» »»« » » » » WATAUGA DEMOCRAT An Independent Weekly Newspaper . .. Eighty-Second Year of Continuous Publication BOONE WKATHEB 1M» HI Lo Put Snow *88 HI Lo Dec. 23 37 15 48 17 Dec. 24 34 22 .02 28 16 Dec. 25 32 22 1.46 16-in. 28 IS Dec. 26 32 20 .17 2-in. 34 18 Dec. 27 30 16 50 25 i Dec. 28 49 17 51 31 [ Dec. 29 47 35 33 23 VOL. LXXXII—NO. 26 BOONE, WATAUGA COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 1970 10 CENTS 20 PAGES—2 SECTIONS CLOGGED SIDEWALK In business district. Staff photo) Skiers Flock To Hills Thousands of skiers flocked to the North Carolina mountains this past week as most of the ski facilities opened their gates for the first time. Reports from area slopes re corded record crowds on Thurs day and Friday and although a soft snow and wind made ski ing difficult, most reported good crowds on Saturday and Sunday. At Beech Mountain, the largest ski resort in the area, some 3000 skiers were reported using the slopes on Thursday and Fri day. A spokesman at Beech re ported 18 to 20 inches of snow on the ground at that time. At Appalachian Ski Moun tain a capacity crowd filled the slopes on Christmas Eve and Christmas day with a reported ski base of 18 to 20 inches before the large natural snow fall on Thursday and Friday. Seven Devils, which was closed Friday and Saturday due to large drifts, reported capacity crowds on Sunday and Monday. The area boasted a snow base of from 7 to 12 inches until Tuesday when a heavy rain closed the slopes. Hound Ears had a few ski ers Friday skimming over the new snow which covered a two foot base. But conditions were reported poor because of soft snow and wind gusts. The new resort at Sugar Mountain said the snow kept employes away and they re scheduled their opening some time after the first of the year. Reports from most of the ski facilities in the area on Tuesday were that skiing was poor due to the rain that fell on Monday night. All area managers feel that this will be the greatest ski season ever and according to one spokesman, ‘‘all we need is a little cold weather.” To Close For New Year’s Day Most of the stores in Boone will be closed today (Thursday) on account of the New Year’s observance. All Boone and County offices will be closed, except the Magi strate’s office at the courthouse will remain open. Both banks will be closed, along with the Watauga Savings & Loan Association and the post office. Holiday Travel Slowed Moisniainous Snowfall Closes Local Schools Highway Forces Battle Gales To Open Roads Watauga closed out 1969 with a 16-18-inch snow that stymied Christmas travel and closed the schools. High winds complicat ed its removal. The year’s final snow started during the morning of Wednes day, Dec. 24, with a 2-inch blanket spread for Santa. But the biggest snow of the year started Christmas morn ing. When it had finished Fri day, it had left an official re cording of 16 more inches. Its removal from streets and highways developed into a five day-long 24-hour battle by high way maintenance forces. Rv FHrlav mnrnine' hiehwav crews thought they had the prob lems licked. But high winds de veloped that blew snow back on to roads all over Watauga County by that night. Dale Blevins, of the Watauga State Highway Comm’ssion of fice reported that 83 men worked through the five days. They split shifts so that road equipment was worked 24 hours a day. Blevins reported that by Mon day afternoon, Dec. 29, all but two roads in the county had been cleared for travel. The work, he said, involved 40 pieces of equipment. Piles of snow along King Street in Boone sharply cur tailed midtown activity Saturday after stores opened for post Christmas business. Town crews went to work through Sun day night and had several piles of show cleared out for near normal business activity Mon day. Alderman Crater Marsh of fered praise for the work done by crews led by David Austin, head of the town’s water and sewer department. The snow brought on a certain two-day holiday for public school students who had been (Continued on page two) Child Killed InChristmasAccident Investigation is continuing in to the Christmas Eve accident on old highway 421 west of Boone in which five-year-old Teresa Lynn Walls was killed. Patrolman Robert Bowlin said it will be next week be fore he completes his investi gation into the headon crash be tween the Walls car and a truck driven by Noah Vernon Shelton, 42, of Route 1, Vilas. Bowlin said it was the 12th traffic