Thursday. March 21, 1940
TtODAV
boMaMOfp
■ IToff
WEATHER .... memory
For a good many years I have
been hearing people say that we
don't have the kind ol winters
we used to have. All sorts of
theories are put forth to explain
the suposed fact that the climate
Is getting warmer. A common
belief is that the Gulf Stream
now flows closer to the shore of
North America than it used to.
Then, just as people begin to
that the era of cold and
snow is passing, Nature steps in
and hands us a Winter like this
one. The cold and snow of early
January, 1940, were more wide
spread, North to South and East
to West, than any cold spell in
( recent years. *
So far as accurate weather ob
servations have been kept, which
is only a matter of less than 70
years, the scientists who study
such things haven't found any
evidence that the winters are
colder or the Summers hotter
than they were twenty-five, fifty
or more years ago. Study of old
diaries and other records going
back one hundred and fifty years
points to the same cycles of al
, ternating extreme weather and
normal weather. The apparent
difference is mainly in imperfect
memories and hazy traditions.
TRADITION 1816
When I was a small boy in New
England I used to hear people
speak of the year "eighteen-hun
dred-and-froze-to-death." It was
not until after I had grown up
that I learned that they were
talking about the year 1816, the
year in which there was no sum
mer at all In northern New Eng
land, but snow and frost every
month in the year.
After the sap began to rise fol
lowing the usual "February thaw"
such a terrific cold wave struck
northern Maine that it froze the
smaller trees to the heart-wood.
The bursting of the tree trunks
as the frozen sap expanded filled
the winter nights with a noise as
of an artillery battle; at least so
some of the old letters record.
That was the year when ice
bergs were so large and num
erous that many of them floated
into tropical waters before they
melted. An old account of Flor-
NOTICE
\
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMIS
SIONERS MET AS A BOARD OF
EQUALIZATION AT T H E COURT
HOUSE IN DOBSON ON
Monday, Mar. 18,1940
THE BOARD WILL MEET AGAIN
APRIL Ist TO HEAR SUCH COM
PLAINTS AS MAY BE MADE
TOUCHING THE ASSESSMENT OF
REAL ESTATE. IF NECESSARY
THIS BOARD WILL ADJOURN
FROM TIME TO TIME, BUT TO A
NOT LATER DATE THAN APRIL
8,1940.
B. F. Folger
CLERK TO BOARD
SURRY COUNTY
For Farm Kitchens
%. i H PI
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JHHBH
For the first time since the introduction of electric refrigeration,
the farm kitchen now can have an electric refrigerator with equipment
definitely designed to solve the problem of space for both normal food
storage and safekeeping of large quantities of eggs, cream, meat and
other farm items. Made by Frigidaire, this refrigerator is said to have
all basic features of regular models and in addition is fitted with a set
of special shelves which may be adjusted in a multitude of different
combinations. One shelf combination shown above illustrates how pro
vision is made for storing bulky items plus a wide assortment of foods
for family needs. The basket shown holds 15 dozen eggs, while the
cream can has a five gallon capacity. Included in storage facilities is a
double-width freezer in which meats may be kept for long periods at
temperatures below freezing. Other low temperatures elsewhere in the
food compartment supply correct conditions for standard meat storage
and preservation of all other perishables. This farm model Frigidaire
has a storage capacity of eight cubic feet.
Ida tells of an iceberg which went
aground on the beach near the
mouth of the St. Johns River in
July, 1816.
There is no doubt that the
climate has changed in twenty
thousand but there is very
little change over tw« hvudred
years.
ICE harvesting
The other day I saw the name
of my native town in a newspa
per dispatch. Gardiner, Maine, it
said, is harvesting the biggest ice
THE HLKIN TRIBUNE, ELKIN, NORTH CAROLINA
crop in years on the Kennebec
River.
I was too young when we mov
ed away from Gardiner to re
member anything about the har
vesting of ice, but as a boy in my
'teens in Washington I became
very familiar with the delivery
and marketing of Kenebec ice in
the old port of Georgetown at the
head of navigation on the Po
tomac.
The Kenebec ice trade began
more than a hundred years ago.
A schooner from the West Indies
was caught in the ice and frozen
In for the winter. Hsr captain
had the bright idea of loading his
ship with a cargo lying right at
his hand. He set the crew to
work cutting ice sad storing it in
the hold, and as soon as he could
get clear he sailed for Baltimore
and sold his Ice for several hun
dred dollars.
