McCoy Helsabeck
| GROWING UP IN RURAL HALL, N.C. 1930-1944 By MCCOY HELSABECK |
| I was born in Stoneville, NC on 11/4/1924. My parents were D. Kemper and Bessie McKay Helsabeck. Father was a banker, and when the banks closed following the financial crash in October 1929, we moved to Rural Hall, NC. We lived in the Church of Christ (called the Christian Church) parsonage for a few weeks, and then rented the two-story house on Main Street (old Highway 52) opposite the Payne house which was owned by the Browder family. I started first grade in September 1930 while living there. Miss Josephine Brandon was my first teacher. We lived there about a year. My Father worked at Atlantic Greyhound as an accountant for about one year, then at Winston Salem Post Office until his retirement. In the summer of 1932, we moved into a house owned by the Moorefield's on a dirt road leading from the road in front of the school. The Covingtons, Moorefields, and Bodenheimers lived on that road. I started the second grade in September 1932 and Miss Beulah Folger was our teacher. We would walk through the woods to the school. The Covingtons had a barn and small one-room cabin in those woods, and we would often play there. Water from a culvert under the dirt road near the school flowed down the lower side of the road following the contour of the land toward a wooded area and was about 2-3 feet deep. We played ball at the school ball field during the summer and roamed the woods. We played various sports during the school year. All three families owned land in that area. Bodenheimer was a farmer. I played with Oneida Covington, Carlton Moorefield, Elon and Annie Lee Bodenheimer and brother, John, as were near the same age. I would walk the woods and fields in summer and walk to the railroad tracks between Germanton and Rural Hall about 1 1/2 to 2 miles away. There was a railroad trestle over a gully 10-12 feet deep and 20-30 feet long, and I would walk the trestle. Looking back, that was dangerous, but it seemed fun at the time. Several summers Principal J. C. Colley and family lived in the schoolhouse. He was principal from 1926 to 1936 as listed in the book, History of Rural Hall. We had fine principals and teachers. They lived and boarded in homes during the school year. Some boarded with Charles and Dovie Helsabeck and Harvey and Alice Kiger and in other homes. They were not only our teachers but friends and would go out of their way to be helpful. They were well liked and respected. It was a cardinal sin to mistreat or sass a teacher. Mother would know it before you got home, and you were in more trouble at home than with the teacher. You just never did that! I remember principals J. C. Cooley, James Holt, W.S. Horton, and Ray Gibbs. I remember my teachers: 1st grade-Miss Josephine Brandon (Smith) 2nd grade-Beulah Folger 3rd grade-Irene Mitchell 4th grade-Helen Colley 5th grade-Ruth Petree 6th grade-Richard Swaringen 7th grade-Mr. Dick Mando 8th grade-Richard Starnes/John N. Overton 9th grade-Evelyn Smith (Ledford) IOth grade-Helen Prosser (Woodie) 11 th grade-Richard Starnes 11 th grade-Helen Prosser (Woodie) 12th grade-W.S. Horton 12th grade-Mrs. Roy Holland Cody Hipps music teacher Several others filled in. The School Board was Charles Helsabeck, Charles Tate, and Aubrey Payne. The original school gym was located on the rear left side of the school building near the Germanton Road. The roof and sides were tin. The interior were the normal wooden benches and the floor for basketball. During the summer, some men would spread sawdust on the floor and play croquet. The gym burned about 1934, and a new gym was built about 1938 behind the school building. We had school teams, boys and girl's basketball, men's soccer, and boys and girls track teams. We played county schools, and there was strong competition. I played basketball and soccer on second teams. I didn't have much time to practice and was just average or less. The school was strong on sports competition. The basketball teams won a number of games against county schools even though we were small in number. Our activities centered around school and churches. We played sports, participated in programs, plays, and other activities. Our teachers always helped. On the boy's basket team were: Garvis Smith, Bill Wall, Kemper Lee Kiger, Kenneth Kiger, Laverne Speas, Herman Griffin, Jack Reich, Bill Beck, Nat Westmoreland, Hugh Edwards, Tremaine Spainhour, Coy Helsabeck. There were others at various times during our four years in high school. These names are from a team picture. On the girl's basketball team were: Mae Evelyn Harris, Emily Nichols, Elizabeth Shore, Martha Louise Smith, Ruth Reich, Ruth Speas, Diane Payne, Annie Lee