November - December 2013

This summer and fall seasons many neighbors have reported visits from bears. Up at the home of Dave MacDonald and Stan Mobley, a bear comes to empty the morning bird seed from a feeder. 

ECHO of the GORGE is the bi-monthly newsletter of the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Community Club. Paper copies are available in the Gerton Post Office. The ECHO may be read online at www.gertonecho.blogspot.com  The Editor welcomes news items: E-mail Margaret Whitt at mwhitt@du.edu or phone 625-0264 or ace reporter and photographer (unless otherwise noted) Barbara Earnhardt at  lualice@bellsouth.net or 625-9255. Pictures of local Gerton activities, people, or places are always welcome.

UHNGCC officers: Margaret Whitt, president; Jim Earnhardt, vice president; Jean Bradley and Lana Roberts, secretaries; Sylvia Sane, treasurer; Mel Freeman, immediate past president. Board members: Gene Earnhardt, Claudia Freeman, Syble Freeman, Jim Sane, Jean Bradley. Community Dinner and Program, third Tuesday of each month.

Winners of the third annual Gerton 5K: from left, Jonathan Jenkins (3rd place), Eric Freeman (2nd place) of Rock Hill, S.C., and Nick Cain (1st place) of Rock Hill, S.C.

GertonFest V

Held this year on Saturday, August 31, our annual community celebration and fundraiser, GertonFest V, was again successful. We made over $2,000 that has gone into our savings account in hopes of making our new kitchen a reality. While GertonFest continues its same line-up of familiar events, this year we added some new ones. The Asheville Amblers helped us create a new route for our Gerton 5K; the route was less complicated but still rather challenging. The winners are pictured above. Mel and Claudia Freeman designed the custom t-shirt--light blue with a bear chasing a runner. A few are available if you would like to purchase one; let a board member know. 

The spelling bee consisted of teams of both adults and children. Like last year, we had a tie for the championship: Barbara and Gene Earnhardt and Karen Hudson-Brown on one team and a group from Laughing Waters on the other. This is the second year both of these groups have come out on top. Bob Stepp and Helen Wright led us in a community Sing-a-Long, providing sheet music for the participants. Billy Gaines, once again, prepared the delicious bar-b-que and banana pudding. When the sun set and dark settled in, we had fireworks (leftover from our rained-out July 4 celebration). Thanks to Jason Freeman and Jason Moore for setting off the display.

And thanks to Syble Freeman and her team for serving the breakfast. Lana Roberts, Sylvia Sane, Barbara Earnhardt, Jean Bradley, Jonathan Jenkins, Syble Freeman, Travis Waldron, Jim Earnhardt, and others provided items for the silent auction by soliciting from nearby businesses. Thanks to Claudia Freeman for running the dog show. 

And, finally, thanks to the following people for providing baked goods for the big sale on GertonFest morning: Jean Bradley, Syble Freeman, Sylvia Sane, Lana Roberts, Margaret Whitt, Lois Simpson, Meg Mumpower, Patty Tanner, Margaret Colwell, Betty Cameron, Virginia McGuffey, Sarah Gayle, Jean Carson, Helen Brown, Ruth Hudson, Barbara Earnhardt, Keith Earnhardt, Lynn Morehead, Shirley Boone, Joan Erskine, Mary Kay McAdams, Roberta Pope, and Jean Bryan.

Thanks to the whole community who supported GertonFest V and said YES when asked to help. We couldn't be successful without the help of everyone!

Calendar of Events

November 6, Wednesday, 10 a.m. - Work Day at the Center

November 9, Saturday - noon - WNCCommunities Annual Awards Luncheon at Grove Park Inn

November 16, Saturday - 9 - 12 noon - Gerton Fire Department. A refresher for those who would like to practice or review CPR techniques

November 19 - Tuesday - 6:30 p.m. - Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner. Helen Brown will provide turkeys and dressing; bring sides.  Bring canned food to support the local Food Banks.

November 23, Saturday - 12 -1 p.m. History and Heritage of Henderson County, a class from Blue Ridge Community College. Field trip to Gerton and Bat Cave. Local people who know our history are invited to join the guests to talk about Gerton.

November 28 - Thanksgiving

December 2 - Monday - Work Day for preparing Christmas Greens for the streets of Gerton

December 5, Thursday, 6:30 - 10 p.m. - Chamber of Hickory Nut Gorge Holiday FUNdraiser Gala at Lake Lure Inn. See www.hickorynutgorge.org for further information.

December 7 and 14 - Santa Claus appears at Chimney Rock State Park

December 17 - Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. - Annual Christmas Party and $5 gift exchange. Bring canned food to support the local Food Banks

December 24 - 7 p.m. - Christmas Eve Service at Bearwallow Baptist Church

December 25 - Christmas 

More Gerton neighbors--of a different kind. A double spider web appears on

 Gene and Barbara Earnhardt's porch.

