December 2013 PineStraw

Fine Homes . . . www.prudentialpinehurst.com

Knollwood Heights: A true treasure built & designed by Donald Ross in the 1920s. Poised on 2.31 acres. Charming features! 4BR/7BA/1HB. Carriage House. Beautiful grounds.

Maureen Clark 910.315.1080

Clarendon Gardens: “Anchors Aweigh” Cottage, circa 1927, over 5,500sf situated on 3+acres. Restored with attention to detail! 11-Fireplaces, wood floors, beamed ceilings & more. 7BR/6BA/1HB. Emily Hewson 910.315.3324

Linden Trails: Architectural detailing inside & out enhance

National: Handsome, water front home! Southern Living 1999 Idea House. Spectacular golf course & water views!

4BR/4BA/2HB. Emily Hewson 910.315.3324

Forest Creek - Golf Front: 13th Green of North Course!

1,900sf of outdoor entertaining. Lives cozy for 2 or spacious & private for a large family. Furnished! Prof. Decorated.

Beverly Del Giudice 910.603.9903

Stunning Historic Victorian - Farmhouse incorporates the best of old & new! Surrounded by 5-Paddocks, 14-Stall Barn, Carriage House on 19.59 acres. Well Maintained!

Maureen Clark 910.315.1080

Liscombe Lodge - Old Town Pinehurst: Renovated & added Edgewood Cottage - Old Town Pinehurst: Renovated Dutch

Fairwoods on 7 - Golf Front: Spectacular home over 4,700sf

on in ‘94 & ‘95. Charming cottage has been restored with quality, elegance & exquisite detail. 4BR/4BA. Emily Hewson 910.315.3324

Colonial loaded with character & charm. 4-Frplces, Heart Pine floors. 4BR, 4.5BA. Pool & Pool House. PCC available.

Eva Toney 910.638.0972

Horse Country: Premier Youngs Road location on the Walthour Moss Foundation. 8-Stall Barn, 10 Acres, 5BR, 4.5BA, 4-Fireplaces. 4,000+sf. Stunning! $995,000 Debbie Darby 910.783.5193

7 Lakes West - Lake Front: www.103CookPoint.com Exceptional home & lot on Lake Auman! Magnificent lake view! Bulk-head, boat dock. Superior workmanship by Yates Hussey Construction. 4BR/3.5BA. $975,000 Frank Sessoms 910.639.3099

Pinehurst: 910.295.5504

this fine home! Spacious rooms are bathed in natural light.

Gourmet Kitchen. 3BR/3.5BA. 5 Acres - Zoned for Horses.

Maureen Clark 910.315.1080

- 3BR/3BA/2HB, 60’ lap pool, office, wrkshp/exercise area.

Designed by Stagaard & Chao.

See: www.60BraemarRoad.com Team Townley 910.695.7080

Fairwoods on 7: Overlooks 2nd & 6th Holes of Golf Course.

Maple cabinetry, tiger wood floors, hand forged light fixtures. Gourmet kitchen opens to a spacious family room.

3BR/3BA/2HB. Emily Hewson 910.315.3324

Southern Pines: 910.692.2635

Log on to www.prudentialpinehurst.com FOR OUR Easy Search OR “SNAP & SEARCH” by snapping a picture of the “TAG READER” with your smartphone.

in the Sandhills www.prudentialpinehurst.com

Pinewild - Water Front: Beautifully designed lake front

home. Large (double) lot & classically designed interior.

Luxurious master suite, gourmet kitchen, 4,458sf, & lots of hardwood. See: www.22KirktonCourt.com Team Townley 910.695.7080

CCNC Private & Serene: Winding drive leads to this stun-

ning 4BR/4BA/2HB home on 6.59ac. Custom built, 10’ceilings, solid Ash floors; gourmet kitchen w/stainless & granite, to-die-for master bath! $844,500 Carolyn Hallett 910.986.2319

Pinewild - Golf Front: All brick home, 4BR/4.5BA, 4,900+sf of elegance. 31x14 master suite, 36x30 living room, & 18x16 dining room. Stainless appliances & granite Kitchen counters.

See: www.19McMichaelDrive.com Team Townley 910.695.7080

Pine Gove Village: Over 5,100sf, 5BRs/3.5BAs, new Sun Room, Master w/15x10 Sitting Room, & 14x12 Exercise Rm. Upstairs features 4Bdrms & large bonus rm/office.

See: www.220TallTimbersDrive.com Team Townley 910.695.7080

Executive Pinehurst Home: Custom 5/4 brick home on 1acre of prof. landscaped property w/in walking distance to Village.

Open floor plan, 1st floor master, formal DR, 20x40 ft. inground pool. PCC Mbrshp available.

Donna Chapman 910.783.6061

CCNC - Move-in Ready: Bright & beautiful, hrdwd, tile, fabulous master bath; New roof 2012; New Carrier-Zone HP 2011; Pella windows. Seller paid Full Golf Membership, too!

4BR/3BA. $550,000 Carolyn Hallett 910.986.2319

Weymouth Heights: Serene Southern Pines! Understated

CCNC: Spectacular lake view from this beautiful Villa on

Pine Gove Village: Beautiful updated 3BR/2BA brick ranch

home perfect for entertaining. 4Bdrms, 3Baths lend easily to family life. Enjoy the tranquil vibe on this 1+acre wooded setting. See: www.LuvPines.com Mav Hankey 910.603.3589

1.5 lots (very private). 3BR/4BA, Great Room w/hrdwd & fireplace. Large deck. Lower level Family Room, Office, Bath & large Storage Room. $369,000 Emily Hewson 910.315.3324

Wonderful Pinehurst Home: Attractive 2-story, 4BR/3.5BA on Golf Terrace - Furnished: End Unit, Lower Level, 18th Green quiet cul-de-sac in well-developed area of Pinehurst. Gourmet kitchen, open floor plan, high ceilings, 1st floor master. PCC Mbrshp available for transfer.

Donna Chapman 910.783.6061

of PCC #5. Spectacular Recent Renovation. Beautifully Furnished. These Units are seldom on the Market.

Don’t miss the Opportunity!

Beverly Del Giudice 910.603.9903

w/stainless & quartz, hardwood floors, 10’ smooth ceilings, insulated windows, new roof, covered porch; Farm Life Schools! $348,500 Carolyn Hallett 910.986.2319

Perfect Size & Location: Brick ranch, 3BR/2BA/1HB, Open

plan for easy living. Wood-burning FP w/bookshelves; Carolina Room looks onto back with Koi pond. Convenient to shops & US Open! $166,000 Carolyn Hallett 910.986.2319

www.2014pinehurstgolfrentals.com © 2013 BRER Affiliates LLC. An independently owned and operated broker member of BRER Affiliates LLC. Prudential, the Prudential logo and the Rock symbol are registered service marks of Prudential Financial, Inc. and its related entities, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Used under license with no other affiliation with Prudential. Equal Housing Opportunity

December 2013 Volume 8, No . 12

FEATURES

57 Winter Journal

Poetry by Melinda Kemp Lyerly

58 The Illustrated 12 Days of Christmas Our staff’s Christmas card to you

70 Captains Courageous

By Timothy L. Hale

DEPARTMENTS

One family. Three generations.

A life of service to a country

74 The Christmas Dream House

By Deborah Salomon

The Huntley family gives new meaning to decorating for the holidays

83 December Almanac

By Noah Salt

The origins of Christmas traditions and the lazy gardener’s Christmas list

7 Sweet Tea Chronicles Jim Dodson

12 PinePitch 15 Christmas Presents SCC Students Denise Baker

17 Cos and Effect Cos Barnes

19 The Omnivorous Reader Stephen E. Smith

22 Bookshelf 25 Musing, etc.

Barbara Richie Pond

29 Hitting Home Dale Nixon

31 The Kitchen Garden Jan Leitschuh

35 Vine Wisdom Robyn James

37 On the Town Kevin Drum

41 Out of the Blue Deborah Salomon

43 An Englishwoman in the Sandhills Serena Brown

45 The Evolving Species Maggie Dodson

47 Birdwatch

Susan Campbell

49 The Sporting Life Tom Bryant

53 Golftown Journal Lee Pace

84 Calendar 99 SandhillSeen 107 Manshed Geoff Cutler

109 The Accidental Astrologer Astrid Stellanova

111 PineNeedler Mart Dickerson

112 SouthWords Gayvin Powers

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY BLAIR

2 December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

We Have Oprah’s Favorites and Yours…

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PineStraw M A G A Z I N E Jim Dodson, Editor

910.693.2506 • jim@pinestrawmag.com

Andie Stuart Rose, Art Director

910.693.2467 • andie@pinestrawmag.com

Kira Schoenfelder, Graphic Designer 910.693.2508 • kira@pinestrawmag.com

Lauren Shumaker, Graphic Designer 910.693.2469 • lauren@pinestrawmag.com

Judi Hewett, Graphic Designer Serena Brown, Associate Editor contributing Editors

Deborah Salomon, Staff Writer Stephen E. Smith, Staff Writer Mary Novitsky, Proofreader Sara King, Proofreader contributing Photographers

John Gessner, Laura Gingerich, Tim Sayer Contributors

Cos Barnes, Harry Blair, Tom Bryant, Susan Campbell, Al Daniels, Annette Daniels, Kimberly Daniels, Mart Dickerson, Maggie Dodson, Kevin Drum, Timothy Hale, Robyn James, Jan Leitschuh, Melinda Kemp Lyerly, Christina Klug, Meridith Martens, Dale Nixon, Lee Pace, Jeanne Paine, Gayvin Powers, Barbara Richie Pond, Noah Salt, Astrid Stellanova, Angie Tally

PS David Woronoff, Publisher Advertising Sales

Deborah Fernsell, 910.693.2516 Terry Hartsell, 910.693.2513 Kerry Hooper, 910.693.2489 Perry Loflin, 910.693.2514 Darlene McNeil-Smith, 910.693.2519 Meagan Powell, 910.693.3569 Darlene Stark, 910.693.2488 Johnsie Tipton, 910.693.2515 Karen Triplett, 910.693.2510 Pat Taylor, Advertising Director Advertising Graphic Design

Kathryn Galloway

910.693.2509 • kathryn@thepilot.com

Mechelle Butler, Clay Culberson, Maegan Lea Subscriptions & Circulation

Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488

PineStraw Magazine

910.693.2467 145 W. Pennsylvania Avenue Southern Pines, NC 28387 pinestraw@thepilot.com • www.pinestrawmag.com ©Copyright 2013. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

PineStraw magazine is published by The Pilot LLC

4 December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

sweet tea chronicles

The Hogmanay Ace

By Jim Dodson

Gratitude, goes an ancient French proverb,

is the heart’s memory.

When I heard the Queen Mum was ailing, I decided to take a few days and go see her. Simply put, there are only a handful of people in this world who mean more to me, a treasured friend and advisor who shaped my view of life and encouraged my writing as few others have done. Driving from Carolina to Maine — eighteen hours each way, a drive I’ve made probably a hundred times over the last thirty years — would give me time to think about what I needed to say to her. Life, like summer in Maine, is all too brief.

The Queen Mum, as I call her, is my former mother-in-law, the grandmother of my children, a tough and tender daughter of Glasgow’s working class Netherlee neighborhood who lost her own parents after the Second World War and migrated to America with her brilliant husband, Sam, in the early 1960s, settling on a rambling 200-year-old farmhouse on a beautiful 500-acre farm above Moosehead Pond. The rural village of Harmony, Maine, aptly named, reminded Kate and Sam of their native Scottish hills.

While Sam traveled the world working as a defense contractor, Kate, who was educated at Glasgow University and read every significant work of Western literature at least twice, literally kept the home fires burning and became the local superintendent of schools, raising three great kids and becoming something of the village matriarch.

My first weekend at the farm in the late autumn of 1984 felt like stepping into a novel by Thomas Hardy. Kate was polite and friendly but clearly reserved in true Scottish fashion — no doubt wondering why her youngest, Alison, fresh from Harvard, was dating a chatty redneck Southerner. My initial connection was with Sam, who reminded me of the actor Peter O’Toole, home from his posting in Sri Lanka. A fine single malt Scotch helped bring us closer.

My second visit to the farm at the holidays proved even more challenging, though my former wife thinks this actually happened the following spring.

Perhaps it did. But I have reason to believe this took place at Hogmanay, the Scottish new year, for reasons that have to do with my own family traditions.

By Christmas, Alison and I had big news to share, though I wasn’t sure how the home folks in Harmony would greet the idea of a pending marriage.

Generally speaking, Christmas isn’t such a big deal to native Scots, but Hogmanay is an annual rite accompanied by much dancing and drinking, fueled by traditional cookery and excellent Scotch whiskey.

In honor of the occasion, fires were banked high in the woodstoves and the BBC was dialed up on the shortwave radio at 7 p.m. sharp in order to hear London’s Big Ben officially toll the arrival of the new year five hours away on the Scottish borders. At the final stroke of the bell, glasses were touched and toasts made. The fiddle music resumed and the house filled up with all sorts of buzzing folks, family and neighbors who dropped in out of the winter night to be part of the year’s best gathering. Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in Times Square had nothing on this country crowd.

A polite Southerner far from home, I wondered if I’d perhaps wandered into a real Brigadoon, the mythical Scottish village that appeared just one night a year. Sam Bennie rolled his smokes and thoughtfully topped up my Scotch, and his lovely daughter even coaxed me into the dance.

The next day — a bright, sunny New Year’s Day, frigid as an Arctic ice floe — things settled down considerably after a big lunch of root veggies and roast mutton. My fiancée’s siblings packed up and headed back to the city while Alison and Mum cleaned up the kitchen and put the house back in order.

After this, Kate filled up the woodstove, made herself a cup of good Scottish tea, and sat down in her favorite wing chair by the front window to read.

Truthfully, I was a little bored, homesick for my own Carolina clan and not a little hung-over from my first Hogmanay celebration, missing my mom’s collards and black-eyed peas and a peculiar little ritual I performed every New

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

sweet tea chronicles

Year’s Day through the end of my college years.

Some people read tea leaves or consult horoscopes to see what momentous events lie ahead. I had this goofy home-grown tradition of trying to hit a solitary golf ball over my parents’ house with one cold swing. A ball that safely cleared the roof meant prosperity and happiness lay ahead. I’d never failed yet.

Silly, I know. But with marriage to a daughter of a real Brigadoon just off in the mist, perhaps I needed the comfort and psychic reassurance of something familiar from home. Besides, the sand wedge revealed all.

Also, after an eight-year hiatus in Atlanta where I never took a day of vacation and had only picked up a golf club once or twice, I’d recently resumed playing on a golf course in Vermont where Rudyard Kipling had supposedly played the game. So while my fiancée leafed through old family photos and Mum enjoyed her tea and book in a house that was finally quiet, I fetched my trusty sand wedge and a golf ball and headed out to a snowy spot beyond the farm pond in front of the house.

I cleared off the snow and placed the ball on a mat of frozen grass. With little or no fanfare and no small trepidation, I peeled off my heavy coat and took dead aim at the chimney, where wood smoke swirled in the frigid air.

One ball. No warm-up, just one decent very cold swing, I told myself, waggling my wedge.

Looking back, I made a golf swing Old Tom Morris himself would be proud to claim on Hogmanay. Happily, I watched the ball arc beautifully upward, clearly going to safely clear the roofline by several feet.

Unhappily, I grossly misjudged the distance.

The ball came down well shy of the target and passed through a small pane of glass in the window where my future mother-in-law was quietly reading her book and enjoying a pot of tea.

My heart stopped. My feet froze. I didn’t know whether to turn and flee in the frozen wilderness of northern Maine or trudge in and face the music of an unhappy Scottish matriarch who didn’t seem overly thrilled that her pretty daughter planned to marry a Southern rube who didn’t know how to hit a decent wedge or dance a Scottish reel.

I hurried back to the house and opened the door and there sat Mum, still holding her book, giving me a look that said I would be banished from the clan before I was invited in. Pieces of window glass were everywhere, but the offending golf ball was strangely nowhere to be seen.

“Do you remember where the ball ended up?” I asked Kate on a beautiful Sunday morning after I arrived at her cottage several weeks ago. Many years ago, after Sam passed on, Kate moved to the pretty college town where Alison and I reared our children.

“Of course.” Kate smiled at the memory. “It was in my tea cup.”

“Do you remember your first words to me?”

“I think I must have forgotten.”

So I smiled and told her — one of the nicest surprises of my life, effectively a welcome to the family.

“James,” she remarked calmly, “I doubt if you could hit that shot again if your very life depended on it.”

We quickly became good friends after what I regarded as my Hogmanay Ace, sharing a passion for books and gardens and all things Scottish, having gentle but enlightening (for me at least) debates about politics and religion, eventually even traveling together to the Holy Land of golf where I once looked up a trio of Glaswegian gents who’d known her father — the club champion of Netherlee Golf Club — back in the late 1930s. As far as I know, Kate Bennie never swung a golf club in her life, yet her father’s old mates welcomed me warmly one late summer afternoon, telling me stories with such dense Glaswegian brogues I could only make out every fourth or fifth word.

More importantly, Kate Bennie became a fixture in our home, the Queen Mum (as I took to calling her) and spiritual anchor of our growing family, the first reader of all my early books and cherished advisor on parenting and work.

She never missed a school play or a weekend supper or a holiday of any sort.

Even when hard times came — a surprising separation and divorce after

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PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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eleven years of marriage — the grace and constancy of Kate Bennie was a major reason we were able to restore our equilibrium and find a new working definition of the modern extended family. She remained a supportive fixture in both our homes, and the greatest grandmum ever.

She was the first to congratulate us both on our happy second marriages and even taught me to cook her famous Scottish mince — now a holiday tradition in my Southern home right along with the collards and black-eyed peas.

A simple but marvelous cook, she also gave me her best recipe for haggis, the largely inedible Scottish dish I’ve grown unaccountably fond of.

“It’s very simple, James. Make the haggis from whatever you happen to find lying about in the kitchen. Then make a special Drambuie sauce to go with it. Cook the haggis well and feed it to the dog. Then drink the Drambuie sauce.”

On the lovely Sunday morning we sat in her cheerful downstairs bedroom and talked last week, I filled her in on my latest book projects and about taking my wife, Wendy, on her first trip to Scotland. Kate wanted to hear all about the magazines I helped start and now edit back home in North Carolina. As usual, we even talked briefly about some of the same things we’ve spent nigh on three decades talking about — books we were reading, politics, golf and gardens, and especially the two kids who were now grown up and sharing an apartment in New York City, the greatest beneficiaries of the Queen Mum’s wisdom and grace. I was pleased to learn from Kate that they each phone her every day — Maggie in the morning on her way to work, Jack in the evening on his way home.

Around the room were handsome hardwood shelves full of her favorite books and framed photos of her nine grandchildren. Squirrels and chickadees fed at the window feeders. Beyond, the woods were golden and red with the last of autumn’s Northern glory.

When I saw she was tiring, as Alison said she would, I simply kissed the Queen Mum on the cheek and told her what I’d driven a thousand miles to say.

“Thank you for having me in your family,” I whispered to her. “And for being the best friend a Southern boy far from home and family could ever have found.”

“Do you know,” I paused and added from the door, remembering maybe the most ironic twist of all. “I’ve never made a hole-in-one on a golf course — only a Hogmanay Ace.” This seemed to please her.

“Maybe, James,” she said wryly, “you just need to keep trying.” PS Contact editor Jim Dodson at jim@pinestrawmag.com

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December 2013 P��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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new Holiday BeeRs To our friends and valued customers, For the past 30 years, Hawkins & Harkness Fine Jewelry has served the Southern Pines and Pinehurst area with elegant fine jewelry and award winning custom designs, and always with the personal attention you deserve.

Now, the time has come for us to pursue other interests and CLOSE OUR DOORS FOREVER!

The Best Locally Owned Place for Casual Dining, Plus We Have Gift Certificates In Any Denomination.

Call us to reserve your holiday party or catered event.

This will be our first and last sale ever at Hawkins & Harkness. We hope you will stop by and take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase something for yourself or someone special. We thank you for your support over the years and look forward to seeing you during the sale.

70 Sincerely,

Mark Hawkins & Paul Harkness Hawkins & Paul

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Casual Dining. serious FooD. PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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PinePitch Nollaig Shona Dhaoibh! Nollaig Chridheil! Happy Christmas!

The Lights of Home

The Episcopal Day School of Southern Pines will hold its 36th annual Candlelight Tour of Homes on Sunday, December 8, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Five beautiful homes in Southern Pines and Pinehurst will be decorated for the holidays. Homewood, rich with Southern Pines history, is this year’s featured home. Tickets: $20 in advance and $25 on the day of the tour. Advance tickets and information available at local stores or by calling The Episcopal Day School: (910) 692-3492.

Country Books at Christmas

Celebrate Grinch-mas at The Country Bookshop through December 26 with a Grow Your Heart 3 Sizes Bingo Card.

Complete a row of good deeds for a pin and Random House will donate a book to the community as part of the First Book scheme.

“Take Your Child To A Bookstore Day” is December 7. Bring a budding reader along to The Country Bookshop to share the joy that is the world of books. There’ll be giveaways for adult/child pairs too.

The Angel Tree is up and decorated with names of every Head Start child in the county. Help sponsor books for classroom author events through The Country Bookshop’s very special Christmas Tree.

The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines.

Information: (910) 692-3211 or www. thecountrybookshop.biz.

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Celebrate a Celtic Christmas at the Sunrise Theater at 7 p.m. on December 11, as Jennifer Licko returns to North Carolina for a third year of sell-out concerts. Jennifer combines the Appalachian music of her roots with the traditional Celtic music of her ancestors. With guitarist Patsy O’Brien, described by the Irish Examiner as “Ireland’s best kept musical secret,” and Zack Kline accompanying on fiddle, the concert will take on a lively bluegrass-meets-Celtic feel. Christmas songs in English, Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, and Jennifer’s original Irish Christmas song Nollaig na mBan. Admission: $13. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines. Tickets at the door or in advance: (561) 670-5534 or www.jenniferlicko.com.

Have Yourself a Historic Little Christmas

On Sunday, December 8, enjoy an old-fashioned Christmas by visiting the historic Bryant House and McLendon Cabin near Carthage, followed by an open house at Southern Pines’ Shaw House the following weekend, December 1315. Experience a taste of how early settlers in Moore County celebrated Christmas with old-time decorations, traditions and holiday cheer. There will also be refreshments and live music. Both events are 1 – 4 p.m. Free, sponsored by the nonprofit Moore County Historical Association. Hosted by the MCHA and Friends of the Bryant House. Donations welcome.

Bryant House and McLendon Cabin, 3361 Mount Carmel Road, Carthage. Shaw House, 110 West Morganton Road, Southern Pines. Information: www.moorehistory.com/ or (910) 692-2051

Where’s Waldo – Oops, We Meant Santa?

Santa is going to be busy parading this year. On December 3 at 6:15 p.m. he’ll be joining in the fun on Monroe Street at the Carthage Christmas Parade. Then a few days later, on December 7, he’ll return for the Southern Pines Holiday Parade at 10 a.m. along Broad Street.

Be there to cheer the old fellow on his merry Christmas way. Carthage info: (910) 947-2331 or www.townofcarthage. org. Southern Pines info: www.southernpines.biz.

December 2013 P��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

The next Generation

happy new Year Y’all!

New Year celebrations begin early in downtown Southern Pines. Start joining in the fun on December 31 at 6 p.m. with live music, carnival games, singing contests, face painting and much more, all running toward the highlight of the evening: the countdown to the pine cone drop at 8 p.m. Information: (910) 692-2361.

“Art is not a thing, it is a way,” said Elbert Hubbard. Find the way to the first floor of the Village House at the Penick Village, which is hosting the annual Next Generation: High School Art Show until January 2. The exhibition showcases the artwork of students from North Moore, Pinecrest, Union Pines and The O’Neal School.

Admire paintings, watercolors, sketches, photography, clay and more. Village House, Penick Village, 500 E. Rhode Island Avenue, Southern Pines. Open daily, 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Info: (910) 692 0449.

