Interview with past editor and photographer at the Daily Reflector | |
---|---|
Interviewee: | David J. Whichard, II, and Stuart Savage |
Interviewer: | Chris Oakley and Dale Sauter |
Date of Interview: | January 14, 2009 |
Location: | Greenville, N.C. |
Length: | Approximately 41 minutes |
Good afternoon. Welcome to Joyner Library. I'd like to thank the two of you for agreeing to sit down with us today. First I thought that I would ask you to just briefly introduce yourselves, tell us a little bit about your experience at the Greenville Reflector, when you worked there and what you did and so forth.
I'm Stuart Savage. I have been there as of this coming March fifty years. [Points to Mr. Whichard] And he hired me.
It's his fault.
And over the years what different things have you done there?
Started off as a photographer then moved to news writing.
So I imagine you took most of the photos we're going to be looking at and discussing.
I took some of them, not most of them.
Okay.
My name's Dave Whichard. I started with the Reflector full time in 1948 and retired in 1996. I worked as a kid in the press room, and that sort of thing. When I came back in '48 I was in the newsroom and did news editorials for a number of years, and then was publishing the paper in my latter years there.
The "Seeds of Change" project that Dale has put together really focuses on the period from 1949 to 1967, particularly how Greenville, Pitt County, and the Daily Reflector changed during those years. When thinking back to this post-war period, how do you think that the area and the Reflector changed?
The whole technology of producing newspapers changed at least twice during that period. The newspaper's grown; the community's grown. Back in the '40s
Greenville was probably fifteen, twenty thousand people, maybe a little less. I don't think it would be twenty thousand. But, you know, it was a small newspaper, three or four thousand circulation in the '40s, and it began to grow after the war as everything else did. And there's been a vast change, as I say, in the technology from hot metal to cold type and now to all that is done with the digital system. [To Mr. Savage] You know more about that than I do.
When I started we used film, four by five Speed Graphic cameras, and today we don't use film. It's all digital. There's been a tremendous change photographically.
Do you guys remember anything specific, significant changes at the paper, during that time period? You moved offices, I think, during that time period, right? Wasn't there a new office that opened on Evans Street? I believe it was.
The building was on Evans Street, at the corner of Evans and Third Street. In 1956 we moved to a new building on Cotanche Street between Second and Third Streets. Is that right, Stuart? Yeah. And that location was the location of the Reflector for I guess twenty or thirty years until they built the present facility in the industrial park. But the one on Cotanche Street was expanded and expanded until it took almost that whole block.
It's now ECU's computer center.
Oh, is it? Okay. Are there any particular events or issues that you distinctly remember covering from that era? For example, do you remember when JFK came to Greenville in 1960, and how did people in Greenville sort of react to that?
It was sort of a big deal.
How were people in Greenville reacting to that, because this is the first time a presidential candidate had ever come to Greenville, at least that I know of. I don't know if there had been--.
It was, yes.
Was there a lot of excitement in the town? Were there any people that were, I don't want to say opposed to this, but were sort of seeing it maybe negatively, or was this just kind of the whole town was very excited about this?
I think the town was excited about it.
Yeah, I think everybody was excited about it. An event in Greenville was an event for Eastern North Carolina, so they had a lot of people from a lot of different towns, not just Greenville. And he spoke right up here about three hundred yards in the area behind what is now McGinnis Theater over there, what used to be the Training School where I went to school as a kid, and you probably did too, Stuart. [Mr. Savage nods] It was still there. It's been there a long time. But that's where the event was. That's where the first football field was. That's where they had Kennedy's event here. But it was a big deal, no question about that.
Did you take the photographs of when Kennedy came?
Some of them, yeah.
Do you remember any of them in particular? Do you remember--? Did you go to--? I think you went to a tobacco warehouse, right--
Yeah.
--for an auction or something? Do you remember that at all? Were you there for that?
The warehouse was full of people.
Right, right. I think we have some really good photos of that which will be on the website. How did--? I guess it was ECTC and then at some point in the 1950s it became East Carolina College. How did the University change during those years, or the College change, during those years?
East Carolina went from an institution with--I've forgotten what the enrollment was. It was about--.
It was five thousand. When I went here it was five thousand. I graduated in '59.