President's Note

The rains have subsided and fall is with us; the leaves are turning their magnificent colors of yellow, orange, red, and brown. Acorns are beginning to drop, and our drives are leaf-strewn. GertonFest V was a success; everyone pitched in--and to quote a neighbor: "It is fun when neighbors come together to celebrate our collective lives in the gorge." 

On the good news side: we thought we might have to replace our clubhouse roof, but the roof experts have done due diligence and determined that our roof should last us another five-ten years. So, we need only to repair the weak spots--all on the back side of the clubhouse. This work went to the lowest bidder and has been completed. Our insurance coverage went up this year by almost $500, so we began a search for competitive bids, only to determine that the cheapest rate we could get was over $500 more than what we are presently paying, so, for now, we are sticking with what we have.

Finally, a big thank you to Jim Earnhardt, who had help from Jim Sane, Marc Eastman, Jack Mumpower, David Pope, and Doug Colwell on building the new ramp that will make our building more accessible to all. 

I will look forward to seeing you at our upcoming holiday meals and our work days to organize our new storage area and prepare the Christmas greens for our street signs. 

Margaret Whitt

Photography Contest

Please remember to keep taking those pictures for our GERTON CALENDAR for 2015. If you have questions about the contest, please email Shirley Boone (shirley101@bellsouth.net). If you plan to enter the contest, but have not yet done so, please email either Margaret Whitt (mwhitt@du.edu) or Shirley Boone (shirley101@bellsouth.net). Check earlier blogs (all available online at www.gertonecho.blogspot.com) for complete information about the contest. We are looking for pictures that represent the many seasons of Gerton and that are easily identifiable as "Gerton" or its immediate environment. Pictures should include an informational caption. 

Henderson County Community Development 

Annual Awards Program

Mel Freeman, Jean Bradley, Margaret Whitt, and Lynn Morehead attended the county awards banquet on Saturday, October 12, held this year at the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Center in Henderson County. Down from six clubs, only four community clubs are active participants in the Henderson County competition: Crab Creek, Edneyville, Upper Hickory Nut Gorge, and Upward. 

This year, UHNGCC was the recipient of FOUR awards:  first place in Beautification ($125), the Club Improvement Award (no cash prize, but a framed certificate), second place in Senior Citizen activities ($100), and second place in Community Club of the Year ($100). The $325 total will be placed in our savings account for our one-day kitchen! 

Thanks to all who helped make our efforts successful.

New Ramp at UHNGCC

Thanks to the efforts of Jim Earnhardt, with good help from Marc Eastman, David Pope, Jack Mumpower, Jim Sane, and Doug Colwell, we now have a new ramp leading into the front doors of the community center. The ramp will make it possible for those needing special assistance--wheel chairs, walkers, and other walking aids-- to easily access the building. Along with our handicapped-accessible bathroom, re-fitted last year, we now have a clubhouse that is welcoming to all. 

Jim Earnhardt and Marc Eastman begin the work on the new ramp.

Sylvia Sane, Becca and John Solomon Hathaway, Margaret Colwell, and Meg Mumpower use the new ramp to make their way to exercise each morning.

One Hour from Gerton

ed. note: fourth in a series. This column invites readers to share their stories. Each issue, we will focus on a place to go that is no more than one hour from Gerton.

BOILING SPRINGS, S.C., is located just north of Spartanburg. You can reach Boiling Springs by heading toward Lake Lure, turning right on highway 9 and staying on 9 into South Carolina; you will arrive on Boiling Springs Road, which is still highway 9. Look for the 15-year-old locally owned Clock Restaurant. The menu advertises "Good Food is our recipe," "Everything is Homemade," and the word "FRESH" is the adjective for literally every item on the menu. You can get a meat and 2 or a vegetable platter, your choice of a dozen possibilities, including sweet potato casserole and yellow squash casserole. Trust the menu's language, and the food will not disappoint. 

You will know you are in Boiling Springs because there is a line of shopping strips one after another. No historic block of a downtown exists, but you can pull into the Bi-Lo Shopping Center and lean toward the left hand side. The original "boiling springs" (no longer boiling or bubbling) is meticulously manicured, and an historical marker tells the history of the community. People settled here beginning in the mid-1700s, and as late as the early 1900s, the spring was a site for watering horses to and from market. The small park also honors local veterans with a monument and a towering magnolia tree.

