Newspapers / The Yancey Journal (Burnsville, … / July 10, 1958, edition 1 / Page 2
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TMtmZ&ngECQpb Estafrlisifecftuly, 1936 ARNEY and TRENA FtfX CCbPtrBUSHEitS * EDITORi MISS HOPE BAILEY, ASSOCIATE EDITOR T. L. BROWN SHOP MANAGER Published Every Thursday By YANCEY PUBLISHING COMPANY A Partnership Second Class Mail Privileges Authorized at Burnsville, n. C. THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1968 NUMBER FORTY-SIX SUB. RATE $2.90 PER YEAR - Overlook On Life - By WARREN S. REEVE The idea of “Overlook” is taken from the Overlooks provtdea lor viewing panoramas along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The discussions pro and con re-, garding Mr. Malcolm Ross’ article about our town and county in the June number of the National Geo grapdic Magazine induce me to of fer a brief interpretation of my own, and then to reflect on some of the workings of that human nature that none of us can evqr get away from. My impression, not only from reading the article in the Nation-* al Geographic Magazine and Mr. Ross’ “apologia" in the June 26th issue of The Yancey Record, but also from hearing the talk that Mr. Ross gave the Lions Club one night last summer, is that he gathered the material and wrote his article lovingly, and that the people he described were dear to him. He had within him a strong wish also so I would infer to share his love with a wider pub lic, and I would venture to believe that he will have succeeded in this, and that the effect of his ar ticle on a large number of readers will be to engender in them a like affectionate interest and regard for * these people who are “his love” . Such would seem to me to be the conscious motivation that he had. Whether there were further motivations of which he was not conscious, and yet which may have found some expression in his writing, I cannot say. But this leads to some interesting reflec tion about the power of the sub conscious in the lives of all of us. It makes no difference whether we are plain people who had little schooling, or whether we hold col lege degrees. We may be cultur ed or we may be, crude and un couth. An inventory of the mo tives at work in our subconscious minds would mortify us, perhaps beyond what we could bear. It is subtly easy for the best in tentional people to be proud. Each of us, probably, haughtily nurses the fantasy, subconsciously, that he is inherently superior to peo ple to whom he compares himself. It is part of universal human na ture for each of us to have a deep ly imbedded sense of his own self importance. This may crop out at most unerpected times and in un expected situations. A form that it sometimes takes is a dislike of others whom WE THINK consider themselves to be better than we are. We might say, then, that a cen tral ethical problem for every hu man being on earth is how not to be proud in some form or other. If we were to argue that it is pos sible for a person to succeed thro ugh effort in becoming completely humble, the net result is the worst kind of pride: the pride of think ing one has no pride! Thus, practical ethics for each one of us boils down to the prob lem of how to have a character worth being proud of and how to live a life in such r a splendid way that one might feel entire satis faction over the achievement and still be proud! There are several observations that may be relevent, now, to the .reactions to Mr. Ross’ article. First of all, we have need of being reminded that we are not all alike and that we have not been made alike. Saying this may be thought by some to be superflous, but the fact is, I think, that we oftentimes throw criticisms at oth ers because, unconsciously, we are . under the domination of the thou ght that we all are alike, and that what applies to one must apply to everybody. Let us impress again! upon ourselves that it is impossi- j .- ble for all human beings to do the same things, live in the same en vironments, b« blessed with equal . measurements of things material and immaterial. Some have stron ger bodies than others. Some have artistic gifts entirely lacking in others. Some have natural skill of eye and hand. Some have am azing memory, while many are habitually forgetful. Some have charming social graces while oth ers are naturally shy and retiring. Some have tempers and inflexible purpose, while others are placid and yielding. I think we must reeognize that we were each born into a certain kind of family and home. It is not my fault that I was not born into an Arab household living a be douin life in the desert vastnesses of North Africa. It is not my fault that my father was not a million aire, or again that my grandfather was not a bum or a criminal. There were times in my youth when I wished I had been born in to a different situation. But I have grown to see that I should be thankful and I am now indeed thankful that I was put into this world in just the way I was. Generalizing: I would say that each of us should be himself, and no one of us should try to be some body other than ourselves. It is proper for us to ACCEPT the sta tus in life and the endowments of nature that we have and to be thankful for them. (Not that we J*? ought not to try to improve our