Yeah. But probably in '46 or '47 it was about twelve hundred maybe, maybe not that many. And it probably had during the war less than two hundred men on the campus. All of them were women. They had the Wright Building and most of the activities went on in Wright. They didn't have any of these buildings in this area. The dining hall was over here.
That was the westernmost.
The westernmost part of the campus. All this was woods. We called it the College Woods. When we were kids growing up in Greenville and playing over here, between here and Reade Circle, I guess, there wasn't anything over here. It was a beautiful wooded area, had a lake down here near where Tenth Street is. But it was quite different.
Did the community really accept the growth of Greenville? Was there any tension or conflict between "town and gown," as they--?
I don't think so. Greenville's always been very, very supportive of East Carolina, and it was during those years. I don't remember any tension or difficulty or that sort of thing that was very significant. Do you, Stuart?
No, not at all.
One thing I thought to ask, in retrospect do you guys see any social and economic changes maybe that were not covered so much by the newspaper that you thought, you know, looking back, that should have been?
Well I'm sure we missed a lot of things that went on, but we were involved in a lot of things too.
Sure.
It was a farm economy then.
Right.
An agricultural, purely agricultural, in Pitt County. Pitt County was--. We were the first or the third, depending on how the crops were, in agricultural production in North Carolina every year, primarily because we were the largest tobacco-producing county in the world, or in the United States--and in the world, for that matter--during those years. And that's about what we grew. We grew a little cotton, some soybeans, some corn, but it was an agricultural community and an agricultural county. There wasn't much industry. The industry started coming here--. With the exception of one textile plant and other things like that the industry started coming here, I guess, in the early to middle '50s. And that's when we began to develop an industrial base.
So one of things that Dale did with this is he actually titled it "Seeds of Change," based on the idea that it was during this time where you begin to see the start of
that transformation from Greenville, which as you said was overwhelmingly agricultural, to a mixed economy of industry and agriculture. It seems like you're saying this process started in the 1950s.
It did.
Is that about right?
Mm hmm.
And Greenville was the smallest of the towns in this area. If you think about it, Rocky Mount was larger; Kinston was larger; Goldsboro was larger; Wilson was larger. We were larger than Washington and Tarboro. But all those other communities were much larger communities than Greenville was at that time, probably until about 1960 it began to change.
And was that because of the new industry coming in, and the College?
Well, it was because of the industry coming in, and the University growing, the economy changing, the structure of the community economically was changing. Greenville just has seen more change in the last forty years or fifty years than any of these other communities have.
And the other ones are struggling.
A number of them are, yeah.
Like if you go to downtown Wilson or Rocky Mount or any of these places now, they are really--.
But New Bern's doing well. New Bern's always done well. Although it wasn't one of the largest communities it's done well. Kinston's probably had the
toughest time of all. Goldsboro's had the air base there. That stabilized that and continued to make Goldsboro grow.
I noticed one thing. When we were looking through the photographs I was stunned at how many of them were related to the actual expansion of infrastructure. I mean there were so many photographs of paving roads, new buildings, construction, redoing the airport, the hospital. It just seemed to me that during this time it was, as you say, a period where Greenville was literally rebuilding itself.
Yeah. Well that was when the first hospital was built then, because when we were growing up the hospital was over on Johnston Street.
Yeah.
And there were a few apartments, but it wasn't a very large hospital. But it was in the late '40s or early '50s we built a hospital out near where the hospital is now. It's what's now the--
County office building.
--county office building. It was built with Hill-But--Hills-Burton--Hill-Burton--that was the law--Hill-Burton money that was the federal matching funds for that. Pitt County had a bond issued that's--and I've forgotten what it was for, maybe a million dollars?
Not a lot--.
Not a lot of money, maybe less than that. I think the whole hospital cost about three million dollars or something like that. But that was in the days when it was hard to pass a bond issue because you voted against the registration and not against the people going to the polls. There was a lot of hard work by a lot of leaders all over the
county to make sure that bond issue passed. And that was the beginning of the medical center.
Right, which has meant so much, I mean the whole thing has meant so much to Greenville the past thirty years or so. Another thing we noticed is--I just was struck by this--is how much of the coverage was devoted to things that related to the automobile: new highway patrolmen; new equipment; new roads. It seems like there was just a long string of photographs related to the automobile, and I was just wondering if you guys could discuss a little bit about how cars and automobiles changed Greenville, because it seems to me probably before World War II very few people in town had one, and by the 1950s and '60s, you know, obviously many families had them, and it just seemed to change the town tremendously.
