Rockingham used to be in a "dry" county; this means there was
no legal sale of alcoholic beverages anywhere in Richmond
County.  This goes back to the Prohibition Days of the 1920's
when an amendment to the United States Constitution made the
sale of alcoholic beverages illegal across the entire Country.  
This proved to be very unpopular and paved the way for
mafia-type gangs to provide this forbidden fruit to those who
wished to partake.  It seemed the consumption of alcohol was
higher during Prohibition than before.  In addition to the
gangster problem, there was no tax being collected on the illegal
booze.  So the Prohibition Amendment was repealed; and the
Federal Government decided to leave the regulation of alcohol to
the individual states.  The State of North Carolina then decided
to leave this decision to the individual counties.  Most of North
Carolina was part of what I like to call the "Southern Bible Belt",
consisting mostly of Baptists and Fundamentalists.  They were
for the most part teetotalers; that is, individuals who considered
it very sinful for either them or anyone else to consume alcoholic
drinks.  As a result of this, Richmond County stayed dry for many
years.  Then finally when some of the deacons let their guard
down just a little, a referendum was held in Richmond County
and beer sales were thereafter allowed.  This was during the mid
to late 1940's, I would guess about 1947.  Now what does this
have to do with Colonel Custer?  Please keep reading and I'll
eventually explain.

At that time our family was living on what was then called
Midway Road, but today it is called Old River Road (SR-1188).  
Also back then the new highway 220 was not there.  After South
Caroline Street crossed Falling Creek (at Veterans Memorial
Bridge) near the old depot it was called Sand Hill Road until it
reached US 1, when it turned into Airport Road.  Within ten feet
or so from this bridge and going south today, you will find Old
River Road as a right fork from Caroline Street.  It is now
dead-ended.  This road now leads to the current VFW club and
some three or four houses farther up that road.  Our house was
the first house on the left (slightly beyond the VFW and on the
opposite side of the road).  The house we lived in burned after we
left, but was rebuilt and still stands on the same spot.  I was five
when we moved from that house in 1947.  The area I'm
describing is the delta (or triangle) formed with the intersection
(fork) of Caroline Street and Old River Road.  Currently, the
VFW has a War Memorial Park in this area.  But back in the
early 1950's, it was different.  On the north side or apex of this
triangle was Pop Brady's Store, facing the old depot diagonally
across the bridge over Falling Creek (dammed at that time to
form a nice fishing pond).  Just south of this was a two story
metal-sided building that housed the Budweiser distributor for
our County.  Then with the remaining area of this delta was Mr.
Porter's beer joint.  I think the sign outside said Porter's Place.  I
can remember it in the process of being built before we moved
from the old Midway Road.  My mother didn't like the idea of
being that close to a beer hall.  We then resided on Prison Camp
Road near old US Highway 74 West about a mile or two beyond
Five Points for a year in a house that still has the same crooked
pine tree in the front yard.  This tree looks like the plumbing just
beneath your kitchen sink drain (a sideways ).  We then bought a
house up the hill on Sand Hill Road (Caroline Street) just one
house short from the current intersection of Caroline Street and
the current Midway Road.  We lived there from 1948 to 1954.

It is probably needless to tell you that we were not allowed to go
inside Mr. Joe Porter's store.  My father used to sell him
Sunshine crackers, which he sold along with bread as a sideline
to his beer sales.  He had four bar stools and a bar for his beer
customers near the back of his store.  There were neither any
jukeboxes nor any dinning facilities.  To the south side as you
entered the store which faced Caroline Street with a large gravel
parking area in front, he had an area for other customers.  The
store was constructed of decorative cinder blocks, and there
were no insulation or interior walls other than the other side of
the cinder blocks.  The store was not operational when we moved
away in 1947, but it was experiencing a brisk business when we
moved back to Caroline Street in 1948.  He did sell soft drinks,
candy and small packages of crackers (nabs) along with his beer.  
As long as there were no beer customers, he would allow kids to
sit at the bar and drink their soft drinks.  Soft drinks and nabs
were five cents each.  If you bought both at the same time, you
were supposed to pay a one-cent sales tax.  At Pop Brady's store,
they tried to collect that additional one-cent tax.  Mr. Porter
never tried to collect it from kids, and this encouraged us to stop
at Mr. Porter's despite being forbidden to go into that store.

