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ENJOY A FREE ROUND OF GOLF – AT – PINEHURST RESORT!
Jamie McDevitt
With over $30 million in sales in 2021, Jamie remains one of the TOP realtors in the area since 1998.
All you need to do is buy or sell a home with Jamie
131 S LAKESHORE DRIVE Whispering Pines, NC
SELLING HOME EXPERIENCE
“Jamie guided us through selling our home and she was awesome every step of the way. We knew we could trust her to help sell the house at the best price. She’s very informative, she works very hard and she gets the job done.” - Mike Johnson
910.724.4455 | McDevittTownAndCountry.com | McDevittProperties@gmail.com | 125 E. Pennsylvania Ave, Southern Pines, NC *Courses based on availability. Pine Needles/Mid Pines also available.
All Your Home Essentials
One of the best-kept secrets for home furnishings and decor, Southern Design Furniture carries multiple name brands such as the beautiful Bassett furniture featured here, as well as an assortment of accessories to add that little something extra to your home.
4909 Raeford Rd, Fayetteville, NC 28304 | 910.423.0239
Talent, Technology & Teamwork! Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team! D
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PINEHURST • $565,000
PINEHURST • $995,000
SEVEN LAKES WEST • $1,400,000
28 BEASLEY DRIVE Amazing 3 BR / 5.5 BA golf front home situated on 9th green of Pinehurst #6. Home has an abundance of space w/ breathtaking golf views and is just steps away from the Clubhouse and Driving Range.
189 NATIONAL DRIVE
328 LONGLEAF DRIVE New construction underway! Amazing 5 BR / 5 BA home on 6.64 acres in popular gated community Seven Lakes West.
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Beautiful 4 BR / 5 BA golf front home w/ spacious and bright layout, situated on the 17th tee of popular Pinehurst No. 9. Home has amazing custom detail throughout that continue outside w/ an outdoor living space a large deck.
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SEVEN LAKES WEST • $435,000
PINEHURST • $1,450,000
PINEHURST • $395,000
244 LONGLEAF DRIVE Immaculate 4 BR / 3 BA golf front home in gated Seven Lakes West. It is situated off 9th green of the Beacon Ridge golf course. This split plan home has wonderful open design and lots of great features.
423 MEYER FARM DRIVE Spectacular custom 4 BR / 4.5 BA home on 3rd hole of the north course in gated Forest Creek community.
Attractive 3 BR / 2 BA golf front home in popular Pinehurst No. 6 community. Home sits on a nicely landscaped lot along the 2nd fairway of the course and offers lots of great features!
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WEST END • $995,000
SEVEN LAKES WEST • $995,000
215 SADDLE RIDGE
CARTHAGE • $663,000
344 LONGLEAF DRIVE
TBD PEACE ROAD Great opportunity to own a beautiful 95.71 acre property 15 minutes from Pinehurst. Large portion of property has been cleared with stumps removed and is ready for home site or pasture.
Gorgeous 3 BR / 5 BA horse farm in the McClendon Hills equestrian community! This lovely brick home sits on nearly 12 acres w/ five acres of fenced pastures all around, and an incredible barn and workshop.
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82 DEERWOOD LANE
Gorgeous 4 BR / 4 BA home in the Morganwood section of popular Seven Lakes West gated community. Home is situated on nearly 5 acres w/ a saltwater in-ground pool and has tons of lovely architectural features and finishes!
IN MOORE COUNTY REAL ESTATE FOR OVER 20 YEARS!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! The Gentry Team has just completed our Best Year Ever!!! Once again, our team was #1 in the Moore County market, #2 for ReMax International in North Carolina and #4 across all agents in North Carolina.
TOP 5 AGENTS Res SF Home Sales for 2021 MOORE COUNTY $100,000,000 $90,000,000
$90,778,968
$80,000,000 $70,000,000
“Thank you for your business! Thank you for your referrals! Thank you for your friendship and kind words about our team!”
$60,000,000
$46,503,637
$50,000,000 $40,000,000
$35,111,732
$30,000,000
$30,943,318
$26,830,664
$20,000,000 $10,000,000
$0
Martha Gentry Team
Lari Dirkmart Realtor Partner
Steve Veit Realtor Partner
Agent 2
Agent 3
Agent 4
Agent 5
Ginger Gentry Realtor Partner
Mark Gentry Realtor Partner
Hailey Gentry Team Coordinator
We look forward to serving your real estate needs in 2022!
Deborah Cook Realtor Partner
Martha Gentry Team Leader
Teresa Miracle Listing Coordinator
Lin Bourgon Closing Coordinator
Judi Jimenez Weekend Coordinator
Victor Uy Field Coordinator
David Sinclair Marketing Coordinator
Re/Max Prime Properties, 5 Chinquapin Rd., Pinehurst, NC 910-295-7100 • 800-214-9007 • Re/Max Prime Properties 5 Chinquapin Rd., Pinehurst, NC
www.ThEGENTRYTEAM.COM
• 910-295-7100
March ���� DEPARTMENTS 19 24 29 31 35 39 40 45 49 51 55 57 59 63 67 106 115 119 120
Simple Life By Jim Dodson PinePitch Tea Leaf Astrologer By Ashley Walshe The Omnivorous Reader By Stephen E. Smith Bookshelf Hometown By Bill Fields The Creators of N.C. By Wiley Cash In the Spirit By Tony Cross The Kitchen Garden By Jan Leitschuh Character Study By Jenna Biter Out of the Blue By Deborah Salomon Birdwatch By Susan Campbell Sporting Life By Tom Bryant Sandhills Photography Club Golftown Journal By Lee Pace Arts & Entertainment Calendar SandhillSeen PineNeedler By Mart Dickerson Southwords By Beth MacDonald
FEATURES 71 What The Moon Knows Poetry By Pat Riviere-Seel
72 The Bard of Pinebluff
By Stephen E. Smith Manly Wade Wellman, our forgotten man of letters
76 Johnny Allen and the Aberdeen Nine By Bill Case When an all-time great wore an “A” on his chest
82 Life on Blue Ribbon Lane By Deborah Salomon Where practicality and taste meet
95 Almanac By Ashley Walshe
On the Cover: Kim Reidelbach and Ryan Graham recreate the cover of Manly Wade Wellman’s 1985 novel John the Balladeer. Cover photograph by Tim Sayer Makeup by Megan Weitzel, Retro Studio Bar
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Home is a Feeling find yours at Opulence…
Opulence of Southern Pines and DUXIANA at The Mews, 280 NW Broad Street, Downtown Southern Pines, NC 910.692.2744
at Village District, 400 Daniels Street, Raleigh, NC 919.467.1781
at Sawgrass Village, 310 Front Street Suite 815 Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082 904.834.7280
www.OpulenceOfSouthernPines.com Serving the Carolinas & More for Over 20 Years – Financing Available
A West Coast Lifestyle Boutique
CoolSweats Village of Pinehurst 105 Cherokee Rd Pinehurst, NC 910.295.3905
Retire Your Perception of a
Senior Living Community.
QUAIL HAVEN VILLAGE OFFERS - A picturesque location conveniently close to the Village of Pinehurst
Schedule a visit to learn more.
- Newly renovated garden apartment homes - Our INSPIRE wellness program that helps promote an active lifestyle - Continuing care on-site to provide peace of mind Call 910.537.6812 to schedule a visit and discover all that Quail Haven Village has to offer. 155 BLAKE BLVD., PINEHURST, NC 28374 A Life Plan Community offered by Liberty Senior Living.
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CLOTHES HORSE OF SOUTHER N PINES
163 Beverly Ln, Southern Pines, NC • 910.693.2111 (Beside The Fresh Market)
Copyright © 2015 Joseph Ribkoff Inc. All rights reserved. Any reproduction and/or use of the Joseph Ribkoff logo for commercial or promotional purposes is forbidden without the written authorization of Joseph Ribkoff Inc.
Joseph Ribkoff Trunk Show Sat., April 2nd from 11am-4pm Spring "Hots" and Fall "22" Preview
Saturday & Monday 10am - 4pm • Tuesday - Friday 11am - 5pm
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LUXURY
415 Fairway Drive, Southern Pines
LUXURY
$2,750,000
4 bed • 7/1 bath
Pamela O’Hara (910) 315-3093 MLS 100297806
Dunross Manor, built by Donald Ross in 1929 in Knollwood Heights on 2.3 acres. Beautiful chefs kitchen, 1,900 sqft workshop, carriage house, fabulous outdoor kitchen, and breathtaking gardens.
$1,799,000
5 bed • 4/2 bath
Karen Iampietro (910) 690-7098 MLS 100305682
Located in the desirable Fairwoods on 7 Golf Community. This is a luxurious custom single-family residence.
110 Hearthstone Road, Pinehurst
$599,999
5 bed • 4/1 bath
104 Clubhouse Drive, Pinehurst
Beautiful and pristine home in Mid South. Welcoming front porch leads into open and airy floor plan with wood floors that flow through out main level. Gourmet kitchen with stainless appliances, granite counter tops, breakfast bar, drop zone, and office nook with 2 work spaces Walk to Mid South Golf Club house, community pool, and more.
$339,000
135 Lake Forest Drive SW, Pinehurst
Jim Hurt (540) 798-1792 MLS 100308779
Beautiful Lake front building lot on Lake Pinehurst! Gentle slope to the water with a dock and seawall already in place. Build your dream home here and enjoy those Carolina sunsets! Short cart ride to PCC!
$99,000
Lakewood Drive, Lot 56R, Pinehurst
Jennifer Nguyen (910) 585-2099 MLS 100310933
Debbie Darby (910) 783-5193 MLS 100299838
Buildable Pinehurst Lot with 178 feet of golf frontage on Pinehurst Course #5 1/2 acre wooded lot short ride to the charming village of Pinehurst. Charter transferrable membership to Pinehurst CC available to buyer. Perfect opportunity to build your custom home.
Pinehurst • 42 Chinquapin Road, Pinehurst, NC 28374 • 910 -295 - 5504 | Southern Pines • 167 Beverly Lane, Southern Pines, NC 28387 • 910-692-2635 ©2022 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC
M A G A Z I N E Volume 18, No. 3 David Woronoff, Publisher david@thepilot.com Andie Stuart Rose, Creative Director andie@thepilot.com
Jim Moriarty, Editor
jjmpinestraw@gmail.com
Alyssa Kennedy, Digital Art Director alyssamagazines@gmail.com
Lauren M. Coffey, Graphic Designer laurenmagazines@gmail.com
Emilee Phillips, Digital Content emilee@pinestrawmag.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Jim Dodson, Deborah Salomon
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
John Gessner, Laura L. Gingerich, Tim Sayer
Family is Important Invest Wisely for their Future
With over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, David Yoder has joined Menendez & Ritter Retirement Group to pursue his passion for helping clients reach their financial goals. Since 1991, the Menendez & Ritter Retirement Group has been developing lasting, meaningful, and open relationships, and David is ready to continue that legacy with you.
CONTRIBUTORS Jenna Biter, Harry Blair, Tom Bryant, Susan Campbell, Bill Case, Mallory Cash, Wiley Cash, Tony Cross, Brianna Rolfe Cunningham, Mart Dickerson, Bill Fields, Laurel Holden, Sara King, Jan Leitschuh, Meridith Martens, Jason Oliver Nixon, Mary Novitsky, Lee Pace, Todd Pusser, Joyce Reehling, Scott Sheffield, Stephen E. Smith, Angie Tally, Kimberly Taws, Daniel Wallace, Ashley Walshe, Claudia Watson ADVERTISING SALES
Ginny Trigg, Advertising Director 910.693.2481 • ginny@thepilot.com Jennie Acklin, 910.693.2515 Samantha Cunningham, 910.693.2505 Terry Hartsell, 910.693.2513 Erika Leap, 910.693.2514 ADVERTISING COORDINATOR
Emily Jolly • pilotads@thepilot.com
ADVERTISING GRAPHIC DESIGN
Mechelle Butler, Scott Yancey
PS Steve Anderson, Finance Director 910.693.2497
David Yoder - Financial Advisor
Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488
110 Turnberry Way | Pinehurst, NC 28374 | 910.693.2430 www.fa.wellsfargoadvisors.com/mrrg | david.yoder@wfadvisors.com
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Investment and Insurance Products: NOT FDIC Insured NO Bank Guarantee MAY Lose Value Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker/dealer and nonbank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. © 2021 Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC. All rights reserved. CAR-0122-00990
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910.693.2488 OWNERS
Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels Jr., Frank Daniels III, Lee Dirks, David Woronoff 145 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Southern Pines, NC 28387 www.pinestrawmag.com ©Copyright 2022. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. PineStraw magazine is published by The Pilot LLC
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Create Your Own
Secret Treasure
BRICKWORK
STONEWORK
FIREPLACES
OUTDOOR LIVING
910-944-0878
www.howellsmasonry.com 10327 Hwy 211 • Aberdeen, NC 28315
Always a Step Ahead
March 2022
Thinking about selling your home? Contact us for a no-hassle, no-cost market analysis of your home's current value.
Serving Moore County and Surrounding Areas! 910.684.8674 | 120 N ASHE ST | SOUTHERN PINES, NC 28387
www.maisonteam.com
Buy, Sell or Rent through us - we do it all! 910.684.8674 | 120 N ASHE ST | SOUTHERN PINES, NC 28387
STANDS FOR COLON CANCER AWARENESS With over 9,400 colonoscopy procedures performed each year, our experts are prepared to serve you. Pinehurst 15 Regional Dr Pinehurst, NC 28374 Sanford 110 Dennis Dr Sanford, NC 27330
Pittsboro 120 Lowes Dr #105 Pittsboro, NC 27312
PINEHURSTMEDICAL.COM (910) 295-9207
SIMPLE LIFE
The Baker’s Assistant How sweet it is
By Jim Dodson
Not long ago,
ILLUSTRATION BY GERRY O'NEILL
my wife, Wendy, joined 47 million foot soldiers of the Great Resignation by retiring early from her job as the longtime director of human resources for Sandhills Community College.
She loved her job at the college. It was fun and fulfilling in almost every way. But something more was missing — and revealed — when COVID invaded all our lives. Simply put, it was time to follow her heart and do something she’d envisioned doing even before I met her 25 years ago: to start her own gourmet, custom-baking company called Dessert du Jour. News late last year that an innovative shared community kitchen for food entrepreneurs (called The City Kitch, based in Charlotte) was opening branches in Greensboro and Raleigh propelled her into action. She signed up for the first private kitchen studio and got to work preparing for her debut at a popular outdoor weekend market just before Christmas, selling out everything she baked in a couple hours. It was a promising start. I should pause here and explain that Wendy is no novice or newcomer to the luxury baking world. Even while masterfully holding down a demanding career over the past two decades, she made stunning custom wedding cakes, luscious pies, artistic cookies and other baked delicacies for friends and neighbors. As I say, she was already wowing customers in Syracuse, New York, when we met during one of my book tours in 1998, and she agreed to go on a formal first date that turned out to be, as I fondly think of it, baptism by baby wedding cakes. To briefly review, on a brisk autumn evening after a seven-hour drive between my house in Maine and her home in Syracuse, I arrived
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
just in time to find Wendy cheerfully boxing up 75 miniature, exquisitely decorated wedding cakes for some demented daughter of a Syracuse corporate raider. “Oh, good,” she beamed, flushing adorably with a dollop of icing on her button nose, as I appeared. “Want to help me box these up and take them around the neighborhood for me?” How could I refuse? Her neighbors, it seemed, had offered space in their refrigerators and freezers until the cakes could be delivered to the wedding hall in the morning. Truthfully, I don’t recall much about being pressed into service as an impromptu delivery man. I just have this vague memory of carefully boxing up dozens of the beautiful little cakes and bearing them all gussied up with elegant ribbons and bows to her lady pals around the cul-du-sac. “Oh,” one actually cooed as she looked me over. “You must be the new boyfriend from Maine. Careful you don’t put on 50 pounds. Wendy’s cakes are awesome.” I gave her my best Joe Friday impersonation. “Never tasted ’em, ma’am. Just here to help out the baker lady.” Happy to report, the baby wedding cakes made it safely to the wedding hall the next day without incident. The grateful baker lady even thoughtfully saved one of the gorgeous little cakes for the trip home to Maine. I’m embarrassed to say I never sampled it. Cake wasn’t my thing, probably because I grew up with a mama who annually made me a birthday cake from a Betty Crocker box mix and store-bought frosting that tasted like chocolate-flavored sawdust with icing. I gave Wendy’s baby wedding cake to my children, who absolutely loved it. Another issue emerged on my next visit to Syracuse, our critical second date. When I breezed into her kitchen with a bottle of her favorite wine before we went out to dinner, I found her putting the finishing touches on another masterpiece of the baker’s art. Sitting nearby on her kitchen counter, however, was a beautiful wicker basket full of popcorn, my all-time favorite snack food. As PineStraw
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SIMPLE LIFE
she opened the wine, I grabbed a big handful of what I thought was popcorn. Her lovely face fell. It turned out to be a groom’s cake that only looked like a wicker basket full of popcorn. Profusely apologizing, as I licked the evidence of the crime off my greedy fingers, figuring this might be our last date, I had something of a dessert awakening. “Hey, this is really good. I don’t even like cake. What’s in this?” To my relief, she laughed. “Only the finest Swiss white-chocolate, sour-cream cake with salted buttercream. But no worries. I can make another one pretty quickly. Let’s just get Chinese takeout for dinner while I work.” I’d never seen such composure under fire. Right then and there I decided to propose to this remarkable woman and even confessed my sad history with Betty Crocker, wondering if she would do the honor of becoming my wife and someday making me a birthday cake. “Sure,” she said. “I’ll even make you a Betty Crocker box cake if you want it.” Talk about a selfless act of love! This was like inviting a Wine Spectator judge to enjoy a lovely bottle of Boone’s Farm’s Strawberry Hill or LeRoy Neiman to do a doodle of a racehorse! She actually made me a box-mix cake, which I took one taste of and dumped in the garbage. Fortunately, by the time our wedding rolled around two years later, Dame Wendy had schooled me up like a pastry chef’s apprentice, a culinary awakening sealed by my first taste of her incredible old-fashioned
caramel cake — which she now makes me every year for my birthday (along with a sour cherry pie). Not surprisingly, the spectacular cake she made for our outdoor wedding beneath a gilded September moon disappeared without a trace before I could even get a taste. Our greedy guests left nary a morsel and even took home extra pieces stuffed in their pockets. Since that time, a long and steady stream of fabulous specialty cakes, cookies, pies, scones, muffins and the best cinnamon rolls ever made have flowed from her ovens to the tables of friends, family and customers from Maine to Carolina. Which is why the creation of Dessert du Jour is such a milestone for the love of my life. She’s never been happier, launching her little dream company at a time we’d all like to see in the rearview mirror as soon as possible. In the meantime, she shares her happiness with others, one gorgeous theme cookie or slice of roasted pecan-studded carrot cake at a time. And for the moment at least, I have the honor and pleasure of still being her sole employee, the one who puts up the tent and tables at the street market and delivers the goods wherever I’m sent around town, a baker’s assistant happily paid in cake tops and leftover cinnamon rolls. I ask you, does life get any sweeter than that? PS For more information, visit thecitykitch.com and dessertdujour.net. Jim Dodson can be reached at jwdauthor@gmail.com.
