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DEPARTMENTS 11 Simple Life
By Jim Dodson
14 Short Stories 15 Doodog By Nancy Oakley 16 Life’s Funny
By Maria Johnson
20 Omnivorous Reader
By Stephen E. Smith
23 Scuppernong Bookshelf 24 Home by Design
By Cynthia Adams
26 Spirits
By Tony Cross
28 The Sporting Life
By Tom Bryant
31 Birdwatch
By Susan Campbell
FEATURES 37 Buster Gets a Bath
Poetry by Ashley Memory
38 Rescue Me
A Loving tribute to the dogs that found us
48 The Pied Piper of Latham By Nancy Oakley How Jimmy Donaldson has endeared himself to his four-legged neighbors
52 Stay-At-Home Improvement By Maria Johnson Minus social dates, many folks updated their digs during COVID-19 closures
57 Almanac
By Ash Alder
33 Wandering Billy
By Billy Eye
78 GreenScene 80 O.Henry Ending
By Bill McConnell
Cover photograph and
photograph this page by
Bert VanderVeen
4 O.Henry
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O.Henry 5
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4 Mallard Street • $2,475,000 • Wrightsville Beach It’s all about the ocean . . . Ocean views abound from the chef’s kitchen featuring quartz counters with a huge center island, stainless Subzero, gas Wolf cooktop, Miele dishwasher plus Fisher-Paykel drawer dishwasher. Each bedroom features a large closet and en suite bath with the latest designer tile.
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2328 Ocean Point Drive • $3,395,000 • Landfall Exquisitely executed, this move-in ready Landfall residence will take your breath away from the moment you walk in the front door. Situated high on a bluff on the Intracoastal Waterway, enjoy overlooking this edge saltwater pool, travertine deck, heated spa and outdoor fireplace.
5232 Masonboro Harbour Drive • $1,799,000 • Masonboro Harbour You will have a hard time deciding whether to spend your day lounging around the pool and spa with an outdoor tiki bar and stone fireplace or out on the boat cruising over to Masonboro Island. This boater’s paradise can be found in the gated community of Masoonboro Harbour with a deepwater 32’ boat slip in a protected marina.
5320 Orton Point Road • $899,000 • Autumn Hall The address is Autumn Hall - Wilmington’s award winning community with multiple parks, trails, pool and clubhouse. This 4200 square foot residence boasts an open floor plan with 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths (including first floor master with his and her walk-in closets and a huge spa-like bath. Enjoy the wide rocking chair front porch and the hospitality of greeting neighbors as they stroll the tree lined sidewalks. The back porch overlooks a courtyard with an outdoor wood burning fireplace
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O.Henry 7
M A G A Z I N E
Volume 10, No. 7 “I have a fancy that every city has a voice.” 336.617.0090 1848 Banking Street, Greensboro, NC 27408 www.ohenrymag.com PUBLISHER
David Woronoff Jim Dodson, Editor jim@thepilot.com Andie Stuart Rose, Creative Director andie@thepilot.com Nancy Oakley, Senior Editor nancy@ohenrymag.com Lauren M. Coffey, Associate Art Director Alyssa Rocherolle, Graphic Designer CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Cynthia Adams, David Claude Bailey, Harry Blair, Maria Johnson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Mallory Cash, Lynn Donovan, Amy Freeman, Sam Froelich, John Gessner, Bert VanderVeen, Mark Wagoner CONTRIBUTORS
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MAY Lose Value
Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels Jr., Frank Daniels III, Lee Dirks, David Woronoff © Copyright 2020. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. O.Henry Magazine is published by The Pilot LLC
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Simple Life
The Garden of America It may not be Eden, but it comes mighty close if we tend it
By Jim Dodson
The last time I went to church was
back in middle March.
Seems like half a lifetime ago. On Sunday mornings these days — most days, actually — I’m out well before sunrise watering my gardens and watching birds. The garden has become my church, the place where I work up a holy sweat and find — no small feat in these days of safe distancing and social turmoil — deeper connection to a loving universe. The arching oaks of our urban forest rival any medieval cathedral, and the birdsong of dawn is finer than any chapel choir. It’s the one time of the day when I feel, with the faith of a mustard seed, to quote the mystic Dame Julian of Norwich, that all will be well. A rusted iron plaque that stood for decades in my late mom’s peony border reminded: The kiss of the sun for pardon The song of the birds for mirth, One is nearer God’s Heart in a garden Than anywhere else on Earth. This well-loved verse is from a poem by Dorothy Frances Gurney, daughter and wife of an Anglican priest who reportedly was inspired to jot this particular stanza in Lord Ronald Gower’s visitor’s book after spending time in his garden at Hammerfield Penshurst, England. The poem later appeared in an issue of Country Life Magazine in 1913, gaining Dorothy Gurney a slice of botanical immortality.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Though I descend from a line of rural Carolina farmers and preachers, it wasn’t until I began roaming Great Britain as a golf and outdoors editor for a leading travel magazine in the late 1980s that the verdure in my blood asserted itself and my own passion for landscape gardening took root and began to grow like a Gertrude Jekyll vine. In those days, it was my good fortune to write about classic golf courses and fly-fishing streams that happened to be near some of Britain’s greatest sporting estates and historic houses. One of the first I visited in West Sussex was Gravetye Manor, the former home of William Robinson, the revolutionary plantsman who, despite being Irish, has been called the “Father of the English Flower Garden.” Robinson’s pioneering ideas about creating natural landscapes with hardy native perennials, expressed in his famous book The Wild Garden, became the bible of English gardeners and led to a gardening style now admired and copied all over the world. I showed up there to stay one hot mid-summer afternoon when the 100 acres or so of woodlands and gardens were already past their peak. But like Dorothy Gurney, I was so taken with the sweeping natural landscape that I spent an entire day just walking the grounds looking at plants and chatting with the gardening staff. Among other things, I encountered my first Gertrude Jekyll vine, planted by Robinson’s protégé who went on to partner with Surrey architect Edwin Lutyens to create some of England’s most acclaimed private gardens. After this, every time I traveled to England, Scotland or Wales with golf clubs and fly rod in tow, I made time to seek out some of the most historic houses and private gardens in the Blessed Isles. During bluebell season, I wandered through the breathtaking New Forest National Park to Chewton Glen — where farm animals by law walk O.Henry 11
Simple Life
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free — and moseyed over to Kent to play a British Open course I’d always dreamed of playing. I also spent a blissful summer afternoon checking out the structural plantings of diplomat Harold Nicolson and the sumptuous gardens of his wife, author Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst, an ancient Anglo-Saxon word that means “clearing in the woods.” I spent a day with Shropshire rose guru David Austin, toured the amazing terraced gardens of Wales’ Powis Castle, checked out the stunning gardens of Stourhead, Hidcote and Kew — even eventually found my way to Hammerfield Penshurst where Madam Gurney was moved to poetry. There I was so impressed by the riotous blue-and-pink peony border — my late mother’s favorite garden flower — I vowed to someday make my own peony border. Back home in Maine, in the meantime, I cleared a 2-acre plot of land on top of our forested hill, rebuilt an ancient stone wall and began making my own mini-Robinsonian gardening sanctuary. My witty Scottish mother-in-law suggested I give my woodland retreat a proper British name, suggesting “Slightly Off in the Woods.” The name was apt. The garden became my passion. In 2004, I set off to spend a year exploring two dozen private and public gardens and arboretums all over Britain and eastern America, learning that gardeners are among the most generous and life-loving people of the Earth. Among other things, I went behind the scenes at the famous Philadelphia Flower Show and England’s venerable Chelsea Flower Show, got to pick the brains of America’s most acclaimed gardeners at places like Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Jefferson’s Monticello, Pennsylvania’s Chanticleer and Longwood Gardens, and finished the year by spending six weeks with plant guru Tony Avent and three fellow plant nerds in the wilds of South Africa hunting rare species of plants. During this time I even helped design my first golf course and shape its landscaping, at times wondering if I’d perhaps missed my calling, though what is a golf course but a great big parkland in the tradition of Capability Brown? One of the most surprising moments came when I called on John Bartram’s hisThe Art & Soul of Greensboro
Simple Life toric garden across the Schuylkill River from downtown Philly. I spent an enriching afternoon in the garden of America’s first botanist, learning that Thomas Jefferson frequently turned up in the garden during the long hot tumultuous summer he spent in Philadelphia composing the Declaration of Independence. According to Bartram garden lore, Jefferson jotted notes for his hymn of American democracy while reposing in the shade of a sprawling ginkgo tree on the grounds. The last time I checked, the ancient ginkgo was still standing. For the Founding Fathers, gardening, agriculture and botany were elemental passions of life. As Andrea Wulf writes in her wonderful and prodigiously researched best-seller Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature and the Shaping of the American Nation, a tour of English landscape gardens — like the extended one I took — helped restore Thomas Jefferson’s and John Adams’ faith in their fledgling nation during some of its darkest hours. Gardening also helped make James Madison America’s first true environmentalist. “The Founding Fathers’ passion for nature, plants, gardens and agriculture is deeply woven into the fabric of America,” she writes, “and aligned with their political thought, both reflecting and influencing it. In fact, I believe it’s impossible to understand the making of America without looking at the founding fathers as farmers and gardeners.” My book on America’s dirtiest passion, Beautiful Madness: One Man’s Journey Through Other People’s Gardens — was my most fun book to research and write. Since its publication in 2006, I’ve heard from gardeners all over the planet and have made plans for a follow-up book on the diverse gardening passions of America and the adventures of an early 20th-century plant hunter and Asian explorer named Ernest Henry “Chinese” Wilson, whose discovered lilies are probably growing in your garden today. As any devoted gardener knows, the beautiful thing about a garden is that it is forever changing and never completed. Revision and evolution go hand in hand with making a garden flourish and bloom. As another July dawns in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and sweeping protests in quest of long overdue social justice and an end to racism, it strikes me that American democracy is really no different from the botanical wonders of the world. A true gardener’s work is never complete, likewise for a true patriot of the diverse and ever-changing garden that is America. The garden must be tended regularly, weeded and watered, nurtured and fed, pruned and tended with a loving eye. The good news is, gardens are remarkably resilient. They can take a beating, endure violent storms and punishing drought, yet come back even stronger than ever as a new day dawns. As Jefferson, Adams and that Revolutionary bunch knew, the one thing a healthy garden or democracy can’t abide for long is neglect and indifference. And so, as mid-summer and our nation’s 244th birthday arrive, I plan to spend even more holy time in my garden — church until further notice — planning a new blue-and-pink peony border in memory of my late mama and thinking about what it means to be a good gardener and a true citizen of this ever-evolving garden we call America. OH Contact Editor Jim Dodson at jim@thepilot.com. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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O.Henry 13
Short Stories The Astrological Scuttlebutt for Ragged Claws
Dip a toe in the water, grab the Old Bay Seasoning and dance by the light of the silvery moon now that it’s Joo-ly and reign of the crab is in full swing. Those born under the sign of home and hearth exude Mama energy . . . and as we all know, if Mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy. (Think: Princess Diana.) Ruled by la Luna, shifting moods from laughter to tears and back again are part and parcel of Cancerians’ makeup, even more so thanks to Mercury retrograde and a series of recent eclipses. June 5’s whammy at the full moon in Sadge hit your sign in the sixth house of work and health; as July kicks off, you might be out of a job like so many in the age of ’rona, or trying to reschedule doctor visits. But the seesaw tipped in your favor on June 21 at the solar eclipse in your very own sign, sending good vibes to help you grab the brass ring. Maybe a new dream job is on the horizon? This month you’ll have to work hard to make it happen, but not before some 4th of July fireworks from yet another eclipse in your opposite sign, Capricorn, which presides over career and public prestige. Additionally all partnerships — bedroom and boardroom — are emphasized. Maybe you’ll say “Buh-bye” to a toxic vampire or dare to pair with someone new. You’ll be glad you did, Little Crab, especially when Venus sashays into your sign next month . . . about the time summer goes from steamy to sizzlin’.
Once Upon a Time
If we’ve learned anything from this era of isolation, it’s the human imagination not merely thrives but soars. Case in point: the Children’s Summer Reading Program at High Point Library. No, groups of kiddoes can’t gather, but they can still learn about cooking, gardening, origami, and creepy crawly things, perform concerts — all virtually — and of course, read. They can register in the library’s parking lot (901 North Main Street), where a mobile will be ready to hand out reading logs and prizes. Those who reach their reading goals will be eligible for a drawing on August 3 for top prizes of two bikes and a laptop. For more info, call (336) 883-3668 or highpointnc.gov.
14 O.Henry
Barre None
Should you stay or should you go? Well, if you want to learn some dance steps, you can have it either way: By learning them virtually, and presuming the planets align, in a real, live, bricks-and-mortar dance studio! (After months of virtual reality, we don’t blame you for asking, “Whazzat?”) Greensboro Ballet is, for the time being, offering dance camps for little ones in ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, as well as hourly adult classes online and — fingers crossed — in its studio (200 North Davie Street). Hard to gauge at press time, but call the ballet company at (336) 333-7480 or go to greensboroballet.org for more information and registration.
Wedge Issue
Before the world was stricken with corona craziness, American artisanal cheese was having a moment. Consider: Last October, Oregon’s Rogue Creamery was named champion of the World Cheese Awards in Bergamo, Italy, for its blue cheese made with cow’s milk — one of 3,000-some entries from 42 countries. But the age of lockdowns and shuttered restaurants has been tough on artisanal cheesemakers. We’re fortunate enough here in the Triad that Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, Piedmont Triad Farmers Market and Salem Cobblestone Market satisfy our cravings for Goat Lady Dairy chèvres and hard cheeses from Germanton’s Buffalo Creek Farm and Creamery, among vendors. Please, be a gouda citizen and continue to patronize them — but what about small cheesemaking outfits farther afield? Answer: Victory Cheese! Yes, just as average folks are reviving victory gardens, a grassroots group of fromage-friendly enthusiasts is selling Victory Cheese Boxes. Most of the cheeses come from farms in California, Colorado, Illinois and the Northeast, but hey! What better way to see the USA than in a . . . chèvre-let? Make it a feta-ccompli by ordering a box at victorycheese.com.