Two dominant buildings occupy the area: the first is the Boiling Springs First Baptist Church, which dates from the late 1700s. The imposing edifice has gigantic white columns outside the red brick building. If you have an interest in church architecture, this is surely worth a look. The other site is just off Old Furnace Road, the major crossroad of Boiling Springs Road. Here you will find Boiling Springs High School, with a separate campus for the 9th graders. This is no single building, but a number of impressive buildings. 

If you were to keep driving south through Spartanburg, you would pass Dorman High School, the second largest high school in the state, with a stadium that holds 12,000! The campus of this high school must be in the hundreds of acres, with every athletic field possible, beautifully landscaped lawns, and impeccably clean buildings --from the outside. These two high schools in South Carolina make a statement in imposing physical appearance.

An Archer Among Us...

Freddie Ann Nappi, a home-schooled tenth grader, spends lots of time in her backyard lately—practicing for Olympic competitions she hopes to eventually qualify for.  Now classed as a cadet, she competes in Jr. Olympic contests with other young competitors. Her coach, Don Bishop, has evidently spotted her blooming talent and has encouraged her to think ‘big’—enough so that she is researching colleges which offer Archery Scholarships. James Madison presently tops the list.

  

     During an interview, Freddie Ann described her journey in archery: “I first got interested when my parents gave me a toy bow and arrow set for Christmas.  A kind of ‘starter set’ I played with off and on.  I loved playing soccer then, too, and basketball—and even karate.  Then on my 13^th birthday, I asked for a Recurve bow—and loved practicing enough that I started going to Junior Olympics in Fletcher.  Now I have a ‘serious’ Recurve bow—which has really helped me become more successful—I hit the bull's eye more often.  Once, I hit it 14 times in a row—when the standard asked for 8.” 

      That particular bull's eye stood more than 60 meters, or 66 feet, away—3/4 of a football field in length.  Freddie Ann named the parts of the bow—the stabilizer, the site device, the riser, limbs, plunger, clicker—and can show what each of these means in terms of accuracy of aim.

      She wears loose comfortable practice clothes, but for the competitions she dresses in all blue, including  blue finger nail polish!  Competition dress codes dictate no jeans, no flashy clothing or jewelry.

    About the popular movie series based on the books of the Hunger Games: "People always ask if 'Hunger Games' is the reason I got into archery, and it is not! I was into archery long before that book and movie series, of which I'm not a big fan.  What I’d really like to do is meet her coach—Khatuna Lorig.  She’s on the Olympic team, and I admire her skill and dedication." 

       While in the cadet division presently, Freddie Ann could advance quickly to more competitive categories if she wins the necessary competitions. There will be many competitions, but her coach seems to think she has what it takes to compete in the U.S. Olympics. It remains to be seen if it's Rio in 2016 or Tokyo in 2020.  There’ll be much competition and many events before that time.  So, readers—stay tuned!  Or go check her out practicing—but not on Tuesdays and Fridays when she’s team-practicing with her coach in Fletcher.            --by Barbara Earnhardt

Freddie Ann Nappi takes aim...

Prohibitions for Large Trucks on Highway 74 A 

Ordinances have been in place since either 1996 or 2008 to prohibit the use of 74A for especially large trucks. While we will probably not ever solve this problem completely, here is what we CAN DO. Call this number: (from a cell phone - *47 or 298-4252. The Henderson County Sheriff number is 697-4911.) Report what you have seen and WHERE you have seen it. If you can get a license number, all the better. More neighbors have been reporting close and uncomfortable confrontations with large trucks. Here are the specifics for those who are interested in the details of prohibition:

US 74 A in Buncombe County: Trucks and other vehicles of a gross vehicle weight in excess of 13,000 lbs. from 1-40 to the Henderson County Line.

No through truck tractors with trailers longer than 30 feet, and no truck tractors with trailers longer than 48 feet between SR 2813 and the Henderson County line.

No through truck tractors with trailers longer than 30 feet between 1-40 and SR 2813.

US 74 A in Henderson County: No through truck tractors with trailers longer than 30 feet, and no truck tractors with trailers longer than 48 feet between Buncombe County line and the Rutherford County line.

 No vehicles in excess of 13,000 lbs. in the same location as above.

US 74 A in Rutherford County: no through truck tractors with trailers longer than 30 feet, and no truck tractors with trailers longer than 48 feet between Henderson County line and US 221.

No vehicles in excess of 13,000 lbs. in the same location as above.

     Neighbor Dave MacDonald writes the following:  “In the past 12 months there has been a significant increase in the number of 18-wheeler "SEMI" trucks daring us to drive up and down Highway 74-A.   In the past week, I was forced off the road to Fairview two times within 13 hours.  I'm imagining that these guys (and gals) are using their personal communication network with each other to encourage the lawbreaking. The more they get away with it the more they are pushing us.
“I’m making it a habit to call the Highway Patrol at every incidence I encounter. I encourage others in our community to do the same.”

