Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / June 10, 1993, edition 1 / Page 4
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THE BRUNSWICKfftACON Edward M. Sweatt and Carolyn H. Sweatt Publishers Edward M. Sweatt Editor Lynn S. Carlson Managing Editor Susan Usher News Editor Doug Kutter Sports Eilitor Eric Carlson StaJJ Writer Peggy Earwood Office Manager Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director Tlmberley Adams. Cecelia Gore and Linda Cheers Advertising Representatives Dorothy Brennan and Brenda Clemmons Moore ..Graphic Artists William Manning Pressman Lonnle Sprinkle Assistant Pressman Tammie Henderson Photo Technician Phoebe Clemmons and Frances Sweatt Circulation PAGE 4-A, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1993 'Town Meeting' Legislative Forum Should Be A Tradition About 15 people took advantage of Monday's "town meet ing" in Shallotte to speak their minds to, and answer questions of. Representatives David Redwine and Dewey Hill and Senator R.C. Soles. Another 10 or so sat in on the two-hour session with out speaking. It was a rewarding exercise for the citizens and the legislators?one that ought to become a tradition. The questions were thoughtful and the answers, for the most part, enlightening. It became quickly apparent that Brunswick Countians are keeping a close watch over their men in Raleigh, especially watchtul against bills with the potential to place heav ier burdens on small businesses and local governments. Equally obvious was the dichotomy between what citizens profess to want?such as more prison beds in the state?and how little tax support they're willing to provide toward that end. It's heartening to see legislators look constituents in the eyes and re mind them they can't have it both ways. Though the crowd was weighted heavily with local govern ment and education officials intent on staking claims to various pots of state money, a number of "civilians" were on hand to bring up such topics as health care, gun control, highway litter, the lottery, and the relationship between illegal drugs and revolv ing-door justice. None of those issues has an easy answer. In particular, reform of the state's health care and justice systems will be inextricably linked to changes at the federal level?changes, as Redwine pointed out, cannot occur without pinching citizens, as well as special-interest groups, in their tender spots. Two Friday evening town meetings are scheduled next. They are June 18 at the courthouse in Southport, and June 25 at the Leland Town Hall. Both begin at 7:00. Even if you don't have a question or a beef, you'll learn something by attending. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Landscaping Volunteers 4Surround Us In Beauty4 To the editor Holdcn Bcach homeowners and visitors noticing the beautifully landscaped areas on the sides of, and at the bottom of, our bridge, plus the many other public areas, have a cou ple of hard-working ladies to thank ?Fran Vogt and Hap Hart. Although a few other people have helped on occasion, Fran and Hap have spent many, many hours to beautify our island. Fran was also instrumental in getting the mer chants on the causcway to beautify their areas. Not many people would give up every weekend of two months to oversee community workers (who can only work on weekends) as Fran has done. Even the verbal abuse and constant criticism from fellow beau tification committee members does not daunt the civic pride and hard work of these special ladies. If you haven't shown your appre ciation for this beauty, please take the time to give them a call. Cer tainly, that is the very least we can do. I personally know how many hours of hard labor in the blistering sun these unselfish ladies have given to our community. I thank them for surrounding us in beauty! Judy Bryan Holden Bcach Explorers Introduced To the editor: 1 am writing to let the people of Shallottc and surrounding areas know about the Shaliotlc Explorers. The Explorers arc a division of the Boy Scouts of America for young people 14 to 20. Their pur pose is to help young people learn about law enforcement, cooperation with others and helping people. The group is organized by the Shallotte Police Department. Advis ors Keith Croom and Michael Fers ter work together to teach us what it takes to be a successful law enforce ment officer. The Explorers do fundraisers such as car washes, bucket shakes, etc. We also accept donations. We arc now looking for donations to help get members their uniforms. Thank you for learning about our Shallotte Explorers unit. For more information about the program, con tact Keith Croom of the Shallotte Police Department. Evonnc Rutherford Shallotte (More Letters, Following Page) Write Us The Beacon welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include the writer's ad dress and telephone number. Under no circumstances will un signed letters be printed. Letters should be legible. We reserve the right to edit libelous comments. Address letters to The Brunswick Beacon, P. O. Box 2558, Shal lotte, N. C. 28459. Worth Repeating... ? Democracies cannot dispense with with hypocrisy any more than dictatorships can with cynicism. ?Georges Bemanos mAn example from the monkey: The higher it climbs, the more you see of its behind. ?Saint Bonaventure ? Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking. ?John Maynard Keynes ? There is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than the Public. It is the greatest of all cowards, for it is afraid of itself. ?William Hazlitt ? What is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days. ?James Russell Lowell Phantom Creature Part II: Crazy No More I am pleased (I guess) to report that 1 am not the only South Bruns wick Islander to experience things that go screech in the night. I've had calls or visits almost every day from people with infor mation and speculation about the "phantom critter of Holdcn Beach" I described in this space a couple of weeks ago. The woods (and marshes and dunes) were once full of 'em, so there arc bound to be a few still around, right? I may have caught a rare glimpse of a coastal cougar, they tell me. Although this isn't any great revela tion among the county's hunters or folks who live on the fringe of the Green Swamp, it's a pretty big deal among scientists. I learned in a fascinating conver sation with naturalist Arthur Carrier of LitUc River that the last officially documented coastal cougar died in captivity in 1911. Carrier is certain they still exist; he's seen plenty of evidence, including a dead cougar kitten. Many hunters have also told me they've seen these cats, or at least their tracks, and know where their dens arc. I'll be getting together with Carrier in a few days to learn enough about these mysterious fe lines to make into a whole feature story. He works with state and feder al agencies and conservation groups to try to document and preserve the habitats and increase the gene pool of rare and endangered (and official ly extinct) species. From what I've been told thus far, numerous others have seen the same Lynn Carlson kind of criltcr and assume it must be something else, since coastal cou gars don't resemble the big pumas we know from Tarzan movies. They arc "odd-looking," Carticr says, rather long-legged and thick-tailed, able to swim across waterways and roam 300 miles. They have been sighted as far north as Massachu setts. They don't look like the endan gered Florida cats, of which only 17 remaining pairs arc known to exist. As I said earlier, the animal I saw at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 12, had a cry bloodcurdling enough to scare the cheese dip out of anybody. Every one of my callers has agreed that it makes a noise like something being murdered. A resident of Brunswick Avenue at Holdcn Beach, and another who lives on High Point Street, heard but didn't see it in the prc-dawn hours that weekend. A woman on Kirby Road heard something like it, too. A man from Bent tree Plantation near Ocean Isle Beach has seen and left food out for an animal he de scribes as gray, short-legged, bushy tailed and "real fidgety." However, Cartier discourages such well-inten tioned efforts to feed wild animals. "They shouldn't be made dependent on man, who's their worst enemy," he explains. A woman who lives at Sunset Beach slopped by to report that both her husband and she caught an odd looking cat-like critter in their car headlights one night last week be fore it bolted into the marsh. While I reported the cat under my floodlight to be short-legged, it could well have been just crouching, Carticr suggested. He also added that the time of year is right for fe males to go off alone and bear their young in a relatively safe place? like the city-block-sized marsh I sec when 1 look out my kitchen window. If you recall, I speculated at least halfway in jest that it could have been a jaguarundi. Carticr tells me that while jaguarundi arc native to the Carolinas?and a few arc known to live in Horry County, where they got away from a traveling circus? they have very stringy tails and spend most of their time in aces. My experienced piqued the inter est of Lorena Jodicc, a self-describ ed "unemployed cat-keeper" who came to stay with her parents in Brunswick County after being bitten by a hyena at the Knoxville Zoo, where she tended 40 large cats and "several other carnivores." I learned from Lorena that jag uarundi can be found in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and arc easi ly domesticated. She said my de scription fit that of a tayra, native to South and Central America with a bushy tail and a pointy cat-like face. Whatever the outcome, it's been a delight to hear from so many readers about a column I was ccrtain would blow my cover and expose me as an utier kook. Either I'm not, or lots of other people are, and lunacy loves company! ? ? ? Odds and ends not big enough for a whole column: ?In a photo caption last week, I er roneously referred to the beachcs' large "Labor Day" crowd. Somehow the boo-boo slipped past several oth er staffers and went to press that way. I promise it wasn't a Freudian slio, and I'll try to atone on Inde pendence Day. Duh... ?I had the double pleasure Friday of attending the Ocean Isle Property Owners' Association's first Town Employee Appreciation picnic PLUS getting a sneak peak at the completed mural in the Museum of Coastal Carolina's work-in-progress swamp/forest diorama. In a very welcome gesture of sup port, the town staff of 17 got some much-descrved praise, and a barbc cuc luncheon, from the POA. Say what you will about the way Ocean Isle Beach operates, but it's refresh ing to see a citizens' group and clccted officials enjoy (and work at) a genuinely civil relationship. After the picnic, museum founder Stuart Ingram took me back to sec Vic Gillispie's completed mural, which is nothing less than spectacu lar. I can't tell you when the new ad dition will go public; that's a fiscal matter, since the museum is strictly a pay-as-we-go proposition. But if you'd seen what I saw, you might want to come up with a contribution to speed things along. UOTTERy?.'lVHY jvu Heck WED T? DEATH.' pJTy, WHy, X CAN bareiy rLnY. ON(t n , sjrape By from WEEK/ AT LEAST: WEEKTO WK^ ^>1 I) | NO /VEWTOBf^I || AMLJ^ I no HOWJI ? r it?':" -m ^ *?? I I % . ? - - ii (WHYTHE icmm 35 50TEA1PTIN6 TO STATE LEGISLATORS) Dragging For Kings With Captain Jamie Remember that great scene in the movie "City Slickers" where the grizzled old