- Narrator: [narrating] The congregation knew what he meant. They also knew that he was directing his words specially to my father who would sit with his eyes closed and pretend not to listen. My father was on one of those house committees that oversaw the red influence supposedly infiltrating every aspect o the country including national defense, higher education, even tobacco farming. You have to remember that this was during the Cold War, tensions were running high, and we North Carolinians needed something to bring it down to a more personal level. My father had consistently looked for facts which were irreverent to people like Hyper.