by Neal Furr

I moved with my family to Chapel Hill in early June 1961 from a rural Cabarrus County area not far from what is now the Charlotte city limits. We ended up living in the Colonial Heights neighborhood that first year. Much to my great disappointment, I soon discovered that we had arrived too late for summer league baseball tryouts. So that summer, I spent a lot of time riding my bike down to the Little League field at Umstead Park to watch. I quickly associated players’ names with faces, so once school started, I realized who some of the boys my age were even if they didn’t know me.

Estes Hills Elementary School Chapel Hill soon after it opened

The 1961-62 school year and my experiences as a new sixth grader in town soon began. I was assigned to Estes Hills Elementary, north of town and the newest of the elementary schools in Chapel Hill at that time. The school was growing in student population, therefore, three new classrooms were hastily assembled and partitioned off in what had been a downstairs storage room. Downstairs classroom #1 was one of two sixth grade classes and was being taught by veteran educator Ms. Elizabeth Seawell. In the middle was classroom #2, the other sixth grade class with Ms. Mary Henley as the teacher, which was her first year back after several years away from the profession. This is where I was assigned. Next door in classroom #3 was a room of fourth graders, being taught by Ms. Helen Furr, who just also happened to be my mom. So when I got into trouble (which happened quite often that year), it was often double trouble. The principal at Estes Hills was an experienced administrator named Ms. Mildred Mooneyham, a lady short in stature with a very firm walk. Nobody crossed Ms. M. – not faculty, not staff, not students, not parents, nobody!

Ms. Henley was a widow who had grown children and lived on a farm south of town. She had no idea what she had got herself back into re-entering the teacher workforce. She had inherited a handful – make that several handfuls! It was a tough year for the teacher and some of the students as well. The best thing about our downstairs location was that it opened directly onto the playground. My first inclination was that maybe I could establish myself at recess since the classroom environment looked to be pretty tough. It turned out that some of my best memories of that year occurred on the playground. Although somewhat overweight, I did have a level of ball playing ability which I believe served me well in being accepted fairly easily. Other new kids were not always so lucky.

The rambunctious ringleaders (and all good kids) among the boys in my class were Mike Preston, Eddie Whitfield, Jimmy Vine, Jack Wilkins and Buzz Anderson (who moved away the next year). These were the guys you had to impress on the field of play. It didn’t take me long to figure out that we had some VERY smart kids in the sixth grade that year. Among the young ladies that were exceptionally bright were Sybil Wagner and Judy Schonfeld in my class well as the Kip sisters, Betsy and Nancy in Ms. Seawell’s class. Then there was Henry Hobson in my class and Walter Carter in Ms. Seawell’s class. They had only been in town a couple of years – their dads had been moved to Research Triangle Park in the late ‘50’s with The Chemstrand Corporation, one of the first major businesses to establish residency there. Now that I think about it, I had Ms. Seawell as a teacher as well since we switched up a few times each week for Reading class.

Estes Hills Elementary School First Grade Class 1966:  in this photo are Gus Jerdee, Susan Cohen, Robbie Conley, Wilson Daughtry, Myra Powell, Ruth Aiken,Kim Williams, Mike Riggsbee, Vail Cart, R.L. Bynum, Robin Huffines, Blair Tindall Sara Edmonds, Mark Masson, Kristy Klatt, Dorothy McNeill, Mike Hampton, Drake VanDeCastle, Drake Van De CastleKristi Klatt, John Anderson, Billy O'Neal, Liz Curtis, Liz Holm , Chris Penny, Sue Brickhouse, Natalie Harris, Jim Manahan, Jud Worth (Photo submitted by R.L. Bynum - the photographer was his father,Rupert Bynum Jr.)

For the first time in my educational matriculation, I struggled somewhat academically. Moving to a new school environment was much more of an adjustment than I had anticipated. That seemed to kick off a long line of teachers over the next several years telling me that I should be doing better in the classroom. I guess my interest in school continued to wane somewhat as I got older, I often just did enough to slide by.

