My Hometown
Photographs contributed by Bill Gattis
Seen here are the members of the Hammerheads Club. On the back row are Lewis Reynolds, Tom Beaty,
John Gattis, Paul Flowers, Doug Johnson, Ed Beaty and Bob Roberts. In the middle are Oliver Green,
Pinky McRae, Richard Reynolds, Reid Gardner, Bill Gattis, Delmar Kimray and Bruce Cowan. And in the
front are Bob Rumfelt, Presley Barefoot, Boyd Moose and Floyd Horne.
ammerheads’ Clubhouse
A favorite haunt for many an East Belmont boy
By THOMAS LARK
BELMONT—It’s a bit
like a story from the pen of
Mark Twain.
It was a time of fellow-
ship and fun in the ’40’s. It
was the Hammerheads Club.
And according to Bill Gattis
of Belmont, this informal
boys’ organization was a big
part of life in East Belmont’s
Aberfoyle Mill Village, and
its modest clubhouse was a
favorite haunt for many a
lad.
Gattis, now 83, recently
recalled his days as a young
man in the group.
“We were a bunch of
hammerheads,” he said with
a laugh, “just hammerheaded
kids. That’s where the name
came from.”
The late Floyd Horne, an
older gentleman, was the
boys’ adviser. From him
came the club’s name, and it
stuck.
Gattis recalled being a
20-year-old U.S. Merchant
Marine back in 1947. His
late brother, John, was about
16 at the time. That year, the
brothers posed for a group
picture with their friends and
fellow club members.
Both the Gattis boys en-
joyed being in the Hammer-
heads. The group, founded in
1942, met in a small building
in East Belmont, built by the
members’ parents and lo-
cated not far from the
professional.
Catawba River. That build-
ing is now gone, along with
the mill village, too, for the
most part. But the memories
linger on.
Gattis and friend Pinky
McRae are the only sur-
vivors of what was once a
big group of guys. Sixty-
three years ago, about 20
boys and young men were
members, all enjoying crafts,
birthday parties, swimming
in the Catawba and of
course, just plain fellowship
and fun.
“We were just a bunch of
boys on the Aberfoyle Mill
Village who wanted to get
together,” Gattis recalled.
“We all lived on the mill vil-
lage.”
In “Doc’s” day, they called him a druggist. Today,
they’re known as pharmacists. But, one thing hasn’t
. changed. Pharmacists are still the most trusted of all
professionals. Today, drugstores are vastly different
from “Doc’s” corner store. They may be large and
high-tech with computers. And there are as many
women as men behind the counter. But, today’s phar-
macists care as much for patients’ well-being as “Doc” |
~ did. They serve our most important human need - our
~ health. Stop in and see Harold Bolick and his staff for
all your health care needs.
Since 1919
Gattis’s wife, the former
Dorothy Kimray, remem-
bered those days as an idyllic
time.
“The Aberfoyle Mill Vil-
lage was one of the best,”
she said, recalling a play-
ground with swings, a snack
stand, fish-fry events, a
portable picture screen that
was the same size as the ones
in the movie houses and a
whole lot more. “We had a
good growing up.”
Mrs. Gattis said the vil-
lage contained about 100
houses that were homes to
some 500 people. And in one
of them, just two doors down
from her own house, lived
the Gattis family.
“I didn’t have to go too
At YOUN
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The girls also had an informal club. In the 1940’s,
Jean Hager, Irene Green, Ramona Panell and
Dorothy Kimray posed for this photograph.
The same girlfriends also got together for a recent
reunion. From the left are Ramona Panell Bare-
foot, Dot Kimray Gattis, Irene Green Cook and
Jean Hager Lloyd. All stay in touch, just like in the
old days
far for a date!” her husband
noted with a chuckle. “And I
had the excuse of going over
to her house so I could see
her brother, my friend, Del-
mar Kimray.”
The son of the late Archie
and Rebecca Gattis and the
daughter of the late Lester
and Daisy Kimray were
childhood sweethearts. From
their early teens, they were
inseparable. And in 1948,
they were married.
The Gattises would go on
to have twin sons, David and
Daniel, and a daughter,
Donna Craig.
Bill Gattis is well known
as a veteran bluegrass picker.
He has played the banjo in
several local bands over the
course of many years. He
even builds his own banjos,
double basses, Appalachian
dulcimers and other instru-
ments.
A good life
The Gattises are proud to
be East Belmont folks. A
tranquil childhood on the
mill village prepared them
for successful lives as adults.
“We’ve had a good life,”
Mrs. Gattis observed, look-
ing around at the many
plants in her sunroom.
“People uptown envied
us,” her husband said of his
fellow villagers. “I guess it
was because we enjoyed
such a closeness.”
His wife recalled how tal-
ented her mother was. The
late Mrs. Kimray was quite a
seamstress.
“Mom would see dresses
in store windows uptown,”
she said, “and she could then
go and make dresses for us,
just like the ones she had
seen.”
Dot Gattis added that her
girlfriends also had their
own informal club when
they were growing up. Un-
like the Hammerheads,
theirs had no name. Trips to
the mountains and to lakes
White and Waccamaw were
among the girls’ activities.
See CLUB on Page 6A
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