Perspectives
Thoughts of the
"good ole days"
You've read in my columns from
time to time my thoughts on what
many refer to as "the good ole days "
While most of us hold food and dear
memories of days gone by, and while
the past wasn't without its good
points, most of us, if given the
chance, would probably not want to
return to the "good ole days."
? I've mentioned on many occasions
that perhaps it was the values we re
member so strongly rather than the
? material things we may or may not
' have had.
> Of those values, one of the most im
L pbrtant was the reliability of a man's
? word. Honesty meant a great deal in
! all aspects of our lives, and the abil
; ity to have faith in a promise or
? agreement, without fear, made life
l so much easier. Usually, all that was
needed to close a deal or make an
agreement was a simple handshake.
Lengthy and wordy contracts, law
' yers, and other legal steps were not
necessary. When a man gave his
| word, he stood by it.
% ; Over the years, as our society has
? become more complex and as values
have changed, few of us would think
qf entering into even the simplest
j transaction without a written
| agreement. Nearly everything re
quires a contract.
Think about the simple task of pur
chasing food. Years ago, you visited
your local merchant, picked the
; items you needed, and took them
? home. If a product was found to be
defective, all that was necessary was
to return the item to the store. You
either received a refund or the item
was replaced. And the merchant
seemed genuinely concerned. No
sales receipts were necessary, no
manufacturers guarantee was
needed, there was no hassle.
If you had a job that needed doing,
you sought the best person possible,
you told him or her what was needed,
you agreed on a price, shook hands,
and that was usually all that was nec
essary. If a problem developed, it
was discussed openly between the
parties involved and resolved with
out the services of others.
Another area that has changed
drastically is the employee-employer
relationship. Daddy and Mama
taught us, as we became old enough
to work outside the home, the impor
tance of a day's work for a day's pay.
Regardless the amount agreed upon
to do a job, once that agreement was
made, we were expected to give our
fullest. As children, we all worked at
a variety of tasks to help support the
family and provide ourselves with
the extras we might want.
We spend a lot of time working on va
rious farms. Whether it was chopping
peanuts, pulling weeds out of soy
beans, working in tobacco, or doing
yardwork for neighbors, we knew we
were expected to give 100 percent.
That meant you didn't have to have
someone standing over your shoulder
to assure getting the job done. And
when it came time to receive your
pay, you knew you had earned it and
so did the person who paid you.
Times are quite different today,
and the attitudes of the modern
worker is one of the reasons why the
reputation of the American worker
has become tarnished. Where once
work was performed out of a sense of
pride and obligation, today, too many
workers are content only to do
enough to "get by." Too much impor
tance is directed to the rights of
workers rather than the responsibil
ity of the worker to do the best job
possible. And you can be assured this
attitude reflects in today's products.
It is very important that an individ
ual take the steps necessary to pro
tect himself from abuse. But society
as a whole would benefit if more va
lue was placed on a man's word
rather than a piece of paper. There
was a time when a man took great
pride in the honesty of an oral prom
ise. When he gave his word, he meant
it, and nothing else was needed.
That's a part of the "good ole days"
we should all strive to return to.
f}e
c fl?n?e afl
e**
JOHN BEERS 1970 HEART FUND
? CHAIRMAN: John Beers will serve
as Campaign Chairman of the 1970
* Heart Fund Chairman in Perqui
mans County, it was announced by
the president of the Heart Associa
tion. The campaign will be conducted
throughout February and will have a
goal of $1,500.00.
HERTFORD FIRE DEPT. ACTIV
ITY REPORT: Department Status:
27 active Firemen operating four
units of fire fighting equipment. The
department answered 56 calls of
which 15 were within the city limits,
: 39 rural calls and 2 calls outside Per
quimans County. Men responding to
calls - 765, Time spent on calls - 40
hours and 5 minutes, Man hours
- spent on calls - 753. Property value
- involved (91,800.00, Estimated value
* Of loss $30,400.00, Injuries - 4. Depart -
- ment officers of 1970 are: Chief R. C.
