YOUR LEISURE-TIME NOTEBOOK
March Brings Another Play Season Outdoors
BAY STREET SOUVENIRS—Fireslone people (from left) Roy
Fullbright, Boyd Bolynn and P. E. Savage line up some of the
Bahamas souvenirs Ihey brought back from Nassau's famed straw
market on Bay street.
Bahamas Trip For Employees
Members of four Firestone
families were among more than
750 persons from the United
States who attended special
meetings earlier this year in
Nassau, marking the Golden An
niversary of planting Church of
God mission stations in the Ba
hamas.
Making the trip to the British
crown colony islands in the
South Atlantic were Mr. and
Thomas L. Yelton who with
Mrs. Yelton and their two sons,
will go to Argentina in May.
Yelton To Join
Argentine Staff
A position on the management
staff of the company’s textile
plant in Argentina is the up
coming assignment for Thomas
L. Yelton, who joined Firestone
at Gastonia in January this year.
Until early May, when he will
leave for the Argentina plant,
Mr. Yelton will be in a training
program, familiarizing himself
with all phases of the Gastonia
operation, as background for his
work at the Llallavoll factory, a
few miles from Buenos Aires.
IN HIS new assignment he
will succeed Jesse Williams,
who went from Gastonia to
Llallavoll in March of 1958. Mr.
Williams is being transferred to
the company’s textile plant at
Sao Paulo, Brazil.
March, 1960
Page 5
Mrs. Roy Fullbright of Spooling,
Boyd Bolynn of Twisting (cot
ton) and Mrs. Bolynn of Twist
ing (synthetics), P. E. Savage of
Twisting (synthetics), Mervin
Huffman of Spinning and Mrs.
Huffman; and the Huffman chil
dren, Leona and Mervin L.
These were among several
persons from Gastonia Church
of God congregations joining
others from the area and across
the country for the trip by
chartered boat from Miami.
They traveled on the Bahama
Star the 190 miles to Nassau,
capital of New Providence
Island, and were quartered on
the vessel the three days they
were there for the meetings in
churches and a special rally in
an open-air sports field.
The Firestone people, attend
ing the meetings as lay leaders
of the Church of God, took a
hurried sightseeing tour of his
toric landmarks in Nassau, com
mercial and social center of the
colony.
Mr. Yelton was graduated
from high school in his home
town of Rutherfordton, N. C.,
and received the bachelor of
science degree in textile engi
neering from Clemson College in
1952. Before entering Clemson,
he served two years with the
U. S. Marine Corps.
In manufacturing since grad
uation from Clemson, Yelton has
been associated with three of
the country’s leading textile
producers of cotton and syn
thetics materials.
Mr. and Mrs. Yelton and sons,
Bruce, 10, and Gary, 4, live on
Craig avenue in Gastonia. The
family has already begun to at
tend to details associated with
their upcoming trip to South
America.
Oldest fiber-yielding plant for
use in weaving fabrics is
thought to be hemp, a tall an
nual native to Asia, but culti
vated elsewhere for its bast (in
ner fiber) content. Artisans in
China were producing hemp fab
rics on their crude looms almost
3,000 years before the birth of
Christ. Hemp is today a major
source of fiber for making paper,
and such textile products as
cordage, utility bags, and can
vas.
In the Mid-South, March
empties her treasure chest to
bring the spring flower and out
door season of pageantry, festi
vals, tournaments and other
special attractions. Nature, up
from her winter slumber, slips
into her gayest outfit, bringing
to Firestone travelers the urge
to take to the road and enjoy
another play season outdoors.
That’s the way Plant Recreation
puts it, in posting some travel
cues for March.
Outstanding on the travel
scene are flower shows and
home and garden tours, which
have become traditional in
North and South Carolina. Lead
ing off in the No"th State is the
Charlotte Men’s Camellia Club
Show, March 12-13; Albemarle
Camellia Show, Elizabeth City,
12-13; Eastern Carolina Camel
lia Society Show, Rocky Mount,
19-20.
The North Carolina Azalea
Festival, March 31-April 3, is
historic Wilmington’s biggest
annual event.
Boat Show This Month;
Other Sports Events
Of special interest to many
employees are the boat shows,
outstanding of which is the Mid-
Southern Sportsman’s Show
sponsored by Piedmont Boat
Club, Winston-Salem, March 17-
20.
Other sports events include
14th annual Fayetteville-Fort
Bragg Dog Show, Fayetteville,
March 27; 100-mile trail ride,
Tryon, March 29-April 1; Azalea
Open PGA Golf Tournament,
Wilmington, 31-April 3; and
Tommy Steiner Rodeo, Greens
boro coliseum, 31-April 3.
Charlotte will be host to Ring-
ling Brothers Barnum & Bailey
Circus, March 16-20.
