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The Manchester Enterprise: A Boy's Memories Bits of Clay

The 'new' Horse Creek

The ‘new’ Horse Creek…a boy’s memories
By: Rodney Miller

In the fall of 1964 the old Horse Creek Elementary was empty. A new school had been built at the junction of 80 and 421. Several other small schools in the county had also closed their doors to form a much bigger Horse Creek Elementary. The school was beautiful and everything was new and I was entering into the sixth grade.
Driving up to the school I still remember how awestruck I was of the school. The place where we unloaded our new bus was covered to keep us out of the rain. Large wide sidewalks surrounded the school and freshly mowed grass was everywhere. At the old school you couldn’t have found a blade of grass. The schoolyard had been worn barren from the many years of students playing kid games.
The front of the school had large glass windows and the floors looked like they should have been in the White House. The floors shined like a fresh frozen pond in winter. At the old school we only had a concrete floor in the lower part with wooden stairs and wooden floors upstairs. This place was so different, I thought.
We had our “Welcome” meeting in the gymnasium. We were greeted and introduced to the teaching staff in a big ceremony by our principal from the old school, T. C. Gregory. Most every teacher from old Horse Creek was there so I felt right at home.
The gym was a huge room with a stage and ceilings as high as the sky almost. I had never been inside a gym much less one with a basketball court. I thought it was strange that the gym had a goal at each end. I couldn’t keep myself from just staring around at the expanse of it all. A big change from the dusty dirt court we played on at the old school where we were constantly loosing our basketball in the nearby creek.
The gym also had a large curtain that separated it from a place Mr. Gregory called a cafeteria. I found out later it was a place where we would eat our dinner. The cafeteria was filled with tables and surrounded by chairs where students ate their meals together. It was good to also see a couple of familiar faces in the kitchen, Ruth Hacker and Maudie Fisher.
In the meeting Mr. Gregory told us we would have Physical Education classes, “PE for short”, he said. When he said that I wondered to myself, what exactly was physical education? I could only imagine it was one of those talks about growing up between boys and girls that my Daddy had already had with me. “Not again!” I murmured to myself.
But, when he told everyone that we would have to buy a pair of tennis shoes or go barefoot when we were taking PE classes I knew was on the wrong trail.
1964 turned out to be the year I got my first pair of tennis shoes. Momma went to the Dollar Store and bought each of us a new pair. The shoes only cost a dollar a pair, believe it or not. Boy, have things changed since then. Kids today cry if they don’t have a pair that cost $100.00.
Pearl “Jaybird” White, was my gym teacher and basketball coach on the Horse Creek Knights ball team. He was so proud of the new school and gym. If you got on the floor you had better have on your tennis shoes or you would have to answer to Jay Bird.
Grades 1- 4 made up the “Little” wing and 5 – 8 the “Big” wing. There were two classrooms for every grade. I didn’t like that idea because now my friends from the old school and I were separated into classes with the new students from the other schools.
That year I didn’t much like the class I was assigned to. I wanted to be in the same classroom as my best buddy Charles Webb. I even left my class on the first day and went with him to his but the teacher made me return. I was unhappy to say the least.
One of the most welcomed differences at the new Horse Creek was we had bathrooms and water fountains on each wing. No more outside toilets with that awful smell on a hot summer day. The bathrooms also had private stalls with commodes that flushed and sinks to wash your hands in with big mirrors to freshen-up in.
The water fountains in the halls had a cool drink anytime you wanted it with no cup required. That doesn’t sound like much today but let me tell you back then, that was high cotton for a Horse Creeker.
The new Horse Creek School stood proudly on the hill at the junction for over 40 years until the School Board decided to close it down. It broke my heart to see my school empty. I wondered, “Why Horse Creek?” For the first time in over 100 years there wasn’t a school located on Horse Creek.
The teachers and students were scattered around the county to the other schools. That overloaded Hacker Elementary to where it had to be closed down to make room for the extra kids. Where did they go while the renovation was going on? Back to Horse Creek. It didn’t make any sense at all to me.
The school sat almost empty and was only used for storage until this year when Campbell-Reed started taking their students to the Horse Creek Elementary. Where did they come from? The old Manchester Elementary School in town. If this sounds like a juggling act to you, I would have to agree.
I wonder sometimes about what people call progress. Most of it usually involves tearing down or destroying something that was perfectly all right to start with. The property where the old Horse Creek School stood is now a parking lot for a church. And the new Horse Creek is now home to Campbell-Reed students.
For the past few years I kept hoping that Horse Creek would somehow re-open but now, that hope is dim.
I never have understood the thinking that was involved by closing down “my” school. But one thing is for sure; it sure has left a big hole in a lot of hearts.

