Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / Nov. 20, 2013, edition 1 / Page 18
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Page 2A by Dave Blanton Gold was discovered in White Plains in 1834. Sev- enty-five years later, the tex- tile boom was beginning to shape our town, which by then was called Kings Mountain. It wasn’t long after that, in the time be- tween the turn of the century and World War II, that club life was beginning to take hold. First came the Woman’s Club, the town’s oldest ex- isting civic organization. In 1905, monthly dues were a nickel. By 1932, it found a permanent home on Moun- tain Street. The group’s 100- plus year tradition of annual Floral Fairs continues to this day, although for many years now it’s been called the Fall Festival. Following in the Woman’s Club footsteps came a burst of new club be- ginnings. From the town’s first Boy Scout troop, in 1908, to The Thursday Af- ternoon Book Club, in 1913, to the Daughters of the American Revolution, which saw its first chapter chartered here in 1916, Kings Mountain was as- cending as a town with strong civic ties. By the 1950s and 1960s, Kiwanis, Lions Club, the JayCees, and, later, a Kings Mountain chapter of the In- ternational Rotary had be- came powerful engines of fundraising and civic move- ments. Dave Baity remembers when the Mountain Street bridge that passed over the train tracks downtown had two lights and lots of traffic, often moving very slowly on the weekends. “We peddled Pepsi be- tween those two stop lights and raised a heck of a lot of Boy Scout troops from the Kings Mountain area gather in 2009 to commemorate 100 years of scouting. For over 125 years, thousands of people have called Cherryville home. As a city, we have had hundreds of local people that have worked together over the years to perform the services that help make a loving community like ours a better place to live. We are proud of those individuals, both past and present that have given so much of themselves, to make Cherryville the special place that it has been and is today. Chemyoille, Ne a Great Place to Live a Great Place to work a (reat Place to play ~ City of Cherryville 116 S. Mountain Street Cherryville, NC 28021 Fait] Al Ov bie a Truly Great Place to Call Home! 704.435.1700 www.cityofcherryville.com My Hometown Wednesday, November 20, 2013 Civic pride — with an eye toward service Scouts camp out at a Hickory gathering in 1960. “There’s a lot of shared responsibility in Boy Scout life,” says Tommy King, who has served as a merit badge counselor, a scout- master, an assistant scoutmaster, district commissioner and an assistant district commis- sioner with the Boy Scouts of America. money for charities,” he said referring to the time when he was still fresh out of high school and a member of the Jaycees. This was a good twenty years before the U.S. 74 Bypass skirted north of town. Before that time trav- elers headed toward the mountains or Charlotte had few options other than streaming through the center of Kings Mountain. Baity went on to learn a lot more about the town, continuing his work as a re- porter for the Kings Moun- tain Herald before becoming an editor at the Belmont Banner in the early 60s. He retired after a long run as a reporter and columnist for the Charlotte Observer. A few year ago, he wrote and published “Tracks Through Time: A History of the City of Kings Mountain, 1874- 2005,” an illustrated history of the town’s many facets, with chapters devoted to the area’s 19th century gold rush, its schools, businesses, sports teams and civic clubs. Baity said he grew up poor, in one of the town’s many mill villages, but he come together on that front.” For Tommy King, this strong and long-running sense of civic pride and service has its roots in one “never felt place: The substandard.” Boy Scouts. a He For every group oy has Pe that many o a lifetime wit his peers in that has Grown ge young profits leanastives mii for 2s in the - change... Oppo textile indus- : whic egan try, which was others spring in England ap in those days the United powered the up and becowe States in the local econ- YODUST fixtures... first decade of omy. But for many of those who stayed in school and pursue higher education, there was a bridge that helped get them there. “The civic clubs really helped in that transition,” he said. “There were scholar- ships available to kids who wanted to go farther but did- n’t have the means.” Indeed, from the Kiwanis and Rotary to the Woman's Club and the Boosters Club and the Daughters of the American Revolution, it has been service clubs that have historically established some of the most generous scholarships in the post World War II years. The tradition continues today. “Local organizations giv- ing scholarship money is a huge help to our students,” according to Leigh Bell, a guidance counselor at the Kings Mountain High School who aids students in the hunt for the right college and the funds to pay for their education. She said that many organizations also continue to support students past their first year of col- lege through continuing scholarships. That certainly resonates with Baity. A favorite sev- enth grader teacher fostered his love of stamps and his budding hobby of stamp col- lecting by directing her hus- band, a comptroller at Neisler Mills, to give the young student all the postage from his incoming business mail. “I had stamps from all over the world,” he said in a recent talk from his home in Gastonia. “I think now ... how much that broadened me. The teachers in the schools in the schools en- couraged kids to be better than they ever could be. There was a culture there — the teacher and the business community did kind of the 20th cen- tury. King, who is 71, was a scout here in Kings Mountain as a boy and, much to his chagrin, missed becoming an Eagle Scout by just one badge. He later served as a merit badge counselor, a scoutmaster, an assistant scoutmaster, dis- trict commissioner and an assistant district commis- sioner with the Boy Scouts of America. “There’s a lot of shared responsibility in Boy Scout life,” King says, rattling off the number of ways the youngsters work together to accomplish goals or look out for each other, from camp- ing and learning about wildlife to providing assis- tance at the annual Over the Mountain Triathlon hosted: by the city. “We don’t allow harass- ment or kids being picked on,” said King, who spent his professional life as a magistrate in Cleveland and Lincoln Counties. “The scouts is about service.” Kings laments that inter- est in the Boy Scouts has de- clined in the last generation or so. In the heyday of the organization in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, nearly every able-bodied boy was — or wanted to be — in the club that organized camping trips, built things for the community and served as the primary source of youth fellowship. Today, the Boy Scouts of America can claim 207 youngsters total in the Kings Mountain area. That ac- counts for membership in all the organization’s sub- groups, which includes Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Crews. Crews are groups that specialize in hiking and camping and include males and females, ages 14-20. King estimates those numbers are down four or five hundred percent from the 1960s, a drop he blames on the popularity of TV and video games. “Back then, being inside was the last thing you wanted to do,” King said. “We blame the kids, but you got to blame the parents, t00.” For every group that has grown lean as times change and schedules become more fractured, others spring up and become robust fixtures in the fundraising arena. The Kings Mountain Touchdown Club is only seven years old. It was started with a clear and de- fined mission: to improve equipment for Kings Moun- tain’s student athletes. That included facilities, locker rooms, weight rooms. The group raised $15,000 in its first three months, according to its founder David Brink- ley. It also gives a $500 dol- lar scholarship every year to a football player who has been on the team all four years of his eligibility. The Touchdown’s Club biggest project has been raising the funds to build a new 12,000 sq. feet state-of- the-art field house for the KMHS athletes at John Gamble stadium. The field house, which has cost nearly $900,000, is nearing its De- cember-January construc- tion goal. Much of the work and supplies were donated. The Touchdown Club, which boasts around 100 members, has gotten a lot of See CIVIC PRIDE, 7A Julia Wood is seen here in period dress at a special meeting of The Thursday Afternoon Book Club, which celebrated its 100th year in October. “Come, follow me, Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 FREE 8 heb Cu ke Ra PATTERSON GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH 301 Oak Grove Rd. Kings Mountain, Nc 704.739.5826 www.pattersongrovebaptistchurch.org
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Nov. 20, 2013, edition 1
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