I remember the '80s (Part 3)

There are stories of heroism all the time; firefighters and rescue personnel place their lives in risk on a regular basis. But everyday folks aren't expected to be heroic, so when they are, it's all the more amazing and impressive. Here are three that graced the pages of The Wake Weekly in the 1980s.

In February 1981 Bessie Holden rescued three small children from their beds in a Sunday night fire in Forestville. Louise Ferrell was burned over 35 percent of her body later that year after running back into a burning Massey apartment at least twice to look for her 4-year-old grandson (who was safely elsewhere).

And in September 1988 23-year-old Wake Forest resident and former school bus driver Richard Stallings (pictured above, with nephew Dion) safely saved fellow passengers guiding a Greyhound bus he was riding away from a tree after the bus driver suffered a fatal heart attack. The bus had been traveling 60 mph on Interstate 85 in Virginia when Stallings noticed the driver's arm fall to the side as if he were asleep. A wreck at those speeds could have injured or killed all of the 25 passengers aboard the bus. "I think he did a brave thing," his sister Valerie said at the time. "I'm proud of him for what he did."

It's a good story to recall in the midst of a divisive presidential race, don't you think?

I remember the '80s (Part 2)

Individual events don't always have an impact on the development of a community; but often constitute what we remember most about any particular year or era. Like the bear that wandered through town in the following decade, animal stories and near escapes were prominent in the 1980s.

The Fourth of July fireworks show was canceled in 1986, but that wasn’t as surprising as what happened a year before, when a faulty timer sent four “stars” into the stands at WF-R High, shattering the press box glass and injuring seven people.

Animals were the talk of the town several times in the ’80s. Raleigh workers spilled caustic soda into the Neuse River in July 1980, killing fish and turtles along a 20-mile stretch. Lee Leonard, Riverside Tackle Shop employee, recounted seeing brown foam three-feet high in the river at the dam. In the photo above, wildlife employees at the U.S. 1 bridge collect fish killed by the chemical spill.

Two years later, there were rats everywhere in Wake Forest, causing town officials to consider releasing owls or other rodent-killers inside town limits. “(The rats) are about the size of house cats. They killed one of my cats,” North Taylor Street resident Alan Skinner said. “I’ve thought of going down and stealing all the cats in Zebulon,” Town Administrator Jerry Walters said. And in 86, an ostrich escaped from a pen on Brick Street, leading would-be captors on a merry chase. It was later apprehended without incident.

Providence may have played a part in returning Jon Marx, 11 and Scott Kearney, 14, to their mothers with only scratches after they fell off a railroad trestle — dodging a train — and plummeted 60 feet to the ground below in 1981.

William Perry and a very pregnant wife, Catherine, barely escaped a train wreck of their own when their 1971 Fiat stalled on the tracks at the Brick Street crossing in front of a train loaded with Super Bowl fans on the way to Tampa Fla. This is how Lillian Horton, whose house was closest to the crossing, described the scene: “Stuff was flying everywhere. There was gas all over the side of the house ... and the motor is laying in the driveway.”

I remember the '80s (Part 1)

I remember the 1980s rather well. Of course, my '80s were spent in western New York. But I feel as if I remember the '80s in Wake Forest, after writing down much of what happened here in our July 31 centennial installment, which featured 1979-88.

Newspaper space is limited though, and not everything made the final cut. The next several installments on this blog will feature the weather events, heroes, and other odds and ends that caught Wake Weekly journalists’ eyes.

Baby, it’s cold outside

Wake Forest experienced several notable weather events in the 1980s. Perhaps the most notable came in November 1988 when a tornado (wreckage, above) tore its way down from Franklin County, passing between Wake Forest and Rolesville, knocking down trees, before moving west into rural southern Wake Forest. No one was killed, but one man was injured when his mobile home at Ligon Mill and Burlington Mills roads was destroyed. A lesser tornado did some damage west of U.S. 1 in February 1981.

Snow, ice and freezing temperatures struck several times over the decade. In January 1979, an ice storm shorted out transformers. A month later, 10 inches of snow fell on Wake Forest, the most since 1948. Back-to-back snowfalls blanketed the town in early 1980.

A cold snap in January 1982 dropped temps to 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 9 wind chill), and electric line damages knocked out power to close to 1,900 people. That year, on Christmas morning, the temps got as low as 2 degrees. Another 1,700 people were without power the following January after a snowfall as well. Seven inches of snow fell in February 1984, and a year later, the mercury dropped to minus 9.

And a sleet storm that one local called “the worst in 39 years,” hit in February 1987, paving the streets, yards, and homes with five inches of ice.

Snow photos: Top - taking a stoll along Juniper Street during an early in the decade snowstorm is Rae Gerstacker with her dog Sigi and (from left) Stasi and Mindi Mulvihill and Lisa Gerstacker. Middle - with this icy Snoopy in the yard of Jim Medlin is Kevin and Christy Medlin and their dog, Red. Bottom - Guy Spencer enjoys a long slide down Holding Avenue in 1988 with kids Matt (top) and Sam.