Step Back in christmas Time

Conjure up the spirit of Christmas Past with a Colonial Christmas at The House in the Horseshoe.

December 14 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. is Open House; — take in demonstrations of 18th century arts and crafts, thrill to the sight and sound of musketry and cannon fire, and enjoy period music and light refreshments. Admission is free. The house will be decorated for the holidays until early January. House in the Horseshoe, 288 Alston House Road, Sanford.

Information: (910) 947-2051.

The Art of a Thoughtful Gift

Double fun, Actually

On Saturday, December 21, The Arc of Moore County presents two holiday favorites at the Sunrise. Dress up in your festive best and join in with a sing-a-long of holiday songs, refreshments, a visit from Santa and . . . snow! The first movie will be Elf at 1 p.m., then come back for more fun and Love Actually at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $10 donation per person/per movie to The Arc of Moore County, which provides services and support to children and adults living with developmental disabilities. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines. Info: www.thearcofmoore.org.

Do your holiday shopping on December 6 and 7 from 10 a.m. – 4 p. m. at the Campbell House Galleries’ Art Sale — you’re sure to find a present for the artistic member of the family, even if that person is yourself! Spend some time indulging your muse, choosing between art, unique fashion jewelry by Carol Shannon of Perfect Presents, and silk flowers

by Cynthia Pizzini. While you’re browsing, enjoy the Arts Council’s Feature Art Exhibit: Works by the North Carolina Wildlife Society. Information: Arts Council of Moore County, Campbell House, 482 E. Connecticut Avenue, Southern Pines. (910) 692-2787.

rockin’ Around the christmas Tree

Gather at the Pinehurst Christmas tree on December 6 for this year’s tree lighting event. Hayrides, musical entertainment and food concessions for hungry revelers. Joy to the world and big smiles for everyone, which is good because there’ll be photos with Santa too. Festivities will run at the village of Pinehurst from 5 p.m. until 7:30 p.m., with the tree lighting ceremony scheduled for 6:30 p.m. For information, call (910) 295-1900 or www.vopnc.org.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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You may have heard

...

of Tiger Woods and other professional athletes traveling to Europe for platelet rich plasma treatments. You may have heard about Kim Kardashian and other starlets paying big bucks for the “Vampire Facial”. You no longer have to be rich or famous to have these treatments! They are available right here in Moore County!

Carolina Center for Pain

is pleased to be the first in Central Carolina to offer an exciting new treatment for tendon and joint problems – REGENERATIVE THERAPY. This therapy uses your own body’s stem cells and platelet rich plasma to heal inflammation and repair damaged tissue. This treatment is very effective for tennis elbow, bicipital tendonitis, plantar fascitis and major joint pain from arthritis, torn cartilage, rotator cuff tear, or other pathology.

The same platelet rich plasma,

obtained from your own blood, can be used to heal wrinkled skin. It has been called the “Vampire Facial” because of the red tint of the plasma. The Carolina Center for Pain is pleased to offer this treatment for facial cosmesis, in addition to botox and dermal fillers.

Carolina Center for Pain 293 Olmsted Boulevard, Ste. 4 Pinehurst, NC 28374 910-295-3200 910-295-3222 (Fax)

James T. Skeen, MD

14

Home • Auto • Health Farm • Business • Life www.pioneerinsurance.com 409 Johnson St, Aberdeen 910-944-2848

December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Gift Boxes in the Style of a Famous Artist

Artful and clever Christmas gift boxes are rare indeed at the holidays.

But what if that special gift were presented in a box designed by, say, Charles Schulz or Gustav Klimt? The mind bubbles with the creative possibilities, which is exactly what Sandhills Community College’s resident art guru and professor Denise Baker had in mind when she asked students in her 2-D Design class to create gift boxes inspired by a 19th or 20th century artist’s work. We think they outdid themselves with these — dare we say masterpieces of Christmas wrapping?

Tim Burton Box Design

By Barbie Bang

Roy Lichtenstein Box Design

By Rebecca Nance

George Seurat Box Design

Andy Warhol Box Design

By Jennifer Weygandt

By Mary Ann Welsch

Jackson Pollock Box Design

George Seurat Box Design

By Rodrick Graham

By Mary Ann Welsch

Gustav Klimt Box Design Charles Schulz Box Design

By Jermaine Guillergan

By Kenly Cox

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

15

WINTER SHOW DECEMBER 8, 2013 - JANUARY 12, 2014

Barbara Campbell Thomas, Jewel-like spot, 2013, acrylic and fabric on canvas, 20 x 18 inches

500 WORKS | 130 ARTISTS | ON EXHIBIT | FOR SALE | DOWNTOWN GREENSBORO

Art that makes you happy.

greenhillnc.org GIFT WRAP ACCESSORIES &

Cos and Effect

Child No.3

By Cos Barnes

Usually when

I do the laundry, I am in a hurry. I forget to check pockets. As a result, I wash golf tees, tissues and money.

The other day, however, I checked the pockets of my daughter’s robe before immersing it in the water. I found a note to Santa Claus, dated Christmas Eve. The note requested Santa not to forget the three children in her family although they were getting older.

She reminded Santa to remember her parents and her grandmother who was visiting. It was signed “Child No. 3.”

I chuckled over this reminder of the happy Christmas we had spent and was pleased that my baby — who seemed to be growing up much too fast — retained her childish delight in the custom of the season.

Yet the “Child No. 3” nagged at me.

I had always assumed life is kinder to the youngest child in a family. Siblings as well as parents assist in the growing up and learning processes. I knew this child, now the only one at home, had the undivided attention of her parents.

But did she?

I recalled the times we shushed her when one of the others called home with a problem about a class, a roommate, or a car.

I thought of the money spent on automobiles, tuition, food and clothing for the others, which made her needs seem inexpensive in comparison.

I remembered my insisting that she perfect skills, participate in school and church activities, and make good grades as the others had done.

I thought of the teachers who said to her, “I taught your brother. Are you as good in math as he was?” Or, “I remember your sister. She was the cut-

est cheerleader here.”

Her siblings’ frequent criticisms of her hair, her fingernails, her eyeglasses, delivered from the wisdom of their maturity, sometimes were received, I feared, with resentment.

I laughed over her emphatic and honest “yes!” when she was asked if she enjoyed being an only child.

A crumpled note, long forgotten, reminded me our task is not done.

Although we are down to one, she has to be assured of her individuality and encouraged to develop it.

She needs to see a confident image when she looks at herself, not a copy of someone else.

And we have to stay alert, be enthusiastic and attend games, recitals, band performances and PTA meetings. And we have to go through several more years of being labeled “straight” and overprotective.

We have to chauffeur children all over the neighborhood, wait in the car when she doesn’t want us to be seen, and be considered antiquated in our thinking and decision making.

You would think it would be easier the third time around. In many ways it is. We enjoy the undivided time we have with her, but we still don’t have a blueprint for childrearing. We’ll make mistakes like we did with the other two.

But she’ll know she has a special position in the family unit, and she’ll know her adolescence is the joy of our “middlesence.”

I laughed later when I saw her Valentine from her father. It was signed “Dad No. 2.” PS Child No. 3 was first published in Homelife in August 1980.

Cos Barnes is a longtime contributor to PineStraw magazine. She can be contacted at cosbarnes@nc.rr.com.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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PINEWILD CC

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Beautiful custom one story brick home with gorgeous views of #4 green of the Holly course. Perfect for entertaining, this home offers expansive living areas that take full advantage of the impressive views. The spacious sunroom opening off the living room really opens up the whole back of the home. The 4th bedroom, currently being used as an office has a full window wall and a wet bar. $375,000 3 BR / 3 BA Code 1087

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“Talent, Technology & TEAMWORK” Moore County’s Most Tucked away on a private wooded cul-de-sac just a block from the marina and Immaculate home onTrusted a double lot in a great Pinehurst neighborhood! The park, this gorgeous brick and stone custom home has it all! The great room features fenced back yard has lots of privacy and a large deck. a Virginia stacked stone fireplace and oak built-ins. Hardwood floors throughout Real Estate Team Charming kitchen and breakfast area open to the spacious great room. the home. Oversized 3-car garage and beautiful landscaping. $440,000 4 BR / 3 BA

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$179,000 Southern Pines Pinehurst $199,900 Foxfire Lovely and pristine in Longleaf CC Lovely updated golf-front home Cute cottage w/nice renovations 3 BR / 2 BA 3 BR / 2 BA 4 BR / 4.5 BA www.205HunterTrail.com www.4DogwoodCourt.com www.17ChestnutLane.com Spectacular end unit condo in The Villas at Forest Hills. This is the ultimate in carefree living - Hardwood floors, a gourmet kitchen and very high quality throughout this inviting home. This has been a second home and is very gently used! $349,000 3 BR / 3 BA Code 1057

MID-SOUTH CLUB

$585,000 Aberdeen $145,500 Pinehurst Fantastic, all-brick golf front home Cute home on large corner lot 4 BR / 3.5 BA 3 BR / 2 BA www.80LakewoodDrive.com www.110RavenswoodRoad.com

Enjoy expansive golf views and convenient one level living in this beautiful golf front home!

Spacious living and dining area offer crown molding, chandelier, and wide golf course views.

Gourmet kitchen features custom wood cabinets, under-cabinet task lighting, new granite countertops & appliances. Kitchen opens up to a wonderful family room w/cozy fireplace. flanked by bookshelves and built-in TV w/surround sound. $337,500 $449,000 Pinehurst $239,000 CCNC 3 BR / 2.5 BA Code 1040

Pinehurst $75,000 Pinehurst Covered porch & large fenced lot Updated Immaculate Golf View Condo 3 BR / 2.5 BA 1 BR / 1 BA SEVEN LAKES WEST www.210StAndrewsCondo.com www.1340BurningTreeRoad.com

Custom Built Villa Overlooking Water 3 BR / 2.5 BA PINEHURST www.8RoyalDornoch.com

Pristine and ready for the new buyer, this charming Abbey model in Camden Villas features two master suites with private baths and huge walk-in closets. Owner has updated with cherry hardwood and tile floors, maple cabinets and plantation shutters.

Kitchen features stainless steel appliances. Great golf views! $265,000 2 BR / 2Longleaf BA CCCode 1084 $329,000 $890,000

Custom built all brick golf-front home Brick single story w/view of 17th green 4 BR / 4 Full & 2 Half Baths PINEHURST3 BR / 2 BA www.16SteeplechaseWay.com www.110HearthstoneRoad.com

$1,295,000 $189,000 Pinehurst $269,000 Pinehurst $475,000 Pinebluff 7 Lakes West $635,000 Pinehurst Stunning custom home in Fairwoods on 7 Charming brick ranch home GorgeoustownhomeintheheartoftheVillage Open plan, gourmet kitchen, pool & more!

Stunning All Brick Water Front 4 BRVillage / 4 BAwith & 2 Half 3Beautiful BR / 2 BA 3 BR / 2.5 BA 3 BR / 2.5 BA 3 BR / 4.5 BA two-story brick home in Pine Grove great BA curb appeal!

Absolutely charming cottage home located on a large corner lot with extensive Gorgeous golf front home with expansive long views and wonderful privacy. This www.170InverraryRoad.com www.145SugarPineDrive.com www.105MastersWay.com www.6HollyHouse.com www.135AndrewsDrive.com This home offers plenty of space with formal and casual living areas, a deck, special home features hardwood floors throughout the main living areas, gourmet landscaping. The great room has an oversized stone fireplace, hardwood floors and is open to the well-designed kitchen and breakfast area. The master bedroom has a cathedral ceiling with ceiling to floor window. $292,500 3 BR / 2.5 BA Code 1089

kitchen with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, deep crown moldings, two gas log fireplaces and a screened porch that’s perfect for cool mornings and relaxing afternoons. Spacious downstairs area. $585,000 4 BR / 3.5 BA Code 1039

and a private backyard as well as a spacious 3-car garage! You will also find a first floor master and 3 guest bedrooms upstairs. $289,000 4 BR / 3.5 BA Code 1069

SEVEN LAKES SOUTH

SEVEN LAKES WEST

PINEHURST

$269,900 $187,900 Pinehurst $185,000 Southern Pines $225,000 Pinebluff Pinehurst $375,000 Foxfire Great home in family- friendly neighborhood Stunning new construction condo Golf front new construction in The Pines Immaculate all-brick w/golf views Elegant & luxurious w/spacious rooms 5 BR / 3 BA 3 BR / 2.5 BA 3 BR / 2 BA 2 BR / 2 BA 4 BR / 3 BA www.23BerylCircle.com www.100CypressCircle.com www.153LaurelOakLane.com www.18ShamrockDrive.com www.10StantonCircle.com

Great newer home in Seven Lakes South! Built by Brian Kendall in 2007, Great house in a great neighborhood! This lovely home has an open floor plan, Beautifully updated and maintained, this one story brick home offers a spathis immaculate home offers split bedroom plan with a spacious master suite, hardwood floors and a gourmet kitchen that opens to a cozy keeping room - perfect cious and open floor plan with wonderful privacy from the mature landscap$279,500 $298,000 Seven Lakes South $895,000 Seven Lakes West $241,000 Pinehurst Seven Lakes South $199,000 Pinehurst hardwood floors, inviting Carolina room, great kitchen, for family gatherings. The spacious master bedroom is on the main floor and the other ing. Huge master suite and master bath, split bedroom plan, a great kitchen Completely renovated golf front home Wonderful 2-story home on cul-de-sac Gorgeous home in the Oldmarina Townarea! $278,900 back yard Charming golfbeautifully front w/panoramic view Great family home w/private landscaped. $215,000 bedrooms upstairs. Within easy walking distance of the and oversized laundry room. $229,000 3 BR1080 / 3.5 BA 4 BR / 3BA 4 BR / 3 BA 33 BR BR //22.5 BABA Code 995 4 BR / 2.5 BA 4 BR / 3.5 BA Code 1086 3 BR / 2 BA Code

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

THE OMniVOROuS READER

Band of Brothers

How a band of talented military musicians drawn from North Carolina’s segregated high schools and colleges paved the way for racial understanding in Jim Crow America

By STePhen e. SMiTh

We associate the suc-

cesses of the civil rights movement with well-publicized personal moments — Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on the bus, or Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech — but progress in securing civil liberties often goes unheralded and is interrupted by social and legislative reactionism. Alex Albright’s thoroughly researched and beautifully written The Forgotten First: B1 and the Integration of the Modern Navy is the history of a World War II military band composed of black North Carolinians whose role in the struggle for equal rights has heretofore gone unacknowledged.

In June 1941, the Navy recruited a 45-member band of “men of the Negro race only” to be attached to the regional pre-flight training school in Chapel Hill. Before the establishment of B-1 (the band’s military designation), the Navy employed blacks as messmen only, and white Southern officers were always placed in command of black units because “It was generally considered that white Southerners were the only ones who knew ‘how to handle’ blacks.”

The men of B-1 were recruited from Greensboro’s Agricultural and Mechanical College (now North Carolina A&T State University), where they’d been trained by three of the best classical musicians of the 20th century — Bernard Mason, Warner Lawson and Nathaniel Dett — and from Dudley High School, which had a reputation for graduating outstanding musicians.

“The men that were recruited for the B-1 band were the best,” recalls

trumpeter Huey Lawrence. “They were the men who knew music. We read it; we could arrange it. Most people back then thought black music was just jamming. But we played the classics, for the officers, the admirals, for dances, for movie stars. We played stocks, concert music and marching songs.”

The B-1 recruits understood that they were breaking down racial barriers and that their all-black band was an experiment with integration, albeit on a unit level. They were promised by the Navy that they’d be stationed in Chapel Hill for the duration, and they were delighted with the notion that they’d be a presence at the all-white flagship university in their home state.

After completing basic training in Norfolk, B-1 made their grand entrance into Chapel Hill by marching down Franklin Street on August 2, 1942, where they were greeted, according to various witnesses and participants, with varying degrees of acceptance. James Parsons led the band on that Saturday march and recalled, “People started coming out on Franklin Street to see what was happening. They started jeering at us, calling us all kinds of ugly names, most of them racial slurs. They were throwing mud and rocks at us. I got cut on my cheek. At least one instrument was dented.

My men had mud all over them. But in the midst of all that, they held their heads high.” Other band members recalled their reception as warm and welcoming, and the August 2 march remains a topic of some disagreement among surviving band members.

But B-1 soon became a fixture in Chapel Hill. They played daily for the 8 a.m. flag raising and marched pre-flight cadets to and from class. Their daily schedule included regimental reviews, bond rallies, football and basketball games, concerts, patriotic assemblies and Sunday afternoon concerts in the Forest Theater. A dance band, the Cloudbusters, was organized from B-1 officers and quickly became a favorite at officer’s clubs and smokers. As one observer recalled, “They made Chapel Hill very proud. They definitely changed the town’s perceptions of blacks at the time — they had a significant effect.”

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 19

to: from: message: $:

GIF T CARD

THE OMniVOROuS READER

B-1 members could not attend classes at the university, and they weren’t encouraged to frequent the white businesses on Franklin Street, but their influence on the community, and by extension, the state, is undeniable. Their talent earned them a level of respect that wasn’t afforded blacks working menial jobs at the university, and their appearance on campus and in town did much to define UNC as the bastion of progressive idealism that it would later become.

The band’s most visible moment occurred in July 1943 when they were the featured attraction at the launching of the USS Merrick at the Wilmington, North Carolina, shipyards, where 5,300 blacks were employed and an audience of over 20,000 was in attendance. Governor Broughton was the keynote speaker and touted advancements in “racial harmony and progress,” citing nine-month school for blacks, supplemental teachers’ pay, and improvements made at state-supported black colleges.

In April 1944, B-1 was transferred to Hawaii, where they were housed on a base reserved for blacks only. They were allowed in the local restaurants and bars but were often refused service, and while their instruments were in transit, the men performed unskilled jobs such as cutting bamboo and painting. Instruments in hand, B-1 played for ship embarkations and for wounded men returning from the Pacific theater. And, of course, they marched in the VJ parade in Honolulu. “We must have marched for three hours that day,” recalls piccolo player Abe Thurman. “I think we marched through every street in Honolulu.”

But B-1’s return to postwar America was dispiriting. Jim Crow remained in force in North Carolina, and the returning vets had to abide by the whites only doctrine. “That really got to us,” recalls cornet player Bennie Laikin. “I felt real bad. . . . Things seemed to have changed in the Navy. But it was the same back home.”

Albright, a Graham native who is a founding editor of North Carolina Literary Review, has provided us with a valuable insight into the history of the state’s social evolution. His comprehensive study of the forgotten B-1 band places in perspective North Carolina’s current social and legislative struggle to overcome the vestiges of racism.

The Forgotten First: B1 and the Integration of the Modern Navy is available on Nook and Lulu and in hardcopy online at www.rafountain.com/ navy or by writing R.A. Fountain, P.O. Box 44, Fountain, N.C. 27829. PS Stephen Smith’s most recent book of poetry is A Short Report on the Fire at Woolworths. He can be reached at travisses@ hotmail.com.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .December 2013 21

BOOKSHELF

December Books Yule love ’em

KID PICKS selected by Angie Tally.

Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella. Author and illustrator Jan Brett follows up her bestselling book Mossy with this new picture book featuring her beloved chickens in starring roles in the classic fairy tale. Ages 3-6.

Secret Pizza Party by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmiero. The amazing author/illustrator team who first brought us Dragons Love Tacos strike gold again with this hilarious story of a raccoon with an insatiable craving for pizza. Perfect for any young reader who loves to giggle. Ages 3-6.

Frog Trouble. Sandra Boynton’s books are perpetual favorites, and this new music/picture book/CD combination will delight children ages 2-8, as well as the adults who share it with them.

22 December 2013

The Fantastic Family Whipple by Matthew Ward. Meet the Whipple family. All of them are world record holders many times over. All, that is, except 12-year-old Arthur, but when the biggest world record is on the line, will it be Arthur who ultimately saves the family? Pair this with a Guinness World Record book or a Weird But True fact book and you have the perfect gift for any 9-12-year-old.

Eye of Minds by James Dashner. This video-game-come-to-life has just enough twists, turns and real life villains to entice even the most dedicated electronic entertainment fan to put down the device and pick up a book. Ages 12-16.

ADULT FICTION PICKS selected by Beth Carpenter.

First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom. From the author of the bestselling Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven comes this page-turning mystery and a meditation on the power of human connection.

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

BOOKSHELF

***

Starry Night by Debbie Macomber. ’Tis the season for romance, second chances and Christmas cheer with this new novel from the author of The Inn at Rose Harbor and Rose Harbor in Bloom.

Christmas Bliss. Beloved Southern author Mary Kay Andrews returns to Savannah and the crazy, never boring world of Weezie and BeBe in this fun Christmas adventure.

Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovitch.

With bullet holes in her car, henchmen on her tail and a giraffe named Kevin running wild in the streets of Trenton, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum must catch a notorious mob boss before he catches her first.

Cross My Heart by James Patterson. In this, the most mesmerizing Alex Cross mystery so far, the detective faces a foe who understands Alex’s deep dedication to his family and uses Alex’s strength as a weapon against him in the most unsettling and unexpected novel of James Patterson’s career.

***

NONFICTION PICKS selected by Bill Maher.

Bully Pulpit. Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the long-running best-seller Team of Rivals, describes in her newest biographical masterpiece, the broken friendship between Teddy Roosevelt and his chosen successor, William Howard Taft, during the heyday of print journalism. Goodwin chronicles the circumstances that led to the demise of Roosevelt’s progressive wing of the Republican party. An absolute MUST for history buffs.

One Summer, America, 1927.

1927 Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Al Capone, Al Jolson. These bigger-than-life characters and many more made the summer of 1927 one of the most significant in American history, and in the capable story-telling hands of author Bill Bryson, readers are transported back to this amazing time of legendary personalities, amazing events and just plain outrageousness.

Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics.

From America’s preeminent columnist, Charles Krauthammer, comes the long-awaited collection of writings on topics that fascinate Americans; whether feminism, evolution, and the death penalty, or bioethics and Jewish destiny from Woody Allen to Winston Churchill.

Empire of the Summer Moon. A “Bill’s Pick” at the Country Bookshop for most of 2013, this historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West is an absolute MUST for any history lover who hasn’t yet had the pleasure. PS

Apparel

CoolSweats Gentlemen’s Corner The Faded Rose The Village Fox Boutique

Boutiques

Eye Max Optical Boutique Green Gate Gourmet Green Gate Olive Oils The Potpourri Old Sport & Gallery Tesoro Home Decor & Gifts

Salons & Spas

Elaine’s Hairdressers

Restaurants & Inns Lady Bedford’s Tea Parlour & Gift Shoppe

Services

Village of Pinehurst Rentals & Golf

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .December 2013 23

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Carolyn ragone

280 Fairway Southern Pines 3BR/3BA on 1.4 acres.

“Hill Cottage” circa 1956. Large rooms thru-out. Prime location.

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910.603.4114 Carolyn Ragone Real Estate, LLC

39 Scioto Lane, Pinehurst #6, 3BR/2BA Private setting, gleaming hardwood floors. MLS#155922

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910.315.2622 Binky Albright Properties, LLC

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Binky alBright

37 +/- Acres of beautiful flat land on Pendergrass and runs along Lerome, an entrance into The Carolina Horse Park at Five Points. MLS #155486

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Area Real Estate Partners, Inc.

1 Crystal Court, Pinehurst, Brick, Split 3BD/2.5BA, Carolina Room, Deck, Office, Large Kitchen & Master. Easy Stroll to “The Ponds” - Immediate Occupancy!

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910.695.0352 Covington Investment Properties

3705 Youngs Rd, Wonderful Horse Farm with 3 stall barn.

3 Br/3 Ba, 5 acres. Less than a mile to Downtown So. Pines

www.covingtonNC.com

910.691.2008 Real Estate Consultants, LLC

22 Bobolink Rd., Foxfire. Golf course lot, large 3BR 2B with many upgrades. Meticulously maintained and ready to move in. Call today!

