July PineStraw 2023

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

SEVEN LAKES WEST • $75,000

110 OTTER DRIVE

Beautiful corner lot in desirable Seven Lakes West. Lot offers a nice water view and is convenient to the main gate entrance.

SEVEN LAKES NORTH • $46,000

TBD FIRETREE LANE

Nice large lot! Fronts Firetree Lane and continues all the way to Pleasant View Lane.

WHISPERING PINES • $470,000

8 MARTIN DRIVE

Beautiful 4 BR / 2.5 BA brick home situated on large lot in Whispering Pines. Great covered patio with an outdoor fireplace, perfect for entertaining or just relaxing by the fire.

SEVEN LAKES SOUTH • $430,000

105 LANCASHIRE COURT

New construction underway! Nice 3 BR / 2 BA golf front home on 18th fairway offers a spacious living area with great views of the 18 green of the Seven Lakes Golf Club.

CARTHAGE • $464,000

304 EDGEHILL PARKWAY

Charming 4 BR / 3 BA tri-level home in beautiful forest-like setting. Home sits on over an acre and a half on a quiet street minutes from the heart of historic Carthage.

PINEHURST • $457,000

815 BURNING TREE ROAD

Wonderful 3 BR / 2 BA brick home in Lake Pinehurst area. Layout is a light, open split plan design with nicely updated bathrooms and kitchen.

PINEHURST • $396,000

10 HARNESS PLACE

Appealing 3 BR / 2 BA brick home with open floor plan. Home is nestled into a quiet cul-de-sac in nice location and has transferrable Pinehurst CC membership.

PINEHURST • $255,000

TBD GRAHAM ROAD

Great corner lot in historic Old Town Pinehurst! Lot is located just blocks away from the heart of the Village of Pinehurst with its pubs, quaint shops and restaurants.

SEVEN LAKES SOUTH • $375,000

100 HASTINGS ROAD

Beautiful 4 BR / 2 BA golf front home situated on large corner lot. Foor plan is open and offers nice views of the 3rd fairway of the Seven Lakes golf course.

Luxury Properties

Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team!

PINEHURST • $1,169,000

30 BRAEMAR ROAD

Custom 4 BR / 3.5 BA new construction underway in Fairwoods on 7! Stunning, panoramic golf course views of the 16th hole and beyond that the 12th green. Fantastic opportunity to own and complete this new construction.

PINEHURST • $649,000

100 PITCH PINE LANE

Fine 5 BR / 4.5 BA brick home in popular Lake Pinehurst location. Home has been extensively updated and offers spacious rooms on two levels….a must see!

SOUTHERN PINES • $578,000

1659 E. INDIANA AVENUE

Wonderful 4 BR / 3 BA home in James Creek. Home has an incredibly open and light design with upper level bonus room and flexible finished basement space.

PINEHURST • $535,000

66 PINEWILD DRIVE

Charming 3 BR / 2.5 BA brick home on generous corner lot in Pinewild CC. Split plan home all on one level with lots of curb appeal.

PINEHURST • $650,000

25 THUNDERBIRD LANE

Beautiful 4 BR / 3 BA Craftsman-style home with nice features and loads of curb appeal! Home is immaculate and has transferrable Pinehurst CC membership.

SEVEN LAKES WEST • $795,000

133 SHAW DRIVE

Delightful 3 BR / 2.5 BA waterfront home in Seven Lakes West. Large backyard with stone paver walk leading down to water and dock!

PINEHURST • $625,000

14 TAYPORT COURT

Appealing 3 BR / 2.5 BA golf front home in desirable Pinewild CC overlooking the 1st fairway of the Magnolia course.

PINEHURST • $860,000

10 BECKETT RIDGE

Gorgeous 4 BR / 3.5 BA waterfront home in Fairwoods on 7. Fabulous open design with great golf and water views from almost every room in the house!

PINEHURST • $785,000

24 GREYABBEY DRIVE

Exquisite 4 BR / 4 BA brick home nestled onto a beautifully landscaped lot in Pinewild CC. This home exudes elegance inside and out.

MAGAZINE

Volume 19, No. 7

David Woronoff, Publisher david@thepilot.com

Andie Stuart Rose, Creative Director andiesouthernpines@gmail.com

Jim Moriarty, Editor jjmpinestraw@gmail.com

Miranda Glyder, Graphic Designer miranda@pinestrawmag.com

Alyssa Kennedy, Digital Art Director alyssamagazines@gmail.com

Emilee Phillips, Digital Content emilee@pinestrawmag.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jim Dodson, Deborah Salomon, Stephen E. Smith

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

John Gessner, Laura L. Gingerich, Diane McKay, Tim Sayer

CONTRIBUTORS

Jenna Biter, Anne Blythe, Keith Borshak, Tom Bryant, Susan Campbell, Bill Case, Tony Cross, Brianna Rolfe Cunningham, Mart Dickerson, Bill Fields, Meridith Martens, Mary Novitsky, Lee Pace, Todd Pusser, Joyce Reehling, Scott Sheffield, Rose Shewey, Angie Tally, Kimberly Daniels Taws, Daniel Wallace, Ashley Walshe, Claudia Watson, Amberly Glitz Weber

ADVERTISING SALES

Ginny Trigg, Advertising Director 910.693.2481 • ginny@thepilot.com

Samantha Cunningham, 910.693.2505

Kathy Desmond, 910.693.2515

Jessica Galloway, 910. 693.2498

Terry Hartsell, 910.693.2513

Erika Leap, 910.693.2514

ADVERTISING GRAPHIC DESIGN Mechelle Butler, Scott Yancey

ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Rebah Dolbow • pilotads@thepilot.com

PS

Henry Hogan, Finance Director 910.693.2497

Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488

SUBSCRIPTIONS 910.693.2488

OWNERS

Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels III, Lee Dirks, David Woronoff In memoriam Frank Daniels Jr. 145 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Southern Pines, NC 28387 www.pinestrawmag.com

Browse Inventory, Get Pre-Approved, or Complete Paperwork

CURBSIDE PICK-UP & DELIVERY AVAILABLE FOR YOUR NEW CAR!

Check out our Advantage Plan that is guaranteed with every purchase.

PINEHURST TOYOTA ADVANTAGE PLAN

At Pinehurst Toyota, we’re more than just a dealership. We’re a family. Every time you step onto our lot, our goal is to make sure you are 100% satisfied with your visit, whether you’re looking to purchase a new ride, secure financing for that vehicle, have your current auto serviced, or buy genuine Toyota parts. You can count on our staff to make you the number-one priority. Interested in joining the family?

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Thanks to your support, we have won: Best of The Pines 2021 for the #1 Dealership Service Department. Schedule your appointment today to experience #1 Service

COMPLIMENTARY LOANERS

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LICENSE TO DRILL

“James Bond” movies have seen an evolution of technology over time. From the special effects in “Dr. No” and the spiders in the bed scene to the CGI of “No Time To Die” and motorcycles jumping from rooftops, technology has enabled these amazing scenes. Technology has also rapidly advanced dentistry. As dentists we are able to provide advanced care for our patients with higher accuracy. From 3D milling and in-office crown production to 3D printing and 3D smile design, our office utilizes the latest technology with the support of advanced team training.

While Bond had a “License to Kill,” our high-tech dental office has multiples licenses: A license to heal; A license to fulfill patients’ goals for dental health; A license to print; A license to mill; and, of course, A LICENSE TO DRILL.

READY FOR HIRE.READY TO RETIRE.

FirstCarolinaCare members come from all over North Carolina and all walks of life. But they have one thing in common: They’re part of our community. And here, our community always comes first. That means having access to trusted providers, personalized help and a service team that resolves 97% of issues on the first call. From the mountains to the coast, we’ve got you covered.

Many members. One community.

FirstCarolinaCare.com/together

The Wish Book’s Final Chapter

Saying a fond farewell to Sears’ last remaining North Carolina store

By Jim DoDson

I learned that the last Sears department store in North Carolina honest-togoodness brick and mortar store — was closing. Out of simple curiosity, and a dose of nostalgia, I went to pay my respects.

Truthfully, I hadn’t set foot in our local shopping center’s Sears since purchasing a new Craftsman lawnmower there more than five years ago. Happy to report, it’s been a fine mower.

Before that, my last visit to Sears was probably as a kid in the mid-1960s when, fueled by the firm’s famous “Wish Book” Christmas catalog, every kid I knew haunted the toy department at the downtown Sears retail store during the run-up weeks to the holiday. My first bicycle came from Sears, and was later parked outside the store the year my buddy Brad and I innocently drifted from the toy department into the adjacent lingerie department to stare in wonder at the display mannequins in all their undergarmented glory. As she escorted us to the exit doors, the unamused clerk with the pointy-blue eyeglasses refused to believe we were simply looking for presents for our moms.

That iconic downtown store, in any case, is now a giant hole in the ground, awaiting construction of a swanky office building as time, life and commerce march resolutely on.

Let’s pause and have a moment of fond reflection for — as Smithsonian recently described it — “The retail giant that taught America how to shop.”

Sears began modestly in 1887 when a former railway lumber salesman named Richard Sears moved to Chicago to partner with an Indiana watchmaker named Alvah Roebuck to launch a catalog selling jewelry and watches. Both men were still in their 20s. Six years later, they incorporated as Sears, Roebuck and Company,

putting out a 500-page catalog that sold everything an American farmer or thrift-conscious housewife could ask for at a “fair price,” shipped directly to the customer.

In a nation where most Americans still resided on farms or in small towns, this marketing model exploded like a prairie fire, fueling the growth of urban factories. Even Henry Ford was said to have studied the Sears marketing model for making and selling his cars. The company’s first stock certificates were sold in 1906. “If you picked up a big enough chunk of stock when the company went public,” writes Investopedia, “you’d never have to work again.”

The first Sears retail store opened in Chicago in 1925. Four years later, on the eve of the Great Depression, the company was operating 300 stores around the country. By the mid-1950s, the number topped 700. By then, the corporation’s reliable Kenmore appliances, lifetime-guaranteed Craftsman tools, DieHard auto batteries and Allstate Insurance were beloved household names in America’s ballooning mass consumer culture. The stores followed the consumer’s migration from Main Street to shopping centers and, eventually, suburban malls.

Perhaps the company’s most enduring product line was introduced in 1908 when a Sears executive named Frank Kushel came up with the idea of kit houses sold through a specialty catalog called “The Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans,” offering 44 styles of mail-order homes ranging in price from $360 to $2,890. Generally shipped by rail, house packages provided everything down to screws and nails, including pre-cut and numbered framing lumber, flooring, doorknobs, wiring and plumbing.

Between 1908 and 1947, an estimated 75,000 Sears kit houses — from Bungalow to English Cottage, Craftsman to Queen Anne — were shipped to Americans. Old House Journal notes that unknown Frank Kushel’s Modern Home Program wielded as much impact on the development of American archi-

tecture as famous contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright. Sears boasted that its houses were built to last, explaining why thousands of them remain highly prized, lovingly restored jewels in older neighborhoods across America, relics of a bygone golden consumer age.

By the 1970s, the firm owned the tallest skyscraper in the world in Chicago, was among the first to introduce home internet services, and jumped into the real estate, credit card and financial services businesses.

Perhaps it was too much for the gods of commerce to tolerate. Critics pointed to the company’s legal affrays over sex and race discrimination and a business model fueled by corporate hubris.

In 1993, just shy of its 100th anniversary, Sears discontinued its famous catalog. Walmart was now the nation’s leading retailer, and Americans were suddenly buying things “online.” One year later, a former hedge fund guru named Jeff Bezos started up an online book service called Amazon, pretty much putting the finishing nail in the coffin of the historic brand. After 75 years on Wall Street, Home Depot took Sears’ place on the Dow Industrials. As the company’s sales steadily spiraled downward, a forced marriage with K-Mart in 2004 failed to stem the hemorrhage.

In January 2017, shortly before I purchased my Craftsman mower, the iconic tool brand was sold off to Stanley Black & Decker.

Less than a year later, in October 2018, Sears filed for bankruptcy.

Last December, the company emerged from bankruptcy but announced the liquidation and closing of all its remaining stores. According to reports, less than a dozen made it to this

spring. Only one in North Carolina.

Which is why, out of some strange, old fashioned sense of brand loyalty or happy memories of lawn mowers and provocative lingerie mannequins, I felt a final farewell trip was in order.

Bright yellow “Going Out of Business” banners festooned the building. I wandered through looking at the remaining stock items. Fifty-percent bargains were everywhere. I looked at Kenmore refrigerators, top-line Samsung dishwashers and GE Elite ovens, all half-price.

I decided on a lightweight Craftsman toolbox to remember the place by, a steal at $27.

On my way out, I paused to chat with a clerk, Janice, who has worked for Sears for more than two decades. “It makes me really sad to think that Sears is going away for good,” she said. “Like millions of Americans, everything in my house as a young married woman came from Sears. I guess nothing lasts forever, does it?”

She surprised me with a sudden, feisty grin. “You know, I think if we’d only stuck with catalogs, by golly, we’d have beaten Amazon and still be going strong!”

I loved her company spirit. I wished her well.

Then I went home to mow my lawn.

Whenever the math of this world doesn’t quite add up — when the sad subtractions outnumber the hopeful additions, or vice versa — I find temporary comfort by mowing my lawn. Crazy, I know. But it briefly puts things in perspective.

Besides, my Craftsman mower never lets me down. PS

‘HOMEWOOD’’

Location, Location, Location. This

is

If you want to KNOW Pinehurst,

310 CREST ROAD KNOLLWOOD HEIGHTS

is a sophisticated Colonial Revival style 7300 square foot outstanding Estate on 7.5 acres with magnificent private gardens. The main mansion was built in 1930 without regard to cost as a showplace for the Sandhills area. Gracious 6 bedrooms, 5 ½ baths, expansive deck overlooking pool and gardens. $2,795,000

135 SAINT MELLIONS PINEHURST NO 9

LOT

the crown jewel. Surrounded by an oasis of Golf and steps from the newly renovated Pinehurst National Clubhouse. Walk to the 1st tee, walk to the 10th tee, walk to lunch, walk to dinner and walk to all club activities. MOVE-IN-READY. Seller has invested over $700,000 in renovations sparing nothing in either materials or quality of design. $1,795,000

4 AUGUSTA WAY PINEHURST

Charming, Historic, one-of-a-kind Estate on over two acres just one and one half miles from the historic Village of Pinehurst. Located off Donald Ross Drive, the “Parson’s Estate’’ is a rambling, all brick home set amidst beautiful gardens and waterfalls overlooking a tranquil pond. The expansive patio across the back overlooks terraced stacked stone gardens leading to the Pond and total privacy. $1,895,000

PinePitch

Red, White and Blue

The annual Independence Day Parade through the village of Pinehurst takes place on Tuesday, July 4, from 9:45 a.m. to noon. Bring Rover along or put a leash on Darwin the goldfish and participate in the pet parade. Don’t forget the poop bags. Entries in the parade are free of charge and accepted from nonprofits, businesses, civic groups, churches and families. When all’s said and done, the Sandhills Farmers Market will open for business at Tufts Memorial Park, 1 Village Green Road, Pinehurst. For information go to www.vopnc.org.

