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Disco Demolition in Chicago: This Date in History

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1915 American domestic Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary, was placed under a quarantine on North Brother Island, New York City, that lasted until her death in 1938; a typhoid carrier, she was allegedly responsible for multiple outbreaks of typhoid fever.

Mary Mallon immigrated to the United States in 1883 and subsequently made her living as a domestic servant, most often as a cook. It is not clear when she became a carrier of the typhoid bacterium (Salmonella typhi). However, from 1900 to 1907 nearly two dozen people fell ill with typhoid fever in households in New York City and Long Island where Mallon worked. The illnesses often occurred shortly after she began working in each household, but, by the time the disease was traced to its source in a household where she had recently been employed, Mallon had disappeared.

Typhoid Mary (born September 23, 1869, Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland—died November 11, 1938, North Brother Island, Bronx, New York, U.S.) was an infamous typhoid carrier who allegedly gave rise to multiple outbreaks of typhoid fever.

Mary Mallon immigrated to the United States in 1883 and subsequently made her living as a domestic servant, most often as a cook. It is not clear when she became a carrier of the typhoid bacterium (Salmonella typhi). However, from 1900 to 1907 nearly two dozen people fell ill with typhoid fever in households in New York City and Long Island where Mallon worked. The illnesses often occurred shortly after she began working in each household, but, by the time the disease was traced to its source in a household where she had recently been employed, Mallon had disappeared.

1743062136487.jpeg
Typhoid Mary Mary Mallon (left), known as Typhoid Mary, in quarantine on North Brother Island, New York City, early 20th century.

In 1906, after 6 people in a household of 11 where Mallon had worked in Oyster Bay, New York, became sick with typhoid, the home’s owners hired New York City Department of Health sanitary engineer George Soper, whose specialty was studying typhoid fever epidemics, to investigate the outbreak. Other investigators were brought in as well and concluded that the outbreak likely had been caused by contaminated water. Mallon continued to work as a cook, moving from household to household until 1907, when she resurfaced working in a Park Avenue home in Manhattan. The winter of that year, following an outbreak in the Manhattan household that involved a death from the disease, Soper met with Mallon. He subsequently linked all 22 cases of typhoid fever that had been recorded in New York City and the Long Island area to her.

Again Mallon fled, but authorities led by Soper finally overtook her and had her committed to an isolation centre on North Brother Island, part of the Bronx, New York. There she stayed, despite an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, until 1910, when the health department released her on condition that she never again accept employment that involved the handling of food.

Four years later Soper began looking for Mallon again when an epidemic broke out at a sanatorium in Newfoundland, New Jersey, and at Sloane Maternity Hospital in Manhattan; she had worked as a cook at both places. Mallon was at last found in a suburban home in Westchester county, New York, and was returned to North Brother Island, where she remained for the rest of her life. A paralytic stroke in 1932 led to her slow death six years later.

Mallon claimed to have been born in the United States, but it was later determined that she was an immigrant. In all, 51 original cases of typhoid and three deaths were directly attributed to her (countless more were indirectly attr
If she were alive today and eligible to vote, I guarantee you she would be a Trumper. She was just trying to live her life and earn an honest day's pay for an honest day's work. But all these busy body bureaucrats--with nothing else to do--make up outrageous stories about her just to justify sucking off the public teet for a few more paychecks.
 
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1979 At 4:00 am an automatic valve mistakenly closed at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, culminating in radioactive leakage.
Three Mile Island accident, accident in 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station that was the most serious in the history of the American nuclear power industry. The Three Mile Island power station was named after the island on which it was situated in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pa. At 4:00 am on March 28, an automatically operated valve in the Unit 2 reactor mistakenly closed, shutting off the water supply to the main feedwater system (the system that transfers heat from the water actually circulating in the reactor core). This caused the reactor core to shut down automatically, but a series of equipment and instrument malfunctions, human errors in operating procedures, and mistaken decisions in the ensuing hours led to a serious loss of water coolant from the reactor core and a partial core meltdown. As a result, the core was partially exposed, and the zirconium cladding of its fuel reacted with the surrounding superheated steam to form a large accumulation of hydrogen gas, some of which escaped from the core into the containment vessel of the reactor building. Very little of this and other radioactive gases actually escaped into the atmosphere, and they did not constitute a threat to the health of the surrounding population. In the following days adequate coolant water circulation in the core was restored.

