? Weekly Perspective
Our view
Opening the door
We don't like to think about the fact
that there are those in need around us. II
we think about it, we must also consider
Jhe fact that most of us don't do much
about it.
? Social Services estimates are that
nearly half the population of the county
must exist on household incomes that are
t>elow the government's poverty line.
We like to push such statistics to the
back of our minds. They make us feel
uncomfortable, perhaps even guilty.
We forget about these people and there
needs continue. But if Sister Gloria
Gillman has her way about it, a house in
Winfall will provide an "Open Door" to
(he needy.
"The Open Door" is an effort to meet
emergency needs of county residents
through a coordinated effort of area
churches.
Currently being organized by the
Catholic Social Services, it is intended to
provide food, clothing, and/or
emergency funds for the needy or per
sons struck by catastrophe.
It would also provide some counseling
services, as well as referrals to local
agencies for help.
"Open Door" is not a government
program. It will not spend a penny of tax
money.
The program will depend on the
generosity, indeed the charity of county
residents, and gifts do not have to be of
the monetary sort.
Time, old clothing, food, and a few
other items are in demand.
The effort will require cooperation and
committments, and we hope there will be
no shortage of either.
Of course there is no magic pill we can
perscribe that will wipe out poverty, but
we must continue to treat the symptoms.
Here is an excellent chance to do a
service for our fellow man. Let's take
advantage of the opportunity.
Letter
Recreation vote is sought
Editors, THE PERQUIMANS
WEEKLY;
As we all know by now our town is in
bad finacial straits and has been in the
red since 1977.
The Hertford Town Council seems to
think the only way to redeem themselves
is to give us a rate raise on our light bills.
As there are only 803 families which
pay these bills, (some of them elderly
and on fixed incomes, who can ill afford
any more burdens on them) we feel that
there must be some other way.
There should be some means of cutting
the budget and a lot of the people feel that
it could begin with the Recreation
Department, which takes a big chunk out
of our monies, and is not necessary for
the town to exist.
I think, therefore, that the only fair
way to confront this particular problem
is for the 803 families to be allowed to
vote as to whether or not they desire to
continue to support this Recreation
Department, or whether they want to pay
more in light bills. Let the majority rule.
It is nice to have things like the bigger
towns have, but our town is limited as to
what can be afforded, and when the
financial conditions get too much, it is
time to cut back until things improve.
Let our citizens have a voice in our
government. They are paying for it.
I say let's have a VOTE on the issue of
recreation.
Mrs. Claude Emory
725 Pennsylvania Avenue
Hertford
County voters fought
under-representation
Perquimans County voters showed
their independence and determination
during a notable controversy in the first
"half of the eighteenth century.
A long-brewing quarrel surfaced in
mid century between the orginal set
tlements in the Albemarle Sound area
and the later settlements along the Neuse
and Cape Fear rivers.
Ray
Whitlow
Based oil economic differences and
power struggles, the quarrel focused to a
large extent on a single political
question. How many representatives
should the Albemarle counties have in
the legislature?
Under the form of government worked
out in the seventeenth century,
Perquimans and four other counties
were entitled to elect five members each
to the House of Commons.
Since most of the counties created later
In other parts of the province were
allowed two members each, the
Albemarle obviously dominated the
House.
Cape Fear interests, Including
Governor Gabriel Johnston, resented the
Inequity. Their attempts to remedy what
they considered an injustice were not
entirely just, however.
Unable to pass legislation opposed by
the Albemarle, the central and southern
interests slyly called a 1741 legislative
session at a time and place they thought
THE PERQUIMANS
WEEKLY
Mik* McLaughlin
Noal T odd-McLaughlin
Co-Editors
Pat Mansfield
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the northern delegates might be unable
to appear. But they did appear
nonetheless.
Another attempt at this tactic was
successful. By meeting in Wilmington in
November of 1746, fifteen legislators, in
the absence of all the Albemarle
representatives, hurriedly rammed
through a law reducing all counties to
two assembly members apiece.