selves to the best of our abilities in those respects in which we should improve ourselves.) The temptation of, those who are rich is to despise the poor. I recollect hearing a rich man con fess that he looked down on those who were not successful in busi ness because he considered that their lack of success was due to lack of brains. And h e attributed his own success to the brains he thought he had. K There is, moreover, the pride of those who have had the advantag es of going to school and college and perhaps to advanced vocation al or professional training. Cul tured people are tempted to "de sparage those whose tastes they think ar e not refined and to look down upon illiterate and so-called backward people. If it is easy to point out. the pride of people who belong to the so-called higher classes, it is as easy to detect just as vehement a pride among the ignorant and the poor. I dare say that there are no prouder people in the world than the Arab bedouin to whom I made an allusion above. Yet J suppose that they are illiterate and unlearned while being fanatical in their prejudices and zeal. From what I have read, one form that their pride takes is a fierce hatred of those who they THINK regard themseiyes better than they. / Am I not right, then, ’in saying that the crucial ethical problem for all of us is how to be rid of pride? How may we have some thing worth being proud of with out being proud? There arc several reputable ethical, philosophies that avowed ly have no answer to this ques tion. Philosophies of hedonism and self-realization are obviously defeatist at this point If there is a conclusion, I would set it forth in the following form: The person who is really what God wants him to be, judged not primarily with respect to what he does or does not do, but basi cally because of what he is, in virtue of an acceptable relation ship with God through Jesus Christ, comes nearest to being aj pride-free personality. The per son whose thoughts are obsessed (Continaoi on pagt 5) The Last Word Most mountaineers are notor ious for having the last word, and I'm no exception. Here . are my final remarks on this “feud", and I hope my readers realize that it is a friendly - “feud”. Evidently the “prissy correct ness” 'of my comments in the June sth editorial made my point obscure to Mr. Ross. If so, here it is, as plain as I can make it, outlined below: 1— He chose a trite point of view that of picturing us as backwoodsmen both in the story itself and the photo captions, as well as in the “fixed” photographs. I, for one, am tired of it, regard less of definition. Nevertheless, here’s Webster’s: “Backwoods man, an inhabitant of the back -5 woods; a pioneer.” And Webster defines backwoods as “Woody dis tricts. . . remote from populous centers. . .” I have been under the impression that Burnsville and Yancey County ARE populous centers. (Incidentially, the words “backwoods" and “backivoods rrien” appear 4 times in the Geo graphic story. I counted ’em. But the number of times doesn’t mat ter. Once would have been more ■ than enoiigh. It was just an un fortunate choice of words.) 2 —|As to the ‘ ‘salty speech”, it was NOT the use of old-time words that I objected to, but rath er the “atrocious grammar”; I love to hear the old and middle English words that have survived here. They are perfectly good words that were used by Milton, Spencer, Bacon, and iater Dickens, to cite a few. To me, such words are colorful and reflect the in fluence of our pure Anglo-Saxon ancestory. These words stemmed from the Gothic tongue, and, -are the earliest literary remains in any Germanic language. My only objection on this score WAS that the Geographic story made it ap pear to the rest of the nation that the use of bad grammar is the usual speech heard here, tl would like to mention here that I have searched carefully through the Geographic story and have not found one old-time word, with the exception of a few that are mispelled to give them queer pronounciations.) 3 Had I been suggesting a “brochure ‘on Burnsville", as Mr. Ross seems to think, 1 cer tainly wouldn’t have suggested as' I did in the June sth editorial the inclusion of Penland School of Handicrafts in Mitchell County; neither would I have praised the feature about Roby Buchanan, of Mitchell County, nor would I have praised the section about the late Monroe Thomas, Who died several years ago at his Mitchell County home. 4. Although the general theme of the Geographic story was: “People whose skills and way of life are survivals from an old er mountain era” (or as I put it, “preservations of our heritage’.') Mr. Ross failed to mention some quite obvious and outstand ing survivals from an older moun tain era. How else could the Nu- Wray Inn be described? Does Mr. Ross realize that the directors and students at Seecelo have done much to encourage the preserva tion of our native crafts, perhaps in a quiet and unobtrusive way, yet in a very effective way? My point here is that the inclusion of > these places “and other quite ob- Words of Life SWgfh ISAIAH 40: 28-SI 28. Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the ever last ing God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of th e earth, fainteth not , neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding 29. