Dr. Leah Hershman
God called us to serve… let us treat you like VIP!
Start the year refreshed, feel confident all year long. Resolution: Think better. Feel better. Solution: Resolution: Tighten. Lift. Tone. Solution: Resolution: Burn Fat. Build Muscle. Solution: Your wellness resolution starts now. Call today to schedule your free consultation.
6 Regional Drive • Suite C, Pinehurst, NC • 910.338.3381 • vascularinstituteofthepines.com
day eturn)
M
day eturn)
M
y uston
M
y uston
MEMORIES, MEMORIES, ANDAND TRUTH MEMORIES, TRUTH
taketake take your your your seat seat
Tues. Jan. Tues. 27 Jan.•277Tues. •PM 7 PM Jan.
PRISCILLA PRISCILLA PRESLEY PRISCILLA PRESLEY TRIBUTE TRIBUTE FAMILY FUN
AN EVENING AN EVENING OF MAGIC, OF AN MAGIC, EVENING MEMORIES, MEMORIES, ANDAND TRUTH MEMORIES, TRUTH FAMILY FUN
FAMILYCOMEDY FUN COMEDY
Tues. Tues. Jan. •27 7Tues. •PM 7 PM Jan. Yesterday Yesterday & Doktor Today& Today KaboomDoktor KaboomJan. Doktor27 Kaboom EriksonErikson HerzHerz Beatles Beatles Tribute Under Tribute (return) Pressure! (return) (return) Under Pressure! Under (return) Pressure! (return) Fri. Jan. Fri.16Jan. • 7Sat. PM16Jan. • 7 PM 17 • 5 PM Sat. Jan. 17 • 5 PM Sat. Jan. Fri. 17 Jan. • 530 Fri.PM Jan. • 7 PM 30 • 7 PM
TRIBUTE TRIBUTE FAMILY FUN
FAMILY FUN
FAMILY COMEDY FUN COMEDY
Yesterday Yesterday & Doktor Today& Today KaboomDoktor Kaboom Doktor Kaboom Erikson Erikson HerzHerz Beatles Beatles Tribute Under Tribute (return) Pressure! (return) (return) Under Pressure! Under (return) Pressure! (return) Fri. Jan. Fri. 16Jan. • 7Sat. PM16Jan. • 7 PM 17 • 5 PM Sat. Jan. 17 • 5 PM Sat. Jan. Fri. 17 Jan. • 530 Fri. PM Jan. • 7 PM 30 • 7 PM
RUTH PAULEY SPEAKERS RUTH PAULEY SPEAKERS RUTH PAULEY SPEAKERS TRIBUTE TRIBUTE
Stretch your legs Stretch before your or legsafter beforePhD the or after show the show withwith a Stretch walk a walk your le Dr. Diego Bohórquez, Dr. PhD Diego Bohórquez, Dr.PhD Diego Bohórquez, Nicole Nicole Henry Henry through our beautiful through our Gardens beautiful Gardens right onright campus! on campus!through our The Gut-Brain Connection The Gut-Brain Connection The Gut-Brain Connection Sings Sings Whitney Whitney Houston Houston
and Neuropods
and Neuropods
and Neuropods
Fri. Feb. Fri. 20Feb. •TRIBUTE 7Tue. PMPAULEY 20Jan. • 7 PM 20SPEAKERS • 7 PM Tue. Jan. 20SPEAKERS • 7 PM Tue. Jan. 20SPEAKERS • 7 PM RUTH RUTH PAULEY RUTH PAULEY TRIBUTE
www.sandhills.edu/horticultural-gardens www.sandhills.edu/horticultural-gardens
and Neuropods
and Neuropods
and Neuropods
Fri. Feb. Fri. 20Feb. •Available 7Tue. PM20Jan. •Available 7 PM 20 • 7 PM BTue. ilable Concessions Concessions R AJan. D S20 H •A7WPM B RTue. A D S HJan. A W 20 • 7 PM B R A D S H A W P E R F O R M I N GP E R F O R M I N G PERFORMING | Snacks Wine Wine | Beer | Beer | Soda || Soda Snacks | Snacks A R T S C E N T E RA R T S C E N T E R ARTS CENTER
M
www.s
Stretch your legs Stretch before your or legsafter beforePhD the or after show the show withwith a Stretch walk a walk your le Dr. Diego Bohórquez, Dr. PhD Diego Bohórquez, Dr.PhD Diego Bohórquez, Nicole Nicole Henry Henry through our beautiful through our Gardens beautiful Gardens right on right campus! on campus! through our The Gut-Brain Connection The Gut-Brain Connection The Gut-Brain Connection Sings Sings Whitney Whitney Houston Houston
www.sandhills.edu/horticultural-gardens www.sandhills.edu/horticultural-gardens
www.s
ilable Concessions Concessions AvailableAvailable B R A D S H A W B R A D S H A W B R ADSHAW M o r g a n S i l l s , E x e cMuoP rtEgi aRvneFSOiDl RlisrM , eEI cxNetG coMuPrtEoi RvreFgODaRi nrMeI cNStGoi lr l s , E x e c uP tEi Rv eF ODRi rMeI cNtGo r | Snacks Wine Wine | Beer | Beer | Soda || Soda Snacks | Snacks A R T S C E N T E RA R T S C E N T E R ARTS CENTER
2-2025 ming 2-2025 ming ue
ue
Winner Winner 2022-2025 M o r g a n 2022-2025 S i l l s , E xSandhillsBPAC.com e•c M910-695-3800 u o rtgi avne S iDl l is r, eESandhillsBPAC.com c x et•co M u rtoi vregDai n r e cSt o i lr l s , E x e•c 910-695-3800 utive Director SandhillsBPAC.com 910-695-3800 SeasonSeason Sponsors Sponsors Best Performing Best Performing Winner Winner 2022-2025 2022-2025 SandhillsBPAC.com SandhillsBPAC.com • Pinehurst 910-695-3800 SandhillsBPAC.com • Pinehurst 910-695-3800 • 910-695-3800 3395 Airport Rd., 3395 Airport Rd., 3395 Airport Rd., Pinehurst Season Season Sponsors Sponsors Best Best Performing ArtsPerforming Venue Venue 3395 Airport Rd., Pinehurst 3395 Airport Rd., College Pinehurst 3395 Airport Rd., Pinehurst Free parking onArts campus at FreeSandhills parking on Community campus Freeatparking Sandhills Community on campus College at Sandhills Community College Arts Venue Arts Venue Free parking on campus at Free Sandhills parking on Community campus Freeatparking Sandhills College Community on campus College at Sandhills Community College
Expanding What Retirement Living Should Be Penick Village is growing. New residences, new amenities, new reasons to love where you live. Our new independent living residences blend the style you appreciate with the comfort you deserve. The Village Pavilion brings state-of-the-art wellness under one roof, from pickleball courts to personal training. And our newly renovated Terrace health center means comprehensive care is always close by, delivered with the personal attention that makes all the difference. The updated Welcome House greets every resident and visitor with warmth while keeping our community secure and connected.
This is retirement living that grows with you. Every day offers room to explore, connect, and simply enjoy being you. Lea r n m or e ab ou t our c o mmu nity, wh ere yo u h ave t h e freedo m t o f o c u s on your w e llne ss and relat io n sh ips wh ile livin g life t o i t s fu l l e s t . C ontac t u s tod ay. Call (91 0) 692- 0300, email i n f o @p enic kvillag e 19 6 4 .or g , o r scan t h e QR code to learn more.
I ND EPEND ENT L I V I NG | ASSI ST ED L I V I NG | SKILLED NU RSING MEMO RY SUPPO RT | SHO RT & LO NG T ER M TH ERA PY SERVICES
Happy 2026 New resolutions Year • Increase Bone Density • Boost Overall Strength • Improve Balance • Reduce Fall Risk • Restore Good Posture
you are worth it!
Call Osteostrong! CALL TO SET UP YOUR FREE ASSESSMENT 910.692.6000 160 Turnberry Way, Pinehurst NC 28374 | pinehurst@osteostrong.me
Discover Total Home Comfort Client-Centric Approach • Expert Services • Guaranteed Satisfaction
HVAC Enjoy consistent comfort in every season with our topnotch AC installations and repairs.
House Cleaning Our thorough house cleaning services ensure a sparkling home & spotless results.
Maintenance Professional HVAC maintenance for reliable comfort year-round & peace of mind.
Heat Pumps & Furnace Installation Expert installation in your home or business
WINTER DIAGNOSTIC SPECIAL
ONLY $75
If you move forward with service, the diagnostic fee is waived.
0% interest for 24 months on HVAC Installation or Repair Locally Owned & Operated Grant Warner • License #37484 5 Star Google Reviews!
(910) 818-2960 www.warnerbrothersspecialist.com Book Your Appointment Today!
Chris T. Hunt
CRPC™ Associate Vice President – Investment Officer Senior Financial Advisor
Lauren H. Corum Client Associate Officer
Steven J. Menendez
Managing Director – Investments Senior PIM® Portfolio Manager
Vandi R. Norman Client Associate
David H. Yoder
CFP® Senior Vice President – Investment Officer Senior Financial Advisor
www.MenendezYoderHunt.com 110 Turnberry Way | Pinehurst, NC 28374 | 910-693-2430
Investment and Insurance Products: Not FDIC Insured / No Bank Guarantee / May Lose Value Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. © 2025 Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC. PM-10012026-7807895.1.1
January 2026 FEATURES 59 The Other Side of the Mirror
Poem by Linda Annas Ferguson
60 The Winter Blues
Arts Council of Moore County
68 No Day at the Beach
By Warren L. Bingham
George Washington’s 1791 Southern Tour
72 Bird Man
By Jenna Biter
On a mission to help save a species
76 All the Right Moves
By Deborah Salomon
When downsizing is the perfect choice
87 January Almanac By Ashley Walshe DEPARTMENTS 15 22 27 29 33 37 39 40 43 45 47 49 55 99 115 119 120
Simple Life By Jim Dodson PinePitch Tea Leaf Astrologer By Zora Stellanova The Omnivorous Reader By Stephen E. Smith Bookshelf By Kimberly Daniels Taws Hometown By Bill Fields Dissecting a Cocktail By Tony Cross Focus on Food By Rose Shewey Crossroads By LuEllen Huntley Out of the Blue By Deborah Salomon Birdwatch By Susan Campbell Sporting Life By Tom Bryant Golftown Journal By Lee Pace Arts & Entertainment Calendar Sandhill Seen PineNeedler By Mart Dickerson Southwords By Jim Moriarty Photograph this page by John Gessner Cover A rt by Jordan Baker
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 fine European linens and down including pillows, duvets, cashmere throws, allergy control covers and our ever-popular DUXIANA® Travel Pillow.
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 28 years
910-692-2424 • 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 their 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*
Thanks to your support, we have won:
Best of The Pines 2024 #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
M A G A Z I N E Volume 22, No. 1 David Woronoff, Publisher david@thepilot.com
Andie Stuart Rose, Creative Director andiesouthernpines@gmail.com Jim Moriarty, Editor jjmpinestraw@gmail.com Keith Borshak, Senior Designer Miranda Glyder, Senior Designer miranda@pinestrawmag.com Alyssa Kennedy, Digital Art Director alyssamagazines@gmail.com Emilee Phillips, Digital Content emilee@pinestrawmag.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jim Dodson, Stephen E. Smith CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS John Gessner, Laura L. Gingerich, Diane McKay, Tim Sayer CONTRIBUTORS Jenna Biter, Anne Blythe, Tom Bryant, Susan Campbell, Bill Case, Tony Cross, Brianna Rolfe Cunningham, Mart Dickerson, Bill Fields, Tom Maxwell, Mary Novitsky, Lee Pace, Todd Pusser, Joyce Reehling, Deborah Salomon, Scott Sheffield, Rose Shewey, Kimberly Daniels Taws, Daniel Wallace, Ashley Walshe, Amberly Glitz Weber ADVERTISING SALES
Samantha Cunningham, Advertising Director 910.693.2505 Kathy Desmond, 910.693.2515 Terry Hartsell, 910.693.2513 Erika Leap, 910.693.2514 Christy Phillips, 910.693.2498 Ginny Trigg, 910.693.2481 ADVERTISING GRAPHIC DESIGN
Mechelle Butler, Scott Yancy
PS Henry Hogan, Finance Director 910.693.2497 Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488 Tonnie Nester, Distribution Specialist SUBSCRIPTIONS
910.693.2488 OWNERS
Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels III, David Woronoff In memoriam Frank Daniels Jr. 145 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Southern Pines, NC 28387 www.pinestrawmag.com ©Copyright 2026 Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. PineStraw magazine is published by The Pilot LLC
10 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Our dental hygiene team at Allison and Associates eagerly awaits assisting patients with their oral health. Each hygienist continuously builds the patient-hygienist rapport and educates each patient on the importance of dental health and its relationship to systemic health. Our dental hygiene team has over 100 years of cumulative experience. Each year they are educated on the latest discoveries in dental health and on how to apply this new information to improve patient oral health. Their knowledge and expertise is vital when it comes to educating and instructing patients on the importance of dental health and how each patient optimizes their dental health for improved longevity.
15 Aviemore Drive Pinehurst, NC www.pinehurstdentist.com (910) 295-4343
Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team! D
SOL
LY ENT REC
PINEHURST • $1,880,000
PINEHURST • $1,330,000
50 CHERRY HILL DRIVE
50 PRESTONFIELD DRIVE
Grand 4 BR / 3 Full, 2 Half BA contemporary home in prestigious CCNC! Main level offers formal and casual living spaces including an eat-in kitchen and expansive family room overlooking the inground pool in back. Upstairs you will find all bedrooms, privately situated for comfort and tranquility! Outside is a private oasis including a hot tub and charming vine covered pergola.
Gorgeous 5 BR / 4 BA custom estate on the 16th fairway of the Pinehurst No. 9 golf course! The main level is spacious with expansive windows, double sided fireplace, gourmet kitchen and two bedrooms, including the primary suite. The upper level boasts additional bedrooms and space offering versatility for guests and family! This home is a must see! T RON ERF T A W
D
SOL
LOT
PINEHURST • $757,000
SEVEN LAKES WEST • $775,000
57 GLASGOW DRIVE
144 SIMMONS DRIVE Amazing WATERFRONT lot on Lake Auman near the marina! Lot has been perked for a 4-bedroom home. Great opportunity to live the lake life in beautiful 7LW!
Stunning 3 BR / 2.5 BA home overlooking the 2nd tee of the Challenge course in Pinewild CC. Home has been thoughtfully updated by highly regarded Dennis Dunagan. Newly designed kitchen, gleaming hardwood floors, expansive covered porch and well appointed upper and lower levels. This home has it all! ON ER C UND
CT TR A
D UCE RED
PINEHURST • $1,625,000 11 WHITHORN COURT Exquisite 3 BR / 3.5 BA home perfectly positioned on an oversized 2-acre lot near the 7th hole of the Magnolia course in Pinewild CC. Built by highly regarded Brent smith, this home offers high end finishes and updates including Wolf appliances in the chef’s kitchen, custom wine cellar and gleaming hickory floors on the main level! Transferable Pinehurst CC membership! D
SOL
PINEHURST • $1,130,000 68 ABBOTTSFORD DRIVE Fine 4 BR / 5.5 BA custom home in Pinewild! Home showcases superior craftsmanship throughout with tiled and rich hardwood floors. The lounge and billiards room is a showstopper as well as the fully equipped home theater with tiered theater seating! There is also a bright, skylit spa room perfect for a hobby space and a great inground saltwater pool in the back! ER C UND
ONT
R AC
T
PINEHURST • $985,000
JACKSON SPRINGS • $875,000
PINEHURST • $949,000
165 VISTA RIDGE W.
47 KILBRIDE DRIVE
22 AIRDRIE COURT
One-of-a-kind 4 BR / 3.5 BA custom built modern farmhouse on 2.54 private acres in beautiful Grande Pines! Hardwood floors throughout, rustic wood beams, 3-car garage and amazing screened in porch with stacked stone wood burning fireplace, ideal for entertaining or relaxing!
Impressive 3 BR / 2.5 BA golf front home located off the 4th green of the Magnolia course in prestigious Pinewild CC. Main level boasts over 3,900 sq.ft. where rooms are spacious with lots of windows, most with sweeping golf views, beautiful hardwood flooring throughout and a great kitchen.
Elegant 4 BR / 3.5 BA all brick custom home built by Bonneville Homes. Situated along the 17th hole of the Magnolia course, this home offers over 4,000 sq.ft. The interior is impressive with a beautiful Carolina room and private primary suite with bath. The exterior is well kept and has a slate stone patio with tranquil water feature perfect for relaxing!
1
#
IN MOORE COUNTY REAL ESTATE FOR OVER 20 YEARS!
Let Boxwood Consign Your Most Beautiful Items Schedule an In Home Visit...We Make It Easy!
Accepting Fine Consignment 7 days a week Call 336-781-3111 or Email photos to Info@boxwoodantiquemarket.com
520 North Hamilton Street • High Point, NC 27262 Now Open 7 days a week! - Mon thru Sat 10-6 • Sun 1-6 OWNERS JOEY MARLOWE AND JANA VAUGHAN
SIMPLE LIFE
My Own Soulful Green Books Food for the journey ahead
By Jim Dodson
I’m often asked by readers where I find my ideas to write about each month.
ILLUSTRATION BY GERRY O'NEILL
“It’s simple,” I reply. “Life.” Hence the title of this column. It helps, however, that I also have what I call my “Green Books.” Not the historic Green Book that served as a guide to safe places for accommodations and food for traveling African Americans in the mid-1900s South. Mine are something very personal: four leather journals, several with cracked bindings from age, that I began half a century ago. In their pages, I’ve recorded memorable quotes, funny observations and the wisdom of others who graciously provided food for the journey ahead. Today, four such books anchor my writing desk and library shelves, crammed full of helpful words — some famous, others anonymous, comical, spiritual or plain common sense — a resource I turn to when life seems out of whack, or I simply need a shot of humor or optimism to face the moment. A new year strikes me as the perfect time to share some of my all-time favorites. “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world, as a result, will have a generation of idiots.” – Albert Einstein OK. Had to put this one out first because I’m a confirmed Luddite who writes his books with an ink pen and can only function on a computer with proper adult supervision, meaning my wife, Wendy, a techno-whiz. Recently heard a “Super” AI “expert” warn that “living authors” will eventually be a thing of the past. That’s a world I don’t wish to live in. “I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.” – from Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne This gem hung with an illustration of Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore on my childhood bedroom wall. Stop and think for a moment about the amazing people you didn’t know until they unexpectedly, perhaps miraculously, stepped into your life — and a new adventure began. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your wild and precious life?” – From “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver This timeless poetic question hung on a banner over my daughter Maggie’s beautiful autumn wedding three years ago at her childhood summer camp in Maine. It’s one we all must invariably answer, even late in life. Especially late in life. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” – from Walden: or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau, poet, naturalist, Transcendental rock star. I discovered — and memorized — this stanza in Miss Emily Dickenson’s English Lit class in 1970 (by the way, her real name). So moved by it, I vowed to someday retreat to the northern woods. Looking back, I think it partially explains why I built my house on a forested hilltop in Maine. That goldand-green woodland enchanted my children and their papa, a would-be transcendentalist who has learned more from the solitude of the forest than in any city on Earth. “There will be a time when you think everything is finished. That will be the beginning.” – Louis L’Amour, Western novelist Useful advice for those of us anxious about the fate of American democracy. “Solvitur ambulando.” Translation: It is solved by walking. – St. Augustine Amazing what a good walk around the block or hike through the woods can do to calm the mind, work out a solution or simply remind one how life’s ever-changing landscape can clear away the cobwebs. “Stop looking at yourself and begin looking into yourself. Life is an inside job.” Someone once said this to me, but I can’t remember who. I PineStraw 15
SIMPLE LIFE
sometimes remind myself of this when I’m shaving in the morning and see myself in the mirror, often followed by a second observation: I thought getting older would take more time.
This note from this wise little book pretty much summarizes my personal ambition for 2026 — to go slower, to pay closer attention, to sit still as often as possible.
“If something is lost, quit searching for it. It will find its way back to you.” Sage advice passed along from a longtime golf pal’s mama. I’ve found it works splendidly with misplaced car keys, eyeglasses, wallets, (most) golf balls and missing Christmas candy. Not so much with politics or old romances.
“Modern American society is marked by a high degree of mobility, a decline in voluntary civic activities, and an emphasis on rights (i.e. what others owe me). The result is rootlessness and detachment from family and friends. Higher crime rates, chiefly among youth, show a strong statistical correlation with lack of self-control. And moral disputes are often marked by dogmatism, the inability or unwillingness to see the moral force behind another point of view. In response, the possibilities for improvement include (1) reinvigorating our civic associations, (2) developing and inculcating self-control, and (3) demanding higher levels of mutual respect and tolerance in the way we speak to and treat one another.” – from Civility & Community by Brian Schrag May you all have a safe and much more civil New Year. I leave you with one of my favorite wisdoms from my books:
“The meal is the essential act of life. It is the habitual ceremony, the long record of marriage, the school for behavior, the prelude to love. Among all peoples and in all times, every significant event in life — be it wedding, triumph, or birth — is marked by a meal or the sharing of food and drink. The meal is the emblem of civilization.” – James and Kay Salter, from Life Is Meals: A Food Lover’s Book of Days A well-loved book in our household, one every food lover should own, a gloriously entertaining volume chock full of quirky, fun and extraordinary gems about the origins and traditions of food, drink and fellowship at the table. “In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing could feel more luxurious than paying attention. And, in an age of constant motion, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.” – from The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer
“Do not be afraid, for I am with you. From wherever you come, I will lead you home.” – Isaiah 43:5 PS Jim Dodson’s 17th book, The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim Travels the Great Wagon Road, is available at The Country Bookshop.
We are deeply grateful for our wonderful clients whose trust and support made 2025 our best year yet.
Cheers to the New Year!
25 Chinquapin Rd. Pinehurst, NC 28374 www.linhutaff.com | linhutafff@pinehurst.net | 910.528.6427
45 CHESTERTOWN DRIVE – FOREST CREEK
50 MCCASKILL ROAD W – OLD TOWN
Elegant home overlooking Tom Fazio’s South Course, featuring reclaimed heart pine, European stone, Rutt Cabinetry, Waterworks fixtures, wine cellar, and expansive stone patio with fireplace.
“Blinkbonnie” was built by financier Simon B. Chapin, showcases early-1900s Old Town charm on over an acre, with elegant living spaces, a grand dining room, and a sunny Carolina room.
$3,650,000 – SOLD
$2,295,000
40 CULDEE ROAD – OLD TOWN
310 INVERRARY ROAD- FAIRWOODS ON 7
’Blackjack Cottage’’ has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. A stunning example of Old Town in the roaring 20’s with a magnificent living room and multiple bricked patios. Perfectly suited for today’s lifestyle.
Overlooking multiple holes on iconic Pinehurst No. 2 including the 8th hole, 16th hole, 17th hole, 18th hole and the member clubhouse. Arthur Hardin–designed with nothing spared in quality or design.
$2,295,000 – PENDING
$2,900,000
175 INVERRARY ROAD – FAIRWOODS ON 7
30 MEDLIN ROAD – OLD TOWN
Perfectly situated on the 12th hole of Pinehurst No 7 with 180-degree views of multiple golf holes, gardens and walk-ways. Inside the home has been totally renovated.
New Old Town Pinehurst home with open floor plan, game room, main-level master, fenced yard, and walkable access to school, fields, and playground. Seller to consider OWNER FINANCING. Handsome fireplace with slate surround is the focal point of the main living area.
