From our table to yours, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
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This is the story of a selfless nurse and a 1.5-lb. girl wonder. Infants are a passion for Cathy Wyler, RN, and neonatal care is her calling. On the day Demi Idowu came into this world born 16 weeks early, Cathy and the rest of the dedicated team at Cone Health Women’s Hospital immediately began to do what they do best. Along with the constant, loving presence of her parents, Demi received the exceptional physical and emotional care that has enabled her to become the healthy, playful 3-year-old she is today.
Learn more about Cathy, Demi and her mother Ayoola at ConeHealth.com/stories
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November 2016 33 Gate City Journal By Grant Britt
DEPARTMENTS 11 Simple Life By Jim Dodson
39 Food for Thought By Diane Compton
16 Short Stories 19 Doodad By Maria Johnson
43 Life of Jane
By Jane Borden
45 Birdwatch
21 O.Harry By Harry Blair
By Susan Campbell
47 Wandering Billy
23 Life’s Funny By Maria Johnson
By Billy Eye
79 Arts Calendar 105 GreenScene 111 Accidental Astrologer
25 Omnivorous Reader By Stephen Smith 29 Scuppernong Bookshelf 31 Papadaddy By Clyde Edgerton
By Astrid Stellanova
112 O.Henry Ending By David Claude Bailey
FEATURES 51 Bird Feeder
Poetry by Connie Ralston
52 The Light Within Us
Eight stories of neighbors helping neighbors
62 The Art of Maken’ It By Amy Freeman
Greensboro’s Mini Maker Faire debuts
66 Tearing Down Walls Story of a House By Maria Johnson
For Kathleen Lucas, remodeling was essential to moving in and moving on
75 Botanicus
By Ross Howell, Jr. No matter how you say it, pecans are meant for pie
77 November Almanac
By Ash Alder The truth about sprouts, mums and Arboreal wisdom
Cover photograph by Lynn Donovan 6 O.Henry
November 2016
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Art for Eyes | Eye for Arts Fine Eyewear, Artwork and Jewelry 327 South Elm | Greensboro 336.274.1278 | TheViewOnElm.com Becky Causey, Licensed Optician Find us on Facebook
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M A G A Z I N E
Volume 6, No. 11 “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, Harry Blair, Maria Johnson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Lynn Donovan, Amy Freeman, Sam Froelich, John Gessner CONTRIBUTORS Ash Alder, Jane Borden, Grant Britt, Susan Campbell, Diane Compton, Clyde Edgerton, Billy Ingram, Annie Ferguson, Ross Howell Jr., Sara King, Meridith Martens, Ogi Overman, Gwenyfar Rohler, Stephen Smith, Astrid Stellanova EDITOR AT LARGE David Claude Bailey
O.H
David Woronoff, Publisher
Are you a candidate for a partial knee replacement? Not every arthritic knee needs a total knee replacement
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ADVERTISING SALES Ginny Trigg, Sales Director 910.691.8293, ginny@thepilot.com Hattie Aderholdt, Sales Manager 336.601.1188, hattie@ohenrymag.com Lisa Bobbitt, Sales Assistant 336.617.0090, ohenryadvertising@thepilot.com Brad Beard, Graphic Designer
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Lisa Allen, 336.210.6921 • lisa@ohenrymag.com Amy Grove, 336.456.0827 • amy@ohenrymag.com CIRCULATION Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488 SUBSCRIPTIONS 336.617.0090 ©Copyright 2016. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. O.Henry Magazine is published by The Pilot LLC
For more information about Dr. Olin and surgery visit www.GreensboroOrthopaedics.com
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 2016
O.Henry 9
Simple Life
The King of Everyman By Jim Dodson
November’s arrival
never fails to put me in a grateful mood, even before the far-flung clan assembles around a Thanksgiving table worthy of a king.
Speaking of kings, in the spirit of giving thanks for the people who have touched our lives, past and present, here’s a grateful little ditty I wrote in the hours after my boyhood sports hero — and quite possibly yours, given his strong connections to this state — passed away. Around five o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, Sept. 25, my wife, Wendy, and I were watching a late afternoon football game when I suddenly felt overcome by a chill and went upstairs to lie down for an hour before friends arrived for supper. I’m rarely sick and assumed this peculiar spell was simply brought on by fatigue from working since four in the morning on a golf book I’ve been writing for almost two years, a personal tale called the Range Bucket List. The first chapter and the last are about my friend, collaborator and boyhood hero Arnold Palmer. The prologue explains that he was the first name on what I called my Things to Do in Golf List around 1966 after falling hard for my father’s game and reading somewhere that Arnold Palmer started out in golf by keeping a similar list of things he intended to do. Many decades later, while interviewing him early one morning in his workshop in Latrobe, I confirmed this fact with the King of Golf. The final chapter details an emotional visit I made to see Arnold at home in Latrobe in late summer, about a month before his 87th birthday. I knew he wasn’t doing particularly well. When I walked into his pretty, rustic house sitting on quiet Legends Drive in the unincorporated Village of Youngstown on the outskirts of Latrobe, I found the King of Golf watching an episode of “Gunsmoke,” the No. 1 American TV show about the time Arnold Palmer ruled the world of golf. He greeted me warmly without getting up. A walker was standing nearby. His wife Kit brought me a cold drink. He turned down the sound and we had a nice time catching up, almost but not quite like many we’ve enjoyed over the past two decades. Arnold’s once seemingly invincible blacksmith body had finally given out, yet his mind and spirit were strong. He insisted on joining Doc Giffin, his longtime assistant, Kit and me for an early supper that evening across the vale at Latrobe Country Club. The trip was like a homecoming for me — and something I feared would be a farewell. For two full years, from early 1997 to late 1999, I had the privilege of serving as Arnold Palmer’s collaborator on his autobiography, A Golfer’s Life. I was deeply The Art & Soul of Greensboro
honored to have been chosen by Arnold and wife Winnie for the project, and touched that he insisted that my name share the cover and title page of the work. I always called the book his book. He always called the book our book. Not long after we began working on it — both being unusually early risers who often chatted in his home workshop before official business hours — Winnie was diagnosed with a form of ovarian cancer. Arnie, which is what he insisted I call him though I never could quite make myself do so, withdrew from his busy public life so we could get the book completed and published before time took its toll, narrowing the horizon of what was supposed to be a three year project to just under two. We brought the book out in time to celebrate Arnold’s 70th birthday in September 1999 and the opening of a beautiful, restored red barn that Winnie had always loved just off the 14th fairway at the same club where Arnold grew up under the firm watch of his demanding papa, Deacon Palmer, whom Arnold simply called “Pap.” Rather than a conventional autobiography of facts and figures and tournament highlights, my objective with Arnold’s book was to create an unusually warm and intimate reminiscence or memoir that read as if Arnold and his fans were simply sharing a drink after a day of golf, and he was quietly relating the 15 or so key moments of his life, revealing how these moments shaped the most influential golfer in history and arguably America’s greatest sportsman. Both Winnie’s barn and Arnold’s book were a hit. The book was on the bestseller list for almost half a year. The handsome red barn stands in quiet tribute to them both. Winnie passed away less than two months after that special evening Arnold turned 70. After lying down and lightly dozing for an hour, I heard our guests arriving and got up to go downstairs. The cold and queasiness had passed and I felt much better — only to find my wife waiting at the bottom of the steps holding out my mobile phone with a very sad look on her face. A nice person named Molly from NBC News in New York was on the other end, wanting to know if I could confirm a report that Arnold Palmer had passed away. We spoke for an hour as my incoming call alert continued to light up from news organizations around the world. By midnight I’d spoken with reporters from all the major networks, several cable news organizations, CNN International, a pair of wire services, the Canadian Broadcasting System and Australia’s leading sports call-in show — all of it testament to the drawing power of Arnold Daniel Palmer. The conversations about his incomparable life and times and seismic impact on popular culture and the world of sports went well into the early morning hours. November 2016
O.Henry 11
LIKE CHRISTMAS? At Ward Black Law, we love Christmas, and we start celebrating with our annual toy drive for the United States Marine Corps. Would you like to join in? Bring a new, unwrapped toy or a donation to benefit the Marines’ “Toys for Tots” campaign. Drop by our office during our kick-off celebration Friday, December 2nd from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. We’ll be collecting toys until December 16th. It’s a great way to help children in Guilford County. We’d love to see you.
KICK-OFF EVENT
LOCATION
ADDITIONAL DROP-OFF TIMES
Friday, December 2nd 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.
208 W. Wendover Ave. Greensboro
Weekdays, Now - December 16th 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Drop off a new, unwrapped toy, or a donation made out to “Marine Toys for Tots Foundation.” Enjoy f00d and fun and thank a Marine.
Ward Black Law is located at the intersection of Wendover Ave. and Virginia Street, near Elm Street.
Can’t make our kick-off event? Our “Toys for Tots” collection continues until December 16.
336.333.2244 wardblacklaw.com 208 W. Wendover Avenue | Greensboro
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Simple Life Was the chill and queasiness a coincidence, or something more sympathetic in nature? That’s impossible to say. This much is certainly true: As Winnie commented early in our collaboration, Arnold and I enjoyed unusually strong chemistry and an uncommon connection that is instinctively felt and shared by his millions of adoring fans — and was still apparent in late summer when I visited with him at home. The morning after our dinner at the club, I also visited with Doc Giffin and Arnold’s amazing staff at Arnold Palmer Enterprises and even saw his younger brother Jerry when he popped in to say hello. Finally the boss showed up for work around 10 o’clock, trailed by a couple of cheerful young therapists from the local hospital who were planning to do a stretching and exercise session at the Palmers’ home gym aimed at restoring Arnold’s ability to swing a golf club again. As he signed books and the usual stack of photos and personal artifacts from fans that are always waiting for his immaculate signature every morning of his life, we chatted about various family matters and other things large and small. With Doc and his therapists we even watched a recently colorized CD release of the historic 1960 Masters, where Arnold closed from two shots back to claim his second green jacket, setting off a national frenzy in the process. At one point as we watched him teeing off on the 72nd hole of the tournament, needing a clutch birdie to secure the win, Arnold declared excitedly — “There, girls! There’s my golf swing!” The therapy girls were standing directly behind the King of Golf. They were beaming, part of a new generation that never had the pleasure of experiencing the game’s most compelling star in his prime. Arnold’s eyes were alive with pure joy. There were tears pooling in them. And even bigger tears pooling in mine. Doc Giffin, a legend in his own right, just smiled from a few feet away. A little while later, I did something I’d meant to do for many years. I handed him my first hardbound copy of A Golfer’s Life and asked him to autograph it. He accepted the book but gave me what I fondly call The Look — a cross between the scowl of a disapproving schoolmaster and a slightly constipated eagle, one way he loves to needle his friends. I watched as he took his own sweet time writing something on the title page. He handed me back the book and said, “Don’t open this until you’re safely home.” Facing a 9-hour drive home to North Carolina, I somehow managed to wait until I reached my driveway just as the summer day was expiring, at which point I opened the book. He could have written it to 100 million people around the world, all of whom share the same kind of connection with the King of Everyman. “Dear Jim,” he simply wrote. “Thanks for all your wonderful works. You are the greatest friend I could have — Arnold” That’s when my waterworks really let loose. Over the days and week to come, we’ll all be reminded of Arnold Palmer’s extraordinary impact on golf and American life in general, and the mammothhearted legacy he leaves behind, especially in Pinehurst, where his father brought him as a teen to experience the “higher game,” Wilmington, where he won his seventh PGA Tournament, and Greensboro, where he had so many friends but always came up just short of winning the Greater Greensboro Open. Still, Arnold’s 62 PGA Tour wins, 90 tournament victories worldwide and seven major championships only partially defined the life of a man from the rural heartland of western Pennsylvania who almost single-handedly pioneered the concept of modern sports marketing, created a business model that turned into an empire stretching from golf tees to sweet tea, and grew to be golf’s most visible and charismatic force, its greatest philanthropist and most beloved ambassador. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
blockade-runner.com
Tri-Paradise Race Season Sept -April Pier-2-Pier Swim • Wilmington YMCA Triathlon • Swim the Loop PPD Ironman NC Triathlon • NC Surf to Sound Challenge Cold Stroke Classic • Wrightsville Beach Biathlon US Open Fat Bike Championship • Quintiles Marathon Carolina Cup Photo courtesy of Joshua McClure
November 2016
O.Henry 13
Holidays
at old salem Experience authentic history, fresh-baked treats, unique holiday gifts, seasonal concerts, and the holiday spirit.
november 8–january 1 November 12 shops at old salem holiday open house – shopping, food, and more Beginning November 18 christmas by candlelight guided tours – with music, games, food and drink November 26 – December 17 saturdays with st. nicholas – family activities and a visit with St. Nicholas December 10 salem christmas – A full day of hands-on activities and holiday fun! December 21 a christmas evening in old salem – a family friendly self-guided evening of Christmas traditions by candlelight. For a full list of events, classes, concerts, and hotel packages, visit oldsalem.org or call 336-721-735o
old salem museums & gardens, winston-salem, north carolina
Simple Life During his half-century reign, and largely because of him, in my view and that of many fellow historians, golf enjoyed the largest and longest sustained period of growth in history, a remarkable period that included the formal creation of no less than six professional tours, witnessed television’s incomparable impact, saw the rebirth of the Ryder Cup and revival of European golf, the rise of international stars, and nothing less than a scientific revolution in the realms of instruction, equipment technology and golf course design — all of which Arnold played some kind of role. How much of this cultural Renaissance was due to this kind, genuine, fun-loving and passionately competitive family man who grew up showing off for the ladies of Latrobe Country Club and earning nickels from them by knocking their tee shots safely over a creek on his papa’s golf course? Impossible to fully quantify, I suppose. Though I would be inclined to say just about everything. Golf is the most personal game of all, a solitary walk through the beautiful vagaries of nature. And Arnold Palmer was the most personal superstar in the history of any sport, a true blue son of small town America, the kid next door who grew up to become a living legend, a homegrown monarch for the Everyman in each of us, a King with a common touch. His charm and hearty laugh and extraordinary undying love of the ancient game he was meant by Providence to elevate like nobody before him will surely live on as long as people young and old tee up the ball and give chase to the game. His beautiful memorial service at Saint Vincent’s Basilica in Latrobe on Oct. 2 brought out the golf world in force along with hundreds of ordinary folks — the foot soldiers of Arnie’s fabled Army — who in some cases drove all night just to stand and pay homage to their hero on a gorgeous Indian summer afternoon, holding signs that read “Long Live the King of Golf” and “Thank You, Arnie!” Outside, immediately following the service, as a Scottish bagpiper played “Amazing Grace,” Arnold’s longtime co-pilot Pete Luster made a pair of low passes over the spires of the Basilica in Arnold’s beloved Citation 10 with its signature N1AP registration number, turning sharply toward heaven and flying almost straight up until the airplane was a mere glint in the blue autumn sky. The woman standing beside me in the silent crowd actually took my arm to steady herself and burst out crying. I hugged her and she kissed me on the cheek like we were old friends saying goodbye. I’d never seen her in my life but we were friends, as everyone is in Arnie’s Army. OH
Our sign in your yard means you’re part of the family. Your success is our success. You get to go to bed early, and we don’t.
When it comes to selling your home, no one in the Greensboro area does it better than our TR&M team. Local experts, global reach. Call 336.274.1717 or visit trmhomes.com today.
Contact editor Jim Dodson at jim@thepilot.com.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 2016
O.Henry 15
Short Stories Veganomics
Ya gotta eat your spinach, baby! And collards, beets, beans, potatoes, carrots and other good things that grow in the ground. Come out and celebrate ’em all at Triad VegFest (November 5–6). The two-day event is the brainchild of Maria Dormandy-Taylor, owner of Aracadia Lodge (a vegan event center) and Dharma Farm Animal Refuge in Archdale. DormandyTaylor is also the proprietor of the food company Lovin’ Spoonfuls (maker of Nuchi Sauce). VegFest celebrates the benefits of a plant-based diet with a symposium at UNCG, a reading and book signing by marathoner and author Charlie Engle (Running Man) at Scuppernong Books and a Holiday Market Fair of local, sustainable, plant-based foods and crafts at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market. But don’t stop there: Keep grazing on greens all month, the perfect accompaniments to Thanksgiving Tofurky. Info: triadvegfest.org.
Claystation
What is it that’s so satisfying about pottery? Perhaps because it’s both beautiful and utilitarian — and started out as a piece of Earth. At 10 a.m. on November 12th you’ll have the opportunity to admire such works at Potters of the Piedmont Pottery Festival at Leonard Recreation Center (6324 Ballinger Road, Greensboro). Started by Earthworks Gallery in 2002, the festival has expanded to include the works of fifty-some potters from across the Piedmont, Virginia and South Carolina. So come out and support them so they can make a kiln-in. Info: pottersofthepiedmont.com.
16 O.Henry
November 2016
Feathered Feast
Want to know how to eat like a bird? Then stock your backyard with nutritious fare, plenty of water and shelter, and watch your fine-feathered friends flock to the feeder. On November 17th at 2 p.m. Barbara Haralson of Wild Birds Unlimited will offer helpful hints on how to attract various species at a talk hosted by Westridge Gardners Club (Greensboro Council of Garden Clubs, 4301-A Lawndale Drive). Woodpeckers, for instance, are partial to suet, while bluejays go for peanuts, and nuthatches, in spite of their name, are nuts for sunflower seeds. Now for some advice on how not to attract squirrels . . . Info: thegreensborocouncilofgardenclubs.com.
It Was Twenty Years Ago Today . . .
Or, twenty years and change, that Jim Dodson’s Final Rounds landed in bookstores. It hardly needs an introduction in these parts, but for anyone who’s been asleep for two decades: The esteemed editor of this publication (who’s a Greensboro native) chronicled his trip to the links of England and Scotland with his dad, who learned how to play the royal and ancient game while serving as an airman during World War II. Golf provides the context for a work that is part memoir, part love letter to the Gate City and a paean to the bonds of paternal and filial love. Scaling The New York Times bestseller list, among others, the book has been translated into seven languages. All told, it has sold more than 600,000 copies, a testament to the power of its universal themes. But “final” hardly describes the journey of Final Rounds’ author. After reading the book, a fellow by the name of Arnold Palmer asked our man JD to pen his biography, A Golfer’s Life, just one of eleven of tomes in the Dodson canon. Look for yet one more from our editor, muse and fearless leader, The Range Bucket List, due out June 1, 2017.
Fir Sure
Go fell it on the mountain! Fresh-cut, locally owned and grown Christmas trees brought down from higher altitudes in N.C. are coming to the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market (501 Yanceyville Street) from 7 a.m. to Noon on November 26th. Want a little more bough wow in your life? Grab some garlands and table decorations, get your Clark Griswold on with several strings of lights, and start decking those halls. Info: (336) 373-2402 or gsofarmersmarket.org. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Texation
Everything’s bigger in Texas, the saying goes, and that includes the ten-gallon sound of the Texas Tenors, who achieved fame and fortune just six years after appearing on the TV show, America’s Got Talent. And talent abounds among the trio of Marcus Collins, John Hagen and JC Fisher, whose diverse stage experience allows for a broad repertoire that includes opera, pop and country tunes. Hear them sing holiday favorites, from “White Christmas” to “O, Holy Night,” as they did to sellout crowds in the Gate City two years ago at the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra’s Tanger Pop series — Back for the Holidays on November 19th at 8 p.m. (Westover Church, 505 Muirs Chapel Road). Tickets: (336) 335-5456, ext. 239.
Ogi Sez Ogi Overman Ah, November, the month we’ve all been waiting for. Not just for the usual reasons of pumpkin pies, cooler weather and Thanksgiving, but for that thing that happens November 8. Personally, I just want it to be over so that the savage beast within can return to being soothed by music.
Dibs!
Get your sharp elbows out — and credit cards, too — and head to First Choice on November 30th at 5:30 p.m. at Greenhill (200 North Davie Street). The prelude to Winter Show (December 4–January 13, 2017), First Choice allows you to buy an art credit in a $500, $1,000 or $2,500 increments, and apply it to the piece of art of your choice. What’ll it be? A sculpture? A painting? An abstract something or other? With more than 500 works available for purchase, you’ll be overwhelmed with — well — choice. Info: greenhillnc.org.
Sister Soldiers
Love, war, adventure, discrimination, the daily routine . . . As a salute to Veteran’s Day (November 11th), Touring Theatre of North Carolina presents StarSpangled Girls, (Triad Stage, 232 South Elm Street) a review commissioned in 2005 by the UNCG Veteran Historical Collection. Based on diaries, letters and oral histories of women who served in the Armed Forces during World War II — WACs, WAVES, Army nurses and Red Cross volunteers — the show punctuates its vignettes with rousing music from the period. Tickets: (336) 272-0160 or triadstage.org.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
• November 11, High Point Theatre: Speaking of being soothed, there is no better mode of decompression than the melodic piano stylings of the legendary George Winston. Whether it’s New Age, ragtime, New Orleans R&B or his take on Vince Guaraldi’s jazzy Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, he will cure what ails you. • November 11, The Crown above
the Carolina: After dropping out of UNC twelve years ago, Joe Pug hit the road, guitar and songbook in hand. He soon landed an opening slot for Steve Earle, got signed to a Nashville label, moved to Austin and recorded two more CDs. This will be his first stop after a tour of New Zealand and Australia.
