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the-record-columns · 6 years

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March 6, 2019: Columns

‘Confessions’ of an old man…

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

At Monday’s meeting of the Rotary Club, I had the pleasure of presenting the program. By program, I mean, I got to tell some stories — some old, some new, but all stories I love to tell.

However, there was one story that I just didn’t get around to because I was only given 45 minutes. What follows are, as the title states, are ‘confessions.’

Of sorts…

Okay, up front let me explain the quote marks around the word confessions in the title of this column.

There used to be a television show I watched in which a statement was made each week to the effect of “…the names have been changed to protect the innocent.” Well, in this case a couple of names have been left out to protect the guilty.

That being said, growing up on Hinshaw Street, there were limited opportunities to make money. Mrs. Minnie Jarvis next door was a wonderful soul who paid me way too much to mow and rake her little yard, but that was just every two weeks or so. Mrs. Spurgeon Minton on up the street would work you all day for a dime and a glass of lemonade. You could almost always make enough money to go to the Liberty or the Allen Theater by picking up pop bottles (it wasn’t called “soda” back then) and returning them to the grocery store for the deposit. I suppose I should point out to the younger among you that the “deposit” I am talking about is from the days that bottling companies re-used the bottles, and, this was a way of making sure they were returned, instead of being thrown away, When I was a young puppy it was a penny each; later two cents; and, I think, eventually it went up to a nickel.

This was actually a fairly popular way of making some pocket change.

However, there was one family of infamous boys in the neighborhood who were constantly getting into trouble. I mean real trouble, with the police and everything. At night, these boys would sneak out of their house and climb over the chicken wire fence behind the Lowe’s Supermarket on Second Street Hill and haul off cartons and cartons of pop bottles – and return them to the store the next day and collect the deposit. This worked well for a while, but they got greedy and hauled off so many it was noticed by the workers at the store. On the advice of the police department, the folks at the grocery store marked a bunch of the cartons, and, when they brought them in for a deposit refund, caught the offenders red-handed so to speak. The news spread like wildfire around the neighborhood that those boys were probably going to be sent to “reform school,” surely a fate worse than death.

Enough about them; what did I do worth confessing, you might be asking yourself.

Well, during my misspent youth, vending machines of many types became more and more popular. As you might imagine, it wasn’t long till the old Coke and Pepsi machines that held only one kind and size of drink became obsolete and had to be replaced with ones that could dispense several different flavors. To that end, a version of machines used by all the major bottling companies began to appear around town which featured a long narrow door on the left side which had eight or 10 slots for various bottled drinks to be dispensed horizontally. An aside to this is the fact that if you tried to pull one out without putting the money in the machine, the bottle would come out about two inches and stop abruptly — often pulling the skin off your hand as the bottle cap was somewhat unforgiving.

It was this small fact, however, that allowed the great unwashed from Hinshaw Street and Second Street Hill to realize that, if the bottle will come out two inches or so even without putting any money in the machine, all you need is a bottle opener and a cup to get most of a drink for free. In no time, the more enterprising of these delinquents figured out that, with a straw, the rest of the bottle of pop was readily available as well. It wasn’t long until word spread and these machines were basically cannibalized by Monday morning of each week. Soon, these machines had been re-tooled to accommodate cans instead of bottles.

I actually have one of this style machine in my vast collection of things that most everyone else can live without. For what it is worth, every time I walk by it, I am reminded of my past youthful transgressions.

Penance, I suppose, is in the heart of the offender.

March forth, child

By HEATHER DEAN

Record Reporter

“Do not let the actions of others define you”

“Be the change”

“Speak your truth”

Inspirational quotes inundate us at every turn. My momma said, “Pick your battles. You had better never start anything, but if you see (insert injustice here) you had better finish it.”

This was not an avocation of violence, this was instilling in us the courage, even as kids, to always stand up for what was right, to not be afraid of the backlash and taunting of our peers.