$1,395,000 – PENDING
$1,395,000
214 FREEMAN WY – ACREAGE
223 NATIONAL DRIVE – PINEHURST NO 9
A rare two-home, 8-acre estate near Pinehurst, ideal for multigenerational living and large events, featuring a guest cottage, pavilion, glass greenhouse, and native gardens.
Beautiful one-level home on Pinehurst No. 9 with updated systems, a stunning Carolina room, chef’s kitchen, and transferable Signature PCC membership available at a reduced rate with no wait time.
$1,350,000
$915,000 – PENDING
240 DONALD ROSS DRIVE – PINEHURST
110 SHORT ROAD – OLD TOWN
Pinehurst CC membership available for transfer. Custom built, new appliances, natural light throughout, salt water inground pool, large private lot.
OLD TOWN! Charming Historic Cottage circa 1927 in the Village of Pinehurst. Move-in ready with many updates including roof and windows. Freshly painted throughout the main home and guest cottage.
$895,000 – PENDING
$819,000 – PENDING
Photograph by Matthew Gibson
Theatre Building | Village of Pinehurst | 90 Cherokee Rd., Suite 1C | Pinehurst, NC | 7:00am to 4:00pm
featuring
WHERE CREATING RELATIONSHIPS IS OUR BUSINESS. 6! 2 0 2 s ’ It ade in r t o t Time for new d the ol iances appl
Joe and Katharine Phelps, Owners Your Local Appliance Experts
Luxury Comfort For You Made From Sustainable Bamboo Products Locally & Veteran Owned • 1377 N. Sandhills Blvd. • Aberdeen, NC 28315 • 910-944-2313 • Appliancesandmoore.com “We pride ourselves in helping our customers to find a product that fits their needs, lifestyle & budget.” 27+ years Experience • Delivery/Installation • Haul Away • Warranties • Finacing Option
JENNIFER NGUYEN
JULIA LATTARULO
newinthepines@KW.com 910.585.2099
julia.lattarulo@kw.com 910.690.9716
This remarkable estate captures the best of luxury and leisure, right in the heart of Pinehurst.
$4,500,000 | 140 Brookhaven Road, Pinehurst
8,389 square feet
Rare opportunity to acquire a fully up-fitted historic Village of Pinehurst property ready to bring your vision to life!
4,405 square feet
newley renovated & remodeled
$4,100,000 | 38 Chinquapin Road, Pinehurst
Each office is independently owned and operated.
6 beds
8 baths
Located in the Village of Pinehurst 910.295.3905 • 105 Cherokee Rd, • Pinehurst, NC 28374
PinePitch Between the Covers Enjoy a trio of January book talks beginning at noon on Thursday, Jan. 8 when Jack Kelly discusses his book Tom Paine’s War: The Words That Rallied a Nation and the Founder for Our Time virtually with Kimberly Daniels Taws at The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad Street, Southern Pines. Then, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14, Ford S. Worthy will talk about his book In Search of a Boy Named Chester, also at The Country Bookshop. Last, but certainly not least, Donna Everhart will engage in a discussion about her book Women of a Promiscuous Nature, in the Boyd House at the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. For information and tickets for all three events go to www.ticketmesandhills.com.
It’s Baaack! OK, maybe it’s still winter, but the Sandhills Woman’s Exchange will warm things up when it reopens for the spring season beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 28. The gift shop hours are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the cabin café will be serve up lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. For information go to www.sandhillswe.org.
Send in the Symphony The North Carolina Symphony will perform A Little Night Music on Thursday, Jan 29, at 7:30 p.m., in BPAC’s Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. The Stephen Sondheim musical, originally performed on Broadway in 1973, includes the popular song “Send in the Clowns,” written for Glynis Johns. For more information go to www.ticketmesandhills.com.
Strawberry Fields Forever
A World of Magic Erikson Herz knew from the age of 12 that magic was his calling, but the journey is about more than just tricks and illusions — it’s about connecting with people through wonder and imagination. You can catch his act at BPAC’s Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst, at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30. For information and tickets go to www.ticketmesandhills.com.
22 PineStraw
“Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience” returns to BPAC’s Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst, beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 16. The band, anchored by brothers Billy, Matthew and Ryan McGuigan, performs as themselves and leave the song choices completely up to the audience. The set list is created as the show happens, and the songs make up the narrative for the evening. Every show is different, every show proves that The Beatles’ music truly is the soundtrack to our lives. For tickets and information go to www.ticketmesandhills.com. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Ruth Pauley Lecture Series The always thought-provoking Ruth Paul Lecture Series continues with Dr. Deigo Bohórquez, an associate professor of medicine and neurobiology at Duke University, delivering a presentation on “The Gut-Brain Connection and Neuropods” on Tuesday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. in BPAC’s Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. A pioneer and leader in the field of gut-brain biology, Bohórquez focuses on how the brain perceives what the gut feels, how food in the intestine is sensed by the body, and how a sensory signal from a nutrient is transformed into an electrical signal that alters behavior. In 2025, he was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Joe Biden, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding early-career scientists and engineers. For tickets and information go to www.ticketmesandhills.com.
Reelin’ in the Years Get swept up in a night of smooth rock at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 23, when Dirty Logic, the Steely Dan tribute band known for its impeccable musicianship and faithful recreations of the Donald Fagen and Walter Becker jazzy grooves, lush harmonies and razor-sharp lyrics, takes the stage at the Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Tickets are as affordable as $39 to get through the door, up to $139 for the VIP, dinner, drinks and premier seating treatment. For more information and tickets go to www.sunrisetheater.com.
Meet the Met We’re Not in Kansas Anymore Experience a world where film and music become one when The Carolina Philharmonic, under the direction of Maestro David Michael Wolff, performs the iconic Wizard of Oz soundtrack live-to-picture in two performances — at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. — on Saturday, Jan. 24, in BPAC’s Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. For further information go to www.carolinaphil.org. or call (910) 6897-0287. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
The Met has assembled a world-beating quartet of stars for the demanding principal roles in Vincenzo Bellini’s 1835 opera I Puritani on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 1 p.m. at the Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St. Southern Pines. Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War. Baritone Artur Ruciński plays Riccardo, betrothed to Elvira against her will, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn portrays Elvira’s sympathetic uncle, Giorgio. For info and tickets go to www.sunrisetheater.com. PineStraw 23
& Maestro David Michael Wolff invite you to
A Symphonic Night at the Movies
THE WIZARD OF OZ Saturday, January 24, 2026 • 3:00pm & 7:30pm Owens Auditorium, Bradshaw Performing Arts Center, SCC Step inside a world where film and symphony become one. The Carolina Philharmonic performs the iconic Wizard of Oz soundtrack live to picture—every soaring melody, every magical moment— under the baton of Maestro David Michael Wolff. A full-sensory experience for all ages.
Get Tickets
For Tickets: call 910-687-0287 or visit www.carolinaphil.org The Carolina Philharmonic is a 501(c)3 non-profit.
Brought to you through the generous support of Alan and Sharon Kane
Connect More, Hear Better: Turn Up the Volume on Life. Make 2026 the year you stop missing the moments that matter. Whether it’s music, laughter, or everyday conversations, clearer hearing brings you closer to the people and experiences you love. This New Year, enhance your life through better hearing—because every sound matters. At Hear Carolina, great technology is just the beginning for us. Understanding the way you live, your personal hearing needs, and the better-hearing goals you have for yourself helps us craft a more personalized and comprehensive hearing solution than anyone else can offer.
Southern Coast Audiology & Your Journey to Perfect Clarity Starts Today. Audiology of the Sandhills are now
HEAR
Brittany Brown
Au.D., CCC-A, Doctor of Audiology, Owner
CAROLINA
Formerly Southern Coast Audiology & Audiology of the Sandhills 1902 N Sandhills Blvd, Ste K | Aberdeen, NC 28315 910.692.6422 | SandhillsHearing.com
Belinda Bryant, HIS
919.621.5911
ASandersRealty@gmail.com Follow me on Instagram @asandersrealty Allison Sanders Broker, ABR, SRS
Award winning agent | Multi-million dollar producer Ask me about my listing special for new clients.
TEA LEAF ASTROLOGER
Capricorn (December 22 – January 19)
Having been in “go” mode since birth, you may not understand the degree to which your natural drive and goal-crushing prowess triggers those around you. This isn’t to say you should play small (you’re incapable) or slow down (hoofers gonna hoof it). Rather, when the shade-throwers cast their slights and snubs, try not to adopt their perceived failures as your own. This month, with Saturn in Pisces amplifying your softer side, embrace it.
Tea leaf “fortunes” for the rest of you: Aquarius (January 20 – February 18) Now, think bigger.
Pisces (February 19 – March 20) Cancel the membership.
Aries (March 21 – April 19) Consider a new deodorant.
Taurus (April 20 – May 20)
Your cuticles require some attention.
Gemini (May 21 – June 20) Try subbing sugar for dates.
Cancer (June 21 – July 22) Baby steps, darling.
Leo (July 23 – August 22)
Make time for a morning stretch.
Virgo (August 23 – September 22) Keep the receipt.
Libra (September 23 – October 22) Two words: wardrobe overhaul.
Scorpio (October 23 – November 21) Ever heard of a dry brush?
Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21) Dance like nobody’s gawking. PS
Zora Stellanova has been divining with tea leaves since the 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 27
Photograph by Matthew Gibson
AT LISI MARKET
Theatre Building | Village of Pinehurst | 90 Cherokee Rd. | Pinehurst, NC | Monday— Saturday 2-10pm
OMNIVOROUS READER
Sense of Urgency The stories that need telling
By Stephen E. Smith
It happens to every writer. The moment
comes, sometimes sooner than later, when it’s clear that he or she won’t live long enough to write every story that needs telling. The unwritten stories can be offered as spoken anecdotes, which, of course, vaporize the moment they’re uttered, so getting the stories down in print becomes a source of energy and inspiration. Pat Riviere-Seel’s collection, Because I Did Not Drown, derives its urgency from her desire to have the stories remembered — and to be remembered herself. “How long will the work of art last? Who will remember the artist . . . ?” she writes in her essay, “Unknown Artist.” Reviere-Seel is the author of four poetry books, most notably the well-received The Serial Killer’s Daughter, which was published in 2009 by Charlotte-based Main Street Rag Press. Because I Did Not Drown explores both the exceptional and mundane — “kitchen talk,” the need for perseverance, the joy of pets (in this case cats), a stray fig plant growing by the back stoop, gun control, the loss of old friends, food lovingly prepared, an enthusiasm for jogging, “disenfranchised grief,” extraterrestrials, etc. Each prose chapter is written in straightforward journalistic prose and intended to convey helpful insights into contemporary life. She begins her collection by recounting her personal experience with the COVID shutdown. She ends the book by detailing the ill effects of the pandemic’s aftermath, topics few writers have tackled (Sean Dempsey’s A Sad Collection of Short Stories, Cheap Parables, Amusing Anecdotes, & Covid-Inspired Bad Poetry is an The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
amusing exception). This reluctance to write about the COVID experience can be attributed to what readers and writers might perceive as proximity aversion: the shock of COVID is still too much with us, and we’ve yet to sort out its spiritual and political implications. Reviere-Seel takes up the subject head-on: “But as the pandemic stretched into a second year, I became more frustrated, angry, and cranky. I missed my poetry group. I missed my friends. . . . We stayed home. We wore masks. We stayed six feet apart. We were grateful to be alive. . . . What had begun as a public health issue became a political issue. The usual anti-vaccine talk mingled with the talk of ‘the government can’t tell me what to do.’” Her concluding essay, “After the Pandemic,” suggests that kindness is the only possible remedy for a virus that continues to mutate: “Be kind. Most of us did not want to infect our family, our friends, our neighbors, or the checkout clerk at the grocery store who showed up for work every day. Genuine kindness is a balm, a gift, a grace.” In her chapter “Talking About It,” she is straightforward about her struggles with breast cancer. “I didn’t talk about my experience with breast cancer,” she writes, but the death of an aunt who ignored a lump in her breast inspired her to share her experience. “Early detection and medical advances in treatment have meant that breast cancer is no longer the death sentence so many feared fifty years ago.” Her interaction with the medical community will be of particular interest. When she was denied an immediate needle biopsy, she reacted appropriately. “Nice was not working so I threw a fit, a nice-woman-goes-feral southern ‘hissy fit.’ A redhead-gone-rogue tantrum. . . I was paying for a service, medical care, and I wanted — no, demanded — a say in PineStraw 29
OMNIVOROUS READER
January at Weymouth Center
«
Sunday, January 25, 2:00 pm
Chamber Sessions Series presents:
Gabriel Sanchez
Also, this month at Weymouth Center: » Wednesday, January 7, 11:00 am: Women of Weymouth Meeting: Kathy Virtue of OsteoStrong » Tuesday, January 20, 2:00 pm: James Boyd Book Club » Tuesday, January 27, 12:00 pm: Lunch and Learn: Liz Pardue Scan the QR code for tickets and additional information! 555 East Connecticut Avenue, Southern Pines, NC
30 PineStraw
when and how that service was delivered.” Her story is a paradigm for all women and men who find themselves caught up in our often lethargic and convoluted medical system. The course of her disease followed a predictable path, but she made the necessary decisions to preserve her life. The description of her battle with breast cancer is timely, honest, reassuring, and possibly lifesaving. Following each of the prose passages, a poem explicates or explores the theme of the preceding chapter. The poems are well written and could stand on their own as a chapbook. “After the Diagnosis,” for example, follows the chapter on breast cancer: There are nights — more than you ever thought you could endure — when sleep will not come your thoughts — no, not thoughts — the deep well of unknowing appears endless. You try summoning visions of sunrise, a shoreline, bare feet running across packed sand. But morning fog covers this foreign landscape. Everything you knew for sure yesterday washed away with the tide, predictable too the magical thinking, maybe. Abandon the dock, row your way into the nightmare, further out is the only way back. The use of verse to add emotional impact to the short personal essays may strike some readers as unnecessary. At the very least, the transition from journalistic prose to poetry is complex, requiring a complete shift in sensibility and focus. Nevertheless, she forces readers to grapple with many of our most vexing problems. PS Stephen E. Smith is a retired professor and the author of seven books of poetry and prose. His latest book, The Year We Danced: A Memoir, is the recipient of a 2025 Feathered Quill Book Award.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
DOORS THAT WELCOME. WINDOWS THAT WOW.
When ordinary windows just won’t do, for large projects or small… let’s go window (and door) shopping.
111 N Bennett Street Southern Pines, NC 28387 910.725.0446 windowanddoorspecialties.com
Kenny Patterson, Owner/Operator
YOUR FAVORITES, YOUR WAY DINE-IN
FAMILY MEALS
DRIVE-THRU
BREAKFAST F R I -S U N 7:3 0-10:3 0 A M
JOIN REWARDS Scan to Download App for Exclusive Offers!
10735 US-15 SOUTHERN PINES, NC
BOOKSHELF
January Books
FICTION
NONFICTION
The Infamous Gilberts, by Angela Tomaski Thornwalk, a once-stately English manor, is on the brink of transformation. Its keys are being handed over to a luxury hotelier who will undertake a complete renovation but, in doing so, what will they erase? Through the keen eyes of an enigmatic neighbor, the reader is taken on a guided tour into rooms filled with secrets and memories, each revealing the story of the five Gilbert siblings. Spanning the eve of World War II to the early 2000s, this contemporary gothic novel weaves a rich tapestry of English country life. As the story unfolds, the reader is drawn into a world where the echoes of an Edwardian idyll clash with the harsh realities of war, neglect and changing times. The Gilberts’ tale is one of great loves, lofty ambitions and profound loss.
The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, and Paris on the Eve of WWII, by Mark Braude In 1925, Indianapolis-born Janet Flanner took an assignment to write a regular “Letter from Paris” for a lighthearted humor magazine called The New Yorker. She’d come to Paris with dreams of writing about “Beauty with a Capital B.” Her employer, selfconsciously apolitical, sought only breezy reports on French art and culture. But as she woke to the frightening signs of rising extremism, economic turmoil and widespread discontent in Europe, Flanner ignored her editor’s directives and reinvented herself, her assignment and The New Yorker in the process. While working tirelessly to alert American readers to the dangers of the Third Reich, Flanner became gripped by the disturbing crimes of a man who embodied all of the darkness she was being forced to confront: Eugen Weidmann, a German conman and murderer, and the last man to be publicly executed in France mere weeks before the outbreak of WWII. Flanner covered his crimes, capture and highly politicized trial, seeing the case as a metaphor for understanding the dangers to come.
Meet the Newmans, by Jennifer Niven For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America’s “Favorite Family.” Millions of viewers tune in every week to watch them play flawless, black-and-white versions of themselves. But now it’s 1964, and the Newmans’ idealized apple-pie perfection suddenly feels woefully out of touch. Ratings are in free fall, as are the Newmans themselves. Del is keeping an explosive secret from his wife, and Dinah is slowly going numb, literally. Steady, stable Guy is hiding the truth about his love life, and the charmed luck of rock ’n’ roll idol Shep may have finally run out. When Del is in a mysterious car accident, Dinah decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires Juliet Dunne, an outspoken, impassioned young reporter, to help her write the final episode. But Dinah and Juliet have wildly different perspectives about what it means to be a woman, and a family, in 1964. Can the Newmans hold it together to change television history or will they be canceled before they ever have the chance?
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Opera Wars: Inside the World of Opera and the Battles for Its Future, by Caitlin Vincent Drawing on interviews with dozens of opera insiders — as well as her own experience as an award-winning librettist, trained vocalist, opera company director, and arts commentator — Vincent exposes opera’s internal debates, never shrinking from depicting the industry’s top-to-bottom messiness and its stubborn resistance to change. Yet, like a lover who can’t quite break away, she always comes back to her veneration for the art form and stirringly evokes those moments on stage that can be counted on to make ardent fans of the most skeptical.
PineStraw 33
Do you suffer with
SHOULDER PAIN? STOP suffering. START living again! We offer fast relief WITHOUT the use of Drugs, Shots or Surgery
• Difficulty lifting your arm to reach cabinets, shelves, or even grab a seatbelt • Trouble lifting or lowering your arm without discomfort • Limited range of motion that affects simple tasks like brushing teeth or shaving • Weakness or fatigue in the shoulder that makes daily tasks feel harder than they should • Not being able to fully enjoy your favorite activities — like golf, tennis, or pickleball — because every swing or reach sends a jolt through your shoulder
•NO SURGERY •NO DOWNTIME •NO STEROIDS •NO PROBLEMS Class 4 Tissue Regenerative Laser
$49 START FEELING RELIEF INSTANTLY
NEW PATIENT SPECIAL $349 VALUE
LIMITED TO THE FIRST 7 CALLERS BOOK NOW 910-900-3758
Part of Elite Laser Pain & Chiropractic 34 PineStraw
910-900-3758 470 Magnolia Square Ct, Aberdeen, NC 28315
BOOKSHELF
CHILDREN’S BOOKS The Amazing Generation: Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a ScreenFilled World, by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price This engaging guide is packed with surprising facts, a graphic novel, interactive challenges, secrets that tech leaders don’t want kids to know, and real-life anecdotes from young adults who regret getting smartphones at a young age and want to help the next generation avoid making the same mistakes. It’s a bold, optimistic, and practical guide to growing into your most authentic, confident, and adventurous self. (Ages 9 - 12.) The Wildest Thing, by Emily Winfield Martin What would you do if you let the wild in? With gorgeous illustrations, this book is the ideal addition to any bedtime reading routine or read aloud. The Wildest Thing beautifully expresses a timeless message about little ones unleashing their inner “wild” and encouraging their budding imagination and unique individuality. (Ages 3 - 7.) Rock and Roll, by Ruby Amy Thompson A laugh-out-loud story of friendship that reminds readers that first impressions can be deceptive. Rock is strong, and Roll is soft. Rock hates attention. Roll loves it. But they are both team players; they are able to handle pressure; and they LOVE to get dressed up. Maybe they’re not so different after all! This sweet story reminds readers that first impressions can be deceptive. (Ages 3 - 7.) PS Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws, manager of The Country Bookshop.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
ly Connected. munity.
This year our results proved that we’re the partner you can trust.
Scarlett Allison Christine Barrett Maureen Clark Joy Blake Donat Tracy Gibson Keith Harris
Rachel Hernandez Jim Hurt Laurie Kornegay Ross Laton Christian McCarthy Melody Bell McClelland
pinessothebysrealty.com 910.725.2550
Meredith Morski Lesley Dacko Pacos Caitlin Richardson Brenda Sharpe Kate Shinkwin Elizabeth Webster
177 W Pennsylvania Avenue Southern Pines NC
tional Realty fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each franchise is independently owned and operated. Any services or products provided by independently
6PM - 9PM
6PM - 9PM
6PM - 9PM
CCNC
CCNC
CCNC
THANK YOU
To our community for Supporting Moore Humane Society 2025 Whiskers & Wagers event! 10 A N N Usponsorships, AL GALA 10 A N N U Adirectly L GALA 10 ANNUAL GALA Your donations, and attendance to furthered our mission to save Moore pets. Whiskers & Wagers Whiskers 2025& Wagers Whiskers 2025& Congratulations Wagers 2025 TH
TH
TH
H Save the Date Whiskers &EWagers: N OVE MB E R for 1 2 T 2026 NOV MBER 12TH November North 6 P 18, M -2026 9 P M• Country Club of 6 P M - Carolina 9PM
CCNC
Andrea Baxley of Southern Pines, N O V E M B Ewinner R 1 2 T H of the 6 P MCar - 9street-legal PM Club golf cart!
CCNC
CCNC
Our mission is to ensure that all animals are treated with compassion and respect and to end euthanasia as a means of controlling pet overpopulation in our community.
New Year, New View! It’s a new year, it’s a new you, it’s a
Homeowners rate Pella windows and doors #1 for highest value.*
New View!
Must meet minimum requirements
For a limited time only, save 40% off installing your windows and doors with Pella. We’ll save you time, money, and most of all--peace of mind for years and years to come. Happy New Year!
SET YOUR CONSULTATION TODAY
(910) 991-2414 Study of homeowner perceptions of leading national brands. Study commissioned by Pella, 2023.
