The Nags Tale
VOLUME 1
Lost Colony
By BEN DIXON MACNEILL
NAGS HEAD, N. C., SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1938
Paradise
NUMBER 3
-S'
It must be the climate that has
so happily solved the servant prob
lem down the beach a ways at
what I speak of as my villa. Last
week my favorite novelist rolled
up his pants and took over the
kitchen in the absence of any
thing that looked or behaved like
a cook, or even a scullery maid.
I believe villas do have scullery
maids, and it may be that one of
the species ought to be installed
therein.
But there is no obvious need of
her. Each successive guest rises
to such emergency as presents it
self. Mr. Boyd undertook no ac
tual cooking, but Tom Bost had
not been in the house five minutes
before he had my percolator by
the tail—handle then—teaching it
new and eminently useful tricks
and although he had not in all his
sixty years had to do with an elec
tric cooking device, in five more
minutes he was master of one of
Mr. Westinghouse’s most compli
cated cooking devices.
Mr. Bost, if there be any who
come to these parts who do not
already know it, is the dean of
native newspaper men. He has
been at it for more than forty
years, and little has happened in
North Carolina in four decades
that he has not seen. Moreover,
he is something of a preacher on
occasion, the best mimic in the
business—if you ever get in range,
ask him about Senator Bailey, or
about the time Judge Long dis
persed a mob.
Moreover, he is the husband of
the Commissioner of Public Wel
fare, and the father of two sons,
one of whom is coming along in
the newspaper business. Altogeth
er these seemed accomplishments
enough for one not very prepos
sessing-looking fellow of the age of
60 or thereabouts. And anybody
of that age, arriving in late after
noon after a long and arduous
journey, accompanied by his fam
ily and a friend of Mrs. Bost’s,
(Continued on Page Four)
LIGHTS LIGHTED
MUSIN’S
By The Sandfiddler
With this edition the Nags Tale
goes into its third week and be
comes something of a permanent
beach fixture. Now if we can fig
ure out some way to make the ven
ture pay dividends it might turn
into a highly successful enterprise.
We were speaking of conceited
band leaders the other day when
one bright fellow remarked that
oftimes we mistake stage presence
for conceit. Which makes us think
that Van Key’s must have a lot of
stage presence.
Worst flaw in this year’s pro
duction of the “Lost Colony” one
of our better but less tactful crit
ics remarks, is in casting Donald
Rosenberg as Wanchese. He agrees
that Donald is a swell actor and
the best impersonator of an Indian
they’ve had, but he still can’t help
asking: “Who ever say a bow-
legged injun?”
THERE’S little need to say that the aerial picture above is of old Nags
Head. There’s even less need to explain the caption aovbe the picture.
Anybody who has stayed down here long enough to rad the Nags Tale
will know right off that nothing but “Paradise” would seem natural in
that place. ____
POTPOURRI
By Woodrow Price
Newspaper writing, or writing
of any kind for that matter, can
and will lead one into some of the
strangest and often most humor
ous situations. Sometimes without
A Columnist Tries His
Hand at Something New
By THE SANDFIDDLER
Author’s note:—Since we were
a little short of copy this week
Jernigan asked me to jot down
a few extra paragraphs. Having
already filled Musin’s with about
actually making a mistake a re- all the factual material I’d been
porter says just the wrong thing able to gather together, I tried a
Two weeks ago this newspaper
ran an editorial condemning the
Virginia Electric & Power Com
pany for not doing something to
the lights along the beach from
going off most every Saturday
night.
This week we’re running a fol
low up story that might serve as
a sort of congratulatory message
to that same company for taking
immediate action in regard to the
situation.
First sign of action on the part
of the VEPCO was in guarding
against a recurrence. The first
accident was the result of light
ning striking the cable across the
inland waterway at Coinjock. The
second was caused by some prank
sters shooting a hole through the
same cable with a rifle. To take
care of possible similar accidents
in the future the company has put
in an auxiliary cable across the
canal which can be turned into
immediate use on short notice.
Second sign of action by the
company was to station another
trouble man in this district. A
trouble man is a person whose
mg in duty is to keep a weather
eye open for accidents of that sort
and to get on the job as soon as
they happen. Previously only one
trouble man has been retained in
the section from Currituck south.
Maybe now we’ll get the electrical
service that a beach of this size
should have.
and it always looks much worse
in print.
Last year, some historical society
was having a celebration on Roa
noke Island. A lovely, white-hair
ed lady who was the national
president of the organization was
to make the speech of the occa
sion and I was detailed to cover
the affair. It was colorful in dress
and decoration, there were patriot
ic songs and the couple of hundred
women present were dressed to a
million.
I wanted to make the characters
stand out a bit and I decided to use
a few more adjectives in describing
the honor guest than had been my
wont in other cases. I looked her
over carefully, and there she was
beaming and chatting gaily with
her neighbor. Immediately, I
scribbled down “spritely.”
Through the hour and a half of
the proceedings, she smiled, white
teeth gleaming. So I added “smil
ing and very gay.” She was. The
description was in all the papers
the next day.
Well, last week there was an
other historical commemoration on
the Island and the ladies were all
here again. Fortunately for me,
the national president didn’t re
appear. But another of the ladies,
one of the leaders, remembered
that word “spritely.”
“Oh, yes,” she informed me
sweetly but in subtle tones which
barely curtained her meaning, “we
had such a laugh over that. The
word was all right—^but the lady
was supposed to be in mourning.
