Another Time, Another Place: Growing Up in Swannanoa, 1929-1950

113 Pages·2002·2.37 MB·English

by  Gene Mills

Another Time,
Another Place
G U S
ROWING P IN WANNANOA
1929-1950
By
Gene Mills
2002
Parkway Publishers, Inc.
Boone, North Carolina
i
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2002 By Carl E. “Gene” Mills
Available from:
Carl E. “Gene” Mills
211 Pelham Lane
Fort Mill, SC 29715-9736
[phone]
email: [email protected]
These are stories about very special people who
lived in a very special town. Times were hard,
money was hard to come by, but the happy times
spent here among good friends will last a lifetime.
Swannanoa, Beautiful Valley, was someplace
special to all who lived there.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data
Mills, Gene.
Another time, another place : growing up in
Swannanoa, 1929-1950 / by Gene Mills.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-887905-57-X
1. Mills, Gene--Childhood and youth. 2.
Swannanoa (N.C.)--Social life and customs--
20th century. 3. Swannanoa (N.C.)--
Biography. I. Title.
F264.S94 M55 2002
975.6’88--dc21
2002002921
Editing, Layout and Book Design: Julie Shissler
Cover Design: Aaron Burleson
F
OREWORD
My children have heard me talk about growing
up in Swannanoa all their lives. I’m sure at times
they got tired of me telling some of the stories over
and over again. I appreciate their patience, their
listening and their interest in the way I grew up, but
most of all I appreciate their love and understanding.
They somehow knew how important all this was
to me. I know where I came from, and I wouldn’t
change a thing about it. I hope they enjoy these stories
about my life from the beginning until shortly after
their mother and I were married. I just wish they
could have seen Swannanoa the way I saw it.
This book is dedicated to them, with all my love
and thanks for who they are and what they have
become. And also to my wife, Patty, who has heard
all of these stories until she has “corns in her ears”
but still lets me tell them with a smile on her face.
Thanks, Honey.
I would also like to thank my two sons-in-law,
and my daughter-in-law for deciding to become a part
of our family. You have made the cycle complete,
and you are a very important part of my life.
And last, but certainly not least, thanks to my
grandchildren for all the joy they have given me. I
can’t imagine what life was like before they came
along.
I could not have written this book without the
help of my daughter, June. Her help with the
computer was invaluable. I appreciate her patience
with me, and the many hours she spent getting
everything just right. Thanks, Bug.
And also to Donna for helping with the general
editing of the contents, putting all the quotation marks
in the right place, checking the grammar, etc. The
hours she spent doing this meant a lot to me.
Thanks to three of the best kids in the world,
and their spouses for giving me a computer for
Christmas, 1995. Writing this has been fun, and it
has taken me back to some very special times in my
life. Without this gift I would never have had the
wonderful opportunity to reminisce. It’s been like
going back in time, and being a kid again.
Also a very special thanks to Lois Hall Melton
and Wade “Gob” Martin for furnishing most of the
pictures. And to Joe Griffin, my friend in Pineville,
NC, for taking time out of his busy schedule to scan
them for me. They made some of the stories really
come to life.
I have tried to be as accurate as possible in
telling my stories. Over fifty or sixty years sometimes
you forget exactly who was in some of the stories at
school. Some of the names have been replaced by
other people who were real to me, but all of the stories
are true. The only names I substituted were Jackie
Sawyer and Red Creasman. For the life of me I can’t
remember the real names of the persons in these two
stories.
Also, I chose not to name any names in the
class ring story for obvious reasons.
iv
T C
ABLE OF ONTENTS
Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Mill Villages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
The Mill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
A Yellow Raincoat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Village Kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
The Ball Ground. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Iceman Cometh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Nan and T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
The Station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Saturday Afternoon Baseball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Son, Are You a Christian?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Baptizing in the River. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Hog Pen Beach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Black Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Labor Day, Fun Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The Cattle Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Tricks, But No Treats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
What Did You Say, Doc?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Daddy Wanted a Dr. Pepper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Weekends In Tennessee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
The Depot at the Station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
What Did Claude Do?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Rat’s Grandpa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Grandma Mills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Train Wreck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
The Entrepreneur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
A New Bicycle, A Sick Boy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Radio Days. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Hog Killing Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Bulldog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
High School Athletics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2
