A True Blue Daughter of Oriental! 

I was born on June 20, 1954, the daughter of George B. “Red” Lee and Sophia Hodges Lee. Daddy was a native of Rockingham, N.C. and Mama was a native of Oriental, the daughter of Branch and Maggie Hodges. They met and married in 1943. The next year, they built their house and business, a gas station and grill, which opened in 1945. Pretty ambitious considering they also had their first child, Rose Ann in 1944! I came along ten years later in 1954 and was named for Daddy, who had wanted a boy! But he told my mother a girl was OK and I took care of him for the rest of his life!

I grew up and stayed in Oriental my entire life. Growing up here was the greatest because of the freedom all of us kids enjoyed. We could bike and boat and swim and be gone all day on our own with no supervision and just had to be back by dark. We kids loved having the three artesian wells that were running in town.   I attended grades 1-10 here and then with integration, finished in Bayboro. My first grade teacher was Miss Dorothy Tingle who is still living in Oriental. Brantley Norman’s first grade teacher, Mrs. Norma Smith, lives with her son in Cary. Pretty remarkable! When Brantley and I remember old Oriental, we say, “Back in the Day…” and we speak of those times often.

When I was in my last year of High School, we had a calendar sale drive. I won that contest because I went door to door to every single house in Oriental at that time and I knew every single family who lived here. But after that time, Oriental started changing. I think 1972 was the end of Oriental as I knew it “back in the day.”

After High School, I commuted to New Bern to attend Cosmetology School, opened my Hairstyling Salon in 1974 and am currently celebrating 40 years! Same business, same location, same owner!

In 1982, I married a local man, Benny Powell of Upper Goose Creek/Kennels Beach area. We currently live in the house built by Red and Sophia Lee on Broad Street sleeping in the same room where I was born. How many people can say that?!

I can remember when curbs and gutters were first put in.

Croaker Town was the end of town. Where Brantley’s is now was woods. The highest water I ever remember was from the Hurricane of 1954 and Hurricane Ione in 1955 when it came right up to the stop sign at Red Lee’s Grill. Brantley’s Restaurant and Georgie’s Hairstyling are the highest points in Oriental. They have never been flooded. Red’s Grill was your safe place during hurricanes. People did not evacuate; there was no place to go! People who were scared to death of drowning would ride it out by coming to the Grill and we could cook with gas. Seven people did drown in Hurricane Ione, but none of them were from Oriental.

I helped my parents run the Grill my entire life making milk shakes with Maola ice cream products and cooking those famous 25 cent hamburgers. Daddy never wanted to raise the price and local companies, like Winn-Dixie in New Bern, joined in the effort by calling to let him know when hamburger was on sale (99cents/lb). Merita Bead Company would also discount the buns they sold to Red. Southern Living Magazine and the National Enquirer wrote articles about this unusual business practice. After Mama died in 1986, I continued to help Daddy keep the Grill alive. I would quit cutting hair between 11-1 to get him through the lunch hour. Sometimes it would be so busy, friends who came in to buy lunch would pitch in and help on the grill! Daddy worked until he was 80 years old. The Grill closed in 1998 after over 53 years of business. He lived with me until he died of natural causes at 88 years old in 2006. His body was just worn out from all his hard work.

The best way for me to describe growing up in Oriental is that it was “Mayberry.” We had two drunks, two bad guys, one barber shop, one gas station, three grocery stores and a sheriff in Bayboro. I fished for flounder and crabs, went swimming, rode bikes, went to the artesian wells when I got thirsty, stayed out until dark by myself and I was never scared! I am blessed to have lived in Oriental for 60 years. It’s a special place!

We salute Georgie Lee Powell for her example of a life of family and community loyalty, persistence and hard work. She also makes us laugh and we love her!

Story by Lorraine M. Yaeger

Photo by Chuck Hill

 

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His Recollections of Growing up in Oriental in the 50’s and 60’s 

Do you remember when…..

• The old wooden two lane bridge over Smith Creek and Green Creek was a great place to jump 20 feet into the water for summer swimming. The current 60’ high bridge was constructed in 1972.

• At Mr. Red Lee’s Restaurant, he sold hamburgers for 25 cents and never increased the price. Because of this, he was written up in a national magazine and people on sailboats would come to the store and order 80 hamburgers at a time- still it was only 20 bucks! He had a juke box that played a record for 5 cents and a pool table and was a favorite place where all the teenagers hung out.

