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Lesson of a Chapel Hill Paperboy - The One-Cent Week
by Stanley Peele
Back in the 1940's, I was a paperboy; and delivered the Durham-Sun in the Westwood area. In those days, the school in Chapel Hill was where University Square is now. After school was over, I would ride my bike over to the Town Hall, which is now the community shelter.
I would find my bale of newspapers and loosen the wire binding. This was long before we had plastic bags, so I would fold the papers so they could be thrown, stuff them in my canvas bag, put the bag over my shoulder, and pedal off to Vance St. to start the route.
How the papers were delivered depended on the customers. If the customers were handicapped, I would put the paper behind the screen door, or inside the house. However, most of the papers were tossed from my bike as I pedaled. Usually my aim was good, but sometimes it was not. If I missed, and was in a hurry, I would not always go back and put the paper on the porch.
Most of the customers were kindly and charitable people; but one, who I will call "Mr. Smith," who lived on Old Pittsboro Rd., was not. If a newspaper got wet, or missed his porch, even slightly, he would not pay.
I kept a weekly account of money spent and received, and at the end of each week I would calculate the profit for that week. I remember one week, going from house to house, collecting the money for that week.
When I came to Mr. Smith’s house, he informed me that I had missed his porch one day that week. Further, he said he would not pay me anything for that week; in order to "teach me a lesson."
I got very angry. I remember it just as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. My face felt like it was burning.
When I finished collecting payments, I went back home to calculate the profit for that week. To may amazement, I found the profit to be one cent. One cent!! One cent for a week’s work! My anger mounted up threefold. Mr. Smith had stolen my week’s profit.
Profit for a week for Chapel Hill paperboy Stanley Peele
The passing of time can sometimes change our point of view. Now, after many years of reflection, I would like to thank Mr. Smith. He taught me many things. He taught me more than he knew.
He helped teach me the value of money, the value of having integrity in the job place, the lesson of doing a job right. He helped teach me patience. Was my time so valuable that I could not go back and put the newspaper where it should be? It has taken me many years to learn these lessons, but he helped.
He also taught me another lesson that has burned brightly for all these years. He taught me that I should never, never treat another human being as he treated me.
Comments:
Simone Bradbury
8:11 PM Wed 11/11/2009
I noticed from a previous article that Stanley Peele became a lawyer. I think he has the wisdom and fairness to become a good judge.
Roy Stewart
1:25 PM Wed 11/11/2009
This reminds me of the kind of life lesson pieces that once appeared in The Saturday Evening Post and Readers Digest. Thank for keeping the best memories of Chapel Hill alive.
Ray London
10:46 AM Tue 11/10/2009
I really enjoyed this artile and the previous one about the life changing walk across the UNC campus. I did not expect to find such inspiring and valuable life lessons on a site about Chapel Hill memories.
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Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
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Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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In response to your last comment, I believe Stanley Peele has been, and may still be, a judge in Orange County.