The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1954-07-16

JOo P1OOo " NC QCSSC1loCQ 1lOIll
one" says Colonel John D. Lang
ston of Goldsboro who is visiting
his daughter, Mrs. D. E. Evans,
Dare County School Superinten-
dent, at her home on Roanoke
Island during July.
Dare and Hyde County may be
grateful too that Colonel Lang
ston's father was a Methodist
preacher for it is because of the
itinerant nature of Methodist
preachers that they may claim
this distinguished gentleman as
former resident. While his
father was a minister Colonel
Langston, who during the last
war was Assistant Director and
President of the Appeals and
Advisory Board of the United
States Selective Service System
in Washington, D. c., lived in
the three communities, Manteo,
Swan Quarter and Hatteras.
THAT was a long time ago,
Col. Langston says, sin 1893
when l was IL years old. I came
to Roanoke Island after having
lived for two years each in Hat
teras and Swan Quarter and it is
my six years on Roanoke Is
land that I look back to as one
of the happiest periods of my
life. 1t is those years between IL
and Is that one lives with the
greatest enthusiasm. I've always
! thought of this as place I'd
like most to come back to-"
Give caught many a soft crab
over there in that sound" Col
Langston reminisces. 81 used to
earn my spending money that
way, selling them for five cents
a dozen.
(Which reminds me of an in
cident not long ago. My daugh-
ter (Col. Langston has two
daughters besides Mrs. Evans
and two sons.) and 1 were here
together. She is exceptionally
fond of soft shell crabs and ]
thought I'd get her some. had
heard of a place on the Island
where they are sold. So 1 went
down one afternoon and, with
out a thought, ordered a dozen.
The man fixed them up for me
and as l was ready to leave
asked casually How much will
they be-" When he replied three
dollars dozen l was stunned.
The white haired Col. Lang
ston is delightful to talk to-
graciously putting the flustered
interviewer at ease and chuck
ling pleasantly over incidents
and happenings that he recalls.
He also earned spending
money on Roanoke Island open
ing oysters at Mr.. Forbes, he
recalls. "But the most money ]
earned here was when Professor
Williams and his daughter were
making the original excavations
at Fort Raleigh in 1896" Did he
do some of the digging? ''Heav-
ems no, but the SIS cents day
I made as water boy was a fab
ulous amount to me-" This was
DR.. Talcott Williams of Phila-
delphia.
In reply to question about
how he earned his spending
money in Swan Quarter, where
he lived for two years when he
was ten, Col. Langston said, 81
didn't earn any money then. No
body did. That was during what
the newspapers call the 'Cleve-
land Economic Depression of the
early 1905. But of course every
one had plenty to eat because il
was Hyde County.
Col. Langston's dominant i'm
preston of Hyde County is hos
pitality. 'It is almost the same
today as it was in 1891 and 1897
when 1 lived in the Swan Quar-
ter Methodist Parsonage" Col
Langston says. ''My father serv-
ed five or six churches and he
never went out that he did not
return with the buggy lader
with gifts, vegetables, jars o.
| fruit and preserves and country
hams. 1t is the same today. Every
where you go people want tt
give you things. Somehow Swar
Quarter has retained more thar
so many towns the ancien
flavor that it had when l was ;
boy"
At the end of his July visi
on Roanoke Island Col. Langstol
plans to visit his sister-in-law
Mrs. William Langston in Swai
Quarter. I'm looking forward t
J some of Lucy's country han
when 1 get there" he says.
Not to slight Roanoks Islant
food Col. Langston described
with relish the golden fig pre-
, serves that he buys from Mrs
Ada Greet in Manteo. I'D hat
to say how many jars use