Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / Aug. 24, 1978, edition 1 / Page 1
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25 <?k _ e The Hoke County News - Established 1928 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 17 RAEFORD, HOKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA - journal The Hoke County Journal - Established 1905 S8 PER YEAR THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1978 Around Town BY SAM C.MORRIS If you are one that gets up early in the morning, you would have noticed how nice the weather has been for the past couple of days. It is like the fall of the year. As one newscaster said Monday night on TV it felt like football season. This is not far from wrong, because the high schools open up this weekend. But don't let this fool you because there are many hot days and nights left in 1978. ft One day last week when a thunderstorm came up in the afternoon and the lightning and thunder was putting on a display, it seemed as if the windows in the office would fall out, they were * rattling so. Then when I got home and the storm had moved on over the town, there were still loud noises and the doors in the house were rattling. This I believe was coming from guns in the Fort Bragg reservation or jets breaking the sound barrier. Anyway this has caused me to wonder if the guns were causing the rattling in the first place instead of the thunder. Allen Edwards, principal of Up church School, was playing ahead of me last Sunday at Arabia Golf Course. When I came off the 18th green he was waiting in front of the clubhouse and wanted to make conversation. Of course, I started talking to him &s I was taking my golf bag off the cart. Then as usual after a bad round the score card was deposited in a trash can. Edwards went to the can and retrieved the card and looked at the score. He said to be sure and put in Kis column that a 90 was scored for e afternoon. So Edwards, the score appears. The reason for the 90, besides my sorry playing, was standing on a olf course for approximately four ours while a certain principal went from one side of the course to the other looking for balls in every patch of woods and in the rough on the golf course. He rode so far in his golf cart that the battery gave out. Someone said he rode 36 holes for the price of 18 holes. So Edwards, my score is posted in this column, but of course, you didn't show me your card. * ? * A.W. Wood. Jr., was in charge of the program at the Raeford Kiwanis Club last Thursday night and he had as the speaker. Roy Parker, Jr.. editor of The Fayette ville Times. Now 1 could go into what the speaker talked about, but since there is such a difference between daily and weekly papers, it would take too much room in this column. Anyway his subject for the evening was something like. "Newspapers are Big Business." Remember that he is an editor for a ALaily paper. Everyone seemed to vFppreciate his comments very much. * * * The Kiwanis Club softball tour nament is going on this week and a champion will be crowned Friday night. So go out and enjoy an . evening of softball and give the kids \ a final treat before school starts. ? ? * V Don't forget the meeting at the courthouse this coming Thursday night. August 24 at 7:30 o'clock. This may be the final choice to have anything to say about the jets flying low over Hoke County. Don't stay away and then make conversation about something should have been done after the noise is so you can hardly stand it. About the only thing the FAA will listen to in this project is numbers and facts. So get your facts together and be at the courthouse Thursday. ? ? * The Hoke High Bucks are hard g?t practice and they open the Kason on Sept. 1 against Seventy - First at the Cumberland school stadium. The first home game will be at the local Stadium on Friday night. Sept. 8th at eight o'clock. The Bucks will meet the strong I (See AROUND TOWN. Page 14) v V LIGHTNING STRIKES -- Jimmy Cunningham points to where a bolt of lightning entered his North Main Street Extension home last Thursday after traveling down a television antenna. His wife was in the kitchen when the house was struck but was not injured. Lightning Blasts Windows To Pieces They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place, but Jimmy and Louise Cunningham aren't eager to test that old adage. The clock on the wall of their North Main Street Extension home stopped at 10 minutes to 3 last Thursday. That's when an explo sive bolt of lightning came down the television antenna, through a window, and ripped through the house, collapsing the ceiling in the living room and blowing out all but eight panes of glass. "When 1 came home. I saw the ceiling on the floor and the glass knocked out. and if I hadn't had a strong heart. I guess I would be dead," Cunningham said the day after the storm. "My wife was in the kitchen when the lightning struck, and she could hardly talk she was so shaken." She wasn't hurt. But Cunning ham said it took a while for her nerves to settle down. The wire was burned almost to the clock . Broken glass was