It was an exciting time in the world we lived in that sixth grade year. The Roger Maris/Mickey Mantle race to break Babe Ruth’s single season home run record happened that fall of 1961. I got to watch Tar Heel football live that year for the first time. President John F. Kennedy came to Chapel Hill to speak in Kenan Stadium in October – they bussed all of us students over to attend. I got to witness Dean Smith’s first game in Woollen Gym as the new Tar Heel basketball coach in late 1961. I played organized (somewhat) basketball for the first time that winter as part of the Chapel Hill Recreation Department’s program. Years later, it became the game that I had a true passion for - although never a great player, I thoroughly enjoyed playing and coaching basketball until well into my fifties. U.S. astronaut John Glenn orbited the earth three times in February 1962 – we were allowed to watch on TV in the classroom. And in the spring of 1962, The Chapel Hill Little League expanded from six to eight teams. I played on one of the new teams, the Colts, and a couple Colonial Heights neighborhood friends, Tommy Roberts and Andy Skakle, were my team mates.

Front entrance of Estes Hill Elementary School in Chapel Hill

Ms. Mary Henley went on to teach several more years in Chapel Hill. She was a conscientious educator who genuinely cared about her students. Several years later, an elementary school was named for Ms. Elizabeth Seawell. And Ms. Helen Furr taught at Estes Hills, Lincoln and Guy Phillips before becoming the librarian at Elizabeth Seawell Elementary, retiring in 1994.

That year at Estes Hills has never quite left me. I moved to my current Raleigh N.C. neighborhood in 1992. Where do you think the neighbor currently living right behind me and the one across the street when I moved in attended elementary school? Why Estes Hills, of course!

Neal Furr has enjoyed a long career at IBM in the RTP, and has a passion for Beach and Soul Music. He wrote a column for the The Beach Music Reporter magazine from 2001 to 2004, and now writes CD reviews at the website www.beachmusic45.com. He also writes a monthly called Southern Soul Corner.

Chapel Hill Memories is looking for class photos from Estes Hills Elementary School. Please send any you have to chmemories@gmail.com.

by Charly Mann

The highly regarded UNC football team kicks off their 2010 season on September 4th in Atlanta against LSU. On November 11th, 1961 I was eleven years old and sat in Kenan Stadium to witness LSU totally humiliate the Tarheel football team 30 - 0 on a very sad UNC Homecoming day.

#26 of LSU, Wendell Harris, scores an easy long running touchdown in the first quarter against UNC in Kenan Stadium in 1961

In 1961 I was a veteran of Kenan stadium, having spent almost every home game for the previous three years walking up and down the stadium stairs selling cold bottled soft drinks out of buckets filled with ice during the games. On this day however I was in the stands as a spectator with my father who told me I was going to witness one of the best football teams of all time. My Dad even told me that the LSU second-string team was better than most college first-string teams in the country.

The day was cool and cloudy and the game started at 2:00 instead of the typical 1:00 PM kickoff because it was being televised regionally. There were 28,000 fans in attendance, which was larger than most games, but at least 30% of the stadium seats were empty. Considering the population of Chapel Hill was only about 10,000 then and UNC's enrollment was about the same, this meant almost everyone in town was at the game.

LSU-UNC Game Day Ad with team rosters from November 11th, 1961. If you look closely you can see that year Sutton's was then known as Sutton's Drug Store and Toy Cellar. 

The game was incredible if you enjoyed seeing a clinic of great football. LSU was then ranked #4 in the nation, and I remember they were called the Bengal Tigers, but after that game I always thought of them as the Vicious Bengal Tigers. LSU scored easily on two early possessions with long touchdown runs by their halfback Wendell Harris. More amazing to me, Harris was also their primary kicker and scored three extra points and a field goal for his team. Soon after the first quarter LSU's young blond-haired head coach, Paul Dietzel, saw that his first team far outclassed UNC and put in his second string team led by halfback Bo Campbell. Campbell went on to average more than 10 yards per carry against the hapless UNC defense.