Throwing a Pottery Party

Help Eck McCanless Pottery celebrate its 12th anniversary on Saturday, July 15, at his shop at 6077 Old U.S. Highway 220, Seagrove. Eck will demonstrate his unique brand of agateware pots made by turning multiple colors of clay on the wheel to create a colorful spiral, then carving his pots to create beautiful patterns. He’ll also have signed and numbered limited-edition pieces in a plum purple pottery. Refreshments will be served. For more information call (336) 873-7412 or go to www.eckmccanlesspottery.com.

On the Small Stage

The Judson Theatre Company will present the musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, July 21, in the intimate McPherson Theater at the Bradshaw Performing Arts Center, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. The second longest running, off-Broadway musical in theater history, the show follows the highs and lows of first dates, first loves, marriages, babies, in-laws and growing old together, paying tribute to those who have loved and lost, and to those who have dared to ask someone out on a date. There will be six additional performances through Sunday, July 30. For information, additional dates, times and tickets go to www.ticketmesandhills.com.

Ooooohh! Aaaaahh!

Break out the lawn chairs and blankets to celebrate Independence Day with fireworks and a free concert at the Pinehurst Harness Track, 200 Beulah Hill Road S., on Monday, July 3. Gates open at 4 p.m. for parking; the celebrating begins at 6 p.m. There will be bounce houses and other distractions for the kiddos, and a wide range of food and beverages for purchase. Picnic baskets are allowed. The Charlotte-based duo The Parks Brothers will be performing eclectic selections, covering tunes from the ’60s to today, along with their original music. The fireworks begin at 9:15 p.m. If you need more info visit www.vopnc.org.

We’ve Got the Blues So Bad

The Blues Crawl, a summer Southern Pines tradition, has been redubbed Bluesfest 2023, a two-day festival on Friday, July 14, and Saturday, July 15, hosted at the Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. There will be live performances on both the indoor and outdoor stages. Artists include Vasti Jackson, Idlewild South, Linwood Taylor, Harvey Dalton Arnold, Jason Damico, Corey Congilio, Jonathan Robinson Band, Baxter Clement & Friends, Daniel Anderson, the Neon Rooster blues competition winners and more. For more information call (910) 420-2549 or go to www.ticketmesandhills.com

Quality ControlIS PRIORITY

Cancer

(June 21 – July 22)

Your capacity to experience the gamut of human emotions is extraordinary. And yet, while you’re busy making an Olympic sport out of mood swings, those who love you are left floundering. This month, prepare to stick a landing that will dazzle even your most grounded of companions. Use this sober moment to communicate your heart’s desires. Because here’s the gold: Your high lifts up the world.

Tea leaf “fortunes” for the rest of you:

Leo (July 23 – August 22)

Try not to pick at the scab.

Virgo (August 23 – September 22)

Step one: Relax your shoulders Step two: Seriously?

Shoulders first.

Libra (September 23 – October 22)

May as well enjoy the ride.

Scorpio (October 23 – November 21)

Cut yourself some slack.

Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21)

The sign couldn’t be more obvious.

Capricorn (December 22 – January 19)

The heart always knows.

Aquarius (January 20 – February 18)

You’re in the clouds again.

Pisces (February 19 – March 20)

But is it your monkey? Your circus?

Aries (March 21 – April 19)

Just because it’s uncomfortable doesn’t mean it isn’t good for you.

Taurus (April 20 – May 20)

Cleanup on aisle life.

Gemini (May 21 – June 20)

You’ll hear what you want to hear. PS

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.

Expert local agents. Nothing compares.

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Susan Ulrich

Discovering a Dutch Master

A life story ringed with mystery

By Stephen e . Smith

Convincing a friend that a work of art you love is worthy of his or her attention can be disheartening.

You: “See the inner darkness and the outer brightness of the painting, how the sense of circumambient air drifts evenly through the scene?”

Friend: “How much is that thing worth anyway?”

Our unabashed enthusiasm is too often dashed by indifference. Or, worse yet, by that Antiques Roadshow inclination to ignore anything other than a painting’s monetary value.

Given our confusion as to exactly what art is and what it means, it’s little wonder we tend to reject uninvited suggestions as to what we should like or dislike. That’s the challenge facing art critic Laura Cumming in Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life & Sudden Death. Since childhood, she has been enamored of A View of Delft, With a Musical Instrument Seller’s Stall, by Dutch artist Carel Fabritius (1622-1654). Now she wants us to love it, too.

Cumming has been the art critic for The Observer and was a senior editor of the New Statesman magazine, both British publications. Her book The Vanishing Velazques was a New York Times bestseller. In her latest offering, she writes with keen insight and obvious affection for the Dutch masters — Rembrandt, Vermeer, Avercamp, Ruisdael, De Hooch, etc. — but the focus of her memoir is on the less celebrated Fabritius, known for having painted The Goldfinch, The Sentry, as well as A View of Delft. Fabritius is considered a minor Dutch master, primarily because so little of his work survives, but Cumming maintains that he’s no less accomplished than Vermeer and Rembrandt, and that he’s deserving of greater recognition. Unfortunately, precious little is known about Fabritius’ life, and it’s assumed that most of his paintings

have not survived. We do, however, know about his death.

The “Thunderclap” in Cumming’s title alludes to an explosion near a convent in the city of Delft, where 80,000 pounds of stored gunpowder exploded on Monday, October 12, 1654. The detonation injured a thousand, destroyed hundreds of wooden homes and left a hundred people dead, including Fabritius, his apprentice and the subject of the portrait he was painting at the time. Fortunately, his best-known painting, The Goldfinch, was rescued from the rubble.

Although Fabritius was a student of Rembrandt, he’s seldom mentioned by his contemporaries, and documentation concerning his personal life is sparse. His wife and child died early, and, like most Dutch painters, Fabritius was deeply in debt. His isolation is reflected in The Goldfinch, his lesser-known The Sentry and two brooding self-portraits, which are little enough upon which to base a lengthy aesthetic exposition. “I go round and round this tiny tale,” Cumming writes, “this life circling out from the village of Middenbeemster, ringed with mystery. It is a man’s whole life. Yet I can get no more of him, except perhaps through his art. He is like a suicide who takes his secrets away with him.”

The “memoir” element of Thunderclap focuses on Cumming’s father, James Cumming (1922-1991), a painter of “semi-figurative art.” Cumming admired her father’s artistic dedication, but his inclusion in the narrative seems mildly intrusive when explicating the likes of the Dutch masters. Certainly, his influence is felt in the love Cumming has for art, but the connection to her narrative is tenuous at best.

But Cumming recalls with pleasure the art she discovered growing up in Scotland, and the magnificence of the paintings she observed on a childhood visit to the Netherlands. The bulk of her beautifully written text is devoted to explicating the art produced

by those Dutch masters, and the book offers colorful images of the paintings she explicates.

Americans, for all our lack of aesthetic depth, are nonetheless capable of appreciating how art relates to our everyday lives. Grant Wood’s American Gothic, for example, is an immensely popular masterpiece that illustrates through the subtle use of symbolism most of our aspirations and contradictions — the individual vs. collective wisdom, religion, the American Dream, the virtues of hard work, the relationship between the sexes, upward social mobility, etc. — and the subtle social criticism in Childe Hassam’s Washington Arch in Spring is apparent to any careful observer. Ethnocentric tendencies aside, it’s possible to discern much about the cultural history of a foreign country by studying its art. This is where Cumming’s insights are essential.

Her description of De Hooch’s The Courtyard of a House in Delft is representative of her work: “. . . the brickwork lying in its separate courses, the paint exactly imitating mortar; the dusty blue of the weeds and ivy, the clear light of the street; then the wonderful set of rhyming shapes — the scarlet shutter on one side, its wooden counterpart on the other; the oval window in the stonework and

its glass twin in the hallway, the recession of arch inside arch inside arch that takes the eye right through the corridor and out in the street of Delft.”

Reading Cumming’s meticulous descriptions opens the reader’s perception of the accompanying paintings. Her precise prose takes readers on an excursion through the Rijksmuseum and the Golden Age of Dutch Art. It’s a tour worth every ounce of effort. No book, especially a book on art, is for everyone. But Thunderclap comes close. Keep an open mind. And if you’re not interested in art, you can take solace in the fact that the masterpieces Cumming presents are priceless, deserving of a jubilant Antiques Roadshow “Wow!” with the turn of every page.

Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life & Sudden Death will be in bookstores in mid-July. If you find it enthralling, you might also enjoy Donna Tartt’s 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch PS

Stephen E. Smith’s latest book, Beguiled by the Frailties of Those Who Precede Us, is available from Kelsay Books, Amazon and The Country Bookshop.

July Books

FICTION

The Displacements, by Bruce Holsinger

To all appearances, the Larsen-Hall family has everything: healthy children, a stable marriage, a lucrative career for Brantley, and the means for Daphne to pursue her art full time. Their deluxe new Miami life has just clicked into place when Luna — the world’s first Category 6 hurricane — upends everything they have taken for granted. When the storm makes landfall, it triggers a descent of another sort. Their home destroyed, two of its members missing and finances abruptly cut off, the family finds everything they assumed about their lives now up for grabs. Swept into a mass rush of evacuees from across the South, they are transported hundreds of miles to a FEMA megashelter where their new community includes an insurance-agent-turned-drug dealer, a group of vulnerable children, and a dedicated relief worker trying to keep the peace. Will “normal” ever return?

The Exhibitionist, by Charlotte Mendelson

Meet the Hanrahan family, gathering for a momentous weekend as famous artist and notorious egoist Ray Hanrahan prepares for a new exhibition of his art — the first in many decades — and one he is sure will burnish his reputation forever. His three children will be there: eldest daughter Leah, always her father’s biggest champion; son Patrick, who has finally decided to strike out on his own; and daughter Jess, the youngest, who has her own momentous decision to make. And what of Lucia, Ray’s steadfast and selfless wife? She is an artist too, but has always had to put her roles as wife and mother first. What will happen if she decides to change? Lucia is hiding secrets of her own. As the weekend unfolds and

the exhibition approaches, she must finally make a choice about which desires to follow. A furiously funny novel, The Exhibitionist is a dazzling exploration of art, sacrifice, toxic family politics, desire and personal freedom.

Café Unfiltered, by Jean-Philippe Blondel

At a classic café in the French provinces, anonymity, chance encounters and traumatic pasts collide against the muted background of global instability. Blondel, author of the bestselling The 6:41 to Paris, presents a moving fresco of intertwined destinies. In the span of 24 hours, a medley of characters retrace the fading patterns of their lives after a long disruption from COVID. A mother and son realize their vast differences, a man takes tea with a childhood friend he had once covertly fallen for, and a woman crosses paths with the ex who abandoned her in Australia. Amid it all, the café swirls like a kaleidoscope, bringing together customers, waiters and owners past and present. Within its walls and on its terrace, they examine the threads of their existence, laying bare their inner selves, their failed dreams, and their hopes for the uncertain future that awaits us all.

POETRY

Beguiled by the Frailties of Those Who Precede Us, by Stephen E. Smith

It’s best to let former North Carolina poet laureate Shelby Stephenson describe Smith’s latest volume of poetry, his eighth. “Stephen E. Smith’s poems in Beguiled by the Frailties of Those Who Precede Us exude truths so real they haunt our memories . . . Father, mother, family, past, present, future swoop and dive into the imagination the way a whale searches for deep water.”

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

The Digger and the Butterfly, by Joseph Kuefler

Sometimes it takes a new friend to remind you to slow down, listen to the river, feel the wind, appreciate the sun. This is what happens when Digger befriends a butterfly and waits patiently to see what will happen next. When the butterfly finally emerges, it’s clear that Digger and his friends have also been changed forever. A lovely story with fun science facts on the life cycle of the butterfly, it’s a perfect summer read. (Ages 2-7.)

Sunshine: A Graphic Novel, by Jarrett Krosoczka

When Jarrett Krosoczka was in high school, he was part of a program that sent students to be counselors at a camp for seriously ill kids and their families. At Camp Sunshine he engaged in some of the usual rituals that come with being a camp counselor (wilderness challenges, spooky campfire stories, an extremely stinky mascot costume), but he also got a chance to meet some extraordinary kids facing extraordinary circumstances. This gem from the author of Hey, Kiddo will have you laughing out loud and crying in public. (Ages 12 and up.)

The Jules Verne Prophecy, by Larry Schwarz and Iva-Marie Palmer

When Owen finds himself stuck in Paris for the summer with his mom, he is sure the whole vacation will be a boring flop until a mysterious skateboarder, a rare Jules Verne book and a few new friends turn things around. This wild ride of an adventure journeys through the most amazing sites in Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, the catacombs and a secret skate park. (Ages 9-13.) PS

Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Tally.

Teach a Man to Fish

Or just get in line at Hoskins

By Bill FieldS

In a modest fishing career that produced nothing for the wall and little for the table, I wish I’d caught one flounder, because I sure ate plenty of them.

Other than whatever mystery-fromthe-sea comprised the fish sticks in the freezer that would be supper if my working mom had a particularly long, tough day, flounder was the fish of my childhood. It would have made my beach vacation to land a summer flounder, but Paralichthys dentatus was as elusive as winning a large stuffed animal at Skee-Ball in the Ocean Drive arcade.

On a good outing, Dad and I, equipped with the gear we usually took to Moore County ponds in pursuit of bream or bass, would catch our share of tiny spot, croaker and whiting from the Tilghman Pier, trinkets from the surf. But even if I could convince him to splurge on “flounder rigs” that kept the hooks baited with shrimp floating just above the bottom where the species supposedly liked to dine, instead of flush on the ocean floor where the less desirable fish scavenged, we’d come up as empty as the shark-fishing men with heavy-duty tackle at the far end of the pier.

There was no chance of Curt Gowdy reaching out to us to appear on The American Sportsman.

The futility of fishing for flounder went away, though, if our family was going to Hoskins Restaurant that evening. The Ocean Drive eatery had lost a needed apostrophe in its sign sometime between when it opened in 1948 and when we were patronizing the place a couple of decades later but maintained a mastery of fried seafood — particularly flounder.

Hoskins was one of the first things we’d sight when driving into Ocean Drive headed for the rental cottage or motel where we were staying. It wasn’t a matter of if we were going to go there during our stay, but how many times.

No one got out of sorts if there was a wait to get in. We knew the air conditioning would be cranking — at a time when AC still wasn’t

commonplace — and we could count on the quality of the food. I went through a fried shrimp phase but always went back to the flounder.

The filets of the mild-tasting flatfish were sizable and the outside golden brown and never heavy. Paired with the can’t-eat-just-one hushpuppies, there was nothing better. Even a midday sno-cone and corn dog from a strand vendor couldn’t compete with a Hoskins’ flounder plate.

Fortunately, we had fried flounder options the other 51 weeks of the year.

Russell’s Fish House on Highway 22 on the outskirts of Southern Pines opened in the mid-1960s offering all-you-can eat fish for $1.50. We went many a Friday or Saturday night, and I eventually worked there, first as a busboy, then in the kitchen. I cooked the hushpuppies for a time and some of the other teenagers working for owners Larry and Mary Russell handled the fries and manned the grill.

The flounder, though, was the purview of an older man named Herbert, who masterfully tended his bubbling fryer of peanut oil and didn’t want the youngsters messing with his fish. We could be a loose bunch, no strangers to horseplay while cleaning up at the end of a long night, but we obeyed Herbert.

