/
There was, of course, no way of predicting that the start of this school year
would coincide with what is, undoubtedly, one of the hottest stretches of weather
we've had in recent years. That goes not only for Robeson County but virtually
for all of the nation. Everyone is sweltering in the heat doing their best to
stay comfortable in whatever way they can. 1 don't have to tell you that, for
our school system, it means trying to see v it that all of our schools have air
conditioning that is in good working orue so that our students' ability to
study and leam is not impaired by being uncomfortable in the classroom.
Before school actually got underway, our maintenance people did what you
did at your home. They turned on the air conditioners to make certain that
they were in working order. After a winter of not being used, there's always
the possibility that they might not start up. If they didn't, the workers immediately
tried to find out what was wrong and did what they needed to do to fix
the problem. Sometimes it meant ordering new parts- some major- some relatively
minor. If you've had such problems, you know that it often involves
delays in the arrival of those parts in which case there is also a delay in being
able to get the equipment running properly. In the meantime, they make whatever
adjustments could be make while waiting for the parts delivery so that,
when they do arrive, there is little delay in getting the cooling process underway.
Another thing needs to be understood and that is that a central air conditioning
system does not do the whole cooling job for the whole school in every
case. Sometimes there are multiple units in a school. What that means, of
course, is that each is susceptible to having problems. That, in turn, means
that there may be areas in a school which have air conditioning while other
areas do not. It's also important to understand that many classrooms are server
by window units which means there are a large number of such units that are
susceptible to breaking down and therefor need attention. In every case, though,
the maintenance people are going all out to get all of them working as quickly
as possible.
I know that there's a tendency on the part of some parents to be less patient
with the delays in getting the air conditioning working at their child's school. I
can understand their concern by complaining to the news media can't possibly
get our people to work harder or faster than they are now. If the delivery of
parts has been delayed, there is nothing that they can do but wait. When they
arrive, they're installed as quickly as possible. You must keep in mind, also,
that we have 41 school in our system and, whole each of them does not necessarily
have air conditioning problems, we, likewise, don't have anything like
41 people trained to work on air conditioning. We have only 4 on our maintenance
staff which means that, because of the number of problems we've encountered,
we've had to bring in private air conditioning people to help. In
spite of that, there is always the possibility of some delay and we can only hope
that you'll understand and be patient. Know the our people are working just as
quickly as they can. As I said earlier, it's just unfortunate that the air conditioning
should break down when we are in the middle of the kind of heat wave that L
we're experiencing. Mother Nature may not be cooperating but we're doing
our level best to keep her at bay.
Along the Robeson Trail
By Dr. Stan Knick, Director-UNCP Native American Resource Center
Old Grandmother still makes her
quilts with patches. She knows that
nowadays some folks only use one
big piece of cloth for the whole face of
the quilt, just stitching around the
different patterns on that one piece of
cloth. "That kind of quilt will keep
your body warm, alright" Old
Grandmother says, "but it won't warm
your spirit the same way." For Old
Grandmother the patches ? the little
pieces of brightred or old gingham ?
are one of the best things about a quilt.
She says they keep the memories of
the quilt.
Old Grandmother remembers
learning from her grandmother how to
make a quilt. She would always start
by collecting pieces of cloth ? this
one from an old shawl that got too
stained on one end to be any good;
this one from one of Russell's old
shirts that just couldn't be repaired any
more times; this one from a dress that
Old Grandmother outgrew last
summer when she turned eleven and
suddenly got so much taller and that
had already been handed down three
generations anyway.
The collecting part might take
quite a while, and usually her
grandmother would just keep adding
to a sack of torn and wom-out bits
of cloth for a long time before she
would have enough pieces to get started
on a new quilt. Sometimes the other
quitters ? Aunt Mary or Miss Eva or
Miss Angeline ? would bring their
own sacks of patches and they would
lay them all out on the porch and look
for good combinations.
Sitting around the quilting
frame was a good part, too. All the
talking and the stories made the
fingers just fly, and hours might pass
before someone noticed that it was
getting a little too dark to see the fine
stitches they were making. It was
around that quilting frame that Old
Grandmother had heard the story the
first time about Andrew Strong and
how brave he was when he refused to
testify against his brother Boss and
Henry Berry ? that time when the
Law had Andrew locked up in
Lumberton back in 1870 for
supposedly being mixed up in the
death of Sheriff King.
"And this piece of cloth right
here," Miss Eva would say, "came
from the very shirt Andrew was
wearing when he told that district
attorney he'd just as soon stay in jail
as tell a lie on a member of his family.
My Aunt Nell was a cousin of his wife
Flora, and she swore that was the very
shirt he was wearing. Ain't that right.
Miss Angeline," MissEva would say,"
and Miss Angeline would always say,
"You know that's right, Sis."
Old Grandmother had thought
for a long time that she would never
liave heard that story if it hadn't been
for that quilting frame and that little
piece of thin gray cloth there in the
middle of the center pine cone pattern
of that quilt And even though she
heard that story several times, she
never asked how that shirt got passed
from hand to hand and wound up in
pieces in quilts all over the county.
She knew that patches were like
stories, and they were liable to turn
Up just about anywhere. Old
Grandmother still makes her quilts
with patches.
For more information, visit the
Native American Resource Center in
historic Old Main Building, on the
campus of The University of North
Carolina at Pembroke (our Internet
address is www.uncp.edu/
nativemuseum).
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