"The web of our lives is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together." - William Shakespeare

Memories from '30's relived

Sometimes the importance of things changes over time.

 

When Bob Morris and Glen Bullard read about American Legion Baseball, their thoughts invariably return to a season when Martinsville's Pannill Post 42 team made a magical run to the national semifinals more than 70 years ago.

 

Though memories of the game itself have faded, certain details surrounding the event remain as crisp as a line-drive single to the gap.

 

Morris (90 years old) and Bullard (89) were both members of an American Legion team that advanced all the way to the final four in the early 1930s. Morris was a utility player, earning time as a pitcher, catcher, second and first baseman.

 

"The first game I played in high school, we played Hargrave Military Academy," Morris said. "I walked 11, hit seven and struck out 17. The first one that came up, I hit him in the head. The second one, I hit him in the tail -- struck out the next three. From there they gave me plenty of room."

 

Meanwhile, Bullard played only one position: third base.

 

The year was either 1931 or 32 (they can't recall for sure). It was the early years of the Great Depression. Times were hard everywhere, and one team stood out among the other three when the semifinals took place in Arlington that summer.

 

It's not hard to see why, considering the nation's last quadrant of clubs came from Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore . . . and Martinsville/Henry County.

 

Many of the details about that incredible run have been obscured with time. Both men know for sure the team fell to St. Louis 3-0 in the semifinals, ending the season.

 

"I don't know exactly how (the brackets played out) but we beat everybody we played," Morris said of the tournament run, which included a quarterfinal contest against a team from Charlotte.

 

As far as Morris remembers, the St. Louis matchup "was the only damn game we lost" that season.

Beyond that, neither remembers much about the final game. However, they did recall many of their teammates (my apologies for any misspellings): John Bondurant, Clarence George, Emory Hundley, the Pickup brothers (Johnny, Al and Ralph), Buford Copeland, Thomas Trent and Mitchel, to name a few.

Most of those players lived outside the city limits, like Bullard, who hailed from Fieldale.

 

"The only two from Martinsville were me and Johnny Bondurant," Morris said, "but there were a bunch of boys from Fieldale."

 

Both men said Fieldale was well represented because their resident boys practiced constantly -- even more than the boys from other areas.

 

"They lived at the Fieldale ballpark," Morris said.

Bullard didn't argue.

 

"I was talking to somebody here one time in Martinsville and they said, 'Well there's one thing about it. Those Fieldale boys, they're sports smart,' " Bullard recalled, laughing at the memory. "We played a lot. That's about all we had to do, really."

 

They were coached by Louis Beckner, who worked for the Martinsville Bulletin. The team played its home games at the "old Brown Street field," according to both men.

 

While scores and stats are gone, the experience that came with a trip to Arlington for the national semifinals created memories that were indelible.

 

Both remembered a site-seeing visit into Washington, D.C., where they had their first encounter with a "thriller," more commonly referred to as a roller coaster.

 

Since neither had much money, each devised a way to get on the coaster, which charged 5 cents per ride.

 

Bullard borrowed 50 cents from his coach, a loan he admitted was never repaid, though he did try years later during a brief sidewalk encounter with his former skipper. Beckner refused to take the change.

 

Meanwhile, Morris pretended to be terrified by the coaster. In this manner, he fooled many of his teammates into paying for his fare over and over.

 

Decades later, he still laughed at the memory of the free coaster rides.

 

The game also had a significant distraction in its own right. During the early innings, an airplane flew directly over the field.

 

It was the first time either had seen a plane in person, though both would get closer views a few years in later in World War II, where Bullard was a member of the Aircorps and Morris a member of the Army, where he served under General Patten in the Battle of the Bulge.

 

Their stories kept going, spinning off from each other in dozens of directions. Morris had numerous jobs, including postal worker, one of the first employees Martinsville Dupont hired, traveling salesman in Wisconsin.

 

Bullard, in contrast, worked almost all his life at Fieldcrest Mills.

