North Carolina Now; 129; Interview with Fred Hobson

The TONIGHT will take you to a favorite stop on the Appalachian Trail and it's right here in North Carolina. Good

evening everyone glad you could join us tonight on Mary Lou heart Charka Audrey Cates Bailey is enjoying some vacation time off and she'll be back a little later next week. For now though we've got a great show in store for you we continue our five part series on the Appalachian Trail with installment number three tonight. Now make sure you have a piece of paper and pencil handy next to that remote control on the table because we're going to have some information as to how you can pick up this full color brochure on the Appalachian Trail. A little later on in the program. Also tonight we've got a beautiful story on the wonderful art of basket making so you don't want to miss that. But tonight some very special news for some special North Carolinians celebrating with President Clinton in Washington D.C. today. You may recall this winning moment this past spring when Charlotte Smith of the UN S. women's basketball team made the final winning shot against Louisiana Tech making them the national champions. Well they were honored today with President Clinton in Washington D.C. and our big congratulations going out to them tonight. Also later in the program we'll have an interview with Fred

Hobson who talks to us about kind of a controversial figure so you want to stick around for that. And we begin tonight with reporter Bob Garner in a North Carolina now crew. Only spending time hiking and camping along the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina they found that even those brave souls who spend six to eight months hiking the entire trail from Georgia to Maine don't make the trip without an occasional stop for rest relaxation and resupply. It turns out that one of the hikers favorite places to stop is right here in North Carolina a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail isn't so much a six or seven month journey as it is a series of one week hikes between various resupply points. And of all the towns scattered along the Appalachian Trail none is more popular than Hot Springs North Carolina where the trail passes right through the center of town. Trail registers at each shelter are the bulletin boards and newspapers of the Appalachian Trail. And when hikers begin to get close to a town like Hot Springs the register reflects their excitement.

For example here's an entry from one traveler who wrote a sunny clear day for hiking the mountain I just crossed was right out of the Sound of Music. I wished I could yodel and he adds on to Hot Springs. Here's one that says it's 10:30 a.m. heading into Hot Springs. Hope to be there before dark. I need a beer. We're not friends here it's more than that we're not survivalist out here we're just everyday people that come out and hike and we enjoy a week in the woods but we also enjoying it enjoy getting into town and having some fresh food. Getting a shower shaving in some cases. The French Broad River Springs has a long history as a resort at the turn of the century. Seven trains a day from Asheville brought visitors to an elegant hotel and its mineral springs bathing pools. During World War One a contingent of Germans interned in this country was sent to Hot Springs. They were courted on the grounds of one of the hotels where to keep themselves occupied. They built a charming German style village from branches and driftwood We're told most didn't want to leave when the war was over.

But over the years the mineral springs lost their drawing power. The hotels burned at Hot Springs turned into a sleepy mountain village Appalachian Trail hikers have rediscovered the town and they often so their honking aches and pains in the mineral rich water that still bubbles up from deep in the earth actually heated to 104 degrees. The present owners plan to eventually refurbish the spot of its former glory. Right now visitors are content with the outside hot tubs but an even bigger attraction to hikers is the hot springs post-office packages should be at least hot springs as listed in all the guidebooks as a mail drop. A place where hikers can pick up shipments of food clothing and equipment and things they don't need right now either home or head to a post office further up the trail. One hiker was opening a shipment of dried food his sister prepares in a dehydrator at home. I did.

Those probably got about 50 pounds worth of one beer with only his hands he mixed vegetables broccoli cauliflower carrots. But this comes out pretty much like it was before when you rehydrate you rehydrate this I carry a little jar in my pack and I can put in like a half a pint of water and I can take half of this. Maybe that much and that it will look in the bin or whatever to get the sauce makes you makes you feel like you know he's not home when you unroll it you get like almost like leather leather Yeah hetero up. Yeah and you mix that with a little bit of water it'll taste just like spaghetti dinner after resupplying and catching up on news from home. Hikers are ready for rest and food. Some stay at the Catholic hostel offering bunks and showers. Some camp by the river and take the opportunity to grill a big juicy steak. But those who can get a reservation usually head for Elmer's one of the most popular gathering spots anywhere on the trail. This Victorian Inn offers quaint accommodations and candlelit vegetarian meals

