Don't Forget

Old Charley Henry, the peddler, was a familiar figure in Winchester, Va. (pop.: 14,000), for he had lived there all his life. A few oldtimers remembered him as a young man, standing tall and straight by his vegetable cart or striding briskly down to the Lutheran Church with his wife Fannie on his arm. But as the years passed, Charley had changed; he was no longer the laughing, lively fellow he had once been.

He and Fannie still worked hard in their little garden, and once in a while they still showed up in church. But no matter how much money they made, they seemed to spend less & less. They never painted their house, never allowed any-repairs. Fannie kept their money tied up in little packages which she hid around the house. When she died in 1930, it took Charley quite a while to find it all.

Left alone, Charley withdrew more & more. He grew old and stooped, needed a thick cane to get him around. He refused to buy new clothes, kept only two old kerosene stoves for heat in wintertime. There seemed to be only one great pleasure still left in his life: Charley liked to be with the kids of the John Kerr Primary School near his home.

Each day when school let out, the boys & girls would stop by his stand. Sometimes he gave them bananas and sometimes a nickel for bubble gum. Then he would ask them all about school and what they wanted to do when they grew up. Charley told his friends that he was going to leave a fortune to the kids. "They'll remember old Charley," he used to say.

Last week the pupils of John Kerr were remembering old Charley just as he would have wanted. When he died at 80, three weeks ago, only a handful of people bothered to go to his funeral, but by last week the whole town was talking about him. He had left an estate of $100,000, and he had put it all in trust for the kids. From now on, on the last day before Easter holidays and again before Christmas, every boy & girl at John Kerr will get a $5 bill from Charley's estate to spend as he wishes. Old Winchesterites might soon forget Peddler Charles Henry but young Winchesterites would remember him for years to come.

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