36 PineStraw
PELLA-NORTHCAROLINA.COM
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
HOMETOWN
Grit and Grace Remembering a boyhood hero By Bill Fields
This college basketball season is hit-
ting me in a different way, and I can’t blame it on the transfer portal or other tradition-wrecking aspects of the current era, as dispiriting as they might be. Larry Miller died last May, at 79, and it felt as if an important piece of my childhood went with the legendary Tar Heel, who starred for coach Dean Smith in the 1960s and led Carolina to two straight Final Fours. I read something not long ago that one’s deepest bonds with sports are rooted in associations which date to elementary and middle school days. Sports certainly have never been a bigger passion for me than they were when I was that age and beginning to play as well as becoming a devoted fan. About the time I was just starting to digest the daily sports section, three players in three sports were drawing my fullest attention: Willie Mays, Sonny Jurgensen and Miller. As much as I loved the star centerfielder who could do it all for the San Francisco Giants and the pure-passing quarterback of the Washington Redskins, Miller captivated me most of all. Playing on the other side of the country, Mays was mostly a name in a box score. If the rooftop antenna was doing its job, Jurgensen regularly showed up on our television on Sunday afternoons in the fall. But during the three seasons he was on the UNC basketball team — freshmen weren’t allowed to compete on varsity teams until the early 1970s — Miller was a more frequent presence in my sports universe. I read about him in the paper, watched him on TV, and listened to his exploits on radio. Miller filled gyms across Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley as a prep star. His hometown, Catasauqua, was one of the first farflung locales to stick in my mind. Convincing Miller to come to Chapel Hill after he graduated from high school in 1964 was vital to Smith, whose early years at the helm were rocky. More than a hundred colleges had offered scholarships to the 6-foot-4 forward, whose jumping ability allowed him to play bigger. To the coeds who flooded the UNC Sports Information office with fan mail for their handsome favorite, Miller was a matinee idol. For a young boy who couldn’t get enough basketball and loved the Tar Heels, Miller suited up on the Carmichael Auditorium hardwood at the perfect time to fuel my hoops obThe Art & Soul of the Sandhills
session. I would root hard for other Carolina stars, from Charlie Scott to George Karl to Phil Ford, but Miller stood alone as my first basketball crush. The Tar Heels didn’t have their names on the back of their jerseys in those days, but there was no mistaking No. 44 in light blue and white. Miller was an effective blend of grit and grace on the court, an excellent outside shooter who also had a crafty way of driving to the basket and scoring on scoop-style layups after faking out the opposition with his creative moves. Being a righty, I couldn’t emulate Miller’s left-handed shots, but I otherwise tried to be him around our rickety backyard goal or in Saturday morning youth-league games in the Southern Pines gym. There were thousands of other kids in their Converses or Keds around North Carolina just like me. As a junior, Miller made 13 of 14 shots in a win over Duke in the final of the 1967 ACC Tournament, and the Tar Heels became the first Smith-coached team to reach the Final Four, losing to Dayton in the semifinals. ACC Player of the Year in 1967 and ’68, Miller was a consensus first-team All-American in 1968, when Carolina repeated as conference champs and again advanced to the Final Four, losing badly in the championship game to Lew Alcindor-led UCLA. The Tar Heels’ 23-point loss to the Bruins didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for wanting to see Miller in person later that spring at an exhibition game of barnstorming college seniors at the Pinehurst gym. Not only did my dad take me to the game, but at halftime he also bought me an autographed 8-by-10 glossy of Miller at the souvenir stand. I’ve held on to that $3.00 picture all this time, and when I heard Miller had died, I retrieved it from a box and looked at it for a good long while, remembering. PS Southern Pines native Bill Fields, who writes about golf and other things, moved north in 1986 but hasn’t lost his accent. PineStraw 37
Pe
Lo Every morning that you wake up in a pest-free home is a good morning. And the easiest way to ensure that stress-free feeling?
Sign up for Bug Out’s Pest Protection Service Plan!
EMPOWERED BOLDNESS Mindset and Performance Coaching for Women Who Know They Were Made for More Empowered Boldness is a coaching experience that helps women move from overwhelm to alignment, from self-doubt to confidence, and into a life that feels purposeful and fully alive. What You’ll Gain: • Discover Your Purpose — Align your life with your true calling. • Renew Your Mindset — Cultivate resilience, clarity, and growth. • Build Confidence, Energy & Habits — Strengthen self-trust, increase vitality, and create sustainable routines that support long-term success. Coaching that is grounded in science-backed performance principles, clarity-based mindset work, and practical tools that create extraordinary, lasting results. Empowered Boldness isn’t just about achieving more — it’s about becoming more. Offering 1:1 and Group Coaching Clarity. Confidence. Purpose. Empoweredboldness.com carla@empoweredboldness.com 704-618-5689
38 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
D I S S E C T I N G A C O C K TA I L
100 Year Old Cigar Story and Photograph by Tony Cross
Let’s start 2026 off with a bang,
or the strike of a match, if you will. The 100 Year Old Cigar was created by Maks Pazuniak at the bar Jupiter Disco in Bushwick, New York. Carey Jones includes it in her book Brooklyn Bartender: A Modern Guide to Cocktails and Spirits published in 2016. One of the qualities of Pazuniak’s creations is how well he blends myriad spirits that might intimidate others. He showcased those skills in Beta Cocktails (the book he cowrote with Kirk Estopinal) and again with his 100 Year Old Cigar cocktail. The backbone of this drink is an aged rum — I use Ron del Barrilito’s 3 Star — that has more body and depth than the typical light rum. The modifiers are Laphroaig 10 Year Scotch, Cynar and Benedictine. On paper, this cocktail looks intense — indeed, these flavors are juxtaposed: Laphroaig is very peaty, Cynar is savory and bitter, and the French liqueur, Benedictine, is sweet with notes of baking spices and honey. Throwing them together with an aged rum lets the ingredients shine while the rum still holds its own without overpowering the modifiers. After stirring this and pouring it into a coupe, give a few spritzes of absinthe over the cocktail. The result is richly boozy, with layers of flavor that echo the notes of a fine cigar. It makes a great nightcap or perhaps a celebratory toast for surviving another year. PS
Specifications 1 3/4 ounces aged rum 1/2 ounce Benedictine 1/2 ounce Cynar 1/4 ounce Laphroaig 10 Year Absinthe
Execution Combine all ingredients, sans absinthe, in a chilled mixing vessel. Add ice and stir until cocktail is ice-cold and properly diluted. Strain into a chilled cocktail coupe. Using an atomizer, spritz absinthe over the cocktail a few times.
Tony Cross owns and operates Reverie Cocktails, a cocktail delivery service that delivers kegged cocktails for businesses to pour on tap — but once a bartender, always a bartender.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PineStraw 39
FOCUS ON FOOD
Rooted in Flavor Frost-sweetened parsnip soup Story and Photograph by Rose Shewey
If January feels dull
and bleak, you’re not tackling it right. I’ll grant you this — the lack of snow around here, which could turn a gray landscape into a twinkling fairy tale, isn’t helping. Nonetheless, there is much beauty to be found and discovered around us, inside and out. A drop in temperature offers us a unique chance to embrace the season’s quiet rhythm. It’s a good time of year to take stock, look inward, and find stillness. Even in the dead of winter — snow or no snow — January shines bright because the kitchen takes center stage for many of us and cooking with local winter crops is a celebration in itself. Root vegetables have historically been a staple of a cold weather diet. Parsnips in particular have great timing: They are peaking around the holidays and last into the winter months. As an added bonus, parsnips get better with the cold. When a frosty night hits the root, the plant converts starch into simple sugars, like a natural antifreeze. The side effect is a noticeable boost in sweetness. Also known as “white carrots,” parsnips lend a deep, earthy-sweet foundation to any soup. Achieving harmony is everything, though: the bright acidity of the wine, the sharp tang of Stilton, and the saltiness of pancetta all fuse to create a balanced flavor profile in this wintry soup. PS German native Rose Shewey is a food stylist and food photographer. To see more of her work visit her website at suessholz.com.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Wintry Parsnip and Pear Soup with Pancetta and Stilton (Serves 4) Ingredients 1 pound parsnips (about 2 large), peeled and cut into big chunks 2 pears, such as Bartlett or Bosc, cored and sliced into wedges 1 onion, sliced 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves 3 tablespoons olive oil 8 ounces pancetta, chopped 1 celery stalk, sliced 1/2 leek spear, halved lengthways and thinly sliced 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed 3/4 cup white wine 4-5 cups chicken or vegetable broth 2 bay leaves 1/2 cup heavy cream (optional) Salt and pepper, to taste Crumbled Stilton cheese, for serving
Directions Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, toss parsnips, pears, onion and thyme with the olive oil and spread out in a roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover with a lid or foil and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove lid or foil, add veggies and pears, then continue roasting for an additional 30 minutes. Heat a large pot over medium heat and cook pancetta for about 5 minutes. Drain off excess fat, if needed. Add celery and leek and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Pour in wine and cook until the liquid is reduced by about half. Add 4 cups broth and roasted veggies together with the bay leaves. Allow the soup to simmer for 20-25 minutes — add more broth if liquid cooks down too much. Remove bay leaves and blend or pulse in batches. Add the soup back to the pot and stir in cream, if desired. Taste soup and adjust seasoning. Serve with crumbled Stilton or any other soup toppings you enjoy.
PineStraw 41
Whatever tomorrow brings, we’ll show up with a plan. Your future starts right now. And working with a team like ours can help keep you one step ahead, no matter what’s around the corner. Get the one-on-one investing guidance you need for whatever life has in store.
Philip Bailey Southern Pines 10840 US 15-501 Hwy Unit D Southern Pines, NC 28387 910-684-4965 schwab.com/southernpines
©2024 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. CC8573607 (0424-P6K6) ADP124427C-00 SCH13176 (05/24)
LUXURY
LUXU RY
101 Harrell Road, Seven Lakes
$2,500,000
4 Beds 4.5 Baths 5,047 Sq Ft
LUXURY
LUXURY
12 Lasswade Drive, Pinehurst
Emily Hewson
(910) 315-3324 Lake Front Home
$875,000
4 Beds 4 Baths 3,857 Sq Ft
Donna Ryals
(619) 925-1201
17 Troon Drive, Pinehurst
$729,000
Marie O’Brien
3 Beds 2.5 Baths 2,988 Sq Ft
(910) 528-5669
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Pinehurst Realty Group wishes you a prosperious New Year! 114 Schever Road, West End
$499,900 4 Beds 3.5 Baths 2,732 Sq Ft
Donna Ryals
3 Gingham Place, Pinehurst
$499,900
(619) 925-1201
4 Beds 3 Baths 2,095 Sq Ft
Marie O’Brien
(910) 528-5669
Sheryl Bare
Managing Broker (704) 929-0362 Sheryl.Bare@BHHSPRG.com
42 Chinquapin Road, Pinehurst, NC 28374 • 910-295-5504 • Pinehust.BHHSCarolinas.com ©2026 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC
42 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
CROSSROADS
The Pink Ballerina Room A taste of independence
By LuEllen Huntley
I am the new girl, a late enrollment.
My parents and I are ushered into an expansive office with heavy drapes for an interview. They sit in the back on a plush couch, me up front in a straight-back chair across a hefty desk from the assistant headmistress, a smallish woman with thick oval glasses. She begins, “What have you read, Miss Huntley?” I stare at her owlish face and freeze, incapable of telling her about our smalltown library a half block from my house. Ever since fourth grade I’d been allowed to walk there on my own and stay as long as I liked. The two librarians, Ms. Shep and her sister, allowed me access to all the rooms, even the attic that housed the Civil War archive, where they let me wander among the armed and uniformed manikins. Other days I pore over articles and discover Seventeen in the magazine alcove. Somehow I pass the interview. I tell my parents goodbye. Most of the dorm rooms are doubles but, because I’m late, I’m assigned the single the other girls call “the pink ballerina room.” It’s a small room down a cornered hallway with an exterior window ledge almost large enough to crawl onto. I’m happy to have ballerinas dancing on the walls in pink tutus and toe shoes, reminding me of the program in third grade when I wore a ballet costume borrowed from a girlfriend. In the short tulle skirt, a sequined top and matching tiara, I played a wood fairy and learned a poem by heart. My mother pin-curled my hair the night before the performance, and I got to wear lipstick. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
I play my music in the ballerina room, a collection of 45’s that includes Motown, The Doors, Johnny Rivers, The Beatles, James Taylor, Bread, The Guess Who and Carole King. Some of the other girls ask to borrow them. Weeks after moving in, one classmate in particular keeps dropping by. She’s the first person I know who wears round John Lennon glasses, setting off naturally curly hair, a sly grin and quirky laugh. I find out she’s a cartoon artist. She starts chatting about her roommate, making it sound like I’m missing out. She says if I want a roommate, she has the best; and I can trade places with her, move to a double on a main hall. This way, she promises me, I’d have a roommate. I won’t be alone anymore. I fall for it and we swap, privacy for friendship. But the thought of the pink ballerina room never fully goes away. Like time alone in the town library, I enjoy solitude, the space to think. The girl with the John Lennon glasses finagled this gift for herself. But I do like having a fun-loving roommate. After dinner we hold “dance-outs” in our room to my 45’s. It becomes the place to be, the place where 16-year-old ballerinas truly come to life, in the bargain of a lifetime. And I say this now because the new girl then did not know when she landed the private room tucked down the small hallway, off to itself, it was just the sort of place that fit the person she would become. The way of the universe was to give her a smalltown library and a few weeks in the pink ballerina room as a taste of independence. Each left its imprint. PS LuEllen Huntley, associate professor emerita in the UNCW Department of English, lives in Pinehurst. She is originally from Wadesboro in Anson County. PineStraw 43
Transform your home into a curated gallery. At The King’s Custom Framing, we offer an unparalleled selection of custom framing designs to complement your most treasured pieces. • Commemorate life’s most meaningful moments with handcrafted, custom frames • Showcase unforgettable achievements—from the fairway to the frontlines • Preserve and elevate military honors, heirlooms, and memorabilia • Print and mount cherished images on premium canvas or fine art paper
Every piece you frame tells a story. Let us help you frame it beautifully —with the care, craftsmanship, and sophistication it deserves. Professionally Serving the Sandhills since 1991 15 Dawn Rd #3 • Pinehurst, NC • 910.295.5451 • kingscustomframing.com M-F 9:30am to 5:30pm and Saturday from 9:30am to 2pm
44 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
OUT OF THE BLUE
Ode to Snoball A kitty worth the scratch
By Deborah Salomon
I am a lifelong animal
lover/rescuer/advocate. I don’t just donate. I adopt. Since the 1970s I have opened my door and heart to one, two or more hungry, cold, injured, pregnant kitties at a time. Three years ago, when my precious black satin Lucky and fussbudget Missy passed on, I decided it was time to retire. Then, on a frigid January night, a pure white apparition with blue eyes and pink mouth appeared at my door. Her family had moved on, left her behind, I later learned. I opened the door. She crept inside. End — no, beginning — of story.
I named her, obviously, Snoball. I allow myself just one kitty column a year, in January. The subject is usually behavior. Because cats could not be more fascinating, even when destroying furniture. Snoball, a princess of incredible beauty, is also a chatterbox: She talks. With inflections that, I imagine, express her opinions on many things, from a big black beetle scurrying across the floor to my reluctance to let her climb into the fridge crisper. Snoball likes lettuce. Even better, she likes chewing the plastic around the lettuce. Maybe cats know their people are polluting the world with plastic. They’re just trying to help. Other times her chatter sounds like two grannies outbragging each other re: grandkids’ achievements. Snoball plays the lawyer card, which always wins. I know from experience that two cats are easier, although more expensive, to live with than one. They keep each other busy. Ever noticed how noses twitch silently as they watch stupid commercials on TV? If it’s a “fixed” male-female duo the gal usually calls the shots. Sometimes she develops a fetish. I once had a kitty named Sophie who had a corn fetish. She would attack the grocery bags The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
I brought in, looking for an ear of corn. Woe was me if the supermarket failed in December. I would put the ear on the floor where Sophie covered it, like nesting with kittens. She lost interest when the husks dried up. Cats are tricky eaters — a problem since their food is so varied and expensive. Instead of canned I usually buy boneless chicken on sale, boil, chop fine and freeze with broth in batches, which I thaw and mix with high-quality kibble. Snoball greets this yummy meal with mixed reactions, which include sniffing, walking away, waiting to see if anything better’s forthcoming before returning to lick-’n’-pick. But if a meal is late, she lets me know with a dirty look and snide remark. I guess she forgot about being outside, cold and hungry. Despite a reputation for aloofness, kitties do know how to initiate and return love. Snoball’s signal is the long-handled brush. Brushing puts her in a trance. So does stretching out across my lap for the rubdown, which releases a cloud of white fur requiring a special rake to pry it off the carpet. When not napping on my sofa or upholstered chairs, Snoball, an inside only kitty, follows the sun around five window perches. Two overlook bird feeders. She chatters the squirrels away, much preferring bird antics, which she follows like a tennis match. Only once did she attempt an escape . . . in the pouring rain. Lesson learned. Still unlearned . . . to keep those wicked claws furled. My hands and arms are black and blue with bruises, just from play, of course. But when Snoball wants to play, “no” is not an answer. Her favorite nip is a bare ankle. I bought an expensive hopping toy for distraction. She bestowed a deprecating look and swatted my knee. But knowing she’ll be at the door when I arrive home, and at my feet when I climb under the covers, is worth a few drops of blood. Because she’s my Snoball . . . and I love her. PS Deborah Salomon is a contributing writer for PineStraw and The Pilot. She may be reached at debsalomon@nc.rr.com. PineStraw 45
BREAKFAST | LUNCH | SUNDAY BRUNCH Monday - Saturday 8am - 2:30pm
Sunday
9am - 1pm
2160 Midland Road, Southern Pines, NC • 910.420.1030 • midlandbistro.com
Simplify your life. Life at Quail Haven Village is filled with all the things you want to do, and none of the things you’d rather not. Indulge and enjoy, and rest assured that continuing care is in place should it be needed in the future.
Call us to see how to simplify your tomorrow today. 910.537.6812
QuailHavenVillage.com
INDEPENDENT LIVING | ASSISTED LIVING SKILLED NURSING | REHABILITATION A Life Plan Community by Liberty Senior Living © 2025 Quail Haven Village
125243 quail haven simplify ad-pinestraw.indd 1
46 PineStraw
12/8/25 9:22 AM
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
B I R D WA T C H
Cold Customers Return of the dark-eyed juncos
By Susan Campbell
“The snowbirds are back!” No,
not the thin-blooded retirees: They won’t be back until spring. These are the little black-and-white sparrowlike birds that appear under feeders when the mercury dips here in central North Carolina. They can be found in flocks, several dozen strong in some places. And, in spite of what you might think, they are far from dependent on bird seed in winter.
Dark-eyed juncos are a diverse and widely distributed species. Six populations are recognized across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Slight but noticeable variations in appearance constitute the difference in these populations. Some have white wing bars while others sport a reddish back and the birds in the high elevations of the Rockies are recognized by extensive pinkish feathering on their flanks. Our eastern birds are known as “slatecolored juncos” for their dark brown to gray feathering. They are accustomed to cold temperatures whether in summer or winter. As with most migrant songbirds, their migratory behavior is based on food availability, not weather. Flocks will fly southward, stopping where they find abundant grasses and forbs. They will continue on once the food plants have been stripped of seed. Dark-eyed juncos can be found throughout North America at The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
different times of the year. During the breeding season, juncos are seen at high elevation across the boreal forests nesting in thick evergreens. Our familiar slate-colored variety breeds as close as the high elevations of the Appalachians. You can find them easily around Blowing Rock and Boone year-round. These nonmigrants actually have shorter wingspans as a result of their sedentary existence. Watch for male juncos advertising their territories up high in fir or spruce trees. They will utter sharp chirps and may string together a series of rapid call notes that sounds like the noise emitted by a “phaser” of Star Trek fame. In winter, flocks congregate in open and brushy habitats. Juncos are distinguished from other sparrows by their clean markings: dark heads with small, pale, conical bills, pale bellies and white outer tail feathers. Females have a browner wash and less of a demarcation between belly and breast than males. They hop around and feed on small seeds close to ground level. Some individuals can be quite tame once they become familiar with a specific place and particular people. Juncos do communicate frequently, using sharp trills to keep the flock together. They will not hesitate to dive for deep cover when alarmed. So, the next time you come upon a flock along the roadside or notice juncos under your feeder, take a close look. These little birds will be with us only a few months, until day length begins to increase and they head back to the boreal forests from whence they came. PS Susan Campbell would love to receive your wildlife sightings and photos. She can be contacted by email at susan@ncaves.com. PineStraw 47
HELLO HELLONEIGHBOR, NEIGHBOR, LET’S LET’SCHAT CHATABOUT ABOUT YOUR YOUR MEDICARE MEDICAREOPTIONS. OPTIONS. Alexander Alexander Financial Financial
DavidAlexander Alexander David 910-690-1670 910-690-1670
® ® ® BLUE CROSS®, BLUE SHIELD BLUE , and CROSS the Cross , BLUE andSHIELD Shield symbols , and the areCross registered and Shield marks of symbols the Blueare Cross registered and Blue marks ShieldofAssociation, the Blue Cross an association and Blue of Shield independent Association, an association of indepe Blue Cross and Blue ShieldBlue plans. Cross All other and marks Blue Shield and trade plans. names All other are the marks property and of trade theirnames respective are the owners. property Blue of Cross theirand respective Blue Shield owners. of North Blue Carolina Crossisand an Blue Shield of North Carolina is a independent licensee of theindependent Blue Cross and licensee Blue Shield of theAssociation. Blue CrossY0079_11654_M and Blue ShieldCMS Association. Accepted Y0079_11654_M 09032022 U40744a, CMS 8/22 Accepted 09032022 U40744a, 8/22
Moore County’s County’s Premier Outdoor Living Specialist 225 W. Morganton Rd. Southern Pines, NC Design & Build
48 PineStraw
Happy 2026!
www.greyfox-outdoor.com 910-725-0394
Project Management
Pavilions
The Glick Family
Pergolas
Gazebos
Patio Furniture
Playgrounds
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
SPORTING LIFE
Restoring the Soul Pausing for a solitary side trip
By Tom Bryant
It’s ironic that three days before Thanksgiving in 2024, a time of celebration and great revelry, I was told that I almost died.
