Bob Amon

Bob Amon has sold insurance and played several important roles in the Mooresville community for many years.

Thank you so much for your time. Again, I really appreciate it.

I’m glad to.

How long have you lived in Mooresville?

A little over 40 years. Actually, almost 41 years.

Did you go to school in Mooresville?

No, I actually grew up in Statesville, so I graduated from Statesville High School. Then after college, we moved to Mooresville.

Okay, great. And would you mind sharing some of your background in business?

Sure! After I graduated from college – I went to Mitchell College [in Mooresville] for two years – and back then, it was a private school, so I got an Associate of Arts degree. And then I transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where my degree is in Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures. And I worked in radio all the time I was in college – high school and college – and really liked it, but there wasn’t a lot of money in it back then. So I went into the insurance business just until I could get honest work, and that’s been 43 years ago. So I guess I’m still looking for honest work, so to speak. But we moved to Mooresville, I went to work for an agency, and then in 1976, we opened our own agency, so that’s where we are.

What changes have you seen in Mooresville’s business?

A tremendous amount. Probably the biggest one that I can remember that you could really relate to…when we moved to Mooresville, there was one real estate agent, and he was part-time. His name was Houston Westmoreland. We were living in Charlotte, and I was commuting every day and wanted to find a house [in Mooresville]. So I went to see Mr. Westmoreland, and he didn’t have any houses listed for sale. He was the only realtor. But he said the best thing that we could do would be [to] look at the Mooresville Tribune [Mooresville’s local newspaper] when it came out. It came out about noontime on Wednesday. So as soon as the Tribune came out, I was waiting so I could open up and go through the Classifieds and see if there were any houses for sale. And indeed, that’s how we found our house, which we still live in the same house. But it’s hard to believe there was one real estate agent, and he was part-time. [Laughs]

Textiles was the big industry, of course, here. I can remember down at the Lower Mill, which was the Mooresville Mill…I think when I came here, but if not, shortly thereafter, they converted to all denim. And they were making one million linear…not a, no, no…well, yes. They were making one million linear yards of denim per week. Now, not square yards, but linear yards; that’s 54-inch wide material. They were making a million [linear] yards a week. And it employed about 2500 people, 2400 or 2500 people at that plant. And then there were a couple of other textile mills, too. And of course, all of that [the textile industry in Mooresville] is now gone.

What changes did you see after it was gone?
There was a big void in town, because there was just no place for the young people to go. Even when the Mills were here, it was pretty limited. If you graduated from high school here, what were you going to do? Probably, if you had at least a high school degree, you wouldn’t go to work in the Mill, anyway. So we were losing all of our young people. Or, many of them – not all, but many. So there was this big void. So several of us went to work, [and] were very active in the Chamber of Commerce, and we formed a thing called the South Iredell Community Development Corporation. And what it became was we formed a partnership between the Chamber of Commerce people – and that later became the Town of Mooresville folks, we kind of incorporated them – and a couple of landowners.  And we were able to get some options on land at an agreed price if we could find an industry. And then we started looking for industry to bring in and diversify, and indeed, that’s what happened. Today, we’re a pretty diversified economy here. It was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of bluffing going on because we really didn’t have much to offer, other than some promises of land, and the Town was very good and they were very anxious to help us. But people had no idea how edgy it was, because it could have fallen off either edge of the knife, either way. But I guess the first…probably good-sized plant we got was…Armitied Shanks was one of them. They made pottery, bathroom pottery. Then we started getting a few Japanese plants. The people liked it, and it was a good community. It was a good work-ethic, but we just didn’t have a lot of opportunities. So all of a sudden, we started to get some jobs and it kind of went on from there.

There’s been a lot of growth, obviously, from all the changes in business; especially NASCAR has become popular. Did you ever picture it becoming this big, or Mooresville becoming as big as it is?

I wish I could tell you that I did, but I didn’t, no. I knew it would grow, but I had no idea…the thing that I probably missed the most was the lake [Lake Norman]. I had no idea the lake property would have gotten as popular [as it has]. Most of the people that had lake property…it was a leased lot, or they had a mobile home, or…I can remember my mother-in-law and father-in-law bought two 100-foot lots. No, they were bigger than that, two…I guess maybe they were 100 foot…no, maybe they were 300 foot…they were huge lots out on the Isle of Pines and they paid $6,000 per lot. And I can remember telling my wife, “I cannot imagine paying $12,000 for several hundred feet on this mud hole.” I never realized the lake would be worth what it was. I also never realized we’d have the traffic here that we have now. A lot of things have kind of remained the same, but I never thought it would be quite as big as it is now, no.

What are some of your favorite traditions in Mooresville?

Well, I’ll have to start…one that was, it wasn’t really a tradition…in 1973, we celebrated the 100^th anniversary, the Centennial of Mooresville. And that was a lot of fun. It went on for about eight months, really, the whole celebration. [It was a] tremendous amount of fun and [I] met a lot of people that I have remained friends with for 40 years-plus. One tradition that I always enjoy is the Christmas Parade. Everybody back then, all the guys joined the Jaycees. As soon as anybody came to town, you immediately went to see them, and you asked what church they went to because you were trying to recruit them for your church, and secondly, what city club they were in. And there were women city clubs, too. There were the Junior Women’s Club that my wife was in, and the Jaycettes, and you had the Lions [Club], the Rotary [Club], and the Kawanas [Club] and everybody tried to recruit everybody. So I was in the Jaycees and, of course, we had the Christmas Parade. And that has always been a favorite of mine, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I love that.

You announce it for MI-Connection, correct?

Yes, yes, yes. I’ve been fortunate enough to do that for the last few years. It’s a lot of fun. And it’s the same parade probably if you had taped it in 1980 and played it back today, and left out a couple of names that are obviously, they’re [the people] are much older, the parade would look the same. But it’s still fun. [Laughs] It’s kind of “hometown” at its finest. Everybody loves to see little Johnny marching down the street. [Laughs]

The final question actually looks forward. What do you see in Mooresville’s future?
I see us continuing to diversify. Mooresville has something that people love to try to obtain, and what I mean by that is the small-town feel. For instance, Currier and Ives – everybody loves, when you think of Christmas, you think of the Currier and Ives prints. And those events [in the prints] probably never really happened, but in your mind, that’s what Christmas should be like. And that’s the way Mooresville is still part of that image that it’s the small-town America that everybody remembers, the way it used to be when they grew up. So I think we’ll [Mooresville] retain some of that small-town image, but I think you’ll eventually see mass transit here. You’ll see us all [as] sort of a “megapolis” with…I’m afraid Mooresville down through Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville, will just, all of a sudden, be almost like Atlanta. Which I hate to see that happen, but I think it will. But I think we’ll still retain a little bit of our “homeliness.” I hope so.

Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. I hope that was quite okay.
It was. It was fantastic.
Very good.
Thank you.
Thank you.