Portsmouth provided port access for cargo ships

Portsmouth was once a bustling seaport adjacent to Ocracoke Inlet, and this Carteret County community contributed greatly to the colonial economy of North Carolina.

Portsmouth’s earliest settlers pronounced it as “Porchm’uth,” in their “Outer Banks brogue.” 

One of the best storytellers to share Portsmouth’s early history is Dr. Marvin P. Rozear, a neurologist at Duke University in Durham, N.C. His article was published in the North Carolina Medical Journal in June 1991. 

“Portsmouth was contrived by the colonial government in 1753 to fill a crucial need in North Carolina: facilitation of the practice of ‘lightering,’” Dr. Rozear wrote. “Bound as the state is by the Outer Banks, which are cut by treacherous, changing inlets,” access to North Carolina can be quite difficult. 

“Ocean-going ships drew too much water to manage the systems of bars, swashes, shoals and sounds. Ships fit for commerce within the sounds were too small for trans-oceanic work. The best solution at the time was to ‘lighter’ (lighten) large ships arriving from Europe, New England and the West Indies,” he said.

 

“Near the inlets, portions of the cargoes were transferred to smaller ships, ‘coasters,’ which could then be distributed to interior towns,” including Bath, New Bern, Washington and Edenton, N.C. 

Once lightered to draw less water, the larger ships could then enter the inlets to lie at anchor in the relative protection of the islands, take on provisions and give crews shore leave. “This business, cumbersome, labor-intensive and dangerous as it was, actually worked,” Dr. Rozear said. 

“Lightering required locals to pilot the ships in and out of the inlets, hands to assist with cargo transfer, wharves, warehouses and other storage facilities” as well as all the “ancillary furniture of a busy port town.” Such as taverns. 

During the American Revolution, Ocracoke Inlet was invaluable for bringing in supplies and provisions for the Continental Army because the British Navy had blockaded all the larger ports to the north. 

One historian observed: “Gen. George Washington’s frostbitten troops awaited supplies at Valley Forge that would pass through Ocracoke Inlet.” 

“The local pilots accordingly found themselves saddled with unprecedented responsibility for the birthing of a nation. Their unique skill set, of paramount importance in the capricious shoals, helped them shepherd in vital supplies,” wrote the autonomous authors at the “History Bandits” digital media site. 

After American independence, Portsmouth enjoyed new prosperity. 

The British naval forces, however, would return during the War of 1812, launching a sneak attack at Portsmouth and Ocracoke in July 1813. 

Dr. William H. Thiesen, a U.S. Coast Guard historian, said the British squadron included 15 armed barges, supporting approximately 1,000 sailors. They hoped to plow right through Ocracoke Inlet and “capture the important commercial center of New Bern.” 

The Revenue Cutter Mercury managed to escape from Portsmouth by “crowding upon her every inch of canvas she had, and by cutting away her long boat,” Dr. Thiesen said.

 

Mercury outran the barges, sailing to New Bern to warn officials of probable attack by British invaders. Mercury’s early warning allowed New Bern’s military leaders the time to muster army regulars and militia forces to defend the city. 

Meanwhile, while left “unsupervised” in Portsmouth and Ocracoke, British sailors wreaked havoc by ravaging, looting and vandalizing homes and rounding up provisions and livestock. They sailed away before the militia could arrive. 

North Carolina Gov. William Hawkins immediately requested federal funding to help build new forts at Portsmouth and Ocracoke to protect the state from future British attacks. His request was denied.

Gov. Hawkins

Rewind history to put Ocracoke back in Carteret County!

Ocracoke used to be in Carteret County, N.C. No joke.

 In 1770, it was observed by a member of the North Carolina colonial assembly that “those lawless Outer Bankers on Occacock Island are not paying taxes anywhere.” 

To fix that oversight, “Occacock was annexed to Carteret precinct, which had been formed in 1722.” 

The arrangement lasted until 1845, when for some reason, the state General Assembly “transferred” Ocracoke to Hyde County.

(Geographically, that made absolutely no sense then…and even less now. That’s a story for another day, however.) 

