IRH - The Winfrees

This section is to honor the works of Russ Lancaster who started the “I Remember Hamlet” web site years ago. Without his pioneering the web at that time we might not have gathered all these memories of our Hamlet, NC. We thank you Russ for what you started in 1996, may you Rest in Peace. Russ was kind enough to let me download his web site before he took it down. Thank you Russ.
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David
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IRH - The Winfrees

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The Winfrees - Gene and Virginia
special teachers - 1950's
by: Russ Lancaster
A recent post on our IRH message board regarding the declining health of former Hamlet High School teacher Gene Winfree gave me pause to remember not only him but his wife Virginia as well. They both were not only teachers that helped shape my outlook on life as well as my future, they were family friends when I was a teen ager in Hamlet in the 1950's.
Saturday evenings and Sunday dinners were often spent with the Winfrees as our guests. My dad was a high school basketball referee in his spare time and Gene Winfree was one of the coaches at Hamlet Avenue School and Hamlet High. I believe that is how they first became acquainted. Virginia was a typing teacher at Hamlet High and always accompanied Gene to our house.
My mom and dad considered the Winfrees as close friends and, as a young boy knowing how to respect his elders, I usually followed the "seen but not heard" rule when they first started coming over. They would soon put that to rest and enjoin me in their conversations from time to time wanting to know how I was doing in school and so forth. They insisted that I call them Gene and Virginia in lieu of Mr. and Mrs. Winfree. These were really nice folks.
My familiarity with them would, in just a few short years, become a slightly confusing issue. Gene and Virginia would soon become my teachers as well as my friends. In school, I always referred to them correctly as Mr. and Mrs. Winfree.
Gene would be the first of the duo to teach me. I was a 13 year old 8th grader when he became my home room and Health teacher in 1954. He was the first male teacher I had ever had; It was a novelty back then in the 1950's in Hamlet to have a male teacher.
Gene took full control of us new teen agers on the first day of class that year. We quickly learned he would abide no foolishness in his class. It was our first year of "changing classes" and we still tried to push the limits with our other 8th grade teachers, but not in Gene Winfree's home room or Health Class. Any remarks made out of order, under the breath chuckles or other foolishness brought a quick hard stare from Gene's menacing (to us) eyes. He rarely had to say anything; The stare said it all for him and the guilty student who had brought that stare upon himself quickly looked down at his desktop trying his best not to blush.
That year, 1954, brought a challenge to Gene that I don't think he had had to deal with before and he handled it perfectly. Someone started a rumor about one of the girl's in our class. The rumor was that she had had a baby that summer. Now, there were an awful lot of us back then that weren't quite sure exactly how one had a baby and none of us knew if the rumor was true. The boys began teasing this girl, never directly, but always in her presence by singing a little chant, "Mary had a baby". I am using the name "Mary" as a general name, please don't construe anything from this. The chants were never made in front of Gene Winfree.
Somehow, Gene found out about our mean treatment of this probably innocent girl. I know he never heard us in person so someone had to have told him what we were doing. It's a good thing they did. Life must have been miserable for this young teen age girl and we were relentless in teasing her.
Less than a week after this teasing began Gene was to put a quick end to it. The first day he found out what we had been doing he caught us all by surprise at the end of a school day. As dismissal time came, Gene announced that all the boys were to stay after class, only the girls would be dismissed.
As soon as the girls had departed school, Gene put on his menacing look and stared each of us one by one in the eyes with that cold hard stare he could summon when needed. For what seemed like a very long period of time he stared us down without saying a word. He had our attention.
He then accused us of exactly what we had been doing and said it would not happen again whether he was around or not. He chewed us out for several minutes telling us how mean spirited we were, how hurtful we were and how ungentleman like we were. He explained from the accused girl's point of view and from his view. We were in total silence as we held on to every word he spoke. His eyes roamed over each of us as he spoke; none of us escaped his ire that day.
He then asked who knew the truth about the matter. No one spoke up. He went on to explain the facts of life to us, how babies were made, how long a pregnancy took, changes in looks of pregnant women. He told us things we had only whispered about in private. He told us the truth.
I learned a lot that day. I may have learned even more than I wanted to know but the two things I remember clearly and will never forget are how words can hurt an innocent (or guilty) person and how cowardly it is to band together to single out a person in the way we had. Gene Winfree taught me those things.
I can tell you with all honesty, those words, "Mary had a baby", were never uttered again by anyone in Gene Winfree's 8th grade home room class in 1954.
Gene was also a very fair man and an excellent teacher. Though we only took Health from him (as well as the physical education class), we learned from him. He had a way of teaching that demanded attention and learning the subject matter in the way he taught it was easy. A day or so before a big test, he would make sure we knew the subject before subjecting us to the test. He would write all the questions that would be on the test on the blackboard and then call on us one by one to give the correct answer. If we didn't know the answer, he would tell us. It would be the exact same test we would take a day or so later and we had no excuse not to know the answers. More importantly, the questions and answers dealt with the heart of the subject matter. We were taught nutrition, cleanliness, hygiene, and much more and under Gene's guidance we actually learned.