along with the monthly music. All this is under the supervision of ELEANOR HALL a practicing Buddhist former professor and a hiker who's built a reputation as a real trail character. It's always hard to leave the challenge and return to the relative solitude of the tree but about every week to 10 days they can look forward to arriving at or near another settlement where they can sit down to eat. And Dan Wing Foot Bruce the veteran hiker we've heard from in several of Bob's Reports likes hot springs so much that he's moved there and established a center for Appalachian Trail studies. His new business provides planning and background materials for Appalachian Trail hikers. Now if you would like a copy of the official Appalachian Trail brochure which includes a map and description of the entire trail. Send a self-addressed

stamped envelope to North Carolina now P.O. Box 1 4 9 0 0 RTP NC 2 7 7 0 9 dash forty nine hundred. Well a tisk it a task it a pink and blue basket everybody likes baskets everybody uses them and many people collect them. These days you find them not only in kitchens but also in museums. Meet three North Carolina basket makers who share a love for the craft. They also have the patience to be prolific basket makers and have an artistic talent that makes them famous in this day in many others. Baskets may not have been the first invention of the human species but certainly they were one of the first native cultures throughout the world. Including the Cherokee Indians of North Carolina has stowed eons of the ancient craft. But what began as a utilitarian object has become a work of art in the hands of talented crafts people. Route North Carolina. Like most people who make baskets. That's where you will meet. Start by taking classes.

I started with I think in 1980 for a friend and I took the class she didn't drive hours basically or transportation. And from there it's just sort of snowballed from teaching into selling and continuing to leave. Well I'm basically a traditional basket maker. A lot of my patterns are from the old designs. There are many people who write patters today and I use some of their designs and I can do a lot of my own creating boast about baskets or for useful purposes as was the intent of the old baskets in studio was filled with many different types of baskets. You may get the names from the way they were used a world line basket a tomato harvesting basket basket designed to keep him going next to the fireplace. This is a traditional egg basket. The depth was created so that the eggs would stay on either side of the basket

and would not knock together. They gathered. Marilyn Sharma blackmail she took her first class in Seattle. She studied many techniques before she found the one she liked. It's based on the traditional baskets of the North West Indians but the materials are contemporary the materials are mainly paper rubbish which is what they use for chair seats and wax linen and sometimes wire and then all my baskets have lids because the bottoms are so interesting that we couldn't see the Malak so I decided to put lids on them all and then we travel quite regularly so I collect little ornaments for the tox beads and tassels and things from here and there. Sometimes I don't do them for months and then I start to get some inspirations and make six or seven.

Make a few more in Nashville Greg and Carla the appellee also began with classes and made their first baskets in a traditional style. We started out doing traditional baskets in the Appalachian style we originally natural by everything and used a lot of the natural materials such as grape vine and honeysuckle and different wisteria vines and then just kind of freed up our our style of weaving a little bit and developed another random weave technique which is what we're doing now. The idea came from an anthropological film they saw about nomads who traveled through the woods and built a new hut every night and their hut is built by taking two or three small soft wings and crisscrossing them into a basic X pattern. And once they have any type of a crosshatch type of pattern they just fill the rest in with debris or vines from the forest and we were watching this and our son said he would like to

build one of those in the yard. So we built one or two and then I think from there things started life started going off in our heads. We we started out with the round weed and then when we go on to the end get a fairly basic shape and then we can go on to flat weed and then we fill it in by weaving in and out all around until we have a finished tightly woven finished basket. Baskets from necessity to craft to art and baskets make beautiful decorator accents as well as serving a useful function. When you think about baskets for your home why not support one of North Carolina's many talented crafts people. And in just a moment our very talented newsman Mitchell Lewis will be here with a review of today's news from across the state. And a little later in the program I'll speak with a UN sci professor who's authored a book about a controversial social critic who influenced a generation. So don't go away.

Good evening I'm Michel Louis. Here's a review of today's news across North Carolina. The EPA is threatening to take away North Carolina's authority to regulate its drinking water. The agency says that could happen if North Carolina doesn't start making sure that all of the tasks required by law are being conducted the tests are supposed to take place twice a year. But many small community water systems and private wells in the state have not been tested adequately. Yesterday the EPA bypassed the state and sent notices of water quality violations to

one hundred fifty six small towns subdivisions mobile home parks and schools. Those systems had failed to check their water for copper and lead contamination in the second half of 1993. State officials acknowledge that North Carolina doesn't have enough inspectors to keep track of the 10000 water systems in North Carolina. They say they are focusing on known health hazards rather than on the water systems that aren't doing the tests. However a recent study showed that one in five North Carolina children have elevated lead levels and that drinking water is the main source of the problem. Governor Jim Hunt says he is willing to meet with federal retirees to see if an out-of-court settlement can be reached on their tax dispute with the state. Hunter made the comment yesterday after he spoke to the newly appointed members of his advisory commission on military affairs and 1989 the US Supreme Court ruled that states must tax state and federal retirees pensions at the same rate. Prior to that ruling state retirees in North Carolina paid no tax on their pensions while federal retirees were