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New Price - $499,999 - Villa 10 Royal Dornoch Lane, CCNC. Lovely 3Br, 2-1/2+1/2Ba Villa, 2875 Sqft, Immaculate With Gorgeous View Of Lake.

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Fox Creek Real Estate

Exquisite William E. PooleDesign in Woodlake CC, 4/5 BR, 3.5 baths, beautiful must see.

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M u s i n g s , E tc.

The Village in My Head Christmas is a grand time to go wandering in the past

By Barbara R ichie Pond

Photograph from the Moore County Historical Association

Christmastime in Carolina, and par-

ticularly in central downtown Southern Pines, is for me a stirring mental experience. Peering into Southern Pines’ history is like peering into her soul, and her soul is well worth understanding. Every resident should meet her on tour with the Ghost of Christmas Past — as I recently did.

When I was a small child growing up in Raleigh, my parents, my combative siblings and I would pile into Daddy’s company-owned black Pontiac as Christmas Eve approached to cruise the city’s most elegant streets. We gawked at decorated, roadside cedars; shining colored-bulbed entranceways; and a variety of tinsel-laden evergreens, peeking from behind den blinds or blaring forth unabashedly from undressed picture windows. Sighing, we pressed our freshly washed faces against the back-seat windows and smudged the thick glass with our lips and fingertips. Our then-modern transport crawled by neighborhood homes — brick, stone, wood — and even checked out suburban strip-mall parking lots. Finally, as customary, Daddy would aim us down Hillsborough Street, straight past N.C. State University and toward the greendomed Capitol.

My family has carried on this same, timeless tradition in Southern Pines since 1975. For so many holiday rides, I reveled only in the light show, until

the day I looked upon Southern Pines through the lens of Christmases and decades past.

Having spent many hours poring over Moore County historical accounts, I had totally lost myself in local history. My whole hometown paradigm had changed over the course of a year. This new construct was sparked by my teaching North Carolina history as a secondary educator and by my experiencing adrenaline-pumping, aha moments in town history research.

With Christmas Eve making a quick approach, I meticulously planned my route. My family and I piled into our mud-slung truck and headed down East Indiana toward Southern Pines. We turned onto South East Broad Street, heading north; and I tried to visualize what city founder John Patrick must have viewed in the late 1800s when he dubbed the area Vineland and pronounced it a healthful haven for the sick and consumptive. I could see a few still-towering magnolias there that were planted by Dr. Swett, who owned all the property between Pennsylvania and New York avenues on the east, and whose house sat slam-dunk in today’s Downtown Park. I peered at the streetlight at the corner of East New York and Broad, shedding its light on that same Downtown Park — the scene of Old-Slave-Day festivities (the only ones in N.C.), filled with country cooking; convicting sermons; lively singing; and the engaging tales of Demas Taylor, who told them there through his 106th year. We steered onward, turning left off North East Broad Street, just past the Short Shop. Skimming over the train tracks onto West Vermont, I looked backward up the hill across May Street to see the entrance to Weymouth. I realized few people knew that the very first formal foxhunting club in the Old North State was born there.

As our tires touched North West Broad Street, which eventually becomes

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 25

M u s i n g s , E tc.

Midland Road, I remembered that Midland Road was the first divided highway in the whole U.S.A.; and before that, it was an ancient Indian trail (the Yadkin Trail). North Carolina’s Sioux Indians, of course, converted the Yadkin and Pee Dee trails into honest-to-goodness roads (present Midland Road, in the early days, ran to an Indian encampment, located between the 15-501 Traffic Circle and Pinehurst village’s eastside).

We halted at the stop sign as we reached Bennett Street (the old Capital to Capital Highway for auto-blessed tourists). We turned left onto Bennett, Southern Pines’ original main street, and we motored past Calvary Christian School and Lake Calvary — not to be confused with the old lake bed on that property that once lay below the famous 1890s resort hotel, sitting high up, on the ridge above. Why, all of Southern Pines was called Shaw’s Ridge before Southern Pines was even Southern Pines! I could smell the saddle horses at the Piney Woods Inn and even glimpse a rudimentary golfing area there (because one existed at that time). Glancing to my right over the school’s rooftops, I could still envision the glistening, cheery porches of the Inn, just before she burned in thirty terrifying minutes in 1910, with the East Southern Pines townspeople looking over the brambles in outright horror. Some of the old pillars and foundations of the Piney Woods still lie on private property, on Kensington Road’s dead end.

Continuing up the street, through the intersection of Bennett and West Illinois, where the Calvary property ends, I imagined the layout of the two Native American campsites that previously occupied that space. I pictured downtown Southern Pines as a series of Indian dwellings and pondered native village life, without European settlers or early American immigrants.

Moving on, we took another left off Bennett onto Morganton Road, passing the Shaw House (near the ancient Pee Dee Trail). I mentally revisited the 1920s and 1930s, when Morganton was just a sandy lane to Pinehurst, when James and Jackson Boyd, Pappy and Ginnie Moss, L.P. Tate and others —

Yankee and local horsemen — chased red foxes clear to Pinehurst on cold, rosedawn mornings. Often, they watered their mounts at the nearby Highland Pines Inn. Some days, they dragged themselves home at noon.

There, where Morganton became May Street, I found myself imagining longleaf forests and turpentine distilleries and railroad buildings. As I approached East Connecticut Avenue, I pictured the trauma that must have been felt by Moore residents and non-locals who participated during the Civil War Rebel-Union skirmishes farther down on East Connecticut Avenue extension. We turned left immediately onto East Connecticut toward North East Broad Street again. We passed Ashe Street, and I could drink in the savor of turkey and dressing, proudly arrayed on boarding house tables, during past Christmas Eves. I imbibed the tasty odors, too, from all those other former Tree City guest dwellings — on May, Bennett, New York, Railroad, New Hampshire . . .

Somehow, I missed the spectacle of lights that year. But ringing in my ears were the bells of Christmas past; and I held a new, divine appreciation for our rich Southern Pines heritage. As we found East Indiana Avenue again, I could still smell raw pine, recently axed, hanging in the air. I imagined long-ago snowy rooftops, Christmas Eve cantatas, tiny tot pageants, Joy to the World choirs, holiday hunt breakfasts, and package-laden grandmothers waddling past mainstreet shops. Then, I found a tear in my eye as I thought of old John Patrick, who turned Southern Pines into a health resort and then died in 1918 in the Southlands Inn on New Hampshire.

The present confronted me. I had traveled only a small downtown rectangle of carefully laid-out blocks, but I found myself immersed in the rich historical heritage of Southern Pines. I wanted to know more of her buried-inhistory treasures. Christmas lights and idyllic decorations warm the heart, but the mysterious past of the sleepy village of Southern Pines warms the inquisitive, home-loving soul. PS

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hiTTinG hOMe

The Perfect christmas

If I want it that way, guess I’ll have to do it myself — as always

By DaLe niXon

After centuries —

OK — decades of choreographing Christmas, I’m getting pretty durned tired of it all.

I have complained so much the last ten years, my two daughters volunteered to take over the holiday responsibilities and help me out.

They won’t do it right.

There are the Christmas trees. I have two. The big one is color co-ordinated to match the living room. I use gold and red ornaments only, with gold beads interspersed throughout the tree. It is elegant and beautiful.

The small tree in the den is the one with all of the special ornaments.

Ornaments I have given each member of my family to represent what they have accomplished throughout the year. These ornaments do not have to match anything except an experience or a memory from the heart. It is tacky but sentimental.

I fear they will get all of the ornaments confused and placed on the wrong trees. Then I’ll have two tacky trees instead of just one. And, oh my gosh, what if they make the lights blink on and off instead of twinkle? What if they throw tinsel at the trees instead of placing one strand at a time on each branch?

I’ll just have to decorate both trees because they won’t do it right.

And what about the packages that go under the tree? Do they know to wrap the presents in red and green foil only or place them in shiny red and green bags? No other colors are allowed, and Christmas prints and patterns are unacceptable.

They won’t do it right. I’ll wrap the packages.

They will most certainly hang the stockings with care, but will they remember that I won’t let anyone use them? They are for decoration only. I spent hours stitching them and I’m always afraid that stuffing them will get them out of shape. Will they remember to place Christmas bags under each stocking for all of the goodies?

Guess I had better handle the stockings because I’m afraid they won’t do it right.

There’s the tumbling Santas that go in the windowsill over the kitchen

sink. Will they realize that one of the ceramic Santas has a broken leg? Will they remember to place a sprig of holly to camouflage his severed limb? Surely not. I just know they won’t do it right. I’ll handle the tumbling Santas.

I wonder if they will try to hang fresh mistletoe instead of the faux metal one I have hung for years? I like the faux metal one. I’ll hang it before they get here because I know they won’t do it right.

Will they set the dinner table with my Christmas china or will they try to use my everyday pattern? I hope they don’t forget about the Spode Christmas tree glasses or the gold-plated flatware I use each year.

I’ll get everything down from the cabinet, wash and dry each piece, and set the table for them.

Pink poinsettias will not work with my Christmas décor. I’m really not crazy about white ones either. I’ll pick up some red ones when I am at the market and take that decision off them.

Will they remember to put candles in all the windows? To have garbage bags handy on Christmas morning to throw our wrapping paper in? To have a batch of Chex mix on hand? To make sugar cookies and decorate them with our names? To place the Christmas pillows on the sofa? To buy the toilet paper with Santa embossed on each sheet? To put out the holiday guest towels?

I’ll just do all of that for them because I want Christmas to be done right.

When the girls came to help, I told them I didn’t need their help. I had decided to go ahead and do it myself.

They whooped with laughter and squealed, “You didn’t think we would do it right.”

They walked from room to room admiring my handiwork and then asked where I had placed the manger scene.

I had forgotten it in my commercial Christmas decorating frenzy.

They went to the attic and came down with the manger scene and placed it front and center in the den.

Next year I will relinquish my Christmas responsibilities because my girls do know how to do it right. PS Columnist Dale Nixon may be contacted at dalenixon@carolina.rr.com.

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T h e k i t c h e n ga r d e n

Grow a Pear

The gift of fresh fruit — from a living tree — could be the gift that keeps on giving

By Jan Leitschuh

Partridges in pear trees aside, the gift of a potted fruit tree — one bearing, say, juicy, highly perishable, delectable fresh pears — makes an outstanding holiday gift for the right sort of plantcrazed person. And we all know one, or two.

Fortunately, this time of year is a great time to plant dormant fruit trees.

Fancy fruit baskets containing pears will be exchanged this month. To a dedicated kitchen gardener, however, what could be better than visions of one’s own sugar pears dancing in one’s head? The very thought of homegrown abundance is as juicy and delectable in December as the actual fruit itself is in warmer seasons — making your gift selection a fortuitous two-fer.

A favorite memory is of my friend Barb, now sadly deceased, standing beneath a heavily laden pear tree on her Montgomery-Moore County line farm, the branches nearly cracking with the weight of the golden fruits. Such sweet and fragrant abundance on a small scale! Barb did nothing to encourage this beyond clearing away the grass. Her tree was simply tough and productive and suited to its site. Family, friends, dogs and farm animals all feasted on the juicy harvest.

If you or your deserving friend has a spot of sunny land, a well-chosen European pear tree or two should thrive in our easily dug sand and our late Zone 7a/early Zone 8b climate. This is an excellent season to plant dormant potted fruit trees. The timing allows them to establish some roots in the native soil before summer’s drought and heat hits. Slip the tree out of its pot slightly to check the condition of the roots (slightly, gently — you don’t want to abuse your nurseryman’s stock and good will!).

You’ll want to avoid a root-bound specimen, where the the plant's roots circle the pot. Rootbound plants tend to circle the planting hole, instead of spreading out. A slight bit of circling can be managed by untangling,

then splaying out to ensure a broad root area.

You don’t see many commercial pear operations in North Carolina although we have a thriving apple industry here. The two fruits require similar handling, pruning and disease management. Both also prefer a good deep soil, and our rock-free sand qualifies.

Why not more commercial pear production here, rather than the productive West Coast states? Two issues seem to limit pear growing here to homeowners, hobbyists and a few enterprising farmers-market types.

The first issue is that spring blooms of pears are early and thus often blasted by our capricious March frosts. Not much one can do about that, though I have thrown a blanket over a small tree at home and managed to save the blossoms. Of course, no flowers, no fruit. While homeowners and hobbyists can hang on for the next year with only hope, hope doesn’t pay the bills for farmers, who have a hard time paying their land taxes and investment without an annual crop.

The second issue is a nasty bacterial disease called fireblight, common in this area. You’ll see it on ornamental Bradford pears sometime. The disease spreads during our hot, wet summer spells. The most visible symptom of the disease is a blackened limb in summer, the branch tip curling back like a shepherd’s hook. It actually looks like someone took a blow torch to the limb, and unchecked, the disease can kill a tree. Homeowners can trim a limb 8-12 inches below the last damage. The clippers should then be disinfected in rubbing alcohol, lest they transfer the destructive bacteria to yet another branch or tree.

My childhood Wisconsin memories include the apple orchard pruners of late winter, dipping their clippers after every cut into a handy can of disinfectant wired to their belts. They were trying to prevent the spread of disease, foremost among them fireblight, which also can affect apples. Avoid using high-nitrogen fertilizers, which encourage the fast tender young growth the disease favors. Avoid damaging the soft water sprouts that form at the base of the trunk during the growing season; weed eater damage can lead to entry of infection. Unsightly water sprouts can be safely trimmed off in late

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 31

The kiTchen GArDen

winter, when general pruning for near-horizontal fruit-bearing limbs is also best undertaken.

The key to minimizing both blossom-nipping by frost and fireblight is to choose your varieties wisely. Forget, for example, the well-known Bartlett pear — this popular Western variety succumbs easily to the devastating fireblight, although you’ll see it sold freely at the local big-box stores.

There are several good bets for fireblightresistant varieties for the Sandhills region.

First possibility is the reliable, allaround, Bartlett-type pear “Moonglow,” which will grow in our zone 7b/8a. This attractive, red-blushed pear is excellent for fresh eating, aromatic and juicy. You’ll get a lot from a mature tree, and they won’t keep forever, so after eating your fill, give them away, freeze or can. As with all pears, refrigeration slows and even stops ripening. Remove a few to the counter to ripen at leisure.

“Keiffer” is a fall-bearing pear, beloved of deer hunters. The most widely planted pear in the South, this hard, greenish-yellow workhorse has a coarse, juicy flesh. It’s self-fertile, meaning it will pollinate itself, as well as other pears in the area. It also cooks up well.

Makes a good, chunky pear preserve. I love to combine this pear with figs and a little lemon, stewed down to a fig-pear sauce to accompany fall meats — or just as a delicious, sweet stewed dessert in itself.

Seckel, a delicious, smallish dessert pear, is a chubby little thing with its reddish-brown blush over yellow. The flesh of a Seckel is white and sweet.

Seckel is the smallest of all commercially grown pears, but good things come in small packages. Petite Seckel is a good size for snacking and lunch boxes.

It’s so sweet, it’s sometimes referred to as “the sugar pear.”

Another European pear variety, Magness, is often mentioned as fireblight resistant, though I know little about it.

The somewhat different Asian pear — hard, round and crunchy — also has varieties less prone to fireblight, but this type of pear does not have the shape and texture of a European pear.

Besides Moonglow, Keiffer and Seckel, there are two other varieties to consider for local growing and fireblight resistance, says Jim Babb, who runs Wadd’s Creek, a registered nursery west of Carthage specializing in low-spray/no-spray fruit varieties suitable for the area. The variety “Orient” is a good all-purpose pear, as it can be eaten fresh as a dessert pear but also lends itself to cooking.

Another Wadd’s Creek option, “Pineapple,” is “a very old variety around here that fruits in August. It has a little hint of a pineapple taste, and it’s best for preserves and pear butter, and the like.” he says. It’s a tough and sturdy tree often found on old homesteads. I believe this was the variety growing on my friend Barb’s farm, as it received no special care yet fruited like crazy.

i love to combine this pear with figs and a little lemon, stewed down to a fig-pear sauce to accompany fall meats

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The kiTchen GArDen

Some literature suggests it might be prone to fireblight, but local experience suggests perhaps not.

Wadd Creek Nursery’s new stock is usually ready for purchase sometime around mid-December.

Pears can be somewhat granular in flesh texture. They grow gritty little bits called stone cells. Some of the grit is variety-caused, some is management-mitigated. Home orchardists can minimize the stone cells by picking mature pears green-ish off the tree and ripening at home. If you pick pears that hang on their trees too long, they can also get soft and mushy. Best to test your own tree’s habits, and experience will teach you when to pick. Note the date for next year.

“Pears ripen from the inside out,” explains Babb. “If you wait until the outside is soft, the inside will be brown. Pick them when they’re still green, wrap them in paper and store them somewhere cool to finish ripening.” A green pear, for example, will turn yellow — much like the ripening process of a green banana.

No need to hide them in the kitchen either. Often a subject of oil painters, the elegant pear classes up the joint. A bowl of pears ripening on a table looks fabulous. You needn’t grow your own — the produce sections of the store have beautiful pears this time of year. A handsome holiday display is to line a bowl with a red napkin and pile up red and green pears. Tuck in sprigs of holly or pine, and an ornament or two. This allows the fruit to ripen off the counter while cheering up the decor. Press the stem end of pears for softness to gauge ripeness. Serve fresh or poached.

Holiday pears also go well with cheese and prosciutto. My mother used to serve a pear half dabbed with cream cheese and topped with a walnut during my 1950s childhood. A clever holiday dessert idea I’ve seen but have

yet to try is to bake, say, a cranberry pie, then top with a circle of pear halves.

In the middle, lay a pasty cutout of a partridge. You can use pears in recipes that call for apples, and they bake well with sweet potatoes. I recall a divine pear-sweet potato souffle at the landmark “sacred ground of New Southern Cooking,” Crook’s Corners in Chapel Hill.

But a ripe, sweet and juicy pear often needs little to dress it up. Bearing in mind the season, here are two simple methods to present the holiday pears tucked into those fruit baskets you’ve received. Partridge optional.

christmas cinnamon Pears

These red gems look lovely on a Christmas platter. Dissolve a package of Red Hot cinnamon candies in boiling water, then cool. Some folks add a drop of red food coloring for intensity. Place pear halves, cores removed, in a deep bowl and cover with Red Hot solution. Refrigerate overnight, drain.

Looks especially nice against bright green Bibb leaves.

christmas Poached Pears

Adults may prefer pears poached in a syrup of red or white wine, lemon, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, sugar and oranges. Add intact peeled pears and, turning occasionally, simmer until pears are easily pierced, about 20-25 minutes. PS Jan Leitschuh is a local gardener, avid eater of fresh produce and cofounder of the Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative.

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By roByn James

These are the best wines

for you to bestow on your true love this Christmas.

Adelsheim Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, $27

Tangy raspberry fruit accompanies a luscious streak of smooth, dark chocolate and an espressodrenched finish.

Moët Chandon Rosé Imperial Champagne, $66

Kenwood Jack London Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma, $26

Shafer Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay, Napa, $63

Marenco Pineto Brachetto D’Acqui, Italy, $23

Yalumba Organic Viognier, Australia, $17

Tomasello Winery Cranberry Wine, New Jersey, $11

A gorgeous dry rosé with layers of raspberry, cherry, fig and smoke.

Buttercream, jammy tropical fruit, orange custard, vanilla, buttered toast and brown sugar flavors.

Supple and brimming with honeysuckle-immersed pear, lemon and passion fruit flavors.

Foxglove Chardonnay, Central Coast, $15 PHotograPH by JoHn gessner

flavors of watermelon, smoky spice and vanilla.

Classy and well-made, without any apparent oak. Very clean and lively, with classic chardonnay notes of juiced apple, citrus and minerality.

Elena Walch Gewürztraminer, Italy, $19 The huge bouquet is redolent of pressed yellow flower, jasmine, honey, candied fruit and Indian rose water.

Childress Holiday Blush, North Carolina, $10

Crisp and lively, with a salmon hue and lush

Six Thirty e v e n t

s p e c i a l i s t s

It has the scent of roses and the bright red fruit of wild berries, with equal freshness in tannins.

Tangy and bubbly, this shows a chocolate overtone to the flavors of sour cherry, crème de cassis and smoke.

A perfect balance of light sweetness and tart, refreshing cranberry.

Quinta Noval Black Port, Portugal, $24

Shows beautiful aromas of sliced plum and peach, with raspberry jam. Medium-bodied and lightly sweet, with fine tannins and a fruity finish. Refined and pretty.

Schmitt Söhne Glühwein, Germany, $9

Warm, spicy and slightly sweet holiday treat! PS Robyn James is proprietor of The Wine Cellar and Tasting Room in Southern Pines. Contact her at winecellar@ pinehurst.net.

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PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � December 2013 35

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MAn On The TOWn

in Search of christmas Spirits (And a merry Moscow Mule to you)

By KeVin Drum

PHotograPHs tHIs Page by JoHn gessner

it’s tough sometimes to get in the Christmas spirit with no snow in our nice temperate climate. It seems everyone needs a white Christmas to let the yuletide ring even though the first one celebrated on American soil was in Florida in 1539 (and I’m sure it wasn’t a white Christmas).

But we all sometimes need a little extra help here in the Sandhills so Christmas doesn’t sneak up on us — I suggest a Christmas cocktail at an inspiring venue. I have developed a foolproof formula to get myself and any other Scrooge in my life ready for St. Nick by creating a “Holiday Cocktail Trail.”

Three essential criteria must be met to be a stop on my exclusive trail: 1) a stately venerable resort hotel, check; 2) a boatload of Christmas decorations, check; 3) a roaring fire near a well-stocked bar with signature cocktails, check. While locals don’t always frequent our historic golf tourist resorts, this is a great time for all of us to go for a visit. They are dressed up in their holiday best and are the perfect antidote for the Scrooge in your life (even if it’s you) and good places for a shopping break, or to take your visiting friends and family.

And they are a fantastic place to hide from them briefly and return renewed with Christmas cheer.

The scenario is simple: It’s early December and you’re just not ready to buy into this whole St. Nick thing. Just stop what you’re doing and saunter over to the first stop on the “Trail” — The Carolina Hotel. You will find yourself recounting the reindeer names while climbing the steps under the resort portico. Once inside the famed lobby, you will be enveloped in garlands, wreaths and even a gingerbread house — and you are ready to buy your daughter a pony. Enter the Ryder Cup Lounge, named for the time Pinehurst hosted the event in 1951. Park yourself by the Christmas tree next to the fireplace and order a Holiday Hopper.

It combines crème de menthe, white crème de cacao, Bailey’s Irish Cream and a crushed candy cane and sugar rim, garnished with whipped cream and a candy cane. It’s got all the holiday flavors in one drink. After warming your toes and filling yourself with liquid cheer, you’ll be ready to get her two ponies so the first one doesn’t get lonely! That is the power of the Holiday Cocktail Trail.

But just to make sure, mosey on down through the decorated village of Pinehurst past the community Christmas tree and head to the second stop on this quest, The Holly Inn, a beautiful sister property of the Carolina, built in 1895. If the walk through this picturesque New England-style village to the Holly didn’t move you even further into a North Pole attitude, entering The Tavern at the Holly and sitting by the fireplace in the lobby should push you to the mistletoe edge. Order one of their signature cocktails, like hot buttered rum, a holiday classic.

Nothing like a touch of butter, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, grated nutmeg, ground cloves and a pinch of salt to give your belly the same warmth your toes are feeling by the fire. With some luck, you might see Frank drive by in his carriage lit up with Christmas lights and you are now ready to max out that credit card and deliver on the promise of the holiday season.

