Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / Jan. 9, 1979, edition 1 / Page 2
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Pa^e 2—MIRROR-HKKALD-Tueaday, January 9, 1079 Ain’t nothing like being trend-setter Henry Smith, the bearded gent who writes a weekly Tar Heel history column for us. will be seen driving around town In what appears to be a 1936 Dodge in mint condition along about next week. But, looks will be deceiving. Actually, what Fd will be driving in is a 1979 Checker Mar 'ihon. good for about 30,000 miles It's called the Marathon because it is a long distance runner. There are only about 300 sold to civilians each year, although about 5,000 of the vehicles are manufactured annually. What happens 'he ■■thers? People piv to r'de i: them. They are called Chc-.'lter Cabs. That s right ( .lecke. Cab Co. manufac tures its own ' ■ 1.1' tea m Michigan, using the dies the ci'"'p«'^' purchased from Dodge. The dies are of the 1956 model Dodge cars. "The ones the company sells or leases to the public have everything on them, but the checkered doors and meters," Ed said. “My dad and I are leasing for our textile com pany. We put in the order about three months ago and all the car lacks now is the govern ment sticker.” Ed will be traveling in hi^ company since William P. Buckley and the Governor of Illinois also drive Checker Marathons. The car is being leased through Checker Cab Co. of Durham and Wade Tyner of Wade Ford is handling the arrangements for the Smiths. Ain’t nothing like being a trend-setter, eh, Ed? -oOo- Speaking of cars, I do believe I am the owner of the toughest Mustang Ford ever CDITORIf\L<? & opinions made. Mine it a 1969 model. It's that banged up, drty light (very light) blue job you've seen me pushing around town ever since I came here over five years ago. Once in awhile something will go wrong with that little jewel. Nothing major, mind inu, just some little something; like the transmission fluid will leak out, oil will screw up my spark plugs, a breather hose will stop breathing, etc. Bushings in the ball joints go bad now and then and when it's rolling it sounds like thousands of fingernails being scratched icrov a blackboard and the radiator has RTung a leak or two. People like to make fun of my Mustang. I remember several years ago when snow fell fost and deep and people who laughed at my Muttang foiaid their own vehicles bogged d>wn. Not my Mustang. I just threw her Into reverse and climbed all kinds of hills without «iy sweat. Recently I took the Mustang to a garage (I TOM McirtTVRG ain't gonna say where 'cause everybody will want to go there) to have about 15 things checked out. I know some of the things were wrong and others I only worried about. The mechanic is a busy gent so I told him he didn't have to be in a hurry. He kept it for four weeks exactly. And he did a little something here and a little something there, put a new gismo over yoixler and tightened up an old gismo down there. "But you still ain't told me what causes that groaning noise when 1 brake the car on a righthand curve," I said. “Nothing visible,” he said. “Just old age, I guess.” “Dum an automobile you can't drive but 142,000 miles without something breaking down on it,” I said. “Ain't it the truth,” the mechanic said. The bill for all that work and all that time? $120. And in case you think the mechanic is a shade-tree boy, forget it. He builds stock cars (that win) from the ground up, too. Attend public hearing The city Is now In Its fifth and final year of Oommunlty Development Block Grant funding and tonight the city commissioners will hold a public hearing to determine how the final hold-harmless fund will be spent. The city was original designated to receive over a five-year period, 94,160,000. This final year s CD funding is |3S8,000. As in the past four years, citizens and groups with community project Ideas are asked to attend the public hearings to place their Ideas Into the record. The meeting Is scheduled for 7; 30 p. m. at city hall. Body displayed over debts Bypass gets underway Believe It or not, the long-awaited Hwy. 74 bypass Is about to get underway. The first phase bid letting has been scheduled for Mar. 27 on a 4.8 mile stretch beginning near Bethware School west of the city limits. First approved back In the 1060's, the bypass soon became a joke because nothing was ever really accomplished toward getting the rlghts-of-wuy and construction. The route even reportedly changed twice before settling In on Its present course. The projected 946-mllllon four-lane freeway has had Its good and bad points; f?Dod In that It will relieve a great deal of traffic congestion In downtown Kings Mountain and bad tiiat uie bypass route has meawi uisrupung couple of hundred lives and the loss of vitally needed housing In this city. Although N. C. Highway Transportation Office officials cannot project a definite completion date for the entire project, they do estimate the end to be In 1983. It Is only a guess, just as the estimate made over a year ago by a highway commissioner that the end world be In 1982. 