January Pinestraw 2024

Your Legs Shouldn’t Stop You From Doing What You Love!

Are you having any of these leg concerns?

4 Swelling 4 Tired, Achy 4 Heavy 4 Restless 4 Cramps 4 Neuropathy

4 Itching or Burning 4 Ulcers or Sores 4 Skin Changes 4 Varicose Veins 4 Spider Veins 4 Lymphedema

Dr. Leah Hershman

Don’t Wait, Call Us Today!

910.338.3381

Trust your legs to an expert in the field - a Vascular Surgeon Covered by Medicare & Most Insurances • No referral needed Non-surgical vein treatments - No down time

6 Regional Drive, Ste C Pinehurst, NC 28374 www.vascularinstituteofthepines.com

NOW OFFERING Build muscle while burning fat!

Treat urinary incontinence fully clothed!

God called us to serve, let us treat you like VIP!

Tighten and improve skin texture!

Needle-free facelift in 20 minutes!

Mainstage series

Magician from America’s Got Talent and Penn & Teller’s Fool Us

JEKI YOO

Saturday, January 27 • 7:00 pm

Paulo Szot in Concert

Friday, February 23 • 7:00 pm

Family Fun Series

Yesterday & Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience Friday, March 15 • 7:00 pm

Comedy Series Star of Disney’s That’s S o Raven!

Magic for Kids!

JEKI YOO

Schoolhouse Rock Live!

Saturday, January 27 • 3:00 pm

Sunday, February 4 • 3:00 pm

GIVE THE GIFT OF TICKETS!

Rondell Sheridan’s “If You’re Over 40 and You Know It...Clap Your Hands!”

Friday, April 5 • 7:00 pm

SandhillsBPAC.com • 910-695-3800 • 3395 Airport Rd., Pinehurst CONCESSIONS AVAILABLE: Beer • Wine • Soda • Snacks Sponsored by

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE ORGANIZED

When you’re expertly organized, every morning feels like a new beginning. So, to kick off the new year, we’re giving PineStraw readers the gift of $500 off their minimum purchase of $2,500 at California Closets.

Book a FREE design consultation with one of our designers today.* 919.785.1115 CaliforniaClosets.com

*Valid through 12.31.24 at participating locations only. Offer cannot be combined with other promotional offers. Products vary by location. Other restrictions may apply. ©2024 California Closets Company Inc. All rights reserved. Each California Closets® franchised location is independently owned and operated. Contractor licenses are available at californiaclosets.com MS1NC165

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n o B e s a e ce r c n n a l a B •I e r e v u t o s r o p P m d I oo • G e or k t s s i e R ll th a •R g F n e e c tr u d S e l l a r e •R v O t s o o •B

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CALL TO SET UP YOUR FREE ASSESSMENT 910.692.6000 160 Turnberry Way, Pinehurst NC 28374 | pinehurst@osteostrong.me

910-684-4028 • PINEHURSTTOYOTA.COM 10760 HWY 15-501, SOUTHERN PINES, NC 28388

Browse Inventory, Get Pre-Approved, or Complete Paperwork CURBSIDE PICK-UP & DELIVERY AVAILABLE FOR YOUR NEW CAR!

Check out our Advantage Plan that is guaranteed with every purchase.

PINEHURST TOYOTA ADVANTAGE PLAN At Pinehurst Toyota, we’re more than just a dealership. We’re a family. Every time you step onto our lot, our goal is to make sure you are 100% satisfied with your visit, whether you’re looking to purchase a new ride, secure financing for that vehicle, have your current auto serviced, or buy genuine Toyota parts. You can count on our staff to make you the number-one priority.

Interested in joining the family?

See dealer for complete details. *2 years No Cost Maintenance and 5 years Roadside Assistance provided

by ToyotaCare. **Must present written offer or ad on exact same vehicle from our dealership. ***If within 72 hours of purchasing your new or pre-owned vehicle you are not completely satisfied, bring it back and exchange it for another vehicle at Pinehurst Toyota. Mileage driven must not exceed 200 miles.

LIFETIME LIMITED POWERTRAIN WARRANTY

2 YEARS NO COST MAINTENANCE*

2024 Toyota RAV4 Thanks to your support, we have won:

Best of The Pines 2023 for the #1 Dealership Service Department.

Schedule your appointment today to experience #1 Service

COMPLIMENTARY LOANERS

OUR BEST PRICE DIFFERENCE** 100% CUSTOMER SATISFACTION GUARANTEE***

5 YEARS ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE*

COURTESY CAR WASH WITH EVERY SERVICE

January ���� FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS 15 Simple Life By Jim Dodson 20 PinePitch 25 Tea Leaf Astrologer

61 ADVENTURE Poetry by Shelby Stephenson

By Zora Stellanova

62 The Adventuresome Chef By Jenna Biter

By Stephen E. Smith

Warren Lewis makes “art in stupid cold places”

70 Cowboy Junket By Stephen E. Smith Selling books like snake oil Or If you want it done right, do it yourself

76 Sister Act By Deborah Salomon Reimagining an eclectic cottage

85 January Almanac By Ashley Walshe

27 The Omnivorous Reader 31 35 36 41 42 45 47 49 51 55 94 113 119 120

Bookshelf Hometown By Bill Fields Creators of N.C. By Wiley Cash In the Spirit By Tony Cross Focus on Food By Rose Shewey Crossroads By Beth MacDonald Out of the Blue By Deborah Salomon Birdwatch By Susan Campbell Sporting Life By Tom Bryant Golftown Journal By Lee Pace Arts & Entertainment Calendar SandhillSeen Pine Needler By Mart Dickerson Southwords By Jim Moriarty

Cover Photograph by Warren Lewis

6 PineStraw

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

NOW THROUGH JANUARY 31ST Stay cozy this winter season with products specifically designed to help create your perfect sleep haven.

Enjoy 20% off all DUXIANA® fine European linens and down including pillows, duvets, cashmere throws, allergy control covers and our ever-popular DUXIANA® Travel Pillow.

Use coupon code WhiteSale2024 when shopping online.

Offer good through Januory 31, 2024 only. Cannot be combined with any other offers or discounts.

Opulence of Southern Pines and DUXIANA at The Mews, 280 NW Broad Street, Downtown Southern Pines, NC 910.692.2744

at Village District, 400 Daniels Street, Raleigh, NC 919.467.1781

at Sawgrass Village, 310 Front Street Suite 815 Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082 904.834.7280

www.OpulenceOfSouthernPines.com Serving the Carolinas & More for Over 20 Years – Financing Available

Talent, Technology & Teamwork!

Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team!

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PINEHURST • $355,000

PINEHURST• $365,000

SEVEN LAKES WEST • $474,900

6 GLEN EAGLES LANE Charming 3 BR / 2 BA home on nice cul-de-sac in Pinehurst #6. Home is being sold AS-IS and has wonderful potential with a little TLC.

80 BRIDLE PATH CIRCLE Well maintained 3 BR / 2 BA brick home with lots of curb appeal. Split-plan home has spacious living area and beautifully landscaped back yard offering lots of privacy.

172 MORRIS DRIVE Delightful 4 BR / 3 BA home in beautiful 7LW location. Home has been nicely updated to include remodeled kitchen, new flooring and has been freshly painted!

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PINEHURST • $429,000

CARTHAGE • $199,000

SEVEN LAKES NORTH • $343,500

115 ST. ANDREWS DRIVE Rustic, one level 3 BR / 2.5 BA home situated on a large corner lot! Home offers lots of space and has all natural, mature landscaping.

556 STAGE ROAD Cozy 1 BR / 1 BA Cottage that comfortably sleeps four. Located in a quiet spot just outside of Carthage this would be the perfect investment property or great golf getaway!

102 SANDY RIDGE ROAD Charming 3 BR / 2 BA home with bright and open floorplan on beautiful lot. Nice spacious living room open to the kitchen, great screened-in back porch and fenced back yard.

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JACKSON SPRINGS • $455,000

SEVEN LAKES WEST• $474,500

CARTHAGE • $332,500

15 SADDLE LANE Great 4 BR / 2.5 BA home situated on nearly 3 acres in quiet cul-de-sac. Home was built in 2021, has LVP flooring throughout and is conveniently located near Foxfire CC.

101 DUBOSE DRIVE Wonderful 3 BR / 2 BA single-level home situated on large corner lot. Home has open layout with beautiful finishes throughout.

612 S. MCNEILL STREET Beautiful 4 BR / 2.5 BA two-story home situated on nice double lot. Main level has spacious living room with gas log fireplace and kitchen with tile flooring.

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IN MOORE COUNTY REAL ESTATE FOR OVER 20 YEARS!

Luxury Properties Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team!

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PINEHURST • $550,000

SEVEN LAKES WEST • $1,275,000

PINEHURST • $1,285,000

270 MCKENZIE ROAD W. UNIT 52 Charming 3 BR / 2.5 BA GOLF FRONT condo located on the 15th fairway of Pinehurst #3 in Phase II of Quail Hill. A must see!

106 MACE POINT Custom built 3 BR / 3 BA WATERFRONT home situated on secluded cul-de-sac with fabulous wide water views of Lake Auman!

125 HEARTHSTONE ROAD Attractive 4 BR / 3.5 BA GOLF FRONT home in popular Fairwood on 7. House has been extensively remodeled and beautifully updated throughout.

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SOUTHERN PINES • $839,000

SEVEN LAKES WEST • $780,000

CARTHAGE • $568,000

1 AUGUSTA DRIVE Gorgeous 3 BR / 2.5 BA custom home in Mid South Club! Interior is open with solid oak flooring throughout the first floor. Totally immaculate with fine upscale finishes!

485 MORGANWOOD DRIVE Stunning 3 BR / 2.5 BA home situated on just over 5.5 acres. Built in 2020, the home has an open design layout and a great unfinished upper level where the possibilities for use are endless!

Wonderful 4 BR / 3.5 BA Craftsman style home in the Ravensbrook community. Built in 2020, this beautiful home offers tons of space and nice finishes throughout!

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PINEHURST • $610,000

PINEHURST • $549,900

WEST END • $750,000

25 GRAY FOX RUN Lovely 3 BR / 2 BA single-level brick home in great location. Home has been extensively remodeled and beautifully updated throughout. A must see!

70 SAWMILL ROAD E. Beautiful 4 BR / 2.5 BA new construction in Village Acres. Cozy floorplan with nice finishes throughout. A must see!

980 SEVEN LAKES DRIVE Multi-tenant commercial property with 7 individual units and 30+ parking spaces. Great investment opportunity!

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

www.ThEGENTRYTEAM.COM • 910-295-7100 • Re/Max Prime Properties 5 Chinquapin Rd., Pinehurst, NC

VISIT SOON! CLOSING FOR RENOVATIONS JANUARY 2, 2024 Reopening Spring 2024 with new features and exhibits!

discoveryplacekids.org

Children’s Museum in Downtown Rockingham

M A G A Z I N E Volume 20, No. 1 David Woronoff, Publisher david@thepilot.com

Andie Stuart Rose, Creative Director andiesouthernpines@gmail.com Jim Moriarty, Editor jjmpinestraw@gmail.com Miranda Glyder, Graphic Designer miranda@pinestrawmag.com Alyssa Kennedy, Digital Art Director alyssamagazines@gmail.com Emilee Phillips, Digital Content emilee@pinestrawmag.com

Hounds on the Grounds January 6

Moore County Hounds Meet.

We’ll be offering a “stirrup cup” to all mounted/unmounted members of Moore County Hounds.

Free Admission Check our website for time and day-of updates

Chamber Sessions January 21 • 2pm

In a salute to MLK Day, the Boston Public Quartet — dedicated to the amplification of historically excluded voices — performs music by African-Americans composers.

Concert will be held at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Southern Pines.

Reception immediately following at Weymouth Center.

Program presented in partnership with Southern Pines Land & Housing Trust.

James Boyd Book Club January 16 • 2 pm

This month’s book selection: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

Free Admission/ Registration Required

Writers-in-Residence Reading January 17 • 5:30pm Join us as Dawn Reno Langley reads from her new novel, Analyzing the Prescotts.

Free Admission/ Registration Required

Chamber Sessions February 4 • 2pm

Nicholas DiEugenio, Violinist & Mimi Solomon, Pianist present joyous and visceral musical programs on the edge of both “modern”and “baroque” sensibilities.

Chamber Sessions Tickets Start at $30; Kids 12 and under are free; Student tickets available.

Series sponsored by Penick Village

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jim Dodson, Deborah Salomon, Stephen E. Smith CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS John Gessner, Laura L. Gingerich, Diane McKay, Tim Sayer CONTRIBUTORS Jenna Biter, Anne Blythe, Keith Borshak, Tom Bryant, Susan Campbell, Bill Case, Wiley Cash Tony Cross, Brianna Rolfe Cunningham, Mart Dickerson, Bill Fields, Meridith Martens, Mary Novitsky, Lee Pace, Todd Pusser, Joyce Reehling, Scott Sheffield, Rose Shewey, Angie Tally, Kimberly Daniels Taws, Daniel Wallace, Ashley Walshe, Claudia Watson, Amberly Glitz Weber ADVERTISING SALES

Ginny Trigg, Advertising Director 910.693.2481 • ginny@thepilot.com Samantha Cunningham, 910.693.2505 Kathy Desmond, 910.693.2515 Jessica Galloway, 910. 693.2498 Terry Hartsell, 910.693.2513 Erika Leap, 910.693.2514 ADVERTISING GRAPHIC DESIGN

Mechelle Butler, Scott Yancey

PS Henry Hogan, Finance Director 910.693.2497 Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488 SUBSCRIPTIONS

910.693.2488 OWNERS

For tickets and registration visit weymouthcenter.org Thank you to our sponsors: Arts Council of Moore County; FirstHealth of the Carolinas; Janney; Penick Village; Richard J. Reynolds III and Marie M. Reynolds Foundation; “Spark the Arts” of the North Carolina Arts Council; The Pilot

555 E. Connecticut Avenue, Southern Pines, NC A 501 (c)(3) organization

Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels III, Lee Dirks, David Woronoff In memoriam Frank Daniels Jr. 145 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Southern Pines, NC 28387 www.pinestrawmag.com ©Copyright 2024 Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. PineStraw magazine is published by The Pilot LLC

12 PineStraw

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

The Carolina Philharmonic wishes you and yours a happy, healthy 2024 filled with exceptional music!

Saturday, January 20 at 7:30pm Casablanca Unplugged: An Orchestral Journey Saturday, February 3 at 7:30pm Unleashed Potential: A Symphony of Rising Stars Saturday, March 23 at 7:30pm Passion and Power Monday, March 25 The Carolina Philharmonic’s 9th Annual Golf Tournament, The Maestro’s Cup Saturday, April 27 at 7:30pm Vocal Euphoria: Operatic Postcards Saturday, May 18 at 7:30pm Broadway Brilliance: A Symphony Pops Spectacular

www.carolinaphil.org

Reserve your seats today!

5 Market Square, Village of Pinehurst

910-687-0287

The Carolina Philharmonic is a 501(c)3 non-profit and donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

A Lifestyle Boutique Exclusive. Timeless. Chic.

Village of Pinehurst 910.295.3905 105 Cherokee Rd, Pinehurst, NC 28374

SIMPLE LIFE

A Welcome Loss Sometimes less really is more

By Jim Dodson

At the end

ILLUSTRATION BY GERRY O'NEILL

of 2022, I decided I was going to give myself either a new left knee or lose 30 pounds before the end of 2023.

Well, miraculously, I managed to do both. I actually dropped 50 pounds and discovered that my formerly dodgy knee works just fine, almost good as new. No replacement needed.

In the most well-fed nation on Earth, losing weight seems to be our truest national pastime. But for me, the first 25 pounds came off quickly.

There’s no big secret to how I managed to accomplish the feat: I did it the old-fashioned way. I simply ate less of everything I thought I couldn’t live without — ice cream, real ale, double cheeseburgers, crusty French bread, pizza, jelly beans, diet soda and my talented baker-wife’s insanely delicious pies, cakes and cookies. (To my surprise, once I cut back, my craving for them diminished.) I also walked more and drank enough water each day to fill a small bathtub.

Then, in early summer, my family doctor suggested I go on a The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

new wonder drug intended for borderline and Type 2 diabetics, a disease I inherited a few years back from my dad and sweet

Southern grandma.

The new drug is a weekly injection you take via an EpiPenlike device by poking yourself in the thigh or abdomen. By helping your pancreas produce more insulin, it lowers your blood sugar.

This drug, however, has some side effects that experts have been exploring. One report suggests that it may have positive outcomes for treating alcoholism and depression. But what has really caught the public’s attention is that it can cause significant weight loss. While visiting my daughter in Los Angeles recently, I learned that it’s in such high demand for this side effect that it’s being bought up by the caseload. Health authorities have expressed concern that this practice could result in people who really need it not being able to get it.

I can attest to that. To date, I’ve lost another 25 pounds on it, principally because it reduces your appetite for anything, PineStraw 15

SIMPLE LIFE

which means you eat less and enjoy what you do eat more — or at least I do.

Could it be a new wonder drug?

At a time when the FDA and makers of modern drugs and vaccines are often under attack, it’s worth remembering that sometimes, these wonder drugs do, actually, exist. And we’ve seen them before.

Those of us who are old enough to remember the scourge of polio know how it terrorized domestic American life. When I was a kid, it was the most feared disease in America.

To this day, I still think about a sweet girl named Laurie Jones who sat behind me in Miss Brown’s fifth grade class.

She wore a crisp Girl Scout uniform every Wednesday for her after-school scout meetings. Laurie’s thin legs needed braces as a result of battling polio since the third grade, but she had the sunniest personality of any kid I knew. I sometimes walked with Laurie to her school bus to help her get safely onboard.

She told me she planned to become a nurse someday.

One day, Laurie Jones didn’t come to school. Miss Brown tearfully informed us that she had passed away. The entire classroom sat in stunned silence.

A short time later, the entire school lined up in the auditorium to take a sugar cube dosed with the latest Salk vaccine. It was the week before school let out for Christmas. They played music and gave us cupcakes and little hand-clickers — perhaps the original fidgets — labeled “K-O Polio.” Funnily enough, my

dad was on the advertising team that came up with the plan to promote the new vaccine in public schools across North Carolina. Those hand-clickers drove parents and teachers across the state nuts for months.

But, according to the CDC, just since 1988, more than 1.5 million childhood deaths have been prevented with the vaccine.

So maybe that’s why I’m so ready to believe in this new wonder drug. Thanks to modern science and my own desire to have less of me to love, I’m off blood pressure medicine and my sugar count is perfectly normal. I haven’t physically felt this good since I was driving my own mother nuts with the K-O Polio clickers.

I really have only one silly problem now: none of my old clothes fit. Losing four pant sizes makes me look like Charlie Chaplin minus the top hat and cane.

Until several pairs of new jeans and khaki trousers arrive, I shall uncomplainingly do as T.S. Eliot’s J. Alfred Prufrock did as he walked through the evening dusk of a town filled with memories: I grow old . . . I grow old . . . I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

At unexpected moments, I still think about sweet Laurie Jones, who lost her life before the Wonder Drug saved her, wishing I could have said goodbye. PS Jim Dodson can be reached at jwdauthor@gmail.com.

40 OXTON CIRCLE– PINEWILD CC Located in the sought after prestigious Pinewild Country Club Community. This 3500+ square foot home with its welcoming and charming entrance, offers 3/4 bedrooms and 3 full baths. Situated on the club’s golf course and offering serene views throughout. Bursting with sundrenched rooms with an abundance of floor to ceiling windows and a floor plan that is a treat for many gatherings. Beautiful hardwood floors, spacious dining and living rooms, a kitchen and family room that invites you to the large Carolina room. The full sized kitchen is outfitted with stainless steel appliances, handsome cabinets and a desired farm sink. There is a study with handsome builtin cabinets and shelving, a master bedroom with a large ensuite.

Great curb appeal with well manicured landscaping. A large outdoor patio with relaxing golf course views along with a custom retractable awning.

Two car garage and separate golf garage. A must see immaculate, move-in ready home, a plus for any discerning buyer.

