Jim Caruso's Cast Party with Billy Stritch (Mainstage Series)
Colorful Hat Circus
Wednesday, December 11 7:00 PM (BPAC Special Event) Irish Christmas in America Saturday, March 1 5:00 PM (Family Fun Series)
Liza's at the Palace Real Housewives of New York Friday, January 31 7:00 PM
born in an obscure village the son of a peasant woman. He worked as a carpenter and then became an itinerant preacher. He never held an office, attended college, owned a home. He had no credentials but Himself. His friends ran away.
He was turned over to enemies and nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His clothing. He was laid in a borrowed grave.
Twenty centuries have come and gone and today He is the central figure of the human race.
All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.
Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!
2 Corinthians 9:15
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SEVEN LAKES WEST • $1,748,000 126 SIMMONS DRIVE
Spectacular 4 BR / 4 BA custom built home with an incredibly bright and open layout offering beautiful water views from almost every room. Fine finishes and attention to detail throughout. Nice, spacious upper level and great outdoor living space. A must see!
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Attractive, well-maintained 5 BR / 4 BA home in Talamore Golf Resort. Mostly on one level, this fabulous home offers an open floorplan with fine finishes and touches throughout. From an incredible kitchen to the spacious primary suite and bath, this home has it all!
SEVEN LAKES SOUTH • $515,000 108 DEVONSHIRE AVENUE E.
Well-maintained 3 BR / 2.5 BA home on the 1st Fairway of the course in 7LS. The interior is spacious and bright, and the exterior is every golf lover’s dream, complete with putting green and incredible three-tier deck. This home is a must see!!
Unique 3 BR / 3.5 BA home overlooking the 10th green of the award winning Seven Lakes CC and golf course. Home has spacious design with spectacular golf and water views from nearly every room!
voluMe 20, no. 12
David Woronoff, Publisher david@thepilot.com
Andie Stuart Rose, Creative Director andiesouthernpines@gmail.com
Jim Moriarty, Editor jjmpinestraw@gmail.com
Keith Borshak, Senior Designer
Alyssa Kennedy, Digital Art Director alyssamagazines@gmail.com
Emilee Phillips, Digital Content emilee@pinestrawmag.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Jim Dodson, Stephen E. Smith
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
John Gessner, Laura L. Gingerich, Diane McKay, Tim Sayer CONTRIBUTORS
Jenna Biter, Anne Blythe, Tom Bryant, Susan Campbell, Bill Case, Tony Cross, Brianna Rolfe Cunningham, Mart Dickerson, Bill Fields, Tom Maxwell, Mary Novitsky, Lee Pace, Todd Pusser, Joyce Reehling, Deborah Salomon, Scott Sheffield, Rose Shewey, Angie Tally, Kimberly Daniels Taws, Daniel Wallace, Ashley Walshe, Claudia Watson, Amberly Glitz Weber
ADVERTISING SALES
Ginny Trigg, Advertising Director 910.693.2481 • ginny@thepilot.com
Samantha Cunningham, 910.693.2505
Kathy Desmond, 910.693.2515
Terry Hartsell, 910.693.2513
Erika Leap, 910.693.2514
Christy Phillips, 910.693.2498
ADVERTISING GRAPHIC DESIGN
Mechelle Butler, Scott Yancy PS
Henry Hogan, Finance Director 910.693.2497
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SUBSCRIPTIONS 910.693.2488
OWNERS
Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels III, David Woronoff
In memoriam Frank Daniels Jr.
145 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Southern Pines, NC 28387 www.pinestrawmag.com
by JiM DoDSon
Late last summer, my wife Wendy asked what I want for Christmas this year. She’s a woman who likes to plan ahead.
Figuring peace on Earth and good will toward men were probably not in the cards, a couple options came to mind.
“A wheelbarrow and a new Chevy pickup truck.”
She laughed.
“You’ve wanted a new pickup truck for almost as long as I’ve known you,” she said. “I’m not sure either would fit under the Christmas tree.”
She was right, of course. “But if I had a new Chevy pickup truck,” I pointed out, “we could bring home a really big Christmas tree and all kinds of other great stuff.”
“I thought we agreed to start getting rid of stuff we no longer need or want,” she reminded me. “Not bringing more home.”
She was right about that, too. We are de-stuffing our house right and left these days. But an old dude’s perpetual dream of owning a new Chevy pickup truck doesn’t go away easily.
So, I asked what she wanted for Christmas this year.
“I’d like to go to a very nice hotel by myself for a night — and just do nothing,” she said.
I’ll admit, this surprised me, but it shouldn’t have.
Wendy is the most organized, generous, and busiest person I know.
She runs her own custom baking business, keeps the family finances, and does the bookkeeping for both our businesses. She also does most of the grocery shopping, regularly gives blood and platelets, and somehow keeps up with the secret adventures of our far-flung children. Someone is always asking her to do something — volunteer to make pies for church suppers or donate ten dozen exquisite hand-painted cookies for a charity fundraiser. Family, friends and neighbors routinely turn to her for advice on a range of subjects, and then there’s her egg-headed husband who can never find where he left his car keys, eyeglasses, lucky golf cap or favorite ink pens. Somehow, she can find these vital items within seconds — just one of her many superpowers.
That’s a lot of stuff to keep up with, I grant you.
Then there was her sweet mom, Miss Jan, who resided at a lovely assisted care facility in town but spent every weekend at our house. With her dementia growing more apparent by the month, Wendy’s focus on her mom’s comfort and needs ramped up dramatically. Daily visits and doctor appointments filled her calendar, which also included lunches at Jan’s favorite restaurants, and bringing her mom clean clothes and delicious
dinners every evening, even as Jan’s appetite began to ebb. No wonder she fantasized about a quiet night alone at a nice hotel.
“How about two or three nights at the Willcox Hotel for our anniversary?” I proposed as the date approached. The Willcox is in Aiken, South Carolina. It’s our favorite hotel, charmingly quaint, blissfully peaceful and located a mile from our favorite golf course.
She loved the idea and promptly booked us a nice long weekend. She even arranged for Jan’s kind caregiver to look in on her every day while we were gone.
Ironically, our anniversary trip to the Willcox didn’t come off because we couldn’t find someone to look after our three dogs and two cats for the weekend. It was the heart of the summer vacation season, which meant every kennel in town had been booked solid for weeks.
So much for a needed break.
Suddenly, it was middle autumn and life was speeding up dramatically. Wendy was busy baking for the larger crowds at the weekend farmers market where she sells her spectacular baked goods, and I was finishing revisions of my book on the Great Wagon Road, scheduled for a spring publication, and starting a new Substack column.
More importantly, Miss Jan’s condition was worsening by the week. Her physician advised us that she would probably be gone by Christmas.
Early on the morning of November 1, the eve of All Saints’
Day across the world, Jan quietly passed away.
Suddenly, what either of us wanted for Christmas was completely irrelevant.
Losing a beloved parent puts life in a different perspective. In Jan’s case, her quiet passing brought an end to suffering from an insidious disease that cruelly robs its victims of speech and memory. What’s left is a hole in the heart that can never be filled.
Jan’s passing also reminded us that we’re at a stage of life where material things no longer hold much magic. There’s really nothing more we need or want. Except more time with each other.
For Dame Wendy, the simple pleasure of the holiday is finding the perfect live Christmas tree, putting on holiday music, cooking for family and friends and doing small things that make Christmas feel special. Last year, she gave me a sensational pair of wool socks and a nifty garden shovel. I gave her a nice, fuzzy sweater and tickets to a concert at the Tanger Center, along with a jumbo box of Milk Duds, her favorite forbidden pleasure.
This year, I plan to give my amazingly busy wife two nights at the luxury hotel a few miles from our house, where she can put her feet up, drink very good wine, eat Milk Duds to her heart’s content and maybe find peace and joy in doing absolutely nothing. Miss Jan would wholeheartedly approve.
As for me, well, forget the Chevy pickup truck for now. But I figure the wheelbarrow is a cinch to show up beneath the tree. PS Jim Dodson can be reached at jwdauthor@gmail.com.
Absolutely
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Privacy on 4.8 acres in the prestigious Fairwoods ON 7. Expansive rooms awash in natural light, French doors, hardwood floors, gourmet kitchen with large island, Master bedroom with fireplace. Extra large covered brick patio, 3 bay conditioned garage with epoxy floor. Extensively renovated in 2022,new bathroom fixtures, new HVAC,
40
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Enjoy local marching bands and a red-dressed elf during the Southern Pines Christmas Parade on Saturday, Dec. 7, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Did someone say Santa? The parade route begins at Vermont Avenue and proceeds down the west side of Broad Street to Massachusetts Avenue, crosses the railroad tracks, then comes back down the east side of Broad Street. For info call (910) 692-7376. If you missed Mr. Claus on the seventh, the town of Vass will be giving him a lift on Saturday, Dec. 21. You can get more information at www.townofvassnc.gov.
When the Queen of the Night persuades Prince Tamino to rescue her daughter Pamina from the high priest Sarastro, we get to watch. It’s Mozart’s The Magic Flute, beamed in from the Metropolitan Opera at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, at the Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Tickets are $29.50. For information call (910) 692-3611 or visit www.sunrisetheater.com.
What better way to get into the holiday spirit than by kicking back and enjoying the sweet sounds of “Holiday Pops” performed by the Carolina Philharmonic on Friday, Dec. 6, and Saturday, Dec. 7? Both concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. in Owens Auditorium, BPAC, Sandhills Community College, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. For more information go to www.carolinaphil.org.
You can celebrate the season with your holiday favorites and your North Carolina Symphony at the other “Holiday Pops” on Thursday, Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in BPAC’s Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. The performance features songs like “Sleigh Ride,” “White Christmas,” “Carol of the Bells,” “Christmas at the Movies,” music from Frozen, and more. For more information visit www.ncymphony.org.
The annual Christmas Tree Lighting in the village of Pinehurst, with music, vendors, holiday cheer and a chance to see Santa, happens from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 6, at Tufts Memorial Park, 1 Village Green Road, Pinehurst. There will be food and beverages available for purchase, and the Sandhills Trolley Company will be providing free shuttles from the Cannon Park Community Center. For additional information go to www.vopnc.org.
A cornucopia of holiday movies is coming to the big screen at the Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. First up is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 5. Next is Home Alone at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12, followed by How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Thursday, Dec. 19. Batting clean-up is a free showing of Polar Express on Friday, Dec. 20, at 7 p.m. And last, but far from least, is the classic It’s a Wonderful Life on Thursday, Dec. 26, at 7 p.m. For information call (910) 692-3611 or go to www.sunrisetheater.com.
If you’re looking for that one-of-a-kind, where-did-this-come-from knick-knack, brica-brac piece of art, the Starworks Holiday Market opens to the public from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7 at Starworks, 100 Russell Drive, Star. For information go to www.StarworksNC.org.
Wash away the old and ring in the New Year with family and friends at First Eve in downtown Southern Pines from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 31. There will be live music, carnival games, face painting and good cheer. The pine cone drops at precisely 8. For additional information call (910) 692-7376.
Featuring the return of vocalist Caitríona Sherlock, the “Irish Christmas in America” show at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 11 in BPAC’s Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst, is filled with lively instrumental tunes on fiddle, flute, uilleann pipes and harp, along with old-style Irish dancing. Evocative photographic images provide a backdrop to some of the rich historical traditions of Ireland. For information go to: www.ticketmesandhills.com. And, if that doesn’t get your Irish up, the music and dance company A Taste of Ireland will present “A Celtic Christmas” at BPAC on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. Check out www. eventbrite for more info.
You can find out on Saturday, Dec. 14, at the Sandhills Woman’s Exchange, 15 Azalea Road, Pinehurst, at a breakfast featuring you know who, pancakes, bacon, a magic show, face painting, and balloon animals. Cost is $30 for adults; $10 for children 4 and over; and free for 3 and under. There is limited seating, however. Hey, it’s a cabin. For more information call (910) 295-4677 or go to www.sandhillswe.org.
All aboard the Carolina Christmas Train on Wednesday, Dec. 4, from 5:30 to 7:15 p.m. hosted by the Aberdeen Carolina Western Railway, at Starworks Café & Taproom, 100 Russell Drive, Star. There will be additional train rides on Dec. 5 – 9 and Dec. 13 – 20. For information and tickets go to www.ACWR.com
The 2025 Annual Enrollment Period for Medicare ends December 7. Don’t miss out on your chance to enroll in a $0/month* plan that puts community health fi rst: FirstMedicare Direct POS Standard (HMO-POS). It’s the plan made for our community – and backed by a service team that’s committed to your needs.
Introducing Penick Village’s Newest Expansion, designed to elevate your way of living.
Comfortable Living Spaces: Step into comfort with our 44 beautifully designed Independent Living residences, each thoughtfully crafted to provide you with a home that’s as comfortable as it is stylish.
Village Pavilion: In our state-of-the-art wellness building, you can engage in various activities, including Pickleball, personal training, and an overall focus on your health and wellness.
Comprehensive Healthcare: The Terrace, our health services building, enhanced and renovated, providing exceptional personalized care tailored to your needs.
Welcoming Community: Enter through our updated Welcome House, a space designed to safely welcome you, and your guests, into our community.
Penick Village invites you to join our community, where we’re not just redefining retirement living, we’re elevating it to new heights.
Learn more about our community , where you have the freedom to focus on your wellness and relationships while living life to its fullest . Contact us today. Call (910) 692-0300 , email info@penickvillage1964.org , or scan the QR code to learn more.
(November 22 –December 21)
You know that shameless party guest who just can’t stop with the eggnog? Darling, you are the eggnog. Rich, indulgent and best in small doses, most folks simply don’t know how to handle you. This month kicks off with a Sagittarius New Moon conjunct a retrograde Mercury in Sagittarius (read: you’re going to feel tipsy). Wait until December 5 to dive into that new project you’re all charged up about. Success may take a while, but the seeds you plant now will take root.
Tea leaf “fortunes” for the rest of you:
Capricorn (December 22 – January 19)
The gift isn’t always obvious.
Aquarius (January 20 – February 18)
Don’t leave before the second act.
Pisces (February 19 – March 20)
Make friends with your color palette.
Aries (March 21 – April 19)
Look under the couch.
Taurus (April 20 – May 20)
Cut the fluff.
Gemini (May 21 – June 20)
Invest in wool socks.
Cancer (June 21 – July 22)
Double dog dare you to care less.
Leo (July 23 – August 22)
Two words: sugared cranberries.
Virgo (August 23 – September 22)
Tacky is as tacky does.
Libra (September 23 – October 22)
Go for the upgrade.
Scorpio (October 23 – November 21)
Prepare to dazzle yourself. PS
Zora Stellanova has been divining with tea leaves since Game of Thrones’ Starbucks cup mishap of 2019. While she’s not exactly a medium, she’s far from average. She lives in the N.C. foothills with her Sphynx cat, Lyla.
By A nne Blythe
The story about the making of The Fetishist, Katherine Min’s posthumously published novel, is almost as interesting as the book itself. It has been touted as a novel ahead of its time — a comic, yet sincere, tender and occasionally befuddling exploration of sexual and racial politics.
The story is told through three main characters: Daniel Karmody, a white Irish-American violinist from whom the novel gets its name; Alma Soon Ja Lee, a Korean-American cellist, who’s only 13 when the first of many fetishists she encounters whispers “Oriental girls are so sexy”; and Kyoto Tokugawa, a 23-year-old Japanese American punk rocker who devises a madcap assassination plot to avenge the man she believes to be responsible for her mother’s suicide.
The novel starts 20 years after the estrangement of Alma and Daniel and ends with them reconnecting. In between, readers get to see Kyoto’s zany failed assassination attempt of Daniel and subsequent kidnapping. They’ll learn of his dalliances with a cast of women — many of them musicians, such as Kyoto’s mother, Emi — while he longed for the excitement and thrill he felt with Alma.