• Oriental had two stop lights during the 50’s: one at the movie theater and one at Will Smith’s store (Steamer). James Ragan was the mayor when Oriental got those two stop lights. He was Judge Ragan’s daddy. He and his wife, Miss Sue Ragan, owned the saw mill on Midyette Street and there was always a huge pile of saw dust there upon which the kids would slide down and build tunnels through it. Miss Sue was a Cub Scout leader for many years.

• Ben O’Neil’s grocery story had a pot belly stove and all the men would sit around it and sharpen their pocket knives and talk, but when a woman came in, all the men stood up.

• Wit’s Inn was a bar that was another favorite hang out for Butch and his buddies when they were about 13 and 14 years old for playing cards. Nobody worried where the kids were- even in the bar- because everyone looked out for each other and everyone knew that Annis Gwaltney, the owner, would make sure everything was as it should be.

• The Ragans started the Oriental Marina and with that began an influx of people from other areas coming to Oriental. They were called “Come Heres” by the local people and still are, according to Butch.

• John Bond was a great contractor and a great man. Butch recalled how John built a house for his mother at his cost after hers burned down and she was left without much insurance money by the company.

• Butch remembers Tom Smith’s parents were one of the finest, most gentile Southern couples he ever knew and felt the same about Larry Gwaltney’s parents, Joe and Anne Gwaltney whom he said were also “superb, classy” people.       The apple does not fall far from the tree in both cases!

• The Bottle House was built in the late 50’s by Mr. Branch Hodges. He built it all out of glass bottles. Very few of them have broken. It measures 12’x12’x12’ and the wooden front door came from Butch’s mother’s house that burned down and was added in 1977.

• Kids would lie on the floor in the Smith’s movie theater watching movies, like The Three Stooges, for about 25 cents admission. Tom or Hubert would set up a fan blowing air over a big chuck of ice from Garland Fulcher’s Ice House to cool off the theater.

• Before the 50’s, there was no break wall in Oriental. The wide, white sand extended from the Marina to Whittaker Point. The break wall was built in 1954.

• Minnesott Beach’s beach also was much, much wider during that time. Since then the Neuse River has steadily widened and is the widest river in the US, with a girth of over 3 miles at the Cherry Point/Minnesott ferry and 5 miles at the mouth.

• The School House had 3 buildings. The one on the left bottom floor had four classrooms with 2 grades in each room, and the library was upstairs. The building on the right was the auditorium and cafeteria. The metal building on the left was the gym and the site of many wonderful Halloween Carnivals, basketball games and square dances.

• There were two pot bellied stoves in the school gymnasium and Butch remembers how the steam would rise up off the boys when they got sweaty from running back and forth playing basketball.

• Mr. Ned Delamar served as Pamlico County’s representative in the NC state legislature from 1955-1965. During that time he co-sponsored and introduced the Community College Act of 1963 which started the NC community college system 51 years ago. He also wrote letters of recommendation for many local young men who were applying for the apprentice school in the shipyard in VA, including Butch.

• The present location of Pamlico Community College came about because the county had been promised a bridge where the ferry is now, which led to hopes that many people from Havelock and Morehead would come over the river and up Hwy 306 to attend PCC. Sheriff Whorton donated the land for the college.

• The pavilion at Minnesott beach was still in business although it was moved from its original site built over the water to inland. Butch remembers going there to “watch the Marines fight.”

• “Oriental was the best place in the world to grow up!”

Thank you, Butch, for sharing your memories of Oriental, “back in the day” with us. We have often wished we had a time machine to travel back to experience life as it was then. Your recollections paint a picture that is the next best thing!  

James (Butch) Hardison was born on Midyette Street in Oriental and was graduated from Oriental Elementary School and then Pamlico High School in 1966. After attending Pitt Community College, Butch ran his own company, Hardison Heat and Air Conditioning, until 2007 when he sold his successful business and retired. He is a member of Silverhill Christian Church, Mt. Vernon Masonic Lodge in Oriental and the Pamlico Co. Shrine Club. Butch has a sister and brother who live in the area, a son, Dan, in Ohio with three grandchildren, and a daughter, Tonya, deceased. He currently lives in Minnesott Beach with his wife, Peggy.