1743164990399.jpeg
 
"Körner’s Folly is the architectural wonder and home of artist and designer Jule Gilmer Körner. Built in 1880 in Kernersville, North Carolina, the house originally served to display his interior design portfolio. Visitors can now explore the 22 room house museum and its unique original furnishings and artwork, cast-plaster details, carved woodwork, and elaborate hand laid tile."

Körner’s Folly was opened to the public on March 28, 1880. I've long wanted to visit but never have.

IMG_8149.jpeg
 
1979 At 4:00 am an automatic valve mistakenly closed at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, culminating in radioactive leakage.
Three Mile Island accident, accident in 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station that was the most serious in the history of the American nuclear power industry. The Three Mile Island power station was named after the island on which it was situated in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pa. At 4:00 am on March 28, an automatically operated valve in the Unit 2 reactor mistakenly closed, shutting off the water supply to the main feedwater system (the system that transfers heat from the water actually circulating in the reactor core). This caused the reactor core to shut down automatically, but a series of equipment and instrument malfunctions, human errors in operating procedures, and mistaken decisions in the ensuing hours led to a serious loss of water coolant from the reactor core and a partial core meltdown. As a result, the core was partially exposed, and the zirconium cladding of its fuel reacted with the surrounding superheated steam to form a large accumulation of hydrogen gas, some of which escaped from the core into the containment vessel of the reactor building. Very little of this and other radioactive gases actually escaped into the atmosphere, and they did not constitute a threat to the health of the surrounding population. In the following days adequate coolant water circulation in the core was restored.

1743164990399.jpeg
“Don’t want to land on no Three Mile Island.
Don’t want to see my skin aglow.” -
Jimmy Buffett
 
In Keeping...about the Enrico Fermi reactor meltdown on October 5, 1966.


The TVA nuclear plant accident at the Brown's Ferry plant in Alabama in 1975 happened when some electricians were checking for leaks in a conduit with a candle. When they flame would flicker, they would know there was a leak that needed to fixed. However, at one leak, there was a vacuum and the leak sucked the flame from the candle into the conduit where it ignited the insulation surrounding the wiring. The regular and emergency control wiring were in the same conduit and control over Unit 1 was lost due to the burning insulation. CO2 was used to extinguish the fire in the conduit. But as soon as the CO2 concentration dropped the residual heat in the conduit would restart the fire. The local fire chief pleaded with the plant manager, a Navy nuclear veteran, to let him spray water on the conduit to take away the heat so the fire would not restart. The plant manager dismissed the suggestion as absurd because "everyone knows" you never spray water on an electrical fire. By "everyone" what the plant manager meant was Navy veterans who operated in salt water and knew to never spray salt water on an electrical fire. The local fire chief however was not proposing to spray salt water on the fire, but fresh water, which was all he had and is not a conductor. The Navy veteran plant manager would not listen and a disaster far worse than what actually happened was narrowly averted. The Navy veteran plant manager who refused to let the local fire chief put out the fire early on was punished by TVA by being promoted to the manager of TVA's entire nuclear division. When I interviewed with TVA, I was taken on a tour of the TVA nuclear training center at the Sequoia Nuclear Facility in Soddy-Daisy, TN. A mock-up of all the TVA nuclear plant control rooms were in this training center. After we had been walked through on the training rooms during the visit, we were asked if anyone had any questions. I raised my hand and asked, "In the Brown's Ferry control room, there was a glass box on the wall that contains a candle and a sign that read, 'In case of emergency, break glass.' What does that mean?" The director of the training center leaned over to his assistant and said in a falsetto voice, "Get his name."
 
