Sneakers have unique niche in American footwear history

Sneakers arrived on the American sports scene in 1916 with the rollout of Keds by the United States Rubber Company of Naugatuck, Conn. 

Keds was the “first flexible rubber-sole shoe with a canvas top.”

 

Henry Nelson McKinney of the N.W. Ayer & Son advertising agency in Philadelphia coined the term “sneaker” while working on the Keds’ account. He said that “the shoe’s quiet and soft rubber sole made it unique and easy to sneak up on people.” 

Keds became a favorite shoe on the women’s tennis circuit, championed by Helen Wills and others into the 1930s. Wills was one of the greatest female tennis stars of all time, playing from 1922-38.

She won 19 major singles championships at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the French Open. (The Australian Open was not part of the Tennis Grand Slam until 1969). 

Keds began to market its women’s tennis shoes in a tribute to Wills and advertised the footwear as the “shoe of champions.” 

B.F. Goodrich introduced Jack Purcell athletic shoes in 1933 for men participating in the racquet sports of tennis, squash and badminton. This classic shoe with its bulbous rubber toe and “blue smile” enjoyed a long run on the courts as the men’s tennis shoe of choice.

Perhaps the last of the top-tier professional tennis players to wear and endorse Jack Purcells was Cliff Richey. He appeared in print advertisements for the company in the early 1970s. 

Keds and Jack Purcells: Where are they now? 

Keds made a thrust in the 1970s to capture a slice of the professional basketball shoe market that had been dominated for years by Converse. Stride Rite Corporation purchased Keds from Uniroyal (formerly U.S. Rubber) in 1979. 

The popularity of Keds sneakers rebounded exponentially after the 1987 movie “Dirty Dancing” was released. Co-star Jennifer Grey wore Keds while perfecting her dance moves at Kellerman’s resort (actually filmed at the old Chimney Rock boys camp at Lake Lure in Rutherford County, N.C.). 

Keds was acquired in 2012 by Wolverine World Wide of Rockford, Mich. The Wolverine shoe family includes Hush Puppies, Grasshoppers, Saucony and Sperry Top-Siders. 

In 1972, Converse purchased the Jack Purcell trademark rights when B.F. Goodrich opted to “retire from the shoe industry.” There was a lot of anxiety. 

Could Jack Purcells survive under the same roof with Converse’s iconic, flagship brand – Chuck Taylor All Stars – that debuted in 1917? 

Both brands managed to stay afloat for another three decades. 

When Nike acquired Converse in 2003, the company named after the “mythological Greek winged goddess of speed, strength and victory,” injected new life into the Jack Purcell and Chuck Taylor lines. 

Each brand has experienced dramatic sales growth under Nike’s ownership. 

Michael Williams, a fashion commentator in New York City, prefers Jack Purcells: “There’s a comforting feeling when you wear a pair of Jack Purcell sneakers. ‘Classic’ is the word that springs to mind. ‘Timeless’ is another. ‘Stylish’ the third.” 

“You don’t have to worry about them ever going out of favor, about them ever failing to make you look cool. Shoes with no obsolescence. More than just a footwear choice, ‘Jack Purcell’ is a state of mind.” 

On the other foot, Kamala Harris is a biased campaigner for Chuck Taylors. The vice president of the United States owns Chucks for all occasions. She told Vogue magazine: 

“I have a whole collection: a black leather, white, the kind that don’t lace, and the kind that do lace….”

Can we find a home for a new sporting event?

Carteret County already lays claim to being the “Water Sports Capital of North Carolina,” and it’s easy to see why with so much to do “on, in, under, over and beside” the ocean, sounds and inland waterways.

Shall we expand our sights to inland sites? The ideal sport to link to might be badminton. In a sense, badminton is our genes. Here’s how:

Beaufort took its name from the English Duke of Beaufort. He and his family lived in Badminton House, the name given to the duke’s sprawling country manor (20 bedrooms and 20 bathrooms), located in the village of Badminton, Gloucestershire, England.

 The dukedom was created in 1682 by King Charles II to honor a loyal supporter – Henry Somerset. He was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654-67. 

Somerset’s grandson, also named Henry Somerset, became the 2nd Duke of Beaufort in 1700. 

