October PineStraw 2018 by PineStraw Magazine

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DENTISTRY

Jamie McDevitt and “Harlee”

McDevitt town & country properties

Jamie McDevitt | 910.724.4455 McDevittTownAndCountry.com | Jamie@JamieMcDevitt.com | 107 NE Broad Street, Southern Pines, NC

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Martha Gentry’s H O M E

S E L L I N G

T E A M

Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team!

Y SO

TL CEN

MCLENDON HILLS • $370,000

288 MCLENDON HILLS DRIVE Lovely 4 BR / 3.5 BA country home in popular McLendon Hills situated on 2 acres of gently rolling property. Lots of curb appeal w/large covered front porch and a great floorplan featuring spacious great room and upstairs area.

DIN

PEN

DIN

PEN

ABERDEEN • $315,000

428 PINECREST COURT ROAD Adorable 3 BR / 3 BA home on over 3 acres in quiet location. Home has been remodeled w/new kitchen, new baths and lots of outdoor areas. Outside is beautifully landscaped and has 3 large detached garages….a car lover or outdoor sportsmans dream!

PINEHURST • $308,000

360 SURRY CIRCLE DRIVE S. Nice two story, 4 BR / 3.5 BA home on double lot in a great Pinehurst neighborhood! The home offers spacious and flowing floorplan including a Bonus room that could be used as add’l bedroom. Great house at a great price!

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WHISPERING PINES • $389,000

25 PAR DRIVE Custom 4 BR / 3 BA home – immaculate and well maintained! Home offers peaceful water views, gourmet kitchen w/new appliances and great floorplan. Recent renovations include hardwood floors, new carpet and paint as well as new HVAC and new roof!

WHISPERING PINES • $329,500

31 SHADOW DRIVE Rustic 3 BR / 3 BA waterfront home on Shadow Lake in Whispering Pines. Lower level features a walkout leading to the waters edge and large backyard while the inside offers lots of widows for those lovely lake views!

SEVEN LAKES NORTH • $330,000

169 FIRETREE LANE Waterfront ranch style home on beautiful Lake Sequoia - 3 BR / 2 BA. Spacious floorplan w/cathedral ceilings, bright Carolina room and nice master suite w/walk-in closet. Enjoy gorgeous lake views from the large wood deck in the back!

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SEVEN LAKES WEST • $349,000

102 BANBRIDGE DRIVE Beautiful golf front home on 14th green and 15th tee of Beacon Ridge CC - 3 BR / 2.5 BA.The home offers bright and flowing floorplan w/ Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors throughout the main living areas.

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EN REC

PINEHURST • $419,700

60 PINEWILD DRIVE Gorgeous 4 BR / 2.5 BA contemporary home is located on the 13th hole of the Magnolia Course of Pinewild CC. Floorplan is bright and open w/spacious master suite, nice kitchen and expansive deck area to enjoy lovely views!

1001 SANDAVIS ROAD Adorable 3 BR / 2.5 BA home w/open concept floorplan and nice upgrades! Gorgeous over-sized kitchen w/large waterfall granite island. Home is nestled into a park-like conservation area in beautiful Southern Pines neighborhood!

4 ROYAL DORNOCH LANE This 2 BR / 3 BA home sits on two lots and offers stunning views of the 11th green of CCNC’s Dogwood course and beautiful water views from the front of the property. Great floorplan w/lots of windows throughout the home to enjoy the scenic views.

SOL

SOUTHERN PINES • $400,000

PINEHURST • $375,000

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EN REC

PINEHURST • $425,000

35 GLASGOW DRIVE All brick 3 BR / 2.5 BA home on large flat lot w/mature landscaping and gorgeous golf views of Pinewild’s practice course. Well designed floorplan w/flowing living areas and spacious living room w/wood burning fireplace. A must see!

SOL

PINEHURST • $399,900

360 SUGAR PINE DRIVE Conveniently located 4 BR / 3.5 BA home on private lot. This custom home offers nice upgrades as well as high-end, beautifully appointed living spaces for a growing family. Pinehurst CC Membership available.

IN MOORE COUNTY REAL ESTATE FOR OVER 20 YEARS!

Luxury Properties MARTHA GENTRY’S HOME SELLING TEAM

Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team!

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EN REC

SEVEN LAKES WEST • $993,000

108 LOGAN COURT Amazing 4 BR / 4 full BA 2 half BA lakefront home located on two premium wide water lots. Open floorplan with water views from almost every room. Truly one of the most beautiful homes on Lake Auman.

PINEHURST • $1,094,000

100 MCKENZIE ROAD W. Exquisite 5 BR / 5.5 BA cottage in the heart of Old Town. This lovely home sits on 1.66 beautifully manicured acres and offers over 8,000 sq ft in main house and two guest houses. Truly a magnificent home!

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EN REC

PINEHURST • $639,000

80 FIELDS ROAD Quintessential 4 BR / 3.5 BA Old Town Cottage with all the charm and style expected in a vintage 1920’s property. Home has been beautifully renovated and features original fixtures, hardwood floors throughout and in-ground chlorine pool.

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EN REC

91 ABBOTTSFORD DRIVE Magnificent 5 BR / 3 full BA 2 half BA Tuscan Villa with THE best golf course and water views in Pinehurst. Thoughtfully styled to reflect the grace of European life; this home offers incredible high end finishes and large spaces for luxurious living

SOL

WHISPERING PINES • $530,000

PINEHURST • $890,000

118 PINE LAKE DRIVE Amazing 4 BR / 4 BA waterfront home in beautiful Whispering Pines. Built in 2014, this home offers a spacious floorplan, gourmet kitchen, large master suite and extensive upgrades. Home is totally immaculate!

102 STRATHAVEN COURT Elegant 4 BR / 3 Full BA 2 half BA golf front home. Home is located on the signature hole of Pinehurst #9. House was custom built w/fine finishes, great attention to detail and has been well maintained and cared for.

PINEHURST • $659,000

WHISPERING PINES • $545,000

149 MORRIS DRIVE Stunning 4 BR / 4 Full BA 2 half BA lakefront home on Lake Auman. All brick custom home w/open floorplan and outstanding features. Home has been meticulously maintained and cared for and includes adjacent lot.

PINEHURST • $895,000

SOL

SEVEN LAKES WEST • $935,000

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NT ECE

SOL

PINEHURST • $875,000

145 BROOKHAVEN ROAD Stunning 5 BR / 5.5 BA home in Fairwoods on Seven located on oversized, private lot and overlooks the 15th fairway of the #7 course. Spacious floorplan offers beautiful views and very nice upgrades.

37 STRATHAVEN DRIVE Elegant 3 BR / 3 Full BA 2 half BA French Country home overlooking the 11th hole of the Holly course. Spacious floorplan offers gorgeous kitchen and large master suite. Built by Step One, this exceptional home displays stunning architectural details throughout.

5 DIXIE DRIVE Alluring 3 BR / 3 BA lake front home in beautiful setting. Home has been well maintained and sits high with spectacular views of Lake Thagard. Main level displays open and inviting floorplan w/great kitchen and stunning views.

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VASS • $745,000

1000 LAKEBAY ROAD Unique, yet stunning 3 BR / 2 Full BA 2 half BA custom dream home! Home sits on just under 12 acres of flat pasture perfect for horses. Escape to this one of a kind property where you will also find a picturesque river stream behind the home. A must see!

PINEHURST • $795,000

115 BLUE ROAD Gorgeous 4 BR / 4.5 BA home in the Village of Pinehurst – truly a special property. With over 4500 square feet, this property has large and open rooms, lots of windows and high ceilings. Beautiful home inside and out….lots of living space and space for entertaining.

Re/Max Prime Properties, 5 Chinquapin Rd., Pinehurst, NC 910-295-7100 • 800-214-9007

MARThAGENTRY.COM • 910-295-7100 • Re/Max Prime Properties 5 Chinquapin Rd., Pinehurst, NC

Always a Step Ahead NEW LISTING

PARKWAY MEADOWS PENDING

230 SUGAR PINE DRIVE, PINEHURST • Amy Stonesifer 4 bed • 3.5 bath • $360,000

528 FOOTHILLS STREET ABERDEEN • Amy Stonesifer

759 SUN RD

ABERDEEN • Amy Stonesifer 4 bed • 3.5 bath • $300,000

NEW BUILD

165 E NEW JERSEY AVENUE

SOUTHERN PINES • Amy Stonesifer 3 bed • 3.5 bath • $390,000

675 HOGART ST

RAEFORD • Amy Stonesifer 3 bed • 2 bath • $165,000

PARKWAY MEADOWS PENDING

2A PINE COURT

PINEHURST • Amy Stonesifer 3 bed • 2.5 bath • $255,000

413 PALMER DRIVE

SOUTHERN PINES • Amy Stonesifer 2 bed • 2.5 bath • $275,000

400 PALISADES DR

ABERDEEN • Amy Stonesifer

NEW BUILD

160 S VINELAND ST

121 NEWINGTON WAY

PINEBLUFF • Amy Stonesifer 3 bed • 2 bath • $255,000

ABERDEEN • Amy Stonesifer 4 bed • 3 bath • $245,000

NEW BUILD

GOLF FRONT

120 HARPER LANE

CARTHAGE • Kelly Curran 4 bed • 4 bath • $359,900

99 PADDOCK LANE

SOUTHERN PINES • Kelly Curran 3 bed • 2 bath • $339,000

675 FLINT HILL CHURCH RD ROBBINS • Amy Stonesifer 2 bed • 2 bath • $450,000

Serving Moore County and Surrounding Areas!

www.maisonteam.com A Charming New Community to Moore County! Nestled in the Sandhills Parkway Meadows is Aberdeen’s newest pool and clubhouse community. Wide sidewalks throughout the neighborhood, Low HOA fees cover the community in-ground pool and clubhouse. Just a few minute drive to Downtown Aberdeen and Southern Pines. Close to all shopping, eateries, and entertainment. Quick and convenient commute to FT Bragg. The community features included upgrades not found in the price range. Homes range from 2862 SQ FT to 3145, and are priced between $278,000 and $290,000.

534 FOOTHILLS STREET ABERDEEN • Amy Stonesifer 4 bed • 2.5 bath • $288,250

522 FOOTHILLS STREET ABERDEEN • Amy Stonesifer 5 bed • 3.5 bath • $287,000

406 PALISADES DRIVE ABERDEEN • Amy Stonesifer 5 bed • 3 bath • $289,340

There are over 600 real estate agents in Moore County. Amy Stonesifer is among the top 5. Award-winning REALTOR® Amy Stonesifer got into the business of selling homes because she wanted to get out on her own. Six years ago, she realized she was becoming restless and needed new challenges beyond managing the household while her husband served in the Army in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. What started out as a simple midlife-career change quickly became one of Moore County’s fastest growing real estate firms. That’s because she realized there was an unmet need, one that she could intimately identify with: Soldiers and their families who need specialized individuals to take care of their homes while they’re away — and to sell them quickly when their assignments changed. As business boomed, she recruited the best of the best and built the Maison Real Estate Team – a team of highly talented, client-focused professionals who have the ability to meet military families where they’re at. Stonesifer’s disciplined, results-focused approach to buying and selling homes has become as much a mission as a business, one that gives back to the community and expresses deep appreciation for our men and women in uniform.

Buy, Sell or Rent through us- we do it all!

910.684.8674 | 135 E PENNSYLVANIA AVE | SOUTHERN PINES, NC 28388

18 Kirkton Court, Pinehurst

85 Cypress Point Drive, Pinehurst

800 Lake Dornoch Drive, Pinehurst

Waterfront in Pinewild, 3 levels with elevator, 4 fireplaces, custom details, outdoor living spaces, serene water feature, gourmet kitchen, and opulent master suite. 5 bed, 6/1 bath.

CCNC 5-acre golf front: architecture, design, craftsmanship, and setting blend to create over 5,600sf with open living spaces, varied ceiling heights and seamless living. 3 bed, 4/1 bath.

Spacious traditional on 5-acres with views of CCNC’s Cardinal course. Interior and exterior spaces for entertaining. Features geo-thermal heating and a pool. 4 bedrooms, 4/2 bathrooms.

1720 US Highway 1, Southern Pines

2335 Midland Road, Pinehurst

810 Lake Dornoch Drive, Pinehurst

1.48-acres property with 120’ft of highway footage. Building is over 4,000sf. Potential package deal for land, building, and business. Full service restaurant started in 1991.

Spectacular renovation and addition on “High Peaks” cottage. Located on 2 lots, this residence offers cottage living at its best with many special features. 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms.

Best price in CCNC. 5.4-acres of transitional living with stunning golf vistas. Includes cedar shake roof, open floor plan, varied ceiling designs, spacious master, and more. 3 bed, 4/2 bath.

25 Brookhaven Road, Pinehurst

755 Horse Pen Lane, Vass

50 Hearthstone Road, Pinehurst

Stunning and elegant custom-built all-brick home. Incredible golf views, gourmet kitchen, oversized master suite with generous closets. 4 bedrooms, 3/1 bathrooms.

6-acre estate retreat with easy foundation access. Versatile floor plan, with main level living, 3-stall barn, fabulous covered outdoor patio overlooking pastures. 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms.

Custom home on large, private lot near the Village entrance. A true lifestyle home for entertaining. 4 bedrooms, 3/1 bathrooms.

135 Saint Mellions Drive, Pinehurst

13 Granger Drive, Pinehurst

24 Granville Drive, Pinehurst

Golf front Pinehurst National #9, transferrable PCC charter membership, upstairs recreational room, built in 2005, walk to club house, many extras. 4 bedrooms, 4/1 bathrooms.

Golf and pond views from this custom ranch overlooking #9 on #7. Beautifully landscaped with water feature, office, patio, triple garage. 3 bedrooms, 3/1 bathrooms.

Exquisite golf front cottage in Forest Creek. Plantation shutters, stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, high ceilings, and tranquil front porch. 5 bedrooms, 4/1 bathrooms.

$1,650,000 MLS 187908 Deb Darby 910—783—5193

$1,350,000 MLS 186021 Scarlett Allison 910—603—0359

$1,300,000 MLS 190261 Bill Brock 910—639—1148

$899,900 MLS 188465 Scarlett Allison 910—603—0359

$875,000 MLS 188256 Jennifer Nguyen 910—585—2099

$775,000 MLS 188783 Deb Darby 910—783—5193

$749,000 MLS 190015 Frank Sessoms 910—639—3099

Pinehurst Office

$695,000 MLS 178679 Kay Beran 910—315—3322

•

42 Chinquapin Road •

Pinehurst, NC 28374 •

$1,325,000 MLS 186019 Scarlett Allison 910—603—0359

$895,000 MLS 175008 Scarlett Allison 910—603—0359

$749,000 MLS 187316 Kay Beran 910—315—3322

$650,000 MLS 190271 Stephanie Singer 910—224—4484

910–295–5504

15 East McCaskill Road, Pinehurst

23 Whithorn Court, Pinehurst

120 Woodenbridge Lane, Pinehurst

“Craven Longleaf Cottage” a Village of Pinehurst treasure. Large deck overlooking lovely gardens. Walk to Village. 1-car detached garage. 4 bedrooms, 2/1 bathrooms.

Spectacular home built with quality and attention to detail throughout. Light-filled rooms with panoramic golf views. Kitchen is a chef’s delight. 4 bedrooms, 3/1 bathrooms.

Golf front Pinehurst National #9, transferrable PCC charter membership, office, open floor plan, built by Lee Huckabee in 2006. 4 bedrooms, 3/1 bathrooms.

97 West McKenzie Road, Pinehurst

240 Frye Road, Pinehurst

76 Kilbride Drive, Pinehurst

Soaring ceilings, main level living, 2-sided fireplace, lots of windows and light. Location is amazing. Large lot, 2 entrances. Charter membership. 4 bedrooms, 2/1 bathrooms.

Steps away from the Village of Pinehurst. Expanded and upgraded home on a quiet, lovely cul-de-sac. Pinehurst Country Club membership is available. 4 bedrooms, 4/1 bathrooms.

Brick home on large, private, wooded lot with front views to the Magnolia Course. 3 bedrooms, 3/2 bathrooms.

$649,000 MLS 187694 Marie O’Brien 910—528—5669

$575,000 MLS 188646 Deb Darby 910—783—5193

3 Pine Tree Terrace, Foxfire $470,000 MLS 189413 Deb Darby 910—783—5193

Stunning residence on one level, high ceilings, wide doorways, gleaming hardwood, immaculate. Private in-ground pool off master. 3 bedrooms, 2/1 bathrooms.

$599,500 MLS 166239 Bonnie Baker 910—690—4705

$589,000 MLS 189234 Frank Sessoms 910—639—3099

$549,000 MLS 188341 Kay Beran 910—315—3322

$479,000 MLS 190332 Kay Beran 910—315—3322

Every home has a story to tell. A great broker knows every chapter by heart.

80 Redtail Lane, Pinehurst $349,000 MLS 181341 Deb Darby 910—783—5193

Buildable waterfront lot on Lake Dornoch in CCNC. Choose your builder and design your dream home in this unique east lake community. Membership approval required.

Southern Pines Office • 105 West Illinois Avenue

•

Southern Pines, NC 28387

•

910–692–2635

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity.

CLARK

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Moving from a larger home but don’t want to scale down too much? Want to pick your own colors and flooring? Come see what Quail Haven Village has to offer in spacious garden apartments. Enjoy the independence of your own home with the convenience of nearby services, activities, our Clubhouse and access to a full continuum of care. We handle the maintenance and upkeep of your home, as well as the housekeeping … so you can do the things you love.

Call Lynn at 910-295-2294

To Learn More and Schedule A Visitor visit QuailHavenVillage.com Hours: Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. | 155 Blake Blvd. • Pinehurst

October �� FEATURES 93 Hickory Nut Falls Poetry by Ashley Wahl

94 America’s First Family of Art By Ray Owen

Victoria Browning Wyeth gives an intimate look at a legacy of genius

100 The Gift of Personality By Jim Moriarty Finding the soul in a role

104 Coach By Bill Fields

Remembering a man who made us better

108 Georgie Porgie, Oh My! By Michael Smith The sometimes ghoulish roots of innocent nursery rhymes

110 House of Sweet Surprises By Deborah Salomon

Designer Mark Parson’s imaginative reworking of a forgettable bungalow creates something for everyone

121 Almanac By Ash Alder 83 Birdwatch

DEPARTMENTS

57 In the Spirit

31 Simple Life

61 Wine Country

85 Sporting Life

65 The Kitchen Garden

89 Golftown Journal

69 The Evolving Species

73 True South

122 136 141

By Jim Dodson

34 PinePitch 39 Instagram Winners 41 Good Natured By Karen Frye

43 The Omnivorous Reader By D.G. Martin

47 Bookshelf 51 Drinking with Writers By Wiley Cash

55 Hometown By Bill Fields

By Tony Cross

By Angela Sanchez

By Jan Leitschuh

By Claudia Watson By Susan Kelly

75 Out of the Blue

By Deborah Salomon

77 Mom, Inc.

By Renee Phile

78 Photo Club 81 The Pleasures of Life

By Tom Allen

By Susan Campbell

By Tom Bryant

By Jim Moriarty

Arts & Entertainment Calendar SandhillSeen PineNeedler By Mart Dickerson

143 The Accidental Astrologer By Astrid Stellanova

144 SouthWords

By Beth MacDonald

Cover Art by N.C. Wyeth for Drums 18

October 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Fall Bedding Arriving Daily…

Le Blanc is for all your Linens & Delicates.

Opulence of Southern Pines and DUXIANA at The Mews, 280 NW Broad Street, Downtown Southern Pines, NC 910.692.2744

at Cameron Village, 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

Casual Elegance at Forest Creek

M A G A Z I N E Volume 14, No. 10 David Woronoff, Publisher Jim Dodson, Editor

910.693.2506 • jim@pinestrawmag.com

Andie Stuart Rose, Creative Director

910.693.2467 • andie@pinestrawmag.com

Jim Moriarty, Senior Editor

910.692.7915 • jjmpinestraw@gmail.com

Brad Beard, Graphic Designer

910.693.2469 • bradatthepilot@gmail.com

Alyssa Rocherolle, Graphic Designer

910.693.2508 • alyssa@pinestrawmag.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Deborah Salomon, Staff Writer Mary Novitsky, Sara King, Proofreaders CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

John Gessner, Laura Gingerich, Tim Sayer

CONTRIBUTORS Tom Allen, Harry Blair, Tom Bryant, Susan Campbell, Bill Case, Wiley Cash, Tony Cross, Brianna Rolfe Cunningham, Mart Dickerson, Clyde Edgerton, Bill Fields, Laurel Holden, Jane Lear, Jan Leitschuh, Meridith Martens, D.G. Martin, Lee Pace, Romey Petite, Renee Phile, Joyce Reehling, Stephen E. Smith, Astrid Stellanova, Angie Tally, Kimberly Taws, Ashley Wahl,

PS ADVERTISING SALES

14 Cumberland Drive • Pinehurst

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

Poised on 2.45 acres in the exclusive Forest Creek Golf Club, this elegant residence exhibits design perfection in the concept of one-floor-living. Built in 2007 with 3 BR, 3/1 BA and 4,787 sq.ft., the architecture creates an open flow of space and light filled rooms. The main living areas are connected by rhythmic flow of arches, and doors that open across the back to a stunning terrace. Highlights include: a luxurious master bath with sauna, Roman shower and hot tub on a private terrace, octagonal study with vaulted ceiling and wine cellar, white oak hardwood floors, 12’ ceilings with exceptional and varied ceiling detail, rounded drywall corners, and gourmet kitchen. The elevated terrace creates a lovely setting for outdoor entertaining. Forest Creek golf membership is optional, as is Pinehurst CC with purchase of this property.

Terry Hartsell, 910.693.2513 Perry Loflin, 910.693.2514 Dacia Black, 910.693.2519 Patty Thompson, 910.693.3576 Johnsie Tipton, 910.693.2515

New Listing Offered at $1,550,000.

To view more photos, take a virtual tour or schedule a showing, go to:

www.clarkpropertiesnc.com

Maureen Clark when experience matters

Pinehurst • Southern Pines BHHS Pinehurst Realty Group • 910.315.1080

ADVERTISING GRAPHIC DESIGN

Mechelle Butler Scott Yancey, Trintin Rollins

PS Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488 Douglas Turner, Finance Director 910.693.2497 145 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Southern Pines, NC 28387 www.pinestrawmag.com

October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

451 Old Mail Road • Horse Country

The jewel of Moore County’s horse country, Fox Hollow Farm is secluded on 10.52 acres with easy access to thousands of acres of equestrian land. 4BR, 4.5BA, 5,276 sq ft. Offered at $2,200,000.

55 Shaw Road • Old Town

‘Centerwood’, the log cabin in the Village. An enchanting property built at the turn of the century, this 5BR, 5.5BA cottage represents a genuine piece of Pinehurst’s history. Offered at $1,398,000.

Maureen Clark

910.315.1080 • www.clarkproperties.com

1495 W. Connecticut Avenue • Southern Pines

Knollwood House, a Southern Pines landmark, is set on a knoll overlooking the Donald Ross designed Mid Pines Golf Course. 5BR, 5.5BA, 5,212 sq. ft. Offered at $998,000

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1680 Midland Road • Southern Pines

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70 Cypress Point • pinehurst

949 Sheldon Road• Southern Pines Occupying a premier 10.31-acres in Horse Country, this pristine hunt box borders a private and beautiful corner of the W.M. Foundation. 2BR, 2BA, 2,625 sq. ft. Offered at $1,085,000

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102 Hammerstone Circle • Whispering Pines

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14 Appin Court • pinehurst

Berkshire Hathaway HomeSercies and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity.Housing Opportunity.

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Featured Homes 1 Dunedin Circle

360 Lake Dornoch Drive

Pinehurst No. 6, Pinehurst

Country Club Of North Carolina, Pinehurst

Gorgeous water front home on a beautifully landscaped corner lot. Features a covered back porch with gas heater, covered patio off the kitchen, office with fireplace, wet bar, 3 car garage, solar panels, and more. 4 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths, 3,500+ Sq.Ft.

Located on the 12th hole of the Dogwood Golf Course! This all brick home offers a grand entrance and lovely living room with French doors to a private deck and screened in porch. 3 Bedrooms, 3 Baths, 5,000+ Sq.Ft.

MLS# 184211 $499,900

MLS# 184245 $730,000

235 Woodland Drive Pine Grove Village, Pinehurst

Country Club Of North Carolina, Pinehurst

MLS# 190106 $549,000

Beautiful all brick home on almost 2 acres featuring a gourmet kitchen with center island and sitting room, family and dining rooms both with fireplaces, master suite with an office, sunroom, back porch area with another fireplace, and 3 car garage. 5 Bedrooms, 4.5 Baths, 5,000+ Sq.Ft.

Prominent home located on a large corner lot in a great neighborhood. Features many updates, including beautifully sanded and re-stained hardwoods on the main floor! 4 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths, 4,000+ Sq. Ft.

40 Linville Drive

MLS# 187367 $879,000

Call today for a private showing of these beautiful homes! 130 Turner Street, Suite A Southern Pines, NC 28387 (910) 693-3300

Coldwell Banker Advantage Toll Free: (855) 484-1260 www.HomesCBA.com

100 Magnolia Road, Suite 1 Pinehurst, NC 28374 (910) 687-4022

THE

UNHURRIED

PACE

O F C E N T U R I E S PA ST

FREE WITH EVERY TREATMENT The moment you arrive in Pinehurst, everything seems to slow down. Your pulse drops.

Located adjacent to the historic Carolina Hotel • Village of Pinehurst, North Carolina • 877.293.6775 • pinehurst.com

Your mind clears. You forget all the worries of the day. And then your Spa treatment begins.

Pines Sotheby’s International Realty 177 W. Pennsylvania Ave Southern Pines, NC 28387 o. 910.725.2550 info@pinesSIR.com www.pinessothebysrealty.com

155 SW Lake Forest Drive, Pinehurst $895,000 Lakefront peace and quiet welcome you home to this unique, fully-renovated Pinehurst offering. With new appointments throughout, two levels of separated living space and multiple living arrangement options, this one is sure to please. 4 bedrooms and 4 and 1//2 bathrooms. SUSAN ULRICH c. 910.603. 4757 susan.ulrich@sothebysrealty.com

15 W McCaskill Road, Pinehurst $650,000 “Hollypoint Cottage” built in the 1920’s is an Old Town landmark. Equipped with 4 bedrooms and 3 and ½ bathrooms, this cottage has easy access to The Village, mature landscaping, offers great privacy and surprisingly spacious rooms. ROSS LATON c. 910.690.6679 ross.laton@sothebysrealty.com

15 Bel Air, Pinehurst $679,000 - UNDER CONTRACT Exceptional residence located in The Country Club of North Carolina is situated on 1.5 acres. Lovely terrace and swimming pool offers a breathtaking view of the 6th hole of the Dogwood course. MELODY MCCLELLAND c. 910.528.4313 melody.mcclelland@sothebysrealty.com

7 Driving Range Road, Pinehurst $849,000 Elegant timber frame construction on a double golf front lot on Pinehurst No. 6. Soaring wood ceilings and beams welcome you upon entering this one of a kind, 4 bedroom and 3 bathroom, custom home. Main level master suite, open floor plan and stunning views. KEITH HARRIS c. 704.905.9338 keith.harris@sothebysrealty.com

Looking to Plant NewRoots?

Let Nikki & Jessica help you find your new home in the Sandhills NIKKI BOWMAN Broker/Owner 910-528-4902

JESSICA ROWAN Broker 910-585-5438

760 B NW Broad Street Southern Pines, NC www.realtyworldofmoore.com

The Carolina Philharmonic presents

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION Featuring George Harliono, pianist Saturday, October 20, 2018 • 7:30 PM Robert E. Lee Auditorium

250 Voit Gilmore Ln. • Southern Pines, NC 28387 Photo by Alexander von Busch & Kir Simakov

The Carolina Philharmonic kicks off the 2018/19 Season with the celebrated art-gallery tour by Mussorsky, with AI-enhanced image projections, and featuring the return of virtuoso pianist George Harliono in Tchaikovsky’s spellbinding First Piano Concerto. $30 - General Admission $45 - Preferred Seating (Orchestra center) $60 - VIP (Front & center seating; includes valet parking) $25 - Active Military $11 - Students (Full-time) Arts Council of Moore County Campbell House, S. Pines Nature’s Own 95 Bell Avenue, S. Pines Sandhills Winery West End The Country Bookshop Southern Pines The Given Outpost and Bookshop Pinehurst Box Office 5 Market Square in Pinehurst Village Online at www.carolinaphil.org

(910) 687.0287 • www.carolinaphil.org The Carolina Philharmonic is a 501(c)3 non-profit

115 Davis Road • Southern Pines, NC 28387 • 910-692-2210 Visit our showroom online at www.hubbardkitchenandbath.com

SIMPLE LIFE

Ancient Roads

Wherever in the world they happen to be, all of them lead home

By Jim Dodson

Over a year ago I began traveling the

route of the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road, said to be the most traveled road of Colonial America, the frontier highway that brought a quarter of a million European immigrants to the Southern wilderness during the first two-thirds of the 18th century.

