Skin of my teeth - Eduction

Skin of My Teeth

I have lived most of my life by the skin of my teeth. Just enough to get by has been my goal in most of my endeavors. This will become more evident as this "blog" progresses. However, on the way to these goals I have had a magnificent journey.

My earliest memories are when I was three. We lived on twelfth avenue in Hickory, North Carolina. Our house was two stories and there were fold doors at the bottom of the enclosed stairs which were kept closed at night to keep the heat downstairs. I remembert my sister Betty and my brother George, Jr. closing those doors at night as we went upstairs to bed. I also remember sitting on a window box with my Mother watching a house across the street burn. I was and have always been afraid of fires and sirens.

Then in 1929, we moved to fourteenth avenue where we lived until I left home to serve in the military in 1945 and afterwords until I left to get married in 1950. We moved on Halloween Day and I remember my Mother, who was pregnant, lying on the sofa in the new living room and the middle cushion was missing.

Our "new" home was on the corner of 14th avenue and 19th street which were both the last paved streets in that section of Hickory. Both 20th street and 15th avenue were dirt roads for many years. There were sidewalks across both streets from our house. During my Boy Scout years we could cross 19th street, three dirt roads, with lots of woods and a few farms between, and go approximately 3 miles to Lake Hickory. Our destination was the scout camp built by the Hckory Rotary Club. The camp (a rock building with an assembly room and bunk room) was about 350 yards down stream from highway 321. A nice spring was nearby.

Our neighborhood was comprised of perhaps 15 boys and a few girls. Our house, being on the corner, was usually the center of neighborhood activities. Consequently, there was little or no grass on most of our yard so mowing was not a problem. The house beside ours, lived in by the Bolches, the Jones and the Johnsons, contained 2 girls each who were usually the only 2 girls in our neighborhood.

Across the street and then across a dirt road, there were three unpainted houses occupied by Negro families. The women were domestics who worked in homes in the neighborhood. I think some of the men may have worked for the railroad though I don't remember seeing much of them.

MEET MY FAMILY

My father, sixth generation, was born in Lincoln County about 13 miles from where I live today. After elementary school, he lived with his sister, Annie, in Hickory and went to Claremont Academy which later became Clarement Central High School where my siblings and I went to high school. Dad went to Lenoir College for a short time and transferred to Catawba in Newton where he graduated, after a term at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He taught Greek and German at Catawba until he joined the army during WWI. He was discharged as a Second Lieutenant and served in the army reserves between the two world wars.

Between the 2 Wars, Dad owned and operated "George C. Warlick Feeds & Seeds" He had the Purina Dealership.

When the US entered WWII, Dad sold his store (brother George sold it) and entered the service again. He spent most of the war stationed at Camp Butner near Durham, NC as Special Services Officer. After the War, he was retired from the service as a Captain,

Dad spent the next several years as Contact Officer with the Veterans Administration. He then worked with the American Legion sponsored Catawba County Fair long enough to become eligible for Social Security. He ended up "triple dipping" drawing retirement from the military, Veterans Administration and Social Security.

Dad joined the Hickory Rotary Club in 1926, the year I was born. He took a group of Rotarians to Blowing Rock for a conference and returned home just in time to take Mother to the hospital to have me. Dad had perfect attendance in Rotary until late in life except for his military service years. He was both secretary and treasurer of the Hickory club for seventeen years and was the first Rotarian to be honored a Paul Harris Fellow.

In the early twenties, my uncle Lewis was accused twice of mishandling funds at the First National Bank in Hickory. The first time this happened Dad and uncle Jesse bailed uncle Lewis out. The second time, Uncle Jesse refused to help so Dad bailed uncle Lewis out alone. During this time uncle Lewis built a lovely new home on fourteenth avenue. It became apparent in 1929 that uncle Lewis would lose the home through foreclosure. To help him out once again, Dad bought the house from uncle Lewis. That was the home we moved to in 1929.

Mother grew up in Lawndale, NC about 15 miles from where I live now. She had six or seven siblings some who went to college. Mother went to Catawba for one year and studied business. That is where she and Dad met. She taught for a short time at Catawba. It has been rumored that her father was on the verge of becoming a wealthy man when he died suddenly in 1932.

Mother had many talents. I have a charcoal she did of a hunting dog on point and some of her painted china. She was an excellent homemaker and cook, a seamstress (each of us children have a least one quilt she maid. I remember standing a quilting frame in the dining room sewing on a new quilt. We even carded the cotton. I vividly remember her telling my younger brother Charlie and me about babies as she sat at her sewing machine making baby clothes. She was pregnant at the time but the baby was still born.

My sister Betty was born in 1919. She was a good student in school and graduated from Lenoir Rhyne College with a business degree and teacher's certificate. She was an excellnt pianist and played for a dancing school during her teen years and earned part of her college expenses that way. She taught in Concord two years and Hickory High School betinning in the fall of 1942. I was a senior and took typeing under her. I made straight A's for five months. In February of 1943, Betty left to join the Women's Auxiliary Army Corp. She served two years and was discharged as Lieutenant. During that time she met and married Syd Green. They lived in Charlotte a short time but Syd returned to the military and the family moved around a good bit until Syd retired and they lived in Austin, Texas until he died in 1971. Betty continues living there but is now in very poor health. She had a bout with lung cancer a few years ago.

Betty and Syd adopted two children; Randy who has suffered from emotional problems for years and Rebecca Gail who married Steven Stubbs. The have a son Colin. Rebecca died suddenly several years ago.

My older brother George was born in 1921. He was an excellent student and graduated at the top of his high school class. He also graduated from Lenoir Rhyne College. He volunteered for military service immediately after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. A heart murmer prevented him from serving. He earned part of his tuition by serving as manager of the A capella Choir. He designed and built a set of collapsible choir stands. After graduating, George went to Duke University and earned a Master Degree in Economics. He went to Oak Ridge Tennessee where he worked until his retirement.

While at Duke, George met a student nurse, Virginia Davis. They were married in 1945 and they have three children; George Clifton III , Daniel Davis and Jennifer Lynn. The family moved to Kingston, TN around 1955 where George & Ginny live today.

George joined the Rotary Club in Oak Ridge. When they moved to Kingston, he was instrumental in organizing a new Rotary where he was the charter president. He is currently an active member. He is an Eagle Scout with palms.

My younger Brother Charles Henry (named for both his grandfathers) was born in 1930. He was born with club feet. If nothing had been done for him, he would be walking with his toes pointing in towards each other and on his outside ankles. When he was about a year old he had some minor surgery and his legs were placed in casts up to his hips in an attempt to straighten his feet. This helped a little but he had the casts on most of his first 12 years. When he was 6, he spent a year at the orthopedic hospital in Gastonia where there was little improvement. When Charlie was 12 he went back to the orthopedic hospital where Dr. Roberts performed major surgery to both feet. The result was miraculous. Although his legs are thin compared to the rest of his body, they and his feet are straight and he generally leads a normal life. I witnessed Charlie earning the athletics merit badge in scouting.

Charlie was also an excellent student. He made top grades in high school, attended Lenoir Rhyne College for two years and graduated from Duke University with a degree in math. He earned a Master's Degree from the University of Maryland and PHD from the University of Cincinnati. He then went to work at the University of Texas and rose to head the computer department there until he retired.

While working in Cincinnati, he married Doris Lee Harris and they have one son, Charles, Jr. Charlie then married Susanne Franks and they have two daughters Catherine and Caroline. Charlie retired to Nacogdochets.