|
a.
|
Note: Buried in Greenview Cemetery Reidsville, NC.
John Henry Driscoll was born at home on the Old Danville Road (N.E. Market St Ext.). He attended school in the Reidsville, NC Public Schools and received his GED from Rockingham Community College. He worked at Inmans Market, Newnam's Market and the Rockingham County Locker Plant as a meat cutter, The Reidsville City Police Department, and The Rockingham County Sheriffs Department. He also worked as a prison guard at the Rockingham County Prison. While working as a prison guard he found a job with the State of NC as a Prison Construction Supervisor. He worked for Beta Systems in Reidsville in the tool and parts room until his death in 1977. He also had a cafe on US 29 about five miles South of Reidsville for a short time.
He was a good cook and loved to cook and often cooked steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs or fish for his family on a grill during the summer months. He also cooked Brunswick Stews for his family and for church fund raising projects.
He always had a big garden, maybe not quite a farm, but almost. He raised produce for local merchants and restaurants during the years that his sons were available to help weed and harvest. Even after the boys left home, he still had a big garden and he and Inez would can quite a bit of what they grew. He raised corn, cabbage, tomatoes, okra, yellow squash, egg plants, sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, green beans, several kinds of peas, butter beans, green peppers, hot peppers, turnips and turnip greens, etc. Each year in February-March he would plant seeds in plant beds and cover them with cheese cloth to protect the plants from a late frost. As the plants grew they would be transplanted to the fields.
He had animals of all kinds. He raised pigeons and rabbits and had dogs, cats, and parakeets. Most memorable were the mules that he used to plow with. Each year he would hire someone with a tractor to disk the fields and the uses the mules to harrow and cultivate the fields. Several of the neighbors were always borrowing the mules and plows to plow their gardens. John put up a sign on his garage "MULE FOR RENT. $1.00 PER HOUR." He also raised beagles for hunting and had a pen that sometimes had 20 or more dogs in it.
John Was also an avid hunter and fisherman. In the fall he would hunt rabbits, squirrels, and Doves. He would also go to the eastern part of the state (NC) to go deer hunting each year. He was a crack shoot with a pistol and could hit a rabbit on the run with his .38 cal pistol. He got great pleasure from listening to his dogs bark as they run (chased) a rabbit. He also built rabbit gums to trap rabbits. He probably caught more opossums than rabbits. He usually gave the opossums to some black people he knew. Inez said that he sometimes had them cooked and brought them home for the family to eat.
He loved to fish and would take his sons, nephews or anyone that would go with him. He would go fishing for the better part of an afternoon but, as the sun started to set, whoever was with him would become an oarsman to row him around the lake at about 40-50 feet from the bank so he could fly fish. He loved to catch a big bass on a fly rod. He also liked to go to the Roanoke River near Washington, NC to fish when the Rock Bass would come upstream to spawn. He also like to go to the coast and fish in the ocean. He would fish in the surf and go out deep sea fishing.
He was a jack-of-all-trades and could fix about anything. When the state built highway 14 through the north side of his property, he built a shop (The Barn) with the money from the property sale. He planned to retire and have a repair shop where he could do odd jobs. Before he could accomplish this he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and died before the shop was fully equipped.
John was a strict disciplinarian and taught his children to work. Many people would comment on how well behaved his children were. In 1965 he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was an active member for the rest of his life. At this time in his life he seemed to have mellowed quite a bit and had a great deal of compassion for his fellow man.
|