Lin gets Results! toP 1 % of Moore County reaLtors toP 1 % of u.s. reaLtors
ENERGY. EXPERIENCE. EFFORT. WWW.LINHUTAFF.COM
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Lin Hutaff’s PineHurst reaLty GrouP Village of Pinehurst | 910.528.6427 | linhutaff@pinehurst.net The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
If Pinehurst has it, Lin can get it for you! Go to LinHutaff. com ER UND
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185 CHEROKEE ROAD • OLD TOWN “Concord Cottage”. Charming. Tastefully updated throughout! $1,200,000 SOL
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20 NORTH HILLS DRIVE • FAIRWOODS ON 7 All brick, custom home. Carolina Rm with wall of windows. $799,000
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107 CHESTERFIELD DR • FOREST CREEK Built by Cribbs Construction with all of the quality appointments, special features and sensational design upgrades expected of this high-end Custom Builder. $895,000
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80 E RITTER • OLD TOWN LOCATION. HISTORIC. CHARMING. “Column Cottage”. Steps from the center of the Historic Village of Pinehurst. Seller revived exterior and interior after years of neglect. $765,000 ER UND
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385 DONALD ROSS DR • PINEHURST Brick, custom home on one level. Hardwood floors, large screened porch. $579,000
NOW IS THE TIME TO SELL!!
• WE HAVE CASH BUYERS IN ALL PRICE RANGES READY TO BUY • YOU SET THE CLOSING DATE AND YOU SET THE MOVE OUT DATE • STAY IN YOUR HOME AFTER CLOSING IF YOU WISH • HOMES ARE CONSISTENTLY GETTING MULTIPLE OFFERS • HOMES ARE CONSISTENTLY GETTING OVER ASKING PRICE
DON’T WAIT FOR SPRING WHEN COMPETITION IS HIGH
CALL LIN FOR A COMPLIMENTARY MARKET ANALYSIS OF YOUR HOME
OLD PARSONS ESTATE Private Estate. Over 2 acres. Rambling brick home with beautiful gardens and waterfalls overlooking a tranquil pond.
ENERGY. EXPERIENCE. EFFORT.
Lin Hutaff’s PineHurst reaLty GrouP Village of Pinehurst | 910.528.6427 | linhutaff@pinehurst.net
PinePitch Drawing by Addyson Hennessy (Grade 5), Aberdeen Elementary School
Chip Off the Old Masters The annual Young People’s Fine Arts Festival at the Campbell House Galleries, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines, opens at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 4, highlighting the artwork of students in grades K-8 in Moore County’s public, private, charter and home schools. The art will be judged and awards given at a special reception and award ceremony. For more information call (910) 692-2787 or go to www.mooreart.org
Jazzing up the Great Room Trombonist and composer Ryan Keberle has performed with Maria Schneider and Wynton Marsalis; with Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, and Alicia Keys; with Pedro Giraudo and Ivan Lins. He’s even played in the house band for Saturday Night Live. On Wednesday, March 9, Keberle and his progressive modern jazz band Catharsis will be in the great room at Weymouth at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6. For more information and tickets go to www.weymouthcenter.org.
Finger Lickin’ Good Order a tasty springtime meal and support the Given Memorial Library at the same time on Tuesday, March 22. Elliott’s on Linden will be doing all the cooking for you. Given to Go ticket sales begin March 7 and close March 18. Dinner can be picked up at the library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst, between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The cost is $24 per meal. For info call (910) 295-3642 or email giventufts@gmail.com.
Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition! For the first time, the Metropolitan Opera presents the original five-act French version of Giuseppe Verdi’s epic opera Don Carlos, the tale of doomed love among the royals, set against the backdrop of — you guessed it — the Spanish Inquisition. The performance streams at 12 noon on Saturday, March 26, at the Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. For additional information call (910) 692-3611 or go to www. sunrisetheater.com.
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Walk This Way The village of Pinehurst will hold its annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 12 at 11 a.m., in or around Tufts Memorial Park, 1 Village Green Drive, Pinehurst. So, OK, it’s not actually St. Patrick’s Day, but it is a weekend, and the ACC basketball tournament finals won’t start for a while, and there will be festive parade entries and plenty of Irish cheer, so why not get a jump on the celebration? For additional information go to www.vopnc.org/events. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
The Ultimate Tutu The Bolshoi Ballet streams its way onto the stage of the Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines, on Sunday, March 6, with its performance of Swan Lake, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s iconic ballet — panned when it debuted in March of 1877 — about a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer. Sounds can’t-miss to us. For more information call (910) 692-3611 or visit www.sunrisetheater.com.
Someone’s Idea of Fun FirstHealth Fitness of Pinehurst will host a free 5K Fun Run on Saturday, March 26, along the greenway trails. This is a timed event with staggered starts in small groups to maintain social distancing. Of course, if you really want to socially distance yourself, just go very, very slowly. For more information and registration call (910) 715-1800.
Call me Crazy The Sandhills Repertory Theatre presents Always . . . Patsy Cline, a tribute to the legendary country singer who died tragically in a plane crash at the age of 30. The show is based on a true story about Cline’s friendship with a fan from Houston named Louise Seger. Filled with down-home humor and classic tunes, opening night is March 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Bradshaw Performing Arts Center, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Additional shows are March 5 and 6 at 2 p.m. For more information go to wwwticketmesandhills.com or www.sandhillsrep.org.
Jazz on the Grass
Dig This If you’re in the over 55 set, dress in your favorite green thumb outfit and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Thursday, March 17, by touring some of Moore County’s most beautiful gardens from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Bring your own transportation and munchies for a post-tour picnic at the Sandhills Horticultural Gardens, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. For more information call (910) 692-7376. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Shana Tucker and ChamberSoul will be performing outdoors at a jazz brunch on Sunday, March 27, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. For more information visit www.weymouthcenter.org. PineStraw
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IN PERSON AND VIRTUAL MARCH AUTHOR EVENTS
Storytime Special Guest JANET COSTA BATES
Time for Bed Old House Tuesday, March 1st
Special Guest GAIA CORNWALL KIANNA ALEXANDER author of Carolina Built is in conversation with Kimberly Taws Wednesday, March 16th at 4pm
This “exuberant celebration of Black women’s joy as well as their achievements” (Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author) novelizes the life of real estate magnate Josephine N. Leary in a previously untold story of passion, perseverance, and building a legacy after emancipation in North Carolina.
Jabari Jumps Jabari Tries
Tuesday, March 8th
Special Guest SARAH MAIZES Atticus Caticus
Tuesday, March 15th
ADELE MYERS
The Tobacco Wives
In-person Monday, March 7th at 4pm
Customizable EASTER baskets and gifts and care packages and can tailor this to any budget, age or personality!
CHECK THE STORE WEBSITE AND TICKETMESANDHILLS.COM FOR MORE EVENT INFORMATION 26
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140 NW Broad Street • Southern Pines, NC • 910.692.3211 • www.thecountrybookshop.biz
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
HOW WE
STACK UP
TO THE COMPETITION*:
$41,842,916
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Coldwell Banker Advantage
We are experienced in multiple offer situations and SUCCEEDING in this hot market. We can help you get the most for your money!
buy or sell? READY TO
CALL US TODAY! 910-693-3300 130 TURNER ST. STE. A, S UT ERN PINES 910-693-3300 *Closed and Pending Sales Volume December 1, 2021 - February 9, 2022, NC Regional MLS
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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IMAGINE YOUR HOME TOTALLY ORGANIZED
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TEA LEAF ASTROLOGER
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Pisces
(February 19 – March 20) The only difference between a mythical creature and a Pisces is that a mythical creature believes in itself. Pisceans are magical by nature and naturally psychic. That’s because those born under this mutable water sign are masters of subtle emotion. This month, the cosmos is dealing you a planetary royal flush. In other words, you don’t have to keep swimming upstream. But will you?
Tea leaf “fortunes” for the rest of you: Aries (March 21 – April 19)
Don’t forget to stretch.
Taurus (April 20 – May 20)
There’s a whole world outside of the box. Think about it. Gemini (May 21 – June 20) Less talking. More dancing. Cancer (June 21 – July 22)
Slow down. Proceed with caution. Be prepared to pivot. Leo (July 23 – August 22)
You’re back in the spotlight. Breathe easy. Virgo (August 23 – September 22)
A little salt goes a long way.
Libra (September 23 – October 22)
Someone’s got color in their cheeks again. Scorpio (October 23 – November 21)
Try zooming out.
Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21)
When one door closes, best not to set up camp on the front porch. Capricorn (December 22 – January 19)
Three words: Don’t look back.
Aquarius (January 20 – February 18)
Timing is everything. Read that again. 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. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Spring Breaks Loose
From an impromptu getaway for two, to a spring break with the family, we have packages on the island of Wrightsville Beach that are perfect for any occasion. Our Rendezvous Package is ideal for that special weekend, greeted with wine upon your arrival, dinner in our award winning restaurant, and breakfast in bed.
blockade-runner.com 844-891-9707
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THE OMNIVOROUS READER
Balancing the Scales
Justice among disparate peoples in Colonial America
By Stephen E. Smith
Humorist Edgar Wilson “Bill” Nye is
credited with saying: “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.” Readers of popular history who tough their way through 464 pages of Nicole Eustace’s Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America will likely be left with the notion that what they’ve read is more profound than entertaining.
“Covered with Night” is an Iroquois expression describing the state of grief or mourning inspired, in this instance, by the 1722 murder of a Native American man who lived near Conestoga, Pennsylvania, a small community north of the MarylandPennsylvania border. Details of the fatal encounter are straightforward and commonplace: English merchants John and Edmund Cartlidge were bargaining with Sawantaeny, a Seneca hunter and fur trader, when an overindulgence in alcohol, probably by all parties concerned, led to a disagreement. Sawantaeny went for his rifle, but John Cartlidge disarmed him and bashed in the Seneca’s skull. “My friends have killed me,” were Sawantaeny’s last words. Such incidents, terrible though they may be, are not an uncommon aspect of human interaction, but in the early 1700s, a period in America’s past that is strangely deficient from the history we’ve been taught (we learn about the Lost Colony, Jamestown, Plymouth and mysteriously we jump to the Boston Harbor Tea Party), such a death had far-reaching ramifications for the Native American and Colonial communities. Covered with Night explores the causes and consequences of the Cartlidges’ ill-advised assault on Sawantaeny, while illuminating the fundamental flaws in the relationships that existed The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
between the Native American and Colonial cultures. Eustace’s complex treatise was made possible by the meticulously documented speeches of a Native man called “Captain Civility,” who reacted to the death of Sawantaeny by attempting to strengthen the tenuous bonds that existed between the competing cultures, and Eustace was able to draw on earlier studies by 20th century ethnographers and on postmodern analyses on social and criminal justice. If all of this sounds complicated, it is. Investigations of Sawantaeny’s murder by Native American leaders and Colonial officials initiated a debate about the very nature of justice and its cultural context. Colonial authorities were fearful that the murder might bring on a full-scale war, endangering the white population and disrupting trade. The crisis was serious enough that news of it reached the British Board of Trade in England, resulting in a region-wide treaty conference that produced an obscure document signed at Albany in 1722 between members of the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee and representatives from the colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. It remains the oldest recognized treaty in the history of the United States. Much more than a simple diplomatic instrument, the treaty records a foundational American debate over the nature of justice. Avoiding conflict with their Indigenous neighbors was the foremost concern of the Colonial authorities, and they held the Cartlidge brothers in irons pending their execution — which is exactly what the Native Americans hoped to avoid. Pennsylvania Gov. William Keith was dismayed to learn that sending the Cartlidges to the gallows was counter to the Native American notion of justice. Native diplomats PineStraw
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OMNIVOROUS READER
Satcheechoe and Taquatarensaly asked that the Cartlidges be released from prison and from the threat of execution. They preferred that Keith journey to meet with the leaders of the Five Nations to “cover the dead” by offering reparations and performing mourning rituals that addressed their grief — all of which ran counter to Colonial assumptions about what constitutes civilized retribution. The Iroquois weren’t “savages,” as characterized by the Colonial authorities. They were possessed of a humanity that tied them to the land and their communities, and they saw the murder as an opportunity to establish stronger and more lasting bonds with their Colonial neighbors. They wanted their collective grief assuaged emotionally and accounted for economically. “Colonists were so unprepared for Native offers of clemency, a total inversion of their expectations, that they made little deliberate note of the philosophy that informed Native policy,” Eustace writes. “Indigenous ideals entered the record made at Albany almost inadvertently, the by-product of colonial desires to document the land and trade agreements that would further Pennsylvania’s prosperity and security. Still, colonists dutifully wrote down the speeches that Captain Civility and other Native speakers made to them. And in the process, they preserved Indigenous ideas on crime and punishment, violation and reconciliation.” Negotiations were complicated by barriers of language and dialect. Various Native American tongues had to be translated from one Indigenous speaker to another until the words evolved into a concept that could be realized in standard English.
If Eustace’s explication of events is occasionally academic, it’s also thought-provoking, requiring patience and commitment on the part of the reader. Attempts to energize the narrative by using present tense, and a somewhat awkward fictional attribution of motivations to characters whose true emotions are unknowable, only serve to lengthen and diminish the story: “Seated at his table, William Keith warms the bottom of a stick of vermilion sealing wax,” she writes. “He feels the heat but will take care not to burn his fingers. In a quiet room, a dollop of wax makes a soft splotch as it hits paper, round and red as a drop of blood. Keith lets the wax cool a moment from liquid to paste, then presses smartly with his seal to emboss the wax with an intricate pattern of scrolls.” Eustace also includes detailed descriptions — furniture, dwellings, the travails of daily living, concepts surrounding indentured servitude and slavery — that enhance the reader’s knowledge of an otherwise obscure period in our history. But her primary contribution is the reclamation of alternative concepts of crime, punishment and the mitigation of grief that are no longer components of contemporary life. PS Stephen E. Smith is a retired professor and the author of seven books of poetry and prose. He’s the recipient of the Poetry Northwest Young Poet’s Prize, the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Prize for poetry and four North Carolina Press Awards.
Celebrate our 3rd Anniversary with us on March 19th! Don’t miss our best sale of the year with storewide discounts up to 30% off.
Sam & Betty Glick
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225 W Morganton Rd Southern Pines NC 910-725-0394 | www.greyfox-outdoor.com The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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Mailing: PO BOX 4211, Pinehurst, NC 28374
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
BOOKSHELF
March Books
FICTION The Great Passion, by James Runcie In 1727, Stefan Silbermann is a grief-stricken 13-year-old, struggling with the death of his mother and his removal to a school in distant Leipzig. Despite his father’s insistence that he try not to think of his mother too much, Stefan is haunted by her absence, and to make matters worse, he’s bullied by his new classmates. But when the school’s cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach, takes notice of his new pupil’s beautiful singing voice, Stefan’s life is permanently changed. A meditation on grief and music, The Great Passion is an imaginative tour de force. How Strange a Season, by Megan Mayhew Bergman With flawless intuition and depth, Bergman presents an unforgettable story collection featuring women seeking self, identity, independence and control of their circumstances. Each page crackles with life: A recently separated woman fills a huge terrarium with endangered flowers to establish a small world only she can control in an attempt to heal her broken heart; a competitive swimmer negotiates over which days she will fulfill her wifely duties, and which days she will keep for herself; a peach farmer wonders if her orchard will survive a drought; and, generations of a family in South Carolina struggle with fidelity and their cruel past, some clinging to old ways and others painfully carving new paths. Bergman’s provocative prose asks the questions: What are we leaving behind for our descendants to hold, and what price will they pay for our mistakes? Sunflowers Beneath the Snow, by Teri M. Brown When Ivanna opens the door to uniformed officers, her tranquil life is torn to pieces, leaving behind a broken woman who must learn to endure cold, starvation and the memories of a man who died in the The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
act of betrayal. Using her thrift, ingenuity and a bit of luck, she finds a way to survive in Soviet Ukraine, along with her daughter, Yevtsye. The question remains: Will she be strong enough to withstand her daughter’s deceit and the eventual downfall of the nation she has devoted her life to? NONFICTION The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice, by Benjamin Gilmer In a powerful true story expanding on one of the most popular This American Life episodes of all time, a rural physician learns that a former doctor at his clinic committed a shocking crime, leading him to uncover an undiagnosed mental health crisis in our broken prison system. When family physician Dr. Benjamin Gilmer began working at the Cane Creek clinic in rural North Carolina, he was following in the footsteps of a man with the same last name. His predecessor, Dr. Vince Gilmer, was beloved by his patients and community — right up until the shocking moment when he strangled his ailing father and then returned to the clinic for a regular day of work. Poor Richard's Women: Deborah Read Franklin and the Other Women Behind the Founding Father, by Nancy Rubin Stuart In a vivid portrait of the women who loved, nurtured and defended the thrifty inventor-statesman of the American Revolution, Poor Richard’s Women reveals the long-neglected voices of the women behind Benjamin Franklin, America’s famous scientist and Founding Father who loved and lost during his lifelong struggle between passion and prudence. What emerges from Stuart’s pen is a colorful and poignant portrait of women in the age of revolution. PineStraw
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BOOKSHELF
CHILDREN’S BOOKS The Ogress and the Orphans, by Kelly Barnhill It’s difficult to be kind in an unkind place, but being a good neighbor means you may have to do the difficult thing sometimes. The Newbery Award-winning Barnhill has written another literary masterpiece destined to become a classic for discerning readers both young and old. (Ages 10-14.) Pretty Perfect Kitty-Corn, by Shannon Hale True friends are as precious as the last cookie, but as Unicorn finds out, you don’t have to be perfect to be the perfect friend. Hale and illustrator LeUyen Pham have teamed up for another fun, rhyming Kitty-Corn tale that guarantees giggles. (Ages 4-7.) Meet the author and illustrator at The Country Bookshop, Wednesday, March 9, at 4 p.m. Snail’s Ark, by Irene Latham Kangaroos, zebras, lions, elephants — we all know they came on the ark two-by-two, but what about the snails? As it turns out, when the weather turns rough and the creek begins to rise, snails stick together. (Ages 3-6.) A Grandma’s Magic, by Charlotte Offsay When a baby is born, a magical thing happens: A grandma is born too, and she is instantly granted so many magical powers. Celebrate grandma magic with this oh-so-cute homage to the one who loves us best in the world. (Ages 3-6 and 45-98.) Swim, Duck, Swim!, by Jennifer Harney In the pond, not everything always goes as planned. When it’s duck No. 3’s turn to swim . . . she improvises. A cute take on being yourself and doing your best, this adorable title is perfect for Easter or any time W Oreaders N D E Rare F Ustruggling L 100 young to fit in. (Ages 2-5.) PS Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Tally. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Shamrock the House!
St. Paddy’s Day Warm-Up Dinner
March 12 • 5-7 pm
Pick up your dinner to go or stay for a picnic and enjoy Irish music on our beautiful grounds. Brined corned beef & cabbage, carrots, potatoes, Irish soda bread, and dessert prepared by Broad Street Bakery & Café. Bring your lawn chairs and BYOB.
$35 Supporters / $45 General Reserve your meal by March 7
Arts & Humanities Lecture March 13 • 2 pm “North Carolina Freedom Park: The Inspiring Story of How a Monument to Freedom is Built While Confederate Statues are Coming Down.”
Part 2: Speakers, Reginald Hildebrand & Reginald Hodges $15 Supporters / $20 General Sponsored by Deirdre Newton
Sponsored by 4BROTHERS Catering
Performing Arts
Live from the Great Room March 9 and April 1 7 pm
Cocktails and entertainment in a vintage setting. March 9: Ryan Keberle & Catharsis. April 1: New-grass duo - Brittany Haas, fiddle, & Joe Walsh, mandolin.
