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VOLUME 10
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1967
NUMBER 38
Count your blessings during
the Christmas holidays, most
especially if you hiq>pen to have
six small children and take them
along with you when you go shop
ping at the supermarket.
That's the lesson learned by a
couple living down Croatan way,
nine miles east of New Bern.
Whatever else transpires dur
ing the Yuletide season; one
event above all others will
linger in their memory.
Rounding up enoui^ food to
satisfy the apetitles of a half
dozen hungry juveniles is no
trivial undertaking, but the par
ents of (he assorted sextet fin
ally accomplished their mission
at the A & P store on East
Front street.
Unfortunately, one item was
overlooked as the family wheel
ed baskets to the check out
counter, paid off, watched an
attendant load a multitude of
bags into their car, and finally
headed home.
Arriving at their destination,
the parents and kids discovered
that the six moppets had
dwindled to five. Panic really
set in when a hurried inventory
revealed that the missing party
was the youngest of the lot,
an unpredictable three year old
boy.
Terrified, the parents called
the supermarket, and John
Blanchard's crew located the
child, contentedly amusing him
self in the midst of rows
and rows of merchandise.
Like we said, be sure to
count your kids, while counting
your blessings during the belter
skelter holiday season.
On this day, in 1773, Ameri
can patriots staged the Boston
Tea Party, and tomorrow marks
the anniversary of Wilbur and
Orville Wright's airplane fli^t
at Kitty Hawk, in 1903.
It is procl^med as the first
heavier-than-air ascension in
history, cotnpletely ignoring the
fact that a bearded gentleman,
dressed in red, had been doing
the same thing with a sled and
tiny reindeer long before ttie
Wright brothers got into the act.
In New Bern, and elsewhere
in the United States, the chief
function of mlstletm is the
use of it for kissing purposes
during Uie - Christmas holi
days. Supposedly, anybody
caught under a suspended sprig
of it is a fair target for af
fection.
So far as The Mirror can
ascertain, this kissing busi
ness was dreamed up by some
body centuries after the par
asite was first regarded as
something special. It figured
prominently in German and
Norse mythology, and legend
has it that the beautiful god
Balder was slain with an arrow
made from its wood.
The Celts held the plant in
veneration, it is said, and doubly
so when it was found attached
to an oak. From very early
times, people have believed that
it brings happiness, safety and
good fortune, so lung as it
doesn't touch the ground.
We hate to disillusion roman
tic New Bernlans, but what we
call mistletoe from New Jersey
southward isn't the real McCoy.
It is actually something known
as Phoradendron flavescens.
Only in Europe will you find
true mistletoe (Viscum album)
growing.
Where else but in The Mirror
would you learn such valuable
(Continued on page 8)
JUST LIKE DAD—^Anyone who knows Patrolman
William F. Dowdy, III, of the New Bern police de-
wuiiam r . uoway, iii, ot tne iNew Bern police de
partment will agree that his son, Bryan A^ey, is a
chip off the old block. Billy and his wife, Jackie,
close tab on this ;
want to keep
tions intact. New Bern’s happiest homes during the
Yuletide are those that are blessed with children, there Is still hope.—Photo' by Wray Studio
hip 0
will have to keep close tab oh this young man during
the holidays, if they want to keep Christmas decora-
Actually, the Dowdy youngster isn’t quite old enough
to fully appreciate Santa Claus, but he is smart
enough to realize that something exciting is f ‘
on, and rest assured he’ll be right smack in the m.««.^
of it. This world is in a heck of a mess, but as long
as we have lights on a tinseled tree, the laughter
of little children, and the gift of the (Christ Child,