Woody Cavenaugh

My parents moved to Newport North Carolina in 1964 and eventually I was born and raised there. Until I left for college Newport was pretty unchanged. One stop light, two diners, one K-8 school. Since I left they have added two more stop lights, a Food Lion, a Bojangles, a river kyaking business, and a whole other school. Now, they have a little news paper and I am thrilled that my mother sent me a copy!

Its not much of course, the issue I got was Vol 1, number 5, and Newport will always be a small town near the beach. What I loved was seeing pictures and reading about people who were there when I was and are still doing what they always did. Its comforting to know that the town librarian I grew up with is still the town librarian. Our library started out in the same building as our firestation and town hall. Now our library, town hall, and firestation are three separate buildings all filled to capacity.

The other thing that Newport has is the Pig Cooking Contest. The first one was in 1976. My entire childhood, my father always competed in it, sponsored by whichever company owned the shirt factory at the time. Eventually he stopped competing, and I stopped going. For me it wasn't that I had lost interest so much as I was in college fencing and NC Division II qualifiers always falls on the same weekend. This year our club is hosting Divisionals so once again I won't make it. I still have my memories though.

And now I have a newspaper that can take me back there.