Shortage of Pork, Lard Making Life Difficult, 1945

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Wilmington Morning Star and the Charlotte Observer on Aug. 27, 1945

W.O. Davis, farm agent in Halifax County, says the shortage of pork and lard in his county is having a serious effect on the labor situation. In the first place, labor is losing too much time from work in going from store to store and from town to town, trying to find fatback and lard. Some stores report to Mr. Davis that they have sold out of salad dressing and salad oil, which is being used as a substitute for lard, and the story goes that even Vaseline has been used in some instances for making biscuits.

Mr. Davis made a survey of the wholesale and retail stores to determine the amount of fatback and lard coming into Halifax County this year as compared with 1944. One wholesale distributor serving that area checked his records and found that he has received only 635 pounds of fatback so far this year as compared with 15,169 pounds for the same period last year. The owner of a retail store said that in July 1944, he had sold an average of 250 pounds of fatback per week. In July 1945, he could get only 30 pounds each two weeks. This same retail merchant sold 254 pounds of lard per week in July of 1944, and this year he received only one shipment of 30 pounds of lard from May 1 to July 15.

Ordinary farm labor does not understand this and believe that they are being discriminated against. Consequently, the work on the farms of Halifax County and other counties in the east suffers. 

Chatham County Farm Tour, 1949

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Charlotte Observer Aug. 22, 1949. Coca cola was lowercase in the newspaper article, so I’m not sure if they meant the real Coca Cola or were just misnaming another cola drink. Also, although the article refers to mixed drinks, as punch was sometimes called. 

A farm tour held the other day shows that Chatham farmers have lots over which they can be thankful. Crops are good and the country folks are getting along fine.

About 150 of them gathered for the tour. They assembled at Clapp Brothers farm machinery place in Siler City, where Sam Clapp treated everybody to coca cola and ice cream. The tour then proceeded out to the farm of Lynn and Harvey Paschal near Siler City. Here they observed 7,000 laying hens in a house 40 feet wide by 500 feet long.

The house has plenty of fresh running water obtained by building a dam across a small stream just above the laying house. This water runs continuously, day and night, supplying the hens with plenty of fresh, cool water. The trough is kept clean and sanitary by the fresh water moving through it at all times. On the opposite side of this watering trough is a feeding system so arranged that a feeder box can be pushed by the weight of the hand and two feeding troughs are filled automatically. The Paschals says that with 7,000 laying hens to feed and water, it is absolutely necessary for them to save steps.

Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Edwards of Siler City, Route 2, have rearranged their farm home so as to add a bath without detracting from the general lines of the old home. Mrs. Edwards also has improved and renovated her kitchen into a new and modern workshop. She has 600 beautiful pullets, now developing into layers for the winter, out in an open range of lespedeza and soybeans. The young birds eat the green grazing and are healthy and vigorous. As the 150 guests left the Edwards home, Mrs. Edwards very thoughtfully served a cooling mixed drink.

This interest in modern farm homes continued as the visitors stopped by the home of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Flowers of Siler City, Route 1. The Flowers have just completed a new and modern brick home. On Route 3 from Siler City, the traveling group saw 600 fast growing turkeys on open range and 30 fine pigs developing on a pasture and a self-feeder. These two valuable crops are being grown by Fred Harris.

From pigs to turkeys, the group moved next to the farm of J.F. Boulden of Pittsboro, Route 2, were they saw one of the new 20-stanchion grade “A” barns now operating in the county. The oldest boy of the family, Robert Bouldin, is an FFA member and he and his younger brother, Charlie, are selling grade “A” milk from eight nice Jersey cows. Robert, incidentally, was awarded a trip to Kansas City for doing such a good job in dairy farming.

At the farm of T.M. Clark, Pittsboro, Route 2, the 150 travelers saw Guernsey cows on good pastures. At the farm of E.J. Clark, of the same address, they saw excellent Dixie 17 hybrid corn, and at the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Alton C. Campbell, also on Pittsboro, Route 2, they observed the modern home and about 18 acres of nice alfalfa at one side.

By this time, folks were hungry, so they spread a picnic dinner on the lawn at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Durham. Just below them, as they enjoyed their dinner on this spacious lawn under the shade of the trees, was the sparkling waters of the farm fish pond. These fish ponds are becoming more and more numerous over Chatham County as the people recognize their beauty and usefulness.

