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February 2024 FEATURES 41 Onward
Poetry by Steve Cushman
42 Keepers of the Heart
58 Hidden Figure
By Ross Howell Jr. How a Black washerwoman helped free 15 slaves
By Cassie Bustamante
60 The Waddell/Whitlatch Home Revival
Great Ape Heart Project
Light, love and good taste in Glencoe Village
50 Love Bytes
71 February Almanac By Ashley Walshe
The N.C. Zoo makes strides for the
Illustrations by Harry Blair Miniature tales from the smitten and the bitten
By Cynthia Adams
DEPARTMENTS 11 Chaos Theory
By Cassie Bustamante
13 Simple Life
By Jim Dodson
16 Sazerac 19 Tea Leaf Astrologer
By Zora Stellanova
21 Life’s Funny
By Maria Johnson
25 The Omnivorous Reader
By Anne Blythe
28 Art of the State
By Liz Roberts
32 Home Grown
By Cynthia Adams
35 Birdwatch
By Susan Campbell
37 Wandering Billy
By Billy Ingram
86 Events Calendar 94 GreenScene 96 O.Henry Ending
By David Claude Bailey
Cover photograph by Amy Freeman Photograph this page by Bert VanderVeen
4 O.Henry
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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Volume 14, No. 2 “I have a fancy that every city has a voice.”
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Cynthia Adams, David Claude Bailey, Maria Johnson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Lynn Donovan, Amy Freeman, Bert VanderVeen, Mark Wagoner CONTRIBUTORS
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O.Henry 9
chaos theory
Waffling? A surprising engagement
By Cassie Bustamante
I don’t like surprises — unless I suspect
they’re coming — in which case, it’s no longer actually a surprise, eh? I am 100 percent that person who will go snooping in my husband’s side of the closet, riffling through his drawers as a stratagem to keep myself totally unsurprised. Chris has known this from early on in our relationship and has mastered the workaround. So let’s rewind to Christmas, 2002, when we’d been together for almost three years — three years that involve me hopping from North Carolina to Tennessee, from Texas to Louisiana, following him around while living in sin. After dropping hints for almost two years, I decide it’s time to put a ring on it. When you know, you know. But Chris, ever the practical Virgo, likes to have things clearly mapped before making big moves. Me? Once I’ve made up my mind, I leap and figure out the rest on the way. When he asks me for Christmas gift ideas that year, I handwrite an elaborate list that reads something like this: “waffle iron, The Nanny Diaries, ring, bread machine, In Her Shoes, ring, J. Crew top, ring. . . ” On it goes, an exhaustive list of things he knows are marginal — kitchen appliances, books I can buy myself, random items of clothing — and the thing I really want repeated so many times it can’t be missed. We’re spending our first Christmas alone, just the two of us and our beagle, Charlie. Chris is working and can’t get away to visit the parents and I’ve opted to stay with him in our New Orleans apartment. But I am OK with it because I know my ring is coming and, while I’m certainly not getting a Lexus, it’s going to be “a December to remember.” In fact, a mysterious package — with “Do not open until Christmas” in his mom’s handwriting — arrives earlier in the The Art & Soul of Greensboro
month for Chris. I think I know what’s inside, but there’s no way to stealthily open and reseal it. Trust me, I would if I could. On Christmas Eve, we share a romantic meal I’ve prepared of duck à l’orange, whipped rosemary mashed potatoes, a simple tossed salad and warm, crusty rolls. We pair it with a chilled pinot grigio. For dessert, a decadent apple pie. The apartment smells of citrus and cinnamon, just as it should at the holidays. Christmas morning comes and I drag Chris out of bed, anticipating the diamond awaiting me. Instead, I unwrap every single book, sweater and kitchen gadget from my list. What’s not there? A ring. Disappointed, I distract myself by breaking in the brand-new waffle iron, a top-notch Williams-Sonoma one at that, but this meal is not like the night before. I’m quietly fuming, the air of romance evaporated. “Everything OK?” Chris asks. “Fine,” I offer. It’s the answer I give when everything is, in fact, anything but. He looks at me, but I avoid eye contact. “Anything I can do?” “Nope.” We clean up in silence and Chris tells me he’s going to shower. “Fine,” I mutter again and slink to the sofa to pout while sappy Christmas movies featuring happily married couples play on the TV. Fifteen minutes later, I hear Chris enter the room, but don’t look up. “Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do to make you feel better?” he asks. “Nope,” I repeat. “Nothing.” He approaches the couch and stands over me. “How about this?” In his hand he holds a small black box. Inside is a simple gold band with a single diamond. His great-grandmother’s, he tells me. Holding back tears, I punch him in the arm, saying, “You’re such a jerk, but I love you.” He smirks, pleased with himself that he’s managed to surprise me after all. As I write this story, I have to laugh at myself. I wouldn’t marry me — I was the jerk. But, 22 years later, we’re still going strong. So is our waffle iron. Some things were just made to last. OH Cassie Bustamante is editor of O.Henry magazine. O.Henry 11
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simple life
Winter Dad, Summer Son How's the weather? Depends on who you ask
By Jim Dodson
My son, Jack,
ILLUSTRATION BY GERRY O'NEILL
phoned the other afternoon as I was enjoying an ounce of something superbly aged and watching from my favorite wooden chair under the trees as winter birds fed. It was a clear but cold afternoon, the kind I like. This day was also special in another way as well. “Hey, Dad,” he said. “How’s it going?” “Pretty well,” I said. “I finished the book today.” “Congratulations,” he said. “I know that’s a big relief. Can’t wait to read it.” “At this point you might be the only one,” I joked, pointing out that my editor at Simon & Schuster has probably given up on the book and forgotten my name. “Oh no,” he said. “It’ll be just fine. You always say that.” He was right about this. I’m naturally superstitious about completing books. They’re a little like children you spend years rearing, hoping you got things right, only to send them off into the wide world with gratitude and not a little worry. This was my 18th literary child, one I’d grown unusually close to over the years. Now this special child was about to leave me. The book, a true labor of love, is about a pilgrimage I took along the Great Wagon Road, which my Scottish, German and English ancestors took to North Carolina. Foolishly, I thought I’d travel the historic Colonial road from Philadelphia to Georgia in roughly three weeks and take a couple more years to write about the interesting people I met along with whatever I learned about America, or myself. In fact, it took nearly six years to complete the project, counting the two years off the road due to COVID. Even so, I was pleased to have finished the book, though — as is almost always the case — I felt a bit sad that the experience was over. Its fate was The Art & Soul of Greensboro
almost out of my hands. So, I switched to our usual topic — the weather. “How’s the weather there?” I asked. “Great. Hot and sunny. Just the way I like it. How about there?” “Cold and clear. Maybe some snow on the weekend. Just the way I like it.” Jack laughed. “I always forget that. How much you love winter.” My only son is a journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Lima, Peru, where, as you read this, it’s late summer. Before that, he spent nearly four years living and working in Israel, enjoying the heat and people of that ancient, violently contested land. Fortunately, he left a short time before the latest unspeakably horrible war between Israel and the Hamas terrorists erupted, an event straight from the pages of the Old Testament. I knew he was worried about friends back in Israel and Gaza and wished he was back there helping to cover the war, where more than a dozen journalists have been killed. His mother, old man and big sister, however, were grateful that he wasn’t one of them. In a world that forever seems to be coming apart at the seams, for the moment at least, I was glad that he was in sunny and warm Peru, a place I almost cannot imagine, but must be quite beautiful. Jack is fluent in Spanish and Arabic, a true traveler of the world. Though I speak only English and enough French to get me in trouble whenever I visit France, he and I have many things in common — with one notable exception. Jack was born on a warm August morning in Maine. He thrives in the heat and is an authentic son of summer, a northern New Englander who digs tropical heat and desert landscapes. I was born on a cold, snowy morning in Washington, D.C., where my dad worked for the newspaper, a true-blue son of winter who thrives in early evening darkness, bone-chilling winds and lots of snow, a Southerner who could happily reside in Lapland, wherever that is. (I just googled it. Lapland is in Northern Finland. One of its largest towns is Santa Claus Village. Count me in!) O.Henry 13
simple life How upside down is that? On the other hand, perhaps we’re simply fated to be this way. The ancient Greeks claimed unborn souls choose the time and place of their birth. Jack clearly picked the hottest part of summer to make his appearance, like his mama, a mid-July baby. My mom was born in late January, traditionally the coldest part of winter. My birthday in February follows hers by just five days. She loved winter almost as much as I do. Jack’s big sister, Maggie, was born during a January blizzard. The morning we brought her home from the hospital, I had to slide down a steep, snowy hill with her in my arms in order to reach our cozy cottage on the coast, as the unplowed roads were all impassable due to the heavy snow. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. Though she resides in Los Angeles today, I think she loves good, snowy winters almost as much as her old man. Not surprisingly, we winter people are a relatively tiny tribe. A recent study of people in Britain determined that only 7 percent of its citizens claimed to be “winter people.” Then again, summer in Britain can sometimes feel like an endlessly cold and soggy winter day, one reason you find so many sun-burned Brits residing on the Costa de Sol and the Mediterranean at large. University of Pennsylvania psychologist and author Seth Gillihan studies the effect of weather on people’s moods. In his book, A Mindful Year, he notes that there is a positive link
14 O.Henry
between someone’s birth and preferred season. “People who are born in the winter, their internal clock seems to be set to the length of days in the winter,” he told Metro.co.uk. The internal clock of so-called winter people, he adds, “is not as affected as someone who’s born in the summer, whose circadian rhythm (the body’s 24-hour ‘internal clock’) is expecting a longer light period.” Among other things, he aims to debunk popular misconceptions about the so-called “winter blues,” pointing out that seasonal affective disorder — SAD for short — affects only a small percentage of the populations, less than 3 percent in the UK. The idea that people who live in warm, sunny places are naturally happier than folks who reside in cold climates is challenged, he adds, by data that indicates Europe’s northernmost countries with the longest winters — Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden — rank among the continent’s seven happiest countries. In a few weeks, North Carolina winter will begin to slip away. The welcome winter snows of my childhood here seem fewer than ever. The good news is that, by February’s end, my garden will be springing back to life, heralding my second-favorite time of year. Winter will be coming on in Peru. I’m hoping my summerloving son will decide to come home to share its glorious return with me. OH Jim Dodson is the founding editor of O.Henry.
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SAZERAC
"A spirited forum of Gate City food, drink, history, art, events, rumors and eccentrics worthy of our famous namesake"
Sage Gardener With Valentine’s Day coming up, the Sage Gardener has been sitting by a crackling fire, reading about aphrodisiacs and anaphrodisiacs, to which The Cambridge World History of Food devotes 12 quarto-sized pages. (Anaphrodisiacs? Substances and foods that blunt sexual appetite — of particular interest to clerical scholars during the Middle Ages in respect to randy monks, friars and priests.) But back to plants and foods that encourage amorous behavior, as seen on the big screen when Tom Jones meets Mrs. Waters in a country inn and gastro-lust ensues. Who knew, for instance, that sparrow brains were prized in 16th century England for their lascivious attributes? Granted, goddess of love Aphrodite considered them sacred and that they’re infamous for their uninhibited and public displays of affection — but sparrow brains? And sweet potatoes? Once upon a time, again in Jolly Old England, they were prized as “the venereous root,” probably because of their scarcity (or appearance?). Which is likely why so many once-exotic but now-every-day spices (cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, gloves, cinnamon and even pepper) were prized as aphrodisiacs. (I certainly see no effects from the gallons of chai I drink every morning.) I also learned that the French ate three meals of asparagus the day before their weddings as a libido booster. And that beets are a natural source of tryptophan, betaine and boron, something that’s hard to beet in the vegetable world. I came of age in the ’50s and ’60s, when, as Jane and Michael Stern observe in their classic American Gourmet, “culinary sophistication conferred great powers of seduction on the gourmet.” Books such as Saucepan and the Single Girl, Venus in the Kitchen, The Naked Chef and Love and Dishes have, over the years, fueled amorous fires in so many bellies and hearts. The Sterns remember fondly how setting victuals ablaze — from flaming chunks of meat skewered on a sword to, look it up, coffee set on fire — kindles something primitive deep down in our psyches. And remember Swiss fondue and America’s obsession with ohso-saucy-and-sexy French cuisine? It was an era when Cosmo editor Helen Gurley Brown wrote, “There is a relationship between food and sex. One appetite can feed the other in a never-ending
16 O.Henry
cycle of sensation.” (Was it any wonder that my wife-to-be and I bonded on a picnic featuring roast duck and homemade gingerbread?) The Oxford Companion to Food confirmed what my decades of dining suggest — that “the concept of finding a truly aphrodisiac food is on a par with that of finding a crock of gold at the end of the rainbow.” However, there are few tried-and-true favorites my kitchen mate and I put on the table for anniversaries, birthdays and other special occasions. Is there a more sensuous food than ripe strawberries, especially if you share a few double berries, taking just a half bite and sealing the deal with a sweet meeting of the lips? The botanical name for chocolate, Theobromo (food of the gods) cacao, is apt not only because of its stimulating chemicals, such as phenylethylamine and serotonin, but from the sheer sensual pleasure of having something melt in your mouth as it triggers endorphins in your brain. Teething and savoring the soft flesh of steamed artichoke petals, dipped in butter, is a sensuous ritual, as is dipping lobster into melted butter. And how about butter on just about anything? And then there are oysters, plucked steaming and sizzling from beneath a burlap sack atop a sheet of steel over a roaring fire — popped open and slurped with just a dash of tangy Texas Pete. I could go on, but in an era when men and women endlessly troll the internet and haunt doctors’ offices looking for love, something a London physician observed in the 16th century comes to mind: “A good cook is half physician.”
— David Claude Bailey The Art & Soul of Greensboro
sazerac
A Heartfelt Cause? You bet
PHOTOGRAPH BY AMY FREEMAN
Six years ago in “The Light Within Us,” O.Henry writers highlighted several local individuals and organizations who were sprinkling Greensboro with goodness (ohenrymag.com/the-lightwithin-us). We recently caught up with Kathleen Little, who cofounded Hands for Hearts in memory of her son, Matthew Sullivan. Sullivan passed away in January 2014, a decade ago. At the time of his death, Sullivan, just 34, held a tight bond with his toddler nephew, Nicholas LaRose, who was born with multiple heart defects. To support children — like Nicholas — with congenital heart defects and to carry on the legacy
of a young man who had “a heart that went on for days,” according to best friend Skotty Wannamaker, Hands for Hearts was brought to life. Now, 10 years after forming, the nonprofit organization is still beating strong. In fact, last year, Hands for Hearts took home the 2023 Duke Children’s Hero Award. Wanna take a gamble on how you can help? Practice your poker face and chip in for its annual Casino Night from 6 p.m.–midnight on Saturday, Feb. 24, at the Greensboro Country Club. Food, drinks, silent and live auctions, plus classic casino games? Count us in. Tickets: handsforhearts.org.
