TCB Fab. 14, 2019 — Meh.

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point February 14-20, 2019 triad-city-beat.com

MEH.

Dixie frats PAGE 10

PAGE 16 & 17

Triad Grammy heroes PAGE 6

FREE

Underground railroad PAGE14

February 14-20, 2019

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

Lesley and the name tag Lesley looked In that moment, a ballcapped micronice that day. manager had been instructing Lesley while She had on he monitored the slushy machines, and it a loose-fitting all clicked. black two piece This was the kind of job where Lesley — flared sleeves, could pick her own clothes, but the namwith white floral etag was policy. She must have forgotten embroidery at the hers. And because there was a manager

by Brian Clarey cuffs, and slacks in the store, Lesley was forced to improwith just enough stretch and hug to give vise. By all signs, it was not an entirely a suggestion of her curves as she moved acceptable solution, as far as her boss was behind the cluttered counter inside the concerned. But I sensed he enjoyed the gas station. punitive factor of humiliation, as so many But clearly something had happened ineffective managers do. between the time she had selected her All this registered in a few seconds, as I work outfit and this moment, about 9 waited to make my purchase and watched a.m., which is weekday Lesley avoid small talk crunch time at the gas and eye contact with station in my neighboreach customer before This was the kind of hood. Lesley looked me. job where Lesley could nice, but she was acting My request was sort of… prickly — her simple: a pack of smokes, pick her own clothes, shadowed eyelids cast with cash in hand; Lesley but the nametag was down, shoulders bound completed the order policy. in a clench, voice tight with the efficiency and and monotonal. demeanor of a vending Not that I expect a machine, leaving my balloon-drop or anychange on the counter. thing when I duck into “Thanks,” I said as I the gas station for smokes, but generally scooped it up, adding, “Lesley.” speaking, those at the front lines of comThat’s when she cracked a grin that merce give off some air of cordiality, even blossomed into a full-blown chuckle. She if it’s just a simple nod. looked up, let her head drop to the side.

No, something was off with Lesley.

“My twins got ahold of my other one,” And I’d have bet every doughnut in the she said, smiling now. “I can’t find it anycase that it had something to do with the where.” Then we all had a nice laugh. nametag.

Except for the micromanager, who It was right there on her chest: a strip seemed of the type to believe that having of white register ribbon Scotch-taped to fun at work is the same thing as stealing her blouse, her name, “Lesley,” applied in a from the company. hasty scrawl with blue ballpoint.

BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com allen@triad-city-beat.com

ART ART DIRECTOR Robert Paquette

EDITORIAL SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green

KEY ACCOUNTS Gayla Price

PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach

jordan@triad-city-beat.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sayaka Matsuoka sayaka@triad-city-beat.com

STAFF WRITER Lauren Barber lauren@triad-city-beat.com

2

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 Cover: Valentines Day — meh.

EDITORIAL INTERN Savi Ettinger Illustration by Robert Paquette. calendar@triad-city-beat.com

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SALES Johnathan Enoch

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CONTRIBUTORS

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TCB IN A FLASH @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1. ©2018 Beat Media Inc.

Yako THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER GI CH

SAUCE BOSS

LOVE LETTERS STARRING BARBARA EDEN & HAL LINDEN

GINA CHAVEZ

Show |7:30pm / Doors |6:30pm

OF SERENDIP

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RYTHM OF THE March 7, 2019 DANCE Two iconic TV personalities - Barbara Eden (I

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February 14-20, 2019

High Point Theatre Presents� a new exciting season!

Yako March 8, 2019

Show | 8pm / Doors | 7pm

Dream of Jeannie) and Hal Linden (Barney Miller) - present the late A.R. Gurney’s poetic, elegant, and profoundly touching story about the power of the written word. The star power and supreme acting of Barbara and Hal has been holding audiences spellbound throughout the U.S, in this spectacular live performance of Love Letters!

E

Gina Chavez invites audiences on a journey of discovery of her own Latin roots through a passionate collection of bilingual songs traversing cumbia, bossa nova, vintage pop, reggaeton and folk, combined with dynamic vocals and sharp social commentary. Backed by a talented four-piece band, this multi-ethnic pop songstress is a nine-time Austin Music Award winner.

THE QUEEN’S CARTOONISTS

RHYTHM OF THE DANCE

PASSPORT

Raleigh Ringers

To Entertainment

BRANFORD MARSALIS QUARTET 2018 & 2019

THE QUEEN’S CARTOONISTS March 10, 2019

DANCE On a mission of music preservation and music BALLET

Show |2pm / Doors |1pm

March 19, 2019

OF SERENDIP

A BARB HAL LIND

GINA CHAVEZ

BRANFORD MARSALIS THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER QUARTET THEHIGHPOINT RYTHM OF THE

THE QUEEN CARTO

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Reliving the epic journey of the Irish Celts education, the six cats of The Queen’s Cartoonists throughout history, Rhythm of the Dance is a two-hour dance and music extravaganza! A gifted offer a tour-de-force of the Swing Era’s zaniest young cast of performers, combining traditional and most creative music, some dating back to dance, music, vocals and costuming, while using the 1920s, and much of which was written for or adapted for classic cartoons. Whether you’re a fan the most up-to-date modern technologies, has of Looney Tunes,N Merry Melodies, The Simpsons, made this the premier performance in its field.

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RYTHM OF THE DANCE

3

February 14-20, 2019 Up Front

CITY LIFE Jan. 31 - Feb. 6, 2019

by Savi Ettinger

THURSDAY

Non-Erotic Reading @ Scuppernong Books (GSO), 7 p.m.

Scuppernong spices up Valentine’s Day with a selection of readings from the Bad Sex in Fiction Awards. Shannon Jones, Steve Mitchell and Deonna Kelli Sayed read passages aloud, and audience members can bring along their own favorite horrible scenes. Find the event on Facebook.

30th Annual Triad Home & Garden Show @ Winston-Salem Fairgrounds, 2 p.m.

This weekend-long emporium of interior design features works from more than 100 vendors. Professionals recommend products and offer classes, for anything from remodeling to decorating projects. Find the event on Facebook.

African American Heritage & Achievement @ Greensboro History Museum, 7 p.m.

News

Galentine’s Day @ Fiddlin’ Fish Brewing Company (W-S), 7 p.m.

FRIDAY

Culture

Opinion

The Greensboro History Museum hosts a discussion with Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman. Spearman, president of the NC NAACP, will explore the intersection of education with local civil rights movements.

Find the event on Facebook.

Head to a screening of Bridesmaids for a Valentine’s Day celebration with no date required. Black Mountain Chocolate serves up candy, cookies and other sweets, and teams up with Fiddlin’ Fish for a snack and brew deal. Learn more on Facebook.

