Costume'»' ond bcords ore odopted ot Newton for the annual "Old Soldiers' Day." — (Photo by Dono
of Oxenford Studios.)
Old Soldiers’ Day
Every county seat once had this cele¬
bration, but it survives now only in
Newton.
ttij FRANCES HALL MOORE
The Old Soldiers’ Reunion, once an
annual event in every county scat, is
now just a memory for older North
Carolinians.
That is, except in Catawba County,
where Old Soldiers’ day has been cele¬
brated for 68 years, and this year
(third week in August) will be more
elaborate than ever.
Mrs. R. Joe Cline, chairman of a
committee from the sponsoring agen¬
cies, Newton American Legion Post
16 and Newton Merchants’ Associa¬
tion, has invited President John F.
Kennedy to visit the city for the an¬
nual parade on Thursday, August 17.
Invitations have gone to North Caro¬
lina Governor Terry Sanford, Sena¬
tors Sam J. Ervin and B. Everett
Jordan and Congressman Charles
Rapcr Jonas.
Also invited are three Tar Heel na¬
tives who arc famous movie stars. Ran¬
dolph Scott, a Charlotte native, Ava
Gardner of Johnston County, by some
described as the world’s most beauti¬
ful woman, and Kathryn Grayson of
Greensboro, famous musical star.
Norman C. Larson of Raleigh, ex¬
ecutive secretary of the North Caro¬
lina Confederate Centennial Commis¬
sion, has accepted an invitation to
as you go
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serve as grand marshal of the pa¬
rade which will depict in a dignified
and beautiful manner the theme,
"The Confederate Centennial." General
chairman for Reunion is James
Crouch, local merchant.
Catawba is the only county in North
Carolina that has had a reunion ob¬
servance for Confederate soldiers from
posi-Civil War times through the pres¬
ent. The 1961 Reunion observance
will carry out the Centennial theme.
Origin of the week dates from the
organizing of a group of Confederate
veterans under the late J. G. Hall as
first commander and the late Miles O.
Sherrill as first lieutenant. Records re¬
veal that the veterans gathered as early
as 1879, but were not formally or¬
ganized until 1892.
Citizens in the past have witnessed
parades of outstanding excellence,
many of them planned and executed
by Mr. and Mrs. R. Joe Cline, local
merchants noted for the beauty and
originality of the floats they have de¬
signed and built.
Already merchants are planning to
bedeck the streets and shop windows
with Confederate flags, relics of the
Civil War and whatever costumes of
the period they can find. For some
months some 500 housewives have ex¬
perienced mixed emotions as they have
watched their husbands prepare for the
event by growing beards.
Teen-agers who have heard tall talcs
by their parents about the firing, in a
prank, of a Confederate cannon on the
courthouse lawn arc anxiously await¬
ing their turn, for during the week it
will be fired during every hour of every
day. It has been pointed out that the
actual firing will not be one with the
historic cannon, due to its condition,
but the boom will come from another
cannon.
Many former residents plan their
vacation visits for the week and busi¬
ness houses seldom plan to operate
while the parade passes. Parents take
their children to the carnival which
comes for a week to help entertain
the young fry.
During the August celebration a
formal Confederate Costume Ball will
be held at the Hardistcr Recreation
Center in Newton. Other festivities in¬
clude a picnic for veterans of all wars
and out-of-town guests, recognition of
all Old Soldiers, a street dance, an
old-fashioned square dance, the crown¬
ing of beauty queens, a band concert
by the Newton-Conover High School
band, and other features.
1 2
THE STATE, July 8. 1961
