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March 2017
Features 49 Hawk
Poetry by Steve Cushman
50 Rising from the Ashes
By Billy Ingram Things Old Photo Specialists lost — and found — in the fire
56 The Glory of Guilford By Lynn Donovan
62 The Breakfast Club
By Jim Dodson Every Wednesday morning at Tex & Shirley’s, fellowship and photography are served over easy
70 The Lives of Others By Nancy Oakley Echoes of the past in a College Hill treasure
81 Botanicus
By Ross Howell Jr. Whether daffodil or jonquil, it still means spring has arrived
83 March Almanac
By Ash Alder The Full Worm Moon, Daylight Saving Time — and Spring
Departments 11 Simple Life By Jim Dodson
33 On The Street Where You Live By Robin Sutton Anders
39 Life of Jane
14 Short Stories 17 Doodad By Waynette Goodson
By Jane Borden
43 Birdwatch
By Susan Campbell
19 True South By Susan Kelly
45 Wandering Billy By Billy Eye
21 Life’s Funny By Maria Johnson 23 Omnivorous Reader By Stephen Smith 27 Scuppernong Bookshelf 29 Papadaddy By Clyde Edgerton
84 Arts Calendar 103 GreenScene 111 Accidental Astrologer By Astrid Stellanova
112 O.Henry Ending By Cynthia Adams
31 Vine Wisdom By Robyn James
Cover Photograph by Cheryl Garrity Photograph this page by Lynn Donovan 6 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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M A G A Z I N E
Volume 7, No. 3 “I have a fancy that every city has a voice.” 336.617.0090 1848 Banking Street, Greensboro, NC 27408 www.ohenrymag.com Jim Dodson, Editor • jim@thepilot.com Andie Stuart Rose, Art Director • andie@thepilot.com Nancy Oakley, Senior Editor • nancy@ohenrymag.com Lauren Coffey, Graphic Designer Alyssa Rocherolle, Graphic Designer Contributing Editors
Cynthia Adams, David Claude Bailey, Harry Blair, Maria Johnson Contributing Photographers
Lynn Donovan, Amy Freeman, Sam Froelich, John Gessner Contributors
Ash Alder, Robin Sutton Anders, Jane Borden, Susan Campbell, Steve Cushman, Clyde Edgerton, Billy Eye, Waynette Goodson, Ross Howell Jr., Billy Ingram, Robyn James, Susan Kelly, Sara King, Ogi Overman, Romey Petite, Stephen Smith, Astrid Stellanova
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8 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The only thing more unexpected than James’ stroke was how fast his medical team helped him recover. As Medical Director of the Cone Health Stroke Center, Pramod Sethi, MD, has ready access to some of the most advanced medical devices available. Perhaps none more powerful than a clock. After James Pinnix suffered a stroke while at work one Monday, he had a potentially debilitating blood clot removed within a matter of hours. He was back at work the very next week and is happily working on a more enjoyable type of stroke—the one attached to his golf game.
Learn more about how Dr. Sethi and James outraced a stroke at conehealth.com/stories
E X C E P T I O N A L C A R E . E V E R Y D AY.™
Simple Life
Sunday Man ’twixt Heaven and Earth
By Jim Dodson
It’s Sunday morning in the
Illustration by Romey Petite
kitchen, two hours before the sunrise.
A welcome silence fills the house, and at this hour I often hear a still, small voice that may indeed belong to God but is more often than not the mewing of young Boo Radley, eager to be let out in order to roam the neighboring yards. On the other side of the door sits old Rufus, balancing a universe, home from his nighttime prowlings, the crankiest cat of the known world, complaining to be let in and fed. The noisy one comes in, the quiet one slips out. I am a butler to cats. On the plus side, Sunday morning lies like a starry quilt over the neighborhood at this hour. A thin quarter moon hangs on the western horizon like a paper moon in a school play and Venus shines like a jewel in an Ethiop’s ear. Somewhere, miles away, a train rumbles by, a reminder of a world that is always going somewhere. But luckily I am here on Earth, a Sunday man beneath a hooked moon, for the moment going nowhere except the end of his driveway to fetch the Sunday paper for reading over the week. Back inside, I sit for spell with my first coffee, reading one of what I call my Sunday morning books that run the gamut from the sonnets of Shakespeare to the essays of Wendell Berry, from Barbara Brown Taylor to Pierre Teilhard De Chardin — with a dash of Billy Collins and Mary Oliver for proper spiritual seasoning. This particular Sunday is a gem long out of print, one man’s memoir of spiritual rejuvenation first published the year I was born, the story of a sucThe Art & Soul of Greensboro
cessful big-city writer who was forced by reasons of health and age to return to the small Wisconsin town of his birth. There he built a big house on ancestral land but initially struggled to find his place on the ground. “A man, faced with the peculiar loneliness of where he doesn’t want to be,” writes Edward Harris Heth in My Life on Earth, “is apt to find himself driving along the narrow, twisting country roads, day or night, alone, brooding about the tricks life can play.” Life is lived by degrees. Little by little, the author’s lonely drives along country roads yield a remarkable transformation of the angry city man. Heth gets to know — and admire — the eccentric carpenter who builds his house. He drops by a church supper and meets his neighbors, including the quirky Litten sisters “who play a mean game of canasta,” know all the village pump gossip “and have an Old Testament talent for disaster.” The ancient Litten girls both feed and inspire him to broader exploration. His neighbor Bud Devere, a young and burly farmer who always shows up uninvited just to chat, insists that Heth see the Willow Road. “I did not want to see what Bud saw. But the reluctance began fading away in me, that first time we went down the Willow Road. It covers scarcely more than a mile, but in that mile you can cover a thousand miles.” Traveling along it, the author sees spring wildflowers, undisturbed forests, a charming farmhouse with narcissus and hyacinth in bloom. He feels his pulse slow, and something akin to simple pleasure takes root. “Bud kept silent. He wanted me to open my own eyes. . . . Since then, I’ve learned how many country people know and enjoy this art of the small scene and event, the birth of a calf, a remembered spot, the tumultuous labor and excitement of feeding the threshers, who come like locusts and swarm for a day over your farm and disappear again at night, the annual March 2017
O.Henry 11
Simple Life Welsh singing competition in the village — these are the great and proper events of a lifetime.” Funny thing is, I have no idea how this little book, something of a surprise bestseller when it first appeared in 1953, got into my bookshelf, and now into my soul. It just magically appeared, a gift from the gods or perhaps a wise friend who knew I might discover it
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Now the sun is up and so are the dogs. I am a butler to them, too. Despite a late frost, birds are singing and there is a new angle to the light — not to mention the first green tufts of daffodils rising like green fingers from the Earth. Anticipating their Sunday walk, of course, the dogs think every day is the first day of spring. Mulligan, a black, flat-haired retriever I found as a pup a decade ago running wild along a busy highway, trots ahead off the lead, our tiny pack’s alpha girl, while Ajax — whom I call Junior — a golden retriever far too good-looking for his own good — lumbers along toting his own lead, deeply impressed with himself. The neighborhood is old, with massive hardwoods arching like cathedral beams overhead. A man in his bathrobe steps out and shuffles hurriedly to the end of his sidewalk to fetch his Sunday morning paper. He gives a quick wave, bobbing a neighborly head, and hurries back inside to read. The news of the world can wait. Because it never really changes, a story as old as cabbages and kings. Besides, we are briefly off the clock of the world all of Sunday, footloose upon the Earth, officially out of range, in search of an earthier divinity. Truthfully, I’m a bit sad to see winter’s cold and prospects of snow give way to the advance of daffodils. I am a winter’s boy, after all, but happy for a wife who is an endless summer girl dreaming of white lilacs in bloom.
but it ends soon!
“What is divinity,” asked Wallace Stevens in his lovely poem Sunday Morning
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“if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams? Shall she not find in comforts of the sun, In pungent fruit and bright, green wings, or else In any balm or beauty of the earth, Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven? Divinity must live within herself: Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow; Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued Elations when the forest blooms; gusty Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights; All pleasures and all pains, remembering The bough of summer and the winter branch, These are the measures destined for her soul.”
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March 2017
By the time we reach the park, Lady Summer Bough and Lord Winter Branch, the strengthening sun has melted away the year’s final frost. Across the way stands an ancient oak I peddled by a half a million times as a kid on his way to the ball field; it looks like a lighted candelabra, limned with golden morning sun. Funny how I only recently noticed this. It is middle Sunday morning at church, our usual pew back right. The young preacher is named Greg. Not long ago we attended his ordination as a priest. My cheeky wife thinks Greg is almost too good-looking to be a priest. Lots of women in the parish seem to share this view. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Simple Life The gist of his Sunday sermon is the need to look with fresh eyes upon Matthew’s Beatitudes. But the true strength of his Sunday morning message lies in the suggestion that we all should aspire to become our true selves and Christian mystics: “Don’t be scared by that word mystic. It simply means someone who has gone from an intellectual belief system to actual inner experience.” The journey from head to the heart, Greg says, means we are called to be mystics — to chuck rules-based, belief-system Christianity in favor of something far more intimate and organic as the Earth around us. To coax the point home, he mentions Franciscan friar Richard Rohr’s observation that religion is largely filled with people who are afraid of Hell, and spirituality is for people who have gone through hell. And with spring on the Sunday doorstep, Father Greg provides the perfect metaphor directly from renewing nature — the mystery of how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, how becoming our true selves is not unlike the chrysalis that must crack open in order for the butterfly’s wings to gain strength and allow it to fly. “And as we struggle,” notes the bright new associate rector, “it breeds compassion within our hearts. Just as the butterfly pressed fluid into its wings, our struggle enables compassion to flow through our bodies, a compassion that allows us to empathize with the suffering of others.” I’ll admit I am a Sunday man who digs a good sermon. And this was a mighty thoughtful one. Young Greg is off to an excellent start, even if — like Junior — he is a tad too good-looking. Speaking of digging, after a Chicago-style hotdog, I’m home for full Sunday afternoon working in my new garden, digging in the soil and delving in the soul. Having pulled down an old pergola and cleaned out a handsome brick planter long overgrown with ivy, I lose complete track of time in the backyard planting Blue Angel hostas and a pair of broadleaf hydrangeas, repairing and raising a much-loved birdfeeder, hanging chimes high in a red oak and transplanting ostrich ferns. If one is closer to God’s heart in a garden, then perhaps I am a backyard mystic with dirty hands. By Sunday sundown, my knees are aching but the healing is real. Renewed for a week of cabbages and kings, we settle down with the Sunday paper and a bit of Netflix before bed, though I tend to doze off halfway through the program. Old Rufus goes out; Boo Radley comes in. The dogs follow us to bed. For some reason I seem to sleep so well on Sunday nights. OH
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Contact Editor Jim Dodson at jim@thepilot.com The Art & Soul of Greensboro
March 2017
O.Henry 13
Short Stories
Waggin’ Train
Crazy for canines? Then grab the kiddies and — heh — paws to check out UNCG’s North Carolina Theater for Young People’s production of Go, Dog, Go! March 21–26 at Taylor Theatre (406 Tate Street). Adapted from the popular children’s book by P.D. Eastman, the series of vignettes promises dogs of all sizes and colors, and “fanciful frolic and frivolous fun,” as actors zoom around the stage on various vehicles and wheels to give the sense of perpetual motion. Theatrical treats that will no doubt have you begging for more. Tickets: (336) 272-0160 or vpa.uncg.edu.
Chapter One: I Am Born
This is Your Life Sharpen your pens and your prose! O.Henry is officially calling for submissions for our August Summer Reading issue. The topic? “My Life in 1,000 Words.” Just tell us your life story or a story from your life — a mini memoir, if you will — in a thousand words. We’re looking
14 O.Henry
March 2017
for a variety of styles — comical, quirky, poignant, irreverent, or noir-ish . . . Please send your submission no later than May 1st to ohenry. mylife@gmail.com, and our editors will select a handful for prizes and publication. Ready? Aim! Write!
Lady in Red
Most would agree that Kimberly Roberts, to borrow from The Talking Heads, “looks so cute in [her] little red suit,” but cuteness isn’t the point of the crimson-clad Roberts, vice president of Cultural Development for Crumley Roberts, attorney at law and the creator of the firm’s employee wellness program. As chair of the American Heart Association’s 2016–17 Guilford County Go Red for Women Campaign, Roberts is striking out across the state on her Little Red Jumpsuit Tour to educate women about heart health. And Roberts’s mission is serious business: cardiovascular disease claims the lives of one in three women every year, making it the second leading cause of female deaths. So jump start your heart and schedule a tour stop by contacting Ruth Darling Heyd, Executive Director of Community Engagement and Employee Wellness, at RDHeyd@CrumleyRoberts.com.
Drawing Your Eire
Sons and daughters of Erin — or anyone looking for a good excuse for a quaff: Celebrate all things Irish at Otis and Wawa’s second annual St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl on South Elm Street (March 18). Check in at the pint — oops, make that point — of origin, Gibb’s Hundred Brewing Company between 1 and 3 p.m. Then enjoy an afternoon and evening of fun and games, or craic as they say on the Emerald Isle, as you make your way to seven-odd watering holes in the vicinity. A portion of the ticket sales ($15 each) goes to benefit future projects in the Gate City’s blossoming downtown. Info: downtowngreensboro.org.
Comedy of Arias
Single Turkish Bey Mustafa — bored with his harem, if you can believe it — seeks single, spirited Italian girl. And ciao, bella! Thanks to a shipwreck, the feisty Isabella arrives in Mustafa’s home of Algiers. Just one problem: She’s the girlfriend of his servant, Lindoro. Sit back and enjoy comic opera as only Giacomo Rossini (composer of The Barber of Seville) can deliver at Piedmont Opera’s production of Italian Girl in Algiers (March 17, 19 and 21) at Winston-Salem’s Stevens Center (405 West Fourth Street). Tickets: (336) 275-7101 or piedmontopera.org.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
You Can Take It With You
Any foodie coming home from Europe is envious of how small, independent grocers there enrich their neighbors’ lives with the most delicious freshly baked bread, seasonal vegetables, plus local meat and cheeses. The newly opened Market at The Traveled Farmer shares that mission, but adds a barista ready to pull an espresso and serve a just-baked muffin to a hungry commuter, as early at 7 a.m. The produce, though, is what catches the eye: Easter-egg radishes, plump little baby carrots and sweet taters galore, drawn from area farms that include Fair Share, PTB, Mighty Tendril and Schicker’s Acre. Picnic? Got the fixings — including Goat Lady cheese and mushroom focaccia — with some rustic tables in case it’s chilly outside. Or pick up a carton of Chef Jay Pierce’s signature collards, chili mac ’n’ cheese or hoppin John on the way home for a quick dinner. The Traveled Farmer, 1211 Battleground Avenue, Greensboro. Info: (336) 792-1999 or traveledfarmer.com.—DCB
Order of the Ginkgo
The sap is rising, greenery is sprouting . . . what better time to show your appreciation for one of the world’s oldest trees? With origins in China and dating back about 270 million years, the gingko, whose fan-shaped leaves that turn bright yellow in fall, is one of the most recognizable trees. On March 16 at 2 p.m. you can learn more at Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden (215 South Main Street, Kernersville) at “Ginkgo: The Tree that Time Forgot,” based on the book by the same name by Professor Sir Peter Crane. The author will discuss the gingko’s cultural and medicinal importance, before signing copies of his book. To register: Call (336) 617-8344 or email abowers9@ triad.rr.com. For more info:cienerbotanicalgarden.org.
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
Half a century ago, March 30, 1967, The Carolina Peacemaker, a Greensboro weekly, published its first issue. Founded by John Marshall Kilimanjaro in a period of deep racial tension, the paper was to provide a “journalistic vehicle through which the hopes, ambitions, fears, and aspirations of the entire citizenry regarding social, economic, and civic affairs might be expressed.” Today, Kilimanjaro, who retired from North Carolina A&T as professor of drama, theater arts and language, is publisher emeritus of The Peacemaker — at the age of 86. Wife Vickie is associate publisher. Daughter Afrique is editor. “For years I tried to run away from the family business,” Afrique says. “But my father kept calling, saying he needed help. I keep a box of letters, just as my father did when he was editor, from people all over, telling us how important The Peacemaker has been in their lives.”—RHJr The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Ogi Sez Ogi Overman In keeping with the March weather — the old “in like a lion” thing —we plan to have a roaring good time enjoying the gamut of this month’s musical offerings. The one thing they all have in common, though — and I ain’t no lyin’ king — is that they’re all top-shelf, A-list performers. If you don’t care for one, stay tuned, the next one will fix what ails ya.
• March 3, Greensboro Coliseum: Since his days with The Gap Band, Charlie Wilson has been the King of Cool. He has also amassed eleven Grammy nominations and a BET Lifetime Achievement award. His current “In It To Win It” tour also includes local fave Fantasia and Johnny Gill. • March 4, Cone Denim Entertainment Center: If you’re a Guns N’ Roses fan but not sure who exactly might be in the band this week, take heart. The note-for-note, lick-for-lick tribute band, Appetite for Destruction, is coming to town. And they’ll be on time. • March 11, Haw River Ballroom: For Americana, alt-country aficionados, the best news of the year so far is that genre pioneers Son Volt released a new album February 17. Even better is that they’ll be in the area promoting it this month. Can’t wait. • March 28, Lucky 32: How many artists have a Master’s in ethnomusicology, play accordion, keyboards, musical saw, adunga, bombo, zheng, vihuela and tenor banjo, and have a vocal range that shatters glass and looks that stop traffic? There’s only one right answer: Crystal Bright. She is in a class by herself. • March 31, Carolina Theatre: When Dobro legend Jerry Douglas put the Earls of Leicester together in 2014 to recreate the music of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, the bluegrass world was poleaxed. Since then they have captured virtually every IBMA award available and the hearts of every bluegrass buff on the planet.
