Tag Archive for: #hendersonnews

Corbitt Trucks

TownTalk: Preserving The History Of Corbitt Trucks

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The 20th annual Corbitt Truck Show and Reunion is coming up next month on Oct. 15, and it’s a great time to come out and view some of the vehicles that were manufactured right here in Henderson.

Corbitt Preservation Association Vice President Tom Burleson said the reunion coincides with the Show, Shine, Shag and Dine event, which brings thousands of car enthusiasts from all over into town for a weekend of fun.

Burleson told John C. Rose on Thursday’s TownTalk that his group is selling raffle tickets for some nice prizes – tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20. First prize is a Milwaukee tool set, which retails for $750-$800. Second prize is a Hobart welding accessory kit, valued at $300.

Tickets are available from anyone in the Corbitt Preservation Association, their social media page, as well as at the museum on the day of the reunion – and Burleson said you don’t have to be present to win.

The Corbitt museum, located at 180 Church St., has plenty of Corbitt merchandise for sale. “We’ll be open for business that day and look forward to seeing people,” he said. There are Corbitt caps and t-shirts for sale, among other items. This year’s t-shirt features an image of a 1929 fire truck, whose chassis was built by Corbitt, which once known as the South’s largest truck manufacturer.

The fire truck originally was property of the U.S. Navy, but Burleson said it had more recently been used on the campus of the Maryland Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Officials there contacted the preservation association when it was ready to be retired, and it is now in the process of being restored to its former glory.

That very truck should be among the rolling stock of Corbitt vehicles that will be on display near the fire department on Garnett Street during the car show, Burleson said.

It’s not an everyday occurrence, but he said the group does hear from folks who have Corbitt vehicles.

“I enjoy it because it’s living history,” Burleson said of his interest in Corbitts. “So many people don’t know or appreciate what the Corbitt Company did for the country and for the community.”

The company began making buggies in 1899 and then produced horseless carriages when they began installing motors on the backs of the buggies. Although most known for their trucks, Corbitt also manufactured cars and tractors.

During World War II, Corbitt produced “big ol’ beasts” to transport all kinds of heavy cargo. “That was their niche and they sold a ton of them,” Burleson said. They’ve turned up in Europe, leftovers from the American presence.

And there are a couple of farm tractors that have been located in Brazil, the result of a deal between the U.S. and the South American country. A couple of shipments made it to Brazil before the deal broke down, Burleson said, but he said someone made contact with folks here to say he had one and his neighbor had one, too.

The Corbitt enthusiasts are keen to keep the vehicles in working order. “These are real things that are wonderfully still rolling,” Burleson said. “We have a good handful of folks who keep these things up and ride them and drive them and display them and love to talk about them,” he said.

To learn more, visit www.corbitttrucks.com or phone 252.767.2247 or 252.432.6476.

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Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Elliott Reflects On Vipers’ First Loss And Prepares For Northern Durham

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Last week as Vance County High School prepared for Riverside, Coach Aaron Elliott commented his team had not had a great week of practice, and last Friday Vance County was handed its first loss against a powerful Riverside team by the score of 42-13. Not only was it the Vipers’ first defeat of the season, they also lost starting quarterback Nazir Garrett to a concussion.  Now the Vipers will have to hit the road to take on Northern Durham which is coming off of a double overtime win at Franklinton.

Without their starting quarterback and a banged up team, Friday night’s game will be a challenge. “We have to be ready to play four quarters,” Coach Elliott said on SportsTalk on WIZS Thursday.  “I asked the guys a question after the game. I asked if they know how important practice is during the week,” Elliott continued. After getting an answer in the affirmative, Elliott said practice this week was much better.

While praising the team’s defense and their ability to stop the run against Riverside, Coach Elliott was surprised at how much they threw the ball.  Northern Durham is another team that does both well, and with the offense hobbled not having Garrett in the lineup, it will put more pressure on the Viper defense to step up.  With the injury bug hitting the Vipers it will also mean there are opportunities for back up players to make an impact.