A member of the LSU "Chicago Bandits" defensive team tackles UNC fullback in the backfield for a seven yard loss 

As if the LSU offense wasn't dominant enough, their defense was even better, allowing UNC only 37 rushing yards. I also remember the LSU defense had its own name, the Chicago Bandits, which sounded pretty intimidating to me then.

There are two other interesting things I recall about that game. Up until that time every football uniform I had seen had been fairly bland, white and red, white and navy blue, white and light blue, but the LSU uniform really was spectacular with dark yellow pants and bright purple jerseys and gold numbers. The other thing was that a man who sat next to us said that he had seen the 1956 Oklahoma football team play, and this LSU team was better than them. On my way home I asked my Dad what this meant, and he said many considered that Oklahoma team the best football team of all time. That team I later learned had beaten UNC 36 to 0 in the first game of UNC's 1956 football season.

by Charly Mann

The Grand Opening of the original Ramshead Rathskeller was on September 27th, 1948. It was closed in 1963 for almost a year because of a fire. This new version of the "Rat" will be its fourth incarnation. 

Beloved Chapel Hill restaurant the Ramshead Rathskeller, which was shuttered more than two years ago and brought great sadness to those who loved the place, is returning from the ashes and will reopen by the end of 2010. For our money this is the greatest rising from the dead in 2000 years.

To many their favorite menu item at the Rat was the Gambler steak , but to me and many others it was their unique pizza. The New Rat will need to duplicate this pizza to stay authentic. 

Meal prices at the Ramshead Rahtskeller in Chapel Hill were always very cheap, but in 1952 beer as well as other drinks were free with your food. For me the best beverage at the Rat was their iced-tea.  

by Charly Mann

Most people remember the start of Beatlemania as February 9th, 1964 when the Beatles first performed on the Ed Sullivan Show. That may have been true in the rest of the United States, but the Beatles had become a popular in Chapel Hill almost a month earlier. The Record Bar on Henderson Street began a campaign entitled The Beatles Are Coming in early January. As you walked in the door there were stacks of a free newspaper called National Record News with the headline SPECIAL BEATLES ISSUE and a large rack displaying the first album to be released by the Beatles in America called Introducing the Beatles.

This "newspaper" was given away to all customers at the Record Bar in January of 1964. I think this was the one and only issue of this publication which Capital Records actually published as a promotional tool to get people excited about the Beatles.

I had become interested in the Beatles the previous December when Walter Cronkite did a feature about their phenomenal success in England on his evening news program, and eagerly bought several of their singles and their first two albums at the Record Bar in January. Local radio station WKIX had also been playing the Beatle songs I Want To Hold Your Hand, She Loves You, Please Please Me, and From Me to You since late December.

These stickers were found on poles in downtown Chapel Hill more than a month before the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. 

The Beatle phenomenon was quite strange that January. Here was a new group that had yet to perform in the United States, that no one had heard of two months earlier, that had top charting singles on three labels, Capital Records, Vee Jay, and Swan Records. I was fourteen and had been an avid popular music fan for about two years. Up until that time "hype", as we now call it, had not been used much to promote musical groups, but across Chapel Hill, many lamp poles had a sticker posted with four long-haired heads that said "The Beatles are Coming." During the next five years the Beatles proved that the hype of their enormous talent was merited and they continued producing incredibly innovative records. I was fortunate to see the Beatles perform three times, at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965, and at Dodger Stadium on August 28, 1966, which was their next to last concert performance together.

   
A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles first movie, played to large crowds at The Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill for more than a month. I attended the first showing of it there. Also above is an ad for the Beatles Help album at the Chapel Hill Record Bar in 1965, then located on Henderson Streeet.

