Newspapers / The New Bern Mirror … / Oct. 27, 1961, edition 1 / Page 1
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* ■HI~M ^T~ - t'-- ■ The NEW BERN ^9, ;«SHED WEEKLY /i'ART OP Cm. 9s 5i Per Cbp> J VOLUME 4 NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1961 NUMBER 30 Most of us think of landmarks in terms of weather-beaten houses, cen tury-old churches, gnarled and bent trees. Such things are landmarks, of course, but human beings can be landmarks, too, part and parcel of the era in which they live. Callie McCarthy, dead these many years, was that sore of a man. A jovial Irishman, equally successful at making money and making finends, McCarthy had qualities that men usually lose, or never have, when they prove themselves skilled at acquh'ing worldly goods. Most of all he was humble before his God, and true to his creed. He was bom a Catholic, and in a town predominantly Protestant he was recognized as a “good” Catholic. Had he been botn a Baptist, a Methodist or a Presbyterian, the complimenta ry adjective would no doubt still have been applicable. McCarthy is remembered for many things by many people. The politicians remember him for his terms in public office as Mayor and Alderman, and for his unbeatable popularity in New Bern’s Fourth Ward. Those who were known as the trifling colored and poor white trash remember him, or should, for the groceries he let them have when they and their families were very hungry and very broke. Fellow church members — the ones still among the ranks of the living — remember him for his generous charities, and his faithful attendance at Sunday mass. His beaming countenance and hearty salutatiolfiSWti^kfed as strongly of the EmerMd ISle as a shamrock grow ing on an Erin hillside. As for the writer, we remember him for some of the magic things that played their part in a small boy’s world. His ill-fated Ghent trol ley, hauling a wide-eyed collection of humans to those circuses that used to pitch their tents across the railroad from what is now Park Avenue. We remember him too for his Ghent casino, where marvelous though rather jumpy movies bounc ed around haphazardly on a silver screen. And we remember the wrestling matches there — not like the grunt and groan acrobatics of today but scientific battles featuring the best'in the business, including Strangler Lewis, the World’s Cham DOOMED LANDMARK—In the foreground of this scene is the famed and picturesque Streets ferry at the shoreline of Craven’s upper Neuse. Appropriately, there’s a vehicle aboard that has just made the crossing. ’In the distance is a modern bridge, under construction, that will make the his toric ferry obsolete.—Photo by Billy Benners. pion. Close by the casino was Ghent Park, where future Major Leaguers got their start in the East Carolina League, and Syracuse of the Interna tional League once held spring train ing 40 years ago. There was a peanut patch just be yond the left field fence, and some of us ki^ (today we would be called juvenile delinquents) delighted in raiding it when the goobers were gloriously green. Never again would peanuts taste so good. Our yen for this sort of crime came to an abrupt halt one after noon when the owner of the peanut patch loaded his gun with small pellets and fired upon us. Fortunate ly, no one got any of the pellets in his hide, but to this day we can hear the rattling around us as we beat a rctrGst When baseball games were played . in the park, none of the fellows in our neighborhood had the price of admission. Because most of the home runs sailed over the right- field fence — many of them clouted by Fred Koch beyond a Sweet Rose flour sign — we would station our selves there. If you retrieved a baseball, ]ust as the custom is followed today, it got you into the ball game. Howevijr, at this late date we can safely admit that some of the baseballs never ar rived at the ticket office. Instead, a kid would quickly lo cate the sphere and hide in a con venient ditch or throw it into the (Continued on Page 8) LINE UP FOR SAMPLES—North Carolina Fisheries Asso ciation, a New Bern corporation, had one of the most pop ular booths at the International Trade Fair in Charlotte. Gail Robertson, the current Miss Rhododendron, took time out from studies at Western Carolina College to assist, as seen here, in the serving of free seafood to eager vis itors.
The New Bern Mirror (New Bern, N.C.)
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Oct. 27, 1961, edition 1
1
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