North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 10/29/1997

The It's Wednesday October 29. Tonight a British invasion of a different kind in North Carolina now. Good evening and welcome to tonight's edition of North Carolina now a steady trading session on Wall Street today help the Dow Jones Industrials gain a little ground. We'll have a word from Nation's Bank

CEO humor call along with a look at the market. And stocks of local interest later in the program. Also later in the show correspondent Ted Harrison will sit with the director of the Center for the Study of the American south to discuss the outcome of a recent conference on the nature of race relations here in the south. And tonight we continue our series on classic children's shows with a look back at the old clown carnival. But up first the British have landed again. But a lot can change in 200 years. The royal navy ship HMS Iron Duke arrived last Wednesday for a 10 day visit to Wilmington. And this time the city was ready for them. Producer Derek long has the story on a cold gray October morning. The HMS Iron Duke cruised into Wilmington for a 10 day visit and hearty crowd of dignitaries along with the New Hanover High School Band braved the weather to welcome this Royal Navy ship. As he pulled up to the Coast Guard docked alongside Water Street in downtown Wilmington.

Well let me see. Is there anybody that thinks you are on the right. The family of the uninsured Yes. Thank you. Women though not a military port. Wilmington has welcomed more than 30 Royal Navy ships over the last 18 years. Well all of this got started in the fall of 1979 Dame Catherine cop and was contacted by the Office of the British embassy and told that a British ship the HMS for a stroll would visit Wilmington in the fall of 1979 and would she be in any position to help welcome the ship and show the crew around the town to meet local people and generally to have a nice visit she said she would.

Catherine carpenter a long time community leader in Wilmington was honored with the title of Dame by the Knights of Malta for her humanitarian efforts in Sicily during the early 1960s as a result. She was on the British Embassies protocol list and contacted as the senior diplomatic person in Wilmington. Oh I caught him in the cradle and thank you. Come on over and mangled everyone out as well I guess me. Oh. That's a way of showing the Michelin when it was put together and Mr. Hugh Macrae and then Catherine carpenter were two people on the dock welcoming the ship as they came into the stone port now when a ship arrives there hundreds of will actually make this event happen for each ship that comes and they're all volunteers. Well this arrangement is unusual in some respect. Wilmington being a small airport compared to New York or Philadelphia or Norfolk an incoming ship naval ship is quite an event particularly a foreign ship.

Also these ships are able to dock right in the middle of downtown at the coastguard dock which makes them highly visible and makes the town very accessible to the ship's crew and as a result the sailors find that to be. Entirely different experience because my aura is just different than being and I will be what that usually is the other side of pan and not very accessible to restaurants and shopping and that sort of thing. This particular ship is going to be here for a 10 day period but lots of times are here only for a four day period. We try and pack as many opportunities into that timeframe as we possibly can and the itinerary is filled with ship tours receptions dinners athletic events and many other activities for the crew to participate in when they have time off from their regular duties. We have a dollar silo program which sounds a little unique to people sometimes when they don't understand what it means but we have a lot of military people in this community and I can recall having been overseas and not knowing anybody and having someone welcome

them into their home and that's what happens here local people are encouraged to call that number and invite members of the crew to come but then I go water ski and go exploring backpacking or whatever. But it all turns into a just a very active and enjoyable visit on both sides. Then even a sure couple times for the people I've met I think very very few. Only looking officer with a child and making sure we're in the right direction or going to the right places. We've also taken the ship's crew into the schools and the universities so we've made it an exchange program of a sort where they can come in and share with us places they'd ban things they've done and about their country so it's been a cultural exchange as well. I think these visits are wonderful I think it's a great opportunity for the people of our our town Wilmington to interact with people from all over the world and for them to get a taste of what it's like to live here as well.

When the ships come to visit they have several options of places to go. New York City Baltimore Norfolk Wellington Trost and Jacksonville. So Wellington is probably not the number one place on their last however what we have found is as a result of the visits we've had in the past we actually are the number one recommendation for ships that have been here before because of the hospitality and because of their opportunity to react and interact with the community itself has said she's been fantastic. Everyone is really friendly. HP one of the best place I've been to in the states the sleet cold we really come here and have a certain joy if they speak ill of people to get table. The HMS Iron Duke will be in Wilmington until Sunday November 2nd. If you'd like to find out more about the events and activities involving the ship you can contact the ship's liaison officer at 9 1 0 3 4 3 3 3 4 0. Coming up a talk with the director of the Center for the Study of the American South. But first here's a look at events making news around our state. You can see

