So far, David Nifong has crocheted 865 blankets and more than 100 hats for babies. And more are on the way.
About 30 years back, Nifong, who is 82, discovered that he enjoys crocheting.
"It kept me out of meanness," he said.
Often, he crochets while watching sports on television.
"Rather than do nothing, I sit there and crochet," he said.
For many years, he made blankets, hats, doilies and such for friends and family. About four years ago, a friend introduced him to Pat White, the president of the N.C. Piedmont Triad Chapter of Newborns in Need, a national nonprofit organization that provides needed items to the families of newborns.
"I retired six years ago, and this was my way of giving back to the community," White said.
White asked Nifong if he would be willing to crochet blankets for babies.
Sure, he said.
He went to town.
"He would bring me between eight and 12 blankets every two weeks," White said.
No one has come close to his 865
Some other members of the local chapter have made more than 200 blankets, she said, but no one else's total comes close to the 850 blankets Nifong had made when the group honored him with a plaque recently. He has since made 15 more.
He also makes hats for babies. They don't keep an exact count of those, but White estimates that he has made between 100 and 200.
The local chapter has about 50 volunteers -- all women except for Nifong and one other man -- who, along with crocheting blankets, do such things as fill diaper bags with baby items to distribute to families.
Another activity Nifong enjoys is keeping a garden at the house in a neighborhood off South Main Street that he and his wife, who died in 1996, bought in 1952. For years, he raised up to two acres of produce. He has cut back in recent years but he still puts in a few rows of cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and cantaloupes.
Born on Thanksgiving Day in 1925
Nifong was born in northern Davidson County on Thanksgiving Day in 1925. After a wood-saw accident killed his father when he was seven weeks old, his mother took her children and moved back in with her parents.
Nifong grew up on a farm and went to school in Wallburg, when high school ended after grade 11. He graduated during World War II, but, because of some health problems, he was rejected for service at the time.
He went to work for Hanes Hosiery. During the Korean War, he was drafted into the Army. He had been in Korea for six months, when a piece of shrapnel flew into the left side of his head. His head fell against the BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) that he had been firing. The barrel was so hot that it severely burned the other side of his head. He spent more than a year in Army hospitals before he was discharged with an 80 percent disability. When Nifong came home, he went to a business college in Winston-Salem.
"I had to get my brain back to working again," he said.
He spent the years that followed as a bookkeeper.
When he became interested in learning to crochet, he didn't want to read books about it. He learned by asking questions of women who crocheted and by figuring things out on his own.
"David kind of develops his own patterns," White said. "His hats are different than any we have had."
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.
■ For more information about Newborns in Need e-mail Pat White at
pwhitenin@bellsouth.net or go to www.newbornsinneed.org.
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