PHOTO BY BILL FAVIR
CAR I. SANDBURG wrote about the wilderness within us.
From The Wilderness
BY BILL FAVER
One of my favorite poets, the late Carl Sandburg,
seemed to have the ability to capture some profound
understandings in a few well-cho
sen words. He loved the ont-of
doors and wrote about natural
things, usually relating them to
himself or all mankind. A good
example of such a poem is in
"Wilderness," one of the "Com
husker Poems."
Sandburg begins by claiming
'There is a wolf in me., .fangs
pointed for tearing gashes., .red
faver tongue for raw meat.. .and the hot
lapping of blood."
Then he moves to the fox in him: "I sniff and
guess... 1 pick things out of the wind and air...I nose in
the dark and take sleepers and cat them and hide the
feathers...."
The hog in him is responsible for snout and belly,
for eating and grunting, and for lazily sleeping in the
sun. The wolf and the fox and the hog all come to him
from the wilderness.
The poet acknowledges the "fish in mc...I know I
camc from salt-blue water-gates."
Then he says, 'There is a baboon in me., .clamber
ing clawed...dog-faced.. .yauping a galoots hunger."
Also there is an eagle and a mockingbird. The eagle
"flies among the Rocky Mountains of my dreams and
fights among the Sierra crags of what I want. . .The
mockingbird warbles in the underbrush of my
Chattanoogas of hope, gushes over the blue Ozark
foothills of my wishes...."
All these come to him from the wilderness. They
evidence his relationship to other animals and his de
pendence upon all forms of life for his own well-be
ing.
Carl Sandburg sums it up with these line:
"0,1 got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs,
under my bony head, under my red-valve heart -
and I got something else: it is a man-child heart,
a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and
lover:
it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to
God-Knows-Where -
For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no:
I sing and kill and work: / am a pal of the world:
I came from the wilderness."
Duncan Ki
And Pirate
ng: Warrior
For A King
If you've lived in southeastern
North Carolina very long, you've
probably heard the story of Duncan
King, captain of a privateer for the
King of England.
He was a colorful figure whose
life has added to the richness of lo
cal history, though 1 never know
how much is fabrication and how
much fact.
Duncan was a native of Scotland
and later served as an officer under
General Wolfe at the Battle of
Quebec. But he's most rcmcmbcicd
in these parts for the food and muni
tions and other prizes he wrestled
away from French and Spanish ships
in the name of the King George II,
and the romancc for which this ca
reer was indirectly responsible.
In autumn of 1752, King was sail
ing along the coast and spotted a
vessel. Depending on who is telling
the story, it may or may not be de
scribed as a pirate ship. In any case
he pursues this vessel and opens
fire, and wins the battle. Aboard the
vessel. King found a beautiful dark
haired girl who was about three
years old and wearing dainty, fine
clothing. The child had been taken
by the Spanish a few days earlier
when they had sunk a merchant ship
bound for the West Indies and had
killed the child's parents. For some
reason, this waif touched a chord in
King. He turned his vessel back to
Susan
Usher
ward Smilhvillc (now known as
Soulhport), the story goes, and left
the child in the carc of a Mrs.
Holmes.
The little girl was Lydia Fosque,
origins uncertain.
Duncan King sailed away on the
king's business, fighting with Wolfe
at the Battle of Quebec and other
wise serving King George II. The
king was grateful and rewarded
Duncan King with lands in Vermont
and long the Hudson River.
However, these holdings were
naturally confiscated during the
American Revolution.
After helping wrest Canada from
the French, King decided to give up
his role as warrior and return to
North Carolina, where his ward re
mained.
As the story goes, he arrived in
Southport and found that Lydia was
no longer a child but a beautiful
teen-ager with sparkling eyes, lovely
curly hair and a smooth olive com
plexion. Duncan King fell in love
and they were married. Lydia didn't
like the northern temperatures of
King's granted lands, prompting him
to buy several thousand acres in
Bladen County.
Lydia was instrumental there in
organizing Shiloh Church, the story
goes.
King supposedly remained neutral
during the American Revolution.
Though he lost his northern lands,
those in North Carolina went un
touched. One story goes that King
was visiting with a Loyalist friend,
William White, when Whigs show
ed up at the church. Lydia managed
to slip away and warn King, who
again escaped capture and managed
to protect his status as a neutral, un
like White.