Spartans Play Dead @ the Carolina Theatre (GSO), 8:30 p.m.

Puzzles

Shot in the Triad

Branford Marsalis Quartet @ High Point Theater, 7:30 p.m.

4

Acclaimed saxophonist Branford Marsalis leads a quartet concert, boasting jazz melodies. The set balances old traditions of the genre with energetic original compositions.

Find out more at highpointtheatre.com.

The Crown travels back to 1969 in this Grateful Dead tribute from this group of UNCG musicians. The Spartans play a free show in tribute to the Grateful Dead with hits from the band. Find the event on Facebook.

Battle of the Schools 2019 @ Winston-Salem State University, 5 p.m.

SUNDAY

Wayne Henderson & Presley Barker @ Muddy Creek Cafe & Music Hall (W-S), 2 p.m.

This array of roots acts features guitar maker and player Wayne Henderson, alongside Presley Barker, a young, award-winning bluegrass performer. Duo Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley join with a set of original country. Find the event on Facebook.

Up Front

Free Make & Take Day @ Reconsidered Goods (GSO), 10 a.m.

This free hands-on experience allows guests to build new creations out of donated items. Visitors can make recycled and reused art pieces from a hodgepodge of bottle caps, cardboard pieces and other scraps and tiny items. Find the event on Facebook.

Voices of Freedom Summer @ Greensboro Project Space, 6 p.m.

February 14-20, 2019

SATURDAY

Shroom Cube Workshop @ Colony Urban Farm Store (W-S), 3 p.m.

News

This theater piece follows African-American people in Mississippi trying to register to vote in 1964. A guitarist layers music over anecdotes, articles and interviews from summer of that year as performed by a small cast. Find the event on Facebook.

Ricky Skaggs @ RJ Reynolds Auditorium (W-S), 7:30 p.m.

CMA and Grammy-winning artist Ricky Skaggs plays alongside the Winston-Salem Symphony. Skaggs shares the Americana and bluegrass sound of his decades-long music career. Find the event on Facebook.

Observatory Open House @ Guilford College Cline Observatory (GSO), 7:30 p.m.

This open house of the Cline Observatory offers a tour through the facilities, and a full multimedia show. Come to learn about Mars or to catch a glimpse of the red planet through the observatory’s telescopes. Find the event on Facebook.

Culture

Biology professor Cathy Wheeler leads a do-it-yourself workshop on building a mushroom inoculation kit, or “shroom cube,” presented by Borrowed Land Farm and Colony Urban Farm Store. The focus of the course will be a hard-to-find treat: oyster mushrooms. Learn more on Facebook.

Opinion

This competition between colleges showcases African dance teams from all around the East Coast. More than seven teams perform their own routines of African dance, vying for First Place. Find the event on Facebook.

Orchestral Premieres and Reprises @ UNCSA (W-S), 7:30 p.m.

Crawford Hall on UNCSA’s campus becomes the setting for a premier of new musical works. Hear original pieces from student composers as played by the university’s Symphony Orchestra. Find the event on Facebook.

Shot in the Triad Puzzles

5

February 14-20, 2019 Opinion

News

Up Front

Between the Buried and Me at the Grammys

By Sayaka Matsuoka

Puzzles

Shot in the Triad

Culture

The band at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.

6

SUMERIAN RECORDS

On what many consider to be the biggest night in mucontinue to produce and create music that’s worthy of sic, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the performances and awards and recognition, whether they win the thing or not. the speeches and the get-ups. So you might have missed Since their inception almost 20 years ago, BTBAM the bit of Triad representation by metal band Between the has released nine albums and has carved out their own Buried and Me at the Grammys this year. space within the experimental music realm. In a January The band, which has been active since 2000, earned interview for the Grammys, co-founder and guitarist Paul its first Grammy nomination this Waggoner was quoted as saying, year in the Best Metal Per“We didn’t really need a Grammy formance category for “Connomination to validate what The band will be back in Windemned to the Gallows,” off their we’ve done. We’ve always had ston-Salem for their Automata latest album, Automata I & II. pretty reasonably good critical The band may have formed in acclaim, and it’s hard to have any II North American tour on March Raleigh, but several of its memkind of success being a band like 10 at the Ramkat. Find tickets bers have ties to the Triad. us. So the fact that we’ve had and more info at their website Dan Briggs, who plays bass some success has been validating and keyboards, lives in Greensenough, and the fact that we’re betweentheburiedandme.com. boro, while Dustie Waring, who still doing it.” plays rhythm and lead guitar, It’s this kind of thinking that went to West Forsyth High creates the best bands. The ones School and considers Winston-Salem his hometown. Blake that do it for the love of it, and not necessarily for the glitz Richardson, the band’s drummer, went to middle school and the glam. in Winston-Salem and is also an alum of Mt. Tabor High And while the band didn’t win the award, being recogSchool. He still lives in Winston-Salem. nized on a stage like the Grammys sheds light not just on On an evening of stars and big names, the band’s the band, but on our little corner of the world just for a bit. nomination reinforced the fact that the Triad has and will

February 14-20, 2019

4by Brian Lessons from St. Petersburg Clarey

Culture

4. The future The industry has been in flux for the past couple years. There have been some ownership changes through acquisitions and mergers; a few papers have gone under, some have ceased their print editions or gone to monthly models. But many are thriving, and for the first time in decades, new alts are springing up in under-served markets all over the country. It’s changed a lot from the days when all we sold was print ads and all our stories disappeared into the ether every week, but the mission is essentially the same as when I got my first clip published in an altweekly 25 years ago.

Opinion

3. The business Like all media, the altweekly business is changing. But the news is good for the industry overall as we figure out more ways to tell great stories, enliven the cultural and business climate and perhaps make a few bucks while doing so. A mature altweekly looks a little like a boutique ad agency that puts out a weekly newspaper and holds events. It may sound complicated, but it all works together.

News

2. The city St. Petersburg is rich in natural beauty, with clean beaches and water everywhere, as well as bold new architectural projects rising near the downtown waterfront and a tremendous push towards fine art manifesting in murals, public works and some stellar exhibits. We toured the Salvador Dali Museum, the largest collection of the surrealist’s work outside of Europe and saw the Chihuly glass exhibit in a downtown gallery.

On off hours, we wandered the downtown blocks and hung around the beachfront hotel, where we could watch the sun rise over the waters of Tampa Bay and set into the Gulf of Mexico.

Up Front

1. The comfort of fellowship I spent the weekend at the Association of Alternative Newsmedia in St. Petersburg, Fla. with a few dozen editors, publishers and sales folks from papers like ours across the country. I’ve been involved in the alternative press since 1994, and these events are a sort of homecoming for me and others still committed to the mission.