Unsolicited Advice Fun fact: Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Languages, hails from North Carolina and served as minister for over 50 years at Cavalry Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. Since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, we’ve come up with some ideas to help you show your feelings, no matter which language your partner speaks.
Window to the Past
Words of Affirmation: There are just three little words your partner is longing to hear. “You were right.” Quality Time: How about a movie night? You’ll spend almost an hour discussing what flick to pick only to decide there’s not enough time left to watch said film. But, hey, that was a good 45 minutes together. Physical Touch: Big spoon, little spoon? Nah, give ‘em something less expected. High five, low five. Nothing says romance like a “Put it there, bruh.” Acts of Service: Do you remember that Mr. Clean Super Bowl ad that went viral in 2017? Google it. The point is, there’s nothing sexier than someone else cleaning your house. Nothing.
PHOTOGRAPH © GREENSBORO HISTORY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Milling around? A family poses on the porch of their house in one of the Cone mill villages. From the exterior, this house is almost a spitting image of the Glencoe mill home featured on page 60. Can you spot the major difference?
Receiving Gifts: You are a gift. Remember that. And make sure your partner knows that, too. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
O.Henry 17
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18 O.Henry
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tea leaf astrologer
CELEBRATING 15 SUCCESSFUL YEARS!
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Aquarius
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(January 20 – February 18)
Let’s be honest: The foundation is crumbling. So, too, are the walls. That’s Pluto in Aquarius for you, and for the next 20 years, the planet of destruction, death and rebirth will shake us to our collective core. You were, quite literally, born to show us a new way forward. When the North Node of Destiny links up with Chiron (the wounded healer) on February 19, there’s no stopping you from sharing your weirdest, wildest imaginings out loud. Bring on the renaissance, space cake.
Tea leaf “fortunes” for the rest of you:
Phone:336-508-7159 928 Summit Ave, Greensboro, NC 27405
Pisces (February 19 – March 20)
A box of chocolates, minus the gooey, pink nougat. Aries (March 21 – April 19)
Three words: milk of magnesia. Taurus (April 20 – May 20)
There’s more than one way to peel an orange. Gemini (May 21 – June 20)
Try not to scare off the neighbors. Cancer (June 21 – July 22)
Apply rose water. Leo (July 23 – August 22)
Gentle pressure will suffice.
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Virgo (August 23 – September 22)
Soften the muscles in your face. Libra (September 23 – October 22)
What if there isn’t a wrong way? Scorpio (October 23 – November 21)
Richard
Kim
Gina
Ken
Sheila
Emilee
Best not to skim the fine print. Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21)
If you can’t laugh at yourself, there’s work to do yet. Capricorn (December 22 – January 19)
Tighten your bootstraps. OH
Zora Stellanova has been divining with tea leaves since Game of Thrones’ Starbucks cup mishap of 2019. While she’s not exactly a medium, she’s far from average. She lives in the N.C. foothills with her Sphynx cat, Lyla. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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O.Henry 19
P L E A S E J O I N J D R F P I E D M O N T T R I A D F O R A R A D I A N T E V E N I N G!
Hope Glows Gala
2 024
Gala Week
Highlights
Moving forward toward a world without type 1 diabetes.
M O N DAY, F E B R UA RY 1 2 Silent Auction and Windsor Jewelers Sweepstakes go live S AT U R DAY, F E B R UA RY 17 * 5:30 pm: Cocktails, Silent Auction, Windsor Jewelers Sweepstakes 7 pm: Seated Dinner, Program, Live Auction, and Fund A Cure 9:30 pm: A er-Party with Sleeping Booty
Black Tie Optional *Portions of the program will be livestreamed.
SAT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 17, 202 4
Bri any and Vanessa Carroll with Rider
Koury Convention Center 3121 West Gate City Boulevard Greensboro, N.C.
Honoring Vanessa and Brittany Carroll Please join Bri any Carroll, who was diagnosed with T1D 21 years ago, and her mom, Vanessa, who has dedicated herself to turning Type One into Type None every day since then. Last year’s Gala was sold out. To a end, sponsor, or make a gi in honor of Vanessa and Bri any, visit tinyurl.com/TriadGala2024.
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20 O.Henry
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life's funny
Project Runway Sitting on a tarmac is boring: Sitting beside a tarmac is another story
By Maria Johnson
“Here comes one!”
Conversation freezes and heads swivel to the horizon, where two bright beams glow, side by side, above a distant tree line. “Oooooh, that’s a big one,” says our airplane-obsessed friend, whose birthday we are celebrating with a parking lot picnic beside a runway at Piedmont Triad International Airport. The four of us, all empty nesters, are way beyond the age of coveting stuff. Well, most stuff anyway. Experiences, time together, moments that morph into stories and embed as warm memories — that’s what we prize. So, recently, our wee gang has been celebrating birthdays with daytime excursions that introduce us to new places and people. During one of these forays, a friend who was not being fêted at the moment came clean about her obsession with all things aero. As a young woman growing up in Rockingham County, she tinkered with the idea of becoming a flight attendant. That dream never took off, but her fascination with soaring above it all persisted. As an adult, she regularly asked flight crews for tours of cockpits; bought toy jetliners with battery-powered engines and lights “for the grandchildren.” She even bought a captain’s hat from a former Piedmont Airlines pilot. Side note: If you ever want to see a bunch of 60-plus North Carolinians get misty-eyed, ask them about Piedmont Airlines. It really was the best. Sigh. Anyway, our well-traveled pal also revealed how much she loved to watch airplanes take off and land. She said she liked to imagine who was aboard, where they were going, what it was like there, and what the passengers would do when they got there.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Escapism? Totally. The rest of us knew what we had to do for her birthday: Find a place to watch planes come and go. I remembered that there used to be a diner near PTI where you could catch the action aloft. An internet search confirmed that the restaurant had closed, but a few clicks later, I landed on a website called planespotters.net, where jet-heads post their favorite viewing sites. A recon mission was called for. One pal piloted. I co-piloted, translating the map app’s instructions because who the heck knows what 500 feet looks like when you’re going 60 miles an hour? Just turn left where that blue car is coming out. We cased several parking lots, some right next to the runways. I’m quite sure we appeared on several security cameras. To dispel fear — and reduce the odds of being placed on a TSA watchlist labeled “HUH?” — we waved at the control tower as we drove past. Several times. Maybe it was the time of day, late one afternoon in the fading light of fall, but we didn’t see much action. The next day, I stuck my head in at one of GTCC’s aviation training buildings, “yoo-hooed” my way down a hallway and found a darkened classroom where three young men sat at computer screens doing . . . we’ll call it homework. “Hey, fellas, I know this sounds weird, but do y’all know of a good place to watch airplanes take off and land?” “Yeah, I know a great place,” one of the guys said, popping out of his seat and walking over to show me a map on his phone. He pointed me to a gravel lot off Old Oak Ridge Road. I drove right over. Jackpot. I dropped a pin and shared it with our foursome. We booked a date. A couple of weeks later, we packed up camp chairs and a kneeO.Henry 21
life's funny
The Art
of Living MEET CARL HEIN AND KARL STAUBER As highly skilled woodworkers, Carl and Karl love making things—furniture, bowls, jewelry, and more. Now, thanks to their efforts to bring a new fully-equipped and stand-alone woodshop to Arbor Acres, the men have a dedicated place to work and share with other residents. “We have a full collection of high-quality tools,” says Karl. “And safety is a key feature,” Carl adds, referring to detailed training sessions. Arbor Acres is happy to continue fulfilling the visions of our residents, who continue to make this place alive with their creative energy.
Discover life in all its shining brilliance at Arbor Acres. Arbor Acres is a Continuing Care Retirement Community affiliated with the Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church. 1240 Arbor Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27104 arboracres.org • (336) 724-7921
22 O.Henry
high table. One of us brought fruit and crackers. Another brought Biscoff cookies and packs of almonds. Another brought prosecco. The birthday girl brought her captain’s hat, which she wore proudly as we cheered and waved at the passing planes. They looked so small, even the big ones, when you considered that these sleek aluminum tubes carried so many people, each connected to their own constellation of lives. The passengers would scatter as soon as they claimed their bags, and yet, for a precious few ticks of the clock, they were on the same trip. Was it any different on the ground, at our makeshift celebration only a stone’s throw from barbed wire and warning signs? Between the drones and roars overhead, we turned to our seat mates and talked of the things circling our hearts. Of joys and worries. Of health and family and friends. As we chatted, sunset painted the sky in neon pink and somber purple. A flock of starlings, headed for their evening roost, rippled like a flag in the sky. The nighttime lights of the airport emerged like the skyline of a city. Other people came and went from the parking lot: a lone young man perched on his motorcycle; a middle-aged woman and her small dog; a young couple who spent most of their time taking pictures of themselves and their car. Small eddies of humanity swirled and dissipated here. We were one of those swirls, sitting in a tight circle on a dusty patch of gravel, wrapped in throws against the deepening chill as we sipped and nibbled, nodded and mmm-ed, rode the crosswinds of laughter and tears, and occasionally looked to the clouds and let our imaginations fly. We were determined to enjoy the ride. OH Maria Johnson is a contributing editor of O.Henry magazine. Email her at ohenrymaria@gmail.com.
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24 O.Henry
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omnivorous reader
Dicey Drama in Haiti Looking for treasure but finding trouble
By Anne Blythe
Given the political
fracture in this country and the intensified drumbeat of questions about the survival of democracy, it might seem daunting to tuck into Ben Fountain’s Devil Makes Three: A Novel.
The sheer size of the North Carolina native’s latest book — 531 pages — is intimidating enough. When you throw in that it’s a deep dive into life in Haiti immediately following the 1991 military coup that sent President Jean-Bertrande Aristide into exile, you might be tempted to put this novel about abusive power, excessive greed and dictatorship back on the shelf and save it for a less divisive time. Don’t do that. Instead, open Fountain’s work of fiction. Let the story pull you from a once blissful beachfront through streets littered with butchered corpses and the headless body of a mayor, to crumbling estates, voodoo priestesses and treasure hunts on the turquoise waters lapping against the former French slave colony fallen under the rule of an oppressive military regime. A political thriller and adventure-filled page-turner, Devil Makes Three explores a country in turmoil from different angles through four main characters in their 20s. Matt Amaker is a rootless American college dropout drawn to Haiti with unrealized ambitions after circulating through the Caribbean as a “dive gypsy.” Alix Variel, the ambitious and beguiling son of a prominent Haitian family, persuades Matt to
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
come with him to Haiti to start a dive shop of their own catering to a wave of the expected tourism before the coup upended the country’s dreams of democracy and prompted international trade embargoes. Despite the upheaval, Matt and Alix have not given up all hope on ScubaRave being a successful business, and turn their attention to hunting Conquistador treasure and artifacts in the under-explored ocean waters off Haiti. “Haiti has treasure,” Alix tells Matt while they are smoking a joint and pondering their future. One wreck he was aware of had as many as 12 cannon among the wreckage. If they were bronze, they could attract high-end collectors, deep-pocketed people who might pay as much as one Saudi oil prince had — $600,000 for a pair of cannon. “Why the hell are we messing with scuba,” Alix asked. “We should be hunting treasure all the time.” “Because it’s a really stupid business, that’s why,” Matt responded. “A few people make some money and everybody else loses their shirt. It’s like Vegas, the lottery, it’s mainly just luck. You happen to dig over here instead of a quarter mile over there, that’s the difference between a fortune and wasting your life. Screw that. It’s too random for me . . . Treasure is trouble.” That prognostication is a driving line of the novel, which also focuses on Audrey O’Donnell, a rookie CIA officer, a sharp and aspiring government agent also known as Shelly Graver, who quickly finds herself involved in ethically quesO.Henry 25
omnivorous reader
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Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro, NC 27407 Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Timesbestselling author of 17 novels, including Becoming Mrs. Lewis, Once Upon a Wardrobe and Surviving Savannah. Join us in a celebration of the paperback release of her latest novel, The Secret Book of Flora Lea. After a cocktail hour featuring an array of heavy hors d’oeuvres and sips, Patti will speak, answer audience questions and sign books, which will be available for purchase onsite through The Country Bookshop.
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26 O.Henry
tionable drug deals and agency-supported operations to keep Aristide out of power. All the while, she wrestles with the part of her job that calls for manipulating people, even as she’s romantically involved with Alix. Audrey’s belief that it is in Haiti’s best interest “to integrate into the global economy, which last time she checked, was overwhelmingly trending toward the free market American model” puts her in direct opposition to Misha, Alix’s sister and a love interest of Matt’s. Misha returns to Haiti in the midst of researching and writing a thesis at Brown University with a working subtitle “Psychological Rupture in the Literature of the Black Atlantic.” Instead of going back to school while her homeland is in tumult, she goes to work at a public clinic where the CIA tries to mine the medical records of her patients to test their political loyalties. “The coup d’etat had unfolded as a kind of twisted affirmation of her still gestating dissertation,” Fountain writes. In a country where the minimum wage was $5 a day in the early ’90s, Misha wrestled with “the contradiction of the lived experience” in her homeland. “Once again Haiti was instructing the world, pushing ahead of the historical curve, and it was paying the price in blood and grief,” Fountain writes. “Why take to the streets if you are already free, as you’d been told every day of your life you were. Forget your slack stomach and aching back, your weary mind. Whatever else might be said or alleged of him, Aristide gave voice to, made visible, the contradiction of the lived experience of the country.” Despite their differences, Misha and Audrey come together to help save Matt and Alix from the throes of dangerous and misguided adventures brought about by their attempts to “float up” bronze cannon. The men find themselves being arrested by soldiers on “conspiracy to commit terrorism charges” and are thrown in prison. Haiti’s top general, however, has a keen interest in scuba diving and treasure hunting, and springs Matt from prison on a working furlough to help find Christopher Columbus’ Santa Maria before the 500th anniversary of its sinking in December 1492. By making Haiti the focus of Devil Makes Three, Fountain is able to weave themes of power, politics, race, history, capitalism, globalism, voodoo and the legacy of plantation slavery throughout the novel using the characters’ dialogue as they down rum and tonics, smoke marijuana and feast on creole dishes. Whether it’s Fountain’s description of Port-au-Prince as a city with “a dull orange haze hanging over everything like a fulminating cloud of Cheetos dust” or his tightly knit storylines, this Dallas-based lawyer-turned-writer, born in Chapel Hill, raised in Elizabeth City and Cary, gives the reader a lot to digest. OH Anne Blythe has been a reporter in North Carolina for more than three decades covering city halls, higher education, the courts, crime, hurricanes, ice storms, droughts, floods, college sports, health care and many wonderful characters who make this state such an interesting place.
