Photo by Ml Fav?r
Blue Jays are sometimes called "backyard bullies" because of their noisy habits of disturbing other
birds.
'Backyard Bullies' Are Handsome Birds
BY BILL FAVER
Some of our common birds seem undesirable ai
times, and blue jays fit that category for many people.
They arc handsome birds, but
some of their habits give them the
reputation of being "backyard bul
lies."
These jays arc from 11 to 12
inches long and have blue backs
and light underparts. Their wings
and tail arc a deeper blue with the
feathers barred with black and
tipped with white. A narrow black
band runs from behind the head
around the throat. On top of the
head is a prominent crest. Wings are short and rounded
and just reach to the base of the rounded tail.
Jays are common in oak and pine woods and can be
found in tree-tops in city parks and along residential
streets. They arc noisy and attract attention by their
"jay, jay" and a variety of other calls and harsh cries.
Jays arc often scolded and chased by smaller birds
who join in the noise in the treetops.
Blue jays range cast of the Rockies from southern
Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico. They arc the only
jays in their range except for the smaller Florida scrub
FAVER
jay found in ccniral Florida.
Nests arc made of bulky twigs lined with grass and
placed in a crotch-forked branch of a tree. Nests can be
as high as 50 feet up in a tree. Four to six greenish
eggs with brown spots are laid in April and take about
17 days to hatch. After another 17 to 20 davs the
young will leave the nest, but the parents continue to
iced them for another one to two weeks. A second
brood will leave the nest around the middle of July.
Birds arc very quiet around their nests.
Jays dislike predators and sound noisy alarms at the
presence of snakes, hawks or owls, alerting other birds
to the dangers. But the jays arc predators themselves,
often raiding nests of phoebes and other birds nesting
near them. Vegetable matter seems to be the mainstay
of their diets, but they do cat eggs and even parts of
other baby birds.
Jays will bury seeds and nuts in holes they dig in the
ground, and in this way become successful tree
planters when they are unable to recover all their trea
sures.
Blue jays are some of the "backyard bullies" we get
used to if we are going to watch birds. They arc plenti
ful in our area and offer us a handsome bird with dis
tinct coloring to add to the life and variety of species
along the coast.
- ?
What Goes Around Comes Back
Many moons ago about this time
of year, my sister and I would get
taken uptown to Frank Eskridgc's
department store for stiff new Poll
Parrot saddle oxfords to put on feet
which had been bare for three
months, to Mack's dime store for
canvas-covered Blue Horse note
books and Dixon Ticodcroga pen
cils, and to the Women's Shop for
shirtwaist dresses and wrap-around
skirts.
It was time for school to start, and
this was an integral part of the drill
in the pre-mall, pre-Mart era. Stores
were owned by people you knew
who waited on you themselves. You
could take things home "on ap
proval." "Charge-a-plates" were
made of metal and were useless in
my little town.
Oh, you could buy things "on
time," but you didn't need ID to do
it. Folks knew where to find you
and, probably, how much your em
ployer paid you and what you owed
all the other stores in town .
A scant three decades later, I
can't buy my teenage son one
sweatshirt he'd be seen in for the
price of all my Camelot-era back-to
school booty.
His pre-grade-9 haircut will cost
more than the Bass Wecjuns and
matching John Romainc handbag
upon which I truly believed my self
worth hinged in my 14th year.
His sneakers will cost more than a
month's worth of a whole family's
groceries, which you could order by
phone, charge and have delivered,
in the mid-'60s.
The sheer exorbitance of outfit
ting a modem non-nerd for school
necessitates putting these purchases
on plastic. Consequently I'll still be
paying for that sweatshirt when it
turns into the rag you use to screw
the gas cap off the weed-whacker.
Watching kids' fashion and ob
serving their tastes these days
proves to me that there's nothing
new under the sun, with one twist
The only thing that changes forever
is how much things cost.
Evidence? When I take my son to
shop for school clothes (and this is
done not in department stores, but in
surf shops) I see racks of tie-dyed T
shirts. These can cost upwards of
i IN CALABASH
BRING HOME
THE?BEACON
On Sale At
CALABASH BEVERAGE MART
CVD SHIPPING SERVICE
JIMMY'S PANTRY
MARSH HARBOUR YACHT CLUB
ijmi/c'c MARKET
"minute-man
MOORE'S GROCERY
SEASHORE DRUGS
SIMMONS' BEVERAGE MART I
Lynn
Carlson
S25 apiece. They are identical to the
tie-dyed T-shirts that my sister ar.d I
mass-produced from the big dark
room sink at the newspaper office
when I was 15 or 16 and she was 12
or 13.
Our investment in this project was
three or four boxes of Rit dye, our
dad's old undershirts and the cus
sing we were going to take for the
mess we made.
These new, expensive tie-dye
shirts bear tags proclaiming that
they are "distressed," which 1 as
sume to mean that they didn't come
from someone's father's underwear
dr? .ver, but that they were subjected
io an expensive high-tech top-secret
textile industry process to make
them look as if they had.
More evidence? Seeing Tipper
Gore on the news a few weeks ago
made mc feel guilty that I hadn't
been monitoring my son's recent
musical selections. So I asked, non
chalantly, "Whatcha listening to on
that Walkman (4 by 5 inches, 1 1
ounces, S65) these days?"
He screamed his answer over the
din only he could hear. "(Grateful)
Dead, (Led) Zeppelin, (Jimi) Hen
drix."
