Back in 2005 we put up a feature on the Train Shooters, the railroad/photography enthusiasts who disguised the old locomotive #40 for a day as if it were still a Cliffside engine. (The CRR sold it in 1966 to the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad, an excursion operation in Pennsylvania.) We’ve just enlarged the story with a couple of videos, one showing the recent restoration of old 40. It has some terrific shots of the engine in the shop and on the road. Just click the Videos tab on the Train Shooters page.

A booger story: Way back yonder, in 1931, some kind of strange animal kept scaring Cliffside citizens. Brave hunters tromped through the woods, hoping to rid the town of this mysterious creature. Would they succeed? Was there more than one? Read on.

When you’re 94 years old will you skydive from 14,000 feet? James O. Harris, formerly of Cliffside, did just that. And he landed safe and sound. His daughter Jenna Dee also jumped. See the story and pictures about this daring feat.

You say you like history? How about the history of “Broad River” music (as Ben Humphries calls it), about the musicians who lived among us a long time ago, who passed along their style of playing to the likes of Earl Scruggs. Read Bob Carlin’s Roots of Earl and Snuffy: Searching for the Banjo Along the North/South Carolina Border in  History » Articles. And at the bottom of the “About the Author” page there’s a nice video of John Hartford’s “The Boys from North Carolina.”

In his book Cliffside High School, Don Bailey published the faculty listing for each of the school’s 40 years, 1919-1959. He’s shared them with us and we’ve filed them under Memories > Yearbooks.

And in History > Profiles, we’ve added profiles of J. L. Nanney, D. C. Cole, Gerard Davidson and D. H. Huss. All from Don’s book cited above.

This past October Dan X. Padgett, noted banjo player, music instructor and a graduate of Cliffside High was inducted into the prestigious Order of the Long Leaf Pine. The award ceremony was part of a jamboree held in Ellenboro, Dan’s home town. The Courier did a nice story about the event and a profile of Dan. Anyone know what the “X” stands for?

Going further back, way back to 1944 there was a column (also in the Courier) by Wade Bridges. It was all about a place and a man then and for years afterward familiar to everyone in Cliffside. The place was a little cabin in the woods; the man was its owner, also named Padgett. It was “Jim’s Cabin,” and everybody in town had seen it or wanted to.

It was in ’59 when Cliffside School’s 2nd graders hit all the high spots of Forest City. A reporter wrote about them swarming into the Courier, and cited a follow-up thank you from one of the students.

The Courier’s Sunday Brunch columnist, Jean Gordon, advises us all to put our precious photos into albums. They’ll come in handy when we reminisce.