News

Jul 26, 2023

Homecoming

Our History A special time no matter the context The Homecoming game is a

Our History

A special time no matter the context

The Homecoming game is a time-honored tradition across much of the US where traditional rivalries between schools raise school spirit to dizzying heights and alumni and residents made an extra effort to cheer on the home team. The Homecoming Court of five girls in 1957 was chosen by the football team. The girls, themselves, then choose the Queen who was announced at the half-time ceremony. The 1957 Mount Airy High School Queen and two of her attendants are shown here as they are ride down Main Street in the back of a convertible. Seniors Joan Slate and Mary Frances Simpson flank the Queen, Junior Yvonne Vaughn who would burst onto the national music scene a decade later under the name Donna Fargo.

Black Christian churches have long celebrated the Homecoming (sometimes called the Home-going) of the dearly departed. Rather than mourn the loss, these ceremonies focus on the life and accomplishments of the guest of honor and celebrate their going home to heaven. Lurenda Moore Berry, one of 14 children born to Early and Maggie Moore on their farm in Westfield, lived and worked the land with her husband on their farm near Pilot Mountain and raised 11 children and eight foster children. It seems it was, indeed, a life to celebrate and a homecoming to remember.

Since 1913 the Woodville Baptist Church located on NC-89 between Flat Rock and Westfield, has grown steadily from a gathering of children under a walnut tree to a simple one-room worship space to a large brick church surrounded by farm fields. According to the church history, members and neighbors donated the land and volunteers built the first building, a true labor of love across the community. In October 2013 the congregation celebrated their 100th anniversary with a homecoming service. Such celebrations serve as a special occasion to draw those who’ve moved away home to visit. It can give those who haven't attended for a while a good reason to return.

Two thousand people packed the bleachers at Mount Airy's Floyd Poore Park for a chilly October homecoming game in 1952. It had been a rough year for the Bears as injuries took out critical players and the losses piled up. Their hopes of a shot at the Class AA conference title had died the week before.

Local legend, Coach Wally Shelton, was pragmatic as ever when he told a Mount Airy News reporter, "We’d like to win this one."

The team had four games left in the season, but this was the final home game. The team was also set to lose a class of strong players as Dick Belton, Sonny Cashwell, Bill Gruble, Frank Kurtz, Hugh Talley were seniors.

The crowd was excited. Mineral Springs was known for its aerial game, but the Bears had Belton and Cashwell, a duo that seemed charmed in game after game as the ball repeatedly found its mark. And the injuries seemed to be behind them.

The News favored Mount Airy 21-13. They were wrong.

The Granite Bears, with a defensive line on its best game and offense in overdrive would fight their way to a 39-12 victory.

The energy from the home crowd must have been a real boost that night. Football is king on Friday nights. And homecoming games in particular draw more than just family and friends as people often make special effort to show up that week.

The game is just the beginning because Homecoming, of all sporting events, has its own royalty; the Homecoming Queen and her attendants.

In the ‘40s and ‘50s at least, that court of young ladies was chosen by the members of the football team. Then the girls, themselves, voted which of them would be queen. The museum holds several photos of girls so chosen: Ivylyn Sparger, Beulah High, 1946; Yvonne Vaughn, Mount Airy High, 1957; Maxine King, JJ Jones High, 1962, Joy Dale Simmons, East Surry High, 1968.

Broad smiles, arms cradling a bouquet of flowers, sometimes a crown crafted of aluminum foil, they embody an ideal of smalltown wholesomeness and joy.

But beyond the game and the dance, Homecoming is a loaded word with so many meanings.

The mayor of Raleigh put out a call for all North Carolinians who had moved away to come to the "Home-Coming Jubilee and Reunion" at the 50th State Fair in October 1910.

"Thousands … have migrated to all parts of the country," said the Mount Airy News article. "This state has played a great part in the winning of the west and in the development of all sections….People from the Old North State have set their mark everywhere but have never lost their love for their mother state."

In 1919, as the unspeakable horrors of World War I ground to a close and sons, husbands, and brothers began to return, the Red Cross organized parades, community picnics, and band concerts to celebrate. Dressed in their uniforms and marching in formation, Surry's levy of returning military personnel moved down Main Street as flags and bunting fluttered in the breeze and residents turned out to cheer their return.

On a smaller scale, homecomings have been organized in churches for 200 years. Sometimes they have been an annual call for parishioners to return once the summer labor in the field was done or to bring families back to a routine now that summer vacations were over. Sometimes they are used for a special occasion such as a significant anniversary celebration when members who’ve moved from the area are invited ‘home’ to celebrate with their spiritual family.

And, perhaps the warmest use of the phrase is something that is an African-American tradition. Homecoming (or Home-going) celebrations when a loved one passes away mark the sunrise and sunset of their days and generally include a celebration of the person's life and impact as was the case for Lurenda Ellen Moore Berry.

"She was a respected church and community leader known for her kindness, creativity, generosity and wonderful cooking skills. Every visitor was a welcomed guest with whom she shared food, wisdom and encouragement."

The program from her Homecoming details all she did in the Pinnacle community and in her own family, helping to raise her siblings after her parents died, her own family, and children she adopted.

"She strongly believed in the adage, ‘Let the life I’ve lived speak for me."

As you read about the lady you are left with a sure sense that she truly had a homecoming.

I hope that wherever you find your Homecoming this year and as we look toward the holidays, that it is a good one filled with warmth and the love of home.

Kate Rauhauser-Smith is a volunteer for the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History with 22 years in journalism before joining the museum. She and her family moved to Mount Airy in 2005 from Pennsylvania where she was also involved with museums and history tours.