July - August ECHO 2012



                                                                                 (courtesy: Debbie Pustorino) 

The Echo of the Gorge is the bi-monthly newsletter of the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Community Club. The Gerton Post Office and Hickory Creek Market have hard copies. The ECHO may be read online at our blog site: http://gertonecho.blogspot.com/

The editor welcomes news items. E-mail Margaret Whitt at mwhitt@du.edu or phone 828-625-0264. Space determines use, and editor may revise.

UHNGCC Officers: President Mel Freeman, Vice-President Jim Earnhardt, Secretaries Jean Bradley and Lana Roberts, Treasurer Sylvia Sane, Past President Margaret Whitt, Board Members: Jean Bradley, Patty Tanner, Gene Earnhardt, Syble Freeman. Board meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month. Picture credits are indicated on site.



                                                                                                                 (courtesy: Debbie Pustorino)

Calendar of Events

Every Monday-Friday - Exercise by walking with your neighbors to a tape at the center. Daily at 9 a.m.  

July 4 - 8 a.m. Pancake Breakfast. 

                    6:30 p.m. Hamburgers and Hot Dogs on the grill. Bring sides.

            8:45 p.m. FIREWORKS!! Bring your folding chairs.

July 17 - 6:30 p.m. Community Dinner. Program: Gene Earnhardt on “The American Presidency: Job  Description, and History’s Report Card” (See following story.)

July 23 - Buster Zeigler's 89th Birthday. (See Neighborhood News)

July 27-28 - 8 p.m. Summer Play: "Going Up?" Doors open at 7:15. $10 tickets at the door.

(Sometime in July, two evening classes will be announced for CPR and First Aid.)

July Program

JULY Program at the Community Center: “The American Presidency” is on our minds this election year.  Following dinner at the regular third Tuesday meeting, Gene Earnhardt will hand out a printed non-partisan review of the ten major responsibilities of POTUS (President of the United States). Five are assigned by the U.S. Constitution, and five have developed over time in response to change.  Audience participation is invited.  (For those most interested, a follow-up morning discussion can take place for talking about this subject at greater length another time.)

May and June Programs

Carol Dalton, Chaplain of the Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women, spoke at our May Community Dinner. She walked us through what might be a typical day on site. Chaplain Dalton's talk was to introduce us to a world that we might not know very much about. On May 22, we hosted an inaugural spring luncheon to support Ministry of Hope, a non-profit foundation whose sole purpose is to provide the salaries for the two chaplains that serve 280 inmates and 150 staff members. At the luncheon, we raised $1,640. We were able to give everything we brought in to the Ministry of Hope because the women of the community donated all the food, decorations, flowers, and door prizes. About 60 people attended: people from the community, ten inmates from SCCW, both chaplains, and the center superintendent. The inmates sang, one told her story, and the others performed a sacred movement arrangement. Thanks go especially to Syble Freeman, Jean Bradley, Sylvia Sane, Patty Tanner, Virginia McGuffey, Lana Roberts, Barbara Earnhardt, Shirley Boone, Lynn Morehead, Joan Pool, and Joan Erskine.

The room awaits the guests for the luncheon to support the Ministry of Hope foundation. 

(courtesy: Jean Bradley)

JUNE Program featured John Myers, Jane Lawson, and Ryan Lubbers, all three Hickory Nut Gorge residents vitally involved in establishing Laughing Waters and Hickory Nut Forest, a linked sustainable eco-community in Gerton.  They described the project which protects over 200 acres of natural lands, combined with green/solar homes, an organic orchard and community garden, renewable energy, and miles of hiking trails.  The Laughing Waters Retreat Center is site for many events—wildflower walks, concerts, healing arts, kids’ programs, organic growing, wedding, retreats, and more.  John detailed laying out their micro-hydro system for producing electricity from Hickory Creek, not as easy a task as they had hoped. The hydro-system energy produced should supply the energy needs of Laughing Waters. Any reserves not needed they hope to sell.

     The wind turbine project is still "in the works." A triangular base structure is in place, which will serve as the support system for the turbine blades once installed. Presently, a monitor is measuring wind speed. 

