Taylors’ Christmas child evokes a ‘tear of joy’

Carteret County’s most celebrated storyteller is Rodney Kemp, and one of his favorite Christmas yarns, contained in “The Mailboat” publication of “Christmas Memories” from 1990-92, embraces the rural heritage and culture of the county.

Thanks to the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center on Harkers Island for preserving those manuscripts that are a treasure chest of family holiday traditions.

This Rodney Kemp yarn begins on the Harlowe farm of Harry Lee Taylor, located in the “northern reaches of Carteret County.”

As Kemp tells it: “Mr. Harry Lee Taylor’s shoulders hunched forward to protect against the bone chill of an early 1900s December morning. He whistled for his horses, Old Baldy and Charlie, to commence the annual trip from Harlowe south to Beaufort.”

The buckboard would carry him about 14 miles into Beaufort to “do his buying and trading for his family’s Christmas gifts.”

“Mr. Harry always said ‘buggy time was thinking time’ and his thoughts this morning were on his wife, whom he always referred to as Miss Aleta, and his nine children.”

Taylor pulled to a stop in front of the Carteret County Poor Home and Orphanage, located some three miles outside of Beaufort. He noticed a young boy standing away from the others. He was sobbing.

Kemp said that Taylor approached the caretaker and inquired about the boy. The caretaker said the boy arrived about a month ago; both parents had died suddenly. “He’s 12, small for his age. He don’t eat much. He just stares down the road and cries. Name’s Norton.”

Taylor adopted Norton on the spot, telling the boy: “I need somebody to help me drive that team of horses. You interested?”

In Beaufort, the first stop was at the Davis House on Front Street, where Miss Sally Ann Davis had hot baths in the back for a nickel. “Norton needed about a quarter’s worth,” Kemp said.

After a day of shopping in Beaufort, Norton guided Old Baldy and Charlie back to Harlowe. It was late when they arrived but one of the Taylor boys was still awake. He peeked out his window and announced: “Daddy’s letting someone drive his horses. You’ve got to be mighty special to get to drive Old Baldy and Charlie.”

“Mr. Harry lifted Norton down off his seat and placed him on the porch in front of his wife…and said: ‘Miss Aleta, for your Christmas present I’ve made you the mother of a fine son.’”

“She smiled that approving smile of love and said, ‘I thank you for a painless delivery.’”

“Then, she opened her arms and took Norton into her heart as great tears of Christmas joy burst from both of them,” Kemp wrote.

“Of all of Harry Lee Taylor’s five sons, the old-timers used to say: ‘Dagnabbit all, that Norton was the one who was most like him.’”

Also writing for “The Mailboat,” Eddie Hill affirmed that “Christmas on the coast…is a time of family gathering, heart-felt fellowship and plenty of goodwill and holiday cheer.”

However, one year…Down East was “besieged by a horrendous snow storm, making even the most limited travel virtually impossible. The short distance between Gloucester and Atlantic (about 22 miles) suddenly became impassable.”

Eddie Hill and his wife, Nita, remained confident that the snowstorm would soon end, but they were wrong. Hill wrote: “Hours merged into days…with no signs of sunshine or a break in the weather.”

“Drawing upon our innermost strength and determined to turn this tribulation into a triumph, we found a silver lining in the midst of the snow clouds. The quiet time that we shared will long be remembered…and the deer ham by candlelight will always hold a special place in our Christmas memories.”

“Maybe every Christmas needs a bit of hardship to help us appreciate the wonder of it all….” He said: “It may sound ‘corny,’ but we really do care about seeing each other more than any present in the world. That’s how it is when you come from a large family, one that is filled with love for one another.”

Indeed, “love is a priceless gift, one that each of us treasures,” Hill wrote. “That is what Christmas is all about – loving one another and sharing the joy of the season.”