THE KIRBY FILE: A poignant and nostalgic journey for those ‘kids on the hill’ at Massey Hill High School

You may have heard that “You can’t go home again.”

Don’t tell that to the “kids from the hill,” many of whom returned Saturday in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Massey Hill High School, where about 435 alumni from as far back as the class of 1947 relived yesteryear. 

“We gather here today to celebrate the 100th anniversary of a cherished building, but in truth, there is something far more special that brings almost 500 people together on this special day,” Tony Chavonne, 70, said in the keynote address in the newly named Ronnie Luck Gymnasium. “We are here to celebrate a lifestyle, a community and decades of a shared history centered around neighbors, churches, textile mills, sports and a school building that serves as a beacon of light on the top of this hill that ties us all—young and old—together.”

Chavonne later would be honored in the inaugural Massey Hill High School Hall of Fame along with the late Cumberland County Sheriff Earl “Moose” Butler; La’Shanda Renee Hawkins, the first African American female helicopter pilot in U.S. Coast Guard history, a former deputy liaison to the U.S. Senate, and special assistant to the NASA Administration under former President Barack Obama; the late Stacey Park Milbern, who became a vocal advocate for disability rights and the co-founder of the Disability Justice movement under Obama; former school football standout Terry Luck, who later played for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the NFL Cleveland Browns; Ronnie Luck, a former football, basketball, and baseball standout at the school and a retired Cumberland County Schools teacher, coach, athletic director, and assistant principal; Larry Lancaster, a former principal at MHHS and who later served on the Cumberland County Board of Education and the Cumberland Board of County Commissioners; and Jacquelyn “Jackie” Smith Warner, a former principal at Douglas Byrd High School and former Hope Mills mayor and current member of the Cumberland County Board of Education. 

A former four-term Fayetteville mayor, Chavonne delivered a moving trip down Memory Lane.

“If only the walls” of the school could talk, he began this sentimental journey of the way “the kids from the hill” once were.

William Julian (class of ‘47) could see himself seated again behind his desk. Julia Sherrill Butler (class of ‘56) perhaps saw herself walking the wooden-floor hallways to a history class. Betty Cain Edge (class of ‘57) saw herself when Elvis Presley was shaking his hips and singing “Jailhouse Rock” and “All Shook Up.” Pat Jacobs Livingstone (class of ‘65) and Gloria Love Dallas (class of ‘65) relived their days as the queens of the girls’ basketball team. John Jones, brothers Ronnie and Donnie Brewington, and Tommy and Adele Upchurch all remembered their class of ‘72.

Puritan, Tolar-Hart, Lakedale, and Poe’s Bottom

“The walls would tell us about what it was like living in a four-room millhouse,” Chavonne said. “We’d hear about families gathered around the table for Sunday dinner with homemade biscuits and sweet tea and ice from the Winslow Street ice plant. The walls would tell us about the old Massey homeplace behind the large elm trees right past Oak Street. We’d hear about window fans and oil heat and black and white TVs from Gary Warner’s. We would hear about Nick Horne’s garage and the dirt streets that connected us all together. We’d hear about Steve’s Tower in the Sky, Tater and Cush playing baseball on the Lakedale lot and I.B. Julian helping solve problems with the guys at Arp’s Barbershop.”

He reminded every kid who grew up on the hill or Puritan or Tolar-Hart or Lakedale or Poe’s Bottom of yesterdays of long ago. 

“The walls would tell us about Charlie Grady’s store, where a dime would buy you a 12-ounce Pepsi and a large cinnamon bun,” Chavonne said. “And the stories of the mill village families in shotgun houses on laid-out streets named Burnett and Cowan and Puritan and Powell. The walls would tell us about the importance of faith and family, and the churches that surrounded this place. We’d hear about Massey Hill Baptist and Carroll Memorial and Comfort Presbyterian and Calvary Methodist. We would hear the powerful voices of Rev. Lowder and Pastor Art Tatum. And we’d hear Tony Buchanan preaching and singing from the pulpit.”

Every alumni, we can only imagine, could see Chavonne’s words in their mind’s eye.

This was life “on the hill” in a time of innocence.

He reminded them of the textile mills and the roar of the spinning looms, and the long hours where their parents worked to make ends meet, when the church pews were filled on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. When, as students, MHHS was a place where they bowed their heads in prayer after the morning school bell rang and where memorizing Bible verses “was just what we did.”

