Dr. Gulley Speaks at Archer Lodge. . . Compares “Good Old Days” with the Present—Certificates Awarded to 7th Grade Graduates
Dr. E.Y. Gulley, head of the Law Department at Wake Forest College, was the commencement speaker at the close of the Archer Lodge school Wednesday, and delivered a splendid address to a large crowd.
The program of the day began with a recitation contest in which eight girls took part The winner in this contest was Miss Verna Philpps. Following the readings, certificates were presented to the 7th grade graduates as follows:
Shelby Castleberry
George Ferrel
Thurman Murphrey
Maxie Castleberry
Esther Hinton
Lena Mae Wall
Cleon Carroll
Three of this number were on the honor roll—Maxie Castleberry, Esther Hinton and Lena Mae Wall.
Dr. Gulley, who is a Johnston county man, spoke out of a large experience on the times of the past and present and suggested thought for the future. He said it is human nature of us to refer to the “good old days.” People did it when he was young and they keep dong it now. Dr. Gulley then proceeded to tell something about those “good old days.” He recalled when he went out to work plowing ready for cotton. By rising early and working late without too many hindrances he would be able to plow possible eight rows of cotton in the day. When the crop of cotton was made and it was ginning time, they hitched two mules to the gin and by sticking to the job faithfully until night enough cotton to tie up two bales would have been ginned, or only one, if everything did not run smoothly.
Then the schools of the “good old days.” He described the old-time school, a 14 by 16 log house with rough benches. He pictured a spelling class spelling from the old Blueback Speller, and told of how the whole class on one occasion was stumped by the simple word—cow. In those days the children only went to school a little while in the summer, probably during the month of August.
Dr. Gulley then paid a tribute to the “magnificent” roads of the “good old days.” He told how his folks would rise up early in the morning, far too early to eat any breakfast, on days hen they went to Raleigh, hitch up and start, stop by the roadside for breakfast, get to the city early at noontime, stay about long enough for the stock to eat, and make the return trip possibly by 10 o’clock that night.
The speaker then made the comparison between in the “good old days,” showing how farmers today can plow 10 times as much and with 10 times as much ease as formerly; how school houses modernly equipped are now full of pupils not a few weeks in summer but six and eight months of the year; how the trip to Raleigh today can be made in a few hours over hard-surfaced roads; how land that our fathers and grandfathers paid $1.50 per acre now sells for $50.
“The world has made more progress,” declared Dr. Gulley, “since I was born than it has from the begging up to the time I was born.”
As to the future, Dr. Gulley thinks that the only thing to consider in regard to future generations is to ask this question:
What shall the future be because of what I have done today?”
From the front page of The Smithfield Herald, Friday, May 14, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073982/1926-05-14/ed-1/seq-1/
