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OAK RIDGE -- Ida Jeffreys Morton has lived all of her 82 years in Oak Ridge and "can't imagine living anywhere else." Yet, this town of more than 4,000 people is growing too rapidly for natives like Morton.

"It's just multiplying too fast. I think it needs to slow down," she said.

The town, incorporated in 1998, has had its biggest growth in recent years. Nearly 65 percent of the Oak Ridge's housing was built in the final 20 years of the past century. That's when many farms were sold off and divided into tracts for construction of upscale housing.

Building hasn't stopped. Shopping centers and other commercial buildings also have sprung up across town, and just outside the town limits.

Morton and husband, Bud, 84, thought this Guilford County community was a prosperous place long before the growth spurt brought more residents and a slew of businesses -- even fast food restaurants and a weekly newspaper.

"It used to be 'country' out here, but it isn't anymore," she said. "We had four grocery stores in Oak Ridge, and a barber shop -- Tom Sawyer's Barber Shop, and the Black Lantern Tea Room," she said.

The tea room never served tea, she said. It was a popular place to get lemonade, soft drinks and "knickknacks."

The barber shop is still in the same place, across the street from Oak Ridge Military Academy, Ida Morton said. "Now, it's called The Cadet Shop." The academy, barbershop and some other businesses were along N.C. 150, the area's only paved highway for many years, Bud Morton said.

"Oak Ridge had a skating rink on Highway 150 at Beeson Road, and everybody went there. That was about all there was to do, unless you wanted to take time to learn to ride a bicycle," Ida Morton said.

"There also was a place where you could shoot pool," Bud Morton said. "There wasn't any beer there; just lemonade or soft drinks," Bud added.

Lake Carolina was a good place for boating, fishing, picnics and baptizing, Ida Morton said. It also was a good place to visit and hang out on weekends, she said. "Then a boy got drowned out there, and they destroyed the lake -- just busted the dam and did away with the lake," she said.

Oak Ridge, still well known for its annual community horse show, had plenty of horses and buggies during yesteryear, Ida Morton said. "You never saw many cars, but there were a lot of horses and mules around here," she said.

The community always had schools, even if they were only one room in the years when the Mortons were growing up.

"You even had neighbors back then. We don't have neighbors anymore," Ida Morton said.

Oak Ridge United Methodist Church was Cottrell Memorial Methodist Church back then. "I've been a member of that church all of my life," she said.

The Mortons, married 61 years Nov. 27, raised their three children in that church. None of their children have moved far from Oak Ridge. Daughter Jane Hahn and her husband, Gary, live in Greensboro; daughter Patsy Long and husband Jimmy live in Summerfield; son Donald Morton and wife Abby live in Kernersville.

The Mortons have four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Ida Morton worked at Stone Studio in Greensboro for a while before taking a job at the Sears-Roebuck Mail Order Store, where she retired after 33 years.

Bud Morton put in 43 years driving local and long distance trucks for Greensboro Coca-Cola Bottling Co. He remembers when he started in 1942 that his first truck was a Diamond-T, which he serviced grocery stores around Greensboro and nearby communities.

Morton said a picture he owns of a 1920s vintage truck is much like the one he drove.

The early years weren't easy for the former Ida Jeffreys, youngest of Rosie and Fletcher Jeffreys' six children.

"My father died when I was 9 years old, and we were just sharecroppers. We lived in a little house and mother kept us all together. We worked on the farm," she said.

Fond memories, despite those hard economic times of the 1930s, still linger for Ida Morton.

And for Bud, too. He lived over in the Hillsdale community, down the road a few miles from Oak Ridge on N.C. 150 until he met his bride-to-be at Lynch's Lodge, a Summerfield restaurant, on a weekend outing.

The two recalled quilting parties, corn shuckings and barn raisings. "When a person's barn burned down, people would get together and build a new one in a day," Bud Morton said. "You would cut the wood the week before and have it ready. Then you would go in and build it before sundown," he said.

Who could ever forget picking raspberries for Mr. Sawyer for 4 cents a quart? That was the same Sawyer who owned the barber shop.

Crime was almost nonexistent, Ida Morton said. About the most conspicuous bad behavior was when one local citizen -- "I don't want to tell his name" -- would get drunk and ride his horse recklessly through the village, shouting and swaying.

Except for the main village, Oak Ridge was rather undefined then, she said. "You really didn't know exactly what was Oak Ridge." It was simply the area between this village and the next one. It wasn't defined as 14.7 square miles as it is today.

Then, too, the old Oak Ridge was more than a place. It also was a state of mind -- one that Ida and Bud Morton can't forget.

Contact Bob Burchette at bburchette@triad.rr.com