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O.Henry 27
art of the state
Sculpture in Silk Kenny Nguyen’s unique medium weaves tradition with ingenuity
By Liza Roberts
“Every time I start a piece, I imagine
there’s a body underneath it,” says Quoctrung Kenny Nguyen, a former fashion designer who makes rippling, three-dimensional sculptures out of paint-soaked silk. “Instead, there’s this absence of a body, in sculptural form. I think it’s beautiful like that.” Torn into strips, dredged in paint and affixed to unstretched canvas, Nguyen’s silk segments fuse to become a malleable but sturdy material that he molds with his hands and pins in place. Every time he hangs a piece, he changes the pin placement — and with it the object’s shape, shadow and energy. Some have a “more architectural feel,” others are more organic. These works explore and illustrate Nguyen’s experience with reinvention, cultural displacement, isolation and identity. His chosen material — with its direct ties to the cultural history of his native Vietnam, where the fabric is revered and traditional “silk villages” keep ancient production techniques alive — is a key component. “Identity is changing all the time,” he says, “and the work keeps evolving, in a continuous transformation.” It all begins with the fabric in his hands. “Silk is already a transformation: from the silkworm, to the silk thread, to a piece of silk. So it’s holding a metaphor.” More than one: “People see silk as a very delicate thing,” he says, “but actually it’s one of the strongest fibers on earth.” Nguyen’s work has earned him solo exhibitions and dozens of awards, residencies, grants and fellowships all over the world. It began to take off commercially in a big way during the pandemic, when he began using Instagram to share images of his pieces, and after Los
28 O.Henry
Angeles-based Saatchi Art named him a Rising Star of 2020, one of the 35 “best young artists to collect” under the age of 35 from around the world. He now has art consultants and galleries representing his work all over the country and in Europe, and has had to move his studio out of the garage of his family home and into a former textile mill to keep up with demand. He no longer works alone, with three assistants (all art students from UNC Charlotte) helping him with prep work, photography and studio management. His biggest challenge is no longer finding an audience; it’s managing the business. Nguyen couldn’t have imagined this kind of success when he immigrated here in 2010 from Ho Chi Minh City with his family. He was 19 and had a BFA in fashion design from the University of Architecture Ho Chi Minh City. But he couldn’t find a job and spoke no English. “It was just a culture shock. You can’t communicate with anybody. You feel so isolated. Homeless, in a way. I was struggling,” he says. Art called him. Nguyen enrolled at UNC Charlotte to study painting — Davidson artist Elizabeth Bradford was one of his teachers — and The Art & Soul of Greensboro
art of the state
found himself yearning for a way to incorporate his own culture and passions into the work. In the end, the way those came together was a happy accident. During the summer of 2018, three years out of UNCC, Nguyen had just arrived at an artist’s residency in rural Vermont, where he planned to continue painting the “very flat, very traditional” types of canvases he’d been creating until that point. He realized that in his rush to get out the door, he’d left a container with most of Cham (Encounter No.9), 2023, Hand cut silk, acrylic, canvas mounted on wall, 84 x 120 in. his colorful paints and brushes behind. In fact, he realized that he’d managed to bring only three materials with him: a bucket of white paint, skeins of silk and some canvas. “What can you do with that?” he wondered. He began ripping pieces of silk, dredging them in paint, affixing them to canvas, “and you know, it just happened.” Quickly, he decided he was on to something: “The material was speaking for itself.” Bits of transparent silk dripped off his canvases, letting light shine through. “I decided I didn’t want the frame anymore. I decided: Let’s sculpt it.”
Encounter Series No.12, 2023, Hand cut silk, acrylic, canvas mounted on wall, (Approx.) 75 x 60 x 5 in. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Encounter Series No.5, 2023, Hand cut silk, acrylic, canvas mounted on wall, (Approx.) 72 x 120 in. O.Henry 29
art of the state
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30 O.Henry
To get there, though, he knew he’d have to manipulate his silk in new ways. “Silk has such a value in the Vietnamese culture,” he says. “For me, to destroy a piece of silk, to cut it into pieces . . . that’s a big deal for me. I pushed myself to do that.” He hasn’t stopped. “The work is evolving in such an amazing way,” he said in late December. “I’ve just been in the studio nonstop, producing work.” Nguyen says that kind of work ethic has been crucial to his success. Some of it is rooted in his early years working in fashion while in school, some of it is hard-wired, and a lot of it is simply about his love of the work. “The more that I work with the materials, the more I realize how it works and the more capacity I have,” he says. He’s experimenting with large-scale work, which can be challenging to mold in lasting sculptural forms, but not impossible. His largest works are now as many as 40 feet long, and he makes them in five or six different segments, which he then sews together. “It’s not evolving in a straight line,” he says. “There are a lot of tests, and a lot of failures. Little accidents happen, unexpected The Art & Soul of Greensboro
art of the state things happen, and I pick up on that.” When he’s not working on commission for collectors with requests for particular dimensions or colors, Nguyen often goes right back to where he started, letting colors and shapes come to him intuitively, sometimes reworking old pieces that didn’t originally come together, pulling out paints he hasn’t used in a while, relying on instinct. His materials never stop inspiring his creativity. “It amazes me,” he says, “that the material, this silk, can hold a sculptural form.” OH
This is an excerpt from Art of the State: Celebrating the Art of North Carolina, published by UNC Press.
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Encounter Series No.1, 2023, Hand-cut silk fabric, acrylic paint, canvas, mounted on wall, 84 x 65 in.
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O.Henry 31
Kicker: Marrying yourself is called sologamy. Self-marriage is legal in all 50 states. Yet it took a 5-year-old to tip me off. By Cynthia Adams
While hacking
at a tangle of ivy and Virginia creeper, our neighbor, Warren, approached the fence. He swung a toy sword while wearing the expression of someone who wanted to unburden himself.
I learned sologamy is a thing
When I complimented his red kicks, he solemnly nodded, his blonde curls bouncing, and studied his feet as if surprised to find them there. His small fingers reached through the chain link fence to pet Patch, our Schnauzer. Generally friendly, Patch responded with a small growl, even as his tail wagged happily. Like kids, dogs are unpredictable. “Sorry, Warren,” I apologized. “He’s grouchy today.” “So is Baxter,” he pointed out, nodding. Baxter, a wire-haired rescue, is mercurial. We worked hard to end incessant fence fighting between Bax and Warren’s two dachshunds. “How’s preschool going?” I asked, still weeding. Wrong topic. He muttered something unintelligible. His frown deepened. Muddling along, I gathered the little guy was interested in planting vegetables. “Plant some popcorn,” I suggested, trying to elicit a laugh. “You can’t grow popcorn!” Warren replied. But, after thinking,
32 O.Henry
he changed his mind and his face brightened. “It’s corn!” So, I suggested he grow popsicles. “You can’t grow those!” he protested, spluttering. Warren was a tough audience. “You have to go to the South Pole to get popsicles!” Nonetheless, he agreed to include me in his next polar order. Garden and snacks exhausted, I again broached the subject of school. One girl in particular seemed to dominate Warren’s thoughts, but he struggled to explain how. I’ll call her Julia. I gathered that Julia perplexed him — naturally, irritation can mask fascination
between the sexes. “You know what she said?” he asked, frowning and walloping a magnolia with his sword, venting his frustration. What might a precocious girl say? I couldn’t guess. “She said Obama married himself.” He gave the tree trunk another hearty stab before fixing me with a long look. Waiting. I mumbled, “Is that right?” Warren muttered something to the intractable magnolia, not bending to his will, and lashed it once again. “That doesn’t sound right to me,” I said, trying to read Warren’s reactions. “You can’t marry yourself.” This was comic fodder. My mind flashed to a TV show from the 1960s, The Linkletter Show. It was the sort of comment Art Linkletter drew when interviewing kids ages 5–10 for a popular segment called “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” But Warren had me thinking.
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ILLUSTRATION BY MIRANDA GLYDER
d
ike T L t s h Ju
… at
An
home grown
home grown Beyonce’s song, “All the Single Ladies,” pointed to a clue: Single women have long outnumbered married ones in the U.S. and in the U.K. Seems that sologamy, self-marriage, self-partnering had many names, and was legal and well documented. When and where it began is unclear, but, in a 2003 episode of the dramedy Sex and the City, the main character, Carrie Bradshaw, declared she would just marry herself. Ostensibly to fight the unmarried woman stigma. Of course, that was fictional. Real life examples weren’t hard to find and include: Supermodel Adriana Lima said “I do to me” in Monaco in 2017. Actress Emma Watson “self-partnered” in 2019. Also, closer to home, American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino (from High Point) embraced sologamy by putting a ring on her own finger. Barrino later married Kendall Taylor — which self-marrieds can do — in 2015. Bigamy? No. The self-married can legally other-marry. Singletons going the self-marriage route may or may not wear a wedding gown, may or may not buy themselves a nice ring, and may or may not have a wedding cake for their big day. But they report feeling affirmed, ready to vow eternal love henceforth. To themselves. “This is not a Bridget Jones-like tragic story,” wrote Ariane Sherine in a Spectator piece entitled “Marriage for One” four years ago. “If we can’t find a knight in shining armor, we make alternative arrangements.” Warren, abandoning his sword, was now on his trampoline, whooping and hollering. I mopped my brow, observing his spring-loaded joy, which didn’t require another to be complete. Perhaps young Julia’s wouldn’t either. It was a new time. Knight be damned. OH Cynthia Adam is a contributing editor to O.Henry magazine.
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O.Henry 33
Raising their Voices to Save Lives Meet our 2024 Triad Women of Impact Read their stories, follow their journeys, and SCAN here to pledge your support!
Patricia Davis
Dr. Erika Hendrix
Hope Newkirk
Courtney Pierce
Marci Williams
These individuals are stepping up to raise awareness and funds to help our Triad neighbors live longer, healthier lives.
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34 O.Henry
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
birdwatch
A Rare Winter Visitor Keep an eye out for the snow bunting
By Susan Campbell
No bird in North America conjures up an
image of midwinter like the snow bunting. These open country birds of the North are well adapted to cold and snow, as their name implies. The species is migratory and so may be found in the northern half of the U.S. in winter. Individuals are not at all a common sight this far south. However, they may show up here and there during the colder months. So, it is good to be aware — and know what to look for. Snow buntings breed in rocky areas on the tundra during the late spring and summer. They nest in crevices between rocks, using moss and down to create a soft cup. In the fall, when temperatures plummet and the days shorten, these birds take off in a southerly direction for more hospitable locations. Typically, they show up in weedy fields and along lakeshores, but they can also be found at the coast on sandy beaches. These birds typically have more white plumage in the summer — especially the males. This is the result of feather wear (not different feathers) during the cooler months after a post-breedingseason molt. Males are white with black backs, wingtips and tail tips. Females are grayish, but even they have white bellies and flanks. In winter, their plumage contains brownish hues such that The Art & Soul of Greensboro
they blend in well with the vegetation, as well as the sand or soil in their preferred feeding habitat. They are truly birds of the ground and so are rarely seen perched in trees or on wires. In flight, they are quite distinctive year-round with large white wing patches and white rumps. And if traveling with others, they will produce an array of odd, loud noises: They may rattle, buzz and/or twitter. Single snow buntings may be easily overlooked. They do not tend to flush until the last second. Between the fact that they are so well camouflaged and that they tend to be silent, they are often missed even at close range. Furthermore, they are not typically found at feeding stations, preferring larger natural areas to backyards. Although there have been no reports of these special little birds sighted in central North Carolina yet this season, there has been a flock of up to two dozen on the Outer Banks this winter. They have been observed feeding on the seeds of sea oats and other dune grasses since early December on the south side of Oregon Inlet. If you happen to be out that way in the next several weeks, you may be able to find them. Flocks may move around frequently, leapfrogging over one another as they search for their next meal. Simply stroll the dunes watching for movement around the vegetation, and be sure to listen for their raspy calls. The group sticks together by frequently vocalizing. Keep an ear out and you may be rewarded with a glimpse of this rare winter visitor. OH Susan Campbell would love to hear from you. Feel free to send questions or wildlife observations to susan@ncaves.com. O.Henry 35
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36 O.Henry
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
wandering billy
Hiding in Plain Sight Seventy-five years of Lawndale Shopping Center and the oldest bar in Greensboro
By Billy Ingram
“He realized suddenly that it was one thing to see the past occupying the present, but the true test of prescience was to see the past in the future.” — Frank Herbert, Dune
Seventy-five years ago, southbound tran-
sients riding the rails typically leapt from open boxcars around Cornwallis Drive as locomotives slowed their roll into Greensboro city limits. In 1949, those so-called “hobos” would have undoubtedly been surprised to encounter a row of storefronts that was rapidly devouring a major portion of a wooded oasis they’d been bivouacking in for decades. To accommodate this nascent shopping center, the city extended a boulevard running parallel to the tracks that previously began at Cornwallis, a street once known as Fairfield, rechristened in the 1920s as “Lawndale.”
