10c
'7HifVxon>
Phone-
739-3851
Vol. 1 No. 3
Kings Mountain, N.C. Wednesday, September 15, 1971
Employees Pleased With Change
Local Industry Experiments With Shorter Work Week
In keeping with the national trend to
ward a shorter work week, and due to
a shortage of skilled labor, Maunej' Hu-
isery Mills Inc. has become one of the
first Industries in the Kings Mountain area
to IniUate a 10 hour shift and shorter
work week.
The new shift changes went into effect
on Labor day in the knitting department
and dye house, eliminating the third shift,
creating two 10 hour shifts.
Vlihnployees In these departments are now
forking 50 hours a week, and getting time
and a half for all over 4 0 hours, and no
Saturday work.
Charles Mauney, ?7 year old General
Manager of the hosiery mill, says the
change affects presently about 85 of the
plant’s 300 employees. The new sche-
duel, said Mauney, ‘‘will provide emp
loyees. The new schedule, said Mauney,
“will provide employees with a shor
ter work week and more leisure time
off."
The two remaining shifts now run from
6 ajn. -4 pjn. and from 4 pjn.- 2ajn.
Horace Brown, Manager of the Knitt
ing Department, which is affected by the
change says he feels that his 60 employees
all like the new work week from a pay
standpoint.
“I feel that two shifts can cooperate
better together than three shifts, and
also feel that It will improve the runn
ing of the machinery. By putting the most
experienced help on the flrst and second
shifts we cut down considerably on the pay
roll, said Brown, who has been with Mau
ney for 21 years, the last 4 as Manager of
the knitting department.
His department knits 15-16000 dozen
pairs of socks per week, ready for dyeing
on 288 machines.
Employees in the knitting department
expressed general satisfaction with the
10 hour work day.
Helen ?loss, who will have been with the
company 20 years in December, said, “I
like it better than working on Saturday...
It’s a big hel p in the paycheck.
Roy Aldretfee, head mechanic with the
Knitting Department for 10 years, comm
ented that so far he likes it fine. “The
more people on a machine, the more
trouble you’ll have-thls cut out most of
the inexperienced help.” Aldridge said he
is already noticing less major problems
with the machinery.
Victoria Bess is “Looking forward to
payday-it’s not too bad-the worst part is
getting up earlier. There’s no Saturday
work, before we never knew about working
on Saturdays , now we know we’re going
to be off, so you can make plans.”
Clarence Peele, mechanic, and his wife
were among the firstemployeesat Mauney
Hosiery 30 years ago.
Said Peele, “I think it’ll work out fine,
we get better work.” Peele added that when
he and his wife started work, the mill was
in the basement of the Mauney Cotton Mill,
he remembers how the operation went from
“Practically nothing to a big mill.”
The company has been In operation in
Kings Mountain since 1929, and was foun
ded by Billy, Carl and George Mauney.
The plant now turns out 30,000 dozer
nairs of socks per week which are dis
tributed throughout the United States.
I I At Kings Mountain
Park Service Begins
History Demonstrations
7»«>
By William E. Cox Park Historian
The sounds of gunfire slowly died away
as the victorious patriots surveyed the
scene. They would not be revived until
191 years later. The only difference is that
the shots now fired are not in anger. They
are fired with the same type of weapons the
British and Americans used in the Battle
of Kings Mountain. Why has the sound of
gunfire returned to this peaceful mount
ainside? This is part of a program the
National Park Service has started which
they call “Living History Demonstra
tions.”
This new program implemented at Kings
Mountain National MlUtery Park displays
the weapons and the accouterments the
British and American Militia Soldiers
carried. The interpreters. Bill Bates,
Jim Scruggs, George West and William
Cox tell the park visitors about the Brown
Bess Musket the British Militia carried,
how the weapon was fired, how cartridges
were made and the mode of 18th Century
Warfhre that led to the British defeat at
Kings Mountain. The Park has also the
Kentucky rifle which was really the Pen
nsylvania rifle that the American Pat
riots carried. However, they tell the
visitors how the rifle got Its nickname,
the Kentucky rifle. The frontiersmen who
fought here also were called “long knives
or big knives” and we explain how this
name was given them. “Basically we
try to tell something of the wea
pons and the men who carried them and
their way of life. The Visitors often
comment 'well, I never knew that’ as
something Is explained or 'now 1 under
stand better the difficulties our fore
fathers endured for our Independence’,
Cox added.”
