Whiteville, the Fine Arts, and Michael Jordan's Jump Shot

It now all seems like another world. After I left the bakery and went to work for the Boy Scouts in early 1981, I found myself living in Whiteville. You’ve probably never heard of the town. Whiteville is the county seat of Columbus County. But that ain’t saying a whole lot since North Carolina has 100 counties and therefore a 100 county seats. Being a county seat isn’t anything special. I can’t say that I disliked the place. I found the town to be pleasant and there was much I enjoyed about living there. But since my time there included a failed marriage, I’m left with bittersweet emotions about the place.

Whiteville is an interesting town. It’s a town divided. The old part, where I lived, centered on the courthouse which sat in the middle of the two major cross streets. While I was there, they opened the bypass around the town, allowing folks passing through to avoid the traffic circle around the courthouse and its various statutes to the war heroes: those who fought for the Confederacy, in Hearst’s war of expansion and in the various World Wars. The commercial district was a mile south, around the railroad tracts. Folks told me that when they put the tracks in, they insisted that they be one mile south of the town so the engines would disturb things around the courthouse. I found that logic to be suspect as the old Wilmington and Manchester Railroad didn’t have a bend in their tracks between Delco and Fair Bluff and most likely the straight line missed the courthouse. Furthermore, in 1853, when the tracks were laid, I doubt there were many people in the county who’d even seen an iron horse. The tracks would later become a part of the Atlantic Coastline Railroad and by the time I arrived were just a spur line for the Seaboard Coastline.

Having the parts of town a mile apart, with the traffic circle around the courthouse on the north end, created a wonderful set-up for cruising. Folks would come from around the country to drive the loop that circled the courthouse, stopping off and on to talk to folks in the opposing lane. I’d been told about this custom which had been going on for decades, but didn’t register until one Saturday night I went to the movies. When I came out, at 9:30 or so, there were hundreds of cars on the street. I quickly learned that if I wanted to get to the other part of town on a weekend night, you needed to avoid the main streets.

Whiteville, in the early 1980s was still a tobacco town. Large warehouses stood around the edge of town where, starting in late summer, farmers from across Columbus and Bladen and Brunswick County would sale their dried golden leaves. However, I would be wrong to say it was just a hick town without much culture. What other town with 5000 citizens could draw in the Atlanta Symphony to perform in the local 1,000 seat high school auditorium? The concert, part of the music arts program, was a sell-out.

Like most folks in town, I had no idea that fall when I purchased season tickets to the arts programs that the Atlanta Symphony would be performing the same night that Carolina would be playing for the NCAA championship. It was the Spring of ‘82 and there were lots of men in town who really didn’t want to be there, but we were shamed into coming because, after all, it was the Atlanta Symphony. It would be bad to have a lot of no-shows for the concert. So I sat near the back of the hall. In the foyer, those who were bright enough to volunteer to staff the ticket windows had set up a TV. They’d figured out that once everyone was in, they could listen to the background music while concentrating on the game. The game would go down in history as a classic battle and we missed it all. As the performance ended, we treated the symphony with a warm applause when, from the lobby, a cry came out that could mean just one thing. Carolina had won. People went crazy. The musicians, overcome by this suddenly enthusiastic crowd, bowed and bowed. Little did they know the applause was actually for Michael Jordan, who’d hit the game ending jump shot, giving Carolina the victory of Georgetown.

Oh yeah, in case any of you don't know, Carolina won last night and will be playing one again in the Final Four, which is next weekend in Detroit.