I am finally, finally finished. Then a breakthrough. Senator Jim Broyhill will visit the OVNHT in Elkin and speak to our students about the story of sheparding the idea of the trail to Kings Mountain as a National Historic Trail through the Congress in 1980 until Pres. Jimmy Carter signed it into law. Both men, from opposite sides of the aisle, shared a common interest in the history of the militia campaign to defeat the British. My schedule has changed yet again.
Ideas are like babies. They will likely take many years of care and attention if they are to grow up sucessfully.
I am anxiously watching the series by Ken Burns "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" to find the bit about the Overmountain Victory Trail. It seems to be unfolding in chronological order. If so, the OVNHT may be one of the last. They did mention the Trail of Tears tonight. And the Great Smoky Mountains... I hope it didn't land on the cutting room floor.
Back to work.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Andy also taught chorus in public school - Goldsboro!
Well I found this interview series with Andy Griffith. You have to see it. He knows NC from coast to hilltop. You know him for the Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry RFD, Matlock, and all...I'm going back for more details...
Was Paul Montgomery Uncle Paul on WRAL in Raleigh????? I'm about sure I marched around in a circle with him for one of by birthdays, probably the first or second year he was on when I was 5 or 6.
Was Paul Montgomery Uncle Paul on WRAL in Raleigh????? I'm about sure I marched around in a circle with him for one of by birthdays, probably the first or second year he was on when I was 5 or 6.
Small Stories for a Big World
Small Stories for a Big World is a lovely children's book written by Kim Underwood and illustrated by Garnet Goldman. I saw it at the Pumpkin Festival in Elkin and met Kim. He is the writer from the Winston-Salem Journal. This book is directed at ages 10 and under, but the beauty of it is worth having just for its own sake. To tell the truth I got talked out of buying it for my nieces and now I wish I had just bought it for me. I want to read the stories the more I think about it. His first book, His Dogness Finds a Blue Heart, is a 32-page picture book that came out in 2004. The story begins with His Dogness coming upon a blue heart in a ditch. He and Lord Kelvin take the heart on some adventures around Winston-Salem in hopes of cheering it up.
So there are adventures around Winston-Salem to see Old Salem, Krispy Kreme etc??? I need to find out. I see I missed an adventure at the garden in Old Salem this weekend. But HOW can you possibly do everything there is to do in NC on a September weekend? We should just go ahead and declare September the SeeNC month. Then folks will have to come back year after year to see it all. In fact festivals in NC are probably like restaurants in NY - you can go to one every day and never, EVER go to the same one twice.
So there are adventures around Winston-Salem to see Old Salem, Krispy Kreme etc??? I need to find out. I see I missed an adventure at the garden in Old Salem this weekend. But HOW can you possibly do everything there is to do in NC on a September weekend? We should just go ahead and declare September the SeeNC month. Then folks will have to come back year after year to see it all. In fact festivals in NC are probably like restaurants in NY - you can go to one every day and never, EVER go to the same one twice.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Bits and Pieces
Well! What a weekend. PJ is off to help his Dad. RG sold books and played his hammered dulcimer in Wilkesboro where a child observed to his parent, "Hey Mom, LOOK! Free credit report .com" pointing out the tricorn hat and colonial britches.
Saturday, we went to the Pumpkin Festival and despite the rain ( 3 inches in 3 days) there were people out and about. I met two authors - one a writer for the Winston-Salem Journal and the other - with MANY books of history interjected with historical fiction around his family- pointed out a mill "The Old Mill of Guilford" still in operation in Guilford county which Cornwallis visited just prior to the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781. His historical fiction is wrapped around the 1800s, but surely if he is a native of Yadkin county, he had relatives in the Revolution. I encouraged him to write another book further back in time around that mill and I referred him to my blog to find the spoom folks. Its uncanny how the dots always lead somewhere. I didn't know I was going to talk about grain mills or that I would meet a mill reference within 24 hours at the Pumpkin festival.. It must be some infamous meme trying to be born. HAHA!
