Harold Nelson turns 100 on Marshall County land that’s been in family for almost two centuries
By DONNA THORTON, Editor
Albertville’s Harold Nelson lives on a farm on McCoy Road that’s been in his family even longer than he’s been alive.
And that’s saying something.
On July 17, Nelson celebrated his 100th birthday and the milestone has been marked with multiple celebrations in the weeks around that date.
Nelson was one of two World War II veterans recognized at the city of Albertville’s Fourth of July celebration at Sand Mountain Park, in the days before his birthday. He and Otis Brannon, 99, were celebrated for their courage, sacrifice and service in protection of America’s freedoms.
Nelson is the last surviving crewman of the USS Cowpens (CVL 25) and a veteran of the conflict in the South Pacific.
“I was born right across the woods there,” Nelson said. His son Rick said the land had been in the family’s property since the mid-1830s, and for the most part is still owned by family members. “He’s been here a long time,” Rick said.
Harold recalled going to Liberty Hill School when he was 6 years old, walking 3-and-a-half miles to get there. When he graduated there, he got to ride a bus to Douglas. The last of those friends he started school with passed away, maybe two years ago. The last of his surviving high school classmates is in a nursing home in the Atlanta area.
“I was raised as a farmer here until I went in the service,” Harold said, and when he came back, he went to work setting ceramic tile. “I stayed with that till I quit.”
The family grew corn and beans back in the day, but none of the remaining family members farm.
Asked about what he’s seen change in a century of life, Harold joked: “The world.” He saw a fair amount of the world while in the service, He was in boot camp in the Great Lakes and was sent to Shoemaker, Calif. at “a big air base out there in the swamps.”
Rick explained the timing of his father’s military service. He enlisted in December 1944 and was aboard ship by May or June of 1945. He stayed in service until June 1946.
“He was 17 when he went in,” Rick said.
“Green, green as a gourd,” Harold added.
He was assigned to a ship — one in dry dock for repairs from a prior mission. They did a five-day shakedown cruise to check out the ship, then came back for finishing work and loading. After that, they went to Pearl Harbor for a few days to pick up more supplies and a squadron of pilots who had been training.
“We headed for the South Pacific,” Harold said. The fleet kept moving, trying to stay hidden, he said. “Our planes did our work for us. The ship didn’t do any firing.” The ship provided a launch for planes to scout and do the firing. “We had Reveille at 2 a.m. and secured at night at 10. That was a long day. On your duty day, if you got four hours off, you did well.”
There was a stretch where supply ships couldn’t reach the Cowpens. “It was long enough to empty our supplies. We got hungry. I went from 165 to 125,” he said. They existed on dehydrated and canned food.
After the war ended, Harold said he remained in the service for a while, stationed in Pearl Harbor, doing the same duties and staying on alert just as they had been during the conflict. When his enlistment was up, he came back in California, free to go home.
“They told us to be sure not to get out of on highways because everybody would know we had $200,” he said, the amount servicemen were given on discharge. It took him two rides to get home. The first dropped him off in the “deepest darkest hollow I’ve ever been in, with my $200.” The second one asked him where he was going.
“I told him Albertville, Alabama. He said, ‘Well, I’m going to Gadsden.’”
When Harold got home his brother, who served in the Army, had been home about a week.
His brother went back in the service but traveled a lot and they got to spend a fair amount of time together. Harold was in Macon, Georgia, and his brother could visit there.
“It was hard to find a job,” he said. “We did a lot of moving about.” The first decent job he found was between Atlanta and West Point at Nabisco Crackers. He didn’t stay with it long.
Harold recalled staying in boarding houses. “We paid as much as $15 a week for seven days and free lunches,” he said.
He got married in 1945 “to a Georgia peach,” but it didn’t last.
But when Harold found his wife Bonnie, he got a keeper. They married in West Texas and honeymooned in San Antonio. “We’ve been married about 72 years.”
Bonnie is from Texas, and they lived there about five years, working on shrimp boats. He also worked in another four states. Over the years, the family grew. Harold has four sons and one daughter.
He set tile in a Greyhound bus station in Mississippi and worked all over Georgia. They lived in Corpus Christi, Texas, for about five years.
He settled back in Albertville in 1956. “And I’ve been here ever since,” he said.
Rick said his dad started his business, Nelson Tile, when the family moved here. “He was in and out of the tile business into the ’90s,” he said.
“I set a lot of tile,” Harold said. “When I pulled out, Ricky stayed with it.”
Harold asked Rick when he started working in the family business. “When I was about 5 years old,” Rick said. The business is still in operation, kind of. Most of his time is spent caring for his parents, he said.
There was a party to celebrate Harold’s 100th at Rock Springs Church, and another at the VA.
Dr. Wayne Peters, of Sand Mountain Family Practice, plans a birthday party in early August for Harold — his first male patient to make it celebrate 100 years — and for a female patient who will be turning 105, Rick said.
Harold said he’s been going to Dr. Peters for a long time. “I laid the tile in his house,” he said.
Harold and Bonnie have had health problems in recent years, and depend on Rick for help. “But we’re still hanging on,” Harold said.
“We’ve had a good life. We’ve earned it. We worked.”
Over his 100 years, Harold lived in a lot of places, but he came back to Albertville to settle down where he started.
“You get tired of traveling,” he said.
Harold Nelson, who just turned 100, shows off birthday cards he got at his Albertville home. Nelson is a World War II veteran who worked in the tile business and has farmed. He lives on land that’s been in his family since the mid-1830s, across the woods from where he was born on July 17, 1926. DONNA THORNTON l The Leader
