Pa and Mammy (my grandfather and grandmother) with Edith

TOBACCO ROAD

WILSON, NORTH CAROLINA

My mother Alma, also known as “Sister", was born here in 1918. She said she weighed just one pound when she was born and slept in a cigar box in the top drawer of a chest of drawers. Being just a kid, I didn't ever think about arguing with my mother. But I did learn as a teenager she would exaggerate at times.

 

She was born on a farm and if you are born on a farm you work on a farm. Farm work is hard. She once told me all she ever wanted to do was to get off the farm. It was probably a tobacco farm since there were acres and acres of tobacco farms each with a tobacco barn during the 1950's when I would visit. In fact Wilson was once a center of tobacco cultivation as the city was widely known as “The World's Greatest Tobacco Market” in the nineteenth century.

 

I am grateful that my dad, Paul Sr., met my mother when she was working at the J.C. Penney store in Wilson while he was stationed at Fort Bragg after World War II. When they married in 1946 and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania mom finally “Got Off of the Farm".

 

It is about 400 miles from Philadelphia to Wilson via U.S. Highway 301. That is the way we went before the Interstates were built. US. Highway 301 was established in 1932 and currently runs from Glasgow, Delaware to Sarasota, Florida.

 

Dad would drive mom and myself to Wilson most of the time, stay for a day or two, and then drive back to Philadelphia so he could go to work. As a youngster I really didn't realize how much dad did for us at the time but my appreciation for him has increased as I have aged. Unfortunately, dad passed away before I could tell him this, but I know he did everything he could to make life for my mother and me as easy as possible.

 

Mom and I did take the train from Philly to Wilson in 1948 (according to my baby book) when I was less than one year old and that would be my first Magnificent Traveling Adventure even though I remember nothing about it.

 

When dad drove us to Wilson, mom would pack a picnic lunch of ham biscuits, a few snacks and a cooler of Kool-Aid. Being the only child, I had the back seat to myself right next to the food and as soon as the car backed out of our driveway in Philly I'd ask mom if I could have some chips to eat.

 

Mom didn't drive, and I will tell you why. Are you ready for another “Mama Said"? (“Mama Said" was a top ten single by The Shirelles in 1961 reaching #4 on the U.S. pop chart and #2 on the U.S. R&B chart ). Well, my mama said she drove over her father when she backed out of the garage one day on the farm. Can you imagine that? He was okay but I'm sure that was a very traumatic experience! Guess that is why my mother never wanted to drive?

 

Dad would find ways to take a break from the eight-hour drive to Wilson. One was visiting Aunt Sarah in Dover, Delaware. Another was to drive down the Delmarva Peninsula and cross the Chesapeake Bay by ferry. The Delmarva Peninsula is about 180 miles (290 kilometers) in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia (hence its name), separating Chesapeake Bay from the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Driving down the Delmarva Peninsula is longer, both in miles and time, but it is well worth it since the ferry boat that ran between Little Creek (near Norfolk, Virginia) and Kiptopeke Beach on Virginia's eastern shore would allow us to get out of the car and stretch our legs. Exploring the ferry boat Pocahontas (see the post card on the next page) was not an option but a must since being on deck gave a wonderful view of the bay, boat traffic on the bay and gave a nice cool breeze in the summer sun.

 

My first recollection of the car dad drove was a 1954 brown Ford but most of the drives to Wilson that I remember were in a 1957 two tone Ford that was lime green and white. Dad also had a 1965 Ford Mustang that was dark green.

 

All of the Fords were stick shift and I learned to drive the ’57 Ford to get my learners permit when I was 16 years old.

The Ferry Pocahontas (Photo by A. Bruce Joyner)

 

Then in 1964 a completely new adventure awaited us as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was completed. Following its opening on April 15, 1964, the Bridge-Tunnel was selected “One of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World. ” It is a series of bridges and tunnels that connected to Cape Henry on the Atlantic shore of Virginia and Cape Charles on the Eastern shore of Virginia. Talk about a breath taking-drive!

 

Arriving in Wilson mom and I would stay with her parents and visit with her brother and sisters for about a month before dad drove back to Wilson from Philly and brought us back home. It was a wonderful time for me and this would be the beginning of my “Magnificent Traveling Adventures”.

 

My grandparents were affectionately known as “Mammie" and “Pa". When I started to visit them in the 1950's they no longer had the farm but owned a combination gas station, grocery and feed/hardware store that was located next to the house they lived in. The store was built of wood and was split into two sections. One half had the groceries with a cash register on a penny candy display case and a large cooler for soft drinks. The other half was the feed/hardware store that had a pot belly stove in the center with bags and boxes of feed, grain and what not next to the walls. Every Saturday night locals would gather here and sing or play their guitar around the stove.

 

It was pretty darn good for a seven-year old boy to wake up and walk over to the store and have Pa hand me a RC Cola and a moon pie for lunch. Maybe even a pack of Nabs. This was AFTER eating a humongous breakfast cooked by Mammie of eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, biscuits and fried cornbread. This is when I learned to “sop" with a biscuit. But I quickly learned the best way to eat Mammies’ home-made biscuits was to poke a hole in it with my finger and pour molasses inside it! Oh my, what a special treat that was and oh so good!