• November 12, Blind Tiger: If you know the blues, you know famed guitarist Tab Benoit. But you may not know that the Baton Rouge native is also the Voice of the Wetlands, an active conservationist preserving Louisiana’s endangered coastal areas. Even more reason to love him. • November 19, Cone Denim Entertainment Center: From child prodigy to Grammy-award winner, Jonny Lang has seen it all. He is a recovering alcoholic and converted Christian but can still burn up that Telecaster like hellhounds on his trail. • November 26, Greensboro Coliseum: When it’s billed as the “King and Queen of Hearts Tour,” who else could it be but Maxwell and Mary J. Blige? Oh, yes, they are superb on their own, but put them together and a spellbinding night is guaranteed. November 2016
O.Henry 17
Opus 2016-2017
CONCERT SERIES
GROUP
The City Arts Music Center of the Greensboro Parks & Recreation Department proudly presents the Opus Concert Series, free of charge! This popular concert series showcases outstanding musical entertainment at exciting venues throughout our community. Join us! For details about the concert programs: www.gsomusiccenter.com • www.facebook.com/cityarts1 336-373-2549 • music@greensboro-nc.gov CONCERT DATE
TIME
Greensboro Tarheel Chorus John Peeler, Conductor
Saturday, October 29, 2016
7:30 PM
Christ United Methodist Church 410 North Holden Road
Greensboro Concert Band Evan Feldman, Conductor
Saturday, November 5, 2016
7:30 PM
Page High School Auditorium 201 Alma Pinnix Drive
Choral Society of Greensboro Jon Brotherton, Conductor
Friday, November 11, 2016
7:30 PM
First Baptist Church 1000 West Friendly Avenue
Philharmonia of Greensboro Peter Perret, Conductor
Saturday, November 12, 2016
7:30 PM
Christ United Methodist Church 410 North Holden Road
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
7 PM
Trinity Church 5200 West Friendly Avenue
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
7 PM
Carolina Theatre 310 South Greene Street
Marimba Christmas Andrew Dancy, Conductor
Friday, December 2, 2016
7:30 PM
Greensboro Youth Jazz Ensemble Wally West, Conductor
Sunday, December 4, 2016
3 PM
Saturday, December 17, 2016
7:30 PM
St. Andrews Episcopal Church 2105 West Market Street
Sunday, February 12, 2017
6 - 8 PM
Trinity Church 5200 West Friendly Avenue
Sunday, March 5, 2017
3 PM
Lindley Recreation Center 2907 Springwood Drive
Greensboro Concert Band Evan Feldman, Conductor
Friday, March 10, 2017
7:30 PM
Greensboro Youth Jazz Ensemble Wally West, Conductor
Sunday, April 30, 2017
3 PM
J. Douglas Galyon Depot, West Wing 236 East Washington Street
Greensboro Percussion Ensembles Mike Lasley, Conductor
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
7 PM
Trinity Church 5200 West Friendly Avenue
Philharmonia of Greensboro Peter Perret, Conductor
Friday, May 5, 2017
7:30 PM
Page High School Auditorium 201 Alma Pinnix Drive
Greensboro Brass Ensemble Kiyoshi Carter, Conductor
Sunday, May 7, 2017
3 PM
Greensboro Historical Museum 130 Summit Avenue
Greensboro Youth Chorus Ann Doyle and Teresa Allred, Conductors
Monday, May 8, 2017
7 PM
Christ United Methodist Church 410 North Holden Road
Choral Society of Greensboro Jon Brotherton, Conductor
Friday, May 12, 2017
7:30 PM
Christ United Methodist Church 410 North Holden Road
Saturday, May 13, 2017
7:30 PM
Grimsley High School Auditorium 801 Westover Terrace
Greensboro Percussion Ensembles Mike Lasley, Conductor Greensboro Oratorio Singers Jay O. Lambeth, Conductor
Greensboro Youth Chorus Ann Doyle and Teresa Allred, Conductors Greensboro Big Band, Sweet Sounds, includes dancing and music
Mike Day, Conductor Philharmonia of Greensboro, Pillow Pops Concert with Special Guest: Dance Project: the School at City Arts
LOCATION
Trinity Church 5200 West Friendly Avenue J. Douglas Galyon Depot, West Wing 236 East Washington Street
Peter Perret, Conductor
Greensboro Concert Band Evan Feldman, Conductor
Dana Auditorium, Guilford College 5800 West Friendly Avenue
New, unwrapped toys are being collected for FOX8 Gifts for Kids.
Doodad
Stage Siblings
friendships
The story if the Cones returns
T
he sisters are back for a visit. During the first week of this month, the Touring Theatre of North Carolina revives the story of sisters Etta and Claribel Cone and their brothers, including Greensboro textile magnates Moses and Ceasar Cone. Triad Stage will host four shows of Dr. Claribel, Miss Etta and the Brothers Cone in the Upstage Cabaret, November 3–5 (triadstage. org/tickets). In April, the show played to sold-out audiences for two weeks at another small venue, The Crown at the Carolina Theatre. “We had a lot of people who couldn’t get in,” says Brenda Schleunes, TTNC founder and author of the show. “We had people sitting with their feet in the playing area.” Schleunes, who recently retired as TTNC’s executive director but remains as the artistic director, arranged to bring back the production in a slightly bigger space. She wanted more people to appreciate the little-known connection between Cone Mills Corporation, once the world’s biggest denim maker, and the stellar art collection amassed by Etta and Claribel. “If there had been no business, there would have been no art collection,” says Schleunes. She researched the play by pouring over the sisters’ letters and journals, which are archived at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the recipient of most of the sisters’ treasures after their deaths. Baltimore was their home. The Cone family owned wholesale grocery and dry goods businesses there. Moses and Ceasar worked as traveling salesmen for their father; they got into textiles after calling on mill stores. Etta and Claribel, who never married, lived in the same apartment building and often traveled together. Claribel graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Baltimore and taught pathology there. She and Etta became friends with the not-yet-famous writer Gertrude Stein, who also lived in Baltimore and studied medicine at Johns Hopkins for awhile. Stein later moved to Paris, where she borrowed the Cone sisters’ practice of hosting salons, or gatherings of artists and intellectuals. When the sisters visited Paris around the turn of the 20th century, Stein introduced them to the emerging artists Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. The sisters collected works by the modernist duo and others, including Paul Cezanne, Vincent vanGogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Gauguin. The money to buy art came from Moses and Ceasar Cone, who managed the sisters’ stock holdings in their company. “The brothers didn’t criticize the art, but they didn’t ‘get it,’ ” Schleunes says. “But they said, ‘This is their money. They can do what they want.’” The Cone sisters left most of their 3,000-piece collection, including textiles and jewelry, to the Baltimore Museum of Art. The collection is valued at more than $1 billion. Because of the influence of Etta and Claribel’s sister-in-law Laura Cone, an alumna of UNCG (then Woman’s College), Etta Cone willed some Matisse prints and bronzes, as well as prints and drawings by Picasso and others, to UNCG. The school’s Weatherspoon Art Museum holds them today as the Claribel and Etta Cone Collection. — OH — Maria Johnson The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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O.Henry 19
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
O.Harry
November 2016
O.Henry 21
Life’s Funny
All Things in Moderation . . . . . . Southern Style
By Maria Johnson
After watching the debates this election season, there’s one thing I know.
In future debates, we need to throw out the network moderators and bring in a Southern mother. Better yet, a Southern grandmother. I’m talking about the kind of woman I’ve known and admired all of my life. The kind who takes no guff and holds your feet to the fire. The kind who has a firm grip on reality, her Bible and her cast-iron skillet. The kind who — for all of her foibles — could reel in the candidates when they start trampling each other, and stop them cold when they try to walk all over her. Here’s the kind of debate I wish I’d seen: Southern Grandmother Moderator: Hello? Hello? Is this microphone on? It is? Well, all righty then. Hello, America. I’m your moderator, Mrs. R.L. Thompson of 324 Water Street, Landis, North Carolina, 28088. The candidates in tonight’s debate have agreed to follow the rules. My rules. This is my auditorium. I don’t care what other people do in their auditoriums. They can carry on and do whatever they want. But in my auditorium, we will show respect, and anyone who doesn’t will be asked to leave. Do y’all understand me? (Looks over her reading glasses at candidates HRC & DJT). HRC & DJT: . . . (dead air) . . . SGM: I said, do y’all understand me? HRC & DJT: Yes. SGM: Yes what? HRC & DJT: Yes . . . ma’am? SGM: Hmph. Those manners need some work. Too much time in New York City, if you ask me. But we’ll talk about that later. OK. Here’s the first question. My bank is paying me nothing on my CDs, but Wall Street bankers are living high on the hog. Why is that? Senator Clinton, you go first. HRC: Well, blahblahblah financial reform blahblahblah The Fed. . . SGM: Well, that’s a whole lot of nuthin’. Your time is up. Mr. Trump, what about you? HRC: Wait a minute . . . SGM: No, you wait a minute. Go on, Mr. Trump. DJT: When I’m President, interest rates are going to be so amazing blahblahblah the best, blahblahblah very, very good. SGM: OK, I’ve heard enough. You have a pretty healthy opinion of yourself, don’t you? DJT: You know why? Because I’m a winner, and . . . SGM: Proverbs 16:18, Mr. Trump. DJT: What? SGM: Proverbs 16:18. Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. So just hush and think on that a while. DJT: But I . . . SGM: What did I just say? The Art & Soul of Greensboro
DJT: Huh? SGM: WHAT DID I JUST SAY? DJT: You said . . . SGM: I said HUSH, and that’s what I mean. Don’t make me say it again. Now, where was I? Y’all gonna worry me to death. Where’d those questions go? Oh, here they are. OK, Mr. Trump this one is for you. I understand that you said some ugly things about a young lady who won the Miss Universe pageant. Is that true? DJT: She got fat, if that’s what you mean. She ate like a pig, and . . . SGM: Apologize. DJT: What the . . . ? SGM: You go over to her house right now and apologize, and don’t come back here until you have. Run on, now. You have time. I’m fixin’ to talk to Senator Clinton a while (Turns to HRC): Honey, what were you thinking, keeping that computer in your basement? HRC: Well, if you’re speaking about my private email server . . . SGM: I’m not talking about the man in the moon’s . . . HRC: Well, I was authorized to do that, and nothing was classified. . . SGM: I see. Well, the head man at the FBI said some of those emails were classified. So which one of y’all is lying? HRC: I’ve said that I made a mistake, and . . . SGM: Mmmhmm. That’s what I thought. Y’all spend too much time on these computers anyway. Whole world’s looking down at a screen. Ruining their eyes, ruining their posture. I swanny. Now, let’s talk about him (Jabs thumb at Bill Clinton sitting in the front row.) Why do you want to stay with an ol’ tomcat like that? (Turning to Melania Trump). What’re you laughin’ at, Miss Tall? How much longer do you think your man is hanging around? HRC: This is totally irrelevant. My husband is not running for office. We’ve had our difficulties, but he . . . SGM: I wouldn’t give you two cents for him. (DJT reappears) Well, look who’s back. Did you tell her you were sorry? DJT: (Rolls his eyes) Yeah, sure. SGM: Look at me when I’m talking to you. DJT: (Looking at her) Yeah, sure, I apologized. I walked over to her fat house, and knocked on her fat door, and when her fat mother came to the door, I said, “I’m sorry for calling your fat daughter fat.” OK? OK? SGM: Cut me a switch. DJT: What does that mean? SGM: It means, I don’t care how old you are, I’m gonna wear you out like someone should have done a long time ago. (To HRC) Wipe that smirk off your face, Miss Priss. Go to your green room and don’t come out ’til I call you. And stay off that computer, you hear me? HRC: Yes ma’am. SGM: Lord have mercy. Y’all are the sorriest lot I’ve ever seen. OH Maria Johnson held her nose and voted early. She hopes you did the same. November 2016
O.Henry 23
24 O.Henry
November 2016
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Omnivorous Reader
Hillbilly Blues Poor, white and not quite forgotten
By Stephen E. Smith
The presidential election is either
over or is about to be, and, barring an unforeseen catastrophe, we ought to be breathing a collective sigh of relief. But in our hearts we know the truth: It ain’t over yet. The media, including the publishing industry, aren’t about to let us rest. We’ll no doubt be obliged to examine in excruciating detail the cause-and-effect relationships that inflicted this grievous wound on our national psyche.
Publishers, of course, get us coming and going. White Trash; The Making of Donald Trump; Hillary’s America; The Year of Voting Dangerously, etc. — Amazon lists at least 17 books that address the preelection mêlée, enough reading to keep us bleary-eyed and brain-bruised until the next election cycle, and well beyond. Of these many offerings, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J. D. Vance, has been the chief beneficiary of our need to grasp the incomprehensible. Published in late June, this Horatio Alger memoir shot to the top of The New York Times and Amazon.com best-sellers lists and stayed there. This was due in large part to promotion by the author and Amazon that fostered the belief that Hillbilly Elegy offers a profound insight into the rise of Donald Trump as a presidential candidate. A quick read of Amazon’s “Editorial Reviews” is explanation enough: “What explains the appeal of Donald Trump? . . . J.D. Vance nails it” (Globe and Mail); “You cannot understand what’s happening now without first reading J.D. Vance . . . .” (The American Conservative), and so forth. Only The New York Times acknowledged a mild albeit flawed apprehension of fact: “Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized The Art & Soul of Greensboro
reference guide for an uncivilized election . . . ,” “inadvertently” being the operative word. In February, Vance wrote an op-ed for USA Today headlined: “Trump Speaks for Those Bush Betrayed”: “. . . .what unites Trump’s voters,” Vance wrote, “is a sense of alienation from America’s wealthy and powerful.” In a print interview with Rod Dreher, senior editor at The American Conservative, Vance stated, “The simple answer is that these people — my people — are really struggling, and there hasn’t been a single political candidate who speaks to those struggles in a long time. Donald Trump at least tries.” Vance’s appearances on ABC, CNN and NPR only reinforced this perception, and by the time he arrived on the set of “Morning Joe,” Vance’s criticism was even more focused, asserting that Donald Trump is “just another opioid” to many Americans struggling with loss of jobs, broken families and drug addiction. All of which begs the question: Does Hillbilly Elegy explain the rise of Donald Trump? It doesn’t. No amount of tortured exegesis can conclude with a calculated degree of certainty that the anecdotal examples offered in Hillbilly Elegy lead to a statistical generalization regarding the wide-ranging support garnered by the Trump candidacy. Despite the claims of critics and the author, the book does not present, directly or indirectly, a viable explanation for the recent national unpleasantness — and the hype surrounding the publication of Hillbilly Elegy amounts to little more than a subtle form of literary bait and switch. Misrepresentations aside, it’s safe to say that Vance has written an insightful and readable memoir that details the estrangement of a segment of November 2016
O.Henry 25
Omnivorous Reader America’s displaced white underclass. His personal story, which comprises most of the text, is straightforward: Poor boy from a broken, drug-befuddled family wants to make good and does. The sociological narrative is also immediately explicable: As “hillbillies” migrated from Kentucky and other Southern mountain states, they clustered in desultory communities around the factories that offered them work. But this relocation came at a price. The traditional culture that once rendered support and stability from birth to death was sacrificed to economic prosperity. When the high-paying jobs disappeared, neighborhoods of poor people were left behind, lacking the social networks that sustained them in their mountain communities. To his credit, Vance’s message is one of personal responsibility. He has no patience with convenient excuses or the tendency to shift blame to the media, politicians, or the middle and upper classes. Succinctly stated, his advice is to pull up your pants, turn your hat around and make something of your life. Hillbilly Elegy possesses the same appeal that propelled Rick Bragg’s 1999 All Over but the Shoutin’ onto the best-sellers list — it’s thoughtful, compelling in its grim detail, and ultimately faith-affirming. No red-blooded American can abandon the belief that any lucky, talented, hardworking schmo can become a success, but the wise reader will understand that Vance’s story is not an allegory for life; it’s merely the recounting of a series of random events arranged in such a way as to suggest meaning. Readers should also bear in mind that better sociological studies have come and gone without notice. One is reminded of Linda Flowers’ 1990 Throwed Away, which detailed the economic exploitation of eastern North Carolina sharecroppers and tenant farmers. As for articulating the emotional toll taken on those Kentucky mountain people who migrated north, poet Jim Wayne Miller summed up their sense of loss in five lines from his 1980 collection The Mountains Have Come Closer. The final stanza of the poem “Abandoned” reads: Or else his life became the house seen once in a coalcamp in Tennessee: the second story blown off in a storm so stairs led up into the air and stopped. 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.
26 O.Henry
November 2016
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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O.Henry 27
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November 2016
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Scuppernong Bookshelf
Food & Trucks: A Literary Mash-Up In the season of eating and travel, why not?
We can tell that the food truck phenom-
enon has reached its zenith, because now you can buy prepackaged, microwave-ready “food truck” food — sometimes in boxes shaped like food trucks! Still, we love the very idea of food trucks, and we’re thrilled to host Vivian Howard (of the PBS show A Chef’s Life) along with her food truck here at Scuppernong on November 3 (sorry to say, but the event is already sold out). Howard’s new book, Deep Run Roots: Stories and Recipes from My Corner of the South (Little Brown, $40) has more than 200 recipes from Eastern North Carolina. She’s the owner of the acclaimed Chef & the Farmer restaurant in Kinston, North Carolina, and has embarked on a grand tour with her truck, serving meals along with the wisdom she’s gained from her years in the restaurant business. “Part story, part history, part recipes, I’d like to think Deep Run Roots is much more than a cookbook,” Howard has said, as she has won hearts (and full bellies) across the Old North State, including ours. But Howard has us thinking about food. And trucks. Is there a literary intersection? Can we find it? Without GPS? For a kid, there is nothing cooler than hitting a food truck with Mom and Dad, and then plopping down right there on the curb to devour an overstuffed taco. Now foodies can go behind the scenes of their favorite food trucks with a fun board book: Food Trucks!: A Lift-the-Flap Meal on Wheels! (Little Simon, $7.99). Lift the flaps to see what makes the food in different trucks so yummy, from fryers to griddles, from snow cone dispensers to ice cream freezers. Like its counterparts in real life, this book is a crowd-pleaser! For those craving Som Tam from the streets of Bangkok since vacationing in Thailand or those wanting to try their hand at authentic Jamaican jerk pork but not sure where to start, look no farther than this slim volume, The World’s Best Street Food (Lonely Planet, $14.99). Perfect for a small kitchen shelf, these recipes from street carts the world over are wellorganized and easy to follow, authentic but with substitutions given for harder-to-find ingredients so that you can get started exploring the world’s best street food right in your own
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
kitchen. This is a great gift for adventurers who delights in trying new world cuisines. What is the most frightening eighteen-wheeler in literary history? Undoubtedly, the truck in Richard Matheson’s short story “Duel,” which was made famous by Steven Spielberg’s early made-for-TV feature of the same name. There’s a collection of Matheson’s stories available — Duel: Terror Stories (Tor Books, $19.99), and it includes several stories adapted into some great Twilight Zone episodes. Is there food? There is a truck stop diner scene, but it won’t make you feel like settling in for a nice meal. We confess we haven’t read Michael Perry’s Truck: A Love Story, but it’d be a shame not to mention it here. The New York Times calls it “a funny and touching account” of a love life ruined by Neil Diamond. And the Chicago Tribune, in an over-the-top food metaphor, says “Perry takes each moment, peeling it, seasoning it with rich language, and then serving it to us piping hot and fresh.” There you go. Food and Trucks. Let’s reverse our thinking. Are there any food trucks named after novels? We hear tell of several, notably Buffalo, New York’s The Invention of Wings and a number of food trucks named after Papa’s A Moveable Feast. NEW RELEASES FOR NOVEMBER November 1: And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella, by Fredrik Backman. The author of A Man Called Ove offers an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories (Atria Books, $18). November 8: J. D. Salinger: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations. Melville House Publishing does a great service with their Last Interview series, and a famous recluse like Salinger is particularly interesting (Melville House, $16.99). November 15: Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film, by Alexandra Zapruder. The moving, untold family story behind Abraham Zapruder’s film footage of the Kennedy assassination and its lasting impact on our world (Twelve, $27). November 22: I’ll Take You There, by Wally Lamb. Lamb’s new novel is a radiant homage to the resiliency, strength and the power of women (Harper, $25.99). November 29: Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis: The Vampire Chronicles ( Vampire Chronicles #12 ), by Anne Rice. Is it possible? Another? (Knopf, $28.95). OH This month’s Scuppernong Bookshelf was written by Brian Lampkin and Shannon Jones.
November 2016
O.Henry 29
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30 O.Henry
November 2016
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Same Old Game
Papadaddy
Just new stuff
By Clyde Edgerton
I’m in the bleachers watching
ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY BLAIR
baseball practice. My youngest son, 11, has just started playing — this is his second practice ever — and so far, he likes it. After the first practice, we shopped for equipment, and I hear some of you already thinking: Why does Papadaddy always gripe about high prices?