***Given the unusual circumstances currently facing all events and their organizations, anyone planning to attend any program, gathering or competition should check in advance to make certain it will happen as scheduled.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Forever Yours, Faithfully
For ancient Mesoamericans, dogs are essential to the final journey
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART
Ogi Sez
Finally, there may be a glimmer of light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. So here’s hoping that July marks the beginning of the beginning. This month we may actually be able to experience live music in front of a live audience. Barring a spike in new cases, let’s hope July is the month they — and we — get the go-ahead. Hold your breath and bring your mask. We had an initial burst of jubilation when the news hit that Music for a Sunday Evening in the Park (MUSEP) would indeed return for its 41st season — virtually. Kay and Adriel will open for the Philharmonia of Greensboro on July 19, and Sweet Dreams will open for the Knights of Soul on July 26. Both concerts will be streamed on facebook.com/ CreativeGreensboro. The actual lawn-chairin-the-open-air shows will kick off August 2 at Gateway gardens with West End Mambo and SunQueen Kelcey & the Soular Flares. More on the MUSEP series next month. Further cause for optimism: Grove Winery in Gibsonville is scheduling shows (Bruce Piephoff September 6, for one), and I suspect others will follow suit. Another venue that took the plunge is Bistro 150 in Oak Ridge. My gut tells me that restaurants and bars that feature open-air and/ or patio stages, such as the Village Tavern and Summerfield Farms, as well as the big one, White Oak Amphitheatre, are chomping at the bit. And so are we. Piedmont Blues Preservation Society folded its annual multi-act show in May into the N.C. Folk Fest September 11–13. If the huge, wildly successful festival goes off as planned, that will be the signal that the Zombie Apocalypse is nearing its end. In the meantime, let’s all heed Jackson Browne’s sage advice to “let the music keep our spirits high,” whether live, recorded or virtual. Ogi Overman The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Doodog
S
hort and stout, with a perky upturned tail and baring his teeth, not so much to threaten as to smile, this animated fella stands in contrast to his life’s purpose as guide dog for the dead. Meet Dog Effigy or Xoloitzcuintli (pronounced showlow-eats-queen-tlee), a ceramic figure commonly found in burial sites in the northern Mexican state of Colima — or in this case, in the collections of Raleigh’s North Carolina Museum of Art. Featured in the Museum’s “NCMA at Home” initiative launched during the pandemic, the effigy, which dates somewhere between 200 B.C. and 300 A.D., is a feather in the museum’s cap, according to Ángel González López, GlaxoSmithKline Curatorial Research fellow. “It allows a unique experience to share how indigenous communities in Peru, Mexico or Guatemala believe in the beauty of life,” he says in a video presentation on the museum’s page. Colima dogs, he adds, were viewed not only as “guardians in life, but [also] guides in the afterlife.” López goes on to point out the prevalence of dogs in texts recorded during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire and the importance of dogs — and treating dogs well — in Mexican culture today. “Because if not,” he cautions, “They’re not gonna help you cross the river!” The clay effigies were typically of the Mexican hairless dog, a breed that nearly became extinct, as it was considered unattractive to European settlers. Thanks to the efforts of 20th-century artists and Mexican folklorists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, it survives. In other examples of effigies besides NCMA’s, the canine figures are usually painted red and depicted eating corn, roughhousing, sleeping or playing musical instruments. “They’re fantastic pieces of art,” López observes, “because they have personality.” Just don’t ask them to roll over and play dead. OH — Nancy Oakley For more information and other dog-related activities, please visit https://ncartmuseum.org/calendar/series_parent/ncma_from_home O.Henry 15
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Life's Funny
Set In Stone
Finding solace in the rocky lessons of nature
By Maria Johnson
He stopped suddenly
on the trail ahead of me.
His eye had snagged something on the forest floor. “We’d have something to work with here,” he said, nodding toward some mossy rubble. “I see some with good flat sides.” He stepped through a blanket of dry leaves and stooped to dust off a level stone. This would be the foundation of his cairn, a dry stack of rock. It didn’t take long for him to find a second stone, an orb the size of a jack-o-lantern, with an L-shaped niche chipped out. He set the stone gently over one edge of the table rock. It nested snuggly, one hip flaring to the side. “It’s nice if you can find a little bit of a cantilever,” he said. Jim Overbey has been stacking rocks for a long time. He messed with them in the creek that ran through his childhood home, the Rolling Roads neighborhood of south Greensboro. After graduating from Ben L. Smith High School — “I’m a Ben L. man,” he says proudly — he packed off to N.C. State, where he became a student of horticulture, a grower of gardens, a man of plants and earth and, underneath it all, rock. Sometimes, on pretty weekday afternoons, he and his college buddies would drive to Moore’s Wall at Hanging Rock State Park, or to Stone Mountain, to wedge their hands into crevices and pull themselves up rock faces that, in some places, leaned backward, beyond vertical. When the rains came, they scaled down off the big rocks and chilled under the overhangs, where they noodled with smaller rocks. They stacked stones for fun and for competition — who could make the coolest, tallest, most precariously balanced tower? — but they never lingered for long because, sooner or later, the rain would wash out the day’s plans, or the sun would pop out, or set, and the Spider-Men would motor back to school, never expecting to see their loose stacks again. Someone or something would knock them down, of course. But that didn’t stop Jim and his friends from building them during college, and in Jim’s case, for years to come. Whenever he walked the woods, he stacked.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
“It’s a form of meditation for him,” says his wife, Mary. “He’s an artist.” His dusty hands reach back in time. For as long as modern human’s have trod the earth — 300,000 years, give or take a few thousand — we have stacked rock, sometimes crudely, sometimes artfully, often to show the way to a spring, a trail, a property boundary or sacred site. Stonehenge. The faces of Easter Island. The pebbles left on Jewish graves by those who remember. All stones, all signs. In the last few years, I’ve spotted cairns in the middle of rivers — showing the races most hospitable to kayakers — and on steep glacial mountainsides — indicating the next best step in a field of fractured flagstones. Though some parks and sanctuaries frown on cairns— and label as vandalism the moving of any natural features — rocky towers have always come as a relief to me, a sign that someone has gone before me, found the way through and cared enough to inspire others. That’s why I smiled the first time I saw one of Jim Overbey’s cairns. I was walking with a friend deep in the forest. We looked down the fern-studded slope and saw something next to a creek. An animal? A small person? Close inspection revealed the stone-cold truth: a cairn. We delighted at the sculptural beauty of the stack, which was about 4-feet high. Farther down the trail we saw other rocky arrangements, some of which seemed to defy gravity. They marked not a trail, but a feeling: a reverence for the balance of nature. Later, I discovered that Jim had built most of the cairns, and I learned just how much he leans on the wisdom of the woods. In 2015, his son Tucker, a lover of nature, a graduate of Ragsdale High School and then a 20-year-old student at Appalachian State University, died of a heroin overdose. To honor his memory, Tucker’s family and friends created A Poet’s Walk, a trail within the Knight Brown Nature Preserve just outside Stokesdale, near Belews Creek Lake. On the trail, Jim Overbey again expressed himself in stone, building steps through a dry creek and leading up to a handsome varnished wooden bench. His employer, A&A Plants in Browns Summit, where he’s the landscape designer, donated some large stones as way-finders. One of them, at the trailhead, bears a dedication composed by Tucker’s mom, Mary. She ends with a quote from the poet William O.Henry 17
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Wordsworth: “Come forth into the light of things. Let nature be your teacher.” Recently, I asked Jim to share the lessons inherent in stacking rocks. First, he said, pick a spot that offers plenty of rocks to work with. Then stay put. Use what’s around you. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Either the rocks will “bite” or they won’t. Spin them around, try different angles. If they don’t jibe, move on and try a different combination. You’ll feel it in your hands when the fit is right. Whether your stack is shaped like a column, a pyramid or a weathered bolt of lighting, balance is a must. Quickly, quietly, Jim picked up five nearby stones — each weighing 20 to 30 pounds — and stacked them, on edges, in ways that seemed improbable. They appeared to float, as if suspended on a vertical string. I started a stack. It was OK. I topped it with a mosaic of hickory nut shells: lipstick on a rock pig. Then Jim held up a prize: a curved stone that reminded me of a half-eaten slice of watermelon. He offered it to me. But how could I incorporate it? Take off the top two rocks, he said. I did and started playing with the watermelon rock. This way? Nope. That way? Nope. Try standing it on the back of the curve, Jim suggested. The stones bit. I stepped back, laughing in amazement. “Even if I wanted to move this, I don’t think it would work anywhere else,” I said. Jim agreed. Every stack and every rock within it, made of particles laid down ages ago, fused and cleaved and chipped by forces much greater than us, is unique to its own time and place — ephemeral, beautiful, and profoundly irreplaceable. The only option is to enjoy it while it lasts. “It has to stay here,” Jim said. “It’s yours, but it’s not yours.” OH Maria Johnson is a contributing editor of O.Henry. She can be reached at ohenrymaria@gmail.com
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O.Henry 19
The Omnivorous Reader
Going Viral Shedding light on dark days
By Stephen E. Smith
In the mid-’90s, Richard Preston’s
nonfiction The Hot Zone was a bestseller. Based on a 1989 outbreak of an Ebola-like strain of virus in Reston, Virginia, the horrors depicted in Preston’s book kept this reviewer awake at night. Even though the sickness was confined to monkeys imported for research purposes, it took an Army medical team clad in spacesuits to exterminate the infected primates.
With ample time to contemplate the predicament in which we now find ourselves, I did what reviewers do: I read, albeit belatedly, other books about pandemics. I downloaded Catharine Arnold’s Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts from the Greatest Medical Holocaust in Modern History, Sara Shah’s Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond, Alfred Crosby’s America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, and David Quammen’s Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic (there are umpteen other equally enlightening volumes I haven’t had time to pursue), and I discovered in each book a blueprint for the COVID-19 pandemic — disturbingly precise roadmaps for events over which we might have managed a modicum of control on a worldwide, national and personal level had we taken to heart what history and science has to teach us. If you’re interested in understanding the COVID-19 pandemic, Quammen’s 2016 Spillover is by far the most informative — and the scariest — study. He focuses on zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, AIDS, rabies, influenza and West Nile, infections that sicken animals and jump to humans. COVID-19, although not identified when Spillover was written, is a zoonotic that has escalated into a pandemic via human-to-human transmission, and Quammen makes it possible for the layman to comprehend the viral dynamic at work. He explains in straightforward terms how global travel and exploding world populations make it possible for a virus such as COVID-19 to spread rapidly. We tend to view the spread of such a virus as an independent misfor-
20 O.Henry
tune that happened to us (how else would a nonscientist see it?), but “That’s a passive, almost stoical way of viewing them,” he writes. “It’s also the wrong way,” making us susceptible to anecdotal testimony and false cures that might be harmful. Quammen says that emerging diseases are the result of two forms of crisis on the planet — ecological and medical. “Human-caused ecological pressures and disruption are bringing animal pathogens ever more into contact with human populations, while human technology and behavior are spreading pathogens ever more widely,” Quammen writes. Logging, road building, slash-and-burn agriculture, the consumption of wild animals, mineral extraction, urban settlement, chemical pollution, nutrient runoff into oceans — most of what we call “civilizing” incursions upon the natural world — destroy the ecosystem. This destruction releases viruses, bacteria, fungi, protists and other parasites embedded in natural relationships that limit their geographical range. “When the trees fall and the native animals are slaughtered, the native germs fly like dust from a demolished warehouse.” In 2012 Quammen asked this straightforward question, “Will the Next Big One be caused by a virus? Will the Next Big One come out of the rain forest or a market in China? Will the Next Big One kill 30 or 40 million people?” If we can’t predict the next pandemic, says Quammen, we can remain vigilant, we can monitor worldwide transmission, and take precautions. Argue as we may about how and why we got here, the fact remains we find ourselves in a frightening moment whose ramifications must be faced head on. Spillover allows the reader to do just that. As thorough and graphic as the above-mentioned volumes are, they don’t truly immerse the reader in the personal misery visited upon the Spanish flu generation or on those of us suffering the most extreme ravages of COVID-19. But there are books of fiction — doses of focused reality — that do just that, books I’d read 50 years ago. The first is Katherine Anne Porter’s 1939 Pale Horse, Pale Rider, a collection of three “short novels.” Told in the third person, the title story lulls the reader into the complacency of daily life — until the influenza sweeps up and almost kills the youthful protagonist. Porter’s description is worth reading in full, but here’s a sample: The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Reader “Pain returned, a terrible compelling pain running through her veins like heavy fire, the stench of corruption filled her nostrils, the sweetish sickening smell of rotting flesh and pus; she opened her eyes and saw pale light through a coarse white cloth over her face, knew that the smell of death was in her own body, and struggled to lift her hand.” Porter suffered bouts of influenza at least three times in her life, so she writes from an acuity borne of experience, and she’s careful to impress upon the reader that we are all cursed with the conviction that nothing terrible can happen to us . . . until it happens. If Porter captures the suffering endured by a victim of the pandemic, North Carolina’s Thomas Wolfe wrenches the reader’s soul when conveying the agony of watching a loved one die from the Spanish flu in Look Homeward, Angel. With Wolfe, the reader is always in danger of being consumed by his excessive wordiness, but it’s that verbosity that’s effective in conveying a terrible reality. Again, the writer’s words are worth reading in full, but here’s an excerpt: “The rattling in the wasted body, which seemed for hours to have given over to death all of life that is worth saving, had now ceased. The body appeared to grow rigid before them. . . But suddenly, marvelously, as if his resurrection and rebirth had come upon him, Ben drew upon the air in a long and powerful respiration; his gray eyes opened. . . casting the fierce sword of his glance with utter and final comprehension upon the room haunted with its gray pageantry of cheap loves and dull consciences and on all those uncertain mummers of waste and confusion fading now from the bright window of his eyes, he passed instantly, scornfully and unafraid, as he had lived, into the shades of death.” Books about death and disease don’t make for cheerful reading, but understanding the pandemic is better than succumbing to its ravages or losing a loved one to COVID-19. Wear a mask, wash your hands, social distance — and read wisely. OH Stephen E. Smith is a retired professor and the author of seven books of poetry and prose. He’s the recipient of the Poetry Northwest Young Poet’s Prize, the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Prize for poetry and four North Carolina Press Awards. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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O.Henry 21
Join Pilot Publisher David Woronoff for
JOHN GRISHAM
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Tickets available on TicketMeSandhills.com John Grisham is the author of thirty novels including The Firm, A Time to Kill and The Pelican Brief. He has written one work of nonfiction, a collection of stories, and six novels for young readers.
AN EXCLUSIVE AFTERNOON WITH JOHN GRISHAM
Monday, July 13 at 2pm • $200 Purchase one login to the exclusive online event with John Grisham moderated by David Woronoff. You will have the opportunity to speak to John and ask him a question and receive an autographed copy of Camino Winds shipped directly to your door. Split it with your friends or invite your book club, this is a gathering that will be something to remember.
AN AFTERNOON WITH JOHN GRISHAM
Wednesday, July 15 at 2pm • $5 David Woronoff is the President and Publisher of The Pilot, a North Carolina media company that includes the magazines Business North Carolina, PineStraw, O.Henry, SouthPark, Seasons and The Pilot newspaper as well as various other publications. The company also includes The Country Bookshop and First Flight Digital.
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Join John Grisham and David Woronoff as they chat about writing, publishing, life and possibly their mutual love for baseball. Your ticket cost is applicable to a copy of Camino Winds or any book from The Country Bookshop.
CAMINO WINDS Bruce Cable’s Bay Books is going about business as usual when Hurricane Leo veers from its predicted course and heads straight for the island. Bruce decides to stay and ride out the storm and the hurricane is devastating. One of the apparent victims is Nelson Kerr, a friend of Bruce’s and an author of thrillers. The nature of Nelson’s injuries suggests that the storm wasn’t the cause of his death but the local police are overwhelmed from the storm and Bruce begins to wonder if the shady characters in Nelson’s novels might be more real than fictional.
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Scuppernong Bookshelf
Book Orders Out of Chaos
Reading as an antidote to the roots of division
Compiled by Brian Lampkin
It’s impossible to keep up with the rapidly changing events in America at the moment. Our attention shifts from pandemic to police violence to the specter of constitutional degradation as each “breaking news” interruption determines. As I write this in June, we might find that July has mercifully brought us an alien invasion to make all matters obsolete. Nevertheless, we’ll focus on the most pressing issue of our moment.