RGs ghost book is a hit! Between ghosts and history, he sold about 50 copies this weekend for the stores distributing it. And people kept coming up to give him more stories!!!! We plugged the paranormal conference in Wilkesboro on Oct. 23rd-25th. Y'all come.
Last night in POURING rain we attended an event at the Wilkes Heritage Museum showcasing the filming of memories from central Wilkes County funded by the Preserve America reward Wilkes County received .
NC, you should all look into being Preserve America communities. Out of these funds, many WW2 veterans gave testimonies, histories of schools, churches, businesses and so on were preserved and out of that, programs for public TV were put together and Wilkes has been all over NC Weekend this year. Wilkesboro home of the father of Sequoyah, leaders in the Revolution, the start of NASCAR, Lowes companies, and Holly Farms -now Tyson chicken has had an impact on the whole country and you never really know that unless you study it. So, academic, genealogical, and tourism aspects all came out.
The showing was attended by very few die hard relatives of the interviewees given the weather, but RG made a nice speech and I took photos and manned the lights.
I did make him promise a date with no performing or hostessing or booth-working soon. Sometimes our relationship feels like a job. I need romance!!
Sunday, RG had to work in exchange for a day off this coming week. But some friends invited me to attend "Moon over Buffalo" in Wilkesboro and RG met us at Don's Seafood for lunch. It was great! They fly in the fish from the coast every day except Mondays. So its fresh and consistent. The restaurant is family owned. Moon over Buffalo is SO FUNNY! and fast-paced. That good have been a date. But I enjoyed my friends and the meal was fun too. If you ever go, its only open for lunch on Sundays and go early, because otherwise you will have to wait 45 minutes for a seat and you will think you are in Cary.
Anyway, this morning I could not go to church because everyone was gone ( I could have attended the early service and phoned for a ride....) so I found a free colonial typeface that includes the weird way the colonials would changes the s to f. So my next project for our event in two weeks will be creating paper products of whatever we need. AND I must work on a press release to send ASAP to the news. It is almost too late two weeks before the event.
So, all I want to share with you today is this video about lye soap from Tryon, NC and then I came across the news that Masco promoted someone from Liberty Hardware to a high position. I thought maybe there was some interesting history to it concerning the revolution. But I found a wonderful job in Winston-Salem , a VP - if you have experience like at Lowe's Hardware. Not me unfortunately, but I want to spread the information around. Some one I know may want to apply.
Saturday, we went to the Pumpkin Festival and despite the rain ( 3 inches in 3 days) there were people out and about. I met two authors - one a writer for the Winston-Salem Journal and the other - with MANY books of history interjected with historical fiction around his family- pointed out a mill "The Old Mill of Guilford" still in operation in Guilford county which Cornwallis visited just prior to the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781. His historical fiction is wrapped around the 1800s, but surely if he is a native of Yadkin county, he had relatives in the Revolution. I encouraged him to write another book further back in time around that mill and I referred him to my blog to find the spoom folks. Its uncanny how the dots always lead somewhere. I didn't know I was going to talk about grain mills or that I would meet a mill reference within 24 hours at the Pumpkin festival.. It must be some infamous meme trying to be born. HAHA!
RGs ghost book is a hit! Between ghosts and history, he sold about 50 copies this weekend for the stores distributing it. And people kept coming up to give him more stories!!!! We plugged the paranormal conference in Wilkesboro on Oct. 23rd-25th. Y'all come.
Last night in POURING rain we attended an event at the Wilkes Heritage Museum showcasing the filming of memories from central Wilkes County funded by the Preserve America reward Wilkes County received .
NC, you should all look into being Preserve America communities. Out of these funds, many WW2 veterans gave testimonies, histories of schools, churches, businesses and so on were preserved and out of that, programs for public TV were put together and Wilkes has been all over NC Weekend this year. Wilkesboro home of the father of Sequoyah, leaders in the Revolution, the start of NASCAR, Lowes companies, and Holly Farms -now Tyson chicken has had an impact on the whole country and you never really know that unless you study it. So, academic, genealogical, and tourism aspects all came out.