The intertwining of the narratives of these protagonists and the intriguing significant others in their orbits lead to alluring plot twists and a timeless appraisal of the white male’s carnal objectification of Asian women. But let’s start with the end of the book and the touching afterword by Kayla Min Andrews, Min’s daughter, a fiction writer like her mother, who explains how The Fetishist came to be published.
It almost wasn’t.
Min was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 and died in 2019, the day after her 60th birthday. She was an accomplished
writer who taught at the University of North Carolina at Asheville for 11 years, as well as a brief stint at Queens University in Charlotte. Her first published novel, Secondhand World, a story about a KoreanAmerican teen clashing with immigrant parents, came out in 2006 to literary acclaim and was one of two finalists for the prestigious PEN Bingham Prize. During the ensuing years, Min worked on what would become her second and final novel, The Fetishist, reading portions to her daughter over the years.
“My new novel is very different from Secondhand World,” Min told her daughter during a phone call Andrews details in her afterword. “It’s going to have many characters, omniscient narration. Lots of shit is going to happen — suicide, kidnapping, attempted murder. It’ll be arch and clever, but always heartfelt. I’m gonna channel Nabokov. And part of it takes place in Florence, so I have to go there as research.”
Min completed a draft of The Fetishist sometime in 2013, her daughter writes. “I assumed she would pass it to me when she was ready,” Andrews wrote. “But she was still revising, polishing.” Then the cancer diagnosis hit.
Although fiction had long been Min’s forte, she stunned her family shortly after getting the news, letting them and others know that she no longer was interested in what she had been writing and instead found purpose in personal essays examining her experiences with illness and dying.
“She never looked back,” Andrews wrote. “When anyone asked about The Fetishist, Mom would say, ‘I’m done with fiction,’ in the same tone she would say, ‘I’m a word wanker,’ or, ‘I’m terrific at math.’ Matter-of-fact, with a dash of defiant pride. She didn’t refer to The Fetishist as an ‘unfinished’ novel. She called it ‘abandoned.’”
And that was that.
As Min’s life was coming to an end, she and Andrews discussed many things, such as where she wanted her “remaining bits of
money” to go, and how the playlist for her memorial service should include The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” DeVotchKa’s “How It Ends,” and Janis Joplin’s “Get It While You Can.”
“What we did not discuss in the hospice center was her abandoned novel. Or her essay collection. Or anything related to posthumous publishing,” Andrews wrote. After several years of grieving, therapy and a new celebration of her mother, Andrews and others saw to it that The Fetishist, found nearly completed in manuscript form on her mom’s computer, would be shared with others. Andrews helped fill in the story’s gaps.
8:
10:00-5:00 pm
Tour the Boyd House decorated for the holidays, buy holiday decor in the Holiday Shoppe, grab a treat and a warm drink from our Bake Shoppe, visit Santa, shop local vendors and artisans, enjoy popular area food trucks, watch live performances from local musicians and dancers. Fun for the Whole Family!
Sponsored by FirstBank and Brooks & Grace Rentals
The Boyd House will remain open and available for self-guided tours and to see the decorations from December 9 - December 27. Boyd House hours are Monday - Friday 10 am - 4 pm. Open to the public.
Join us on Sunday, December 15, 2:00 pm: Friends of Weymouth Holiday Concert
“I am so happy Mom’s beautiful novel is being published; I am so sad she is not here to see it happen,” Andrews wrote. “I’m happy The Fetishist’s publication process is helping me grow as a writer and a person; I’m sad Mom’s death is the reason I’m playing this role. I suppose I no longer conceptualize joy and sorrow as opposites, because everything related to The Fetishist’s publication makes me feel flooded with both at once.”
Sorrow and joy are among the emotions that flood through The Fetishist, too. Min had it right when she told her daughter her novel would be “arch and clever, and very heartfelt.” The author’s note at the beginning of the novel sums it up well:
“This is a story, a fairy tale of sorts, about three people who begin in utter despair. There is even a giant, a buried treasure (a tiny one), a hero held captive, a kind of ogre (a tiny one), and a sleeping beauty,” she advises her readers. “And because it’s a fairy tale, it has a happy ending. For the hero, the ogre, and the sleeping beauty, and for the giant, too. After all, every story has a happy ending, depending on where you put THE END.” PS
Anne Blythe has been a reporter in North Carolina for more than three decades covering city halls, higher education, the courts, crime, hurricanes, ice storms, droughts, floods, college sports, health care and many wonderful characters who make this state such an interesting place.
Scarlett Allison
Christine Barrett
Maureen Clark
Joy Blake Donat
Tracy Gibson
Keith Harris
Maribeth Hough
Laurie Kornegay
Ross Laton
Christian McCarthy
Melody Bell McClelland
Meredith Morski
Lesley Dacko Pacos
Caitlin Richardson
Brenda Sharpe
Kate Shinkwin
The Paris Novel, by Ruth Reichl
When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading Go to Paris. But Stella is hardly cut out for adventure — a childhood trauma has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. When her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes. Alone in a foreign city, Stella lives frugally until she stumbles across a vintage store where she tries on a fabulous Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists that this dress was meant for her and, for the first time in her life, Stella does something impulsive. She buys the dress, and together they embark on an adventure. Her first stop: iconic brasserie Les Deux Magots, where Stella tastes her first oysters, and then meets an octogenarian art collector who decides to take her under his wing. Introduced to a veritable who’s who of the 1980s Paris literary, art and culinary worlds, Stella begins to understand what it might mean to live a larger life.
Bel Canto: The Annotated Edition, by Ann Patchett
First published in 2001, Bel Canto may be Patchett’s most beloved novel. Set in an unnamed South American country, at the home of the vice president, it is the story of a lavish birthday party honoring Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera’s most revered soprano, has enthralled the international guests with a mesmerizing performance. The evening is perfect — until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. What begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds, and people from different continents become compatriots. Now, more than two decades after this artistically
daring novel’s debut, Patchett revisits her early work in this special annotated edition.
Julia Child’s Kitchen, by Paula J. Johnson
Julia Child’s kitchen was a serious workspace and recipe-testing lab that exuded a sense of mid-century homey comfort. It has been on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., for most of the past 20 years, and museumgoers have made it a top destination. Between lively narrative, compelling photography and detailed commentary on Julia’s favorite kitchen gadgets, Julia Child’s Kitchen illuminates the stories behind the room’s design, use, significance and legacy, showing how deeply Child continues to influence food today.
Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times that Made Handel’s Messiah, by Charles King
George Frideric Handel’s Messiah is arguably the greatest piece of participatory art ever created. Adored by millions, it is performed each year by renowned choirs and orchestras, but this work of triumphant joy was born in a worried age. Britain in the early Enlightenment was a place of astonishing creativity but also the seat of an empire mired in war, enslavement and conflicts over everything from the legitimacy of government to the meaning of truth. Every Valley presents a depressive dissenter stirred to action by an ancient prophecy; an actress plagued by an abusive husband and public scorn; an Atlantic sea captain and penniless philanthropist; and an African Muslim man held captive in the American Colonies and hatching a dangerous plan for getting back home. At center stage is Handel himself, composer to kings but, at midlife, in ill health and straining to keep an audience’s attention.
Every morning that you
A Dragon for Hanukkah, by Sarah Mlynowski
Filled with holiday fun, exciting (and unusual!) gifts, family traditions and even a little bit of history, A Dragon for Hanukkah is the perfect book to celebrate the holiday or introduce new friends to old traditions. Grab your dreidel and join the celebration. (Ages 3-7.)
Frostfire, by Elly MacKay
A City Full of Santas, by Joanna Ho
Is there a kid anywhere who hasn’t wanted to meet the “real” Santa? With that peppermint-chocolatey smell, sunny bright laugh, glittery-glowy presence, what could be more delightful? This sweet Santa story is for any child on your list who is determined to meet St. Nick himself. (Ages 3-7.)
Those etchings you see on frozen windows? That’s frostfire — Snow Dragon breath. Snow Dragons, as you must know, live in snowbanks and dine on pine cones. And, if you’re quiet and truly believe, maybe you’ll see one. Any young dreamers or nature lovers will love this magical, snowy title. (Ages 4-7.)
Still Life, by Alex London
Of course, just when you finish creating your still life, a dragon is sure to stir things up. Art meets fantasy in this laughout-loud picture book with seekand-find potential, a treat for that kid who loves jokes, riddles and a little silliness. (Ages 5-7.)
The Sherlock Society, by James Ponti
Action, adventure, cooperation, historical fiction and a grandpa with an awesome car named Roberta. For mystery lovers or anyone looking for a family read-together, The Sherlock Society has it all. (Ages 9-13.)
PS
Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Tally
with a Carolina Philharmonic gift certificate. Available in a variety of amounts, they are good for twelve months.
PARISIAN PASSION - Saturday, February 22, 2025
Experience Parisian Passion with Kate Liu’s exquisite performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and the Philharmonic’s stirring rendition of Ravel’s Boléro under Maestro Wolff.
GENERATIONS - Saturday, March 22, 2025
The Carolina Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Chorus in a tapestry of musical heritage and emerging brilliance led by Maestro Wolff.
RIPPLES OF SPRING - Saturday, May 3, 2025
Journey from the serene meadows of Copland’s Appalachian Spring to majestic skies of Sibelius’s Finlandia, culminating in the lyrical depths of Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1, featuring the artistry of an exceptional soloist
BROADWAY BLISS - Saturday, May 17, 2025
The timeless allure of Broadway hits performed by two captivating Broadway stars.
Experience it Live!
To purchase tickets call (910) 687-0287 or visit the Box Office at 5 Market Square in the Village of Pinehurst
The Carolina Philharmonic is a 501(c)3 non-profit.
6 & 7 DEC featuring KEVIN MASSEY
OWENS AUDITORIUM | 7:30PM
Check for availability.
Friends, aroma, countrymen, lend me your gifts
By Bill Fields
There was a remarkable consistency to the trappings of Christmas in our house when I was a child. This was the case for what was under the tree (treats such as walnuts and tangerines that didn’t grace our kitchen the rest of the calendar), on the tree (some vintage ball ornaments made of glass as fragile as a first frost), and the tree itself.
I come in praise of Juniperus virginiana, the botanical name for Eastern red cedar, the humble type of conifer that decorated our Decembers for years.
My fond memories are possible for two reasons. I never was charged with cleaning up the detritus of scalelike foliage that had fallen to the floor during a cedar’s fortnight as our living room centerpiece. And none of our cedars, even with their tendency to get as dry as a Baptist social, ever caught fire despite our using strands of big colored bulbs that seemed to get as warm as a stovetop.
A cedar tree was as much a part of Christmas as carols, festive cards taped around the dining room doorway, poinsettias, baked ham, and getting to speak to Santa Claus at the Collins Department Store in downtown Aberdeen.
Gardening blogger Allen Bush has called the Eastern red cedar the “Chevy Corvair of Christmas trees.” True, a cedar didn’t strike much of a figure, especially when compared to evergreens that came later, produced for holiday consumption — particularly the more pyramidically perfect spruces and firs. But when decorated and illuminated, with presents and stockings nearby, a lowly cedar was as sharp as a fancy-finned Cadillac.
Mom told stories of traipsing through the Jackson Springs countryside with her father when he chopped down a cedar for their house across the street from the Presbyterian church. He would nail it to a simple wooden stand, and she and her mother would then adorn it with strands of popcorn. Given that the Eastern red cedar could be found in nearly 40 states, there were lots of kids who went on the same mission as my grandfather and his youngest child.
My father didn’t own an axe and, after roughing it plenty during his World War II service, didn’t relish a walk in the woods to obtain a Christmas tree. Eschewing the old-fashioned way, Dad
bought our cedars from one of the pop-up lots that appeared in town at the beginning of the holidays. If his wallet wasn’t as thin as usual, there might be additional purchases from the seasonal vendor: a wreath for the front door and a Claxton Fruit Cake, made in southeast Georgia and distinguished by its horse-and-buggy label.
It took fortitude to decorate our cedar tree. Mom could be picky about which ornament went where, and the nature of the evergreen — a lack of long, definitive branches on which to hang things — compounded the process. Finding a spot that would support the heaviest objects, the ceramic angels, wasn’t easy. Sometimes the ornament hooks bought for the task weren’t long enough, which necessitated improvisation in the form of paper clips partially straightened.
After the ornaments and lights had been situated, it was time to put on the silver tinsel garland and artificial icicles. I usually tried to get out of dealing with the latter decorative touch since I lacked the patience to satisfy my supervising Mom, who had high icicle placement standards and wouldn’t tolerate slipshod dangling of the slippery strands. Every Christmas I would hear, “You can’t just throw it on there,” after she noticed my icicle imprecision.
I recall considerable debate within the family about whether to apply a final touch to the cedar tree: snow in a can. Photo album evidence indicates the practice being phased out not long before we became a white pine family in the 1970s.
Years after that, when she was widowed and alone, for as long as she was able, Mom took care to put up a tree each Christmas. They were beauties, too — Fraser firs of perfect dimensions, fit for the Hallmark movies she loved to watch. And dotting those ideal branches were some of the ornaments that festooned those budget, boxy cedars, witnesses to so many smiles. PS Southern Pines native Bill Fields, who writes about golf and other things, moved north in 1986 but hasn’t lost his accent.
Hoss Haley, a sculptor known for giant steel pieces, is creating more intimate, personal work
By liz A RoBeRts
Hoss Haley’s steel sculptures stand like elegant typography on the landscape: giant sans-serif letters, semicolons, exclamation points. Linear, spherical, bold and approachable, many top 6 feet and are meticulously crafted of Corten steel, a weathering steel with a distinct rusted patina. The Spruce Pine artist ships it in from Alabama 10,000 pounds at a time, hauls it into his studio with a bridge crane, then mashes it in presses he made himself out of parts collected from a scrap yard.
That’s the art Haley’s widely known for, large public pieces that form focal points in prominent places like downtown Charlotte, the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Spruce Pine’s Penland School of Craft and North Carolina State University. He’s in the permanent collections of museums including the Mint Museum, the Asheville Art Museum and the North
Carolina Museum of Art, where his striking Union 060719 stands on a rise at the entrance, proudly welcoming all comers.
But Haley’s new work is quieter. More of an homage to nature than to power, he’s making white steel branches and trunks that lie tumbled or stand sawn, no longer alive but reaching, ghostly and elegant. They are a record of nature, he says, not an interpretation.
Making them is also a different process. Instead of pounding the repurposed roofing metal he uses for these works with massive machines, he rivets it together by hand, painstakingly, with thousands of individual rivets. He likens the process to quilting, to his grandmother’s own Depression-era quilts.
“I want to make sure I define the years I have left in the way that I want them,” says Haley, who is in his early 60s. That was true before Hurricane Helene hit his community so hard, before he and everyone around him found themselves without water or power for weeks on end. Before he found himself helping his neighbors, turn-
ing a welder into a generator to power his refrigerator, or clearing miles of local roads of fallen trees with his chainsaw.
After that, Haley looked at his tumbled white branches and saw something new. A premonition, perhaps, of what was to come.
If his process has changed lately, what
drives it hasn’t. Haley has always invented his own way of working and made his own tools to create his art. To fabricate his larger works, he had to figure out how to turn 5-foot-square sheets of weathering steel into a malleable artistic medium. He then had to take these rectilinear, 90-degree parallel planes and collide and combine them in unexpected and often sudden curves.
“It’s the tension that I find kind of juicy,” he says. That place — where man meets material, where straight and curved lines abut and diverge — has fascinated Haley since he was a boy. His family’s 3,000-acre wheat and cattle farm in Kansas offered wide-open vistas and a curving horizon, broken by a strict geometry of fencing and property lines. Also on the farm was a sizable metalworking shop, where Haley learned to weld and make things. Including machines; including art.
