Goose Creek Island Journal: Connections to Our Past

     I love to hear stories about "the old days" on Goose Creek Island. Since the creation of this Journal and the Album on Facebook, I believe I have learned more about our people, places, and families from the sharing of comments and stories. These have all created a web of oral history within our Island communities.
     I recall when I was in middle school (the early 1980's), I had been tasked a project to interview a relative about Christmas. I chose Grandmama Melissa Howerin Lewis who was in her 90's at the time. She was born in 1888 so I found it fascinating that she had grown up in some "firsts" of our country; a new century, the Wright Brothers flight, television, man walking on the moon. To this day, I do not remember what happened to the oral history project, but I still can recall the things she told me that day.
   For those of you who really want to know about our Island history. I challenge you to look to our elders and take a moment to record their stories. You will be surprised at the wealth of information you will receive. Life moves fast and one day we are going to stop and look around. We are going to wonder where we came from and our elders may not be around. Myself and a few others have already begun collecting some the oral histories on the Island. For all you parents of school age children, encourage your children to talk to our older Island residents. One day they will appreciate that they "unlocked" a piece of our Island history.
     I received an email this past week from O.B. Howerin sharing an interview that his daughter Rebecca recorded in 1991 of her Grandmother Rosa Wilkerson Howerin who was 85. With his permission, I would like to share Rebecca's interview.