But maybe you need more help and you’re in Southern Pines shopping when you’ve lost your holiday mojo despite the festive Christmas trees lining Broad Street. Fear not, there are two great stops on the Holiday Cocktail Trail nearby to get you back to a North Pole state of mind. First is the short drive to Mid Pines Resort, where this classic structure takes on a life of its own when decorated for the holidays. Enter this historic hotel and go past the Christmas tree and turn left down the hall, past the blazing fireplace, to Pop’s Lounge overlooking the eighteenth green. I recommend a Moscow Mule with its mix of vodka, lime and ginger beer reminding me of a gingerbread cookie in liquid form. Wander the decorated hallways or sit

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � December 2013 37

38 December 2013P������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

MAn On The TOWn

and watch the golfers play eighteen in their fleece while you’re by the fire. Better make it a double before you go deal with the bill at the jewelry store to make up for the lack of spirit last year.

But to make sure you’re ready to overcome Christmas past, go across the street to the next (and final) stop, the Pine Needles Lodge. There is nothing like the rustic ski lodge atmosphere to help you lower your guard and embrace the holidays. The In the Rough Lounge, located in the lobby of the main lodge, has not one but two roaring fireplaces and a comfortable bar overlooking the Donald Ross course. Park yourself by one of these fireplaces and order a Nutty Irishman, a cocktail red-nosed Santa would enjoy himself.

With Jameson whiskey, Bailey’s, Frangelico and coffee, it’s the perfect cocktail to go over your list and check it twice.

I love my local watering holes, and they are wonderful places to share the warmth of the holidays with friends. But December is a great time to venture beyond the familiar and enjoy the grandeur, comfort and hospitality of our local resorts. Let them recharge your Christmas batteries with holiday atmosphere, a warm fire and a cocktail. And once you’ve rested a spell, shared good cheer with like-minded souls, and had your fill of the Christmas spirits, you will be well on your way to spreading love, peace and good will — the charge of the season. PS Kevin Drum, our man on the town, grew up in the Sandhills, though it’s not true he had his first beer before he could walk.

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40 December 2013

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Out of the Blue

The Big Picture

On this beautiful blue planet in a vast universe, what’s really larger than life?

By Deborah Salomon

Any film starring George Clooney,

Sandra Bullock and planet Earth viewed from outer space, in 3-D, has to be worth the price of admission despite a silly Jetsons plot and a few gratuitous expletives. I’ll take my teenage grandsons to see Gravity.

Well, the ride proved terrifying for me, not them, in unexpected ways.

I expected action, danger, monster machines and special effects, not the reality of a vast, black nothingness — trillions and trillions of square miles — just above Earth’s atmosphere.

You could say it’s bigger than both of us.

I don’t know where that platitude originated, except “it” often refers to love.

Sadly, all too often romantic love topples from bigger to manageable to oops.

What else might be eligible, I wondered, now that aliens are credited for engineering the pyramids? What mystery supersedes understanding?

Christmas, stripped of tinsel and Rudolph, retains a bigness even after being investigated, challenged, interpreted and updated. Now, the “inn” with no rooms is thought to have been a home. Since turning guests away, especially a woman in labor, violated hospitality, they were offered a clean stall in the stable. The star followed by the Magi occurred naturally, astronomers say. Yet for people who do not question the fundamentals and even some who do, the event transpiring that night was bigger than all of us.

I feel the bigness when recounting the Passover exodus: Ten plagues (including frogs and locusts), an entire population trudging behind its leader through a parted Red Sea — all enormous, paranormal happenings that probably never happened per se but, nevertheless, wrought an impact undeniably bigger than both of us — comparable, at the time, to the endless universe we visualize without comprehending.

Something like the birth of a child, now witnessed daily on daytime TV, but nonetheless huge, bigger than all of us since without it, the human race would face extinction in a cosmic nanosecond. Birth, like the sunrise and tides, occurs so often that we take it for granted while fawning over a nascent iPad. Not all bigs come out positive.

Cancer. That lone word implies an enormity, an unknown blackness that blankets treatments, drugs, remissions and cures. Read the face of a patient.

Some are already in another place, a place where hope battles uncertainty, a place bigger than both of us.

Tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes are so much bigger (and more frequent) that spectators have become familiar with images, therefore inured: the infant found alive after two days, the photo albums ripped and strewn by the winds. But survivors’ accounts — even those elicited by the cleverest reporter — do not speak to catastrophic forces.

Because there are no words.

Yet what I see in the eyes of a faithful dog, what I hear in booming Beethoven, mathematical Mozart and the ethereal strains of Gregorian chant provide the balance of beauty. Great big gorgeous knock-your-socks-off beauty. Beauty so overwhelming, so affirming that it speaks for itself.

Beauty bigger than both of us.

Therefore this holiday season, let us all, regardless of beliefs, make an effort to put aside the gaudy, the glitter, the ephemeral, the fleeting or abiding horrible and, for once, focus on the big, bigger, biggest picture.

Because even from Gravity’s terrifying outer space, Earth — shining blue and green through an atmospheric halo — looks pretty darn good. PS Deborah Salomon is a staff writer for PineStraw and The Pilot. She may be reached at debsalomon@nc.rr.com.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 41

Merry as Christm

42 December 2013P������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

A N EN G LI S H W O M A N IN T HE S A N D HILL S

The Ghost of Christmas Pudding In place of the warm, gooey, perfect cannonball of traditional English holiday cheer, I’ll have a piece of good old American apple pie, please

By Serena Brown

“When we got

here last Saturday night, we found that Mrs. Fields had not only garnished the rooms with flowers, but also with holly (with real red berries) and festoons of moss dependent from the looking-glasses and picture frames. She is one of the dearest little women in the world. The homely Christmas look of the place quite affected us. Yesterday we dined at her house, and there was a plum-pudding, brought on blazing, and not to be surpassed in any house in England.”

From a letter by Charles Dickens to Georgina Hogarth, Boston, Sunday, December 22, 1867.

Mrs. Fields, author and influential wife of Dickens’ friend and publisher, James T. Fields, deserves every compliment that Boz heaped upon her when he visited Boston. Dickens was giving readings of A Christmas Carol at the time, so it is likely she was familiar with the glorious descriptions of celebratory fare in the story, and she clearly understood the importance of the seasonal plum pudding to her English visitor. Nowadays plum pudding — there are no plums in the pudding in the modern sense; it’s an archaic reference to raisins — is eaten almost exclusively at Christmas in the British Isles, hence we refer to it as Christmas pudding.

The excellent Mrs. Fields must have done her research very carefully when she was planning how to make Dickens feel at home during his American tour. If she were entertaining him today, nothing would change. In 21st century England, my mother still decorates the house with deep green foliage (with real red berries), and every year a plum pudding is brought on blazing, the theatrical piece de resistance of the Christmas feast.

I experience a feeling of mild panic at the thought of Christmas without a Christmas pudding. I adore it: a warm, gooey, rib-sticking cannonball of a treat served with a melting spoonful of brandy butter. It is the perfect ending to the traditional British Christmas dinner, which consists of roast turkey or goose, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots, parsnips, chestnut and/or forcemeat stuffing, pigs in blankets, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and lots of gravy.

As Dickens’ letter suggests, it is very important that the pudding be set alight.

This is achieved by a good sloshing of brandy — a fair amount also goes into the pudding’s initial ingredients. The blaze can be somewhat hazardous, decorated as the pud is with a sprig of holly on the top, but that only adds to the thrill of the occasion. Some say that the flames symbolize the passion, others that they

ward off evil spirits. They certainly brighten up the foggy dark of a British late December day, and people can huddle round the glowing pudding to keep warm.

You may be wondering why I don’t make one myself. Perhaps I will, though I could never equal my mother’s Christmas cuisine.

Also, it should be done before Advent begins, up to a year in advance, the generous quantities of alcohol acting as preservative.

In accordance with tradition, everyone present takes a turn to stir the ingredients and make a wish. When the pudding is heated on Christmas Day, it will be stuffed with charms and five pence pieces to bring luck and wealth to the recipient for the forthcoming year.

Experience has taught me not to go looking for specific tastes of the homeland. It can be rather disconcerting. Thanks to my husband Paul’s relentless quest for barbecue in the U.K., I now think I’m in south London whenever I smell hickory wood on a grill.

It’s more rewarding to save up all those missed tastes and make a special occasion of them, to weave them into the culinary tapestry of migration. If one spends every meal trying to recreate dishes from thousands of miles away, one misses out on learning about the local specialties that are part of the fabric of one’s new home. A brief survey of friends here has revealed a host of wonderful possibilities to look forward to on Christmas Day: cakes, tortes, fudge, cookies and pies of every variety, including, of course, that most American of all: apple pie.

What Dickens probably did not have at his lodgings, and nor did I until my arrival in North Carolina, were glow-in-the-dark reindeer. These are one of the principal reasons I get excited about spending the holidays Stateside. I love my reindeer. They were a gift from a former landlady, who could have had no idea what bounty she had bestowed upon a foreigner who had previously considered putting the cards and a bit of tinsel on the mantelpiece a good effort at Yuletide ornamentation. As the season approached it became apparent that Christmas here called for something more.

Technically they may not be reindeer. The doe hasn’t got antlers. Her spare frame and limited markings make it difficult to tell whether she is of a type of reindeer that doesn’t grow antlers, or whether she is a deer without the rein part.

It matters not a jot to me. She and her fawn light up in the dark and they will almost undoubtedly constitute the centerpiece of our garden decoration — for which read the only ones that we will get around to. Those candescent cervids represent to me the brilliance, excitement and fun of the holidays in America. On Christmas Day, I might just saunter out after lunch and share a slice of apple pie with them. PS Serena Brown once worked for the BBC’s prestigious art program Arena. Originally from Cheshire, she now lives in Southern Pines with her husband, Paul Brown, and is PineStraw's associate editor.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 43

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L ym e of Sou t h e r n Pi n es 280 NW Broad Street Southern Pines, NC 28387 (910)684-8001 www.lymeofsouthernpines.com

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403 Monroe Street | Downtown Carthage | 910-947-3739 44 December 2013

� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

T h e e v o l v i n g sp e c i e s

Light in the Darkness At our winter Solstice Party, joy comes out of the night

By Maggie Dodson

The evening always be-

Illustration by Harry Blair

gins with headlights suddenly cutting through the winter night and a flurry of people coming up the driveway, traipsing through fallen leaves and pine needles as they once did in snowy blizzards, bearing bottles of wine and homemade cookies and instruments or props, making their way out of the longest night of the year to our front door, where I am ready to greet them at the very first knock.

More often than not, the first arrivals are dear old friends of our family, people who have attended our annual solstice party since before my birth 24 years ago. Some come early to help with last minute preparations, the delicious stews and the homemade pies, or to uncork the champagne or just to catch up before the performances begin. I’ve greeted them as far back as I can remember, taking their unwound scarves and coats, restraining the eager dogs, exchanging kisses and hugs.

There are always new faces, especially now that the party has shifted 800 miles south to North Carolina from the snowy Maine hilltop where it began.

Boots are cast off, gloves tucked in coat pockets, warm hands welcome cold ones, and soon laughter and robust conversation fill every corner of the house.

There are no strangers tonight. No doorway is empty. In ancient times, the winter solstice was seen as a distinctive moment during the yearly cycle of the seasons — a relief, a final feast, a celebration of life before winter set in. With a fresh supply of meat, vegetables and fermented wine and beer, people built bonfires and celebrated all night long, rejoicing in one more fete before the dark winter months brought want and uncertainty.

Thousands of years later, solstice celebrations are still taking place. Ours began as a small gathering of friends from the church reading poems and grew into a full-fledged evening of performances, a night to remember, the highlight of my father’s Christmas season.

In the dining room, as guests circle the table noshing on cheese and eating stews, performance numbers are drawn and my father rings a fork against his wine glass, welcoming our guests and explaining the tradition of a Dickens Fezziwig: “You are here, metaphorically speaking, to sing for your supper — offer a song, a dance, a poem or a joke to help lift the darkness. It’s entirely up to you, what you choose to do. We welcome you to our home . . . ” Growing up with this lovely tradition, I have been fortunate to witness, among other things, impressive Irish fiddlers, daring fire jugglers, original blue limerick

reciters, Met opera singers, drum solos, skits of all sorts, traditional Russian dancing, pantomimes, word games, and much more, seemingly more elaborate as the years unfold. Fun as these are, my favorite performances belong to the storytellers. With their numbers called and drinks refreshed, they make their way to the front of the room, where they clear wintry throats and begin their tales, hushing the room.

“This is a true story: I once got a kiss from Grace Kelly.”

“My first car was a 1981 Ford Mustang; I liked to call her Susie.”

Pouring out, evoking tears and laughter, these stories have the momentary power to enthrall and bewitch, to hold the rapt attention of everyone and make us briefly one human family. The subject and content vary — stories of life, death, sex, stardom, of sadness and of glory, of heartaches and lost loves, even golf games gone laughably wrong. Watching someone tell a story from the heart is downright therapeutic — an act of opening the soul that rinses ours clean, inspiring us to let our own guards down, to show our cards, play for laughs, get personal with friends and strangers who won’t be by evening’s end.

As a child my favorite spot during the night was the hearth by the fire, feeling the heat as someone played “Jingle Bells” on the accordion, read Robert Frost, recited naughty limericks or told an amazing little tale.

The heat from the fire would seep through the back of my dress, warming my skin, invariably making me drowsy. But watching the evening unfold this way, I felt calm and moved by what was happening around me, true peace and good will on Earth. My father always likes to say this is his Christmas, and I understand what he means.

Years have passed, and though I am no longer a child, I still feel a sense of wonder watching this community of friends come together in the name of pressing back the darkness and singing for one’s supper. Last year, my brother and I took over the hosting duties from our father, who seemed happy to just blend into the crowd. A torch was passed, though little else has changed.

For one thing, it always seems to end too soon, as abruptly as it begins, with a final nip of something and bite of caramel cake and kisses goodnight as the scarves are rewrapped and hugs exchanged along with “Merry Christmas!” on the cold night air. Some guests we will not see for another year, others first thing tomorrow. And somehow, that seems perfect.

Much like those who’ve celebrated the winter solstice before us, we know in our hearts there will surely be another spring, a summer, a fall and yes, another winter where we will again have the chance to feel the warmth of these rare moments of light and fellowship on the longest night of the year. PS Maggie Dodson lives in New York City and is the daughter of editor Jim Dodson.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 45

This Holiday Season, Show her that endures all things

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B IR D WA T CH

Northern Cardinal

Brightening the winter landscape with their distinctive song and sociability

By Susan Campbell

Without a doubt, the most recogniz-

able bird in the eastern United States is the northern cardinal. Its bright scarlet color, wide distribution and affinity for bird feeders make it a much-loved addition to yards from Florida to Maine. It can also be found across the lower Midwest and even into parts of Arizona and New Mexico. The cardinal is so popular that it is not only North Carolina’s state bird, but also the state bird of six other states — more than any other species.

Northern cardinals are medium-sized songbirds with distinctive red crests. In fact, it’s likely they got their name from the male cardinal’s red crest, which resembles the mitre or red hat worn by Catholic cardinals.

They sing a loud “chorry, chorry, chorry” song and produce a very distinctive and audible metallic “chip” note. Listen in the spring and summer when mated pairs sometimes break into duets. Males are gloriously colored, bright red all over with a thick, orange-red bill and roguish black mask. The females, however, are a duller brownish-red, but do have a contrasting reddish tinting to the wings and tail, and their bills are a rich orange like the males.

Since cardinals do not migrate, here in North Carolina, cardinals, or “red birds,” as old-timers call them, can be found year-round throughout the state, both in suburban areas as well as in the thicker vegetation associated with forest edges. Given their strong bills, they can feed on a variety of foods. Cardinals not only forage for berries and seeds and caterpillars, but can also kill lizards and small snakes. Anyone who has ever handled

a cardinal (as we do through our research at Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve in Southern Pines) can attest to the effectiveness of their bills as weapons!

During the breeding season, from April through August, they may produce as many as four sets of young. They typically lay four eggs per clutch in a nest usually located in thick shrubbery. Young cardinals, who are noisy and leave the nest before they are capable of sustained flight, are often the target of predators. But given the persistence of the adults, some of their offspring do survive to reproduce themselves. Young cardinals are a nondescript, uniform gray-brown, but they acquire their colorful adult plumage within a few months of fledging. The lack of bright feathering no doubt helps keep the young birds hidden as they learn survival skills from their parents. Since most predators are capable of seeing in color, individuals of this species often find themselves at a real disadvantage. It is then no surprise that cardinals feed most heavily at dawn and dusk and do not venture far from thick cover.

These handsome birds are most welcome in winter, when they can be lured to seed feeders. Their festive color is certainly a wonderful sight during the holidays. Northern cardinals love black-oil sunflower, but they’ll gladly settle for safflower and millet. They may also hover to pick at suet during cold or wet weather. It is not unusual to have as many as eight or ten cardinals at a time at a well-stocked feeding station. Adding native dogwood, beautyberry, chokeberry and wax myrtle to your feeding mix should entice even more cardinals to your yard. Cardinals also love brush piles, especially on windy days. What’s more, brush provides shelter that could be vital should a local hawk spot this very noticeable prey. Responsible backyard birdfeeding involves assuring all individuals that are attracted are safe as well as well fed — at any time of the year. PS Susan would love to hear from you. Send wildlife sightings and photos to susan@ncaves.com or call (910)949-3207.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 47

Have a Whaling Good Christmas!

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1005 Midland Rd. Southern Pines, NC 28387 | www.pineneedles-midpines.com

48 December 2013

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T h e spo r t i n g l i f e

The Winter Storm

A surprise snowfall and a young retriever’s first duck made for the perfect holiday memory

By Tom Bryant

It was going to snow! Early that

morning when I stepped out the back door onto our patio, I could smell it in the air. The sky was slate gray.

High cirrus clouds were moving slowly from the northwest. It was eerily quiet and the birds, unusually subdued, looked as if they were wearing down-filled coats with all their feathers puffed up to keep warm.

Our birdbath was skimmed over with ice, and I broke it up with a stick and made a mental note to get warm water to refill it. Yes sir, I said to myself, it’s gonna snow before lunch. I went back inside to confirm my prediction with TV’s Channel 2 and Lee Kinard and his morning show.

In those days before cable TV, there were, at the most, maybe three channels available to TV watchers. We had an antenna fastened to our chimney with a rotor that would turn it in the direction of the station. Most of the time, we watched the Greensboro channel and tuned in to get the weather and news in the morning before heading out to work. I, along with my business partner, had a fledgling newspaper up and running. Linda, my bride, was teaching second grade. Tommy, our son, was in the first grade; so when something like a potential snowstorm was on the horizon, things around our household became a little jumpy.

“School has been canceled!” Linda exclaimed as I walked back into the kitchen.

Tommy was eating his breakfast, saying, “I want to build a snowman!”

Immediately Linda’s survival instinct kicked in. “We need to go to the grocery store for more supplies.”

“OK,” I replied. “You get ready, I’ll take Tommy with me. We’ll let Paddle out to run and then we’ll go to the store.” Paddle, my new yellow Lab, was just growing out of puppyhood and was raring to go. She romped around the backyard, then ran to the back of the Bronco wanting to load up and go play.

“No girl, maybe later,” I said as I put her back in her kennel. She whimpered,

showing her disappointment.

Linda came out the back door. “Are you ready? The TV said snow should start falling before lunch.”

“Let’s ride before they sell all the milk,” I replied. Linda laughed as we climbed in the Bronco and headed to Winn-Dixie. The place was packed with happy shoppers anticipating the winter storm. We loaded up with all kinds of goodies and drove home. “Perfect timing. We can put up the tree this afternoon.”

Christmas was two weeks away and we had been planning to decorate the tree over the weekend, but now with school canceled, we had an unanticipated extra day to play.

In short order, I brought the tree in from outside. We had bought it on Monday, a freshly cut Fraser fir, and it smelled great. I placed it in the stand in a corner away from the fireplace and went back outside to the stack of firewood for an armload for a fire later that afternoon.

The sky seemed to be getting darker with lower, angry-looking clouds moving across the horizon. Paddle started barking in her kennel.

“No barking,” I called, and she went back in her doghouse. It’s a good thing I had bought more cedar bedding for her. She should be plenty comfy if it did snow. Maybe we’d go down to the duck hole after lunch.

The duck hole was what I had named a little creek where I hunted wood ducks and mallards during the season. The little stream proved to be very productive in the duck-hunting department and was a great place to train her as a little puppy. She had been with me several times before the season opened and retrieved dummies thrown across the creek, but she had yet to retrieve a duck. Maybe before the season is over, I thought.

Back inside, Linda was making sandwiches for lunch. “I’m going to the office to check on things and then out to the duck hole with Paddle to let her run a little bit,” I said. “I’ll even take my shotgun in case I’m attacked by a crazy mallard.”

Linda laughed. “This is supposed to be a heavy snow. Don’t you get out there and get stranded.”

“Nah, I’ll take a couple of sandwiches with me, eat lunch at the creek and be back before the first flake falls.” Everything was OK at the office. We were lucky that the snow was coming on a Friday, which gave us the weekend to get back to normal, hopefully.

Paddle was wired tight as I pulled up to the gate to the pasture that we had to cross to get to our little duck preserve. “Hang on, girl. I’ll let you out in a minute and you can go play.”

I parked the Bronco back in the stand of trees bordering the creek, feeding into the big lake that was a water impoundment for the city. Paddle and I usually

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 49

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50 December 2013

P.O. BOX 58 Southern Pines, NC 28388

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T h e spo r t i n g l i f e

stayed away from the lake, concentrating on the creek for our efforts. It was getting colder, and I saw that the water bordering the bank was covered in skim ice. I took my shotgun out of the case and told Paddle, “OK, girl, go run.” She jumped out the back of the Bronco, raced to the creek, broke the skim ice, got wet and ran back to me as if to ask, “Why is the water hard?”

Sleet began to bounce off the truck. “We don’t have a lot of time, girl. Go play.”

I walked through the tree line and followed Paddle as she edged toward the big water. I whistled to her, and as she was loping back to me, a duck came flying down the creek toward the lake. I snapped off a shot, and the duck crumpled and hit the ice about fifty yards from the bank. Paddle was off like a bullet, and all my whistling did no good in turning her. She was on a mission. Breaking the ice out to where the duck had landed, Paddle began quartering in a circle. Unfortunately, when the duck came down, the force of the fall knocked it under the ice and it couldn’t be seen. Paddle kept at it until the bird popped up right in front of her. She grabbed it, swam back, walked up on the bank and presented me with the biggest black duck I’d ever seen. I couldn’t believe it. Paddle’s first duck retrieve, and it was one that I would remember forever. No big deal for her, though. She shook freezing ice from her coat and looked up at me as if to say, “OK, boss, what’s next?”

Snow began to fall in earnest, and I decided we’d better get on home. Paddle settled down in her spot in the back, and I put the Bronco in four-wheel drive.

The snow was getting deep fast. We were dripping wet from the sleet, snow and creek water, but the heater from the Bronco soon had us warm.

It was a great ride. Christmas carols were playing on the radio, and I sang along when Bing Crosby came on with his famous “White Christmas.”

Paddle dozed and didn’t budge when I had to stop a time or two to clean the frozen windscreen. She was content in her favorite place.

Later that evening, after Linda and Tommy had gone to bed and I was closing up the house, I sat down in front of the dying fire and thought back to how much fun everyone had had that day with our first winter storm of the season. Tommy got to build his snowman, Linda made one of her favorite pound cakes, Paddle retrieved her first duck and was sleeping on her special rug beside the fireplace as content as only a hunting dog can be after a day afield.

And me? I thought, “What the heck?” and went over to my little den bar, poured three fingers of a single malt Scotch I was saving for a special occasion, and put another log on the fire. I can’t think of many occasions that will get more special than this. PS Tom Bryant, a Southern Pines resident, is a lifelong outdoorsman and PineStraw’s Sporting Life columnist.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 51

52 December 2013P������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������PineStraw : The Art©2012 & Anheuser-Busch, Soul of the Sandhills Budweiser® Beer, St. Louis, MO

G o l f tow n J o u r n a l

The Career Slam

With the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst now within sight, you’ll be hearing Phil Mickelson’s name a lot

Phil Mickelson lines up his putt on the thirteenth hole of Pinehurst No. 2 at the 2005 US Open.