taxed the retirees have sought refunds from the state. Hunt indicated his willingness to discuss the controversy during UN si TV's call in program ask the governor earlier this month. I would suggest that all the groups are concerned about the issue and it's an appropriate concern. Maybe talk to the state about what a reasonable settlement might be and maybe we could do it over a period of years. I wish Schwartz leads a federal retiree group in North Carolina that is seeking the refunds in an earlier interview with North Carolina now. He said most states affected by the Supreme Court ruling have come to terms with their retirees. There were 22 states initially involved over half a mil. Paid or have settled this either by a court order or by settlement with the federal retiree's and in most cases they're paying paying the refunds over an extended period. Although federal retirees were wrongly taxed since 1941 in North Carolina they are seeking refunds only for 1985 to 1989 for 100000 retirees. That's more than 200 million dollars.

North Carolina's fluke your tobacco sale season is officially open. It's obvious you get $6 better standard. You know if I'll be in full autonomy to negotiate it on a co-op if they're not in as heavy a heaven forbid 5 Let me just say yeah yeah tobacco markets in the eastern belt and sandhills belt opened today which covers North Carolina's biggest tobacco producing area. Prices in the belt were down from opening day prices last season carryover leaf tobacco lost between three and fourteen dollars a new crop prime ins were down between 3 and 11 dollars per hundred pounds. Some farmers rejected bids from tobacco companies markets in the border belt opened yesterday where leaf sales also brought prices lower than last year's opening day prices. However Karl softly of the State Department of Agriculture says there's some good news from the early sales. He says tobacco leaves held over from last year are getting better prices. In the meantime an anti-smoking group is attacking a national advertising campaign financed by the tobacco industry. Scott

Ballard of the coalition on smoking or health says full page advertisements in newspapers across the nation are intended to divert attention away from the dangers of smoking. He says the ads being placed by the tobacco companies are meant to raise doubts about federal studies linking secondhand smoke to cancer. The U.S. Forest Service is recommending that a North Carolina river be designated as a wild and scenic river. The agency says about 35 miles of the mills River which winds through Henderson and Transylvania counties in western North Carolina should be included in the wild and scenic river system. Forest Service officials say that would protect the rivers free flowing condition from the construction of dams in the future. The public has until September 30th to comment on the proposal. Today there was scattered thunder showers across the northern Piedmont and central and eastern North Carolina are under a severe thunderstorm watch until 11 p.m. the northern mountains of the Greenville area and the Outer Banks also got some rain.

Highs were in the 70s in the mountains and in the 80s everywhere else. Tonight skies will be partly cloudy in the mountains where temperatures will drop into the upper 50s and low 60s. The chance of thunder showers there is about 50 percent. The rest of the state will have a much greater chance with thunderstorms and lows will be in the upper 60s and low 70s. Most of central North Carolina is also under a flash flood watch tonight. Tomorrow's skies will remain partly cloudy in the mountains where again the chance for thundershowers will be about 50 percent. Highs there will be in the 70s. Elsewhere in the state it will be in the 80s and the chance with thunderstorm activity will be 60 to 70 percent. The Piedmont triad International Airport in Greensboro is expanding to accommodate the growth of Continental Airlines. The airport authority has approved spending more than one million dollars for more parking several paving projects. New shuttle buses and more restrooms. A company that manufactures Motors for power windows and

automobiles will open a third plant in North Carolina. And so will build a 35 million dollar facility in Greenville. The plant will employ 260 workers and so predicts the payroll will expand to 320 by the year 1998. Some North Carolina tax money will help to pave the way for the plant and so will receive $250000 from Governor Hunt's competitiveness fund to buy and install equipment in the 160000 square foot plant. The firm already has operations in IRA Dale and Davidson counties. Well the stock market decline today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost over 15 points to close at thirty seven twenty point forty seven. Losers led gaiters by four to three as about two hundred fifty two million shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The Standard Poor's 500 index was down nearly a point and the Nasdaq composite index fell three and a half points. Analysts say a stronger than expected report on durable goods orders sent interest rates higher on the bond market. That in turn pushed the stock prices lower. And now for some stocks of

