Big Shrimping

What does summer time on Goose Creek Island remind you of? Summer time reminds me of when the shrimp boats in Pamlico Sound make their way back to the docks on Friday mornings to unload their catch.  From the early 1950's to today, in the summer, it seemed like the whole island revolved around shrimping.  The Landing (at Eastman's Creek) and R.E. Mayo’s would be crowded with shrimp trawlers anxiously awaiting Sunday evening to come so they could steam out to Pamlico Sound and ‘set out’ again. 

Out in the Sound, the boys would work during the night and then “lay up” and sleep during the day.  Their travels would take them to different places in the Sound.  Places such as ‘back of the beach’, ‘other side the bluff’, ‘mouth of Bay River’, Royal Shoals and other points east littered their talk on the VHF or CB radio.  After that last sunrise drag on Friday morning, the boats would head for home.

Being out on Pamlico Sound for a week was just one facet of the shrimping business.  The real business of shrimping came when the boats came to the dock on Friday mornings to unload.  Most of the fish houses were in full gear on Friday’s.  While crew members and captains pulled their catches from the holds of their boats, a whole different operation was taking place inside the fish house.

Water, ice, boxes, fork lifts, pallets were scattered throughout the house, while workers stood at grading tables, popping the heads of the crustaceans.  Blue aprons, gloves and white boots dotted the fish house landscape.  Most of the workers heading shrimp were the wives and children of fishermen in the community.  Some workers came from nearby Mesic and helped.  A day’s pay depended on how many buckets of shrimp you headed. 

Although the large shrimping operations on the island have changed, R.E. Mayo’s is still heading shrimp on Friday mornings. There are many of us today who have witnessed the heyday of big shrimping on Goose Creek Island.  If you are ever near Hobucken on Friday mornings, stop by R.E. Mayo’s and see Birdie and Carol Potter.  They’ll be glad you stopped in and you will see how they are continuing a part of our Island culture.

Ole Bones

Wake Forest basketball coach, Horace “Bones” McKinney, 1964. Coach McKinney is wearing a seat belt to help him keep seated during the basketball games. Photo from Forsyth County Public Library Collection

       If there has ever been a more colorful character to come from Goose Creek Island, it was Horace “Bones” McKinney.  I recently came across his autobiography in a local bookstore and immediately purchased it.  For those of you who do not know who “Bones” McKinney is, he was the head coach of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons basketball team from 1958 – 1965 and who led them to their first ACC title.  He was born and raised in Lowland and was never ashamed to let people know he was from the “boon docks’ of Lowland.  His basketball career started in Durham NC, then to NC State and UNC.  He played a short time with the professional basketball team the Washington Capitols.  Eventually he made his way back to the Old North State and became head coach at Wake Forest.  Bones was known for his showmanship and sideline antics.  As he said in his book, “he was a like a popcorn machine”; unable to sit still on the sidelines.  As a joke at one game, he found that someone had installed a seatbelt on his courtside seat.  Bone’s McKinney is a true blue Goose Creek Islander in every sense.  If you happen to come across his book, you will appreciate the chapter that is dedicated to his hometown of Lowland NC.

Capt. Merritt Watson

Capt. Merritt O. Watson, Sr., photo by Ben Casey

When you think about Goose Creek Island fishermen, just about every person you know or remember has some connection to the creeks, river, and sound.  Whether it is crabbing, shrimping, oystering, or fishing, all the seasons on Goose Creek Island supply us with an abundance of seafood. 

There are a great many commercial fishermen who work in and about Pamlico Sound, but Capt Merritt Watson Sr. is one of those fishermen who loved everything about being on the water.  Born in 1912 in Lowland to Kelly and Ada Watson, Capt. Merritt began his work on the water at a young age.  His daddy, Kelly Watson, started the first seafood business in Lowland around 1932 and Capt. Merritt ran the long haul fishing operation for the business.

 Capt. Merritt eventually ventured out into the Atlantic Ocean with the Mary Jane, named after his wife Mary Jane Ireland.  Later he built the Gladys Irene, an 87 foot steel haul trawler, that was renowned not only for the bountiful catches she brought aboard, but for it beautiful carpentry inside.  The Gladys Irene and Capt. Merritt were known up and down the Atlantic Seaboard as a “highliner” boat.  Many commercial fishermen who fish today learned their trade from Capt. Merritt on the Mary Jane and the Gladys Irene. Whether fishing near Hatteras or up near Long Island, they learned to work and to work hard with Capt. Merritt at the helm.

Never one to forget his roots, Capt. Merritt may have spent a lifetime up and down the Atlantic Seaboard, but his love for home and family on Goose Creek Island remained strong.  Even in his retirement, he never really retired.  He was always one to be toiling in the sound on his “little” boat the Miss Watson II, repairing a net, working on an engine, cutting some wood down at his saw mill, or lending a hand to a fellow fisherman or neighbor.  During my youth, there were not many times that I didn’t see Capt. Merritt without a pair of oil skins on.  It was almost like it was part of his normal dressing routine.

Capt. Merritt Watson certainly witnessed his share of triumphs and tragedies during his lifetime of working on the water.  He pursued a way of life that is slowly declining in a sea of bureaucracy and regulation.  But we can be rest assured, that if Capt. Merritt were here with us today, he would be down at the landing getting the Miss Watson II ready to go out shrimping. 

In Memory Nook Popperwill Jr.

It is with regrets that Goose Creek Island has lost another long time resident. Nook Jr. Popperwill passed away
Monday, June 18, 2012, at home. He was 61 and a commercial fisherman. He will be missed by all in the community and also among fellow commercial fishermen up and down the East Coast.  