A further encroachment on their leafy lair — directly behind that emerging retail corridor overlooking Irving Park Elementary — was a collection of handsome duplexes under construction on Dellwood Drive and a freshly carved cul-de-sac called Branch Court. By the time I started third grade in the 1960s, that emerging shopping center from 1949 had become a bustling Lawndale Shopping Center. As an 8-year-old, I was expected to walk to my home on Hill Street from Irving Park Elementary, a 1.5-mile trek. Yes, uphill both ways and it snowed year-round. On school days, a quarter rested in my pocket to pay for cafeteria slop, but I skipped lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those days, new The Art & Soul of Greensboro
comic books were released, 25 cents being the exact amount required to buy two DCs (12 cents each with a penny tax). So as soon as the bell rang, I’d hightail it in the opposite direction of our house, to Lawndale Shopping Center. Lawndale Shopping Center was a genteel, modestly upscale row of clothing stores, druggists, hair salons and neighborhood taverns in the mid-’60s, a lineup practically unchanged from the very beginning. Entering Lawndale Shopping Center from Sunset, past Bill Blake’s Texaco, was Mr. & Mrs. Q-Ball (Elizabeth’s Pizza today), erected a full decade after the strip was fully completed in 1954. This was the city’s first and only co-ed pool hall, open until midnight and decorated in space-age splendor with blue-and-tangerine gaming tables, a pink-tiled ladies lounge and gleaming vending machines surrounding multicolored, molded plastic seating. Nearby was The Pied Pier Lounge (Boo Radley’s Tavern now). When the waitress at Brown-Gardiner’s lunch counter left to tend bar there, it ignited a cause célèbre. That place was widely known to be a (gasp!) gay bar, although no such place was allowed to legally exist. A few doors down was my fave place growing up, Franklin Drug Store (a Hookah lounge in 2024 — wait, what?!?). With seven locations around town, Franklin’s at Lawndale was almost 10,000 square feet, packed with nearly anything a kid could desire: a soda shop, two comic book spinner racks fronting rows and rows of magazines and paperbacks surrounding the opening for an escalator, which led to a cavernous toy store below that sold everything seen on the teevee and more. Mom’s favorite clothing boutique was Gin-Ettes (Acme Comics today), specializing in the Mary Tyler Moore look during the O.Henry 37
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38 O.Henry
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wandering billy 1970s. Sadly, that boutique closed in the late-1990s after more than 50 years. The optometrist’s office now next door was The Briar Patch, where I picked out my back-to-school Lacoste shirts as a preteen. My bristles were buzzed for the first time by Gilmer (Ed) Jones at Lawndale Barber Shop (it’s been the Hair Shop for decades). For the most part, if you lived in Irving or Latham Park, your drug store of choice was either Brown-Gardiner or my parent’s preference, advantageously located in the Lawndale Shopping Center, CrutchfieldBrowning, both offering speedy delivery and charge accounts so mom’s lithium ’script never ran out. And the liquor store was right next door to the drug store — how convenient? Both were located under what is currently the Hannah’s Bridge sign. The Big Bear Super Market (“The Thrifty Store That Saves You More!”) anchoring this retail daisy-chain wasn’t just air-conditioned in the summer; it was refrigerated, a veritable meat locker. As soon as bare feet hit that store’s frosty Formica floor, you were engulfed in bone-chilling frigidity, no matter how hot it got outside. Every purchase at Big Bear earned shoppers a scratch-off ticket listing three horses competing in three races in that Saturday’s 6 p.m. broadcast of Off To The Races on WFMY. If one of your designated nags came in first, you got $100; place and show netted a few bucks or S&H Green Stamps. Every week there was a fresh list with dozens of local winners posted. Despite original tenant Scruggs Florists closing very recently, there is some comforting continuity. For instance, Head Hunter Salon has been styling and profiling in the same location for an impressive 50 years. Surprisingly, there is one remaining original tenant from 1949: Lawndale Drive-In, by far the oldest bar in Greensboro, once a popular watering hole for Irving Park businessmen wishing to avoid country club stuffiness. This was affectionately known in those days as Mrs. Mac’s, referring to owner and barkeep Bernice McCloskey, whose husband founded this saloon in 1942 in a more rural setting before relocating here seven
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wandering billy years later. After his untimely death, she became LDI’s proprietress. Lawndale Drive-In was a happy hour bar then and it still is, only open from 4–10 p.m. on weekdays, longer hours on weekends. I vividly recall wandering past this joint en route to CrutchfieldBrowning as a youngster, oftentimes to pickup Mother’s tampons and other icky stuff (how embarrassing!). Seemed like that barroom door was always open, the afternoon sun illuminating an unbroken row of men seated at the bar. I wondered then, “Can you make money doing that?” My last visit was some 20 years ago, but what I discovered on a recent visit to Lawndale Drive-In is a proper but casual dive bar, populated primarily with long-time regulars who made this stranger feel welcome. A back patio was added in the 2000s when the place changed hands, but not much else is different from back in the day. LDI’s grandfathered-in decor and weathered wooden bar lends an air of warmth to the surroundings. More importantly, the beer is served refreshingly ice cold. Is there more comfort in familiarity than in any contempt that it might breed? Looking back, a wealth of memories are triggered by Sach’s Shoe Store, G.I. 1200 surplus store, Sports & Hobbies Unlimited, Lawndale Music House, Warren’s Toyland, Piedmont Jewelers and Straughan’s Book Shop. Well into the 1990s, randos could be found guzzling Thunderbird in what was left of the woods between Lawndale and Branch Court. There’s hardly a tree surviving today. And so what if pedal pushers and penny loafers have given way to hookahs and THC dispensaries? Lawndale Shopping Center remains to this day a disparate collage of locally owned enterprises, precisely as it always has been for three quarters of a century now. OH Billy Ingram wishes to dedicate this article to the late Linda Spainhour Cummings, a very talented artist and poet who will be fondly remembered at Page High’s 50-year reunion of the class of ’74.
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O.Henry 39
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February 2024 Onward Here we are again on the back porch. Bluebirds eating mealworms from the feeder while the brown-chested nuthatch takes its time with the sunflower seeds. Lili, the pup, is at my feet, and the sun, my God, this sun feels so good on a February afternoon. There’s coffee and a friend’s new book of poetry. Can you hear the saxophone from the jazz man practicing next door? A sparrow flies over lands a foot away on the edge of the table, looks at me, as if to say what more do you want?
— Steve Cushman
Steve Cushman is the author of three novels, including Portisville, winner of the 2004 Novello Literary Award. His poetry collection, How Birds Fly, won the 2018 Lena Shull Book Award and his latest volume, The Last Time, was published by Unicorn Press in 2023.
The The Art Art & & Soul Soul of of Greensboro Greensboro
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Keepers Tori Hanlin and Stephanie Tien stand beside Forest Glade
Keepers of the Heart The N.C. Zoo makes strides for the Great Ape Heart Project By Cassie Bustamante • Photographs by Bert VanderVeen
“E
eew, no,” said Stephanie Tien, N.C. Zoo gorilla keeper, a decade ago when she was first offered an intern position working with gorillas and orangutans at the Columbus Zoo. But she ended up falling in love with the job, she says, as she slowly came to realize “how much I loved gorillas.” Similarly, Tori Hanlin, chimp keeper at the N.C. Zoo, wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about working with primates. However, she reflects, “You go wherever you can get your first job and my first job was with chimps.” In 2017, two weeks after starting that first full-time gig, great ape caregiver at Florida’s Center for Great Apes, she also fell in love. Now, she says, “I can never go back from chimps.”
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With passion for the primates that they train, these two keepers pour their whole hearts into their work with these two species, both endangered. But they are so much more than caretakers. They are participating in a project that promises to not just help their charges, but other primates. With a similar goal, they are painstakingly trying to train the gorillas and chimps to voluntarily tolerate the collection of cardiac information so they won’t have to be anesthetized, a risky procedure. The information they gather is shared with the Great Ape Heart Project, a Detroit Zoo-based organization that seeks to “investigate and understand cardiovascular disease in great apes.” Currently, over 80 zoos across the nation are contributing data. As it turns out, a major killer of great apes when in human care? Heart disease. Not so different from us humans. After all, we share over
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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98 percent of our DNA with both gorillas and chimpanzees. For both Tien and Hanlin, participating in the Great Ape Heart Project is about more than just training apes and gathering data. It’s personal — it’s about providing the animals they love — and the entire great ape species — with longer, healthier lives.
O
ne of the very first gorillas Tien interacted with during her Columbus Zoo internship was a feisty male named Macombo. “That gorilla put me through the wringer,” she says, recalling how she wept the entire car ride back to Ohio State University’s campus after her first day on the job. And yet, five years later when she was offered the job at the N.C. Zoo, she jumped at the chance to work with none other than his twin bother, Mosuba. Why? Turns out the behavior that had frightened her, such as banging loudly on the mesh to make Tien jump, was a game to him. And she learned to enjoy their playful banter. After just a few weeks with Macombo — or Mac, as she calls him — he’d won her heart. And halfway across the country, his twin brother has done exactly the same. “There he is — that’s the star of the show,” says Tien, her chestnut hair pulled back into a low bun. Through the mesh of the enclosure, he follows his keeper with his brown-black eyes, deeply set into his serene face — a face that might be familiar if you’ve streamed Secrets of the Zoo: North Carolina on Disney+. For Tien, he’s certainly the star of Forest Glade, the western lowland gorilla habitat. “He’s my favorite gorilla on the planet. I will credit
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him for all of my success.” At 40 years old, Mosuba is what’s considered to be geriatric. While gorillas in human care can live into their 40s, some show signs of heart disease as early as in their 20s and 30s. Even in his old age, Mosuba appears to be in good health, something Tien attributes to the “heart-healthy diet” of leafy greens, carrots and celery that the zoo’s director of conservation, education and science, Rich Bergl, co-developed to mimic the eating habits of gorillas in the wild. As the silverback and leader of the pack, Mosuba has been the focus of Tien’s training for voluntary data collection since she started working there, though all five of the zoo’s gorillas participate in data collection in some way or another, sometimes through anesthesia. However, because anesthesia can be stressful for both the gorillas as well as their keepers and vets, the zoo’s goal is to reach a point where all five gorillas voluntarily participate in EKGs, blood draws and and blood pressure readings. Beginning with Mosuba made sense. “We train everything with him first because he’s a gentle giant,” says Tien. “I mean, when we’re using equipment, we’re talking thousands of dollars of equipment.” By the time he arrived in North Carolina in 2015, Mosuba was able to perform a seated cardiac ultrasound, thanks to the trainers at his previous zoo in Omaha. Tien wanted to take this further and train him to lie down for an ultrasound because “the heart rotates into a better position and you can get a better view of different valves and chambers.” O.Henry 45
“That was the first behavior I trained with Mosuba,” says Tien. “He picked it up right away.” The ease of that experience opened doors to new training opportunities. Since then, Mosuba has learned how to use KardiaMobile, a device he sets his fingers in while it connects to a phone via bluetooth and performs an EKG. He also tolerates his blood being drawn, something many gorillas balk at. “There are roughly 350–360 gorillas in human care across the United States,” Tien says. Her face beams with pride as she continues: “There are 10 that can do a voluntary blood draw and Mosuba is one of them.” What motivates Mosuba to complete these tasks? “He loves grapes, kiwis, orange slices, pineapple chunks,” says Tien. But apart from food, he thrives on human interaction, which works well for Tien, who says, “I am loud and boisterous!” However, she admits, each gorilla is different and responds to different cues and enticements. Fourteen-year-old Hadari is aggravated by the very behavior that inspires Mosuba. “It’s better for someone else to take the training lead on Hadari because I am not great at being quiet and calm.” And while working reinforcements might vary between gorillas, they can also vary between trained behaviors for the same gorilla. “What is strong enough to do a blood draw for Mosuba has proven not to be strong enough for blood pressure,” the voluntary behavior they’re currently working toward, according to Tien. As of now, Mosuba can perform a finger blood pressure reading, but, Tien admits, “We don’t know how accurate that is.” Slowly, she’s been working her way up to using an arm cuff. How do you put an arm cuff on a 350-pound gorilla? Obviously, the answer is slowly and very carefully. However, there’s a device created specifically for the purpose, the Gorilla Tough Cuff. Inside
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of a mesh sleeve — picture an arm-sized metal enclosure similar to a pet crate — the Gorilla Tough Cuff houses a standard fabric inflatable cuff, just like the one your doctor uses at your annual checkup. However, Mosuba doesn’t seem to like the squeeze as it begins to fill with air and pulls his arm back. In fact, during a training session, Mosuba retracted his arm from the Tough Cuff, accidentally bringing the blood pressure cuff with him. “A typical gorilla would probably start ripping it apart and investigating it. He just took it off his arm, shoved it back in the sleeve like ‘I know this isn’t mine — this is yours,’” says Tien. While it hasn’t yet happened, Tien continues to work toward a cuff reading with Mosuba, but training is never forced. If he gets up and walks away, his choice is respected. “Every training session for them and for us is a learning experience.” For now, Tien and her team will keep putting one foot in front of the other, with an end goal of having all of the zoo’s gorillas participating in voluntary data collection to submit to the Great Ape Heart Project. And from there, the hope is that heart disease in gorillas will be easier to detect and treat, allowing them to live longer, healthier lives in human care. After all, Tien says ruefully as she considers the inevitable passing of Macombo and Mosuba one day, “They will leave big shoes to fill.” At that time, their hearts will be sent to the Great Ape Heart Project for continued research. But, of course, they will also leave gorilla-sized holes in Tien’s own heart.