North Carolina interest. I mean Louis Mencken was an outspoken social critic and newspaper columnist in the first half of the

20th century becoming by some standards the most powerful influence on a generation of Americans. He made a career out of expressing his dislike for people places and events in print. Our guest tonight is University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Dr. Fred Thompson. He has written a biography about Mencken. But ironically Professor Hopson represents just about everything making disdain. And thank you for joining us but tell me a little bit about that. It's the complete opposite is that right. Well in certain ways not altogether but I suppose on the surface like and dislike southerners or at least was famed for disliking saw that it was I am a southerner just like college professors I'm a college professor certainly liberal Democrats Mike and I was very critical of in the 1930s a particular I suppose I am still that to an extent. And any number of other things you hated sports athletics. A great lover of sports and athletics. So on the surface yes that would be the case but I

think there are other things that make me very attracted to men can in certain ways. Why is that what what made you compelled to write this book. I suppose my interest in Meghan began really in the nineteen sixties I was an undergraduate in the 1960s was a Southerner during the civil rights movement the South was the other body of criticism and ridicule for much of the country. It was also the nation's leading news item in the 60s. Macon of course had written about the South largely in the 20s not in the 60s but many much of what it said in the 20s I thought was very appropriate in the 60s. So first I was attracted to make it as a social critic of the South. Of course after that that became only one part of what I was concerned with was the actual writing of it difficult or did you have quite a bit of material to work with. Too much material with anything is quite thick.

Yes it's about 650 pages I guess. Macon did leave out too much material he became famous so early. He was two biographies written of him when he was in his 40s. He knew he would be rather famous in the future so he left. Astounding amounts of material basically too much. He spent the last 15 years of his life preparing to die and leaving a record for people in the future. So the task of the biographer in a way is to cut through his interpretation of himself to try to use the material he left to form a picture that isn't altogether the one he himself would like to leave probably during the research in the writing of the book. Did you learn certain things that you really hadn't known about him before. I did I was going to stress greatly the German

quality of the of the McCann family became intensely German certainly after his mid 30s for example and I thought I would find that his family in Baltimore was intensely German in his childhood. That wasn't the case that his grandfather had come from Germany you know eighteen forty eight. His father had tried to flee from anything German as much as possible. So the Meccano household in Baltimore wasn't at all conscious of being German or was in any case trying to flee from that. So he reckons intense German self-consciousness was a product of his late 20s on and in particular the experience of the first war of the First World War which came when he was in his mid 30s. Knowing about his life and doing the research that you did why do you think you know just in your own opinion he was so powerful and so influential. His prose style is which is a thing else American although I

disagree with him on any number of things I still see is the you know the most interesting prose nonfiction prose stylist in American letters in the 20th century. He simply wrote so awfully well. Such a compelling style. And we just have a little bit of time left and I'd love to talk to you more about this but just tell me briefly. He's written books himself and during his lifetime he had written obviously what what would compel me to read this book that I wouldn't learn from previous books that he wrote. Mainly I guess somebody else's take on Mike and somebody who didn't agree with him that going on all things. Mencken had very strong opinions on American politics on the South Lawn. Any number of social and cultural matters. Certainly my take is somewhat different from yours so I suppose you know the biography in a way is a corrective not altogether that it's also a

celebration of Meghan's life in certain ways but is a corrective in certain other ways through him I think. Certainly sounds like a very confident man and once again let us say that HL Mencken a life is the name of the book that you have written a very long book but as you would say I'm sure very good reading. And Dr. Fred Thompson We appreciate you coming and joining us here on North Carolina now this evening and I hope to talk to you in the future. Thank you. Thanks very much. We want to hear from you. Simply call our viewer comment line at 9 1 9 5 4 9 7 8 0 8. Or write us at P.O. Box 1 4 9 0 0 RTP NC 2 7 7 0 9. You can fax a message to 9 1 9 5 4 9 7 0 4 3 4. Try our Internet address UN CTV at aol dot com and please give us a daytime phone number in case we need to follow up. Hope you enjoyed our show tonight tomorrow night another great one in

store for you so you have to tune in tomorrow night as well. We'll take you down to Charlotte to the Mint Museum and also will check in and see how the Big Brother Big Sister program is going in for side County. Now don't forget if you're interested in this color brochure of the Appalachian Trail you can get your copy by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to North Carolina now P.O. Box 1 4 9 0 0 RTP NC 2 7 7 0 9 and forty nine hundred. We really appreciate you joining us tonight hope to see you back here tomorrow night. That's all for now. I'm Mary Hart. Good night.