Superintendent Moomaw summed it up
when he said, “We are reaching more
people through a different technique and yet
showing them something that a museum
cannot.” On weekends we resume the
sounds of battle and smell of baick powder
while telling of a way of life that enables
us to live our present one.
WWW WWW
^clettocm
Revival
A revival will be held at 7 pjn. nightly
at Piedmont Baptist Church September 19-
25.
Steve Rogers, former South Carolina
Football star who just a few years ago
was given only 8 months to live, will
preach the revival. He has preached in
church meetings, revivals, and at schools
throughout the United States.
Everyone is welcome to these services
The church Is located on Hwy. 216 North
of Kings Mountain.
Advanced In vest in f(
A course in advanced Investing will be
held at the Kings Mountain Community
Center on Cleveland Avenue on Tuesday
nights beginning September 2Ist at 7
p.m.
Instructor for the course which runs
tor 10 weeks, two hours a night, is Don
J. Russell of Merrill, Lynch, Pierce,
Jenner & Smith.
There is no charge for the classes
which are sponsored by the Kings -Moun
tain Recreation Department and Cleve
land Technical Institute.
Bethware Fair Gets Underway Today
The 24th Aimual Bethware Community
Fair gets underway this afternoon for
Pretty Lynn Cornwell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank W. Cornwell of Route 3, Kings Mountain, takes advantage of a warm *>lg days at Bethware School.
September afternoon to prepare for her freshman classes at Gardner-Webb College. Today’s program is scheduled to begin
She is a 1971 graduate of Kings Mountain High School. Of the 250 graduates last year, 48 are enrolled in 4-year colleges, and 80 at 4 p,m. with the opening of the fair. Judy
are enrolled in commercial, technical, business, and trade schools. Ware, 17 year old Senlorat Kings Mountain
High, is this year’s queen of the fair. She
will participate in the official opening to
day.
Later today, games and contests arc
scheduled for children, and at 9:30 p.m„
the drawing for prizes will be held. This
is the 14th year the Fair has offered cash
prizes to winning exhibitors.
There will be a display of flreworks
each night after the drawings.
Thursday is children’s day from 1-6
p.m. Kiddle rides will be offered at cut
prices.
Admission for the fair each day is
FREE, with a 25-cents parking fee.
It Began With A Nickel’s Worth Of Beans And Corn
Local Mail Carrier
Finds Nature^s Secrets
“It all started back about 1945 with a
nickel’s worth of beans and a nickel’s
worth of corn,” Arthur Blltcllffe began
as he surveyed his front yard on Goforth
Street which contains 3,000 different va
rieties of plant life.
It was one of those warm September
Afternoons that linger nostalgically, with
t a hint of Autumn in the air, Bllt-
^F.llfe had just got home from his mall
carrying job, and was piddling with his
rose bushes, “The new shoots are break
ing out,” he said escitedly, as if seeing
it for the first time. His front yard is
planted in rose bushes, every eight square
feet apart. The roses are getting ready
to bloom now, and will stay in bloom for
28 days, or till frost.
A moon calendar traces the new shoots
on the rose bushes. ’'Plants follow the
moon,” Blltcllffe remarked convincingly,
“The Agricultural Department says no,
but Pve got the proof.”
“For years and years I used to ex
periment,” said the Rhode Island native
who came to Kings Mountain back In the
30’s, He explained how in ’45 as a con
struction worker, he heard of people grow
ing things In their yards. He decided he
would try it and went to the seed store
and asked for 5-cent8 worth of beans and
5-eents worth of com. He recalled how
they laughed when he placed his order.
He grinned broadly as he explained how
he brought the seeds home and proceeded
to plant each seed about 4 Inches apart.
