareness and to encourage residents both young and old to read. As outlined in the club’s by-laws, they also maintained and provided financial support to the small library building.

A photo of the tiny library by Mrs. Marie McRae Ecklar of Robeson County includes the following description:

On account of the small size of the structure, only one person (or two if small children) could use the library at a time. Children would wait in line for their turn in the library.

In 1944, Surles donated land to build a larger, more modern library. Construction began in December 1950 and was completed the following May. The library was dedicated September 30, 1951, with many dignitaries, including Governor W. Kerr Scott in attendance.

In 1979, N&O writer Dennis Rogers visited Proctorville and its library.

Proctorville’s W.R. Surles Memorial Library is indeed a small one. The name covers the entire front of the building.

It is 20 feet wide, 30 feet long, and houses something like 2,500 books for this town of 232 people.

But look at it this way: That’s about 10 books for each resident, not a bad ratio....

The R.C. Lawrence Book Club, with 24 members (more than a tenth of the population), keeps the library going .... Members donate a book every time a resident dies, but they have to meet elsewhere since the library won’t hold them.

Jammed with four walls, four windows, a door, a storage room, two tables and a desk, perhaps a bridge foursome can fit inside. But that’s all right. If residents need a book at a time other than when the library is open (officially just one afternoon a week), part-time librarian Mrs. Hubert Rhodes is perfectly happy to run down and open up. -- The N&O 2/6/1979

Proctorville’s population, according to the 2010 census, has dwindled to 117, but the W.R. Surles Memorial Library is still in service and is open on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

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