Posted on: Johnston Co. NC Queries Forum Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/NC/Johnston/1817 Surname: ------------------------- Betty, thanks for your thoughtful reply. I do understand that the History Center is (a) a separate operation entirely and (b) isn't big enough to host our crowd or much of anyone else's. I went to the web-site and sent a message to whomever is in charge when the first four people reponded to the idea of a JOHNSTON COUNTY REUNION! I wanted to advise them of the interest out here and hoped that they will understand such an event can be VERY BENEFICIAL in terms of their futures and funding. Also, there's no reason that the staff there cannot do the coordinating work for such an effort, and for what it could grow into in the coming years, as well as take all the credit! July is good for us, especially the week of July 4th. My Parent's anniversary is the 5th, as is ours. But we could gather almost any time in July that most folks feel their children and grandchildren would be free to attend; I see this effort as primarily for the children. The most important thing, I have observed from a few other such celebrations -- and there are VERY FEW so far -- is to pick the time carefully. It will follow us for YEARS TO COME! Being a writer and an ex-reporter, I know that many small events can become BIG EVENTS during such a "slow news week" as the week of the 4th. John and I think we still have some connections with the "media that counts" so that we could probably "inspire" some coverage of note from Day One... which is why Day One needs to be organized at least to the point that many happy smiling faces can be interviewed and breathe life and inspiration into the event and help the History Center in its quest for funding, etc. If I sounded a little too disappointed at not hearing from anyone there, it's because I know that careers can be made by an enthusiastic response to a ready-made "happening". Now to put it into more general terms, the "what's in it for me?" approach: I feel that everyone who comes, and everyone in the extended Johnston County family who talks with anyone who attends, will be enriched by the experience. A decade ago, I went to the house my Dad was born in, at Four Oaks, with my two sons, and we "stole" the horseshoe he had nailed to the pony-barn door when he was about their age! That horseshoe is the family's most prized possession to this day! Also, I bought home to my father a photo of his childhood home (which passed out of his father's hands in the pre-Depression, forcing them to move to Raleigh and be dependent on his mother's relatives), a photo with the same azaleas in full bloom. When we gave him the picture, he broke into tears -- and my daddy, a child of the Depression, NEVER broke into tears! -- said only "That's the dearest place in my heart. I learned to roller-skate on that porch." I'm not sure exactly where we fit into the Massengill Tree, though I keep getting e-messages from the woman who compiled "Massengills of Johnston County" telling me which page we are on and that the price of her book has gone up! I admire her -- she sure knows how to tap the market. I cannot knowledgeably follow all this right this minute as my husband is recovering from a stroke, and we lost our "Massengills of Johnston County" in Hurricane Hugo, which wiped us completely out 11 years and 9 days ago today... but my mother is bringing me her copy when she makes her annual "trek" at the end of October, and then maybe I can talk to you people a little more knowledgeably. I do remember vividly what a rewarding experience it was, coming from a town where we were THE ONLY MASSENGILLS, to be in Raleigh and find columns of Massengills in the phone book! It's not all nothing, though. What I DO bring to the table is an excellent memory of my Daddy's stories of his childhood. He was born 12-29-09 and died Memorial Day weekend of 1991. I know things about "the old homeplace" that no one else knows, like how many tiny "Massengillia" details are in the walls and woodwork. I live in fear that the current family who has bought the house to gentryfy it will REPAINT (or tear down) the garage, where my Uncle Wilson painted his name in large green letters when he was about 8! If we DO get this Homecoming up and running, all I want is for my children, grandchildren, neices and nephews to have their pictures made beside Uncle Wilson's name in that garage. Let's keep the conversation going -- we have nothing to gain but a firm understanding of our heritage. Do you happen to have a copy of the centennial edition of The Four Oaks News? Mama still has one somewhere and is trying to find it to bring to me on her annual trek south to Fort Myers this fall. Surely the other newspapers have such editions, which they may even agree to reprint, even from