Talented People. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 .3
Slipping Into School. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.7
Good News, Bad News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 .8
McCormick Field Dreams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.9
No Pats on Back. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1
Grocery Boy and Coot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 .4
Soda Jerk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 6
A Very Special Place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7
My Friend Drowsy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 6. 9
Henry Gibbs, a Unique Person. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 71
A Troubled Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..7 .4
1941 Chevrolet Special Deluxe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
December 7, 1941. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 7
Runaway Boys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. 9.
Final Days at Swannanoa High School . . . . . . . .. 81
I’m in the Navy Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5
Going into the War Zone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 .7
Heading Back to the States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9. 1
Coming Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 .3
Our First House. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.4
Our Wedding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 9. 6
Leaving Swannanoa Forever. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Epilogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .1 .0 0
vi
P
ROLOGUE
MY PARENTS
A VERY IMPORTANT DECISION
“They traveled to a strange land
to find lifelong friends.”
Gene Mills
My parents were born in the hills of Eastern
Tennessee, near Knoxville, just after the turn of the
century. They were both born into poor farming
families trying to eke out a living on a few acres of
land, raising mostly tobacco and vegetables. My
mother was born in Cocke County in 1901, and my
father was born in Jefferson County in 1902.
Although they were from different counties, they
were raised about two miles from each other, between
Dandridge and Newport. Both of them came from
very large families. My mother had seven sisters and
three brothers and my father had four brothers and
three sisters. Both were raised on the farm and the
children, including the girls, were expected to do their
share of the farm work. It was a hard life, and there
was very little money.
None of my parents’ siblings had much of an
education, but they were God-fearing Christian
people, and most of their spare time was spent at
Church activities, such as singing schools and revival
meetings. Both of their families were very strict. There
were no movies in those days, and their parents would
not allow them to go to dances. Therefore the young
people did most of their courting at church functions,
and this was how Jesse Mills met Edith Holt and their
two-year courtship began.
In those days courting usually meant walking
a girl home from church, and sometimes this would
be a few miles one way. The church was the central
part of all social activities.
During the week everyone was expected to do
their chores and all looked forward to the weekend
when it would once again be time to go back to church
and resume the courtship.
All churches had their own choirs and they took
great pride in their singing, and everyone looked
forward to the competition to see who had the most
people participating and who had the best choir.
After courting for a couple of years my parents
were married alongside the French Broad River north
of Newport, Tennessee on December 21, 1924 by a
traveling preacher. The only people present for the
wedding were my mother’s sister, Lucy, and her
husband, Hobe Campbell.
They moved into a house out in the country in
a community called Clevenger’s Crossroads and lived
there for awhile before moving into Newport where
my father got a job in the canning factory and mother
went to work in a knitting mill.
They moved into a large two-story house next
to a canning factory, which they shared with mother’s
sister, Lucy, and her family. I was born in this house
on August 8, 1926, and two years later, on July 7,
1928, my brother, Kenny, was born.
We lived in Newport for awhile after that, but
things were getting tough with only my father working
now. One of his brothers had heard of a place in
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Western North Carolina, in a town called Swannanoa
that had jobs in a textile mill. The name of the mill
was Beacon Manufacturing Company, and it was one
of the largest blanket manufacturing companies in
the country.
In 1929 times were hard, and my parents
decided this would be the best place for them to go to
try to better themselves, and when I was three years
old, we moved there. Soon afterwards, one by one, all
my dad’s brothers, a sister, and his mother and father
moved there too, along with two of my mother’s
brothers. This was a tough decision, especially for
my mother, since she was leaving most of her family
behind. Most of their lives had been spent in rural
Tennessee. They had no idea what was ahead of them
on the other side of the mountains separating
Tennessee and North Carolina. But the thought of a
better, more comfortable life far outweighed a decision
to stay in the situation they were in. They knew it
had to be better than what they were doing.
Little did we know at that time that we would never
go back to Tennessee to live, and this would be our
home for most of our lives. The decision had been a
good one, and I’m glad they chose to make this move,
because it gave me the chance to be a part of a
community that I would remember for the rest of my
life.
The Mill had as its motto, “Beacon Blankets
Make Warm Friends.” Some of the warmest friends
I had growing up were the people that made the
blankets, and especially their children, who I played
with in the streets, swam with in the river, went to
school, and shared so much when we all had so little.
ix