It all started in July of that year. Now I’m pretty much a healthy, in-good-shape guy. Always have been from early childhood to what is often laughingly referred to in today’s society as geezerhood. Played sports in high school and college, joined the Marines in a fit of finding myself. I found myself alright. The Marine Corps taught me in a short time to look after my body. I’ve fished and hunted and camped from Florida to Alaska always in good condition and good humor. I take a multivitamin and a 10-milligram Simvastatin daily, and that’s the extent of my pills. So what happened? Coming home from the beach one Sunday morning, I noticed a recurring sharp pain in my lower abdomen. It went away and I thought no more about it. I had my annual physical coming up in a week or so, and I figured I’d tell the doctor about it then. After several tests, my local physician referred me to the urology department at First Health. The results from an exploratory surgical operation weren’t that good. Linda, my bride, was there with me in the recovery room and she told me tearfully that I had cancer. There. Those three magic words that will turn anyone’s world upside down. “You Have Cancer.” I remember I was kind of dopey recovering from the anesthesia, and the first thing that entered my mind was, “This is gonna play hell with early fall fishing.” The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Later, as the reality of the situation began to sink in, I was upset that not only was I in for a bad time, but Linda was going to have to suffer with me. I remembered some of the stages that a new cancer patient goes through: fear, anxiety, sadness, anger. Sure, I had some of those feelings but I made up my mind that just like many other adventures in my life, I was gonna consider this another hazardous occurrence, a learning experience, and play it to the hilt. The folks at First Health referred me to the specialists at Duke, and I was off and running. Linda and I made appointments to meet with the recommended oncologist and surgeon bright and early on a Tuesday morning in August. I remember the day because we cancelled a beach trip scheduled for that week. The people at Duke have a cancer center bigger than any health facility I’ve ever been in. The entire building, all five floors, is dedicated to cancer patients, and from the valet folks who park your car to the individuals in charge of information who point you in the right direction, we never felt out of place. We met with the oncologist first, and she laid out a program of chemotherapy, about two months’ worth, that would take place before the surgery. We then met with the surgeon who explained the procedure and what I could expect during the recovery period. When I asked what would happen if I decided to let nature take its course, he simply replied, “You’ll have about nine months.” We made arrangements and appointments, going along with all the recommendations from the experts, collected our car from valet parking and headed home. “We’ve got a couple weeks before the chemo stuff starts. What say we go to the beach?” I asked Linda as I dodged in and PineStraw 49
SPORTING LIFE
EXCEPTIONAL
Discover the possibilities at
The Patio, our new
immersive outdoor showroom Luxury Pools • Outdoor Kitchens Fire Pits • Inspired Design
5615 NC Highway 211 | West End 910-400-5098 | www.MoreThanLandscapes.com
50 PineStraw
SCAN ME
out of the breakneck drivers who seem to hang around the high-speed highways. “I vote for that,” she replied. I could tell that our recent experience with the doctors was a lot for her to take in. Me too. The beach was wonderful. I didn’t even carry fishing equipment, and we left the little Airstream at home. All we did was hang out, reminisce about old times, and enjoy good seafood. We stayed at one of our favorite hotels right on the beach. We talked and talked and talked. Always in the back of our minds was the upcoming ordeal and the best way to handle it. My brother had passed away two years before from lung cancer, so we were not entering our upcoming travail totally unprepared. We knew what could happen. Our son, Tommy, was constantly in touch, not wanting to be too far from all the decisions. By now, the word was out about my health situation and the phone started ringing off the hook — not my phone, mostly Linda’s. Family and friends wanted to know what they could do to help. I was amazed at all the good wishes that came in from friends everywhere. In September our ordeal began. Although I didn’t have a lot of side effects, chemotherapy exhausted me. I didn’t lose all my hair but I did lose a lot of weight. The folks at Duke were amazing. Never have I met such caring people. I had to bail from chemo right before the last infusion. It seems that the chemicals in the stuff not only kill cancer but can also destroy hearing. The oncologist said enough’s enough. The surgery was in about two weeks. The next day I decided to ride out to the old tobacco farm that my good friend Joe Rosy owns. He lets me have access to the farm to bird hunt. The part of the land I use is about 150 acres located close to Drowning Creek. It’s where I go to restore my soul and remember what living is all about. Usually I’ll park the Cruiser and walk, but with my energy at ebb I rolled down the windows and, at crawl speed, drove around the familiar property. There was the cut in the pines that led The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
SOFAS
Happy New Year Donate $50 to charity and save $100’s on your favorite Stressless® furniture November 21 - January 20 160-L Pinehurst Ave. Southern Pines, NC • comfortstudio.net • 910-692-9624
DENTAL SERVICES FOR
the Entire Family + FACIAL AESTHETICS
DR. JORDAN RIDGE D.D.S. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
115 Turnberry Way • Pinehurst, NC 28374 (910) 695-3100 • www.pinehurstdentistrync.com
PineStraw 51
SPORTING LIFE
A LOCAL ROOFING COMPANY
FOR ALL YOUR ROOFING NEEDS
Roof Replacement | Roof Repair | Storm Damage Repair ALWAYS USE A LICENSED CONTRACTOR
PROUD INSTALLER OF OWENS CORNING® PRODUCTS
Discounts for veterans, healthcare workers, first responders and teachers
(910) 639-6314 | pinehurstroofing1@gmail.com | pinehurstroofingcompany.com
to where a used up sawmill once stood. Mackie, my little yellow lab jumped a pair of quail every time we went to the spot. I never did shoot — just seeing them fly was enough. On the corner of the pine stand that Joe uses to harvest pine straw was a tall longleaf that I would sit under, waiting for the evening flight of dove. I drove on around the harvested soybeans and took the minuscule path that serves as a road between the two barns. At the end of the road, surrounded by pines, is a small field of maybe 10 acres. I got my first turkey there, hunkered down at the tree line. He was a big one, 21 pounds. I pulled the truck up under a big white oak, took a water bottle from the cooler. I always carry a portable folding chair in the back of the Cruiser, and I decided to sit for a spell. Several years ago, I sat in this same spot on the day I carried Mackie to the vet to have her put down. She was past help, in her old age, hips gone and suffering. The vet said it was time. My dogs have always been family and that special, sad time was locked in my memory. On that day there had been a big red-tailed hawk circling the woods down close to the pond and, as I sat there kicked back, sipping water, I saw a red-tail flying in exactly the same location. Wonder if that’s the same bird, I thought. Naw, too long ago. Could be an offspring though. In a little while, watching and taking in the peacefulness of the little farm, I became worried that Linda might be concerned, and I decided to head on back home. The big cancer operation was scheduled and our hands would be full. As I eased out to the main road and got out to close the gate, I could still see the hawk. He was wheeling about, out over the fields now, climbing higher and higher. I watched until he was almost out of sight, then I got in the Cruiser and headed down the road toward home. PS Tom Bryant, a Southern Pines resident, is a lifelong outdoorsman and PineStraw’s Sporting Life columnist.
52 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
LEGACY FUND HELP US RAISE
BY JULY 2026 HELP US RAISE $50,000 TO UNLOCK A 1-TO-1 MATCHING GRANT FROM THE PRITZKER MILITARY FOUNDATION. NEW DONORS & LAPSED DONORS (THOSE WHO HAVEN’T GIVEN IN THE PAST THREE YEARS) ARE ELIGIBLE—EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS!
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
TO DONATE
PineStraw 53
MAKE FOOD AND SPIRIT
the Path to a Great New Year
OPEN FOR DINE-IN SEATING, PATIO DINING, TAKEOUT AND DELIVERIES
N NN W WIIN
R E ER
BEST BURGER BEST CASUAL DINING BEST FRENCH FRIES
Open Every Day • 157 E. New Hampshire Ave. Southern Pines • 910.246.0497 • ChapmansFoodAndSpirits.com
G O L F T OW N J O U R NA L
A Quick Nine The Pinehurst experience
By Lee Pace
In June I will
complete revolution No. 69 around the sun. As a new year dawns, it’s natural to pause, reflect and be grateful for what you’ve experienced. One very satisfying and interesting compartment of my professional life has been chronicling golf in Pinehurst — beginning in 1987, when I quit my last real job to forage an existence amid words, photos, paper and ink (later adding packets and protocols and something called HTTP).
So, I’m lucky indeed for having been able to write my Quick Nine stories of the Sandhills. The 1980s/’90s Resurrection of Pinehurst — First there was the 75-year era of the founding Tufts family in Pinehurst. Then the awkward and clumsy decade of Diamondhead. Then in marched Robert Dedman Sr., of Dallas. “Partner, I think this place is worth saving. This is one of those places you just can’t duplicate — it’s kind of like buying the St. Andrews of America,” Dedman said. It took time, money, astute leadership and vision. Gradually, Pinehurst once again became a player in American golf. Payne Winning in 1999 — No one knew exactly what to expect when the USGA awarded Pinehurst No. 2 its first U.S. Open. Would the crowds come? Would the town support the influx? Would the golf course stand up? Those questions and many more were answered with shiny gold stars, the leading domino falling toward No. 2 being the first course designated as a U.S. Open Anchor Site. The drama and emotional wattage of Stewart rolling in a 20-foot putt on the last stroke of the championship was just icing on the cake. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
The Life of Peggy Kirk Bell — She certainly knew how to play golf, having won the Titleholders and the North & South Women’s Amateur, and having been a founding member of the LPGA Tour. But Peggy and her husband, Warren “Bullet” Bell, learned the Ben Hogan hospitality business as they went along, and Peggy turned an impromptu golf lesson to a lady guest in the 1950s into a thriving golf instruction business that in November 2025 saw Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club hosting its 59th Couples Golf Jamboree. Her spirit permeates the Sandhills today. The Last Amateurs — My 1991 book Pinehurst Stories was built around interviews and chapters on 18 elite names in golf who had a good story to tell from their golf lives around Pinehurst. Hands down the highlight of that research was interviewing and getting to know Billy Joe Patton, Harvie Ward and Bill Campbell — three elite players from the mid-1900s with magnificent amateur records. Patton cried talking about his Pinehurst experience. Ward’s eyes twinkled. And Campbell spoke with a notable degree of eloquence. All three loved the Sandhills. Ben Hogan’s First Win — Hogan was winless in eight years on the pro golf tour in March 1940 and just about to call it quits. A club pro job was waiting for him at home in Fort Worth. But the volcano detonated in the North & South Open on the hallowed ground of No. 2, with Hogan shooting a tournament record 277. From there he went to Greensboro and Asheville and won two more tournaments, breaking par in 11 of 12 rounds. The world of golf never knew what hit it. The Coore/Crenshaw Project — “This will be the smartest thing we’ve done or the dumbest,” said Pinehurst owner Bob Dedman Jr. in 2010. Dedman had just given golf architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw license to dial the clock back on his No. 2 jewel to an era broadly defined as “The Golden Age” between Donald Ross’ death in 1948 and Pinehurst’s sale to the Diamondhead Corporation in 1970. It was a brilliant move PineStraw 55
WE’RE WE’REA ASHOP SHOP FOR FORALL ALLSEASONS! SEASONS! WISHING YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR! WE KE
!
5 YEAR S
ATING 3
ZE!
BREE ER FUN A M M U S P E
CELEBR
G O L F T OW N J O U R NA L
indeed, restoring the course to the gnarly look of Ross’ homeland in Scotland. The Changes in the Village (Not) — Pat Corso, the president and CEO of Pinehurst Resort from 1987-2003, looked at a vintage black and white aerial photo of the village of Pinehurst one day in the early 1990s. The photo was taken probably in the 1950s. “Except for the cars, it looks exactly the same,” he said. It would today as well. Marty McKenzie, a lifelong Pinehurst resident and businessman, likes to call it “The Magic Bubble.” There is still nothing garish or gaudy inside that bubble.
Import Experts MinuMte y Convenient insufrteosmfrth y ilitarYour ome thThe e Walking Game — Pinehurst AAAAaAnAdaMnd MilitaanritdYour M ry in a it ut M il es in Yo u r C o n v e n i e n t I m p o r t E x p e r t s M u fr ry te om a s Convenient Auto Experts fr th il Yo u r C o n v e n i e n t I m p o r t E x p e r t s A o ts e A m M n A th d u Your Convenient Auto Experts n o e a ts c A n is A u D DisA co ts n u Tr co a is ff ic Circle owner Richard Tufts once said there Yo u r CConvenient onvenient Im p o r tExperts Experts Your Auto DiscouDnts would never be golf carts in Pinehurst. COMPLETE SERVICE & REPAIRS They defied the spirit of the old Scottish COMPLETE SERVICE & REPAIRS SPECIALIZING IN DIAGNOSTICS game, he said. Of course, Tufts and his 910-295-5888 SPECIALIZING IN DIAGNOSTICS lieutenants bowed to market forces in the 2036 Juniper Lake Road 1950s and ’60s and the resort followed 910-295-5888 • 2036 Juniper Lake Road autowerksnc.com 910-295-5888 • 2036 Juniper Lake Road national trends over the coming decades 910-295-5888 • 2036 Juniper Lake Road
COMPLETE SERVICE && REPAIRS COMPLETE SERVICE REPAIRS SPECIALIZING ININ DIAGNOSTICS SPECIALIZING DIAGNOSTICS autowerksnc.com autowerksnc.com autowerksnc.com
DUNROVIN COUNTRY STORE
Preserving Tradition, One Product at a Time
Visit Our Newly Opened Amish Deli! 56 PineStraw
Locally Sourced Foods & Gifts, Made the Old-Fashioned Way 5456 US 1 N., Vass, NC • (910) 246-0814 Open Daily 9am - 6pm
SERVING THE COMMUNITY FOR OVER 75 YEARS
that sadly saw those infernal contraptions as the default mode to playing the same. Happily, those trends reversed as I chronicled in my 2021 book, Good Walks. Today at many Sandhills courses you can walk-and-carry, take a trolley or hire a caddie — golf as it should be. The Dynamic Decade — It was a bold and drastic move for sure when Coore & Crenshaw stripped out all that lush green Bermuda grass on No. 2 and in its stead melded sand and wire grass and jagged edges. That set the template for a crescendo of adventurous change over the next dozen years — The Cradle short course, the rebuild of No. 4, the transformation of an abandoned steam plant into the Pinehurst Brewery, the launch of the satellite golf destination south of town with No. 10 (open) and No. 11 (under construction), and the USGA setting up shop with offices and the World Golf Hall of Fame. It’s been quite a run. It’s been a blast to have a front row seat. PS Lee Pace has written about the Pinehurst experience for nearly four decades from his home in Chapel Hill. Write him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @ LeePaceTweet.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
JOIN US THIS MONTH January 8 Monthly Tour: Shapes, Textures, and Shades of Winter Green 10 a.m. January 16 Pruning Presentation 1 p.m.
Become a member of the Gardens or register for an event at: www.sandhills.edu/gardens SANDHILLS COMMUNITY COLLEGE HORTICULTURAL GARDENS 3245 AIRPORT ROAD I PINEHURST, NC 28374 I 910.246.4949 WWW.SANDHILLS.EDU/GARDENS
330 West Pennsylvania Ave, Southern Pines 910-695-3334 • edwardmonroedds.com
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
110 NW Broad Street • Southern Pines, NC 28387 • 910-692-2388
PineStraw 57
MEET THE AUTHORS!
More information about author events at ticketmesandhills.com
Ford S. Worthy
Jack Kelly
Virtual Conversation: Tom Paine’s War
In Search of a Boy Named Chester
Jan. 8 at 12PM
TOM PAINE’S WAR: The Words That Rallied a Nation and the Founder for Our Time by historian Jack Kelly is a deep dive into the works and life of American revolutionary Thomas Paine. Few of America’s founders were as influential during the crucial year 1776, and few are more controversial. This tribute to the American Revolution’s 250th anniversary is a riveting exploration of America’s birth. In the book, Kelly examines the power of words—and the power of belief—and how both speak to America’s current crisis.
Donna Everhart Women of a Promiscuous Nature
Jan. 14 at 6PM
Shortly after the end of World War II, a 21-year-old Navy officer - just back after a year at war in the Pacific - was eager to return to his small hometown in eastern North Carolina for a brief home leave. At the San Francisco airport, a mother travelling to Omaha offered him her seat - a patriotic gesture of gratitude, he believed. There was one condition: the sailor would need to accompany her 10-year-old son and see him safely to his grandmother in Omaha. The boy’s name was Chester. The sailor never forgot him.
Jon Meacham The Soul of America Feb. 20
Jan. 28 at 11AM Please join us for a discussion at Weymouth from The Country Bookshop’s Kimberly Daniels Taws and Donna Everhart. The two will be discussing Donna’s latest book, about a little known chapter in North Carolina’s history and sure to be a book club hit, Women of A Promiscuous Nature. The novel is historical fiction about the North Carolina State Industrial Farm Colony for Women. Women were sent there because they were reported for promiscuity by neighbors, husbands, strangers. Some were accused of prostitution. Others were just pretty and unmarried. Or poor and “suspicious.” One was eating dinner alone in a restaurant. Another spoke to a soldier.
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of America unites centuries of essential American voices to understand our national debates and divisions from 1619 to the present, with his signature commentary on the consequential speeches, letters, and essays that led us to this moment.
140 NW Broad Street • Southern Pines, NC • 910.692.3211 www.thecountrybookshop.biz • Text us for special orders 910.690.4454
Scan to view all of our upcoming events
January 2026
The Other Side of the Mirror “Let’s pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze . . . And certainly the glass was beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist.” — Lewis Caroll, Through the Looking Glass There’s always a reason I’d rather stay home, as I brush my hair, gaze into my reflection, sit before the dresser where I combed my curls as a girl, forever getting ready for the life that hadn’t arrived yet. Mirrors remained unfazed, as I exchanged one image for another, changed my hairstyles and hats, traced fingers along a scar, abandoned myself for imperfections. I have come close to escaping into another world, always about to leave or about to live, my eyes child-like, clear as glass, considering what time it must be . . . to keep from disappearing into my own unbreakable stare. — Linda Annas Ferguson Linda Annas Ferguson has authored five collections of poetry. Her most recent book is the novel What the Mirrors Knew.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PineStraw 59
There’s no better time to have the blues than in winter, and the Arts Council of Moore County seconds that emotion with its exhibit “The Winter Blues.” The artworks in the juried show can be viewed at the Campbell House Galleries, 482 E. Connecticut Ave. in Southern Pines, beginning the 9th of January. In total 122 pieces were submitted by 74 artists in media ranging from paintings and glass to ceramics and fiber, and of that number, 95 works by 64 artists were accepted for the show. The art was judged by the ACMC Visual Arts Committee comprised of Kate Curtin, Katherine MacRae, Stuart Fulghum, Paula Montgomery and Nanette Zeller. The pieces will remain on display at the Campbell House until February 11. Winter Branches, Leslie Bailey
We Could Dream This Night Away, Caitlin Gironda Deep Blue Ice, Janet Borchardt 60 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Silver Sky, Pat McBride Northern Lights Totem, Laura Harris
Frosty Night, Jean Smyth The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PineStraw 61
Out of the Blue, Nancy Crossett
Snow Gums Ablaze, Samantha Stouffer
The Horse Trainer, Vanessa Grebe 62 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Icy Blues, Pam Griner
My Winter Dreams Were of The Summer Garden, Ellen Burke The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Winter Birch, Jill Hunt PineStraw 63
Winding Down, Alicia Crownover
Winter Calm, Bobbie Britt
Left Bank of Creek Feeding into the Potomac, Susan Beveridge
Slovakia in Winter, Mariangela Rinaldi 64 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Waiting, Jordan Baker
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Breakfast on Snow, Beth Roy
PineStraw 65
Taking Flight, John Regan
Winter Cardinal, Shawn Bourdon Winter Birches, Jude Winkley 66 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Stormy Weather, Ulli Misegades
Winter Dragon Fly, Dian Moore
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Dashing Through the Snow, Susan DeYoung
PineStraw 67
George Washington’s 1791 Southern Tour By Warren L. Bingham s the hero of the American Revolution and a man of action, George Washington knew his presence mattered. Shortly after becoming president, he planned to visit all 13 states, “to see and be seen” while promoting the new Constitution and the federal government. By 1791 Washington had made trips to the Middle and Northern states. That spring he would conduct the Southern Tour, traveling to Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. Except for brief visits in the 1760s as a landowner in North Carolina’s Great Dismal Swamp, Washington had never been south of Yorktown. The Southern Tour was the most challenging of Washington’s journeys. The president would leave from the nation’s temporary capital, Philadelphia, and be away over three months to reach the farthest points in South Carolina and Georgia. Roads were bad. Crossing water was often an adventure. Inns were few and far between, and the standard unreliable. Horses required proper provisions. Bad weather, clouds of dust and even highway robbery loomed as threats — though one supposes the prospect of holding up Washington and his traveling party would have required an extraordinarily witless band of criminals. Nonetheless, the 59-year-old Washington and eight traveling companions embarked on the Southern Tour on the first day of spring of 1791. Cabinet members Thomas Jefferson and Henry Knox escorted the entourage from Philadelphia to Delaware. Washington left a detailed itinerary with Vice President Adams and his cabinet members if they sought to get mail or messages to him. Washington was paid a whopper of a salary as the first president, $25,000, but he covered his own expenses for his residence, office and presidential duties, including travel. He paid his household staff and secretaries from his earnings. The presidential entourage included seven servants from his Philadelphia home, two of them enslaved men on loan from Mount Vernon. William Jackson, a longtime secretary of Washington’s, served as top aide on the trip. Jackson, an officer during the Revolution and a Charlestonian, was young and single, making him ideal to take along on the journey. The trip was considered too arduous for a lady, so first lady Martha
68 PineStraw
Washington remained at home, even though she was a veteran of some wartime camps. Transportation included the president’s own cream-colored coach and four, a baggage wagon pulled by two horses, and a few extra saddle horses. Washington’s personal mount, Prescott, a tall white parade horse, made the trip. Quite aware of looking presidential, Washington, who stood 6 feet, 2 inches tall, made a dashing impression riding high in Prescott’s saddle. Folklore suggests that a greyhound named Cornwallis accompanied the travelers, but alas, the presence of the hound is likely a myth. Washington was a planner, and he immersed himself in the journey’s details. He consulted with his secretaries and gentlemen travelers to understand the roads and inns of the South. The president decided to go south along the fall line and the Coastal Plain and to make the return north through the Piedmont, the higher land between the Lowcountry and the mountains. He charted a route that gave him a good feel for the region, though he specifically wanted to visit Charleston, South Carolina, then the fourth-largest city in the country and a place of influence and affluence. Georgia’s two notable places were Savannah and Augusta, so he was going no farther south than those towns. Atlanta didn’t yet exist. The trip from Philadelphia to North Carolina was a memorable one. The travelers endured near-calamities while crossing both the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis and the Occoquan River in Virginia. Stops in Fredericksburg, Richmond and Petersburg went well, however, and represented Washington’s typical reception. The president was feted by dinners, dances and cannon salutes. Upon his arrival, parades ensued, church bells rang and choirs sang. Eighteenth century drinking was impressive and many toasts were offered — usually 13 (one for each state, of course) with a few more thrown in for good measure. Hosts dressed up in their finest clothes, and women wore sashes adorned with words of tribute such as “Long Live Washington!” Some towns were lit up with torches, candles and bonfires, a prospect that would have alarmed any self-respecting fire marshal, had such public safety civil servants existed then. Elected officials, Masons, ministers and veterans of the Revolution were received by the president. He sometimes atThe Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Washington wrote: The uncomfortableness of it, for Men and Horses, would have induced me to put up; but the only inn short of Hallifax having no stables in wch. the horses could be comfortable & no rooms or beds which appeared tolerable, & every thing else having a dirty appearance, I was compelled to keep on to Hallifax. At the end of this stormy day, Washington crossed the Roanoke River, arriving in Halifax around six in the evening for his first true taste of North Carolina. Any visit Washington had previously made to the Great Dismal Swamp hardly counts — it’s
N.C. Wyeth, “Reception to Washington on April 21, 1789, at Trenton on his way to New York to Assume the Duties of the Presidency of the United States,” Oil on canvas, 518 cm x 366 cm (17 feet by 12 feet)
PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIN GRUGAN, THOMAS EDISON STATE UNIVERSITY
tended church services and occasionally had the luxury of riding Prescott around town simply to see who he might see. Traveling between the larger towns wasn’t easy. Local militias often escorted the president, stirring up a choking dust. The inns along the road were often “indifferent,” a term Washington used to politely describe barely acceptable accommodations for man and beast. On Saturday, April 16, 1791, nearly four weeks after leaving Philadelphia, wind, rain and lightning filled the air as the president and his party made their way into North Carolina.
While N.C. Wyeth's depiction of George Washington shown here is not from the president's Southern Tour of 1791, the reception was typical of those he experienced on his journey.