“Come Sunday” Jazz Brunch March 27 11:30-2 Shana Tucker, and brunch from a local restaurant. Supporters/General
$40/$50 - Band & Brunch;
A Rooster’s Wife Production
$25/$35 - Music Only Kids 12 & under: $15 Brunch, Free Show
Doors Open at 6:30 • Cash Bar
Sponsored by Aging Outreach Services and Ward Productions
$30 Supporters / $35 General
For tickets and more information, visit weymouthcenter.org Thank you to our sponsors: Richard J. Reynolds III and Marie M. Reynolds Foundation; Gerald Claude Kirby Trust; NC CARES for Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council; Arts Council of Moore County; The Palmer Foundation; Marion Stedman Covington Foundation; The Cannon Foundation; Donald and Elizabeth Cooke Foundation; The Pilot
We’re celebrating 100 years of our historic Boyd House, with 100 events in 2022 555 E. Connecticut Ave. Southern Pines, NC A 501 (c)(3) organization
WONDERFUL 100
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HOMETOWN
The Boys of Spring
Toting dreams of breaking par By Bill Fields
We were a mostly scrawny bunch
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY BILL FIELDS
dressed in sharp collars and loud pants, convinced that with a bit more practice and little more luck, we could be the next Tom Watson. This ignored the fact that most of us on the Pinecrest Patriots boys golf team during the mid-1970s considered breaking 80 an excellent day, but there was no point in letting the facts get in the way of our dreams.
By this time of year, the season would have begun after a couple of weeks of practice. Cool weather wasn’t a problem. If one of those cheap nylon jackets didn’t do the trick, there was always orlon or velour on reserve. My first match during my sophomore year, on March 3, 1975, happened to coincide with my parents’ anniversary. That evening Dad splurged on dinner for the three of us at Cecil’s in the Town and Country Shopping Center. The steak was better than my score, 84. Pinehurst No. 1 was our home course for practice and matches, and I came to know it well over those years of preparation and competition. I even prepared a rudimentary yardage book in a First Union pocket calendar. There was the fear of the O.B. fence to the right of the opening fairway and the fun of trying to bag an early birdie on the reachable par-5 fourth. In those years No. 1 concluded with a short par-3. Everyone who had finished would gather around the green, a rare gallery that made the 8- or 9-iron shot harder — and the walk to the parking lot longer if you botched it and bogeyed. Despite my familiarity with the course, the best I shot there — or anywhere else during prep play — was 72 during a match senior year as the team combined for a four-man total of 292, a school record at that point in Pinecrest’s young history. Although we were proud Patriots that particular Monday afternoon, more recent generations would scoff at our scores. Pinecrest’s young men and women have won multiple state titles in recent years, becoming the powerhouse you would have thought prep golfers in a golf-rich area would have been all along. We made it to the state tournament once, in 1975, which in those years was played at Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill. Shooting an opening round 89 was bad enough, but that evening, while we were The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
horsing around outside after eating, I got stung by a wasp over my left eye. By morning, it was swollen partly shut, which didn’t help my cause. It is never a good sign when you don’t have enough fingers to signal how many over par you are to a teammate in an adjacent fairway. I played terribly on the front nine, shooting 52. But the eye started to get better as I made the turn, and I vowed to turn things around to avoid complete embarrassment. Somehow, I did, making three birdies, three pars and three bogeys to shoot an even-par 36 and break 90. If that 16-stroke improvement between front and back isn’t a state record, it must be in the neighborhood. Golf was not a priority at the school. The football team got a sit-down pre-game meal of steak and potatoes at Russell’s before its Friday night game. Our golf coach stopped the station wagon or van at McDonald’s as we traveled to an away match. As for staying hydrated during a round, we hoped there was a functioning water fountain somewhere on the course. Two of the courses we played in conference matches — Arabia in Hoke County and Richmond Pines in Rockingham — closed years ago. Others remain, such as Scotch Meadows in Laurinburg and Pinecrest Country Club in Lumberton. Quail Ridge, in Sanford, home to the sectional tournament my sophomore and junior years, is still around. So is the Sanford Municipal Golf Course, site of the sectional in May 1977 during my senior year. The good form that I’d shown earlier that season was gone by the time we arrived in Lee County trying to advance to the state tourney. I was not going to be the next Tom Watson after all. Our fourth-best score that day as the team successfully advanced was an 85, so I was north of that. I believe I shot 89, or it could have been even higher. My high school golf career ended not with a whimper but to the sound of constant beeping from machinery at the nearby brick company. If the trucks were in reverse, so was my game, at just the wrong time. PS Southern Pines native Bill Fields, who writes about golf and other things, moved north in 1986 but hasn’t lost his accent. PineStraw
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T H E C R E AT O R S O F N. C .
The Lost Treasure of Home Jonas Pate and his runaway hit Outer Banks
By Wiley Cash
While there is plenty
of mystery in the breakout Netflix smash hit Outer Banks — everything from a father lost at sea to a legendary treasure — the mystery that director and co-creator Jonas Pate seems most intent on exploring is the age-old mystery of what divides people along class lines. It worked for Shakespeare with his Montagues and Capulets, and 370 or so years later it worked again for Bernstein’s and Sondheim’s Jets and Sharks. Pate’s rival groups are similarly aged, sun-kissed teenagers living and partying along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where a group of working class kids known as the “Pogues” continually find themselves marginalized and dismissed by the “Kooks,” who are the children of wealthy residents and seasonal 40
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tourists. Fists and hearts certainly fly, but despite the show’s use of cliffhangers and action-packed sequences, at its core Outer Banks investigates the emotional and experiential threads that pull some of us together across class lines while invisible barriers push others of us apart. According to Pate, the divide between the haves and the have nots is “the oldest story in the world. It cuts across everything,” which he believes explains the show’s broad appeal. Broad indeed. In the late spring of 2020, just as the people of the
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PHOTOGRAPH BY MALLORY CASH; COURTESY OF NETFLIX
T H E C R E AT O R S O F N. C .
world were settling into the pandemic and the realization that they did not want to see or hear another word about Tiger King and Joe Exotic, Outer Banks debuted in mid-April and quickly became one of Netflix’s most watched shows of the year. The following summer, the show’s second season hit No. 1 on the Nielsen report. The success seemed immediate, and the show’s slick production quality made it all appear as easy and relaxed as a day on the water, but Jonas Pate and his twin brother, Josh, with whom he created Outer Banks along with Shannon Burke, had spent their whole lives preparing for this moment. The Pate brothers grew up in Raeford, North Carolina, where their father served as a judge and their grandfather owned a local pharmacy. “It was amazing,” Jonas says. “It was like Mayberry. I’d ride my bike to the pharmacy and get a Cherry Coke and a slaw dog, and then I’d visit my dad at the courthouse. My stepmom was head of parks and recreation, so I’d go over there and help ref T-ball games.” We are sitting on the second-story porch of the home he shares with his wife, Jennifer, and their two teenage children in Wilmington, just across the water from Wrightsville Beach. The January morning is unseasonably warm and sunny, and Jonas is dressed as if he just stepped off the set of Outer Banks, not as its director but as one of its stars. (How handsome is Jonas Pate? A few days later, our 5-year-old daughter will walk past Mallory’s computer while she is editing photos of Jonas. She will stop in her tracks and ask, “Who is that?”) Jonas’ surfer appeal is not surprising considering that while he primarily grew up in Raeford and attended high school there, he spent his summers with his mother along the barrier islands near Charleston. “Outer Banks is an amalgam of different high school environments and things that we went through,” he says. “It helped create the mythical environment of Outer Banks where we kind of knew what it was like to live feral in a small town with haves and have-nots. Kiawah and James Island were like that. It was poor kids and rich kids, and they would get into fights. And Raeford is still very rural.” Rural, yes, but Jonas and Josh still found plenty to keep them busy. If they were not exploring the marshes and waterways off the coast of Charleston, then they were shooting homemade movies back in The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Raeford, where they made films of Robin Hood and Hercules and edited them by using two VHS machines. He laughs at the memory of it. “The cuts were terrible and fuzzy,” he says, “and all the special effects and sound were awful.” But he admits that something felt and still feels magical about it. He had always loved film, especially those by Steven Spielberg and Frank Capra, saying that he has “always been drawn to filmmakers who are a little sweeter and have a little more heart.” After college, the brothers found that they still had the desire to make films, but they did not know how to break into the industry. “We didn’t know anyone in the film business,” he says. “We didn’t know anything.” The brothers moved to New York and worked to immerse themselves in the city’s film culture. While interning at the Angelika Film Center, Josh met Peter Glatzer, who was a fundraiser for the Independent Feature Project. They talked about screenwriting, and the Pate brothers soon had a script that Glatzer was interested in producing. Their first film, The Grave, was shot in eastern North Carolina, and while it did not receive a theatrical release and went straight to video after premiering on HBO, the Pate brothers had their collective foot in the door. In 1997, they made another North Carolina-shot film with Glatzer, The Deceiver, that starred Tim Roth and Renée Zellweger, and it found a larger audience after debuting at the Venice Film Festival and being distributed by MGM. The brothers headed for Los Angeles. Once there, Jonas found himself “taking jobs just to pay the
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T H E C R E AT O R S O F N. C .
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Wiley Cash is the Alumni Author-in-Residence at the University of North Carolina Asheville. His new novel, When Ghosts Come Home, is available wherever books are sold.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MALLORY CASH; COURTESY OF NETFLIX
bills” and “getting further and further away from what I actually wanted to do.” One bright spot of his time in LA was meeting his wife, Jennifer, who also worked in the industry as a casting agent. Not long after they met, Jennifer started her own agency, and Jonas went to her for assistance in casting his first television show, Good vs. Evil, in 1999. From there he went on to direct and produce a number of television shows, including the NBC shows Deception and Prime Suspect and ABC’s Blood and Oil. In 2005, the Pate brothers partnered again and returned to North Carolina, where they filmed a single season of the television show Surface, which they co-created. After having kids, Jonas and Jennifer decided to move back to North Carolina in time for their son and daughter to attend high school. Jonas suddenly found himself on the other side of the country from the industry he had devoted his life to for the past 20 years. But then something magical happened. Jonas understood two things: First, he needed to create something that could be shot on the coast so he could stay close to home. Second, he would draw from his own experiences to make it real. “When I pulled from my own life instead of the movies I’d seen, it all came together,” he says. “You get to the universal by being super specific.” One big challenge that Jonas and his team encountered was casting the show’s young stars. “We auditioned maybe 500 or 600 kids, and we really had to try to find kids who’d been outside and lived in the outdoors.” Not surprisingly, given the Pate brothers’ personal ties to the show’s geography,
nearly every star they cast was from the South, except for one who hailed from Alaska. “Growing up outside, being around boats,” Jonas says, “it’s hard to fake that stuff, and it’s hard to make it look real if it’s not.” I turn off the recorder and Mallory packs up her photography gear, and we say our goodbyes to Jonas. He is leaving soon for another production set. We share a number of mutual friends in Wilmington with him and Jennifer, and we talk about getting together for dinner once he returns. Mallory and I are alone in the driveway when I realize that I have locked the keys in our car. To say that I was embarrassed — and, let’s be honest, panicked — would be an understatement. Mallory pulled out her phone and began searching for a locksmith. I have a flip phone, so I just stood there, weighing the two most logical options: breaking the window with one of Jonas’ landscaping rocks or just leaving the car and walking home, denying it was ever ours. I cannot help thinking that if I were John B., the star of Outer Banks and leader of the Pogues, played by Chase Stokes, I would sneak into a neighbor’s garage and hotwire their car, drive home, procure a backup set of keys, and return for Mallory while passing under the investigating deputy’s nose. Or, if I were Topper, the leader of the Kooks, played by Austin North, I would bang on Jonas’ door and use his phone to call my father’s car service. But I am neither of these characters. I’m just me, so I apologize again to Mallory, and we wait for the locksmith together. PS
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Given Memorial Library and Elliotts on Linden Presents
GIVEN-TO-GO
COME
EXPLORE WITH US
Tuesday, March 22 Pick-up: 5:30 - 6:30 PM
at Given Memorial Library
MENU
Southern Bento Tray
Shrimp on sticks and sauce “1000 island” Southern roasted potato salad Ham and pimento slider Orecchiette Pasta “antipasto”
Dessert
Elliotts Homemade Cookies
Ticket Sales begin:
Monday, March 7 $24.00 per meal
The last day to purchase tickets is Friday, March 18 at 3:00 pm
Children’s Museum in Downtown Rockingham Call or e-mail to pre-purchase your meal(s) at the Tufts Archives 910.295.3642 or by email:
discoveryplace.org
giventufts@gmail.com The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
DPKR_Pinestraw_half.indd 1
2/14/2243 11:38 AM PineStraw
APPLYING EXPERTISE, INTEGRITY & PASSION TO RURAL REAL ESTATE Now located in Moore County, Wolfe Farms and Land is an accomplished brokerage and marketing platform that consistently delivers exceptional service and dependable results to buyers and sellers of farm and land properties. Contact me anytime to discuss your specific real estate needs!
Sandhills Hunting Retreat SOLD - 217 acres
Ben Wolfe OWNER/BROKER
919.219.8997 ben@wolfefarmsandland.com wolfefarmsandland.com
Davie County Farmstead SOLD - 226 acres
Seven Ridges at Uwharrie SOLD - 70 acres
Recreational Properties • Farmland • Hunting Land Timberland • Horse Farms • Cattle Farms Waterfront Properties • Farmsteads • Country Estates
IN THE SPIRIT
Bringing It on Home Creating a Reverie facsimile
By Tony Cross
I’ve learned a
PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY CROSS
great deal since I started my business, Reverie Cocktails, over five years ago. Even so, I sometimes feel like I don’t know much — I’m constantly reminded of this every time a new drink or concept fails. Mind you, I’m not afraid of failing, it’s how I learn. And, every now and then, a drink clicks.
I’m often asked by friends and patrons how they can recreate our cocktails at home. While it’s true most of our drinks can’t be recreated exactly, it’s also true that some can come pretty darn close — and taste amazing. I’m going to suggest one of our signature drinks you can make at home, but before you get started, I would highly recommend purchasing an iSi soda syphon or iSi Nitro. These allow you to carbonate the cocktails quickly. There are a lot of companies that make soda chargers, but don’t get a knock-off. Cheap imitations can be extremely dangerous — they can explode when charging — so please grab an iSi. Co2 chargers are also available online. If you’re not in the market for a soda charger, you can use sparkling water instead. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
One more thing: When we batch, we clarify our juices using different enzymes and a centrifuge. Clarifying at home isn’t absolutely necessary, but it will help your drink carbonate better, and the cocktail will come out sharp instead of foamy. To do this, you’ll need a product called Pectinex Ultra SP-L, and you can get it from modernistpantry.com.
Lino Blanco
This is a cocktail we put out last spring. It’s our spin on the White Linen, which was created by Rene Dominguez at the Shady Lady Saloon in Sacramento, California. It’s still on their menu the last time I checked. The original recipe calls for Hendrick’s Gin, St. Germaine Elderflower Liqueur, lemon juice, simple syrup and muddled cucumbers. We substitute Durham Distillery’s Conniption Gin and their killer Cucumber Vodka. Actually, both are killer. Everything out of Durham Distillery is top-notch. This recipe makes two cocktails. 1 1/2 ounces Durham Distillery Conniption Gin 1 1/2 ounces Durham Distillery Cucumber Vodka 1 ounce St. Germaine Elderflower Liqueur 1 1/2 ounces clarified lemon juice (regular lemon juice if clarifying is not an option) 1/2 ounce simple syrup (2 parts sugar: 1 part water.) 1 ounce filtered water PineStraw
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If you’re using a syphon: Add all ingredients to chilled iSi soda syphon or iSi whipper. Screw on the top of the syphon, add your Co2 charger, screw on — you’ll hear the gas release into the syphon — and shake hard for 10 seconds. Gently squeeze the handle, releasing all the gas from the syphon. Do not squeeze hard or liquid will come out of the spout. Once all the gas is released, unscrew the empty charger, add one more charger, screw it on and shake for another 10 seconds. Place your syphon in the freezer for 5 minutes. When the time is up, grab your syphon and slowly release the gas. When all the gas is out, slowly unscrew the top of your syphon. Gently pour over ice in a Collins glass. Garnish with a few slices of cucumber.
Clarified Lemon Juice
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For every 8 ounces of lemon juice, stir in 1 gram of Pectinex. This isn’t a lot, so add the Pectinex one drop at a time until you reach 1 gram. Let the juice sit at room temperature for 10 minutes, and then filter it through a Chemex or coffee filter. If you don’t have a syphon, that’s OK, but you’ll need sparkling water. Mountain Valley is my favorite. Delete the ounce of filtered water from the ingredients list above. It was there for the syphon recipe because water is an ingredient in cocktails, usually incorporated by shaking or stirring with ice. To make the Lino Blanco without using a syphon, combine all the above ingredients (minus water) into a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake hard for 15 seconds or until the shaker is chilled. Add a healthy splash of sparkling water and strain into a Collins glass with ice. Again, garnish with a few slices of cucumber. PS Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
THE KITCHEN GARDEN
Pot ’o Green Light up your early spring
By Jan Leitschuh
What’s prettier than a pot of
pansies, satisfies our primal March longing for St. Paddy’s Day green, and is edible too?