Given the volume of fish that was served, the quality of the flounder was consistently good even if some of the fillets weren’t as plump as those we ate on vacation. My appetite for flounder would wane occasionally because I was around it so much for several years, including filling lots of takeout boxes, but there were still times when I savored a plate for my meal at the end of a busy shift.

Our third option for flounder in those years was at my brother-in-law Bill’s restaurant in High Point. Everything was good on the broad menu at Brinwood — fried chicken, country-style steak, spaghetti, meatloaf — but his fried flounder was especially tasty.

After enjoying my brother-in-law’s light, never-greasy fish for several meals, I was convinced the only thing Hoskins had on Brinwood was the beach down the street. PS

Southern Pines native Bill Fields, who writes about golf and other things, moved north in 1986 but hasn’t lost his accent.

The Art of Life

Perseverance with paint and canvas

By Wiley Ca Sh p hotographS By m allory Ca Sh

In2013, painter Tom Ward went to the beach to die. He and his wife, Mary, both natives of Long Island, New York, had been living in Durham for 11 years when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS, a disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Over time, people with ALS lose control of their muscles, including the muscles used to eat, speak and breathe. Most die of respiratory failure within three to five years.

“I didn't know how long I was going to live,” Tom says one afternoon in late May while we are sitting in his living room in Wilmington, several of the gorgeous paintings he’s completed over the years hanging on the walls around us. He smiles a wry smile. “And I kept thinking, It’ll be too bad if I croak in Durham.”

“We’re beach people,” he says. “We love the beach. When we were young and dating, even after we were married, we spent a lot of time on the Long Island beaches on the South Shore and the North Shore. So when I got the diagnosis we came out to Wilmington and looked around. And that’s how we got here.”

Only 10 percent of those diagnosed with ALS live beyond a decade, and Tom can be counted among those few. His disease is mercifully slow moving, and some days he feels well enough to take a trip to the beach with Mary’s assistance to paint en plein air; Fort Fisher is a favorite spot. Other days, when his body does not feel like his own, he works from home, taking his motorized wheelchair into his studio, where he moves onto a padded chair positioned in front of his easel. Throughout his battle with ALS, and its attendant and unpredictable ups and downs, painting has

been a constant in Tom’s life. So has Mary’s support and advocacy.

In 2016 Mary was named a fellow by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, whose mission it is to empower and support the military caregivers who care for America’s ill, wounded or injured veterans. A former Marine (Is there really such a thing as a former Marine?), Tom, like other veterans, is two times more likely than a civilian to develop ALS. Mary has spent years advocating for caregivers like herself and for veterans like Tom, even authoring three books on issues from navigating veterans benefits to service dogs to her own’s family’s experiences with war after the couple’s son served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But it’s not in her national efforts that Mary’s support for Tom is most apparent. It is more evident in the small moments of their day-to-day lives: her leaving the conversation to get him a glass of water; her gently correcting his memory or assisting him as he parses the details of one of my questions. And Tom is just as devoted to Mary as she is to him, supporting her through two graduate degrees and careers as diverse as a public school teacher

and a hospital administrator. It was the latter position that caused the couple to move from New York to Durham after she accepted a job at Duke Hospital.

But as much as their relationship is based on intangible evidence of love and support, the larger moments still loom in their shared past, perhaps none larger than the moment in 1993, after 13 years of marriage, when Tom contracted encephalitis and, after a lengthy treatment, showed signs of cognitive impairment that affected his executive functions. Suddenly, a man who’d served in the Marines and forged a career in risk management for an insurance company in Manhattan was having trouble parsing step-by-step instructions and remembering simple tasks like picking up their 9-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son from school. Tom’s symptoms forced him to retire from a busy job, and he suddenly found himself seemingly without purpose for the first time in his life.

“When our kids were growing up, I had to appear to them to be industrious in some way,” he says. “That was just my personal rule. I couldn’t sit on the couch and give into the thing and let that thing rule me, let the fatigue rule me.”

A year or so into Tom’s battle with the long-term symptoms of encephalitis, he and Mary found themselves in an art gallery not far from their home in upstate New York. Tom had always appreciated art, but he’ll be the first to admit that he didn’t know much about it.

“I thought all painting was called impressionism,” he says, laughing. “I didn’t know there was something called classical realism or other styles of painting. I thought impressionism meant painting like someone would think all cars are Chevys without knowing about Buicks or Pontiacs or Peugeots.”

Even though Tom didn’t know much about painting, that day in the gallery he couldn’t help but be struck by the work of an artist who signed their paintings “V. Walsh.” Tom approached the gallery owner and learned that V. Walsh was a woman named Virginia. On impulse, Tom expressed an interest in studying under Walsh, and he left his phone number with the gallery owner. Within a few weeks he and Virginia Walsh were setting up their easels side by side, a master and an apprentice with zero experience.

I ask Tom what drew him to Walsh’s work, what it was about her paintings that day in the gallery that caused him to make a decision that would change his life.

“She turned a form,” he says, referring to a painter’s ability to give the illusion of depth on a flat surface. “It was a painting of a plum that had a quarter sliced out, and the slice was laying as a half-moon shape on a tabletop. It was the light striking the flesh of the plum and the color that she put there. And then you could see the interior of the plum where the slice had been removed. Her use of color was just so perfect. It just grabs the eye. That’s what made me say, ‘Wow, that’s it. I want to do that.’”

Walsh agreed to work with Tom, but their time together got

off to a rocky start. It was Walsh’s practice to educate by example, and she and Tom would regularly set up their easels and paint en plein air together for hours at a time. She was particular in the way she wanted his paints and materials organized, but to her frustration, Tom seemed unwilling to comply. Walsh ended up calling Mary in frustration to break the news that she couldn’t work with Tom because of his obstinate disposition. When Mary discovered that Tom hadn’t shared his struggles with executive function with his new mentor, she told the teacher that her pupil wasn’t being obstinate; he simply didn’t have the ability to comply without explicit, patient direction. Things went more smoothly after that, and Walsh and Tom continued to work together, painting outdoors through a number of seasons to exhibit for Tom the exquisite yet too often unnoticed changes the natural world undergoes when one truly pays attention.

Both his attention to detail and his deeply felt portrayals of the natural world are evident in Tom’s work almost 30 years after his lessons with Virginia Walsh, though sometimes his ALS makes it difficult for him to render detail as easily as he once could. Take the use of his palette knife when he works with it, rather than a brush, to apply a smooth layer of paint to the canvas.

“I’m just not getting the cut of the knife in a way that portrays what I’m seeing in my mind,” he says. “That’s ALS. The thought in my brain that tells my hand what to do either gets lost completely or is received in a garbled fashion. So my hand’s not really doing what I’m asking it to do.”

But, just as he has throughout his life, whether as a Marine or a businessman or a new painter struggling with organizing his paints and materials, Tom finds a way to adapt. And, as usual, Mary is by his side. No matter what comes next, it will happen to them together. And it will happen by the sea. PS

Wiley Cash is the Alumni Author-in-Residence at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. His new novel, When Ghosts Come Home, is available wherever books are sold.

Ain’t No Cure for the Summertime Blues

Except a new bottle of booze

By tony CroSS

It was my birthday last month so, to treat myself, I ordered a bunch of rum online. I’ve been on a tiki kick lately, making “how-to” videos for my social media pages. Plus, picking out a few new spirits keeps me inspired. The same week my pallet of liquor arrived on an 18-wheeler, a dear friend also gifted me a trio of super unique gins from Africa. So, let’s dive right into three different styles of spirit that could pique your interest.

Batavia-Arrack von Oosten

It’s not that I’ve never held onto a bottle of arrack or anything, but for its backstory spirit historian David Wondrich has us covered. In his book Punch, he writes that arrack was “derived from the Arabic word for ‘sweat’ or ‘juice’ and is generic throughout the Middle East and South, Central and Southeast Asia for a distilled spirit.” Though there are a few different types of arrack, Wondrich says Batavia Arrack von Oosten is the go-to. He goes on to explain how it’s made. “Rice was boiled and molded into cakes. These cakes were put in baskets over a vat, and as they fermented, a liquid dripped into the vat. That was collected, mixed with almost double its volume of molasses and a splash — less than a tenth of its volume — of palm wine, presumably to aid fermentation.”

But how does it taste and how do you take it? It’s like a rum. It’s funky, that’s for sure. But it also has a little bit of smoke. Perfect for a punch or a South Seas Swizzle, the specs courtesy of the importer, Haus Alpenz.

South Seas Swizzle

2 ounces Batavia Arrack van Oosten

1/2 ounce lime juice

1/2 ounce green tea syrup*

1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters

Add all ingredients in a tall glass and fill halfway up with crushed ice. Using your hands and a swizzle stick, move the stick left to right quickly with the palms of your hands, integrating all ingredients with ice for about 15 seconds. Fill the rest of the glass with crushed ice. Add fresh mint and grate nutmeg over the cocktail.

*Bring 1 cup of water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons of loose-leaf green tea. Let steep for 5 minutes. Strain tea and add 2 cups of sugar. Stir until sugar completely dissolves. Put in glass container and refrigerate for up to a month.

Hamilton “Beachbum Berry’s Zombie Blend” Rum

Hamilton is known for having a variety of top-notch rums, and this collaboration with Jeff “Beachbum” Berry is no different. Almost 20 years ago, Berry uncovered the original Zombie cocktail recipe, and published it in his book Sippin’ Safari. “Fourteen years later,” as his website reveals, “Ed Hamilton — the swashbuckling Caribbean trader turned crusading ‘pure rum’ importer and blender — was drinking with the Bum at Latitude 29 [Berry’s tiki bar] when our talk turned to the challenge of recreating the complicated exotic cocktails of the last century. Over the next two years we experimented with umpteen rum mixes trying to create a one-bottle blend that could reanimate your Zombie.” This rum is most definitely high-test, coming in at 59 percent ABV, and blends the holy trinity, if you will, of rums: Jamaican, Puerto Rican and demerara. Sugar, spice and everything nice is in this bottle. And though you can mix up a ton of different tiki cocktails with it, let me leave you with what it was originally intended for, the Zombie.

Zombie

2 ounces Beachbum Berry’s Zombie Rum Blend

3/4 ounce lime juice

1/2 ounce grapefruit juice

1/2 ounce falernum

1/2 ounce cinnamon syrup

1/4 ounce grenadine

8 drops Pernod (or absinthe)

4 dashes Angostura bitters

Power blend with 3/4 cup crushed ice for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a tall glass and add ice to fill. Garnish with mint. Freaking yum.

Procera African Juniper Gin (Green Dot 2021 Vintage)

As I mentioned earlier, this gin — along with the Blue and Red Dot vintages — was gifted to me by a friend who’s a badass bartender and collector of spirits. In order for a gin to be “gin” it must contain juniper. Almost all gins on the market have juniper blended with many other spices and citrus peels. The Green Dot Procera Gin only has juniper. That’s it. Technically, it contains the young foliage tips, fresh “never-dried” berries, toasted heartwood and dried berries. Before I tried this for the first time, I thought, “not sure how there’s going to be a lot going on with this one.” I was so wrong. It’s the best gin I’ve ever had in my

life. I can’t even describe to you what I tasted, but there’s a small note that accompanies the bottle and they nail it: “It starts with a creamy, rich mouthfeel from fresh, never-dried, Juniperus procera berries. Then, the leaves impart a piney, sap-like note on the midpalate, before toasted heartwood delivers a dry, complex, almost spicy finish.” In-freaking-deed. Even though I haven’t mixed one for myself yet, I recommend having a martini with this. I’m making mine this weekend.

Martini

2 1/4 ounces Procera Green Dot Gin

3/4 ounce Dolin Dry vermouth

Combine the gin and vermouth in a chilled stirring vessel. Add ice and stir until proper dilution has occurred. Strain into a chilled martini or coupe glass. Garnish with whatever you’d like, but I’m going with a lemon peel, expressing the oils over the cocktail before adding it to the drink.

Quick tip: Put your gin, or at least the 2 1/4 ounces of it, in the freezer before mixing. You want your martini piercingly cold. PS

Tony Cross owns and operates Reverie Cocktails, a cocktail delivery service that delivers kegged cocktails for businesses to pour on tap — but once a bartender, always a bartender.

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Red, White and Scoop

Homemade ice cream with natural dyes

Story and photograph By roSe SheW ey

America, my sweet home away from home. Thirteen years ago in August, you literally took my breath away when I immigrated via Orlando International Airport and, exiting through the sliding doors of Terminal A, was swallowed up by a thick cloud of heat and humidity that momentarily stopped me in my tracks.

While I have yet to adapt to the climate in the Southeast — a mild day in April resembles an average Central European midsummer day — I have reached expert level in managing sweltering summer heat and refining cool-down techniques. If migrating north between the months of June and October is not an option, the least one can do to survive these long, hot summers is get a season pass for the pool and eat lots, and I mean lots and lots, of ice cream.

In honor and celebration of The Star-Spangled Banner, I am shining the spotlight on food dyes and I’ll let that cat right out of the bag — you do not have to use artificial dyes to achieve stunningly vibrant, saturated colors, in ice cream or any other foods. There are a couple of all-natural brands on the market that produce gorgeous vegetable dyes that will knock your socks off. But do not fret, I have also had great success with some fantastic homedye options.

Red

Powdered raspberries or strawberries will not just give your creation a beautiful blush color (or light red if you use large quantities), but also add an attractive flavor to your food. Red beet powder (not juice) is a decent colorant, and surprisingly, does not impart the quintessential earthy root vegetable flavor. It does, however, turn slightly more magenta than red, in my experience.

Blue

My favorite blue coloring agent is blue butterfly pea flower. This powder turns into a pastel blue with lavender undertones, but it depends on what you color and how much you use. Blue spirulina is another reliable and potent dyeing agent for a vivid blue color.

Advising on the exact measures is tricky when it comes to natural food dyes. The outcome depends on so many factors, such as the pH level of the food you are dyeing and the freshness of your colorant, to name just two. It takes some experimenting but it is so rewarding to draw from Mother Nature to refine home-crafted treats.

All romantic notions and sweet childhood memories aside, making ice cream is cold, hard science. With commercial ice cream as the gold standard in terms of texture and viscosity, homemade ice cream tends to disappoint (think large, grainy ice crystals), but by understanding the ideal ratio of the basic components of ice cream, as well as inviting all-natural texture boosters into your kitchen, the perfect hand-crafted scoop is well within reach.

Blank Canvas ’n’ Ice Cream

(Makes 1 quart ice cream)

(A basic dairy and egg-free ice cream recipe that can be adapted to any flavor)

4 cups dairy-free milk (see notes)

1/4 cup sweetener (e.g., granulated sugar or honey)

1 teaspoon agar flakes

2 teaspoons tapioca starch

1/2 cup smooth nut butter (e.g., almond butter or coconut manna)

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

In a medium skillet, bring the milk to a boil, whisk in sugar and agar flakes, and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Stir frequently to completely dissolve agar flakes. Meanwhile, prepare a tapioca starch slurry: In a small cup, combine tapioca starch with about 1 tablespoon of cold water and mix well. Turn off heat and whisk tapioca starch slurry into the milk, allowing the residual heat to cook the starch. For best results, add your ice cream base to a blender together with your nut butter, salt and vanilla extract and, if desired, food dye, and process until smooth. However, you can also mix in the remaining ingredients by hand. Allow the mixture to completely cool off in the fridge, pour into your ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Notes

This recipe was tested with both homemade nut milk (almond milk and cashew milk) and store-bought nut milk with zero additives (no added gums or emulsifiers).

