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PUBLItHIO WIIKLY
IN THI HIART OP
lASTIRN NORTH
CAROLINA
5^ Per Copy
VOLUME 14
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1971
NUMBER 23
Yesterday was when Mrs.
Annie Rhem had a 42 year old
parrot that stayed younger than
springtime on a steady diet of
sunflower seeds. Pedestrians on
the north side of Broad, between
Middle and Hancock, knew her
well.
Polly, a loquacious and
brilliant hued bird, was as
flippant and gay as she was the
day she headed south from a
New York pet shop, four
decades previously. She was
hatched two years before that,
in Panama.
The parrot was purchased in
the Big City by Mrs. Rhem and
her late husband. Dr. Joseph F.
Rhem, who is remembered by
thousands of North Carolina
Shriners as the founder of
Sudan Temple here.
Polly was a sound in
vestment. In fact, she sounded
off constantly from the moment
she^me to town. She liked an
audience, but enjoyed talking to
herself almost as much on the
Rhem front porch.
She hated her cage, except
when she was outside of it,
perched on top. She had the run
of the house, and the moment
the telephone rang would say,
“Hello, all ri^t, goodbye.”
Blindfolded you would nave
sworn it was a human.
When someone opened the
front door, Polly promptly
called Mrs. Rhem, or Hattie,
who at the time had been em
ployed in the home for 30 years.
The maid was very devoted to
the parrot.
Polly was a real night owl,
preferring to stay up until 10 p.
m. and then sleep fairly late
next morning. She never made
a sound until Hattie took the
cover from her cage, and
greeted her.
The bird was quite a lady,
grammatically speaking.
Profanify played no part in her
vocabulary, althou^ there was
a brief sp^ when she couldn’t
claim such purity.
A neighbv’s parrot-came to
visit her, during her younger
years, and brot^ along some
cuss words that irft
left UtUe to the
imagination. Polly was a foul
mouthed fowl temporarily, until
the poUutimi cleared up.
* to be forgiven
She had to be forgiven for
innocently straying from the
straight and narrow, since
adding words to her vocabulary
was her proudest ac
complishment.
Unfcrtuiiately, the visiting
parrot wasn’t at all anxious to
learn Polly’s rendition of
“Nearer My God to Thee” so
there was nothing to commend
or prolong theHr ill advised
acquaintance.
Actually, the Rhem pet did
very little singing, and didn’t
care for radio. Instead, she got
a great kick out of sunning on
the front porch, and exchanging
salutations with dozens of New
Bemians who passed by.
During the summer of 1953,
when the town wilted under a
heat wave, she
oroi
much sunshine for the first
time in her life. One day she was
discovered on the verge of
prostration, limp as a dish rag
in her cage.
Mrs. Rhem took in roomers,
(Continued on page 8)
HEADING HOME FROM CAMP SEAFARER.