The showing was attended by very few die hard relatives of the interviewees given the weather, but RG made a nice speech and I took photos and manned the lights.
I did make him promise a date with no performing or hostessing or booth-working soon. Sometimes our relationship feels like a job. I need romance!!
Sunday, RG had to work in exchange for a day off this coming week. But some friends invited me to attend "Moon over Buffalo" in Wilkesboro and RG met us at Don's Seafood for lunch. It was great! They fly in the fish from the coast every day except Mondays. So its fresh and consistent. The restaurant is family owned. Moon over Buffalo is SO FUNNY! and fast-paced. That good have been a date. But I enjoyed my friends and the meal was fun too. If you ever go, its only open for lunch on Sundays and go early, because otherwise you will have to wait 45 minutes for a seat and you will think you are in Cary.
Anyway, this morning I could not go to church because everyone was gone ( I could have attended the early service and phoned for a ride....) so I found a free colonial typeface that includes the weird way the colonials would changes the s to f. So my next project for our event in two weeks will be creating paper products of whatever we need. AND I must work on a press release to send ASAP to the news. It is almost too late two weeks before the event.
So, all I want to share with you today is this video about lye soap from Tryon, NC and then I came across the news that Masco promoted someone from Liberty Hardware to a high position. I thought maybe there was some interesting history to it concerning the revolution. But I found a wonderful job in Winston-Salem , a VP - if you have experience like at Lowe's Hardware. Not me unfortunately, but I want to spread the information around. Some one I know may want to apply.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Soap for my camp-followers
Oh, I must share. I'm listening to the President on CSPAN talking about the G20. But I'm also telling you I have overlooked too many things in Mitchell county. I'm e-visiting my own e-visits. Can I trademark that term "e-visits"? Well, anyway..
In the great 101 lists from Mitchell county, note also these cool things I want to see.
Luther Stroup’s Hobby Shop
Storytelling Festival in Spruce Pine
NC Rhododendron Festival
milk a cow at the Annual Mineral City Heritage Festival ...that's what I want to do...
AND THIS!!!
Blue Ridge Soap Shed
I found this wonderful site. I need some soap for my textile-morphed-camp-followers exhibit for the OVTA Active Trails Field Day. So I've called them to find out the details. Meanwhile, this is from their site and I think it explains the product I need...
Lye Soap - Homemade Lye Soap
The Appalachian Cure All- Yup, we actually make the true, old-fashioned homemade Lye Soap, made with lye and lard and nuthin' else, not even any of that sweet smellin' stuff that's in all the other soaps we sell.
Our customers have taught us well - there's nothing quite like this homemade lye soap recipe for stopping the spread of poison ivy or oak, or taking tough stains out of clothes, especially salvaging antique linens.
This homemade lye soap is an Appalachian tradition, with its historical use including the elimination of head and body lice, bed bugs, mites, as well as general household and floor cleaning. There was a time when a Lye Soap recipe provided the only source of basic hygiene available. Lye soap was generally made once a year, coinciding with Autumn Harvest and the killing of hogs in preparation for Winter.
In making this homemade lye soap we experience the same variations in pork fat (lard) that our Appalachian cousins did, caused by the diet, age, region, breed and processing of the, well, the 'donor' for lack of another way to put it. There's a difference between the body fat of a hog raised on corn and commercial grains, and one raised on 'slop', and sometimes this soap will be a little soft and beige in color, and other times white and powdery.
The variance in color and texture is a result of the natural materials it's made from: it's not something we can control, nor do we try to. Lye soap is a part of Appalachian history, and we make it the historical way. For those of you who have regaled us with 'fond memories' of childhood, remembering soap so strong 'it practically took your skin off,' well, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU!!!
We make our homemade Lye Soap in the tradition of Fels Naptha Soap.
Lye Soap comes in a big 5-6 ounce chunk you can grate for laundry or whatever your little heart desires. Our Lye Soap is handcut and there will be rough and uneven edges due to the unpredictable texture of the natural fat - it will not have smooth edges like our vegetable oil soaps.
