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VOLUME 11 NO. 33
West Craven Highlights
News From Along The Banks Of The Neiise
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AUGUST 18,1988
VANCEBORO, NORTH CAROLINA PHONE 244 0780 OR 946 2m(UPSP 412-1101 25 CENTS SIX PAGES
Natural Lighting
A summer storm provides natural lighting from lightning recent
ly. The lightning slices through the air to provide illumination and
when the air separated by the lightning comes back together we
hear the thunder. Sometimes the thunder is a loud cracking sound
and other times it rumbles and rolls for a few seconds, getting
fainter as it seemingly travels among the clouds. It is a light and
sound show that is hard to beat anywhere and anytime. (Ric Carter
photo)
Hello America:
Vietnam Letters
Tell A Real Story
Royce P. Barrow will never
forget the fateful day in 1966
when the silence of the Viet
nam jungle was pierced by the
crack of a sniper's rifle.
It was Nov. 23, Thanksgiv
ing of all days, and the 21 -year-
old Washington native, then a
specialist four in the Army,
had just completed a long day
of combat in the hills around
An Khe.
Or so he thought.
For as Barrow, his platoon
leader and Pfc. Donald Rank
in began moving through a
rice paddy thinking the battle
was done, the shot rang out
and Rankin dropped face
down in the mud.
Barrow called out to the
Paris, Ky., native whom he
had befriended in basic train
ing. There was no answer.
He stood in the rain, gazing
on as his friend's body was co
vered with a poncho, loaded
onto a helicopter and taken
away.
Later that day, more heli
copters came bearing Thank
sgiving fare — a turkey-and-
trimmings feast the men had
awaited for days. But the meal
went to waste. “None of us fell
hke eating," he wrote in a let
ter to his mother, Mrs. Walter
Hill of Shady Banks.
That was half a lifetime ago.
Today Barrow, 43, manages
the Heilig-Meyers furniture
store in Dunn, where he lives
with his wife, Ann; daughter,
Allison, 11, and son, Trent
Rankin, 14, whose middle
name is tribute to his father’s
comrade.
It wasn't until recently,
however, that Barrow spoke
much of the war and of the
friends who perished in
Southeast Asia.
In late April, HBO began
showing a documentary titled
“Dear America: Letters from
Vietnam," in which actual let
ters from Vietnam veterans
were read by movie personali
ties amid a collage of combat
footage and music from the
turbulent era.
After the show aired, one of
Trent's friends in Dunn, who
knew Trent had been named
for his father’s fallen war bud
dy, heard a story of how Rank
in had been killed.
When the word got back to
Barrow, he figured the story
must have been about another
Rankin. Nonetheless, he
videotaped the show one
night and watched it the next.
There it was. A photo of him
self, Rankin and other friends
at An Khe. The memory flood
gate was opened.
“As soon as they showed the
(See LETTERS, Page 5)
Almost Here
A West Craven football player gets in some practice time before
the prep football season begins. The season is less than 10 days away
and players have been practicing since Aug. 1. The Eagles, under
Coach Clay Jordan and his staff, will take on North Pitt’s Cougars at
Bethel Aug. 26 at 8 p.m. The Eagles look to improve on last year's
7-4-1 record. (Mike Voss photo)
Area Crops
Look Good
For Fanners
Tobacco, Soybeans Appear
To Be Top Crops For Year
By MIKE VOSS
Editor
After several years of agri
cultural problems ranging from
low prices to bad growing condi
tions, fanners in Craven County
appear to be experiencing one of
their best years in the 19805.
While the nation’s corn belt,
wheat belt and other agricultural
areas in the Midwest suffered the
worst drought since the 1930s,
farmers in Craven County and
eastern North Carolina have had
a pretty good year, said county
agricultural officials.
Weather conditions proved to
be just right for many crops
grown in the area, but there were
some close calls with high
temperatures and little rain, they
explained.
'Tobacco growers and others
associated with growing the
state's top crop say this year's
leaf production is one of the best
in recent times. The tobacco in
dustry said weather conditions
were near perfect for growing the
leaf and that the quality of the
tobacco crop this year is one of
the highest. Producers are ex
pecting prices above recent
years, especially leaves from the
top of the tobacco plants.
Marshall Bland of the Craven
County Farm Bureau said the
Asbury section of the county was
“hit pretty hard and the tobacco
there suffered a lot of damage" in
the recent hailstorm. But Bland
Is optimistic about the overall
agricultural outlook in the
county.
“The biggest thing looks like
the tobacco crop that wasn’t
damaged with hail will turn out
with good quality." said Bland.
Although there was some tobac
co lost to the hail, the county has
grown an excellent crop of quali
ty leaf, he said.
“The market opened better
than some people expected,”
said Bland.
Most of the hail-damaged
tobacco was found in the Cove
City, Asbury, Jasper and Ernul
areas of the county, said Bland.
Most of the damage was central
ized, said Bland.
Bland would not say that this
year would be one of the better
years in recent times for county
farmers. “It remains to be seen."
he said. But Bland did say that
the agricultural picture in the
county is “shaping up to be a real
good year."
Bland said corn producers may
have lost some of their crop be
cause of lack of rain earlier this
(See FARMERS. Page 5}
Dont Raise A Stink
Over Skunks; They
Can Help Farmers
By RAY BRONK
Few residents of North Caroli
na are unfamiliar with the pun
gent odor sometimes noticed
wafting on an otherwise pleasant
breeze. Upon recognizing the
odor, the cry is usually, “Peeeee-
ooooooo, a skunk!"
