It was a Sunday afternoon years ago before many people had air conditioning. My Uncle Harvey (daddy's younger brother) and his family were down from Fort Bragg (Spring Lake) and we all over at my Aunt Callie's (daddy's older sister) and Uncle Bill's house on Live Oak Avenue, now Covil Avenue, for Sunday lunch. After lunch all the men would head out to the backyard to sit under the grape arbor and later the women would join them and just talk and smoking cigarettes. Sure wish I could remember some of those conversations. The grape arbor I remember being held up by 4 huge railroad cross ties probably about 8 foot apart with the vine growing up in the center. Now those were the days.

This picture was taken probably around 1956 on what I am sure was Easter Sunday. Front row left to right is Billy Hales and Stanley Outlaw. Back row left to right is Floyd Harrell, Robert Costin and Ernest Outlaw. Billy and Stanley are the only ones in this picture that are still with us. Floyd was killed in an explosion on the Cape Fear River 10 December 1960, I heard Robert died of cancer in 1989, Ernest died of heart disease 17 June 1980. 

The picture was taken at the Outlaw house at what was then 132 Mercer Avenue. The house had about 3 to 4 feet of front yard and then you were in the street. When the street was paved in the early 50's they did not leave much of a yard. The good thing was back then there wasn't much traffic on Mercer, other than going to work in the mornings and coming home in the afternoon.

Back years ago my cousin was taking care of me and another cousin while my mother was at work. She could not have been more than 12 at the time and my other cousin and me were slightly younger, me being the youngest. It was one of those warm summer days that all windows and doors were wide open, so walking by the house you could see all the way through the house into the backyard. We did worry about people stealing things in those days. Even if they did steal something about all you had for some one to take was a radio and a little food. It was a much simpler time. Anyway on this day we decided to go down town to the movies, so we walked  1/2 mile or so to Market Street to catch the city bus downtown. Me and my 2 girl cousins in all our wisdom settled on a horror show. Don't remember the name or which movie house it was showing.  We only had 3 theaters then, the Manor, Colony and the Bailey. I don't remember anything being thrown from a balcony, so it may have been showing at the Manor since the Manor was the only one that didn't have a balcony. After being scared half to death we got back on the bus for a ride back to what at that time was the last street in the city. Got off the bus a Brock's Grocery and walked the half mile back to my house. This is were the problem surfaced. Being a warm summer day we had left the doors and windows open so that anyone that wanted to could walk in. Nothing unusual about that, except after the movie there was one problem. Who was going into the house first? We all knew the first one in would die, because one of the movies killers had to be hiding in the house somewhere. My 2 older cousins being girls certainty were not brave enough to go in first and me being the only boy was way to smart to go in. So here we are standing on the front porch not knowing what to do. I'm not sure which one of us came up with the smartest solution, but we all settled on waiting for my mother to come home from work and let her go in first. We all knew that mother's can whip any movie monster. So here we were, the 3 of us, setting safely on the porch when my mother came home. She went in the house and got rid of the monsters and killers. After the all clear we went in and had a supper of fried squash and pinto beans.

Growing up in the 50's on Mercer Avenue there were 3 main sections. From Market to Wakefield was mostly black families although there were at least 4 or 5 white families who also lived in the section it was mostly black families. Then from Wakefield to Burnt Mill Creek was the main section where I lived, it was mostly white with at least 3 black families living in this section and then there was the hill section it. It ran from the creek to Wrightsville Avenue, this was all white. The funny thing was we did not think in terms of black or white it was more of neighborhoods, color didn't come into play until the 60's and even then friends were friends and neighbors were neighbors and there was no color.

It must have been around 1952 when we first moved from our house on Princess Place Drive to Mercer Avenue. At that time Mercer was the last street in the city. It was a long dirt road between Market Street and Wrightsville Avenue. On the corner of Market and Mercer was Brock's Grocery and on the other end of Mercer at Wrightsville was another grocery store that would later be owned by Mr. Strong. There were a number of dirt roads and paths along Mercer that joined it to Live Oak Avenue (now Covil), Wayne Drive and Forest Hills Drive. All but one of these are gone now and that one is Wakefield Drive. Mercer no longer crosses the creek where us kids spent many a day playing and fishing. In the name of progress the bridge was removed and Mercer was redirected into a new 4 lane Independence Blvd. and Randell Drive. One of my fond memories is of being a young father back in the 70s taking my wife and daughter for a walk down that creek that I had play in when I was a child.

The picture in this section shows my father and mother on what must have been a Sunday morning coming home from  church. The picture is taken from the lot beside our house which later would be were Charles and Louise Cannon would build there home. Directly behind them is a vacant lot, which to this day is still vacant.The house belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Walker, it is still there. Only a few years later the road would be paved.