 

 

Our readers are invited to return to the top of this article and add your special memories of growing up in Oriental using the “comment/reply” button.

 

Interview by Lorraine M. Yaeger

Photo by Chuck Hill

Where can one find a man who opens car doors for ladies, has a genuine love of all people everywhere, possesses a quick wit coupled with a delightful sense of humor and fun, and is great at following orders?

In Oriental, NC, that’s where! And guess what? Our mystery man is 90 years young! Tom Smith was told by his Captain while serving in the Navy during WWII, “Smith, don’t go and get yourself killed! You won’t be a d_ _ _ bit of good to me then.”  Tom has been following those orders for the past 70 plus years, bringing his age to 90, turning 91 on January 29, 2015.

Those 90 have been used well, very well! He has spent:

• 80 years a member of the Baptist Church of Oriental.  Tom joined the church when he was 10 years old and has been a life long member, like his parents, and grandparents before him, who actually helped start the church.
• 27 years Oriental Volunteer Fireman
• 67 years member of the Masonic Lodge, Master of the Lodge numerous times.
• 4 years serving in WWII in the Navy as an electrician and volunteer movie operator. Tom took part in every major invasion in Europe.
• 40 plus years business owner and entrepreneur.

When Tom was growing up almost all of the property in Oriental was farm land, but there used to be a pool hall in the field behind where Century 21 Sail/Loft Realty is now. Teams from all over the county would play baseball against each other there. There were also 5 high schools in the county and they would compete against each other in basketball.

Tom may have gotten his wonderful sense of humor from Miss Pearl Delamar whom Tom remembers as always being “very jolly.” Whenever her husband, Paul Delamar, and she would meet Tom along the street, she would always tell him a joke.

His kindness and love of people were most likely a legacy from his parents, William J. Smith, Jr. and Olive Herne Smith, whom Butch Hardison recalls as the most refined and kindest people he ever know. This family trait of caring for others showed up early in Tom:

When Representative Ned Delamar was about thirteen, he loved to pretend he was “Tarzan,” swinging from trees around his house. Unfortunately, one day a limb broke and Ned broke many bones in his fall. While recovering, he would sit by an open window in his house so he could visit with people. Tom, about 10 years old at the time, went by often to sit on the porch and talk with Ned, who, Tom said, always kept a great, positive attitude in spite of his injuries even as a young fellow.  No wonder he went on to accomplish so very much for Pamlico County!

Tom was 11 years old when the Hurricane of 1933 (Hurricanes did not have names back then) hit Oriental. He remembers how Mr. Sargent, who was the first  millionaire in Oriental, had a huge yacht which he used to rescue people from South River who were left hanging on up in the trees during that terrible storm. South River people were great carpenters and took several of their homes apart piece by piece, transported them on their fishing boats to relocate in Oriental and rebuilt them on and around Midyette Street where some are still standing. Pretty unique and impressive!

Dr. Daniels was an eye, ear, nose and throat doctor who took out a lot of tonsils, including Tom’s. He was also on the Town Board and was responsible for putting in sidewalks and curbs from the theater, to the park, the Steamer Restaurant and by the water.   But all the roads in Oriental were dirt.when Tom was a boy.  Since everybody walked everywhere it was real problem when it rained.  The Powell Aid fund was created in the NC legislature to give country towns like Oriental money annually out of tax funds as a loan to pave the streets, one at a time. The first road in Oriental to be paved was the “Loop”, which started at the theater and went by the Methodist Church to the Neuse River and back up by the Marina. That pretty much took care of getting everyone around and to church without slogging through muddy streets when it rained.

Tom’s brother, Hubert, Post Master of Oriental for many years, was asked by the town to be town clerk. Hubert worked for Oriental for twenty years without collecting any pay for his services and was the person responsible for the town finally being able to retire the debt incurred from paving the roads.  Tom is justifiably very proud of his brother for this unselfish service to their hometown as well as of Hubert’s exceptional military service.  Hubert finished college with a degree in accounting the year the war started and joined the Air Force as a navigator of a B-17 plane in which he flew 50 missions over Germany and never got a single bullet in his plane! Much shrapnel however did hit the plane, tore it up and blew out the windows making for a terrible, harrowing experience.

