by Charly Mann

The highest starting salary for UNC graduates in 1959 went to those with an MBA degree. Their average salary was $437 a month. Today (2010) they average $7850 a month. The next best degree to have was in Math, Physics, or Chemistry. Graduates with these degrees had a medium starting salary of $424. Accounting and Finance majors averaged $340 a month, those in Journalism $321, and Radio and Television $306. Graduates in any major who got a job in the insurance industry had starting salaries around $356 a month, while those who found jobs as a sales representative averaged $307 a month.

UNC students in front of Memorial Hall in the fall of 1958

The total enrollment at UNC for the 1958-1959 school year was just under 7300 students. Of those 1100 were freshman. There were seventeen Negros, as blacks were then then called, attending the university and only one was an undergraduate. Two black women and fourteen black men were enrolled in UNC graduate schools.

The UNC German Club sponsored two large dances for UNC students during the Fall 1958 and Spring 1959 semesters. They were held in Woollen Gym where the UNC basketball games were also played. (It is hard to imagine huge dances being held on the floor of the Dean Smith Center today.) Even though the new rock n' roll  music was already very popular among young people, the music at these dances was from an era almost two decades earlier called Big Band music. The band shown above the photo of dancers is the Woody Herman Orchestra, and they played at the first German dance of the year.

There was a discrimination problem at UNC in 1959, but it was not a black and white problem, since most blacks were not even allowed to enroll in UNC at that time. The issue was against Jews. Beginning in the early 1950s all applicants to UNC had to state their religious preference in their admission form. The office of Student Affairs then made a list of UNC freshman and placed a letter J by the name of each Jewish student. In 1959 21 of the 24 UNC fraternities did not allow Jewish members. This list  was given to all the fraternities so that they would not make the mistake of asking a Jewish student to pledge. Many of the campus fraternities had rules in their bylaws against accepting non-Christian or non-white members.

UNC Seniors Class of 1959 
Top row from left to right:
Emily Louise Stafford, Ronald Stalling, Susan Stanford
Margaret Rose Starnes, Larry Adams Stephenson, Harold Edward Stessel
James Timothy Stevens, Catherine Jean Stewart, Julia Ann Stokes
Richard Gabriel Stone Jr., Robert T. Story, Isabella Blanton Strait

Student housing was a problem that year. In the beginning of the fall semester thirty students had to sleep in the basement of Cobb Dorm, and even students on the UNC football team, who usually received preferential housing, did not get permanent rooms until October. The University asked residents of Chapel Hill to rent rooms in their houses to relieve the shortage of space. The most severe problem was for married students who were then housed in Victory Village south of  UNC Memorial Hospital. Victory Village only had about 125 units available, and there were at least four times that number of married students. While there were other apartmenst avialable to rent in Chapel Hill , most notably in Glen Lennox, the rent on Victory Village apartments was much less and the units were furnished.

On the left is, the then unknown by most Chapel Hillian’s, 1959 UNC assistant basketball coach Dean Smith. On the right is Danny Lotz who was captain of the 1959 basketball team which was ranked #1 during the season, but lost in the early round of the NCAA championship tournament to an unheralded and much shorter Navy team.

There was a major breakthrough for the sexes at UNC in early 1959. For the first time coeds were allowed to visit the social rooms in most men's dormitories on the weekends.

1959 UNC coed Dede Devere dressed in the fashion for women on campus

by Charly Mann

Almost every day Chapel Hill Memories receives one or more e-mails or comments from someone trying to track down a friend from the past. Over the course of our lives we have made many friends, and for most us the majority of these people are only a fading memory. Every time we make significant changes in our lives such as moving or changing careers we lose our connections to the people we knew before. One of the saddest realizations in life is that the majority of people we have known are no longer around.

 
Kat McKay Chapel Hill High School Class of 1967 Senior picture

There are more than a dozen names that people keep asking about and this has inspired me to begin a series called Where Are They Now. The first one is on Kat McKay who is someone I barely knew or thought of when growing up, but six people have asked about her in the last nine months. She was one or two grades ahead of me in school, and as far as I know we never had any friends in common. My only memories I have are a vague recollection of her mother being an impressive figure, and that her parents owned a company that made premade sandwiches. I also think she lived in one of the large houses at the beginning of Laurel Hill Road. These are just my memories from about the time I was 13 to 14, the only time we even attended the same school, so they may well be faulty. I look forward to other readers providing more information.