The younger Henry is the chap who Beaufort is named after. He inherited one of the eight original shares of the Carolina Province in 1707 to join the elite group of Lords Proprietors. He assumed the leadership role in 1711. 

The founding fathers of the settlement known as “Fish Town” opted in 1709 to switch its name to “Beaufort.” 

The game of badminton came much later. It was Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, the 8th Duke of Beaufort, who “introduced” the game to England’s wealthy class on the lawn of Badminton House in 1873. 

Rules required that players first guzzle a few goblets of fizzy sparkling wine (the British equivalent of French champagne) before stepping onto the court to woozily attempt to bat about the shuttlecock with their rackets. 

Nick Higham of the British Broadcasting Corporation let it be known that British winemakers were adding “sparkle to their tipple” 35 years before the French monk Dom Pierre Perignon invented champagne in 1697. 

Englishman Dr. Christopher Merrett, a physician from Winchcombe in the Cotswolds region of Gloucestershire, created a sparkling wine in 1662 by deliberately adding sugar. 

The badminton tradition continued to grow at Badminton House. If foul weather prevented playing badminton outdoors, the duke in residence would merely invite the players into the manor. 

The grand entrance hall is said to contain the dimensions of a modern badminton court – 44 feet long and 17 feet wide. (The court width for doubles play is 20 feet.) A string tied between pillars served as “the net.” 

Surely, this type of activity – one that combines imbibing with sporting – has its ties to “pirate invading.” 

It seems to be a “natural fit” for Beaufort, whose modern-day permanent residents, second home owners and visitors seem to have an affection for sniffing and sipping wines of all varieties at virtually all occasions. 

This badminton business could be a great adventure for an entrepreneurial enterprise. An old, vacant school building might be a dandy structure to hold a passel of indoor badminton courts.

 

One improvement to “Badminton ala Beaufort,” however, would be an insistence that players use made-in-the-U.S.A. nylon birdies, not the standard version made in places like China, India and Bangladesh, which use real feathers that have been plucked from live waterfowl such as ducks and geese. 

To demonstrate its waterfowl friendliness and political correctness, the Badminton World Federation (BWF), based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, began using synthetic shuttlecocks at all its sanctioned tournaments earlier this year. 

Bring it on…to Beaufort – “Badminton By The Sea.”

Bogue Sound watermelons are a coastal delicacy

Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice is an entomologist who was trained at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. She is a regular contributor to Our State magazine. She recently wrote about the science of Bogue Sound Watermelons. 

What makes Bogue Sounders special, she said, is a combination of “salty air; long, hot days and cooler nights; and sandy soil.” 

“These are the things that make sugars pool in the crisp, red fruit,” Dr. Rice wrote. “The salty air keeps leaves healthy, and the sunny days help those leaves make extra sugar. The sandy soil helps minerals tumble and flow through watermelon roots with ease.”

 

To earn the official Bogue Sound Watermelon sticker, a watermelon must be grown “on land that drains directly or indirectly into Bogue Sound.”

 David and Sarah Winberry opened Winberry Farm Produce in 1993 in Cedar Point to sell farm-fresh local products. He believes a key, contributing element is “summer’s heat and high humidity” that blanket Bogue Sound farmland. David Winberry said: “It simply can’t be too hot” for Bogue Sound Watermelons to grow successfully. 

One acre can produce upwards of 2,500 melons per season. Most growers plant in three or four stages, so the melons are harvested from late June through Labor Day. 

Picking a ripe watermelon is ‘an art and a science’

Heather Overton of the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services asked Jasper Jones of Jones Family Farm in Stella in western Carteret County how to tell if a watermelon is ripe? 

“The older generation can tell by the sound a watermelon makes,” Jones said. “It should be a deep thump or hollow sound. If it is more of a ping, that melon is probably not ready.” 

Unlike other fruit and melons, watermelons do not continue to ripen after being picked. That underscores the importance of learning what to look for in order to take home a winner.

The N.C. Cooperative Extension Service advises: “A good watermelon should be symmetrical, heavy for its size and firm – 92% water. Look for a pale cream or buttery yellow spot on the underside of a watermelon; this indicates that it is ripe. If the spot is white or green, then the watermelon is under ripe.”

