The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1953-07-31
OTHER EDITORS
GOLDEN TREASURES
LOST PURSUING
TELEVISION FOOLS
BY CARLTON NORRIS
Editor. Gates County Index

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Editor. Gates County Index
Roast ear corn is in full tassel
and tomatoes are ripening on the
vine and the world is a sea of
green. The woodland is speckled
with sunlight and shadow as the
summer sun beats down upon the
earth with relentless heat.
Stopping by in the shade, the
neighbors talk only on the
weather as world affairs are
pushed into the background by
the query: do you reckon it is
going to rain?"
Cotton leaves droop on their
stalks and are seldom moved by
the ripple of a breeze and the
earth gives off the heat of the
sun. The first fruits are begin
ming to ripen for it high sum-
ming to ripen for it's high sum-
To me at least, books are
great source of learning and
pleasure. Since earliest child
hood, 1 have derived most of my
spare time pleasure from read
ing the written word. Sometimes
1 agree with what l read and
very often l do not agree.
When I was a small boy, old
timey people believed it was
wrong to waste time reading and
in my neighborhood they cited
the case of an old woman of that
day who neglected her home and
garden, to say nothing of her
children and field work, just to
read what they called trash.
Travelling by horseback the wo-
man was known to take along
novel in which she was interest
ed and read it on her journey.
Her horse, said the neighbors,
would stop by the wayside to
nibble grass while the old woman
read on and on.
Entering school at the tender
age of five (there was no age
limit l learned the alphabet on
my very first day and took great
pride in astonishing my parents
that night with my knowledge.
From that day on a great new
world opened up for me.
have probably published the
following incident, but it illus
trates my story of a youngsters
thirst for knowledge so well that
l believe it will bear repetition.
At our little one teacher school
there was a glass book case
which was known proudly as the
library" From its sacred por-
tails, the girls of our school could
take books at will. Boys were
not interested in books, and thus
were not allowed to carry any
away from the school. In my own
case, l would slip one or another
of the books and prop up my big
geography book on the top of
my desk, while I rapidly read
from the forbidden fruit. I lived
with King Arthur and his
knights and my desk became a
formidable. In the afternoons, I
fashioned a shining sword and
spear (from wood) and tilted my
imaginary windmills. A SILVER
would chase up and down my
spine as I read of the lady of the
lake and l knew the gods by
first name while the sword Of
Damocles hung over my head as
I read on and on,
1t was a midsummer afternoon
and school had been out for
many weeks when 1 passed the
little school and thought of the
many books that were lying I'M
read in the library" Never hav-
ing stolen in my life, it was with
a feeling of deepest guilt that I
slipped behind the school build
ing and crawled through one of
the windows.
/ stood in the middle of the
vacant room which was accumu-
lating coat of dust and listened
to my heart pounding and it
seemed to keep time with the
scraping of locust in a great
oak hard by the school house
door. l tip-toed across the bare
floor between the desks and gull
thy reached into the bookcase
and withdrew Fifty Famous
Stories" l tip-toed to the window
and crawled through. 1 stuck
the book in my shirt and mount
ed my bike and fled with the
book and my guilty conscience.
That summer learned about the
defeated king who watched
spider and tried again and won
and I learned many other things
as well.
returned the book when
school opened in the fall and Sc
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