March 2017
O.Henry 15
Doodad
Almost Famous
Restoration Runway weaves together fashion, healing and hope
A
host of A-list celebrities will descend on the Greensboro Country Club, March 30, for the eighth annual Restoration Runway Fashion Show and Auction. Everyone from The Rock to Dolly Parton will sashay down the catwalk . . . Or, wait . . . Look closer . . . Is that really Dolly? Turns out these “celebs” will be local lookalikes, donating their time to help out Restoration Place Counseling (RPC), a local faith-based nonprofit that, since 2005, has provided girls, women and couples with discounted counseling services. The runway show helps RPC to fund half of the 7,000 professional counseling sessions completed each year. Your faithful scribe found last year’s event so inspiring, she’ll be back this year. So expect to see yours truly walking in the show (shhhh . . . it’s a secret!). The women involved have such amazing stories of courage and determination, it will be hard to contain my enthusiasm — or hold back the tears —at evening’s end, when, everyone is on their feet, singing, clapping and celebrating each other. In addition to the catwalk, the event features a sprawling silent auction (including local artists’ wares, theater and dinner packages, and luxe furniture), plus heavy hors d’oeuvres and sparkling libations. On stage, models strike poses intermingled with other fun musical acts. There will even be an appearance by the King, himself — “Elvis Presley.” For fashionistas, the event poses a double threat to the pocketbook, as they can not only bid on silent auction items, they can also make notes about which looks they like the best, and then go find them at the local boutiques lending the outfits. Wise spending, considering their hard-earned dollars support local businesses and a worthy cause, as Cindy Mondello, RPC founder and executive director points out. “This event goes beyond one night,” she says. “It’s about the future of Restoration Place Counseling. It’s about the future of hundreds of girls and women finding hope and healing.” OH Follow the show on Facebook at www.facebook.com/restorationplacecounseling/ for up-to-the-minute updates and behind-the-scenes posts. There may even be a guess-the-celebrity contest for free tickets and prizes. For more information about the Restoration Runway event or to learn more about Restoration Place Counseling, visit www.rpcounseling.org. — Waynette Goodson The Art & Soul of Greensboro
March 2017
O.Henry 17
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True South
A Sorry Yardstick Regrets? I’ve had a few . . .
Artist’s Rendering
By Susan Kelly
Say what you want about the
Golden Rule and its cousin, WWJD; file away Ann Landers’ famous chestnut, “Are you better off with or without him/her?” The axiom and adage and aphorism that trumps them all is this one: “How sorry will I be?” How sorry will I be? applies to nearly every situation where you have to make a choice, a decision, or a judgment call. Watch this. You’ve got to run to the grocery store for black olives for the taco salad. Your key fob is at the bottom of your bag. Your dry cleaning and a book on tape are the only things in the car. Seriously, who would want them? Why ruin a manicure digging, or waste precious minutes before Jeopardy! rummaging around for your keys to lock the car? Now is the time to ask yourself, how sorry will I be? If someone steals the book, right at the good part? How sorry will I be if someone steals the sweater that I wear every single week? See? Endlessly applicable. And again. It’s Saturday night and you’re on to teach Sunday School at 9 the next day. Loving the convo and the gossip and the giggles. Waiter? Could I please — oh, wait. How sorry will I be if I have a third glass of wine? How sorry will I be if I just skip that funeral? How sorry will I be if I just wait until the next time the recycling truck comes around to take out the bin? How sorry will I be if I don’t shave today? Granted, much of the motivation behind the question is the lack thereof, i.e., laziness, inertia. But its uses range from the merely mundane to the lifethreatening to the existential. How sorry will I be if I postpone signing/renewing this contract/will/passport? How sorry will I be if I agree to this project/ promotion? How sorry will I be if I let this relationship carry on even though I have no intention of marrying him/her? How sorry will I be if, just this once, I skip the colonoscopy/mammogram? How sorry will I be if I go to Costco/ Best Buy/Trader Joe’s on a Saturday? Works every time. OH In a former life, Susan Kelly published five novels, won some awards, did some teaching, and made a lot of speeches. These days, she’s freelancing and making up for all that time she spent indoors writing novels. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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March 2017
O.Henry 19
Clean Sweep
Life’s Funny
The clutter nonsense of purging By Maria Johnson
This year, as the crocuses opened, I decid-
ed that a little housecleaning was in order because a) it was spring, and what the heck, if I’m gonna tidy up once a year, it might as well be in the spring, and b) I was scared sleepless by the now-famous episode about the Greensboro woman on the season finale of the TV show Hoarders.
I usually don’t watch that show because, although it brings hoarding into the light and shows that people with the disorder can be helped, I also get the queasy feeling that it capitalizes on the illness and encourages the on-camera flare-ups that are inevitably rooted in fear and pain. More important, watching a show like that has the same effect on me that researching aches and pains on the Internet does: It convinces me that I have the worst possible version of whatever the symptoms suggest. Like the time my sore knee turned into a torn ACL as I sat at my laptop. Or the time my back spasm turned into pancreatic cancer. Or the time my dizziness declined into a rare disease named for someone who probably made himself sick by staying up all night reading medical books before the Internet came along. And so, after watching Hoarders, I was stricken by the notion that I could be — no, probably was; no, definitely was — a hoarder. I was hardly alone. A fastidious friend said that, after watching the same show, she made a beeline to her closet and started tossing stuff out. Later, she talked to a neighbor who’d been shaken up by the show, too. His house was pin-neat, but he feared that he was a hoarder because his closets and drawers were stuffed. Understand that no one has ever accused me of being a spotless housekeeper. But I’m happy to report that I’m a recovering slob, thanks to thirty years of living with a Virgo. He, too, has benefitted by relaxing enough to let people eat in his car. Oh, wait. I’m thinking of when we switch cars, and I eat in his car by myself. Nevermind. As I was saying, I’m a WHOLE lot neater than I used to be, but I do tend toward avalanche-zone closets, so after watching Hoarders, I resolved to attack our largest closet, which holds all of my clothes, some of my husband’s “off-season” clothes, and boxes of personal effects that I cleaned out of my childhood home two years ago. I started with the boxes. First up, a framed triptych of my black-and-white baby pictures. Awwww, look at me. Keeper. Wow . . . a leather satchel that my dad carried as a schoolboy in Greece. There’s his name written in ink, in Greek, on the cloth liner inside. Can’t let this go. I need an easier target.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Perhaps a folder of my first-grade schoolwork will yield some disposables. Hmmm. Here’s a writing sample, probably composed with a pencil the size of a broom handle. “Oh, Dick. Come jump down. Oh, oh, Dick. Help me get Tim.” Nice. I mean, a bit nympho-sounding, but lyrical all the same. Can’t toss my first — and last — bodice ripper. Next up from 1967: A Thanksgiving turkey made from tracing my hand and coloring the finger-feathers different colors. Attractive. A prime example of postModernism, really. Pardon granted. Looky here. A math worksheet. “Draw the correct number of fingers on Countingman.” Countingman, by the way, is a stick man with D-shaped hands that are just waiting for students to add the correct number of digits. What a sexist piglet exercise that was. I need to show this to my kids as evidence of how far we’ve come. What’s this? Some old cardboard coasters. Well . . . hmmm . . . OK . . . I guess those can go. Geez, this is hard. I need a break. My eyes land on my clothes. Ah-ha. I rarely get emotionally attached to clothes. I cull a few tops that look nice on the hanger but never fit well. What about this unreasonable collection of yoga pants? Those stay, dammit, and I’ll tell you why. In her best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo advocates keeping things that spark joy. In a slight variation on that theme, I advocate keeping things that spark sloth. More than an hour has elapsed, and I’m making progress, but I still don’t have much to show for my time. Until I focus on my husband’s end of the closet. Hmmm. What have we here? Summer duds, eh? Well, he never looked good in this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or — oh, my God — THAT. I’ve always hated THAT. Now, we’re getting somewhere. Wonder what else he doesn’t need? La-la-la-la. Let’s look in his main closet. Wow. Check out all of those ties. And shirts. C’mon. How often does the man wear shirts? I mean, all of them. I dive in and literally start humming with happiness. I’m starting to feel the life-changing magic of tidying up other people’s stuff. Soooo . . why not make a pass through his underwear drawer? Holy moley. Show me a person — who’s not 3 or 103 — who needs this much underwear. And socks? Overrated. Much better. I’ve squirreled up a nice little pile for charity, and you know what? I’m feeling pretty good about this cleanup thing. OH Maria Johnson can be reached at ohenrymaria@gmail.com, but don’t be surprised if she deletes your email. She’s on a roll.
March 2017
O.Henry 21
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Trail of Tears The sorrowful history of Western expansion
By Stephen E. Smith
During the early-to
mid-19th century, an unknown Native American warrior documented his life in pictographs on a buffalo hide. His early years were happy. He owned horses, took two wives, fathered children. Then white-faced figures appear pointing sticks that spit fire. Later, he painted his family dying of smallpox. His last pictograph illustrates the arrival of Jesuits in their black cassocks. There the narrative ends, suggesting, perhaps, that Jesuits are deadlier than smallpox. Whatever the cause of the warrior’s demise, there’s no denying that the 19th-century collision between Native Americans and westward migrating peoples of European descent was one of the most shameful and tragic chapters in the history of the continent. Peter Cozzens’ meticulously written and thoroughly documented The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West is the latest offering in a spate of recent books that graphically detail how shameful and tragic the winning of the West truly was. (An American Genocide by Benjamin Madley and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, both published in the last year, are also well worth reading.) Most of these recent Indian histories owe their perspective, at least in part, to Dee Brown’s 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a best-seller that transformed the attitude with which Americans regard indigenous people. Published three years after the founding of the American Indian Movement, Brown portrays the government’s dealings with Native Americans as an ongoing effort to eradicate their culture and religion. Cozzens adopts a slightly The Art & Soul of Greensboro
more balanced and analytical view of the Indian wars, taking into account the misjudgments and barbarism prevalent on both sides of the conflict. From the opening chapter, it’s obvious the story Cozzens has chosen to tell is ghastly beyond the power of words. Government policy dictated that indigenous people be concentrated on reservations of ever decreasing size until their will to fight was broken and their cultural cohesion destroyed. The wholesale slaughter of the buffalo was intended to deny food and livelihood to the tribes, and with the arrival of the railroads, the hunting grounds native people had occupied for millennia were opened to white settlement. What resulted was a fight to the death in which the tribes had no chance of prevailing. For white politicians, soldiers and settlers, the primary motivations were greed and racism. Native Americans stood in the way of wealth and progress, and they were perceived as a subhuman species to be dealt with as quickly and as expediently as possible. Even generally peaceable tribes such as the Modoc and Nez Perce were treated ruthlessly. “The whites were coming now, in numbers incomprehensible to Indians,” Cozzens writes. “They assaulted the Indian lands from every direction. Settlers rolled in from the east, while miners poked at the periphery of the Indian country from the west, north and south and simply overran it when new mineral strikes were made. In Westerners’ parlance, Indians who resisted the onslaught were to be ‘rounded up’ and rendered harmless on reservation land too miserable to interest the whites.” But Cozzens also notes that whites were not solely to blame for the dissolute loss of life and property. “. . . tribes had long battled one another over hunting grounds or horses. Indeed, fighting was a cultural imperative, and men owed their place in society to their prowess as warriors.” The subjugation of Western indigenous people took place during the 30 years from 1861 to 1891, as the U.S. Army, acting under orders from Eastern politicians, pursued the policy of “mollification and eradication.” Beginning with the Dakota uprising in Minnesota and ending with the tragedy at March 2017
O.Henry 23
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March 2017
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Reader
Wounded Knee and the 1891 surrender of the Oglala Lakotas at Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota, the story is one of unremitting atrocity, suffering and death. Former Civil War generals found themselves incapable of adapting to erratic and uncoordinated tribal uprisings. No less a national figure than William Tecumseh Sherman was inept at managing Indian affairs, and Winfield Scott Hancock, the hero of Gettysburg, found himself unable to negotiate with the Cheyenne and burned their villages in central Kansas. Phil Sheridan, who had swept the Shenandoah Valley clear of Confederate troops, found himself incapable of placating the tribes and conducted the Red River War, the Ute War, and the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, which resulted in the death of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and a sizable portion of his command. (For all his faithful service during the Civil War, Sheridan is best remembered for having said: “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”) President Ulysses S. Grant, whom biographers portray as a friend to Indian people, convened a secret White House meeting to plan strategy for provoking a war with the Lakotas. In the late 19th century, the government, in an effort to eliminate further uprisings, outlawed Native American religious ceremonies, and altruistic white civilians established boarding schools where Indian children were required to speak English, study math and religion, and where they were punished for use of their native language and the exercise of their tribal beliefs. Insofar as it’s possible to condense a 30-year period of national misadventure into 460 pages of carefully crafted text, Cozzens has produced an exemplary history that’s commendably objective, a reference book for the Indian wars. Beyond the intrinsic value of acquiring historical knowledge for its own sake, thoughtful readers may well gain a perspective on contemporary Native American issues — public health, education, gambling, discrimination and racism, the use of sports mascots, and the desecration of tribal lands. More than 100 years after the surrender of the last Indian tribe, suicide, alcoholism and crime remain serious problems on reservations. Positive edifications notwithstanding, The Land Is Weeping, for all its detachment, allows for only one conclusion: The 19th-century sweep of “civilization” across the territories west of the Mississippi created for the Native American tribes who inhabited the region the cultural wasteland we now call peace. OH Stephen E. Smith is a retired professor and the author of seven books of poetry and prose. He’s the recipient of the Poetry Northwest Young Poet’s Prize, the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Prize for poetry and four North Carolina Press awards. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
March 2017
O.Henry 25
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Scuppernong Bookshelf
Best Foot Forward The inspiration from wanderings, both lonely as a cloud and collective
It’s time to get outside. Go for a walk. The
days are lengthening, the nights are warming and the lethargy of winter is peeling away to reveal a new spring in your step. We love to see people holding a book as they walk the trails of Bur-Mil or the sidewalks of Elm Street. To that end, we’ve included books on walking, marching, perambulating and traipsing. “I believe walks are miracles — which can help me learn, like nothing else, about a nation or myself . . .” is Rory Stewart’s contention in The Marches: A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland (Houghton Mifflin, 2016, $27). The book is a walking exploration that peels back the layers of history in the ancient land that has been inhabited by Picts, occupied by Romans, invaded by Vikings and still questions its national identity in the 21st century. Walking, wandering and aimlessness figure prominently in Daniel Alarcón’s At Night We Walk in Circles (Riverhead Books, 2014, $16). A young actor in an unnamed Latin American country joins a ragtag guerrilla theater group comprised of older actors previously persecuted by the regime, now ready to take to the countryside with a new political play. In the course of the tour, a term we use lightly, in hillside and mountain towns where no one has seen theatre before, Nelson discovers a country that he never knew existed. Alternately magical and brutal, with a deep mystery at its core, Alarcón’s novel explores art, humanity and the persistence of not-knowing. The modern naturalist and hiker’s next reading list should without question include Robert Moor’s On Trails: An Exploration (Simon & Schuster, 2016, $25). Framed loosely around his thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail but delving into topics from sheep herding in Arizona to fossilized trilobite tracks in Newfoundland, Canada, this book explores the world of footpaths across time and geography. Know that, much like the trails Moor treads throughout, the narrative often wanders, reading more like a book of essays than one continuous narrative, but for this subject matter the format some-
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
how works. A great pick for fans of Annie Dillard and Bill Bryson, On Trails will inform, surprise and give you the itch to hit the trail. Congressman John Lewis is an authority on taking steps of a different sort. His three-volume graphic novel March (Topshelf, 2013–2016, $16), cowritten with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, is based on his own life and includes important Civil Rights’ moments like the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 Selma March. Walking has never been more necessary. In her book Wanderlust: A History of Walking (Penguin, 2001, $18), Rebecca Solnit writes, “A city is a language, a repository of possibilities, and walking is the act of speaking that language, of selecting from those possibilities.” Wanderlust finds Solnit exploring the seemingly inexhaustible possibilities presented by walking. She highlights a few famous walkers — mountaineers, philosophers, poets — whose perambulations have helped shape our culture. As the pace of life in the 21st century continues to accelerate, Solnit’s book on slowing down and taking one’s time will continue to be as relevant as it was when it was written. New Releases for March: March 7: Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf, $15). Another easy to absorb, matterof-fact treatise from MacArthur winner Adichie. March 14: Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism, by Camille Paglia (Pantheon, $26.95). For an entirely different analysis of 21st-century feminism, try Paglia. March 21: The 1997 Masters: My Story, by Tiger Woods (Grand Central, $30). Probably has nothing to do with feminism, but a lot to do with walking! March 28: The Bloody Mary: The Lore and Legend of a Cocktail Classic, with Recipes for Brunch and Beyond, by Brian Bartels (Ten Speed Press, $18.99). Perfect for that morning after-walk relaxer. OH Scuppernong Bookshelf was written by Brian Etling, Shannon Jones, Brian Lampkin, Steve Mitchell and Dave White.
March 2017
O.Henry 27
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28 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Yelp!
Papadaddy
Something to sink your teeth into By Clyde Edgerton
I went to a new dentist last week. The
Illustration by Harry Blair
old one recently retired. I sat in the waiting room reading a magazine until called into the room with the chair and drills. That room had new equipment and I noticed that the seat-chair-bed-thing that you sit on and that they lean you back in, felt very comfortable.