In between sessions on digital products, data, storytelling and events, we swapped success stories, failures and industry gossip on a little strip of beach between the bay and the gulf.

Shot in the Triad

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February 14-20, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

8

NEWS

Residents put Confederate monument on public safety agenda

by Jordan Green Scooters and bow hunting were on the agenda for the Public Safety Committee, but residents wanted to talk about the Confederate statue.

City officials announced immediate plans to remove the Confederate monument at the end of January, and yet it was still standing when members of Hate Out of Winston appeared before the Public Safety Committee of Winston-Salem City Council on Monday night.

“You have written us a check that we cannot cash,” Miranda Jones told members of the committee as 10 members of the group stood behind her. “We are here and plan to stay here.”

After the meeting, Assistant City Manager Damon Dequenne declined to comment on the status of the initiative, other than to confirm that the city was still trying to work out logistics and that removal of the statue could take place at any time within the next few weeks.

City Attorney Angela Carmon said a judge denied a request for a hearing in response to a second motion by the United Daughters of the Confederacy for a temporary restraining order.

During Jones’ comments, supporters repeated a chorus of, “Tear it down!”

While city officials are using public safety concerns as a legal justification for removing the statue, Jones argued, “The real public safety issue is a system of white supremacy that erected the statue.” She said white supremacy manifests itself today in investment on the west side of the city while unsafe school buildings remain on the east side, in underfunding of affordable housing and transit, and in a recent ICE raid at an apartment complex off Motor Road. She also alluded to a recent letter by the city attorney alleging that neo-Confederate activists brought guns to a rally attended by antiracists.

“You say this is a public safety issue when we have risked our very lives confronting a group that brought armed security to keep the statue up; we brought nothing but our voices,” Jones said. “Today, we bring nothing but our voices. But we’re not an echo; we’re a strong vibration. We ask: Can we cash the check?”

Three monument supporters, including Yadkin County resident Howard Snow of the neo-Confederate group Heirs to the Confederacy, also attended

the meeting, but left before Chairman James Taylor opened it up to public comment. *** Members of the Public Safety Committee also discussed proposed regulations for Bird scooters. The committee voted to temporarily ban Bird scooters in November until the city could develop workable regulations. Assistant City Manager Marilena Guthold said staff needs another month to work on the proposal, particularly to develop “a more robust provision regarding data breaches” so that users’ personal information is protected.

But it’s certain that the regulations will include time and age restrictions.

Council members expressed no disagreement when Guthold reported that staff was looking to set 16 as a minimum age, and that the draft proposal includes a measure to prohibit use between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The draft regulations also call for service providers “to maintain a 24-hour hotline and a local office open during business hours.”

The city of Greensboro has already implemented new rules for scooters.

Council members disagreed about what level of management should be expected of service providers.

“The idea that hours of operation, we’re asking for a storefront or a physical place and a person who is responsible for a program and licensing — I’m curious if the hours of operation do not correspond to the hours of operation for the rental of that equipment, and allowing them to start renting at 6 o’clock in the morning and run until 10 at night when most businesses run from 8 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon,” Councilman John Larson said. “And I have a problem with that because most of our problems are going to happen at 8 o’clock at night or 7 o’clock at night.”

In contrast, Councilman Jeff MacIntosh said he doesn’t see a need to have a person on location for every hour when the scooters are in service.

The current draft regulations give the service provider 72 hours to collect abandoned scooters. But Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke said the city should put them on a tighter leash, expressing concern that school children and other

Miranda Jones addresses the Public Safety Committee on the issue of the Confederate monument.

pedestrians will have to step over scooters on the sidewalks. *** Committee members also discussed a proposal to allow bow-hunting inside the city limits.

“We’ve had ample discussion of this in committee,” said Councilman James Taylor, who chairs the Public Safety Committee. “I think over all, there were members of the council and committee who spoke in favor of this ordinance because it creates jobs, maybe impacting processing the venison. And it provides a healthy source of food for children and families. And lastly, it could help feed the homeless and some of the residents in this city who may be living in poverty.”

Last month, Councilwoman DD Adams spoke enthusiastically about the proposal.

“I believe we can do something good here, provide protein for families that can’t afford to go get — whether it’s steak or Angus or whatever it is,” she said. “I also believe we can help feed the homeless in this way, to go give protein.

“I definitely plan to get me some bow lessons, because I’m going for it,” she added.

While Taylor and Adams highlighted the economic and food security benefits of hunting, Assistant City Manager Damon framed the purpose of the program in terms of wildlife management.

“The whole idea is to reduce nuisances,” he said. “Apparently, deer are a nuisance. They can get into your garden.

JORDAN GREEN

They can cause traffic accidents. And the intent is to reduce the urban deer population and prevent those things.”

Dequenne said 61 other North Carolina municipalities allow bow-hunting, including Kannapolis, Concord and Huntersville, but Winston-Salem would be the largest.

“When we spoke to the other cities that have this, it’s not as widely used as they thought it would be,” he said.

“They get a handful of hunters.”

Last month, Dequenne said, “Their experience is there’s been no citations for breaking the rules, no complaints about hunters. They were shocked at the limited number of hunters that were actually taking the opportunity.”

The ordinance would allow people to hunt with bows and arrows and crossbows during during the months of January and February.

The proposed ordinance would generally allow people to hunt on lots that are at least two acres, with the exception of historic districts. And hunting would be prohibited on, adjacent to or across from public property.

Larson said he would prefer that the minimum lot size be increased to three acres — a change that Taylor said he could support.

Taylor said the ordinance would only allow hunting from raised platforms so that the arrows are fired downward.

“Don’t anybody leave here morbidly afraid they’re going to be shooting arrows through your backyard,” Taylor said. “It’s not the case.”

February 14-20, 2019 Up Front

News

Opinion

Culture

Shot in the Triad

Puzzles

9

February 14-20, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

10

For decades, WFU frat hailed Confederacy in yearbook

By Eric Ginsburg As outrage continues to build about Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s recently surfaced racist yearbook photo, journalists are scrambling into the archives to see what other horrors are there, just waiting to be dug up. After the News & Observer’s Colin Campbell found an astounding image of frat brothers at UNC dressed as Klansmen stringing up someone in blackface, it seemed likely that Triad schools might have some skeletons in the closet, too.

It’s easy — yet time consuming — to flip through old state yearbooks using the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center’s free archive. But of the Triad’s colleges, one fraternity at Wake Forest University immediately stood out.

If you attended a college with a chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order — especially during the Reagan Era or Civil Rights Movement, it seems — the pages of the Howler yearbook at Wake Forest won’t surprise you. None of the images are as jarring as others being uncovered throughout the country (including one from the University of Richmond in 1980 similar to the simulated Klan hanging at UNC the year prior, but this time with an actual black student’s neck in the noose). Still, they serve as a testament to the culture of Wake Forest University’s oldest fraternity, a bastion of Southern white men all too eager to sign up for a Confederate-worshipping brotherhood.

