TiftonScene MAY•JUNE 2013
M
A
G
A
Z
I
N
E
Where Have You Been? Tales of travels near and far
1940s Tifton Lodging Vidalia Golden Onion Chef Competition
Arts in Black Festival
TiftonScene M
A
G
A
Z
I
N
Volume 8 • No. 3
DAN SUTTON Publisher/Ad Director ANGYE MORRISON Editor IRIS HARBIN Graphics Coordinator DEREK SCHAPER Design/Layout Contributors LATASHA EVERSON BECKY TAYLOR CHRISTINE TIBBETTS BILL WELLS RACHEL WAINWRIGHT Circulation
Tifton Scene Magazine is published bimonthly at 211 N. Tift Ave., Tifton, GA 31794 by The Tifton Gazette p: 229.382.4321 • f: 229.387.7322 P.O. Box 708 • Tifton, GA 31793-0708 email: angye.morrison@gaflnews.com www.tiftongazette.com Letters and all editorial contributions may be sent to the above address or emailed to angye.morrison@gaflnews.com TiftonScene is not responsible for unsolicited submissions. Reproduction or use of any article, photo or graphic content, without the express permission of the publisher is prohibited. Advertising rates and ad specifications available by contacting: • Jody Benson, Ext. 1932 • Kitty Stone, Ext. 1910 • George Moody, Ext. 1929 • Chelsea Fowler, Ext. 1928 Newsstand: $3.00 Subscription (six editions per year): $12.00
A Magazine with Personality!
E
CO N T R I B U TO R S Angye Morrison is the editor of The Tifton Gazette, and is the newbie on the staff, having taken the position in March. Morrison is a Georgia native who hails from Lincoln County, and is an avid high school football fan, as well as the Georgia Bulldogs. She is a graduate of Augusta State University, and has worked at newspapers in Georgia and Florida, as a reporter, photographer, paginator and editor. Her favorite travel destination is Bend, Ore., which she used to call home, nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Latasha Everson has been with The Gazette for more than two years as a reporter (three years on August 16 to be exact). Everson started August 16, 2010, fresh out of college. She graduated from Turner County High School in Ashburn in 2006, where she was involved in yearbook and journalism. In 2010, she earned her bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in professional writing from Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus. While at GSW, she was involved with the literary and visual arts magazine, Sirocco, for three years. Her favorite travel destination is the beautiful state of Florida. It’s a place she loves to visit during vacation time. Bill Wells is a real Tiftonite, born and bred. He graduated from Tifton Schools in 1949, and was the best dancer in Who’s Who, and a member of many clubs. He attended ABAC for two years, and graduated from Georgia Teacher’s College, now Georgia Southern. He is a historian and author, and retired from the Georgia Department of Transportation as a transportation engineer. He was instrumental in the change made to rename Tift County after Henry Harding Tift, the county’s original founder. He has been in 47 states and slept in 36, but his favorite place to go is Fernandina Beach, Fla. Becky Taylor joined the sports department of The Tifton Gazette in September 2012. She was reared in Berrien County and developed a love of sports, starting with the 1991 Atlanta Braves and an invitation to keep basketball scorebooks for Nashville Middle a year later. She graduated from Berrien High, attended ABAC and finished Valdosta State with a degree in History. Five years later, she found herself in Athens and later graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Newspapers. Prior to joining The Gazette, she worked some with Georgia Public Broadcasting for the in-production “As If We Were Ghosts” and has done research for the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association. She claims no favorite travel destination, but is satisfied with nearly anything that includes a scenic drive or good food. Christine Tibbetts started life in New Jersey and ventured west in 1966 for the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Tifton became home in1978. Her professional focus for 30 years was marketing and public relations for the arts and education, for healthcare and early childhood education, plus a healthy dose of community activism and political advocacy. You can find her work for the Equal Rights Amendment on record in the Library of Congress. Crafting stories of places near and far dominates Tibbetts’ work now. Favorites truly never rise to the top of any lists because places really are their people and all are interesting. However, she has returned twice to the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Peru. MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
3
4
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
contents MAY•JUNE 2013
9 14 21 24 25 26 30
TRAVEL British Columbia with Julie Sharpe
TRAVEL ABAC’s spring break in India
TRAVEL Becky Taylor’s checklist of GA Counties
HISTORY Where to Spend the Night in 1940s Tifton
HISTORY Renaming a county
DINING Vidalia Golden Onion chef competition
EVENTS Arts In Black festival
ON THE COVER Julie Sharpe takes a moment to take in the view at the end of the trail after hiking the West Coast Trail with her son, Camden, in British Columbia.
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
5
TIFTAREA ACADEMY
Tiftarea Academy continues to host a vibrant and growing student body. To accommodate this growth, we are building a 1,000 seat gymnasium and renovating the current one with six new classrooms and a science laboratory. Tiftarea Academy provides a high quality education at a low cost to students. With some of the best and brightest teachers to guide and inspire students, we invite you to join the Tiftarea Academy family.
Pre-K Thru 12th Grade • Athletic Programs • College Preparatory Program • College Credit Classes • “Quality” Accredited By The GAC
Eli Sumner
Thomas Buckner
John Adams
US Highway 41 North • (229) 382-0436 www.tiftareaacademy.com We admit students of any race, color, religion, national, or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities. 6
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
802048
Panthers Sports Review RYAN BRANCH Assistant Football Coach in GISA All Star Game
JON KORAN Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year
MIKE PATRICK Golf Coach of the Year Softball Coach of the Year Basketball Region 3-AAA Coach of the Year and Head Coach of GISA Georgia South Carolina All Star Game JOHN ADAMS Back to Back State Champ Wrestling SHANE VANDERBILT 2nd State Wrestling Weight 145 ZACH WILLIS Softball Region Champs
4th State Wrestling Weight 126
LAKYN SOUTER All State Softball Region 3-AAA Player of the Year BROOKE KEEN GISA All Star Team Softball Girls 3-AAA Region Runner Up Basketball RACHEL THOMASON GISA Basketball Georgia South Carolina All Star Game
GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY Region Champs BOYS CROSS COUNTRY Region Runner Up
3AAA Region State Champ - Golf THOMAS BUCKNER State Low Medalist and All State Golf CAROLINE GRIFFIN All State Golf
ELI SUMNER Back to Back to Back to Back State Champion Pole Vault & State Record Holder BRIAN JORDAN Region and State Runner UP - Tennis 803786˙
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
7
memorandum
O
ur theme this go round is “Where have you been?” and we hope it’s one you will enjoy. We chose it because we’re fast approaching the travel season, when kids are out of school, and folks are keen to hit the road and head to the beach, the mountains, or wherever.
We were curious where folks in Tifton had traveled to. When you talk with people, it’s amazing to find out just how small the world really is, and how much of it the people you know have seen. We found a professor who’s been to India, a professional woman who celebrated victory over cancer by challenging herself to hike a massively difficult trail in British Columbia, and we even took a look at where folks used to stay when they came to Tifton.
