1974 groundbreaking proved momentous

(ENLARGE)

Stuart Savage as a young reporter at The Daily Reflector, above, and today. Savage has been an employee of the newspaper for almost 50 years.

A list could include such things as storms and floods, Ku Klux Klan cross burnings, the bombing of Ayden-Grifton High School (the first and still maybe the only bombing of a public grade school in the United States), fires, school desegregation, school consolidation and the fight for a medical school at East Carolina University. And the list could go on and on.

But as I mulled over the possibilities, I remembered standing in what amounted to a soggy corn field on a rainy day in 1974 for a groundbreaking and what has grown on that site since.

And I've come to the conclusion that the decisions by the Pitt County Board of Commissioners in the early 1970s were among the most important and wide-reaching a local governing body in Pitt County has made.

In 1970, trustees of Pitt Memorial Hospital, which opened in 1951, asked commissioners to approve a $9 million bond issue to add 42 beds to the hospital (the present county office building at 1717 W. Fifth St.), and to build a new two-story building between the hospital and Fifth Street.

That new building, when first built, would house 125 beds. Its foundation would be constructed so it could be expanded to 10 or 121 stories high. It's medical base would be large enough to adequately provide X-ray, laboratory and surgical facilities for a 500-bed hospital.

Ultimately commissioners and the hospital board decided to build a totally new hospital facility, purchased 97.25 acres on Stantonsburg Road in 1971, and in 1973 came up with the $15.84 million needed to sign a contract for the construction of what would become the new Pitt County Memorial Hospital.

Construction work started on the new building in early 1974 and the new PCMH, with 370 beds, was opened in 1977.

Even before it opened in 1977, work was under way for an expansion of the building to make it more compatible with the needs of the ECU medical school program, which, under an agreement signed in 1975, designated PMCH as the teaching hospital for the medical school. And expansion and construction at PCMH continue today.

Editors, sources help mold reporter

(ENLARGE)

Cherie Speller, who was the first full-time black reporter for The Daily Reflector, joined the newspaper shortly after her graduation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

First are Alvin Taylor, former editor of the newspaper, and Mary Schulken, who held several positions at the Reflector before her last one as editorial page editor.

As my first editors, they taught, encouraged and supported me when I came to Greenville straight out of college. Their instruction and support provided the strong foundation that has helped me build a career I enjoy.

And, I hadn't been here long as a reporter for the newspaper when I met D.D. Garrett, then president of the Pitt County branch of the NAACP. When I introduced myself to him, he responded with something like, "Girl, where did you come from?"

I still smile thinking about how tickled he was that the Reflector had a black reporter. Mr. Garrett, who became one of the first blacks elected to the Pitt County Board of Commissioners, soon became a trusted source for information.

In between gathering facts for stories, he told me about years past in Greenville and Pitt County. I could almost see what Albermarle Avenue used to be like as I peeked out his office window.

Telling his story and the stories of some others convinced me of the importance of what I do as a journalist and made me more determined to work hard to do it right.

And as I think about getting the story right, I think about the late Barry Gaskins, who was the public information officer for the Pitt County schools.

Covering education was my first major beat or area of focus as a reporter. The stories in the public schools are endless as you cover issues about facilities, the board, administrators, teachers, staff, students and parents. I was always asking questions.

And Barry always tried to answer them or to get the answer. It was years later before I realized how special he was for that. I'm glad I told him.

The easy questions, the tough questions, the questions he thought I should ask — he worked to get them answered because he wanted the story right. And, before deadline.

March snow proved staff's mettle

It came overnight and caught me unprepared to navigate its depth. I think it was a Monday morning, and while I was thinking about how my son, Neil, and I were going to get to work, my employer, Dave Whichard, called to discuss whether I thought we might be able to produce a newspaper under these circumstances.

(ENLARGE)

From his post as production manager, Tim Jones, longime employee of The Daily Reflector, helped shepherd the newspaper into the computer age.

It was decided that we should do everything possible to get a paper out because nothing in our history had kept us from printing a paper.

There was one decent pair of boots in our household, and they fitted both me and Neil. Neil won and I wore plastic bags over my shoes.

We walked the two and a half miles in what seemed like almost knee-deep snow to the Reflector facility on Cotanche Street. Snowplows made the trip later in the day on some of the streets.

Guess who greeted us at The Reflector? Yep, Dave had beaten us to the office. I don't recall how he got there, but I'm sure he did some walking.

He lived about twice as far from downtown.

As the day passed, managers, reporters, photographers, printers, compositors and circulation staff began to come in, and after a while we had a "crew" and produced a newspaper.

At that time, The Reflector was an afternoon daily and Sunday morning paper. By early afternoon we had papers ready to be delivered, although not many streets were clear enough to drive on.

I don't remember how many papers were actually delivered that day, but I do recall that many of the carriers delivered Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday papers on Wednesday that week.

I do remember the pride we felt at accomplishing the task at hand with a "short" staff that fought the odds and made a way to get to work under difficult circumstances.

