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This Retired Man WritesWithNostalgic TouchRobert Lee Rhyne retired from Firestone here in February of 1960. Since that time, he has not fancied sitting around and allowing his mind and hands to fall into disuse.The retiree, who logged 56 years of work in textile mills with more than 24 of them atFirestone, has been at home on Club drive, Gastonia. He’s had time for garden-dabbling, summer camping, and pursuing his long-established hobby of making slingshots.But writing is the latest of his interests. He specializes in recollecting the colorful past. It was he who, as a child of five years, watched men and mules dig the foundation of what is now the main section of theFirestone plant. That’s only the beginning of a wealth of memories.His first job in, a textile mill paid 18 cents for a lengthy shift; he remembers the Wright Brothers and their first powered flight, the age of steam power in textiles giving way to more modern developments.Mr. Rhyne’s keen observation has well equipped him to write an occasional column for the Sunday Gastonia Gazette. It’s called “Down Memory Lane.-’ A historian at heart, he writes it down with a nostalgic touch. A sample of his writing from a recent “Memory Lane” column:I REMEMBER the street carnival in the block in front of the depot. It covered the whole nlock from Marietta to Southit, near the Falls House. One tand had a man in a pen with i lot of snakes. The man in front26 Observe\would holler, “Come on in, he bites their heads off and eats them alive!” I didn't get to see what he really did, as I didn’t have a dime.Do you remember the time the engineer at the old Gastonia Mill looked at the clock andthought it was 12 o’clock and blew the whistle at 11? I was picking blackberries where Green Acres is today. Another time the engineer strolled off the two blocks to Main Ave. and while he was gone the steam pressure went down and the engine stopped just as he got back. This was 55 years ago.I also remember the big Craig and Wilson livery stable on N. Marietta St. before the time of automobiles. Mr. and Mrs. Craig would ride about town in acarriage with a uniformed driver sitting up in the high seat and four of the finest horses in townpulling the carriage.THEN THERE was the time Igot my name in The Gazette. A Mr. Abernathy ran a grocery store where Sweetland stands today on Main Ave. In those days everybody saved tobacco tags for the children, who in turn, could trade the tags for candy.So I got three or four tags and went into the grocery store. I went up to the store owner and told him I wanted four Hound Dog tobacco tags’ worth of candy. One of the newspaper men was talking to Mr. Abernathy and heard me say what I wanted. He asked me who Iwas and where I lived, and he put it in the next issue of thepaper.I even had kin people near Charlotte laughing at me when they came to visit us, but I got more than four tags’ wortn of candy.lijt(aavoVyAGSttl
Newspaper Details
Gastonia Firestone News
Gastonia, North Carolina, US
Fri, Feb 01, 1963
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 09 Feb 2021
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