Hey^ nephew^ we have this bomb...
The Poet’s
Corner
From the email world dept....
LMt week Police Chief Earl Lloyd had to
aend Ibr a exploatve ordnance dlspoeal team
fram Fort Jackeon, S. C. to do away with a 76
mm artillery ahell found at the depot.
Ihe full atory with plcturea la In today'a
laaue of The Mirror-Herald.
When the Army chopper landed cn the
practice field at Klnga Mountain Senior
High, out popped two EOD men with their
e<iulpment locker.
Chief Lloyd waa making Introductlona. "..
.and thla la our newapaper editor. .
“HeUo, Tom,” aald Capt. Hart
"How’a It going, Rick,” I aald.
“You two know each other?” the chief
aaked.
"SUghtly,” I aald. “Rlck’a In the family.”
And he la. He’a married to my niece, my
alater and brother-ln-Uw'a daughter.
"Boy,” Chief Uoyd aald. “You run Into
people aU over the country. Don’t you?”
Then he told Capt Hart how he and I met 10
yeara ago in San Diego, Oallf.
Rick la commander of the 48th Ordnance
Detachment (EOD) at Fort Jackeon. Hla Job
covera all of South Carolina, 17 countlea In
weatem North Carolina and aeveral countlea
In Georgia. Someone la alwaya finding
unexploded bcmba and OI laaue artillery
ahella. Rlck’a EOD team fly In and take the
exploalvea away to deatroy them.
Prior to Preaident uaner's mauguranon
laat January Rick waa aaalgned to check out
€DITORIW.^&OPiniOn9
Pcige 2A Tuesday, June 14,1977
Saturday promises to be
funfilled for KM citizens
Next Saturday should be a fun-fUled and informative day in Kings Mountain. /
It has been designated Ole’ ’Timey Town Meeting Day at the Kings Mountain
Depot Center. ’The center will be dedicated to the pubUc also at the festivltlee.
’Iburs of the recently renovated faculty wUl be conducted and visitors wiU be
treated to free musical concerts. Citizens are urged to bring picnic baskets and
spend the day. Beverages wUl be provided free.
atlzens will also have an opportunity to express their own ideas on programs
the city could undertake that would be of mutual benefit to the community at
large. Workshops in which the picture of the city’s future wlU be drawn.
But more than an Infonnative meeting, this occasion provides citizens the rare
opportunity to gather for some old fashioned “visiting” and fun together.
’Ihe Mirror-Herald urges you to make plans to attend between 9 a. m. and 4 p.
m. this Saturday.
Women phut revolt, if...
TOM
MclMTYRG
the streets, manholes end underground
passages beneath the reviewing stand.
“’Ihere were over 1,800 manholes to be
checked as weU as the tunnels beneath the
streets,” Rick said. ”We almost froze
checking those things out in the wee hours of
the morning. The underground passages
were something else. Down there it must
have been over 100 degrees. Working down
there, then coming back into the open where
it waa freezing really hurt.”
Rick and I caught up on all the family newz
before he and his team ztrapped themselves
into the chopper for the hour’s ride back to
Columbia, 8. C.
-oOo-
And speaking of police acUvlty. . . .
A dtlzen called in a strange bit of In-
fCrmation last Wednesday.
“I want to report a man,” the caller aald.
“What about him?” the dispatcher aaked.
“He’s naked as a Jayblrdl”
The young dtlsen waa taking a shortcut
through the woods to his home when he
flushed another young man from the bushes.
Both at them were surprised. The first fellow
moreso because the man from the bushes
was wearing only a startled expression
above his birthday suit.
Speaking to the North Carolina House
Insurance Committee in Raleigh on
Tuesday, Assistant Federal Insurance
Administrator, Frank Reilly, told the
general assembly members of the com
mittee that recommendations from a paid
consultant to develop Insurance legislation
sounded much like views the Federal Ad
ministration Office hears from Kemper
Insurance.
That consultant, John Hall, la on the Ad
visory Board of Kemper.
