Great Uncle George Moody

I had conversed with Bob about Great Uncle George Moody and informed Bob I believe that Uncle Moody froze to death in the little shanty he lived in at Five Points. Hence, the following memories that Bob has shared. (Great Uncle George aka Uncle George in this memory) Joel Bailey

I don't think that I have heard about how Uncle George passed on until now.

Well let me think a bit about Uncle George Moody. All of the time that I knew him he was old. He looked older than he actually was, I think. His face was very wrinkled. He had a great laugh and no teeth. He would visit his sister, Grandma Heavner, at the mill house on Short Street. His laughter and loud talk would fill the house. I being the first of Grandma's many grandchildren, he would pick on me to aggravate Grandma.

Two or three years later, WWII had started, George would come to Grandma's in his Model T pick-up truck. It was a vehicle that just went with Uncle George. It suited him to a T. It was open air. No closed in cab. The war had started and gas was rationed. Uncle George managed to get this truck to run on kerosene.

He had gotten into the fresh produce business. I went with him for a couple of days. I can't remember what produce, but may have been green beans, cabbage, tomatoes, and cantelopes. To sell the produce, we went to white and colored neighborhoods. Mostly colored neighborhoods. We would ride slowly down the street, stop, blow the horn, and yell "fresh produce".

At least yelled.

Uncle George was in the gold mining business. I think that one time I was able to visit one of his gold mining sites. If memory serves, it was a slanting hole, like a dug well so deep that the bottom could not be seen. It was somewhere around Rockingham.

My mother or dad once told George about this dentist in Cherryville, NC, who used a lot of gold in his dental practice and mined his own gold. Uncle George cantacted the dentist and learned about his gold mining. He made plans to travel to Cherryville to check it out. He wasn't about to drive his T-Model through the big city of Charlotte. My memory is hazy here on how he got through Charlotte, but he either shipped his T-Model truck on the train or someone hauled it up there on a bigger truck. I don't know that I ever heard what kind of success he had with the dentist.

Uncle George Moody was a lovable and likeable old man, but I don't think he got much respect from the Heavners.

I don't think he had any family of his own. I know he had three sisters living around Five Points. They were Josey, Kizzy, and (our grandmother) Corinne.