Tom had been at Campbell College after graduating from HS in June 1941, but Pearl Harbor interrupted those plans as it did for so many other young men from Oriental.  Growing up around the water, the Navy was the logical choice for service for many of them.

John Bond, whom Tom said was “the nicest guy in the world,” and Tom had been life-long best friends from when they first met at age 10-11 years old. They grew up together, went to school together, sailed together and went to dances together on the Party Boat, and later both served in the Navy.

The Party Boat, also named the “Wolf”, was an old fishing boat without the rigging which went from Oriental upriver to Minnesott Beach pavilion on Saturday nights in the summer for dances. The boat was owned by Mac Lewis, but when he went into the Navy, he had Dee Hardy take over.  Often they would not get back to Oriental until 2 PM. Once in a while, the Party Boat would take some Marines, who asked for a ride, back over to Cherry Point, which was just being built at the time.  That was an adventure as they came close to base with Marines boarding the ship to check it out with guns drawn! Sometimes, one of the Marines would use a flashlight to signal that it was just them on the Party Boat approaching.

This was the same “Party Boat,” on which John Bond finally got his first kiss from Fay Midyette, which started their 2 months of summer courtship before John joined the Navy and love letters alone had to do.  It was Tom who had finally convinced Fay that John was sincere in all his “flirting” and trying to get her to go out with him by telling her that “John meant every word he said.”

John Bond and Tom also served together when both of their ships took part in the invasion of North Africa.  John was then shipped to the Pacific and Tom remained in Europe for the remainder of the war and took part in every major invasion of Europe, including D-day and Marseille where Tom did get to go ashore and meet the French people.  He had taken French in school, but said “it didn’t do him any good.” But in spite of the language barrier, he found the people to be very nice. Tom’s genuine love and delight in all people is captured in his simple statement; “People around the world are nice.” Marseille reminded him of New Bern with all the old fishing boats there back then.

During the war, Tom was in charge of “movie exchange” on his ship. Each ship received 6 movies and when in peaceful waters, Tom was sent off in a landing craft to other ships, including destroyers and aircraft carriers, to make an exchange, being careful not to trade a bad movie for a good one.  Sometimes after the deal was done, he would be asked where he wanted to go and Tom would always say, “Take me to Oriental,” which would always evoke the same response: “Where the h _ _ _ is Oriental?!”

This Navy experience of being an electrician and running movies on ship served Tom well when he finally did get back to Oriental. Tom, his brother and father owned the movie theater in Oriental along with an appliance store. Butch Hardison has fond memories of going to the movie theater, called the Mart Theater, when he was a boy and lying on the floor up front and watching movies like The Three Stooges.  He remembers that the Smith men would get ice from their grandfather’s ice house and using ice picks, would put big, 200-300 lb. blocks on either side of a squirrel cage fan that blew the air through a chute from the stage in the back of the building to keep the theater cool.

After the railroad stopped running in Oriental in the late 50’s, trailer trucks would transport the produce and seafood, but they were not refrigerated like the railroad cars were. The icehouse would grind up ice and shoot it into the trailers to keep the food cold during transportation. Catching shrimp began in 1945 in this area and the river back then was full of all kinds of fish. “You could catch anything you wanted depending on where you anchored.”

After the war, Tom came home and married Lillie Mae Thompson. They were married for 23 years and had a son, Thomas William Smith, Jr.  Sadly, Huntington’s disease claimed both of their lives as well as their grandson’s, Thomas (T.W.) William Smith, III at age 26 years.

In 1969, Tom married Anne Hughes Stevenson and also inherited three beautiful, intelligent daughters. Anne’s first husband was Joe Stevenson, a fighter plane and B-17 pilot during the war. Joe and Anne lived in Thailand, Germany, Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas.  In 1962, when their youngest daughter, Mary Hughes Stevenson, was 7 years old, Joe passed away in Walter Reed Hospital.  Anne’s father was a customer of Tom’s and became a good friend in the course of doing work for him in his home in New Bern, where Tom would often stop by to visit.  Daddy played “Match Maker” and Tom and Anne married. After falling in love with Anne, it wasn’t too long before Tom fell in love with Mary and her sisters, Sign of Grace (Grace) and Joanne.  He was blessed with another family to love and they were blessed by all that “Daddy love” from Tom. All the girls have gone on and achieved great success in their educations, careers and lives. Tom is also blessed that his daughter-in-law, Joann, lives close by in Minnesott Beach.