By Lee Pace

One of the tidiest packages in all of

Photograph from the pilot

sports is golf’s Grand Slam — victories in the game’s four major championships in one year constituting The Slam and a player acquiring one of each over a lifetime called the Career Slam. There’s even a hybrid version recognized of late as the Tiger Slam given Tiger Woods’ acquisition of the U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship and Masters titles in succession over two calendar years in 2000-01.

Get used to the Career Slam term here in the Sandhills. You’re going to hear it a gazillion times between now and June as Phil Mickelson attempts to tie a bow around his already sporty career with a victory in the U.S. Open on Pinehurst No. 2.

Woody Allen or Quentin Tarantino couldn’t have written a more intriguing script.

The bookend on the left: Mickelson losing by one stroke to Payne Stewart in the mist back in 1999 in Pinehurst, Stewart rolling in a 15-footer on the championship’s last shot and Mickelson bolting home to Arizona to be by his wife’s side as she went into labor with the couple’s first child.

The volumes on the shelf: three Masters titles, one PGA Championship and just this summer a British Open consummated on the crusty links at Muirfield; a bank roll of $75 million in PGA Tour winnings; and a good-guy persona quick to sign autographs and make eye contact with the peanut gallery.

And the missing bookend: the U.S. Open, Mickelson’s personal chamber of horrors with five second-place finishes, the most recent jolt coming last June

at Merion Golf Club when Mickelson eagled 10 on the final day but flared up on the home stretch and let England’s Justin Rose slip ahead for a two-shot win. Mickelson spoke of hurt and heartbreak when it was over.

“The career Grand Slam is the sign of the complete great player,” Mickelson says. “There are five players who have done that and those five players are the greats of the game. You look at them in a different light.”

Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are the five. Missing of note are Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson, both of whose nemesis was the PGA Championship, and Sam Snead, snake-bitten as he was in the U.S. Open.

The game of bridge had its grand slam (when a player wins every trick in a hand) and baseball its grand slam (a bases-loaded home run) long before golfer Bob Jones began thinking in the mid-1920s of winning the Amateur and Open championships of the United States and Great Britain in the same year. In early 1930, Jones placed a bet on himself with British bookmakers at 50-1 odds and began his quest by winning the British Amateur and Open and returning to New York to a tickertape parade. He followed with the U.S. Open at Interlachen Country Club in Minnesota and wrapped it up with the U.S. Amateur title at Merion Cricket Club in Philadelphia.

Jones won $60,000 on his wager and pundits scrambled to put a spiffy moniker onto his accomplishment. George Trevor of The New York Sun pegged it the “‘Impregnable Quadrilateral of Golf,’ that granite fortress that he alone could take by escalade, and that others may attack in vain, forever.”

It was O.B. Keeler in The Atlanta Journal who inscribed the quartet of wins as the “Grand Slam.”

Jones immediately retired from competitive golf and set his sights on consummating his dream of creating what would become Augusta National Golf Club, so there were no immediate threats to anyone matching the Grand Slam. The Masters was not launched until 1934, and at the time top American golfers rarely traveled to Britain to compete. Ben Hogan

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 53

G o l f tow n J o u r n a l

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won a loosely pegged “Triple Crown” in 1953 by winning the U.S. Open, Masters and PGA Championship, but winning the British Open that year was impossible because of conflicting dates with the PGA. It was not until Palmer got into a conversation with old friend and newspaper reporter Bob Drum while flying to Scotland in the summer of 1960 that the concept of the modern Grand Slam was hatched.

Palmer had won the Masters in April and followed with his dramatic win in the Open at Cherry Hills in June — his final round 65 remains one of the finest closing rounds in Open history — and he told Drum it was a shame that winning the same Grand Slam that Jones had won three decades earlier was no longer practical, given the swing in popularity over three decades from amateur to professional golf. Palmer suggested that the Grand Slam should now apply to winning the Masters, U.S. and British Opens and PGA Championship in the same year. And since Palmer had already won the first two, the impending British Open at St. Andrews would have a neat story hook for Drum.

“One thing led to another,” Palmer said.

“Drum got me all excited about it. He wrote about it. He got the British press all excited about it. And they picked up on it.”

Palmer didn’t win the British that year and would never again win the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year, but his heir apparent to the golf throne, Jack Nicklaus, certainly used the concept as motivational fodder in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Palmer won the Masters in 1972 and followed with the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, but his dream faltered when he lost the British Open to Lee Trevino by a stroke at Muirfield.

“I never got as close as Tiger’s gotten, but it was fun trying,” Nicklaus said in 2008. “When I went into every season, that was my goal; from about 1965 on, I felt I had the ability. More realistically, the Grand Slam was probably not likely. It was always my goal to start every year. Every time I started preparing in January for the Masters, that’s what I looked at.”

Now the spotlight is on Mickelson, who said in October that he would plan his 2014 calendar around peaking the third week of June for the U.S. Open.

“That’s going to be an exciting one for Mr. Mickelson,” says Dave Pelz, the short-game guru who’s coached Mickelson for a decade. “He only needs this one to finish the career Grand Slam. It would be a wonderful thing for him. He’s a great player and he deserves it.

“Phil knows the golf course pretty well,” Pelz continues. “I think it suits his game well. Getting rest and hitting the ball well going into the tour-

54 December 2013P������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

G o l f tow n J o u r n a l

nament will be important, but even more so next year, the emotional element is going to mean more than ever before. It’s going to be important to step back from all the hype and build-up and his own emotions. It’s going to be exciting.”

Ben Crenshaw, who teamed with Bill Coore in the 2010-12 restoration of No. 2, thinks that Mickelson’s innate touch and feel around the greens will give him an edge in 2014.

In previous Opens in 1999 and 2005, Mickelson hit recovery shots with everything from a fairway wood struck with a putting grip to a 64-degree wedge that would bounce, hop and stop.

“Phil’s imagination around the greens is special,” Crenshaw says. “He’s got great touch.

Gosh, some of the shots around the greens in ’99 were unbelievable. He’ll have to be in the top tier of favorites for that reason alone. He can sure play that 64-degree shot. But in some instances, it’s maybe not the shot. He’ll have four or five wedges to choose from. What will he put in his bag that week? His really high-lofted wedges have no bounce on them, so he can be aggressive off tight lies and hit a lot of creative shots around those greens.”

Mickelson followed his second-place finish in 1999 with a forgetful championship in 2005.

He opened with a 69 but shot himself out of the competition with a 77 on Friday. Playing the back nine first, he shot a six-over 41 and wondered afterward if it was the worst nine holes he’d played in 13 years on the pro tour. He shot 72-74 on the weekend and finished 12 shots in back of Michael Campbell. Mickelson’s woes on Friday were borne of hitting a half dozen drives just off the fairway into the long, thick Bermuda rough.

“It was the same as a one-shot penalty,” Pelz says. “You might as well pick it up and drop it over your shoulder. You had to wedge it out 20 yards and go on.”

That’s a moot point leading to the 2014 Open, as the restored No. 2 is now shorn of every blade of long Bermuda rough.

“I love how it will play at Pinehurst — let the ball run through the sand and into the trees if you hit a bad one,” Pelz says.

Ben Hogan won his first professional title at Pinehurst in 1940. Jack Nicklaus won at Pinehurst as a 19-year-old amateur in 1959. The amateur careers of Billy Joe Patton and Harvie Ward took wing in Pinehurst. So how fitting would it be for Phil Mickelson to nail his Grand Slam over Donald Ross’s tour de force in Pinehurst? The screenwriters are tapping away. PS Lee Pace’s book The Golden Age of Pinehurst — The Story of the Rebirth of No. 2 is available onsite and online at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club.

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2176 midland rd - ironwoodpinehurst.com - 910.255.0000 PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 55

©2013 Pinehurst, LLC

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December 2013

Winter Journal I

IV

Touched with cold breath the trees shiver, their leaves fall in brightly colored drifts the first frost is lying lightly on the ground, all the grasses turning brown and bowing.

The rabbits huddle beneath the taller tufts

The snow falls late, with the early darkness.

I have waited all day, watching the sky, heavy with expectation and now, in that darkening silence, it brushes my face, eyes, and open hands with magic, and I am deeply marked with the feeling of wonder.

and they watch me and I watch them; nothing speaks.

II The winter sun gazes upon sweet red berries and the leaves, evergreen; the little birds peeping brightly with morning on their wings and, there, the dazzling hoar frost fields; there is such beauty in winter’s aspect.

III I walk the field with dawn riding softly on my shoulders, my breath in great clouds before me, an ocean of sky above and winking at me, sparkling in the waking sun — Venus skimming the horizon.

The long, frozen bits of grass sigh under my feet — sad things, really

V After the night’s work, the beauty of the sky, dazzling in mid-morning bright, a blue so deep it hurts my eyes and the snow, oh, the snow! in drifted banks against the fence, the barn, and the field the horses by the gate, waiting, and the brown grass, peeking through, the soft cloaked berries and bush, and the brave little birds always joyful, enchanting — sing sweetly on the bough.

And the rabbits, beneath the bush watch me watching them; the world speaks in tones of joy.

— Melinda Kemp Lyerly

and I am alone, magnificently so.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 57

The Illustrated Twelve Days of Christmas

Though its origins are obscure — first published in 1780 as a chant with undertones of secret religious symbolism — the beloved “Twelve Days of Christmas” eventually found its way into popular currency in Victorian England as a crossover anthem celebrating the power of bestowing gifts during the traditional days between Christmas and the Feast of the Epiphany.

Needless to say, it’s one of our favorite traditions to sing it, with or without a proper brass ensemble handy, and thus a perfect excuse to offer our own humble interpretation of the classic song using our friends and neighbors to illustrate the text.

Feel free to join the chorus. It’s our little holiday gift to you! -The Staff of PineStraw

StyLeD by ChriStina KLUg

A Poet in a Pine Tree

Partridges being thin on the ground this year, we asked our resident poetry editor, Ashley Wahl, what she pines for in terms of holiday verse.

“Not to go too far out on a limb,” she artfully replied, “You can’t go too far wrong with Robert Frost or Mary Oliver under the tree.”

PhotograPh by tim Sayer

58

December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

2 True Loves

Wrapped in the lights of the season — and each other’s arms — Pinehurst residents Connie and Bob Lovell still display the playful sparkle of Christmas newlyweds — even after forty-seven years of marriage.

PhotograPh by tim Sayer

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

59

3 Faux French Hens

For our trio of fetching Mademoiselles from Carthage (Ashlie Martin, Jenny Martin and Brittany Paschal), nothing says l’amour in the country better than adorable Silkie hens that, well, at least look French.

Each reportedly lays an exquisite little egg per day. Mon dieu, we meant the chickens!

PhotograPh by L aUra gingeriCh 60

December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

4 Calling Birds

The holidays bring out the best in some birds hunting bargains and others hunting, well, birds. Our calling lads, we submit with all due respect to the lords of Duck Dynasty, are seriously quackers: Frank Dean, Bailey Vaughn, Tom Bryant and Joe Vaughn.

PhotograPh by John geSSner

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

61

5 Golden Ring-ers

The belles of Saint Mary’s have nothing on the talented handbell ringers of First Baptist Church of Southern Pines: Katey McCarver, Lauren Wohlrab, Molly Maples, Rachel Moore and Kara Hounsell. My, these gals really make a joyful noise.

PhotograPh by John geSSner

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6 Geeks A—Laying

A mild winter day on the lawn of the Sandhills Community College library is simply too tempting to half a dozen techies who live to travel to hidden worlds. Thank goodness it isn’t snowing — though we wonder if they’d ever even notice. On the lawn: Alfred (Tré) Knight, Bret Beighley, Joseph Racey, Johanna Carter, Jesse Krupyak and Conner Frank.

PhotograPh by John geSSner

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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7 Swans A—Swimming

The water-bound prodigies of the Sandhills Sandsharks say, “Jump into the swim this Christmas!” Could Santa be coming this year on a paddleboard? The swanning swimmers would expect no less! (L to R): Cassidy Fry, Fiona Duffy, Elizabeth Moore, Hunter Atkinson, Emma Moore, Ellie Henry and Elly Culp.

PhotograPh by L aUra gingeriCh

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December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

8 Maids A—Mixing

Eight of the friendliest and finest barmaids in the Sandhills shake up the spirit of the season — White Russians, anyone? — at Pinehurst’s swanky Ryder Cup Lounge.

(L to R, first row): Toni Thomas from Neville’s; Brooke Kelly, Maxie’s Grill & Tap Room; Sharon Robinson, Social 165; Mary Beth Knape, Pine Crest Inn; Back row: Kaneisha Barnes, The Carolina; Caitlin Harris, Ashten’s; Charlene Hash, Dugan’s Pub; Jessica Young, The Carolina) PhotograPh by John geSSner

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9 Ladies Dancing

Nine veterans of Taylor Dance’s lovely version of The Nutcracker sure get the pointe of Christmas. Their uttering feet make our hearts do the same. (Back L to R): Grace Eudy, Bethany Ptak, Melanie Vaughn, Emma Marcus, Alexis Whitecar. Front row: Rali Sloan, Christa Blades, Katherine Jones and Willa Mitchell.

PhotograPh by L aUra gingeriCh

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December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

10 Lawyers Leaping

So what does it take to make ten top area lawyers simultaneously levitate with joy?

Coal in a certain judge’s stocking? Perhaps a delicious Christmas torte? Yule laugh if we tell you.

Truthfully, Old St. Nick simply asked them to jump and they merrily replied, “How high, Your Honor?”

Left to right, our flying legal eagles include: Aaron Bell, Evelyn Savage, Bob Friesen, Frank Thigpen, Bill Van O’Linda Jr., Jim Van Camp, John May, Trey Yelverton, Kim Post and Mike McCrann.

PhotograPh by L aUra gingeriCh

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11 Pipers Piping

This merry band of brothers enjoys nothing better than a Christmas toddy, spinning lies of golf and Christmas past, and a little pipe smoke in the frosty night on the porch of the beloved Pine Crest Inn. Wives and girlfriends need not apply. (L to R): Richard Clarke, Bennett Rose, J.J. Jackson, Max Morrison, Geoff Cutler, Tim St. Germain, Jim Dodson, Tom Stewart, Kevin Drum, Jake Kenworthy and Hunter Hess.

PhotograPh by tim Sayer

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12 Drummers Drumming

Feeling the rhythm of the holidays, a dozen (plus one wee newcomer) members of the Drum Circle of FirstHealth of Southern Pines, directed by Cinnamon LeBlanc, prepare to let their hands — and Christmas wishes — fly: Matthew Bahr, Della Dennis, Mark Hunsicker, Cinnamon LeBlanc, Jacquelyn Othon, Brenda Quiñones, S Quiñones, Maureen Sutton, Nia Sutton, Daniel Wake, Carol Weldy, Gloria Weldy and John Weldy.

PhotograPh by L aUra gingeriCh PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 69

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December 2013 P���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Captains Courageous Three generations of the remarkable Mataxis family make the U.S. Army — and the North Carolina Sandhills — home Story & Photographs by Timothy L. Hale

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I

t is often said that if walls or other inanimate objects could talk, what a story they would tell.

Well, imagine what kinds of stories a set of U.S. Army captain bars could tell.

While many of Moore County’s residents have storied military careers, none may be as notable as that of the Mataxis family.

Retired Brig. Gen. Theodore C. Mataxis Sr., his son, retired Lt. Col. Theodore C. Mataxis Jr., and grandson, Capt. Theodore C. Mataxis III, have all worn the weathered but polished bars on their uniforms, spanning conflicts from World War II to Afghanistan.

Etched into the back of the bars are the names and promotion dates of all three men — the symbolic passing of the torch from one generation to the next.

“They’re the old, flat railroad track. They’re sterling silver,” Lt. Col. Theodore C. Mataxis Jr. (Ted Jr.) said. “They are engraved on the back because my dad had those pinned on him in World War II in 1942.”

He said there are no pictures of that ceremony; however, images do exist of the general pinning his son in Vietnam in 1971. The grandson, Capt. Theodore C. Mataxis III (Ted III), was pinned by his father in 2009.

“I’ve often wondered about that (who pinned his father) and would give anything in the world for a picture of that,” Ted Jr. said.

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“Those same bars that he pinned on me, I had the honor of pinning on Ted III on the (Fort Bragg) St. Mere Eglise drop zone in 2009,” he said.

Both current father and son jokingly refer to the general as “the original model” or “1.0.”

Much has been written about the grand patriarch and his military career spanning World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

He has been featured in numerous articles from The Pilot to the Los Angeles Times, and was friends with famed journalist Joe Galloway. Yes, the same Joe Galloway who penned We Were Soldiers Once and Young.

Galloway described the most senior of the Mataxis trio as “bald headed, very intense, an intellectual soldier’s soldier.”

By the end of his career, the general had earned the combat trifecta, earning the Combat Infantry Badge in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

Among his other military decorations were both Silver and Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts.

“I’ve always said he was my best friend and personal hero,” Ted Jr. said. “He was the epitome of everything.”

The youngest Mataxis said learning about his grandfather is a reflection of American history.

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“You grow up and you learn about history, whether it’s in class or things you see or read,” he said. “When I’m learning about the ‘greatest generation,’ I know that my grandfather was that and I’m not just reading about somebody else’s history — I’m reading about my grandfather’s history.”

Ted III said the same thing applies to Vietnam-era veterans.

“My dad was there for three years in a row because he wanted to be there,” Ted III continued. “He wanted to take care of soldiers. So knowing that’s my father and grandfather, that’s the greatest gift one could ask for as far as looking at a hero and having someone you look up to.”

Of the trio, only Ted III was raised in Moore County. He was born at Fort Benning, Ga. but the family moved to the area when he was 5. His father and grandfather were born in Washington State.

Like so many others, it was military service that brought them to Moore County.

The general was assigned as the assistant division commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in 1964. While living on Fort Bragg, they were introduced to the Southern Pines area by a fellow World War II veteran.

He said his father bought a lot at Canterbury and Downing. When they both returned from Vietnam in 1972, they lived as a family at the home his grandmother had built on that lot while they were deployed. In 2008, Ted III would later build his own home on the same land on the lot directly behind the original family home just off Fort Bragg Road.

Ted Jr., a life-long U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, met and courted his future bride, Kirby Jones, while living in Southern Pines. They were married in Dillon, South Carolina in 1973 and have three children: Stacey, Ted III and Carson. Of the three children, it was Ted III who chose a military career after graduating from Pinecrest High School, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and attending the Duke University ROTC program.

A captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, Ted III has been on mobilization orders for six out of thirteen years, most recently serving as company commander of the 824th Quartermaster Company (Heavy Airdrop Supply) at Fort Bragg.

When he isn’t wearing the uniform, this citizen-soldier serves as a master’s level clinical psychologist working with children who have mental health disabilities in surrounding counties.

Like his father, Ted III married a young lady from Moore County, Elizabeth Deese. They have a 4-year-old daughter, Grace, and, yes there is another Ted Mataxis. Nine month-old Ted Graham Mataxis has a way to go before charting his own military legacy.

You can sense the importance of family when Ted III and his father talk about their Greek heritage, their military lineage, and their transplanted roots here in Moore County.

“There is the overlap and continuity of the military community here,” Ted Jr. said. “When I lived here in ’69 and ’72, there was no military pres-

ence. There was myself and Gen. (William) Yarborough, and a couple of retired (military) folks.”

He said he returned to Southern Pines in the ’80s and has watched as people realized that Moore County was a great community and “it has really taken off — a new mindset.”

He said that when he retired, the community was a much older crowd. But today, it is more “vibrant . . . and it’s so good for the community.”

It would be safe to say Ted Jr. conducted a little experiment early in his marriage to Kirby, testing the waters on where they might eventually call home.

During a six-week honeymoon, the newlyweds traveled to distant and sometimes exotic lands, far-removed from the sandy hills and quiet pines of Moore County.

After visiting Alaska, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Germany, England and France, Ted Jr. asked Kirby one question.

“We can make any of this happen. Where would you like to live?” he asked her.

She said, “‘I’d like to live and raise my family in Southern Pines.’”

“So family and the history here is what drew us to it,” Ted Jr. explained.

“Because I didn’t have a history of being an Army brat.”

In addition to family, Ted Jr. believes it is the charm of the area that keeps him here.

“It’s one of those places that other people, who are not from here, feel when they come,” he said. “This place just has a personality and charm unlike most places.”

And part of that charm and personality is the sense of community patriotism.

“When you walk around town you can see people that you know are soldiers, yet you can tell they are strong parents with great personal values,” Ted III said.

When comparing Moore County to other military communities, Ted Jr. said it is much different than most.

“I think from a military perspective, the [military] people are here because they choose to be here,” he said. “And I think that gives a little extra pizzazz or meaning to it.

“Moore County has so much to offer young families, and I’m so glad to see young people coming in and making it grow.”

And speaking of young people, father and son agreed those captain bars are waiting for the next Mataxis to answer the nation’s call.

Will it be Ted Graham who follows the male Mataxis lineage?

Or big sister Grace, who would become the first female Mataxis captain in the family?

“We’ll see, but those captain bars have about paid for themselves already,” Ted Jr. said. PS Timothy Hale, a U.S. Air Force veteran, is an award-winning professional freelance photojournalist and graphic designer based in Pinehurst, N.C. When he isn’t freelancing, he works as a Department of the Army civilian at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. You can see more of his work at http://timothyhale.com.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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Story of a house

The Christmas Dream House The Huntleys make Christmas and construction a family affair

By Deborah Salomon • Photographs by John Gessner

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F

or openers, every front-facing window in Marilee and Ken Huntley’s showplace home has an electric outlet connected to a central switch. At dusk, one flick illuminates many candles.

“We call it the Christmas switch,” says son Will Huntley.

His mother, Marilee, is holiday-happy. She considers decorating more joy than chore. And she does it round the calendar. Thanksgiving follows Halloween. New Year’s, Easter, and July Fourth have their place, but Christmas is the biggie.

Actually, the Huntley house is the biggie.

Only in fairy tales are these words spoken by son to mother: “Mom, I want to build your dream home.”

Not from Legos or Lincoln Logs. Will Huntley designs and builds fine real estate. This project would showplace his skill: beveled glass. Ten-foot ceilings, some coffered. Interior transoms. Built-ins galore. Miles of custom moldings and wainscoting. A whole-house sound system, always on. Details, details, details to suit his mother’s requirements — like dish drawers in the kitchen so petite Marilee wouldn’t have to reach. And a breakfast cupboard holding cereal, bowls, bread, jam. A coffee center, a baking center and, in the master bathroom, a wall-mounted TV. “It was a way to give back all they had done for me,” Will says.

This shoemaker’s mother doesn’t go barefoot.

Five years ago, after Will and sister Mariette Roland were married and gone, Marilee and Ken — who lived in a three-bedroom Wadesboro ranch — decided to replace their Pinehurst golf condo with a timeless homestead designed for family togetherness.

Marilee proposed a skewed floor plan; the heyday of great rooms pro-

duced none greater.

“I wanted a big kitchen but also areas where the family can spread out.”

This means an informal dining space (in addition to dining room and seats around a kitchen island bigger than Manhattan), a den with fireplace, a bar with stools, cupboards, wine refrigerator and dishwasher.

By comparison, the living room with Ken’s library/office nook seems tiny — “A place where the men go to watch the game,” Marilee says.

Since the master suite, hallway, laundry room, an outside entrance and porch adjoin the family space, the Huntleys can close off the remainder and live just here.

The result: On the first floor of this nearly 4,500-square-foot home, Will created four eating areas and two sitting areas. Most flow into one another — perfect for grandchildren skipping hither and yon.

Ah, grandchildren. Without them, why the dream home?

T

he Huntleys had two when construction began on a prime corner lot at Country Club of North Carolina. Now there are three; the second floor is all theirs — a museum of toys belonging to their parents and, perhaps, grandparents.

“My mother never throws anything away,” Will says.