O
utside from a deck that looks down on the chimp enclosure, Tori Hanlin points out and names the many chimps in her care — a feat that would not be so easy to anyone else. “Hi, gorgeous!” she says, greeting Gigi and her
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8-month-old son, Gombe. John, the leader, though at 25 not the eldest, spots Hanlin as she passes by and opens his mouth wide, ready for food — which she does not offer at this moment. “They have no shame whatsoever,” she quips. Here among the chimps at the N.C. Zoo, Hanlin is right at home. “I just want to be like Jane Goodall and hang out with chimps all day and make some groundbreaking research and discoveries to help save the species,” says Hanlin. In fact, there’s a Goodall quote that serves as inspiration for her work: “Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved.” Since coming to the N.C. Zoo in September 2019, Hanlin works with two groups of chimps, totaling 17, many of which have been saved from labs or were previously pets. One adult male, Kendall, was rescued from the entertainment industry. While Hanlin’s training is separate from that of the gorillas, she and Tien often collaborate to support each other’s work. “In humans, it’s very studied — the normal blood pressure range, the normal arterial pressure range, the normal heart rate range, resting and working out,” says Hanlin. Her hope is that the Great Ape Heart Project’s data will eventually be able to provide normal ranges for animals in human care. And, Hanlin notes, while information can be collected when chimps are anesthetized, it’s not nearly the same as gathering it voluntarily as the heart can react differently under its influence. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
“We want to get these animals to participate in their own welfare. We want it to be a positive experience for them. We want to make it fun and interactive.” And, she muses, “How many people can say, ‘I’ve trained a voluntary blood pressure on a chimp?’” While she knows heart disease is not 100 percent preventable, she has her own heart set on doing what she can with the technology the N.C. Zoo provides, including the $2,000 blood pressure device she helped it acquire through a Friends of the Zoo grant. Currently, blood pressure training is Hanlin’s primary focus, with an end goal of having all 17 chimps trained to do it voluntarily. Right now, most of the seven males can successfully complete the task and a few females are not far behind. Why more males? It all boils down to the species’ complicated social hierarchy. “The boys will displace the females to train.” In other words, males dominate females, as they do in so many other activities. In fact, John is always first to train. “He is alpha male in the way that he feels entitled to food,” says Hanlin, “and he is going to be the first one to get it.” Pointing to the blood pressure device, she says, “This beeps a little bit, so we have to make sure that they are comfortable with the beeping and extra noises.” With the cost of equipment, Hanlin uses a two-keeper process: one to handle equipment and one whose eyes are on the chimp. Training starts with broken cuffs before using a functioning cuff. And, of course, for the chimps, food serves as motivation O.Henry 47
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during training sessions. The reward that gets them going? Very diluted Ensure, a ready-to-drink shake packed with protein and nutrients, generally intended for adults who are struggling with malnutrition or unwanted weight loss. “It’s very high value, it’s very yummy,” says Hanlin. So yummy that Hanlin found herself drinking it too. “I was like, wait a minute, I am putting on too much weight,” she recalls with a laugh. The high calorie count in Ensure, even diluted, means it can’t be repeatedly used as the keepers monitor the chimps’ intake. Once Hanlin’s got them engaged, she switches to diluted juice. And when a task is completed? “Jackpot!” Fruit such as apple slices and frozen strawberries are the reward. Are there other reinforcements that work for these social creatures? “Definitely,” says Hanlin, noting that the chimps respond to verbal praise, such as “You’re such a good chimp!” Or “Look at you, you accomplished this incredible thing!” But at the end of the day, a food reward is king. “Everything is through positive reinforcement,” says Hanlin, noting that the chimps train daily but have the option to walk away from a task they don’t want to do. In that case, they don’t get to skip training completely. Sometimes, it’s “back to kindergarten” for them. What does that mean? Back to basics. Hanlin asks them to point to their fingers or toes, or open their mouths. “And that’s another confidence-booster for them.” For now, she hopes that the work she and Tien are doing encourages more zoos across the country to perform voluntary data collection on their great apes. “If you have the support of your curators, your vet staff and your coworkers at the zookeeper level, it can be done and this can be the new normal of collecting data.” Most of the time when heart disease is the cause of death, The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Hanlin notes, “We don’t find out until the animal passes suddenly and necropsy is performed.” Such was the case with Katie, a chimp Hanlin worked with closely in Florida who passed away suddenly in January 2019. “She just vomited one day and wouldn’t move,” she says, recalling how she and her team thought Katie was suffering from gastrointestinal issues. She now knows better. “Looking back on it, that was her first heart attack.” The second one, which would prove fatal, came two weeks later. Hanlin holds out her left forearm. On its inside is a tattoo of two chimps — Katie and her beloved companion, Murray — facing each other, their lips barely grazing as they gaze into one another’s eyes. “I wish I could get all the chimps and animals I’ve worked with as tattoos, but Katie and Murray will forever hold a special place in my heart.” Every day, Hanlin moves the needle on training the chimps in her care, who inevitably make a mark on her. The hope for this young keeper is that she will make her own mark on them, creating a lasting impact on their species. As her hero, Jane Goodall, once said, “I do have reasons for hope: our clever brains, the resilience of nature, the indomitable human spirit, and above all, the commitment of young people when they’re empowered to take action.” OH At the end of December 2023, Tien and Hanlin were awarded the 2023 Engage Award from the Animal Behavior Management Alliance for a piece they contributed entitled “Great Ape Training at the North Carolina Zoo.” ABMA’s Engage magazine publishes articles about training and behavior from around the world, so this is quite an achievement. O.Henry 49
Love Bytes Miniature tales from the smitten and the bitten
Illustrations by Harry Blair
Last fall, a few of O.Henry’s writers, armed with notebooks and recording devices, hit up Greensboro’s Corner Farmers Market to gather local tales of love. The results will melt your winter heart. ordan and I met in college. One of our friends was working at a haunted trail in Gibsonville and she hired us as actors. I was a zombie and he was a scarecrow. I was walking down the trail trying to get to my spot and he popped out of the bushes and scared me. It was love at first “Boo.” — Abigail Hart
hile a graduate student in Princeton, I was studying in the library of a house I had rented with a few friends. One of my roommates came back with this woman he had met. We all sat around, got stoned, of course, and had fun together. I was really attracted to her and she to me, but she had met Evan. Well, as fate decided, he was leaving the next day for a four-week camping trip out West — so I made my moves, and Jane and I were together for 44 years until she died. — Ken Caneva 50
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was working at a wine store here in Greensboro called Wine Warehouse. I would do wine tastings on Fridays and Saturdays. Brownlee would come into the store and I didn’t notice her for, I don’t know, she says at least a year. But one Saturday afternoon, I’m in the store by myself and she comes in, and I notice her, still in her yard-working clothes. She came in to buy a bottle of wine or two for a birthday party. She leaves with a case of wine. After I close up the shop, I go by a friend’s house and he says, “I have a birthday party to go to. Why don’t you come with me?” We go through the front door and down into the basement where the party is and I round the corner, look across the room and there she is. One of the first things we both said was “Did you notice me noticing you?” And we both said yes! After that, it was just the two of us talking throughout the evening. Lo and behold, we’ve been together 17 years. — Jimmy King er version: We met in college. I was 20 years old. Denis was 22. I took an extra credit class in college, and Denis had to take it because he was an international student. He walked into the class and I thought, That guy looks so crabby — I hope he’s not in my group. He ended up in my group. He was from France. I invited him to my 21st birthday party and he actually came and he’s been in love with me ever since. He’s obsessed with me. is version: It’s about the same except — no, it’s the same. Maybe not as enthusiastic. — Susel & Denis Dépinoy
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y real dad died when I was 10. My mother, Janey, met Lanny when I was 18, 37 years ago. Somebody sent him over because she needed something fixed at her house. She was a big church lady and the first place he invited her? Church. They started dating, got married. Mom and Lanny were very sweet to each other. They would make everybody uncomfortable when they were in their 60s at Thanksgiving because my mother would announce that they were going to die making love. Lanny got dementia this past February and it went downhill really, really quickly. She tried to take care of him at home and could not. Now, every morning, she pulls up his picture on her phone and kisses it. But when she goes over to see him he still recognizes her. The longterm is that, at 85, one person is going to take care of the other and the end is going to be taken care of in a very loving, romantic way. That’s what true love is. — Michael Moore O.Henry 51
an I share a patient’s story? I was treating this lady and she and her husband have been married for over 30 years. They met in the ’90s, right, when they had those brick cell phones. They were both on a flight to Michigan State University and it got cancelled. She was sitting underneath an airport payphone and he went to go use the payphone and was really pissed off that she was right under it using her big brick cell phone. While they were fighting they realized they were headed to the same place. His work paid for him to have a rental car so they road-tripped together as strangers to Michigan State University. When she got there, she couldn’t find her group so she had nowhere to stay. He offered his hotel room. There was no funny business, she assured me. They flew back together on the same flight and when they got back, he proposed to her with a ring pop from a gumball machine. And for one of their anniversaries, he got her a mini gumball machine. — Dr. Kaitlin Herzog
e worked together and I had to have surgery. I was out for a little while and Kristin came over to my house with my paycheck and a couple other things I needed for work, oh, and a giant fruit basket that the guys in my group got for me. My mom was there. Kristin came in and stayed for dinner with us. The night was on and Kristin said, “Well, I better get back over the hill.” I said, “See you when I get back.” And as soon as she walked out the door, my mom said, “She really likes you. I think you two are going to get married.” And she was right. We’re coming up on 12 years. — Andy Zeiner
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e were not looking for a dog. It had been about three years since we’d had one. Someone left her at an apartment without food or water. We were out shopping one day and her rescue foster was there with Daisy Mae following her. We just fell in love with her and asked for a sleepover. It’s been about a month. She’s all things daisy — just the light of our life and our little love story. — Kim Hilton
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was 12 years old and had a horrible horsebackriding accident. My mother took me up to Massachusetts for a couple days to get away after I’d been in the hospital for a week. We went up to this resort and there were all these horses outside. I was not allowed around horses for at least six months because of the accident. I started asking around, who owned the horses, and was told the resort owner’s daughter rode. I went knocking and met her. The next morning, there was this big knock on the door of our hotel room, which opened to the outside. There was Betsy on her horse, Cinnamon. She said, “You wanna go for a ride?” She literally grabbed me, swung me up onto her horse behind her, and, like in a movie, we went galloping off into the sunset together. I am 65 years old now and we are still the best of friends. That’s my love story. — Lisa Pritchard
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nthony and I got married in 2004 and are getting ready to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We went to college together in Raleigh and dated from my freshman year. My senior year I decided I was going to live in Australia and travel for eight months to a year. I wanted to be free. So I broke up with him and I said to my dad, “What if I get there and I realize I still love him and he moves on?” And my dad said, “Well, if he moves on then he’s not the right person for you and it wasn’t meant to be.” So that gave me the permission. I went and I dated someone else down there — my mom thought I was never going to come home. She sent me a very long and detailed letter about how she felt like I was throwing away somebody that was very important to me. That made me very angry. How dare she think she knows me so well — ha! I actually broke up with the other guy, went to meet my friends from here in Tahiti and we all decided we were done traveling and homesick. We all called our families and said, “It’s been eight months and we’re ready to come home.” I called Anthony and said, “Will you pick me up from the airport?” He picked me up and we’ve been together ever since. — Thea DeLoreto
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met my husband at A&T University in summer school. It was a humanities class and I was a student at Bennett College. A group of us were over at A&T taking a class because we’d heard it was an easy “A.” So this guy comes in, good-looking guy, and I saw his eyes. They were green. I said, “Oh my God, I've never seen a Black guy with green eyes.” And I'm like, “He’s special.” As a group of us were talking about a class we had to take, science with a lab, he overheard our conversation and offered us his lab book. They said, “You go,” meaning me because I didn't have a boyfriend. So I did. And from there we started talking and dated for 11 years. Too long for me . . . but we married and he was true to his word about what he wanted out of a relationship. His name is Bobby and he's a good guy still. — Page Motley Mims
y love story is about me and a little rescue filly. Her mother was a very famous endurance racer. She and her baby had gone to auction with the fancy horses, but they put the baby in the kill pen. The Homestretch Thoroughbred Rescue, which rescues ex-racehorses, saw this little baby and they pulled her. She wasn’t a wild horse, but she was feral. So I spent eight hours a day just standing in her stall, letting her get near me. She didn’t trust people so she would rear, which is very dangerous. So we had two things to train her with from the beginning: one, boundaries. And two, trust. Eventually we added other skills. I was thinking, What am I going to name this little Arabian horse? And my girlfriend, who is a musician, suggested Scheherazade after the Tales of 1,001 Nights princess. Scheherazade was called to the evil prince, who would stay with the women for one night, then kill them. But she told him a story and he spared her life and asked her to come back to finish the story. So Scheherazade is the Arabian princess whose life was spared because she had so many stories left to tell, just like my little horse. — Megan Blake 54 O.Henry
love the Greensboro History Museum. It used to be the library when I was a little girl. And I used to love for my Mama to take me there. — Melinda Crawford
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elta’s Sky magazine wanted to do an issue celebrating their 75th anniversary of air travel and they wanted people to write in about their stories. I did and they ended up printing the story in that edition. The short version is that we met on an airplane. Actually twice. The first time he didn’t call me. But we sort of reconnected and then the second time, he did call me. We’ve been together ever since, 22 years. — Kim Littrell
e met at a party dancing — a year before we ever started dating. I was 28 and I thought she was 18, way too young for me. And then I realized that we’re only 11 months apart. We began dating and were long distance for a year before she moved here to North Carolina. She was leaving a career in the legal field to follow her dream to be an interior designer and I was leaving a career in accounting to follow my dream to be a potter. We moved to Durham together having no idea what we were going to do or how we were going to make money. A decade later, we’ve really established ourselves and fallen in love with our family — there’s a little one right here! — Chris Pence
o I rescued my little sweet baby Papillon from a crackhead who was selling her on the street for a dollar. She’s the sweetest dog in the whole wide world. Precious little angel. She really saved me. She’s so patient, loyal. She has little butterfly ears but her name’s Bat Baby — she looks like a little bat. — Kim McHone
’ve been married 46 years, I think. I’d have to do the math. Still married to my high school sweetheart. We met doing a local theater production in Stuart, Florida, where we grew up. I was playing the Conjure Man in Dark of the Moon. She was an usher and she came and sprayed the back of my hair silver for me. Now it’s silver all the time, but at the time it had to be silver for the show. And we’ve been together ever since. — John Vettel The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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e’re staying in a rental while our house is being worked on and there’s a really adorable groundhog that lives in the backyard. I just love watching him — he is totally chill. We’re kind of sharing this space, but I just enjoy him doing his thing. I’m not trying to make it out that he’s something like a pet. If I tried to pet him, he would bite me. That’s something that people forget about because they’re so cute. It’s kind of an interesting love story in that I love him and he definitely does not love me. — Ashley Duez
’ve been married to my husband, Roch, for
