Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / March 22, 1990, edition 1 / Page 4
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Opinion Pago THE BRUNSWICK'&ftACON Edward M. Sweatt and Carolyn H. Sweatt Publishers Edward M. Sweatt Editor Susan Usher Nexus Editor Rahn Adams A Doug Rutter StaJJ Writers Johnny Craig Sports Editor Peggy Earwood Office Manager Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director Tlmberley Adams & Valerie Lamb Advertising Representatives Tammie Galloway & Dorothy Brennan Typesetters William Manning Pressman Brenda Clemmons Photo Technician Lonnle Sprinkle Assistant Pressman Clyde and Mattie Stout. Phoebe Clemmons.... Circulation PAGE 4-A, THURSDAY, MARCH 22. 1990 IT'S SPRING! The Kites Are Calling It's spring. I can tell not just bccause of the pine pollen and the peach blossoms, but because of this incredible urge I've had for about two weeks. 1 want to fly a kite, to send a bold, shining missile streaming aloft, strain ing hard at the line in its quest for in dependence. To see it bob and duck and swoop toward the briers on wings of wind only to curl back once again toward the sun, climbing, climbing with careless case. Such trust, such reckless abandon. Such bravado. Let all the kids in the neighbor hood watch in envy; they just might get a turn at the string. No problem, you say, just go to the closet and dust off last year's mod el and head for the open field behind the house. Believe me; I tried. We own a kite, or last we did last year. A light, fcngui uiing WC piCk-Cu up di d SiiOp One Sunuay dficiiiuuii. Bui iliis year.. .The roll of kite string's up in the hall closet right where it belongs. But no kite? anywhere. And this was a standard model, too big to dismiss with a shrug and say The Borrowers must have taken it. I've been checking and so far I've found two boxtop-type offers for free kites with the right number of UPC codes and cash register receipts. By the time the order's in the mail, spring could be over. This urge may linger on unsatisfied, for how can one justify buying a kite when such modem necessities as a new telephone, new shoes and a calculator that spews out numbers on paper are already on the want list? But then again, why not put that kite at the top of the list? After all, fly ing a kite on a sunny afternoon in spring nurtures the soul. It brings out the child, the wonderer, in all of us. It helps make us new again. We all need occasionally, as a poet once wrote, to "slip the surly bonds of earth" and reach out and almost touch the face of God. Please, go fly a kite. ..and invite me along. Country Helps Those In Need? BY JESS PARKER, Brunswick County Veteran Service Officer i am proud of my country, it may not be perfect, but it is the best one 1 know. How many times have those statements been repeated? This country helps those in need. J ust observe what is happening in the world. Communist-controlled governments are folding, and the United States is expected to bolster the economies of the new regimes. Ir. many instances, this government seems compelled to send a bil lion here, a biiiion there, ana food or technology somewhere eise. That is great, but, as Paul Harvey would say, "This is the rest of the slory." There are some veterans who are in trouble with the VA because out-of-pocket medical expenses are more than annuai income. The ex cess money needed for survival comes from family, church or lending institutions, but the government considers it income and reduces bene fits which, in turn, creates a larger problem of survival for the coming year. Case in point; A veteran and his wife have a fixed annual income of S8.864 which is combined Social Security and VA benefits. According to the VA, that is a total cap of income. * The veteran and his wife are cancer patients and their medical ex penses, after insurance, are 510,134. The math is simple- they have spent more than their annual income and have not bought any clothes, paid (he light hill or been to the grocery store. Now the VA wants to know the source and the amount of the extra income. When it is reported, the benefit will be cut to the cap level of $8,864; thereby creating a larger amount needed from family and church for the coming year. The lending institution has refused any more cash advances. When the larger amount is reported the next year the benefit will be cut again. The couple in question are not dead beats. They worked over 30 years, built a home and had a nice little nest egg for retirement years. But then cancer struck. The wife used the nest egg, the veteran used the proceeds from the home, and together have been reduced below poverty level. Their plight is not the exception; it is becoming a rule. But this is a great country which helps those in need. Ask the Euro peans, Asians and Central Americans! ! iMissed The Chance Of A Lifetime How often does one have the chance to get something for noth ing? Not very often to be sure. In fact, it's been said nothing in life is free. But if that's the case, I think I've been about as close as anyone can come to getting something for noth ing, or at least being offered some thing for nothing. A few weeks ago, I received a letter from a company selling vaca tion times hares in North Myrtle Beach. All I had to do to win two fabulous gifts was respond within 48 hours and show up for a 90 minute courtesy tour of the resort Some of you may have received a similar letter. And some of you may have even gone after your prizes. Me, I passed up this opportunity of a lifetime. Frankly, I've heard horror stories about these 90-minute courtesy tours. I've heard some of these places are like prisons. You're lock ed up until you buy whatever it is they're selling, and then you're let out on good behavior. Doug Rufter The grand prize, according to bold type on