(Members of the upper house of the
assembly were appointed by the crown. )
The call for a new election instructed
each Albemarle county to return two
members. The independent-minded
voters of Perquimans, Pasquotank,
Chowan, Currituck, and Tyrrell each
elected five. The assembly refused to
seat five, these counties refused to have
only two.
Claiming the rights granted them by
proprietary and royal authority, and
denouncing the 1746 assembly, the
Albemarle counties appealed to the King
for resolution of the conflict. It took
seven years for the royal decision to be
made, seven years during which
Perquimans and its near neighbors had
no representatives in the General
Assembly.
Lacking representation, the aggrieved
counties declined to accept any laws
passed without their consent. The
situation reached such a critical stage
that the governor declared "Tho* they do
not appear in Arms, they are really in a
State of Civil Rebellion."
This Albemarle representation con
troversy delayed the incorporation of a
town on Phelps Point It interrupted the
political career of John Harvey, the
greatest legislator Perquimans ever
produced. It hindered the collection of
taxes and the administration of justice.
In 1754, the controversy was ended by a
royal dedskm vindicating the Albemarle
counties' right to five members each in
the House of Commons, a right they
exercised until independence from
Britain was declared
What strangeness lurks in yon ' garden ?
The picture we ran of Lewis Taylor's
two pound tomato started a parade.
It seems that a whole bunch of folks
wanted to be photographed with produce
from their gardens, and some of the
fruits of their labor were kind of strange.
How about a Siamese eggplant, or that
other thing, the unidentified object that
was shaped sort of like a "banana, only
two feet long?
In my days of gardening, I never grew
anything large enough or strange enough
to make the paper, and I think there are
others in the same boat.
One fellow brought in a watermelon
that wasn't much biggger than what you
could buy at the grocery store. I think he
thought we put the vegetable pictures in
as a public service.
Anyway, we took his picture, af
Mike
McLaughlin
fectionately cradling the watermelon, ?
but it never made the paper.
It's strange to me how people get so
excited about things that come from
their gardens. The only thing I can figure
is with all that hoeing and watering out in
the hot sun, those fruits and vegetables
just start to grow on you after a while.
The old store
I've learned a little more about the old
store in Belvidere since we featured it in j
a recent issue of the PERQUIMANS
WEEKLY.
This is good stuff, and it comes to us by
way of Mary White of Belvidere, through
her brother-in-law, Joe Ward of Hert
ford. So hold onto your seats...
The store was originally located in the
heart of Belvidere, where the brick
filling station now stands.
It's owner was Rufus White, a strict
Quaker, even for Quaker country.
He didn't sell soft drinks or tobacco in
his store, and Mrs. White (no relation)
said that he could be even more extreme
than that.
She said White once asked his clerk,
Tim Perry, what several packages of
Red Devil Lye were doing on the shelves.
Folks use that lye for making soap,
Perry was said to have responded.
"Well pack those red devils up and get
'em out of my store," White demanded.
Norman Hollowell, father of Robert
Hollowell, Sr., of Hertford bought the /m
store and moved it out of town a little, v
across the street from its present
location near the Belvidere Post Office,
and put up a cotton gin and sawmill to go
with it.
Mrs. White's father-in-law bought the
store from Norman Hollowell, and
moved it to its present location, and the
saw mill and cotton gin back off the road
and onto the river.
Hie store served its last paying ^
customer in the 1930's. ?
I still haven't found anyone who can
tell me exactly how old the store is, but
all I've talked to agree that it's well over
100 years old. N
Facing South
a syndicated column:
voices of tradition
in a changing region
TOWNS COUNTY, GA. - I first met
Virda Shook in 1971. During that year,
and in those which followed, I discovered
that the beauty of this rural north
Georgia county of Towns is revealed not
only in its waterfalls, mountains, and
lakes, but also in its people ? their spirit
and their humor.