Not that Marilee didn’t have a magnetic board and toy cupboard built into kitchen cabinets and a dining room high chair made from the same woods and upholstery as the grown-ups’.

A North Carolina state flag hangs beside Old Glory over the front porch.

The Huntleys are a deeply rooted Tar Heel clan. Marilee’s furnishings reflect the polished dark woods and soft Southern style of a previous genera-

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tion. The graceful staircase begs a bride. The kitchen has “a French country feel,” Marilee says. All appliances, including the dishwasher, hide behind antique-white cabinet fronts. Over the range and sunken steamer — a mantelpiece. She prefers neutrals contrasted with blue, from ice-blue bedroom walls to decorative pottery in lighted ceiling shelves. Seascapes reflect happy summers on Hatteras. The dining room is wallpapered in deep red brocade; breakfront and china cabinets belonged to ancestors, as did two Shaker-style tables flanking the front door, with bare tops.

Because, despite copious space, the Huntleys don’t like clutter.

W

ell, maybe at Christmas.

Because Christmas is Marilee Huntley’s thing.

“My mom was the home-ec kind. Nothing was left out. We did it all,” says daughter Mariette Roland.

Marilee admits she may be compensating. She grew up in Raleigh with four siblings. “There was a limit on how far we could go.

(Christmas) wasn’t such a big deal.”

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Forty-three years ago Mariette and Ken began their marriage with a Nativity scene, still in use. That same Christmas she started collecting Santas now numbering lots and lots. One is chocolate, another African-American.

They cover the sideboard completely, with spillovers dotting the house.

The Huntleys’ main tree — a tall perennial wound in red ribbons with red globes — stands in the parlor near the mantel hung with nine stockings.

On the coffee table waits Santa’s tray of refreshments. In addition, Marilee positions a live tabletop tree in the den and a children’s toy tree upstairs. She unpacks the Advent calendar, Christmas dishes, mugs, glasses, linens and apron and pours the Santa jigsaw puzzle on the table. Rudolph and choir music replace jazz on the sound system.

But Marilee draws the line at mistletoe, appliquéd sweaters, antlers and “themes,” like Victorian or single-hue contemporary.

Exterior decorations are present but subdued. Ken doesn’t own a Santa suit. “I’m too skinny.”

Decorations linger until mid-January. “In between I take out the New Year’s box with party hats and blow-outs,” Marilee says.

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Sounds like work, big-time. But after three or four frenzied decorating days Marilee can sit back, sip a glass of wine and enjoy her handiwork since Christmas shopping was done by October.

After the last sugar cookie has been eaten and the army of Santas put away, Marilee and Ken’s dream house will re-emerge, satisfying as ever — truly a family undertaking.

“I just got out of the way and let them create,” Ken says. “There’s nothing I would change.” His sole requests were floors (random white oak) and shingles. Will’s wife, Ashlee, an interior designer, and sister Mariette helped facilitate during construction. “The character of our family is to gather as a group, like vegetable soup,” Ken says. “We all shared a desire to build a gathering place, a house for the children. I think we hit a home run.”

With the bases loaded because miracle of miracles, Marilee adds, the builder-son who offered his services and the mother who accepted them are still speaking. PS

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Where life just keeps getting better.

Living fully takes on a whole new meaning at Belle Meade and Pine Knoll.

Our communities offer a virtual feast of opportunities to connect with cherished friends and make new ones.

Put down a 10% deposit at Belle Meade or Pine Knoll by December 31, 2013 and lock in your 2013 monthly service fee!

So put down a deposit on a healthy, engaged lifestyle with the security of the St. Joseph of the Pines continuum of care today.

Call 910.246.1008 for lunch and a tour.

Merry

Christm

as

Southern Pines, North Carolina • www.sjp.org • 910.246.1008 PineStraw : The Art & Soul ofAthe Sandhills . . .Joseph . . . . .of . .the . . Pines . . . . .Aging . . . . Services . . . . . . Network . . . . . . . continuing . . . . . . . . the . . .legacy . . . . .of . the . . .Sisters . . . . .of . .Providence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013 member of the St.

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Town or Country One of these unique properties could be your future home.

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We Wish You a Joy filled Holiday Season and a Promising New Year.

to know a great gift idea and there is plenty to choose from at the

Art Council’s

Campbell House Gallery

The gallery is open (with refreshments) for holiday shopping on

SPECIAL HOURS ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

DECEMBER 6 & 7 • 10-4

Town & Country

Paintings • Pottery • Ornaments • Jewelry • Wooden Birdhouses Original Art at affordable prices

Independently Owned and Operated

Debra Serino Brenner Owner.Broker Debra@WRTAC.com 910-315-9051

Inge S. Dahl Associate Broker Inge@WRTAC.com 910-690-3531

Please call for more details and a private showing

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482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines 910.692.2787

December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

by noah SaLt

“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?” � — Bob Hope

The Almanac Guy sure digs Christmas, everything about it — the food, the wacky decorations, the over-the-top-shopping. But it’s recently come to our notice that certain Grinchy members of this very magazine staff — who shall remain unnamed pending epiphanies of scale — do not share our passion for life’s most popular holiday, reserving particular absence of amity for good old St. Nick, aka Santa Claus. To paraphrase poet and sage Dr. Seuss, they hate Christmas, the whole Christmas season — don’t ask us why, no one quite knows the reason.

In the spirit of the season, we hereby concede that Christmas is different for everyone. To many it’s a festive secular time of family gathering, feasting and gift-giving in the spirit of an old chap who travels the world in an aging sleigh and cheap red suit, delighting children of all ages, while to many others it’s a sacred religious moment memorializing the birth of a savior child.

Whatever else is true, the traditions and symbols of Christmas are perhaps the oldest and best known in human society. Herewith, a brief summary.

Much of Christmas tradition hails from pre-Christian pagan solstice rituals of bonfires and feasting, and decorating homes for the long, drab winter with forest greenery — hence the birth of wreaths and, eventually, the Christmas tree.

The first proper Christmas carols date from Rome in 129 AD when a Roman bishop decreed that a carol called “Angel Hymn” should be sung at Christmas services. The first carols were merely 12th and 13th century ecclesiastical processionals. It wasn’t until the early 19th century — Victorian England, in fact — that English folk and church music blended with the old Norse tradition of wassailing — the act of traveling from house to house to sing songs that wished neighbors good health and cheer in exchange for small presents or food — caught on with a vengeance.

Long before Madison Avenue gave us the jolly red image of Santa Claus for a Coca-Cola ad, St. Nicholas, the fourth century Turkish bishop famed for his miracles and generosity to believers who left coins in their empty shoes for him to give to the poor in exchange for blessings, is believed to have blended with Holland’s popular kindly Sinterklaas figure. Old Anglo-Norman Father Christmas, Pére Nöel, was originally mentioned as a living symbol of Christian kindness in a 15th century carol. Only after a lengthy and successful battle with puritan opponents of public holiday celebrations in the 17th century did Father Christmas become the wildly popular figure of gift-giving, providing the blueprint for modern Santa Claus.

All we can say to any poor soul who would mock the kind old man in the bright red suit, wherever he comes from: When you stop believing in Santa Claus, you’ll just get bad neckties for Christmas. If nothing else, do remember the real poor and leave them a few coins in your empty shoes — or better yet, a $50 in the Salvation Army kettle.

our favorite Winter Plant Helleborus atrorubens, aka the “Christmas or Lenten Rose,” will add a touch of glamour and drama to any late-winter border. Happiest in partial or light shade and moist but well-drained soil, hellebores do not like to be moved once established.

— from Latin for Gardeners by Lorraine Harrison

The Lazy Gardener’s Christmas List More days off in 2014, better yet the four-day work week!

No premature spring, bad for tender blooms A beautiful English plant spade French pruning shears A dog that finally quits digging where he shouldn’t A lemon tree of our own Fewer mosquitos Abundant rain/No drought A decent hammock to snooze in after work

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&

Arts entertainment cA l e n DA r

Pinehurst Tree Lighting

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Jazzy Fridays at Cypress Bend Vineyards

STARworks Glass Ornament Sale

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12/

7

•

ART exHiBiTioN. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. The Arts Council of Moore County presents an art exhibit featuring artwork by the members of the North Carolina Wildlife Artist Society. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Campbell House Galleries, 482 e. Connecticut Avenue, Southern Pines. info: (910) 692-2787 or www.MooreArt.org.

November 9 – December 19

•

ARTiSTS’ LeAGue oF THe SANDHiLLS ANNuAL exHiBiT AND

SALe. 12 – 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Artists’ League of the Sandhills, 129 exchange Street, Aberdeen. info: (910) 944-3979 or www.artistleague.org.

November 17—January 2

•

2ND ANNuAL ART SHoW. 8 a.m – 8 p.m. daily. An exhibit showcasing the artwork of high school students from North Moore, Pinecrest, union Pines and The o’Neal School. The artwork will be displayed throughout the first floor of the village House. Penick village, 500 e.

Rhode island Avenue, Southern Pines. info: (910) 692 0449.

•

MooRe CouNTy CHoRAL SoCieTy HoLiDAy CoNCeRT. 4 – 6 p.m. “Songs of the Season.” Gloria by K. Lee Scott and well-known holiday favorites. Tickets: $15/Adults; $7.50/Students, available at The Campbell House, The Country Bookshop or at the door. owens Auditorium, Sandhills Community College, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. info: (910) 692-6979 or www.moorecountychoralsociety.org.

RooSTeR’S WiFe CoNCeRT. 6:46 p.m. onyx Club Boys. This hot new group

•

December 3

•

CARTHAGe CHRiSTMAS PARADe. 6:15 p.m. Annual Christmas Parade with music, Santa Claus and entertainment. Route is along Monroe Street.

Town of Carthage. info: (910) 947-2331 or www.townofcarthage.org.

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December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Dance/Theater

Film

Literature/Speakers

• •

draws inspiration from cool old music.

Gypsy Jazz, to French Musettes, Brazilian Sambas, Swing, and Ragtime. Seating is by general admission. Doors open at 6. Tickets available at the door or online. 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. info: (910) 944-7502 or www. theroosterswife.org.

• •

Music/Concerts

• •

December 1

12/

Key:

Art

•

7

12/

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November 4—December 19

Reindeer Fun Run in Aberdeen

Fun

History

•

Sports

Colonial Christmas at House in the Horseshoe

Martha Bassett comes to the Roosters Wife

8

14

•

Nativity Luncheon. 11:30 a.m. mimosas, 12 p.m. luncheon. The Sandhills/Moore Coalition for Human Care is hosting its Seventh Annual Nativity Luncheon. Speaker Lauren F. Winner, Nativity scenes, Christmas cookie jar collections and silent auction of a Nativity scene from local potter Jeannette Lowdermilk of His Hands Pottery. Tickets $50. The Clubhouse, Belle Meade, St. Joseph of the Pines, 100 Waters Drive, Southern Pines. Info and reservations: (910) 693-1600.

LUNCH AND LEARN. 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Pretty in Pink for Party Time.

Complimentary lunch, gift bags and specials. The Laser Institute of Pinehurst, 80 Aviemore Court, Suite A, Pinehurst.

Info/R.S.V.P.: (910) 295-1130.

AUTHOR AT THE BOOKSHOP. 5 p.m. Following the outstanding success of William Conescu’s debut novel Being Written, William Conescu introduces his latest book, Kara Was Here. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad Street,

• •

17

12/

12/

December 4

Bill Lindau to the Shaw House

Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3211 or www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

CHRISTMAS GALA AT WEYMOUTH. 6 – 9 p.m. Live music, dancing, refreshments and heavy hors d’oeuvres. Reservations required.

Tickets: $75. Weymouth Center, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: (910) 692-6261 or www.weymouthcenter.org.

•

December 5

•

CAROLS AT WEYMOUTH. 5:30 p.m. An evening of seasonal music, poetry and song. Free and open to the public.

Weymouth Center, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6926261 or www.weymouthcenter.org.

December 5—8

•

CHRISTMAS AT WEYMOUTH. 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Thurs. to Sat.; 1 p.m.

– 4 p.m. Sunday. “Tender is the Night Before Christmas.” See Boyd House decorated in elegant period décor by the area’s interior and floral designers, garden clubs and artisans, as it might Key:

• • Art

12/

have looked when the Boyds were in residence and entertaining their famous guests for the holidays. Tickets: $10/ advance; $15/at the door. Weymouth Center, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or www.weymouthcenter.org.

December 6

•

PINEHURST TREE LIGHTING. 5 – 7:30 p.m. Tree lighting ceremony 6:30 p.m. The village of Pinehurst and the Pinehurst Business Guild present this year’s Christmas tree lighting event.

Photos with Santa, food concessions, hayrides, musical entertainment and the tree lighting ceremony. Downtown Pinehurst.

Info: (910) 295-1900 or www.vopnc.org.

JAZZY FRIDAYS. 7 – 10 p.m. Enjoy a bottle of wine and dancing with friends under the tent with live jazz music by the Mike Wallace Quartet. Gates open at 6.

Admission: $10. Reservations and prepayments are required for parties of eight or more. Food vendor on site. Cypress Bend Vineyards, 21904 Riverton Road,

•

Music/Concerts

•

Dance/Theater

• • Film

Wagram. Info: 910-369-0411 or www. cypressbendvineyards.com.

December 7

•

7TH ANNUAL REINDEER FUN RUN. 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. For everyone from serious runners to recreational walkers, families, and pets. Join in the holiday cheer with the 5k Reindeer Fun Run/Walk, 12k Christmas Run and Kids Egg Nog Jog. After-party with kids’ zone. All events support the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Sandhills.

Registration: $28/5k; $32/12k; $15/ Egg Nog Jog; early bird discounts until November 15. Start: Poplar Street, in front of Page Memorial, downtown Aberdeen. Info: (910) 693-3045 or reindeerfunrun.com.

SOUTHERN PINES HOLIDAY PARADE. 10 a.m. High school and college bands, dance teams, floats, fire trucks, antique cars, political representatives and, of course, Santa Claus. Historic District along Broad Street, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.biz.

•

Literature/Speakers

• • Fun

History

•

Sports

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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DO

It ’s Back!

S THE 2ND ANNU N’T MIS

FABULOUS FINDS IN FAYETTEVILLE AL

D o u b l e F e at u r e Saturday, December 21st, 2013 The Sunrise Theater Downtown Southern Pines

1:00pm

Elf

Rated PG • 97 min

Dress in your holiday best and join us for a sing-a-long of your favorite holiday songs, movie, a visit from Santa, refreshments and SNOW!!

7:30pm

Love Actually Rated R • 135 min

Come back and enjoy another holiday favorite.

Your donation includes entry to the movie and a treat for the show!

Your donation to The Arc of Moore County of

$10 PER PERSON/PER SHOW includes your entry to the movie, refreshments and festivities.

Seating at the Sunrise is limited!

TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED ONLINE IN ADVANCE AT WWW.THEARCOFMOORE.ORG OR AT THE EVENT.

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December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

c a l e n da r

•

STARWORKS GLASS ORNAMENT SALE. 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Hundreds of handmade ornaments & gifts created at STARworks Glass. Glassblowing demonstrations & holiday refreshments. Ornaments will not be available until the event and cannot be reserved. STARworks Center for Creative Enterprise, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info: (910) 428-9001 or www.STARworksnc.org.

EVENT AT THE BOOKSHOP. 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. A drop-in event promoting the Sandhills Council of Garden Club’s book, which is a glimpse of hospitality, entertaining and recipes from the historic homes of Pinehurst, North Carolina. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3211 or www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

CHRISTMAS FOR THE BIRDS. 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Create hand-made pine cone birdfeeder ornaments to hang in site trees or to take home and share with neighborhood feathered friends. Town Creek Indian Mound, 509 Town Creek Mound Road, Mount Gilead. Info: (910) 439-6802 or www.nchistoricsites.org.

OPEN HOUSE. 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Joel Lane Museum House presents “A Colonial Christmas.” Open to the public, donations requested. 728 W. Hargett St., Raleigh.

Info: (919) 833-3431 or www.joellane.org.

MEET THE ARTIST. 12 – 3 p.m. Jane Casnellie.

Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst.

Info: (910) 255-0665 or www.hollyhocksartgallery.com.

CYPRESS BEND VINEYARDS CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE. 12 – 6 p.m. Free admission and live entertainment. Cypress Bend Vineyards, 21904 Riverton Road, Wagram. Info: 910-369-0411 or www.cypressbendvineyards.com.

• • • • •

tea. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave. Info: (910) 692-8235.

ROOSTER’S WIFE CONCERT. 6:46 p.m. Martha Bassett. Classically trained Martha Bassett was raised on the bluegrass and gospel of her native West Virginia farmland. She moves effortlessly through swing, jazz, folk, country and rock. Seating is by general admission.

Doors open at 6. Tickets available at the door or online.

114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www. theroosterswife.org.

•

DROP IN SIGNING AT THE BOOKSHOP. 2 – 4 p.m. With Nan Leaptrott, contributor to Chicken Soup for the Soul: Miraculous Messages from Heaven. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3211 or www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

Candlelight Tour of Weymouth. 6 – 9 p.m. Wine, cheese and desserts following the tour.

Tickets: $30. Weymouth Center, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or www. weymouthcenter.org.

•

•

December 11

December 8

•

BRYANT HOUSE CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE. 1 – 4 p.m. A taste of how early settlers in Moore County celebrated Christmas. Live music, refreshments and old-timey decorations and traditions. Free and open to the public, donations welcome. Bryant House and McClendon Cabin, 3361 Mount Carmel Road, Carthage.

Info: (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com.

36TH ANNUAL CANDLELIGHT TOUR OF HOMES. 1 – 6 p.m. Five homes in the Southern Pines and Pinehurst area, all uniquely decorated for the holidays. Tickets may be purchased in advance at Cool Sweats, Lady Bedford’s Tea Parlour, The Country Bookshop, Gulley’s Garden Center, Nature’s Own/195 Restaurant, Living on the Bliss and One Eleven Main. Cost: $20/advance; $25/on the day. The Episcopal Day School, Southern Pines. Info and advance tickets: (910) 692-3492.

OLDIES AND GOODIES FILM. 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.

A 1938 story loosely based on the life of Johan Strauss II. This film was awarded Best Cinematography at the 1939 Academy Awards. Enjoy this free classic film and a cup of

•

•

Key:

• • Art

Music/Concerts

•

Dance/Theater

•

CONCERT AT THE SUNRISE. 7 p.m. Join Jennifer Licko, guitarist Patsy O’Brien and fiddle player Zack Kline for their very lively “bluegrass meets Celtic” style.

This promises to be one of Jennifer’s most exciting Celtic Christmas concerts yet. Tickets: $13. Sunrise Theater, 250 NW Broad St., Southern Pines. Info and tickets: (561) 670 5534 or www.jenniferlicko.com.

December 12

•

HOLIDAY FLOWER ARRANGING WORKSHOP. 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Workshop with Maggie Smith. Participants will get holiday decorating ideas and will make a holiday floral arrangement to take home. Cost: $30/Horticultural Society members; $35/non-members. Sandhills Community College Horticultural Gardens, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst.

Info: (910) 695-3882.

GATHERING AT GIVEN. 3:30 p.m. The Union Pines Advanced Ensemble will be singing Christmas favorites, new pieces as well as old familiar carols. This event is free and open to the public. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-6022.

•

• • Film

Literature/Speakers

• • Fun

History

•

Sports

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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A Gift Shop that will

Make You Smile!

Many Great Gifts for EVERY Occasion Jewelry • Clothing • Accessories Children’s • Baby • Vintage Exclusive Line of Natural Bath & Body and MORE...

910-295-1424 Located in The Historic Theatre Building 90 Cherokee Road, Suite 1-D • Village of Pinehurst Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm • 1heart2heart.net

New DUNROVIN COUNTRY STORE

THE

We are a Feed Store...and MORE!

A Touch of Times Gone By

THE NEW DUNROVIN COUNTRY STORE is your CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS CONNECTION for gourmet foods, gifts, and all the hard to find items. Don’t forget Country Ham, Old Fashioned Bacon and gift boxes for your HOLIDAY needs.

Experience Southern Hospitality while you shop for treasures of the past and the present. From our Family, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

EVERYDAY 9AM - 6PM

5456 US HWY 1 • VASS • 910-246-0814

Quality Feeds & Pet Supplies

Riding & Fashion Apparel

Unique Gifts

Unexpected Finds

1012 North May Street, Southern Pines • 910-692-2385 Mon-Fri 7A-6P • Sat & Sun 9A-3P

Whispering Pines Animal Hospital Compassionate Care for Cherished Pets E. Lyerly, D.V.M • E. Pelkey, D.V.M Wm. McDuffie, D.V.M • D. Hobbs, D.V.M K. Andrews, D.V.M

Call to schedule an appointment!

(910) 949-2111

88

PineStraw

would like to thank our advertisers for another wonderful year!

We wish you all a safe and happy holiday season!

December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

c a l e n da r

•

FAMILY FUN NIGHT. 5:30 p.m. Children in grades K-5 and their families are invited to participate in holiday songs, a puppet show and ornament making session. Refreshments will be provided. Children are invited to wear their PJ’s for a comfy and fun end to the day!

Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave. Info: (910) 692-8235.

TRANSIT DAMAGE FREIGHT

December 13

•

HOLIDAY CONCERT. 3 p.m. New Horizons Band in the Pines (NHB). Free and open to the public. The Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. Hwy 15, West End. Info: (910) 783-5500 or www.NHBinthePines.com.

BEACH FRIDAYS. 7 – 10 p.m. Enjoy wine and dancing with friends under the tent with live beach music

by The Sand Band. Gates open at 6. Admission: $10.

Reservations and prepayments are required for parties of eight or more. Food vendor on site. Cypress Bend Vineyards, 21904 Riverton Road, Wagram. Info: 910-3690411 or www.cypressbendvineyards.com.

•

December 13—15

•

SHAW HOUSE CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE. 1 – 4 p.m. See how early Southern Pines settlers celebrated Christmas. Live music, tours, old time decorations, warm apple cider and homemade cookies. Free and open to the public, donations welcome. Shaw House, 110 West Morganton Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com.

December 14

•

HOLIDAY SHOPPE CHRISTMAS ARTS AND CRAFTS SHOW. 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Southern Pines National Guard Armory, Morganton Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 528-7052.

WINTER CRAFTS. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. A day of fun for kids K-5! Stop by the Library any time during the day to participate at one of the craft tables. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave. Info: (910) 692-8235.

AUTHOR AT THE BOOKSHOP. 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Kathy McGugan and Buddy the Dog. Kathy is the author of the Buddy Book Series and Buddy stars as Buddy! The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines.

Info: (910) 692-3211 or www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

COLONIAL CHRISTMAS AT THE HOUSE IN THE HORSESHOE. 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Head out to a decorated Alston House for a wonderful spread of food, apple cider and refreshments to the sound of period music.

There will also be musket and cannon demonstrations.

Free and open to the public. House in the Horseshoe, 288 Alston House Road, Sanford. Info: (910) 947-2051 or www.nchistoricsites.org.

MEET THE ARTIST. 12 – 3 p.m. Diane Kraudelt.

Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst.

Info: (910) 255-0665 or www.hollyhocksartgallery.com.

CHRISTMAS HORSE CARRIAGE PARADE. 1 p.m. The Moore County Driving Club decorates their horses and carriages for Christmas and drives them through the historic district of downtown Southern Pines. Info: www. moorecountydrivingclub.net.

DROP IN SIGNING AT THE BOOKSHOP. 2 – 4 p.m. A drop-in signing with Jill Dahan, author of Starting Fresh. The Country Bookshop,140 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3211 or www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

• •

MADE IN NORTH CAROLINA 12 MONTH FINANCING NO INTEREST 346 Grant Road | Vass, NC Just off US 1 North (Next to Carolina Storage) 910-245-4977 | Monday-Saturday 10:00am - 5:30pm www.transitdamagefreight.webs.com

Unless your career depends on a fuller waistline... let CoolSculpting™ freeze away your fat cells this Holiday Season!!

