50 Years

Herb and Edna Stott

The Early Years of Herbert Lee Stott

On Wednesday, October 24, 1929, the United States’ Wall Street Stock Market crashed as results of the extravagancies of The Roaring 20’s and kicked off the beginning of the Great Depression of the 20th Century.

The following Tuesday, October 30, 1929, Herbert Lee Stott was born in Wake County in the State of North Carolina.  Herbert’s Dad and Mom lived in a house in Wendell, NC, next door to Uncle Percy Stott and just down the hill from Mammy and Papa Stott’s beautiful two story house. [We were very fortunate to receive the original painting of that house from Aunt Nita in 1999.] My Dad’s family had 10 children. He was the oldest.

Those were my early years. An earliest memory was crawling into the open crawl space under our house and playing in the water which dripped into the dirt from the ice-box in the kitchen and getting mud all over me.

I have been told that I would occasionally walk up to the big Stott house. They could tell that it was all right for me to be up there, if I had a diaper pin pinned into the front of my diaper.

My Dad’s father died earlier and Dad was the oldest of the 10 children. He took over operation of the considerable property owned by his father. The depression and the resultant financial failures of the banking industry completely wiped out all of the Stott holdings.

At some time during my first 5 years, we moved to farm next to a lake outside of Wendell. The lake was known as Stott’s Pond. The dam had a water wheel which drove a rotating granite stone in a circular motion as it was positioned on top of another grooved stone which was in a fixed position. The purpose of this device was to be a Corn Mill  for grinding corn kernels into corn meal and my Dad ran the corn mill to grind community corn. He also farmed the land.

My memories are kind of slim except for:

1. We had an upright piano which my Mother played. I remember sitting under the keyboard against the lower sound board beside the foot pedals to listen to it.
2. We raised chickens and every day Mom and I would go out in the back yard and gather the fresh eggs from the hen nests. One day a snake had entered the hen nests and had swallowed whole eggs resulting in a lumpy body and Mom was considerably upset.
3. Up the hill from the house was a persimmon tree. One day Dad took me up there to see a possum who had climbed the tree to get a full belly of persimmons. Can’t remember if we had possum stew or not.
4. During the depression years, you had to grow, harvest and store your own food because you could not afford to buy anything else. It was a very frequent routine in the afternoons for Mom and I to go to the pond, get into a wooden boat, paddle up the lake and catch a mess of fish for supper. We raised all the needed other ingredients. Corn which Dad ground into corn meal. Lard to fry the fish in was from the hogs that we killed every fall and cooked down the fat trimmings for the lard. Cole slaw from the cabbage that we grew. Mayonnaise made from our cow’s milk. Cornbread from the cornmeal was mixed with onions which we grew and fried in the lard with the fish. That was good eating.
5. We got tired of the always available country ham, stuffed country sausage and country bacon left over and cured from the fall hog killing. Then there was the large pantry of glass quart jars of canned vegetables from last years garden. We ate well.
6. In 1935 we moved to a farm about 4 miles from Garner. Dad was the Farm Manager with 200 acres and a huge 12 room two story house for we three people. Every room had a fireplace for warmth or a connection for a wood heater’s smoke to exit. In 1-2 years, Papa and Mammy (William and Rachel) Hinton, Mom’s father and mother, moved in with us.

 The house was quite old and known as the “Yeargan Home Place”.  We had two water wells. One was a deep (100 feet +  deep drilled well) for the house with a large hand operated pump just outside the kitchen to supply water to the house. There was another well on the other side of the house which was a hand dug well about 5 feet in diameter with the walls lined with native 12” x 12” x 9” stones. This was used to supply water to our 4 mules in the mule barn pasture. The water was pulled up from the depth of the well in a bucket on a chain which was wrapped around a wooden log mounted between to supporting post and with a crank handle on it for pulling up the bucket.

We had a “high class” three hole (2 large adult and 1 child size) outhouse toilet back away from the house under a pear tree. It was not heated or air conditioned except whatever was supplied by Mother Nature that day.

