Earl Bynum - On the addition to Hargraves (clip)
Interviewed on April 16, 2026
Earl Bynum: Well, like I said, I was a little small guy, so I didn’t know really what all was going on. I remember when they added the second half onto Hargraves Center, the back part that they had there. Because, let me tell you, I used to go over there and play and they were just building it and they tore down some other stuff and they had wood with nails and things and they told me ten times don’t go around there playing around that old wood stack. In my hard head, I jumped off the back porch and landed and a nail came all the way through my foot. I was a little boy, so I had to hop all the way home, so they could pull it out. [Laughter] But they told me ten times not to do that, but it was attractive. You know, the construction part of it was attractive. So, finally they added on the back part to the Hargraves Center which was a good thing because we needed the space. You know we needed the space. I’m just overjoyed just standing here because I’m having flashbacks of looking at this hill coming down here, you know what I mean. We used to build go-carts and, you know, we’d ride all the way down to the hill and didn’t have no brakes, didn’t have no brakes, so we’d go all the way down the hill and we’d go off the hill down there at the bottom and nobody got hurt, nobody got hurt, thank God, and I could reminisce and I could talk all night about the good times and the bad times too, you know, especially the whoopings. Miss Lucille Caldwell, I think she whipped me every day [laughter]. I’m gonna say this and then I’m gonna be quiet. I went to the nursery school over at Hargraves and I was a little, bitty guy again and so when I got tired of being at nursery school I’d go across the street and turn the TV on and watch cartoons and stuff, so they’d call up and say, “Ms. Caldwell, is Earl over there?” and she’d say yeah, he’s over here and she’d say, “We got him.” So, when I got tired of cartoons, I’d go back over to Hargraves Center and, you know, that’s just how much freedom we had, you know, and I’m joyful about the good days and the times that we had here in Chapel Hill and especially on Roberson Street.