system president Molly broad sense of the responsibility for educating young people must be shared by all. President broad made her comments during her first meeting with the Joint Legislative education Oversight Committee. A nationwide study shows the state lagging behind in college participation. The percentage of North Carolina students who go to college is seventeen point five percent. While the national average is a full three points higher president broadside legislators and the universities must work to make sure the USC system is accessible and affordable to more state residents. Even though the House and Senate continue to spar over welfare reform at least 22 counties are reported to have expressed interest in becoming a part of the state's pilot project. Forsyth County Commissioners voted this week to seek pilot status becoming the largest county to do so. Some officials now estimate interest exceeds the funding limit. However several counties including Forsyth are reserving the right to change their minds. If approved pilot counties will be able to set their own eligibility rules and benefits for welfare. Officials at case farms chicken processing

plant and Morgan are deciding whether or not they will negotiate with unionized workers. Their only other option is to continue their court fight. Case originally challenge the union vote but last week a U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the worker's vote to unionize the Laborers International Union of North America says it's time to start contract negotiations. The company however stands it still debating whether to appeal the latest court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says the Albemarle Sound Roanoke River striped bass population has recovered to historic levels. That declaration follows 13 years of strict restrictions on striped bass catches Preston Pate director of the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries says harvest restrictions should soon be eased in North Carolina. The determination comes after several successful spawning seasons by striped bass upstream in the Roanoke River. The state legislature in Minnesota has rejected a plan to pay for a new baseball stadium for the Minnesota Twins. Team owner Carl Pohlad has given the legislature a

deadline of November 30th to approve financing for a new ballpark. If a plan isn't approved then Poland says he will follow through on his deal to sell the twins to North Carolina businessman dun Beaver. Beaver wants to move the team to the triage area. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather look for seasonably warm temperatures tomorrow expect the mountains to reach highs in the 60s and coastal areas to climb into the 70s. Most of the state will see sunny skies. And in business news stock prices rallied again today driving the market further into positive territory calming words from the Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan eased Wall Street tensions somewhat. And here in North Carolina nation's bank CEO Hume a call shared with North Carolina now his view on the strength of North Carolina's business climate. Well I think overall in all care our economy fared very well. All of our stocks went down but they're coming down very very high levels are put a different way at record levels. If one looks at a

walkover branch banking trust by all are doing quite well running their companies. The banks are a mirror that reflects the economy around them. So that means the rest of North Carolina is doing quite well and in fact all of the South. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. News of the stock market has captured everyone's attention over the last few days but here in North Carolina

two separate conferences have been attending to business of a different kind. For some the issue of race relations has been topic number one in Charlotte the governor held a statewide conference on racial reconciliation while others met in Chapel Hill to discuss the issues of race poverty and inequality in the south. Tonight Harrison speaks with David Henson conference organizer and the director of the Center for the Study of the American South. Thanks Michel. DAVID The theme for this particular conference was unfinished business referring to poverty racism and inequality. This is a very apt theme. I'm wondering how much unfinished business do we have in these areas going into the next century. There's an enormous amount. The twenty ninth of October is the 50th anniversary of the publication in 1987 of the Truman civil rights committee's report to secure these rights the first federal statement of support for

civil rights accepting the 14th Amendment I guess. We have met most of the legislative charges of that report but none of the larger societal charges of racism has become subtle because it's no longer acceptable socially culturally. But it still prevails. Oh many children in Selma Alabama for instance as we were hearing in our conference from a wonderful lawyer there are tracked. Despite their high scores in low levels in school because they're minorities. The same kind of thing happens in different arenas of our lives all across the south and the nation. Poverty still affects

many of our communities. Both were all areas remote from industrialization and inner cities and that poverty is associated all too often with racism. African Americans are three times as likely as whites to be poor. A growing percentage of our young people are in poverty now. One in four children in the south and it's almost 1 and 2 in the black community are living in poverty as defined by federal standards that we apply across the country. So where will we be 20 years from now. Only this is one of the things are you trying to project. Well that depends on how far sighted we are in our understanding of our self-interest. If we're going to compete effectively economically with other areas of the world we're going to have to capitalize on our capacity to

educate people to high skilled jobs. Because many parts of the world are going to undercut us in low skilled labor areas we cannot compete and will not be able to compete if we can't provide a workforce that's adequate to the tasks of the knowledge industry in the service industries. In our new information age we will lose out to other societies. Japan Germany that can and we have a lot to do to make our education adequate to that challenge. For whites as well as blacks for new immigrants as well as people who have been here for generations but the societal changes are apt to take longer and be more difficult to bring about than the legal changes aren't that much.