Monday, March fourth, marked 21 years since we lost my mom. She was 48. A bleeding ulcer was misdiagnosed, and she ended up having an aneurism in her stomach. The loss of blood was too great, and she was transferred to Baptist CCU in Winston. She never recovered, and we had to make the decision to unplug her.

At the time of her death we were close, like Thelma and Louise. For a decade and a half I blamed myself for not checking in on her the day she was admitted to the hospital, thinking I had failed at not fighting hard enough to protect her when we had to make the decision to unplug her. Anyone who has grieved knows “Time heals all wounds” is a lie.

I have been on social media since 2009, and my feeds this past week have been full of “memories” of posts made about her by friends, my siblings and myself over the last ten years.

One of my Facebook memories was from four years ago, marking a cold and cathartic day at Widow’s Creek at Stone Mountain State Park. There were still several inches of snow on the ground, it was barely above freezing, but I had a conversation to hold with my mom, and some reckoning to do with my guilt, so I made the trek down the path to one of my favorite childhood places.

The post in part reads: “Nothing like putting your bare feet in the coldest water you've ever known, in winter for grounding, for healing…from the past 17 years of guilt.”

This year the date snuck up on me- not that I forgot, but there wasn’t a week of horrid lament wreaking havoc inside my soul, stealing sleep and sanity. I realized that I no longer carry burdening guilt. Not for my mother. Not for my siblings. Not for anything in my past, and especially, not for my future.

Our healing is ours alone, and we cannot, we must not, allow another person to help carry those weighty dark parts of our innermost workings, no matter how much we want to trust them, or how much they promise to protect our heartstrings. And we sure as hell should not be tricked into carrying someone else’s guilt.

This is MY path. Everything else is a swarm of butterflies coming in and out along the way. And I think these are the lessons my Mom wanted me to learn from her. Yes, help others, but do not sacrifice your self worth in the process; you can’t ‘do unto others’ if you don’t take care of yourself first. She even left a message for us on her death day. March fouth- March FORTH, do not look back.

RIP

Lynn Rae

Final wake-up call

By EARL COX

Special to The Record

Israel is constantly facing major international military and political challenges yet, for all of her internal and external problems, Israel is more militarily secure now than ever before. In April there will be major elections in Israel. Whether or not Prime Minister Netanyahu is able to hold fast to the reins of his government remains to be seen however it is certain that the current policies which serve to strengthen Israel’s defense forces will not be changed or weakened. Soon there will be another peace plan on the table but until Israel has a true partner for peace, the efforts to work out any agreement are futile.

Israel understands that her position within the international community is becoming increasingly fragile. The Europeans are intensifying their biased policies against her and other governments, to include Britain and even the United States, have anti-Semitic officials serving in public office.

We’ve all heard that President Trump has a peace plan which he calls the deal of the century. However, the contents of that deal have yet to be revealed but an educated guess leads me to believe that it may contain some unpleasant surprises for Israel. While President Trump has proven himself to be a friend of Israel, the liberal left (a.k.a. the Democrat Party) is growing increasingly radical and anti-Israel.

Israel is well aware that her largest support base in the United States is within the Evangelical Christian community which is often more Zionistic than American Jews and their leaders. It seems that during the presidency of Barak Obama, Jewish leaders became increasingly silent when it became apparent that Barak Obama was hostile toward Israel. Perhaps they feared that speaking out in favor of policies which under-girded Israel and the Jewish people might cause his hostility toward the Jewish state to intensify.

Yet surprisingly, despite President Trump’s pro-Israel actions to include moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and passing legislation which stopped all U.S. funding going to the Palestinians’ “pay for slay” program, some progressive rabbis and Jewish lay leaders regard him as their enemy. One example of this Jewish anti-Trumpism is the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) refusal to endorse anti-BDS legislation or actively support pro-Israel activities on college and university campuses. Furthermore, despite the fact that the Black Lives Matter movement has, in part, an anti-Israel agenda, they still enjoy the support of many American Jews and the ADL.