After the war when cars became plentiful, and not only cars but tractors and everything else, replaced mules and--.
And carts.
Carts.
Wagons.
Now you need policemen. Now you need better paved roads and bridges and the town begins to--. The business, it's not just all focused on the downtown area now. You begin to see that growth outward a little bit to shopping centers and so forth. It seems the entire landscape of Greenville begins to change in this time.
Well it did, because all of eastern North Carolina was very severely impacted by the Depression. And Greenville, like most of the other towns in eastern North Carolina, really didn't start getting out of that until after World War II. There
wasn't any development and that sort of thing during the War. You didn't have anything to develop with. Everybody was gone. So while the Depression was in the '30s, eastern North Carolina really didn't begin to dig out of it until the late '40s and early--mid-'40s and early '50s. And that's when you saw the big change in--. As you say, agricultural went from mules and plows to machinery and that sort of thing. The automobile was here; started talking about airplanes a little bit, and that sort of thing.
Yeah, I've done some research--.
The University was growing.
Right.
East Carolina was growing, which was what impacted Greenville.
Right. Well I've done some research in census figures, and one thing I noticed in eastern North Carolina, if you look at the census data from 1950, more than fifty percent of the residents in eastern North Carolina were in some way linked to agriculture. By 1970 it was down to about fifteen percent. Another decade it was down to about five percent. So within thirty years you're talking about a region where the majority of the population somehow directly linked to agriculture to thirty years later it being a very small percentage. That's a dramatic change in thirty years.
It was.
The hospital became the biggest payroll in the county as opposed to agriculture.
That's right.
I just wondered--the anniversary issue for the Daily Reflector. I remember reading you guys talking about some of the social changes that happened in this area and
maybe what role the newspaper played in it. Could you kind of talk a little bit about what role the newspaper played in it, maybe to possibly make that change happen or cover the change itself?
We had a lot of change and a lot of different coverage. We covered Klan rallies. [To Mr. Savage] Do you remember that? You did some of that. They'd be interested to hear you talk about that.
Yes, we would actually.
I've covered several Klan rallies, and they were--. Actually you put the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP and the Klan all together and one would fall out of the bag just as quick as the other one. They were all radical at that time.
Yeah.
Would you say this area was maybe a little bit behind as far as the cycle--well, obviously to bigger cities--but in terms of--?
Other parts of the state? No. We were probably--
About the same?
--the same pace, had the same thing in the Piedmont and in the mountains in those years.
Okay.
In the '50s and '60s we dealt with desegregation of the schools, doing away with segregation in the schools, and the facilities and that sort of thing. We were fortunate in Greenville. We had good leadership, both the white leadership and the black leadership. We had good leadership and they were able to work together and meld
together and just create a lot of good situations that sort of helped us get through the time. It was a very tough time for everybody.
Sure. I can imagine.
That was when Gene West was mayor. That's when we really got the change. D.D. Garrett's still here. He was a very big part of that. He and I worked together--. He and I went to--. At one point we said, all right, we've got to deal somehow with the eating arrangements. So I guess Gene West, the mayor, kind of set it up and went and talked to folks and said we need to integrate your restaurant, or your eating place. And so two of us would go together, like D.D. and I went together to one to eat. The guy knew--the restaurant owner knew--we were coming. We sat down at a table, ordered and ate. I don't know that we enjoyed the meal, but at least we got through it.
A little stressful.
But I mean that kind of thing. And there were a lot of people that did that, and that sort of helped get through it. There weren't any demonstrations about the schools here that I can remember.
[Shakes his head]
I had three children in the public schools then and they all got along well.
Do you remember a particular Klan rally that you went to cover? Was this in Greenville or was it like outside Pitt County?
Outside in Pitt County. I guess my most memorable one was one down on 43 toward New Bern. One of the television photographers was right beside me and he got
hit in the head with a--. Apparently somebody shot him with a ball bearing from a slingshot, at least that's what we all thought.
That was in the '50s, wasn't it, or the '60s, probably in the '60s.
Early '60s, probably.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think the little story, kind of like the one you told, you and D.D. Garrett, are of interest, if any of those pop out to you. Of course maybe they will when you see the images as well.