Founded in 1865 — the year the Civil War ended — at what is now Washington & Lee University, the Kappa Alpha Order has always looked to Confederate General Robert E. Lee as its “spiritual founder.” Lee, then the president of the college, served as a symbol of the kind of man Kappa Alpha members aspired to be, citing his “religious convictions, exemplary ideals, values, strong leadership, courtesy, respect for others and gentlemanly conduct.” A few years later in 1881, students established the fraternity at what was then Wake Forest Institute.

Though early Wake Forest yearbooks remained relatively muted, it’s clear from the fraternity’s pages in the mid-20th Century that Kappa Alpha retained its deep obsession with Lee and the Confederacy. In 1956, the year the college relocated to Winston-Salem, they posed “proudly” with an antique portrait of Lee they’d just acquired. The likeness would go on to appear in the background of numerous yearbook photos in the future. Images on the frat’s pages in

1957 and 1959 show Confederate flags adorning walls, and a 1960 photo reveals a podium with the label: “Hotel Robert E. Lee.” That same year in neighboring Greensboro, gangs of white boys around the same age would rally to — and weaponize — the Confederate flag as they harassed sit-in demonstrators, as they did throughout the South that decade, holding up the flag as a symbol of segregation.

In 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Wake Forest, the KA brothers all had a picture of the Confederate general in their rooms, according to the yearbook.

Under a photo of a frat brother talking on a rotary phone, the NORTH CAROLINA DIGITAL The Kappa Alpha Order poses for its 1982 yearbook photo with a massive caption reads: “At the HERITAGE CENTER CREDIT secessionist flag instead of the usual fraternity banner.

KA House, Alexander It wasn’t just the Civil Rights Era Nationally, these KA parties were typiGraham Bell’s inventhat saw a blossoming of statements like cally held on plantations according to tion holds almost as prominent a place “Robert E. Lee would be proud of these one news report, and were inspired by as the portrait of Robert E. Lee.” worshippers of the past,” or “R.E. Lee the iconography of Gone With the Wind.

The 1969 yearbook also states that lives: in the KA House,” (both in 1968).

Frat brothers donned gray Confederate Lee’s portrait “hangs in every brother’s After a relatively quiet decade in the soldier uniforms, and women in hoop room,” underscoring the frat’s fixation. ’70s, Kappa Alpha came roaring back in skirts would come along for the white The language on the group’s page that the Reagan Era. supremacist make-believe. year speaks for itself, in many ways: The 1981 edition of the Howler In 1964, the Wake Forest KA chapter’s “The Kappa Alpha fraternity epitomizes introduces the frat in its opening to the drill team “won the top honors” at the what orientals mean when they talk “Greek” section thusly: “If the Confedball held in Asheville. In the yearbook about ancestor worship and reverence erate flags leave you confused, strains photo, they look more like a military for the past,” it begins. “General Robert of, ‘3, 2, 1, South should’ve won,’ tell reenactment regiment than the drunk E. Lee symbolizes all that is good in the you you’re passing the Order of Kappa hooligans of ’81. Yet just a little more long-lost tradition of Southern chivalry.”

Alpha.” than a year after the Greensboro MasBut it isn’t just that the KAs ascribed That year, like many others, yearbook sacre carried out by a Klan-Nazi alliance to a whitewashed mythology of the viewers can see the KAs participating in that also sported a Confederate flag, the South. As the same 1969 yearbook page their ritualistic game of dress-up as Confrat’s casual Confederacy isn’t exactly cryptically states: “In response to other federate soldiers. Though previous phocomforting. campus goings on this year, some of the tos showed fraternity brothers posturing By 1982, the Wake Forest Kappa brothers staged an anti-demonstration more seriously in Confederate costume, Alphas leaned hard into the Confederfor the preservation of the stars and by 1981 they appear to be drinking while ate schtick. In their group photo, they bars.” posing with a rabbit mask in front of the ditched the fraternity flag, replacing it “As the brothers initiated sixteen stars and bars. with a massive treasonous battle flag neophytes into their esoteric mysteries,” The so-called “fraternity of the that’s as wide as nine of them standing it continues, “it seems that the Lee cult, South” not only held an annual Robert abreast. It remains in the group photo strongly based in ancient tradition, was E. Lee Banquet, but also frequently for the next 3 years, disappearing in far from being stifled.” organized events in Lee’s honor and held 1986 before resurging in 1987.

On the same page, a Confederate flag an “Old South Ball,” part of a weeklong Some of the pages from those years hangs outside a window, and the caption celebration often held in nearby cities. offer additional insight. In 1983, with no reads: “KA: The stars and bars forever!”

News

The pages of the yearbook make them look more like an outlier than the norm, yet it’s clear that, to some extent, they influenced the culture of the school. Just look at the 1982 full-page spread, asking “Are You a Greek?” which includes a small Confederate flag taped to a frat bro’s chest and the caption: “1, 2, 3, Robert E. Lee...”

There is another local chapter of Kappa Alpha, this one at High Point University, but it didn’t form until 2014, according to the school’s website. A quick perusal of yearbooks from other Triad colleges paints a less inflammatory picture. Politics still found their way in, but in a different format. In the 1980 yearbook for Greensboro College, for example, there are photos of “a proAmerican rally” (presumably related to the Iran Hostage Crisis taking place that academic year) as well as shots of Julian Bond and Bobby Kennedy Jr. on campus. But explicit signs of the Confederacy and white nationalism are nowhere to be found, and they also aren’t as readily available on other campuses as Kappa Alpha made them at Wake.

Up Front Opinion

troversy. At Wake Forest, for example, dress as Southern belles,” which it says is the Kappa Alphas came under fire in “keeping with the Southern tradition.”