the front of the letter, was a five-day Florida vacation for the entire family. Sound too good to be true? In this case, I think it was. On the back of the letter, in much smaller print, was the fact that the entire family is limited to two adults. Not such a great family va cation any more is it? If you can, picture a mommy and daddy waving to their children as they pull out of the driveway des tined for the Sunshine State. "Sorry kids. Maybe next year. Don't worry though, we'll bring plenty of photos and mouse cars back from Disney World. The trip to Florida was for any one who visited the resort on a weekday and completed the tour. In addition, each person is given the opportunity to cash in on another prize. My "unclaimed merchandise" as they called it was listed near the bottom of the front page. You'll never guess what they had waiting for me. Give up. OK, it was a tradi tional elegant five foot grandfather clock. Is that tempting or what? That would have looked great next to the coffee table we made out of scrap lumber that littered Holden Beach following Hurricane Hugo. Actually, that grandfather clock wouldn't have been safe with me around. I could picture myself smashing the glass door on the clock with a basketball two days af ter getting it in my home. I know. Mom always said don't play ball in the house. My name and merchandise was listed right under a listing for Clay camp from Spanaway, Washington, and right above Johnson from Northfork, Virginia. Claycamp pickcd up 51,295 in cash and John son won a color television. Those are real prizes, much better than a grandfather clock. From what I've heard about some of these operations, though, all of the prizes are usually less valuable than the gasoline you burned driv ing to pick them up. For all 1 know, this grandfather clock could have been made out of tin foil. When it comes right down to it, I don't think I would have won any thing even if I had called these peo ple, shown up at the resort and sur vived the 90-minute courtcsy tour. I didn't even meet the eligibility con ditions. Even if I passed as a credit-wor thy individual, which is question able, and lied about meeting the minimum annual income require ments, I think they would have nailed me when it came time to prove my identity. They had me list ed as Mrs. Douglas Ruttcr. \%: & J I 1 // vv G/RLS of the ACC- now THAT JZE ALLY MAKES OS LOOK SLEXLY- HUH, COACH?1' LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Next Victim Of The Speeder Could Be A Child To the editor: I am very angry as I write this letter. I live on Village Point Road across from the Methodist Church. This evening three adults and three ciiiirficti watched a daik uu conic flying down the road and run over someone's little hound dog. The insensitive moron didn't even stop and see if they injured or killed the poor thing; they just went on. I've seen so many dogs and cats killed in this section, I've lost count. What really worries me is there are 12 children living in this small stretch of road. And some of them cross over to the church to ride skateboards. Even though the person only hit an animal, what's to say next lime it won't be a child? If a law enforcement officer could sit on this stretch of road just oiic day he would probably use his pad of tickets up by the end of this shift. What I'm trying to say to the people who use this stretch of road is, for the sake of the children and animals, give us a break! C. J. Wilson Shalloue Point Dunes Need Time , Man's Assistance ( The following teller, addressed lo the mayor and town council of Sunset Beach, is printed here at the writers' request.) While visiting our house at Sun set Beach this past weekend and earlier in the year, we were pleased to see the sea oats had been planted at the dune line to help secure the dunes after Hugo's destruction. We have been equally dismayed that most people don't seem to real ize the fragile nature of this effort and walk right over planted areas. We were wondering why the city has not posted notices advising visi tors to show care. It's our opinion that public no tices should be displayed on the causeway leading to the beach, at all public parking areas and access points, and along the beach. Lastly, all rental services and realtors Should provide ViSiiuis iuiu iciiicis a form announcing this effort. We're certain most people would respect the integrity of this effort and lend their support It's also a way of teaching visitors something about the fragile nature of the barrier is lands. Please give serious attention and action to this or programs you may already have in place. Everyone (owners, residents and visitors) should be made aware that this is land was fortunate because it was not overly developed, and though we lost large areas of our dunes, the natural system worked in its natural state. It now needs lime and man's assistance to rebuild itself. As leaders of our island, it is your responsibility to do whatever it takes to make this effort successful. Joe and Jere Sonderman & Family, Charlotte Some Get In Stew About Its Origin To the editor: I recently read this and thought some of your readers may have some comments to share. Anyway, it promotes Brunswick County. Brunswick Stew? Origin "Some claim it originated in Brunswick County, Virginia. Others claim it hails from Brunswick, Georgia. But because Bobby Q. Pig is a Tar Heel, we cling to the belief it was first developed in Brunswick County, N. C." James M. Gaddy Asheville & Holden Beach Write Us The Beacon welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include the writer's address. Under no circumstances will unsigned letters be printed. Letters should be legible. The Beacon reserves the right to edit libelous comments. Address letters to The Brunswick Beacon, P. O. Box 2558, Shallot te, N. C. 