Double-Posting This one here and in UNC Basketball History.

IMG_8175.jpeg


#OTD (March 30) in 1981 President Ronald Reagan was shot. Vice President George H.W. Bush immediately headed back to Washington D.C. from Texas by plane. In the meantime, Secretary of State Alexander Haig met with the Press and announced that, “I, Al Haig, am in control at the White House.” Thankfully he was badly mistaken, showing a lack of knowledge of the Constitution, and was never ‘in control.’ Though the 25th Amendment to the Constitution has recently been much discussed, on that day it was not invoked.



UNC was set to play Indiana that evening for the National Championship but until Reagan emerged from surgery in stable condition the game was in doubt. White House Press Secretary James Brady was graveky injured, never to fully recover. When the doctors signaled that the president would survive and was not even badly wounded, the game was played. The starters for Carolina were Al Wood, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Jimmy Black, and Mike Pepper. Matt Doherty, Jimmy Braddock, Chris Brust, Pete Budko, and Eric Kenny also played. Wood was the leading scorer with 18, Perkins grabbed 8 rebounds, and Black dished out 6 assists. Isaiah Thomas had 23 points and 5 assists for Indiana.



The Hoosiers won 63-50.

At that point in his 19 year long head coaching career Dean Smith had yet to win a National Championship. His coaching opponent that night, Bobby Knight had captured a title five years previously, winning in 1976. I have never been a fan of Bobby Knight. I can respect that his players graduated. Something apparently motivated him away from corruption as well. Just the same, the sentiments that he so frankly expressed over the years and the acts that worldview drove him to commit have always been, in the main, repulsive to me.



So many of his performances over the years were juvenile and mean-spirited. After the conclusion of his coaching career at Texas Tech in 2008 he continued to speak his mind in public venues and in 2016 and 2020 was a vocal backer of Donald Trump. At one point he was the winningest head coach in the college game and passed Coach Smith to reach that milestone. He begat the equally foul-mouthed coach in Durham, Mike Krzyzewski, who currently tallies the most wins on the court.



My apologies if my views on this offend you. I won’t be swayed so do not try. I have heard many suggest that Coach Smith and Knight were friends but I have long searched for evidence and have only found them to be acquaintances. More recently I have heard of more evidence that they were indeed friends. If true then that is yet another tribute to Coach Smith’s Christian character. Both men acknowledged one-another’s coaching prowess.



I felt this way about Knight before 1981 by the way, and his behavior in the subsequent 43 years up to his passing on 11/1/23 have only worked to heighten my disgust. If you know me you’ve either heard this or are not surprised. I’ve always kind of wished that contest had been postponed but it was played and UNC lost. I have poured over the sources in search of how the respective locker rooms dealt with that period of uncertainty after the shooting over both Reagan’s survival and, of course, whether the game would be played that evening. I have yet to find any satisfying account - I will keep looking.



I know Coach Smith was a man of faith and right mindset and suspect that any locker room discussion would have reflected that as it also did on the court. An attempted murder of a global leader had happened and as the day progressed that person’s life hung in the balance. Reagan emerged from surgery at 6:20 and despite an earlier dire prognosis he was declared ‘out of danger.’ The game proceeded as scheduled. It was quite a day — and night.



Knight’s Hoosiers won. That Carolina team, minus senior starters Al Wood and Mike Pepper, added a young Wilmingtonian the next year and emerged victorious over Georgetown giving Coach Smith his first National Championship.
 