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have n< might he increaseth strength. _ 80. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fell: 1 SI. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Editor’s Note: If you have a favorite ~ passage of Scrßiture which you would like to see print ,«d In this space, please let us know. This Is to be a regular weekly feature.) yen. iancwt rboorp vious preservations of our hetifr' 1 age” would have aided Mr. Ross in presenting to the nation a clear picture of this area. According to the pictorial wap. which was,meant Vp help illustrate, the Geographic story the only in teresting places that exist in. Burns- j ville are the forge of Daniel' Boone VI and the Parkway Playhouse. Ac- 1 cording to the map the rest of our little village is nothing but wild-] erness. The list of places both in Yancey and Mitchell counties (which were not 'mentioned in the Geographic stofy) is unending and I realize full well that each of theSe couldn’t have been de veloped fully in the limited space provided for the story; but they easily could have been included on the map to show their exist ence. Although the section on the Yancey Railroad took up- a large portion of the space provided for the Geographic story, two men who were not mentioned had worked for almost 40 years each for this railroad arid provided fir.ancial aid to help salvage it. The of people who played, j important parts in the establish ment and preservation of the Parkway Playhouse also were not mentioned in the very brief sec tion about the Playhouse. I respect Malqolm Ross as a writer, but he_ obviously misinter preted my objections in ray edi torial of June sth. My objections had absolutely nothing to.. do with his praise of our mountain crafts men and their skills, as he ap pears to think. I appreciate our craftsmen and love and admire their skills, probably more than Malcolm Ross does, and I hope our craftsmen are teaching these na tive skills to their sons and to their sons' sons. My only objections -were, and still are- the four features outlined at the beginning of this editorial (or if you prefer, this , editorial type article.) Mr. Ross either ignored or completely overlooked the fact that on June sth, I praised his treatment of Daniel Boone VI, Roby Buchanan, as well as other features showing his love of our mountains; and he overlooked the fact that I thought it commen dable that “he recognizes the val •. I ue of preserving our native skills”. ■ His implication (in his “Open Letter To H. that outsiders, who have bought land and built , houses here, are not made to feel accepted really merits no reply. I shall make one anyway, although I don't know what prompted him to bring up the subject. Many of these “outsiders” hold offices 'ln our civic organizations; the ma jority of them have become mem bers of our clubs and are active in our church and community life; and the majority of them don’t appreciate this area’s being made to look baekwoodsy any m6re than we,natives do. They, along with the rest of us, like to think that the annual Woman’s Club reception for summer resi dents and visitors is a friendly way of showing our welcome to those who have summer homes here and to those who visit the area each summer. This annual re ception has been given for the past 17 years, and the 18th annual • reception will take place tonight. The enthusiasm and attendance during these many years speaks for itself. We are not concerned about our manners or our sincere hospitality. These qualities are inborn in the mountaineer. But let's get back to the Geo graphic story. I believe all of us (those who have adopted this area as their home, as well as the natives) were pleased that Mr. Ross found us an interesting sub ject to write about. I believe we realize, too, that a compara tive newcomer might not know that we are sensitive about being made to look baekwoodsy since we silently endured this kind of -publicity over the yearc. And we had endured it silently until some of us spoke our pieces in recent issues of The Record. Malcolm Ross cannot be blamed, however, for all our resentment at this type of publicity —for this resentment has accumulated and grown over the years, and there always comes a time when "eno ugh” is “too mtich”. Mr. Ross just happened to write the artilc e that became the straw that broke the camel’s back. The f '' iwing para.-, graph explains why this is true. When Mr. Ross, during his stay ■; a 1 here last suthmer, told me of the article he was writing for The National Geographic, I was de lighted. At' last, . I thought, we will. be presented to 4]he nation as we had hoped to b e presented some 1 day by some understanding writ ,|>r..But»aJas, when I read the ar , I tide, “My Neighbors Hold To I Mountain Ways", it was the same old story. And I know-of others j who were mis-lead just as I wasPFor this reason, we were ; morq articulate in our protesta , tions than We would have been had we not expected and been , led to believe that the Geograph . ic story was to be a picture of . the old, which we love, combined . with our modern culture and I progress. We mountaineers, proud of our heritage and our mountain ways, . do not wish to