From 1700 to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, successive waves of German, Scotch-Irish, English, Welsh and Swiss immigrants — many of them refugees fleeing their war-ravaged homelands — found their way to the Southern backcountry following an ancient trading path used by Native American tribes for millennia. The Great Road, as I prefer to call it, stretched from Philadelphia’s Market Street to Augusta, Georgia, traversing the western portions of half a dozen colonies before crossing the Savannah River in Georgia. Both wings of my family (and quite possibly yours) came down it — my father’s English and Scottish forebears who settled around Mebane and Hillsborough in the mid-1700s followed by my mother’s German ancestors, who hopped off the road in Hagerstown and migrated into the hills of what would later become West Virginia. In one way or another, much of my life has been spent traveling major sections of this old road from the Carolinas to western Pennsylvania, for either work or pleasure or when I left my native South for two decades to live on the coast of Maine. The route of the original road is buried beneath modern highways, towns and cities, suburbs and shopping centers, but it is still with us — a pathway fully determined by extensive research by scholars, state archivists, local historians and organizations that specialize in finding historic lost roads. As one leading old road researcher put it bluntly to me, “The Great Wagon Road is the granddaddy of America’s lost roads — the reason we’re all here.” I first heard about it on a winter day in 1966 when my father took my brother, Richard, and me to shoot mistletoe out of the oak forest that grew around our grandmother’s long abandoned home place off Buckhorn Road near Chapel Hill. On the way home, he showed us the site of his great-grandfa-

ther’s gristmill and furniture shop where I-40/85 now crosses the historic Haw River. That man’s name was George Washington Tate. A street in Greensboro is named for this rural polymath who helped establish Methodist churches toward the foothills and made such beautiful cabinetry. Surviving pieces are displayed in important decorative art museums across the South. From that day forward, I’ll admit, I was quietly obsessed with the Great Road, germinating a plan to someday travel the road of my ancestors just to see what they had seen of early America’s landscape. It only took me a half-century to finally get around to making the journey. My original thought — silly me — was to drive the full 800-plus miles of the Great Road over several unhurried weeks beginning in late summer of 2017, stopping to investigate the historic towns and villages along the way, checking out the important battlefields and burying grounds, equal parts listening tour and journalistic inquiry, learning whatever I could about the most important road of early America. After years of preparation — reading everything from colonial histories to the biographies of Founding Fathers, academic monographs to personal journals, and building a network of experts and contacts along the way — my larger hope was to meet people for whom the Great Road is a living passion and see how the culture of the Great Road had shaped their lives — and mine. In theory, it was a nice approach. With the exception of one problem. By my fifth day out, I’d only reached Amish country east of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, just 60 or so miles from the start of my journey in Philadelphia, when I realized something. There was so much unique history and culture arrayed along this pioneer pathway — to say nothing of colorful characters, great local food, quirky hometown events and tacky roadside attractions that appealed to my inner coonskin-capped kid — there was simply no way three weeks could possibly do the old road justice. No less than seven American presidents, after all, were either born on or near the Great Road and at least a dozen key military engagements from our country’s two primary wars happened on it — Kings Mountain and Guilford Courthouse during the American Revolution, Antietam and Gettysburg during the Civil War. After 10 days out in my own vintage “wagon” — a 1996 Buick Roadmaster Grand Estate, the last true station wagon built by Detroit — I rolled home with a full notebook and a revised plan to travel and research the road in segments of three or four days at a time. If this realistic approach did little to benefit my (neglected) garden, the

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 2018

SIMPLE LIFE

people I met and stories I heard along the way were nothing shy of eye-opening and even healing at a moment when America at large was bitterly divided over the presidency of Donald J. Trump. For what it’s worth, the Great Wagon Road bisected the heart of Trump Country from Pennsylvania to Georgia. As this October dawns, I’ve clocked more than 1,200 miles researching the past and present of this great American road and plan to settle in to write my interaction with it over the coming winter months. I just hope I can keep the book under 900 or so pages. Ironically, this has been a year of dramatic travels along other notable historic and ancient pathways. In late June, my son Jack married a fellow journalist and beautiful Palestinian gal named Henriette that he met during graduate school at Columbia University. Their wedding was a charming five-day affair in Old Jaffa on the coast of Israel. On the morning of the wedding at an ancient church where legend held that St. Peter received the vision to take Christianity to the wider world, I was tasked with calling upon the Chacar family’s 84-year-old patriarch to ask permission for my son to marry his granddaughter. Tennuce Chacar smiled, grasped my hands and kissed my cheeks. We shared a glass of very fine whiskey over the matter. The party lasted way after midnight. On our last day in the Middle East, we followed an Israeli archeologist through the crowded streets of old Jerusalem, following the path Christ took, carrying the cross. We also stood at the Wailing Wall and walked the outer walls of the most besieged and contested city in human history. Soldiers and pilgrims were everywhere, armed, respectively, with Uzis and icons. Between us, I felt little in the way of peace in the old city of Jerusalem, a place that seems captive to blood and tears. Finally, as summer ended, my wife and I joined 60 souls from our Episcopal church for an 80-mile pilgrimage along an ancient road called the Via

Francigena, the medieval pathway that connected Canterbury to Rome. For a week we trekked through the glorious Tuscan countryside, through breathtaking hills of ripening vineyards and olive orchards, through dense forests and sleepy villages, exploring hill towns and ancient abbeys, sharing good wine and great pasta, thunderstorms and theology, sore feet and simple meals and a few unexpected thin moments between earth and sky. For this sore-footed pilgrim, exploring walled Lucca (where we honeymooned 17 years ago) and Siena with its proud family flags and bustling central piazza was a deeply rewarding experiences. Farther along the pilgrim’s path in teeming Roma, I loved seeing the statue of my hero Marcus Aurelius and poking around the ruins of the Pantheon and Cicero’s Forum, places I’ve hungered to see since I was a knee-high to toga. But on the opposite end of town, quite unexpectedly, I found myself spiritually suffocated by the over-the-top art and power of Vatican City with its soaring heights and monumental treasures, a gilded city on a hill full of tourists, pilgrims, polizia and pickpockets. Thus, I skipped the Sistine Chapel altogether in favor of a quiet compline service at a Greek Orthodox church on a neighboring hill. In the nick of time, the message seemed to be that it was high time to end my year of traveling ancient roads and turn for home — arriving just as a historic hurricane swept ashore to wreak death and devastation on the Old North State and finish off whatever was left of my unfinished garden. Looking back, what a curious and unforgettable year it has been. The beauty of any road, ancient or otherwise, is that it takes you somewhere you’ve never been and provides a useful new perspective. Old Roads tell fascinating stories, I’ve been reminded anew. But being home for a quiet October is a story I never get weary of hearing. PS Contact Editor Jim Dodson at jim@thepilot.com.

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October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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405 BEULAH HILL RD • OLD TOWN Buy a piece of History! “Boxwood Cotttage” 2.6 acres. Completely renovated, plus new gourmet kitchen, family rm, attached 2 car garage. Four bay Carriage house. 5BD, 5 ½ BA. Offered at $2,250,000.

315 N BEULAH HILL RD • OLD TOWN Charming! Completely restored Historic home with new addition. Indoor pool. New 3 bay garage. 6BD, 5 ½ BA. Offered at $1,475,000.

645 S DIAMONDHEAD DR • LAKE PINEHURST WATERFRONT. Premier lakefront location. Walls removed for expansive water views. Total updates. 4BD, 3 ½ BA. Offered at $898,000.

815 LAKE DORNOCH DR • CCNC Stately, gorgeous, comfortable and casual living. Located on more than 5 acres, 3BD, 3 ½ BA. Finished lower level. Offered at $875,000.

145 HEARTHSTONE RD • FAIRWOODS ON 7 Golf Front 2nd hole. Custom. Very open with views everywhere. Nearly 4000 sq ft of single level living. 4BD, 3 ½ BA. Offered at $762,000.

295 QUAIL RUN • CLARENDON GARDENS Complete remake. New gourmet kitchen and Master Suite. Expansive private back yard with brick patio. 4BD, 3 ½ BA. Offered at $425,000.

235 HEARTHSTONE RD • FAIRWOODS ON 7 1st hole of Pinehurst No 7 Golf Course. Updated home with hardwood flooring, new kitchen etc. Focal point of home is the family room open to handsome kitchen and fabulous open porch. 3BD, 2BA Offered at $595,000.

268 JUNIPER CREEK BLVD • PINEHURST NO 6 113 SAKONNET TRAIL • PINEHURST NO 6 Stunning, all brick home. Hardwood floors, stainless appli- Ron Hickman Custom home and personal residence. Over 3000 sq ances, beautiful cabinetry, granite countertops. Elegant ft, split floorplan, many special features. Extended deck with outdoor area. 4BD, 4 ½ BA. Pinehurst CC Membership. Offered at $364,900. coffered ceiling. 4-5 BD, 2 ½ BA. Offered at $389,000.

118 HADDINGTON DR • FOREST CREEK Stunning custom home on the Fazio Golf course in a private setting. Wall of windows. Gourmet kitchen with large isLand. 4BD, 3BA. Offered at $550,000.

16 DEVON DR • PINEWILD Stunning contemporary home on the Azalea GC. New updates including kitchen, all bathrooms, addition of Carolina Rm & sitting room off Master, new roof in ’14. 3 BD, 2 ½ BA. Priced to sell at $399,000.

ENERGY. EXPERIENCE. EFFORT.

6 SODBURY CT • COTSWOLD PINEHURST Stunning, Custom Townhome with over 3000 square feet of single floor living space. Oversized garage with separate workshop in rear and large Bonus rm above. Tons of Storage! 3BDRM, 2 ½ BA. Offered at $425,000.

Lin Hutaff’s PineHurst reaLty GrouP

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PinePitch America’s First Family of Art A lecture by Victoria Browning Wyeth — greatgranddaughter of N.C., grandchild of Andrew and niece of Jamie — on the art of her famous family begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday October 25, at the Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Tickets are available through the Moore County Arts Council. For more information call (910) 6926261 or weymouthcenter.org.

Oh, Let Me Not Be Mad! The Chichester Festival Theatre production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear will be broadcast live in high definition by the Royal National Theatre on Thursday, October 11, at 10 a.m. Doors open at 9 a.m. at the Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. For more information call (910) 692-3611 or visit www.sunrisetheater.com.

String Quartet The Omer Quartet, comprised of violinists Mason Yu and Erica Tursi, violist Jinsun Hong and cellist Alex Cox, is featured in the Classic Concert Series at the Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines on Monday, October 15. The quartet was a recent prizewinner at the Young Concert Artists Auditions. The cost is $30-35. For more information call (910) 692-2787 or www.mooreart.org.

The Block Party Is Back The Catalinas perform at the 2nd Annual Heritage Flag Block Party from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, October 14, benefiting Military Missions in Action. The day features face painting and bouncy houses for the kids and a raffle with thousands of dollars in prizes for their parents. Food trucks from the Triangle will be on site along with the Southern Pines Brewing Company. Heritage Flag Company is at 230 S. Bennett St., Southern Pines. For more information visit www.theheritageflag.com.

Shaw House Fair The 10th Annual Shaw House Fair of Vintage Collectables takes place on Saturday, October 13, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. The fair features live music, antique vendors, food and demonstrations of old-time crafts. Admission is free. The Shaw House is located at 110 W. Morganton Road, Southern Pines. For additional information call (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com.

October 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Meet the Author Diane Chamberlain’s new book The Dream Daughter is a thrilling, mind-bending novel about a mother’s journey to save her child. Meet the New York Times best-selling author at 5 p.m. on October 18 at The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines.

The Judson Theatre Company presents Love, Loss, and What I Wore starring Joyce Reehling, Sally Struthers and Kim Coles. Performances of the powerful show written by Nora and Delia Ephron will be Thursday, October 18 at 7 p.m.; Friday, October 19 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, October 20 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, October 21 at 3 p.m. at the Hannah Center Theater at The O’Neal School, 3300 Airport Road, Southern Pines. Tickets are $38 for adults; $20 for students and members of the military. Cost at the door is $40. For more information go to www.judsontheatre.com.

Ruth Pauley Lecture Series

Carolina Philharmonic The celebrated classic art gallery tour “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Mussorgsky kicks off the Carolina Philharmonic season on Saturday, October 20 with artificial intelligence-enhanced image projections and featuring the return of virtuoso pianist George Harliono in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. performance at Lee Auditorium at Pinecrest High School, 250 Voit Gilmore Lane, Southern Pines, are $30 for general admission; $25 for military; $11 for students. For more information call (910) 687-9287 or see www. carolinaphil.org.

North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame Induction James W. Clark, Randall Kenan, Jill McCorkle, Penelope Niven and Marsha White Warren will be inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame on Sunday, October 7, in a ceremony beginning at 2 p.m. The event takes place at the Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. For additional information call (910) 6926261 or go to weymouthcenter.org.

On October 31 at 7:30 p.m. Dr. Robert Watson, award-winning author, professor, historian and frequent media commentator, will present “Dysfunction in Washington: History, Causes, Consequences” at Lee Auditorium at Pinecrest High School, 250 Voit Gilmore Lane, Southern Pines.

Why Do Hummingbirds Hum? Ornithologist and wildlife ecologist Susan M. Campbell will present “Everything You Wanted to Know about Hummingbirds” on Friday, October 26 at 1 p.m. at the Ball Visitors Center at Sandhills Community College. Presented by the Sandhills Horticultural Society and the Sandhills Garden Clubs, the program is free to the public. Registration is required. For information visit landscapegardening@sandhills.edu.

PinePitch The Old Is New Again The Cameron Antiques Street Fair on Friday and Saturday, October 5-6, is two full days of antiquing up and down historic Cameron’s Main Street. The happening features roadside vendors as well as special offerings by the permanent antique shops. Food and refreshments are available for refueling. The parking is provided by Cameron’s churches and local civic groups. The town of Cameron is just off U.S. 1 on Hwy 24/27

Beyond The Phantom

First Friday Veering from rock to reggae, with some funk and blues in-between, The Get Right Band takes the First Bank Stage on Friday, October 5, from 5 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.. Admission is free but no dogs, please. In case of rain, snow, sleet or hurricanes the show will move inside the Sunrise Theater at 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. For more information call (910) 6928501 or go to www.firstfridaysouthernpines.com.

The Sandhills Repertory Theatre will present “Andrew Lloyd Webber on Broadway” at 7:30 p.m. on October 26-27 with an October 28 matinee on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the Hannah Theater Center at The O’Neal School, 3300 Airport Road, Southern Pines. Tickets are $35 general admission; $32 for seniors and military; $20 for students. They can be purchased online at www.sandhillsrep.org or wwwticketmesandhills or at The Pilot Office, 145 Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Senior and military tickets are available at the Given Memorial Library in Pinehurst or The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines. For more information call (347) 385-4207 or (910) 692-6920.

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October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

PinePitch The Rooster’s Wife

Happy Birthday The Country Bookshop is turning 65 and will celebrate the occasion with a 1950s-theme party from 6 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 11. Festivities begin with a toast at The Country Bookshop, 305 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines, and adjourn to 305 Trackside. Drinks and light hors d’oeuvres will be served. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at www.ticketmesandhills. com. For more information go to www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

Frédéric Chopin Meets Paul McCartney A chamber music concert, “Chopin Meets the Beatles: Songs of Love, Loss and Longing,” featuring Pamela Howland on the piano begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 14 at the Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities. The cost is $20 for members; $30 for non-members. Tickets can be purchased at www. tickemesandhills.com. For additional information call (910) 692-6261 or weymouthcenter.org.

It’s a Little Fishy There will be sardines, crackers, Moon Pies, RC Colas and Coca-Cola galore at the 26th Annual Sardine Festival on Friday, October 12. Conspicuous consumption begins at 11 a.m. and continues until 2 p.m. at Aberdeen Lake Park, 301 Lake Park Crossing, Aberdeen. For additional information call (910) 944-7275 or www.townofaberdeen.net.

Thursday, October 4: The Black Feathers at the Cameo Art House Theatre, 225 Hay Street, Fayetteville. Americana, folk, and acoustic indie rock sensibilities co-exist comfortably in this musical world, with gorgeous guitar work buoying the kind of harmonies often heard in family bands. Cost: $12 in advance; $15 at the door. Friday, October 5: The Black Feathers at the Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Cost: $15. Sunday, October 7: Celebrated New Orleans chanteuse Debbie Davis brings her equally lauded piano man, Josh Paxton, for a night of jazz. Sara Caswell, 2018 Grammy-nominated violinist will open the show. Cost: $20. Sunday, October 14: A songwriter’s superlative — Rebecca Newton, Clint Alphin, Wes Collins and Rod Abernathy, four of North Carolina’s finest, bring an evening of song from four different perspectives. Cost: $10. Thursday, October 18: OpenMic. Free for members, $5 membership at door. Friday, October 19: The Wooks, winners of the 2016 RockyGrass band contest, bring real Kentucky rhythm and bluegrass. Cost: $10. Sunday, October 21: Jonathan Byrd and the Pickup Cowboys. Byrd is a preacher’s son, a Gulf War veteran, and a Kerrville New Folk award-winner from seven generations of North Carolinians, with his sidekick, Johnny Waken. Cost, $15. Thursday, October 25: Jack Grace Band, CD release party. Clyde Haberman of the New York Times says, “It sounds like Cole Porter meets Gene Autry.” SiriusXM radio host Grace’s new album is his best yet. Cost: $10. Friday, October 26: Comedy Night with Johnny Mac. Sophisticated stand-up. Cost, $20. Sunday, October 28: New Reveille. For those of us who know the power of music as it once was, Rolling Stone says New Reveille is a band to watch. Cost: $15. Doors open at 6 p.m. and music begins at 6:46 at the Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Prices above are for members. Annual memberships are $5 and available online or at the door. For more information call (910) 944-7502 or visit www.theroosterswife.org. PS

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INSTAGRAM WINNERS

Congratulations to our October Instagram winners!

Theme:

Orange

#pinestrawcontest

Next monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theme:

Food

Submit your photo on Instagram at @pinestrawmag using the hashtag #pinestrawcontest (Submissions needed by Friday, October 19th)

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 2018

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The Great Pumpkin Seed

By Karen Frye

October is the month for the pumpkin harvest

in the Sandhills, but by late summer, you begin to find them in the farmers markets and roadside stands. Some are ornamental pumpkins used to decorate for the fall season, and some are edible pumpkins for pies, breads and seeds. Pumpkin is a member of the squash family and while the flesh has many health benefits, the seeds are the real powerhouse of nutrients.

Pumpkin seeds, also known as “pepitas,” are flat, dark green and football shaped. They have a chewy texture, and a subtle, sweet, nutty flavor. The use of the seeds for the nutritional value and medicinal benefits dates back to the Native Americans. A few of the nutritional highlights are the minerals magnesium, iron, copper, manganese and zinc. The seeds are also rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, protein, good fats and phytosterols, particularly beta-sitosterol. Natural medicine has used pumpkin seeds in the treatment of prostate conditions. Zinc and beta-sistosterol are important nutrients that can help reduce BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia). Beta-sistosterol is also highly beneficial in reducing cholesterol. Other ailments that improve with eating the seeds are nausea, motion sickness and parasites. If you haven’t explored adding these nutritious seeds to your diet, now is the time. To ensure your seeds are as fresh as possible (and don’t contain any moisture), store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It’s best to eat them within two months but they will be OK for up to six. Always check for any musky smell, an indication the seeds have gone rancid. Of course, the freshest seeds are right out of the pumpkin. Clean the pumpkin flesh off the seeds, then let them dry by spreading them out for a few days exposed to the air. The seeds are delicious raw or soaked overnight in a bit of water. One-third cup of seeds contains 90 calories, 4 grams of fat, 4 grams of protein, and 11 grams of carbohydrates. Roasting the seeds is easy and brings more depth of flavor, especially if you are using them in a salad or to top baked bread. To roast them, spread the seeds on a baking sheet or cast iron skillet. Drizzle a little oil over them if you’d like. Bake in a 300-degree oven for about 30 minutes till golden brown. Shake the pan often to prevent burning. For spicy pumpkin seeds, add 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg to 3 cups of seeds. If you want them salty, add a little Celtic salt. If you want a little zing, add a pinch of cayenne pepper. Follow the baking instructions. Other pumpkin seed ideas: Add to sautéed carrots, broccoli and onions. Sprinkle liberally over a salad for extra crunch. Add crushed seeds to hot cereal. Add to your meat or veggie burger for a delicious, nutritious treat. Make a new habit of munching on pumpkin seeds instead of chips or pretzels. They are easy travel companions, too. Delicious, nutritious and good for the whole family, even your pets. PS Karen Frye is the owner and founder of Nature’s Own and teaches yoga at the Bikram Yoga Studio.

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THE OMNIVOROUS READER

Linking Different Worlds Orr and Sparks connect North Carolina and Africa

By D.G. Martin

Two important new novels are set in

North Carolina and in Africa. It is an amazing coincidence because the books’ authors live in two different literary worlds.

The first new, Africa-connected book is N.C. State professor Elaine Neil Orr’s Swimming Between Worlds. She is a highly praised author of literary fiction. The second is New Bern — based Nicholas Sparks’ latest, Every Breath, which is being released this month. Sparks’ 20 novels have been regulars on The New York Times best-seller lists, often at No. 1, making him one of the world’s most successful writers of what some call commercial fiction. What is the difference between literary and commercial fiction? According to Writer’s Digest, “There aren’t any hard and fast definitions for one or the other, but there are some basic differences, and those differences affect how the book is read, packaged, and marketed. Literary fiction is usually more concerned with style and characterization than commercial fiction. Literary

fiction is also usually paced more slowly than commercial fiction. Literary fiction usually centers around a timeless, complex theme, and rarely has a pat (or happy) ending. Commercial fiction, on the other hand, is faster paced, with a stronger plot line (more events, higher stakes, more dangerous situations).” Although both Orr and Sparks would argue that their work cannot be neatly packaged in either genre, the literary/commercial distinction helps prepare readers for the authors’ different styles. In these two books, both authors tell compelling stories and feature interesting and complex characters. Orr’s Swimming Between Worlds raises the question of whether there is a connection between the 1950s Nigerian movement for independence and the civil rights movement in Winston-Salem. Orr grew up as the child of American missionaries in Nigeria. Her experiences gave a beautiful and true spirit to her first novel, A Different Sun, about pre-Civil War Southern missionaries going to black Africa to save souls. Instead of slaveholding Southerners preaching to Nigerian blacks, the new book contrasts the cultural segregation of 1950s Winston-Salem with the situation in Nigeria. Although Nigerians at that time were coming to a successful

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end of their struggle for independence from Great Britain, they were still mired in the vestiges of colonial oppression. Set in these circumstances is a coming-ofage story and a love story. These themes are complicated, and enriched, by the overlay of Nigerian struggles and the civil rights protests in Winston-Salem. The main male character, Tacker Hart, had been a star high school football player who earned an architectural degree at N.C. State. He was selected for a plum assignment to work in Nigeria on prototype designs for new schools. Working in Nigeria, this typical Southern white male becomes so captivated by Nigerian culture, religion and ambience that his white supervisors fire him for being “too native” and send him home. Back in Winston-Salem the discouraged and depressed Tacker takes a job in his father’s grocery. The female lead character, Kate Monroe, is the daughter of a Salem College history professor. Her parents are dead, and after graduating from Agnes Scott College, she leaves Atlanta and her longtime boyfriend, James, to return to Winston-Salem and live in the family home where she grew up. She still, however, has feelings for James, an ambitious young doctor. How Tacker wins Kate from James is the love story that forms the core of this book. But there are complications created by a young AfricanAmerican college student who is taking time off to help with family in Winston-Salem. Tacker and Kate first meet Gaines on the same day. After Gaines buys a bottle of milk at the Hart grocery store, white thugs attack him for being in the wrong place (a white neighborhood) at the wrong time. Later on the same day, Kate spots an African-American man holding a bottle of milk, walking by her home in an upper-class white neighborhood. She thinks he probably stole the milk. She is terrified, and immediately locks her doors and windows. She shakes with worry about the danger of this young black man walking through her neighborhood. The young man is, of course, Gaines. It turns out that Gaines is the nephew of Tacker’s beloved family maid. Tacker and his father hire Gaines to work in the grocery store, and he becomes a model employee. But Gaines has a secret agenda. He is working with the group of outsiders to organize protest movements at lunch counters in downtown retail stores. Gaines sets out to entice Tacker to help with the protests, first, only to allow the store to be used at night for a meeting place. Then, over time, Tacker is led to participate in the sit-ins. In Nigeria, Tacker had found his black col-

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THE OMNIVOROUS READER

leagues and friends to be just as smart, interesting, and as talented as he was. He found them to be his equals. Back in Winston-Salem, he has at first slipped back into a comfort level with the segregated and oppressive culture in which he grew up. His protest activities with Gaines put his relationships with his family, Kate and possible employment at an architectural firm at risk. Tacker’s effort to accommodate his growing participation in the civil rights movement with his heritage of segregation leads to the book’s dramatic, tragic and totally surprising ending. The African connection in Nicholas Sparks’ new book is Tru Walls, a white safari guide from Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia. In 1990, the 42-year-old Tru comes to Sunset Beach to meet his biological father. It is his first visit to the United States. On the beach he meets Hope Anderson, a 36-year-old nurse from Raleigh. She is in a long-term relationship with Josh, a self-centered orthopedic surgeon. Nevertheless, she and Tru immediately fall into a deeply passionate love affair. How Hope resolves her competing feelings for Tru and Josh is the thread that guides the book to a poignant conclusion 24 years later at another North Carolina beach. In the meantime readers learn from Tru’s experiences about the lives of white farm families and the competing claims of the overwhelming black majority in Zimbabwe. Sparks’ descriptions of wildlife and the safari experience evoke memories of Ernest Hemingway’s African short stories. Sparks’ publishers say that Every Breath is in the spirit of The Notebook. In both books, the lovers’ early encounters involve fiery and youthful passion. Sparks brings them together again years later as older, even infirm, people still deeply in love. PBS’s Great American Read has named The Notebook one of America’s 100 best-loved novels. It’s the only book set in North Carolina to make the list. On Oct. 23, PBS will announce the one book selected as America’s best-loved novel. Voting will be open until Oct. 18. You may register your votes for The Notebook and for other books on the list. Go to www.pbs.org/the-great-americanread/vote/. For a list of all 100 books, go to www. pbs.org/the-great-american-read/books/#/. As part of its participation in The Great American Read during the first two weeks in October, UNC-TV will air special “North Carolina Bookwatch” interviews with Sparks about The Notebook and Every Breath. PS D.G. Martin hosts “North Carolina Bookwatch,” which airs Sundays at noon and Thursdays at 5 p.m. on UNC-TV.

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BOOKSHELF

October Books FICTION

Virgil Wander, by Leif Enger

Step into the pages of Virgil Wander and walk with the quirky, charming citizens of Greenstone, Minnesota, where normal life is anything but and Hard Luck Days is actually a celebrated event. Vintage theater owner and city clerk Virgil Wander drove through a guardrail and into Lake Superior and lived to tell the tale, although he wasn’t quite the same. Fable-like happenings prevail — a local sports hero disappears into the wild blue yonder; an elderly kite flyer enchants all; a movie star with seemingly sinister motives returns; a massive sturgeon lurks near the shore; and who is that mysterious, silent man Virgil occasionally spies standing on the water? Readers will be captivated by the warmth, wit and whimsy infused in each line.

Scribe, by Alyson Hagy

Folkloric, tragic and surreal, you might have to sit in stillness long after the final page of Scribe just to absorb Hagy’s evocative and achingly beautiful prose. Deep in Appalachia following a civil war and a pandemic, there remains a society under authoritarian rule. A woman living alone in a farmhouse has the ability to write letters for others who barter with the goods she needs to survive. She is haunted by her own misdeeds and a violent past that raises its head when a strange man requires her services in crafting and delivering a fateful letter. Her journey is a dream-like odyssey in a dystopian landscape that’s lyrical, desolate and wonderfully strange.

Man with a Seagull on his Head, by Harriet Paige

Ray Eccles’ mother has died and he is on his knees at the shore when a seagull falls from the sky and lands on his head — a scene witnessed by a woman walking on the beach. When he gets home, all he can do is paint this woman over and over again, creating the exact same picture every time. Discovered by “Outsider Art” collectors, he moves in with them and continues to paint, becoming a celebrated artist. Paige’s novel is a quirky, interesting, original story of a life lived one foot in front of the other, when nothing else matters but what is in front of you.

Little, by Edward Carey

After the death of her parents, a tiny odd-looking girl named Marie is apprenticed to an eccentric wax sculptor and whisked off to the seamy streets of Paris, where they meet a domineering widow and her quiet, pale son. Together, they convert an abandoned monkey house into an exhibition hall for wax heads, and the spectacle becomes a sensation. As word of her artistic talent spreads, Marie is called to Versailles, where she tutors a princess and saves Marie Antoinette in childbirth. But outside the palace walls, Paris is roiling: The revolutionary mob is demanding heads, and . . . at the wax museum, heads are what they do. Book clubs will enjoy discussing this wry, at times macabre, read.

A Well-Behaved Woman, by Therese Anne Fowler

In this thought-provoking fictional account, Alva Smith — her Southern family destitute after the Civil War — marries into a Gilded Age dynasty: the illustrious, wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilt family. Ignored by New York’s old-money circles and determined to win respect, Alva designed and built mansions, hosted grand balls, and arranged for her daughter to marry a

duke. She also defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women’s suffrage movement.

The Dream Daughter, by Diane Chamberlain

In 1970, Caroline Sears receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect. She’s devastated until she learns that something can be done. Something that will shatter every preconceived notion Caroline has. Something that will require a kind of strength and courage that she never knew existed. Something that will mean a mind-bending leap of faith. A rich, breathtaking novel about a mother’s quest to save her child, unite her family, and believe in the unbelievable. Chamberlain pushes the boundaries of faith and science to deliver a novel you will never forget.