The answer is this: I didn’t buy anything between 1994 and 2012, until I finally started shopping for my children’s sporting equipment. But on the softer side — the nostalgic side — this baseball business is taking me back, in good ways, to over 60 years ago. “Yep,” I say to my son, “I started playing baseball when I was 9 years old.” “What?” he says, “They had baseball back then?” When I was 10 or 12, our coach worked at a local funeral home and drove a hearse to practice. I can see the hearse as it pulled onto the field near first base — long, shiny, and black. This is all true. My friends and I would open the swinging rear door and pull out a canvas bag of bats, a handbag of baseballs, and a large duffle bag with the catcher’s equipment and bases and the little plastic things held together with stretch bands that we fitted over our ears when batting. These flimsy head protectors became the norm in the late ’50s, as I recall. (Protective head gear was a consequence of midcentury political correctness.) While we were shopping a few weeks ago, my son and I inspected batting helmets, baseball gloves — for fielding and batting — bats, baseballs and a protective cup. The protective cup comes with a pair of fancy black underwear to hold the cup in place. The reason my son is expected to buy his own equipment these days is because if, say, a funeral home bought a bag of, say, 20 baseball bats, then the funeral home could be out four grand. Easily. Check it out at your local sporting goods store.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
In addition: My son’s bat: metal. Ours: wooden. My son’s headgear: a hard plastic helmet. Ours: (early on) a cloth cap. My son’s cleats: plastic or rubber. Ours: steel. My son’s batting gloves: two. Ours: none. My son’s “protection”: a plastic cup. Ours: underwear (most of us, I guess). My son’s fielder’s glove: synthetic, stiff, and complicated. Ours: leather, limber, and plain. My son’s infield surface: mostly grass. Ours: mostly dirt. My son’s outfield surface: grass. Ours: mostly dirt. My son’s pitching mound: raised. Ours: flat. My son’s dugout: concrete behind a fence. Ours: a wooden bench, in the open — with splinters. My son’s coach: loves the game. Ours: loved the game. I’m so glad the game is the same. Three strikes, four balls, three outs. Secret signals and hidden ball tricks, balks, walks and home runs. Timing, speed and precision. It’s still best to step on the base with your inside foot, watch the third base coach as you approach second base, start with your glove on the ground to catch a grounder. And the playing field itself — it expands outward from home plate. Unlike football, basketball and other sports, boundaries exist on only two sides of a baseball field, not all four sides. Hit a home run and the ball could travel all the way around the Earth and roll up behind home plate and still be in fair territory. After the second practice, we’re gathering up equipment to head home. My son says, “Dad, they make a backpack for gloves, helmet and all that. It has two sleeves for two bats. We could get one at Dick’s along with another bat.” “If we get another bat, we’ll have to sell your bicycle, the trampoline and your bunk bed.” “You mean . . . like a yard sale?” “Sure. Good idea.” OH Clyde Edgerton is the author of 10 novels, a memoir and a new work, Papadaddy’s Book for New Fathers. He is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UNCW. November 2016
O.Henry 31
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9/9/16 2:37 PM The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Den Mother of Tate Street
Gate City Journal
How Amelia and Robert Leung fed cared for a generation of street people at the legendary Hong Kong House
By Grant Britt
For nearly thirty years, Amelia Leung and
her husband, Robert, operated the Hong Kong House on Tate Street, feeding and mothering a generation of seekers, wanderers, mystics, musicians, craftsmen and those just looking for a good meal at an affordable price. In the process, they created a refuge for young folks trying on an artistic lifestyle and a zone for comforting the body and soul.
Amelia Leung’s odyssey started in her adopted hometown of Hong Kong, when, at age 13, she met Robert. The couple began conducting their relationship by long distance when Robert left to study in Manchester, England and Amelia went to nursing school in London. Upon graduation, she joined Robert in Canada where he had moved to better his English and his chances of emigrating to the United States. Robert’s grandfather Peter had settled in Greensboro, opening the Lotus restaurant around 1930 and wanted Robert to work with him. Amelia married Robert in Reno, Nevada in 1969, then came to Greensboro. “I was working in the Lotus restaurant downtown, and trying to get my license in N.C. as a nurse,” Amelia Leung says. Just as Robert was graduating from N.C. A&T with a degree in electrical engineering, Amelia finished her coursework in nursing. Their going into the restaurant business involved a bit of happenstance, a drive-by, if you will. “We were traveling through, saw the Apple Cellar selling the place in ’69. At that time, they weren’t getting along with hippies and what was going on so they tried to pull out,” she says. “We bought the place.”
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
But the business was slow to take hold. “In the beginning, we did not know what we were doing,” she admits. At first, they tried serving traditional Chinese-American fare, chow mein, chop suey, but, says Amelia, “there were a lot of sandwich shops like Friday’s and pizza. I saw I had to make some changes in my menu, more sandwiches.” But with a little culinary flair: “I did stuff to hamburger to make it kinda different.” She also offered items no one else carried.” That experimentation, along with her family recipes and willingness to listen to menu suggestions from staff and customers was what made the HKH a success. Local bassist and sound man Bobby Kelly, (Tornado, Sentinel Boys, Terraplane, Blues Word Order) worked upstairs at Keith Roscoe’s Guitar Shop. He quickly became an enthusiastic patron from the get-go. He even had two items named for him. “It can now be told,” Kelly says, “that I am Green Bob. And Brown Bob.” Kelly was jazzed about Amelia’s wok chicken sandwich but favored one revision. Kelly says, tired of sandwiches and bread, “I decided I would turn it into brown stroganoff . . . So she started making brown rice around that same time. I said, ‘Why don’t you just plop that on toppa some brown rice and instead of sour cream, give me a little cottage cheese on the side.’ Let’s see how that works. And BAM! It was born.” Kelly says others pitched in. “Ken Hoover, I think, invented the Guitar Shop burger, something he scarfed down every day and it became a menu item.” Kelly’s wife, Jesse, also added to the menu: “There was some little greasy joint that served pineapple cheeseburgers from where Jesse was living in Richmond, and she got Amelia or Becky to make a couple of those.” They were an instant hit, he says. The HKH menu and demeanor underwent a change a few years later when Amelia went to buy a sandwich from Friday’s, and the counter girl asked if there might be a job for her friend, then sent Aliza Gotlieb over and Amelia put her to work in the kitchen. “She said she’d like to open a coffeehouse downstairs,’’ Amelia remembers. “I said OK, we have the space, see what hapNovember 2016
O.Henry 33
Gate City Journal
pens, go in 50-50. She and Larry Jacobs came out, started down there.” That venture became the Nightshade Cafe, which served vegetarian fare and became a hangout for scores of local and national bands. “Eventually Aliza brings in some local musicians,” Amelia says. “I remember Billy Hobbs was first one to play live music down here.” A small stage was set up and Amelia provided supper. “Sometimes pass the hat, pick up some money that way.” It got to be quite a scene. “If you were playing the Nightshade, or Aliza’s, whatever it was at the time, you got a meal out of it, too,” Kelly says. ”You could come upstairs after setting up or hanging out and there’d be Bob Margolin in one booth, and REM in another booth. Everybody knew it as a good, cheap honest place to chow.” And for musicians who were struggling, Amelia was a lifesaver. Saxophonist Jimmy Carpenter, who played with Little Alfred Band, Alkaphonics, Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Mike Zito and the Wheel, recalls how, after working for a local pest control company, “I got laid off right before Christmas, and I didn’t work again till April, and Amelia let me run a tab, basically saved my ass that winter,” he says. “If you took the garbage out, kind of a big job ’cause it was down in the back, down that hill, had to drag those bigass cans up the alley up that hill on the street, she’d give you a meal for doing that,” he says. Me and Bruce Piephoff used to race down there to see who’d get it. It was kinda the center of my universe for lots of years, really.” Amelia was the den mother to a bunch of Tate street denizens, musicians and such. “She was my Chinese mother, no doubt about it,” Kelly says. “You’d have
Left: Karen French, Mike Spainho and Becky Raker Above: Boobby Kelly and Jimmy Carpenter the Pine Valley Boys Club upstairs in my apartment everyday,” he recalls, referring to the daily viewing of the soap opera All My Children at his digs everybody called the Corner Store Apartments above Snavely’s drugstore. “We were armed with suction cup dart rifles, and whenever Palmer Cortlandt (actor James Mitchell’s long-running baddie on the series) came on the screen, my TV would be covered with rubber darts.” Hijinks aside, the HKH was his lifeline. “Back in the days when I was poor, and I ate one meal a day, I lived off that,” says Kelly. Many local musicians worked there as well. “It was a cool place man,” Carpenter recalls. ”During their late-night period when they were trying to cater to the bar crowd, Dakota Joe (Dunn, Bullets Of Blue) was the cook, wife Melanie was waitress. Becky (Raker, Tornado chanteuse) was there all the time. She was the day cook, started making a fish sandwich with shrimp on top. Mike
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Gate City Journal Spainhour (Swingin’ Lobsters) was the utility guy, did all kinds of stuff.” “In those days, lunch was a dollar,” Amelia says, “fish and chips or fried rice.” Aliza introduced her to a macrobiotic menu. “I went to cooking classes, learned principles, combined with my own cooking experience, started serving macrobiotic food, homemade yogurt.” The downstairs space hosted a who’s who of rock, blues and folkie heavyweights-to-be. “The Indigo Girls got their start there, John Hammond, Bob Margolin, Evan Johns (and the H Bombs) Tinsley Ellis, Glenn Phillips played down there every time they came through, Col. Bruce Hampton and the Hampton Grease Band shot a scene for a movie down there, did a video for a horror film,” Kelly remembers. “Eugene Chadbourne played down there, Bruce Piephoff, all sorts of wildness.” He recalls one Grease Band performance involving impromptu redecorating. “Every song, they’d take a piece of furniture out of the audience, till by the end of the night, every piece of furniture, every table and chair in the basement was onstage.” It might have been a practical move, as the cellar was flooded every time it rained. “I remember people playing music and all the people sitting in the cafe and water is on the floor, and they just sit there and listen to the music,” Amelia chuckles. The music moved some in mysterious ways. “One time the Alkaphonics [Carpenter, David Moore, Bill Howell, Mark and Scott Jenison] were playing across the street at Fridays,” Kelly reminisces. “And the Sentinel boys [Kelly, Dennis Worley, Scott Manring, David Licht, Bruce Swaim] were playing the Nightshade, and we both took a break together at exactly the same time, went over and switched clubs, playing about five songs, then raced across the street and finished the set at our original clubs.” Over the years, the HKH continued to change and prosper. “By mixing the cultures, running a little of East/West together, everything fit into a category not like any other restaurant,” Amelia says. She and Robert kept it going until 1999. “My sister said, ‘Better get out while you’re still alive,’ so I decided to close up the shop and retired, took care of my grandchildren,” Amelia says. “I had raised three of my own children, a bunch of my family’s adult children, eleven of them altogether.” The business has moved on, but the memories and the recipes remain, thanks to Nightshade doorperson and long time HKH patron Karen McClamrock, whose Hong Kong House Cookbook preserves many of Amelia’s best loved dishes. Look back, dig in and enjoy.
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O.Henry 35
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Gate City Journal Holiday, or any special day HKH recipe
It was a labor of love that only took six years to complete. Like many other fans of HKH’s menu, Karen McClamrock wanted the comfort food she had become used to as a patron of Amelia Leung’s cuisine for almost two decades. But getting the goods proved to be a bit of a chore. Like most good cooks who have been using family recipes for years, Amelia had nothing written down, assembling the dishes without measuring anything. “She would say, you just put in this and this. I said, ‘How much of this? Give me a measurement,’” McClamrock says. But the two finally got it done. The Hong Kong House Cookbook has many faves from over the years including pineapple, lentil and guitar shop burgers as well as the wok chicken that was the base for the Green Bob (exchanging broccoli for rice) and Brown Bob. McClamrock says Amelia’s mother, Lily’s recipe for soy chicken is a perfect holiday dish, easy to make and tasty too. Lily’s Soy Chicken Ingredients: 1 tablespoon of oil 3 or 4 spring onions (white part only) 2-4 cloves of garlic, crushed Fresh ginger, grated, about a 3-4-inch-long piece of ginger root, more or less to suit your taste. (Amelia says use lots of ginger, McClamrock advises.) 1 1/4 cup soy sauce 1 cup rice (Lily’s secret is to use 1/2 cup rice wine and 1/2 cup of Johnny Walker Red) 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup brown or white sugar 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon wonton soup powder (optional) 2-3 star anise (optional) 4 or more chicken thighs, breasts or any chicken pieces you like Instructions: Place large frying pan on the stove and heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic and ginger and sauté for about 30 seconds. Do not burn! Add soy sauce and rice wine to the pan, bring to a boil. Add the water and sugar. Add chicken and cover. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Remove lid and turn chicken over. Cover pan and cook another 10 minutes or until done. Chicken should be tender and pull easily from the bone. There will be a nice sauce in the pan when you are finished. Serve alone or with rice and spoon some sauce over the rice. Mom Lily liked to use chicken thighs instead of breasts for more flavor. You can substitute wings, or use pork or beef as well. OH Grant Britt cooked in Restaurants in Key West, Florida for nearly a decade before returning to town to write about music for local regional and national publications.
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November 2016
O.Henry 37
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38 O.Henry
November 2016
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Food for Thought
They Dined on Mince One cook’s recreation of mincemeat pie — without a runcible spoon
By Diane Compton
PHOTOGRAPHS BY AMY FREEMAN
It wasn’t long after I married that my
mother joyously gave up her job as executive producer of Thanksgiving. My husband promptly dismissed the old standbys: green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, Jell-O salad, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce “fresh” from the can. Having more faith in my culinary skills than actual evidence, he tagged and circled all sorts of derivative recipes from popular cooking magazines and I, eager to please, attempted them all. The family endured many years of this with great kindness and “compliments” such as, ”I’ve never tasted anything like this before!” But a generous pour of good wine and lively conversation overcame any mistakes and thus the day was declared a success. The arrival of children and the gift of my grandmother’s cookbook, Pure Cook Book, published by the Women’s Progressive Farm Association of Missouri, heralded a return to the classics of the holiday. A virtual time machine, this worn, torn and faded tome took me into her Depression-era farm
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kitchen. Page stains and handwritten notes marked favorite recipes, among them mince pie. Why not start a new tradition connecting the generations and add this to the holiday table? My suggestion elicited all kinds of family reactions. From the daughters: “Ewww! Sounds gross!” From the husband: “Hmmmm, I ate it, once.” From my parents: “What’s wrong with pecan pie?” Convinced that anything made from scratch would be far, far superior to packaged stuff, I began a search for the perfect mincemeat recipe. The family promised to try it with all the enthusiasm usually reserved for boiled cabbage. Pies are the dessert of choice for the creative cook. Imagine, between two layers of pastry an infinite universe of fillings with few rules and, given enough sugar and butter, almost always delicious. Grandmother’s cookbook featured eleven recipes for mincemeat. Where to start? Traditional mincemeat really does contain meat. The first recorded recipes go back to the eleventh century where meat and dried fruits were combined with newly available spices — cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon — then soused with lots of brandy. Over the years mincemeat became sweeter as fruit became the predominate ingredient. All the recipes in grandmother’s cookbook still included meat but not a drop of brandy. Oh, yeah, 1930, the Prohibition era. Today, commercially available mincemeat is heavy on fruit, sugar and spice with nary a whisper of meat or brandy. No wonder this wimpy stuff has been relegated to the bottom shelf of the baking aisle. My challenge: to make authentic mincemeat appealing to modern tastes. This recipe restores both brandy and meat; specifically beef suet to the ingredient list. Suet is a specialty fat found near the kidneys. With a higher melting point than butter, suet adds deeper and more nuanced flavor to mincemeat, maintaining the connection to its carnivorous history. Suet can November 2016
O.Henry 39
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Food for Thought be hard to find but fortunately Greensboro’s Gate City Butcher offers suet from HarrisRobinette Farms in Pinetops, North Carolina. Another reason to try mincemeat pie? The filling can be made in advance and so can the crust. If you make your own pastry, line the pie dish with rolled dough, wrap and freeze the dish, and it’s ready to go at a moment’s notice. Mincemeat
pie needs a top crust. Roll the dough into a circle on plastic wrap, cover with another layer of plastic and roll the circle into a tube before freezing. Making the mincemeat filling is a great family activity, with lots of chopping and kid-friendly ingredients. Also, unlike the sugar bomb known as pecan pie, mincemeat is not cloyingly sweet. Start with a 4- or 5-quart heavy saucepan or Dutch oven on the stove and add the following: 3 pounds of apples, peeled, cored and diced. Use a variety of Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Jonagold or McIntosh. 2 1/2 cups of dried fruit. Try a combination of raisins, golden raisins, currants and maybe some diced dried cherries for fun. 1/4 cup of chopped candied peel (orange or citron) 2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger (optional, but lovely) 1/4 pound minced suet. Can’t find suet? Beefaphobic? Substitute butter and you’ve made what Grandmother called “mock mince.” 2/3 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup molasses Zest and juice from an orange and a lemon Pinch of salt
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2 cups apple cider And now, the spices. Mincemeat uses a small amount of several expensive spices, many that you bought before your first iPhone. Don’t do it! Just 2 to 3 teaspoons of fresh pumpkin pie spice is an The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Food for Thought economical alternative to separate jars of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, mace and cloves. Remember we’re making pies here so don’t get too caught up in the exact ingredients, add more or less of things as you like. Grandmother used what was available. Got a bit of ground venison in the freezer? Be truly authentic and add some to the pot! Don’t tell the kids. Bring everything to a boil, reduce heat and simmer on low for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. When the mixture begins to thicken, stir more frequently. Add 1/4 cup of brandy and stir often for 15 minutes until thick and jammy. Cool and refrigerate. Filling can be prepared a week in advance. On pie day, add the filling to your prepared pie dish. Unroll the top crust and place over the filling. Decoratively flute the edges and don’t forget to cut a few vent holes in the top. For a glossy golden crust, brush the dough with a little beaten egg and sprinkle
My daughter confirmed, “This is lovely, it just needs a better name.” some coarse sugar on top. Bake in a preheated 400°oven for 20 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325° for another 30 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Can be made a day ahead. Mincemeat filling also makes a great cookie that can be baked ahead of the holiday and frozen till needed. Spread a little caramel frosting on top and make it special. That first year I took great pains to make the pie’s edges and top beautifully decorative because its true, we “eat with the eye” first. Everyone bravely tried a slice because after all, it was pie! My daughter confirmed, “This is lovely, it just needs a better name.” Forget it, Darling. This traditional holiday pie is a living link to generations of family celebrations. I treasure my Grandmother’s cookbook and touch the handwritten notes, imagining her as a new bride learning to cook and care for her own family. It was both cookbook and household guide, full of practical medical advice and handy hints, some guaranteed to horrify (remedies made of kerosene, turpentine and gasoline figure prominently). Unfortunately the back cover along with the last chapter “How to Cook Husbands” is missing. I wonder: Did my grandfather have a hand in that? OH Diane Compton is tech class instructor and in-home specialist for Williams-Sonoma at Friendly Center.
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November 2016
O.Henry 41
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42 O.Henry
November 2016
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Life of Jane
One Sorry Girl Scout Grateful to a wise and patient leader
By Jane Borden
Open (and very belated) apology to
Rosa McNairy, leader of Girl Scout Troop 181, 1986 — 1995.