’Tis the leafy stuff! Frilly, lacy, colored, savoyed or freckled greens. It’s the cusp of spring. Sure, and isn’t it time you scratched that grand gardening itch and treated yourself to a salad greens planter? Granted, “prettier than pansies” is a wee stretch, but pansies won’t shake off their winter doldrums and hit their glory days until later in the month. Don’t we just need some fierce vernal cheerfulness? Cheaper than a bouquet of flowers, a greens tub or planter can light up your springtime front-step pots or window boxes. Most spring greens such as spinach, various cheerfully hi-colored lettuces, kale, arugula, candy-stemmed chards, collards and more — herbs such as parsley or mint, even broccoli, onions or cauliflower — are moving onto the shelves of local plant vendors. Available in 4or 6-packs, the greens are well-started and offer instant gratification and useful design elements. Those of you with a patch of good ground can skip all the container folderal and save some money by buying a seed packet or two. Till up the spot, add lots of compost (or well-aged manure — most greens are heavy feeders) and sprinkle your seeds. Pat them into the soil with the flat of your hand and keep lightly watered if the rains don’t fall. You should have greens o’plenty in your cutting garden in April. May the rows rise up to meet ye! However, not everyone is blessed with that grand patch of good ground, and why should you miss out on one of the oldest rites of spring? Mix lots of mature compost into the soil of your planting vessel. A premixed potting soil with fertilizer included will surely bring the luck of the Irish. As long as it has good drainage and holds an adequate amount of soil, the container doesn’t much matter, does it? Humble or classy? You can spark up a fancy glazed ceramic pot for the front step, populate a wooden window box, stuff a whisky barrel half, hide a lined laundry basket among some small shrubs, or just The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
use some larger black plastic planting pots. Just mind the three aspects of good container design: thriller, filler and spiller. Your thriller element will offer some height and an upright element to catch the eye, won’t it now? Pick a tall, strong-leaved and substantial plant such as dark green dinosaur kale to anchor your salad pot or planter. A twig framework anchored in the middle might support springtime’s garden candy, edible-podded sugar snap peas. Another vertical option might be a tall trio of rainbow Swiss chard, with its candy-colored stalks. Romaine or certain young collard plants might work, if you can find them. Onion and garlic greens give a similar upright effect. The middle layer, or “filler,” is your workhorse. Stuff in plants of nutritious spinach, lettuce and spicy arugula. So many pretty lettuces to choose from! Pinch off a few leaves to fill out your salad or green smoothie. Another option — add in the different textures of herbs that favor spring temperatures. Dark green parsley is a perfect companion, handsome set against the frilly lime greens and burgundies of lettuces, and useful in cooking. Mints and cilantro also do well in the spring before the days heat up. The “spiller” layer that softens the pot edges and drapes over the side will be a little harder to find for a springtime pot. Perennial herbs such as thyme droop nicely but are barely leafing out. Edible flowers like nasturtiums might work. You could deploy a small pot of ivy for its draping effect, and let it grow in situ for your summer pot creation. When the temperatures heat up, greens tend to go gagging about the place and turn bitter, switching from the vegetative to the reproductive stage. Diehard gardeners might permit this and save the seeds (or allow for a less-reliable self-sowing). The small yellow flowers on stalks have their own delicate beauty. But it’s perfectly fine if you pull out the spent greens and toss them on the compost heap. Then plant yourself a summer tomato, a bell pepper — or go full floral for your summer display. Until then, sláinte! PS Jan Leitschuh is a local gardener, avid eater of fresh produce and co-founder of Sandhills Farm to Table. PineStraw
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
C H A R AC T E R S T U DY
The Voice of America’s Horse Shows How Peter Doubleday took the mic
By Jenna Biter
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN GESSNER
An inviting red leather armchair in the
library of Little Squire Farm seems to say: sit, read. The 8-foot-tall bookshelves are neatly crowded, as buttoned down as the man himself. There are vinyl albums and CDs, books about foxhunting, and shelves and shelves of others covering all the trappings and intricacies of the equestrian world. Photos of personal import from a career — an almost accidental career — that has lasted nearly half a century occupy nooks and crannies and the rare empty space on a wall. Among it all is a treasured copy of The Horseman’s Encyclopedia that had once belonged to Peter Doubleday’s father, Robert, the man whose riding path he followed. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Peter Doubleday was born and raised in Syracuse, New York, about an hour south of Lake Ontario and a 90-minute drive from Cooperstown, home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. It was his great uncle Abner (to some unknown degree of greats) who allegedly invented America’s game in Elihu Phinney’s cow pasture in 1839, later laying out a diamond when he was a cadet at West Point. Abner Doubleday went on to become a decorated Union soldier, rising to the rank of general, and was the officer who ordered the North’s first shots of the Civil War in defense of Fort Sumter. Peter squabbles with the imaginary nonbelievers: “People say, ‘Well, he didn’t invent baseball,’ and I say, ‘Well, yes he did.’” He laughs and settles onto a chaise longue with his Jack Russell terrier, Sophie, who follows him as if there was an imaginary lifeline permanently linking the pair. “The best dog on Earth,” Doubleday says. Peter’s dad, Robert “Deacon” Doubleday, was a radio show and television personality with NBC’s Syracuse affiliate WSYR. He hosted Wired Woodshed, a popular agricultural program that got rural farmers through their early morning chores. Because Deacon used his voice to make his living, he was asked to announce some horse shows, first on vacations and holidays, but eventually becoming the voice of some of America’s biggest shows. “So, they would drag me around as a kid to these horse shows all PineStraw
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over the Northeast,” Peter says. He enjoyed the show environment — he was a high school kid and there were girls and horses, what’s not to like? — but he didn’t pay much attention to his dad’s role. And he certainly didn’t expect to inherit the mic. But, just as Joe Buck followed his father, Jack, as Major League baseball announcers, Peter Doubleday would follow Deacon. Some careers, particularly the kind that require the God-given talent of voice, are partly chosen, but partly preordained. After high school, Doubleday traded the chill of upstate New York for the sunshine of South Florida, attending the University of Miami to pursue an education degree. “I kind of wanted to be a teacher,” he says. After his junior year, his dad fell ill and couldn’t fulfill his commitment to announce the horse show at the 1971 New York State Fair. Deacon told the staff, “Why don’t you try my son?” The fair was a huge spectator event, but the son nervously rose to the occasion. Though he returned to Miami, Peter pitched relief in a few other shows before his father passed away in January of ’72. “I wanted to work with horse shows now that I had gotten the bug,” he says. Longtime friends Hannah and Joel Potter owned Rocky Fork Headley Hunt, a foxhunting club and 30-horse stable not unlike the Moore County Hounds, located in suburban Columbus, Ohio. Doubleday moved there to work at the stables mucking stalls, grooming horses, riding and teaching lessons. “You know how everybody talks about a break? A big break?” Doubleday asks. That’s where he got his. Two of the horses he cared for belonged to Bruce Sundlin. Though the name didn’t mean much to him at the time, Sundlin (who would serve as governor of Rhode Island in the ’90s) was the president of the Washington International Horse Show, a world-renowned, week-long competition in D.C. that draws thousands of spectators each October. Sundlin learned Doubleday had announcing experience and asked him to voice the show. Reluctant at first, it turned out the bug was bigger than the balk. He did it, and he’s had a microphone in his hands ever since. Doubleday began traveling for shows, returning to Columbus less and less frequently. By 1975, at the age of 25, his announcing career had become full time. He began producing the shows, leading the front end, announcing results, entertaining fans, educating the audience about breeds and classes, and selecting and playing music, including anthems when competitions were international. He also led the back end, communicating with the stables to ensure horses and riders were ready for their events. “Driving classes, like the Budweiser hitch, it takes a long time for them to get organized,” Doubleday says. Not long after, he relocated his home base to Southern Pines, though he spent more time in hotel rooms than in any house. “I got involved with the right people, the right horse shows, and boom, I was on the road 40 weeks of the year,” he says, “Sometimes more.” Success and longevity, however, aren’t matters of getting a break here or there. Doubleday’s adolescence spent at horse shows had familiarized him with quarter horses, Arabians, Morgans and more, allowing him to voice all types of breed shows. Though hunters and jumpers are his specialty, he’s familiar with the gamut of disciplines from driving to dressage, and can announce those, too. “If The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
C H A R AC T E R S T U DY
you really want to do a good job, there’s a lot of work involved,” he says, nodding toward the library. An effective announcer does more than regurgitate horsey jargon in a caramelized tone. He repackages complex information into digestible morsels, so that even a relatively uninformed audience can enjoy the show. “I drink tea in the morning, and there used to be a little phrase on the back of the tag on Salada bags,” Doubleday says. “One said, ‘Nothing is obvious to the uninformed.’ I always carried that thought.” Doubleday has announced the major North American horse shows, including the Hampton Classic in New York, the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida, and the Royal Horse Show in Toronto. He was the voice of two Pan American Games and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. “I’ll never forget my first morning of jumping,” Doubleday says, thinking of Atlanta and the 33,000 spectators in the stands. After delivering a few housekeeping announcements, the arena quieted and the Olympic theme music filled the air. “I said, ‘Welcome to the 26th Olympiad in Atlanta . . . and the place just went craaazy,” he recalls. “I’ll never forget that.” Doubleday has had success managing shows, too. “The manager is the secretary for the horse show,” he says. “You do the computer work for all the entries; hire a jump crew to put up the jumps; hire people to take care of the footing and the water, make sure the stabling is up — the whole nine yards.” Once the show starts, he’s hands on. “I’m a worker bee. I can’t sit
still.” In an idle moment you’ll find him mucking stalls and picking up trash. “It’s like a hotel, you know, with the horses in and out. I’ll just pitch right in. ‘Let’s get it done.’” At the height of his managing career, Doubleday oversaw eight or nine horse shows per year. He still manages three major shows: the Royal Horse Show, the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair, and the Devon Fall Classic in Pennsylvania, where he got his managing start in 1987. COVID, of course, has impacted the workload. At one point, because he can’t sit still, he worked part time at Lowe’s Home Improvement. Little Squire Farm, where he and his wife, Chrissie — a prize-winning equestrian herself — live, sits on a verdant tract of 10 acres. The cast and crew consist of the couple’s two barn cats; two horses, Woody and Walk My Drive, a retired racehorse who answers to Guac; a donkey named Burrito; and, of course, “the best dog on Earth.” After nearly five decades behind the mic, Peter Doubleday isn’t quite ready to go silent. The workload in 2021 was nearly back to normal. “After getting in another nice year-and-a-half or so,” he says, glancing around the property, “then I could see myself riding off into the sunset.” PS Jenna Biter is a fashion designer, entrepreneur and military wife in the Sandhills. She can be reached at jennabiter@protonmail.com.
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OUT OF THE BLUE
Simply Surviving By Deborah Salomon
Two years of getting by
March marks
two years we have battled the pandemic, in several iterations. It has consumed news broadcasts and changed our lives, from how we purchase toilet paper (in laughable quantities) to how we celebrate holidays (in small groups, if at all) to how we recreate (forget movies, concerts, plays . . . hello, Scrabble and Hulu). Politicians are rated on COVID policies rather than stabilizing the economy. The absence of classroom learning may leave an indelible effect on children.
Hopefully, I’m not the only survivor whose weathered eye longs for better days and simpler things. This began a few months ago, when I started watching season two of PBS Masterpiece Theater’s All Creatures Great and Small. I rejected the first season as borderline corny, certainly not therapeutic. The (true) story begins when a newly minted vet from Glasgow arrives in the beautiful and serene Yorkshire dales, just before World War II unleashes hell on Europe. He’s a plain lad with sincere blue eyes and a sweet smile. The haircut alone — short at the nape, Brylcreemed on top — establishes chronology. A romance ensues with a farming lass with a thick wavy mane, just enough meat on her bones, a forthright manner and the smile of an orthodontist’s daughter. Simple. Relatable. Refreshing. Now, into season two, I watch each episode at least three times — a balm on eyes hardened by the blood and gore streaming, literally, from ambulatory corpses interspersed by real-life starving children, wildfires, floods, tornadoes, insurrections, shootings. Simple thrives in the kitchen. Working from home, I crave homemade soup, mainly veggie beef made with chuck and a rainbow of vegetables. I call it sustenance soup, just as good for breakfast as lunch. Then, yellow split peas with grated carrot, potato and onion simmered with a smoked turkey leg. Dunk a hunk of stale artisan bread. Ahhh . . . Thick. Flavorful. Simple. Take-out sushi, pizza, tacos, egg rolls, nuggets, burgers get old fast. Soup is forever. Simplify communication? Ma Bell must be tossing in her tomb. Cellphones are a miracle rivaling the light bulb. People live or die by
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
their cells, which started out simple flips, progressed to “smart,” lately mini-computers. I learned from priests of the faith that texting has overtaken email, voice mail and direct conversation. Which means people text recipients reachable otherwise, eliminating the human voice by choice. Makes sense when the caller is a robot, because only a robot would not worry about 5G technology interfering, perhaps even endangering, commercial aircraft. God forbid a crash blamed on improved texting. The same applies to the automobile — another landmark invention providing a comfortable, safe, relatively simple means of getting from Point A to Point B. Now, urban apartment-dwellers not involved with sports or transporting loads are driven to drive SUVs instead of simple sedans, hatchbacks or stations wagons because . . . ? You tell me. Some accoutrements, like cameras watching the dog sleep in the back seat, seem dangerously distracting. Figuring out which button to push for the ice dispenser (just kidding) is problematic, not to mention the button that turns on the oven (not kidding) when you’re 10 miles from home. The battle to simplify can be exhausting for ordinary folk who don’t live from iPhone to iPhone. I’m happy with a car that simply delivers and an oven that bakes. Flip phones did the job. I will never be convinced that air-fried chicken threatens Colonel Sanders. Even if I won the lottery I would not buy a Whiskers Litter Robot WiFi Enabled Automatic Self-Cleaning Cat Litter Box, its official name, for $549. Because cats are smarter than humans; if my two boycotted an unfamiliar litter brand heaven knows how they would react to a box that talks back. I am not a crotchety old lady resisting progress while glamorizing the good old days before residential air conditioning and no-iron sheets. I’m all for vaccinations, organ transplants, solar power, even SUVs for large soccer-playing families with Great Danes. But I’m not about to fry an egg on my cellphone or let a self-propelled whirling dervish vacuum my floors. You couldn’t buy me a ticket on Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. Because in times of trouble, simple conveys stable, at least until the crisis passes. So go ahead . . . scoop your hummus, goat cheese, root beer and bubble gum flavored ice cream. I’ve rediscovered vanilla. And ain’t it ever good. PS Deborah Salomon is a writer for PineStraw and The Pilot. She may be reached at debsalomon@nc.rr.com. PineStraw
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
B I R D WA T C H
Cleanup on Aisle 2 The vulture’s role in the ecosystem
By Susan Campbell
Vultures: All of us have seen them.
Maybe it’s been passing a group feasting on a recently killed animal by the side of the road. Or, more likely, you have spotted an individual soaring overhead on long, outstretched wings. These odd looking birds are too often misunderstood and even disliked — for nothing more than their appearance. In actuality, they are fascinating creatures that perform a vital role in the ecosystem: They are Mother Nature’s cleanup crew.
Often referred to generically as “buzzards,” vultures are part of a family of birds found worldwide with dozens of species, including South American condors. Here in North Carolina, we have both turkey and black vultures year-round. Individuals from farther north significantly boost flock numbers in the cooler months. These large black scavengers lack feathers on their heads: likely an adaptation to feeding almost exclusively on carcasses. Turkey vultures are the more common species from the mountains to the coast. Soaring in a dihedral (v-shaped profile) on long wings with silver linings, they have red heads and long tails for steering. Black vultures, however, have gray heads and white patches on the under-wing as well as somewhat shorter wings and tails. As a result, they soar with a flatter profile and fly with snappier wing beats. This species has really expanded across the Piedmont in recent years, perhaps due to development, increased road building and the inevitable roadkill that results. The winter brings vultures together in what can be impressive roosting aggregations that are known as “wakes.” These groups can
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
build to 100 or more individuals of both species that will roost close together in a particular spot: night after night during the season. Late in the day, they will gather in mature trees with larger branches capable of holding significant weight. It is easy to spot them on tall snags or sitting side by side on communication towers. Given the human tendency toward neatness, there are fewer and fewer dead trees for the birds to utilize — so they have been forced to use manmade perches. They may choose rooftops and this can, believe it or not, include people’s houses. It is not obvious as to why they choose the locations that they do each winter. Given the ease at which they roam in search of food, proximity of their next meal seems rarely a concern. They are capable of gliding and soaring many miles each day. No doubt they require a location with a substrate that warms readily in the morning sun to provide the updrafts they require to reach cruising altitude. Vultures do need a perch that is open enough to allow them to spread their wings on takeoff. This is likely why they are found roosting in more open environments. For those living near a vulture roost site, be aware that the birds seldom use the same location for more than one season. This could be for reasons of cleanliness or to perhaps reduce the chances of predation — but we really do not know. Also, do not expect that the wake will persist beyond early spring. The group will break up and head off to their breeding grounds by late February or early March. Using prevailing southerly breezes, they will be carried back north in short order. Although we do have small numbers of breeding vultures in the Piedmont and Sandhills of North Carolina, they are widely dispersed and are quite secretive during the nesting season. Unless they are on the wing, sniffing out (yes, they use their noses more than their eyes) their next meal, they may go completely overlooked. PS Susan Campbell would love to receive your wildlife sightings and photos. She can be contacted at susan@ncaves.com. PineStraw
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
SPORTING LIFE
Lure of the Wildnerness Return to the Okefenokee
By Tom Bryant
I’ve been fortunate in my
canoeing life on the water to travel to some fascinating places. At the top of the list is the Okefenokee Swamp, which borders the state lines of Georgia and Florida.
For the last several years, since retiring from my day job, Linda, my bride, and I have camped in Florida during the worst of the winter months. We like the western part of the state, mainly because it’s not quite as busy with tourists. But nothing stays the same. It seems the snowbirds from up north, escaping frosty winter weather, have found our last fishing location; and on this trip we decided to try another spot, Cedar Key, just a little north of Tampa. Folks I have talked with, and fellow campers, told me that that area has remained mostly unchanged in the past several years. Also on this trip I determined to reacquaint myself with the wilderness stretch along the border of Georgia known as the Okefenokee. In the early ’80s, I made several excursions to the swamp, the longest being a seven-day circuitous paddle from the north landing down to the south and back again to where we started. There are three put-in locations in the Okefenokee with the eastern entrance at Folkston being the most popular. I’ve put in at all three and like the southern entrance best, although it makes little difference. Once you’re in the swamp, everything begins to look the same.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Linda and I don’t plan to paddle the swamp on this trip. I just want to get the lay of the land for a winter adventure next year. Okefenokee, named by the Seminoles, means in their native language, “Land of Trembling Earth.” The swamp covers approximately 700 square miles. So, if you should decide to explore the area in a canoe or kayak, be prepared to live in the boat. There are 120 miles of canoe trails and very little dry land, so you’re confined to the canoe all day. Overnight stops are placed at intervals to accommodate an easy day’s paddle — that is, if you don’t get lost. And that’s one thing you don’t want to do. The trails are marked and easy to follow as long as you stay on them. Venture off the trails and there could be trouble. The swamp looks mostly the same in every direction. Officials at the put-ins require a party to sign in at every overnight stop; and with a controlled number of overnight wilderness permits issued, they can keep up with paddlers as they travel the trails. The area has been protected since 1937 by the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, and in 1974, a portion was designated a National Wilderness Area. The headwaters of two rivers, the Suwannee and the St. Mary’s, flow out of the swamp. The Suwannee slowly drifts south through Florida, and the St. Mary’s flows east, delineating the border of Georgia and Florida. I’ve always wanted to paddle the crystal clear waters of the Suwannee, as it is supposedly the natural habitat of manatees. I’ll put it on the list, and maybe next year we can give it a go. Fall and early spring are the busiest times to visit the swamp, with winter and summer being the slowest. To me, winter is the best time to take the trip. Migratory birds have arrived, and all species of waterPineStraw
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SPORTING LIFE
fowl can be observed. Remember, even though Okefenokee is considered semi-tropical, it does get cold in winter. On one trip I made in February, the low temperature set records, getting down to 18 degrees one night. Any adventure to the swamp might put you in harm’s way as far as bugs, flying and biting, are concerned, so be prepared. Deer flies down there have been known to bite through clothing. Also, it helps to be in shape to live in the boat. Water depth in the swamp is usually shallow, running from 2 feet to perhaps 9 feet in the canals. Once you’re deep into the watery prairies and away from the put-in areas, you seem to be transported to the days when the Seminoles were the only visitors. The camping sites are raised platforms built about 2 feet off the water. They’re a welcome sight after a day’s paddle. The platforms have a roof over about three-fourths of the area that helps during the occasional rain shower but doesn’t alleviate the problem of flying, biting insects. I always carry a self-supporting tent with mosquito netting. This not only deters the bugs but keeps the ever present, night prowling raccoons at bay. Another point: Store all food in a cache; hungry animals are about. Oh, and most important, a porta-john is located on a corner of the platform. All the conveniences of home, just about. Stay on the platforms after dark. Nighttime is not the time to be on the water. That’s when alligators look for food. And there are some big alligators in the swamp. Ten to 12 feet. You can understand the request from the rangers: When the sun goes down, stay in town. I haven’t been back to the swamp in years, but on this trip south, Linda and I are gonna check out the happenings in that area and put it high on our agenda for next year; that is, if it’s still as I remember it. If you’re gonna go, I would advise making reservations early. Call the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge at Folkston, Ga. Good luck, and I hope to see you in the swamp. PS Tom Bryant, a Southern Pines resident, is a lifelong outdoorsman and PineStraw’s Sporting Life columnist.