But we had problems here. We--you know. We had a public swimming pool. And it needed repair because it was built during the '30s, I guess, [Looks at Mr. Savage and he nods] maybe the early '40s. And it needed repair and they were trying to decide what to do with it, and rather than building a new pool that would obviously be integrated they just decided, well, we're going to close down this pool and not build another one. And it was probably four or five years before that second pool was built.
Probably longer than that.
Maybe six, seven years. But there weren't, you know, there were problems. It was a--. I think Greenville got along as well--the County got along as well--or better than other people around here.
Mm hmm.
Do you think there's any particular reason for that, or anything about Pitt County that made the transformation smoother here than perhaps elsewhere?
I don't know. I don't know what it was. Everybody--. Well I think here we had good leadership. I'm sure the other communities had good leadership, too, because
there weren't really many problems in the towns around here. The state tried a lot of different kind of different things about how we're going to handle segregation, but we worked through it. We weren't like Virginia that closed their schools and that sort of thing. And so we had good leadership at the state level as well as good leadership in most of the communities, I think.
I think the rural parts and smaller towns were worse than cities like Greenville.
It was. You're right. The more rural the area the more difficult it was, I think.
Not as good leadership, perhaps, not as good people able to lead--well-educated people to lead--perhaps in smaller towns. That's just a guess.
I don't know.
Do you guys want to take a look at some photos?
Yes, sir, whatever you like.
All right.
What do you want us to do, go through here?
Yeah, and just, you know, if you see something that interests you, or--.
Well I think we agreed that's old Wright Auditorium where they're playing basketball.
Is that the first place that they started playing basketball as sort of official college sports?
Yeah.
Yeah. That was the place for everything. That was the only place we had.
Do you remember when ECU first started--or ECTC/ECC--first started competing in, I guess, official NCAA sports? Was that the '50s?
I don't know that we knew anything about the NCAA then.
I don't think it technically existed then, to be honest.
I don't know. East Carolina had a football team in the--'40s?
[Nodding]Forties.
I think it was in the '40s, or a basketball team, probably before then. Didn't have much teams in the '40s because all the men were gone.
You only need five to play basketball, but you--.
I'm not sure they had a men's basketball team or football team during the war years. But I know they had teams during the '30s, the late '30s.
Yeah.
Because that's when I think Bill Greene was on the team. Who was the guy that was Herbert Bonner's administrative assistant?
Jack?
No, Jack--no.
Oh--Henry Ogles . . . ? No.
I can't think of his name either. Stuart, you're young.
You're supposed to be--those names. But he was on--. Oglesby, Ray Oglesby--not Ray.
Henry.
Henry. No. Ray was the auctioneer, wasn't he?
Ray was the auctioneer.
And his brother.
Henry.
Henry, yeah. He was on the first football team, which was probably in the late '30s. And that's St. James, nothing around. That's all built up now. This was on Fifth Street about three blocks east--. It was on Sixth Street, about three blocks east of the University. I know where that was. That was--.
Yeah. Had all the--around Christmastime.
That was really kind of a big thing, wasn't it, apparently?
That looks like the old hospital.
Well, it may be. But that is Dr. Brooks, isn't it, Dr. Fred Brooks? I bet it is. I think that's who it is.
Probably.
Huh? [Looks at Mr. Savage; he nods] That's who that is. And that was--I don't where that was taken. That could be in the hospital. But I bet that's who that is.
And Joyner Library.
Yeah. Looks like the grain storage out there at [inaudible].
Either that or the place in Farmville.
Yeah, I though about that, yeah. That's probably where it is, out there at Farmville manufacturing plant. Now, look at that. That looks like Ramona Van Nortwick.
That's Ramona.
It's bound to be. And I don't know who she is. That must be a Miss Greenville pageant or something.
Those seem to be very popular too. We ran into a lot of photographs of beauty pageants and various things in the '50s and '60s.
Yeah. I don't know who that is.
I have no idea.
The fair.
That was a big deal, I guess.
Evans Street in Greenville
Yeah, looking south.
That's Port Terminal.
Yeah. I've forgotten whose boat's in there, but that's what that is, down at the port. We had a port on Hardee's Creek, which is out here about a mile and a half, and it was just a shallow-water, a port that started--. I guess Bruce Sugg was the one that got that going in the '50s and '60s, and they operated for awhile.