There was a huge picture hanging on the wall behind the bar in
the back.  Based on my memory it was about twelve feet wide and
six feet high; actually, it was probably more like eight by four if
indeed it was that big.  It was a vivid painting (lithograph) of
Custer's Last Stand (Custer's Last Fight) complements of
Budweiser and the Anheuser-Busch Company, and these
sponsor's names were clearly displayed on the elaborate
gold-colored moldings that framed the print.  Looking for this on
the Internet today, I found that this was one of several pictures
painted by Otto Becker about this Battle.  Starting back in 1896
Anheuser-Busch began distributing these prints to their
clientele.  There were more than a million copies distributed.  So
this picture was pass by the time I was able to view it; however it
peaked my interest.  So I headed off to the public library to check
out a book on George Custer.  I remember that an exceptionally
nice lady, Ms. Moore, at the public library helped me with my
quest.  Back then the library faced northwest and cattycornered
at the intersection of Leak Street and South Lawrence Street.  
The building is still there, but the library has moved to Franklin
Street at the intersection of Rockingham Road.  The book I read
tried to make George Custer into a hero, but that was far from
reality.  All the men with him were heroes, but I still have
reservations about ole George himself.  I made a book report on
this book in school once, but I don't remember which teacher or
class was involved.

George Armstrong Custer was born in Ohio in 1839.  He was
thirty-six when he perished along with over two hundred of his
men at the "Battle of the Little Big Horn" in Montana in the year
1876 (just days before the hundredth anniversary of the
Declaration of Independence).  He went to West Point and
graduated in 1861 at the absolute bottom of his class.  General
George Pickett of Pickett's Charge fame during the battle of
Gettysburg during the US Civil War also had the distinction of
being dead last in his class at West Point.  George Custer
impressed his commanders during the US Civil War with his
fearless aggressive cavalry charges, and was brevetted to
Brigadier General and then Major General.  After the Civil War,
Custer was stripped of his battlefield General's promotion.  He
had achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Wars
by the time he was given command of the Seventh Cavalry.  
Colonel Custer was always in trouble.  Once he did not stop a
fight between two cadets right after graduation while he was
officer of the guard.  He was court-martialed for this, but was
saved from punishment by the outbreak of the Civil War.  Out
West, he was once charged with abandoning his command, and
on another occasion having other deserters executed on the spot
without a hearing.  He was convicted on both charges.  He was
not popular with his troops; however, he was popular with the
public and the press.  Like General Patton in World War II, he
seems to always be in trouble and strived to do something
spectacular to bail himself out of a bad situation.  Unlike General
Patton, who was an excellent tactical battlefield general, Colonel
Custer had no unusual talents except to take unreasonable
chances in order to be a hero.

The Seventh Cavalry was out on a search and destroy mission
that day in June 1876.  They had very little regard for Indians or
their rights.  The worse things that happened to the Indian cause
were breakaway Indian renegades (not under control of the Big
Chiefs) who raided pioneer settlements and massacred the
inhabitants.  This incensed public opinion against the Indians.  
And this set the stage for the Indian Wars, which the Indians had
no hope of winning or even coming close.  But all this is another
story for another time.  The Indians were able to unite at least
this one time, when they surprised Colonel Custer who had
divided his troops in direct disobedience of standing orders.  The
Indians under Sitting Bull won the Battle of the Little Big Horn,
but ultimately lost the War.  The Little Big Horn is the name of a
river in Montana.  They also have the Big Horn Mountains in that
part of the country, which is named after the wild big horned
sheep that inhabit it.   I drove through those mountains one July
while it was snowing.  My wife and I were as surprised as my
niece and nephew who were along for the ride.  The snow didn't
stick, so we had no trouble traveling.  To view a copy of this
painting, go to custermuseum.org.  (By the way, this picture is
not historically correct).  

Mr. Porter and his store were still there in 1954 when we moved
to Gastonia; however, it was gone by the early 1960's.  He was a
rather elderly gentleman even when we were there.  The store
building stood there as an empty shell for ten to twenty years
until it was eventually torn down.  I suggest that you visit the
VFW memorial if you are ever in the area; it is dedicated to
Rockingham area veterans who lost their lives fighting for their
Country.  I think it goes back to at least World War II.  This
memorial is on almost the exact spot as was the print of Custer's
Last Stand.