We had no electricity. We used kerosene Alladin Lamps for all lighting needs. There was no central heat. We had a “Sitting Room” with a wood heater for warmth. At night, we changed into our sleeping clothes in the “Sitting Room” and at bedtime, we would literally run to our beds in another room across the cold linoleum floors to dive into a cold bed. For extremely cold nights, we had a warming device into which we would load hot coals from the wood heater and insert it between the cold bed sheets and move it around to warm the sheets up a little before we dived in.

Christmas was always an exciting time. We always had a Christmas Tree which was cut from the farm’s forest. Our tree was decorated with hanging decorations plus strings of popcorn which we had popped and strung onto a string by passing the string through the popcorn with a needle.

One Christmas, Herb got a Red Wagon with a black handle to pull it with. That was a wonderful gift from Santa Claus. Herb still has that little red wagon.

Another Christmas, Herb received a Roy Roger’s Air Rifle with a directional compass embedded in the real wood shoulder stock. Herb still has that Air Rifle.

That Air Rifle was a real joy to have. We had a large flock of chickens in our yard which we fed and which supplied us with eggs. We not only ate those eggs but also hatched those eggs to replenish the flock and to give us young chickens for delicious fresh fried chicken.

When I say fresh, I mean real fresh. Mom would say go out and kill a chicken which was accomplished with an ax and hanging the chicken on the clothes line for drainage of body fluids. During the meantime, a cast iron pot (also used to wash clothes in) full of water was heated to a boil over a wood fire into which to dunk the chicken. This allowed the feathers to loosen on the chicken for ease of plucking off the feathers. The chicken was then cleaned internally, cut into pieces and fried into a delicious meal which was a seldom enjoyed event.

The chickens were fed on the ground in front of the “hen house” with whole or crushed grain scattered on the ground. Herb enjoyed shooting at the chickens as they ate with his air rifle because they would jump high when the shot hit them.

One day, Herb shot at a chicken and the chicken fell to the ground immediately and did not move. This had never happened before. Out of spanking fear, Herb grabbed the chicken and went to the back of the “hen house” which was built up off the ground by about 18” and flung the chicken way up under the house.

After due deliberation, Herb went to the house to tell Mom that he had found a chicken up under the “hen house’. Mom came out and looked and told Herb to crawl up under the house to fetch the chicken. Now, under the house was a layer of chicken “droppings” that had fallen through the cracks in the floor underneath where the chickens roosted at night.

Herb crawled in, got the chicken and showed it to Mom who said get a shovel and bury it out behind the house. Now, Herb knew that the chicken was healthy and fresh and was still warm and would be one of those rare delicious fried chicken meals and had no need to be buried but Herb had no desire to tell Mom and receive a spanking. So, the chicken was buried. The shot from the Air Rifle had hit the chicken directly in its eye and apparently punctured its brain.

Our “Sitting Room” was adjacent to the kitchen which had a large wood stove for cooking. The wood stove had a water tank on one end with a capacity of about 4 gallons of water which was heated by the wood in the stove. The wood fire was kept going all day.

The heated water was used for kitchen needs plus for bathing of our bodies. We had a large porcelain kitchen sink. There was a wood box of one end of the stove which and it was Herb’s duty to keep it full of split wood sticks from the huge woodpile in the back yard. Over the years, it became Herb’s responsibility to split the wood to maintain the stack of wood for cooking.

We had 4 mules, 2 milk cows with calves almost always, countless hogs and several dogs and cats. The mules were used for the tasks of farming.

The cows had to be milked every morning, taken to the pasture for grazing every day about 250 yards away up next to the hog pens and brought back from the pasture every evening after feeding the hogs. The cows then had to be milked again and taken to their barn and fed.

My Dad took care of the cows and hogs. I pleaded with my Dad for several years to let me milk the cows. Finally, he said OK. From that day forward, on S-M-T-W-T-F-S, 52 weeks per year, hot/cold, rain/snow/sun/whatever, I had the responsibility for that pleaded for duty and to do all of those chores.