Another example of toxic anti-Semitism comes from the highly publicized Women’s March movement which agitates against Israel at every opportunity. Co-chair Tamika Mallory refuses to recognize Israel or dissociate herself from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, America’s most notorious anti-Semite, who refers to Jews as “satanic” and “termites.”

Even more disturbing is the unprecedented election of openly anti-Israel agitators to Congress. Among these is Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who was photographed at an event with Abbas Hamideh, who openly promotes Hamas and Hezbollah and likens Zionists to Nazis. Freshman Democratic legislator Ilhan Omar, a Muslim Somali-American, is another who is bitterly anti-Israel and enthusiastically promotes BDS. She has described Israel as “evil” and an apartheid state and claimed that it had “hypnotized the world.” One of her initial acts after her election was to meet with anti-Semitic women’s activist Linda Sarsour. But, topping the shock list, was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's appointment of this anti-Semitic newly elected congresswoman to the prestigious and powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, which oversees foreign aid and national security issues such as terrorism and the proliferation of non-conventional weapons. For this action alone, Pelosi should be tried for treason.

Being passive is no longer an option. America has reached a turning point. The appointment of Democratic legislator Ilhan Omar to the Foreign Affairs Committee is a final wake-up call for all who embrace freedom, democracy, our free enterprise system, and Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. We must stand up and speak out before it’s too late. God says He will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who do otherwise. I, personally, prefer a blessing but fear my country is heading in the opposite direction.

An Irish Tale

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

Katie, who works at the post office asked what I was working on this week. I replied, “a few things are on the schedule but the first is a story about the Irish heritage in the Carolinas.” to which she quickly replied. “I’m part Irish.”

Katie went on to tell me about her family that settled in Pennsylvania. Her great grandmother did not want her sons working in the coal mines. Her husband was no longer in the picture, so she planned a move to Detroit, Michigan, where safer employment was available. This would prove to be a good move for the family. As time passed, she sponsored and helped other families make the same move. The positive impact of lives saved is countless.

The Scots-Irish influence in the Carolinas is profound. It is reported that in the 18th century as many as 250,000 Europeans sailed to America. Some would become indentured servants as they did not have the funds to pay for the voyage. Unfortunately, for many the life of an indentured servant was little more than slavery.

Settling in the eastern part of the Carolinas was not an option for large numbers and for this reason many settled in the back country of the Carolinas. The feel of the land was not unlike that of their homeland.

Many were craftsman such as spinners and weavers. They worked hard and cared for the land. The making of whiskey was skilled and would not be uncommon.

Mecklenburg County would also become home to many Scots-Irish. So many in fact that in 1775 when the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was signed almost all the signers were Scots-Irish.

It was the fighting tenacity of the Scottish and Irish immigrants that fueled the victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain, which was a turning point in what would become American Independence.

United States President Andrew Jackson was born in the Carolinas with Scots-Irish parents and so was U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun from Abbeville, S.C.

The folk traditions and culture of the Irish and Scottish will forever influence who we are in the Carolinas. Many of us are aware of our connection and many are discovering via DNA tests that tell us where we come from.

I always feel a closeness to the people when I attend the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. The gathering of the clans is a gathering of families with common interests and pride in their heritage. It happens every year with no regard to weather or anything else. The people make a way to come together. Maybe that’s a good lesson for all of us.

What would happen if we all started to come together more often and celebrate just being together?

Maybe that small or large piece of Irish or Scottish DNA will give us the will to fight against the obstacles that keep us apart. And just maybe we can defeat the problems of life, or at least sleep a little better knowing that another kinsman has our back.

Carl White is the Executive Producer and Host of the award-winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In The Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its 10th year of syndication and can be seen in the Charlotte market on WJZY Fox 46 Saturday’s at noon and My 12. The show also streams on Amazon Prime. For more information visit www.lifeinthecarolinas.com. You can email Carl at [email protected].

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