The Traveling Cat Chronicles, by Hiro Arikawa

Nana is a stray cat named for the spot on his tail that looks like the number seven (nana) in Japanese. His adoptive owner is Saturo, who nurses him after he’s been hit by a car. Saturo and the cat travel to distant towns to visit Saturo’s friends as he tries to find Nana a new home. Narrated in turns by Nana and by his owner, this funny, uplifting, heart-rending story of a cat is nothing if not profoundly human. NONFICTION

In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown, by Nathaniel Philbrick

The thrilling story of the Revolutionary War’s decisive battle from The New York Times best-selling author of In the Heart of the Sea and Valiant Ambition. In the Battle of the Chesapeake, a French admiral foiled British attempts to rescue its army led by Lord Cornwallis. This naval battle, masterminded by Washington but fought without a single American ship, was largely responsible for the independence of the United States. A riveting and wide-ranging narrative, full of dramatic and unexpected turns, In the Hurricane’s Eye reveals that the fate of the American Revolution depended, in the end, on Washington and the sea.

The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London, by

Christopher Skaife The Yeoman Warder and Ravenmaster, Skaife lives at the Tower of London with his wife and writes the first behind-the-scenes account of the legendary ravens at one of the world’s eeriest monuments. He lets us in on his life as he feeds his birds raw meat and biscuits soaked in blood, buys their food at Smithfield Market, shines a light on the birds’ pecking order, social structure and the tricks they play on us. Skaife shows us who the Tower’s true guardians are.

BOOKSHELF

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Dreamers, by Yuyi Morales

Stunning mixed-media illustrations beautifully tell the story of a woman who journeys with her son to the United States to meet his grandfather. Her life is changed forever when she takes her child into a public library for the first time. Beautiful, simple and brilliantly told, Dreamers is a must read for anyone who has a story to tell. (Ages 4-6.)

My Dog Laughs, by Rachel Isadora

Contemporary • traditional • HandWrougHt

From the ever-amazing Isadora comes this perfect “getting a new dog” book. Simple lovely illustrations share the adventures of many different children and their new dogs as they choose a name, select a leash, train, care for, play, and laugh together. (Ages 3-6.)

A Long Line of Cakes, by Deborah Wiles With five brothers in tow and a family who seems to move every time she makes a new friend, Emma Alabama Lane Cake is justifiably reluctant to make new friends when her family opens the Cake Cafe right between the post office and Miss Mattie’s Mercantile. But Emma has never met Ruby Lavender, and Ruby has a different plan. Sweet, silly and absolutely the most wholesome thing since the Little House on the Prairie series, A Long Line of Cakes is just the perfect thing for young readers or for families to share together. (Ages 8-12.) Thundercluck! by Paul Tillery IV

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A magic mishap grants the power of thunder to a chicken, who must face an evil chef in this debut novel from Tillery and co-illustrator Meg Wittwer. Thundercluck, the chicken of Thor, first appeared in an awardwinning animation. The short film screened in over 50 festivals, including the San Diego Comic Con Film Festival, and the Con Carolinas Film Festival, where it won the 2015 Best Animation Award. “I wanted to tell the kind of story I would’ve loved at that age,” Tillery says. “It’s a quirky story, because I was a quirky kid.” Author/illustrator Tillery, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, where he teaches animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design, will share his adventures in animation, illustration, writing and quirky comedy at The Country Bookshop on Monday, Nov., 5 at 4 p.m. (Ages 7-12.) PS Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Tally

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DRINKING WITH WRITERS

Well-Behaved Women Zelda with a twist

By Wiley Cash • Photographs by Mallory Cash

For anyone who knows Therese Anne

Fowler, it is no surprise that she writes about women like Zelda Fitzgerald and Alva Vanderbilt, women who were artistic, brilliant, and outspoken. Therese’s friends would describe her much the same way. I first met Therese at the South Carolina Book Festival, where we spoke on the same panel in the spring of 2012. We made fast friends, telling stories about book tours and life in North Carolina, where she and her husband, novelist John Kessel, live in Raleigh. I saw Therese several times over the next few months at various conferences and festivals. I knew she had a new book coming out, but she never said much about it. And then Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald was published in March 2013. It blew the doors off every preconceived notion readers had about the woman who had always been known simply as Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald. A few months after the novel came out, I saw Therese again at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. By that time both Z and Therese had experienced incredible

success: The novel had appeared on The New York Times best-seller list, and a television show based on the novel and starring Christina Ricci as Zelda Fitzgerald was in production at Amazon. I told Therese how thrilled I was for her, and I asked her how it felt. She smiled, turned her head, and revealed the tiny “Z” she had tattooed behind her left ear. She planned to keep Zelda with her forever, and people who have read the novel and have seen the series understand why.

With her new novel, A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts — which tells the story of Alva Vanderbilt, a woman who went from being a member of the fallen Southern aristocracy to a Gilded Age socialite and, eventually, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement — Therese has once again given life to a heroine that readers will not soon forget. It seems that critics feel the same way. Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews both gave the novel starred reviews, and People magazine named it a Best Book of the Fall. Sony Pictures believed in Therese’s take on Vanderbilt’s life so much that they optioned the novel for a television series before she had even finished writing it. Over Labor Day weekend I met Therese at The Haymaker in downtown Raleigh to talk about writing about historical women, the thrill of seeing her work on the screen, and how she is feeling about her new book, which is scheduled for release on Oct. 16. “I’m excited,” she says. “But I’m cautious. You can’t predict the book business.”

DRINKING WITH WRITERS

We are sitting at a small table by the huge windows where the late-day light barely reaches the high ceiling. On my right, a gorgeous flower mural spans an entire wall. The bar behind Therese features leather-covered stools and industrial lighting. To my left is a sitting area where a comfortable Victorian-styled sofa and leather armchairs invite patrons to sip cocktails and chat. The interior of The Haymaker is the perfect combination of clean lines and lush decadence. When our drinks are delivered, I offer a toast to well-behaved women. Therese laughs and lifts her cocktail, the cachaca/Campari-based Agua-Benta, which is infused with jalapeno and features hints of lime and pineapple, and clinks it against my pint of Peacemaker Pale Ale. She takes a sip and looks around. “Alva would have been very comfortable in a place like this,” she says. “Zelda would have been, too.” “What was it like to see Zelda come to life on the screen?” I ask. “Wonderful,” Therese says. “I loved it, and I think Christina Ricci was perfect. My only regret is that Amazon didn’t renew it for a second season. Viewers learned all about the beginning of Zelda’s life and her relationship with Scott Fitzgerald, but we never saw them get to Paris, where the writ-

Every Home has a Story, a Beginning, a Middle and an End.

ers of the Lost Generation all come together. It would have been fascinating to see that.” “Were you surprised when Hollywood came calling a second time when Sony optioned A Well-Behaved Woman?” “Very surprised,” she says. “I was in New York with my agent, pitching the novel to editors and sending the book to auction. We were standing on the subway platform when my agent got a call that Sony wanted to option it. The book was still at auction and hadn’t even been purchased yet.” I have a feeling that many people will be hearing about Alva Vanderbilt when A Well-Behaved Woman is published, some perhaps for the first time. After a life that spanned the Civil War, World War I, the Gilded Age and the Great Depression, Alva Vanderbilt would die in Paris in 1933. Perhaps, if Therese and Sony have their way, both readers and viewers will make it to Paris even though Amazon did not get us there with Zelda. And who knows? The next time I see Therese she might show me a fresh “A” that has been tattooed behind her other ear. You never know what a well-behaved woman is going to do next. PS Wiley Cash lives in Wilmington with his wife and their two daughters. His latest novel, The Last Ballad, is available wherever books are sold.

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HOMETOWN

Up and Away

Revisiting the first rung of a long climb

By Bill Fields

Someone asked me not long ago

PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL FIELDS

the number of states I had visited, and my answer got me thinking.

For work or pleasure, I have at least set foot in 48 of the 50. Alaska and North Dakota are the places I haven’t gone, my travels having been much broader than I could have imagined growing up as the youngest child of parents who had stayed put in their home county. But well before I ventured out of state — before I ever consulted one of those road maps that seemed impossible to fold up neatly once you had opened it — I went up to get away. It was a dogwood located within a boy’s best forward pass from our house, yet climbing up to sit on its lowest branch was my first adventure. I was back at that tree recently, during a season of change that had me thinking. The limb still looks like an arm bending toward the sky, its distinctively textured bark peeling from age. My old perch is at eye level now, still only 6 feet or so from the ground, a height that allowed me to touch it without strain. Decades ago, when I was close to 6 instead of 60, it took real effort to reach. But it sure was worth it. That crook was sanctuary and observatory, but mostly it was mine. It was a place to think, laugh or pout, a vantage point from which I could look down upon our cats, the occasional passing car, neighbors raking leaves. It gave me a different perspective on our horseshoe pit, basketball goal and swimming pool, which sat upon the yard like a large yellow can that had been sawed in half. My getaway place was neither secret nor far away, although it felt as if it was both of those things, particularly the latter the one time I chickened out on my

descent and summoned help to get down. Hattie, who cared for me while my parents were at work, could only laugh as she came to my rescue but kindly coaxed me back to Earth. That day notwithstanding, I came to feel quite comfortable in that dogwood, my tree house without walls. Traveling to that space, even though a very short journey, made me feel like I was part of a larger world that, with effort, might be within reach. I never explored the heights of another tree. About the time I had gotten old enough to consider climbing higher, a friend and neighbor much more adventuresome than I was took an awful tumble from a large sycamore and broke her leg. It was a severe injury that had her in a cast and on crutches for a long time. But given how far she fell, the outcome might well have been much worse. Even so, her mishap was a cautionary tale. When I studied my old climbing tree recently, I considered who I had been when I sat in that spot — how much I didn’t know and how many places I hadn’t been, that the borders of my world then were school, church, the grocery store and my grandmother’s house on Sunday afternoons. In those hot summer days when I retreated to my space in that tree, my world wasn’t much bigger than the globe on my desk. I hadn’t yet ridden on a train or flown in a jet. I stood by that dogwood this August and touched the limb that used to be my summit and wondered how many times I have been tens of thousands of feet in the air on the way to somewhere and, as we all have, taken it for granted. I thought of the paper airplanes I tossed from that branch all those years ago, their journeys as uncertain as my own. PS Southern Pines native Bill Fields, who writes about golf and other things, moved north in 1986 but hasn’t lost his accent.

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IN THE SPIRIT

Syrup, Salt and Jigger Keeping it simple and delicious

By Tony Cross

Last month I touched on a few drinks that

can be made with only three ingredients. I’m carrying the theme over into October with three tips that can help improve your cocktail game. A lot of people have a fantastic collection of spirits and are super creative with their drinks. Others love trying new drinks, but when it comes to making them, would rather keep the ingredient list short and simple. Here’s something for both groups.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY CROSS

Your Simple Syrup I don’t know how many times I’ve harped on this and I’m too lazy to check. Let’s just say this definitely isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to explaining why I think a 2-to-1 ratio with simple syrups is the way to go. When I first got into making everything from scratch behind the bar, simple syrup was first in line. Equal parts sugar and water. Easy enough. I’d take a measuring cup of baker’s sugar and then use the same cup to add water, throw them both in a pot over medium heat and stir the combo until the sugar disappeared. But then one night I saw a video clip of bartender Jaime Boudreau explaining how he makes a rich syrup for his cocktails. Rich syrup consists of two parts sugar and one part water. Boudreau explained that a richer syrup gives a cocktail more body. I’ll explain. If you’re using a 1:1 ratio, you have to use more of that syrup in each cocktail. Because the

syrup is equal parts, and you’re using more, that means you’re adding more water to the drink as well. You’re over-diluting the cocktail. More so if you don’t weigh your sugar. If you use a measuring cup, it’s not going to be exactly one cup — it’s going to be under. In reality, your syrup ratio is 1-to-.80. I can’t stress the importance of weighing out the sugar (and water too). It’s going to make a huge difference in your next sour cocktail. Finally, please don’t think that having a richer syrup is going to mean your end product will be sweeter. If measured correctly (see below), you’ll have a more velvety feel on your palate from your perfectly balanced drink. Try this:

Whiskey Sour 2 ounces Rittenhouse Rye 3/4 ounce lemon juice 1/2 ounce rich simple syrup Add ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake hard until proper dilution has occurred. Strain into a rocks glass over ice. Garnish with oils from a lemon peel. Taste the difference.

Salt + Citrus = Damn! I can’t remember when I first heard about adding salt to sour-style cocktails. I believe there was a cocktail competition out West, and the guy who won added saline to all of his drinks. It was definitely a duh! moment. Here’s the thing, though — you don’t have to just add them to shaken drinks. A small pinch of salt can go a long way in stirred drinks as well. Mess around with it to get the right balance. I’ve done a pinch of salt in drinks before. I’ve also made a saline solution. My preference? Saline. I like knowing that I’m going to get the same result when measuring out the drops. In the past

Upcoming

AUTHOR EVENTS New York Times best selling authors are coming to Southern Pines! Stop by The Country Bookshop to see and talk to them about their latest books.

October 2 at 5:00 pm

JAMIE DEMENT

Canning in the Modern Kitchen Finally, a guide to canning for the modern cook! Learn new techniques and try over 100 recipes from classic jams and compotes to unique sauces and pates.

October 8 at 4:00 pm

THE COUNTRY BOOKSHOP

BIRTHDAY PARTY

JO WATSON HACKL

Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe A Mississippi ghost town and an art mystery combine in this gorgeously written debut just right for fans of Three Times Lucky and A Snicker of Magic!

October 15 at 4:00 pm

MARY AMATO

News From Me, Lucy McGee In this new series from state-award favorite Mary Amato, a spunky heroine matches wits with a mean girl and learns that middle can be a balancing act– so you can’t lose sight of what’s important.

October 18 at 5:00 pm

DIANE CHAMBERLAIN The Dream Daughter

New York Times bestselling author Diane Chamberlain delivers a thrilling, mind-bending novel about one mother’s journey to save her child.

The Country Bookshop

TICKETED EVENT

October 11 at 6:00 pm The Country Bookshop is turning 65! We will kick off the celebration at The Country Bookshop with a champagne toast. The party will continue at 305 Trackside from 6:30 to 8:30, just a block and a half away from the bookshop. We will be providing drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Tickets available at ticketmesandhills.com

140 NW Broad St, Southern Pines, NC 910.692.3211 www.thecountrybookshop.biz

October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills thecountrybookshop

IN THE SPIRIT

when I’m busy, I know I’ve pinched a bit too much salt at times. So, what I’ll normally do now is make a solution of 3 parts salt to 1 part water. I’ve always used Himalayan pink salt, so I’d recommend starting there. I will say, I don’t think it’s necessary to use salt for every citrus cocktail, but it definitely helps, especially when your fresh pressed juice has been sitting for half a day. Lemon and lime juice start losing their pop in around five hours, so a dash of salt could bring it back to life. Another way it helps is with consistency. The juice from one case of lemons may differ in taste from the next. The same goes for limes and grapefruit.

Daiquiri 2 ounces Flor de Caña dry rum 3/4 ounce lime juice 1/2 ounce rich simple syrup 3 drops saline (3:1) Combine all ingredients into a shaker with ice. Shake hard until your vessel is frosty cold. Double strain into a chilled cocktail coupe. No garnish. Measure, Measure, Measure This is another one that I’m sure I’ve beaten to death, but it’s so important — more so than the first two tips above. When I first got into bartending, I was obsessed with a bar in New York City that was one of the first bars in the new millennium’s surging cocktail trend. These guys made (and sold to other bars) their own syrups, bitters and cordials. Their drinks looked amazing, their uniforms were cool, and the bar itself was gorgeous. They did not measure. They eyed all of their cocktails. The risk factor in throwing a drink off balance made it even cooler in my eyes. So, that’s what I started doing. I would eye all of my drinks. I got decent at it, but do you know how hard it is to eye 1/8 an ounce for a cocktail when you’re slammed? It can be done . . . if you’re a bartending guru, which I was not and am not. I’m not sure why I got back into measuring. It was probably some David Wondrich article I read that stressed the importance of it. If so, he was right. Understatement. Consistency is key. I do remember that the month I got back on the jigger train, more compliments were directed at our waitstaff about the drinks. It means a lot when your guests return for another cocktail because they know it’s going to be just like it was the last 30-something times they imbibed there. Put your pride aside and pick up a jigger. That is, unless you’re a guru. And if you are, please show me your ways. PS Tony Cross is a bartender who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

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October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

WINE COUNTRY

The Chardonnay Way Finding the right fit for fall

By Angela Sanchez

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN GESSNER

There are as many reasons why so

many people, in so many places, love chardonnay as there are, well, chardonnays. It’s highly adaptable and easily grown in many soil types and climates. It’s easily influenced by where it’s grown and by the winemaker’s hands, with as many styles and price points as its broad range of appeal would suggest. But does anyone really know what chardonnay should taste like? If we compare chardonnayto-chardonnay (like apples-to-apples), there are styles ranging from Golden Delicious to Pink Lady to Granny Smith. If you like big, rich, round and citrus; or bold, oaky and tropical; or lean, mineral lemon-lime characters (my favorite), there is a chardonnay for you. Oak bomb, butter bomb, or classically elegant and restrained, chardonnays in all these forms, and more, are out there.

Chardonnay’s origin is in the Burgundy region of France, where I believe it’s at its very best. Burgundy is where you find chardonnay based on true terroir.

In Chablis, a cool climate with limestone soil, the chardonnay is crisp, lean and clean. Minimal oak aging is used. Those who like Domaine Dauvissat use it as a complement to the natural flavors of chardonnay and to round out its natural acidity, pronounced by Chablis’ cool climate. Others, like Domaine Louis Michel & Fils, use no oak on any of their chardonnays, leaving them in their pure form, racy and mineral driven. A mix of soil types and elevation in Burgundy make the malleable chardonnay grape show different characteristics from one growing region to the next. In Meursault, chardonnay is rich, buttery with some honeyed notes, while in the neighboring region of PulignyMontrachet, hazelnut, lemongrass and green apples are the primary characteristics. North of Burgundy in Champagne, we find chardonnay used as a blending grape in styles like brut and sec. Or it can stand alone in its yeasty, nutty, racy beauty in blanc de blanc, a 100 percent chardonnay. In regions with cooler climates and limestone-driven soils, chardonnay lends structure and backbone to the blends and bright, focused acidity to the blanc de blancs. Chardonnay is grown all over the world, in warm climates, cool climates and those that have heavy coastal influences. Each country and region produces a chardonnay of a different flavor. Add the light or heavy hand of a winemaker and chardonnay becomes something else altogether. California chardonnay is a great example. Cooler climates in Northern California, like Carneros, produce chardonnay with higher acid and more structure than those from warmer climates in the south around Santa Barbara and Santa Lucia Highlands. Whether naturally higher in acid or more round and lush (depending on the growing region), the winemaker can greatly influence the wine as well. For many years winemakers in the New World were heavyhanded with oak “treatments,” or aging in barrels and manipulating the

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fermentation process, creating wines that were overly weighty, with buttery notes and vanilla, or predominantly oaky. Big, mostly over-thetop California chardonnay became the norm. Nowadays winemakers show more restraint with their influence on the wines, resulting in cleaner styles that allow consumers to taste a difference from region to region based on elevation, climate and soil — the terroir. The trend is due both to consumers’ move to a fresher, lighter style of chardonnay and to their consumption of imported chardonnay from areas like France and Italy. Winemakers are also keen to let their region, vineyard and their own house style show through rather than producing and manipulating chardonnay to be oaky, buttery and slightly sweeter. Something about chardonnay has always reminded me of fall; maybe it’s the golden-hued color, like the turning leaves and afternoon autumn sun. With cooler weather, I still like to drink white wines, maybe just not as crisp and light as in late spring and summer — something with a bit more weight and viscosity. Enter chardonnay. As a personal preference I choose to drink Burgundy. If I’m going big on spending and style, I’ll choose a Chablis or Puligny Montrachet or, for something more budget-friendly and offering a lot of wine for the money, a selection from the Mâconnais or Côte Chalonnaise. As always, I add a cheese to snack on with the wine. Stick to the old saying “if it grows together it goes together.” Triple cream Brie, with fresh cream added during the production process, produces a spreadable butter-like cheese that matches nicely. Brillat-Savarin cheese made in the Burgundy region is a classic example of the triple cream style. Small wheels, about one pound in weight, made from cow’s milk with a bloomy white rind, resemble perfect little cakes when whole and fresh. Cut into them and you’ll find a delicate soft cheese with sweet butter and slightly nutty notes. A little stronger cheese, but still with the same elegance and beauty, is Delice de Bourgogne. The addition of cream fraiche to the cheese makes it even more decadent and luscious with added notes of mushrooms and earth. Not to mention it is a dream companion with Champagne. As you ponder the rows and rows of chardonnay at your local wine shop, or the wine list at your favorite restaurant, be bold and try something new. If you always drink California chardonnay, try Burgundy. Or vice versa. Grab some triple cream Brie and you just might find a chardonnay style that’s right for you. PS Angela Sanchez owns Southern Whey, a cheesecentric specialty food store in Southern Pines, with her husband, Chris Abbey. She was in the wine industry for 20 years and was lucky enough to travel the world drinking wine and eating cheese.

October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SANDHILLS ENRICHMENT FUND This NEW charitable fund supports educational activities in Moore County of the English-Speaking Union, Moore County Schools and other entities. SEF gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the following FOUNDING MEMBERS:

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October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

THE KITCHEN GARDEN

Indian Corn

More than just an autumn decoration

By Jan Leitschuh

Frost on the pumpkin? Maybe in a few weeks. Maybe.

Collards? Next month they will be sweeter. Fall decor? Check. Change of seasons? Yes, please! After surviving the sultry swelter that is a Sandhills summer, we can get giddy with the first bite of crispness in the air. It might be but a faint promise — just a mere coolness at night and a whole lot of dew in the morning — that drives us to decorate our households and doorsteps with the earthy items of fall in anticipation of cooler weather. We love our orange, white and blue pumpkins, rainbow assortments of mums, gourds, leaves, hay bales — and colorful Indian corn, America’s native grain. You can see Indian corn gracing Sandhills doors and tables, with an autumnal color display to excite heat-dulled senses. It’s a fall decoration that can take us from mid-September through Halloween, then right into the harvest cornucopias of Thanksgiving. The lovely October palette of rusts, purples, golds, reds, steely blues, pinks and browns in nature finds an echo in Indian corn. It’s not hard to grow, if you are so inclined. If not, grocery stores, Coop boxes and farmers markets also offer a selection of parti-colored ears with wonderful names like Painted Mountain, Indian Fingers, Calico and Bloody Butcher. There are many colors and kinds of Indian corn. We are familiar, of course, with modern sweet corn with yellow or white kernels. The sweet corn we devour in summer is wholly different from Indian corn. We took the hard, dry native strains and over time, selectively bred for a tender, modern, juicy ear with an abundance of natural sugars. Sweet corn is also harvested at a juicy point in its life, called the “milk” stage. Unlike sweet corn, Indian corn, or “flint” corn, has a low water content

that, when dried, makes it easy to preserve and store — and display. Some ears of Indian corn are pastel multi-colored, or yellow and rust-red, or grey, white and gold. Other types are one solid color like a deep mahogany or an eyecatching grey-blue. The common treatment is to shuck three to five ears to expose the colored kernels, then bind together with wire to make a door hanging. A bright fallcolored bow tops off the display. Others affix their ears to a fall wreath. One can actually make an eye-catching wreath of the cobs, attaching them to a wire frame with the shucks aimed outward in a papery flair. Google “Indian Corn Wreath DIY.” Another wreath alternates 10 ears with the shucks. I’ve also seen baskets of cobs mixed in with gourds and miniature pumpkins as table decorations, or cobs used in florist displays. The kernel colors are based on genetics. Like puppies, each kernel can have a different “father.” A single grain of pollen from the tassels at the top of the corn stalk drops onto a “silk,” an elongated stigma on the cob. Many tassels in a field, and many silks, contribute to the genetics of a kernel. Indian corn has widely varied genetics for color, so the eye-catching, multi-colored cobs can result. As a species, corn — or maize, Zea mays — was domesticated by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica, then grown for thousands of years. The plants adapted to unique local conditions, spreading widely throughout the Americas and were often traded. When early explorers carried this new grain back to Europe, it spread rapidly there, too, as a new cereal grain that could thrive in varied climates. There are many types of what we call Indian corn. The colors and genetics are as diverse as the tribes that grew and saved the seeds. These so-called “land races” are important reservoirs now for unique genetic material for future plant breeding, a veritable gene bank of potentially useful traits.

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Recently in the news we learned of the discovery of an older corn strain with a gene for fixing nitrogen in the soil, as soybeans do, that grows well in poor soil. This is promising, since corn is a nitrogen-hungry crop and nitrogen production is expensive, energy intensive, and its runoff can pollute ground waters. Marry that gene to higher-producing strains, and a revolution in grain production could possibly result. Can you eat your Indian corn display? That depends. You can but . . . please . . . not if it has been sprayed with shellac by crafters to preserve the ears — an unlikely prospect if you purchased your corn still in its protective sheath, or corn shuck. It’s possible to grind unsprayed ears, and the resulting flour can be used for masa, tamales or polenta. The Thanksgiving dish “Indian Pudding,” rich with cornmeal, milk, molasses and maple syrup, is another use. The corn seeds first need to be “popped” from the cob, usually over a bowl or bag. Then the kernels are ground in a coffee grinder or Magic Bullet (guessing here that the stone mortar and pestle doesn’t appeal). A coarse setting on your grinder can give you the makings of fresh grits. If you do decide to grow some Indian corn at the back of your garden next fall, you don’t have to buy special seeds; you can just shuck some kernels from your favorite ears of Indian corn (again, assuming it’s shellac-free). Store seeds out of the reach of rodents in an airtight bag in a cool, dry area for the winter. The freezer is a good idea. When the soil warms strongly next spring, plant in rich soil — as a type of grass, corn is nitrogen-hungry. Plant in a block or multiple rows so the corn is easily pollinated by the wind. Single rows give you poor pollination, and the ears will not fill with kernels. Water well, and offer a little fertilizer when the sprouts emerge. Don’t plant your Indian corn near your sweet corn, because the two will happily cross-pollinate, and your sweet corn will not be very sweet. Keep the plots a minimum of 250 feet apart, or else separate your plantings by two weeks so they don’t tassel at the same time. Allow corn to dry somewhat on the stalk, then harvest in mid-September or so. Bundle the cornstalks for a further fall display. If you can rodent-proof your Indian corn wreath or display, and you can keep it dry, you can use it again next year. But I tend to complete the seasonal cycle, sharing our pretty bounty at Thanksgiving with the local squirrels, and moving on to Christmas. PS Jan Leitschuh is a local gardener, avid eater of fresh produce and co-founder of the Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative.

October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

T H E E V O LV I N G S P E C I E S

Stairway to Heaven A resting place in life’s long journey

By Claudia Watson

This morning I made a point of waking

PHOTOGRAPH BY CLAUDIA WATSON

before sunrise and padding off in a pair of old boot socks to the little deck at my place in Seven Devils, up in the high country. I grabbed a nubby sweater against the air of a late October morning and stepped into the day with my hands wrapped around a cup of hot tea.

A veil of fog clings to the valley at the base of Grandfather Mountain. The distant mountain ridge surrenders to the sunrise, unleashing a canvas of color. This early on a Sunday morning there won’t be many leaf gawkers, and it’s perfect for my journey down a road to a spot that’s become, over 20 years, a pilgrimage. My husband, Roger, and I would bike a narrow, practically flat paved road that hugs the South Fork of the New River. We’d travel along Railroad Grade Road, a 20-mile trip from the general store in Todd to the tiny community of Fleetwood and back. Our first ride down this road was 23 years ago on an early June morning, riding new cross-country bikes — his, black; mine, green — wedding gifts to each other that spring. With our lunches and water bottles tucked into our backpacks, we idly explored the winding river valley, protected by steep slopes covered with Christmas tree farms and dotted with old homesteads and lush meadows. A fox looked up, startled from his morning kill. A small herd of whitetail deer dashed from a roadside thicket to the river, nearly knocking me from my bike. We teamed up to shoo a wandering cow back into her pasture, closing the gate behind her. About midway in our ride, Roger yelled back to me, “Hey babe, look at that,” pointing to a cast concrete stairway leaning against one of two towering tulip poplars. The steps were an invitation to stop and sit a spell in the shade

and enjoy the long view of the clear river rambling 30 feet below. But it was the trees and the placement of the stairs that offered more fascination as they held onto a narrow spit of earth. The one-lane road, which was originally the rail track for the Virginia Creeper, barely squeezed between the river and a rocky outcrop. The only sign of neighbors was a sprawling farmstead at the river’s broad bend, and a tidy brick home tucked into the hillside farther down the road that was guarded by a frisky border collie. That tiny grass outcropping above the New River became a favorite way station whenever we returned to the high country. Often, after fly-fishing the river or streams nearby, we’d return to the spot, settle into our camp chairs, and enjoy lunch or a late afternoon beer and the constant chatter of life — the hopes, the dreams, the blessings. Even during our winter trips, we’d make time to huddle together on the cold concrete steps, if only for minutes. It was on a summer’s day while sitting on the steps looking up through the tulip poplar’s canopies — a mosaic of green hues against the blue sky — that I dubbed the location, without much thought, Stairway to Heaven, marking it with a pencil in our dog-eared map book where we cataloged favorite fishing spots and trails. Though we couldn’t figure out how the steps arrived where they were, we sensed the specialness of the place. Over the course of 20 years or so, the steps became part of our journey. When we arrived at the spot four years ago in October, we saw one of the two tulip poplars was gone, only the stump remaining. Thankfully, the old moss-covered stairway was still there leaning against the solitary tree dressed in its bright yellow glory. We took out our camp chairs to enjoy the sun-kissed day as the leaves danced in the air. The border collie at the nearby house, less frisky in time, began barking but finally gave up and went to rest with its owner, a silver-haired woman sitting on the porch. I wanted to walk down the road and ask her about the steps, but Roger felt it was intrusive. He preferred our creative musings. With our belongings packed into the car, I gathered a handful of jewel-colored leaves. Roger paused, looking at me, “Hey babe,” he said, motioning me to join him on the steps.

