I have turned into a history buff. Sure, I tended in that direction all along, but now, in my ripe old age, I appreciate the study of the past. It helps me make sense of what is happening now.
That's why I have been involved with the Gamewell History Committee ever since 2005. To set the record straight, I am not "from" Gamewell, North Carolina. I've lived here more than half my life, so I do feel as if I belong. The community has welcomed me to be one of them, so I assume I can rightfully call it home.
The committee amassed all kinds of photographs and family histories. We visited graveyards and recorded their histories. We interviewed citizens, many of whom have since passed away, but their words are preserved, there, in notebooks.
From the beginning, we knew there would one day be a building to house what we collected. That day came. We finally have a home for our collection, and here it is. Well, here it was back in the forties and fifties.
This building started as a store called Sunny Side. What better name could it have been? It's a name that warms my soul. It was the local go-to place for various sundry items where children relished visiting the store for their penny candies and men stopped in on the way home from work to pick up fifty-pound flour sacks, saying to jot it down on their bill. They would pay when the furniture factory paid them. They were trusted because that's how people did business way back when.
The store sat empty when the Anderson sisters were no longer able to maintain it. Big box stores in nearby Lenoir and low-cost gasoline drew shoppers away, and no one took over the establishment. Many of the display cases were sold to the famed Mast General store in nearby Watauga County. Most recently shoppers can drop in at either of two Dollar Generals located three miles in both directions. Who needs Sunny Side when there's a Dollar General instead? (Sad question.)
The building next served as the town hall soon after Gamewell was incorporated in 1981. The town outgrew that space and eventually built a beautiful structure adjacent to the store that better fit their needs.
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| The museum is the flat-topped part of the town hall complex |
The Gamewell Museum will be open on the second and fourth Sundays of each month or by appointment. Call the town hall at 828-754-1991.
Next up, Mother's Day at the Museum. I'm hoping mothers will find themselves in the many pictures we have on display and tell the stories behind them. Here's one sample:
Bring your mothers. You might learn something.
Catch of the day,
Gretchen