Visit You Tube and enjoy seeing and hearing the old 'Grandma's Lye Soap' folk song:
The fellow playing this banjo-uke reminds me of our trip to Ireland and England in 2004. The Wednesday before Christmas we were in a pub, McDonagh's, and a fellow was there with a banjolina he called it. RG jammed with them with his fiddle. Eventually along with the standard guitars, fiddles, bodhran et al, there was a flute and African drums or maybe other Irish drums. Anyway, the Banjolina was exactly a little banjo, like a piccolo of banjos. The banjo-uke on the You-Tube looks homemade, but the song is silly and will make a smile. The banjolina here sounds a little electric. I remember it was just exactly like a big banjo only high pitched. Maybe this is really it.
My only other experience with soap was when we went to Philadelphia to the Mutter Museum to see the "Soap Lady" and the deathcast of Eng and Chang. THIS IS WEIRD. Don't click if you are squimish. This is the original medical library. ..You can see the link. Anyway I read the soap lady was found in a burned down building from the 1800s. After some time, her fat covered in ashes, had experienced a biological change, saponification, into ... SOAP. .. and I used an article about her from a journal to grab the attention of my high school biology students. (Hey, my mentor teacher had it her program) It so intrigued me that when I went to Philadelphia and discovered her location, I dragged my family to see her.
Eng and Chang's cast was bonus. They lived in Wilkes and later Surry county. They were the original "Siamese twins". They married sisters(!!!!!!) and between them had 21 children. Their descendants are still here. I don't think there is any tourism of a house here, but there is an exhibit about their life in Mt. Airy in the Mt. Airy Museum of Regional History. And a few years ago, there was a book, Eng and Chang.
hummm..... how did I get from a lovely country soap and flowers shop to the Mutter museum?
Let's think about sweeter things... Mayberry Days is going on this weekend in Mt. Airy celebrating all things Andy Griffith. Enjoy a bottle of pop while playing checkers, relax to music from many local bands playing the same songs that Andy grew up with in Mount Airy and be sure to get your picture with the TV Land statue of Andy & Opie. Thelma Lou , more, will be there and so are the Darlings with Charlene Darling!
Don't miss the Pumpkin Festival in Elkin tomorrow too!!! RG will be signing his Ghosts of the Yadkin Valley at Diana's Book Shop.
There are SO many festivals in NC this time of year.
Ken Burns is all over the place right now. OVNHT will get a lot of publicity this fall because he's really promoting his new documentary, The National Parks, America's Best Idea which starts on Sunday, Sept. 27th, and the OVNHT is included.
Ah, better thoughts...
In the great 101 lists from Mitchell county, note also these cool things I want to see.
Luther Stroup’s Hobby Shop
Storytelling Festival in Spruce Pine
NC Rhododendron Festival
milk a cow at the Annual Mineral City Heritage Festival ...that's what I want to do...
AND THIS!!!
Blue Ridge Soap Shed
I found this wonderful site. I need some soap for my textile-morphed-camp-followers exhibit for the OVTA Active Trails Field Day. So I've called them to find out the details. Meanwhile, this is from their site and I think it explains the product I need...
Lye Soap - Homemade Lye Soap
The Appalachian Cure All- Yup, we actually make the true, old-fashioned homemade Lye Soap, made with lye and lard and nuthin' else, not even any of that sweet smellin' stuff that's in all the other soaps we sell.
Our customers have taught us well - there's nothing quite like this homemade lye soap recipe for stopping the spread of poison ivy or oak, or taking tough stains out of clothes, especially salvaging antique linens.
This homemade lye soap is an Appalachian tradition, with its historical use including the elimination of head and body lice, bed bugs, mites, as well as general household and floor cleaning. There was a time when a Lye Soap recipe provided the only source of basic hygiene available. Lye soap was generally made once a year, coinciding with Autumn Harvest and the killing of hogs in preparation for Winter.
