O.C. Stonestreet | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The seasonal opening of the swimming pool at the War Memorial was a much-anticipated event.

Another recreational place was the old Brown’s pool and skating rink out N.C. Highway 801 (Mt. Ulla Highway). By the time I came along, the pool was becoming overgrown with vegetation and there was little swimming in it, but the skating rink was very popular.

Various groups, usually church youth groups, would book the rink for a certain night and then the kids — say from First Baptist — would invite all their friends who attended other churches — say Central Methodist and First Presbyterian — to the skating party. A week or so later, the kids from the other churches — say St. Mark’s Lutheran — would have a skating party and invite other kids. The skating parties were always fun and a good mix of kids could always be found. “Mom” and “Pop” Brown kept the reel-to-reel organ music going as people skated counter-clockwise on the maple boards. 

Sometimes in the evening in the summer, it was just too warm to sleep and often in the evening children put on pajamas and the family took the sedan out and rode around the countryside. We called this “450 air-conditioning,” as all four windows were down and we were going 50 mph.

After several hours of driving around, the house, it was hoped, would have cooled off sufficiently to make sleep possible. Of course, many people had floor or window fan units.

Also during the summer, there was the “Dyna Fog” fogging machine, thought to help reduce the fly and mosquito population. This apparatus, a gift of the Jaycees in May 1954, was towed behind a town vehicle and belched a combination of fuel oil and DDT in vast, white clouds. You could hear the monstrosity coming from several blocks away, and Mom always rushed to close as many windows as she could reach before its arrival, particularly those that faced the street.

No one seemed to question the effectiveness of this process or its effect on the lungs of the residents. There were even children who rode their bicycles through the clouds, following the truck on its rounds through town. I believe Statesville had a similar device about the same time.

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