98-Year-Old Remembers When Chapel Hill Frowned On Carrboro

COMMUNITY NEWS

CARRBORO –There was a time, Carrboro’s Frances Shetley says, when Carrboro was the wrong side of the tracks.

Shetley, a former community activist and member of the town’s board of aldermen, said the best of the many changes she’s seen in her 98 years “might be the attitude of the Chapel Hill people.” When she was growing up, the social gulf between the towns meant Carrboro and Chapel Hill residents didn’t talk. Now, Carrboro’s no longer the poor relation.

Shetley recently published “Vignettes,” a collection of reminiscences about her life in the Carrboro area, including growing up on a farm in Calvander, moving to Carrboro, and becoming active in local politics. She’ll be reading from the book at the Drakeford Library on Friday, Oct. 24, from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM.

One life, lots of stories

In an interview with The Local Reporter, Shetley said her children encouraged her to write down the stories she’d told them over the years. “I said ‘nah.’ They insisted. I said okay.” Once she agreed, it took about a year to write and finish the book. She gave her daughters the stories, then they formatted, illustrated, and indexed the book.

“I started off with my grandfather, who was in the Civil War,” Shetley said. “He was released at Appomattox in a Union uniform because the Confederates didn’t have a uniform that was good enough to travel home in.” His wife died of pellagra because she had nothing to eat but corn, a crop that was easy to grow but didn’t provide enough nutrients.

“Vignettes” includes reminiscences from farm life during the Depression to life in Carrboro and Chapel Hill in decades past. She shares her memories of local soldiers returning from WWII, old businesses in Chapel Hill, and some of the professors she took night school classes from. The book also discusses Shetley’s time as a community activist and as a member of the board of aldermen, as the Carrboro Town Council used to be called.

Frances Shetley sits next to her state award for the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

Shetley said she had fun reliving past experiences, particularly some of the mishaps of people she’s known. For example, she once paid for extensive yard work only to have the contractor park the bulldozer in her front yard once he was done and leave it there. Finally, she called the company’s receptionist and told them, “If it’s gone at 9 o’clock in the morning, I’m going to spray it with pink paint. I went to the grocery store for about two hours, came back, and it was gone.”

Some of her memories aren’t so amusing. Shetley says one of the things that infuriated her about the old days was that “men treated women so poorly — ‘You are a servant, do what I told you to do, don’t ask questions.’” For example, when she was young, one of her uncles cropped Shetley’s dog’s tail over her objections. “That was a perfect example of how men treated females. If I had him here, I’d whack him.”

Getting involved.

“The Carrboro board of aldermen had men I thought at the time were old men,” Shetley said. “About 45 and 50. They didn’t do anything but sit and wait for the staff to say ‘do this’ or ‘do that.’” She and a friend had addressed the board on establishing a town appearance commission that could set requirements for new developments, such as the inclusion of trees and green space. The board “talked among themselves as if we weren’t there. Finally, one of them said ‘Let’s let the little women have some bushes.”

Shetley’s friend Meg Molloy said attitudes like that were what prompted Shetley to run for office. In addition to serving on the board of aldermen, she volunteered for multiple town, county, and regional committees. Shetley’s efforts earned her the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, given by the North Carolina governor to people “who have made significant contributions to the state and their communities through their exemplary service and exceptional accomplishments.”

This wall lamp is one of several uranium glass items in Shetley’s home.

On her last day on the board of aldermen, Shetley received another tribute, becoming the namesake of the Frances Shetley Bike Path. “It was a goodbye thing. One of the aldermen got out a sign about this long, they said they were naming it as a surprise.”

Asked if there’s anything she’d like to tell newcomers to Carrboro, Shetley says she’s happy to have them here. “I have great pleasure seeing newcomers to Carrboro tell us how much they enjoy being here. I really think that’s nice.”

Fraser Sherman has worked for newspapers, including the Destin Log, the Pensacola News-Journal and the Raleigh Public Record. Born in England, he’d still live in Florida if he hadn’t met the perfect woman and moved to Durham to marry her. He’s the author of several film reference books and has published one novel and several short story collections. This reporter can be reached at: Information@TheLocalReporter.press