Within Ocracoke Inlet, the kinship between the villages of Portsmouth and Ocracoke goes back for centuries. The communities once combined to serve as North Carolina’s premier Outer Banks seaport.

So much common heritage and culture developed; travel and commerce between the Ocracoke and Portsmouth was commonplace.

 

William Howard purchased “Ye Island of Ocreecock” in 1759 for £105. He became the first colonial owner of Ocracoke to make his home on the island. He may have been living there for a number of years, working as a ship’s pilot. (An early settlement was known as Pilot Town.)

Philip Howard, who is a descendant of William Howard, serves as Ocracoke’s resident historian. He has identified at least 25 different spellings for Ocracoke. 

Sources do not agree when William Howard was born or where, “but he went to sea as a young man,” Philip Howard said. 

“By early 1717, William Howard was associating with Capt. Benjamin Hornigold, an odious Bahamian pirate and mentor to Edward Teach…the notorious Blackbeard.”

 

“After obtaining command of the Queen Anne’s Revenge and making it his flagship, Blackbeard assigned William Howard as his quartermaster, the senior officer. Together, they attacked many a ship and plundered cargoes of untold value,” Philip Howard said. 

In May 1718, the Queen Anne’s Revenge ran aground and sank in Beaufort Inlet. This event reportedly caused William Howard to toss in the towel, swear off piracy and sever his relations with Blackbeard. 

What was William Howard doing in the early fall of 1718 when he was spied frequenting taverns in coastal Virginia? When brought to the attention of Alexander Spotswood, Virginia’s colonial governor, he ordered that William Howard be “seized as a vagrant seaman having no lawful business in Virginia.” 

Spotswood felt certain Howard was “recruiting men for Blackbeard’s crew.” 

As it was, Blackbeard was killed in a bloody battle at sea off Ocracoke on Nov. 22, 1718. The attack by sailors of the Royal Navy was arranged and sponsored by Spotswood. 

Blackbeard

Howard was pronounced guilty of “Pyracy and Robbery on the High Seas.” He was sentenced to death by hanging. Only an “Act of Grace” pardon from England’s King George that arrived just hours before the scheduled execution saved the neck of William Howard. He was set free. 

It’s a great story, but there’s always been a shred of doubt whether William Howard who bought Ocracoke in 1759 and Blackbeard’s quartermaster named William Howard were “one and the same?” 

What happened to William Howard between 1718 and 1759? Where did he go? 

There is consensus that William Howard died in Ocracoke in 1794. If he was born in 1686, as some historians suggest, he would have been 108 when he died. 

Or, if William Howard was born in 1700, as others believe, he would have been a “teenage quartermaster,” while sailing with Blackbeard, and 94 when he died. 

We’re going to need an abacus to sort this out.

Spend some cash to save some money

My mind recalls the policy of the admissions office at the University of Okoboji in Milford, Iowa: “In God we trust, everyone else…cash.” 

I’ve been programmed to shop local and patronize our home-grown businesses. 

I found it interesting that on back-to-back shopping days in August, local merchants offered the option of a “cash price” or a “credit card price.” The plastic option included an additional “processing fee.” Hmmm. 

One day, I was purchasing “new shoes” for my automobile…so it would pass the state inspection. Another day, I was buying a “retro” kitchen table and four chairs (one poor chair was of the “special needs” variety). Most recently, I was shopping for fresh vegetables at a local farm. 

For all three purchases, I opted to “save” and pay with cash…but that required advanced planning of going to the bank to get the “cash money.” 

Thank goodness, on this particular visit, the ATM was fully stocked and could spit out the required number of fresh $20 bills. 

Is there a developing trend here about businesses preferring cash payments? Could be.

The tire store displayed multiple signs to alert customers: “Helen Waite is our new credit manager. If you want credit, go to Helen Waite.” 

Back at “cash college,” the founders of Okoboji (U of O) are brothers Emil and Herman Richter of The Three Sons, a clothing store. (Their younger brother Jimmy suffered from diabetes and died in 1969, at age 21.)

