Hey, Santa,
don’t forget
these extras
Dear Santa,
Well, Big Guy, it’s about
that time again. And, as has
been the case for about the
40th year in a row I'm late
with my requests. I know
you've
at work
* packing
Dora
bicycles
and bas-
ketball
goals and
J Jumpy,
things
and gui-
Gary Stewart
Editor
5 the little
boys and
girls, but see if you can find
just a little extra space in
that big sleigh for these:
A happy, carefree retire-
ment for Kings Mountain
High basketball coach
Danny McDowell, who has
done a superb job with the
Mountaineer program over
the past five years and with
the Boys Club program for
many years before that. As
for getting the most out of
his talent, he’s probably one
of the best coaches we've
ever had here...
A better economy. There
are too many empty build-
ings around town, and even,
though the unemployment
rate has dropped overall it’s
still too high in Cleveland
County...
A General Assembly with
the guts to ban video poker.
It’s amazing how some of
“our leaders are so adamant
in their opposition to one
form of gambling (lottery)
and not willing to do away
with another...
A quick finish to the con-
struction projects on I-85 at
161 and Dixon School Road
Extension. They've dug into
the pavement so much on
Dixon School Road and
haven't done such a good
job of patching it that the
bumps jar you to death.
There's probably not a vehi-
cle in Dixon that’s not out of
alignment...
A successful tenure for
Greg McGinnis as Kings
Mountain's city manager.
Kings Mountain had to be
the laughing stock of the
state last year with its
revolving door administra-
tion. Phil Ponder left - or
was he terminated? - after
only about six months on
the job and the newly hired
city engineer left less than
two months on the job. You
can’t get anyone to admit it
was small town politics, but
it probably was...
A good year for Todd
Hagans, Cherryville Eagle
editor who is leaving us
December 31 to go back to
school to earn his teacher’s
certification. I feel some-
what responsible for Todd's
newspaper career because
he served as my-summer
intern one summer when he
was a student at UNC
Asheville and I had a hand
in recruiting him for the
Cherryville job after he
graduated. He does a
superb job and I hate to see
him go, but I know he’ll be
an outstanding school
teacher...
A great year for the new
Cleveland County School
System. It appears that the
leaders of the new system
are not planning any major
overhaul and merger might
not be all that bad after all.
The only difference I've
seen in the school system
since merger has been the
change of name...
An abundance of flu vac-
cines for next year. There's
no excuse for a country as
medically advanced as the
U.S. to run short of any kind
of medicine...
Mud-free political cam-
paigns. For once we need an
entire slate of candidates
who focus on their strengths
instead of their opponent’s
weaknesses...
A playoff berth for the
‘Carolina Panthers. Wouldn't
it be something if a team
that started the season 1-7
would win the Super
Bowl.?..A return to power
for the Kings Mountain
High football team. If the
Mountaineers can’t win the
state championship, make it
See Gary, 5A
y v
4 {
been hard
tars for all
OPINION ......
PEEP INTO THE PAST
m
Mayor Garland E. Still presents L.C. Parsons with a plaque honoring his retirement as public works superintend-
ent a testimonial dinner in December 1952. Left to right are Commissioner Olland Pearson, Mr. Parsons,
Commissioner C.P. Barry, Commissioner B.T. Wright Sr., Mayor Still, Commissioner Lloyd E. Davis and
Commissioner James G. Layton, who served as master of ceremonies at the event.
I always tried
to be an angel
at Christmas
As a child it took me about one minute
after Thanksgiving dinner to ask my
Mama if it was time to “get the
Christmas tree out.”
Being the good hearted type, she would consent. I
would climb into the crawl space beneath the den and
drag out pieces of the artificial tree and boxes of orna-
ments. After pulling all this up the stairs, we would
assemble the tree matching the color coded branches up
with the base.
Next came the tiny, multicolored lights, the silver gar-
land and red and white satiny balls and bells. Handmade
ornaments I created in Girl Scouts and other assorted
what-nots also went on the tree. One year we attached
hangers to my glass animal figurine collection and hung
the menagerie from the branches. Later we added artificial
apples.