The Old Horse Creek

The Old Horse Creek…a boy’s memories
By: Rodney Miller

The first 5 years of my schooling was at the old Horse Creek Elementary School located between Sibert and Hima. The only thing there now is a blacktopped parking lot for the new Horse Creek Baptist Church. The school was left empty in the spring of 1964.
A new, more modern school was built about two miles away. I entered the sixth grade at the new school in the fall of ’64. Boy was it different.
We had come a long way it seems in just a few years. In the first two years on my schooling I walked to the two-story concrete block building that I called my school. Then the bus started picking us up and bringing us to school. That in itself was quite an achievement.
In the early years walking to and from school was a two-mile trek each way. But that’s the way it had been done for many years before me. It took us about 30 minutes to get there. On the way other kids joined in to the lines of students making the same journey.
We walked the dirt road to the mouth of Yeager Branch and then we could either walk the dirt road to Sibert or split off and take the railroad tracks to Sibert. Either way it was usually dusty walking the road and dirty from the three tipples that were constantly loading coal onto the coal-cars sitting on the railroad track.
I would take the tracks most of the time. I liked to see if I could walk the rail all the way to Sibert without falling off. Back then my balance was better. We would sometimes have races running the tracks for long spans before a competitor fell off or just gave up.
Arriving at school our family would break up with each brother or sister going their separate way. My 1st and 2nd grade classes were downstairs in the old school. Making it to the top floor meant I was now considered a young man. The teachers at old Horse Creek were the cream of the crop. I feel so lucky to have had teach me so much that has molded me into the person I am today.
There are many great memories of my school where I spent the first 5 years of my education. So many, that I decided to share with you, in a few brief lines, a little more about old Horse Creek.
There were no inside bathrooms at the old school. Every kid, when they had to go, had to go outside. We had two outhouses out by the creek. They had to be replaced each time there was a big flood. I often wondered, where did those outhouses end up downstream?
We also never had water fountains. What we did have was a water bucket on a table in the rear of the class with a dipper. Each kid brought his or her own cup for drinking water. I remember one of my favorite cups was an aluminum one that collapsed to a small round circle about a half-inch thick. Pretty smart invention, for the time.
Every teacher had a paddle. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe but teachers were not only allowed to punish kids, most parents encouraged it if a kid stepped out of line. I am a firm believer that if punishment were reinstalled in the school system we would have better kids. Kids today know that teachers cannot punish them so they do as they please. Bad decision!
We started each day with prayer and standing at attention, with our hand over our heart, all joined in with, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
I think if you are an American you should make this pledge without thinking you’re going to make someone mad by doing it. My belief is, “If you don’t like America, and what this country was founded on, then get out!” It’s that simple.
We sang all the old songs like: Yankee Doodle, Oh’ Susanna; She’ll Be Coming Around The Mountain; Three Blind Mice; A Hunting We Will Go; Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight; Shoo Fly; The Ants Go Marching In; I’m A Little Teapot; Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone; One, Two Buckle My Shoe; Ten Little Indians; Peter Cottontail; Polly Wolly Doodle; Red River Valley; There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea; and who could forget Row, Row, Row Your Boat. I doubt if any of the younger kids today could sing these songs.
At recess we played games of Red Rover, Ring Around the Rosies, London Bridge, The Farmer in the Dell, hopscotch, marbles, whip-crack, kick-the can and the most popular game of all, tag.
The best way to get out of class was volunteering to dust the erasers from the chalkboard, go get a fresh bucket of drinking water, or a much-needed trip to the outhouse. You had to keep one thing in mind about a trip to the outhouse, when you went to the toilet, half the school kids were watching through the big windows. I always thought it was embarrassing to go to the bathroo
There were no computers back then. Everyone had to learn their multiplication tables. Cursive writing was taught in class. We had to know all of the United States locations on a map and their capitols. We had to memorize all the Presidents in order from George Washington to President Lyndon Johnson.
Speaking of Presidents I will never forget the day John Kennedy was assassinated. I was in the fifth grade and on the bus rid home, some kid on the bus shouted something I will never forget, “Roses are Red, Violets are Black, Kennedy would better, with a knife in his back!” How cruel, I thought, to say that about our dead President.
Times have changed so much since those days (and not many for the better I must say!) that it’s scary. But to many, just like me, those were “the good old days” and you know what they say, “… when they’re gone, they’re gone for good”.
I’m just so thankful I got to attend the old Horse Creek Elementary. I wouldn’t trade those memories for nothing. But things were a changing. In the fall of ’64 the new Horse Creek Elementary would open and with it a whole new way in education.