Today, after about 25 years in North Carolina, his work remains rooted in that past. “It’s an ongoing conversation between myself and the machines and the material and my worldview, and goes all the way back to the fact that I grew up on that farm in Western Kansas,” says Haley. “It’s all in there. It’s part of this big stew.”
The stew is constantly evolving. “I’m transitioning a little bit at my age,” he says. “I’m less interested in the public art scale.” One reason is the extensive
time involved in making a massive work; another is the satisfaction he’s taking in creating on his own, without the four or five assistants needed to create his larger-scale pieces. As for a third, “I’m delving deeper into working alone, but also working towards work, instead of working towards deadlines,” he says. “I’ve always had a show or installation coming up. Now I’m trying to respond to what’s driving ideas in the studio, ideas that aren’t being forced by outside pressures. That’s a huge luxury, and one I’m enjoying. But it’s a little scary making work you don’t have a destination for.”
“Scary” doesn’t seem to daunt Haley. He’s doubling down on his fresh direction with the construction of a new studio on his property, a “clean space” for drawing and other less messy forms of art. Among the projects he’s planning there is the creation of a “drawing machine,” which he describes as “a way to take myself out of the equation, a way to bring a random component into the process, and then I’m in dialogue with that.” With a drawing utensil gripped by a mechanical arm, the machine he envisions would take its directions from nature. The weight of a bird on the various perches of a feeder, for instance, would move the pen or pencil up or down, left or right.
Separating himself from the physical act of making art, metaphorically and literally, is something Haley has explored for a long time. He believes the word “craft” is most useful as a verb, and he’s careful to keep it that way, “in service to the idea” rather
than the point of it all. “So that if I decide to leave [the mark of] a weld, or take that [mark] away, that decision is based on where I’m trying to go with the work, not that I’m trying to show you some aspect of my ability to make crap,” he says.
It’s been a long time since Haley had to convince anyone of his ability to make art, “crap” or anything else. Some have compared Haley’s work with that of the celebrated, recently deceased Richard Serra, who also made massive, moving works of Corten steel. Haley credits Serra’s work with inspiring him to consider the power of mass and volume in his work. “Serra taught me that sculpture could go beyond the visual experience,” Haley says. “You could actually feel its presence.”
While that’s undoubtedly true in Haley’s large works, it is refined and distilled in his smaller ones. Perhaps that is due in part to the inspiration that’s fueling them. “I’ve found myself back in that place where I can forget to stop for lunch,” he says. “As an artist, there’s a reality: Oftentimes, art is just work. It might be inspired work, but a lot of days, you’ve got to get up, go to the studio, got to make it happen. So this has been fascinating to me, to be in that kind of a fresh place where all of the extraneous stuff has been taken away, and the process lends itself to a kind of meditative state.” PS
This is an excerpt from Art of the State: Celebrating the Art of North Carolina, published by UNC Press.
Tues, Dec 10th YOUNG ADULT
Mon, Dec 16th SCI-FI /
Dec 11th COOKING Thurs, Dec 12th
Fri, Dec 13th NATURE / SCIENCE Sat, Dec 14th
Dec 17th
15th SPORTS / GOLF
Wed, Dec 18th MILITARY / HISTORY
Thurs, Dec 19th MUSIC Fri, Dec 20th TRAVEL Sat, Dec 21st HARDCOVER FICTION
stoRy A nd P hotogRAPh By tony CRoss
Before the cocktail was created, punch was the globally popular, mixed distilled spirits drink. We can thank the British sailors who manned vessels for the East India Company for spreading the news. I first learned about punch from cocktail historian David Wondrich’s book, Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flaming Bowl. The recipes and techniques in it helped me find the proper balance between spirit, sugar, citrus, water and spice — the makeup of punch. Given the inevitable barrage of holiday parties, you can really shine as a host by offering a punch with a beautiful balance between sweet and sour. With some advanced preparation, your guests can simply help themselves from the party bowl. Years back, I took an old recipe — Major Bird’s Brandy Punch, from 1708 — and put my own spin on it.
Specifications
Oleo-saccharum*
16 ounces water
8 ounces fresh lemon juice
3 cups pineapple-infused cognac (I recommend Pierre-Ferrand 1840)**
1 cup pineapple-infused Jamaican rum (I strongly recommend Smith & Cross)**
4 ounces Aperol
1/2 pineapple diced into 1-inch by 1-inch cubes
Lemon wheels
Nutmeg
Bundt pan or large ice molds
Execution
Ice: fill small bundt pan with water and freeze overnight.
*Oleo-saccharum: Peel the skin of four lemons, placing them in a bowl and adding 1 cup of sugar (by weight). Muddle the sugar into the peels, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit overnight in the fridge.
**Pineapple-infused spirits: Dice 1 pineapple and add to medium-sized glass container. Add 3 cups of cognac and 1 cup of rum to the container; seal tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (24 hours is ideal).
Punch: Place oleo-saccharum in a punch bowl. Add lemon juice and stir until sugar completely dissolves. Add 1 cup (8 ounces) of water, stir, and remove lemon peels from bowl. Fine strain infused spirits into punch bowl. Add remaining cup of water. Stir. Take a large ice mold and place in punch bowl. Add lemon wheels and pineapple pieces for garnish. Shave fresh nutmeg either into punch bowl or per serving.
(Note: The ice and infusions need to be made a night in advance.) PS
Tony Cross owns and operates Reverie Cocktails, a cocktail delivery service that delivers kegged cocktails for businesses to pour on tap — but once a bartender, always a bartender.
P hotogRAPh A nd stoRy By Rose shewey
What should naturally follow The Twelve Days of Christmas?
The Twelve Grapes of New Year’s, of course. What sounds like a silly social media fad is actually an Old World Spanish custom which is, for better or for worse, rooted in tradition — though the origin isn’t entirely clear.
The ritual of las doce uvas de la suerte — or “the twelve grapes of luck” — entails eating one grape with each strike of the bell that rings in the New Year. The objective is to finish all your grapes before the chiming ends. It sounds easy enough but, depending on your level of soberness, can be a bit of a choking hazard. Each grape represents one month of the year to come. Those who finish their grapes in time are believed to have greatly enhanced their chances of good luck in the New Year.
1 pound grapes, washed and dried
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
Back to the risky business of stuffing your mouth full of grapes in under 30 seconds: While the grapes have to be fresh (some claim that cunning Alicantese winemakers started this ritual to sell an abundance of grapes), the fruit may be baked. So, keep the raisins in the pantry but do roast your grapes in the oven and enjoy jammy, sweet and warming grapes that will softly burst on your tongue and aren’t likely to clog your airways just minutes into 2025.
Or you could part with superstition entirely and relish your food in a, shall we say, more dignified and civilized manner. Serve roasted grapes with soft cheese and fresh baguette and savor every bite — no better luck to be had and projected forward than sharing delectable food with family and friends, unhurriedly, as you slide into the New Year. PS
German native Rose Shewey is a food stylist and food photographer. To see more of her work visit her website, suessholz.com.
A couple of twists of black pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Separate grapes into smaller clusters or remove stems completely. In a large glass bowl, combine grapes with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and gently stir to evenly coat the grapes. Spread grapes on a roasting pan in a single layer (use two pans if grapes are too crowded) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 20-30 minutes or until grapes start to shrivel and burst. If desired, decant the pan juices into a small pot and simmer down into a savory syrup. Serve with brie cheese or on fresh baguette.
A Santa’s last ho-ho-hurrah
By JennA BiteR
Santa takes a sip of coffee, not milk. He’s also not wearing red velvet. And he doesn’t go by Santa, St. Nick or Kris Kringle when he’s off the clock. He goes by Bill Russell, and he has lived in the Sandhills, not the North Pole, for almost 50 years.
“Once you get a little sand in the shoes, you can’t get it out,” Russell says, breaking into a smile. His rosy cheeks lift, causing his blue eyes to shine. Sure, he can step out of the Santa suit, but the jolly face travels with him.
“I wear this year-round,” he says, pulling at his cheeks.
Russell could remove his rimless spectacles but doesn’t. He could dye or shave his snowy white hair and beard but chooses not to. Bill is the real deal.
People do a double take even when he’s incognito, dressed in an outfit as inconspicuous as a navy microfleece and khaki shorts. It’s not rare for a young child to spot his beard, tug on the hem of Mom’s skirt and jab a pudgy finger his direction. Even though he’s off duty, Russell will give a friendly wave and a wink. Santa incognito.
Being St. Nick is a sacred responsibility. Russell knows that, and with his authentic appearance, it’s one that will follow him
even as he steps out of his shiny black boots and into retirement.
After three final appearances as the kindly old elf, Bill is hanging up his Santa suit for good. He’s handing off the reindeer reins to spend more time with his beloved Mrs. Claus, Doris, during the most wonderful time of the year. It’s a Christmas gift they both deserve after his 30-plus years in the sleigh.
Russell first slipped into a Santa suit in his early 40s when his adult children, Chelsea and Russ, were still young. The kids knew their father was destined to be Father Christmas when his red beard began turning white.
“When it started going, that’s when they gave me the suit,” Russell says, remembering the peculiar birthday present. “It was down and dirty. A cheap one.” He laughs at the memory.
“Try it on, see if it works,” they said. And it did. Russell had the magic even in that bargain basement outfit.
His career started slowly, with a few small gigs. He posed for photos with the children of their church’s pastor, then worked an event for the Little People Loving and Learning Preschool in Southern Pines.
“That was one of my first real gigs, you know, showing up at a certain time and being Santa,” Russell says.
It’s fitting that the preschool site of one of his first appearances will also be the site of one of his last. The other sunset
tour engagements are the Christmas party for the Russells’ retirement community, Pinehurst Trace, and The Arc of Moore County’s annual bowling party for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“I can’t look them in the face and say, ‘No.’ I just can’t do it,” Russell says, shaking his head.
At the peak of his Santa persona, he sat for 26 events in a year, all stuffed into those hectic weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He landed all the wish-
“. . . everyone — young, old and in-between — needs a good-hearted Santa come Christmastime.”
granting gigs by word of mouth, never asking for one, and always worked them for free.
“I’m not saying someone wouldn’t slip me a $20 sometimes,” Bill says, hedging. He doesn’t want to risk landing on his own Naughty List.
Russell donned the red suit neither for money nor fame but because everyone — young, old and in-between — needs a good-hearted Santa come Christmastime.
“The suit commands a lot of power,” he says, striking a serious note. “It sounds ridiculous, but you’re looked at differently. Walk in wearing a Santa suit and this place becomes like putty in your hands.”
He rubs his fingers across his palm. “Can I come and see you, Santa?” Russell says softly in imitation. “It doesn’t matter if you’re 6 years old or 80.”
Even the slim minority of Scrooges
are usually won over after a few magic moments with Santa. “It’s bizarre because I can’t think of anything to say right now, but if I put the suit on, it all just flows,” he says.
Often Russell worked two or three gigs per day, sometimes dashing across town to change into his Santa suit in a friend’s bathroom. “It can be a very exhausting day,” he says, physically and emotionally.
“When you put the suit on, you’re on.” If he gave the first kid 10 minutes, he made sure to give the last kid 10 minutes, too, at times to the chagrin of hosts who were ready to wrap it up.
“You put your whole self into it for however long you’re there,” he says, describing the role like he’s a method actor.
That all-in mentality made no day more exhausting, nor more rewarding, than Santa’s annual fly-in at Pik N Pig, the barbecue hotspot in Carthage. Each year, a pilot would donate his plane and time to fly Bill and a schtick of skydiving elves from the Moore County Airport onto the runway beside the restaurant. When Santa Russell landed, there would be a line of 300 or so wide-eyed youngsters eager to climb onto his lap.
“Last year was my last year,” Russell says with a sigh. “That’s a lot of fun. I will miss that. I’ll miss the kids.”
Sometimes the kids were shy, screaming until their cheeks matched his suit. Other times they were inadvertently funny, like the time a young boy asked for a bull to breed with his cows. On occasion, the kids’ requests could even bring Bill to tears.
“Especially during the era of crisis when we were overseas fighting,” he says. “Every day, you’d get a kid come sit in your lap and say, ‘I just want my dad to come home.’”
The blue eyes puddle. “I just want them to know that Santa is always there,” he says.
And with a wink and a nod and a finger aside his nose, up the chimney he goes, one last time. PS
Jenna Biter is a writer and military wife in the Sandhills. She can be reached at jennabiter@protonmail.com. Call 336-781-3111 or Email photos to Info@boxwoodantiquemarket.com 520 North Hamilton Street • High Point, NC 27262 NowOpen7daysaweek!-MonthruSat10-6•Sun1-6 A JOYOUS HOLIDAY SEASON
By deBoRA h sA lomon
This innocuous, one-size-fits-all phrase took hold in 1942, when Bing Crosby recorded “Happy Holiday” (singular), hopeful of raising spirits stateside during the early days of World War II. As time passed, the phrase became a convenient designation, from the first turkey slice on Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day’s final bowl game. Those two words covered Baby Jesus, Judah Maccabi, Santa Claus and a plethora of secular images: chestnuts roasting on an open fire to — horrors — Mommy kissing the fat man in a red suit.
Beginning in the 1960s, Hanukkah, which usually falls in December, was promoted partly for its historical significance but also so Jewish children could light candles and receive small gifts for eight nights. Its message of religious freedom, plus a tiny vial of oil which burned, miraculously, for eight days, still resonates, although crispy fried potato pancakes have become the modern symbol. Kwanzaa, an apolitical, non-religious observance created in 1966, affirms the cultural component of the Black community. All three employ candles in their observances.
This year, since Hanukkah begins at sundown on Christmas Day and Kwanzaa runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, the “holidays” present a trifecta.
My father grew up European ultra-orthodox Jewish — and revolted. My mother’s family: Southern Baptist to the core. So we celebrated the secular Christmas, which flourished in New York City in the 1940s: the stage show at Radio City Music Hall had live donkeys; ice skating in Rockefeller Center concluded with the world’s best hot chocolate; animated windows in department stores lined Fifth Avenue; and, yes, chestnuts roasted on an open fire, sold by street vendors. It was magical. In the final days of WWII and its aftermath, Americans needed all the magic they could get.
Now, so do we.
What difficult years we have endured. A pandemic killed an estimated 5 million world-wide. Hurricanes, floods, droughts, earthquakes, wildfires. Famine in Africa.
Wars and massacres in Ukraine and the Middle East. A bitterly fought political campaign. Inflation. Humanitarian crises.
“Happy” sounds a bit naïve.
Yet the phrase endures. Butterballs went on sale before Halloween. Ditto Christmas tchotchkes — a Yiddish word meaning bric-a-brac. Black Friday spawned pre-dawn bargain-hunters lined up outside Walmart — and now Target, too — for everything from electronics to tube socks.
Through it all we continue to separate the lighted candle from the burning rubble and rushing waters. It’s what inspires people to deliver Thanksgiving baskets to families who can afford neither turkey nor the means to roast one. It helps organizations collect and wrap new toys. It keeps Project Santa’s Earl Wright distributing a thousand shiny new bikes to children on Christmas morning . . . for nearly 20 years.
Somehow, through war and famine, secularization and commercialization, “the holidays” have endured because we need them.
Acclaimed (Jewish) songwriter Jerry Herman, of Hello, Dolly! fame, said it best in the Broadway production Mame about the December following the 1929 stock market crash:
For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute
Candles in the window
Carols at the spinet
Amen to that. And Happy Holidays, whatever one you choose, to this kind, generous community. PS
Deborah Salomon is a contributing writer for PineStraw and The Pilot. She may be reached at debsalomon@nc.rr.com.
