il!
To the Foothills
Back
A report on n trip through the Piedmont lo
the Klue Ridges; new dual-lane highway to
he a beauty: why two Lutheran Churches?
and how Drexel got its name.
We believe that there arc more au¬
tomobiles in Siler City than in any
town of comparable size in North
Carolina.
Passing through this Chatham
County metropolis last week we
couldn't help but be impressed with
the number of cars on the streets, in
parking lots, used-car display space
and elsewhere.
Dropped in for a chat with our good
friend Miss Kate Vestal in Siler City.
Miss Kate will be 91 years old on her
next birthday and is just as full of pep
and vigor as ever.
Says she is looking forward to at¬
tending the State Democratic Conven¬
tion in Raleigh this spring. “I want to
look my best." she told us. “so I'm
saving up to buy a new coat."
We doubt whether there is any more
dyed-in-the-wool Democrat in North
Carolina than she is. If it came lo a
choice of setting a neighbor's house
on fire or voting lor a Republican, we
believe that she'd burn down the
house. During the course of our con¬
versation she admitted that Mr. Tru¬
man may have made some mistakes,
but she qualified this by adding: "He
docs the best that he knows how."
Just cast of Asheboro. where the
new by-pass starts, you’ll find a store
and filling station operated by an old-
timer, Mr. Ragsdale, who has been
there for quite a number of years. We
usually stop there for a coca-cola.
Mr. Ragsdale isn’t at all enthusias¬
tic about present-day conditions. He
doesn't like the excessive expenditures
being made by the federal govern¬
ment, nor does he think that our reli¬
gious life today is what it should be.
"Why I can remember," he said,
“when my folks used to drive several
miles to church in a wagon. The roads
were bad. but that didn’t make any
difference. Heat in the church was sup¬
plied by a big stove, and you cither
were parboiled because you had to sit
Ию
close to it. or you half-froze to
death if you sat too far away from it.
Today we've got modern church build-
«»/
CARL GOLRCH
ings, we've got good roads and auto¬
mobiles. but attendance at the average
country church is much smaller than it
used to be.”
He thought for a moment and then
added: "Too much competition. I
reckon. Baseball, movies, the beaches,
and many other attractions. What this
country needs is to get back to the
fundamentals of religion and home-
life."
We thought it had been pretty defi¬
nitely settled that the geographical
center of North Carolina was near the
Lec-Chatham county line, not far
from Cumnock. Folks in Asheboro,
however, evidently don't think so.
Their 1952 city tags read like this:
ASHEBORO
Center of the State.
Next time you pass through Ashe¬
boro you ought to stop and sec
the new Acme-McCrary Recreation
Building. It's directly across the street
from the main office of these big ho¬
siery mills. The structure is made of
brick and is most attractive in its ex¬
terior design. There’s one of the finest
gymnasiums in North Carolina, swim¬
ming pool, game room, reading room,
cafeteria, women's clubroom. bowling
alleys, television, and radio.
Not only do most of the employees
of the mills take advantage of it. but
the kids also get a big kick out of using
the gym and pool after school hours.
The building represents an invest¬
ment of more than half a million dol¬
lars. and not only the mills but also all
the folks in Asheboro are mighty
proud of it.
A new road, straightening out all
the bad curves between Asheboro and
Lexington, is now in process of con¬
struction. It will shorten the distance
between Lexington and Raleigh by
more than five miles.
Good progress also is being made on
the dual-lane highway between Lex¬
ington and Salisbury, terminating in a
new and much wider bridge across the
Yadkin River.
Between Lexington and Salisbury we
met a typical old-timey hobo walking
alongside the road. He had his posses¬
sions wrapped in a cloth-covered
bundle, suspended at the end of a
Two Lutheran Churches — side by side at Claremont.
THE STATE. MARCH B. 1952