The Vipers and the Knights kick off Friday night at 7pm at Durham County Stadium. Airtime is 6:50pm on WIZS Radio 1450 AM / 100.1 FM / via live internet stream at https://player.listenlive.co/53101.

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The Local Skinny! When Trains Rumbled Along Corbitt Road

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Sometimes it’s fun to just listen.

Listen and remember times gone by, through the eyes – and voices – of those who are no longer here.

Thursday’s The Local Skinny! segment is a remembrance of two much-loved subjects around here at the radio station: Trains. And John D. Rose, III.

John C. Rose played a clip for TownTalk guest Tom Burleson about Burleson’s father, Gilliam, as told by John C. Rose’s dad, who was recalling covering a Henderson City Council meeting.

Here’s the gist of the story, but treat yourself and go listen to the audio at wizs.com:

Although the trains were no longer crossing Garnett Street at Corbitt Road, across from the corner lot where the Burleson family lived, “they did have lights, bells and crossing gates across Garnett Street,” Rose recounted in the clip. “Gilliam comes to the city council meeting one night (to say that) due to malfunction, about 3 o’clock one morning, the lights and bells go off at the crossing, which of course wakes Mr. Burleson up,” Rose said, his chuckles escalating to laughter.

“I got to laughing so hard I had to go out of the room for awhile…and Mr. Burleson was up there describing the outrages that he was having to put up with at his residence,” Rose continued. When the police called the railroad’s home office to find out how to disable the offending equipment, came back a written reply that the railroad didn’t know it even had such equipment in Henderson. Long story short, the senior Rose said, “nothing was ever done about it until the railroad company finally took up the railroad tracks and when they did, they took the lights and bells with them.”

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Cooperative Extension with Jamon Glover: Bedtime Problems, Pt. 3

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Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

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TownTalk: G.R.A.C.E. Ministries Reaches Out To Those With Addictions

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Jamie Elliott hopes to have a good turnout at the G.R.A.C.E. Ministries Addiction and Recovery Rally this Saturday. It’s a time for people to learn more about community resources for those who need help, and it’s also a time to hear from individuals in recovery who have turned their lives around.

The rally will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10 at G.R.A.C.E. Ministries, 961 Burr St. “I’m looking forward to this weekend,” Elliott told John C. Rose on Wednesday’s Town Talk. And he plans to stream the event live on social media for those who can’t attend but want to see and hear the day’s activities. Visit https://www.graceofhenderson.org/ to learn more.

Several men and women, all recovering addicts, are going to be on the agenda to share their stories, Elliott said, “how they first started in addiction and where they are now.”

Whether through information from community agencies or form first-person testimonials, the main focus of the event is education.

“We want to educate families on what drug addiction has done…you have to be there to listen and see with your own eyes what addiction does” to individuals and to their families, Elliott said.

People find themselves in the throes of addiction from a variety of ways, whether it’s becoming dependent on prescribed pain medications for a medical condition or to block traumatic experiences.

“Once the drug wears off, the trauma comes back,” Elliott said.  Addiction knows no age – Elliott said he’s worked with pre-teens as well as a woman in her 80’s who abused pills – “it all started from her messing up her hip,” he explained. “We have to educate people on how to use medicine the right way,” he added.

Addiction so often starts out small, and then snowballs out of control. It starts out with one seemingly harmless interaction with drugs or alcohol and then progresses to more and more dangerous abuse. “Then you see your life just disappearing in front of your eyes,” Elliott said.

And it’s not just the addict who is affected, he said. “People tend to forget about the families,” Elliott added. Family members watch helplessly – or enable the addicted person – “they don’t know what to do or what to say…they worry themselves sick, day and night.”

The Saturday rally is designed to promote awareness – opening people’s eyes to the dangers of addiction, the possibilities for recovery and for the resources in the community to help people get the help they need.

“The more people we can get together, the more people will see what’s going on,” Elliott said.

If your organization would like to participate or set up a booth, contact Elliott at 252.204 3617 or Danny Satterwhite at 252.425.3620.

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Home And Garden Show

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On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.