The late '40s. They brought sugar in during the '40s, I think.
More beauty pageants. I don't know who that is.
I think he's one of the evangelists that was here.
He looks like an evangelist, before TV.
Yeah.
Huh. Do you remember him?
Solomon Gibbs, absolutely.
Yeah.
Our police chief.
Tobacco.
A great tobacconist . . .
That must have been--.
That is--.
H.B. Lilly.
H.B. Lilly, yeah. He was an ABC officer. They're raiding a still.
Oh, yeah, the stills, yeah. That was--.
We saw a number of those.
Yeah.
I guess moonshining was still a big business in Pitt County in the '50s.
I used to help them blow up stills. That was a lot of fun.
I don't know who that is. That's part of the parade. I like that car. That's a great car, isn't it?
It sure is.
Overton's Supermarket. That's on Jarvis Street.
That's the hospital back in the back.
Yeah, that's the old hospital right there.
Okay.
I don't know who she is.
--evolution of agriculture.
Yeah. That was probably seed or fertilizer. Can you see these?
Yes.
And that's a tobacco cart. That's what they used to bring the tobacco in. Rock Hudson. That was the old Pitt Theater that's gone. That's some women working in one of the tobacco processing plants. Billy Griffin. He's the guy that designed that first building on Cotanche Street. That's the old building on Evans Street. Is that the--?
That's the Memorial Drive Bridge, I think.
Yeah.
Before they four-laned it.
Yeah.
It looks relatively new.
We got another still. That's a big still. We had a lot of parades.
Yes, you did. That was one thing we noticed. There was a lot of public celebrations, seems like more than there are now. [Mr. Savage nods]
Yeah. It does seem like it was a bigger deal back then.
There was more for people to get out and do downtown.
That's a great shot. This is probably that old hotel right there.
Yeah.
It's taken from the top of the courthouse.
Top of the courthouse.
Stuart, do you remember taking any of these? Do you see anything that you: oh, I remember taking that one?
Not of these particularly, but I--. There's a lot of them in there.
Actually, while I'm thinking about it, the ones you didn't take, did you guys do much for hire, excuse me, for hire photographers, or was there just a few other guys besides you that--?
He was it. We all took pictures of the news--.
I was it from '59 until up in the '60s [?], probably.
Okay. I was just curious about the ones you didn't take, if they were just maybe people you, you know, that did it for--.
No, they were staff people.
Just staff.
Roy Hardee.
Okay.
Alvin Taylor.
Okay.
So everyone was a photographer back then.
Yeah, everybody was. I used to take pictures too.
That's interesting.
I don't know who they are, Stuart. It must have been--.
I don't either.
--something to do with politics, because that's right in front of the courthouse on Third Street. That must have been a new farm-
Tobacco sprayer.
--sprayer or something, yeah. That's in Wright.
Yeah.
That must be East Carolina's graduation--
Yes.
--in Wright Auditorium.
Making bread at Sunbeam Bakery.
Is that what that was? Yeah. Now, that must have been a cane processing or something, where you had the mule doing the thing, and the guy feeding cane, and the syrup coming out there. [Mr. Savage nods] Must have been sugar cane, but I don't remember our growing much sugar cane. Would it have been corn?
Right toward the end of the Second World War, I think there was--
Some sugar cane.
--some sugar cane grown.
That's probably what--. That's what it looks like. That's the old bridge.
That's the one--
That's the bridge at Grimesland, I think.
Oh. That's the one they just moved.
Yeah, that's the Grimesland Bridge.
That draw came from either New Bern or Morehead.
The drawbridge?
The draw span, yeah.
Mm hmm. That's Jarvis, isn't it, Jarvis Memorial Baptist--.
Methodist.
Methodist Church. I don't know what that is.
Probably--
Building somewhere?
--a University building.
it looks like--
Yeah, we like to put a lot of the snow scenes in there because it seems like now people say we don't get so much snow as we used to.
We don't.
Yeah. That's what everybody tells you.
I don't know what that is.
That's Elm Street Park.
Oh, yeah, okay.
One other thing I was curious about too, like earlier on there's a lot of coroner photos, which of course won't be in there. Was that more of just they needed you guys to do it?