 

Behind their house was a garden with many vegetables growing and behind the store was a chicken coop that Mammie would gather fresh eggs for breakfast every morning.

 

Between the store and the chicken coop was an area for burning trash and I did get into trouble one day when I rolled a used tire on the fire making black smoke that filled the sky that could be seen for miles.

 

The front of the house had a full porch where the adults would sit in wooden rocking chairs and talk while using church hand fans to keep cool and blow the gnats away. But the wooden swing was for us kids to laugh and play on as we thought what else could we do?

 

At night we would catch lightning bugs, a.k.a. fireflies, and put them in a jar or place their tails on our fingers pretending we had a ring on. You could see the headlights of the cars approaching either way on the road in front of the house. Then we would hear the cars before seeing them when they pass by the house as the car sound would fade as the car drove away.

 

The smell in the air after a rain still lingers with me and I keep trying to smell it now where I live in the city but it just isn't the same as it was on that “Tobacco Road” in Wilson, North Carolina at Mammies’ and Pa's house.

 

Mammie and Pa had five daughters and two sons. I knew them all except for Uncle Bill who died in the Korean War.

 

Uncle “RC" and Uncle Bill were the fifth and sixth child and of course they ALL worked on the farm.

 

I remember my mother telling me about the time her and Aunt Agnes seen a ghost in the farm house but not any other stories about farm life.

 

Do know they had an outhouse on the farm because Pa would always keep a pee pot under his bed in the house that was next to the store in the 1950's even though they had a bathroom.

 

Seemed as if there was always something to do in Wilson. Uncle RC would take me to see the Wilson minor league baseball games. I could walk to his home from Mammies’ and Pa's and visit his wife Aunt Helen and daughter Cathy.

 

Cousin Judy, Aunt Agnes daughter, and her then boyfriend Mac would take me bowling or to the movies. Judy and Mac have been married for over 50 years now!

 

Aunt Edith would take me to the A&W for a root beer at night with her daughters Barbara and Susan. We would sit in the car sipping our cold drinks and watch the moths and beetles fly around the building lights.

 

Sometimes I would stay with Aunt Marie and her husband Uncle Pete and twin cousins Ronnie and Donnie who were a year younger than I. Now get this, Uncle Pete owned a tobacco farm! That meant Ronnie and Donnie HAD TO WORK ON THE FARM on their summer vacation from school.

 

One year I actually worked on a farm – FOR ONE DAY! I went with Ronnie and Donnie to the tobacco farm and watched the men pull tobacco leaves off the plants and put them in a mule pulled cart. When the cart was filled they went to the open section of the tobacco barn where women would tie the leaves in a bunch and then tie the bunches of tobacco leaves to a stick that would be hung in the enclosed areas at each end of the barn to dry. My job was to carry these sticks filled with tobacco leaves to Ronnie and Donnie who would climb up to the top and fill the barn with freshly pulled tobacco leaves. At the end of the day the front of my white t-shirt was brown from the nicotine in the leaves and I didn't want to “work on the farm" anymore. The next day I stayed at Uncle Pete's house and started to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

 

Mom and I would visit Aunt Lena and Cousins Donna Faye, Bobby Wayne and Sharron in Fairmont, North Carolina and one time in 1957 we visited my Great Grandmother Mary Thomas Honeycutt who lived on a farm her entire life.

 

My Great Grandmother Mary was born in 1865 and lived in a house that did not have running water. The kitchen had a cast iron hand pump and the kitchen door handle was a wooden thread spool.

 

Bobby Wayne and I were playing in the corn crib and then the pasture with cows and a bull until our parents yelled at us to get out.

 

My cousin Barbara has been able to trace the family back to Elisha O. who was born in 1760. He was our Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather.

 

Aunt Edith sent me a letter telling me about members of our family who fought in the Civil War.

 

Now let me tell you about Uncle Marvin H, Aunt Agnes husband. He was a character and I loved him for who he was.

Uncle Marvin was a television personality called Uncle Fudd.

Uncle Marvin was also the first person I knew that own a foreign car. It was a Renault. When he, Aunt Agnes and Judy visited us in Philadelphia one time he turned the wrong way on the New Jersey Turnpike going home to Wilson and was driving towards New York City. He also was an expert smoking an entire pig for a “Pig Pull" which is gathering held in the American south that involves the barbecuing of a whole hog. Then he would make Carolina style pulled pork barbecue which is made with a zesty vinegar sauce. I still make this at home from time to time.

 

Now let's all sing the first verse of “Tobacco Road" a blues song written and first recorded by John D. Loudermilk in 1960.

 

I WAS BORN IN A TRUNK

MAMA DIED AND MY DADDY GOT DRUNK

LEFT ME HERE TO DIE ALONE

IN THE MIDDLE OF TOBACCO ROAD

 

I would visit Wilson, North Carolina many times during my life including the drives to/from Philadelphia to/from Gulfport, Mississippi during the 1980's that will be covered later in this book.

 

Done