For a bright white ice cream base, use white granulated sugar or a lightcolored honey and coconut manna (coconut butter). PS

German native Rose Shewey is a food stylist and food photographer. To see more of her work visit her website, suessholz.com.

Smoothing Out the Kinks

With 40 winks

By deBorah Salomon

Everybody understands what “Stop and smell the roses” means. That’s easy.

What about “Stop and take a nap”?

Naps aren’t a sure cure for fatigue, like peanut butter and jelly are for hunger. Neither is sleep a bodily function activated by command. Sometimes it comes as soon as head hits pillow. Other times, the brain dredges up worries . . . like having trouble falling asleep.

I love naps, perhaps because of a 25-year deprivation. A quick nap wasn’t worth removing contact lenses. After my eyes finally rejected the invasion I had surgery that restored vision except for reading, when I wore glasses. What a joy to hit the couch for 15 minutes of shut-eye. No more panic if I drifted off during a Blue Bloods rerun.

Naps are especially important given my sleep patterns in place since high school: rising (way) before dawn to bake, care for pets, fold laundry, exercise and write. I once had neighbors call the police because they heard noises coming from my apartment at 4:30 a.m.

Burglars, they discovered, don’t empty the dishwasher. But sleep, even short-term, can be tricky, as Hamlet warned . . . “perchance to dream, aye, there’s the rub.”

No scientist, not even Freud, has successfully codified the origin of dreams. Maybe Scrooge was correct when he attributed Yuletide nightmares to “a crumb of cheese.” Lately, I have noticed a shift. My dreams have taken on minute details of weather, clothing, dialogue as in paintings displaying count-the-hairs realism. People I haven’t seen in ages appear and reappear — soap opera dreams, I call them, most with upsetting plot lines that may cover years during a quick nap. Others create a need, like to cook what I’ve dreamt about. That’s me, stirring up arepas at midnight. I’ve never been to South America, where these cornflour

pancakes are staples, but I’ve read about them and, conveniently, had the ingredients on hand.

Then, after a long-ago surgery, I learned from medical staff that Demerol, a pain medication, invites jungle animals into the unconscious. Sure enough, here come the lions and tigers.

These deterrents don’t keep me from a 15-30 minute nap most early afternoons, a practice left over from having three kids under 4, who needed a snooze almost as badly as Mom.

As luck would have it, I can sleep through the bumpiest flight, especially if we steerage passengers are allowed blankets on cold, dark mornings. But please give me an elbow when I doze off in a waiting room.

Naps are part of certain cultures, notably Spanish, where a siesta — entirely different from a quick “power” nap — following the midday meal, usually heavy, has been credited for a 37 percent reduction in coronary mortality due to reduced cardiovascular stress. Closer to home, some woke businesses provide partitioned nap rooms with recliners and headphone/alarm clocks for their employees, resulting in a happier, more productive workforce.

But NASA offers the most convincing stats. Their study concludes that a 40-minute nap improved astronauts’ alertness by 100 percent, performance by 34 percent.

Unfortunately, sleep can be addictive, withdrawal unpleasant. Life interferes. Having a cat helps, since naps are a hard-wired behavior they gladly share.

I’m painfully aware that some mental health professionals view sleep as an escape. Maybe so, in excess. But what’s wrong with a little non-drug, non-alcohol induced escape?

While you ponder that, I’m going to turn the phone off, plump the couch pillow, pull up the fuzzy throw, summon my kitty and speak only in ZZZZZs. PS

Deborah Salomon is a contributing writer for PineStraw and The Pilot . She can be reached at debsalomon@nc.rr.com.

Rare and Mysterious

On the lookout for the unusual white hummingbird

By SuSan CampBell

If you happen to look out the window and see a flash of white at your hummingbird feeder or flowers, you may not be seeing things. Late summer is when I receive at least a report or two from hosts who have glimpsed a rare pale-colored hummingbird. Given the number of people who feed hummers here in North Carolina, birds in unusual plumage tend to get noticed. And given the network of bird enthusiasts I am familiar with, reports of unusual hummingbirds find their way to my phone or computer pretty quickly.

White hummingbirds include both leucistic (pale individuals) as well as true albinos (completely lacking pigment). Gray or tan hummers are more likely than full albinos. Light-colored individuals have normal, dark-colored soft parts such as dark eyes, feet and bills. Albinos, on the other hand, are very rare. These snow-white birds that sport pink eyes, feet and bills have been documented fewer than 10 times in our state. Only three have been banded and studied closely here to date.

It is not unusual for people to think they are seeing a moth rather than a hummingbird when they encounter a white individual. They do not realize that these beautiful creatures are possible. As much as we now know that they do exist, we know

very little about white hummingbirds. Opportunities to study these unique individuals are few and far between. What we do know is that they tend to appear in July or August as young of the year and do not survive into their second year. White feathers are very brittle and likely cannot withstand the stresses of rapid wing beats and long-distance migration. Another curious characteristic is that all of these eye-catching birds have been female. So it is likely that, for whatever reason, this trait is genetically sex-linked.

The first white hummer that I managed to band was a creamy bird in Taylortown a number of years ago. She was an aggressive individual that roamed the neighborhood terrorizing the other ruby-throateds. The first true albino I documented was in Apex in Wake County, and that individual was even more aggressive; chasing all of the other birds that made the mistake of entering her airspace. For me to have a chance to study a white hummer, I must get word of it quickly before the bird heads out on fall migration. I have missed more than one by less than 24 hours.

The last white hummer I had the privilege to examine close up was an albino a decade ago in Washington, N.C. A mostly white hummingbird gave me the slip in Charlotte four years ago. So, I am way overdue to band yet another. Who knows who I might encounter this season? Each one is so unique. I simply hope to at least hear about another of these tiny marvels before all of the hummingbirds in the central part of our state have headed south. PS

Susan Campbell would love to receive your wildlife sightings and photographs at susan@ncaves.com.

PHOTOGRAPHS: TODD PUSSER; SUSAN CAMPBELL

Glenn H. Dunlap, DPM

James K. Smith, DPM Shalanda Hall, DPM

The Old Home Place

Where have the small farmers gone?

By tom Bryant

rocked back and forth in one of Mama’s old rockers, I suddenly realized that I didn’t know a single solitary farmer anymore. It was quite a revelation in as much as my father was the first in our family not to make a living on the farm.

Linda, my bride, and I were visiting my sister who lives in the old home place in South Carolina. We had been reminiscing about old times and catching up on the latest news from the family. It was mid-July and hot, as only July can be in the low country. The ladies were inside putting together a light lunch, and I was suffering through the heat on the front porch of the ancient Southern house.

Built in 1830, the vintage old home was constructed to handle the Southern heat. A long rain porch supported by columns stretched across the front of the house. The structure was constructed so that it faced east to utilize the prevailing winds. It also rested on brick foundation posts about 5 feet off the ground. Inside, 14-foot ceilings dispersed the heat, and 6-foot windows helped what breeze there was to circulate.

It was still July, though, and hot. My sister had installed airconditioning when Mom was still alive, and it made all the difference. But I remembered earlier times when the only real way to cool off was to take a dip in Black Creek, a little stream that slowly meandered down the northern border of the property.

My Uncle Tommy was the last to plant the cleared acreage of the farm, growing corn, wheat, soybeans and cotton. As a youngster, I can remember cotton stretching to the horizon like a

new snowfall, and then later, there was a green sea of tobacco.

Tobacco was the money crop in the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s. My granddad planted many acres of tobacco, and I used to follow him around as

he checked on his growing crop. He often said that the best fertilizer a farmer could have are his footsteps in the field, and we sure made a bunch of those.

I never really understood how tobacco allotments were given to growers — even though Granddad tried to explain it to me a time or two — but after doing a little research, I found that, like with a lot of things that involved money, the government held forth. They imposed production limits on individual tobacco growers but guaranteed an artificially high price for the crop. That policy maintained order in the tobacco growing business for years and kept many small farms alive. A farmer in those early days could realize an average profit of $2,000 an acre, enough to keep him down on the farm.

Farming has changed in tremendous ways. A good example would be our own homestead, which was broken up and inherited by different members of the family. No one actually works the land, but the cleared farm acreage is leased to huge conglomerates who bring in giant agriculture equipment and plant hundreds of acres in a short period of time. When harvest season rolls around, they gather the crop in the same way, in and out quickly with little manual labor involved.

In the days of tobacco growing on Granddad’s place, I learned the hard way how much work it took to grow a good crop and, more than that, how much real labor it took to harvest. Priming tobacco, or picking the leaves for curing in the barn, was designed to make men out of boys, or so said Granddad. I never had to do a lot of that dirty, mind-numbing labor, just enough to satisfy me

AsI slowly

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The member’s favorite, this Pinehurst golf course offers wide manicured fairways and large elevated fast rolling greens. Fairway bunkers are strategically placed to grab the wayward shot and there is no lack of sand guarding the greens.

Widely considered the most challenging course, the Grey Fox features hilly terrain, several doglegs and towering pines. Golfers must avoid the sand and position the ball on the proper side of the fairway so that they get the best approach angle to the small greens.

that I wasn’t cut out for it. After a day in the field, I would return to the kitchen porch of the old house, sticky and black with tobacco tar. Grandmother greeted me, saying, “Hose off all that dirt before you come in and mess up my kitchen.”

Over the years I’ve had baths and showers in wonderful places, but nothing could beat the pleasure of standing under that cold, streaming hose after a blistering day under a South Carolina summer sun.

Nothing stays the same, and agriculture is no different. The days of small farms are gone forever.

A soft breeze began to blow out of the east, offering a little relief from the July sun, and as I watched a big red-tail hawk fly lazy circles in the cloudless sky, I thought back to an encounter I had with big tobacco when I was still doing my day job.

Business North Carolina magazine hired me after I decided to come out of early retirement. I realized that I needed something constructive to do other than fish and hunt. Linda agreed with that decision whole-heartedly. The organization made me regional sales manager of the Triad area of North Carolina.

My territory included Danville, Virginia, home of Debrell Brothers Tobacco, an old established company going back to 1873. This tobacco business purchases, processes and sells leaf tobacco, and operates as an importer and exporter. They do business in 24 countries throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and South America.

I learned long ago in the selling business, if you don’t ask, how can you tell if a potential customer wants your product? It took several months of phone calls and messages, but eventually I wrangled an appointment to meet with the marketing director and a couple of his assistants about a special promotion that BNC had in the works.

I was up and at ’em early the morning of our meeting. When I’m in a new area I try to be a little early. A few extra minutes sometimes can save you a lot of trouble. Today would reinforce that notion.

I pulled into Danville in plenty of time

THE RED FOX COURSE THE GREY FOX COURSE

to get a cup of coffee at the local McDonald’s. I sat in the old Bronco sipping coffee and going over the presentation I had put together the evening before. My briefcase was open on the passenger’s seat, and noticing the time, I put everything back in the case and eased into traffic heading to the Debrell office. As I neared a railroad track crossing, the car in front of me stopped suddenly. I still had half a cup of coffee, and the abrupt stop dumped it right into my open briefcase.

Disaster.

What to do? My appointment was in 15 minutes. I pulled in the parking lot of the office, hopped out, got the soggy media kits out of the case and used a wad of Kleenex to try and sop up the rest of the coffee that was staining everything. It was time for the meeting with people I had never met before.

Well, I thought, in for a penny, in for a pound.

The receptionist was sitting well back in the corner of the entrance to the offices. A hall led down the center of the building. Everything was mahogany and polished brass, accented with deep oriental rugs. The entire place reeked of money.

After I introduced myself she said, “Your meeting will be in the central conference room. I’ll walk you back there.”

The marketing director and his assistants were waiting and cordially greeted me as I entered the opulent space. Paintings of farm scenes, mostly featuring tobacco, were on the spacious walls.

After everyone was settled, the receptionist asked if she could get me some coffee. The other folks were sipping theirs from china cups and looking at me expectantly.

“Well, ma’am,” I hesitantly said, “I just had a cup. Most of it is still in my briefcase.”

I then pulled the soggy media kits from my case, holding them so they wouldn’t drip on the rugs. After I explained the particulars of the mishap, it took a while for them to stop laughing.

They bought a six-month contract with their first ad to appear in Business North Carolina’s special promotion. It proved my theory: You never know what to expect in the selling business.

The marketing director walked me to the door, and on the way we talked about the future of tobacco.

“Tom,” he said, “since the government has done away with the allotment program that guaranteed tobacco prices, there’s nothing a small farmer can grow that will replace that income. You remember all those small tobacco farms you passed on the way up here? In five years they’ll all be gone.”

Linda came out on the porch. “Time for lunch.” she said. “What have you been doing out here in the hot?”

“Thinking about farming.” I replied, “and small farmers and wondering what they’re doing now.” PS

Tom Bryant, a Southern Pines resident, is a lifelong outdoorsman and PineStraw’s Sporting Life columnist.

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Ticking the Ross Boxes

When a passion becomes a book

By lee paCe

It was an inauspicious beginning to a golf career, this young investment banker with a background in surfing and tennis being recruited by his boss to fill out a foursome on Pinehurst No. 2 one day in 1973. Brad Becken’s job at Goldman Sachs was managing the firm’s business in the Southeast, so he regularly attended the North Carolina Banking Association annual meeting at Pinehurst.

“Usually, I played tennis with the wives,” he says. “The second year, my boss needed a fourth for golf. I said, ‘I don’t play golf.’ He said, ‘Well, you are today.’

“I was in sneakers with rental clubs and picked up nearly every hole so as not to ruin it for the others. I thought that was it for my golf career. But the next year, he asked me to play again. I thought, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding.’ It was the same result.

“He mercifully never asked me again. My first taste of golf and Pinehurst was memorable, though not necessarily in a good way.”

Becken did, in fact, get serious about golf when he moved to Los Angeles with the firm in the mid-1980s and later joined Los Angeles Country Club. Over the next three decades, business travel and client relationships were perfect for fueling an evolving love for the game. He retired in 2005, and he and wife, Ann, decided to return to the East, settling in Chapel Hill.

He joined Chapel Hill Country Club and, in 2010, took a friend visiting from Los Angeles to play golf. Afterward club pro Rick Brannon suggested they play Hope Valley, a 1926 Donald Ross design just a few miles away in Durham. Brannon made a phone call to set up a game, and Becken was enthralled with

the old-world charm of the neighborhood and the way the holes were laid on the hilly ground by Ross, working without heavy machinery and his design perspective spawned from his roots in Dornoch and St. Andrews, Scotland.

“I immediately figured out I’d joined the wrong club,” Becken says. “I liked the variety at Hope Valley and the fact that the design never felt forced. And like most Ross courses, you didn’t feel overwhelmed if you weren’t a great golfer. You don’t have to be a great golfer to enjoy a Donald Ross course. For a higher handicapper like I am, there is a way to play his courses. You can plot your way around and enjoy it.

“I told Rick how much I liked it and he said, ‘Well, there are a lot of Ross courses in North Carolina.’”