Uh huh, took--. I took all the pictures for the police department.
Yeah. Most of those obviously wouldn't end up in the newspaper, though.
Some of them did.
Some would and some wouldn't? Okay.
It just depends.
Most of them--. You were just doing it for them because they needed the pictures.
Yeah.
That's what I was thinking. Yeah, okay. I was curious about that.
That's June Rose, who was superintendent of the Greenville Schools, and D.H. Conley, who was superintendent of the Pitt County Schools, and that is--what was her name?--the librarian.
I can't think of her name.
I forgot too. I knew her. We were good friends and I can't remember her name.
One of the first bookmobiles, you think maybe, in the area?
Pardon me?
Maybe one of the first bookmobiles in the area, you think? [Mr. Savage nods]
Probably, and that was with Sheppard Memorial Library.
Okay.
She was the librarian there for a long time. I don't know what that is, Stuart.
One of the VOA sites. That was the guy who--.
Yeah, that does sound familiar.
What?
One of the VOA sites.
Oh, VOA, yeah. He was the guy that was head of it. I'd forgotten that. I don't know any of them. Well--.
That's Nat Van Nortwick. It's bound to be.
It surely is, isn't it?
Yeah.
Was that--? That's not at the courthouse, is it?
I bet that's the KAs.
Okay, yeah.
I bet that's exactly what it is.
Might well be.
I don't know how old he would have been there, but he's probably--. I bet that's what it is.
He looks mighty young.
The Pitt County fair. Was that the old school?
I think so.
The one down here? [Mr. Savage nods]
I remember something in there labeled that way.
Yeah. Well it looks like it's well-kept like that one is. [Mr. Savage nods] Now that was politics. That's Kennedy.
That's a good one, yeah.
Skipper Bowles, Terry Sanford, Sam Ervin--.
Luther Hodges.
Luther Hodges and--what was his name? He was the one before Luther who was from Durham. I can't remember his name. I don't know where that's taken. Where is that?
Looks like the White House.
Well, it could be.
Yeah, there were some in there labeled, you know, when you guys went to Washington.
Well that's probably what it was.
So that's probably, yeah.
He was in the Senate then. Hah! I like that.
We thought those were kind of interesting.
I don't know what that--. It must have been a--
Snow storm.
A what?
Snow storm.
Ah. That's the Wright Fountain.
Yeah, it got really cold, didn't it?
I've seen the Tar River frozen a couple of times.
Yeah.
Wonder what that was?
Yeah, the old Hardee's.
The old Hardee's.
The original Hardee's.
Original Hardee's.
The first Hardee's.
I kind of got interested in that.
He passed away last year, two years ago?
Not long ago, yeah.
Yeah about--a couple years ago. Maybe it was last year.
Yeah, he's--. I read his book that he did. It's an interesting story.
That girl's the Rogers girl, Rogers Warehouse.
Oh, yeah.
I can't think of her name.
Yeah. I don't know who that is. Is that you up there speaking?
Not me.
Introducing Kennedy, maybe.
I wonder who they are. You took a lot of pictures of a lot of pretty girls, Stuart.
Can't blame you there.
Tobacco.
Fireworks.
We're celebrating.
I don't know if y'all just had them on the Fourth of July, or--? Do you remember?
Probably Fourth of July.
Yeah. I thought that was a good one.
That was a good one. That must have been of the new hospital when it opened.
Probably.
The incubators.
These were--
That's Sam Winchester [?].
Sam Winchester [?], yea
--Asian dealers coming in for--.
And they must have had some Oriental visitors there.
Yeah. That was interesting.
I don't know what that was. Somebody had problems. That was the guy from Washington who spoke--. That's Herbert Bonner-
Herbert Bonner over here.
--right there. He was the Congressman for a long time. What was that guy's name from Washington? He was a great speaker. I've forgotten what his--he was from Little Washington--I've forgotten what his name was.
Yeah, there was a few architectural drawings where you guys had re-shot and I thought, wow, that could be a significant--.
That's probably an old--.
An old street layout.
Was that when they were doing Reade Circle, you think?
I don't know.
Well it shows--. It shows the old Eighth Street right there. I think that's what it is. It must be.
That's--
King.
Charlie King.
Charlie King.
I've forgotten what his name was. I don't know what they were building there, but it was a big place. I bet that was the stadium.