16 PineStraw The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

$895,000

225 HEARTHSTONE RD - FAIRWOODS ON 7 NO WAITING PERIOD. ACCESS TO IMMEDIATE PINEHURST CC SIGNATURE GOLF CHARTER MEMBERSHIP. (Buyer to pay prevailing fees). Fabulous golf front home overlooking the green on the first hole of Fairwoods on 7, a premier Pinehurst Resort and Country Club Course. Fairwwods on 7 is a gated Community built around Rees Jones’ Pinehurst No.7 course and borders on the Pinehurst No 4 course and the Donald Ross storied No. 2 course, home to the 1999, 2005, 2014 and soon to be 2024 U.S. Open. In addition to the Pinehurst No 7 Clubhouse, residents can drive their golf carts to the first tee of Pinehurst Courses 1-5, Pinehurst Country Club’s varied amenities and the charming Village of Pinehurst, a National Historic Landmark, with all its year-round Village events. Beginning with the long circular driveway, there are special features throughout this custom built home. Bursting with sun drenched rooms and an abundance of floor to ceiling windows, the open floorpan is great for large gatherings or private dinners. Stunning golf views from all main areas and the long deck across the back of home. Perfect for morning coffee or evening cocktails. There is a dual sided fireplace serving the large living area in addition to the kitchen. The custom Master suite spans the left side of the home from front to back. Lower level has full bath, fitness rm/office with double glass doors overlooking course as well as Golf cart garage.

$875,000

Lin Hutaff’s

PineHurst reaLty GrouP

Cheers to the New Year!

MAY 2024 BE AN EXTRAORDINARY ONE! 25 Chinquapin Rd. Pinehurst, NC 28374 | linhutaff@pinehurst.net | 910-528-6427

22 LAKE PINEHURST VILLAS LAKE PINEHURST VILLAS - NEW CONSTRUCTION. Fantastic three level New York/London High End style. The best materials & quality make this home spectacular. Starting with an 8 inch block firewall insulated on both sides for sound barrier. Stunning detail with 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, and two full kitchens, perfect for multigenerational vacation home or full time residence. First floor kitchen boasts sleek cabinetry, all Zline appliances with dual fuel 6 burner range, level 4 granite countertops, glass tile backsplash, wine cooler, under cabinet lighting, and flush mounted oversized ceiling lights.

All bathrooms have bluetooth speakers and delta faucets, 1/2’’ floors throughout, cedar closets, solid wood doors and open floor plan. Main area opens to a wide deck across back with fabulous views. Lower level has a second full kitchen with GE Profile appliances and a gorgeous island open to the main living area and expansive patio with water views.Primary heated sq feet is 1978 with 1366 sq ft below grade.

$799,000

Run, Forrest, Run!…

Over to Allison and Associates.

– Jenny

Forrest said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.” We often experience life’s uncertainties, but there is no doubt about the excellent patient experience at our Pinehurst dental office! At Allison and Associates, one of our goals is to reduce uncertainty and anxiety during dental treatment by listening, explaining and caring. We utilize technologically advanced treatment modalities to provide our patients with the highest quality care. In addition, our team strives to provide extraordinary customer service.

15 Aviemore Drive | Pinehurst, NC | www.pinehurstdentist.com | (910) 295-4343

PinePitch

Sometimes You Gotta Play with Pain Katherine Snow Smith returned to her native North Carolina after her last child left the nest and a 24-year marriage ended. She writes with vulnerability and humor about forging a new path, parenting, dating, reporting, aging, loss and launching the next chapter in life. You can join her as she discusses her new book Stepping on the Blender and Other Times Life Gets Messy, on Wednesday, Jan. 31 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. For more information go to www.ticketmesandhills.com.

Release the Hounds!

Celebrate the rich tradition of the Moore County Hounds in the place where it all began during “Hounds on the Grounds” at historic Boyd House at Weymouth Center, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines, on Saturday, Jan. 6. Festivities begin at 9 a.m. but feel free to come early and tailgate.

There is a traditional hunt breakfast at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. for $50-$60 per person. The Penn-Marydel hounds are known for their great scenting ability, booming voices, agility and intelligence. The hounds are showcased in various demonstrations of their training, discipline and instincts. In addition to the activities and exhibitions, the family-friendly event features local artisans and vendors offering crafts, foxhunting memorabilia and scrumptious local delicacies. Admission is free. For information go to www.weymouthcenter.org.

Writer in Residence Join the gang in the Great Room on Wednesday, Jan. 17 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. when Dawn Reno Langley, a writer in residence at the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, reads from her new novel, Analyzing the Prescotts, the tale of a family in crisis and the therapist who counsels them. Admission is free but registration is required at the Weymouth Center, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. For more information visit www. weymouthcenter.org.

20 PineStraw

Hocus Pocus Jeki Yoo has performed his unique closeup magic on America’s Got Talent and Penn & Teller’s Fool Us. Even the curmudgeonly Simon Cowell was impressed. Dubbed the “cutest magician of all time” Yoo will appear at the Bradshaw Performing Arts Center in a Family Fun Show on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 3 p.m. and again on the mainstage series in the Owens Auditorium at 7:00 pm. For information go to www.ticketmesandhills.com.

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Furry Friend Fun Run Chamber Music from the Streets The Boston Public Quartet has performed on a street corner in Mattapan Square, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Harvard Musical Association in Boston — to name just a few. Created to connect, inspire, and innovate as an ensemble-in-residence in Boston’s diverse neighborhoods, you can hear them at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 350 E. Massachusetts Ave., Southern Pines on Sunday, Jan. 21 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Reception afterward at Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Tickets start at $30; kids 12 and under are free; student tickets are available. For additional information go to www.weymouthcenter.org.

Bring your four-legged friends for exercise and camaraderie — the human and canine kind — in a run through the woods from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 27 at the Whitehall Tract, 490 Pee Dee Road, Southern Pines. Sponsored by the Southern Pines Parks and Recreation, registration is required.

All entries receive a participation prize and medals go to the first and third place winners. Cost is $5 per pet, limit of two. To register go to the Town of Southern Pines website, click the Parks and Recreation tab or call (910) 692-7376 for more information.

Southern Gothic

DIY Van Gogh Members of the Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen, will show you how to create your own art on Sunday, Jan.7 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. as the instructors demonstrate the various mediums they will be teaching in 2024. Prospective classes include drawing, pastels, colored pencil, oil, watercolor, acrylics, block printing, gouache and more. For more information go to www.artistleague.org.

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains.

In the aftermath of her death, that estate — along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish — pass to her adopted son, Camden. And if you want to know the rest of the story you need to go to The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines on Saturday, Jan. 13 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. to listen to Rachel Hawkins talk about her new novel, The Heiress. For further information to www.ticketmesandhills.com.

PineStraw 21

WE WORK WITH ANY BUDGET

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12 MONTH FINANCING CUSTOM CLOSETS I GARAGE CABINETS I HOME OFFICES I PANTRIES I LAUNDRIES I HOBBY ROOMS Terms and conditions: 40% off any order of $1200, 30% off any order $700 or more on any complete custom closet, garage, or home office unit.

Not valid with any other offer. Free installation with any complete unit order of $500 or more. With incoming order, at time of purchase only.

SPECIAL FINANCING For 12 months! (with approved credit) Available for a limited time. Call or ask your Designer for details. Expires January 31, 2024. Offer not valid in all regions.

Call for a free in-home design consultation and estimate

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TEA LEAF ASTROLOGER

Capricorn (December 22 – January 19)

They say a caterpillar turns to soup before taking new form.

Transformation is a messy business. Although it’s soup season for sea goats, trust that something delicious is simmering — specifically in the House of Pleasure. Let things be playful. And savory. Maybe a little spicy. When Mercury enters your sign on January 13, prepare for a grand emergence. There’s no going back to the chrysalis.

Tea leaf “fortunes” for the rest of you: Aquarius (January 20 – February 18) It’s time for some radical honesty.

Pisces (February 19 – March 20) Breathe before you speak.

Aries (March 21 – April 19)

Try sitting with the discomfort for a minute.

Taurus (April 20 – May 20) Two words: natural light.

Gemini (May 21 – June 20)

Ever tried vocal toning? Look it up.

Cancer (June 21 – July 22) Spit it out already.

Leo (July 23 – August 22)

Trust your own (adorably neurotic) rhythm.

Virgo (August 23 – September 22) Smells like codependence.

Libra (September 23 – October 22) Don’t forget the key.

Scorpio (October 23 – November 21)

Prepare to surprise everyone. Including yourself.

Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21) Less screen. More routine. PS

Zora Stellanova has been divining with tea leaves since Game of Thrones’ Starbucks cup mishap of 2019. While she’s not exactly a medium, she’s far from average. She lives in the N.C. foothills with her Sphynx cat, Lyla.

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

PineStraw 25

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Call or text now for a FREE consultation: 404-455-0177 or visit MarianMassie.com for more information Marian Massie is a clinical hypnotherapist/success coach with over twenty-five years of experience and the author of two self-help books.

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OMNIVOROUS READER

The Scars of Our History Will revisionism invade the book world?

By Stephen E. Smith

The world is surely shift-

ing beneath our feet. What was Fort Bragg is now Fort Liberty.

In many small Southern towns, the obligatory statues memorializing the Confederate dead have come tumbling down with a predictable thud. Even the most revered Southern monument of them all, the edifice of Gen. Robert E. Lee, a bronze equestrian statue with the South’s greatest general mounted on his horse Traveller, was unceremoniously plucked from its imposing pedestal and melted down for scrap.

So here’s the question: In a new world where book banning, the most blatant and least effective form of censorship, is all the snazz, how do revisionist attitudes affect the publishing of books about the Civil War? It’s probably too early to say, but two new offerings are testing the market. Elizabeth R. Varon’s Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South, and On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, by Ronald C. White, are waiting on bookstore shelves.

Those unschooled in Civil War lore and history need only know that Longstreet was Lee’s second in command, referred to by Lee as his “old war horse.” A graduate of West Point, he fought in the Mexican War, was friends with Grant, and played a pivotal role in the Southern rebellion. He’s most remembered for his participation — or lack thereof — in Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, where he disagreed with Lee’s determination to attack the Union position on Cemetery Ridge. Varon asks the question that has persisted over the years: Did his (Longstreet’s) misgivings about Lee’s plan translate into battlefield insubordination? Did he deliberately delay Lee’s attack, thus dooming it to failure? Gen. Pickett asked Longstreet if he should proceed with the advance, and Longstreet merely nodded. Scholars and

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Civil War buffs have spent the last 160 years attempting to discern Longstreet’s motives.

After the surrender at Appomattox, Longstreet moved to New Orleans, a Unionheld city that supported a large anti-secession population and a well-educated Black community, a place where Reconstruction might have succeeded. Longstreet threw himself into Republican Party politics and promoted Black suffrage. He helped establish a biracial police force, sat on the New Orleans school board, which was racially integrated, and was instrumental in fostering civil rights laws.

But violence soon enough became endemic in the South and in Reconstruction Louisiana.

Longstreet attempted to suppress it, but terrorist groups such as the White League and the Knights of the White Camellia held sway.

In 1874, the White League attempted to overthrow the state’s Reconstruction government. Longstreet sided with the militia and police, but only the intervention of federal troops restored order. For the remainder of his life, Longstreet continued to speak up for Black voting rights, which earned him condemnation from his former brothers-in-arms.

No statue of Longstreet existed in the South or on the Gettysburg battlefield until the 1998 unveiling of “a decidedly unheroic” likeness of the general riding “an undersized horse, positioned on the grass rather than atop a pedestal, on the edge of the battlefield park, blocked from view by trees.”

So why aren’t there more monuments to Lee’s “old war horse”?

Longstreet’s embrace of Reconstruction rendered him unfit as a symbol of the “Lost Cause,” thus proving, Varon observes, that the small-town Confederate statues were not simply monuments to heroism but “totems to white supremacy.”

“We like to bestow praise on historical figures who had the courage of their convictions,” she writes. “Longstreet’s story is a reminder that the arc of history is sometimes bent by those who had the courage to change their convictions.”

There’s no dearth of statues honoring Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. A bronze likeness stands in Chamberlain Freedom Park in Brewer, Maine. A second statue was erected in Brunswick, Maine, not far from Bowdoin College, where he served as president following his participation in the Civil PineStraw 27

OMNIVOROUS READER

War, and a third statue of the general overlooks the Gettysburg Battlefield, facing outward from Little Roundtop.

Chamberlain was lifted from obscurity by Michael Shaara’s 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Killer Angels and Ken Burns’ 1990 documentary The Civil War, both of which rehash Chamberlain’s and the 20th Maine Infantry’s crucial defense of Little Roundtop during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Ronald C. White’s On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is the latest biography to explore Chamberlain’s remarkable and complicated life.

Rather than concentrating on Chamberlain’s Civil War exploits, White delves deeply into the general’s personal life, both pre- and post-war. He examines Chamberlain’s deep Calvinist faith and his love of music and learning — he was fluent in nine languages — that dominated his adolescence and shaped his adulthood. His lengthy and difficult courtship of and marriage to Fanny Adams is explored in sometimes agonizing detail, and his time as president of Bowdoin College and as governor of Maine is fully explicated.

Although he was much admired in Maine, Chamberlain’s post-war years were anything but tranquil. His marriage was troubled. He and Fanny were at one point estranged, and she implied that marital abuse may have been a factor in their separation. Chamberlain never denied the accusation. In January 1880, Chamberlain was called upon to prevent violence in the

state Capitol during the gubernatorial election. The Maine State House had been taken over by armed men, and the governor appointed Chamberlain to take command of the Maine Militia. He disarmed the insurrectionists and stayed in the State House until the Maine Supreme Court decided the election’s outcome. White goes on to expand on Chamberlain’s role as an entrepreneur, his ventures into Florida railroads and land development, and various New York businesses.

On February 24, 1914, succumbing at last to infections caused by an old war wound, the 85-year-old Chamberlain died at his home in Portland, 50 years after a minie ball ripped through his body at Petersburg. He had lived most of his life with excruciating pain caused by the wound, refusing opioids that were legal and readily available.

Near the conclusion of Burns’ The Civil War, the death of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is announced: “The war was over,” the narrator says. Given the lessons implicit in these new biographies and the skullduggery of contemporary politics, readers are likely to question that simple declarative sentence. PS Stephen E. Smith is a retired professor and the author of seven books of poetry and prose. He’s the recipient of the Poetry Northwest Young Poet’s Prize, the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Prize for poetry and four North Carolina Press Awards.

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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BOOKSHELF

January Books FICTION The Curse of Pietro Houdini, by Derek B. Miller From the Dagger Award-winning author of Norwegian by Night comes a vivid, thrilling, moving World War II art heist adventure where enemies become heroes, allies become villains, and a child learns what it means to become an adult. In August 1943, 14-year-old Massimo is all alone, attacked by thugs, and finds himself bloodied at the base of the Montecassino. It is there in the Benedictine abbey’s shadow that a charismatic and cryptic man calling himself Pietro Houdini rescues Massimo and brings him up the mountain to serve as his assistant in preserving the treasures that lie within the monastery walls.

When it becomes evident that Montecassino will soon become the front line in the war, Pietro Houdini and Massimo execute a plan to smuggle three priceless Titian paintings to safety down the mountain. They are joined by a nurse concealing a nefarious past, a café owner turned murderer, a wounded German soldier, and a pair of lovers along with their injured mule, Ferrari. Together they will lie, cheat, steal, fight, kill and sin their way through battlefields to survive, all while smuggling the Renaissance masterpieces and the bag full of ancient Greek gold they have rescued from the “safe keeping” of the Germans.

Old Crimes, by Jill McCorkle North Carolina’s McCorkle, the author of the New York Times bestselling Life After Life and Hieroglyphics, delivers a collection of stories that offers an intimate look at the moments when a person’s life changes forever. Old Crimes delves into the lives of characters who hold their secrets and misdeeds close, even as the past continues to reverberate over time and across generations.

Despite the characters’ yearnings for connection, they can’t seem to tell the whole truth. In “Low Tones,” a woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband’s commentary. In “Lineman,” a telephone lineman strains to connect to his family even as he feels pushed aside in a digital world. In “Confessional,” The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

a young couple buys a confessional booth for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty.

House of Ash and Shadow, by Leia Stone Seventeen-year-old Fallon Bane was born with a devastating curse: a single touch from another person will cause her excruciating pain. She has accepted that she will die without ever being kissed, without even hugging her own father, though it breaks her heart every day. When her father falls ill, she breaks into the magical Gilded City to find a healer, Fae, who can save him. When Ariyon Madden agrees to help, everything Fallon knows about herself and her curse changes. During her father’s healing, Ariyon reaches out and touches Fallon’s bare skin. She waits for the agony . . . but it never comes. For the first time in her life, she imagines a new future for herself. However, that fantasy is quickly destroyed, because not only does Ariyon flee from her in disgust when he learns of her curse, he also reveals her existence to powerful Fae who want to hurt her.

NONFICTION Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, translated by David V. Hicks and C. Scot Hicks Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire at its height, yet he remained untainted by the immense wealth and absolute power that had corrupted many of his predecessors. He knew the secret of how to live the good life amid trying and often catastrophic circumstances, of how to find happiness and peace when surrounded by misery and turmoil, and how to make the right choices — even if they are more difficult — without regard for self-interest. Offering a vivid and fresh translation of this important piece of ancient literature, Meditations brings Aurelius’ inspiring words to life and shows his wisdom to be as relevant today as it was in the second century. Two brothers, both headmasters at independent schools, began translating the meditations from the original Greek by emailing back and forth over a period of years.

The result is this translation that is a profound pleasure to read.

PineStraw 31

BOOKSHELF

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

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Out Cold: A Little Bruce Book, by Ryan T. Higgins That beloved, grumpy old bear Bruce is back, and this time he’s stuck inside with a cold. When the mice decide to bring the outdoors indoors to cheer him up, things don’t quite go as planned. Now Bruce may be grumpier than ever! (Ages 2-6.)

K Is in Trouble, by Gary Clement Are you a kid who is tragically misunderstood . . . by everyone?

Do the arbitrary rules of the world puzzle and confound you? Well, meet your soulmate, K, a kid who doesn’t deserve any of the tragedies that befall him. But happen they do, and it never seems to stop! This darkly tragic graphic novel will warm the cold heart of every kid who feels they’ve been wronged by this cruel, cruel world — and may even bring tiny smiles to their faces. Fans of Roald Dahl will love this Kafkaesque ode to the long-suffering child. (Ages 8-12.)

As Night Falls: Creatures that Go Wild after Dark, by Donna Jo Napoli, illustrations

by Felicita Sala Listed among the New York Times’ best-illustrated books of 2023, this animal science-themed picture book gives a peek into the animals that come alive just as the rest of the world is quieting down. Vibrant illustrations depict animals from the microscopic to the majestic with a clever food chain twist. A bedtime book like no other, this one is sure to become a family favorite.

(Ages 3-7.) PS Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Tally.

32 PineStraw

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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HOMETOWN

Hey, Where Did We Go? Down the old mine with a transistor radio

Occasionally during a New

England winter, if I am in the car after dark and know North Carolina has a basketball contest that evening, I will abandon SiriusXM for old-fashioned AM and tune the dial to 1110 WBT in Charlotte.

The 50,000-watt station’s old boast that it could be heard from “Maine to Miami” is still true, some static notwithstanding, and hearing the Tar Heels play takes me back to when listening to games was nearly as important as playing them.

Sports on the radio was a year-round pleasure when I was a child. There were baseball games from spring into fall, reception at the mercy of the signal and the atmosphere. When conditions were such that I could hear announcers from stations in Chicago or St. Louis, many hundreds of miles from our house in Southern Pines, it felt like there was something more powerful at work than a couple of Eveready C-cell batteries.

Wintertime meant there were basketball games on the radio, though, and I devoured anything revolving around my — and the region’s — favorite sport. I was listening to hoops over the air before I started elementary school. One of my earliest memories is hearing the exploits of a star guard for N.C. State in the mid-1960s. Eddie Bidenbach was a mouthful for the Wolfpack radio voices.

I was fascinated by the faraway hometowns of some of the players when starting lineups were introduced: Duke’s Bob Verga of Sea Girt, New Jersey, and fellow Blue Devil Mike Lewis from Missoula, Montana. My first basketball hero, Carolina’s Larry Miller, master of pump fakes and scoop shots while maneuvering toward the basket, hailed from Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, a borough that sounded as exotic as some of Miller’s moves.

The man who called Carolina’s games on the radio during the 1960s was as inventive as number 44 in light blue and white, which made each broadcast an adventure regardless of the plot of the game. Bill Currie’s nickname, “The Mouth of the South,” was well earned. Currie, voice of the Tar Heels from 1962 to 1971 after forming the school’s radio network, was cut from a different cloth.