Becken soon joined Hope Valley and set off to quench this newfound thirst for Ross golf courses. He joined The Donald Ross Society in 2012, was elected to the board in 2016, and in 2023 was serving the last of a five-year run as president. He realized around 2015 that he had played some 225 Ross courses.

“Up until then, I had never really contemplated trying to play them all,” he says. “I was having fun and the more I saw, the more I liked it. So I kept at it. I was averaging 120 courses a year.”

By the end of 2017, Becken had played 359 Ross courses, give or take a few that have closed since the quest began, and

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thought he had played every Ross course that was still open. Then he came across Chris Buie’s book, The Life & Times of Donald Ross, and learned there were about half a dozen more courses he’d not played. He knocked them out so his total stands at 365 courses.

“As this was going along, people said, ‘You ought to write a book,’” Becken says. “I said, ‘I’m a banker, not a writer.’ As president of the Ross Society, we were always getting questions. We would sort of answer them, and I said, ‘We can do better than this.’ I started analyzing what I had learned. By then I had copies of every hole and green drawing I could find. I might have had 1,500, plus all the photos I had taken and collected. Finally, I started to think about a book but didn’t know where to get started.”

In 2020, he was invited by Golf Club Atlas editor and co-founder Ran Morrissett to answer a litany of questions for the site’s “feature interview.” Morrissett provided the questions and Becken sat down to write his answers.

“That was January 2020,” says Becken, 75. “That got me started. I just expanded from there. That finally got me going.”

The result is a book published in the fall of 2022 by The Classics of Golf. The Golf Architecture of Donald Ross is as mammoth as Ross’s body of work from 1900 through his death in 1948 and Becken’s quest to play them all. It’s 9x12 inches, 352 pages, an inch-and-a-half thick, weighing three pounds. The tome includes gorgeous spread photos of Ross courses, hole diagrams, telegrams and correspondence. Becken draws heavily on his ever-present camera as he played the courses and his insatiable appetite for detail. He created a spreadsheet matrix covering more than 30 data points and observations for each hole and uses that research to analyze the parts that result in the whole of Ross’s design inventory.

“As the title suggests, this is a comprehensive look at Ross’ architecture from routings to bunker schemes to greens to breakdowns of his best one-, two- and three-shotters,” Morrissett says. “If you are an architecture geek, you will get lost in

Clubhouse

• Whispering Pines,

GOLFTOWN JOURNAL

the book for days.”

Of local interest he notes there are no drawings for three of Ross’ Sandhills-area masterpieces — Pinehurst No. 2, Pine Needles and Mid Pines.

“Since he spent half of each year in Pinehurst, where he could supervise the work, there was no real need for drawings,” he says.

Further, Becken uses his inventory of Ross drawings and his experiences having putted across more than 6,500 Ross greens to draw an opinion on the nature of No. 2’s ubiquitous inverted-sauce putting greens.

“Many Ross fans associate the turtleback greens on Pinehurst No. 2 as emblematic of his work, but that is not the case,” Becken asserts. “In fact, looking at the body of available drawings, such greens appear to be more of an exception, leading some to attribute the shape to years of top dressing and other maintenance practices rather than what was originally envisioned by Ross.”

An important tenet to the book is Becken paying tribute to The Donald Ross Society, which was formed in 1989 and since has grown to some 500 Ross aficionados. Proceeds from sales of the book are being divided equally between The Donald Ross Society Foundation and The Tufts Archives in Pinehurst. He estimates the Ross Society has given $150,000 to the Tufts Archives over the years, and the group recently gave $30,000 to Asheville Municipal Golf Course for a master plan to serve as the cornerstone to a $3.5 million renovation of the 1927 Ross course that had fallen on hard times.

“We believe Donald Ross was superior to any golf course architect practicing today, and his courses are works of art that should be treated as such,” Becken says. PS

Chapel Hill-based writer Lee Pace has written histories of five clubs featuring Ross courses — Pinehurst, Pine Needles, Mid Pines, Forsyth Country Club and Biltmore Forest Country Club. Reach him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @LeePaceTweet.

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Clay Banks

The creek is old and its banks are steep. Its flow never stops its work of remaking. Clay like this wants to keep its form though scoured by the storm-carried silt, pitted as by earthbound lightning strikes. Water is turned by jutting granite, milky quartz, even soft sandstone, all of it red with rust going green as first the ferns unroll their fronds and vines tease the air with soft thorns the way childhood returns in old age.

A friend told me how his mother, who is now constantly looking for her home, who can’t recognize him or his sister, was happy to play ball with his toddler, with his new puppy. She tossed the ball against the brick patio wall with a spin. The dog and child ran with confused joy. Sometimes they fell over each other. His mother always caught the ball. She was the only one who seemed to know exactly where the ball would bounce.

— Paul Jones

Paul Jones is a professor emeritus at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His latest collection of poetry is called Something Wonderful.

ArtDirection by BradyGallag

FreezeFrame

If J. Geils isn’t available, maybe Paul Simon is. Give us those nice bright colors. Give us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day. Oh, yeah. We’ve got a Nikon camera. And we used it to give some classic album covers a special Sandhills spin. As Taylor Swift might say, we’ve got pictures to burn.

What: Chris Stamey/ Winter of Love

Who: John Gessner, local photographer

Where: the Gessner record collection

Photograph: Self-portrait

What: Stevie Wonder/Hotter than July

Who: Joseph Hill, local photographer

Photograph: Tim Sayer

What: Blur/Leisure

Who: Julia Lattarulo, Realtor Berkshire

Hathaway

HomeServices

Pinehurst Realty Group by day, swim coach by night

Where: FirstHealth

Aquatic Center

Photograph: John Gessner

What: David Bowie/Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Hunky Dory

Who: The Violet Exploit, local band

Where: Create Studio

Photograph: Tim Sayer

What: Carlos Santana/Santana’s Greatest Hits, 1974

Who: Jeff Moody II, DC

Where: Pinehurst Chiropractic Center

Photograph: John Gessner

What: Culture Club/ Colour by Numbers

Who: A lex Weiler, local musician and artist

Where: Swank Coffee Shoppe

Photograph: Tim Sayer

What: Bruce Springsteen/ Born in the U.S.A.

Who: Tyler Cook , owner of Latitude Builders

Where: current construction site

Photograph: John Gessner

What: Michael Jackson/Thriller

Who: Courtney Kilpatrick

Where: Courtney’s Shoes

Photograph: Tim Sayer

What: Craig Fuller

Eric Kaz

Who: Craig Fuller, then and now

Photograph: John Gessner

What: Grease Who: Red’s Corner founders, Bill and Rachel

Where: Red’s Corner

Photograph: Tim Sayer

up, up and away

Chasing dreams across the sky

By Jenna Biter

There’s a staccato chhh, followed by a smell almost like sulfur. Both emanate from a wicker basket sitting on a driveway in suburban Vass. Inside the odd, oversized vessel crouches a man fiddling with the knob of a propane tank. Positioned just so, his polo shirt embroidered with the kaleidoscopic logo Balloons Over America, his shock of pepper-gray hair barely visible over the basket’s rim, it looks as if the man is the elusive first course of a giant’s picnic lunch. As it turns out, Mark Meyer isn’t the protagonist of Jack and the Beanstalk, though he, too, makes trips into the sky. No, Mark is an aeronaut, preparing to demonstrate just how he hornswoggles gravity so that his hot air balloon can fly.

“The reason that the baskets are still made out of wicker is, if you have a propane leak, it sinks to the bottom of the basket and wicks right out,” Mark says, running a hand over the caning, as gaps of light leak between the reeds. “If the basket was plastic, and there was ever a propane leak, it would all sit right here, and then the ignition source . . . it would go boom. Makes for a bad day.”

Lucky for Mark, not even his worst ballooning days have included explosions. Though incidents are rare, the man of the sky has been gored by a cactus; narrowly and simultaneously missed both a barbed wire fence and a nearby interstate; and scuffled with a mulberry tree while a good friend, Jon Hartway, was along for the flight.

“I look at Jon and say, ‘This ain’t going to be pretty,’” Mark tells the story with feigned sobriety. “So we gift-

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN GESSNER

wrap this mulberry tree, and we’re stuck up against the trunk. Then the balloon comes down, and there are all these purple mulberries just falling all over us.

“Meanwhile, John is laying in the bottom of the basket about to piss himself, he’s laughing so hard. I ask, ‘What is so funny?’ He says, ‘Mark, we got 1,000 hours of combat. We’ve been shot up, aircraft tore up, and never once have you said, ‘This ain’t going to be pretty.’”

Mark belly laughs and catches his wife, Missy’s, eye as she joins in. Missy has been along for the ride since her aeronaut

first took flight, either flying beside Mark in the basket or serving as crew chief in the ground-bound chase vehicle.

The fruit salvo from the mulberry tree left fuchsia welts on the balloon, but the story was worth a few stains. In 2014, Hartway died in an Apache helicopter crash while flying a training mission with the Idaho National Guard, making the memory of the mulberry incident all the more precious. The story — and all the others that the Meyers have collected on their adventures in the sky — have colored the couple’s life with the rosy hue of fond memories, nearly three decades’ worth.

Mark first piloted a hot air balloon in the mid-’90s, when his daughters, now grown, were still in the house.

“We wanted to buy an aircraft of some sort, but with three daughters, we couldn’t afford a six-seater plane, like a Cherokee Six or something like that,” Mark says matter-offactly. For nearly 40 years, he served as an Army aviator by day, piloting helicopters — Hueys and Black Hawks — and then fixed-wing turboprops later in his career. Why not share his passion for flight with his family?

“The first balloon, the girls got to pick the color,” Mark says of his daughters Amanda, Morgan and Madison. The Meyers bought their first used setup before their only son, Max, was born. “Never ask three little girls what color balloon they want — because it’s hot pink.”

“When we would go to festivals, little girls would scream, ‘It’s the Barbie balloon!’” Missy says, smiling. In much the same way a new mother insists her baby boy will only be called James but by middle school he’s inevitably Jimmy, the balloon’s official name was Pink Passion, but it was never called anything other than The Barbie Balloon. Though Barbie deflated long ago — for the time being On the Fly is the Meyers’ go-to passenger balloon — the hot pink original flies on in the family house, immortalized in album pages and picture frames on the walls.

At first glance, the Meyer house is a shrine to ballooning. In one side room sits a retired basket rimmed with a bar top and wrapped in twinkle lights. In the same room, a second basket, an antique from 1984, serves as top-shelf liquor storage. Together, the baskets make up something of a fantastical pedal

pub that tourists might crowd around, exchanging small talk as they cycle through the clouds. Back in the foyer is a painting of Missy with the reflection of a purple balloon in her sunglasses. A game of "I Spy" the hot air balloon could entertain guests for hours, but the stories behind every photo, keepsake and figurine could occupy them for weeks, the odds and ends representing the memories that come with a full life.

Back outside — and still standing in the middle of his basket — Mark reaches for the double metal burner perched overhead. Click. Then he makes another motion. Vooooosh.

A hungry flame climbs into the air, rising higher than the roofline. A passing van bucks to a stop. The driver, like most passersby on a regular Wednesday night, is startled by the biblical pillar of fire. Had the balloon been attached, the

burner would have warmed the air and inflated the fabric sack until it stood upright. In the next instant, as quickly as the flame appeared, it disappears — perhaps the first genie to go willingly back into its bottle.

Though the fire has gone out, its warmth hasn’t. After an evening of picking through memories, the Meyers seem to be floating up among the clouds, though they hadn’t left the ground. PS

You can book a hot air balloon ride with Mark and Missy Meyer at balloonsoveramerica.org.

Jenna Biter is a writer and military wife in the Sandhills. She can be reached at jennabiter@protonmail.com.

ast July an unidentified patron entered Pinehurst’s Given Tufts Bookshop, went to the rear of the building and placed a bound volume at the shop’s drop-off table for donated books. Tightly bound with a black, white and red-trimmed cover, the volume’s outward appearance didn’t raise any eyebrows. Curiously, though, its title, Thumbs Up not accompanied by any identification of the author.

Before donated materials can reach the shelves for resale, shop manager Jessica Flynn inspects them. When she looked at Up, she was both intrigued and puzzled. Far from a traditional book, the volume comprised typed letters in chronological order on 167 pages of onionskin paper, dated from 1940 to 1945. The letters had been written by a World War II Navy pilot detailing the entire sweep of his wartime service, culminating in piloting a B-24 Liberator bomber in the Aleutian Islands and then in unidentified locations in the Pacific theater as he flew missions off the coast of Japan.

Who this pilot was, however, was not altogether clear. None of the letters in Thumbs Up are signed, suggesting the onionskins are carbon copies of originals. One letter, roughly halfway through the book, left a space for a signature and underneath it the words “Lt. A. Stillman — officer in charge, Air Operations.” In another letter sent to the author’s mother, he expresses satisfaction that a newborn relative had been named after him: “Jean Joseph Alexandre.” Could the “A” in “A. Stillman” stand for Alexander?

The volume also contained several pasted-in pen and ink

ID had to be nailed down.

Initial inquiries on U.S. Navy websites turned up nothing pertaining to an A. Stillman, pilot of a B-24 Liberator in the Aleutians and the Pacific. Though dubious that a mere Google search of “Alexander Stillman” would produce any useful information, I went through the motions anyway. On the “Find a Grave” website, I discovered a studio portrait of someone named Alexander Stillman in fully decorated military uniform. The confident-looking, mustachioed officer in the picture bore an uncanny resemblance to a young Ernest Hemingway. The website

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN GESSNER

The collected letters of an American hero

said this Alexander Stillman was born in 1911 and died in 1984. He would have been 29 to 34 years of age during the period Thumbs Up letters were written, a good fit. But was the man in the online photograph and the author of the letters one

In the pilot’s squadron photo on the first page of Thumbs Up, the man kneeling in the middle of the first row was a smiling mustachioed officer. It was undoubtedly the same man.

Alexander Stillman, it seemed, was the author-pilot, and furthermore, I now had two pictures of him. But, aside from birth and death dates, I knew little else about the man. It was time to chase Alexander Stillman to the end of the internet. Googling on, I located the website of the Stillman Nature Center in South Barrington, Illinois, outside Chicago. The SNC is described as “a private, nonprofit center for environmental education, located on 80 acres of woods, lake, and prairie.” Many birds of prey, including grey owls, populate the preserve. Alexander Stillman, who lived on Penny Road in South Barrington, had donated the land.

The fact that Stillman had the kind of money that would allow him to donate a large tract of valuable acreage to charity suggests a man of independent and rather significant means. And he was. His father, James A. Stillman, it turns out, was the chairman of National City Bank of New York, and the holder of a vast family fortune. In 1901, James married Anne “Fifi” Urquhart Potter. The couple had four children: Anne, Bud, Alexander and Guy (who, like Alexander, was a wartime lieutenant in the Navy). In 1921, James and Fifi became embroiled in a divorce fit for the salacious Page Six of the New York Post — if such a thing existed then — involving charges and countercharges of infidelity. News of the contentious court filings was reported nationwide.

The couple reconciled for a time but the marriage finally ended in 1931. After her divorce was finalized, Fifi again became the subject of national gossip when she married Fowler McCormick, a man 20 years her junior, who was heir to the International Harvester fortune. Fowler had previously been Fifi’s son Bud’s roommate at Princeton University.