I needed a crown. The new dentist came in. The reason I was using a new dentist is that he took over the patients of my old one. Isn’t it funny what all we don’t check up on. You may be different but I ask friends about where to eat. I go online and check prices and comments about shoes I might buy. And in the store, I try on several pairs before buying. I go into Dick’s for a basketball and look at a whole rack with prices under each basketball and I pick up several and dribble them there in the store. Then I decide. But I go to somebody who is going to operate on my head, inside my mouth with drills and needles and cement, and I don’t do research. Maybe you do. But somehow I’ve never shopped for a dentist. My mama took me to the first one and then that dentist retired and turned over his office to a distant cousin of mine — and I went to him because he was kin — and then he turned his office over to another dentist. I continued going to that one for years . . . Then I moved to Wilmington and I have no idea how I ended up with my first Wilmington dentist (15 years ago), since I didn’t inherit him. (I had no complaints.) And now, when that one retired, the office people didn’t change and I kind of knew them, and all of the sudden I was in the long, reclining seat when the new guy came in. I had no idea of whether or not he could tell a bicuspid from a bicycle. He looked to be about 12, 13 years old. Things went fine. I liked him. He wore gloves with a grape smell. On purpose. Honest. Another thing I’ve noticed is that people in our culture tend to be silent about the price of a dentist’s or doctor’s bill — when you pay, that is. If it’s your car and your oil has been changed and you’ve gotten a new battery, you say to the cashier, “How much?” and the cashier tells you and you pay. If it’s a doctor, the cashier says, “That’s a $30 or $70, or (now) $90 co-pay, please.” And you pay it. The end. What I don’t say is, “How much was the total charge for today’s visit?” Maybe you do. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Actually, for a short while about three years ago, I did ask the receptionist/cashier about total bill numbers, and something like the following is what usually happened: “That’s a $40 co-pay,” says the receptionist/cashier. I reach for my billfold and say, “Can you tell me how much the bill is?” “Forty dollars.” “No, I mean for the entire visit. You know — the whole bill. I’m just curious.” “For the entire visit?” she asks, looking up at me for the first time. She’s looking me in the eye. “Yes, Please. Thank you.” “Well, let’s see,” she says, and she looks down at the piece of white paper she’s about to file, having given me the yellow copy. I look at my copy. It has 200 tiny squares with something medical written in beside each, something like “Quadra florientine xerox procedure.” Or “Hymiscus of the vertebrae test.” Of the 200, nine are checked off. She goes to a closet and gets an adding machine, one like my father used to have in his grocery store in the ’50s. She brings it back out, places it on her desk, and puts the white piece of paper down beside it. “Hang on,” she says. “This might take a minute or two.” She turns to the computer while holding her finger on that first check in the top little block on the white piece of paper. With a mouse under the other hand, she finds what she’s looking for on the computer from a website and puts a number into the adding machine, and pulls the handle. She sound is sort of: Cha-chank. “OK,” she says. “Let me see here.” She places a finger on the second check, finds a different website, and finds what she’s looking for. She puts a number into the adding machine. Cha-chank. She makes a phone call and says, “Yes, I can wait.” In about two minutes she says, “Yes, can you give me the price of a crankshem rebotolin frisk? . . . . OK, thanks.” Cha-chank. She’s back on the computer. This goes on for a while. Shadows, from sunlight coming through windows, lengthen across the room. “Okey-doke,” she says. She tears off the strip of paper from the adding machine, pulls a curtain around her that hangs from a curved rod, looks over my shoulder, leans forward, looks left and right, circles the bottom number and places it up on the counter in front of me. $489.23. I say, “Thank you very much.” Now, I’m waiting for the day there is a co-pay on the co-pay. And that time is not far off, probably about the time my dentist turns 16 or 18. OH Clyde Edgerton is the author of 10 novels, a memoir and most recently, Papadaddy’s Book for New Fathers. He is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UNCW. March 2017
O.Henry 29
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March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Rise of Roussillon
Vine Wisdom
Where red wine is roi
By Robyn James
Roussillon has
Photograph by john gessner
been the redheaded stepchild of the French wine country for many years, a fact that is slowly changing due to the efforts of several ambitious and talented importers and winemakers.
This region connects Spain and France with the Mediterranean to the east and the Pyrenees Mountains to north, west and south. The most important red grape grown in this region is carignan, accompanied by grenache noir, cinsault, syrah, mourvedre and some obscure local grapes. Red wine is king here, although they do produce about 25 percent rosé wines but only 2 percent white wines. Grenache blanc, roussanne and marsanne are the most popular white grapes grown. The wines of Roussillon have been considered unremarkable for centuries, but 10 years ago, rock star importer Eric Solomon of European Cellars began to focus on the area. He previously imported wines mostly from Spain and other pricier areas of France such as the Loire Valley and the Rhône region. Ten years ago, Solomon met Jean-Marc and Eliane Lafage in Spain, where Jean-Marc consults with some Spanish wineries. Lafage suggested Solomon visit his vineyards in Roussillon, and a beautiful partnership was formed. The Lafage family owns almost 400 acres of vineyards in various sections of Roussillon benefiting from the diversity of soil compositions. The knowledge and dedication of Lafage combined with the incredible palate and direction of Solomon have created wines that, in my opinion, raised the bar on quality/price ratio. An added bonus is that everything is farmed organically. Robert Parker, famous critic and owner of The Wine Advocate, says of Solomon, “I first tasted with Eric in 1991 and I have watched him grow as an importer to the point where he may be the finest in the United States.” One of their projects in Roussillon is Saint Roch, a property in Agly Valley. The white they produce is Saint Roch Vieilles Vignes Blanc, a blend of grenache blanc and marsanne. It’s very rich and full-bodied with pronounced notes of tangerine and pineapple. As big as it is, it still pairs beautifully with food and usually sells for under $15. One of the reds from Saint Roch that I tasted is the 2014 Saint-Roch Chimères Côtes du Roussillon Villages. This wine is under $17 yet was awarded 92 points from Parker, who described it as mostly grenache, but
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including 30 percent syrah and 10 percent mourvedre. “Aged in a combination of concrete tank demi-muid (large oak barrels), it makes the most of this difficult vintage and has terrific purity in its raspberry, violet, licorice and olive-laced aromas and flavors. Ripe, nicely textured and with bright acidity,” wrote Parker. The Lafage estate produces a Miraflors Dry Rosé that is an organic blend of mourvedre and grenache gris. It is a must-have for summertime quaffing. It has gorgeous notes of strawberries, framboise and rose petals. At under $18 it rivals the great rosés of Bandol that sell for $40-$60. Two more reds they produce are the 2014 Tessellae Grenache-Syrah-Mourvedre Old Vines, under $15 and 2014 Domaine Lafage Bastide Miraflors, a blend of syrah and grenache that is under $17. These two wines are the same blends that you would find in Châteauneuf-du-Pape selling for three to five times the price. Parker gave Tessellae 90 points and described it as a remarkable bargain from Lafage. Aged in concrete, this blend of 50 percent grenache, 40 percent syrah and 10 percent mourvedre “. . . comes from 70-year-old vines planted in limestone and clay soils. A delicious, dense ruby wine with notes of red and black cherries, earth, spice, pepper and a touch of Provençal garrigue. Fresh vibrant acidity is also present, and the wine is uncomplicated, but rich, fleshy and very well balanced,” writes Parker. On Bastide Miraflors, Parker identifies the 2014 Bastide Miraflors, which is a Côtes du Roussillon that blends 70 percent syrah and 30 percent grenache — with the grenache aged in concrete tanks and the syrah in 500-liter demi-muids — as a particularly notable bargain. “Lafage makes more expensive wines than this, but certainly excels with his value lineup. He has really hit a home run with this 10,000-case cuvée,” writes Parker. “It is deep, ruby/plum/purple, with fresh notes of blackcurrants, plums, Provençal herbs as well as licorice. Deep, medium to full-bodied, with amazing fruit, the purity, authenticity and Mediterranean upbringing of this wine are obvious. Quite deep, round and succulent, this wine should drink well for another several years. This is one to buy by the case.” Clearly, there is a bromance going on among Lafage, Solomon and Parker, but the proof is in the bottles. They are amazing blends. OH Robyn James is a certified sommelier and proprietor of The Wine Cellar and Tasting Room in Southern Pines. Contact her at robynajames@gmail.com. March 2017
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32 O.Henry
March 2017
1/11/2017 11:11:45 AM
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
On the Street Where You Live
Walker Avenue’s Colorful Thread
For its diverse denizens, a spark that begins over a wall of beer or a ball of yarn inevitably ends with an enduring love affair of the heart
Story and Illustration by Robin Sutton Anders
Roger and Nancy Kimbrough
can give you 1,600 good reasons why their customers drive from all over the country to shop at Bestway, the neighborhood grocery store they own on the corner of Walker and Elam — and they can all be found on one 80-foot-long “Wall of Beer.”
“We started with about 450 craft beers in our assortment in 2008,” remembers Roger Kimbrough. “People got so excited and asked if we could get this beer, or that beer.” Following customer requests, the Kimbroughs quickly doubled their inventory to 900. Today, they showcase all 1,600 options on a refrigerator wall organized by geography, eastern North Carolina on one end, California on the other. A vast selection of imports hailing from countries like the Netherlands and Thailand rest on nearby shelving. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
High praise from influential critics, such as BeerAdvocate.com and RateBeer.com attract out-of-staters who amend road trips to include a stop at the Walker Avenue institution. Once they shop The Wall and stuff their trunks full of small-batch, quaffable delicacies, they discover what the locals already know: Bestway stands in good company. If you head over to Walker Avenue — the 2.4 mile stretch that starts on West Market Street, runs through the Lindley Park and Sunset Hills neighborhoods and dead-ends at UNCG’s towering Jackson Library — and ask any of the pedestrians what they’re up to, a good number of them are likely either coming from or making their way to “the corner.” They’re referring to the intersection of Walker and Elam, where Bestway operates alongside a handful of Greensboro’s most popular bars and restaurants. The road crossing’s not much to look at. Most of the buildings are pretty old and much of the signage feels like your favorite well-worn old shirt — the colorful and tattered pieces are celebrated. Neighbors congregate on the concrete. Musicians settle in to liven the scene. Across the street, March 2017
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Street
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34 O.Henry
March 2017
dudes high-five their way into Suds and Duds, the “Cheers” of the laundromat world. (A bar in the back with the basketball shooting game Hoop Fever and ten sports-dominated TVs give regulars a reason to collect their dirty socks.) Right beside Suds, jukebox tunes (and the occasional live performer) from dive bars Wahoo’s and Walker’s filter into the street to mingle with the mix outside. Aromas of, arguably, Greensboro’s best pizza — dough prepared in-house with locally milled, organic flour and topped with fresh seasonal ingredients like Goat Lady chèvre and Bradd’s sweet Italian sausage — waft from Sticks & Stones’ clay oven. Emma Key’s, a restored 1950s barber shop, serves up thick chocolate shakes and flat-top grilled burgers. Just down the way, college kids and their out-of-town parents wait for a seat at Fishbones, which serves seafood entrees and inventive daily specials. And across the street, sounds of laughter burst from the back of Lindley Park Filling Station, a casual diner with great soups, salads and sandwiches — and a lush outdoor patio that’s a dream-come-true for neighborhood toddlers with the wiggles. There’s something infectious about that corner. It draws people from all walks of life and celebrates the intersection of age, education, wealth and race. Neil Reitzel, owner of Fishbones and Sticks & Stones, caught the bug when he walked up to the corner for the first time as a 15-year-old visiting a girlfriend who lived in the neighborhood. “I fell in love with it then,” he remembers. “Lindley Park was so different from my neighborhood, where all the houses were kind of cookie-cutter. My friend and I would walk up to the corner and go to the Bestway, and it was like a throwback in time.” As soon as he was old enough, Reitzel, along with a buddy, Scott Toben, bought the space between Fishbones and Bestway and opened the Blind Tiger pub, an instant success that soon welcomed acts such as Hootie and the Blowfish — “they played for a crowd of about thirty people,” Reitzel laughs — and Ben Folds Five, who made their musical debut there. Today, with a business portfolio that includes two of Greensboro’s most successful restaurants, Reitzel continues to believe in the power of Walker Avenue. “I love the people and the diversity. I love the architecture of the houses. There’s so much I really dig about it.” The corner may be the heart of Walker Avenue, but its strong, steady beat of community, diversity and inclusion reverberates east and west of the Elam intersection. If you leave the Bestway and walk to your The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Street right for a half-mile or so, you’ll pass eclectic, craftsman-style bungalows and student apartments before you get to UNCG’s campus. If you instead walk left, more bungalows line the way to a bridge passing over Wendover; then the Greensboro Arboretum on your right; and eventually, Market Street. It’s a colorful walk either way you turn. On any day, you’ll be treated to a visual arts display, courtesy of talented Walker residents who leave subtle front-lawn hints of their crafts (“hope” signs hand-painted on wooden clapboard; metallurgy, including an intricate sculpture of two kids sitting on a tree bench; music lessons; handcrafted Adirondack chairs). On Saturdays, the corner farmers’ market at Walker and Elam plays host to live music and vendors selling veggies, meat, fish, baked goods, and crafts. And seasonally, the arboretum’s trees and flowers update their botanical show.
On Saturdays, the corner farmers’ market at Walker and Elam plays host to live music and vendors selling veggies, meat, fish, baked goods, and crafts. One year ago, Walker’s local color landed on a not-so-subtle, unlikely canvas. Neighbors blanketed every square inch of the cold, steel bridge railings that cross over Wendover Avenue with colorful knitting. “I never liked that bridge,” says Kathy Newsome, who lives one street back from Walker and used to drive her kids to the arboretum so they wouldn’t have to ride their bikes over the bridge. “The railings are so low, it feels dangerous. But it still seemed silly to drive them in a car when the arboretum was really only a block from our house,” she says. “Plus, it was a real divider in our neighborhood.” Lindley Park officially extends all the way down Walker Avenue and over the bridge to encompass the homes surrounding the arboretum. But, Newsome says, residents on the other side of the bridge didn’t feel as much a part of the neighborhood. “You’ll always hear people say, ‘I live in Lindley Park, but I live on the other side of the bridge.” The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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O.Henry 35
Street Newsome had an idea to erase the “but.” “Nobody knew what a yarn bomb was,” she says. “Even the people from ‘Building Stronger Neighborhoods’ didn’t know, but they approved my grant. Suddenly I had to get it done in three months!” Newsome set up a booth at the farmers’ market, complete with wicker chairs and baskets of yarn and knitting needles. “I told people that I’d teach them how to knit if they’d help me,” she says. Newsome figured she needed seventyseven 7-foot-long scarves in order to completely wrap the railings of the bridge with colorful yarn. After three months, she and her cohorts had enough scarves to blanket not only the guardrails but also the trees on either side of the bridge. “I initially wanted this to be a neighborhood connector, but it extended far beyond that,” she recalls. “People really got on board. In the knitting booth, I would teach one person to knit, and that person would teach the next person to come along. So we had 12-year-olds teaching 60-yearolds. In the end, 200 people volunteered their time to knit.” After every color of the rainbow — and knitted letters spelling out “COMMUNITY” — warmed the once-chilly guardrails, Newsome loved to walk across her neighborhood bridge. “It was cold in November, but there were always people out there taking pictures and cars honking when they’d drive under it on Wendover,” she says. “Suddenly this yucky bridge that goes over six lanes of traffic was something to care about, something to notice.”
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This spring, Walker Avenue’s bridge is getting a facelift in the form of higher, pedestrian-friendly railing. It’s all thanks to a vote from the district requesting a safer bridge for their community, for their children. “The reason people voted for it over other projects was because they were aware that there even was a bridge,” Newsome says. “They realized that bridge had value.” Stich by stitch, Newsome’s project connected novices and apprentices, young and old, newcomers and old-timers, bringing her neighbors together. Stitch by stitch, her neighbors constructed a more inclusive, safer street. That’s the kind of neighborhood Walker Avenue residents want — one that understands all neighborhoods are knit together and that in the very best neighborhoods, the entire community provides the yarn that binds. After all, it takes the whole palette to make a rainbow. OH Robin Sutton Anders is a Greensboro-based freelancer who is proud to call Lindley Park home.
36 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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O.Henry 37
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38 O.Henry
March 2017
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Life of Jane
It’s a Mall World After All Memories of Forum VI
By Jane Borden
I have been to China, Eu-
rope, Mexico, Israel and Peru. But before that, I went international at the food court in the Forum VI. The shopping center, which was built in 1976 and gutted in the late ’90s, was on the corner of Pembroke Road and Northline Avenue, and inside it was an Italian restaurant and a Greek joint. Don’t tell me those countries are only 500 miles apart and on the same body of water — to my 12-year-old brain, they spanned the globe. Plus, the food court at Forum VI also had a hotdog place, and every culture in the world eats some kind of sausage, so I am making an airtight argument here. Besides, if you took the escalator downstairs from the food court, and got a little more dressed up, you could journey to Japan. Kabuto was the first Japanese restaurant in Greensboro, established in 1976 when the mall was
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built. It was owned and operated by Yoshi Tanaka, who also opened the first Japanese restaurant in North Carolina, Sagano in Winston-Salem. The only reason I know this is because Tanaka’s son, Ken, was my buddy growing up. And the only reason I know Ken is because a Forum VI developer enticed his dad to move down from Boston and open Kabuto. Going to Kabuto blew my tweenage mind. I’m guessing I had to go see Cathy at Looking Ahead after each time I dined there, because Kabuto blew the kinks out of my perm. Jeez, we get it, Jane, they cooked tableside. Excuse me. They did not just cook in front of you; they tossed shrimp tails in the air, and caught them in their hats. Shrimp on heads! They juggled salt and pepper shakers. It was a circus that fed you. They lit things on fire. Fire! I was a pyro in acid-washed jeans, and I think I might have cried the whole time I was there. Dining at Kabuto was rare, though, on account of the price point and, maybe, the chance that I’d set someone aflame. The Forum VI dining establishment frequented most by me was the K&W cafeteria, because my grandmother liked to go. K&W is kind of the opposite of Kabuto. You go to the kitchen, instead of the kitchen coming to you; the food is already prepared when you arrive; and the only fires are small flames under chafing dishes. One similarity, however, is that hair nets are a kind of hat — or, at least, that’s what my toddler thinks. Even in these spare conditions, I adored K&W, not least because I could create an entire meal out of mashed potaMarch 2017
O.Henry 39
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40 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Life of Jane toes, mac and cheese, and Jell-O. When I think about it philosophically, the process of moving through a cafeteria line seems one of powerlessness: Your pace is set by the orderly line of other diners, your tray moves along its sanctioned steel path, the food has always already been served. Emotionally, however, I recall feeling a strong sense of agency at the cafeteria. I got to carry my own tray. I chose carefully how to fill its real estate. We seated ourselves — wherever we wanted! And if one was still hungry, she simply got back in line, unless it was only for more Jell-O, in which case, Jane, it’s time to go home. While we are on the topic of Forum VI, I am compelled to share my strongest memory of the upscale, indoor mall, which, in fact, is not my memory at all, as I was not yet born. The story has been told so many times in my family, though, that I may as well have been there when my sister Tucker fell into the fountain. Then my eldest sister Lou shouted, “Get the pennies! Get the pennies!” But Tucker was cold and in shock, and scrambled out quickly. Then she said, with deep disappointment, “I didn’t get any pennies.” Mom and Dad took her into the shoe store Taylor’s, where the employees graciously helped her dry off and warm up. Taylor’s is gone now, as are the fountain, Montaldo’s, the Limited Express, Toys & Co., the hotdog joint, and everything else that comprised Forum VI except for K&W Cafeteria. It is the only business remaining in the office building currently occupying the corner of Pembroke and Northline. My grandmother is also gone but I think of her every time I drive by. I also think of Jell-O. My mother loved the Greek restaurant, and everyone there knew her name. But now she has that relationship with Ghassan’s. It’s Lebanese not Greek, but it scratches a similar itch for my mother, and they all know her order by heart. Kabuto is still open, but in a new location, where Wendover crosses I-40. Presumably, it continues to blow tweenage minds with pyrotechnics. In fact, Kabuto’s legacy also remains. Last year, Yoshi Tanaka offered Ken the house he grew up in. So, after twenty years of living away — in Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Minneapolis, and Atlantic City — Ken has recently moved back to Greensboro with his wife and toddler. As for my sister Tucker, she went into banking, so she finally got all those pennies. OH You can find Greensboro native Jane Borden, author of I Totally Meant To Do That, at JaneBorden.com or via twitter.com/JaneBorden.