On the morning of November 25th, 1968 I was a freshman at the University of North Carolina and my best friend Richard Abbott and I stood in a long line that stretched more than a block waiting to purchase the Beatles latest album at the Record Bar. After we finished classes at about 4 PM we headed over to my house with great anticipation to listen to the record. We spent the next 16 hours laying on separate beds in a darkened room as we played the this two-record album with only a white cover that was titled simply "The Beatles" (but commonly called The White Album) over and over again. It was a bewildering and exhilarating experience, somehow the Beatles had put together the most disjointed album we had ever heard, yet the quality of most of the songs was incredible. We soon agreed that this was not really a Beatle album, but a combination of three separate solo albums by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison. By four in the morning we also concluded it was the also the first Beatle album with "filler" material, which is what we thought of the songs "Revolution #9", "Wild Honey Pie", and "Don't Pass Me By".

My best friend at UNC was Richard Abbott who I spent almost 14 hours with in late November 1968 listening over and over to the Beatles White Album. Richard was from Asheville, but this is a photograph from Chapel Hill High School in 1968, which I believe is the school that he graduated from. Richard died at the age of 54 in 2004.

Less than a year later, in August of 1969, I was the manager of a local record store and had a friend named Ervin Hester who was the program director of WSRC, a soul and gospel radio station, that had somehow gotten an advance copy of a new Beatles album on cassette. The album was called Abbey Road and I was mesmerized by it almost instantly. I had never heard such a perfect collection of songs, and it remains in my estimation the greatest album of all time. Each of the Beatles had contributed the best songs of their career, and the sonic brilliance and production of the work was light years ahead of anything yet recorded. The wonderful song medley on the second side still sounds as fresh and exciting today as it did when I was sitting on the stone wall across from the Chapel Hill Post Office and playing the album for my friends a full month before the album appeared in stores.

The Beatles also played a critical role in launching the career of Chapel Hillian, James Taylor. In 1967, James was 19 and decided to move to the center of the musical universe at the time, London, to try to launch a career as a singer-songwriter. He had made some demo recordings and through a friend had a connection to Peter Asher who had just taken on the role of signing artists to a new record label the Beatles had started called Apple Records. Asher had recently been half of the folk-rock duo Peter and Gordon which had several top songs written by Peter's sister's Jane's boyfriend Paul McCartney. In fact McCartney had been living in the Asher home for several years and written many of his best songs there, most of which were about Jane. Asher saw potential in Taylor's songs and let Paul have a listen. McCartney was impressed and signed Taylor to the Beatles record label.

This is James Taylor's first album and was on the Beatles' Apple Records label. It was released in England in December 1968, and in the United States the following February. In December, I was able to import the album directly from England to my store, The Record and Tape Center, which made us the first place in North Carolina where "Carolina in My Mind" was ever played.

Taylor recorded his album in the same studio and at the same time as the Beatles were recording the White Album. McCartney even played bass on James's signature song, Carolina in My Mind, and there is evidence that George Harrison also played guitar on the same song. Harrison definitely enjoyed listening to Taylor in the studio, and was so inspired by a song he had written and recorded called  Something in the Way She Moves, that he borrowed that phrase as the opening of the song Something.

James Taylor left Apple with his now friend and manager Peter Asher in 1969. Taylor's career continues to thrive, and Asher has gone on to manage and produce some of the biggest names in the music business including Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Cher, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, Ringo Starr, and Diana Ross. However in my humble opinion his Asher's best produced album is that of another Chapel Hill resident Kate Taylor's debut album, Sister Kate, in 1971.

James Taylor and his manager Peter Asher who was the brother of Paul McCartney's 1968 fiance Jane Asher 

The Taylor family all loved the music of the Beatles, and in the musical jukebox above I have included James, Kate, and Livingston singing some of their favorite Beatles songs.

This is an 8th grade picture of Livingston Taylor from Chapel Hill's Guy B. Phillips Junior High School in 1965. This is the same year the Beatles recorded "If I Needed Someone" for their Rubber Soul album which Liv sings on the music player at the top of this article. (This song was originally released in the United States on the album Yesterday and Today.)

In 1977 I gathered a group of Chapel Hill musicians to produce an album called Hot as Sun filled with rare and unreleased Beatle songs. The album was recorded in a small studio that was once The Little Red Schoolhouse. The record was released on my label Pied Piper Records later that year.