9MITH High-rise is promised Kings Mountain has been promised a high-rise apartment by spring of 1980. High-rise In Its usual connotation is something like the NCNB building In downtown Charlotte or the Trade Center twins In New York CJlty. But here In the historical city, ‘‘hlgh-iTse” means five stories — a mere 60-fect. But, with the exception of the old Masonic building lln downtown Shelby, the proposed Mountain View Towers complex for elderly will be the tallest building In Cleveland County. What the building will mean to this community, no matter what size It Is, Is as Important as any skyscraper ever erected In any city. It Is scheduled to rise in an area of the city known In redevelopment terms as R-96 and this former dense residential section can certainly use the people now that numerous substandard homes have been demolished and the former occupants scattered to the four winds. William Gilbert of Greenwood, S. C., Mountain View Towers developer, should be commended for his belief In the potential of this city and his willingness to Invest so much time, planning and capltcl to benefit, of course his firm, but more Importantly the senior citizens of Kings Mountain. As late w the I830's North Candina had an inusual and gruesome law on its books, and during this week in 1828 one of the state's most outstanding early governors became its most famous victim. llnsatiafied creditors could, by obtaining a writ, force the heirs or reiauves of a recenuy deceased person to have his corpse placed on public display until his bills were paid. In a time when personal honor was a matter of deepest concern this was regarded as a particuisriy humiliating fate (and it may well have prevented many a literal “deadbeat”.) In January of 1828, however, former Governor Benjamin Smith fell victim to the law in an inddent so gruesome that its publicity probably caused its long overdue repeal. Though Smith had been one of the state's wealthier planters, he lost his fortune and ded in debtors prison In Southport (which ironically was originally named Smithville in his honor.) A generous but impulsive and hot- tempered man. he left bAind many friends and enemies — and an imposing list of vengeful creditors. Hoping to avoid the humiliation of public dsplay for unpaid debts (which could never be repaid) Smith's survivors had him quickly buried at St. Ihul's (?hurch near Wilmington. A group of frustrated creditors proceeded to get a writ anyway, then forced the exhumation of ankh's body and had it placed on display! Thor action backfired, however. Such ^ouliah treatment of one of North Carolina's most famous citizens created a scandal of statewide proportion, and the law was soon repealed. Smith served as Governor in 1810-11, and las efforts at upgrading the state militia had left North Carolina far better prepared to meet a British threat during the War of 1812. He was an early advocate of public education, and as Governor gave the state's economy a boost by pushing for the adoption of more industry and manufacturing. Smith was on the largest donor in the establish ment of the University of North Carolina, and an early owner of Orton Plantation. Though one of the state's most colorful founding fathers, ne is almost totally forgotten today. -oOo- On January 12,1865, Union forces began an all-out assault upon Fort Fisher. Three days later, after the heaviest naval bombardment ever seen in the Western hemisphere, the fort was overwhelmed. Situated near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, Fort Fisher had been called the "Gibralter of America”. Its capture sealed off Wilmington, the last important seaport available to the Confederacy and rendered certain the defeat of an already badly- weakened Confederacy. A huge Federal fleet had attacked the fort on December 24, but their assault, like many earlier ones, had been beaten off by Colond William Lamb and the fort's defenders. On Jan. 12 an even bigger fleet retiaTied. After the intense three-day bombardment Union troops were landed and following some of the 6ercest hand-to-hand combat of the war, the fortress fell. < '?T' i'r ^ What’s your opinion? We want to hear your opinion on things of interest to you. Address all correspondence for this page to Reader Dialogue. Mirror- Herald. P. O. Drawer 752. Kings Mountain. N. C., 28086. Be sure and sign proper name and include your address. Unsigned letters will not be , u And tar heel author Guy Owen MIKOlRilHUJ) Ballad of flim-flam man PUBLISHED EACH TUESDAY AND THURSDAY By ANN McADAMS Special To The Mirror-Herald GARLAND ATKINS PubUsher TOM McIntyre Editor ELIZABETH STEWART Woman's Editor GARY STEWART Sports Editor DARRELL AUSTIN General Manager CLYDE HILL Advertiaing Director MEMBER OF NORTH CAROUNA PRESS ASSOCIATION The Mirror-Herald la published by General PubUshlag Company, P. O. Drawer TSt Kings Mountain, N. C. 28686. Butlnest and editorial offices are located at 481 N. Piedmont Ave. Phone 739-7488. Second Class postage paid at Kings Mountain, N. C. Single cory IS rents. Subscription ratee: 88.S0 yearly I lD-state. $4.28 six months, 89.89 yearly I out-of-state. 