Another unique character at Pee Dee School was Raymond. Raymond had migrated to Pee Dee from another mill village known as Great Falls, which  was just a few miles away. The school is still standing and can be seen as you go down highway 74 west, just across from the old Great Falls Mill.

 

     Raymond was a skinny, freckled faced kid with little beady eyes and two very distinct front teeth that made him resemble a weasel. He was quick tempered and totally uncontrollable when angered. Claude, his step-father, just couldn't or wouldn't, handle him. This was mainly because he was slightly afraid of Raymond. This is kind of humorous when you consider the fact that Raymond was only in the 4th grade. Raymond didn't help the situation by his constant habit of antagonizing Claude at every opportunity.

 

     Well, Claude's tolerance was strained to the breaking point one day in September when Raymond was practicing throwing his fishing rod. He had a piece of lead pipe tied to it and by some unknown reason the lead pipe came into contact with Claude's head. When he finally came to, Raymond was no where to be found. That night when they brought Claude back from having his head stitched up, Raymond had still not returned. So the next morning Raymond's mother gave Claude an order. "Go and find my little Raymond and bring him back home, and if you so much as speak a harsh word to 'em, you'll have some more stitches to deal with!"

 

     Now the story around the village was that Raymond "hold up" in an old abandoned house up on Hitchcock Creek, living on catfish and Muscadine grapes. Well Claude headed up the creek to bring him back. By the time Claude found the old house, it was dark and he was plenty scared, probably as scared of Raymond as much as the dark. There in the darkness the old house looked even more creepy because the windows and sashes had long been knocked out, making it look like a face with two dark holes for eyes. Claude looked like Icabod Crane in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as he cautiously walked up to the house and softly called out  "Raymond, are you in there?" Raymond was in there allright but he wasn't about to answer. Then Claude cautiously walked up to the window and again whispered softly "Raymond, are you in there?"  Raymond is standing to the side of the window and still not saying anything. Then Claude made the mistake of sticking his head inside the window. Raymond immediately lit into Claude's head with his fishing pole, warping him several times in rapid succession. This action made a rattling sound with occasional dull thumps as the several 3 ounce lead sinkers ricocheted off Claude's head. The only sound Raymond heard after that was Claude's feet heading down the path to the creek bank as fast as he could pick'em up an put'em down.

 

     Raymond knew that after this they would be coming for him. So the next morning he moved further down the creek and took refuge under some old pine laps down below the railroad trestle down near Martha Baum Mill. The reason I know this and this story is because the county truant officer came to Pee Dee School that morning after receiving a report about Raymond. I told her that I knew Raymond very well, so the teacher allowed me to go with the truant officer down to the trestle and search for him. I could care less about finding Raymond as I knew he could take care of himself, all the boys at Pee Dee could do that. No, the reason I volunteered was to get out of school for a while. The truant officer parked at the Martha Baum Mill parking lot and waited while I ran down the trestle to search for him. Well, I hadn't gone very far when I heard "Psss!" I paused and looked around.  Then I heard it again, "Pssss." I looked around again and this time I saw him up on the bank under the pine lap lean-to he had constructed. He looked kind of cool sitting up there like an escaped prisoner so I went up and gave him all the run down. There was no doubt who's side I was on in this crime. NO way was I gonna "rat'em out;" at Pee Dee that went without saying. We just sat there a while and drank some cold Sealtest milk he had stolen from one of the refrigerated trucks parked down at the Gore Company in the wee hours of the morning. I sat there a while talking and then headed back to the truant officer and of course I had not seen Raymond.

 

     After another two days had passed and still no Raymond, and the fact that he was no longer abiding in the old abandoned house, people started considering the unthinkable had happened and so the Richmond County Rescue Squad was summoned. Now these folks are not in any way to be confused with the other volunteer group "THE ROCKINHAM CHIMNEY SAVERS" (Fire Dept.) Anyway, the Rescue Squad was down on Hitchcock Creek dragging for Raymond. They had several boats dragging hooks and prodding the soggy bottom with poles. Well, all this commotion along with all the voices of the numerous spectators curiously watching all the action woke Raymond up where he was sleeping under the pine laps. So he came out from under the pine laps and stood up on the hill above the crowd.  No sooner had he done this that he was quickly spotted and one of the spectators shouted "There he is!"  "Where?" shouted one of the rescue people in a boat, thinking they had found the body. Then the person pointed up the hill towards Raymond, "That's him, That's Raymond!"

 

     The crowd of spectators immediately started looking up the hill. Raymond, sensing that all heck was about to rain down on him, took off like a scared rabbit. The last thing I recall seeing of Raymond was the bottom of those PF Flyers as he disappeared into the thicket with half of the Pee Dee village in hot pursuit. The rescue workers just stood there shaking their heads in disbelief.