70 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
ILLUSTRATION BY MIRANDA GLYDER
like saying you’ve been to Dallas after changing planes at DFW. It’s not certain where Washington lodged during his two-night visit to Halifax, but it was probably Eagle Tavern. As much as practicable, he refused private lodging during his presidential journeys, either paying his way or agreeing to stay in communityprovided accommodation. At times during the Southern Tour, however, there simply wasn’t a suitable public place available. Of course, the horses had to be properly cared for and fed — and some public houses weren’t even reliable enough for that. Halifax was home to several notable North Carolinians, among them, Congressman John Baptist Ashe, future Gov. William R. Davie, and Willie Jones, who had led North Carolina’s opposition to the Constitution and was no fan of the federal government. Indeed, Jones suggested he would receive Washington as a great man — but not as president of the United States. Though Washington was greeted politely and treated respectably in Halifax, there’s no doubt that the presence of Jones tempered the enthusiasm. After all, Washington was in town for
only two days, but the locals had to live with Jones long after the president was gone. Samuel Johnston, an Edenton lawyer and the squire of Hayes Plantation, wrote in a late-May letter to James Iredell that “the reception of the president in Halifax was not such that we could wish tho in every other part of the country he was treated with proper attention.” In 2011 — with the specter of Jones long dead and buried — Halifax commemorated the Southern Tour on Historic Halifax Day. When he reached Tarboro, Washington was impressed by the bridge — a rarity in 1791 — over the Tar River. Apparently, the number of cannon in Tarboro was in agreement with the number of bridges. Washington wrote, “We were received at this place by as good a salute as could be given with one piece of artillery.” Reading Blount, a veteran of the Revolution and a member of the state’s prominent Blount family, led the president’s entertainment. Washington made his way from Tarboro to Greenville along roads that no longer exist, but his route probably tracked near today’s Route 33. In Greenville, the president, ever a farmer, was pleased to learn about local crops, including tobacco, and was intrigued by tar-making and its commercial value. Nonetheless, Washington wrote that Greenville was a trifling place. Greenvillians shouldn’t fret; the president would say the same thing about Charlotte. After a night near present-day Ayden, during which Washington worried about the horses going uncovered without stables, the travelers passed near Fort Barnwell en route to New Bern. Likely edging out Wilmington as the largest town in North Carolina in 1791, New Bern turned out smartly for Washington. Mounted militia and town leaders met the president’s party several miles outside town to act as escort. The city provided a new but never occupied home for the president’s stay, the John Wright Stanly home, which still stands and is part of today’s Tryon Palace complex. On his second night in town, Washington was entertained at a gala at Tryon Palace, and his dance card was full. In recent years, a yellow gown worn that evening by Mrs. Ferebe Guion was shown and evaluated on PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow.” The dress, value unknown, remains in the hands of Guion descendants. In an age of slow and unreliable mail, Isaac Guion, Ferebe’s husband, took advantage of the presidential traveling party and their Southern passage to send a letter to a friend in Georgia via the president. Imagine the conversation. “Uh, Mr. President, as long as you’re going . . .” I suspect William Jackson, the secretary, handled it, but indeed the letter was carried to Georgia and ultimately delivered. In the 1940s, A.B. Andrews Jr., a Raleigh lawyer and history buff, came across the letter, acquired it, and presented it to the town of New Bern. It’s kept in the archives in the Kellenberger Room, a wonderful collection of local, regional and state history and genealogy at the New Bern-Craven County Public Library. With all these ties to the Southern Tour, New Bern held major commemorations of Washington’s visit in 1891 and again in 2015. A cannon salute roared as Washington left New Bern, and the presidential party traveled through Jones County, a namesake of
Halifax’s Willie Jones. Longtime Pollocksville mayor and avocational historian Jay Bender wonders why Washington stayed so far inland as he went south from New Bern. The old King’s Highway, the post road that went from Boston to Charleston, came through New Bern and tracked more directly to Wilmington. The reason might have been lodging and services for man and horse, since Shine’s Tavern in Jones County, where Washington put up for the night, enjoyed a good reputation. The travelers arrived at the coast, a few miles from Topsail Beach, on Saturday, April 23. By late afternoon they linked up with present-day Holly Ridge and the King’s Highway, today’s U.S. 17. Washington lodged at Sage’s Inn, one of the establishments he labeled as “indifferent,” though another traveler of the era described the proprietor, Robert Sage, as a “fine jolly Englishman.” On Easter Sunday, the presidential party followed the King’s Highway toward Wilmington, resting in Hampstead. Some claim that Hampstead takes its name from Washington requesting ham instead of oysters for his breakfast that morning. There is a large live oak hard by U.S. 17 in Hampstead that supposedly is where the travelers rested. A local DAR chapter has kept the tree marked as the Washington Oak for a century or more. At some point on Easter, Washington wrote a long diary entry in which he observed that the land between New Bern and Wilmington was the most barren country he ever beheld. The travelers had gone through a vast longleaf pine savanna, and Washington had never seen anything like it. While Washington attended church services several times during the Southern Tour, he made no mention of Easter or attending a service in Wilmington. The Port City’s streets were lined with people to catch sight of America’s hero as Washington was led to his lodgings, a home on Front Street provided by the widow Quince, who gave up her home for the president while she stayed with family elsewhere in town. Historian Chris Fonvielle, an emeritus professor at UNC Wilmington, says that Wilmington entertained Washington lavishly, and that it was evident that the president “enjoyed the attention from the ladies and drinking with the gentlemen.” Indeed, Washington’s diary indicates there were 62 ladies at the ball. Fonvielle confirms that Washington spent time at two taverns, Dorsey’s and Jocelyn’s. Tavern keeper Lawrence Dorsey famously told the president, “Don’t drink the water!” Washington’s party continued south on Tuesday the 26th with several stops in Brunswick County. The president met with Benjamin Smith of Belvidere Plantation. Smith was prominent in many ways, a future governor and large landholder, and an officer under Washington’s watch at some point during the Revolution. Southport was originally named Smithville in Benjamin Smith’s honor as he donated the land for the town. Bald Head Island is still known to some as Smith Island, as its original owner was Benjamin Smith’s grandfather, Thomas Smith. After a night at Russ’ Tavern, about 25 miles south of Wilmington, the travelers stopped at William Gause’s Tavern on the mainland side of what’s now Ocean Isle Beach. Local lore says that the group took breakfast there and went for a swim in the swash, waters that are now the Intracoastal Waterway. The The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
story goes that the president hung his clothes to dry in a large live oak by Gause’s that still stands. Washington crossed into South Carolina early on the afternoon of April 27. The president continued his travels through South Carolina and Georgia and returned north to North Carolina in late May with stops in Charlotte, present-day Concord, Salisbury, Old Salem and Guilford Courthouse. Washington moved fast on the northbound return. His departures were often at four and five a.m. after one-night stays. In Charlotte, the president was hosted by Thomas Polk, a former officer during the Revolution and the great-uncle of future president James K. Polk. Washington lodged at Cook’s Inn on the corner of Trade and Church Streets where reportedly he left behind his powder box — not gunpowder but powder for body and hair. Washington enjoyed two nights in Old Salem. Though he planned to spend only one evening, the president agreed to spend another day upon learning that North Carolina governor Alexander Martin was on the way to meet him but wouldn’t arrive until the next day. The president was impressed by the Moravians’ “small but neat village” and their ingenuity, having devised a clever water distribution system. Before the creation of Greensboro, the county seat of Guilford was Guilford Courthouse, the site of a significant battle of the Revolution just 10 years earlier. Throughout the Southern Tour, Washington enjoyed seeing the battlegrounds that he had long read about. This was no different. “I examined the ground on which the action between Generals Greene and Lord Cornwallis commenced,” wrote Washington. His last stop in North Carolina was an overnight stay with Dudley Gatewood in Caswell County, just south of the Virginia line. Gatewood’s home was disassembled and moved to Hillsborough during the 1970s, where it was reassembled and served many years as a Mexican restaurant. Sadly, the home gradually fell into disrepair and was torn down in 2024. The travelers continued north through Virginia, spending time at Mount Vernon and in Georgetown, Maryland, where the president met with area residents to make plans and arrangements to create the new federal capital on the Potomac. Washington celebrated July 4 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the travelers arrived back in Philadelphia on July 6. Church bells pealed to honor his return. The odometer had turned nearly 1,900 miles and Washington noted that he had gained flesh while the horses had lost it. America’s first president never again went south of Virginia, but his visit to North Carolina and the South in 1791 was a great success. The Stanly House in New Bern and Salem Tavern in Old Salem are the only extant places where the first president slept, but the legacy is alive and well. The journey was a remarkable physical feat, and politically, Washington’s presence among the citizens and leaders of the nascent United States created considerable good will and acceptance of the new federal government, helping to cement the legacy of 1776. PS Warren L. Bingham is a writer and speaker and the author of George Washington’s 1791 Southern Tour. PineStraw 71
BIRD
MAN
On a mission to help save a species By Jenna Biter Photographs by John Gessner & Todd Pusser
“I
’
ve always been interested in birds,” Dr. Joseph H. Carter III says, as matter-of-fact as his graying hair and beard. The ecologist looks out from a pair of rimless glasses. He’s reclined in a dark leather chair with a knee propped up on a dark wooden desk opposite a fireplace framed by white tiles painted with mallards and other birds. A stuffedanimal opossum stares down from a shelf. Volumes including Saving Species on Private Lands and Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas line the wall behind him. “I started my life list of birds when I was 13.” A birder’s “life list” is precisely what you’d think. It’s a running total of all the species they’ve spotted and identified. Carter has tallied 300 and some. “It’s really not that many,” he says. Most of the birds on his list are local to North Carolina, the place where his interest took flight. Amassing an eyepopping number — say, a thousand or more — hasn’t been Carter’s life mission. That was reserved for one species in particular, the red-cockaded woodpecker. After earning a degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and graduate degrees from North Carolina State, Carter launched his environmental consulting firm, Dr. J.H. Carter III & Associates, in 1976, when he was 26 years old. His first contract was with the North Carolina Department of Transportation consulting on the four-laning of U.S. 421 north of Wilmington. It was in the Sandhills, where he grew up, that Carter’s devotion to the once-endangered (now-threatened) red-cockaded woodpecker transformed into one of the largest, longest-running research studies of any one species. The Sandhills Ecological Institute, a nonprofit organization Carter founded in 1998, helps run the study and is located next to his consulting firm on Midland Road. Carter spent his boyhood in Southern Pines distracted by the flash of feathers. “I’d be watching out the windows at school,” he says. “Every day I wrote down every bird I saw, even if it was a starling or whatever.” After school let out, Carter continued his birdwatching exploits at home. He’d walk into the family house on the “Little Nine” — the Southern Pines Golf Club’s now fallow nine holes — and right back out with binoculars dangling from his neck, disappearing into the woods bubbling with creeks and swamps in the swaths of nature the golf course didn’t occupy. “My first pair of binoculars were my dad’s. He was in the Navy in World War II and brought his nautical binoculars back. They were about this . . . ” Carter says, measuring a great distance between his hands, “and weighed about seven or eight pounds. I probably did permanent damage to my neck wearing those things.” Carter began banding birds when he was out of school with mononucleosis. “I got a banding permit from the federal government and just dove in,” says Carter. In the ’60s, it wasn’t difficult to acquire a permit for yard banding. Today, a citizen scientist
74 PineStraw
needs to be involved with a research project to tag birds. Carter set up a system of feeders and super-fine “mist nets.” Attracted by the food, the birds would fly into the nets, safely and temporarily captive. Carter took measurements, weighed the birds, distinguished the sex if he could, banded them and turned them loose. “I banded everything that came to the feeders,” he says. “Every day it was sunup to sundown — band, band, band, band.” That winter Carter tagged more than 300 evening grosbeaks, 400 pine siskins and 900 purple finches traveling from Canada in a winter finch invasion. After he recovered from his illness, his hobby remained. He zigzagged across the Sandhills banding with his birder-mentor, a woman named Mary Wintyen. After getting his driver’s license, his territory expanded: Drowning Creek, Little River, the local lakes. “I was going to the lakes looking at the waterfowl,” Carter says. “Other kids were doing teenage stuff. I was out there crawling around in the woods, trying to find neat things. I kept up with snakes and salamanders and all that stuff.” But neither snakes nor salamanders — not even waterfowl, northern finches or other birds — would weave through Carter’s life like the red-cockaded woodpecker, a species he saw for the first time in September 1963 near the 12th green of the golf club. Red-cockadeds are smallish woodpeckers, slightly longer than a new No. 2 pencil from eraser to the blunt end. The birds are almost entirely black and white, but the males wear a cockade, a tuft of red feathers on each side of its head, that gives them their name. Native to forests across the southeastern United States, their homes of choice are old longleaf pines, where they’ll peck themselves cozy cavities in which to roost and nest. “After they make a cavity, they dress up the tree, and the tree gets a reddish appearance. Then they peck what we call resin wells in the tree,” Carter explains. “Because the tree’s alive, it bleeds resin, and it eventually turns the tree white. We call them candlesticks in the forest.” If the sap has dulled to a dirty, yellowish gray, the red-cockaded The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
woodpeckers have vacated long ago. Carter remembers seeing abandoned cavities while crisscrossing Moore County with Wintyen. “You’d see them on the golf courses. You’d see them on the side of the road,” he says. Birds were still active but their numbers seemed to be declining, and Carter was curious. “I’ve been interested in the red-cockaded woodpecker since I was 15. That was when the first paper I co-authored was published in our Carolina Bird Club journal, the Chat,” says Carter. He and Wintyen wrote the paper for the bulletin in 1965. They described the cavities they’d seen. Where they were. What they were like. Only one nest, possibly two, was active, and Carter didn’t know the cause of the species’ decline. At the time, it wasn’t clear. “One thing just built on another and the woodpecker got listed as an endangered species,” he says. Congress protected the bird under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. It was around then that Carter graduated from UNCW and applied to NC State for his master’s degree. Initially rejected, he decided to plead his case in person and pitch his plan for a sweeping study of a the redcockaded woodpecker. “Survey everything, tag all the trees, catch all the birds, band all the birds, and then just track what was going on to answer some of these questions: Why are the birds decreasing? How many are there? All the basic demographic questions you need to answer,” Carter says, outlining the elephant-size task. The secretary for the head of the Zoology Department was out, but Carter could see that the head of the department himself — Dr. David E. Davis — was in his office, seated just around the corner. “He spoke, like, six languages. He could lecture in Russian. He’s way, way up there,” Carter says. “I asked if I could talk to him and he said yes. I sat down. I didn’t know I was supposed to be scared of this guy. He listened, thanked me and sent me on my way.” Later Carter got a phone call from an ornithologist he knew at NC State. So long as he could finish his master’s in a year, he was in. He began surveying Southern Pines, Pinehurst, McCain, the northern part of the Sandhills Game Lands and the western part of Fort Bragg. “It was getting a population estimate as well as being able to characterize the habitats they were in. You know, how old were the pines? How dense were the pines? How much of a midstory, scrub oaks and whatever?” Carter says. “So I did all that and then I graduated with my master’s degree.” Banding the birds would have to wait until a sprawling study was funded. “We started banding in ’79,” Carter says. The grant secured money for red-cockaded woodpecker research across 400 square miles of the Sandhills. Originally the study lived at NC State. Eventually it moved to the Sandhills Ecological Institute, which was founded and runs — with the help of Carter — to study and preserve the longleaf pine ecosystem. Through decades of bands-on-birds, boots-in-field research, The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
scientists could finally answer the whys behind the red-cockadeds decline, a mystery that long ago grabbed the attention of a selfadmitted obsessive teen. Loss of habitat was one factor: Across the centuries, tens of millions of acres of longleaf pine had been logged. Moreover, the policy of total fire suppression, adopted in the 20th century, was harming the biodiversity of the still-standing longleaf forests. In retrospect, Carter knew something was off since the time he was just a curious kid exploring the woods with his dad’s old binoculars. There were no birds to see where turkey oaks and vines and shrubs crowded a pine forest’s midstory. But the aha moment didn’t come until years later when Carter surveyed Fort Bragg’s blast sites, where fire was the way of things. “All of a sudden, you can see to the horizon. There is no midstory,” Carter says, a touch of awe warming his gravelly voice. There were woodpeckers all over the place. There were songbirds all over the place. To Carter, it was like discovering Atlantis. “You can’t have a longleaf pine forest without frequent, low-intensity fire, and its cycle and its nutrients.” By the end of the ’80s, the red-cockaded woodpecker population had leveled, and there was potential for an uptick. Sometime around then, Dr. Jeffrey Walters, who had been involved with cockaded research since early days, secured funding to determine whether drilling artificial cavities into trees could boost the woodpecker’s numbers. As it turned out, it could, and Carter’s firm still drills artificial cavities today. You can even spot one of his company’s nests on Pinehurst’s No. 2 golf course. Thanks to conservation efforts, the red-cockaded woodpecker was downgraded from federally endangered to threatened in October 2024. There are now an estimated 7,800 active clusters across 11 states in the Southeast — up from an all-time low of roughly 1,500 in the early ’70s when the Endangered Species Act became law. As a threatened species, red-cockaded woodpeckers are still protected by the act. According to Carter, they are a “conservationreliant species,” and their numbers will drop if management ceases. Carter pushes back from his office desk. His cast of characters watch attentively from their fireplace tiles and shelf as he prepares to leave. “It’s a labor of — I hate to say labor of love, that sounds tacky as hell,” Carter says, “but it takes people who are willing to basically dedicate their lives to projects like this. Whether they’re studying elephants or bacteria or whatever, it takes folks like that. We’ve all benefited from each other and the sacrifices that we were willing to make to keep these things going.” PS Jenna Biter is a writer and military wife in the Sandhills. She can be reached at jennabiter@protonmail.com.
PineStraw 75
STORY OF A HOUSE
All the
Right Moves
When downsizing is the perfect choice By Deborah Salomon Photographs by John Gessner
R
esidential downsizing for senior couples can be a challenge. Cherished possessions may be dispersed, gardens and neighbors left behind. Creating a rewarding life with curated furnishings, new fabrics and colors requires time, expertise, motivation and energy. That calls for a Cynthia Birdsall. “I ran the renewal. I was the architect, general contractor, interior designer,” says Cynthia of the Birdsalls’ move from Dunross, a 9,000 square foot, six bedroom, 10 bathroom, three-story castle with workshops and outbuildings built for Donald Ross in Knollwood, into a 4,500 square foot single-story two-bedroom 1970s “ranch” in an over-55 development. Finding that size house on one floor took two years. The Birdsalls maintain an active social life. “We weren’t ready for assisted living. We still wanted a neighborhood,’’ says Cynthia. She hired the painter, the cabinetmakers and electrician. “The guys trusted me.” Bruce Birdsall’s health and mobility was an impetus for change.
76 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PineStraw 77
Cynthia’s renovation not only included friendly doorsills but space suitable for resident caregivers, if needed in the future for either of them. During the transition the couple moved into an apartment for two years. Furnishings that could not be used were stored. Two bathrooms were gutted. “We had to take out a wall to build a shower in one,” Cynthia says. While designing space for their new lifestyle, Cynthia did not ignore their enthusiasms. “I’m all about wine,” she says. Several temperature-regulated “wine rooms” store and display her collection. Bruce has a coffee station, stockpiles single malt Scotch and keeps a stable of vintage cars and motorbikes. The couple entertains, thus the bar with refrigeration, icemaker and tools to suit a professional bartender. Against an exterior wall they added an adorable, enclosed garden with a wrought iron gate and a variety of surfaces including grass, concrete, pebbles and water where two elderly miniature French bulldogs hang out, weather permitting. Frequent guests may remember leather-upholstered chairs and a stretch sofa that survived the move from Dunross. Cynthia is a seventh-generation Texan comfortable with fur, skins and leather, which appear throughout. In contrast, over the simple, 12-seat dining room table — made from a single mesquite tree —
78 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
hangs an ornate, sparkling chandelier. More Paris than Dallas. She doesn’t assign a period or style to her furnishings. “It’s just what I’ve collected over many years because I love it.” Cynthia chose an interesting black-coffee hue for the engineered flooring, an ideal background for light-colored area rugs. The sparsely furnished two-part living room and oversized Carolina room illustrate a concept originating in the foyer: space as a décor element. The foyer contains only a table. But what a table it is. “We wanted our guests to have room to move around,’’ Cynthia explains. Walls are a soft vanilla throughout. Woodwork, including crown moldings, is finished in light-reflecting semi-gloss. Paintings hang singly rather than in groups, creating drama. Windows are shaded by white venetian blinds, never drapes. This absence of “stuff” conveys calm, something uber-active Cynthia seeks and appreciates. Exceptions exist, particularly in the kitchen, where Cynthia had some wall cabinets removed to create a pantry and transformed the island base into shelves for her cookbook collection. A
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PineStraw 79
quartz countertop splattered in bright blue adds pop. Meal prep becomes happy time. “When we cook for the family (with children and grandchildren) we cook as a group, and dance around,” she says. Perhaps the most interesting space is the master suite with seating area, an impressive 18-foot-by-28 foot corner room furnished in custom-made pieces designed by Cynthia. Their shapes suggest frill-free Scandinavian modes popular in the early 1950s. In contrast, the showstopper is a cabinet from Bruce’s family that contains Cynthia’s perfume bottle collection. The AARP reports that downsizing can have both positive and negative effects on seniors. A survey found that 75 percent of Americans ages 50 and over have a strong prefer-
80 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PineStraw 81
ence for staying in their longtime family home. The Birdsalls have had other homes and lived at Dunross only a few years, lessening the emotional attachment to any one place. Their upscale downsize happened under favorable conditions with enviable results: familiar neighborhood, same friends, comfortable furnishings, safe environment. They even have worked out sleeping arrangements for visiting children and grandchildren since the house has only two bedrooms — option one: rent the Pinehurst church that is now a residence. Downsizing wears many faces, from worry to acceptance and relief. This face, thank goodness, is smiling. “This was the right decision for us,” Cynthia says. PS
82 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PineStraw 83
84 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PineStraw 85
Imagine your home, totally organized! Custom Closets, Garage Cabinets, Home Offices, Pantries, Laundries, Hobby Rooms
$300 OFF
Plus Free Installation Terms and Conditions: $300 off any order of $1198 or more,$200 off any order of $998-$1198 or $100 off any order of $698-$998, on any complete custom closet, garage,or home office unit. Not valid with any other offer. Freeinstallation with any complete unit order of $600 or more. With incoming order, at time of purchase only.
SPECIAL OFFERS
For a limited time SPECIAL FINANCING for 18 months *with approved credit*
Expires in 90 days. Offer not valid in all regions.
for the New Year!
Call for a free in-home design consultation and estimate
336-396-2300 WT closetsbydesign.com Licensed and Insured • Locally Owned and Operated
Follow us
A L M A N A C
January By Ashley Walshe
J
anuary is an ancient remembering; a rush of cold; the crunch, crunch, quiet of naked woods. This new day, sunlight caressing the frigid earth, inspiration knocks with the clarity of woodpecker drumming against towering pine. Bundled in layers, you lace up your boots, leash up the dog, make for the leaf-littered trail in the open, unobtrusive forest. Crisp air fills your lungs with a sense of wildness, each breath sharpening your instincts, expanding your horizon, deepening your kinship with the natural world. As dead leaves rustle beneath feet and paws, the wisdom of animal awakens within you. This isn’t just a walk in the wild. It’s a homecoming. Despite the bleakness of this winter landscape, the sting of the cold, you feel a surge of bold and blissful aliveness. At once, emptiness becomes threshold of infinite possibility. At once, the unseen sings out. Opossum tracks spell midnight wanderings. A circling hawk graces a vibrant blue sky. Dog presses warm snout to damp earth and listens. You listen, too, noting the rhythm of your breath, the cadence of your footsteps, the distant crack of hoof upon fallen branch. Beyond a young beech tree, its pale leaves suspended like a murmuration of ghosts, half a dozen white-tailed deer stand invisible against the sepia backdrop. But here’s the thing: A veil has been lifted; your vision, clarified. You can sense the wild stirrings of these hollow woods. Your breath in the cold is living proof.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Keeping it Real(istic) The New Year has a way of making us believe that anything is possible — and why not? But we do love to set lofty (read delusional) goals for ourselves, don’t we? Who thought this was a good idea? The ancient Babylonians were perhaps the first. Some 4,000 years ago, during their 12-day Akitu festival, “promises to the gods” were made to earn their favor or repay debts. The ancient Romans adopted this ritual to honor Janus (god of beginnings, transitions and time), while early Christians reflected on past transgressions and resolved to “be better” at the start of the bright, new year. “New Year’s resolutions” entered modern vernacular by the 19th century, becoming a largely secular practice. This year, should you make a promise to yourself, earn your own good favor by breaking large goals into smaller steps. And, whatever your commitment, do it from a place of genuine desire — not just because you think you should.
