ChadSang
01-07-2007, 01:56 PM
Chapter Six
We’re Not in Kansas Anymore
By the time I was in the fifth grade, a high school boy and his younger sister began riding to school each day with my mom and me. I guess the boy was about 16, and his name was L.B. His family lived on a farm, and I enjoyed being around the farm animals and playing in the hay-loft of the barn one afternoon, L.B. and I were playing around in the hay-loft, wrestling each other. It wasn’t long before he suggested that I do something for him. I said OK if he would let me make a small cut and lap up his blood. He agreed and so began the relationship we had with each other. Not a love thang, but rather just tight friends.
After that first experience in the hayloft, I really looked forward to stopping off at L.B.’s house for “an after school special” every chance I got. He and I had many private afternoons in that barn. For two years this went on and I hated to see it come to an end when we moved away.
On April 8, 1957, when I was 12 years old and in the sixth grade, there were some dark, nasty looking clouds all around when my mom and I and the two riders were headed home after school. That day in school, were studying tornados and I had an ominous feeling about the dark clouds that surrounded us as we headed home.
After dinner that night, my dad left the house to go visit some of the church folks. Around eight o’clock, I heard the scariest noise, as a tornado was about to touchdown in our little quaint part of the world. Yes, it sounded like a thousand freight trains and I quickly lay down on the floor. I remembered to do that from the tornado lesson in school earlier that day.
The noise became deafening, the lights went out and boards cracking. In an instant, the huge tornado swept my mom and me up in the air and destroyed our home. As the tornado took me up in the air, I passed out …. Probably due to the vacuum inside the tornado. When I came to, it was thundering and lightening and pouring rain. I was in the middle of a pile of ruble that that used to be our house. In a panic, I begin calling out for my mom. She finally answered me and I made my way to her. She had landed on a mattress. Together, we made our way to back of the church. The front of the church had been blown away away, but the rear of the church was intact, We finally got inside the rear of church, which provided, I am sure that rear of the church could offer us a dry place to be shelter from the wind-driven storm
Shortly there after, I saw the headlights of a car coming down the dirt road that went by the church so I ran out across the church grave yard in my bear feet and flagged down the car down. The man took my mother and me to the only medical clinic in Roseboro.
Because mom was standing she was hurt drastically. The flying timbers hard with their sharp and jagged nails. The flying Glass and boards with jagged nails sticking out injured her very severely. My mother was in the clinic for days and never recovered completely. Her legs were what had so many cuts on them. Her legs bothered her til she died.
The Greensboro Daily News featured my mom in an article about the storm. There was a picture of her lying in her hospital bed on the newspaper’s front page. My mom told the Greensboro Daily News reporter that she "remembers the night well. She said she was sitting at the piano. There was lots of storm outside but I wasn’t too worried about it. We hadn’t had the radio (no TV at our house back in those days) on and so I didn’t know about the tornado warnings.
Just when I was practicing ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic.’ and suddenly heard this funny noise outside. It was a roaring noise. I got up and looked through the glass in the door. I didn’t try to open it. Along about then, I heard this roaring sound but still all I could thing about was thunder. My boy, Chad, said mom do you think this could be a tornado? His teacher had been talking about tornados a few days before and Chad remembered. Mom, he said, the teacher said to lie down on the floor in a tornado and Chad got down on the floor. Suddenly before I could do anything, there was a force of wind that blew me down and the boards of the floor began chopping on me. I thought, THIS IS THE END. I must have blacked out for a time because next I remember sitting up. Chad is gone I thought because I couldn’t hear him. Then I heard him calling me, mom, mom let’s go to the church, he said. Honey, I told him, I don’t even know where the church is. When I stood up, I was in the front yard. I landed on a mattress. When I realized I was outside . That’s the first thing I knew… I wasn’t in the house even though I was getting wet and cold all the time. My shoes were gone. The wind had just pulled them off my feet. My glasses were gone too. But see, I have them now. Someone found them in the wreckage… not a mark on them.
Anyway, after Chad kept saying he wanted to go to the church because the rear of thwe church was still intact and could provide shelter for us agains the storm outside. We made our way over by the flashes of lightening. Then, I’m not sure whether this was before or after the wind. It seems there was this terrific downpour of hail. Afterward a neighbor on his way to a gas station came by and Chad stopped him. Then we went into the clinic.
