Sunday, May 30, 2010
BallPoint: Samuel James Ervin, Jr. -- by Allen Ball
Accept whatever your mind finds to be true; and whatever your conscience determines to be right, and whatever your heart declares to be noble, even though your act in doing so may drive a hoary prejudice from its throne. And, above all things, meditate often upon the words and deeds of Him who died on Calvary for, by so doing, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
-- Senator Sam Ervin, Jr.
Senator Sam Ervin, Jr. is one of my all-time favorite people. I loved his folksy manner; I admired his knowledge of the bible; I loved his storytelling; I admired his brilliance, but most of all, I admired his integrity.
In 1732, a band of Scotch-Irish settlers migrated from Ulster to Belfast and finally to the coast of South Carolina to escape the religious persecution of the King of England. Among them was James Ervin, who settled in Williamsburg County, South Carolina. In 1776, he died leaving a son, John, who owned a plantation and twenty-nine slaves.
John Witherspoon Ervin, teacher, newspaper publisher, and poet, gave up writing after the Civil War, accepting an offer to teach in Morganton, North Carolina, in 1874. His, Samuel James Ervin, took the North Carolina bar exam, in 1878, and later became one of the states most prominent lawyers.
In 1886, Samuel Ervin married Laura Theresa Powe. She bore ten children: Lauta, 1888; Catharine, 1890; Margaret, 1892; Edward, 1894; Sam, 1896; Hugh, 1898; Joseph, 1901, Eunice, 1903; John, 1906; and Jean, 1909.
Samuel James Ervin, Jr. was a Representative and a Senator from North Carolina. He was born in Morganton, Burke County, N.C., September 27, 1896, in Morganton, shortly before William McKinley, a Scotch-Irishman, from Canton, Ohio, defeated William Jennings Bryan for the Presidency. As a young boy his favorite pastime was playing baseball and playing marbles. He attended his first year of public school in 1903. He was an above-average student, excelling in history and reading, but he disliked science and math. An omnivorous reader, Ervin was taught by his grandfather to read at the age of four. "I don't remember so much his teaching, but when I didn't learn right quick he'd thump me on the head with his finger and say, 'Mighty thick, mighty thick.' That's the only conversation I recall having with him." His father had a sizable home library, including works by Shakespeare, Dickens, Scott, and Kipling. Years later, as Senator, Sam, Jr. estimated his own library to contain 25,000-35,000 books.
Like most boys, Sam was not immune to mischief. "I used to have to answer the roll call every morning with a quotation from the scriptures. On one occasion I had just looked through the Bible and I found a verse that said, 'I have more understanding than all my teachers.' Of course, the class was hilarious. And the teacher kept me in, said there was no such verse in the Bible. And I showed it to him. I've forgotten where it is now. I think it's in King Solomon that said that. I pointed it out to him, and he said, 'Well, you didn't say it in the right spirit of reverence'"
Tragedy struck the Ervin family on several occasions. Edward suffered a bad case of whooping cough when he was a child and then developed an agonizing asthmatic condition, spending his nights sitting in a straight chair. He died when he was 39.
Margaret, four years older than Sam, died of tuberculosis when she was 19. Before it was diagnosed she lost one lung and was not expected to recover. She spent her final days in her bedroom where only her mother was permitted to see her.
Catharine contracted Hodgkin's disease and died when she was 50.
Surely, the most tragic of all was the suffering and extraordinary treatment Joseph endured, resulting from a fall from a tree in the family apple orchard, at the age of 6. Joseph developed osteomyelitis, a painful inflammation of the bone marrow. Before the discovery of "wonder" drugs, one of the treatments of osteomyelitis involved planting maggots, worm-like insects, near the infected bone, place a small cage over the incision so the maggots could not escape, and leave them there to eat away at the diseased bone tissues. It worked, at least provisionally, but it was a horrible, disgusting experience for the patient.
Ervin went to see his brother one day at the hospital and Joe confided in him: "This is the greatest agony I've ever undergone; feeling a live maggot wandering around inside my body. I don't know how I can stand it much longer." He committed suicide at the height of a promising political career. He had endured a series of operations, spending time in between on crutches. "He took the notion that his osteomyelitis was coming back on him and it was just too much for him."