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October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

T H E E V O LV I N G S P E C I E S

He sat on the top step, and I sat on the one below leaning into him as he wrapped his arms around me. I felt him suck in a deep breath as if to hold back tears, and he buried his head into my neck and whispered, “Babe, you’ve made me so happy. I don’t know how I’d ever go on without you. I love you so much.” We stayed a few minutes, wiped our tears and moved on, waving at the old woman and her dog as we drove off. On a pretty spring morning the following May, I approached the familiar turn in the road and winced when I saw the stairway and pulled off to the grassy spot. For the first time, I was alone. That past October was our last together. My beloved died the day after Christmas. I pulled the camp chair from the car and sat looking at the river valley bursting with life and hesitated, wondering how I’d ever go on as the tulip poplar’s soft yellow blossoms fell around me. Then, with a quiet prayer, I opened my hand and let some of him catch the wind and become one with this place — as much as the tulip poplar, the birdsong, and the ancient river. Soon, the little dog down the road began barking. I saw the silver-haired woman on her porch and, without a thought, walked to the edge of her property and asked, “Can you tell me about that spot?” pointing to the tree and the steps. “We’ve been coming here for over 20 years and wondering about those steps.” Patting her leg, she laughed “Oh, lots of people wonder ’bout them. They came from the house over there,” pointing up the road. “My brother lives there, and he took off a porch and steps, just rested ’em up against the tree years ago.” It was such an ordinary story. “Folks come here all the time and take photos sittin’ on the steps,” she added. I told her about our contrived story of a great storm and flood that deposited them in such an unlikely place. “No,” she said with a shake of her head, “the river’s never been that high, honey.” “We named them the Stairway to Heaven,” I offered. Her lips broke into a smile, “Well, that’s right nice. I like that.” I told her that I had lost my husband. “I understand, dear, I lost my husband just five years ago,” she sighed. “Honey, life’s not easy, but this here, it’s a peaceful place until we get up there to see ’em again.” On an October morning nearly four years later, I am out the door. Navigating the narrow, potholestrewn road, my heart racing until I turn the last bend and see the tulip poplar and the steps and find my spot under the tree. With nary a breeze, it unleashes a cascade of golden leaves upon me. PS Claudia Watson is a Pinehurst resident and a longtime contributor to PineStraw and The Pilot. She enjoys casting a line into a cool mountain stream or spending time in

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October 2018P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

TRUE SOUTH

Closet Conundrums When it’s time for the big switch By Susan S. Kelly

Now approacheth the dreaded biannual chore, at least for the females of the species: The Closet Changeover.

The way I understand it, and if the pictures in People magazine can be believed, people in LA never have to do this. Los Angeles is seasonless. Celebrities: They’re not just like us, actually, as People would have you believe. And for Wisconsinites, Vermonters, Floridians and even some Texans, whatever seasonal change they have is so short that barely a hanger or a shelf needs disturbing. Ten-month winters, two-month summers, and vice-versa. But for those of us who live with real seasons, it’s time to get to it. Now, normal people, sane people, probably schedule this task; take a Saturday and tackle it all at once, chop-chop. Then there are the folks who wake up one chilly morning and say, “Where is that sweater?” And tackle it all at once. And then there’s me — and I suspect a lot of others — who begin with good intentions and get sidetracked not by the internet, but by decisions, so that the task takes six weeks, on and off. You can’t tell, but I do have a system. Throw everything on the floor and bed. (Hope it’s a king-size.) First, separate into categories of Too Tight, Too Short, Too Bare, and Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should. Likely, there will be a tall pile of Not Sures. And, like that old saw that warns if you have to ask the price of something, you can’t afford it, it follows that if you have to take a selfie wearing the garment in question and send it to your sisters and ask if you should keep it, the answer is probably no. (Speaking of not affording, now’s a good time to get out the Goof Off and scrub away the tell-tale Marshalls and TJ Maxx stickers on your shoes.) During this process, you’ll experience acute apparel anxiety. One of my sisters has said, “I’m living in separates hell.” (Remember that term, “separates”?) To escape, she’s decided to convert nearly her entire “’drobe,” as she calls her wardrobe, to dresses, and tech clothes. The other sister is such a shopper that she began putting clothes on layaway when she was in seventh grade. (Remember that term, “layaway”?) I ask you, what kind of 12-year-old knows what layaway is? A born consummate clotheshorse, that’s who, and that sister hangs tags on her clothes to remind herself what event she last wore it to — a dinner, a cookout, a meeting. I kid you not. She’s the sister who coined two of my favorite ’drobe terms: The Punishment Dress (or shirt, or whatever)

that you’re sorry you bought but you have to wear to punish yourself for buying it. And The Whistle Dress, for the dress that’s so easy, and is ideal for so many situations, that you just whistle and it jumps out of the closet. Often, it must be admitted, Whistle Dresses don’t touch your body anywhere but the shoulders. “Is this out?” I text the clotheshorse sibling, attaching a picture. “Houndstooth is never out. Neither is leopard print,” she messages back. OK, that’s settled. Onward. Here are the clothes you’ve simply turned against, have developed an inexplicable and unreasonable hatred toward. Pitch. Here are the ones to downgrade, meaning that you “saved” it for in-law dinners, a charity speaking event, etc., but this year, it gets demoted to church. In-laws judge in-style. God does not. I know it looks great on you, but if it itched last year, it’s going to itch this year. Pitch. It’s also OK to toss something just because you’re tired of it. But, a warning: When photographs of you wearing it come up later in some post, or in the photo drawer that’s never been properly organized, you might find yourself saying, “Dang, that looked good. Why did I get rid of it?” Too late for regrets. Now, here comes the poundage pile, the five-fewer-pounds-and-this-willfit-fine-again layer, I mean pile. The clothes that my mother calls “tailored,” I call “tight,” and my daughter calls “body con” (for “conscious”). Here’s how you’re gonna deal with that. If you’ll still need Spanx with it even after the five pounds magically evaporate, pitch. A moment, now, of self-congratulation for all the stuff I don’t have to pitch, the trends I managed to live through and do without: poufs; shrugs; tracksuits; Crocs; boiled wool jackets. The trend I wish I’d bowed to: jean jackets. The trend I fell victim to, but only once: Ultrasuede. What I will never, ever give up: clogs and cardigans. What I am, thank you Jesus, too old for: bralettes. My final advice, born of experience, is to always buy something at the end of a season, when it’s on sale, and then, facing that shelf or rack of been-thereworn-that duds the next closet changeover (April), you’ll spot something fresh, unworn, and new-to-you, which makes the chore the faintest bit more bearable. In Los Angeles, everybody from bums to billionaires just wears T-shirts. In New York City, everybody but Hoda and Kathie Lee just wears black. But you’re Southern. What’s in your closet? PS Susan Kelly is a blithe spirit, author of several novels, and proud grandmother.

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October 2018P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

OUT OF THE BLUE

Boo, Humbug Wearing green for Halloween

By Deborah Salomon

October, glorious October! If only not marred

by Halloween. Or, rather, Halloween frenzy.

Late in life I’ve become analytical, training my untrained eye on likes and dislikes, preferences and fears, most cemented during childhood when, in this case, I was Halloween-deprived. Back then, kids didn’t dress up and go trick-ortreating in an apartment building occupied by cranky grown-ups. Nothing at school, either. The all-girls school I attended K-5 was for learning, not exchanging Valentines or dressing up as witches. (More about that later.) The only activity I remember was bobbing for apples at the risk of drowning in the wide galvanized metal tub. Even after moving to a house in a family neighborhood Halloween wasn’t big, probably because my parents, I’m ashamed to admit, refused to buy candy, turned off the porch lights and ignored the few brave kids who didn’t get the message. A costume for me, by then 12? No way. (More about that later, too.) Of course back then Halloween wasn’t a mega-holiday that started five minutes after July 4th, saturating stores with made-in-China paraphernalia. What must those Chinese factory workers think, given they don’t celebrate this spinoff of a Christian event? Sure, stores carried paper napkins, jack-o’-lanterns and spooky masks, but no toilet paper, socks and orange crème-themed Oreos. Remember, also, that Halloween launches the pumpkin-flavored everything season, which lasts until Christmas. Read the small print; many labels read “pumpkin spice” and contain no pumpkin whatsoever. Scariest of all, my father’s birthday was Nov. 1. He joked that his mother had a terrible fright on Halloween and he was the result. Every action provokes a reaction. Once I was in charge our pumpkin had to be jumbo with a fat candle inside. My kids went nuts for trick-or-treating, in a neighborhood bursting with children. We divided duties: Daddy chaperoned them house to house (those known for “good” candy had line-ups) while I and a very excitable Airedale manned the front door. Besides loot, we handed out

coins for UNICEF. Afterwards each princess and Superman emptied his/her bag into a box which fit under the beds. Easier to protect, I guess, although insider trading flourished for desirable candies — meaning the stickiest, messiest, most cavity-provoking. For a while, I attempted a Halloween theme dinner. But how can “ghost” mashed potatoes, bat wings and a chocolate pudding graveyard with vanilla wafer tombstones compete with Charleston Chews? Inevitably, grown-ups inched into the act. Beginning in 1993 with Coors’ buxom witch Elvira, brewers outdid themselves with cute names and labels. Bars hosted costume bashes. Bank tellers and school teachers dressed up. Politics influenced adult costumes — remember the Nixon fright mask and, more recently, Hillary and Trump? Halloween never fully recovered after sickos hid dangerous objects in treats. Parents began bussing little Halloweenies into happier hunting grounds. Door-to-door became trunk-or-treat and parties in a school gym even after, in 2005, legislation extended daylight saving time to include Halloween, for safety. I still carve a small pumpkin and buy a few bags of “good” candy, which means Hershey Miniatures and Reese’s bite-sized peanut butter cups. But where are the hordes of ghosts and goblins, with parents hovering on the sidewalk? Replaced by teenagers dolled up as zombies. Bah, humbug. Go away. Do your homework. As for porch decorations, I have created only one — simple but edgy, for folks who remember the wicked witch’s demise in Wizard of Oz, with a nod to Macbeth. I drape a black cape and witch’s hat over a broom, with lace-up granny boots beside it, along with a sign that says “Stirring the brew. Back in a few minutes . . . ” Conclusion: Halloween is — like riding a bike and speaking French — best learned in childhood. Otherwise, color me green and call me the Grinch who stole the Tootsie Pops. PS Deborah Salomon is a staff writer for PineStraw and The Pilot. She may be reached at debsalomon@nc.rr.com.

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October 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

MOM, INC.

Not Picture Perfect A night at Camp Alternative Universe

By Renee Phile

The four of us pulled into the camp-

ground, welcomed by an eerie feeling. The accommodating pictures on the website — the luscious green woods and the thriving campfires — seemed to have been replaced by broken down 1940s campers, scattered trash, clotheslines sagging under the weight of laundry from the Cretaceous Period, a meteor shower of stray cats darting from site to site and, of course, No Trespassing signs.

“This can’t be right,” I said to Jesse, who nodded. “Should we check in? Or just leave?” he asked. “I don’t know.” “This place is weird,” David, 14, piped up from the back seat. “What’s up with all the cats?” “Let’s just drive around and see if it gets any better,” Jesse, the optimist, said. As we drove deeper into Camp Backwater, we saw travel trailers, pop-ups, and live-in year-round campers scattered about. Paint peeled from the small houses sitting between them. A cat streaked in front of our car and disappeared. “This is nothing, and I mean nothing, like the website said it was,” I said. “And it’s not cheap either.” Though the primitive amenities of the state park down the road now seemed like Shangri-La compared to Camp Irregular Heartbeat, we decided to check in and make an adventure of it. Maybe I could jumpstart a murder mystery. The lady at the desk, with grey eyes peeking out behind wiry glasses, seemed nice enough until she delivered the worst news David, and his 10-year-old brother, Kevin, could ever possibly hear, “No Wi-Fi for your devices.” As we cleaned up the trash left from the previous occupants of our campsite, a large, yurt-shaped man shuffled over, shoeless, dressed only in his boxer shorts and what looked like the T-shirt Sonny Corleone was wearing at the tollbooth. “Hi! I’m Chris! Welcome to the suburbs! Don’t mind the cats. They’re

mine. I’ve lived here for over a year. If you need anything, let me know.” Like what? A bell? A teenager, who seemed to have already dipped heavily into the catnip, sped by on a bike and exclaimed, “I’m too blessed to be stressed! What about you?” “Might want to stay away from him,” Jesse muttered to the boys as he put a spike in the ground to pitch the tent. A couple with a small child and a baby pulled their SUV into the site next to us. The baby crawled around in the dirt, while the dad burned through gigabytes of data on his smartphone, Googling “campgrounds near me.” They left in seven minutes. I decided to walk to the bathhouse. The sanitation grade was “C” for cruddy, and a blue leatherette front seat from a car sat in the middle of the floor, seatbelts dangling. A cat was curled up on top. As I was in the bathroom stall, the cat came in and nuzzled my legs. “Oh, this isn’t weird at all,” I said to the cat which meowed loudly. That night our fire wouldn’t start. Jesse could make cement blocks burn, so if he can’t get a fire to start, there’s a problem. He dumped an entire bottle of lighter fluid onto the wood. It would flare for a few seconds, then go straight to tiny puffs of smoke. He marched down to the camp store and asked for a refund on the $10 pile of wood. That didn’t burn, either. Our “neighbors,” led by Chris, drank late into the night, singing the lyrics they could remember to the country songs they thought they knew while the cats meowed in harmony. Shadows passed by our tent every few minutes and Kevin said, “Mom, can I sleep with you?” In the morning I said a thank you prayer that we all survived. Then we went to a Walmart across the road and bought a board game called “Stuff Happens.” In it each player rates cards from 1-100 on tragic things that might happen to you. It could be as simple as “Lose a Toenail” or as serious as “Lose an Eye.” The other players guess the rating of each card and if you are close, you get the card. The person with the most cards at the end is the winner. I looked through the cards to see if “Stay at a Creepy Campground Infested with Cats” was one of the options. It was 87. PS Renee Phile loves being a teacher, even if it doesn’t show at certain moments.

Sandhills Photography Club

Wildlife

CLASS A WINNERS

1st HM : Bill Bower, Pelican Power

1st place : Matt Smith, Imperials

2nd HM : Pat Anderson, The Hunting Coalition

3rd place : Matt Smith, Gentle Giant The Sandhills Photography Club meets the second Monday of each month, at 7:00 p.m. in the Hannah Center of the O’Neal School at 3300 Airport Road, Pinehurst. To join the photo club visit www.sandhillsphotoclub.org.

2nd place : Jim Davis, Mom and Chick Talk

October 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

2nd place : Kathryn Saunders, The Solace of Snow

2nd HM : Susan Batts, Innocence 1st place : Dale Jennings, Dad Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m Hungry

CLASS B WINNERS

3rd place : x

1st HM : Dale Jennings, Just a Nibble 3rd place HM : Tom Batts, Eagle

3rd place : Dennis Snipes, Nap Time

CLASS C WINNERS

2nd place : Johm German, Ospreys at Jordan 1st place : Donna Ford, Rhino

3rd place : Grace Hill, Out of the Fog

Early Detection is the Key Companion animal clinic foundation

“Life in the Doghouse” The Story of Danny & Ron Rescue 7:00 pm Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018 The Sunrise Theater • Southern Pines, NC Tickets $25 at www.companionanimalclinic.org

Supporting The Spay Neuter Veterinary Clinic, Vass, NC where 70,000 surgeries have been provided in the 13 county area of operation.

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910-295-4400 PinehurstRadiology.com

October 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

T H E P L E A S U R E S O F L I F E D E P T.

Midlife Mulligan

One duffer considers pulling his sticks out of storage

By Tom Allen

“So you’re movin’ to the Sandhills? What’s your handicap?”

“Uh, eyesight’s not great.” A golfer friend raised the question, when a job move brought the family to Moore County in 1998. He joked. I was serious. But perhaps a new job in a new town called for embracing the favorite pastime. I played that first 18 holes, 20 years ago, at the Southern Pines Golf Club. A gracious hacker from my new congregation invited me to join a church charity foursome. “I’ve never played,” I warned. “We’re awful. You’ll fit right in.” “Let’s do it.” One guy secured a set of clubs and provided tees and balls. Another loaned a pair of shoes. Wife, Beverly, recalled her college P.E. elective. “You’ll need a glove.” “A glove? Why? For what hand?” Novice is an understatement. My heart rate doubled on the first tee. Had I missed the club selection chapter of Golf for Dummies? At least I grabbed a driver. A par-4 loomed. The ghost of a weekend hacker whispered, “Hit it straight down the middle. Head down, knees bent, eyes on the ball. Grip, squeeze, swing.” I topped my first shot, then sliced a mulligan. On the green in four, or maybe six. Two-putt. Or was it three? I shot 118. Or was it 128? No matter. I had a blast. After 18 holes of whiffs, lost balls and unplayable lies, I was hooked. Maybe captivated is a better word. My first set of sticks cost $120, at Sam’s Club. On to Walmart for gloves, tees and sleeves of Titleists. I owned plenty of khakis and short-sleeved polos. A church member left a couple of caps in my office cubbie. FootJoys completed the ensemble. At least this duffer looked the part. My first par was memorable — the sixth hole of then Pinehurst No. 5, a par-3. I topped my tee shot. On in two. Inches from the hole. Tap, plop, sweet. I hollered. Friends shushed me, with something between a smile and a frown. Is exuberance bad etiquette or just not cool? Over the years, I hit the driving range after work, even took a few lessons.

I gradually lowered my score, nearly breaking 100 on a perfect spring day at Mid Pines. If you’ll allow a couple of mulligans and a gimme putt or two, my scorecard would read 95. I shot a 46 on nine holes at Knollwood, once. Double that (which I’m sure would have happened had we played another round) for 92. A fudge, for sure, but I can dream. With time, club selection and reading lies came easier. With help, I grasped the lingo. “It’s a bunker, not a sand trap,” a low-handicap friend once chided. I even had a “most incredible shot” story. The 18th hole, old Pinehurst No. 1, a par-3 that concluded the round. My tee shot was short of the green, second shot in the bunker and a really bad lie. I pulled out my sand wedge, a Christmas gift from Beverly (that cost more than my set of clubs). A perfect out, and into the hole. I yelled. My buddies yelled. Fist pumps and high fives. Yes, sweet. My worst day? The summer of 2002, Pinehurst No. 6. I was playing the best ever. My friend trustingly pulled forward, anticipating another hit down the middle of the fairway. I shanked a shot off the sixth tee, popped my cart buddy above his left eye. Eight stitches and he was fine. Me? Sick the rest of the day. Just pull the pin and let me crawl into the hole. The most fun round? When I turned 50. Three buddies and I played what was then National Golf Club. We were probably the only ones on the raindrenched course. Talk about mulligans. By the 18th hole, we were putting with our drivers. Soaked and humbled, we laughed and made memories. I haven’t played in five years, but three Pinehurst U.S. Opens, a trip to the Masters, up close with Tiger, Phil, Fred Couples and Davis Love III remain highlights. My clubs rest in a storage unit, next to my grandmother’s mahogany four-poster bed. Life intervenes — caring for parents at the end of their lives, raising two daughters, seeing them off to college, walking one down the aisle. Between work and marriage, family and friendships, golf’s allure faded. But who knows? Maybe I’ll take another swing this year, when I turn 60. Because sometimes, on that perfect fall day, when the temps are cool and the fairways green, a voice whispers through the towering pines, “Head down, knees bent, eyes on the ball.” I grip my 3-wood, squeeze and swing. Straight down the middle. On in two. Tap, plop. Sweet. Very sweet. PS Tom Allen is minister of education at First Baptist Church, Southern Pines.

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October 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

B I R D WA T C H

Jay Day

There’s more to the ubiquitous blue jay than meets the eye

By Susan Campbell

The blue jay is one of those species most

of us can instantly recognize. But how well do we really know this medium-sized raucous bird found at feeders or flying around in the treetops at any time of the year? Though their behavior may not seem particularly remarkable at first glance, they are complex and unique creatures.

Jays are closely related to crows, a highly evolved species. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they exhibit an advanced degree of intelligence and have complex social systems. Blue jays remain together as a family for a relatively long period and also mate for life. And here’s a species that communicates not only with their voices but also with body language. The telltale bristling of a jay’s crest is one of the most obvious ways they express themselves. Look for a raised crest whenever an individual is alarmed or intimidated. Although the bird’s underparts are a dingy gray, the jay’s bright blue coloration and its distinctive blue crest give the bird a cocky, imperious air. A unique brindling pattern specific to individuals also makes each bird distinctive. (Interestingly the pigment found in jay feathers is produced by melanin, which is actually brown. It is the structures on the barbs of the bird’s feathers that cause light to reflect in the blue wavelength.) In addition to their bright coloration, jays attract attention with their loud and piercing calls. They make a variety of unusual squawks and screams, often from a perch high in the canopy. Jays are well known for mimicking other birds’ calls: especially hawks. Whether this is an alarm tactic or whether they are trying to fool other species is not clear. The great early ornithologist John Audubon interpreted this behavior as a ploy that allowed blue jays to rob nests of smaller birds, such as warblers and vireos that instinctively scatter whenever they hear

the terrifying sound of a hawk hunting for prey. But modern studies of blue jay diets have not found that eggs or nestlings are particularly common foods. Another mystery is why, in some years, these birds migrate. Blue jays are particularly fond of acorns. It may be that in years when oaks here are not very productive, jays move southward in search of their favorite food. So the number of blue jays that remain in the Piedmont and Sandhills this winter will likely depend on the mast crop — especially the abundance of white oak acorns. These acorn-lovers have a specialized pouch in their throats for carrying acorns and other large edibles, which they stash in holes and crevices for later delectation. Blue jays also have interesting nesting habits. While males collect most of the materials — live twigs, grasses and rootlets — females create a large cup, where they incubate and brood the young birds. All the while the male feeds the broodking female — and then forages for the tiny hatchlings. Once the young have developed a good layer of down, the female will join the search for food for the family. It is not unusual for young jays to wander away from the nest before actual fledging occurs. But the wise parents are not likely to feed the begging youngsters unless they return to the nest. It is during this period that some people are convinced they need to “rescue” the wayward youngsters. Finally, reports of “bald” blue jays are not uncommon. Do not be surprised if you see an odd-looking individual at a feeder or bird bath with virtually no feathers on its head: just dark skin. At first this was thought to be caused by feather mites that can be found on all birds to varying degrees. But now it seems there are simply individuals that lose all of their head feathers at once instead of in the normal, staggered fashion. It appears this is more likely in adolescents who are undergoing their very first molt The next time you notice one of these noisy, crested birds take a closer look. Blue jays are fascinating — and full of surprises! PS Susan would love to receive your wildlife sightings and photos. She can be contacted by email at susan@ncaves.com, or by calling (910) 585-0574.

! n e e d r e b Fall A

October 13th 10 am to 4pm

Come join our Downtown Business Owners as they celebrate the Fall Season!

Our Downtown Aberdeen Businesses will be offering various promotions, decorating, and/or giving out FREE CANDY. Check out our Facebook event page for a list of participating shops and all of the Downtown fun we have planned! Wish you could put that fun costume to use more than just one night!? Feel free to break it out and celebrate with us!

Halloween Costumes Encouraged! FREE CANDY! The Largest Selection of Granite in the Area!

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October 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SPORTING LIFE

River Adventures Adrift in streams of memory

Mid-Winter Canoe Club By Tom Bryant

I’m sure you know how it is when one outdoor chore leads to another. That happened to me a couple of Saturdays ago when I was trying to catch up on some much-needed yard work. I’d just finished hauling my sixth or seventh cart full of sticks and pine cones to the trash pickup area on the road behind our garage when I noticed my old 17-foot Grumman canoe had wild grapevines growing up over the bow like a natural duck blind. I felt bad for the old canoe, my fault entirely that it had been ignored all these years, perched up on a pair of sawhorses like a monument to the past.

I put yard work on hold and dragged the ancient boat, vines and all, out to where I could get to it and clean it up a little. Bird nests were in the bow and stern area. I figured it was a perfect location for little house wrens, and it was fortunate that the nests had already served their purpose and were empty. The old derelict looked worst for the wear, but aluminum is remarkably resilient, and in no time, I had knocked off the accumulated pine straw and dirt. The repaired broken keel and tear in the port side were still quite evident, but the detraction to the serviceability of the craft was just in looks; on the water, she was as good as ever. Old camouflaged paint was peeling from the sides and under the seats. I used to paint her every fall for duck hunting, and my past efforts were in need of repair. I really should get her sand blasted, I thought. Then she would be almost as good as new. I dragged the old canoe to the front of the garage and immediately remembered why I had retired the craft many years ago. Weight. She had to scale in at well over 100 pounds. In my day, I could hoist her on top of the truck with

little effort, but in my advanced years and learning that it’s much easier to walk around than climb over, I had relegated her to the sawhorses behind the garage and bought a new, much lighter canoe. I had been using my power washer to clean the sidewalks, so I turned the boat on her side and washed off years of accumulated grime. She looked a lot better, even with the still-clinging camouflaged paint. The repair to the keel and tear in her side were more evident after my cleaning effort, and I thought back to the river outing that caused the mishap. Ever since I was a youngster boating with my grandfather on the Little Pee Dee River, I’ve always had a paddle in the water. I’ve canoed black-water creeks, lakes and white-water rivers. The damage to the Grumman came from one of those white-water adventures, and a friend and I were lucky to escape with our lives. But it wasn’t that trip I was remembering. I dragged a camp chair from the garage and a libation from my cooler and kicked back and thought about that amazing late summer. Two friends, John Mills and Andy Alcroft, and I decided to take on Drowning Creek, Lumber River, Little Pee Dee River, and the mighty Big Pee Dee River and paddle to the coast and Georgetown, South Carolina. It was to be an amazing trip, requiring all our outdoor survival skills and a lot of luck in the wild swamps that bordered the rivers. We would be returning to college in a couple of weeks. I was a rising junior at the University of South Carolina, Andy was a sophomore at Ohio State University, and Johnny was a sophomore at the University of North Carolina. The trip began on a whim, as I remember it. Like most young folks that age, we were bored with summer and wanted one last adventure before heading back to the books. We grew up loving nature and probably spent more time outdoors than in, and Drowning Creek played a big part in most of our nature adventures. Johnny was the unofficial official Pinebluff historian and was up-to-date on all the statistics of the creek and which explorers had attempted to float the rivers to the Atlantic and when. I can’t remember who had the initial idea for that boating adventure, but I do remember that we determined that we were really going to have to push it because time was short. In a day or two, we had gathered our gear, borrowed a

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October 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SPORTING LIFE

little 12-foot skiff from our good friend Cliff Blue, and were ready to shove off. The night before our jumping-off river adventure, Pricilla Mills, Johnny’s cute, younger sister, had a sleepover at their house with several other girls. Naturally, we had to get them involved with our last-minute preparations, quite enjoyably for us. The next morning several of the young co-eds accompanied us to the creek and waved as we floated around the first bend in the river. That was the last civilized moment we enjoyed for several swamp-filled days. Unfortunately, we didn’t finish that river trip, running out of time and energy at about the same place. We pulled out of the river at a country store named Pearl’s and called Cliff to come haul us, our gear and the boat back home. Good memories. I replaced the ancient, much cleaner canoe on her sawhorses and gave Johnny a call. “Hey Johnny, this is Tommy. What say you and I take a little canoe ride down Drowning Creek?” I thought sure he would say, “Are you crazy?” But he replied, “I can’t leave before tomorrow.” We both laughed and agreed to get together for lunch and explore Camp Mackall in search of the old canoe club cabin. According to Johnny, Dr. John Warren Achorn and Alexander Holbrook, leading citizens of the new village of Pinebluff, started the Mid-Winter Canoe Club in 1903. Vestiges of the cabin are still there, having been rebuilt and now owned by the Special Forces as a place for rest and relaxation. Ironically, our good friend Andy Alcroft and his lovely bride, Mary, were enjoying some time at Holden Beach and had made arrangements to visit John before they went home to Ohio. We planned to meet for dinner while they were here. We gathered at the Sly Fox and had a superb supper. It was a great occasion, sort of like old home week. We remembered Pinebluff when the population was around 400, some streets were still unpaved, and The Village Grocery sold CocaCola for a nickel. Mom and Pop Wallace owned the phone company with the switchboard in their living room, and our phone number was 212. Most folks didn’t have keys to their houses, and all a youngster needed to have a grand time was a bicycle and a dog. That night as I drifted off to sleep, I thought back to the uncompleted river trip down Drowning Creek and wondered if Johnny, Andy and I had it in us to make another try. “I’ll talk it over with Linda in the morning,” I whispered to myself. “Talk what over?” Linda said sleepily. “Nothing, Hon,” I wisely replied. “Didn’t mean to wake you.” PS Tom Bryant, a Southern Pines resident, is a lifelong outdoorsman and PineStraw’s Sporting Life columnist.