gunfighter, played by Jack Palance, casually asks tender foot Billy Crystal if he wants to know the secret of happiness? Stunned with anticipation that he might find some clue to this funda mental question, Crystal eagerly re plies in the affirmative. "Just one thing," Palance says, holding a calloused finger toward the sky. After a painful silence, with no relief in sight. Crystal blurts out, "What?!" "That's for you to decide," says Palance as their horses clip-clop down the trail. I couldn't help thinking about that after spending a day with Jamie Millikcn, a guy who has definitely found his "one thing." And if you don't know what that is, you need to read your Beacon more thoroughly. To say Jamie Millikcn enjoys off shore fishing is like saying . a Labrador retriever enjoys chasing tennis balls. If he's ten miles out with four lines dragging, Jamie is one very happy man. Even when the only thing biting is the wind. We had been trying to do a fish ing story together for nearly a year, but had repeatedly run into schedul ing conflicts. So when Jamie called last week and asked if I wanted to go along for the "Sun Fun King Mackerel Tournament," I eagerly took the bait. A day later, partially recovered, I began to wonder if he had said "tournament" or "torment." Piloting the Caribbean Soul up the waterway for a 7 a.m. start from Lockwood Folly inlet Friday, Jamie kept a running radio banter going .-'Jtew wW?h Eric Carlson *?? f with his closc circle of local fishing buddies aboard the Oil Slick, the Reel Chase, the Captain Hook II, the Outlaw and the Shooting Star III. 'There's a lot of camaraderie out there," he explains. 'The local crews keep in touch and help each other out." I would soon find that to be a very comforting thought As the sun began to bum through the mist and the circling competitors idled slowly toward the starting line, 1 got into position for what would be a beautiful photo of a dozen fully rigged mackerel boats peacefully motoring out to sea. Silly me. The second hand hit 12. Jamie hit the throtUe. The Caribbean Soul hit the first wave. And my head hit the cockpit roof as we began a 20-minute spray-soaked pounding that was about as peaceful as a bare back steeplechase in a hurricane. I somehow managed to pry one hand loose long enough to stow the camera safely below deck and quickly resumed my death grip be fore another wave exploded off the bow. That's when I met the real Jamie Millikcn. Wedged between the wheel and the cockpit seat, his hair and mus tache dripping with salt spray, grin ning like a kid on Christmas, Jamie kept the big Evinrude howling through all but the tallest swells. Now and then he'd let out a rousing "Yee Haw!" as the propeller bit the air and revved wildly to announce that the Caribbean Soul had gone airborne. Bathed in the warm light of a golden sunrise, the image recalled those wonderful Frederic Remington paintings of Pony Express riders wildly slapping the haunches of a galloping horse as it bounded across the desert A picture of unbridled enthusiasm. One I would have need ed an underwater camera and an ex tra hand to capture. Suddenly everything went quiet. We had reached the offshore reef that would be our first hunting ground for the $10,000 fish. Jamie stayed at the helm as his experienced young mate Brant Mc Mullan moved purposefully around the cockpit bailing hooks, running out line, setting reels and adjusting the downrigger. Meanwhile, 1 busied myself snapping pictures. It wasn't until we started to troll that I noticed the Soul had begun to roll. With a ground swell from one direction and a wind swell from an other, there was no pattern to the pitching. First we'd roll fore-and-aft, then beam-to-be am. My stomach took an elevator up. 1 mod all my old tricks: like deep breathing, staring at the horizon, drinking Coca-Cola and eating crac kers, and even a hew one?munch ing celery?and somehow managed to stave off a major upheaval. Three times I came close to losing it. The first was when 1 went below to change film. The second was when Jamie offered me what he called a "horse doovcr" consisting of a saltinc garnished with Vienna sausage. (I won't tell you what he calls them.) Recoiling, 1 declined and asked, "Do you have any idea what's in those things!?" This turned out to be my third mistake. Jamie simply grinned and answered by reading the ingredients on the side of the can, which basi cally said "parts is pans." Brant wasn't quite so lucky. He had driven straight to the dock after finishing final exams in Atlanta the day before. So he didn't quite have his sea legs back. He spent much of the day splayed out across an Igloo cooler. He later made a valiant recovery after generously donating his break fast of saltines and Yoo-Hoo to the chum line. To make a long story short, we didn't catch a thing?much less a king?that day. Neither did any of Jamie's comrades. Nor did more than 400 of the 500-something boats in the tournament. Most blamed it on the full moon, which had given the big macks a spotlight for all-night feeding. But getting skunked didn't seem to bother Jamie one bit Although claimed to be "ticked off to the high est peak of tickativity," you'd never know it by looking at him. He stayed in the highest of high spirits all day, rallied his buddies with ra dio pep talks and predicted better luck tomorrow. Whether they got it or not, 1 can't say. You'll have to turn to his col umn to find out. But 1 do know a happy guy when I see one. And whether he's catching or just fishing, as long as Jamie Millikcn has a line in the water, he's one "Jolly Mon."
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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June 10, 1993, edition 1
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