The kitchen table

The kitchen table…a boy’s memories
By: Rodney Miller

Many of my favorite memories as a child are of our family around the kitchen table. Today, meals at a table are almost a thing of the past. The few that we have now are restricted mostly to holidays or special occasions. But when I was growing up there were three meals every day and if you were home it was mandatory to be at the table when the meal was ready to be served.
Back then you ate, when every one else ate. There wasn’t anyone who was allowed to sleep late in the morning. If you didn’t get out of bed when Momma whistled, letting us know breakfast was ready, Daddy would come and get us out of bed. And you didn’t want Daddy to come and get you. He wasn’t as nice as Momma.
Daddy was a military man. He served in WWII and brought home all the strict rules of discipline he was taught while in the Army. That meant a lot of things. First, everyone ate at the same time. Second, everyone had their place at the table. And third, everything that you put on your plate had to be eaten before you got up. We were constantly being reminded of “people in other counties starving to death” so no food was wasted.
Daddy sat always at the head of the table. Momma sat on Daddy’s left just beside him. Jackie sat at the opposite end of the table and the boys sat wherever a chair could be wedged in around the outside.
Breakfast started at 6 am every morning. Momma set the table but no one was allowed to touch any food until everyone was seated and Daddy said grace. Then the food started at Daddy’s plate and was passed to his left with everyone taking off what they wanted to eat. That’s because Daddy was the “Man of the House”. That meant his paycheck paid all the bills.
We never had to worry about not having enough to eat. Momma always fixed plenty. But what was left after everyone got as much as they wanted was recycled. Nothing much went to the dogs or into the slop bucket for the pigs.
Now what I mean by recycled is, if potatoes were cooked today for our meal the next day they might be served as potato soup or mashed potatoes, and if the mashed potatoes weren’t eaten then the next meal they might end up being served as potato cakes. Momma made the best potato cakes I ever tasted.
Left over turkey would be served cold on sandwich bread (we called it lite-bread) with mayonnaise or turkey hash. Fried chicken was always a great warmed up. My Momma loved fried chicken for breakfast.
Any biscuits that weren’t eaten for breakfast made a great sandwich with leftover ham, bacon, sausage or fried bologna (also known as boloney). I always loved the bologna (and still do) just about any time. Momma always said bologna was the poor man’s steak.
Back then, Daddy bought bologna by the roll. I ate it on sandwiches with mayonnaise or on those big Dixie Belle crackers with mustard. Momma sometimes fried bologna for breakfast and we ate it with eggs or chopped up in gravy. There’s not anything much better than bologna for breakfast I think.
When we had pickled bologna juice (vinegar) left over we sliced bologna and made another batch. I love it like that with crackers too.
After breakfast, when everything was cleaned up, it wasn’t long before dinner (Yes, I said D-I-N-N-E-R) was being prepared. We always had three full meals at our house. Dinner was served at 12 noon. Not at 11 o’clock or 1 o’clock. You might think that was awfully close to breakfast but you must remember, breakfast started at 6 am.
So if you wanted your meal hot you had better be at the table at 12 or it would be cold leftovers. Monday thru Saturday Momma took Daddy’s place at the head of the table while he was at work.
There was one special thing I always noticed about Momma at the table. She always waited until last to fill her plate even when she sat at the head of the table. Momma was always like that. Always putting everyone before herself. But you know what, that’s the only way she would have it.
Supper was usually between 5 and 6 pm. The time varied a little only because sometimes Daddy had to work late or the weather might slow him down. And supper never started without Daddy. All of our meals were at the table. We didn’t fill a plate and take it to the living room to eat while we watched TV. That was never allowed
Mealtime was a special time at our house. As we ate, we discussed what went on or was going on in each other lives. My parents always wanted to know how things at school were going. They wanted to know if we had homework that needed finishing before bed. If we got a bad grade it was never the teacher’s fault like most parents complain today, Daddy put the blame squarely on our shoulders. If we got a spanking at school Daddy would warm our bottom up again when we got home. You could count on it.
At suppertime Daddy and Momma also discussed what chores needed done around the house the next day. He also asked Momma if everyone was “pulling their load”.
Our time around the table sometimes included a funny joke. Momma loved a good joke and she loved to laugh.
I can honestly say it was a great time to grow up when I was a kid. And some of the best times were at our table where I was taught so much about life, hard work, education and love. Those memories, around the table, played a big part in who I am today.