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October 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

G O L F T OW N J O U R NA L

True Chip Off the Old Block Passing along the lessons of the short game

By Jim Moriarty

Like a juvenile

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN GESSNER

Jeeves-in-training, 10-year-old Doug Ford Jr. carried a folding chair around Meadowbrook Country Club in the staggering July heat of the 36-hole final match of the 1955 PGA Championship. Six decades and change down the road, he might occasionally need one for himself. It would come in handy.

Doug Ford Jr. moved to Pinehurst from South Florida a few months after the passing of his father, Doug Ford Sr., in May 2018. Having had his fifth vertebrae replaced with a piece of space-age plastic a little over a year ago, Doug Jr.’s sessions sharing short game wisdom at the practice area of Seven Lakes Country Club — a lot of that wisdom having trickled down from dad — can make finding a place to sit for a spell something of a necessity. In 1955, his father may have needed it even more. That year two future members of the World Golf Hall of Fame were in the 36-hole final of the PGA Championship, conducted at match play in those days. Dr. Cary Middlecoff, who had dispatched Tommy Bolt in the semis, was set to play Doug Ford Sr., who had been the tournament’s qualifying medalist. Ford Sr.’s father was the one who rechristened the family name from the original Fortunato. Doug Sr. matriculated in the pool halls of the Inwood section of Manhattan. “I grew up in sort of a rough neighborhood,” he once told Golf Digest. “I ran with a gang of about 10 other guys, and it was funny how we all turned out. Of the 10, six became FBI agents, and the other four went with the mob. I was the only one who didn’t end up carrying a gun as an adult.” If the fidgety Middlecoff, who trained to be a dentist but spent less time over a patient than Steve Martin did in Little Shop of Horrors, was inarguably the slowest player on tour, Ford was just as indisputably one of the fastest. The chair was the idea of Doug Jr.’s mother, Marilyn. “She didn’t want my dad pacing and waiting to hit. That was the strategy,” he says. “When it was Middlecoff’s turn, sit down. And he did.” Played at Meadowbrook Country Club west of Detroit, Ford squared the tight match on the 26th hole, then birdied the 29th, 30th and 32nd holes to

go 3 up. “On what became the last hole,” says Ford Jr., “the pin was tucked left. Middlecoff in the morning round had missed in the bunker left. He hit it out stiff, 6 inches from the hole. In the afternoon Middlecoff is down now. Going for the pin he hits it in the same bunker and my dad says to me, ‘Dougie, there’s no way he can get it up and down twice in the same day from that bunker. I’m going to the middle of the green.’ He hits a 4-iron about 40 feet and he’s away. He putts it down to 2 or 3 inches. Middlecoff gets in the bunker, takes a swing, the ball doesn’t come out. PGA’s over with.” Ford won his second major championship in the 1957 Masters, overtaking Sam Snead with a final round of 66 to Snead’s even par 72. At the 18th Ford plugged his approach into the face of the bunker short and left of the green. Appearing about as apprehensive as Ted Williams staring at a hanging curveball, he strolled into the bunker and holed the shot. The next year, as the defending champion, he would finish tied for second and slip the green jacket onto first-time Masters champion Arnold Palmer. That was the year Palmer was allowed to play a provisional ball on the 12th hole, a ruling that rankled Ken Venturi (who had been playing alongside Palmer) the rest of his life. Though Venturi never let it go, Ford never took it up. At the time, Fred Hawkins, who was second with Ford, was encouraged to protest the Palmer ruling. He sought out Ford, but the response he got was that Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones had made the decision, and that was that. Ford already had a green jacket and with it came an added responsibility to the tournament. Besides, Ford reasoned, he’d missed birdie putts on both the 17th and 18th holes that, had he holed them, would have made the entire episode nothing more than a rules footnote. Years later, after Venturi wrote about Palmer’s plugged lie and the provisional ball, Ford was asked yet again for his opinion. “My dad just said, basically, he’d known and played with and against Arnold Palmer many years and he was an honorable man and he left it at that,” says Doug Jr. Doug Ford Sr. was underrated as a ball-striker mostly because his short game was so profoundly admired. “The swing was three-quarter but it was very wide,” says Doug Jr. “My dad was very strong. He had great lower body motion, similar to what Hogan did. His ball-striking was never recognized as much because he was so good around the greens. He would laugh today when they talk about short-siding. He would go right at the pin, no matter what. He was so

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good because he had pure roll on the ball. When he would be around the green before a round, chipping, the guys would be watching him hit shots.” Following his one-day stint as his father’s chair Sherpa, Doug Jr. spent most of his golf life in South Florida. He played the PGA Tour briefly in the middle ’70s, prior to the all-exempt days. “I wasn’t good enough to stick out there. I was a rabbit,” he

Doug Ford Jr. and Doug Ford Sr. says of the Monday qualifiers days. “One year I went to the Canadian Open they had about 120 guys for four spots. That was the way it was.” He taught at Sherbrooke Golf and CC and Harder Hall Golf Resort, both in South Florida. Later, with his father and younger brother, Mike, he was part owner of Lacuna Golf Club from 1991 to 2004 in Lake Worth. After that he taught at Deer Creek Golf Club in Deerfield Beach before moving to Pinehurst. Doug’s brother owns Jack O’Lantern Resort and Golf Course in Woodstock, New Hampshire, and his son, Scott, is also a golf pro. After back surgery and hip replacement, Ford pretty much confines his teaching to the short game. And if you don’t think the knowledge of the father can be passed to the son, here are two words to remember: Butch Harmon. If you have trouble convincing yourself that there isn’t much to learn from someone who has a cane in their hand from time to time, try Googling pictures of Harvey Penick. “What I learned from my dad, just watching and playing, was club selection,” says Doug Jr. “You don’t always grab the sand iron when you miss the green. He believed in not changing the swinging motion but changing the club to fit the shot. The more green you have to work with, the less loft you use. You want to get the ball on the green and get it rolling. As far as the execution of the shot, you’ve got a short shot so you shorten the grip on the club. You have to get in position so your body is still. Things like that. Obviously, everybody’s a little different.” Almost any teacher will tell almost any golfer that the quickest route to better scores is through the art of the short game, Ford’s specialty. “I’m going to give it a shot,” he says. “See if I can develop a clientele.” PS Jim Moriarty is PineStraw’s Senior Editor and a former writer for Golf Digest.

October 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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Hickory Nut Falls

October ��

The wind says, Breathe into the sting, but the mind anticipates the hive. Each day bears a lesson. In my room, where the dry leaves know the secret to eternal life and the acorn shows me how to stand tall, I search for the gorge, cool patches of earth like open mouth kisses. There is no separation. Papa used prayer, sat in his threadbare chair, each labored breath a short infinity; each day a gift. At the water’s edge, I see him as a young man, feet bare, toes crooked like mine, working a smooth stone between his fingers like a talisman to a timeless space. Ankles numb in the flowing river that connects us, I stand there as he sends the stone dancing across the water’s surface, feel the ripples expand within me, remember the calm of his voice: I am always with you. We are always home.

—Ashley Wahl

America’s First Family of Art Victoria Browning Wyeth gives an intimate look at a legacy of genius By R ay Owen

rt is in Victoria Wyeth’s blood. Her family has produced three generations of such highly regarded artists that they have become part of the national consciousness. She is the grandchild of iconic artist Andrew Wyeth, the great-granddaughter of illustrator N.C. Wyeth, and the niece of contemporary realist Jamie Wyeth. Her father, Nicholas, is a private art dealer, and her mother, Jane, is an art adviser who was trained as an art historian. “The biggest myth is that my family paints from photos,” says Victoria, a gifted photographer whose images have been exhibited nationwide. She credits a high school teacher for pushing her into a medium that was previously unexplored by her relatives. “It’s tough to come from a famous family when everyone is so talented,” she says. “I can’t paint, I have no talent, and I can’t draw a circle.” As the designated family historian, Victoria gives lectures on all things Wyeth when not working as a therapist in the Pennsylvania state hospital system. Her insider’s knowledge of the painters has been the subject of numerous articles, and she has given talks throughout the United States and abroad, offering the public a more intimate view of her family than can be gained simply from the perspective of an art historian. She has a story for everyone of her lineage — including ties to North Carolina and Southern Pines. The patriarch of Victoria’s artistic legacy was her great grandfather, N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945). The town of Southern Pines owns three significant paintings by the artist that are on public display in the Utility Billing Office, located at 180 SW Broad Street, formerly the public library. The paintings, created as illustrations for James Boyd’s novel Drums, were gifted to the town by his wife, Katharine Boyd. N.C. Wyeth was one of America’s greatest illustrators. During his lifetime, he created over 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books, 25 of them for Charles Scribner’s Sons publishing. A swashbuckler of a man whose works fired the imaginations of generations of readers, N.C. Wyeth was a household name during the first quarter of the 20th century for the art he provided for classic titles like Treasure Island, The Last of the Mohicans and The Yearling. Standing larger than life, N.C. Wyeth was a realist painter whose dramatic canvases could be understood quickly. He only painted from experience, sympathetic to his subjects, showing them at one with their

Victoria Wyeth

N.C. Wyeth

October 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

October 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

environment. It was this interest that brought him to Southern Pines in 1927, in preparation for his illustrations for Drums. Boyd was making a name for himself in literary circles, his Weymouth mansion a favorite retreat for such figures as William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe. There was a wonderful exchange of letters between Wyeth and Boyd included in an early 1928 edition of Drums. Boyd provided a car and driver for Wyeth for a side trip to Edenton, North Carolina, so that he could get the look and feel of the Colonial town, the setting for the book: N.C. Wyeth, Edenton, NC, December 1927 My dear Boyd, This afternoon was spent wandering in and about these relics of 1770. My heart went out to them, because you, Boyd, have made them alive for me. The oak timbers, whose adze-marked surfaces are still crisp on their protected sides and smoothed to gentle undulations where the sun and rain for years have touched them, thrilled me like music. Cordially, Wyeth And the reply: James Boyd, Southern Pines, NC, December 1927 Dear NCW, Your letter just come from Edenton disturbs me. It is an injustice of nature that a man who can paint like you should also be able to write like that. Everything you say stirs me mightily. It is only the way you say it that makes me uneasy. A little tactfully assumed illiteracy would be more becoming when addressing a man in my business. Otherwise I might be obliged to ask myself why I am in this business at all. JB In its day, Drums was considered the finest novel of the American Revolution that had ever been written, with more than 50,000 copies sold in its first year. Since that time, generations of Southern Pines residents have cherished the Wyeth paintings as an important aspect of the cultural heritage of the town. Victoria Wyeth’s personal connection to Southern Pines is through her acquaintance with artist Jeffrey Mims, founder and director of the Academy of Classical Design. As a painter and educator, Mims has been at the forefront of the revival of the classical tradition for the past 30 years. For Victoria, her Uncle Jamie (b.1946) is the keeper of her family’s tradition, with his paintings more varied than his predecessors. “Jamie is the future of our family,” says Victoria. “And he’s so different. He’s managed to do his own thing in his own style, and he’s painted everything from pigs to presidents. The whole family has a wonderful sense of humor, and Jamie’s the one who paints with it.” Jamie’s father, Andrew Wyeth, holds a very special place in Victoria’s heart. As his only grandchild, she was one of the few people he ever allowed to watch him paint. The first photograph she took of her grandfather was a kind of epiphany. “I always saw him as this adorable, smiling older man,” she says of that day. “For PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 2018

October 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

the first time in my life, Andrew Wyeth was standing before me. Not Grandpa, but the artist, and he had the most earnest look I had ever seen in my life.” Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) is recognized as one of the most important American artists of the 20th century. For more than seven decades he painted the regions of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where he was born, and mid-coast Maine, where he spent most of his summer months. The youngest of N.C. Wyeth’s five children, at age 15 Andrew began several years of intensive artistic training under his father, who encouraged him to work as both an illustrator and painter. His career launched in 1937 with a sold-out exhibition of his watercolors in New York. On the occasion of the young artist’s debut, his father wrote him a congratulatory letter prophesying, “You are headed in the direction that should finally reach the pinnacle in American art.” An austere poet laureate of rural life, Andrew once noted that meaning “is hiding behind the mask of truth” in his work. He freely manipulated his subjects, transforming them in order to evoke memories, ideas and emotions. Through a process of reduction and selection, he created mysterious undercurrents in his landscapes, interiors and portraits. Victoria adored him, called him “Andy,” and spent all her childhood summers with him and Grandma Betsy in Cushing, Maine, where she vividly remembers long boat trips to family-owned islands for picnics. As a child, Victoria began to realize that “all the people in the paintings were the folks I’d been hanging out with,” and she fondly recalls that, “on Andrew’s birthday the president would always call.” Andrew drew and painted Victoria many times. She was 6 years old for the first sitting and remembers very little about the experience, except how hard it was to keep still. “We had made a deal the third time that I’d only pose if I could take notes, and so I just sat there taking notes the entire time.” The artist often chuckled at her precociousness, but he gamely tried to answer every query. The last question logged in her “Andy Journals” was about how to create the color black. He said that he didn’t start by squeezing inky paint from a tube. “You build in the excitement before adding black, you slowly build it up with blues and reds and greens.” One of Andrew Wyeth’s most powerful works is in the permanent collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. The painting, titled “Winter 1946,” depicts a boy running fast and recklessly down a hill, casting a long shadow on the grass behind him. The figure with furrowed brow, gazing down and forward, is dressed in a heavy winter coat, his mind elsewhere, lost in the golden earth, and the vast, breathtaking landscape. Andrew created this painting after the horrific death of his father in 1945. The tragedy occurred at a railroad crossing on a hill in Chadds Ford, when an oncoming train hit the car carrying N.C. Wyeth and his young grandson, killing them both. The hill became a source of inspiration for Andrew’s paintings over the next 30 years, as he rendered the memory of the place into something strangely beautiful. Victoria Wyeth’s most enduring memory of her grandfather is not paint and canvas, but “his hugs — he gave the best long hugs. He made me feel so special all the time.” During his lifetime Andrew said, “Your art goes as far as your love goes.” PS

Andrew Wyeth

Winter 1946

Ray Owen is a local historian, who works for the Arts Council of Moore County. PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 2018

The Gift of Personality Finding the soul in a role

By Jim Moriarty • Photograph by Tim Sayer

saw Joyce Reehling at around 3 a.m. She was dressed in white. Her role in this particular episode of Law and Order was modest. She was a naval officer. All business. But there was something in her eyes, as if, for reasons known only to her, she wasn’t entirely on board with what was happening in that office. She’d had a life before that moment sitting in that chair across that desk from whatever the hell that district attorney’s name is. There was stuff. Maybe stuff she didn’t talk about because, if you’re a female officer in the Navy, maybe you don’t talk about stuff like that, especially if the investigation involves another female naval officer. And I wondered what it was. And I rearranged the pillow behind my head so I could have a better look. Reehling doesn’t deliver a line. She pulls back the curtain just a touch to give you a peek through the windowpane, inside the house. Maybe it’s funny. Maybe it’s not. But the one thing it always is, is honest. Born in Baltimore, Reehling grew up in Laytonsville, once a tiny Montgomery County town that’s gone from the middle of nowhere to a gridlocked prisoner of urban sprawl. “Our huge claim to fame was that the Laytonsville volunteer fire department building burned down once,” says Reehling, who knew she wanted to be an actress from the time she was in kindergarten. “I was in this rhythm band, and I was playing the blocks with sandpaper on them,” she says. “Somebody’s playing the triangle, and we all seemed so happy and I thought, ‘I bet you can do this for a living.’ And I have the musical ability of a dinner plate.” Reehling’s father, Stanley, who passed away almost two decades ago, was a traveling salesman — insert jokes at your peril — selling institutional food. Her mother, Jean, took care of the home and children. Joyce has a twin sister, Karen, and two younger sisters, Jenny and Mandy, who came along nine and 10 years after the twins. “It was like living in a sorority house interrupted by a father showing up,” she says. “My father was a Marine in the Second World War,

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God bless him. He spent a part of his life in the South Pacific and China and was a drill sergeant for a while. This is not the building block of great empathy. He wasn’t in the first wave to go into Guadalcanal, but he was there. I’d have to check to find all the places he was, but there was not one that was fun. He was in terrible places doing terrible things, that I know.” Reehling got her first big break in acting from a wrestling coach. It sounds more violent than it was. She was at Gaithersburg High School and “my guidance counselor, Adam Zetts, was mainly the wrestling coach. Big guy. He didn’t quite know what to make of me. He came to school one day and he saw me in the hall and said, ‘I found it. I found it.’ He’d read a story in the Christian Science Monitor about the North Carolina School of the Arts and he said, ‘I think this is what you need.’” It was. “My year was the first full graduating class,” she says. “The school was so new it was like puppies in a box. Now it’s just really together.” After a fifth year at the School of the Arts as part student, part graduate assistant, it was off to New York. “I still didn’t feel ready,” she says. “The foundation there now is so thorough you should know what you’re doing. Of course, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to be scared. I left the School of the Arts terrified. When I went, you went up on your own. Good luck getting a job. You’re the flotsam and jetsam. It’s very unsettling at first. I think I went to New York with $1,000. I got in the Rehearsal Club, two brownstones up from the Museum of Modern Art. The play and movie Stage Door are based on this place. Carol Burnett had lived there. A whole bunch of women. A lot of Rockettes. Men were not allowed above the first floor. I think we were paying $35 a week. That included breakfast and dinner and linens. I remember a bunch of us having the ubiquitous meeting in a coffee shop where you could have unlimited coffee and everyone got a bagel. That’s a meal. One guy said how fun this phase of life is. I said, ‘I’m OK with it now but at 30 this is going to be really old.’ You were

October 2018 i�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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nickel and diming your way through everything.” Commercials and voice-overs, particularly Reehling’s Robitussin role of Dr. Mom, supported her theater habit. “I always said my job was auditioning, interrupted by work. You were lucky if you had auditions. If you got a play for five or six weeks, whatever it was, you could just about relax into it — but not for long. Oh, this is great. I’m in rehearsal. We opened. It’s going well. What’s my next job? I don’t have one . . . . In the summer I was almost always in a show. I didn’t get to my grandmothers’ funerals because I didn’t have a standby. I had no one to take over so I couldn’t go. Those kinds of things happen. This is what you agreed to when you joined the tribe.” But the dream job did come along. It was in the Circle Repertory Company, co-founded by a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, the late Lanford Wilson, and director Marshall W. Mason, a member of the Theater Hall of Fame and a recipient of a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. Reehling got their attention when she was acting in Wilson’s The Hot l Baltimore on the West Coast. “Lanford had the ability of creating eight people on stage at one time, and Marshall had the ability to direct eight people on stage at one time. And both of those things are very difficult,” says Reehling. “What Circle Rep did for me was something I really didn’t know I wanted. It put me in a company where there were playwrights who wrote for actors. We had the joy of starting with (a play) from the minute it hit the page.” Mason, an emeritus professor at Arizona State University, now spends half his year in Mazatlan, Mexico, and the other half in Manhattan. “Lanford wrote Fifth of July with Joyce in mind to play June. I have to say, when we talk about actors at Circle Repertory, the

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Rheeling withWilliam Hurt in Lulu by Frank Wedekind

October 2018 i�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

PHOTOGRAPH BY KEN HOWARD

Rheeling in Who Killed Richard Corey by A.R. Gurney

first thing that you’re talking about is a deep honesty. You don’t see acting, the actors become the characters so much. That was the secret of our success. It was true of all our actors. It was certainly true of Joyce. Having said that, what made Lanford especially happy was she knew how to land a line just as the playwright wanted it and score a big laugh. In Fifth of July she brought the house down.” A couple of years ago Mason called Reehling just to talk about her portrayal of June. “I never discussed this,” says Reehling. “I said to myself in rehearsal, ‘I can’t keep sounding like a shrew.’ I’m always saying something about ‘Let’s get this done. Let’s sprinkle Uncle Matt.’” Her character, June, was intent on scattering Uncle Matt’s ashes. “I came up with a memory. I wore a necklace that nobody saw, little tiny pearls I got in an estate sale or something. I decided that when Uncle Matt was really sick, I came to visit — they more or less raised my daughter. I came to see Matt and he asked to talk to me alone and he was funny like he always was, but he grabbed my arm and he said, ‘Don’t let her keep these ashes too long. Promise me.’ And I promised him. So it wasn’t that I was pushy the way it might appear. Whenever I was on stage, my hand would go here . . . .” Reehling leans back in her chair and places her hand on an imaginary necklace, as genuine as a recurring dream. “Oh, it brings tears to my eyes. It’s so real for me. And Marshall didn’t know a thing about that and Lanford didn’t either. Marshall said to me once, ‘What are you using in this moment?’ I said, ‘Do you like it or do you not like it?’ He said, ‘I like it.’ I said, ‘Then I can’t tell you because once I speak it to you, it’s gone.’ I love the secret life. I think every character, every person, we all have secrets all the time, things we don’t say, things we know about ourselves and never want to share. You’ve got to find those things, you must find those things with each person.” Of course, like an honored houseguest, an actor — even one desperate to work — can overstay his or her welcome inside a character. “The hardest thing in a long run is to know what you know when you know it,” says Reehling, adding a cautionary tale about Carrie Nye from Mary, Mary. “She has a scene where she comes storming in the door, takes off her gloves, throws them down, walks over and says blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and then walks in the bedroom, off stage. She came in one day, took off her gloves, threw them down and said blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, went into the bedroom off stage and walked straight over to the stage manager’s booth and said, ‘I’m giving

Rheeling with Richard Thomas in the filming of Fifth of July by Lanford Wilson notice.’ At intermission she tells the stage manager, ‘Did you realize I wasn’t wearing the gloves?’ She came in, took off gloves she wasn’t wearing, threw them down and didn’t even know she wasn’t wearing them. Time to go.” Ted Sluberski is an acting instructor in New York City. “I was a very young casting director in the late ’80s, early ’90s. The best thing that could happen to a young casting director was, at one point, Joyce said something to the effect, ‘I think you might be in this for the long run, so I’m going to show you how to talk to an actor.’ And she did. We hit it off like a house on fire. In my now 36 years in the business, the best way to describe Joyce was she did her job to the fullest extent, always. Whether it was a Broadway show, whether it was guest star, whether it was commercials — which are a craft aspect of the business — her commitment to the basic core of acting was consummate. The people who survive in this business are the people who do their job to the hilt. I’ve seen her do some dramatic things. I’ve seen her do some brilliantly comedic things. She always built a person. She didn’t build the idea of someone.” Reehling and her husband, Tony Elms, the person she refers to as “the most precious man in the world,” have lived in Pinehurst for nearly 10 years. This month she’ll join Sally Struthers (All in the Family, Gilmore Girls) and Kim Coles (Living Single, In Living Color) in the Judson Theatre Company’s October 18-21 production of Love, Loss and What I Wore, by Nora and Dehlia Ephron. It will be the second time Reehling has appeared in one of Judson’s productions, this time with a tad more advance notice. “Joyce has been like a guardian angel to Judson Theatre Company,” says its founder, Morgan Sills. “I’m not sure everybody realized she had this major past life in New York on television and on the screen working with all these legendary people” (Richard Thomas, Bill Hurt, Swoozie Kurtz, Jeff Daniels, Christopher Reeve, Gig Young, Holly Hunter, Alec Baldwin, Mary Louise Parker, Timothy Hutton, to name a few). Reehling’s first appearance for Judson, however, came straight out of the bullpen. Dawn Wells of Gilligan’s Island fame was cast as Weezer in Steel Magnolias but wound up in the hospital, if just temporarily, instead of on the stage. “Someone alerted me to Joyce,” says Sills. “She understood the situation. We walked her through it a couple of times and she went on. And she was wonderful.” Sills thinks the Ephrons’ play is a perfect fit for Reehling. “It’s basically five extraordinary women across the generations, telling the stories, the defining moments, of their lives, via the clothing they

had on at the time. So, it’s a piece that shows her tremendous range. Make you laugh; bring a tear to your eye. It’s heartwarming and human and I think it will resonate with everyone. The track of roles Joyce is doing I’ve seen performed by a lot of prodigiously gifted New York actresses, and Joyce is very much in that mold.” The Reehling/Elms house off Linden Road is filled with art, each piece seemingly with its own secret life. “I love this,” Reehling says, pointing to a painting by James Feehan of figures and poles and shaky equilibrium. “It’s called ‘Tenuous Balance’ and I said, ‘Boy, that feels like my career.’ I wish it had gone on longer. I was never an ingénue, I was always a character girl, and that shortens your life, but women in general have short lives in the theater and film. I can honestly say I can see myself standing in a field near our little red house outside of Baltimore — my father had volunteered us for the job of picking up stones for 25 cents an hour — and I can remember in the back of my head going, ‘How am I going to get from here to where I want to go?’ I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I did it, one foot in front of the other.” One secret life at a time. PS

L-R: Jeff Daniels, Christopher Reeves, Swoosie Kurtz, Joyce Reehling, Jonathan Hogan, Amy Wright, Mary Carver, Danton Stone

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Coach Remembering a man who made us better By Bill Fields

PHOTOGRAPHS CONTRIBUTED FROM THE FAMILY

ohn Wiley Williams, “Coach” to most, was a motion offense of a man, always on the move, as much shark as bulldog, although he certainly got the latter nickname for good reason. If he wasn’t jogging — at least 10 miles a day for a year when he was in his 40s, just to prove he could do it — he was cycling. If he wasn’t teaching someone the hook slide, he was demonstrating how to pole vault. “It is better to wear out,” said one of the many slogans posted in Williams’ field house office at Pinecrest High School, “than to rust out.” Coach, who seemed born with a whistle around his neck and a large ring of keys on his belt that jangled with every jumping jack, had bow legs and an odd gait. But few knew just how improbable it was that he could run and jump and make a drag bunt look like ballet. Serving stateside in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Williams was badly injured when a load of artillery shells fell on his legs. He spent a year in a Michigan hospital, had four knee operations and was informed by doctors upon his discharge from the service that he would never walk without crutches. “They told Dad, ‘You’re never going to walk right again,’” says Dr. John Wiley Williams Jr., the oldest of John and Patricia Williams’ three sons. “But through rehab and work, he was able to recover.” Star athletes who revered Williams, even as he ordered wind sprint upon wind sprint as the epilogue to a tough practice, didn’t know. Slacker boys in a Pinecrest physical education class, who would rather have been sneaking a cigarette than trailing Coach on a run through the woods to Midland Road and back, didn’t know. They didn’t know either — he didn’t know, until years after he boxed in the Golden Gloves and played high school football — he was born with one kidney. “The only substitute for hard work is a miracle,” was another of Williams’ favorite aphorisms, and he came down squarely on the side of perspiration. Williams was a fixture in the Sandhills for three decades — teacher, coach and athletic director — from his arrival in the summer of 1960 until his death at age 59 in a car-train accident the day before Thanksgiving in 1990. “I don’t know how you judge things like this, but to me he was the most valuable citizen that we had in the county bar none,” says retired pediatrician Dr. David Bruton, 83, who became a close friend of Williams after opening his Southern Pines medical practice in 1966. “He was an extraordinary person, no doubt about that, devoted almost full time to others.” Attending his 40th Pinecrest reunion two years ago, John Jr. encountered Tommy Grove, a fellow member of the Class of ’76 who had starred on the Patriot football and baseball teams. “Anyone who played for Dad, the typical response was how tough he was. They were bound by memories of how hard he

worked them, that they survived Coach Williams,” John Jr. says. “Tommy came up and said, ‘I think of you as a brother, because your dad was like my father.’” Plenty of Southern Pines residents saw Williams lining an athletic field, stripes as straight as the man pushing the chalk spreader. It was a smaller cadre of folks who knew he often lined up temporary shelter for young people who needed it. “As a kid I had many, many roommates,” says Mike Williams, the middle son. “They might have an alcoholic parent, they might be getting beat up — they became my brother. It wasn’t an everyday occurrence, but when the need arose, my parents opened their home to anyone.” And not just their home, as Joe Robinson, Pinecrest Class of ’71, discovered when he returned to the Sandhills to teach and coach after graduating from N.C. State. “I was renting a little efficiency at the Pinehurst Motel down on the highway,” says Robinson. “Two beds and a kitchenette. One night about 10 o’clock, a kid knocked on the door and said, ‘Coach Williams told me I could stay with you for a little while.’ A ‘little while’ turned out to be three months. Everybody thought he was a hard man, but in a lot of ways he really wasn’t.” He was, in Bruton’s memory, a “consummate con man” that swept up other members of the community to lend a helping hand, whether for new bleachers at the ball field or a new beginning for boy who deserved it. “He would farm out the kids to us and other families if he got more than he could handle,” Bruton says. “He’d tell you an awful story that you had to get up the money to take care of it. He sent a lot of kids to school, to camp, whose parents couldn’t afford it. It was probably the best money I’ve ever spent. He was an unusual fellow — he didn’t seem to care much about John Williams, but he sure cared about others.” Coach was born on Jan. 29, 1931, in Lenoir County, the middle child of Walter Spencer Williams, a successful Kinston businessman, and Marjorie Earnhardt Williams. Marjorie died shortly after giving birth to her third child. Less than a month later Walter took Williams, not yet 2 years old, and his two sisters (Lib and Billie) across the state to Cabarrus County to be raised by Marjorie’s parents, John and Willie Irene Earnhardt, Lutheran farmers (and relatives of future stock-car legend Dale Earnhardt) trying to eke out an existence in hard times. Walter Williams remarried quickly, to a friend of Marjorie’s, and had little contact with his three children. His son — born Jackie Arnie but renamed John Wiley by his grandparents when he was baptized — grew up loved but with few material possessions. “John slept in a crib until he was 6 years old,” Patricia Williams wrote in an unpublished memoir. “He told me he remembered his feet sticking out at the end of the crib before he got a real bed.”

