Charlie Noel, a Black man, reflects on his experience growing up in Nash County. His father was a preacher at the Friendship Baptist Church. He also had a second church called the Bethlehem Baptist Church. Charlie Noel was seven years old when his family moved to Spring Hope, N.C. His first school was a plank school, Cedar Grove School. His first job was priming tobacco and he earned $0.50/day. He recalls WWI and the flue epidemic of 1918. He and his mother had the flu. His father looked after them and he never got sick. Charlie Noel was almost drafted into WWII but the war was finished before he could leave for the draft. He also recalled the Great Depression. He remembers not being able to purchase red meat until a white friend purchased it for him because the shop would not sell it to him.