Until artificial ice came into
general use the Kennebec ice
schooners supplied the only ice
anyone could get in Southern
ports and in Cuba and Jamaica.
SKATING Potomac
Last winter in Washington I
looked for traces of the circular
pond called Babcock's Lake,
which was the great outdoor
skating rink of my Washington
boyhood, more than fifty years
ago. It was between the Wash
ington Monument and the White
House. It has been filled In be
cause the seepage of water was
undermining the foundation of
the Monument.
I found few young folk who
really believed me when I told
them there was more than two
months of outdoor skating in
Washington in 1887. Hardly any
believed that the Potomac River
had been frozen over that year.
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Men's Stores 3.3
g* Women's Wear Shops ... 3.1
Furniture Stores 6.3
Drug Stores I 2.9
General Merchandise 1.5
Jewelry Stores 3.1
of all failures in business are Grocery Stores 1.0
from the ranks of non-adver- Meat Markets 1.0
tisers . . . Only 5 per cent, of Specialty Shops „_3.8
those that fail are adver- • Dry Cleaners and Dyeing 3.3
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NORTH CAROLINA'S BEST WEEKLY
•S • : *■ ' .v- v • .*« *•
«-*• ' •'
V T, *' . ' ' ' • iy. ' . i •
Figures compiled by Harvard Bureau of Business Research and Northwestern University Bureau
of Business "Research.
I
*■ m • I • • •/
I knew it because I skated across
it.
I chuckled a little when I reed
a Washington news item saying
that the Potomac River was froz
en over this year for the first
time in history. It is just an il
lustration of how little reliance
can be placed upon popular be
liefs, such as that the climate is
changing. Just because there
was a fifty years stretch between
one severe winter - and the next
doesn't prove any auch thing.
EXTREMES . . . adaptability
After thinking about it for
half a century or so I have come
to the conclusion that mankind
reaches the height of its possibil
ities in a climate where it is al
terately exposed to extremes of
temperature.
The great thinkers and the
great doers of history have devel
oped neither in the tropics nor
the arctic regions. They are the
product of the so-called "temper
ate" zones in which it Is usually
either too hot for comfort or too
cold for comfort.
People who are exposed to cn
tinuous and unpredictable andra
tinuous and unpredictable
changes in weather and temper
ature have to develop an adapt
ability to circumstances, which is
not necessary at the poles or the
Equator, where tomorrow's wea
ther or next year's Is always pre
dictable.
Mencai alertness as well as
physical adaptability are the
chief qualities which distinguish
the peoples of the temperate
zones from the rest of the world.
They have to be agile and smart
to keep on living, the folks whose
thermometers may range from 40
below to 120 above between Feb
ruary and August.
BETHEL
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe
Morrison a daughter, March 10.
Several friends and relatives
have called to see Charles Jones
at his home here, where he is re
covering from an attack of arth
ritis.
Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Roberts, of
Dellaplane, and daughters, Misses
Edith and Helen, were here see
ing friends for a while last Sun
day.
Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Triplette,
with their babies, Estelle and
Ethel and Clay, visited the form
er's aunt, Mrs. Susanna Williams,
at Goshen, near Wilkesboro, last
Sunday afternoon. They were ac
companied by Mr. and Mrs. J. C.
Gilliam and daughter, Miss Paul
ine Gilliam, of Jonesvllle. Mrs.
Williams 1s also an aunt of Mrs.
Gilliam.
Bethel singing choir met Sun
day evening to practice far the
singing that will be held at Sweet
Home church the fifth Sunday.
•Mrs. G. P. Pardue, her son,
Ruel, and daughters, Misses
Blanche and Rebecca, visited her
nephew last Sunday, who is 111 at
the Chatham Memorial hospital
at Elkin.
Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Stroud and
sons, Kenneth and Thomas, Mr.
and Mrs. Wayne Stroud, Misses
Norma and Kathlene Gilliam and
Eugene Jones were guests of Mr.
and Mrs. W. A. Stroud at their
home at Wilkesboro where they
were entertained at a dinner giv
en for Mr. and Mrs. Wayne
Stroud. Other guests were Mrs.
C. W. Gilliam, Sr., Mr. and Mrs.
Louis Ferlazzo and little son,
Eddie, of Winston-Salem, Mr. and
Mrs. Seamon Dobbins, of Elkin.
Misses Frances and Ella Rob
erts visited relatives near Ronda
last Sunday.
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