The Adventures of a Cub Reporter

Stratton Murrell covers a "hot" story in 1941

Finally published 61 years later.

       It’s not just the picture, but how and when it was taken. Here it is. the picture. Use your imagination;It is a boy’s first writing adventure and has now been published in the Jacksonville Daily News in 2002. It is a Cub Reporter’s dream come true. It is also the begiinning of a book---the cybernetic book.The story begins in that I have always liked to write as in school essays or in my journal but things changed in the 1930s as Adolph Hitler and his Nazis began to conquer Europe. There was an erie feeling that one day very soon our country would be involved. This involvement was different from what we expected. It was not Hitler's invasion, but that of our own country's military who occupied our Paradice. The  logistics began  when there was a notice from the Federal governmrnt that many of our people  had to leave their homes to make way for a U.S. Marine Base to be built in Onslow County. It was an unexpected kind of low key anger and terror whereby in this.  kind of invasion no lives would be lost, but our would be. What actually happened was that we lost our homes and our way of life as we were b thrist into a new way of life. It was like a gone with the wind kind of thing where we were blown into a new  and foreign way of life and "the good old days" were gone forever. When the Marines moved in we moved out and we became displaced prsons (A MODERN NAME FOR REFUGES) Our country had to be protected. It was the beginnig of a Boom Town way of life which develops around a military installation. There were the trials and tribulations of warfare, and it was the beginning of an adventure of a twelve year old boy. 9-18-2009:The Adventures Of A Cub Reporter is the basic story of this book. The adventures of cub was probably inspired by the adventures of Tom Swift, a boy inventor. According to Wikipedia, the story of Tom Swift was in a series of books written by Victor Appleton II from 1910 to 1930. As a kid I spent many hours reading these books and wishing that I could have adventures like Tom. And now, many years later, this wish is becoming true and the episodes are far beyond anything like Tom Swift The adventure is being able to write stories about a boy who was born in Onslow County on the banks of the New River. He was a unique refuge who grew up with a dramatic change in this country in a transition from the poverty of the Great Depression to riches far beyond The Gold Ruah of the Nineteenth Century. The cub grew up in the changing tides of history and recorded it ------The manuscript nas already been written and this cybernetic work book is a series of notes and previews of stories that will be in the final copy of the book. The cybernetic work book is an experimental project (which is a cooperative endeavor with the Onslow County Public Library)  and some things may be repeated.New stories will be added from time to time. For this reason, you should p ut ADVENTURES on your drsk top by going to the home page and right clicking  any blank area. There will be a pop up menu. Click on short cut and tjere it will be---on your desk top for easy reference. Each time you go to Adventures, click the Guest Book. When you sign in, this means thaat you have done something different in that you have checked out a cybernetic book. 

Adventures Of A Cub Reporter

by Dr. Stratton C. Murrell

      I was at the Barbershop one Saturday afternoon (some time in 2002) catching up with the local news while Cousin Bob Yarborough cut my hair. We were talking about things that had happened in Jacksonville a long time ago. I asked “Bobby” if he remembered when the gasoline storage tanks on the river close to the Baptist church caught on fire, back in the 1940s. He remembered and suggested that I should call his Aunt Vera Greer Lanier for details. Vera said that those storage tanks belonged to B.J. Holloman and they caught on fire in 1941. She then suggested that I should call Eleanor Hitch Updegrave because the Hitch family lived near those tanks at the time of the fire. I called Eleanor and it was a pleasant surprise to find some additional connections to Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune. Eleanor had been dating this handsome young marine by the name of Maurice Updegrave. Those gas tanks were engulphed in flames. Eleanor called the Fire Department and they in turn called Camp Lejeune for help and they sent their fire truck and  helped put out the fire.The one driving the truck was Maurice. What a story. Maurice and Eleanor were married a few months later.

     I remembered that fire because I was there. I did some occasional work for Billy Arthur in that I was an errand boy and I folded some of his newspapers and sold them “hot off the press” on Court Street.  Billy was the owner, editor, and publisher of the News and Views. Its mast head claimed that it was the only newspaper in the world that gave a whoop (he was going to use a stronger term, but Billy's Aunt Carrie and some of the ladies in town thought it should be whoop rather tha d---)  about Onslow County. Billy was only forty inches tall, but he was a giant of enthusiasm and accomplishments. He was well known at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and he graduated from the School of Journalism there.He published a very popular newspaper that followed the Marines wherever they went all over the world so that they could keep up with what was going on in Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune as a community.     There were all kinds of things going on in Jacksonville, and one of them was that fire at the gasoline storage tanks on the river close to the Baptist Church. When I heard about what was going on I imagined that I was a cub reporter and I rushed to the scene to cover the story. I rushed home and got my new camera which I had ordered from the Colgate Tooth Paste Company for one box top and twenty five cents; I was sure that I would be able to take some pictures and write a great story. The fire trucks were there before I arrived. The fire was so hot that the paint was peeling off nearby buildings. I was afraid that the intense heat would warp my camera. Much to my surprise, several people were taking their laundry off their clothes lines in the middle of this dangerous situation. My hands were shaking as I started taking pictures. And then I heard a voice shouting, “Get that Murrell boy out of here. These gas tanks are gonna  blow up.” A fireman then pushed me to safety. Later on, one of the men climbed to the top of the tank and shut off a safety valve. No one remembers his name, but he prevented a terrible explosion which would have caused a considerable amount of damage. I sent my film to the Jack Rabbit Company in South Carolina to be developed, but by the time I received my pictures the fire story was old news. In addition to that, the fireman had pushed me out of the way before I could get a good picture of the flames. All I got was as view of the clothes, the buildings, and just a few flames. Billy was a good photographer and I was ashamed to show him my picture. But sixty one years later things are different. There is more time to review the situation and write about it. At the time of the fire it was an exciting situation and I was involved in a real adventure. And after thinking it over, maybe the flames were not hot enough to be peeling the paint off the buildings, but it seemed that way to me. But what I do know is that it made a great impression on me and my attitude towards writing changed. But I found that there was a difference between writing and having your work published.

The rest of the story:  11-23-2009_ Eleanor Hitch Updegrave's obituary is in roday's newspaper.Her husband, Maurice died several years ago. But the memory of these two will be around for a long time in my story and in some historical information of the U.S. Marine Corps as recorded by L.J. "Kim" Kimball.

Louise Murrell at Montford Point   By Dr. Stratton C. Murrell

Montford Point artist: Billie Jean Murrell By Dr. Stratton C. Murrell

The Montford Point Connection  By Dr. Stratton C. Murrell

A Childhood Memory:  Tobacco By Viola Jarvis

My Search For Wings Over New River    By Dr. Stratton C. Murrell    

My Search For Acres Of DiamondsBy Dr. Stratton C. Murrell

 RED, WHITE, AND BLUE AND BLUE GRASS MUSIC TOO By Elmond (Bud) Brantley

The Rest Of The Story By Dorothy Rhodes Brantley