 

Watermelon-ologists have a saying: “If bees think it’s a good watermelon, it probably is.” 

Some people still believe that honey bees know how to sniff out a sweet, ripe watermelon and then try to “get in to feast on the juicy flesh.” As a result, the bees are said to leave scratchy tracks of their attempted forced entry. 

Oldtimers say the markings left by the bees have significance and offer a visible recommendation that consumers should heed when shopping for watermelons at the market. 

These melon tracks often look like scars and are familiarly called “bee stings,” but Joanne Ozug of New London County, Conn., creator of the Fifteen Spatulas food blog, tells us bees don’t actually sting watermelons. 

The produce department manager at Ozug’s local supermarket – a fellow named Tom – remarked to her: “Bees do not sting plants. They sting only in defense. I can’t imagine why they would find a watermelon threatening.” 

Ozug advises her readers to “look for the sugar spots and pollination points that leave the scarring signs on watermelons. They are places where the rind tore a little from growing too fast. This would mean there was plenty of water and nutrients available during the growing, which would make sense that the fruit is particularly tasty.” 

“If you see black spots on the melon, this is where sugar is seeping out and indicates a sweet melon. Also, if you see dots in a line or a webbing effect, these are pollination points, and the more of them the better,” she said.

 

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) states that “the more webbing on a watermelon, the more a bee pollinated the flower. The more pollination, the sweeter the fruit.” 

Furthermore, the PDA says that “there are boy and girl watermelons. Boys are bigger and shaped like an oval; they have a watery taste. Girls are smaller and circular; they are the sweeter of the two.” 

Julianna Purcell of Belton, Texas, creator of the Tangled with Taste social media site, said: “Select a melon that is slightly dull green in color,” Purcell said. “The brighter the green of the melon; the less-ripe the melon.” 

Keep the faith: ‘Watermelon season’ arrives soon

Nothing says “summertime” better than a sweet and juicy hunk of an official Bogue Sound Watermelon, known for its brilliant red flesh. 

Elder watermelon statesman David Winberry of Winberry Farms in Cedar Point, N.C., told Our State magazine that the goal of  Carteret County farmers “is to always have the first crop available for the ‘melon-heads’ by July 4, the peak of tourist season.”

 

For many summer vacationers, Bogue Sound Watermelons are part of their family’s annual ritual. Lisa Wright of Fredericksburg, Va., said: “It’s the taste of summer. There are watermelons, and then there are Bogue Sound Watermelons. We always eat a few during the time we’re here, then take some back home.” 

Interviewed by local reporter Brad Rich a few years back, Wright said her family “reluctantly shares” the prized watermelons with relatives, but only those kinfolk who “deserve them.” 

“It’s true,” wrote Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice, a contributor to Our State. “People come from across the country to load up their trunks with melons, squeeze one between the children in the back seat, cradle one in a front-seat lap.” 

The average haul per out-of-state vehicle could range from 8 to 12 Bogue Sound Watermelons each season, the growers estimate. 

An interesting part of the legend and lore of Bogue Sound Watermelons is that they were named by northern menhaden fishermen in the 1950s, according to Roy Roberson, a writer with Farm Progress, a company that publishes 22 farming and ranching magazines. 

“The fishermen in their pogie boats came to Bogue Sound for its gentle water and teeming fish supply,” Roberson said. (Menhaden were commonly called pogies.) “In the summer months, many of these fishermen would buy watermelons from local farmers.” 

Dr. David Cecelski, a prominent North Carolina historian with family roots in Carteret County’s Core Creek community, noted: “Bogue Sound farmers drove wagons full of watermelons down to the seashore and into the water, where their horses or donkeys stood haunch-deep in the shallows while the men loaded boats bound for Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City.” 

In 2005, the watermelon farmers, led by the late Billy Guthrie, teamed with the Carteret County Cooperative Extension Service to form a new organization, the Bogue Sound Watermelon Growers Association. Its purpose was to create a unique brand and market the luscious, locally grown melons.

 

Ray Harris, who headed up the extension office at that time, clarified that “Bogue Sound Watermelons aren’t actually a variety” of the jumbo fruit. The magic is in the extra-sweet taste that makes them distinctive.”

 

“Our concept was to try and duplicate in a small way the success of Vidalia, Ga., and the branding of its Vidalia onions.”