Here at Scuppernong, as in all independent bookstores across the country, we have seen an explosion in the ordering of books on racism in America. We all hope that reading will translate into meaningful change (and let’s remember that we protest to create change — protest remains an act of hope as well as resistance). The following books have been the most in demand as we face the consequences of 400 years of racial madness. How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi (One World, $27). The National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning offers a bracingly original approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in society — and in ourselves. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo (Beacon Press, $16). Explores counterproductive reactions white people have when discussing racism The Art & Soul of Greensboro
that serve to protect their positions and maintain racial inequality. So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo (Seal Press, $16.99). Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life. Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot, by Mikki Kendall (Viking, $26). Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, by Reni Eddo-Lodge (Bloomsbury, $18). Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge has written a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary examination of what it is to be a person of color. My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem (Central Recovery, $17.95). Racism and trauma are addressed as the author examines white supremacy in America from the perspective of body-centered psychology. OH Brian Lampkin is one of the proprietors of Scuppernong Books. O.Henry 23
Home by Design
AAfterRoom of Our Own years of open floor plans, design trend watchers see beauty in dedicated spaces with doors and actual walls
By Cynthia Adams
Every spring and fall, the
High Point Market Authority handpicks a group of designers and trend-trackers to scour showrooms for top design trends and products. But how to get around the Market’s COVID-induced closure, the second in its 111-year history (the first being World War II)?
Like everyone else in America, the Market turned to Zoom in midMay, bringing together tastemakers from around the country to highlight their chicest picks from websites and leading home-furnishing companies’ new product lines. In a virtual confab, Rachel Cannon, Nancy Fire, Joanna Hawley-McBride, Don Ricardo Massenburg, Rachel Moriarty, Ivonne Ronderos, Victoria Sanchez, and Keita Turner presented their finds and posted them for viewing on the Spotters’ Pinterest boards. Allow me to break down some key takeaways. Recent lockdowns made us miss rooms. As in, rooms with walls
24 O.Henry
and doors. Doors that close. This is a reversal of many seasons’ worth of pooh-poohing discrete spaces. Season after season, tastemakers regularly demonstrated an aversion to them. And not only in print. On HGTV, home flippers would walk in and size up a fixer-upper. Right off the bat they would eye existing sheetrock or plaster walls with the sort of suspicion normally reserved for a sewage leak. “We need to open this up!” the renovator would declare giving said wall the stink eye. “First thing we’ll do is take out that wall!” No matter if there was a 1911-era fireplace in that wall oozing charm, the problem was, that mantel and fireplace required a wall. And walls, if not absolutely essential and load bearing, a renovator term one quickly learned, were verboten. Having flipped a few houses myself in my single days, I would wail at a hallmark Fixer Upper scene in which Chip and Joanna Gaines proceeded to take a sledgehammer to an architectural detail or quirk that gave a house character. The end result was an open-concept house erected within the gutted shell of a formerly unique structure. But the times, Children, are a-changin’. After sheltering in place, working and home-schooling children, there were just so many days of hearing “Baby Shark” without losing The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Home by Design brain cells. Or hearing one’s partner booming away on yet another Zoom call. Or clearing away the breakfast mess before a Skype call could occur. Weary Mamas and Papas and empty nesters learned there is something to treasure about personal space when one had so little. After years of open floor plans, the Style Spotters agreed, there is a great realization: “Open plans are going to change,” one declared. If you lack the skill set to build a wall in the time of a pandemic, buy a screen, the designers suggested in May. Something else the Style Spotters uttered grabbed my attention: comfort. Comfort and coziness are useful in uncertain times, they agreed unilaterally. So, soft edges (featured on a cabinet by Theodore Alexander) or the organic (citing a Clubcu Oak French Console with a handmade look) were deemed pleasing. Art and accessories with lots of texture also made the tastemaker’s cut. As did things “organic, creative, imperfect,” or “global and glam” — all reassuring design choices. In a pandemic-scarred world, “Home is going to be the hub of everything,” one said. The humble entryway or grand foyer is changed and weighed with practical needs (shucking off clothing or sanitizing our hands), as more than one urbanite designer allowed. Rachel Cannon, whose Zoom space was neutral, tasteful and quiet, says she likes to design for introverts like herself. Though seeking calm
in her color palette, she confessed she was not as enamored of the Pantone color of the year, Classic Blue, as her Style Spotting compatriots. Illustrating her preference for soothing elements, Cannon cited Hickory White’s case goods. On the opposite end of the personality spectrum, the boho-loving camp did not seek calm. They chose geometric, bold, sexy furnishings among case goods and furniture, as well as art and accessories. They liked candy colors that smacked of fun and games. The radical chic designers favored effusive and tribal-inspired designs in fabrics. Prominently mentioned was Shipibo textiles, created by the Peru’s indigenous Shipibo-Conibo people. The Style Spotters responded unanimously to a question about favorite projects: The entire group expressed their enthusiasm for designing powder rooms. “You can take risks!” one suggested. As a bonus for extroverted designers, the style-savvy added: It can be bold! So skip to the loo, my darlings! It may have a dearth of toilet paper, but it does have walls and lockable doors, suitable for when one simply has to shut out the noise. Or corona-avoid everyone. OH Cynthia Adams is a contributing editor to O.Henry. The Style Spotters program is co-sponsored by Crypton Fabric and Studio Designer. More information about the Style Spotters program and the 2020 team can be found www.highpointmarket.org/ products-and-trends/style-spotters.
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Spirits
In the Mix
By Tony Cross
My introduction to cognac
happened in the late summer of 2003. I had my first “front of the house” job at an intimate, independent French restaurant. It was small, and so was the staff; I was one of two servers. The owner, Raymond, was the chef, and his partner, Alan, was the sous-chef. Raymond’s wife, Ginette, ran everything up front. I began working there after they had been established for 13 years.
La Terrace was one of a kind. Usually on Saturday evenings, after all of the guests had retired to their homes, and the closing duties were finished, Raymond and Alan would sit at one of the two large round tables in the dining room, enjoying a snifter of Rémy Martin cognac. I remember Raymond explaining to me how cognac is a digestif, a beverage (usually alcoholic) that helps you
26 O.Henry
digest your food. He let me try it, and I’m sure I just shrugged it off. “What do you know? American punk.” It was a mild rebuke, meant in the nicest way possible. Really. And he was right — all I cared about at the time was drinks, girls, and rock ’n’ roll. Maybe not much has changed. These days you can find a much wider variety of brandy on the shelves. Brandy is any spirit that’s distilled from juice. Pisco, armagnac and cognac are a few examples. Cognac is produced in the Cognac region of France, and there are six regions, or appellations, where the grapes are grown. The grapes are fermented after being picked and then double distilled in copper pots. The “eau de vie” is then aged in oak barrels. Cognac is classified in three different categories: VS (Very Special/Superior): Aged for at least two years in oak casks. VSOP (Very Special/Superior Old Pale): Aged for at least four years in oak casks. XO (Extra Old): Aged for at least six years in oak casks. I’m not an aficionado by any means, so I’m not going to go down a list of cognacs and the differences/similarities in them. I The Art & Soul of Greensboro
PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY CROSS
Pierre Ferrand 1840 shines
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will, however, recommend a great cognac for mixing cocktails. Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac is one of the most accessible and versatile cognacs on the market. At 90 proof, it’s great in mixed drinks. It has more of a backbone than Hennessey or Rémy. And don’t get me wrong, I love Rémy Martin. I became aware of Pierre Ferrand five or six years ago, when I picked up Death & Company: Modern Classic Cocktails, by David Kaplan, Nick Fauchald and Alex Day (still one of the best cocktail books ever put into print IMO). “The Sazerac cocktail was originally made with cognac, until the European phylloxera epidemic in the late 1800s wiped out grape production and bartenders switched to rye,” they write, and go on to suggest using the 1840. One of the finest appellations in Cognac is Grande Champagne, and that’s where the Ferrand estate is located. Ferrand only produces Grand Champagne cognacs (which basically means they only use grapes grown from the soils of that appellation). If you’re not into making cocktails, you can definitely enjoy this neat. I do. I purchased a bottle the other week, and as you’ll see in the picture above, what’s missing was enjoyed straight. It’s velvety and rich. I picked up notes of pear, lemon and spice; it has a pretty long finish. I don’t think this cognac was designed to be enjoyed neat, but it holds up quite nicely. The place it really shines is in cocktails, like the Sazerac. Some bartenders do equal parts cognac and rye — that’s probably my favorite build. I’ll leave you with the classic Sidecar cocktail recipe from the Death & Co. book.
Sidecar
2 ounces Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac 1/2 ounce Cointreau 3/4 ounce lemon juice 1/4 ounce cane sugar simple syrup Garnish: 1 orange twist
Shake all ingredients with ice, then strain into a coupe. Garnish with the orange twist. OH
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O.Henry 27
The Sporting Life
Beach Daze
When only O.D. and The Pad would do
By Tom Bryant
I grew up in the ’50s, and
I believe the lifestyles during those wonderful times will never be seen again. World War II was over, with the slight exception of the police action in Korea. (Folks involved in that so-called police action would strongly disagree with the terminology — to them it was a war.) After that, the country settled into a cycle of prosperity not seen by the general population in a very long time.
In my own house, Dad was the single provider. Mom never worked outside the home. Raising four children was her full-time job. We had one car, and it was a family car, a 1957 Chevrolet station wagon, built to haul about anything. We weren’t poor, middle class maybe, but a long way from being rich. From the age of 13, I worked at one job or another every summer. Service stations, food stores, and finally Dad let me work at the ice plant, where he was manager. As a teenager, I earned my own spending money and helped with my college finances as well. But in the summer of 1959, I was a brand new graduate of those bastioned halls of higher learning at Aberdeen High School, and I was ready to celebrate. College was right around the corner. In my mind, I had just graduated and was not real excited about becoming a freshman again. I had a pocketful of money I’d been saving, and two weeks of vacation before I had to report to Dad for summer work. There was for me only one destination during that off time, and that was the beach. Not just any beach but Ocean Drive Beach — better known
28 O.Henry
as O.D. — and The Pad, better known as The Pad. In our short time as teenagers, The Pad had become a tradition for several of my good friends and classmates, and graduation had added an extra emphasis on the importance of heading east. O.D. was calling. Clifton and Graham, friends and also recent graduates of old AHS, were already there, supposedly on a scouting mission to find a place for us to stay for a few days, cheap. I was to meet them at The Pad at 3 o’clock Monday to begin our celebration. The Pad was located on the corner of a street dead-ending at the ocean, right across from The Pavilion, an attraction in its own right. Home to games, carnival-type rides and snack bars, it also had a concrete dance floor and jukebox. Both The Pad and The Pavilion were opened in 1955 and were mainstays at Ocean Drive Beach for fun and frolic. Structurally, The Pad wasn’t much, just a shed covering the bar and its sand floor and a square deck for dancing. I honestly can’t remember if the dance floor was wood or concrete. Behind the bar, washtubs were full of ice and cans of beer. In those days Pabst Blue Ribbon, PBR, was the most prevalent, and the wall surrounding the entire building was lined with empty beer cans. It was rumored that the wall was erected to hide dancers doing the shag, a six-count rhythm created by bands and music performed by groups like The Drifters. All in all, The Pad and The Pavilion were the place to see and be seen, especially if you were young and in a party mood. As Harold Bessent, manager of The Pad for its last 10 years, said, “It became a sort of Mecca.” Right on time, Graham and Cliff came sauntering out of the white sunshine glare of the beach into the cool shade. Chuck Berry was blasting “Johnny Be Good” from the jukebox, I was leaning against the bar talking to the on-duty afternoon bartender. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Sporting Life “Hey, Bryant, where’s your car? We didn’t see it outside. Didn’t make it down here?” Cliff was constantly chiding me about the car Dad had given me for graduation. Especially after he heard that it had two flat tires on the way home from the estate sale where Dad bought it. The old car, a 1940 Chevrolet Deluxe, served me well over the next several years. “It’s parked around the corner. New tires,” I laughed. “Ready to go. What have you deadheads been doing? I hope you’ve found us a place to sleep. Cheap.” “You won’t believe it,” Graham said. “Larry,” pointing to the bartender, “put us on to the Just-A-Mere-Guest-House, not two blocks from here. We left the car there and walked back. We booked us a room for three days, the only room they had available.” That vacation week when we celebrated our graduation at The Pad and Ocean Drive Beach was one that we’ll never forget. We had a grand time. And at reunions ever after, it would always come up, “Do you remember that week at The Pad when Blue . . . ” The Pad was torn down in 1994, not meeting the town’s requirements for safety and other things. The memories that old bar created for hundreds of young folks just beginning life after high school, would never be forgotten. The ’50s and that restful, peaceful time were over. The unknown future lay on the horizon. There was the Cold War with Russia, the hot war in Vietnam, the technological race against other countries, and even perhaps against ourselves. I realize that when remembering the past, a person has a tendency to forget the bad stuff and just remember the good. My mother always said, “If you think the good old days were that good, try using an outdoor toilet when it’s 14 degrees outside.” As a matter of fact, I think The Pad had outside bathrooms, and if I remember correctly, they were just a little better than what Mom was talking about. The difference, and a good thing for us, it wasn’t 14 degrees. OH
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Tom Bryant, a Southern Pines resident, is a lifelong outdoorsman and PineStraw’s Sporting Life columnist. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
O.Henry 29
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30 O.Henry
336.299.3060
ANGIE WILKIE | Broker/Realtor® (336) 451-9519 angie.wilkie@allentate.com The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Birdwatch
Bird on a Wire
Meet “the other bluebird,” the indigo bunting
By Susan Campbell
“What, what? See it, see it! Here,
here!!” Where? It’s a bird: high up on a power line singing incessantly, day-after-day during the summer months. This one can only be a male indigo bunting, loudly advertising his territory. He will continue to call out his challenge to everyone and anyone who will listen. His twosyllable, repeated vocalization is unmistakable.
To some, this fella is the “other” bluebird, slimmer but blue all over. Indigo buntings are an iridescent, darker blue than the familiar Eastern bluebird. And, as with all blue birds, their feathers are actually brown. The color we see is not due to actual blue pigmentation but from specialized microscopic structures that reflect and refract in the blue wavelength. And, as with other buntings, this bird has a strong, conical bill, capable of cracking hard-shelled seeds. Female indigo buntings, however, are camouflaged; equipped with dull feathers that blend in with the habitat. They appear to be mostly brown with a pale throat, a lightly streaked breast and some hints of blue on the back. During the winter, males molt into drab plumage: not unlike our goldfinches. Immature males are often blotchy blue and brown their first spring and, as a result, will not likely breed. But when they don their breeding plumage they are a sight to behold and unmistakable. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Indigo buntings are found in a variety of habitats throughout the Piedmont and Sandhills. They tend to favor forest edges. But you can also look for them in brushy fields or clearings where weedy seed plants and insects are abundant. Associated dense woody growth provides good nesting substrate. Buntings may even be lured to where they prefer small oily seeds such as thistle (nyger). However, these birds have a broad, opportunistic diet. In early spring when seeds and insects are in short supply, they turn to buds, flowers and even young leaves. Indigo buntings eat mainly insects in the summer, not only feasting on a variety of caterpillars but large, hardbodied beetles, grasshoppers and cicadas. It should, then, come as no surprise that this species will disappear from areas where scrubby borders have been cut and grass is regularly mowed. “Tidying up” of our subdivisions and parks displaces indigo buntings as well as other migrant songbirds that require low cover. This is one reason why it is important to maintain as much green space in native vegetation as possible in our communities. But indigo buntings do not stick around all year — as fall approaches, these little bits of the sky will flock up and head south to Central America and the Caribbean. They will fly great distances at night, using the stars to guide them. In fact, indigo buntings were the subjects of early migration research in the 1960s. But, come the following April, they will be back in their favorite haunts, singing their familiar song once again. OH Susan would love to hear from you. Feel free to send questions or wildlife observations to susan@ncaves.com O.Henry 31
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Wandering Billy
Dog’s Best Friend
Jessica Mashburn’s Furr Frame pinups find animals fur-ever homes
Cinnamon
Bandit
Beauford
Penny
Sir Diesel
By Billy Eye “No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does.” – Christopher Morley
For the last decade, Jessica
Mashburn and her world-renowned partner in rhyme, Evan Olson, have been performing Wednesday evenings at Print Works Bistro. When she’s not on stage belting out the Great American Songbook, Jessica’s passion is rescuing and finding homes for stray animals.
