PAGE 6

Cemetery in Taylor's Field
The first time I remember going to the old graveyard in Taylor's field was in the late 50's and even then it looked like it had been abandoned for sometime. It was in the edge of the woods on a hill just past the field that was used for farming back then. At one time there was a dirt road that ran near the cemetery, you can still see it on old aerial photos. It was located about what would be 2 city blocks east of Live Oak Avenue (now Covil) between Market Street and the ACL railroad tracks.  Now the city has allowed apartments to be built on most of what was the graveyard, but a small portion has been set aside with a marker. The marker says there are 10 unmarked graves there. As best I can remember there were still more markers than that in early 70s but that would be hard to prove without photos. I remember many obvious grave sites that had sunken in over the years. What the city has marked off as what was the cemetery is less than half of what was there when I was a kid in the 50's. This is the same cemetery that was know as the Indian Burial Grounds and Skipper Graveyard. I have no idea what the real name is. I doubt that any Indians were ever buried there. That name probably came about because of its location in the woods and that made it more interesting to the children that played in those woods.

The Picture above shows the cemetery as it looks today (May 2006). To the left is what the city claims was the entire cemetery, to right where the apartment sits is the half that was dug up to make room for the apartment. There were several remains dug in the process of building the apartments. At the back of the photo there is a wood fence hiding a parking lot of more apartments. The best that I can remember there would have been graves there also. As with Saint Mary's Place on Market Street and 16th and 17th Street extensions in the 1960s and Seagate in the 70s a little thing like someone's final resting place did not stop people from making money by building on a cemetery in New Hanover County.

Posted by ESO on Thursday May 28, 2006 at 10:28 AM

Forest Hills School

It was the mid 50s and I was now old enough to go to school. My first grade teacher was Miss Spillman and it was her first year teaching. To say the least we did not see eye to eye. I don't who she thought she was trying to tell me what I could  or would do, but she wasn't my mama and I made up my mind I was not going to let her win the contest of wills. As a result of this attitude I got to know Miss Oblong very well that first year. By the way Miss VonLong was the school principle and her office was up a flight of stairs in the old and main part of the school building. I could get there in my sleep and blindfolded by the end of the first month of school. As a result of this contest of wills, that hard headed teacher never broke me or my will. I consider that a victory, but I know you have heard the saying "Win the battle and lose the war" well the following year was spent in Mrs. Brogden's class. Mrs. Brogden Was a very good first grade teacher. I enjoyed my second year of school and my second year in the first grade. We always started the day by saying the 23 Psalm and the pledge to the flag. You could do that back then.

Forest Hills was named after the community that it was located in and was in the 1920's or 30's I think. There was the main and older building which was a two story building and the newer one story building that was on the back. The newer building was for the first and second grades and the older housed the third through sixth grades and the library, auditorium and old cafeteria. The new section also had a cafeteria that was bright and had lots of windows and was connected to the old cafeteria by what looked like a garage door. The old cafeteria was in what had been the basement of the main building and was dark and directly under the auditorium. Always like it best, because that is where the big kid got to eat.

We lived about a mile from the school and I got to walk to and from school every day (you could do that back then). Right behind the school was Spofford Mill and old cotton mill and each morning it would blown the mill whistle at 8 AM and you would know it was time to quit playing along the way to school and hurry on to school so as not to be late.

Back then you had things like mill whistles and Civil Defense sirens that let you know what time it was and that the world was still safe. Each morning at 8 AM the Mill whistle would blow so you new it was time to start to work and on Saturday the Civil Defense Siren would blow and noon so you knew it was lunch and then Sunday there was always church bells. At night the was the light from the airport that revolved like a lighthouse but it was first white and then green and it could be seen for mile not like the weak beacon they have today that can hardly be seen at the airport.

At recess I would sometime sneak off the play ground into the woods beside the school and spent the entire recess looking at the stones in the old Delgado Graveyard that made me feel like Tom Sawyer. Then after school when it was warm I would sometimes stop to play in the creek before going on home. Back then your parents didn't worry if you were a little late getting home, they knew that you were probably playing along the way or stopped at Mrs. Bell's Store for a 5 cent Coke and a piece of penny candy. By the way those York Peppermint Paddies you pay a quarter for, is penny candy.

Posted by ESO on Saturday June 03, 2005 at 4:41PM

Miss Janie

Miss Janie was and older lady that lived with Miss Bell from time to time. Never knew much about Miss Janie except she looked to me at that time to be really old maybe 100. I'm sure she wasn't that old but from a kind that had not yet reached 10 years old most people in the world looked old, some just older than others. One day you would be at Miss Bell's little store in the front room of her house and Miss Janie would be there and then maybe  a week or maybe a month and she would be gone. As I got older I figured that was the way she had to live. She would stay with family or friends for a while then move on to the next one until she made the full circle. Back then we didn't expect the government to do everything for us, that was what family and friends were for. If you were down on your luck, they helped. In Miss Janie's case I don't know if that was what happened but to a young kid that is what it looked like. Heck, she may have just been visiting a friend, but that doesn't make that good of story does it?.

Posted by ESO on Saturday June 03, 2005 at 4:57PM

Nancy Blanchard

Mrs. Blanchard lived 3 houses down from our home on Mercer Avenue in a big two story house on a huge lot across from the church. She had 2 son maybe 3, but the oldest was my age so I would go over and play often. I wasn't much more than 5 or 6 years old, but I do remember that I thought she was a very nice and pretty lady.

Mrs. Blanchard died a tragic death about that time and as in cases like hers there were rumors, but through her death it may have saved my life later in my own life. When ever I think about her I always think about sitting under a small cluster of trees in her front yard eating a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich and CoolAid for lunch. Funny what we remember about our lives when we are 6. They moved soon afterward her death.

The house they lived in was owned later by the Groves family and after that I don't know who lived there. By the mid 70s there had been a fire and the house had been torn down and later there were 2 houses built in what had been the front yard.

Posted by ESO on Saturday June 04, 2005 at 10:36 PM

THE FIRE

    When I was 6 or 7 years old there was fire in the parsonage of the Baptist church on Mercer Avenue. This happened only a year or two after Pastor Price and his family moved to Wilmington to minister at East Wilmington Baptist Church. The thing I remember about this was it being a summer afternoon. When the alarm was sounded in the neighborhood that there was a fire, everyone ran to the fire to do what ever they could to help. As was the custom in those days the people of the community were busy getting what ever they could carry out of the house to save it from the fire. This was done because most of the neighbors were from the country where there were no organized fire departments, so fires went unchecked. Luckily Mercer was in the city, even if it was the last street in the city in those days. The fire truck had to come from 17th and Dock Street, which was 14 blocks away. By the time the Fire Department arrived most of the living room and dining room furniture was in the front yard. It was a lucky day for everyone, no one was hurt and the fire was quickly extinguished by the fireman with only minor damage to the house.

     Now move forward about 15 years the same truck is responding to a furniture store in downtown Wilmington and on this day I was the driver/operator. This was the first fire that I would pump the truck. This old 1939 Seagrave would go on to serve the city for about 40 years.

Posted by ESO on Friday June 01, 2007 at 10:57PM