A northerner, Carey E. Gregory, seeking a healthier climate, settled in western North Carolina. Prior to Sam's departure for college he told him, "There's no royal road to learning.: Sam may have taken the comment to heart, as indicated by an excerpt from Paul R. Clancy's "Just a Country Lawyer":
"To those who did not know young Sam well, he frequently seemed to be going through life in a fog. He had the ability, even then, to crawl inside his mind and hide. He was collecting, storing, sorting out, and valuating knowledge. And, in so doing, he could shut out the rest of the world. Friends and family could go into his room where he was studying, even dust around his feet, and he wouldn't know it"
"There were always lots of books in that family. You read books and you developed yourself."
"Before leaving for Chapel Hill, the studious remote young man walked his sister Eunice to school on her first day in the first grade. He read a book all the way."
Sam extolled the virtues of reading when he addressed the class of '73, on October 12, at the Memorial Auditorium at the University of North Carolina:
"Let books be your friends, for by so doing you summon to your fireside in seasons of loneliness the choice spirits of all the ages. Observe mankind through the eyes of clarity, for, by so doing, you will discover anew the oft forgotten fact that earth is peopled with many gallant souls. Study nature, and walk at times in solitude beneath the starry heavens, for, by so doing, you will absorb the great lesson that God is infinite and that your life is just a little beat within the heart of time. Cling to the ancient landmark of truth, but be ready to test the soundness of a new idea.
Accept whatever your mind finds to be true; and whatever your conscience determines to be right, and whatever your heart declares to be noble, even though your act in doing so may drive a hoary prejudice from its throne. And, above all things, meditate often upon the words and deeds of Him who died on Calvary for, by so doing, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
In 1913, Ervin entered the freshman class, of only 200 students, at the University of North Carolina, graduating, in 1917. Thomas Wolfe, from Asheville was two years behind Ervin at Chapel Hill. They met through Sigma Upsilon, the campus literary society. Ervin made the observation that Wolfe was "normally a very taciturn person, but when he got with some friends he could speak almost as fluently as he wrote."
After serving in France in the First World War, with the First Division (1917-1919), Ervin was admitted to the bar in 1919 and commenced practice in Morganton, in 1922, after graduating from Harvard University law school , the same year. He became a member of the North Carolina general assembly (1923, 1925, 1931); judge of the Burke County criminal court (1935-1937); judge of the North Carolina superior court (1937-1943); elected on January 22, 1946, as a Democrat to the Seventy-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his brother, Joseph W. Ervin, and served from January 22, 1946, to January 3, 1947. Choosing not to run for re-nomination in 1946; Sam resumed the practice of law; and was associate justice of the North Carolina supreme court 1948-1954; appointed on June 5, 1954.
On November 2, 1954, Ervin was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy brought about by the death of Clyde R. Hoey, for the term ending January 3, 1957. Re-elected in 1956, 1962, and again in 1968 and served until his resignation December 31,1974. "I've seen too many Senators remain there too long," he once said.
In addition to being well-read and having a prodigious memory, Senator Ervin was an unbending moralist who possessed a rapier wit, often quoting Biblical scripture. On President Gerald R. Ford's pardon of Richard M. Nixon, he said: "The pardon power of the president of the United States is greater than the pardon power of the Almighty. The Almighty, according to religious teachings, can't pardon a poor sinner for his sins, unless the poor sinner first confesses his sins." He counseled his peers with the admonition: " The Constitution and the Bible are suggested readings for public officials."
Ervin chaired the Committee on Government Operations (Ninety-second and Ninety-third Congresses), and the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (Ninety-third Congress). Resuming the practice of law, after retirement, Sam engaged in literary pursuits in Morganton, N.C., continuing to work an 8-hour day because "I prefer to wear out rather than rust out."
Senator Sam, as he was referred to affectionately, was an avuncular figure--he was a Bible scholar, an intellectual, and a warm-spirited gentleman. He possessed a gift of story-telling, His down-home, down-to-earth manner endeared him to, not only North Carolinians, but to the nation, as exemplified by his folksy demeanor when asked to head the Senate Watergate Committee investigation. "This self-proclaimed country lawyer with the bottomless barrel of aphorisms from Shakespeare, the Bible, and the North Carolina mountains, became a national symbol of decency and fairness in politics, the embodiment for many of wisdom, a genuine American folk hero."
Senator Sam Ervin, Jr. died in Winston-Salem, N.C., on April 23, 1985. He was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Morganton, N.C.