Reilly then went on to say that North
Carolina had been an innovator in insurance
reform under Insurance Commissioner John
Ingram. Reilly aald North Carolina was in
better shape for the consumer and the in
surance Industry than any state in the
nation. Reilly said New York’s major
RG^D€R DIMOGUG
My sincere appreciation
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing with sincere appreciation in
regards to one of your business dtlsens —
Sam Scott, Jr., owner of East King Exxon.
On the night of Friday the 18th and all day
the 14th I had an unfortunate occurance. I
had had work done a second time on my
camper in Shelby and I was really disap
pointed in the results.
When I got to Kings Mountain I found I
couldn’t continue my trip. I waa forced to
pull in at the East King Exxon Station.
Sam Scott and his staff went out of their
way to be kind and had an overall decent
attitude to me over my unscheduled stop.
Having been "stuck” a second time on my
camper repairs left me with a most un-
deslreable attitude. A few kind words from
Mr. Scott brought me back to reality and a
mors cheerful outlook.
The young man chzMed the naked man
through the woods, but when they hit the
railroad track the naked runner was gone
like a Jackrabblt.
‘Chief Lloyd said the naked runner should
be easy to identify. He’ll be the one with the
scratch marks all over his body.
“I followed the route through the woods he
took,” the chief said. “He ran through
briars, and tore off limbs in his flight”
The chief said police know the IdentUy of
the streaker and where he lives. ’The
problem is he was not identified by anyone
who saw him running publicly in the buff and
he made It home before the police nailed
him.
WelllU, they call him The Streaker.
Fastest thlngon two feet....
Don’t look, Ethel!
•aOo-
Oalllng all sidewalk superintendents!
According to Gene White, executive
director of the Klnga Mountain
Redevelopment Oommlzslon, Bradley-
Jenkins Co. will be in town Mon., June 380 to
demoUsh mere condemned buildings.
The buildings slated to go are from the
comer of S. Cherokee St. down to Ckiftln
Drug Co. Lewis Dellinger and Bill Fulton
have outlet stores set up in these buildings
now, but will be out by next weekend.
The buildings from Warllck Insurance to
the comer of S. Piedmont St. are also dated
to go — that la if the city removes sunilles
stored in them presently. This section
belongs to the city and wiU be used in con
nection with renovation of the present. city
hall as the police department when the
admlnUtrative, business and fire depart
ments move into the new Governmental
Services Facilities Building to be con
structed on the farmer Bonnie Mill property
on W. Gold St.
A RENDEZNOUS. WITH YESTERDAY
The old house brags about a now face
But deep roots remain the same.
With towering oaks reaching upward
Shading the veneer frame.
Fancy columns have been replaced
^e trimmings on the double door.
The mimosa tree still blossoms pink
As in bright days of yore.
Memories echoes are sounding ^
Sweetly ringing ’ore the hill.
In the touching, bittersweet eventide
I reminisce by the watermill,
A house niay change the face
But the ghosts remain the same,
Andpaaalan fiowera on the vine
Bears no other name.
The spring day seems identical
Except a different calendar year.
The same bright sun is shining
On a spot that warrants revere
The sky overtiead portrays
The same wonderment of blue.
Misty mountains scallop the skyUne
With the same astounding view.
Morning glories open to greet the dew ^
In the Cherry trees bluebirds sing.
In a rosy arbor beside the veranda
The breeze moves an empty swing
The old house brags about a new face
And a coat of brick veneer.
But the mimosa tree stlU blossoms pink
As another time and another year.
VIVIAN STEWART BILTCLIFFE
problems prove that higher rates do not
stdve the problem.
A consiuner who came all the way from
Stokes Cfounty was irate over the possible
increases that both the House and Senate
bills could bring If passed. By Hall’s own
admission, the Increase would be 64 million
dollars alone the first year.
Mrs. Elsie Dearmln expressed those
concerns to reporters. She said about 300
women will drop all their insurance and
continue to drive their cars without in
surance If the general assembly approves a
bfil that would strip the sUte insurance
commissioner of authority and increase
Insurance rates.