A volunteer at the Guilford County Animal Shelter, she launched The Guilford County Furr Frames Project in 2019, digital picture frames found on the front counters of businesses all around the county with a rotating array of portraits spotlighting shelter pets up for adoption. By year’s end, over 200 dogs and cats were safely nestled in their fur-ever homes. Here are some of their success stories . . .
Bandit
Bandit is a disarmingly adorable bulldog mixed with mastiff. “Pitt-mixed mutts are the majority of the breeds found at the shelter,” Mashburn says. “There’s a stigma about the breed and,
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
I’ll admit, when I first thought about volunteering, I had a little bit of apprehension about that,” she says. “Eventually, they’ve become my favorite breed. I find them more emotionally similar to humans in that they develop their personalities based on how they’re treated, and so do we.” When Bandit’s family began having kids, they penned him up outside. “He got really jealous and upset and broke out of his yard one day. Another dog attacked him and the owner of that dog hit Bandit over the head with a tire iron and hurt him really badly,” Mashburn recalls. Not wanting to bring Bandit into the house, “The family surrendered him to the shelter. It was really hard on him so I immediately decided I would advocate for him. I got him involved with an amazing rescue group, Underhound Railroad, now Bandit is living with a teacher in Georgia and doing really, really well. I actually drove him down there.”
Beauford
Beauford, a Staffordshire terrier stray, was never an aggressive pooch but physically very strong. Any time someone wants to adopt a shelter pet, they are paired up in a fenced-in yard to determine if the chemistry is there. “There were a lot of people who would take Beauford out in the yard,” Mashburn explains. Larger than he looks in the photo, “It would be a bit of a tough walk because he was so strong on the leash.” But Beauford’s story has a happy ending: “He ended up being adopted,” Mashburn tells me, adding that she once spotted him at the Petco with the family that he happily adopted. O.Henry 33
Wandering Billy
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Cinnamon
A Staffordshire/Labrador mix, Cinnamon was surrendered when she was about a year old. “A lot of times,” Mashburn allows, “people want a puppy but surrender them to the shelter whenever that puppy makes the mistake of becoming a dog.” In Cinnamon’s case, her family hadn’t anticipated how much time and energy it takes to be a proper canine companion. “Her spirits were very low, she was clinically depressed and would just lie on the floor,” the singer remembers. “I actually had to carry her outside in my arms. She didn’t want to walk.” Cinnamon’s journey forward was fraught with loneliness and ill health. “She got really sick at the shelter with a respiratory infection which is very common in confined quarters,” Mashburn tells me. By chance a woman who had worked for 20 years for the school system saw a picture of Cinnamon on one of the Furr Frames. “She had a dog that looked almost exactly like her and reached out to me about fostering Cinnamon. She absolutely fell in love, adopted her and I’ve gone to visit them a few times. Cinnamon is definitely in her forever home.”
Penny
For more information about this home, or for help selling your home, call Kathy at 336-339-2000
Kathy Haines
Realtor/Broker
Most likely a Staffordshire terrier mixed with shepherd, Penny possesses those plaintive puppy dog eyes girls looked for in a high school sweetheart. She remained at the shelter for a long time. “Penny needed to be like an ‘only child’ with no other dogs around,” Mashburn says. “She was not aggressive to humans, she just felt threatened by other animals.” Taken in by a young person living in a small apartment, “She ended up back at the shelter but was adopted again and now has a good home. She hasn’t been back to the shelter so that’s a good thing.” Mashburn suggests people who normally only adopt golden retrievers or Labradoodles should reconsider getting a pit breed dog, “because they’re missing out on a really beautiful connection with an animal.”
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Sir Diesel
Sir Diesel was found roaming around extremely emaciated, basically starving. “It
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Wandering Billy took the medical team a while to get him to a place where he could be on the adoption floor. He’s a very large dog, a Great Dane/ boxer mix or some variation,” she notes. “He felt very threatened by other dogs. He ended up getting rescued by Tails of the Unwanted; they put him through a great training program to help him get over his fear of other dogs eating his food. He was also very wary of certain males, it may have been because of some sort of abuse he suffered.” Eventually but Sir Diesel was adopted by a North Carolina Highway Patrolman and his wife. “He’s living the good life now with a dog brother named Hercules who was adopted through our shelter.” Jessica Mashburn doesn’t limit her rescue efforts to our canine friends. “There are feral cat colonies all over Greensboro,” she tells me. “If there’s a shopping center with a wooded area behind it, you can bet there are stray cats living there.” On a recent excursion in search of someone’s lost kitty, she says “I discovered a feral community, about 20 of them, all spayed and neutered by local organizations. They live peacefully on some property owned by Guilford County Schools. They’ve been fed for the last 10 years by a woman who doesn’t speak English but, when I met her, there was an immediate feeling of universal compassion. Even though we don’t speak the same language, we were both touched by the survival and spirit of these cats in that same way,” she says, pausing. “I think it’s great that, within the city of Greensboro, there is a great deal of cooperation for existing feral colonies. These cats, who are not domesticated but would never hurt anyone or aggressively bite a human being, just want to be left alone to live out their lives in the environment they were born into.” If you’re thinking of bringing a pet into your life this year, Jessica’s advice is, if you can afford it, consider adoption first. There are so many incredible companions that are waiting here at the shelter, or maybe that stray in your neighborhood, wishing with all their might to be taken into a loving home.” OH Billy Eye ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog but I’d be lyin’ if I said he was cryin’ all the time. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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O.Henry 35
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36 O.Henry
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
July 2020 Buster Gets a Bath When I pick him up and tilt to the bathtub he falls limp with shock This cannot be. . . . Then it’s dark thoughts from dark eyes, the dog I love so much hates me A torture worse than death. All sudsy now, scent of clover and dead leaves washed away with lavender and lemon. How could you? The sprayer — that cobra of doom strikes again and again. Even if it feels good I’ll never say so. After a brisk towel rub he springs all over the house a hero home from the war The bath? It was my idea. — Ashley Memory
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
O.Henry 37
Rescue Me A Loving tribute to the dogs that found us Photographs by Bert VanderVeen
38 O.Henry
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Moose
Fourth time’s the charm
L
auren Riehle and her husband, Josh, are veterans of the animal rescue circuit. She serves as executive director of Red Dog Farm Animal Rescue Network, a remarkable organization started in 2006 by Garland and Gary Graham that has saved and placed, through its network of volunteers and foster families, more than 50 different species and 4,000 different animals, ranging from emus to cats, hedgehogs to dogs, into new homes. Two years ago, the Riehles lost their beloved German Shepherd mix, Harley, a wonderful dog that served as a therapy dog and helped Lauren teach about animal rescue in the classroom. “We were heartbroken to lose Harley,” she says. “We absolutely adored that dog.” They agreed to keep an eye out for another large breed dog that would get along with Penny and Gibson, a pair of highly independent Shelties the couple adopted over the years. A year ago, Red Dog Farm’s small animal specialist, Haley Garner, phoned Lauren to say that she’d found the Riehles’ next dog — a 4-month-old male German shepherd puppy that had already had three different owners. “Naturally, my question to Haley was what was wrong with the dog?” The short answer is nothing. The pup had been with potential owners who, for reasons ranging from work schedules to personal allergies, simply could not give the young shepherd the kind of home he deserved. Lauren and Josh decided to take in the pooch as a foster case. “We were frankly blown away when we met him,” Lauren picks up the tale. “He was almost the spitting image of Harley and such a really sweet dog. We decided to add him to our family.”
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The first thing the pup needed was a permanent name. “We sat on our back deck and considered a lot of different names. Josh, who is 6-foot-8, wanted a big-dog name, and so did our son, 7-yearold Drew.” “The boys,” as she calls them with a laugh, settled on the name “Moose.” Since that time, Moose has lived up to his name in numerous ways. In just one year, he weighs in at 85 pounds, growing so rapidly the couple decided to have his DNA tested to determine if he might have some Great Dane in him. The test confirmed that aptly named Moose was a pure German Shepherd — just a very large one. “It’s uncanny how similar he is to Harley,” she reports. “He loves to run and tumble in the yard with Drew and Penny our younger Sheltie, though she makes it clear who is really in charge. Gibson, who is 15, prefers to simply ignore him — which is hard to do since he’s still growing and is really one big goofball, always ready to play.” Lauren reports that Moose has become Drew’s favorite playmate. “They love to lie together on the couch watching movies. He doesn’t grasp the whole social distancing thing,” she adds with a laugh. Like his beloved predecessor, Moose is also very gentle and smart. Lauren envisions him possibly someday becoming an outstanding therapy dog himself. “He seems to have the perfect personality for it — loves people and other animals. Everyone is his friend.” Moose is living proof, she adds, that rescued animals often find their way to the place — and the people — where they were meant to be. — Jim Dodson O.Henry 39
Amazing Gracie 100 proof Bull
M
aybe we can blame it on very good bourbon. Two years ago this November, as my wife, Wendy and I were returning by car from Chicago where we’d shared Thanksgiving with my daughter and her fiancé’s family, we decided to stop at the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky, to pick up some Christmas spirits and toast our expanded family. During the sampling tour, we fell into conversation about our first meeting with Walnut, a muscular brindle pit bull that Maggie and Nate rescued from a city-run animal control center in Chicago just hours before the dog was scheduled to be put down. Walnut’s previous life on the embattled streets of the Windy City’s South Side left him emotionally scarred and with few options. He had twice been adopted only to be sent back to the shelter for aggressive behavior. As a desperate final gambit to save him, friends who worked as volunteers at the shelter — “a place full of stray street dogs nobody ever comes to see, much less adopt,” as Maggie describes it — placed Walnut’s otherworldly face online for Valentine’s Day, prompting my daughter and her squeeze to swoop in and rescue the big fellow in the nick of time. The addition of Walnut expanded their family to four, including a sweet beagle mix from Tennessee named Billie Holiday
40 O.Henry
that Maggie rescued during her years in New York City. Walnut quickly bonded with his new owners and Billie Holiday, yet his emotional issues, perhaps a form of doggie PTSD, a propensity to lose control at sharp noises and around certain kinds of people and small yappy dogs, led to a year of challenging rehabilitative work with a trainer. “In truth, he kind of flunked out of the class,” Maggie concedes with a laugh, “because he never really learned the difference between play and aggression. But we weren’t about to give up on him. On the plus side he turned out to be very loving and responsive, a big needy child.” Their experience with Walnut seems to confirm the wisdom of top dog trainers that there’s no such thing as bad dogs, only bad owners. In any case, as we headed for our hotel in the beautiful Kentucky hill country, my bride mused: “You know? Seeing Walnut and Billie makes me think maybe we should adopt a rescue, too.” I reminded her that we already had two terrific dogs — a wise old gal named Mulligan (I call her “The Mull”) that I found running wild and free as a pup beside a busy highway a dozen years ago, and a sweet-tempered purebred, middle-aged golden retriever named Ajax The Art & Soul of Greensboro
(a.k.a. “Junior”) that I’d given Wendy for our 10th wedding anniversary. Mully was almost 13. Junior was now 8. Did we really need a third — and a rescue? “Wouldn’t hurt to look,” she came back. Not 40 seconds later, she showed me a photo on her iPhone. “So what do you think of this dog? Her name is Cardinal.” I saw a chocolate-brown dog with a bright white chest, intelligent eyes and alert ears. Festively draped with colored Christmas lights, she was the shelter Dog of the Month sponsored by Lucky’s Pet Resort & Day Spa in Greensboro. “That looks like a pit bull,” I warily pointed out. “I know.” Wendy said. “Doesn’t she look sweet?” Cardinal had been a resident of the Guilford County Animal Shelter for months, a refugee from the streets of south Greensboro, assumed to be roughly 2 years old, “sweet-tempered and loves to play,” read her police file, er, shelter profile. “Good with other dogs.” Wendy gave me what I call The Look. “I think we should save her.” And so, one week later, I drove out to Lucky’s to pick up my wife’s Christmas present, wondering what kind of challenge lay ahead. I’d spent the week reading up on pit bulls on the American Kennel Club’s website and other sources and was surprised by what I learned. Pit bulls were created by cross-breeding traditional bulldogs and English terriers, which produced a tenacious animal used in pit fighting until the British government outlawed the sport in the mid19th century, at which point dog-fighting went underground. In his fascinating 2006 New Yorker essay on what prejudice against pit bulls can teach us about racial profiling of both human beings and dogs, writer Malcolm Gladwell pointed out that though pit bulls have been responsible for numerous well-publicized attacks on humans in recent years, not to mention becoming the targets of civic bans, evidence is overwhelming that the breed is no more aggressive and dangerous than other large breeds — unless trained to be so. The line that just jumped out at me from a leading expert in canine behavior: “A mean pit bull is a dog that has been turned mean, by selective breeding, by being cross-bred with a bigger, human-aggressive breed like German shepherds or Rottweilers, or by being conditioned in such a way that it begins to express hostility to human beings.” In Britain, I also learned, pit bulls are especially prized for their gentleness with children and are often trained to be therapy dogs for their keen intelligence, devotion and responsiveness to positive human interaction. Also, not every pit bull is the same breed. Young Cardinal turned out to be a Staffordshire bull terrier. I read up on her type, too. “From his brawling past,” noted the breed’s American Kennel Club profile, “the muscular but agile Staffordshire bull terrier retains the traits of courage and tenacity. Happily, good breeding transformed this former gladiator into a mild, playful companion with a special feel for kids.” That was promising. Sort of. Then there was this from the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club of America: “They are tough, courageous, tenacious, stubborn, curious, peopleloving and comfort-loving, protective, intelligent, active, quick, and The Art & Soul of Greensboro
agile . . . Staffords love to play tug-of-war and to roughhouse, but YOU must set the rules and YOU must be the boss.” SBTC goes on to say that the Staffords’ alert, muscular appearance is very striking. They look tough, and that can be a positive deterrent to thieves. But because of their natural fondness for people, most Staffords tend to protect people and not possessions. “A Staffordshire bull terrier desires, more than anything else, to be with its people.” Quoting a chapter from Steve Eltinge’s The Staffordshire Bull Terrier in America, the site concludes: “From the time he awakens in the morning until the quiet of night, a Stafford lives life to the fullest.” Cardinal seemed worth the risk, though she did have one major issue. Though young, she suffered from an advanced stage of heartworms that was being kept in check by monthly medication. We were warned that if we adopted the dog, she would need an expensive and lengthy treatment regime to save her life. Among other things, her movements would need to be restricted and she should not be allowed to run for months for fear of sudden cardiac arrest. Truthfully, as I drove out to Lucky’s to sign the papers and pick her up, I was still having a little debate in my head. Did we really want to bring a damaged pit bull of unknown origin into our happy dog family? Did I mention that we also have a cranky old cat, saved as a kitten from the gentrified streets of Southern Pines? His name is Boo Radley, and he’s highly independent and not just a little pushy. How would Boo take to a pit bull? Or worse, vice versa? The first thing we did was give her a new name. A new life warranted a new name. I lobbied for “Santa Claws” but we settled on “Gracie,” a name we hoped she would grow into. And grow she did. Over the next year, she put on almost 20 pounds, indicating she was much younger than believed. After some initial tension with our two resident dogs, they quickly settled into a friendly routine with Gracie actually deferring to the household grande dame, Madame Mully, who only grows agitated and rushes in to nip the newcomer whenever she sees me roughhousing or playing tug-of-war with Gracie, her two favorite games. We took to calling Mully “The No-Fun Nun.” The funny thing is, if she wished to do so, Gracie could inflict terrible damage on the old girl. But she doesn’t. Gracie politely defers every time. Junior, on the other hand, became Gracie’s best pal, the two of them typically sharing a couch — or their owners’ marital bed — whenever possible. Even Boo Radley has developed a guarded affection for “The Bull,” as I often call her — especially during morning walks when she drags me around the neighborhood on her leash, striking fear only into the hearts of fleeing rabbits and squirrels dumb enough to invade our backyard. I even trained her to snap carpenter bees out of the air. Almost everything about this once-lost dog, I must say, has proved heart-warming and amazing. In short, she is everything a Stafford is said to be: tough, courageous, tenacious, stubborn, curious, people-loving and comfort-loving, protective, intelligent, active, quick and agile as a world-class athlete. Thank God she doesn’t care for good Kentucky bourbon. — Jim Dodson O.Henry 41
Pilot
Seen in Mississippi, Herd in N.C.
