THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170317
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MOYOCK, N.C. LENGTH: 72 lines
The Wright Brothers may have had Midwestern accents, but they were adopted by this state, and you don't mess with family.
You remember the Wright Brothers. Invented the airplane. First flew it on Dec. 17, 1903, in what's now Kill Devil Hills, N.C, near Kitty Hawk. Semi-immortalized since 1982 on North Carolina's vehicle tags with the proud slogan ``First in Flight'' in red letters over a light-blue silhouette of the Wright Flyer flying a Wright.
Now Ohio wants its share of the brothers Wright on its own cars and trucks. The creative siblings were from Dayton, after all. That's where, in their bicycle shop, they studied and planned and experimented with their revolutionary plane's design.
So the Midwestern state is changing the slogan on its license plates from ``the heart of it all!'' to - move over, Carolina - ``Birthplace of Aviation.'' The new tags should be spotted on roads in a year or two, well in time for the 100th anniversary of the Wrights' accomplishment.
Lawmakers, civic activists and media commentators from both states have weighed in. The new Ohio slogan is and isn't historically accurate, they say. The dueling slogans will and won't confuse tourists - and their vacation dollars.
It's a bumper-level dogfight over who can claim the Wright Brothers' legacy.
Folks from both states got along better at Wednesday's meeting of the First Flight Centennial Commission in Kill Devil Hills. Locals and visitors from Ohio said there was no rift, there was plenty of room for both slogans, and any differences between the states were a media creation.
In Columbus, Ohio, Cheryl R. Hoot, a spokeswoman for Gov. George V. Voinovich, agreed. ``There hasn't been a big brouhaha,'' she said.
``Birthplace of aviation'' and ``first in flight'' are ``two separate things in my mind,'' added Robert E. Woody of the National Park Service, the head educator for the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills.
``It's still the U. S. of A., isn't it?'' he continued. ``And it's still part of our national heritage.''
Maybe so. But people here reacted to the news of Ohio's rival slogan like they'd been asked to walk face-first into a whirling propeller.
``I don't think that's right,'' said Linda L. Sessor, a cashier at Old's Exxon. She gestured for emphasis with a sawed-off broom handle attached to a rest-room key.
``I'm sure that Ohio has something historical,'' Sessor added. ``The Wright Brothers are ours!''
Gary A. Schaefer, painting the gasoline pumps in a Bob Marley T-shirt and Washington Redskins hat, vigorously agreed.
``If Orville and Wilbur thought they could've flown in Ohio, they would've done it,'' said the Carolina native, who now lives in Virginia Beach.
`` `Birthplace of aviation'? Maybe the birthplace of Orville and Wilbur Wright. But the `birthplace of aviation' is right there in Kill Devil Hills.''
A little ways up the road at the Southland Market, employees used to heavy summer tourist traffic said people notice license plates. They're like miniature mobile billboards.
And these people didn't want any other state messing with North Carolina's bumper history lessons.
``I do think they make a difference,'' manager Linda L. Williams said of the plates.
``We don't take anything from them,'' employee Lisa Lay said of Ohio. ``They shouldn't take anything from us.''
And co-worker Emily G. Waterfield offered a suggestion for an alternative Ohio plate: ``They've got factories. They should put a big smokestack with smoke.''
``These Carolinians,'' Schaefer said, ``are a very proud people. You can't take their heritage from them.'' MEMO: Staff writer Paul South contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: [License plates from North Carolina and Ohio]
Ohio will soon put ``Birthplace of Aviation'' on its license plates. by CNB