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O.Henry 41
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Birdwatch
Harbinger of Spring
The blue-gray gnatcatcher heralds the seasonal migration in Central N.C.
By Susan Campbell
photograph by Garry Tucker, USFWS.
It won’t be much longer . . . the wheezy calls
from blue-gray gnatcatchers will soon be echoing from the treetops, signaling the beginning of spring migration here in central North Carolina. But these tiny gray-and-white birds are not going to find you. You are going to have to find them. As they flit around searching for small insects, they tend not to stay in one spot long enough for a good look. But with patience and a sharp eye, a determined birder will spot the bird’s characteristic dainty bill, white eye ring and long black tail with white edges.
Some of these passing gnatcatchers will stay put and raise a family, or two, here in the coming months. The species is known to breed across most of the Eastern United States at lower elevations. Within the gnatcatcher family this is the only species that is truly migratory, although individuals that we encounter have not likely traveled northward very far. Wintering grounds may be as close as Florida though some gnatcatchers may wing their way back from as far away as Cuba or the Bahamas. Despite their name, gnats do not form a more significant part of the bird’s diet. Foraging for any invertebrates they can find, a gnatcatcher will sometime capture insects and spiders that are too large to swallow. But this ingenious bird divvies its prey into smaller portions by banging the insects on a branch to dispatch them and then pulling their appendages off until they are small enough to swallow. Its secret weapon to uncover insects? A long tail that it will flick from side to side to
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
disturb the vegetation and cause potential prey to fly into visual range. The species is sometimes referred to as “Little Mockingbirds,” not so much for their plumage but for their tendency to incorporate elements and snippets of other birds’ songs into their own. Short songs involve wheezy “spee” notes. But longer songs, meant to better advertise territory in the spring, involve a variety of sounds: chips, whistles and mewing notes that are typically very high-pitched. When they cannot get their point across, males will chase one another, sometime ranging abroad as far as 70 feet or more. If things get particularly fierce, the competitors may even rise up, chest to chest, high in the air, with snapping bills in what looks like an odd game of “chicken.” Here in the Piedmont and Sandhills, blue-gray gnatcatchers can be found in any forested area where there is a significant understory. This is a species that thrives on woody vegetation and an insect-rich environment. Nests tend to be high up in hardwoods and are constructed with fine grasses and a variety of soft materials. Furthermore, they always include an exterior layer of mosses or lichens that camouflage the small cup-like nests from predators. As with the only slightly smaller ruby-throated hummingbird, nests need to be almost invisible. Adult blue-gray gnatcatchers have no other effective means of defending the next generation than the ingenious use of camouflage. As it is, eggs and young are often located by small mammals, as well as climbing snakes and other birds. But the parents will readily build a new nest, even incorporating old nesting material to speed up the process, several times in a season, if need be. So if you keep an eye as well as an ear out towards the end of the month, you may spot one of these spirited and industrious little birds. Tiny blue-gray gnatcatchers are certainly one of the most overlooked members of our summer bird fauna. However, I guarantee they will be out and about if you take the time to notice in the weeks ahead. OH Susan would love to receive your wildlife sightings and photos at susan@ncaves.com. March 2017
O.Henry 43
Now matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.
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44 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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Mid-City Sandwich Co.’s Reuben on rye with side of tomato basil soup
Foodies . . . aren’t they funny folk? The
1920s terra cotta & and stone entrance way, serves divine Italian roast beef hoagies with a warm amber au jus and side salad that I’m crazy about. Mid-City Sandwich Co., where Fincastles used to be, offers a simple but delish Reuben on rye; order half a sandwich and pair it with their garlic-rific tomato basil soup or a Thai chicken flatbread pizza. Switch it up for lunch! As I sit here typing (can’t call it writing), I’m enjoying the finest hummus I’ve ever tasted and a kifta mezze of chopped lamb and beef blended with aromatic spices from Jerusalem Market that is to die for. Everything I’ve sampled there is just phenomenal; freshly prepared, healthy and the price is right. A slice of Caprese at Pizzeria L’Italiano is an addictive delight for the taste buds, and Noma at LeBauer Park offers sumptuously affordable Vietnamese and Thai specialties — red curry bowls, pho, fresh spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce and savory banh mi baguettes.
There’s a movement afoot to entice us to eat locally; turns out you can get a terrific meal downtown for what inferior fast food costs. Cafe Europa tosses the best Caesar salad in town with that distinctive anchovy taste I long for. Buon Apetito in the Piedmont Building, with its impressive
At year’s end there was an alarming number of empty storefronts languishing around the Tate Street commons; now, however, there are renewed but confusing signs of life there. For a brief moment, while the exterior of 413 Tate was being repainted, what was left of the 1992 signage for Nikita, our first Indian restaurant, was exposed like a note in a bottle tossed into
By Billy Eye
Photograph by Sam Froelich
“Anybody who believes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach flunked geography.” — Robert Byrne other day a friend remarked that he was craving Five Guys, which reminded me, why have I never been tasked with writing a food column? Could it be because my palate is more of the wooden variety? Getting paid for eating . . . nothing could possibly top that unless I also landed a gig as a mattress tester.
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Wandering Billy the ocean of time. No. 413 was occupied by The College Shop from 1949 until the early 1980s when it was split into two units; in the mid-’80s it was home to Hot Tamales. Now inhabiting that space is Sam’s Oven & Grill where the menu is heavily tilted towards pizza, wings and subs. Odd, given that there are three other joints within a few yards slinging pizza and subs (besides New York Pizza and Manhattan there’s Slices which I highly recommend). Get this, there’s another pizzeria scheduled to open on the same block! A banner suggests that 331 Tate, that teeny-tiny, two-story storefront sandwiched between NYP and Sushi Republic, may again spring to life. It’s been largely abandoned since 1968 when the barber shop that operated out of there closed, but I heard a rumor a coffee shop was there briefly? You may be surprised to learn this was the original location of Leon’s Beauty Salon in the 1940s.
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Attended a dynamite night of powerful music from Rhiannon Giddens, Molly McGinn and Laurelyn Dossett at Common Grounds the other night. Naturally, Eye showed up at the last minute for a concert that was sold out three hours after it was announced so there was no chance of getting in (yeah, right!). Space prohibits telling you just how brilliant these performers are, or how lucky we are to bask in their presence, but Common Grounds at Elam and Walker is increasingly becoming the city’s hippest musical nightspot. There was one revolting disruption, however. As Grammy winner Rhiannon Giddens was introducing a song she had written from a slave narrative, an inebriated club goer witlessly blurted out that his great aunt had written Gone With The Wind and had to be ejected. Jeez.
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664. S. Stratford Road • Winston-Salem Less than 1 mile from Trader Joe’s!
336.765.5919 www.LastersFineArt.com
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I’ve been remiss for far too long in thanking Elise Allison at the History Museum for her invaluable assistance researching the most arcane and unusual aspects of our city’s history. What a rich resource we have in that museum and in curators like Elise who ensure our past remains is as alive and vibrant as the present. Also, congratulations to superfriend Nathan and Isabella Bueno who are expecting what will undoubtedly be the most beautiful baby girl ever. And little wonder: If this were Hollywood, Mom would likely be the next Liz Taylor. OH Have a suggestion as to where Billy Eye should wander next? Email billy@tvparty.com with “Billy Eye” in the subject line.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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March 2017 Hawk Driving to work, I spotted the red-tailed hawk perched on the stop sign at the corner of Courtland & Adams. Surveying the suburban yards for his next meal, he looked in my direction, then turned away, disinterested. I lowered my eyes to check the time and when I looked up again he was gone, leaving me alone in the warm comfort of my car, delighted by what I’d seen, desperate for his return. —Steve Cushman
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Rising from the Ashes Things Old Photo Specialists lost — and found — in the fire By Billy Ingram • Photographs by John Gessner
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ust as the bottom was falling out of the commercial photography business, Bill Heroy of Old Photo Specialists was surprised to discover that his side business, meticulously producing hand-tinted restorations of antique photographs, had mushroomed into a burgeoning enterprise. Moving seamlessly into the digital age, he is today one of the most sought-after artists in his field, as the images covering the walls of his shop attest. “There’s an interesting story behind every picture,” says Bill’s wife and partner in the business, Anna. Equally remarkable is the Heroys’s own story. During the 1980s when other businesses and residents had all but abandoned the city center, Bill and Anna raised their family downtown. Setting down roots in a decidedly inhospitable environment, their arduous journey is reminiscent of those pioneers of old, something akin to the trials and tribulations associated with Little House on the Prairie but with more bums and winos. To hear Bill tell it, he was perfectly happy in 1977 operating a photography studio out of his Victorian home on Spring Garden but, “I wanted to hire an artist,” he says. The city council had other ideas and refused to change his zoning from residential to commercial. “I said, ‘Well, I’ll move then,’” Bill remembers, and he called a Realtor. “Back then everyone was emptying out of downtown,” he recalls. “This building [320 South Elm] was in horrible shape but it was only $30,000, so I said I’d buy it. I had no idea what I was getting into. I made ten grand selling my house, and I’d only had it two years. I lost that ten grand in a week.” What Heroy bought into was the Fortune Building, constructed for R.G. Fortune Dry Goods and Notions during the aggressive modernization taking place downtown at the turn of the last century. It’s a study in resolute austerity, bucking South Elm’s architectural trajectory that generally favored European-inspired flourishes accented with marble. No. 320 South Elm was a revolving door of disparate businesses from the very beginning. The Schiffman brothers opened a department store there in 1905. During the 1930s, it was Rustin-Johnson Furniture. Advance Automotive occupied the building in the The Art & Soul of Greensboro
’40s, various shoe stores in the ’50s, and after that, it was almost always vacant. Bill Heroy was faced with the ravages inflicted by decades of neglect. “Back then I put about $80,000 that I borrowed and begged and went through hell and back with the banks.” With his studio in the back, the bachelor photographer devoted the storefront (which has since been split into two units) to a 3,000-square-foot art gallery in 1978 while he crashed in a makeshift man cave on the second floor. “What I found out is — art is one of the most unprofitable businesses you can possibly get into. But when we closed Elm Street Gallery in 1981 we had one of the largest parties they ever had in downtown Greensboro. We had over a thousand people in here.” He managed to keep the photography business afloat for another seven or eight years, but commercial clients were few and far between. “We did some work for companies like Ciba-Geigy and Western Electric,” Bill recalls, explaining that the bulk of his work consisted of portraits, weddings and a lot of Bar Mitzvahs. “That’s what propelled me through the Jimmy Carter [years]. I was working all the time,” he says. Bill’s wife, Anna, remembers their first night out together, spent right next door: “We had our first date at the Mantelworks when it was a dinner theater. We went to see Inherit the Wind.” The Mantelworks was a cavernous, threestory former factory where lacquered wooden fireplace frames were manufactured in decades past. Beginning in the mid-1970s, a soda shop and artists’ enclave coalesced there in an effort to re-energize downtown, but Anna wasn’t impressed with the place that night, “The play was so boring,” she says with a laugh. “Afterwards, we all went to The Pickwick on Walker and Elam and that was fun so I agreed to go out again. We got married in ’79.” It was Bill’s dream that the couple leave their Fisher Park neighborhood and reside in the Fortune Building, but Anna remained unconvinced. “Bill kept talking about how great it was downtown,” she says. He chuckles, thinking back on those early days, when Old Photo Specialists was directly across the street from Sam & Mack’s Newsstand, the city’s purveyor of porn mags and peep shows. “We would get up on the roof and watch these people go in. First they would walk past it, they’d look around, they’d walk this way and that way, then they would finally go March 2017
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in the shop and we would yell out, ‘Repent!’ and it would echo up and down the empty streets.” The first time he brought me down I said, ‘Eeehh, I don’t know about this place,’” Anna says, describing the shop as “old,” its second floor a former warehouse “just one huge space.” Then there was Bill’s “horrible bachelor apartment up there,” she recalls. “He had to take a bath in his darkroom. The first time I came to check it out there was a wharf rat up there; he had promised me there were no animals! Anyway, that was the end of that idea for a while.” They refurbished the entire second floor before moving in with their young son (with another on the way) in 1982. Anna recalls their Green-Acres-in-reverse lifestyle: “There was nothing going on downtown. It was us and the winos. My parents lived in Fisher Park so I picked the kids up every day and we’d go play at Mother and Daddy’s house and then come back. We did make a yard on the roof, put Astroturf up there and made a wall around it with a picnic table and we had a little swimming pool for them, that was fun.” The lack of excitement in the Heroys’ environs changed around 11 p.m. on April 13, 1985, when a General Alarm was sounded summoning firefighters from every corner of the city to battle a blaze that would, in a matter of hours, lay waste to a significant portion of downtown Greensboro. Fire Chief Bobby Nugent has four decades’ experience taming flames in our city. A six-year veteran in 1985, he described venturing into a maelstrom that quickly devastated historic Davie Street business district: “We had a backdraft, kind of like a smoke explosion. The truck I was driving, Engine 8 on Chapman Street, we were actually on another fire and cleared that when the backdraft happened. That’s when they called for Second Alarm.” The backdraft, he remembers, was a source of confusion among the crew. “It blew a couple of people across the street, messed up the hose lines so they had to regroup after that and start getting back into firefighting mode.” In less than an hour, seven multistory buildings were fully engulfed in a towering inferno fueled by centuryold hardwood interiors, a battlefield growing more fierce by the minute as fireballs and thousand-pound chunks of brick and mortar rained down around emergency workers. Fire Chief on the scene R. L. Powell sent out word to his shock troops that, if the blaze were to spread into any of the antiquated buildings along the 300 block of South Elm, firefighters would fall back to Greene Street, at the Carolina Theatre, leaving Hamburger Square to burn unabated. The Heroy family was driving home after an evening out when they encountered their neighborhood exploding in frightening light. “It looked like the whole city was ablaze so we just were freaking out.” Anna still recoils from the horror. “Our babysitter cancelled at the last minute so we had to take our children with us. I’m thinking, ‘My God, what if our kids had been in there?’ We weren’t allowed to go in our building.” Fire Chief Nugent recalled the smoldering wreckage revealed as the first rays
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of Sunday sunlight filtered through a thick cloud of soot: “It was by the grace of God that it got stopped in the alleyway behind where Greensborough Court backs up to the building that faces South Elm Street,” he says. That was, unfortunately, a mere harbinger. The Heroys moved to the country in 1988. By that time they’d constructed five rental units on the upper two floors, enjoying a 100 percent occupancy rate through the 1990s and beyond when adventurous folks started giving downtown another look. Meanwhile, that hulking tinderbox known as The Mantelworks had been left fallow, strung with frayed electrical wiring dating back to before the first radio broadcast. In the early morning hours of October 23, 2003, tenants in the Fortune Building were abruptly roused from their slumber by police officers banging on their doors. They found themselves fleeing into the freezing night air with only the clothes on their backs. It took more than a hundred firefighters to contain that blaze. It wasn’t just the Mantelworks left in ruins: Bill and Anna Heroy were faced with near total devastation of the Fortune Building, with smoke and water damage from floor to ceiling. Bill still finds it difficult to talk about. “It destroyed our building, it destroyed our business. We were forced out of here.” A two-year court battle ensued before reconstruction could begin in earnest — to the tune of about $1.8 million. At the same time, the rapidly changing landscape of digital technology was resulting in dozens of local photographers being forced out of business. “There was a lot of work for everybody really, and then it just . . . dried up,” Bill says. That was when he noticed a trend. “Some days the orders for old photographs were bigger than the commercial jobs. We had customers keep coming in with old photos and we were able to build up the business.” Ironically, when it comes to photo restoration, the more ancient the picture is, the more gray tones and contrast are hiding beneath the surface, waiting to burst through with astonishing clarity. That’s where Bill’s degree in chemical engineering at Duke came in handy. “Everything made through World War II had a fairly high concentration of silver,” he says. “And the older they are, the more silver they have. He points to some whitish pictures from World War I and explains how they became so faded. “We didn’t have air conditioning back in the ’30s and ’40s; it got hot in the summer, got humid.” He explains that the chemicals used on the photos got moist and absorbed dirt and water, causing them to look faded and colorless. “When we get them in here we can get the detail back like the day they were shot.” As for those washed-out snapshots from your youth? “Color, once it fades, back in those days it couldn’t be recovered,” Bill says. “Between our scanning system and the computer, we can get it back.” This painstaking devotion to detail has led to the resurrection of some remarkable moments in time, captured on cameras with extremely long exposure times. Looking at a 1916 panoramic view of a contingent of soldiers positioned where the Carolina Theatre is today, one can’t The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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help but be amazed at an image so crisp, so clear, you can read the lettering on buildings a quarter mile away, even make out the whites of the soldiers’ eyes. Bill retrieves another recovered image with local historical significance. “This is St. James Presbyterian. We didn’t even charge to do this. This original photograph of a groundbreaking for the church goes back to 1880s. It was white, you could hardly detect [any image] but I could see there was silver in it so I knew we were well on our way.” He picks up another image. “We had a guy come in that had an entire collection of pictures from the Holocaust. His father was there, he had pictures from the Battle of the Bulge all the way to Auschwitz,” Bill says. He says his most remote client was from South Africa, likely “a plantation owner with one of the native chiefs in the frame who had on a necklace made of teeth. It was in bad shape.” At times Bill’s work reunites families with long lost ancestors. One of the more difficult aspects of this artcraft can be reconstructing faces. Bill is especially proud of one job: “This soldier had three children when he went off to Vietnam and was killed. This picture he had made with his wife before he left,” he recalls. When he got killed, the picture ended up out in a barn. “It was warped and nasty looking, [eaten away] with mold and watermarks. The kids were rummaging through the barn one day and they found this picture.” The wife had gotten remarried and then divorced, he says, “but she never forgot about her first husband, so we put this together the best we could. Now she can make copies for all the children.” Anna leads me to the front of the studio where they have a minigallery, motioning towards a wide-angle 1916 photo of a line of soldiers from Canada’s Fort Gary Horse Regiment. In the background a soldier can be seen entertaining a small black bear, one of three that accompanied regiments from Winnipeg. “This was their mascot,” Anna explains, adding, “They were sent over to England to fight so they took their mascot with them. When they got to England they knew they’re going to get shipped over to France and they didn’t want to take the bear because they might be killed.” One of those three bears was left in the care of the London Zoo where he became their star attraction. That zoo was around the corner from the home of A.A. Milne, whose son, Christopher Robin, named his teddy bear after the furry mascot nicknamed “Winnie” after his port of origin. “This came from a lady from Canada whose great-grandfather is in this picture,” Anna tells me. “You have to have a love for this kind of stuff, it’s a job that takes time.” Bill Heroy laments the art of rehabilitating ancient photographs is becoming a lost one: “I don’t know why there’s nobody in Charlotte doing it. Why is no one in Raleigh doing it? Or Wilmington?” he wonders but doesn’t complain since he gets work from all three cities. Bill and Anna Heroy are not just in the business of restoring photos. What they truly enjoy is bringing stories back to life that have been lost to time: ““There’s tons of photos out there that have all kinds of stories to them,” Bill says. Which is why, forty years on, the customers keep coming. OH Billy Ingram moved to downtown Greensboro twenty years ago after a career in Los Angeles as one of the team the ad world has dubbed “The New York Yankees of Motion Picture Advertising.” The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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Glory Guilford The
of
Story and photographs by Lynn Donovan
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he largest and most fiercely contested battle of the Revolutionary War’s Southern Campaign was fought in the small North Carolina hamlet of Guilford Courthouse. Almost 4,500 American militia and Continentals, commanded by Major General Nathanael Greene, defended the ground against 1,900 British veteran regulars and German allies commanded by Lord Charles Cornwallis. After two ½ hours of intense fighting, Cornwallis forced Greene to withdraw from the field. By retreating, the strength of Greene’s army was preserved, but Cornwallis’s victory was won at the cost of almost 25% of his army. Weakened, Cornwallis headed to Virginia where seven months later in Yorktown he would surrender to General George Washington. More than 300 Revolutionary War reenactors from across the county muster at Guilford Courthouse Nation Military Park, the Colonial Heritage Center and Greensboro Country Park each March to reenact the battle and to live as the colonials did for the weekend. This year’s event takes place March 18-19. OH Lynn Donovan is a contributing photographer to O.Henry magazine.
