January 11, 2016

Ridge Spring News

Harriet Householder

The Art Association of Ridge Spring will be offering Beginner Drawing Classes!!
Marilyn Smith, former school art teacher, of Aiken will teach each Saturday morning starting January 16th-February 27th at 11 a.m. for $12.00 per hour. Supplies needed: 12"x 18" drawing pad.  Please note: You do not have to sign up for the classes all at one time; you can sign up for the class on any Saturday you choose to attend. If interested, please call Barbara Yon at 685-5386 or Joanne Crouch at 685-5577.

Friends of Ridge Spring will meet Thursday, January 21 at the Ridge Spring Library at 5:00 PM.

In honor of the Rev Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s. birthday, Ridge Hill Baptist Church of Ridge Spring announces its third annual MLK Community Awards Luncheon on Saturday, January 16^th 11:30AM at the RHBC Community Life Center, 144 Ridge Hill Drive in Ridge Spring. There will be artistic presentations in singing, dancing, and instrumental music featuring: The Dance Warriors, Steven Galloway, saxophonist, and others. All are invited. For more information contact: Ridge Hill Baptist Church at 803 685 7367 or 803 237 8769.

Ridge Spring United Methodist Church: The Church had a meaningful Christmas season. The tree, advent wreath, decorations and messages by Pastor John helps us to remember the ‘reason for the season’. The Church hosted the refreshments for the Green Thumb Garden Club Christmas Tour of Homes and it was a pleasure. The Church and the Family Life Center (FLC) were decorate and open. 60+ people visited the church and were greeted by church members. Some had grown up in the church while others were from other towns, this being their first visit to Ridge Spring. It was fun talking and meeting new friends. Please come back to visit soon.

The Big Red Box (BRB) was filled to brim AND overflowing with collections for the Helpful Hands Ministry the month of December. Non perishable food items were delivered to their new location. Took two church member several trips to bring all the food into the building. Well done food angels and church members.

The month of January the Big Red Box is hungry for non perishable food items suitable for a back pack. Yep, let’s try and make sure no young person and/or their family go without food over the weekend. RSUMC works with Bethal Baptist Church in their Back Pack Ministry. If you would like to help leave your donations on the FLC porch and a member will make sure they find their way into the BRB. Don’t forget RSUMC has a Face Book page. Please visit and like us.

Teaser Alert: RSUMC is working a project for Spring. Not going to give away too much information, BUT if you are cleaning out closets and plan to take shoes, any wearable shoes, to donate please save them. More information on this community wide outreach effort during the upcoming months… RSUMC is always looking for ways to help our community. If you see a need or know of something that we might help, please contact us.  Services are every Sunday at 11 a.m. RSUMC also has service on Sunday with the months with 5 Sundays. Join us for fellowship and some of the most uplifting and thoughtful messages you’ll ever hear.

Denise Boatwright and Cookies for Dabo: I started taking cookies to Coach and his brother, Tracy Swinney, a couple of years ago after Dabo signed the tailgate of my truck. Last summer at Coach Swinney’s annual Ladies Football Clinic, Tracy and I talked about bringing cookies to the coaches Clemson’s home games. I said I would, so the “tradition” began. I have been delivering cookies to the coaches before each of the home games this year.  Sometimes they even ask for a gallon of milk as well. Usually before I get out of the parking lot after the game, the coaches have already put their order in for the next game.  I started telling them, “I’ll keep bringing cookies as long as we keep winning!” Tracy texted me last week about bringing cookies before they left for Arizona to play in the National Championship Game. I asked him what kind they wanted and I told him I would get back with him about a date.

On Wednesday, January 6^th, Stacy Chambers (wife of Pastor John Chambers, Ridge Spring Baptist Church) and I went to Clemson to deliver cookies to the coaches. We parked at the entrance to gate 13 and went to the back door of the offices where Tracy met us. As we walked in with the cookies, Coach Swinney was going into the conference room for a meeting when he spied the cookies. He noticed the cookies and gave me a hug. Tracy introduced Stacy to Dabo and he shook hands with her and said he was glad to meet her before going into his meeting. Stacy got to go into Dabo’s office and sit in his chair. The pictures have the Orange Bowl Trophy and the ACC Championship Trophy in the background. We had a wonderful day and will probably be making another trip to Clemson very soon with more cookies!

Joyce and Preston Bell: Rozalynn Fulton is the daughter of Joyce Bell Winkler and Preston Winkler, and the first granddaughter of Mrs. Annie Mae Bell, and is the Education Director of an amazing youth theatre group in Greensboro, NC.

Last October when Rozalynn mentioned to her youth group that she once lived in a section of Columbia that was flooded, they wanted to do something to help. They began organizing donations to send to the people in Columbia. When Rozalynn told her sister Jennifer McLeod-Gantt (who lives in Columbia about this, Jennifer began working with her team to put together a give-away initiative. Jennifer is a Social Worker and Manager at Palmetto Health and works with a program to assist families in need. 