Lydia and Duncan were the
founders of a southeastern North
Carolina dynasty. They had at least
five sons: Alexander, who is one of
my forbearers, and Moses, James,
Duncan and Solomon, plus daugh
ters. They and their families spread
all over this part of the state. Today
Shiloh Church is in Columbus
County. The graves of Duncan, who
died in 1793, and Lydia, who died in
1819, arc in woodlands.
But near Shiloh Church, a granite
monument stands to their memory?
and to one of the more fascinating
talcs of southeastern North Carolina.
Go Slowly
BY JOHN HOOD
GUEST COLUMN
On Year-Round Schools
A Lost Friend From A Post Life
Their lilllc girl was born three
weeks before our little boy. We fol
lowed each other's progress and
shared all our pregnancy, childbirth
and post-partum horror stories. We
sent each other flowers in the hospi
tal. We put our babies in a playpen
together and joked about how they
might grow up and fall in love. We
had them exchange cards on Val
entine's Day.
That was back during another life,
15 years ago, in a different marriage
and a distant small town. The hus
bands had similar jobs and became
personal and professional friends.
The wives had little in common ex
cept pregnancy, then new mother
hood She was tall, blonde and loved
the kind of clothes that made people
turn and stare?the expensive stylish
kind, not the outrageous tacky kind.
I was decidedly not tall, not blond
and most at home in jeans and bag
gy sweaters.
We were never closc "couple
friends," the real kind you can count
on to keep on loving you even when
you stop being a couple. But it was
nonetheless a comfort, our being
new in town and new to this parent
ing thing, to know we had someone
to share experiences with. We
agreed that when you tried to talk to
friends who'd never been through it,
you bored them; the ones who were
old hands at it would just tell you to
stop being such a repulsive neurotic
Lynn
Carlson
and insufferable braggart. As if that
were possible.
He was the the best kind of dad,
ready for the role, utterly comfort
able it and fully competent at it. The
kind who paid attention even when
she wasn't misbehaving. Who made
it a point to praise her lavishly and
criticize her sparingly. Who would
not hesitate to take a day off from
work and care for her when she was
sick. Who would beamingly tell oth
er people?even other men?how
proud he was to have a daughter.
This wonderful daughter.
They moved away to a university
town after he got a chance to make a
bold career move?the kind most
men in his respectable high-profile
position would be scared to give a
serious second thought. Their bright
girl-child would be able to go to
Montcssori school in this town, to
study dance and go to museums and
the theater. The wife landed a job
managing the trendiest boutique in
town.
Wc visited ihcm oncc more,
briefly, when wc accompanied some
mutual friends to a football game in
their town. That was 11 or 12 years
ago, and wc never heard from them
again.
I learned of his death last night
when on a whim I called those mu
tual friends. I had not seen or talked
to them in five or six years. My
friends, who arc still in the town
where we oncc all lived, told mc he
had AIDS and lost the fight two
weeks ago.
I don't know any of the circum
stanccs, nor arc they any of my busi
ness. 1 don't even know whether he
was still married.
All I know is that 1 can't stop
thinking about that baby girl he trea
sured so. When 1 saw her last she
was in his arms, a toddler in footed
jammies, having to be rocked to
sleep because four noisy grown-ups
had shown up and interrupted her
bedtime routine.
1 can imagine her now, though,
just a few weeks shy of her 15th
birthday. I'm sure she's beautiful,
tall, blond, smart and sophisticated
beyond her years. What I can't
imagine is what she must have been
through and how badly she must
hurt.
Again tonight I'll go to bed and
send up a little prayer that she'll be
all right.
The year-round bandwagon is
rolling, and many of North Caro
lina's school districts seem poised to
leap on board.
The number of year-round school
programs in our state will double in
July, from the current 40 programs
in 22 North Carolina school districts
to 80 programs in some 40 districts.
At a March meeting of the Year
Round Education Institute of North
Carolina in Winston-Salem, year
round advocates released a survey of
administrators at North Carolina's
132 school districts. Of the 107 re
sponding districts, 102 say they ei
ther have year-round schools or arc
studying the merits of implementing
such programs.
Emotional debates about year
round schooling currendy rage in
Forsyth, Wake, Davidson, Watauga,
nash and many other North Carolina
counties.