What happened to the house? There isn’t s house anymore. Oh, you mean what did the wind seem to do to it? Well, it just seemed to go like.. Like that, mom thrust her hands out in front of her. I don’t know how I’m still alive.
That night was very long. I hardly slept at all.
The next day after the storm, I went back to Beaver Dam to survey the damaged. Keep in mind that Hazel was the most destruction ever to hit North Carolina. Where our home used to be, I was concerned about my dog. No one had seen her after the storm. Finally a man came carrying her lifeless body and gave her to me. A limb about 15 inches long about 2 inches in diameter was stuck completely through the little dog. They decided that they would never sentence a pup-dog to death. Anyway, I just know she ventured and dared to go outside to help others find a place ….a safe place.
Chico was taken away to that big space ship from me. I was always convinced to that that the spirits took that little dog from me because I was very cruel during that brief period of time. I was devastated. I was always convinced that some unknown force was at work. I have never abused any animal again, and for that point on, I became an avid animal lover and always befriended and helped abused animal for the rest of my life.
Church people donated clothes and food and furniture, and my dad found a small house for us to live in. My mother was finally released from the clinic and spent weeks at home trying to recover.
Because of a shortage in classroom space. The school’s sixth grade attended school at the Roseboro Community building. There were four groups of students. Once when we were living in Roseboro, I managed to sneak off to the dance. I had never been to a dance before because my dad, being a stout Southern Baptist, believed that recreational activity was a sin. I must have had rhythm inside me because I won a dance contest that evening. I was very proud of that accomplishment, but it was kept hidden all these years and I couldn’t go home and share it with my parents.
Because of my overly protective parents, I don’t think I ever had a chance in early childhood to develop a sense of self-worth and a positive self-image. To the best of my recollection, I wasn’t given the opportunity to to master my own environment. My parents, especially my dad, had black-or-white, right-or-wrong rules that often proved inadequate in a gray world. Intolerance was the attitude toward the world that I saw modeled. My dad abused me physically to no end. starting when I was about 8 years old. The beatings seemed that life would be like that forever
Shortly after school got out for the summer, my dad accepted a position as pastor of the Richlands Baptist Church. So, in July of 1957, we packed up and moved to Richlands. With puberty fast approaching at age 12 and a half, I had to make all new friends as I entered the seventh grade in this small southern town in Onslow County. Richlands had a population of 1,200 and occupied one square mile.
History of Onslow County
The county was formed in 1734 as Onslow Precinct of Bath County, from northeastern New Hanover Precinct. It was named for Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the British House of Commons from 1728 to 1761. With the abolition of Bath County in 1739, all of its constituent precincts became counties.
Law and government
Onslow County is a member of the regional Eastern Carolina Council of Governments.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,353 km² (909 mi²). 1,986 km² (767 mi²) of it is land and 367 km² (142 mi²) of it (15.60%) is water.
[Edit]
Townships
The county is divided into five townships: Jacksonville, Richlands, Sneaks Ferry, Swansboro, and White Oak.
Adjacent Counties
Jones County, North Carolina - north
Carteret County, North Carolina - east
Pender County, North Carolina - southwest
Dublin County, North Carolina - northwest
Demographics
As of the census² of 2000, there were 150,355 people, 48,122 households, and 36,572 families residing in the county. The population density was 76/km² (196/mi²). There were 55,726 housing units at an average density of 28/km² (73/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 72.06% White, 18.48% Black or African American, 0.74% Native American, 1.68% Asian, 0.19% Pacific Islander, 3.62% from other races, and 3.22% from two or more races. 7.25% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 48,122 households out of which 42.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.00% were married couples living together, 11.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.00% were non-families. 18.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.09.
In the county the population was spread out with 26.20% under the age of 18, 23.80% from 18 to 24, 29.20% from 25 to 44, 14.40% from 45 to 64, and 6.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 123.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 131.30 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $33,756, and the median income for a family was $36,692. Males had a median income of $22,061 versus $20,094 for females. The per capita income for the county was $14,853. About 10.80% of families and 12.90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.70% of those under age 18 and 14.70% of those age 65 or over.
