Page 2, West Craven Highlights, May 20,1982
The Dead Bug I Remember
By JONATHAN PHILLIPS
Special Correspondent
A coupla weeks ago I, along with a number of other
young men whose names got on some sort of official
mailing list, got an invitation from Uncle Sam to
become a pilot in the United States Marine Corps.
Though a proud and noble profession, there are a
number of reasons I declined the invitation to be a
Marine pilot, including a mild fear of heights and an
intense fear of haircuts.
But the brochure did prove interesting, and I
would recommend that any young man with a taste
for adventure and a desire to serve his country
consider becoming a Marine aviator.
Be forewarned, however. The basic arts of
soldiering, aeronautical engineering, and killing
commies are not the only skills the Leatherneck
flyboy must master.
There is also the dead bug.
Barstool bailout ^
The dead bug is a traditional game of Marine
aviators.
“These guys,” explained the wife of a Cherry Point
Colonel, “fly all the time. If they’re not actually in the
air, they’re talking about flying.”
She held her palm open and slowly swung it about
in a wide arc.
“They’re always doing this, talking about who did
what to whom in their jets, and making motions with
their hands.”
Airborne behavior, in other words, also becomes
the norm on the ground, at least in the company of
other pilots. When things get tough in the air, you
bail out. Same thing on the ground.
Time to pay up at the bar is when things are tough.
The way the Marines bail out of this is that somebody
shouts “dead bug” and all present execute perfect
siderolls from chairs, bar stools, and other assorted
pieces of furniture onto the floor. They land on their
backs, with arms and feet extended into the air.
They look, as you may have guessed, like dead
bugs. The last to assume this position is responsible
for paying up the tab.
Demonstration
Frankly, I felt quite honored to have been told
about the dead bug tradition one Friday at the
Cherry Point Officer’s Club (A Colonel’s daughter
can get anybody in; even a bearded hippie
typewriter-pounder).
The Colonel’s wife, however, promised everything
from physical violence to divorce if the Colonel were
to institute a full-scale dead bug at that particular
time.
As a compromise, three officers arranged a
demonstration. At the magic words, all three left
their seats and ended up with backs on the rug and
limbs extended.
I had to ask: “Do all marines know about dead bug,
or just the aviators?”
“Just the aviators,” the Colonel said, “But all of
them know it.”
Me again: “I’m teaching at Camp LeJeune this
summer. Should I teach them (non-flying Marines)
about it?”
The Colonel scratched his chin and pondered a
moment. “It sounds like a good idea in theory,” he
said, looking very thoughtful. “But you better not.
Those grunts would just mess it up.”
Conditioned reflex
He was just kidding, of course. Even grunts
couldn’t mess up something as simple as falling off a
barstool.
Could they?
At any rate, you don’t get to be a Colonel three
months after boot camp. You have to stay around a
few years. And after staying around a few years, you
encounter the dead bug a number of times.
After encountering the dead bug a number of
times, you do one of two things: go broke from paying
for other people’s drinks, or become conditioned to
hitting the deck. The Colonel isn’t broke.
His daughter was conversing with him, and said
that something was “a dead issue. Not to be confused
with a dead bug.” She looked to her father’s chair,
waiting for a response.
There was none. He was on the floor with his hands
and feet in the air, grinning ferociously.
By LELA BARROW
gg A
Weyerhaeuser
Take Time
By LELA BARROW
Eccl. 3: To everyting there is a season, and a time
for everything under the heaven. A time to keep
silent and a time to speak. There is time for purpose,
and for every work.
What is Time? You look in Webster’s Dictionary
and count all the meanings it gives - then get your
Bible Concordence and study all it’s meanings and
give me the answer to Time. In Genesis we read God
worked six days and rested the seventh. He counted
time as the evening and the morning as a day.
Perhaps he went by the rising and setting of the sun -
it doesn’t say He had a sun-dial. Anyway, He
arranged his work by days and he finished each day
as planned. After he had made the firmament - the
water and other living things. He made man on the
sixth day and was pleased with his work. Then He
rested on the seventh.
What happiness we could have if we could finish
ours each week.
Why do we hear so often “Oh! I just don’t have time;
I know I should visit the sick, but I work”? Let us take
time to examine our innermost selves and see where
our capabilities are most needed and will do the most
good.
