“November, wrapped in somber glory, has put the end to Autumn’s story. Now winter’s here to stay a while, to greet us with a frosty smile.”
November days are often gray days. We know that our beautiful bright fall days are on the way out and we must prepare for winter’s “frosty smile.” Many of us feel sad. However, there is that Thanksgiving holiday coming soon when we can prepare to visit relatives and friends or have them to visit us.
We will remember that years ago a small band of courageous people gathered together to give thanks for freedom they had found in a new land and for their harvest in that land.
They had found hardship here, too, but they were still thankful. So must we be thankful as we think of our many blessings today. If we made a list of those blessings I am sure we would find it a much longer one than we had thought. Among other things, I am very grateful for the love and kindness of friends and relatives, and for tasks to be done each day.
Over the Back Fence
COINJOCK Club women really did cooperate at the recent auction sale sponsored by the Poplar Branch Ruritans for the benefit of the volunteer fire department. Fifteen cakes were donated among other items. These hard workers plan to serve a chicken supper in November at their clubhouse. Proceeds will be used for improvements on the building. Bertha Keaton, Ida Baines, and Estelle Walker are the committee for the supper. Mildred Hall is responsible for mowing the lawn this month.
It isn’t often our club members have the opportunity to hear a book reviewed by the author’s wife, but the CRAWFORD members did recently when Ann Landing reported on War Cry of the South. W. Frank Landing, who is principal of Knapp High School, is the author of this book, which tells the story of the Confederate ship ‘Albemarle’. This is an interesting book and one with local interest since the scene is northeastern North Carolina. At the Club meeting, Edna Morgan, who was UN delegate, was presented a corsage made of $5 bills (totaling $25). Each member gave her a small item that would prove useful on her trip, such as safety pins, Bandaids, foot powder, aspirin, etc. Refreshments for this meeting were suggestive of the UN theme. Two new members, Ruby Perry and Ruth Walker, were welcomed.
GIBBS members had an auction sale and besides adding to their treasury had a bit of fun! Each person donated an item from her purse which was sold for not more than 25 cents. Book matches brought 21 cents, a stick of chewing gum 16 cents, and a bobby pin went for 25 cents.
GRANDY club met to reorganize after being inactive for the past six months. They decided to meet on Tuesday after the second Sunday each month. Eleven members have joined: Laura and Norma Barco, Phyllis Zink, Clara Aydlett, Laura, Ida, Margaret, Eunice and Gloria Dowdy, and Inez and Lovie Woodhouse. We wish for this reactivated club the very best of luck and shall watch their growth with interest.
The members of JARVISBURG Club have their community building in mind. They are planning a dinner on November 12. Ruby Garrenton, Kathryn Morgan, and Avis Atherton are planning this, and Pauline Wright, Minnie Garrington, and Eva Sawyer have been named as a committee to buy material for new tablecloths, which the members will make. They also plan to paint the building. After “Donna,” the yard was littered so the Boy Scouts with Scout Masters Rod Sawyer and George Morgan cleaned up. Afterward they were taken for an ice cream treat by Scout Master Morgan. Agnes Dozier called the agent’s office to get a list of materials needed to make up a furniture refinishing kit. Club members are interested in purchasing materials so they can have a workshop often.
At a recent KNOTTS ISLAND Club meeting, Ruth Etheridge wore an attractive corsage she had made from Indian corn. The autumn colors of this corn make it ideal for such an unusual purpose. At this same Club meeting, Kay Barnes, who was hostess, was so anxious to do her duty that she prepared the meeting a day ahead of time! When no one showed up for the meeting she realized her mistake, but the refreshments were just as delicious when she served them the following day.
POWELLS POINT club is proud of their seven members with perfect attendance. Look for their names in the account of the Fall Federation. Mrs. E.L. Owens and Mrs. Arthur bowman displayed several of their crafts at Fall Federation. Zelda Sumrell recalls with amusement the first year of her perfect attendance. It was the same year the August picnic was a covered dish affair and everyone showed up with fried chicken and cake! Inez Dowdy, Ella Dunton, and Gladys Owens are calling committee for this club. Watch the attendance grow.