The community of people with four-wheel drive vehicles who volunteered their time and gas were very helpful in keeping a lot of people on the job during that March snow, and we were thankful for that.

Our publication consistency record was still intact when I retired in 1999.

Our son Neil remembers that day well. He says he was surprised that day because he thought he would be playing in the snow. He also says he learned a life lesson that continues to work for him today.

Dave and Jack Whichard appreciated the efforts of those dedicated employees that day and rewarded them handsomely.

Paperboy encountered snow, dogs, kindness

I first delivered The Daily Reflector as a substitute paperboy when I was 9 years old. I delivered the paper for one week for Richard Paul (now a lawyer in California). The Daily Reflector office was in the Courtside building on the corner of Evans and Third streets.

VINCENT

When I was 12 in 1958, I was able to get my own route, between 10th and 14th streets and Lawrence and Evans streets. The Daily Reflector was then a six-day afternoon paper, with no Sunday paper, and delivered by bicycle.

I had a 24-inch, blue Columbia bike with a large basket and brackets for a flashlight on the handlebars. The Daily Reflector office had moved to a new building on Cotanche Street where the paper boys picked the papers up and rolled them for delivery (always rolling about four really tight for certain dogs that were known for sneak attacks — it was a game that both dog and boy enjoyed).

The paper cost 30 cents per week. You collected from your subscribers every week and turned 25 cents over to The Daily Reflector, keeping 5 cents per subscriber as your pay. Collection was often done at night when people were home from work, thus the need for the flashlight.

The Daily Reflector had a paperboy contest to gain the largest number of new subscribers during a certain period. I believe I increased my route from 137 to 167 subscribers. I really thought I had won, but some other paperboy beat me out, and I finished second.

My prize was a really nice pair of wool pants. I still remember that they were dark gray with very stylish blue stripes.

During that time, we had a December snow of over 12 inches, and I delivered the paper that day when the snow started.

When I finally finished my route on foot, having abandoned my bike, the snow had reached about 8 inches. We were out of school a long time, but all the snow melted before Christmas.

Of course, you always tried to throw the paper on the porch. Houses were close to the street. There was one house on 14th Street with a hole in the front door screen. Of course I always tried to throw the paper through that hole.

When I finally did it, I heard the paper slide across the floor and hit the wall in the back of the house. When I collected for the paper that week, the man told me he appreciated me throwing the paper on the porch, but not for throwing it in his @#&*@ back bedroom!

Of the houses today that still remain on my route, I can remember which ones received the paper, who had dogs that would bite and the kindnesses of many of my subscribers, especially at Christmas with tips and gifts.

It was a great experience and I was and still am proud to have been a paperboy for The Daily Reflector.

Paper helps local family make record of its history

My Reflector experience is not confined to a feature, or a wedding or birth announcement or any one thing. In fact, I have been a collector of Reflector items since early 1950, all concerning my family.

You see, my husband and I were not native Carolinians. He came to Greenville in September 1949 from Alabama, and I arrived in January 1950 from New Jersey. He was an instrumental teacher in the Greenville city schools, and I was a nurse. We met, married the following year and the rest, as they say, is history.

As the years went by, many articles and pictures appeared in The Reflector concerning Jim and our family: band concerts and trips, honors received, parades, "Sweet Adelines" appearances, Veteran's Day functions, birth announcements, weddings, etc.

I saved all these items and, the year before Jim died in 2002, I retrieved them, yellow with age, from boxes and put them all in a scrapbook titled "The Rodgers Family — In the News" for his Christmas present. So now, I have a 50-plus years record of newspaper items concerning my family which I treasure — thanks to The Daily Reflector.

Route exposed teen to breaking news, early-morning antics

I had a walking route which covered Tar River Estates and Wilson Acres Apartments. The route supervisors would drop a stack of papers in my front yard and I would walk from our family's home on Oak Street to the apartments to deliver the papers. I would collect from customers using a coupon book. I would not throw the papers from a bike, but I would hand deliver each paper into the mail slot in the front doors of Tar River Estates.

I carried the papers in a large canvas bag over my right shoulder. After several months of carrying the paper, my right shoulder muscles were larger than my left shoulder muscles! The Monday paper was always light to carry, while the Sunday paper was a job!

Tar River Estates consisted mainly of families back then, while Wilson Acres catered to college students. Back then, the Reflector was an afternoon paper on the weekdays and an early paper on Sundays. While I walked my route early Sunday mornings, I would often see ECU students still out partying and socializing from the Saturday night before. I would often hear them laughing and congratulating themselves for staying up late enough to see the paper boy.

On occasions, the Greenville Police would see me walking from door to door on Sunday mornings and would shine their spot lights on me to ensure I wasn't a burglar.

I got to know several of the older Greenville customers who lived in the houses around Third and Fourth streets. This was before the days of the Internet, talk radio, CNN and 24-hour news channels, so I felt privileged to be one of the first people to see the news. It was very exciting time for a 14-year-old.

Thanks for the memories!