« ^ 830104 C
Gerdner-Webb College Library
Away From Home At Christmas: Boiling Springs
p«0. Box 836
Boilind Sprinssf NC 28017
The world seemed a cold and dark place that
wartime Christmas of 1944, but a light of cheer
shone through the windows of the Cleveland
Sandwich Company. The Shelby Star reported the
week of Dec. 23,1944, that over 100 employees and
their relatives enjoyed singing “Jingle Bells” and
passing out presents to children at the company’s
Christmas party here at Boiling Springs.
Such homey scenes were on the mind of Yeoman
Lansford Jolley one year later. Jolley, serving in
the Navy, was spending a balmy Christmas, 1945,
on the deck of a military ship docked at the
Philippine Islands, wondering about his “folks
back home in Boiling Springs, and if they were
having a white Christmas,”
Jolley is one of several Boiling Springs residents
who by fate, such as a war, or choice, such as a
mission work, have celebrated their Christmases
far from home, in lands where snow, turkeys, and
cranberries are considered exotic.
In fact a celebration in a strange land was part
of the first Christmas, even though the holiday
tradiionally is celebrated by a homecoming; but of
all those present at the manger during the first
Christmas, only Joseph was at home.
Home was on Yeoman Lansford Jolley’s mind as
he played games, ate, and passed Christmas Day,
1945, with his shipmates on the U. S. Layson
Island, docked at Manila Bay in the Philippines.
The sole consolation of being so far from home,
Jolley recalls now, is “some of the best meals we
ever had” in the military were served on holidays.
Residents Remember
“Oh, it was a marvelous Christmas,” recalls
Washburn, who with his wife were serving as
volunteer mission workers for the Southern
Baptist Church, helping build houses for
missionaries to the African nation.
A “neighbor” 100 miles to the east invited the
Washburns to spend Christmas at the 900-acre
farm he operated for the church there.
Christmas south of the equator was a comon
place for Commander Bill Withrow (U.S. Navy,
ret.), now a political science instructor at Garn-
der-Webb college.
“I never had a Christmas at sea,” Withrow says.
Despite his 29 years’ service in the Navy during
three wars, Withrow was always able to spend
Christmas with his family, he says, although they
were often a long way from home
The Withrows celebrated their family holiday at
Ecuador, Spain, and New Zealand during the
commander’s tours of duty.
“He had bartered with one of the natives for a
suckling pig, and barbequed it for Christmas
dinner at one of what I’m sure were the few
(southern) barbeque pits in Africa,” Washburn
tells. “It was the first time I had sat down to a
whole pig, head and all,” Washburn says. “He
apologized for not having an apple in its mouth.”
“The New Zealanders have a reputation of being
more English than England,” Withrow recalls,
“and they exchange gifts on the 12th day of
Christmas. Santa Claus there is called St.
Nicholas.”
The dinner was set at a “rambling, African
ranch home,” Washburn says, with a “little
Christmas tree and Christmas cards.” Native
children of the farm workers were called to the
house, he recalls, told the Christmas story, and
given presents.
Across tie Pacific Ocean and 34 years later. Although the dinner was on Christmas Day Dec
Boiling Springs resident Gaines Washburn and his 25, Washburn tells it as a summer story; Zambia is
wife, Lela Belle, sat down to a Christmas dinner of in the Southern Hemisphere, where summer
whole, roast pig at Zambia, Africa, 1979. weather occurs in December.
The Spanish and South Americans exchange
gifts as freely as North Americans, Withrow said;
the New Zealanders show a preferance for home
made gifts rather than expensive items, he said,
giving each other gifts such as pastries.
And what about Christmas in a place at the far
end of the world where there’s always snow? No,
not the North Pole, but the southern antipode,
Antarctica, where Withrow was stationed and
where a glacier is named after him?
“No, I never spent Christmas at Antartica —
thank goodness,” Withrow says.
The Foothills View
THURS. DEC. 23,1982
P. O. Box 982 Boiling Springs. N. C. 28017
Addre.ss Correction Requested
BIk. Postage Pd. Permit 15
BOILING SPRINGS NC
SINGLE COPY 15 CENTS
BAR’S Love
At Christmas
“Love Excels at
Christmas” was the
theme for the annual
Christmas dinner of the
Flinthill Chapter,
Daughters of the
American Revolution
(DAR), held in the
lounge of the Charles I.
Dover student center at
Gardner-Webb College.
