PAGE 2 - WEST CRAVEN HIOHUOHTS — JANUARY 18.1888
Eastern
Echoes
By
Gail Roberson
The bonded love between mother and child is the strongest
of any in the universe. Nothing competes with the strength
that exists between these two. Again and again it has been
proven. It's not ususual to read of a mother who returned to a
burning house to retrieve her baby, ora 90-pound woman who,
caught up in the terror of the moment, lifts a heavy object that
is crushing her child. We've all heard or read of this bond, but
many stories never made the printed page. These, you see, are
engraved upon the heart.
The following are stories, or accounts, if you will, of children
who died but later returned to change the course of their
mother's life. I have altered the names for the protection of
those who volunteered their stories. But that is all. The rest
remains a remarkable account of the love between a mother
and her child.
“Twelve years ago, when they closed my baby in that box,
they may as well have nailed the lid over me at the same time,”
she said to me. "She’d never gone near the road before. Never.
And there was absolutely no reason for her to go then. She
simply walked across the yard, onto the highway, and into the
side of a passing car.”
For Jane, it was the beginning of a long nightmare. She
refused to consider having another child, and hardly took care
of her own needs. She never went to market or church. She
simply became a prisoner in her home ... a virtual mental
mess. Her beautifUl daughter was dead. And so was she ...
except they just hadn’t buried her yet.
But one morning, as she sat rocking the doll her child had
loved, she felt a tug on the sleeve of her robe. When she looked
down, she was staring into the eyes of her daughter. There is
not room enough to tell it all here, but the child explained that
she had been allowed an afternoon to spend with her again...
a few hours of life the way it used to be, for the both of them.
She told her mother that she liked her new home, that she had
love and happiness, and that she had returned to help her
move on with her own life. She wore a satin robe and slippers,
and in her brown hair were woven delicate flowers and rib
bons. Mother and daughter spent that afternoon together, and
when it was time to part once again, the transition, though not
easy, was finally an accepted one.
Since then, Jane has a new life and another child. Though
she will never stop loving her first born, she has finally let go of
the pain.
For Julie, it was easier. Her two year old child returned on
the day after she drowned ... before her own funeral.
“I was numb with disbelief,” she admitted, “but I was not
crazy with grief or having weeping visions. I held my child. I
talked to her, and I know that she has gone home. The know
ledge that she still lived gave my husband and me the courage
j to actually smile and hug one another at her gravesite. You
1 can’t imagine the power something like this can give you ...
' and the peace.”
June’s five year old son, dead for nearly six months, woke
his mother one night and alerted her to a stove fire that saved
her life and that of his older brother. His father was working
late shift. The house was filling with smoke. All she knows is
that her son was tugging on her clothing and calling out her
name, and then disappeared right in front of her when she
reached out for him.
And these are only a few of such cases. None of these
mothers have reason to lie about such a thing. They have all
come to terms with the deaths of their children and the glo
rious experience they’ve encountered in doing so. They are
only three of the hundreds whose pain has turned to peace
through these return visits. They have no idea how or why...
just that it happened. But somehow, in the deepest part of
their souls, where instinct and a mother's love grow, they
recognize that nothing really matters ... but that the little
children know.
ASCS Notes
PROGRAMS
There will be a 10 percent
acreage reduction requirement
for the wheat and feed grain
program and a five percent
acreage reduction requirement
for the oat program. The 1989
projected and advance payment
rates will be: for corn, a projected
payment of 89 cents and an adv
ance payment of 35.6 cents per
bushel; for grain sorghum, pro
jected 90 cents and advance 36
cents; for wheat, projected 50
cents, advance 20 cents; barley,
projected 23 cents, advance 9.3
cents. All advance payments will
be in cash.
0/92 PROGRAM
The 0/92 program will be
offered again this year for wheat
and feed grains. Guraranteed
payments will be made to those
bases left idle according to the
above projected rates per applic
able program. If any land is
plants under 0/92, only the land
left idle will be eligible for the
guaranteed payment amounts.
Any com planted will be figured
and paid as projected payments.
CCG.S02
Beginning with the 1989 crop
year, producers will be required
to complete form CCC-502 which
will be used by the county oftice
and county committee to deter
mine if a producer is eligible to
receive payments through parti
cipation in the programs. These
forms must be completed and
approved by the County Agri
cultural Stabilization and Con
servation Committee before any
payments will be made. Produc
ers who cash rent must have a
written lease.
SPECIAL SIGNUP
A special signup will be con
ducted for producers who want
to plant soybeans or sunflowers
onaportionof each participating
crop’s permitted acreage. Pro
ducers can through Dec. 19 to
Feb. 4 to plant 10 to 25 percent of
their wheat and feed grain per
mitted acres to soybeans or sunf
lowers and still protect their
program crop acreage base his
tory. No deficiency payments
will be available for the planted
soybeans or sunflowers, only
base history credit will apply.