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

“Sports announcers nowadays are about as colorless as a glass of gin,” Currie told Sports Illustrated in 1968. “They are so immersed in themselves, so determined to pontificate about what really is nothing more than a game that they have forgotten that sports are supposed to be fun.”

Currie never forgot, infusing his broadcasts with a whole lot of this and that about what wasn’t happening on the 94-foot-long basketball court — especially during one-sided games. In a strong Southern accent reflecting his High Point roots, Currie critiqued what folks were wearing or the quality of an arena’s concessions. He interviewed fans, recited poetry, and talked about current events. Currie’s unique style made other announcers seem as if they were narrating a funeral procession.

During a 1968 ACC Tournament game when State beat Duke 12-10 after both teams went into deep slowdowns at a time well before a shot clock, Currie described the play as “having all the thrill of artificial insemination.”

The irreverence went north in 1971 when Currie took a television job at KDKA in Pittsburgh. I spent the rest of my youth listening to his more businesslike and traditional successor, Woody Durham, call Tar Heels games. It didn’t take Durham long to build a strong relationship with his audience, and his 40 years behind the mic made Currie’s run seem like a cup of coffee.

For all the pleasure that the college basketball games provided on those winter evenings as I huddled with my transistor radio, there were a couple of games a week on television thanks to the C.D. Chesley network. Radio was all I had for Carolina Cougars games, and I listened to Bob Lamey call most of their American Basketball Association schedule. The ABA lineups became second nature to me, whether the Cougars were up against the Pittsburgh Condors, Virginia Squires or Kentucky Colonels. The sound of sneakers on hardwood in some of those less-than-soldout gyms made it feel like I was beside Lamey courtside.

Listening to so many Cougars games paid off for me on March 18, 1972, when they hosted the Memphis Pros in Greensboro.

None other than Larry Miller lit it up for the home team, finishing with an ABA record of 67 points, and I happily heard every one of them. PS Southern Pines native Bill Fields, who writes about golf and other things, moved north in 1986 but hasn’t lost his accent.

PineStraw 35

C R E AT O R S O F N. C .

Ben Mabry and Brent Holloman

Restless Musical Energy The moving sound of Beta Radio

By Wiley Cash Photographs By M allory Cash

Ben Mabry, lead singer of the Wilm-

ington-based, two-man band Beta Radio, was 8 years old the first time he was moved by music.

“My mom gave me this old tape from my aunt’s church,” he says. “And it was some kind of gospel. I don’t even remember the name of it, but I remember feeling the movements of the music, and just knowing something was happening inside me.”

That something kept happening to Ben, whether it was in response to Christian music, Pearl Jam, or the classic rock he

36 PineStraw

listened to with his dad. As a teenager, while attending summer camp in the mountains, he met someone who responded to music the same way. It was Brent Holloman, a fellow Wilmingtonian Ben had never met before.

“I remember Ben being this funny prankster,” Brent says, cracking a smile while recalling their time at camp.

“He would carry around a spray bottle and walk up behind people, fake a sneeze, and then spray their necks.”

“I just thought you were cool because you could play ‘Stairway to Heaven,’” Ben says. He laughs. “Brent was the The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

first person I knew who was really good at guitar.”

We’re standing in their studio high up in the art deco Murchison Building in downtown Wilmington. The room’s windows peer out on a gray day during a fall holiday weekend.

Guitars and banjos are resting in their racks along one wall; a drum kit is set up nearby. Everywhere you look are scribbled scratches of songs, mementos fans have sent, boxes of tea and snacks: the detritus of two old friends who’ve spent long hours making music together.

After their friendship formed at summer camp, it continued when they returned home to Wilmington, and they began playing music together with Brent joining Ben’s band on bass. The band was all electric guitars and drums, but after practice Ben and Brent would get together to play acoustic, realizing their shared love for artists like Simon & Garfunkel. Nearly two decades later, Beta Radio is still primarily an acoustic guitar band, and with nine albums to their name and hundreds of millions of streams across various music platforms under their belt, it’s safe to say they are now the ones moving others with their music.

Over the years, American Songwriter has claimed the band is “evoking serenity” with “orchestral experimentation” to “emit an incandescent optimism,” and The Vogue has written that their “lyrics and music carve out a space in your head and find a way to fit into your own cosmology.” The praise is both heady and ethereal, much like the band’s previous albums, many of which are dominated by a gorgeous, yet restless musical energy and lyrics that never quite settle on answers. That sense of struggle reflects the years of spiritual yearning Ben experienced as a younger man The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

searching for answers during time in college and the military, and later during travels through Peru, Hawaii, Costa Rica and the desert Southwest. He was writing lyrics the whole time.

“I think it was 2009 when he went to Hawaii and ended up getting inspired by something there,” Brent says. “He’d send me these a cappella voice memos of songs, and I would write the guitar parts. And then I went to Ireland and picked up the banjo, and when I came back we started adding banjo to a few of the songs. Soon we had five or six songs, and we thought, ‘Hey, these are pretty good. Maybe we should record them.’ And by the time we got into a studio we had seven or eight.”

And then the real work began. The newly minted Beta Radio had official letterhead made, and they spent hours packaging CDs of their debut album, Seven Sisters, and sending them off to music blogs and magazines, hoping for reviews. They also submitted songs to the new streaming services, at the time dominated

by Pandora, with Spotify’s reign soon to come.

“Friends were telling us, ‘Hey, I heard your song the other day on some coffeehouse playlist,’” Brent, says. “And other people were saying, ‘I heard you on the Mumford & Sons channel.’”

People weren’t just listening to Beta Radio on streaming services; they were hearing the band and immediately downloading its album.

Over the next 10 years, Beta Radio released follow-up albums at a steady clip, all of them bolstered by the millions and millions of times its songs were listened to on streaming services. Most bands have to tour voraciously in support of their records, but Beta Radio was able to stay home, working on new music.

PineStraw 37

C R E AT O R S O F N. C .

As the pandemic emerged in 2020, the band began writing and recording the songs that would end up on 2021’s Year of Love. Once the world went into lockdown, Ben’s geographic searching came to a standstill and forced him to investigate exactly what it was that he’d been looking for. The songs on that album are mystical explorations of various forms of love, the music often swelling into sonic walls of strings and guitars, marked by gorgeous, ethereal lines like “In my soul, there’s something I want to say.” These lyrics open the album, and they set the tone for its themes of the intangibility of love and the many ways we search for it while struggling to find the language to express it.

If Year of Love is about searching for something — language, answers, love — 2024’s Waiting for the End to Come is about finding it. The songs feel urgent, tactile, narrative-driven and grounded in a physical space. This album marks the first time Ben and Brent have co-written songs with others, and the experience of spending time in Nashville and sharing ideas with fellow songwriters brought them closer while elevating what they could do musically. The two kids from Wilmington who’d been moved by music found themselves moved once again.

“There’s just no other way to say it: I began to vibrate,” Ben says of those days writing songs with Brent and others in Nashville. “Just like that guitar would if I were to strum it; I was vibrating because I was the energy.”

“That whole week flew by,” Brent adds, “and it was like we were living on a high. It was the first time we co-wrote with other people, and it was the first time we were writing songs this quickly.”

One song birthed from the co-writing experience is “This One’s Going

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

C R E AT O R S O F N. C .

to Hurt,” which will be released as the album’s first single this month.

The line itself was written by a co-writer named Henry Brill, and its honesty and directness struck Ben. “I would never write that line,” he says, “but I love it because it’s an admission, it’s an acknowledgement. And in all the prior stuff — Year of Love, for example — so much of the music up to now was me knowing that I had something to say but being afraid to fully say it.”

The three of us have left their studio space and taken the elevator down to Front Street. We’re sitting at a table inside Drift Coffee, where Ben and Brent regularly drop in for coffee during the week.

I wonder if the people around us, most of them young hipsters wearing headphones and ear buds and no doubt streaming music, would be shocked to learn that a band who’s part of their regular streaming rotation is sitting so close by.

As our conversation wraps up, I say goodbye and make my way back to the counter for a refill to-go. I happen to know the barista, so I tell him who I’ve been sitting with for the past hour.

“Those guys are in Beta Radio?” he says. “Brent and Ben? They come in here all the time. I had no idea. I love that band.”

Another person, moved by the music. PS Wiley Cash is the executive director of Literary Arts at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and the founder of This Is Working, an online community for writers.

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IN THE SPIRIT

Change Is Good Improving the way you cocktail

By Tony Cross

I’m not doing “dry” January

this year, so I’m giving myself a break from taking a break. The new year looks to be a very important one for my business, and I’ll be elbowdeep in new endeavors. I’m always trying to improve recipes and I’m never 100 percent satisfied with the end result — that’s what keeps it fun and interesting. I’ll be tasting (or testing, if you will) many different recipes in January and changing up the way I approach cocktails, but for you home — and away — bartenders, here are a few staples you should keep in mind.

Measuring This might sound like a no-brainer, but it doesn’t get said enough. If you’re not measuring your cocktails, they’re not going to be balanced, plain and simple. When I first started making classic cocktails, I wanted to be like the bartenders at Employees Only and free-pour my drinks — they measure by eyeing all of their pours in a pint glass. I got pretty decent at a few drinks, but I quickly realized that when I was busy and mixing drinks that called for 1/4 ounce of this or 1/8 ounce of that, getting those drinks perfectly balanced was futile. And while there are many more bartenders in establishments who use jiggers to measure, I still see some measuring incorrectly. How’s that? If you have a cocktail calling for 2 ounces of gin, and you fill up the 2-ounce jigger 3/4 of the way, not only is your cocktail incorrect, but you’ve just shorted a paying customer. This is not to say that the bartender is purposely shorting a patron; it has more to do with rushing through the process. And overflowing the jigger isn’t doing anyone any favors either.

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Juice This might sound like another no-brainer but, first of all, your juice should be fresh. (If it’s not super juice, a process that stretches the flavor profile at least a week.) When the juice loses its pop, it’s not going to work in your margarita. Another idea worth considering is acid-adjusting some juices, like orange juice.

Back in the day I had the Blood & Sand on my menu. It was a classic drink, a bit unusual, and it had Scotch in it. I liked the cocktail, but I never loved it. I always felt like the orange juice — even if juiced that very minute — fell flat on my tastebuds when I mixed the drink.

All these years later I found the solution. I learned about acids in Dave Arnold’s book Liquid Intelligence. One of his protégés, Garret Richard, had a quick recipe for acid-adjusting orange juice: For every100 milliliters of juice add 3.2 grams of citric acid and 2.0 grams of malic acid. That adjusts the acidity to that of lime juice.

If you’d like your orange juice to have more of a lemon backbone, add 5.2 grams of citric acid per 100 milliliters of orange juice.

And speaking of orange juice, if you’re going to add it to your margarita without adjusting the acid to the juice, please make the cocktail balanced. There’s nothing worse than paying $14 for a lousy margarita.

Salt Just like adding salt to certain meals, adding it to certain cocktails, especially those with citrus, will make your drinks “POP!” — according to Instagram bartender Thirsty Whale. Not convinced? Do a side-by-side comparison of two daiquiris: one with a salt solution added and the other without. To make a salt solution, use a 4:1 ratio combining 80 grams of water with 20 grams of salt. It’s important to say again: Measuring is key, especially using salt. Get your 2024 off to a balanced start. You can lose it later. PS Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

PineStraw 41

42 PineStraw

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

FOCUS ON FOOD

Celebrating the Pear Delicate, temperamental and extraordinary Story and Photograph by Rose Shewey

Pears are a recurring, bittersweet

theme in my family. My mom grew up in the Yugoslavia of the 1940s as the youngest of five siblings. When her eldest brother secretly packed his bags one night to attempt to cross the border into Italy, my mom, then 7 years of age, sensed that big changes were ahead. Too young to comprehend the gravity of the situation, her brother simply told her that he was about to visit their aunt and would bring back a basket full of pears from her tree — my mom’s favorite fruit. It wasn’t until weeks after he had left that my mom understood that she’d never see the pears she was promised, nor would she see her brother again, who had been granted a visa to immigrate to the United States.

The pear saga continues. The first solid food I ate as a baby — I have photo proof — was a pear and, in middle school, the first poem I learned to recite by heart, wholeheartedly, was a ballad written by Theodor Fontane, Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck

im Havelland. It tells the story of an old man, a gentle soul, who graciously hands out pears from his stately tree to the children of the village. Knowing that he would die soon and that his son was utterly ungenerous, he asks to be buried with a pear. In time, a pear tree grows on his grave, and the children of the village joyfully pick pears every fall — the old man’s legacy.

Aside from the sentimental appreciation I have for pears, I always considered them to be in a class of their own. Pears, as opposed to their close relatives, apples — the workhorse of the rosaceous crop — are much more delicate in nature. More temperamental, too, but also capable of creating moments worth celebrating when eaten at just the right time. Pears can do extraordinary things, too. Slide a bottle over a young pear on a tree, as they do in the French Alsace region, and allow it to grow directly inside the bottle.

You’ll end up with eau de vie de poire (“pear water of life”) after the pear reaches full maturity and is turned into delicious brandy.

A simple but snazzy way to enjoy pears is to poach them. Ah, the possibilities are endless. From using wine or cider or any type of fruit juice and spices you choose, poaching pears is most satisfying and requires no special skill. My latest discovery in enjoying poached pears? Marry them with whipped cottage cheese. As lumpy and, to some, unappealing as cottage cheese appears in its natural state, once whipped, it turns into a silky, marshmallow-y cream firm enough to make picture-perfect dollops when plated. PS

Pomegranate Poached Pears with Whipped Cottage Cheese (Serves 2) 16 ounces cottage cheese (4 percent milk fat) 1 quart pomegranate juice 1 cup sugar Juice of 1/2 lemon 1 cinnamon stick 2-3 whole cloves 1-2 star anise 1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise (optional) 2 large pears (Bosc, Bartlett or Anjou) Toppings of your choice

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Place cottage cheese in a food processor and blend until you have a smooth, silky texture that resembles soft whipped cream. Store in the refrigerator.

In a medium pot, heat pomegranate juice. Add sugar and stir to dissolve.

Add lemon juice and remaining spices.

Peel pears (halve and core, if desired), slide into the liquid and simmer until done — pierce pears with a paring knife, if it meets no resistance, the pears are done. This may take between 10 and 25 minutes, depending on the pears.

Be sure to keep pears submerged or turn them over every once in a while so they cook evenly.

Serve with whipped cottage cheese, pomegranate seeds, muesli, chopped nuts and cacao nibs, or any other toppings of your choice. Add a few spoonfuls of poaching liquid if desired. PS German native Rose Shewey is a food stylist and food photographer. To see more of her work visit her website, suessholz.com.

PineStraw 43

CROSSROADS

The Unbitter End On the road less traveled by

By Beth M acDonald

The cruelest thing I have learned about

divorce is that I have been left with a poor WiFi signal and a hint of mild road rage.

My husband announced he no longer wanted to be married at some point (when is quite irrelevant at this juncture). I left.

Insert real-life game of Mad Libs with four nouns, three verbs, six adjectives, one location and two party favors. Oh, have I’ve got adjectives.

I am now alone. A singular entity in my late 40s, completely unsupervised. I need to reorganize, so I turn to the food triangle I learned in grade school. I think the first thing I need is carbs. Then I realize I’ve made a rookie mistake — wrong triangle. Maslow Shelter to the rescue. My deficiency needs are definitely deficient.

I’m employed by a wonderful nonprofit organization. I love my job. A place to live seems like a good starting point. What can I afford? I go to the farthest end of the Pines, closest to Alaska. It’s beautiful, serene, the perfect place to establish a base camp where the cost of living is low. So low, in fact, that WiFi and sunlight don’t reach the ground. You have to pay extra for sunlight and, even if they offered good WiFi, I couldn’t afford it. Luckily Panera has both carbs (I’m confusing my pyramids again) and free WiFi. I traded my luxury sports car for a reliable four-cylinder Ford SUV. I used to live 2 miles from downtown Southern Pines.

Now, I live a mile down a dirt road out there somewhere. It’s beautiful. I had to simplify my life and, truthfully, loved the process. I don’t mind coaxing my four little SUV hamsters up at 7:30 a.m. to get me to work. The five of us think very hard about

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

the decisions we make at the Pinehurst Traffic Circle.

My organization allowed me to rent office space in Southern Pines, so I can at least work at a real desk and get exposure to Vitamin D. Every day I enjoy a lovely 30-minute commute and private concert brought to you by Ford Motor Co. I practice being the lead vocals, backup singers and band (air guitar, keyboard, drums). I think I might be nominated for a Grammy by my fellow commuters queued up to get on the Traffic Circle. I don’t lip-sync — it’s full-on, live carpool karaoke.

I take Midland Road to Pennsylvania Avenue every day. The minute I make that right turn I am behind the let’s-go-23-mphin-a-35-zone person, who I follow all the way into downtown.

Every day. Every. Day. My iTunes automatically shuffles to Rob Zombie’s “Dragula.” I am now a suburbanite futzing down the road infuriated. I am white-knuckling my steering wheel as I coast past the Police Department slowly enough to make them think I’m avoiding a DUI instead of trapped in a hostage situation. I can’t even breathe until I get to my parking space and unclench my jaw.

That one minor drawback aside, I have otherwise found divorce to be freeing. Marie Kondo would be inspired by my minimalist ways. Buddha would be proud at my level of mellow. I might have found inner peace, even at 23 mph.

My first marriage ended in “till death do us part.” I am familiar with loss — not to minimize it because you can’t. Grief is always “a thing.” We grieve a lot in our lives. We grieve big losses and little losses: death, friendships, our favorite pair of shoes, our wallets. (Who wants to go to the DMV and replace a license?) So, my second marriage went on vacation, and all I got is this lousy WiFi. At least I didn’t lose my wallet. PS Beth MacDonald is a suburban misadventurer, author and essayist who often tries to get out of her car without unfastening her seat belt.

PineStraw 45

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

OUT OF THE BLUE

Makin’ a List And what it says about you

By Deborah Salomon

We are a nation of lists. January is

the logical time to make them: new year, fresh resolve, second chances. Remember, this is the month when Medicare supplement ads give way to weight-loss schemes.

Lists, sometimes in the form of resolutions, reveal much about their authors. Long ago and far away I wrote a column after finding a list scribbled on an envelope crumpled in a shopping cart. The list was long, barely legible, full of abbreviations.

Yet from it I reconstructed the life of the writer: She had young children (silly cereals, milk by the gallon, Popsicles), attempted health-consciousness (both mushy white bread and 100 percent whole wheat), braved unpopular veggies (frozen Brussels sprouts), and had at least one cat — a finicky eater, to boot.

Her husband, I surmised, worked in an office (pick up shirts at dry cleaner). She paid a premium for real Coke and Peter Pan Peanut Butter — not store brands. Wine wasn’t her forte. I was disappointed to learn she succumbed to frozen pizza.

Certain items were coded “c.” A coupon, I guessed.

Remember coupons?

And on and on. By the time my analysis was done I could have picked her out of a lineup.

Something else besides coupons has changed. Today, the wrinkled envelope has been replaced by a cell phone. Not me, not a chance. I can’t afford to donate one hand to holding the The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

slippery thing. Then, suppose I accidentally leave it at home and forget the peanut butter?

Serious lists deserve more than the back of an envelope, maybe a printout to dignify the effort.

Here goes . . .

Clean up my desk. I am neither overly organized nor a neat freak. My desk, flanked with baskets, wooden boxes et al. is, uh, unruly. However, every January I undertake a purge.

On second thought, ditch this list, since I might be held accountable. Safer to compose lists for others.

Taylor Swift needs a new boyfriend. She’s not helping the ballclub. Find yourself a shy accountant, honey.

Joe Biden needs a different barber, to eradicate that rear-view mullet.

The Donald needs a legal secretary.

Mick Jagger needs a rocking chair for his 16-gig tour, sponsored by AARP. Really.

Elon Musk needs to buy a vowel, not an X. Harry and Meghan need a new publicist. Where have all the tabloids gone?

Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Franklin all need a smile — a rare event in portraiture before orthodontics, implants and crowns.

Yes, we are a nation of lists. An entire book series is devoted to the genre. Just don’t leave yours in a shopping cart. PS Deborah Salomon is a contributing writer for PineStraw and The Pilot. She can be reached at debsalomon@nc.rr.com.

