Reader response to recent columns

Reader response to some recent columns has been interesting, and I want to share some of their comments with you. Writers always wonder whether they are being read, and what their readers think, so please keep those cards and letters coming, folks!
Actually, it is mostly e-mails and personal contacts, but I would like to see more people respond to the Bulletin’s web page "blogs" at http://www.tryondailybulletin.com/blogs/.

My teacher friends identified with "That Carlann woman." The last paragraph was meant as a tribute to all the good teachers everywhere who are making a difference in so many young lives. I wish now that I had named them, but I wanted to get the column in the paper while it was timely. It is always better to let columns steep for a while because I often think of better ways to express things. It would have been good to say that this column is also for Uncle Mitch, Nancy, Bunny, Cindy, Janice and Dixie . . . not to mention my own teachers, all of whom I can name.

Carlann’s daughter Satasha put her comment on the Bulletin’s blog. Since many of you do not "do" the Internet, I quote her: "I am proud to see that others think That Carlann Woman is as wonderful as I [do]. As her daughter, I am perhaps the luckiest student of all. I was about 10 when she enrolled in Gardner-Webb. I went to class with her, tried to do my homework in the back of the room, quizzed her for tests on the way to Boiling Springs, and sometimes participated in class discussions. I am still realizing some of the lessons I learned from those years. I would have loved to have had a fourth grade teacher like that, but I got one better: I have That Carlann Woman as a life teacher!"

The comments about the WPA column were also interesting and varied. Bill Wuehrmann checked in with this: "I'm old enough to know, first hand, about WPA and CCC (my brother-in-law signed up) and I have one remaining vestige of the great work of WPA: An outhouse! Fay and I own a church (1855) in rural Wisconsin, but that's another story in itself that's too long to tell here. Anyway, it still has its WPA outhouse out back."

Helen Trevathan e-mailed this: "Really enjoyed reading this column. Chuck said his family probably wouldn't have made it thru without the WPA!" I am sure Chuck speaks for many who lived during the Great Depression.

In the small world category, Carlann Scherping sent this note: "That [WPA column] was fun to read. Martha and Allen [Ashley] are friends of mine. Martha and I did our graduate degrees at Gardner Webb together and, of course, we taught together at Saluda." And Madelyn Dedmondt Meyer (daughter of weatherman Robert) e-mailed from Brevard, "It's truly amazing what wonderful history you uncover in your endeavors. I never knew a home & spring-fed swimming pool was hiding in Saluda. It sounds like a treasure."

Friend Leroy Clarke, who grew up in Texas, but retired to New Mexico, e-mailed "It [WPA] was an amazing program, poor rural NM had its share of WPA projects too. We see lots of the work around here. I guess everyone over 60 still thinks of WPA and meaning "We Piddle Around". Silly that such a program had to live with that, as lots of folks were fed. (Being a Gov't program, there was, no doubt, lots of ‘piddle’)." However, friend Bob Isenhart, from the Midwest, sent this comment, "From the fine reporting in your article, it appears that the interpretation of ‘W-P-A’ being, ‘We Polk Along’ was entirely improper!" I think he meant "poke," as in "slowpoke," but he was probably playing with the name of our county.

The historians tell us that it was WWII, not the WPA, that finally brought us out of the Great Depression. Be that as it may, we still have the enduring rockwork, some buildings, and the wonderful Blue Ridge Parkway to enjoy. Pretty good legacy, I say.