A short biography of Stillman on the nature center’s website, researched and written by a one-time student intern named Helen Reinold, praised Stillman’s advocacy for environmental causes, in honor of which he received a Certificate of Life Membership from the National Audubon Society. Though Reinold didn’t, it would seem, have any knowledge of Stillman’s World War II correspondence, she does mention a letter he wrote to his sister-in-law, Guy’s wife, about his grandmother, a famous stage actress named Cora Brown Potter. In the letter Stillman writes of his grandmother that “she had abandoned her only child in order to flee her very dull marriage to Grandfather, going to London to pursue her career as an actress . . . the Toast of London, being so it was inevitable that she should meet the Prince of Wales. The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, had very little to do except change

his clothes four times a day, overeat and drink, of which he died of, and court the most beautiful women of his day. Inevitably Grandmother became his mistress of a long line, but she was one of the last three and to whom he was longest faithful.”

Reinold goes on to detail Stillman’s penchant for international travel. The countries stamped into his passports included France, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, India, Denmark and the Bahamas. And, of course, she highlights his heroic military service. “Over the course of three attacks in May and June of 1945,” she writes, “Stillman is credited with the sinking of four enemy Merchant Vessels, two large fishing boats, and a Whale Killer. In addition, he tracked an enemy cruiser and warded off attacks by an enemy plane.” She notes that he received a number of medals and commendations, at least one of which Stillman, himself, describes in Thumbs Up.

VPB 102

1 August 1945

Ma, Bow, Meme and Lou

The night before I broke out a clean khaki shirt, a pair of pants, a cap cover. My shoes were mildewed, twisted and sorry. I put a crease in the pants, wiped the dust off my hat and went to town on the shoes.

Coming down at 9.30 a bit rocky (the boys had broken several bottles over my head the night before and they were still rumbling inside) to the Squadron, I find all the PCCs out of their sack, and the pilots, and the men. My men look beautiful in clean work clothes and bran [sic] white hats. God knows where they got them. The Skipper says “well, come on” and we stream out and straggle up the blazing sunshine between the tens of planes lined up on the white white coral.

We line up. Under the prop of a plane, and the rest wheel, and face us. A Commander comes out and tells us we can smoke a cigarette. Three of us start and then throw them away. It’s very hot.

The Admiral drives up and walks in front of us. I stand at attention in front of him; I listen to the citation, look at his stars and my gaze wanders over his head and down between the rows of silent planes resting on the coral “and while attacked by a twinengine fighter’s” tired planes with holes, controls shot out “sinking a third ship”, engines to be changed but we have no engines, fix and fly “and for extraordinary heroism.”

Dismiss.

If Alexander Stillman enjoyed a certain level of comfort after

the war, during it he endured the same deprivations as every other soldier, sailor or Marine. In Thumbs Up, which begins with a letter to his mother written on August 1, 1940, and finishes with a letter dated 13 July 1945 from “somewhere in the Pacific” written on an aircraft carrier headed home, Stillman doesn’t exactly complain about the grueling hours, horrible conditions and continual dangers, but he doesn’t sugarcoat them either. In his July 19, 1945 letter to stepfather Fowler McCormick, he writes:

“One day I fly 13, 14, 15 hours. Next day I work on the planes. And the next we fly. . . . Have you ever done anything where you sang all the time? This is death, destruction, and hell. We have poor food, no heat, no fresh water. We live 30 people to 40 ft; we have air raids, and we average 5 hours sleep a night. Yet, I do.”

In August of 1944, when Stillman was in Kansas training on his Liberator, he writes to a woman who has professed her affection for him, fatalistically cautioning her:

“You have falled [sic] in love with a flyer and it is perhaps not a good thing. We don’t live in the past and now in our third year of war soon to go out again, we are on borrowed time. Do you realize?”

In addition to the photographs and numerous pen and ink

drawings, the book includes the occasional bit of verse. To make his point that the flying conditions in the Aleutians are invariably poor and risky, in June of 1943 he cites “an Alaskan nursery jingle”:

There are bold Alaskan pilots

And there are old Alaskan pilots

But there are no old bold Alaskan pilots.

After 69 missions over Japan, flown from Tinian and Iwo Jima, and numerous others in the Aleutians, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought an end to the war with Japan. On an aircraft carrier bound for home Stillman wrote:

All today over the roaring radio we have listened to crowds in New York, Atlanta, Hollywood, Cleveland going wild. It seems to make us more quiet in the wardroom. Perhaps we remember but don’t want to, the rows of white crosses, the burials we had, the useless searches in acres of ocean, the lousy chow, the brass, the impossible flights, coming in on 40 gals. of gas and will. One lieutenant for the second time on good record, all fair, said “Don’t you feel let down?” I agreed.

And he finishes:

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN GESSNER

Lt. Alexandre Stillman, bottom row middle

I spoke to two of Alexander’s nieces, Alexandra (“Alex”) Stillman, of Alcata, California, and Sharee Brookhart, of Phoenix, Arizona. They remembered their uncle, whom they called Aleck, as a tall, lanky, handsome man who never married or fathered children. They recalled that their father, Aleck’s brother Guy, once confided that Alexander had flown so many missions during the war that many in his squadron feared going up in the air with him, worried Stillman’s “number” had to be coming up soon.

The two sisters thought that perhaps their uncle’s wartime service in the Pacific may well have been the high point of his interesting life. He chose a military funeral in Honolulu at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His interment was accompanied by a 21-gun salute.

Whether it’s serendipity or destiny, two of Alexandra’s granddaughters attended Chapman University in Orange, California.

Chapman is the home of the Center for American War Letters Archive, something that grew out of the “Legacy Project” begun by Andrew Carroll.

“Just about every aspect of World War II has been written about,” says Andrew Harman, the collection’s archivist. “What we’re trying to dive into now is the mundane, the individual aspects, the experiences that people were writing about in the first person at the time. Our mission is to preserve but, being a part of Chapman University and an academic library, we’re very big on access and research. It’s a room full of white pages if no one is looking at them.”

The Given Tufts bookstore has donated Stillman’s collection to the Center for American War Letters.

The mystery of the identity of the author of Thumbs Up has been solved, and Stillman’s letters now reside in an appropriate home. But who had delivered this fascinating volume to a used bookstore in Pinehurst and why? That, we may never know, but we’re glad they did. PS

Pinehurst resident Bill Case is PineStraw’s history man. He can be reached at Bill.Case@thompsonhine.com.

Tonight a carrier takes us home, Eve 91, over the blue and bloody waters, eastward, to the dawn of tomorrow.

Residentially, Pinehurst is a many splendored thing, from Tudors to Taras, Cape Cod cottages to contemporaries mostly upward of 3,000 square feet. They have long pedigrees, and are furnished in family heirlooms with designer upgrades. Built in the age of maids and cooks, their utilitarian kitchens tucked out back have become appliance/gadgetry showcases and their bathrooms, spas.

Now emerges a separate class that defies classification: modest cottages built for resort support staff in a fringe neighborhood called Power Plant because, of course, that’s where the power plant was. The same applies to Laundry Hill and just plain Community Road. A list of Tufts’ employees reveals names like Shaw, Kelly, Fields and McCaskill, forever memorialized on street signs in toney Old Town.

Once left to graceful decay, these bungalows are on the comeback trail, renovated by retirees fascinated by their history, their ghosts.

In May, PineStraw featured an iteration of the cottage Rassie Wicker built for his family — Wicker being Tufts’ legendary engineer, historian, builder and town planner. Its current owner-renovators, Lisa and Bob

A Perfect Fit

Historic bungalow made-to-measure

By DeBorah Salomon

hotogra PhS By John ge SSner

P

Hammond, retired medical professionals who performed much of the labor themselves, are vibrant young grandparents captivated by Wicker and the Pinehurst saga.

But before Rassie provided a house for his wife and children, in 1919 he built a tiny cottage for younger brother Roswell Egbert Wicker, known as Bert. Bert installed the area’s first telephones and managed Pinehurst Electric Company. Since Bert and his wife had no children, the size of the home — under 1,000 square feet — was sufficient.

The cottage was named Merrimac. Why, nobody knows.

In 2012, its third owner undertook a major renovation and enlargement with attention to quality and detail, including fabricating a tool to produce moldings that matched the original ones. Heavy paneled doors were refinished; knotty pine floors scraped and stained a rich cherrywood brown; the bathroom modernized and a modestly sized but stunning black and white kitchen installed; screened porch and patio added; ceilings and roof lines modified; and so much more. Then, the owners furnished it with finds of quirky provenance: a Shaker cabinet, an oversized leather sofa beside a coffee table made by shortening the legs of an English kitchen table, a massive hand-hewn Amish dining table, bent-twig chairs, lace café curtains, and Tiffany-esque sconces.

Beadboard is lavished on walls and backsplash, even on a vaulted ceiling in the family-room addition.

The fireplace burns wood, not gas.

Merrimac became a rental property, smaller than most, but prettier than many.

Lorelei and Paul Milan — outgoing, fit, energetic retirees — met at tiny Elmira College in upstate New York. He was from Massachusetts, she from Buffalo. For 32 years they lived and owned a commercial cleaning business in Raleigh. They raised two children in a 3,500-square-foot house with a pool and horses in the backyard. But for retirement they wanted a small town with less bustle. Pinehurst had been a golf destination. Why not drive down, take a look? Their “look” lasted two years since, like many retirees, they wanted something in the village that had already been renovated, preferably a property retaining a charter membership at the resort.

“Let us know if you find a cottage with character,” Lorelei told the real estate agent.

Four days later she got a call. “We walked in and bought it.” Not just the house. All the furnishings. “I wanted it turnkey.”

That meant disposing of their furnishings and settling into a setting more Martha’s Vineyard B&B than Old South. Lorelei extended one kitchen cabinet for drawer space and replaced the stove with a duel fuel model. White walls became fresh pastels. They added two leather chairs and a rug to the family room and a king-sized slated sleigh bed that fills the master bedroom.

By admission, Lorelei is an anti-hoarder, so no clutter. Only her grandmother’s salt and pepper collection on a windowsill and her great-grandmother’s demitasse cups made the cut.

Then, they embarked on a major project: converting a small cart-and-pony shed into an extra bedroom (no bathroom) for visiting children, while also turning a building on the lot line into a three-bay garage, all using materials that matched the house. One bay houses their golf cart, another a giant closet for Lorelei’s outfits and, of primary importance, a third as the “beer fridge.”

About that off-premises closet: Closets had not entirely replaced armoires by the Wicker era. Paul gets the single narrow bedroom closet. He also has custody of the desk facing the front door, which makes this intended sitting room look like an office except for a plaid loveseat.

“Paul is a problem-solver,” his wife explains. Solutions, paperwork and his playlist come together easier when seated at a desk. Besides, friends know to enter through the screened porch into the kitchen which, although compact, exemplifies good design. On its wall hangs a framed photograph of Bert Rassie’s original cottage appearing rather drab compared to its update.

Lorelei misses having a pool, but Merrimac offered a new interest: Moore County history. She has researched the

Wickers, their professions and properties, with the help of Jill Gooding, Bert’s grandniece, who provided information from the Wicker family Bible. Lorelei compiled her findings into booklets, part of a submission to the Village Heritage Foundation, which in 2020 awarded this cottage — and Rassie Wicker’s — Pinehurst Historic Plaques.

Whether Bert enjoyed the decade he lived here is not known. Lorelei and Paul Milan’s delight is obvious. They can sit on the terrace and wave to passers-by. They are only a few minutes from world-class golf, a pool and other club amenities. Their home is small enough to be cozy, large enough to entertain. True, they have only one guest room plus the guest cottage, which their daughter reminded them won’t be sufficient for grandchildren. Paul’s eyes twinkle, as he whispers, “Hotel.”

The criteria for historic preservation varies. Nobody disallows air conditioning or WiFi. The best examples retain the ambience of antiquity. Old maps of young Pinehurst decorate the walls of Merrimac. Its paned windows remain wavy glass, and its dimensions, with the exception of the family/living room addition, match the needs of original occupants, who were skilled worker bees, not captains of industry from Pittsburgh, New York and Boston. A century old, this little gem is, above all, serendipity for modern retirees Lorelei and Paul Milan.

“It’s perfect,” Lorelei says, before dashing off to meet an old friend for golf. “We live in every square foot, every day. Aren’t we so lucky?” PS

ALMANAC

July

By a shley Walshe

Like a Charm

Black-eyed Susan is blooming. Jewelweed, too. And, did you see that brilliant flash of yellow?

July is a recipe for pie.

As the birds blurt out their morning devotions, your mantra is singular and succinct: blueberries. Even the word feels ripe and juicy. You snag a sunhat, load up on water, gather the vessels for the great summer harvest.

Before the heat consumes the day, you step into the balmy morning, bright-eyed and unwavering. The walk to the woody temple is more than a core memory. You know it in your bones. As the robin chants his ancient hymn, you whistle along: Blue-ber-ries, ber-ries, ber-ries, blue-ber-ries . . .

At last, you stand before the altar of the sun-loving shrubs, awestruck. Clusters of plump berries nearly drip from sweeping branches. The ripe ones tumble at your touch.

You find your rhythm: three for the basket; one for the tongue You’ll need six cups for pie. Seventy berries per cup.

One for the basket, three for the tongue. The pop of sweetness fuels you. Pie is nice, but fresh berries are the best berries. Just ask the whistling robin.

As the air becomes syrup, you reach for one last cluster, coaxing a final palmful with purplestained fingers. One, two, three for the tongue.

On the trek back, belly and baskets brimming, you are one with the great summer harvest. The horizon holds visions of sugar and lemon and lattice crust. Yet nothing could be sweeter than this sun-drenched moment, the salt on your skin, fresh blueberries on the tongue.

At last, it’s nesting season for the American goldfinch. Where the thistle grows wild and thick, female finches line their nests with — that’s right — fluffy white thistle down.

These late-season breeders undulate through the air as they fly, foraging for thistle and grass seeds in wide-open meadows. Spotting one is a delight. But should you ever see a flock of them (they’re gregarious yearround), consider yourself charmed. A congregation of goldfinches, after all, is called a charm.

Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.

— Wendell Berry

In the Garden

Snap beans and melons and snakes! Oh, my.

The summer garden is brimming with goodness and — if you’re lucky — perhaps a resident garter snake. Harmless to humans (although they may bite in self-defense), these carnivorous wonders feast on slugs, cucumber beetles and other garden pests. They’re not here for the Silver Queen or Cherokee Purples.

This time of year, female garters may be eating for two. Or, rather, a wriggling knot of live young. Learn how to identify these slithering allies should you peel back the vines to a surprise garden party. Don’t forget your stripes! PS

S U P L A T I V E S A W P E 0 2 T 3 R A I N 2 W S

At PineStraw Magazine we really love our pets so we wanted to celebrate them in a fun way this summer! You’ve shared your pet photos with us and we’ve compiled the 2023 Pet Su-PAW-latives!

Over the next few pages, we’re showing you who is top of the class in various categories like Best Smile, Cutest Couple and Most Athletic, along with the winner of our photo contest selected by reader vote, Best All Around!

arts & entertainment

Although conscientious effort is made to provide accurate and up-to-date information, all events are subject to change and errors can occur! Please call to verify times, costs, status and location before planning or attending any events.

