#MyFirstPlace December 14
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Throughout December 2024, several of us are taking part in the 30-Day PPT Coach4aday Challenge. PPT is an acronym for People Places or Things. Each day we share our insights, thoughts, or memories about a person (living or dead), a place (we have visited or learned about) or a thing that intrigues us. Today I am going to write about MY FIRST PLACE.
In 1977 I was moving to Pembroke, NC from Greenville, NC to accept a new job as Assistant Basketball Coach and Lecturer at UNC Pembroke. This position was going allow me to get My First Place.
At that time the university was named Pembroke State University. I was going to be paid $10,000 a year so I needed to find a place to live that was affordable. In finding a place to live I got a landlord and man who treated me as a friend.
Joe Gallagher was the Head Coach, and he took me around town, and I met Ira Pate Lowry and his wife Reba Millsaps Lowry who lived directly across the street from the Pembroke Park and less than 50 yards from the southeast corner of campus.
The Lowry’s were both retired faculty members at UNC Pembroke. At the time I met them Reba and Ira Pate were both 71 years old.
The Lowry’s lived in a brick house right on 3rd Street in town and had a two-story 4-unit apartment building located to the right of their house. Ira Pate made it clear that he only rented to Pembroke employees and was excited to hear that I worked at the college. He rented me the bottom left unit shown in photo below.
People, Places, & Things 30-Day Challenge Guidelines
Like previous challenges there are no hard and fast rules to participate. There are a few suggested guidelines
- Each day in December 2024 write about a Person, Place or Thing-PPT
- Share at least one fact, memory, or quality about your subject choice.
- If so inclined use the hash tag #Coach4adayChallenge on social media platforms
December 14th-My First Place
The deal on My First Place got better when I saw the unit was a two bedroom and was furnished. I was 23 years old and had no worldly possessions except clothes and a 1969 Ford Ranch Station Wagon.
I was concerned accepting the job that I was going to have to purchase a lot of furniture so the unit being furnished was the answer to my prayers. When I asked about the monthly rent Mr. Lowry said, “Well Pembroke ain’t paying you much so how about $90.00 a month”. I about dropped my jaw and wrote him a check for the first month on the spot. I had a furnished apartment, and I could walk to work. All of my colleagues referred to where I lived as Lowry Arms Apartments.
I lived there for 3 years, and my wife and I spent our first month as a married couple there before moving to Cullowhee NC in 1980. Today My First Place is no longer there and is the site Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen.
At my first commencement ceremony in 1978 I also found out that Ira Pate and his wife wrote the music and lyrics to the UNC Pembroke Alma Mater.
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