August 14, 2003
Letters
We appreaciate your letters and encourage you to write.
Because we receive so many letters, however, we must
impose guidelines to ensure that as many readers as possi-
ble are able to share their views. We therefore limit the
number of letters that any one person may have published
to one a month. Also, we ask that you keep your letters
short, no more than two pages double-spaced or one page
single-spaced. Handwritten letters are accepted, but must
be legible.
We will not publish third party letters, unsolicited poems,
thank-you letters or letters from anonymous writers; names,
addresses, and phone numbers must be included. We
reserve the right to edit letters for grammar, punctuation,
clarity, brevity and content.
Letters must be received no later than 5 p.m. on Monday
of the week they are to be published. Mail letters to
Publisher Mike Blanton, P.O. Box 769, Kings Mountain, NC
28086 or fax them to (704) 739-0611.
News Deadlines
Deadline for B Section news is 12 noon Monday. This
includes lifestyles news, people stories, weddings, engage-
ments, anniversaries, reunions, club news, church news,
business news, school news and community news. Items
received past the deadline will run in other parts of the
paper if time and space permit. Otherwise, they will be held
until the following week.
Deadline for A Section news is 5 p.m. Tuesday. This
includes city and county news, sports, and miscellaneous
items. In cases of Tuesday night meetings and ball games,
items will be taken up to 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
GUEST
From 4A
payment. Can you afford it? Will your payments stay steady
or change? If the rate is adjustable, how high can your pay-
. ment go?
- Beware of balloons. A balloon payment is a large pay-
ment that comes due at the end of the loan term, often after
a series of low monthly payments that may have only paid
the interest on the loan. You may be forced to take out a
new loan or face foreclosure.
- Watch out for prepayment penalties. Some loans require
you to pay extra fees if you pay off the loan early by refi-
nancing or selling your home. To avoid getting trapped in a
loan by prepayment penalties, try to negotiate the penalty
out of your loan agreement.
- Look at credit insurance carefully. Some lenders may
imply that you must purchase and finance expensive credit
insurance in order to get a loan, or they may automatically
include it in your loan agreement. Don’t agree to purchase
credit insurance until you've studied it carefully and decid-
ed that you really do want it.
- Contact a non-profit credit counseling agency if you
need advice. Check with the National Foundation for Credit
Counseling at 1-800-388-2227 or www.nfcc.org to find a rep-
utable local counselor.
(Roy Cooper is Attorney General for the State of NC).
ANDIE
From 4A
mouths and make noise.
Kids will make friends fast. They are too busy enjoying
each other to do what we adults do. We'll ask those subtle
questions that reveal social and economic status. We want to
make sure others are like us before we plunge into friend-
ship. All kids care about is how much fun the other person
is.
As they head to school, let’s all remember what they have
to teach us.
JIM
From 4A
gravy. After you've eaten a plate full of beans, there's noth-
ing quite like taking another biscuit, raking it through the
remaining fluid and popping it into your mouth. Then
washing it down with a long pull from a frosted glass of
iced tea. Man, that is good eating.
After you finish a good steak, try grabbing the last roll
and soppin’ the juices. As the Colonel used to say: It’s fin-
ger-liking good. ;
If you are fresh out of biscuits, soppin’ can be done using
loaf bread, corn bread or any kind of muffin.
You will notice that all the fast food restaurants have
found out about how much Southerners like gravy. They all
sell gravy biscuits, and plenty of them. I wonder if gravy
biscuits sell as well in Yankee land? I doubt it.
If you could bring all those bad guys in the countries that
are in full squabble these days, set a big bowl of gravy and
a mound of biscuits in front of them, they would be so busy
soppin’ they'd forget why they were mad at one another.
So, you see, gravy soppin’ is the real answer to world peace.
A man soppin’ gravy has not time for firing a gun.
foi
OPINION
The Kings Mountain Herald
Page 5A
Money can’t make you happy,
but having none is devastating
‘Po but proud.” “We ain’t nuthin’ but
po folks.” ‘I is po.’
For too many people, these phrases
are more than timeless cliches’, they
are statements of condition as real as
the next late bill pay- pF
ment or skimpy lunch- |
eon.
It’s a known fact that
money won't or can’t
make you happy, but a |
lack of it can certainly |
make you sad. You |
don’t have to look far
to see a lot of sad peo-
ple.
Without going into a
lot of details, let me
say that lack of money =———————
is something I am familiar with. I recall
my eleventh birthday when all my
mammy had was 50 cents. She gave
me this for my birthday present. I
bought 50 cents worth of rope from the
hardware store and made a cowboy
lasso out of it. Maybe it would have
been better for some people if I had
made a noose.
Another time we ran short of food.
Mammy took some flour and a chunk
of meat called streak-o-lean and made
some biscuits and gravy and slapped
some streak-o-lean on it. As I recall, the
effect when this repast hit my stomach
was to make me streak for the rest-
room and lean upon the facilities con-
tained therein. But we didn’t go ‘hon-
gry’ as they say.
Sometimes I go to the BCO to see
Alan Hodge
Columnist
what is shaking there. Sometimes it’s
me after see the jams people are in. I
quake from fear that it could be me
down there begging instead of snitch-
ing an occasional pack of crackers.
Last Sunday I visited the First
Presbyterian Church in Belmont. Hey
Uncle George! Hey Janice! Hey Carol!
Hey Dick! Hey etc. & etc.! Part of Rev.
