NOTEWORTHY
WORDS
WE'VE HEARD
The tumult and the shouting dies,
The Captains and the Kings depart.
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget.
~Rudyard Kipling~~~~~~~~~
The people who work for me can have all the damned democracy they want, as long as they remember that what I say goes. ~ Raleigh newspaper publisher in 1980s discussion about unions and workplace elections.
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One day when we were in England, General Eisenhower came into the field where we were bivouacking. He said he had never fired an M1 rifle. He reached out and took mine and began taking the safety off. I backed off. In fact, a lot of us backed off. He started blasting away at the targets, and then turned and said: "I don't blame you boys. I'd move back, too. I don't know where I'm liable to go with this thing." When he returned my rifle, I found my voice enough to say: "I'll put in a full clip for you if you like." He said, "No, thanks. You fellows need this practice more than I do." ~ Joe Dickerson, Murfreesboro, in his D-Day book, 'Visitor to Hell.'
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God doesn't subtract from a man's life span those hours spent fishing. ~ Izaak Walton, a long time ago.
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The sorriest waste of a man's time ever thought up by anybody is to sit and try to catch a fish with a hook and line. ~ J. Fred Pearce, Ahoskie, 1930s.
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I served nearly all that year in doing guard duty . . . I never fired a gun against the Union flag or its soldiers. ~ Isaac Pierce (Pearce), Bertie County, veteran of both armies in the Civil War, trying to explain why his Confederate Army service should not be held against him in his 1890s bid for a pension for his Union Army service.
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Robert E. Lee was an incompetent who caused the South to lose. He brought about the useless slaughter of thousands of men with his poorly planned schemes to invade the North – while he failed to offer an effective challenge to an enemy occupation army in eastern NC during the whole four years of the Civil War. ~ Dissident NC rebel, irked at having been rejected for dual membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Sons of Union Veterans.
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You know, when (the Marquis de) Lafayette came to visit us (after the Revolutionary War), his parting words were: "Don't do anything until I get back." And he never did get back, and we never did do anything. ~ Harry H. Jr., explaining why Murfreesboro had roughly the same population in the late 1900s as in the early 1800s.
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Lula Belle H--- told me that if she could ever do anything for me, I could call her. She said she was listed in the phone book. I looked in the phone book and she was listed as Mrs. George H---. She can't be a Mrs. She's black. ~ Elderly Murfreesboro matron (white) in the 1900s, commenting on an offer of help from a local acquaintance.
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I am never going to work another day in that damned refrigerator. ~ Starkey S. Copeland, 69, Ahoskie, explaining his decision to quit his job at the GAO in Washington DC after 40 years and after they installed air conditioning in the late 1950s.
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If you are going to destroy the weeds in your garden, you cannot destroy only the fully grown weeds . . . you must destroy all the weeds . . . right down through their roots. If you do not, they will come back to haunt you. You have to understand. We had to kill the children. ~ SS officer, Germany, 1945, defending the thoroughness of the operation at Auschwitz.
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It's a whole lot better if you can get those suckers while they're little. ~ Foreman of a CP&L line-clearing crew, North Carolina, 1975, explaining why they had cut everything to the ground, including flowers, ligustrums, forsythias, redbuds and dogwood trees.
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You're not heavy enough to be a paratrooper. If we let you out of an airplane in a parachute, you'd probably float away somewhere. You're not heavy enough to bring a parachute to the ground. ~ U.S. Army examining officer, 1943, explaining to WWII inductee Joe Dickerson why he would have to settle for the infantry.
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I took the early morning train to the Portsmouth, Va., depot. That cost 45 cents. I paid 8 cents to ride a bus uptown to the ferry dock. The ferry to Norfolk cost 5 cents. I paid 10 cents to ride a street-car all the way across Norfolk to another ferry. This ferry, the one to Newport News, cost 25 cents and took a half-hour to cross rough water. When it docked in Newport News, I was halfway broke and three-quarters seasick, but I put a nickel in a pay phone and gave the operator her number. When Almarie answered, she said she had a "terrible" headache and wouldn't be able to go to the beach that day. ~ Frustrated teen-ager, Ahoskie, summer '44.
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I thought they had decided to make me a part of the test. ~ William E. Woolet, visitor to Hertford County, 1947, describing his frantic efforts to flag down a passing vessel as the sun was setting on his assignment to stake out goats on a Bikini atoll for the first postwar atomic bomb blast.
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Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. ~ Macbeth (V, v, 19)
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Mister, I don't know what nationality they are . . . but they are potatoes. ~ Food-line server at K&S Cafeteria in Raleigh, 1998, responding to man who inquired if a certain dish was "Irish potatoes."
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Well, the Internet is okay . . . but it's kind of like any other conversation . . . when all the talking is done, what do you have left? ~ James W., Murfreesboro, 2000, giving his views on the interconnected global village.
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I need to be classified 2-B. I have a lot of plowing to do. I need 2-B here when they go and I'll need 2-B here when they come back. ~ Hertford County farm boy seeking a deferment from his draft board, 1942.
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Oh, yes, I remember (the superintendent of then-segregated Hertford County schools) well. He visited my classroom one day and asked if there was anything we needed. I said: Yes, we certainly need some new books. These we have are so old and worn that the children can barely use them. He said: Well, Miss Grace, I'll bring you some new books. And you bundle up these old ones you have here and I'll take them over to the N(egro) schools. They'll be plenty good enough for them. I said: No, thanks, Mr. B(lank). We'll just keep the ones we have. If you get us some new books, then you get them some new books, too. ~ Grace Parker, 1950, longtime elementary school teacher reminiscing in Murfreesboro about her days in the classroom.
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What will the neighbors think? . . . Well, the neighbors won't think . . . they may talk a lot, but they won't think. ~ W. Gary Parker, Murfreesboro, 1940, replying to a question about possible neighborhood repercussions.
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ELMO: I've got to get on home. It's time for Cellie to eat lunch.
CLEM: Why do you have to go home so your wife can eat lunch?
ELMO: Well, I've got our teeth. ~ Elmo Parker, Murfreesboro, 1937, explaining his reasons for breaking up the barber shop checker game.
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Hell, yes. I killed one. I was running up a hilly path when I came to an open place and I saw a Jap on the other side. He turned to run and I shot him right in the crack of his --- I watched him die, because if you left one of them only wounded, they would shoot you from behind. ~ Charlie M., Raleigh, 1954, in response to a question as to whether he had really seen any Japs on Guadalcanal.
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Not too bad. We had to keep the camp and barracks clean, and stuff like that. We had one Jewish boy with us, though, that the Germans sort of rode real hard. ~ Jim S., Raleigh, 1954, answering a question about his treatment in a WWII prison camp in Germany.
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Well, how does the deep water know to stay on the other side of that rope? ~ David Pearce, 4, Raleigh, 1980, responding to repeated warnings to stay at the shallow end of the swimming pool.
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This country's vehicles – like its governmental systems – were designed by geniuses so they could be operated by idiots. ~ Observer, 1999, commenting on the state of affairs in Raleigh, Washington, and on the nation's roadways.
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Upon reflection, it also seems apparent that the preceding observation applies equally well to the human reproductive system. ~ (JAMES D. PEARCE, 1999)
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Of all sad words
of tongue and pen,
the saddest are these ~
"It might have been."
~John Greenleaf Whittier~~~~~~~~~
Some ha'e meat, but canna eat,
Some wad eat, don't ha'e it.
But we ha'e meat, and we can eat,
And sae The Lord be thankit.
~Robert Burns~~~~~~~~~
the author, Jim Pearce
with Becky, c. 1980
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