We looked at our own staff as well. We found that we’ve all had some interesting travels. One of our own, Becky Taylor, has made it her mission to travel to all the counties in Georgia, checking out the history of each area and what the community has become in more recent times. You’ll find her take on these communities interesting, and you’ll enjoy seeing some old buildings through the lens of her camera. We’ve all had memorable trips – those moments in time with our families, or with dear friends, when we’ve seen both the usual and the unusual. Those times when we’ve laughed so hard we cried are fixed in our hearts. For me, one of those times was when I traveled cross-country with my mother. I moved to Oregon, and when it was time for me to come home to Georgia, my mother flew out and made the journey with me. So we set off in a small Mitsubishi truck, pulling a U-Haul filled with all my worldly possessions, bound for the Peach State. All along the way, we stopped whenever we pleased. World’s biggest ball of yarn? We saw it. Dorothy’s house in Kansas? Yep. Been there. The Idaho home of the world’s best spuds? Sure. We ate there. We ambled our way across the U.S., and whenever we saw anything that interested us, we stopped. And all along the way, we talked, we laughed and we enjoyed just being together. It was a week I’ll never forget, and I’m so glad I was able to spend that time with her. But isn’t that what traveling is all about? It’s not just about the places we go and the things we see and do…it’s also about who we go with, and the relationships that are forged and strengthened. So enjoy this issue of Tifton Scene, and as you plan your trips this travel season, remember that the most important thing you can leave room for in your suitcase is memories.
Angye Morrison, Editor 802119
8
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
TRAVEL Julie Sharpe sits on a large piece of driftwood near the campfire and her campsite at Tsocowis Creek.
Hike was
challenging
by ANGYE MORRISON photos submitted
I
n 2002, Julie Sharpe had breast cancer at 43 years of age. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she had two types of cancer at once in the same breast, and faced two surgeries and the accompanying treatments. The illness took quite a toll on her mentally and physically, as she went through a partial mastectomy and 30 days of radiation. “I couldn’t walk through a grocery store or really any distance in July/August 2002,” she said. “It was a tough summer.” In addition to her own cancer, Sharpe’s best friend, Susan, had cancer but didn’t survive. Sharpe, who is self-employed and a single mom, also had to face the reality of having to provide for her two boys, Camden and Morgan Lowrance, who were 12 and 11 years old at the time. But she made it through, and in 2012, she decided it was about time to celebrate her victory of being cancer-free for 10
years. She began googling, and came across the West Coast Trail, and thought, “That’s it. That’s what I want to do.” “I decided I would really challenge myself and go backpacking on the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island, British Columbia,” she said. She approached Camden, who would accompany her, and he was eager to make the trip with her. But he had a word of caution. “He told me, ‘you better get in shape,’” she said. Sharpe said she’s taken her boys on camping trips before where they hiked some, but she’s never attempted such a difficult trail. Sharpe began her training in February 2012, walking the streets of the historic district in Tifton wearing her hiking boots, and carrying her backpack and walking poles. “I was quite the sight,” she laughed. “People would stop me and ask if I was homeless.”
Sharpe walked for months, adding weight to her backpack by adding bottles of water, as well as weights. And in July 2012, she and her son Camden, who was 22 at the time, set off for Canada. Morgan, who Sharpe says has grown into a young man who isn’t into camping and long car trips, had his adventure with mom a while ago, when the pair traveled to Paris. When asked why Camden went with her, Sharpe said, “He was my rock while I was ill, going with me to radiation treatments and sitting with me.” The West Coast Trail is part of the National Park System of Canada, and is considered one of the world’s most challenging backpacking trails, because of the terrain, not the elevation. “You go up and down headlands, hike on a beach, traverse many ladder sets to get across streams, cliffs and rivers, and haul yourself across rivers in a personal cable car,” she said.
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
9
The ladder sets at Tsusiat included one that had 54 rungs, the longest one Julie Sharpe and her son, Camden, had to traverse.
10
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
Sharpe climbs down the slippery ladder, one rung at a time, while balancing her backpack.
The trail is only open from may to September, and anyone who plans to hike it must apply for a permit. “Your lifeblood is your map and your permit,” Sharpe said, showing both items, which she kept in a zipped-up sandwich bag to keep them dry. Sharpe and her son flew to Seattle, where they picked up a rental car and drove to Victoria, British Columbia, via two ferries to get across Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. They then drove a half day from Victoria to Port Alberni, British Columbia. But even all that didn’t get them to their destination. “The next morning we took a four-hour ferry to Barnfield, then a 20-minute van ride, then we were finally on the trail head,” she said. “We spent five days on the trail and then caught a ride on a jonboat up a beautiful fjord with a member of the First Nation, a native tribe of British Columbia.” The fearless duo then hiked to the First Nation village, spent the night, and got a ride with a “nice lady,” Sharpe said, who took them 5 miles to a gravel road, where they waited for a shuttle bus, which they rode for two hours back to Barnfield. This was fol-
lowed by a four-hour ferry ride back to their car. “Logistics were incredible. It took an Excel spreadsheet to figure it out,” Sharpe said. “I literally had to do a spreadsheet. You had to figure out the logistics or you could be standing by the roadside for a couple of days.” The pair did 7 miles the first day, and after the long day, she was exhausted. But she still managed to add some humor to the day. “I did an amazing faceplate into some briars,” she said, laughing. “My son tried to help me out, and I thought, ‘why am I doing this?’” But the next morning, after waking up to the view of the ocean, and seeing whales feeding in the cove, she was reminded that the good far outweighed the bad. “I thought, ‘this is really cool and worth it,’” she said. Another fun moment on the trail came when the duo used a personal cable car to get across a river. Camden was particularly thrilled with it. “He said, ‘This is better than Disney Land,’” Sharpe said, remembering the moment with a smile. The duo did see other people on the trail, including two people from Switzerland and Denmark. Sharpe said that after backpacking the trail, she and her son spent a
801707
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
11
week camping in British Columbia the another week in Olympic National Park in Washington. “It was an incredible three weeks,” she said. Sharpe said her biggest challenge was not getting ready for the trip, or even navigating the trail – it was instead her fear of heights. “I’m afraid of heights, so conquering that fear to climb ladder sets that hung precariously to a cliff was really huge for me. With your backpack on. Over 50 feet high on rickety ladders, slippery with moss and riddled with broken rungs,” she said. “There are boardwalks through really muddy sections, but you can’t trust the boardwalks. They will break under your foot; they’re covered with moss.” Sharpe said she kept telling herself, “don’t look down, don’t look up; just focus on the slippery rungs.” “When you see the distance under you that you can fall, it’s rather scary. They haul off an incredible number of injured hikers each season,” Sharpe said, adding that the rangers keep a running tally, which they show each hiker before they begin their treacherous journey.