(EDITORS’ NOTE: we called the Department of Transportation. What they said: 74-A is OFF LIMITS to l8-wheeler truck traffic.  “Your (2008) petition signatures and working with your NC Representative (Carolyn Justus) was successful.”)

See a SEMI, call STAR 47 or 298-4252

              GERTON NEEDS NEW AMERICAN FLAGS!

We're grateful to our venerable Fire Department for each spring hanging our stars-and-stripes before Memorial Day, and hauling  them down Labor Day.  You've probably noticed many are now tattered and shabby. We need 14 new flags.  If readers will donate $10 per new flag,  to salute a present serviceman, to remember a former friend or family member--would you send please $10 for replacing with a new sturdier, tightly stitched American flag. Community Club members will scotchguard them (a suggestion for strengthening against all-weather use), and by next Memorial Day, we should see hanging new flags--stars spangling!

       Mail your $l0 (checks made out to UHNGCC) to Box 222, Gerton.  We'll be sure you receive a  receipt.  (Sylvia Sane, bless her, did the homework on finding better quality flag replacements.)

September Program

Mrs. Honiafe Piccolli, who grows the tallest crops around at Sherrill’s Inn farms, spoke in September to the Community Club members about her experience as a Kosovo citizen, forced, with her family of six, to leave her country because of the dangerous political situation, which brought war to her country.  In her musical voice, and quite at home with us, she described coming to America—in 1999—and how happy she was when she and her family members finally became citizens of the United States. Mrs. Piccolli has been elected spokesperson for the Buncombe County Habitat for Humanity and beams when she describes her new life here.  Her youngest son plays on the football team at Reynolds High School.

         Honiafe Piccolli and Geneva Matteis greet each other anew at our September program.

October Program 

John Ager talks with UHNGCC neighbors who participated in the field trip on the afternoon of October 15, before our monthly dinner. We had 27 people who carpooled to Sherrill's Inn for an informative tour led by Barbara Earnhardt. We learned a bit about the history of the house and the people who have lived here as we took our time in seeing the downstairs rooms, including the library, the kitchen, the dining room, and the front sitting rooms. We then spent time in the outside: the garden, the various small homes, once most likely used as slave cabins, the work sheds, and the landscaped yards that now serve often as the setting for weddings. 

Poetry Corner

"Retirement"

Someone asked my son about me,

My health and general well-being

Here at Elder Acres.

He reported that I was well,

That I read a great deal,

Enjoyed games and 

Good conversations.

"In fact," he said, "it's like a college

Campus at vacation time

When everyone stays around

Instead of going somewhere else,

But no one wants to graduate."

-- Griff Campbell

Deer in Bradley garden looks almost like a cardboard cut-out, but it is the real thing!

Neighborhood News

Dave MacDonald won a 2^nd place ribbon and $500 for his ironwork display at the juried art show during the Annual Bakersville Creek Walk Art Festival in September.  The art show is held annually in downtown Bakersville, near the Penland School. 

 Million Dollar Birthday Present  (450 inches of dollar bills!)

 This past July, Buster Ziegler and wife Mary celebrated his 90^th birthday in an Orangeburg restaurant with many family members, including two great-granddaughters, aged 5 and 8.  With many giggles, the little girls presented to him a three-inch square silver gift box.  Buster noted a tiny slit at the top of the sealed box, and after poking gingerly around, he discovered a paper jutting out.  “Pull it OUT!” cried one little girl, unable to stand the suspense. So—Buster did.  And lo! a one dollar bill was pulled out, followed by another and another, each scotch-taped and linked to the next one. The dollar bill chain curled onto the restaurant floor, much amusing other diners and waiters.  Buster finally stopped,  and finished the count at home.  The final total of $90 has now been rewound into its silver box, all tucked into a dresser drawer.  Those bills are a million dollars to a 90-year-old great-grandpa!

Buster Ziegler (at head of table) joins neighbors for dinner at our October meeting.

New Batteries.

A reminder to change your batteries in your smoke detectors. If you need assistance, please call the Gerton Fire Department for help.

Dr. Bob Stepp was surprised for his 80^th birthday at a party attended by tons of friends at the Fairview United Methodist Church October 19.

J.D. Nappi leaves soon for a week-long mission trip in the Honduras.  This is J.D.’s second trip there where he’ll help with construction projects supported by Trinity of Fairview on Concord Road.

Steve Ruddy is something of a genius when it comes to odd-jobs: he’ll do vehicle mechanical work, he’ll install/repair tiles, he’ll wash windows, he’ll neaten yards.  Call him at 707-8138 to describe what you need doing—and he’ll give you a fair estimate.  (Roni Peterson recommends his work.)