    Ryan Lubbers showed slides of how he built his ‘green’ house, built with timber from his own Hickory Nut Forest lot, and how solar heat warms and cools his new home.

     Jane Lawson invited everyone present to “The Big Splash” August l8.  (See invitation details here in the ECHO.)  

     John and Jane moved to Gerton in December; Ryan moved here several years ago.  They’ve been busy with these projects—and are great advocates for the beautiful place we all share.  They are very welcome new neighbors.

     .     

 

August 18 - ”The BIG SPLASH” at Laughing Waters, 1-5 p.m., along with annual Green

                  Homes Tour sponsored by Environmental and Conservation Organization

                  at Hickory Nut Forest.

August 21 - 6:30 p.m. Community Dinner. Program: TBA

September 1 - GERTONFEST IV - Watch for further information.

Frank Metzker of Greener Lawn & Landscaping Company spends some serious time

shaping up the garden area beside the UHNGCC. (courtesy: Jean Bradley)

President’s Note

The summer season is here and the summer folks are returning to Gerton.  We are glad to see them again and their getting involved with the community.

July 4 we will be having a Pancake and Sausage Breakfast from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.  At 6.30 we will have our annual Hotdog and Hamburger cookout, starting at 6:30.  Come join us and bring a covered side dish.  There will be music and FIREWORKS.

Work on the storage area is about 85 percent complete.  Work on the area has slowed because of people going on vacations, commitments out of town, and other activities.  I would like to say thanks again to all of the folks who have been involved in the project.  A lot of behind-the-scenes people have been involved.  Work should start again in about a week.  Margaret Whitt has been busy working on getting grants for the kitchen renovation.

Activity is underway on the play: Helen Brown has been very busy writing the play, getting actors to play the parts, and making final arrangements.   The play will be July 27 and 28. 

Activities are underway for GertonFest IV.  Events are being planed and volunteers are being recruited.  If you would like help, call Claudia Freeman at 625-0716.  Everybody has a talent that can be used.

The center is looking better each week.  Rental interest has increased.  A “D.J. Dance” is scheduled for July 14. A lot of good music is planned, all types. Come and join in.  The price is $5 per couple or $3 for singles.

We have received a lot of good comments about the center and how it shows that we take pride in our community.  Let's keep up the good work.  Again, thanks to everyone.

Mel Freeman, Club President

A big thanks to Scott O'Connor, who made this new beautiful and useful swing, and then installed it in the picnic shelter beside the walking track. Drop by and sit and swing awhile. (courtesy: Jean Bradley)

(Scott also built the shelves for our community library when it was established some years back.)

Hickory Creek Players Return for Summer Production

Missing bodies and open graves are just a few of the obstacles to be overcome by the Hickory Creek Players in this year's two-act play "GOING UP?"  In playwright-director Helen Hudson Brown’s comedy, the cast includes several newcomers as well as seasoned players.  To be presented at the air-conditioned Gerton Community Club July 27 and 28, the $10 tickets will be sold at the door.

The ten cast members who will play in “Going Up?” are the following: “Allota Graves” (Debbie Hill); Granny Darlene Groiter (Bonnie Moore); Mrs. Whitley (Julie Delich), Laston Groiter (J.D. Nappi); Michealina Fenaro (Freddie Ann Nappi); Roxy Pickeline (Gracelyn Perry); Mrs. Smiley McGee (Margaret Whitt);  and Mr. Smiley McGee (TBA).  Two more casts members will be added.  Mrs. Ruth Ann Nappi is the cast manager.

Between the two “Going Up?” acts, the audience will be entertained by three mystery guests visiting Gerton for the first time. The guests will represent a well-known TV cooking show guru, a popular NASCAR Hall of Famer, and a world famous movie star telling us how to improve on a reverse mortgage with an inside-out mortgage.     
        

Questionable casket contents—like an escaped pet lizard—at “Graves Mortuary and Crematorium” are part of the play’s action. Madcap mayhem features funeral-home director Ms. Alotta Graves, and Mr. Doug Underhill, her assistant. There’s gangster-womanizer Smiley McGee with maybe Mafia connections. Mrs. Smiley McGee plots with two men disguised as women to catch her husband in suspicious activities.

Spirit of Leonard Barnes...