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Sandhills Photography Club:
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Tier 2 Honorable Mention: Ironworks - Kathryn Saunders The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Tier 2 Third Place: Spinning Metal - Susan Bailey
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Sandhills Photography Club:
Industrial The Sandhills Photography Club meets the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. in the theater of the Hannah Marie Bradshaw Activities Center of The O'Neal School at 3300 Airport Road in Pinehurst. Visit www.sandhillsphotoclub.org.
Tier 2 Honorable Mention: Geiser Puffing - Tobe Saskor
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Tier 3 Third Place: Once Upon A Time - Dave Powers The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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G O L F T OW N J O U R NA L
Off for Pinehurst Our embarrassment of riches
By Lee Pace
This email landed in my inbox toward the end of 2021:
“I’ve been following you via social media the past several months and wanted to seek your advice. I’m planning a golf trip to the Pinehurst area for the fall of 2022. What would you consider ‘must/ essentials’ for this trip? I am thinking we will go to the Pinehurst Resort but also wanted your opinion and experience about other courses that might not be as popular but would provide an authentic golfing experience.” It occurred to me in responding to this golfer from Knoxville that those of us who are local or frequent visitors take the Pinehurst experience for granted when so many have never actually ventured into Moore County. And those of us who are familiar with the wonders of the Sandhills travel scene have to stay on our toes with the constant evolution of the golf, amenity and accommodations market. As Pinehurst Resort President Tom Pashley says, “Someone who hasn’t been here in 10 years would be amazed at what they find.” A favorite framing in my office is the quintessential drawing of the Pinehurst Golf Lad in New York’s Grand Central Station, circa the Roaring ’20s, his golf bag schlepped over this shoulder amid the nicely dressed swells with the words “Off for Pinehurst.” Herewith, then, a nickel tour for anyone on their way to Pinehurst: The Core (the heartbeat of Pinehurst and the Pinehurst Resort and Country Club, where courses No. 1-5 emanate) . . . soak in the history along Heritage Hall and revel in the photos and plaques of golf’s luminaries who have won here . . . pose for a photo beside the statue of Payne Stewart, captured in his exhilaration when his putt dropped to win the 1999 U.S. Open . . . walk the 6-odd miles of the premium courses, No. 2 and No. 4, feeling the taut, sandy loam beneath your feet, absorbing the cacophony of colors and edges of the holes, learning to play the bounce of the ball to an array of green complexes . . . stroll The Cradle short course with a couple of wedges The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
and a putter, bobbing to the strains of Red Hot Chili Peppers popping through a discretely placed speaker in a tree . . . ply your putting skills on the Thistle Dhu putting course, which winds its way a hundred yards out and back over an array of humps and hollows . . . all the while slaking your thirst with a Transfusion from the Cradle Crossing beverage center. The Village (laid out in 1895 by the landscape architecture firm of Frederick Law Olmsted to resemble a New England village; it’s void of 90-degree road intersections and dominated by white and forest green accouterments) . . . enjoy a hefty deli sandwich on the veranda at the Villager Deli in the heart of Old Town . . . pound a beverage with the locals from a rocking chair on the porch at the venerable Pine Crest Inn, once owned by golf architect Donald Ross . . . sip one of 70 brands of bourbon, rye and Scotch in the hippest bar in town, the North and South in the newly renovated Manor Inn . . . douse some smoked pork shoulder in blackberry habanero sauce at the Pinehurst Brewing Company . . . buy a cashmere sweater at The Gentlemen’s Corner or a rare painting of a Scottish golf scene at Old Sport and Gallery . . . sift through the memorabilia and display cases at the Tufts Archives in the Given Memorial Library and marvel at James Tufts’ original marble soda fountain machine, the source of the fortune from which all these golf riches flowed. And don’t forget Broad Street, the Southern Pines version of Main Street U.S.A. . . . there’s nothing quite like a well-run, independent bookstore, and The Country Bookshop is exhibit A . . . for a great burger and pro golf on the big TV, there’s the Bell Tree Tavern, and for dessert there’s The Ice Cream Parlor and its primo location at the corner of Broad and New Hampshire . . . the Sandhills area is chock-full of interesting craft brewing venues, one of the most popular in the Broad Street neighborhood is Southern Pines Brewing Company with its corner location on Pennsylvania and Bennett, spacious outdoor seating and over 30 draft selections. The Ross Triumvirate (a collection of three pristine Donald Ross courses under the same ownership umbrella — Mid Pines from 1921, Southern Pines Golf Club from 1923 and Pine Needles from PineStraw
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330 West Pennsylvania Ave, Southern Pines 910-695-3334 • www.edwardmonroedds.com The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
G O L F T OW N J O U R NA L
1928) . . . all three have come under the painstaking attention to detail of architect Kyle Franz in the last decade and the essential challenge of each burnished, from the stark crossing features at Southern Pines to the up-and-over fairways at Pine Needles to the exquisite green settings at Mid Pines and its spot nestled in a bowl of surrounding hills . . . play the Pine Needles course, where later this year it will host its fourth U.S. Women’s Open (a fresh-faced Annika Sorenstam won in 1996), dodge the ponds at Mid Pines, where Julius Boros loved to fish during pro tour stops in Greensboro, and play the out-and-back routing at Southern Pines, where Ross made the best use of the land by not shoehorning a ninthhole return to the clubhouse. The Outskirts (with three dozen courses within a 30-mile radius of Pinehurst) . . . Three of my favorite courses in the Sandhills are private (Forest Creek North, Country Club of North Carolina Dogwood and Dormie), so if you know someone, beg, borrow and steal for an invitation. There are no such restrictions at Tobacco Road in Sanford, a half hour north of Pinehurst, just a dearth of tee times as the popularity of this eccentric and visually stimulating course has skyrocketed during the COVIDinspired golf boom. Architect Mike Strantz cobbled it from an abandoned sand pit and farmland, and the mammoth mounds, mottled grasses, railroad ties and fescue rough accent the routing. It’s all quite the experience. I hope our man from Knoxville has fun. “What a place, what a cluster of golf, what a home for golf,” marvels Mike Keiser, the developer of the noted golf destination Bandon Dunes and a fan of Pinehurst. “Most of these clusters are up north, and you can’t play in the winter. Pinehurst and Pebble Beach are places you can play year around.” What do you know? It’s the Roaring ’20s again. PS Lee Pace has written about golf in Pinehurst and the Sandhills for more than three decades. Write him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.
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What The Moon Knows She knows shadow, how to slip behind clouds. She’s perfected the art of disappearing. She knows how to empty herself into the sky, whisper light into darkness. She knows the power of silence, how to keep secrets, even as men leave footprints in the dust, try to claim her. Waxing and waning, she summons the tides. Whole and holy symbol, she remains perfect truth, tranquility. Friend and muse, she knows the hearts of lovers and lunatics. She knows she is not the only one that fills the sky, but the sky is her only home. — Pat Riviere-Seel Pat Riviere-Seel is the author of When There Were Horses
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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Johnny Allen and the Aberdeen Nine
When an all-time great wore an “A” on his chest
I
n 1956, at age 7, I fell madly in love with baseball. That summer, and several ensuing ones, I spent an untold number of daylight hours playing both organized and pick-up baseball, as well as the game’s myriad offshoots — pepper, home-run derby, monkey in the middle, etc. After hurrying through dinner, I would often spend another hour hurling a ball at a target painted on the basement wall and fielding the rebound. With an accompanying radio broadcast of a Cleveland Indians (aka the Guardians) game providing grist for my overactive imagination, I would visualize myself playing second base for Cleveland while backhanding countless caroms off the wall. None of the Indians’ players resided in my hometown of Hudson, Ohio, 26 miles from Cleveland, but the team’s longtime trainer, Wally Bock, did. My parents, Bea and Weldon Case, knew Wally and his wife, and asked them over for dinner. I could not have been more excited if Cleveland’s Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller had been invited. When the Bocks arrived at our home, Wally tossed me a ball (which I still have) autographed by all the ’56 Tribe players. But, too soon, Mom and Dad ordered me upstairs to my room. While lying restlessly in bed, I hatched what in retrospect was a ridiculous plan: Wouldn’t it be cool to finagle a rubdown from Wally like the ones he once administered to Feller and the other Indians I idolized? So, I yelled downstairs, “Mom, my back really hurts!” My crying wolf fooled no one; nonetheless, the scheme worked. With my folks looking on and shaking their heads at my transparent ploy, Wally provided a brief backrub. All fixed. So, much like Bill Murray’s character Carl Spackler who was promised “total consciousness” by the Dalai Lama in Caddyshack, I got that going for me. My baseball passion extended to the game’s vast array of statistics. Without attempting to, I committed to memory countless batting averages and home run totals. One mark that always stuck with me was pitcher Johnny Allen’s 1937 win-loss record of 15-1. His resulting winning percentage of .938 was, at the time, a major league record. The mark was ultimately bettered by Elroy Face’s 18-1 for the National League’s Pittsburgh Pirates in 1959, but to this day, Allen holds the American League record. No pitcher in the 146 years of major league history has posted an undefeated season with at least
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By Bill Case 15 decisions — the minimum number required to qualify for the winning percentage title. More astonishing is the fact that Johnny was undefeated until the meaningless final game of his ’37 campaign. Risking the unblemished record, he took the mound against the Tigers with just two days of rest. Allen lost 1-0, the lone run scoring in the aftermath of an error by Indians’ third baseman Odell Hale. According to an online post by the Society for Baseball Research, an infuriated Allen “went ballistic after the game” and twice had to be restrained from assaulting his third baseman. Such behavior was not out of the norm for the hyper-competitive hurler. His 13-year major league career (1932-1944) with the Yankees, Indians, St. Louis Browns, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants was replete with similar incidents. He was known to throw furniture in the clubhouse, but his piques of wrath weren’t confined to the ballpark. After a tough loss to the Red Sox, an enraged Allen returned to the team’s hotel, upended stools in the bar, kicked over an ashtray of sand, and sprayed a corridor with a fire extinguisher. In 1943, it took several teammates to restrain Allen after he rushed an umpire “like a wild man” after the ump called a balk on him. When another unfortunate third baseman cost Allen a game by dropping a pop fly, the pitcher decked him in the clubhouse, then announced to his startled Yankee teammates, “If anybody else drops an easy fly on me, that’s what’s going to happen to you.” In a notorious 1938 controversy, umpire Bill McGowan ordered Allen to remove the sweatshirt he wore underneath his jersey after the pitcher had cut strips out of the sleeves to “improve ventilation.” Distracted by the fluttering fabric, opposing hitters complained. Allen refused to change his shirt and huffily stalked into the clubhouse, defying Indians’ manager Oscar Vitt’s directive to return to the mound. Allen was fined but recouped his money by selling the sweatshirt to a downtown Cleveland department store, which proudly displayed it in its storefront window. Today, the garment is an exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. While his competitive fire could land Allen in hot water, it no doubt contributed to his pitching greatness. His near undefeated season in ’37 merited his selection by The Sporting News as that year’s Major League Player of the Year. His career winning percentage of The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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PHOTOGRAPH PROVIDED BY THE LENOIR PUBLIC LIBRARY
.654 (142-75), ranks 22nd best all-time. Hall of Fame catcher Bill Dickey described Allen’s sidearm fastball as “the meanest delivery in the league for a righthanded hitter. He’ll buzz it over the bat handle before you can see it.” A second Hall of Famer, Al Simmons, picked Allen as the toughest pitcher to hit against in that slugger’s 20-year career. Allen’s record might have been even more impressive had he not been plagued by a sore arm his last six years in the majors. My fascination with stats like Allen’s 15-1, and for baseball itself, cooled substantially at age 13 after I failed to crack the starting lineup and quit the local little league team, the Hudson Hornets. I stopped buying baseball cards and no longer paid rapt attention to the exploits of legends like Feller and Ted Williams, let alone those of less remembered stars like Johnny Allen. But two years ago, Allen came to mind again when I came across a short 1935 piece in The Pilot, reporting that Allen “who used to clerk in the Aberdeen Hotel, is going great guns for the New York Yankees” and that, during this employment, circa 1926-27, Allen pitched for the local Aberdeen team that competed in the Moore County Baseball League. A search of the archives of The Pilot and the defunct Moore
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County News failed to unearth further references to Allen’s days here, but Wint Capel’s biography of Allen, Fiery Fast-Baller, published in 2001, provided some additional details about the pitcher’s pre-major league wanderings. Born in Lenoir, North Carolina, in 1905, Allen, like his Yankee teammate Babe Ruth, spent the bulk of his youth in an orphanage, playing both infield and outfield positions for the Thomasville Baptist Orphanage baseball team. Capel writes that there “was no hint that he would become a sensational big league pitcher.” While at the institution, Johnny suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was resting the muzzle of a 12-gauge shotgun on the toes of his shoe when the gun accidentally discharged, causing the loss of two toes on the teenager’s right foot. (Another great North Carolina pitcher, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, also suffered a shotgun injury to his right foot when he was a teenager, losing one toe.) Though he chafed at the orphanage’s strict regimen — making frequent attempts to run away — Allen did learn the basics of the bookkeeping trade there. It was expertise enough to secure a night clerk position at Greensboro’s O.Henry Hotel following his 1922 release from the orphanage. According to Capel, Allen drifted from one hotel clerking job to another, “for a change of scenery as much as anything,” serving The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF KAM HURST
Kneeling L-R: Bill Huntley, Max Folley, Gordon Keith, Purvis Ferree, John D. McLean Standing L-R: Johnny Allen, Bill Maurer, Hughes Bradshaw, George Martin, Arnold Ferree, Kenneth Keith
brief stints at the Monticello Hotel in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Sheraton in High Point, North Carolina, and the Wildrick Hotel in Sanford, North Carolina. While working at the latter establishment, he got back into baseball, playing on a local church league team. In or around 1926, Allen pulled up stakes again, moving to the Sandhills for a clerking position at the Aberdeen Hotel, and soon joined the town’s semi-pro baseball team. The 23-year-old Allen left Aberdeen in 1928 to play “organized baseball” with the Greensboro Patriots of the Class B Piedmont League. During that season, he also pitched for teams in Fayetteville, Greenville and Raleigh. In 1929, he signed with the Asheville Tourists, where Johnny Nee, a scout for the New York Yankees, saw him and, impressed with his blazing fastball, signed the 24-year-old to a contract. After two years of seasoning with Yankee minor league affiliates Allen joined the mighty Bronx Bombers in 1932. The manager was the great Joe McCarthy. His teammates included Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Bill Dickey. In that rookie campaign, he logged a sparkling 17-4 record and pitched in the World Series where the Yanks defeated the Chicago Cubs in four games. After three more seasons in New York and five in Cleveland, Allen was dealt to the St. Louis Browns, something that was dutifully noted in a 1940 issue of the Pinehurst Outlook. Jerry V. Healy’s story included a recounting of Allen’s initial appearance 14 years earlier for Aberdeen. Pitching against “the strong Mt. Gilead nine on the latter’s local grounds,” a disastrous outing “almost ruined Allen’s career.” As Healy put it, “the farmer boys up in that section loved nothing better than to hit a fast ball a country mile, and Johnny had a fast ball. The coming star (Allen) was retired in short order.” After his catastrophic debut, Healy noted that Allen, “quiet and peaceful in those days,” eventually starred for Aberdeen. “Wild as a hawk, he won many games by the mere effort of scaring opposing batters away from the plate,” Healy wrote. Allen’s lone shortcoming was “his slow and stumbling baserunning,” no doubt caused by the injury to his foot. Allen made up for this deficiency by smashing home runs and extra-base hits. The article also mentioned Allen’s link to Jack Meador, “the present manager of the Aberdeen Hotel,” which had previosly employed Johnny. Moreover, in 1928 the hotelman had moonlighted as the Fayetteville Highlanders’ secretary-treasurer during Allen’s brief time on that team. Several months after Healy’s article was published, a massive fire consumed the Aberdeen Hotel. A new hotel was constructed on the same site and renamed the Sandhills Hotel, with Jack Meador remaining in charge. The new structure burned down in February 1942, and Meador lost his life attempting to rescue guests from the blaze. The Aberdeen team photo accompanying Healy’s article identified Allen and all his pinstriped teammates. According to longtime Aberdeen Mayor Robbie Farrell and his sister Betsy Farrell Ingraham, virtually all the Aberdeen players shown in the picture The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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PHOTOGRAPHS OF GEORGE MARTIN'S EQUIPMENT BY EMILEE PHILLIPS
became men of prominence in the community. Gordon Keith owned the town’s dry-cleaning business and also won the 1939 golf championship of the Southern Pines Country Club. Gordon’s brother, Kenny Keith, was the town’s go-to carpenter. Billy Huntley owned substantial real estate in the area, including the local drive-in theater. Max Folley’s family ran the lumberyard. Bill Maurer was active in the tobacco markets and became co-owner of the Aberdeen Warehouse. Hughes Bradshaw operated a gas station. John Duncan McLean owned the local hardware store and served as Aberdeen’s mayor. Arnold “Bony” Ferree served as a health inspector, while his brother, Purvis Ferree, achieved fame in Winston-Salem as the longtime golf pro at Old Town Club. Purvis became the first person inducted into the North Carolina Golf Hall of Fame. His son, Jim Ferree, would continue the family’s golf legacy by winning a pro tour event (the 1958 Vancouver Open) and was the beknickered, silhouetted model for the PGA Champions Tour logo. Finally, George Martin owned Martin Motors, the town’s Buick dealership, on South Street, now a church. Martin installed a bank of showers inside the dealership so that his teammates would have a place to wash up after games. Gordon Keith’s son, David Keith, now lives in Cameron. His irrigation contracting business is in the old family house on Keith Street in Aberdeen. Born after his father reached 50, David is only in his 60s. He remembers his father saying that Allen was a “ringer” — paid money, presumably raised by the passing of a hat at games, to pitch for Aberdeen — and that his father often served as Allen’s catcher. The games were on Wednesday afternoons, the day many area businesses closed at noon, and attracted sizable crowds. (The Aberdeen Supply Company closes on Wednesday afternoons to this day.) David Keith still has an ancient, scuffed baseball with links to the old Aberdeen nine. It was given to him years ago by his best friend, Sam Buchan, a grandson of the aforementioned George Martin. Buchan got the ball from Martin’s teammate John Duncan McLean. Mayor McLean kept the ball, belted for a home run in a Moore County League championship game, as a piece of local memorabilia. Just a few years ago, the ball was among the possessions stolen from Keith’s house in a robbery. Fortunately, the perpetrator was caught and the treasured ball returned.
