Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Jones, residents of Cumberland County, have 14 children. Included in this number are five sets of twins, which we believe is a record for any family in North Carolina.
***
Mr. Jim Dunn is a farmer and lives in Person County. He is 73 years old.
He has never seen a picture show.
He has never tasted ice cream.
He has never borrowed a cent in all his life.
He has never bought anything on credit.
He always is in bed by sundown.
He gets up every morning at 3:30.
He can neither read or write.
He has reared 10 children, all of them being well educated and all doing nicely.
He has never bought a pair of shoe-laces nor worn a necktie.
He and his wife never have stayed away from home a single night since they got married 50 years ago.
***
Add to the list of the world's curious vocations that of Kim Miller of the Lake Toxaway section of Transylvania County. Frank Buck has nothing on this virile mountain-bred man who not only brings 'em back alive but also twists their tails to boot.
What he brings back alive are rattlesnakes.
Genial and talkative, Kim has long been known as the master of rattlesnake hunters in the entire Southern mountains region. For almost 40 years he has been hunting them out in their lair, calmly and expertly slipping a loop over their necks, and robbing them forever of their freedom. In this length of time, he estimates that he has caught no less than 12,000 of the venomous, death-dealing rattlers. And he never has been bitten by one in his life.
Kim, of course, seeks out rattlesnakes for some other reason than just to hear them rattle. Two parts of the snake are valuable so far as he is concerned--the hide and the oil. He tans, stiffs and mounts the hides, later selling them to grace the collection of some armchair sportsman in New York and California who may have been on a rattlesnake hunt but didn't have any luck. The oil is one of the most valuable medicines known to man, and Kim finds a ready disposition for all he does not retain for the use of his own family and neighbors.
***
Ike London of Rockingham tells of a family of 12 living in Pee Dee village, every last one of whose first names starts with Mar. Here's the list:
The father is Marvin Odom.
The mother is Mary Odom.
And the children are:
Martha
Marion
Marie
Marshall
Marleen
Margaret
Mary
Marvin
Marquette
Marnetta
***
Thad Eure, our popular Secretary of State, likes to tell about a little experience that happened while he was making a trip through the western part of the State.
He stopped at a filling station for some gas. An old fellow was a'settin' up against the side of the station, busily engaged in chewing tobacco. Thad walked up to him, stuck out his hand and said: "Eure; from Raleigh."
The old gentleman looked him over carefully and then said: "No, I ain't neither; I've been a-livin' here all my life."
***
Down in Washington, N.C., there used to be a crabbed, crusty old carpenter by the name of Walker. He didn't have much to do with anybody and was generally regarded as an old grouch; something of which I wasn't aware of at the time.
I'd meet Mr. Walker on the street and say: "Good morning."
The old man paid no attention.
Next morning the same thing would happen. And it also happened three or four mornings afterwards.
Once more I met him with the customary greeting: "Good morning."
Mr. Walker stopped in his tracks, glared at me and then shouted: "Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning! THERE--let that do you for a week or so and quit bothering me with your damned 'good mornings'."
***
North Carolina has the distinction of possessing what is probably the largest private residence in the world. It's a frame house and it covers seven Acres. It is located in Gaston County.
After reading that, you're probably saying to yourself: "It can't be true!"
But it is.
The house actually does cover seven Acres. There's Mr. Acre and Mrs. Acre and five Acre children, making a total of seven in all.
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