The first stop after lunch was at the farm of Johnnie and Simon Burke, Pittsboro, Route 1. The guests were shown sheep, hogs, young dairy heifers and mature milk cows, all grazing on a nice permanent pasture. The various animals were harvesting their own feed from a well-developed clover and grass sod and were making money for the owners. The Burkes showed their visitors replacement pullets on open range and 29 acres of hybrid corn. It was a hot, humid afternoon and so the Burkes made fast friends by serving ample portions of cold watermelon to everyone on the tour.

The crowd next moved over to the John Strowd farm, Pittsboro, Route 2, where they saw five purebred cows and heifers owned by the Strowd twins, Wayne and Warren. These young 4-H Club boys are handling their cows like accomplished dairymen and are selling milk to provide a cash income for the farm. The boys say they will expand their present herd just as fast as possible and really get into the dairy farming when they are a bit older. The matter of refreshments was getting to be a habit by that time and the visitors had spent only a few minutes with the Strowds before they were served a delicious mixed drink.

On the Jimmie Gus farm, Chapel Hill, Route 3, the touring party saw how the owner had removed rocks from one of his fields and had used the stones to build a comfortable rock home with a central heating plant. The heating system cost only $105 and furnishes plenty of warm air through three registers to keep the home comfortable in cold weather.

C.C. Brewer, of the same address, had a field of Dixie 17 and some old-style corn at his farm. The last stop of the day was made on the farm of W.H. Meachum, Chapel Hill, Route 1. Here the group spent considerable time inspecting a new and modern dairy barn and a heard of purebred Jersey cattle on a good permanent pasture. Again, the folks all had a round of bottled drinking served by their hosts before the tour disbanded and the members departed for their own homes

North Carolina Fourth Largest Contributor to Treasury, 1937

From North Carolina: a guide to the Old North State, a Federal Writers’ Project book, which is online at http://books.google.com/books?id=dQDwh9Ep6jAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

In 1937, North Carolina was the fourth largest contributor of revenue to the United States Treasury, owing chiefly to the tobacco tax.

Sweet Potatoes for Animal Feed, 1949

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, as published in the Wilmington Star on Aug. 4, 1949

A movement is on foot tin Carteret to install one of the sweet potato dehydrators. Ronker Stanfield of a local fertilizer company has a number of well-constructed buildings with concrete foundations which are not to use at the time of the sweet potato harvest. Johnny Lassiter was done there the other day and found Mr. Stanfield interested in installing a dehydrator to process the size and cull sweets for use as cattle feed.

Farm Agent Williams says that most of the sweet potatoes in that section are grown in dark soils and often do not have the eye appeal as to those grown in other parts of the state. There is also a great need for an additional feed supply in that section and since three bushels of the sweets properly processed are equal in value as a stock feed to one bushel of corn, and because Carteret growers produce about 100 bushels of the sweets per acre, it is felt that local growers could more than double their present yield of feed by enlarging the acreage to sweet potatoes.

State Labor Laws, 1937

From North Carolina: a guide to the Old North State, a Federal Writers’ Project book, which is online at http://books.google.com/books?id=dQDwh9Ep6jAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Public opposition to the employment of children in industry had begun to emerge in the 1890s and a number of child labor laws were passed between 1903 and 1931. All of these set the age limit too low—12 years in 1903, increased to 14 years in 1919—and the earlier laws lacked provisions for enforcement. The law that went into effect on July 1, 1937, is regarded as a model measure of its kind. The employment of children in all manufacturing establishments, and in 50 occupations specifically defined as dangerous, is prohibited…. Children between 14 and 16 may work during school vacations not more than 40 hours a week or 8 hours a day in approved occupations, and they are allowed part-time employment during school sessions provided that school and work hours combined do not exceed 8 hours a day.

Until 1937, North Carolina had no maximum-hours law for men, and the 11-hour law for women permitted a longer legal working day for woman than in any other State. The law of 1937 provides a maximum 9-hour day and a 48-hour week for women, with a 10-hour day and a 55-hour week for men. Despite exemptions written into the original bill, the law affects about 200,000 workers in the State and represents a sharp reduction in the maximum hours of labor permitted.