ILLUSTRATION BY MERIDITH MARTENS
Dear Rosa, If you are still alive, it’s a miracle. “Death by 21 Tween Girls” should be a listing in medical journals, or at least a line on a cocktail menu. A sensitive decibel meter may still register our shrieks ricocheting through the Irving Park Scout Hut on Dellwood Drive, which is why I write today, instead of calling, in case you’ve lost your hearing. Sorry for that. Sorry also for not obeying the Girl Scout Law, as I definitely didn’t “do my best to be honest” or “fair,” when I tried to steal extra caramel Chewies on our canoeing trip down the Dan River. I did not “help where I was needed,” when we earned a badge for making butter and I shook the jar of cream, like, twice, before passing it along. Neither was I always “cheerful,” “friendly,” and “considerate” — sadly, the Girl Scout Law includes no fidelity to the character traits sleepy, tardy and sarcastic. When we got to middle school, and started forming cliques, and Tricia Black and I made up songs deriding one another, I was definitely not “a sister to every Girl Scout.” (Sorry to Tricia, as well.) Neither did I do my best “to respect authority” when I went through that phase of responding to every Scout leader request by saying, “only because I want to, not because you told me too.” And I definitely didn’t “use resources wisely” when I almost never remembered to flush the loo. I would also like to apologize for doing cartwheels so close to the rock face during our rappelling trip that one of the guides had to discipline me. And, in general, for only ever selling the minimum number of cookie boxes, in spite of the fact that they funded such trips; for never holding the flag up high enough; for talking during presentations; and for just gluing badges onto my sash rather than sewing them. While I’m at it, I should also apologize for staying up past bedtime at your daughter Margaret’s slumber party, and then filling your freezer with wet bras and pairs of underwear, which never even froze, and no one cared about anyThe Art & Soul of Greensboro
way. Sorry, also, for making Margaret prankcall your next-door neighbor, Mikey Godwin, from your home phone, to find out if he liked me. He didn’t. Mostly, I apologize for relying on you as much as I did, when the whole point of Girl Scouts was to be self-sufficient. Even as I wrote this letter, I called to ask you questions. (Sorry for forgetting the reason we went to Savannah was to see the Home of Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low: “It made a big impression, I can tell,” you aptly said.) Sorry for being afraid and embarrassed to shower with the mentally handicapped children who were also staying on the USS Yorktown in Charleston. Thank you for reminding us what we share in common. Thank you for teaching me to ski, and introducing me to the ballet. Sorry I called the ballet boring. Thanks for teaching me how to travel, and even to ride the subway in Montreal — sorry for complaining it was cold — and for insisting, without relenting, that we each try a snail. They were delicious. My apologies for taking forever to finish that meal and every meal. For many years, I ordered snails when I saw them on the menu in order to recall the culinary adventure. I eventually stopped, though, because snails are expensive. Sorry for having no idea how much time and effort you selflessly put into running our troop. Thank you and the rest of our always cheerful leaders and chaperones. When I asked what you all got out of it, you said, “Seeing y’all mature and have fun and become young women. Some of you made strong friendships even if you’re all over the country. The more you put into something the more you get out of it. It’s not something you can measure.” Here’s something you can measure: the number of times I was disciplined for setting noncampfire items aflame. Although my contrition is sincere, I do take solace in one unshakable asset we all — no matter how ill-behaved or ungrateful — had on our side: At least we weren’t Boy Scouts. OH Yours, Jane Borden, who carted her sash all the way to Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband and daughter, and no longer lights things on fire. November 2016
O.Henry 43
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November 2016
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Birdwatch
TV Dinner Turkey vultures are the ultimate scavengers
By Susan Campbell
There! By the edge of the road: It’s a big, dark bird.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DEBRA REGULA
It looks sort of like it a wild turkey. But is it? Its head and face are red. It has a pale, hooked bill and a feathery neck. But the tail is the tip-off — it’s short. Definitely not the right look for a turkey — but perfect for a turkey vulture! (Feel free to call it a buzzard — or a “TV” by those in the know.) The confusion is understandable since wild turkeys have made quite a comeback in Piedmont North Carolina. In fact, turkey vultures and turkeys can occasionally be seen sitting near one another in farm fields where they both can find food or just take advantage of the warmth of the dark ground on cool mornings. However, turkey vultures are far more likely to be seen soaring overhead or perhaps perched high in a dead tree or cell tower. These birds have an unmistakable appearance in the air, forming a deep V-shape as they soar through the air, sometimes for literally hours on end. They’re easy to spot with their very large wingspans. At the very end of their wings look for their distinctive fingerlike primary feathers. The tail serves as a rudder, allowing the bird to navigate effortlessly as it is lifted and transported by thermals and other currents high above the ground. It is from this lofty vantage that turkey vultures travel in search of their next meal. Although their vision is poor, their sense of smell is keen. They can detect the aroma of a dead animal a mile or more away. They soar in circles, moving across the landscape with wings outstretched, sniffing all the while until a familiar odor catches their attention.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Turkey vultures are most likely to feed on dead mammals but they will not hesitate to eat the remains of a variety of foods including other birds, reptiles and even fish. They prefer freshly dead foods but may have to wait to get through the thick hide of larger animals if there is no wound or soft tissue allowing access. Toothed scavengers such as coyotes may literally need to provide that opportunity. Once vultures can get to flesh, they are quick to devour their food. Without plumage on their heads, there are no feathers to become soiled as they reach into larger carcasses for the morsels deep inside. Our summering turkey vultures perform elaborate courtship flights in early spring. One will lead the other through a series of twists, turns and flaps as they pair up. As unattractive as vultures seem to us, they are good parents. Nests are well-hidden in hollow stumps or piles of debris, in old hawk or heron nests or even abandoned buildings. They seek out cooler spots that are well away from human activity in order to protect their blind, naked and defenseless young. Vulture populations are increasing across North Carolina — probably due to human activity. Roadways create feeding opportunities year-round. Landfills also present easy feeding opportunities as well, believe it or not. During the winter months turkey vultures from the north migrate south, often concentrating in one area. Their large roosts can be problematic. A hundred or more large birds pouring into a stand of mature pines or loitering on a water tower does not go unnoticed. But most people take turkey vultures for granted or don’t even notice them. In reality, they are unparalleled scavengers — especially given the increase in roadways and the inevitable roadkill that has resulted. OH Susan would love to receive your wildlife sightings and photographs at susan@ncaves.com. November 2016
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& y p p a H Hs eo uar Lb uTs iHn ey ss i
1052 Grecade St. • GreenSboro, nc 27408
336.897.1505
Follow Tyrion on Facebook facebook.com/benessereanimalHospital
dr. Janine M. oliver
GOD t a l k s faith worth sharing
THURSDAY, NOV. 17 Dr. Omar Ali Ben Knight Wendy Duke David Lamotte Josie Cothran, emcee
5:30-7 pm Food & beverages 7-8:30 pm Storytelling
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
617 North Elm • Downtown Greensboro • fpcgreensboro.org
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Wandering Billy
Let the Mishegoss Begin And other musings around town
By Billy Eye “If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.” — Frank A. Clark
Someone
I admire most in this bourgeois burg is Kamala Lee who spent years in and out of hospitals recovering from near-fatal injuries inflicted upon her at age 6 by a drunk driver. It’s been a two-decades long process since then, with multiple corrective surgeries needed as she grew into the inspiring individual she is today. One of her talents is photography, both still and video, and lately Kamala has been documenting Greensboro’s vibrant music scene. Check out some amazing performances she’s captured on YouTube but, whatever you do, don’t even suggest you’re going to drink and drive this holiday season. She’s a diminutive but deadly martial artist.
T
he former Meyer’s Department Store downtown at 200 South Elm has undergone a slick makeover, the first two floors impressively reimagined as spacious offices and a meeting space for the Chamber of Commerce, taking full advantage of the magnificent picture windows ringing the building. Fifty years ago, this corner hustled and bustled around the holidays with eager shoppers having family portraits shot in the mezzanine photo studio. Some of them would then lunch in the
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Garden Room (what most everyone called the Tea Room), known for buttermilk pie, fudge cake sundaes and the Shopper’s Special: a bowl of soup surrounded by three miniature club sandwiches. Across the street at Ellis-Stone, on the main floor there was a fireplace bursting with wrapped gifts given out to VIP customers’ kids, all overseen by a life-size cardboard cutout of Santa, when the real Kris Kringle wasn’t present. Of course, Christmas decorations didn’t go up until after Thanksgiving when, the very next day, holiday-themed windows magically appeared, and everything inside was lavished in tinsel and bows. The store’s modern-day makeover is so extensive that only the elegant exterior stone carvings and a thick bronze plaque commemorating the opening of Meyer’s in 1924 remain from one of the city’s premier shopping destinations.
A
ction Greensboro, a sister organization to the Chamber of Commerce, is also headquartered inside a historic property. For two years it was ensconced in the Art Deco-inspired showroom my grandfather had built for his Ford truck dealership in the late-1940s, located a couple of blocks from The Depot on Forbis Street (now Church). Action Greensboro shares the space with contractor Frank L. Blum who, I’m surprised to learn, is not author of the Oz books. There’s not much to suggest the structure’s automotive past but the Indian Motorcycle dealer in the adjacent building operates out of what was the Ford Truck repair shop, where you can still see the original windows intact towards the rear. Wondering what Action Greensboro does? Their stellar efforts enhance the quality of life across our community — the Greenway, those November 2016
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Wandering Billy
“Made in Greensboro” banners, Center City Park. And in less public displays, such as K–12 education programs that partner with local universities and synerG, which exists to stem the drain of young professionals out of the city. All worthy of our gratitude.
Y
ou are undoubtedly well into Christmas shopping by now, either checking off that list or doing your utmost to avoid the whole mishegoss. That person on your list who has everything? Here’s something they don’t have: a custom-made rubber stamp made from your design. Gone the way of the buggy whip you say? Not so, just drop in at Gate City Rubber Stamp Co., right next door to the Carolina Theatre, where they’ve been for almost half a century. The proprietors are sisters Joyce Tuggle and Elaine Stringer who told me, “The business started in 1957. My sister came to work here in December of 1969, I came in July of ’70. We were right across the street from S.T. Wyrick [on North Greene]. We moved here around 1973. We laugh that we’ve got 100 years of [combined] experience almost.” Everyone feels like a kid again with an inkpad and a rubber stamp. It’s irresistible, and you’ll thank me later.
H
aven’t decided yet if I’m doing Thanksgiving this year. I’ve been serving turkey with all the fixins on and off since the 1980s, for friends with no particular place to go. Sometimes as many as a dozen people arrive unexpectedly; I always end up making new acquaintances when the festivities really kick into gear, after folks fleeing their families show up in need of sanctuary. Come to think of it, I think that’s how I met Kamala Lee. I first started serving Thanksgiving while living in L.A. I had everything catered back then because I ate out every meal, never had any kind of food or drink on hand, not even a saltshaker in those bare cupboards. Now I enjoy the hours-long process making everything from scratch. It’s the only meal I know how to cook. Any other time of year if you come to my place for dinner it’s Pop-Tarts and Kool-Aid. Oh Yeaaaah! OH
It will come as a surprise to almost no one that Billy Eye has been referred to simultaneously as both a turkey and a ham.
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
“ Enthusiasm spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.”
(from left to right)
~ Norman Vincent Peale
Phillip H. Joyce
Vice President/Investments
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Branch Manager First Vice President/Investments
Gregory E. Gonzales, II Client Service Associate
(not pictured)
Mike Planning, CFP®
Financial Planning | Investments | Wealth Management
Financial Advisor Associate
(336) 478-3700 (844) 233-8608 629 Green Valley Road, Suite 211 Greensboro, North Carolina 27408
Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated | Member SIPC & NYSE | www.stifel.com
MERIDITH MARTENS, artist
Ascot Point
Fine Art Animal Portraits
5 Ashton Square Hard to find elegant Ascot Point brick home with 2-car garage! Beautiful, bright & open 3BR/3BA with 3400+/-sf Updated kitchen opens to breakfast room featuring a wall of built-ins Spacious master suite on main level with luxurious bathroom & abundant closets Two enormous bedrooms upstairs Very private back yard
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336-601-6363
www.meridithmartens.com 910.315.1214 The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 2016
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Only You
WILL KNOW YOU NEVER LEFT TOWN Away
Why spend hours in your car for a weekend getaway when you can enjoy a beautiful resort, golf and spa within minutes of downtown Greensboro? Fall and Winter Specials for North Carolina residents, learn more at grandover.com/backyard grandover.com | 336.294.1800 | 1000 Club Road • Greensboro, NC 27407 | Just off I-85 & I-73 Get comfortable, you’ll be seeing a lot more of us in the future.
November 2016
BIRD FEEDER I never said we weren’t sunk in glittering nature, until we are able to become something else. — Mary Oliver Perches pique a matter of strategic challenges, this chess game of poached positions and rotating flurries of chromatic energy, as if the flash and dash of feathers in flight was more about the dance and not the flush of necessity’s plight . . . as if we ourselves were not also in restless rush, breathing out the flux and plottings of our small and uncertain profundities. — Connie Ralston
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And the ways it spreads
I
n a city shaped in part by the frontier Quaker families who established New Garden Meeting in the early 1750s, the concept of a sustaining “Inner Light” has long informed the spiritual life of Guilford County. The idea of an “inward light” or the “light of God found in every human being,” is central to Quaker doctrine, derived from numerous Biblical passages including the Gospel of John (8:12), which quotes Jesus of Nazareth explaining to his followers: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Poets and sages from every spiritual tradition have articulated some version of a divine inner light that motivates one neighbor to befriend and help another. “Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture,” Leo Tolstoy wrote in his memoir of faith, “so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn.” This autumn, as we gather round a table resplendent with the harvest of our labors, we think this to be the perfect moment to “illuminate” eight stories of local people and organizations whose quiet determination to help others in need sustains their lives and serves as a model of true friendship to us all. Most operate well beneath the public radar, grown from the grassroots of someone else’s keen personal need, living proof that there is a light within us all. And all we need to do is let it shine.— Jim Dodson
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Gathering Together
Mary Lacklen’s Community Tables feeds body and soul during the holidays By Nancy Oakley • Photograph by Amy Freeman
E
PHOTOGRAOHS COURTESEY OF COMMUNITY TABLES
arly on Thanksgiving morning they’ll arrive at the Greensboro Coliseum: The couple who’ve pitched in every year for for twenty-five years. Ted Hoffler, wielding “Excalibur,” his electric carving knife, will lead teams of carvers slicing into 1,500 pounds of boneless turkey breast along with 2,500 pounds of mashed potatoes, both cooked ahead of time at Victory Junction’s kitchens in Randleman. Others will slice 450 pumpkin pies. Legions more working in shifts — giddy high school students, church and civic groups — will fill Styrofoam clamshells with the turkey and mashed potatoes. The containers will be filled with other sides — green beans cooked in ham hocks, gravy, stuffing from the Painted Plate, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole and rolls. Counters will apportion the boxes to tables, before they are bagged two at a time with two cartons of milk. Yet more volunteers from Triad Health Project, Senior Services, Delancey Street and local churches will retrieve the meals and deliver them to recipients of the agencies’ services. One year, a ponytailed fellow made deliveries to homeless denizens of the woods and bridges. Amid the hustle and bustle will be Mary Lacklen, coordinating this massive effort known as Community Tables’ Thanksgiving Day Feast, which feeds nearly 5,000 people in need. “I feel like I’m a drill sergeant,” quips the director of operations for Libby Hill and one of the founders of Bert’s Seafood. “But you want people to have fun. You want to engage people, because somebody has to take my place eventually.” Whoever assumes Lacklen’s mantle will have a tough act to follow. A tireless community servant who also devotes time to Triad Local First and Share the Harvest, she has been a driving force behind Community Tables since its inception thirty years ago as an annual project of the now-defunct Guilford County Restaurant Association back when Lacklen served as its president. “We worked with Ham’s the first year,” she says, explaining that the meal was patterned after the annual Christmas dinner for the needy started by Ham’s proprietor Marc Freiburg. (His daughter, Anna, who runs Bender’s Tavern, has continued the tradition; for the last six years she has partnered with Lacklen, sharing funds through Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro and feeding another 5,000 people annually). “We did it outside [at the Salvation Army] on the big pig cookers. Sat up all night long,” Lacklen recalls of the initial endeavor that fed 300 people. “We” included the other guiding spirit behind Community Tables, the late Ken Conrad, former owner of Libby Hill, and Lacklen’s mentor and friend who died from pancreatic cancer just weeks after last year’s Thanksgiving meal. “I still save all my texts back and forth. I sent him pictures during the course of the day,” Lacklen remembers. She has since established the Conrad Endowment through the Foundation. The two kept the annual Thanksgiving feast going, moving first to the Greensboro Urban Ministry and then four years ago to the Coliseum. For the last five, churches have come aboard. One of them, United Congregational Church, hosts a buffet-style meal, replete with tablecloths, fresh flowers, live music, and a table of desserts and fruit, courtesy of the Fresh Market. “People come dressed in their Sunday best,” Lacklen says, some homeless, some barely getting by, some elderly and alone, some of them college students with no place to go on the holiday. From 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. they’ll arrive at the church on Radiance Drive by bus, thanks to volunteer Matt Logan, and will be greeted
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with a cup of hot cider in the lobby. “I want people to feel warm and welcome,” Lacklen says. “That was the intent.” All told, Community Tables has fed about 100,000 people in its thirty years, and each year costs rise, because, as Lacklen observes, “more and more people need food.” (It takes $25,000 and change to fund the operations for the Thanksgiving meal and the Christmas dinner at Bender’s Tavern). Lacklen is quick to point out that support comes from individuals, and all of it goes directly to the meals. “There are no administrative fees. It’s very grassrootsdriven,” she says, adding, “I’m proud of Greensboro.” And at the end of an arduous day, after seeing so many old friends and the faces of people sated from a meal, Lacklen admits she succumbs to the emotion
— and exhaustion — of the occasion. “I always cry the whole way home when I’m done,” she says. “I always try not to, but I always seem to.” OH To donate to the operations of Community Tables, go to cfgg.org and under the “give” tab, select “contribute online” and choose Thanksgiving/Holiday Fund in the dropdown menu, or mail a check, designated for the Thanksgiving/ Holiday Fund to: CFGG, 330 South Greene Street, No. 100, Greensboro, NC 27401. Additionally, donations can be made to the Conrad Endowment, which has its own field in the dropdown menu. To volunteer: Go to Community Tables’ Facebook Page, www.facebook. com/CommunityTables
Neighbors Helping Neighbors Barnabas Network refurbishes household goods and lives By Jim Dodson • Photographs by Sam Froelich
“I
n essence,” says Erin Stratford Owens, executive director of the Barnabas Network, “we are simply an example of neighbors helping neighbors achieve something so important in life — a home with proper furnishings, the basics that will let them make a better life for themselves and their families.” It’s opening time, a little after 8 a.m. on a chill and misty morning in late autumn, and already potential clients of the nonprofit organization that provides donated furniture and household items to families and individuals in transition have already begun to gather outside the organization’s 26,000-squarefoot facility on 16th Street, the former battery and tire center of the late Montgomery Ward store that previously occupied the site. Formed in late 2005 by a group of concerned parishioners at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and quickly joined by other Gate City residents who shared the view that a key to rebuilding lives is having the stability of a decently furnished apartment or house, Barnabas last year has served more than 1,000 households and 3,000 individuals. In the spirit of Saint Barnabas, described in the Acts of the Apostles as Saint Paul’s missionary traveling partner who brought Christianity to the Hellenic world of gentiles in A.D. 59, the staff of two full-time and seven part-time employees operates on a budget of roughly $400,000 a year and relies on a network of 170 different coordinated local social service agencies to screen and refer a broad section of clients, including many who were formerly homeless or disabled. Upon the proper screening and assessment of a family or individual’s household needs, the household basics — everything from refrigerators to dishes, dining room tables to teapots — are matched to the client’s specific needs. The organization’s motto is “Recycling Furniture, Restoring Lives.” “Barnabas was known as the Son of Encouragement — and that’s the spirit in which we operate,” says Owens, who left a successful news service career in New
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York to enter the nonprofit world, joining Barnabas seven years ago. “Most of us can’t imagine what it’s like not to have a decent bed to sleep in or a home that is comfortable and secure, a place to begin the process of rebuilding a life. A table, a plate, even a set of chairs can change a life,” he says. Many of Barnabas’ clients come from rehab or are fleeing domestic violence: “The stories are as diverse as they are heartbreaking — and are starting over with little or nothing. Furniture The Art & Soul of Greensboro
is expensive.” Owens says that by providing good recycled furniture and household necessities, Barnabas hopes families “take the next steps to provide for their families and take care of themselves. Good home furnishings keep families together.” The angels of the Barnabas Network are everywhere in the Gate City, Owens adds, manifest in the volunteer efforts of more than 100 volunteers and hundreds of residents who donate furniture and every household item imaginable on a regular basis. Tuesdays through Saturdays, staff members pick up donated items and deliver them to an average of six client households per day on Tuesdays through Fridays. Then there are folks like George Rettie, who came aboard on the heels of a 30-plus-year career at Guilford Building Supply. From a woodshop full of donated supplies that rivals his former domain, Rettie repairs, restores and even builds custom pieces for clients. “For me,” he says, “this is simply great
karma — using my God-given skills to help others get back into life. I love bringing furniture back to life. That’s what this place does for people.” “And the blessings keep coming,” says Erin Owens. Supported by a recent fundraising campaign chaired up by Greensboro philanthropist Bobby Long and wife Kathryn, Barnabas will soon move to a permanent home at 838 Winston Street, a gift from Mary Hart Orr and Katie Rose, daughters of the late John Ellison. The building formerly housed machinery that served the textile industry. “The new building is roughly half the size of our current one,” notes Owens, “but the way it is set up will enable us to process goods even quicker and serve many more people. This year we helped secure more than 1,000 families. Next year we’re aiming for 1,300. It’s true neighbor helping neighbor.” OH For more information (336) 370-4002 or visit Info@thebarnabasnetwork.org
The Art of Healing
The medicinal value of arts and gardens at the Cone Health Cancer Center
A
By Cynthia Adams
landscape artist and a philanthropist stand in a former eyesore in the autumn sun at the Cancer Center at Wesley Long Hospital. The last time I was here was with my mother, a breast cancer patient at the Cancer Center. (Breast cancer brings the largest number of patients to the facility.) The wetlands abutting Buffalo Creek were once hidden by a concrete wall on purpose — they were an afterthought, scruffy and forgotten. Sally Pagliai, landscape architect, and Pam Barrett, senior philanthropy officer for Cone Health, talk in a rush about the transformation of a forlorn place into a biodiverse healing garden. Getting out into nature and onto the rambling paths of the garden helps patients and families cope with the stress of catastrophic illness. Beforehand, families of patients were resigned to the lobby’s stiff-backed chairs and dog-eared magazines as they waited for their loved ones to The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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endure radiation or chemotherapy. In 2006, Pagliai’s husband was treated here when he developed cancer. After his death, a phlebotomist sent her a message. What did she think about designing a healing garden? The lanky California transplant knew what she thought. She wanted to do it. Pagliai created beautiful renderings. Like many others who enlisted, she worked for free. Administrators were eager to help. “One kind soul donated $10,000 to kick start it,” Barrett says. “We did $30,000 worth of work with it,” Paglia adds. The ideas rooted and sent up shoots. A nursery owner donated trees. Volunteers helped plant one hundred of them. Foundations and individuals donated planting beds. “The community stepped up,” Barrett says, “and we have nearly met the $1.3 million goal.” The garden opened in June of 2015. There are spaces for rest, reflection. Walkways provide easy (wheelchair-friendly) access to overlooks, patios and benches. There are balconies and patios for cancer patients.