* 'Bobby" Elliott; Assistant Chief
* Francis B. Nixon; Secretary and
- Treasurer Charles Eley; Company I
.Captain Lloyd R. "Pete" Riddick;
J Company I Lieutenant C. T. Skinner,
-Jr.; Company 2 Captain Henry C.
* Stokes: Company 2 Lieutenant Z.D.
" "Jack" Robertson.
* CHANGES MADE BY SCHOOL
I BOARD FOR 1970-71 TERM: After a
lengthy and serious study of the mat
ter the Board of Perquimans County
Education, Monday night, voted to
approve the following plan of organi
zation for the County schools for 1970
71 term: All students in grades 1
through 8 on the Hertford side of Per
quimans River are assigned to Hert
ford Grammar School. All students in
grades l through 4 on the Winfall side
of the Perquimans River are as
signed to Perquimans Central Gram
mar School. All students in grades !
through 8 on the Winfall side of Per
quimans River are assigned to Per
quimans Union School. All higt
school students in grades 9 through U
in the County are assigned to Perqui
mans High School. The present Kinf
Street School will become part o
Perquimans High School and will h
used for Vocational Education.
I Letter to the editor
j As a transplanted Hertfordian (?)
? of.some 38 years ago (and who hopes
J someday to return) and a recent sub
scriber to the 'weekly', I must tell
- you how much I enjoy the column
'Historical Notts', by Mr. Winslow.
Both in content and in quality of wril
ing, his work is first rate. I look foi
ward to it each week.
Sincerely,
Arthur Woods
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Portrait of a working
woman that takes her
snacks seriously .
Reflections on wisdom and hot cornbread
WISDOM. AND HOT CORN BREAD
When I was barely more than a
girl, there was an old black woman
down the road a ways who shared
tales from the past and morals for
the future with me quite often. I can
still see her beautiful face aglow with
smiles, and remember the gentleness
of her voice and the soothing manner
of her laugh. I'll never forget the day
we sat at her kitchen table watching
corn bread frying on the wood stove.
I was feeling "right pert" she had no
ticed, due to the fact that I had ac
quired my business degree, a job,
and sold three major short stories all
in the same week.
"I've got it now," I said to Aunt
Myrtle. "I've got the knowledge I
need to set the world on fire. I'm
going places, auntie. I've been dig
ging in my heels and studying hard,
and I've finally reached the starting
line."
The legs of the chair scraped
across the mellow, unlevel floor
boards beneath her feet as she
pushed herself from the table and
headed for the wood stove. When she
returned with a fork in her hand,
spearing sizzling corn bread, I
reached out and took it without even
thinking. I immediately dropped it
when the burning corn meal blistered
my palm. As I searched the floor for
the hot bread, old Aunt Myrtle said to
me...
"Yeah, you got thet knowledge al
right girlie. Them books kin give ya
thet. But you got a ways to go fer ya
git wisdom 'nuf to match it. They
don't teach none of thet in them books
of your'n. You got to git it from life,
girl. From LIFE. And you ain't lived
'nuf of thet yet or else'n you'd ah
never reached out fer thet hot corn
bread."
I now know the difference between
knowledge and wisdom. I've learned
what old Aunt Myrtle was talking
about that day in her kitchen. I
started cutting my wisdom teeth the
day I bit off more than I could chew,
and I've been sharpening them ever
since. I've learned that the biggest
step toward knowledge is becoming
conscious of my own ignorance. No
body ever becamc wise by chance.
Most wisdom comes from experi
ence, and most ignorance from fear
of experience. There are few of us
left anymore like Vance Haver, who
admitted that: "I grew up so far out
in the country that not only did I not
know anything, I didn't even suspect
anything." Today we've been
touched enough by the modern world
brought to us by various forms of the
media, that we've got "right smart"
enough of knowledge, as old Aunt
Myrtle would have put it.
But, the wisdom '"nuff to match it,"
is still floundering around out of
reach sometimes. It's sort of like
Kirk Kirkpa trick said: "Intelligence
is spotting a flaw in your boss's rea
soning; wisdom is not mentioning
it."