Mrs. Joseph Ken
drick, chaplain, gave
the invocation, and Mrs.
Robert F. Sweezy
welcomed the chapter’s
guests. Mrs. James
Padgett introduced the
dinner speaker, Mrs. A.
A. Powell, district II
director of the DAR,
who spoke on the love
that should be exem
plified by each of the
members' at Christmas.
University summer
science program, and is
a member of the junior
Beta Club, Washington
Works Program, Who’s
Who in American High
School Students, and is a
drum line captain for
the Crest band, in ad
dition to drumming for a
jazz band.
Alan has won medals
in social studies, biology
and chemistry, and
plans to study at N.C.
State University, where
he plans to major in
areospace engineering.
Mr. and Mrs. Riddle
and Alan’s sister,
Jackie, also attended
the dinner.
Mrs. Kendrick then
introduced the chapter’s
winner of the 1982 Good
Citizen from Crest High
School, Jerry Alan
Riddle, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Jerry Lee Riddle
of Grover.
The younger Riddle
attended the Ap
palachian State
Mrs.^ Louie Devaney
from the music
department of
Isothermal College,
sang three songs and led
the group in singing
carols. Mrs. Padgett
played piano.
The group then served
themselves at a buffet.
Hostesses were Mrs.
Kendrick, Mrs. Brooks
Piercy, and Mrs. James
Blanton.
Hamrick ''Bringing
Them In”
Hamrick,
the N.C.
V
E. mfn-'S -j
J
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James Y. Hamrick 1810-1849
The tombstone of James Young
Cleveland’s first representative to
General Assembly, is readily found in the Boiljng
Springs Baptist Cemetery.
But the dust of this man, who distinguished
himself, in the 1840s, by serving his constituents to
the last breath, lies in an old graveyard in a
pasture off Skinner Road, near Crest Junior High
School.
The early legislator’s great-grandson, Clifford
Hamrick Sr., found the stones of James, who died
in 1849, and his wife Catharine Hardin Hamrick,
and brought them to the more accessible spot last
spring. Re-gathering the family, at least sym
bolically, in one spot has become a cause for
Hamrick, retired proprietor of C.J. Hamrick and
Sons of Boiling Springs. He’s still in search of the
burial place of James Young Hamrick’s father, the stock. Send the children to school. Charles, you
George Hamrick, a fourth-generation descendent are a good boy for to work. Be attentive, git up the
of the George Hamrick who brought the family sheep, attend to the horses and cattle and hogs, if
name to America. you hant got salt enough, Drury Collins has and he
“I’m still looking for George Hamrick’s tomb- will let you have salt or you must borrow,
stone, to bring him in, ” Clifford Hamrick says. “Keep the stock off the wheat, have shoos made
James Hamrick, born in 1810, died in his 39th and mended as the nature of the case requirs, hall
year, during his second term in the legislature, leaves and put in the stables, keep plenty of wood.
Already ill with a severe cough and chest pains, he keep the potatoe banks civered in warm weather,
wrote of attending critical sessions and voting, out open a hole in the banks, if there is any young pigs,
of duty. The letter, written to Sandy Run attend to them... if you hant soad that little bottom
postmaster George M. Green, appears in The in wheet you had better do it yet. you had better not
Heritage of Cleveland County published last month go to school very much yourself but send the rest of
by the Cleveland County Historical Association; the childring if the new school is made up. Send
“I told my friends that I had a loving wife and 8 every day.
children that I loved dearly. I also loved my contry “Dear wife, I must come to a close and if
My punctuality in voting almost alarmed anything should happen either with me or you so
the hole house.’’ ^hat we never are permited to see each other again
Ten months later, James Young Hamrick was in this world I earnestly hope that we will meet
dead. To his family he had written, “Dear wife be each other in that uper and better world where we
composed and try to take cear of the family and shall meet to part no more...”
Funeral For
^■father Of
John Washburn
Monday afternoon
Rev. Ed Lynn recalled
bis first taking the
pulpit at Hoey United
Methodist Church
immediately after a
death in Lynn’s family
when “I needed a
friend.” John Wash
burn, Sr., was that
friend, he said.
Rev. Lynn spoke at
his friend’s funeral
Monday at Hoey
Memorial. Washburn,
72, died Saturday at
Charlotte Memorial
Hospital.
Washburn was a
the senior Washburn’s
wife, Martha Philben
Washburn; four sons,
including John Jr.; four
daughters; a stepson; a
brother; a sister, Mrs.