In making this homemade lye soap we experience the same variations in pork fat (lard) that our Appalachian cousins did, caused by the diet, age, region, breed and processing of the, well, the 'donor' for lack of another way to put it. There's a difference between the body fat of a hog raised on corn and commercial grains, and one raised on 'slop', and sometimes this soap will be a little soft and beige in color, and other times white and powdery.
The variance in color and texture is a result of the natural materials it's made from: it's not something we can control, nor do we try to. Lye soap is a part of Appalachian history, and we make it the historical way. For those of you who have regaled us with 'fond memories' of childhood, remembering soap so strong 'it practically took your skin off,' well, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU!!!
We make our homemade Lye Soap in the tradition of Fels Naptha Soap.
Lye Soap comes in a big 5-6 ounce chunk you can grate for laundry or whatever your little heart desires. Our Lye Soap is handcut and there will be rough and uneven edges due to the unpredictable texture of the natural fat - it will not have smooth edges like our vegetable oil soaps.
Visit You Tube and enjoy seeing and hearing the old 'Grandma's Lye Soap' folk song:
The fellow playing this banjo-uke reminds me of our trip to Ireland and England in 2004. The Wednesday before Christmas we were in a pub, McDonagh's, and a fellow was there with a banjolina he called it. RG jammed with them with his fiddle. Eventually along with the standard guitars, fiddles, bodhran et al, there was a flute and African drums or maybe other Irish drums. Anyway, the Banjolina was exactly a little banjo, like a piccolo of banjos. The banjo-uke on the You-Tube looks homemade, but the song is silly and will make a smile. The banjolina here sounds a little electric. I remember it was just exactly like a big banjo only high pitched. Maybe this is really it.
My only other experience with soap was when we went to Philadelphia to the Mutter Museum to see the "Soap Lady" and the deathcast of Eng and Chang. THIS IS WEIRD. Don't click if you are squimish. This is the original medical library. ..You can see the link. Anyway I read the soap lady was found in a burned down building from the 1800s. After some time, her fat covered in ashes, had experienced a biological change, saponification, into ... SOAP. .. and I used an article about her from a journal to grab the attention of my high school biology students. (Hey, my mentor teacher had it her program) It so intrigued me that when I went to Philadelphia and discovered her location, I dragged my family to see her.
Eng and Chang's cast was bonus. They lived in Wilkes and later Surry county. They were the original "Siamese twins". They married sisters(!!!!!!) and between them had 21 children. Their descendants are still here. I don't think there is any tourism of a house here, but there is an exhibit about their life in Mt. Airy in the Mt. Airy Museum of Regional History. And a few years ago, there was a book, Eng and Chang.
hummm..... how did I get from a lovely country soap and flowers shop to the Mutter museum?
Let's think about sweeter things... Mayberry Days is going on this weekend in Mt. Airy celebrating all things Andy Griffith. Enjoy a bottle of pop while playing checkers, relax to music from many local bands playing the same songs that Andy grew up with in Mount Airy and be sure to get your picture with the TV Land statue of Andy & Opie. Thelma Lou , more, will be there and so are the Darlings with Charlene Darling!
Don't miss the Pumpkin Festival in Elkin tomorrow too!!! RG will be signing his Ghosts of the Yadkin Valley at Diana's Book Shop.
There are SO many festivals in NC this time of year.
Ken Burns is all over the place right now. OVNHT will get a lot of publicity this fall because he's really promoting his new documentary, The National Parks, America's Best Idea which starts on Sunday, Sept. 27th, and the OVNHT is included.
Ah, better thoughts...
The beauty of pancakes
FINALLY, I've reached another version of the events for Oct. 9th. I think it works in all ways and I've creating individual schedules for each group of kids and each reenactor. It shouldn't be so complicated, but we are walking them all around the OVNHT, and we want to keep the grades separated. Everyone has to eat and everyone has to have an opportunity to visit the W.C. before the grand marche!
