May 1, 2017

Ridge Spring News

Harriet Householder

The Ridge Spring Fire Department is sponsoring a benefit in memory of Michael Adamick which will be held on Saturday,  May 6th starting at 5 p.m. BBQ tickets are $10.00 each and may be purchased from any of the fire department members.  An auction will  immediately follow dinner.  Please join us at the Fire Department in the center of Ridge Spring for an evening of fun. CALLING ALL CAKES!  Ridge Springites.....cakes are needed for the Fire Department Benefit, any kind, all kinds.  Will be used for the benefit desserts and auction or sell (if we have enough donated).  Please and THANK YOU.

We have a lot coming up this time of the year in our community.  There are so many ways to participate and enjoy the people, the sense of community and just plain fun.  There are the Fireman's Benefit, so many churches are having specials for Mother's Day, Magnolia Ridge Antique and  Art Gathering, Peach Tree 23 Yard Sale, graduations, and more.  Mt Calvary Mother's Day luncheon is Saturday May 13 and Jerusalem Mothers' Day program is May 14.Enjoy life!!!!

  Joanne Crouch, AARS:  We are currently looking for students  for the Monsters to Dinosaurs Handbuilding Pottery workshop on June 12th-16th from 9-12.  The week of instruction will be taught by Kim Ruff.  Cost is $100 for the week-$80 for the second child from the same family. Reserve spots at the Art Center on Fridays or Saturdays from 10-4.  You may also contact Kim Ruff by email- makerart@aol.com.  The public is invited to AARS membership meeting on Thursday, May 4th at 6:30 at the Art Center.  Our speaker will be local South Carolina watercolorist, Anne Hightower-Patterson White.  In 2016, Anne was selected by Watercolor. Magazine as one of 10 artists nationwide as “Ones to Watch.”  This is a free event and everyone is encouraged to attend. Check out the work of local artisans for that unique gift for someone special or for yourself.  Join our membership meeting on the first Thursday of each month at 6:30.  Our hours are10-4 on Fridays and Saturdays.

 RS-M Girls State delegates chosen by Auxiliary: Rachel Burger will represent Ridge Spring American Legion Auxiliary ,Unit 133,  at Palmetto Girls State. She is the daughter of Gary and Rebekah Burger, of Aiken, and is a member of the Junior Class of Ridge Spring-Monetta High School.   Alternate candidate is Alexandra Sterling, daughter of Dawn Pace and Michael Pace of Batesburg.  She is a Junior at RS-M. These girls were chosen on the basis of their leadership, scholarship, desire to attend Palmetto Girls State, character, cooperativeness, and interest in government.    Girls State will convene June 11-17 at Presbyterian College in Clinton. The purpose of Girls State is to educate our youth in duties, privilege, rights and responsibilities of American Citizenship. American Legion Auxiliary, Unit 133, would like to thank those who generously donated to allow us to support the Girls State program for  another year.                                             

Jeffrey Clamp: Twenty students from the Ridge Spring-Monetta Middle/High School Band traveled to Aiken High School on Friday, April 21st to participate in the Solo and Ensemble Festival.  At the Solo and Ensemble Festival the students play either solos (one person) or small ensembles (two or more people) for a judge who in turn gives them a rating of Superior, Excellent, Good, or Fair.  All groups from RS-M received one of the highest two ratings of Superior or Excellent.  Overall RS-M earned 11 Superior ratings and 5 Excellent ratings.  Yazmine Cannon, Alex Timmerman, Tyler Rowe, and Katara Coleman all earned TWO Superior ratings.  Students earning one Superior rating were:  Paola Trinidad-Santana, Emily Gonzales, Tita Mendez-Perez, Zachary Truesdale, Jason Orantes, Gabi Maltese, and Malaysia Morris.  Excellent ratings were earned by Haylee Rice, Daneyelle Dover, Kyla Padgett, Montana Hartley, Cheyenne Hartley, Jakobe Erving, Joanna Kaiser, Kenyon Ligons, and Kandon Hastings.