PineStraw 47

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

B I R D WA T C H

A Winter Visitor The handsome yellow-bellied sapsucker

By Susan Campbell

Woodpeckers abound in central

North Carolina, even more so in the Sandhills.

On a given day, you might see up to eight different species. Only one, however, is a winter visitor: the handsome yellow-bellied sapsucker. This medium-sized, black-and-white bird is well camouflaged against the tree trunks where it is typically found.

It also sports red plumage on the head, as so many North American species do. The female has only a red crown, whereas the male also sports a red throat. And, as their name implies, both sexes have a yellow tinge to their bellies. However, young of the year arriving in late October to early November are drab, with grayish plumage and lacking the colorful markings of their parents. By the time they head back north in March, they too, will be well-patterned.

There are four sapsucker species found in North America.

The yellow-bellied has the largest range and is the only one seen east of the Rockies. Sapsuckers do, in fact, feed on sap year round. They seek out softer hardwood trees and drill holes through the bark into the living tissue. This wound will ooze sap in short order. Not only do the carbohydrates in the liquid provide nourishment to the birds, but insects also get trapped in the sticky substance. Holes made by yellow-bellied sapsuckers form neat rows in the bark of red maples, tulip poplars and even Bradford pears in our area. Pines, however, not only tend to have bark that is too thick for sapsuckers to penetrate but rapidly scab over, rendering only a very brief flow of sap.

The injury caused by sapsuckers is generally not fatal to the tree, as long as it is healthy to begin with. Infection of the wound by fungi or other diseases may occur in older or stressed trees.

Although the relationship is not mutually beneficial, sapsuckers need the trees for their survival. It is also interesting to note that The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

others use the wells created by sapsuckers. Birds known to have a “sweet tooth,” such as orioles and hummingbirds, will take advantage of the yellow-bellied sapsucker’s handiwork.

The species breeds in pine forests throughout boreal Canada, the upper Midwest as well as New England. We do have summering populations at elevation in western North Carolina. It is not unusual to find them around Blowing Rock in the warmer months. As is typical for woodpeckers, sapsuckers create cavities in dead trees for nesting purposes. They use calls as well as drumming to advertise their territory. The typical call note is a short, high-pitched, cat-like mewing sound. They use more emphatic squealing and rapid tapping of their bills against dead wood or other suitable resonating surfaces to warn would-be competitors of their presence.

In winter, yellow-bellieds quietly coexist with the other woodpeckers in the area. They will seek out holly and other berries in addition to feeding on sap. These birds will feed on suet, too, and may be attracted to backyard feeding stations. Generally the yellow-bellied does not drink sugar water, since feeders designed for hummingbirds or orioles are not configured for use by clinging species. Of course, as with all birds, it may be lured in by fresh water: another reason to maintain a birdbath or two — even if you live on a lake.

Seeing a sapsucker at close range is always a treat, so keep an eye out for this unusual woodpecker. PS Susan Campbell would love to hear from you. Feel free to send questions or wildlife observations to susan@ncaves.com.

PineStraw 49

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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SPORTING LIFE

Small Town Life A little piece of paradise John Mills

By Tom Bryant The Old Man always used to say that a smart feller knew when he was well off and was a goldarned fool to change it for something he didn’t know about.

— Robert Ruark from The Old Man and the Boy

Back in the day, John Mills and I didn’t

know we had it so wonderful growing up in Pinebluff. Mr. Eutice Mills, Johnny’s dad, was mayor from 1952 until 1956, and the little village never had it so good.

I recently spent the day with my old friend Johnny, better known by locals in the know as the Pinebluff historian. As boys my home was about a block from his on the same road that we called the “lake road.” It was really New England Avenue. That’s a funny thing about Pinebluff. Most of the avenues are named after Northern cities like Boston, Philadelphia or Chicago, I guess to sort of entice the folks from up North who wanted to relocate to the sunny South. They could do that and still live on an avenue that reminded them of home.

The cross streets are named after a fruit of some sort, like peach, cherry or apple. Yep, Pinebluff in its early planning was aimed at making new residents feel right at home and comfortable.

As a youngster living a block from the Mills family, I got to know them pretty well, as they did me and my family. It was like that all over town. Everybody knew everybody, and their pets’ names. We didn’t have a downtown, just a service station on one corner of the main thoroughfare and a motel across the street.

The post office was located on another block, and that was about it as far as the business district was concerned.

The little village didn’t have much commercial success, but for the residents, it was enough. Aberdeen was right down the road. That’s where we went to school and our parents did most of their shopping. Beyond that was Southern Pines, a slightly The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

more sophisticated town. And a little farther down the road was Pinehurst, a location most of us gave no thought to. We knew that it was a destination for rich folks from the North who came to spend part of the winter, play golf and do whatever we thought rich folks did when they came south. It really was of no consequence to us, and we just let that part of our county alone.

In those early years when Johnny and I came along, Pinebluff had a population of maybe 300 residents, a little more if you counted the dogs. Not many families had television. I think I was a freshman in high school when my dad bought our first one.

Most of our entertainment was what we could devise, and mostly it took place in the great outdoors.

Every kid had a bicycle, our main mode of transportation.

Mine was usually leaning against the front porch of our house, ready for a quick getaway.

In the summer the lake was the destination for all the young folks, and that’s where I learned to swim. It was only five blocks from my house, all downhill. I could jump off our front porch, hop on my bike, push off and coast all the way to the lake without pedaling once. Getting back home was a different story. Usually, I would time it so Dad could pick me up, load the bike in the back of the station wagon and give me a lift to the house. Sometimes this worked, depending on how busy he was at the ice plant. In the summer when peaches were being harvested full blast, Dad hardly had time to come home for lunch. Then I had to muscle my bike back up the hill on my own.

Our telephone system was Mom and Pop Wallace. The Pinebluff phone company was at their house, and the switchboard was located in their living room. When our parents wanted to find out where most of their kids were hanging out, they’d give Mom Wallace a call. She usually had the scoop on what was going on in the neighborhood.

When Johnny and I met that day, we reminisced about old times until lunch and then decided to grab a bite at a new restaurant in Aberdeen. On the way back to Pinebluff, we rode by the Aberdeen PineStraw 51

SPORTING LIFE

Railroad Depot, where Harriet Sloan maintains the Aberdeen High School Museum that’s located in one end of the ancient building.

It’s amazing the job she has done accumulating all the historical information and artifacts about a school that no longer exists. The depot was closed but we’d already seen it several times, so we drove on by and headed back to Johnny’s house.

Johnny is fortunate to have acquired his family home place, and little has changed since we kids used to eat lunch sitting at the Mills’ kitchen table. Mrs. Mills would fix us sandwiches and listen as we made plans for the rest of the day.

Today was déjà vu all over again as Johnny and I relaxed around the same table remembering Pinebluff as it used to be under the direction of his father, the mayor.

“Think about the folks who used to live here,” he said, and began running down a list of people, some of whom I had forgotten.

“Colonel Cleary. Remember he lived right on the corner with his two boys? He taught math at Aberdeen High. And there was Mrs. Townsend, your neighbor. She was a traveling editor for The Christian Science Monitor. It’s rumored she roamed the world on tramp steamer ships.

“Around the corner and a couple of blocks away was Manly Wade Wellman. A famous author, he wrote the book, The Haunts of Drowning Creek. We should surely remember that

because it was about two boys who set out on a canoe trip on the creek to find Confederate gold.” (Maybe the book gave three young Pinebluff boys the idea to take the same trip and float to the ocean. But that’s another story.)

“And there was Glen Rounds, another famous author and illustrator. He lived here for a while before moving to Southern Pines. The village was loaded with famous people in those days, not counting us, of course.” We chuckled a little as Johnny continued to pay homage to past residents who had had such an impact on our lives.

“Mr. Deaton, the town constable. He looked after all the young people and kept us out of trouble. Dot and Nan Brawley, who owned and ran the Village Grocery. How many cold Cokes did we drink from her cooler? Of course, Mom and Pop Wallace and the phone company, and that’s just a few of the folks who made the little town work. Yep, Tom, we grew up in a fantastic place.”

As I sat there at the same kitchen table where I had rested so many years ago, I thought that it’s good that some important things don’t change with age, like this wonderful home and my good friend Johnny Mills. PS Tom Bryant, a Southern Pines resident, is a lifelong outdoorsman and PineStraw’s Sporting Life columnist.

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

G O L F T OW N J O U R NA L

The Scottish Invasion When golf put down roots in the Sandhills

By Lee Pace

There’s the town

of Aberdeen right in our midst, the county of Scotland to the south, the village of Dundarrach to the southeast, roads we drive every day named for McDonald, McCaskill, McKenzie and Dundee. The Old Scotch Graveyard is off Bethlehem Church Road west of Carthage.

This area of south central North Carolina has deep Scottish roots dating to the 1700s, when droves of Scottish emigrants fled the Highlands to the shores of North Carolina, and moved up the Cape Fear River and its tributaries to the pine forests of Moore County. They found land for the taking and plentiful game for hunting.

It’s only fitting that in time the ancient game of golf would become the backbone of the Sandhills economy.

Man has enjoyed games of sticks and balls throughout history, and Europeans in the Middle Ages even played from one village to the next by striking an object, finding it and hitting it again toward a pre-determined target. Golf was played in

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Scotland as early as 1457, when the Scottish parliament of King James II banned the sport (along with football) because it was distracting the men of Edinburgh from their archery training. The first printed reference to golf in Dornoch, a village on the northeast coast of Scotland, came in 1616.

So in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when golf was taking root in the United States, young men from Scotland who knew the game found opportunity in America to foster its growth. Chief among them was Donald Ross, who traveled from Dornoch to Boston in 1899, found work at Oakley Country Club, and a year later moved to Pinehurst, where he ran the golf operation and began building new golf courses for Pinehurst owner James W. Tufts. By 1919, Ross had built seven courses in Pinehurst and Southern Pines as his design career blossomed and would eventually number some 400 courses across the eastern United States.

“Pinehurst was absolutely the pioneer in American golf,” Ross said. “While golf had been played in a few places before Pinehurst was established, it was right here on these Sandhills that the first great national movement in golf was started. Men came here, took a few golf lessons, bought a few clubs and went away determined to organize clubs.”

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of the premier Sandhills golf clubs, was founded by a man with deep Scottish bona fides. Dick Urquhart’s ancestors evolved from Clan Urquhart, which held power over lands in the northeast of Scotland many hundreds of years ago. Urquhart in the early 1960s ran a prosperous accounting firm in Raleigh and loved the golf-centric environment of Pinehurst. He envisioned a venue for successful North Carolina businessmen and power brokers to gather away from home for long weekends and holidays.

“What could be better than a good club centrally located for nearly all of us, ideally suited for golf, horses, hunting or just plain socializing?” Urquhart asked in a 1962 letter to charter members of his new club.

Richard Tufts, who had traveled to Scotland extensively and made the long trip north to Dornoch several times, suggested to Urquhart that he name the club Royal Dornoch, and in fact the real estate development around the golf course was named Royal Dornoch Golf Village.

Because of the club’s appeal across the state, Urquhart preferred a broader approach and christened it the Country Club of North Carolina. It opened in 1963 with a golf course designed by Ellis Maples and Willard Byrd (it would be named the Dogwood Course when a second course followed in 1981 and was named the Cardinal).

CCNC was one of the original members of Golf Digest’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses and was the site of the PGA Tour’s Liggett & Myers Open Match Play Championship won by Dewitt Weaver in 1971, and recast in ’72 as the U.S. Professional Match Play Championship won by Jack Nicklaus. Hal Sutton won the 1980 U.S. Amateur at CCNC. The Dogwood Course was renowned for its back nine, with seven holes wrapped around Watson’s Lake.

Vestiges of the club’s original Scottish connection have remained for 60 years.

Lake Dornoch sits to the left side of the fourth hole of the Dogwood Course, and the main road through the community is called Lake Dornoch Drive.

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

G O L F T OW N J O U R NA L

There is a restaurant in the club called the Dornoch Grille.

What has become a deep and enduring relationship between CCNC and Royal Dornoch Golf Club began in 1971 when a Dornoch member visited and brought a plaque and hole flags to commemorate the friendship. “With this message of greeting goes our hope that Dornoch, Sutherland, and Dornoch, North Carolina, may continue to have close and increasingly friendly relations for many years to come,” reads the plaque signed by Dornoch captain W.B. Alford.

There was an informal series of couples’ visits to both clubs dating to the late 1990s, but the union took on a formal approach when CCNC member Ziggy Zalzneck and Dornoch member Roly Bluck became good friends after meeting during one of Zalzneck’s trips to Dornoch. Bluck was visiting Pinehurst in 2008, and Zalzneck drove him to Raleigh to visit Urquhart, who was failing in health (and not far from his death that October).

“Mr. Urquhart was dressed in pajamas but had his CCNC blazer on. I thought that was fabulous,” Zalzneck says.

They talked about golf, Pinehurst and Scotland, and when it was over, Urquhart put his arm around Zalzneck and said, “Ziggy, I want the club to have matches with these guys. Will you work it out?”

Twelve players from Dornoch traveled to CCNC in 2011, and

the matches have been held since, alternating venues (the 2020 and ’21 matches were canceled because of COVID-19). They play a Ryder Cup format, and at stake is an antique wooden putter now named for Bluck, who died in 2014.

“We look forward to the matches every year,” says Dornoch general manager Neil Hampton. “Visiting Pinehurst is lovely. It’s so different for us. He have to adjust our game, the ball doesn’t run and bounce like it does at home.

“Each club seems to have the advantage on their home course.

Does somebody win? Yes. But it’s a friendship thing. It’s a social event with golf involved. It’s all about like-minded people enjoying a bit of fun.”

Adds Dornoch club captain David Bell: “Royal Dornoch members relish the annual contest with their friends from Country Club of North Carolina. While they may leave some of that friendship behind in their quest to win the Roly Bluck putter, it is soon restored over one, or several, glasses of whisky in the bar.

“This is a competition which embodies the comradeship and sportsmanship which make golf such a great game.” PS

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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PineStraw 59

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January ���� ADVENTURE Because she was fast in her way And he followed her suit, They launched horizon’s fruitful gaze To fortify their fruit.

In short parlance, ahead of him, She was a gushing bride Until gray moods turned dark to bend Their rivers for her tide.

They never had one dissension.

He lived his love the same Beyond single thought’s contention.

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A drinking fountain salutes thirst, Instant bubble, wet lips.

Then comes what earthly love holds first, Her muscles fell to slips.

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His eye-lids open every morn.

The bones to him creak rise.

The sun’s obeying crown adorns Remembrances, her sighs.

— Shelby Stephenson

Shelby Stephenson was North Carolina’s poet laureate from 2014-16. His most recent volume of poetry is Praises.

The Art & Soul of the the Sandhills Sandhills

PineStraw 61 61 PineStraw

Walruses photographed about 200 kilometers south of the North Pole.

The Adventuresome Chef

Warren Lewis makes art in “stupid cold places”

By Jenna Biter

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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Above: Two wolves taken in the Northern DMZ between Finland and Russia. The tree line in the background is Russia.

Left: Wolf photographed from a hide on the Finnish side of the DMZ.

64 PineStraw

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

S

unlight streamed through the coffee shop blinds.

Water droplets were condensing on the plastic togo cup holding an iced mocha latte sitting neglected at the center of a four-top.

Warren Lewis was preoccupied. He wasn’t sipping, he was leading a whip-fast expedition to distant destinations, most of which he classified as “stupid cold places,” many of which were home to magnificent sharptoothed beasts.

Foxes and walruses, bears and wolves chased each other off the silvery face of Lewis’ MacBook, forever frozen in his photographs but indelibly alive in his mind.

“When the bears come by, the wolves take off,” says Lewis, describing life in the closely watched, middle-of-nowhere border zone between Finland and Russia. Two autumns ago, Lewis traveled to the arctic hinterland on a special permit with a photography tour of four. “We didn’t see a wolverine,” he says, “but if a wolverine had come along, the bears would’ve taken off because wolverines have no sense of humor.”

Lewis readjusts his glasses, then clicks from one image of gray wolves to the next. The frame displays an astonishing blond wolf Lewis identifies as the pack’s alpha. “I saw him one day just for

minutes, and that was it,” he says, still in awe more than a year later. The wolf stares from the screen with soft golden eyes that can harden cruelly in an instant.

It was restlessness, fate and the heart of an explorer that landed Lewis and his camera in that frostbitten taiga forest. “I always had to do things with my hands,” he explains, holding them up and open. In the 1970s, a camera came along to occupy his fidgety fingers. At the time, Lewis’ father had taken to photography as a newly divorced, middle-aged man in search of a hobby. Before long, the teenager had a Pentax Spotmatic camera of his own. A week into this new love affair, the kid developed his first photograph with a Willoughby-Peerless darkroom kit in the basement of his childhood home on Long Island, New York.

“The first image I ever developed was of a tree in front of the house,” says Lewis wryly, “because that was the first picture I took.”

He didn’t stick around the house for long. Dad had given him a camera, and with it, the license for a shy teenager to expand and explore his world.

“I never would have gone to a football game by myself,” Lewis says, “but all of a sudden, I had a press pass, and I’m on the sideline.”

Lewis scrolls through his photos, rediscovering Finland with

Polar bear photographed from a Zodiac inflatable.

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Left: Bearded Seal.

Below: Arctic fox photographed in Hörnstrandir, Iceland.

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each image frozen in time. Its pied crows are silly, intelligent, and permanently dressed in the full feather of tuxedo. Its ravens are less baroque; nevertheless, they seek attention. Their purply plumes blur more than Lewis would like. The bold birds don’t even flee a brown bear. Then again, neither does Lewis. One lumbered so near his blind he could smell the animal’s breath.

“He’s either going to eat me, or he’s not,” Lewis says with the nonchalance of someone sitting safely in a coffee shop. “I’m thinking, OK, well, I’ve got my camera, and I’ve got a lens I can use like a bat to whack him. I’ll aim for the nose. At the same time, I’m thinking, OK, what’s my aperture? What’s my shutter speed? Is it in focus? Get the eyes in focus.”

Lewis chose not to pursue photography professionally after graduating from high school. Instead, he studied engineering.

“I took a job peeling vegetables because I didn’t belong in engineering,” says Lewis, owner and chef of the eponymous Chef Warren’s, Southern Pines’ beloved turn-of-the-century-style bistro.

“It wasn’t tactile enough for me. It just doesn’t suit the way my brain works — which is at 1,000 miles per hour — so I became a

chef. And I met my wife that way.”

Lewis was working as a sous chef in a New York hotel when Marianne walked in. “We’ve been together ever since,” he says.

That was 35 years ago. Since then, he’s worked kitchens up and down the East Coast and around the globe, from Australia to a few days at an Indian restaurant in Malaysia.

“If you’ve got a set of knives,” says Lewis, “you can work anywhere.”

In 1995, “anywhere” became the Sandhills, and three years later, the Lewises opened Chef Warren’s, whose walls display his original prints.

“You need something besides what you do,” Lewis says, parsing the balance between food and photos. “You need to have something else to focus on.”

He dives back into the laptop screen, reliving a staring contest in a Polish forest. “This is one of my favorites! So, I’m sitting in a hide, and this goshawk is sitting there,” he says, pointing to a dappled bird of prey perched on a mossy log. “A red squirrel is bouncing around doing red squirrelly things. I’m thinking, ‘Finger

Arctic fox, taken north of Svalbard, Norway.

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PineStraw 67

Left: Hairy cow, the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

Above: Warren Lewis riding in a Zodiac in the Arctic.

Below: Goshawk and red squirrel taken from a hide in the Białowieża Forest on the border between Belarus and Poland.

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on the trigger, get ready to go.’ All of a sudden, they stare at each other.” Lewis holds his breath. The Eurasian red squirrel fluffs its tail and perks its fiery ears. “Then they turn and walk away.”

He spares an extra beat to admire the magic of a perfect moment forever accessible via the time machine of photography.

“Before, the photos never drilled into my soul,” Lewis says, preferring the solitary process of the art to the company of finished prints. That was until 2015, when he watched Kingdom of the Ice Bear, a seven-minute web documentary featuring nature photographer Joshua Holko’s journey to polar bear backcountry.