When Candy Was King

When Candy Was King…a boy’s memories
By: Rodney Miller

Even though the candy bar has been around for over 100 years, the money that it took to buy a candy bar when I was a kid was hard to find. Some days though, we got lucky and Dad would bring us one of the big Hershey bars from Dobson’s, where he worked, and Momma would break it apart giving an equal share to each of us.
At other times when we did have an extra nickel or dime we walked or rode our bikes to Sibert and bought a candy bar at my Pappaw Miller’s general store or the Tiger Grill owned by Bates and Lettie Sibert.
Back then a nickel bought a big candy bar. Today if you get a candy bar as big you have to pay at least $1.49 for one of the giant ones. Ain’t it crazy how the simple things have went up in price?
My favorite candy bar as a kid was a PayDay. There was something about the peanuts and the caramel center that went together perfectly with a pop. But as I said before money was hard to come by. So most of the times, the only candy we got was candy that my Momma made from scratch. The two that we had the most were chocolate fudge or peanut butter candy. And my Momma always made the best.
Sometime in the 60’s Momma got a new recipe for candy using Jell-O pudding. With Jell-O came all kinds of new flavors like butterscotch, coconut, lemon, and vanilla, just to name a few. Back then, when we got candy it was always a special treat.
It wasn’t long after the Jell-O craze when Momma got another new recipe for cream candy. It was so different from any of the other candy we had gotten before. Cream candy literally melted in you mouth but it was so rich that two pieces would give you a sugar rush that lasted for hours. For many years cream candy was king in the Miller home.
But cream candy wasn’t easy to make and it required costly ingredients, a special candy thermometer, a large marble slab, and hands that weren’t tender (For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll explain that a little later).
The most expensive ingredients were sugar, real butter, and rich whipping cream. Most batches Momma made took almost five pounds of sugar and four pints of whipping cream. Back then you could buy four gallons of milk almost for what the four pints of whipping cream cost but the candy was worth every penny.
A marble slab was the hardest part of the candy making process to find. Momma’s got her a good one from Rosie Hughes on Bridge Street. It was about 3 foot long and i8 inches wide taken off of a piece of antique furniture. There’s no telling how many good pieces of old furniture lost their marble slab because of the cream candy recipe.
Another thing the candy process required was a candy thermometer. The only thermometer we had at our house was one used for finding out if someone had a fever. The candy thermometer was a large one enclosed in a glass case that read temperatures up to 300 degrees.
To make cream candy the weather had to be cold to cool the marble slab we stored on our front porch. The candy would be poured upon the marble slab to cool it down where it could be handled. That meant cream candy could only be made in late fall and winter. What a shame, I thought. Some of the luckier people had a deep freezer where the marble slab could be shut inside to cool it down even in hot weather.
With all items needed and ingredients gathered for a batch or cream candy the cooking process began. The gooey candy had to be heated to a place on the thermometer where it read “Hard Ball”. When reaching this point, the cold marble slab was brought in from the outside and laid on our kitchen table and buttered up to keep the candy from sticking to it.
The boiling hot candy was then slowly poured onto the slab in long skinny rows to cool it enough so that Momma, Jackie, Darlene and another one of us could begin pulling it between them lapping over the mixture over with each pull. To keep the candy from sticking to their hands butter was generously lathered up on their skin too.
The pulling process continued until a workers hand got to where they couldn’t stand the hot candy any more. A fresh pair of hands would then move in while the other person cooled their hands and buttered up again for another round with the candy. I’ve seen my Momma’s hands with red blisters for pulling the hot candy so long.
When the candy began to turn white the candy was stretched out on the buttered slab and cut into small pieces with scissors. The individual pieces were then each wrapped in wax paper and the process was complete.
Making the candy was a family thing. We all gathered together in the kitchen and laughed at the “oohs!” and “ouches!” of hot sticky hands. The reward for the pain was a candy treat that only came in cold weather and I think for that reason it made the candy so much more enjoyable.
Making candy and cooking back then were times for family members to get together. Times that today are almost a thing of the past for many. At out house candy time was a fun time with a sweet reward.