 

The Richters came up with the playful idea “to start a nonexistent university” in 1971. They created the U of O crest and printed up a bunch of collegiate merchandise. It clicked. Everyone wanted an Okoboji-branded sweatshirt. 

The university was “chartered and accredited” in 1977 and gained a reputation as “a strict school – strictly for laughs.” 

Julie Gammack, a former Des Moines Register columnist, who now hosts an annual Okoboji Writers’ Retreat, refers to Okoboji as the “Tooth Fairy of higher education.” 

Okoboji’s trustees voted to re-establish U of O’s founding date as 1878, so that in 1978, supporters could have a big “centennial celebration.” 

Not just anyone can enroll. There’s a required entrance examination – 20 rebus brainteasers. Here are just a few: 

Calm __ storm

G * e * n * e * r * al

Em4bassy

Keet keet

Taste __ bitter

 Emil serves as the university chancellor, and Herman is dean of students. Between them, they have 158 years of “life experience.” 

“We don’t mind growing old; we just don’t want to grow up,” Herman said.

 

“Naturally, there is research work, as students attempt to break new ground in physics by making beer flow faster than water. We warn graduates of our law school that they’ll have a tough time passing the bar,” Herman said. “There are 42 of them here” in Iowa’s “Great Lakes Region.” 

The main lakes are named Big and Little Spirit, East and West Okoboji, Upper and Lower Gar and Minnewashta. 

Okoboji is a word from the Dacotah tribe of Native Americans. It was originally written as “Okoboozhy” and is loosely translated as “place of rest.” 

Okoboji tourism is a year-round economic engine. In northwest Iowa, just below the Minnesota border, the lakes provide recreational opportunities in all four seasons. Winter, however, is the longest. 

At The Three Sons, the torch is being past to the next generation – Emil’s son, Brian, and Herman’s sons, Matt and Mark. 

(Answers: Calm before the storm; 5-star general; foreign embassy; parakeet; bitter after taste.)

Welcome to the pods of major college football

With the prospect of having college football leagues with as many as 20 teams in the near future, it’s time to form our “pods.” 

The plan that appears on paper to work best is a “pod system,” at least for football. The concept is to create four pods of four teams in a 16-team league and four pods of five teams in 20-team league.

In an 18-team league, the four pods would contain either four or five members (and that can still work). 

Each team would play all the other teams in its given pod every season and then play one or more teams from each of the other pods. Some conferences require eight conference games, some require nine. Either way, each team can continue to schedule non-conference games each year. 

So, if and when the Atlantic Coast Conference moves up to 18 teams (adding West Virginia, Cincinnati, Central Florida and South Florida, let’s say), the pods might look like this: 

Pod A: Syracuse, Boston College, Pittsburgh and West Virginia.

Pod B: Virginia, Virginia Tech, Louisville and Cincinnati.

Pod C: North Carolina State, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Duke and Clemson.

Pod D: Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami, Central Florida and South Florida.

 

Where is Notre Dame? Nowhere. 

(Notre Dame can no longer have its cake and eat it, too. The Irish are out of the ACC football mix, choosing not to play a full schedule in order to retain its “independent” status. Its stubbornness will be its downfall. ACC teams playing Notre Dame would count as non-conference games.) 

Pods A and C would be paired, as would B and D. The teams from each pairing with the best records move on to the conference championship game. The pairing of the pods would rotate to A with D and B with C the following year. 

The Pacific-12 Conference currently has 12 members, so if the Pac-12 merges with what’s left of the Big 12, to form an 18-team conference, there would be one open spot. The front-runner is Houston. So, that new league’s pods might be: 

Pod A: Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State and Colorado.

Pod B: Utah, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Baylor and Texas Christian.

Pod C: Southern California, UCLA, Stanford and California.

Pod D: Arizona State, Arizona, Texas Tech and Houston.

 

With Texas and Oklahoma vaulting from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference, the upcoming pod lineup could be:

 

Pod A: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Kentucky.

Pod B: Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

Pod C: Louisiana State, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

Pod D: Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M.

The Big Ten Conference could add two teams to become a 16-member league. The most likely newcomers are Iowa State and Kansas, who would exit the Big 12. If so, the pods might be: 

Pod A: Rutgers, Maryland, Penn State and Ohio State.