His fairness can be exemplified by the one favor he did for me so long ago. I had missed three days of school with the flu right before a mid term health exam. I took the exam without the benefit of Gene's Q&A session the day or so before with all the pertinent questions. Having been a straight "A" student, I was bitterly disappointed when I received my exam score. It was a very poor "68". I had failed the test.
Gene kept me in after class that day and asked why I had done so poorly on the test. I reminded him that I had been out sick the critical three days prior and had done the best I could under the circumstances. He went over the questions one by one with me on his time after school and would give me a second chance at the same test two days later. I aced it! I also earned even more respect for Gene Winfree for the concern he showed for me that time.
I depended on Gene Winfree two other times after I entered High School. He was my J.V. Baseball team coach (I mentioned him in one of my other stories, "Kirk Kirkley and his Krystal Ball". He also saved me some face with basketball coach J.V. Pruitt which is my last personal memory of Gene.
I don't remember if it was my sophomore or junior year, but I had made the final cut on the HHS basketball team coached by J.V. Pruitt. It was the first practice after the final cuts had been made and I was proud to be a real Red Ram when disaster struck. As a guard, we were doing one of coach Pruitt's favorite exercises (running down court backwards). As I neared the far end of the court, I slipped. I did the natural thing and put my hands out behind me to cushion my fall. As my hands hit the hardwood floor I felt a terrible pain in my left wrist. The pain was so bad it took away my vision for a few seconds. I lay there for a moment and headed for the bench.
I soon heard coach Pruitt chiding me... calling me a "baby" among other things. He didn't know how bad my wrist hurt. I stood up and began taking part in "tip-in" drills. A shooter from the right side of the hoop would purposely miss a lay up shot and I was supposed to tip the ball back in the basket from the left side. As I went up to do the tip in, as soon as my left hand contacted the ball the pain sent me back to the floor. That was the end of practice for me that day.
I walked the several blocks over to Dr. Garrison's office and he x-rayed my wrist. It was broken. No wonder it hurt so bad. In order for Dr. Garrison to be paid, I had to secure a form from the coach showing it had happened during a school activity. I chose NOT to see coach Pruitt to get the form. Instead, I went to my old friend, teacher and coach Gene Winfree. He filled out the form without question. I think that is the last time I ever had any personal contact with that great friend, teacher and coach.
Virginia Winfree was always, as Gene, a family friend and she too taught me in High School. I took her first year typing course which was just a little unusual for boys back then. There were a few others beside myself in there but the class was mostly girls. I didn't care. Typing had fascinated me ever since my dad had brought home a portable typewriter from a part time insurance job he once held.
Again... now that Virginia was my teacher and we were outside family gatherings, I had to remind myself to call her "Mrs. Winfree". She too was a very good teacher. She taught us typing in the manner of the day. We all had mechanical "Underwoods" or "Royals". There were no letters on our keyboards. They were visible only from a chart hung from the blackboard. There would be no cheating in her class.... you would learn to type naturally or fail.
Virginia not only had to teach us typing from scratch, she had to teach us the mechanics of the typewriter, how it worked, what this bar did, what a platen was... things like that. She had great patience with us kids and we were all to pass her class. I ended up taking a second year of typing the following year under. Ms. Kinlaw but it was Virginia Winfree that taught me the basics.
I didn't realize at the time I was taking typing from Virginia that it would later influence my life but it did. I spent my time in the Air Force during the cold war as a Czech linguist which required not only knowing the language but being able to use special radio equipment and being able to "TYPE".
The skills Virginia had taught me so well enabled me to take the final Air Force 6 week typing test on day one. I told my Air Force typing instructor I didn't need to take the class. He thought he had me and I was getting ready to face some kind of discipline for "talking back" to him. But I put my faith in what Virginia had taught me. There, in front of 30 servicemen, I made the instructor a challenge.
I told him, "You give me the final 6 week test today (day one), and if I can't pass it, I will take the full 6 week course!"
He looked at me in amazement, paused, and then said. "Ok, I'll give you the test now, but if you fail, not only will you take the full 6 week course, you will do extra duty for six weeks as well."
I was confident that Virginia had taught me all I needed to know. I took the challenge and first answered the written portion of the test with a perfect score. All that was left was to be able to type 50 correct words per minute in a five minute typing test. I went way beyond the minimum passing the test with 131 correct words per minute over the five minute test. That left me free for one hour a day over the next six weeks of radio school. I never got a chance to thank Virginia Winfree for that.
The typing abilities I learned from Virginia Winfree furthered my career in the Air Force and later in the 34 years I worked with the railroad. I was the fastest IBM key punch operator in Hamlet before the railroad switched over to computers and still use those typing skills today. Whenever I write a short story, I do so without wondering about the typing mechanics involved, the words need only flow from my head to my fingers. They come naturally and I can thank Virginia Winfree for making that happen.
It has been well over 45 years since I have seen Gene or Virginia Winfree but they have been on my mind off and on during that span. They taught me how to be a good student as well as how to be a good citizen. They taught me skills in communication, living and more that still follow me today.
I remember Gene and Virginia Winfree with great gratitude for having known them. But, most of all......
I remember Hamlet
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