61 years. We met as teenagers on Hollywood Beach, Florida, and he went his way and I went my way. What attracted us? We were in our bathing suits on the beach in Florida! We got engaged in 1960, got married and had three sons. We knew the importance of education so Roch went back to school to get his Ph.D. at Emory, where we lived in student housing with our three sons. Then we came back here after our children graduated from college and I got my B.A. and M.A. at UNCG. So we’ve been residents here in Greensboro for 53 years, connected to UNCG. — Elaine Smith 56 O.Henry
ou know how you think you know someone and then you meet them all over again and you fall in love all over again? It was my son. Yes, I gave birth to him, I loved him all his life. And then I met him anew as an adult and fell in love again. — Sandy Reiser
long time ago — because we’ve now been married for 53 years — I had my eye on this guy in my graduate program. My roommate and I were disgusted with having to spend the whole summer in Chapel Hill taking courses, and we decided things would be better if we fell in love . . . So we each picked out a target and went to work. It was like a competition between the two of us. It meant that I had to spend the whole summer going to the university library because this guy was quite dedicated to his studies, and so I was throwing myself in front of him so he would notice me and decide I was wonderful and he wanted to marry me. It worked, ultimately, but along the way I had to say to my roommate, “I’m out of the game. This is it; this is serious. This is the one I want.” — Virginia Haskett The Art & Soul of Greensboro
ell, 40 is a good year! When I was turning 40, my friends threw me a birthday party. The party took place in Atlanta. And, unbeknownst to me, a mutual friend who had moved to Charlotte came and talked a friend of his into coming with him. Long story short, when my now husband walked into the party, he saw my picture. And he told me later that he knew. So, we met at my 40th birthday party and, a year and a half later, we were married. And neither of us had ever been married before! No kids. But God is good. And our marriage is great . . . 26 years now. — Barbara Banks
o we first saw each other at Panda Express and then we ran into each other at Breakers. We met at the bar. Brittany happened to lose her cell phone. I found it, returned it to her, and then we went on our first date. We’ve been married six years. — Felipe Tejeda
went to Grimsley High School and a guy had been calling me all summer to go out . . . This was in the day when your parents had a phone line and you had a children’s line. He always called the children’s line about the same time of day and I would say, “Mom, please answer it; I don’t want to go out with this guy.” And so finally, she answered it and said, “Yes, she’s right here.” And I was like, “Mom!” He said, “We’re going to see the movie Purple Rain and we’re going on a double date with my friend, Ronnie Majors, and the girl he’s dating.” And I said, “OK, that’ll be great.” So, we got to the Janus Theater, and we sat [together] — my date, me, Ronnie, and his date. And Ronnie, who’s my husband now, we sat beside each other and talked the whole time. So fast forward to the next day. I used to work at Carolina Circle Mall at the Peanut Shack out by the ice-skating rink, and he came out to see me. And we get home and walk into the back door — also, we had known Ronnie’s mom for years, because she worked at our orthodontist — and I said to Mom, “Look who I picked up at the mall!” A couple of years later, my husband said, “I felt like the biggest mall loser when you said you picked me up at the mall!” We started dating, and the rest is history! It will be 30 years in June. — Jenny Majors OH The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Hidden Figure
How a Black washerwoman helped free 15 slaves By Ross Howell Jr. • Photograph by Bert VanderVeen
Lavina Curry. We don’t know where “Vina” was born or how she died. We have no likeness of
her — no etching or drawing. Yet a Guilford College historical marker honors what she did. Professor emerita Adrienne Israel played an essential role in preserving and telling Vina’s story. Israel retired from Guilford in 2019, after teaching history there for 37 years. One of her most popular courses was a study of the Quaker community, the local free Black population and the roles individuals played in helping slaves escape North Carolina via the Underground Railroad. And one of those individuals was Levi Coffin, a Quaker abolitionist born on a Guilford County farm in 1798. His family moved to Indiana in 1826 to avoid persecution for their antislavery views. Historians estimate that Coffin assisted in the escapes of more than 3,000 fugitive slaves during his lifetime. “Most of the stories about the Underground Railroad were framed around white abolitionists,” Israel says. “But I was convinced that free Black people in the Greensboro area must’ve been involved, too,” she adds. Evidence was hard to come by. Then Israel found a memoir written by a cousin of Levi Coffin, published in 1897. “There was a free negro named Arch Curry, living near our home, who died a few years after father,” wrote Addison Coffin, whose father died in 1826. “His widow’s name was Vina; she was the washerwoman for the boarding-school for several years,” Coffin continues. He describes Vina as a “shrewd and discerning” woman who had kept “her husband’s free papers” on hand after his death. The “boarding-school” was the New Garden Boarding School, predecessor to Guilford College. “Free papers” were documents drawn up by county courts to certify a Black man was a freeman and not a slave. Vina allowed individual fugitive slaves to use Arch’s papers as identification. “This was done 15 times to my knowledge,” Coffin writes. He explains that after the fugitive reached freedom, Levi would return the “stolen” papers to the widow. “This was done occasionally with other papers,” Coffin con-
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cludes, “but none were ever used like those of Arch Curry.” There it was. A local free Black person helping the Underground Railroad — if Israel could prove “Arch” and “Vina” existed. Women were rarely named in early records, so Israel started searching for Arch. Deed books showed that in 1820 a Black freeman named Archibald Curry had purchased land on Brushy Creek in Guilford County, and, a year later, more land on Horsepen Creek. Between the 1820 and 1830 censuses, Curry’s household grew from himself, his wife and two children to seven children — four male and three female. His name doesn’t appear in the 1840 census, so apparently Arch died about the time Coffin had noted in his memoir. And Arch’s widow? The 1840 census counted three female “free colored persons” at New Garden Boarding School. Among the women was washerwoman Vina Curry, age 55. Assisting Israel in confirming Vina’s identity was Quaker archivist and special collections librarian Gwen Erickson, who located entries in the school’s ledger for “Lavina Curry.” No entries for Lavina are found after 1843. It was Erickson who secured funding for the historic marker, dedicated in 2022 as part of a national consortium of universities studying slavery. Erickson says the marker reminds us that there were more free Black citizens who worked with the Underground Railroad and “continue to go unnamed.” It was up to Sarah Thuesen, associate professor of history at Guilford, to involve students with the project, working with classes to draft the text inscribed on the historical marker. Thuesen says that while her students had some idea about the school’s role in the Underground Railroad, “they probably never would’ve heard the name of Lavina Curry if not for this effort to recognize all freedom fighters, white and Black.” And retired professor Israel? She’s on the trail of one of Vina’s daughters. “Her name is Sarah,” Israel says. “She moved to Indiana with her husband, a free Black man named Richard Ladd, who had been accused of helping a fugitive slave.” There’s pride and delight in the professor’s voice. OH Ross Howell Jr. is a contributing writer. O.Henry 59
The Waddell/ G Whitlatch Home Revival Light, love and good taste in Glencoe Village By Cynthia Adams Photographs by Amy Freeman
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lencoe Mill Village in Alamance County, home to new residents Molly and Jonathan Whitlatch, is among the most intact mill villages in the country. The 95-acre community affords a rare look at something once commonplace, built along the Piedmont’s rivers and streams, when mill owners created housing to attract laborers, often employing entire families, including children. Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a Burlington historic district, the private restoration of surviving Glencoe homes, found three miles north of Burlington along the Haw River, began after 1999. The newly restored Whitlatch home had its own story to tell.
J
ust two weeks before last Thanksgiving, Molly and Jonathan Whitlatch finally moved into their two-story clapboard historic home on Glencoe Street. They were both elated and exhausted. House proud, they still shucked off shoes at the door, not daring to scar newly refinished, handplaned, wide-board floors, which already bore the marks of nearly a century and a half of use. Almost immediately, the couple opened their home as part of Glencoe’s annual tour of homes, a fundraising effort Molly had helped initiate in 2017. The fundraiser helps support grants The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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for restoration projects like their own. For the homeowners, the tour was a time for celebration — a once neglected, derelict house was successfully revived. From the street, it appeared largely unchanged; in actuality, that was far from true. It had required a deft restoration that demanded much more than cosmetics. Much of the house, left unoccupied after a remodel that was begun and abandoned more than 20 years ago, was essentially a shell, lacking heat or air conditioning, plumbing, or even electricity. It required, admits Molly, “a lot.” Tour-goers were treated to a viewing of what had been achieved. Molly, Jonathan and Molly’s father, George Orndorff, acted as docents, telling the story of the 1880 “Waddell” house. Among the original 45 rental houses for Glencoe mill employees, James Waddell, manager of the company store, lived there with his wife, Lou Ada Councilman Waddell, known as Lou, and their children from 1916–40. The nearby store he once managed houses today’s Textiles Heritage Museum. From that vantage point, museum volunteer Nancy Earl, a retiree who previously worked at a textile museum in Oregon, had a bird’s eye view to observe the Waddell home’s rehabilitation. She admired both the restoration and the owners’ enthusiasm. As did fellow volunteer and long-time preservationist Katherine Rowe, now an interior designer. “The couple had just
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barely gotten a COA (Certificate of Appropriateness) for the home, days before being featured on the home tour,” she says. Entering from the front porch, the restored living room’s velvety chairs, colorful heirloom rugs, and vintage furnishings and artwork warm the rustic interiors. The couple doggedly worked to retain the original and rough-hewn shiplap walls and bead-board ceilings, but softened it with accenting trim and quiet touches such as luxurious textiles. Thanks to the Whitlatches’ passion for preservation and good guidance from the governing bodies overseeing Glencoe, the home’s past wasn’t erased, but integrated. The former Waddell house bears the artful evidence of a sleight of hand that had made the historic home ready for a new era. Just days after moving in, the new owners celebrated their first holiday meal on Thanksgiving. The couple dined in an enclosed space pressed into service as a dining room on a friend’s loaned table as they still searched for the perfect one to fit the space. “A hallway filled with windows and a chunky farm table in front of them,” admires Rowe, who saw the home furnished for the open house event. Light shimmers through the porch’s five windows. The Waddell family wouldn’t have recognized it. For Rowe, it is among her favorite spots in the house. Rowe met the Whitlatches when, as a founder of Preservation Burlington, Molly sought out The Art & Soul of Greensboro
help from Rowe, who volunteers for Preservation Greensboro. “They are charming and have filled the home with light, life and a lot of good taste!” she says, praising the Whitlatches. And equally energetic. The certificate legally allowing occupancy only arrived on Halloween. How did the Whitlatch couple wind up restoring the 1880s home? In part, because they had friends who lived there and the opportunity arose. In July of 2022, they were vacationing when they learned that a Glencoe house they had long watched had caught the interest of a flipper. They couldn’t allow that to happen. Plus, they had begun contemplating leaving their home in Burlington for a rural property. Glencoe offered some of what they were seeking — the lots had ample room for a garden. “We were living in the historic district in Burlington,” explains Molly. “We really wanted chickens, and the City of Burlington decided not to allow chickens downtown. So, we decided we wanted to buy some property.” But they had friends in Glencoe and already loved the location.
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“One of my best friends lives right across the street.” Long before buying it, Molly had often come over and peeked through the windows while visiting her friend. The incomplete and debris-filled Waddell house wasn’t quite what they had envisioned. It was only a few miles from Burlington’s city limits, but the village rose above the banks of the meandering Haw River and was just down the street from a county park. It wasn’t even an architectural gem, but it could be made remarkable, they decided. The history buff in Molly was taken with the idea of taking on such a project. “We had to make a snap decision.” Up the hill live two more friends, Tom and Lynn Cowan, preservation experts. “He’s a carpenter, and she is a designer,” Molly explains. “They said, ‘If you do it, we’ll help you.’ I was in transition with a job. It was one of those things, where . . .” she pauses. “We made a somewhat impulsive decision.” Did they want chickens that badly? “We really wanted chickens, but, we really wanted to save the house,” Molly answers with a wry laugh. “Kind of like
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Preservation Burlington, we didn’t know what we didn’t know.” (As cofounder, Molly points out how that leap of faith also had a happy outcome.) “So, we walked through it and said, ‘We’ll buy it.’” Their decision was quickly made; however, the hard work of making the shell of a house into a home would consume another 14 long months. They tackled trash removal and plotted a renovation that began in earnest in August 2022. The renovation demanded nights and weekends of manual labor — cleaning, scraping, patching and painting while working their day jobs. “My dad and stepmother, Becki Orndorff, helped us work on the house many weekends as well,” says Molly. The transformation was furthered by good friends, neighbors and advisors from the preservation community; it had literally taken a village to complete. Preservation requirements dictated that the home’s original architectural features — all walls, wood, doors, floors, mantles, detailing and ceilings — ought to be preserved wherever possible. Well-versed in the restrictions and requirements, she
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knew the ropes and how to navigate legal covenants and restrictions dictating a historic district. “We actually did it as an N.C. preservation tax credit project,” explains Molly. While softening the financial impact of a full-on restoration project, it meant adhering to strict guidelines. “My husband’s very handy and had done a little bit of work on our previous house, but nothing like this.” Molly jokes, “I’m a lawyer, so I don’t have any skills.” YouTube tutorials helped. “Jonathan’s now a self-taught handyman,” she adds with pride. The DIYers had to hire professionals, given that there was “no plumbing, electricity, nor heating or air conditioning. “It was just a shell,” she says, noting that there had once been “some primitive electricity.” (Many Glencoe homes were built in an era before it was common.) While brewing a cup of tea on a spanking-new professional range, she points out where that primitive electricity existed. The kitchen, by definition, is always a huge budgetary item, especially when there is scant wiring. What existed was installed at the dawn of electrification. “You can see two small holes in the kitchen wall, where knob and tube wiring came into the house to a light bulb. The mill would turn the electricity on in the morning and off at 9 p.m.” The kitchen design was influenced by British country style. “I draw inspiration from English magazines.” Custom cabinets of Shaker style design were built by Alcorn, a Reidsville company that had built a friend’s cabinetry. (“A fatherand-daughter business.” The cabinets are maximum height for extra storage. “We ran them to the ceiling.”) The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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“The room we’re using as the kitchen was originally added to most of the houses around 1900,” explains Molly, standing at a center island featuring white, honed Danby marble from Vermont. “The original portion [of the house] dates to 1880, when the mill was built.” Molly, who “cooks from scratch,” required a functional kitchen. A porcelain farm sink is another nod to European style. A shallow pewter cabinet hugs the kitchen wall, found at a Mebane auction. “It’s one of the only things we bought for the house.” She filled it with vintage blue Mason jars that store pantry basics. The kitchen ceiling height is 10–11 feet, Molly approximates. “Every room is a little different. Even where there are dropped ceilings, it is still higher than usual,” she says. She appreciates the sense of space the soaring heights lend the smaller rooms. Village homes were modestly sized with two rooms upstairs and two rooms down. Helped by their friends, the couple undertook much of the carpentry work, salvaging wood to patch gaps and resolve rot.
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They innovated, appropriating beaded board, where it would be concealed behind the new kitchen cabinets, for use elsewhere. They retained as much of the original finishes and architecture as possible, right down to teal blue initially covering most interior surfaces. However, they toned it down, integrating it with contrasting color or neutrals, adding in rough-luxe touches to soften the primitive authenticity. Now, it is an accent, given in the original rooms all surfaces were wood. State and local preservationists were helpful in maintaining the home’s original character. “Everything they asked us to do I was later grateful for; it ended up being better than I would have done,” acknowledges Molly. Even what was originally an exterior window was retained in the kitchen. It opens into an enclosed entrance/mudroom. Rather than being an oddity, it elevates the kitchen’s charm quotient. An outside building, married to the rear of the house by the previous owner, expanded the downstairs footprint. But it had long languished, abandoned. “It was open framing when we came here,” says Molly. This became a main bedroom and bath suite, complete with porch (that will eventually be screened), opening to the rear of the property.