Anyone who thinks gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year; for gardening begins in January with the dream. — Josephine Nuese New Year, New Earth Suppose we resolved to live in greater harmony with the Earth this new year. Small changes can make a big impact. Below are a few suggestions to deepen your relationship with the natural world and, perhaps, reduce your carbon footprint. Feel free to make your own vow, of course. This is strictly between you and Mama E. • Wake up to watch the sunrise • Support your local farmers market • BYO reusable shopping bags • Choose native plants and pollinators for the garden • Ditch bottled water (and single-use plastics) • Visit your local nature preserves • Spend more time barefoot on the earth • Pause to watch more sunsets PS PineStraw 87
PS PROfiles The People & Businesses That Make The Sandhills A More Vibrant Place To Live And Work!
JANUARY 2026 SPONSORED SECTION
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LOLLY NAZARIO
PINETRUST WEALTH PARTNERS PineTrust Wealth Partners was founded in 2025, but it is backed by a combined 50 years of experience in the field. While working for rival corporations, partners Bryan Griffin and Trent Williamson realized they could better serve their client’s interests working as a team – and so a coalition was born. Together, they’re particularly excited to expand their new Southern Pines location with additional advisors. “Trent and I bring a great combination of investment expertise and financial planning to our clients,” Bryan says. “We are strong believers of a collaborative process.” And after managing wealth in a small community for over 25 years, their talent for building personal relationships will fit well in Moore County. “I enjoy the big city amenities with the small town charm,” Bryan says. “This is a wonderful place to retire or raise a family.” Trent is originally from Dunn, and was introduced to Moore County by Bryan. He values the family nature of the area, as he considers his wife and daughter his greatest accomplishment. That it’s an easy commute to his alma mater, N.C. State, for his other love – Wolfpack sporting events – is an added bonus. For Bryan, a lettered UNC Chapel Hill tight end born in Clinton, it was his sons’ golfing chops that brought them to the area, where his wife now serves as the Assistant Dean at Sandhills Classical Christian School. The PineTrust team is unique in that their vast wealth management experience is complemented by youthful careers. They’re ready not just to serve today’s clients, but to build relationships with the next generation as well. Significant wealth brings complexity, requiring comprehensive care that frees you from the day-to-day management of your investments. Trent and Bryan are family men who understand that working closely with an experienced wealth manager enables you to spend that time where it matters most.
40 SW Broad Street Suite 2, Southern Pines 910.596.2003 raymondjames.com/pinetrustwealthpartners
BRYAN GRIFFIN
TRENT WILLIAMSON
DUNCRAIG MANOR Driving down Connecticut Avenue in daylight hours, you will see it – and find yourself craning round for another glimpse. One of the largest remaining residences of its time, Duncraig Manor is a startlingly beautiful English Country Tudor-style mansion now enjoying its second heyday through the efforts of a mother-daughter duo. Co-owners Petra D’Agostino and her daughter Austy Paterno share a love of hosting and travel which once shaped Austy’s childhood. Through years of travel as a family, they gathered inspiration from cultures around the world. Past all those locales, it was Southern Pines and Duncraig Manor that Petra first encouraged Austy to consider when she began to feel the pull towards a different life after having children. As so often happens, mother knew best, and the two moved east with their families to embrace the small-town community life Austy once dreamed of. Together they have transitioned the property from bed-and-breakfast to exclusive event venue – now one of North Carolina’s most elegant, Europeaninspired destinations. The Duncraig Manor welcomes an array of sophisticated gatherings and bespoke events. As a true family-run business, Petra and Austy eschew the impersonal, corporate structure found at other venues. Here, you will receive a tailored experience from the very beginning. Behind the scenes, they are thoughtfully curating a new series of “Experience Duncraig” events designed to bring the Manor to life in fresh, immersive ways, such as intimate pasta-making evenings and leisurely wine nights. In an odd nod to fate, the Duncraig Manor was built for another mother-daughter pair, Quaker Oats heiress Mrs. J. H. Andrews and her own daughter. Nearly a century later, the manor finds itself once more under the care of a filial team, being shaped into a place where the community can gather, connect and feel at home – an experience that blends elegance with genuine family warmth.
790 E Connecticut Ave. Southern Pines duncraigmanornc.com 910.684.8468
PETRA D’AGOSTINO
AUSTY PATERNO
PHILLIPP C. WIRTH, M.D., PLLC In recent years, a growing number of patients have been seeking a more accessible and relationship-focused approach to healthcare, giving rise to concierge medicine as traditional medical practices face increasing patient loads, limited appointment times, and administrative burdens. Concierge medical practice prioritizes not just treating disease but helping people achieve their life goals. Philipp C. Wirth, MD, PLLC was founded by Dr. Wirth in 2025, though the idea was born in Swank Coffee shop just two years earlier. A seasoned physician with over 20 years of experience, it may sound cliche but Dr. Wirth really loves helping people, and has found that each person is a unique puzzle which he can help solve. A childhood spent in Seneca Falls, N.Y., gave Wirth an appreciation for the close-knit personal connections that he’s now forging through his practice in the Sandhills. “This sense of community has profoundly influenced my approach to both life and medicine, where I strive to create meaningful relationships and offer genuine support to those around me,” he says. “I am passionate about helping people, which is why my work as a doctor rarely feels like a job.” Dr. Wirth has big things on the horizon this year; he’s in the process of writing and publishing his first book, running a marathon with his son, and exploring more in the Sandhills, where he’s drawn to the food scene, the golf, and the inquisitive nature of its inhabitants. For those considering a concierge physician, Wirth encourages them to think about what they truly want from their healthcare experience. If personalized attention, accessibility, and a physician who is invested in longterm health sound appealing, then this model may be the perfect fit.
80 Aviemore Ct D | Pinehurst | 910.585.5221 | drwirthmd.com
ERIKA MCCANN OWNER Erika McCann may have founded her business, Erika McCann Kitchens, in 2013, but she spent a lifetime preparing for it. Growing up, she says, “My father was a hobby carpenter. I used to hold the nails, but I learned a lot!” From that early on-thejob training, Erika progressed to studies of a more professional caliber, including a five-year internship for an acclaimed kitchen designer. Born in the Big Apple, Erika originally founded her business in New York state. “I started my company in Scarsdale, where business stayed busy purely by word of mouth. Realtors would advertise listings with the description, ‘Dream kitchen designed by Erika McCann.’” When a career opportunity brought her south, she and her husband of 35 years fell in love with Moore County’s remarkable beauty, its pleasant weather, “and the golf, of course!” When she’s not busy designing kitchens, you can find Erika spending time with her grandchildren, golfing, playing pickleball or volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and the Boys & Girls Club. Erika’s greatest accomplishment is raising her three sons, but owning and running a successful business for the last 15 years is a close second. Starting over here in the Sandhills, Erika made sure to bring with her the trademark dedication and attention to detail which has garnered so many rave reviews over the course of her career. “I bring the showroom to the customer,” she says. “I personally accept the white glove delivery and oversee installation,” which sets her company apart from competitors. As a dealer for American-made Bertch Cabinets, Erika designs and supplies kitchen, laundry and bathroom cabinetry, and can assist with appliances, countertops and tiles. She’s ready to help craft your dream kitchen today.
ERIKA MCCANN
Kitchens
914.841.5065 | kitchenladies.com
WILL CLARK OWNER Though he may look young, Will Clark is old hand with the butcher business. “My first job in high school was working at the New York Butcher Shoppe in my hometown of Columbia, South Carolina,” he says. Will kept working at the Columbia location before continuing his education at Appalachian State University and stayed with the brand during holiday breaks. But it was family roots which inspired the latest venture. “My aunt and uncle have lived in Pinehurst for over 50 years, so I am familiar with the area. I always loved visiting the pines, and I saw a need for a New York Butcher Shoppe.” Will wasted no time after graduating college in May 2024. The Southern Pines location opened in July 2025. His quick eye to community needs hearkens back to the original New York Butcher Shoppe. The D’Elia family opened their first location in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina in 1999, after relocating from Brooklyn and noticing a lack of fine meat providers.
1010 Old US Hwy 1, Southern Pines 910.684.8454 | nybutcher.com/southern-pines
Today, Will and his five employees focus each day around their motto: “Rare Quality, Well Done Service.” With handcut Certified Angus Beef wet-aged a minimum of 21 days, acorn-fed and pasture-raised pork, and pasture-raised organic chicken, their commitment to quality is evident in every cut. “Not to mention,” Will says, “my real expertise is in relationships. So far, one of the things I have enjoyed the most is getting to know our customers and getting to catch up each time they come in.” From take-and-bake meals, sides, dips and salads to an extensive wine selection, there’s something for everyone and anyone seeking the highest quality product of beef, pork, chicken, housemade sausage and seafood. Next time you are headed down Old U.S. 1 in Southern Pines, stop by the New York Butcher Shoppe. Will is looking forward to meeting you.
DR. OLIVER SPIVEY
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS TEACHER
Dr. Oliver Spivey originally hails from Laurinburg, and though travels took him as far north as Canada, he eventually returned to the Sandhills as a teenager. While books were a part of his childhood, it wasn’t until undertaking literature classes at Sandhills Community College that he decided to major in English. That decision ultimately led to a Ph.D. in English at Oklahoma State University and a discovery of the classical-Christian education tradition. The fall of 2023 brought Dr. Spivey to Sandhills Classical Christian School, where he has since taught all levels of the upper school before settling into teaching literature, philosophy, civics and rhetoric to 12th graders. He has found the school’s Christcentered mission, devotion to the liberal arts and insistence on cultivating the interior lives of its students to be rejuvenating. “A truly classical and Christian classroom is a refuge for authentic conversation and contemplation – no phones, no gadgets, no distractions,” he says. “SCCS has developed a genuine school culture which involves not only an approach to education, but a way of being in the world with each other. My relationships with students go well beyond the business of the classroom. As I often remind them, I am not the teacher: Plato, Aristotle and Shakespeare, are the true teachers.” At SCCS, education is more than a mere transfer of information, it’s the formation of an individual human person in body, mind, and soul. Their holistic approach includes challenging academics, a wonderful arts program and competitive athletics. Exciting new updates loom, as the school will now be accepting the N.C. Opportunity Scholarship, making this living education accessible to even more children in 2026. Dr. Spivey, for one, is eager to participate in the intellectual and spiritual flourishing of all the young men and women who pass through their esteemed doors.
1487 Rays Bridge Rd, Whispering Pines 910.695.1874 | sandhillsccs.org
LIFE & HEALTH TRANSITIONS Phyllis and Chris Owens understand why so many Medicare beneficiaries may feel unsettled right now. If you’re looking for a new option, or wondering whether you even have one at this point, you’re not alone. Changes in the Medicare landscape have left many people second-guessing coverage, and many people don’t realize that they may still have options even if they missed the December deadline. These uncertainties are exactly why the Owens built Life and Health Transitions LLC. They understand Medicare isn’t intuitive, and for many people, even the basics can feel overwhelming. They’ve shaped their business around education and long-term satisfaction, creating an environment where people can make decisions with confidence. Alongside teammates Jan Kerrick, Dora Lopez and John Owens, the Owens have spent decades working exclusively with Medicare beneficiaries. Collectively, the team brings 37 years of Medicare-
JAN KERRICK
CHRIS OWENS
only experience serving Moore and surrounding counties. These days they even work with folks whose parents were some of their original clients years ago. Their focus is narrow by design: Medicare Advantage Plans, Medicare Supplements and Prescription Drug Plans. It’s not just what they do, it’s all they do. Unlike most agencies, they do every plan available in our area. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Veterans, state retirees, those with Medicaid, people managing chronic health conditions or facing rising supplement premiums all have different needs, and the team at Life and Health Transitions understands unique needs often call for a wide range of solutions. Most people can make coverage changes year-round now and do not need to wait until fall. If you want to evaluate your current coverage or if you will be new to Medicare, Phyllis, Chris and their team are ready to help.
PHYLLIS OWEN
390 NW Broad St, | Southern Pines | 910.684.8814 | transitions.expert
DORA LOPEZ
JAMES WALKER, M.D NEUROSURGEON
Dr. James Walker, a neurosurgeon at FirstHealth in partnership with UNC Health, is often praised for his dedication to the job. Known for his empathy, patience and a meticulous approach, Dr. Walker goes the extra mile to deliver the highest quality care to his patients through the treatment of diseases and disorders of the brain, spine, and peripheral nerves. He joined FirstHealth Neurosurgery & Spine in 2018, bringing a wealth of experience in general neurosurgery, minimally invasive spine surgery and brain tumor surgery. He graduated with high honors from Auburn University, earned his medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and completed his neurosurgery residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he also served as chief resident and developed a groundbreaking training device for minimally invasive spine surgery. Before his move to North Carolina, he practiced in private neurosurgery in Oxford, Mississippi, and consulted with Ole Miss Athletics, treating sports-related neurological injuries. At FirstHealth, Dr. Walker continues to advance neurological treatments to improve lives. He was published recently in Surgical Neurology International Journal for pioneering a new minimally invasive approach to a rare spinal cord lesion, the first-ever of its kind worldwide. In 2024, Dr. Walker was named the FirstHealth Ambulatory Physician of the Year, honoring his inspiring and unwavering commitment to his patients and their most positive outcomes. Through his tireless work, he exemplifies the very best in patient-centered care.
910.715.8700 | firsthealth.org
CALEB CHALFLINCH OWNER Born and raised in Carthage, Caleb Chalflinch grew up with a passion for numismatics – the study or collection of coins and currency. His childhood hobby led to a lifelong interest and eventually a career. In 2023 Caleb founded Coins of the Pines directly on the picturesque Carthage courthouse square. With family roots reaching back over 200 years, Caleb is a Moore County native, and it’s that same hometown feel which keeps customers coming back. “I care,” Caleb says. “I want a customer who comes into my shop to feel comfortable.” At Coins of the Pines, everyone is treated with respect whether their purchase is worth $5 or $5,000. His goal is to have repeat business with a customer, building a relationship that will span years. You might say relationships are his specialty. “Being a good husband to my wife and good father to my daughters is my greatest accomplishment,” Caleb says.
4 Courthouse Square Unit A, Carthage NC 28327 910.722.2104
Coins of the Pines buys and sells all forms of coins and paper currency, as well as gold, silver or platinum bullion and coins for investment. They also purchase jewelry and sterling silver flatware. Naturally, collectable coins of all kinds and their numismatist owners find their way in for the shared enthusiasm…that, and the free appraisals on all items and collections, regardless of size. Caleb pays top dollar for the coins passing through his shop, and he also gives top level customer service. He’s building more than a family-owned and operated business – he’s building a community. So whether you have a few inherited coins, are looking for an investment option in precious metals, or something in between, head to Coins of the Pines.
ROOFWERKS, INC In 2024 Roofwerks, Inc opened a Southern Pines location. But this was more than a Raleigh company setting up shop – it was a homecoming. Co-owner Derwin Maness was born and raised in Moore County, where most of his family still lives. It’s in his blood, six generations deep. Co-owner Will Hayes’s parents live in Pinehurst, so the area is a home away from home for him. They started in roofing as a way to better learn the business and founded Roofwerks in 2006. They’ve been doing business in the area throughout the years so it was a natural fit to open the second branch on May Street. With a local brick & mortar storefront, they’re excited to be able to better serve the local community. Roofwerks is North Carolina’s leading roofing contractor, providing a full range of quality roofing services including shingles, slate, tile, cedar, metal and low slope membrane roofs for homeowners, businesses and multi-family communities. No matter the size of the job, the team prides themselves on quality
workmanship, exceptional customer service, and lasting value. As a fully insured roofing company with a dedicated team of highly trained employees, they take pride in delivering prompt, reliable and cost-effective roofing services. Roofwerks is built on a strong foundation of values that sit at the heart of everything they do: Hard work. Integrity. Professionalism. Customer Service. They’re the same values Will and his wife Alston worked to instill in their own greatest accomplishment, their two children. For Derwin, it’s a matter of building on those values in his own life. “I’m proud to take what God has blessed me with and try to honor him every day,” he says. With a dedicated team of loyal, talented and hard working individuals who have become like family, Roofwerks is reshaping the local roofing industry and providing customers with an unsurpassed combination of quality, service and peace of mind.
1225 N. May St., Southern Pines 910.725.0222 | roofwerks.com
To add an event, email us at pinestraw.calendar@gmail.com
JANUARY 2026 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: www. southernpines.net.
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.
SUPERMOM CIRCUIT. 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Adults 18 and older can join a fun, kid-friendly class designed for moms. Continues every Wednesday through Jan. 28. Train House, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www. southernpines.net.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 1 EDUCATIONAL TRAINING. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older can receive educational training with a new topic each month. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 8 POETRY READING CLUB. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older can bring a favorite poem or one you have written to share with friends. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 2 LUNCH BUNCH. 11:30 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to dine on different cuisines each month visiting 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 3 CRAFT DAYS. Children and families can come by the library for a drop-in craft day to work on a fun, hands-on craft at their own pace. Crafts are designed for children in grades K-5 and their families. This is a self-guided activity, so caregivers should plan to assist as needed. While supplies last. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6928235 or www.sppl.net. CHILDBIRTH CLASS. 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Prepare your body and mind during this childbirth education and movement workshop. Whitehall, 490 Pee Dee Road, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net. 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.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 4 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. Info: lholden@sppl.net.
MONDAY, JANUARY 5 PINE POWER CORE. 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. Adults
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
CORNHOLE. 12 - 1 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to work on their aim and have some fun with friends. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
BOOK EVENT: DONNA EVERHART Wednesday, January 28, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities
18 and older can join a fun, kid-friendly fitness class designed for moms. The class continues every Monday through Jan. 26. Train House, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www. southernpines.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.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 6 BRAIN FITNESS. 10 - 10:45 a.m. Adults 18 and older are invited to enjoy short relaxation and brain enhancement exercises, ending with a mindfulness practice. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7 ACTION HOUR IN THE GYM. 10 - 11 a.m. Kids ages 2 - 12 can come to the gym for open play. Southern Pines Recreation Center, 160
BOOK EVENT. 12 - 1 p.m. Attend a conversation with author Jack Kelly about his book Tom Paine’s War: The Words that Rallied a Nation and The Founder for Our Time. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www. ticketmesandhills.com. BEYOND THE BASICS. 1 - 3:30 p.m. Learn more about the game of mahjong. Order your 2025 mahjong card before we start. This course continues every Thursday through Jan. 29. Cost is $60 for residents and $84 for non-residents. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 9 YOGA. 9 - 10 a.m. Ages 12 and older can participate in a vinyasa flow to holds class. Continues every Friday through Jan. 20. Train House, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www. southernpines.net. SPARK STORYTIME. 10 a.m. Join a special, once-a-month story time at a fire station. Ages birth to 5 are welcome. Fire Station 82, 7850 NC22, Carthage. Info: www.sppl.net. SIP AND CHAT. 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. Come for the coffee and stay for the conversation at the Senior Sip & Chat. This casual and open program offers a chance for older adults to socialize, make friends and share stories. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.sppl.net. PineStraw 99
JA N UA RY CA L E N DA R
STROLLER GALAXY BURN. 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. Energize, connect and get fit with outdoor stroller workouts for moms and their little ones. Continues every Saturday through Jan. 31. Whitehall, 490 Pee Dee Road, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net. INTERMEDIATE WELDING WORKSHOP. 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. This intermediate metal fabrication class builds on the welding basics course. Cost is $250 per student. Starworks, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info: www.StarworksNC.org.
HATHA YOGA. 10 - 11 a.m. Adults 55 and older can increase flexibility, balance, stability and muscle tone while learning the basic principles of alignment and breathing. Gain strength, improve circulation and reduce chronic pain practicing gentle yoga postures and mindfulness. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
MET OPERA. 1 - 5 p.m. I Puritani (Vincenzo Bellini). Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.sunrisetheater.com.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 17
HORSE EVENT. Pipe opener and combined training. Carolina Horse Park, 2814 Montrose Road, Raeford. Info: www.carolinahorsepark.com.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 11 ART EXHIBIT. 2 - 4 p.m. Enjoy an instructors’ demonstration day, class registration event and instructors’ art exhibit.. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: www.artistleague.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 join us for a Lego block party and complete challenges or make your own creation. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6928235 or www.sppl.net.
MONDAY, JANUARY 12 PHOTO CLUB. 7 p.m. Sandhills Photo Club’s monthly meeting presents “Entering Image Competition,” by Tom McCabe. His presentation will help you learn your strong points and the areas needing improvement as you develop as a photographer. Sandhills Horticultural Center Ball Visitors Center, 3245 Airport Road, Southern Pines. Info: sandhillsphotoclub.org.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 13 SHOPPING AND LUNCH. 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to join Southern Pines Parks and Recreation on a trip to Fayetteville for shopping at Hamrick’s, followed by lunch. Cost is $4 for residents and $6 for non-residents. Info: (910) 692-7376.
100 PineStraw
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16 EARLY RELEASE. 11:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. Kids ages 5 - 12 can attend a day camp on early release school days. Visit parks or chill with friends. Bring a snack and water. Southern Pines Recreation Center, 160 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net. TRIBUTE SERIES. 7 - 9 p.m. Enjoy “Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience.” Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
PUZZLE RACE. 2:30 p.m. Do you like competition? Do you love jigsaw puzzles? Join SPPL’s first-ever puzzle race. Five teams of up to four people can register to complete a 300-piece puzzle. Spectators welcome. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.
TEEN CLIMB NIGHT. 4 - 10 p.m. Teens ages 12 - 17 can do indoor rock climbing. Southern Pines Recreation Center, 160 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net.
the annual meeting where members can present their own topics of interest or present an artifact or Civil War letter. 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.
FAMILY FUN SERIES - DOCTOR KABOOM: UNDER PRESSURE! Saturday, January 17, 5 - 6 p.m. Owens Auditorium, Sandhills Community College
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 BOOK CHAT AND CHILL. 5 - 6 p.m. Teens ages 13 and older can join us to share favorite books, discover new ones and connect with other teens who love to read. Enjoy a discounted coffee courtesy of Swank. Registration is encouraged. Swank Coffee Shoppe, 232 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.sppl.net.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14 TECH TIME. 11 a.m. Join a walk-in tech time to get hands-on help with tech questions. Whether you’re new to computers, want to learn more about your smartphone or want to learn how to use your eReader, staff will guide you. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: jmilford@sppl.net. BOOK EVENT. 6 - 7 p.m. Listen to Ford S. Worthy talk about his book In Search of a Boy Named Chester. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 15 CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE. 6:30 p.m. This is
CLIMBING GYM TRIP. 1 - 5 p.m. Travel to the Triangle Rock Club for some indoor climbing fun. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced climber, all are welcome to join in. Cost is $35 for residents and $49 for non-residents. Buses depart from the Recreation Center at Memorial Park, 160 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. FAMILY FUN SERIES. 5 - 6 p.m. Kids ages 5 and older can watch Doctor Kaboom: Under Pressure! There will be science and comedy during this show. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com. DANCE. 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Get your dancing shoes on and join the fun with Carolina Pines Dance Club to dance swing, shag, ballroom, Latin and line dances. Cost is $10 per person. Given Outpost/Roast Office, 95 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 331-9965.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20 KIDS’ DAY OUT. 8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Kids ages 5 - 12 can join the recreation team for games, park visits, crafting and more. Bring a lunch and water. Cost is $42. Southern Pines Recreation Center, 160 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net. BRAIN FITNESS. 10 - 10:45 a.m. Adults 18 and older are invited to enjoy short relaxation and brain enhancement exercises, ending with a mindfulness practice. 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. CREATIVITY CLUB. 3:45 p.m. Creativity Club at the fire station is a monthly program. Join us to make DIY bird feeders. Activities are designed for kids in grades K-5 but are adaptable to other ages and abilities. Caregiver participation is required. Fire Station 82, 7850 NC-22, Carthage. Info:
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAN MORRIS
SATURDAY, JANUARY 10
JA N UA RY CA L E N DA R www.southernpines.net/FormCenter/Library-11/ Creativity-Club-Registration-117.