While The Pilot did little to cover the activities of the Moore County Baseball League, the 1932 season was a notable exception. That year, the Aberdeen team found itself in the thick of the race for the league title. Several of Allen’s old teammates from the ’20s were still mainstays on the squad, including Martin, Max Folley, Purvis Ferree, Bill Maurer and Billy Huntley. To reach a playoff series against Vass-Lakeview for the league championship, Aberdeen needed to beat Southern Pines in the last game of the regular season. The deciding contest was played the last day of August on Aberdeen’s home field, now the site of Cactus Creek Coffee. The county was abuzz, the game looming larger than even the upcoming World Series in which Johnny Allen would appear. When game day arrived, the ballfield was packed. “Two thousand or more people from every corner of the county gathered around the Aberdeen diamond for Wednesday’s big game,” reported The Pilot. “It was the climax of a thrilling baseball season. Aberdeen and Southern Pines were deserted. Everybody was at the ballpark.” As Aberdeen’s player-manager, George Martin sent himself to the mound for the pivotal game. Inspired by the massive crowd, he pitched brilliantly, shutting out Southern Pines, 6-0. But it wasn’t Martin’s fastball that had turned the trick; it was his out-of-the-past, good luck garb. “George had put on his 1921 uniform. Of course! That explained all,” wrote The Pilot reporter. “You remember George Martin back in 1921. Burning ’em in. Foe to every opposing batsman. Striking ’em out with his change of pace. George in his 1921 clothes! What chance had Southern Pines?” Aberdeen went on to defeat Vass-Lakeview three straight in a best-of-five series, breezing to the league championship. Playing a nifty first base, Martin contributed multiple hits in each game, including a tide-turning homer in game two — likely the ball now in the hands of David Keith. The Pilot attributed much credit for the series victory to Martin. “He not only guided his men well, but proved an example in the field and at bat, playing errorless ball and hitting with the best of them.” Five years later, Martin died suddenly while working at his desk. He was just 36. The Pilot described him as one of “Aberdeen’s most beloved citizens,” and that he would always be remembered for his baseball accomplishments — especially the memorable ’32 game he pitched and won in a 1921 uniform. “You should talk to Kam Hurst, George Martin’s granddaughter,” David Keith said. “I think she has his uniform.” Hurst’s grandparents had lived on Pine Street in Aberdeen in a home Martin
built in 1923. After he died in 1937, his widow continued to reside in the house for many decades. After Hurst’s grandmother’s death, the house remained in the Martin family. While making repairs in 2009, Kam and her husband, Ricky, spotted her grandfather’s long forgotten baseball gear in the attic, undisturbed since his death 72 years earlier. Inside a timeworn black duffle were Martin’s cleats, still sharp enough to dig into a basepath, his glove — little more than a primitive leather slab — and a cap bearing the red letter “A.” Separately, there was George’s wool uniform, still wearable. The pinstripes, however, didn’t have the “A” insignia affixed to the players’ jerseys in the ’26-’27 team photo. This had to be George Martin’s 1921 uniform. While Martin’s heroics highlighted the rousing finish of the Moore County League’s 1932 season, the eight team league didn’t last much longer. It would disband in 1934. The four-team Sandhills Baseball League tried to fill the vacuum, but with the Great Depression raging, it was difficult to cajole financially struggling spectators to drop money into a passing hat. A Memorial Day All-Star game that attracted a crowd of 500-600 resulted in paltry receipts of $14. Semi-pro baseball in North Carolina was beginning a gradual fade-out. Also on the wane was Johnny Allen’s playing career. His final major league season in 1944 was the only one in which he recorded a losing record. He stayed in the game, however, becoming a minor league umpire. Once the bane of the “men in blue,” Allen became the chief ump of the Carolina League. He gave up the job in 1952, thereafter buying and selling real estate in St. Petersburg, Florida. When not on the mound, Johnny Allen was personable, a good The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
husband and father, and a generous contributor to charities, including the orphanage of his youth. While he could be nasty to those who cost him victories, in the fullness of time he claimed he mostly got sore at himself “because I think of a million and one things I could have done in the situation and didn’t do.” There may have been a third baseman, or two, who would be less generous. Allen died in 1959 at the age of 54. Enshrined in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1977, he was later named one of the best 100 players in the history of the Cleveland Indians. A ranking of the best baseball players born in North Carolina places him fifth. The four in front of him are in the Hall of Fame. John Allen III, who lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, believes his grandfather should be recognized among baseball’s all-time greats, but is not, “because he didn’t kowtow to the press. In fact, he went out of his way to tell them how little respect he had for them. Boy, do we need more of those type of men today.” While Johnny Allen’s relative standing in the ranking of baseball greats may be subject to debate, it is undisputed that he is the greatest ballplayer ever on a Moore County team. His exploits here — and those of George Martin on long ago Wednesday afternoons — become less ephemeral after laying eyes on relics like Martin’s glove, uniform, spikes, and the ball he smashed for a home run. As James Earl Jones’ character Terence Mann reflected in Field of Dreams, baseball appeals to our longings for the past. “The one constant through all the years has been baseball . . . It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again.” It reminds us of a target on a basement wall. PS PineStraw
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The Bard of Pinebluff
Manly Wade Wellman, our forgotten man of letters By Stephen E. Smith
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n a September afternoon 53 years ago, I was one of eight creative writing students who had gathered for the first time in room 301 of the Carlton Building on the campus of little Elon College. We were awaiting the arrival of our instructor, an adjunct professor unknown to me. A fellow student who was repeating the course offered a concise appraisal: “This guy has published a truckload of books.” And at that moment an imposing figure appeared in the doorway. Manly Wade Wellman was 6 feet tall, barrel-chested and wideshouldered. He appeared to be in his mid-60s, with graying hair combed neatly back from his broad forehead. His face was round, open, accentuated with heavy eyebrows and a prominent nose below which was cultivated a tweedy Clark Gable mustache. I noticed immediately the peculiar way in which his eyes reflected light. The very tops of his irises flickered, suggesting an authentic inner illumination. He was dressed neatly in a frayed sports jacket that matched his mustache. A glasses case was stuffed in the pocket of his shirt, the collar of which was pulled tight by a bolo tie clasped with a silver and turquoise medallion. “I’m Manly Wade Wellman!” he announced, surveying the anxious faces staring up at him. Then he launched into a story that went something like this: When Manly’s father was a boy of 8, he was taken by his father to attend a lecture by Mark Twain. Father and son found seats in the front row of the auditorium, and when the lights came up, the illustrious raconteur stepped to the edge of the stage and removed a folded paper from the inside pocket of his white linen jacket. “I would like to read a poem,” Twain announced. The audience, who had not gathered to hear America’s foremost humorist read a poem, was silent for a moment, then burst into laughter. Annoyed, Twain held up his hand. “No,” he said, “this is a serious poem.” Again, the audience laughed. Twain frowned, crumpled up the paper, and tossed it onto the stage, where it remained until he had concluded his lecture. According to Manly, his father spent the evening staring at the wadded-up poem, and at the conclusion of the lecture, he was taken by the hand and led from the hall, thus consigning to the dustbin what may have been a priceless scrap of American literature. More than half a century later my initial impression of Manly and
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the story he told during that first class session remains with me, long after the yarns of other teachers, friends and fellow writers, accomplished storytellers all, have faded from memory. Manly no doubt intended the story to serve as an analogous revelation, but what I recall most vividly are the sensuously effective images: that long-ago evening when the romantic possibility of a white-haired Twain still existed in America, the irreverent audience, that small boy longing to rescue the Great Lost American Poem, all of it spun forth in Manly’s raspy baritone, rising and falling with modulations of passion, poignancy, and a lingering trace of regret. He grumbled his way through the description, exposition and complications, all elaborately embroidered, and when he arrived at the story’s obvious climax, his voice rose suddenly to a crescendo. “What would I give to know what was written on that scrap of paper?” he roared. “If only my father had reached out to grab it!” — and Manly’s left hand, which I noticed was stunted, the ring finger and pinky withered, suddenly darted out to grab the metaphysical poem. And there it was: almost everything I’d need to know about structuring a narrative. This was, of course, a well-worn tale, polished and perfected with many tellings — for Manly Wellman, was, first and foremost, a teller of tales, a believer in recreating the moment in words and images. He was also a genuine artist, and the effect was calculated. It was his purpose to communicate in a sequence of rich, concise images so vivid as to be indelible on the impressionable mind. And, in my case, he was successful. I recall at least two later occasions when Manly offered the same story in which he changed minor details to better suit the occasion. Each telling offered fresh particulars and new insights that served to enliven the narrative. Like all accomplished writers, Manly was always in the process of rehearsing and revising, and I took note of the most important lesson a writer can learn — revise, revise, revise. When class was dismissed, I beelined it to the library and looked up Manly Wade Wellman in Books in Print. My fellow student had been correct — Manly’s books occupied a couple of pages of the reference work. From there I wandered into the stacks and ran my index finger along the spines of 10 or 15 glossy covers with “Wellman” printed in big letters. I selected Not at These Hands, a mainstream, slick-covered novel published by Putnam, a big-deal New York house, PineStraw
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and checked it out. I read the bio information on the dust jackets of several other books, mostly science fiction and fantasy, and learned that Manly had been born in Portuguese West Africa in 1903, and that he had ancestry that reached back through the Civil War to Colonial Virginia. He’d lived in Utah, New York and three or four other states, but he’d never stayed in one place for long until he settled in North Carolina after World War II. One of the bios identified Pinebluff, N.C. — wherever that was — as his family home. His books included biographies — he’d written Giant in Gray, the definitive work on Confederate General Wade Hampton — and there were regional histories, juveniles, mystery novels, science fiction and fantasy. He’d published hundreds of stories in pulps in the ’30s, including more than 50 stories in the legendary Weird Tales, and he’d bested Faulkner in the 1946 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Prize. When it came to writing, he was indeed a jack-of-all-trades. I was duly impressed. Who could ask for a more experienced teacher? Or as it turned out, a better one? Manly Wellman was fiercely proud of his stature as a writer. “Outlaws,” he called us, generously including his students in the designation, and he had the rare ability, from the moment he stepped into the room, to instill in each student the strong belief in self that made him a successful writer and a charismatic presence. Each Tuesday morning that semester, I’d drop a story in the campus mail, and Manly would critique and correct it and hand it back after reading it aloud to the class. I was no doubt an annoyingly eager student, and on a couple of occasions I submitted two stories in one week. “You’re like the tiger who’s tasted blood,” Manly laughed — and in fact, I was spending entirely too much study time writing fiction. Not all my stories were keepers, but one was good enough to win a state-wide short story contest that earned me $100 and a magazine publication. When I met with Manly after winning the magazine prize, he asked what my major was. I told him it was sociology. “Change your major to English!” he barked. “There’s no such thing as sociology!” The class met in a tall-windowed seminar room tucked away in a forsaken corner of the campus. No other classes met on that hall, and we felt we were truly in hiding. We loved being Manly’s “outlaws,” and he lavished attention on each student, managing to be critical
while encouraging the better writer within. Every story he returned included a personal note banged out on an old portable, ribbonweary Royal Quiet Deluxe he toted with him everywhere. Today, leafing through the yellowing pages of the crude stories I wrote that semester, I find Manly’s corrections, suggestions, rebukes and flattery everywhere scribbled in the margins and between the lines. One of his notes reads in part: “In its organization and the early stages of its writing, it (my story) strikes me as having a good degree of merit, with a particularly intriguing point-counterpoint of almost slapstick humor and gray sadness . . .”
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hile I was profiting from Manly literary expertise, I knew nothing of his sojourn in Moore County. It would be another nine years before I’d discover the charms of the Sandhills and move from the coast to Southern Pines. And 70 years after the Wellmans — Manly, Frances and son Wade — relocated from Pinebluff to Chapel Hill, longtime resident John Mills, who was a child when the Wellmans called Moore County home, is one of the few locals who remember the family well. “Manly moved to Pinebluff shortly after the war in 1946 or ’47, and he grew to know and love Moore County during the four years in which he lived here,” Mills recalls. “Manly’s father was a doctor — we had a lot of doctors who used to spend their winters here — and Manly’s father built a log bungalow with a big fireplace that covered one wall. When Manly’s father moved to Raleigh, Manly and his family moved into his father’s bungalow. During his time in Pinebluff, whose population in those days was about 300, Manly served as town clerk and was a member of the Lions Club and the Boy Scout troop committee. During this period, he published The Sleuth Patrol (1947), Mystery of Lost Valley (1948), Raiders of Beaver Lake (1949), and Haunts of Drowning Creek (1951), which was dedicated to my father. Manly moved to Chapel Hill in June 1951 to be near the university library and so that his son Wade could get a better education.” Manly completed The Wild Dogs of Drowning Creek (1952) while living in Chapel Hill, where he also wrote The County of Moore, 1847-
1947 (1961) and The Story of Moore County (1974). Mills has in his possession notes Manly made concerning an incident that took place in the northeastern corner of Moore County at a location known as Big Poplar. Reported in the October 1871 issue of Harper’s Monthly, the altercation involved members of the “White Brotherhood” who attempted to lynch Republican John Campbell. Federal agents got wind of the plot and arrested the perpetrators, marching them to Raleigh to stand trial. It is unclear whether Manly was researching Moore County history or if he intended to expand the Harper’s Weekly article into a book, but he noted that the story was accompanied by a woodcut “showing John Campbell kneeling with rope around his neck and surrounded by masked, hooded and robed figures.” While living in Pinebluff, Manly became friends with children’s author Glen Rounds, who lived a few blocks away. The two professional writers maintained a congenial if competitive friendship. “There was a knock at my door,” Rounds once told me, “and when I opened it there was this guy who says, ‘I’m Manly Wade Wellman.’ And I said, ‘So what?’” Tit for tat, Manly would later tell me: “If Glen weren’t so busy trying to be a damn cowboy, he’d be an all-right guy.” Nevertheless, Manly requested that Glen speak on his behalf when he was honored at the North Carolina Writers Conference in 1982, and Glen was a frequent visitor at the Wellmans’ home in Dogwood Acres in Chapel Hill. “Glen stops by for a free drink when he’s in town,” Manly claimed. “He’s courting a lewd nurse who lives in Carrboro.” Glen was an irrepressible raconteur in his own right, and I count myself fortunate not to have been trapped in the same room with the two of them.
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anly’s generosity was boundless. He was my teacher, mentor and close friend. He encouraged me to apply to the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at UNC Greensboro and wrote an eloquently persuasive letter recommending my acceptance. When I began my college teaching career, he drove long distances to meet with my classes to The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
instruct and inspire them as he had me, and he continued to critique my stories and give advice and guidance. I traveled to London with Manly and Frances when he received an Edgar Allen Poe Award, and I had a front-row seat at the premiere of a movie based on his story collection Who Fears the Devil? On several occasions he and Frances visited with me in Southern Pines. Manly died in 1986. When he was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, Frances asked me to speak on his behalf. I was proud to do it. I did the same for the late Glen Rounds a few years later. I can’t think of either man without recalling Sir Walter Scott’s lines “. . . When, musing on companion gone/We doubly feel ourselves alone.” As for Manly Wade Wellman the writer, the author of over 90 books, I’ll leave the literary judgments to my betters. I believe, however, that he made an important contribution to the science fiction and fantasy genre. Writers as disparate as Stephen King and Fred Chappell have acknowledged Manly’s influence. Without a doubt, he was the teacher who appeared at the right moment in my life. There were literary luminaries in Chapel Hill and up Interstate 85 in Greensboro, but I would have been lost in such settings. Whenever I think of Manly, I recall a cold January afternoon during the final days of that first creative writing class at Elon. It had begun to snow large, wet flakes that were fast piling up against the window glass in room 301. Manly had to drive back to Chapel Hill on a meandering Highway 54, so he dismissed class early and I walked with him to the faculty parking lot on Harrison Avenue. Before getting into his car, he paused a moment and recited a passage: “He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight . . . It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves . . .” When he’d finished, I asked the source of the passage. “It’s from James Joyce’s story ‘The Dead.’ You should read it,” he said. I watched his taillights disappear in the snowstorm before walking to the library, where I checked out Dubliners. That night I read it cover to cover. PS PineStraw
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STORY OF A HOUSE
Life on Blue Ribbon Lane Where practicality and taste meet
By Deborah Salomon • Photographs by John Gessner & L aura L. Gingerich
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eading a house is like reading a palm. The footprint, as well as the décor, describe its occupants. This applies to Sapphire Farm, where two horses, a donkey, three dogs and a flock of chickens share a spectacular homestead with youthful retirees — an equestrienne and an environmentalist — deep in Southern Pines horse country. This installation was conceived by Lynn and Buck McGugan to fulfill specific requirements. His, that the house be low maintenance. Hers, “I wanted to stand at the kitchen sink and look across at my horses in their stalls.” Lynn is the sole caretaker of her animals, mostly rescues. Their bond is strong. Buck doesn’t ride but he does play golf. Moore County offers both, at a high level. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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eauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but at Sapphire Farm — named for the birthstone of the McGugans’ son, Robert — practicality runs gut-deep. Buck, a financier with an architectural background, speaks with pride of the geothermal heating and cooling systems backed up by two generators. This includes the saltwater pool, with an unusual earth-hued liner. “The dark color holds the heat, giving us a longer swimming season,” Buck says. The barn is sited for maximum breezes and minimum flies. Plantings attract birds and butterflies. Inside, tinted windows (no shades, blinds or drapes) reflect heat. Buck’s pride extends to building materials — no wood on the exterior, only Tennessee fieldstone, concrete shingles and stucco with embedded pigment that never needs painting. On the inside, locally sourced wide-board knotty pine covers floors and walls throughout, extending to a tray ceiling in the combo living-dining room.
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ynn and Buck met while employed by Xerox in the 1980s. Ten years ago, they were living in a Chicago suburb with Lynn’s horse, Butter, boarded off-site. Enough with severe winters already. “We were looking for a retirement place for horses and golf,” Lynn says. She accompanied Buck to a golf tournament in Pinehurst. “A friend had a place here. I rode with her on the (WalthourMoss) foundation.” Lynn did not expect the extent or beauty of the land or the depth of the equestrian community. “I cried the whole time.” Finding open acreage adjacent to the foundation seemed beyond serendipity. “I saw the hunt leaving and said, ‘Where do I sign?’” Lynn remembers. They had built and renovated houses before, one dated 1889. The couple worked with an architect for a year. The house would be U-shaped around a courtyard. One section (and the barn) with a tiny second-floor apartment was completed first. They lived there during construction of the remainder, total time three years, with Buck keeping a close watch. Afterward, that apartment, plus another topping off the opposite end, serve as guest quarters for their son and others, since the core of this 5,000-square-foot residence has a master suite, but no other bedrooms.