Families donated meaningful plants, such as hellebores, from loved one’s gardens. Somebody provided a gardening shed and supplies. “Gloves, clippers, loppers,” says Pagliai. Twenty-five volunteer gardeners queued up to help keep the pathways. “We were here yesterday, weeding.” A Japanese maple garden, arbor and new labyrinth are to come. A meditation garden will be constructed near the chemotherapy and radiation treatment areas. The city, both women say, was incredibly supportive. They helped restore Buffalo Creek’s far bank, removing fallen trees and shoring up the other side. The creek is now a rippling ribbon through the wetland garden. Indoors, there is a second aspect, Healing Arts. Now families can noodle, doodle, color, paint and draw as they wait for patients. Hallways are hung with permanent and temporary artworks. (A photo exhibition is currently on display.) The program’s reach is almost frightening: In 2014 alone, 69,000 cancer patient visits occurred, and 127,000 visited the adjacent Wesley Long and Emergency Room. There are 1,475 employees. Then there are the many caregivers, themselves in need of the healing art and green space . . . a riparian scene that is as beautiful as Paglia’s renderings promised. OH To donate: ConeHealth.com/HealingGardens To volunteer: (336) 832-9450.
Royal Flush
Hands For Hearts started as a gamble — and beat the odds
“H
By Nancy Oakley • Photographs by Amy Freeman
is smile was sparkling,” says Kathleen Little of her son, Matthew Sullivan. “He loved people and people loved him.” Skotty Wannamaker, a friend of her son’s, agrees. “Matthew was one of those guys who probably had twenty best friends, and I was one of those,” he says. The two met when Wannamaker, a new kid at Page High School, was shooting hoops the second day of school, “and formed a bond immediately,” Wannamaker recalls. One that lasted twenty years — through college, marriage, careers. “Matthew had a heart that went for days,” he adds, reflecting on the friend who would drop whatever he was doing to assist or simply be with his pals. “I don’t know when he slept.”
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And Sullivan had a similarly tight bond with his 2 1/2-year-old nephew, Nicholas LaRose. Born with a multiple heart defects — a missing pulmonary artery and a large hole in his heart — Nicholas was in and out of the hospital in his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, Little says. “Matthew was there for the first open-heart surgery, and just adored him.” But Matthew Sullivan would leave an irreparable hole in everyone’s hearts and lives in January of 2014. Rounding a curve on his Kawasaki ZX-10R (or Ninja), he went off-road; perhaps because the motorcycle’s kickstand engaged when it shouldn’t have, the 34-year-old was catapulted into mid-air and into a “massive church sign,” says Little. Wannamaker and another close friend, Jeff Fusaiotti, among others couldn’t accept that their friend was gone. “The only The Art & Soul of Greensboro
thing we felt we could do,” says Wannamaker, “was to keep him alive by helping kids like Nicholas.” Where to begin? Through Nicholas’ mom Nicole LaRose, an occupational therapist at University Medical College of South Carolina, Wannamaker and Fusaiotti started chatting with top surgeons. Fusaiotti also suggested talking with a neighbor, Dr. Greg Fleming, a pediatric cardiologist who worked at Duke Children’s Specialty Services in Greensboro. The same Dr. Fleming had treated Wannamaker’s daughter, Charlotte, who had been born with a heart murmur. The three had a dinner meeting. Then came more meetings with professionals from Duke. “We understood about 15 percent of what they were telling us,” says Wannamaker, a wealth advisor for DHG in High Point. “But the parts we understood were mind-blowing,” he says. Such as: Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are the No. 1 birth defect in the United States and the world. They can range from a hole in the heart that ultimately closes (as Charlotte Wannamaker’s did), or they can be more severe, such as the multiple defects that Nicholas suffers from. And most are difficult to detect, whether they occur in utero or shortly after birth, sometimes a day or two later. But the encouraging tidbit Matthew Sullivan’s friends learned was that “in the last ten years the mortality rate of CHD kids has decreased 30 percent,” Skotty Wannamaker says. “So the research of the last ten years has trumped the research of the last forty.” Through another connection of Fusaiotti’s the two discovered Children’s Heart Foundation, a national organization that approves and funds research on CHDs. It was just the vehicle they were seeking for their fledgling nonprofit, Hands For Hearts. The Foundation serves as a “matchmaker,” to use Wannamaker’s term: It approves research projects, which can cover everything from valves to catheters. It also funds studies on conditions such as ADHD, that sometimes accompany CHDs. Hands For Hearts chooses which of the grants to support. Operating as an independent 501(c) (3) with no overhead, Wannamaker says, “We know the scientists, we know the project, we know the timetable, we get updated results. We become a part of the process.” But Hands For Hearts also has a mission to enhance the lives of local children with CHDs. This summer, the organization partnered with Camp Weaver to do a test-run sending kids to camp. “So 10-year old little girls or boys who have scars running down their chests and worry when they get out of breath have the ability to have an experience in a safe environment with medical professionals where they get to meet other kids just like them,” Wannamaker explains. To raise the money, Wannamaker, Fusaiotti and Little came up with the idea of a Casino Night held on the last Saturday in February at Greensboro Country Club. The reason? “Matthew loved to gamble,” says Wannamaker, adding, “But he was the worst gambler! I think what he loved more than the gambling, was the camaraderie that came from it.” The event seeks to create the same, with prizes as stakes rather than money, and a King and Queen of Hearts: two local children with CHDs coronated as the charity’s reigning monarchs for a year. Wannamaker credits Little with organizing, spreading the word. “She’s our rock star,” he says, pointing to a recent concert at her home for Hands For Hearts sponsors. He also credits the generosity of the community for stepping up: In just two years Hands For Hearts has raised over $200,000. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
As for Little, “I’m just so amazed at what they’ve done,” she says of Matthew’s friends. “They’re two young guys with children and professions who have poured their heart and soul into this,” she says. “They’re such a gift to our family.” Nicholas, she says, is doing well after surgery in July — possibly his last for another ten years. And Little has started her own healing process, facilitating groups of bereft parents at Beacon Place, and learning Healing Touch, a holistic approach to medicine that is gaining wider acceptance. “Matthew has sent me people,” she says of her overwhelmingly gratifying interactions with the bereaved and the afflicted. A truly winning hand for the gambler with the lion’s heart. OH For information on Hands for Hearts go to handsforhearts.org.
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Sustainably Happy Whitsett’s Peacehaven Farm lives up to its name for adults with disabilities and for their families By Annie Ferguson • Photographs by Lynn Donovan
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eff Piegari had just finished a yoga session when asked what he liked about living at Peacehaven Farm. “It’s calm,” he replied. Piegari lives with three other adults who have disabilities (aka core members), along with three resident assistants and a golden retriever named Maverick. The sustainable, 89-acre farm in Whitsett is a place where people of all abilities live and work together. Modeled after the well-known L’Arche Communities, Peacehaven was founded in 2007 by Tim and Susan Elliott along with Buck and Cathy Cochran, two couples familiar with the challenges of raising children with disabilities, who wanted to see their offspring have meaningful adult lives as well. “I’ve always been open to learning about the challenges and struggles for individuals with disabilities and their families,” says Buck Cochran, Peacehaven’s executive director, a United States Navy veteran and a former associate pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Greensboro. “As a pastor I saw in a larger way how individuals and families can struggle. Their lives can be so isolated. I was interested in finding support — to increase their connection with the larger community, with housing and vocational training, and opportunities to be with people.” The Elliotts had been his parishioners when they approached him about starting Peacehaven. After the land for it was cleared, construction started on the first group home in 2012, thanks to help from partner Habitat for Humanity of Greensboro. Sadly, Susan Elliott lost her battle with cancer three years prior, but in 2014, her legacy blossomed when the first group home, called Susan’s View, opened. “We modeled it after L’Arche Communities, which have been around for more than sixty years. The closest one to us is in Washington D.C.,” Cochran explains. “The idea is that people with disabilities are teachers, too, and that we can help them develop their talents becoming everything they’re created to be.” Plans for additional homes and a community center are in the works with the aim of housing thirty adults with disabilities. Right now the farm has a tremendous need for housing, so Cochran and other staff are doggedly pursuing funding. In 2015, more than 1,000 people of all ages volunteered at the farm, and many have become regulars. Volunteers come out for Saturday work days, tending to various outdoor projects including the plants — tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, peppers, asparagus, sweet potatoes, blueberries and more — all grown sustainably with no chemicals and an eye on water and energy conservation and sustenance for the residents and the community. Cochran says the biggest surprise in running Peacehaven has been the number of college students who give of their spare time. Nearby Elon University is one school that has been a major support network. “The first couple of years I drove the college students crazy asking why they’re here,” he says. “It’s a generational thing, these folks are really interested in the community and how they can connect what they’re learning in school with real-life stuff.” Volunteers also offer classes in which residents learn to create. One of the most popular is the fiber arts class using sheep’s wool. “It’s an activity that everyone can find something to be a part of regardless of disability,” Cochran says. “The stuff they make is awesome — a nativity set, soap with felted covers, dryer balls and more.” Developing talents, relationships and community is the lifeblood of the farm, and Cochran likens it to the area’s Quaker roots. “Quakers have this notion of letting your life speak, and I like to think that we’re doing that as an organization,” he says, “letting the life of the organization speak to the community about important things.” OH For more information on Peacehaven Farm, go to peacehavenfarm.org.
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On the Road Again How Wheels4Hope transformed a family’s life By Maria Johnson • Photographs by Charles Hartis
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ere’s what Kasie Hunt’s mornings looked like before she had a car. She woke up at 6 a.m. She got her three sons ready for school. She got herself ready for work. She hustled the two older boys to their elementary school bus stop by 7:10 a.m. She ushered her youngest son to his preschool bus stop by 7:45 a.m. Then, depending on the job and the shift she was working, Kasie, who did not own a car, negotiated a patchwork of transportation. Sometimes, she caught a city bus that took her downtown, where she transferred to another bus. A one-way trip to work usually ate up an hour-and-a-half. Other times, Kasie caught a ride with someone who had a car. “My mom, friends, family, taxis — whoever’s schedule permitted them to help me, and sometimes no one could,” she says. On Sundays, Kasie and the boys relied on a friend for a ride to church. There were no spontaneous trips. The boys had no after-school activities. All of that changed in August, when Wheels4Hope made Kasie independently mobile again. Wheels4Hope is a nonprofit organization that pairs donated cars with people who qualify. Founded in Raleigh in 2000, W4H opened an office and garage in Greensboro in 2012. There’s another location in Asheville. The Greensboro hub, at 4006 Burlington Road, has matched more than 130 cars with drivers who were referred by local agencies that help people become self-sufficient. Kasie’s referral came from Partnership Village, a Greensboro Urban Ministry community for formerly homeless people. Kasie has lived there with her sons for the last year-and-a-half. She got sober more than two years ago and started rebuilding her life. She worked in a school cafeteria for a while. Then, she regained her status as a licensed practical nurse — a privilege that she gave up voluntarily when addiction overwhelmed her — and she started working at a rehabilitation center. She earned her driver’s license back. The next step was to get a reliable car. A friend told her about Wheels4Hope. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Like all W4H car recipients, Kasie had to meet several conditions, including the ability to pay $500, plus title and transfer fees, and to show proof of insurance. Kasie explained, on her W4H application, what having a car would mean to her. “I think I wrote a page and a half,” she says. She received her vehicle at a “car blessing” at First Baptist Church in Greensboro. “Oh man, it was really a good feeling,” she says. “You should have seen the smile on my face.” Now, she scoots around town in a dark green 2002 Ford Focus. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a game-changer for Kasie and her family. “I don’t know anything about the person who gave the car, but you can tell they took really good care of it,” Kasie says. Her boys play football in after-school leagues now. They go to the public library. And the Greensboro Children’s Museum. And the PlayPlace at McDonald’s. “It’s such a good feeling, not to be a burden on someone and to be able to do things for my kids,” says 29-year-old Kasie. “It’s easy to take things for granted, you know?” People who donate cars to W4H can feel good, too. When their cars go to people who have been referred by W4H’s partner agencies, donors can claim a tax credit equal to the car’s fair market value, typically between $2,000 and $4,000. W4H sells the more valuable donated cars on its retail lot. In those cases, donors can claim tax credits equal to the sale prices of the vehicles. Cars that cannot be driven or that need extensive repair are sold to dealers. Donors can claim at least a $500 tax credit, more if their car sells for over $500. W4H plows the revenue back into the goal of getting dependable cars to struggling families. “It’s wonderful to see how excited the recipients are when they receive the keys to their vehicle and a new life,” says W4H spokeswoman Deborah Bryant. OH Learn more about Wheels4Hope at wheels4hope.org. The Greensboro office number is (336) 355-9130. November 2016
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How Their Garden Grows
With faith, hope, love and hundreds of Out of the Garden Project volunteers all in a (proverbial) row, Don and Kristy Milholin feed the hungry By Annie Ferguson • Photographs by Lynn Donovan
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he year 2009 was a tough one for Don and Kristy Milholin. Like so many others, Kristy, a hairstylist, and Don, a church music director, were feeling the crunch of the Great Recession. “But there were people who had it worse,” says Kristy. Therein lay the couple’s mindset and thus the impetus for Out of the Garden Project, the largest organization whose mission is combating childhood hunger in Guilford County. “We learned of six families at Morehead Elementary who needed extra food, so we started packing food for them around our small dining room table,” Kristy explains. “Two or three years before, I kept telling my husband that I felt this aching. I knew I needed to do something, and I didn’t know what it was.” It turns out the couple found that something and then some. With the help of volunteers, their operation quickly grew. When people started donating money, the Milholins filed for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. “It takes longer than you’d expect,” says Don, the organization’s executive director. “I took a nonprofit management course at Duke, and there I learned it takes about ninety hours to get everything in order.” The time-intensive effort has paid dividends by way of the sheer number of meals the project now provides hungry children and their families. Through its various programs operating from a donated warehouse space at C3 Greensboro, Out of the Garden Project yields 100,000 meals a month with the help of 800 volunteers, and by the end of this year it will reach its 5 millionth meal. “It’s the community that’s built around our tables that’s changing the world, not just a bag of food,” Don says. “One friend comes in, and I always thank him. He says, ‘You know Don, I’m not doing this for you.’ He’s there because he has the feeling that he needs to do something. They all have that heart.” The fresh food program gets to the heart of Kristy’s calling to feed the hungry. “Fresh Mobile Markets — now our biggest program — sends trucks go out to twenty-two different locations.” Some of them are food deserts, neighborhoods where there’s a shortage of grocery stores for those without cars. Other locations target those who simply don’t have the money to buy groceries. “We include donated produce, meat products, pizza and breads,” Kristy explains. “I find comfort knowing the children don’t have to worry if they’re going to have a meal or not tonight,” says Kristy.
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For Kristy, the seed was planted long ago: “Growing up, there was a time when my three siblings and I only had rice and gravy to eat. When my mom landed a better job, we could finally go to the store and pick out what we wanted. I remember getting a cantaloupe. We hadn’t had one in such a long time. When something like this happens to you, you empathize when you get older.” Don and Kristy host summer camps and started a food reclamation program that saves leftover food from school cafeterias to give to families in need. “Don’s been the innovative thinker in getting food out to children in these unorthodox ways,” Kristy says. Don explains, “My brain doesn’t function on a linear line. When we see a need and when we think how we can fill a need, often the world thinks of why we shouldn’t do that.” Then the Milholins show everyone why they should. OH For more information about Out of the Garden Project and its programs, or how to donate time and money, visit outofthegardenproject.org. Editor’s note: Out of the Garden was recently selected as a partner with the City of Greensboro, awarded a $470,000 Local Food Program Implementation grant from the federal government.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Leveling the Playing Field
How Sari Rose uses soccer to teach the disadvantaged life skills By Ross Howell Jr. • Photographs by Amy Freeman
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he reason I left collegiate soccer may sound cheesy,” says Sari Rose, director of the Greensboro United Soccer Foundation (GUSF). “I played at Wake Forest, then coached. But with double majors — politics and religion — I found myself wanting to work with kids in need.” The first step was graduate study at UNCG. There, Rose met Thomas Martinek, a professor in the School of Health and Human Sciences. Martinek coordinates graduate pedagogy in the Kinesiology Department and oversees the Community Youth Sports Development program. “I helped Dr. Martinek run Project Effort and the Youth Leaders Corps [YLC],” Rose says. “Project Effort is an after-school program for elementary and middle school students using physical activity to promote personal and social responsibility. YLC is for high school students.” “As I was finishing my studies,” she continues, “I approached Pete Polonsky, executive director of the Greensboro United Soccer Association (GUSA), about my idea for a nonprofit. I wanted to work with kids in physical activity and youth leadership from elementary school all the way through high school. Often high school kids have afterschool jobs, so the usual activities schedule is out. They can get lost.” With coaches already working in the community, Polonsky asked Rose if she’d consider running her program through GUSA’s foundation. “What’s funny is that I’d always said my ideal job would be directing a nonprofit using sport to impact the lives of kids and the community in positive ways. Pete was offering me my dream!” Rose recalls. “Some of the kids in our program are great athletes and some aren’t. So we talk about life skills, success skills. Say we’ll do a drill to improve dribbling and passing. Then we’ll ask, ‘OK, what if you worked that hard on your math at school?’” The program also offers paid referee positions to kids who need incomes. “We get kids to think about sport as a way to earn income, whether as a referee or coach. We also help them get on track for community college or college, since some of our practice venues are campuses.” But for many children in need, transportation is a problem. Rose’s solution? “We found a 30-year-old church bus in Hendersonville and raised money to purchase it. An individual donated new tires. So now we drive kids to events in this neon-green bus with purple wheels. They love it!” She smiles. “Well, not everybody is crazy about the purple rims.” Currently the (GUSF) runs weekly programs in six different schools and the Boys and Girls Club. There is a Saturday Soccer program at Presbyterian Church of the Cross, where Guilford County Police Department officers work with the children. This past summer, in addition to a Boys and Girls Club camp and a Soccer Nights camp with Cross Fellowship Church, GUSF offered a free soccer camp for refugee children. “People in the community were incredibly generous,” Rose says, “with food, clothing, hygiene items, shoes, jerseys, caps, gear. Coaches from all over North Carolina donated their time. The kids were so appreciative. Those gruff coaches would be running drills, next thing you know, they’re hugging the kids, encouraging them.” OH To learn more about Greensboro United Soccer Foundation, go to gusafoundation.org. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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Makin’ It Happen
From bookbinding to oyster shuckers, Greensboro’s Mini Maker Faire makes its debut Photographs by Amy Freeman
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ood, wire, metal, plastic, paper . . . Against the whirr and buzz of machinery, and the hum of enthusiastic onlookers, a group of inventors, artists, artisans and entrepreneurs gathered earlier this fall at the Forge in downtown for Greensboro’s first Mini Maker Faire. One of a growing number of communal workspaces, the Forge offers classes in woodworking, metalworking and electronics, all highlighted in various incarnation at the Faire. Call them lost tradecrafts or vocational skills; they were once the stuff of high school curricula and science clubs. Now they’re making a resurgence in the D.I.Y. wave of post-Recesssion, 21st-century America. Below, a few examples of creativity, innovation and skill, which the Gate City obviously has in spades.
No, this contraption is not an Erector Set, but a 3-D printer. Usually filled with a plastic powder or coils, these machines emit fully sculpted objects that have been plotted on all axes by a computer.
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So much for e-books claiming the life of paper and print. Bookbinding is alive and well in the world of Gerald Ward (bibliopathologist.com). The artisan with a B.A. in English and a Masters of Library and Information Science from UNCG fashions journals and sketchbooks for sale, and works as a book and paper conservator. Ward also offers workshops in the traditional craft, including a recent session at Gibb’s Hundred Brewing Company, “Bookbinding and Beer.”
