Saturday, my brother and I drove over to Fremont, North Carolina for their annual Daffodil Festival, I believe their 25th. The downtown, off US-117, was blocked off as were several other blocks. The main reason we were there was to see the long-time Beach Music show band called the Embers, who started back in the late 1950s.
The city of 1463 persons in northern Wayne County was chartered in 1862, In 1958, Raleigh (NC) News & Observer writer Bugs Barriger called the Fremont "Daffodil Town" due to the numerous flowers growing in the area and the name stuck. Unfortunately, having the festival in late March for weather reasons, puts it several weeks after peak bloom for the flower.
Two notable citizens are Charles B. Aycock and Johnny Peacock. Aycock, born in 1859, was elected governor of the state in 1901 and is now referred to as North Carolina's "Education Governor" for strides made in that field during his term. The local high school is named for him.
Johnny Peacock was a baseball player capable of playing many poitions, but mainly catcher, signed by the Boston Red Sox in 1936 who had a long major league career.
Fremont is a classic small town North Carolina community with many churches and civic groups. Unfortunately, there are many vacant businesses along main street even though there isn't a commercial row with all the big box places that so often kills off the old downtowns.
I have also heard that there is a considerable gang and drug problem in town as well, but I saw no evidence of it while we were there.
Small Town USA. --RoadDog
RoadDog's RoadLog Blog: Being my travels down those great two lane highways of this nation as well as news I learn about them from media sources. Since I'm also very interested in historic preservation, there will be a lot of that as well.
The Shamrock Court Motel in Sullivan, Missouri. It can be yours for $125,000. Lots of possibilities. Actually, now you're too late. Missouri's Roamin' Rich bought it.
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