Pod B: Michigan State, Michigan, Indiana and Purdue.

Pod C: Northwestern, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Pod D: Kansas, Iowa, Iowa State and Nebraska. 

(This is a tricky alignment regarding Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State, impacting traditional rivalry games. An “I” pod and an “M” pod is doable.)

If this realignment should come to pass, it would ripple down to the second tier of college football, and the American Athletic Conference (AAC) would be gutted – losing Houston, Cincinnati, Central Florida and South Florida. 

It’s time to build a new football league.

Major college football is getting all topsy turvy

College football is scheduled to resume on Saturday, Aug. 28, and everyone is talking about a “realignment of the conferences” that is sure to come. 

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) will top off with 16 members by 2025, when Oklahoma and Texas join the league. 

The departure of the Sooners and Longhorns from the Big 12 Conference, will leave that league with just eight members – Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas Christian, Texas Tech and West Virginia. 

The big question is whether the Big 12 can recruit worthy replacements of equal stature and survive. Oddsmakers believe the Big 12 is likely to unravel...unless the Pacific-12 Conference takes pity and agrees to “merge” and take the Big 12 in under its wing

 

The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), however, is likely to try to pick off West Virginia. The Mountaineers never were a good geographic fit in the Big 12 in the first place. 

WVU is new territory for the ACC, and it would plug a nice hole in the map between Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh. 

The Big Ten Conference (with 14 current members) is poised to expand by taking in Kansas and Iowa State to get to 16 teams. 

The Big Ten logo already looks like a stylized "16."

Both Kansas and Iowa State are members of the Association of American Universities (AAU), which is an organization of leading research universities. 

Only 64 U.S. universities make the grade to carry the AAU label, which is a standard of excellence that is important to the Big Ten. All of its members have AAU status except Nebraska, which had the classification when it was admitted to the Big Ten in 2011. 

Realignment is all about football, the big-money sport, but the Big Ten’s basketball TV ratings would surely benefit from having the Kansas Jayhawks on the schedule. 

Neither West Virginia nor Notre Dame appeals to the Big Ten, because these institutions are not on the AAU roster. Moving on: 

The PAC-12 sees some value in extending its territory to include members from the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. If the conference becomes an 18-team league, that leaves one opening. The best option would be to snatch Houston from the American Athletic Conference (AAC).

 

That would make the AAC vulnerable to lose more members, especially if the ACC opts to follow suit and moves to an 18-team league (plus Notre Dame playing a few ACC teams each year). 

The ACC would see value in adding three current AAC members. 

The first target should be Cincinnati (46,800 students), a natural rival of Louisville, filling another gap in the ACC map – Ohio. 

The next pick should be Central Florida (71,950 students), located in Orlando. All teams would surely want to travel there. 

With its final selection in the ACC expansion draft, the league selects South Florida (50,000 students), located in Tampa, another popular destination within the Sunshine State. 

The ACC needs to latch its back door, however, to block Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina State from slipping out to hook up with the SEC. 

Many believe the SEC will try to add some teams that are actually located in the Southeast. An obvious SEC goal is to penetrate North Carolina and Virginia. 

East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., and Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., are on the SEC radar.

 

A challenge that needs to be addressed is how to schedule games in large conferences. We’ll go there next time.

Who wears bow ties? Doctors and professors set the trend

Bow ties have an aura as being “markers of privilege,” associated with intellectual professions, such as medicine, academia and journalism. 

Dr. Eric Bernicker is a thoracic oncologist at Houston Methodist Cancer Center.

Writing for WHYY, Philadelphia’s public radio station, Elana Gordon got the scoop on why physicians wear bow ties from Dr. Lawrence Kaplan, an associate dean at the Temple University medical school. He said: “I wear a stethoscope in my front pocket or around my neck, and the bow tie essentially doesn’t get in the way.”

Dr. Kaplan

 

Dr. Michael Levine, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, points out that bow ties bear a certain practicality, especially in pediatrics, compared to the traditional necktie, Gordon wrote. In Dr. Levine’s words: “It’s much more difficult for a baby to (tinkle) on your tie if it’s a bow tie.”