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Southern Pines High School Gym Class John and Mike Williams, Charles Waddell, Bobby Richardson, Bullet Bell , Coach John Williams

Coach Williams and his wife Patricia By the time he was sleeping in that bed, Williams was already contributing to the family effort, “Pop” Earnhardt having fashioned a diminutive plow so his grandson could work the fields. “He’d be at the field at the crack of dawn from the time he was 5 or 6,” says John Jr., “and once he was in high school he worked on a loading platform, throwing heavy things on the train. That’s how he got strong, from working.” At Mount Pleasant High School, Williams was a talented athlete but struggled in the classroom because reading was difficult. His wife, a longtime elementary school teacher, believes it was because he was dyslexic. High school might have been a miserable experience for Williams if not for the guiding hand of Mount Pleasant teacher/coach Luther Adams. Raised in an orphanage, Adams saw potential in the gritty student who, Patricia wrote, “had the heart and desire to excel in sports” but was growing up in a household whose priority was its crops. Adams moved to Southern Pines as school superintendent in 1959. A year later, when a larger student body gave Adams the authority to expand the faculty, he hired the young man for whom he had been an instrumental mentor a decade earlier. After graduating from Atlantic Christian College, Williams had been at Pineland College in Sampson County for two years when he was hired as physical education teacher at East Southern Pines Elementary, becoming an assistant coach for several Blue Knight teams as well. Three years later he established a track and field team, the first in Moore County, and began to become an integral part of the town using sports to build community bonds. “John saw the difference [Adams] made in his life,” Patricia wrote, “and he set out to pattern his life’s work after his role model. He wanted to coach, to help young people, to do special things for poor people, and to be a good father and husband. He did all that and more.” A religious man who carried a Bible and could quote it, Williams wasn’t a

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saint. He was well known to local law enforcement for a habit of driving too fast. It was in his blood — after all, he was a cousin of the racing Earnhardts of stock car legend. “He couldn’t not speed,” says Gary Barbee, Pinecrest Class of ’75, a fouryear pitcher on Williams’ baseball squad. “Sometimes the police would let him go, but still he got a lot of tickets. His wife gave him a spool of thread to screw into the floorboard below the gas pedal on his old Studebaker so it wouldn’t go above 55 miles an hour. That was the only way to keep him from getting any more tickets and having their insurance go up any higher.” “Might be true,” Mike Williams says. “He did not like to go slow. If we were going to the beach with a group of folks in several cars and we stopped to have a soda, it was very rare that somebody didn’t ask him to slow down because they couldn’t keep up.” Driving to away track meets in Southern Pines’ aging and slow activity bus, the “Blue Goose,” Williams would navigate winding back roads to shave time and beat other schools to the venue. “Getting there first was an event to him,” Mike says. “That was pretty competitive.” Keeping up with Williams when he wasn’t behind the wheel was difficult enough. As a young football coach, he liked to have players tackle him rather than dummy runners — breaking four watches in one season. “He lived up

October 2018 i�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

to his ‘Bulldog’ nickname fighting for rebounds or diving for a loose ball in a pickup basketball game,” says Robinson. Mike Williams remembers trips when he and his older brother would be in the back seat, squabbling the way siblings do. “Mom would have had enough,” Mike says, “and he would just reach around with his right arm and the next thing you know we’re elevated off the seat while he continued to drive down the road. He was very calm as he asked if we were ready to settle our differences.” Coach would roughhouse with his baseball players and always came out on top. “We’d jump on him, two or three of us, trying to wrestle him to the ground and you just couldn’t hold him,” Barbee says. “He’d bite, kick, whatever it took. Someone was adjusting our old pitching machine once. He was in the batter’s box and a ball hit him in the back of the head. It would have knocked you or me out. He just rubbed his head a little bit and kept going. He was a tough cookie, man.” And he sought to make his players tough. Barbee’s lungs still burn recalling “Burma Road,” a practice drill. “You’d run to first and back, then to first and second and back, then to first, second and third and back. Finally, to first, second, third and home. Then the next time, you did each sprint twice. And after every game, home or away, win or lose, we ran 10-to-15 100-yard wind sprints. Opposing teams would say, ‘Y’all, we need to cut the lights off.’ It didn’t matter. We ran. We were in shape.” Williams’ own running — he built up his muscles with leg lifts, but his limbs still ached constantly — became part of Coach lore. As a sentence for a speeding violation, a judge in Southern Pines offered an option of paying a fine or walking to Howard Johnson’s on U.S. 1 in Aberdeen, round trip of about 4 miles. That was easy pickings for Coach, who would run there and back in less time than it took to watch an episode of The Andy Griffith Show. The feat that caused the most stir was a hot and humid day in the mid-1970s when Williams ran home to Southern Pines from Raeford, the best part of marathon distance. Mike watered him down with a garden hose in the backyard while his wife phoned David Bruton to ask him what she should do for her exhausted husband. “Quick,” Bruton said, laughing, “go grab him before he runs to Raleigh.” One of the best runners to graduate from Pinecrest, Jef Moody, a middledistance star who was poised to make the 1980 U.S. Olympic team before the Moscow boycott, spent more than a year of Saturday mornings as an eighth-grader logging miles with Coach. The experience normalized what had been a jarring move from Philadelphia to a still-segregated South as an AfricanAmerican fifth-grader in the spring of 1968. “He asked me if I wanted to come run with him on Saturdays at Mid Pines,” says Moody, 61, who now coaches the men’s and women’s track and cross country teams at Sandhills Community College. “We’d run the 18 holes, just the two of us, then I’d run home. It really meant a lot to me. I never had him for a P.E. teacher or a track coach, but he was my buddy.” When Robinson was back in his hometown as fledgling teacher and coach, Williams gave him some advice about his new students. “You’ve got to love every one of them,” Coach told him. Williams’ support for his athletes, present and past, was resolute. Coach finagled funds from Bruton and other townspeople so he could buy an early whirlpool bath — which looked like a metal washtub with a small boat propeller — so young pitchers could soak their throwing arms. “He could con me and others out of whatever he needed for his sports activities,” Bruton says. “That tub cost more than it was worth, of course. But he was very proud.” Once I pulled a back muscle at a Little League practice that Coach was overseeing. “We’ll go get you in the tub,” he said, “and get some Cream of Jesus on it.” At least that’s what it sounded like he said. Sometimes Coach’s sentences, voiced in his husky Tar Heel accent, were like a hiking trail that didn’t quite make it to the summit. When we got to the high school field house, I noticed an industrial-size container of orange goo. He had been talking about Cramergesic, a therapeutic muscle balm that made Vick’s vapor rub seem as mild as a peppermint. But it helped my back.

That was the side of Coach who would gently catch a wasp between thumb and index finger and deposit the insect out a car window instead of swatting it dead, perhaps the day after he’d set his watch back twice so a jayvee football practice would finish at “six bells” an hour after weary players had heard a halfdozen chimes waft to Memorial Field from the Episcopal church. “I was always challenged getting rides,” says Tim Maples, a senior star pitcher on Williams’ 1979 state championship Pinecrest baseball squad. “It seemed that I was always spending time with him. ‘Where you going to be, Maples? I’ll pick you up.’ I’d be at home, or at the Elks Club pool, and he’d pick me up in the bus, and he’d take me home in the bus after practice.” Coach — the generous spirit and the drill sergeant both — stuck with people long after they’d left his class or his gridiron. His boys carried the connection and attitudes to college campuses, pro ball and war. “He walked the walk,” says Maples. “He’d talk a lot of times about intestinal fortitude, heart, 110 percent. It was like he had invented those terms.” Those who became educators themselves brought Coach’s ethos to their lives. “The one big thing he did was mentor others to become leaders and grow community involvement,” says youngest son Mark Williams. “For me, it is this handing down of a sense of responsibility, ethics, knowledge, sportsmanship and values that continues and is so powerful.” One of Williams’ disciples, Bill Strickland, took his lessons to the Vietnam War, where he was terribly injured. “He told me he could remember waking up, after several days, having gone through surgeries,” says Mike Williams. “He was in a bed, flipped upside down so he couldn’t move. He said, ‘Mike, I woke up and my doctor was laying underneath.’ He said, ‘Soldier, you should be dead. You should not be here. What force has kept you alive?’ And Billy said, ‘Coach Williams.’” By the fall semester of 1990, Williams had passed on his coaching duties to others and was teaching and serving as athletic director at Pinecrest. On Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving, he had an early morning dental cleaning appointment, then ran an errand to McDonald Brothers Inc., a building and lumber supply company north of Southern Pines. John and Patricia, who had moved to Whispering Pines, were looking forward to a family gathering — sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. He went to the store to buy chains to complete a swing set he was building for the youngest members of the family. As he drove across a railroad crossing, his sedan was hit on the passenger side by an Amtrak passenger train, the Silver Star, which had just left Southern Pines on its journey from Miami to New York. “I don’t think anybody knows exactly what happened,” says John Jr. “My theory is that they had a new puppy and he had that new puppy with him. I bet either the puppy distracted him or it got down into the footwell where the pedals are, and he couldn’t make things work.” The long holiday weekend was transformed into a period of grieving across the Sandhills. “It was such a shock,” says Nat Carter, 78, Williams’ longtime teaching and coaching colleague in Moore County. “It was hard to figure what happened with the train. We lost a great one when we lost him. You could learn a lot just watching Coach John and being in his presence.” Pinecrest sports teams compete at the John W. Williams Athletic Complex, facilities that honor his longtime contributions. Those who knew Coach are in middle age or beyond, their memories aging but vivid. “We always said the Lord’s Prayer before a game,” Maples says, remembering his Pinecrest baseball days. “We put in our hands, in the dugout. Coach’s hand was always down first, and I always tried to get my hand on top of his.” When the Patriots were at bat, Williams jogged to the third base box. Everybody took the first pitch, sometimes two. Tug of the cap, touch of the face, swipe of the chest, rub of the arm. You didn’t want to be the player who blew a sign. “I missed a suicide squeeze at Laurinburg and about killed a guy,” Barbee says. “He was running on the pitch and I took a cut. Coach would get right in your face and just chew you out. He wouldn’t put up with anything. But we all trusted him and believed in him.” The feeling was mutual. PS

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Georgie Porgie, Oh

My!

The sometimes ghoulish roots of innocent nursery rhymes

By Michael Smith • Illustration by Romey Petite

ursery rhymes are forever. Even the scary ones. They stick in your brain like bubble gum on hot pavement. Here’s proof: “ . . . and dried up all the rain. And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.” Who among us doesn’t remember the opening lines? Many nursery rhymes are played out in singsong fashion. With some, like Patty Cake, there is physical interaction while you both belt out the lyrics. Now that’s fun. But there’s more to it than fun. Nursery rhymes facilitate the development of a bond between Mom and baby or between siblings or friends. Fun and interaction work their magic, so that the next time Mom says, “Want to play patty cake?” Zap, your hands go up, palms out, ready to play. Your sense of competence subtly notches upward. According to child development experts, nursery rhymes, especially those with music, significantly aid a child’s mental development and spatial reasoning. On NBC’s Today show, Seth Lerer, Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of California-San Diego, said nursery rhymes both foster emotional connections and cultivate language ability. So, the sweet words and lulling lyrics of today’s nursery rhymes cement relationships. Time was, though, that nursery rhyme words were not so sweet and nursery rhymes functioned more as transmitters of historical events. They were full of political satire, ribald jokes, religious disputes, violence and sexual innuendos — definitely not for young and innocent ears, not according to today’s standards. So bad were they that British Victorians founded an association to clean the things up. As late as 1941 the British Society for Nursery Rhyme Reform was still culling X-rated content, excising accounts of animal torment, descriptions of violent human deaths — decapitations, hangings and the like, even cannibalism. Tales for the babies? Not. Let’s take a closer look at several long-since sanitized nursery rhymes. The majority derive from England. Theories about their origins are numerous and varied, and are difficult, sometimes even impossible, to substantiate. Most have gone through a number of revisions over the years. All the same, the ghouls and goblins might find them interesting. London Bridge Is Falling Down is as good a place as any to start. One account of its origin has it that a bridge would collapse unless a human sacrifice, particularly a child, was entombed within it. The child would be bricked into the bridge foundation while alive and slowly die from lack of food and water. Lore is that the child would eternally watch over the structure and ensure its stability. Substantiation, complete with references, of such grisly immurement practices can be found in A Walled-Up Wife: A Casebook: “In 1615, Count Anthony Günter of Oldenburg, visiting a dyke under construction, is said to have found the workmen about to bury a child beneath it. He rescued the child and reprimanded the mother, who had sold it for the purpose.” Another passage suggests that, “When the castle of Liebenstein in Thuringia was being built, a child was purchased from the mother and walled in.” And so on. So much for the hod carriers union. Children play a game that may have derived from that very goriness. Two children face each other and hold hands forming an arch. As other children run beneath, the arch is slowly lowered till one is “selected” while all chant “London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down . . .” Macabre little game there. Then there is Ring Around the Rosie. As with most, there are several claims regarding this nursery rhyme’s origin. One refers to the 1665 Great Plague of London. The “rosie” was a rash that appeared on those who contracted the

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plague. It gave off such a stench that the afflicted would attempt to suppress it with a pocket full of posies. “Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down!” supposedly reflects the fear that all would eventually get, and die from, the plague. (Indeed, about 15 percent of the country did just that.) The “ashes” were the cremated remains of the deceased. The daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, Mary I, is thought to be the subject of Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary after Henry got big on Protestantism and established the Anglican Church when the Catholic Church repeatedly denied him the right to a divorce. But Mary wasn’t having any of that business. She was hardcore Catholic and after she took the reins, though unsuccessful, she was quite contrary about returning the country to Catholicism. Her reign was a scant five years, yet, during that time her garden grew — her “garden” being graveyards populated by Protestant martyrs. Not for nothing did they call her “Bloody Mary.” Mary was a busy beaver. She instituted a turn-or-burn policy and during her brief reign, had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake. To assist those having trouble deciding to convert, she employed little gadgets like “silver bells,” actually bone-crushing thumbscrews. She also was fond of “cockleshells,” torture devices that were attached to males’ nether reaches. Fortunately for an English population quite satisfied with their Anglican Church, Mary’s stint as the first Catholic woman on the throne of England was limited. Weakened possibly from uterine cancer, she is thought to have died at the age of 42 from the flu. One of the oldest nursery rhymes is Three Blind Mice. The earliest version, along with music, was published in 1609. (Incidentally, that was the year Thomas Thorpe published sonnets written by a dude dubbed the Bard of Avon. Hint: nothing to do with cosmetics.) Moving right along, Three Blind Mice, as we know it, is also said to be grounded in Bloody Mary’s reign. The three mice are thought to be two bishops and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who plotted to remove Mary from the throne. Big mistake. Mary uncovered the scheme and had each of them burned at the stake. You don’t mess with Mary. Our final nursery rhyme is Georgie Porgie, the origin of which actually has been substantiated through court documents and diaries. Remember Georgie Porgie? “Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie; Kissed the girls and made them cry; When the boys came out to play; Georgie Porgie ran away.” Certainly sounds innocent enough for tender ears. In fact, George was none other than George Villiers, bisexual nobleman and lover of King James I. George’s close friendship paid off nobly, too, when the King publicly proclaimed his love for George and named 31-year-old George Villiers the Duke of Buckingham. George was equally fond of the ladies and had affairs with daughters and even the wives of powerful Englishmen. Ladies were warned against being alone with George, kind of an early Harvey Weinstein. Understandably, George’s randy nature and activities generated a certain amount of strain, but his relationship with King James also generated a certain amount of immunity. And so it was that today’s delicate expurgated nursery rhymes evolved from backgrounds well suited to Poe or perhaps Steven King or maybe the Brothers Grimm. “Itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Out came the sun . . . ” PS Michael Smith lives in Talamore, Southern Pines, with his wife, Judee. They moved here in 2017 and wish they had moved here years earlier.

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House of Sweet Surprises Designer Mark Parson’s imaginative reworking of a humble bungalow creates something for everyone By Deborah Salomon • Photographs by John Gessner

f the shoemaker’s children shouldn’t go barefoot, neither must an architectural designer’s family suffer an ordinary house. What Mark and Kathie Parson have done to a humble 1940s bungalow on the outskirts of the village of Pinehurst is the glass slipper on Cinderella’s sooty foot, the genie in the mayonnaise jar. Not only has Mark designed a compound housing three generations, he has paid homage to the St. Andrews Links in Scotland by reproducing narrow, curving canals through which flow gurgling water, set on putting-green grass, in a rear courtyard. He also designed and installed the landscaping, including details like leaving a narrow band of soil between a brick walkway and low wall, allowing ficus vines to root and creep. “Houses don’t have DNA,” he reasons. “We had to give it character.” Knocking the bungalow down would have been easier. “But then you wouldn’t have a good story.” Mark Parson is full of surprising stories, starting with self-training. Then, his unlikely success, evidenced by hardscape and softscape designs for Sandals Caribbean resorts, Miami Beach mansions and a prize-winning Harley-Davidson dealership. Locally, besides residential projects, he transformed an unsightly garage on Broad Street into The Sly Fox gastropub. To Kathie go accolades for the floorplan and décor, her taste honed

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as a designer/manager at Bloomingdale’s in Miami, where they met. Kathie is from Minnesota, Mark from (he wrinkles his nose) Ohio. She grew up in an apartment; he in “a shoebox.” His upward mobility could have been written by Twain, or O. Henry. In part: “My father was a union guy at Chrysler. I framed houses, worked in a sheet metal shop, welded, worked as an orthodontist’s assistant —all that hands on stuff.” But, despite dream jobs like being flown back and forth to Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort in Nassau, he and Kathie, new parents after many years of marriage, opted out of the glam lane and chose North Carolina — first Shelby, then Asheboro. While participating in a Richard Petty charity ride, Mark discovered Pinehurst. “I had heard of (Frederick Law) Olmsted. The real draw was sandy soil and people from everywhere.” People who appreciated and could afford imaginative renovations/new construction. Kathie looked at the village of Pinehurst, drove over to Southern Pines and decided this was where she wanted to be a stay-home mom. In 2003, they bought two houses on Everette Road, one for them, one for Kathie’s mother. The plan: Put both on the market and remodel the one that didn’t sell. Remodel is hardly the word. Mark, as architect and general contractor, took the 1,100-square-foot house

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down to the studs and dirt floor. The phoenix that arose, double in size, had a new wing, a living room delineated by columns, a kitchen with corner banquette eating area but, strangely, no dining room. “We eat everywhere,” Kathie says. Walkabout fajita parties inside and out are more likely than sit-down dinners. One Thanksgiving they served on the front patio, which has a fireplace, and beside it, a salad garden. Out back, beyond the reflecting pool, is another dining area with grill and wood-fired pizza oven. The reasoning goes deeper. In the dining room space stands a grand piano played by 18-year-old Wyatt, a serious musician who started on a keyboard and progressed to this magnificent instrument. Beyond it, windows and doors overlook the grassy courtyard. Entering the front door, a person’s eye is drawn forward by the piano and beyond, to the garden, which was Mark’s intention. A hallway to the right — previously two bedrooms and bath — has been reconfigured as a master suite with dressing room and Kathie’s office. In the bedroom, wide-board knotty pine floors used elsewhere yield to velvety-thick moss green carpet, the whole resembling a fine hotel.

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eople gravitate to the kitchen,” Mark continues. With this in mind, he designed a beauty and elled a wing around it with two more bedrooms, a bath and moderately sized den. The moss green coloration that permeates each room has followed them from house to house. Kathie finds it soothing. She drew complementary forest tones from a printed fabric brought from Florida and used to upholster the breakfast room valance. Even the granite kitchen island has a green-gray tinge. Elsewhere, old leather couches, rather formal tables and chests, and heavy sateen drapes convey elegance. Kathie and Mark both prefer mahogany and other dark woods for their richness and antiquity which, Mark says, echoes Pinehurst. In contrast, rather than elaborate crown moldings and door frames, Mark chose simple flat stock painted a darker green, while several chairs upholstered in bold stripes speak contemporary Scandinavian. Art is mainly florals or landscapes, which blend with upholstery and rug patterns. Although family heirlooms aren’t part of the scene, Kathie and Mark planned a kitchen alcove to accommodate a massive sideboard Mark’s mother painted. Above it, a blackboard framed in curlicue gold announces the dinner menu: wood-fired pizza. Every designer has a signature that follows him or her from project to project. Mark is a ceiling guy. “I want people to look up. Why do you think churches have steeples?” Angles and vaults have become his trademark — in the family room, paneled in cedar, they suggest a dome. The living room gabled ceiling is accomplished with cottage-y painted tongue-and-groove boards. Mark indulged himself with the curving canals bisecting the courtyard, strewn with bocce balls, also a tiny waterfall on the front walkway, because he likes the sound. He tucked two butler’s pantries into the layout and, as the family cook, fine-tuned the kitchen. The sweetest surprise stands beyond the back gallery: a free-standing storybook Nantucket cottage with flowers spilling from window boxes. Mark built it for his beautiful 82-year-old mother, Ila Parson. “She raised me,” he says, reverently. “I can see her when I’m standing at the kitchen sink and she’s sitting in her living room. We wave every night before I go to bed.” PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 2018

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Family dynamics influenced the project. Ila Parson lives independently with a 17-year-old teacup poodle. She drives her own car, prepares most of her meals and walks miles every day. “We’re careful not to get in each other’s way,” Ila says. Kathie adds, “Mark had to think how to incorporate his mother’s lifestyle with ours, our son and his friends.” Ila’s most frequent visitor is grandson Wyatt; proximity has fostered a close relationship. Ila prepared for the move by getting rid of almost everything in her Village Acres house, then choosing simple new furnishings in refreshing blue, white and gray. The 740-square-foot cottage has one bedroom with, typically, a vaulted ceiling; a bathroom, kitchen with breakfast bar, sitting room and screened porch. Tucked behind the main house, this tiny domain is quiet and practically invisible from the street. Barefoot? Hardly. A smart shoemaker’s children wear his best styles for all to see, to covet. Mark Parson’s home and grounds showcase his design capabilities for customers. Otherwise, Kathie says, “This house is everything we didn’t have.” Remember, Mark’s goal was to create a story for a house that — unlike others in historic Pinehurst — had none. Obviously, he succeeded. PS

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October 2018i�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

A L M A N A C

October n

October is a window to a sacred temple.

Inside, the poplar undresses. She does not toil for attention, nor does she shrink from it. She simply allows her beauty in its many forms, moved by an ever-changing rhythm, the blessed pulse of all creation. This is what Ralph Waldo Emerson meant when he declared every natural action graceful. As poplar spills her golden leaves across the lawn, the patio, the sidewalk, we gasp at the totality of her surrender, the magnitude of her offering, the dazzling By Ash Alder purity of her perfect faith. Poplar is a living prayer. As we rake her fallen leaves, tidy piles awaiting compost, a lusty wind scatters our efforts. Let go, poplar whispers. We too must learn the dance of sweet surrender. In the garden, we dig up summer bulbs and sweet potatoes, plant fennel, dill and sage, and when a holy swirl of swallows flashes across the pale horizon, again we gasp. Swallows light on poplar’s branches, and as children drum on swollen pumpkins in the patch, the hymn of autumn rises. Glory be this hallowed month. Glory be October.

Nature’s Candy

Songbirds arrive and depart, dark-eyed juncos (snowbirds) replacing our yellow-rumped warblers, indigo buntings, northern flickers. Flashes of color dazzle the periphery, and in the garden, where feeders sway between visitors and the last tomato has been plucked, pansies paint the landscape magnificent. Named from the French word pensée, which means “thought” or “remembrance,” pansies are early bloomers adored for their bright petals and cheerful “faces.” Like violets, known for their intoxicating perfume, pansies are members of the genus Viola and can bloom all through winter. They’re edible too. Add them to purple kale salads or creamy carrot soups, and in the spirit of Halloween, candy them. Pansies, pansies everywhere, and now’s the time to plant them. Plant in full to partial sun, six or more inches apart. Water once or twice a week, remove dead blooms to encourage new growth, and as they bloom yellow, scarlet, purple, orange, consider the warmth these cold-hardy darlings will bring to you and all who see them.

DIY Love Potion

In the 19th century, wild pansies were often used in love potions. Also called Johnny Jump Up, tickle-me-fancy, heartsease, and love-in-idleness, a creeping viola by any other name would smell as rousingly sweet. Want to try making your own? Pour boiling water over two cups of fresh-picked violets, cover, then allow the flowers to steep for 24 hours. Next, move them to the refrigerator, where they can continue steeping. Wait two more days, strain the infusion, then add two tablespoons of brandy or gin. Bottle, keep refrigerated, and when inspired, use as perfume or a fragrant mist for rooms and linens. You’ll love it.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.– Henry David Thoreau

Pumpkin Eater

They’re everywhere. Big ones and small ones. Prizewinners and miniatures. The heirlooms are darling, but the perfect orange ones call for carving. National Pumpkin Day is celebrated on October 26, two days past the full Hunter’s Moon. Have your latte, if you’d like. I’ll take mine in a pie. Brown sugar, homemade crust. Thin slices, so seconds are a must.

How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days. — John Burroughs

For the Birds

This month, we’ve got peanuts and pumpkin seeds for munchies. And as we snack from the back porch, backyard birds preparing for migration need fuel too. Fill the feeders (black oil sunflower seeds are best). Water the birdbaths. Plant chokeberry. And if you really want to delight weary foragers, offer fruit. Blueberries, blackberries, elderberries, raspberries, peaches, and purple grapes. Arrange them on a wide platform feeder, sit back, and enjoy autumn’s brilliant color show.

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Arts Entertainment C A L E N DA R

Going Batty at Weymouth Woods - Sandhills Nature Preserve

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Festival of Leaves at Thomas Pottery

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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.

with Charlie Roberts October 1st and October 2nd. Cost: $95. Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www.artistleague.org.

BOOKWORMS BOOKCLUB. Are you in grade K–5 and want to join a book club? Find the Bookworms display in the library to take home the book of the month, pick up your discussion questions and grab some activities. When you have finished reading the book, fill out the book review to post on the library’s wall. Can’t read yet? Read along with a grown-up. October’s book is Bunnicula. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235.

JOY OF ART STUDIO. Joy Hellman offers classes and workshops for all ages in journaling, painting, drawing, fiber and multimedia. She also holds retreats and other events for women to support, nourish and encourage creativity and personal development. Class times and prices vary. Unless otherwise stated, classes are held at Joy of Art Studio, 139 E. Pennsylvania Ave., B, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 528-7283 or Facebook link www.facebook.com/Joyscreativespace/ for a complete list of events this month.

OUTPOST BOOK SALES. 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Monday– Saturday. All Mysteries — buy one, get one free, some exclusions apply. Given Outpost and Book Shop, 95 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 585-4820 or 295-7002. MASTER GARDENER HELPLINE. 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Weekdays, through October 31. If you have a question or need help with plant choices, call the Moore County Cooperative Extension Office. Walk-in consultations are available during the same hours at the Agricultural Center, 707 Pinehurst Ave., Carthage. If possible, bring a plant sample or photos. Info: (910) 947-3188.

Monday, October 1 ART CLASS. 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Intermediate oil painting

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Monday, October 1 - Wednesday, October 31

Tuesday, October 2 ART CLASS. 4 - 6 p.m. Paint & Embellish Your Own Wooden Name Plaque. Cost: $18. All art supplies are included. For ages 5 to 12. Seats are limited and advance registration is required. Offered by The ARTifact Shack. The Rooster’s Wife, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info and sign up: www.theartifactshack.com. BOOK EVENT. 5 p.m. Jamie Dement: Canning in the Modern Kitchen. Jamie Dement offers her recipes and tricks for preserving fresh ingredients and interesting creations. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

Ghost Stories at the Sandhills Women’s Exchange

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Wednesday, October 3 ART CLASS. 1 - 3:30 p.m. Finger paint poinsettia (acrylic) with Magda Sonderfan. Cost: $35. Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www.artistleague.org. LABRADOR RETRIEVER EVENT. 7 p.m. Renowned Labrador retriever breeder and judge, Sally Strasser will speak. Dinner at Table on the Green will be at 6 p.m. followed by a general membership meeting at 6:45 p.m. Hosted by the Moore County Kennel Club. Table on the Green, 2205 Midland Road, Southern Pines. Info: www.mckcnc.com.

Thursday, October 4 MUSIC & MOTION STORYTIME. 10:30 a.m. This storytime, especially for children 2-5 and their families, will incorporate stories and songs along with dancing, playing and games to foster language and motor skill development. Capacity is limited to 25 children and their accompanying adult per session. Check-in is required with a valid SPPL Full or Limited Access cards. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. CAMEO ART HOUSE. 6:45 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. The Black Feathers. Tickets: $15. Cameo Art House Theatre, 225 Hay St., Fayetteville. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org. Tickets: ticketmesandhills.com.