“Marianne was upstairs making dinner. It was noodles and sauce — super delicious dinner. She makes great tomato sauce,” Lewis says in an aside. “I shout to her, ‘Hey, there’s this photographer out of Australia that is doing this tour to the North Pole.

Can I go?’”

“Sure, dinner’s almost ready,” Marianne answered.

Just like that, Lewis departed North Carolina the following July and landed, four flights later, on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago far into the Arctic Ocean, near the top of the world. From there, Lewis, Holko and a dozen or so other adventuring photographers boarded a former lighthouse tender called the MS Origo.

For three-and-a-half weeks, the explorers endured dive-bombs from overprotective Arctic terns and the putrid odor of hordes

of walruses. They tallied a staggering 17 polar bear sightings on Kong Karls Land, the choicest hibernation destination in the far North.

The mug of one of those 17 is immortalized on the patrons’ right as they enter Chef Warren’s restaurant. The bear feels close.

“The correct response is too close,” Lewis says, confessing that the bear was only a room’s length away.

“So here’s the gig. I’m going to die, right?” Lewis asks dryly as he eyes the way-too-close closeup of the magnificent sharp-toothed beast. “This is the way to do it. I want a good story, right? I want my son, Ben, to have a great story. ‘How did your dad die?’ ‘Oh, he got eaten by a polar bear.’ Now that’s a great story.”

Lewis grins and clicks on, very much alive.

He breezes through dozens of images of European bison, another pack of gray wolves, and an Arctic fox curled up tightly to warm itself on a frigid day. An hour after setting out for far-flung locales, he’s satisfied. Lewis powers down his whirlwind expedition. Having returned to that four-top in a coffeeshop, he takes a sip of his warm and watery latte.

Jenna Biter is a writer and military wife in the Sandhills. She can be reached at jennabiter@protonmail.com. Explore Chef Warren Lewis’s photography at warrenhenrylewis.com.

European brown bear photographed in Finland.

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Selling books like snake oil Or If you want it done right, do it yourself

By Stephen E. Smith

ancy Rawlinson was a first-grader at Millington Elementary School in New Jersey when she happened upon an intriguing book in the school library. She flipped through the pages and immediately fell in love with the illustrations of horses. The book may have been The Blind Colt or Stolen Pony or Wild Horses of the Red Desert — she has forgotten the title — but she knew what she liked, and that the artist was Glen Rounds.

“I was in love with horses at the time,” she recalls, “and I read Glen Rounds’ books over and over again.”

In 1991 Rawlinson moved to Southern Pines and eventually opened Eye Candy Gallery & Framing on Broad Street, but she never had an opportunity to meet the writer and illustrator whose books had brought her so much pleasure in her childhood. Rounds (the appellation assigned to Glen by his many friends) lived almost half his life in Southern Pines, and he was affectionately acknowledged by acquaintances and neighbors as “the literary man about town.”

Decked out in his weathered jeans and cow-

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boy vest, he was the craggy, gray-bearded bohemian wandering among the business-clad locals and Yankee snowbirds — a midmorning regular at the local post office, where he’d buttonhole friends and strangers and regale them with humorous, wisdomlaced tall tales, droll shaggy-dog stories, and the occasional offcolor witticism.

If Rounds was a raconteur extraordinaire, he was, first and foremost, an artist/illustrator. He illustrated over 100 books. He studied painting and drawing at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Art Student League of New York, and was close friends with Jackson Pollock and Thomas Hart Benton. (Rounds and Pollock were models for Benton’s painting The Ballad of the Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley.) And he worked with dogged determination to see that the public could enjoy his talents. When Rounds published a new children’s book, it would garner a mention in Time or Newsweek, and 20 years after his death, his artwork lives on in his books and on the walls of homes and businesses in Southern Pines — and across the country.

Of all the stories Rounds shared with friends and strangers, there’s one that seldom, if ever, got told: the true story “that needed telling.” Shortly before he died in 2002 at the age of 96, Rounds informed friends that he had a new book underway, the story of the “1938 Trip West.” He never completed the book, but his extensive notes were passed down to his daughter-in-law, Victoria Rounds, and contained within the extensive scribblings are at least four synopses that retell the tale in fits and starts. The Gospel according to Rounds goes as follows: During the spring and summer of 1938, Rounds was carrying

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

on an “acrimonious” correspondence with Vernon Ives, the publisher and editor of Holiday House, concerning Holiday House’s lackadaisical sales efforts. The publisher had a few independent salesmen who carried Holiday House books as a sideline and they circulated a catalog, but there was no sales coverage west of the Mississippi.

“I had spent some time with folks selling snake oil, Indian remedies and the like,” Rounds writes. “And argued that if they wanted to sell books they should have somebody on the road stirring things up. In the end it came to a case of ‘put up or shut up.’

If I thought books could be sold like snake oil, why didn’t I go on the road myself and show them how it should be done?”

And that’s exactly what Rounds intended to do. He and Margaret Olmsted had married in June 1938, and they were living in Myrtle Beach, where they paid $10 a month in rent. In their spare time, they fixed up a 1937 Studebaker woody station wagon with bunks built over lockers that contained their camping equipment — a bucket, a pan, a coffeepot, blankets, clothes, a Coleman stove, a small icebox, and a canvas to throw over the back of the Studebaker at night.

On September 1, 1938, they loaded a box of Holiday House books into the Studebaker and headed west from Sanford, camping that night in a “nameless field between Knoxville and Nashville.” There were no motels in those days, but they occasionally pulled into a campground or hotel to wash clothes and shower; otherwise, they quit driving each day at sunset and made the best of their surroundings. Once they camped near a city dump, and on another evening, a constable directed them to park

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behind the town bandstand. “Nice little park,” Rounds recalled.

“Just after supper people started drifting into the park. It was band concert night, and while they waited for the concert to start the townspeople inspected and commented on our outfit.”

But Rounds and Margaret weren’t there for the music, and they weren’t on a sightseeing trip. They had compiled a card file listing every elementary school, library, branch library, librarian and bookstore on their route. Margaret had a library science degree from the University of North Carolina and had worked for the New York Public Library System, so she had credibility with the school librarians and teachers. “We were looking for people who dealt in books,” Rounds writes. “Anybody that ever looked like they might buy or sell books got the treatment. We stopped at every small branch library or school, showed books, told a story or drew some pictures and went on, leaving Holiday House catalogs behind.”

And so it went through Kansas City, Omaha, Sioux City, Rapid City, Denver, Boulder, Provo, Logan, Boise, Spokane, Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Portland, Salem, Medford, Sacramento, San Francisco, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, Sierra Blanca, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth, where they put on a “big show” for National Book Week.

From there they hit Shreveport, Vicksburg, Montgomery, Atlanta, Greenville, and back to Sanford, arriving on Thanksgiving eve after three months on the road and “tired as hell!”

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“We not only showed the Holiday House books but we sold them on commission,” Rounds writes. “Whether we sold enough to pay our gas and expenses, I don’t remember. But by the time we got home a hell of a lot of people had heard about Holiday House books. For years after that, stories about our unconventional selling methods drifted around the country whenever bookstore people and librarians met.”

In the synopses Rounds produced late in life — probably in The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

the late ’80s and early- to mid-’90s, judging by the used computer paper repurposed as cost-effective stationery — the story lacks the details of meetings and confabs Rounds and Margaret experienced. But those moments aren’t lost. As Rounds traveled the country and pitched Holiday House books, he regularly wrote to Vernon Ives, producing 24 lengthy handwritten letters detailing most of his encounters with teachers, administrators, bookstore folk and “anyone interested in books.” Ives saved and returned the letters to Rounds, who arranged them chronologically in a spiral notebook that also contains photographs, maps, two traffic tickets, two typhoid inoculation certificates, and Rounds’ meticulous financial calculations (the Studebaker got about 22 mpg in a great loop from Sanford, North Carolina to the West Coast and back to Sierra Blanca, Texas, a distance of 8,633 miles).

More than an illustrator and writer, Rounds was a keen observer of his fellow human beings — he had a caustic word or two to say about everyone he encountered — and he was especially sharp-eyed when observing the animals he drew. Former North Carolina Poet Laureate Shelby Stephenson once accompanied Rounds on an expedition to observe a family of beavers. “Glen just sat there for two hours and never said a word; never moved,” Stephenson recalled. “He was perfectly still, staring intently at the beavers, never missing a movement they made.” If he wrangled you into a storytelling marathon at the post office or in his side The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

yard on Ridge Street, he’d stare directly into your eyes as his story leisurely unraveled. If your mind happened to wander, he’d notice immediately. “Do you want to hear this story or not?” he’d ask. Of course, you wanted to hear it. There was no escape.

This innate ability to study and narrate is apparent in a beautifully crafted excerpt from a letter written to Ives shortly before the 1938 odyssey. Rounds had been observing those who labored in tobacco production, “one of the last of the really personal industries,” and highlights of the brief passage stand as an example of literary archaeology: “From the time they go out in the spring with leaf mounds to fill the seed beds, the setting out, which is done by hand, the hoeing, the worming, down to the beginning of ‘priming’ (picking the bottom leaves as they ripen), and the sitting up night and day with the fires in the curing barns, it is all handwork of the hottest kind for the whole family. After it’s cured, the whole family gets busy, usually on the front porch, and goes over it leaf by leaf, grading it before tying it into ‘hands’ for market. The night before market they start coming into the warehouse to get a good position on the floor so as to get a light that will set off the color and texture to the best advantage. They’re proud of their work.

Sat all afternoon a while back with an old-timer while he watched his fires. After I’d deserted my cigarettes for a healthy chaw of his Honey-twist, taken with a fine shaving of Black Maria to give PineStraw 73

it body and color to spit a more satisfying brown, we sat and spit promiscuously round about for a while, exchanged views on horse breeding, and the lack of enterprise and self-reliance in the younger generation and one thing and another . . .” and so forth for two single-spaced typewritten pages.

The 24 letters written to Ives don’t contain the same level of detail as his tobacco observations — there wasn’t enough time to include more than initial impressions — but Rounds’ sharp eye picked up every human shortcoming and attribute, every nuance.

On Sept.12, he wrote from Denver: “Enclosed an order from Dibamels (sic), Rapid City. Think if we can get him started he should move my books. Did some horse trading to get the order, but think it worth it, even if I had to take merchandise for 3 Ol’ Pauls and 3 L.C. Denver Dry Goods no soap. Books too high.

Kendrik Bellamy was nice dept, but in basement, Mrs. Cook very nice and liked books but has trouble moving good books.

However, may order later.”

On Sept. 15 he wrote from Salt Lake City: “Library (two old maids) no soap. No children librarian. Printed Page, nice shop, typical university bookshop. Trying to start juvenile dept but knows nothing and cares less. N.G. (no good) . . . Snow and sleet in the passes. Ranger stopping cars . . . camping in ballpark . . .

Utah Office supply already ordered Baker Taylor, cheap stuff, won’t see sample. High school library — Miss Robinson liked books and checked a number. No money for about 60 days but . . . Ferner Junior High School, Miss Sinor — tough old gal. Doesn’t like small type. Won’t order what she hasn’t seen . . .” And so it goes for seven handwritten pages, passing judgment on the people, libraries and schools in one lengthy intensive missive.

Even more detailed letters follow from Spokane, Seattle and Raywood, where Rounds reports that all the bookstores had gone out of business during the Great Depression. Books are a

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tough sell, especially during hard times, but Rounds and Margaret remained undeterred by the occasional rejection and were much buoyed by small successes, as in San Diego on Oct. 24: “City Schools, Miss Morgan — They hadn’t seen our books but had heard so much they finally ordered most of the old titles for review. However, they arrived too late to get on this year’s list, L.C. and Ol’ Paul got raves from their reviewers. And most of the others seemed slated for the list also. She should be on list for books ON APPROVAL as soon as they are published . . .”

In Seattle, Rounds and Margaret made 12 stops and in Denver another 11, talking up Holiday House and pitching Rounds’ books while visiting public libraries, a university bookstore, the state department of education, a school library association and a book department in a general merchandise store, etc. — all of which he reported on at length. But Rounds’ letters weren’t all business. While working a bookstore in San Leon, Texas, he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to describe a fetching female clerk: “She was like a mare in heat every time she sidled close and continually ran her palms of her hands over the front of her tight sweater, down the belly and back around her buttocks. You know the gesture? It is used with the flexing of all the trunk and thigh muscles. Don’t get me wrong — I just report what I see. She’ll make a fine type if I write a book.”

If there was rejection and indifference, there was just enough good news to keep Rounds buoyant. On Nov. 19 he wrote to Ives, alluding to himself in the third person: “Rounds at his best when before an admiring audience of children whose number will be considerably swelled by the attendance of a group of storytelling teachers or some damn thing, who have a special invitation.

Immediately after Rounds is worn out, there will be an autograph party in the book department.”

And so it went, stop after stop, for three relentless months,

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

each encounter explicated in the lengthy handwritten letters to Ives. If Rounds and Margaret encountered more failure than success, they never wavered, never despaired. They kept at it, day in and day out, until they pulled into Sanford, exhausted.

Small successes, what he thought of as a “little victory for art,” continued to fuel Rounds’ enthusiasm for the remainder of his long life. He frequently visited classes full of elementary school students, encouraging their art and following up by sending the students postcards with his trademark hound dog Ol’ Boomer, tail curved skyward, prancing into the mystical ether. He never tired of entertaining, never grew weary of inspiring a classroom full of blossoming talent.

If Rounds was the author and illustrator of the books, Margaret Olmsted was remarkable in her own right. Glen Rounds was born in a sod house near the badlands of South Dakota and traveled in a covered wagon to Montana, where he grew up on a ranch. Margaret came from money. Her family owned their own railway car, and she’d graduated from the University of North Carolina. Nevertheless, she endured three months of camping across the country and chatting up librarians, schoolteachers and classrooms full of rowdy children, all without complaint. She was one of the founding members of The Country Bookshop and the Given Memorial Library, and her considerable influence lives on in those Sandhills institutions — and in Rounds’ success as a writer and illustrator.

What were the results of the 1938 trip? In a time when writers didn’t often appear at bookstores to sign and sell books, Rounds was ever present, signing his name, telling his stories and pro-

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

moting Holiday House. Vernon Ives profited from the documentation Rounds supplied concerning likely outlets and agreeable bookstore owners, information that would hold the publisher in good stead for decades to come. And most importantly, Rounds made himself famous in the world of children’s literature. His books still line bookstore and library shelves and continue to delight young readers.

Not long after his passing, an ad hoc committee of Rounds’ friends convened to consider placing a lifelike statue of the old raconteur in front of the post office, a monument not unlike the one of the rock ’n’ roll dude “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona . . .” but it soon became apparent that such a tribute could never adequately convey Rounds’ charisma and rakish charm. The stories were gone, lost for good, and now Rounds exists only in the memory of his many admirers.

It’s doubtful that Glen Rounds ever visited an elementary school in Millington, New Jersey — a village so obscure that it seems hardly to exist on the map — but when first-grader Nancy Rawlinson fell in love with Rounds’ drawings of horses, the book had not found its place on the library shelf by accident. Glen and Margaret Rounds had, by virtue of their hard work, tenacity and unwavering faith, willed it there. PS Stephen E. Smith is a retired professor and the author of seven books of poetry and prose. He’s the recipient of the Poetry Northwest Young Poet’s Prize, the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Prize for poetry and four North Carolina Press Awards.

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

STORY OF A HOUSE

Sister Act

Reimagining an eclectic cottage

By Deborah Salomon Photographs by John Gessner

L

ocal residences can be relatively easy to classify: Federalist, antebellum, Georgian, ranch, contemporary farmhouse, mid-century modern, Frank Lloyd Wright-ish.

This one — tucked behind tall greenery in the heart of Weymouth — isn’t, unless “surprising, refreshing and personal” is the category. Clad in pecky cypress painted off-white, the cottage stretches longitudinally like a ranch, has bedroom suites anchoring each end in the contemporary mode, and multiple bay windows common to New England saltboxes enhanced by stained glass panels displaying geometric and bird motifs.

Add this shocker: a cathedral ceiling with flying buttresses rising over the sitting/dining area. Built in 1929, a year of financial havoc in the U.S., one legend identifies the builder as a shipmaker from Boston with the buttresses a reminder of the ribs supporting his boats.

Those buttresses are original, not so a covered backyard patio for grilling, eating and watching TV while drying off by the fire after emerging from the 42-inch deep, rectangular plunge pool, with a submerged seating ledge and water kept at 100 degrees year-round.

“We all jumped in at Thanksgiving,” says Cathy, who with her sister, Mary, reimaged this cottage.

Their story is as singular as the results.

Cathy and Mary, a year apart, grew up sharing a room in

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a Pittsburgh family of eight children — three girls, five boys. Mary became a nurse anesthetist at a women’s hospital. Cathy worked in the wholesale bakery industry. Each married, remained in Pittsburgh and had children, who grew up and moved away. In 2014, the sisters, now single, retired and decided they could live more economically together — but not in Pittsburgh. Too cold.

They heard good things about North Carolina’s retirement havens. Asheville was their first foray. Still too cold. Pinehurst, with a temperate climate and aura aplenty, offered the solution.

“We drove down for a week and hooked up with an agent, just to look around,” Mary says. Seven Lakes seemed promising, or maybe a carriage house in horse country. Then they discovered the charm of downtown Southern Pines, the shops, bistros, railroad station and the interesting people populating them.

Better check availability in Weymouth.

What they discovered seemed almost made-to-order. The walls and ceilings in the living /dining space were wood-paneled and, after moving in, the sisters found the stained wood too dark and painted the walls — themselves — a soft white. The dark wood cabinetry and a natural brick backsplash in the modest but adequate kitchen became creamy vanilla with a pure white island top over a black lacquer base. Cathy cooks. Mary shops and cleans up. A breakfast table for two suggests a Victorian tearoom.

“I don’t want all that granite,” says Cathy. “It’s casual, like, ‘Come on over and let’s share.’”

The sisters’ most formidable challenge was space, given the possibility of visiting children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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nephews and friends — golfers and otherwise. Fortunately the elongated footprint on a prime Weymouth acre allowed them to convert the attached two-car garage into living space with a workroom and a laundry. A new garage was added.

“Over the years we have always attacked projects,’’ Cathy says. In high school she was more interested in mechanical drawing than cooking and sewing. “You just learn that if something doesn’t work, you do it over.”

Furniture is a mixture of hers and hers, with some delightful juxtapositions. In the small TV den a gray wide-wale corduroy sectional overlooks a frilly little bureau painted bright yellow. A dresser in the guest room is made of sanded metal.

Nurse Mary explains that before built-in units, hospital rooms attended by nurses in starched white caps were furnished in metal, usually painted white, now antique shop finds.

“We each brought furniture. We didn’t buy new,” Cathy says. Even their area rugs made the trip. The familiar pieces take on fresh life placed in the spacious, airy rooms. And surprises lurk around each corner: A bathroom wall of glass

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bricks adds retro chic. Rather than reupholster “throne” and other chairs, they discovered a paint for fabric that dries to a nubby texture. An elongated window frames a tall, pruned crape myrtle, its gnarled, spotted trunk and branches resembling a giraffe. A huge Chinese soup tureen sits ready to serve the emperor. They point proudly to an antique transom; their mother’s desk; Granddaddy’s cigar cabinet; Granny’s enormous hope chest; and a framed wedding quilt sewn from silk ties and kept under glass.

The sisters concede that not everyone could pull off this living arrangement. At first, their other siblings’ reaction was, “How dare you leave us!”

Cathy recalls. Now, they do family Thanksgiving, and their twin brothers show up for golf. After 10 years the sisters have made friends through pickleball, golf and community activities. Cathy’s latest project: watercolors.

“We live a very simple life,” Cathy says. “We’re content to sit out back or go into town. Both of us worked hard. Now it’s time to relax, to entertain ourselves.” PS

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A L M A N A C

January

By Ashley Walshe

J

anuary is a sacred pause, a rite of passage, a miracle in the dark.

As the Earth sleeps, a brown thrasher sweeps through the dormant garden. Gray squirrels skitter across naked gray branches. A grizzled buck disappears into the colorless yonder.

These bitter mornings, you study the critters beyond the window until the kettle calls out. Back and forth, you putter from stovetop to window, marveling at the movement amid the still and desolate landscape.

You open your journal, turn to a fresh page, watch your thoughts wax introspective.