Bibliography
American National Biography; Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives; Clancy, Paul. Just A Country Lawyer: A Biography of Senator Sam Ervin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974; Ervin, Sam. Preserving the Constitution: An Autobiography of Senator Sam Ervin. Charlottesville, Va.: Mitchie Co., 1984.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
TRUE, FUNNY, KINSTON, N.C. STORIES~VOL. 1
My dad told me this true story that took place in the Forties...
My dad, Allen James “Jay” Ball, was in Lovick’s Cafe, in Kinston,N.C., sitting at the front counter. A man walked in and sat down close to my dad at the counter. The man behind the counter said: “Can I help you? The man replied, gruffly: “Give me a sandwich.” The man behind the counter said: “What kind of sandwich?” The man replied: “I don’t care--just fix me a sandwich.” So the guy fixed him a sandwich. When he placed it on the counter, the customer said, rudely: “I don’t want that sandwich.”
All the while this conversation was taking place, my dad was taking it in. He interrupted saying: “You ordered that sandwich now you eat it.” The man said: “Whata ya mean?” My dad, pretty upset by the man’s rude behavior said: “I said, you told the man that you wanted a sandwich and you didn’t care what kind of sandwich, so now; you eat it!”
The man, figuring my dad was serious, picked up his sandwich, moving further down the counter next to another man. He looked at the guy, sitting there quietly, and said: “I’m gonna have ta whip his a-- before I leave here.” The man said calmly: “You mean that man right there?” nodding towards my dad. The troublemaker said: “Yeah.” The quiet onlooker hauled off, and without any warning, punched the guy right in the face, knocking him onto the floor of Lovick’s Cafe.
The man didn’t know it, but the guy he’d been grumbling to, about my dad, saying he was going to have to “whip his a--”--was my dad’s brother--my Uncle “D.J.”
“THE LORD TOLD ME…”
At a church service, in Kinston, North Carolina, in the ‘70s, a prominent church member stood up, announcing to the preacher and the congregation, The Lord told me that the church needs to pray for brother “so-and-so.” A lady quickly spoke up, saying to the prominent church member: “Brother “so-and-so” is dead.”
THE TWO LADIES WITH HARRY
Wanting to acknowledge visitors at his church, in Kinston, North Carolina, the preacher addressed them saying: “Will the two ladies with Harry Butz please stand up?”
My dad, Allen James “Jay” Ball, was in Lovick’s Cafe, in Kinston,N.C., sitting at the front counter. A man walked in and sat down close to my dad at the counter. The man behind the counter said: “Can I help you? The man replied, gruffly: “Give me a sandwich.” The man behind the counter said: “What kind of sandwich?” The man replied: “I don’t care--just fix me a sandwich.” So the guy fixed him a sandwich. When he placed it on the counter, the customer said, rudely: “I don’t want that sandwich.”
All the while this conversation was taking place, my dad was taking it in. He interrupted saying: “You ordered that sandwich now you eat it.” The man said: “Whata ya mean?” My dad, pretty upset by the man’s rude behavior said: “I said, you told the man that you wanted a sandwich and you didn’t care what kind of sandwich, so now; you eat it!”
The man, figuring my dad was serious, picked up his sandwich, moving further down the counter next to another man. He looked at the guy, sitting there quietly, and said: “I’m gonna have ta whip his a-- before I leave here.” The man said calmly: “You mean that man right there?” nodding towards my dad. The troublemaker said: “Yeah.” The quiet onlooker hauled off, and without any warning, punched the guy right in the face, knocking him onto the floor of Lovick’s Cafe.
The man didn’t know it, but the guy he’d been grumbling to, about my dad, saying he was going to have to “whip his a--”--was my dad’s brother--my Uncle “D.J.”
“THE LORD TOLD ME…”
At a church service, in Kinston, North Carolina, in the ‘70s, a prominent church member stood up, announcing to the preacher and the congregation, The Lord told me that the church needs to pray for brother “so-and-so.” A lady quickly spoke up, saying to the prominent church member: “Brother “so-and-so” is dead.”
THE TWO LADIES WITH HARRY
Wanting to acknowledge visitors at his church, in Kinston, North Carolina, the preacher addressed them saying: “Will the two ladies with Harry Butz please stand up?”
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
SARAH PALIN: THE WRATH OF FAR-LEFT LIBERALS
I've never, in my lifetime, seen anyone treated as cruelly as Sarah Palin, in America. The fact that Palin is an evangelical Christian, an accomplished public servant, a good mother, and good wife, makes the hatred of her critics all the more horrific, shameful, and perplexing. The America I grew up in, in the 1950s and 1960s, no longer exists. Common sense, integrity, and morality are no longer popular concepts among many Americans.