REMINDERS
The signup for wheat and feed
grains program ends April 14.
Form CCC-502 must be com
pleted prior to enrolling in the
program.
Disaster program benefits are
offered through March 31. 1988
Advance Deficiency Forgiveness
Payments due to crop disaster in
1988 may be applied for during
this period for those who had a
loss of 35 percent or less in any
crop.
Different
As Night
From Day
GASTONIA — Few first-time
visitors to Day Tool & Mold, Inc.,
would be impressed after com
ing through the flront door.
After all, the small ftont office
is easily filled by a well-used
couch, a wooden receptionist's
desk, and a manual typewriter
where virtually all the paper
work gets done. If the visitor ar
rives around lunch, then com
pany president, owner, principal
designer, and mold maker David
M. Day may even be found on the
couch eating a fast food salad.
But lest the astute visitor dis
miss the shop as some place
where the locM cotton mill gets
its replacement parts, he or she
should notice a few oddities
stuck here and there. For exam
ple, the ftamed fan letter to Day
ftom Joseph R. Gerber, Jr., chair
man of the Gerber knife com
pany. He just wrote to say how
much he personally admir^ the
knife handle and sheath molds
that Day has made for his com
pany. Or the computer cable
plugs sitting on a display case
with big IBM logos on them. Not
to mention the assorted plastic
parts that any real lumberjack
would recognize to be Homelite
chain saw triggers. But didn't
Homelite once buy its injection
plastic molds from Japan? Steal
ing business from the Japanese?
What’s going on here?
It is all part of the story about a
remarkably unassuming man
and the day 14 years ago that he
decided that he was tir^ of mak
ing just one part of things and
then passing them on down the
line to the next guy.
Day was trained as a tool and
die maker, and he specialized in
building molds that manufac
tured plastic parts. Although he
loved the work, his employer,
Impact Plastics in Gastonia,
seemed too intent upon meeting
schedules to give him the artistic
freedom he craved.
So Day did what most indust
rial craftsmen only dream about
doing. He saved his money,
bought a used milling machine
which he installed in the back
room at his home, and went into
business. “I was lucky,” he re
calls, that the machine could be
run on household electfjcal cur
rent.
He made ends meet by
teaching mold making at a local
community college and depend
ing heavily on a few early cus
tomers. One of the first com
panies to award him projects was
none other than Impact Plastics,
whose officials preferred the
mass production end of the plas
tic parts industry anyway.
’’The computer cable plug has
been pretty big for me in the last
three years,” says Day, who care
fully shows the stamp bearing
the IBM logo that he carved by
hand from steel alloy.
He makes the plug mold for an
IBM supplier who attaches them
to plastic irqecting machines and
makes whole cable assemblies.
So far at least. Day’s company
only makes the molds for plastic
items, leaving others to actually
attach them to production
machines and make the parts.
Today, the company thrives in
a rambling one-story stone build
ing that Day’s wife’s grandfather
built long ago. The company’s
reputation for making precisely
built, tough molds has spread to
the point where Day and his
eight person crew cannot accept
all the new potential clients.
It takes several hundred ex
acting work hours to produce
just one mold good enough to
make most commercially used
plastic parts. To his credit, Day
Day flisplays Moravian star frame he invented
declines to accept an order un
less he knows he can provide one
of his craftsmen the machine
time to do it right. By carefiilly
reinvesting his profits in the
company, he now owns five mill
ing machines, with another cus
tom one on the way, and two elec
tro-discharge machines, called
EDMs. The milling machines
give mold makers the ability to
do the basic cutting and carving
that turns a block of steel into a
delicately shaped mold. The
EDMs apply a final finish to the
molds and that will, produce the
“frosty” textures that are so
popular on plastic parts these
days.
Even more important to the op
eration though is Day’s staff,
^ality training is the key ingre
dient to Day Tool & Mold’s con
tinued success. Every single
mold maker at Day Tool & Mold
either served a voluntary appren
ticeship at the company before
reaching full journeyman status,
or is still an apprentice there. He
uses the apprenticeship program
administered by the North Caro
lina Department of Labor to train
all his employees because it is the
only way he has found to guaran
tee he gets a skilled work force.
“There’s a tremendous amount
of business,” he says, “but
thefe’s not enough good tool
makere around. I can’t find a man
in this area that’s already qual-
ifled to make molds.”
It takes several years of on the
job training and classroom in
struction for most people to pass
the apprenticeship program’s
rigorous graduation standards.
But Day insists that his appren
tices get the state certification,
and then help new apprentices.
“As fast as I can graduate one,”
Day says, ”I am going to start
another one.
