Thursday,
January 3, 1963
From the desk of Mrs. Jane Price Sharp

WEATHER
From the rule days it looks like a hard, cold winter. Temperatures have gone to zero or 2 above each night in town.
Snowfall in December was 38.8 inches, a record for a long number of years.
The icicles are long and numerous, so whether you hold to this belief that the length indicates the depth of snow or the time the snow will stay on the ground, it means a lot of wintry weather.

Centennial Baby
Church bells rang in the Centennial Year of 1963 and three hours and forty minutes later, John Glenn Birchfield was born in the Pocahontas Memorial Hospital, apparently the official Centennial Baby of Pocahontas County. Young John Glenn weighed only three pounds and fifteen ounces. His parents are James and Kathleen Gray Bostic Birchfield, of Seebert, and this is their first child. The baby was delivered by Dr. L. E. Rexrode.
The baby received gifts from the Chamber of Commerce, Lang’s Dress Shop, Home Products Market, Jim Martin’s Photo and Appliance Center, People’s Store, Wilbur Sharp & Son, C. J. Richardson, The Pocahontas Times, Moore’s Auto Store and the Royal Drug Store.

Pearl Buck Home
It is with great pleasure that we have learned that the Pearl Buck birthplace in Hillsboro will be opened to visitors this summer. In special recognition of the Centennial Year of our State, the John Townsends (she is the former Margaret Edgar and owner of the home) plan to make some repairs to the house and have it open to tourists from July 15 to October 15.

New Camp Ranger
Dewey Sharp has been appointed Camp Ranger of the Buckskin Council Scout Reservation at Dilley’s Mill effective January 1. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp will move into the residence at the camp on February 1. The securing of a ranger to live at the camp will increase the use of the facilities throughout the year.

GUMPERSON’S LAW
January is a good time to think about the law of perverse opposites – or, as it is known to most laymen, Gumperson’s law – and it is still un-repealed.
For those of you who are unaware, Gumperson’s law neatly explains a number of irritating events that might otherwise be put down to mere chance. It is Gumerpson’s law, for example that causes bluegrass to grow in the cracks of concrete sidewalks but not on your lawn.
It accounts, too, for the fact that you can throw a burnt match out the window of your car and start a forest fire while you can use two boxes of matches and a whole edition of the Sunday paper without being able to start a fire under the dry logs in a fireplace.
The law stated simply, is that the contradictory of a welcome probability will assert itself whenever such an eventuality is likely to be most frustrating.
Some of Dr. R. F. Gumperson’s better known laws are as follows:
After a raise in salary you will have less money at the end of each month than you had before.
A girl at the race track who bets according to the color of the jockey’s shirt will pick more winners than the man who has studied the past performance of every horse on the program.
Children have more energy after a hard day of play than they do after a good night’s sleep.
A person who buys the most raffle tickets has the least chance of winning.
A child can be exposed to the mumps for weeks without catching them, but can catch then without exposure the day before the family goes on vacation.
The dishwasher will breakdown the evening you give a dinner party for ten people.
Good parking places are always on the other side of the street.
Dr. Gumperson served as a consultant to the armed services during World War II and evolved the procedure whereby the more a recruit knew about a given subject the better chance of receiving an assignment involving some other subject.
There is no knowing to what further glittering heights Dr. Gumperson’s genius would have led him had it not been for his untimely death in 1947. Strolling along the highway one evening, he was obeying the pedestrian rule of walking to the left facing traffic. He was struck down from behind by a Hillman-Minx driven by an English visitor hugging the left side of the road.
Excerpts from Changing Times Magazine

Boys and Girls in Service
A 2-c Lynn E. Triplett is spending a leave with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clay Triplett. He is enroute from Kelly AFB, Texas, to spend a tour of duty in England.

William N. Shafer of the U.S. Navy, son of Mrs. Mary Shafer, has returned to his base at Cecil Field, Florida, after having spent a 15 day leave with family and friends in Marlinton.

Gerald Davis returned Tuesday to Fort Benning, Georgia, after spending the holidays with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leo Davis.

Stephen J. Lane, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Lane, of Marlinton, has returned to his Navy Training Center at Great Lakes, Illinois, after spending a 14-day leave with his parents.

BIRTHS
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Maize, of Slaty Fork, a daughter

DEATHS
Miss Dora McClintic, aged 81, of Renick; survived by a sister, Mrs. C. E. Knapp, of Renick; burial in the Renick Cemetery

Andrew Fertig was born April 7, 1893, at Thorny Creek, the son of the late Missouri Loury and G. A. Fertig; departed this life December 25, 1962; member of the Cass Presbyterian Church; burial in the Dilley Cemetery.