On June 10, 2023, the Paulding County Historical Society (PCHS) was pleased to host Mr. Bobby Lamar Cole, of Powder Springs, GA, to an afternoon walk down memory lane. Cole grew up in Paulding County, was born in 1932, and is one of six children of mother Lucy Elizabeth (née Lizzie Fuller, 1898 – 1956) and father Tasco (Tack) Cole (1893 – 1981). Bobby’s formative years were spent on the family farm in Cain, GA now known as the New Georgia Community of Dallas. Tack Cole Road, in the New Georgia Community, is named for Bobby’s father.
During the Depression the Cole family grew cotton to help make ends meet. Mules were the standard in the fields to plant, harvest, and transport cotton to a mill for processing and binding. Bobby demonstrated how homemade baskets were used to pick cotton and every family member picked his/her share. Bobby suggested that sometimes friendly competition between pickers might cause an increase in the basket weight by unfairly adding some wet cotton to the mix. The winner with the heaviest load could bost of his prowess until the joke caught on. He also told us about dealing with insects, especially the saddleback worm (a moth larva of a slug caterpillar-Limacodidae) which have stinger spines that can be most painful if handled improperly. Despite the tight financial needs of the family and a $300 asking price, Tack surprised young Bobby with a horse, Charlie. Soon Bobby and Charlie became nearly inseparable so he further requested that Tack never put the horse to a plow. While Tack respected the horse as Bobby’s pet, eventually the needs of the farm required the horse to work. Bobby said it hurt to see his pet being used in this way but that he had sufficiently matured to acknowledge that the needs of the farm exceeded his needs for a pet.
For pocket money, Bobby would trap rabbits then sell them for a quarter each. With Charlie to carry him, Bobby was able to increase his search area for rabbits and quarters for his pockets. On other occasions Bobby and his brothers would form possum hunts to train their dogs and a treed possum would be the goal. When attempts from the ground could not dislodge the possum, someone had to climb the tree. Sometimes this worked, sometimes the possum outsmarted the hunters, or once in a while, something else fell out of the tree. When that “something else” was one of the boys, a broken arm or leg might be the prize; but boys will be boys.
As Bobby got older, he attended Dallas High School (current grounds of the Herschel Jones Middle School). It turns out that he was an excellent basketball player and was customarily featured in his school’s victories. Bobby enjoyed basketball so much that he frequently refereed games at local schools to encourage others to develop their skills. One of the women in the audience asked Bobby what was dating like in high school. He quickly replied that, “submarine hunting” was his favorite activity and that he tried to engage in it as often as possible. Bobby added that he and his wife, Joyce Walker of Cobb County, have been married for over 60 years and have one son, Chris.
Bobby’s tongue-and-cheek response to the dating question generated much merriment and further demonstrated his quick wit, engaging storytelling, and verbal picture painting of life in and around Paulding County some 80 years ago. There were about two dozen attendees for his presentation. Some knew Bobby directly, some knew of him, and some of us knew nothing of Bobby Cole except that this could be a very interesting afternoon. From the moment he entered the school house, Bobby greeted us like old friends he hadn’t seen for a long time. As he took us on this journey, Bobby made us feel like we were there with him. When he was telling us about his tree climbing exploits, you just wanted to shout out to young Bobby, “be careful or you’ll break your arm.” What an interesting, informative, and entertaining afternoon this turned out to be.
Paulding County Historical Society offers monthly encounters at the “little red school house” on the second Saturday. It’s a great way to spend a few hours learning about the people and events of Paulding County. Recent guest presenters have included Pat Hardin, author of, The Black Horseman (volumes 1 and 2), the saga of her ancestors, the Wiley Jones family of Paulding County. John Hoomes, curator of Pickett’s Mill Battlefield State Historic Site, discussed the rediscovery of a potential one-of-a-kind flag pole finial (a distinctive ornamental flagpole topper; in this case carried by a union regimental color guard during the battle).
While we may ask for a small volunteer donation to help offset expenses at these encounters, your enjoyment and positive experience here is our goal. We will ask you to consider joining the Paulding County Historical Society. Individual memberships are just $25.00 per year; family membership is $30.00 per year; visit our website for more details. Consider volunteering an hour or two a week; we are all volunteers here and learning as we go. We have a graduate anthropologist on our board of directors to help us better interpret the displays but are always in need of help to handle requests, research documents, or do a little maintenance on a 160-year-old building.