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This Week's Stories

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ALEX IN WWII

Alex Phelps, born in Vaughan NC but working in Ahoskie, joined the Army Air Force in August 1942 and served until November 1945. He spent approximately 13 months at Keesler Field, Miss., and several months at Indian Springs, Nev., with stops of shorter duration at several other bases before departing from New York for Liverpool, England.

After a very short time in England, he crossed the Channel to Europe, and saw duty in France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and Germany.

His group was involved in numerous air campaigns, including those around St. Lo in France and Aachen in Germany, and was heavily involved in the Battle of the Bulge, when the Germans made a last major push in December 1944 and temporarily regained a lot of territory the Allies had won during the summer.

Of the days surrounding the Battle of the Bulge, Alex said:

"We lived in tents with no floors, four to six men to a tent, right near the airstrips.

"We were a huge supply depot. We had a tremendous amount of gasoline in dumps around the airfield that the Germans wanted.

"When we found out that the Germans were driving hard for us and that they might not be stopped, we had to 'gas up' the whole supply depot – spread explosives and fuel all around – so we could burn and blow it all up to keep the Germans from getting it if we had to leave.

"We were told that we probably would have to destroy it all and leave in less than 24 hours. The weather was bad and our planes weren't able to fly enough to do much damage to the advancing Germans.

"The day we were expecting to go, the weather cleared, and the U.S. planes came over in droves. The bombers came from England, the fighters from nearby.

"The sky was full of planes, and we could see where they were dropping their bombs. The whole horizon was one long cloud of fire and smoke where they were hitting the Germans, and the noise was just a continuous, almost unbelievable roar. Every now and then we would see a plane get hit, break apart and fall out of the sky."

The Germans were stopped. Alex said he remembered very clearly the last attacks as the Germans ran out of gas and supplies:

"I remember Jan. 1, 1945. I had grabbed a roll of toilet paper and had gone into a field near the airstrip to 'do my business.' While I was there, I saw this fighter plane diving right out of the sky toward me. Just as it got to me, it pulled up sharply, and as it went by, I saw that big old swastika on the tail. I got up and ran. The German turned around and came down again to strafe our field, and he tore up 14 of our planes."

Alex, a corporal, moved on into Germany with his group. He saw the old city of Nuremburg flattened, as Aachen and St. Lo had been earlier.

Alex had a couple more scary experiences before he got home. One of these, he said, was when the men were riding freight cars back from Germany to France.

"We went across this one long trestle, between two mountains – it looked like we were a mile high – it was a little, spindly, old thing, and that little old train was just rattling and shaking. I thought we'd fall for sure."

Another bad time was on the ship that brought him from France back to the States. It was a 13-day trip in all, but the first three days out of France were almost enough for Alex.

"We were hit by the worst storm I ever saw, and it seemed like the ship just stayed down in the troughs between these huge waves, with water on each side of you as high up as you could see. When the ship rolled, if you were on the deck, it would just about come up and hit you in the back. Below deck, when we were getting ready to cook a big steak, the ship took a real big roll – and everything – steak and all – left the stove and hit the floor. But after those first three days, the sea flattened out just as smooth and calm as a fishing pond, and it was a great ride the rest of the way home."

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Ike and Alice Moss

Ike and his car

FRANK, IKE AND ALICE

(Frank W. Pearce, talking about his father, Isaac Thomas Pearce,
and his mother, Alice Moss Pearce, both of whom
are buried in the Ahoskie Cemetery)

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My father was Isaac (Ike) Thomas Pearce (1875-1959). He married Alice Moss (1873-1935).

My father was raised on a farm (in upper Bertie County NC). When he was about 18, he left home to see what the world was like. He joined the US Army and was stationed at Fort Hamilton, in Brooklyn NY. He was injured while in the Army.

While he was in the hospital, some girls came from the church to visit the sick and the soldiers. One of the girls had not been in the United States very long ~ Alice Moss, who was from Queenstown, Cork County, Ireland. She met and married Isaac Thomas Pearce.

