The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter., 1962-03-30
Fridays
Child
By LAWRENCE MADDRY

A person can get put into SC
many embarrassing situations
that ne becomes saturated with
ridicule. I've just about reached
that stage.
Sometime before all the pa
trolmen left the beach, / decided
that the picture : of d bathing
beauty of some kind would help
relieve the visual chaos of splin-
tered houses, jagged inlets and
sand strewn streets which SEEM
ed to be typical Of every news
paper photo in the state.
What this newspaper needed,
II believed, was a new type of
picture, conceived in liberty
and dedicated to the proposition
that you just can't beat cheese
cake for reader interest.
Someone suggested Rachel
Morgan as a likely subject.
Rachel had just won a t.v. twist
contest, was about to enter the
beauty contest which the Lions
Club has been drumming up and
seemed pretty well qualified for
the assignment. The whole idea
seemed innocent enough to me.
It was one of those cold, sun
ny days when you duck across
the street with your head down
to keep the wind from jerking
your ears off. / drove out to
Manteo High School and asked
in my most modest, man Of the
world voice if might see the
principal.
Mr.. Butler called me into his
office and i passed a few min
utes discussing the weather, ball
games and the like before gett-
ing down to the subject. Up to
that time I guess you never
saw a. nicer, friendlier person.
"Well," he said, "what can ! do
for you." / could tell right away
that the enterprise was doomed.
Somehow you can just tell.
It's like a ship-christening when
the bottle never splatters or a
horserace where the favorite
keeps baking at the gate, there
are times in a mans life when
his better judgement prevails
upon him to use any means
possible to escape the inevitable
revelation that he is an unparal-
leded lunatic doomed for failure.
"I'd like to take a picture, /"
! said. Well, Mr.. Butler started
Strengthening his tie before !
realized my mistake. SHOT You .
!. I mean ! had a different kind
Of thing in mind -. actually
this will probably sound a little
strange sir, but what / want to
do is use one Of your seniors for
a photograph in a bathing suit. "
It is incredible how a state
ment like that can change a
mans behavior. Mr.. Butler, who
only a few seconds before had
shown all the warmth of a fox
hole buddy in combat, suddenly
became cold as a clam. His eyes
began to bulge, his lips turned
down and he became, in an in
slant, the privy defender of
maidenly virtue and prime de-
votee of the adage that "the
hand that rocks the cradle rules
the world"
In his best @ets get serious
manner" he explained that Man.
teo High School was not, as yet,
a farm club for "Playboy" and
that if / could jolly well do
whatever monkey business ] had
in mind after school.
He did, in all fairness, arrange
to let me speak to Rachel. She
came swishing in all bug-eyed
from having been called over the
inter-com, and would probably
have agreed to anything, seeing
that she hadn't been nabbed for
cheating, having a cluttered
desk, or kissing in the cloak
room. ] told her that we'd drive
over on the beach where the
sand dunes could be used as a
background and she agreed to
meet me at her house at four
o'clock.
The only problem which was
now apparent was the need for
a pass to get onto the beach, it
was just before all the restric-
tions were lifted. I walked into
the sheriff's Office and told Donis
White that i had a problem and
she listened with the most SYM
pathetic dead-pan face and re-
ferred me to patrolman Pridgen.
Officer Pridgen had gone
without sleep quite a few hours
when / saw him. / explained
that ! wanted to take a subject
onto the beach for q photograph.
"What kind Of subject is il
that you want to take" he asked.
"Well," I stammered, "it's ac-
ually not a subject at all q. /
mean more like a girl +. you