Newspapers / Hot Off the Hoover … / April 1, 1945, edition 1 / Page 13
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on one occasion he and I were sitting on the hotel porch and he was telling me a joke that he had told me a number of times before. I was sitting there about half asleep, not paying any attention to hm, but just then some man got into his auto mobile which was parked below the hotel in front of the company store. He was having considerable difficulty getting his aufco started. There was a loud grinding of gears and backfiring, which interrupted "Unc3.e Johnnie's" story. He stopped talking and, with an angry scowl on his face, was loolcing over the top of his glasses, at the man and his recalcitrant auto. Finally, however, the man got his car started but just as it got directly in front of the hotel there was a noise as though the whole rear end had exploded, and the car went dead again. "Uncle Johnnie ’.vas still glaring over his glass at the man and'auto. Just as the auto stopped he raised a forefinger and shak ing it belligerently exclaimed, "There, I hope ^ G he can't get away from there in a week!" ' Then, there was the time that one of the negro brakemen on the railroad,to whom he had been lending small sums of money, approached him one day while he was sitting in front of the company store and said, "Uncle Johnnie," let me have twenty-five cents more and that will make seventy-five cents that I owe you." Gesticulating with a fore finger in that characteristic manner of his, "Uncle Johnnie" replied, "I don't want you to owe me another damn centi" Another humorous incident that happened in Lawndale a long time ago, and vjhich Jean Schenck’related in his article in the Hoover Rail sometime ago,ivi11-bear repeat ing. Mr. S.A, Parker, manager of the company store, was the Sunday school teacher of a class of boys ranging in ages from about eight to twelve years. One of his pupils ' w as Irvin Reinhardt, whom everybody called by his nickname of "Rat." Oh the Sunday in question Parker was calling the roll and when he came to this boy's name he called out loudly, "Rat Reinhardt!" Now yRat" didn't particu3.ai’ly relish being called by iiis nickname, especially in Sunday school. I can see him yet, with an angry look on his face, as he hesitated an instaht before answering, ''Present." Parker, "G damn you, you know that 'aint m^-" right name!" Parker leaned over close to him and said in an urjdertone, "Damn you. I'll throw you out the window." I think that v;as . Parker's swan song aS a Sunday school teacher. Turning from the hvimorous to the more serious, I was saddened by the news of Mr. Jolm F. Schenck's death p. few weeks ago;. He, like his father, was a fine man and the people in Lawndale have lost a true friend and wise counsellor in his pass ing. ’ ' Another man I remember reverently is the late Professor vY.D.(Billy) Burns, who v/as Principal of Piedmont High School for.thirty or forty years, ft'ofessor Burns litoraU.y gave his life for the education of the poor boys and girls of North Caro- ■ lina, and no one can measure the reach of his influence in the_^ives ofv^the boys and girls who v;ere students at this institution. He passed on a nunj^er^ of years ago> but ho left behind him an enduring monu- ment in the hearts of his former pupils. ^ Graduates of Piedmont are today in the vangaard'&X- { of the professional and business l-ijre of North Ca,i;>!i lina. Two of its former ^aduates who occupy position/ of trust arid responsibility in the state are Colonel J.v7. Harrelson, Chancellor,of The Greater University of North Carolina, and Forrest H. Shuford, the presenE^"^^' Coa*iissioner of Labor. Both are former residents ^ of Lawndale. ' j In closing this rather ramblipg article I want to extend r.y sympathy to the fathers and . K mothers who ha ve lost sons in the presejtit world conflict. Some of the boys who have made the sup reme sacrifice I knew personally, and .grev;- up vdth the parents uf several of then. Boys, keep your chins up, for, according to the lateat , ' n ) T nows from the fighting front, it wont be long now till YCyLi K B I the Stars and Stripes will bo floating over Berlir^^-. and you will all be home again. Grover G. Rollins
Hot Off the Hoover Rail
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April 1, 1945, edition 1
13
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