Soon after they were married they left New York and moved to Hertford County, North Carolina, where Esther, Annie and I were born. I was told that I was born at Tunis NC in Hertford County (in 1902), where the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad crossed the Chowan River.

My father was the coal and water tender for the railroad at that time, and he made 40 cents a day.

Later we moved to Suffolk VA. When I was about seven, I went on a fishing trip with him. He had a cabin sailboat with a cookstove, and bunks to sleep on. We went out from Suffolk down the Nansemond River to Hampton Roads and fished all week. When we got home we were both sick. He had typhoid fever and I had malaria.

My father was a farmer and worked as a carpenter when he was not busy on the farm. Money was hard to get in those days. When I had a penny, I thought I had money. Eggs were 24 cents per dozen, so I would get an egg or two and take them to the store for candy or cakes.

We moved from Suffolk to Portsmouth about the year 1909. I had a paper route and made one dollar and 50 cents per week when I was in the fifth grade at school. I really had money in those days. I bought a used bicycle. I would spend a nickel each day at school for a half of a pie, which was a good pie, and that was about all you would eat with one sandwich for lunch.

Later when I was 16 I got my first job during the summer vacation, and I made 10 cents per hour. One dollar for a 10-hour day. After that I went to work as an apprentice in the US Navy Yard in Portsmouth VA. As an apprentice I worked at my trade and went to school for four years. One day a week I would attend classes for eight hours. This education was equivalent to two years in college. After serving my apprenticeship and one year as a mechanic, I was laid off. Ship work was poor at that time.

It was then that I decided to go into refrigeration work. I got a job with Horne Ice Cream Company in Norfolk VA and continued in refrigeration until I retired.

One night just before going to work with the ice cream company, I went to visit my sister Esther. A girl was visiting her, with her uncle Charles Gibbins, who we knew. The girl's name was Edith Louise Dunn from Norwalk, Connecticut. I thought she was real nice, and with her being a Yankee I thought it would be exciting to take her out to the movies. I got my sister to ask her as I was too bashful. We went to the movies one night and a dance another night. Then she had to go home to Connecticut.

We wrote a few letters to each other. Christmas time was near, and I did not want to buy her a present, and I did not want her to buy me a present, so I stopped writing.

After Christmas, her uncle Charles Gibbins went up to Connecticut to visit his people and saw (her). She had bought me a Christmas present before I stopped writing to her. The present had my initials engraved on it, and she did not know what to do with it. She decided to send it to me by her uncle. When he returned home, he gave me the present.

Well, I thought about it, and came to the conclusion that this girl liked me, and I had never had a girl to like me before. I went to Connecticut to see her, and later married her.

We had planned to live in Norfolk VA but to please her mother, I stayed in Connecticut for about three years and worked for Polly Refrigeration Company. Our oldest daughter was born in Norwalk, Connecticut. We moved to Salisbury MD where I worked with Southern Dairies. Our other two daughters were born in Salisbury. Later we moved to Greensboro NC and I worked with Southern Dairies. Later we moved to Raleigh NC and I worked with Pine State Creamery Company until retirement, Dec. 31, 1964, at the age of 62.

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This Week's Verse

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Maxwelton's braes are bonnie,
Where early fa's the dew;
An' it's there that Annie Laurie
Gi'ed me her promise true;
Gi'ed me her promise true,
Which ne'er forgot shall be;
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'd lay me doun and dee.

Her brow is like the snow-drift,
Her throat is like the swan,
Her face it is the fairest
That e'er the sun shone on;
That e'er the sun shone on;
An' dark blue is her e'e;
An' for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'd lay me doun and dee.

Like dew on the gowan lying
Is the fa' o' her fairy feet;
Like summer breezes sighing,
Her voice is low an' sweet;
Her voice is low an' sweet;
An' she's a' the world to me;
An' for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'd lay me doun and dee.

~
(Lady John Scott ~ Alicia Ann Spottiswood, 1810-1900)

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This Week's Mailbox

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...... I loved the picture (wagon train, No. 47). Old pictures are among my favorite things. ~ Ann Medley, Raleigh NC.

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...... Liked the picture (No. 47). Very interesting and educational. ~ Norma Scott, Florida.

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