On the farm we raised up to 25 acres of tobacco, acres of corn & wheat & oats, lots of garden space, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber and tomato patches. Quite frankly, we worked our BUTTS OFF fromwell before sun-up to well after dark.

In the tobacco harvest season, Dad, Mom and Herb slept in a bunk in a shed attached to one of the four tobacco curing barns. Dad had to frequently stoke the wood fires used to cure the tobacco in each of the barns several times each night. Summer time was an extremely demanding time to harvest the tobacco crop and the vegetables. Herb’s tobacco harvesting task was driving mules to pull the harvested tobacco via drag sleds that contained the tobacco leaves which had been pulled off the plants in the fields, which were pulled by the mules from the fields, to close to the curing barns, which could be one quarter mile away, for attaching the individual tobacco leaves to wooden sticks which would be hung in the curing barns. Today, most of that has been mechanized.

Fall was also demanding because each of the tobacco leaves had to be individually graded in a barn that Dad built and prepared for delivery to the market. Fall was also for harvesting the corn, wheat and oats.

Winter was also demanding because trees had to be cut and prepared for use in cooking food, heating the house and curing the tobacco. Spring was for plowing the fields using the mules and preparing the farm for the planting of everything and then the plowing of the planted crops to control weeds and caring for the plantings.

Grammar School was at Auburn. Auburn was about 5 miles away by school bus. Herb’s 1st Grade teacher was Mrs. Strickland who was a wonderful motherly sort of lady.

The 2nd Grade teacher was Miss. Willis. Her room also included the 3rd Grade. She was at least, mean. She had a scar under her left jaw which Herb was convinced was the result of where she got her meanness shot.

During the 2nd Grade, Herb had to be out of school to get his tonsils removed. The generous frequent unlimited supply of ice cream while in the hospital was wonderful. During the 2nd grade Herb started wearing glasses after a continuing bout with styes (sores) in the eyelids.

The 4th Grade teacher was Mrs. Holder. Particularly interesting was the study of geography. The Nile River and joining rivers study was very interesting.

The 5th and 6th Grade teachers name is not remembered. One significant memory during that time was a tornado which passed within 50 yards of the school that cleared out a wide swath of trees as everybody laid on the floor of the halls.

The Principal of the Auburn School, who was also the 7th Grade teacher, was Mr. Miller who was a Quaker. In those days, paddling and slapping was an accepted disciplinary action. I remember one rainy day when the students could not go outside during break time. Everybody just stayed in the halls. Herb was standing in the hall and for some reason his foot extended out in front of somebody walking by who was tripped. Mr. Miller saw it and came over and introduced a loud ringing noise into Herb’s ear as Mr. Miller slapped the side of Herb’s face with vigor.

The high school was 2-3 miles away. One spring after baseball games were started, Herb and two other boys skipped school at Auburn and walked up the railroad track to Garner High School to see a high school baseball game. It was simple to get on the school bus at the high school to return to Auburn and then stay on the same bus to go on home. The only problem was when Herb’s Mom went to graduation that year and expected him to receive a Perfect Attendance Certificate. When he did not get one, she inquired and got some facts. On the way home that day in her car, Herb was interrogated and the results were that he received a significant spanking from not only his Mom but also his Dad. A memorable event.

We had living on the farm with us some tenants. They were “colored folks’. The family included three boys--- Al, George, & Frank. Herb and those three worked in the fields and spent some really wonderful times playing, fishing, overnight camping, hiking in the woods and everything together. We were great friends. If we could find each other today, we would still be great friends.

Mom played the piano. She wanted Herb to learn how to play. The only opportunity to learn was from the piano player who played at church. She lived about 1 ½ mile away from our house. Herb would ride one of our mules, Bell, bare back without a saddle to her house once per week. He never did learn how to play, just to appreciate.

One Christmas, Herb got a bicycle. A real modern convenience. This allowed Sunday visits to a house about ¾ miles away to visit with Wade Bryan almost every Sunday.

The farm that we lived on was purchased from Mr. Lane, who was the original owner, by a Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones loved the farm and visited almost every week. Mr. Jones liked to ride a saddle horse. He brought his horse to live at the farm along with a buggy. Herb was able to use the horse, “Charlie”, frequently and it was a great joy.