Mount Calvary Lutheran Church - Bible Study - The Lord's Prayer: Beginning May 9 at 11:00 am and 7:00pm, Pastor Christi will lead a six week Bible study focusing on the Lord’s Prayer.  To aide our study, we will look at the Aramaic version which our Lord spoke, the NSRV and use N.T. Wright’s Book, The Lord and His Prayer - “In his book of pastoral reflections N.T. Wright explores how the Lord's Prayer sums up what Jesus was all about in his first-century setting. The result is a fresh understanding of

Christian spirituality and the life of prayer. This deeply devotional book will refresh and stimulate the heart and mind of any reader.”

Rene Miller, RSM Elementary School

The Solar Eclipse “A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, causing the Moon to temporarily cast its shadow on Earth. Solar eclipses happen about twice a year and total eclipses are only visible to those located in the path of the Moon’s shadow as it crosses the Earth. Columbia is located close to the center of this path of totality, which is less than 100 miles wide. A total solar eclipse has not been visible from the United States since 1979, which has some astronomy fans referring to this event as the “Great American Eclipse.’” “(http:// scmuseum.org/eclipse) “On August 21, 2017, millions of people across the United States will see nature’s most wondrous spectacle-a total eclipse of the Sun. It is a scene of unimaginable beauty; the Moon completely blocks the Sun, daytime becomes a deep twilight, and the Sun’s corona shimmers in the darkened sky.” (https:// www.greatamericaneclipse.com/best-places-toview) “The total solar eclipse will cross the United States from Oregon to South Carolina, turning day into night! The next chance in the United States to view a total eclipse won’t be until April 8 th, 2024.” (The Big Eclipse by Nancy Coffelt) RSM will be sending a special book about the solar eclipse and viewing glasses home with each child at the end of school. We hope each child will read their book and use their glasses to view the eclipse on August 21.

Welcome: We would like to welcome our new nurse, Nurse Diane Bolen. She graduated from USC-Aiken and lives in Aiken. She has been with us for a few weeks now. She has been married for 32 years and has 2 children, one boy and one girl. She is a member of Cedar Creek Church in Aiken and has 2 cats: Fatimus or Fat Cat and Miss Kitty. We are so happy to have her here at RSM. If you need her for anything don’t hesitate to call. We would also like to welcome the following: Meghan Thomas filling in for Mrs. Taylor Ann Kitchings, new interventionist Kimberly Griffis filling in for Mrs. Ford Ms. East, our new custodian.

Josie Rodgers

RSM High: Congratulations to senior Mikayla Davis for earning the WJBF Scholar Athlete Award!  Mikayla participates in 3 sports at RSM including volleyball, basketball, and track.  She has won several region awards, including the 3A Region Player of the Year for volleyball!  Mikayla excels on and off the courts.  She is a member of the National English Honor Society and the Teacher Cadet class; she will graduate in the top ten of her class in June.  She attributes her success to her drive in addition to her parents, her school, and her community, all of whom support and encourage her.  Mikayla will attend college and major in athletic training or applied science. 

The FFA is selling baskets and potted plants from April 19 – May 11.  Plants inclue Geranium, Lobelia (hot blue), Lobelia (hot snow white), Verbena, Begonia (big red with bronze leaves), Geranium Begonia (cocktail mix), Petunia (easy wave white), Impatiens (mix mystic), Marigold- French (Durango mix), Zinnia and Boston Ferns.  Quantities are limited; $2 pots and $10 baskets.

The National English Honor Society will host a Poetry Café on Thurs., May 18, in the high school cafeteria.  For more information, contact Josie Rodgers, sponsor.

Harriet's Garden Tips: When you purchase a plant in a container, there are several things you can do to make sure your plant can survive the South's hot summers.  Soak it in water.  Try to submerge it to get all the air pockets filled. Once out of the pot disturb the soil for I find the soil to be too porous and in need regular soil around the roots.  Be careful, those roots are for many purposes including feeding the plant.  If it is rootbound break that up too. A good rule of thumb is to remove 1/3 of the top of the plant for you probably damaged 1/3 of the root system.  Now my mother never agreed with that and her plants did well.  I just do not like to take the chance that I will not be as lucky as my mom was.  Her thumb was greener than mine.  Water that plant every day for a week and then every other day for a week and then when it is dry.  Once established, water thoroughly once in a while.  You want to roots to stay down and not come to the surface for that little bit of watering.

