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MEMORIES FROM CHRISTMASES PAST plus the story of a
teacher's charity, and a famous editorial
A COUPLE OF MEMORIES FROM THE HULTH BROTHERS --- sons of the late Peter Hulth, long-time reporter and columnist for The Smithfield Herald: YOUNG BOY GOT TO TURN ON DOWNTOWN'S CHRISTMAS LIGHTS As a child growing up in Smithfield in the early 1960s, Downtown was where everything happened. All the neighborhood kids hung out Downtown, and I was no  exception. During this time the Christmas
lights in Smithfield were strung across Market and Third
streets from pole to pole with a switch on each pole to
turn the lights on.I noticed an older policeman would walk from pole to pole and flip the switch on for each light. He was an older fellow and I think his last name was Whitehurst. I watched him a few days and he would start at the Neuse River bridge at 4:30 every day and go through town to each pole. So one day I waited at the Courthouse for him and asked if I could turn one of the lights on. I couldn't reach the switch, though. He promptly picked me up and let me throw the switch. Well, I walked with him all the way to the underpass and he picked me up at each pole and let me turn each light on. I did this with him every day that Christmas season. I was probably only 8 or 9 years old and it was a thrill for me to see those lights come on and burn all night. Every Christmas now, when I drive through Downtown Smithfield, I flash back to that simple time and smile at the memory of that policeman making a small boy so happy with his simple gesture. --- PAUL HULTH GIVING OF ONE'S TIME TO DISTRIBUTE GOODS TO THE NEEDY My father served on the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army in Smithfield for many years. I fondly remember several years as a pre-teen spending an afternoon prior to Christmas at the Salvation Army post, filling boxes with candies, nuts, fresh fruit, salt pork, flour, meal, and other groceries --- and toys. As darkness fell, we'd fill the back of his station wagon with the bags and boxes and deliver them throughout the county to needy families. I was struck by the joy and gratitude expressed by the impoverished recipients. Years later I carried on his example when my wife and I distributed similar packages from Social Services to homebound residents in the mountain county where we lived, even dressing as Santa one year as we made deliveries. Christmas has long been referred to as a time for giving, but we don't often think of how giving one's time benefits the less fortunate. --- ROCKY HULTH This one's from WARREN GRIMES, who has continued to ring the bell for the Salvation Army every Christmas season for almost half a century: WHEN VOLUNTEERS STARTED RINGING THE "RED KETTLE" BELLS  A
special Christmas memory for me happened in 1974. That
was the year Jim White, who was on the Smithfield
Salvation Army Advisory Board, came up with the idea of
asking local civic clubs to have their members volunteer
to ring the bell at the Salvation Army kettles.There were two kettles in Downtown Smithfield that year --- one behind Belk's department store and one in front of the Roses dime store. Bell-ringing times were 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Volunteers were asked to sign up for two-hour shifts. I think Jim got the idea from his sister, Frances Eckstein, who was a Salvation Army officer in Florida. I was in the Smithfield Jaycees at the time and signed up to ring the bell in front of Roses. When my day arrived, my wife had an unexpected conflict develop and was unable to take care of our six-month-old son David. My father-in-law, who was an avid hiker, had given us a baby backpack carrier that fall so we could take David on hikes. Not wanting to back out of my bell-ringing duties at the last minute, I bundled David up, stuck him in the backpack, and took him with me to ring the bell. Having him with me helped get a lot of donations. While we were ringing, Wingate Lassiter walked by and stopped to take our picture for The Smithfield Herald (reproduced above).  THE EDITOR'S FIRST TRAIN WITH HIS FIRST GRANDDAUGHTER The year is 2003 and that's my granddaughter, Ava Lassiter, watching my 1952 Lionel steam train chug around the Christmas village beneath the tree at my mother's home here in Smithfield. The photograph was taken by Ava's father, Frank. I'm in the background taking a picture from the opposite viewpoint. Ava is now a junior in high school, and my first electric train (delivered by Santa when I was approaching six years of age) still runs as good as it ever did! --- Wingate Lassiter  "A
Wise Woman Bearing Gifts"With the author's permission, we share a Christmas story first published in Never Far From Home, a collection of personal essays written in the 1990s by Smithfield's Julia Allen McCullers after a 40-year-career as a teacher in high schools, colleges, and universities near and far. It's the story of her mother's charity as a Johnston County elementary-school teacher in the mid-20th Century> "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!" An annual Christmas tradition of us Lassiter newspaper editors is publication of that most famous of editorials --- written for The New York Sun in 1897> |
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