
DATE: Thursday, June 26, 1997               TAG: 9706260400

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   88 lines

INTERNS' CATCH INCLUDES HISTORY OF WATERMEN FILM WILL BE EXHIBIT AT MUSEUM OF THE ALBEMARLE

Last week, Matt Lively, a 21-year-old history major, met Joe Meekins, a 105-year-old retired waterman - and Lively learned that he could spend years doing what has to be done by early August.

``It's kind of hard just coming in here for a summer,'' Lively said about his assignment to document the life and work of watermen in northeastern North Carolina for the Museum of the Albemarle. ``There is so much. We could spend the whole summer just interviewing this guy.''

While Lively interviewed Meekins for 30 minutes, his partner, Drew Littleton, photographed the old fisherman.

Meekins, a Wanchese native, knew George Washington Creef, one of the most famous boat builders in the region. Meekins only finished the eighth grade because that's the best education you could get in Wanchese at that time. He drove oil tankers. He worked on boats during World War I. He helped rig motors on the old sailing shad boats.

Now Meekins is in a rest home, his once tanned and leathery face is pale and spotted with age marks.

But his mind is sharp and his memories will add to the interns' work.

Lively and Littleton, 24, set up shop June 2 in a small office in the old Davenport Motors building on Ehringhaus Street in Elizabeth City. They have until Aug. 9 to edit their efforts into a 20- to 30-minute documentary. The task is daunting.

``The clock is ticking,'' said Littleton, a tall, blond junior at Barton College in Windsor. ``We're running against time.''

Lively, a junior at UNC-ChapelHill, is trying to set up opportunities to go on the job with watermen. On the wall above his second-hand desk, Lively has fastened a map of the region covered with little yellow tags. On the tags are the names and phone numbers of watermen. The process of organizing from scratch has the interns busting for boat time.

The budget is tight. On their $5-per-hour salary, Lively and Littleton pay rent and support themselves. They were lucky to find a garage apartment for $100 each a month. They use a van from the museum. But they say more supplies would be nice.

Boldly, Littleton phoned one of Gov. Jim Hunt's lieutenants and asked for more money.

He immediately received his answer: ``No.''

Though Littleton is frustrated at the slow progress, he fully believes in the project.

``We're preserving something that could be lost in 10 years or maybe 15 years. I don't know,'' Littleton said. ``Every day it's getting farther and farther away from everyday life.''

Lively, a short, stocky man with dark hair and a sparse stubble on his face, is a little less intense than Littleton. His search in the UNC archives produced little about watermen.

``This won't be a documentary that defines the industry,'' he said. ``This hopefully will be like a spark that gets other people interested.''

Inspiration for the interns sits behind the office in a large room where a century-old shad boat is being restored. The shad boat served as the waterman's pickup truck at the turn of the century. Like almost all the other watermen of his generation, Meekins used one when he was a young man.

The boat will be the centerpiece of the new Museum of the Albemarle that is slated to be built on the Davenport Motors site in a few years. The watermen documentary will accent the shad boat display.

Lively and Littleton are two of 100 students who are on state internships in 24 agencies this summer, said Virginia Eagles, internship program coordinator for the state's Youth Advocacy and Involvement Office.

The program doesn't pay a lot. But the experiences can be priceless.

``A lot of these folks are looking for what to do with their careers,'' Eagles said.

This is the first time the Museum of the Albemarle has had interns for such an extensive job, said Don Pendergraft, curator and historian at the museum.

``We've been meaning to do this for a while,'' Pendergraft said. ``We want this to be a collection, a rough mix, of the watermen in our region that hopefully will define the role of watermen in our society.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

WILLIAM P. CANNON/The Virginian-Pilot

Matt Lively, 21, stands beside a shad boat that is being restored.

Lively is researching the history of North Carolina watermen on his

summer internship.

DEFINING ROLE OF WATERMEN

This is the first time the Museum of the Albemarle has had interns

for such an extensive job, said Don Pendergraft, curator and

historian at the museum.

``We've been meaning to do this for a while,'' Pendergraft said.

`We want this to be a collection, a rough mix, of the watermen in

our region that hopefully will define the role of watermen in our

society,'' he said.