Kat McKay, Chapel Hill High School Sweetheart Queen

The purpose of this series is for other Chapel Hill Memories readers and hopefully the person themselves to fill in the details about where they are and what they have done with their lives. I hope this feature will reunite some old friends and help overcome the consequences of losing touch in the passage of time. 

Kat McKay was the star and leading scorer of the 1967 Chapel Hill High School Kitten's basketball team

Anyone looking to reunite or find out about old friends from Chapel Hill or UNC days are welcome to use this column. Simply write up a small piece about the person, and e-mail it to chmemories@gmail.com. Please send one of more photographs of the person. Chapel Hill Memories now has more than 15,000 readers a month, so there is a good chance you will soon have more information on your old friend.

by Charly Mann

In 1906, forty years after the Civil War ended, the students of the University of North Carolina paid tribute to the hundreds of former students who gave their lives in what they termed the "Lost Cause" in the following statement:

We, the younger generation of Southern men, pledge those gallant men who fought with Jackson and Lee, alumni of our beloved U.N.C. in the name of the Lord God of Hosts, that we shall never forget those noble teachers in grey, our monitors in every high holy lesson for all ages that are to be.

$50 in North Carolina Confederate Money

Today many of us would like to forget UNC's support and huge contribution to the Confederacy. In the beginning of the war North Carolina was the most reluctant of the Southern states to leave the Union. Most of North Carolina's political leaders at the time of secession were UNC graduates, and they had much more national sentiment than their counterparts in the rest of the South. Most white people in North Carolina did not own slaves and were against slavery. More than a decade before, the majority of UNC students had agreed that slavery should be abolished. In the 1832 UNC commencement address, Judge William Gaston said that slavery was holding back the progress of the state and stated:

Disguise the truth as we may, and throw the blame where we will, it is Slavery which, more than any other cause, keeps us back in the career of improvement. It stifles industry and represses enterprise — it is fatal to economy and providence--it discourages skill — impairs our strength as a community, and poisons morals at the fountain head. How this evil is to be encountered, how subdued, is indeed a difficult and delicate enquiry, which this is not the time to examine, nor the occasion to discuss. I felt, however, that I could not discharge my duty, without referring to this subject, as one which ought to engage the prudence moderation and firmness of those who, sooner or later, must act decisively upon it.

James Allen Wright (1836-1862) was a captain in the Confederate Army. He was killed at the battle of Mechanicsville in June 1862.

Two former UNC students, William A. Graham, and William P. Mangum were among the most powerful politicians in North Carolina at the start of the Civil War and argued strongly to stay with the Union. Magnum even declared, "If I could coin my heart into gold, and it was lawful in the sight of Heaven, I would pray God give me the firmness to do it, to save the Union from the fearful, the dreadful shock which I verily believe impends."

North Carolina was also a state that was not heavily dependent on slavery for its economic well being. The preservation and extension of slavery into newly formed states was never an important issue in North Carolina politics. In February of 1961 when other Southern states began seceding North Carolina refused to secede.

Unfortunately Mangum's fears were justified, and when Abraham Lincoln issued a call for troops to put an end to the secession in April 1961, Governor John Ellis, also a UNC graduate, declared to the President, "You can get no troops from North Carolina." Zebulon Vance, another UNC graduate, who became a leader in the Confederate Army and for whom Vance Hall on the UNC campus is named, spoke for the majority of North Carolinians when he said: "If war must come, I prefer to be with my own people. If we must shed blood, I prefer to shed Northern rather than Southern blood." So when war did come to the South most former and current UNC students either fought for or served in positions of civil service for the Confederacy.

Bryan Grimes graduated from UNC in 1848. He was a major general in the Confederate Army

During the Civil War North Carolina had three Confederate governors, all UNC graduates. In the Congress of the Confederate States fourteen of its members were North Carolina alumni. Of all the living alumni and students of UNC from 1837 to 1865, more than 40% served in the Confederate Army. Among the officers in the Confederate Army with UNC degrees there was one lieutenant general, one major general, thirteen brigadier generals, 50 colonels, 28 lieutenant colonels, forty majors, forty-six adjutants, 71 surgeons, 251 captains, and 38 non-commissioned officers. To put these numbers in perspective this was from a total of 2200 men who had attended UNC between 1837 and 1861. No other non-military university gave such a high percent of its men to the war effort.

James Barr Andrews, UNC class of 1854, was a captain in the Confederate Army and died at the battle in Richmond on July 23, 1863

Among the distinguished causalities were Lieutenant I.M. Royster, class of 1860, who died leading his men at a charge at Gettysburg while singing "Dixie" with his men. Two days later, Colonel Issac E. Avery was mortally wounded on the third day of fighting at Gettysburg. He lived just long enough to write this note on an envelope on the battlefield, "Tell my father I died with my face to the foe."

