A Community

by Mistie Jo Williams

On any given day you can walk up the five creaky wooden steps that enter Brown’s Hardware, and find several “old timers” talking over an ice cold glass bottled Coke and a pack of nabs. When any question arises that no one knows the answer to, at least one of the men says with confidence, “Ask David Wilder.” I grew up coming to Brown’s Hardware in Mount Gilead, North Carolina, with my dad who has been the manager for twenty-one years, and three years ago I started working there myself. Southern culture is more than a southern drawl, fried chicken, and sweet tea. Southern culture is about the history of the people who live here.

Old timers still discuss topics of the day
at Brown's Hardware in Mount Gilead.

David Wilder, the man with all the answers, was born on December 10, 1928 in Mount Gilead. His father, a native of Wake County, moved to Mount Gilead when he worked for Norfolk Southern Railroad. His mother, a native of Mount Gilead, was the daughter and granddaughter of Confederate soldiers. In 1923, his parents were married, and his father then worked for the Cotton Seed Oil Company. After working there until the early 1930s, David’s father opened Wilders Gas and Grocery where his mother would help his father. 

When David started school, about 60 students were in the first grade. David’s original graduation year would have been 1946, but with the addition of twelfth grade he finished with twenty other students in 1947.  Most of the students who dropped out had to leave to help their families with farms or were drafted to war. Education was not something that his parents forced him to continue with; his dad completed the only third grade, but “you would never know with his great business sense,” he said.

The main floor of Brown's Hardware
   has everthing that you need.

Meanwhile, World War II was ending after years of devastation and millions of deaths.  At this time David was a sophomore in high school and his older brother was fighting in the war like many of his classmates. But a few short years after David graduated, he was drafted to go to the Korean War in 1951 and stayed in until 1953. This is the only time that David actually left Mount Gilead for a long length of time. David trained in Minnesota, and he could tell that the dialect was different compared to the South, but while in Korea he served with people from all over the United States. During his time in Korea he says, “They had a different way of looking at things, but maybe I was the one that was different.”

Only a friendly store saves space for
 local kids to place checkers.

I asked David since he has lived in the South for his whole life if he noticed any major cultural changes since he was a kid.  His response is said with passion, “Yes, I do. It was much better when I grew up. I know that schools were segregated, but we were not segregated as a community.” David as a kid lived in a community that was predominately black. They and the white kids all played together. He and two brothers would ride bikes around town because back then they didn’t leave town that much. David says that it is hard for him to understand the differences from then and now. Today white and blacks do not communicate with each other as much as they did then, and there seems to be more tension now.

Mistie Jo Williams handles several
 tasks at the store on a part-time basis.

Most southerners cannot tell you what makes them southern. Being southern is like the southern drawl -- it’s just a part of who we are. But what makes us southern is our heritage, our family, and our community. The sweet tea, fried chicken, and southern drawl are just extra benefits.

Work Cited

Wilder, David. Personal interview. 13 Sep. 2013.

Note: Mistie Jo Williams lives in Candor and is completing the requirements for an associate’s degree at Sandhills Community College. She also works part-time at Brown’s Hardware in Mount Gilead, NC.