1 certainly hope that these school
administrators will study all of the
available evidence on year-round
schooling, not just the claims of the
idea's most zealous boosters. There
is little evidence one way or the oth
er about the effects of year-round
schedules on student performance?
and the scanty research that does ex
ist offers no unanimous verdict.
The National Association for
Year-Round Education reports only
13 recent comprehensive studies on
the impact of year-round education.
Seven of these studies show that stu
dents in the year-round programs do
significantly better than those in tra
ditional programs.
That's liule more than half. And
even those studies are weakly con
structed, according to education re
searchers?some lack control groups
and proper breadth. Furthermore,
eight of them were performed in
California, where a fourth of the na
lion's year-round schools arc locat
ed. Rigorous findings on year-round
education must be based on duplica
tion in various settings, not on the
possibly idiosyncratic California ex
perience.
There arc several studies which
suggest little relationship between
year-round schooling and achieve
ment. One study, published in the
Journal of Education Research,
found that many middle-class stu
dents actually gain in academic
skills over summer vacation, while
poor students show a decline?sug
gesting that year-round schooling
may be an appropriate tool to help
some, but not all, children.
Overall, according to a survey of
literature on year-round schools by
education researcher Gary L. Peltier
published in The National Asso
ciation of Secondary School Princi
pals Bulletin, "studies have indicat
ed that there is no significant differ
ence in achievement (as measured
by standardized tests) between stu
dents on a year-round schedule and
those on a traditional nine-month
schedule."
What about research here in
North Carolina? All of the stale's
year-round school programs are of
relatively young vintage. One study
by an Appalachian State University
researcher of a year-round pilot pro
gram in Blowing Rock found no sig
nificant differences between year
round students and traditional stu
dents in student achievement or at
tendance, but in fairness the study
was based on only one year of data.
Experience is really our only
guide right now. Many parents in
counties with year-round schools are
satisfied with their performance;
others arc not. There is clearly inter
est in North Carolina communities,
as applications for year-round
schools continue to escalate. But as
far as solid evidcncc is conccmed,
we will probably have to wait.
That suggests caution should
guide North Carolina school dis
tricts' decisions about year-round
schooling. Since there is no clear ev
idence of educational benefits, the
analysis must turn to the idea's other
benefits, mostly financial.
Unfortunately, as Peltier's paper
argues, financial gains arc often dif
ficult to achieve, and almost always
require that "participation cannot be
only voluntary"?though most
North Carolina year-round programs
arc, properly, not being forced on all
parents.
There arc additional costs for air
conditioning, instruction and trans
portation. "Because many of these
expenses and considerations are
overlooked in the planning stages,"
Peltier notes, "savings in some in
stances have been so minimal that
year-round schooling has been aban
doned after just a few years of im
plementation."
If year-round schooling docs not
provide generalized acadcmic or fi
nancial advantages, its proper role
would seem obvious: as a voluntary
program specifically designed to
serve poor or remedial students or
parents who seek such schedules for
their children on the basis of person
al judgment or convenience.
Naturally, given the scanty re
search available thus far, no sweep
ing judgment should be made yet.
But school officials should not be
hoodwinked by year-round devotees
into believing that the idea is a
proven, documented success so far
at improving performance or saving
money. Far from it.
John Hood is research director of
the John Locke Foundation and a
columnist for the Triangle's Spec
tator magazine.
SBTA's Recent Positions
To the editor
I have had it with the Sunset
Beach Taxpayers Association. I
grew up in Sunset Beach and I still
receive the Beacon to keep up with
the area. Over the past few years I
have read articles in your paper
dealing with the SBTA and have
held my tongue, but the article on
the front page of your April 15 edi
tion is too much.
Clctc Waldmiller complained
about a lack of representation on the
town council of the island residents.
If memory serves me correctly, sev
eral members of the SBTA have run
for council scats in the past few
elections. Obviously they were not
elected because their positions on is
sues of concern were in conflict with
those of Sunset Beach citizens.
It is just as obvious that the moti
vation for this proposal is to increase
representation of the SBTA (which
is dominated by non-residents), not
that of island residents. The bottom
line, however, is that "majority
rules," and as long as the SBTA's
views arc in a minority, they will not
be carried out by the town.
In reference to the proposed sew
er system, SBTA treasurer Minnie
Hunt said there is "no conclusive cv
idcncc that septic tanks arc polluting
our environment." This seems to be
a rather hypocritical point of view.