H
aving flown in from Greensboro, there I was at the Sonic Drive-In in Pearl, Mississippi. “You sure came a long way,” said a guy who’d struck up a chat, “just for a dog.” Yep! About four states and 750 miles. Suddenly I felt rather stupid about it. Just what was I doing, adopting a dog I hadn’t even met, in a place so far from home? I was a bit lost, honestly. Three months before, I’d seen my beloved border collie, Sully, get hit by a car on Church Street. Later at the vet, I stroked him and said goodbye before he was put to sleep. Not long after, in a round of layoffs, I lost the job I’d loved for 10 years. Now, two weeks into unemployment, here I was, tired and anxious and worried that I’d made a very foolish mistake. It was all my friend Teresa’s fault. Several weeks after Sully died, she saw an online posting for a beautiful, 7-year-old tricolor border collie in Dallas. He was a much-loved pet, but a family situation was forcing the owner to rehome him. (And, key fact: A rescue group had volunteered to deliver the dog.) I was intrigued. A good dog is like a good husband: Hard to find. I love border collies — herding dogs bearing an intelligence and loyalty that make them trustworthy, playful and affectionate. But with no sheep to keep them busy, I need that rare border collie blessed with a calm temperament — an “off switch,” as folks say. In short, I like a
42 O.Henry
working dog whose favorite part of the day is lunch hour. On a video the owner sent, the dog appeared smart and strikingly laid-back. His eyes, though, sealed the deal. I saw a kind, eager-toplease nature in his gaze. I’ve had collies since I was a child; this, my instinct said, was a good one. When the rescue group’s delivery offer fell through, there I was, my heart pounding as I waited to meet my new best friend. Now, I’ve done enough online dating to know that photos, even videos, can be deceiving. The “real thing” is often different, often a disappointment. An SUV with Texas plates drove up, and the dog jumped out. I took one look and saw the intelligence, the graceful herder’s gait, and most of all those kind brown eyes. I knew: I’d come a long way, and it was worth the trip. He had a name, of course: Pilot. And in the year since he’s been my companion, my hiking buddy, my solace, my guide. When we walk, he’s always ahead of me, leading the way. And each time he cranes his neck around to make sure I’m still following, then flashes his happy grin, I know I didn’t go too far for a dog. Life works funny sometimes. We don’t always know where we’re going and sometimes we’re surprised at where we end up. Sometimes that spot is the Sonic Drive-In in Pearl, Mississippi. But if we’re lucky, we get a Pilot to guide us home. — Lucinda Hahn The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Bundle of Joy Christine Catania gives a new meaning to dog-boarding
C
hristine Catania’s widely known as the Triad’s Ice Queen, a shortened version of her mobile business, Ice Queen Ice Cream. But she is, in fact, a softie who serves frozen treats and saves rescues. Catania was content with her pack of two that included Moxie, an “adorable and super smart” 12-year-old mixed breed found in 2008 wandering in the snow, and Lulu, the American Staffordshire terrier/ boxer/beagle “steamroller of love,” who was down on her luck when Catania adopted her through Dr. Janine Oliver and Alison Schwartz of All Pets Considered. “I never wanted three dogs, but thought I could foster a puppy,” says Catania. Then along came Joy. Primarily American bulldog, with a distinctive black-and-white mask, which is all-natural, and a perfect foil during a pandemic, Joy, who will be 1 year old on July 12, was born while being fostered by another family. “Her mom was at the Forsyth County Animal Shelter and was being fostered while she had her puppies. Her family fell in love and adopted her” Catania explains. Having grown up among animals in her native New Jersey (“Our childhood friends were parrots, parakeets, horses, dogs, cats, guinea pigs . . . we had a zoo!”), Catania was no stranger to fostering dogs. She regularly volunteers with Merit Pit Bull Foundation in Greensboro whose mission, she says, is one of rescue and outreach for pit bulls. “I’ve always loved pit bulls since my sister adopted one from the shelter in New Jersey in 1998,” she recalls. “She had her throughout her life; she was an extraordinary dog.” She has since sought rescue organizations after her move to the Gate City to study art at UNCG and began fostering some nine dogs ago, her first attempt being her most ambitious: a 130-pound Great Dane. Learning to work with socially anxious animals and those with separation anxiety or fear aggression, Catania takes advantage of “so many resources and training online, with free websites on YouTube.” Patience is also key. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
“I’m calm and patient, and take little steps,” she explains. Not that she needed to worry about anxiety or aggression in her newest charge, who even accepts her rescue cat, Steve. “She was so perfect!” Catania recalls, her affection for Joy palpable. At 44.9 pounds of “pure muscle,” Joy — named for Joymongers craft beer — is athletic and “also the smartest and most endearing, the most incredible puppy,” Catania says. Joy is also agile and sufficiently fearless enough to have begun mastering paddle boarding. Catania’s partner, by the way, has a standup paddle boarding business. Catania says the dog likes to hit Lake Brandt and “jumps right on the board” kitted out in her own lifejacket. Joy even has a Facebook page dedicated to her water sporting fun: Joy, the SUP Synergy SUP PUP. It’s a good life for the pooch and her two stepsisters, especially when Catania, a self-described “homebody,” prepares unusual flavor combinations for Ice Queen in her home time. Her treats are many and varied, but Ice Queen’s specialty are 15 varieties of handmade ice cream “sammiches” with whimsical names such as King Kong, Big Bird and Midlife Crisis — sized petite or Mac Daddy. And for canines? Pupsicles, of course, made of yogurt, honey and peanut butter. Catania creates them for dog-related events and has occasionally sold the treats for the benefit of animal rescue. During the pandemic she has sold human and dog treats through her web site, www.icequeenicecream.com, and made donations of “sammiches” to front-line workers at Cone Hospital, when she wasn’t tooling to planned stops throughout the Triad in her gaily painted converted short buses, Snow Drop and Shortcake. One hopes, with warmer, humid days approaching, she’ll be able to tour randomly, selling “sammiches” to humans and keeping a supply of pupsicles on hand “to give to puppers.” Catania doesn’t charge for these, she quips merrily, “because dogs don’t carry money.” — Cynthia Adams O.Henry 43
A Rose by Any Name
David and Pamela McCormick’s new addition
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f Charles Dickens had written dog stories, the unlikely journey of a redbone coonhound named Mocha that became a Rose would make a true page-turner. Just over 18 months ago, the young female dog wandered up to a house in southern Virginia, emaciated and pregnant. The stray was pitifully hobbling on three legs, probably the result of an unhappy run-in with a car. The next day, the folks who took her in served as midwife for the birth of eight puppies. Through their family connections to Sedgefield Animal Hospital and Red Dog Farm Animal Rescue Network, the pups are placed in foster homes. All were soon successfully adopted. Their sweet mama was treated at Sedgefield Animal Hospital, undergoing a procedure that removed the damaged ball and socket of her shattered hip, allowing new cartilage to form a “false” ball joint as the hip heals. The prognosis was good. In time, even her limp would fade. As all of this was happening, David and Pamela McCormick were thinking their 12-year-old, female Cairn terrier, Coco, could use a new companion following the recent demise of their older male Cairn terrier, Charlie. With the assistance of Alison Schwartz of All Pets Considered, the McCormicks brought home a young rescued female Dachshund only to find that the match was not a good one. “She was a little too wild for Coco’s tastes,” says David, an IT specialist who works at UNC-Chapel Hill. Wife Pamela is a schoolteacher. A short time later, however, the McCormicks checked out the
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Facebook videos of Schwartz’s weekly Pet of the Week segments with Lora Songster of WMAG-99.5 radio. When they heard Schwartz describe Mocha as “about the sweetest dog imaginable,” they decided to go have a look — and found, in January of last year, the perfect rescue to adopt. There was only one apparent problem. “We couldn’t have a Coco and Mocha under the same roof,” says David with a laugh, “so we gave her a new name that really seemed to suit her: Rose.” Early on, Rose was extremely shy with her new owners, however, preferring to initially stay in the large fenced backyard of the McCormicks’ house off Fleming Road. She also suffered nightmares. “Blood-curdling screams two or three times a night. We would sit down and hold her,” David provides. “It probably took six months to get over those.” The McCormicks’ patience eventually paid dividends. As Rose’s hip healed, the nightmares ceased. “It’s funny,” he adds, “It’s almost as if one day she woke up and realized she was where she really belonged. Ever since then she has been a joy in our family; even Coco, who had no interest in another dog, accepts her. She’s a big goof, actually, loves to run and play, sometimes spins crazy circles. She howls with pleasure for her supper. And every day she wakes up delighted to see us — even if we’re away only a few minutes.” The McCormicks report that Rose adores her daily 2-mile walk around the neighborhood. “The transformation has been amazing to see,” adds David. “She is healthy and full of energy and really one of us now.” — Jim Dodson The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Abiding with Bella Paw de deux
M
ary Cole has always been an inveterate walker. “It’s what I enjoy,” she says. Growing up in Leicester in the Midlands region of England, she was accustomed to taking “long walks and treks” by herself. In those days, she kept a cat around the house for companionship, but it wasn’t until her late husband, Trevor, presented her with a golden retriever as a wedding present that dogs became central to Mary’s life. “I’m a shy person,” says the self-professed loner and animal-lover. “Give me a good book and I’m happy. Give me a drink and you don’t know what’s going to come out of my mouth!” she quips. “But I love my own company — me and me. Me and me get on just fine — and Bella, of course. She thinks I’m wonderful.” Thanks to Bella, a tail-less, 8-year-old dachshund/beagle mix with perhaps a touch of terrier, Mary never walks alone. The two often stroll through the green expanse of Guilford Hills Park and its suburban environs, and before the pandemic struck, along the wooded trails of Military Park. Its closure, along with the local libraries’, was “a great sadness” to Mary, who would often drive by the closed gates hoping to find them open again. In the interim, Country Park would have to do. “I walk Bella a lot, Mary explains. As in, three times a day. “We both like to eat,” she adds. “I can’t imagine what we’d look like if we didn’t!” Mary and her current husband, Ervin, whom she met while
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
working as a receptionist at PBM Graphics (“because of my accent,” she jokes. “Open my mouth. Get a job.”) adopted Bella four years ago through Thomasville’s Ruff Love Rescue. Then called Esther, owing to a star-shaped marking on her chest (“I can’t imagine calling her Esther!” exclaims Mary), they had noticed the dog, as well as a whippet on the organization’s web page. At the arranged meeting in High Point, Ruff Love’s representatives introduced three dogs, Bella being the last. “She came trotting in and sat between Ervin’s legs. So we said, ‘Well, that’s it, then,’” Mary recalls. A bonus was the fact that Ruff Love would return the adoption fee after two weeks, should dog and owners be incompatible. But that’s hardly the case with Bella, “a very mannerly girl,” as Mary describes her genial sidekick, though she’s cautious around other dogs during their turns around the neighborhood (and, of course, the Coles’ other rescue, a feral cat named Nala). “People approach you and say, ‘My dog’s friendly.’ Oh? Good for you. Mine’s not,” Mary says, explaining that Bella has been known to “rear up” around aggressive canines, especially if they’re unleashed. Ervin sometimes ribs Mary about her lax dog training, especially while she’s watching reruns of Cesar Millan’s Dog Whisperer. Mary’s retort: “We’re happy as we are. We don’t want to be too good. Good people are boring. Good dogs are boring as well.” — Nancy Oakley O.Henry 45
Baxter A port in the storm
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e were in Lowe’s in Southport, as our condo seems ill-fated with storms frequently hitting the tiny town, requiring us to make constant repairs. Our dog Patch has been going on these hardware store forays and anticipates the treats from Lowe’s staffers. He was in the cart, munching happily on a dog biscuit, when I felt a tap on the shoulder. “Is that a wirehaired fox terrier?” a young woman asked. I explained that Patch was a Schnauzer, though liver-colored. You might mistake him for an overgrown hamster. He appeared in O.Henry two years ago when he was a mere pup. The young woman, Melissa, had several boisterous, chatty redhaired children hanging off her cart. Small hands grabbed for Patch. She told me they, too, had a terrier. Then, her face crumpled. Hers had to stay out in the yard because he sometimes snapped at the children. “We won’t be able to keep Baxter,” she said sadly. “We want a situation for him like your dog’s.”