On Nov. 11 with a large U-Haul from Greensboro filled with items, Rozalynn, along with her husband, children and 5 youth from the theatre, delivered the goods for the Midlands families at the give-away location. Because of their community outreach, Rozalynn's theatre group is being recognized as 1 of 5 youth theatre groups nationally (out of more than 200) for a community service award.

Watercolor Classes:  Jan. 7 - Feb.11, Thurs.-6 week, $75. Instructor, Judy Adamick at Barn Studio, Ward, SC Call 803 685.5814

Harriet’s Garden: Regular business hours will begin February first just in time for Valentine’s Day.  I will also have guest writers for the month of January. 

From David James reviews: Note that  “Luise” is correct

One year ago this just-past December 30^th, Luise Rainer died, age 104.  The news tumbled to the wayside, as she is largely forgotten today, except to film buffs, as she bailed out of her MGM contract in 1938, leaving studio head Louis B. Mayer steaming from the ears.

    Almost 80 years later, Rainer remains the only actress to win back-to-back Best Actress Academy Awards, for “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936) and “The Good Earth” (1937).  Had she lingered at MGM, she would have had her pick of the roles vacated by Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer, both of whom retired from the screen in 1942, back when being 40 was the old 40, at least for leading ladies who didn’t care to portray matrons with adult children.

    Billy Wilder wanted Shearer to take the role of Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard” (1950), with Montgomery Clift in what became the William Holden part.  Both passed on what would have been an even-more-must-see classic.  Gloria Swanson has always struck me as a middle-aged trick-or-treater, while Holden, a fine actor, seems about ten years too old for his role.  The viewer is inclined to think, “He really should know better.”  Clift always seems like a lost soul in his early films, particularly “A Place in the Sun” (1951).

    Author and University of South Carolina alumnus Sam Staggs recounts the history of “Sunset Boulevard” in his “Close-up on ‘Sunset Boulevard’” (2002).  Staggs has written a half-dozen excellent studies of classic films, always dotting his “i’s,” crossing his “t’s,” and tailing his “q’s.”

His most recent book is a captivating biography of one of the 20^th century’s greatest party-givers to the highfaluting, “Inventing Elsa Maxwell” (2012).

    Sad to note the passing this year of Bobbie Jo Bradley of “Petticoat Junction.” I’ll always think of Lori Saunders, still living, as Bobbie Jo, so I was flabbergasted to learn that Saunders had been preceded in the role by Pat Woodell, who died in 2015.  I knew the late Meredith MacRae (Billie Jo Bradley) had been preceded by Gunilla Hutton, but come to find out, there was a third Billie Jo—Jeannine Riley!  Linda Kaye Henning, still living, held the role of Betty Jo Bradley for the run of the series, but star Bea Benaderet succumbed to cancer in 1967, so the producers brought in that ubiquitous TV star of the 1960s, June Lockhart.

    Lockhart, now 90, is also an MGM alumna, having appeared in such classics as “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944, as Lucille Ballard) and “The Yearling” (1946, as Twink Weatherby).  It may be a record for a long-running (non-ensemble) TV series, to have lost four major cast members and still barrel on, like The Cannonball Express on a full head of steam.  An even greater wonder is that CBS nodded past the naming of “Hooterville.”  Eva Gabor, who portrayed Lisa Douglas on the crossover series “Green Acres,” malapropped it into “Hootersville,” as if no one had gotten the point.

   Before long, we’ll be noting the passing of “Reality Stars,” a fair number of whom now hail from the South.  Todd Chrisley, of Seneca, SC, stars in “Chrisley Knows Best,” which can be viewed on the USA cable channel.  He and his family reside Somewhere in Greater Atlanta, and four of his five children have now departed the household, with good reason, given his shrill, overbearing nature.  His wife, Julie, is becoming increasingly vituperative herself, although his children are largely pleasant if not vacuous, and Todd’s mother, transplanted as well from Seneca, copes with the requisite family dysfunctions with an assortment of alcoholic beverages.

Reminders:

Ridge Spring Library hours: Mon/Tues 8:30 am - 12 pm; Wed., 12:30 – 4:30; Thurs 8:30 am - 12:00 pm; Fri 8:30 pm -4:30 pm

Ridge Spring Library Toddler Time Mondays at 10:30

3^rd Thursday:  FORS at Ridge Spring Library 5:00 pm

1^st Tuesday of the Month:  AARS meets at 6:30, 685-5783

 Wednesday:  AA meets at Recovery Works

 Monday & Friday:  Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings 7 pm at Recovery Works (enter on Ponderosa Drive; park in Visitor Parking Area)