Posted on the message board of rockinghamremembered.com on October 4, 2005
was the obituary listing of Auley McAuley, Jr. (RHS ' 66).  Joel Bailey (RHS ' 66) was
correct in the fact that Auley also had a brother named Arthur (RHS ' 64).  His sister
Hazel (RHS ' 61) as well as children, grandchildren, and one great-grandchild were
survivors.  My prayers go out to the family over their loss.  I attended Roberdel
Grammar School with both brothers.  Evidently, their father was a quite successful
farmer.  The McAuley boys' mother would occassionally pick them up after school in
her Pontiac Bonneville.  The Pontiacs of the late " 50s and early ' 60s were as long as a
school bus.  It was always impressive to us kids waiting for our bus when that long
car, elongated even more by the full length fender skirts, with the traditional Pontiac
split grill rolled onto the circle at Roberdel.  I never visited their home but passed by
many times. The large white house set back off from the highway fronted by a long
wide driveway shaded by pecan trees on both shoulders as well as I can remember.  It
had a wrap-around porch with the tradional Southern swing.  A new tractor always
parked under the barn shelter.

   The message board commentary had one error. Joel flip-flopped the chronological
birth order of the brothers.  Auley was in the Class of ' 66 and Arthur, the oldest,
graduated from RHS in ' 64.  Some of the confusion lies in their names.  It was not
until the spring of ' 66 when I got my Senior yearbook did I even realize that Auley
was named after his dad.  Ever since the first day of the first grade, I had known him
only as Junior.  The odds are 999 out of 1000 times the older son , not the younger is
named Junior(Jr.) after his father.  Junior was that 1 out of 1000.  It is easy to
understand why Joel was confused.

    Absolutely no confusion exists on the color of Arthur and Dane Spencer's ( ' 64)
Corvettes.  Chevrolet could not have gotten them any more yellow.  Arthur and Dane
both bought their ' vettes the same day with the money that they had saved while
working at the Winn Dixie.  Just like Arthur, Dane had a little brother,too -Dale(RHS '
68). By the way, the McAuleys and the Spencers were first cousins.  To set the record
straight, both yellow corvettes were ' 67s with the big block 427 not ' 64 or ' 65 models.
 I can still see both cars showroom clean and parked side by side at Tom & Sarah's, the
local drive-in.  When Arthur and Dane fired their cars, everybody fired up; somebody
had challenged them to a run.  Everyone headed to the new river bridge on the Pee
Dee.  Wesley Long (RHS ' 64) in his 440 ' 66 Charger and Tommy Covington (RHS '
66) in his hemi ' 67 Dodge Charger  lined up against those ' Vettes.  Others tried and
others failed miserably.

   Arthur never taught Junior to race but he showed him how to throw a curve.  Junior
was not as athletic as Arthur but he could make you swing and miss.  However,
Junior's chances of becoming a grammar pitching star at Roberdel were slim and
none.  Furthermore, another eighth grader Richard Martin (RHS ' 66) kept Junior on
the bench in a tight game with his aspirin throwing heat.  Richard was just a big
country boy whose third best pitch was a fastball, whose second best pitch was a faster
fastball, and whose best pitch was a smoking fastball.  Yet, as good as Richard was,
another eighth grader and my best grammar school friend, Danny Baxley (RHS ' 66)
kept Richard on third base most of the time.  Danny had all the talents of Junior and
Richard and then some plus he threw it all with the wrong hand(Lefty).  Both the
McAuley boys along with Richard and Danny went on to pitch on the same team for
Coach Biggerstaff's Rockets.  Four guys from a grammar school as small as Roberdel
pitching on a 3A high school varsity team was quite an accomplishment.  To look and
find a fifth Roberdel kid pitching in a star role is phenomenal!  Joe Covington (RHS '
65) or Joe Boy as we called him at Roberdel had a curve ball that would make you
turn and run, tuck and duck, and fall and crawl from the batter's box to keep from
getting beaned only to hear the umpire shout, "Strikeeee!"