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“Anywhere there’s drywall, it’s where the previous owner had worked on the new construction/addition,” Molly explains. “There’s a small mudroom. And he attached the detached summer kitchen to the house.” Those alterations (pre-historic designation) proved invaluable, even if unfinished. For example, the addition created what most Glencoe homes lack, storage and some closets. But when they first saw the expansion, it was joltingly Barbiecore. “It was bright pink,” Molly frowns. Hardly historic. They added door frames and doors, using a bedroom door found under the house. Over the doorway leading into the main suite are original “rafter tails,” or rafter ends that overhang the eaves. Overhead, the exposed beams from the former kitchen wore accumulated layers of grime and soot. “Three or four of us spent six hours one day scrubbing them,” Molly groans. The room’s original fireplace was restored, featuring a salvaged mantle bearing original paint from another Glencoe home. Nothing was wasted. With the help of friends, they painstakingly pulled up the The Art & Soul of Greensboro
wooden flooring where the prior owner had married the addition to the house, revealing beautiful wide boards beneath. Both subfloor and floor boards were carefully removed, cleaned and refinished for reuse. As Molly explains, “Free flooring!” Variations of flooring, walls and ceilings added patina and interest, thanks to an artful interior redesign. Inside a downstairs ensuite bathroom is a favorite compromise occurring when they created a bath for their main bedroom. “They didn’t want us to cut into the (detached kitchen) wall, which was original,” she says, “so I asked, what if we didn’t remove it, but cut into it and created a door?” Now a jib door is among their favorite features. Facing their main bedroom doorway, a stretch of hallway extends to the front of the house, offering a long sight line. “It reminds me of the shotgun homes of New Orleans,” Molly says. “I like how this rambles.” With the physical work resolved, they could turn to gilding the lily: finding that perfect table, for example, and other furnishings and treasures. The living room, which opens to the front porch, is also a favorite of their friend, Rowe, who describes the Whitlatch living room as an artful fusion of styles and collected artwork. Art by Jonathan’s grandmother hangs opposite a piece by the front door painted by Molly’s grandmother. Upstairs, a steep stairway to the second floor has a railing created from old wine barrels. “A nod to my husband’s work,” says O.Henry 67
About Glencoe Mills and the Village According to the historic inventory when Glencoe village was acquired for preservation in 1979, the homes were “typical of North Carolina rural housing of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.” Glencoe Mills, which closed in 1954, was founded in the late 1880s by James H. and William Holt, sons of Edwin M. Holt. Edwin was a textile “pioneer,” developing Alamance County’s textile industry. Holt family descendants still live in the Triad. Glencoe comprised a 95-acre village, with a main mill complex, church, school, Sunday school building and barbershop, general store, post office, men’s lodge, hydroelectric plant, plus 45 rental properties reserved for mill workers. The mill, dam and some of the defunct power system still remain, along with 29 houses on Glencoe Street and Hodges Road. At the mill’s closing in 1954, some former workers continued to rent homes there. Eventually, the homes were left abandoned. In 1979, Glencoe was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Preservation North Carolina acquired the property in the late 1990s, giving rise to private ownership and restoration. The Textile Heritage Museum occupies the former Glencoe Mill offices and company store. Today, it contains historic information about Glencoe Mills and the socioeconomics of textiles, lending a clear picture of mill life in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1890, Glencoe employed 133 workers in the manufacturing of plaid fabric. The mill recruited labor by creating housing (rent was anywhere from $1.40–2.00 a month) and extending employment to entire families. Demographically, women and children comprised 70 percent of its workforce. According to online N.C. educational archives, “as soon as the cotton mill industry began booming in the 1880s, critics began speaking out against child labor.” Circa 1907–08, 90 percent of all spinners working in Southern textile mills were below age 21. By 1924, two children remained as Glencoe employees. Social reform photographer Lewis Hine photographed children working in cotton mills throughout the South, then publishing and showing his work, raising awareness about the issue. In 1933, North Carolina enacted a law prohibiting child labor, as new technologies had already begun lessening the need for large numbers of workers. Glencoe, however, had the distinction of being the first mill in North Carolina stipulating that its child laborers receive some schooling. The village offered “three basic house configurations.” Most featured “brick pier foundations, tin roofs and simple, functional design. Few houses, with the exception of the mill superintendent’s house, have indoor plumbing. Some houses, particularly on Hodges Road, may never have had electricity.” Houses ranged from three to six rooms, averaging 16 by 16 feet. Most of the rental homes were four-room, two stories with a front porch. Because they were a fire hazard, detached kitchens, 12 by 12 feet in size, constructed of board and batten, were built at the rear. “Later, kitchens were attached at the back of the north end of the main block, forming an ell.” By 1910, attached kitchens had replaced most of the detached ones. Others were one-story, with two rooms and a front porch. A few were duplexes. The third Glencoe design was a one-and-a-half story with a side gable house and a central chimney. By the late 1970s when the architectural survey was completed, Glencoe’s surviving homes were deteriorating — a few beyond saving. Rotting sills, missing porches and water damage were common. Yet preservationists felt certain: The majority of homes could be restored.
68 O.Henry
About the Salvage Shop at Glencoe Village In one neatly contained package, you can not only visit the textile museum for a closer look at work life in the late 1800s, but also buy a piece of Glencoe history. Housed in a World War II-era Quonset hut, the Salvage Shop contains architectural salvage and is managed by Preservation Burlington. Once used for mill storage, most likely cotton, the hut contains tidily organized salvage artifacts. “It’s all volunteer staffed,” says Molly. “We open to the public one Saturday a month.” Proceeds fund various grants and projects in the Glencoe historic district. It began in October 2016, when Molly and three other women met for coffee, agreeing they needed a nonprofit similar to Preservation Greensboro. They also looked to Greensboro to style Preservation Burlington’s eventual architectural salvage program. “Three [of the women] are still on the board,” she explains. “We started our first fundraiser in 2017, a Christmas tour of homes. People were still full of concern about the costs of historic homes.” The tour of homes became their largest revenue source, but was halted by the pandemic in 2020. They pivoted towards the salvage operation, which had also begun in 2017. “We’ve been successful because we didn’t know we couldn’t do it.” Molly heads the salvage work portion, “even though I have no construction experience. I organize electricians and carpenters.” She met Greensboro preservationist Katherine Rowe, who occasionally volunteers, through Martha Canipe (a board member of Preservation Forsyth). “Old house people getting together,” explains Molly.
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Molly. The vintage light fixture in the stairwell was another fortunate salvage find. On the second floor, they’ve created a comfortable room with a daybed and another full bath, which was stacked over the downstairs guest bath when they were creating needed bathrooms. Hewing closely to simple fixtures and trim, they used a vintage sink and tub, both architectural salvages. The tub was too massive to get upstairs via the narrow stairway, forcing them to remove an upstairs window to hoist it from outside. “That was exciting,” says Molly. She used linen towels with a café rod and rings for the bathroom’s window treatment. The upstairs features a third bedroom and the home’s third fireplace. Again, moving in furniture to the second floor was not simple. They used bungee ratchet straps to bend the mattress, folding it in half, in order to navigate the stairs. A double bed was the largest they could manage. Molly’s desk and office share the guest room space. The wide-plank upstairs floors are in fine condition, like the ones in their main bedroom downstairs. “And these wood walls,” says Molly. “Someone hand scraped these walls.” She runs her hand appreciatively over the wall, pausing a moment. “I think this is a cool feature,” she says, pointing to a craftsman’s mark on the bedroom’s handmade door, “when he took a knife and marked where to put the nails.” Her favorite thing, however, isn’t merely about the aesthetics of historic architecture. It is “old school” hospitality and neighborliness. It’s the village. Throughout the renovation, neighbors commiserated over the trials and tribulations, pitched in and arrived bearing freshly baked pies and casseroles. Even the kayak business behind their home, grandfathered into Glencoe’s commercial district, was helpful. They allowed the Whitlatches to use their restroom whenever they were working on the house. Thus far, Molly would change nothing. True, it was a long process, she admits, and they underestimated how long it would take, plus how hard to find contractors willing to work on old houses. “I just have a feeling about houses, not even necessarily tied to a specific thing,” says the contented owner of a renewed old house. “It feels cozy.”
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
A
s one who lives in a century-old home, I pose a final question: Has Molly ever sensed the Waddell’s presence there? Molly immediately texts in answer. Neighbors had reported seeing a lady in the upstairs window when the house was still sitting vacant. “Anytime we heard weird noises or things were not going as planned, we would say it was the lady in the red dress.” She forwards a grainy, silent video of the Waddell family circa 1940 “standing in front of our house.” “You can see a lady in a red dress,” she writes, “so that could be her.” OH
O.Henry 69
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February
I know him, February’s thrush, And loud at eve he valentines On sprays that paw the naked bush Where soon will sprout the thorns and bines.
— George Meredith, “The Thrush in February,” c.1885
Outside the (Chocolate) Box
F
ebruary wakes us gently. Deep in our late-winter slumber, we dream of wild violets and dandelions; the return of hummingbirds; the green and quivering kiss of spring. Swaddled in ancient stillness, our hearts ache for warm earth and fragrant blossoms; snap peas and crimson clover; chorus frogs and velvet-soft grass. February knows. Still, we mustn’t be ripped from this rich and fertile darkness. We mustn’t be startled, forced or rushed. As the pink breath of dawn illuminates a leafless kingdom, a barred owl pierces the silence with a rousing incantation. Within our womb-like chrysalis, we shift and wriggle, reaching for our wild longings, tilting our face toward the beckoning sun. Prayers for patience on her tongue, the wise one lets us sleep, stroking our hair as we flit between worlds. Soon, the cardinal will sing of bloodroot, crocus and flowering quince. Soon, a mourning cloak will flutter among the bleak and frigid landscape. As we drift toward this vernal threshold, February invites us to linger. She knows that our souls require deep rest. She trusts our natural rhythm. She softly guides a sunbeam to our winter-weary bones. The bluebird scouts a nesting site. The red fox grooms her kits. As sure as the daffodils rise
from naked earth, we will open our eyes, awakened by the quickening pulse of our inner spring.
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There are flowers, and there is fruit. But if you’re looking to dazzle your greenthumbed sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, consider gifting a fruit tree, which ultimately offers both. Apple, fig, persimmon, pear and plum are among the recommended fruit bearers for our state. Choose cultivars that thrive in the particular soil and climate you’re working with, plant it with a kiss, then let the tree enchant the gardener year after year.
Year of the Dragon The Chinese (Lunar) New Year is celebrated on Saturday, Feb. 10. Get ready for the Year of the Wood Dragon, the last of which delivered Beatlemania and the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964. If ever you’ve heard “The Great Race” fable — that is, how the Jade Emperor determined the sequence of the 12 animals associated with the Chinese calendar — then perhaps you recall the honorable qualities of the dragon (fifth sign of the zodiac), who stopped to help the creatures of the Earth rather than easefully crossing the finish line first. Those born under the Year of the Wood Dragon are the wayshowers. They’re here to dream up a better world, and have the vigor and drive to roll up their sleeves and get the job done. OH
O.Henry 71
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February
2024
Weekly Events SUNDAYS BARRE CLASS. 10 a.m. Strengthen, tone and stretch your way into the week. Tickets: $10. Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com.
Glenn Miller Orchestra 02.02.2024
TUESDAYS PELVIC HEALTH YOGA. 8:30–9:30 a.m. This Vinyasa-style flow class works toward lengthening and strengthening the pelvic floor and surrounding muscles. Free, registration required and donations accepted. Triad Pelvic Health, 5574 Garden Village Way, Greensboro. Info: triadpelvichealth.com/classes. RUN CLUB. 6 p.m. All levels are welcome to join Little Brother Brewing’s run clubs and earn incentives such as beer and swag. Free. Little Brother Brewing, 348 S Elm St, Greensboro. Info: littlebrotherbrew.com/runclub.
WEDNESDAYS LIVE MUSIC. 6–9 p.m. Evan Olson and Jessica Mashburn of AM rOdeO play covers and original music. Free. Print Works Bistro. 702 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. Info: printworksbistro.com/gallery/music.
THURSDAYS JAZZ AT THE O.HENRY. 6–9 p.m. Sip vintage craft cocktails and snack on tapas while the O.Henry Trio performs with a different jazz vocalist each week. Free. O.Henry Hotel Social Lobby, 624 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. Info: ohenryhotel.com/o-henry-jazz. WALK THIS WAY. 6 p.m. Put on your sneakers for a 2–4 mile social stroll or jog with the Downtown Greenway Run & Walk Club, which is open to all ages and abilities. Free. LoFi Park, 500 N. Eugene St., Greensboro. Info: downtowngreenway.org/events.
86 O.Henry
THURSDAYS & SATURDAYS KARAOKE & COCKTAILS. 8 p.m. until midnight, Thursdays; 9 p.m. until midnight, Saturdays. Courtney Chandler hosts a night of sipping and singing. Free. 19 & Timber Bar at Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com.
FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS LIVE MUSIC. 7–10 p.m. Enjoy drinks in the 1808 Lobby Bar while soaking up live music provided by local artists. Free. Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com.
SATURDAYS YOGA. 9:30 a.m. Don’t stay in bed when you could namaste in the spa studio. Tickets: $10. Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com. WATER AEROBICS. 10:30 a.m. Make a splash while getting a heart-pumping workout at an indoor pool. Tickets: $10. Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com. BLACKSMITH DEMONSTRATION. 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Watch a costumed blacksmith in action as he crafts various iron pieces. Free. Historical Park at High Point Museum, 1859 E. Lexington Ave., High Point. Info: highpointmuseum.org.
February Events February 01–18 SILENT AUCTION. A silent online auction benefiting Guilford County hunger programs runs through the Hope Fest 4 Hunger event on Feb. 18. Info: hopefest4hunger.org.
February 01 CIVIL RIGHTS SPEAKER SERIES KICKOFF. 6:30 p.m. The International Civil Rights Center & Museum, in conjunction with educational and corporate sponsors, welcomes exceptional civil rights leaders and authors during its “Civil Rights Series,” beginning with current president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. Book signings follow each presenter. Tickets: $50+. The International Civil Rights Center & Museum, 134 S. Elm St. Greensboro. Info: sitinmovement.org/events.
February 02–06 MARIA DI ROHAN. Times vary. Experience the enchantment of bel canto opera with the acclaimed A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute presenting Donizetti’s captivating masterpiece. Tickets: $15+. High Point Theatre, 220 E. Commerce Ave., High Point. Info: highpointtheatre.com/events. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
PHOTOGRAPH BY COURTESY OF GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA
FOOD & FLOW. 10–11 a.m. Begin your day with a relaxing yoga practice and a mimosa. BYO mat and needed props. Tickets: $5. Elm & Bain, 620B S Elm St, Greensboro. Info: southendbrewing.com/event-directory.
february calendar February 02–04 THE GREATEST SHOW. Times vary. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey present The Greatest Show on Earth, a circus featuring daring, never-before-seen, superhuman feats. Tickets: $20+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.
February 02–03 STOMP. Times vary. The eight-member troupe percussion sensation puts on a show full of rhythm and beats. Tickets: $29+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events. ROBERT BARIL. 8 p.m. Mining the news of the day fuels and informs this funny guy’s biting comedy style. Tickets: $15. The Idiot Box, 503 N. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: idiotboxers.com.
February 02 FIRST FRIDAY. 6–9 p.m. Enjoy live painting with Jalen Jackson, a cash bar and open studios in ArtQuest. Free. GreenHill Center for NC Art, 200 N. Davie St., Greensboro. Info: greenhillnc.org/events. GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA. 7:30 p.m. Formed in 1956, the present Glenn Miller
Orchestra takes the stage with its big-band energy. Tickets: $30+. Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events.
February 03, 10, 17, 24 LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET. Times vary. In this toe-tappin’ musical with hip-hop vibes, 7-year-old CJ embarks on his first bus ride. Tickets: $25. Pam and David Sprinkle Theatre, 402 Tate St., Greensboro. Info: vpa.uncg.edu/all-events/category/cvpa.
February 03 GUIDED GREENWAY TOUR. 9 a.m.–noon. Step into Greensboro’s history, take in public art installations, plus learn about environmental stewardship and economic impact during a walking tour of the 4-mile Downtown Greenway. Free; registration required. LoFi Park, 500 N. Eugene St., Greensboro. Info: downtowngreenway.org/events. WELCOME THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON. Noon–4 p.m. Through demonstrations, performances, and hands-on activities, discover how Asian Pacific heritage communities across Greensboro celebrate Lunar New Year. Plus, Chirba Chirba Dumpling Truck will be selling on site. Free. Greensboro History Museum,
130 Summit Ave., Greensboro. Info: greensborohistory.org/events. JULIA RIDLEY SMITH. 6–7:30 p.m. Celebrate the launch of the local author’s debut story collection, Sex Romp Gone Wrong, which navigates the eddies of desire, sex, love and relationships. Free. Scuppernong Books, 304 S. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: scuppernongbooks.com/event.