By susA n CA mPBell
Here in central North Carolina, when someone says “goose,” we tend to think Canada goose. Canadas are everywhere — year-round — large, brown and white, often noisy and hard to dissuade from our yards, ponds and parks. Like it or not, they congregate in the dozens after breeding season ends in mid-summer. But these are not the only geese in our state during the cooler months. If you travel east, you will find snow geese — and not just a few dozen but flocks numbering in the thousands.
As their name implies, snow geese are mainly white in color. Their wing tips are black but their bills, legs and feet are pink. There is also, at close range, a black “grin patch” on their bills. Size-wise, snows are a bit smaller than Canada geese but their voices are, unquestionably, louder. They produce a single-syllable honk which is repeated no matter whether they are in flight or on the ground, day or night.
These beautiful birds are, like all waterfowl, long-distance migrants. As days shorten in the fall, snow geese gather and head almost due south before cold air settles in. Migration finds them high overhead, arranged in “V” formations and flying mainly at night, when conditions are cooler. They may stop and feed at staging areas along the way, staying in the same longitude for the most part. When flocks finally arrive in North Carolina, it will be in
the early morning hours along our coast. These will be individuals from Eastern populations — birds that have come all the way from western Greenland and the eastern Canadian Maritimes.
During the winter, snow geese remain in large aggregations that move from well-known roosting locations, which are usually larger lakes, to nearby feeding areas that provide an abundance of vegetation — seeds as well as shoots and roots of nutrient-rich plants. These are likely to include native aquatic vegetation as well as agricultural crops such as corn and soybeans. As they move from place to place, even if it is a short distance, the birds will swirl up and into formation, honking all the while, and then swirling dramatically again as they descend. It is a sight to behold!
These distinctive birds can sometimes be found inland in the cooler months, though they are most likely to show up alone or in small numbers, mixed in with local Canadas. You might find the odd snow goose or two in a farm pond, playing field or agricultural area in the Triad or Sandhills.
To fully appreciate the splendor of these beautiful birds, it is worth a trip east in early-to-mid January. For the best viewing, try the large agricultural fields adjacent to, or on, Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. You also may find birds moving to or from the lake at Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on the coast holds a smaller number of snow geese in December. They can be seen feeding along N.C. 12 until the wild pea plants there — one of their favorite foods — are spent. PS
Susan Campbell would love to receive your wildlife photos or observations. She can be reached via email at susan@ncaves.com.
stoRy A nd P hotogRAPhs
By todd P usseR
As the end of the year winds to a close, I can’t help but feel nostalgic about the holidays of my youth. Among my most vivid and cherished Christmas Day memories are the family gatherings at my late grandmother’s house in Eagle Springs. Home-cooked meals, touch football in the yard with cousins, seven-layer cakes, lots of laughter, and gifts aplenty. At the center of it all was our matriarch, Irene Thomas.
“Mamma T,” or simply “T,” as I liked to call her, was, by any measure, an extraordinary woman. Born on a farm near the headwaters of Drowning Creek, my grandmother lived a long and productive life, passing just a few weeks before her 93rd birthday. During that time, she raised two sets of twins, played the organ each and every Sunday at church, maintained a long and productive career with the N.C. Department of Social Services, and continued to work helping others at the Penick Village in Southern Pines long after retirement.
Nestled in a corner of the laundry room in her small house was a wooden bookshelf lined with a complete set of the World Book Encyclopedia, the black and white leather-bound 1967 edition. The “W” volume held my attention the longest, for that’s where the account of whales was found. I spent many a Christmas lost within the pages of that massive tome.
Mamma T recognized my fascination with wildlife early on, and went out of her way to foster and nurture that passion. She
routinely clipped newspaper articles about whales and saved them for me. She even took me on my first airplane flight to Washington, D.C., where we visited the National Zoo and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. And each year at Christmas, she gifted me a subscription to National Geographic magazine. Spending her entire life in landlocked Eagle Springs, my grandmother never observed a whale in the wild. However, over the years, she would occasionally recount the time she did see an actual large whale, up close and personal, right in the heart of Southern Pines. It was around the time the country was in the throes of the Great Depression and, though she was a young child and could not recall many details, she knew the whale arrived in town by train. Her family journeyed all the way from Eagle Springs — a bit of a haul in those days — to see the leviathan stretched out on a railway car. She remembered paying a dime to view the traveling exhibit.
As a kid who loved whales and trains, hearing her story sparked my imagination. Later, as an adult who worked as a marine biologist by profession, I began to wonder about that story and that “whale train.” Where did it come from? Who sponsored it? What type of whale was on the train?
My grandmother retained her mental acuity till the day she passed away in 2015. In fact, we talked about the whale in Southern Pines just a few months before her death. I’d always assumed the whale had washed ashore along a North Carolina beach and was loaded onto a train car that toured the state. Perhaps some local entrepreneur, an ad hoc P.T. Barnum hoping to capitalize on the public’s fascination with sea monsters or the biblical parable of Jonah, had made the arrangements. Whales have washed up on the beaches of North Carolina
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for millennia. Records dating back to the mid1600s describe the first settlers of Colington Island selling over 80 barrels of oil rendered down from dead whales, known as “drift whales,” cast ashore on the northern Outer Banks. Today, one can find numerous skeletons of large, beach-cast whales hanging from the rafters of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh, including an immense sperm whale (of Moby Dick fame) that washed ashore in Wilmington in 1928. Did the remains of that whale travel by train from Wilmington to Raleigh via Southern Pines?
I thought perhaps the answer to that question could be found in a small booklet titled A Whale Called Trouble, published by the museum in 2004. It tells how the bones of the sperm whale were buried in a shallow grave on the beach for over 6 months and then dug up and transferred to Raleigh by two trucks. Clearly this was not the whale Mamma T saw in her youth. Back to square one.
It wasn’t until recently that I discovered what I believe to be a clue about the origins of the great whale of Southern Pines. While researching historic fishing accounts of sawfish and
sturgeon in our state’s waters, I stumbled across an advertisement in an April 28, 1933, edition of the Roanoke Beacon, published in the small town of Plymouth, in the eastern part of the state. Beneath a black and white photograph of a dead whale lying on
As the year comes to a close, we want to take a moment to thank each of you for making this year truly special. Your continued support means the world to us, and we are incredibly grateful for every visit, every meal shared, and every memory created at Casa Santa Ana.
its side on a shipping dock, a caption reads:
It took eight hours and 15 minutes to capture this monster whale, which will be on exhibition here in a few days. The Pacific Whaling Company fleet captured the whale and embalmed it. Many difficulties were overcome in placing him on a railway car. An actual close-up of the whale can be obtained by visiting the exhibition near the depot when it arrives in the city. It will be here next Thursday afternoon.
Surely, this must be it. The account has all the elements: a train, a whale, and a date that matches up. In 1933, my grandmother would have been 11 years old.
So, I did a deep dive into the history of the Pacific Whaling Company, which caught and killed whales off the coast of California in the early decades of the 20th century. It was the heyday of commercial whaling, during the pre-plastic era, when whale blubber was rendered down to valuable oil, and whalebone and baleen were used for a variety of purposes, everything from ladies’ corsets to chimney-sweep brushes.
From 1930 to 1937 the Pacific Whaling Company sent out specially designed railway cars, each loaded with an embalmed dead whale, to towns all across the U.S. and Canada. Along with the whales, actors in sailing attire, often portraying ship captains, would regale audiences with tales of high seas adventures. Occasionally other marine curiosities, such as stuffed
penguins, were exhibited alongside the whales. A small admission fee was charged for these “educational exhibits.” By some accounts, the “whale on rails” was quite profitable for the company. In some years, Pacific Whaling grossed more than a quarter of a million dollars, an extraordinary sum for that day and age, especially during the Depression. Even by today’s standards it’s a big chunk of change.
Having now seen many historic accounts of these whales on trains throughout the country, I feel confident that the Pacific Whaling Company was the source of the whale that came to Southern Pines during Mamma T’s childhood. Still, there are unanswered questions. What type of whale did she see all those years ago? A blue whale? A humpback? And what were the dates when the whale train came into Southern Pines? I have more work to do.
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But this Christmas, like so many, I’ll be thinking about whales and my late grandmother. It’s funny how her seemingly insignificant story of a whale on a train, told with such love and enthusiasm, has left so large an impression on me. Mamma T gave me one of life’s greatest gifts: the gift of wonder. For that, I am forever grateful. PS
Naturalist and photographer Todd Pusser grew up in Eagle Springs. He works to document the extraordinary diversity of life both near and far. His images can be found at www.
By lee PACe
In the 1800s, David “Old Da” Anderson, at various times a caddie and greenskeeper on the links at St. Andrews Golf Club in Scotland, wheeled a wooden cart to the fourth green and sold ginger beer as golfers played the outward nine and then returned on the neighboring 15th hole. It was golf’s first refreshment stand.
Today golfers in the Auld Grey Toon get their sustenance from a small building behind the ninth green of the Old Course. The most popular item is a pork and haggis sausage roll — a secret mix of sausage meat and haggis, baked in puff pastry topped with poppy seeds. There’s no ginger beer, but the best-seller is the club’s very own Tom Morris 1821 Lager, which is brewed and canned nearby.
Elsewhere in Great Britain, golfers at Royal Dornoch warm themselves from the bracing North Sea with a stop at the halfway house by the ninth green for hot chocolate laced with Bailey’s Irish Creme. Nairn Golf Club is known for its stone cottage dating to 1877 — The Bothy was originally a storehouse for freshly caught salmon, and today golfers warm their hands by the fire and grab a bowl of fish chowder for the back nine.
Back on the near side of the pond, Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey is known for its turtle soup, Winged Foot Golf Club outside New York City for its peanut butter cookies, and Fishers Island Club on Long Island for its peanut butter, jelly and bacon sandwiches. Moving westward, Butler National outside Chicago
is quite proud of its fish tacos (grouper, mahi or cod), and Castle Pines outside Denver for those thick and rich milkshakes made with Häagen-Dazs ice cream that collectively expanded the entire PGA Tour waistline during the days of The International from 1986-2006. The Olympic Club in San Francisco has one of America’s most iconic halfway house offerings — the Burger Dog features 4 ounces of beef shaped like a wiener and served on a freshly baked sourdough bun.
Closer to home in the Carolinas, Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in Pawleys Island serves a cup of spicy clam chowder made with a Manhattan-style, tomato-based broth from a cauldron by the ninth green. Beef sliders and chocolate chip cookies are the specialties at Wade Hampton Golf Club in Cashiers. Golfers at Old Chatham Golf Club just south of Durham barely break stride reaching into the refrigerator at the turn for one of longtime cook Chenille Pennix’s chicken wraps (BBQ, Caesar and ranch among the best-sellers), and the favorite at Old Town Club in Winston-Salem is chicken salad in a foam cup with a spoon.
Anyone who has visited a Discovery Land golf community is mesmerized and gluttonized by the opulent “comfort stations” manned by a chef and positioned on each nine. Mountaintop in Cashiers is one such Discovery property, and its signature treat is beef jerky, which starts with locally sourced beef and is pulled, seasoned and dried on-site. Other standards include a frozen margarita machine, help-yourself beer fridge, cured duck, warmed nuts, Kobe beef sliders and a sundae bar.
Forest Creek Golf Club has one of the top halfway house menus in the Sandhills. Golfers enjoy homemade cookies at the turn on its North and South courses, and during the winter a pot of chili is kept simmering. And when golfers get to the 12th
hole on each course, they’ll find a barrel of iced-down apples for refreshment.
“No matter whether you’re winning or losing, a crisp, cold apple really hits the spot,” says Waddy Stokes, the club’s head professional from its opening in 1996 through 2011.
There’s also a vintage Cretors Popcorn machine in the men’s locker room — it just so happens one of the company’s founding family members belongs to the club.
The dining scene in the Sandhills has been recently enhanced by a food truck stationed at Pinehurst No. 10, the Tom Doak-designed course that opened in May 2024. Maniac Grill fashions its name from the “Maniac Hill” moniker bestowed on the Pinehurst practice range in the early 1900s. The name on the side of the truck is accented with the slogan “Crazy good food.” For now the Maniac Grill will make its home at No. 10 with appearances around the resort and town on other occasions.
The headliner? A brisket sandwich with freshly smoked beef topped with gruyere cheese and caramelized onions, served on a crispy baguette loaf. And for dessert, peach ice cream ensconced in fresh sugar cookies. Because No. 10 is essentially a walking-only course, Pinehurst chef Thierry Debailleul designed the menu for items to be carried and eaten in one hand.
“The challenge was to create handcarried, put-in-your-pocket items,” he says. The grill also serves a turkey sandwich with a peach barbecue sauce, hearkening, Debailleul says, to the days in the early 1900s when the land where the golf course sits was a peach orchard.
“I wanted to have a food truck forever,” says Pinehurst owner Bob Dedman Jr. “Now we have one, and it’s phenomenal.”
PS
Lee Pace has written about the Pinehurst experience for more than three decades from his home in Chapel Hill. Write him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him on X @ LeePaceTweet.
The member’s favorite, this Pinehurst golf course offers wide manicured fairways and large elevated fast rolling greens. Fairway bunkers are strategically placed to grab the wayward shot and there is no lack of sand guarding the greens.
Widely considered the most challenging course, the Grey Fox features hilly terrain, several doglegs and towering pines. Golfers must avoid the sand and position the ball on the proper side of the fairway so that they get the best approach angle to the small greens.
As the holiday season approaches, the quest for the perfect gift begins. This year give the gift of choice and convenience with a Pinehurst gift card. Happy Holidays!
The sun through branches lights my face. I look through my eyelashes: prisms. I close my eyes, the field glows warm carmine. No snow, no promise of snow. A crow bark-laughs. Another clatters its beak like castanets. Their chatter perhaps of pecans aplenty or the simple mad joy of being alive in this moment. It is easy to love what is passing.
Debra Kaufman
Debra Kaufman’s latest collection of poetry is Outwalking the Shadow from Redhawk Publications..
Elliott Landy, one of the indispensable chroniclers of the American music scene during the second half of the 20th century, traveled to Woodstock, New York, in 1968 to photograph Bob Dylan for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. “Bob sat on an old tire, and began playing while I took pictures,” Landy writes. “It occurred to me that millions of people would be thrilled to be ten feet away from Bob Dylan while he was playing, but he was so casual, it seemed normal to me.” This photograph was taken outside Dylan’s home, Byrdcliff, using infrared color film. More of Landy’s work can be seen at www.elliottlandy.com.
by blanD simPson • PhotograPh by elliott l anDy
“A little more to the left.”
“No. It’s fuller around to the right.”
“Just try it my way and you’ll see.”
“Now the stand’s leaking.”
“Somebody’s liable to get electrocuted.”
“I swear you’ve got the best side to the wall.”
“I thought we’d be through by now.”
“You’re right — it was better back to the left.”
“Oh, God. I’ve already gone and tied it to the wall sconce.”
It was a few days before Christmas, 1968, and my family had gathered. The living room was filled with the intense clean resinous smell of the tree. Once we had it hoisted into place, we set about the bristly business of decorating. I was twenty, and my mind was full of music. Withdrawing to the sofa, I thought: Bob Dylan wouldn’t be caught dead doing this
“The angel’s crooked.”
“Let’s not have the angel this year.”
“Not have the angel?!”
I decided to make a pilgrimage to Woodstock, New York, to see Dylan. It didn’t slow me down a bit that I had little to tell the man except that I was inspired by his songwriting. To shake Dylan’s hand, that would be Christmas enough.
The next afternoon, with no more than fifty dollars, I set out. I was catching a ride north with two friends from UNC, paying my share of all the twenty-six cents per gallon gas we’d burn, and coming back south by thumb. Fifty dollars would be plenty.