12
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
At one point, Sharpe did succumb to her fears, and said she froze up on the ladder. But just as he’d done when she was going through her surgeries and radiation treatments, Camden offered words of encouragement. “He’d tell me, ‘Come on, Mom, you can do it. You can get through this,’” she said. Each night, Sharpe and Camden would camp on the beach, because the forest is so dense and wet. The pair hiked in both the forest, which is filled with Douglas Firs, and the beach, when the tide was low. “You have to monitor the tide tables as the tides there are incredibly high and fast. Hikers have been swept off to their death. Hiking on the beach was not what I expected,” she said. “It was slippery, rocky, and you had to pay attention to where you put your foot or you were going to end up on your bottom.” But the beach did have its amenities. Sharpe said they enjoyed the tidal pools filled with starfish and anemones, and they frequently saw seals, sea otters and sea lions up close. They also saw whales and eagles. “We woke up in the mornings in our tent hearing whales feeding in the coves. It was incredible,” she said.
The physical challenges on the trail were well worth the reward of seeing the beauty of the Northwest and the trail as they hiked. “I have traveled and camped in many places in the U.S., Europe and Costa Rica, but the West Coast Trail stands out,” she said. Sharpe said her greatest accomplishment was not finishing the trail, but conquering her fear of heights. She added that the trip was a great way to celebrate her victory over cancer, and it was an incredible bonding experience with her son. She also said she learned the value of close relationships with friends, even when friends are separated by death. “I was there (on the trail) and facing my fears, and I could just hear Susan in the back of my mind, with her really thick accent. ‘Come on Julie, you can do it.’ I would think, ‘You’re alive, she’s dead; you can make it up this hill,’” Sharpe said. Sharpe found that her greatest adventure in life is not the trails she hikes or the places to which she travels – it’s in the relationships she treasures with family and friends. And you just can’t beat that view.
TS
Thanks to Tifton & Surrounding Areas for voting us #1 Dentist
Special Thanks to:
2012
• The Best Patients & Friends that a Dentist could have • A Great Staff & Loving Family who are always there to help • Area Dentists & Our Dental Community for their support & friendship over the past 24 years
I especially thank God for His many wonderful blessings!
802110
BUDDY CAWLEY D.M.D. 611 Virginia Ave. • Tifton • 387-0700
804251
802297
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
13
INDIA by LATASHA EVERSON • photos contributed
pring break for Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College assistant professor of journalism, Dr. Thomas Grant, and two of his students, Devin Gibbs and Marcus Grant, was an experience they’ll cherish for the rest of their lives after traveling more than 20,000 miles to Pragpur — India’s first heritage village located in the foothills of India’s Himalayan mountain range. Grant and Gibbs said they left ABAC March 6 for their 13-day trip to India. They traveled approximately 18 hours by plane to get to Delhi and then five hours by train and three hours by car to reach Pragpur. “It’s a long haul,” Grant said. However, he and Gibbs agreed that it was a great trip. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” he said. Grant said he, Gibbs and Marcus went on this trip as a part of the program, Children Learning International Cultures (CLIC) Abroad. According to the CLIC Abroad website, the program educates and empowers children in America and India by
S
14
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
sharing their cultures and daily lives through photography. CLIC was inspired and organized by world renowned photographer D.K. Bhaskar and Frank Christian, longtime photographer at Augusta National, home of the Masters Golf Tournament, in 2009. They created CLIC Abroad to capture and document cultures around the world through photography. The website further states that after extensive research and travel throughout India, Bhaskar identified remote regions where many aspects of daily life exists in the same fashion it has for centuries. His goal is to document old world culture before modernization transforms the faces of these remote regions. He believes the best way to achieve this is to have the very people that actually live and embrace these cultures document their own lives, so the cameras were put in the hands of children. Nikon, one of CLIC’s sponsors, supports this concept and has donated 40 cameras for children to use for the CLIC Abroad workshops. Bhaskar works closely with the children, teaching them camera skills while sharing his expertise and love for photography.
Along with Bhaskar and the CLIC Abroad team, Grant, Gibbs and Marcus and a group of students from the private high school University Lake School in Wisconsin were involved in March’s workshop. This was ABAC’s first time going to India to help with this project. According to CLIC Abroad, in the surroundings of Dharmshala, more than 50 local students joined with 20 international students from different parts of the United States to explore, engage and be educated from both sides of the world. CLIC Abroad spends just over 10 days in a village, hosting photography workshops for village students and U.S. students. The group works with local nonprofit agencies to facilitate the application process, which is open to all school children in regions around the workshop site, regardless of faith or gender, says CLIC Abroad.
TRAVEL
“You become a part of their world...” Shown are birds flying over Beas River located in the northern part of India. It rises in the Himalayas in central Himachal Pradesh, India and flows for some 290 miles (470 km) to the Sutlej River in the Indian state of Punjab.
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
15
ABAC student Devin Gibbs smiles as she’s surrounded by young girls in the CLIC Abroad workshop.
During the workshops, children are taught basic photography techniques, then divided into small groups and assigned a topic to photograph. Topics touch on all aspects of daily life, such as school, environment, rituals and religion, home and family, health and hygiene, bazaar and shops, and children, which they document with their cameras. According to CLIC Abroad, every participant is allowed to keep a camera for the duration of the workshop, giving them the
opportunity to focus on their topics. Each day, Bhaskar, the U.S. students and other CLIC Abroad representatives visit the villages, help the students build upon these topics and review images. Through this process, the substance and quality of the children’s work improves and evolves greatly. By the end of the workshops, images are simply brilliant in aesthetics, sensitivity, composition and technical skill. Grant said he has known Bhaskar for about 10 years. He commented that
Bhaskar grew up India and went from being a scientist to an engineer to a photographer. He said CLIC first started out as a photography program with Bhaskar taking a bunch of cameras to a village, and now it has expanded to bring other people in. “He’s gradually trying to make this an international exchange,” Grant said. He said he alone has visited India before in the summer of 2011, where he met up with Bhaskar for CLIC Abroad. However, he advised what made the recent trip
“Let me Represent YOU in your Business Transaction whether Buying, Selling or Leasing.”
Call or come by today!