Traditional Families

Rebecca B. Howerin

April 25,1991

English I

Ms. Annie Mason

Pamlico County High School

     Rosa Thomas Wilkerson, my grandmother, was born September 30, 1906. She was from a small family - only her parents, a younger brother, and herself. Most families near her were large with 4 to 9 children. There were about 10 families in the community, with homes fairly close together. There were referred to as the folks in Piney Woods. Her father (Papa) was very strict - almost to the point of being cruel. Even her mother (Mama) was afraid of him at times.
     Grandmother (Gran) had chores to do, even when she was very young. She began picking cotton before she was large enough to carry a regular cotton sack. Mama made her a small one and took the row beside her so she could help her keep up. Sometimes she would put big handfuls of cotton in Gran's sack, too. This is the way Gran was able to get clothes for school.
     Gran had her own room but most of her friends didn't. She had to clean her room, make beds, and wash dishes before she walked 2 miles to school. She went to school all day, from 8 to 4, but not for as many months as we do. She took her lunch in a tin lard bucket. A lot of times her lunch was a cup of molasses and a biscuit. They would put a big biscuit in the top of the cup to keep the molasses from spilling.
     Gran was quiet and well behaved in school. She enjoyed it and had fun when they had a good teacher. Sometimes they had a mean teacher.   One teacher she remembers when she was very young wouldn't let anybody go to the bathroom. Gran recalls some of the little kids who couldn't wait, using the bathroom right in their seats and it would run down the cracks in the floor. That same teacher beat a boy so bad that his shirt stuck to the blood on his back. She even remembers how his Mom told the teacher off. The teacher was fired.
     In the afternoons, after school, Gran worked in the field. When she got so she could sew, clean and cook, sometimes Mama would let her stay home and Mama went in the field in her place. Gran liked that better.
     She cooked on a wood stove. She had to help Papa cut the wood with a cross-cut saw. She did the ironing while she cooked so she could heat the iron on the stove. In the summer it was very hot when you cooked.
     All the men did about the same type of work. Papa worked on the water in the winter and farmed in the summer. He did a little handy work when he could.
     They raised most of what they ate and always had plenty but not many different things at one meal unless it was a special day. They had cows, pigs, and chickens. Some of the things they raised were corn, beans, watermelons, apples and figs. They picked the corn, shucked and shelled it. They took it to the mill and had it ground to make corn meal. They cut cane and had it pressed, then cooked it into molasses. Papa would bring home fish, oysters and crabs to eat. They didn't eat shrimp. Gran was a grown woman before they ever knew you could eat shrimp. About the only store supplies they bought were things like sugar or coffee. If the store didn't have it or if you had things to sell they would go to the freight boat. The freight boat ran up the Pamlico River to Washington. You could send your stuff or could ride yourself.
     Gran didn't have much free time or entertainment. Her main enjoyment was walking to and from school and church. The girls that lived farthest up the road would leave home first. As they passed each house, the next girls would join up and they all walked together in a group. They would sing and play as they walked. If a girl had a beau, he might walk alongside of her.
     On Sunday morning they went to Sunday School in the little church near the school. Then in the afternoon they would walk 4 miles to Clark's Corner for church at the Community Church. The folks from up Middle Prong would go there too. Sometimes they had church on Saturday, too.
     The men and boys had baseball teams and the team from Middle Prong and the team from Piney Woods would play each other. There was a lot of rivalry and often fights broke out.
     One Saturday, there was a late baseball game and the boys went over to the church just like they were from the ballgame. After church, Gran's beau walked her home. Papa was so angry about those boys going to church in their baseball pants that he told Gran she couldn't ever walk with him again.
     People had parties and dances in their home real often, at least once a month. The few times Papa took them, he would leave when the dancing started. When the gathering was nearby, Gran would lay on her bed and listen to the music and laughter and cry because she wanted to go so bad. One night her Grandpa asked is she could stay if he stayed with her. Papa agreed. Grandpa stayed till the very end. That was the only time Gran remembers going.
     There was always some present for Christmas. It was always something you needed and maybe some candy. One year when things had gone real well, Gran got a china doll. She treasured it. (Years later her oldest son broke it.)
   Gran had only 2 beau's - the boy famous for his baseball pants and Richard Bernard Howerin. Richard was 12 years older than Gran. She has a picture taken of a bunch of people in front of the Community Church. She is standing down in front with a bunch of little girls, 8 years old at the time. Richard is standing on the steps with the men and boys, 20 years old. Twelve years was a lot of difference then. But when Richard came back from World War I they began to court, mostly on the sly from Papa. Her friend was also courting on the sly and her beau actually had a car. The car had curtains in it and they would ride by the house with the curtains pulled and laughed because no one could see anyone except the driver.
   Gran was 16 and Richard (Poppy) was 28 when they ran off and got married. They waited until Papa was off on a boat. Poppy took his Pa's horse and cart. (It was a really nice horse too.) Pa was real worried and upset because he didn't know where the horse was.
   Poppy and Gran went to Bayboro to the Clerk's house. The clerk had one room when he let people with business stay overnight if they lived far away. Gran spent the night in that room and Poppy slept somewhere else in the building. She doesn't know where. They got married the next morning, January 15, 1923, and then went back home.
   They came to her house first. Her Mama was scared to let him stay there because of what Papa might do. So Poppy left Gran there with her Mama and went on down the road to his house. His mother said, "You married her and you ain't gonna stay here with her out there? Go get her!"
   Gran was a little scared of her mother-in-law but had a nice father-in-law. She and Poppy slept in the shed-room at the Howerin house for a few weeks. Then Mama, an aunt, and Poppy's mother helped them get enough stuff to move into a vacant house across the road.
   In January of 1924, she had her first child, a boy. She remembers Poppy rocking the baby while playing his mouth harp when she was cooking supper. Poppy loved babies. They had 5 more over the next 21 years, making 4 boys and 2 girls. One daughter, Aunt Patsy, was to later become Pamlico County's first female county commissioner. Her youngest child is my Dad.
     Poppy had a little money to help them get started. Money he saved from the Navy she thinks. Over the years he did a lot of carpentry work, worked at Barbour Boat Works in New Bern, and tended a hunting lodge on Indian Island. But his main work and what he was known for was being a very good boat builder. To help out a little, Gran sometimes worked in the fields, did some babysitting, and took in boarders from the Coast Guard. Before the Coast Guard had barracks, many families on Goose Creek Island "kept" Coast Guard boys.
     Gran says they didn't have a whole lot but they always had plenty. The hardest times she can remember were during the 1930's. Jobs were hard to get and things cost a lot. It was mostly happy times and they made it.
     Gran did know some sad times too. Uncle Troy was in World War II while she was expecting my Dad. She said she worried and cried over Uncle Troy the whole 9 months and Daddy paid her back by crying for the next 9 months.
     Then in 1967, Poppy passed away. Just a few months later, her second son, Uncle Aaron died. Then two years ago (1988), Aunt Patsy died. They all died with heart disease and my Uncle Billy and Uncle Troy have the disease too. Sometimes she get these things on her mind and gets real depressed. Then it's our job to "happy" her up!
     Last week Gran found out that her best girlhood friend is living in Craven County. She got the phone number and called her. Mrs. Andy just squealed when she realized who was calling. You can imagine what a talk they had! My Mom is going to take her to visit real soon.
     Even though Gran is 85 now and has lost one eye to a cholesterol blockage, she still practices some the things she learned as a child. She learned how to quilt and crochet from her Mom, who had learned from her Mom. All 6 families have a beautiful stack of homemade quilts and crochet work and so do her 15 grandchildren. She has to stay busy - she has 29 great-grandchildren who will want some of Gran's handiwork.


Top - Rosa Wilkerson, Monnie Rice, Nettie Green Middle - Thelma Howerin, Ruth Sadler, Lottie Carawan; Bottom - Molisie Lupton, Retha Campen, Vergie Leary, Hugh Leary