Corvette and Thunderbird models debuted in the 1950s

The first great American sports car out of the starting gate was the Chevrolet Corvette in late 1953. It was a bit of a sputtering beginning, however. Chevy manufactured 300 Corvettes that year and sold 183 of them, according to automotive writer Greg Fink. 

The 1953 two-seat Corvette came in one color – white – with a red interior. 

More than 80 models of Corvettes over the years are on display at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky. The facility opened in 1994. It’s an attraction within the confines of the “Kentucky bourbon trail.”

Visitors to the museum are quick to learn that the 1953 Corvette emblem introduced the concept of crossed flags. The flag on the right is a black-and-white checkered racing flag. The flag on the left is red and features the Chevy bowtie symbol and a symbol called a “fleur-de-lis (flower of the lily). 

It’s a symbol of “peace and purity.” Chevrolet officials wanted to use a family crest from the ancestry of Louis-Joseph Chevrolet but couldn’t find one. 

Designers settled on the fleur-de-lis because of its French origin. (Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was born in Switzerland, but his family moved to the Burgundy region of France when he was a young child.)

 Myron E. Scott, a public relations official at Chevrolet in 1953, is credited for naming the Corvette model. Management said it wanted a “c” word, but not an animal. Scott suggested “Corvette,” a speedy-pursuit, small warship in the British navy. 

To compete head-to-head with the Corvette, Ford executives brought in Franklin Quick Hershey to head the design team. He had previously worked at General Motors and at the Packard Motor Car Company. Hershey was a “rock star” designer during this era. 

A young Ford stylist, Alden “Gib” Giberson, suggested the name “Thunderbird.” Legendary in the American Southwest, “the Thunderbird ruled the sky and was a divine helper of man. The great wings – invisible to mortal man – created the winds and the thunder and provided rains in the arid desert.” 

“The Thunderbird entered production for the 1955 model year as a sporty two-seat convertible, but it was not marketed as a sports car,” wrote automotive journalist Mark Rechtin. “Rather, Ford positioned the Thunderbird as an upscale, ‘personal luxury car.’”

Giberson was asked to create the graphics for Thunderbird’s logo, giving the figure a majestic wingspan and with a turquoise inlay.

 

Bill Wilson of Motor1.com, a website serving the automotive and motor sports industries, said Thunderbird had gained the upper hand as early as 1957. More than 20,000 Thunderbirds were sold in 1957, compared to about 700 Corvettes, he said. 

“While the Chevy vehicle emphasized speed, the Ford team considered performance part of an overall approach that included upscale touches,” Wilson commented. 

The look and feel of Thunderbirds and Corvettes would drift far afield in ensuing years. Ford decided to discontinue the Thunderbird in 1997.

After a five-year hiatus, Ford brought back a version of the car in 2002. The thrust was a return to the original formula for the Thunderbird, a two-seat coupe or convertible layout, but with “retrofuturistic” styling. Sales were less than stellar, so the Thunderbird line was dropped again in 2005. 

Meanwhile, about 20,000 Corvettes are slated for production in 2021, all rolling off the line at GM’s Bowling Green Assembly Plant on Corvette Drive, just down the street from the museum. The plant employs about 1,300 people. It’s the only Corvette factory in the world.

Ford’s Mustang is an American legend

The Motown song “Mustang Sally” was written on a whim by Mack Rice in Detroit, Mich., in 1965. It’s a classic story about an iconic American automobile. 

Singer Della Reese told Rice, a close personal friend and songwriter, that she was considering buying a lavish gift (a Lincoln Continental automobile) for her drummer and band leader Calvin Shields as a 41st birthday gift. 

Shields got wind of the plan and expressed his sincere gratitude…but let it be known that he would rather have a new Ford Mustang.

 Rice said he hadn’t heard about the Mustang, but decided there might be a song in the situation. An early version was tagged “Mustang Mama.” 

Rice played the tune for Aretha Franklin, who was renowned as the “Queen of Soul.” She suggested the song be retitled as “Mustang Sally,” because Rice used the name Sally in the chorus. 

Mustang Sally, think you better slow your mustang down.

You been running all over the town now.

Oh! I guess I’ll have to put your flat feet on the ground. 