Senior Sip & Chat. This casual and open program offers a chance for older adults to socialize, make friends and share stories. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.sppl.net.
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Sandhills
LECTURE SERIES. 7 - 8:15 p.m. The Ruth Pauley lecture series continues with Dr. Diego Bohórquez’ presentation, “The Gut-Brain Connection and Neuropods.” BPAC, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21 ACTIVE ADVENTURES FOR LITTLE ONES. 10 - 11 a.m. Kids ages 2 - 5 can join a fun gym session designed for homeschool students. There will be interactive games and activities. Southern Pines Recreation Center, 160 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net. HOMESCHOOL FUN ZONE. 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Enhance your curriculum and connect with other homeschool families. Southern Pines Recreation Center, 160 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net.
.
TWEEN COCOA CLUB. 4 - 5 p.m. Tweens ages 8 - 12 can warm up at the library with hot cocoa, fun toppings, creativity and conversation. Enjoy book-themed crafts and activities, conTRIBUTE BAND. 7 - 9 p.m. Enjoy a night with versations about what you’re reading, and time You be band. seeking a Faith Dirty Logic, the premier Steelymay Dan tribute to relax with friends. A librarian will pop in to Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern chat, help with activities and share book recomCommunity that: embraces diversity and Pines. Info: www.sunrisetheater.com. mendations. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Pines. celebrates the inherent worth Ave., andSouthern dignity ofInfo: www. SATURDAY, JANUARY 24 sppl.net. every regardless of their race, gender, WELDING WORKSHOP. 9:30person, a.m. - 3:30 p.m. TUESDAY, Learn the basics of welding during this introsexual orientation, age, ability, or JANUARY 27 ductory workshop. Cost is $300 per student. WELLNESS CLASSES. 10 - 11:30 a.m. Adults 18 Starworks, 100 Russellbackground. Drive, Star. Info: www. and older are invited to learn about different eduStarworksNC.org. cational topics to improve the overall mind, body and spirit. Free of charge. Douglass Community STORYTIME. 10:15 a.m. Saturday Storytime is Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern a once-a-month program for children from birth Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. to age 5. There are stories, songs, rhymes and smiles where caregivers and young children can WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28 interact and explore the fun of language and early literacy. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. REOPENING. 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Sandhills Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www. Woman’s Exchange reopens for the spring season. sppl.net. The cabin gift shop is available from 10 a.m. - 3 meets every Sunday at 10 Rays Bridge p.m.,AM and at the 1320 Cabin Cafe serves lunch from 11 SYMPHONY. 3 and 7:30 p.m. The Carolina a.m. 2 p.m. Info: www.sandhillswe.org. Whispering Philharmonic performsRoad, the iconic Wizard of Oz Pines
FRIDAY, JANUARY meets every Sunday23 at 10 AM at 1320 SENIOR TRIP. 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Adults 55 Rays Road, Whispering Pines and olderBridge can enjoy a trip to the Billy Graham Museum and then lunch at Mert’s Heart and Soul.
MONDAY, JANUARY 26
Losing your religion?
Find it with us!!
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Sandhills
st 1Cost Sunday everyand month is pot-luck breakfast. is $17 forof residents $23 for non-residents. soundtrack live to picture. Owens Auditorium, BOOK EVENT. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Join The 1st Sunday oftickets: every month is pot-luck Info: www.southernpines.net. 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info and Country Bookshop breakfast. for a discussion with
Donna Everhart about her book Women of a All are Welcome. (910) 687-0287 or www.carolinaphil.org. All are Welcome. Promiscuous Nature. Weymouth Center the Arts &
SIP AND CHAT. 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. Come for the coffee and stay for the conversation at the
www.uucsandhills.org www.facebook.com/uucsandhills
Our Covenant:
Our Covenant: Love is the doctrine of this church Love the doctrine church Theisquest for truth of itsthis sacrament, And service its prayer. The quest for is truth its sacrament, To dwell together in peace, And service is its prayer.
To seek the truth in love,
To dwell together in peace, To the end that all shall grow in harmony, To seek the truth in love, Thus do we covenant with one another. To the end that all shall grow in harmony, Thus do we covenant with one another.
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation the Sandhills The UnitarianofUniversalist Congregation of the Sandhills Meets every Sunday at 10am
meets Sunday at 10Road, AM atWhispering 1320 Rays Bridge at every 1320 Rays Bridge Pines. Road, Whispering Pines 1st Sunday of every month is potluck breakfast 1st Sunday of every month is pot-luck breakfast.
All All aare re WWelcome elcome.
www.uucsandhills.org www.uucsandhills.org
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
www.uucsandhills.org www.facebook.com/uucsandhills
New Year. New Fit. New You.
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Sandhills, where open minds and open hearts come together in a spirit of love and respect. Come be a part of a community that encourages
personal growth, social justice, and compassion .
Join us at AND WIDTHS HARD-TO-FIND SIZES
in stock Road, | Men’s 7-17, 2A-6E | Women’s 5-13, 4A-4E 1320 65,000 Raysitems Bridge Whispering Pines
every Sunday at 10 AM Embrace diversity, foster connection, and journey with us toward a more compassionate world.
All are welcome
the shoe market
– come as you are, and let's grow together!" Family-Owned, Full-Service, Shoe Store 1st Sunday of every monthHigh-Quality is pot-luckComfort breakfast.
4624 West Market Street • www.facebook.com/uucsandhills Greensboro | 336.632.1188 | theshoemarketinc.com www.facebook.com/uucsandhills www.uucsandhills.org www.facebook.com/uucsandhills
PineStraw 101
JA N UA RY CA L E N DA R constraints. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or kbroughey@sppl.net.
Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
THURSDAY JANUARY 29
UPCOMING EVENTS
SYMPHONY. 7:30 p.m. The North Carolina Symphony presents A Little Night Music. Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6
FRIDAY, JANUARY 30 COMEDY SERIES. 7 - 8 p.m. The BPAC comedy series presents Erikson Herz, magician. BPAC, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: www.ticketmesandhills.com.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 31 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 first - third place winners. Registration required. Cost is $5 per pet. Whitehall, 490 Pee Dee Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
Interdenominational Church Church Church
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21 ROYAL FLUSH GALA. 5 - 10 p.m. Women of the Pines presents a night of glamour and fun. Let’s roll the dice and celebrate. There will be food stations, chocolate fountains, casino games, silent auction, a bourbon pull and wine surprise. Cash bar. Info: www.womenofthepines.org.
WEEKLY EVENTS MONDAYS WORKSPACES. 7 a.m. - 3 p.m. The Given Tufts Bookshop has a 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.
GEAR SWAP. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Swap what you don’t need and find something new to you. Bring gently used baby and toddler clothing, toys and gear to exchange with other families. No items to trade? Come browse anyway. There are space
An Independent, Interdenominational An Independent, AnAn Independent, Independent, Interdenominational Church Interdenominational
MOONLIGHT HIKE. 6 - 7 p.m. All ages are welcome to discover nature by moonlight. Bring a flashlight. Weymouth Woods Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: www.southernpines.net.
JIGSAW PUZZLES. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Adults 55 and older can enjoy puzzle fun with friends or solo. Free of charge. Puzzles can be done Monday through Friday. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. FITNESS MEMBERSHIP. 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older can use a variety of equipment such as treadmills, free weights, stationery bikes and more. Cost for a six month membership is $18 for residents and $26 for non-residents. The fitness room is open Monday through Friday. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. INDOOR WALKING. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Adults 55 and older can get an indoor walking membership in the climate-controlled gym. Good Monday through Friday. Cost for a six-month membership is $18 for residents and $26 for non-residents. Southern Pines Recreation Center, 160 Memorial Park Court, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
Unifying All Christians through Unifying All Unifying Unifying AllAll through theChristians Word of God Christians through Christians through the Word of God the Word God the Word ofof God
TheThe Village Chapel Village Chapel
The Chapel TheVillage Village Chapel Three Distinct Services 2nd & 4th Wednesday of the month Three Distinct American Heritage Girls Services and Trail Life 8:00am TroopThree 1898 meet at Heritage Hall. Distinct Services 8:00am
Three Distinct Services
Eucharist HolyHoly Eucharist
8:00am Thursday - 8:00am Jan 1 - 10 a.m. New Year’s Day Service Wednesday - Jan 14 - 10 a.m. Music and Faith Forum - 9:30am Taylor Hickey, guest speaker 9:30am- 6-8:30 p.m. Friday - Jan 16 9:30am 9:30am Human Trafficking Awareness Seminar with Children’s Sermon for Families & Youth Saturday Jan 17 9a.m. 12 p.m. with Children’s Sermon-Sermon with Children’s with Children’s Sermon Seminar 11:00am Education Human Trafficking Professional
HolyEucharist Eucharist Holy Family Service Family Service Family Service Family Service
Three Distinct Services Traditional Worship 11:00am 11:00am 11:00am 8:00 am - Holy Eucharist Nursery Available During All Services 9:30 am - Family Service Traditional Worship Traditional Worship Traditional Worship with Children’s Sermon
10 Azalea Road •Pinehurst, NC •During 910.295.6003 Nursery Available During Services Nursery Available During AllAll Services 11:00Available am - Traditional Worship Nursery All Services Nursery Available During All Services www.tvcpinehurst.com facebook.com/tvcpinehurst 10 10 Azalea NC••910.295.6003 910.295.6003 Azalea Road•Pinehurst, •Pinehurst, 10 Azalea RoadRoad •Pinehurst, NC • NC 910.295.6003 www.tvcpinehurst.com www.tvcpinehurst.com www.tvcpinehurst.com facebook.com/tvcpinehurst facebook.com/tvcpinehurst
facebook.com/tvcpinehurst
102 PineStraw
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. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
PROVEN IN QUALITY CUSTOM BUILDING… SINCE 1978 Custom Design and Construction • New Homes • Additions • Renovations • Steel Buildings
Proudly Supporting Our Military. Ask us how you can receive your custom home plans for FREE. (910) 295-1504 • www.danieladams.com Po Box 3090, Pinehurst, NC 28374
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
JA N UA RY CA L E N DA R SENIOR FITNESS. 11 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to a TruFit gym class to improve strength, mobility and flexibility. 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 increase circulation. Bring your own mat. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
The Ultimate
Steely Dan Tribute Band
Live at The Sunrise!
GAME ON. 12 - 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. You and your friends are invited to and play various games such as cornhole, badminton, table tennis, shuffleboard, trivia 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.
January 23, 2026 • 7pm
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 VIRTUAL SPINNING CLASS. 8:30 - 9 a.m. Adults 18 and older can do a 30-minute bike ride workout. Limit of seven people per class. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. INTERVAL WALKING. 9:15 - 9:45 a.m. Adults 18 and older can do interval walking, alternating between periods of brisk and slow walking. Free of charge. No class on the second Tuesday of the month. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. PLAYFUL LEARNING. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Attend a drop-in, open playtime for ages birth - 3 years to interact with other children and have educational playtime. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-3642.
910-692-3611 sunrisetheater.com
VIP Package Includes: • Two-hour early access to VIP lounge • Catered dinner by Embers BBQ • Unlimited beer & wine • Souvenir poster
New Year, No Outages
BABY RHYMES. 10:15 a.m. Baby Rhymes is specially designed for the youngest learners (birth2) and their caregivers. Repetition and comforting movements make this story time perfect for early development and brain growth. There will be a duplicate session at 10:45 a.m. An active library card is required. Dates this month are Jan. 6, 13, 20 and 27. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6928235 or www.sppl.net. GAME DAY. 12 - 4 p.m. Fun, fellowship, games and activities. 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 have never played. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
TICKETS
PLUMBING
910-673-5291
• New Construction • Service & Repairs • Water Heaters • Plumbing Fixtures • Backflow Installation & Testing
GAS
910-947-7707
CAROLINAAIR.COM
910-673-5294 • Propane Tanks • Fireplaces • Firepits • Grills • Gas Lines
4139 NC Hwy 211 | West End, NC
PineStraw 103
JA N UA RY CA L E N DA R TABLE TENNIS. 3 - 5 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to enjoy free games of table tennis while making new friends. The second Tuesday of the month games will be played on that Thursday instead. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. 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. 15-501, West End.
WEDNESDAYS INTERVAL WALKING. 9:15 - 9:45 a.m. Adults 18 and older can do interval walking, alternating between periods of brisk and slow walking. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. CHAIR AEROBICS. 10 - 11 a.m. For adults 55 and older. Put on your boogie shoes and let’s jam. Get fit to dance, partying up a sweat to great music through the ages. You can stand and chair dance to this energizing, low-impact aerobic workout. Free of charge. 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. 15-501, West End.
County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.
KNITTING. 10 - 11 a.m. Come and enjoy knitting with other people or learn how. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.
LINE DANCING. 12 - 1 p.m. Looking for new ways to get your daily exercise in 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.
BABY STORYTIME. 10 - 11 a.m. Have fun developing the foundation for your baby’s later reading with stories, songs and play. Open to parents and caregivers of infants from newborn to 24 months. Moore County Library, 101 W. Saunders St., Carthage. Info: (910) 947-5335. LEARN AND PLAY. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Come to 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. 7, 13, 21 and 28. 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. BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Enjoy games of bridge with friends. All materials included. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
SENIOR FITNESS. 11 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to a TruFit gym class to improve strength, mobility and flexibility. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
DANCE. 2 - 2:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Instructor Maria Amaya will introduce you to dance fitness in a class designed for anyone who wants to gently and gradually increase their cardio function, 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.
PIANO. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Join Flint Long to play piano or just listen. This is a free program. Moore
LINE DANCING. 2 p.m. The town of Vass will host line dancing for seniors every other
Any bank can make a loan.
We make dreams affordable. Ask me about mortgages for purchase or refinance.
Tashe Jarusinski Senior Mortgage Advisor NMLS# 2290241
Let’s get started today!
kearnybank.com/tashe | 910-992-6804 Empowering prosperity. Connecting community. Delivering trust.
104 PineStraw
NMLS #401080
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
JA N UA RY CA L E N DA R Wednesday. Cost is $5 per session. Vass Town Hall, 140 S. Alma St., Vass. Info: www. townofvassnc.gov. LIBRARY PROGRAM. 3:30 p.m. At The Library After School (ATLAS) is an after-school program for K - 2nd graders who enjoy activities, crafts, stories and meeting new friends. Dates this month are Jan. 7, 14, 21 and 28. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. TAI CHI. 6:30 p.m. 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 Drive, Seven Lakes. Info: (910) 400-5646.
THURSDAYS WORKSPACES. 7 a.m. - 3 p.m. The Given Tufts Bookshop has a 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. VIRTUAL SPINNING CLASS. 8:30 - 9 a.m. Adults 18 and older can do a 30-minute fun and effective bike ride. Limit of seven people per class. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
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 that will help reduce the risk of taking a tumble and increase your ability to recover if you do. 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. 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 ages 2 - 5. An active library card is required. Dates this month are Jan. 8, 15, 22 and 29. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www. sppl.net.
GENTLE YOGA. 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to unwind, recharge and find peace in your week. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. MAHJONG. 1 - 3 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Mahjong involves skill, strategy, calculation and luck. Requires four players. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. 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. 15-501, West End. LITTLE U. 3:45 p.m. Little U is the Southern Pines Public Library’s preschool program for children ages 3 1/2 to 5 years old. Join in 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 help preschoolers develop early literacy skills in preparation for kindergarten and beyond. Dates this month are Jan. 8, 15, 22 and 29. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www. sppl.net. TRIVIA NIGHT. 7 - 9 p.m. Enjoy a beer and some trivia. Hatchet Brewing Company, 490
SIGNATURE BBQ SMOKED DAILY FRESH SIDES PREPARED IN-HOUSE DAILY
NEED CATERING? WE CAN HELP WITH LARGE OR SMALL EVENTS. Open at 11:00am daily 130 SW Broad Street Southern Pines 910-684-0330 www.embersbbq.com
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Baked Fresh Cookies Daily Ice Cream Sandwiches Catering Mobile Bakery at Red’s Corner Tues.-Fri. 11am-8pm • Select Saturdays 910-528-8293 • cookiesnmoorenc@gmail.com
PineStraw 105
FINE CABINETRY AND COUNTERTOPS
1650 Valley View Road• Southern Pines, NC Adjacent to Hyland Golf Course on US 1
910-692-0855 • www.WindridgeGardens.com Winter Hours: Fri.-Sat, 10AM-5PM • Sun. 1PM-5PM
GET THE LINT OUT! BEFORE
AFTER
TOP FIVE REASONS TO GET YOUR DRYER VENT CHECKED 1. Improved drying times 2. Extend life of dryer 3. Lower electric bills 4. Prevent potential fire hazard 5. Peace of mind
“To A Tee Dryer Vents gave us a free estimate, which included complete photo evidence of the problem. Then, the technician arrived on time, performed the repairs, showed step by step photo evidence of the repairs, and cleaned up afterwards! 5 stars! “ – Charles Y.
Contact us Today for Your FREE Dryer Vent Inspection! (910) 260-7400 (Pinehurst) toateedryervents@gmail.com
106 PineStraw
MAIN LOCATION 3910 Ellison Street Hope Mills, NC 28348
ABERDEEN SHOWROOM 105 Parkway Drive, Suite C Aberdeen, NC, 28315
(910)703-8760 • capefearcabinets.com
Christ Church Anglican HOLY COMMUNION: Sunday 10:30am Wednesday 10:00am King James Version Bible 1928 Book of Common Prayer 1940 Hymnal
Diocese of the Holy Cross The Anglican Catholic Church Founded Advent I November 28, 2004
750 Fairway Drive, Southern Pines NC 28387 910-246-0955 | cca-nc.org The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PineNeedler Answers
JA N UA RY CA L E N DA R S.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: www. hatchetbrewing.com.
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? Join a music jam session. This is a free program. Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15-501, West End.
from page 119
Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. BRIDGE. 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Play bridge with friends. All materials included. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. DRUM CIRCLE. 2 - 3 p.m. Adults 18 and older can feel the rhythm, find their groove and connect through the beat. No experience necessary. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
TAP CLASS. 10 - 11:30 a.m. For adults 55 and older. All levels welcome. Cost for six month membership: $18/resident; $26/non-resident. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.
To add an event, email us at pinestraw. calendar@gmail.com
S P A S M L E I W H O M C I S C O A W N C H I D E A C H O O S E T R E F I T B A Y O N E T 3 R O 2U T I 5N E P E T T O W 4N P A L D U B S E C L A I R 4 D 1R A5 T O T I S H E N N A 5 I N T S O L O E 4R R O R A I N A P T R I G A F L E 9 E T E C H I E S A C K E R R N7 E W T E N S B L A N K L 8Y C1 R A C 9 K L 5E L O C A L L I E C R I E R 8 7 O B E S E I N N K A L E S 9 T3 S M O1K E C O D A E S
8 2 4 9 1 7 3 5 6
SENIOR FITNESS. 11:30 a.m. Adults 55 and older are invited to a TruFit gym class to improve strength, mobility and flexibility. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. QIGONG. 1 p.m. For adults 55 and older. Classes consist of chair and standing movements that can help soothe achy feet, tight hips while easing lower back pain and restrictions in mobility. Free of charge. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W.
6 9 1 4 3 5 8 2 7
3 7 5 6 2 8 4 1 9
9 5 6 7 4 2 1 8 3
2 4 3 1 8 9 6 7 5
7 1 8 5 6 3 9 4 2
5 8 9 3 7 4 2 6 1
4 6 7 2 9 1 5 3 8
3 2
6
1 3 2 8 5 6 7 9 4
THE 4TH ANNUAL
Blingo Bingo FUNDRAISER
JANUARY 22, 2026 • 7 - 9 PM THE FAIR BARN, PINEHURST BINGO, MUSIC, FOOD, DRINKS & CHEESY BLING Benefitting The C.A.R.E. Group programs: Youth Mentoring, Structured Day, Adult Literacy, Citizenship, and Digital Literacy
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Buy Tickets
1-16
BPAC TRIBUTE CONCERT Beatles Experience
Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience is coming to BPAC! Owens Auditorium at BPAC
1-17
BPAC FAMILY FUN EVENT Doktor Kaboom
Interactive science, comedy, & empowerment, Doktor Kaboom returns! Owens Auditorium at BPAC
1-20
RUTH PAULEY SPEAKERS Gut-Brain Connection & Neuropods
Dr. Bohórquez, an associate professor at Duke University, is a pioneer and leader in the field of gut-brain biology. Owens Auditorium at BPAC
1-30
BPAC COMEDY EVENT Erikson Herz
Don’t miss this skillful illusionist known for captivating audiences with performances! Owens Auditorium at BPAC
MORE EVENTS & BUY TICKETS AT TICKETMESANDHILLS.COM
CREATE YOUR OWN EVENT
Info@ticketmesandhills.com
PineStraw 107
Arts & Culture
PORTRAITS & FINE ART
Community Congregational Concerts 2026 Season
Iconic Songs from the Heart FEBRUARY 15 4PM Baritone Barron Maness, pianist Stephen Gourley, saxophonist Scott Tortora, and percussionist Wayne Osborne Tickets via TicketMeSandhills.com or at the door (cash only)
Alana M Knuff, Artist www.alanaknuff.com • inquires@alanaknuff.com 843.469.7051
https://communitycongregational.org/concerts/ 141 North Bennett St. • Southern Pines
910-944-3979
Gallery Hours: Monday - Saturday 12-3pm Gallery • Studios • Classes
129 Exchange Street in Aberdeen, NC
TEMPLE
THEATRE
See How It’s Done Learn how to create your own art!!!
The exhibition of our instructors’ paintings will be hung in our gallery through January 30. Join us for a fun afternoon, chat with instructors, and enjoy light refreshments.
Ask Us About Becoming a Member artistleague.org • artistleague@windstream.net
108 PineStraw
Side Side SONDHEIM JAN 22 - FEB 8
BY
Start the new year off by taking an inspiring art class or workshop. On Sunday, January 11, 2026, visit the League and watch our instructors as they demonstrate the various media they will teach; then, register for the classes that interest you. There will be preview demonstrations about classes in Acrylic, Acrylic Pouring, Alcohol Ink, Cold Wax, Collage, Colored Pencil, Drawing, Encaustic Wax, Fiber Art, Gouache, Mixed Media, Oil, Pastel, Scratchboard, and Watercolor. There will also be information about 2026 workshops in Oil, Pastel, and Watercolor. Learn something new or advance your current skills.