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photograph by lynn donovan
The Breakfast Club Every Wednesday morning at Tex & Shirley’s, fellowship and photography are served over easy By Jim Dodson
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n a drizzly late winter morning, a lively buzz of voices flows from the rear dining room of Tex & Shirley’s Friendly Center restaurant where nine members of the Bokeh Photography Club are catching up on each other’s adventures since their last Wednesday morning gathering. The group, which has met weekly for more than two decades, can range anywhere from five to fifteen “members” on any given Wednesday morning. But as de facto spokesman John Poer quickly notes, “We never quite know who is going to show up. We’re just a bunch of people who share a love of photography and enjoy each other’s company over breakfast.” “In other words,” says Doug Swanson, a retired CPA who spent several years working as Dale Earnhardt’s chief operating officer, “we have no rules, no dues, no bylaws — just a lot of great conversation and talk about photography.” “We’re a diverse group who love breakfast and expensive cameras,” puts in Bob Poston, just back from a fishing trip to Costa Rica, where he caught two marlin and fifteen tuna and “took a couple thousand photographs.” Together with wife, Diana, Poston owns Greensboro’s historic Guilford Building. Prior to his retirement twenty years ago, Poston enjoyed a long career as a pioneering
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computer expert who ran, among other things, NASA’s Western Aeronautical Test Range in the early 1970s. Now his computer expertise serves fellow members of the Breakfast Club who often show up at his downtown office to tweak their digital photography. Across the table sits Tommie Lauer, 74, a retired psychiatrist and former commercial photographer for Alderman Studios, who learned some of her early craft under Gerhard Bakker, the acclaimed American photographer. “I’m still something of a newbie to the club,” she explains, “only been in for four years. But I love these folks. The gab is fantastic. We all share ideas and learn a great deal from each other.” Lauer is particularly drawn to photographing street people, iconic buildings and fast cars. “That’s one of mine right there,” she says, pointing to a dramatic portrait of a cowboy that hangs with the work of other Bokeh Club members on the meeting room’s walls and across Tex & Shirley’s entrance lobby. “I just happened to see him sitting at Starbucks at Quaker Village and asked if he would let me take his picture. He did. Splendid, isn’t he?” Indeed he is, this urban cowboy. But equally arresting are the diverse photos of other club members (including O.Henry’s stalwart, Lynn Donovan; The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Family of Man Tommie Lauer
see page 56) who are on hand for pancakes and favorite egg dishes this morning. Their regular waitress, Susan Almazan, quips that she rarely has to write down an order. “Like their photos, every one is different. But I know exactly who wants what.” To her point, the work of Cheryl Garrity and Doug Swanson’s bird photos are nothing short of breathtaking. Ditto Chicagoan Sandy Groover’s candid people shots, some of which she takes for the Rhino Times newspaper. “I’m just a point-and-shoot photographer,” Sandy modestly insists. “I shoot and hope for the best. The others are so technically savvy, I can’t keep up with them. Also,” she adds wryly, “I’m the only Canon user.” But one look at her shots of her granddaughter mugging by a blue jean statue downtown or her photos of the Wyndham Championship or a group of costumed mermaids gathered poolside, and you realize what a gifted eye this former secretary for Jefferson Pilot possesses. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Groover’s Cannon quip provokes a good-natured groan from the others around the table — most, if not all, indeed, use sophisticated Nikons, some owning several. Graphic artist and photographer Stephanie Thomas believes she might be the oldest member of the unofficial club, dating her arrival at the Tex & Shirley’s breakfast table from 2006, when much of her work was shown at several prominent galleries. One day several years ago she took a photo of a homeless teenage girl that changed her life. “I was so moved by her, I started shooting homeless women in Greensboro.” Eventually Thomas’s project developed into a photo documentary book called Pushed to the Corner, which she recently completed and is now in search of a publisher and literary agent. “Working in their world opened my eyes,” she adds thoughtfully. “The material things I used to value so much just fell away.” Sharon Canter listens, smiling, just back from one of her famous wintertime March 2017
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Eagle taken on the James River near Richmond, Virginia Doug Swanson shooting trips up at Roan Mountain in east Tennessee. “She’s the real star — our award-winner,” says her frequent travel pal, Cheryl Garrity, a retired elementary school guidance counselor and hiking enthusiast. Garrity once led hikes for the Sierra Club but got so frustrated trying to identify wildflowers and native plants that she began taking photos of them — which in turn brought her to a photography class at GTCC hoping to improve her craft. There she met Sharon Canter. For an anniversary present, Cheryl Garrity’s husband, Dale, gave her a very nice Nikon camera and soon she and Sharon were off on photographic expeditions to Roan Mountain, Lake Mattamuskeet and other unspoiled corners of the wild — often braving the most extreme temperatures. “We’re usually up there well before sunrise and never come back until way after dark,” says Garrity. “Sharon is totally fearless. I can never keep up with her. We’ve spent a lot of nights searching for great photos in the dark.” After one of their memorable photo jaunts in sub-freezing temperatures, Garrity wound up losing the tip of a finger to frostbite. But her photos of the mountain and night skies — especially the Milky Way — are stunning. Garrity and Canter joined the photo group about the same time around 2009, making their first trip to the Smokies soon afterwards. “The group was such a pleasure — no competitiveness, just smart photographers happy to share their knowledge,” says Sharon Canter. “We both learned so much about lenses, for instance. We’ve been hooked ever since.” Canter grew up in Kernersville hoping to be a veterinarian but switched to
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conservation studies at N.C. State. Like many of the Bokeh Club members, she picked up photography as a hobby with the arrival of children. “Around the year 2000 my oldest son got married and my husband suggested that I get a really good camera to record the event. One thing just led to another,” she adds, describing how her family photos blossomed quickly into a full-blown passion for landscape photography. She talks of a “Bucket List” trip she still hopes to take to California’s Yosemite National Park. Canter’s photos of Roan Mountain and other nature shots have found their way to the pages of Wildlife In North Carolina magazine, Backpacker, and collected a Best of Show award at the prestigious Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition in Boone, an annual photo contest that draws more than 900 entries from all over the Southeast. Regulars Claude “Monet” Hutcheson, 77, and Ron Day sit eating and listening to these reflections, nodding in agreement. “I don’t consider myself a photographer,” says Hutcheson, a retired engineer who earned an M.F.A. degree in industrial design and worked for Xerox for more than two decades. “I’m really more of a painter who has seriously upgraded his photography skills thanks to being associated with these folks.” (Hence the affectionate nickname). His specialty is wildlife. Ron Day’s photographic love is capturing weddings. An engineer who served as the last superintendent of Cone Mills’ Proximity plant before it shut down in the late 1970s, Day, 73, enjoyed the blossoming of a second career as a wedding The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Milky Way over Sauratown Mountains in Stokes County Cheryl Garrity The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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Botany Bay John Poer photographer who has covered more than a thousand nuptials. “I also do some birds and landscape and always dreamed of being a photographer for National Geographic,” he adds with a wry smile. “Haven’t quite made it that far yet.” But others associated with the Tex & Shirley club have done so, notably Paul Salazar’s daughter, Gabby, 29, who now shoots regularly for the internationally respected magazine and who got an early start on her career attending the breakfast sessions her dad organized — and named — more than two decades ago. At age 11, Gabby sold one of her photographs to Our State magazine, an image of a butterfly on a flower. “A few of us used to get together at Tex & Shirley’s for breakfast and then
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walk over to the camera shop in [Friendly] shopping center to look at equipment. This was back in the dark ages of film,” Paul Salazar remembers. Salazar now resides in Port St. Lucie, Florida, where he teaches photography to various skill levels at the Elliott Museum. The name “Bokeh,” he explains, is a Japanese word that simply means a soft focus of light, often a background. “The group just grew and grew by word of mouth. I’m guessing forty or fifty people have been part of it.” Many of them, he adds, belong to the larger Triad Outdoor Photographers organization that conducts seminars and stages shooting trips. “But the breakfast club was always a more informal affair,” Salazar notes. “It’s really as much a social gathering — but a great deal of sharing without any competitiveness goes The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Girl on Wendover Avenue Stephanie Thomas
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A Great Nephew Named Ben Sandy Groover
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Another Autumn Sharon Canter on there. That’s something really special, and why the club is still going.” Salazar passed the mantle of leadership on to the genial, John Poer, a longtime systems analyst for BP whose specialty is outdoor photography. “There’s really no leader in this group,” Poer insists, “or oversized egos. We share a love of shooting beautiful photographs, wherever that experience takes us.” Poer, who was just back from a 10-day photo shoot to a game preserve near Glacier National Park where he shot snow leopards, tundra wolves and Arctic foxes in their wilderness habitat, notes that rapidly changing technology and constant innovations make sharing knowledge all the more important. Among other things, he’s become something of an expert on an Adobe digital darkroom system called Lightroom and happily shares his knowledge of the system with fellow members. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
“Essentially,” Poer says, “photography is about the art of capturing light and the image that Henri Cartier-Bresson called the Decisive Moment when an action takes place, whatever its source. That’s why, no matter how digital and scientific photography becomes, there will always be the vital human element — the mind and eye of the photographer who sees the image even before the picture is taken.” “And that’s why we come every Wednesday, rain or shine,” chimes in Sandy Groover. “For good friends, a good breakfast and a chance to learn even more how to take the perfect photograph.” OH Jim Dodson and his wife, Wendy, regularly have breakfast at Tex & Shirley’s ons Saturday morning before going to the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market. March 2017
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Story of a House
The Lives of Others Echoes of the past in a College Hill treasure By Nancy Oakley • Photographs By Amy Freeman
T
he past, as William Faulkner once famously wrote, “is never dead. It’s not even past.” And no one grasps this concept better than Bill Moore, who, as former director of the Greensboro Historical Museum (recently renamed the Greensboro History Museum) walked and worked with the past for forty years. For the last twenty-six, he and his wife Jane have lived with the past — a big distinction he’ll tell you, from living in it. The Moores, you see, reside in one of the oldest houses in Greensboro and one of ninety-some properties on the list of officially recognized Guilford County Landmarks. The walls of this stately structure on McGee Street in College Hill echo with the lives of those who came before — amid hustle and bustle of students and downtown denizens and athletic contests on the Greensboro College soccer field lying directly opposite. On a warm day in early spring, Moore is deciding what to do about a portion of the front porch that has buckled. “Treated wood just does not like paint,” says the soft-spoken 78-year-old. A contractor had suggested using Trex, a wood alternative frequently used on decks and patios that’s impervious to
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the elements. “But the Historic Commission said, ‘no,’” Moore says. “That was three years ago.” He doesn’t seem to mind the time it takes to patch and repair, considering the years of “constant maintenance” the frame structure has required, including, on one occasion, burst pipes. “My wife was very brave to accept my challenge to buy this house,” Moore says with a gentle laugh. That was in 1986, when it had deteriorated to the point of being condemned. By then, the city had taken ownership of the property, saving it from being razed so it could be converted into a condominium development. “They turned it over to the College Hill Neighborhood Association and put certain restrictions on the restoration, and encouraged people to bid on it,” Moore recalls. “We were the lucky bidders at that time,” he says, pausing to correct himself: “We were the only bidders, I should say.” And little wonder. The house, as Moore remembers, “was in pretty rough shape.” The porch, which was added in the 1920s, was in much worse condition than today’s incarnation with its single wrinkle and had completely rotted. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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The gutters, supported by protruding eaves were rusted and “useless,” Moore says. Its grimy walls, painted white, were framed with dark trim. “Things had been stolen and destroyed,” Moore recalls. The entire back of the house, a later addition, had completely worn away. In sum? “It was a mess,” Moore says. “When my mother saw the house, she cried. She probably thought I’d lost my mind!” he says, with a chuckle. But the pairing of the house with its new owner was “a perfect match,” says Benjamin Briggs, executive director of Preservation Greensboro, for the house was alive with history. And it ignited Moore’s lifelong passion for earlier times.
A
s a boy, he remembers collecting Indian artifacts near his home in Asheboro, with his father’s brother, a deaf mute, as his guide. “He may have lost his hearing and his voice, but he had keen eyesight,” Moore remembers. “And he could find arrowheads in the fields that I would have walked right over. So he taught me a lot right there.” His high school history teacher and a Sunday school teacher further fueled young Moore’s interest in history, as did another uncle in Washington, D.C. “My mother’s brother lived up there,” Moore says. “He was very interested in history and he would take me to places.” Ford’s Theatre, with an exhibit on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, was a favorite, and gave rise to Moore’s fascination with the nineteenth century and the sixteenth U.S. president. By the time he was in college at High Point University (then High Point College), Moore had discovered Town Creek Indian Mound, whose archeologist told him about a new summer job opening. He applied and got the job. In the mid-1960s, Moore signed on with the Historical Museum. “There were no museum training programs like there are now,” he notes. “I learned on the job.” One of his first responsibilities was to restore the Francis McNairy House. “I had to do a lot of research and just got into it and thought, ‘Wow! This is what belonged here. This is the kind of corner cupboard they would have had — it’s not the greatest in the world, but it’s the kind they would have had,’” Moore says. “So I began, systematically, to put myself in those peoples’ place and say, ‘What would I have done? What kinds of things would I have had?’” His approach led to further restorations, of the Museum’s Christian Isley House, The Art & Soul of Greensboro
and the Hockett Blacksmith and Woodworking Shops. That experience “finetuned” his interest, not only in history, but in decorative arts, as well. It also helped him expand the Museum’s collections. “I probably overdid it sometimes,” Moore now admits, “But I wanted to be sure the Museum had a good quality of collections.” His work experiences prepared him, in the mid-1980s, to bring back to life the frame “mess” on McGee Street. “This is what you call an Italianate farmhouse,” Moore explains. “It was outside the city limits until 1911,” he posits. He has identified its origins as dating to somewhere between 1845 and 1855, and in tearing out its damaged walls during the course of the restoration he discovered parts of other houses used in its original construction. “I’m also getting closer to whether Gov. Morehead bought this house for his daughter Letitia,” Moore says, adding that there has long been chatter about the twenty-ninth N.C. governor’s association with the property. “Why would something like that just come out of the wood?” Moore wonders. His take is that Gov. Morehead likely owned the land and when his daughter was married to Mr. William Walker, the newlyweds occupied the house for a time, until Walker’s ferry business on the Yadkin River prompted a move. After his death, Letitia and the children moved back in with her father. “So the focus is on Blandwood,” Moore notes. Preservation Greensboro, where Moore has served as a board member, has been helpful providing clues suggesting Morehead’s ties to the property, but more sleuthing is required to confirm it. “It’s a wonderful, charming problem to have,” observes Briggs, and one particular to old Southern towns with rich oral histories, such as Greensboro. Still, Moore believes uncovering indisputable evidence of the Morehead connection “Is going to be a lucky find.” A find as lucky as a single diary entry linking the house with another historic figure, Jefferson Davis, for instance. “I’ve never quite proven that,” Moore is quick to say. “That story started at least in the ’20s,” he recalls, a period of romantic revival for the Civil War. Moore does know that at the time of that conflict, the house was owned by Samuel Scarborough, a grocer, who rented the dwelling to a Col. Samuel Potts. Moore has also confirmed that by 1865, Jefferson Davis’s nephew and aide de campe, John Taylor Wood, had come to Greensboro with his wife and children. With the Confederacy disintegrating, it was a period of near chaos in the Gate City. “There were riots and people were March 2017
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stealing things,” Moore says. When a friend discovered a sentence in Wood’s diary, “Went to Potts’ to pick up Lola and the children today,” Moore surmised that the Scarborough house was where John Taylor Wood had installed his family and feared for their safety when violent outbreaks had overtaken the city. “And probably what happened was, when he went to get his family members, Jefferson Davis accompanied him.”