be presented to . the rest of the nation as anything . other than just what we are. Edu ! Catoion, modern culture, progress [ and community pride are NOT u foreign to this area as many have I made it' appear. V _ Hhw refreshing it would be to I have someone write about us . mountaineers from this rarely* - used point-of view showing that . we have, preserved our native . skills but that we are not living the backwoods life that “Our Pioneer Forebears Knew”. -an ; Td-ficle ThSt would' shoW'”' . have preserved our Anglo-Saxon . heritage as, well as the fact that , modern culture- and education : have developed in this area. Even before the Civil War, The . Burnsville Academy was founded , by tile Methodist church to pro ! vide higher educational, facilities . in the area. This school later be . came a public school, with the , Rev. Stephen Adams as its first principal And - more than half a century ago, there were- fight here in Burnsville such fine scho ] ols as Stanley McCormick and The Yancey Collegiate Institute. These t -vwfaoolM were* -fnimdi-Mt 1 I bv ' lT ~yrn7HT finl and scholarly people as the Honorable E. Frank Watson, E. E. -Hawkins, the late Mrs. Stanley ’ I McCormick and tlie late Dr. A. - E. Brown, 'These • schools have j produced graduates- who —hccanic- lavvyers, judges, doctors, teachers l • in public schools and colleges and universities,, superintendents • Os ; public schools, and successful ‘- - / 1j ; to picnic -1 without a care Visit Our Store First And Stock Up On Picnic Supplies Thermos Jugs Picnic Baskets Ice Chests Charcoal Canned Ice Chairs , Many other items _ ' Vv*j Western Auto Associate Store BURNSVILLE, N. C. . . .. , , ■ ' Letters To The Editor Former Residents Os Yancey, Now Far Away, Want To Resume Contracts I would appreciate very much if you will print this in your paper, j' I lived in Yancey County from January 1, 1937 to September 111. 1 . 1945, and I “think I have a lot of friends there.' I „ married Lucy Penland (Pollock). I would like very much to cor respond With some one, anyone who might care to from Yancey! Count-y. I am alone and very lonely Thanks, Ellis Donaho 1209 North Ist Ave. Tucson, Arizona Will you please send to me The ' Yancey Record for one year, . .1 was boort and reared ,in Yancey • County and- would like to get the > old home town-newspaper. Thank you, \ Mrs. Essie Franklin - (the former Essie Austin) , Norfolk, Va., ' ]' ; ' < ' ~' businessmen and women, rnahy j of Whom are filling places of. leadership in these fields in all sections of the nation and other! parts of the world, as well as right here- at home. ■ - *-! Present day records at. the Htate pepartnSsbf of~>ublic Instruction, Raleigh, N. C., show that today j Yancey County has a higher per- i centage of high school graduates who go on to college than ’any ] 1 other county in the state of North Carolina. Tt would be in- j teresting to lujow how this per*] ■ centage compares with high school . graduates in other states. I But if someone were to write' about us from this unique point 1 of view, perhaps it wouldn’t sell. . i On second thought, perhaps it ' would. I have faith in the intelli gence of the American people; and I 'believe, if the -facts about Yancey County wore presented to them in a true light, they would flock to this area in droves. H. B. (Editor s Note: These are .my > last words in this friendly feud, I unless subsequent misrepresenta- i lions make it mandatory that ' I I more be said. H. B.) fKunspAT, jwx ib iui Burnsville Nice Place To Retire We ai;e planning to visit your town either in August or ‘Septem ber with the objective of making it a permanent home if everything turns out all right. For ten^ years, I have been a radio continuity and commercial' writer and have been in all bran- >- ches of the newspaper business ail my working life, from the back tq th c front. Once I owned and operated The AfcDowell News in Afar ion °. . . We have spent every • summer in Western North Carolina, includ ing Highlands. Fontana Village, Hendersonville, Waynqsville, Bre vard, etc. Last sumhier, though, ■ • we‘had no vacation. I am planning so retire from the "rat bace” here and have heard so many nic e things about Burnsville that wo think it’s what we want. Would you send me a copy of your paper? >• / Sincbfely yours, Joseph J. Mfilson f ■ P- O. Box 1310 Plant City, Fla. Notice Os Public interest * It IS,.important that all news items and “Letters To The Edi tor” be signed by the writer. ‘ If you wish, however, you may request that your name be with held when your letter is pub lished in Tlie Yancey Record; but we must know the name and,address of th e person writ ing the letter or the news item. Thfs is the policy of most news papers and is one that The Yancey Record has held to for many years. We like to publish all letters and news items, and w e hope that The Yancey Record wl]i. ... become your, newspaper, even more than it is, by your send ing us news of yourself, your friends and reatives, letters to the editor with your views on county affairs or any other subject. The Yancey Record 7' ■
The Yancey Journal (Burnsville, N.C.)
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July 10, 1958, edition 1
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