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Reflections on the UNC Class of 1956
by Charly Mann
It is said that the greatest generation of Americans were born in the 1920s. They endured the hardships of the Great Depression, died and suffered the horrors of the Second World War, and then created the prosperity that made the United States the dominant and wealthiest country in the world. The generation that came after them was born between 1933 and 1945. They are called the Silent Generation.
UNC students from the Silent Generation having a great time at a slumber party in 1956
I was seven when the UNC Class of 1956, which was part of the Silent Generation, graduated. 1956 is the first year of my life I have a clear memory of. These men and women are all now at least 75 years old. In 1956 I thought of someone who was 60, like my grandmother, was old, and surely believed someone who was 75 was ancient.
Love was often in the air among UNC students in 1956
Today many members of the UNC Class of 1956 are still with us, and I now reflect on what their legacy is to us. During their days as students in Chapel Hill they were serenely uninvolved in social issues or politics. Their focus was on getting the education necessary to secure a good job and often finding a compatible spouse. This was a great time to be alive. The economy was robust and there were no wars that Americans had to fight and die in. Poverty and racial inequality were part of the American landscape, but these UNC students who came from largely middle and upper class families were largely unaware of these issues. These problems simply were not discussed very often by the mainstream media, and certainly were not subjects of the movies, television, or music they were watching and listening to. As a result this generation was the last group of Americans to accept, almost without question, traditional American values.
These are UNC students in 1956 enjoying Hogan's Lake in Chapel Hill. This was an extremely popular spot for students and other Chapel Hillians to enjoy in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. Students enjoyed drinking beer and getting close to their sweetheart here. There were even cows that roamed freely around the lake.
Humans do not grow old chronologically. We grow unevenly. Even at 75 we can be mature in some areas and childish in others. While dementia is more likely to come to us than wisdom as we age, I now know several members of this class who often inspire me. Each one of them has a remarkable strength of character and a purpose to their life.
A romantic moon on a cold winter night over UNC's Wilson Library in 1956
While almost all the members of the Greatest Generation are no longer with us, the Silent Generation are still around in large numbers. They knew the generation that preceded them better than any of us. They also were the guardians of the entire Baby Boom generation. They are the bridge between these powerful and influential groups. They have seen the limitations and hypocrisies of both, and many of them have synthesized that knowledge into a common sense and wisdom that is valuable for all of us to know.
UNC Class of 1956 Senior Photos
First Row: Mary Ruth Morse Silliphant, Daniel Shiver Sylvia Jr., Margaret Joan Sinclair, Second Row: Jane Kirksey Sink, John Frederic Sipp, Oren Scott Skinner, Third Row: Karey Lyerly Sledge, Clyde Smith Jr., Miriam Marcia Smith, Fourth Row: Sherwood H. Smith Jr., Wilbur Ritchie Smith Jr., Raymond Fletcher Snipes
Comments:
Laura Morrison
10:56 AM Sat 1/30/2010
I love the slumber party photograph. I am surprised such activities were allowed in 1956.
Frances Davis
9:16 PM Fri 1/29/2010
Thanks for the picture of Hogan's Lake. It brings back great memories. I use to go out there a few times a year with my family for picnics.
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".
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.
I graduated in the UNC class of 1953 and enjoyed your piece on the youngsters from the class of 1956. As a member of the Silent Generation we did conform to social norms while we were growing up, but we also introduced rock n roll in the mid 1950s, and that ushered in a lot of the changes that took place over the next 50 years.