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
It doesn’t matter whether you pronounce them “oysters” or “ersters.” What does matter is that you can crack their shells. Thanks to Phillip Fuentes, you’re in luck. Though he considers himself a cabinetmaker, the Greensboro resident learned blacksmithing to make the tools of his trade. He is shown here “blacksmithing” his elegant oyster shuckers. Check out Fuentes’ Etsy page at www.etsy. com/people/PFCabinetmaker.
That pinwheel shape you see will be hung aloft as a part of a mobile, those mesmerizing airborne sculptures that move with the air currents. Made from cans, the mobiles are the work of Michelle Folkman (michellefolkman.com), an instructor in digital media and design at Davidson County Community College.
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Billing himself as “an author, a scholar, an inventor, an artisan,” Stephen Chapman is an engineer by day and an “enganear” in his spare time. An enthusiast of Steampunk (a subgenre of science fiction incorporating technology and design), Chapman exhibits the inner workings of guns and his novel, The Stonehenge Rift, about a weapons master for a secret organization in 1890s England.
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The fine ribbons of wood fiber fly, as Barry Walker turns a bowl into a smooth, fine work of art.
The AIA (American Institute of Architects) hosted a “canstruction” competition, in which participants build structures from cans of food, which are then donated to local food shelters — part of AIA’s mission of “deCANstructing hunger.”
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- Story of a House -
Tearing Down Walls For Kathleen Lucas, remodeling was essential to moving in and moving on
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By Maria Johnson • Photographs by John Gessner
nyone who ever carried a feverish child to Dr. Kathleen Lucas’ pediatrics practice — and there are three or four thousand of us — would recognize her new home immediately from the outside. The purplish colors, clean lines and tropical vibe echo her former office at the corner of Yanceyville and Meadow streets in Greensboro. Just look at her mailbox post, which is punctuated with purple house numbers and, underneath, a small flag with a smiling frog. “Welcome to My Pad.” Check out the purple-roofed birdhouse by the street. See the Zen garden with a sculptural fountain. Rest your eyes on the angular front porch and a door that blossoms with a stained-glass flower, a bird of paradise, made by her sister, an artist. Inside, the theme repeats. Purple. Playful. Peaceful. What former patients and others might not recognize immediately, though, is the curative power of the house, which Lucas moved into earlier this year following a patch of personal upheaval. Her husband of twenty-two years left in 2011.
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A year later, with divorce on the horizon, Lucas retired earlier than she had planned. Rather than cling to a stable part of her life, her career, she let go. “Well, I always jump in,” she says with a self-effacing laugh. She sits at a dining room table that’s topped, appropriately enough, with granite. “I never go around the periphery. I walk right through it.” Her raspy, tell-it-like-it-is voice remains the same as it’s always been. Her naturally gray hair is longer than it was for most of her doctoring years. And she’s thinner, at age 64, than most patients would remember. For two years, she felt, quite literally, as if there was a hole carved in the center of her. She lost 40 pounds as she shed the symbols of her old life. She and her ex-husband sold the Prairie-style medical building that they’d designed and built on Yanceyville Street. Then Lucas sold a home she loved, the one she’d bought after her residency at Moses Cone Hospital, the one she’d added onto, and groomed, and grown — with her ex’s help — into a haven worthy of a lifestyle piece in the local newspaper. After the split, she realized the yard was too big for her to tend. Gardening was his thing. She realized something else, too. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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“I felt that I would be better off, after the divorce, getting myself in a new environment,” she says. “Moving to a new place would give me a new vision to move on.” So the physician set about healing herself. She moved to an apartment. She made plans to travel, something she’d always enjoyed. “I decided that the fact that I was single wasn’t going to keep me from doing what I wanted to do,” she says.
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fan of Asian architecture, she yearned to see the East again, having spent six weeks in Nepal during a med-school rotation. A family, whose children had been patients, invited her to stay with them in Singapore. She took them up on the offer. From there, she traveled alone to Thailand. She spent a few days in Bangkok, then pressed on to the country town of Chang Mai, where she visited a preserve for elephants that had been abused. “We got to wash elephants in the river,” she says. She signed up for a nighttime bicycle tour. No one else did. Not to be foiled by the two-person minimum, she paid double the $20 ticket price. Her young guide led her on a private tour all over town. He stopped at the local market and explained the different kinds of produce. He took her to Buddhist temples, which glimmered with gold at night. “That felt like Thailand to me,” she says. “I got to see the culture.” She flew to Krabi, home of towering limestone formations, known as karsts, that jut from the South Andaman Sea. Most people go to Phuket to see the karsts. “I didn’t go there,” Lucas says. “I don’t go where other people go.” She rented a longboat with a guide and snorkeled the caves of the karsts. On the way back home, on a layover in Tokyo, she looked at Zillow, the real estate website, on her phone. She searched for one-story homes in the New Garden area, where she’d lived and wanted to stay. She got a hit: a 1962 brick ranch with three bedrooms, a full basement and a carport. She tapped on the pictures. There were only exterior shots — a potential red flag — but she was undeterred. She liked the lines of the house. The brick reminded her of the house she’d just sold. She liked the dogwood tree, which was pictured in bloom, in the backyard. She liked the lake behind the house.
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She made an appointment. She closed on the 2,800-square-foot house a couple of months later and got to work with her old friend and collaborator, architect Carl Myatt, who’d designed Lucas’ medical building on Yanceyville Street. “I’ve been a lucky guy to get her for two projects,” says Myatt. “The first time, you have to educate the client. The second time, it’s fun.” Like many homes of the era, Lucas’ ranch was a warren of walls and halls inside. She wanted more openness and light. She wanted to see the lake when she walked in the front door. “I did what I did with the other house: I took down walls,” she says. “I don’t like things that impede me from going forward.” By understanding the value of demolition, she cleared one of the biggest hurdles faced by people who love a home’s exterior but shrink at a boxy interior. “Most people are afraid to open it up,” says Myatt, the architect. “Don’t be afraid.” In most cases, if the walls are load-bearing, they can be replaced by ceiling beams that are propped up by posts, he says. An architect and a structural engineer usually can lick the challenge for a few thousand dollars. “It’s expensive, but not outrageous,” says Myatt. The walls that Lucas erased — around the foyer, dining room and kitchen — were not loadbearing. She added a beam across the ceiling for visual reasons. Two mahogany posts under the beam are cosmetic, too, like commas separating the entry from the rest of the room. More walls came down at the end of a central hallway, where Myatt fused the master bedroom with a bedroom across the hall to create a master suite with an enormous dressing room. Japanesestyle sliding screens function as doors to the dressing room and bathroom. Myatt also bumped out the master by 6 feet at back of the house and added a small deck overlooking the lake. “I like to sit out here and have coffee,” says Lucas. Myatt enlarged another lakefront room, the den, by 8 feet. He tacked on a larger deck there. Both decks, cedar stained dark red, are hemmed with horizontal cables. “That’s so you can see the lake,” Myatt says. “We provided pickets you could see through.” On the front of the house, Myatt drew a gabled overhang that rests on square posts over fieldstone piers. The additions bear Lucas hallmarks: geometric lines, low angles, big windows; and purplish hues that include Sherwin-Williams’ dusty Renwick Heather and the taupe Manor House. Myatt approved of the palette. “If clients have an imagination that I can bring out, I do that, and she has an imagination with The Art & Soul of Greensboro
color,” Myatt says. “She has a good control of color and good feel of what she likes. I would say it’s an upbeat color scheme.” And the style of the home? It’s not Prairie, says Myatt. Or Asian. Or Craftsman. You might call it post-Modern, but that’s too generic. “It’s really her. It’s her style,” he says. “I’d say that’s a Kathleen Lucas design. I only interpreted her personality, her desires.”
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ucas traces her architectural taste to a love of Asian design and the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, who was enthralled by Japanese motifs. In renovating her home, Lucas applied the principles of functional beauty that she admires. The overhaul tapped a reservoir of goodwill. Over the years, Lucas had treated the children of three people who worked on her home. “You know them, so you trust them,” she says, mirroring the trust she’d won during her 25-year practice. The tradesmen stripped the carpet and tile out of the home’s main level and laid down white oak floors swabbed with a walnut stain to prevent yellowing. A floating floor of sturdy bamboo went down in the basement. “If I have a shag-dance party, this is where it’ll be,” says Lucas, a grandmother of four who has been taking dancing lessons. She opted for simple lines again with the upstairs fireplace, which was brick, painted white, with a traditional mantel. She dropped the mantel and hid the brick by sheathing the fireplace with new surfaces. Workers glued drywall to the sides. On the front, they stuck travertine marble — leftover from Lucas’ other house — and tongue-in-groove boards. A metal tree of life sprouts from the diagonal boards. The result is a sleek focal point for the den. Lucas also modernized the master bath with a vessel sink, pebbled floors and a walk-in shower that’s walled with granite, interrupted by a vertical stripe of glassy blue tile. The band resembles a waterfall. With 3-foot-wide doors and smooth thresholds throughout the master, Lucas planned for the long run. “It’s accessible, if I’m ever in a wheelchair,” she says. In the half-bath, she chopped down a narrow wall next to the vanity, and painted the walls — what else? — purple. She’s so sensitive to color that she painted the toilet niche a slightly darker shade of purple so that it would appear, when illuminated by a bright light from above, to be the same shade as the rest of the room. What is it about purple? “I see the warmth and excitement in purple,” she says. “You know, purple represents power and suffering. In the Catholic Church, they drape the November 2016
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altar with purple during Lent and around Christmas. Aesthetically, I like it, but also what the color represents is important to me.” She’s had her share of trials, and not just from the recent divorce. As a kid growing up in Morganton, West Virginia, she suffered from a lazy eye. She wore an eye patch, then glasses from a young age. A bicycle wreck at age 6 knocked out teeth and required surgery on her face and mouth. She wore braces until she was 15. Some kids made fun of her lazy eye and bucked teeth. “I never felt like I was less of a kid, but it made me realize at a young age that if you’re not within the norm of the group, someone is going to pick you out and pick on you,” she recalls. “I had sympathy for kids with disabilities, and things that were different about them. I think that’s why I went into pediatrics.”
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ut first, she went to Woodstock. At age 17. In a VW bus. With kids from the Catholic parish at West Virginia University. “I was with a church group, if you want to say that,” she says, laughing. “I was a hippie.” Married right after high school, she became a mom at age 19 and again at age 21. She ended the abusive marriage soon after her second son was born. Subsisting on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a welfare program, she took student loans to snare a degree in medical technology. She worked in labs for a few years, then, using scholarships and more loans, she went to medical school at Marshall University. “If I hadn’t been a pediatrician and gone to medical school, I would have been an architect. My second love is architecture,” she says. A body, a house. They’re not that different, she points out. Both are physical structures with support systems that change as time passes – developmental phases they’re called in pediatrics. Lucas’ latest phase has been expensive. She has spent as much money on renovating her house as she did on buying it. The upside: She has purchased a lifetime of creativity. Future projects include landscaping the backyard and enclosing the carport. A new electrical-engineer boyfriend — whom she met, fittingly, at a children’s birthday party — helps her with wiring questions. The work is ongoing. “It’s actually been emotional,” she says. “Doing this house was part of me moving on. This is my job, and it’s an enjoyable job, during my retirement. This is a new phase of my life.” OH Maria Johnson is a contributing editor of O.Henry. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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ELIZABETH BRADFORD Time + Terrain
August 13 – November 19
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BRAHM
159 Chestnut Street Blowing Rock, NC
828.295.9099 www.BlowingRockMuseum.org Presented by Wells Fargo Private Bank
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
- Botanicus -
The South’s Favorite Nut Whether “pee-can” or “puh-con,” it’s actually a fruit — and makes for delicious pies
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By Ross Howell Jr.
quirrels have been foraging in the pecan trees for weeks; come November the crows take a turn. They’ve gathered at dawn in the big trees scattered among neighbors’ yards around the corner from our house. They’re raucous, but they don’t seem especially quarrelsome this morning — though with crows, it’s always hard to tell. As I turn the corner with my dogs, a sentinel sounds the alarm. None of the other crows seem to pay much mind. Their dark shapes litter the street, sidewalk and tree limbs, as if a UPS truck loaded with black fabric remnants had sped by with its cargo door rolled up. They squawk and clatter as hulls and shells patter across the asphalt. The dogs lift their ears, curious about the commotion. A crow picks up a pecan in its beak and flies to the power line over the street. It perches and drops the nut, watching it tumble down, bounce and spin on the pavement. The bird glides down, cocks its head to inspect its work, picks up the pecan and flies back to the line. It drops the nut again. It bounces, not so high this time, and rolls unevenly to a stop. Success. The crow flutters down and pecks at the spoils. OK, I just called the pecan a “nut,” which it isn’t, really. Technically, it’s a drupe, which is a fruit with a single stone or pit, protected by a husk (sometimes called a “shuck”). The four-sectioned pecan shuck is spongy and green, eventually drying and becoming thinner, turning dark brown, and opening as the drupe matures, exposing a thin shell containing the nut, or more accurately, the seed. North Carolina’s Piedmont is located on the northernmost and westernmost geographical region where the pecan tree, Carya illinoinensis, thrives. The pecan is a species of hickory native to Mexico and the Southcentral and Southeastern United States. The name “pecan” derives from the Algonquian word describing a nut that requires a stone to crack it. Native Americans foraged for pecans and traded them between tribes. Spanish explorers in the 16th century were the first Europeans to describe the nut, coming across pecans in what is now Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. Thomas Jefferson grew pecans at his Virginia home, Monticello, and George Washington wrote in his journal that Jefferson had made him a gift of “Illinois nuts,” which he planted at Mount Vernon (Both Jefferson and Washington obviously lacked USDA climactic range maps.) In the South, the pecan was often planted as a “homestead” tree, its bounty providing a remarkable amount of energy as a food, especially when compared with wild game or other comestibles more arduous to acquire. Deciduous, the pecan can reach the height of 140 feet, with a trunk more than 6 feet in diameter. Trees produce both male flowers (catkins) and female flowers, and have been known to produce edible pecans over a three-century life span. That places the pecan among the longest-lived trees of the Southern forest. To some it’s the “pee-can” and to others, the “puh-con;” no one in the South seems to agree on the correct pronunciation. What we do agree on is that the tree has given us two of our favorite desserts, pralines and pecan pie. Uh-oh. Another pronunciation quarrel. “Pray-leens” or “praw-leens”? On the pronunciation of “pie,” we agree. Although not, of course, with our neighbors to the North. I’d like a little whipped cream to top mine, please. And if your recipe happens to include chocolate, that’s fine by me. OH When Ross Howell Jr. is not thinking about or eating pie, he’s working on a novel, walking his dogs and preparing his garden beds for winter.
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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.
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It was Autumn, and incessant Piped the quails from shocks and sheaves And, like living coals, the apples Burned among the withering leaves. –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow By Ash Alder
Sprout Clout
November is crisp air and burn piles, corn crows and starlings, stone soup and Aunt Viola’s pumpkin bars. Many consider this eleventh month to be an auspicious time for manifestation. But first we must clear out the old. As we rake the fallen leaves that blanket the lawn, something deep within us stirs, and an ordinary chore becomes a sacred ritual. This is no longer about yard work. We look up from tidy leaf piles to naked branches, a gentle reminder that we, too, must let go. And so we stand in reverent silence, eyes closed as autumn sunlight paints us golden. In this moment, even if we feel sadness or grief, we give thanks for nature’s wisdom and the promise of spring. Wind chimes sing out from a neighbor’s porch, and we exhale a silent prayer. This month in the garden, plant cool-weather annuals such as petunias and snapdragons, and color your Thanksgiving feast delicious with cold-weather crops such as beets, carrots and Brussels sprouts. Arguably the country’s most hated vegetable (if overcooked, these edible buds turn pungent), one cup of Brussels sprouts is said to contain four times more vitamin C than an orange. Our friends across the pond sure go bonkers over them. In 2008, Linus Urbanec of Sweden wolfed down a whopping thirty-one in one minute, a Guinness World Record. Not to be outdone, in 2014, 49-year-old Stuart Kettell pushed a Brussels sprout to the top of Mount Snowdon — the highest summit in Wales — using only his nose. Although this peculiar mission was designed to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, it also raises a valid question: What else might this cruciferous veggie inspire? Perhaps a nice cherry or Dijon glaze? Better yet, bust out the panko and try your hand at Buffalo Brussels. Thanksgiving football will never be the same.
No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace As I have seen in one autumnal face. —John Donne
To Health The ArtYour & Soul of Greensboro
To Your Health
Chrysanthemums are the birth flower of November. Sometimes called mums or chrysanths, this perennial grows best in full sunshine and fertile, sandy soil. Because the earliest mums all had golden petals, many view this fall bloomer as a symbol of joy and optimism. First cultivated in China, these daisylike flowers so entranced the Japanese that they adopted one as the crest and seal of the Emperor. In fact, Japan continues to honor the flower each year with the Festival of Happiness. Legend has it that placing a chrysanthemum petal at the bottom of a wine glass promises a long, healthy life.
Arboreal Wisdom
The ancient Celts looked to the trees for knowledge and wisdom. According to Celtic tree astrology, those born from October 28 – November 24 associate with the reed, a sweet-smelling, canelike grass the ancients used to thatch roofs, press into floors, and craft into arrows, whistles and flutes. Think Pan’s pipe. Reed people are the secret keepers of the zodiac. They can see beyond illusion and have a strong sense of truth and honor. But anyone can look to this sacred and useful plant for its virtuous qualities. When the wind blows through a field of them, it is said you can hear their otherworldly song. But you must be willing to receive their message. Reed people are most compatible with other reed, ash (February 19– March 17) or oak (June 10–July 7) signs. In the Ogham, a sacred Druidic alphabet, the symbol of the reed spells upset or surprise.
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November 2016 Whose Woods These Are
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November 1–30
November 1–Spring 2017
START PLANNING NOW! Last year’s Jazz Nativity, featuring jazz arrangements of familiar carols, brought a full house prompting an encore show. Spaces are going quickly, so mark your calendars for this year’s concerts on 12/2 and 12/3. Times vary. West Market Street United Methodist Church. 302 West Market Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 275-4875 or wmsumc.org.
POETIC PROMENADE. Downtown’s Visual Poetry Walk, a collaboration between Writers’ Group of the Triad and local artists, features ten art installations that interpret poetry, ten of which will be auctioned off on 11/5. Don’t miss Leashed, by O.H. contributor Michael Gaspeny, illustrated by sculptor Ben Stinson. From Greensboro Public Library, 219 North Church Street, to ArtMongerz, 619 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: facebook.com/visualpoetryGSO.7555.
ART HISTORY 101. See the interplay between local history and art in video installations inspired by Janet Echelman’s sculpture in LeBauer Park at Weaving Wonder With Historical Threads. Greensboro Historical Museum, 130 Summit Avenue, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2043 or greensborohistory.org.
DESIGNING WOMAN. 5 p.m. That would be Cynthia Leibrock, author, lecturer, whose use of universal design aims to improve the health and lives of people. Francis Auditorium, Phillips Hall, HPU, One University Parkway, High Point. Info: highpoint.edu/community. TOS(CA)-UP. 7:30 p.m. Republicans! Royalists!! A love affair! Backstabbing! No, it’s not the 2016 election but Piedmont Opera’s production of Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. Stevens Center, 405 West Fourth Street, Winston-Salem. Tickets: (336) 721-1945 or piedmontopera.org. SANGUINE. 7 p.m. Catch a screening of Wise Blood, the film adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s first novel. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 7631919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
November 1 & 2 DIG IT! 9 a.m. Encourage your kids to play in the dirt with tours of Gateway Gardens and Tanger Bicentennial Gardens with the Guilford County Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Youth Development Division. To reserve: (336) 373-7757 or email anna.hoy@ greensboro-nc.gov.
November 1– 6 LAST CHANCE. To see Insistent Objects: Works by Young NC Sculptors. GreenHill, 200 North Davie Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 333-7460 or greenhillnc.org. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 1–December 11 CHERCHEZ LA FEMME. Explore subliminal messages in advertising images — minus the ad copy at Unbranded: A Century of White Women 1915–2015. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 334-5770 or weatherspoon.uncg.edu.
November 1–December 23 TEN BY TEN. See works relevant to the era in which they were amassed at Decade by Decade: Art Acquired in Its Time. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 334-5570 or weatherspoon.uncg.edu.
November 1–December 31 FIELDS AND DREAMS. Learn the importance of farming in American culture from 1850–1950 at Grant Wood and the American Farm. Reynolda House Museum of American Art, 2250 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem. Tickets: (888) 663-1149 or reynoldahouse.org.
Nov. 1–Feb. 26, 2017 FROSTED FLAKES. Brace yourself for winter with In Falling Snow: Japanese Prints from the Lenoir C. Wright Collection. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 334-5570 or weatherspoon.uncg.edu.
November 2 EARTH ALERT. 1 p.m. Join a lunch and learn session centered around Jonathan Bloom’s book, American Wasteland. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2402 or gsofarmersmarket.org. AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Clare Beams, author of We Show What We Have Learned. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com. WORDSTRUCK. 6 to 9 p.m. Lay some tile — Scrabble tile — at Reading Connections’ fundraiser, Scrabble Challenge. Empire Room, Elm Street Center, 203 South Elm Street, Greensboro. To register: (336) 230-2223 or readingconnections.org.