 

Dr. Levine

Gordon reported: “Some studies have found that neckties and other things dangling from the neck, like badges, can in fact be vectors for bacteria and even infection. Bow ties appear to be more hygienic choice of neckwear.” 

Dr. Farzad Mostashari is a co-founder of Aledada, a company based in Bethesda, Md., that partners with independent practices, health centers and clinics to improve efficiency and positive outcomes for their patients. 

“Partly for me, (the bow tie goes with) the feeling of being a little bit of a misfit in a positive way,” he said. “It’s a fun little expression of that.”

Dr. Mostashari

 

“Dr. Levine says one rule holds true for the great tradition of bow tie wearing doctors: You have to tie it yourself.” Clip-ons don’t cut it. 

Jennifer Song, a contributor to The Gentle Manual, said: “Self-tie bow ties, or ‘freestyle’ bow ties, are bow ties you tie yourself. Once tied, the bow’s natural lines, shape and slight asymmetry bring stylistic elements that can’t be matched by a pre-tied bow, or a necktie.” 

“The pre-tied bow tie is a neat, symmetrical bow attached to an adjustable band. It is easy to size and painless to put-on,” she said, “but pre-tied bow ties lack the character of a self-tie.” 

“Clip-on bow ties are attached to a metal clasp which hooks or clips directly onto the collar of a shirt,” The black batwing version used to be required attire for male grocery store clerks. Today, Song said, “clip-ons are suitable for young children only. Period.” 

At Brigham Young University, Sadie Blood wrote a column for the student newspaper about “faculty fashion.” 

“Bow ties are a common trend for professors on campus,” Blood said. “History professor Dr. Neil York frequently rocks the bow tie. He switches it daily for variety. Despite his vast experience with bow ties, he admits he has never been able to tie one perfectly balanced or straight.” 

Dr. York said: “I have dozens of them, essentially divided into fall/winter and spring/summer groups. I always wear them to class. I prefer the look; they are easier to adjust to a preferred length and spilling something on them is virtually impossible.” 

Dr. William Christensen, a BYU statistics professor, said he “changed from regular ties to bow ties when he was a young father and disliked that his kids were always chewing on his long ties,” Blood wrote. “His usual teaching attire consists of a bow tie and Converse tennis shoes because he wants to dress up while staying comfortable.”

 

Dr. Christensen

“Bow ties are light and playful,” Dr. Christensen said. “You can’t take a guy with a bow tie too seriously, and I don’t want to be taken too seriously. I guess I’m kind of a rebel.”

Nostalgia makes good music

The Statler Brothers seem to hone in on songs that were laced with nostalgia, and one of the group’s biggest hits was chockful of lyrics that recalled good times. 

It was “Do You Remember These.” No one knows what happened to the question mark, but the song takes listeners back to 1950s popular culture.

 The tune was written in 1972 by the Reid brothers, along with the late Larry Lee Favorite, who wrote or co-wrote hundreds of hit country music songs. 

The song peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard “Hot Country” chart. 

Do you remember these? 

Flat tops, sock hops, Studebaker, “Pepsi, please.” Aviator caps with flaps that button down, movie stars on Dixie cup tops; the hit parade, Grape TruAde, the Sadie Hawkins dance; pedal pushers, peggin’ your pants; Howdy Doody, Tutti Frutti.

 

James Dean, he was keen; Sunday movies were taboo; rock ‘n’ roll was new; Cracker Jack prize; lemonade stand and taking your tonsils out; four foul balls, you’re out. Boat neck shirts, fender skirts, crinoline petticoats; mum’s the word, dirty bird, double root beer float; moon hubcaps, loud heel taps; “he’s a real gone cat.” Do you remember that? 

Dancing close, little moron jokes, cooties in her hair; Captain Midnight, Ovaltine; The Whip at the county fair; Charles Atlas course, Roy Rogers’ horse, “Only the Shadow Knows.” Ah, do you remember those?