POPLAR BRANCH members gave a number of book reports. The competition is keen here in the club contest between the Jets and the Rockets. It’s still a secret which side has the greatest number of points, but soon we will know! Then the losers can begin planning the party. We winners want plenty of delicious food!
The PROGRESSIVE POINT Club members had Mrs. Edith McGlamery, Extension House Furnishings Specialist, for their demonstration on accessories in the home. This was her second visit to this new club and the members felt quite honored. Minnie Sowers became interested in dried arrangements so she became a member this month.
SHAWBORO members Mary Simpson, Annie Mae Etheridge, and Thelma Morgan are proudly wearing new feather hats they recently learned to make at the class on hat making! Everyone in this club seems to be so busy. From recent reports, Sara Forbes and Mary Simpson caned and refinished a chair, Thelma Morgan, Alice Flora, and Mattie Burgess have been taking lessons in ceramics and have done some beautiful work, Earline Sawyer baked the chocolate pound cake from last month’s Currituck Calls, and many of the members worked to make and hang new drapes for the Community Building and cleaned, polished, and shined everything up for the Fall Federation meeting there! The October meeting brought Ann Meads back after her accident and she was most welcome. It will be fine to have Mrs. J.M. Bell back again. She is recovering from an operation.
SHINGLE LANDING Club planned a workshop to make trays and stools at the home of Clara Reese Whitehurst. Everyone bringing a covered dish makes for a nice luncheon as well as getting work done. Joan Bell and Clara Reese were in for a surprise recently. They thought their small rocking chairs could be caned in half a day at the workshop. They had two days’ work ahead as their chairs had to be refinished before the bottoms could be put in! Jan Bouche, a serviceman’s wife, attended her first club meeting as Clara Reese’s guest.
SLIGO Club members who work in town during the summer were able to make up their July and August meetings, which were postponed and held recently. These were in the form of dried arrangement and Swedish weaving workshops.
Betsy Ownley was hostess at VIRGINIA EDWARDS Club and received beautiful dahlias from Grace Bundy. Grace grew them and they were large and lovely—all five varieties. Vivian Wilson is a happy person! She is captain of the “Reds”, who are competing against the “Blues”, captained by Nina Aydlett. Vivian says, after being on the losing side for the past few years, it is good to be a winner. The score: Reds, 1,200, and Blues, 1,060.
WATERLILY club welcomed a new member, June Twiford, at their October meeting. Zorado Snowden gave the demonstration in absence of the home agent. Did a real good job, too! Zorado’s mother, Mrs. Rachael Meekins, is making place mats using Swedish weaving. They are pretty and her work is very neat.
News Travels Fast
Mrs. Elizabeth Sanderlin, home agent, worked with seven members of the Junior Woman’s Club in Camden recently making candles. She tells us if you want candles to glow, use paraffin and don’t put the melted wax you whip up too thick on the candles. Bits of candles can be melted and used to make new ones.
Sara Forbes says she went home from her October Club meeting feeling that she wasn’t doing very much in Club work. Her fellow Club members had so much to show, so she hunted up her candle mold and started making a candle after 12:00 Midnight.
Pauline Woodard recently taught a class in wood carving. Those in the class were Angeline Hayman, Mary Simpson, Mattie Burgess, and Barbara Smith. Thanks go to Fred Foutz for cutting out the ducks to carve and for the fine mahogany wood he gave to the women. It is nice that the clubs have such a good friend as Mr. Foutz.
When Mary Simpson redecorated her living room, she added cornices and painted the walls, woodwork, and mantle all the same color. She says her draperies look better now that the background color blends with the color of the walls. Since her house is a small one, she is using the same color in her daughter’s room, lightening it with white—also using a lighter shade in the hall. Her accent color is red.
Ruth Walker and her health workers are busy doing the second year’s work in the cancer research in Currituck County.
Edna Morgan, Currituck’s UN delegate, reported 185 went on the tour. This is 65 more than last year.
Norma Romm made a trip to England with her father-in-law. They went by jet. Dr. Romm’s duties kept him at home.
Lovie Woodhouse will soon be busy with her sewing lessons. She has a new machine and her husband, Avery, says he is pleased that it has two needles so Lovie can make boat covers for him again this year. She made 10 last winter. Lovie has also been busy refinishing furniture—two tables and two chairs. One of the tables came from the junk pile, but $50 wouldn’t buy it now, says Avery!