Jo Windom, AAMS® Financial Advisor
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
803635
16
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
201 N Central Avenue, Suite F Tifton, GA 31794 Bus. 229-387-7878 Fax 877-335-9787 jo.windom@edwardjones.com www.edwardjones.com
804113
Dr. Thomas Grant and Devin Gibbs speak with participants in the workshop.
to India different from the last is that he recorded everything. He said it was a constant cultural learning experience. “We have lots of film and video,” Grant said. He said they also worked with various other nonprofit organizations while in India, such as the Center for Sustainable Development. In a write-up about the trip in ABAC’s student newspaper, “The Stallion,” which Grant is the faculty advisor of, Gibbs describes the group’s arrival to Pragpur. She writes, “On the first day, the three of us along with the CLIC Abroad team walked up to the adobe-style school building and we were serenaded by the children’s morning prayers. We took off our shoes and walked in to see more than 100 children singing at the top of their lungs, which was more amazing than any welcome I could have imagined. They each watched us and looked us over from head to toe while we filmed and photographed them.” Gibbs, smiling, said in that moment, it hit her that it was real and that she, Grant and Marcus were actually there. She said
ABAC student Marcus Grant helps a student in Pragpur with his Nikon camera.
when the workshop began, they handed out candy and cameras to the students. “Within the first hour, I think they exhausted their cameras,” she said. They worked with young children between the ages of 10 and 13 at a middle school in Pragpur. Gibbs said Bhaskar would sit down with the students each morning. She said he noticed that they were taking a lot of photos of the American visitors. She said he explained to the students that their world needed to be seen through the lens of their cameras. “We get to learn about who they are,” Gibbs said, adding that the children began to catch on to this concept, taking photos of their family and their surroundings. She said several students came to realize that their community had some shortfalls. She said one of the students in the workshop was embarrassed by the amount of trash on the ground. She said, “Through the lens of her camera, she was able to see something that had not occurred to her before.” She said by learning this through photography, the student was encouraged
to change this problem in her community. “That type of exchange showed me my purpose there,” Gibbs said. She said she also showed the student some photos of her home in America, which the student noticed there was no trash on the ground. Gibbs said when the student asked her what she disliked about India, which wasn’t much, she mentioned the trash. She described seeing mounds and mounds of trash thrown over a hill. She said she was bothered by this, however, she realized “that’s the way things are done in this community.” Grant said they would see men and women outside sweeping the streets with big brooms. They would either burn the small piles or in most cases, have the dogs and cows eat it. Grant noted that India, however, is very clean and the people there are keen on washing their hands. Also, he said through photos, another student was able to understand and appreciate his father’s work as a weaver. He said the photos taken by students of their environment made them think.
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
17
met the Dalai Lama. As Gibbs described the experience, she smiled and said, “He has such a beautiful aura.” She said one family who came to see him was crying, and he had a smile on his face but not in a disrespectful way. “He had such a peace about him and he gave it right to them,” she said. She said when he met with them, he greeted them like Americans. Grant said, “He holds on to your hands. He establishes this connection.” He and Gibbs explained that the Dalai Lama usually only sees private audiences and doesn’t take more than five people out of a group. “But he took seven of us,” Gibbs said. She said he also saw them on a Saturday, which he usually doesn’t do. She said two million people request to see him but only 10,000 get in. “We were a part of that 10,000,” Gibbs said, still in disbelief. She and Grant said the experience was “pretty remarkable.” Pulling up her pant leg to reveal a red string around her ankle, Gibbs said the Dalai Lama gave them red strings after blessing them. Another highlight of their trip was participating in the annual Hindu festival of
color, Holi, which is a celebration of the arrival of spring, and also a celebration of diversity and people. During the festival, participants have fun and throw colored powder at each other. Gibbs said her hair was lime green for three or four days. She said she had to use baking soda to get the color out. She said it also took a while to get the color completely off of her skin. “It was probably the most fun thing I’ve ever done,” Gibbs said, smiling. Grant, chuckling, said he recently got the pink out of his shoes. He said the celebration was done a little early this year due to the group being there for the CLIC Abroad workshop. “It was really nice,” Grant said. He, Gibbs and Marcus returned to Tifton March 19. They also stopped in Paris on their way home. Grant says he now has friends on the other side of the world, including television reporter, Gulshan Dhanoa of India. Gibbs commented that she also made a new friend, Aashi Thakur of India, who has a master’s degree in microbiology and is considering going to school in the United States to get her doctorate’s degree. Marcus will be graduating from ABAC in May with an associate’s degree in rural studies on the business track. Gibbs will
803268
He said the students also took photos of cows, which are sacred in India. Gibbs said one family she visited treated their cows with such excellent care. She said she did, however, see some stray cows roaming about. Grant said he, Gibbs and Marcus stayed in a guest house near Pragpur that looked out over the river. He and Gibbs agreed that the location was beautiful. Grant said India is a very busy place. Grant said at 4 a.m. each morning, someone somewhere would be playing the flute or the rings from the shrine could be heard throughout the village. He said every morning, they would have chai (tea) at 7 a.m., breakfast at 8 a.m. and be on the road by 9 a.m. He said everyone was incredibly nice, including the people in the shops. Gibbs described going with a friend to a shop to purchase a suit. She said for $20, she got a handmade suit, which she had tailored and was ready for her the next day. Plus, she said the workers were very friendly and offered them chai. Coming from a small town of very nice people, Gibbs says India is just as nice. She said, “They speak to everyone,”something she’s never experienced. One of the biggest highlights of the trip to India was when she, Grant and Marcus
18
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
would swarm around them with flowers and loved hanging out with them. She said Marcus, who’s exceptionally outgoing, was great with the students. As Grant and Gibbs expressed their apparent love for India, Grant said the people there are very welcoming and warming. “You become a part of their world,” he said, noting that guests are treated very special. He said they were invited into people’s homes and were sincerely asked to come back. Gibbs said, “It was different from anything I’ve ever been exposed to.” TS ABOVE: Marcus Grant along with Devin Gibbs, Dr. Thomas Grant and others are shown meeting the Dalai Lama. photo by the Dalai Lama’s Office
A cloud of colored powder surrounds ABAC student Devin Gibbs, left, as she smiles along with her new friend, Aashi Thakur of India (shown next to Gibbs), and other participants in the annual Hindu festival of color, Holi.
803273
also be graduating from ABAC in May with a bachelor’s degree in rural studies with a concentration in writing and communications. She said she wants to focus on sustainable development. She also plans to make a documentary (a interactive multimedia) on women’s roles in India. She said she learned a lot about arranged marriages while in India. “The girls I met have such high hopes and dreams,” Gibbs said, noting that the mothers also want their daughters to succeed. She said the girls are mature way beyond their years. She said the families are so close and such an encouraging unit, and the children are constantly being educated. “They appreciate it,” she said. “They want to really make their parents proud, and they strive to do well.” Grant said he wants to sponsor some of the students at the middle school in Pragpur, whose parents have to pay $5 a month for tuition, which is a lot in India. Gibbs said one of the things she acknowledged was that time doesn’t mean much in India. “They like to go with the flow,” she said. “After a few days, we all became accustomed to that.” She said during their stay in India, she, Marcus and Grant bonded with the students in the workshop. She said the children
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
19
804034
20
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
TRAVEL
Counting Counties story & photos by BECKY TAYLOR
have never been on an airplane, have never been west of Alabama and the only reason I have seen Tennessee was just because I was curious one day. I still consider myself an extensive traveler, especially for Georgia. I have seen 155 of 159 counties and plan to knock it down to three in June by going to have a look at Dade. My motivations are simple. Dad hated the interstate and loved to go sightseeing. Not to museums or monuments, but just to go look at different scenery. I inherited that in full and combine it with a project that began three years ago: school photography.