Bodenheimer, Erma Fulk, Elizabeth Anderson, Bertelle Fulk, and Ola may Tate. Coach was T.C. Bowman. These names are from a team picture. Some of these same boys and others were on the soccer team at various times and different class years. A few I remember on the team were: John Robert Helsabeck, two Moore boys, Graham Joyce, Tedder, Spainhour, Coy Helsabeck a few times, Speas, Kiger, and others. The track teams consisted of both boys and girls teams. We had various groups running for the 100, 200, and 440 yards and one mile races, high jump, broad jump, hurdles and pole vault. I was to graduate in 1941, but the 12th grade was added. My parents wanted me to go one more year so I graduated in 1942. I was Chief Marshal and led the 1941 graduating class into the auditorium for the graduation ceremony to receive our diplomas. I thought this was an honor and fun wearing the school blue and gold colors. I was class treasurer for our junior and senior class. We had a little money for a few things the class wanted to do. We would give a teacher a gift or go on an outing. Our junior class went on an outing with our teacher to Hanging Rock State Park, a distance of about 20-25 miles in Stokes County. We obtained a truck from Covington Ford Motor Company and bought fruit at Kigers Store. Another local trip was to Kiger's lake. I was a substitute school bus driver and drove occasionally. The blacks lived in their own group on a dirt road leading beside the Mathis house to its dead end at their school. Their church was a white frame building on the northwest side of the Germanton Road. Rural Hall was a peaceful place to live. There was no crime, drugs, little or no alcohol, and I was never afraid or concerned at any time, even delivering newspapers on dark mornings. The blacks seemed content, and there was never any race-related problem. In fact, I and many others played with black children and thought nothing about color. John Crawford was the school janitor my entire school years. He was well liked and respected, did his job, and would help us kids and teachers. A man named Elder worked for Stauber in his veneer plant, and I would see him occasionally about 5-5:30 in the morning crossing the railroad tracks to the plant to start the boiler for the day's operations. He and others who worked for businesses were well liked and respected. We respected each other. One of the cardinal rules from Mother was to be respectful to others and never damage anyone's property. This was a real no-no, and she meant it. During the summer, the men would organize a baseball team, and they played in the field beside the school. They would try to hit across the school road as this was a home run. I would sit under a shade tree near the road on Saturday afternoon and watch them play. They played the teams in the county and Winston Salem. I only remember Harry Petree and Dr. Lancaster playing. When I was 14 years old, I bought a Winchester 22 automatic rifle and went squirrel hunting in the woods from Bodenheimer's house to the Germanton Road. When I was 12 years old in 1936, I began delivering the Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel newspaper. I delivered the Journal every morning at 5 :00 a.m. including Sunday, and the Sentinel in the afternoon. I covered the entire area of Rural Hall-north from the Tate farm, west to Grady Griffin's house on Bethania Road, south to Will Wall Dairy farm, and east to the houses near the school. It covered about 2 1/2 to 3 miles total each delivery. My brother, John, helped some, but he had other interests-working for Stauber in his grocery store, at Alley Smith service station next door, and mainly at Shouse and Stoultz Drive-In at Stanleyville. I also worked for Stauber in the grocery store and at Alley's service station during the summer, but limited. I went to see Mr. E.E. Shore, Commercial and Farmers Bank, about opening a bank account to pay my paper bill. He asked, "How old are you?" He knew. I said I was 12 years old and needed an account to pay my paper bill so I wouldn't get behind in my payments. He said, "Can you handle it?" I replied, "Yes, and would be careful and handle it right" He opened an account and gave me some checks. We both knew that if I did anything wrong, my Dad would be all over me severely. I never had any problems and closed the account six years later when I graduated from high school in June 1942. I thanked Mr. Shore. I turned the paper route over to Virgil Wilson. We had a big July 4th celebration and parade in 1935 and 1936. Cars and bicycles were decorated with red, white, and blue ribbons, and drink and food stands were on street comers near the school. Practically the whole town turned out. There were