H
e would put his imagination to similar use in bringing back the residence, now commonly referred to as the Walker-Scarborough house (from which Walker Avenue takes its name, according to Briggs). In addition to tearing out the walls, removing the porch extension and replacing the rusted gutters with French drains, Moore had to replace the dilapidated rear of the house, where he and wife Jane would live for four years, from 1990 to 1994, before restoring the front rooms and upstairs bedrooms. For this back section, he chose an Italianate design, in keeping with the original style of architecture. The area contains a completely modern kitchen, painted slate blue, replete with granite countertops and a sunny sitting area where Moore keeps a number of his beloved books and one of the first antique pieces he acquired — a simple chest from New Hampshire. He stops and opens its lid, attached with original cotter pin hinges, to reveal a brownish stain on the underside. “This is where somebody set a candle down, and they closed the lid and they came back in and scooped it up before it burned,” Moore explains, relishing the human error forever imprinted in the chest fashioned completely by human hands — from a single piece of wood. Joining the back portion of the house to the front rooms is a butler’s pantry with a “ghost drawer.” Moore playfully closes a recalcitrant drawer that automatically opens again. “For some reason, we have a ghost that likes to have it open all the time,” he says with a mischievious twinkle. But the focal point of the tiny room is not so much the drawer as the stained glass window above it. Bearing a grape motif, it was salvaged from a house that was being torn down across from the Museum. “It’s very comforting,” Moore says, “I knew the people who lived in the house. It was a brother and a sister. They were quite elderly and neither one had married.” He had an electrician configure the wiring so the window can be illuminated from either side — in the butler’s pantry or the adjoining front hallway. And it is here that one begins to see the full scope of Moore’s imagination and love of old things. Where does the eye alight first? On the checkerboard floor — faux painting that Moore did himself, along with local artisan John Kraus? Or on the card table and chairs in the hallway that Moore bought on antiquing trips to New England (“because I didn’t want to create a conflict as much with the Museum’s collecting,” which he explains was primarily local and from Virginia)? Standing sentry by the door is a grandfather clock; on one of its ledges sits a tiny toy mouse. “Hickory, dickory dock,” Moore jokes. Flanking the hallway are the two front rooms awash in bright hues, typical of the Federal period, a favorite of
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Moore’s. “We’ve always liked color, and we decided to do the ceilings white and the walls in different colors,” Moore says, explaining that he’ll experiment with swaths of color on a portion of wall before committing to a more permanent palette. The dining room, scene of frequent family reunions and holiday gatherings, is painted a deep rich purple that carries contrasting gold accents from pieces of pottery, many of them reproductions of Salem and Alamance styles. Golden hues also glint from and gilt picture frames, one of which encompasses a dramatic wilderness landscape reminiscent of the Hudson River School featuring tiny figures of Indians in the foreground. “It’s unsigned and I didn’t pay much for it,” Moore says. “But I like the scenery, and the Indians.” He stops by the sideboard and retrieves a glass dish with an imprint of Little Bo Peep. It was a gift from his mother. He once suggested to her that it might be of some monetary value. “And she looked at me, and she said, ‘I wouldn’t sell it for anything. That belonged to my father.’” He laughs. “And I realized then what she said: It has no value; it’s priceless.” Which is how Moore has come to view the objects scattered throughout and the house itself. “It speaks to me,” he says. “Everything has a story.” Such as the figurine of Gov. Zebulon B. Vance in the teal-colored living room —a plaster replica of the bronze sculpture by Henry Jackson Ellicott that stands in Union Square around the Capitol in Raleigh; Moore picked it up at an estate sale for $5 and had the dismembered arm repaired by a dentist friend. Or the box of tiny curios — a medal that Moore won in high school, his wife’s grandmother’s ring, an “Ike” campaign button and another one from one of Abraham Lincolon’s campaigns. Or the Kachina doll he picked up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Or the brass bucket by the living room mantel, a wedding gift from his Sunday schoolteacher. Or the model of the ironclad Monitor, from Dr. John Murphy, donor of the Museum’s collection of Confederate firearms. “I can look at something, and I can remember where I was when I got that, or somebody gave it to us for whatever reason,” Moore explains, insisting that his home is not a mausoleum to the past. “We sit in here sometimes and listen to music, and just talk, maybe have a glass of wine or something like that. It just sort of feels good. It’s relaxing,” Moore says. He likes to light candles in the evenings set them before a Moravian cupboard handcrafted in maple, and watch its curly grain fairly dance under the tapers’ flickering glow. And he feels a connection to house’s previous occupants, appreciating their “hardships and their joys,” whether the 19th-century family of eight, who had no electricity or running water, or actor Donald O’Connor of Singin’ In the Rain fame, who lived upstairs while he was stationed in Greensboro at the Overseas Replacement Depot during World War II. “It’s a very personal thing,” Moore says. “I told my son, ‘When I’m gone, don’t worry about anything. You keep what you want to, that you remember growing up. But you can sell the rest.’” He pauses. “We’re only custodians for a while of everything. We have somewhat of an obligation to look after it and an opportunity to say, ‘Do you feel the same way about this that I do?’ And if they don’t, then so be it.” At this, Moore smiles, perhaps with the knowledge that those things will go on long after we will, absorbing the joys, sorrows, ponderings and imperfections of subsequent generations — the eternal human bonds that keep the past ever present. OH Over the years, Nancy Oakley, senior editor of O.Henry, has occupied a series of tiny but historic apartments.
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Paul J. Ciener
Botanical Garden IS PROUD TO PRESENT
Upcoming eventS at the garden “Ginkgo: The Tree that Time Forgot” by Sir Peter R. Crane thursday, march 16, 2017 2:00 pm • Garden Ballroom 215 S. Main St., Kernersville Free to members of the Herb Society of North America NC Unit and members of Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden $10 Non Members at the door Learn about one of the world’s most distinctive trees from one of the world’s foremost botanical experts. Professor Sir Peter R. Crane will present Ginkgo: The Tree that Time Forgot, a lecture based on a book of the same name published by Yale University Press in March 2015. Dr. Crane will discuss the history of ginkgo, its cultural significance, medicinal and nutritional uses and its importance as one of the world’s oldest and most recognizable trees. A book signing will follow.
to register, call 336-617-8344 or email abowers9@triad.rr.com.
March’s Lunch and Learn at the Garden . . .
“The Making of a Perennial Border” by Adrienne Roethling PJCBG’s Garden Curator
thursday, march 23, 2017 12 noon 215 S. Main St., Kernersville FREE for Members of PJCBG $2 Donation for Non-members The concept of a perennial border began in England where gardeners use permanent plants with interesting color, texture and form to eliminate the use of annuals. With this in mind, one can find herbaceous perennials that require little maintenance, offer multiple seasonal appeal and flower for a longer period of time. Our Award-Winning Perennial Border began in 2009 and has been one of our most talked about gardens on display.
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Mark Your Calendars for April 8th . . .
Spring plant Sale
Saturday, april 8, 2017 8:00 am-12:00 pm pJcBg members only pre-sale will be held on thursday, april 6th from 5:00 pm-7:00 pm. Plants for sun and shade, selected trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials and more will be on sale. A list of plants will be posted on our website, www.cienerbotanicalgarden.org prior to the sale. Proceeds benefit the future development of the Garden. Come find something perfect for your garden!
Spectacular Tulip Bloom
Saturday, april 8, 2017, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
The Garden’s Spectacular Spring Tulip Bloom will be held later on Saturday, April 8, 2017, from 2:00 pm until 4:00 pm. Come and enjoy the over 24,000 bulbs that will be blooming in a glorious celebration of Spring (open and free to the public). Refreshments will be served.
Paul J. Ciener BotaniCal Garden 215 S. Main Street, Kernersville 336-996-7888 www.cienerbotanicalgarden.org
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
— Botanicus —
What’s in a Name?
That which we call a daffodil by any other name still ushers in spring
D
By Ross Howell Jr.
espite the cold, when March came to the mountains the boy I once was felt there might again be spring. After a snowy season feeding cattle with their rumps — and mine — bowed against bitter winds, I walked along split-rail fences, melting drifts limning muddy pastures. The earth was warming with spring, and on sunny afternoons groundhogs nosed from their dens, groggy with winter sleep. I hunted them with my uncle’s pump-action .22. One afternoon I came upon a sight that filled me with wonder. A neat row of daffodils nodded in the sun at the edge of a wood. Their yellow blossoms were all that remained of what had once been a homestead. I watched them as they danced with the breeze. Their faces were hopeful. I imagined a mother planting them for her family, a thin border next to a log house, long since vanished. Back then, I didn’t call them “daffodils.” Among my kin, they were known as “jonquils.” In fact, I don’t remember hearing the word daffodil until my senior year of high school, in Mrs. Humphries’s English class, when we read the William Wordsworth poem, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” I raised my hand, wanting desperately to impress Mrs. Humphries. She was a recent Radford College graduate, and quite attractive. “Yes, Ross?” “Those flowers sound like jonquils to me,” I said. “In England, they’re more commonly referred to as daffodils. From the Latin asphodilus, The English ‘daffodil’ is probably adapted from the Dutch, ‘da asphodel,’” Mrs. Humphries said. I was crestfallen. “Why everybody knows that,” my nemesis, Verna Belcher, hissed from the desk behind me. A quick poll of my Greensboro neighbors — my “scientific” question was, “When you were growing up, what did you call the yellow flower that bloomed first in spring?”— yielded mostly “jonquil,” though “daffodil” was an occasional response, and even “buttercup.” It’s complicated. “In some parts of the country any yellow daffodil is called a jonquil, usually incorrectly,” writes the American The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Daffodil Society, employing what I expect is their euphemism for the rural South. “As a rule, but not always, jonquil species and hybrids are characterized by several yellow flowers, a strong scent and rounded foliage.” Now that plant sounds like what I think of as narcissus. So when I say “jonquil,” I should be saying “narcissus”? It’s not that easy. “The term narcissus (Narcissus sp.) refers to a genus of bulbs that includes hundreds of species and literally tens of thousands of cultivars!” writes gardener Julie Day. “The Narcissus genus includes daffodils, jonquils and paperwhites, among many others, so when in doubt, this is the term to use.” Just to confuse me further, Day adds this statement: “However, when someone says ‘narcissus,’ they’re usually referring to the miniature white holiday blooms of Narcissus tazetta papyraceous, known as paperwhites.” Now I have paperwhites in my garden, too. But I call them “paperwhites.” So am I to understand that the flowers I called “jonquils” as a boy I should’ve called “daffodils,” and some of the bloomers I have in my garden now, the ones with the small trumpets, rounded leaves and scent, the ones I’d thought were narcissus, are in fact jonquils? Not necessarily. Julie Day goes on to say that “daffodil” is “the official common name” for any plant in the genus Narcissus. “So, if the plant is considered a Narcissus, it is also considered a daffodil,” Day writes. “However, most people use the term ‘daffodil’ when referring to the large, trumpet-shaped flowers of the Narcissus pseudonarcissus. These are those big, showy, familiar bulbs that bloom in spring that we all know and love.” Got that? But what about Mrs. Humphries? And the asphodels? Turns out they’re a different genus altogether. But some of their blossoms sure look a lot like jonquils. I mean, narcissus. Oh, you know what I mean. And what about buttercups? Things sure were simpler when I was a boy in the mountains hunting groundhogs. OH Ross Howell Jr. was rewarded for dividing and replanting bulbs this fall with a display of daffodils that brightened even the most confused and gloomy of March days. March 2017
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March 2017
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. –Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
By Ash Alder
The Goddess Returns
Worms on the March
March is here and the world begins to soften. Some six feet underground, the earthworms are thawing, and when their first castings reappear in the dormant garden, so, too, will the robin. You’ll hear his mirthful, rhythmic song on an otherwise ordinary morning, pastel light filtering through the kitchen window where the sleeping cat stretches out his toes and, slowly, unfurls. Cheerily, cheer-up, cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up. In other words: Spring has arrived. All at once you notice flowering crocus, catkins dangling from delicate branches, colorful weeds dotting sepia toned landscapes. You watch the robin trot across the lawn, chest puffed like a popinjay as he pinballs from worm to fat, delicious worm. Soon he will gather twigs, feathers and grasses to build his nest. Cheerily, cheer-up, cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up. As the kettle whistles from the stovetop, the aroma of freshly ground coffee warming the sunny room, a smile animates your face with soft lines. Spring has arrived, you think. And the world stirs back to life.
The Full Worm Moon and Daylight Saving Time both happen on Sunday, March 12. Because maple sap begins to flow in March, Native Americans deemed this month’s full moon the Sap Moon. You won’t want to miss it. And while you may miss that hour of sleep after turning the clocks forward, the longer days will make up for it in no time — especially when the field crickets start sweet-talking you into porch-sitting past supper. Although the lusty robin may have announced the arrival of spring weeks ago, Monday, March 20, officially marks the vernal equinox. Greek myth tells that Demeter, goddess of harvest and fertility, celebrates the six-month return of her beautiful daughter, Persephone (goddess of the Underworld), by making the earth lush and fruitful once again. International Day of Forests and World Poetry Day fall on Tuesday, March 21 — a day after the start of spring. Celebrate with a poem by your favorite naturalist, and if you’re feeling inspired, try reading a few lines to a favorite stand of oak, maple or pine. In the spirit of Saint Patrick’s Day (Friday, March 17), why not spread white or red clover seed across bare patches of the lawn? One benefit of this flowering, drought-resistant legume is that it attracts pollinators and other insects that prey on garden pests. Plus, if you find a four-leaf clover — supposedly there’s one for every 10 thousand with three leaves — it’s said to bring you good luck. Give the shamrock to a friend and your fortune will double. According to National Geographic, one of the “Top 7 Must-See Sky Events for 2017” will occur on March 29. On this Wednesday evening, Mercury, Mars, and a thin crescent moon will form a stunning celestial triangle in the western sky, with Mercury shining at its brightest to the right of the moon and Mars glowing above them.
Bald Facts about Daffodils Each leaf, each blade of grass vies for attention. Even weeds carry tiny blossoms to astonish us.
–Marianne Poloskey, “Sunday in Spring”
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The daffodil — also known as jonquil, Narcissus and “Lent Lily” — is the birth flower of March. Synonymous with spring, this cheerful yellow flower is a symbol of rebirth and good fortune. And a little-known fact: Medieval Arabs used daffodil juice as a cure for baldness. OH
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1- 22 4/
Buy The Books 3/
3-6
Queens of Queen City 3/
10- 20 4/
March 1
March 1–April 9
HAUL YOUR ASHES. Noon. But receive them first and usher in Lent at a Community Ash Wednesday Service, followed by soup and sandwiches prepared by the Main Street United Methodist Church. Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden, 215 South Main Street, Kernersville. Info: (336) 993-3411.
LAST CHANCE. To catch two exhibitions: Hoping to Help — Danica Phelps: Falk Visiting Artist and Joan Tanner: donotellmewhereibelong. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 334-5770 or weatherspoon.uncg.edu.
GRASS ROOTS. 7 p.m. The Triad Chapter of the North Carolina Native Plant Society will get down to grass tacks at discussion by Derrick Poindexter, Ph.D., “Difficult and Diverse: An Exploration of Grasses, Sedges, and Rushes.” Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Library, 1420 Price Park Drive, Greensboro. Info: (336) 493-3070 or ncwildflower.org. AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Timothy B. Tyson, author of The Blood of Emmett Till. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
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March 1–April 22
Guys and Dolls 3/
25-26
Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 3345770 or weatherspoon.uncg.edu.
March 1–August 6 LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE. See how paintings in a collection share similarities in structure, theme, technique or color palette in Affinities & Variations. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 3345770 or weatherspoon.uncg.edu.
GULLAH-BLE. Contemporary art and artifacts from South Carolina’s Sea Island artists, among others, comprise the exhibit, Visions of Home, a Celebration of Gullah Art & Culture. Wake Forest Museum of Anthropology, Wingate Road on WFU’s Reynolda Campus, 1834 Wake Forest Road, Winston-Salem. Info: (336) 758-5282 or moa. wfu.edu/exhibits/temporary-exhibits/visions-of-home.
March 2
March 1–April 23
LITERARY YEAR. 7 p.m. Check out “My Dungeon Shook,” a dramatic reading and discussion of The Fire Next Time, part of the Year of James Baldwin. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 7631919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
HORIZONS. Landscapes devoid of humans are the subject of Lucinda Devlin: Sightlines. Weatherspoon Art
A TO Z. 5:30 p.m. That would be, “From Azaleas to Zelkova: Great Plants from the National Arboretum,” a lecture from its director, Richard Olsen, Ph.D. Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden, 215 South Main Street, Kernersville. To register: (336) 996-7888 or cienerbotanicalgarden.org.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
March 3 & 31 MAKE YOU WANT TO CHALLAH. 5:30 p.m. Tween Cooking Class (3/31) and Teen Cooking Class (3/31) teach the basics about making Challah bread. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. To register: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com. LATTE-RAL MOVE. 6 p.m. Café Latte delivers Latin sounds from flamenco to fusion at First Friday. GreenHill, 200 North Davie Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 333-7460 or greenhillnc.org. DA BOMB. 7:30 p.m. He’ll be dropping a bomb on audiences, for sure! Gap Band leader Charlie Wilson, with guests, Fantasia, Johnny Gill and Solero, crank up the funk factor. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster.com. MARVELOUS MARTHA. 8 p.m. Is there anything she can’t sing? Hear local fave, Martha Bassett. Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com.
March 3–6 BUY THE BOOK(S). Pick a subject, any subject, or language, for that matter, and you’re likely to find it among the 45,000-some tomes, most of them $4 or less, at the Beth David Synagogue Book Sale. Beth David Synagogue, 804 Winview Drive, Greensboro. Info: (336) 294-0007 or bethdavidsynagogue.org/15th-annual-book-sale.
March 4 HEARTS AFIRE. 10 a.m. Check out an open hearth cooking demonstration and — whoa, Nellie . . . The Blacksmith. High Point Museum, 1859 East Lexington Avenue, High Point. Info: (336) 885-1859 or highpointmuseum.org. SWARM UP. Catch a buzz with the Greensboro Swarm, NBA Development League for the Charlotte Hornets. The Fieldhouse, Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 907-3600 or gsoswarm.com or ticketmaster.com.
March 5 LILYPUT. 2 p.m. A talk on daylilies and hostas, plus a plant sale. Come one, come all! Triad Chapter of Region 15 American Hemerocallis Society, 4301 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. Info: (336) 456-4509 OPUS CONCERT. 3 p.m. Calling all featherheads! Let the kids don their PJs, grab some pillows and relax at the Philharmonia of Greensboro’s Pillow Pops conThe Art & Soul of Greensboro
cert, featuring Dance Project: the School at City Arts. Lindley Recreation Center, 2907 Springwood Drive, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2727 or www.facebook.com/ DanceProjectTheSchool. RHETT ALERT. 7 p.m. You’ll die a happy man, or woman, if you catch country star Thomas Rhett. Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 2825 University Parkway, Winston-Salem. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster.com.
