Author recalls Christmas traditions in Morehead City, N.C.

During the Depression years in Morehead City, N.C., as Christmas approached, everyone got involved in the preparations, recalled Shirley Wade Lucas. 

She was one of 12 children born to Howard Jesse Wade and Sallie Daniels Wade. Their house on the corner of 8th and Bay streets in Morehead City was built on land acquired by the Wade family (Martin Thomas Wade and Martha Davis Wade), in 1890.

 

Shirley was a local author who contributed her writings to “Christmas Memories,” a collection of essays published during 1990-92 in The Mailboat publication. The stories have been preserved for future generations by the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center on Harkers Island. 

In the 1930s, “my daddy would bundle up the smaller children and walk to the Crab Point area to find our Christmas tree,” Shirley said. “In those times, everyone knew everyone, and the farmers would gladly give permission for a tree, some yaupon, holly, cedar and pine to be cut.”

 

“Daddy would load the greenery in the arms of the children and hoist the tree on his shoulder and home we would come. The greenery was placed over pictures, on mantles, over doors and around the front door. The big tree was placed in a bucket filled with dirt and tied to the wall to keep it upright. All the decorations were handmade by all the family members.”

 

“Mama cooked on a wood range with an oven and a firebox that burned cord wood. About a week before Christmas, Mama began her baking of pies and cakes. Daddy built shelves on the back porch to hold all the pies and cakes, then covered them with mosquito netting to keep out dust and insects.”

 

Shirley remembered going caroling to bring some Christmas joy and cheer to the sick and shut-ins. She said, “We walked the town over, with people joining us along the way. When we would get so cold we couldn’t sing, back home we trod to find big pots of steaming hot chocolate, prepared by Mama.”

 

“On Christmas Eve, we went to church at First Methodist where a program for young and young-at-heart was held.” She said that Charles S. Wallace, who served as the church’s Sunday school superintendent for 51 years, assured that everyone received a red or green cloth bag filled with an orange, tangerine, apple, nuts, gum and hard candy.”

 

Tangerines are known as the Christmas orange. The tangerine’s peak season is in December, and the fruit was once a common gift for children’s Christmas stockings. It is named for the city of Tangiers in Morocco, where it originated. In Asian culture, mandarin oranges and tangerines are symbols of abundance and good fortune.

Charles S. Wallace, who was born at Portsmouth village on North Core Banks, was one of Morehead City’s most prominent citizens at the time, having amassed great wealth in the commercial fishing industry in the early 20th century, operating fish processing plants in Morehead City and Smyrna as well as in Florida. 

Historians said that in order to ensure a local supply of ice to preserve and transport the seafood on the railroad, by ship and by wagon to markets along the East Coast, Wallace helped start up the Carteret Ice and Transportation Storage Co. in Morehead City, believed to be the first ice-making plant in eastern North Carolina. 

He invested in a multitude of other business interests, ranging from banking and boatbuilding to real estate and gasoline and oil wholesaling. 

Wallace served as Morehead City’s mayor from 1898-1908 and then represented Carteret County in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1909-14. He served on the Carteret County Board of Commissioners from 1918-20. 

Education was Wallace’s true passion, and it is reported that he served on the Morehead City School Board from 1906-33, and was board chair from 1908-33. When the town built a modern graded school in 1929-30 on Bridges Street, it was named the Charles S. Wallace School.