Happy May Day 2022

 Lowell Library Branch, Maypole, 1960s.

 

View more Maypole Dance photographs in the online Lowell Library Branch Collection.

Brian Brown, Librarian, Local History & Genealogy

"Ahoy, Little Mate" Remembering Captain Windy, the Pirate

"Captain Windy" was the peg-legged pirate that greeted visitors of the Riverview Inn fish camp on the Catawba River near Gastonia, North Carolina, as well as the country-western singing host of the 1960s WBTV Charlotte childrens show, "Adventures in Pirate Cove (1961 to 1964).

The Riverview Inn was started by Irwen W. Burns, Sr. in 1946 and served the public until it closed in December of 2012. The restaurant's host Captain Windy would greet children with "Ahoy, Little Mate."

Here is a photographic slide of Gilbert Lail Winchester as his alter ego "Captain Windy" entertaining children at the Gaston-Lincoln Regional Library.

To learn more about Gilbert Winchester visit BT Memories: A project by and for fans and former employees of WBT and WBTV, Charlotte, North Carolina.

http://btmemories.com/articles/people/captain_windy/capt_windy.html

Brian Brown, Librarian, Local History & Genealogy

We're Booked Up - The House in the Cerulean Sea

 Time for another episode of We're Booked Up! This time Kendall, Andrew and Angelique discuss The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, a fun contemporary fantasy novel.

Use the player below to listen or search for Gaston Speaks on your preferred podcasting app. And after listening, let us know what you think!

For the next episode, Andrew, Kendall, and Angelique will be doing something fun!

Don't forget to head over to the Gaston Library website for all your library needs.

OverDrive will completing upgrades between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays and Thursdays only during the period noted above. Service will be impacted only once for approximately sixty minutes or less. 

OverDrive expects the impact to users to be minimal. You will still be able to sign in to your digital collection and browse or read titles, but may encounter errors when attempting to borrow, place a hold, or return titles during your maintenance period. 

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Indexing the 1950 U.S. Census

Do you want to help index the 1950 U.S. Census? Now you can through the National Archives and Family Search websites. 

 

To develop the initial name index, the National Archives is “using Amazon Web Services’ artificial intelligence / optical character recognition (AI/OCR) Textract tool to extract the handwritten names from the digitized 1950 Census population schedules.” This technology will “not be 100-percent accurate” according to the National Archives. 

You can "Use the built-in transcription feature to correct and add names to the site's name index. Your contributions can help make the 1950 Census population schedules more discoverable for everyone."

Official 1950 Census Website https://1950census.archives.gov/ 

 

Family Search allows you to "Become part of this once-in-a-decade community project! You can help by reviewing a few of our computer generated entries and fixing any errors that you see."

"Volunteers will review and improve an automated index created by Ancestry using handwriting recognition technology to ensure that it is complete and accurate."  

1950 U.S. Census Community Project https://www.familysearch.org/getinvolved/1950

 

Read about the latest project updates and get answers to FAQs.

Brian Brown, Librarian, Local History & Genealogy