Technology began to enter our lives in the mid 1930’s. Electricity was delivered to our house. It was amazing to stand in one corner of the sitting room and flip a switch which had been mounted into the wall and have a single light bulb hanging on a long wire from the ceiling come “ON” and cast rays of light into the room. Not only that, we had lights in every room with either a switch mounted in the wall of the room or a string hanging down from the socket into which the bulb was screwed.

In a couple of years, we went to the woods and cut down 8” diameter oak trees and used post hole diggers to set the poles into the ground across the fields, so that wires could be strung allowing us to have a wonderful telephone.

We knew when we had a call, when the bell would ring for 4 long rings. It was a “Party Line” on which everybody could listen to everybody’s conversation and on which each of the users had assigned various combinations of long and short rings. If you wanted to talk to someone on a different party line, you had to go through the Operator whose name was Mrs. Penny.

Mr. Jones, the owner of the farm, bought a gasoline powered International Farmal Tractor for the farm. It was a used tractor but a major advancement for the farm. The tractor did not have an electric starter. To start the tractor, you had to set the choke and throttle, go to the front of the tractor, engage a crank handle into the front of the engine and give the crank a hefty crank. On cold mornings the engine could be cantankerously stubborn and could kick back in an opposite direction to the direction cranked. The handle of the crank, where grasped, was a sleeve in which the crank rotated freely. One cold day early in the life of the tractor on the farm, Dad went out to crank the engine. It kicked mightily causing the heavy crank handle to disengage from the engine, as Dad held the rapidly rotating handle in his hands but the rotational force caused the handle to go into a trajectory towards his head. The point of contact was his cheek which was deeply embossed. After he got up off the ground, he wore that embossed kiss mark for the rest of his life.

In 1941, Herb’s schooling transferred to Garner High School for the 8th Grade. High School was a wonderful experience. Herb’s high school homeroom teacher was Mrs. Irene Dixon who was an inspirational teacher. She was also his English teacher and was Drama Director. Herb was in a number of high school plays.

In the winter of Herb’s senior year, Dad and Mom moved to Fayetteville where Dad was Farm Manager of a 2000 acre farm.

Herb moved in with his Aunt Nita and Stella in Raleigh in order to finish his senior year in Garner. He commuted to Garner from Raleigh with another student in the same senior class until graduation in 1947.

That summer, Herb worked at a service station in Fayetteville before starting to North Carolina State College in Raleigh that fall at which time he lived in Bagwell Dorm.

As mentioned before, Mrs. Dixon was a wonderful English teacher at Garner High School.  Regardless, the first English 101 class at N. C. State was under the tutorship of an English Professor with whom Herb apparently had a serious communication problem because HE FAILED ENGLISH 101. The second semester attempt at English 101 was no problem. [As you read this, you can appreciate Herb’s problems with English.]

The 2nd year at N.C. State Herb was an equipment manager for the football team and stayed in the football players dorm for free, ate the same free meals that they did and had free laundry. That was a real aid in the financial cost of going to college and  some very good experiences including going on all the trips to football games.

On one trip with the football team, we had a game in Pittsburgh, PA. The pilot on the chartered plane allowed members of the team to sit in a seat between the pilot and co-pilot for a while if they wanted to.

Herb was in the seat as the plane approached Pittsburgh at night. The dumping of steel mill slag carts flaming/sparking down the sides of hills, the approach of the plane into Pittsburgh while sitting in that center seat in the cockpit as we approached the end of the runway and then landing was a memorable experience. Especially since that was the first time that he had flown.

One summer Herb worked as an equipment operator at a Sand And Gravel Pit working for Mr. Graves-Manager of the operation and who boarded in Mom and Dad’s house on the farm in Fayetteville. The major equipment was a dump truck.

Another summer Herb worked as an on the road traveling salesman for Raleigh Auto
Parts Supply peddling auto parts/supplies to automobile garages and service stations in Eastern North Carolina.