Foothills View
Second Class Postage Paid In Boiling Springs, N. C. 29017
Thurs., Oct. 22, 1981
‘We See It Your Way
FOR REFERENGH
JVot to be taken from Library
GAROm WEBB COLLEGE LIBRARY
i
How Mecklenburg
Sees Cleveland
Blalocks Named
All Cleveland County once belonged to Mecklenburg County,
and Mecklenburg has never forgotten It.
In 1841 Cleveland was created from Rutherford and Lincoln
counties, wrote the late Lee Weathers, and in his “Living Past of
Cleveland County,” Weathers continued the genealogy back to
the begetting county: out of Tryon, Rutherford and Lincoln
counties in 1779; and in 1768 Tryon out of Mecklenburg county.
Mecklenburg ever since has tended to be possessive of the
western counties, and, particularly in its large-town newspaper, to
speak of them as if it were speaking for them. It’s easy to dismiss
this tendency as metropolitan arrogance, but it’s worth knowing.
There’s a certain truth in how people perceive us to be that’s
independent of what we’re to be: just as a mirror can tell us much
about ourselves even though it doesn’t accurately refiect right
from left.
How Mecklenburg sees Cleveland can tell us truths that we
don’t see when we look at such native gatherings as the County
Fair or Cleveiand Tech’s “County in Transition” program. I’ve
collected some impressions of Cleveiand County from
Mecklenburg people who’ve known and lived in Cieveiand
County. Here’s what they see:
“Oh, the fo-o-od,” smiled Pat Borden, and rolled her eyes
heavenward. Pat, now a feature writer for the Charlotte Observer,
began her journalistic career in Cleveland County covering Kings
Mountain, Patterson Springs, and Grover. Even today her
memory of Cleveland County is a cornucopia of thick-sliced
tomatoes, fresh corn, and blackberry pies. Pat is of the serious
opinion that nowhere else do journalists eat as well as on the
Cleveland Countv beat.
“But what about the battle of Lattimore school?” agked Patsy
Cornwell, wife of Cleveland County native Charles Cornwell.
That, too, was a happy meal as I treated this coupip to a
celebration breakfast in Charlotte. Charles, after a distinguished
career as an English professor at Davidson College, was
answering a call to study for the ministry at Union Seminary;
Patsy was to begin research on a biography of Ruth Graham, the
evangelist’s wife.
Within a year Charles would know Greek and the book would
bring Patsy $40,000. But what about the battle of Lattimore
school?
“Oh, I was about six or seven years old,” said Charles, “and
was being teased unmercifully by a classmate at Lattimore
“Well, we got into a fight in the schoolyard, and I was getting
the worse of it,” he continued. Suddenly, with the same wit that
one day would serve him well in seminary, Charles noticed that
his opponent’s overalls hung by but one button. Quick as thought
he unhooked it. With the pants tumbling to his feet, Cornwell’s
opponent had to make a sudden, inglorious retreat. Charles has
fought, and won, many battles since that day, but the first was
best at Lattimore.
An authoritative fellow has the last word on Cleveland. “You,
there, Robertson,’ 1 felt a hand fall on my shoulder. On the other
end was Jack Claiborne, an associate editor of the Observer and a
scholar of some note. We’d met at Tech’s program, “Cleveland in
Transition.”
“I want you to go back to Cleveland County,” Jack said, “and
find out for me why they produce so many fine writers there. ”
He named them: “Hatcher Hughes, who won the Pulitzer Prize,
LeeJ. Weathers, W.J. Cash,” Jack rocked back and forth as he
spoke, looking for all the world like a country schoolmaster calling
the roll of pupils in which he is well pleased, “Kays Gary, Johnny
McKnight, Pete McKnight....”
Cleveland County is thought of as the home of such talented
people and it is as home that Cleveland County thinks of them.
“Do you know Pete McKnight?” a businessman asked me at a
Rotary luncheon. “Why, he’s the most brilliant man to come out
The Rotarian did not know, or care, that Pete McKnight, former
editor of both the Charlotte News and the Observer, has received
accolates from corporate presidents and national politicians.
What’s important is Shelby, and that Pete is the best that home
has produced. It is as home that so many see Cleveland. And
that’s the best View of all.
Family of Year
“I’m just putting
in barley,” Jim Bla
lock said Monday
night. The Boiling
Springs farmer was
interviewed the first
work week after the
Blalocks were named
Farm Bureau’s Fam
ily of the Year last
Thursday.
Blalock, 37, and his
wife Nancy received
the award along with
their two children,
Jenny, 9, and John,
13. Blalock is the son
of Mr. and Mrs.
Hoyle Blalock of
Boiling Springs.
Farm Bureau pres
ents the award annu
ally to a full-time
farmer in the county
who is active in
community work and
the Bureau. About
150 people saw the
Blalocks receive the
award Thursday
n ight.
Farm Family of the Yean lim Blalock, his wife barney,
from left, their daughter Jenny, and son John.
“I farm 325 acres
in cotton,” Blalock
said Monday, “and
400 acres in soy
beans. 1 double-crop
the soybeans with
barley.”
Blalock graduated
from Gardner-Webb
in 1965 and from
N.C. State Univers
ity in 1967 “Nancy
went back to Gard-
y“o Skc’s Homecoming
ed her degree,” he
said.
Queen
Blalock is a mem
ber of Farm Bur
eau’s board of direc
tors, a deacon at
Boiling Springs Bap
tist, and a former
committee member
of ASCS.
Police At Edge
Of Local Arrest
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Four months’ police work will come down
to an arrest Tuesday for a breaking and
entering last summer at West Cleveland
School.
Boiling Springs police, as the View went to
press Tuesday morning, were planning to
arrest Phil Eugene Walton on charges of
breaking and entering and possession of
stolen property, according to patrolman Dan
Ledbetter.
Walton, 18, is. from the Roiling Springs
area.
Officer James Clary has been investigat
ing the break-in since fast July, according to
Ledbetter. Police also expect to recover two
tape recorders reported as stolen, he said.
Area News
Doug Mayes will be filming “On the Square’’ at C^nder-
Webb College next Tue.sday, October 27th, at 12:00 noon.
Gardner-Webb College will host several homecoming
activities on Saturday, Oct. 24, with barbeque and blue-
^ grass music highlighting the noon hour and the Gardner-
; Webb - Carson - Newman football game being the feature
of the afternoon.
At 10:30 a.m. the Alumni Board of the college will meet.
A traditional homecoming parade will stream through
Bolling Springs.
The “Let’s Honk’’ band will provide country and blue
grass music while everyone enjoys a meal of barbeque
in the Bost Gymnasium from 12-1:30 p.m. The Bulldog
football team will take on Carson-Newman at 2 pjn.
During the entire day, the Dover Memorial Library will
have a book sale in front of the library building.
• •
Kiersten Kirk, 17, was crowned homecoming
queen of Crest H^h School last Friday night.
Kiersten is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Charies Kirk. Crest High won the following
footbaU game with East Gaston 13-7.