The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1959-01-02
EVERY COMMUNITY NEEDS
A GOOD CIVIC ORGANIZATION
5H VICTOR MEEkiNS

lose variety and interest if one
looks in the right direction.
Christmas seasons grow more in
teresting and enjoyable each year.
It's great to assemble in parties
and find there old friends who've
been long absent. Unfortunately
one cannot attend all the things
to which he is invited.
Along our beaches, when things
are dull in wintertime, there has
developed a series of parties at
various hostelries, for instance the
First Colony Inn, the Carolinian,
the Arlington, the Croatan and
others have held dinners or parties
throughout the fall, and more are
due in the spring. This year, the
top party in the holiday season
at Mays Head was given by
George Croker and his associates
at the Beacon Motel. The dining
room was aglow with the spirit
of the season; ladies were lovely
in their Christmas dresses, and
the party included just about all
the business families left on the
beach in wintertime, and many
others from Manteo.
There is a distressing situation
in the number of community or
CARNATIONS which continue to go
out of business as good roads
tend to centralize everything. In
the past few years we have seen
civic clubs, American Legion posts,
and what have you, go out of
business at Hatteras, Avon, Stun
ply Point. Some now at Manns
Harbor, Rodanthe and Wanchese
are troubled with dwindling at
tendance. Even Wanchese Masonic
Lodge, more than So years old,
and long the most powerful rural
lodge in the coastland, financially
and with a large membership, has
called heavy meeting this week
to consider the question of con-
solidating with the younger lodge
at Manteo.
The heart and soul of our civil
ization, our politics, schools and
everything else, in my belief, ex-
lists in the small community. We
need life and action in the neigh
borhood or precinct level to devel-
OPP the leadership which makes a
better central organization. Every
little neighborhood, big or little,
needs an active civic group to
serve as clearinghouse for ideas,
and as spokesman to go forth in
demand of the rights of all of the
people. When any community
lacks sufficient interest and lead
ership to maintain some sort of
organization of this kind, it has
grown moribund and maybe de-
cadent. Once on the downgrade, it
will be difficult to pull it back up
hill.
Reports indicate that the few
bootleggers operating in the area
enjoyed the best business they've
had in many day on December
26th, due to the thoughtless GUS
tom of closing some ABC stores on
this date. Now that the subject
has been brought up, there is a
growing tendency on the part of
those who are paid by the people
to take every inch and every yard
possible. We find the courthouses
closed up for the better part of
three days in a row. Persons TAX
ing off time so literally, gladly
accepting their pay for days they
don't work. No doubt many en-
ployees would still accept their
pay, if they were permitted to
take all the days off. 1t is mat
ter of fact, there are people on
the payroll, drawing good sums
from the taxpayers, who work reg
ularly full time at profitable pri-
vate jobs; and some of them APP
parently do nothing for the check
the county has been sending them
each month.
This business of closing up pub
lie offices and stopping work on
the most flimsy excuse has come
to be a costly one to those who
foot the bills, some of these tax
payers having to work nights, holi-
days and a few on Sundays in or
der to keep their nose above water
financially. We need to breed new
class of public servants with a
higher sense of appreciation for
their blessings and their easy jobs,
which carry retirement and many
other benefits, all paid for by their
hardworking neighbors who don't
enjoy the same advantages.
Since having been elected to the
Board of Commissioners, this writ
er has had AZ applications in the
past three months, from people
who either want jobs, or want
pay increases in jobs they now