Home again, if only for a day

Chavonne reminded them of another time, long before cellphones, the internet, Facebook, and social media.

He took them back to homecoming football games under the Friday night lights, and church homecomings, too. Of Vacation Bible School, baccalaureate services, weddings and sitting up with the dead through the night in those hours of family grief. 

“For a few minutes, we’d again hear Oral Roberts on the TV and Brother Strickland on the radio,” Chavonne said. “And we would remember a time when faith played an important role in families and the lives in the humble homes of Massey Hill.”

They say you can’t go home again.

But here they were, home once more if only for a day.

“These walls would tell us about the textile mills that surrounded this school,” Chavonne said. “We’d remember Elsie, and Leonard and Hector’s mom, Vernon, Mr. Riley, Edith Sellers, Leslie Lancaster, Ralph Parker and the other doffers and spinners working in 90-degree heat with no air conditioning, happy to have a job and just waiting for another five-year pin from the mill with the small gemstone that might as well have been the Hope Diamond.

“We’d hear about Elmer [Arnette] and Sterling [Baker] climbing on the mill water towers, hoping not to get caught by Deputy Sheriff Casey Hall. About Fourth of July vacation weeks and the Lakedale Pond, the mill stores and the bags of fruit and candy given to the kids at Christmas. We’d be reminded of a time when Burlington didn’t mean a coat factory, but rather a pay envelope each Friday.”

Moose, Junior, and old Hog, too

He remembered the games the old athletes played. The autumn football nights. The basketball games in a hot and sweaty gym and the crack of a bat sending a baseball over the outfield fence. 

“They’d tell us about the great athletes that played here and a time when people couldn’t think of Massey Hill High School and not think of athletics,” Chavonne said about what the school walls would say. “Of state championships and undefeated seasons. We’d be reminded of the Pirates’ battles on the field and Hoggie [Miller’s] battles off. We’d hear about coaches named Howard, Thompkins, Chapman and Luck walking the sidelines, leading Moose and Junior and Cotton and Sterling. We’d be reminded of ‘Tootsie’ [Gloria Love] and Pat’s [Pat Jacobs] 53 consecutive [girls’ basketball] wins, and Don [Tyson] and Frank [Upchurch], and Terry’s three no-hitters … and Huck’s [Hubert Roscoe] smile.

“The walls would tell what it was like in 1947 to open this brand-new gym, and letter sweaters and pep rallies and homecoming bonfires. We’d hear about popcorn and Cokes and Converse and cheerleaders and strikeouts. And J.H. McIntyre pulling the chains on the sidelines with Doobie and Buck and Hilda, Bill and Ruth, and Jack and Rachel Jones cheering the players from the stands.”

Answering a nation’s call

Chavonne remembered those MHHS young men who fought for America’s liberty, and those who gave some and those who gave all. 

“These walls would tell us about the American flag out front, and we’ll remember Cyrus Adcox, who left Victory Mill only to become Cumberland County’s first casualty in World War I,” he said. “We’d hear of all those that served in America’s wars; about Clayton as he leaves for Korea, and Billy and Nicky and all those sent to Vietnam. And Robert Patterson, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor while serving there. The walls would tell us about La’Shanda, the U.S. Coast Guard’s first African American female helicopter pilot, as she continued the school’s long history of sending our own in defense of our country.”

Memory Lane can be a nostalgic walk. 

It can be bittersweet, too, for those along the journey. 

But how lovely the memories, if only the walls of MHHS could talk and take us back in time. 

“We’d hear about civic responsibility from people like County Commissioner Frank Barrett, and Derb, and Marion, and Moose, and Pete, and Alex and Jackie, and Larry, and Tony, too—those that served honorably in public service throughout the region and the state,” Chavonne said. “We’d hear about Fourth of July’s, picnics, American Legion baseball games, and watermelons and ice cream.”

Stop, look and listen, Chavonne said, and you will see Norman Rockwell’s America in the faces of Massey Hill. 