   Cordova Grammar School always had a fear-instilling school team.  They played
baseball from the time they could pick a ball up until they left for high school.  Yet,
during that two or three year period that the previously mentioned five pitchers were
at Roberdel, the spike was on the other foot.  One particular game is as fresh in my
mind as if we played yesterday.  Cordova came to Roberdel to try to give us our first
loss of the season.  The game was close and Joe Boy had been playing short-stop until
Cordova put two runners on with no outs.  I was only a seventh grader playing second
base.  Roberdel had the only grass infield in the county.  It was crab grass, scourweed,
sandspur, wild onion, and any other kind of weed that could grow in the sandy soil of
Rockingham.  The base paths had no grass only because they were worn and not
manicured that way.  "Please don't hit it toward me," was all I could repeat under my
breath.  I did not want to be the infielder to bobble a ball or throw it away and ruin our
undefeated season.  Thank goodness, Coach Don Sanford brought in Joe Boy to pitch.
 Joe struck the first two batters out with a variety of pitches.  Each crack of the bat put
my heart in my throat until the ball went foul.  I wanted this game over, I was due up
to bat in the bottom of the inning and had not had much luck against future high
school teammate Robert Wright (RHS ' 66).  His ball either curved or dropped and I
had not come close with the bat.  "Come on Joe, just one more batter."  The Cordova
coach called the batter back to the bench and called a substitute off the pine.  The guy
that stood up made Richard Martin look small.  The pinch-hitter who grabbed the bat
and ran to the batter's box was future high school classmate Nicky Pence (RHS ' 66).  
I swear Nicky was as large then as he was the night he walked across the stage in Kate
Finley Auditorium to get his diploma.  Nicky was so big for his age, he looked clumsy;
at that age in his life, he was.  A guy that big should knock the cover off the ball.  Nicky
swung the bat so hard with his warm-up swing that the bat whistled through the air.  
He stepped into the box.  From my viewpoint at second base, I could read catcher
Rodney Hamilton (RHS ' 65) giving Joe Boy the signal for a curve.  Nicky scrambles
backwards, and falls on his butt and looks up in time to see the Ump call "Strike one!"  
Nicky jumps back into the box and pounds the plate with the bat displaying a
determination not to let it happen again.  Once again, Rodney flicks two fingers and
that nasty curve sends Nicky to the ground again like a soldier diving for a fox hole as
the umpire calls, "Strike two!"  By now, Roberdel fans and players are grinning from
ear to ear.  However, Nicky is focused on redeeming himself as he screams from the
top of his lungs for Joe to put it across the plate; once again, he pounds the bat like
he's driving a nail for the Seaboard Railroad.  Rodney flickers one finger for the fast
ball and Joe shakes him off.  Joe then bobs his head up and down with a bog grin as
Rodney calls for the CURVE. Big Nicky turns his body, covers his head, and closes his
eyes, while the big roundhouse curve crosses dead center of the plate as the Umpire
pumps a closed right fist into the air and shouts, "Strike three, ball game.!"  Nicky
looked at, or rather ducked, three straight strikes with the bat on his shoulder.  Yeah,
memories; just like it was yesterday.

   The next year, all the eighth graders who played on the team as seventh graders
faced the challenge of defeating Cordova two years in a row.  With future Class of ' 66
graduates Buck Blakely (Outfield), Junior McAuley (Pitcher and Outfield), Billy
Reynolds (Outfield), Danny Baxley (Pitcher and first base), Richard Martin (Pitcher
and third base), Johnny Sheppard (Catcher), Joe Ussery (Outfield), yours truly
(Second base) and some talented seventh graders, Roberdel made grammar school
history with another win over the Comets.  We went undefeated as we pitched Danny
"Forest Fire" Baxley in all of our key games with Richard and Junior occasionally
showing off their skills on the mound.  Danny was also smart enough to earn a full
baseball scholarship to pitch for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.  Unless I am
wrong, Danny was the first kid to win a full boat athletic scholarship since former
Roberdeller Jerry McGee (RHS ' 61).

    The boys of summer who made those memories were a tight band.  We had
another world opened up when we descended off the bus onto the campus of
Rockingham High.  We developed other friends and other interests. All of us
graduated in ' 66 and other roads to life opened anew.  Tech school, college, jobs,
marriage, children, divorce, career changes, health problems, and second marriages
are a few of the avenues we travel down in life.  Yet no matter what highways we
travel, we all have a final destination.  While on Earth, we book our last-stop
reservations.  By accepting Christ as our Savior, our reservation is written in the Book
of Life.  I have not seen Junior since the night of our high school graduation.  I do not
know if God wrote in his reservation. The Bible describes Heaven with streets paved
in gold. Revelations  also states that God shall wipe away all tears, and in Heaven
there shall be no more death, sorrow, crying, nor pain. Still, the Bible does not give all
the details with of the afterlife with Christ.  Is there baseball in Heaven? If Heaven
has a diamond, I am not certain Who's on first, What's on second, and I Don't Know's
on third but if he had a reservation, I am certain Junior's on the mound.  Junior
McAuley, once a childhood friend, now one of my precious childhood memories of
growing up in Rockingham, North Carolina - a small textile town in the South in the '
50s & ' 60s.