Brightening The Corner For Christmas
The crossroads at Boil
ing Springs was brightened
early this week when the
Christmas lights and
decorations went up
downtown, adding
seasonal sparkle to the
night. Aside from those
bedecking the light poles,
perhaps the earliest
decorated tree in town was
this one at the Wagon
Wheel Restaurant, shining
in a window facing College
Road.
( 3 T'd n e I - - w e b b C o .1. .1 e d e
Specie! Collections
Box 836
o i 1 i n 3 S P r i r i s ? N C .i;
L. 1 b T' a r a
8017
The Foothills View
BIk. Postage Paid
Friday, December 2, 1983
BOILING SPRINGS NC
Permit No. 15 • Address Correction Requested
SINGLE COPY 15 CENTS
Destruction...
The numbness of shock gave
way to the need to move ahead
this week for Dean and Becky
Putnam, of Mt. Sinai Church
Road. Their house a framework
of charred timbers, the Putnams
began sifting through the cinders
and rubble to account for exact
ly what they had lost.
Wednesday Becky Putnam sat
on her heels in an upstairs
hallway, pad and pencil in hand.
Around her lay scraps of burned
clothes and shoes and remains of
the family’s personal effects. A
list has to be made, she said, for
the insurance company.
It’s a sad sight, but the Put
nams are grateful for their
almost last-second escape from
the fire which roared through
the brick and single split-level
house in the early morning
darkness last Friday. It was a fire
that brought out eight fire
departments, including Boiling
Springs and Boiling Springs
Rural.
It was about 3 a.m., Mrs. Put
nam said, when the shattering of
a sliding glass door downstairs
wake the soundly sleeping pair,
in their upstairs bedroom. Their
daughter Allison, 18, and her
visiting friend, Jackie Laye, were
asleep in the room across the
hall.
“1 ran and started banging on
our daughter’s door,” Mrs. Put
nam said. While she was trying
to rouse the girls the attic fan
fell, and the heat singed her hair.
Mrs. Putnam ran to the phone
and it was dead - the lines
already burned.
“1 kept hearing Allison calling,
“Mama! Mama!” 1 had no idea
she was outside. But she was.
The girls had gotten outside.” In
the smoke no one could see
anyone; “1 had no idea what
smoke could do to you,” Mrs.
Putnam said. “It just engulfs
you.”
While her husband tried vain
ly to save belongings from the
house Mrs. Putnam said she ran
to a neighbor’s house to call for
help. “1 was barefooted and
about half dressed,” she said.
Firemen were hindered by
running out of water, which
they finally tapped from the
family’s swimming pool. They
were also thwarted by spewing
gas from a propane tank, after its
%•' . ' . m
a
t tKi k
0 I
The back side of the Dean Putnams' home on Mt. Sinai Church Road shows the devastation of
last Friday morning's fire, from which the family miraculously escaped.
safety valve blew out. The origin
of the fire was either a leak in the
gas line or a defective switch on
the heater in a hot tub, the fami
ly said.
The extent of the damage is
still being assessed, but it is
severe. The Putnams have
brought in a mobile home to live
in. while they decide what to do
with the burned out shell of their
home. About all that was saved
was a couple of antique guns.
It was a hosue they had built
themselves about 20 years ago
and had added the pool and the
hot tub and a satellite dish and
such niceties as came along.
Now' remains of scorched mat
tresses and furniture await
removal from the lawn, and the
focus now is on starting over.
“As for inside, everything’s
gone,” Becky Putnam says,
surveying the ruins from the
steps of the trailer. “We are just
thankful-so thankful-that we all
got out. From three o’clock that
morning, our neighbors have
been there, helping us. We didn’t
know how many good neighbors
we had. We will never be able to
repay what they’ve done for us.”
Will the Putnams rebuild, if
the house must be demolished?
“I’m not going anywhere,”
Mrs. Putnam says. “This is our
home. We’re strong and young.
W e can Stan auain.
...But Not Despair
Becky Putnam rests briefly on the steps of the mobile home
that is their temporary shelter, while the family inventories
the losses in their burned home. "We^re strong and weVe
young -- we can start again/' she says.
McBrayer Services
At Sandy Run
Edwin Yates McBrayer was
buried Sunday afternoon in San
dy Run Church cemetery. Fle
died Nov. 25 at Crawley
Memorial Hospital, at the age of
79.
Born Feb. 10, 1904 at the old
McBrayer farm on Sandy Run
Creek, he was the son of the late
John E. and Margaret Lovelace
McBrayer. His wife, Helen Blan
ton McBrayer, preceded him in
death.
Mr. McBrayer attended
school in Mooresboro, high
school at Boiling Springs and
Gardner-Webb College. His wife
was a college classmate. He went
to work after graduating for the
state highway department, runn
ing a motor grader, but a severe
case of pneumonia 10 years later
forced him to find an inside job.
So McBrayer found a job,
then, with the Ga.ston County
Health Department. He became
the senior sanitarian, inspecting
sanitary conditions at
restaurants, rest homes,
hospitals, food markets and
other public places. He worked
there until he was 70. retiring
after 32 years.
His hobby said his son John
Robert, was an unusual one —
he loved to but grass and do
landscaping. His main interest
was in preserving the old
homeplace, where he, his father
and his grandfather had been
born. “He wanted to keep it
historically beautiful,” said J6hn.
Funeral services were con
ducted Sunday at Sandy Run
Baptist Church, where he had
been an active member and a
deacon, by Rev. Tim Hendrick.
Lutz-Austell Funeral Home was
in charge of arrangements.
Surviving are two sons, David
Yates McBrayer of High Point,
and John Robert McBrayer of
Rt. 3, Shelby, and four grand
children.
A PennyroyaVs
Worth Of Spice
There are several herbs and
spices that have become
associated with the history and
legends of Christmas. Some
families may hang sprigs of herbs
to lend a subtle fragrance to the
air. Others who plan to have a
creche in their homes may wish
to use herbs in its decoration.
Five herbs are commonly used
in this way: lady’s bedstraw, wild
thyme, pennyroyal, ro.semary
and basil. One of the reasons for
their use in a creche is that they
all grew in the region around
Jerusalem at the time of Christ’s
birth and were almost certainly
used in cookery, as room
fresheners and for other prac
tical purpo.ses.
Besides, in medieval times,
medical and other therapeutic
values were attributed to these
herbs, which may have further
endeared them to people.
Lady’s bedstraw (or yellow
bedstraw) has been used for
many purposes for many cen
turies.
Since the foliage is sweet
smelling, it was widely u.sed as a
mattress in the Middle Ages, and
its fragrance was thought
repellent to insects, thus,
another English name for it,
“fleaweed.”
Pennyroyal is another
fragrant herb that was mixed
with bedstraw mattresses
because it would repel insects. Its
name derives from the Anglo-
French, “puliol real,” meaning
royal fleabane.
Rosemary also was used to
treat laryngitis, as an antiseptic
and as a stimulant. Basil, also
common in Jerusalem, was add
ed to water perhaps as a
fragrance or as a purifying agent
and antiseptic.
Rosemary has had a long
history of medical usage and was
brought to England when the
Crusaders returned from the Ho
ly Land.