9 minute read
MON JULY
OPINION TODAY’S QUOTE: If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. – George Washington
Pieces of Kings Mountain History
One of my first experiences of independence was walking a half-block to Dewey’s, what most people then called the Pauline Store. By my time, Charley and Mary Spearman ran the place and they carried a variety of items including canned goods, dry goods, vegetables, and even had a butcher counter. It meant a lot to the community to have a store nearby because many folks didn’t own cars then. They walked. So, local grocery stores were where many people got their food.
Looking back at the history of the store through advertising in the Herald, I learned that they once also carried household appliances. Guessing, it was before those types of items were readily available in town.
Adults appreciated Charlie Spearman because he was a good butcher; folks traveled from across town, and even further, to buy meats at his counter. Kids, on the other hand, enjoyed the candy and ice cream section. Penny candy fit most children’s budgets, and the store had a good variety of chocolates and other popular candy of that period: candy cigarettes, bubble gum, Mary-Janes, Push-ups, and Sidewalks.
Outside the front door was a row of soda machines. I remember
seeing RC Cola and Coca-Cola, but I suspect they had Pepsi, too. Back then a soda cost five cents. Kids were devastated when LORETTA the price increased to a COZART dime. For a small child, opening the front door to the store was a challenge because it was very heavy, at least it seemed heavy to me. I was eight or nine. Just inside the door overhead was a large black fan that hung down from the ceiling. To the left was the cash register where Mary kept eye on things. Mary ran the front of the store and had experience in retail, I learned later. During World War II, she managed Roses downtown when all the men went off to war. Charlie and Mary made a good pair and shopping there was always pleasant. I’ll never forget Charlie greeting me saying, “Hello, Sissy,” my childhood nickname. The Spearman’s had three children: Norma, Diane, and Pat. I was too young to remember, or know for sure that Norma worked there, but I do remember Diane and Pat doing various chores around the store to help their parents out. Since that was the case, I feel sure Norma had worked there too. To the back left was a storeroom. Customers could return bottles in exchange for cash, which was common occurrence at that time. Kids could collect bottles along the side of the road and make a little money while cleaning
Pauline Mill area in 1914. Photo by Kings Mountain Historical Museum
up the neighborhood. You were required to put the bottles in a wooden crate for the bottler. I think we got one or two cents per bottle, and that the storeroom always smelled of damp cardboard.
One thing I do remember around the store were large, framed advertisements for various items, mainly soda and cigarettes. All the ads looked older, like they had been on the walls for decades.
While I cannot be positive, I suspect the store was built about the time of the Pauline Mill in 1910. It stood next door to store and had been built by C.E. Neisler. The mill is long gone now and all that remains is the guardhouse at the corner of Walker Street and City Street. A 1914 map shows a structure that might be the Pauline Store in that place. Gantt Street was cut through later, so it is hard to tell for sure.
Looking Back
These fond memories happened more than 50 years ago now. In the early to mid-70s, Charlie and Mary built a new store to the East of the old one and even provided parking out front. The building was spacious by comparison and had all new fixtures.
The old building sat untouched for decades and the roof eventually fell in. The building once stood open and I walked through the shell, remembering all those trips for my mom and neighbors to visit Charlie and Mary at the Pauline Store.
On Tuesday, city council discussed demolishing
See PIECES, Page 5A
Happy 4th of July –We can figure it out
Photo provided courtesy of the Bridges family
Dixie Homes Stores was a staple of Kings Mountain for years. An article in the Herald announced in May 1956 that Dixie Home Store had merged with Ketner-Milner Company in the Raleigh – Durham area. That year, the company name changed to Winn-Dixie. This photo was taken around that time. In the foreground a vacant store sits at 247 S. Battleground Avenue, where Dixie Home Store had been located. Subsequently, McGinnis Department Store took that space. Today, Kings Mountain Thrift operates at that location. In the background, where Plonk Tire and Auto is now located, was the new WinnDixie store that provided its customers ample parking and a modern self-service supermarket experience. On October 1, 1957, Winn-Dixie’s first ad ran in the Herald.
America has always been a land of hard work and struggles but always with the hope and dream of success and prosperity.
On the 4th of July we celebrate our Declaration of Independence which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The Second Continental Congress declared that the 13 colonies were no longer subject and subordinate to the monarch of England King George the III and were now united, free, and independent states. The Congress voted to approve our independence on July 2 and adopted the Declaration of Independence two days later,
Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said, “Aye, I know there shall be no nation on earth that works harder than the great and powerful United States, and so I dare say that the celebration of July 4th should be a day on which none shall work and instead all will refrain from exerting themselves in any way.”
Historians have said that when John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence, he did so in a bold hand, in a conspicuous manner, and rose from his seat, pointing to it, and said, “There, John Bull can read my name without spectacles, he may double his reward and I put this at defiance.”
“Independence Day:
freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.” – Glenn Mollette Guest Editorial Dwight D. Eisenhower Our freedom was won by the sheer will power of an early generation who determined to do whatever was necessary for our freedom. We had to fight. Our earliest generation determined whatever it took was worth it to separate from the authoritarian rule of England. Freedom is never easy. Most Americans at that time had sacrificed everything to pursue freedom of worship, to develop our ideas, businesses and personal interests. It took years for Americans to begin to
See JULY, Page 5A
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