Page 2, West Craven Highlights, June 7, 1984
Comparisons
By JONATHAN PHILLIPS
I Hanging around with my associate, a guy named John Vassar,
often provides a new outlook on many things.
In many ways we are similar. In others, not so.
I am happiest in small towns down south or back in a swamp
somewhere. He is happiest roaming 8th St., the area he calls
“John Vassar’s New York.”
So there we are, riding to the place where we measure beaches,
and John wants to know:
“Andy Griffith has always been one of my favorite shows. Tell
me the truth—is that show a reasonably accurate depiction of
small town life in North Carolina?”
Naturally, this required some thought, and even then got
placed on the cerebral back burner long enough for me to devo|e
full mental energy computing the probability of a wildly veering
beer truck just ahead winding up in one lane or the other.
I finally determined that its movements were irregular
enough to suggest total randomness and any sort of prediction
efforts in such a binary situation—left lane or right lane—could
be solved as accurately by flipping a coin.
But seeing that I was taking awhile to wrestle with the
question, Mr. Vassar’s grizzled face assumed an expression of
worry.
“Hold it. You’re not going to tell me it’s all wrong, are you?” he
said. “Please don’t tell me that Andy Griffith is not your typical
North Carolina sheriff. That’s one of my most treasured beliefs.
I couldn’t take it.”
“Well, I can’t say that Pete Bland runs things down New Bern
the way Andy did in Mayberry. But I can say that most of the
Craven County womenfolk can cook Aunt Bea under the table,
and that there are more than a few guys running around the
Piney woods with a striking resemblance to Ernest T.,” I told
him.
“The bottom line,” I continued, “is that Andy Griffith is pretty
close by TV standards. Rural North Carolina life in that show is
about as accurate as urban life is in Hill Street Blues, and as
close to reality (which may not be very close at all) as TV gets.”
John looked thoughtful.
“Would you say,” he said finally, “that Andy Griffith is a lot
closer to the truth than the Dukes of Hazzard?”
“Most definitely,” I said.
“OK. That’s all I needed to know,” he said, apparently satisfied.
, (Continued on page 12)
« « ♦ ♦ «
Dear Editor;
North Carolina is one of the
finest states in this country and is
a wonderful place to live and
work. We are blessed with good
people, good climate and good
government. We have good
highways, good schools and are
considered one of the most
progressive states in this country.
We do, however, have one tax
that is an unfair tax, capricious in
its application, and probably the
most disliked tax in our state. I
am, of course, referring to the
Intangible Tax. This tax was
instituted in 1868 and was
instituted at a time when capital
was not as important and when the
economy was more labor
intensive. It is a tax that
discriminates against capital and
is out of step in the computer age of
the twentieth century. It is a tax
that discourages investments and
savings. Because of changing tax
laws, tax shelters, thrift plans and
other investment vehicles, as well
as computerized transfers of
money, it no longer efficiently
collects what it was designed to do.
Its peculair application hits very
hard at retirees and new
businesses and most of all
discourages people from moving
to North Carolina. Georgia,
Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and
North Carolina have both
Intangibles Tax and an Income
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Tax, and Ohio will eliminate their
Intangible Tax on December 31,
1984. Indiana is phasing out its
Intangible Tax. Georgia and
Kentucky have a lower rate of
Intangibles and a lower Income
Tax than North Carolina.
The General Fund of the State of
North Carolina has an estimated
surplus of $400,000,000 to
$500,000,000 this year. It is only
fair that the taxpayers in North
Carolina share in this excess
revenue, particularly since their
taxes were raised by $219,000,000
in 1983. When the Legislature
meets June 7th, they will have an
opportunity to review again the
tax program of the State and it is
an ideal time for the Legislature to
start directing some of the
revenue back to the taxpayers and
to make a progressive step
forward for the State of North
Carolina.
However, the Legistature needs
to know how the citizens feel and I
would encourage every taxpayer
to contact their Legislators by
personal conversation, telephone
and letters to encourage them to
repeal this most unpopular tax. It
can only be done if the taxpayers
let the Legislators know how they
feel. Let’s take another step to
make North Carolina the best
state in the Union.
Very truly yours,
James M. Culberson, Jr.
