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VOLUME 2
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1959
NUMBER 2S
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Ten years have passed since
. Grant Bennet, a 29 year old pro at
! the New Bern Country Club,
smashed all known world endur-
/ance records for 24 hour of golf.
Starting out at the stroke of
'midnight, he played 343 holes in
23 hours and 59 minutes. Too ex
hausted to worry over his raw and
bleeding hands when the voluntary
ordeal was over, he tumbled into
bed.
Among the endurance marks he
bettered was the world record of
256 holes in 24 hours set in 1938
by Stan Card, a member of the
North Brighton Golf Club in New
South Wales.
• In the process, he also shattered
"the American record of 228 holes
pet by swimmer Charley Daniels
in 1916. And the stroke record of
Dan Kenny, a Texas pro, was brok-
■ en too. During a dawn to dawn
marathon in 1923, Kenny negotiat
ed 216 l&les in 957 strokes. Ben
nett at end of 216 holes had
required omy 779 strokes.
An ex-Marine who once played
baseball arid basketball at Oak
Ridge Military Academy, the de
termined New Bern pro started his
marathon in a heavy downpour of
rain. Three hours later it was still
raining, and Griant came clos§ to
giving up in disgust.
He decided to stick it out, and
the imwelcome downpour ended
- just before dawn, hi his haste to
get going, he -bad neglected to
.. wear a glove for .the first four
hours, and he developed bad blis-
;e^ that weren’t going . to. help
r-the It
on hla left hapd ruptured,
soaking his idove writh blood.
Bennett completed 38 rounds,
plus one hole, over the 3,075 yard
9-hole course. To play the "343
holes, he took 1,477 strokes, averag
ing 38.71 strokes per round. He
had 19 birdies and two sub-par
rounds—a 33 during the daytime
and a 34 during the night. Par for
the course was 35.
When the endurance effort be
gan at midnight, it didn’t attract
much of a crowd. In fact, there
were just 15 spectators in the gal
lery, and the driving rain forced
all but one of them from the course
by dawn.
However, nothing succeeds like
success—as has often been said—
and word got around that Grant
was plugging right along at a re
cord-breaking pace. The gallery in
creased to something over 200, and
this crowd of admiring supporters
remained with him until he 'SCaflfiS
to the end of the trail in another
deluge of rain.
Conserving his strength for
actual play, the New Bern pro rode
from hole to hole on the back end
of a station wagon. Its speed
ometer clocked 129 miles, and it
was impossible to follow Grant on
some of the soles.
Alert caddies kept track of the
flying ball. So expertly did they do
their part of the job that only four
balls were lost. It is an astounding
fact that not a single ball was lost
the first night during the steady
downpour of rain.
A group of aides took cai’e of the
ex-Marine’s clubs, and passed them
to him with assembly-line preci
sion. Everything possibie was done
to simplify things for the spunky
pro, but in the final analysis he
had to go it alone.
Automobile headlights furnished
a measure of illumination during
the hours of darkness. This was
hardly adequate, and Grant’s suc
cess in holding his total score
down was a real tribute to his golf
ing ability. He overcame handi
caps that would have intimidated
even the most seasoned pro.
Naturally, his feat made sports
headlines all over the world, and
it brought his lasting fame. He
reaped little financially from the
(Continued on back page)
Atlantic Regional Confereiice hete. Left to right are Sarah
Abernethy,' Ethel Hughes, Mary Duffy Hughes, Helen
At*-
Chase,, Md.; Gladys Miller, Polly Hughes of Kinston and
Peggy Kyle of Kinston.—Photo by John R. Baxter.
Failure of New Bern's Fair Is
An Exception in N. Carolina
That grand old American insti
tution—the annual county fair—
has disappeared from the New
Bern scene,.with few to mourn its
passing, but elsewhere in North
Carolina it still floftrishes unabat
ed.
Once again, in bright October
weather, the blaring music of the
merry-go-round saturates the air
with familiar notes. The odor of
carnival hamburgers, liberally en
hanced with onions, sets mouths
to watering. Kids with cotton can
dy are biting into pink nothing
ness, and trying to figure out
where it went to quickly and so
completely.
The gambling joints, with their
barkers and shills, display their
gaudy lamps, brilliantly colored
blankets and kewpie dolls. And the
girlie shows, where talent is lack
ing and beauty i§ a bedraggled
myth, draw their masculine infiux
as surely as the moth is attracted
to a burning candle.
Less conspicious but decidedly
more noteworthy are the farm ex
hibits. This is the hour of recog
nition for the grower of the finest
ear of corn, the most distinguished
pig, the chicken with the plumpest
breast and firmest dnunsticks.
And neatly arrayed for all to see
are the jars of preserves, beans
and tomatoes, not to mention the
needlework that painstaking hands
fashioned to capture cash prizes
and biue ribbons. Glory for those
who deserve it has arrived.
City folks, not overly acquaint
ed 'with livestock that is yet to
reach the platter, are nonetheless
intrigued by the magnificence of
the champion buii and the dimen
sions of the stiurdiest and most pro
lific sow.
Taking care not to get too close,
but edging nearer with overwhelm
ing curiosity, the slicker who lives
in town recognizes in these farm
animals the kriow how and the la
bor of his versatile country cousin.
Whatever a county fair lacks in
cultural entertainment, it is part
and parcel of America and serves
a worthy purpose. At its best, it
deserves survival for all time to
come. The fact that New Bern
fouled up on its own fair doesn’t
dim the prestige of such ventures.
It only indicates that somewhere
along the li^e we’ve missed out on
the opportunity to pay tribute to
our farm friends who mean so
much to the city’s economic pic
ture.
Convinced that county fairs in
other Tar Hgel communities were
by no means extinct or even wav
ering, The Mirror has made a sur
vey of the situation from Manteo
to Murphy. We checked big towns
and little towns alike.
Greensboro, chiefly an industrial
city, is proudly presenting its 59th
annual Agricultural Fair this
month, and at Shelby the 36th an
nual Cleveland county fair is en-
Havelock Boy Scouts in action at their prize winning
exhibit in the Merit Badge Show at New Bern’s Recreation
Center.—Photo by BiUy Benners.
joying its usual success.
Moving further east, we found
that Henderson is happily occupied
with its 42nd annual Golden Belt
fait, while the 19th annual Rich
mond county Agricultural fair at
Hamlet is in no danger of folding
up. Carthage, hardly more than a
wide place in the road, is doing all
right with its 13th annual Moore
county fair.
Delving further, we’ve ccune up
with the Surry county Agricultural
fair at Mount Airy, the Lee county
Agricultural fair at Sanford, the
Dixie Classic fair at Winston-Sa
lem, the Scotland county Agricul
tural fair at Laurinburg, the Four-
County fair at Dunn, the Tri-Coun
ty fair at Littleton, the Person
county Agricultural fair at Roxboro
and the Cape Fear fair at Fayette
ville.
Getting a little closer home, we
were already familiar with the Pitt
county fair at Greenville, the Wil
son county fair at Wilson, the
Beaufort county fair at Washing
ton, the Onslow county fair at
Jacksonville, the Chowan county
fair at Edenton and the Jones coun
ty fari at Trenton.
In our neighboring county of
Jones, more than 1,500 awards
were presented at their last coun
ty fair. This not only means that
the Jones county fair is on a
sound financial basis, but, just as
important, it indicates that farm
families arc eagerly competing in
ali classifications.
Faced with these facts, it must
be said in all frankness that New
Bern’s failure with its fairs puts us
in a rather dismal category. Coun
ty fair aren’t dead. Neither is New
Beni, but we’re slumbering deeply.
V