The Civil Rights era always fascinated me and I began heavily researching segregated high school sports 10 years ago. After some time, newspapers were not enough. I had to seek these places out, to see what they were and what they are. It has led me from Seminole County to Stephens County. From the deep woods of Worth County to Pio Nono Avenue in Macon. My father taught Georgia History and our first real road trip had that in mind. I had started to read Lewis Grizzard and he decided we needed to make a pilgrimage to the grave site in Moreland. In preparation for the excursion, he told me to read “Don’t Forget to Call Your Mama (I Wish I Could Call Mine),” Grizzard’s tribute to his mother so I would understand everything of importance. These were pre-Internet days and all he knew was that there was a marker in the Moreland cemetery. He had no idea where it was, but Moreland was an extremely small town. This could not be hard.
We explored all over Moreland, main streets and back streets. He was even considering stopping and asking for directions. That did not happen, but he drove up and down the town again. As we wondered if the truck stop was the one Grizzard had been fond of mentioning, he noticed a county road that said it led to Grantville. That looked unlikely, but it was an unturned stone. By some stroke of luck, it was there. We paid our respects and noticed that several others had, too, including LSU fans. I wonder how they found it. We would return to Moreland several times. Waycross in 2011 was the last road trip I made with him. A few years earlier, he had taken some photos of Center High for me and now, armed with some directions I had written down, we had decided to track down the locations of Bailey Street, Reedsville and Hazzard Hill and he wanted to show me Wacona Elementary, which was located in an old building on the outskirts of town. We would also get new tires for my car. We set out one August morning, headed east on GA 122, the Cogdell Express. The swamp fires had raged for most of the summer, but this was a morning
Population centers in Hancock County are few and far between. Linton, located in the southwestern corner of the county is nearly an example of a former one. The town’s school closed in 1958 and the lone gas station has long been out of use.
One of the Taylor family’s earliest expeditions of discovery was to Moreland to find the gravesite of Lewis Grizzard. Several wrong turns later, it was found just outside the southern boundary of town. It has become a spot for fans to leave their offerings.
The road to Deepstep is filled with many relics of an earlier time, including Dixon’s Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.
I
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
21
Michelle Bembry & Christopher Morrow gistry Your Hometown Bridal Re
1019 Love Avenue 51 Tifton, GA • 229-238-28room ridal Show Come In and See Our B In Tifton Voted Best Gift Shop
May 4, 2013
Haley Moore & Matt Hughes
May 18, 2013 Place your engagement or wedding photo on this page for only $50. Please call 382-4321 for more information.
804026
ry 13, 2013 lker Keadle • Janua Natalie Barber & Wa dd Barnette • March 2, 2013 Lauren French & To b Buckley • March 9, 2013 Ro Danielle Godwin & Johnson • March 16, 2013 vis Tra & rd Wa ica , 2013 Er t Lukens • March 16 Hallie Willis & Cour n Arant • March 30, 2013 & Ro Amanda Bullington en Bruner • March 30, 2013 ev St & ey 30, 2013 Randi Coon Josh White • March 5 2013 Tiffany Crumley & , ril Ap • e yn Pa Kyle Kimberly Gandy & us Nichols • April 6, 2013 Marc Latilya Johnson & April 13, 2013 Michael Meadows • 20, 2013 Becky Lastinger & ril Ap • ke Hogan Rebecca Sapp & Lu on Revels • April 27, 2013 ar m Ca & te Pa er Summ ril 27, 2013 annon Daniel • Ap Hilar y Aycock & Br topher Morrow • May 4, 2013 Chris Michelle Bembr y & en VanDerMeid • May 4, 2013 ev St & r Abby Walke y 11, 2013 Luke Gordon • Ma , 2013 & er xt Ba ey ell Sh 18 y Ma • es gh tt Hu Haley Moore & Ma Shelley • May 18, 2013 e Jo & Allyson Harten 18, 2013 ew Rutland • May Teresa Chavez & Dr cker y Waldrop • May 25, 2013 e & Za Courtney McKendre Jared Tompkins • June 1, 2013 & ll Ha Raleigh 8, 2013 Blake Edore • June 8, 2013 Haiden Hudson & ne Ju • y rd Ha ph se Jo Heather Hullett & shua Roberts • June 8, 2013 & Jo Georganne Swords Elliot Sumner • June 15, 2013 Samantha Wright & tera Marshall • June 22, 2013 De Alyssa Bonneau & ne 22, 2013 James Vickers • Ju 13, 2013 & er un Br r be Am ly Ju • e on St Kris Amanda Johnson & elby Jarrell • July 20, 2013 Sh & 10, 2013 Heather Sumner ael Music • August Kristy Baker & Mich phens • August 31, 2013 Sara Wells & Paul Ste rpenter • September 7, 2013 Chance Ca r 5, 2013 Heather Busbin & e Webster • Octobe Ashly Stone & Boon ed Hall • October 12, 2013 Kristen Chung & Re ller • November 2, 2013 Mi Macie Hood & Rob Beranek • November 9, 2013 vid Da & s rd wa Ed Danielle • November 9, 2013 & Andrew Stinson ber 14, 2013 ky lec ste Ko en ist Kr Miley • Decem Dana Sloan & Josh
without smoke and it was endless miles of scorched earth and a few skinny trees that had survived. We were survivors, too. Though Dad had seen quite a bit of Waycross over the years as he did stats for the numerous Berrien games at Berrien Memorial Stadium, the maze-like structure of the streets made us lose sense of direction more than once and it was luck more than anything that he found the proper street for Hazzard Hill. We were too late for that one, though. It had been torn down, but there was a positive note as a community center had been freshly built on the site. There was better luck with Reedsville, which was on the edge of existence. It was still standing, having been taken over by a church that had moved into the neighborhood. Driving over the bridge back into town, we discovered we were not alone. An extended family of fire ants had decided to host a family reunion in the front seats and from the look and feel of it, they were having quite a good time. That derailed the trip for several minutes as we went to the local Harvey’s to pick up a giant canister of ant spray. Nibbling beasts conquered, we continued on our way. The next stop was Bailey Street Elementary, which was in the same neighborhood as Center. Center was turned into the Board of Education and kept up quite well. Unfortunately, the lower grades fared poorly. Bailey Street had been long abandoned, boarded up and fenced in. The only sign of fairly recent occupation was the massive satellite dish poking out from the weeds. School photography has led me to a whole bunch of places I had not been. I have made several trips through Hancock County. It is a favorite of mine because of the scenery. The county is quite rural, nearly empty, as most of the already sparse population is concentrated in Sparta. Sparta is one of the places that will break your heart once you explore it. Most of its historic buildings are in a state of disrepair. The old depot is about to cave and the original Hancock Central – the largest school built with Minimum Foundation Program money – was completely abandoned 20 years ago. It is located in the middle of a residential section, but resembles a wasteland. My most extensive trip there was to try to find old schools in it, Washington County and a short swath of Baldwin County. In Hancock, I found L.S. Ingraham, Galilee and the rural Hickory Grove. Washington was a wash but as I headed to Milledgeville via the town of Oconee, I decided to make up for it. I was going to Deepstep.