thrown as much as 20 feet from the small, one story house, located in the open on a hill near Doby's Funeral Home. The television antenna is the highest point for several hun dred feet around. Even the windows on the other side of the house were knocked out by the blast. The front picture window was in pieces on the porch. "It looks like someone threw a stick of dynamite in there." noted North Raeford fireman Elwood Baker. Baker said lightning also struck the house next door and started a small fire there. The fire trucks answered the call shortly after 3 o'clock, but the occupants had put the fire out before it could do serious damage. The wiring will have to be replaced, he said. Luck alone prevented a fire in the Cottingham home. Cunningham, who rents his house, said he didn't know how much it would cost to repair it. In the meantime, he said he and his wife will be staying with neighbors. "I used to think inside the house was the safest place to be in a lightning storm," he said. "But now 1 don't know." HUD Rejects Hoke Grant Application *********************** MOA Plans Prompt Second Public Meeting The Hoke County Commis sioners voted Monday night to send a letter opposing a proposed military air zone to officials at a public meeting to be held here Thursday night, August 24, at the Hoke County Courthouse at 7:30. The commissioners will be in Asheville Thursday attending the annual County Commissioner's Convention and will not be at the meeting. "I'm not in favor of the rone," Commissioner Danny DeVane said at Monday's meeting. "It looks like they are going to do it anyway, but I think we need some kind of letter opposing it. This morning some jets flew low over my house. We've probably got as many crop dusters in the air as any small county. I feel Local Schools Set To Open Sept. 5 Teachers and school administra tors here are gearing up for another school term. The 1978-79 school year will officially begin on September 5, although orientation day will be held August 30. Registration for adult courses to be offered here will be August 29, 31 and September 11. Raz Autry, superintendent of schools, explained that children entering kindergarten should have pre - registered, but if they are not registered with the school system, they may do so on orientation day. Parents should accompany the smaller children if they have not been registered, he said, but the older students will be able to register themselves. Buses will run on orientation next Wednesday, although school will be dismissed at 10:30 a.m. Teachers reported for work on August 23. Adult Classes Registration for adult high school will be held on August 29 and 31 at the Hoke County High School in the Gibson Building. Students planning to attend the course are asked to bring their social security cards and a $5 registration fee. Classes will be offered only if sufficient students are registered. For further information about the high school dimploma program, call 875-2156 until 4 p.m. and 875-2205 after 4 p.m. An academic college transferable five - quarter - hour course in U.S. History will be offered on Mondays and Wednesdays by Sandhills Community College. The course is a survey of the history of the United States from the discovery of America in 1492 to the end of the Civil War. Registration for this course will (See LOCAL SCHOOLS, Page 14) this zone will be a hazard to them. If we don't oppose it, they're going to do even more. If you give them a mile, they'll take five." "They never have given us the environmental impact study," Chairman John Balfour pointed out. Congressman Charlie Rose re cently announced that plans for the zone, called a Military Operations Area (MOA), had been altered as a result of concerns voiced by citizens here in April. A letter from Richard M. Robinson of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Atlanta stated the new plan would prohibit the operation of military jets below 3,000 feet above the ground within a one - and - a ? half mile radius of the Raeford Airport and the City of Raeford. According to Rose, they propose to lower the floor of the Hoke County MOA to 500 feet above ground level every where in the zone. City and county officials and local residents have been vocal in their opposition to the MOA and Thursday's meeting is expected to be well attended. People here are afraid military activity will increase once the zone is established and resulting noise from high speed fighters will hurt the local economy. Military and FAA officials have said the zone is primarily a safety measure and will have no adverse effects on the county. The aircraft fly support missions for ground troops at nearby Fort Bragg and are said to be a vital part of the training program. In the past the jets have circled in holding patterns over Hoke County with little restriction, but a new FAA regulation requires them to operate within designated air space, such as an MOA. The zone will appear on aviation charts to let pilots know to be on the lookout for military traffic. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Develop ment (HUD) has turned down an application by Hoke County for $494,500 in federal funds that would have been used to build a park, rehabilitate sub standard housing, and install sewer line in the Silver City area north of town. "We regret that, due to the highly competitive nature of this program, your proposal did not rank relatively high enough this year for funding," HUD Area Manager Betsy Stafford said in a letter to Hoke Commission Chairman John Balfour. Members of the board of commissioners expressed disap pointment at their meeting Monday night over rejection of the grant. But County Manager James Martin said HUD has invited the county to submit the application again in December. Hoke Parks and Recreation Commission Director Don Slaughter said Tuesday his de partment is exploring other sources of funding for the park. He said the project is still very much alive even though it may not be financed with HUD money. Although a group of citizens rated the neighborhood park as the county's number one prior ity earlier this year, HUD rated it the lowest of the three proposals. Trash Collection In other business Monday, the board of commissioners authorized the county manager to write a letter to Carolina Waste Systems, Inc. saying that the board does not feel the company is fulfilling its garbage collection contract. "I'm not satisfied with the trash pick - up," said Commis sioner Danny DeVane. "It's not consistent. I think the county needs to make a complaint to the company in writing." The board awarded the con tract to the company in June. The contract states that the company shall pick up the garbage as many times as is (Sec GRANT. Page 15) Mother, Son Return To Hoke County After Harrowing Ordeal In Vietnam by Cassle Waako After three and a half years spent in Communist - ruled South Viet nam, Te McGuire and six ? year - old son, Duane, were re - united last week with husband and father Gary D. McGuire. Duane was only two and a half when he and his mother went to Vietnam to visit relatives. Te, a native of South Vietnam, married McGuire in 1972 and came to the U.S. to live. Although the long ordeal that separated the family was mentally and physically trying, the McGuir es express no bitterness. A feeling of family unity and warmth fills every corner of their home in northern Hoke County. "This sort of thing happens following a war," McGuire, who served as a sergeant in the army, said. "The whole thing was just a senseless mistake." Just before the Communist take over in April of 1975, Te went to the airport to buy tickets for the trip back home. On April 27, she paid for her trip and was instructed to return the next day to board the plane. Upon her return she found the airlines office deserted. The Communists had gained control, and people were fleeing the country by the thousands. Te explained that after finding the airlines office empty, she took her son and went to the American Embassy. "She had her identification pa pers inside her clothes," McGuire said. He explained that to get into the Embassy, it was necessary to show the papers proving a tie with America. Throngs of people were pressing at the Embassy gates trying to gain access, and if the papers were in view, they were taken by another person in the crowd. Te was unable to get through the gates, so she went to the docks where an American ship was leaving. "There were people hanging from the sides of the ship on ropes trying to get out of the country," she said. A soldier standing on the dock told her to throw her child onto the ship, but she said she was afraid that he would fall into the water and drown. The ship was her last hope, and after that failed, she gave up and returned to her mother's home until the first of May when trucks traveled the streets with loud speakers instruct ing foreigners to go to the Red Cross. She reported her alien status and the next day was taken into custody by the Communists. Both mother and child were imprisoned for a month. Te was then given work to do. Later, she and Duane were returned to her mother's home. Communists, then took the home and sent the family to the country to live and work. Te and her son worked at farming chores and later she was assigned a job as a cook. During the first year and a half of the Communist rule, mail did not get through. It was in August of 1976 that McGuire got a Red Cross message from his wife telling of her whereabouts. McGuire then launched an ex tensive campaign to get his wife back. "It just takes a long time." he said. "In any beauracracy, there is a lot of red tape, and re - uniting families just did not have priority." The North Vietnamese had no money and were suddenly over whelmed bv the task of taking care (See VIFTNAM. Page 11) mz it?, V.. - ?' ? F/KS7 rOK - Gary McGvire \R]said that the wagon was bought for Duane before he and his mother III left for the trip to Vietnam that kept the family apart for three years.
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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Aug. 24, 1978, edition 1
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