“The walls would tell about the earliest days of schools in Massey Hill, the ones even before this school was built,” he said. “We’d see Hattie Carver and her first class in 1897 with students with good Massey Hill names like Melvin and Barrett and Maness. We would remember principals V.C. Mason and Benny Pearce and Joyce Adams. The walls would speak of Wilma Godwin teaching Macbeth and Henrietta Barbour’s annual staff working on ‘The Pirate.’ There would be Mary Packer dissecting a frog and Larry Lancaster chasing down some ‘drugstore cowboy’ over at Massey Hill Drug. “We’d be reminded of Al Bean’s guidance and Ken Moody’s diagramming and See Me West’s calls to the office. And we’d hear about Helen Spinosa and Donna Perdew and Robert O’Neal and the other people that actually ran this place.”

Hot dogs and sweet orangeades at the drugstore

Tony Chavonne took pause. 

Listen, he said.

Can you hear the walls of MHHS whispering? 

“We’d be reminded of the smell of White Shoulders and Vitalis and English Leather,” he said. “We’d see ducktails and saddle oxfords and pearls and madras and standing for seniors. We’d remember school mascots and beauty pageants and drama class plays. We’d hear about Key Clubs and Weejuns and London Fogs and fraternity jackets. We’ll be reminded of hearing announcements each morning on the PA system and song dedications to the Key Club’s Pirate 60 radio show on Saturday mornings. We’ll recall Mrs. Dees and Mrs. Duffer helping us cross the road to the drugstore, where we’d stand in line for 10-cent hot dogs and sweet orangeades. And we’d hear about Mel and John painting ‘Crew of ‘72’ on the roof of the science building.”

We’d hear, he said, about the scholars, the valedictorians, the doctors, the lawyers, the business leaders, the school principals, “and activists like Stacey Milbern, who learned to fight for what was right and who went on from here to have such a profound impact on American society.”

And the walls, Chavonne said, would share in the pride even today of Massey Hill Classical High School being nationally ranked as one of the best high schools in the county by U.S. News and World Report.

‘It just tugs at your heart’

“He managed to cover all the bases,” said John Jones, 72, who was in the last graduating class of 1972, when the school was known as Massey Hill High. “During his speech, he got choked up at times and had to regain his composure. Tony’s mother, Doris, was raised down at Poe’s Bottom, and his grandmother, and they were huge advocates and never quit being from there. It was a great weekend.” 

Tommy Upchurch also was in the class of ‘72, and he says Chavonne’s words were touching.

“He brought back a lot of memories,” Upchurch, 72, said. “He brought back the high school football games. He brought back memories of Massey Hill Drug and those 10-cent hot dogs and 19-cent milkshakes. To hear all those things he brought back that you did, it just tugs at your heart. There were a lot of people wiping their eyes when he was talking. You could see them wiping their eyes. I wish those days were still here.”

Catherine Abraham-Johnson is in her first year as principal at what now is Massey Hill Classical High School.

“I loved hearing about ‘if these walls could talk,’” Abraham-Johnson, 47, said. “He started naming the names of those who walked those halls. It was so emotional to hear the history of the school and the people. He had my husband crying. He actually had a lot of people in tears. He understands the hardships and the lives the people had.

“What I learned about Massey Hill is that it is made up of people who loved the school and the community, and how they want to preserve that history and heritage. 

“Hopefully, his words will inspire future generations to take part in the Massey Hill Heritage Preservation Project,” Abraham-Johnson said. “It is a school of great people who have walked these halls. The kids [current Massey Hill Classical High School students], after the event, told me they were just blown away. It’s about a lot of pride to our students and staff. It was just such an amazing day.”

The Massey Hill Heritage Preservation Project, a 501(c)(3), has raised $400,000 for the Massey Hill community, according to organizers, and donated another $5,000 Saturday for education scholarships.

Epilogue

Perhaps there is truth to the old adage that you can’t go home again.

The old textile mills are gone.

Life changes. 

The “kids on the hill” have changed.

Their hair has thinned. Their hair has turned to shades of gray. For some, their knees call for artificial metal joints. Some lean on walking canes. Their gait is slow. Some need new lenses for their eyes, because the sharp vision isn’t what it once was. There are hearing devices and pacemakers, too. It’s life. Time waits for no man or woman.

But …

“Again and again, our walls will bring us back—back to the tie that binds us to this special place—this beacon of light, back to this school and back to ‘the hill,’” Tony Chavonne said. “As we gather for this celebration today, we don’t know what the future holds, but after listening to the walls, we do have a better understanding of where we’ve been and the common bond that ties us all together.

“We had little, but we had everything.

“We had each other.

“If only these walls,” Tony Chavonne said, “of this proud building could talk.”

Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.

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