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The NEW BERN
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
IN THE HEART OP
EASTERN NORTH
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VOLUME 16
NEW BERN. N. C. 28560, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1973
NUMBER 26
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After &I1 these years we’ve
finally figured why those iron
bears on New Bern’s City Hall
have their heads poked out of
the structure, and their mouths
' wide open.
Disgusted with some of the
things that occur inside, too
often behind closed doors,
they’re simply gasping for a
breath of fresh air. Outside
humidity and pollution not
withstanding, it’s better for
their lungs.
Incidentally, our town’s
“clean city’’ trophies, awarded
on the basis of well prepared
scrapbooks, appear less
meaningful than ever when you
tour North Carolina’s
remarkabie Outer Banks.
It is possible to cruise mile
after mile without seeing so
much as a single trace of litter.
Ocracoke, Hatteras, Nags Head
and Manteo put us to shame
with their astounding tidiness.
Down Easters, most of them,
have from earliest times
widded brooms and scrub rags
incessantly to make their
usually modest homes
respectable. Newcomers catch
the spirit, and even tourists are
considerate for a change.
Portsmouth Island, deserted
through it is by those who
stubbornly fought a losing
battle against an Atlantic that
devoured its sh(Hreline, clings to
its traditional penchant tor
neatness.
This editor’s mother, and his
maternal ancestors, grew up on
Portsmouth. They didn’t have
much of this world’s goods, but
like all Islanders their pride
knew no bounds. Hard work was
thdr heritage.
All told, the schooling she got
over a period of a few years
amounted to several months
instruction. Despite early
marriage, and the raising of ten
children, she read book after
book in the lonely watches of the
n^t.
It was never trashy stuff.
From her, no doubt, we got an
inexhaustible desire for
reading, and fi'om a poet’s heart
she never really knew she had
came whatever talent for
writing we can claim.
Of the inhaUted islands on the
Outer Banks, Ocracoke holds
the most aroral tor this writer.
It is one m those rare places
that looks like a picture post
card.
Others prefer Hatteras, and
with good reason, but the charm
of the region isn’t lacking at
Buxton, Avon, Rodanthe and
other villages. Nags Head,
ideally located, has been overly
conunercialized.
Roanoke Island isn’t exposed
to the Atlantic. It nestles in the
protective waters of Roanoke
Sound, a fact noted by Sir
Walter Raleigh when he
estaUished what would become
Manteo’s Lost Colony.
Sunday following Saturday
night’s final performance of
Paid Green’s historic drama,
we roamed through the emp
tiness of the Waterside Theatre.
Unbelievably, it was im
maculate.
Not so much as a scrap of
piqier remained to indicate that
a standing-room-only audience
(Continued on page 8)
f -
September Solitude.