This was really my second pilgrimage to Dylan and Woodstock. The first I had undertaken several weeks before, during Thanksgiving, and had abandoned outside of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. I got cold and lost my nerve on a little-traveled high-ridge country road there, and I turned back. On the way home I caught a ride with a Black schoolteacher, who carried me all the way down 81 through the Shenandoah Valley night. We drank a beer together the last hour before he let me out, and agreed that things might be getting better between the races, or at least we hoped they were.
Then a trucker hauled me from Hillsville down the Blue Ridge Mountains. When we stopped at a Mount Airy diner and I didn’t order anything, he thought I was broke and made me let him buy me a cup of coffee and a chance on a punchboard. Back in the semi, he gave me some liquor, which I drank from a six-ounce hillbilly souvenir jug he’d stashed under the seat. He let me off at 52 and 40 in Winston-Salem about four in the morning. Immediately a hunter with an enormous buck strapped to the top of his Impala picked me up. A couple minutes later he said: “Look, I hope this don’t bother you none but I got to hear some music.” He popped an eight-track of Johnny Horton’s Greatest Hits into the tape player, and the car was full of the songs I’d learned to sing by: “Battle of New Orleans” and “Sink The Bismarck!” and “North to Alaska.” The teacher and the trucker and the Horton-loving hunter made me think better of the pilgrimage business. I forgot the Stroudsburg cold and knew I’d try again.
a flanking maneuver to approach Woodstock from the north and east. The plan had been to leave me in New Haven where the big roads fork, but at the last minute my compatriots, who were bound for Boston, found it in themselves to veer off to the north and take me right into Storrs.
They left me at a gas station at first light, a gray dawning, six or eight inches of snow on the ground and more still coming down. I showed up oafish and unannounced at the Hickeys’ home between eight and nine in the morning, four days before Christmas. They masked whatever annoyance they might have felt and greeted me affectionately.
All four daughters in the Hickey family were home for Christmas except the one who drew me there. She wasn’t expected for another twenty-four hours or so. No matter. The other three were going ice-skating that day, and so, now, was I. Most folks don’t forget their first time on iceskates, and with good reason.
Sue did finally come home, and we had a lovely New England time that next day. It was brisk, and the sun was bright on the unmelting snow. She got over the surprise of my presence, commiserated with me about the Tower-of-Babel Christmas tree back home, and wondered what I would say to Bob Dylan, himself, when we met. After breakfast the next morning she drove me out to the highway, and I was soon up at the Massachusetts Turnpike in the company of a Goddard student driving a Volkswagen with skis strapped to the back.
He was on intersession, he told me. He was going somewhere to ski for six or eight weeks, for which he would get academic credit. We drove west towards New York and the Hudson, and, before he left me off at the Saugerties exit, I had seen groves of chalk-white paper birches for the first time.
It was several weeks later, the evening of December 10th, when we piled into my friend’s ’65 Rambler and went roaring up the three-laned U.S. 1, which is these days a ghost road just south of the Petersburg Turnpike. On and on, all night, the first of many deep and dreamless long-haul trips up and down the Eastern Seaboard. I was astounded at the size and magnificence of the great bridge at Wilmington, aghast at the dazzling lunar landscape, gas flares and chemical air of north Jersey. One of my more worldly companions gazed upon the scene and remarked with a combination of pride and disgust: “America flexing her muscles!”
From the George Washington Bridge we looked out over the vast glare of Manhattan. In less than a year it would be my home, but that night it made me feel thoroughly out of place, for a few moments sorry I had even come. Soon it was past, and we were in the dark Connecticut country, and it was snowing lightly. I recovered my spirits; after all, I was on a mission.
They were driving me towards Storrs, Connecticut, to see the Hickey family, late of Chapel Hill, and coincidentally to perform
A couple of artists, a man and a woman, in a dingy old Pontiac drove me from Saugerties to Woodstock. They said they were friends of Bob’s, and suddenly everything felt very chummy. The artists called themselves Group Two-One-Two, after the route number of the Saugerties-Woodstock road. A few years later, when I was living on the Upper West Side in New York, I would see a notice in the Village Voice about a show they were having down in SoHo and meant to ramble down and take a look. But the notice would stay taped up on the refrigerator until well past the closing of their show, and I would never make the trip.
Group Two-One-Two’s explanation of where exactly Bob Dylan lived was so convoluted that I stepped into a shop in downtown Woodstock, a bakery, and asked them. In moments I was tromping on out of town through a wood and up a hill towards something called “The Old Opera House.” Dylan’s driveway, the bakers said, was right across from it.
It was about eighteen or twenty degrees in the middle of the afternoon, and I wasn’t used to such cold. I didn’t feel dressed for it, but I certainly looked like I was. I had on a
Marine greatcoat from a surplus store south of Wake Forest, a slouch hat from a surplus store on Granby Street in Norfolk that I’d bought on my way to see Cool Hand Luke with my Virginia cousins, and a pair of snakeproof boots from Rawlins, Wyoming, that I’d bought on my way to be a cowboy in eastern Montana. (You, or your beneficiary, said the card in the boot box, got a thousand dollars if you died of snakebite while wearing the boots, providing the snake bit you through the boots.) All this was practical and, back home in North Carolina, warm winter wear, though my mother lamented that I looked like something from the Ninemiles — a remote swamp in Onslow County down east. It hardly mattered here. In Woodstock everyone looked like something from the Ninemiles.
Without my even thumbing for it someone offered me a ride, and there I was at The Old Opera House. There turned out to be six or eight driveways next to and across from the place, no names on mailboxes, certainly no sign that said: “This way to Bob Dylan’s house.” I waited. About twenty minutes went by before a thin man in his thirties came striding up the paved road. He would have walked right past me, but I spoke up: “Excuse me, do you know which one of these driveways goes to Bob Dylan’s house?”
“This one.” He pointed at the one he was starting down. “Thanks.” I fell in beside him, and we walked fifty yards or so before either of us spoke again.
“Is Bob, uh, expecting you?”
“No.”
“Hunh. I don’t know if it’ll be cool for you to just . . . go up to his house.”
This was discouraging, but what could I do? Go back to the bakery and telephone for an appointment? “I’ve come from North Carolina,” I announced.
“Oh.” He gave up, and we kept walking. A few hundred yards into the woods the road forked, and he pointed towards a long low building of dark logs that looked like a lodge. “That’s Bob’s house.” Then he disappeared down the other fork.
In the driveway at Bob’s house were a ’66 powder blue Mustang and a boxy 1940 something-or-other with the hood up. Two men, one of them small and weedy, the other bulky and bearded, were working on the engine. I stomped up in my snakeproof boots, but neither of them looked up. After a minute or two of staring over their shoulders at the old engine, I finally said, quite familiarly, “Bob around?” The weedy man didn’t respond, but the big fellow gave a head-point at the log lodge and said, “Yeah.”
Sara Dylan answered the door, gave me a blank look, and closed the door. About two minutes later Bob Dylan himself appeared and stepped out onto the small porched entry. He wore blue jeans, a white shirt buttoned all the way up and a black leather vest, and he was very friendly and relaxed.
“Bland. What kind of name is that?”
A family name, I said. Then just to make sure he’d hear me right, he asked me to spell it.
“Bland. Well, I sure won’t forget that.” He talked in person just
like he sounded on record in “The Ballad of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest.”
“North Carolina, that’s a long way.”
I agreed, but I wanted to meet him, shake his hand, tell him I admired his work, that I wanted to write songs myself.
“What did you want to do before you got this idea about writing songs?”
“I was going to go to law school.”
“Well,” he said, more serious than not, “country’s gonna need a lot of good lawyers. Maybe you ought to keep thinking ’bout that.”
This wasn’t what I had traveled hundreds of miles to hear. I started asking questions. Did he live in Woodstock all the time? Most of the time, he said, but he was thinking about moving to New Orleans. When would he have a new record out? In the spring — “I’m real happy with this one.” He was talking about “Nashville Skyline,” which he had just finished. I asked about a song of his the Byrds had recorded a song I’d heard out in Wyoming the summer before. “Yeah, I know the one you mean, but I can’t call the name of it right now — it’s in there somewhere.” The song was the riddle-round “You Ain’t Going Nowhere.”
We talked along like that for almost forty-five minutes, during which time I felt the cold acutely. Dylan was dressed in shirtsleeves, but he didn’t seem to notice the cold at all. He must have known my head was full of hero-worship, and he was kind enough to let my time with him be unhurried. The moment of my mission played out as naturally as the tide. I was immensely grateful, am grateful yet.
The pilgrim was ready to go home. I pulled my map out, unfolded it, and while we talked about what the best way to head back south was, the bulky fellow lumbered over from the old car where he and the weedy man had been working all the time. The mechanic ignored me, and I ignored him right back, which was easy enough: I had the entire eastern United States spread out in front of me. My mind was on the road, but I did want one last word or two with Bob Dylan. He gave Dylan a report on all the things that weren’t wrong with car, then said: “I think we can get it started if we hook it up to the battery charger.”
“Okay,” Dylan said. “It’s in the garage.”
“I got it already, and tried to hook it up, but even with that long cord it won’t reach. We need another extension cord.”
“Extension cord,” Dylan said, and looked past the big man at the old car. He thought about the request a few moments, then shook his head.
“Gee, Doug,” he said, “I’m afraid we just used the last extension cord on the kids’ Christmas tree.” PS
Bland Simpson is Kenan Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also the longtime pianist for the string band The Red Clay Ramblers. His most recent book is Clover Garden: A Carolinian’s Piedmont Memoir.
on the grounds of
County Historical Association's Historic Properties
Fiction by Jim moriarty
illustrations by m
att myers
Every Christmas, for as long as I can remember, the ornament Mother took special care to hang on the tree was a silver bell. For 11 months of the year it lived in a green felt bag, occupying a corner in the storage box that came down from the attic each December. It was the first, and sometimes only, ornament she put on the tree. It had a red ribbon for hanging, tear drop openings to let its high, sweet tones escape, and a name ornately engraved in the silver: Emma
Sometimes Mother would smile when she found just the right spot for it. The last few years I’ve watched as her eyes misted over. The name existed nowhere on our family tree. I had often thought
of asking Mother who Emma was and where the bell came from but never did, fearing the memory might bring more heartache than pleasure. But when we packed up her things — she was moving away to live with her sister Taylor — I knew she wouldn’t want her silver bell left behind. I also knew it was time to ask.
“Mother,” I said as I dangled the bell from its red ribbon. “Who is Emma?”
Jenny and Emma looked like sisters but they were closer than that. Jenny’s eyes were just as brown as Emma’s, and their hair color was borrowed from the same wheatfield. Side by side, they were often mistaken for twins. If one grew half an inch one month, the other would catch up the next. This went on and on from the first day they could remember and into their eleventh year. All that time, even when they tried to look different — Jenny’s hair in a bun and Emma’s in a ponytail — by the end of the day it all came unraveled and they looked just alike again.
Among the first memories they shared was being watched by the older ones, the neighborhood gang.
“Where is Emma?” Jenny asked.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find her,” Tommy said, because he was a very good older brother.
“Where is Emma?” Jenny said again, and then again.
“Stop crying,” Tommy said. “Look, look. There she is!”
And it was Emma. And Jenny took her hand and held it as tightly as she could.
“Now you two stay here,” Tommy ordered.
“Don’t follow us,” Jenny’s sister Taylor warned them.
“It’s too dangerous,” said Derek from down the street, as if he and all the rest were setting off into the bone-chilling wilderness.
Of course, it wasn’t really scary at all. They just didn’t want two little girls tagging along. And so Jenny and Emma held hands and watched the old ones, all of them, go sliding down the hill,
ducking under the sassafras limbs and laughing until they were gone from sight. But even when they were left behind, Jenny and Emma knew something no one else did: Their souls were connected and always would be.
Everyone knows that the very best friends can sometimes do different things, but even when Jenny and Emma were apart, they were together. Emma was the fastest girl in school, and when she ran a race no one cheered louder for her than Jenny. And Jenny loved ballet — oh, how she could pirouette — and no one applauded louder when she danced in her recitals than Emma.
Families have Christmas traditions all their own, too. In Jenny’s house everyone had an ornament that was theirs and theirs alone and only they could hang it on the tree. Jenny’s father had a copper teapot, and Mother a miniature oaken bucket. Every year Father would tell the story of the teapot and the bucket, survivors from their first Christmas tree, in an apartment Mother and Father lived in before any of the children were born. Tommy’s ornament was a dinosaur. Taylor’s was a pair of tiny blue beach sandals. Jenny’s, of course, was a crystal ballerina. How that dancer would twirl!
Emma and Jenny had a tradition of their very own. On Christmas Eve they left their shoes on the porch by the front door — even their houses looked exactly alike — and in the night their shoes filled up heel-to-toe with packages of chewy red and green and yellow and orange gummy bears, each to each, because they both loved them so.
This year, though, Jenny didn’t feel much like leaving her shoes by the door. Emma was moving away. And not just to a different house a few streets across town but to a whole different state hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles away. The day before Christmas it was cold outside and as they sat in the living room by Emma’s Christmas tree, Jenny asked her friend
if she had a special ornament just like Jenny did.
Emma got up from the floor, reached high up, almost to the star, and took her own special decoration down. It was a silver bell with her name on it in the most elegant writing Jenny had ever seen. Emma gave it a shake and a delicate, beautiful note came out of it.
“Why do you have to move?” Jenny asked her. Emma sighed. “My mother got a new job.”
“Where?”
“Out West,” Emma said, trying to say it with a hint of adventure but it sounded like the dark side of the moon.
“West,” Jenny said. That was where the sun went down.
That night was Christmas Eve, the best night of the year in Jenny’s house. It was the night they put up their tree. After everyone found the perfect spot for their special ornament, they had one last tradition before disappearing upstairs to wait for morning to come. They were all allowed to open one present. Just one. Father opened his first. Then Mother opened hers. Then Tommy, then Taylor. Jenny was the youngest and had to wait the longest.
Father passed a long, thin present to Tommy. “I wonder what this is,” her brother said as he shook it and put it up to his ear, pretending he couldn’t figure out what was inside the wrapping when it couldn’t have been anything else in the whole world but a hockey stick. Everyone laughed, even Jenny. And they oohed and aahed at the sweater, as downy as kitten fur, when Taylor pulled it over her head. “It’s so soft,” she said.
“This is for you, Jenny,” her father finally said and gave her a small, rectangular box. Jenny pulled the ribbon apart on the top, then pried the tape off one end. She knew what it was, too, but was afraid to hope too hard. It was a plain old shoebox but inside it she found the most wondrous thing — her very first pair of point shoes. Jenny gasped, and she looked at her mother and father and her sister and brother. She pulled her slippers off in a rush, put her feet in her new ballet shoes and tied the pink ribbons around her ankles to hold them in place. She stood up in the middle of the living room, beside their tree with all the lights
and ornaments, kicked aside the wads of wrapping paper and empty boxes and twirled and danced and leaped with joy.
Jenny danced around the living room and through the dining room and back through the living room and out the front door onto the porch where her new shoes made a musical sound, scraping and clicking against the wooden deck as if she was keeping time with her heartbeat. As she held her arms out, posed exactly so, and turned and turned, her head flipped around one last time and she saw Emma watching from her living room window. Her best friend in the whole world waved to her and Jenny waved back and they smiled at each other as though their smiles might never vanish.
Though she was very sad, before she went to bed Jenny put her brand new point shoes out on the porch by the door. Then, later that night, when everyone was asleep, she crept down the stairs. The lights on the tree were shining and there were piles and piles of presents, so many she had to slide some out of the way to reach her crystal ballerina. She unhooked it from the tree and sneaky-peeky in the cold night air, carried the ballerina next door, up the stairs onto Emma’s porch. There were two running shoes by the door and Jenny filled the first with gummy bears, then slid her ballerina oh so carefully inside the second.