Cities and towns
Half Moon
Holly Ridge
Jacksonville
North Topsail Beach
Piney Green
Pumpkin Center
Richlands
Sneads Ferry
Surf City
Swansboro
We’re Not in Kansas Anymore
By the time I was in the fifth grade, a high school boy and his younger sister began riding to school each day with my mom and me. I guess the boy was about 16, and his name was L.B. His family lived on a farm, and I enjoyed being around the farm animals and playing in the hay-loft of the barn one afternoon, L.B. and I were playing around in the hay-loft, wrestling each other. It wasn’t long before he suggested that I do something for him. I said OK if he would let me make a small cut and lap up his blood. He agreed and so began the relationship we had with each other. Not a love thang, but rather just tight friends.
After that first experience in the hayloft, I really looked forward to stopping off at L.B.’s house for “an after school special” every chance I got. He and I had many private afternoons in that barn. For two years this went on and I hated to see it come to an end when we moved away.
On April 8, 1957, when I was 12 years old and in the sixth grade, there were some dark, nasty looking clouds all around when my mom and I and the two riders were headed home after school. That day in school, were studying tornados and I had an ominous feeling about the dark clouds that surrounded us as we headed home.
After dinner that night, my dad left the house to go visit some of the church folks. Around eight o’clock, I heard the scariest noise, as a tornado was about to touchdown in our little quaint part of the world. Yes, it sounded like a thousand freight trains and I quickly lay down on the floor. I remembered to do that from the tornado lesson in school earlier that day.
The noise became deafening, the lights went out and boards cracking. In an instant, the huge tornado swept my mom and me up in the air and destroyed our home. As the tornado took me up in the air, I passed out …. Probably due to the vacuum inside the tornado. When I came to, it was thundering and lightening and pouring rain. I was in the middle of a pile of ruble that that used to be our house. In a panic, I begin calling out for my mom. She finally answered me and I made my way to her. She had landed on a mattress. Together, we made our way to back of the church. The front of the church had been blown away away, but the rear of the church was intact, We finally got inside the rear of church, which provided, I am sure that rear of the church could offer us a dry place to be shelter from the wind-driven storm
Shortly there after, I saw the headlights of a car coming down the dirt road that went by the church so I ran out across the church grave yard in my bear feet and flagged down the car down. The man took my mother and me to the only medical clinic in Roseboro.
Because mom was standing she was hurt drastically. The flying timbers hard with their sharp and jagged nails. The flying Glass and boards with jagged nails sticking out injured her very severely. My mother was in the clinic for days and never recovered completely. Her legs were what had so many cuts on them. Her legs bothered her til she died.
The Greensboro Daily News featured my mom in an article about the storm. There was a picture of her lying in her hospital bed on the newspaper’s front page. My mom told the Greensboro Daily News reporter that she "remembers the night well. She said she was sitting at the piano. There was lots of storm outside but I wasn’t too worried about it. We hadn’t had the radio (no TV at our house back in those days) on and so I didn’t know about the tornado warnings.
Just when I was practicing ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic.’ and suddenly heard this funny noise outside. It was a roaring noise. I got up and looked through the glass in the door. I didn’t try to open it. Along about then, I heard this roaring sound but still all I could thing about was thunder. My boy, Chad, said mom do you think this could be a tornado? His teacher had been talking about tornados a few days before and Chad remembered. Mom, he said, the teacher said to lie down on the floor in a tornado and Chad got down on the floor. Suddenly before I could do anything, there was a force of wind that blew me down and the boards of the floor began chopping on me. I thought, THIS IS THE END. I must have blacked out for a time because next I remember sitting up. Chad is gone I thought because I couldn’t hear him. Then I heard him calling me, mom, mom let’s go to the church, he said. Honey, I told him, I don’t even know where the church is. When I stood up, I was in the front yard. I landed on a mattress. When I realized I was outside . That’s the first thing I knew… I wasn’t in the house even though I was getting wet and cold all the time. My shoes were gone. The wind had just pulled them off my feet. My glasses were gone too. But see, I have them now. Someone found them in the wreckage… not a mark on them.
Anyway, after Chad kept saying he wanted to go to the church because the rear of thwe church was still intact and could provide shelter for us agains the storm outside. We made our way over by the flashes of lightening. Then, I’m not sure whether this was before or after the wind. It seems there was this terrific downpour of hail. Afterward a neighbor on his way to a gas station came by and Chad stopped him. Then we went into the clinic.