A workmen’s compensation law, administered by the State industrial commission, was passed in 1929; and at a special session held in December 1936 the general assembly enacted an unemployment compensation law, providing for the setting up of a fund, a commission of three members (including the commissioner of labor), and regulations governing benefits, contributions, and machinery for operating the law. The rate for 1938 and thereafter was set at 2.7 percent of wages paid. Benefits are payable through the State unemployment office, and are fixed at not more than $15 or less than $5 a week.

The same session of the general assembly enacted a law accepting the provisions of the Federal Social Security Act and creating a division of public assistance in the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare.

Currituck Calls, Home Demonstration Newsletter, 1961

I wish I could give credit to the woman who put Currituck Calls together. It may be Daphne W. Yon, who was listed as editor of the January 1961 newsletter, but there is no guarantee that she was still newsletter editor three years later.

Currituck Calls: The Voice of the Home Demonstration Clubwomen

Late Summer Edition, 1964

August is here—the last month of summer! As always, we remember the many things we planned to do this summer and as usual, we find that the time has passed too quickly and many have been neglected. Perhaps, we have done some unexpected things, though. Maybe we’ve been on a trip we didn’t plan or had guests we didn’t expect, or met some new friends. We find that, after all, it’s been a good summer and we hate to say “goodbye” to beautiful summer days and vacation even as we look forward to autumn pleasures and plans. This can be a lovely time of the year. Let me share with you a verse of John Keats’ “To Autumn.”

Where are the songs of spring?

Ay, where are they?

Think not of them—thou hast thy music too:

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue,

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows,* borne aloft

Or sinking, as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The red breast whistles from a garden croft,

And garnering swallows twitter in the skies.

Currituck Calls Congratulates

--Our own Publicity Book, which won a blue ribbon at Homemakers’ Week in Raleigh. Of course, credit goes to Fay Forbes, County Public Relations Chairman, and Clara Reese Whitehurst, of Shingle Landing Club, who compiled the book.

--Pauline Munden, who won the Auslew Gallery Award with her sculpture “Mockingbird” at the Virginia Beach Boardwalk Art Show in July. Pauline’s pictures also caused much favorable comment at the show.

--Margaret (Babe) and George Twiford of Waterlily on their 50^th Wedding Anniversary, which they celebrated on July 12. Friends called to wish them well and brought lovely gifts to this popular couple.

--Ann and James Ferebee’s son, Jimmy, who recently married Diane Humphries. We wish them much happiness.

--All other lucky summer brides and grooms. May you all have many years of happiness and good fortune!

Over the Back Fence

At the Conjock Club meeting, Estelle Walker had a watermelon cutting in her back yard during the social hour. Everyone enjoyed the delicious melon and discussed the film on the Dismal Swamp, which Mrs. Sanderlin showed to the group.

Members had planned a picnic at the beach for their August meeting, but remember “the best laid plans of mice and men, etc.” Anyway, it was later decided to have the annual outing on the canal bank. Alethia Spry and Joann Ringer each made a freezer of ice cream while Mildred Hill used the “Currituck Calls” recipe for pound cake and contributed a fine cake. Estelle Walker, as usually, had prepared fun and games for both adults and children, and the members and their families were well-fed and well-entertained and enjoyed the time together.

Crawford members have developed an interest in various pets recently. Gail Sawyer has a pet coon. She says he’s quite tame and likes everyone in the family except husband Clifton. (Wonder if Clifton is a coon hunter?)

Carol Keaton has a bear who is a visitor to her garden almost every night. (I don’t think he would qualify as a pet, though.) She says they might have bear meat in the freezer soon! Carol is doing a lot of canning and freezing, and her pantry is fast filling up.

Mary Ann Hardesty says that sunglasses work wonders when you peel onions. If you are one of the “cry babies,” you might want to try this.

Mary Outlaw of Grandy Club has frozen 23 quarts of blackberries, picking them herself from the ditch banks. She says she picks berries with one hand and uses the other to brandish a fire poker to fight snakes! She says she had a green snake to wrap himself around the poker but fell off. Looks as though Mary is a real brave woman who loves blackberries.

The Barco’s Drive-In and Market seems to be very successful and keeps Norma, Ralph, Elizabeth, and Wendell busy as well as their very efficient employees.