The spirit of Leonard Barnes still very much hovers here in Gerton.  Leonard died at age 102 several years ago, but we Gerton folk who knew him still quote and remember him fondly for his strongly held opinions and witty observations—such as “Stay a w a y from DOCTORS!” He said this loudly, with great passion, and on more than one occasion.

Leonard was a true patriot, and I think of him especially every Fourth of July as a result of an encounter I had with him once, outside the Gerton Post Office.  The July ECHO  had included an Internet-circulated report on what fates the signers of the Declaration of Independence had met.  Their act of signing would be seen as an act of treason, and the signers knew as they wrote their names, they could be hanged. Leonard had read this information very personally: he had grown up in England, immigrated to this country as a teenager, and worked for his nurseryman brother until the United States declared war on Germany.  The very next day, through he was still a British citizen, Leonard signed up to join the U.S. Navy.  A U.S. Naval officer took him to Canada—Leonard was living in Chicago at the time, and endured the procedures to officially declare he wished to renounce his British citizenship. On returning to Chicago, Leonard took the oath of allegiance to the United States.

Outside the Post Office that morning, Leonard wanted to talk. He thanked me for submitting the article about what the signers had risked and lost as a result of the Revolution.  Politely, I thanked him back.  “No, Barbara—you don’t understand,” and his voice rose with emotion. “Those were MY people.  Those were MY PEOPLE!” 

Later, I thought I understood: he meant the signers had had to turn against their own Mother Country, just as Leonard felt he must do to support and defend the United States he had come to love and honor.  He felt kinship to their act, and to those signers.

Leonard Barnes’ unmarked grave lies now beside his wife’s on the lovely green cemetery hill at The Church of the Transfiguration in Bat Cave.  If his burial mound ever does have a headstone, I hope somewhere on the stone’s surface will be carved the word “Patriot.”

Barbara Earnhardt

Changes at Gerton Post Office

Franklin Sides bids us farewell as our faithful and cheerful Postmaster.   He and his family live in Fairview, and we know we’ll see him again—maybe even in Edneyville where he’ll serve as their Postmaster.  Or maybe at the Lord’s Acre, where he and wife Susan work tirelessly to grow fruits and vegetables for the community.  But there will be a loss—and we’ll all miss him.  A memory one person holds of Franklin’s devotion to duty is watching him struggle on foot through snowdrifts to deliver a registered letter.  He was wearing a backpack filled with other mail he thought important enough to deliver through the snow to recipients.  He would often phone about a package arrival he thought the person should know of.  And he could clog dance like nobody’s business!  We wish him very well in his new position.  We wish him well forever, with our thanks.  

Ed. Note: Changes in hours are coming to the Gerton P.O. We will also have a town meeting about our post office. All information will be forthcoming.



Neighborhood News

Gerton resident Roberta Pope flew to Daytona Beach, Florida,  for a week to attend her son David Lockwood's graduation ceremonies at Daytona State College. David attained his Bachelor of Engineering Degree with High Honors, majoring in Information Technology. A Florida style Graduation Party was attended by David's family and friends. It was a fun event. We welcome a new engineer to the work-a-day world, and wish David good luck in all his future endeavors.

                                                    



SUMMER COMPANY COMING!    All kinds of company coming and going in these summer days: Bob and Diane Fields are expecting their grandson and his family (which includes a great grandchild) from Florida; Margaret Whitt’s five grandchildren and their parents (from Denver, Colorado and Portland, Oregon) have just departed for home; David Douglas’ oldest son Michael from Texas and his family of seven will help celebrate a belated 90^th birthday for David; the Gene Earnhardts gear up for their fourth family reunion, Barbara’s side: “The Rotten Ross Kid Reunion” will see 4 grandnieces and 2 grandnephews and their parents—from Atlanta; Chevy Chase, Md.; Rock Hill, S.C., and Californians John, Lisa with grandson Jack Earnhardt from Menlo Park.   In August, will come Nancy Eubank and her daughter Laura Wexler with children Luke, Helen and Claire.   And that’s just the people we know about!  There must be more—we’ll find out names and visitors for September issue.

