Cary women remember doing chores in the early days.
For laundry, my daddy built a washhouse behind our house. First, you had to draw water from the well into two tubs and heat it up. Then you scrubbed the clothes on a washboard, then boiled them, then rinsed them, then you’d wring them out by hand before hanging them on a clothesline to dry.
Cary folks remember Rachel and Rufus “Dad” Dunham.
Rachel Dunham: As a child, I attended Cary High School and boarded at the Page-Walker Hotel. I graduated in 1924, then had a year of teacher training. I taught school in Goldsboro for two years, and then came back to Cary in 1927 to teach at Cary High.
The 1918 flu pandemic, also known as the Spanish flu, which was the deadliest in history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide, which was about one-third of the planet’s population. The total death toll is estimated at 20 million to 50 million victims worldwide, however, other estimates run as high as 100 million victims. These two Cary women were alive during the epidemic and shared their memories during oral history interviews.
Cary folks recall finding arrowheads and evidence of Native Americans living in Cary from thousands of years ago.
During World War II, folks remember sewing for the war effort, and also remember the cannery that was established at Cary High School where people could preserve their own food.
Folks remember their first radios and televisions in Cary.
In Cary’s early days, Chatham Street was also U.S. 1 and 64, plus U.S.70 and 54 also went through Cary. For a sleepy little town, there was traffic going through from New York to Florida. Even so, there were few restaurants or places to get food. Here are a few memories.
Three people remember the train operators in Cary back in the day.
Michael Edwards and Ron Barbee remember the rivalry between two ladies in their families, one from the Edwards family and the other from the Barbee family.
On the 100th anniversary year of when the United States declared war on Germany during World War I, three local ladies personally remember that war and shared their memories.