Two of the four tablets on the wall of Memorial Hall listing UNC students who were killed in the Civil War

In the fighting UNC class of 1839, C.M. Avery, commanded a regiment at the battle of Chancellorsville in which 41% of his men were killed. 1848 graduate George B. Anderson was also a regiment commander and lost 54% of his men at Seven Pines, and 1844 alumnus R.H. Cowan lost 56% of the troops he commanded during the Seven Day's battle. Finally it was former UNC students Z.B. Vance and Harry K. Burgwyn who led Pettigrew's Brigade in Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. When the charge began they had 820 men. A few minutes later only 102 were still alive. To put this in perspective the 708 men killed in this one part of this great battle exceeded the total student enrollment at UNC in any year before the Civil War and well into the early 20th century. All the men these men commanded were from North Carolina.

Final two of the four tablets listing students who attended UNC and were killed in the Civil War 

In terms of UNC deaths the records show that at the first battle of Manassas there were four UNC deaths, at the Battle of Shiloh five, at Malvern Hill fourteen, at Sharpsburg nine, at Fredericksburg eight, at Chickamauga seven, the battle of the Wilderness six, Spotsylvania five, and in Atlanta nine. All told 312 men who attended UNC died in the Civil War.

The following two songs are an addendum to this article. The first is a version of Dixie performed much like it would have been during the Civil War. Next is a rare recording of James Taylor singing Hard Times, a song Stephen Foster wrote in 1854, and popular in the South in the 1860s and 70s because of the misery brought on from the Civil War.

by Pauline Williams 

February 25,1973, married just two days I arrived in Chapel Hill from Athens, Georgia, ready to promote peace and the end of the Vietnam War with music. Athens was the home of Underground Records, and I met Richard Carter when I purchased Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 1. Owner Eric Brown envisioned a hippie record empire with stores in all college towns warehoused by him in Athens. To allow low pricing one practice was the absence of advertising though I often drew flyers which I posted in the UNC dorm elevators. In Eric's employ was a hard working teenager named Pepper.

Richard Carter and Pauline Williams in May of 1973 shortly after opening Springfield Records

Richard and I left Athens with a rental truck full of records, carpet and shelves. I drove my green Chevy Nova by which we procured a loan from FUNB for more record stock. Springfield Records named for Buffalo Springfield opened for business February 26, 1973, upstairs over Soundhaus Stereo in a large room painted black and lined with a wall of south facing windows. In a small front room just off the stairs Stu Martel had a great business making custom leather sandals, so Springfield Records enjoyed immediate hippie and student clientele. We lived for the first several weeks in the back room of the store which had a large hinged board in the rear wall opening onto the roof overlooking The Village Green of He's Not Here. This became important when we let the space to the original Trail Shop. The owner, a former Vietnam helicopter pilot, used the window to move canoes in and out of The Trail Shop. Later when Springfield moved to Franklin Street the record boxes slid easily down a ramp to the alleyway. We woke very early each day to the sound of the garbage truck lifting and redepositing the dumpster outside.

The group whose name gave Chapel Hill two of its best record stores

The Record Bar on Henderson Street was not to be deterred. Charly Mann was already selling below The Record Bar prices at Record and Tape Center in the NCNB Plaza, but Springfield Records was able to undercut Record and Tape by $1. i think there was a second Record and Tape store on West Franklin a short distance from the main block. Kemp Battle Nye sold records on the north end of Henderson Street in the basement of his store. University Mall was not yet built, and cars still parked at angles downtown. People jaywalked everywhere as traffic was relatively slow. Downtown Chapel Hill was rockin' with nightly bands at The Town Hall promoted by owner Michael Strong. South Wing led by Ed Ibarguen and Scott Verner with soundboard by Jeff Harrison played The Grateful Dead. Springfield Records was selling many discounted albums at that time including New Riders of the Purple Sage, Dylan, Crosby Stills and Nash, The Grateful Dead, James Taylor, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. We had an expanding niche, and business was good.