TURTLE WATCH: Richard Silwedel, neighbor for a year now from Arkansas, along with wife Evelyn in what used to be Nancy Kirschbaum’s house, in between the Zeigler and Jim Earnhardt houses, has become something of a celebrity-sharpshooter dispatching seven (7!) very large snapping turtles from the Chestnut Hills Pond.  Enticing the huge turtles first the good old-fashioned way--chicken necks and very large fishing hooks—Richard has then shot the ill-fated animals.  One he was able to withdraw from the pond, and weighing maybe 15 pounds or more, it resembled a yellow-bellied prehistoric animal, an admirable descendant of its forebears.  The resident mother duck quacks her hearty approval: her several clutches of many offspring have served as turtle-bedtime snacks over the past six years.  Maybe things will settle down, now, for her next brood, thanks to Richard, her champion!

NITA and SUSAN’S HICKORY CREEK MARKET has been approved  by the ABC Board of Commissioners for licenses to sell both beer and wine. Three separate entities had to okay the site: Zoning Board, Building, and  Fire Inspectors. The beverages will be cold, and must be used off premises.

ALSO APPROVED and available at the Market is an ATM.  In the works is approval for the EDT Food Stamp program.             

MARGIE OWENSBY would love to hear and see summer friends—and winter ones too:

she can be visited at Flescher’s Nursing Home on Cane Creek Road in room 310, though the cheerful person at the front desk can direct you there to her room if you forget the number.  Her personal phone is 828-628-1262.

BETTYE DOUGLAS still finds life challenging after her stroke eighteen months ago.  Recently hospitalized for a few days after a seizure, she lives at home with her son Tim Tanner.  Her home address is 6011 Via Sonoma, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA  90275.

         

BUSTER ZEIGLER, whose 89^th birthday is noted on the ECHO Community Calendar, has long been a benefactor to the Gerton Community. Fun to remember how many community people roasted beef for his barbeque suppers—he’d bring maybe a dozen gigantic roasts to households with printed directions for cooking them, and then he’d slice and barbeque them for community suppers.  Other times in the fall, Buster would invite everybody on a chilly November Saturday afternoon to come eat boiled peanuts from his farm—huge piles of boiled peanuts we’d devour after shelling them.  He made repairs he saw needed attention at the Community Center, and he re-floored part of Chestnut Hill pavilion where time and weather had weakened old boards. He and wife Mary, Cake and Cookie Baker par Excellence, are generous, generous people. Their permanent home in Orangeburg, South Carolina, is where they raised two sons and their families on his farmland.  They love Gerton and neighbors, and spend as much time as they possibly can during its milder months, and when doctors’ appointments allow. Faithful attenders of Bear Wallow Baptist and their home church and at the Community Center dinners, they fulfill the admonition to ‘love thy neighbor.’ Once Buster helped rescue a full-grown St. Bernard that had slipped off the dam into the Chestnut Hills Pond.  The dog’s young owner couldn’t manage grappling with the paddling, desperate dog weighed down with water.  Spotting the accident from his living room window, Buster rushed immediately to the boy’s side. “Love thy neighbor” for Mr. Zeigler includes also “…and thy neighbor’s dog.”

 A Word on Tomatoes

Whatever happened to really flavor-filled tomatoes--remember?  Watery cardboard blandness has been the hallmark of most of grocery store tomatoes, no matter how pretty they look, and even homegrown tomatoes disappoint with less than enthusiastic flavor.  In the news recently, a reporter talked with scientists who discovered why: today's tomatoes are genetically engineered for red plumpness--and the redness works against the former tomatoes green "shoulders" close to the stem where sunshine and fruit sugars work, providing a tart sweetness we loved.  By re-engineering back to original genetic structure, using several cross strains of heritage tomatoes, there is again hope.  These tomatoes with green shoulders will be more expensive for a while, but worth it! 

Hundreds of runners participated in the Bearwallow Beast 5K on May 6.

Here are some of them!

Next time you drive by the front of the UHNGCC notice the new landscaping to the left of the building. The rear of the building has its own charm, now that the patio with picnic tables and sun umbrellas are ready for a pleasant meal and much overgrowth by Hickory Creek has been removed. In the past year, both the inside and the outside of the clubhouse have met with the attention it deserves.