Thursday, January 9, 1947
While Dick Hume was out hunting near Williamsburg last week, he aimed at a large wild turkey, but before he could pull the trigger of his gun, a large eagle swooped down and flew away with the turkey. ~ Old Time News of 50 years ago in the Greenbrier Independent.
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A physician friend of the family went around for nine days with a swimming in the head, following the deer hunting season. One of his family had killed a poor old buck deer in the middle of the mating season, and had sent him a hunk of the rank meat. The venison was so toxic it just about had the good doctor in the shade.
For a dozen years or so, I have been fussing with the lawmakers to allow our conservation authorities to give us a scientific open season for deer, late October or early November. The idea is to take our venison when it is good and safe to eat. Maybe I ought to have taken the matter up with the game board, and asked first for a quarantine on rancid old buck venison. Us fellows, who know, don’t eat that kind; our visitors who do wolf it down blame their liquor with turning on them or lay it to a change of water for the toxic swimming in the head that they are afflicted with for the nine days it takes to clear the system.
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Neighbor Fred Sharp, up on Stony Creek, has a never failing weather sign. A family of barred or Canadian owls move into the neighborhood at the approach of cold weather. While seldom seen, they make their presence known by their conversation calls at night. When the weather is to be cold, the owls carry on in the thick hemlock on the northern exposure; when the sign is for better weather, the owls are to be heard in the open, short leaf pines on the south sides of the mountain.
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This owl weather sign reminds me that, so far this winter, I have not heard from Dr. Hull about the old gray owl of Cheat Mountain, of most unusual size and wing spread of perhaps two full yards. When a real cold spell threatens, way below zero, this wise old owl moves out of the wintry fortresses of Cheat to fly east to Green Bank, a full twenty-four hours before the arrival of the cold wave. Dr. Hull has observed this phenomenon for years, and he has never yet been fooled by this wise old bird. So far this winter, all the cold waves have passed by too far to the north for the big gray owl of the Shavers Cheat Mountain to bother about. I have Dr. Hull’s promise of a year’s standing to give me a ring when he observes the old gray owl forsaking his Shavers Cheat on the approach of a storm.
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While last year was not such a record breaking year for corn yields in the Greenbrier Valley on account of dry weather, Farmer Wm. H. Cackley, of Stamping Creek, reports a yield of 1,063 bushels of ears from seven and a half acres of upland ground. He planted a yellow dent, known to us all as the Johnson corn. This corn has been grown on the Jerico road since 1810. A fine strain of Johnson corn seed may be had from Milburn Sharp, whose address is Marlinton.
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Robert Tylor, of Dunmore, came to town Tuesday to claim bounty on one big wild cat – bay lynx. Hunting foxes on the Alleghanies, the big cat came through the Narrows where Posten and Red Oak Ridges top up to the main stem. The bounty is $5, but the fur market is so rotten low the nice pelt only brought a dollar. This cat was a whaling big one for a female, weighing around 35 pounds.
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The other morning when we all here in Marlinton were shivering around with the thermometer registering around six above zero, neighbor Jacob Hoover, on Elk Mountain, considerable more than a thousand feet higher, checked his thermometer to find it more than twenty degrees warmer, just around freezing temperature… All winter and fall, it has been warmer on our mountaintops than in our valleys.
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Moffett McNeel, Jr., aged 18, of Hillsboro, received a fine gold watch as reward for having the highest state rating in last year’s 4-H meat animal program. In his 8-year work record, he has handled 26 sheep and 125 fowls. He won last year’s County and State sheep showmanship contests.
WAYBRIGHT–BENETT
The wedding of Miss Pearl Bennett and Mr. Hiner Waybright, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jess Waybright, was solemnized at Monterey, Virginia, on Tuesday, December 24, 1946.
For her wedding, Mrs. Waybright chose a street length dress of winter white gabardine, with brown accessories.
The bride is the daughter of Mrs. P. H. Bennett, of Arbovale, and the late Mr. Bennett. She was formerly employed at Lockheed Aircraft at Burbank, California.
The bridegroom served three years with the Armed Forces, two and one half years in the European theatre, from which he received his discharge a few months ago.