Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Joe and Violet Weiss used to join the men around the big oval table at McDonald’s; they stayed there after the group moved to Bojangles. I have not seen Vi since Josef died; I would have visited her at Ridge Rest had I known she was living there!

Fran and I attended many Christmas parties at their home outside Columbus over the years. Vi had a large collection of dolls in their house. Joe had an extensive “museum” of artifacts from his car racing days over their garage; he even added my books to his collection! 

They both wore their doctorates well; they were just “Joe and Vi” to us. Joe did tend to brag a little, but Vi was quietly unassuming. Joe was looking for a home for his museum collection, but I suppose he never found one. We have missed them since Josef died.

Frances Lucinda Waymon has died. I met her as Frances Fox when I attended her famous sister’s funeral. I presented copies to her of all the articles in the TDB that were written about Eunice Waymon/Nina Simone at that time. I even sent one myself to defend our piano teacher, Mrs. Lawrence Mazzanovich. Mrs. Mazzy dearly loved her Eunice! 

Great to see my long-term friend Donnie Jolley featured on the cover of the TDB of July 30th. Donnie fetches a case of three gallons of distilled water I buy for my CPAP machine; he even puts it in the back of my car for me.   

Stuart Goldstein of Green Creek wrote an interesting Letter to the Editor that appeared in the July 26th edition of the Tryon Daily Bulletin. In it he refers  to “the I-26 debacle.” I would like to add my two bits to this discussion. 

I met Henry Huntsinger, the State’s road builder/maintenance supervisor for Polk County, and had lengthy discussions with him over the years when we gave blood to the Red Cross. He told me that “If a road could be built on Miller Mountain, Howard Gap Road would be paved!”

My Aunt Mildred Rippy said that the “mica dirt” on Miller Mountain would not stay put in a rainstorm. When the vegetation was removed, the rains removed the dirt. Tom Costa’s lake was filled up and the Walcott property was ruined by all that dirt that flowed down the mountain. When the money ran out and there was no road, construction stopped while new plans were made. 

The road was designed from aerial photographs and Henry was not consulted. I hope the people responsible learned their lesson, but I doubt it. Now they are having to “Lick their calf over again” (my grandmother Rippy’s saying) because they are still having problems with it.

Too many tractor-trailer trucks have come to grief at the bottom of the hill after going through Howard Gap. The son of a friend was badly burned when he lost control of his tanker truck in the curve there. My solution is to continue the truck lane down the hill and around the curve, with the outside of the lane much higher than the inside of the curve. That should help the truck move around the curve even if it is speeding.

In addition, I want a shoulder built up to continue the road surface a full lane width, with the same superelevation of the outside edge. This shoulder should also be built to carry the weight of a loaded semi-trailer truck.

That hill and curve have been the graveyard of too many semis over the years since I-26 was built. I don’t know about the fate of the other drivers, but even the one serious injury is one too many.