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Thelma Leonhirth Parker Sewell
is having a birthday

in November 2003

She was born in 1903


Family and friends will mark the occasion on

Saturday, Nov. 15, 2003

from 2 to 5 p.m.,

at her North Carolina home, and

you are invited.

RSVP
to jabeckpearce@prodigy.net

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SCHOOLHOUSE SKETCHES

CLOSE CALL AFTER THE POWELLSVILLE GAME
By Pete Austin

While returning one afternoon from a baseball game that had been played in Powellsville, we had a very exciting and frightening event take place.

In our car were five of the baseball team: me, Billy Lane, J. Q. Acree, Allen Raye Vick and Gene Peele, plus Sally Lou Norfleet, who was the driver. About one mile out of Ahoskie on Highway 13 we almost met our maker.

Sally Lou's uncle, Carl Livermon, a very free-hearted and community-oriented person, gave unlimited support to the Roxobel-Kelford School and its sports programs. On numerous occasions, he allowed Sally Lou to drive his car to sporting events to furnish transportation for the players. (Not everyone in the early 1940s owned an extra car that was available during regular working hours. It was somewhat easier to provide transportation for basketball games at night when a parent was home from work and a vehicle was more likely to be available.)

~

Sally Lou was driving "Unkie's" new 1942 Ford two-door sedan when she was asked for the money given to her for safekeeping by one of the boys, as he wanted to treat the others to a share-and-share-alike soft drink. The decision was made that we would stop at Dilday's Service Station in Ahoskie for a break, and purchase an ice-cold Big Orange.

The weather was quite hot and the car had no air conditioning, and it had been suggested that we could split the Big Orange several ways, between the guys and Sally Lou. The only person with any money had given his quarter to Sally Lou to keep and, as a precaution she had placed and locked the coin in the dashboard glove compartment.

At this time, we were traveling about 55 m.p.h., and were approaching the town limits. In order to unlock the glove compartment, Sally Lou engaged the clutch and turned off the switch while allowing the car to just coast down the road. She removed the key from the ignition and passed it to me to unlock the glove compartment door.

This was a new model Ford and one of the very first automobiles that would lock the steering wheel "in position" when you cut off the switch and removed the key. It did not matter if the car was parked or on the roll. Today's cars must be placed in "park" before the key can be removed.

All at once we found out that the steering wheel did not respond to the tugging of the driver.

No matter how hard she tried to turn the wheel, it would not move to the right or left. Worst of all, we were meeting oncoming traffic and no one knew why the steering wheel would not respond to Sally Lou's struggles.

"Look out!" Dead ahead was an oncoming pickup truck, rounding a curve.

Unfortunately for us, we had now traveled over the centerline into the left-hand side of a two-lane road.

But today, "Lady Luck" was with us all the way. When the brakes were applied, it pulled the car to the right as we entered the curve.

The braking pressure allowed us to barely miss the truck, which had already sought refuge by running off the shoulder of the road and into the ditch, and back onto the highway going in the opposite direction.

At this time our vehicle had crossed halfway over the centerline of the highway.

Someone yelled to Sally Lou to "let up on the brake." She did, and this allowed the car to proceed straight ahead.

Although we had missed the truck, we still had a large drainage ditch coming up as we bumped along the right-hand shoulder of the road. It was here that we slid to a stop ~ at the edge of a 10-foot-high bank at the canal’s edge.

Without hesitation, all six of us piled out the moment the two front doors were opened and fell onto the ground, and lay there just as if we were dead. We were so happy that it was now over and no one was hurt.

~

Directly behind us was another carload of teammates in our caravan. They had seen everything, and were very happy to see us safe and sound.

Needless to say, they were very inquisitive as to what had gone wrong.

We explained that the steering had failed to respond to the driver, and that it could not be turned right or left. At this point I crawled under the steering wheel to demonstrate how the wheel would not turn regardless of how hard you tried.

Then, one of the kids who was currently up to date on cars and their new innovations, stated that this model was made so that the steering wheel would lock when the ignition key was turned off and the key was removed from the switch.

We all felt stupid. But happy.

~

As we said, "The Lady" had been with us this day.

Not only were we lucky to get out of this without a scratch, but Billy Lane ~ who owned the quarter ~ spent the entire amount on drinks and candy to treat the gang in celebration of our safe escape.

(Watch for more "Schoolhouse Sketches" by Pete Austin)

~~~

THE HUNT FOR 'HOLY GROVE'
By John Bracy

I showed a picture of "Holy Grove" church (The Poor Town News No. 93) in Tunis to my mom, who is just about a native of Tunis. (All of my growing-up days back in the 1950s and '60s were spent there.) She does not recall the church at all.

There is a "Holly Springs" church there, on the River Road, at the location that your two "Mailbox" writers were referring to in The Poor Town News No. 94. Most members of my mother's side of the family are buried there, and I have three immediate family members buried there.

Holly Springs Baptist ~ John Bracy photo

I went to that church many a Sunday with my grandma. I remember when my great-uncle died. I was 10 years old. During the funeral at the church, his wife, my great-aunt, fell dead in her seat. Next day, they held a double funeral for both.

(A side note: During Hurricane Floyd a tree fell on my great-uncle's grave and split it open, exposing the casket and bending it. During Isabel, many more trees came down there.)

The picture of "Holy Grove" church does look very much like "Holly Springs," and in a familiar setting. But Holly Springs only has a double entrance door in the middle, and a center steeple. It could have been changed over the years, I guess.

I noticed that Holy Grove had two castle-type steeples. One of them seems to be unfinished (the one on the left). I have always had a question about this, I have seen many churches in this area, including the First Baptist Church in Ahoskie, which also have the same type of steeples. Do you or anyone know why this is, or the purpose of this?

Holy Grove Church

Anyway, "Holy Grove" is definitely not "Holly Springs." Looks very familiar though, even right down to the windows. The center window in the front of the church is in the same place where the entrance door is now at Holly Springs church.

My mom did not recognize the name of the minister either.

There was a church as you leave Winton heading toward Tuscarora, just barely on the edge of Winton. That church was burned down by a member not too many years ago. They rebuilt a new church right behind the original location. Seems to me this church had a "Jordan" name in it.

My mom did seem to remember an African-American church in Tunis, but she doesn't remember it as looking this way, and I'm not sure of the location. I do remember one other church there that did not resemble the photo at all. Cannot recall the name. I'll look into it some more.

I gave mom a copy of the photo of the church, and she is going to talk with her older brother about it.

Also, there was an old school beside Holly Springs church, long before me. Mom told me about it. At one time, I thought that I had found the foundation of the school. (I do a lot of metal detecting every chance I get. I found a 1917 penny in that location and a small piece of some type of jewelry.)

Mom, or another family member, told me that there was once a home in front of Holly Springs church, across the street from it, and there were plants left on the front porch after it was abandoned. These plants later grew until they buried the place in vines, kudzu and honeysuckle. I remember once seeing the frame of an old home there.