Gibbs members are very pleased to have Bessie Hughes home after her stay in the hospital. They miss Donna Fay Brickhouse at the meetings since she is now working.

Louise Cahoon is having some valuable help this summer with her three daughters helping her paint their home on the inside. They have recently enlarged one of the rooms by taking in part of the breezeway. Louise also finds time for copper tooling. She recently exhibited at the Norfolk Arts Festival and the Chesapeake Art show.

Another Cahoon, Bernice, is a great one with copper tooling, too. The electric fuse box for their home is in her daughter’s bedroom so she made a copper tooled picture and placed it over the box. This is the same size as the box and adds to the room’s decor.

Gladys Fisher of the Jarvisburg Club may develop a new career for herself. She has been refinishing furniture this summer and an antique dealer who has seen some of it is trying to get her to go into business. Those little first graders at Griggs would surely miss you, Gladys!

Gladys Sawyer says she is glad to find out when to plant onion seed. She has been planting them in the spring and the onions have been small. After reading the article by our farm agent, Mr. Hardesty, in the daily paper, she learned that onions should be seeded in September. Now she will plant her seeds this fall and hope for nice, big onions next summer. See, we can always learn something useful from the Extension people!

Among the Knotts Island members, who have been busy freezing vegetables and fruits this summer, you would certainly find Mattie Capps and Mildred Strawhand. These ladies will have good meals this winter, I’ll bet.

Clara Irving is improving from her recent illness. Everyone hopes she will be completely well by August 29 when her son, Paul, and Josey Ammons of Virginia Beach will be married.

Edith Waterfield will use her good personality and charm in her new job with a real estate firm where she recently began work. Watch to see real estate values rise!

Poplar Branch Club members always welcome visitors with open arms! If you don’t believe it, come to one of their club meetings. Ida Lee Saunders or Daphne Yon would just love to count you as their guest!

Thetis and Howard Forbes have enjoyed a visit from their daughter, Rosalyn, and her family this summer.

Members are glad to have Mrs. Carrie Walker back for a visit. She now lives in Charlotte but Poplar Branch still claims her.

The club thanks Tillie Barnhard for making the Clubhouse sign which will be displayed soon. Thanks also to Stan Wilkins and Ralph Saunders for putting up the storm door.

The members enjoyed a family covered dish supper at the clubhouse for the August meeting. Everyone ate lots of good food after enjoying games together.

Pearl Thomas of Powells Point Club has enjoyed visits from all six of her children and their families this summer—not all at the same time, however!

Ruth Walker’s absence from recent meetings have been noted by her fellow members. They hope she will soon be back with them. She’s missed!

Members enjoyed a wonderful day together recently when they drove to Norfolk and visited the McArthur Memorial. They had a delicious luncheon at one of the department store tea rooms and saw a good movie in the afternoon. Of course, they got in a little shopping! Those attending were Frances Doyle, Ethel Sawyer, Ella Dunton, Zelda Sumrell, Inez Dowdy, Doris Newbern, Becky Newbern, Joy Sawyer, Gladys Fisher (Jarvisberg), and Mrs. Sanderlin.

Shawboro’s Thelma Morgan is always busy and yet she always has time for so many things. Her daughter, Patsy, with her four children was home for a visit during Bible school, but Thelma took the children to Bible school, taught the older girls to make beautiful pajama bags and even helped in the church nursery. She is always willing to go help! Elizabeth Harrison, who works at a marina in Coinjock has sold twenty Swedish weaving towels that Thelma made. See what we mean?

Waterlily members are pleased that Mrs. Cora Basnight is able to be out of the hospital. She is with her son and his family at Bertha.

Nettie Sears has been busy taking care of her garden produce. She has put up beans, tomatoes, and pickles among other things. Nettie still found time to take her girls fishing the other day. The bottom of the boat was slippery and when she reached for the rope to start the motor, she fell flat! She was sore the next day, but not really hurt, except for her pride. When she told her husband what had happened, he said, “I suppose you busted the bottom out of my boat! (Don’t worry, Nettie; he could see you weren’t hurt.)

Bill and Zorado Snowden have been busy beautifying their lawn and Sound bank. They also planted the kind of grass that will conserve their land.