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alk through the front door . . . and gasp. The foyer, rising nearly 30 feet, is a confluence of angles pointing upward to a glass-topped cupola, which allows sunbeams to stream through. Buck compares the foyer to the Pinehurst rotary, with branches going off in different directions. Except the rotary isn’t wood-paneled from ceiling to floor and furnished in farmhouse mode — a preview of what lies ahead, including fixtures that resemble gaslights and antiques of varied provenance. “Everything has a story,” Lynn says, directing attention to photographs she has taken of tumbledown cabins, which comprise much of the wall décor. Even the frames are her handiwork, many found in unlikely places, attached to something else. Gasp again at the living-dining room, for its scope. If the elongated medieval refectory table — a showpiece from Wright, an old and revered Carolina furniture company — and few upholstered pieces were removed, the space could double as a ballroom accommodating a dozen couples. Or hold 150 at Lynn’s famous brunch before and after the Blessing of the Hounds on Thanksgiving morning. Its walls beg touching. What could this material be? Peter Dowd, the McGugans’ builder, was tearing tin roofing off an old cotton plantation. The long panels, mottled with rust, were destined for the scrapyard. In them, Lynn saw texture. “I washed every one and removed the rusty nails,” which were reused to attach panels to the walls, since new nails would scream anachronism. Elsewhere, beams were contrived from carpet rolls found when the Gulistan plant was torn down. A weathered barn door is attached to a wall, while farm implements rest on a workbench. Across from it stands a battered feed bin. By coincidence, Lynn’s initials are carved into the top. Beside the wood-burning stone fireplace, a gigantic fiddle-leaf fig plant suits the room’s proportions. Seagrove pottery is represented throughout. In the nearby powder room an old pie safe with tin top has been made into a vanity, with a worn metal baking pan as a bowl. Colors, no surprise, reflect the earth and its foliage. Furnishings, although spare, are not confined to one period. In the master suite, an Italian blanket chest with woven wood detail might be 400 years old — a wedding gift to Lynn’s great-grandparents. But the bed is a contemporary four-poster. Buck’s forward thinking
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extends to this suite surrounded on three sides by windows. The bathroom shower is wheelchair-accessible, with the tiled floor sloping toward the drain. Lynn required an office for her photo library, also a tack room for equipment, riding apparel and ribbons. The house has two laundry rooms, one for people clothes, the other for horse-related washables. Her kitchen reflects training at a Swiss culinary school. It is vast, encompassing a family dining space, a worktable-island with outlets and shelves. Countertops are soapstone, cupboards rise to the ceiling, and wide, deep drawers contain more implements than an upscale kitchen boutique. These carpenter-made maple cupboards have been “distressed” by pounding with a horse bit. Lynn personalized the custom-made copper range hood by splotching it with vinegar and acid. Her appliances, however, are standard KitchenAid, and she bakes with an inexpensive hand mixer. Where are the ovens? “In the butler’s pantry, to keep the kitchen from heating up,” Lynn says. Here also is her pet appliance: a Scotsman brand under-the-counter maker of ice pellets, not cubes. “I built this kitchen around it.” What’s missing? “We don’t watch TV,” Lynn says. “Too much bad news.” One is mounted in a screened porch; another in the guest apartment, none in the house proper. The result: a home crafted as much for expression as shelter; spacious yet borderline bare, which makes each table, cabinet, painting and rug pop. A home that accommodates dogs and horses, welcomes guests who speak riding and putting — then cool off in a pool resembling a pond. An interior where Mother Nature plays drama queen with wood, stone and other natural materials. Nothing frilly or fluffy. No pastels or brights, except in the garden. Everything planned, engineered, durable, agreed upon by both parties, with no thought of norms or resale. “This is our last house,” pronounces its chatelaine. “I plan to die here . . . happy.” PS The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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A L M A N A C
February March By Ashley Walshe
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arch is an age-old prophecy: a great thaw followed by a riot of life and color. Some said it would start with a single daffodil. A field of crocus. The soft warble of a bluebird. All the signs are here. And in the bare-branched trees, where wild tangles of dead leaves resemble papier-mâché globes, newborn squirrels wriggle in their dreys, eyes closed. Weeks ago, winter felt eternal. The cold air stung your face and fingers. The world was bleak and colorless. Now, the red maple is blooming. Saucer magnolia, too. You build the last fire, sweep the hearth, return to the garden and its wet, fragrant earth. Frost glistens in the morning light, but you know it’s true — that spring is coming. You know because the birds know. They cannot help but blurt it out. Beyond the flowering quince, a woodpecker drums on a towering pine. A towhee gushes drink-your-tea. A robin whistles cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up. Soon, spring peepers and chorus frogs will join the band. The first bee will drink from the first hyacinth flower. A young squirrel will open its eyes. Sunlight kisses wild violets, purple dead nettle, tender young grasses. Everywhere you look, you notice a new warmth, a new softness, the gentle pulse of life. By some miracle, spring has arrived. A sweet mystery born from the icy womb of winter.
In March winter is holding back and spring is pulling forward. Something holds and something pulls inside of us too.
— Jean Hersey
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A Gardener’s Luck
Let’s talk about three-leafed clover (genus Trifolium), a flowering herb in the legume family that just might be what your lawn or garden has been missing. Common as weeds — and often disregarded as such — clover can grow in most any climate, tolerate poor-quality soil and resist most pests and diseases. Here’s the best part: clover can “fix” spent patches of earth by restoring nitrogen levels. In other words, it’s a natural fertilizer and often is used as green manure crop. Using clover as a ground cover between garden beds will also attract pollinators. Mix some clover with your grasses and your lawn will look greener. An added bonus: It’s impervious to dog urine. Even if you never find a four-leafer, that’s some good garden luck.
Spring Forward
Daylight saving time begins Sunday, March 13. Longer days inspire evening walks, birding, a quiet hour in the garden. Notice what’s flowering: breath-of-spring (winter honeysuckle), brilliant yellow forsythia, lemony scented star magnolia. Notice what needs to be pruned: ahem, the rose bush. Although the vernal equinox occurs Sunday, March 20, spring has been here for weeks, present in each glorious inhalation. Allergy season? Coming soon. PS PineStraw
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Restaurant Guide Shaken & Stirred Thirsty? Moore County’s dining and entertainment scene boasts expert bartenders and brewers with some of the best drinks and food pairings around. We’re spotlighting the best in mixology, classic cocktails, wine bars and pubs in our area. Whether you’re looking for an intimate date night or an exciting night out with friends, take a peek inside for a guide to some of the best places to find a delicious drink. 96
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Voted “Most Authentic Pub” with an Historic Bar Hidden among the tall pines of Pinehurst is a storied authentic American tavern, Drum & Quill. Voted the Most Authentic Pub in the 2020 Best of the Pines contest and built on the old Irish tradition of a Public House, Drum & Quill is a cozy gathering place to eat, drink and make new friends.
Enjoy a view of downtown Pinehurst while sampling their famous pimento cheeseburger, Korean beef tacos or fried green tomato caprese and sipping on a cocktail made from the historic bar stocked with nearly 200 spirits. Moore County’s most liked tavern is the perfect spot to enjoy live music with delicious food and specialty drinks.
40 CHINQUAPIN RD. PINEHURST, NC 28374 | 910.295.3193 | DRUMANDQUILL.COM The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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The Best Steak in the Pines F o r g e n e ra t i o n s , l o c a l l y owned and family-operated Beefeaters has been a favorite dining destination in the Sandhills. One of the best steakhouse restaurants in the area, they have continuously been voted “Best Steak” in Moore County for over 20 years. At
Beefeaters, you can pair their surf and turf menu with a wide selection of bourbons, local craft beer, wines and signature cocktails from the lounge. With something for all tastes, Beefeaters is ready to host your night out to satisfy every craving.
672 SW BROAD ST., SOUTHERN PINES, NC 28387 | 910.692.5550 | BEEFEATERSOFSOUTHERNPINES.COM
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Founded in Brewing, Forged in Friendship Hatchet Brewing Company strives to foster a culture of fellowship and community around really great beer – made with high quality ingredients, brewed with passion, and developed with input from the community. Founded in 2017, Hatchet celebrated the grand opening of their downtown Southern Pines brewery and taproom in late 2019 where well-behaved people, children and dogs are welcome. Their large parking lot lends itself to a variety of food trucks and
live music each weekend and pop-up markets throughout the year, not to mention fundraising events and regular ax-throwing opportunities. Hatchet regularly introduces small batch brews, such as the Donneybrook Irish ale that features a blend of caramel and toasted malts that has a crisp mouthfeel and brilliant reddish hue. Its 4.7% ABV keeps it in a sessionable way to get you through St. Patrick’s Day or any festive spring party.
490 SW BROAD ST. | SOUTHERN PINES, NC | 910.725.7022 The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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Brunch Isn’t Just for the Weekends In love with food and each other, Mason’s Restaurant & Grocery began over Alison and Brian Hainley’s first brunch date as they brainstormed the concept of a “local brunch hang” with delicious, seasonal fare. Mason’s has now fulfilled that dream, serving up scratch-made biscuits and craft cocktails among their brunch options.
Mason’s features seasonally inspired specialty cocktails, mostly bright and bubbly with a Prosecco base. Their Bloody Mary, with house made Bloody Mary mix, is a crowd favorite, and their spiked cold brew, Irish coffees, and boozy hot chocolate are a hit, particularly in the winter months.
111 N. SYCAMORE ST., | ABERDEEN, NC | 910.757.0155 | WWW.EATATMASONS.COM
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Whiskey Business The moment the Pinehurst editions of its Woodford Reserve select whiskey were placed on the shelves at Moore County ABC Stores, the clock was ticking. “Maybe 72 hours. Maybe,” recounts Pinehurst Resort’s Francesca Carter (right), who joined the resort’s Laura Bailey (left) in crafting its three signature blends for 2021, appropriately named No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3.
“Then it was gone.” But not gone for good. The Pinehurst Woodford is still available by the pour at the North & South Bar, Pinehurst Resort’s stylish whiskey and bourbon bar in The Manor. Sporting 70 styles of bourbons, whiskeys, ryes and Scotch, the North & South Bar’s elegant ambiance is unique to the Village. As is its Woodford.
5 COMMUNITY RD, PINEHURST, NC 28374 | 910.235.8472 | PINEHURST.COM The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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Rooted in the Southern Pines Community “Southern Pines Brewing has expanded! Come to the beautiful downtown location, on the corner of Bennett Ave. and West Pennsylvania. There you can sip a local beer, cider, or one of the hand selected
wines. Feeling adventurous? Try one of our incredibly popular beer slushees! We have a rotating list of flavors in our slushee machine, to match the season! All photo-worthy, all made using our Southern Pines beer!”
565 AIR TOOL DR SUITE E | SOUTHERN PINES, NC | 910-365-9925 205 W. PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE | SOUTHERN PINES, NC | 910-365-9900 | SOUTHERNPINESBREWING.COM
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A family affair continues… Vince Continenza developed the Ironwood in 2006. After his passing his wife Cindy and son Nathan, Executive Chef have carried on his dream of the ultimate dining experience. Their passion for wine and spirits show seasonally with menu changes throughout the year
allowing the inspiring mixologists to create a palate for all to enjoy. Whether enjoying cocktails on our full service patio or strolling through the herb garden we hope you can come enjoy the uniquely created Lavender Lemon Drop, The Garden Rose, or the Rosemary Hibiscus Petal.
910-255-0000 | IRONWOODPINEHURST.COM The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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Satisfy Your Craving At Chapman’s Food and Spirits, you’re invited to slide up to the copper penny bar and try one of their delicious craft cocktails, such as Chappy’s Chiller and their Signature Whiskey Sour. Or bask in the sunshine on the patio and enjoy a unique
spin on fresh, homemade comfort food such as the Ultimate Burger, the Wicked Good Crawfish Fries, and the beer-battered Haddock and Fries. Whether you’re hungry, thirsty, or both, Chapman’s Food & Spirits is sure to satisfy your tastebuds.
157 EAST NEW HAMPSHIRE AVE. SOUTHERN PINES, NC 28387 | 910.246.0497 | CHAPMANSFOODANDSPIRITS.COM
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Come. Stay. Enjoy. diVine is the embodiment of sophistication, charm, and style. We give our members a place to celebrate life’s special moments in an upscale, comfortable speakeasy environment. We boast a vast selection of wine, an impressive array of liquors, and a list of craft cocktails that will satisfy any
palate, plus small bites and charcuterie boards prepared by Chef Chad, a local legend. Handcrafted with precision, our drink recipes and savory bites are sure to leave your tastebuds ecstatic. Host your event with us and enjoy a sophisticated, luxurious experience without the hassle.
390 SW BROAD ST. | SOUTHERN PINES, NC | 910.467.7065 The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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Arts Entertainment C A L E N DA R
Into the Woods Jr. 3/
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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 an event. JOY OF ART STUDIO. Painting, drawing and mixed media. Offering both private and small groups with safe distance. Classes are held at Joy of Art Studio, 139 E. Pennsylvania Ave., Suite B, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 528-7283 or www.joyofart.com or www.facebook.com/Joyscreativespace/. SCAVENGER HUNT. Pick up scavenger hunts at the Given Book Shop, Given Memorial Library or online at www.giventufts.org/program-andevents. The scavenger hunt will take you through the village of Pinehurst, and there will be multiple themes such as science, shapes, historic buildings and more. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. BOOK SALE. This month’s sale is buy one, get one free. Masks recommended in the book shop. Given Book Shop, 95 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642. PAGES OF THE PINES. The Southern Pines Public Library is excited to announce the inaugural Pages of the Pines, a festival of books celebrating local authors. Are you a local writer? Have you self-published or traditionally published a book? Sell your books, increase your visibility as an author, and connect with fellow writers at events all weekend long May 13-15. Apply for a table to sell and promote your work at the Festival on Saturday, May 14. Applications close March 18. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. To apply visit: www.sppl.net.
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Guest Author Gaia Cornwall 3/
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Tuesday, March 1
Friday, March 4
PAINTED PONIES. The third annual Painted Ponies Art Walk will continue through the end of March. Fifteen ponies line Broad Street for visitors to enjoy as they stroll downtown. The ponies will be auctioned off on April 9.
BOOK SALE. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. The C.A.R.E. Group (collecting available resources for education) is hosting our Broken In Book Sale Fundraiser. All proceeds from this sale will go to vital programs for literacy and mentoring. We have books from all genres and all ages. Read Moore Center, 575 S.E. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.thecaregroupinc.org/events.
ADULT STORYTIME. 12 p.m. Take a break from your busy day and join us for a storytime designed for adults. Bring your lunch and listen to Audrey Moriarty read some of her favorites. Masks required. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642. SPRING INTO STORYTIME. 4 - 4:30 p.m. The Country Bookshop, in partnership with Candlewick Publishers, presents weekly virtual storytimes where you can meet the authors and hear the stories. This week is special guest author Janet Costa Bates with Time for Bed Old House. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
Wednesday, March 2 LIBRARY PROGRAM. 3:30 p.m. ATLAS (at the library after school) is a new after-school program for children ages kindergarten through second grade who enjoy stories and learning. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.
Thursday, March 3 THEATER PERFORMANCE. 7 p.m. West Pine Middle School will perform Into the Woods Jr. There will be more performances on March 4 and 5 at 6 p.m. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www. sunrisetheater.com.
WOMEN OF THE PINES. 11 a.m. Featured speaker Dede Petri will discuss Frederick Law Olmsted’s legacy and the importance of public parks. Pinehurst Village Hall, 395 Magnolia Road, Pinehurst. Info and reservations: www.womenofthepines.org or email womenofthepines@gmail.com. ARTS FESTIVAL. 5 p.m. The annual Young People’s Fine Arts Festival showcases art by students in grades K-8 from Moore County’s public, private, charter and home schools. The students’ art is judged and awards given at a special reception and awards ceremony. The art will remain on display through March 25. Campbell House Galleries, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2787 or www.mooreart.org. ART EXHIBIT. 5 - 7 p.m. The Artists League will host an opening reception for the exhibit “March is for the Arts,” a showcase of the work of league members. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979. THEATER SHOW. 7:30 p.m. Sandhills Repertory Theatre presents Always . . . Patsy Cline. There will be additional performances on March 5 at 2 p.m. and March 6 at 2 p.m. Bradshaw Performing Arts Center, 3395 Airport Road, The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
CA L E N DA R Pinehurst. Tickets: www.ticketmesandhills.com or www.sandhillsrep.org.
Saturday, March 5 SATURDAY KIDS PROGRAM. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Dr. Seuss Day! Do you like The Cat in the Hat? The Grinch? Celebrate the great man’s birthday with crafts, activities and books. Masks required. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642.
Sunday, March 6 BOLSHOI BALLET. 12:55 p.m. The Sunrise Theater presents Swan Lake. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6923611 or www.sunrisetheater.com. MEDITATION WALK. 2 - 3:15 p.m. Join us for this monthly meditation walk, with your guide, Eve Gaskell. The group will meet on the outside patio area of the visitor’s center. If it is raining, the event will be cancelled. Sandhills Horticultural Gardens, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: harmonylifebalance@gmail.com. WRITING GROUP. 3 p.m. Interested in creating fiction, nonfiction, poetry or comics? Connect with other writers and artists, chat about your craft and get feedback on your work. All levels are welcome. The session will meet at the library. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: lholden@sppl.net.
Tuesday, March 8 SPRING INTO STORYTIME. 4 - 4:30 p.m. The Country Bookshop, in partnership with Candlewick Publishers, presents weekly virtual storytimes where you can meet the authors and hear the stories. This week is special guest author Gaia Cornwall with Jabari Jumps and Jabari Tries. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com. PINT NIGHT. 5 - 7 p.m. Join us for the Habitat Pint Night. Southern Pines Brewing Company will be donating $1 to Habitat for Humanity for every pint sold to help build affordable housing. Southern Pines Brewing Company, 205 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpinesbrewing.com.
Wednesday, March 9 AUTHOR EVENT. 3 p.m. Carolyn Wade “C.W.” Langston, author and illustrator, will give a presentation about her book Kullat Nunu and the Man in the Moon, a lunar love story. Following the chat, the author will sign books and guests can enjoy refreshments provided by Clara House. Info: www. thecountrybookshop.biz. LIVE MUSIC. 7 p.m. Trombonist/composer Ryan Keberle has performed with a jaw-dropping roster of legendary musicians across a vast array of styles. He brings his experience to the group Ryan Keberle and Catharsis, one of the most progressive bands in modern jazz. Cost is $30 for Weymouth supporters and $35 general admission. Great Room at Weymouth, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Tickets: www.weymouthcenter.org. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Thursday, March 10 SENIOR TRIP. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Adults 55 and older can join us for the first trip of the spring as we explore Seagrove, the handmade pottery capital of the United States. Afterward, enjoy lunch at Primavera Italian Restaurant. Cost is $7 for residents of Southern Pines and $14 for non-residents. Bus will depart the Campbell House Playground parking lot at 8 a.m. Info: (910) 692-7376. PRESENTATION. 10 a.m. The Sandhills Woman’s Exchange will host popular Sandhills Community College professor Ron Layne, who will discuss “The Pretty Boys of the Silver Screen.” Guests will enjoy glimpses of 100 years of the men who were the heartthrobs of film. Cost is $25 per person and includes lunch and dessert. Sandhills Woman’s Exchange, 15 Azalea Road, Pinehurst. Info and reservations: (910) 295-4677 or www. sandhillswe.org. GATHERING AT GIVEN. 3:30 p.m. The library staff will provide a Libby app workshop to introduce you to this e-reading and audiobook resource. Using your smart device you can open thousands of titles, have 24 hour access, and automatic alerts. Staff will help you navigate through it. Masks required. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642.
Friday, March 11 SPRING FLING. 5:30 p.m. Join us to celebrate the arrival of spring with games, tickets and prizes. For children ages 3 -12. Recreation Center Gym, 160 Memorial Park Ct., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
Saturday, March 12 CRAFT DAYS. Children and their families can come by the library for Drop in Craft Days and work on crafts at their own pace. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE. 11 a.m. The village of Pinehurst will host the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. Festive parade entries and Irish cheer abound. Tufts Memorial Park, 1 Village Green Drive, Pinehurst. Info: www.vopnc.org/events. MET OPERA. 12:55 p.m. Performance of Ariadne Auf Naxos. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www. sunrisetheater.com. SHAMROCK THE HOUSE. 5 - 7 p.m. The Women of Weymouth present “Shamrock the House!” St. Paddy’s Day Warm-Up Dinner and Celebration. Dinner will be catered by Broad Street Bakery and Café and is available for pickup and go, or stay and picnic on the beautiful Weymouth Center grounds while you enjoy traditional Irish music. Bring your lawn chairs and your own beverages. Reserve your meal by March 7. Cost is $35 for supporters and $45 general. Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info and tickets: www.weymouthcenter.org.
DADDY/DAUGHTER DANCE. 6:30 p.m. Join us for our third annual daddy/daughter dance. This year’s theme encourages our guests to wear their best red carpet attire. Daughters and special guests of all ages are welcome to join us for this fun evening of dancing and food. Cost is $40 per couple (additional children are $15). Photographs and corsages are requested to be ordered in advance. Spout Springs Church, 346 H.M. Cagle Drive, Cameron. Tickets: www.tix.com/ticket-sales/ encorecenter/6154. PHILHARMONIC. 7:30 p.m. The Carolina Philharmonic presents “Pops-Music Muse.” Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 687-0287 or www.carolinaphil.org.