I remember one Christmas Eve, Wilford Buck
called me about 6:30 and said; “Miss Lela, you are the
only person I know in Vanceboro that isn’t busy; can
you go around town tonight judging the decorated
homes and help me decide which is best ? I have
called so many and they did not have time - just
couldn’t go.” I told him yes I’d go. When he came for
me, I told him I was expecting thirty people to come
to eat Christmas dinner. At the time I also was
working on a job six days a week, but I was young
and loved to work. All of this takes time, but we
should be careful and use our time in a way that we
will have time for others. Spend your time in nothing
which you know you will be sorry of; in nothing on
which you might not pray the blessing of God. Time is
precious if used for good - wasting time makes us say,
“I just don’t have time.” Let us then be up and doing,
still persuing, still achieving learn to labor and to
wait.
Many of us are going to do great things tomorrow.
But tomorrow never comes, for the only day we have
is today. The demand that life makes on all of us is to
be ready at all times - do not live in the past, nor in the
future, but in the present. Do your duty today -
tomorrow may be too late. The men and women who
put off till tomorrow what ought to be done today are
the men and women who make a shipwreck of time
and eternity.
Take time to pray often - go to God in prayer - He
hears you.
Take time to be holy. Speak often with thy Lord;
Spend much time in secret. With Jesus alone;
Make friends of God’s children, Help those who are
weak.
Forgetting in nothing. His blessing to seek.
Dear Editor,
Graduation time
brings back a painful
memory for me. My
daughter was valedictor
ian of West Craven High
School in 1981, making
her graduation night an
important event indeed.
We wanted lots of
pictures of her and her
classmates. As the seniors
filed in, my husband
began focusing his
camera, only to discover
that we had no film. In the
hustle and bustle of
getting organized, we
had failed to buy film,
assuming we had plenty,
I still feel a guilt stirring
inside me as I think back
on that night. Thanks to
the West Craven High
lights, I did get a few
pictures, but I have tried
in vain to get color
snapshots. In a final
attemp to recapture one
of the most important
nights in my daughter’s
life, I have placed a notice
concerning this in your
newspaper. Won’t some
one please respond?
Mrs. Frank Ipock
Bridgeton
Jack Strickland Named
President of Saw Filers
Jack Strickland, who serves as a consultant on
saws and filing for Weyerhaeuser’s North Carolina
Region, has been elected president of the
Southeastern Saw Filers Educational Association.
The group is a professional organization offering
saw filers and other technical people the opportunity
to exchange ideas and know-how in the field of
cutting tools in the forest products industry.
The association’s membership is composed of wood
products personnel from eight Southern state^^
including North and South Carolina, Virginia, Wes^^
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and
Florida.
40 Years Service
Three employees of the North Carolina Region are
being honored this month for 40 years service with
Weyerhaeuser. They are Durham W. Davis of
Jamesville, Clifford Frymier of Plymouth and
Delbert R. Wolfe of Plymouth.
35 Years Service
Three North Carolina Region employees are being
recognized in May for 35 years to the company. They
are Willie J. Hedgepeth of Plymouth, Harry S.
Phelps, Jr. of Plymouth and Stewart L. West of
Plymouth.
25 Years Service
Two employees of the North Carolina Region are
being honored this month for 25 years service with
Weyerhaeuser. They are Dallas B. Mobley of
Williamston and Kathleen J. Shepard of Havelock.
20 Years Service
Twelve employes reached 20 years of service to the
company this month, including Clayton M. Allen of
Vanceboro, John E. Bembridge of Roper, Charles E.
Bowen of Plymouth, Robert D. Bowen of
Williamston, John L. Browning of Plymouth, Albin
G. Holton of Roper, Carl H. Little of Cove City, Alfred
Price of Jamesville, Cushion B. Roberson of
Plymouth, Robert 0. Smith of Roper, Thomas L.
Woolard of Plymouth and Gloria D. Wynn of
Plymouth.
Continued on page 4,
West Craven
HIGHLIGHTS
Craven County’s Family Weekly Newspaper
R.L. Cannon, Jr.
Publisher
Business Manager
Christine Hill
Office Manager
Betty Daugherty Sharon Buck
News Production
Edith Hodges
Mike Hodges
Circulation
P.O. Box 404, Main Street, Across from the Post Office
Vanceboro, North Carolina 28586
Phone: (919) 244-0780, (919) 244-0508
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY
Second Class Postage Paid at Vanceboro, N.C.
(Permit entered March 1, 1978)
SUBSCRIPTION PRICES
Single Copy go?
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(Includes N.C. Sales Tax)
(USPS 412-110)
.Subscribers desiring their Highlights
terminated at expiration should notify us of this intention,
otherwise we will consider it their wish to continue to receive the
paper and they will be charged for it.)
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