Starting in January, newspapers across North Carolina will be publishing a condensed, serialized, 16-chapter version of the book Taffy of Torpedo Junction, thanks to the author’s daughter, Marcia Wechter Kass and the University of North Carolina Press. In classrooms and homes, through this statewide reading initiative, readers will become acquainted or reacquainted with Taffy who lived on the Outer Banks during World War II and witnessed the torpedo attacks along North Carolina’s coast.

To better understand any book, readers will often learn about the author. The NC NIE Web site links to sites with information about the author, Nell Wise Wechter. Marcia Wechter Kass, the author’s daughter, adds to that information in the following interview. Teachers (and parents), if you or your students have additional questions for Marcia Wechter Kass, pass those along.

AN INTERVIEW with MARCIA WECHTER KASS

1. What motivated your mom, Nell Wise Wechter, to write Taffy of Torpedo Junction?

Thank you very much for the opportunity to reminisce about my mom and her writing.

Nell Wise was a born storyteller, and, as soon as she could put pen to paper, her imagination appeared in print. She observed and absorbed everything around her in the early days of the 20th century. She saw her father, Enoch Wise, go out in his shad boat everyday to make a living and her mother, Edith Best Wise, work the garden and tend the chickens (and kill snakes!) to turn that “living” into meals.

Nell, my mom, was the first person from her village of Stumpy Point, NC to attend college. She obtained a two-year-normal teaching certificate from what was then East Carolina Teachers College. Her favorite professor, Emma L. Hooper, taught English literature. Mom later dedicated a book to Miss Hooper.

I believe my mom’s motivation grew from a sense that values and history need to be preserved. She was prescient in that regard. And, truth be told, she loved to see others reading her words! As to Taffy of Torpedo Junction, that was a story she felt HAD to be told…before the censors and plutocrats “cleansed” it of its truth. My mom and dad lived that story every day of World War II. She left a lot of the blood and gore out of the book, but Daddy, a pharmacist’s mate sent to the Outer Banks by the Coast Guard, used to tell me that she would help him at the Coast Guard Station, when he was overwhelmed with shipwreck victims.

 

2. Who inspired the characters in the book?

Real people inspired my mom, despite her apologies to the contrary. Carol White (now Carol Dillon) became Taffy. Carol was my mother’s student at the school in Buxton. She had a horse and a dog, and she rode the back Banks just as Taffy did.

My father inspired Big Jens. My dad was the only medical person on the Outer Banks throughout most of the war and took care of all the military people and most of the civilians and their pets. I have met many people on the Banks named “Bob” or “Doc” who owe their lives to my father.

Sal Oden, the postmistress, was loosely based on Carol White Dillon’s mother, Mrs. Maud White. My mother boarded at Mrs. White’s house before she married my dad. Mrs. White was a stern but wonderful woman (just ask Carol!)

The school teacher, Miss White, is my mom.

Brandy was actually named after a neighbor’s dog when my family lived in Greensboro, NC, the place where mom wrote the book.

3. What was life like on the Outer Banks during your childhood?

Life was hard on the Outer Banks during and after World War II. “Nice” things were scarce, and I remember being excited about tangerines at Christmas. I lived in Stumpy Point, NC until I was 6 years old and can remember our family’s having the first telephone in the village. I have a photo of me, barefooted, talking to Governor Kerr Scott on the day the phone was installed. The Outer Banks had no paved roads and no bridges. All travel was by ferry. The nearest doctor was 35 miles, and the nearest pharmacy was 60 miles away. But I had a great childhood! I fished for soft crabs and crawfish, went shoeless most of the time and enjoyed listening to my maternal grandmother talk about the “old days” while she crocheted and dipped snuff.

4. How would you describe the tone and content of your mother’s writing?

The tone of the writing is both immediate and nostalgic. The content is as pure as Elsie the Cow’s milk!

5. Who illustrated Taffy of Torpedo Junction?

Mary Walker Sparks illustrated Taffy. Ms. Sparks, a talented artist, caught the flavor of the story. She was also my 6th grade teacher and the person who taught me how to write in “cursive”. I had made it that far in school by printing neatly.

 

6. Did your mother write other books?

Nell Wise Wechter’s book credits include:

Taffy of Torpedo Junction
Teach’s Light
Swamp Girl
Betsy Dowdy’s Ride
Some Whisper of Our Name
The Mighty Midgetts of Chicamacomico
Windrift

Her first story, written when she was 18 years old, was serialized in a local newspaper, The Coastland Times, and titled “The Romance of Juniper River“.

7. What else would you like to say about your mom and her work?

Above all, I wish for my mother to be remembered as someone who loved and devoted her life to children. When she died, I got a letter from the first class she ever taught in 1932, saying she was the best teacher they ever had. My sentiments, exactly!

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