Sunday, March 13 LECTURE SERIES. 2 p.m. Reginald Hildebrand and Reginald Hodges speak on “Freedom Park: The Inspiring Story of How a Monument to Freedom is Built while Confederate Statues are Coming Down.” Cost is $15 for Weymouth members and $20 for non-members. Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.
Monday, March 14 PHOTO CLUB. 7 p.m. The Sandhills Photography Club’s monthly meeting features Becca G. Leen, a real estate broker and an awardwinning photographer, discussing real estate photography. It will be a hybrid meeting so attendees can choose being in person or online. Info: www. sandhillsphotoclub.org/membership.
Tuesday, March 15 BINGO. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to come play 10 games of bingo. Prizes given to the winners. Cost is $3 for Southern Pines residents and $6 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info and registration: (910) 692-7376. LUNCH WITH LEGENDS. 11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Lunch with Legends, honoring Shirley Chisholm and Hallie Quinn Brown and hosted by the League of Women Voters of Moore County, returns with a luncheon social, consisting of cocktails and an assortment of gourmet heavy hors d’oeuvres. There will also be a cash bar. Carolina Hall and Terrace, 80 Carolina Vista Drive, Pinehurst. Info: www. ticketmesandhills.com. SPRING INTO STORYTIME. 4 - 4:30 p.m. The Country Bookshop, in partnership with Candlewick Publishers, presents weekly virtual storytimes where you can meet the authors and hear the stories. This week is special guest author Sarah Maizes with Atticus Caticus. Info: www. ticketmesandhills.com. TEEN WRITING CLUB. 5 p.m. Are you a teen writer interested in creative writing and storytelling? Ready to share your work, hone your craft, or just hang out and get inspired with other young PineStraw
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CA L E N DA R writers? Join us for the Teen Creative Writing Club. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or email: kbroughey@sppl.net.
Wednesday, March 16 LIBRARY PROGRAM. 3:30 p.m. ATLAS (at the library after school) is a new after-school program for children ages kindergarten through second grade who enjoy stories and learning. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. AUTHOR EVENT. 4 p.m. Kianna Alexander, author of Carolina Built, is in conversation with Kimberly Taws. Info: www.thecountrybookshop.biz.
Thursday, March 17 ST. PATRICK’S MEAL. The Sly Fox will be serving up a bowl of Irish stew with soda bread for $12, corned beef and cabbage with baby carrots and soda bread for $20, and Baileys and Guinness cake for $10. Served all day. They are also serving Guinness for $4 all day. The Sly Fox, 795 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 725-1621 or www.theslyfoxpub.com. WOMEN’S MEETING. 12 p.m. The Sandhills Christian Women’s Connection will meet and have guest speaker, Karin Williams, who will share a dramatic presentation of what it was like to live in a
communist country and her appreciation of being free. Lunch is $22. All ladies in the area are invited to attend. Lookout Room at Pinehurst Country Club, 1 Carolina Vista Dr., Pinehurst. Reservations can be made by emailing sbrown1850@att.net. GARDEN TOUR. 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Wear your favorite green shirt and explore the multiple gardens located right here in Moore County. Enjoy beautiful scenery with fellow gardening friends. Bring your own lunch for a picnic afterward. Transportation on your own. For adults 55 and older. Sandhills Horticultural Gardens, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 692-7376. READ BETWEEN THE PINES. 5 p.m. SPPL’s book club for adults meets to discuss this month’s book. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. To join email: mhoward@sppl.net. CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE. 6:30 p.m. The guest speaker will be our treasurer, Ron Sunderland, discussing the Battle of Fort Stevens. Meeting starts at 7 p.m. Open to the public. Civic Club, corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Ashe Street, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 246-0452 or mafarina@aol.com.
Saturday, March 19 FOREST BATHING. 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Make time
to relax on a guided sensory journey into nature. Walks are led by Lara Beth Jones, licensed occupational therapist and nature and forest therapy guide. Cost is $45 for Southern Pines residents and $90 for non-residents. Whitehall Tract, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2463 or www.southernpines.net. TEEN DAY OF SERVICE. 5 p.m. Are you a teen looking for a volunteer opportunity? Join us to work on projects for local community agencies. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or email: kbroughey@sppl.net. DANCING. 6 p.m. Carolina Pines Dance Club invites you for a fun evening of social dancing — swing, line, ballroom, shag and Latin. Doors open at 6 p.m. Dance lessons at 6:30 p.m. Dancing until 9:30 p.m. Beginners and experienced dancers, couples and singles all welcome. Cost is $15 per person, cash at the door. National Athletic Village, 201 Air Tool Dr., Souther Pines. Info: (724) 816-1170.
Sunday, March 20 STEAM. 2:30 p.m. Learn about topics in science, technology, engineering, art and math. Elementary aged children and caregivers are invited to participate in STEAM projects and activities. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.
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March 12 10am - 5pm Blue Hen Pottery, Dean and Martin Pottery, Eck McCanless Pottery, From the Ground Up Pottery, Red Hare Pottery and Thomas Pottery. Enjoy samples from Carriage House Tea and The Table Farmhouse Bakery.
teawithseagrovepotters www.teawithseagrovepotters.com
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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! E E CE I N AN ATORM
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910-944-3979
Arts & Culture
LEE AUDITORIUM, PINECREST HIGH SCHOOL, SOUTHERN PINES
ALL Gallery • Studios • Classes
MOZART SUN, MAR 27 | 3PM
Evan Rogister, conductor Randall Goosby, violin Mozart: Overture to The Magic Flute Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 “Turkish” Mozart: Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter”
Tickets start at just $20!
March is for the Arts Opening Reception Friday, March 4, 5:00-7:00 Exhibit Open Until April 1
Gallery Hours: Monday - Saturday 12-3pm ANY MEDIUM Working from Life – Plein Air Painting - Betty Hendrix Monday and Tuesday, March 28 and 29, 9:00-3:00 OIL AND ACRYLIC Discovering Acrylics – Beth Ybarra – Wednesday and Thursday, March 9, 10, 9:00-1:00 Intermediate Acrylic Pouring - Meredith Markfield - Thursday, March 17, 12:30-2:30 Introduction to Oils for Beginners - Linda Bruening – Tuesday and Wednesday, April 12, 13, 9:30-3:30 Next Step-Oil Painting - Linda Bruening –Tuesday and Wednesday, April 19, 20, 9:30-3:30 WATERCOLOR Flowers and Glass Series – Jean Smyth – Fridays, March 11, 18, 25, 1:00-4:00 Watercolor on Rice Paper – Pat McMahon –Wednesday and Thursday March 30, 31, 10:00-12:00 Travel Journal –Ink and Watercolor – Betty Hendrix – Monday, April 11, 10:00-3:00 DRAWING Intro to Calligraphy – Cathy Brown, Tuesday and Wednesday, March 1, 3, 10:00-12:00 Next Step Calligraphy – Cathy Brown, Tuesday and Wednesday, March 15, 16, 10:00-12:00 Simple Perspective in Drawing - Laureen Kirk, Monday and Tuesday, April 4, 5, 10:00-3:00 OTHER MEDIUMS Go with the Flow/Beginning Alcohol Ink - Pam Griner – Tuesday, March 8, 11:30-2:30 Intermediate/Advanced Alcohol Ink - Pam Griner – Wednesday, April 6, 10:00-3:30 Citra Solv Collage (& Resin Demonstration) – Carol Gradwohl - Thursday and Friday, April 7, 8, 10:30-3:00 WORKSHOPS Contemporary Ideas for Abstracting Realism – Oil (or any medium) Jean Grunewald - Tuesday and Wednesday, March 22 and 23, 2022 Exploring Colored Pencil with Kate Lagaly Monday, April 25 - Wednesday, April 27, 2022 - 9:30-4:00
Ask Us About Becoming a Member • 129 Exchange Street in Aberdeen, NC www.artistleague.org • artistleague@windstream.net The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Student tickets $11
ncsymphony.org | 877.627.6724 For health & safety information visit ncsymphony.org
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Wedding
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Services: General Dermatology – Treatment for various skin, hair, and nail conditions
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
CA L E N DA R
Monday, March 21 WOMEN OF WEYMOUTH. 9:30 a.m. The Women of Weymouth monthly meeting will be followed by guest speaker Morgan Sills, executive producer of the Judson Theatre Company. Free admission. Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org. CRAFT ’N CREATIONS. 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older can come create DIY crafts. Cost is $6 for residents of Southern Pines and $12 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. HEALTHY AGING. 3:30 p.m. This presentation on “Home Environments for Those with Dementia” takes a room-by-room look at ways to set up the home for maximum independence, comfort, and safety for the person with cognitive challenges and their caregiver. Masks required. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642.
Tuesday, March 22 GIVEN TO GO. 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Order your tasty springtime meal prepared by Elliott’s on Linden in support of the library. Ticket sales begin March 7. Dinner can be picked up between 5:30 and 6:30
p.m. Price is $24 per meal. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 2953642 or email: giventufts@gmail.com.
Thursday, March 24 DOUGLASS CENTER BOOK CLUB. 10:30 a.m. Multiple copies of the selected book for the month are available for checkout at the library. Douglass Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or email: mmiller@sppl.net.
Friday, March 25 CONCERT. Singers/Songwriters in the Round concert. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www. sunrisetheater.com.
Saturday, March 26 CRAFT DAYS. Children and their families can come by the library for Drop in Craft Days and work on crafts at their own pace. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. FUN RUN. 8:30 a.m. Join as FirstHealth Fitness of Pinehurst hosts a free 5K Fun Run the last Saturday of each month. Enjoy a run along the greenway trails. This is a no frills, timed event. There are staggered starts in small groups to maintain social distancing. Info and registration: (910) 715-1800.
SPECIAL PRESENTATION. 10 - 10:30 a.m. The Encore Center presents the Story of Rutherford Wolf. Families are invited to hear the big bad wolf’s side of the story. Masks required. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642. MET OPERA. 12 p.m. Performance of Don Carlos. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www. sunrisetheater.com. FOR THE GIRLS. 7 - 9 a.m. Kristin Chenoweth with For The Girls. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info and tickets: www. ticketmesandhills.com. SEASON REVEAL. 7:30 p.m. Encore Center presents an exclusive viewing of our upcoming 2022-2023 Theatrical Season and Silent Auction Fundraiser. Tickets will be $25 and available to the public. Champagne and light hors d’oeuvres will be served, and our resident actors, students and guests will perform small excerpts from each upcoming production. Encore Center, 160 E. New Hampshire Ave., Southern Pines. Attendance is limited and tickets or sponsorships may be purchased at: www. tix.com/ticket-sales/encorecenter/6154 or by calling (910) 725-0603.
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Sunday, March 27 JAZZ BRUNCH. 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. Join us outdoors on the Weymouth Center’s beautiful grounds for live jazz from Shana Tucker and ChamberSoul. Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info and tickets: www.weymouthcenter.org.
Tuesday, March 29 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. Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www. weymouthcenter.org.
Wednesday, March 30 LUNCH TIME CONVERSATIONS. 11:30 a.m. Join Aging Outreach Services for Lunch Time Conversations. Are you prepared for the unexpected? What legal documents are needed before a crisis occurs? Learn how to start the conversations that will help you and your family prepare for the future. Light refreshments will be served; attendees are encouraged to bring their questions and a brown bag lunch. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6928235 or www.sppl.net.
Recreation Center, 210 Memorial Park Ct., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
UPCOMING EVENTS Friday, April 1 LIVE MUSIC. 7 p.m. Brittany Haas and Joe Walsh perform. Cost is $30 for Weymouth supporters and $35 general admission. Great Room at Weymouth, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Tickets: www.weymouthcenter.org. COMEDY SHOW. 7 - 8 p.m. Come enjoy an evening of jokes and laughter. Cash bar available. The Country Club of Whispering Pines, 2 Club House Blvd., Whispering Pines. Info and tickets: www. ticketmesandhills.com.
WEEKLY EVENTS Mondays 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 and registration: (910) 692-7376. Info: (910) 692-7376. INDOOR WALKING. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Improve balance, blood pressure and maintain healthy bones with one of the best methods of exercise. Classes are held at the same time Monday through Friday. Ages 55 and up. Cost for six months: $15/resident; $30/non-resident. Southern Pines
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GAME SHOW MANIA. 1 - 2 p.m. Adults 55 and over are invited to play famous TV games such as Jeopardy! and Family Feud. Southern Pines Recreation Center, 210 Memorial Park Ct., 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 and registration: (910) 692-7376.
Tuesdays BABY RHYMES. 10:30 a.m. Baby Rhymes is specially designed for the youngest learners (birth2) and their caregivers. Repetition and comforting movements make this story time perfect for early development and brain growth. Dates this month will be March 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29. There will be a duplicate session outside the library at 11 a.m. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www. sppl.net 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.
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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CA L E N DA R 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. SPARK STORYTIME. 2:30 p.m. This Spark Storytime at Fire Station 82 is for ages birth through 2 and kids will have a chance to see firetrucks. Dates this month will be March 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29. Fire Station 82, 500 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net 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 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 and registration: (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 and registration: (910) 692-7376.
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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.
Thursdays 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.
cabins, and gift shop are open for tours and visits. The cabins will be open Thursdays and Fridays with docents ready to host tours. Visit the restored tobacco barn featuring the history of children’s roles in the industry. Shaw House, 3361 Mt. Carmel Rd., Carthage. Info: (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com. MUSIC AND MOTION. 2 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 3 – 5-yearolds. Dates this month will be March 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6928235 or www.sppl.net.
GIVEN STORYTIME. 10 a.m. Wonderful volunteers share their love of reading. Social distancing for children and masks required for adults. Stop by and join the fun. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info and tickets: (910) 295-3642.
Fridays
CHESS AND MAHJONG. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. All levels welcome. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info and registration: (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 and registration: (910) 6927376. PS
CABIN TOURS. 1 - 4 p.m. The Moore County Historical Associations’ Shaw House grounds,
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 and registration: (910) 692-7376.
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
SandhillSeen Brrr Creek Polar Plunge
Benefitting Jimmy V Fund for Cancer Research Saturday, January 29, 2022 Photographs by Diane McKay
William & Lynne McDuffie
Terri Holt, Savannah McNeill, Eden Holt
Sydney & Rayna Lee
Nick Maley, River McDuffie
Allen Bumgarner, Tony Rouse
Sean, Jennifer & Jack Kennally Daniel Smith, Tina Dawson
Anna Dunlap, Skye, Silas, Kim & Sadie Cockman
Keith Lee & Jess
Miranda Smith, Daniel Smith, John Loomis, William Dobson, Nicole Gormley
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
The Brave Group of Plungers
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SandhillSeen Carolina Horse Park Painted Ponies Downtown Southern Pines Saturday, January 29, 2022
Photographs by Diane McKay
Natalie & Jacqueline Schmidt
Allison Blough, Betsy Fonke
The Kirkham Family
Steve Hague, Jodi Franklin, Beth Hague
Caroline, Chloe, Heather, Charli, Kahryn, Victoria & Stella
Elizabeth, Killian, Chris & Kiernan Thiel
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Susan Hulbert, Jane Asdal
Alyssa, Mike & Alaina Kearnes
Taylor & Sarah Graese, Blue
Emily Spicer, Melanie & TJ Watson
Sanna Nassar
Andrew Penksa, Ashley Rundin
Shannon Habenicht, Bryan Rosenberg, Mayor Carol Haney, Council Member Paul Murphy
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
SandhillSeen
Brittany, Ryan, Hinton, Wendy Paschal
Moore County Hounds Meet
Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities Saturday, January 29, 2022 Photographs by Diane McKay
Mel Wyatt
Rev. John, Gordon, Molly & Shelly Talk
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March 26 Kristin Chenoweth For The Girls BPAC’s Owens Auditorium
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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legacylakestennis.net The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
March PineNeedler
By Mart Dickerson
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
4. Playground game
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34. Doing nothing
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SOUTHWORDS
Dannazione! Scusa!
By Beth MacDonald
When I was
in high school I took French classes, envisioning a day when I would travel to Paris to chicly order Champagne and shop like a native. Unfortunately, I never think to lower my daydream expectations to allow for my real-life blunders.
I moved to Italy in my late 20s, and I needed to quickly learn the language in order to communicate for my job. I became fluent enough to manage around my Italian counterparts, order food and, of course, shop. I also managed to bungle the accents on enough words to offend the man at the gas station when asking for a pen to sign my NATO ration coupons. After four years I found out it was not a writing implement that I had been requesting. Oops. A friend of mine, far more conversant than I, began laughing to the point of tears when I repeated the phrase I had been using for so long. After a few minutes she calmed down enough to tell me what I had asked for was much more personal to a man than a pen, but very close in spelling. I started going to a different gas station. When I finally made it to France as a tourist, I could only recognize two words: cigarette and pastry. I didn’t smoke, so the fact that “cigarette” is the same in just about any language did me no good. I tried to order water at a patisserie, asking for water, aqua, agua, eau (leaving butchered accents and articles strewn at the side of the road) and even tried a very determined — and exasperated — index finger pointing at the bottle of water I wanted. The lady at the counter refused to do anything but stare at me with a flat look on her face. The French built the Eiffel Tower is less time than it was taking me to get a sip of water. I could have shriveled up and died if it weren’t for a stranger stepping in to order for me. A few years ago, I went to Greece for a few weeks. I made it a goal to gain some rudimentary knowledge regarding the lay of the land as well as learn a few greetings and courtesies. I bought books, I went
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online, and ultimately came to the conclusion that Greek is not easy and Google Translate hates me. My husband is fluent in odd languages no one ever thinks about, like Tongan. He is much better at fitting in abroad. If he’s not good at something new, he’s confident, and that certainly goes a long way. He’ll say a word that doesn’t mean what he thinks it means, and people respond anyway. I can accurately give voice to an accent, but I have trouble remembering the words. While in Greece, he was trying to help me (bless his heart) by giving me mnemonics to help me remember what I was supposed to say. Maybe it is our years of marriage that render anything he says immediately unheard, or perhaps it was because I’m a mom and everything in my brain gets scrambled and re-filed under, “Where are your shoes? Yes, you have to wear shoes.” Either way, I forgot everything he told me right when I needed it most. I walked around trying to thank people by saying, with my very good accent, “Ikilledyourcat-a,” all the time smiling and bowing like a blonde Norwegian Sumo wrestler. I followed this by incorporating an odd hand gesture that made me look like the Pope conferring blessings upon all. The people of Greece are lovely people, even if we’ve all grown weary of learning their alphabet. They are kind, and smiles are universal. After some time in Athens, I took to interpretive dance as my primary way of communicating — I might be a YouTube star in Europe to this day. Omicron aside, Greek is an amazing, beautiful language. If you mess up a word, not to worry, you haven’t said anything meaningful at all, just random gibberish. It’s not like other languages where you screw up and accidentally offend someone. To be honest, I would still give my experience speaking Greek a five-star Yelp review just for the exercise I got ordering gyros by flailing my arms. PS Beth MacDonald is a Southern Pines suburban misadventurer with an earthy vocabulary who relies heavily on spellcheck. She loves to travel with her family, read everything she can, and shop locally for her socks. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
ILLUSTRATION BY MERIDITH MARTENS
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Southern Pines
Photo by Tim Sayer
Buyer, Purveyor & Appraiser of Fine and Estate Jewellery 229 NE Broad Street • Southern Pines, NC • (910) 692-0551 Mother and Daughter Leann and Whitney Parker Look Forward to Welcoming You to WhitLauter. @whitlauter_jewelers