Clarine Doxey, Anna Mae Sargent, Rosalie Jones, Audrey Bunch, and Phyllis Peters of the Soundside Club have been taking their children to Elizabeth City each day for swimming classes. We should have some good swimmers!

Phyllis Peters has had lots of guests this summer from Ohio, Washington, Baltimore, and various places in Virginia.

Jean Mathews is taking advantage of her husband Carson’s vacation to finish the den. They are also installing an old-fashioned Ben Franklin stove and a brick hearth.

Glad to hear that Olive Bateman is recovering nicely from an operation.

Shingle Landing members and their families enjoyed their outing at the Elizabeth City pool.

Phyllis Evans’ husband, “Pug”, went out to cut the grass one day. Beside the fence, the mower stopped abruptly. When Pug examined it closely, he found the reason: a snake was wrapped around the blade and nearby were thirteen rattles!

Graythel and Alva Coppersmith have started their new home on Cooper-Garrett Road in Moyock. They hope to be in by Thanksgiving.

Virginia Edwards’ members were happy to have Edna Creekmore’s daughters, Edna Newbern from Florida and Mary Elliott from Norfolk at a recent meeting.

Margaret Harrison and Alice Scaff have both been hospital patients this summer. Margaret still is, but is expected to be home soon. We are glad to know that Alice is home and much better.

Mrs. Sudie Winingder recently moved to the Sanderson Apts. In Moyock, and has been welcomed to the Club. New ideas always come in with new members and we can use all of them that we can get!

The August outing for this club was a tour of the Norfolk Harbor and luncheon at a motel restaurant. This was the result of Mrs. Sanderlin’s travel demonstrations in July.

County Capers

The new county library signs on the highway were painted by John Snowden Jr. of Maple. Isn’t it a good job? The lumber and posts were donated by the Ferrell Lumber Co. and Frank Aycock put them up. Hal Ward (Manteo) built the check-out counter and desk shelves for the library. Thanks are certainly due these citizens for their public service.

Alton Taylor, Post Master at Currituck, has been jokingly complaining when it’s time to mail out issues of Currituck Calls, but when his wife Gladys used a recipe from it and made him a fruit cocktail cake, he decided it was well worth the effort and time required to mail them.

We are asked to remind all of our Club members to be very sure that we make all visitors welcome when they stop and attend services at our churches. Some of our people attended in another state and only the minister spoke to them.

You might ask Daphne Yon how she acquired that expensive-looking hairdo on her trip—or you might ask Ethel Smith if she enjoyed shopping in Baltimore.

Grace Forbes (Jarvisburg) has made a set of needlepoint pictures for each of her children and their families. She framed the ones she made for her son in the frames that have been in the Forbes family for a hundred years.

Alice Flora (Shawboro) put her club craft training to work when she attended the Baptist Children’s Camp at Chowan this summer. She taught crafts to the children there.

Gladys Fisher (Jarvisburg) has been quite excited about the twelve running tomato plants which her brother gave her. She recommends them to anyone liking tomatoes, says they bear meaty fruit with few seeds.

Ask Margaret Jarvis and Faye Forbes about missing the subway in New York while the group was at the World’s Fair. An interested gentleman told the others to get off and wait for them and someone else said to stay on and meet them later. Everyone enjoyed the tour; even birthdays were celebrated and a Miss America was chosen. Molly Winslow could tell you about this.

Currituck’s group who attended Homemakers’ Week in Raleigh decided to make Elma Midgett of Dare County an Honorary Currituckian. All of us enjoyed having her with us the entire time. It was also very nice to have Mrs. Gilbert English share the room with Mrs. Sanderlin and Thelma Morgan, and we wonder if she would like to be an Honorary Currituckian, too?

Eva Sawyer (Jarvisburg) has put out many new iris this summer so she will be able to enjoy them in bloom next spring.

Fern Davis (Waterlily) has been taking care of the Frankford fishing lodge nearby, renting boats, etc. She also has been entertaining lots of company of her own this summer and in between time, canning tomatoes, snapbeans, berries, and making pickles. Then, too, she likes to ride on the back of the riding mower—or let’s say she used to like to! One day husband Russell invited her to ride down to the lodge on the mower with him. Going down was fine but coming back Russell turned a curve too fast and Fern rolled off. Bet she rides in a car next time!

