Newspapers / The New Bern mirror. / June 28, 1963, edition 1 / Page 1
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1 Hew Bern The NEW BERN 15B St». --'•■Y 4D^ HEART OF EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA 5 Per Copy VOLUME 6 NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1963 NUMBER 13 Life hasn’t been dull for Mack and Betty Rice since they moved to Cocoa, Fla, He is serving with the Air Force at Cape Canaveral, twenty miles from their present home. She is working at the telephone ex change in Cocoa, where calls to and from the Cape are handl ed for the outside world. In New Bern, Betty was an operator for Carolina Tele phone, She has also been an operator at Cocoa but is currently doing clerical work for the exchange. “I’ve had my biggest thrills,’’ she told The Mirror, “when I’ve taken calls from the astronauts.’’ Mack’s duties at the Cape are something he is in no position to discuss, but it goes without saying that he has had a ringside seat for some of the most spectacular events of our time. He could hardly have visualized such an experience when he was living at Spring Garden and attending Jasper High school. Even at a distance of twenty miles from the launching site, Betty has had something of a ringside seat herself, “We watched on television until the count down was completed,’’she says, “and then rushed to the windows of the telephone office.” As the missiles gained altitude, they could be seen,and then she heard the sound o f the actual launching an instant afterward. The couple would like to live in Florida permanently, but they return to New Bern at every opportunity to visit relatives. “Cocoa is growing by leaps and bounds,” Mack reported, “and rent is sky high. We pay $120 a month tor our apartment, and you have to pay $80 a month for nothing but a hole in the wall.” Astronauts aren’t the only interesting people that Betty has handled calls for. Celebri ties in the entertainment world visit the section frequently, ard the place is fairly swarming with newsmen whenever a trip into outer space for one of the spacemen is scheduled. Each reporter wants a special line, and it requires a tre mendous amount of detail work. In a day or two the reporter goes on his way, and there’s more detail work getting back to more normal operations. In cidentally, Betty assured me that the newsmen covering the launchings have all been cour teous and considerate when dealing with telephone em ployees. Mack was employed by Car olina Telephone in New Bern too, before he went into the Air Force. In fact, that’s where he met Betty. She grad uated from New Bern High school in 1959, and Mack grad uated from Jasper in 1957, While in the Air Force he is further ing his education at Brevard Junior College in Cocoa. Mack likes to fish, and for tunately for him the Banana river is right in front of their home. Fishermen aren’t always careful with the truth, but he insists that you can reel a nice fish in every time you throw your line over. What’s more he showed us a photograph of a big catch to prove it. He uses live shrimp for bait. The sport has no appeal for Betty. She prefers to spend her leisure hours in a swimming (Continued on page S . f f > . - *v, .... .... V . ,.v. . i ’ ? HARD TO BELIEVE—Here at Union Point, 35 years ago, was a sprawling city dump where hundreds of giant rats had their own special paradise. This building, I' % once the home of the New Bern Woman’s Club, sup planted the dump. It is now the popular Teen Club.— Photo by John R. Baxter. JUST US GIRLS—These seven young ladies, all in their eighties, gathered for a meal at Moore’s Barbe cue to celebrate the birthdays of Mrs. Maude Foy Moore and Mrs. John D. Whitford. Collectively, the seven have seen more than five hundred birthdays ar rive and depart, and are still going strong. Left to right, first row are Mrs. Ben E. Moore, Mrs. Isabel Jordan, Mrs. Rosa Biddle Skinner and Mrs. Laura Williams. In the second row are Mrs. Whitford, Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Lucy Cox.—Photo by Wray Studio.
June 28, 1963, edition 1
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