Never in Doubt by Fran Moreland Johns

A fond biographical memoir of the author's father, who was born in the Texas back-country in 1897 & grew up to be president of a small but proud Virginia college.

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Fresh out of college in the summer of 1953, I was visiting a friend in beautiful downtown Seneca, S.C., while on the outskirts of town the Oconee County Fair was in bloom. The banner-headlined story on the front page of the local paper led off with "Big girls, little girls, 35 of Oconee County's most beautiful bellies will be on display Saturday..."  I promptly sent it off to my newspaper reporter boyfriend, who promptly sent it off to Editor and Publisher, and netted $2. Maybe not the most embarrassing blooper, except perhaps to the writer or to some of the beautiful bellies, but it's my favorite. Thrity-seven years and a lot of circuitous lives later I got around to marrying the boyfriend.

The boyfriend, now my final (not to mention finest) husband, used to give a talk with the title I stole for this blog. It included another story from the Carolinas of the same period, this one from the weekly Havelock (N.C.) Progress outside the Marine base where he was stationed. The paper's policy was always to have an 8-column banner across the front page, which one week concerned the community's United Fund drive: United Fund Exceeds All Explanations.