Berea High School - Prima Luce Yearbook (Berea, NC)

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I I Billy (With his hands in his pockets and m cigarette in his mouth comes walking along as big as pie) Oh ! Wood, don’t be so babyish, you little town bird. Cecil I rather be a town bird and be good than a country bird and be as mean as you. Billy (Taking Cecil’s arm as if to force him to cross) Get across that street. Cecil I shall stand here until all have crossed the street and then I will go. If 1 fall, no one will be to blame. Billy I’ll stand here as long as you (puffing his cigarette). Cecil Yes, and if you throw me down you will be a naughty boy. Mother said when one boy throws another boy down he is naughty (looking as if he wished Billy to go on and not bother him). Billy Your mama doesn’t know everything (pausing). Why, my mama said she would whip me good if I ever tried to hurt a boy less than me. But she doesn’t see everything I do. Cecil Do you mean to say that you do what your mother tells you not to do ? Billy I do what I want to when she is not looking at me. I take Johnny’s drum, Helen’s doll, and Willie’s horn, and they cry. Cecil I would be ashamed to tell that I Billy Would you? (Catching him by the collar aiming to throw him, but as it would happen Mrs. Garwood appears on the scene, having become uneasy about Cecil.) — Willie Lee Hobgood. [ Page 73 ]

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Lettie (Comes running in with tear-stained face) Oh! Mister, I knew you would he here; you are so kind. Why I can see through your eyes into your heart Grandfather Lettie — Lettie. Child, what was your mother’s name ? Lettie Her name was Lettie Talmage, Father’s name was Rutledge. But Mister how you tremble. Did you know my mother? b ’ Grandfather Yes ! I knew her. Listen, Lettie, I loved your mother, and she loved me But her father made her marry another man All these vearc T i . longing for her with a broket heart. And you W Taken l ™ ’ Lettie (Throwing her arms around hit neck) And vou realh , (Looking up at him) I’m just like her, Grandad. ‘ y ove d my mother. Grandfather Yes, you are just like her, and you shall he mine and nil tW T 1 We’ll go away together. I shall he your old Grandad; and you shall enter ' school ' and grow tip as my child. J ciucr cnooi, Lettie I’m so happy. I loved you, Grandad, the first time T saw . i tmi , your little girl. But Grandad. I can work for our food . 7 ’ a ? C 1 Humphry that you had lost your fortune. ’ ailse lear you tell Grandfather (Takes her in his arms) Honey, I was iusf u- money. But I have had a peep into his heart. My littlTLettie 6 happy. You are a rich girl now, for all that I have is yours ’ y ° U Sha C (Curtain) -Nancy Mae C urrin. 1 wo Lypes of C hildre?i CHARACTERS Cecil Garwood Billy Watkins Setting, time and place: hi front of a drug store, on Main Street in Winston of November, tivo boys meet on their way home It causing tile streets and sidewalks to be slippery A town boy A country boy -Salem, in the latter part is raining and freezing, Cecil I am most afraid to go farther (stopping). [ Page 72 ]

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PRIM A LUCE Berea in 1950 1 he day after the special tax election for a longer term had failed to carry I ate a large dinner, and, without any dessert, went to my room. I lay across the bed and dozed. I stood on Mount Shasta. It was the year 1960. I saw a stately gentleman with unemotional countenance coming toward me with scroll in hand I asked him if he were a writer, and he replied, “Only a historian. I am writing a history of Berea, North Carolina, for 1950, which I have not completed I under- stand that you were once there and I want some information.” I answered in the affirmative and asked him if he would read what he had written After turn- ing a page or two, he read as follows: J Ills I EOI LE . 1 he native inhabitants of Berea were of an unkown race In earliest times they dressed in skins, dyed or tattooed their flesh, drank out of the skulls of their enemies, worshipped sticks, stones, trees, and thunder, and strangled the stranger that wandered into their midst. Later, however, they became a very civilized people and perhaps were over-fed with vanity. Fond of personal display, they wore showy garments. If we are to believe tradition, the early inhabitants of Berea married their daughters by auction, the money brought by the handsome ones being given as a dowry to their less favored sisters— in other words, the wealthy nobles would buy the beautiful girls at the beginning of the sale and then the auctioneer would give the money received to the less attractive ones with which to buy husbands. Consquently all were mated. 1 he marriage festival or auction took place once a year and no father could give his daughter at any other time or, in any other way. 1 he early inhabitants of Berea had no physicians. The sick and infirm were brought out into the public places, where the passers-by prescribed remedies which had proved effectual in their own experiences or that of their friends - it being against the law to pass by a sick person without inquiring into the nature of hi ' s disease. This custom m reference to the sick and afflicted has long since been discontinued, but there are a few, -at least one in Berea today who frequently gives advice to the sick and prescribes medicine for their maladies. “The fashionable man now wore a large starched collar and a long-waisted double-breasted coat and many of the more prominent ones, like government officials wore rings in their ears The men usually went bare-headed and wore long flowing hair, parted in the middle. The ladies have long since discarded the boyish bob and recently appeared in caps, hats, and hoods of every shape The hair was dyed, curled, frizzled and crimped in a variety of forms and colors. Alma DaS who, it is said, had eighty wigs, was seen sometimes in black hair and sometimes in red; Clyde Hobgood wore successively black, yellow and auburn hair But [ Pack 74 ]