Raymond with his mom and siblings
submitted by Brenda Dobbins
RAYMOND ABRAHAM PETTY
Raymond was the eighth child and the second son, born on a farm on October 29, 1929, in Roaring River, North Carolina to Tyra Abraham and Lillian Florence Harris Petty. Ten children were born to this couple, seven girls and three boys (one girl died as an infant.) This was during the Depression. At age six he started school at Lincoln Heights School in Wilkesboro. Mrs. Evans was the first-grade teacher. He graduated in 1948. “I did not like school until I was a junior in high school, then it was a little better.”
Raymond accepted Christ as his Savior and joined Poplar Spring Missionary Baptist Church, Roaring River. Upon retirement, he settled down in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, and joined First African Baptist Church.
This is Raymond’s story he shared with his family in 2005 at the Petty Family Reunion.
My brothers, sisters and I had work to do before and after school. Starting at six years old we all had chores to do, starting early in the morning. We knew it was time to get up when the old rooster crowed and Dad said, “GET UP”. You only did one thing and that was get up and get your day started by doing whatever you were told to do. You did not question why, you just did it. One of the chores we did before school was to take 75 to 100 sticks of tobacco off the sticks for Mom and Dad to work while we were in school. Then we had to milk 6 cows, some milk for the family, and the rest to sell to Coble Diary. We had to bring 50 to 100 gallons of water from the spring to the chicken houses. We were growing around 3,000 chickens to sell every 9 to 12 weeks. After that, we ate breakfast. Then we got ready for school. Dad did not play. He was tough.
We boarded the bus, which looked like a box with wheels – Bus #18. There were seats on each side and a double seat in the middle. You sat back to back on that seat. The bus was flat on top and had hinged windows with a tow buckle at the top; if the buckle loosened, it would crack you in the head. The gas tank was inside just behind the driver and the odor would make you sick. I had to have a window open to survive the 10+ miles to school. It was a rolling time bomb. There was no heat in the winter and no air in the summer. Central heat and air conditioning – what was that? We had to walk at least a mile to catch the bus. When we were home, we all had jobs from early morning until Dad more or less said that we had finished for the day, and they were long days.
We had very little to play with, some of our toys were homemade. When I was older, we made things like wooden wagons to ride down the hill. We used bands from barrels and a piece of wire to keep it upright and run to make it roll. Later I sent my life savings to my sister, Myrtle, in Philadelphia to get me a bike. She added money to it and sent me a Road Master bike. What fun I had with that bike. I could run errands for Mom and Dad.
In 1948, I left home to be on my own at the age of 18 ½ years old. I lived with my sister, Margaret, and her husband, Archie, from April 1948 to January 1949. In January 1949 I went to Columbus, Ohio, and worked for Lustrum Steel Corp. for a short time. In March 1949 I went to Philadelphia and stayed with my sister, Alice. I worked several jobs from a dishwasher to a soda jerk, then I worked at Horn and Hardart Restaurant until Uncle Sam sent me greetings.”
I was drafted into the Army on February 23, 1951. I was processed at Fort Meade, Maryland, and then onto Camp Breaking Ridge, Kentucky for 16 weeks of Basic Training. I then came home on a short leave on orders stating I was to be sent to the Far East.
The Korean War was in full battle. My Dad and brother-in-law took me to Charlotte, North Carolina Airport. My whole Company, of about 300 men, gathered at the airport and we flew on C-47 planes to Seattle, Washington. Upon arrival, we were processed in and out, to the U.S.S. General Mason Matthews Patrick ship. We were at sea for two or more weeks before arriving in Yokohama, Japan. Most of the military unit was assigned pipeline status, meaning if a unit needed men that is where they were assigned. I returned home in October 1953 and took a discharge. I missed the Army and commandership so I reenlisted for 3 more years, this time I was assigned to Korea. I had to take another ship ride to Yokohama, Japan, then a troop train to Sasebo, Japan, and then a boat ride to Pusan, Korea. I was assigned to the 8113th Engineer Utility Company carpenter shop. What a job trying to repair the Pusan area.
On December 25, 1954, I was promoted to E-6 SFC, and after a year of touring in Korea, I transferred to Japan. After spending the next year there, orders came assigning me to Fort Ord, California. I was a Platoon Sergeant training new troops. What a job – 5:00 a.m. until????
In 1956 I took a discharge and reenlisted for the Army Security Agency. I went to Fort Devon, Massachusetts in April 1957. In August 1957 I was again assigned to Okinawa, Japan as a Utility Foreman until 1959.
I returned to the United States after a two-year tour to Fort Ord, California, and reenlisted for Germany. I got married on February 6, 1964. For a short time, I rotated to the states assigned to Battalion Supply Sergeant. Soon after that we became a D-1 unit, meaning we were on alert for Vietnam. In December 1966 I shipped out for a Vietnam station in Long Bin, (hot, nasty, and you name it) what a year 1966-67.
I came back to the States and was assigned to HY staff and faculty of Special Warfare School Special Forces. 1968 to 1967 I requested a reassignment to Germany; it was approved and again my family and I shipped out to Germany. This time I was assigned to HY Co Rhea Land Faller Kaiserslautern American Dependent School Supply Sergeant, 6 schools, 200 teachers and administrators, and 5,000 students – quite a job. This tour was from 1969 to 1971 when I retired from the United States Army.
He lived with his family at Fort Bragg, North Carolina for a while, in 1966. Raymond worked at the Philadelphia Naval Yard after retirement for twenty years. He settled in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania a suburb of Philadelphia, with his wife Rita Kopreit, of Lubeck, Germany. This union was blessed with a daughter: Ramona and a son, Raymond “Ray,” a granddaughter, and two grandsons. Each spring and summer he planted a large garden to share with neighbors and his sisters who lived close by.
Raymond departed this life on October 17, 2021.