Sifting through the humus of last year — the upsets, obstacles and lessons — you procure a wealth of nourishment.

Glimpses of who you’re becoming. Morsels of wisdom to carry forth.

So much is stirring beneath the surface. Surely the crocus feels this way. Growth isn’t always visible.

At once, the thrasher breaks your focus with spontaneous song.

You put on the kettle, fill up your thermos, step into the freshness of a brand-new year.

The buck has shed his antlers at the forest’s edge. Gray squirrels skitter from cache to cache.

Each critter is a holy mirror.

The darkest days are behind us.

Within the ancient quiet of winter, a secret world awaits discovery. Those searching for spring will never see it. Those looking within will find the key.

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Milk Flower Among the earliest spring bulbs to bloom, the common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) dazzles in large drifts, especially when planted beneath deciduous tree canopies.

A birth flower of January, the snowdrop’s Latin name translates as “milk flower.” Emerging from a cold and sleeping Earth, the delicate flowers are, in fact, sustenance for the winter-weary, symbolizing purity, hope and new beginnings.

Reaching a height of just 3 to 6 inches, the dainty white blossoms of this hardy perennial resemble tiny teardrop chandeliers. German folklore tells that, before snow had a color, it asked the flowers of the Earth if it could borrow one of their radiant shades. When all the other blossoms denied the snow’s request, the humble snowdrop offered its white hue to the snow. Grateful for this kindly gesture, the snow vowed to protect the snowdrop from the icy grip of winter. Thus, snow and snowdrop remain true and lasting friends.

Don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous. — Rumi

Stone Soup You’ve heard the old folk story: Everybody gives, everybody wins.

Soup Swap Day is celebrated on the third Saturday of January.

Launched in Seattle in the early 2000s, this unofficial holiday has inspired soup enthusiasts across the globe to gather their tribes — and their Tupperware — and get to simmering.

It’s simple.

Pick a soup, any soup: Vegetable stew served with homemade bread.

Cream of mushroom topped with cracked pepper and fresh thyme.

Roasted cauliflower brightened with a squeeze of lemon.

The possibilities are endless.

Cook a king-size batch, ladle into containers, then distribute to your broth-loving friends.

Leave the party with as much soup as you doled out. Everybody gives, everybody wins. PS

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PS PROfiles The People & Businesses That Make The Sandhills A More Vibrant Place To Live And Work!

JANUARY 2024 SPONSORED SECTION

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN GESSNER

If you ever wondered whether there might be more services waiting for the golfing community of Moore County… you’d be right!

That hole has been filled by the new Double Eagle Indoor Golf & Lounge in Southern Pines. More than just fancy golf simulators, Double Eagle brings entertainment alongside technical assessment and improvement systems, for what one happy customer describes as “the best thing that could have happened for the golf community.” Couple the golf play with a sports bar featuring eight TV’s and Double Eagle becomes a popular new venue for even the non-golfer.

Customers can play from over 250+ courses worldwide, try games and contests for kids and adults, or experiment with swing improvement tools that provide speed, distance, spin, and accuracy metrics. Double Eagle also offers lessons from pros and swing assessments and refinement from a resident chiropractor! As a PGA-recognized facility employing PGA and LPGA professionals, they’ve got the street – er, course – cred to back it up.

This veteran and woman-owned business was founded in 2022 by Roger Powell (not photographed) and Cory and Emily White (center and right). In their primary careers, Cory and Roger are active duty Air Force members and Emily is a technology agency executive. Jason Aslanian, (left) joined the team as General Manager.

They are most proud of raising healthy families, while managing passionate, yet demanding careers. Double Eagle is surely a source of pride, a labor of love, and what the team likes to call ‘the biggest side hustle they could have imagined.’

Golf may be a puzzle without an answer, but if you’re looking for a way to indulge your favorite pastime with up to eight of your friends, grab your clubs, grab a drink and hit a round at Double Eagle.

JASON ASLANIAN

GENERAL MANAGER

CORY WHITE

OWNER

EMILY WHITE

OWNER

ROGER POWELL

OWNER

(NOT PHOTOGRAPHED)

208 Brucewood Rd Southern Pines, NC 910.684.8550 Doubleeaglenc.com

While Moore County expands at astonishing rates, the fantastic four at Carolina Summit Group (CSG) are seeking to meet the needs of local developers, both residential and commercial. Holly Bell and George Manley, owners of Bell Manley Real Estate, partnered with developer Lee Pittman and land specialist Matthew Wimberly to create a new, locally based real estate team in 2023. The vision for CSG is to provide an all-encompassing, one-stop shop for real estate.

Lee Pittman has been in real estate for more than 20 years, and recognized Moore County’s need for a firm that could handle all things real estate internally. That, and he was looking for a fun challenge. He brings a wealth of development experience as he’s worked throughout the Southeast developing commercial real estate and working with National Retail Tenants. Feeling fortunate to have lived in Moore County for 28 years, he and his family can’t imagine living anywhere else.

George Manley was born far from Moore County in Mozambique and started his commercial real estate career in neighboring South Africa. But even after all his global travels and real estate dealings, he too thinks Moore County is the best place to live. He has hands-on experience in handling complex zoning and development issues and high-level property transactions.

He’s worked in partnership with Holly Bell since 2008 and together they have developed strong relationships with key players in local real estate.

Holly Bell graduated from Yale University and worked on Capitol Hill in DC before moving to Southern Pines. She worked in the golf industry at Pine Needles and Mid-Pines for more than 15 years and then transitioned into the real estate business where she has found much success. As a longtime resident of the Sandhills area, Holly loves spending time with her children and enjoys the fabulous local golf opportunities when life permits.

Matt Wimberly, a Southern Pines native, has been a Forestry Consultant for more than 20 years and has used this expertise as a real estate agent for close to a decade. His specialty is timber land investment properties, and he has extensive knowledge regarding commercial development and vacant properties. Matt and the team at CSG help landowners realize the highest and best use of their land.

With over six decades of combined expertise and a driving love for this corner of the Sandhills, CSG is ready to help you in all your commercial and residential services across Moore, Hoke, Cumberland, Lee, and Harnett counties. Whether you’re a buyer, seller, investor or tenant, CSG will be a trusted partner to help you achieve your goals.

MATT WIMBERLY HOLLY BELL

GEORGE MANLEY LEE PITTMAN

235 E. Pennsylvania Ave Southern Pines, NC 910.236.3030 CarolinaSummitGroup.com

COMPANION ANIMAL CLINIC FOUNDATION Since the 2000s, dedicated individuals have worked to reduce euthanasia rates and pet overpopulation in the Moore County area. In 2008, after tireless, efforts the Companion Animal Clinic Foundation (CACF) opened the Spay Neuter Veterinary Clinic of the Sandhills (SNVC) by purchasing and remodeling a building on US Highway 1 in Vass. CACF is a nonprofit whose primary role is subsidizing operation cost for SNVC through fundraising, allowing them to offer services at below cost rates to incentivize all pet owners to have their pets spayed or neutered, and assist those who are not able to afford veterinary care otherwise.

Practice Manager Erin Maurer considers herself a native of The Pines, having moved from New Jersey with her grandmother at the age of four. A lifelong interest in medicine and her grandmother’s nursing career led her to Sandhills Community College, where she studied phlebotomy. Chance work as a veterinary receptionist sparked a lifelong passion in veterinary medicine, and after 13.5 years she has worked every position at the clinic. In fact, her early time as a veterinary assistant is where she first met Dr. Kristan Riley.

Dr. Riley’s own journey also came full circle with the Sandhills SNVC. From her first job in 2010 as a kennel assistant, she worked her way up to veterinary assistant and an eventual degree from NC State University in Veterinary Medicine. Her husband’s Army career took them to Europe, but once back stateside, Kristan jumped at the chance to return to the cohesive Sandhills SNVC family.

Dr. Carl Thomas, who also earned his veterinary degree from NC State University, joined the team in 2023 after two years of general practice work. A Moore County local “born and raised,” he was inspired by his grandmother’s work on her small farm, where she taught him to care for animals.

Together, the Sandhills SNVC team is constantly working to expand, recently outfitting a 33 foot mobile clinic to aid underserved areas. Their joint partnership and dedication to the mission to reduce pet overpopulation through spay and neuter sets the Sandhills SNVC and the CACF team apart.

COMPANION ANIMAL CLINIC FOUNDATION

DR. CARL THOMAS, DVM ERIN MAURER DR. KRISTAN RILEY, DVM

5071 US Hwy 1, Vass, NC 910.725.8188 spayurpet.org companionanimalclinic.org

910.690.3969 www.latitudebuilders.com

TYLER COOK

OWNER

Photo by Caitlin Antje

Tyler Cook, CEO and Co-Founder of Latitude Builders, has a deep-rooted connection with Eastern NC - the place where his life’s major milestones unfolded. He married his high school sweetheart, Emily, and earned his degree from ECU in 2013, paving his way through valuable commercial and residential construction experience. But when Tyler discovered Moore County, he fell in love. Work brought them here, and the community made them stay — the beauty and history of the area, and now friends that feel like family.

Tyler and Emily, now parents to three beautiful children, made Southern Pines their home. In 2019, inspired by the imminent arrival of their second child, they embarked on a new journey – founding Latitude Builders. This was more than a business venture; it was the realization of a dream where Tyler’s passion for craftsmanship and relationship-building merged into a fulfilling way of life.

Today, Latitude Builders stands as Southern Pines’ largest-staffed turnkey custom builder, known for its hassle-free approach and unparalleled customization options. The company’s commitment to excellence is evident, with three consecutive years of winning awards - including Moore County Home of the Year and Best of the Pines.

But Tyler’s not resting on his laurels. He recently started a new land planning and landscape architectural group, Longitude Planning Group.

This expansion allows Tyler to serve the community in a new way while enhancing the building experience for existing clients.

In addition to his roles as a business owner, father, and husband, Tyler actively contributes to his community. He serves as an RA leader and Deacon at First Baptist Church of Southern Pines and is engaged on the board of trustees for the Episcopal Day School. His community involvement is further highlighted by his position as the president-elect for the Moore County Home Builders Association.

By establishing strong client relationships, Tyler ensures each project, whether a new build, remodel, or commercial endeavor, truly embodies the client’s vision. As Latitude Builders moves into the New Year, they stand ready to turn your dream home into reality.

STEVE ZIFF

CRAIG KOWALDA

You’re in a pickle, and you’ve only got a New York Minute for lunch – but Southern Pines’ newest sandwich spot, Brooklyn Pickle, has you covered on both counts. If you thought that pun was too much, just wait till you see the sandwiches. They’re giant, and all served quickly with a smile.

Although the Southern Pines location is new, the business is not. First founded by Ken Sniper in 1975 in Syracuse, New York, Brooklyn Pickle expanded to three Syracuse locations and a fourth in Utica before proprietor Craig Kowadla decided to turn southward in 2023.

Craig, having vacationed in the Sandhills for years, discovered that there was more to love in this community than just the golf.

The welcoming people, the weather, and the great golf made him choose Southern Pines as the next location for Brooklyn Pickle and the new home for his family.

Friend Steve Ziff quickly jumped on board as his partner. Steve had also become quite fond of life in The Pines after years of golf and business-related travel to Forest Creek. While new to Brooklyn Pickle ownership, he understands that the successful franchise was built upon the motto: provide the freshest product, in the most pleasant manner in the least amount of time.

Teamwork is also at the center of Brooklyn Pickle’s fast-paced, fun, friendly atmosphere. In addition to Craig and Steve, the management team includes two others who relocated from Brooklyn Pickle’s Syracuse locations to help introduce this New York sandwich shop to Moore County. Along with the over-stuffed sandwiches, acclaimed soups, and an array of homemade sides, Brooklyn Pickle serves beer and has an outdoor patio with seating for up to 40 people to add to the fun-filled welcoming environment.

Based on the popularity of the newest Brooklyn Pickle, Craig and Steve are already planning for expansion into other areas nearby.

1788 Old Morganton Rd, Southern Pines, NC 910.725.6760 brooklynpickle.com

Thanks for shopping at The Country Bookshop

HERE’S WHAT YOU JUST DID 1

2 3

You kept dollars in our economy.

An independent bookstore recirculates 29.3% of its money locally, whereas Amazon only recirculates 5.8%.

You embraced what makes us unique.

You wouldn’t want your house to look like everyone else’s in the U.S. So why would you want your community to look that way?

Local businesses are better at creating higher-paying jobs for our neighbors.

5

Buying from local businesses conserves fuel for transportation, requires less packaging, and means you get products you know are safe and well-made, because we stand behind them.

7

Rachael Hawkins The Heiress

January 13 at 4:00pm

Marcella Dodge Webster “Does This Divorce Make Me Look Fat?” January 17 at 5:00pm

Shopping in a local business district means less infrastructure, less maintenance, and more money available to beautify our community. Also, spending locally instead of online ensures that your sales taxes are reinvested where they belong— right here in your community!

We pick the items we sell based on what we know you like and want. Local businesses carry a wider array of unique products because we buy for our own individual market.

You took advantage of our expertise.

8

You are our friends and neighbors,and we have a vested interest inknowing how to serve you. We’re passionate about what we do. Why not take advantage of it?

You invested in entrepreneurship.

9

You nurtured your community.

We know you, and you know us. Studies have shown that local businesses donate to community causes at more than twice the rate of chains and online retailers

You conserved your tax dollars.

You created more choice.

You created local jobs.

You helped the environment.

4

6

Creativity and entrepreneurship are what the American economy is founded upon. Nurturing local business ensures a strong community.

You made us a destination.

10

The more interesting and unique we are as a community, the more we will attract new neighbors and visitors. This benefits everyone!

Katherine Snow Smith

Stepping On The Blender and Other Times Life Gets Messy January 31 at 5:00pm

Alan Gratz

February 19 at 6:00pm The Country Bookshop will host Alan Gratz, author of the NYT bestselling kids historical fiction novels, Refugee, Allies, and Two Degrees on Monday ,February 19th at 6 pm at the historic Sunrise Theater as he presents his new book Heroes: A Novel of Pearl Harbor.

This event is appropriate for adults and for children age 8-14.

Each Ticket includes a free copy of Heroes.

General admission seating. Doors open at 5:30

140 NW Broad Street • Southern Pines, NC • 910.692.3211 www.thecountrybookshop.biz Text us for special orders. - 910.690.4454

january ����

To add an event, email us at pinestraw.calendar@gmail.com

arts & entertainment 01.01

Although conscientious effort is made to provide accurate and up-to-date information, all events are subject to change and errors can occur! Please call to verify times, costs, status and location before planning or attending any events.

TECH HELP SESSIONS. SPPL offers one-on-one Technology Help Sessions. A library staff member will sit with you to assist with accessing eBooks, learning how to use a new device, navigating a computer, and to answer any other basic technology questions. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. To make an appointment come into the library or visit www.sppl.net.

ONLINE BOOK CLUB. Participate in a book club whenever it’s convenient for you. Our brand new Southern Pines Public Library Online HomeGrown Book Club is designed for library patrons with busy schedules who may not be able to attend in-person book club meetings. Monthly selections are eBooks from the HomeGrown Collection made available by NC LIVE. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: ajames@sppl.net.

PHOTO HISTORY. 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. The historical association will host the exhibit “Southern Pines Then and Now” featuring photographs taken 100 years ago and what the same area looks like today.

Free admission. Water Department, 180 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines.

JANUARY EVENTS Monday, January 1 WINTER READING CHALLENGE. Track your books through the Beanstack App or by logging into the Beanstack website. Log the books that you read until Jan. 31 and be entered to win prizes. All ages are encouraged to participate. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: www.sppl.net.

QUILTS OF VALOR. 12 - 4 p.m. Quilts of Valor meets the first Monday of each month to create lap quilts made especially for veterans. If you sew, bring your machine; if you don’t sew, you can iron or cut out fabrics for new designs. This is a free program.

Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.

Winter Reading Challenge brain enhancement exercises, ending with a mindfulness practice. Eve Gaskell will be the instructor. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

There will be a “stirrup cup” offered to all mounted and unmounted members of Moore County Hounds. Free admission. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.

Friday, January 5

SHAG SOCIETY DANCE. 7 - 10 p.m. Kick off the new year with dancing with DJ Buck Crumpton spinning great tunes. Cash bar available and you may bring snacks for your table. A 50/50 drawing will be held. Admission is $10 (ages 21 and over).

Down Memory Lane, 161 Dawkins St., Aberdeen.

Info: (910) 215-4054.

LUNCH BUNCH. 11:30 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to dine on a variety of cuisines each month as you visit different restaurants in the area. Carpool with friends or meet at the restaurant. Dining locations will be chosen the week before. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Saturday, January 6 CRAFT DAYS. Children and their families can come by the library for Drop-in Craft Days and work on crafts at their own pace or take it home. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

Tuesday, January 2

KIDS’ SATURDAY. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Families are invited to a monthly themed craft event to socialize and get creative. Geared toward ages 3 - 10. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst.

Info: (910) 295-3642 or www.vopnc.org.

BRAIN FITNESS. 10 - 11 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to enjoy short relaxation and

HOUNDS ON THE GROUNDS. Join us to celebrate where Moore County Hounds was founded.

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Sunday, January 7 ART EXHIBIT. 2 - 4 p.m. The Artists League of the Sandhills will show you how to create your own art. This month they will have an instructors’ exhibit and class demonstration. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www.artistleague.org.

WRITING GROUP. 3 p.m. Are you interested in creating fiction, nonfiction, poetry or comics?

Come to the Sunday Afternoon Writing Group.

Connect with other writers and artists, chat about your craft, and get feedback about your work. All levels welcome. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: lholden@sppl.net.

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

CA L E N DA R COMEDY SHOW. 4:20 p.m. Journey into the mind of a psychedelic astronaut during the comedy show A Better Trip. Cameo Art House Theatre, 225 Hay St., Fayetteville. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.

BOOK EVENT. 4 - 5 p.m. Author Rachel Hawkins returns to talk about her new book, The Heiress. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.

Monday, January 8

Tuesday, January 16

PHOTO CLUB. 7 p.m. The Sandhills Photography Club monthly meeting will be a presentation by award-winning photographer Betsy Wilson on “Capturing Motion.” Wilson will discuss a combination of traditional techniques with some non-traditional concepts. Guests are welcome. Sandhills Horticultural Gardens Visitors Center, 3245 Airport Road, Southern Pines.

Info:www.sandhillsphotoclub.org.

SENIOR EXCURSION. 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to visit Historic Halifax and visit the museum as well as tour several restored buildings. Afterward enjoy lunch at Logan’s Roadhouse. Cost is $23 for residents and $32 for non-residents. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Tuesday, January 9 AARP TALK. 12 - 12:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to join AARP for a fraud talk.

Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

TEEN CREATIVITY CLUB. 4:30 p.m. Teen Creativity Club is our new meeting space for creative teens in grades 6 - 12. From creative writing to storytelling to drawing and more, come by and see what other teen artists are doing. We will be working on a spring zine issue to showcase our work. Bring your friends. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.sppl.net or email kbroughey@sppl.net.

Wednesday, January 10 STORYWALK. 4 p.m. Join the library and Parks and Recreation for the launch of the new Storywalk at Whitehall at Reservoir Park. Attendees are invited to enjoy snacks and do a craft. Town employees will also be collecting donations of jackets and warm clothing for the Sandhills Coalition. Whitehall Tract, 490 Pee Dee Road, Southern Pines.

Friday, January 12 INTRO TO LIBBY. 11 a.m. Did you know you can get free eBooks, audiobooks and magazines using the Libby app and your library card? Come to our “Introduction to Libby” program to learn all about using Libby. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: msilva@sppl.net.

WINTER ART. 4 - 5:30 p.m. Join our threemonth art program, Winter Arts. Explore drawing and painting winter in different forms and media like watercolor, oil pastels, ink drawing, pastel, charcoal, acrylics and chalk pastel. For ages 11 - 14.

Cost is $100. Info: www.joyof-art.com.

Saturday, January 13 LEARN AND PLAY. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Come in for an open play date with your toddler or preschooler where there will be developmental toys and puzzles as well as early literacy tips on display for parents and caregivers to incorporate into their daily activities. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

BRAIN FITNESS. 10 - 11 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to enjoy short relaxation and brain enhancement exercises, ending with a mindfulness practice. Eve Gaskell will be the instructor. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

BINGO. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to play 10 games of bingo. Cost is $4 for residents and $6 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

BOOK CLUB. 2 p.m. The James Boyd Book Club meets for this month’s book, Demon Copperhead,

by Barbara Kingsolver. Free admission, registration required. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.