The tree’s most interesting decoration had to be the
powder blue Campbell's Soup ornaments. A friend from
my mom's church choir gave the ornaments away at gro-
cery stores as a soup promotion. The poor man could
never unload all the ornaments so he resorted to giving
the remaining baubles away at choir practice. My sister
and I laughed every year. We never came around to seeing
pastel blue as a Christmas color.
Despite my objections to the Campbell's Soup orna-
ments, some of my favorite decorations were the blue
Glitter covered, deep blue light bulbs rested
atop off-white plastic candlesticks. Tiny drops of pretend
wax were even molded into the sides.
Christmas was the one time of a year I was really an
angel, literally. I was part of the heavenly host in our
annual church plays. Mama would sew a white tent dress
for me and would attach wings. I'm not sure what these
were made from, probably something she found at Mary
Jo’s Cloth Store. Regardless, she would trim the wings in
garland, the same stuff we wrapped around the tree. Ever -
the stylish angel, my halo was trimmed in matching gar-
“candles.”
land.
Girls typically got the part of angels and boys played
shepherds and wise men. This meant they wore bathrobes
in the play. The wise men even got to wrap towels around
their heads.
Much to my disappointment I was never cast as Mary.
If memory serves me right, by the time I reached the
appropriate age churches had gone to contemporary
plays.
Today's scripts are more complicated, costumes more
See Andie, 5A :
Andie Brymer
Staff Writer
Just lather
it up and
scrape it off
A Wal-Mart clerk recently made me
realize I'm no spring chicken anymore.
Jim Heffner
I went there to buy shaving mug soap. eojumnist
The brand I've used for years is hard to
find, and when I do stumble across it .
buy all they have.
When I checked out, the clerk looked at the little round
bars of soap and laughed.
“I've never seen that before,”
she said. “That's neat. I've
seen men shave'on TV using this stuff, but never in real
life. That's so cute!”
I almost invited her to the house to watch me shave.
This young lady has probably never known a world
without color TV, personal computers, CD’s, the Internet -
or cordless telephones. I'd be willing to bet she’s never
seen a vinyl record, and certainly not a 78 RPM record.
As I was leaving the store, one of the greeters, an elder-
ly lady, was doubled over with laughter, having over-
heard the entire conversation.
“I can remember a time when my husband shaved in
cold water using a straight razor,” she said.
Ouch! I have shaved in cold water in the Navy, and it
was no fun. In fact, shaving isn’t a whole lot of fun.
Sometimes I think those guys who just let it grow have
the best idea.
All of us who are forced to scrape the whiskers off our
faces sometimes want to give up the habit I'm sure.
Most of us have experienced days when we just can’t
seem to get a close shave. I have devised a method which
works for me most of the time.
I lather with my shaving brush and soap, cover that
with shaving cream, and go to work. I do that twice, then
again on the neck and throat. Most of the time I get a
close shave.
Isn't that interesting? Yuck.
There have been times, however, when even that didn’t
work: On those occasions, I sometimes cover my face with
some kind of cream, whatever happens to be available,
and let it dry, then go through my shaving routine. That
usually works.
Once, I switched to an electric razor, but that didn’ t last
very long. I had two bad experiences with electric razors.
Somehow, I got a small hole in the screen which covers
the blades, and my razor plowed a path from my neck to
the middle of my right cheek. I tossed it.
Later, when I was based in Memphis with the good old
USN, I was in a hurry to get to town one Friday evening,
See Heffner, 5A
Thursday, December 23, 2004
LOOK BACK
Public works
director honored
in December ‘53
From the Tuesday,
December 23, 1952 edition
of the Kings Mountain
Herald:
Almost 100 persons
attended a testimonial din-
ner at the Woman's Club
last Friday night honoring
L.C. Parsons, who retires
as city superintendent of
public works January 1
after over 33 years of serv-
ice.
Thomas W. Strickland of
the Cleveland County
Health Department
reminded Kings Mountain
citizens of the new city
sanitation ordinance enact-
ed several months ago,
calling particular attention
to the prohibition against
maintaining hogs within
the city limits.
Yule elegance was the
keynote in the Christmas
decorations in the home of
Mrs. Harold Crawford
Wednesday afternoon
when she, Mrs. Wilson
Crawford and Mrs. Yates
Harbison entertained with
rook.