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I digested this. “You mean, you want to place him?” “Yes,” Melissa said. “Baxter’s been living outside the last four years. He’s 5.” I asked for contact info and pictures, explaining we had sometimes helped place dogs. “Maybe you’ll want to try keeping him inside again?” She shook her head doubtfully. My husband had been investigating wirehaired terriers. This seemed providential. That same night, lightning flashed and rain lashed as thunder reverberated. I thought of a little terrier relegated to endure it alone. Sleep was fitful. We reluctantly returned home the next morning, knowing Baxter deserved help. Was I insane? There was no calm in the inner storm of our family life. Work was intense; more important, my mother was dying. In a few days, messages arrived with a picture of Baxter, apThe Art & Soul of Greensboro
pearing too thin and in need of a bath. But he was a beautiful animal. We exchanged texts. She had him groomed, and when I saw the picture of the little guy all spiffed up, my heart sank further. How could she possibly give him up? I assured Melissa we would help place him, urging her not to surrender him before we could return. I asked friends if they might be interested in adopting Baxter. No dice. Meanwhile, my mother was worsening. While I was with her, my husband, Don, drove back to Southport to pick up Baxter but was conflicted. “What if this dog is a problem?” Of course, he has problems, I thought privately. Days later, Don had a list of offenses: Baxter was having accidents in the house. He was aggressive over toys. Would he harm easygoing Patch? We arranged to have Baxter neutered. Diana Singleton, a trainer, met with us to evaluate him. “Don’t leave the two alone for six weeks,” she advised, looking at Patch. “You need to be sure this dog can be trusted.” Don was grim about Baxter’s potential. “He’s a jerk,” he pronounced. “He growls at me. Offers to bite me. He chews up all of Patch’s balls. Takes every single stuffed animal outside. He doesn’t obey.” What I saw was a dog who had been shoved outside to fend for himself. He feared everything: even a gentle rain caused him to scuttle back through the dog door. Baxter, like me, was overwhelmed. When I hugged him, he stiffened, offering a low, ominous growl, and I fought back tears of frustration. My mother died within weeks. Baxter had to have absorbed that tumult, possessing exquisite animal sensitivity. As I see it, Baxter and I are both in recovery. Seven months on, Baxter is slowly relaxing. He’s eating, walking and playing with more abandon. His limbs are looser. He offers me occasional licks on the ankle before shyly looking away. “He’s smart,” says Don. “And is settling down really well as his tension lessens and he understands us. And, we are learning to understand him. He’s a vocal dog, not an angry dog. He loves to lick and chew and hang on to his toys. But,” my husband concedes, “He does not bite. I misread him as a biter.” He acts more and more like a dog who belongs to someone. He belongs to us. And we are going to be OK. – Cindy Adams The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Pied Piper of Latham
How Jimmy Donaldson has endeared himself to his four-legged neighbors By Nancy Oakley • Photographs by Sam Froelich
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t begins much like the Twilight Bark described in The 101 Dalmatians children’s book and the later Disney film adaptation: As the sun sets, the story’s canine protagonist, Pongo, sounds the alarm to the dogs of London that his litter of puppies has been stolen. His barking signal is picked up by Danny the Great Dane at Hampstead and his smaller yappy sidekick, then transmitted via water pipe by a Scotty to a normally sedate Afghan hound, who emits a howl from an attic window to a pet shop bulldog whose baritone woof is transmitted by a prissy French poodle atop a Rolls Royce . . . and so on until the evening air echoes with the sound of barking and howling. A similar phenomenon occurs every morning in Latham Park as the neighborhood pooches — Scooter, Milly, Archie, Cullen, Dixie and scores of others — respond to a familiar bird call with a chorus of “Woof! Woof! Woof!” that rises to a crescendo of “Roo! Roo! Roo!” Their excitement stems not from the urgency of a dognapping caper, but the approach of the local Pied Piper, Jimmy Donaldson, his pockets laden with dog biscuits. “I’ve been feeding most every dog in the neighborhood for over 10 years, says the longtime
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“He’s like the ice cream man for dogs!”
resident who also sees “repeat customers” when his neighbors and their dogs walk by his house up the hill from the park. Growing up in the Gate City, Donaldson has always enjoyed walking, having been part of an informal group that included the late Gene Johnston, a Greensboro businessman and U.S. House rep who lived on Granville Road. “We were called the G.I.R.L.S.,” Donaldson says with a chuckle: “The Granville International Relations and Lecturing Society. The Republicans would walk on the right side of the street, the Democrats on the left; we’d walk the golf course [at Greensboro Country Club],” he fondly recalls. But over time the group dissolved, and Donaldson, after enduring six bypass surgeries, knew he had to keep moving. His four-legged neighbors provided him with a solution. Armed with dog biscuits, typically peanut butter-flavored, and a crow call used in turkey hunting (“The turkeys will gobble when
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they hear it,” Donaldson explains), the Pied Piper of Latham announces his approach. Babe, a black Lab who belongs to Sterling and O.Henry contributor Susan Kelly, serves as hostess of the neighborhood Welcome Waggin’ Committee, as she trots down the driveway, her tail beating like a metronome set on its highest speed. She stops to extend a paw as Donaldson leans down to give her a biscuit. He says Charlotte, David and Martha Howard’s Labradoodle, is arguably the most enthusiastic: “She wags not just the tail but the whole body!” Donaldson notes. “She’s more interested in the lovin’ than the biscuits.” Across the street is Jackie Prevette’s collie, Mokie. Once, when another dog had escaped the confines of his electric fence, Donaldson tracked him down with the crow call. He describes Tilly, the bird dog, as “standoffish,” but to see her bound across the yard at Donaldson’s call, you’d never know it. Sandra Kay Reynolds’ three goldens, Gunter, Lucy and Lily The Art & Soul of Greensboro
“only need to hear me utter [Donaldson’s] name, and they rush to the door,” Reynolds says, adding that they once mistook real ducks paddling in Buffalo creek for his signature birdcall. “He’s like the ice cream man for dogs!” Reynolds observes. And indeed, the three cream-colored beauties fairly leap the fence at the sight of their own personal Good Humor Man. The admiration is mutual. “They’re so sweet and beautifully behaved,” Donaldson says with a wide grin. On each excursion Donaldson clocks about 2 miles as he dispenses biscuits and affection to his community of canines — from Tim and Cameron Harris’ golden, Macy, to Kelly Rightsell’s dog who eagerly seeks out the biscuits through the slats of a fence. Charles and Kay Ivey’s beagle, Beau, is all wiggles when Donaldson ambles up the driveway. “I call him Elvis,” Donaldson says, as he bends down and commands, “Sing for me, Beau!” On The Art & Soul of Greensboro
cue, the aging dog launches into a strained but continuous baying. He ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, after all. On rainy days Donaldson makes his appointed rounds in his Jeep Cherokee, always stocked with treats; he estimates that he goes through 4 pounds’ worth a week. The dogs, he says, have all come to recognize the sound of the car’s engine. While en route to a recent fishing trip, heEmily, passedDeb Reynolds’ house without stopping Drew, & Andy Mercer — much to Gunter, Lucy and Lily’s great disappointment. All told, Donaldson says he’s fed and befriended some 45 dogs over the years — and a handful of cats, too — marveling at the distinct personalities of each. His routine “encourages me to live a healthy lifestyle,” he affirms. Perhaps more important: “It’s my joy in the morning.” And without a doubt, the dogs’ too. OH
Nancy Oakley is the senior editor of O.Henry. O.Henry 51
Stay-At-Home Improvement Minus social dates, many folks updated their digs during COVID-19 closures By Maria Johnson • Photographs by Amy Freeman
Drew, Emily, Deb & Andy Mercer
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
E
very time one door closes during a pandemic, another door opens at a paint store. For many homeowners, the combination of spare time, bored children and a $1,200 stimulus payout from the feds has led to a serious outbreak of homeand-garden projects. Several of our readers took the opportunity to zhuzh their surroundings — maybe because things you can tolerate during the normal sprint of life make you go ARRRGHHH! during a lockdown. But as these readers prove, when life gives us ARRRGHHHs, it’s possible to make them into AHHHHHs!
A Moveable Makeover
“Home is Where We Park It.” So reads a playful decal on the refrigerator inside the Mercer family’s camper, a 2008 Trail-sport that has transported them to many beautiful places, geographically and emotionally. Deb Mercer,
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
husband Andy, and their three kids pulled the 29-foot trailer on a tour of the United States when Andy retired from Air Force active duty in 2012. With extra downtime this spring, Deb focused on beautifying the camper’s overwhelmingly brown interior because, as she puts it, “It was ugly when we bought it. Most campers really are.” Guided by a blog post (“My $500 Camper Remodel That I Did All by Myself,” at proverbs31girl.com), the Mercers spent two months transforming beige blah to farmhouse fresh. Thanks to gallons of paint and yards of peel-and-stick surfaces (vinyl hardwoods, wallpaper and countertop contact paper) plus “shiplap siding” cut from lightweight floor underlayment, and new upholstery stitched from canvas drop cloths, the kitchen perks in crisp black and white. Ditto the bathroom, now gleaming with vinyl tiles and punctuated by a turquoise cabinet. The camper no longer appears tuckered out from its travels. Neither do its travelers, who crash on new mattresses and bedding, which means the family can once again let the good times roll. O.Henry 53
Liz, Greg & John Pendergrass
What the Deck?
You’ve heard of lake life — the kicked-back lifestyle of people who live at water’s edge? Well, Liz and Greg Pendergrass embody deck life, the al fresco aesthetic of people who regularly walk the planks. “We bought the house for the deck,” say Liz Pendergrass. “It’s almost the full length of the house.” Every few years, the couple spends two weekends washing and staining the weathered boards. But COVID-19 — and its captive audience — presented another option. When grown sons Christopher and Peter came home for little brother John’s drive-through graduation from St. Pius X Catholic School, the Pendergrasses summoned all hands on deck. Then they passed out brushes and rollers. The weekend after John’s Thursday graduation from 8th grade, the family of five sealed the deal, working as a team to apply a new color of semi-transparent deck stain: natural cedar.
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Turned out, it was orange. Really orange. “My youngest son said, “This is like rolling on macaroni and cheese,” according to Liz, who panicked. Silently. “It’s kind of like a woman who colors her hair a totally different color, and she looks at it and says, ‘Oh, my God, what have I done?’ Then a couple of days go by, and she says, ‘You know, I kind of like it.’” Now, Liz loves her hair. Er, deck. It’s so much brighter than before, partly because she bought some cushions for the deck, and son Peter helped to arrange the potted plants differently. Liz especially loves the palms that decorated her church during the Easter season. To be clear, and to keep Liz from going to “heck” for swiping palms, we should say that Liz works in the office at St. Pius X, and she waited until the plants went into the trash after church’s highest holiday. “That’s when I snatched them — and resurrected them,” she says. New life for the palms. New life for the deck. And no one goes to heck. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Annie, Matt, Mike & Liv Vorys
Beachy Keen
The family that stays (and stays and stays) together, renovates together. At least that’s true in the home of Annie and Mike Vorys. “It’s how we bond,” says Annie, O.Henry’s digital content manager. When the lockdowns snapped into place, she and Mike decided to overhaul three adjoining rooms: foyer, living room and dining room. The project became a family affair with daughter Liv, 8, and son Matt, 7, using a chop saw and nail gun (under Mike’s close supervision) to help make board-and-batten wainscoting, a new side table, two end tables and side-by-side coffee tables. As a Mother’s Day present, Mike built a round table for the dining room. Annie’s mom scored some white grommet drapes from Goodwill. A repainted chandelier and new can lights illuminated the room’s improvements. In the living room, Mike crafted two floor-to-ceiling bookcases The Art & Soul of Greensboro
with interior lighting. Annie livened all three rooms with bright blue paint, cinching the nautical feel of the project. “Our favorite place in the world is Lakeside, Ohio,” Annie says, referring to the resort community on Lake Erie. “Everything is very beachy in the house where we stay.” Family photos and mementoes adorn the walls: a fly-fishing rod Mike’s dad made; red-and-white Boy Scout signal flags from Annie’s father; a poem penned by Annie’s late sister; and sheet music autographed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer of the hit musical Hamilton, a favorite of Annie and her mom. From the living room ceiling hangs a mobile of ginkgo leaves by Greensboro sculptor Jay Jones, reminding Annie and Mike of their son Carpenter, who died at birth in 2012. The hospital put ginkgo leaf symbols on the doors of bereaved families as a sign of strength, peace and hope. “We took things that reminded us of the most important people in our lives and put them up,” Annie says. O.Henry 55
Erin, Emma-Claire, Nolan & Steve Johnson
Backyard Bliss
Around Christmas, architect Steve Johnson drew up plans for several backyard projects that he and his wife, Erin, figured would take a year to complete. Then came a pandemic, and suddenly the Johnson family was awash in time and children with no after-school plans (read: free labor). “I looked at my wife and said, ‘Maybe it’s time to teach them how to spread mulch,’ ” says Steve, director of design and construction for Presbyterian Homes, an organization that builds and runs retirement communities. Steve worked from home and office this spring. Arriving home mid-afternoon to relieve Erin — who was also working from home, overseeing the kids’ online schooling, and chipping away at a doctorate — Steve pulled 15-year-old Emma-Claire and 11-year-old Nolan off their Xbox, TikTok and cell phones and into the yard for a few hours of “sweat equity”.
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Together, they created planting beds, tucking in flowers and shrubs plucked from local nurseries and from Erin’s parents’ yard. Steve built a beefy cedar frame for one hammock and draped another sling from frame to tree, creating a hangout duplex. “My wife and I like to sit out there and talk in the evenings,” he says. For the kids, he designed and built an elaborate support for a stand-on Swurfer swing. The kids lobbied for a swimming pool — motion denied — but they did score a trampoline with sprinkler attachment atop a cushy mulch pad. The result was a private playground that the whole family can take credit for. “We’ll sit out there on the back deck, and the kids will be like, ‘You know, I remember the day we put that in,’” says Steve. OH Maria Johnson is a contributing editor of O.Henry. She can be reached at ohenrymaria@gmail.com The Art & Soul of Greensboro
A L M A N A C
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July n
By Ash Alder
eeks ago, before what felt like endless days of rain, two flats of tomato plants mysteriously landed on your porch (how’d they get there?), and so you planted them deep in the sunniest patches of your garden. A Cherokee Purple here; two Lemon Boys there; a Park’s Whopper by the lush trough of sweet and purple basil; and sundry grapes and cherries scattered about in various pots and planters. Now, the earliest fruits are ripening, and each new tomato is simply miraculous. One catches the sun, drawing you near — an heirloom cherry among a small cluster of green and yellow fruits. You hold it gently between your thumb and forefinger, can almost feel the life force pulsing inside. Days from now, that tomato will be ready for harvest. Patience, the garden whispers, and you know it’s true: Nature never rushes. On the other side of the yard, where the Cherokee Purple is soaking up the earliest rays of light, you admire how strong and healthy the plant looks — how fully supported. The advice you were given echoes back like a dream: plant deep; don’t be afraid to bury a few of the leaves; the stem will sprout new roots. Plump fruit heavy on the vine, you contemplate, is the gardener’s crystal sphere. It tells of the future, yes (tomato pies and homemade salsas). But it also tells of the past — the sunlight and rain; the good fortune; the “invisible” strength, growth, and magic that took root beneath the surface. Patience, you whisper, reminding yourself that you, too, have much to offer, even if you can’t yet see it. Sunshine or rain, there is wisdom taking root. Be generous with yourself. Allow whatever space, care and time you require. The cicadas have mastered this art form. Seventeen years underground, and here they are, screaming out in glorious ecstasy. Not a moment too late or too soon.
Homegrown Gourmet
If you find yourself with two pounds of homegrown tomatoes, and none of the following ingredients make you shudder (flour, mayonnaise, milk, cheese and butter), do yourself a favor and look up Laurie Colwin’s Tomato Pie. Summer supper seasoned with scallions and chopped basil, and can you say leftovers?
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins. — Laurie Colwin
The Goddess Tree
On more than one occasion, I have gasped at the crape myrtle’s likeness to a Greek goddess. The smoothness of its multicolored bark. How its trunk and slender branches seem to embody such poise and grace. Now through September, the crape myrtle blooms, its bright pink flowers fragrant in the thick, summer air. Although its English name derived from its myrtle-like leaves and crinkled, tissue-like petals, this ornamental tree is native to China, where its name means “hundred days of red.” While the crape myrtle is not a true myrtle, the myrtle is known as the flower of the gods, and is specifically associated with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Makes perfect sense to me.
The summer night is like a perfection of thought. — Wallace Stevens
The Grand Emergence
If you happened to hear — or are still hearing — the deafening hum of the million-plus “Brood IX” cicadas predicted to emerge in our state per acre after 17 years underground, then you have witnessed one of the fullest, most jubilant expressions of life on Earth. Sometimes we forget how miraculous it is just to be here. And how wild. This dreamy month of summer, when the Earth is pulsing, buzzing, screaming with life in all directions, we remember. Ripe peaches and wild blackberries. Cornsilk and crickets. Butterfly weed and hummingbird mint. It’s all a gift. The garden is ripe for harvest, and everything we need is here. Our only requirement, from time to time, is to celebrate our great fortune. Happy Fourth of July, friends. OH O.Henry 57
OH PROfiles The People & Businesses That Make The Triad A More Vibrant Place To Live and Work!