TRAFFICKING AWARENESS. 4 p.m. January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Teens and families join Friend to Friend for a program focused on trafficking awareness. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: www.sppl.net or email kbroughey@sppl.net.

COZY BOOK CHAT. 5:30 p.m. Join us at Hatchet Brewing for a bookish craft while we sit and chat about our favorite cozy books. Hatchet Brewing, 490 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines.

Info: mhoward@sppl.net or kbroughey@sppl.net.

Wednesday, January 17 WHITEHALL BOOK CLUB. 2 p.m. SPPL’s book club for adults meets to discuss this month’s book.

The book club is open to the public. Whitehall Property, 490 Pee Dee Road, Southern Pines. Info: mmiller@sppl.net.

BOOK EVENT. 5 - 6 p.m. Join us for a heartwarming author event with Marcella Dodge Webster, an intuitive health and life coach, reiki master, yoga instructor and mother of three. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines.

Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.

WRITER IN RESIDENCE. 5:30 - 7 p.m. Join us as Dawn Reno Langley reads from her new novel, Analyzing the Prescotts. Free admission, registration required. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.

Thursday, January 18 COMEDY. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to take a trip to watch the comedy ’Til Beth

Do Us Part. Lunch at Dairy Bar Fairview. Cost is $46 for residents and $65 for non-residents. Info: (910) 692-7376.

READ BETWEEN THE PINES. 5 p.m. Do you love reading and discussing amazing books? If so, join SPPL’s evening book club for adults, Read Between the Pines. Copies of the book are available at the library to check out while supplies last.

Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: mhoward@sppl.net.

CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE. 6:30 p.m. This is the annual Members’ Potpourri Meeting where members can present brief topics. Meeting starts at 7 p.m. Open to the public. Civic Club, corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Ashe Street, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 246-0452 or mafarina@aol.com.

Saturday, January 20 PARENTING SEMINAR. 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Children of all ages need a safe, secure, loving environment to do well in life. Positive parenting is an effective approach to raising children that involves creating a positive family environment fostering love, support and predictability. To learn more, join Diane Atherton from Partners for Children and Families for the Positive Parenting Program Seminar. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info and registration: https://bit.ly/3GhOr1I.

Sunday, January 21 CHAMBER SESSIONS. 2 p.m. The Boston Public Quartet will perform. A reception will follow the performance. Tickets start at $30; kids 12 and under are admitted free; student tickets are available. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.

STEAM. 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Elementary-aged children and their caregivers are invited to learn about topics in science, technology, engineering, art and math and to participate in STEAM projects and activities. This month have hands-on fun learning about snow. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or kbroughey@sppl.net.

Monday, January 22 WOMEN OF WEYMOUTH. 9:30 a.m. The Women of Weymouth meeting will feature speaker Anne Blythe, contributor to the Omnivorous Reader column in PineStraw. Free admission, registration required. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.

Tuesday, January 23 TEEN CREATIVITY CLUB. 4:30 p.m. Teen Creativity Club is our new meeting space for creative teens in grades 6 - 12. From creative writing to storytelling to drawing and more, come by and see what other teen artists are doing. We will be working on a spring zine issue to showcase our work.

Bring your friends. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.sppl.net or email kbroughey@sppl.net.

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CA L E N DA R

‘New Arrivals Daily

Thursday, January 25 WELLNESS EDUCATION CLASSES. 10 11:30 a.m. Adults 18 and older are invited to join us for different educational topics, all involving information that will improve our overall mind, body and spirit. Eve Gaskell will be the instructor. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

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DOUGLASS CENTER BOOK CLUB. 10:30 a.m.

Multiple copies of the selected book are available for checkout at the library. The Douglass Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: mmiller@sppl.net.

Saturday, January 27 DAY OF SERVICE. All day. Adults, teens, children, and families are welcome to join us for a day of service. Together we can make a difference.

Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: mhoward@sppl.net or kbroughey@sppl.net.

FURRY FRIEND FUN RUN. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Bring your four-legged friend for exercise and socialization in this fun run through the woods.

All entries will receive a participation prize. Medals will be given to 1st - 3rd place winners. Cost is $5 per pet, limit of 2. Registration required. Sponsored

by Town of Southern Pines, Parks and Recreation.

Whitehall Tract, 490 Pee Dee Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

FAMILY FUN SERIES. 3 - 4:15 p.m. Enjoy a performance by popular magician Jeki Yoo. There will be another performance at 7 p.m. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.

Tuesday, January 30 MUSICIANS’ JAM SESSION. 6 - 9 p.m. Bring your own instrument and beverage or just come and enjoy the music. Attendees must have the COVID vaccination. Free admission, registration required. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.

Wednesday, January 31 BOOK EVENT. 5 - 6 p.m. Join a conversation with Katherine Snow Smith about her latest story collection, Stepping on the Blender and Other Times Life Gets Messy. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.

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WINE WALK. Sure to be a sweet treat, more local chocolatiers than ever are creating tasty bites to be paired with wines from Triangle Wine Co. and Sandhills Winery in Seven Lakes. Tickets can be purchased at Duneberry Resort Wear and Triangle Wine Co. or www.eventbrite.com. Info: (910) 687-0377.

Sunday, February 4 CHAMBER SESSIONS. 2 p.m. Violinist Nicholas DiEugenio and pianist Mimi Solomon perform in The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

CA L E N DA R the Great Room. Tickets start at $30; kids 12 and under are admitted free; student tickets are available. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.weymouthcenter.org.

FAMILY FUN SERIES. 3 - 4:15 p.m. Enjoy the musical Schoolhouse Rock Live! Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.

Thursday, February 8 HEART AND SOUL OF JAZZ. 6:30 p.m. The Sandhills Community College Band performs love songs for all ages. Presented by the Arts Council of Moore County and Bradshaw Performing Arts Center. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.

WEEKLY EVENTS Mondays WORKSPACES. 7 a.m. - 3p.m. The Given Tufts Bookshop has a new pop-in co-workspace open on Mondays and Thursdays in the upstairs conference room. Bookshop floor and private meeting room by reservation only. Info: www.giventuftsfoundation.com.

WORKOUTS. 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to get their workout on. Open Monday through Friday. Cost for six months: $15/

resident; $30/non-resident. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: (910) 692-7376.

CHAIR YOGA. 9 - 10 a.m. For adults 55 and older.

Help offset body aches encountered with desk work.

This is an accessible yoga class for bodies not able to easily get up from and down to the floor. Do standing or sitting in a chair. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: (910) 692-7376.

STRENGTH AND BALANCE WORKOUT. 11 - 11:45 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to enjoy a brisk workout that focuses on balance and strength. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

RESTORATIVE YOGA. 12 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Practice gentle movements to improve well-being, help alleviate pain and improve circulation. Bring your own mat. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

GAME ON. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. You and your friends are invited to come out and play various games such as corn hole, badminton, table tennis, shuffleboard, trivia games, and more.

Each week enjoy a different activity to keep you

moving and thinking. Compete with friends and make new ones all for free. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older.

Enjoy games of bridge with friends. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Tuesdays SLOW FLOW YOGA. 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. Adults 18 and older can join Brian O’Grady to learn how mindfulness can change your life. Bring your own yoga mat. Cost is $6 for residents and $9 for nonresidents. Train House, 482 E Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

PLAYFUL LEARNING. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Come for a drop-in, open playtime for ages 0 - 3 to play with other children and have educational playtime.

Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642.

HATHA YOGA. 10 - 11 a.m. For adults 55 and older. Increase your flexibility, balance, stability, and muscle tone while learning the basic principles of alignment and breathing. You may gain strength, improve circulation and reduce chronic pain as we practice gentle yoga postures and mindfulness.

Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

JANuary

266 7pm

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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CA L E N DA R BABY RHYMES. 10:15 a.m. Baby Rhymes is specially designed for the youngest learners (birth- 2) and their caregivers. Repetition and comforting movements make this story time perfect for early development and brain growth. There will be a second session at 10:45 a.m. An active library card is required. Dates this month are Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

HEALING YOGA. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older can try an entry-level class, for a mind and body workout that fuses dance moves with gentle aerobics, tai chi, and yoga. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

GAME DAY. 12 p.m. Enjoy bid whist and other cool games all in the company of great friends. For adults 55 and older. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

CHESS. 1:30 - 5 p.m. Come join a chess group, whether you have been playing for a while or you have never played. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15501, West End. LINE DANCE. 4:45 p.m. Put on your dancing shoes and line dance. This is for beginners and is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. Hwy. 15-501, West End.

Wednesdays CHAIR YOGA. 10 - 11 a.m. For adults 55 and older. Help offset body aches encountered with desk work. This is an accessible yoga class for bodies not able to easily get up from and down to the floor. Do standing or sitting in a chair. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: (910) 692-7376.

BRAIN BOOST. 10 - 11 a.m. Test your memory while creating new brain connections. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. Hwy. 15-501, West End. KNITTING. 10 - 11 a.m. Learn how to knit or just come enjoy knitting with other people. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. Hwy. 15-501, West End.

JEWELRY MAKING. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Come with friends to create fun designs and memories. Supplies are on site. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

SLOW AND STRETCHY. 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Adults 55 and older can flow through yoga poses slowly and intentionally, stretching everything from your head to your toes. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

LINE DANCING. 12 - 1 p.m. Looking for new ways to get daily exercise and care for yourself? Try line dancing. For adults 55 and older. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

LEARN AND PLAY. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Come in for an open play date with your toddler or preschooler where there will be developmental toys and puzzles as well as early literacy tips on display for parents and caregivers to incorporate into their daily activities. Dates this month are Jan. 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

CHAIR VOLLEYBALL. 1 - 2 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Get fit while having fun. Free to participate. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

PIANO. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Join Flint Long to play piano or just listen. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. Hwy. 15-501, West End.

DANCE. 2 - 2:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older.

Instructor Maria Amaya teaches dance fitness in a class designed for anyone who wants to gently and gradually increase their cardio function,

January Events

BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older.

Enjoy games of bridge with friends. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

When it comes to local, take our word for it.

No, really.

Jan 7 “A Better Trip”

Cameo Art House Theatre

Jan 13 Author Rachael Hawkins with The Heiress The Country Bookshop

Jan 27 Jeki Yoo, Magician Owens Auditorium

Your Insider’s Guide to The Pines

Jan 31 Katherine Snow Smith The Country Bookshop

You can find a comprehensive list of regularly updated events from Cameo Art House Theatre on TicketMeSandhills.com 910.693.2510 info@ticketmesandHills.com

98 PineStraw

CHECK OUT OUR UPDATED WEBSITE FOR ALL THE INTEL YOU NEED TO THRIVE IN THE PINES.

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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

CA L E N DA R mobility, and balance and have fun at the same time. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

YOGA. 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Grab your yoga mat and head to Hatchet for yoga with Brady. Session cost is $10. Hatchet Brewing Company, 490 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.hatchetbrewing.com.

LINE DANCING. 2 p.m. The town of Vass will host line dancing for seniors every other Wednesday.

Cost is $5 per session. Vass Town Hall, 140 S. Alma St., Vass. Info: www.townofvassnc.gov.

Thursdays

SOUND BATH. 3 - 4 p.m. Adults 55 and older can enjoy the rhythm and vibration of this medicine drum sound bath, moving body and mind into deep-rest mode. Your body will be refreshed and your mind clear and quiet. A unique and ancient healing arts practice. Free of charge. Train House, 482 E Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: (910) 692-7376.

LIBRARY PROGRAM. 3:30 p.m. At The Library After School (ATLAS) is an after-school program for kindergarten through second graders who enjoy activities, crafts, stories, and meeting new friends. Dates this month are Jan. 3, 17, 21 and 31. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

TAI CHI. 6:30 p.m. Come learn tai chi. There is no age limit and the classes are open to the public. Cost is $10 per class. Seven Lakes West Community Center, 556 Longleaf Dr., Seven Lakes. Info: (910) 400-5646.

PineNeedler Answers

WORKSPACES. 7 a.m. - 3p.m. The Given Tufts Bookshop has a new pop-in co-workspace open on Mondays and Thursdays in the upstairs conference room. Bookshop floor and private meeting room by reservation only. Info: www.giventuftsfoundation.com.

MOORE COUNTY FARMERS MARKET. 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. The year-round market features “producer only” vendors within a 50-mile radius providing fresh, local and seasonal produce, fruits, pasture meats, eggs, potting plants, cut flowers and local honey. Crafts, baked goods, jams and jellies are also available. Market is located at the Armory Sports Complex, 604 W. Morganton Road, Southern Pines.

GIVEN STORY TIME. 10 a.m. Bring your preschooler to enjoy stories, songs and activities.

Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642.

BALANCE AND FLEXIBILITY. 10 - 11 a.m.

Adults 55 and older are invited to enjoy a class to reduce the risk of taking a tumble and increase your ability to recover. Free of charge. Douglass

Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

MUSIC AND MOTION. 10:15 and 10:45 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Does your toddler like to move and groove? Join Music and Motion to get those wiggles out and work on gross and fine motor skills. For 2 – 5-year-olds. An active library card is required. Dates this month are Jan. 4, 11, 18 and 25. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

CROCHET CLUB. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to come with friends to create fun designs and memories. Supplies are on site. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

STRETCH, STRENGTH, BALANCE. 11 a.m.

- 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older can enjoy exercises performed standing or sitting that will improve your overall quality of life. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

ADAPTIVE YOGA. 12 - 1 p.m. Adults 55 and older can enjoy yoga, creating a sense of balance and ease by slowly increasing range of motion and mobility while maintaining your natural abilities. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

from page 119

Encore Center 160 E. New Hampshire Ave. Southern Pines, NC www.encorecenter.net

Shop local & handmade at Downtown Southern Pines’ own pottery studio and gallery Mon-Sat 10 to 5 www.ravenpottery.com

260 W. Pennsylvania Ave • Southern Pines, NC • 336-465-1776

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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CA L E N DA R help preschoolers develop early literacy skills in preparation for kindergarten and beyond. Dates this month are Jan. 4, 11, 18 and 25. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

CHESS AND MAJONG. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. All levels welcome. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: (910) 692-7376.

MEDITATION. 1 - 2 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to connect with nature and with yourself in this 30-minute meditation. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: (910) 692-7376.

SOUND BATH. 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. All ages can enjoy the rhythm and vibration of this medicine drum sound bath, moving body and mind into deep-rest mode. Your body will be refreshed and your mind clear and quiet. A unique and ancient healing arts practice. Cost is $4 for residents and $6 for nonresidents. Train House, 482 E Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

CABIN TOURS. 1 - 4 p.m. The Moore County Historical Association’s Shaw House grounds, cabins, and gift shop are open for tours and visits. The restored tobacco barn features the history of children’s roles in the industry. Docents are ready to host you and the cabins are open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Shaw House, 110 W. Morganton Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2051 or www.moorehistory.com.

TRIVIA NIGHT. 7 - 9 p.m. Come enjoy a beer and some trivia. Hatchet Brewing Company, 490 S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.hatchetbrewing.com.

IMPROVERS LINE DANCE. 3 - 5:30 p.m. Put on your dancing shoes and line dance. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. Hwy. 15-501, West End. LITTLE U. 3:30 p.m. Introducing Little U, Southern Pines Public Library’s new preschool program for children ages 3 1/2 - 5. Join us for stories, songs, rhymes, and activities that explore the world of books, language, and literacy. Little U is a fun and interactive program designed to

Fridays AEROBIC DANCE. 9 - 10 a.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy this low-to-moderate impact class with energizing music for an overall cardio and strength workout. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines.

Info: (910) 692-7376.

JAM SESSION. 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. Do you like to play an instrument, sing or just listen to music? Come join a music jam session. This is a free program.

Simply the

Best

Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. Hwy. 15-501, West End. TAP CLASS. 10 - 11:30 a.m. For adults 55 and older.

All levels welcome. Cost per class: $15/resident; $30/non-resident. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

QIGONG. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Classes will consist of chair and standing movements that can help soothe achy feet, tight hips, lower back pain and ease restriction in mobility. Free of charge.

Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older.

Enjoy games of bridge with friends. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

LINE DANCING. 3 - 4 p.m. For adults 55 and older. If you’re interested in learning dance moves and building confidence on the dance floor, this class is for you. Leave your inhibitions at the door and join in. Cost for a monthly membership is $36 for residents and $52 for non-residents per month. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.. PS

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NOW FEATURING BABOR FACIALS

910-673-2060

info@sevenlakeskennels.com 347 MACDOUGALL DR. IN SEVEN LAKES

www.blissfulbodyworkandskincare.com

150 N Bennett Street, Southern Pines • (910) 691-1669

Age with Success!

When you are not sure what you need, but life

“Customer Satisfaction One Job At A Time”

seems to be changing...

THANK YOU FOR VOTING FOR US! Best Roofing Company VISIT OUR SHOWROOM AT 301 FIELDS DR. - ABERDEEN, NC

Together, we'll create a roadmap to help you navigate your future!

910-757-0505

910.692.0683 | AOSNC.com

My Gym is a children’s fitness center that caters to children as young as 4 months old up to 10 years old.

Offering: Birthday Parties Parents’ Night Out • Camps Age-Appropriate Classes 262A Pinehurst Ave • Southern Pines • (910)725-0254 • www.mygym.com/sandhills

Visit www.DrumandQuill.com or our Facebok page for upcoming events 40 Chinquapin Rd • Village of Pinehurst • 910-295-3193

Still

THANK YOU TO OUR AMAZING CUSTOMERS!

BEST STEAK IN TOWN

132 Westgate Dr. West End, NC 27376 910.235.0606

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Voted “Best Authentic Pub” 4 Years Running!

bestofthepines.com

Monday-Saturday: Open at 5:00pm Lounge 5pm-until 910-692-5550 • 672 SW Broad St. Southern Pines, NC beefeatersofsouthernpines.com

PineStraw 101

The Art of the Perfect Sandhills Wedding

2024

I Do

LET US CREATE THE Perfect SMILE FOR THE Perfect DAY

HAPPENS HERE. Add your wedding date to the list of historic moments that happen here.

photo credit: Timeless Carolinas

Love, laughter, and happily ever after – Unforgettable moments, forever cherished.

Celebrate your special day with Sandhills Trolley pinehurst.com/weddings

sandhillstrolley.com info@sandhillstrolley.com 910.549.1327

WEDDINGS • PARTIES EVENTS Take a virtual tour on our website villagepinevenue.com

DR. JORDAN RIDGE D.D.S. of DR. FRED RIDGE D.D.S. FAMILY & COSMETIC DENTISTRY

115 Turnberry Way Pinehurst, NC 28374 (910) 695-3100 www.pinehurstdentistry.com We’ll Keep Your Smile Healthy for Life

SPECIALTY RENTALS – FOR –

YOUR SPECIAL DAY

Full collection of bridal, bridesmaids, mothers, jewelry, shoes, accessories and tuxedo rentals.

Monday through Saturday from 8:00am to 5:00pm 476 Hwy 74 West, Rockingham, NC 28379 @honeybeebridalandboutique 910.387.9216

TRADITION & EXCELLENCE IN A VENUE LIKE NO OTHER 910.295.0166 . thefairbarn.org

(910) 833-1086 MarthaMyDearRentals.com

Here, your love story is written into history.

555 E. Connecticut Ave. Southern Pines, NC Weymouthcenter.org 910-692-6261 weddings@weymouthcenter.org

The Art of the Perfect Sandhills Wedding

2024 Stop by the new boutique bridal shop in Southern Pines.

Here to help you shine bright on your special day!

Elopements & Weddings

FOOD IS OUR FORTE. HOSPITALITY IS OUR PASSION. Catering to all your wedding needs

Check out our website to book your appointment 200 N Bennett St, Southern Pines (910) 638-8957 • shilohcourtbridal.com

111 N. Sycamore St., Aberdeen, NC 910-757-0155 • www.eatatmasons.com 102 West Main Street, Suite 202 Aberdeen, NC • 910.447.2774 genuinehospitalitycatering.com

THESOUTHERNPINESFLORALCOMPANY.COM

Custom, all-inclusive packages on a historic 200-year-old farm.

blue your SOMETHINg

www.rubiconfarmnc.com

By Appointment Only •West End, NC

Let Us Help You With Your Big Day!