October 2018 i��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

EVENING OF MUSIC. 7 - 9 p.m. An evening of Cole Porter favorites featuring the John Hatcher & Friends Quintet. Great room, Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or weymouthcenter.org. Tickets: www.ticketmesandhills.com.

Friday, October 5 POT LUCK LUNCHEON. 12 p.m. Seniors 55 and older can participate in a free potluck lunch. Bring a small dish and enjoy great food and fellowship. Ten games of bingo will follow the lunch with prizes for winners. Cost: $2 for Southern Pines Residents; $4 non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines. net/136/Recreation-Parks or (910) 692-7376. FIRST FRIDAY. 5–8:15 p.m. A family-friendly event with live music, food, beverages and entertainment by The Get Right Band. Free admission. No dogs, please! First Bank Stage at the Sunrise (inside Sunrise Theater in case of rain), 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8501 or www.firstfridaysouthernpines.com. ART RECEPTION. 6 -8 p.m. The Arts Council of Moore County presents “Women in Paint and Pottery” opening reception. Pottery by Dian Ellis Moore and painting by Louise Price and Jean Smyth. Exhibition runs through October 26th. Campbell House, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2787 or www.mooreart.org. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6:45 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. The Black Feathers. Tickets: $15. The Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org. Tickets: ticketmesandhills.com.

Friday, October 5 - Saturday, October 6 CAMERON ANTIQUES STREET FAIR. 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Two full days of antiquing up and down historic Cameron’s main street, featuring roadside vendors in front yards as well as special offerings by the permanent antique shops. Food and refreshments available. Parking by Cameron’s churches and local civic groups. Cameron, just off US 1 on Hwy. 24/27. Info: (910) 245-7001.

Saturday, October 6 AUTUMNFEST. 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Fall festival featuring live entertainment, arts and crafts booths, great food and fun activities. Downtown Park, 145 S.E. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. CAR SHOW. 12 - 4 p.m. Resto-Euro Fest and Car Show. Celebrate our success at the new, larger shop. Beer, brats and food available. Resto-Euro Service and Restoration, 11815 US Hwy. 15/501, Unit C, Aberdeen. Info: 910-944-5751. MET OPERA. 1 p.m. Aida (Verdi) live on screen from The Metropolitan Opera. Sunrise Theater, 244 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www. sunrisetheater.com.

MEET THE ARTIST AT WORK. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Visitors are invited to stop by Hollyhocks Art Gallery to visit with the artists while they paint. Enjoy the fine selection of original art by four local artists. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Gallery is open Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Info: (910) 639-4823 or wwwhollyhocksartgallery.com. MUSIC. 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. The Embers will perform live. Bring a lawn chair or blanket and enjoy a night of entertainment. The Robbins Fire Department will be selling refreshments. Free and open to the public. Robbins Greenspace Stage, 100 S. Middleton St., Robbins.

Library card is required. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

Tuesday, October 9 ART CLASS. 4 - 6 p.m. Paint Your Pet — Painting from a Photo. Cost: $18. All art supplies are included. For ages 5 to 12. Seats are limited and advance registration is required. Offered by The ARTifact Shack. The Rooster’s Wife, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info and sign up: www. theartifactshack.com.

Tuesday, October 9 Wednesday October 10

SYMPHONY CONCERT. 7:30 p.m. The music of John Williams performed in concert with the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra. Seabrook Auditorium, Fayetteville State University, 1200 Murchison Road, Fayetteville. Info: www.fayettevillesymphony.org.

ART CLASS. 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Introduction to Watercolor with Jean Smyth. Class is both Tuesday and Wednesday. Cost: $90. Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www.artistleague.org.

Sunday, October 7

ARTIST RECEPTION. 3 - 5 p.m. Jeff Brown and Michele Hastings sculptural and functional pottery and Bucky Benson Paintings. Join us for the opening reception and artists’ talks. Artwork will remain on display through November 1st. Hastings Gallery at Sandhills Community College, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst.

INDUCTION CEREMONY. 2 p.m. Join us for the 2018 induction ceremony of authors James W. Clark, Jr., Randall Kenan, Jill McCorkle, Penelope Niven and Marsha White Warren into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or weymouthcenter.org. KID’S MOVIE. 2:30 p.m. A free showing of a movie about a boy who attempts to bring his dog back to life through a powerful science experiment. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. PAINT HILL HIKE. 3 p.m. Come explore a different section of Weymouth Woods, the Paint Hill Tract on a 1.5 mile hike. Meet at the visitor center. Free and open to the public. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6 p.m. doors open. Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton. Sara Caswell will open the show. Tickets: $20. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife. org. Tickets: ticketmesandhills.com.

Monday, October 8 BOOK EVENT. 4 p.m. Jo Watson Hackl: Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe. A Mississippi ghost town and an art mystery combine in this gorgeously written debut just right for fans of Three Times Lucky and A Snicker of Magic! The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.thecountrybookshop.biz. EVENING STORYTIME. 5:30 p.m. Children ages 3 through 3rd grade and their families will enjoy stories and activities that foster a love of books and reading, plus tips for winding down and getting the week off on the right track. Capacity is limited to 25 children and their caregivers per sessions. Check-in with a valid SPP

Wednesday, October 10

Thursday, October 11 THEATRE PRODUCTION. 10 a.m. King Lear by William Shakespeare on screen in high definition from London. Doors open at 9 a.m. Sunrise Theater, 244 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www.sunrisetheater.com. GATHERING AT GIVEN. 3:30 p.m. Holiday Decorating. Matthew Hollyfield of Hollyfield Design will provide easy decorating ideas. Bring a friend and sign up for a free library card. This event is free and open to the public. Given Memorial Library & Tufts Archives, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Event will also be held at 7 p.m. at The Given Book Shop, 95 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.giventufts.org. COUNTRY BOOKSHOP BIRTHDAY. 6 - 8:30 p.m. The Country Bookshop is turning 65. Help celebrate with a 1950’s themed birthday party. Festivities will kick off with a toast at The Country Bookshop and then continue at 305 Trackside. Drinks and light hors d’oeuvres will be provided. Tickets: $25 and can be purchased at www.ticketmesandhills.com. The Country Bookshop, 305 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

Thursday, October 11 and Friday, October 12 ART CLASS. 1 - 4 p.m. Discover Acrylics with Jean Smyth. Class is October 11th and 12th. Cost: $73/$79/$85. Supplies included. Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www. artistleague.org.

Emmy & Golden Globe Award Winner

SALLY STRUTHERS (All in the Family, Gilmore Girls) TV favorite

KIM COLES

(Living Single, In Living Color) Broadway, Film & TV veteran

an intimate collection of stories by Nora Ephron & Delia Ephron based on the book by Ilene Beckerman

JOYCE REEHLING (Law & Order, Fifth of July)

OCT 18-21 ONLY! Hannah Center Theatre at The O’Neal School Tickets at: JudsonTheatre.com

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CA L E N DA R

Friday, October 12 GOING BATTY. 10 a.m. Come learn about bats as we read a book, do some activities and make a craft. Geared towards 3 - 5 year olds and their parents. Free and open to the public. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov. SARDINE FESTIVAL. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Join the fun at the 26th Annual Sardine Festival. Enjoy sardines, crackers, Moon Pies, RC Colas and Coca-Colas. Aberdeen Lake Park, 301 Lake Park Crossing, Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7275 or www.townofaberdeen.net. LIVE AFTER 5 CONCERT SERIES. 5:15–9 p.m. This free event includes live music, activities for the kids, food trucks and beverages. August Burning performs from 5:15 to 5:50 p.m. and The Groove Motive from 6 to 9 p.m. Picnic baskets allowed, but no outside alcoholic beverages. Tufts Memorial Park, 1 Village Green Road W., Downtown Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-2817 or www.vopnc.org. PIANO CONCERT. 7 p.m. Sandhills Community College presents Dr. Kristina Henckel in a solo piano concert. Free and open to the public. O’Neal School, Bradshaw Activities Building, 3300 Airport Road, Southern Pines. Info: www.sandhills.edu.

Saturday, October 13 EQUESTRIAN EVENT. 9 a.m.–3 p.m. WHES Schooling Day (D, XC, SJ). Registration closes at 2 p.m. Carolina Horse Park, 2814 Montrose Road, Raeford. Info: (910) 875-2074. SHAW HOUSE FAIR. 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. The 10th annual Shaw House Fair of Vintage Collectables. There will be venders, live music, demonstrations of oldtime crafts and food available for purchase. Free admission. Shaw House, 110 W. Morganton Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com.

October

Friday, Oct 5: The Black Feathers Sunday, Oct 7: Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton, Sara Caswell opens Sunday, Oct 14: Songwriters Superlative: Newton, Alphin, Collins, Abernathy Thursday, Oct 18: Open Mic Friday, Oct 19: The Wooks Sunday, Oct 21: Jonathan Byrd and the Pickup Cowboys Thursday, Oct 25: Jack Grace Band, CD release party Friday, Oct 26: Comedy Night with Johnny Mac Sunday, Oct 28: New Reveille

Poplar Knight Spot 114 Knight St., Aberdeen 910•944•7502 theroosterswife.org

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WILDINGS PROGRAM. 10 a.m. “Bats of the Sandhills.” Learn about native bats and dispel common myths as well as do some activities. Geared towards 6 - 10 year olds. Free and open to the public. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov. KIDS PROGRAM. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Join us to celebrate great fall foods with crafts, activities and books. Bring a friend and sign up for a free library card. This event is free and open to the public. Given Memorial Library & Tufts Archives, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.giventufts.org. ART CLASS. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Eric Carle Inspired Mixed Media — Storytelling Through Art. Cost: $18. All art supplies are included. For ages 5 - 12. Seats are limited and advance registration is required. Offered by The ARTifact Shack. The Rooster’s Wife, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info and sign up: www.theartifactshack.com. STEAM. 11 a.m. Experiment and craft tables will be out all day. From 11:00 a.m. to noon join the Library staff for a special Spooky Science event! This program is for children kindergarten through 5th grade. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. MEET THE ARTIST AT WORK. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Visitors are invited to stop by Hollyhocks Art Gallery to visit with the artists while they paint. Enjoy the fine selection of original art by four local artists. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 639-4823 or wwwhollyhocksartgallery.com. ROYAL BALL. 4 - 7 p.m. Daddy Daughter Royal Ball hosted by Play Escape. For ages 1 and older. Cost: $65/child; $45/adults. 1600 Morganton Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 246-2342 or www.playescapenc.com. ART & WINE WALK. 4 - 8 p.m. Sample and stroll your way through the Village of Pinehurst at the inaugural Art & Wine Walk. Local artists will be featured along with the food and wine tastings. Tickets: $35. Tickets can be purchased online, at Triangle Wines or participating merchants in the Village. Village of Pinehurst. Info: (910) 687-0377 or www.InsidePinehurst.com. BALLROOM DANCING. 6:30 p.m. Have a free lesson at 7 p.m. and dance until 9:30 p.m. Admission: $10. Carolina Pines Chapter of USA Dance. Southern Pines Elks Lodge, 280 Country Club Circle, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 331-9965.

Sunday, October 14 EQUESTRIAN EVENT. 8 a.m.–5 p.m. WHES Horse Trials, CT & D. Divisions: Green as Grass, Maiden, Beginner Novice, Novice and Training. Combined Tests: Green as Grass, Maiden, Beginner Novice, Novice, Training thru Adv Dressage Test of Choice. Carolina Horse Park, 2814 Montrose Road, Raeford. Info: (910) 875-2074.

October 2018i��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

CA L E N DA R HERITAGE FLAG BLOCK PARTY. 1 - 6 p.m. The Catalinas will perform at the second annual block party. Face painting and bouncy houses for kids. Food trucks from The Triangle will be present along with Southern Pines Brewing Company. Raffle for thousands of dollars worth of prizes. Benefiting Military Missions in Action. The Heritage Flag Company, 230 S. Bennett St., Southern Pines. Info: www.theheritageflag.com. CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT. 2 p.m. Chopin meets the Beatles: Songs of Love, Lossa and Longing featuring the music of Frédéric Chopin. Pamela Howland on the piano. Cost: $20/members; $30/non members. Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketmesandhills. com. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or weymouthcenter.org. CONVERSATION CAFE. 3 p.m. Join the library for the first Conversation Cafe discussing "Countries, Cultures and Connections: How do they come together to influence our lives?" The event will be an open, hosted dialogue lasting about an hour and a half. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. FALL DISCOVERY WALK. 3 p.m. Join a ranger for a 1.5 mile hike to enjoy cooler temperatures, wildflowers and migrating birds. Free and open to the public. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov.

THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6 p.m. doors open. Songwriters Superlative: Newton, Alphin, Collins and Abernathy. Four of North Carolina’s finest. Tickets: $10. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org. Tickets: ticketmesandhills.com.

Monday, October 15 WOMEN OF WEYMOUTH. 9:30 a.m. Coffee at 9:30 a.m. followed by a business meeting at 10 a.m. Mia Bowden, owner of MKSchwarz Tailor, will be the guest speaker. Free and open to the public. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or weymouthcenter.org. BOOK EVENT. 4 p.m. Mary Amato: News from Me, Lucy McGee. A spunky heroine matches wits with a mean girl and learns you can’t lose sight of what’s important. The book features two of Lucy’s songs, and the event will be a Bring-Your-Own Ukulele sing along event. (Or borrow one of ours). The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.thecountrybookshop.biz. SIP AND PAINT WITH JANE. 5–7 p.m. Join local artist Jane Casnellie for a fun painting class suitable for all levels, including beginners. No experience necessary and all materials included as well as your wine. Take home your own masterpiece. Cost: $35. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 6394823 or www.janecasnellie.com. CONCERT. 8 - 10 p.m. The Omer Quartet, a leader

of young string quartets will perform. Cost: $30-$35. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2787 or www.mooreart.org.

Monday, October 15 and Tuesday, October 16 ART CLASS. 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Cold Wax Medium with Oil Paints with Jude Winkley. Class is October 15th and 16th. Cost: $110. Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www. artistleague.org.

Tuesday, October 16 RALEIGH STATE FAIR. 7:30 a.m. Seniors 55 and older are invited to join Southern Pines Recreation & Parks and head to the Raleigh State Fair. Free Bojangles breakfast. Cost for bus ride: $8 for Southern Pines Residents; $16 non-residents. Departing from the Campbell House Playground parking lot, 450 E. New Hampshire Ave., Southern Pines at 7:30 a.m. and returning by 4:30 p.m. Info: www.southernpines.net/136/Recreation-Parks or (910) 692-7376. LIBRARY SNAPSHOT DAY. All day. A day dedicated to documenting and celebrating the role libraries play in their communities. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6928235 or www.sppl.net. JAMES BOYD BOOK CLUB. 2 p.m. Carolina Moon by Jill McCorckle. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or weymouthcenter.org.

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CA L E N DA R ART CLASS. 4 - 6 p.m. Painting a Still Life with Acrylic Paint — Flowers or Toys. Cost: $18. All art supplies are included. For ages 5 - 12. Seats are limited and advance registration is required. Offered by The ARTifact Shack. The Rooster’s Wife, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info and sign up: www.theartifactshack.com.

DidDid youyou know know LIT WITS. 5:30 p.m. Join the Library’s newest book club for 11-15 year olds. You can check out your copy of this month’s book, The Wild Robot Escapes, at the Library from October 1 through 15. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

EVENING WORKSHOP. 6 - 8 p.m. Make things out of old books. Cost: $20. All proceeds benefit Given Memorial Library. Limited space, reserve seating at Given Book Shop or call (910) 295-7002. The Given Book Shop, 95 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.giventufts.org.

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Ellen Burke and is designed for the homeschool student. Cost: $115. Cost included materials. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (603) 9666567 or exploringartellen3@gmail.com.

Wednesday, October 17 and Thursday, October 18 ART CLASS. 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Oil Painting with Courtney Herndon. Class is October 17th and 18th. Cost: $120. Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www.artistleague.org.

Thursday, October 18 THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6 p.m. doors open. Open mic night. Cost: free for members; $5 non-members. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org. Tickets: ticketmesandhills.com. ART CLASS. 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. “Exploring Drawing for Adults.” This three week program introduces adults to a variety of drawing skills and materials. Taught by Ellen Burke. Cost: $120. Cost includes materials. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (603) 966-6567 or exploringartellen3@gmail.com. MUSIC & MOTION STORYTIME. 10:30 a.m. This storytime, especially for children 2-5 and their families, will incorporate stories and songs along with dancing, playing and games to foster language and motor skill development. Capacity is limited to 25 children and their accompanying adult per session. Check-in is required with a valid SPPL Full or Limited Access cards. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

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BOOK CLUB MEETING. 10:30 a.m. The Douglass Center Book Club will meet for discussion. Books can be picked up at the library. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. BOOK EVENT. 5 p.m. Diane Chamberlain: The Dream Daughter. Best-selling author Diane Chamberlain delivers a thrilling, mind-bending novel about one mother’s journey to save her child. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

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CA L E N DA R CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE. 6:30 p.m. “The West Point Class of 1862.” Brian R. McEnany, historian and author, will be the guest speaker at this month’s Rufus Barringer Civil War Round Table. Meeting starts at 7 p.m. Open to the public. Civic Club, corner of Pennsylvania Ave. and Ashe St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 246-0452 or mafarina@aol.com.

Thursday, October 18 thru Sunday, October 21 THEATER. “Love, Loss and What I Wore.” A collection of stories by Nora and Delia Ephron. Tickets: $38/ adults; $20/military and student; $43/at the door. Show on Thursday, October 18 at 7 p.m.; Friday, October 19 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, October 20 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, October 21 at 3 p.m. Hannah Center Theater at The O’Neal School, 330 Airport Road, Southern Pines. Info: www.judsontheater.com.

Friday, October 19 THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6 p.m. doors open. The Wooks, Real Kentucky Rhythm and Bluegrass. Tickets: $10. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org. Tickets: ticketmesandhills.com.

Saturday, October 20 FESTIVAL OF LEAVES. 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Add seasonal elegance to your home with creative leaf designs from Thomas Pottery. Stop by for fall decorations and refreshments. Thomas Pottery, 1295 S. NC Hwy 705, Seagrove. Info: (336) 879-4145 or www.thomaspottery.com. HOLLY ARTS. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Join in for the annual Holly Arts and Crafts Festival. Come check out the wide range of crafts and variety of foods. This event is free and open to the public. Village of Pinehurst, 3 Market Square, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 315-6508.

celebration. A new merchandise line will be released. Info: www.facebook.com/SouthernPinesBrewing/ events/. MET OPERA. 1 p.m. Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns) live on screen from The Metropolitan Opera. Sunrise Theater, 244 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www.sunrisetheater.com. CAROLINA PHILHARMONIC. The celebrated classic art gallery tour by Mussorgsky kicks off the season with the return of pianist, George Harliono. Ticket: $30/general admission; $25/military; $11/student. Lee Auditorium at Pinecrest High School, 250 Voit Gilmore Lane, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 687-9287 or www.carolinaphil.org.

Sunday, October 21 FARM TOUR. 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. The farm tour will feature six farms, including one purchased by Prancing Horse. There will be equine demonstrations as well as other activities. Lunch will be available for purchase from food trucks. Tickets: $20/pre-purchased; $25/day of the event. Children under 12 are free. Tour will start at the Foxfire General Store, 1960 Hoffman Road, Jackson Springs. Info: (910) 281-3223 or www.prancing-horse.org. SUNDAY FILM SERIES. 2:30 p.m. This series will show a recently released film about Mr. Rogers. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235. BASIC ORIENTEERING. 3 p.m. Join a ranger to learn the basics of finding your way with a compass. Course will be off trail so long pants, closed toe shoes and insect repellent are recommended. Free and open to the public. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov.

KIDS ZONE. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Given Tufts is sponsoring a Kid Zone during the Holly Arts and Crafts Festival. Face painting, balloon animals and more. This event is free and open to the public. Village Green, Pinehurst. Info: www.giventufts.org.

THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6 p.m. doors open. Jonathan Byrd and the Pickup Cowboys. Tickets: $15. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org. Tickets: ticketmesandhills.com.

SPECIAL EFFECTS MAKEUP. 11 a.m. Grades 5-12 are invited to a special effects makeup demonstration about using makeup to bring scary creations to life. This is part of the TRAIL (Teens Reading and Investigating Life) series. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

EQUESTRIAN EVENT. 8 a.m.–5 p.m. CHP Derby Cross. Divisions: Preliminary, Training, Novice, Beginner Novice and Maiden. TailBoots Schooling Day will also be happening. Carolina Horse Park, 2814 Montrose Road, Raeford. Info: (910) 875-2074.

Monday, October 22

EVENING STORYTIME. 5:30 p.m. Children ages 3 through 3rd grade and their families will enjoy stories and activities that foster a love of books and reading, plus tips for winding down and getting the week off on the right track. Capacity is limited to 25 children and their caregivers per session, and check-in with a valid SPP Library card is required. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

CARNIVAL. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Fall-O-Ween Carnival. There will be carnival games, inflatables and a climbing wall. This event is for children ages 15 and under. Food truck vendors and ice cream will be available. Cost: $5 per child. Aberdeen Lake Park, 301 Lake Park Crossing, Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7275 or www.townofaberdeen.net.

ART APPRECIATION EVENT. 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Join art educator and local artist, Ellen Burke, for an evening of wine and art appreciation. The topic is: “Artists Celebrate the Private Pleasure of Reading.” Cost: $20 which includes wine. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (603) 966-6567 or www. hollyhocksgallery.com.

ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION. 12 - 10 p.m. Southern Pines Brewing Company turns four. Join the

SANDHILLS NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY MEETING. 7 p.m. “To Yellowstone and Back.”

Ornithologist and botanist Bruce Sorrie will present recent travel adventures with wildflowers, animals, and birds. Visitors welcome. Weymouth Woods Auditorium, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: 910-692-2167 or www.sandhillsnature.org. BOOK EVENT. 7:30 p.m. Nicholas Sparks returns to Southern Pines to celebrate the release of his new novel, Every Breath. Tickets: $35 available at www. ticketmesandhills.com. Each ticket includes a copy of the book. Robert E Lee Auditorium, Pinecrest High School, 250 Voit Gilmore Lane, Southern Pines. Info: www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

Monday, October 22 and Tuesday, October 23 ART CLASS. 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. ABC’s of Drawing (Pencil, Marker Pens, Charcoal, Conte) with Betty Dibartelomeo. Class is October 22nd and 23rd. Cost: $80. Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www.artistleague.org.

Tuesday, October 23 ART CLASS. 4 - 6 p.m. Create a Floral Masterpiece with Diffused Watercolor and Sharpies. Cost: $18. All art supplies are included. For ages 5 - 12. Seats are limited and advance registration is required. Offered by The ARTifact Shack. The Rooster’s Wife, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info and sign up: www.theartifactshack.com. BLOOM! 5 p.m. Mike McGrath, public radio host and author, will be the featured speaker at Bloom! He will be speaking on “The Healing Power of Plants.” Tickets: $25. Country Club of North Carolina, 1600 Morganton Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 695-7500 or foundationRSVP@firsthealth.org.

Wednesday, October 24 ART EDUCATION. 9 - 11 a.m. “Exploring Art, Drawing, Sculpture and Painting.” Children ages 10 - 12 meet from 9 - 11 a.m. and ages 12 - 17 meet from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. This is a four-week course taught by Ellen Burke and is designed for the homeschool student. Cost: $115. Cost includes materials. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (603) 966-6567 or exploringartellen3@gmail.com. ART CLASS. 11:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. InkTastic/ Intermediate Ink with Pam Griner. Cost: $45. Paper included. Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www.artistleague.org. UNLEASHING PAWSIBILITIES. 6 - 9:30 p.m. Put your paw print on medical care. This year’s gala focuses on raising funds to cover medical expenses for animals under care at the Moore Humane Society. Tickets: $75 - $500 and can be purchased at www.ticketmesandhills. com. CCNC, 1600 Morganton Road, Pinehurst.

Thursday, October 25 ART CLASS. 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. “Exploring Drawing for Adults.” This three week program introduces adults to a variety of drawing skills and materials. Taught by Ellen Burke. Cost: $120. Cost includes materials. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (603) 966-6567 or exploringartellen3@gmail.com. ART CLASS. 1 - 3 p.m. Beginning Encaustic Wax with Pam Griner. Cost: $40. Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www.artistleague.org. READ FOR THE RECORD. 4 p.m. Read for the Record

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Arts & Culture

EXCHANGE STREET GALLERY

ARTISTS LEAGUE of the SANDHILLS

TWO ARTISTIC JOURNEYS LAUREEN KIRK

BETH YBARRA

O P E N I N G R E C E P T I O N O C T O B E R 5 • 5 - 7 P. M . O c t o b e r 5 - 2 5

24th Annual Fall Exhibit Show & Sale Nov. 2 - Dec. 13

Opening Reception Friday November 2 • 5-7 p.m. Saturday, November 3 • 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Raffle tickets sold Friday & Saturday Drawing for painting held 3 p.m. Saturday Gallery Hours: Monday - Saturday 12-3 p.m.

ENROLL NOW FOR FALL CLASSES

Mixing Realistic Color & Tips from Italy • September. 13, 14 Introduction to Gelli Printing • September 15 Intermediate Oil Painting • October 1, 2, Finger Paint Poinsettia (Acrylic) • October 3 Introduction to Watercolor • October 9, 10 Discover Acrylics • October 11, 12 Cold Wax Medium with Oil Paints • October 15, 16 Oil Painting with Courtney • October 17, 18 ABC’s Of Drawing - October 22, 23 InkTastic/Intermediate Ink • October 24 Beginning Encaustic Wax • October 25 See calendar section for class descriptions. To register: 910.944.3979

129 Exchange Street, Aberdeen N.C. artistleague@windstream.net • artistleague.org

130 October 2018i��PineStraw of the Sandhills PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .: .The . . . Art . . . .& . Soul . . . September 2018 7

CA L E N DA R tries to break the world record for the number of people reading the same book on the same day. This year the featured book is Maybe Something Beautiful. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

4 - 6 p.m. Traditional Oktoberfest activities will be from 6 - 9 p.m. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Tufts Memorial Park, 1 Village Green Road W., Downtown Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-2817 or www.vopnc.org.

THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6 p.m. doors open. Jack Grace Bank, CD release party. Tickets: $10. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www. theroosterswife.org. Tickets: ticketmesandhills.com.

Sunday, October 28

LECTURE. 7 p.m. “The Art of the Wyeth Family” — A Lecture by Victoria Browning Wyeth. Tickets available through the Moore County Arts Council. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6926261 or weymouthcenter.org.

TRICK-OR-TREAT TRAIL. 2 - 4 p.m. Come in a costume to enjoy a Halloween themed trail and find some treats along the way. Free and open to the public. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov.

Friday, October 26 HUMMINGBIRDS TALK. 1 p.m. “Everything You Wanted To Know About Hummingbirds” with ornithologist and wildlife ecologist, Susan M. Campbell. Presented by Sandhills Horticultural Society and Sandhills Council of Garden Clubs. Free to the public. Registration required. Info: landscapegardening@ sandhills.edu. HALLOWEEN HAUNT. 5 p.m. Kids 10 and under are invited to trick-or-treat at downtown businesses before heading to the Downtown Park at 5:45 for games, crafts and more. Hotel Transylvania 2 will play at 7 p.m. Bring a blanket and chair. Concessions will be available for purchase. Info: www.southernpines.net/136/RecreationParks or (910) 692-7376. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6 p.m. doors open. Comedy and music. Johnny Mac performs sophisticated stand up. Tickets: $20. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife. org. Tickets: ticketmesandhills.com.

Friday, October 26 thru Sunday, October 28 SANDHILLS REPERTORY THEATRE. 7:30 p.m. shows on the 26th and 27th, matinee on the 28th at 2:30 p.m. “Andrew Lloyd Webber on Broadway.” Tickets: $35/general; $32/seniors and military; $20/ students. Tickets at the door: $45. Only Senior/Military tickets can be purchased at Given Library (Pinehurst Village) and The Country Bookshop (Southern Pines). Purchase online at www.sandhillsrep.org or www. ticketmesandhills.com or in person at The Pilot Office, 145 Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines.Hannah Theater Center at The O’Neal School, 3300 Airport Road, Southern Pines. Info: (347) 385-4207 or (910) 692-6920.

Saturday, October 27 MEET THE ARTIST AT WORK. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Visitors are invited to stop by Hollyhocks Art Gallery to visit with the artists while they paint. Enjoy the fine selection of original art by four local artists. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Gallery is open Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Info: (910) 639-4823 or wwwhollyhocksartgallery.com. MET OPERA. 1 p.m. La Fanciulla del West (Puccini) live on screen from The Metropolitan Opera. Sunrise Theater, 244 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www.sunrisetheater.com. OKTOBERFEST. 4–9 p.m. The annual Oktoberfest is back. Kinderfest for children and families is from

EQUESTRIAN EVENT. TailBoots Schooling Day. Carolina Horse Park, 2814 Montrose Road, Raeford. Info: (910) 875-2074.

THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6 p.m. doors open. New Reville. Tickets: $15. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org. Tickets: ticketmesandhills.com.

Tuesday, October 30 ART CLASS. 4 - 6 p.m. Halloween Painting on Canvas “Witch Feet with Spider.” Cost: $18. All art supplies are included. For ages 5 - 12. Seats are limited and advance registration is required. Offered by The ARTifact Shack. The Rooster’s Wife, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info and sign up: www.theartifactshack.com. JAM SESSION. 6 - 9 p.m. Bring your own instrument and beverage or just come to enjoy the music. Free and open to the public. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or weymouthcenter.org.