Deepstep is located in western Washington, far from any state highways or points of interest. The only reason I wanted to see Deepstep was because I had never seen it. Who needs a reason for a town named Deepstep? The drive was a trip back through time. I found an old mill, apparently still working. There was an old church at the county line, Dixon Primitive Baptist, that really put the primitive in primitive. It was not in use. As for Deepstep, it has an intersection. That’s it. Nothing to see there, but it was now off my list. At the intersection, I headed north, through the backside of Hancock County. The county road went through Linton, another long-dead town. I had one more potential school site to find, which did not work out. Nearby, though, was Glen Mary Plantation. Quite the showplace in its day, it was now in disrepair, but still intimidating in its presence. Hancock has some treasures. I have seen good and bad school sites. Speight in Fort Gaines gave me the willies. Good Hope-Peters in southern Walton County doubled as a dump site. J.L. Williams in Commerce in eastern Jackson County became a favorite. J.L. Williams was built as a replacement of an old wooden school, Johntown, which was professed to be a high school, but even in the years after the 12th grade was added to Georgia schools, it only went to 11. It was operated by Commerce city,
Top to bottom: Commerce’s J.L. Williams Elementary was built on a hillside and offers a beautiful view into the town. Playground equipment likely dates from near the school’s opening in 1957 • The front entrance of Hancock Central has nearly disappeared under a canopy of overgrowth. The former school is in the middle of a residential section in Sparta • J.L. Williams Elementary was one of the state’s biggest wastes. Built in 1957, it was only in use as a school until 1968.
but an agreement was reached with Jackson County to send the high schoolers to Bryan in Jefferson and put up a new elementary school. Williams was quite short-lived. It opened in 1957. Commerce and Jackson were some of the first systems to totally integrate schools, which meant Williams was done for in 1967. It was never an active school again. Despite its non-importance, it was kept up. There is a narrow winding road to get to this little building and it has its pride. The playground equipment is vintage 1960s and the school was built on a hillside so there is quite the view of the neighborhoods of Commerce. It is for finds like this that I keep going. TS
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
23
Where to Spend the Night HISTORY
by BILL WELLS
ack in the 1940s families were traveling on US 41 through Tifton on their way to vacation in Florida. They needed a comfortable place and bed to spend the night. Ah, driving into to Tift County, they noticed signs that advertised several places for them to stay. Danny Ross Motor Court was located 3 miles north of Tifton on US 41. The court had 10 air-conditioned units and a restaurant, as well as tile baths, with tub and shower and circulating hot water. Sounds like an ideal place for the tired body. Further south on 41, located on West 12th Street, was a “home for tourist” owned by Joseph Kent. His ad read, “The red brick house. A home when away from home. Steam heat, running water, garage and meals served. No noise. If pleased tell others, if not tell us.” Kent later built Kent Tourist Home on North US 41. Further east on 12th Street stood Jenkins Motor Court which had 10 clean, comfortable, newly-furnished rooms with private baths. Across the street was Van Gundy’s Motor Court, it had a AAA listing, with a coffee shop and ceiling fans, radios, steam heat and carpeted floors. At the interesection of 12th Street and Love Avenue stood Titus Motor Court. It was recommended by Quality Courts and Duncan Hines. US 41 is now on Love Avenue going south. At the intersection with 4th Street stands the famous Lankford Manor. It was also recommended by Duncan Hines and AAA Motor Club. Mrs. Lankford turned the John Pope home into 20 bedrooms with baths and a restaurant which became famous for its fried chicken and Key Lime pie. It is now The Three Graces of the Lankford Manor. There were a number of hotels and rooms available downtown. The Wilton Hotel, the Myon Hotel, the Hotel Georgia had burned many years ago, the Byron Cafe and the Ponciana Cafe offered sleeping rooms upstairs and the Colonial Inn was available. Driving further down US 41 across from the airport was the Sky Line Restaurant and Motor Court. On the back the postcard was printed, “Clean, quiet and comfortable. All modern conveniences.” As a young boy, Roy Rankin told me that he and his parents and siblings ate there every Sunday at noon. Throughout the county on the main highways other than US 41, there were motor courts and cabins on US 82 and US 319 for the weary travelers. On the major highways throughout the county were camp grounds and cottages for a night of rest. Shown are Tifton Motor Court, Carson Motor Court, London’s Camp and Tour-O-Tel Cottages. Since I-75 was built we now have large accommodations such as the Hilton Garden Inn, Comfort Inn, Rodeway Inn, the newly-remodeled Hampton Inn and The Three Graces at the Lankford Manor to name a few. We are tired of looking and need some sleep.......we have found a wonderful place to lay our heads in Tifton,Ga..… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…….
B
24
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
FROM TOP: Jenkins Motor Court • Kent’s Red Brick House • Tifton Motor Court
HISTORY
Renaming a county by BILL WELLS
Bill Wells stands near the historic marker at the courthouse in Tifton.
It has taken eight years, or rather 108 years (1905-2013) to get our county named for its founder, Capt. Henry Harding Tift.
FROM TOP: Henry Harding Tift • Commissary built by H.H. Tift. H.H. Tift Saw Mill • Tift Willingham House
When the area, which later became Tift County, was formed from Berrien, Worth and Cook counties in 1905, it needed a name. Since Capt. Henry Harding Tift had founded Tifton, the citizens wanted to name the new county Tift, but because Capt. Tift was still alive and no counties could be named for a living person, the citizens chose his uncle’s last name, Nelson Tift, founder of Albany. Nelson had died in 1891. The new county was created from 90 square miles of Berrien County, 95 square miles of Irwin County, and 68 square miles of Worth County. The citizens of Ty Ty wanted to be part of Tift County, causing a jagged county line into Worth County. On Wednesday, August 16, 1905, at 5:20 p.m., Tift County was born. A tremendous crowd gathered in downtown Tifton for a celebration. There were speeches, barbecues and bonfires. In 2005, at the beginning of the centennial, I reminded myself that our county was still named for Uncle Nelson Tift, so I wrote letters to county officials and politicians, suggesting the name change from
Nelson Tift to Capt. Henry Harding Tift. henry died on February 4, 1922. He was taken by train to his beloved birth place, Mystic, Conn. for burial. On March 13, 2013, I received a call from Ben Roberts, WALB-TV, who informed me that the name change had just been voted on and approved, and that Dante, the station’s photographer, was on his way to Tifton for an interview. I had 15 minutes to get cleaned up and dressed, and I met Dante in front of the courthouse, where I was interviewed and photos/video were taken. I appeared on the 11 p.m. news that night. Thanks to all the members of Georgia’s Senate and House of Representatives, especially Sen. John D. Crosby, and Rep. Jay Roberts, and also Edd Dorminey, who was the driving force that finalized this accomplishment. For additional history about Tifton and Tift County, Miss Ida Belle Williams published The History of Tift County in 1948, Mrs. Sarah Cochran Atwater edited Tifton Centennial Commemorative Booklet in 1972, and I published Tifton, Georgia in Vintage Postcards in 2002 and Did You Know in 2005, and was on the staff of The Heritage of Tift County Georgia 1905-2003 Vol. 1.