• • •

Come in for a FREE consultation to find out how we can design a Treatment to Transformation plan with CoolSculpting™. This body contouring treatment freezes and naturally eliminates fat from your body. There are no needles, no special diets, no exercise programs and best of all-no downtime. Developed by Harvard scientists to eliminate fat, CoolSculpting™ is FDA-cleared, safe and clinically proven.

•

••• • •

Key: Art Music/Concerts Film Literature/Speakers Sports

• • •

Dance/Theater Fun History

0% Interest Financing Available

PINEHURST PLASTIC SURGERY SPECIALISTS 910.295.1917 • 20 Memorial Drive • Pinehurst www.pinehurstplasticsurgery.com

Steven M. Zoellner, M.D, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon You are invited to our Holiday Open House, Thursday, December 12th 10-2pm to learn more about Coolsculpting™ and enter in a drawing for FREE gifts.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

89

H OME S TYLES

Now open on Sundays!

"Let us help you get everyone on your list something perfect this Holiday at the Mockingbird!"

The Antique Shops of

Cameron

Just off US 1 on Hwy 24/27 between Sanford & Southern Pines

910.245.7001

www.AntiquesofCameron.com

The Potpourri A unique shop in a unique village

Kurt S. Adler Fabriche Collection Santa Clauses Luminara Candles Flameless & Remote Controlled

Thank you for 35 years!

120 Market Square, Village of Pinehurst

295-6508

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December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

cA l e n DA r

December 15

•

SuNDAy AFTeRNooN Movie. 2:30 p.m. A holiday favorite based on the book by Dr. Seuss, the cantankerous Grinch descends from his dreary dwelling high in the peaks of Mt. Crumpit to wreak havoc on the Whos’ beloved Christmas season. But he learns a valuable lesson from a little girl named Cindy Lou Who. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave. info: (910) 692-8235.

RooSTeR’S WiFe CoNCeRT. 6:46 p.m. Joe Craven & John Doyle. Joe Craven has made music with folks ranging from David Lindley to Jerry Garcia and groups from Psychograss to The Persuasions to The Horseflies. John Doyle is considered one of the most important guitarists in irish and acoustic music in the world.

Seating is by general admission. Doors open at 6. Tickets available at the door or online. 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org.

•

December 17

•

BooK PARTy. 4 – 6 p.m. Celebrating Bill Lindau’s anthology, Voices of a Sandhills Baby Boomer. Bill Lindau has lived in Southern Pines since his teens and has written for many regional publications. His new book features poetry, short stories and memoir pieces — many with a dash of his signature irreverent humor. Shaw House, 110 West Morganton Road, Southern Pines. info: (510) 919-6117. youNG ADuLT ReADeRS’ PRoGRAM (GRADeS 6-12). 5:30 p.m. Pass the Pen, a writing game to share stories and in the creation of each story by writing a few lines and passing it to the next person to continue the tale. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave. info: (910) 692-8235.

•

December 20

•

JAZZy FRiDAyS. 7 – 10 p.m. enjoy wine and dancing with friends under the tent with live jazz music by the Mike Wallace Quartet. Gates open at 6. Admission: $10.

Reservations and prepayments are required for parties of eight or more. Food vendor on site. Cypress Bend vineyards, 21904 Riverton Road, Wagram. info: 910-3690411 or www.cypressbendvineyards.com.

December 21

•

DRoP iN SiGNiNG AT THe BooKSHoP. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. A meet and greet and book signing with Laura Willis, author of Finding God in a Bag of Groceries. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines. info: (910) 692-3211 or www. thecountrybookshop.biz.

MeeT THe ARTiST. 12 – 3 p.m. Phyllis Andrews.

Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. info: (910) 255-0665 or www.hollyhocksartgallery.com.

CHRiSTMAS Movie SPeCTACuLAR. 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The Arc of Moore County presents a double feature of holiday favorites: Elf and Love Actually.

Dress up in your holiday best for a sing-a-long, refreshments and a visit from Santa. Return in the evening for the second show, Love Actually. Tickets: $10 per person/ per show. The Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. info: www.thearcofmoore.org.

MeeT AND GReeT AT THe BooKSHoP. 2 – 4 p.m. Local author Richard Mandel with Legendary Evolution of Pinehurst: The Home of American Golf. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines. info: (910) 692-3211 or www.thecountrybookshop.biz.

• • •

December 22

•

RooSTeR’S WiFe CoNCeRT. 6:46 p.m. Fiddle x.

Seating is by general admission. Doors open at 6. Tickets Key:

• • Art

Music/Concerts

•

Dance/Theater

available at the door or online. 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org.

December 27

•

BeACH FRiDAyS. 7 – 10 p.m. enjoy wine and dancing with friends under the tent with live beach music

by The Sand Band. Gates open at 6. Admission: $10.

Reservations and prepayments are required for parties of eight or more. Food vendor on site. Cypress Bend vineyards, 21904 Riverton Road, Wagram. info: 910-3690411 or www.cypressbendvineyards.com.

December 28

•

MeeT THe ARTiST. 12 – 3 p.m. Morgen Kilbourn.

Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. info: (910) 255-0665 or www.hollyhocksartgallery.com.

December 31

•

FiRST eve. 6 – 8 p.m. This year’s extravaganza features: live music, carnival games, singing contests, face painting and much more. The highlight of the evening is the countdown to the pinecone drop at 8 p.m.

Downtown Southern Pines. info: (910) 692-2463.

WEEKLY HAPPENINGS Mondays

•

Live MuSiC AT CiRCLe M CiTy. 7 p.m. Gather at the wild west town’s free music event.

74 Cowboy Lane, Sanford. info: (919) 499-8493.

Tuesdays

•

ZuMBA CLASS. 7:35 p.m. No pre-registration necessary. Cost: $10, cash or check. The Fitness Studio, 1150 old uS 1, Southern Pines. info: (631) 445-1842 or thefitnessstudioinc.com.

LOCATED IN THE FRESH MARKET SHOPPING CENTER MON-FRI 10AM-6PM | SAT 10AM-5PM 165 BEVERLY LANE | SOUTHERN PINES 910.692.7467

Wednesdays

•

PReSCHooL SToRyTiMe. 3:30 – 4 p.m. infants and toddlers (ages birth through 5 years). Join us for stories, songs, and fun, and then stay for playtime! Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave. info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

Thursdays

•

MooRe CouNTy FARMeRS MARKeT. 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Thanksgiving Day market moved to Wednesday).

Armory Sports Complex, 604 West Morganton Road, Southern Pines.

Fridays

•

CHiLDReN’S SToRyTiMe AT THe BooKSHoP. 10:30 a.m. Special Nutcracker story on the 15th. 140 NW Broad Street, Southern Pines. info: (910) 692-3211 or www. thecountrybookshop.biz.

FRee CooKiNG DeMo. 5 – 6 p.m. A fun way to play with your food using quick, easy, in-season ingredients. Samples included. The Flavor exchange, 115 e New Hampshire Ave., Southern Pines. info: (910) 725-1345.

•

Saturdays

• •

FRee WiNe TASTiNG. 12 – 4 p.m. elliott’s on Linden, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. info: (910) 215-0775.

CRAFTS & BooK SWAP AT THe LiBRARy. Bring the books your children have outgrown and swap them for new books for them to enjoy. each Saturday a different craft will be featured. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave. info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

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Art Galleries ABouT ART GALLeRy inside The Market Place

PHONE

M A G A Z I N E

P.O. BOX 58 Southern Pines, NC 28388

Sports

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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Giving families

a brighter future with

compassionate home care.

24 hour, 7 days a week availability

780 NW Broad Street • Suite 410 Southern Pines, NC

910-246-0586

92

Two Left Feet?

Let Fred Astaire Find Your Right Foot!!

Ballroom Dancing for ALL AGES

5 LESSONS $25 Single / $50 Couples 3 Half Hour Lessons 1 Group Class • 1 Practice Party New Students Only. Expires 12/31/13

712 SW Broad Street | Southern Pines, NC www.pinehurstfads.com | 910.725.1846

December 2013 P����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

cA l e n DA r Midland Bistro Building, 2160 Midland Road, Pinehurst. The gallery features local artists. open Monday-Friday 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. (910) 215-596.

ART NuTZ AND RAveN PoTTeRy, 125 SW Broad St., Southern Pines. Come see the potter at work.

Features art, pottery from local potters, handmade jewelry, glass and more. Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

(910) 695-1555, www.ravenpottery.com.

ARTiST GALLeRy oF SouTHeRN PiNeS, 167 e.

New Hampshire Ave., Southern Pines. Features art and fine crafts from more than 60 North Carolina artists. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday-Saturday. (910) 692-6077.

ARTiSTS LeAGue oF THe SANDHiLLS, 129 exchange St. in historic Aberdeen. exhibit hours are noon – 3 p.m., Monday-Saturday. (910) 944-3979.

BRoADHuRST GALLeRy, 2212 Midland Road, Pinehurst. Showcases works by nationally recognized artists such as Louis St. Lewis, Lula Smith, Shawn Morin, Rachel Clearfield, Judy Cox and Jason Craighead. Meetthe-artist opportunities available. Monday-Friday (closed Wednesday), 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Saturday, 1 – 4 p.m & special appointments. (910) 295-4817, www.broadhurstgallery.com.

THe CAMPBeLL HouSe GALLeRieS, 482 e.

Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Monday-Friday 9 a.m.

– 5 p.m. and every third weekend of the month from 2 – 4 p.m. (910) 692-4356, www.mooreart.org.

THe DoWNToWN GALLeRy iNSiDe CuP oF FLoW, 115 Ne Broad St., Southern Pines. ever-changing array of local and regional art, pottery and other handmade items. (910) 693-1999. exCHANGe STReeT GALLeRy, Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 exchange Street in historic Aberdeen. “it’s Southern, ya’ll,” works of Pat McMahon and Betty

DiBartolomeo. September 2-28. Regular hours noon to 3:00, Monday-Saturday. (910) 944-3979.

THe GALLeRy AT SeveN LAKeS at the St. Mary Magdalene building, 1145 Seven Lakes Drive. Just nine miles from the Pinehurst Traffic Circle up 211, this gallery is dedicated to local artists. Wednesday-Thursday 1 – 4 p.m.

HASTiNGS GALLeRy in the Katharine L. Boyd Library at Sandhills Community College, Pinehurst. Gallery hours are Monday-Thursday 7:45 a.m. – 9 p.m., Friday 7:45 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.

HoLLyHoCKS ART GALLeRy, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Features artwork by local award winning artists, Phyllis Andrews, equine Sculptor Morgen Kilbourn, Diane Kraudelt, Carol Rotter, Jessie MacKay, jeweler Michele Garrett Laster and artist/owner, Jane Casnellie. MondaySaturday 10:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m. (910) 255-0665, www. hollyhocksartgallery.com.

LADy BeDFoRD’S TeA PARLouR, 21 Chinquapin Road, Pinehurst. Features local artist Jude Winkley’s original oil paintings. Tuesday - Saturday 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

(910) 255-0100, www.ladybedfords.com.

THe oLD SiLK RouTe, 113 West Main St., Aberdeen.

Specializes in Asian original art, including silk paintings, tapestries, Buddhist Thangkas and indian paper miniatures. Monday, Thursday-Saturday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

(910) 295-2055.

SANDHiLLS WoMAN’S exCHANGe,15 Azalea Road, Pinehurst. Christmas wreaths, new ornaments for your tree and gifts for someone special. All merchandise at the exchange is handmade by consignors who live in the community. 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Lunch served 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. The exchange will close for its winter break on December 21 and reopen on February 4, 2014. (910) 295-4677.

SeAGRove CANDLe CoMPANy, 116 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Showcases art of the Sandhills and Seagrove area. Monday, Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., (910) 695-0029.

SKy ART GALLeRy, 602 Magnolia Dr., Aberdeen.

Tues.-Sat. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. (910) 944-9440, www.skyartgallery.com.

STuDio 590 by the pond in Dowd Cabin, 590 Dowd Circle, Pinehurst. This historic log cabin is the working studio and gallery of artists Betty DiBartolomeo and Harry Neely. Fine oil paintings, commissions and instruction. (910) 639-9404.

WHiTe HiLL GALLeRy, 407 u.S. 15-501, Carthage, offers a variety of pottery. (910) 947-6100.

Nature Centers SANDHiLLS HoRTiCuLTuRAL GARDeNS (32 acres of gardens). The Sandhills Horticultural Gardens are handicapped-accessible. Daylight hours year-round. (910) 695-3882.

WeyMouTH WooDS Sandhills Nature Preserve (898 acres). 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. (910) 692-2167. viLLAGe ARBoReTuM. 35 acres of land adjoining the village Hall on Magnolia Road, Pinehurst. (910) 295-1900.

Historical Sites BeTHeSDA CHuRCH AND CeMeTeRy. Guided tours for groups by appointment. 1020 Bethesda Road, Aberdeen.

(910) 944-1319.

BRyANT HouSe AND MCLeNDoN CABiN. Tours by appointment. (910) 692-2051 or (910) 673-0908.

CARTHAGe HiSToRiCAL MuSeuM. Sundays, 2 – 5 p.m. or by appointment. Located at Rockingham and

China, Crystal & Silver Old & New

COTE

PROFESSIONAL PRIVATE GUITAR INSTRUCTION

TIMEWORKS Watch & Clock Specialist

Watches & Other Gift Ideas

Watch battery replacement Band adjustment & replacement Replacement of crystals, stems & crowns

www.CoteTimeworks.com

Over 30 years Experience All levels and styles taught

106 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines

Call Danny Infantino (910) 692-6346

Please call or go online for a complete list of watch repairs

910.303.8346

Pine Straw Dec 2013 Final.indd 2

CORESUSPEND™

Master Of Music Degree in guitar performance

10/31/13 11:43 AM

PILATES Redcord

®

Suspension-based functional exercise system that utilizes your body weight in slings to improve strength, balance, muscular endurance, and core muscle stability.

katherine rice, instructor

910.690.6548

studio at plantation house 155 legacy lakes way aberdeen, nc 28315 www.artofmotionpilates.com

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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Encore

Shop with Karen for one-of-a-kind holiday gifts

We sell a lot of pretty things! We buy, consign & layaway!

Karen’s

Attic

5689 US Highway 1 Southern Pines, NC 28387

910.693.8008 Mon-Sat 11am - 5pm

Journey’s End

Fine Furniture Antiques Old Dolls US Coins Toys Civil War Items

AnTIqUeS

Located in Town & Country Antique Mall Highway US 1 • Aberdeen 910-725-0466 • 910-944-3359 Paul Brill • apbrill@earthlink.net

Antiques • Collectables Vintage • Primitive Unique Home & Office Decor New & Consigned Furniture www.westendpastimes.com

J

C

5336 NC 211 • West End, NC • 910-673-2065

JC

JC

Consignments

Located on the corner of

McCaskill Road East & Rattlesnake Trail Pinehurst, NC Wednesday-Saturday 11:00am - 5:00pm

ART

ANTIQUES

HOME & GARDEN FURNISHINGS

ENGLISH HUNTERS

WESTERN

DRIVING

DRESSAGE

Jazzy’s Upscale Resale Ladies Apparel and Accessories Consignment Relocating January 1st to 220 W. Pennsylvania Ave.

148 E. New Hampshire Ave. • 910-246-2828 Hours: Tues-Sat 10:30am to 5:00pm jazzysresale4less@gmail.com

When you’re looking to remodel on a budget!

Shop the ReStore first and find everything you want or need for your next project.

barndoorconsignments.com

LOCATED BEHIND ABERDEEN SUPPLY 104 KNIGHT ST., ABERDEEN, NC 910-944-5011

2268 Hwy NC 5, Aberdeen NC 910-295-2798

Monday-Saturday 10:00am-5:00pm • Sunday 1:00pm-5:00pm 2131 Hwy 5 • Pinehurst(next to Food Lion) • 910.295.7060

BARGAIN BOX II

Jewelry • China • apparel • shoes prints • handbags • furniture Best Consignment in the County!

7,000 Sq Ft of

New Items Daily!

Consign furniture & reCeive 60%!

NON-PROFIT THRIFT SHOP

Bene fits Moore Cou nty Cha rities & Nu rsing Schol a rships for SCC Stude nts Donations Accepted During Regular Business Hours

Tuesday-Saturday 10am-4pm 7299-A, 15-501 in Eastwood (Behind Wylie’s Golf Cart) 910-235-5221

Celebrate What You Want to See More Of! -Tom Peters

Celebrate with PineStraw!

For Advertising Information Contact Darlene Stark (910) 693-2488 dstark@thepilot.com

c a l e n da r Saunders streets, Carthage. (910) 947-2331.

House in the Horseshoe. Open year-round.

Hours vary. 288 Alston House Road (10 miles north of Carthage), Sanford. (910) 947-2051.

Malcolm Blue Farm and Museum. 1 – 4 p.m.

Wednesday-Saturday. Group tours can be arranged by appointment. (910) 944-7558 or (910) 603-2739.

North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.

10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Monday-Friday, at the Weymouth Center for Arts and Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. (910) 692-6261.

Shaw House. Open 1 – 4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. (910) 692-2051.

Tufts Archives. 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday-Friday, and 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Saturday. (910) 295-3642.

Union Station. Open 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Located in downtown Aberdeen. (910) 944-5902.

Sandhills Woman’s Exchange Log Cabin.

Open 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. (910) 295-4677. PS To add an event, email us at pinestraw@thepilot.com by the first of the month prior to the event. Or go to www. thepilot.com and add the event to our online calendar.

December PineNeedler Answers

Nutty as a Fruitcake! from page 111

Solution:

W A D E A B B R

W A S H

I R A N

H C A G R I R A R V A T D A N E L M O N D I O S E P L T E A T E S C C O N C E A S P A N A L N U T S I A I N E A R N O A R E G N

7 8 5 6 4 3 2 1 9

T I L E

1 2 9 8 7 5 3 6 4

6 3 4 9 1 2 8 7 5

2 6 7 5 9 8 4 3 1

L U B A T A V E L E C A B O D M O N S O X Y R E A R F L R E C O S H A Z E U R E L A N A T

9 5 3 1 6 4 7 2 8

4 1 8 2 3 7 5 9 6

8 4 6 3 2 1 9 5 7

C L O S E T S

H U G H

E L L E

F L E W

E L D P E A R Y L N O I A N D E

R E U S E

W O O D

U L N A

T S A R

5 9 2 7 8 6 1 4 3

3 7 1 4 5 9 6 8 2

LYDIA’S

Upscale Consignment Boutique

Christmas Shopping Easy and Affordable Designer Purses and Jewelry, Name Brand Clothing and Home Accents...

At Lydia’s, It’s Christmas Everyday with our Daily arrivals on Name Brand Items such as: Chico’s, Talbots, Ann Taylor, Ralph Lauren, St. John, Beautiful Furs, Evening Gowns for the Holidays and much, much more......

You can always find that special someone something at Lydia’s at oh so affordable prices!

Remember, A GIFT CERTIFICATE ALWAYS FITS!!!

SO HURRY IN AND START YOUR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING TODAYAT LYDIA’S!!

1460 NC Hwy 5 • Pinehurst 910.295.6700 • Mon-Sat 10-5

J.A. Spivey Hair Company Located on Lower level • 295-2815

Hold on to summer.

Experience at: Sterling silver charms from $25

FRAMER’S COTTAGE 162 NW Broad Street Southern Pines, NC 28387 910.246.2002

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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D

I N I N G

GUI

D E

BLACK ROCK VINEYARDS &WINERY

Local Moore County Vineyard & Artisan Winery A Great Place to Bring Family & Friends!

We welcome you to relax and enjoy our Patio gathering spot.

Sample our Artisan Wines & Cheeses.

We also create custom Holiday Baskets

The perfect spot for Meetings, Parties & Private Tastings!

Open Thurs, Fri & Sat 11-6 & Sun 1-6 Call to book any private event

910-295-9511

6652 US Hwy 15-501, Carthage www.blackrockvineyard.com

Where Friends & Family

meet for the Holidays!

The Ice Cream Parlor Established in 1976

Downtown Southern Pines 910-692-7273

hot soups • sandwiches • burgers salads • wraps • hot chocolate coffee • holiday shakes

Open 7 Days a Week!

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December 2013 i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i iPineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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I N I N G

GUI

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Longleaf Golf & Country Club 10 Knoll Road Southern Pines, NC 28387 910-692-4411 Available for

Joi W nU YE s F AR or ’S EV E!

Banquets & Large Parties!

Taking Reservations

Now

Specializing in Authentic Japanese Cuisine

NE

Hibachi • Sushi • Noodles and Tempura dishes Party Rooms Available www.mtfujibistro.com • 910-944-9340

Open Lunch: Tues-Fri. & Sun- 11:30-2:00 pm (no lunch Saturday) Dinner 5-9 pm, Fri. & Sat-5-10 pm Closed Monday

farmersmarket_Dec2013:Layout 1

11/12/13

8:53 AM

Page 1

55 NE Broad Street Southern Pines, NC 28387 910-692-4766

Thank you for shopping at the

MOORE COUNTY

FARMERS MARKET in 2013

Winter Season

November thru mid-April Thursdays: 604 W. Morganton Road- Armory 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Greenhouse and in-season produce will be available plus meats, goat cheese, baked goods, crafts, Tomatoes, Greens, eggs, Winter Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Broccoli, Lettuce, collards, jams, jellies, prepared foods, cabbage FirstHealth & Downtown Southern Pines closed for the Season at the end of October and will re-open the middle of April 2014 Facilities Courtesy of FirstHealth & Town of Southern Pines

Call 947-3752 or 690-9520 for more info hwwebster@embarqmail.com facebook.com/ moorecountyfarmersmarket Websearch: Moore County Farmers Market Local Harvest

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i December 2013

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Pole Fitness • Chair DanCe • FloorWork Booty Beat • sexy stretCh • ChoreograPhy

Bachelorette Parties Birthday Parties • Girls Night Out Build Strength, Flexibility, Body Awareness and Confidence

Special Offers

5 class package for $60 10 class package for $90

910-725-1931

www.aryiafit.com • 180 S. Page St. • Southern Pines, NC 28387 BUYING GOLD & SILVER HIGHEST PRICES PAID!

We Are Buying: www.PinehurstCoins.com • Rare Coins & Bullion • Scrap Gold & Silver

• Sterling Flatware

• Platinum, Gold & Silver Coins

• Diamond, Gold & Silver Jewelry • US Paper Money & Notes • Free Appraisals • Private Transactions Rooms Available Upon Request • On Site Smelting and Assay • View our Entire Inventory On Our Website

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PCE

Pinehurst Coin Exchange Inc.

1420 Highway 5 | Pinehurst, NC

910.235.COIN (2646)

December 2013 i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i iPineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SandhillSeen

Chris Miller

Habitat for Humanity Wine Tasting and Raffle Saturday, October 19, 2013 Photographs by Al & Annette Daniels

Sis Mann, Susan Owens

Velisha Ross

Zack Willhoit, Chelsea Watson

Nicole Carbon, Chris Hamilton

Jennifer Campbell holding her son William

Xxxx Annette Galbreith, Adriane Weaver & Susan Galbreith

Katie Petite, David Young

Laurence Vuelta, Patrick McKee Susana Alvarez, baby Olivia & Chris Murphy

Curtis Frye, Emma Moore

Marybeth Sandell & her daughters Alexandra and JoseďŹ ne

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i December 2013

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1 Membership

2 Clubs

4 Courses

The Club of the Sandhills 4 Championship Golf Courses

Designed by Ellis Maples and Gene Hamm

Unlimited Golf at All Four Courses Unlimited Complimentary PGA Golf Instruction Swimming Pool & Fitness Center Access Exceptional Meeting Space for 10 - 345 Guests

Beautiful Wedding Venues Experienced Event Planner & Culinary Team Lodgings at CCWP Golf Courses Open To The Public For Membership, Events & Accommodations 910.949.4332

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ACTive DuTy Military Discounts on All Memberships

December 2013i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i iPineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SandhillSeen

Devyn and Avery Botnick

Pinehurst “Live After Five” Friday, October 18, 2013

Photographs by Al & Annette Daniels Anna Claire Gooding and her grandparents Jill and Bob Gooding

Steve Mannino, Sara Davis, Kahler and Fallon MacPhail and baby Lively

Jane and Wayne Ricks

Sandy Shein, Judy Townley, Audrey Moriarty, Chris Kreutzfeldt Aubrey and Marsha Baillie

Mariah McKenney and daughter Rosemary Lisa Carothers with Piper, Jay Carothers, Mary Pappas Tracy and Mike Newman

Molly Lynch, Heather and Ezra Dyer with baby Finley

Tish and Steve Hagler

Catherine and Alexis Dick

Sally and Annabelle Adams

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i December 2013

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a e v a H

l u f i eaut ason

B oliday Se H

Semi-annual Sale Fall Sale Winter Sale Spring Sale Summer Sale Holiday Sale

We’ve made

SALE a part of our everyday language.