Wednesday, October 31 ART EDUCATION. 9 - 11 a.m. “Exploring Art, Drawing, Sculpture and Painting.” Children ages 10 to 12 meet from 9 - 11 a.m. and ages 12 to 17 meet from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. This is a four-week course taught by Ellen Burke and is designed for the homeschool student. Cost: $115. Cost includes materials. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (603) 9666567 or exploringartellen3@gmail.com.

Burke. Cost: $120. Cost includes materials. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (603) 966-6567 or exploringartellen3@gmail.com.

WEEKLY EVENTS Sundays BRYANT HOUSE TOURS. 2–4 p.m. The historic Bryant House (ca. 1820), which is owned by the nonprofit Moore County Historical Association, will be open for tours through October, the second and fourth Sundays each month. Tours are free. Bryant House is located at 3361 Mt. Carmel Road, Carthage. Info: (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com.

Mondays CONTRACT BRIDGE. 1–4:30 p.m. A card game played by four people in two partnerships, in which “trump” is determined by bidding. Ages 55 and up. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. MOORE COUNTY FARMERS MARKET. 2–5:30 p.m. Fruits, vegetables, meats, crafts, flowers, plants, baked goods and more. FirstHealth Fitness Center, 170 Memorial Drive, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 947-3752 or www.localharvest.org. MASTER GARDENER TRAINING. 6 - 8 p.m. Receive a high level of training in all aspects of horticulture. Training fee is $85 for those accepted into the program. Moore County Agricultural Center, 707 Pinehurst Ave., Carthage. Info: (910) 947-3188.

Tuesdays BABY BUNNIES STORYTIME. 10:30 and 11 a.m. (two sessions). This storytime, reserved for ages birth to 24 months, will engage parents and children in early literacy brain-building practices. Programs are limited to 25 children and their accompanying adult per session. Parents or caregivers must check in to storytime sessions at the Circulation Desk up to an hour before the start time of each session with their valid SPPL Full or Limited Access cards. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

HALLOWEEN SOCIAL. 11 a.m. Seniors 55 and older can participate in a haunting good Halloween social. Enjoy games, snacks and scary tunes. Come dressed in your best Halloween costume. Prize given to the winner. Participation is free. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6927376 or www.southernpines.net/136/Recreation-Parks.

TAI CHI FOR HEALTH. 10–11:30 a.m. Practice this flowing Eastern exercise with instructor Rich Martin. Cost per class: $15/member; $17/non-member. Monthly rates available. No refunds or transfers. Cape Fear Botanical Garden, 536 N. Eastern Blvd., Fayetteville. Info and registration: (910) 486-0221.

GHOST STORIES. 6 p.m. An evening of ghost story telling over dinner with 40 or 50 other frightened friends. Sandhills Women’s Exchange, 15 Azalea Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.sandhillswe.org.

MEET THE ARTIST. October 17th, 24th and 31st, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. This class will introduce children ages 5 - 8 to the art works of ancient Egypt and artist Paul Klee. Taught by Ellen Burke. Cost: $45. Cost includes materials. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (603) 966-6567 or exploringartellen3@gmail.com.

LECTURE SERIES. 7:30 p.m. The Ruth Pauley Lecture Series featuring Dr. Robert Watson. Dr. Watson will present “Dysfunction in Washington: History, Causes, Consequences.” Lee Auditorium at Pinecrest High School, 250 Voit Gilmore Lane, Southern Pines.

UPCOMING EVENTS Thursday, November 1 ART CLASS. 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. “Exploring Drawing for Adults.” This three-week program introduces adults to a variety of drawing skills and materials. Taught by Ellen

Wednesdays

SANDHILLS FARMERS MARKET. 3–6 p.m. The market features many wonderful local farms, nurseries, bakeries, meat and egg providers, cheese makers and specialty food producers. 1 Village Green Road W., Pinehurst. Info: (910) 687-0377 or www.localharvest.org. YOGA IN THE GARDEN. 6–7 p.m. Improve flexibility, build strength, ease tension and relax through posture and breathing techniques for beginners and experts alike. Free for CFBG and YMCA members,

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Arts & Culture

Photo: Matt Dine

Omer Quartet

Monday, October 15, 2018 at 8 PM Sunrise Theater

Upcoming Events 128 W. Pennsylvania Ave. Belvedere Plaza Southern Pines, NC 28387 (910) 725-0465 www.oneofakindgalleryllc.com

October Spotlight on SANDY STRATIL,

For those who appreciate fine art

Mixed Media Painter

OCT 5-26 “Women in Paint & Pottery” Featuring art by ART Dian Ellis Moore, Louise Price & Jean Smyth Campbell House Galleries OCT 6 Autumnfest 2018

FESTIVAL Southern Pines Downtown Park

OCT 11 Regional Artist Project Grant Deadline GRANT Grants for individual artists OCT 18-21 “Love, Loss & What I Wore” by Nora & Delia Ephron JUDSON Starring Sally Struthers, Kim Coles & Joyce Reehling THEATRE Hannah Center Theater at The O’Neal School OCT 25 Victoria Wyeth: The Art of the Wyeth Family

LECTURE 7 pm, Weymouth Center

Become an Arts Council member today. It’s a great way to help our community flourish. Join now at MooreArt.org or call us at 910.692.ARTS (2787)

PineStraw : The Art &i��PineStraw Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : .The . . . .Art . . .& . September 9 132 October 2018 Soul of the2018 Sandhills

CA L E N DA R $5/non-members. Cape Fear Botanical Garden, 536 N. Eastern Blvd., Fayetteville. Info and registration: (910) 486-0221, ext. 36 or www.capefearbg.org. (Must register one day prior). Email questions to mzimmerman@capefearbg.org. CONTRACT BRIDGE. 1–4:30 p.m. A card game played by four people in two partnerships, in which “trump” is determined by bidding. Ages 55 and up. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. READ TO YOUR BUNNY PRESCHOOL STORYTIME. 3:30–4 p.m. Especially for children ages 2–5, this storytime focuses on stories, songs and fun, with a special emphasis on activities that build language and socialization skills to prepare for Kindergarten. Dates this month are October 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31. Stay for playtime. This event is limited to 25 children and their accompanying adult per session. Parents or caregivers must check in to storytime sessions at the Circulation Desk up to an hour before the start time of each session with their valid SPPL Full or Limited Access cards. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235. FARM TO TABLE. Join Sandhills Farm to Table Co-op by ordering a subscription of local produce to support our local farmers. Info: (910) 722-1623 or www.sandhillsfarm2table.com.

Thursdays MOORE COUNTY FARMERS MARKET. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Fruits, vegetables, meats, crafts, flowers, plants, baked goods and more. Armory Sports Complex, 604 W. Morganton Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 9473752 or www.localharvest.org. GIVEN STORY TIME. 10:30–11:30 a.m. For ages 3 - 5. Wonderful volunteers read to children, and everyone makes a craft. Free and open to the public. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-6022. MAHJONG (Chinese version). 1–3 p.m. A game played by four people involving skill, strategy and calculation. Ages 55 and up. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. CHESS. 1–3 p.m. All levels of players welcome. You need a chess set to participate. Ages 55 and up. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. MASTER GARDENER TRAINING. 6 - 8 p.m. Receive a high level of training in all aspects of horticulture. Training fee is $85 for those accepted into the program. Moore County Agricultural Center, 707 Pinehurst Ave., Carthage. Info: (910) 947-3188. ZOOPENDOUS SHOW CHORUS. 7 p.m. Are you a woman who likes to sing? Zoopendous Show

Chorus is a 501(c)3 non-profit women’s chorus singing acapella barbershop harmony. It’s not your grandpa’s barbershop. Come check us out at a rehearsal in the Dudley Center directly behind West End Presbyterian Church, 275 Knox Lane, West End. Info: (910) 725-9376 or Zoopendous Show Chorus on Facebook. FARM TO TABLE. Join Sandhills Farm to Table Co-op by ordering a subscription of local produce to support our local farmers. Info: (910) 722-1623 or www.sandhillsfarm2table.com.

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays HISTORY OF PINEHURST TOUR. 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. (1 hour and 15 minutes each). Also by request. Experience the Home of American Golf on a guided windshield tour with Kirk Tours and learn about Mr. Tufts and some of Pinehurst’s celebrity patrons. Cost: $20/person. Departs from Pinehurst Historic Theatre, 90 Cherokee Road. Info and registration: (910) 295-2257 or www.kirktours.com.

Fridays GAME FRIDAYS. Stop by the Library throughout the summer for interactive games, each week a new one that will provide challenges for kids, teens and adults to enjoy: Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. CONTRACT BRIDGE. 1–4:30 p.m. A card game

Arts & Culture

Tons of Fun for the Entire Family! • NEW FOR 2018 - Car, Truck & Motorcycle Show! • Craft Vendors • Antique Tractors and Engines • Mule-Powered Antique Cotton Gin • Antique Car Displays • Old Timey Fair • Free Pony Rides • Live Music on Stage • Train Rides • Clogging • Exhibits and Demonstrations • Wagon Rides • John Blue House Tours • Restored Sawmill and Log Tobacco Barn • Kids’ Old Timey Games • Food Vendors • Face Painting

OCTOBER

13th and 14th, 2018 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Each Day The Rural Heritage Center

(formerly the historic John Blue House and Grounds)

13040 X-Way Road Laurinburg, NC 28352

Festival Admission: $5.00 (Ages 6 and Up)

1st Annual CAR, TRUCK & MOTORCYCLE SHOW Saturday, October 13 No Entry Fee

Need more information or a Vending Site?

Call 910-706-1456 or Visit Us on the web: See us on Facebook

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CA L E N DA R played by four people in two partnerships, in which “trump” is determined by bidding. Ages 55 and up. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. JAZZY FRIDAYS. 6–10 p.m. Enjoy a bottle of wine and dancing with friends under the tent with live jazz music. Cost: $15/person. Must be 21 years of age or older. Reservations and pre-payment recommended for parties of eight or more. Soda, water and award-winning wines available for purchase. Food vendor on site. No outside beverages (alcoholic or non-alcoholic), coolers, picnic baskets or cooking devices permitted on premises. Birthday cakes, cheese trays and small items are acceptable. Anyone bringing in outside alcohol will be asked to leave with no refund. Cypress Bend Vineyards, 21904 Riverton Road, Wagram. Info: (910) 369-0411 or www. cypressbendvineyards.com.

Saturdays MOORE COUNTY FARMERS MARKET. 8 a.m.–12 p.m. Fruits, vegetables, meats, crafts, flowers, plants, baked goods, and more. Downtown Park, 145 S.E. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 947-3752 or www. localharvest.org. SANDHILLS FARMERS MARKET. 10 a.m.–1 p.m. The market features many wonderful local farms, nurseries, bakeries, meat and egg providers, cheese makers and specialty food producers. 1 Village Green Road W., Pinehurst. Info: (910) 687-0377 or www. localharvest.org. PS

PineNeedler Answers from page 141

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Dining guiDe

COME CHECK OUT OUR NEW MENU ITEMS! HIBACHI STEAKHOUSE AND ASIAN CUSINE

MOORE COUNTY FARMERS MARKET

No Downtown Southern Pines Market on Oct. 6th due to Autumnfest

SUSHI, ASIAN CUISINE

“There will be a pumpkin painting for the kids of all ages assisted by the Jr. League of Moore County Saturday 10/27/2018. Pumpkins provided by the MCFM”

– AND –

Apples, Sweet Potatoes, Winter Squash, Corn, Peaches, Green Beans, Free Range Chicken Meat, Ostrich Meat, Tomatoes, Fruits, Veggies, Jams, Meats, Flowers & Plants, Crafts, Goat Cheese, Prepared Foods, Baked Goods, Micro Greens

HIBACHI

Mondays- FirstHealth (Fitness Center) Facility courtesy of First Health

170 Memorial Dr • Pinehurst 2pm-5:30pm Will be open through October 30th

Open Year Round • Thursdays - 604 W. Morganton Rd

(Armory Sports Complex) Facility courtesy of Town of Southern Pines Southern Pines 9am-Noon Saturdays - Downtown Southern Pines

Live Entertainment on Wednesday Night

WWW.MAGUROASIANFUSION.COM MON-FRI LUNCH 11AM-2:30 PM | MON-THU DINNER 5PM - 10PM FRI DINNER 5PM - 10:30PM | SAT 11AM - 10:30PM | SUN 11AM - 9PM

190 BRUCEWOOD RD | SOUTHERN PINES | 910-246-2106

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Karaoke every Friday! 8pm-Midnight

1005 Monroe St. Ste. K, Carthage, NC (910) 947-2447 • tosg@mail.com www.TOsportsgrill.com

Facility courtesy of Town of Southern Pines Broad St & New York Ave 8am-Noon Will be open through October 28th

Call 947-3752 or 690-9520 for more info.

hwwebster@embarqmail.com Web search Moore County Farmers Market Local Harvest www.facebook.com/moorecountyfarmersmarket SNAP welcomed here

October 2018 i��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Dining guiDe

Restaurant Authentic Thai Cusine

U.S. Hwy 1 South & 15-501 1404 Sandhills Blvd. Aberdeen, NC 28315

Open 7 Days

Smoke Free Environment

NOW OPEN

Lunch

Tuesday - Friday 11:30am - 2:30pm Sunday 11:30am - 2:30pm

Dinner

Monday - Sunday 5:00pm - 9:30pm See our menu on MooCo under Oriental Restaurants Mon-Fri: 6:30am – 8pm • Sat: 8am – 8pm • Sun: 9am – 6pm 118 Brucewood Rd • Southern Pines, NC (910) 725-2077 • www.cleanjuice.com

(910) 944-9299 Carryout and Vegetarian Dishes

Lunch Brunch Baked Goods Catering Events

Where Our Food is Simply Fresh & Tasty Mediterranean with a Lebanese flavor, spiced to perfection from the freshest local ingredients • Salads • Sandwiches • Kabobs • Shawarma • Falafel • And More! Mon-Thurs 11am - 9pm Fri-Sat 11am - 10pm | Closed on Sunday

Dine-In or Pick-Up at 910.246.2468 text: GrapeLeaf to: 71441 for updates & specials!

GrapeLeafBistro.com

10574 US Hwy 15-501 | Southern Pines, NC

Lobsterfest at The House of Fish Fresh Maine lobster flown in twice a week!

9671 NC Hwy. 211 East Lower Aberdeen, NC

910-944-0826 Serving Lunch & Dinner

The Sandhills Exclusive Source for

Beer & Wine List Available

Tuesday-Thursday 12- 9pm • Friday & Saturday 12-10pm Closed Sunday & Monday

910-684-8758 | TUES.-SAT. | 155 HALL AVE, SOUTHERN PINES

WWW.THYMEANDPLACECAFE.COM

PineStraw ::The The Art Art & & Soul Soul of of the the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October September PineStraw 20182018 1351

SandhillSeen Moore County Community Flea Market The Fair Barn August 25, 2018 Photographs by Routine Expedition Photography

Ann Miller, Cynthia Coble, Peggie Privost & Sylvia Brady

Chris & Brynne Peterson

Ashley & Linley Flannery

Julia & Gary Alden

Barbra Ross & Tammy Foster

Sue Andrick Carol Houck

Ruby & Hannah Schoolcraft

Julia Brokmeyer

Bob Chase

Brent Moss & Jack Plattin

Jannette Babb

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Janet Bryant Jonathan Briggs

October 2018i��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SandhillSeen Pints & Poses Southern Pines Brewing Company August 2018

Photographs by Routine Expedition Photography

Sara Halstead, Kyle Halstead Diana Gibson, Katie Perry Shannon McKenna

Chelsea Peters, Stephanie Tran

Marissa Gibson, Colleen Cruxton

Melanie Fuarta, Alex Bozkurt Cara McDaniel

Christina Coffman

Dan Kelly Jenna Cash, Stephanie Babb

Samantha Peterson Jamie Palin

Katie Anderson

137

Jan Warren, Pat Davis

SandhillSeen

Bill and Fay Terry, Bernie Capstick

Photo Club Exhibit Arts Council of Moore County September 7, 2018

Photographs by Corinne and George Walls Jim Davis, Betsy Donaldson, Bill Rose

Paula Taggart, Diane McCall

Howard Pierce, Gisela Danielson

Kathryn Saunders, Rachel McCain

138

Carolyn Alli, Linda Venters, Eulonda Nardiello, Margie Lavoie

Kathryn Saunders, Diane McKay

Betty Hendrix, Lucinda Boyd, Linda Piechota

Kerry Arnold, Chris Dunn

Jean and Ron Sundstrom

Jennifer German, Susan Batts

Madelaine Bradley, Lesley Berkshire Bradley

October 2018i��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SandhillSeen

Chelsea and Ryan Morrison, Andrew and Kacey McCluster

Backyard Bocce Bash Benefit for the Sandhills Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Center August 18, 2018 Photographs by Corinne and George Walls

John Hopson, Ian Walsh, Alex Landers, Will McCreery

Wendy and Al Carter Kim Martin, Jennifer Chilton, Kay Hogston

Vanessa Mills, Stephanie Polidori, John Buck

Paul and Heather Trevarrow, Evelyn and Jonathan Quick

Michael Black, Lee Pittman, Troy Clark, Todd Camplin

Jim Wright, Rebecca Pierce, Jordyn and Kyle Pillar Kyle Pender, Max Hahn, Eric Ritchie, Eric Galloway

Patty Billingham, Jennifer Beasley, Lindsey Bostick, Kelly Altman

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Midstate Furniture of Carthage 403 Monroe St. Downtown Carthage

910.947-3739

Paul E. Gauthier D.D.S.

the

CLOTHES HORSE LADIES clothing & accessories

Dedicated to continuing the tradition of Family Dentistry

Sizes 2-16 Dressing Moore County For 23 Years

910-692-0855

• Beside The Fresh Market •

www.WindridgeGardens.com

910.693.2111

Hours: Wed. - Sat. 10AM-5PM and Sun. 1PM-5PM

163 Beverly Lane, Southern Pines, NC 28387 Mon.-Fri. 10am-5pm • Sat. 10am-4pm facebook.com/ClothesHorseofSPines

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1650 Valley View Road • Southern Pines, NC Adjacent to Hyland Golf Course on US 1

Our office has been serving the Sandhills since 1947

Southern Pines Family Dentistry

655 SW Broad St Southern Pines 692-6500

October 2018i�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

October PineNeedler

Say Cheese! National Cheese Month

1 2 3 Across 1 Kind of baby 14 Say Cheese! National Cheese Month position 17 6 "___ of Eden" By Mart Dickerson 10 Shrek, e.g. 20 ACROSS 34 Satanic 14 Sidestep 66 NETHERLANDS 1 Kind of baby position 35 Church part 68 Opposite of false 15 FRENCH 70 “Haste makes waste,” 6 “___ of Eden” 37 Our “mother” e.g. 29 30 31 10 Shrek, e.g. 41 Fishing pole 16 Billiards 71 Opera highlight 17 Mid ____, college 14 Sidestep 42 ALPINE 72 “___went the strings of 34 15 FRENCH 44 Victorian, for one exams my heart” 18 ___ carotene 45 Inhabit 16 Billiards 41 73 Belly button 17 Mid ____, college exams 48 Carpenter’s strip 19 "Big"band74 member Dispute 45 49 Coagulate 20 Monet, Picasso, ie 18 ___ carotene 75 Burglar 19 “Big”band member 50 Common deciduous 22 Halo, e.g. 76 Rendezvous tree 20 Monet, Picasso, e.g. 52 Apprentice 24 "i" lid 22 Halo, e.g. 54 55 56 54 Pancake utensil 25 Marsh plant 24 “i” lid 59 58 Actor’s part 27 Throb 25 Marsh plant 59 Children’s “it” game 27 Throb 29 "Carmen" highlight 66 60 Old Western face-off 29 “Carmen” highlight 33 Appear, with "up" 62 Abduct 71 33 Appear, with “up” 34 Satanic 74 35 Church part 54 Lieu DOWN 23 Medicinal plant 37 Our "mother" 26 Southern accent 55 Military chaplain 1 GREEK 41 Fishing pole 28 Sauna spot 56 “Encore!” 2 “... happily ___ after” 42 ALPINE 29 Group of cattle 57 Eagle dwelling 3 Bakery buy 72 "___went the strings 44 Victorian, 61 for one Breathing organof my heart" 30 Promise 4 Naval rank 45 Inhabit 63 Blue shade 73 Belly button 31 “____ your time” 5 Ease Long, long time 32 Birdlike 6 Backflow 48 Carpenter's64strip 74 Dispute 7 Length x width, for a 36 Banana oil, e.g.49 Coagulate 65 Animal hide 75 Burglar rectangle 67 Spring month 38 Depend on 50 Common deciduous 8 Ab strengthener 69 Chinese___76 rollRendezvous 39 Horse gait tree excercise, 2 words 40 Detest 9 Get misty-eyed 52 Apprentice Down 43 Rattled 10 Decide to leave, with 54 Pancake utensil 1 GREEK 46 Real estate unit “out” 58 Actor's part 2 "... happily ___ 47 Extol 11 DUTCH after" 49 ENGLISH 59 Children's "it" game 12 Automaton 51 All thumbs 3 Bakery buy 60 Old western face-off 13 Make joyous 53 Flexible, as leather 4 Navel rank 21 Parenting challenges 62 Abduct 5 Ease 66 NETHERLANDS Sudoku: Puzzle answers on page 134 Backflow 68 Opposite of false Fill in6the grid so every 7 Length x width, Mart Dickerson lives in Southern Pines and wel- 70 "Haste makes row, every column and for a rectangle waste," e.g. comes suggestions from her fellow puzzle masters. every 3x3 box contain the 8 Ab strengthener numbers 1–9. 71 Opera highlight She can be reached at gdickerson@nc.rr.com. excercise, 2 words

5 4

19 22

53 58 62 69

63 70

9 Get misty-eyed 10 Decide to leave, with "out" 11 DUTCH 12 Automaton 13 Make joyous 21 Parenting challenges 23 Medicinal plant 26 Southern accent 28 Sauna spot 29 Group of cattle 30 Promise 31 "____ your time" 32 Birdlike 36 Banana oil, e.g. 38 Depend on 39 Horse gait 40 Detest

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6 September 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills 142 October 2018i�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

T H E A C C I D E N TA L A S T R O L O G E R

Stars and Star-Makers

Dazzling, yet old-fashioned, Librans treasure their nearest and dearest By Astrid Stellanova

Star Children, our October-born enjoy longer lives and a better chance of becoming

President; they are more romantic and athletic than the rest of us average Joes. Famous October babies are either stars themselves or star-makers: Julie Andrews, Kim Kardashian and that acid-tongued Simon Cowell with the angelic grin. Pumpkins, bonfires and harvest moons are enough to make anyone grin; if not, then you may be an alien child. Before sending your DNA off to Ancestry.com, consider that our ancestors celebrated the deep connection with Mother Earth in late fall and were grateful for this golden time. As the days grow shorter, enjoy hearth and home — and chill, Baby. — Ad Astra, Astrid

Libra (September 23–October 22) There’s no shame in your game, Sugar. You are old-fashioned, just as accused. But you know how to love what you have and to make your nest a welcoming and special place. When you take stock of all the things in your plus column, notice how many old friends and long relationships you have made. That, Birthday Child, is a fine gift. Scorpio (October 23–November 21) You’re tetchy, and more self-critical than normal. Don’t shave an eyebrow off trying to fix a tee-ninesy mistake. Nobody else sees you through the same harsh lens. In fact, those who know you feel they can’t live up to your standards. Relax, Honey, and realize you are no ordinary creature. Sagittarius (November 22–December 21) Somebody you trust seems to be goading you toward a step you don’t want to take. Don’t that just grind your gears? Are they friend or frenemy? Buttercup, hitch up your britches and grin and bear it. They mean well, they just don’t speak your language. Capricorn (December 22–January 19) Hearing the truth is like drinking from a firehose. Hard to swallow. Hurts. Yep. But here you are, swallowing another needed dose of reality. Now, Honey, it will require you to take another step and face one more test of your resolve and backbone. Aquarius (January 20–February 18) You’ve had to power through a challenge that tested your nerve — and sexy verve — on every level. But in the background, an ally has got your back like a wool sweater. They know you better than you know yourself, and don’t want to see you fail. Pisces (February 19–March 20) You took two steps forward and one backwards in a weird shuffle regarding health matters. Is Chick-fil-A your secret sponsor? Your devotion to habit and fast foods are at war with your best interests. Something has to give, Sugar. (And sugar and fried food are a good start.)

Aries (March 21–April 19) False flattery is no reason to marry a prison pen pal. The power of a good line is indisputable, but Darling, you can’t trust your bedazzled self this month. Snap out of it and ask yourself why you need a yes man or woman so much. Taurus (April 20–May 20) Open mouth and exchange feet, Sugar. If you weren’t so charming, a lot of your best pals would not be so forgiving. If you can do one more crucial thing, Sugar Pie, share the credit for a project completed and don’t hog all the credit. Baby steps. Gemini (May 21–June 20) Lordamercy! Take the next exit off the Ho Highway. Have you lost your grip? Think nobody has noticed? Well, Darling, they did. I’m not saying your standards are slipping, I’m saying they have conveniently disappeared. Chin up, head high and don’t look back! Cancer (June 21–July 22) Sugar, time to learn how to mine gold from whatever you learned from whoever ticked you off. Actually, a few too many did. You’ve been unable to settle, get rest, find a comfy place with yourself lately and it’s taking a toll. Turn that crazy train around. Leo (July 23–August 22) Is Boss Hog your role model? If you watch TV, you begin to think that everybody has lost their ever-loving minds. Raised voices don’t make for stronger arguments, Honey. Somebody has to set a better example — and why not a natural leader like you? Virgo (August 23–September 22) Feeling duller than a plastic fast-food knife? By the end of the summer days, you’ve battled to get your game back. Mix and mingle with a friend you look up to, and energize yourself again. You are very affected by the company you keep. OH

For years, Astrid Stellanova owned and operated Curl Up and Dye Beauty Salon in the boondocks of North Carolina until arthritic fingers and her popular astrological readings provoked a new career path.

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SOUTHWORDS

The Crazy Family It could just be you . . .

It’s a safe assumption that most neighbor-

hoods have at least one crazy family. If you look around and don’t know which family that is, it might be yours. That’s absolutely the case with us.

When I look around my peaceful section of town, I see smiling children playing in their yards and well-behaved dogs on leashes, all properly pooper-scooped. People are well dressed, having civil conversations. Every Thursday night their trash is out and the recycling bins are neatly stacked for Friday pickup. I envy these people. They seem to pull off the illusion of having it sooo together. We, too, have a lovely, well-appointed home. We are well traveled. We have diplomas, in a box someplace. I do try my best to maintain the appearance of social acceptability in public; it just never happens to come off that way. You can’t really start a conversation with your neighbor about your exciting trip to Cuba while your googly-eyed mixed-breed dog is trying to mate with a holly bush. My husband says he doesn’t yell. He is a “motivational speaker to those who won’t listen.” You can hear him any given day giving several motivational speeches to our dogs while listening to bluegrass music. It is no coincidence that he is shouting orders to barking maniacs with banjo music playing. Our dogs get way too excited with every leaf that blows by our glass front door. Any neighbor who walks by is met with barking and jumping. When one of our three dogs recently journeyed to the Great Beyond, a neighbor commented in exasperation, “Finally.” I wasn’t even offended. I just shrugged, knowing how hard it is for people to pass our home. Our son, a successful young man who lives on his own, likes to put BandAids on his car to cover any scratches it incurs. It has now incurred approximately 150 scratches. When he comes to visit on weekends, his car looks like it’s a mobile first aid kit.

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My fellow moms seem to live such color-coordinated lives. Oh, I’m sure they have their own struggles; we all do. They just seem to do it all while maintaining the look of supermodels. They each have three or more children in tow, clean and happy, while I drag yard waste to the curb in mismatched clothes, bleeding from weeding. I wonder how I ended up in dishwashing gloves, my husband’s camouflage Crocs (questioning why my husband even has camouflage Crocs), looking like I’m trying to bury a body, and somehow surrounded by way more plastic than I can explain. My friend Janine says I’m the “garden variety crazy.” She told me when she comes over I’m at least dressed, and she’s never eaten out of the dog bowls — so there’s that to be proud of. Any given Friday at eight in the morning the rumble of the trash trucks disrupts my peaceful ritual. Scrambling to put my coffee down, I furiously begin to look for clothes. Anyone’s clothes will do; they never match. I begin the mad dash from the house to the curb in what looks like a ridiculous live version of the old ’90s Nickelodeon network game show Double Dare where the prize is getting slimed with my own week-old garbage. One particular Friday I was finished doing my morning cardio/trash dash and came back to find a very large and intimidating spider on the kitchen door window. This spider had a neatly woven, well-organized and fashionable zigzag web. It was clearly mocking me. I grabbed a can of Raid (to save my life, certainly not my dignity). Spraying poison on one spider really upset a wasp’s nest that was apparently hidden behind a flowerpot. Wasps began to swarm me. I began to scream and do an ancient, interpretive dance of terror. None of my neighbors were the least bit disturbed, concerned, or even surprised by this. Not one. PS Beth MacDonald is a Southern Pines suburban misadventurer that likes to make words up. She loves to travel with her family and read everything she can.

October 2018i�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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By Beth MacDonald

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