28459. A Tribute To People Everywhere Who Talk Funny Spring is almost officially here, and business folks are scurrying about getting ready for the new tourist season, and plans are already being made for this year's fall festi vals in the South Brunswick Is lands. It's going to be a busy sum mer. I grew accustomed to living in a tourist environment long before I became a Brunswick County resi dent about three years ago. No, I didn't move here from Myrtle Beach, S. C., or Gatlinburg, Tenn., or anywhere in the state of Florida. I used to live in Valdese. If you've been a Beacon sub scriber over the years, you probably remember reading about this tiny western North Carolina town in these pages. I mention the place from time to lime, and I recall read ing a column that former Beacon editor Marjorie Megivem ? now as sociate editor of our Island Living supplement ? wrote about Valdese eight or nine years ago. Not long after that particular issue rolled off the press, Marjorie be came the most talked-about news paper columnist in Valdese for at icast a week or two. I know, be cause I lived in Valdese at the time and was a writer for the town's weekly newspaper. The Valdese News. I didn't appreciate having an out-of-town columnist steal my thunder. Before I give you the wrong im pression, let me say that 1 like Mar jorie and that I'm waiting with bat ed breath to read her upcoming Easter issue of Island Living. Mar jorie, in fact, can be either thanked or blamed for bringing me to Brunswick County. I met her a few years ago at an awards banquet in Raleigh, and she told me that the Beacon had an opening for a writer. As she and 1 sat next to each other at the banquet table, I didn't realize that Marjorie was the columnist who had written a highly unflatter ing piece about Valdese several years earlier. She and her husband, a religion professor at the Universi ty of North Carolina at Wilmington, had driven six hours to attend Valdese's Waldensian Festival, and they were disappointed to And out that the celebration was little more than a town-sponsored flea market, as most festivals are. I wish I had known Marjorie back then, so that I could have shown her around Valdese and helped her bet ter understand the town's heritage and introduced her to some of the fine Waldenses whose French-Ital ian ancestors settled the Burke County town in the late 1800s. They moved there from the Cottian Alps of Italy, where they had suffered re Rahn Adams ligious persecution. A few months ago 1 looked up Marjorie's old column in the Bea con library and had a good laugh in reading it again. I've been meaning to tell her that she probably would have enjoyed her visit more if she and her husband hadn't unknowing ly booked a room at what was then one of the most ill-reputed motels in the Hickory Metropolitan Statistical Area. She also didn't take to the tradi tional Waldensian sport, boccie, a court game similar to lawn bowling. 1 have participated in the Walden sian Festival's boccie tournament and can truthfully attest that boccie is every bit as exciting as the N.C. Oyster Festival's oyster-shucking championship or the Hoi den Beach Festival By The Sea's horseshoes competition. To each community its own. But I guess what initially stunned me the most in Marjorie's column were her remarks about the Valdese outdoor drama. From This Day Forward , which depicts the story of the Waldcnscs' struggle for reli gious freedom in Italy and their em igration to America. Like many make-ends-meet productions of its sort, the Valdese drama went through some lean years in the early '80s, and as could be expected, the quality of the production dropped. Marjorie should have visited Valdese a couple of years earlier, when 1 was a cast member and got to play the two main bad-guy roles in the drama: a despicable French soldier who used the butt of his musket to kill a Waldensian baby in its crib and a grouchy Waldensian settler named "Mr. Perrou" who couldn't play a simple game of boc cie without assaulting his oppo nents. It wasn't my Acting ability that landed me the baby-killer and boc cie-bully parts, even though that season's cast included several tal ented actors who went on to appear in network television productions and highly-acclaimed outdoor dra mas like The Lost Colony at Man teo. I got the roles because 1 had been lifting weights for several months and looked like one mean dude. They just wanted me for my body. In many ways, Valdese is a "tourist" community much like the Shallotte area. The outdoor drama, Waldensian Museum, Old Rock School, Waklensian Bakeries, a ren ovated grist mill at McGalliard Falls Park and Walsh's Market, where the best livermush and Waldensian sausage in the state are made, are among the main attractions in the Western Piedmont region. Couples retire to Valdese, where the cost of living is relatively low and the cli mate is relatively mild. From what I can tell, some of the most common surnames among na tive Brunswick Countians are Bel lamy, Clemmons, Galloway, Cause, Gore and Varnum, to name a few old families here. In Valdese, the oldest names include Bounous, Gar rou, Guigou, Perrou, Rostan and Vinay. Before I moved to Valdese, I was told that the Waldenses were a clannish bunch of people who talked funny; the older ones spoke "patois." But I found them to be some of the most friendly, warm hearted folks I've ever met. Why am I telling you all this about Valdese? I don't know. Maybe it's because I just learned that 103-year-old Alexis Guigou ? the last of the original Valdese set tlers ? died last week, and I wanted to set the record straight for Mr. Alex's sake.
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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March 22, 1990, edition 1
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