1979 At 4:00 am an automatic valve mistakenly closed at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, culminating in radioactive leakage.
Three Mile Island accident, accident in 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station that was the most serious in the history of the American nuclear power industry. The Three Mile Island power station was named after the island on which it was situated in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pa. At 4:00 am on March 28, an automatically operated valve in the Unit 2 reactor mistakenly closed, shutting off the water supply to the main feedwater system (the system that transfers heat from the water actually circulating in the reactor core). This caused the reactor core to shut down automatically, but a series of equipment and instrument malfunctions, human errors in operating procedures, and mistaken decisions in the ensuing hours led to a serious loss of water coolant from the reactor core and a partial core meltdown. As a result, the core was partially exposed, and the zirconium cladding of its fuel reacted with the surrounding superheated steam to form a large accumulation of hydrogen gas, some of which escaped from the core into the containment vessel of the reactor building. Very little of this and other radioactive gases actually escaped into the atmosphere, and they did not constitute a threat to the health of the surrounding population. In the following days adequate coolant water circulation in the core was restored.

1743164990399.jpeg

Why Microsoft made a deal to help restart Three Mile Island​

A once-shuttered nuclear plant could soon return to the grid.


[Unit 2, which suffered the partial meltdown, will not be reactivated]

“… But the site, in Pennsylvania, is also home to another reactor—Unit 1, which consistently and safely generated electricity for decades until it was shut down in 2019. The site’s owner announced last week that it has plans to reopen the plant and signed a deal with Microsoft. The company will purchase the plant’s entire electric generating capacity over the next 20 years.

… Eventually, though, the plant faced economic struggles. Even though it was operating at relatively high efficiency and with low costs, it was driven out of business by record low prices for natural gas and the introduction of relatively cheap, subsidized renewable energy to the grid, says Patrick White, research director of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, a nonprofit think tank. …”
 
Double-Posting This one here and in UNC Basketball History.

IMG_8175.jpeg


#OTD (March 30) in 1981 President Ronald Reagan was shot. Vice President George H.W. Bush immediately headed back to Washington D.C. from Texas by plane. In the meantime, Secretary of State Alexander Haig met with the Press and announced that, “I, Al Haig, am in control at the White House.” Thankfully he was badly mistaken, showing a lack of knowledge of the Constitution, and was never ‘in control.’ Though the 25th Amendment to the Constitution has recently been much discussed, on that day it was not invoked.



UNC was set to play Indiana that evening for the National Championship but until Reagan emerged from surgery in stable condition the game was in doubt. White House Press Secretary James Brady was graveky injured, never to fully recover. When the doctors signaled that the president would survive and was not even badly wounded, the game was played. The starters for Carolina were Al Wood, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Jimmy Black, and Mike Pepper. Matt Doherty, Jimmy Braddock, Chris Brust, Pete Budko, and Eric Kenny also played. Wood was the leading scorer with 18, Perkins grabbed 8 rebounds, and Black dished out 6 assists. Isaiah Thomas had 23 points and 5 assists for Indiana.



The Hoosiers won 63-50.

At that point in his 19 year long head coaching career Dean Smith had yet to win a National Championship. His coaching opponent that night, Bobby Knight had captured a title five years previously, winning in 1976. I have never been a fan of Bobby Knight. I can respect that his players graduated. Something apparently motivated him away from corruption as well. Just the same, the sentiments that he so frankly expressed over the years and the acts that worldview drove him to commit have always been, in the main, repulsive to me.



So many of his performances over the years were juvenile and mean-spirited. After the conclusion of his coaching career at Texas Tech in 2008 he continued to speak his mind in public venues and in 2016 and 2020 was a vocal backer of Donald Trump. At one point he was the winningest head coach in the college game and passed Coach Smith to reach that milestone. He begat the equally foul-mouthed coach in Durham, Mike Krzyzewski, who currently tallies the most wins on the court.



My apologies if my views on this offend you. I won’t be swayed so do not try. I have heard many suggest that Coach Smith and Knight were friends but I have long searched for evidence and have only found them to be acquaintances. More recently I have heard of more evidence that they were indeed friends. If true then that is yet another tribute to Coach Smith’s Christian character. Both men acknowledged one-another’s coaching prowess.