Sallie Horn, also of
Boiling Springs; 13
grandchildren; and six
great-grandchildren.
“John liked life and
that shows in his
children,” said Rev.
Sidney Lanier, also of
Hoey Memorial. Rev.
Lanier told the
children: “You have a
heritage of kindness. ’ ’
Washburn was
an
retired employee of honorary member of the
Eagle Roller Mill where council board of Hoey
he had worked more Memorial, and was
than 40 years. His son, custodian at the church
John, Jr., is a town for many years,
councilman at Boiling
Springs. Burial was at Sunset
Other survivors are Cemetery.
Here’s Openings
And Closings
At Last — WhaCs Worse Than Kudzu
In the northeast,
newspaper editorials
regularly compare their
presence to the “seven
plagues of Egypt” —
heading not for the
Pharaoh’s house, but
the homes of North
Carolinians.
They are gypsy
moths, and comparisons
of the insects to Biblical
plagues are ap-
propriate; the moths
can eat the leaves off
entire forests and
produce millions of
caterpillars dropping
off tree branches and
roof eaves.
Like kudzu, they’re
creeping on their way
without stop.
what northerners have
endured for the past
several years —
widespread defoliation
of forests.
Expect to see their
munching Infestation in
North Carolina within
eight to ten years, says
the North Carolina
Forest Service. The
moths currently are After hatching from
about 150 miles north of egg masses, the
the North Carolina- caterpillar larvae of
Virginia line and, ac- gypsy moths crawl up
cording to a state Forest tree trunks and bran-
Service spokesman, ches and feed on foliage,
“the insects are moving Their appetites are
south at the rate of 20 large. In the summer of
found recently in the
Raleigh area, and were
believed to have “hitch
hiked” into the state on
vehicles that had passed
through infested areas.
miles per year.”
The forester adds:
“There are no barriers
in their way.”
When the insects
reach North Carolina,
residents will cope with
1981, for example, gypsy
moths defoliated two
million acres of forest in
New Hamphsire.
Forestry officials ex
pect similar problems
here.
Like kudzu, gyspy
moths are exotics and
are not native to North
America. The moths
were first brought to
America in 1869 from
Europe by a French
professor from
Massachusetts, who
dreamed of crossing
them with silkworms
and establishing
thriving silk industry
and by the turn of the
century Boston was
experiencing a full-
fledged gypsy moth
infestation. Infested
trees were burned, egg
masses were scraped
from tree trunks, and
predatory insects were
imported from Europe
and Japan to prey on the
pests. All failed.
that can be done to halt
their advance that
hasn’t been tried before,
including mass
spraying of insecticides.
a
Gypsy moths were The moths escaped.
Despite man’s best
efforts over the nejtt 100
years — involving
millions of dollars in
state and federal funds
— the gypsy moth
slowly expanded its
range. Foresters say
that there’s not much
Perhaps the best
advice on coping with
the gypsy moths comes
from Robert Campbell,
a Massachusetts
forester who studied the
gypsy moth from 1910 to
1931. He noted that early
defoliations were most
severe, and the forest
gradually became more
resistent to gyspy moths
as time passed. “We
cannot,” he said, “hope
to preserve the forest
any more than we can
halt the ocean tides.”
Christmas comes
early for Boiling
Springs merchants,
with a majority of the
town’s stores closing
early Dec. 24 and
remaining closed the
25th. Below are local
store hours for
Christmas Eve day and
for Christmas Day:
Christmas Eve day:
closing early will be the
College Gulf Station at
noon and the Snack Shop
at 2 p.m. Keeping
regular hours the 24th
will be the Wagon Wheel
restaurant, open until 9
p.m., and the Campus
Cupboard, open until 6
p.m.
Christmas Day: the
following will be closed:
Mutt’s restaurant, the
Wagon Wheel, College
Gulf, and the Snack
Shop.
The Pantry con
venience store and the
Amoco station on High
way 150 South will keep
regular business hours
Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day.
Banks and savings
and loan offices will be
open Friday, but closed
Monday.
Post offices will be
open usual hours
Friday, but there will be
no regular home,
delivery, window ser
vice, or mail put in
boxes Saturday.
View On Holiday
The Foothills View
will not be published
next Thursday, Dec. 30,
due to staff vacations.
The View will resume
publication the
following Thursday,
Jan. 6,1983.
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