A 1990 SBTA lawsuit is holding up
the proposed high-rise bridge until
an environmental impact study is
completed. The SBTA claimed that
the possible ill effects of the bridge
on the environment outweigh its ne
cessity. What about the "possible"
pollution from septic tanks?
If Mrs. Hunt would like some ob
jective information on just how
quickly contaminated ground water
flows through a medium like coarse
quartz sand, a good reference is
Groundwater by Freeze and Cherry.
My master's degree project here at
N.C. State University deals with
ground water flow, and 1 refer to this
and other texts quite often.
Finally, Bill Ducker, in reference
to Janie Price's proposed develop
ment of Bird Island, said that a
bridge and causeway built for access
"essentially converts public lands
for private use." 1 wonder how Mr.
Ducker got onto Sunset Beach last
time he went? He probably used the
causeway, which traverses public
marshland. Is there any public land
on Sunset Beach except for the
strand and one parking lot? If Mrs.
MORE 'frTTCDC
LL I I L_ f\?J
'Too Much' For Former Sunset Resident
Pricc plans 10 sell property on Bird
Island, it is just as public as Sunset
Beach is.
1 sincerely hope the people of
Brunswick County see the hypocrisy
in the positions of the SBTA.
Julius A. King
Raleigh
Support Symphony
With Tickets, Cash
To the editor:
Brunswick County residents and
businesses are urged to support the
North Carolina Symphony concert
at Hatch Auditorium on May 10.
Since the late 1940s, the symphony
has annually given three conccrts?
one for adults and two for the school
children. In the '90s, the adult con
certs were increased to two.
Now Raleigh is threatening to
cancel the May 10 concert for lack
of support. As all businesses ^and
the symphony must be run as such)
they must meet a budget. In jeop
ardy also is the November concert
scheduled for our new Odell
Williamson Auditorium.
The amount needed urgently?by
April 30- is S20.000.
If you want to retain this mar
velous asset for our county?a plus
for both businesses and people?
support the local symphony chapter
by buying tickcts and making contri
butions, the latter completely tax de
ductible and most urgently needed.
Make a call today, because time is
short. In Southport, call 457-5656 or
in Shallottc, 754-6707 or 754-8941.
Jack Harrison
Shallottc
Handling Of Wilson
Case Is 'Appalling'
To the editor
As a well-wisher, supporter and
constituent of Governor James B.
Hunt, I was appalled, disgusted, hu
miliated, stunned and bewildered to
leam of the inhumane treatment giv
en to Mr. Junius Wilson by the State
of North Carolina.
This illegal matter is degrading,
improper, discriminatory and down
right insulting to the voters and tax
payers of North Carolina.
This concerns an individual who
has been incarcerated by this slate
for a crime that it appears now that
he did not commit. After more than
67 years of complete incarceration,
this in my opinion is wholesale
racial discrimination at its cross
burning worse, and also constitutes a
mockery of the slogan, "First in
Freedom."
I urge the governor to exercise the
powers and authority of his office to
speak out, talk publicly and walk
heavy concerning this matter.
Jesse A. Bryant
Supply
Don't Close Library
During Renovations
To the editor:
1 can't believe the Brunswick
County Library Board would con
sent to the closing of the Shallottc
Library for a period of six to seven
months as proposed.
I realize our area of southeastern
North Carolina has grown tremen
dously in the past several years; we
do indeed need larger library facili
ties. This enlargement can be done
without shutting down the entire li
brary; other buildings have been en
larged and modernized without clos
ing the entire building?Bclk and
KMart, for example.
Brunswick County schools rate
very poorly compared to other
school systems. Arc we willing to
deprive our children of the use of
their local library and the many chil
dren's programs offered by the
Shalloue Library?
Closing the library would be for
the convenience of the contractors
without ever considering the incon
venience of the people who support
it. This is irresponsible on the part of
the library board.
I urge everyone interested in the
welfare and education of our chil
dren to write to the library board and
to the county commissioners protest
ing the proposed closing of our
Shallotte library.
Phyllis Manning
Calabash
Write Us
The Deacon welcomes letters
to the editor. All letters must be
signed and include the writer's
address and telephone number.
Under no circumstances will
unsigned letters be printed.
Letters should be legible. We
reserve the right to edit libelous
comments. Address letters to The
Brunswick Beacnn, P. O. Box
2558, Shalloue, N. C. 28459.