When candy was king

When Candy Was King…a boy’s memories

By: Rodney Miller

At other times when we did have an extra nickel or dime we walked or rode our bikes to Sibert and bought a candy bar at my Pappaw Miller’s general store or the Tiger Grill owned by Bates and Lettie Sibert.

Back then a nickel bought a big candy bar. Today if you get a candy bar as big you have to pay at least $1.49 for one of the giant ones. Ain’t it crazy how the simple things have went up in price?

My favorite candy bar as a kid was a PayDay. There was something about the peanuts and the caramel center that went together perfectly with a pop. But as I said before money was hard to come by. So most of the times, the only candy we got was candy that my Momma made from scratch. The two that we had the most were chocolate fudge or peanut butter candy. And my Momma always made the best.

Sometime in the 60’s Momma got a new recipe for candy using Jell-O pudding. With Jell-O came all kinds of new flavors like butterscotch, coconut, lemon, and vanilla, just to name a few. Back then, when we got candy it was always a special treat.

It wasn’t long after the Jell-O craze when Momma got another new recipe for cream candy. It was so different from any of the other candy we had gotten before. Cream candy literally melted in you mouth but it was so rich that two pieces would give you a sugar rush that lasted for hours. For many years cream candy was king in the Miller home.

But cream candy wasn’t easy to make and it required costly ingredients, a special candy thermometer, a large marble slab, and hands that weren’t tender (For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll explain that a little later).

The most expensive ingredients were sugar, real butter, and rich whipping cream. Most batches Momma made took almost five pounds of sugar and four pints of whipping cream. Back then you could buy four gallons of milk almost for what the four pints of whipping cream cost but the candy was worth every penny.

A marble slab was the hardest part of the candy making process to find. Momma’s got her a good one from Rosie Hughes on Bridge Street. It was about 3 foot long and i8 inches wide taken off of a piece of antique furniture. There’s no telling how many good pieces of old furniture lost their marble slab because of the cream candy recipe.

Another thing the candy process required was a candy thermometer. The only thermometer we had at our house was one used for finding out if someone had a fever. The candy thermometer was a large one enclosed in a glass case that read temperatures up to 300 degrees.

To make cream candy the weather had to be cold to cool the marble slab we stored on our front porch. The candy would be poured upon the marble slab to cool it down where it could be handled. That meant cream candy could only be made in late fall and winter. What a shame, I thought. Some of the luckier people had a deep freezer where the marble slab could be shut inside to cool it down even in hot weather.

With all items needed and ingredients gathered for a batch or cream candy the cooking process began. The gooey candy had to be heated to a place on the thermometer where it read “Hard Ball”. When reaching this point, the cold marble slab was brought in from the outside and laid on our kitchen table and buttered up to keep the candy from sticking to it.

The boiling hot candy was then slowly poured onto the slab in long skinny rows to cool it enough so that Momma, Jackie, Darlene and another one of us could begin pulling it between them lapping over the mixture over with each pull. To keep the candy from sticking to their hands butter was generously lathered up on their skin too.

The pulling process continued until a workers hand got to where they couldn’t stand the hot candy any more. A fresh pair of hands would then move in while the other person cooled their hands and buttered up again for another round with the candy. I’ve seen my Momma’s hands with red blisters for pulling the hot candy so long.

When the candy began to turn white the candy was stretched out on the buttered slab and cut into small pieces with scissors. The individual pieces were then each wrapped in wax paper and the process was complete.

Making the candy was a family thing. We all gathered together in the kitchen and laughed at the “oohs!” and “ouches!” of hot sticky hands. The reward for the pain was a candy treat that only came in cold weather and I think for that reason it made the candy so much more enjoyable.

Making candy and cooking back then were times for family members to get together. Times that today are almost a thing of the past for many. At out house candy time was a fun time with a sweet reward.