I felt this way about Knight before 1981 by the way, and his behavior in the subsequent 43 years up to his passing on 11/1/23 have only worked to heighten my disgust. If you know me you’ve either heard this or are not surprised. I’ve always kind of wished that contest had been postponed but it was played and UNC lost. I have poured over the sources in search of how the respective locker rooms dealt with that period of uncertainty after the shooting over both Reagan’s survival and, of course, whether the game would be played that evening. I have yet to find any satisfying account - I will keep looking.



I know Coach Smith was a man of faith and right mindset and suspect that any locker room discussion would have reflected that as it also did on the court. An attempted murder of a global leader had happened and as the day progressed that person’s life hung in the balance. Reagan emerged from surgery at 6:20 and despite an earlier dire prognosis he was declared ‘out of danger.’ The game proceeded as scheduled. It was quite a day — and night.



Knight’s Hoosiers won. That Carolina team, minus senior starters Al Wood and Mike Pepper, added a young Wilmingtonian the next year and emerged victorious over Georgetown giving Coach Smith his first National Championship.
I recall Dan Rather immediately calling out the Haig statement …
 
Haig was a troll.

Still, given what we’re facing today I reckon he had an essential respect for constitutional governance.
 
Haig was a troll.

Still, given what we’re facing today I reckon he had an essential respect for constitutional governance.
I’m googling and trying to find a political cartoon from 1981 following Reagan’s near assassination.

The cartoon shows Al Haig running in front of the White House leaping over a bush.
 
Y'all remember Saunders Hall? On April 2, 1891 the namesake for that campus building (Geography and Religion) died. He is buried at Calvary Church Cemetery in Tarboro, NC.

His tombstone reads: "William Lawrence Saunders SOLDIER-EDITOR-HISTORIAN-STATESMAN PATRIOT Col. 46 Regiment N. C. Troops Distinguished for wisdom, purity and courage For 20 years he exerted more Power in North Carolina than any other man 'I decline to answer'"

That final part of his epitaph is related to his response before a congressional investigation into KKK activity in North Carolina. Saunders was the Klan's leader in the state.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Col William Lawrence Saunders (1835-1891) – Find...

The following is the actual text from the Find-a-Grave Website: "
Statesman; Editor; Historian Colonel William Lawrence Saunders served as Secretary of the State of North Carolina during the Reconstruction era (1879-1891). During his tenure, he was arrested in his office in Raleigh and brought before the US Senate for questioning regarding his alleged connection to Ku Klux Klan activities in North Carolina. Saunders was the first person ever to invoke his Fifth Ammendment right to refuse to answer questions that could incriminate him during a US Senate investigation. "I decline to answer" is carved on his tombstone as are the words "For 20 years he exerted more power in North Carolina than any other man" also "Distinguished for wisdom, purity and courage" which is generally understood to be a reference to his years of leadership with the Ku Klux Klan rather than his tenure as NC Secretary of State. Saunders was also on the UNC board of trustees and a co-founder of the Raleigh News and Observer newspaper. He graduated from The University of North Carolina in 1854; in 1922 the building that houses Religious Studies and the Geography department - Saunders Hall- was named after him. Although minority students have staged protests in recent years asking that the name be changed - the University of North Carolina is refusing on the grounds that history cannot be changed; only studied with an eye towards better understanding in the future.

*** The UNC-Chapel Hill building named for Saunders has been changed to Carolina Hall, c. 2015. William L. Saunders (1835-1891) and Carolina Hall · Names Across the Landscape · Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History "
 
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I sincerely hope for Caleb that doesn’t end up being the biggest shot of HIS life, but I guarantee that it is and shall forever remain his biggest shot of MY life.
 
IMG_8222.jpeg

Bill Withers passed away on March 30, 2020 (his family announced his passing on April 3). This was a sad thing for me and a lot of other people of course. Bill Withers first came to my young boy world in Chatham County by way of "Lean on Me," I guess his most well-known release (or was that “Ain’t No Sunshine”?). At the time (1972) I was deeply into activities at my church in Bonlee. Fourteen years old, I was teaching my age-group Sunday School class a good deal of the time and my contemporaries and I there were also increasingly participating in the choir and other worship service moments. It was an interesting time as I look back, especially when I do a little research into the context and recollect the world around me as I was receiving it.