BY
Sunday, January 11, 2026 2:00-4:00pm Instructors Class Demonstration and Registration Event
OCT 16 - NOV 2
120 Carthage St, Sanford, NC | 919.774.4155 | www.templeshows.org
120 Carthage Street, Sanford, NC The Art & Soul of the Sandhills 919.774.4155 | www.templeshows.org
Arts & Culture
Windsync
2435 US Hwy 220 N Star, NC 27356 (336) 267-3732 www.raypottery.com
FIBER ARTS BY CONNIE
Monday, February 16 • 7:30 PM Sunrise Theater By popular demand, WINDSYNC returns to CCS with a new program and new members. This wind quintet has performed at Carnegie Hall, Chautauqua Institution, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center in China, and on NPR’s Performance Today. In the span of one performance, they cover vast musical ground from revitalized standards to freshly inked works to folk and songbook, the common thread telling a compelling story about music history and our human selves. WindSync frequently eliminates the “fourth wall” between musicians and audience by performing from memory, creating an extraordinary connection. That personal performance style lends WindSync its reputation as “a group of virtuosos who are also wonderful people, too” (Alison Young, Classical MPR).
Tickets: $35 Ticketmesandhills.com
BEAUTIFUL CUSTOM WEAVINGS • ARTISTIC WALLHANGINGS • WOVEN TABLE RUNNERS • DISH TOWELS • ALL HANDCRAFTED IN PINEHURST
Let’s Discuss Your Custom Design
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
T: 267-218-0822 E: conniegenuardi@gmail.com W: fiberartsbyconnie.com
910-692-2787 | www.MooreArt.org 482 E. Connecticut Ave., | Southern Pines, NC PineStraw 109
From Our
Partners
ATTIRE
Stop by the new boutique bridal shop in Southern Pines. Here to help you shine bright on your special day!
CATERING+CAKES+DINING
SEW MOORE BRIDAL
Pik the Pig to
Cater Your Gig!
Check out our website to book your appointment 200 N Bennett St, Southern Pines (910) 638-8957 • shilohcourtbridal.com
CREATION & CARE sewmoore.com
SOUTHERN Q CATERING Culinary Masterpieces, Tailored to Your Event’s Needs Delectable BBQ, Seafood, and Comforting Southern Cuisine
Private Venue Rental Also Available 194 Gilliam-Mcconnell Rd. Carthage pik-n-pig.com/catering 910-947-7591
(910) 603-0005 southernqcatering2015@gmail.com
Save Your
MODERN FLORAL
SPECIALTY VENDORS + RESOURCES
Save Your Bouquet Save Your Bouquet
FLORAL PRESERVATION MODERN MODERN FLORAL PRESERVATION
Katie specializes in transforming Katie specializes in timeless, handcraf transforming your cherished Serving Southern Pines, NC, and flowers into timeless, Flowers can be dropped off local handcrafted keepsakes.
Katie specializes in transforming your cherished flower Learnkeepsakes. more at pinepr timeless,your handcrafted Katie specializes in transforming cherished flowers into timeless, handcrafted keepsakes.Weddings - Memoria Serving Southern Pines, NC, and customers across the n Serving Southern Pines, NC, and customers across the nation. Flowers can be dropped off locally or shipped from any Flowers can be dropped off locally or shipped from any state.
BRING YOUR OWN BAR
Learn more at pinepressedflowers.com - Memorials - Special Events Learnpinepressedflowers.com more at Weddings pinepressedflowers.com
byobars_pinehurst
Weddings - Memorials - Special Events Weddings - Memorials - Special Events
SPECIALTY VENDORS + RESOURCES
DAY SPAS+ESTHETICIANS
Introducing Dr. Christi Woods Specializing in Lasers, PDO Threading, PRP & PRF She can help you look your best for your wedding day!
PURPOSEFUL PLANNING, ELEVATED EVENTS, AND A PASSION FOR PERFE TION
www.four26events.com
EMPOWERING women with BOLD, regenerative aesthetics 100 Pavilion Way Suite C 910-684-8456 syringeandsass.com
Call to schedule an appointment 910-295-1130 80 Aviemore Ct, Pinehurst NC 28374 pinehurstlaser.com
VENUE
From Our
Partners VENUE
Here, your love story is written into History.
Duncraig Manor An elegant English-style Tudor historic estate, offering four acres of unparalleled sophistication in a storybook setting.
TRADITION & EXCELLENCE IN A VENUE LIKE NO OTHER 910.295.0166 . thefairbarn.org
We have packages for full-service mico to large weddings Pavilion to open spring 2024 1480 Joel Road Carthage | 919-770-5617 or contact us at www.facebook.com/magnoliacottagevenue magnoliacottagebellridge@gmail.com
1480 Joel Road Carthage | 919-770-5614 or contact us at www.facebook.com/magnoliacottagevenue magnoliacottagebellridge@gmail.com
555 E. Connecticut Ave. Southern Pines, NC www.weymouthcenter.org (910) 692-6261 weddings@weymouthcenter.org
duncraigmanornc.com 910-684-8468
VENUE
Moore County Wedding Inspiration Awaits!
A SETTING AS TIMELESS AS YOUR STORY.
IT STARTS
Here.
PINEHURST.COM/WEDDINGS
TRANSPORTATION
Jennifer B Photography LLC
Making Dream Weddings A Reality Through Top-Notch Transportation
Scan to Explore the Full 2026 Bride & Groom Magazine!
910-498-1000 PinehurstChauffeured.com
Real Weddings | Expert Advice | Local Inspiration
Highlighting 2025 Best of The Pines First Place Winners
Roofing
Place to Give Your Time or Money - community
Custom Woodworking
“Customer Satisfaction One Job At A Time”
Best Roofing Company Year After Year N NN W W IIN
R E ER
Nearly 40 Years of Compassion, Community, and Hope in Moore County
From Barrel to Banner
HOW CAN YOU HELP? By Donating Money By Volunteering By Donating Items
Food • Hygiene • Clothing • Sheets Blankets • Towels • Household • Furniture VISIT OUR SHOWROOM AT 301 FIELDS DR. - ABERDEEN, NC
910-757-0505
Client Services: Southern Pines 910.693.1600 Robbins 910.690.8719 sandhillscoalition.org
Visit our Downtown Southern Pines Showroom Mon-Fri 10 to 3 • Or By Appointment www.theheritageflag.com
Real Estate AgentThe Original Wood Flag Company Wings
Chiropractor
Wishing you a Happy & Healthy New Year!
N NN W W IIN
Brunch. Brew. Repeat.
R E ER
1505 US 1S, Southern Pines NC 28387 910-246-0606
WEEKEND BRUNCH SATURDAY & SUNDAY 11 AM - 3 PM chadhigby@gmail.com (910) 986-3509
MENU AND MORE AT PINEHURSTBREWING.COM
bestofthepines.com 112 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Highlighting 2025 Best of The Pines First Place Winners Car Dealership • Car Dealership Service Department
Farmer’s Market
5292 U.S. Highway 15-501 Carthage, NC 28327
MOORE COUNTY FARMERS MARKET
Sales: (910) 701-5176 Service: (910) 701-5237 Parts: (910) 701-5244
WEEKLY MARKET
Facility Courtesy of the Town of Southern Pines
THURSDAYS
604 W. Morganton Rd (Armory Sports Complex) Southern Pines, NC 28387 9 am to 12:30 pm | YEAR ROUND
CooperFord.net N NN W W IIN
R E ER
For more info on vendors & special event closures please visit: www.MooreCountyFarmersMarket.com
305 Fields Dr., Aberdeen (910) 944-3062 • setinstonestore.com
Paving
Massage • Alternative Therapy
Heating & Air Company
THANK YOU TO OUR AMAZING CUSTOMERS! N NN W WIIN
N NN W W IIN
132 Westgate Dr. West End, NC 27376
910.235.0606
Tile & Countertops Store
R E ER
30+ YEARS OF TRUSTED SERVICE
R E ER
CALL TODAY FOR A QUOTE JOBS BIG OR SMALL Driveways • Sidewalks • Slabs • Barns
150 N Bennett St, • Southern Pines (910) 528-8329
bestofthepines.com The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
PineStraw 113
Highlighting 2025 Best of The Pines First Place Winners
Medspa
Local Beer/Cider BOTOX
MICRO-NEEDLING
BIO STIMULATORS
~ Cider with a Sense of Place ~
Spa PRP
LASERS PRF
FILLER RADIO FREQUENCY SKIN CARE
THE BEST WAY TO CHECK OUT, IS TO CHECK IN.
The Bright Cider Life Here’s to you for voting us the Best! N NN W W IIN
R E ER
IT STARTS
172 US 1 Cameron NC 28326 910-245-9901 infor@jamescreekciderhouse.com Bar or Restaurant for Live Entertainment Outdoor Seating • Karaoke Venue • Place to Take a Visitor Family Friendly Restaurant • Dog-friendly Business
Here.
Concerts, Music Bingo, Cider Donuts Trivia, Food Trucks, Special Events 125 Murray Hill Road Suite C Southern Pines, NC 28387 910.886.2228 Ophthalmology/Optometry Practice
Japanese/Hibachi Restaurant
World-Class Care, Close to
Home
SUSHI, ASIAN CUISINE – AND –
HIBACHI Photo by Joseph Hill
Enjoy our award winning outdoor music venue and handpicked gourmet food trucks.
Thanks for trusting us with your eye care for over 45 years!
Stay in the loop Open Daily 11-9 7-day food truck rotation on Red’s social 910.639.5202 901 SW Broad Street Southern Pines, NC redscornersp.com
MONDAY - FRIDAY LUNCH 11AM - 2:30PM MONDAY - THURSDAY DINNER 3PM - 9PM FRIDAY DINNER 3PM - 10PM SATURDAY 3PM - 10PM SUNDAY 11AM - 9PM ALL DINNER 190 BRUCEWOOD RD | SOUTHERN PINES | 910-246-2106 VISIT DOORDASH.COM FOR MENU
bestofthepines.com 114 PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
SandhillSeen Weymouth Wonderland
Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities Saturday, December 6, 2025 Photographs by Diane McKay Terri, Ceci & Samantha Fort
Harrison & Samantha Buechner
John, Julie & Carson
Bill & Anne Hauser
John Machella, Meghan & Charlotte Fleming, Mary Machella
The Richárd Family
Katie Weinel, Rylan Verucchi, Debra Weinel
Baby Eleanor Mae Chavis Lipham and Family with Santa & Mrs. Claus
Jess & Kennedy Nekoranec
Robin & Jolie (dog) Hentz, the Burnore Family
The Breda-Siquig Family
Emily Ausloos
ADVENTURERS
Thank you to everyone who participated in our scavenger hunt.
Karinne Crossland
Lee Valenti
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Sharon Clary
Karen McKellar Manning, Jeannie Monroe Williams
PineStraw 115
SandhillSeen
Whiskers & Wagers Casino Night for Moore Humane Society The Country Club of North Carolina November 12, 2025 Photographs by Diane McKay
Michelle Schwarzmann, Brittany Renner
Zeb & Maureen Jaillet, Sue & Frank Avent
Maureen Mead, Sheila Taylor, Monica Treat
Trish Parker, Wallys Fathi, Corky Kern
Mike & Liz Apodaca
Lisa Laidlaw, Jenia Swift, Donna Davis, Jan Hooper, Maggi Gauthier, Gilda Purdy
Kay & Chris Nelson
Scott Harris, Karen Kocher, Jeff Kelly
Stephen & Jennifer Gunn, Joy Mertz
Camila Szczerbacki, Melissa Hintz, Alexandra Hughes
Lynn Conrad, Torrey Smith
TESLA HRC HAIR RESTORATION SOLUTIONS Shop local & handmade at Downtown Southern Pines’ own pottery studio and gallery
Mon-Sat 10 to 5 or by appointment
260 W. Pennsylvania Ave. • Southern Pines, NC • 336-465-1776
116 PineStraw
125 Fox Hollow Road, Suite 103 Pinehurst, NC 28374 910-684-8808 | 919-418-3078 | teslahrc@gmail.com Anna Rodriguez • Confidentiality is ensured.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
SandhillSeen
Thanksgiving Opening Meet of The Moore County Hounds November 27, 2025 Photographs by Jeanne Paine
Margo & Talia Carter
Dick Harpster, David Carter, John Wiedmer, Peter Doubleday
Ryan & Brittany Paschal
Lesia Zagoruychenko, Jonny-Dean & Manuela Van Zandt, Reka Reyna
The Rector Tom Harbold
Sullivan Cole
Cameron Sadler, Tayloe Moye
Jennifer Hemingway, Grace Bozick, Anne Tate, Amanda Espy, Jay Bozick
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Fiona Fuller
Priscilla & Jaden Hoffert, Anne Tate
Mel Wyatt, Lincoln Sadler, Colin Mac Nair, Isabelle Jones, The Moore County Hounds
Cameron Sadler, Vilot O'Tuel
Caleb Roberts, James Heustess
Sophie Coward
Maryann Steiert Charles
PineStraw 117
Pine ServiceS
Vintage Watches Wanted ROLEX & TUDOR Omega, Hamilton Breitling Patek Philippe, Panerai, Seiko
MILITARY COLLECTIBLES & GUNS
910-693-3790 (o) 910-315-5132 (c)
819 Hope Mills Road Fayetteville Ed Hicks 910.977.5656
Serving the Sandhills region since 1994 Specializing in Shingle Roofs Colored Metal Roof Systems Custom Copperwork TPO & EPDM Flat Roof Systems Authentic & Synthetic Slate & Shake Roofing
Residential - Commercial
2809 E Indiana Ave, Aberdeen, NC 28315 CreedGarnerRoofing@hotmail.com www.CreedGarnerRoofing.com
Pilot-Diver Chronographs Military Watches Buying one Watch or Collection
Ed Hicks Vintage Watch Collector
910.425.7000 or 910.977.5656 www.battlefieldmuseum.org www.warpathmilitaria.com
Little Insurance
Over 50 Years of Insurance Expertise
Health • Auto • Home • Life • Business
Kenny Little
Property & Casualty Insurance
Tree Trimming/Thinning Deadwood • Risk Reduction Removals • Shrub Shaping Complete Yard Clean up Call/text Jake Fowler 910.850.2008 OnehealthytreeService.com
Kelli Thomas
Property & Casualty, Life, Health, and Medicare 910-692-6881 325-C W. Pennsylvania Ave, Southern Pines
In Loving memory of George W. Little
SandhillS RenovationS llC Plumbing with Pride since 1965
Tired of running out of hot water? We’ve got your solution! Gas • Plumbing • Remodeling • Water Heaters Drain Cleaning • Water Sewer Discounts for Veterans, Military, & Teachers 24/7 EMERGENCY SERVICE | 910-295-0152 MENTION THIS AD FOR
25 OFF Any Repair
$
‘Every day service... Every day reliability’ ANY SIZE RELOCATIONS LOCAL OR CROSS-STATE DELICATE / BURDENING ITEMS PACKING & CAR HAULING STORAGE UNITS
OTHER SERVICES
Jacob 910-528-6916
118 PineStraw
HOME REARRANGING JUNK REMOVAL GARAGE CLEANOUTS Jakob theeverydaymovers.com 910-986-7772
Remodeling • Windows Door • Siding • Sunrooms Screen Porches • Decks Termite Damage Repair
Large & Small Jobs
Call for All Your Home Needs!
910.639.5626
Free Estimates & Fully Insured
THE BEST SERVICE FOR A FAIR PRICE DONE THE FAIR WAY
•Residential Plumbing •Water Line Repairs •Drain Cleaning
•Installation & Upgrades •Tankless Water Heaters •Sewer Inspections
15+ yrs. Experience • Unlimited Licensed Jon Snyder • West End, NC 27376 • 910.986.5572 The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
you listening? listening? January PineNeedlerAreAreyou 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Across 66. Deception Across 1. Tic 13 14 15 1. Tic68. Bygone maker of announcements 6. “Fantasy Island” prop 6. "Fantasy Island" prop 69. Corpulent 16 17 18 9. Pronoun in a Hemingway title 70. Setting for TV’s “Newhart” 9. Pronoun in a 13. Kid's name 19 20 21 22 71. Cabbage Hemingway title like vegetables 14. Barley bristle 23 24 72. name Conclusion 15. Scold 13. Kid's 73. “C’___ la vie!” 16. Gesundheit . . . 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 14. Barley bristle 74. Cig 17. Undertake, with “out” 35 36 37 38 39 15. Scold 18. Equip to new specs Down 16. Gesundheid... 19. Rifle attachment 40 41 42 43 1. Wound cover 21. Habit 17. Undertake, with 44 45 46 47 2. 12-point type 23. Dog or cat "out" 3. Far from ruddy 24. Burg, in Germany 48 49 50 51 52 18. Equip to new specs 4. Inside info 25. Amigo 53 54 55 56 19. Rifle 5. attachment Brought up the rear? 28. Adds sound 6. Bringing up the rear 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 30. Bakery buy 21. Habit 7. Female lamb 35. “Miss ___ Regrets” 23. Dog or cat 65 66 67 68 8. Foreword, for short 37. “Dang!” 24. Burg, in Germany 9. Put an edge on 69 70 71 39. Reddish brown 10. LP player 25. Amigo 40. Aria, e.g. 72 73 74 11. Father of Balder 41. Mistake 28. Adds sound 12. Allocate, with “out” 43. “___ it the truth!” 30. Bakery buy . . . 15. Footsteps 33. ___ tube 57. Alliance 44. Not suitable 35. "Miss ___ Regrets" 20. Liszt’s “La Campanella,” e.g. 34. Critic, at times 46. Baltic capital 38. wolf Forum wear 8. Foreword, for short58. Gray 66. Deception 22. “I ___ you one” 36. Frosh, next year 59. Breezed through 47. Run away 37. "Dang!" 42. Indy entrant 9. Put an edge on 68. Bygone maker of wear 24. Bolshevik’s foe 38. Forum 60. Astronaut’s insignia 48. Computer whiz 39. Reddish brown announcements 45. Icicle... 10. LP player 25. Place 42. Indy entrant 61. Copper 50. Big bag 40. Aria, e.g. 69. Corpulent 26. Make amends 45. Icicle . . . 11. Father of Balder 62. Narc’s find, perhaps 52. “To ___ is human . . .” 49. Moray, e.g. 27. Air freshener option 49. Moray, e.g. 41. Mistake 63. Onion relative 70. Setting for TV's 53. Colorful salamander 12. Allocate, with "out" 51. Knick- ____s 29. Shiver . . . "Newhart" 51. Knick- ____s 64. European language 55. “Star Trek” rank: Abbr. 43. "___ it the truth!" 15. Footsteps... 54.and Cartoon 31. Book part 54. Cartoon coyote 67. ___ outs coyote 57. Dead stare discription 71. Cabbagelike 44. Not suitable 32. Crone-like (anagram of I 56. “Beat it!” 20. Liszt's "La 56. "Beat it!" vegetables 61. Fireplace . . . LEAN) 46. Baltic capital Campanella," e.g. 65. Regional 57. Alliance 72. Conclusion 47. Run away 22. "I ___ you one" 73. "C'___ la vie!" 3 2 58. Gray 5 wolf 48. Computer whiz 24. Bolshevik's foe 59. Breezed through 74. Cig 4 60. Astronaut's insignia 3 50. Big bag 25. Place 52. "To ___ is human 26. Down 2 4 Make 1 amends 5 61. Copper ..." 27. Air freshener option 62. Narc's find, perhaps 1. Wound cover 4 5 53. Colorful salamander 29. Shiver.... 2. 12-point type 63. Onion relative Sudoku: 55. "Star Trek" rank: 9 3. the Fargrid from ruddy 31. Book part Fill in so every row, 64. European language Abbr. every4.column Inside and infoevery 3x3 32. 7 Crone-like (anagram 67. ___ and outs6 57. Dead stare box contain the numbers 1-9. of I LEAN) 5. Brought up the rear? discription
Puzzle answers on page 107 61. Fireplace.. Mart Dickerson lives in Southern Pines and welcomes 65. Regional suggestions from her fellow puzzle masters. She can be reached at martaroonie@gmail.com. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
6. Bringing up the rear 7. Female lamb
33. ___8tube
1 9 5 34. Critic, at times 8 7 36. Frosh, next year 9 3 1 8 6 3 9 2 7 5 4 1 2 9 7 5 4 1 8 6 3
PineStraw 119
SOUTHWORDS
By Jim Moriarty
I confess to being a New Year’s Scrooge. To
those of us whose passing will be marked by the screwing of a brass plate into a particular spot at the end of a bar, the shenanigans and tomfoolery of the evening was commonly dismissed as “amateur night.” There is, however, one New Year’s Eve that I’ll not soon forget, and I’ve forgotten a lot of them.
I was married in an honest-to-God church during the fertile days between Christmas and New Year’s. Contrary to rumors, widespread at the time, this was not entirely done because the Methodist church was already decorated to the rafters, thus sparing the happy couple, i.e., me, any expense sprucing the joint up. Not entirely, that is. Once all the stammering (me again) and vowing was over and done with, the War Department and I lit off on our honeymoon adventure like the giddy misfits we were. We actually had not intended on having a honeymoon. The ceremony fell smack in the middle of the Arab oil embargo. Lines at the gas pump resembled particularly slow-moving queues for particularly boring Disney rides, and the national posted speed limit might just as well have featured a drawing of a slug as the number 55. My mother, however, had seen an advertisement for a steeply discounted weekend at a posh Indiana resort hotel. She tore it out of the newspaper and booked it for us as a wedding present. We were off to French Lick — the honeymoon destination that launched a thousand jokes. It should be pointed out that French Lick’s most famous citizen, Larry Bird, was a teenager at the time. We were driving in the first automobile I ever owned outright, a severely oxidized white Volkswagen Beetle that may well have rolled off the production line the same year Khrushchev threw up the Berlin wall. As was typical of the model in those days, nothing functioned quite the way it was supposed to. The heater worked, for example, but only in the
120 PineStraw
summer. It was definitely not summer. When we pulled up to the grand hotel in our coach (rust bucket), we were met by a sharply dressed valet attendant. To my everlasting regret, it was years too soon to be able to quote Eddie Murphy from Beverly Hills Cop. If ever there was an opportunity to utter the line “Can you put this in a good spot ’cause all of this shit happened the last time I parked here,” this was it. Our glorious weekend began with bowling in the hotel’s basement and finished in a New Year’s Eve celebration that, much to the War Department’s indifference, revolved almost entirely around the Sugar Bowl, which was the national championship game between undefeated and No. 1-ranked Alabama and unbeaten and No. 3-ranked Notre Dame, the university that was a mile or two north on Eddy Street from our apartment. We had found ourselves in South Bend that fall because she was a highly employable teacher and I was a decidedly unemployable English major and a kept man — which, come to think of it, hasn’t changed all that much in the last 52 years. Be that as it may, that particular New Year’s Eve was not so much memorable because on a third and 10 from their own 1-yard line, Notre Dame quarterback Tom Clements hit back-up tight end Robin Weber for a 35-yard gain that allowed the Irish to run out the clock and win an 11th national championship. No, no. It was memorable because the War Department had developed an abscessed tooth, and while I had one eye on Ara Parseghian and Bear Bryant, the other eye could only sit there and watch as her face and jaw swelled like a Jiffy Pop aluminum balloon. Oh, my God, I thought, her father is going to kill me when he sees her. The next morning, New Year’s Day, we drove home in a snowstorm as the War Department, cradling her throbbing jaw in a gloved hand, stuffed dirty socks into the heating vents to stem the polar vortex blasting through them, whilst riding with her feet propped against the dash because of the two inches of watery slush that had been strained through the Swiss cheese wheel well behind the right front tire. So, yes, I’m no fan of the ghost of New Year’s past. PS
Jim Moriarty is the Editor of PineStraw. He can be reached at jjmpinestraw@gmail.com. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
ILLUSTRATION BY KEITH BORSHAK
Auld Lang… Humbug
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 N NN W WIIN
R E ER
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.