Ayden ... Way Back When: Ayden was different in 1920s and 1930s

Here are some notations from The Ayden Dispatch in the late 1920s and early 1930s. How different it was.

1926: Ayden High School’s first football team.

1926: Quote: “While football isn’t altogether a safe game now, it doesn’t crowd the hospitals as formerly.”

1926: World Series games were shown on an outside scoreboard (later called playographs) that was erected between the post office and Edward’s Pharmacy.

1927: The immediate need for new high school was stressed by J.E. Sawyer, superintendent, citing these numbers: enrollment: elementary school 425 and high school 142.

1927: Princess Theater: “Box office being moved so that the ticket seller can pass out tickets to both white and colored without both races coming in contact with each other.”

1927: Light and Water Superintendent A.W. Sawyer, advertises that the Universal Electric Range to be sold by the Town of Ayden, equipped with an oven heat control that automatically controls the cooking operation.

1927: Ayden Dispatch headline: “Prominent Colored Man Dies Almost Suddenly;” Sam L. Blount operated pressing club and store in the rear of the newspaper’s office.

1929: Ayden Dispatch: “Need of a High School gym: Ayden has use of a warehouse many blocks from school; not made for basketball. Rafters are low; no equipment, no bath facilities. (Players) have to dress several blocks away and are liable to catch cold going from one building to another. Warehouse leaks as witnessed last Friday; caused many men to slip down (because of the) wet spots. But we are hoping that next year will not only bring us a new school building, but a new gym also.

1929: Princess Theater installs sound.

1929: First game played at Ayden High School gym; girls of the Christian Sunday School defeated the fat men, 20-19; 150 fans witnessed the game.

1930: Training in grammar grades begins in basketball, coached by high school players.

1930: First year that football schedule was established before start of season.

1930: Chapel Hill High School to play Ayden; opponent’s average linemen was 160 lbs; average backfield was 140 lbs.

1931: Thirty-five players report for football.

1931: Ayden wins first boys’ basketball game after losing 23 straight games over two years: Ayden 32, Fountain 12.

(Taken from Ayden, the Sports Town: Stories of Playing and Living in Tobacco Country by William Harrington and Mitchell Oakley, 2017.)