Introduction

In 1930, a bright young man named Francis C. Thompson graduated from Cliffside High School. During his senior year he was a writer for, and managing editor of The Purple Cloud, the school newspaper that appeared weekly in the Forest City Courier.

After high school, F. C. (nicknamed Skipper) worked in accounting in the Finishing Department of Cliffside Mills, which was supervised by his father, Locke Thompson. Simultaneously Skipper kept up his interest in journalism. For much of the decade of the 1930s, he wrote a weekly column for the Courier. Initially it was called “Flashes of This and That,” and contained news and views of the town and the people he loved. The column was to undergo two name changes as the years went by. You can learn more about the author by clicking the “About Skipper” link below.

We’re posting his columns here a few at a time, in chronological order, until all 80+ of them are on this site. As this section grows, we will add to the Topic Index links to the more historically interesting events and people mentioned in the newly-added columns. This will help you to identify and quickly return to those specific columns.

Our thanks to Judson and Jeri Crow, and to Shirley Crawford Thompson, for sharing and transcribing these documents. And our gratitude to The Daily Courier of Forest City, N. C., for allowing us to republish these and many other stories.