Plans have been complet-
ed for the wedding of Miss
Sarah Mae Kincaid, daugh-
ter of Mr. and Mrs. L.
Arnold Kincaid, and Bobby
Ray Bush, son of Mr. and
Mrs. E.J. Bush of
Summerville, GA.
Grover downed
Bethware in a Cleveland
County Basketball League
doubleheader Friday at
Grover, the girls winning
61-19 and the boys cop-
ping the nightcap 50-22
Peggy Keeter rimmed 34
points to pace the unde-
~ feated Grover sextet. Treva
Ponder tossed in 12 and
Betty Watterson 8. Joe
Plumley paced the Grover
boys with 12, while
Tommy Keeter and Eddie
Tucker had 10 apiece.
A crowd which virtually
filled Central School audi-
torium Sunday attended
the Christmas party for its
employees given by
Craftspun Yarns. H.O.
“Toby” Williams served as
master of ceremonies.
Annual tax listing will
begin Friday, January 2,
according to announce-
ment by Clarence E.
Carpenter, city tax lister,
and Conrad Hughes,
Number 4 Township tax
lister.
According to our calen-
dar, one would assume
that between the year 1
B.C. and the year 1 A.D.
there would be a year
called zero. As a matter of
fact, no such year exists, as
faras historians are con-
cerned and the year 1 A.D.
follows directly after the
year 1 B.C.
Santa’s beginning in Child of Bethlehem
BY REV. JEFF HENSLEY
Many of our contempo-
rary traditions about Santa
Claus go
back ulti-
mately to
Jesus
Christ,
because
they are
based on
the life of
Jeff Hensley ~~ 2 i
Meditation ome
St. Nicholas was born
around the year 280 in a
small town located in what
is today Turkey. Shortly
after the year 300 he
became Bishop in Myra. It
wasn’t an easy task at the
time, because the church
was facing two kinds of
struggle. On the one hand,
Emperor Diocletian
brought struggle from
without because of his per-
secution of Christians. On
the other hand, a fellow
named Arius brought
struggle from within when
his beliefs brought about a
doctrinal controversy.
One of the most famous
stories about St. Nicholas
has to do with a poor man,
who had three lovely
daughters. Because he was
so poor, this man wasn’t
able to provide a dowry
for his daughters, which
meant that they wouldn't
be able to marry. In those
days poor young women
were often sold into slav-
ery or had to become pros-
titutes, and St. Nicholas
helped to prevent that
from happening to this
particular family.
f
He placed a large num-
ber of gold pieces in a
small bag and tossed it
through an open window.
He did this on three sepa-
rate occasions, once for
each young woman. And
though he wanted his gifts
to remain anonymous, he
was discovered on his
third trip. Many people
think this is one of the ori-
gins of gift giving at
Christmas.
Traditions about St.
Nicholas developed in
European countries under
different names. In
Germany, he was called
Weihnachtsmann. He was
Pere Noel in France, Father
Christmas in England and
Sinta Claes in Holland.
The Dutch tradition
reports that St. Nicholas
traveled to Holland from
Myra, dressed in his red
bishop's robes, riding on a
white horse and accompa-
nied by his servant.
As Nicholas rode in the
streets, he carried a sack
full of gifts and toys for
the children. Whenever he
saw a child, he asked the
parents, “Has your child
been good?” If the answer
was yes the child received
a gift, but if it was no the
servant shook a stick at the
child, who then ran te hide
behind his or her mother.
One day Nicholas and
his servant came to a small
home where the windows
and doors were sealed.
“How shall we deliver
our gifts,” Nicholas asked.
Looking up at the roof, his
servant suggested that
they drop the gifts through
the chimney.
“That's a great idea,”
replied Nicholas, so they
climbed up to the roof and
dropped the gifts down
through the chimney.
Though there are many
legends that surround the
gentle bishop from Myra,
there is a profound truth
preserved in his story. For
from these legends there
has come down to us a
noble tradition of generosi-
ty and kindness, which
most certainly speaks of
the character and nature of
Jesus Christ. Though today
there seems to be a great
divide between Santa and
Jesus, it was not always so.
For even Santa Claus
found his beginning in the
Christ child of Bethlehem.
Rev. Jeff Hensley is pas-
tor of Kings Mountain
Baptist Church.