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Weekly News August 19, 2013Description
A Small House in Southern Pines, 1932: The Weekly News of March 10, 2008, and of November 7, 2011, told of some boyhood experiences with my family at Southern Pines, North Carolina, in the sand hills of Moore County, 75 miles southwest of Raleigh. My father had first attended the Midwinter Trapshooting Championships at the Pinehurst Gun Club, six miles away, in 1916, and my Aunt Helen Shallcross had stayed with the Pottle family at their summer hotel in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. The Pottles also owned and operated the Hollywood Hotel in Southern Pines for about six months each year. My parents decided to take me out of the Second Grade at Wilmington Friends School for three months so we could enjoy the milder climate of North Carolina.
About December 29, 1931, in my father’s 1928 Packard Model 443 seven-passenger sedan, we drove to Southern Pines from Yorklyn, 460 miles, in one day, stopping for lunch in Richmond, the halfway point. Lizzie Grace, the favorite seamstress for many families in the Hockessin-Yorklyn area, accompanied my parents and me. Leaving Auburn Heights at 6:00 A.M., we checked in at the Hollywood at 6:40 P.M., well before their dining room closed. In the next two days, my parents made arrangements to rent a very small house from Mrs. Gould of Barre, Vermont, who, along with her aging husband, owned several rental properties in Southern Pines. It was a double house on Connecticut Avenue, and we moved in on January 1, 1932. Half of a two-car garage went with the rental.
The other side of the “double” was rented more permanently to Ernest and Mildred Morrell, who had no children. He was a German-American who operated a landscaping business and had his nursery on the road to Pinehurst just west of town. She was from Peace Dale, Rhode Island, and she had two unmarried sisters there who had a successful antiques and interior decorating business. The two halves of the little house were almost identical: two small bedrooms and a bath on the second floor, a small living room and a dining room on the first floor, and a modern kitchen with a Hy-Point electric stove! This last convenience was really enjoyed by my mother, who had never used anything but a heavy wood-burning kitchen stove at Auburn Heights. There was a small cellar with a dirt floor and a coal-burning heater for domestic hot water and for heating the house through ducts and registers. Mr. Morrell had a 1932 Oakland coupe that looked just like a Pontiac (the Oakland was a straight eight, the 1932 Pontiac was a six). The Packard fit in our side of the garage but only with the trunk off and the trunk rack folded up. Lizzie Grace stayed with us for the month of January, and my parents and I occupied the other tiny bedroom (I don’t know how my mother made the beds). We liked our neighbors, and it was soon a favorite habit for this eight-year-old to visit them while they were eating dinner, listening to radio commentator Lowell Thomas.
My parents enrolled me in a small private elementary school named the Ark, about two miles east of Southern Pines. There were 30 pupils in six grades, but my second grade had only one other, a little girl named Mary Barnum. In the third grade, there were about eight, and after a couple of days I said to my parents that I wished I were in the third grade for more companionship, especially boys. I soon found myself being “tried” in the 3rd grade, and there I remained. At the Ark, we had to take naps on the floor after lunch each day. My father would pick me up about 3 P.M. and take me home. On my eighth birthday the next month, the boys in my class were invited to our house for ice cream and cake.
My father had ordered a new 1932 Model 904 Packard Big Eight, seven-passenger sedan, and Joe Stoeckle of the Wilmington Packard dealership drove it to Southern Pines at the end of January, returning in the big 1928, taking Lizzie Grace as his passenger. Joe made a record run in the old car, leaving Southern Pines at 6:00 and arriving in Wilmington at 4:20 P.M. after lunch in Alexandria, Virginia. The Morrells accompanied us in the new car on a weekend trip to Charleston, South Carolina, in early March, where we stayed in the Francis Marion Hotel and visited the Magnolia and the Middleton Gardens.
My father and I loved to watch the steam passenger trains on the main line of the Seaboard Air Line, of which there were about four a day in each direction, all of them stopping at Southern Pines. Locomotives ran through from Richmond, northern terminus of the Seaboard, to Hamlet, North Carolina, 30 miles south of Southern Pines. Heavy freights often had to take the two-mile-long siding at Southern Pines in deference to the faster passenger trains. I could hear the whistle signals less than one-half mile away before falling asleep at night. On the long Washington’s Birthday weekend, extra sections brought eager golfers for a brief time at Pinehurst.
Luckily, 1932 was a mild winter in the Northeast, and it was especially nice in North Carolina. My father walked a lot to keep his weight down, and I would often tag along. We gave up the lease at the end of March and returned home but kept in touch with the Morrells, Mrs. Gould, and the Pottles of the Hollywood Hotel for many years. Upon returning to Wilmington Friends, I remained in the third grade and made many new friends.
Work Report: Last week was another that was not typical, as we had an Ice Cream Run on Tuesday and trips to Kinzers on Thursday and Friday. These require time to be spent on four Stanleys, prepping them for their runs. In all, five cars were used counting the Mountain Wagon, which seems to need the least attention of any of our cars used frequently.
On Tuesday, about 14 members went on the last Ice Cream Run of the season, riding in the Mountain Wagon and the 1916 Model 725. Bob Wilhelm and the Greggs in Bob’s 735 joined our group for the trip to Woodside Farm. In addition, about 11 volunteers worked on various projects in the shop. They were Bob Jordan, Ted Kamen, Emil Christofano, Jeff Pollock, Dave Leon, Mark Russell, Dan Citron, Gary Green, Brent McDougall, Tim Ward, and Tom Marshall (no leader). The repaired water tank from the Model EX was put back in place, and fender and running board work was done on the Model 607, as well as installing the robe rail and attempting to seal the gauge glass for the water tank. Track work continued to re-rail and re-gauge the rear curve on the Auburn Valley Railroad. On Wednesday, Richard Bernard replaced a valve stem that was leaking on the Model 740, and track work continued.
On Thursday, August 15, 12 volunteers were on hand for the work session, plus three others who went to Kinzers in the 740. Those at the session were Dave Leon (in charge), Bob Jordan, Steve Bryce, Jerry Koss, Bob Stransky, Bill Schwoebel, Jim Personti, Geoff Fallows, Dan Citron, Mark Russell, Tim Ward, and Tom Marshall. In addition to prepping three cars for the Kinzers trip on Friday, the right rear fender bracket on the Model 607 was bent to its necessary configuration and then repainted, the water tank was hooked up on the Model EX, the steam gauge was changed on the Model 725, and the draft gear and running gear on the steam locomotives were thoroughly checked. A slight repair was made to the front truck on Locomotive 402, as this truck had again jumped out of position from all the derailments. The hinges were strengthened on the hood of the Stanley Model K.
Late Monday, Steve Bryce, Bill Schwoebel and Jerry Novak returned from Chicago with the newly acquired “Diesel” locomotive, and they made a side trip to Marcellus, Michigan, to pick up the pattern for three-venturi 30-H.P. grates, originally built before 1910. It is expected to get this locomotive on the track at Auburn Heights on Monday, August 19. Track work on the curve continued on Friday and Saturday. On Monday last, we had a visit from Dave Lumley and his daughter Jennifer. Dave was one of our most active volunteers prior to his transfer to Atlanta in 2001.