“Easter the Awakening,” per
ennial springtime favorite pro
gram at Morehead Planetarium
of the University of North Caro
lina, Chapel Hill, begins March
15 and lasts through April 25.
Southern Pines has scheduled
its Antique Show for March 23-
25. It is sponsored by Moore
County Historical Association.
The State Choral Concert at
Greensboro is set for March 31
through April 3.
At the North Carolina Museum
of Art, Raleigh, the “New Euro
pean Painting and Sculpture”
exhibit, which began in Febru
ary, will continue through April
30. The Museum, outstanding
cultural center and favorite
travelers’ attraction in the State
Capital, contains a $5,000,000
permanent collection of master-
works. Open free the year
round, admission hours are:
10 A.M. to 5 P.M. each weekday
except Monday; and 2-6 P.M.
Sunda'^'^s. The building is on
Firestone Scholar
On Dean’s List
Peggy Davis, senior student on
a Firestone scholarship, was one
of three from Gaston county
who was included on the dean’s
list for the semester ending
early this year at High Point
College. To earn this distinction,
a student must pursue at least
12 semester hours of academic
work, and attain a grade average
of 2.5 points.
PeggY) one of six from the
Gastonia area to win Firestone
college scholarships through the
year 1959, is the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Harry Davis of 219
West Seventh avenue. Her moth-
Capital Square in downtown
Raleigh.
New Season for Surf.
Freshwater Fishing
Anglers will welcome the surf
and freshwater fishing season,
when late March brings the big
spring run of channel bass to
coastal waters, and bass and
panfish show greater interest in
lure or bait. Early April brings
a new season to ocean fishing
piers, and the opening of some
trout streams in the Blue Ridge
and Great Smokies.
A request to the Wilmington
chamber of commerce will bring
you a copy of a fishing map,
complete with tide tables, loca
tion of inlets and wrecks that
are good fishing spots, tips on
when and where to catch ’em
and recommended baits.
You can now travel by car all
of North Carolina’s Outer Banks
from Kitty Hawk to Calabash.
On the new island-to-mainland
ferry, you can take your car
across Pamlico ''jound, then drive
to the lower coast of North Caro
lina.
Firestone travelers interested
in this historic area of the State
— with its fabulous fishing, sand
beaches and colorful villages—
may have a free pictorial book
let on the Ocean Highway (US
17). Write to Chesapeake Re
search Bureau, 207 East Red
wood avenue, Baltimore 2, Md.
er is a quiller operator here.
The scholar’s program at High
Point is leading to a major in
elementary education and a
minor in religion. She is doing
practice teaching in the public
school system, as a part of the
requirement for her degree and
certification in education.
ROBERT RHYNE, RETIRED
His First Job In Textiles Paid 18c A Day
When he was five years old, he watched men
and mules dig the foundation for what is now
the main section of the Firestone plant in Gas
tonia. That was 1900. Three years later Robert
Rhyne was keeping up two sides of a spinning
frame at a Lincolnton mill and earning 18 cents
a day.
On December 17, 1903, someone ran between
the spinning frames, shouting the news that the
Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk had successfully
flown the first powered aircraft.
From those beginnings to his retirement here
in early February, Rhyne logged 56 years in tex
tile mills — more than 24 of them at Firestone.
He has known a variety of jobs; oiler, sweeper,
card stripper, speeder tender, carding overhaul
er. Besides Firestone and the mill where he had
his first job, he worked at several other places —
one as far afield as Danville, Va. He used to come
home to Gastonia on week-ends, making good
time in his Model T.
HIS YEARS of mill life harbor other memories,
too. There were the “railway” cards before the
revolving machine in general use today . . . the
age of steam-power manufacturing . . . and days
when a man could leave his machine to pluck
a few blackberries or run an errand, returning
in time to doff a frame of yarn.
More significant are recollections of change —
to better machines and improved working condi
tions, increased quality, better employee benefits
and more pay. “And it’s all to the good,” he says.
On his last day of work here, Mr. Rhyne re
called that he had never had an injury on the
job, nor had he missed a week’s work because of
sickness. Upon his leaving, friends on the job
presented him a gift of money. Someone guessed
he’d spend a little of it to buy natural rubber for
some slingshots — the kind he had been making
for more than 55 years, as target-shooting pieces.
Beyond his hobby, he will paint his house on
Club drive, dabble in the garden, and spend some
time this summer at Balls Creek Methodist Camp
Ground, where he and Mrs. Rhyne have a cabin.
SLINGSHOTS — At home on Club drive, re
tiree Rhyne checks materials for his pastime
craft — making slingshots of wooden forks,
leather, thongs and strips of rubber. He has made
hundreds of slings for use in target shooting. In
proper hands, the piece drives with amazing
accuracy.