MAY 2009 NEWSLETTER

^{Gordon Rutzen – Editor and Chief Typist / Envelope Stuffer}

APRIL MEETING recap -

J.C. Knowles brought us some humor and history of the area. J.C. told us a little of his interesting and active life starting with being born in Wallace, NC. He was raised for 13 years in the Oxford Orphanage, served in the U.S. Merchant Marines, Auctioneer for 40 years, Executive Director of the NC Academy of Family Physicians, taught school and publishes the Salem Street Gazette. His honors include: Tar Heel of the Week, Apex Citizen of the year and Oxford Orphanage Alumni of the Year. Remember Peak Fest in Apex on May 2.

J.C. gave us an interesting overview of North Carolina history, starting with the state capital moving to Raleigh in 1791. Things you may not have known or perhaps forgotten included items such as the area had the largest number of tobacco warehouses. Apex was known as the mule center of North Carolina and 30 passenger trains passed through Apex in a day at one period in history. The week Gypsies passed through Apex each year coincided with a depletion in the chicken population among other things. And so the stories continued.

Roger Repp had us practice the Carbide Fight Song in the hope that practice would lead to improvement in our singing ability. Hope springs eternal. Easter was celebrated with songs which included "Easter Bonnet" and "Peter Cottontail".

We celebrated one birthday. Dave Fritz was born in 1940, but would not reveal his true age. Dave said he did remember when his dad got a tractor with rubber tires. We played a little catch-up by recognizing the wedding anniversary of Horace and Frankie in February.

Gene Brown reminded us of the air show at Seymour Johnson AFB on April 25. Gene's son will is a pilot of a T-6 Texan and will be at the show.