SPONSORED SECTION JULY 2020 P h o t o g r a p h y b y Va n d e r Ve e n P h o t o g r a p h e r s
DR. NEIL D. LUTINS DR. LUIS M. BENITEZ PARTNERS IN PERIODONTICS
Dr. Neil Lutins’ and Dr. Luis Benitez’s mission is clear: “to make our patients the most important aspect of our practice” — whether it’s using a team approach when treating gum recession, employing laser therapy or placing implants. A Morehead Fellow at UNC and captain in the U.S. Air Force’s dental corps, Dr. Lutins was valedictorian of his D.D.S class at Medical College of Virginia before his certification in periodontics from UNC, where he later became a faculty member.. At the University of Puerto Rico School of Dentistry, Dr. Benitez was awarded the William Kramer award given to the sole, most outstanding student. Obtaining his certificate of periodontology from Tufts University, he’s gained kudos from the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology and the American Academy of Periodontology. When he joined the periodontology faculty at UNC, Dr. Benitez went to work for Dr. Lutins and Dr. Stephen Mackler, helping to expand the practice with 3D radiographic technology, IV sedation, laser treatment and bone regeneration for implant placement. Dr. Lutins and Dr. Benitez are eyeing expansion: “Our goals are to continue to provide the same high level of care and compassion to our patients while building a new state-ofthe-art office and finding a third associate to join us.”
Why They Chose Dentistry: Dr. Lutins: “As a boy, I would often visit my Uncle Dave in downtown Roanoke. I was good with my hands and thought one day I could do what Uncle Dave did.” Dr. Benitez: “Since I started wearing braces in high school, I was intrigued by how the body was able to remodel tissue during tooth movement.”
Greatest Accomplishment in Life: Dr. Lutins: “Picking the right wife, Sue.” Dr. Benitez: “My family. My wife, Patsy Arriaga, and I are proud parents of three children.”
What Their Patients Might Not Know: Dr. Lutins: A big fan of the Beatles, Dr. Lutins sits in with any number of bands, playing the harmonica. Dr. Benitez: Dr. Benitez was a collegiate tennis player.
336-379-8377 301 E. Wendover Ave. • Greensboro
336-644-0028 BuildingDimensionsNC.com Building Dimensions, Inc. brings uniqueness to those looking to build a luxury home—they are a husband & wife duo that are both licensed contractors. Paul Mowery is a fourth generation builder who, from age 17, was managing jobs for his family’s business, Wagoner Construction Co. In 1986 when he met his wife-to-be, Susan, their dates were often spent working for Paul’s grandfather on his personal property and for Wagoner Construction Co. “I treasured my time on the equipment and loved using hand and power tools.” Susan recalls. Her time now is spent managing the business although she still relishes time on equipment and using tools. After the birth of their second daughter, Susan exited the corporate arena and they decided to start a construction company. “In 1999 we took general contracting classes together, sat for the state exam together, and passed the exam together on our first attempt… Building Dimensions was born on January 1, 2000 and we’ve never looked back.” With both Paul and Susan being Energy Star Partners and Certified Green Professionals, they focus on building timeless homes incorporating strategic building practices resulting in unparalleled quality. “We are a team in every way”. Their secret? Trusting and believing in one another. “We never stand in each other’s way. Instead we find a way to stand beside one another.”
What People Might Not Know: “Our daughter Taylor was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 12. Since, her JDRF OneWalk Team has raised over $250,000 for a cure.”
PATRICIA “PATSY” ARRIAGA
OWNER AND BROKER “ We want our team to be unique,” says Patsy Arriaga. “It’s OK if you call us disruptors.” And that’s surely how her competitors must view the business she founded in 2014 — a locally-owned, boutique real estate firm with an international reach. “Adriana, Bethany, Ian, Lori and I are a diverse team with different backgrounds — three of us bilingual,” she says. “We are all quick to adapt to the constantly changing market. Call us data and tech freaks if you want.” Born in San Juan, Patsy followed in the footsteps of her Cuban expatriate parents who had established a huge commercial real estate footprint in Puerto Rico. With a B.A. in economics from Tufts, she spent a decade building a retail franchise specializing in relaxation products and furniture before selling it and moving to Greensboro with her husband. A certified Relocation Professional and member of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, Patsy and her team offer real estate development and investment opportunities, relocation services, luxury marketing, general brokerage and new construction. But their real measure of difference is how they approach clients: “We’re the go-to team for those who appreciate service that is simply extraordinary. Plus, we keep a step ahead technologically with systems and metrics no other real estate firm has,” she says. And then she adds: “I am a firm believer that you can get the job done with a sense of humor, keeping it light during what can be a stressful time.”
After Hours: Playing racquetball, boating, fishing, skiing, road biking and having a glass of wine with friends.
Greatest Accomplishment in Life:
336.501.1886 2020 NEW GARDEN ROAD, SUITE E GREENSBORO, N.C. www.homesofgso.com
“My children, Luisma and Pakri — and marrying Luis Benitez 20 years ago.
Recent Read: I am re-reading Garcia Marquez’s Cien Años de Soledad.
JAY HARRIS
EVP, MARKET PRESIDENT Jay Harris tells people that fate keeps bringing him back to his hometown of Greensboro, where he is now Market President of IBERIABANK, a 3,400-employee Southeast banking powerhouse that will have 20 branches in the Triad and close to 100 offices in the state after its merger of equals with First Horizon Bank. In 1986 after graduating from Page and UNC, Harris took a job at NCNB (now Bank of America) “while I figured out what I’d really like to do.” In 1988 at age 25, Harris was tapped as branch manager of NCNB’s Four Seasons office. “I was managing 18 people, several of whom had been in banking longer than I had been alive.” His learning curve significantly steepened after he left banking in his early 30s to work for his father in a textile operation in Montgomery County. “That was the single best thing that I did for my banking career,” he recalls. “I was able to walk in the same shoes as my commercial banking clients.” Newcomer IBERIABANK, says Harris, has all the resources of a larger bank — advanced technology, a vast array of cash-management products and sophisticated loan capabilities, along with seasoned banking experts. “We are focused on growing our presence in Greensboro by demonstrating our commitment to the community and keeping an eye on our clients’ needs with a community banking model,” he says. With his parents still in Greensboro, with friendships that date back 50 years combined with a strong commitment to volunteerism, Harris — and now IBERIABANK — are invested in the Triad in so many ways.
After Hours: “I love golf, hikes (locally and in the mountains), long power walks, yard work and have recently purchased a new mountain bike.
Dream Vacation: Italy — for the food, the wine, the history and the cultural experience.
Recent Read: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ by Daniel Goleman, gifted to him by the late Terry Dickey, a mentor and former president of Marsh Furniture, after his wife found it wrapped with Harris’ name on it. “My friend is still teaching me,” he says.
Greatest Accomplishment in Life: That’s easy: my family and children: I am married to April Harris. My son Jackson (24), my daughter, Claire (23), and my step-daughter, Laura (24) are all now independent young adults and it is such a joy to see them continue to evolve and figure out who they are.
What He Wants Everyone to Know: My wife’s podcast called “Gate City Live” on Instagram, Spotify and Twitter presents local musicians and artists through interviews and live performances.
336.517.1043 1429 WESTOVER TERRACE GREENSBORO, NC WWW.IBERIABANK.COM
BARBARA KNIGHT
HIGH SCHOOL MATH AND SCIENCE TEACHER
BEN MAYNARD
DIRECTOR OF MEDIA AND EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
Since its founding in 1987, Noble Academy has empowered students with learning differences to pursue their highest potential within a comprehensive, supportive environment. But the real measure of difference is a faculty that, in the words of Barbara Knight, who has a bachelor’s in Psychology and Pre-Medical Studies, “works collaboratively with each student to develop an individualized and targeted plan to meet their specific learning needs.” Employing the latest technological tools, Ben Maynard, who holds masters’ in both History and Information Science, says he “helps students see technology as an equalizer. They may be different, but using the right kind of technology, they can do anything.” Knight adds, “I bring a holistic approach that doesn’t just focus on content but on the fundamentals that create resilient and dynamic individuals, ready for life after graduation.” This year, Noble is excited to offer remote learning to students with learning differences on the entire East Coast. Maynard says, “During this year’s COVID-19 crisis, we quickly shifted in two days to all live online classes.” Each classroom is being outfitted with web cameras that allow students to “virtually” attend classes. Expanding Noble’s reach is important for its goal of helping as many students with learning differences as possible. Whether challenged by math, writing or reading, or troubled with learning difficulties stemming from auditory processing or maintaining attention, Noble has the experience, tools and, most of all, highly trained faculty to meet each student’s unique needs.
After Hours: Barbara: “I love to travel and write. I am putting the finishing touches on a sci-fi novel.” Ben: “I enjoy hiking, mountain biking and fly fishing.”
Greatest Accomplishment:
336.282.7044 3310 HORSE PEN CREEK ROAD GREENSBORO, NC WWW.NOBLEKNIGHTS.ORG
Barbara: “Publishing a case study on my online teaching methods during the pandemic.” Ben: “I treasure the messages and calls I receive that say I made a difference in students’ lives.”
Recent Read: Barbara: Nine Perfect Strangers, by Liane Moriarty Ben: The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith
MICHAEL WILSON OWNER
AMANDA WILSON OWNER
Label Michael Wilson a gemologist if you must, but he prefers to be called a gem nerd. “I grew up a rock hound and never thought I’d get to ‘play’ with gem stones as my career.” The way Michael tells it, State St. Jewelers’ “business snowballed from buying and selling on eBay to a larger online presence in estate jewelry to opening a brick-and-mortar location.” His wife, Amanda’s visual communications degree from UNC — spanning advertising, marketing and web site design — proved a perfect entrepreneurial complement to his UNC degree in economics. Their team of eight delivers “online savvy with hometown trust,” Michael says, offering new and estate jewelry, custom jewelry design, watch and jewelry repair, plus jewelry and estate appraisals. “All prices are clearly marked and you never have to worry if the person behind you might be offered a better deal.” Instead of marrying themselves to big-name brands, Michael and Amanda seek out up-andcoming designers and artisans who create unique and one-of-a-kind items “We think custom and unique trump trendy every day of the week.”
What People Might Not Know: “We met swing dancing and have skydived together.”
Greatest Accomplishment: “Starting our family and raising our children: Caleb, 5, Isaac, 4, and Cora, 2.”
336.273.5872 211A STATE STREET GREENSBORO, NC STATESTJEWELERS.COM
Recent Read: We are reliving childhood favorites like The Indian and the Cupboard and Charlotte’s Web.
Following: @jeks_nc; @triadlocalfirst; and @zavamastercuts
BARRY HARDEMAN OWNER
“Third time’s the charm,” goes the old saying, but for Barry Hardeman his second career with the late Tom Chitty, one of Greensboro’s most remembered names in real estate, ultimately vaulted him and Tom Chitty Associates into the top 1 percent rank nationally for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Realty. Hardeman, who was born in Greensboro and graduated from Grimsley after his parents relocated here from Augusta, Georgia, first attended Ringling School of Art for interior design and then GTCC for commercial art and photography. After representing Lee Kennedy & Associates to gift shops, designers and department stores for six years, Hardeman let Tom Chitty talk him into handling marketing and advertising for his burgeoning high-end home sales operation. And so a team was formed that has blazed a trail with its 24/seven, personalized service and cutting-edge technology (offering 3D Matterport home tours of their listings four years ahead of the local market). Barry ultimately purchased Tom Chitty Associates, freeing Chitty, before his death in 2017, to focus on client and customer relations and sales. With two new neighborhoods coming out of the ground soon, Barry is determined that his team of four other Realtor Brokers; Kathy Haines, Steve Gray, Raymond Scott and Deborah Roberts “will continue to provide outstanding service to our clients, be at the forefront of our industry and remain the best agents and people that there are.”
After Hours: “I love to read and watch movies and enjoy a good bourbon and a cigar.”
Recent Read: “I just finished Gracie: A Love Story, by George Burns, her husband, written in 1988.”
Dream trip: “Alexandria, Egypt. I am an armchair Egyptologist and am fascinated with ancient Egypt’s culture.”
Greatest Accomplishment in Life:
336.420.2837 3352 WEST FRIENDLY AVENUE, SUITE 122 GREENSBORO, NC www.tomchitty.com
“Helping Tom become the success that he was. Also, over the years I had the honor of prevent two friends from choking to death by giving them the Heimlich Maneuver. It does not get any better than saving a friend’s life.”
Following on Social Media: “Elon Musk. The man is fascinating.”
IN T ROD U C I N G
Named for William Sydney Porter’s preferred cocktail, we present a miscellany of curated stories, whimsies, curiosities and blithe entertainments from the writers, editors and artists who bring you award-winning O.Henry magazine. Each Friday, The Sazerac will hit your inbox just in time for cocktails. Relax with these fun bits intended to help you shake off the day.
Here’s what readers are saying… Keep up the good writing! We need things to keep our minds going during this unimaginable time. - Catharine S. I loved the article The Simple Life by Jim Dodson ! It meant a lot to me as I have been going thru old letters, pictures, etc reminding me of all my old treasured memories and how much an inherited old chair means to me! I have pictures of several generations of my family in the chair .This time if staying at home brings us closer to family, friends and our roots! - Suzanne A. I have really enjoyed this newsletter. Such a creative idea and perfect for these long days. I like the content and will continue to read. - Missy R. Hi! Just wanted to say thank you for the Sazerac. I’ve really been enjoying it week to week and especially loved Jim’s Snoopy Gardener video. It was a delight to see his beautiful garden! -April P.
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Thanks to our advertisers, O.Henry magazine has always been a complementary publication. During the last 3 months, when many businesses have been closed, these businesses have continued to support O.Henry and allowed us to publish the quality magazines that readers have come to love. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts. And we ask that you support these advertisers whenever you are able. 1618 Restaurants 1st Choice Home Care A & A Plants Alcorn’s Custom Woodworking Angie Wilkie /Allen Tate Arbor Acres Area Modern Home Ashmore Rare Coins and Metals AuthoraCare Collective Barber Center for Plastic Surgery Benessere Animal Hospital Bibs & Kids Blockade Runner Hotel Blue Denim Real Estate Brown Investment Properties Building Dimensions Burke Manor Inn Burkley Communities Carolina Grout Works Carolyn Todd Carriage House Center for Visual Arts City of Greensboro CP Logan Crystal Coast DLM Builders Doctors Hearing Care Dog Days Dolce & Amaro Artisan Italian Bakery Downtown Animal Hospital Downtown Greensboro Inc Farless Dental Group Edgefield Plant & Stone Extra Ingredient The Feathered Nest Gary Jobe Builder Gill Family Dentistry Godwin Insurance Gordon’s Menswear
Grandover Resort & Conference Center Green City Goods Greensboro Beautiful Greensboro History Museum Greensboro Perio Guilford Garden Center Hanes Lineberry Hart Appliance Center House of Eyes Humane Society of the Piedmont Iberia Bank Jacob Raymond Jewelry Jaree Todd/ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kathy Haines/ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Katie Redhead/ Tyler Redhead and McAllister Kay Chesnutt/ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Lillo Bella Boutique Linnea’s Boutique & Vera’s Threads Marion Tile Marshall Stone Massage Envy Melissa Greer/ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Merle Norman Cosmetics Michelle Porter/ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Mitzie Weatherly/Allen Tate North Carolina Zoo New Garden Landscaping Noble Academy Old North State Trust Otey Construction Pepper Moon Catering Perferred Carolinas Realty/ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Polliwogs Children’s Boutique Priba Furniture & Interiors PTI Randy McManus Re-Bath Red Oak Brewery Restoration Med Spa Salem Kitchen Sally Millikin Schiffman’s Jewelers Senior Resources Serendipity by Celeste Simply Meg’s Southern Living Realty Sports Medicine & Joint Replacement State St. Jewelers Stifel Stitch Point on Friendly The View on Elm Threads Boutique Tia Crouch/Allen Tate Tom Chitty Associates/ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Towne Bank Trellis Supportive Care Triad Local First Tyler Redhead McAlister USHEALTH Advisors View on Elm Village at Brookwood Vivid Wake Forest Baptist Health Weatherspoon Art Museum Wells Fargo Advisors Wendover OB/GYN & Infertility Yammamori, Ltd. Yvonne Stockard/Allen Tate
Arts & Culture
MERIDITH MARTENS state of the ART • north carolina
MERIDITH MARTENS state of the ART • north carolina
Reproductions from Original Oil Paintings Metal Plates • Weather Resistant • High Quality • Ready to Hang sizes range 8x10 up to 32x38
160 hillside road • southern pines, nc 28387 • 910.692.9448
www.meridithmartens.com
Reproductions from Original Oil Paintings MeridithMartens.Artist Metal Plates • Weather Resistant • High Quality • Ready to Hang sizes range 8x10 up to 32x38
68 O.Henry
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
State Street 501 State Street Greensboro, NC 27205 336.274.4533 • YamamoriLtd.com
10:00-5:30 Monday-Friday Saturday 10:00 - 3:00 and by Appointment
Unique Shoes! Beautiful Clothes!! Artisan Jewelry!!! Shoes Sizes 6 - 11 • Clothes Sizes S - XXL
507 State Street, Greensboro NC 27405 336-275-7645 • Mon - Sat 11am - 6pm www.LilloBella.com The Art & Soul of Greensboro
O.Henry 69
Business & Services
Comprehensive and Attentive Care
You won’t find them in ordinary kitchens. Or at ordinary stores.