Holy moly! Those were popular
when 1 was in high school 20-odd
years ago! (Except at 77 cents per
45rpm single as opposed to S 17.95
per digitally remastered compact
disc.)
"Yeah, I know," he replied, with
out seeming to be in the least bit em
barrassed about this.
This gives mc hope, and not only
for the future of America's youth.
It's this: if my son likes the same
music 1 did as a teen, then maybe
it's just a matter of time before you
can again order groceries by phone,
charge them and have them deliv
ered.
But, for the boy's sake, 1 hope
those miserable, stiff, ugly saddle
shoes remain in tasnion purgatory,
at least until his adolescence is over.
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MORE LETTERS
Calabash Fire , Rescue Groups
Overlooked In Festival Article
(C* P Tnm Prsvlr.;::
- - ?? - - ??? ?
To the editor:
I read your report of the Calabash
Festival, but I was disappointed that
you omitted two segments that
should have had your recognition.
The Calabash Fire Department, in
combination with the Sunset Beach
Fire Department and the Calabash
Rescue Squad, put on a Jaws of Life
demonstration that showed their
ability to help people in life-threat
ening circumstances.
In regard to the Calabash Rescue
Squad, the volunteer staff of their
thrift shop, headed by 89-year
ycung Madgelene Bennett, partici
pated with other local businesses to
put on a fashion show. They did this
in order to promote the thrift shop's
ability to provide substantial funds
for the operation of one of the finest
rescue squads in the state.
Edith Correll
Sunset Beach
Sources Can Be Found
To Accept Recyclables
To the editor:
Thanks to Dona Lee for her letter
of last week on recycling. We were
helping Chance and Bud Scrantom
over the past two years, and we had
a really great group volunteering ?
and we took everything!
1 find it most disappointing that
now that we have a lovely recycling
and collection place that's manned
but which doesn't recycle junk mail,
office paper, magazines and, most
particularly, plastic!
If our little group of volunteers
with no town or county clout could
find outlets, there is absolutely no
reason why the powers that be, with
the power they have, can't find an
outlet for plastic, especially. We
worked and phoned and cajoled very
hard to get folks started to save the
stuff, and now the county comes
along with our new center and won't
take it. This means that plastic, with
its thousand-year life, will again fill
our landfills. That's no help!
If we don't all wise up, our grand
children will be drowning in gar
bage. Come on, Brunswick County,
get on the stick!
TAm 'tr?r\ n?l
UH ? U1IU V~l ILU IV/llV 1V1U1IVI
Sunset Beach
Squad Mnrlp Birthday
Wishes Come True
To the editor:
We would like to thank the Coast
line Volunteer Rescue Squad, whose
assistance in gelling Mrs. Ruth Lam
beth up the steps into our beach
house is gratefully appreciated.
You see, this was Mrs. Lambeth's
birthday wish, to spend a few days
one more time at Holden Bcach for
her 90th birthday Having lived at
Holden Bcach for more than 25
years, she loved the island and hated
to leave iL But Father Time finally
caught up with Ruth, and she had to
take up residence at the Methodist
Retirement Home in Durham.
Five years' absence did not erase
? ?f iuu?
un/ov uwuuiui iiiviuuiiVd \Jl tlUlUVII
Bcach. She relived every moment
rocking on the front porch looking at
the beautiful Holden Bcach ocean.
On Sunday, Coastline came back
and placed Mrs. Lambeth gently in
her granddaughter's car for the re
turn trip to Durham. We thank them
for helping to make this birthday
wish come true.
Jim and Marilyn Russell
Durham
Frustration With Sheriff
Aired in Carolina Shores
To the editor:
I was most interested in the front
page article last week in the Beacon
which chronicled the county com
missioners' frustration with Sheriff
Davis over his reneged promise to
staff the county office at night for
security purposes. Commissioner
Pinkerton, in particular, was outspo
ken in his criticism of, and frustra
tion with, the sheriff.
As President of the Board of the
Carolina Shores Resort Home
owners Association, a board that
represents 124 unit condominium
owners in Calabash, I share that crit
icism and utter frustration.
After a series of security incidents
at the condominium complex early
this year, our board wrote a letter on
March 17, 1992 to Sheriff Davis
outlining these incidents, lamenting
the lack of acceptable response by
the sheriffs office arid requesting a
meeting to establish an effective
r.'nann?M of rnmmuniraltrwi hpiuiwn
our board and the sheriffs office.
Nol only didn't we ever receive a
written response to that letter, the
sheriff did not even have the com
mon courtesy to telephone his ac
knowledgement of that letter.
Since I am also a resident of
Carolina Shores, in mid-April I dis
cussed this situation with the Board
of Governors of the Carolina Shores
Property Owners Association,
knowing that Carolina Shores had
experienced similar problems and
frustrations. Incidentally, this orga
nizations represents about 1,200 res
idents in the community.
Both organisations were repre
sented at the April meeting of the
Calabash Board of Commissioners,
during which this subject was fur
ther discussed, and frustrations were
vented. Subsequently, the mayor of
Calabash on April 21. 1992, wrote a
very cordial letter to Sheriff Davis,
asking for his assistance and respon
siveness. That letter, too, has never
received the courtesy of a response.
As taxpayers in Brunswick
County, we do not have to endure
this managerial ineptitude in the
sheriff's office. While we are fully
reminded in the Beacon article that
the sheriff position is an elected of
fice, Sheriff Davis may well be as
sured that in the next election his in
actions will be well remembered by
at least the residents in this corner of
Brunswick County.
G.G. Dale
Calabash
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