88 six months; Student rate I for nine months M.24. I The Flim-Flam Man la alive and well and ig) to his old schenanlgans. North Carolina State University EbigUsh Professor Ouy Owen published hla “BaUad of the Film Flam Man,” the first of two books about con artlat Mordacal Jonas, In 1968. “Thirteen years ago I had no Idea that Mordecal Jones would stUl be alive. Yet the 20th Century Fox film version starring George C. Soott Is on TV somawhara practically all the time and the storlaa keep going.” Oon artists who are now prisoners write Owen, and he declares he la "widely read at San Quinton.” He has said that ha haa even gotten phone caUa from eon artists on their way through Raleigh who wish to tall him their life storlea. Owen haa a new Flim-Flam Man short story In the September-October laaue of "Tar Heel" magazine and another scheduled to appear In “Tar Heel” early next year. Ha also has one coming out soon In the "San- dlapper," a magazine published in Columbia, S. C. SHORT STORIES In addition, he Is now publishing a book at short stories called "The Film Flam Man” and Other Storlea”, to appear next year. The book contains selections about the Film- Flam Man and his guitar-strumming sidekick Curley, as well as more serious stories. A musical comedy based on the first book at flim-flam stories la being performed around the South, primarily by achoolB and Ittle theatre groupa. On a recent Sunday, the movie veralon at the “FUm-Flam Man” waa ahown on televlalon. How doea he like the movie? “Well, I liked George C. Scott and I liked all tha minor charactera. But I have the feeling that here I apent a year and a half writing tha book and tha movie acrlpt writer took one month and they spent two montha diooting it. They mily uaed about a fifth of the novel. Tha movie la certainly not my novel.” But, he added, "I don't like to aae my charactera dla. Aa long aa they're not being violated too much In another medium, such as film, I Uka to see them live on.” Owen aald tha movla was filmed In Ken tucky rather than the Eastern North (ktroUna In which the book Is set bacausa North Carolina waa too flat and the Cape Fear River too muddy. "The company (a dlatlllary at which part of the movie was filmed) gave ttom all tremendoua aippllea at whisky. I Imagine they were too drunk to ahoot after that," he said with a laugh. SOUTHERN VERNACULAR Owen said "The Ballad of the FUm-Flam Man," was greatly revised before Its pubUcatlon because hla New York editor had a hard time understanding the Southern vernacular in which it was written. "I had to surrender a good deal of the flavor of the language because we were trying to get a mass audience rather than just a Southsrn audlenes," he said. "I am not saying ths book was butchered, but you have to make compromises when you're working In the oral. Southern tradition aa I am." He la Influenced heavUy by Mark Twain and Paul Green, In their use of Southern speech patterns. Owen has a coUectlon of Southern poetry — which he edited with hla NCSU collaague Dr. Mary C. WlUiama — coming out In the tall of 1979, and he said It Uluatrataa the Southern tradition. Entitled "Contemporary Southern Poetry; An Anthology." It toUowa "Contemporary Poetry of North Carolina." also edited with Dr. WlUlama, and published last year. Owen, who haa published three volumes of poetry, said he la "almost obsssaad" with getting down the flavor of old-time Southern speech before those who speak It dlo. Some folUoziats collect colorful phrases and publish them In alphabetical Usta but he prefers to publish thsm In a narrative context, he said. Hla more serious novels - which he likes to write In between hU comical hooka - Include "Season of Fear” and "Journey for Joedel.” He has written another seiioua novel which has not yet found a publisher. It la about "the coming of World War II to the class of 1942 In my hometown” and la primarily set In ths shipyards of Wilmington, where tha young men who are Wa main characters work. Were hla serious works easier to wrlU than the Qlm-flam stories for which he Is beat known? He picked up much of the Southern speech te uses In hla flim-flam storlea'' "at niy father's crosaroada store and by working as a kid In tobacco warehouses.” (He was born In 1928 In Clarkton, N. C., the town he calls Clayton In hla flim-flam stories). “Some of It came from two sind a half years In the Army. And part of It I researched." MARK TWAIN INFLUENCE "Much easier. I'm mors at home writing sertous Utogs. Comedy is very hard to write and 1 Jlnd very few of my students writing ^e^, Owen teaches creatlvs writing at NCSU I "What atrtkea you as being absolutely Marloua might strike me as not being so unny, he explained. Owen said he rarely discusses work In . He said It Is Important "to lot ths ““““ “P” not disperse energy talking of the book out rather than writing it My wife used to type my novels," he said, but added that he found out "she was cen- she thought were risque would disappear" She no longer types his novels. Fb day( to fl echo Tb Scoll , tessl Weeco Devi Th will need Jan. East • 80-81 Sol pare; dmp brtni • .m A pans perc matt ; ,4|oom] ' KMI Di; Brys achl( read high 'Wto m Th read He ^ Pu liq>u \ aiiei V. .jnv/'Tbui ai D relli Beti the Jan Met A this trav spol ooui t,mai spoi a T Ass urg to li kee StUi atat test ■f ‘ •
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Jan. 9, 1979, edition 1
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