  • Vegetables that can be planted now collards, turnips, beets, snap beans squash broccoli,
  • Pull or spray microstegium soon. It will set seed in a couple of weeks which makes the infestation much worse next year.
  • Control cabbage loopers, cabbage worms, in cole crops with Dipel or Sevin
  • Plant tall fescue NOW.
  • Weed your strawberry beds. Every weed you control now will help in weeding your strawberries next spring
  • Remove fruiting canes from your blackberry patch.
  • Now is great time to take your soil test
  • Avoid pruning. Wait until late November at the earliest.
  • Provide irrigation soon after planting any fall vegetables if rain is not forecast within 3 days of planting.
  • Leaves will be falling before you know it, so go ahead and build a compost bin to hold them.

 

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TownTalk: Tourism And Its Impact On The Local Economy

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We spend money every day, during trips to the grocery store or the pharmacy, for example. But each day, Vance County residents shop alongside visitors to the community who may be camping at Kerr Lake or who are in town for a dance competition or one of a number of annual events that draw folks from all over.

The data comes from an annual study commissioned by Visit North Carolina, a unit of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. If you break down that number,

Vance County received about $164,000 a day last year in tourism dollars.

That money supports the local economy in a variety of ways – it means that people are shopping and dining locally, and they’re spending a night or nights in area motels and hotels. Tourism spending was up in all 100 North Carolina counties last year over the previous year. But considering that the previous year – 2020 – was basically a tourism “bust” because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it stood to reason that any improvement in 2021 over 2020 would be expected.

Vance County is gearing up for a couple of its annual events that traditionally attract throngs of visitors – the Show, Shine, Shag and Dine is set for Oct. 14-15 in Vance County.

There’s a pre-show barbecue dinner and cruise-in at Kerr Lake on Friday, Oct. 14, and then the Southern Classic Cruise-In will take place the next day at 117 Horner St. in downtown Henderson. This is the 20th annual Show, Shine, Shag and Dine, sure to delight classic car enthusiasts.

And just in case those car enthusiasts need a bit more, the 20th annual Corbitt Truck Show and Reunion will take place Saturday, Oct. 15. The Corbitt Preservation Association works throughout the year to remember that workhorse vehicle that was manufactured right here in Henderson. The show and reunion runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Corbitt Museum, located at 180 Church St.

Whether it’s an annual car show, performances at McGregor Hall or families who enjoy all recreational activities on Kerr Lake, Vance County benefits. Gas tanks get filled, appetites satisfied in area restaurants and then those visitors return to their homes. But their money gets spent here and stays here.

In 2021, that money amounted to more than $59 million.

In Warren County, visitors spent just more than $63 million in 2021. Although the Commerce Department statistics didn’t break down spending by event, but did list a handful of categories that are including when capturing the visitor spending. One category is second homes, and Warren County has a lot of second homes situated along the Lake Gaston shoreline.

Maybe the people who used to visit their lake homes on the weekends decided to stay longer during the pandemic, or maybe they’ve continued to live there and work remotely. Whatever the reason, Warren County took in roughly $63 million from visitors during 2021.

Granville County is the largest of the three counties in the area, and it reported visitor spending at $50 million in 2021 – a 26.9 percent increase from 2020.

Granville may not have the same volume of lake traffic as Vance and Warren, but it makes up for it in the sheer volume of events and attractions that seem to pop up most any time during the year.

Perhaps the largest annual event is coming up this weekend when the 16th annual Hot Sauce Festival and Contest takes center stage in downtown Oxford.

Food and beverage vendors, local craftspeople and dozens of hot sauce stands set up all along College, Williamsboro and Main streets for the all-day festival. There are a couple of stages for live music performances, a classic car show and, of course, the ever-popular pepper-eating contest.

The Creedmoor Music Festival tunes up next weekend to entertain concert-goers with all genres of music, from Gospel to classic rock.

No matter the draw – peppers, cars, lake activities or music – the counties all benefit from having tourists visit, enjoy and spend – their time AND their money.

 

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