In the morning when Jenny woke up she rushed downstairs faster than Tommy and quicker than Taylor, past the tree in the living room, past all the presents, straight to her front door where she had left her new point shoes. One was filled heel to its very hard toe with brightly colored gummies. Inside the other was a silver bell. And a note:
We will always be a pair.
Soon, too soon, a big truck backed up to the house next door. But no matter how many winters passed or how many states separated them, even after they each had little girls of their own, the bell and the ballerina found special places on Christmas trees because souls go on forever. PS
Decking the halls the old-world way
by Deborah salomon
Phs by John gessner
od rest ye merry gentlemen let nothing you dismay.
Old fashioned wreathes and trees and lights will never go away.
In fact, a goodly amount may be found at Kristen Moracco’s historic home in Weymouth, where Mom, Dad, three young children and two dogs commence decorating in a decidedly traditional style in early November. The halls are decked well before Tom Turkey, or an appropriate alternative, appears on a dining room table set with Yule-themed dishes.
Christmas decorations, like fashion, follow fads. Some families prefer a Victorian Christmas. Other celebrants go mod, expressed in silver and blue.
Kitchen trees can drip macaroni and hard candy garlands while outside, the hot item is a projection device that showers the house with colored stars.
But nothing enhances traditional Christmas décor more than a suitable backdrop. Kristen grew up with four siblings in a large, comfortable Colonial in a New York City suburb. Happy memories of decorating with her mother provide inspiration. Being a Realtor specializing in historic properties and a member of The Pines Preservation Guild adds context.
About that backdrop: Rosewood, this military family’s 5,000-square-foot home on a prime 2-acre Weymouth lot in Southern Pines, was built in the 1920s by engineer Louis Lachine, who assisted society architect Aymar Embry II in developing the Weymouth enclave. Lachine, recognizing a moneymaker, bought land and built 10 houses on his own. Rosewood, the most impressive of them, was named for its first occupant, the Robert Rose family of Binghamton, New York. Its dark beams and window frames suggest the Arts and Crafts style popular into the 1930s and now enjoying a resurgence.
Renovations accomplished by previous owners, including a magnificent kitchen island of bowling-alley proportions, provides an authentic backdrop for
Kristen’s whole-house transformation, which starts with multiple trees, including one in each child’s room.
Professionals install outdoor lighting, but the family accomplishes most interior placements. “It’s fun to be the magic maker . . . a big, important job,” Kristen says.
The main tree, as expected, stands between the fireplace and stairway, encircled by an electric train. Almost as massive is the master bedroom tree. After struggling with live ones, “I was forced to join the fake tree club,” Kristen admits. But ornaments are deeply personal, often reflecting family travels: a Scottish thistle; a soldier; a red telephone box and bus from London. Some are estate sale
finds. Santa regularly leaves an ornament for the family collection. Other precious mementoes include a needlepoint stocking made by Kristen’s grandmother, and her mother’s angel collection, part of a dining room spread devoted to angels.
“My mom made Christmas so magical,” she recalls.
Last Christmas, Kristen tried something different: a pasta bar with assorted sauces, meats and veggies for a Christmas dinner attended by 10. “Much more fun,” she says.
Recently, Kristen was given a Christmas village, complete with moving ice skaters, which sprawls across a long table under a portrait of St. Nick that even their 10-year-old accepts as real. The result is a wonderland, full of music, lights, pine boughs and surprises where the family gathers around the fireplace after dinner and listens to Nat King Cole, among others, singing traditional carols.
Then, on Dec. 26, after six weeks of total immersion, Kristen comes up for air and, with a sigh, out come the boxes. PS
A forever home for the holidays
by
Apair of life-size nutcrackers stand guard at the top of a grand outdoor staircase. If you dare approach the unflinching sentries, look past them and you can see golden holiday lights through the glass double doors that lead into the Bailey house. Not those Baileys. Our Baileys. It’s not Bedford Falls, it’s Pinehurst, but it’s still a wonderful life.
“We really love Christmas,” Michelle Bailey says. “A house where you can see the Christmas tree through the door — we always wanted that.”
In their previous home, Michelle and Justin Bailey had to rearrange the living room so their fresh-cut tree could take its rightful place in the window. Not anymore. They designed their forever home, a 6,500-square-foot modern manse in the Country Club of North Carolina, with that ghost of Christmas past in mind.
Just inside the entryway, a grand double staircase flanks a plump fir topped with a bow. Garlands strung with red balls and more golden lights festoon the banisters that nearly encircle the tree, like a room-size wreath. And that’s only steps to the foyer.
Michelle smiles wide. “Justin’s just as much of a cheeser for overdoing the holidays as I am,” she says.
Holiday decorator Hollyfield Design Inc. helped the Baileys breathe the spirit of Christmas into their new home, popping a swag over each mantel and a Christmas tree into what seems like every room. From the candy-colored ornaments to the hot-pink plaid rib-
bons, the Whos down in Whoville would absolutely adore the playful palette and trimmings. Certainly the Grinch would love to shove the entire jolly scene into a sack and steal it.
The Baileys purchased their 1-acre lot in 2020, began construction the following year, and moved into their sprawling build on the Dogwood golf course just in time for the 2022 holiday season. But the family of four had few decorations, let alone furniture, by the time Santa made his annual rounds.
“We put a tree there, and we had lawn chairs and folding tables,” Michelle says, pointing.
Since the move-in, the house has been filled to the brim, like St. Nick’s sleigh on Christmas Eve. From the outside, the home is a minimalist’s dream. Clean lines meet traditional architecture in a transitional style that’s finished in off-white painted brick and crisp black trim. Inside, it’s maximalism to the max.
“I didn’t want a khaki house with a few accents,” says Michelle with a shrug.
Halfway through construction, she found a like mind in South Carolina decorator Aston Moody.
“I told her I like Persian rugs and animal prints and Buddhas, and that is exactly what she brought me,” Michelle says.
Like kids on Christmas morning, cheetah-print rugs race down the stairs to white oak herringbone floors. A pair of wingback chairs converse with a funky floor lamp that resembles a Truffula tree.
Past the chairs, in the heart of the house, a dining table basks beneath a tiered crystal chandelier hanging from a coffered ceiling. The open floor plan flows from living room to dining room to kitchen, where a black and brass La Cornue range demands all the attention. Its massive hood curves to the ceiling like a billow of smoke.
“This stove was in my dreams forever,” says Michelle, still pinching herself.
It’s choose-your-own-adventure to explore the rest of the Bailey house. From the kitchen, you have two options: 1). Turn through a pocket door into a pantry wallpapered in a very Southern, very busy cornflower-blue print; or 2). Blow past the look-at-me stove into an entertaining wing complete with a restaurant-size bar, champagne vending machine and golf simulator. Michelle’s good friend and Pinehurst artist Kristen Groner hand-painted the walls with a Rorschach design.
From the entertaining wing, exit sliding glass doors onto a patio looking out at the 10th hole. There’s a second dining table, plus a sitting area with a TV. Fans, heaters, a fireplace, retractable screen doors and a roof keep the space pleasant year-round.
“One of the big things about loving to entertain is I love my private space, too,” Michelle says. “Upstairs is us only.”
The second floor is where you’ll find bedrooms for the Baileys’ teenage children, Peyton and Preston, plus the master en suite. Standout features include a stately brass tub by
Catchpole & Rye and a Persian rug, more than a century old, that was a wedding gift for Michelle’s grandparents.
Once the furniture install was completed in June 2023, Michelle threw herself a birthday bash/housewarming party for 60 people on the patio. The Baileys’ first full season of entertaining had begun.
“It’s how I grew up,” Michelle says. Surrounded by family, friends and fun.
Both Michelle and Justin are from California. The couple met in high school. She attended college, earned her nursing degree and now works in medical device sales. He’s retired from the Army Special Forces. Like many families, Justin’s military service is what moved the Baileys to the area, first to Raeford, then Fayetteville, Southern Pines, and now to their home in Pinehurst.
The Baileys thought they’d pack up and return to the West Coast after Justin retired, but that didn’t happen.
“We fell in love with it here,” Michelle says, “so we built the forever home. This will always be home base.”
And always home for the holidays. PS
Jenna Biter is a writer and military wife in the Sandhills. She can be reached at jennabiter@protonmail.com.
by a shley Walshe
December is a bite of ginger, a dusting of sugar, a thick swirl of molasses.
Beyond the kitchen window, the quiet earth glitters in gentle light. Birdsong warms the frosty air. Save for the twitch of slender ears, a cottontail rabbit sits frozen in a sunbeam.
Just as the seasons announce themselves with unmistakable clarity, so, too, does this day. You reach for a hand of ginger, a paring knife, a timeworn recipe. Today is the day for ginger cookies.
As you peel and mince, the redolent fragrance of fresh ginger awakens your senses. Imagine growing in the darkness as this root did. The way life might shape you. What gifts for healing you might hold.
Butter softens on the stovetop. You stir in the ginger, brown sugar, cinnamon and molasses. A pinch of sea salt. Vanilla extract. Another pinch of sea salt.
Whisk in the egg. Add the flour and baking powder. The steady dance of wooden spoon stirs something deep within you, too.
This is how it goes. Homemade cookies send you time traveling. As you shape the dough, the timeworn hands of the ones who shaped you begin to clarify.
Memories are sharp and warm and sweet — here and gone like frost across the leaflittered lawn.
As for the cookies? Same, same.
Sink your teeth into the golden edges, the chewy centers, the sugar-laced magic. Delight in the depth of flavor. Let the ginger bite back.
Here’s a fun fact about a favorite Yuletide parasite. The word mistletoe is derived from the Old English misteltan, which roughly translates to “dung on a twig.” You can thank its high-flying seed mules for that. Although the white berries are toxic to humans, many bird species rely on mistletoe as a mineral-rich food source throughout the barren days of winter. If you find yourself standing beneath a festive sprig with the one you adore, consider tucking the etymology morsel away for later.
Cold air makes for dazzling night skies. Check out Aries (the ram), Triangulum (the triangle) and Perseus (the hero who beheaded Medusa). Not a night owl? Christmas Bird Counts happening across the Carolinas this month are a constellation in and of themselves. If rusty blackbirds and yellow-rumped warblers are more your speed, consider joining a local count to get in on the action. (Map available at carolinabirdclub.org.)
Stars and birds aside, don’t forget to count your blessings. The great wheel continues to turn. Winter solstice arrives on December 21. As we celebrate the longest night of the year — and the promise of brighter days to come — give thanks for the warmth and brilliance in your own life. You know what they say: The best things in life aren’t things.
December has the clarity, the simplicity, and the silence you need for the best fresh start of your life.
— Vivian Swift
Although conscientious effort is made to provide accurate and up-to-date information, all events are subject to change and errors can occur! Please call to verify times, costs, status and location before planning or attending any events.
Sunday, December 1
NUTCRACKER. 2 p.m. Gary Taylor Dance presents The Nutcracker. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www. ticketmesandhills.com.
STEAM. 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Elementary-aged children and their caregivers are invited to learn about topics in science, technology, engineering, art and math and to participate in STEAM projects and activities. This month’s theme is gingerbread builds. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or kbroughey@sppl.net.
Monday, December 2
QUILTS OF VALOR. 12 - 4 p.m. Quilts of Valor meets the first Monday of each month to create lap quilts made especially for veterans. If you sew, bring your machine; if you don’t sew, you can iron or cut out fabrics for new designs. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.
Tuesday, December 3
BRAIN FITNESS. 10 - 11 a.m. Adults 18 and older are invited to enjoy short relaxation and brain enhancement exercises, ending with a mindfulness practice. Eve Gaskell will be the instructor. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
Wednesday, December 4
ACTIVE ADVENTURES. 10 - 11 a.m. Little ones ages 2 - 5 can come enjoy fun and active adventures. Cost is $5 for residents and $7 for non-residents. Recreation Center, 160 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net.
FIRE SAFETY. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Learn helpful safety tips that can save your life. Classes are led by the Southern Pines Fire Department. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
HOMESCHOOL FUN ZONE. 11:15 a.m.12:15 p.m. Ages 5 - 13 can come hang out with other homeschool families. Recreation Center, 160 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net.
Tuesday, December 5
CHRISTMAS TRAIN. 5:30 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. Enjoy the “‘Carolina Christmas Train” hosted by Aberdeen Carolina Western Railway. There will be more train rides Dec. 5 - 9 and Dec. 13 - 20. Starworks Cafe & Taproom, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info and tickets: www.ACWR.com.
Thursday, December 5
TUMBLING. 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Children ages 3 - 10 can join six classes of beginner Disney tumbling. Cost is $60 for residents and $84 for non-residents. Train House, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www. southernpines.net.
SUPPORT GROUP. 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. The first Thursday of each month there is a meeting for the Sandhills Chronic Kidney Disease Support Group. Clara McLean House, Shadowlawn Room, 20 First Village Drive, Pinehurst. Info: angela@sandhillsckd.com or kathy@sandhillsckd.com.
MOVIE. 7 p.m. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation makes its annual return. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www.sunrisetheater.com.
Friday, December 6
LUNCH BUNCH. 11:30 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to dine on varied cuisines each month visiting different restaurants in the area. Carpool with friends or meet at the restaurant. Dining locations will be chosen the week before. Info: (910) 692-7376.
FESTIVAL OF LIGHT. 5 - 8 p.m. Join the Given Tufts Foundation at the Outpost during the annual village of Pinehurst tree lighting ceremony. Enjoy holiday treats, hot chocolate
and Christmas letter writing, as well as a raffle for a Nativity scene from local potter Crystal King. The Outpost, 95 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
TEA PARTY. 5:30 p.m. Enjoy a tea party featuring locally grown tea and delicious sweet treats while you enjoy a rendition of The Nutcracker. The story, including multiple styles of dance, will be narrated to help guests follow along. Doors open 30 minutes early for tea service. Encore Center, 160 E. New Hampshire Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.tix.com/ ticket-sales/encorepac/6988.
KARAOKE. 7 - 10 p.m. Come to a night of karaoke. Free and open to the public. Starworks Cafe & Taproom, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info: www.StarworksNC.org.
HOLIDAY POPS. Ring in the holidays with the celebrated Pinehurst tradition of holiday songs performed by the Carolina Philharmonic at BPAC’s Owen Auditorium. There will be another performance on Dec. 7. The Carolina Philharmonic, 5 Market Square, Pinehurst. Info: www.carolinaphil.org.
Saturday, December 7
WORKSHOP. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Forge your own grill tools. Cost is $150. Starworks Cafe & Taproom, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info: www. StarworksNC.org.
HOLIDAY MARKET. 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. The Starworks Holiday Market opens to the public. Explore and shop from thousands of handmade glass ornaments. Starworks Cafe & Taproom, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info: www. StarworksNC.org.
KID’S SATURDAY. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Families are invited to a monthly, themed craft event to socialize and get creative. Geared toward ages 3 - 10. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642 or www. vopnc.org.
HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Join the Seagrove Potters for their annual holiday open house. Celebrate the holiday season on a self-guided pottery tour. The shops will have special events each weekend through Dec. 21. Info: www.discoverseagrove.com/events/ holiday-open-house-main-event/.
PARADE. 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Enjoy local marching bands, activities and more at the Southern Pines Christmas Parade. Santa Claus will make an appearance. The parade route begins at Vermont Avenue and proceeds down the west side of Broad Street to Massachusetts Avenue, crosses the railroad tracks, then comes back down the east side of Broad Street. Info: (910) 692-7376.
MET OPERA. 1 p.m. Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Tickets are $29.50. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www.sunrisetheater.com.
WORKSHOP. 1 - 3 p.m. Make your own ceramic mug. Cost is $70. Starworks Cafe & Taproom, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info: www. StarworksNC.org.