What I found when I dug into those times was Jesus all around and me, a sponge soaking up every bit. I was also absorbing, breathing in nigh literally, every scrap of media that crossed my eyes and ears. The radio, then all AM, was a lifeline into the outside world and WKIX in Raleigh and WNCA in Siler City were primary senders. There I got my tunes. My brother Glenn had left the radio in our bedroom tuned to those stations when he went off to college. Indeed, his own dedication to the hits of the day had in turn introduced them to me. During his high school years he had even been a Disc Jockey at the Siler City station and our house was filled with 45s and the rock and soul sounds of the mid-1960s. Everything from the British Invasion to MoTown to the Rhythm and Blues of East Coast Beach Music (the stuff I would later discover was the favorite of Frat Boys one I headed off to college). AM radio played all those things in those days — the radio stations that I was glued to were hardly discerning in their playlist — you got a little bit of everything. And that was good.

Looking back I can see that as the early 1970s started updawned I was feeling very introspective. I read Hal Lindsay’s ‘The Late, Great, Planet Earth’ with its apocalyptic prophecies tied to current events and the End-Times seemed to loom. In contrast the 5th Dimension sang about “The Age of Aquarius” and the dawning of a new era of love and peace and harmony. Of course, Barry McGuire’s ‘Eve of Destruction’ was always somewhere in the depths of my remembering as was The Bomb. At church the messages were intriguing to say the least. While the preacher railed against long hair and the wrong-headedness of Protesting for Peace I was reading, really reading, ‘Good News for Modern Man,’ a New Testament transposed into the language of the day. I still read the King James Bible of course, and even took copies of both to church with me on Sunday, but there was something enticing, almost subversive, about that Good News version. I’ve always been drawn to that sort of thing.

My parents were avid magazine readers. We had subscriptions to Time, Newsweek, The U.S. News and World Report, Life, and Look. I got Sports Illustrated and Sport too. The Progressive Farmer and Southern Living were ‘must haves’ to boot. In 1971 the “Jesus Revolution” made the cover of ‘Time Magazine.’ I knew something was up for sure then.

On the radio too I was hearing some decidedly Christian Rock. “Day by Day” from the musical ‘Godspell’ was there and even stronger was the power of the simple lyrics to “Superstar” from the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Both those songs were top radio hits of 1971. By that time, I had become practiced at reading all sorts of messages into the lyrics of pretty much any song that I heard. The world “out there” was, after all, mighty spiritual and I was picking up on it.

Around that time, somehow I got permission to play the 45 of Bill Withers’ hit “Lean on Me" and say a few words at Sunday evening meeting. I did not know this then but Withers had written that song when living in Los Angeles and missing the community that he had known in the small West Virginia town, much like Bonlee, where he had grown up. I felt the message of the lyrics deeply at that time as I did most things around me. Such is the life of a 14 year old after all. I came to understand that there had been some grumbling in the aftermath from a few (not all) when they noted that the singer was African American but my parents stood by me on it (Deddy was a deacon). I don't think I ever appreciated that enough. The voice and the message have always been powerfully pertinent. They remain so…


“Lean On Me”
Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow

Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on...
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on
Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill
Those of your needs that you won't let show

You just call on me brother when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on

Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on...
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on

You just call on me brother
When you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on
If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me

Call me
If you need a friend
(call me)
Call me (call me)
If you need a friend
(call me)
If you ever need a friend.

IMG_8221.jpegIMG_8223.jpeg
 
IMG_8222.jpeg

Bill Withers passed away on March 30, 2020 (his family announced his passing on April 3). This was a sad thing for me and a lot of other people of course. Bill Withers first came to my young boy world in Chatham County by way of "Lean on Me," I guess his most well-known release (or was that “Ain’t No Sunshine”?). At the time (1972) I was deeply into activities at my church in Bonlee. Fourteen years old, I was teaching my age-group Sunday School class a good deal of the time and my contemporaries and I there were also increasingly participating in the choir and other worship service moments. It was an interesting time as I look back, especially when I do a little research into the context and recollect the world around me as I was receiving it.

