Judge Robinette Remembers
This
is a Supplement to Leo Kirby's story Remember the Long Day in the Mill.
Dr. Robert
Hill, who died about 1964, was a good company
doctor. He helped many people regardless of ability to
pay. People went to him with all kinds of problems. He
was constantly on the go- made house calls- went daily
to the Spartanburg hospital and was frequently driven
around by a likeable black man by the name of DYKE.
Baseball was a big thing in
Pacolet Mills. I remember
the Vasey battery. One brother pitched. He was
ambidextrous and his brother caught. They won nearly all
their games. Clifton Mills enticed them with better jobs
to play at Clifton, S.C. Then came good players like Foy
Patrick, Tommy Jett, Tobe Campbell, the Teaster brothers, Lewis
Petty, Bill Harold, and later Ernie White who went on
to make it big with the Saint Louis Cardinals. I played
second base on the Second Team. My brother-in-law, Jim
Fleming, was our star pitcher who hit real well also. He
hit over 400 in 1928 and was given a fine suit of
clothes for being most valuable player in the entire
league. Good baseball was played in those days.
(Editor's Note: The
Teaster brothers were my uncles, Lee (Bo) and Monroe
Teaster. Tobe Campbell was also my uncle as he had
married my Dad's sister, Bonnie.)
We had extremely high water
in 1928. The water was so high coming over the dam you could hardly tell the
dam was there. People stood
on the banks watching
trees and small buildings go by and hardly anyone dared
to cross the bridge because
we expected it to go any minute.
Ella Mae Brown and I were in the first grade
during the first May Festival and we led the first dance
procession onto the field which later became the swimming pool. The school gave us
patterns for our costumes and my mother made my green
elf suit as well costumes for Oren, Clara Robinette and
several neighboring children. My mother was a good
seamstress and could do a hundred other things real
well.
Miss Belle Fuller was the
first nurse I knew in Pacolet
Mills and she rode a fine horse. She wore a well
tailored khaki riding habit. She was a good-looking
woman and rode daily to homes to take care of the sick
people.You felt like a hero when she'd let you hold her
horse when she went into a house. She was also active in
all community projects.
Mrs. Kimberlin was the dietitian for the children’s'
nursery and served might good food. She was the widowed
mother of six Kimberlin children.
Pacolet River was about
the only place to swim. We swam naked at Big
Rock and Flat Rock(22' deep) above the dam. We'd swim all day long
some-times in the summer. When we'd come out of the
water our bodies were covered with streaked muddy water.
None of our crowd drowned-others did.
Back then Ben Montgomery was boss of all outside
workmen. Only black men were hired to work outside. They
had to do a lot of hand picking when they built new
sidewalks and surface water sewers. They'd sing
spirituals and would pick and sing in harmony ending
every sentence with a loud grunt. They sang beautifully
and we young boys would sit and listen by the hour. The
workers enjoyed performing for us.
We had much-respect for Jack
Petty, the town policeman. He'd lost his left arm
and wore a large steel hook which he learned to use
well. He worked closely with
Richard Byers, a county deputy sheriff. When boys
misbehaved people would threaten them with getting Jack
Petty.
Along about 1922, and several years following, the
company had the outside workers raise a large garden
just outside of town! They had the workers bring these
vegetables to a GIMMIE STAND they built just beside the
company store, and would
give these vegetables free to employee families who were
willing to bring a sack. I was ELECTED to go for my
family. A few families were either too proud or too lazy
to go after those good vegetables. We were thankful for
them.
The 1918 flu epidemic was awful. Nearly everyone had it-
many died. I was eight years old and must have run 1,000
errands to the grocery and/or drug store. Some of my
buddies told me "You're crazy to go in houses like that.
You'll catch flu and die". Really, I was glad to help
those people- mostly neighbors. I finally caught it, but
only a mild 2 day case in bed. Fortunately my mother had
a mild case also.
I remember when they drained the dam to recover the body of
Earl Green. It was drained two or three other times for
drowned boys. I remember when the little Jett boy hanged
himself. They claimed he saw it in a movie.
I remember too well when Mr. Rogers and his sons drowned
in the rock quarry pond. I
thought he had four sons-maybe it was only three. We
heard-about the drowning late one afternoon and ran
about 2 miles to see what happened. We saw Jack Petty and his son Lewis
dive in and saw Mr. Petty bring up one body. They
wouldn't let us young boys get too close. Mr. Rogers,
who worked in the main office, and his family were to go
on a vacation the next day and went to the quarry for a
dip. No one knows exactly what happened. I couldn't
sleep for two weeks.
Back in 1923 or 1924 we lived in one of the old houses on the other side of
the river from the company store. These old
houses were full of lice & bedbugs. We tried
everything to get rid of them. We couldn't get good
insecticides in those days. My mother combed them from
our heads with a fine toothed crone. It was not uncommon
to see a louse crawling on the head of a pupil sitting
in front of us.
I was one of those boys who shined shoes at the Y.M.C.A. on Saturday for 5˘
per shine. Also, I made and sold ice cream on Tuesdays
(Payday) and on Saturdays for 5˘ per cone. I bought the
2 gallon freezer from Al Bryant for $2.50 and paid him
50˘ per week. There were about five of us doing it. I'd
make about $1.50 per churn profit. I was eleven years
old at the time and have bought nearly all my clothes
since then.
Mr. Williamson was director of the Y.M.C.A. and organized the
BUILDERS. He told us how to cut watermelon with a string
and how it always paid to do the right thing. Foy
Patrick taught gymnastics and marching at school. He
could stand on his feet and cut a flip backwards. He was
a good athlete and caught baseball on the town team for
a year or two. Also, I remember well Lewis Petty -
Jack's son. He was really good at both basketball and
baseball. He played some baseball professionally. He
could run 100 yards in 10 seconds. One year I played
basketball with him on the town team.
This web site has
been started as a public service to share the story of
Pacolet.