When I was a boy, It was not okay for a young girl to lift her t-shirt to partially expose her breasts on national TV. It was not okay for a President of the U.S. to behave like a dictator.
Hollywood is mad, as in certifiable. From a headline: May 17, 2010 | 1:06 PM ET
Woody Allen says President Obama should be granted dictatorial powers (seriously)! Once, there was no more ardent fan of Woody Allen than I, but then some of his movies became sexually deviant. Then he took nude photos of his lover, Mia Farrow's, adopted daughter and subsequently married her. The lack of integrity in Hollywood is surpassed only by its narcissism and inflated sense of self-importance and relevance.
We are travelling down a dangerous road my friends. A nation so divided cannot long reign as a super power. A nation with no moral absolutes is destined to wind up on the trash heap of former nations of glory and power.
When I was a boy, It was not okay for a young girl to lift her t-shirt to partially expose her breasts on national TV. It was not okay for a President of the U.S. to behave like a dictator.
Hollywood is mad, as in certifiable. From a headline: May 17, 2010 | 1:06 PM ET
Woody Allen says President Obama should be granted dictatorial powers (seriously)! Once, there was no more ardent fan of Woody Allen than I, but then some of his movies became sexually deviant. Then he took nude photos of his lover, Mia Farrow's, adopted daughter and subsequently married her. The lack of integrity in Hollywood is surpassed only by its narcissism and inflated sense of self-importance and relevance.
We are travelling down a dangerous road my friends. A nation so divided cannot long reign as a super power. A nation with no moral absolutes is destined to wind up on the trash heap of former nations of glory and power.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
BEACH MUSIC LEGEND, JACKIE GORE, TO SING MY SONG, PRODUCED BY BEACH LEGEND, JOHNNY BARKER
I was born in Kinston, North Carolina, on April 19, 1948. My family and many of my relatives lived on French Lane, where many of the poorest white folk of Kinston lived.
My grandparents, Vaden and Addie Powell were devout Christians. They out-lived four of their ten children.
Dad, Allen James Ball, aka "Jay" and "AJ", moved our family from Kinston, in 1955, to Greenville, N.C. We lived there for only a few months, moving to Washington, N.C., where we lived until 1972. In 1972, we moved back to Kinston.
I played in junior and high school band, in Washington; and started playing in my Dad's band, at Whichard's Beach, when I was 13-years old. I volunteered to join the army, on September 12, 1966, at Ft. Bragg, upon graduation.
I attended Little Creek Naval School of Music, in Norfolk, Virginia, from November 1966, until May 1967. I was then stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C., with the 440th Army Band. There, I played in the 440th jazz band as well. The jazz ensemble toured eastern North Carolina, playing in high schools, including my alma mater, Washington, N.C. My tour of duty ended on September 11, 1969, after which I enrolled at East Carolina University, in Greenville, N.C., December 1969.
I've struggled since then to become a successful songwriter, working as a professional musician since 1971.
After an unremarkable nine-month stint as a college student, ( I didn't take algebra, algebra took me!)I dropped out of college to manage, and perform in, a 7-piece, variety music band.
Since my Mother became plagued by seizures, in 2004, and later cancer, in 2009, I've been full-time care giver for my Mom, and my Dad, (Dad died on July 10, 2008), in Britthaven of Snow Hill nursing home, at age 86.
Mama just turned 83 on May 14, 2010. On June 10, 2009, a Kinston oncologiist, from India, prophesied my mother's death, saying she had "six months to live." The prophesy was delivered in a startling, cold, unsympathetic manner. The oncologist never once smiled during his meeting with my Mom, my brother, and me.
Thoroughly disgusted with "smiling-boy," I found oncologist Dr. James N. Atkins, of Goldsboro, N.C. He's a wonderful doctor, greatly admired by everyone who's had the fortune to know him or be treated by him. He bears a remarkable resemblance to Dr. House, on the TV series of the same name. The similarities end there. He's a gifted professional who, along with superb treatment, offers hope to his patients, as much as is reasonable and realistic.