I owe a special debt to Virda Shook
who, along with her family, warmly
welcomed this stranger into her home.
"Why, stay the night" or "You'd better
eat something" were not just empty
statements, but sincere hospitality.
Relatives and friends alike call Mrs.
Shook "Maw" or "Granny." Well into
her eighties now, this tiny humpbacked
woman still commands great respect due
to her strength and endurance.
She raised her seven children alone,
after the death of her husband, and has
labored at a wide variety of jobs to keep
the family going. Once she even worked
hauling rocks, enough for a neighbor to
build an entire house.
Virda Shook continues to share notooly
food and hospitality, but also her ex
periences from days gone by ? lessons
learned and never forgotten.
The following story is part of that rich
mountain heritage which her recollec
tions have helped to preserve:
"O Lordy, one time when I was tea or
fifteen. Daddy says to me, *You quit swff
an I'll get you a dress.'
I says, 'Alright'
Well, I quit for Urn, but I didn't behind
his back, now understand. I went to the
store cot day an got s dime box d snuff. I
never will forget it, but I got a whippin'
for it.
At home, I went over to my playhouse,
and Daddy was sittin' on the porch. He
watched me, but I didn't think about him
watchin' me.
I took my snuff an scratched a hole in
this tree stump, put the snuff down in the
stump, then put a piece of bark over it.
Then, I put me a rock over the bark and
raked dirt over the top. An he's awatchin'
me.
Later, I got the snuff, turned the box
up, and put the snuff in my mouth. An
he's awatchin' me. I didn't know he seen
me. So he called me to the house. I come
to the house an he says, 'Did I raise you
to tell stories?'
I said. 'No, Daddy, you didn't raise me '
to tell stories.'
He said, 'There's a knot on your
tongue. Why, you told a story! When I got
your dress, you told me a story about the
snuff. You know what you goona do?'
I said, 'No, what?'
'You goo git a good whipping.'
He went over there to be sure I had the
snuff in the tree stump. He got the snuff
oat and said, 'What do you call this, little
story?'
1 said, 'Daddy, I'm sorry.'
He says. 'I know you are, teDln' ?
story. I'm fooaa whip you #st the same.
Sod tells me to whip you and I'm gonna
do*'
W?D, he got him a hickory about like
broom straw and nettled me real good. I
cried all ev-nin'.
I says, 'Daddy, I do like my snuff.'
He says, 'Now, you can use the snuff,
ans I'll take the dress.'
Viney, my stepmother says, 'Let her
use the snuff.'
I says, 'Whatll you do with the dress?'
He said, 'I'll give it to some other little
girl that won't tell stories.'
He didn't give the dress away. I wore it
to school.
And he didn't whip me for the snuff. He
whipped me for tellin' a story. Boys, that
broke me from tellin' stories. He sure did
whip me for that Nettled me real good."
DANIEL LEIGH
freelance
Chapel Hill. N.C.
FACING SOUTH welcomes readers'
comments and writers' contributions.
Write P. 0. Box 230, Chapel Hill, N.C.
27514.
i Topless <
BAR
Looking back
by VIRGINIA WHITE
TKANSKAU
September 1M2
HOME ON LEAVE: AmhroeeLoog, u
'armed guard, U.S.N., one of the sur
vivors of ? (hip, is aov (pending 13 days
with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney
Long, of Route 2, Edenton.
LIGHTNING STRIKES EARN
DURING STORM CAUSING HEAVY
LOSS: Charles Griffin, of Durants Neck,
suffered a lour thousand dollar losa when
lightning struck a ham on hU (arm
during an electrical storm Sunday af
ternoon. In addition to the barn bring
m J ? -I M gl J Wtt* ft rJi #? ?
completely destroyed bjf fire, Mrm
Wednesday, Sept 11, 1M2. Mrs. Buah.<9
before her marriage, was Mis* Virginia
Fowler.
WOKKEKS REQUIRED TO
PRESENT STATEMENTS FOR EXTRA