November 3 PERSONA PEP TALK. 6:30 p.m. Writers’ Group of the Triad offers a workshop on how to create characters and their motives from storyteller Bruce Kirchoff. Sternberger Artist Center, 712 Summit Avenue, Greensboro. To register: wgotcharacters.eventbrite.com[ck].
November 3 & 5 GET DOWN WITH THE MOZART SOUND. 8 p.m. Flautist Debra Reuter-Pivetta joins Greensboro Symphony Orchestra for “The Magic of Mozart,” featuring Flute Concerto No. 1, overture from The Magic Flute and Symphony No. 39. November 2016
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Arts Calendar
Dana Auditorium, 5800 West Friendly Avenue, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 335-5456, ext. 224 or greensborosymphony.org.
November 3–5 WHOSE WOODS THESE ARE. Stephen Sondheim’s, that’s who. See Into the Woods, courtesy of Greensboro Performing Arts. Performance times vary. Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com. SISTER ACT. Back by popular demand is Touring Theatre of North Carolina’s Dr. Claribel, Ms. Etta and the Brothers Cone, adapted and compiled by Brenda Schleunes. Times vary. Upstage Cabaret, Triad Stage, 232 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 272-0160 or ttnc.org.
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MODERN MADNESS. If you think Alice’s adventures in Wonderland are nutty, see UNCG Theatre’s Reckless, the story of a woman’s wild ride in contemporary America. Performance times vary. Brown Building Theatre, 402 Tate Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 334-3492 or triadstage.org.
November 4 TOOT SUITE. 8 p.m. Or rather, serenade — Mozart Wind Serenade K. 388 —the centerpiece of Sitkovetsky & Friends Chamber series, with guest flautist Debra Reuter-Pivetta. UNCG School of Music Recital Hall, 100 McIver Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 335-5456, ext. 224 or greensborosymphony.org. LET’S GROOVE TONIGHT. 10 p.m. Put on yer dancin’ shoes for Pop-Up Dance Party, with DJ Jessica Mashburn spinnin’ tracks. Print Works Bistro, 702 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. Info: (336) 379-0699 or printworksbistro.com.
November 4–6 STUFF AND NONSENSE. Peruse antiques, collectibles and assorted eye candy at Super Flea Market. And while you’re at it, head over to the Holiday Market for plenty of Yule-worthy merch. Times vary. Special Events Center, Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com.
November 5 The Old North State Team brings objectivity, expertise, and flexibility in planning your financial goals.
BOOK BANTER. 2 p.m. & 4 p.m. WFDD Book Club meets to discuss Julia Franks’ Over the Plain Houses. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com. AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. In conjunction with Triad VegFest, Charlie Engle reads from Running Man, his memoir about running as a part of recovery. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
Michael Spohn
Susan Beard
Jan Metcalf
Shea Abernethy
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ROSEMARY TIME! 8:30 a.m. Forget the parsley, sage and thyme. Rosemary takes center stage as Chef Steve Terrill offers up delicacies inspired by the aromatic herb. Bring the tykes along for Kids First Saturday. Harvest Learning Café, Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2402 or gsofarmersmarket.org.
November 6 BAZAAR-O! 10 a.m. Pottery, glass, scarves, jewelry and
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Arts Calendar
more can be yours for a good cause: The Early Childhood Engagement Center at Temple Emanuel. Temple Emanuel, 1129 Jefferson Road, Greensboro. Info: (336) 292-7899 tegreensboro.org. AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 3 p.m. Meet Sarah Sweeney author of Tell Me If You’re Lying. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com. HERBIVORES UNITE! 11 a.m. Come to Triad VegFest, and learn all about plant-based diets. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 3732402 or gsofarmersmarket.org.
November 7 AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Cece Bell, children’s author of El Deafo. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
November 9 FLAN FARE. 7 p.m. For the Year of Flannery O’Connor, attend the lighthearted discussion, “Faith, Fiction & Skepticism: O’Connor, Dostoyevsky & Camus.” Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
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November 10 BARK KNIGHT. Noon. Tony Bost, retired Forsyth County Extension agent, presents “Selecting Native Trees” at this month’s Lunch and Learn. Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden, 215 South Main Street, Kernersville. To register: (336) 9967888 or cienerbotanicalgarden.org.
November 10–20 PICKUP PICK-ME-UP. Ten Texans compete for a brandnew truck in the musical comedy Hands on a Hardbody, a production of GTCC’s Theater program. Performance dates and times vary. The Center for Creative and Performing Arts Theatre, 901 South Main Street, Building H-2, High Point. Tickets (High Point Theatre box office): (336) 887-3001 or highpointheatre.com.
November 11 S’IL VOUS PLAÎT. 5:30 p.m. Have your tykes learn the one of the most important words in the English language at a reading of Please Say Please! by author Kyle T. Webster. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com. WINSTON COUP. 8 p.m. George Winston tickles the ivories with his melodic tunes inspired by the seasons and landscapes. High Point Theatre, 220 East Commerce Place, High Point. Tickets: (336) 887-3001 or highpointtheatre.com.
November 11–13; 17–20 CONDITIONAL LOVE. Catch Drama Center’s staging of the musical comedy, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Performance times vary. Stephen D. Hyers Studio Theatre, Greensboro Cultural Center, 200 North Davie Street, Greensboro. Tickets: greensboro-nc.edu.
November 11–20 RAINBOW COALITION. Meaning, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion — and the little The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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dog, too. See Community Theatre Greensboro’s production of The Wizard of Oz. Performance dates and times vary. Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com. COLOR RUN. Paintings come to life in Pinkie and Blue, a UNCG Theatre production. Performance times vary. Taylor Theatre, 406 Tate Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 334-3492 or triadstage.org. PLUGGED IN. 7:30 p.m. And yet, unplugged. Hear the acoustic sounds of singer/songwriter Joe Pug. Crown at the Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com.
November 12 IRON WILL. 10 a.m. He just doesn’t quit. Catch the Blacksmith in action. High Point Museum, 1859 East Lexington Avenue, High Point. Info: (336) 885-1859 or highpointmuseum.com. AMONG EQUALS. 3 p.m. Historian Phyllis Bridges discusses the unfolding of the civil rights movement in High Point. High Point Museum, 1859 East Lexington Avenue. High Point. Info: (336) 885-1859 or highpointmuseum.org.
November 13 HANDIWORK. 11 a.m. Start your Christmas shopping early at Made 4 the Holidays, featuring arts, crafts and pottery. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2402 or gsofarmersmarket.org. FARENHEIT 451. 2 p.m. Normally books and fire don’t mix — unless you’re writing a crime novel involving arson. Hear the particulars of investigating, gathering evidence and more from Assistant Fire Chief Mike Levins of the HPFD. High Point Public Library, 901 North Main Street, High Point. Info: murderwewrite.org. AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 3 p.m. Meet Ken Waldman who penned Challenges Faced by Iraq War Reservists and Their Families. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com. AMALARKEY. 3:30 p.m. Or not. International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney speaks at the Bryan Series. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster.com.
November 15 TKO. 7 p.m. Yo! Don your boxing gloves and cue the
trumpets in Bill Conti’s iconic “Gonna Fly Now” to watch the 1976 winner of Best Picture, Rocky. Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com.
November 16 AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Tim Barnwell, author and photographer of Great Smoky Mountain Vistas. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
November 17 FEEDER FODDER. 2 p.m. Barbara Haralson of Wild Birds Unlimited explains how to nourish our fine-feathered friends at “Backyard Birds and Their Needs for Winter.” Greensboro Council of Garden Clubs, 4301-A Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. Info: (336) 282-4940 or thegreensborocouncilofgardenclubs.com. AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet poet Eileen Myles, author of I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems. Francis Auditorium, Phillips Hall, HPU, One University Parkway, High Point. Info: highpoint.edu/community.
November 18 PIE-DY-HEIDY-HO! 5:3O p.m. Let your kids roll in dough at “All About Pies,” a Tween Cooking Class. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. To register: (336) 574-2898, ext. 317 or gcmuseum.com. FIDDLE-DEE-HE. 6 p.m. Musician Chris Testerman talks
Life & Home
WE GAITHER TOGETHER. 6 p.m. Gospel legend Bill Gaither and the Gaither Vocal Band make joyful noises. Special Events Center, Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster.com.
BLAST FROM THE PAST. 7:30 p.m. Hip, hip . . . and hop. Catch Salt N Pepa with Spinderlla, and Vanilla Ice at the “I Love the ’90s” Tour. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster.com.
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about the art of making fiddles in a companion lecture to The Luthiers Craft: Instrument Making Traditions of the Blue Ridge (until 12/17). High Point Museum, 1859 East Lexington Avenue, High Point. Info: (336) 885-1859 or highpointmuseum.org. TY ONE ONE. 6 p.m. Hear live music while perusing the artwork of Sherry McAdams at Tyler White O’Brien’s Holiday Show. Tyler White O’Brien Gallery, 307 State Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 279-1124 or tylerwhitegallery.com. FLAN CLUB. 7 p.m. The Year of Flannery O’Connor continues with Flannery O’Connor Theatre. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
November 18–20
Broome Hall, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 607 Greene Street, Greensboro. CHOOSING SIDES. 2 p.m. Make family-friendly sides with your kiddies (ages 5 on up), as well as a Thanksgiving table decoration. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. To register: (336) 574-2898, ext. 317. LONE STAR STARS. 8 p.m. Everything’s bigger in Texas, including the sound of the Texas Tenors. Hear them croon Yuletide classics at “Back for the Holidays,” launching Greensboro Symphony’s pops series. Westover Church, 505 Muirs Chapel Road, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 335-5456, ext. 224 or greensborosymphony.org.
November 19 & 20
THE OTHER AMAHL. Catch UNCG Opera Theatre’s production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, by Gian Carlo Menotti. UNCG Auditorium, 408 Tate Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 272-0160 or triadstage.org.
MAKERS’ MARKS. Pottery, textiles, prints, jewelry, glass. Fifty-three years on, the Piedmont Craftsmen’s Fair continues to enthrall. Times vary. M.C. Benton Convention Center, 301 West Fifth Street, Winston-Salem. Info: (336) 725-1516 or piedmontcraftsmen.org.
November 19
November 20
MOBILE APP(LES). 8 a.m. Go ahead, take a bite out of everything apple: flapjacks, pies, muffins, sauce — and drink some cider while you’re at Apple Pancake and Celebration Day. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2402 or gsofarmersmarket.org.
OLD SCHU. 3:30 p.m. It’s Schumann Hour with HPU Chamber Music Recital No. 3. Hayworth Memorial Chapel, HPU, One University Parkway, High Point. Info: highpoint. edu/community.
PUB HUB. 1:30 p.m. Writers’ Group of the Triad hosts a discussion from Greensboro literati Fred Chappell, Quinn Dalton, Lee Zacharias, among others, on how to get published.
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QUAKERS AMONG US. 10 a.m. Max Carter, emeritus director of Friends & Quaker Center at Guilford College,
discusses the history and presence of Quakers in the area. (To learn more about the lasting influence of these early settlers on Greensboro Culture, see “TK” on page TK). Greensboro Historical Museum, 130 Summit Avenue, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2043 or greensborohistory.org.
November 23 GOBBLE, GOBBLE! 8 a.m. Don’t sweat it in the kitchen this Thanksgiving! Pick up pre-ordered turkeys, and some sides (chicken salad, pies), and while you’re at it, some fresh flowers. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2402 or gsofarmersmarket.org.
November 25–27 ALIVE AND NOEL. Skip the usual suspects on Black Friday and do some Christmas shopping at the Craftsmen’s Christmas Clsssic Art & Crafts Festival. Times vary. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com.
November 25–December 24 RISIN’ AND SHININ’. It’s become a local tradition. Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity returns. Performance dates and times vary. Triad Stage, 232 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 272-0160 or triadstage.org.
November 26 GREEN SCENE. 7 a.m. Pining for Christmas? Get a fresh-cut locally owned and grown evergreen tree, along with garlands and table decorations. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market,
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Life & Home
We turN ordiNArY iNto eXtrAordiNArY
November 21
Arts Calendar
MP
L E T ’ S
G E T
M O V I N G !
REALTOR®, BROKER, MBA, ABR, CSP, GRI, CRS, SFR, CPM
• homes@michelleporter.com www.michelleporter.com ©2015 BHH Affiiliates, 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.® Equal Housing Opportunity.
November 2016
O.Henry 85
Pick up your copy of
Beautiful Life & Home
TOPS for the HOLIDAYS
at Greensboro & High Point Harris Teeter stores, Whole Foods Market (3202 West Friendly Avenue) and Earth Fare (2965 Battleground Avenue)
Also from our blue boxes at the following distribution points:
FRANK LYMAN
DESIGNS
Cultural Arts Cent. 200 N. Davie St.
Self Help Building Friendly & Elm
Natty Greene’s 345 S. Elm St.
Across from the Carolina Theatre 315 S. Greene St.
Triad Stage
232 S. Elm St.
Across from Civil Rights Museum 134 S. Elm St.
Smith Street Diner
438 Battleground Ave.
307 F Pisgah Road - TheVillage at N. Elm Greensboro, NC 27455 - (336) 288-6488
Corner of Elm & Bellemeade UPS/FED EX 102 N. Elm St.
Old Town Draught House 1205 Spring Garden St.
Fish Bones
Paul J. Ciener
Botanical Garden IS PROUD TO PRESENT
Find that one-of-a-kind gift idea for the holidays!
2119 Walker Ave.
J’s Deli
4925 W. Market St.
NC Farmers Market (Colfax) Lox Stock & Bagel 2439 Battleground Ave.
State Street Jewelers 211 State St.
Sister’s Jewelry 330 Tate St.
US Post Office 4615 High Point Rd. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market 501 Yanceyville Street
K & W Cafeteria
3710 S. Holden Rd.
Zack’s Hot Dog’s
201 W. Davis St., Burlington
Go holiday shopping in our Garden Gift Shop, which contains unique items and seasonal plants along with handmade items by our Garden Guild. Open Monday thru Friday 10am-4pm Saturday Dec 3, 10 and 17 10 am - 1 pm
Paul J. Ciener BotaniCal Garden 215 S. Main Street, Kernersville 336-996-7888 www.cienerbotanicalgarden.org
86 O.Henry
November 2016
For a complete list of distribution points, please visit our website at www.ohenrymag.com
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2402 or gsofarmersmarket.org. MUCH OBLIGED. 7 p.m. Maxwell shares the stage with Mary J. Blige and special guest Ro James for their Queen of Hearts Tour. Luvin’ it! Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster.com.
November 27 NUTS FOR TEA. 11 a.m. & 3 p.m. Enjoy a nice hot cuppa — or hot apple cider or hot chocolate — in the company of dancing sugarplums and toy soldiers, and stick around for a reading of The Nutcracker, ornament-making and a display of gingerbread houses at the Holiday Nutcracker Tea. O.Henry Hotel, 624 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. To reserve: (336) 854-2015 or ohenryhotel.com/nutcracker-tea/.
November 28 ALL TOGETHER, NOW. 7:30 p.m. The HPU Community Orchestra, musicians from all walks of life throughout the community, perform Beethoven’s Symphony No.5. Pauline Theatre, Hayworth Fine Arts Center, HPU, One University Parkway, High Point. Info: highpoint.edu/community.
November 29 ROCK ON! 3:30 p.m. After a reading of the tale of Stone Soup, make your own with garden-fresh ingredients. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. To register: (336) 574-2898, ext. 317.
AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Nicole Sarrocco author of Ill-Mannered Ghosts: An Occasionally True Account of Hillbilly Stonehenge, Occult Cleaning Products, the Lady in the Picture, and the Bloodcurdling Tale of Crybaby Lane. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
November 30 ’TIS THE SEASON. 5:30 p.m. Hear the Festival of Lessons and Carols, made popular at King’s College, Cambridge, England. Hayworth Memorial Chapel, HPU, One University Parkway, High Point. Info: highpoint.edu/community.
WEEKLY HAPPENINGS Mondays BUZZING. 10 a.m. Your busy little bees engage in a Busy Bees preschool program focusing on music, movement, garden exploration and fun in the kitchen, at the Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. Preregistration: (336) 5742898 or gcmuseum.com. CHAT-EAU. Noon. French leave? Au contraire! Join French Table, a conversa-
tion 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. PICKIN’ AND GRINNIN’ 6 until 9 p.m. Y’all come for Songs from a Southern Kitchen — live music featuring Laurelyn Dossett (11/1 and 11/15); Molly McGinn &
InTroducIng gearharTs FIne chocolaTes Charlottesville
1616-G Battleground Avenue • Greensboro 336.333.0029 • www.LocoForCocoChocolate.com
Dover Square
For weddings & special events
Arts Calendar
WE MAKE
GIFTING
EASY
Floral Design Delivery Service Home Décor & Gifts Weddings & Special Events L i f e . We l l l i v e d .
Come Visit Our Retail Store!
1616 Battleground Avenue, Suite D-1 Greensboro, NC 27408
For orchids, plants & accessories
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
336.691.0051
mcmanus2@bellsouth.net www.RandyMcManusDesigns.com
Dolce Dimora
SEE OUR NEWEST PEACOCK ALLEY ITALIAN COLLECTIONS DURING THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER. SIMPLY BELISSIMA!
1616-H BATTLEGROUND AVE GREENSBORO, NC 27408 336-282-9572
1616 BATTLEGROUND AVE GREENSBORO, NC 27408 336-282-9572
November 2016
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Arts Calendar
Wurlitzer Prize (11/8); Abigail Dowd & Jason Duff (11/22); Sam Frazier (11/29) at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen, 1421 Westover Terrace, Greensboro. Info: (336) 370-0707 or lucky32.com/greensboro_music.htm.
Wednesdays TO MARKET, TO MARKET. 7 a.m. until noon. The produce is fresh and the cut fleurs belles. They can be yours mid-week, through December. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: gsofarmersmarket.org. 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) 8833666 or highpointpubliclibrary.com.
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) 8833666 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 April Talbott (11/3), Karon Click (11/10), Brenda Morie
88 O.Henry
November 2016
(11/17). 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 JAZZY. 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. For the Jazz Series on select Saturdays enjoy the sounds of the Reggie Buie Quartet (November 12) and the Benjamin Matlack Quartet (November 26). O.Henry Hotel, 624 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. Info: (336) 854-2000 or ohenryhotel.com.
TO MARKET, TO MARKET. 7 a.m. until noon. The produce is still fresh and the cut fleurs still 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. 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. OH To add an event, email us at ohenrymagcalendar@gmail.com by the first of the month prior to the event.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Estate · Custom · Onsite Repair
Tues-Fri. 10-6pm Sat. 10-3pm 211 A State St. Greensboro, NC (336) 273-5872
Triad’s top buyer of estate jewelry, diamonds and watches.
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 The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 2016
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Furnishing stylish homes in the Triad FuRniTuRe, AcceSSORieS And giFTS. Tuesday- Saturday 10-5pm 3500 Old Battleground Rd. Suite A (336) 617-4275 • www.aubreyhomedesign.com
Triad Local Think Local • Buy Local • Be Local
90 O.Henry
November 2016
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
AG Jeans • Alice & Trixie • BB Dakota • Bella Dahl • Diane von Furstenberg • Dolce Vita Shoes • French Connection • Hudson Jeans • Invisibelt • Joe’s Jeans • Joie • Joie Shoes • Joy Joy • Lilla P • Lysee • Marie Oliver • Paige Premium Denim • Rebecca Minkoff • Sam Edelman Shoes • Tart • Velvet • Vince. . . . and many more!
Prestigious Living in Irving Park
Watch the Wyndham from your back yard
H O L I DAY V I E T R I E V E N T SATURDAY — NOVEMBER 12
JOIN US FOR DRAWINGS, TASTINGS AND SPECIALS ALL DAY
Meet a VIETRI ambassador NOON – 4:00 PM to personalize purchases with Italian phrases.
Better Living. For Rent. Call Michelle Shinault about either of these fabulous homes ...
Friendly Shopping Center, Greensboro, NC 1-800-528-3618
336-299-9767
www.extraingredient.com
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 2016
O.Henry 91
GR E E N SB ORO’S NE W EST YOGA ST UD IO A ND B O U T I Q U E CLASSES FOR EVERY ONE AND EVERY BODY.
Irving Park
HAS ARRIVED ...