So, I'm taking a brief break. PJ just came running in the house. He has locked his keys in the car. He is using his cross county training period to run home, get keys and water and run back to practice. I just love living this close to school.
Yesterday, we went to Winston to celebrate his birthday. We went to Coldstone and I fed six teenagers and me and RG. Then to the movies at an older theater where we could still see "9" and we had the entire theater to ourselves. We got coke and popcorn to share. Do you know that popcorn cost more than the gourmet ice cream or even the movie itself!!!
We determined on the way home that a date to "dinner" and the movies for two teenagers would cost about $100 if you throw in the gas and the carwash (well of course). I told PJ he was going to have to find a job or forego that dating business.
I was just shocked. I should have just had a wii party at home and taught them to make pancakes.
...back to the drawing board only not all the way back :-)
So, I'm taking a brief break. PJ just came running in the house. He has locked his keys in the car. He is using his cross county training period to run home, get keys and water and run back to practice. I just love living this close to school.
Yesterday, we went to Winston to celebrate his birthday. We went to Coldstone and I fed six teenagers and me and RG. Then to the movies at an older theater where we could still see "9" and we had the entire theater to ourselves. We got coke and popcorn to share. Do you know that popcorn cost more than the gourmet ice cream or even the movie itself!!!
We determined on the way home that a date to "dinner" and the movies for two teenagers would cost about $100 if you throw in the gas and the carwash (well of course). I told PJ he was going to have to find a job or forego that dating business.
I was just shocked. I should have just had a wii party at home and taught them to make pancakes.
...back to the drawing board only not all the way back :-)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Steadfast, I press on toward the goal...
I know I can be boring ...or is that steadfast? Pressing on toward the goal...Phillipians something...
But Boring only happens when you forget your mission or sink into your own difficulties ignoring everyone else and everything else. SO, again I apologize for my inward focus the last week or so. I was so uplifted, if that's the way to say it, when someone, actually two!!!, commented on my Mitchell county post, "Where am I?".
I entered the post kind of like it was a chore and I left a little cheered up by finding the list of 101 things to do and envigorated by the responses. I went to read the first one directly and at that moment, less than five minutes before, another post from out-of-state had arrived. The writer, was so pleased to read about a place as nice as Mitchell county, that I completed had a change of attitude. While my curiosity was peaked, the importance of sharing especially that 101 list was revealed to me when other folks found it useful or made them happy. Now Mitchell county is more important to me too!
Okay, every county should have a 101 list of things to do. Every shop, restaurant, and hotel should educate their employees about it. I might mention Lewis Forrest who helps with business plans etc professionally said employees only need 10 things within driving distance. But imagine if we all took time to learn about our state and shared it word of mouth with our visitors...Wouldn't they come back again and again?
I even shared with myself, rereading my blog and clicking on links and I found this interesting effort to save mills, Spoom.
okay, I have a big day. I'll be back...
But Boring only happens when you forget your mission or sink into your own difficulties ignoring everyone else and everything else. SO, again I apologize for my inward focus the last week or so. I was so uplifted, if that's the way to say it, when someone, actually two!!!, commented on my Mitchell county post, "Where am I?".
I entered the post kind of like it was a chore and I left a little cheered up by finding the list of 101 things to do and envigorated by the responses. I went to read the first one directly and at that moment, less than five minutes before, another post from out-of-state had arrived. The writer, was so pleased to read about a place as nice as Mitchell county, that I completed had a change of attitude. While my curiosity was peaked, the importance of sharing especially that 101 list was revealed to me when other folks found it useful or made them happy. Now Mitchell county is more important to me too!
Okay, every county should have a 101 list of things to do. Every shop, restaurant, and hotel should educate their employees about it. I might mention Lewis Forrest who helps with business plans etc professionally said employees only need 10 things within driving distance. But imagine if we all took time to learn about our state and shared it word of mouth with our visitors...Wouldn't they come back again and again?
I even shared with myself, rereading my blog and clicking on links and I found this interesting effort to save mills, Spoom.
okay, I have a big day. I'll be back...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)