There’s no better deal on Pinehurst merchandise than at The Putter Boy Shop in the Village of Pinehurst. Come in for 20-60% off. Every day.

CONCEPT SALON

The Art & Science of Pure Flower & Plant Essences

125 NE Broad St • Downtown • Southern Pines 910-246-0552

Pinehurst taxi & transPort inc.

Anywhere. Anytime.

The Putter Boy Shop

Magnolia Place • Village of Pinehurst • 910.235.8740 Hours: Monday-Saturday 10a-5p • Sunday 12p- 4p

P lan Y our

Holiday party

(910) 215-5655 • pinehursttaxi.com • (910) 603-7954 Restaurants • Doctor’s Apppointments • Local Service

Please Don’t Drink & Drive.

Available For

wit h Us!

Private Parties & Events On Sundays & Mondays!

Let us help you get Home for the Holidays!

Our Team of friendly and courteous drivers posses the knowledge, experience and skills to ensure that passengers travel to their destination on time and in comfort. We are available to handle all your transportation needs, including all area airports:

Raleigh • Greensboro • Charlotte Atlanta • Fayetteville • Moore County

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Call 910.215.8959 For More Information & To Make Your Reservation!

Tuesday - Saturday 5:00pm - 2:00am • Like Us on Facebook 910.215.8959 | 9735 Hwy 15-501 (next to Hickory Tavern)

December 2013i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i iPineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SandhillSeen

Mark McKinley, Cos Barnes

Sister Cities Reception Thursday, October 31, 2013 Photographs by Al & Annette Daniels

Pat Bradbury, David McNeill Michael Ruane, Joan McVeigh Pat McGowan, Emilie and Jim Simeon

Laurie Deleot, Kate Byrne, Delia Fitzsimmons, Joan McVeigh

Cheryle Knight, Linda Parsons

Reagan Parsons, Jim Simeon, Shane English, Ray Owen

Mike Ruane, Mike Redmond, Mike Haney, Denise Baker, Mike Fields, Mike McGiven, Mike Carr Pat Murphy, Randy Sharpe, Lindsay O’Reilly

Nancy Heilman, Jane McPhaul

Richard Agnew, Pat Murphy, Anne Agnew

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i December 2013

103

This year ask for The gifT of a vibranT, carefree,

fulfilling lifesTyle.

A retreat from today’s hectic pace, the setting at Penick Village will inspire you to enjoy life to its fullest, and take advantage of our many amenities with newfound friends. From classes and workshops, cultural offerings and exercise programs, to entertaining friends in your new spacious apartment or cottage, there is never a shortage of friendly people or things to do.

Please join us at one of our upcoming luncheons to learn more about our unique community January 20th | January 23rd | February 10th RSVP to Ginny Trigg at (910) 692-0449

Making Today Great! 18,000 great days and counting...

A Continuing Care Retirement Community

500 East Rhode Island Ave. | Southern Pines, NC www.penickvillage.org | (910) 692-0300

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December 2013i��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SandhillSeen

Deborah and John Wilson

8th Annual Spooktacular Halloween Party Benefitting Companion Animal Clinic Saturday, October 26, 2013 Photographs by Al & Annette Daniels

Jim Schmalenberger, Bob Lowery Chandra Davis, Randall Phillips

Marilee and Ken Huntley Meredith Clifton, Sandra Phillips, Peggy Sarvis

Bobbie and Punky Mudge

Maria Alioto, Kelli Keener, Jane Patton Ashley Van Camp, Charlie Coulter

Gene Shaffer, Randall Phillips Donna Buchan, Jan Thomasson

Tom Daniel, Jayne Parkins

Susan Reese, Mary Martone, Stacy Sasser

Sandra Phillips, Mary Gozzi

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i December 2013

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David I. Klumpar, MD

Duke-Trained Dermatologist & Medical Director

at Carolina Skin Care

Erica Ussery, LMBT

Lic. Massage & Body Therapist

The science behind beauty

Mia Piazza, LE

235-SPA1 (7721) • 125 Fox Hollow Rd • Pinehurst, NC

Lic. Esthetician

Botox • Restylane • Laser Hair Removal • Face & Body Rejuvenation• Massage FEATURING

Botox • Facials • Restylane • Perlane Cosmetic & General Dermatology Body Treatments • Anti-Aging Peels Waxing • Laser Hair Removal Microdermabrasion • Massage Laser Vein Treatment • Laser Facial Rejuvenation Steam Treatments • Vichy Rain Shower

for orthopedic services ...

i choose C E N T R A L C A R O L I N A H O S P I TA L

makoplasty® robotic surgery

John Parrish

I chose Central Carolina Hospital for my

central carolina Hospital’s board certified orthopedists are

orthopedic health

fortunate to have an exciting development in the treatment of early to mid-stage osteoarthritis, MAKOplasty® Robotic Surgery.

Contact us to see how MAKOplasty® can help you reach a new level of orthopedic health.

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CENTRAL CAROLINA HOSPITAL 855-44-J-O-I-N-T

centralcarolinahospital.com

December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

T h o u g h ts f r o m T h e Ma n S h e d

Floors of Wood and Boards that Creak

By Geoff Cutler

I’ve got nothing against the “big box” stores or

chains. Take Walmart. I don’t get the whole I hate Walmart thing. Where else can you get a head of lettuce, a hunting license, a bag of boxers and a car battery all under the same roof? And what’s to hate about saving money? Nah, the big stores have their place. They offer tons of variety, they’re often less expensive, and best of all . . . they employ a lot of people who might otherwise not have a job.

So I’ll shop at all those places. Not a problem. But I’m more at home in the smaller stores. The Mom and Pop-type shops where it’s not too crowded, and there’s a down-home feel. People might know your name, and the older the establishment the better. Places where the floors are wood and the boards creak when you walk on them. Maybe the windows are paned.

There’s a cobweb or two, traces of dust here and there, and you open and close the doors all by yourself. Escalators are nifty, but I like better the stores where climbing a set of stairs gets you to the other goods and wares you might have missed without the added effort.

When I was a kid, there was this hardware store I’d go to with my dad.

Saturdays meant two or three trips, because weekend warriors like he was have this uncanny knack for not being able to get everything they need for the job the first time around. Anyway, the store was on two floors. A main floor you came in on off the street, and the basement. The carpentry, nails and hammers and stuff like that were downstairs. To get there, you went down the steepest, oldest, creakiest-tread-worn grooved steps you can imagine. There was a rail to hold onto, and when you got to the landing, even I had to duck a little not to bang my noggin on the overhang. Grownups had to nearly fold themselves in half to arrive safely at the scales where they could weigh and brown bag a pound of eight penny nails.

There are a bunch of stores around here like that one. Like Aberdeen

Supply. There’s usually a dog wandering the aisles, some breed of exotic rooster sitting on the checkout counter, and when I went rummaging around for my dog’s salmon-potato-vegetable kibble a few days ago, a pair of barn swallows came dive-bombing out of the rafters scraping across the ever growing bald spot on my head. Charm, character, great service, and everything for your horse, farm and garden under the sun.

Or Burney’s Hardware, where just the other day I went to find what nobody else would have on a bet. A throttle lever for a stump grinder. Ever notice how when you’re looking for that out-of-the-way watchamacallit, people say, have you tried Burney’s? Well, on this rare occasion, they didn’t have it either. No matter. The owner took me and the two busted pieces of throttle lever out back to his shop and welded them back together. Zip-zoop! Better than new, and I was back into an old pine stump within the hour. You just don’t get that kind of service much anymore. It’s a world of difference.

And then there’s the re-opening of John Davenport’s Galaxy. Because the dog and I walk in Aberdeen every day, we were thrilled to hear that this market across the street from Aberdeen Supply would be open once again.

Apparently retirement didn’t suit John, which is good news for the rest of us, because if you weren’t aware of it, Davenport’s Galaxy has some of the best beef, chicken and chops around. And his fine staff of butchers will cut it just the way you like. This store is wonderfully convenient. There’s plenty of parking. Groceries and meats are nicely priced and brought to your car if you like.

It’s an old-timey locally owned market run by nice people with smiles on their faces, who are glad to see you when you come through the door.

We’re lucky that our communities of Southern Pines, Pinehurst and Aberdeen have an abundance of excellent local and family-owned stores to shop. It’s a plea that’s become as well worn as an old pair of slippers, but as Christmas approaches, and we’ll be shopping more than usual, let’s go ahead and shop the big stores. But let’s bombard the smaller, locally owned places, too. The reasons why are all too obvious, but you may find flavors of the past, hints of quieter, simpler times in these shops that make the holidays all the more worthwhile.

Merry Christmas from the Man Shed! PS Geoff Cutler is owner of Cutler Tree LLC in Southern Pines. He is a regular contributor to PineStraw. He can be reached at geoffcutler@embarqmail.com.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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December 2013i������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

T h e A ccid e n ta l A st r o l o g e r

Christmas on the Wild Side Take a ho-ho-ho to lunch

By Astrid Stellanova Am I the only one who thinks it’s a crying shame people don’t get dressed up for Christmas like they used to? Love, love, love me some flashing Rudolph earrings — used to sell ’em by the gross at the Curl Up and Dye. I say, wear them red pantyhose, reindeer boxer shorts and atomic green Dockers. Give it up for Santa, Honey Chile, because he knows how to work a stretch band pant.

Eat another cookie. Take a ho-ho-ho to lunch. Have some cheer, why don’t you?

i

Sagittarius (November 22–December 21) Honey, you’re on the sensitive side. You go to pieces when people throw surprise parties on your birthday. It ain’t that you’re unfriendly — you’re just Nervous Nellies and Nelsons. So, let me warn you. This month is a test, because nothing is quite going to plan. By the 17th, a full moon will shine a little light on your deepest self. Kind of like a reflection in the well — you may think you’re getting a look at Scab Head and Bloody Bones but it’s just you — don’t let it scare you. All them candles on the cake? Woo hoo — now that is scary. And if you plan on living forever, you are going to need a bigger cake.

j

Capricorn (December 22–January 19) Look, Grandpa Hornblower says if everything is coming your way, you might want to change lanes. I’m thinking you got two opportunities to make a big impression — coming and going. A quintile on December 9th is going to make you irresistible to nearly everybody.

Even Nearly Everybody will be smitten with you by the 10th. That’s something, at least.

Hold onto that thought. This may not be your best Christmas of all time, but it will be mellow.

k

Aquarius (January 20–February 18) You may not have been soaring with the eagles lately, but you are beloved among the weasels. You may be asking what hurts so much. It’s called your conscience. Usually, you don’t notice when them other parts are feeling so durned good. By the 14th, you get a chance to redeem yourself, and by the 25th you are definitely in the center of a transformational situation. You can break with the past, and if you find the courage to do that, the stars align by New Year’s Eve for a radically new you to bust on out. Can you? Will you?

c

Gemini (May 21–June 20) Woo hoo! Whoever said detox can’t be fun has never heard me give a talk at an AA meeting. I’m normally kind of shy and quiet — typical Gemini — until I get an audience (or a drink). Soul searching might be a new activity for you, though. This month, I am here to tell you that you have got new tack and new saddle and on the 15th, you’ll be sitting high on the hoss. But lemme warn you: Somebody is going to be a burr under that saddle come the 26th. You may be feeling generous, but hold back something, Cool Hand. You might just need it.

d

Cancer (June 21–July 22) If you had to pick between being a bossy boots and being a wimp, what would you choose? Okaaaay: nobody but a Cancer would have to ponder that this long. If changing course means being bossy, do it. Sort of like them duck hunting nuts on TV, somebody’s got to run the duck blind if you are going to hunt. Come the 12th, you have got a lot of ambitions synching up with a trine that means it’s time to revive a dream you hatched back last summer. There’s power, and there’s play, but this is a power play you ought not to miss.

e

Leo (July 23–August 22) You are making a joyful noise all right, clear through till January as your star sign traipses straight through the too-much-fun-and-games conjunction. OK, that’s right out of Grandpa Hornblower’s mouth, but he’s right at least once a millennia. You can be spiteful or you can be sweet.

You can be naughty or you can be nice. But you can’t be all those things at once, or you are going to find yourself with a lump of coal and cold comfort. On the other hand, if you were ever going to have to deliver a difficult message to someone who matters, this month would be the time. Your powers are peaking.

f

Virgo (August 23–September 22) Road out ahead. Take a U-turn now before you hit the shoulder or do a Clint Eastwood. You’re like an enigma wrapped in a moon pie. Sticky in the center, and a little bit too much to swallow. Here’s what I see in the stars: You have been playing in the sandbox with somebody who could lead you right down the path to destruction. But it feels so right you want to be wrong. And if I’m wrong about this, I owe you a free hair care product.

l

g

a

h

Pisces (February 19–March 20) Hellooo — speed bump ahead. You didn’t sign on for the pay-off from hard work, when goofing off seems to pay such good dividends.

Until now. This is the perfect time to put on your big girl or big boy pants. Some harmonious shifts, an especially productive time in the stars beginning with the 21st both mean you enter into an ambitious time of life.

(Ambition is a broad term, Sugar.) But don’t get too big for your britches, ’cause like Mama always told us, that good conscience usually means an awful bad memory.

Aries (March 21–April 19) You are just one big old walking and talking idea, aren’t you? When you think you might just be a team of one, you could be right. A full moon on December 17 will leave everybody around you convinced that you may have a whole mess of good ideas, but don’t have the good sense to be lazy.

And maybe just take yourself a little walk down the straight and narrow and channel some of that fire sign energy. Beau says that he may not always know how to fix the brakes, but he sure does know how to honk a horn.

b

Taurus (April 20–May 20) Watching a Taurus around the holidays is a lot of fun. You get excited about all the good food, parties and good times, then get all pissed off at the price tag. This month is going to be new and different. Open the mailbox. Some surprises there, for sure. Open your wallet, too.

The 12th is when a new Jupiter-Saturn trine is going to change things up by New Year’s.

Duckies and daisies by January 2.

Libra (September 23-October 22) Oh. No. You. Didn’t. It’s like somebody injected you with truth serum.

That might be useful by the end of the month. But until then, if somebody, say, your boss, wants you to give it to them straight, do not take that seriously. Save all that honesty for the bedroom, but not the break room. Your emotions are going to be wide open this Christmas. Find a hobby. Get a dog. If all else fails, get a new hairdo. Get rid of that emotion without the verbal diarrhea. Zip it, baby.

Scorpio (October 23–November 21) You’re stuck in a parallel universe. Don’t matter what evidence to the contrary, you swear you’re different from everybody else and so are your problems. Kind of like my friend Leonora who thought aliens took all her stuff and replaced it with things that looked almost exactly the same.

Sometimes, you just need a good shoulder to drink on, my little Scorpio.

You got to choose. Either your face is your best asset, or, well, your backside is. If you want a cheap makeover this holiday, try smiling. Or get that tattoo removed from your left cheek. PS For years, Astrid Stellanova owned and operated Curl Up and Dye Beauty Salon in the boondocks of North Carolina until arthritic fingers and her popular astrological readings provoked a new career path.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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December 2013i������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

December PineNeedler

a Fruitcake Nutty asNutty a asFruitcake!

By Mart Dickerson

4 Coiffures 5 Wooden shipping container 13 14 15 6 Cleanse 16 17 18 7 Shoshonean 8 Elevated theater 19 20 21 22 section 9 Places for garments 23 24 10 Mr. Downs of 60 25 26 27 28 29 30 Minutes 11

Women’s magazine 31 32 33 34 35 12 Traveled by airplane 36 37 38 14 Rio ____, southwestern river 39 40 41 42 43 20 Moving truck 22 TV or radio spots 44 45 46 47 24 Prizefighter 48 49 25 Letters that mean shorten 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 26 Light purple fragrant spring flower 57 58 59 60 27 Slogan 61 62 63 28 Ethical 29 Senior 64 65 66 30 Recycle 33 Nuts!

35 Type of golf club 28

The ____ Mash 57

Continent ACROSS ROSS 49 Homey 22 TV or radio spots 40 Entrap 31

Life histories, for short 58

Make used to 1 Dating, say 50 Nuts!

24 Prize fighter 41 Assigning a chair 32

Type of glue 60

Olive, canola, 5

Bludgeon Dating, say that mean shorten 53 Nuts!

25 Letters peanut, for 42 Like a popsicle 34

A mess of, a lot 9 Gourmet cook Bludgeon 57 Continent 26 Light purple fragrant example 43 spring Freight, cargo 36

Deli sandwich initials 13 Opera solo Gourmet cook 61 Scorch, flower like a steak 58 Make used to 45

Computer part, init.

37 Bard’s before 14 Persona non __ (not Ryan Opera solo Slogan 60 Olive, Canola, Peanut, for 62 Mr.27 47

NC beach direction 38 Dynamic __

welcome) 63 _____and the King of 49 Diamond weight unit Persona Non __ (not example 28 Ethical 39 Appraise 15 Put to sleep Siam Senior welcome) like a steak 29 50 Launder 41 Winter neckwear 16 Painter of melting 61 Scorch, 64 Rabbit Put to sleep Ryan Recycle 62 Mr. 30 clocks 51 Afloat 43 Mexican money 65 Annoying tiny insect Painter of melting clocks the King of Siam Nuts!

33 17 Pull on loose thread 63 _____and 52 Deceiver 44 Hide 66 Sweetie Pull on loose18thread Leer at Pinehurst #2 club 53 __ hoop (child’s toy) 64 Rabbit 35 46 Raised up, on Young’s Road tiny insect 19 Tire out 54 One less than ten Leer at 65 Annoying 40 Entrap DOWN 48 Bridge 21 Nuts!

55 Forearm Tire out Assigning a chair 66 Sweetie 41 1 Walk through water 49 Homey, in Britain 23 Citizen of Denmark 56 Despot, emperor Nuts!

Like a popsicle 42 2 Iraq’s neighbor 50

Nuts!

24

Omen Citizen of Denmark Freight, cargo 59 Not (prefix) DOWN 43covering 3 Floor 53

Nuts!

25

Nuts!

Omen 45 Computer part, init.

1

2

3

Nuts!

The ____ Mash Life histories, for short Type of glue A mess of, alot Deli sandwich initials Bard's beforeFill in the grid so Dynamic __ every row, every Appraise column and every 3x3 box contain Winter neckwear the numbers 1-9.

Mexican money Hide Raised up, on Young's Rd. Bridge

Sudoku:

4

5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 20

6

7

8

9

Walk through water Iraq's neighbor Floor covering Coiffures Wooden shipping container Cleanse Shoshonean Elevated theater section Places for garments Mr. Downs of 60 minutes Women's magazine Traveled by airplane Rio ____, southwestern river Moving truck

6 4 2 1

3

1 2 8

7 3 2 5 1

47 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 59

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NC Beach direction Diamond weight unit Launder Afloat Deceiver __ hoop (child's toy) One less than ten Forearm Despot, emperor Puzzle answers on page 95 Not (prefix) Mart Dickerson lives in

5 3 4 7 6

6

9

10

2

8 5

9 4 7

Southern Pines and would welcome any suggestions from her fellow puzzle masters. She can be reached at gdickerson@nc.rr.com.

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PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2013

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SouThWorDS

The Perfect gifts

By GAyvin PoWers

Presents cov-

ered in candy cane wrapping paper and topped with curled ribbons were glistening in the candlelight. Through my bedroom window, I looked outside to my car and then back to the presents next to my suitcase. In twelve hours, those presents were supposed to be in my car as I drove eighteen hours north to Lake Oswego, Oregon, to be with my family for Christmas. With less than $10 in my bank account and an empty gas tank, those beautifully wrapped presents were posing quite a dilemma. I looked at my car again and knew something had to go: the gas or the presents.

I began unwrapping all of the presents. One by one, I remembered why I’d chosen each gift. Navy blue pajamas intended for my grandfather — he hadn’t bought new pajamas since my grandmother passed away. The airplane book I bought for my brother, a pilot. Even my dad’s white elephant gift had to go back — this year he wouldn’t be receiving a metallic green thong.

I seriously questioned my sanity; I’d given up a lucrative fundraising job so that I had time to “become a writer.” In its place, I took a position where my salary was cut over forty percent. Was it worth it?

With receipts in hand, I fought the holiday crowds again, this time to return presents. Whenever a cashier put a crisp Andrew Jackson in my hand, I knew I was closer to home. As my excitement increased, so did my anxiety. How would my family feel that I was returning home without gifts?

After the presents were returned and my gas tank was full, I wondered what people gave in the “olden days,” before electricity, indoor plumbing or Black Friday frenzies filled with people hung over from tryptophan.

Suddenly, I had an idea! Poetry. If I was going to be a writer, I may as well start acting like one. I searched for a poem that fit each person in my family. At 1 o’clock in the morning, I printed off the last poem, zipped up my luggage and turned out the light.

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Three hours later, I was driving to visit my dad’s family, people filled with tradition, dry humor and sharp, stinging wit. Dad’s family gatherings were neither sentimental nor overly emotional. My grandfather, a genetic blend of Gary Cooper and Cary Grant who one time inspired Hedda Hopper to tell my grandmother, “You’ve got yourself a looker,” set the tone for our family get-togethers by maintaining a stoic and respectable manner.

After starting a new, fairly isolated life as a writer, I longed to be with family for Christmas — even if it meant facing humiliation when I handed out gifts. In hopes of quickly glazing over my “gifts,” I asked to go last. When it was time, every person read aloud her or his personally selected poem, each fairly eloquent, poignant and long.

There was one exception. Another cousin, who had a shrine-like room devoted to fishing and was two lures shy of being a hoarder, had this poem: “Old fishermen don’t die, they just smell that way.”

The whole family burst into laughter. From the looks on their faces, they had even more insight into his obsession than I did. As each poem was read, my family members became more engaged and animated in their responses.

Lastly, I handed my grandfather, an avid gardener, a poem called, “Garden Magic” by Marie Nettleton Carroll. I spoke about how he and Grandma shaped and influenced our family over the years. His strong, commanding voice clearly enunciated the words of his poem, until he got to this: “. . . He grows by gift of patience, Since he who sows must know That only in the Lord’s good time Does any seedling grow . . . ” Upon reading these words, his unwavering voice, that I’d come to count on as steady even in the height of turmoil, broke. He cleared his throat and read on.

Sometimes he paused; other times he made a hard swallowing sound. When he reached the last stanza, his voice was shaky with emotion.

“Excuse me,” he mustered as he quickly retreated to his bedroom.

He re-emerged minutes later; his eyes were red and wet. His large arms enveloped me in a massive hug that smelled like him, of musk and Earth. When he pulled back to look at me, he didn’t shy away from his tears. Still holding me, all that he said was, “Thank you.”

“No, Grandpa,” I whispered. Perhaps returning the presents was the best gift after all. “Thank you.” PS Gayvin Powers is an award-winning filmmaker, author and freelance writer. Iona Fay, her young adult fairy novel, will be coming out soon.

December 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

ILLUSTRATION BY MERIDITH MARTENS

Turning to what she knew best, this budding writer found the true meaning of Christmas

Thanks for making our wishes come true

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