TECH HELP SESSIONS. SPPL offers one-on-one Technology Help Sessions. A library staff member will sit with you to assist with accessing eBooks, learning how to use a new device, navigating a computer, and to answer any other basic technology questions. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. To make an appointment come into the library or visit www.sppl.net.

PHOTO HISTORY. 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. The historical association will host an exhibit “Southern Pines Then and Now,” featuring photographs taken 100 years ago and what the same area looks like today. Free admission. Water Department, 180 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines.

JULY EVENTS

Saturday, July 1

KIDS’ SATURDAY. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Families are invited to a monthly themed craft event to socialize and get creative. Geared toward ages 3-10. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642.

Monday, July 3

CONCERT AND FIREWORKS. 6 - 10 p.m. Join us for a free concert and fireworks celebration. Children’s activities will include bounce houses and dancing with The Parks Brothers. A large selection of food and beverages will be available for purchase,

and picnic baskets are also allowed. Bring lawn chairs and blankets. Gates open at 4 p.m. for parking, and fireworks will begin at 9:15 p.m. Pinehurst Harness Track, 200 Beulah Hill Road S., Pinehurst. Info: www.vopnc.org.

Tuesday, July 4

INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE. 9:45 a.m. - 12 p.m. Honor the USA at the annual Independence Day Parade. Come early and enjoy or participate in the annual pet parade. Participation is free of charge. The Sandhills Farmers Market will be open following the parade. Tufts Memorial Park, 1 Village Green Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.vopnc.org.

BRAIN FITNESS. 10 - 11 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to a Brain Fitness class. Eve Gaskell will be the instructor. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Thursday, July 6

TROLLEY CAMP. 2 - 4:30 p.m. Join the Sandhills Trolley Company for a summer camp cruise for kids. The trolley will stop at the Whispering Pines Fire Station to meet local firemen and tour the station. Food Lion, 7475 N.C. 22, Carthage. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.

SOUL FLOW. 6:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy a mixture of yin and restorative yoga for a gentle flow guaranteed to soothe the mind, body and soul. Great for all levels. Cost is $12 for residents and $17 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Friday, July 7

LUNCH BUNCH. 11:30 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to dine on different cuisines each month as you visit different restaurants in the area. Carpool with friends or meet at the restaurant. Dining locations will be chosen the week before. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Saturday, July 8

COMMUNITY YARD SALE. 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Shop at 20-40 individual outdoor booths offering everything from handmade crafts, modern tools and electronics, vintage and antique collectibles and even an assortment of everyday household items or clothes. A food truck will be on-site. The Bee’s Knees, 125 N.C. 73, West End. Info: (910) 420-8970.

DANCE PARTY. 7 - 10 p.m. Join Carolina DanceWorks for a country western dance party. Carolina DanceWorks, 712 S.W. Broad St.,

Southern Pines. Info: (910) 725-1846 or carolinadanceworks@gmail.com.

HORSE EVENT. SPEA War Horse Event Series. The event continues through July 9. Carolina Horse Park, 2814 Montrose Road, Raeford. Info: www.carolinahorsepark.com.

Sunday, July 9

CABIN TOURS. 2 - 4 p.m. The Moore County Historical Associations’ Bryant House and McLendon Cabin are open for tours and visits. Bryant House, 3361 Mt. Carmel Road, Carthage. Info: (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com.

MOVIE. 7 p.m. Enjoy a summer classic movie. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 420-2549 or www.sunrisetheater.com.

Monday, July 10

PHOTO CLUB. 7 p.m. The Sandhills Photography Club monthly meeting will host Larry Pizzi, who will discuss how he became interested in astro/deep space photography, and the gear and the techniques he uses to produce his striking images of our universe. Guests are welcome. Sandhills Horticultural Gardens Visitors Center, 3245 Airport Road, Southern Pines. Info: www.sandhillsphotoclub.org.

Tuesday, July 11

AARP TALK. 12 - 12:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to join AARP for a fraud talk. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Wednesday, July 12

PLAY TIME. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Kids ages 3-12 can bring your parents out and join other friends for giant checkers, giant Jenga, bubbles, fun and more. Free of charge. Downtown Park, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Thursday, July 13

MOVIE. 7 p.m. Enjoy a summer classic movie. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 420-2549 or www.sunrisetheater.com.

Friday, July 14

BLUES FESTIVAL. 5 p.m. The Blues Crawl has been reimagined into a two-day festival hosted at the Sunrise Theater. There will be performances on both the indoor and outdoor stage. The festival continues through July 15. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 420-2549 or www.ticketmesandhills.com.

HORSE EVENT. Sedgefield at the Park MidSummer NCHJA “C” H/J Show. The event

continues through July 16. Carolina Horse Park, 2814 Montrose Road, Raeford. Info: www.carolinahorsepark.com.

DANCE SOCIAL. 8 - 9:30 p.m. Join Carolina DanceWorks for a dance social. Carolina DanceWorks, 712 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 725-1846 or carolinadanceworks@gmail.com.

Saturday, July 15

POTTERY ANNIVERSARY. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Eck McCanless Pottery celebrates its 12th anniversary with a limited edition color, agateware demonstrations and refreshments. Signed, numbered, limited edition pieces in a plum purple pottery will be available. Eck McCanless Pottery, 6077 Old U.S. 220, Seagrove. Info: (336) 873-7412 or www.eckmccanlesspottery.com.

CHILDREN’S BOOK CLUB. 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. Weymouth is creating a Kids’ Book Club, fostering literacy on the grounds and encouraging children of all ethnicities to come together to discuss literature. The younger kids will be read to and the older ones

Horse Event

will discuss a book they have all read. Open to 12 children between the ages of 4-6 and six children between the ages of 7-12. Free admission, registration required. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.

MOVIE NIGHT. 8 p.m. The town of Vass will host a movie night and will be playing Back to the Future. Sandy Ramey Keith Park, 3600 US-1 Business, Vass. Info: www.townofvassnc.gov.

Monday, July 17

SUMMER READING STATIONS. 12 - 4 p.m. Join us for our free summer reading stations. Locations will be listed at www.thecaregroupinc. org/2023-summer-reading-stations. Children pre-K through eighth grade can stop by and grab a book, STEM activity, snack and water to enjoy this summer. Children are welcome to visit sites each day to get another book. The stations will be open

07.18

Historical Associations’ Bryant House and McLendon Cabin are open for tours and visits. Bryant House, 3361 Mt. Carmel Road, Carthage. Info: (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com.

Tuesday, July 25

MUSICIANS’ JAM SESSION. 6 - 9 p.m. Bring your own instrument and beverage or just come and enjoy the music. Attendees must have the COVID vaccination. Free admission, registration required. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.

Wednesday, July 26

BRUNCH AND MOVIE. 10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older can join Southern Pines Parks and Recreation for brunch at Sizzlin’ Steak or Eggs before heading to Carolina Cinemas for a fun movie of your choosing. Transportation and cost are on your own. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Thursday, July 27

Book Club

through July 22. Info: (910) 692-5954 or email nancy@mcliteracy.org.

Tuesday, July 18

BRAIN FITNESS. 10 - 11 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to a Brain Fitness class. Eve Gaskell will be the instructor. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

BINGO. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to play 10 games of bingo. Cost is $4 for residents and $6 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

BOOK CLUB. 2 p.m. The James Boyd Book Club meets for this month’s book. Free admission, registration required. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.

Thursday, July 20

MOVIE. 7 p.m. Enjoy a summer classic movie. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 420-2549 or www.sunrisetheater.com.

Friday, July 21

MUSICAL. 8 p.m. The Judson Theatre Company presents I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. The show runs through July 30. McPherson Theater at BPAC, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.

Sunday, July 23

CABIN TOURS. 2 - 4 p.m. The Moore County

08.12

Tea with Potters

SOUL FLOW. 6:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy a mixture of yin and restorative yoga for a gentle flow guaranteed to soothe the mind, body and soul. Great for all levels. Cost is $12 for residents and $17 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

MOVIE. 7 p.m. Enjoy a summer classic movie. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 420-2549 or www.sunrisetheater.com.

07.29

supplies to distribute to Moore County Schools to help students and teachers succeed in the upcoming school year. The bus will be ready to be stuffed along with bins set up in Staples for donation drops, pre-made school supply boxes available for purchase at Staples for $5 as well as online options for those who would like to donate from home. Staples, 290 Turner St., Aberdeen. Info: www.thecaregroupinc.org/events/stuff-the-bus.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Saturday, August 12

TEA WITH POTTERS. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Spend the day cruising the Seagrove countryside, discovering handmade pottery and sampling teas and pastries along the way. Sample iced tea from Carriage House Tea, pastries from the Table Farmhouse Bakery and Holly Hill Farm, and homemade treats at Blue Hen Pottery, Dean & Martin Pottery, Eck McCanless Pottery, From the Ground Up, Red Hare Pottery and Thomas Pottery. N.C. Pottery Highway 705, Seagrove.

Saturday, August 26

Friday, July 28

DANCE SOCIAL. 8 - 9:30 p.m. Join Carolina DanceWorks for a dance social. Carolina DanceWorks, 712 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 725-1846 or carolinadanceworks@gmail.com.

Saturday, July 29

STUFF THE BUS. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. The CARE Group partners with Staples to collect school

DODGEBALL TOURNAMENT. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Join us for a fun day of dodgeball and fundraising for the CARE Group programs. Cost is $150 for a team of six plus one substitute player and $5 for Fan in the Stands pass. There will be food trucks, drinks, raffles, contests and prizes. Old Aberdeen Elementary School Gym, 305 Elm St., Aberdeen. Info: www.thecaregroupinc.org/ events/dodgeball-tournament.

WEEKLY EVENTS

Mondays

WORKSPACES. 7 a.m. - 3p.m. The Given Tufts Bookshop has a new pop-in co-workspace open on Mondays and Thursdays in the upstairs conference room. Bookshop floor and private meeting room by reservation only. Info: www.giventuftsfoundation.com.

WORKOUTS. 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to get their workout on. Open Monday through Friday. Cost for six months: $15/ resident; $30/non-resident. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

SING FOR FUN. 9 - 10 a.m. Adults 55 and older can sing for fun while reaping the physical and mental benefits of a choir experience. Learn various songs from all genres. Cost per month is $36 for residents and $52 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

CHAIR YOGA. 9 -10 a.m. For adults 55 and older. Help offset body aches encountered with desk work. This is an accessible yoga class for bodies not able to easily get up from and down to the floor. Do standing or sitting in a chair. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

STRENGTH AND BALANCE WORKOUT. 11 - 11:45 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to enjoy a brisk workout that focuses on balance and strength. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

RESTORATIVE YOGA. 12 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Practice gentle movements to improve your well-being. Practice movements that may help alleviate pain and improve circulation. Bring your own mat. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

TAI CHI. 1 p.m. Come learn tai chi. There is no age limit and the classes are open to the public. Aberdeen Parks and Recreation Station, 301 Lake Park Crossing, Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7275.

GAME ON. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. You and your friends are invited to come out and play various games such as corn hole, badminton, table tennis, shuffleboard, trivia games and more. Each week enjoy a different activity to keep you moving and thinking. Compete with friends and make new ones all for free. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy games of bridge with friends. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

SOUTHERN SOUL LINE DANCING. 6 p.m. No experience necessary! Put on your comfy shoes and groove to some funky tunes with funk master Terry Julius. For adults 18 and older. Cost is $6 for Southern Pines residents and $9 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

MUSIC BINGO. 6 p.m. Music bingo with DJ Mike. Come have a blast and try to identify the tune before the next song starts. Southern Pines Brewing Company, 565 Air Tool Dr., Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpinesbrewing.com.

Music Bingo

DANCE. 7 p.m. Take a beginner country western group class. Carolina DanceWorks, 712 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 725-1846 or carolinadanceworks@gmail.com.

Tuesdays

PLAYFUL LEARNING. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Come for a drop-in, open playtime for ages birth-3 years to interact with other children and have educational playtime. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642.

HATHA YOGA. 10 - 11 a.m. For adults 55 and older. Increase your flexibility, balance, stability, and muscle tone while learning the basic principles of yoga alignment and breathing. You may gain strength, improve circulation and reduce chronic pain as we practice gentle yoga postures and mindfulness. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

BABY RHYMES. 10:30 a.m. Baby Rhymes is specially designed for the youngest learners (birth-2) and their caregivers. Repetition and comforting movements make this story time perfect for early development and brain growth. There will be a duplicate session at 11 a.m. An active library card is required. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

HEALING YOGA. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older can try an entry-level class, for a mind and body workout that fuses dance moves with gentle

aerobics, tai chi, and yoga. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

GAME DAY. 12 p.m. Enjoy bid whist and other cool games all in the company of great friends. For adults 55 and older. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

TEEN TUESDAYS. 4 - 5 p.m. Teens in middle and high school can join us every week to connect with other teens in a fun and safe space. Each week is a different topic or activity. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.sppl.net.

TRIVIA. 7 p.m. Trivia with DJ Mike. Current events and pop culture. Winner gets a brewery gift card. Southern Pines Brewing Company, 205 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpinesbrewing.com.

TABLE TENNIS. 7 - 9 p.m. Enjoy playing this exciting game every Tuesday. Cost for six months is $15 for residents of Southern Pines and $30 for non-residents. For adults 55 and older. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Wednesdays

CHAIR YOGA. 10 - 11 a.m. For adults 55 and older. Help offset body aches encountered with desk work. This is an accessible yoga class for bodies not able to easily get up from and down to the floor. Do standing or sitting in a chair. Douglass Community

Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

LEARN AND PLAY. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Come in for an open play date with your toddler or preschooler where there will be developmental toys and puzzles as well as early literacy tips on display for parents and caregivers to incorporate into their daily activities. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

LINE DANCING. 12 - 1 p.m. Looking for new ways to get your daily exercise in and care for yourself?

Try line dancing. For adults 55 and older. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

SLOW AND STRETCHY. 12 - 1 p.m. Adults

55 and older can flow through yoga poses slowly and intentionally, moving breath to movement, stretching everything from your head to your toes. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

CHAIR VOLLEYBALL. 1 - 2 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Get fit while having fun. Free to participate. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

CALENDAR

BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy games of bridge with friends. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

DANCE. 2 - 2:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Instructor Maria Amaya will introduce you to dance fitness in a class designed for anyone who wants to gently and gradually increase their cardio function, mobility, and balance and have fun at the same time. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

LINE DANCING. 2 p.m. The town of Vass will host line dancing for seniors every other Wednesday. Cost is $5 per session. Vass Town Hall, 140 S. Alma St., Vass. Info: www.townofvassnc.gov.

SANDHILLS FARMERS MARKET. 3 - 6 p.m. The Sandhills Farmers Market features some of the many wonderful farms, nurseries, bakeries, meat and egg providers, cheesemakers and specialty food producers our area has to offer. You will find this incredible mix of vendors through October 1. Tufts Memorial Park, 1 Village Green Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.vopnc.org.

LIBRARY PROGRAM. 3:30 p.m. At The Library After School (ATLAS) is an after-school program for children ages kindergarten through second

grade who enjoy activities, crafts, stories, and learning. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

YOGA. 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Grab your yoga mat and head to Hatchet for a yoga session with Brady. Session cost is $10 and includes a pint of our DILLIGAF lager. Hatchet Brewing Company, 490 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.hatchetbrewing.com.

