and One More Thing

There was one member of the 5th Street team that I failed to mention. And that’s a fellow who came all the way from east 7th street to be a part of our organization. And he was a valuable addition too.

His only problem was his name. Now, there was nothing wrong with it, it was just that we were never were able to get a good handle on exactly what it was.

His name was Don………..”Mayoneze….or Mayoreeze….or Mayanees…..” whatever it was , it didn’t compute with any last names we had ever heard of.

A few years ago it occurred to me that his name was probably Hispanic…..which would have been Menes…or Menees.

I searched the Piedmont annual………to no avail. I searched the AG annual……and there was no Don Menes….there either. There was no Elizabeth school annual so I was pretty much at a dead end.
Until, my Piedmont friend Dick Ratcliffe sent me the Charlotte City Schools Teacher directory for the years 1943 and 44.

There, I hit paydirt! In the list of teachers at Elizabeth school was a Fourth grade teacher named Mrs Julia Bell Menees…..and she lived at 1933 East 7th street!
That had to be Don’s mother!

It’s too bad it took so long to determine the correct spelling of his name, because before our 5th street team’s big game during halftime of the Charlotte Clippers game…..I was asked to send the Clippers a list of our players so they could insert it in their programs. There was no time to consult with the other team members, besides I knew how to spell all their names……except Don M’s.

But I knew (almost) how to pronounce it. So I went to the refrigerator and found the solution.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that somewhere out there one of those programs still exists….with all the names of the 5th Street Team….Wilson Snell, Jimmy Weller, Barry Clark, Ed Myers, Grady Harmon and ……….Don Mayonnaise.
-Ed