She had lost her husband a few
weeks before.”
hand
it.
at fiction. Hope you like
Round And About
By BENNIE LAMBE
Somebody wants to know what
it would cost the editors if they
had to pay their columnists what
they are really worth. That’s easy!
Just multiply each column inch
by five cents, and throw in Jemi-
gan’s editorials free.
Best thing about this paper, one
intelligent reader says, is the name.
He must enjoy reading.
I am old fashioned.
Not imtil a few days ago was I
aware of the fact. But it’s some
thing like “B.O.” Even your best
friends won’t tell you about it. A
young man whom I have known
(Continued on Page Two)
She was dancing with Bill, and
Bill owed me ten bucks, so when
somebody broke on Bill I asked
him to introduce me to her, and
I could tell by the way he looked
at me that if it hadn’t been for
him owing me ten bucks he
wouldn’t have done it, but since
he owed me ten bucks he did.
She was tall and not too slim,
and mighty pretty in the face.
I didn’t blame Bill, and I thought
that I was plenty lucky not to
owe anybody ten bucks.
The first thing she said was:
“What was your name again,” so
I told her, and she explained that
“It’s hard to catch names when
boys are introduced,” and then I
asked her again what her name
was, and she told me, and I ex
plained that “It’s also mighty hard
for boys to catch girls’ names
when they are first introduced.”
She wanted to know where I was
from, and I told her “Chapel Hill
in the winter, and Nags Head in
the summer, but Raleigh is my
home town,” and I asked her where
she was from, and she said Greens
boro.
She asked me if I knew any
girls in Greensboro, and I said
“yes,” and she asked me who and
I said Jane Smith, and she said
she knew Jane and Barbara Smith,
too, and then she asked me if I
knew Phil Volger in Raleigh. I
said yes I knew Phil, since I had
gone to school with him, and she
said that he was a sweet boy, and
I said “Yes, I guess he is. He looks
like he’s sweet.”
Then I asked her if she knew
Helen Newsome, and she said no,
but the name was familiar, and
I told her what street she lived
on, and she said she knew there
(Continued on Page Two)
To the stranger a ride on the
beach is an exciting experience.
Even to me, who first came here as
a small child, it is still tremen
dously interesting.
Recently, I had the privilege of
taking a trip to Salvo in a truck.
The six of us who made the trip
contend that it was the most in
teresting one we’ve taken in a long
while.
Undoubtedly, the noisiest con
traption on four wheels was the
truck that met us on the other
side of Oregon Inlet. After riding
three or four very miserable miles
I asked the driver if the buggy
had a muffler on it. He replied,
“Muffler, hell. All I’ve got on this
thing is a galvanized, iron pipe.”
Prom then on I took the noises as
they came with no voiced opinions.
We drove on a few more miles
with the bumps getting bigger all
the time. All of a, sudden some
thing went kerplunk. That was
our lunch that we had spent the
entire morning making up. Weak
grins went all around the truck
and once more we settled down
for what we hoped would be an
enjoyable trip.
Finally we came to the New In
let, cut through a few years ago
by a hurricane. This inlet reaUy
should be called the Triple Inlet
or some such name because it is
three inlets. The first one is very
shallow and looks more like a water
puddle than anything else. Com
ing to the middle one we noticed
how much wider and deeper it was
than the first. The third inlet
was another shallow little bit of
water. The driver told us that
when the tide is high all three of
these inlets go into one and then
one can really appreciate an im-
usually large inlet. A remarkable
thing about this beach is that these
inlets come and go as does the
tide. A storm tomorrow could
completely All them and we would
have the same smooth beach that
was once there.
After crossing the inlet the first
village we came to was North Ro-
danthe. Charming and quaint is
(Continued on Page Two)
A friend of ours up at the Croa-
tan, who claims that his beard is
seventeen years younger than the
hair on top of his head, can’t un
derstand why they’re both turn
ing gray at the same time.
Our editor tells us that one read
er, (1938 Ford Coupe with a Vir
ginia license plate), raised quite
a rucus over our using her name
in this column last week. The
only thing we have to say to said
Miss is that our use of her name
was neither damaging or Insulting,
but if she really wants to get gruf-
fy about something, it shouldn’t be
hard to scrape up some odds and
ends to serve as an incentive.
One lady of our acquaintance,
who belongs to what she terms
“the older set” insists that we
stop writing up the girls so much
and start giving their mothers a
break. She suggested that as a
beginner we dig up something
about “Clara Bow” Outlaw, but
since we’re in contact with Martha
far more than with her mother it
turned out to be a hard assign
ment. We can say, though, that
in the future we’ll be more than
glad to print anything of the na-
(Continned on page Two)
KEYS HELD OVER BY
POPULAR REQUEST
Van Keys and his 14 musical
koys will be heard at Nags Head
Beach Club nightly until Thurs
day August 4, by special arrange
ment with his booking agent. Keys
arranged to leave the Beach Club
on Monday but he has grown so
popular with dance fans that man
ager Levy Overton is holding the
band over as long as possible. This
attraction is attracting the largest
crowds in the history of the Club.
Following Keys’ Orchestra will
be Bob Riley and his orchestra of
electrified rhythm, something dif
ferent in the music world. Riley,
originating the electrified rhythm
has even the best of us wondering
what it wiU be like. He wiU come
to the Beach Club direct from the
Isle of Palms in Charleston, South
Carolina.