Review from David Marshall James:  "The Art of Southern Charm" by Patricia Altschul, with Deborah Davis

   O, to be a five o'clock guest at Patricia Altschul's antebellum manse in Charleston, South Carolina!

   The Butler-- not Rhett, who grew up on The Battery in Charleston, if y'all recall The Great American Novel-- Michael Kelcourse is hammering away at the ice, in order to concoct the perfect martini.

   BTW:  Miss Patricia prefers Beefeater's gin, probably because she's so deliciously retro about everything.

   Well-known to Bravo TV viewers as the breakout star of the reality program "Southern Charm," she was placed before the cameras by her son, Whitney Sudler-Smith, one of the producers and cast members.

   Those cameras love Patricia in all her caftanned glory, breakfasting in bed or pronouncing on the piazza, supplying the conscience of a be-crinolined, be-pearled mother on a 1950s TV program while she is bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by the device-driven me-lennials who frequent her sterling-silver-laden, linen-covered dining-room table.

   BTW:  Don't bring those electronic devices to the table at Miss Patricia's.  Furthermore, your purse belongs in your lap, as do your gloves, should you remember to wear them.  Your hostess wants you to dress comfortably, but never-ever-ever show "side boob," nor any such daring decolletage.

   Miss Patricia drops many a pearl in this volume, in which she shares her wisdom and experience as those concern etiquette, home-styling, and entertaining, all cornerstones of Southern charm.

   The author kindly clues us in on her family history and personal background.  We learn that she taught art history at George Washington University and worked as an art adviser, connecting collectors with their acquisitions, with an emphasis on 19th- and early 20th-century American painters.

   Raised in Richmond, she decided to reconnect with her Southern roots after years as a New York socialite.  That locale didn't stop her from eschewing the frou-frou food du jour and serving barbecue pork and caramelized bacon at one of her late husband's Christmas parties for business associates.

   BTW:  Patricia doesn't care for sushi.  As my biology teacher and Yale-educated nutritionist Iva Mae West proclaimed:  "All fish contain parasites; therefore, you must cook them (the fish and the parasites)."  When one student queried, "But what about eating the parasites," she replied, "It's just a little extra protein, dear."

   Miss Patricia, who otherwise seems as content as one of her many pampered pets, still bemoans her lack of grandchildren, here in print as well as on her show.

   She may have to settle with being a role model to the many young people who are looking upon her as a grandmotherly source of lifestyle advice, cosmopolitan thinking, and joie de vivre.

   It's a role she obviously enjoys.  Perhaps it's the one she was born to play.  Which prompts an adage from the back of a martini-medicated mind:  "When Fate passes you a role, accept it, then slather it with butter."

REMINDERS

May 6: Ridge Spring Fire Department Benefit

May 13: Mt Calvary brunch benefit

May 14: Jerusalem Baptist Church Mother's Day program 

May 20: Magnolia Ridge Antique and Art Gathering

June 2& 3: Peach Tree 23 Yard Sale

June 6: Vouchers given out at Town Hall

June 10: RS Farmers' Market Opens

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

Ridge Spring Post Office hours:  Mon-Fri. 7:30 am – 11:30 am; Sat 9 – 10 am

Saluda County Library Hours:  Mon/Wed 8:30 am-5 pm; Tues/Thurs 8:30 am – 6 pm; Fri 8:30 am – 5 pm; Sat closed

Recycling Center Hours: Mon/Wed/Fri 1-7; Sat 7-7; Sun 3-7; Tues/Thurs closed

First Thursday of the Month:  AARS meets at 6:30, 685-5783

Third Thursday of the Month: FORS at Library at 5:00