J.F. Parker talks about his experience as a teacher with the mountain people living in Old Fort. Although he had never finished high school, he got a job as a teacher. He said: "He was going to send me on to teach school whether I knew anything or not." He talks about the hardships living up there, how school attendance was often very low and the kids brought snakes to the schoolhouse. He says the mountain people were a different breed of folk and they understood that "it takes a certain amount of failure in life to make a person what they should be." They were hardened, but strong and firm.
Tags: Civil War, Custard's Last Rally, Custard's Last Stand, Episcopal Church, flu epidemic, Frankie Silvers, hangings, J.F. Parker, Marion County N.C., Marion Manufacturing Company, McDowell County N.C., Morganton, mountain people, Old Fort, Presbyterian Church, railroad, Ralph Noblett, Rowan County, schoolhouse, Sunday School, teaching