“The only way for me to ex
pand is to home grow the talent,”
he adds. “It is the only way for
someone to learn this special
skill.” He scours local commun
ity colleges and keeps lists of ap
plicants to find his next appren
tice.
As a former apprentice him
self, Day knows that the modern
version of the ancient job train
ing idea not only gives a new
worker needed skills, but also
shows them exactly what their
particular employer will want
them to do when they become
fbU-fledged craftsmen. The labor
Department carefully monitors
all apprenticeship programs to
make sure that employer and
apprentice follow the agreed to
terms.
Although the training is diffi
cult, Day keeps the atmosphere
informal and is far more comfort
able in a company work shirt that
reads ’’David” on the front, than
a coat and tie.
“His enthusiasm toward this
kind of work,” mold maker Dan
ny Murdoch says, is the magic
ingredient that keeps the com
pany flourishing. “We don’t real
ly play the games that a lot of
companies do, I guess,” he says.
“We stay loose but we all know
what needs to be done.”
”I am a craftsman-
businessman,” Day says
pointedly, “I put myself as a
craftsman first.” In fact, the labor
Department recognized Day as
an Outstanding Master Crafts
man in 1987 in honor of his great
skill as a tool and die maker.
He knew little about running a
business before buying his first
machine, but he did research the
situation enough to know there
were at least 10 factories making
plastic products in his immedi
ate area, and not a single inde
pendent mold making company
within sight.
“You can get help as far as the
business part from your CPA —
and by having a really good
secretary," he jokes, glancing to
ward Day Tool & Mold’s single
clerical worker, his wife Star-
lean.
Maintaining control over the
company’s growth and its start-
to-fmish design work has been
difficut for Day. “I’m losing out
on a lot of work because I can’t
add machines and personnel
quickly enough,” he says. But he
refuses to change the system by
letting barely trained workers or
cheap machinery in his work
area. “A big secret in this buis-
ness is that if you get a reputation
for professional quality, you’ll
never be lacking work,” he be
lieves. No matter how much he
decides to expand the operation,
he will always have customers to
meet that growth, unless his
quality goes down. Day says.
He holds up the plastic chain
saw triggers being designed for
Homelite. “They always used to
use Japanese molds,” he says,
because the price was so good.
Yet, he thinks, the company has
found that the steel used for the
molds was too soft for prolonged
use, thus causing delays when
they had to be removed from the
production line.
”1’II give them a good, har
dened steel mold,” Day says,
which he will carve from the best
metal he can find to meet Home-
lite’s demands. "You’re con
stantly learning in this busi
ness,” Day feels, since one has to
be part metallurgist, part desig
ner, a bit salesman, and all crafts
man, to make it.
“I’m constantly reinvesting,”
he nods at his machines, “it
would be hard to do this again, I
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mostly bought them one at a
time.”
Even while reflecting about his
business roots. Day’s thoughts
rarely stray from the project at
hand. His eyes keep returning to
the blueprints spread across the
drafting table and tacked onto a
nearby wall. They show the
dimensions for a large plastic
Moravian star. A client wants the
molds for it in time to begin pftr~
ducing the ornaments for the
spring Christmas trade shows.
“1 pride myself on my design
work,” he says, obviously about
ready to return to the task. The
finished parts fora prototype star
are already scatter^ around the
table, but Day is confident his de
sign will be sturdier and able to
take a lot of use when finished.
“I was excited about this,” he
says showing the rigid frame he
designed to firmly hold the star
points. The client plans to make
the first test batch of stars for
testing purposes soon, called
sampling. “I’m going to be right
there when they sample it,” Day
grins.
Obituary
Janies H. Tripp
GREENVILLE — James
Harold Tripp,. 63, of Greenville,
died last Thursday.
Services were held Saturday at
Wilkerson Funeral Home, Green
ville, with the Revs. Bruce Jones
and Ray Williamson officiating.
Burial was in Pinewood Memo
rial Park.
Tripp is survived by his wife,
Mrs. Faye Mobley Tripp; his
stepmother, Mrs. Celia Tripp of
Greenville; six daughters, Ms.
Linda Tripp of Simpson, Ms.
Brenda Tripp of Grimesland,
Mrs. Libby Vincent of Rt. 3,
Greenville, Mrs. Geneva Morris
of Vanceboro, Mrs. Debbie
Taylor of Belhaven, Mrs. Betty
Pierce of Rt, 2, Greenville; two
sisters, Mrs. Joyce Spencer and
Mrs. Nell Bland, both of Black
Jack; five brothers. Brownie
Ttipp of Winterville, Earl Tnpp
of Ham's Crossroads, Pete Tripp
of Havelock, John Tripp of Bel-
voir, Jarvis Tripp of Greenville,
and nine grandchildren.
West Craven
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