by Charly Mann

I was born and raised in Chapel Hill in the 1950s and 1960s. While I won’t say this was the best time in my life, there was never a better time or place to grow up. The actual population of Chapel Hill was about 5,000 during the 50s, though the census claims it was 4,000 more. This was because students and graduate students who were often married and with children were also counted. Anytime there was a university holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas and the students left, the town seemed nearly deserted. During the summers the population dwindled even more. In those days homes were not air conditioned, and many families took long vacations to the beach, mountains, or even retreated as far way as California or New England to avoid the oppressive heat and humidity. Also the majority of kids went way to camp for at least a month every summer. I recall several times walking up Franklin Street on a hot July afternoon in the mid-1950s and not seeing a single soul on the sidewalk from Henderson Street up to the corner of Columbia. So many of my friends would be away in the summers that I usually had to find a different set of kids to play with during those months.

These are some of my friends from Chapel Hill in the 1950s. From left to right, Tollie Clark who lived in Morgan Creek. Sandy Little who lived in Glen Lenox, myself Charles (Charly) Mann who lived on Old Mill Road in Greenwood, Joe Phillips who lived a couple of miles down on the then desolate, Barbee Chapel Road, Johnny Barret (on the back of Joe) who lived in Morgan Creek, and Hank Brandis, squatting in the middle, who lived around the corner from me on Arrowhead Road. This photo is from October of 1959.

I admit I was spoiled by Chapel Hill as a child. No other place could match the beauty, charm, and smile inducing people. I dreaded every vacation my family took, and vividly recall a sickening feeling each time we pulled out of our driveway to start a trip. I loved to breathe Chapel Hill's air and play in the many forests that were near my house. I lived in the Greenwood neighborhood near 15-501. In those days, it seemed almost traffic free much of the day. I crossed over it two or three times daily from the time I was six to walk to Glen Lenox or Glenwood School. By the time I was eight I had a Schwinn bicycle which I rode all over Chapel Hill. I had several friends who lived on Morgan Creek Road, one in Highland Woods, and two in Glen Lenox who I would bike over to see. I rode the the majority of the way on the side of 15-501.

My friends and me in my front yard on Old Mill Road in Chapel Hill, having a snowball fight, January 1958. Every year growing up we had at least one heavy snowfall. There were always many large snowmen in people's yards, and many of the fraternities in town created magnificent snow sculptures. The best place to ride our sleds was from the top of Stagecoach Road.

It seems that I always had a job or some other means of making money. When I was seven I collected empty discarded bottles along roadways within a mile radius of my house in a red wagon I pulled behind me. I could often collect several hundred bottles a week which I would redeem at the Colonial Store in Glen Lenox for two cents each. During football season I sold bottled drinks out of a bucket of ice as I walked up and down the stairs of Kenan Stadium. I also sold programs and pennants outside the stadium before the game began. The longest employment of my youth was delivering the Chapel Hill Weekly (then published twice a week on Wednesday and Sunday) from 1961 to 1964. My route encompassed all of Greenwood, as well as the Gimghoul area, and Country Club Road all the way down Laurel Hill Road to 15-501.

Charles Mann at five years old: My mother made entries about my interests and activities from time to time. For better or worse, all these attributes still apply to me.

Marked in blue is my twice-weekly Chapel Weekly paper route from 1961 - 1964

I cherish the town and people I grew up with. Chapel Hill was a small town and people not only knew all their neighbors, they knew almost everyone in their neighborhood. Greenwood, where I grew up, was made up of over 75 families. Everyone was married and had at least one kid. I never met anyone who even had a parent who had been divorced until 1962, and she lived with her father and stepmother. I can still remember the last names of all my neighbors, and the first names of most them. Neighbors were also people your parents socialized with on a regular basis. People often dropped by to talk for an hour or more. Many women were members of afternoon bridge clubs that rotated to a different house each week. Many people had dogs, and their dogs ran free (no fences). More amazingly, I played in the woods and most of the yards in Greenwood, and never recall seeing dog excrement anywhere. I've long suspected that dogs naturally find very out of the way places to do their business when given the chance.

I'm having a picnic lunch with my friend Terry Golden who brought along his little sister Maureen Golden in the stripped shirt. I'm topless and my sister, Carol, is sitting in front of my bicycle. This is from June of 1956.

Wherever you went in Chapel Hill in the 1950s you recognized most of the faces you saw, and they were always friendly. More often than not people not only said hello, but actually engaged in a little conversation to catch up, even when pushing a cart down an aisle at Fowler's grocery store. As I grew older I sometimes saw people I did not recognize. By the late 1960s Chapel Hill had grown and changed so much that most people I saw were now unfamiliar. Nevertheless in every store or along Franklin Street there were always some faces you knew. By the mid-1970s (when the University Mall opened) I would often guess how many people I would run into who I knew when I went shopping. In the beginning it was always over ten, but by the late 80s it was often down to one or none. Things had really changed.

Old Mill Road in Chapel Hill was gravel until 1960 when it was paved and had guttering put down.

These two pictures are of me, Charles Mann, on January 1, 1951 (age 2) creating Old Mill Road in the Greenwood neighborhood of Chapel Hill. My parents built two homes here. One was finished in the Spring of 1951, and the other next door in 1954. The latter house is on the east side of Old Mill, next to the intersection with Arrowhead Road, and the other is next door, across from where Stagecoach Road intersects with Old Mill.

Today many people prefer the anonymity of a large and impersonal city, but for me, I would not want to grow up anyplace else or in any era than Chapel Hill when I did.