Thursdays

WORKSPACES. 7 a.m. - 3 p.m. The Given Tufts Bookshop has a new pop-in co-workspace open on Mondays and Thursdays in the upstairs conference room. Bookshop floor and private meeting room by reservation only. Info: www.giventuftsfoundation.com.

MOORE COUNTY FARMERS MARKET.

9 a.m. - 1 p.m. The year-round market features producer-only vendors within a 50-mile radius providing fresh, local and seasonal produce, fruits, pasture meats, eggs, potting plants, cut flowers and local honey. Crafts, baked goods, jams and jellies are also available. Market is located at the Armory Sports Complex, 604 W. Morganton Road, Southern Pines.

that will help reduce the risk of taking a tumble and increase your ability to recover. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

TAI CHI. 6:30 p.m. Come learn tai chi. There is no age limit and the classes are open to the public. Cost is $10 per class. Seven Lakes West Community Center, 556 Longleaf Dr., Seven Lakes. Info: (910) 400-5646.

GIVEN STORY TIME. 10 a.m. Bring your preschooler to enjoy stories, songs and activities. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910-) 295-3642.

BALANCE AND FLEXIBILITY. 10 - 11 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to enjoy a class

CROCHET CLUB. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to come with friends to create fun designs and memories. Supplies are on hand. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

MUSIC AND MOTION. 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Does your toddler like to move and groove? Join us for outdoor Music and Motion to get those wiggles out and work on gross and fine motor skills. For 2 to 5-year-olds. An active library card is required. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

ADAPTIVE YOGA. 12 - 1 p.m. Adults 55 and older can enjoy yoga that meets you where you are. We’ll be creating a sense of balance and ease by slowly increasing your range of motion and mobility while maintaining your natural abilities. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

CHESS AND MAHJONG. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. All levels welcome. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

MEDITATION. 1 - 2 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to connect with nature and with yourself in this 30-minute meditation. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

CABIN TOURS. 1 - 4 p.m. The Moore County Historical Association’s Shaw House grounds, cabins and gift shop are open for tours and visits. The restored tobacco barn features the history of children’s roles in the industry. Docents are ready to

Chess and Mahjong

With JugGrips, opening these products provides an easier application to remove the lid without all the aggravation. It is user friendly and fits a 1 Gallon YETI JUG. It is a silicon sleeve which provides a comfortable grip surface.

host you and the cabins are open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Shaw House, 110 W. Morganton Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com.

TRIVIA. 6 p.m. Trivia with Hallie. Current events and pop-culture. Winner gets a brewery gift card. Southern Pines Brewing Company, 565 Air Tool Dr., Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpinesbrewing.com.

ORCHESTRA REHEARSALS. 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. The Moore Philharmonic Orchestra has weekly rehearsals. Membership is open to youth and adult community members and there is no fee to join. Wellard Hall at Sandhills Community College, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.mporchestra.com or email moorephilharmonicorchestra@gmail.com.

TRIVIA NIGHT. 7 - 9 p.m. Come enjoy a beer and some trivia. Hatchet Brewing Company, 490 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.hatchetbrewing.com.

DANCE. 7 p.m. Take a country western group class. Carolina DanceWorks, 712 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 725-1846 or carolinadanceworks@gmail.com.

Fridays

AEROBIC DANCE. 9 - 10 a.m. For adults 55 and

older. Enjoy this low to moderate-impact class with energizing music for an overall cardio and strength workout. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

TAP CLASS. 10 - 11:30 a.m. For adults 55 and older. All levels welcome. Cost per class: $15/ resident; $30/non-resident. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Thurs.

Orchestra Rehearsals

QIGONG. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Classes will consist of chair and standing movements that can help soothe achy feet, tight hips, and low back pain and ease restriction in mobility. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy games of bridge with friends. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

LINE DANCING. 3 - 4 p.m. For adults 55 and older. If you’re interested in learning dance moves and building confidence on the dance floor, this class is for you. Leave your inhibitions at the door and join in. Cost is $36 for residents and $52 for non-residents per month. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

DANCE. 7 p.m. Take a newcomers group class. Carolina DanceWorks, 712 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 725-1846 or carolinadanceworks@gmail.com.

Saturdays

MOORE COUNTY FARMERS MARKET. 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. The market features producer-only vendors within a 50-mile radius providing fresh, local and seasonal produce, fruits, pasture meats, eggs, potting plants, cut flowers and local honey.

Crafts, baked goods, jams and jellies are also available. Downtown Southern Pines, 156 S.E. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.moorecountyfarmersmarket.com.

SANDHILLS FARMERS MARKET. 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. The Sandhills Farmers Market features some of

PineNeedler Answers

from page 119

the many wonderful farms, nurseries, bakeries, meat and egg providers, cheesemakers and specialty food producers our area has to offer. You will find this incredible mix of vendors through October 1. Tufts Memorial Park, 1 Village Green Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.vopnc.org. PS

JULY

Best in Show:

Vanessa Grebe, The Spec - Oil

Oil:

First Place - Elfie Alexander, White, Orange & Blue

Second Place - Harry Neely, Blue Ridge

Third Place - Courtney Herndon, Tulip Fields

Honorable Mention - Cindy Edgar, Oops, What Have I Done

Honorable Mention - Linda Bruening, All to Myself

Honorable Mention - Kathy Petz, Yes, Mama

Drawing:

First Place - Laureen Kirk, Puppy Love - Pencil

Second Place - Barbara Ainsley, The Vespa - Colored Pencil

Honorable Mention - Kathy Petz, Autumn Splendor - Pastel

Other Media:

First Place - Kathy Leuck, Garden Cutting - Alcohol Ink

Second Place- Nancy Berliner, Hoop of the Nation Warrior -

*Create

Printmaking

Honorable Mention Pam Griner, Blue Hills - Encaustic Wax

Acrylic:

First Place - Nancy Crossett, City Life

Second Place - Jane Mohr, Ladies at the Market

Third Place - Peter Helgesen, Magnolia #4

Honorable Mention - Jeannie Mead, Surf’s Up, Dude

Honorable Mention - Brenda Peak, Midnight Awakening

Mixed Media:

First Place - Carol Gradwohl, Venus & Mars (Diptych)

Second Place - Tommy McDonell, Now is the Time

Honorable Mention - Janis Loehr, Looking for Answers

Watercolor:

First Place - Gretchen Moore, San Juan Island National Park

Second Place - Pamela Clark, Fleurs Cinq

Third Place - Susan Mauney, Empty Porch #56

Honorable Mention - Tiffany Teeter, Mist in the Valley

July 6 Summer Camp – Trolley Style Sandhills Trolley Co.

July 14-15 Bluesfest 2023

Sunrise Theater

July 21-23, I Love You, You’re Perfect, 27-29 Now Change BPAC’s McPherson Theater

for Beginners - Linda BrueningMonday and Tuesday, July 31, August 1, 9:30-3:30 $135

WATERCOLOR: Watercolor Basics – Jean Smyth - Monday & Tuesday, July 10, 11, 10:00-3:00 $96

OTHER MEDIUMS: Basic Cake Decorating - Pam Griner - Wednesday July 12, 12:30-3:30 $61

You can find a comprehensive list of regularly updated events from Sandhills Trolley Company and Cameo Art House Theatre on TicketMeSandhills.com

SandhillSeen

David Sedaris Book Signing

Saturday, June 3, 2023

The Country Bookshop

Photographs by Diane McKay

For a full list of services please visit WWW.RHA-CPAS.com Email us at: admin@rha-cpas.com or chead@rha-cpas.com

Todd Bogdahn, Kellly Nurge

Mariann Murphy, Kim Shireman

June Buchele, Lynne Ammons, Carrie Jackson Marilyn Barrett, Kathy Vrdolyak

Kiona Zappe

Dustin Presley, Leo Luis Toyo, Brett & Olivia Webb

Trish Fox

Laurel Holden, Katie Broughey

Charlie Vanderford

Deborah & Ellie Henry

Amber & Russel Clark

SandhillSeen

A Night with Nnenna Freelon

Friday, May 19, 2023

The Center for African American History, Cultural Arts & Business

Photographs by Diane McKay

Georgie Delisle, Kathy Byron, Lydia & Robert Walsh

Joseph Smith, Allison, Ed & Kim Auman

Lorie Van Camp, Avery Morse, Tom Van Camp

Maggie & Kevin Smith, Lori Stoud

Janet Ahley, Scottie Hines

Dot Brower, LaToya Kyle Arthur Mason, Eddie Utley, James Leak

Blanchie Carter, Katherine Bozarth

Shae Whiteman, Shae Unsworth

Timothy & Debra Gray

Board of Directors of Southern Pines Land & Housing Trust

Nnenna Freelon concert Volunteers

SandhillSeen

Taste of the Wild

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities

Photographs by Emilee Phillips

Gene Dugger, Evelyn Newton

Ginny Trigg, Molly Poole, Anna Kiker

Danielle Lance, Catherine Newbold

John & Danielle Kays

Anne Carrol, Kevin Cremins

Jennifer Nguyen, Karen Leder, Meridith Mucci

Jon & Emily Womack

Patricia & Micah Niebauer

Donna Drum-Thomas, Debbi Bassett

Rodger Bennett, Rebecca Bennett, Tanda Jarest Tom & Marsha Duffy, Jerry & Rene Parker

Muriel & Steve Lawrence

Dixie & Anthony Parks, Frank & Ellie Daniels

Tricia & Bill Cooper

July PineNeedler AEIOU-less

ACROSS

1. de deux

4. Baker’s dozen?

8. Greek cheese

12. Like over-used muscles

13. Benzene derivative

14. Burial spot

16. Lotion ingredient

17. Antelope of Africa

18. Hex

19. Naiad

21. Dangerous biters

45. Musical tempo

47. Churchyard tree in “Romeo and Juliet”

48. French name

49. Loafer, e.g.

50. High school class

51. Gunks

52. Doublemint, e.g. 55. Arctic sight 58. Biology lab supply 60. Cool season flower 62. Disinclined 64. Language of Lahore 66. Beat badly 67. Google competitor 68. Not much, 2 wds 69. Asian nurse 70. Buggy terrain 71. Was a passenger

1. Colostomy target

2. Scent

3. Ooze

4. “Dig in!”

5 Crushed grain

6 Wandering trader

7. Berth place

8. Gov. transmission

overseer

9. Burst forth

10. British Michelin, e.g..

11. Church recess

12. souci

15. X, in Rome

20. “Stop right there!”

22. Smeltery refuse

26 Wheel furrow

28 “Look here!”

29. Little dog, for short

30. “ we having fun yet?”

31. Horse gait

32. Hyperbolic function

33. Limerick, e.g.

34. Call to a mate

35. Channel

36. Hands on deck

37. Amazement

40. Electrical unit

41. Pirate affirmative

Puzzle answers on page 109 Mart Dickerson lives in Southern Pines and welcomes suggestions from her fellow puzzle masters. She can be reached at martaroonie@gmail.com.

Sudoku:

Fill in the grid so every row, every column and every 3x3 box contain the numbers 1-9.

43. “ calls?”

44. Deep sleep

45. Density symbol

46. EMT destination

49. Squalid

50. Board, 2 wds

51. Actress Greta

52. Garden figure

53. Bar order, with “the”

54. Fabled legend

55 Aviate

56 Laundry amount

57. Diamond Head locale

59. gum (food thickener)

61. Kuwaiti, e.g.

63. Clod chopper

65. Western Indian

Just Roll With It

By EmilEE P hilliPs

I may have grown up in a small town, but stories of faraway places were as close as a Fourth of July picnic with my well-traveled family members and their extensive passport stamp collections. What a lovely thing it would be to be worldly, I often thought. Someone who knows a thing or two about a thing or two. Imagine the conversations I could have, sitting on the beach with friends and a cooler of White Claws. “Cannes? Oh, dear, it’s simply too crowded this time of year.”

As luck would have it, I have friends who live in Germany. A situation ripe for exploring. This would be my gateway to European sophistication. My plan was simple — an eight-day nonstop odyssey. Joined by my friend Olivia, we would cross more borders than the Mongol hordes. The EU was there for the taking.

I hit foreign soil running. First side trip: France. Oui, these Americans were going to grab some French culture by its breadsticks. Strasbourg was just a high-speed train hop away — if we hadn’t missed the connection. Let’s call it part of the learning curve. Luckily, there were plenty of (much slower) trains to get us there and, in a couple of hours, we were strolling the streets of this storybook city.

Strasbourg, we discovered, is a lovely, confusing border town. Its traditionally German-looking buildings have some very Frenchsounding names, and the food seemed an odd blend, as if two households were forced to work in one kitchen with neither willing to give up on their own way of doing things. The language situation was no less confusing, so we opted to bounce between French and German, giving ourselves a 50-50 chance of being right. We listened to street performers, window-shopped and, because one can’t go to France without indulging oneself, did a wine tasting at a shop flush with wines from the Alsace region. We relied on a kindly French woman to translate for us and somehow walked out with six bottles that we had to lug around the rest of the day. Worldliness, it turns out, is a process.

So is planning, which we admittedly didn’t do very well. (See high-speed train, above.) In my head, getting back to home base in Germany would be no issue. We were doing things the European way, laissez-faire. Traveling the rails in Europe is as easy as driving

a golf cart in Pinehurst . . . right? Mais, non.

High-speed train? Whoosh. Already gone. Next up, a regional train, which is something of a different beast. Despite trying to purchase tickets hours before departure, the one we wanted was fully booked. No restrooms, no cushioned seats, no bar car for us.

We stood at the ticket machine weighing our options long enough to make us look illiterate.

“Désolé,” I said to the clearly annoyed man waiting in line behind us, hoping I chose the right language to apologize in. Our next option was the two-and-a-half-hour journey that included multiple stops and changes.

All Dorothy had to do to get out of Oz was click her heels together three times. We, on the other hand, had multiple delays and two trains announcing, in a language I barely understood, that we needed to switch lines. The last change involved sprinting, along with our fellow travelers, down one set of stairs and up another while hauling our six increasingly heavy bottles of wine. The train we jumped on was full but we squeezed in anyway, because who knew when the next one would be or if there would even be a next one. The learning curve was getting steeper.

Crammed in, I could feel the breath of the person behind me down my neck. By then, it was now close to 1 a.m. We were one stop away from our parked car, and the train came to a halt in the middle of a tunnel. This was it. My final straw. I was completely exhausted and would have laid right down on the floor if I had been able to move an inch.

I let out a pitiful sigh and looked to my left. While the rest of us were packed together like a box of crayons, holding onto whatever piece of train could double as a handrail, two women were sitting in the window seats, unbothered. One was dressed in head-to-toe black and the other in all white — including a white, fur-trimmed coat.

The epitome of chic, they were sipping Champagne brut. Out of real glasses. Where they got the drinks I couldn’t tell you. I do know I was getting a good dose of culture that day. I tried my best not to stare during the 30 minutes we were stuck on the tracks but I was in awe, jealous, and frankly, in desperate need of a drink.

When the train finally began moving, the herd of smooshed commuters began to cheer. All I heard, though, was the polite clink of glasses as the two women toasted. No language barrier got in the way this time. They seemed to say “C’est la vie,” an attitude I plan to carry with me more often. PS

Emilee Phillips is PineStraw’s director of social media and digital content.