“Finally, after the turn of the century had seen the song of John Henry preserved among miners, convicts and trackliners, the ballad appeared to scholars…. In 1909, Louise Rand Bascom, a Wellesley student home for the summer in Highlands, North Carolina, published in a folklore journal a couplet of a song she had heard… ‘Johnie […]
Archive for October, 2011
John Henry too ambitious for N.C. mountains?
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged highlands nc, john henry steel-drivin' man, louise rand bascom, wellesley college on October 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Backstage with the Charlie Daniels Band
Posted in Memorabilia Moment, tagged backstage passes, charlie daniels, country music, leland nc, the devil went down to georgia, wilmington nc on October 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Today is the 75th birthday of Wilmington (Leland) native Charlie Daniels, whose long country-musical career accelerated with the release of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” in 1979. Especially in its early years, promoters of appearances by the Charlie Daniels Band often created their own backstage passes. Here’s a sampling.
‘North Carolina, 1950’ packed a punch for the ages
Posted in History, Just A Bite, tagged elizabeth abel, elliott erwitt, jim crow, magnum photo, north carolina 1950, signs of the time on October 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“As the civil rights movement heated up in the ’60s and ’70s, [the work of Magnum photographers] became increasingly pointed and political, but they were also often overshadowed by the swelling media coverage of spectacular and typically violent scenes. It was easier to distill the emblematic structures of Jim Crow during the more quiescent 1950s, […]
Oldest Living Revolutionary Son (Tells All?)
Posted in Tar Heelia on October 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In the Southern Pines Pilot from November 21, 1941, we came across a curious note about a John A. McLeod, a Moore County resident nearly 90 years old who had the notable distinction of being the son of a Revolutionary War veteran. At first we thought that it must be a mistake. When the paper […]
Remembering the shame of the Little Rascals Day Care case
Posted in History, Tar Heelia, tagged edenton nc, little rascals day care case, littlerascalsdaycarecase.org, satanic ritual child abuse in day cares on October 24, 2011 | 7 Comments »
Aside from posting on the Miscellany, your Charlotte correspondent has been busy launching into the blogosphere littlerascalsdaycarecase.org. The tragic injustice of the Little Rascals Day Care case — which produced the longest, costliest trial in North Carolina history — has galled me for more than two decades. This blog is my modest attempt to keep […]
Bombs away!… Umm, on second thought….
Posted in Tar Heelia, tagged bomb scares, goldsboro nc, ranlo nc, york county sc on October 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“It don’t really scare me. I guess it maybe should,” Billie Schronce told the Gaston Gazette. “Me and my grandson said if it goes off, goodbye world, goodbye.” So long as nobody gets blown up, it’s hard to beat a good bomb story such as this one from Gaston County or — on a much […]
McCreery spurns chance to sing anthem at link dump
Posted in History, Tar Heelia, tagged eli evans, jamestown rifle, mutt evans, nc democrats, rose post, salisbury nc, salisbury post, vance-aycock on October 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
— Attention Wikipedia: Eli Evans deserves his own page! His father already has one. — Jamestown rifle was made for “the Joseph Taterdiggers and Thomas Cornshuckers of the 19th century.” — Goodbye, Vance-Aycock. Hello…what? Edwards-Easley? — Every town should have a Rose Post. Salisbury did.
Thomas Wolfe Sleeps In
Posted in DigitalNC, Tar Heelia on October 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I was testing out the keyword search function of the ever-growing North Carolina Newspapers collection by searching for Thomas Wolfe and found this amusing piece from the Southern Pines, N.C., paper The Pilot from February 5, 1937: When the author of “Of Time and the River” and other famed best sellers, Thomas Wolfe, was in […]
Harry Golden strikes blow for gradualism
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged 'colored' drinking fountains, charlotte nc, golden out-of-order plan, golden vertical negro plan, harry golden on October 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
– “Last week [after proposing the widely publicized Golden Vertical Negro Plan, Harry] Golden proudly disclosed an even more ambitious formula for desegregation: the Golden Out-of-Order Plan. – “In Charlotte, whose population is 27% Negro, he persuaded a department-store manager to hang an ‘out-of-order’ sign on the drinking fountain reserved for white customers. – “In […]
Wind and sand he wanted, wind and sand he got
Posted in On This Day, tagged kitty hawk, nor'easters, orville wright on October 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1900: Orville Wright, uncomfortably encamped at Kitty Hawk, writes his sister: “This is ‘just before the battle,’ sister, just before the squall begins. About two or three nights a week we have to crawl up at 10 or 11 o’clock to hold the tent down. When one of these 45-mile nor’easters […]
