State

in the sun. never ceased lo amaze us. Several summers, ihe yachts of Jack London and the American Winston Churchill, both outstanding authors, were tied up at Captain Bill's pier. Ellis Credlc, well known North Caro¬ lina author of children's books, loved to vacation at the Pamlico Inn. One sum¬ mer, she introduced us to the fashion editor of the famous old Pictorial Re¬ view who was a guest at the Inn. For several years, we were highly enter¬ tained. and sometimes frightened, by the running feud between Mr. Kalb- flisch and Mr. Ryley. both from the north, over the ethics of fishing with a star drag. It gives me goose bumps right now to remember the night the man with the master voice sang for us in the moonlight on Captain Bill’s pier. Such singers as Lawrence Tibbctt, Nelson Eddy, and Paul Robeson had studied under him. He was recuperating at Ocracoke from a disastrous motorcycle accident. Mis companion on this trip was an entertainment specialist who was then employed by the Waldorf- Astoria in New York. He planned and implemented the gala parlies put on at that hotel for the benefit of New York's ‘‘400.’' The pure fun of an impromptu dance in the old Pamlico Inn dance hall at almost no cost was a source of complete amazement and no little envy to this man who had spent high in the thousands of dollars on Waldorf parties without half the results. Simple Pleasures Simple pleasures! What were they? It would take a book to list them all. but those that follow make a good start: Sitting on the seawall in front of the Pamlico Inn eating the succulent clams almost faster than "Oike" could dig them with his toes for Miss Annie’s clam chowder. Being introduced to the joys of periwinkle soup by gay companions like Margaret and Jack Nicholson, and Beatrice and Jessie Giles (Washington kids who practically grew up on Ocra¬ coke). Walking to the ocean by moonlight and having to spit out one's chewing gum and tiptoe through the windblown dwarfed trees which surrounded the village so as not to awaken the wild ponies sleeping there. Going barefooted long enough to toughen the soles of one's feet enough to be able to stamp out a lighted- ( Continued on page 50) THE STATE. June 15. 1971 Wings lor the Fire Watchers It’s easier l о ц<»1 I lie jnni|i on forest fires with an eye in (lie sky. «>/ LEON ill. SILER Those fire lowers that for so many years have loomed against high horizons in the forests and parks, state and national, of North Carolina and a lot of other states — They’re putting wings on them now. And it works. In North Carolina, one flying fire patrol consisting of a small airplane, a pilot, and an observer does the work of maybe two or three dozen carthbound and lonely watchmen stationed atop peaks or hilltops or ridges deep in the woods of fire-subject areas. Saves money, too. Tower mainte¬ nance. including the pay of the watch¬ men. used to cost three to four cents per acre per year in the case of Nantahala National Forest's 450.0(10 A fc» of Ibeic lowers ore still in use in North Caroline, lor fire detection purposes. But the lonely job of the wotehmon there ot the upper left is being token over nowodays by flyers. Here is one of the fire fighting bombers drop¬ ping its load of ehcmieol solution on о forest Ыохе, discovered m its eorly stogc. — 'Forest Service photos. I acres out in Jackson. Clay. Macon. Cherokee and Graham counties. The flying patrols have reduced this cost by a third to a half. Hourly Mights The management of the Andrews- Murphy airport had contracts this spring with the U. S. Forest Service, which pioneered so-called "aerial fire detection." and the National Park Ser¬ vice for hourly observation I lights over Nantahala National Forest in western North Carolina, a portion of Cherokee National Forest in eastern Tennessee, and ihe Great Smoky Mountains Na¬ tional Park during periods of high forest fire danger. The flights will be continued next October and November when fire danger levels again rise. The planes, each carrying a Forest Service observer as well as a pilot, cirelc at 8.000 to 10.0(H) feet altitude over diverging routes, one roughly northwest and the other northeast from the Andrews-Murphy airport, with each flight approximating 1 25 miles. Radio reports from the planes go to appropriate Forest Service or National Park fire-fighting installations when the flying patrols detect telltale columns of smoke in areas where there should be none. Ground forces then take over. Flying is discontinued during dark¬ ness. While flames and sometimes col¬ umns of smoke could be detected in the dark, determining the location of fires would be difficult to impossible. For night flights, single-engine planes could not be used. No Binoculars During daylight hours, the patrols have reported fires accurately at dis¬ tances of up to 15 miles, depending 1 з