This is the front and back cover of the 1977 Beatles Tribute album, Hot as Sun, that I produced featuring Chapel Hill musicians singing rare and unreleased songs by the Beatles

Over the last 40 years I have become an archivist of rare Beatle items and videos. Ironically, the day after John Lennon was murdered, the CBS Evenings News (on which I had first seen the Beatles on December 10, 1963) contacted me so that they could use a rare video I had of John Lennon on their broadcast that day.

I am a long time archivist of rare Beatles-related material. Shortly after John Lennon died the Chapel Hill Newspaper did a piece on my collection and my opinion of John Lennon's importance in modern music.

The sometimes impassable road to Kenny Mann Sr's Ponderosa near Chapel Hill. Pictured is Eddie Funk and his 1953 Chevy Truck.

Down a long, winding, rugged, and sometimes impassable road off Old 86 about half-way between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough sat the homestead of the family of Kenny Mann Sr. who was the cook at the famed Rathskellar for fifty years. Between 1972 and 1978 Mann allowed local artisan Rick Hermanson and Ed Funk to live out there rent free with often with several other friends who would be described as hippies. In return for this privilege they did a few odd jobs at Kenny's house in Chapel Hill, but spent much of their spare time renovating the cabin they lived in that Mann called "The Ponderosa".

Rick Hermanson and his dog Smokey at his cabin in the Andrew Jackson Memorial Forest and Wild Game Preserve near Chapel Hill in the mid 1970s

Most of the time they lived  there the place had no plumbing or electricity, but these guys managed well without either. Eddie Funk said he often imagined what life was like for Kenny’s family when the homestead must have been almost like a frontier wilderness in the 1930’s-40’s. Funk also said he and his friends called the place “The Andrew Jackson Memorial Forest and Wild Game Preserve”, or more affectionately just “AJ”. (Jay Fisher, an early resident of the place along with Ed and Rick, actually came up with this name.)

1977 Thanksgiving gathering at "AJ" between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough

Every Thanksgiving there was a huge celebration at "AJ" that started with an all night roasting of a pig from Cliff's Meat Market with many folks often sleeping over. The above photo is from this event in 1977. In the front row far right Rick Hermanson who is next to Eddie Funk holding the paper cup. Also in the picture is Dale Jamieson, front row second from the left, who is now Director of Environmental Studies at NYU. The handsome hipster centered on the tree at the rear is Captain Steve Fogg, now an Alaskan fisherman and owner of Triton Water Taxi in Homer, Alaska. Among the folks in this photo who are still “around town” are, Dennis Gavin from the Skylight Exchange, Mark Marcoplos, occasional Chapel Hill Newspaper writer and local left-winger, Tate Hamlett who married Terri Basnight, Susan McCall, standing at the end of the second row behind Rick, is now a veterinarian married to Rex McCall, and Randy Brittain a carpenter who works with Rex who does remodels and additions in Chapel Hill. Eddie fondly remembers those were the days for us!!

 
"AJ" was very rustic in thise days with no running water or electricity, but you could sleep in a Tepee

The information for this article was supplied by Eddie Funk, and the Thanksgiving photo is by Tom Cox

by Charly Mann

There was no better to place to learn the John Dunne lesson that “no man is an island” than Chapel Hill in the 1950s. No one in town felt isolated because there was so much family and community interaction, and everyone growing up at that time had the opportunity to learn and be influenced by a wide array of unique and highly intelligent individuals. In the 1950s, Chapel Hill had a myriad of great role models for young people. The majority of adults were in their mid to late thirties and had endured the hardships of the Great Depression, and most of the men had experienced the hell of World War II. Almost all of the men, whether they were professors or merchants, had come from small southern farming communities and were the first members of their families to have had a college education. I was fortunate to know many of these people, and they were collectively a great influence on me. From them I learned courage and discipline, and that anything was possible if one was determined and worked hard. One common denominator of these people was that each had experienced huge hardships in their lives, but rather than becoming cynical or hopeless, they grew stronger and more optimistic. Each of them also taught me to think creatively to solve my problems.