Triangle Wine Company Shop Wine, Beer, Cider, and More!

Free Consultations Available

the skin care

experts

144 Brucewood Rd, Southern Pines, NC 28387 trianglewineco.com

pinehurstmedical.com

Bride and Body…

The Bridal Package of Your Dreams!

BRIDAL CONSIGNMENT

Unique Sweets for your Special Day

Coming January 15th, 2024 Bride & Groom Magazine!

Tone Tighten Rejuvenate Dr. Leah Hershman

Starting

January 6th, 2024 910.420.4090 hazelgracerentals@gmail.com @hazelgracerentals

God called us to serve, let us treat you like VIP!

910.338.3381 6 Regional Drive, Ste C • Pinehurst, NC www.vascularinstituteofthepines.com

125 NE Broad St, Southern Pines, NC 910-246-CUPS (2877)

Pick up a copy at The Pilot’s office or online at pinestrawmag.com

These local business are here to help you focus on wellness, healthy living, and personal growth in 2024.

Resolve to be happy and healthy in the New Year!

S P E C I A L A DV E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N

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MY

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New Year's Resolutions 1. Floss 2. Brush 2x daily 3. Schedule a dental check-up at Hubbard Dental 4. Smile more!

We offer comprehensive family dental services with advanced digital technology, minimal drill usage, and personalized care plans to enhance your overall health both inside and outside our office.

• Cleanings and routine exams • Dental laser procedures • Braces and clear aligners • Tongue-tie surgery • Sleep appliances • Cosmetic work • Veneers • Crown and bridge work • Extractions • Root canals • and more!

155 Turnberry Way • Pinehurst, NC 28374 910.695.3050 • www.HubbardDentalNC.com

Scan Here for free inspection!

LOCALLY OWNED & OPERATED

START 2024 WITH A HEALTHY HOME!

SIGNS TO LOOK FOR

DiD you know that up to 60% of the air in your home comes from your crawl space? That could lead to all sorts of threats to you and your family's health!

Bouncy Floors Soft Spots Musty Smells Allergy Issues Drafty Floors DAN THOMAS Market Manager Ready to serve you!

(910) 673-8559

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We drive a positive culture of confidence and enthusiasm by doing the right thing for all our members, partners, and staff

We provide our members, partners and staff with an environment that is welcoming and respectful of each individual

We are committed to the success of our members and partners through the expertise and dedication of our team

1 3 0 3 N . S A N D H I L L S B LV D . • A B E R D E E N , N C • 9 1 0 - 7 7 3 - 0 2 5 9 • W O R K O U TA N Y T I M E . C O M / A B E R D E E N

At Relaxx Spa, we offer a haven of tranquility and rejuvenation, where you can escape the everyday stresses and treat yourself to a personalized wellness experience.

Our expert team of skilled technicians are passionate about providing exceptional service and tailoring treatments to your unique needs and preferences.

As we continue to grow, we remain steadfast in our commitment to excellence and the highest standards of quality. We are dedicated to creating an oasis where our clients can relaxx, rejuvenate, and restore themselves.

Relaxxing Experiences for Renewed Energy and Confidence.

Spa Manicure/Pedicure

Customized Facials

Massage & Reflexology

Individual Lash Extensions Full Face and Body Waxing Let us be your haven for total relaxxation. Offering monthly membership and online booking.

239 W. Pennsylvania Avenue • Southern Pines, NC 28387 • www.relaxxspa.com

Unique Infusion of Wellness and Medical Aesthetics

Build muscle while burning fat!

Needle-free facelift in 20 minutes!

Tighten and improve skin texture!

Treat urinary incontinence fully clothed!

Don’t Wait, Call Us Today!

910.338.3381

Trust your care to an expert in the field a Vascular Surgeon • No referral needed Easy lunch break treatments - No down time

God called us to serve, let us treat you like VIP!

6 Regional Drive, Ste C Pinehurst, NC 28374 www.vascularinstituteofthepines.com

Dr. Leah Hershman

Arts & Culture

present

JAN. 25 - FEB. 18

About the show: This enchanting, Tony-nominated Broadway adaptation of the beloved musical will put a spell on audiences of all ages. Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella showcases some of the songwriting duo’s loveliest tunes, including “In My Own Little Corner,” “Impossible/It’s Possible,” and “Ten Minutes Ago,” as well as some new characters and surprising twists. Add a dash of fairy-tale romance, magical onstage transformations, and the iconic pumpkin and glass slippers—and you’re guaranteed to have a ball!

Music by Richard Rodgers | Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II | New Book by Douglas Carter Beane Original Book by Oscar Hammerstein II Directed by Thomas Caruso | Choreographed by Lisa Shriver | Musical Direction by Sarah Wussow Rated G FOR EVERYONE. This musical is great for the whole family to enjoy! | TICKETS- $19–$37

BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW! CFRT.ORG or 910.323.4233

Thursday, February 8 - 6:30 PM

SCC Jazz Band

Directed by Dr. Larry Arnold Free concert - No ticket required

Paint a Bowl & Fill a Bowl

Friday, February 9 - 7:30 PM Two-time Grammy-nominated vocalist

Jane Moneheit with The Christian Tamburr Trio

Owens Auditorium at Sandhills Community College 3395 Airport Road • Pinehurst, NC

Tickets: $29-$59 (No fees!)

Available at www.TicketMeSandhills.com or call the Arts Council at 910-692-ARTS (2787) Sponsors include: Katherine & Bryant Bozarth Durant Holler Linnea Lockwood & Richard Norland

112 PineStraw

Visit The 9th of September in Southern Pines and paint a soup bowl for Empty Bowls; a fundraising event to benefit Sandhills/Moore Coalition.

Empty Bowls, a community-wide event, takes place in March and features a simple meal of soup, bread and dessert from area chefs.

Attendees will receive a hand pained bowl from The 9th of September as a reminder of their neighbors in need.

$18.00 each includes bowl, paint, & firing Call ahead to ensure availability Painted bowls will be donated to Sandhills Coalition The 9th of September 2160 Midland Rd, Southern Pines, NC 28387 (910) 695-9063 Share your creativity by painting a soup bowl for the Coalition!

For more information, visit www.sandhillscoalition.org or call (910) 693-1600 ext. 207

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SandhillSeen Blessing of the Hounds and Opening Meet Cameron’s Meadow Thursday, November 23, 2023 Photographs by Jeanne Paine

John & Kimberly Daniels Taws

Eli, Conna & Ari Aornelsen

John Wagstaff, Ginger Wright, Mike Russell

Shelly Talk

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Susan Gaines, Wendy Beaver, Patty Heuckeroth

Mel Wyatt, Isabelle Jones

David Woronoff, Andy Pellegrino

Makala Alexander, Bill & Diane Logan, Julian Alexander

Peter Doubleday

Lincoln Sadler and the Moore County Hounds

John Wagstaff, David Carter

Danielle Veasey

PineStraw 113

Arts & Culture

Arts Arts Council Council Galleries Galleries at at Campbell Campbell House House •• 482 482 E. E. Conn.

Conn. Ave Ave

Arts Council of Moore County & sponsor Paine Paine Present Jeanne Arts Council of Moore County & sponsor Jeanne

TALLY HO! TALLY HO! TALLY works by Vanessa Grebe HO!

Arts Council of Moore County & sponsor Jeanne Paine Present Present Present

Featuring works by Vanessa Grebe Featuring Featuring Featuring Opening Reception: works

by Vanessa Grebe Opening Reception:

Friday, Friday, January January 5, 5, 6 6 -- 8 8 p.m p.m

Opening Opening Reception: Reception: Friday, Friday, January January 5, 5, 6 6 -- 8 8 p.m. p.m.

Drinks from James Creek Cider House Drinks from James Creek Cider House Reception Hosts: Reception Hosts: Tina Tina & & Tony Tony Jenkins Jenkins & & Southern Southern Pines Pines Brewing Brewing Co. Co. Reception Hosts: Tina & Jenkins January 5 -- February 14, Exhibition Dates: January 5 Tony February 14, 2024 2024 Exhibition Dates: Exhibition Dates: Weekday Gallery Hours: 10 a.m.

5 p.m.

Weekday Gallery Dates: Hours: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Exhibition January 5 February 14, Weekend Hours: Sat., January 4 Weekend Hours: January 20, 20, 4 p.m. p.m.

January 5 -Sat., February 14,22 --2024 2024

Weekday Gallery Hours:

TALLY HO! works works by

by Vanessa Vanessa Grebe Grebe

Weekday Gallery Hours: Reception beverages courtesy Reception beverages courtesy of: of: 10 a.m.

5 p.m a.m.Cider - 5 p.m James Creek House James10 Creek Cider House Weekend Hours: Southern Pines Weekend Hours:Company Southern Pines Brewing Brewing Company

Sat., January 20, 2 - 4 p.m

Sat., January 20, 2 - 4 p.m www.MooreArt.org www.MooreArt.org

ACMC’s ACMC’s gallery gallery program program is is supported supported in in part part by by the Carolina Arts Council, aa division of the North North Carolina Arts Council, division of the the Arts Council Galleries at Campbell House Arts Council Galleries at Campbell House Department Department of of Natural Natural & & Cultural Cultural Resources Resources 482 482 E. E. Conn.

Conn. Ave., Ave., So. So. Pines, Pines, NC NC 28387 28387

Youth of the Year

2

Leadership, Academics & Character

At the Boys & Girls Club of the Sandhills, ALL our members strive to be the best, but ONLY ONE will be Youth of the Year.

25 Celebrating

YEARS

For over 25 years, the Boys & Girls Club of the Sandhills has provided a nurturing environment for young people in Moore County to learn, grow and develop to their fullest potential.

Change the life of a child forever.

Donate today! sandhillsbgc.org/donate

Ja’ Torian 2023 Youth of the Year with Governor Roy Cooper

114 PineStraw

Youth of the Year is sponsored in partnership with Forest Creek Golf Club.

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SandhillSeen Blessing of the Hounds and Opening Meet Cameron’s Meadow Thursday, November 23, 2023 Photographs by Diane McKay

Paula Johnson, Lennon Queen, Larry Gleisner

Tina Robinson, Fran Gertz. Katie Hart

Ann Ganis

Jay & Amilda Coffman Group

Rev’d Thomas H. Harbold

River and Molly Thompson-Hopton

Kids Ari and Eli Kornelsen, Grandmother Donna Lopez

Maj. Kelly Dobert

Mary Cremins, Vilot O‛Tuel, Kitty Cremins

Dr. Jock Tate

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Moore County Hounds group

Tia Chick Family and Friends

PineStraw 115

Arts & Culture

910-944-3979

Gallery Hours: Monday - Saturday 12-3pm Gallery • Studios • Classes

129 Exchange Street in Aberdeen, NC artistleague@windstream.net • www.artistleague.org

See How It’s Done

Learn how to create your own art!!!

Sunday, January 7, 2024 • 2:00-4:00pm Instructors Class Demonstration and Registration Event

Start the new year off by taking an inspiring art class or workshop. On Sunday, January 7, visit the League and watch our instructors as they demonstrate the various mediums they will teach – then register for the classes that interest you. There will be preview demonstrations about classes in Drawing, Pastel, Colored Pencil, Oil, Watercolor, Gouache, Acrylic, Acrylic Pouring, Alcohol Ink, Fiber Art, Block Printing, Scratchboard, Silk Painting, Mixed Medium, Encaustic Wax, and Collage. Learn something new or advance your current skills.

The exhibition of our instructors’ paintings will be hung in our gallery; which will remain open through Friday, January 26. Join us for a fun afternoon, chat with instructors, and enjoy light refreshments.

Gallery Hours: Monday - Saturday 12-3pm

Ask Us About Becoming a Member • 129 Exchange Street in Aberdeen, NC Visit our website for many more classes. www.artistleague.org • artistleague@windstream.net

116 PineStraw

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: ORGAN MUSIC OF THE 17 - 21 CENTURIES TH

ST

Sunday, January 14, 2024 at 4:00 PM Performed by

WES LOCKFAW

Director of Music and Organist at Haymount United Methodist Church, Fayetteville.

Music of Dubois, Bach, Walther, Boëllmann, Buxtehude, Fletcher, Peeters, Shearing, Miller and Rutter.

In collaboration with Bradshaw Performing Arts Center and The Arts Council of Moore County.

TICKETS: $30 For more information on the program: http://communitycongregational.org/concerts/

141 North Bennett Street • Southern Pines, NC 28387 • (910) 692-8468

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

SandhillSeen Weymouth Wonderland

Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities Friday, December 1, 2023 Photographs by Diane McKay

Michelle and Ellie Tew

The Carolina Philharmonic Junior Orchestra and Choir

Carol Tilton, Sue Aceves

David & June Banks

Alice Bass, Lori Hoepner, Liam Bass, Lance Hoepner

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Lewis Pitts, Spoma Jovanovic

Ashley & Adalyn Young, John Santa Misiaszek

Piper, Eleanor, Finn, Molly, Evelyn, Charlotte

Meredith & Madelyn Davison, Taylor & Olivia Hickey

Alicia, Jackson & Lynn William, Marce Hemming, Charlene (dog)

Donna May, Pat Brown, Susan Goodfellow

Glenda & Larry Callicutt

PineStraw 117

n!

net

Pest Contol Experts

Moore County’s

910.425.7000 or 910.977.5656 www.battlefieldmuseum.org www.warpathmilitaria.com

Pest Control | Termite Control | Crawlspace Protection AberdeenExterminating.com

Pine ServiceS

Vintage Watches Wanted ROLEX & TUDOR Omega, Hamilton Breitling Patek Philippe, Panerai, Seiko

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L. CAMPBELL, Serving theDIRECTOR Sandhills EXECUTIVE 910.506.2000 region since 1994 11921 McColl Hwy. Suite A

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Call Anderson

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LegacySolutionsFoundation.org A 501(c) 3 non-profit supporting other non-profits.

Charities encouraged to inquire.

Interested in Advertising?

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2809 E Indiana Ave, Aberdeen, NC 28315 CreedGarnerRoofing@hotmail.com (910)638-2639 www.CreedGarnerRoofing.com primeeagleroofing.com Call 910.692.7271

Remodeling • Windows Door • Siding • Sunrooms Screen Porches • Decks Termite Damage Repair

L. CAMPBELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

(760) 477-3007

Specializing in Shingle Roofs Colored Metal Roof Systems Custom Copperwork TPO & EPDM Interested Flat Roof Systems inAuthentic Advertising? & Synthetic Slate & Shake Roofing

SandhillS RenovationS llC

•Nursing Homes •Assisted Living •Hospitals •Homes •Wellness Check •Respite Care

Willing to consider unwanted, challenged or contaminated properties.

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118 PineStraw

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

January PineNeedler Beginning 2024 ACROSS

1. “Surely you !”

5. Loafer, e.g.

9. Conscious 14. Bounce back, in a way of trouble...

15. In a 16. Runner-up 17. Brio 18. About (2 wds) 19. Seed coverings 20. Sedative 22. Glide, as on ice 23. Back 24. Fountain order Wednesday 26.

29. Told on 33. 1942 Hitchcock thriller 38. Not out there (2 wds) cheese 39.

40. Durable fabric 42. Hip bones 43. Rodeo rope 45. It’s a stylized “f” crossing five lines in music (2 wds) 47. Wall mural 48. constrictor 49. Curtain fabric 52. Harder to find 57. Place for a barbecue 60. Unwanted medical diagnosis 63. Hoity-toity sorts ” 64. “American

65. Ukraine Capital 66. Artificial leg?

67. Astronaut’s insignia and hearty 68.

69. Roofing material 70. F.B.I. operative 71. Snow coaster DOWN

1.

2.

3.

4.

Army vehicles Brilliance Go halves Contents of some cartridges 5. “Beat it!”

6. Frau’s partner 7. Desert sight 8. Age king crab 9.

10. Good job need (2 wds) 11.

Minor 12. Irishman: Var. 13. European language 21. Buzzing pest 25. Melodic 27. Pie chart part 28. “Come again?”

30. Be a snitch 31. Ashtabula’s lake 32. Like Beethoven be true” 33. “To thine own 34. Jewish month 35. Unclothed

36. Able to do without 37. Barbecue offering 41. Apprehend 44. Confronts 46. Wrap garb 50. Cake topper 51. Sir opposite 53. Egyptian symbols 54. flush, in cards

55. French novelist and journalist Zola 56. Carried on about 57. Audible nudge 58. Against 59. Drudgery , Calif.

61. Santa of the Cave Bear” 62. “The

Puzzle answers on page 99 Mart Dickerson lives in Southern Pines and welcomes suggestions from her fellow puzzle masters.

She can be reached at martaroonie@gmail.com.

Sudoku:

Fill in the grid so every row, every column and every 3x3 box contain the numbers 1-9.

The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

PineStraw 119

SOUTHWORDS

AI, AI, Oh Be afraid, be very afraid

Among the litany of

things we have every right to fear in 2024, one that seems to be near the top of everyone’s list is AI. Being a person who believes that existential threats ought to be taken seriously, I’ve searched in vain for someone who can explain to me — admittedly a person of limited scope and ability — why a machine that is already way smarter than I am is going to be a clear and present danger to the human race because it’s going to be way, way, way smarter than I am. And this just when I thought artificial intelligence had arrived in the nick of time.

My pint mate, Tom, and I are gentlemen of a certain age, and when we drone on and on about this and that like Statler and Waldorf in a quiet corner of our pub, The Bitter and Twisted, names, dates, the exact sequence of events and whether or not these things actually happened at all, can be somewhat elusive.

We typically award points for being able to retrieve names — first and last elevates you to the bonus situation — but more often than not our response to one another is simply, “How soon do you need to know?”

Just as our minds are failing and our short-term memories have pulled a hamstring, along comes AI to pick up the slack.

We’re both longtime marrieds, so the experience of existing in an environment controlled by something infinitely smarter than we are is not something with which we are entirely unfamiliar. I will confess that during a recent unpleasant bout of sobriety, I discovered, much to my surprise, that my wife, the

120 PineStraw

War Department, seems to repeat herself with disturbing frequency. Under ordinary circumstances, I never would have come to this conclusion, since my having heard this thing — whatever it might be — in the first place would have been a matter of dispute. But I digress.

Tom and I both have backgrounds in golf, where AI has existed for something in the neighborhood of 600 of years. I speak, of course, of a player and his caddie. If ever there was a template for artificial intelligence, this would be it. Factoring in all variables — distance, wind, lie — and possible outcomes, if I was to ask my caddie if I could get home with a good 4-iron, the computing power accumulated across the centuries would spit out the answer “eventually.” I’ve been given to understand that if your personal chatbot doesn’t know an answer it may exhibit “a tendency to invent facts in moments of uncertainty.” Peas in pod, if you ask me.

In order to dangle my toes in the AI universe, after downloading the program onto my laptop, I asked my newfound chatbot (who I have named Jeeves) to write me a joke about AI. This was the response: “Why did the AI break up with its computer?”

“Because it found someone byte-ter.”

I confess, I was impressed. AI has been data mining Henny Youngman. (For the cost of a pint of Smithwick’s Tom will be happy to explain who he was.) And so I pressed on. I say, Jeeves, write me a limerick. I don’t mind telling you, the results were disappointing. Bland doggerel. Perhaps I hadn’t phrased my request with sufficient specificity. And so I asked my chatbuddy to write me a humorous yet salacious limerick. The response I got was: “I’m sorry I can’t assist you with that request.”

AI apparently has higher standards than I have, which I suppose is the whole point, though I find it peculiar Jeeves has never heard of Nantucket. PS The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

ILLUSTRATION BY MERIDITH MARTENS

By Jim Moriarty

Our Communities Feel Different Because They Are Independent Living | Assisted Living | Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation

Independent Living at Pine Knoll

Independent Living at Belle Meade

With a variety and choice of comfortable residences with convenience to attractive and purposeful senior living amenities, Pine Knoll offers history and comfort.

Surrounded by lush greenery, Belle Meade is a gated, resort-style community that offers a wide variety of senior living options, including spacious homes and lavish apartments.

Call today to schedule your visit!

For more information, call 910-246-1023 or visit www.sjp.org.

Southern Pines

Buyer, Purveyor & Appraiser of Fine and Estate Jewellery 229 NE Broad Street • Southern Pines, NC • (910) 692-0551 Mother and Daughter Leann and Whitney Parker Look Forward to Welcoming You to WhitLauter.