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
Keeping you stylish from the studio to the street, the Radiance Yoga Boutique is your destination for hip athletic wear and inspirational jewelry and gifts. 1860 Pembroke Road 336.617.5665 radianceyogagreensboro.com
Golden Gate Shopping Center Just because Nov 25 is Parfait Day
Alembika Comfy USA Chalet Cheyenne Cut Loose Iguana Parsley and Sage Amma
Sizes: 1X, 2X, & 3X
336-545-3003
Vera’s Threads Sizes: S,M, L & XL
336-288-8772
Hours: M-F 11-6, Sat 11-5 2274 Golden Gate Drive Golden Gate Shopping Center
www.linneasboutique.com
92 O.Henry
November 2016
Carriage House
Antiques & Home Decor Open Sundays • 1-5pm
Golden Gate Drive 336.373.6200| 2214 Greensboro, NC
Monday-Friday 10-6 • Saturday • 10-5 Sunday 1-5 Carriage_House@att.net
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
lAdIeS ClothING, GIftS, BABy, jewelry, GIftS for the home, tABlewAre, delICIouS food
Irving Park
Clothing • Lingerie Jewelry • Bath & Body Tabletop • Baby Home Accessories 1826 Pembroke Road, Greensboro, NC 336-274-3307 (Behind Irving Park Plaza) Monday thru Friday 10:00-5:00 Saturday 10:00-4:00
1738 Battleground Ave • Irving Park Plaza Shopping Center • Greensboro, NC • (336) 273-3566
Q Come Visit
Irving Park
m m s
SUNNY STYLES
for rainy days
FOR
• Shopping • Food • Art • Entertainment
336.275.1555
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
www.polliwogs.com 1724 Battleground Ave. Suite 104 Greensboro, NC 27408
November 2016
O.Henry 93
Food & Dining
Come see your
urban oasis! Open Tuesday - Saturday • 10am - 2pm 2024 Sixteenth Street, Greensboro • 336.370.4002
36 Midland Park lanE Willoughby End Stunning and functional townhome with fully finished basement.
• • • • • •
Backs to wooded buffer Upper balcony with brick privacy wall Walk out patio and covered porch 3rd floor and/or basement perfect for separate suites Gourmet kitchen, open flow to dining, living and breakfast spaces Elevator service all floors.
Join us at our new location in January 2017!
We’re Moving! 94 O.Henry
November 2016
838 Winston Street Greensboro, NC 27405 Follow us for updates @barneysbasement
Valerie Whitfield realtor® 1103 n. Elm st. Greensboro nC 27401
336.339.7653 The Art & Soul of Greensboro
2270 Golden Gate Dr. Greensboro, NC
2 ND GREENSBORO LOCATION ON NEW GARDEN RD. OPENING SOON!
Food & Dining
paninis small plates salads craft beer & wine
meltkitchenandbar.com
To a
6-6 all 33 c , e s i dvert
0 1 - 11
88
g n i n i D & d Foo ity
te C a G e h of t
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 2016
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modern furniture made locally
526 S. Elm Street
Greensboro NC 27406 . (336) 790-8703 Local art in a variety of mediums Monday-Thu: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm Fri: 11:00 am - 9:00 pm Sat: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm Sun: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
facebook.com/ElementsGalleryGSO/ elementsgso.wixsite.com/elements
ELEMENTS G A L L E R Y
511 S Elm St. | Greensboro NC 27406 | 336.370.1050 areamod.com
Come find out why we are where your dog wants to be! 11,000 square feet of indoor & outdoor space • Safe, clean & stimulating environment . . . always supervised • Doggie daycare and overnight boarding Three separate playrooms based on size of dog Full-service grooming available • Online webcam to watch your dog
First time visitors receive first day FREE!
336.272.1620
705 Battleground Ave.
www.DogDaysGreensboro.com
Visit 96 O.Henry
November 2016
➛
online @ www.ohenrymag.com
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
D O W N TO W N G R E E N S B O R O.O R G
VIVID INTERIORS
Serve a
Slice of Local this
Thanksgiving
Fully Prepared Holiday Meals Farmer Direct Produce - Local Meats All Your Baking Needs Pantry Staples - Cards, Gifts & More
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
336/292.9216 deeprootsmarket.com 600 N. Eugene Downtown GSO
Available at Your Community Owned Grocery
Interior Design • Furniture • Art • Accessories 513 S. Elm Street • (336) 265-8628 • vivid-interiors.com
D O W N TO W N G R E E N S B O R O.O R G
November 2016
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Tic
It's Ba wil with
December 10-11 • December 17-18 at the Carolina Theatre
Ask about our beloved Tea with Clara pre-events December 17 & 18 at 1:45pm *Don’t miss this year’s December 12-13 December 19-20 Nutcracker Gala atEvent the Carolina Theatre on December 10th! It's Back! The December 13th performance will be our popular "Muttcracker" with an appearance from Miss Babe Ruth!
Ticket sales Ask atabout our beloved Tea with Clara pre-events 336-333-2605 December 12 at 12:45pm December 20 at 1:45pm www.carolinatheatre.com
Ticket sales at 336-333-2605
Event Info:www.carolinatheatre.com Event Info: www.greensboroballet.org www.greensboroballet.org
Gifts with stories to tell. Shop handmade & fair trade!
98 O.Henry
November 2016
352 s. elm st. greensboro D O W N TO W N G R E E N S B O R O.O R G
Supporting over 50 NC artists selling handmade and fair trade jewelry, gifts and decor. 935 boston dr. burlington
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 2016
O.Henry 99
226 S. ELM STREET GREENSBORO, NC 336 333 2993 OscarOglethorpe.com
Agnes Preston-Brame R E C E N T
p a i N T i N g s
NOVEMBER 18TH • 6-8 PM
Live Music with Emma Lee Vogelsinger & Tyler Millard Fine Art & Adorned by Lonnie jewelry One of a kind gifts for your holiday shopping!
Tyler White O’Brien Gallery 307 State Street, Greensboro (336) 279-1124 www.tylerwhitegallery.com
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 4-27, 2016 • Reception: November 12, 4-7PM
Arts & Culture
HolidayShow AnnuAl AnnuAl
528 S. Elm St. Greensboro, 27406 • 336-275-9844
www.amblesidearts.com
November 2016
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Arts & Culture
Saturday November 5 Family Archeology Day
The David & Rachael Caldwell Historic Park
Friday November 11 Veterans Day Museum Open
Saturday November 12 11 - 4 Museum Shop Discount Day 20% Discount on all purchases
Wednesday November 16 6:30 pm Service and Sacrifice Sponsored by the Office of Veteran and Disability Support Services, NC A&T, Dept. of History, NC A&T and Greensboro History Museum
130 Summit Avenue Greensboro NC 27401 336.373.2043 www.GreensboroHistory.org
102 O.Henry
November 2016
Free Admission Hours Tues - Sat 10 - 5 Sun 2 - 5
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Arts & Culture
C.P. LOGAN
Classes, Commissions, Party Classes
Open StudiO • nOvember 13th 1206 W. CornWallis Dr • 10am-6pm online Classes
Fish from Swirlhomestuff.com
www. CPLogan.com
Sunday, november 6 • 10am - 2pm CraftS • JeWeLry • fuSed GLaSS • WHImSICaL HouSeWareS Kosher Hot Dog Lunch by the Temple Brotherhood Bake Sale by the ECEC Parents Proceeds benefit the Early Childhood Engagement Center
Shopfor Local the holidays!
Irving Park Art &Frame 2105-A West Cornwallis Drive • Greensboro, NC
336.274.6717
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
1129 Jefferson Road Greensboro, NC 27410
Fly away to a whimsical world!
Pottery, Prints and Paintings by Leanne Pizio
Opening receptiOn Friday, November 11th • 5:30-8:30 pm November 2016
O.Henry 103
CO L L E C TOR’S CH OI C E BE ST PA RT Y IN TOW N
Arts & Culture
SAT UR DAY, DE C E M BE R 3 F RO M 7 : 00 - 11:00 PM
Bizet’s
Eric McRay, Boomtown by Night
2 0 0 N O RT H DAV I E ST RE E T, G RE E NS B ORO, NC $70 M E M BE RS | $ 8 5 N O N - M EMB ERS T I C KETS AVA I L A B L E O N L I N E
GR E E N HILLN C .OR G Sandra Piques Eddy as Carmen
Melinda Whittington as Micaëla
Dinyar Vania as Don José
Stephanie Foley Davis as Mercedes
David Pershall as Escamillo
Donald Hartmann as Zuniga
January 13 & 15, 2017 UNCG (Aycock) Auditorium Tickets on sale now 336.272.0160 GreensboroOpera.org
104 O.Henry
November 2016
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
GreenScene
Marylou Banks, Ashtenne Parker, Kacie Spells
Hattie Pritchett, Lee Staton
Salvation Army Royce & Jane Reynolds Boys & Girls Club Community Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Friday, September 16, 2016 Photographs by Lynn Donovan
April & Jay Harris Kathi Lester, Christopher Babcock, Ainsley Johnston, Wayne Young
Courney Henderson, Brandon Evans, Alisa Locklear
Zen’niya & Nadia Coleman Dominique Royal, Nishaka Proctor
Patrick & Harriet Garvey, Peter Vanstory
Lasheena Parker, Zayin Lackey, Vashti Usry, Chhon Kojap Linda & Michael Diamond
Marasia Moss, Jay Sikes, Devin Brooks
Barbara Still, Major Karen Egan, Laura Poff, Mary Davis
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 2016
O.Henry 105
GreenScene
Overton Spence, Gabriella Chapman
Good Night Moon Gala A Benefit for Greensboro Saturday, September 17, 2016
Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Susan & Richard Brewer Lynn Morris, Cliff Matson, Lonnie Blumenthal
Laura Redd, Robert Sneed
Delight Morehead, Jermaine & Kim Neal, Derek Morehead Victoria Ball, Caitlin Uhl, Sue Rogers, Mebane Ham, Graham Sheridan, Janes Lyons
Deborah & Bruce Goode
Bill & Lee Britt
Nelson Stover, Shana Scudder, Sabrina Woods, Mary Purnell, Sharon Hoard
Alejandro Serrano, Andres & Maria Mosquera, Clara Uribe
Mitchell & Cynthia Hunt
Ken & Sharon Kasica
106 O.Henry
November 2016
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
GreenScene
Rhonda Kyer, Joan Hart
Dylan Reddish, Austin Jeffries
Hearts for Hope
Out of the Garden Project Celebration Saturday, September 24, 2016 Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Arthur Sohn, Andy Aronson, Barbara Sohn, Fern Kahn, Kris Aronson, Sandy Kahn
Kennette Burgess, Michelle Lewis
Lee Burris, Sheri & Ed Summerell
Lexi & John Eagles, Susanne Purnell, Kimberly Loughner
Greg & Kate Fischer
Mark File, David Soyars
Melanie Phillips, Krista Herbst, Jessica Klerlein, Jill Lawuer, Angela Capilupo, Cassie Coon Jerry & Melissa Harrelson, Randy Davis
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Merrie, Kevin & Peggy Conaway
Suzy & Sterling Suddarth
November 2016
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GreenScene
Lindsey Whitlatch, Jimmy Barnhardt, Kimberly Jones
Terry Christian, Anne-Christian Johns
Greensboro's Science Center's See To Believe Gala Friday, September 23, 2016
Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Steven Rendle, Anna & Lance Allega, Anita Graham
Britt & Brad Moats
Caitlyn Holt, Charlie Beebe, Erin Morgan
Beth McAlhaney, Sue Cole, Michelle Schneider
Lauren Melvin, Mike Fink, Elise & Ben Saur
Joy Martin, Erica Williams
Amy & Dennis LaJeunesse, Kelli Crawford Kara Davenport, Jennifer Summer, Pilar Powell
Dave Hill, Adam & Laura Duggins, Kristin Hill
108 O.Henry
November 2016
Marcia Farrow, Jamal Fox
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Thankful for Homes and this Community
Chesnutt - Tisdale Team
1101 Sunset Drive
Enjoy all seasons perched on top of a hill overlooking the GCC golf course. This custom brick home, master on main, sun filled rooms that make this a great place to call home! Price upon request!
Xan Tisdale 336-601-2337
Kay Chesnutt 336-202-9687
Xan.Tisdale@bhhsyostandlittle.com Kay.Chesnutt@bhhsyostandlittle.com ©2016 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.® Equal Housing Opportunity.
Gibsonville Antiques & ColleCtibles
��������������������������������� thoughtful design + build
18,000 Sq FEEt
336.420.4205
Full of History, Antiques & Charm
��������������
of Memories and treasures!
maureenmallon.com
106 E. Railroad Ave, Gibsonville, NC
residential general contracting
(336) 446-0234 Downtown Gibsonville behind the Red Caboose Mon-Sat 10-6 & Sun 1-5
GibsonvilleAntiques.com
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
November 2016
O.Henry 109
Business & Services
Color. Clarity. Detail.
Available in prescription. STYLE SHOWN: VENUS POOLS ©2016 Maui Jim, Inc.
We Service What We Sell & Offer Personal Attention
2222 Patterson St # A • Greensboro, NC 27407 Phone (336) 852-7107 www.houseofeyes.com Only one block from the coliseum.
MJ-3175 House of Eyes Print Ad.indd 1
336-854-9222 • www.HartApplianceCenter.com
2201 Patterson Street, Greensboro, NC (2 Blocks from the Coliseum) Mon. - Fri.: 9:30am - 5:30 pm Sat. 10 am - 2 pm • Closed Sunday
4/4/16 10:11 AM
Practicing Commercial Real Estate by the Golden Rule Bill Strickland, CCIM Commercial Real Estate Broker/REALTOR 336.369.5974 | bstrickland@bipinc.com
www.bipinc.com
110 O.Henry
November 2016
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Accidental Astrologer
Ration the Passion For Scorpios, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that sting By Astrid Stellanova
Scorpios are famously passionate, ambitious, intense and jealous.
They will ask but they sure won’t tell. What they should know is that their best day is Tuesday, and to mirror their passion, they should don their best color — red. What you should know is this: They don’t always lay their cards flat out on the table, but they really don’t like it when the tables are turned. Cross a Scorpio and you will unleash the scorpion’s sting. And this: A Scorpio will never forget and may never forgive either. Scorpios like to use their looks as a means of self-expression and will almost always make a big impression wherever they go and whatever they choose to do. They are as colorful as they are unique, too. Prince Charles is a Scorpio. So is Whoopi Goldberg. Ponder that, Star Children. Ad Astra — Astrid
Scorpio (October 23–November 21) Friends are tempted to give you novelties on your birthday — things like pillows embroidered with “Drama Queen” or “If You Can’t Say Anything Good about Others, Sit by Me.” Much like the Dowager at Downton Abbey you can dish it out. You have a secret love of bling. Sugar, you also don’t like to admit your tastes are much more Vegas Strip than Park Avenue. This birthday, let go of any desire to be something or someone else and love your own fine self. You are an original, enigmatic and audacious in your ways — traits your friends rely on, Honey. When you blow out the candles on your cake — and there will be a blowout with cake — make a big wish. This just might be your year to win the whole dang shebang! Sagittarius (November 22–December 21) The fact is, Honey, you have become the Ernest T. Bass of relationships. You get mad at your beloved and your idea of resolution is to throw rocks at the window and howl like a hound dog during a King Moon. Time to start being the grown-up when it comes to love matters, my wild little Love Muffin. There is nothing or no one you cannot have once you stop trying to muscle your way to a solution. Capricorn (December 22–January 19) When everyone else was sitting down, you were just outstanding. Take a star turn and then take a seat. Sweet Thing, a strange turn of coincidence is about to make you glad you had such a fine sense of timing. It is more than going to compensate for a rough patch you have just undergone. It’s (nearly) all over but the shouting, as Rick Bragg likes to say. Aquarius (January 20–February 18) Does Fifty Shades of Purple sound like the title of your memoir? Well, you got all shook up over a loved one, and it sent your blood pressure through the roof. Lordamercy, nobody’s worth all that purple passion you’ve been spending. Spend some time in a meditation class instead, and promise yourself you are going to let that crazy-maker go. Then get a hobby for goodness sake — just not in surveillance or private-eye work. Pisces (February 19–March 20) A life-changing experience has caused you to do some recent soul-searching. Now you are looking deep, trying to find a bigger purpose. You have extra special energy this month, Sugar Pie, and it is going to make you a magnet for special and inspiring experiences. If you have a metal detector, haul it out of the closet, as you are about to find something you believed lost for good. Aries (March 21–April 19) You spent your fall second-guessing everything you did and everything your closest friends did. Now, Honey, is a time to downshift and just bury some nuts for the winter ahead. Look on down the road and stop majoring in the minor stuff when you need to look at the major stuff. When you take stock, you have to admit you have been busy overdoing everything you ever thought worth doing at all — except for the nut thing. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Taurus (April 20–May 20) Learn something new. Take a friend for coffee. Befriend a stranger. But don’t drink and dial this month, because you are prone to talk too much and listen too little and then pray for rain when all your friendships dry up. The fine print bears reading, Sugar, before you sign that contract, too. Meantime, kiss a baby and indulge your love of sweet tea and a side of lemon pie. But don’t text or dial. Gemini (May 21–June 20) As much as you want to step into a situation and take control, try and hold your impulsive self back just a teensy bit. There has been mounting evidence that your involvement is not helpful. Meantime, you have got a big old mess to clean up on Aisle Nine. The mess is one you made; so don’t blame the first one you find to hang it on, Sweet Thing. Cancer (June 21–July 22) You are the Richard Petty of speedy karma, repeating a cycle over and over and over again on the roadway of life. Put a cop on anyone’s tail for 500 miles and they’ll get a ticket, too. Want to retire that title? This month gives you a long overdue chance to reevaluate things, Honey, and you are going to find the support you crave to break out. Leo (July 23–August 22) When you step back and look in the mirror, as you secretly like to do, what do you see? Is it the same person everyone around you sees? Your secretive life is at the root of some pain you hold onto and carry around like a precious bag of gold. Trust someone and unburden yourself, Sugar. Self-truth won’t hurt one bit. Virgo (August 23–September 22) There’s a new sheriff in town you ain’t so sure you like. Get deputized, Sweet Pants, because you are going to have to deal with them no matter what. Meantime, you calculate your losses and pocket your winnings. You still are going to come out ahead, Darling. But pay attention to a lonely neighbor whose luck ain’t so great right now. Libra (September 23–October 22) There’s too many hands around the pottery wheel and it has you all befuddled. In a nice way, tell them to mind their own business, and don’t apologize. Meanwhile, you are the UP in somebody’s 7UP and don’t even know it. Sugar, you have more sex appeal than ought to be allowed throughout this whole dang star cycle. 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.
November 2016
O.Henry 111
O.Henry Ending
Blowing His Cork
By David Claude Bailey
When a fancy new barbecue place,
BoHog, opened up in Greensboro some years ago offering both eastern- and western-style N.C. barbecue, plus Texas beef brisket, I was delighted. Although the barbecue was cooked over natural gas, BoHog, which has since closed, served wine and beer — the latter of which has always seemed to me a perfect complement to cue. I realize there are wines that are supposed to pair well with cue. And, yes, every year Childress Vineyards comes out with a Fine Swine Wine vinted and blended to complement Lexington-style barbecue. But give me a bottle of William Sydney (counterintuitively) Porter’s favorite beer, Pilsner, or some good old iced tea.
So when a friend from New York came to town and wanted to try some of our fabled Piedmont barbecue, but with real wine rather than Cheerwine, I told him he could choose between some really good Stamey’s or Country Barbecue without wine or OK cue with it. He chose the latter. There is, in fact, no accounting for taste. As I was trying to explain the difference between creamy and vinegary slaw, minced and sliced pork (no crunchy outside meat at BoHog), an energetic and eager-to-please waiter arrived at our table to take our drink orders. Ed asked for the wine list. I don’t know who looked more horrified, the waiter or myself, but the waiter found a card on a table offering four wines by the half-bottle: a red, a
112 O.Henry
November 2016
pink and two whites. Ed ordered merlot and our waiter looked like a deer in the headlights until Ed said “No. 3.” After No. 3 had been pulled from BoHog’s wine cellar, our server, who had obviously been newly schooled in wine stewardship, presented Ed with the bottle of merlot he was carrying in a towel as if he were showing a newborn babe to the father. Ed nodded approvingly. Then began the longest three minutes I’ve ever spent in a restaurant. While we were attempting conversation, the waiter looked for some sort of pull tab to remove the lead wrapper from the neck of the bottle. Not finding one, he went at it with a shiny tool he removed from his apron. Ed tried to avert his eyes and twisted his napkin in his hands beneath the table as the ordeal progressed. Then came the screwing in of the corkscrew. On the third try and at a 45-degree angle, the sound of cork squeaking against metal and then metal against glass came from somewhere within the towel. The corkscrew was the type that required using one part of the tool on the lip of the bottle as a fulcrum and then leavering out the cork with a handle. For a while, it looked as if our lad was wrestling with a small alligator wrapped in a towel, but soon a satisfying pop came from deep within the towel, and after a proferred sip, Ed nodded again and two glasses of BoHog’s best were poured. The cheap and fruit-forward merlot, in fact, complemented the mildly sauced pulled pork. A collective sigh came from the table as the waiter retreated and conversation resumed — until we noticed that our waiter had returned to our table holding something abjectly in his hand as if it were a dead mouse. Ed turned sympathetically to him and asked him if we could somehow help him. The waiter held out the mangled remains of the cork, blushing, but, ever optimistic, and said: “I forgot to give you your cork. I know I messed it up real bad, but if you want me to go get another one, I will.” OH O.Henry’s editor at large (and getting larger), David Claude Bailey, once attended Greasehouse University in Kansas City so that he could judge the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue competition. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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