Charly Mann and family at home on Old Mill Road in Chapel Hill, May 1958

In those days, there was so much more time to talk, observe, and absorb the stimulating ideas of 1950s Chapel Hill. Few people watched more than three hours of television a week. That contrasts to today where the average person spends 35 hours a week watching television. Life then seemed like a constant adventure of listening to people talk about their interests or relating their daily activities.

Almost every night a couple of houses in every Chapel Hill neighborhood had at least four cars parked out in front, signifying they were having people over for dinner. Guests would sit and talk for at least an hour in the living room before being ushered into the dining room for dinner. After dinner the children would usually be sent to bed while the adults returned to the living room to talk.  Typically the women and men would sit in separate groups then. There was rarely any alcohol served at these dinners, and few people smoked.

In 1950s Chapel Hill there was no more exciting and stimulating time of the day than the family dinner. There was never any TV, radio, or music on nearby; just the family and often one or two guests sitting around a table enjoying each other's company over a home cooked meal. Though I remember that my mother's cooking was good, the conversation was usually better. At my house we would all share the events of that day in our own lives, as well as discuss some of the major stories going on in the world. We would also joke and laugh, and we enjoyed hearing ideas and opinions that were different from our own. In this daily forum new ideas were exchanged and learned.

Mothers raised the kids and cooked most meals. It was not unusual to eat on a porch or in the backyard on a warm summer evening.   

Almost every adult and childhood friend I knew was an independent thinker, and everyone had at least one parent who was involved in a civic organization or church group.

My mother was the Den mother of my Cub Scout Troop which met every Wednesday afternoon. My sister was a Brownie and did very well selling Girl Scout cookies at UNC fraternity houses.

The neighborhood you grew up in Chapel Hill was a contributing factor to your development. There was a significant difference between children who lived in each neighborhoods. The Kings Mills Road - Morgan Creek area, for example, was made up of primarily well paid University professors and administrators who had only recently settled in Chapel Hill. Unlike other neighborhoods it was heavily wooded and few people had lawns. Children there played in the woods or down along the creek, and today almost all of them still have friends from that neighborhood. Most of these children went off to private schools not long after completing elementary school and of the almost one dozen I have kept up with, all have had exciting lives and successful careers. On the other hand, growing up in one of the established downtown neighborhoods seemed to be far more challenging for a kid. Of the ten people I still keep up with or knew well who lived in the Downtown Historic District, Gimghoul, or Laurel Hills, there were very few happy childhoods, and many resulting tragedies in adulthood. Most of these people had primarily negative memories of Chapel Hill and have no sentimental attachment for the town. Even as a child you could differentiate unique traits and interests in the children of each neighborhood whether it be Glenn Lenox, Greenwood, Estes Hills, Dogwood Acres, Gimghoul, Laurel Hills, Carrboro, or anyone from the country (which at the time meant three miles or less from Chapel Hill proper). 

In the 1950s new houses were going up all over Chapel Hill. A large home in a neighborhood like Morgan Creek or Greenwood in the 1950s would cost around $25,000 with central air-conditioning.

I had friends all over Chapel Hill and would often bike, walk, or hitchhike to their houses to spend the day. All Chapel Hill kids spent a lot more time outside than kids today. One reason for this was that very few houses were air-conditioned, and there were lots of places outside that were cooler than inside.

Everyone dressed up for Church on Sunday morning. Church services were over by noon and lunch after church was the only time most families would consider going out for a meal. The most popular places for Sunday lunch were The Pines, The Colonial Inn in Hillsborough, Howard Johnson's which was an eight mile drive towards Durham, and Brady's.     

More than anything else, growing up in Chapel Hill gave me a strong sense of individualism and integrity, and now 50 years later I still often measure my actions by the standards of the adults I was surrounded by then.