Emily Paine Carter

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A local history mystery intrigued "Wick" Moorman.

He's "the other Wick Moorman" -- not the one of Norfolk Southern fame. Our Salemite Wick chuckled at the odds of two unusually named men having local ties.

(Ironically, he once had figured that "Wick" would be less confusing than his given name: Warren Moorman III. Dad Warren Moorman Jr., M.D., is still with us, thankfully.)

Anyhow, recently Wick e-mailed me -- prompted, he wrote, by my Christmas 2007 column about a long-ago North Cross pageant. He remembered that he had intended to contact me after a summer 2007 column on the school's first "Salem roots" reunion.

He was seeking information about a Salem artifact he had liberated from an area thrift store: a Jan. 7, 1947, acetate sound-recording of North Cross students. Its label gave scant clues: "For our classmate Sue Barnett."

He wondered: How many copies of this "very early custom recording for [our] area" were distributed? Why was it dedicated to Sue Barnett; who was she?

Wick started with a "low-key" inquiry -- lest some unfortunate event had befallen the student. Unfortunately, he wrote, the Salem Library's Salem Times-Register files for that period are missing.

Nor was the city directory or www.ancestor.com of any help. One of PBS TV's " 'History Detectives' ... I ain't!" he wrote. Yet we note that he's made a pretty darned good start; he knows quite a lot of local lore (tune in again next week!).

He persisted. He appreciates talking to early-North-Cross-in-Salem students Pam (Martin) Ogden, Mary Langhorne (Wiley) Clarke, Fielding Logan and Bill Senter.

But we remained puzzled.

Finally Wick found some answers via a simple act: listening to the record. "Of course!" you might be tempted to say. But "simple" does not mean "without consequences."

A conscientious collector, he had postponed that damaging process because of the fragility of an acetate recording. Playing one requires "dropping a needle on it." Ouch! Doesn't that sound painful? Imagine the shrieks of all those little acetates -- like when we school kids were lined up for vaccinations. (OK, I'm too sensitive and far too imaginative.)

Listening revealed that little Sue had moved away during the school year: thus, "the assignment," reasoned Wick.

Despite "very noisy acetate and the kids' shy mumbling," he counted at least 16 children stepping up to the microphone, speaking his or her name and reading scripted greetings.

Then they sang together. But that and a girl's comic story about Mary and her little lamb -- which he played for me via cassette-transfer -- are "the roughest-sounding" parts, he wrote.

The clearest names? Walter Clay Chapman, Fred Hoback Jr. (who would -- after considerably more schooling -- follow his father to the judicial bench), Nancy McManaway, Elizabeth Ballard, Pam Martin and Cynthia Butts (daughter of school founder May Butts).

Others sounded less distinct: "Andy Groseclose? Ronnie Craft? David Wood? Susan ___? (Female) __ Highfill? (Female) ___ Brown?" And four names were unintelligible; possibly there were more on an unplayable part of the record, he wrote.

Soon we'll check the North Cross archives for student names to put with the disc "for posterity." Even though it isn't a perfectly preserved bit of Americana, Wick reckons that "it's still fun to have these folks' voices as children."

And after Wick finishes his careful efforts, I'll deliver his dubbing of those sweet, long-ago voices to North Cross. Can't you picture those cherubim, stepping up to send greetings and cheer to a faraway, former classmate?

If you have more information on this recording, please contact Wick Moorman at wlmoorman3@yahoo.com.