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
25
DINING
Vidalia
Golden Onion chef competition
by CHRISTINE TIBBETS
S
www.TibbetsTravel.com
lip some spoons and forks in your pocket next April when you head to the Golden Onion professional cooking competition in Vidalia. You’ll want to taste. Twelve professional Georgia chefs prepare their most delectable concoctions with just-harvested sweet Vidalia onions, and they share the recipes! This is an all-afternoon event, up-close-and-personal with executive chefs talking about their recipes, their cooking tips and their favorite ingredients. Conversations are abundant before the cooking begins and throughout the action. There’s plenty of chef downtime for foodie talk with visitors since each one is allowed a strict 60 minutes only for cooking. While the competitors cook, the others chat. Can’t get that contact on television broadcast cuisine, can we? Golden Onion trophy winner Daniel Chance finds no need to source ingredients from Peru or California. “I get my foods fresh and in season,” Chance said before launching his first-place winner at the second annual competition— Scallop Stuffed Vidalia with Onion Puree.
26
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
“Support our Georgia farmers is my way; we have great produce in Georgia,” Chance said. His technique to prepare the Vidalia onion to hold a scallop? “Make a slice down one side to peel the layers to the size to match your scallop.” Chance is executive chef at Campagnolo in Atlanta, his childhood hometown. He’ll keep the Golden Onion trophy designed by artist Melissa Harris of Rome, Ga. for one year, passing it on to the 2014 winner. Have dinner closer to home with one of the dozen professional Vidalia onion cooking chefs – Keira Moritz is chef and owner of Steel Magnolias in Valdosta. “When you say Vidalia onion, people from all over the country and all walks of life know what it is, almost like a secret handshake,” she says. She renovated a historic building on North Patterson Street in Valdosta, opening Steel Magnolias in October, 2011 to return to her hometown after culinary school at Johnson & Wales in Charleston and restaurant management in Denver, Portland, Aspen, San Francisco and Atlanta.
“Enjoy live music on the roof on pleasant southern evening,” Moritz says, “and classic southern cuisine all the time. Our patrons? Young professional and up. “Ours is not a college crowd.” Pork belly glazed with Vidalia onion brown sugar served with local field salad and pecan thyme vinaigrette was her competition feature, with generous portions to share. Only the judges and lucky raffle ticket winners are served a plate by each chef.
Shown above is the Golden Onion trophy at Campagnolo restaurant on Piedmont Avenue in Atlanta where first place winner Daniel Chance is executive chef. Melissa Harris, an artist from Rome, Ga., is the designer. photo courtesy of Vidalia Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
The rest of us scramble for tidbits left in the cooking pans and for tastes from platters some chefs present with leftover ingredients. Not to worry. The front-yard vendor in the Vidalia Community Center where the event is held sells the finest fried onion rings ever tasted, with a secret dipping sauce. There are corn dogs too, but why not stick to the sweet onions at harvest time? Georgia’s Vidalia onions are world famous, with five million 40-pound boxes shipped up and down the east coast. I learned that fact from Bob Stafford, one of five competition judges. Find him in the interesting Vidalia Onion Museum where he protects the valued onion trademark. Only 13 counties and parts of several others are allowed by federal order to call their product a Vidalia onion with the trademark. Claim otherwise and the fine could be $10,000. Stafford’s serious. After more than three decades in agriculture, he understands the way these special onions grow in certain sandy soil. Soil in and near Vidalia only. Excited about good onion tastes in the future, Stafford’s animated when talking about the work in the fields and the science labs. “We work with real fine agronomists through the research center in Toombs County and the University of Georgia,” Stafford says. “Even though the Vidalia
onion is the best, with a superb texture, and ready to harvest in the spring at the best time of the year for people to use them, ongoing research will improve them even more.” Brunswick is headquarters for the Golden Onion second place winner Chef Brian Justice, chef and owner of Tasteful Temptations Cafe. Vidalia Onion Poppers are his creation: stuffed with wild Georgia shrimp and jalapeno peppers, surrounded with popper pastry, fried. On the side: tomato jam, chive oil, charred corn with corn foam as the final garnish. Works of art all afternoon, this winner, and each of the dozen presentations. I say go to the 2014 Golden Onion for the beauty and the aroma even if you don’t like to cook. Savannah is your destination for a pancetta-wrapped onion stuffed with Georgia peach risotto. Chef Roberto Leoci won third place for his pancetta recipe; he’s also the owner of Leoci’s Trattoria on Abercorn Street in Savannah. “We do all our own meats...salami, pancetta, everything,” he says. “And we believe in everything local and fresh. “Defeats the purpose of Italian food as I was raised and trained to understand it— the true basis of Italian food is local ingredients, no matter where you’re cooking.” His preparation table included peach buds waiting for slicing to use in the risotto. Lovely purple micro-greens are a Leoci favorite, too. To enjoy this lively event starting from the Tiftarea, a two-hour drive each way makes it a manageable Sunday afternoon. Overnight on either side of the 2014 Golden Onion and discover other treats too. The Edenfield House bed and breakfast is a new option in nearby Swainsboro – the official grand reopening happened April 20. Inkeeper Aaron Correll has been welcoming guests for several months to his 1895 twostory home. He’s brimming with enthusiasm and his inn offers expansive opportunities. There are nine rooms for starters, with an astonishing five on the ground floor. There are no stairs for those rooms and that’s unusual in historic homes. There’s up-to-date bathrooms for each
room too, another happy feature. Anticipate a four-poster king bed or two queens, historic style too. Exquisite linens on those beds and if you like, Aaron would no doubt give a sheet folding lesson. “I do the laundry,” he says, “to high standards. That includes washing every blanket, every pillow sham, above and beyond the sheets.” Chances are good his 33-year military career contributed to the standards he demands. You can get breakfast to order at Edenfield House. Most fine inns have French toast Tuesday or omelet Saturday but Correll and his two- daughter team ask your pleasure. Eggs any way, hash brown casserole, grits, breads, yogurt fruit parfait, spinach Vidalia onion quiche, caramelized onion apple tarts. Coffee, tea and juice were flowing early and traveling buddy GW Tibbetts and I had the option to select our breakfast time. “I am enjoying life through building connections with people, with this place and with the foods,” Correll says, always beaming. Guests are enjoying the under $100-anight rates too. Allow 30 minutes to drive to and from Edenfield House and the Golden Onion chef competition on pleasant, scenic back roads. First time I’d even been through Nunez!