2014 for their racist annual “Rap Video The next year, the frat’s page still refers Party,” where white frat members and to Lee as its “spiritual founder,” but the guests allegedly aimed to “dress like a whole Confederate thing appears to have black person.” fallen out of style in the Clinton years, at The KAs aren’t the only Wake Forleast as far as the yearbook is concerned. est University frat to include racially As a national fraternity, Kappa Alpha incendiary material on their pages of has distanced itself from some of this the Howler —an image on the 1976 page overt past. In 2001, the group banned of Sigma Pi fraternity appears to show all visual displays of “the Confederate someone in costume as a Battle Flag,” including Klansman. On a page in from chapter buildings, Though early Wake Forest the 1968 yearbook, somemember clothing, and yearbooks remained one waves the stars and websites. Apparently in relatively muted, it’s clear bars in front of a massive 2010, they felt the need to from the fraternity’s pages crowd of white faces, clarify, explicitly barring in the mid-20th Century though the picture lacks a Confederate uniforms or that Kappa Alpha retained caption or any additional participation in a parade its deep obsession with context for who is doing where Confederate uniLee and the Confederacy. the waving, or why. forms are worn. In 2016, It’s possible that a the national organization closer review of the Howler blocked chapters from from the last 60 years would reveal adusing “Old South” terminology, as they ditional cringe-worthy and infuriating had for decades. The fraternity’s website content, but it’s clear that for decades — still explains its ties to Lee and calls him hell, more than a century — the Kappa their spiritual founder, but it explicitly Alpha Order wanted the mantle of the avoids any mention of his role in the “Old South” to rest on their shoulders.

Confederacy or Confederate Army, skipThe story isn’t unique to Wake Forest ping to after the Civil War. University, of course. Instead, the KAs But that whitewash job doesn’t mean are a microcosm of a much larger trend. the frat has been able to avoid con-

February 14-20, 2019

apparent sense of irony, they included a photo of a “FLESH-PILE!” of frat brothers sprawled on each other like middle-schoolers at a sleepover next to the sober text: “Kappa Alpha Order, comprising young men of noble birth destined for chivalry, is Southern in a significant sense wherein its essential teachings are for its members to cherish the ideal of character, and attributes of the true gentleman, of which Robert E. Lee was the near perfect expression.”

Below the “flesh pile” and descriptive text, there’s another photo of Confederate dress-up, something KA members around the country could still be found doing for their Old South week in the 21st Century.

In 1985, the frat’s page refers to the brothers as “those good ‘ole Southern boys,” and includes a photo of two members smiling behind beer taps, with a small portrait of Lee and an adjacent Confederate flag hung behind them.

The Wake Forest chapter of the frat kept up their charades after Reagan’s second term expired. Though Confederate flags dropped out of the yearbook at the tail end of the 1980s, the 1990 yearbook explains that at the Old South Ball every spring, “the brothers dress in Confederate uniforms while their dates

Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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February 14-20, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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CITIZEN GREEN

OPINION

Hands off our immigrant neighbors, ICE!

Last week, agents of Immigration Customs Enforcement swept through North Carolina, from Charlotte to Durham, Asheboro and Burlington to Raleigh, snatching up human beings.

Sean Gallagher, director of the ICE Atlanta Field Office, confirmed in a Feb. 8 press conference in Charlotte that over the previous “few days our officers conducted a large-scale enforcement operation resulting in approximately 200 arrests across the state of North Carolina.” As of Sunday evening, the immigrant advocacy

by Jordan Green group Siembra NC had tallied 38 detentions in the Triad, including nine each in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, along with others in Burlington, Asheboro and Randleman.

It is not hyperbole to say that ICE is terrorizing immigrant families across our state. “Terror” is the only word suitable to describe how a spouse, child or sibling is likely to feel about a family member’s sudden abduction, detention and removal to another country. This is a husband likely to be separated from their spouse for years, a father yanked away from a child at a critical stage of development, a breadwinner whose income is vital to holding together a household.

Law enforcement is supposed to protect communities but, as ICE functions, protection is an abstraction at best and a lie at worst. The far-right, tea-party/Trumpist mantra for years has justified indiscriminate immigration enforcement with the dictum that a nation COURTESY PHOTO Siembra NC members marched in HK on J 13 in Raleigh on Feb. 9. must uphold its laws, and that a nation without a functioning border eventually ceases to be a nation at all. Putting aside the fact that the number of irregular border crossings is at its lowest level in decades, the rule of law and the border as a national front-door are abstracgia plates and tinted windows. The man has a police vest and says he works for Homeland tions. Human beings who go to work, buy groceries and take their children to school are Security. So be careful. And let neighbors know, as well.” being harmed.

When the volunteer returns to the mailboxes, the ICE agent drives away.

Appealing to immigration authorities for mercy, waiting for Congress and President ICE officials like to emphasize criminal conduct by persons detained and deported, as Trump to broker a deal, or seeking intervention from a senator is an unaffordable luxury with a Honduran immigrant who was reportedly charged with possession of stolen firearms when families are at immediate risk. during a traffic stop in Winston-Salem last week. But during his Charlotte press conferWhen a crisis hits, neighbors protect each other. ence, Field Office Director Sean Gallagher acknowledged that 60 out of the 200 people And so, last week, dozens of volunteers fanned out across the Triad to confirm sightings arrested last week “were arrested after it was found out by our ICE officers during that tarof ICE, warning residents of danger and putting to rest unfounded rumors that only serve geted enforcement that they were illegally in the country.” In other words, they’d broken no to multiply intimidation. When law enforcement becomes predatory, people have a moral criminal laws. Another 50, he said, were “ICE fugitives,” which means they’d duty to protect each other. only broken immigration laws as “individuals ordered removed from the One video posted on Facebook by a volunteer in Burlington on Feb. States by an immigration judge” who “have failed to depart.” Of the When law enforce- United 6, which had been viewed 98,073 times as of Tuesday afternoon, showed 90 arrested with previous criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, an interaction with a federal agent sitting in a maroon SUV with tinted the stats don’t differentiate between crimes of survival, like driving to work ment becomes windows and bearing a Georgia plate outside a trailer park. The volunteer a license in a state that doesn’t accommodate undocumented drivpredatory, people without calmly walks up to the window and asks the driver: “Do you live here?” ers, or crimes of social harm, like domestic violence.

“No,” the agent says tentatively, as he rolls the window back up.

Gallagher called the 60 arrests of otherwise law-abiding undocumented have a moral duty “Gentleman with a police vest,” the volunteer reports. people “a small bump,” while also claiming that it was “really a product” of to protect each “What are you doing?” the agent asks. policy changes by new sheriffs in Wake, Durham and Mecklenburg counties “Oh, we got a report of some suspicious activity in the neighborhood,” who have announced they’ll no longer allow ICE to make arrests out of other. the volunteer says. “Part of a neighborhood watch. What agency are you their jails. But that’s ridiculous — 60 people who would otherwise have no with, sir?” interaction with the local criminal justice system wouldn’t be in a county jail The agent identifies himself as US Department of Homeland Security, and then shows anyway. his ID at the volunteer’s request.

In the next breath, Gallagher accused advocates and the press of falsely accusing ICE The agent attempts to gain the upper hand by asking why he shouldn’t be suspicious of agents of making indiscriminate arrests, citing a statistic that 91 percent of the arrests in the volunteer. the Carolinas and Georgia in fiscal year 2018 were people either criminally convicted or “Because I’m not sitting in a vehicle with tinted windows outside of someone’s home,” the charged with a crime. If that’s the case, then the 60 people arrested in North Carolina last volunteer responds. week solely for being “illegally in the country” is way out of proportion.