When Jeannette Williams returned to her home in Massachusetts after a visit with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Brumsey of Currituck, Mrs. Brumsey went with her. On the way they visited Barbara and Millard Smith in New Jersey and they all went to the World’s Fair. Mrs. Brumsey went on to visit another daughter, Ann Leary, in California where she enjoyed a wonderful trip. However, she still says there is no place like Currituck!

Marilyn and Jack Raisor and Phyllis andPug Evans (Shingle Landing) attended the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. They also visited “The Hermitage” while there.

Edith Justis’ granddaughter, Kathy Austin, who is eight years old, was much impressed at the June Club meeting (Waterlily) when the flag was the subject of demonstration. She made a drawing and colored an American flag which was very neatly done.

Doris Newberg and daughter, Becky, and Joy Sawyer had a bit of excitement on their way home from Florida. While eating at a restaurant in Georgia, three Cuban boys who were walking from New York to Florida stopped in to eat also. They had flags, signs, etc., and so befuddled the young waitress that she completely forgot to serve Doris’ party their dessert. Since it was banana pudding, Doris is still bemoaning the fact that she missed out on her favorite dessert!

The attractive Currituck name tags which caused so much favorable comment at Homemakers’ Week this year were made by Janet Hill of Elizabeth City. Thank you, Janet. We enjoyed wearing them.

Vacation Trips

Janet and Milford Sawyer (Crawford) with their family enjoyed camping out on their vacation trip. They, with Margaret and Marvin Doxey, went to Kerr Dam and camped out starting on Friday. Then on Monday, Doris and Tim Hendrix and Mary Ann and Jerry Hardesty met them. They kept in touch by telephone before the second party got there so they would know where to go. All the families had a fine time.

A group from Currituck went to Williamsburg on a tour. Everyone had a wonderful time even if there was a little misunderstanding about the time of the departure. Lucille Shackley says she’s glad the bus had to stop for a traffic light after it had pulled away. This delay just did give her time to run and catch up with it. What do you supposed would have happened when the bus got to Moyock and tried to put Lucille off?

Bernie Sawyer (Powells Point) enjoyed an extended trip this summer with friends. Their destination was South Dakota, but many points of interest were visited along the way.

Carolyn and Dukie and children (Crawford) enjoyed an overnight visit with Marie and Walter Smith in Laurinburg while on their vacation. They toured the Battleship North Carolina and also went into the mountains of Virginia.

Roy and Eva Sawyer (Jarvisburg) had a wonderful cruise to Bermuda—with only one day of sea sickness! Elizabeth Dannelly (Jarvisburg) is spending the summer with her grandmother in Texas. Mattie Wright has spent some time at Virginia Beach while Blanche Poyner described her trip.

The group from Currituck who attended the Homemakers’ Week enjoyed their “vacation trip.” Sometime when you have loads of time around Raleigh, get Mrs. Sanderlin to take you to a special place to get a steak dinner. She will! Ethel Sawyer, Inez Dowdy, Thelma Morgan, Helen Walker, Daphne Yon and Elma Midgett (Dare County) can vouch for that.

Recently Hazel Beasley and Ruth Dowdy stood in line 50 minutes to visit Pres. Kennedy’s grave. Later they toured Air Force One. Hazel’s son-in-law, Joe Chappell, is First Flight Engineer on the President’s plane.

Eddie and Ruth Dowdy visited their daughter, Grace Cummings, in Springfield, Ill. Margaret Dowdy went with them.

Elma White and daughter, Sharon, of Knotts Island joined friends from Norfolk to tour some of the places of interest in the city. They visited Old St. Paul’s Church, the Myers House, the McArthur Memorial, and the Norfolk Museum. Other Notts Island travelers were: Catherine Etheridge and family, who visited the Great Smokies and saw “Unto These Hills” among other places; and Audrey Cooper and her family, who went to the Skyline Drive and other places in Virginia.

Bertie, Gordon, and Marsha Erickson have recently visited Florida. Edith Hampton (Soundside) and son Russ also had a trip to Florida.

