All tagged mike parker
While many of us have been focused on America’s 250th anniversary as we celebrate the Declaration of Independence and remember the war that followed, we would be remiss to forget that this year also marks the 251st anniversary of one of our most important institutions.
I was not on the CSS Neuse Foundation Board when the first “Wings Over the Neuse” fundraiser took place. In 2009, board members decided to raise the funds needed to place a monument to Alton “Doc” Stapleford to recognize and honor all the work and supervision he provided during the construction of the CSS Neuse II.
I was reading through some of my old columns when I came upon one I had written in January 2011 – my last semester of teaching at Farmville Central High School. I wrote:
Believe it or not, today is not Memorial Day. May 30 is the real Memorial Day. On a good calendar, you will see a notation that says of today, May 25, “Memorial Day observed.” Sadly, despite the calendar’s notation, few will observe the spirit of Memorial Day today.
Bryant Jensen of Brigham Young University and Irvin L. Scott of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education collaborated on research that may seem strange. Both educators investigated the impact of students’, parents’, and teachers’ religious faith on students’ educational performance in public schools.
The Lenoir County Soil and Water Conservation District held its annual Education Celebration beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 6, in the King’s Restaurant Banquet Room. More than 30 students were honored in 13 separate categories for addressing the theme “We All Live in a Watershed.”
On Thursday evening, April 23, Sandra and I spent a delightful three hours watching students and staff at North Lenoir High School bring “Oklahoma!” by Rogers and Hammerstein to life on stage.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the start of the whole hog cook-off, which has become the largest single event in Kinston and Lenoir County each year. BBQ Fest brings tens of thousands of visitors to this area for food, fun, and music. Those who plan this event include a healthy dose of activities for children, as well.
When residents of North Carolina purchase a new vehicle, they can choose among three standard license plates. The most common plate says: “First in Flight.” Two other choices are “In God We Trust” and “First in Freedom.”
This Saturday, April 18, promises to be a busy day for those interested in food and music. The CSS Neuse Foundation is hosting this year’s first “Breakfast on the Boat” on April 18. The event will begin at 7:30 a.m. at the CSS Neuse II, the replica gunboat in dry dock at the corner of Herritage and Gordon streets.
If you type “Ed Terry The Circuit Riding Preacher” into a Google or YouTube search, you will arrive at a link to a video that features a historic church in Lenoir County: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGn0l7ovnnc
Thinking back to the years I spent as a classroom teacher sometimes makes me proud. One of a teacher’s most gratifying experiences is giving students an assignment that seems to resonate with them – well, most of them.
Although women did not have the guarantee of general voting rights until the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on August 18, 1920, women who owned property in New Jersey were allowed to vote from 1776 through 1807. Beginning in 1869, women in the Western territories won the right to vote.
Competitors of all ages are eagerly gearing up to showcase the skills and techniques they have diligently worked to develop throughout the year at the Twenty-First Annual Karate Madness Open Championship.
In the modified words of “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin, “I long since retired” as a teacher. In June of 2011, I said my good-byes to students and staff at Farmville Central High School and entered the wonderful world of retirement.
When I taught students the importance of limiting their research topics, I told them a parable centered on Dr. George Washington Carver. The story goes something like this:
Is solving our community relations problems an important goal? What do problems with race relations and our city-county rift mean in our everyday world? The answer to the first question is “yes.” The answer to the second question, in a word, is “much.”
Phillis Wheatley’s name is probably better known by many high school students today than it was during my generation. Frankly, I never heard of Phillis Wheatley when I was cracking the books in my American literature class in 1967. I became familiar with a few of her poems as I constructed my syllabus for Major American Writers at East Carolina – at least two decades ago.
Most citizens who drive through this city have little awareness that the street names preserve and reflect the city's history prior to the American Revolution. In December of 1762, the General Assembly passed an act to establish the town of Kingston on land belonging to William Herritage at Atkins Bank. Herritage, for whom Herritage Street is named, donated the first 100 acres of what became “Kingston” and later “Kinston.”
On February 6-8, the CSS Neuse Foundation will offer a special event for those interested in local history from 1861 through 1865. The CSS Neuse Foundation is responsible for the CSS Neuse II, a full-scale replica of the original CSS Ram Neuse. This ironclad gunboat was outfitted and stationed here in Kinston.
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