The volunteer walks the length of the lane. Spotting a resident, he says in the same calm When the state descends into barbarity, it’s the duty of people of good conscience to tell voice: “There’s a suspicious vehicle out by the mailboxes. It’s an unmarked SUV with GeorICE agents they’re not welcome here and that they can’t prey on our immigrant neighbors.

To donate to a fund to support immigrant families with legal fees, family expenses, lost income and other emergency needs, go to tiny.cc/TriadDonate

February 14-20, 2019

EDITORIAL

Looking backwards on education

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It cost Guilford County Schools $1 million to learn that issues and social trends from 20 years ago, when the it needs to spend $1.5 billion just to bring everything up northwest quadrant of the county experienced growth to speed. largely on the reputation of its schools. And it seems to The million-dollar consultant’s report showed serious ignore the coming wave of Millennial offspring, that gendeficiencies in 34 of 126 schools — 27 percent, threeeration which is much larger than its predecessor, GenX, quarters of which are in predominantly black and brown and is beginning to reproduce. neighborhoods — ranging from inadequate facilities and And it directs more resources to the northwest, “educational suitability” to building deficiencies. No big which has been booming precisely because of previous surprise there. investments in schools out there, than to They recommended Guilford County schools in less affluent neighborhoods Schools invest $1.5 billion in upgrades that are already so woefully behind.

It’s clear, though, and new construction, and “repurpose,” More than all of this though, is the naor close, 10 schools: Bessemer, Hampture of our school system itself, another that Guilford’s ton and Vandalia elementary schools; of last century’s institutions that is not Kiser and Welborn middle schools; faring so well in this one. We are applyschools are in a and SCALE School, Kearns Academy, ing the old solutions to new problems: state of atrophy.

Twilight High School and Old McIver a plurality of languages and cultures, School. legally mandated accomodations for This is not to say that the county will special needs students on both ends of follow these endorsements — though the bell curve, rising fuel prices, separate they did cost a million bucks, and there and unequal facilities, still. doesn’t seem to be any other plan in place.

We are looking at real estate and construction when we It’s clear, though, that Guilford’s schools are in a state should be looking at servers, laptops and free wifi. We’re of atrophy. Some of the buildings are truly ancient, many talking about classrooms when we should be talking of them surrounded by “temporary classroom” trailers, about software. And we’re short-selling those kids most at some of which have been in place since the 1980s. A few risk of dropping into the school-to-prison pipeline. are without nursing stations or handicapped bathroom Perhaps, instead of spending $1 million, the school access. board should have run “the future of education” through But the consultant’s report, which also advised a new Google. The answer has nothing to do with bricks and elementary school in the northwest — seems to address mortar.

Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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February 14-20, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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CULTURE Underground Railroad station emerges near Guilford College

by Lauren Barber

D

ee-ee-eep river, my home is over Jordan/ Dee-ee-eep river, Lord I’m going over into camp ground/ Oh, don’t you wanna go to that milkand-honey land where all God’s children are free? Dee-ee-eep river, my home is over Jordan.”

James Shields, director of community learning at Guildford College, sang this spiritual yards from a 350-year-old tulip poplar, a historical destination within the New Garden woods, which is listed on National Parks Service’s “Trail to Freedom” map.

“We know this tree was a witness to some of the things Levi [Coffin] talks about, and he talks about as a young boy going to these woods, taking his sack of corn under the pretext of feeding the hogs. He had bacon, sometimes clothing, but most importantly he had information and he had empathy. He would sit and he would listen to their stories, to the songs that they would sing. He would listen to just how hard and cruel slavery was to the point where it continued to encourage him to do his work.”

The North Carolina Fellowship of Friends and the North Carolina Friends Historical Society hosted a standingroom-only event on Feb. 9 at the New Garden Friends Meeting across from Guilford College’s campus. The occasion recognized the bicentennial year of the first known Underground Railroad activity in Guilford County: Levi’s father Vestal interceded on behalf of a free black man John Dimery, offering directions to a safe haven in Richmond, Indiana as the sons of Dimrey’s former owner attempted to re-enslave him.

Levi, born in the New Garden Quaker society in 1798, is himself a significant figure in the history of Guilford County’s role in the Underground Railroad, and his pursuits illustrate the unique role of children in the loose social networks that supported enslaved people’s journeys to freedom. According to research at Guilford College’s Hege Library, the Coffins helped more than 2,000 slaves escape to freedom.

“It’s said that the song ‘Deep River’ is about our Deep River and I would like to think that it is,” Shields said. “We talk about the ingenuity of the freedom seekers, we know the spirituals were critical, not just as a form of uplift but as code for instruction, to tell you where to go. And they’re an example of how

A historic marker signifying Guilford’s place in the Uniderground Railtroad..

my ancestors were able to take their oppressor’s religion and make it their own.”

The Quakers that came to the Deep River and New Garden areas in 1771 were fiercely abolitionist, but not homogenous and not without their own rules of engagement.

“Quakers had integrity, and part of having integrity was following the law — and remember: Slavery was the law in North Carolina,” he said. “So, the idea that you would go and take someone’s property, there was no integrity in that, but if someone came to you or if you saw that someone had been kidnapped, that’s a different matter.”

One of the primary routes went through Greensboro up to Fancy Gap in southwest Virginia and then into Kentucky and across Ohio River to freedom, though some escapees decided to stay in the mountains or venture further west. Shields and Guilford College history professor Adrienne Israel spoke of

NORTH CAROLINA OFFICE OF ARCHIVES & HISTORY

false-bottom wagons, and other tools “conductors” would use to usher people towards freedom in daylight, though most travel happened at night, to the slavecatchers’ disadvantage.

Both speakers stressed that the Underground Railroad was an interracial movement, though not without nuance.

“Whether the Quakers were there to help or not, there still would’ve been an Underground Railroad because the impetus for change has to come from the oppressed people themselves,” Israel said. “That partnership won’t work unless there is a sense of balance. Our understanding of this subject won’t work unless we acknowledge it wasn’t just a few individual free blacks but the free black communities as a whole supported these efforts. Even enslaved people who themselves did not try to run away were helping others.”

“A lot of times, we get caught up in the Quakers doing their work and as much as we appreciate it, African Americans

February 14-20, 2019 Up Front News

History professor Adrienne Israel’s research relies heavily on advertisements soliciting help recapturing runaway enslaved people.

COURTESY PHOTO

James Shields, director of the Bonner Center for Community Service and Learning.

