Few New Bernians in their day
to day existence lead colorful lives.
They may dream of high adventure,
glittering fame, or romantic inter
ludes in far-off places, but always
they must come back to reality.
Back to the reality, that is, of
shopping for groceries with a thin
wallet, getting their shoes half-
soled, washing and ironing, paying
' the overdue light bill, and strug
gling with a cold that won’t wear
off.
Local wives, particularly, are
acutely aware of their monotonous
routine, especially if small chil
dren have then anchored within
the four walls of their home.
Firmly imbedded in the average
woman’s mind is the notion that
Her husband hast all the best of it
when it comes to living interesting
ly. “You get to see a lot more peo
ple,’’ she complains at breakfast,
“while I’m stuck here in this house
all day long.”
What she doesn’t realize, or
won’t admit, is the fact that quite
a few of the people seen by her
husband befoi'e sundown mky be
folks that he would rather not see.
Dealing with the public isn’t all
sw'eetness and light. Besides, most
of his friends are just as dull as he
is, while striving to ignore his
•enemies doesn’t prevent him from
acquiring ulcers.
Perhaps the awareness that-our
lives are more or less colorless is
the reason we have injected colors
into our conversation. Repeatedly
and without thinking, one color or
another crops up m our descriptive
phras^. ^
Almost imailimously in our mo
ments of dejection we describe our
selves as feeling “blue.” How this
way of putting it came about might
be hard to fathom. Offhand, blue
is a color that could hardly be
termed depressing. Certainly God
demonstrated his preference for it
by placing it in the sky above us
and in the sea that covers much of
our globe.
More logical as a descriptive
phrase than our habit of feeling
blue is to say that we are in the
“pink” of condition. It is a biologi
cal fact that pinkness of com
plexion is associated with good
health. Not many of us past baby
hood are pink of cheek, but we do
recognize this characteristic as a
symbol of vitality.
Whenever we observe our neigh
bors or others coveting a posses
sion belonging to someone else, we
invariably say they are “green”
with envy. This too is an expres
sion that would appear to be rath
er hazy in origin. Then of course
we use green to describe a person
who is immature or a novice in
any line of endeavor. Green in Na
ture’s world around us at least in
dicates life, so being green as a
human it seems to this oldster has
advantages over being wise but
withei'ed.
To describe a person who is
lacking in intestinal fortitude, it
is almost inevitable that we de
scribe him as being “yellow.” Teen
agers don’t use the phrase very
often, we’ll admit. They prefer to
say that timid souls are “chicken”
but their parents still cling to yel
low when they want to infer or
blurt right out that there’s an ab
sence of spunk in someone’s in
nards.
If you’re apprehensive about
what lies ahead with the morrow,
you no doubt say that the future
looks “black.” That’s what other
New Bernians says, and it’s doubt
ful that you’re one of the rare ex
ceptions.
On the other hand, if you’re op
timistic over an expected turn of
events, you’ll take cognizance of
the fact that the future looki
“rosy.” And any opportunity that
is of favorable proportions isn’t
called other than a “golden” oppor-
The NEW BERN
^ niED WEEKLY
’“ART OF
I \
VOLUME 2
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1959
READY TO PERFOR]
bers of Scout Tr06|)t
an- Church. As
about' the Merit Bad^
ous troops and patToIs.—Photo by Buly Benners7J-: ,., l
What Is Marriage Picture in
New Bern, Craven County?
There’s a lot of talk these days
about teen-age marriages, but how
prevalent are these youthful hitch-
ings in New Bern and Craven coun
ty?
Determined to find the answers
to these and other questions deal
ing with the local marital picture.
The Mirror has delved for hours
into the official records.
Then, armed with a big batch of
statistics, we went about the busi
ness of converting these statistics
into percentages that readers could
digest easily. The figures may or
may not surprise you, but at least
all guessing has been eliminated.
You might be slightly disturbed
to learn that during the first nine
months of 1959 over half of the
brides who ankled to the altar in
New Bern and Craven county were
in truth teen-agers.
To put it another way, out of 326
weddings performed the feminine
participant in the splicing was un
der 20 on no less than 176 occa
sions. The teen-age brides were in
tunity.
Shame on you, if you get mad oc
casionally. But assuming that you
do, like other New Bernians, you’ll
say later than you saw “red.” This
expression with the notion that
bulls are angered when they get a
glimpse of red. Actually, bulls are
color blind, so in their case at
least the expression is meaning
less.
Like we said at the outset, life
for most of us may be colorless,
and colorful personalities are cer
tainly few and far between. How
ever, what we lack in brilliant
shades and hues is made up for by
tlie things we say.
the majority to the tune of 54 per
cent.
On the other hand—or the other
finger if it happens to be a double
ring ceremony—-only 18 percent of
the 326 grooms were teen-agers.
There were just 59, so the teen-age
grooms were outnumbered three to
one by brides in the same age
bracket.
Less than 17 percent of the mar
riages—to be exact, 54—^presented
a situation in which both the bride
and groom were teen-agers. So de
spite the high frequency of teen
age brides, there were probably far
fewer completely teen-age mar
riages than the average citizen
thought were occurring.
There were a small number of
marriages, of course, that didn’t oc
cur in New Bern and Craven coun
ty and were naturally not included
in the figures. A few couples, aim
ing at a quick and simplified cere
mony, journeyed to South Carolina.
Upon arriving they discovered that
marriage regulations in the Palmet
to State have been tightened con
siderably.
Among other things, they were
confronted with an unexpected 24-
hour “waiting period” and the nec
essity of submitting a birth certi
ficate or other proof of age. About
the only* advantage to be gained
under the new law, if it could be
called an advantage, was avoiding
a physical examination and a
blood test.
Teen-agers didn’t provide all the
interesting statistics we were able
to dig up in records at the Register
of Deeds office here. For exam
ple we learned through diligent
pencil wielding that 83 percent o£
the New Bern and Craven county
grooms this year have been older
than their, respective brides.
Only 14 wives—less than five
percent—out of the 326 brides in
alt were older than their husbands.
In 41 of the marriages—^which fig
ures slightly over 12 percent—
both parties were the same age.
You shouldn’t be too discouraged
if you’re getting along in years,
and still have a yen to get mar
ried. Our survey revealed that 29
women and 37 men who were 40 or
older embarked upon the sea of
matrimony.
In fact, five of the brides and 13
of the grooms were 60 or older. Al
though it was not the most talked
about marriage involvin^i elderly
participants in New Bern and Crav
en, the honors for seniority go to
Theorpheus ’Tripp of , yanceboro
and Carrie Gray Rin^ld of
Bridgeton. He was a dapper 89 and
his bride a very happy 63.
(ContinuMl on back Mool
■i