As a young boy in Acton, Mass., in 1960, I and my scout troop marched the Captain Isaac Davis Trail. This was the path led by the men who rallied to the cry of Paul Revere and fought the battle of Concord Bridge against the army of King George. I walked in their footsteps as a boy of nine.

As a man of 57, I walk my dog along Banbury Road every day. I pass the home of my departed neighbor Fred Lloyd, formerly of 318 Wills Forest Road. Fred served on PT108 as a boy of 17 in WWII and lived to come home to Raleigh, marry and raise a family in a modest house. When his beloved widow passes, their home will be destroyed without a trace of those who passed before them. This is an achievement the Imperial Japanese Navy, the National Socialist Party of Germany and the Italian Fascist Party of Italy could not overcome by the most ruthless means known to man.

When my descendants pass my home on Duplin Road, what will be left to show those who come to see the history of America, how we lived as normal men and women, how we spoke to one another at the curb, how we cared for one another when times were harsh? Who will tell the story and guide the way if those trees and gardens, those cool green lawns are gone?

Francis J. Hale III

Raleigh

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