Newspapers / The New Bern Mirror … / Oct. 3, 1958, edition 1 / Page 1
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■I The NEW BERN Dl I? PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE HEART OF EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA 5 Per Copy VOLUME NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1958 NUMBER 27 You need not be told that thou sands of dollars have been spent for hula hoops in New Bern and the immediate area. Considering the happiness that this investment brought to local small fry, it’s a good investment. i However, we can’t help thinking j of the past generations that enjoy- ■ ed hoops for free. Ours were iron or wooden ones, picked up from the junk heap or passed along to us by a friendly blacksmith. Instead of keeping them in motion with the bump and grind movements of a ha'rd working burlesque queen, we rolled them along the sidewalk. You simply started it off, and kept it going with rapid nudges from a short stick, or your hand. Maybe it sounds sort of stupid to the kinds of today, but we got a bang opt of it. Even better were those scooters we made with skate wheels, and the push-mobiles and ^ wagons rigged up with discarded baby carriage wheels. That was our version of drag racing in the long lost yesterday. You got _busted up once in awhile, but it was nothing like the mutila tion of this expensive era we live in now. When there weren’t any wheels or hoops to be had, we could al ways find a clothes line poie. We would tie a piece of small rope to the head of this make believe horse, mount it and ride away in true imitation of William S. Hart, Dustin Farnum or screen cowboys equally adored. We made our own stilts too, out ' of stray lumber picked up here and there. Displaying energy and in genuity that is sadly lacking in this new generation, we got eleva tion to a lesser extent with tin cans and string. Speaking of tin cans and string, they came in handy too for a sort of telephone system. You rubbed resin on the string, and when you pulled on it the-sound was easily passed along,-from one youngster to another at the efid of the string. Besides that, we always took to the woods when green cherries were just the right size lor use as ammunition in a pop gun. You youngsters who have never made use of a pop gun are to be pitied. All you needed was a hollow reed, from neighboring marshes. You cut a short piece of it off, making sure that the hole was the right size for your ammitnition. Then you made a ram rod from a sucker stick, and capped the end of it with a piece of reed, so it wouldn’t hurt the palm of your hand. You placed a cherry in the far end of the reed, and another at the end where you pushed the ram rod in. The nearest cherry forced the one at the end of the barrel out, and it sounded like a rifle going off. No kid in our day and time ventured forth without a sling shot. They were as free as the air too. Out in the woods you could always find a fork in a small tree. You used an old inner tube to get the rubber bands, and cut a piece out of a shoe tongue to hold the pebbles that found their mark with' remarkable consistency. We used holiow reeds for pea shooters too. Kids would load their jaws with black-eyed peas, and spout them through the reed like nobody’s business. Peas cost mon ey, however, unless you snitched them from a near sighted grocer, so most of the boys didn’t go for pea shooters much. Besides, they didn’t make noise like a pop gun, and noise is as - much a part of childhood as going barefooted. When we were growing up a rickle looked as big as a country biscuit. Oldsters who read this will shudder to think of what their old man would have done to the seat of their britches, if they had asked DOWN THEY GO—It isn’t often that you’ll catch the New Bern High school cheerleaders seated when they’re togeth er. Usually they’re jumping around like animated dolls, and yelling to high heaven. Just for relaxation, and for the photographer, -Bill Benners, they pose prettily on the slide. Naturally they landed in The Mirror. Terry Midyette, head cheerleader, leads the procession, followed by Kitty Whitty, Gail Robinson, Elizabeth Gotten, Joyce Ellen Stainback, Donna Kilby, Alice Mumford, Judy Steinburg, Judy Lockey, Lillian Johnson, Patsy O’Neal and Olivia Hammond. Our Overlooked' Industry Is Expanding Its Facilities Jay Apparel Company, within the next month, is expecting to double its operation here, and in so doing will increase its number of employees to 275 or more. That’s good news from good folks. Less than half 'of the residents of New Bern know anything about the Jay Apparel Company, an over looked and unappreciated industry that employs more than a hundred women, turns out thousands of dresses and house coats daily, and has a weekly payroll in the neigh borhood of $6,000.00. Fewer still know that one New Bernian is responsible for its be ing here, Abe Coplon deserves the credit, and all of it. A friend of Samuel Kanner, New York manu facturer, he suggested such an ope ration here, and Kanner agreed