the 1790s, if they understand that there is a market. The only thing I remember from the Four Oaks News centennial edition is that the grandfather I never knew bought one of the first cars in Four Oaks; it was a great big huge whoopdedoo deal when they went to watch it be off-loaded from the train. If you have ever read my husband's cousin Olive Ann Burn's family-history novel "Cold Sassy Tree", or seen the movie version, you may remember just such a scene. I am proud to have done the first-edit of the book as a favor to OA while she was dying, and it's impossible for me to tell where her maternal grandfather's story stopped and my reading of The Four Oaks News began! It made a pretty good scene in the movie! For all 120 people who saw it, much less the 14 who have videotapes! Here's my departure from the geneology hobby of the others: I cherish the stories of my father and other family members and friends. I don't especially care for the geneology. When Daddy left Duke/Raleigh as an EENT-MD n the 1940s, we moved to my mother's hometown, where my grandfather was building a hospital. I so felt for him, not ever being surrounded by childhood friends who make doctors less than God and OK to be human, especially since my mother's family was SO dominant in the community. I didn't learn the value of Daddy's story and those of his friends and family until John and I, as adults, lived in Raleigh for 8 months while my husband ran a gubernatorial campaign -- it so happened that Daddy's older brother died during that time, and not only I but also our children learned a great deal about our Johnston County "roots" over those days. Recently, my husband's cousin has moved to Benson; we spent a very COLD Christmas holiday there last winter, and even slept--for her sake -- in the world's most uncomfortable bed -- oh! I hope none of Jimmy Hayes' people are reading this. But then, and during earlier visits to Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh, etc., we have both felt very much "to home" when we cross the Johnston County line, and it's our dream to be able to actually spend a little time there. If you know where you fit into the Massengill line, please let me know. My grandfather is George Kemp Massengill, who built for his bride, Mary (Mamie) Wilson, the home at 402 E. Saunders Street in Four Oaks. I don't know whether PaPa was a Johnston County boy or whether he was an "import" from Harnett County, where his sister and her sister married men who had stores next door to each other in Dunn. The eternal "family story" is that four Massengill brothers moved up the Neuse River, from where I don't know, and "settled". My Daddy and his brothers were very successful in Wake County, but they never lost sight of their home, Four Oaks, and always cherished the people they met along the way who could trace their families back to there. On Daddy's last "trip" to take my little brother's children, his youngest grandsons, to Disney World/Orlando, not too far from their Fort Myers retirement home, where he later died, his last great story was that they were standing in line at EPCOT and managed to be in line next to SOMEBODY who was from, or could trace family back, to FOUR OAKS NORTH CAROLINA! To my Daddy, as life went on, that was all he really ever hoped for. "Regular honors" were OK, and he earned plenty, but nothing ever rang his bell like finding (and giving the "family discount" on his medical services to) somebody remotely familiar with his beloved Four Oaks. I feel it, as I learned it from him. When we went to John's cousins last Xmas -- they were newly removed from Manteo to Benson to be near Jimmy's family while he has this lung transplant, which is, by the way, so far successful, I happened to be driving "home" about twilight, and my heart jumped with joy as we crossed the Massengill Dairy Road as we drove toward their house! OK, I'm wandering... But I must tell you that I know the sandy soil of Johnston County is in my shoes. Do you love beach music? Were you born with it in your soul? Maybe we can get The Embers for our Homecoming? Unfortunately, I do the Raleigh "shag", which is the same as the White Lake Shag... but it may not be the same as the Johnston County Shag. I know this because my Daddy's Calabash-cousin Millie Johnson Dorn, who was really from Angier in Wake County, and her many Congressionally sired progeny could not shag with me. But, oh! Lord, how we did try! Our chidren do it better, but they're not only more versatile but are also partly Greenwood (SC) County shaggers! This is probably more than you ever wanted to know, but it's close to my heart and I felt like sharing. I'd love to hear what you feel. It's pretty personal with me, and I'm trying to make it personal with all those who are likely attend the first great Johnston County Homecoming! Annie