That odor is usually the first
indication that one is about to
meet the most easily recognized
denizen of the wild found
throughout North Carolina: the
skunk. Chances are, it is a mem
ber of the most populous subspe
cies of the skunk species, the
striped skunk (Mephitis). Mephi
tis if Latin for “bad odor."
The skunk is the most common
member of the Mustelidae fami
ly, and is typical in the muscula
ture of this family; small, with
long low-slung bodies, short legs,
short, rounded ears and a thick,
silky fur.
All members of the Mustelidae
family are equipped with paired
anal glands. These glands in the
skunk are highly developed for
defense and the skunk can spray
this powerful secretion as far as
15 feet. This stench keeps the
skunk from being welcome in
any manner while within scent
range. To put it bluntly, he
stinks!
The male skunk, like most
mammals, is color blind, and is
usually nocturnal. The base color
of the striped skunk’s fur is silky
black. It has a small white stripe
that begins at the nose and ends
at the forehead, and does not join
the large white stripe on the
back. The back stripes (one or
two) start as a cap that begins at
the ears. The cap is about 2 in
ches square, then it branches.
Each stripe continues back,
sometimes ending behind the
shoulders, sometimes at the hips
and sometimes extends into the
tail.
The skunk is a digging animal,
and is equipped with long, strong
claws on all feet. The front claws
are three-quarters to more than
one inch in length. The back
claws are about half as long.
Skunks in all areas feed almost
exclusively on insects. They will
feed on bees from hives, and
apparently are not harmed by
frequent bee stings. Their favo
rite insects are grasshoppers,
crickets, grubs, cutworms,
weevils, spiders and millipedes.
Their diverse diet also includes
fruit, grain, rodents, birds and
bird eggs, rats and mice, babby
rabbits and turtle eggs.
Most skunk dens were origi
nally dug by woodchucks, red
foxes and badgers. When a skunk
digs its own den, it is dug into a
well-drained soil and many are
dug into the sides of hills to
promote drainage. The den will
(See SKUNK, Page 5)
Numbers, Talent And Conditioning Worry Coaches
Havelock is experiencing a
numbers problem, East Carteret
is trying to get itself in shape,
West Carteret is concerned about
its talent and North Lenoir has a
new head football coach as pre
season practice continues at the
Class 3-A Coastal Conference
schools.
HAVELOCK
Coach Wilbur Sasser has been
used to having 40-45 kids try out
for the Rams’ varsity football
team the past few years. This
year, he has 30.
“I'm real disappointed with
that number,” Sasser said in a
telephone interview from his
home Monday afternoon. “Depth
may be a factor unless we get a
few more kids out.”
Sasser said practices have
Coastal
Conference
gone well with the players that
show up, but he added, “we've
had some people quit after just
one day of hitting. My concern is,
how many more will quit now
that we're in pads? If more quit,
we might be in for trouble.”
The players reported in fairly
good shape last week for the first
week of practice, Sasser said,
adding, “but some of the players
could’ve worked harder to get
ready.”
“I'm really surprised that more
kids didn’t want to be a part of
our football team this year,” Sas
ser said. "It might be because of
our success the past few years.
but you would think it would be
the other way around. Still, I was
hoping for more.”
Sasser added the team is prac
ticing twice a day for three days a
week and once a day the other
days. “The two-a-days are just for
working on specialized things,”
he said.
Sasser said he has been
pleased with the performance of
his players thus far, but he added
the Rams still have a ways to go.
"We need an awful lot of young
men to get to the level we expect
of them and they should expect
of themselves before we can be
considered a good team,” Sasser
said.
Havelock will host Kinston
Saturday at 7 p.m. in a scrim
mage game.
WEST CARTERET
West Carteret head football
coach Ed Hiatt reports 64 candi
dates turned up for the first day
of football practice last Monday.
“We’ve got about 60-62 now — 32
for the junior varsity and 30 for
the varsity.”
Talent-wise, Hiatt said he
doesn't expect much improve
ment over last year’s 1-9 record.
Hiatt said that geography and
economics are two of the reasons
why the grid program has suf
fered in recent years.
“If we could move the ocean
about 20-30 miles out farther,
we’d have a chance,” he said.
“And, a lot of the kids work, so
that makes it even tougher.”
“It’s not that the kids haven’t
worked hard, because they
have,” Hiatt added. “But when
you don’t have the talent, you
have to be real basic on offense
and defense. That’s what we’re
working on.”
Seven sophomores, all starters
from last year’s team, quit before
the end of the first week of prac
tice, Hiatt said.
“I hope we’ll be competitive,
but I know we can’t as long as we
have the problems we do.”
EAST CARTERET
Although the East Carteret
football team expects to carry be
tween 25-30 players this season.
Mariner coach George Viereck
said the team has to be in shape
before it can move on to other
things.
“Right now, we’re a little be
hind at practice,” Viereck said.
“We have some kids that travel 30
miles to get here, so we only prac
tice once a day in the early even
ing. Most of them usually get
here so we we don’t try to prac
tice twice a day.” Viereck was
disappointed at the players’ lack
of conditioning when they re
ported Aug. 1.
“Most of them didn’t do a
whole lot over the summer to
keep in shape. But the heat has
been a factor too, especially for
our linemen,” he said.
“We’re conditioning the play
ers as they go,” Viereck said.
“They act like we’re killing them
but really we’re not. We’re work
ing on getting into shape and we
have to work on our execution.”
(See COASTAL, Page 5}