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Opinion Culture

because of their inner sense of what was right, not because they were supported by played a major role in gaining their freedom as well,” Shields said, alluding to a pitfall their Meeting,” she said. of stripping agency from enslaved Africans in historical analysis.

They risked fines, jailing, loss of property and ostracization.

“They came here with skill,” he said. “When you think, for example, of the enslaved Yards from the great tulip poplar tree on Saturday afternoon, Africans of the sea islands of South Carolina, they were sent Shields questioned his listeners before concluding the hike with there because they knew how to grow rice; they knew how to “Deep River.” take a saltwater marsh and turn it into a freshwater marsh and Find the NC Friends Historical “The reality is we got a lot going on in our country right now… grow rice. That’s engineering.” and a lot of it is unnecessary,” Shields said. “This is why continuThough plantation culture thrived along the eastern coast, Society on Facebook. ing to tell this story is so important. We can come together, we some Quakers did own slaves and there was a time when the can do the right thing for people that are seeking refuge. We New Garden Meeting formally condemned the Underground have a lot of folks in our county as we speak who are fearful of Railroad. the knock on the door. What are we gonna do? What are you willing to risk? How far “Among these white allies, of course, were some of the Society of Friends,” Israel are you willing to go? Are you willing to go up against family and friends?” said. “But the truth be told, here in North Carolina there were many Friends who were slave owners and not like the Mendenhalls who were doing it to prepare them for freedom, but for the money. All of them who participated [in the Railroad] did so

Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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February 14-20, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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CULTURE Candy and flowers: The Valentine’s Day pipeline

by Sayaka Matsuoka

E

lise Pollard gingerly pulls the wax paper off the metal tray when eight perfectly sculpted peanut butter truffles fall to the floor.

“Oh no!” she exclaims.

Nearby, the general manager and head chocolatier at Black Mountain Chocolate, Tirra Cowan, says, “That’s part of this too; you never really know what’s going to happen.”

The weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day at Black Mountain Chocolate can hold chaos for Pollard and Cowan, the sole pastry chefs. On the Saturday before the big day, the two move swiftly around the kitchen, switching from decorating pastries and truffles to knocking chocolates out of molds.

“That’s hard,” Cowan says as she picks up the pieces off the kitchen floor.

“That’s $16 worth of chocolates. It happens.”

Cowan, who has worked at the Winston-Salem-based chocolate company for four years, says February is easily their busiest month. In any other month, she says they make about a thousand pounds of chocolate; in February, they make 2,500.

“We’re getting tired,” Cowan admits as she rolls a small baton-like bar over a plastic mold, repeatedly tapping it, just hard enough to knock out the honeycomb truffles.

“This is what Valentine’s Day sounds like,” she jokes. “That and intermittent crying.”

The company, which has been based in Winston-Salem since 2014, makes all kinds of chocolate goodies, from truffles to bars to pastries. This time of year, Cowan says assorted truffle boxes are the biggest sellers. Throughout the year, they make a dozen different flavors including salted caramel, peanut-butter fudge and the romantic chocolate strawberry.

A few feet away, Pollard decorates rows of Chad’s chai truffles. Using food-safe coloring and a thin brush, she paints perfectly shaped red hearts onto the surfaces of more than 100 truffles.

“It’s exciting,” Pollard says. “During slow times you don’t get to spend as much time in the kitchen. Even when it’s stressful, I’m satisfied.”

To keep up with the increased number of orders, Cowan says she easily works 12- and sometimes 16-hour days.

“I know I am not really gonna see much of my apartment for the next few

weeks,” Cowan says.

But for all of its stress and long hours, Cowan says she’s come to love the holiday though she doesn’t get to spend time with her loved ones because she’s working.

“It’s like the Oscars for us,” she says. “It’s the pinnacle of our craft. We wait all year long for this.” *** A few minutes down the road, vases of flowers ready to be placed in rooms often fill the sales office at Brookstown Inn during the month of February. “[The flowers] take up a lot of space,” says Rebecca Woodcock, the director of marketing at the historic inn.

“It kind of takes over.”

She and Allison Watts, director of sales, explain the bump in business the hotel gets during the weeks leading up to and after the most romantic holiday of the year.

“We’re almost sold out for the weekend,” says Watts, who has worked here for eight years.

The most popular options are the Romance and Cupid packages, which include either an assortment of flowers or a dozen long-stemmed roses, a bottle of champagne with two flutes, chocolate truffles from Black Mountain Chocolate and in-room breakfast with the latter option. The packages come with a late checkout.

“It’s all set up in the room so when they come in, there’s that nice wow factor and kind of starts the romance for them,” Woodcock says.

As the marketing point person, the responsibility of readying the rooms and making sure all of the couples have their perfect getaways, falls to Woodcock. Just this past week, she says she readied 20 package rooms for incoming guests.

“It’s exciting,” she says. “When people think of Brookstown, they think of romance.”

After years of working together on the holiday, both Woodcock and Watts say they’ve gotten the preparations down to a science. They have an online system that keeps track of their reservations and they put in orders for flowers and chocolates on a daily and weekly basis to keep up with demand. They order champagne monthly.

One year, Woodcock remembers running out of the bubbly and having to rush down the street to Washington Perk to buy bottles off the shelf.

Nicole Holland, the executive housekeeper at Brookstown, says that February is like any other month for her and her staff — for the most part.

“We don’t even notice when it’s been a romance package other than if they do the rose petals or something,” says Holland, who has worked at the inn for 17 years. “That tends to be messy because you can’t just go up and vacuum up rose petals.

They’re all over the floor and all over the bed.”

Despite not being a part of any of their packages, she says she’s had to clean up rose petals hundreds of times.

“I think it’s nice,” Holland says. “But it sucks to have to clean it up.” *** Ellen Francis — or “Mama Ellen,” as some call her — bought herself and her employees matching scarves to get them

Elise Pollard of Black Mountain Chocolate decorates truffles with painted hearts.

SAYAKA MATSUOKA

through the holiday. The owner of the 28-year-old flower shop A Daisy a Day calls them a good luck charm.

“I told them… they had to wear ’em,” Francis says. “That they were their magic scarves, and it was gonna help them get through Valentine’s.”

The light-filled store looks a bit like a jungle with dozens of buckets filled with carnations and chrysanthemums flanking the entrance, all the way to the counter. Baskets of leafy greens and vines of ivy fill out the space while pink and red stuffed bears and llamas carrying heart-shaped pillows that read “Be mine” sit on shelves along the wall. In a refrigerated side room, bunches of long-stem roses wait in buckets to be sold. They go for $80 per dozen and are the popular item for the holiday.

Behind the store, in a 40-foot climate-controlled trailer, sales associate Hannah Davis points to fold-out tables where flower arrangements that don’t fit in the store will be kept.