Friendly competitors: Charly Mann of the Record and Tape Center and Richard Carter of Springfield Records

To increase stock Richard took on as partner David Bourke, a friend from Charlotte who had recently returned from his tour of duty in Vietnam where he drove a jeep, a dangerous job in 1972. The draft was still in effect. To make ends meet I took a second job in the building across the alley on the west side of North Columbia Street turning out immaculate theses copies on an original Xerox copy machine to which loose granular toner was carefully added from a supply box. The business was Adam and Eve, Planned Parenthood, and I sold condoms and made Xerox copies. too. Bo Porter, our accountant, became the third partner, and I wondered what had become of my store. Bo bought out Richard and David soon after Springfield Record Company moved to its location on East Franklin Street upstairs over Lacock's Shoes and Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Store near The Shrunken Head. Bo later became the owner of The Cave after Springfield closed in 1975.

Richard Cater co-founder of Springfield, Buffalo, and Schoolkids Records, with Poindexter, and Madonna Bentz 1975

Knowing we should have had a better plan Richard and I reorganized calling up Peter Brown, Cathy Jones, Barbara Harris, and Pam Ramsey from Athens to open Buffalo Records in the old bank building next to The Carolina Theater in the spring of 1975. We ordered custom shelving from John Lindsey so that the overstock could be quickly accessed as we were moving boxes of 50 of certain new releases. We stocked all the pricey classical imports in the bank vault, and the jazz section was located behind the tellers' counter. Peter was responsible for the extensive jazz collection having worked for The Record Bar in Athens and having a deep appreciation of jazz. Richard would special order any lp the customer wanted. Buffalo Records was playing music, burning incense and displaying the colorful art of album covers from 10 AM to 9 PM and Sundays. We allowed customers to use headphones to listen to albums in the back room before purchasing. We had very little markup.

Richard and I would drive 5 hours to Athens and back overnight in our Chevy van to compete with The Record Bar which was readily stocked by the reps of the music industry. The Record Bar moved from its location on Henderson Street to the north side of East Franklin just across the street from Buffalo Records. Richard would buy all their stock of a new release when they priced lower than we could buy wholesale. Eric couldn't supply us fast enough, so we had to go outside the Schoolkids warehouse system buying from a one-stop in Charlotte to provide new releases before The Record Bar. First day sales were extremely important. We were losing ground to The Record Bar chain. Eric sent Pepper to Chapel Hill to open Schoolkids Records in Kemp's old location on Henderson Street.

Two of the great women of the Chapel Hill music business, Pauline Williams who co-founded Springfield and Buffalo Records with her friend Barbie Harris who worked at Buffalo Records and then went to work in advertising for the Record Bar

By May of 1976 I had to make the decision to close Buffalo Records putting my friends on unemployment and liquidating the remaining stock which we were unable to return for credit in a huge sale. Richard had taken up golf. Our daughter was born in late May at 5 PM, her weight being proudly displayed on the leader board at the new Chapel Hill Country Club members golf tournament. Shortly thereafter Richard Carter bought Schoolkids Records Chapel Hill store from Eric and reopened in the space next to Jeff's Confectionery, proprietors Jimmy and Paulina Mousmoules; their fountain cokes were made to order. Richard kept Schoolkids going until after our divorce when it was sold back to Eric in 1978. Pepper opened Pepper's Pizza in that location, and Schoolkids reopened next to Julian's and The Little Shop.

Thus ended my part in the Chapel Hill Record Wars. Peace and love, Pauline Williams

Photos are from Charly Mann's collection. 

by Stanley Peele

Roland Giduz was a writer, scholar, reporter, Chapel Hill historian, photographer, cable TV host, and civil leader – among many other accomplishments. He was a beloved and well-known citizen of Chapel Hill who passed away in January of 2009.

Roland Giduz (July 24th, 1925 - January 23rd, 2009)

Roland Giduz called himself a "notorious hometown ne'er-do-well." He was notorious, for sure, and definitely hometown. But he has never been and will never be a "ne'er-do well"!

He was born in 1925 and was a veteran of WWII. He earned an AB degree in journalism at UNC and an MS in journalism at Columbia. For more than 50 years, he was a writer, photographer and editor. He was editor of the Chapel Hill News Leader (1954-59) and then alumni editor for the University; and wrote the "Newsman's Notepad" column over a period of 35 years. He also was a columnist for the Chapel Hill Herald.

He was the original publisher and editor of a weekly visitors guide magazine, The Triangle Pointer.

He published "Who's Gonna Cover Em Up?" in 1985, and "Conversations On The Wall," in 2000. In the latter book he documents his conversations with his friend and idol, Cameron Henderson. He also collaborated with Jim Shumaker to publish "Shu" in 1995.

He was a member of the Board of Aldermen of Chapel Hill for 12 years. He was quite active in local civic life, and was a gifted public speaker. He was the host/producer for "The People's Channel" on cable TV.