Mrs. Dearmln said her movement would
qnead across the state.
How Laws Grow
He let my party and I use his phone and
park my camper overnight on his lot. TTw
nextday when I rented a truck, Sam and his
staff located a ramp and hefoed us load the
VW camper Into the track for transport. So,
an in all, the trip wasn’t too bad, even though
I am disgusted with the performance of
Narron Auto Parts in Shelby.
I suggest if you want tourist to come end
spend their time and money, have more
courteous and responrible stations like Sam
Scott’s.
Words caimot e)q>ress my gratitude for
this gentteman and your remarkable City of
Kings Mountain. I hope Mr. Scott wlU be
commended for thU, and I’m sure,
numerous other courtesies he has extended
to travelers througti your city.
mWARD P. BIARLER
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Tar Heels set an example
On June 6,1917, a nationwide registration
was held for the draft in World War One.
North Carolina set an example In patiioUam
that day for the rest of the nation, one that
provides a sharp contrast to the sorry
q>ectacle provided In our own recent past by
draft-card burners and other “peaceniks.”
There were parades instead at demon
strations, and six percent more men (ages
31-80) actually reglstersd thsui the census
had Indicated were In the state’s population.
A total of 480,401 men signed up, and draft
officials later speculated that many had
actually lied about their ages in order to
register!
-oOo-
On June 10, ISCI, Heniy Lawson Wyatt, of
Edgecombe County, earned the unfortunate
distinction at being the first Confederate
soldier killed In action. He was killed at Big
Bethel, Va, In the Ovll War’s first batUe, a
Confederate vlctoiy now described by
historians as a “minor, scrambling con
tact.”
North Carolina supplied more men to the
war than any other Southern state, 136,000 in
an. It also suffered the greatest casultles,
some 40,000 klUed.
-oOo-
On June 6, 1844, the HUtorleal Society of
North CkroUna held Its first meeting, in
Chapel HIU.
The association was organised by U. N. C.
Preaident David L. Swain, who had earlier
S* OTTH
been, at 81, the stote’s youngest governor
(1883-86). Swain was responsible for
preservaUon of many of the state’s priceless
early records, without which today’s
historians would be lost
-oOo-
WUllam Sidney Porter, ”0. Henry,” one of
America’s most fonwus wrtUrs, died at hU
home near WeavervlUe, N. C., near
AshevUle, on June 6, 1010. He Is burled in
Artievllle’s Riverside Cemetery, not far
from the grave of the state’s other most-
lamoiw author, Thomas Wolfe.
Porter was also bom In North Carolina,
near Greensboro in 1883, and was raised in
that city. He moved to ’Texas at the age of 19
to work on a ranch owiMd by friends In North
Carolina. Later convicted at bank fraud (on
circumstantial evidence) Porter served time
In an Ohio prison, then moved to New York
dty to beg^ his writing career. One at this
nation’s most prolific writers, he often
produced a short story a weak for
newspapers, usually containing the surprise
ending that became hU trademark.
-oOo-
Benjamln Hawkins, of Warrenton, one of
this state’s original U. S. Senators, died June
8, 1818. Hawkins had earlier served In the
Continental Congress. He resigned hlz
Senate seat in 1796, when ^>polntad by
President Washington as Indian Agent to the
Creek Nation. Sincerely Interested In thSi'
welfare of the original Americans, Hawkins
served for twenty years as Agent, earning
the title from then "Beloved Man of Four
Nattons,” the Creek, Choctaw, Oierokoe and
Chickasaw tribes.
ns nephew, WUUam Hawklm, served as
his assistant for a few yeara, then returned
to North Carolina to enter politics, serving as
Oovemor of the state during the War of 1813.
•oOo-
Locke Craig, of Bertie County died on June
9, 1936. He served as Governor (1918-1?)
during a period when the state was unusually
well-represented In notional affairs. Former
N. C. rssldent Woodrow Wilson had ap
pointed Josephus DanleU Secretary of tl»
Navy. David F. Houston Secretary of
Agriculture, and Walter Hines page am
bassador to England.