“They get it at the beginning of the month and keep it till Mother’s Day,” says Davis about the trailer. “We’ll start putting stuff in here maybe Tuesday.”

Back inside, Francis puts together an arrangement of red roses, carnations and white lilies.

She says on Valentine’s Day, they’ll deliver more than 200 orders to customers. They hire six extra delivery drivers just for the day to ensure everything goes out on time.

“I appreciate their help and how hard they work,” Francis says about her staff.

She brings them lunch around the holiday to keep them going.

“We don’t have time to go out and get anything to eat,” says Francis as she clips flowers. “I’ve got a roast started.”

At home, Francis also prepares little things like bows to go on flowers while she’s watching TV. Still, with the extra preparations, some days during the month, she says she doesn’t leave the shop until 10 or midnight.

“It’s can until can’t,” Francis says.

As for her favorite part of the holiday?

“I really like February the 15th,” she laughs.

February 14-20, 2019

CULTURE Peak weirdness at Valentine’s dinner service

by Savi Ettinger

T

Up Front News

Aaron Sheehan, manager at 1618 Seafood Grille, carrying orders out of the kitchen.

Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

Valentine’s Day each year brings a new addition to a line-up of awkward situations he’s experienced on the holiday.

One recent year, he found himself carrying a large heartshaped pizza adorned with pepperoni up to a door he assumed would reveal a couple having a night in. After knocking and waiting an unusually long time, the door finally opened.

“There’s this middle-aged man standing there in a banana hammock,” Alex says. “And nothing else.”

He laughs as he says it, but then mentions the 30-second long silence and awkward eye contact that followed.

“He slams the door, comes back in a robe and says, ‘I’m sorry, you are not my wife.’” Alex chuckles.

Another year on another front porch, Alex found himself with an unwelcome case of déjà vu, as a woman answered the door in a sheer negligee. “‘Oh, hi, I was not expecting you this quickly,’” he remembers her saying, as she scribbled a signature on the receipt and retreated back inside.

He mentions the multiple instances his deliveries inadvertently helped people learn their significant others were cheating, or otherwise lying. He describes the situation as something that happens year-round, but moreso on Valentine’s Day, when people order surprise meals for their partners.

Unfortunately, on some occasions the significant other wasn’t where they claimed to be. Alex would then call the contact number to see if they could get in touch with the recipient as he waited patiently with the pizza boxes.

“A few times I’ve gotten a call back like ‘Yeah, I’m sorry. Can you please sign the receipt, and throw it in the dumpster? I broke up with this asshole.’”

SAVI ETTINGER

Opinion

hey were dressed up with their tuxedos on, and everything,” Abbey Price said.

Price, one of the managers of the Oyster Bar at Libby Hill in Greensboro, remembers that detail vividly, though that Valentine’s Day shift was more than a decade ago. During the midst of one of the busiest restaurant nights of the year, a quartet of men strolled in, wearing black-tie-worthy matching tuxedos. As waitstaff with trays of crab legs and hushpuppies took detours around them, the group began to belt out love songs to random tables.

As Valentine’s Day arrives, all builds of Greensboro restaurants craft the picture-perfect night for lovebirds. But seasoned service-industry types know that it can be one of the craziest nights of the year. Aaron Sheehan, a now-manager at 1618 Seafood Grille, remembers one night in particular.

“It was my first year working in a restaurant,” Sheehan recounts.

He sets the scene: The week of Valentine’s Day, a server quit from the restaurant where he was a backwaiter.

Sheehan agreed to fill the role as a front waiter at the upscale spot in downtown Raleigh, one which required reservations. The holiday fell on Sheehan’s second day in the position.

“It was a Thursday night, and they put me in what they thought was going to be the overflow room,” he says. “So basically for any walk-ins or anything like that.”

Sheehan estimates he served around 70 guests that evening, more than double that of other servers. The shift earned Sheehan a permanent spot as a front waiter, but the six hours on his feet came with some hectic hurdles, including handling a public proposal.

He explains how the staff arranged the ring on a plate with an elegant dessert and brought it out while the man on the date popped the question.

“She said yes,” Sheehan added happily.

The mood quickly shifted to discomfort for Sheehan as the next couple seated at the same table left as two singles. By the time the check came, the pair had fought, both parties ended up crying, and the man remained alone at his seat.

“She walked out on him,” Sheehan says. “She was done.”

For Alex, a delivery driver who preferred to only give his first name,

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1 “Downton Abbey” countess 5 PokÈmon protagonist 8 Fix, as the end of a pool cue 13 Strong cards 14 “SmackDown!” org.

15 High grade 17 Johnny Carson’s predecessor 19 “Sorry Not Sorry” singer Demi 20 Magic, on a scoreboard 21 Like toast without butter 22 So far 23 “Weetzie Bat” author Francesca ___ Block 24 Get a sense of importance, say 26 Children’s author Blyton 28 E-mail address part 29 Ancient Roman road 30 Indian restaurant appetizer 33 Hospital count ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 36 Places with IVs 37 “The Battle With the Slum” author and social reformer 40 ___ A. Bank (menswear retailer) 43 “Don’t move!”

44 Super Bowl XLI halftime headliner 48 Actress Hathaway of “Ocean’s 8” 50 1010, in binary 52 Gloom and ___ 53 Figure out group emotions, maybe 58 Replacement 59 Wrigley Field judges 60 Boy band that sang “Girl on TV” 61 She, in Brazil 62 Surgeon for whom a mouthwash is named 63 Some purchases for vape pens 65 Prefix meaning “insect” Answers from last issue 66 Their capacity is measured in BTUs 67 Attila’s band 32 False front 68 “Quiz Show” figure Charles Van ___ 34 Slight decrease 69 1950s White House nickname 35 Knightly title 70 ___-bitty 38 Hall’s partner 39 PBS’s “Science Kid” Down 40 Rapper in the Fyre Festival documentaries 1 Persuades 41 With “of,” in total agreement 2 Instrument in a Legend of Zelda title 42 Shapes up quickly 3 Win back 45 Barely defeat 4 Inquire of 46 Was unable to 5 In the know 47 Diplomat’s building 6 Began to convince 49 Podcast staffer 7 She/___ pronouns 51 “I couldn’t find it” 8 Chief Wiggum’s kid 54 HBO series set in New Orleans 9 Melodramatize 55 “Great blue” marsh bird 10 Copenhagen’s ___ Gardens 56 Good for something 11 How short messages may be sent 57 Actress Gretchen of “Boardwalk Empire” 12 Bring off, slangily 63 “___ Ho” (“Slumdog Millionaire” song) 16 Seeders 64 ___ Beta Kappa 18 Adobe file format 22 Say out loud 25 Legislative persuader 27 Gp. that oversees the ATF 31 Airline based in Stockholm

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