HAMLET — For “at least” the past 25 years, retired railroad workers have gathered for what Sam Ballard calls their “fall get-together,” a day of celebration, food and fellowship that reminds them of their days laboring to keep the lifeblood flowing through Hamlet.
Wednesday’s bash attracted more than 85 retirees to the Lions Club Park in Hamlet where they enjoyed a meal from Jordan’s Catering and shared stories of the good old days.
Reggie Monroe began the meal with a blessing before the lines formed along both sides of a long buffet table piled high with barbecue and all the sides and fixins’, and a dessert section with banana pudding. Sweet tea was the beverage of choice for most everyone.
“We have one man here who is 94 years old I’d like you to meet,” Margaret Spivey, event organizer said. “He’s the oldest one of us here.”
Garland (G.G.) Stutts will celebrate his 95th birthday Thursday, according to friend and fellow retiree Sam Ballard.
For the past three years, the Hamlet Lions Club Park has been the venue for the annual celebration, but Ballard said the tradition has been kept well in excess of 25 years in different places.
“When I say 25 years, I mean at least,” he emphasized. “It’s probably been a whole lot longer than that. It gives everybody a chance to get back together and talk, and to remember the people who we’ve lost in the past year. A lot of us don’t get to see each other except for this.”
Lois Wheeler, Ballard and Kent Hicks posed together for a photograph with Spivey, who said Wheeler was far too modest in her self-assessment and the amount of work she put into getting the event together.
“I didn’t have that much to do with this, but I was the first female train master at the terminal here,” Wheeler finally said. “I was in charge of crew handling. I had to set their assignments and make sure every assignment had someone in place. They called it crew handling. That was in 1977.”
Wheeler credited Spivey with coordinating the annual party, but the two continued accusing one another of doing more.
Hicks said his job with CSX was a little different.
“I was one of the railroad police,” he said. “I served for 33 years. Billy Hicks was one of my brothers. He was a good man. There were twelve of us coming up.”
Billy Hicks died in a tragic train accident 51 years ago next month when the engine he was on was struck by a runaway train hauling 70 cars, leaving his young wife Lena and their five children behind. It was Kent Hicks who had to deliver the bad news.
“I have that story about it that was in the paper,” he said.
Reach reporter Melonie McLaurin at 910-817-2673 and follow her on Twitter @meloniemclaurin.