Eva Smithson’s son, Billy, started to school this year. Each morning he carried an apple to his teacher. However, one afternoon he asked for the apple back. (He got hungry!) That night he reported with disappointment, “Mama, she didn’t give me the same apple back.”
Mrs. Maynard West of Norfolk, Va., who has given demonstrations at our Federations on dried arrangements and Christmas ideas, tells us that she enjoyed Currituck Calls. She especially liked the item of hunting for rabbit tobacco since gathering this type of material is one of her family’s hobbies.
The tea kettle was really worked overtime when Pauline Munden held a hat remodeling workshop in the agents’ office recently. Old hats were cleaned, steamed, blocked, and trimmed. Those attending were Mrs. Lloyd Turner (Mrs. Morgan’s daughter), Mrs. J.P. Morgan, Mrs. E.R. Woodard, Mrs. John Wright Jr., Mrs. H.D. Etheridge, and Mrs. Shelton Simpson.
Mrs. Lou Anne Alphin’s workshops on dried arrangements were successful. She says it is really surprising the fine material many of the members had prepared.
Our Club women assisted with the county x-ray mobile unit. Those helping were Shawboro—Eva and Mary Smithson; Currituck—Linda Carol Ivey, Margaret Davis; Sligo—Sarah Denby; Poplar Branch—Theresa Dennis; Coinjock—Mildred Hill, Mildred Markert; Powells Point—Ruth Forbes, Ruth Walker, Inez Dowdy, Beulah Griggs, Pearl Thompson, Dot Owens, Jo Ann Sawyer, Joyce Morgan; and Moyock—Grace Bundy, Janet Charlton, Nina Aydlett, and Mamie Bryant.
Phyllis Evans of Shingle Landing Club and Clellie Jones of Virginia Edwards Club have been appointed to serve on the Moyock Planning Board. This is made up of civic organizations of the community.
Mrs. Edith McGlamery, Extension House Furnishings Specialist, gave two demonstrations in the county during October. She taught chair caning. Mary Simpson did a chair for a friend for $2, which would have cost her $9 if the job had been done by a professional. Thelma Morgan did an antique rocker for Sara Forbes at a cost of $5. This would have cost at least $16. So caning will really save money. Others also did over chairs at good savings.
Phyllis Evans passed on this item about Bonnie Springle’s experience with motherless kittens. Bonnie finds it isn’t such an easy job raising babies—baby kittens, that is! The mother cat was killed by a car and left three babies, so Bonnie decided she would just have to raise them. She fed them every three hours with an eye dropper and in about a week she found it was true that mother animals keep their young bathed and free of odors, so she also had to bathe them. But thank goodness, there was no night feeding because the babies sleep all night long.
Don’t forget that the Bloodmobile will be in the county Monday, Nov. 14. Please give if you can. Several of the Club members are making house-to-house canvasses looking for blood donors. The hours are 2 to 7 p.m. so those that work will have time to give after they get home. Currituck County has several pints of blood to pay back that have already been used. Come out and give!
Wild Geese
Inspired by an early morning passage of wild geese, Myrtice Parker wrote the following verse, which she has graciously allowed us to publish. Myrtice and her husband, Otis, spend part of the year at the Parker home in Aydlett and part of the time they live in Virginia Beach. It would be nice to have them as permanent Currituck residents.
Wild Geese
My heart did leap, hearing the cry.
It meant wild geese in the sky.
Here they come; the way was long,
But they’ve returned again to join the throng
Of those who come each year
To the feeding grounds that are near;
Watch them—gliding in V formation, too,
Following the leader who has brought them through
Storms and difficulties on the way;
Now they are safe until the day
The hunter can go with his gun;
Then they will be on the run.
The old gander knows and will take them high
Away from harm up in the sky.
They’ll be in trouble if they follow not
And then the hunter will get his shot.
No more will they journey forth
To the land they know further north.
Canadian geese—how proud they are!
Head thrust out, looking near and far,
As below they scan the ground
To see what other geese have found;
Circling once and once again,
Now they are ready to come in.
Wings spread, the ground they pass
To alight in the feeding ground, water, at last.
--Myrtice Parker
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