Boyce’s talk was about being rich and
out of touch with the poor. He said
that if Jesus was walking around today
he would probably be found in a race
track infield or a place like Willard’s
Old Yaller Tavern rather than the coun-
try club. Maybe He would be wearing
a black t-shirt with a big number 3 on
it. The point is, Jesus would be in the
trenches.
When I worked at the main library in
downtown Charlotte, it was an almost
everyday occurrence to be approached
by someone begging money. We often
laid bets to see who could make it to
the Bojangles on N. Tryon near 8th
Street and back without being
harassed. Few every made that per-
ilous journey of two blocks without
smelling the fetid and alcoholic breath
of a rummy asking for ‘bus fare.” Yeah,
the bus was in a bottle of wine that
would take them to the next world.
I never gave those folks any dough-
except one guy who had no eye and
just an empty hole in his head and he
and his little pistol were rather persua-
sive. But since I am less that rolling in
dough for the current time, I have sud-
denly felt a new found empathy for the
financially challenged.
For instance, recently I was eating a
hotdog and a couple wandered
through the parking lot of the joint
where folks were likewise eating hot-
dogs or licking ice creams and the man
had a rather downtrodden aspect
about his person and the woman
looked as skinny and wasted as a con-
centration camp victim and she had on
short shorts and a halter top and her
legs were no bigger around that ciga-
rettes and she had a defeated, desper-
ate look and the man’s pants hung
very far down in back in a dejected
sort of way and he was begging money
and reminded me markedly of a starv-
ing hound looking for scraps.
I gave them the one dollar I had to
spare. There goes I, I thought.
If you think you have it bad. If you
are feeling sorry for yourself because
that high-end car you so desperately
crave is just out of reach, then try to
imagine how it feels to be a single
mother with a crowd of kids at your
feet looking at you with that pleading
look they have and a cupboard with a
rat in it holding up a sign that says
‘will work for food.’
Take that thought and chew on it for
a while and when your jaws ache
enough go to a place like the BCO or
CRO or SOCKS or any other place
where folks need help and give them
some money or time or anything else
you can and then go home and fall on
your knees and be thankful you have it
as good as you do.
Thinking about school merger
and people who make difference
Just a few thoughts on the school
merger, which last week was upheld
by the NC Court of
Appeals.
Although I admire
anyone for “going
down swinging,” and
support Kings
Mountain School
Board’s decision to
appeal the ruling to
the Supreme Court,
deep down I don't
think it’s going to do
any good.
First off, since the
Appeals Court opinion was unani-
mous, the Supreme Court probably
won't hear the case. From past deci-
sions, it’s apparent no court in the
State, which is supported by state
taxes, is going to rule against a State
agency, in this case the North Carolina
School Board.
In my opinion Kings Mountain's
only hope lies with the U.S. Justice
Department, and that agency isn’t like-
ly to rule our way either. Since all pub-
lic schools are supported by tax dollars
and states are still basically free to set
up school attendance lines as they
wish, it will be difficult to prove
Gaston County students’ rights have
been violated. Inconvenienced, yes!
It’s probably time for school officials
and Gaston County parents to begin
deciding how they will make the tran-
sition to new schools easy for their
children.
Gary Stewart
Editor
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Lo 1499
“he Diamond Leader”
ARNOLD’S
er
Li
226 S. Washington St., Shelby
704-487-4521
Spending the Nig
“with
My personal feeling is that the super-
intendents of the three Cleveland
County units should begin informal
meetings to discuss possible ways to
best serve the districts as we know
them now while a new school board
works on a common policy for how the
new system will operate. It would cer-
tainly be best for everyone concerned if
all districts remain as they are for a
period of time until those polices are
put in place.
The existing school boards could
continue to exist as advisory boards to
their district, and the superintendents
could continue to exist as deputy or
assistant superintendents in charge of
their specific area.
Certainly, if the final decision comes
against KM in the middle of the school
year, there should be an understanding
between Cleveland and Gaston County
School Systems to allow the Gaston
County students now attending Kings ;
Mountain schools to remain until the
beginning of the next school year. And,
such as the case when a district builds
a new high school, rising seniors
should be allowed to complete their
education in KM.
But farther down the road, it’s very
likely that anyone who lives in Gaston
County would have to pay tuition to
attend KM schools. Gaston County cer-
tainly won't continue to pass its State
per pupil funds along to KM once the
merger is in effect.
HB A man with a heart for Kings
Mountain people:
Ward 2 City Councilman Jim Guyton
announced last week that he is with-
drawing from the upcoming Council
race because of recent health problems. OK
He will certainly be missed on the
board. :
Of all the people I've known to serve
in public office over the years, I can say
that Jim Guyton was the one that
always did what he thought was the
- best for people.
He has a big heart and does a lot of
good things for people that you will
never hear or read about.
Jim, know that you're in our
thoughts and prayers as you recuper-
ate. We hope to see you well soon and
back in office someday.
HW From the yes, people do read this
newspaper department:
Bobby Childers, owner and manager
of C&C Heating and Cooling on York
Road in Kings Mountain, has been
inundated with phone calls and com-
ments recently after we ran an article
on Bill Childers retiring and closing his |
business, Childers Heating and Air
Conditioning. Sas
It's understandable, since both men
have the same last name, are in the
same type business, and both are
Carrier dealers.
But, no, Bobby Childers, is not retir-
ing, and C&C Heating and Cooling is
not closing down. Bobby says both are
still going strong and will be for many
years to come.
¢
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