What I found when I dug into those times was Jesus all around and me, a sponge soaking up every bit. I was also absorbing, breathing in nigh literally, every scrap of media that crossed my eyes and ears. The radio, then all AM, was a lifeline into the outside world and WKIX in Raleigh and WNCA in Siler City were primary senders. There I got my tunes. My brother Glenn had left the radio in our bedroom tuned to those stations when he went off to college. Indeed, his own dedication to the hits of the day had in turn introduced them to me. During his high school years he had even been a Disc Jockey at the Siler City station and our house was filled with 45s and the rock and soul sounds of the mid-1960s. Everything from the British Invasion to MoTown to the Rhythm and Blues of East Coast Beach Music (the stuff I would later discover was the favorite of Frat Boys one I headed off to college). AM radio played all those things in those days — the radio stations that I was glued to were hardly discerning in their playlist — you got a little bit of everything. And that was good.

Looking back I can see that as the early 1970s started updawned I was feeling very introspective. I read Hal Lindsay’s ‘The Late, Great, Planet Earth’ with its apocalyptic prophecies tied to current events and the End-Times seemed to loom. In contrast the 5th Dimension sang about “The Age of Aquarius” and the dawning of a new era of love and peace and harmony. Of course, Barry McGuire’s ‘Eve of Destruction’ was always somewhere in the depths of my remembering as was The Bomb. At church the messages were intriguing to say the least. While the preacher railed against long hair and the wrong-headedness of Protesting for Peace I was reading, really reading, ‘Good News for Modern Man,’ a New Testament transposed into the language of the day. I still read the King James Bible of course, and even took copies of both to church with me on Sunday, but there was something enticing, almost subversive, about that Good News version. I’ve always been drawn to that sort of thing.

My parents were avid magazine readers. We had subscriptions to Time, Newsweek, The U.S. News and World Report, Life, and Look. I got Sports Illustrated and Sport too. The Progressive Farmer and Southern Living were ‘must haves’ to boot. In 1971 the “Jesus Revolution” made the cover of ‘Time Magazine.’ I knew something was up for sure then.

On the radio too I was hearing some decidedly Christian Rock. “Day by Day” from the musical ‘Godspell’ was there and even stronger was the power of the simple lyrics to “Superstar” from the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Both those songs were top radio hits of 1971. By that time, I had become practiced at reading all sorts of messages into the lyrics of pretty much any song that I heard. The world “out there” was, after all, mighty spiritual and I was picking up on it.

Around that time, somehow I got permission to play the 45 of Bill Withers’ hit “Lean on Me" and say a few words at Sunday evening meeting. I did not know this then but Withers had written that song when living in Los Angeles and missing the community that he had known in the small West Virginia town, much like Bonlee, where he had grown up. I felt the message of the lyrics deeply at that time as I did most things around me. Such is the life of a 14 year old after all. I came to understand that there had been some grumbling in the aftermath from a few (not all) when they noted that the singer was African American but my parents stood by me on it (Deddy was a deacon). I don't think I ever appreciated that enough. The voice and the message have always been powerfully pertinent. They remain so…


“Lean On Me”
Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow

Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on...
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on
Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill
Those of your needs that you won't let show

You just call on me brother when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on

Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on...
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on

You just call on me brother
When you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on
If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me

Call me
If you need a friend
(call me)
Call me (call me)
If you need a friend
(call me)
If you ever need a friend.

IMG_8221.jpegIMG_8223.jpeg
One of the saddest and truest things that Dr. Martin Luther King ever said was, "We must face the sad fact that at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning when we stand to sing 'In Christ there is no East or West,' we stand in the most segregated hour of America.”
 
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