During his years in business, Tom would throw huge parties inviting 150 people with about 75 usually showing up at his home. He would generously provide all the food.  Once he asked Brantley Norman if he would cook the chicken and Brantley said he would, if Tom would buy it. For cooking all that chicken, he only charged Tom $5.00.

“I’ve tried to be an honorable person. I love everybody.  I’ve grown up surrounded by wonderful people and then, by all the wonderful people who have come to Oriental since then. I love Oriental.  We’ve seen a lot of the world, but I still love Oriental best.  I wouldn’t want to be any other place.”

Oriental wouldn’t want it any other way either! We are grateful for Tom Smith, for his love and strength of character, his great memory and intellect, his quick wit and delightful charm.  Wish there were many more like him! Thank you, Tom.  We love you!

(Please return to top of the page and leave a comment for Tom)

Interview/Story written by Lorraine M. Yaeger

Photo by Chuck Hill

Fay Bond was born, Oma Fay Midyette, in the Tumble Inn in Oriental in 1923 where her parents, George Preston Midyette and Irma Ross Midyette, were renting at the time. Fay’s great Granddaddy, Samuel Wellington Midyette, and Granddaddy, George Washington Midyette, came to Oriental with Uncle “Lou” Midyette when they settled here in 1870. Granddaddy lived on the lot where the veterinarian building is now located on Broad Street and had a store on the lot next to Smith’s Store, which is now The Steamer.  His property ran from Broad Street to Camp Creek where he owned a fish house with lots of pecans trees on the property, which remains a favorite spot for Fay to gather her pecans every fall.

“The Norfolk & Southern Railroad came into Oriental until the 1940’s.  When they ceased coming, my Daddy, Preston Midyette, purchased all of the railroad property which included all of the property on West Water Street and some property at the North end of Midyette Street, and made the train depot into three apartments.  At his death, the land went to my Mother, Irma Ross Midyette.  There was a need for a Wildlife Boat Ramp, so she was encouraged by my brother, George Preston Midyette, Jr. to give the land to the State for that purpose.”  

Thank you, Granny Midge! Later, she and her children become Midyette Development Corporation and sold the property which became Oriental Harbor Marina.  The depot was moved from its location on West Water Street on Raccoon Creek to its present location.

A true daughter of Oriental, Fay has the same positive, self-confident attitude and spunk of those original settlers. This independent spirit came through early on in response to young John Williamson Bond’s declarations of admiration and affection. Back in the eighth grade, John had seen Fay walking across the school yard and thought to himself, “I would like to marry her.” Years later, he was trying to get his chance to go out with her, but Fay, doubting his sincerity, told him she “wouldn’t marry him if he was the last man on earth.” It was John’s good friend, Tom Smith, who helped win Fay over by letting her know that John “meant every word he said.” Their first date was a ride on the party boat, Wolf, up to the pavilion in Minnesott Beach where the young people danced on Saturday nights.  And what a ride it turned out to be! “Love at First Sight” turned into 66 ½ happy years of being married to each other until John’s death two years ago in December 2011.

Theirs was the generation of young people, many of whom were just graduated from HS in 1941, when December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor, changed everything.  Fay remembers the day that a girl friend told her that their school chum, Elwood Aldridge, had been killed when his ship, the Helena, which was located at Pearl Harborwas attacked by the Japanese.  John was the last person from Oriental to be with young Navy man, Elwood, before he died because John was the one who took him back to his ship when he left Oriental for the last time.

John also joined the Navy, did duty in North Africa, then the South Pacific.

So after just a few brief months of dating, from September 1942 until their marriage in 1945, courtship was carried on by letter writing like so many others of the “Greatest Generation.” Fay often re-reads these war year love letters from her “last man on earth.” During those long war years, in which John had only one leave when they could be together, Fay pursued her education and her degree in teaching at the encouragement of her Daddy, who told her that he could help her get her education, but she was “the one who had to earn it.” She kept the promise she made to him to complete her education by coming back from San Diego after she was married to John in 1945 to finish her student teaching.