I have long hair and a beard and my dress is something short of
what the editors of Gentlemen’s Quarterly would consider
appropriate. ,
John Vassar, as a matter of course, also does not seem to use ads
from Esquire as a model for his morning choice of attire. He also
sports more than the standard allocation of facial hair.
On this day we were working at the beach, and it was a rather
cool, windy spring day. We were both wearing surplus army
jackets, since these nearly indestructible garments with lots of
pockets are ideal for outdoor work.
To make a long story shorts, and stay within my column-inch
allotment, there was a high school class on the scene. One lass of
about 17 apparently had a fixation on the era of the late sixties
and early seventies.
Seeing Mr. Vassar and myself, she immediately decided we
must be left-over hippies and therefore worthy of hero worship.
Persons of Julie’s age and outlook I think believe that about
1970 the night skies glowed orange with the fires from piles of
burning bras and draft cards, while college students wrote
political manifestos behind blockades in commandeered dean’s
offices, and recreational drugs were pedalled like produce on the
street corners.
While I was busily taking azimuths, John was busily doing
nothing at all to dissuade her from these notions, and (if I may_
speculate) was probably trying to think of more such notions to
plant in her young mind.
I was brought back into the conversation when she said we
both looked like Jerry Garcia, the guitarist and singer for the
Grateful Dead.
While I admire Mr. Garcia’s musical talents, the man is also
ugly as a St. Bernard. Julie quickly explained that she was a
“deadhead,” and that any comparisons to Garcia were all to be
taken as compliments.
Now your average Grateful “Deadhead” is 34 years old, has
numerous tatoos, rides a Harley-Davidson, ingests controlled
substances like popcorn, and would hitchhike from Ernul, N.C.
to Point Barrow, Alaska to see a Dead concert.
If there is a new generation of deadheads half that age, with
blond hair and braces, this could mean something important for
society.
Or maybe not. (Continued on page 12)
Today - Solar Eclipse
May 30, 1984 By LELA BARROW
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Think not of the future, live only for the hour &
its alloted duties. Finish the task at your elbow;
let that be sufficient for the day - do what lies s
clearly at hand. Lost wealth may be replaced by
industry, but lost time is gone forever.
Today is the wise man’s day. Tomorrow is the
fool’s day. The successful man is the man who sees
what should be done and does it. Make a rule - “to
make someone happy today” and pray God to
help you keep it.
Viewing the Solar Eclipse on Wednesday, May
30,1984 brought back memories of the one I saw
in 1900. I was visiting Helen and May Dudley,
five miles north of Greenville. This was a total
eclipse at that place. It occurred between 10:30
and 11:30 - the peak about 11:00. There was no
light from the sun, but the million stars in the
heaven gave some night light. As the darkness
became greater the chickens were confused -
walking slowly toward the hen house, making
weird noises. They knew it was too early to go up
on the roost, but darkness made them obey.
I was thirteen, and I remember I felt almost
like the chickens. You feel the presence of God
around you. So did this one Wednesday make me
feel lonely. I was alone all day, wind blowing
hard, and rain pouring down; too dark to read or
work. I very rarely get lonesome but, that day
was depressing. The Sun Journal said: “North
Carolina won’t see another until well into the next
century.” I won’t be here to see it.
The caution they gave us on using ways to not
let the light burn our eyes was very good.
The most effective way to see a total eclipse is
being in the right place at the right time. Three
times in my life span I have been in the right
place to see God’s most wonderful exhibit in the
Heavens. The first one was the total eclipse in
1900 I just wrote.
The second one was the falling stars. I think
this was in the 1920’s. It was a real shower of
raining down to earth like small hail stones®^
place lighted up like candles from Heaven. I was
on the back porch where Vivian Taylor lives.
Mrs. Brown lived there then.
The third one was the Aurora Borealis, the
'northern lights or streamers, a luminous
meteoris phenomenon of varying brilliancy seen
in the northern heavens, believed to be electric in
origin. I had seen parts of it in the north before.
But this special night it was more like a rainbow,
different colors reaching clear across the Heaven
from North to South. Really a gorgeous picture
from God’s Heaven to Earth. I was walking in the
street in front of my house. This brightness lasted
nearly thirty minutes. This occurred about 1931,
I think.
I feel these occasions were when God manifes^
Himself to the people of the earth. I thank flB
for letting me be in the right place at the ri^t
time.