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From textiles to schools: Why we #LoveNC

The Haw River (Credit: Laura Lee for EdNC)

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The machine clanks and clacks as Jerry Brown proudly stares on. Yarn spins into metal gears from many directions and at the bottom of the large knitting machine, a tube of fabric emerges. With a quick stitch on another machine, Brown turns the cream-colored cotton tube into a sock.

Sock creation on a machine from 1898 is not what one expects on a cycling tour across North Carolina, but a visit to the Textile Heritage Museum in Glencoe Mills is one of the highlights of today’s Mountains to Coast journey. 

Glencoe Mills is rich with history, both in buildings and people. Brown once owned a hosiery plant on the Haw River. Now he volunteers at the museum to demonstrate a small sample of his craft. He is one of several volunteers at the museum. Another, Donnie Kay Ward, offers a warm welcome to visitors and describes the flood of sweaty cyclists in the museum as “magnificent.”

 
Introducing myself as someone who writes about education sparks an easy conversation with Ward— she worked at Haw River Elementary School for 30 years. She began in the cafeteria but eventually became a teaching assistant. She still misses the students she knew from Haw River, she says. When she sees them now, as adults in the community, she tells them, “You never forget a Haw River kid’s face.” 
 
The question we are posing across the state is, “What do you love about North Carolina?” One answer rests in the faces of Ms. Ward’s former students and in the faces of all of the students we work with across the state. 
 
We love our students, our schools, our state, and imagining our future.
 
What do you love about North Carolina?