Rice’s version of “Mustang Sally” was moderately successful in 1965. He later handed off the tune to vocalist Wilson Pickett, whose version was a giant hit in 1966.

Mack Rice 

The Ford Motor Company’s introduction of the Mustang is “the most successful new car debut in history,” according to George Mattar, a former editor at Hemmings Motor News. 

Lee Iacocca is regarded as the “father of the Mustang,” Mattar said. Original owners claim to be charter members of the “1964-1/2 Ford Mustang club,” because the first models – both hardtops and convertibles – made their debut on April 17, 1964. Within the first week, 22,000 orders for Mustangs were received. 

A great Mustang story surfaced in 2019, when Harry (Herk) Phillips, the car salesman who sold the first Mustang (albeit prematurely) in 1964, was “reunited” with the “Wimbledon white” Mustang convertible, bearing Serial Number 001, at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Mich. 

Mark Phelan of the Detroit Free Press reported that the very first “showroom display model” Mustang was shipped to the George Parsons Ford dealership in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. 

Phelan explained: “It took longer to get to St. John’s from Ford’s River Rouge assembly plant in Dearborn than to any other dealership (a distance of 2,180 miles), and Ford wanted every dealership to have a display model when sales began April 17, 1964.” 

“Ford wanted all the display models to be shipped back to Dearborn,” Phelan said. “That memo didn’t get to salesman Phillips at the Parsons dealership. Phillips sold the car on April 14, 1964 – three days early – to Capt. Stanley Tucker of Gander, Newfoundland. Tucker was a commercial airline pilot.

Phelan reported that “it was months before anybody at Ford headquarters knew Mustang No. 001 had jumped the corral and was running free.”

“The serial number didn’t mean anything to us,” Phillips said. “We didn’t know it was the first one made. We didn’t realize the significance of the car till Ford came looking for it.” 

Amanda Jackson of CNN said it took Ford “two years of negotiating with Capt. Tucker to get the vehicle back. In exchange for the first Mustang built, Ford gave him the one-millionth Mustang – a 1966 model with all the bells and whistles.” 

Phillips spent a career selling Ford vehicles, retiring from the dealership in 1995. He sold tons of cars during his time there, but none was more special than 001. 

Best there ever was – a ‘57 Chevy Bel Air

Standing out among the tail-finned cars in 1957 was the Chevrolet Bel Air. It is generally regarded as “the most iconic car that the automobile industry has ever produced,” noted Chris Riley, of AutoWise, a consumer-focused website, based in Rogers, Ark. 

A recent post by Elizabeth Puckett at Microsoft News termed the 1957 Bel Air as “king of the quintessential ‘tri-five’ line that brought the world the drool-worthy mid-1950s Chevy body style.” Specifically, the tri-fives are the Chevys from three model years – 1955-57.

 

“Revolutionary in their day, these Chevys spawned a cult following among collectors and hot rodders,” Puckett said. 

Hemmings Motor News, based in Bennington, Vt., caters to traders and collectors of antique, classic and exotic sports cars. Columnist Bob Palma says there is no single reason why the 1957 Chevy became America’s favorite. “Rather, its status must be credited to a unique combination of reasons, taken together.” 

“The 1957 Bel Air showcases all the major 1950s styling cues without going overboard,” Palma said. Begin with the “twin rocket” hood design; this car has character. Up front are “headlamps below heavy eyebrows,” with the centered Chevrolet “V” insignia, appearing almost like a stylized nose. A wide-mouthed grille contains two protruding conical shaped “bullet bumper guards.”

 

“As originally conceived by Harley Earl, chief designer at General Motors, these bumper guards would mimic artillery shells, intended to convey the image of a speeding projectile,” Palma noted. 

The 1957 Chevys had a distinctive profile as well, according to Palma, with “swoopy stainless-steel side moldings, anodized-aluminum quarter-panel trim and Earl’s sexy dip below the quarter windows.” 

The tail fins were a cosmetic work of art. The middle section of the fin on the driver’s side contained the hidden gas cap. Below were the tail lights that were supported by faux dual exhaust outlets.

Palma wrote: “All the stars somehow aligned just right behind the ’57 Chevy, and specifically, the Bel Air.” 

