~~~~~~~~

This Week's Stories

~~~

'I LIVED THROUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION'

Today, it's almost a religious thing with old people to say "I lived through the Great Depression," or "I lived through World War II."

Truth of the matter is, while some people nearly starved in the Thirties and some people died or were badly wounded in the war, for a lot of people in the United States at the time neither the Depression nor the war were much more than a minor inconvenience.

In the Depression, the rich got richer, and in the war, the rich got richer.

If you had money, the Thirties were great years to buy up foreclosed farmland and failing businesses, and then ~ if you weren't drafted ~ profiteering and the black market eased the inconveniences of the war years.

~~~~~~~~~

SUPERMEN IN THE DEER PEN

In WWII, a lot of Germans were captured in the North African campaign and brought to the U.S.

A large number wound up in a fenced POW camp on the edge of Ahoskie, at a place we once called the Deer Pen. They were trucked out during the farming season to work in the fields, replacing the local farm boys who were on their way to Germany.

In the afternoons they would be returned to camp, which they ran themselves with only a few U.S. soldiers with machine guns on watch in wooden towers on the perimeter.

There was an old road down one side of the camp, and a lot of us young fellows would gather there to peer through the fence for a glimpse of The Enemy.

They would line up and do calisthenics to their officers' commands.

To us skinny Depression kids, these were real Nazi Supermen, every one of them stripped to their shorts with their muscles sporting muscles and broad bronze shoulders shedding sweat in the summer afternoon sun.

It scared the heck out of us.

~~~~~~~~~

HAPPY IN THE USA

After a time, the Germans were moved out of the Deer Pen and Italian POWs captured in Sicily and Italy replaced them.

Captured might not be the right word, because these Italians reportedly were only too glad to surrender and leave the fighting to the Nazis.

They certainly didn't look like supermen and they weren't good farm workers, but they were evermore delighted to be in the USA.

They were guarded by easy-going American servicemen from New York and New Jersey, many of Italian descent who could speak the language.

We used to hang on the fences to watch this group of POWs, too, because they loved to gather around small campfires in the evening and carouse and sing, we thought, for our entertainment.

They were so disorganized that we sometimes felt we might be better off if they were still free of us and hanging around in Italy hindering the Germans.

The townspeople fell in love with the Yankee guards, with whom some of the local girls were beginning to sit under the apple tree, and decided to throw a big banquet-dance for them at the Town Hall.

The USA guards were delighted, but they made the mistake of bringing along a few of the Italian POWs to serve as cooks and waiters, and those unworthies – exuberant fellows that they were – joined right in the festive spirit.

Some relative wrote a letter about it to a soldier fighting in the mud in Italy, and the event was written up in Stars and Stripes, the Army overseas newspaper, as a big party thrown in Ahoskie for Italian prisoners of war.

It caused quite a stir in Washington, with some Congressmen and some FBI men coming down to check on things in Ahoskie, but nothing much else ever came of it.

~~~~~~~~

This Week's Verse

~~~

Some think the world was made for fun and frolic,
and so do I; and so do I.
Some think it well to be all melancholic,
to pine and sigh; to pine and sigh.
But I, I love to spend my time in singing,
some joyous song, some joyous song,
to set the air with music bravely ringing
is far from wrong; is far from wrong.
Hearken, hearken, echoes sound afar,
hearken, hearken, echoes sound afar;
funiculi, funicula, funiculi, funicula;
echoes sound afar, funiculi, funicula.

Ah me, 'tis strange that some should take to sighing,
and like it well; and like it well.
For me, I have not thought it worth the trying,
so cannot tell; so cannot tell.
With laugh, with dance and song the day soon passes,
full soon is gone, full soon is gone,
for mirth was made for joyous lads and lasses
to call their own; to call their own.
Hearken, hearken, hear the soft guitar;
hearken, hearken, hear the soft guitar;
funiculi, funicula, funiculi, funicula;
hark the soft guitar, funiculi, funicula.

~
(1880. Verse Peppino Turco. Music Luigi Denza.)

~~~

THE POOR HOUSE STORY

By Marianne Nichols Ordway, Maryland

I love The Poor Town News, and always look forward to receiving it! I would like to share with you and your readers the URL for "The Poor House Story" (about "county homes" and "county farms"). I am amazed by just how much we don't know regarding these people and places in our country. I have found that most records (of which there were many) have been destroyed or otherwise forgotten about or disposed of.

I found an ancestor of mine (Matilda Nichols) living at the Bertie County Farm (on the Cashie Neck Road) in 1920 and started researching. It is difficult to locate the old records but I have learned a great deal in the meantime. Maybe this will stir up interest in the Bertie County Farm, the poor who lived there and the forgotten cemeteries where they remain.

The (NC state) Archivist was very responsive, as was Belinda White, Bertie County's Registrar of Deeds. The records are scattered and unrecognizable by most people now ~ even if they are run across by those in charge. I live in Maryland and have distant cousins in NM and NC who have been working with me to learn the fate of Matilda Nichols. We are not yet sure just how she is related ~ other than to know that she was. We have been researching for some time now regarding other ancestors' records to substantiate our theories of just who her parents were.

Click here for the Poor House Story. I hope you will go there and listen to the interview at the link to the radio station. You can download the Real Player One for free if you don't have it already. It is really interesting.

Also, readers who would like to research other Bertie County information can click here to find a very helpful GenWeb site hosted by Virginia Crilley.

~~~~~~~~

This Week's Mailbox

~~~

...... Just noticed that I was Visitor 13,999 (to The Poor Town News), so I went back to the Poor Town Books to make it an even 14,000. ~ George Parker (and Ginny), Rochester NY.

~~~

...... Nice stuff, as usual (No. 48). Maybe you should write a piece about your sojourn to the (Nelson Tricentennial) celebration (at Morehead City). ~ Ron Lupton, Colorado.

~~~

...... Some things are really amazing, and we wonder how it could be possible for (them) to happen. How do you get all this information, way back, when we and you weren't here at the time? Searching and reading, I suppose ..... Anyway, we have another Pearce who is interested in reading (The Poor Town News) ~ my daughter, Karen Pearce Lobmeir. When Joe (Pearce of NJ) went to meet with you and some others at the end of October, he came by here and was showing my daughter the books he had accumulated, and she just couldn't get enough ...... I told her that maybe you would put her on your mailing list. ~ Carolyn Pearce, Chesapeake VA.

~~~