Well there are a lot of people worried about it. But, of course,
Greenville has changed from a tobacco town to an industrial town. And it
makes a lot of difference. When we came down here in the fall downtown
was bedlam—wagons and trucks and everything going to warehouses to get a
load of tobacco. And, of course, that's gone. And people—the older
people like myself—they miss it. I go down here and get a haircut
downtown. And, of course, the warehouse was—across from my barber's shop
was a warehouse. And that's gone. All the warehouses that were downtown
are gone. And so Greenville is not—it's not even the same—. When I was
over here in school in 1932 there were about fourteen thousand people
here. And there was about—between nine hundred and a thousand students.
Page 61Today there are eighteen thousand students and
there's
[unclear] fifty-five thousand
population here in this town. So it's changed a lot. And incidentally
out of those few boys many of them did real well. There was a boy that I
saw the other day that was eighty-seven years old. His name was
Albert—McAlbert. And his folks were in the lumber business and he became
a neurosurgeon. And he lived in Florida and he died the other day. And I
know there was a boy named
[unclear] Mills
who became an ear, nose, throat specialist. And I have a friend, Jimmy
Carr, one of the nicest fellows that I ever knew in my life. He is at a
small university—well, he's retired now. He's eighty. He's a year older
than I am. He's
[unclear] years old. But
he was at this small university and was assistant to the president. And
then
[unclear] football coach when he was
[unclear] , school of nursing and he
was chairman of that committee. So he was a man that could do a lot of
things, and one of the nicest people. And, of course, he paid the nicest
compliment. He's got—he had four boys and he named his last one after my
boy and me.
[Laughter] And he calls me
every several weeks or so, you know, and we talk. And he's just the
nicest man you ever saw. But there was some fine boys over there at that
time. And there was no—the girls couldn't go downtown
[unclear] . And now that was
[unclear] I don't know. But there was a—two
Wake Forest boys came down and were going to date two girls at Cotton
Hall. And they pulled out their cigarettes after they got inside and was
going to smoke. And Miss Morgan was the dean of women. And their offices
were in that dormitory. And she came out in no uncertain terms—they
couldn't smoke in their dormitory so they went on outside.
Page 62And while they were out there talking a man walked up and
greeted them and got to talking with them. And then he went on in but he
had a pipe in his mouth. And they said, "Hey! You can't go in there with
that pipe in your mouth." He said, "I think it'll be all right." And he
went on in. That was Dr. Wright, the president of the school.
[Laughter] But it was a happy time for a lot
of people. And, which everybody was in the same shape. Now my brother he
bought a car about every other year. He would buy a nice Buick
automobile for about fourteen hundred dollars, Roadmaster. And he was
making about forty-five hundred. Now Dr. Wright, who was president of
the school, got $5,000 a year at that time. He died. I don't know if
he—it made have been ten years after I left there. And Dr. Meadows was
made chancellor—or they didn't call them that then. But he did some
things that were wrong and they put him in the penitentiary. Dr.
Meadows. And I don't remember now what it was all about. And then
they've had some really remarkable— But the farmers or people in
Greenville and Pitt County got that school here. They had one fellow
named—what in the world. Hayward Dale. They said they had a ballot and
to vote on it. And said he ate up enough negative ballots so it would
carry it and they got the school.
[Laughter]
So the farmers as well as the towns' people are responsible for
that school being here, which is a very interesting—