 

Froggin’ your arm, going steady, Veronica and Betty, white bucks and blue suede shoes. Knock, knock jokes: Who’s there? Dewey. Dewey who? Dewey remember these? Yes we do!

 The Statler Brothers sang that whole song in just 2 minutes and 53 seconds. 

Had the songwriters tried, they could have made it last a little longer, by plugging in other memories from the 1950s, such as Beany and Cecil, Rootie Kazootie, Arthur Godfrey, Karen and Cubby, Cisco Kid and Pancho as well as Dick Clark and Kukla, Fran and Ollie.

Play along and add your own pearls of nostalgia.

Craving pumpkin spice? Try an ‘ice lolly’

While we were still enjoying prime-time summer weather at the beach, “pumpkin spice season” sneaked up on us…once again. 

All Dunkin’ Donuts locations in the United States introduce the company’s “fall menu favorites” Aug. 18, and the tagline is: “All in on Pumpkin.” 

When it’s still too hot outside to savor a pumpkin spice flavored latte, you can still “participate in the orangeness of it all” by enjoying a cool and refreshing pumpkin spice popsicle. 

(Technically, “Popsicle” is brand name and registered trademark owned by Unilever, which is resisting the genericization of the term.) 

So, the proper term to use is “ice pop.” In the British Isles, an ice treat on a stick is known as an “ice lolly.” That has a happy ring to it, wouldn’t you say?

Make a batch yourself. It’s easy as pie, says Makinze Gore, associate food editor at Delish.com, a unit of Hearst Digital Media. 

There are only five ingredients. Start with a 15-ounce can pumpkin pureé. Add: 1 cup cold coffee, 3/4 cup heavy cream, 3 tablespoons of honey and 1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice. Whisk and pour into popsicle molds. Place lid on and insert popsicle sticks. Freeze until solid, at least 4 hours. 

Apparently, it’s OK to use popsicle as an adjective. Good grief. 

Ice pops are an American food. They were “invented” by Frank Epperson, an 11-year-old boy living in Oakland, Calif., in 1905. The lad “mixed some soda powder and water in a glass with a small wooden stirrer, but wandered off and forgot about his drink,” according to Mary Bellis of ThoughtCo, a member of the Dotdash publishing family. 

The temperature dipped bellowing freezing, and the next morning, Epperson discovered that his drink was frozen solid. Bellis said: “The boy named the treat an “Epsicle” – because it reminded him of an icicle.” 

In 1923, as an adult, Epperson obtained a patent for his “frozen ice on a stick.” One of his children suggested the product be named as a “Popsicle,” and so it was. 

In 1925, Epperson sold the Popsicle patent to the Joe Lowe Corporation of New York City, the nation’s largest purveyor of ingredient supplies to the ice cream industry. Matt Blitz of Food & Wine magazine said Joe Lowe “had the right infrastructure in place to make Popsicle huge.”

“Popsicle became a frozen empire. The company upped production and began pumping out Popsicles, changing its name to the Popsicle Corporation,” Blitz wrote. 

An early innovation was adding a second stick to the Popsicle, so the treat could be broken in half and shared with a friend. It took practice to learn how to crack it just right to produce two equal portions.

Common fruity flavors were peach, banana, lemon-lime, grape, cherry, orange, pina-colada, blue punch, green apple, strawberry, watermelon and mango. The favorite has always been cherry. 

Over time, new products were introduced, such as the “Fudgsicle,” the “Creamsicle,” the “Dreamsicle” and the “Yosicle.”

 

A Creamsicle is made with ice cream, while a Dreamsicle is made with ice milk. The original coating was a layer of orange sherbet, but other flavors were added, including blue raspberry, lime, grape and blueberry. (Unilever acquired the Popsicle brand in 1989.)

 You can find pumpkin spice latte ice cream in the frozen foods section of the supermarket. Dreyer’s and Edy’s (Ee-Dee’s) brands offer coffee ice cream swirled with pumpkin ice cream. (Owned by Nestlé, they are exactly the same. Dreyer’s is found in the West and Edy’s is in the East.) 

The names refer to the original founders, William Dreyer and Joseph Edy, who started their ice cream company in 1928 in Oakland, Calif.