Thursday,
May 20, 1965
Joe McNeel, of Mill Point, killed a snake last Sunday on a foot log that was a strange one. It had a lot of black but some copper color, was five feet long, a heavy body and a blunt tail. The snake was coiled and was striking. Mr. McNeel noticed it shook its tail and wondered if it might be a rattlesnake with its tail cut off. Mr. McNeel recalls locust year in 1917 (which doesn’t add up to regular 17 years) when he and another boy took two jars of locusts and turned them loose in school. He also remembers the locusts destroyed an orchard so badly it never recovered.
By tradition and instinct two subjects are consistently colored, misrepresented or plain lied about when reported by the individuals principally concerned; the size of fish (whether landed or not) and golf scores. So common is the practice of stretching fish and shrinking golf scores that one may truly say that veracity in the telling of such things is the exception rather than the rule and otherwise honest men are never censored for inaccuracies in such matters and suffer no damage to their reputations by understanding fellow fishermen and or golfers.
It is in full cognizance of this situation that the writer comes forward to report an incident that occurred on the sixth hole of the Pocahontas County Country Club Monday evening about seven-thirty. At that time and place the Rev. George H. McCune, pastor of the Marlinton Methodist Church, did score a hole in one. The Rev. McCune took up golf only last year. The club he used for his first ace was a No. 5 iron on the the par 3 hole.
The only witness of this feat was McCune’s playing companion, Bill Harper – and, in fact, there were no other golfers on the course at the time. Unlike McCune, Harper is not “ a man of the cloth,” but is known to have moments of reliability. And Mr. McCune did make that hole-in-one – So Help Me!
Norman R. Price, M.D.
An era came to a close with the passing of Dr. Norman R. Price last week.
He was the last of the country doctors in Pocahontas who went by foot, by horse, and by car, in foul weather and fair, up and down these mountains and valleys, to minister to the needs of the sick.
Since 1903, this strong man, who ran a 30-mile footrace, answered calls, not only in Pocahontas but in sections of Webster, Randolph and Nicholas.
He wore out seven horses and fifteen automobiles.
Having delivered between five and six thousand babies it was little wonder that during his sickness practically every family recalled that he had brought some of them into the world. He reached his goal of 90 years, with several months over, and died, as he wanted, a gentleman, in command of the situation.
Coming as a boy in 1885 to Marlin’s Bottom, where his father had been born, he saw the town of Marlinton come into being and watched it grow.
He served as mayor and also served on the County Court.
Dr. Norman held almost a century of living history in his phenomenal memory.
LIFE
By Andrew Price
The life I live, the life I prize
Seems tame to the world-worn weary eyes;
Those frantic souls spurred on by lust,
For power and place till all is dust;
They never know the sweet release
Among the purple hills of peace.
I know not what the years may hold.
My dreams may fade if I grow old,
But this I know, each golden year,
Makes home, and friend, and life more dear;
Each year the heavens brighter gleam,
Each year enhances field and stream.
I know I gaze with raptured eye,
On scenes that once I idled by;
I envy not the potentate,
The rich, the mighty, high and great.
My books, my friends, my mountains free,
Have been and are enough for me.
BIRTHS
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Warner, of Bartow, a daughter, named Cindy Louise.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Roy Sharp, a son.
DEATHS
Floyd J. Carpenter, of Mill Point; a son of the late John Wesley and Mary Carpenter. Burial in the Oak Grove Cemetery.
Mrs. Myrtle Susan Jordan, 83, of Hillsboro; a daughter of the late James and Fanny Stover Jordan. Burial in Oak Grove Cemetery.
Henry E. Ramsey, 87, of Hillsboro. Burial in Ware’s Ridge Cemetery near Valley Head.