GALA AND GOLF. The Special Operations Genesis Foundation will host the Genesis Legacy Gala, followed by a golf tournament on Dec. 8. Pinehurst Resort, 80 Carolina Vista Drive, Pinehurst. Info: www.sogfoundation. org/events.
SHAG SOCIETY DANCE 7 - 10 pm. The Moore Area Shag Society invites those 21 and older to a night of dancing. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with DJ Ron Russ. A cash bar is available. Admission is $10 at the door for members, and $15 for non-members Down Memory Lane, 161 Dawkins St., Aberdeen. Info: (919) 622-2829.
Sunday, December 8
OPEN HOUSE. 1 - 4 p.m. Get into the old-time Christmas spirit with the annual Christmas open house. There will be warm drinks, homemade cookies and live music. Free event. Bryant House, 3361 Mount Carmel Road, Carthage.
TOUR OF HOMES. 1 - 5 p.m. Tour five unique, beautiful homes decked out with holiday finery in Pinehurst and Southern Pines on the 45th Annual Episcopal Day School Candlelight Tour of Homes. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
WRITING GROUP. 3 p.m. Are you interested in creating fiction, nonfiction, poetry or comics? Come to the Sunday Afternoon Writing Group. Connect with other writers and artists, chat about your craft and get feedback about
your work. All levels welcome. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: lholden@sppl.net.
HOLIDAY CONCERT. 4 - 5:30 p.m. The Sandhills Community College Music Department presents its annual holiday concert with a collection of traditional and contemporary works. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www. ticketmesandhills.com.
Monday, December 9
PHOTO CLUB. 6 p.m. The Sandhills Photography Club annual Holiday and 41st Anniversary Dinner will include the presentation of the Stoffel Awards, the results of the “‘Rows of Things” competition, and the installation of the 2025 officers. Info: www. sandhillsphotoclub.org.
Tuesday, December 10
HATHA YOGA. 10 - 11 a.m. Adults 55 and older can increase flexibility, balance, stability and muscle tone while learning the basic principles of yoga alignment and breathing. You may gain strength, improve circulation and reduce chronic pain practicing gentle yoga postures and mindfulness. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
AARP TALK. 12 - 12:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to join AARP for a fraud talk. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
Wednesday, December 11
IRISH CHRISTMAS. 7 p.m. The Irish Christmas in America show features top Irish music, song and dance in an engaging performance rich in humor and energy. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
Thursday, December 12
CORNHOLE. 12 - 1 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to play cornhole with friends. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
HOT GLASS, COLD BEER. 5:30 - 8 p.m. Glassblowing demonstration and live music from BCR. Cost is $5. Starworks Cafe & Taproom, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info: www. StarworksNC.org.
MOVIE. 7 p.m. Home Alone Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www.sunrisetheater.com.
SYMPHONY. 7:30 p.m. Celebrate the season with festive holiday favorites performed by the North Carolina Symphony. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ncsymphony.org.
Friday, December 13
UGLY SWEATER PARTY. 12 - 1:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to play holiday games all while wearing their favorite ugly sweater. Cost is $2 for residents and $3 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
ARTS AND DRAFTS. 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. Arts & Drafts is free and open to the public. Starworks Cafe & Taproom, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info: www.StarworksNC.org.
COOKIE CRAZE. 6 - 8 p.m. Children ages 4 - 13 can be dropped off for a Christmas cookie craze. Cost is $20 for residents and $28 for non-residents. Train House, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www. southernpines.net.
SUPPER WITH SANTA. 6 - 8 p.m. Children ages 12 and under can have dinner with Santa and make some holiday crafts. Stay after dinner for the annual flashlight candy cane hunt. Cost is $5 for residents and $7 for non-residents. Recreation Center, 160 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net.
Saturday, December 14
CRAFT DAYS. Children and their families can come by the library for Drop-in Craft Days and work on crafts and coloring at their own pace. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.
TRAIL EVENT. 9 a.m. Join the trail ambassadors at Reservoir Park, 300 Reservoir Park Drive, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net.
BREAKFAST WITH SANTA. 9 - 11 a.m. There will be pancakes and bacon, a magic show, face painting, balloon animals and a visit from Santa. Limited seating. Reservations are required. Tickets are $30 for adults, $10 for children 4 and older, and free for 3 and under. Sandhills Woman’s Exchange, 15 Azalea Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-4677 or www. sandhillswe.org.
OPEN HOUSE. 1 - 4 p.m. Enjoy old-time decorations, warm apple cider and homemade cookies at the annual Christmas open house. Free event. Shaw House, Morganton Road, Southern Pines.
Sunday, December 15
HOLIDAY CONCERT. 2 p.m. The Moore County Community Concert Band will be performing a selection of holiday favorites. Robert E. Lee Auditorium, 250 Voit Gilmore Lane, Southern Pines.
COOKIE EXCHANGE. 4:30 p.m. Bakers who are 15 years old and above make four dozen cookies, then take home three dozen from other bakers in The Carolina Cookie Exchange.
Village Pine Venue, 1628 McCaskill Road, Carthage. Info: info@shopcottonandgrain.com.
CHRISTMAS CONCERT. 2 p.m. The Moore County Choral Society with Moore Brass and Percussion presents their annual concert. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
Monday, December 16
READING CHALLENGE. 4:30 p.m. Kick off winter reading fun with songs, dances and special performances from the Senior Moments Players. You can also register for winter reading and programs through Jan. 31. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.sppl.net.
Tuesday, December 17
BRAIN FITNESS. 10 - 11 a.m. Adults 18 and older are invited to enjoy short relaxation and brain enhancement exercises, ending with a mindfulness practice. Eve Gaskell will be the instructor. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
BINGO. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to play 10 games of bingo. Cost is $4 for residents and $6 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
CELTIC CHRISTMAS. 7:30 p.m. A Taste of Ireland, the Irish music and dance sensation, presents its holiday spectacular, A Celtic Christmas. BPAC, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.eventbrite.com/e/a-celticchristmas-by-a-taste-of-ireland-tickets-10599322 38859?aff=ebdsoporgprofile.
Wednesday, December 18
SANTA PAWS. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Bring your dogs out to see Santa and enjoy some treats. Martin Dog Park, 350 Commerce Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net.
OPEN MIC NIGHT. 7 - 9 p.m. Open mic night is free and open to the public. Starworks Cafe & Taproom, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info: www.StarworksNC.org.
Thursday, December 19
READ BETWEEN THE PINES. 5 p.m.
Do you love reading and discussing amazing books? If so, join SPPL’s evening book club for adults, Read Between the Pines Copies of the book are available at the library to check out while supplies last. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: mhoward@sppl.net.
MOVIE. 7 p.m. Jim Carey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www.sunrisetheater.com.
Friday, December 20
WINTER CLOSURE. This is the last day for holiday shopping in our craft store or to reserve a holiday luncheon. Sandhills Woman’s Exchange, 15 Azalea Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-4677 or www.sandhillswe.org.
LIGHT SHOW. 3 - 9 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Join Southern Pines Parks and Recreation on a driving tour of over 2 million Christmas lights and a visit to the Aloha Safari Park in Cameron. Grab a quick bite at the Chuckwagon prior to the show. Cost is $24 for residents and $34 for non-residents. Info: (910) 692-7376.
MOVIE. 7 p.m. Enjoy a free showing of Polar Express. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www. sunrisetheater.com.
Saturday, December 21
STORYTIME. 10:15 a.m. Saturday Storytime is the once-a-month program for children from birth to age 5 featuring stories, songs, rhymes and smiles where caregivers and young children interact and explore the fun of language and early literacy. There are space constraints for this indoor storytime. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.sppl.net.
PARADE. Come out to the Town of Vass annual Christmas parade. Info: www. townofvassnc.gov.
TRIVIA. 7 p.m. Trivia night is free and open to the public. Starworks Cafe & Taproom, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info: www.StarworksNC.org.
Monday, December 23
DAY CAMP. 8 a.m. Kids ages 5 - 12 can participate in winter day camps. There will also be sessions Dec. 27 and Dec. 30 – Jan. 3. Info: www.southernpines.net.
Thursday, December 26
WELLNESS CLASSES. 10 - 11:30 a.m. For adults 18 and older who want to explore educational topics involving information to improve the mind, body and spirit. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
MOVIE. 7 p.m. It’s a Wonderful Life. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3611 or www.sunrisetheater.com.
Monday, December 30
LEGO CAMP. 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Children ages kindergarten through second grade can participate in STEM Lego camps. Kids in third through fifth grade will have camp from 1 - 4 p.m. Cost is $67 for residents and $94 for non-
residents. Train House, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net.
Tuesday, December 31
FIRST EVE. 6 - 8 p.m. Bring family and friends for a winter wonderland to ring in the New Year early. The event will be held in downtown Southern Pines, featuring live music, carnival games, face painting and much more. The highlight of the evening is the countdown to the Pine Cone Drop at 8 p.m. Info: (910) 692-7376.
Wednesday, January 8
ELVIS. 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. See Elvis in a new light. Witness how deeply he was touched by gospel music. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
WORKSPACES. 7 a.m. - 3 p.m. The Given Tufts Bookshop has a pop-in co-workspace open on Mondays and Thursdays in the upstairs conference room. Bookshop floor and private meeting room by reservation only. Info: www.giventuftsfoundation.com.
Community Congregational Concerts presents
January 26, 2025 • 4:00 PM
Community Congregational Church
141 North Bennett St. • Southern Pines 910.692.8468
www.communitycongregational.org/concerts
Come to the Dance!
Violinist Megan Kenny and violist Holland
Phillips present a program of dancethemed repertoire. Join us for the music of Chopin, Handel, Milhaud and more as we hear the waltz, the sarabande, the mazurka, the polonaise, the jig and others.
TICKETS:
WORKOUTS. 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to get their workout on. Open Monday through Friday. Cost for six months: $15/resident; $30/non-resident. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
CHAIR YOGA. 9 - 10 a.m. For adults 55 and older. Help offset body aches encountered with desk work. This is an accessible yoga class for bodies not able to easily get up from and down to the floor. Do standing or sitting in a chair. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
STRENGTH AND BALANCE WORKOUT. 11 - 11:45 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to enjoy a brisk workout that focuses on balance and strength. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
RESTORATIVE YOGA. 12 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Practice gentle movements that may help alleviate pain, improve circulation and overall well-being. Bring your own mat. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
GAME ON. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. You and your friends are invited to play games
Craighead Cushioned Patio Chair Recliner, Heavy Duty Steel Frame
Four Seasons Courtyard Gas Fire Pit Coffee Table, 50,000 BTU, 48 inch.
222A Central Park Ave. Pinehurst (next to True Value) Text Susan with inquires @919-599-1615
Hours: Tues, Thurs.- noon-4pm, Saturday 10 am-4pm
such as corn hole, badminton, table tennis, shuffleboard, trivia, and more. Each week enjoy a different activity to keep you moving and thinking. Compete with friends and make new ones all for free. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy games of bridge with friends. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
PLAYFUL LEARNING. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Come for a drop-in, educational playtime for ages 0 - 3 years interacting with other children. This month’s dates are Dec. 3 and 10. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642.
BABY RHYMES. 10:15 a.m. Baby Rhymes is specially designed for the youngest learners (birth-2) and their caregivers. Repetition and comforting movements make this story time perfect for early development and brain growth. There will be a duplicate session at 10:45 a.m. An active library card is required. Dates this month are Dec. 3, 10 and 17. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.
GAME DAY. 12 p.m. Enjoy bid whist and other cool games all in the company of great friends. For adults 55 and older. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
CHESS. 1:30 - 5 p.m. Join a chess group, whether you have been playing for a while or you have never played. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.
LINE DANCE. 4:45 p.m. Put on your dancing shoes and line dance. This free program is designed for beginners. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.
Wednesdays
CHAIR YOGA. 10 - 11 a.m. For adults 55 and older. Help offset body aches encountered with desk work. This is an accessible yoga class for bodies not able to easily get up from and down to the floor. Do standing or sitting in a chair. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
BRAIN BOOST. 10 - 11 a.m. Test your memory while creating new brain connections. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15501, West End.
KNITTING. 10 - 11 a.m. Learn how to knit or just come enjoy knitting with other people. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.
BABY STORYTIME. 10 - 11 a.m. Come have fun developing the foundation for your baby’s later reading with stories, songs and play. Open to parents and caregivers of infants from newborn to 24 months. Moore County Library, 101 W. Saunders St., Carthage. Info: (910) 947-5335.
LEARN AND PLAY. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Come in for an open play date with your toddler or preschooler. There will be developmental toys and puzzles as well as early literacy tips on display for parents and caregivers to incorporate into their daily activities. Dates this month are Dec. 11 and 18. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.
IMPROV ACTING CLASS. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Are you ready to laugh and have fun? Then sign up for this improvisational acting class. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
PIANO. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Join Flint Long to either play piano or just listen. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.
Southern Pines Train Station Christmas
Saturday, Dec. 7th
Claus-mopolitan Crawl
Wednesday, Dec. 11th 4 to 7:30pm
Enjoy sips, snacks and sales after hours
Brought
Eve
Saturday, Dec. 31st • 6pm
Southern Pines Train Station
Ring in the New Year with the Pine Cone Drop at 8pm
LINE DANCING. 12 - 1 p.m. Looking for new ways to get your daily exercise in and care for yourself? Try line dancing. For adults 55 and older. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
CHAIR VOLLEYBALL. 1 - 2 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Get fit while having fun. Free to participate. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy games of bridge with friends. All materials included. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
Mon-Sat 10 to 5
DANCE. 2 - 2:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Instructor Maria Amaya leads a dance fitness class designed to gently and gradually increase cardio function, mobility, and balance while having fun at the same time. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
LINE DANCING. 2 p.m. The town of Vass will host line dancing for seniors every other Wednesday. Cost is $5 per session. Vass Town Hall, 140 S. Alma St., Vass. Info: www. townofvassnc.gov.
IMPROVISATIONAL ACTING. 3 - 4 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Explore the dynamic art form of acting through a variety of roles, unleashing creativity, embracing the unexpected, and sharing some laughter together. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
LIBRARY PROGRAM. 3:30 p.m. At The Library After School (ATLAS) is an afterschool program for children ages kindergarten through second grade who enjoy activities, crafts, stories and meeting new friends. Dates this month are Dec. 11 and 18. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www. sppl.net.
TAI CHI. 6:30 p.m. Learn tai chi. There is no age limit and the classes are open to the public. Cost is $10 per class. Seven Lakes West Community Center, 556 Longleaf Drive, Seven Lakes. Info: (910) 400-5646.
WORKSPACES. 7 a.m. - 3p.m. The Given Tufts Bookshop has a pop-in co-workspace open on Mondays and Thursdays in the upstairs conference room. Bookshop floor and private meeting room by reservation only. Info: www.giventuftsfoundation.com.
MOORE COUNTY FARMERS MARKET. 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. The year-round market features “‘producer only”‘ vendors within a 50-mile radius providing fresh, local and seasonal produce, fruits, pasture meats, eggs, potting
plants, cut flowers and local honey. Crafts, baked goods, jams and jellies are also available. Market is located at the Armory Sports Complex, 604 W. Morganton Road, Southern Pines.
GIVEN STORY TIME. 10 a.m. Bring your preschooler to enjoy stories, songs and activities. This month’s dates are Dec. 5 and 19. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642.
BALANCE AND FLEXIBILITY. 10 - 11 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to enjoy a class to help reduce the risk of taking a tumble while increasing their ability to recover if they do. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
MUSIC AND MOTION. 10:15 and 10:45 a.m. Does your toddler like to move and groove? Join Music and Motion for children ages 2 – 5 to get those wiggles out and work on gross and fine motor skills. An active library card is required. Dates this month are Dec. 5, 12 and 19. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.