games, races, and a lot of people in the streets. It was the largest 4th of July celebration while I lived there. About 1935, a group of men decided Rural Hall needed a water and sewer system. A group got together and some I remember were Charles Helsabeck, E.E. Shore, Hoover Baker, Burke Wilson, Reuben Wilson, Harvey Kiger, Carl Baker, and Virgil Wilson, and perhaps others, to install a water system. An engineer named, Alley, was hired and the construction crews began to dig ditches for water and sewer lines. They erected a water tower on a hill behind the Beck and Wilson homes. On dark winter mornings I had to be careful and not fall into the open ditches. The lighted flame pots would often go out. I knew where these ditches were and I saw them being dug in the afternoons. The system was completed in 1937 or 1938. At that time, Rural Hall was an unincorporated county town, and I assumed the system was paid for by the county, and I believe by some water bonds. I was too young to really know. In 1939, the town established its first voluntary fire department, and Carl Baker became its first fire chief. The homeowners began to install indoor plumbing and bathrooms for water and sewer. This was a real luxury at that time. Earlier in the 1930s, we had an oak ice box. The ice truck would deliver ice from the Winston-Salem ice plant twice each week. This was our refrigeration then. We bought a refrigerator when we moved. We had a cast iron wood burning stove for cooking and fireplaces for heating the house. Each fall we would cut wood for heating. We cut wood on the Wall and Thacker farms and apparently Father had some payment arrangement. We cut the trees down with a hand cross-cut saw and sawed it into 6- foot lengths. We used Kiger's store truck to haul the logs to the house. By that time in 1936, my Father purchased a two-story house on Main Street (old Highway 52) apposite Harvey Kiger. The mechanic at Covington Ford Motor Company rigged a T-Model Ford with a belt around the rear wheel and connected to a saw blade shaft to saw the longs into stove wood length. My brothers and I would split the wood into what was called stove wood pieces. We would do this each fall and it seems it took forever to split the wood. We had a cow, a barn, pasture, and garden behind the house. Each fall we would again use Kiger's store truck to haul bales of hay we purchased from the county farm and put it in the barn loft. I milked the cow morning and night for six years. Others in the family helped, but I did most of the milking and feeding the cow. In the summer I occasionally mowed neighbors' yards when I had time and made 20 to25 cents each time. We had a large garden. Sam Tuttle would plow it in the spring and we would plant all types of vegetables. We had two cherry trees, one apple, and one peach tree. Mother would can vegetables and fruit. Our family-Father, Mother, David, John, Ruth, and myself were members of Rural Hall Church of Christ (Christian Church). The other churches were Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, and Moravian. The black church, I believe, was an AME Zion Church. During the summer, the churches would rotate having a revival for a week or two and ministers would rotate pulpits. I felt at home in these other churches attending their services and church doors were always open. The book, History of Rural Hall, published in 1977 by the Women's Club is very complete with names, businesses, churches, pictures, etc. I knew many families due to my paper route and will list family names I recall: Tate, Anderson, Helsabeck, Kiger, Wilson, Payne, Stauber, Petree, Lancaster, Shore, Ledford, Baker, Griffin, Moorefield, Covington, Bodenheimer, Flint, Phillips, Wall, Merritt, Plunckett, Buck, Wolfe, Tuttle, Brady, Bolejack, Guinn, Mathis, Crawford, Smith, Eller, Gray, Beck, Joyce, Cooke, Roush, Speas, Nichols, Stanley, Fulk, Hepler, Thacker, Misseck, Spainhour, Clayton, Moore, Fowlkes. There were others. I will list businesses I remember: Wilson Brothers Lumber company, Brady Furniture Company, Helsabeck Law Office, Helsabeck-Kiser Canning Company, Kiger's Store, Payne's Store, Stauber's Store, Ledford Drug Store, Commercial and Farmers Bank, Covington Ford Dealership, Baker Garage, Depot, Rural Hall Inn, Helsabeck Furniture and Upholstery, Stauber Veneer Plant, Alley Smith Service Station, Joyce Store, Tuttle Store, Post Office, Shouse and Stultz, Phone Company, and Felts Blacksmith Shop. Rural Hall was a fine place to grow up-friendly, peaceful, and people helped each other during these difficult Depression years. I left Rural Hall in 1944 when I married and moved to Winston-Salem, NC. My present address is 1701 Redcoat Drive, Charlotte, NC 28211. |