Herb True once remarked:
"Blessed are the ignorant, for they
are happy thinking they know every
thing." I believe Herb must be ac- %
quainted with a few of the same folks
as me, for most of them are con
vinced that they know it all. They
take a thimble full of knowledge and
then off they go to slay the world.
What they will learn, instead, by the
wisdom that will come their way
while they're out there learning from
experience and trying to take the
world down a notch or two, is that
"knowledge fills a large brain; and
merely inflates a small one." With- *0
out a doubt, somebody will even
tually point out to them that, "if intel
ligence were crankcase oil, their's
would not wet the tip of the dipstick,
let alone reach the add-one-quart
mark."
The true test of intelligence is not
how much we know how to do, but
how we behave when we DON'T
know what to do. A teacher asked a ^
little boy to define ignorance. "It's ^
when you don't know something and
somebody finds it out," he replied.
He was wise for his age, wasn't h??
Just common sense in an uncommon
degree... better known as wisdom.
Perauimans River proven an obstacle
Perquimans River gives its name
to the county which surrounds it and
depends upon it. Nevertheless,
through most of our history the river
has presented the inhabitants some
major problems.
The river was never a greater
problem than the time one hundred
twenty-five years ago when it served
as an easy entry for enemies and
Simula neously furnished them an
equally easy opportunity to make
mischief.
It was near the midpoint of the
Civil War which divided Perquimans
I into two opposing camps just as the
nation as a whole was sundered. The
I river provided the means by which
f United States authorities kept some
e control over an area still linked
otherwise to the Confederacy.
On January 11th, 1863, Lieutenant
Commander Charles W. Flusser of
the United States Navy brought the
steamboat "U.S.S. Commodore
'* Perry" up the river to Hertford. As a
blow to contraband traffic passing
through the county, he destroyed the
float bridge at Hertford.
The Sunday peace would have been
broken further, as Flusser also had
his eyes on Blanchard's Bridge. He
had to report, however: "I should
have destroyed on Sunday night an
other bridge, some 6 miles above
Hertford by the river, but my
steamer was run upon a stump
abreast of the town, and the men
were so much exhausted by the hard
heaving necessary to get her off that
I postponed it to a later date."
The later date turned out to be Jan
uary 30th. Early in the morning Flus
ser left Plymouth bringing with his
sailors some fifty soldiers of the
Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Regi
ment under Captain Charles D. San
ford.
The joint navel-military expedition
anchored off Hertford at 10:30 that
morning. The soldiers and thirty sail
ors were landed and proceeded to
ward the bridge Flusser had pre
viously targeted. For good measure
they also headed for Newby's Bridge
at Belvidere as well.
It was about 1:00 p.m. when the
?
party reached Blanchard's Bridge.
While most of the men spent the af
ternoon breaking up the bridge, some
stole some clothes and tobacco from
the nearby Blanchard store. An offi
cer chased them out when they en
tered Blanchard's residence.
Newby's Bridge was destroyed the
same day and by midnight of that
long and frightening Friday the inva
dors had returned to the "Commo
dore Perry". It was then impossible ^
to cross Perquimans River to reacU
Hertford, except by boat. The river"
would for a time prove how broad an - *
obstacle to travel it could be, as it '
had in the days before technology ?
provided the capability of erecting a_ -
bridge across so wide a water.
NEWS COUPON
The news and editorial staff of the Perquimans Weekly
would like you to tell us what kind of stories you like to see in
the paper. If there is something or someone you feel is impor
tant ? or some provocative issue you would like us to exam
ine ? please, let us know.
Just clip and fill out this coupon. Include as many details as
possible (Names, oddressses, telephone numbers, etc.)
It may not be possible for us to use some of the stories sug
gested but we are always looking for new ideas.
So, next time you think of something you feel would make a
good story, send it to: News Coupon, Perquimans Weekly,
P.O. Box 277, Hertford, N.C. 27944.
STORY IDEA:
THE
PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
Established In 1932
Published loch Thursday By The Daily Advonce, Elizabeth City, N.C.
Second CIom Postoge Paid at Hertford, N.C. 27944 USPS 438-080
Gin* K. Jopson
Editor
Amk L Wood
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