PAGE 2
Mnwi
APRIL, 1959
YOUR LEISURE-TIME NOTEBOOK
Spring Calendar Sparkles With Travel Ideas
On his last day of work here,
Avery Carpenter (right), got a
last long feel of some bobbins
of cotton filling yeirn. Fellow
workers put a gift of money in
an envelope, for presentation
by Spinning overseer Sam
Guffey.
Behind Him-A Half Century
Of Memories In Textiles
A week before he retired,
Avery W. Carpenter puffed out
all 65 candles on his birthday
cake. After his last day of work
here on March 2, he left for
home at 531 Windsor avenue,
carrying with him the memor
able events of a half century as
a worker in textiles.
By the time he was 16 years
old, he was “well-up” on his job
in the cloth room at the old
Loray Mill, now Firestone Tex
tiles. In the years that have en
sued, he has worked at various
times in four other Gaston
county mills, and for six years
on a spinning job at Schoolfield,
near Danville, Va.
During World War I he put in
several months as a medical
corpsman with the Army, then
returned here for more work in
the mills. He came to Firestone
in 1942, from the job in Virginia.
During most of the time since
that, he has been a spinner, ex
cept for some time as a doffer,
and the last 14 months as a
spindle oiler.
ALONG the way of almost
50 years around the whirring
spindles, Mr, Carpenter has
watched a revolution in the im
provement of machines, in
creased efficiency of operation,
more and better production, and
the addition of a host o f
“fringe” benefits for mill em
ployees.
In retirement, Mr. Carpenter
reckons he’ll do many things he
has lacked time for, during his
years of production.
“I’d like to do a little more
gardening. Especially help my
wife with growing the flowers
she loves so much.
“As for traveling—well. I’ve
never been much of a hand at
that,” he confesses. “But I may
take to it all right. My wife’s
been wanting me to go with her
on an airplane trip to visit some
of the kinfolks in Virginia.
Could be I’ll try it.”
Two Departments Qualified
In RC Group Blood Plan
Firestone people wrote an
other chapter into the history of
human concern and community
service when the Red Cross
bloodmobile made its visit to the
plant recently.
A total of 180 pints was con
tributed.
For the second consecutive
visit of the bloodmobile, two
Firestone departments qualified
under the group blood donor
credit card plan. These were the
Mechanical department, and Of
fice and Supervision.
Under the Red Cross group
plan, an entire plant or business
having 1,000 or more employees
can qualify for a six-month
period, when 15 per cent of em
ployees donate blood.
Also, departments can qualify
separately, each donating 25
pints or 20 per cent for total em
ployees—whichever is larger—
within the period covered by a
six-month agreement.
The two departments here
qualified on the 20 per cent basis
when the mobile came last Au
gust, and again on the last visit
early this year.
The group system allows a
credit card to each employee of
a qualifying department. It en
titles the card holder and certain
members of his or her household
to receive all blood they might
need, so long as blood is avail
able.
Blood is supplied card holders
and their families in hospitals
not participating in the plan,
provided the hospital involved
will accept replacement on a
pint-for-pint basis, when blood
is available.
As always, persons who do
nate blood but are not included
in a group plan have individual
eligibility through the Red
Cross blood program.
Have you been in the habit of
sending smaller-than-average
envelopes through the mail? The
kind like bread-and-butter notes
and birth announcements.
The Post Office department
has announced that letters in
envelopes smaller than 2% by
4 inches will not be accepted for
mailing in the United States af
ter July 1, 1959.
Good fishing; blooming wildflowers, shrubs and
trees; a round of festivals, garden tours and
sports events. Put them together and you have a
touch of variety and excitement for the April
travel calendar in the Carolinas.
Whether a short trip near home, an overnight
or more lengthy vacation tour. Plant Recreation
hopes your life will be brightened by travel this
spring and summer. So, these monthly notes are
designed to suggest places and events of interest
for your travel planning.
April is known for its flowers blooming across
the Carolinas from the coast toward the mile-high
mountain crests. The flower show, beginning in
late winter with camellia blossoms on the sea
board, moves westward, to reach a peak in the
mountains in June. By mid-April dogwood, the
state flower, is in bloom in the Piedmont.
SEVERAL TOURS of homes and gardens are
scheduled in the North State during the fourth
month. The 10th annual Homes and Gardens
Tour at Southern Pines is set for April 15. The
Pilgrimage of Colonial Edenton and Countryside,
on US 17, is April 17, 18. Among other homes and
gardens tours in the state: Greensboro, April 15,
16; Charlotte, 11, 12, and 18, 19; Hillsboro, 25, 26.
At the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh, the W. R.
Valentiner Memorial Exhibition will continue
through May 17. The exhibition—free to the pub
lic—features more than 100 masterpieces of art
lent by 31 major museums and private collectors
in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Museum hours: Tuesday-Saturday: 10 a.m. to
5 p.m.; Sunday 2-6 p.m. Closed Mondays.
