Martin's Bake Shop, Jonesville NC, Yadkin County

As a young boy growing up in Jonesville NC in the early 1960's I lived over on Bridge Street and we would walk to Jonesville School which was about half a mile. There were two treats that we would have on our walk and one was the Martin's Bake Shop. They always had fresh Hot N Now doughnuts in the window when we would walk by. Krispy Kreme didn't have any thing on Martin's fresh doughnuts. They were five cents a piece when I was growing up and other's have said they can remember when they were two for five cents. Martin's was a very successful business in Jonesville at that time and even there after. I can remember in later years they made some of the best Fried Pies that I have ever tasted. Every country store around sold Martin's Fried Pies. They did real well evidently in the distribution of the fried pies. I will have to hand it to Thad and Leon Martin they had a good product. There is nothing like it today. Today we have preservatives and corn syrup in every thing we buy. That is where the real taste has disappeared. I wished someone had their old recipes laying around somewhere. Jonesville misses you Martin's Bake Shop.

Book of Gratitude, Air Conditioning

When I was born in 1955 in Elkin NC at the Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, I was born premature. I weighed 4lbs and 5 oz. My mother was able to return home while I was left at the hospital to stay in an incubator until I was big enough to come home. My mother and father said that when they pulled up in the parking lot of the hospital they could hear me crying outside of the hospital. I never thought about it until I had grown up that the hospital didn’t have air conditioning and that the windows were raised to keep cool in the middle of July. We grew up in Jonesville NC without air conditioning and I didn’t think a thing about it being so hot. All of our cars didn’t come with air conditioning either. We just rode around with the windows down. We used an oscillating fan and that was all that we had in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I can remember when my grandfather built his new house in Hamptonville NC that he put in an attic fan. When the fan was on it would suck the outside air in and the curtains would stand straight out. Later on dad had one installed in his house too. A few years later dad bought a 50,000 btu window unit to go in our den and he had to have it specially wired for 220 volts. This was probably in the mid 1970’s. After I graduated and moved out and got married he had central air installed in his house. Today it is a common thing to have central air conditioning in every new house and also the older apartments now have a window unit. All the automobiles now come with air too. I am gracious for air conditioning everywhere that I go now. You just couldn’t imagine going into a restaurant or a store shopping that didn’t have air conditioning. If people had to go without air conditioning for just a few days they would have a hard time making it in today’s society. The schools in our community in Yadkin County would dismiss early when the summer heat was above a certain temperature because some of the rooms were not air conditioned. Just think of all of the animals that live and sleep outside in the summertime. Some of them do not even have any shade. The first thing that we look for while we stay outside is a good old shade tree to keep us cool. I must say again that I am grateful for air conditioning, fans and also shade trees to keep us cool in the summertime.

Hugh Chatham Memorial Bridge, Elkin NC, 1931-2010

Many years ago as a young boy growing up in a small town, namely Jonesville, NC in Yadkin County, my grandma Nannie Hopper Hall would take us for walks. Grandpa had his driver's license but grandma never learned how to drive so we would walk every day from Jonesville where they resided to Elkin NC. The two small towns were divided by the great Yadkin River, another story for another time. We would begin our stroll on North Bridge Street and walk down by the Northwestern Bank, then by Roses Village Motel where grandma must have known someone that worked there because she would always stop and talk. Then we would stroll across the Hugh Chatham Memorial Bridge which crosses over the Yadkin River. Our journey would always end up at Roses 5 and 10 cent Store where they had a counter full of hot cashews and peanuts. There was also all types of candy that you could buy by the pound. Grandma would always buy a pound of something and share it with us. A few years ago the bridge was condemned by the state for vehicles and for the last few years has been used as a walking bridge. This year however the death sentence has be sent out to take the bridge down on July 26th. DLB Inc from Hillsville, Va got the contract and has already begun moving in the heavy equiptment. The old icon is going to be torn down along with all the old memories. We also don't want to forget who it was a memorial for. Hugh Chatham one of the pillars and owners of Chatham Manufacturing Company in Elkin, NC. They were a major employer and provided a lot of jobs for the people of Elkin and the surrounding area. The Chatham Family generously did so much for this town and now that is being torn down. My grandma, grandpa, dad and mom all worked for the Chatham's. Bye, Bye Hugh Chatham Bridge.

Slop Jar, or Proper Chamber Pot

My grandmother and grandfather grew up in the old ways of living. My grandfather had a house in the city limits of Jonesville NC with indoor plumbing and sold his nice home and moved to a cabin in Lone Hickory NC without any plumbing. He had nothing but an old outhouse. I guess since he grew up that way it didn't bother him very much. As a young boy playing in that old cabin I used to see a white enamel bucket with a lid under their bed and I ask grandma what that was? She said it was a slop jar. Well being young I didn't question it anymore until it hit me just a few weeks ago. I was thinking what it would have been like to live back in the days of no indoor plumbing and nothing to use but the house out back. I thought to myself that it would be mighty cold to go out and use the bathroom in twenty degree weather and how cold it would be sitting on the throne in the dark in the middle of the night. That would be almost intolerable. Then it came to mind what grandma had said while I was about seven years old. What is that old bucket under the bed grandma? She said it was a slop jar, and now I realize why you didn't have to go out in the cold, cold weather to use the bathroom. I still can't imagine how one would put the merchandise into the jar but that is another story to ponder upon. I can only imagine a special wooden chair with a hole cut out in the center.