What happened to the house? There isn’t s house anymore. Oh, you mean what did the wind seem to do to it? Well, it just seemed to go like.. Like that, mom thrust her hands out in front of her. I don’t know how I’m still alive.
That night was very long. I hardly slept at all.
The next day after the storm, I went back to Beaver Dam to survey the damaged. Keep in mind that Hazel was the most destruction ever to hit North Carolina. Where our home used to be, I was concerned about my dog. No one had seen her after the storm. Finally a man came carrying her lifeless body and gave her to me. A limb about 15 inches long about 2 inches in diameter was stuck completely through the little dog. They decided that they would never sentence a pup-dog to death. Anyway, I just know she ventured and dared to go outside to help others find a place ….a safe place.
Chico was taken away to that big space ship from me. I was always convinced to that that the spirits took that little dog from me because I was very cruel during that brief period of time. I was devastated. I was always convinced that some unknown force was at work. I have never abused any animal again, and for that point on, I became an avid animal lover and always befriended and helped abused animal for the rest of my life.
Church people donated clothes and food and furniture, and my dad found a small house for us to live in. My mother was finally released from the clinic and spent weeks at home trying to recover.
Because of a shortage in classroom space. The school’s sixth grade attended school at the Roseboro Community building. There were four groups of students. Once when we were living in Roseboro, I managed to sneak off to the dance. I had never been to a dance before because my dad, being a stout Southern Baptist, believed that recreational activity was a sin. I must have had rhythm inside me because I won a dance contest that evening. I was very proud of that accomplishment, but it was kept hidden all these years and I couldn’t go home and share it with my parents.
Because of my overly protective parents, I don’t think I ever had a chance in early childhood to develop a sense of self-worth and a positive self-image. To the best of my recollection, I wasn’t given the opportunity to to master my own environment. My parents, especially my dad, had black-or-white, right-or-wrong rules that often proved inadequate in a gray world. Intolerance was the attitude toward the world that I saw modeled. My dad abused me physically to no end. starting when I was about 8 years old. The beatings seemed that life would be like that forever
Shortly after school got out for the summer, my dad accepted a position as pastor of the Richlands Baptist Church. So, in July of 1957, we packed up and moved to Richlands. With puberty fast approaching at age 12 and a half, I had to make all new friends as I entered the seventh grade in this small southern town in Onslow County. Richlands had a population of 1,200 and occupied one square mile.
History of Onslow County
The county was formed in 1734 as Onslow Precinct of Bath County, from northeastern New Hanover Precinct. It was named for Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the British House of Commons from 1728 to 1761. With the abolition of Bath County in 1739, all of its constituent precincts became counties.
Law and government
Onslow County is a member of the regional Eastern Carolina Council of Governments.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,353 km² (909 mi²). 1,986 km² (767 mi²) of it is land and 367 km² (142 mi²) of it (15.60%) is water.
[Edit]
Townships
The county is divided into five townships: Jacksonville, Richlands, Sneaks Ferry, Swansboro, and White Oak.
Adjacent Counties
Jones County, North Carolina - north
Carteret County, North Carolina - east
Pender County, North Carolina - southwest
Dublin County, North Carolina - northwest
Demographics
As of the census² of 2000, there were 150,355 people, 48,122 households, and 36,572 families residing in the county. The population density was 76/km² (196/mi²). There were 55,726 housing units at an average density of 28/km² (73/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 72.06% White, 18.48% Black or African American, 0.74% Native American, 1.68% Asian, 0.19% Pacific Islander, 3.62% from other races, and 3.22% from two or more races. 7.25% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 48,122 households out of which 42.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.00% were married couples living together, 11.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.00% were non-families. 18.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.09.
In the county the population was spread out with 26.20% under the age of 18, 23.80% from 18 to 24, 29.20% from 25 to 44, 14.40% from 45 to 64, and 6.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 123.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 131.30 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $33,756, and the median income for a family was $36,692. Males had a median income of $22,061 versus $20,094 for females. The per capita income for the county was $14,853. About 10.80% of families and 12.90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.70% of those under age 18 and 14.70% of those age 65 or over.
Cities and towns
Half Moon
Holly Ridge
Jacksonville
North Topsail Beach
Piney Green
Pumpkin Center
Richlands
Sneads Ferry
Surf City
Swansboro