Yeah.
The stadium, okay.
Yeah, that's what that was. Governor Jarvis, he was the governor of the state who helped put East Carolina here. [Pause] What was that?
Somebody hanging.
They hung somebody in effigy. I don't know what that was. It was at a school, obviously, so it must have been when they were integrating the schools, is that right?
Probably.
Could be.
Here. [Turning the screen toward Mr. Oakley] That's what we were talking about, right there.
Oh, yeah.
I remember seeing that one, but I wasn't quite sure.
The next one's the kids going to school.
The first bombing of a public school in the United States was in Pitt County.
No kidding? Is that right?
Ayden-Grifton High School.
When was that? Do you remember what year?
Back in the '60s.
Was that at Grifton?
[Nodding]Ayden-Grifton High School.
I didn't know that.
Is that Phoebe Dale?
I don't know.
It looks a little like her. That's David Reid.
David Reid. [Pause] George Gardner--.
And that's Phil Goodson.
Phil, yeah.
Grady Nichols.
Yeah.
With one of his bird dogs. I don't know who that is.
Oh, what's his name?
Oh, that was the game warden.
Yeah.
Ah--.
Joe Teel.
Jay--.
Used to live out there by [inaudible].
That's my uncle.
Oh, is that right?
Yeah.
That's his uncle.
So that was his uncle.
Who is?
Joe Teel.
Yeah, Joe Teel.
Joe Teel, yeah. That's who it was.
Everybody's involved.
Have you seen Joe's picture? You better come look at it.
Yeah, I scanned it actually.
I bet it's Grady Nichols' bird dog. That's Leo and Frank Wooten. I don't know who the one on the left is. Well, I can't see those. They [inaudible].
That's the old high school, the old Greenville High School downtown.
Yeah. [To Mr. Sauter] Can we bring it up?
This one's kind of small. I don't know. Joe?
There might have been a couple that they saved a little funny.
Right.
So just skip it.
You know what; I've forgotten what his name was. That was when we were putting up the shelters.
The shelters.
The Cold War.
That's June Rose right there, bound to be. That old bank's gone. That was at the corner of Dickinson Avenue and Pitt Street, wasn't it, looking northeast. That's that one we were talking about. Yeah, that's right. We've gone through them all.
You sure did, yeah.
So after looking at those and everything, how do you think that--? A lot of people are going to be looking at these photos. There are going to be students of mine,
high school students, other students, who, this is a different world for them. How do you think that looking at these photos and looking at how Greenville has changed will sort of help teachers, students, and so forth--? That's really what this project is about in many ways is showing the origin of how Greenville changed during this era.
I think it would be helpful if--and you may be doing this--if you could have some approximate dates.
Oh, we will.
You'll have that.
Yes, we'll have exact dates in many cases.
Okay. You'll have some of the names?
Yes.
Okay. How many--?
I've given them a lot of names.
Well, yeah, I've given them a few, not many.
Pre-'49 stuff, like you said, is probably gone--right?--unfortunately, but this is--.
Well we didn't have any pictures before '49.
Oh, okay. So there weren't--. Okay. I see what you're saying. So it was just a text newspaper.
Because we didn't even have an engraving process back then.
Okay. That's explains that. Huh. That's interesting.
That Fairchild engraver.
That was probably '49 or '50. See we weren't doing a lot of photography before then.
Okay. Yeah, we didn't [inaudible].
I'm sure we weren't.
Okay. I wondered about that. But yeah, I'm definitely interested in the [inaudible].
Did you also do the developing of the film?
Yeah.
Yes.
Did everything.
It must have been pretty tough to get them all pretty consistent.
It was hot in a non-air conditioned building in the summertime.
Did that technology change at all, as you--?
Oh, yeah. Big time.
I noticed that it started out with mainly four by fives and then went to sixteen millimeter, I guess.
We did those all in a pan.
[Nodding]Mm.
And we used to do rolls in a pan.
Yeah.
Before we put them in cylinders.
Thank you very much for agreeing to do this for us. It's been a great help and we appreciate everything you've done for us and for this project.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Well thank you. Thank you for having us.
Thank you so much.
It's been a pleasure.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
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That was a great video, good to see those old boys are still able to contribute to the education and betterment of the world.----John Edwardshttp://www.justapinch.com