February 04 EMILY NENNI. 7 p.m. The singer-songwriter chronicles her life through delicate songwriting rife with honky-tonk spirit and spiked with a dash of soul. Tickets: $14.50+. Flat Iron, 221 Summit Ave., Greensboro. Info: flatirongso.com/events.
February 07 ARTTASTE. 6–7:30 p.m. Savor bites inspired by the Winter Show exhibit and created by a local chef while perusing art and learning about the gallery’s upcoming 50th anniversary celebration. Tickets: $50, includes a raffle ticket to win a signed Romare Bearden lithograph. GreenHill Center for NC Art, 200 N. Davie St., Greensboro. Info: greenhillnc.org/events. READING THE WORLD. 7–8 p.m. Discover contemporary authors’ works in translation, such
Handmade In House There are times when it’s smarter to lease than to sell your home. Call me when you think you’re there! I’ll be pleased to discuss how Burkely Rental Homes can help you. “I refer investors and renters to Michelle. I trust they are in good hands with her“. Katie Redhead
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O.Henry 87
february calendar as this month’s selection, The Red-Haired Woman. Free. Online. Info: scuppernongbooks.com/event.
February 08 CHARLES BOLDEN. 7:30 p.m. The former Administrator of NASA and first African American astronaut speaks as part of the Guilford College Bryan Series. Tickets: $60+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events. WARREN ZEIDERS. 4:29 p.m. The American country music singer-songwriter brings his Pretty Little Poison Tour through the Gate City. Tickets: $95. Piedmont Hall, 2409 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events. THE PINK STONES. 8 p.m. The country band performs with special guest Kind Hearted Strangers. Tickets: $14+. Flat Iron, 221 Summit Ave., Greensboro. Info: flatirongso.com/events.
February 09 DIANNE REEVES. 7:30 p.m. Celebrate Music for a Great Space founder Lucy Ingram’s 90th birthday with a concert from an iconic jazz sensation. Tickets: $45. Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events.
PASS THE MIC LIVE. 8 p.m. DJ Cassidy’s one-night-only event boasts a huge lineup of Black performers. Tickets: $59.50+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events. PARODY-OKE. 8:30 p.m. Comedians perform songs you know with funny lyrics you don’t. Tickets: $10. The Idiot Box, 503 N. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: idiotboxers.com. CABARET. 7:30 p.m. UNCG Musical Theatre students show off in a vaudeville-style performance. Tickets: $16. Virginia Somerville Sutton Theatre, 4100 Well Spring Drive, Greensboro. Info: well-spring.org/theatre.
February 10 WINTER TREE ID WALK. 10–11:30 a.m. Stroll through Morehead Park during a walking workshop where you’ll learn to identify winter trees by color, texture, bark, buds and other features. Free. Morehead Park Trailhead, 475 Spring Garden St., Greensboro. Info: downtowngreenway.org/events. JEFFERSON STARSHIP. 8 p.m. The iconic band that rocked the ’70s and ’80s performs with the Greensboro Symphony. Tickets:
$35+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events. ROUGE. 8 p.m. From comedy to thrills, circus artists and dancers will entertain in a cabaretstyle performance celebrating its 10th year. Tickets: $30+. Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events. BEN FRANK. 8 p.m. The winner of the World Series of Comedy in New Orleans and the Laugh After Dark Clean Comedy Award hits the mic for a night of laughs. Tickets: $15. The Idiot Box, 503 N. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: idiotboxers.com. PRESSING STRINGS. 8 p.m. The imaginative folk-rock trio from Annapolis performs with Drew Foust & the Wheelhouse. Tickets: $12+. Flat Iron, 221 Summit Ave., Greensboro. Info: flatirongso.com/events.
February 12 NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY. 6:30–8:30. Hone your skills with the Carolina Nature Photography Association on the second Monday of every month. Free, no registration required. Griffin Recreation Center, 5301 Hilltop Road, Greensboro. Info: greensboro-nc.gov/ government/city-news/city-calendar.
February 13–18
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HADESTOWN. Times vary. The 2019 winner of eight Tony awards, including Best Musical, delivers a love story like no other, featuring a journey into the underworld. Tickets: $33+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events.
February 13 ARTFUL ARBORS. 5:30–7 p.m. Celebrate love, community and kindness by crafting “complimen-tree creations,” hang tags to adorn the Greenway’s “Complimentree Kindness” bike rack/art installation. Free. Meet at the corner of Fisher Avenue and Simpson Street, Greensboro. Info: downtowngreenway.org/events. CLASSIC ROMCOM. 7 p.m. The dynamic, romantic duo of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn star in the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story. Tickets: $8. Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events.
February 15 OPEN MIC. 6–7:30 p.m. Writers of all genres are invited to read from their original works for five minutes at “a very cool monthly open mic” held on the third Thursday of each month. Free. Scuppernong Books, 304 S. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: scuppernongbooks.com/event.
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february calendar February 16–25 TROUBLE IN MIND. Times vary. In this Alice Childress comedic drama, Wiletta Mayer is a talented Black actress who has been repeatedly cast in stereotypical roles in second-rate plays, but finally has been given a role in an upcoming Broadway play about anti-lynching in America. But is it a dream role? Tickets: $14+. Mountcastle Forum, 251 N. Spruce St., Winston-Salem. Info: ltofws.org.
February 16–18 TARTUFFE. Times vary. UNCG presents the English translation of the theatrical comedy by Molière, first performed in 1664. Cost: $20. UNCG Auditorium, 408 Tate St., Greensboro,. Info: vpa.uncg.edu/all-events/category/cvpa.
February 16–17 HOT ROD EXPO. Times vary. The Shriners Drag Racing & Hot Rod Expo revs into town. Tickets: $15+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.
Tickets: $20+. Feb. 16: High Point Theatre, 220 E. Commerce Ave., High Point. Info: highpointtheatre.com/events; Feb. 17: Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events. MARY MACK. 8 p.m. A midwesterner with an affinity for cheese, this comedian has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Conan and is a favorite on podcasts and radio shows across the country. Tickets: $20. The Idiot Box, 503 N. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: idiotboxers.com.
February 16 THE MUSIC OF MANILOW. 8 p.m. Daybreak: The Music & Passion of Barry Manilow takes you on a journey back to the 1970s, featuring iconic hits. Tickets: $29+. Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events. BACH TO BASICS. 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $20+. Enjoy the string harmonies as the North Carolina Chamber Orchestra goes Bach in time. Tickets: $20+. Virginia Somerville Sutton Theatre, 4100 Well Spring Drive, Greensboro. Info: well-spring.org/theatre.
2GNC COMEDY. 7:30 p.m. At the 2 Guys Named Chris Comedy All Star Show, you’re in for a night of unfiltered and uncut comedy.
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February 17 TAKE 6. 7:30 p.m. The most awarded a capella group in history delivers a pitch-perfect night of tunes. Tickets: $50+. High Point Theatre, 220 E. Commerce Ave., High Point. Info: highpointtheatre.com/events.
February 18 HOPE FEST 4 HUNGER. 2–4 p.m. WFMY’s Lauren Coleman emcees a joyful, dynamic afternoon at this multicultural dance festival — which includes African, Cambodian, Hindu, Korean, Mexican and Scottish dancers — to benefit A Simple Gesture and Greensboro Urban Ministry. Free. Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: hopefest4hunger.org.
February 20 DIANE FLYNT. 4–6 p.m. A multitime finalist for James Beard’s Outstanding Wine, Spirits or Beer Professional, the founder of Foggy Ridge Cider discusses her book, Wild, Tamed, Lost, Revived: The Surprising Story of Apples in the South. Free, reservation required. Virginia Somerville Sutton Theatre, 4100 Well Spring Drive, Greensboro. Info: greensborobound.com/event/diane-flynt.
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february calendar February 23 CIVIL RIGHTS SPEAKER. 6:30 p.m. Former U.S. Ambassador Nicole Avant-Sarandos, who produced the award-winning documentary The Black Godfather, addresses civil rights. Tickets: $50+. The International Civil Rights Center & Museum, 134 S. Elm St. Greensboro. Info: sitinmovement.org/events. DAVID FOSTER AND KATHERINE MCPHEE. 8 p.m. Enjoy an intimate evening with the 16-time Grammy-winning writerproducer and his talented partner. Tickets: $35+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events. LOVE HARD. 8 p.m. This musical tour features Keyshia Cole, Trey Songz, Jaheim and K. Michelle. Tickets: $69.50+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events. COREY HUNT AND THE WISE. 8:30 p.m. Country crooners of Asheville perform with Carri Smithey. Tickets: $10+. Flat Iron, 221 Summit Ave., Greensboro. Info: flatirongso.com/events.
February 24 WINTER JAM. Christian music’s biggest tour hits the stage with Newsong, Crowder and
many more artists. Admission: $15 donation collected at door. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events. BLACK HISTORY IN FIRST PERSON. 1–4 p.m. Costumed interpreters across the museum galleries share well-known and little-known stories of African Americans in Greensboro, featuring artists, entrepreneurs and community leaders from the 1700s to today. Free. Greensboro History Museum, 130 Summit Ave., Greensboro. Info: greensborohistory.org/events. SYMPHONY DIRECTOR CANDIDATE. 8 p.m. Accompanied by pianist Terence Wilson, the fourth music director candidate, Jacomo Bairos, leads the symphony for what could be the first of many nights. Tickets: $35+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: greensborosymphony.org/events/list.
February 25 LOS ÁNGELES AZULES. 8 p.m. This Mexican group blends the sounds of 1950-70s Colombian cumbia with ’90s-style electronic music. Tickets: $39.99+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.
February 27 GLADYS KNIGHT. 7:30 p.m. Spend an evening with the seven-time Grammy-winning “Empress of Soul,” known for songs such as “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Tickets: $51+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events.
February 28 JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER. 8 p.m. Enjoy a night of jazz at Sing and Swing: Our American Songbook, featuring Bria Skonberg and Benny Benack III. Tickets: $25+. Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events. DIANA KRALL. 8 p.m. Grammy-winning jazz singer Diana Krall shares her sultry voice. Tickets: $35.50+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events.
February 29 CIVIL RIGHTS SPEAKER. 6:30 p.m. Former federal agent and special advisor to the White House Dr. Robert Brown speaks, followed by a book-signing for It’s Always RIght to Do Good. Tickets: $50+. The International Civil Rights Center & Museum, 134 S. Elm St. Greensboro. Info: sitinmovement.org/events. OH
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GreenScene First Choice
Jeb & Molly Burns
Leigh Dyer, Leslie Marus, Annabel Norman
Mary Young, Adair Armfield, Cynthia Townes
LeKecia Glover, Jordan Robinson
Linda & Tom Sloan, Stephen & Shannon Dahlstadt
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GreenHill Center for North Carolina Art Thursday, November 30, 2023 Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Linda Spitsen, Jodee Ruppel
Merritt & Jayme White
Zoe Grace & Jeremy Kamiya
Annabel Norman, Kelli Coley
Paul Russ , Lynn Wooten, Joe Bryan
Christian Wilson, Swati Argade
Leilani Martinez, Mary Magrinat
Walker & Dabney Sanders, Bill Benjamin
Patrick Diamond, Edie Carpenter, Margaret Benjamin
Tom Sloane, Tom Townes
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
GreenScene United Way of Greater Greensboro’s Tocqueville Society Gathering Thursday, October 5, 2023 Photographs by Becky VanderVeen
Hathaway Pogue, Kathleen Kelly, Betsy Lane
LeKecia Glover, Ivan Godette
Wendy Sellars, Gary Bullard, Kathy Manning, J Timber
Mary & Rodney Ingram
Debra & Jim Bingham
Frank McCain, Randall Kaplan
Sue White
Lovelle Overbey, Debra Bingham
Ron Milstein
J Timber
GreenScene United Way of Greater Greensboro Leadership Circle Gathering Wednesday, September 13, 2023 Photographs by Becky VanderVeen Rashard Jones, Ethan Quick
Bernard Bell, Andy Zimmerman, Chip Hagan
Tim & Kate Gibson, Frank McCain, Elizabeth & Sam Bostian
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Carrie Griswold, Pat Beech
Scott Baker
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o.henry ending
Backseat Smooching
By David Claude Bailey
This is a story about pre-adolescent
smooching, but the pre-teen boy in me wants to start with the car, a huge 1947 Pontiac Streamliner with those sweeping, flared fenders favored in gangster movies. (My father had a 1954 V-8 Pontiac Star Chief, a sleek and powerful car with an illuminated face of an Indian as a hood ornament. But Dad’s car didn’t hold a candle to the Streamliner, with its sleek, Jaguar-inspired lines and capacious interior.) This automobile was obviously the choice for those who dreamed of a luxurious and fabled life on the big screen. Our chauffeur, Marian Orren, always perfectly coiffed, would pick up her son, Frank, plus me and our classmate, Evelyn, from elementary school every afternoon. The Art Deco radio with golden illuminated buttons and dials would be aglow in the middle of the dashboard. From its mouthlike speaker, which looked like a howling mask from a Greek tragedy, the latest Hit Parade tunes would pour, setting the scene. “Volare.” “All I Have To Do Is Dream.” And, oh my God, the “Witch Doctor.” The back seat was big enough to host a party, but
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Evelyn and I would settle into the plush, cushy, tufted seats, and slide into the corner. Before we’d reached the stop sign, we were locking lips. Who knows why and how we got started with this passionate car-noodling. I, with one eye, was bullied all day long, and the idea of someone caring about me, much less showering me with kisses, was the high point of each day. I’ll never forget Evelyn, my first sweetheart. We were in fourth or fifth grade and our dalliance was limited, neither of us even close to the fervor of adolescence. And maybe that was a good thing. Frank would sit in the front seat, begging his mother to make us stop. She, in fact, encouraged us, and we’d carry on until the Streamliner pulled up to the curb of 602 Boyd Street, where I reluctantly hauled the coat I’d shed and my army pack out the side door. Evelyn came to a recent high school reunion all the way from New York City and we had an absorbing and long chat, catching up on our various trajectories. And then I said, “What was all that smooching about?” If Evelyn had a good answer, I didn’t hear it. Maybe I’d had one too many gin and tonics. But magic comes to mind. OH David Claude Bailey still enjoys kissing in cars and can sometimes be found fogging up the windows of his 1981 Jeep CJ-7 with his wife of 56 years, Anne. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY BLAIR
The joyride home from elementary school
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