fatility for Watauga County during 1969, a new high record for the county. The child apparently was killed instantly. She was pinned in the wreckage of the 1966 Chevrolet in which she was riding with her parents. Her body was removed by the Wa tauga County Rescue Squad. TTie crash occurred six miles west at Boone. The girl’s parents, Robert Clay Walls, 24, and Linda Ward Walls, 23, of Route 1, Vilas, and Shelton were admitted to Watauga County Hospital. They were released Saturday. (Continued on page two) AT SCENE of Mai accident, George Flowers Photo, SWIRLING SNOW and high winds make low visitability on Street. CStaff photo) More Watauga Women Are Employed Outside For a growing number of mar ried women in Watauga County, running a home apd raising a family are only part of their activities. With each parsing year, more and more of them are finding that they can take care of their household responsibilities and still have enough spare time to permit them to take outside jobs. As a result, locally and else Burley Sales To Be Resumed Reynolds Bell, chairman of the Burley Sales Committee, announces that the sale of Bur ley tobacco shall be resumed on Thursday, January 8, in stead of Monday, January 5. This decision was made by the Burley Sales Committee in a telephone conference at ten o’clock on Saturday morn ing, December 20. The Sales Committee con sidered the situation existing in all areas of the Burley Belt and determined that this later re-opening of the Burley To bacco Market was needed to en able the tobacco re-driers to move a sizeable volume of sold tobacco off the warehouse floors before the market re-opens af ter the holidays. where, the proportion of wives at work—in offices, stores, factories and in professional occupations—is at an all-time high. In Watauga County, an esti mated 37.4 percent of the mar ried women are now employed, according to the latest statis tics. This compares with 28.4 percent in 1960. On the average, throughout the United States, in more than 1 out of every 3 husband-wife families, the wife is employed, either part-time or full-time. It represents a considerable change over earlier years. In 1952, for example, only 1 out of 5 wives was in the labor force. The figures are based upon sampling surveys of the nation’s labor force, conducted by the Census Bureau, and upon re ports from the Labor Depart ment and others. They show that no less than 15.8 million wives in the 43.3 million husband-wifefamilies in the United States were in paid jobs in the past year. Their contributions to the family exchequer have made it easier to cope with the family budget, to save for jixdor’s edu cation and to live on a better scale generally. The increase in the number of working wives reflects only part of the changing pattern of wo men’s attitude toward economic self-sufficiency. The proportion of single women in jobs has also been going up. Between 1950 and 1968, it is shown, the number of working women rose 60 percent, although the number of men employed Purse {''omul $6(10 Is I’riuni Tommy Jones, in addition to being the father of four proud children, and an employee of a local tire recepping firm, is known as “Mr. Honest” about Boone. And his Christmas season good deed might not have been known to newspaper readers and radio listeners across the United States. Jones and his family visited the Community Christmas Tree in Boone on Wednesday, Dec. 17. Before they left the area, he found a woman’s purse con taining $600 in cash. Shortly thereafter Mrs. went up omy ib percent. In Watauga County, similarly, there have been marked changes. The proportion of working women has been edging up steadily. In I960, when the last census was taken, there were 1,675 local women in the labor force, or about 25.0 percent of the female population over 14. There are now approximately 29.3 percent. ,1 \vtU T, . ,i T - 0 Georgia Mast suffered the heart-quickening discovery that she had lost her purse. The $600 represented a payment for a hospital bill, Christmas pres ents and $400 for her 16-year old son’s savings. Saturday morning Jones, re sponding to a radio appeal for the purse’s return, agreed to meet Mrs. Mast at a beauty parlor to hand her the purse and its contents. The only ad dress in the purse had been a California address. Jones, who lives on Route 4, Boone, declined to accei* the $100 reward offered by Mrs. Mast.

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