Vass Is a Happy Town With Latchstrings Hanging Out, Feb. 25, 1921

A stranger who recently had occasion to spend several days in Vass told us just before departing for his home that one thing which impressed him during his stay here was the number of latchstrings that were hanging out. He was from a big city, where one hardly knows his next-door neighbor and it was pleasing to him to be where people spoke to him whether they knew him or not, and where they appeared to have time to answer his questions and to treat him courteously.

This is a mighty nice compliment for the town, but it also proves that there is still another good reason for making your home in a place this size. You bump right into neighborly help and courtesy at every turn. You find people who are more interested in life than in seeing how many dollars they can pile up. You feel that community spirit which the smaller towns of this country possess but which the large cities brag so much about. The gentleman was impressed with the fact that our people had time to answer his questions, and seemed pleased to be of assistance. He is carrying that same report wherever he goes, and such reports never do a town any harm.

If making and hoarding money is your prime object in life, then you belong, possibly, in the large city. But if you want to feel that you are cared for by your fellowmen; if you want to feel the real community spirit and know what it is to have real neighbors and neighbors you can depend on, then our advice is to stay right here, here where the latchstrings are hanging out and where people have time to be polite to strangers.

From the front page of The Pilot, Vass, N.C., Feb. 25, 1921 (Latchstrings hang outside a door, allowing a person to raise the bar that “locks” a door from the outside. Vass had a population of 407 people in the 1920 U.S. Census.)