Robert Tate, an automotive historian, chose to look under the hood. He wrote: “The 1957 Chevy cars offered a 250-horsepower Ramjet V8 engine. It was the first fuel injection V8 available in a standard production passenger car. This produced great fuel economy and led to outstanding overall performance for the driver.” 

Paul Niedermeyer, an automotive storyteller, said the tri-five Chevys were “as solid as the proverbial brick outhouse” – cars that could comfortably accommodate “six pre-obesity crisis Americans.” 

In 1957, General Motors produced seven Chevys that were named “black widows.” These cars were fast as the wind and earned their way into the NASCAR record book. 

Editors at Hemmings asked readers to share their thoughts on the 1957 Chevy Bel Airs. Dennis A. Urban wrote: “The car’s got it all. Clean side lines, distinctive rear style, grille, parking lights, hood ornaments – all well-proportioned and clean. Have you ever driven a 1957 Bel Air? I have to say it has a feel and handle like no other…quick, easy to drive and fun.” 

“What made the ‘57 Chevy so popular was its ‘cool factor.’ It’s like comparing Perry Como, the nice clean-cut crooner, to the flashy…hip-shaking Elvis Presley,” commented Don Gridley of Harpers Ferry, W.V. 

Gridley added: “The ‘57 Chevy was Elvis on four wheels, but man, they were both cool.” 

Elvis Presley went on to score five Number One hits in 1957. He owned at least two 1957 Chevy Bel Airs – a red one and a souped-up black one. 

Tale of the tail fins defines 1950s car culture

It’s hard to identify cars by their body shapes any more. Chrysler, Ford and General Motors (GM) products get muddled up with the Toyotas, Nissans, Subarus, Hondas and Hyundais. To my eyes, they all look about the same – especially the silver ones. Distinguishing the model year is next to impossible, even for brainiacs. 

Times have changed, dagnabbit. I’ll wager that between 1955 and 1959, during the era that Dinah Shore was singing about Chevrolets, that just about everyone across the U.S.A. could pinpoint the car make, model and year of just about every automobile that cruised along the dirt roads and paved main streets of America. 

The cars’ distinctive tail fins were signs of the times. GM’s Cadillac line probably had the biggest and best fins, with the grand prize winner being the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible. It clearly out-finned the field, according to Chris Riley, a writer at AutoWise, a consumer-focused website, based in Rogers, Ark. 

Riley consulted Jeff Leestma, an automotive design historian. “That’s as large as the fins ever got, on that ‘59 Caddy,” Leetsma said. “They used a lot of chrome and taillamp pieces that visually reflected the jet age. You would think the car was getting ready to fly away.”

Riley commented that the 1959 Eldorado’s “dual-quad tail lights” mounted on the fins made the vehicle “look like an afterburner lifting a jet off the ground.” 

Not everyone loved the look. Tony Davis of Motor News wrote that consumer advocate Ralph Nader once said: “The Caddy fin bore an uncanny resemblance to the tail of the stegosaurus, a dinosaur that had two sharp rearward-projecting horns on each side of the tail.”

 

Rebeka Knott, a writer with the Groovy History website, said that the popularity of the American automobile exploded in the post-World War II economy. The basic design of automobiles in the early 1950s, however, was rather boring. The prevailing style was termed “fastback,” where the car sloped from its roof to its rear bumper. It looked all right on coupes, but not on sedans. 

Car buyers in the mid-1950s wanted their rides to have some zip, pep, pizazz and muscle, according to Knott. “They wanted their cars dripping with chrome – the flashier, the better.” 

Jordan Grant of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., said the Cadillac tail fins evolved from the work of GM designer, Franklin Quick Hershey, who pioneered the installation of modest tail fin bumps on the 1948 Cadillacs. 

Kevin Ransom of Autoblog, an automotive news and car shopping website based in Birmingham, Mich., defined the tail-fin trend as “jet age one-upmanship, as GM and Chrysler locked themselves into an ‘arms race’ of sorts to see who could bring the biggest, most dashing, most attention-getting tail fins to market.” 

Grant stated: “Tail fins were a style with a purpose, and the purpose was simple: sell more cars. In order to keep their financial engines running, car makers had to convince customers to upgrade their vehicles year after year, even if the cars in their driveways were still running fine.” 