This is only a short list of some of his accomplishments: it is not possible to list them all in this article. Yet, he was self-deprecating. He explained himself this way: "I haven't got any more sense than any other d___ fool!"

Here are some quotes from Roland:

"I have suddenly realized, "By God, I'm 80 years old." . . . .But, I don't feel old – I feel FREE. . . . . I am free to plan each day, I have no obligation to an employer or to society. I have willingly passed on the torch of service to society to the younger generation. Best of all, I don't look back. I look ahead. I find true satisfaction in public service – a thing I used to accept as an obligation. Through all of this I find peace – contented peace. I know there are a limited number of years ahead for me. If it all ended tomorrow I'd have no regrets."

Roland was a member of what has been called, "The Greatest Generation." His service in World War II left an indelible impression on him. Here are his words:

"Let me take you back to the fierce days of WWII and how we felt about it. We were preparing to enter the military. We certainly did not feel "great." But – we did not feel any doubt. We were a bit fearful, and not anxious to lead a charge. But we had absolutely no doubt about the cause and outcome of the war that was thrust upon us.

"There was nothing heroic nor great, to us, about serving. It was simply our time. That generated a quality of patriotism that has never left us through these 60 years since.

"It was a fearsome time for most of us. Appreciation of freedom is born of patriotism – of a belief in the dignity and integrity of every human being.

"Earlier [last] year I revisited a combat scene of our 100th Infantry Division in France. On that 60th anniversary of the liberation of the town of Bitche, we were welcomed by those citizens. Their heartfelt gratitude to us, three score years later, gave us the ultimate appreciation of patriotism.

"I hope you also feel patriotic about our country."

Roland Giduz stood for the enduring spirit of Chapel Hill. His words beautifully express a feeling about our country that is hard for young people to understand. The quality of our movies and TV sinks lower every year. The condition of corporate America is gloomy at best. Our neighbors regard our government as corrupt and greedy. Yet Roland Giduz stood tall in the midst of all of it. He reminded us of the highest and best that is within us. When he wrote about his "belief in the dignity and integrity of every human being," these were not just words on a piece of paper. He believed it – and his life was guided by this principle.

Chapel Hill Memories would like a life-sized bronze statue of Mr Giduz in this pose we call "The Oracle of Chapel Hill" created and placed on the stone wall on the south side of Franklin Street

by Charly Mann

Since I was very young I have loved to observe the birds that inhabit Chapel Hill. I may have inherited this tendency from my mother who had several generations of blue jays that would come into our house and eat peanuts out of her hand from our dining room table. I have learned that with patience and a tranquil disposition most birds will eventually allow you to get very close to them.

A Red-tailed Hawk soars near the shoreline of University Lake in Chapel Hill

Over the years I have found one of the best places to enjoy birds is around University Lake. Besides being the source of drinking water for Chapel Hill since 1932, many wild birds enjoy living in the trees of the heavily forested shoreline.

A Red-tailed Hawk at University Lake 

I have observed many Red-tailed hawks at University Lake from late spring to early fall. These are magnificent and highly intelligent creatures that can live as long as twenty years. They are often mistakenly identified as eagles. Their diet consists primarily of snakes and rodents. They have wingspans of about five feet and are members of the falcon family. These hawks weigh as much as four pounds and their eyesight is so keen that they can clearly see a mouse a hundred feet away.

This Red Tail Hawk has just lept off a limb as she begins to descend on a prey

A great thing about red-tails is that if you know where they like to live they are relatively easy to find. Just walk or kayak around the shoreline of University Lake in late morning or early afternoon when they like to hunt and you will likely see one. If you are quiet and observant you can often get very close to these birds.

Red Tail Hawks are often camouflaged in the trees around University Lake in Chapel Hill

Walking through some of the unpsoiled forests outside of town is a great getaway from the stress, congestion and noise I find in the ever more urban Chapel Hill environment. Getting close an animal like this reminds me of the following lines from Ekhart Tolle:

"Negativity is totally unnatural. It is a psychic pollutant, and there is a deep link between the poisoning and destruction of nature and the vast negativity that has accumulated in the collective human psyche. No other life form on the planet knows negativity, only humans, just as no other life form violates and poisons the Earth that sustains it. Have you ever seen an unhappy flower or a stressed oak tree? Have you come across a depressed dolphin, a frog that has a problem with self-esteem, a cat that cannot relax, or a bird that carries hatred and resentment? The only animals that may occasionally experience something akin to negativity or show signs of neurotic behavior are those who live in close contact with humans and so link into the human mind and its insanity."

photos by Kathryn Mann