The NEW BERN
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
IN THE HEART OF
EASTERN NORTH
CAROLINA
Si Per Copy
VOLUME I
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1959
NUMBER 40
' Tomorrow is the day when all
New Bernians who are young, or
young at heart, should be on the
look out for guided missiles. Not
bombs or rockets, but arrows aim
ed by that most destructive of all
marksmen, Dan Cupid.
Better stay indoors, if you want
to avoid romance, for never are
mortals supposed to be more vul
nerable than on St. Valentine’s
day. By the same token, if you’re
fed up with keeping your heart in
an isolation booth, you might go
meandering and jump in front of
the first arow headed your way.
Speaking of guided missiles, we
thumbed through countless Valen
tines at a downtown counter, and
couldn’t find a single one that
made reference to atomic bombs
hydrogen bombs, or even rockets
to the moon.
Either the samples we saw were
left over from other years, or the
manufacturers of these paper
hearts don’t read the papers, lis
ten to radio, and Watch television.
Maybe they’re too busy printing
their outmoded gooey rhymes to
keep tab on current events.
We can understand' of course,
why they might steer their presses
away from anything that smacks of
warfare, but these moon rockets
ought to be a natural. For example,
the rhyme could read “With hearts
in tune, we can head for the
moon.’’
Or perhaps “You are such a won
drous sight, won’t you be my sate-
lite? Your eyes, your smile and
hair well curled, add up to some
thing out of this world.” That
ought to be far fetched enough
for anybody.
There weren’t any of those old-
time comic Valentines on the coun
ter either. You know, the penny
cartoons printed on a sheet of
cheap paper that, could be sneaked
on the porches of folks you didn’t
like. '
A generation or more ago, they
were as plentiful as ants at a pic
nic. Just about every sort of char
acter was included among the sub
jects too. It was a cowardly way
to get folks told—as cowardly as
an anonymous letter—but the odds
are heavy if you’re past 40 that
you distributed quite a few of
these yourself in days of yo,re.
Not only are the comic Valen
tines gone, but apparently extinct
too is the grand old practice that
kids had of making their own
Valentines. All you needed was a
box of crayons and some tablet
paper. For weeks you could work
on the things, until, you had a
cigar box crammed full.
They weren’t very pretty, per
haps, but when somebody received
one and decoded the numbers that
spelled your name, they knew you
had gone to a little time and trou
ble to fashion it. After all these
years, we can vividly recall the
awful looking violets we included
on each and every Valentine we
made.
Terrible though these violets
were, we found through sad experi
menting that they were much bet
ter than the roses and tulips we
tried in vain to draw. Anyhow, our
heart was in the right place, even
if the paper hearts we cut out
were deplorably lopsided.
In this day and time, a kid can’t
be bothered with home-made Val
entines. Television keeps the aver
age youngster almost completely
occupied, and there are other dis
tractions too—some good, some
bad.
However, in at least one respect
the Valentine celebrations in New
Bern have improved. Just like on
Halloween, the juveniles of old
thought the occasion was ideal for
vandalism. Fences were ripped
from their foundations, porch
chairs and swings were battered
with glorious abandon, arid inno-
(Continued on back page)
FOR SOMEONE SPECIAL—Margie Morris, Larry Toler and
Helen Gaskins have something in common, as they shop
carefully for Valentines at a well stocked counter in New
Bern’s business district. Those smiles reveal that they’ve
found the sweetest possible verse for that certain someone.
Incidentally, they just happened to be around when The
Mirror’s photographer stopped by, but he couldn’t have
found three cuter subjects anywhere. Wouldn’t it be won
derful to be as young and happy as they are, when Valen
tines Day draws near.—Photo by Billy Benners.
A New Day Is Now Dawning
For City's Retarded Children
IN LIMELIGHT—Roland Verrone, 13, of Troop 50 was
a happy youngster last night when he received the coveted
Eagle Scout badge at the annual Scout Banquet held in the
recreation room of Centenary Methodist church. A seventh
grader at Central Elementary, he is the second Eagle Scout
in the Irvin Verrone househould. Richard earned the same
high honor while he was in Troop 13.—Photo by Billy
Benners.
♦ Nothing more significant has
ever happened in New Bern’s pub
lic schools than the special atten
tion now being given trainable re
tarded children.
We’ve still got a long way to go,
but here as elsewhere the trend
toward helping the child of limited
mentality to achieve his potential
has definitely set in.
It is no credit to any of us who
profess to have normal intelligence
that we waited this long to do
right by such youngsters. Blame
school officials if you care to, but
in th^ final analysis the bulk of the
blame belongs to the general pub
lic.
Taking the attitude that mental
incompetence in a child was just
one of those unfortunate things
that nobody could do anything
about, we piously thanked our
lucky stars that such “shame” had
not been visited upon our own
family.
Parents of retarded children,
well aware of an attitude that
they too shared in most instances,
reacted accordingly. Some of them
kept their handicapped offspring
hidden, or at least as inconspicious
as possible.
Under the same circumstances,
it is quite likely that almost every
reader of the Mirror would have
behaved in identical fashion. Em
barrassment would be our lot, day
in and day out, and though we
loved our retarded youngster we
would feel a sense of shame.
Now, at long last, this ridiculous
viewpoint is being challenged by
citizens who are tardily making
full use of their own intelligence.
The truth is finally sinking in that
a mental weakness in a child, or
an adult, is no more of a disgrace
than the misfortune of weak eyes,
faulty hearing, a rheumatic heart,
or a million and one other physical
flaws that mortals are subject to.
Given a fighting chance, the
mentally retarded child improves
through proper training. And by
proper training, we don’t mean
this hopeless business of being in
a crowded classroom with other
children who have greater Capaci
ty. Teachers in such classrooms
have enough to worry about with
out concentrating their time and
Crate of Sea Gulls
Was Shock to Them
Two old men standing on the
loading platform at the bus station
here got eyes as big as saucers,
when they saw a crate of sea gulls
on a Seashore Transportation
Company bus from Beaufort.
Told that the sea gulls were
headed for Durham, they shook
their heads in disbelief. “All I’ve
got to say,” one of them muttered
“is those folks up state must be
hard up for meat.”
What the two old codgers didn’t
know was that the shipment wasn’t
for eating purposes, but intended
for laboratory use at Duke. Any
how, it’s a pretty good bet that
the loitering pair went home to
appreciate collards and fatback as
never before.