“The simplest way to push consumers toward new cars was the time-tested practice of ‘planned obsolescence’ – creating products that rapidly became obsolete. Every year, auto manufacturers released a new annual model that differed very little mechanically from the previous generation but did showcase a dramatically different style,” Grant said. “The clearest change year to year was the size and shape of the tail fins on each model.” Nobody did it better than Cadillac. 

Chrysler’s tail fin specialist was Virgil Exner. He did some of his finest work on DeSoto models. Riley’s favorite fin design is found on the 1959 DeSoto. Each fin was stacked with three tail lights that “looked like they belonged on a jet.”

 

By the end of the decade, Chevrolet decided to take the whole fin experience in a different direction with the fins on its Impala model, Riley commented. Instead of the straight, pointed fins, the Impala featured horizontal “gull-wing” or “bat-wing” fins that were paired with “cat-eye” taillights.

 

“These were voluptuous fins that invoked drama and excitement,” Riley remarked. “They made the 1959 Chevy one of the most easily recognized cars of the entire decade.”

Black bears are near and dear to North Carolina

Once, there was “a bear who didn’t know she was a bear.” Her name was “Mildred,” and she had the run of the entire nature preserve at North Carolina’s Grandfather Mountain near Linville. 

“She was the nicest bear that has ever been…” wrote the legendary Hugh Morton, who was Mildred’s keeper, “best friend” and biographer. 

Hugh Morton inherited Grandfather Mountain from his grandfather in 1952. More than 3,000 acres of the property are protected for perpetuity – to benefit mankind, wildlife and nature. 

Journalist Allison Wonsick said Morton bought two “surplus” black bears for $100 apiece from the Atlanta Zoo in 1967. His intention was to increase the population of black bears on Grandfather Mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Basically, the site straddles Avery and Watauga counties.

The bears were 2-year-olds when they arrived from the zoo. The male was released first in 1968, and he promptly rambled off into the woods to live happily ever after in the wilderness. 

The female was detained until Arthur Smith’s television crew arrived to film an episode of his famous televised country music show. 

Ralph Smith, Arthur’s brother, was going to sing the 1904 novelty song “The Preacher and the Bear.” (The lyrics recount the story of a church pastor who went out hunting on the Sabbath while God was watching.)

 

Arthur Smith is front and center. Ralph Smith is on the accordian.

The cameras were cued to zoom in as the female bear was freed. She didn’t scamper off. Rather, the female bear cozied up to make friends with the television crew. Ralph Smith called the bear “Mildred,” and the name stuck. 

It was later revealed that Mildred had been bottle-fed since birth and “raised” by the zoo’s office workers. 

North Carolina Wildlife Commission officials said Mildred had lost her “natural bear nature.” She craved human interaction. 

“Every day after that, Hugh Morton and Mildred bonded. Early on, they would picnic together, sharing Fig Newtons and grape sodas,” Wonsick reported.

 

Morton constructed an entire “bear friendly environmental habitat” at Grandfather Mountain to ensure Mildred’s safety. She had nine cubs of her own, the first being twins Mini and Maxi, born in 1970. Three others were adopted. Mildred died in 1993, at age 26. Hugh Morton died in 2006, at age 85. 

The man and the bear are certainly iconic figures in the history and development of the Old North State. 

A bill introduced in late April in the N.C. House of Representatives seeks to install the black bear as the official “state mammal.” The idea brought back wonderful memories of good times at Grandfather Mountain and countless stories about Mildred and her descendants. 

The legislators who introduced the bill were not thinking of Mildred, however. They were thinking about the black bears that inhabit coastal North Carolina. 

There is a complication, however. North Carolina already has a state mammal. It gave the crown in 1969 to the ubiquitous gray squirrel. Can the black bear muscle in? 

Hugh Morton was a public relations wizard with seemingly magical powers. What would he do to resolve this conundrum? 

He might have suggested to the politicians that they can have their cake and eat it, too, by being “more inclusive” to have a small state mammal as well as a large one. 

Squirrels and bears are known to coexist rather well. Squirrels are smart enough to know not to get too close to bears. 

Bears are smart enough to know squirrel-chasing is not worth the effort. The squirrels are too speedy.