Outstanding among spring festivals in North
Carolina are the 11th annual Mountain Youth
Pirates Jam
boree affords a
journey into
early 18th cen
tury history. It
will be a remind
er of such notori
ous plunderers as
Blackbeard, who
terrorized colon
ists and attacked
Carolinas' coastal
trade.
Jamboree at Asheville, April 15-18; and the fifth
annual Dare Coast Pirates Jamboree in coastal
Dare county, April 24-26.
At the Youth Jamboree youngsters from pre
school age to late ’teens demonstrate lively
square dancing and play folk music which dates
back to the days of the first settlers in the Great
Smokies and Blue Ridge mountains.
The Pirates Jamboree officially launches the
surf-and-sun season on the Outer Banks Islands
from Kitty Hawk to Cape Hatteras. At this col
orful event the spotlight is on the Jolly Roger,
sinister flag under which bearded badmen of a
bygone era plundered trade along the Carolinas’
coast. Among highlights are fishing contests,
pony and jeep races, fish fry on Hatteras, a
model-plane flying contest, and the Pirates’ Ball
at Nags Head.
Of other festive events, two will be in Chapel
Hill: Carolina Folk Festival, April 18; and Caro
lina Dramatic Art Festival, 23-25.
APRIL BRINGS opportunity for amusement,
sightseeing and recreation in the western part
of the state. At Hendersonville, you can go on
a “Spring Comes to the Mountains” Nature tour,
April 15-19. Dates of the ninth annual Spring
Wildflower Pilgrimage in the Great Smoky Moun
tains: April 23-25.
The 10th season of the Museum of the Chero
kee Indian opens April 15 and lasts through Oc
tober. And from spring through autumn at Chero
kee you can visit the Oconaluftee Indian Village,
authentic reproduction of a Cherokee community
of 200 years ago. Indians from the Qualla Reser
vation show visitors around the village, where
Cherokee craftsmen in traditional dress show
their skills at basketry, pottery making, weav
ing and beadwork.
All sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway will be
open for motor travel late this month. Recrea
tion facilities along this skytop boulevard are in
operation from early May.
Note to fishermen: Most trout streams in West
ern North Carolina are open from early April
through August 31.
From the Outer Banks to the beaches near Wil
mington and Southport, April is a top month for
surf fishing. All ocean fishing piers open during
the month.
A FISHING MAP for beaches in the Wilming
ton area is free on request to the Wilmington
Chamber of Commerce. The map is complete with
tide tables, locale of inlets and wrecks that are
favorite fishing spots, and a fishing calendar
which tells you where and when to catch ’em,
and what to use for bait.
Plant Recreation suggests you include in your
travel plans a visit to one of America’s latest
major historical restorations—the Palace of North
Carolina Royal Governor William Tryon at New
Bern. The stately Georgian main structure and
two wings linked by colonnades were opened to
the public early this month.
In its early days the Palace not only served as
the State’s first established seat of government,
but was the home of its last two royal governors,
the meeting place of the first state legislature,
and scene of the inaugural of the state’s first two
governors after independence was declared.
The restoration project lavished almost seven
years and more than $3 million to turn back the
clock and put the Palace in royal dress again. The
restored central structure is equipped with price
less pre-1770 furniture and art treasures. Its de
cor, carpets and fabrics—the kind used in the
great houses of England during the 18th cen
tury—make it one of the handsomest of colonial
restorations.
This historic shrine is now the property of the
State of North Carolina, and is administered by
the Tryon Palace Commission. Hostesses in 18th
century dress conduct visitors on Palace tours.
Hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays ex
cept Mondays; and 1:30 to 4:00 p.m. on Sundays.
CARELESSNESS COSTS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
Why Be Part Of A Growing National Problem?
each year just for cleaning up primary
highways.
* Litter is a traffic hazard. BetMreen 750
and 1000 persons are killed in accidents each
year as a result of vehicles hitting or swerv
ing to avoid litter on roads and streets.
* It causes erosion when highway drain
age systems become clogged.
Litter is a menace to health. Diseases
are spread by rodents which thrive on re
fuse and debris scattered by litterbugs.
* It is a fire hazard. Litter-caused fires
throughout the country cost more than $70
million in damages annually, to say nothing
of personal injury and loss of life.
Beyond all this, there is a price, that can
not be reckoned in terms of dollars, property
damage, injuries and fatalities. That price is
the distressing eyesores that mar the natural
beauty of our America. Think on these
things when you are tempted to be a litter-
bug.
This year the American people will spend
almost $2 billion on toilet articles, including
soap, toothpaste, deodorants and the like.
Expenditures in barber and beauty shops
will total about $1.8 billion. Additional bil
lions will be spent on household appliances
such as washing machines, and on the elec
tricity and water supplies used in cleaning
operations.
You’d think that these boxcar figures are
an indication that Americans are wholly de
voted to the matter of cleanliness.
Why, then, do we continue to practice the
slothful habit of littering highways, streets,
sidewalks, parks and other public places—
and private property—with all kinds of
trash?
Litter is a national problem, costly to all
the American people. These facts suggest
something of the bigness of the problem:
* More than $50 million is being spent