Two distinctive restaurants allow evening dining Devote one evening to Elements Bistro & Grill in Lyons, next door to Vidalia, where executive chef Mark Lane prepares exquisite food in a stunning building. Who knew? Worth the drive. Elements is all brick and wood, with bold, colorful art and spacious windows. Descend a boardwalk to eat in the Vidalia Treehouse another night, where executive chef and general manager Wendell Thompson says, “I try to keep everything local.” His local stretches to the coast for Georgia wild shrimp for what he considers “the best fried shrimp ever.” Look for diced Vidalia onions inside the half-pound Tree Burger. This tree house is actually 14 feet above ground so the view is eye-to- eye treetops. Local people in the know park in the back lot, level with the entry. April 20 is your date for 2014 onion pleasures. www.VidaliaOnion.org www.VidaliaArea.com 912-538-8687 www.edenfieldhouse.com 855-553-0555 MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
27
One dozen Georgia chefs with Vidalia onion specialties: First place 2013 • Chef Daniel Chance, executive chef, Campagnolo in Atlanta “Scallop Stuffed Vidalia with Onion Purée.”
Second place 2013 • Chef Brian Justice, chef and owner of Tasteful Temptations Café, Brunswick ~ “Vidalia® Onion Poppers,” stuffed with wild Georgia shrimp, sautéed Vidalia® onions and jalapeñ̃o peppers, and Monterey jack cheese, served with Vidalia® onions and tomato jam, roasted corn and Vidalia corn foam and garnished with chive oil and charred corn.
Third place 2013 • Chef Roberto Leoci, chef and owner of Leoci’s Trattoria, Savannah ~ “Pancetta Wrapped Vidalia® Onion,” stuffed with Georgia peach risotto and finished with spiced candied pecans. Steel Magnolias in Valdosta is the place to discover cuisine by executive chef and owner Keira Moritz who glazed pork belly with Vidalia onion brown sugar to serve on local field greens at the Golden Onion competition.
28
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
• Chef Mimmo Alboumeh, owner and executive chef of ME Restaurant Group, which operates Red Pepper Taqueria, Coldbrews Sports Bar & Grill, and Cold-
brews Oyster Bar in Atlanta ~ “Chilean Seabass With Vidalia® Onion Champagne Cider” served with quinoa, roasted Vidalia® onions and goat cheese with a side of crispy Vidalia® onions. • Chef Linda Harrell, executive chef and partner of Cibo E Beve, Sandy Springs ~ “Smoky Vidalia® Onion, Fig & Goat Cheese Fried Pies.” • Chef Brian Jones, chef de cuisine for Atlanta Grill at The Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta ~ Salad “inspired by the landscape and unique products that exist in areas such as Vidalia, Thomasville and Lakeland: A Scene from South Georgia.” • Chef John Mark Lane, executive chef of Elements Bistro & Grill, Lyons ~ “Liver and Onions” featuring foie gras with sautéed Vidalia® onions, a spring onion pancake and caramelized onion orange marmalade. • Chef Keira Moritz, chef and owner of Steel Magnolias, Valdosta ~ “Vidalia® Onion Brown Sugar Glazed Pork Belly with Vidalia® Onion All Local Field Salad with Pecan Thyme Vinaigrette.”
• Chef Austin Rocconi, executive chef Le Vigne Restaurant at Montaluce, Dahlonega ~ “Local Pork Duo with Vidalia® Onion,” pan-roasted Mountain Valley Farms bonein pork chop, soy- and beer-braised Mountain Valley Farms pork belly, roasted baby Vidalia® onion bulb ragout, Vidalia® onion fluid gel and Vidalia® onion bubbles. • Chef Michael Shutters, executive chef and food service director at The Pilot House Grille Restaurant at George T. Bagby State Park and Lodge, Fort Gaines ~ “Sweet Onion, Apple & Goat Cheese Dessert Pop-Over” served with orange saboyon sauce. • Chef Dave Snyder, chef and owner of Halyards and Tramici, St. Simons Island ~ “Sautéed Trout over Caramelized Vidalia and Shrimp Cream with Arugula and Pecans.” • Chef Marc Taft, chef and owner of Chicken & The Egg, Marietta, and executive chef and general manager of the new The Mill Kitchen & Bar, Roswell ~ “Riverview Farms Pork Tenderloin Two Ways” with mustard greens, Vidalia buds, Vidalia “soubise,” Vidalia and green tomato agrodolce, Vidalia® onion jam, gourmet mushrooms, blistered tomatoes, young greens and aged balsamic.
Vidalia onions stuffed with scallops won first place for Chef Daniel Chance at Campagnolo in Atlanta. Searing in olive oil in the iron skillet a vital step.
Executive Chef Mark Lane prepared foie gras with sautéed Vidalia onions, caramelized onion orange marmalade and a spring onion pancake for the competition. Dine with him in Elements Bistro & Grill in Lyons.
Annie’s Place Gifts, Bridal & More
Unique gifts for life’s greatest moments.
Happy Mother’s Day! Congratulations to the Class of 2013! FREE Custom Gift Wrapping & Delivery 1019 Love Avenue • Tifton, GA • 229-238-2851 Hours: Monday - Saturday 10-6
804025
“We love Him because He first loved us.” I John 4:9-10 801705
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
29
EVENTS
Arts in Black Festival
photos by LATASHA EVERSON
The Tift County Sheriff’s Office Relay for Life team kindly helps customers at their booth.
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s Vessel of Praise group is shown singing on stage at the 2013 Arts In Black Festival at Fulwood Park. Sound tech for all performances on stage one, Syd Blackmarr Stage, was done by After Hours Production (Nick McClellan).
Children are shown enjoying the familiar Barrel Train Ride at the festival.
Dancers with Dancers’Pointe of Ashburn perform“Suits”on stage. Sound tech for all stage performances on stage two, rocket area, was done by G-Man (Lt. Garfield Rhaney).
Local resident Royce Cherry glances over the biographies of influential black leaders.
Many people came out to the 2013 Arts In Black Festival at Fulwood Park April 6.
A group of children curiously watch venquilitrist Cole Tucker, 11, of Hahira, who has won several contests for his unique talent.
Local resident Jessica Morrow purchases a fruity drink at one of the several vendors set up in Fulwood Park.
Tray Soney of Atlanta, left, is shown glancing over this year’s Arts In Black T-shirts. He also performed later on stage. Beverly Wesley, right, was helping to sell the shirts at the festival.
Several local nonprofit organizations participated in this year’s event, including United Way of South Central Georgia, Grace Recovery Home, Tifton Housing Authority (abstinence program), Behavioral Health Service of South Georgia, Amerigroup Real Solutions and others.
The Georgia Goddesses, the dance troop for the Tifton minor league football team, the Georgia Firebirds, are shown performing on stage.
People wait to get some of Joe’s Hot Fish from Atlanta.
30
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013
MAY•JUNE 2013 | TiftonScene
31
32
TiftonScene | MAY•JUNE 2013