Fay remembers the ways things were done back then, working together and not incurring debt. An example of this old fashion collaboration and community support is the concrete block building on Board Street, which is now Studio 55. Shared by the Oriental Woman’s Club (bottom floor) and the Masons Lodge (top floor), the structure was built one block at a time, with no credit or loan,  as people contributed to the fundraising efforts led by Dr. and Mrs. J.J. Purdy.

Later, Miss Rena Daniels started a fund to purchase a carpet for the Woman’s Club, but instead it turned into a building fund and had grown to $10,000. That, along with half the sale price of their building with the Masons, gave the Oriental Woman’s Club $16,000 to build their current building on Gilgo Street.  This land, along with the lots for the Free Will Baptist Church, and the little town beach on Neuse Drive, was donated by the Dolphin Company through the influence of John Bond who originally owned all the land from Vandemere Street along the waterfront to the land adjacent to Whittaker Creek.  What a great example of how big things used to be accomplished by people through step-by step hard work, community support and cooperation without incurring a lot of debt, as well as another example of the generous, giving spirit of our early families.

Throughout much of their time in Oriental, John and Fay owned a construction company. Butch Hardison remembers John Bond as a “great man and a great contractor.”  John built a house for Butch’s mother at his cost after hers burned down and she was left with little from the insurance company. John also built the Town Hall/Fire Hall without charging anything for his labor.  The building was remodeled in 2012 by John and Fay’s son-in law, Bob Maxbauer, who was town manager at the time.

Fay enjoyed working for Sail/Loft Reality with Joe Gwaltney, Larry Gwaltney’s father and founder of the business.  She would show people homes and then bring them back to the office where Joe would “close the sale.” She could always tell who was going to be happy in Oriental and who wouldn’t be.

She has served on many organizations, including the Oriental Woman’s Club as president and in other offices, still volunteers at the Oriental Historical Museum, and is very active in her church, Oriental First Baptist. In fact, Fay actually does some of the landscaping and is responsible for all the beautiful flowers around the church property as well as keeping her own garden from which she cooks, cans, and pickles artichoke and watermelon rind!  Fay also cooks Sunday dinner every week for her family.  Even the turtles get taken care of by Fay! Known as the “Turtle Lady,” she feeds about 35-50 turtles who come up into her yard regularly for a meal.  What does she feed them you ask?  Dog food!  Even Goldie, her faithful companion, knows how to serve and share what she has!

John and Fay have given so much to this community, but their signature event will always be the Annual “Come one, Come all!” Watermelon Cutting, held continuously every 2^nd Sunday in August at 4 pm; Rain Date: “Wait 5 Minutes.”  This gift to the community of Oriental was inspired by Fay’s parents, who used to bless others in the same way with watermelon cutting parties. One year, 45 years ago, John and Fay had extra watermelons and the rest is history. Don’t miss it. Everyone is invited!!

Energetic at 91 in September 2014, with that beautiful smile, twinkle in her eye, and skip in her step, that caught John’s eye back in the eighth grade, Fay, winner of many medals with Senior Olympics and other sports competitions, teaches a vigorous water aerobics class at the Village Health and Fitness Club twice a week and a stretch class three days a week and along with her beautiful dog, Goldie, spreads good cheer and happiness all around Oriental and beyond.

John, who wrote many poems, wrote this one about Fay.

Just Writing… 

The worth of gold is what you can hold,

The love of a wife-its limits are untold.

The joy it brings, the peace of mind,

It is a blessing for mankind.

Now I know that kind of girl,

She can put my heart in a whirl.

She can bring laughter when I am sad,

Make me face problems and be glad. 

The joy she has given me I’ll never forget,

Although in my burdens I sometimes fret.

She has gotten me over trouble and strife,

Now you know I am speaking of my wife! 

Some say she is one in a million.

I’d like to make it one in a trillion

Sometimes I hope she understands,

I love her so much because I am a man.

 

 

Thank you, Fay, for being such a positive example of love and service, faith and faithfulness, fitness and family. We love you! Happy 91^st Birthday!

 

Readers are invited to return to the top of this story and click on the ‘Reply’ link to share some memories of Fay or to leave a message.

Written by Lorraine Yaeger,

Public Relations Coordinator

Century 21 Sail/Loft Realty

716.249.1787