March 6 SANGUINE. 2:30 until 7 p.m. Doesn’t matter if your hotor cold-blooded, as long as your blood runs red. Donate a pint at the Paul J. Ciener blood drive. Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden, 215 South Main Street, Kernersville. To register: (336) 996-7888 or redcrossblood.org (use the code, Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden).
March 7 FAMILY TREES. 11 a.m. Learn the basics unique to African-American genealogical research, courtesy of Marcellaus Joiner of the Heritage Research Center. High Point Museum, 1859 East Lexington Avenue, High Point. Info: (336) 885-1859 or highpointmuseum.org. HERB-ANE. 6 p.m. The Winter Herb series continues with everyone’s favorite in Italian cooking and salad dressings, oregano. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. To register: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com.
March 9
City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 907-3600 or gsoswarm.com or ticketmaster.com. OPUS CONCERT. 7:30 p.m. The Greensboro Concert Band toots its own horns — among other instruments, of course. Dana Auditorium, 5800 West Friendly Avenue, Greensboro. Info: greensboro-nc.gov.
March 10–April 20 QUEENS OF QUEEN CITY. See the works of Charlotte painters, Molly Wright and Becky Denmark at Charlotte Represent! and meet the artists at a reception on March 10 at 6 p.m. Tyler White O’Brien Gallery, 307 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 279-1124 or tylerwhiteobrien.com.
March 11 ROLLING IN DOUGH. 2 p.m. Literally. Bring the whole family to make and eat pizza pinwheels — with a fresh, green salad — at a Family Cooking Class. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. To register: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com. SWARM UP. Catch a buzz with the Greensboro Swarm, NBA Development League for the Charlotte Hornets. The Fieldhouse, Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 907-3600 or gsoswarm.com or ticketmaster.com. FUNNY BONES. 8 p.m. That would be comic Bobby Bones, who’ll make you weep — with laughter. Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com.
LOOM-Y TUNES. 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Learn your warp from your weft at an adult workshop for tapestry loom weaving. GreenHill, 200 North Davie Street, Greensboro. To reserve: greenhillnc.org/Adult-Workshops.
March 11 & 25
LITERARY YEAR. 7 p.m. Michael Gaspeny presents “Sonny’s Blues and The Cup of Trembling,” part of the Year of James Baldwin. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com
Info: (336) 885-1859 or highpointmuseum.org.
March 10 TOSS-UP. 7 p.m. Play Cornhole (and enjoy a silent auction, beer, wine and fun) for a cause: Heartstrings, which helps grieving parents after a loss of pregnancy, infant or child. Revolution Mill Events Center, 900 Revolution Mill Drive, Greensboro. To register: heartstringsupport.org. SWARM UP. Catch a buzz with the Greensboro Swarm, NBA Development League for the Charlotte Hornets. The Fieldhouse, Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate
HAMMERTIME. 10 a.m. U can’t touch this: The Blacksmith (sans parachute pants, we’re guessing). High Point Museum, 1859 East Lexington Avenue, High Point.
March 11–June 4 LESS IS MORE. See how an art movement has continued repercussions on the art of today at Minimalism/ Post-Minimalism. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 334-5770 or weatherspoon.uncg.edu.
March 12 AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 3 p.m. Meet Natalie Goldberg, author of The Great Spring. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
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Arts Calendar March 14
BAW, BAW, BAW, BAW, BAWWW. 8 p.m. Watch the aerial antics of Navy pilots Mav and Goose, and Berlin’s soundtrack in Top Gun (1986). Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com.
March 15 REV’D UP. 10 a.m. The Museum Guild meeting features a talk by Sam Powell, Ph.D., who will talk about the planned SAR Museum of the American Revolution. High Point Museum, 1859 East Lexington Avenue, High Point. Info: (336) 885-1859 or highpointmuseum.org. LITERARY YEAR. 7 p.m. Chime in at a reading group discussing Go Tell It on the Mountain, part of the Year of James Baldwin. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com
March 16 DRAW A BREATH. 5:30 p.m. Seek inner peace through meditation combined with blind contour drawing, Zentangle and sketching still lifes at “Drawing as Creative
Mindfulness,” an Arts & Wellness Class. GreenHill, 200 North Davie Street, Greensboro. To register: greenhillnc.org/Arts-Wellness.
LOVE, ITALIAN STYLE. Catch Piedmont Opera’s production of Italian Girl in Algiers. Performance times vary. Stevens Center,405 West Fourth Street, Winston-Salem. Tickets: (336) 275-7101 or piedmontopera.org.
SWARM UP. Catch a buzz with the Greensboro Swarm, NBA Development League for the Charlotte Hornets. The Fieldhouse, Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 907-3600 or gsoswarm.com or ticketmaster.com.
March 18 HISTORY LESSON. 2 p.m. Join Arwin Smallwood, Ph.D and chair of N.C. A&T’s Department of History, for a gallery discussion of his research as it relates to the exhibit, Bills of Sale: Slave Deeds from Guilford County. High Point Museum, 1859 East Lexington Avenue, High Point. Info:
March 17–19 MATTRESS (CON)FIRM. Nothing like a good night’s sleep — unless you’re trying to determine one’s royal lineage. Catch a staging of the Hans Christian Andersen tale, The Princess and the Magic Pea, courtesy of Drama Center Children’s Theatre. Performance times vary. Odell Auditorium, Greensboro College, 815 West Market Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2026 or thedramacenter.com.
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86 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
(336) 885-1859 or highpointmuseum.org. SWARM UP. Catch a buzz with the Greensboro Swarm, NBA Development League for the Charlotte Hornets. The Fieldhouse, Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 907-3600 or gsoswarm.com or ticketmaster.com.
March 19 JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM. 2 p.m. “All Writers: ‘Kill Your Characters with Poisons, Then Cure Them!’” announces Sisters in Crime, who, with guest speaker, herbalist and Reiki Master O’Teanea urges scribes to “get creative ideas for your stories, whatever genre you write.” High Point Library, 901 North Main Street, High Point. Info: murderwewrite.org. AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Bren McClain, author of One Good Mama Bone. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com
March 20 WESTWARD HO! 10 a.m. Enjoy refreshments and a talk by “Capt. William Clark,” (actor Craig “Rocky” Rockwell) about the Lewis and Clark expedition. Greensboro
History Museum, 130 Summit Avenue, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-3043 or greensborohistory.org.
March 21 OH, DANNY BOY. 7 p.m. Five Irish Tenors celebrate their roots at “Salute to Ireland,” a concert featuring favorite tunes, “Toora — Loora — Looral,” “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” and more. LJVM Coliseum, 2825 University Parkway, Winston-Salem. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster.com.
March 21–26 SOUL-O ACTS. Aerial acts, roller skaters, motorcyclists and more form from Universoul Circus. Greensboro Coliseum Parking Lot, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster.com.
March 22 AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Mai Donohue, author of Crossing the Bamboo Bridge. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com
March 23 BORDER WALLFLOWERS. Noon. Curator Adrienne Roethling teaches you how to make a perennial border at a Lunch and Learn. Suggested donation: $2. Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden, 215 South Main Street, Kernersville. To register: (336) 996-7888 or cienerbotanicalgarden.org. JUDGEMENT OF PARIS. 2 p.m. A Parisian theme inspires the President’s Fashion Show and Tea, which benefits garden projects and a horticulture scholarships. Hats and gloves encouraged. Greensboro Council of Garden Clubs, 4301-A Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 282-4940. SWARM UP. Catch a buzz with the Greensboro Swarm, NBA Development League for the Charlotte Hornets. The Fieldhouse, Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 907-3600 or gsoswarm.com or ticketmaster.com. WE CAN DIG IT! 7 p.m. Florida Georgia line brings its “Dig Your Roots” Tour to town, with guests Dustin Lynch and Chris Lane. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster.com.
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Arts Calendar
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Arts Calendar AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Thomas Easley, author of Modern Herbal Dispensatory. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com
March 24–26 HOME SWEET SOUTHERN HOME. See the latest and greatest in home décor and gardens at the Southern Ideal Home Show. Admission $10 at the door; discounts available at Walmart or with military I.Ds. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard. Info: (800) 849-0248 or southernidealhomeshow.com.
March 25 GENE SCENE. 2 p.m. The use of DNA is the focal point of “Genetic Genealogy: Basic Science and Real-Life Case Studies,” a talk by researcher Larry Cates and Bryana Campbell of 23andMe, a DNA-testing service. High Point Museum, 1859 East Lexington Avenue, High Point. Info: (336) 885-1859 or highpointmuseum.org. SWARM UP. Catch a buzz with the Greensboro Swarm, NBA Development League for the Charlotte Hornets. The Fieldhouse, Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate
City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 907-3600 or gsoswarm.com or ticketmaster.com. JOYFUL NOISES. 6 p.m. Several faith-based artists take the stage at Winter Jam 2017. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: $10 at the door. Info: 2017.jamtour.com.
March 25 & 26 GUYS AND DOLLS. 3 p.m. Boy meets girl — and doll? Strange as it seems, that’s the stuff of Coppélia, presented by Greensboro Ballet. Meet the dancers and learn a doll-inspired craft over a cuppa on March 25 at 1:45 at Tea With Coppélia. Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com.
March 26 COURT JESTERS. 3 p.m. The Harlem Globetrotters (and recent Guinness World Record holders) bring their antics to the hardwood. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster.com.
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TEA’D OFF. 2 p.m. The gang’s all here: Alice, the Queen of Hearts, and host The Mad Hatter. Yup. It’s the return of the Mad Hatter Tea Party. O.Henry Hotel, 624 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. To reserve: (336) 854-2015.
March 28 AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Peggy Senger Morrison, author of Miracle Motors. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com
March 29 LITERARY YEAR. 7 p.m. Learn about an author’s showdown with the country’s leading conservative intellectual at “The Baldwin/Buckley Debate,” part of The Year of James Baldwin, Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
March 30 JUST THE ACTS, MA’AM. As in, MFA One Acts A, from UNCG College of Visual and Performing Arts.
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88 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Arts Calendar Brown Building Theatre, 406 Tate Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 334-4392 or (336) 272-0160 or vpa.uncg.edu.
March 31 OUI SING. 6:30 p.m. The City of Light inspires Eastern Music Festival’s gala that benefits its scholarships. Bid on a week in Paree, enjoy French cuisine and — santé! — toast the LeBauer family’s fifty-six years of supporting EMF as faculty artist William Wolfram tickles the ivories. Revolution Mill, 900 Revolution Mill Drive, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 3337450, ext. 223 or easternmusicfestival.org. SWARM UP. Catch a buzz with the Greensboro Swarm, NBA Development League for the Charlotte Hornets. The Fieldhouse, Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 907-3600 or gsoswarm.com or ticketmaster.com.
WEEKLY HAPPENINGS Mondays BUZZING. 10 a.m. Your busy little bees engage in a Busy Bees preschool program focusing on music, move-
ment, garden exploration and fun in the kitchen, at the Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. Preregistration: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com. CHAT-EAU. Noon. French leave? Au contraire! Join French Table, a conversation group. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
Tuesdays READ ALL ABOUT IT. Treat your little ones to story times: BookWorms (ages 12–24 months) meets at 10 a.m.; Time for Twos meets at 11 a.m. Storyroom; Family Storytime for all ages meets at 6:30 p.m. High Point Public Library, 901 North Main Street, High Point. Info: (336) 883-3666 or highpointpubliclibrary.com. PETITS ARTISTES. 3:30 p.m. Is your child the next Van Gogh or Picasso? Find out at “Messes and Masterpieces,” art classes centered around great works of art. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. To register: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com. PICKIN’ AND GRINNIN’ 6 until 9 p.m. Y’all come
for Songs from a Southern Kitchen —Bruce Piephoff and Scott Sawyer (3/7); Molly McGinn, Dave Willis and Brent Buckner (3/14); MJessica Mashburn and Evan Olson (3/21); and Crystal Bright and Jeremy Haire (3/28) — at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen, 1421 Westover Terrace, Greensboro. Info: (336) 370-0707 or lucky32.com/greensboro_music.htm.
Wednesdays PAGE BURNERS, CHAPTER TWO. 10 a.m. Books continue to nourish at Book and Cook, classes using children’s books as inspiration for meals. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. To register: (336)574-2898 or gcmuseum.com MUSSELS, WINE & MUSIC 7 until 10 p.m. Mussels with house-cut fries for $15, wines from $10–15 a bottle and live music by AM rOdeO — at Print Works Bistro, 702 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. Info: (336) 379-0699 or printworksbistro.com/live_music.htm. ONCE UPON A TIME. 2 p.m. Afterschool Storytime convenes for children of all ages. Storyroom, High Point Public Library, 901 North Main Street, High Point. Info: (336) 883-3666 or highpointpubliclibrary.com.
Lake Jeanette Recreation Association is a Private Swim and Tennis Club open only to members and their guests.
It’s a great time to join Lake Jeanette Swim and Tennis! Call 336.601.3395 or stop by the office to inquire about membership specials!
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THE MUSIC ACADEMY CAMPS, LESSONS, AND MORE! 336.379.8748 www.MusicAcademyNC.org 1327 Beaman Place, Greensboro, NC
Lakeside Facility • 5040 Bass Chapel Road • 8 Har-Tru Soft Courts with Subsurface Irrigation and State of the Art Lighting • 2 Lighted all season Tennis Courts • Nationally Ranked and Recognized USPTA Tennis Pros • Tennis Programs and Social Events for all levels of play and ages • Two Facilities include: one 6 Lane Pool with Baby Pool, Water Slide, Playground and Basketball Court one 8 Lane Pool with zero entry, water features, diving well with 2 diving boards, and dual flumed water slide
Turnstone Facility • 312 Turnstone Trail • Fun and Competitive Swim Team • Poolside Social Events for all ages • Group and Private Swim Lessons • Full Service Grill • Fitness Programs for Men and Women including Free water Aerobics • Large Rental space for Parties and Events • Opportunity for Non Resident Members to purchase membership Lake Jeanette Marina
Visit www.ljclub.com for more information. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
March 2017
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Arts Calendar
Thursdays
TWICE UPON A TIME. 11 a.m. Preschool Storytime convenes for children ages 3–5. Storyroom, High Point Public Library, 901 North Main Street, High Point. Info: (336) 883-3666 or highpointpubliclibrary.com. ALL THAT JAZZ. 5:30 until 8 p.m. Hear live, local jazz featuring Dave Fox Neill Clegg and Matt Kendrick and special guests: Clinton Horton (3/2); Diana Tuffin (3/9); Angela Bingham (3/16); Anne-Claire Niver (3/23); Carrie Marshall (3/30). All performances are at the O. Henry Hotel Social Lobby Bar. No cover. 624 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. Info: (336) 854-2000 or www.ohenryhotel. com/jazz.htm. JAZZ NIGHT. 7 p.m. Fresh-ground, fresh-brewed coffee is served with a side of jazz at Tate Street Coffee House, 334 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 275-2754 or tatestreetcoffeehouse.com. OPEN MIC COMEDY. 8–9:35 p.m. Local pros and amateurs take the mic at the Idiot Box, 2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. Info: (336) 274-2699 or idiotboxers.com.
Fridays THE HALF OF IT. 5 p.m. Enjoy the hands-on exhibits and activities for half the cost of admission at $4 Fun
Fridays. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com.
Fridays & Saturdays NIGHTMARES ON ELM STREET. 8 p.m. A 90-minute, historical, candlelit ghost walking tour of Downtown Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 905-4060 or carolinahistoryandhaunts.com/information.
Saturdays TO MARKET, TO MARKET. 7 a.m. until noon. The produce is fresh and the cut fleurs belles. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: gsofarmersmarket.org. THRICE UPON A TIME. 11 a.m. Hear a good yarn at Children’s Storytime. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com. JAZZ ENCORE. 6:30 p.m. Hear contemporary jazz cats Turner Battle and Friends (3/4); Matt Reid and Friends (3/11); Benjamin Matlack and the New Artists (3/18); Steve Haines, Brandon Lee and Ernest Turner (3/25), and enjoy seasonal tapas at O.Henry Jazz series for Select Saturdays. O.Henry Hotel, 624 Green Valley Road,
Greensboro. Info: (336) 854-2000 or ohenryhotel.com. IMPROV COMEDY. 10 p.m. on Saturday, plus an 8 p.m. show appropriate for the whole family. The Idiot Boxers create scenes on the spot and build upon the ideas of others, creating shows that are one-of-a-kind — at the Idiot Box, 2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. Info: (336) 274-2699 or idiotboxers.com.
Sundays HALF FOR HALF-PINTS. 1 p.m. And grown-ups, too. A $4 admission, as opposed to the usual $8, will allow you entry to exhibits and more. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com. MISSING YOUR GRANDMA? 3 p.m. Until it’s gone, tuck into Chef Felicia’s skillet-fried chicken, and mop that cornbread in, your choice, giblet gravy or potlikker. Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen, 1421 Westover Terrace, Greensboro. Info: (336) 370-0707 or lucky32.com/fried_chicken.htm.
To add an event, email us at
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by the first of the month prior to the event.
certified
personal property appraisals antiques, estates, insurance, property division, silver, furniture
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www.bipinc.com 90 O.Henry
March 2017
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March 2017
O.Henry 91
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March 2017
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March 2017
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96 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
artwork provided by fififlowers.com
Friend’s Network and Honorary Chairs Sue and Fred Starr
Invite you to
Prelude to Paris
Music and French cuisine benefiting EMF’s Young Artist Scholarships and honoring the LeBauer Family for 56 years of commitment to EMF
Silk Scarves • Linen Pillows • Prints • Original’s
Friday, March 31 at 6:30 pm | Revolution Mill
www.crystaleadiemiller.com
PAINT PARTY DRAW. PAINT.
AN EXPLORATION OF THE 5 SENSES
KID CRAFTERS
SCULPT.
CHIC BOUTIQUE
SCULPT IT! A 3-D ADVENTURE
RENAISSANCE KIDS MUSIC MAKERS
LITTLE DA VINCI'S
ART SQUAD
SUMMER CAMPS
MESSY HANDS ART CAMP
TH IN E
Campers experience the rich environment of the ArtQuest Studios through weekly camps, balancing each day with guided instruction, free exploration, stories, games and recess while discovering works of art in The Gallery at GreenHill.