Fern Davis (Waterlily) with her house guests, Hazel Crain from Portsmouth and two grandsons from Richmond, drove down to the Wright Memorial and on to Buxton. Everyone walked to the top of the Hatteras Lighthouse except Fern who had done it in February with guests. Said she hadn’t lost a thing up there and didn’t intend to go back. It’s not that high, Fern!

Ida Upton (Shawboro) and her husband visited her niece in Charlotte and then went on to Asheville for a few days. Hilda Forehand (Shawboro) visited relatives in New York. She says Mary Jo and Bill loved the subway rides.

Jerry, Jennie, and Audrey Bunch, Clyde and Ethel Smith, and Daphne Yon visited Jennie and Jerry’s son, Glenn, in Baltimore. Glenn was a wonderful host and guide. While there, the group visited Fort McHenry where the Star Spangled Banner was written, Annapolis, Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, Washington, and the World’s Fair. They also stopped in Williamston on the way home.

Vivian Etheridge and Madeline Sawyer (Shawboro) visited Vivian’s daughter, Jeanne and Stanley Meiggs in Washington, D.C., recently. Mattie Beasley (Knotts Island) went to visit her daughter, Carolyn and Ike Meiggs, who also live there.  Now Madeline is in Limestone, Maine, visiting her son, Will, and his wife, Lois, and grandson, Johnny, where Will is stationed as an instructor in the Army.

*Sallows is a fell (area of uncultivated high ground) in the English Lake District.

Yadkin County Farm Community Overcoming Labor Shortage, 1945

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Wilmington Morning Star on Aug. 6, 1945

In Yadkin County, the grain growers banded together to solve their labor problem at threshing time this summer. The whole community turned out in the Huntersville section to thresh the grain and the neighborhoods of Poindexter, Sofley, Hartman, and Groce worked out a plan of labor swapping that made the threshing season in these communities a pleasant success. The same thing happened in the South Deep Creek neighborhood where the Allgoods, Toods, McCormicks, and their neighbors worked together until all the grain in the community was threshed and stored. Money couldn’t have bought the labor but mutual helpfulness could and it is this way that North Carolina farmers are meeting their production and harvesting problems.

Sometimes and labor question is solved by fine family cooperation. Hoyle Setzer owns a 260-acre farm just off the dirt road between Claremont and Catawba in Catawba County. About 170 acres are in cultivation and Mr. Setzer is forever faced with a shortage of labor. The other day, Farm Agent Earle Brintnall visited the farm and Hoyle told him how the family solved the question of harvesting this year’s small grain crop. Hoyle grew 67 acres of wheat and three acres of oats. Most of this was cut with the combine and Mr. Setzer riding the tractor and his son, Hoyle Junior, operating the combine. Sometimes they changed jobs, and while most of the grain could be harvested with the combine, there were spots where it was necessary to operate the binder. Some of the wheat was lying flat; some of it grew on terraces but in all, there were several acres which were necessary to cut the binder and then this grain had to be threshed.

Mr. Setzer got his whole family together, called in a couple of good neighbors, and put the combine to use as a threshing machine. The wife cut the bundles which the 14-year-old daughter threw to her. Hoyle Jr. threw the straw onto the stack, another neighbor sacked the grain, and the 11-year-old daughter tied the sacks. Mr. Hoyle said his two neighbors, Mr. Heifner [Heffner?] and Mr. Shook, proved themselves to be real friends and all of the grain was finally harvested and stored.

Reports also came from other parts of North Carolina telling of how neighbors are helping each other. It may inconvenience a neighbor at times but usually he is willing and ready to lend that neighborly helping hand. If this were not true, most North Carolina farmers would be in a rather bad situation right now.

Negro farmers are working together and working harder than ever before. They too are trying to make every effort to pay a return. For instance, L.W. Carrouthers of Mecklenburg County began clearing a piece of creek bottoms two years ago. As he cleared the land of all the small trees and bushes, he prepared stove wood for sale in Charlotte and, to date, he has sold about $600 of fuel wood from the tract. He now has one of the best corn crops on 1 ½ acres of the bottoms that he has ever had. This colored farmer produced 1,300 bushels of wheat this spring, which is not only providing fine bread for his family but also brought in much needed extra cash.

But as W.B. Harrison, Mecklenburg Negro farm agent, said, none of this could have been done by loafing on the job. It took hard work and planning ahead. It always does.