to make the investment. Unlike others, Kanner sought no Women Say 'Sacks' Nof Long for World Ask a man, and he’ll say you never get a group of women to agree on anything. There’s hearty agreement among the fair sex, how ever, that the sack dress isn't long for this world. At least that’s the emphatic opinion of gals in our vil lage. Most femmes questioned by The Mirror in confidence admitted that they never did like the things, and are happy to see them go. for something that cost a fraction of what a hula hoop costs. Still, we wouldn’t trade our priceless memories for a million hula hoops, and if you’re past 40 neither would you. special favors or concessions. He asked nothing from New Bern, but in the four years his firm has been here it has been dumping real money into our economic pot. Instead of importing a manager for the plant, Kanner chose a New Bernian, Marcus Block, and the well-paid employees under Block’s supervision are New Bernians or residents of the immediate area. Working conditions leave noth ing to be desired. The concern’s building, in the heart of New Bern’s business section, is com pletely air conditioned, has excel- Cutting Up Over Cutting Off Is One of Barber Nightmares It’s high time one of those so- called experts on child psychology told distraught New Bern parents what to do about Junior’s first barbershop haircut. Perhaps no juvenile upheaval is ever more violent, and though the storm is temporary, it leaves Mom and Dad emotionally bankrupt. What it does to the poor barber is too horrible to dwell upon. Look into the clipper wielder’s anguished eyes, and you’ll realize that he suffers more than anyone else. From the sound of things you would think it was Junior, rather than parents and barbers, who is being subjected to unbearable pain. However, like all kids in similar circumstances, his screams don’t stem from real or imaginary hurts. He’s a victim of fear, liberally sprinkled with a seasoning of tem perament. In fact, lots of the little boys who get carted to a New Bern barber shop for shearing are more spoiled than scared. Quite a few are actual ly terrified, especially on the first trip, but when a youngster escapes with his ears intact, his fears should diminish with each succeed ing trip to the tonsorial parlor. Yet, it is a matter of record that plenty of the small fry keep right on acting up. Parents naturally be come aware of this unhappy fact, and think up all kinds of excuses to avoid the responsibility of seeing that Junior’s overly long tresses don’t transform him into something resembling an undipped poodle. Ask any local barber and he’ll tell you that a child invariably be haves better if Mom isn’t present for the ordeal. For one thing, the average mother is quick to give ad vice on how her offspring’s crani um should be trimmed, and most of the advice is impractical and inadvisable. If a barber is a gooa barber, and most of the ones in New Bern are, he’ll do all right by Junior. If he isn’t, giving advice isn’t going to help. Besides,' proud Mamas are apt to sympathize with their young’uns, and sympathy at times is the wrong kind of medicine. One of those times is in a barber’s chair. The kind of medicine that Junior needs, when he acts up excessive ly at a scissor party, is a well-ap plied spanking. That he will never get, if you’re like the average parent. The bar- (Continued on back page) lent lighting, and the most modern machinery available. It would be hard to, imagine a more popular boss than Block. The women who work under him re gard him with affectionate respect. As one of them told us, he- is the “best man in the world’’ to take orders from. What New Bern and every other town needs is more Samuel Kan- ners, with faith, vision and money, and more Abe Coplons. Like Kan ner says, “If it wasn’t for Abe Coploq, the Jay Apparel Company wouldn’t be in New Bern today.’’ New Bern has had its share of fly-by-night promotions and fast talking phonies. Always they want something for nothing. That’s why it’s refreshing to have a man like Kanner set up shop on the local scene, A sound businessman, he isn’t operating the Jay Apparel Com pany as a charitable institution. He expects to make a profit, and con sidering his investment he deserves one. By the same token, he isn’t ask ing for charity either. Such being the case, he has no strings attached to his concern, and could leave here next week, next month, or next year. As a matter of fact, some con cerns that expect the favors that Jay Apparel Company didn’t seek have been known to leave too, when they got good and ready. We’ve got a pretty good idea that Kanner’s firm is going to be around for quite awhile. It’s that kind of concern, and Kanner is that kind of man. More power to him, and to those local persons who have justified his confidence by turning out suitable merchan dise in quantity for a highly cos*- petitive market.
The New Bern Mirror (New Bern, N.C.)
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Oct. 3, 1958, edition 1
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