ARTQUEST STUDIOS
For more information or to purchase tickets call (336)333-7450, ext. 223
I GOTTA BE ME FUN FOR 3’S AND 4’S
Camps are $125 per week. Register before April 14 to receive $10 off.
GREENHILLNC.ORG/SUMMER-CAMPS The Art & Soul of Greensboro
March 2017
O.Henry 97
Piedmont Opera & Hanesbrands, INC. present
The Italian Girl in Algiers A girl who uses her noodle.
Oil on Board
16”x20”
The styles have changed, but our southern charm hasn’t.
Join the
Southern Experience at ncazaleafestival.org/sponsorship
Celebrity Reception • Airlie Luncheon Garden Party • Cole Swindell with Michael Ray and CJ Solar • Parade Bleacher Seats or Azalea Festival Decal • Duran Duran and Special Guest • Patrons’ Party Gala • Limited Edition Print by Sean D. Ruttkay
Abducted by pirates, looking for her lover, soon to be forced to become part of an Arab’s harem, Isabella is someone who has the right to sing the blues But, as a strong women of opera, she reminds us that no man, however powerful, could possibly out-wit an intelligent woman.
March 17th, 19th & 21st The Stevens Center of the UNCSA 336.725.7101 or Piedmontopera.org
VISIT NCAZALEAFESTIVAL.ORG | CALL 910-794-4650
98 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro OHenry17.indd 1
1/10/2017 12:16:09 PM
“GanG’s all Here!” by molly WrIGHt
“Don’t Fence me In” by becky Denmark
Artist Reception f e at u r i n g ne w wo r k by
Molly Wright & Becky Denmark Friday • march 10th • 6-8pm
Lunch & Learn with Molly Wright • Friday, March 10th • 11:30am-1pm • $20 Exhibit runs until April 17th
FINE ART & UNIQUE GIFTS Tyler White O’Brien Gallery 307 State Street, Greensboro (336) 279-1124 www.tylerwhitegallery.com
University Performing Arts Series presents: JAZZ at LINCOLN CENTER w/WYNTON MARSALIS
Wynton Marsalis Speaks Thurs, Apr. 20, 3:00pm UNCG Auditorium Open to the public!
Thurs, Apr. 20 8:00pm
SCAN THIS QR CODE with your smartphone to purchase tickets. You can also go to upas.uncg.edu or call 336-272-0160.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
UNCG Auditorium 408 Tate St. GSO, NC 27403
upas.uncg.edu March 2017
O.Henry 99
Thank you Greensboro Your partner in healthcare since 1967.
Sometimes it’s smarter to lease than to sell your home. Call us when you think you’re there! Michelle will be pleased to discuss how Burkely Rental Homes can help you. -Sterling Kelly, CEO Burkely Communities
8 0 3 - C F r i e n d lY C e n t e r r d . G r e e n s b o r o , n C
336.292.6888 • gatecitypharmacy.com 100 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Greensboro’s Locally Owned Kitchen Store since 1985
WÜSTHOF Classic 5” Hollow Edge Nakiri Knife FORGED FROM HIGH CARBON, NO-STAIN STEEL IN SOLINGEN, GERMANY
MSRP: $135.00 ● OUR SALE PRICE: $49.99
Bringing you the latest in fashion trends for all facets of your life, whether it’s work, play, formal, casual or just plain stylin’!
Simply Meg’s Savvy Style. Purely PerSonal.
The Shops at Friendly Center 3334-123 W. Friendly Ave. Greensboro, NC 27410 P: 336.272.2555 www.simplymegs.com
Friendly Shopping Center, Greensboro, NC 1-800-528-3618
336-299-9767
www.extraingredient.com
Spring MIX
A Collection of FRESH
ART and Whimsical Creations
Polly Compos Anton Jewelry Designer
Dawn Ashby Caldwell Paintings & Pottery
Opening ReceptiOn FRiday, MaRch 10 5:30-8:30 pM Show will run through Saturday, April 1
Anne Lilley Franklin Paintings & Pottery
2105-A West Cornwallis Drive • Greensboro, NC irvingparkartandframe.com • 336.274.6717 Mon.-Fri. • 9:30am - 5:30pm & Sat • 10am-4pm
invitations, stationery, gifts, party supplies & more! 1220-D BATTLEGROUND AVE | GREENSBORO | 336.379.9874 3546 WADE AVE | RALEIGH | 919.615.4333 IFITSPAPER . ORG @ IFITSPAPER HELLO @ IFITSPAPER . ORG
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
March 2017
O.Henry 101
102 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
GreenScene
Linda Carlisle
Greensboro "Jeansboro" Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner Thursday, January 19, 2017
Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Ivan Canada, Yulonda Smith
Nikki Baker, Martha Bryant
Joyce Black-Stanley, Brandon Rothfuss, Danny Shingleton, Derek Cook, Jamaal Brown Ashley & Kevin Hazel, John & Cheryl Branberg
Bramley Crisco, Joseph Erba Jr, Kim Blair
Dennis Campbell, Cinthya Garcia
Sue Schwartz, Nancy Hoffmann, Dawn Chaney
Altina Layman, Sue Cole, Susan Wiseman Lauren Lambeth, Robin Sparrow
Greg Graves, Rodrick Carter
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Frank & Jacquie Gillam, Shirley & Henry Frye, Mona & Emanuel Edwards
March 2017
O.Henry 103
Register Now for 2017-2018
NEW
5-day program for all ages! Click “Preschool" at
trinitychurchgso.org for forms and costs, or come in for a tour today!
For her, only the BEST will do. And her natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge are best fulfilled at Greensboro Montessori School, where children as young as 18-months-old are given the respect, encouragement and independence necessary to prepare for a lifetime of achievement.
OPEN HOUSE: th
Sunday, March 19 at 1 p.m.
Come see how Greensboro Montessori School delivers the best in early childhood education and beyond.
Tours every Wednesday. Go to thegms.org to schedule your visit. GMS1099_GMSAd_OHenry_Mar.indd 1
104 O.Henry
March 2017
2/1/17 8:58 AM
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Doris Hansen, Rosie Robinson, Doris Kaye
GreenScene
Bethaney Pritchett, Faith Jenkins
Abbotswood at Irving Park and Heritage Greens presents
Winter Wonderland in the Roaring 20's Benefitting The Creative Aging Network of NC Saturday, February 4, 2017 Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Jessica McCuiston, Amy & David Haynes, Debi Bryant
Jody Clayton, Nicole Reynolds, Lynn Wooten, Paul Russ, Robert Berendes, Tina Glenn Jessica Thomas, Sara French, Adrienne Poole, Jackie Wills
Tyler Patrick, Wil Nordbruch Christina Peoples, Nancy Lenk Wesley & Cynthia Johnson, Lynann & Rick Roberts
Donna Dickson, Dottie Isgrig Taylor Cox, Mike & Donna Brendle
Jennifer Nichols, Kelli Underhill, Bob Cain
Robert Schwartz, Lia Miller
5th Saturday s t o r e w i d e
s a l e
Saturday, april 29th • 10am - 6pm vintage spring collectibles available
Gibsonville Antiques & ColleCtibles Full of History, Antiques & Charm
106 E. Railroad Ave, Gibsonville, NC • (336) 446-0234 Downtown Gibsonville behind the Red Caboose
GibsonvilleAntiques.com • Mon-Sat 10-6 & Sun 1-5
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
March 2017
O.Henry 105
dressing childhood.
www.polliwogs.com
SOUTHERN
CHARM
for the most discer ning little gentlemen.
336.275.1555
1724 Battleground Ave. Suite 104 Greensboro, NC 27408
SPRING 2017
Clothing, Accessories
Gifts & More!
1804 Pembroke Rd. • Greensboro, NC 27408 (Behind Irving Park Plaza) • 336.763.7908 Tues. - Fri. 11-6pm & Sat. 11-4pm www.facebook.com/Serendipity by Celeste
106 O.Henry
March 2017
lAdIeS ClothING, GIftS, BABy, jewelry, GIftS for the home, tABlewAre, delICIouS food
1738 Battleground Ave • Irving Park Plaza Shopping Center • Greensboro, NC • (336) 273-3566
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Steve Willis, Evelyn Leathers, Kimberly Drye, LeRoy Summers
Clarence Bryant
GreenScene International Civil Rights Center & Museum Gala "Breaking The Chains of Inequality" Saturday, February 4, 2017 Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Pamela Spalding, Monica Brunache
Joseph McNeil, Brenda James Dalton, Melvin “Skip� Alston, Earl Jones Marcus Vanttagen, Cassandra Williams, Keishawn Niblett, Robin Easter (sitting), Helen Duncan, Samantha Kachold, Dylan Tyler (standing)
Ayse Miner, Senobia Stewart, Valee Taylor, Derek Stancell
Monica Walker, Tanika Gonzales
Megan Hayes-Bell, Carlvena & Otis Foster
Dorothy & Ben Brown
Alexis Littlejohn, TJ Taylor, Matt Bell, Bronson Greene
Nancy Martins, Ebony Duell
Hadelyn N. Massenburg, Steven Allen Jr, Jerry Blakemore
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
March 2017
O.Henry 107
GreenScene Amore - Seasons of Love Bel Canto Company Saturday, February 11, 2017
Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Peggy Young, Jim Stimpson
Mandy Ryan, Chesley Huskins
Ken Keeton, Chuck Winfree Tim Lindeman & Nancy Walker, Bill Young
Sarah Chowning, Bill Young, Jeff Chowning
Lauren McSwain-Starrett & Bryan Starrett
Wes & Rose Hood, June Mitchell
Rob Moore, Pat Bailey
Polly Sizemore, Doris Henderson, Laura Barrier
Michele Smith, Laura Barrier, Polly Sizemore
Linda Heller, Carolyn Aldridge
108 O.Henry
March 2017
Shelbi Flanaga, Sue Delmar
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Irving Park Comfort and elegance
~ 6 Grey Oaks CIrCLe ~
This classic brick Georgian style home with tumble brick in Flemish Bond style is just the beginning of the quality and style of this lovely home. Master Bedroom on main level. High ceilings on both levels. Hardwood floors, custom moldings, large, open halls. 3 car garage. Lots of floored storage, additional space can be completed (unfinished). Covered Porch, slate Patio & much, much more!
~ 710 DOver rD. ~
Move-in ready. Extensively updated in 2008. Quality construction, open floor plan, high ceilings, hardwood floors on main level, Master Bedroom on main plus 4 Bedrooms on 2nd level. 2-car garage with finished room above (heated & cooled). Sunroom with vaulted ceiling & three sides of open-glass viewing the manicured garden & the wildlife it attracts. Patio, privacy brick wall - gorgeous landscaping!
Chesnutt - Tisdale Team Xan Tisdale 336-601-2337
Kay Chesnutt 336-202-9687
Xan.Tisdale@bhhsyostandlittle.com Kay.Chesnutt@bhhsyostandlittle.com Š2017 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.Ž Equal Housing Opportunity.
MERIDITH MARTENS, artist Fine Art Animal Portraits
www.meridithmartens.com 910.315.1214 The Art & Soul of Greensboro
March 2017
O.Henry 109
Unique Shoes! Beautiful Clothes!! Artisan Jewelry!!! Shoes Sizes 6 - 11 • Clothes Sizes S - XXL
507 State Street, Greensboro NC 27405 336-275-7645 • Mon - Sat 11am - 6pm www.LilloBella.com
110 O.Henry
March 2017
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Accidental Astrologer
Surprise! Surprise! Forget the turnips, Pisces, because life’s about to turn around
By Astrid Stellanova
Time for March Madness and Gladness, Star Chil-
dren! St. Paddy’s Day on the 17th, and then we give Ole Man Winter the boot on the 20th. Get green. Thaw out. Get on down. Shake the winter funk off and get your good time groove on, Wild Things. Ad Astra — Astrid Pisces (February 19–March 20) Honey, times ain’t so bad. Don’t go all Scarlet O’Hara, scrounging in the dirt for turnips and cutting up the living room drapes. For your birthday, you have a consolation prize you are going to like. Oh, it’s a gen-u-ine humdinger, and faster than you can say twiddle-dee-dee, you get the biggest surprise in the tee-nine-siest package.
Virgo (August 23–September 22) It’s been a dry spell for you in the social department. Don’t worry, dishes, no one did me either. But actually, you are about to have a good times breakthrough and you will be irresistible to somebody that used to give you the coldest of cold shoulders. Meantime, Poor Thing, you finally get credit long overdue.
Aries (March 21–April 19) You’ve outdone yourself recently, getting yourself prime placement in the Pissing-People-Off Hall of Fame. Have you lost your ever-loving marbles? Don’t try and blame all your woes on Jesus, carbohydrates and the mean girls on the cheerleading squad! This is a great year to come clean about the fact that you pitched a fast-ball that was just damn lucky and stop pretending it wasn’t a fluke. Go work on your game, Child.
Libra (September 23–October 22) You’ve been working hard on an image that you privately consider to be artsy. There ain’t much distance between eccentric and crazy. And I don’t think anybody believes that wearing a beret makes you an artiste. In the meantime, be careful about leaning too much on a confidant that happens to have a very big mouth and a weak backbone.
Taurus (April 20–May 20) Remember, class is subjective. Even paper towel can be called common white trash. But not only is that white trash useful, it absorbs a whole lot of other people’s spills. Don’t try and keep up with the Joneses, because, honestly, they are not all that and a pack of Nabs anyway. Your past does not define you. Gemini (May 21–June 20) Your self-mastery has taken a back seat to your need to know what all your closest friends are doing, where, and whoever they are doing it with. Throw it in reverse my Twin, and resist the urge to track your nearest and dearest like a bloodhound. You may feel insecure, but in the coming months you will get a boost that will make you wonder why that was ever true. Cancer (June 21–July 22) You have been laid up nursing a bad case of the poor pitifuls. Unsure how to get some perspective and back up on your feet? Here’s what you need to know. Honey, life hits us all hard. But you think you fall from some kind of a greater height than the rest of us, right? Not. At. All. The sun is about to break through the clouds, Sunshine. Leo (July 23–August 22) Sugar, everybody’s dee-lighted you are feeling in fine fettle. But, honestly, spell “overconfident.” A pack of dogs can chase a car and a fast one will dang nearly catch it, but not many of them can change gears and drive the thing. You have got a learning curve before you slide behind the wheel. Hit the books.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Scorpio (October 23–November 21) You share everything lately, dontcha? Especially the check. The road to frugality started out as a good thing and then you took a turn toward Crazy Town. Relax, Sugar. You have savings in the bank and more sense than most when it comes to turning a dollar. This month, splurge a little and live a lot. Sagittarius (November 22–December 21) You have the wattage of a very big star, but your lights went on low dim due to some meanspirited body who always makes you feel a little foolish and a lot outclassed. Snap out of it, Sugar. They are envious of your God-given talents, and they wouldn’t bother to throw shade at you if they weren’t. Capricorn (December 22–January 19) Put that Sapphire-Chase-Supreme-Big-Spenders-Club plastic in the safe, put it under the floorboard, or just get the scissors out and cut it up. You know you didn’t need that new credit card, and nobody cares if it’s the same one that the Spending Hall of Famers pack in their wallets. You know it is a royal temptation, so skip the coronation. Aquarius (January 20–February 18) When Twain quipped that cauliflower is cabbage with a college education, Darling, he was thinking of your chief critic. Maybe this uppity someone is an alum of Cabbage College and now they think this makes them better than you. They can think again, Honey. You’ve got big talent and all they have got is a big head — of cabbage. So skip the Tom Dooley act and don’t go hanging down your (much nicer) head. OH
For years, Astrid Stellanova owned and operated Curl Up and Dye Beauty Salon in the boondocks of North Carolina until arthritic fingers and her popular astrological readings provoked a new career path. March 2017
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O.Henry Ending
Piling It On Where there’s smoke, there’s trash
I want to be Eurotrash and live in a pile.
How hard could it be to segue from white trash to Eurotrash? I’m a lover of the Holy Trinity of white trash: Jimmy Dean, Little Debbie and Mrs. Smith. And I’m devoted to boiled peanuts, iced tea (or, as we say in the vernacular, “ice tea”), sausage biscuits, white gravy, chow-chow, pinto beans and blackberry likker. But, maybe my tribe of origin is Eurotrash. I am filled with yearning whenever I see a glorious ruin of a house, with rambling lawns, statuary and yew trees. Someone in my ancestral tree must have either labored in such a place or was deluded enough to think they should own one. Take St. Giles House, as featured in a fancy magazine for delusional, er, aspirational people just like me. The glorious Dorset pile, as Brits call a mansion, belongs to the young Earl of Shaftesbury. The twelfth Earl, Nicholas (a.k.a. Nick) Ashley-Cooper, is about 37. He and his wife, the Countess of Shaftesbury, are pictured lazing about at lunch in the lesser dining room. Good Lordamercy! The sconces, the candelabrum, gilded family portraits, the Italianate console! The ancestral silver! White linens thick with monograms and vintage wine on the table. But there — out for God and everybody to see is a — whaa? An ashtray? The Countess stares pensively into the distance . . .a ciggie at her mouth! That right there is a clear sign. She may be the Countess, but there is no way
112 O.Henry
March 2017
she would be taking a drag with a magazine photographer in the room if she didn’t have at least a little bit of don’t-give-a-rat’s-ass white trash in her somewhere. St. Giles is the latest Earl’s home due to a series of unfortunate events that sound suspiciously white-trashical. A pile of scandal and heartbreak — some would say a pile of something else — dropped right into their midst. The tenth Earl, Nick’s father, ran off and left his family, married a Tunisian prostitute, rued the day and ran out again. The jilted call girl hired her brother to strangle the Earl. Once the dirty deed was done, the duo dumped the body, which was soon found. The stink was really on — murder trial, incarceration and headlines. St. Giles goes to the eldest son, Anthony, who becomes the eleventh Earl and inherits the estate. But not very long after he gets the keys to the castle, Anthony has a heart attack and the second son, Nick, became the twelfth Earl. Like most Southern writers, I know what my kin has done, to and with whom. There are scoundrels and roués galore — a disappearing businessman who fakes his own death; a handsome uncle who marries the daughter of a department store founder, then runs off with a dishy secretary; a few unfortunate incarcerations. But these Eurotrash clearly have a great deal more awaiting them when the stink wears off the scandal. Personally, I think my family is due for an upgrade — maybe a pile. At least, a fancy ashtray. OH Cynthia Adams grew up in Hell’s Half Acre where a pile of anything was regrettable. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Illustration by Harry Blair
By Cynthia Adams
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