 

I could fill up an entire page with the anecdotes. It seems that 90 years hold a lot of memories.

 

Recently, Bullard told me: "I'm not sure if you can make a story out of it. Most of the details have faded."

He was referring to the semifinal game of course.

 

Sometimes the importance of things changes over time.

 

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In other news:

 

Funnel cloud reported but did not touch down

By MICKEY POWELL
Bulletin Staff Writer

 

City officials were unable to alert Adelphia cable television viewers when a tornado warning was issued for Martinsville and Henry County on Monday.

 

It was the second time such an incident had occurred in recent years.

 

The 911 Communications Center received reports of a funnel cloud in the sky above U.S. 220 Business south of Martinsville near Colonial Downs and Kmart. But the funnel apparently never touched the ground and no damage occurred, according to county and city emergency management officials.

 

The National Weather Service issued the tornado warning about 4:10 p.m. Soon thereafter, the weather service broadcast an Emergency Alert System (EAS) message that aired on area radio stations.

 

Martinsville officials twice attempted to activate the EAS through Adelphia but failed both times, city Communications Manager Matt Hankins said.

 

A test of the system around 5 p.m. also failed, he said.

 

EAS messages on Adelphia are broadcast simultaneously on all channels. However, the weather service cannot activate the EAS via cable TV, said Hankins. Only county and city officials can do so by telephone, he said.

 

He said that Adelphia's local EAS activation method was set up that way to try and prevent conflicting emergency information from being broadcast.

 

The Martinsville Bulletin could not reach Adelphia officials for comment.

 

Hankins said he talked to Adelphia staff shortly after the EAS problem was discovered and company technicians had fixed the problem by 7 p.m. An on-air test was done to make sure the system was working correctly, he said.

 

The problem was determined to be a clerical error -- city officials had been given some wrong information on how to activate the system, Hankins said.

 

Officials recalled that a similar incident happened during a tornado warning a few years ago. It was determined then that Adelphia had changed something in the activation process and forgotten to tell city staff, added Hankins.

 

During Monday's storm, emergency warning sirens atop the city's two fire stations were sounded. That is standard procedure when a possible tornado threatens the community.

 

But the city considers the EAS its main method of warning the public of severe weather, officials said, because the sirens cannot be heard in every part of the city.

 

"We're very fortunate this (funnel cloud) was not a major event," Hankins said. "If it had been ... and we hadn't been able to notify the public, I am scared to think what might have happened."

 

He emphasized that the city might not be able to prevent loss of life in a catastrophe if the public cannot be adequately warned.

 

Henry County Public Safety Director Steve Eanes said that county officials did not try to activate the EAS since the funnel cloud did not touch down.

 

The tornado warning was issued after Doppler radar detected a storm that had the potential to spawn a funnel cloud, the weather service reported. The storm moved north at about 20 mph.

 

The storm produced vivid lightning and heavy rain. Yet rainfall totals varied between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. Martinsville's hydroelectric dam south of the city reported the highest total at 2.5 inches. Some parts of the county received no rain, based on Automated Flood Warning System gauges in the area.

 

A few power outages and minor flooding on roads and creeks also were reported.

 

But the only major problem that resulted from the rainfall, at least based on emergency officials' reports, occurred at First Baptist Church in Martinsville. Water in a courtyard and playground area next to the building rose as high as 3 feet in some spots, said church member Joe Hundley.

 

He estimated that less than 20 gallons seeped into the church's basement.

 

A company was called in to pump the water out, Hundley said.

 

"Drains stopped up and were not carrying water away fast enough," he said, adding that church officials thought previous drain problems had been fixed.

 

"Not completely," he sighed.

 

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The old men made me smile, but the EAS makes me want to go home and hit them over the head...I'm so so SO glad the tornado didn't touch down. Although, then again, if it had taken out Conolian Downs (a legalized gambling place--ever hear of such a thing? -- other than casinos), it would a bit less traffic on the weekends...