Now Open with New Precautions for COVID-19
Sub-Zero, the preservation specialist. Wolf, the cooking specialist. You’ll find them only at your local kitchen specialist.
Gill Family Dentistry
SHOP LOCAL FOR BEST PRICES
Serving the Triad Area
We Service What We Sell & Offer Personal Attention 336-854-9222 • www.HartApplianceCenter.com
2201 Patterson Street, Greensboro, NC (2 Blocks from the Coliseum) Mon. - Fri.: 9:30am - 5:30 pm Sat. 10 am - 2 pm • Closed Sunday
Bobbie Maynard
Broker, Realtor ® , GRI, CRS, CSP, Green
Team Leader
Over 30 years experience buying & selling the Triad Make the right move!
306 Muirs Chapel Rd., STE C | Greensboro, NC 27410
336.299.1379 | GillDentistryTriad.com
ASHMORE RARE COINS & METALS Since 1987
• 30+ years as a major dealer of Gold, Silver, and Coins • Most respected local dealer for appraising and buying Coin Collections, Gold, Silver, Diamond Jewelry and Sterling Flatware • Investment Gold, Silver, & Platinum Bullion
Visit us: www.ashmore.com or call 336-617-7537 CELL-336.215.8017 • GREENSBORO, NC • BOBBIEMAYNARD.COM
5725 W. Friendly Ave. Ste 112 • Greensboro, NC 27410 Across the street from the entrance to Guilford College
Still a seller’s market! Safety procedures in place.
Practicing Commercial Real Estate by the Golden Rule Bill Strickland, CCIM
Call for an appointment.
Commercial Real Estate Broker/REALTOR
Yvonne Stockard Willard
336.369.5974 | bstrickland@bipinc.com
yvonne.stockard@allentate.com www.allentate.com/YvonneStockard
www.bipinc.com 70 O.Henry
Realtor™, Broker, GRI
336.509.6139 Mobile 336.217.8561 Fax allentate.com
717 Green Valley Road, Suite 300 • Greensboro NC • 27408
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Thank You to all our wonderful customers for supporting us through this crazy time.
Business & Services Your complete Needlework store since 1972 Yarns Specialty Fibers Needlepoint Cross Stitch Professional Finishing 1614-C WEST FRIENDLY AVENUE GREENSBORO, NC 27403 336-272-2032 stitchpoint@att.net MONDAY-FRIDAY: 10:00-6:00 SATURDAY: 10:00-4:00
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
O.Henry 71
Life & Home
IN-HOME CARE SERVICES
cares
We are here for you even in unexpected times. We understand COVID-19 has drastically impacted our community in many different ways. With our senior population at higher risk, we want to provide support and peace of mind for families to ensure good health and safety. It’s times like these that we, as a community, must look after one another. Please do not hesitate to call us during this challenging time for care.
• One-on-one care while in skilled nursing, assisted living or home setting • Transitional care from hospital or rehab to home • Giving family afar security that their loved one is safe and has supplies
W W W . A G I N G W E L LT R I A D . C O M
Call Todaylp to see how we can he
336.285.9107
2408 HAWTHORNE ST.
Lovingly maintained 3 bed 2 bath one level home in greater Kirkwood area. Much updating by excellent builder. Kitchen open to bright keeping room. Large family room w/fireplace.
$315,000
Sally Millikin
336.337.7230 Sally.millikin@trmhomes.com
72 O.Henry
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
814 BASS LAN D I N G P LA C E THE HOME OF YOUR DREAMS
Mitzie.Weatherly@allentate.com | 336.314.5500
Paws down the best in tile and flooring Porcelain & Ceramic Tile Brick & Stone Marble & Granite Cork • Hardwood Carpet Luxury Vinyl Tile
M A R ION Tile & Flooring
CERAMIC TILE • MARBLE • VINYL • CARPET • HARDWOOD
Bathroom Remodeling and Modifications for a more accessible and livable home. CAPS (Certified Aging in Place Specialist)
Life & Home
Fabulous Living at Lake Jeanette. Stroll down the neighborhood path to the Dock/Gazebo and enjoy the sunset over Lake Jeanette. Gorgeous home with unlimited amenities. .83 acres fenced lot, Open Floor plan for ease in entertaining, Invitingly large living room that opens onto the brick terrace, Porch with Fireplace overlooks the private backyard, Main Level Master suite, Three additional Fireplaces, Every bedroom has a bath attached, Recent Kitchen update, Fresh Paint, Well maintained & MOVE IN READY!!
Mitzie Weatherly
WE HAVE MOVED!
COME SEE US IN OUR NEW LOCATION Battle Crossing 3741-E Battleground Avenue 336-292-9396 • 336-288-8011
Monday - Friday • 9am-5pm
4719 Pleasant Garden Road, Pleasant Garden | 336-674-8839 | www.mariontile.com
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
O.Henry 73
shops • service • food • farms
support locally owned businesses
We have lots of local businesses that will treat your pup like a prince!
www.shopthetriad.com
Do you run a local business? So do we. Your Auto-Owners Insurance policy comes with a local agent– someone who understands you and the protection you need.
Let us help you create your dream garden
We specialize in unique, native, and specimen plants. 701 Milner Dr. Greensboro 336-299-1535 guilfordgardencenter.com
74 O.Henry
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Join the effort. Visit www.triadlocalfirst.com.
shops • service • food • farms
support locally owned businesses
Carriage House Antiques & Home Decor Your Source For Fine Antiques • Lamps & Shades Collectibles • Vintage Treasures Gifts for all occasions
336.373.6200 Photo: Daniel Stoner
2214 Golden Gate Drive Greensboro, NC Monday-Friday 10-5:30 • Saturday • 10-5 Sunday 1-5
G IGANTIC J ULY S ALE!
Bill’s Khakis Brackish Bow Ties Bugatchi Uomo Bill’s Blue and BlueMargaritaville Wash Jeans Overton Shirts
“I couldn’t be happier with my renters, or my rental income” Brantley White Burkely Rental Homes client
There are times when it’s smarter to lease than to sell your home. Call me when you think you’re there! I’ll be pleased to discuss how Burkely Rental Homes can help you.
3712 Lawndale Dr. Next to the Fresh Market www.gordonsmenswearltd.com 336.286.2620 O.Henry 75
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Join the effort. Visit www.triadlocalfirst.com.
shops • service • food • farms
support locally owned businesses
WE ARE NOW OPEN!
Irving Park
#LocalLooksGSO Let Serendipity by Celeste get your wordrobe ready for the dog days of summer!
SUMMER SALE
Habitat • Alembika • Cut Loose Prairie Cotton • Iguana Parsley and Sage • Luukaa Grizas • Chalet • Oh My Gauze! Honest Cotton • Shana Cheyenne • Heartstring Et’ Lois • Flutter
Sizes: 1X, 2X, & 3X
336-545-3003
Vera’s Threads Sizes: S,M, L & XL
336-288-8772
Serendipity by Celeste 1804 Pembroke Rd.
Aesthetic Images Photography 1856 Pembroke Rd.
76 O.Henry
Hours: M-F 11-6, Sat 11-5 2136 Lawndale Drive Greensboro, NC
www.linneasboutique.com
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Join the effort. Visit www.triadlocalfirst.com.
Irving Park Clothing Lingerie Jewelry Baby Bath & Body Tabletop Home Accessories 1826 Pembroke Road, Greensboro, NC 336-274-3307 (Behind Irving Park Plaza)
LADIES CLOTHING, GIFTS, BABY, JEWELRY, GIFTS FOR THE HOME, TABLEWARE, DELICIOUS FOOD
1738 Battleground Ave • Irving Park Plaza Shopping Center • Greensboro, NC • (336) 273-3566 The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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GreenScene
Jasmine Franco
Art That Heals Downtown Greensboro
Thursday & Friday, June 4 & 5, 2020 Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Kendal Farmer
Knolbi Whitaker
Jay Squids
Jenna Rice Kedora Simmons
Amari Brown
Terrell Dungee
Brittaney & Khaza Jones, Deonte Witcher
Shane Ferreira Holder
Raman Bhardwaj
LET US MAKE YOUR DREAM HOME A REALITY
3207 ROUND HILL ROAD
3108 SAINT REGIS ROAD
4 SAINT SIMONS SQUARE
Fabulous top quality custom Farmhouse! The floor plan offers a great room feel open to views of a beautiful patio and landscaped back yard. The kitchen, breakfast room and the keeping room with a fireplace are perfect for family gatherings. The high ceilings, wide plank hardwood flooring are just a few features that add to the charm of the house. The office, guest bedroom and full bath finish out the ML. Second level has three bedrooms, 2 full baths and a bonus room for the kids. 2 car garage w/storage.
Prime location New Irving Park Traditional custom built home on a large lot. This home offers many quality features throughout including moldings, hardwood flooring and much more. The home offers five large bedrooms including a guest bedroom and bath on the ML. The house has four full baths, including an updated Master Bath and 2 additional half baths. The playroom on the main level is the perfect gathering spot for the family and features a vaulted ceiling and a magical loft hideaway! This is a must see!
Ascot Point brick home with Master Bedrooms on main and upper level. Totally updated Kitchen, Laundry Room & 2 Baths on upper level. This home has 9 foot ceilings, hardwoods on the main level, walk-in storage, large closets and custom built-ins. Also includes a large enclosed Patio with garden space. Very private, and in a great neighborhood.
Chesnutt - Tisdale Team
Xan Tisdale Kay Chesnutt 336-601-2337 336-202-9687 Xan.Tisdale@bhhsyostandlittle.com Kay.Chesnutt@bhhsyostandlittle.com
www.kaychesnutt.bhhscarolinas.com
Š2019 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.Ž Equal Housing Opportunity.
78 O.Henry
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Handmade
In House
WE OFFER: DOG DAYCARE • SLEEPOVERS • GROOMING • WEBCAMS
121-A WEST MCGEE ST. GREENSBORO, NC 27401 WWW.JACOBRAYMONDJEWELRY.COM | 336.763.9569
705 Battleground Ave.
www.DogDaysGreensboro.com
Downtown Greensboro
Specializing in doggie happiness
We strive to provide complete care for our patients.
Preventive & Wellness Care • Hospitalization Medicine / Surgery • Dentistry Laser Therapy • And more ...
modern furniture made locally
Dr. John Wehe 120 W. Smith Street • Greensboro NC | 336.338.1840
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
511 S Elm St. | Greensboro NC 27406 | 336.370.1050 areamod.com
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O.Henry Ending
The Misunderstood Cicada By Bill McConnell
This is a face only a mother could love.
Or is it? Bulging red eyes, wide apart atop an alien-looking head. Six hairy legs, long lace-like wings and a pudgy, waspish body. Meet the cicada, nature’s predominant singing insect. This summer, the state is due for a bumper crop of these noisy, tree dwellers, says Jason Cryan, an entomologist from the the Natural History Museum of Utah. “In some areas, we could see 10 times more cicadas than normal,” says Cryan. “I think it will be fascinating.” What’s fascinating to an entomologist is cicadapocalypse. But before hightailing it out of here, consider this: The brood of cicadas emerging from the ground right now has been patiently waiting for . . . 17 years. Unlike annual garden-variety cicadas, these are a genus scientists call Magicicada. They live in the eastern half of the United States, and, depending on your point of view, look either like something out of a horror movie or an adorable puppy. “I think they’re really cute,” says Chris Simon, a professor at the University of Connecticut who has been studying cicadas since 1974. “Their big red eyes . . . the pretty orange wing veins . . . the way their wings catch little slices of light . . . they’ve just got a lot of character.” Any way you slice it, 17 years is a long time. Almost no other insect lives that long. So what are cicadas doing all that time in their subterranean homes? Not as much as you might think. They mastered social distancing long before the rest of us. No card games or Friday afternoon happy hours. There the time is spent trying to grow as fat as possible by sipping fluid (xylem) from tree roots. When their genetic alarm clock rings and ground temps hit 64 degrees, cicadas claw their way 8 inches or so out of the ground, climb the nearest tree to pop out of their brownish exoskeleton. It’s like The Wizard of Oz when it goes from sepia tone to color.
80 O.Henry
“Their wings glisten like glass at first,” Cryan observes. “It’s still amazing every time I see it.” Fortunately, or unfortunately, people in the Triad are going to see a lot of nature’s little miracle this year. “The treetops may be filled with cicadas,” Simon notes, “but they are harmless to humans and animals.” Truth is, cicadas, while fearsome-looking, don’t bite, sting, run red lights or get in the express line with 13 items. Unlike locusts or katydids, cicadas don’t devour crops or cause plagues. (We’ve already got one of those, thank you.). About the worst thing cicadas do is — pee on us. In some places like Singapore, eco-tourists pay for this unique experience called “cicada rain.” Cicadas singing together can be noisy. Depending on their size and species, they can sound like birds, a flying saucer from a 1950s science fiction movie or someone throwing water into very hot grease. A large group of cicadas can make as much noise as a car radio turned up full volume. These lovable habits aside, cicadas are misunderstood. People tend to judge them solely by their appearance. Beauty in the eye of an entomologist or 13-year-old makes moms shriek. What cicadas really like is sitting in trees during the summer and singing the day away to impress bug-eyed females — you may be able to hear them now. Oh, and procreating. In fact, that’s the main reason they’re here, confides Cryan. “Basically, they’re sex machines,” he offers, in a hushed tone. Eat, sing and do the wild thing. Lay a few hundred eggs. Then die. While lovable, cicadas aren’t the sharpest crayons in the box. Start your lawnmower or anything with an electric buzz and you may trigger a cicada lovefest. If a confused cicada mistakes you for its mate, don’t panic. Look it squarely in its compound eyes and give the critter a gentle flick. “Not even in your wildest dreams,” you mutter. Chances are, it’ll fly off, dejected, no doubt looking for some motherly love. OH Bill McConnell is a freelance writer who still believes in the power of science. You can bug him at mcconnell@carolina.rr.com. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY BLAIR
Fearsome-looking, the singing cicada is really just a big love bug
From your phone into your locket...
GREENSBORO Friendly Center • 336-294-4885 WINSTON-SALEM 137 South Stratford Road • 336-725-1911 www.schiffmans.com