The Stonewall Item

(October 9, 1969, Volume 12, Number 45, Stonewall, Mississippi)

Published at Stonewall, Miss., J. K. Bruton, Manager, Regiel Napier, Editor, Subscriptions $2.00 per year, by mail

Submitted By Genealogy Trails, Clarke County Host

ZHHS Homecoming starts Thursday

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The annual Zach Huggins High School homecoming celebration will be held Friday night.  All homecoming activities will be sponsored by the student council.

Homecoming activities were started officially Thursday night at 7:30 when a Union (homecoming football opponent) player was to be burned in effigy behind the old gym.

At 1:30 p. m. Friday the parade will start.  Each class and club has entries in the parade and they will be judged before leaving the school Friday.  These floats are to be judged on originality, cleverness, and neatness.  Both cars and float categories will have three winners.

The highlights of the weeks’ activity will be the coronation ceremonies, the 1969 homecoming court will be present and principal (sic) W. C. Boone will announce and crown the homecoming queen.

Following half time activities the court will be honored at the homing coming dance at the National Guard Armory.  The dance will start at 10 p.m.  Music will be furnished by the Grecian Urn, admission will be $1.50 per person, and the public is cordially invited to attend.

The identity of the homecoming queen is kept secret until the halftime ceremonies.  The queen will be chosen from the following maids: seniors maids Miss Sandra Kay Covington and Miss Nella Price, junior maids Miss Donna Jean Williams, and Miss Deena Rae West, sophomore maids Miss Wanda Moore and Miss Miss Rhonda Culpepper, and freshman maid Miss Cathy Phillips.

One of the senior maids – Miss Covington – and one of the junior maids – Miss Williams – is from Stonewall.  Miss Covington is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ardell Covington, and Miss Williams is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Leon Williams.

Vicki Moulds engage to George Hamrick

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Mr. and Mrs. Joe Moulds of Rise Hill, Miss. announce the engagement of their daughter Miss Lynn Moulds to Mr. George Hamrick, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Hamrick of Stonewall, Miss.

Wedding plans will be announced at a later date.

ERWINNERS AT WORK

A man happy with his work - - Robert Williams

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“I enjoy my work here.  I just wouldn’t want to do anything else.  After a while it just gets in your blood.”  That’s the way Robert L. Williams describes his 1^st shift machinist job and you don’t have to watch him work long to see that he really means it.

In fact, Williams got to the machine shop in a strange way.  After finishing a two-year hitch with Uncle Sam’s Marines during which he got into the shooting part of the Korean War, he returned to work at Erwin Mills in the cloth room.

Shortly thereafter he transfer to some place where “I could learn a trade”.  He was transferred to the machine shop and has been there ever since – over 16 years now.

Williams and his family – wife and two children – live in the Rolling Fork Community three miles outside Stonewall where they “raise hogs, a few cows and a large garden.”  Both children – Wiley eight, and Judy 14 – attend school in Quitman and Maudie (his wife) takes care of the thousands of details any housewife must attend to.

Equally at home running his lathe or repairing a broken conveyor belt (which is where we found him for this interview), Robert has indeed found himself a “trade” with Erwin Mills and one he does with a professional’s care and attention to detail.

Away from Erwin Mills he likes to work his farm, try to raise a few prize hogs, and turn the beagles loose on a rabbit now and then.  He calls it rabbit hunting, but as all beagle men know they don’t go out for the hunting but rather to listen to those beagles “do their thing.”

Also in line with his work, Robert is quick to point out the many advantages associated with working with Burlington Industries.  “I worked at Erwin Mills before the war (Korean) and there’s just no comparison between the conditions then and now.  Erwin made some changes when they took over, but the big difference came when Burlington took over”, he says.

“The profit sharing setup is just great.  I’m mighty happy with it.  I should have a pretty good lump ready when it’s time for me to retire.  It’s really just a great thing.  It makes your work seem more important, and you try to do a better job all the time.

“There are many plants much bigger than this one that have no profit sharing system at all.  Sometimes some of us here probably forget just how lucky we are to be working for Burlington.

“I enjoy my work, but the profit sharing system makes it even ore enjoyable.  I just can’t praise Burlington enough.  It’s a real pleasure to work for these people, and I think we have a fine plant here.”

He also gets back to those hogs from time to time.  “I raise quite a few hogs.  I’ve taken one down to the Clarke County hog show for the past couple of years.  I won a second place two years ago and a third place last year.  They give some cash prizes every year and one of these days I’m going to win the big one.”

Robert still has the look of a tough Marine and it probably is due to all those good “vittles” he puts away every day.  “We have two or three acres in garden, raise a calf or two now and then for the freezer and even put in a little pork at times”, he says.  And who could ask for more in the way of eating?

But then Uncle Sam’s Marines have a habit of keeping those good “builds” far longer than some other branches of service, and working at Erwin Mills and taking care of a farm probably gives him all the exercise he needs.

Whatever the cause though, he’s a walking advertisement for Burlington Industries and finds it easy to express his thoughts on the subject.  After all, what more can a man ask in life than a job he likes, a secure retirement to look forward to, and “his own piece of land to toil” in his spare time?

Apparently Robert feels there’s little left because he certainly seems to enjoy what he’s doing.

His family attends Rolling Creek Baptist Church where he is a deacon and he is equally quick to pint out this fact.  Another plus for the Williams family, a family that has at its head one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet.

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