Jackie Gore is well-known in the field of beach music and music styles beyond. He's an exemplary performer, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Jackie is recording a beach music song of mine, "Cuddle Up". Johnny Barker, superb keyboardist, singer, songwriter, and producer, is producing the song. Jackie wrote the beach music anthem "I Love Beach Music". Johnny wrote the beach music classic "Summertime's Calling Me". I'm looking forward, with much anticipation, to hearing the song, which I've placed in such capable hands. Despite the fact that they, like me, are musicians and ne'er-do-wells, they are gentlemen and just plain, good ol', North Carolina boys. They remind me of the guy who said: "I put my pants on, one leg at a time, like everyone else. The only difference is: I write hit songs".
My home recording of "Cuddle Up" has, as of today, Friday, May 21, 2010, amassed 25, 267 views, since August 21, 2009 {A lot for an unknown artist with a poorly recorded, home-recorded demo}.
Jackie and Johnny are part of the new beach music group, Legends of Beach. You can find their videos on youtube. You can find my videos on youtube, as well, at the URLs below:
ALLEN BALL ~ CUDDLE UP {Posted August 21, 2009}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUa6g0BMITE
ALLEN BALL
http://www.youtube.com/user/19271948
My grandparents, Vaden and Addie Powell were devout Christians. They out-lived four of their ten children.
Dad, Allen James Ball, aka "Jay" and "AJ", moved our family from Kinston, in 1955, to Greenville, N.C. We lived there for only a few months, moving to Washington, N.C., where we lived until 1972. In 1972, we moved back to Kinston.
I played in junior and high school band, in Washington; and started playing in my Dad's band, at Whichard's Beach, when I was 13-years old. I volunteered to join the army, on September 12, 1966, at Ft. Bragg, upon graduation.
I attended Little Creek Naval School of Music, in Norfolk, Virginia, from November 1966, until May 1967. I was then stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C., with the 440th Army Band. There, I played in the 440th jazz band as well. The jazz ensemble toured eastern North Carolina, playing in high schools, including my alma mater, Washington, N.C. My tour of duty ended on September 11, 1969, after which I enrolled at East Carolina University, in Greenville, N.C., December 1969.
I've struggled since then to become a successful songwriter, working as a professional musician since 1971.
After an unremarkable nine-month stint as a college student, ( I didn't take algebra, algebra took me!)I dropped out of college to manage, and perform in, a 7-piece, variety music band.
Since my Mother became plagued by seizures, in 2004, and later cancer, in 2009, I've been full-time care giver for my Mom, and my Dad, (Dad died on July 10, 2008), in Britthaven of Snow Hill nursing home, at age 86.
Mama just turned 83 on May 14, 2010. On June 10, 2009, a Kinston oncologiist, from India, prophesied my mother's death, saying she had "six months to live." The prophesy was delivered in a startling, cold, unsympathetic manner. The oncologist never once smiled during his meeting with my Mom, my brother, and me.
Thoroughly disgusted with "smiling-boy," I found oncologist Dr. James N. Atkins, of Goldsboro, N.C. He's a wonderful doctor, greatly admired by everyone who's had the fortune to know him or be treated by him. He bears a remarkable resemblance to Dr. House, on the TV series of the same name. The similarities end there. He's a gifted professional who, along with superb treatment, offers hope to his patients, as much as is reasonable and realistic.
Jackie Gore is well-known in the field of beach music and music styles beyond. He's an exemplary performer, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Jackie is recording a beach music song of mine, "Cuddle Up". Johnny Barker, superb keyboardist, singer, songwriter, and producer, is producing the song. Jackie wrote the beach music anthem "I Love Beach Music". Johnny wrote the beach music classic "Summertime's Calling Me". I'm looking forward, with much anticipation, to hearing the song, which I've placed in such capable hands. Despite the fact that they, like me, are musicians and ne'er-do-wells, they are gentlemen and just plain, good ol', North Carolina boys. They remind me of the guy who said: "I put my pants on, one leg at a time, like everyone else. The only difference is: I write hit songs".
My home recording of "Cuddle Up" has, as of today, Friday, May 21, 2010, amassed 25, 267 views, since August 21, 2009 {A lot for an unknown artist with a poorly recorded, home-recorded demo}.
Jackie and Johnny are part of the new beach music group, Legends of Beach. You can find their videos on youtube. You can find my videos on youtube, as well, at the URLs below:
ALLEN BALL ~ CUDDLE UP {Posted August 21, 2009}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUa6g0BMITE
ALLEN BALL
http://www.youtube.com/user/19271948
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