He was preceded in death by his father, Walter Glenwood Popperwill Sr. and his grandson, Gregory Allen Price III.

He is survived by his mother, Audrey Popperwill Lupton and husband, Ray, of Lowland; two daughters, Pam Ireland and husband, Ivan, and Michelle P. Price, both of Lowland; son, Walter "Glen" Popperwill III, of Cape May, N.J.; brother, Terry D. Popperwill of Grantsboro; sister, Patricia Gail Taylor of Lowland; 10 grandchildren, Sabra, Ambra and Talon Nethercutt, Victoria, Noelle, Emily and Elizabeth Price, Layla and Ava Ireland and Hudson Shipman; step-granddaughter, Alexis Ireland; two great-grandchildren, Harli Nethercutt and Camden Centers; and three step-great-grandchildren, Cassidy Ireland, Addie Haines and Abigail Cahoon.

A graveside service will be held 11 a.m. Friday, June 22, at Lowland Community Cemetery with the Rev. Blaney Rowe and the Rev. H. M. Parsons officiating. The family will receive friends and relatives from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday night at the funeral home and at other times at the home of his mother, 5889 Lowland Rd.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggested memorial donations be made to Bryant Funeral Home, PO Box 99, Alliance, NC 28509.

Arrangements are by Bryant Funeral Home & Crematory, Alliance.

Hobucken Draw Bridge, Gateway to Goose Creek Island

How many times have you been caught by the old Hobucken Draw Bridge?  During my teenage years, I used that excuse many Friday or Saturday nights when I was running late and would miss my curfew.  The old Hobucken Draw Bridge is now gone but it will always be an icon of the island.  It served as the gateway to Goose Creek Island.  It has opened its span many times for the approaching Texasgulf barge that was heading to the port of Morehead City, the shrimp trawlers coming in on Friday mornings to unload a weeks catch from Pamlico Sound, and numerous yachts and sailboats that made their annual pilgrimage through the Intercoastal Waterway to points south for the winter.  Here is a video I found on You Tube of the old Hobucken Draw Bridge..enjoy this memory from our past.

click play button in center of video to play

Goose Creek Island VFD Needs Volunteers

The Goose Creek Island Volunteer Fire Department provides emergency service for our island and the surrounding communities of Bay Creek and Mesic.  They provide coverage for fires, accidents, medivac, water rescues, and other emergencies. The members consist of devoted individuals from diverse backgrounds such as commercial fishing, tug boat captains and crew members, retired civil service workers, electricians, etc.  The Goose Creek Island community demonstrates its pride in helping others by providing the manpower and services to its volunteer fire department organization.  The Goose Creek Island Volunteer Fire Department meets each Monday night at 7:00pm at the fire department.  There is always a need for volunteers, especially when the department responds to an emergency.  If you would like to help, please come out to the fire department on any Monday night or call Chief, William Rowe at 252-229-7162. 

Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.

"Where's Hubert?"

"Where's Hubert?"

If Preston Hubert Potter could have a dime for every time this was asked, he would have been a millionaire.  From the time he was a little boy to the day he passed away, family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers from North Carolina to Florida would ask in the Everglades City FL community or on Goose Creek Island, “Where’s Hubert?”  The question got to be so famous in Everglades City, that t-shirts were even made proclaiming the question.  His answer to everybody’s question was, “Why do you want to know? I know where I’m at!”   Hubert Potter departed this world in November 2011 but his iconic question and answer is still whispered when his name is mentioned.  Hubert was born and raised in Lowland NC, up the Prong Road on his parent’s farm.  Hubert went to school in Hobucken, drove the school bus, played baseball and courted Joy Mae Howerin throughout his teenage years.  After they were married and had started a family, they left Lowland for Everglades City, FL where the shrimping industry was booming.  He made his home in Everglades City and raised his family there, where they continue to live today.  After his retirement, Hubert and Joy Mae returned to their home in Lowland and stayed there during the spring, summer, and fall months, only to return to Florida in the winter.  In his retirement, he worked with local farmers on their farms, attended every family gathering that required his presence, and enjoyed being back “home” among his family.  Since Hubert’s death, Joy Mae resides in her home in Everglades City FL surrounded by “her boys” and her grandchildren.  If you have a moment, drop Joy Mae a line, she’d love to hear from all of her friends and family in North Carolina.

Joy Mae Potter

Everglades City FL  34139

       Welcome to my new Goose Creek Island Journal, where I hope to keep friends, family and those who appreciate our "coastal way of life" aware of connections to our seaside home.  My journal is intended primarily to offer readers a glimpse of day to day activities, but also as a platform to discuss our history, past events, and reflections of life in our maritime village.

       If you haven't been to Goose Creek Island recently, a transformation of lives and livelihoods has evolved due to the massive destruction of Hurricane Irene in August 2011, the forever decline of our commercial fishing industry and its effect on our local community oriented economic base.  Familiar landmarks, homes, and business properties have taken on a new look or possibly not even existing anymore.  While the hurricane's of nature or the storms regulating our fishing traditions may have wiped out many material things, it did not destroy the memories of growing up there and our determination to keep our Goose Creek Island communities intact.  This journal is for all of us who cherish our Goose Creek Island home, who have the memories, the determination and will to keep our maritime spirit alive.

      Thank you for joining in on my new blog spot. I hope it will serve as a reminder of who we are, where we have been, and where we are going.  Island life is good!