The
ROANOKE RAPIDS HERALD
Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina
HALIFAX COUNTY’S LARGEST NEWSPAPER
North Carolina’s Only TABIoid NEWSpaper
CARROLL WILSON,Owner and Editor
Entered as Second Class matter April 3rd, 1914, at the post office
at Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, under Act of March 3rd, 1879.
PRINTING _ - _ EMBOSSING _ - - ENGRAVING
! LEFT OUT IN THE COLD
The editor of The Roanoke Rapids Herald
is in receipt of the following letter dated April
7 th:
“Dear sir: The Good Will Tour for Rocky
Mount s Exposition and Automobile Show will
reach your city on Friday, April 1 3th, at 10:13
a. m. The members of the Tour will appreciate
your fullest cooperation in having as large a
gathering as possible to meet us.
Signed: S. H. Austin, Rocky Mount
Chamber of Commerce
Prior to that letter exists interesting history
to Roanoke Rapids folks. Most recent is the
visit of the advance publicity man for the Rocky
Mount Tour to our office. He left us news
stories, advertising, complimentary tickets, etc.
We looked over the material and this is
what we saw: Roanoke Rapids had been left
off the Tour. From Weldon, the motorcade
went to Jackson, skipping our own home town.
Here we were, the biggest town on the en
tire itinerary, with the largest payroll in East
ern Carolina, and we had been left out in the
cold while the motorcade would visit such
thriving metropolises as Battleboro, Rich
Square, Oak City, Hamilton and Bethel. With
no disparagement of these fine towns, we are
not exaggerating much when we say you could
put all these towns in one good sized room of
the Rosemary Mfg. Co.
Naturally, our civic pride was hurt and we
(demanded of this advance man what the idea
was in leaving us off the trip. We told him what
kind of a town we had here and our language
may not have been the choicest, but it was very
plain and understandable. We were not being
personal, but we had something uncompli
mentary to say about those who had planned
the trip and left us off.
Net result was the letter you have read a
bove. The plans have been changed to include
Roanoke Rapids, the best and livest little city
in all Eastern North Carolina, the place where
something always happens and where you can’t
grow old because there is so much to live for.
After receiving this letter, we began to look
a little to the past, trying to figure out just why
Roanoke Rapids had been overlooked by our
Rocky Mount neighbors. We looked at the
maps, something all trip-takers must do in ar
ranging their visits. And there we found the
answer.
Roanoke Rapids was left out in the cold
because, according to the highway maps, Roa
noke Rapids is out in the cold.
Spring, Beautiful Spring ^ but not to mother 1 By Albert T. Reid
_ _ , W. S'.
mama
THIS
AND
/ maw
I_I
No main highway, North and South, runs
thru this city of ours. State Highway No. 40,
the natural route for Rocky Mount to follow
on an Eastern tour, no longer passes thru Roa
noke Rapids. The State maps show us way off
on a spur road and on a secondary road.
Those Rocky Mount boys, figuring out
from the maps which way they would go, did
not even see Roanoke Rapids on that map, be
cause they were following main highways. We
find we cannot blame them for the oversight.
We must go further back into the years for
this study. There was a time when Roanoke
Rapids was on Route 40, the main highway in
this section of the State. There was a time when
no such oversight would have been possible by
Rocky Mount or anyone else. A time when we
saw plenty of tourists and foreign cars coming
thru Roanoke Rapids and skimming up and
down the Avenue, stopping at our filling sta
tions, our drug stores, our restaurants and
lunch stands.
Then one morning we awoke to find them
moving the highway markers. We had lost
Route 40. We later lost Federal Highway 17-1.
It was the same road, the same distance, the
same Roanoke Rapids, but it was all different.
We were on a sideroad.
Just what happened up in Raleigh at that
time, just what wires were pulled, just what
trades were made, we have never been able to
find out. Those in political control of city and
county have never furnished any explination
of what really happened. We have heard rum
ors of what happened, but not being able to
confirm them to our own satisfaction, we have
never printed them. But, as the old folks would
say, things point “to dirty work at the cross
roads.”
We do know this: Roanoke Rapids lost the
State Highway, it lost the Federal Highway,
and on the map of the present time and for sev
eral years past, we are on a secondary marking
which nobody ever looks at unless they are go
' ing to that particular spot.
We do feel that we cannot
blame the Rocky Mount trip
plotters who were going by
the map, the official State
Highway map, no doubt. Ac
cording to that, Roanoke
Rapids is way off the main
highway; particularly when
time is short and the trip long.
It might be well for Roa
noke Rapids to turn out en
masse on Friday morning, the
Thirteenth, (what a date to
make a Good-Will Tour) and
just show those Rocky Mount
fellows what a good thing
they almost missed—just be
cause of a mysterious switch
ing in road numbers a few
years ago.
ZOLLICOFFER
—And—
ALLSBROOK
Attorneys at Law
IMPERIAL THEATRE BLDG
Dial R-324 Roanoke Rapids, N. C.
Fahey and
Daughtrey
Plumbing Contractors
State License No. 283
INSTALLATIONS AND
REPAIR WORK
Estimates Cheerfully
Furnished
DIAL R-668-6
W. C. WILLIAMS
Funeral Director
FUNERAL PARLOR
UP-TO-DATE EQUIPMENT
AMBULANCE SERVICE
TACTFUL ATTENTION
DAY—Dial R-340
NIGHT—Dial R-389
Roanoke Rapids, N. C.