And it was much easier to get people to come together to agree substantially. Not entirely people still don't agree entirely about the necessity of changing the laws in the interest of fairness and justice as most people understood those concepts today. That's not nearly so easy. We. Tend to think about things in terms of the market economy rather than in terms of the human economy and the human economy cannot be defined by market relations alone. We're much more complex as being socially and culturally we bring things to bear in our market relations but it is well. But in our other relations in addition and negotiating all of that within our to our collective self-interest is going to be very difficult. The nation and in the south as is a part of the region is becoming more multicultural more diverse and so forth. And I hate to put it in these terms but are we going to be able to have enough bias

to go around for all of these new diversity is that we have coming in here. Are we going to be able to you know incorporate these changes for Asian-Americans for Hispanics and so forth as well. It's in the short term to medium term. The situation becomes more complicated in the longer term. It perhaps simplifies. We understand the demographers that the United States not the south but the United States will be a majority minority country within a generation. In this South white black pattern that has defined our history for so long will continue to be the dominant pattern but it will be modified by the presence of the people from Latin America and Asia and Africa. More recent immigrants from Africa and from the from the Caribbean. And

as that happens the simplicities of our old stereotypes and habits will have to give way. We need to recognizing that accept the challenge that we have an up and the opportunity represented by these changes in order to see that education and our other institutions that support us as individuals and in communities work to make the experience of those changes positive and right. Thank you very much for being with us we appreciate your time. Enjoyed it. Mention

the name Joey The Clown and many a North Carolina grownup is bound to smile as they recalled the days of one of North Carolina's most imaginative children shows a carnival. Maria Lundberg narrates this report produced by Scott Marsh. Where you're from boy make up the kids in Charlotte didn't have trouble making up their minds about Joey The Clown. They loved him. But for an audience accustomed to Captain Kangaroo Joey was a little different. I fathered a lot of close with his money and I forget everything. Your father though is I think Joey would come closer to Mr. Green's control. Joey would be sort of like that except you know.

So from the very outset. While we were everything else we wanted to have fun. And while we saw the kids reacting we knew we were. Lindsay was a veteran of radio and television and had been with us about two years when he was asked to create a character for a new children's show. So finally I decided I want to do it. My favorite bombs were Freddy the free love or Stan Laurel who was not in makeup. But one of the funniest people are the people to me. Add to that equation several parts and you've got a children's show that gave the competition a run for their money. Well for years we're always in competition.

I became very lucky and I got very good ratings so good that clown carnival ran for 12 years on Channel 9 from 1959 till 1971. Joey's fans tuned in each weekday afternoon for the first show that was both a raucous and unconventional. You see in Joey's world the station owner who Joey refers to as skinflint lives above the studio while his Joeys gone. He also has a lovely daughter who just happens to be Joey's sidekick. Miss Ginger as portrayed by actress Jennifer Simmons Heath Miss Ginger didn't resemble any other sidekick in the known universe was a girl I think runner up one time. Beautiful clown Carnival had a special feature that kids loved when you pulled the rope. Well wait until later to show you what happened. Gently whisper a miss for his feather duster and I kept it in my pocket all the time and I would dust off the kids heads. I would test my hair and

dust my head put the hat back on. Just a routine I did and they. If you didn't dust or air head you didn't like it so I had a job where I'd go or what you read of the back Name Game. Well I was just some way to let them say their name and I just go along and say it's a good name. You know OK you are good wonderful you remember. I grew up in the 60s. Almost every kid in Charlotte knew how to make a jelly tree if you want to try this at home. All you need are some scissors some newspaper and about 17 cups of coffee and you have enjoyed three clown carnival featured a number of visiting guests over the years. One in particular with a kindred spirit. Kelly was one of my favorites because a very gentle lamb and a very gentle clown and we tried to get across to him live it is frozen into the

picture and eventually he would surprise the Orient come out of it. It can only pick you right to a man or story then became jealous he wanted to get in the picture. But Miss Ginger saves the day. She will come over to get me straightened out because she knows I'm not supposed to do that and that's not nice. No like you're in the sportsman you know I'm going to say you're going to remember the rope we told you we'd show you what happened. The idea of pulling the rope or not pulling the rope of course was an excitement gimmick for the kids. We wanted him to pull the rope that was the conclusion the obvious conclusion. But women in a general type person I'm his clown doing the gender

Well he couldn't bring it straight to me. So I had to go back to him and it is here as a plea. Pull the rope and do it. Whoa. Never did get used to that. I have a thing it's your lawn you look like a man. I thought of my tongue and hear me did it. It's within each of us to be a clown. Joey had less than anybody else but he always got along. We always had fun. He always enjoyed life and enjoyed that so why it worked great for him and for those of you who grew up in the Raleigh area. Prepare yourself for tomorrow as we look back at time for Uncle Paul. That's all for this edition of North Carolina now. Please join us tomorrow when Governor Hunt will be our interview

guest. We'll talk to the governor about his European trade mission trip the governor will also be here to discuss his recently concluded Charlotte conference on racial reconciliation. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight everyone.