Blltcllffe has developed quite a green
thumb since those early attempts at plan
ting, and now people from all over the
state come to his home to study his unique
methods of gardening which he simply
calls “natural”.
He says it usually takes about two hours
to tour his yard. There’s plenty to see -
bana trees, which he grows for the fUn of
m
■M
s--, I ^
A 25 year old Anderson, S.C. mother and her five-year-old son were killed Thursday night when this car veered off the road.
Jumping a guardrail on 1-85 Just south of Grover.
Mrs. Brenda Joyce McCloud of Anderson, and her son, David were pronounced dead at the scene. Two other children, Gregory
McCloud , 4, and Jackie Lee were hospitalized.
Traffic was blocked for more than an hour while wreckers pulled the car from the bottom of the embabkmenL Members of the
Kings Mountain and Grover Rescue Squads transported the injured and dead to hospitals in Kings Mountain and Gaffhey.
It, pear trees, apple trees, and a
"mechanical tree”, which is actually a
tall pole hanging with wires with grape
vines running to the top. It was a si^t
to behold, as the gardening wizard busily
turned the pulley mechamism, lowering the
grapes within picking reach.
Biltcliffe says he istryingto show people
the simplicity ct filling their yards.. . so
people all over the U. S, can have food and
flowers in their yards.
“Every plant In the world Is trying to
reproduce itself,” he theorizes, “to be
sure that life stays there,” This is the
basis for his unusual method of tree-
and bush planting. “You can walk up to
any tree In the Winter, cutt off a branch
or twig above the fork, stick It in the
ground with water, in the sunshine... next
Spring, there’s your plant!”
He calls that God’s handiwork...'‘If
people would do that, we would have apples,
figs, etc., there’s no since in people going
hungry.”
Nearly everythbig In his yard, including
the double white altheas now in full bloom
was grown from twigs. Usingthis method,
he said, you can start with 6 tomato
plants and end up with 400.
Biltcliffe believes firmly that nature’s
way Is the best way. He doesn’t use in
secticides on his fruit or plants, and says
a gallon of rainwater is better than 1,000
gallons of city water, with the minerals
removed. In his backyard are several
free fertilizer bins. He takes the dead
grass after cutting the lawn, places it in
50 gallon drums In holds in the backyard.
When these overflow with rainwater, he has
all the fertilizer he needs.
There’s a key to Arthur Biltcliffe’s
plulocophy of living. It is inscribed In
white paint on the brick chimney of his
house, it reads:
Commit thy way into the Lord and
put thy trust in him and he shall bring it
to pass.
Verily Verily I say unto you; Abide In
me and I In you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the
vine.
No more can ye except ye abide in me.
I am the vine ye are the branches. He
that abideth in me and I In him, the same
brlngeth forth much fruit for without
me can do nothing.
Lo, I am with thee always.
Ob^lence is greater than sacrifice.
Biltcliffe’s home Itself has an Inter
esting background. He built it himself
from the ground up, using a wheelbarrow
he dug out the foundation himself. During
tlat time he was working as a bricklayer,
and brought home scrap brick to fill in
the porch.
It took him seven years to finish the
home, and nelghbori didn’t offer much
encouragement, telling him he would never
make it. The house is fortified with
multiple ceilings and is reinforced with
steel beams, not exactly standard pro
cedure in modem home building.
Biltcliffe Is a refreshingly sincere man
to talk to. He talks freely about his faith
in God and love of nature. He is per
plexed by man’s selfishness. Some people
he admits, even wonder why he gives away
these secrets and shortcuts to gardening
that he has learned over the years.
We’re only on this earth just a short
while, what good is the little knowledge we
gather if it isn’t shared with the rest of
the world?” he asks.
lOQI
tggaiEga!
if
iBsniEaaBaDatc^
tn e 1 &na
itrk
Vi n«
\r
msmi
^jzi3n«miiGrsaacr
in and
much
nothms
Arthur BlKcllffe Displiys backyard Banana Tree. • .He grows them just for fun.