CROCHET CLUB. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to come with friends to create fun designs and memories. Supplies are on site. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
STRETCH, STRENGTH, BALANCE. 11
a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older can enjoy exercises to improve their overall quality of life. Exercises can be performed standing or seated. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
ADAPTIVE YOGA. 12 - 1 p.m. Adults 55 and older can enjoy yoga that meets them where they are. Create a sense of balance and ease by slowly increasing range of motion and mobility while maintaining their natural abilities. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
CHESS AND MAHJONG. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Bring a board and a friend. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
CABIN TOURS. 1 - 4 p.m. The Moore County Historical Association’s Shaw House grounds, cabins and gift shop are open for tours and visits. The restored tobacco barn features the history of children’s roles in the industry. Docents are ready to host you and the cabins are open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Shaw House, 110 W. Morganton Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com.
IMPROVERS LINE DANCE. 3 - 5:30 p.m. Put on your dancing shoes and line dance. This is a
free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End. LITTLE U. 3:30 p.m. Introducing Little U, Southern Pines Public Library’s preschool program for children ages 3 1/2 - 5. There are stories, songs, rhymes and activities that explore the world of books, language and literacy. Little U is a fun and interactive program designed to help preschoolers develop early literacy skills in preparation for kindergarten and beyond. Dates this month are Dec. 5, 12 and 19. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.
TRIVIA NIGHT. 7 - 9 p.m. Come enjoy a beer and some trivia. Hatchet Brewing Company, 490 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.hatchetbrewing.com.
AEROBIC DANCE. 9 - 10 a.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy this low-to-moderate impact class with energizing music for an overall cardio and strength workout. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
JAM SESSION. 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. Do you like to play an instrument, sing or just listen to music? Come join a music jam session. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.
TAP CLASS. 10 - 11:30 a.m. For adults 55 and older. All levels welcome. Cost per class: $15/resident; $30/non-resident. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
QIGONG. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Classes will consist of chair and standing movements that can help soothe achy feet, tight hips, and lower back pain while easing restriction in mobility. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy games of bridge with friends. All materials included. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. PS
910-944-3979 Gallery • Studios • Classes
Gallery Hours: Monday - Saturday 12-3pm 129 Exchange Street in Aberdeen, NC artistleague@windstream.net • www.artistleague.org
See How It’s Done
Learn how to create your own art!!!
Sunday, January 5, 2025 2:00-4:00pm Instructors Class Demonstration and Registration Event
Start the new year off by taking an inspiring art class or workshop. On Sunday, January 5, 2025, visit the League and watch our instructors as they demonstrate the various media they will teach; then, register for the classes that interest you. There will be preview demonstrations about classes in Drawing, Pastel, Colored Pencil, Oil, Watercolor, Gouache, Acrylic, Acrylic Pouring, Alcohol Ink, Fiber Art, Block Printing, Scratchboard, Silk Painting, Mixed Media, Encaustic Wax, and Collage. Learn something new or advance your current skills.
The exhibition of our instructors’ paintings will be hung in our gallery through January 31. Join us for a fun afternoon, chat with instructors, and enjoy light refreshments.
Gallery Hours: Monday - Saturday 12-3pm
Ask Us About Becoming a Member • 129 Exchange Street in Aberdeen, NC Visit our website for many more classes. www.artistleague.org • artistleague@windstream.net
5 Reasons to 1500 W. Indiana Avenue Southern Pines, NC 28387 (910) 693-1600 www.sandhillscoalition.org
Moore County Choral Society with Moore Brass & Percussion
Tickets:
$25 Adults
$10 Students
Anne Dorsey - Conductor Stephen Gourley - Accompanist
Tickets only available online: no fees added ticketmesandhills.com/events/a-golden-christmas
No tickets available at the door
Sunday December 15, 2024
7:00 p.m.
Owens Auditorium – BPAC Sandhills Community College moorecountychoralsociety.org
The Moore County Choral Society gratefully acknowledges the support of its long-term sponsors: The Foundation of First Health, Penick Village, First Bank, Pinehurst Toyota, NC Self Storage, the Arts Council of
through Saturday from 8:00am to 5:00pm 476 Hwy 74 West, Rockingham, NC 28379 @honeybeebridalandboutique 910.387.9216
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Patronal Feast Day of the United States of America
Holy Day of Obligation this year
Transferred to Monday, December 9, 2024 10:00 AM Mass
ADVENT PENANCE SERVICES
St. Anthony of Padua
Tuesday, December 17, 2024 6:30 PM
Sacred Heart
Thursday, December 19, 2024 11:00 AM
CHRISTMAS MASSES
Tuesday, December 24, 2024
4:00 PM 6:00 PM 9:00 PM
Caroling beginning at 8:30 PM
Wednesday, December 25, 2024 10:00 AM
Thursday, December 26, 2024 - No Morning Mass
SOLEMNITY OF MARY, THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD
Tuesday, December 31, 2024 – 6:00 PM Mass Wednesday, January 1, 2025 – 10:00 AM Mass
An Independent, Interdenominational Church
An Independent, Interdenominational Church
Welcoming Christians of All Denominations
Welcoming Christians of All Denominations
Unifying all Christians through the Word of God
Unifying all Christians through the Word of God
Three Distinct Sunday Worship Services
Three Distinct Sunday Worship Services
Three Distinct Services
8:15am 9:30am 11:00am 8:15am
8:15am 9:30am 11:00am 8:15am
Communion Service Family Service Traditional Service
Three Distinct Services
2nd & 4th Wednesday of the month
American Heritage Girls and Trail Life Troop 1898 meet at Heritage Hall
Holy Eucharist
Communion Service Family Service Traditional Service
Holy Eucharist
Wednesday, December 4
9:30am Communion Service Family Service Traditional Service 8:15am 9:30am 11:00am
Holy Eucharist Three Distinct Services
Sunday, December 22
Sunday, December 22
9:00am - Morning Prayer 10:30am - Holy Communion
6:30 p.m. - Hanging of the Greens Service
10:30 a.m. Worship Service with Carolina Brass
9:30am Communion Service Family Service Traditional Service 8:15am 9:30am 11:00am
Tuesday, December 24
Family Service with Children’s Sermon Traditional Worship 11:00am
5:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Service
10 Azalea Road • Pinehurst • 910-295-6003 www.tvcpinehurst.com www.facebook.com/tvcpinehurst
9:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Communion Service
Family Service with Children’s Sermon Traditional Worship 11:00am Communion Service Family Service Traditional Service 8:15am 9:30am 11:00am 8:15am 9:30am Communion Service
Wednesday, December 25
Tuesday, December 24 - Christmas Eve 4:00pm - Lessons & Carols, Holy Communion
Nursery is provided for all services Join us to discover what makes us unique.
10 a.m. Christmas Day Service
Nursery is provided for all services
Azalea Road • Pinehurst • 910-295-6003 w.tvcpinehurst.com www.facebook.com/tvcpinehurst
Service Traditional Service 8:15am 9:30am 11:00am
Sunday, December 29
10:00 a.m. Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols Service
Join us to discover what makes us unique.
Three Distinct Services
8:00am - Holy Eucharist
9:30am - Family Service with Children’s Sermon 11:00am - Traditional Worship
Family Service with Children’s Sermon Traditional Worship 11:00am
10 Azalea Road • Pinehurst • 910-295-6003 www.tvcpinehurst.com • www.facebook.com/tvcpinehurst
Wednesday, December 25 - Christmas Day 11:00am - Holy Communion
Diocese of the Holy Cross The Anglican Catholic Church Founded Advent I November 28, 2004 X X X King James Version Bible
12/1: Sunday Worship 10am In-Person / Live Stream (One Service Only)
12/8: Sunday Worship 10am In-Person / Live Stream (One Service Only) 5pm Live Nativity
12/11: Blue Christmas Service 4pm
12/15: Christmas Cantata 10am In Person / Live Stream (One Service Only)
12/22: Children’s Christmas Nativity (Christmas Pageant) 10am In Person / Live Stream (One Service Only)
12/24: Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 5pm In Person / Live Stream
Moore County Arts Council
Fall into Autumn
October 4, 2024
Photographs by Diane McKay
Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities
Jazz Sunday
October 27, 2024
Photographs by Diane McKay
Southern Pines High School Blue Knights
Classes 1960 and 1961
Amazing Grace Farm October 12, 2024
Photographs by John Gessner
North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame 2024 Induction Ceremony
October 6, 2024
Photographs by Diane McKay
ACROSS
1. Chum
4. ___ green with envy
7. Clog (2 wds)
12. Walking stick
13. Water vessel
14. Biscotti flavoring
15. Seasonal decor
17. Extend, as a magazine
18. End of a road (2 wds)
19. Bakery buy
21. Setting for TV’s “Newhart”
22. Biology lab supply
23. Seasonal decor
26. Opening parts
30. “___ Doubtfire”
31. Depleted 92 (2 wds)
34. Wild Asian dog
35. Black gold
36. Fortune teller’s deck
38. Drill attachment
39. “La Bohème,” e.g.
42. Opposite of fauna
44. ____ and aah
45. Stop working
47. Seasonal decor
49. Strengthen, with “ up ”
51. Chinese “ way ”
52. Blood clots
54. Corrupt
58. Slobber
59. Seasonal decor (2 wds)
61. The people’s princess
Across 1. Chum
62. Hair enhancer
63. Killer whale
64. On edge
4. ___ green with envy
7. Clog (2 wds)
65. Monopolize
12. Walking stick
66. ___ v. Wade
13. Water vessel
14. Biscotti flavoring
1. Reduce, as expenses
15. Seasonal decor
2. “___ and the King of Siam”
3. Prelude ( hyph)
17. Extend, as a magazine
4. Duck’s home
18. End of a road (2 wds)
19. Bakery buy
5. “Dig in!”
21. Setting for TV's "Newhart"
6. Baffled (2 wds)
7. Seasonal decor
8. Discover
22. Biology lab supply
9. Short skirt
23. Seasonal decor
10. ___-friendly
26. Opening parts
11. Church bench
30. "___ Doubtfire"
12. Atlantic catch
31. Depleted 92 (2 wds)
13. Crooner Tony
34. Wild Asian dog
16. High IQ group
35. Black gold
20. Film graphics initials
23. Balderdash
36. Fortune teller's deck
24. Cay
38. Drill attachment
37. Most overused
54. “Drat!”
25. Book page
65. Monopolize
40. Seasonal decor
13. Crooner Tony
55. ___-American
43. Open-mouthed
39. "La Bohème," e.g.
27. Automaton
42. Opposite of fauna
28. Hodgepodges
44. ____ and aah
45. Stop working
66. ___ v. Wade
29. Actor Green of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
41. Biological rings
16. High IQ group
43. Open-mouthed
46. Moray, e.g.
1. Reduce, as expenses
30. Anchor
47. Seasonal decor
49. Strengthen, with "up"
32. Internet address (init)
51. Chinese "way"
33. Swimming need
52. Blood clots
54. Corrupt
58. Slobber
59. Seasonal decor (2 wds)
61. The people's princess
62. Hair enhancer
63. Killer whale
64. On edge
2. "___ and the King of Siam"
20. Film graphics initials
23. Balderdash
48. “Friday the 13th” genre
24. Cay
50. Alcohol buy
25. Book page
52. Pennsylvania lake
27. Automaton
3. Prelude ( hyph)
53. Complain
4. Duck's home
5. "Dig in!"
6. Baffled (2 wds)
7. Seasonal decor
8. Discover
9. Short skirt
Fill in the grid so every row, every column and every 3x3 box contain the numbers 1-9.
10. ___-friendly
11. Church bench
12. Atlantic catch
Puzzle answers on page 113 Mart Dickerson lives in Southern Pines and welcomes suggestions from her fellow puzzle masters. She can be reached at martaroonie@gmail.com.
28. Hodgepodges
30. Anchor
56. Bad habit, so to speak
46. Moray, e.g.
57. Victorian, for one
58. Banned insecticide (init)
48. "Friday the 13th" genre
60. “Flying Down to ___”
29. Actor Green of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
32. Internet address, (init)
33. Swimming need
37. Most overused
40. Seasonal decor
41. Biological rings
50. Alcohol buy
52. Pennsylvania lake
53. Complain
54. "Drat!"
55. ___-American
56. Bad habit, so to speak
57. Victorian, for one
58. Banned insecticide, (init)
60. "Flying Down to ___"
The Christmas letter that wasn’t
Dear Friends,
In the words of Michael Scott at Dunder Mifflin, over the lips and through the gums, look out stomach, here it comes! Well, it was quite a year. Hottest on record! Yay us! It got off to a great start when the War Department dropped her reckless endangerment charges. As I tried to explain to her at the time, it was only a suggestion. Live and learn.
As you may know, the Carolina Panthers did not win the Super Bowl. Aaaaagain. Turns out they’re worse than their record would indicate. Maybe they should take a page from the convention and visitors bureau in Kentucky that used an infrared laser to send an invitation into deep space attempting to attract extraterrestrials from planets in the TRAPPIST-1 solar system. They can’t do any worse than they do in the NFL draft or making trades. Am I right?
It was a leap year, of course, and that meant the War Department and I had the opportunity to enjoy an additional 24 hours in each other’s company. As it turned out, she was booked on Feb, 29, explaining that it’s not unusual for her to plan years ahead. That’s my girl!
Instead, I read that Finland is the happiest country in the whole wide world, a distinction it has held for seven straight years, which has got to be one of those records that can never be broken — like DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak or the Portuguese dog that lived to be 31 — and it wasn’t even in assisted living! So, you tell me, are the Finns sending out deep space laser messages, too? At least they don’t have a football team!
And it goes without saying that we all got fabulous news when McDonald’s announced its intention to sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts fresh daily. This revelation happened around the time cicada broods XIX and XII stuck their little heads out of the ground to rub wings together and party like it was 2024. The last time they did that fandango in the back yard was 221 years ago. Coincidence?
Of course, in June we had the U.S. Open right up the street. Bryson DeChambeau expressed no interest whatsoever in renting our doublewide for the week. Worse luck for him! On the plus side, Scottie Scheffler managed to get through the week without being hauled off in handcuffs. WWGD. What would Gomer do? Citizen’s arrest! Citizen’s arrest!
That’s about when we discovered that, in its latest update, the Oxford English Dictionary added (among other words and expressions) “Chekhov’s gun” to its lexicon. Chekhov, of course, was the Russian playwright who described the literary principle that says unnecessary elements should never be introduced into a story. If you have a gun in the play, someone needs to use it. Which brings me to Rory McIlroy. Ha-ha.
Right after the Open came the Olympics in France. Incroyable! Turns out Simone Biles is tiny. I’m talking Keebler cookie tiny. But that’s OK. As the great Dan Jenkins once said of a famous gymnast, “She can do everything my cat can do.”
I don’t know about you, but the Paris Olympics were a smash hit in our house, and I think it’s safe to say there are some things we can keep in mind for when we host the Open again in 2029. How about those opening ceremonies floating down the Seine? Think Drowning Creek. Am I wrong?
When it comes to mano a mano competition, however, the U.S. Open had nothing on Joey Chestnut, who had to forgo competing for Nathan’s Mustard Belt after he sold his soul to a rival food company. You know what Hunter S. Thompson said, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” In a counter programing one-on-one match Chestnut downed 83 dogs — not the Portuguese kind, ha-ha — to beat his sworn rival, someone named Kobayashi, who I don’t think has had steady work since The Usual Suspects. Who is Keyser Soze?
It was an election year, and I decided not to run again. Those background checks! Who needs them?
The whole family was here for Thanksgiving, and the War Department made her traditional beef aspic. Lily, the almost 4-year-old, looked at me with those big, wide eyes and said, “Craps.” That’s what she calls me. “Meat Jell-O?” From the mouths of babes!
On to 2025!
Toodles,
