August 21, 2017

Ridge Spring News

Harriet Householder

The day has finally arrived and the eclipse has come and gone.  It was a wonderful experience and no damage to my eyes. NASA was at College of Charleston and we watched it some.  It did get very dark here and it was exciting.  You could look at the sun during the totality and it was just WOW!!! This is one of those events that you will always remember.  People remember  where they were when they got the news of  tragic events, but this one was a super-duper one.  Nice!!!!

The Ridge Spring Farmers' Market is slowing down. We still  had six vendors and fresh local vegetables  such as scuppernongs are here as well as peas, tomatoes, corn, peppers, baked goods and more.  This will be my last Saturday of having boiled peanuts. Okra is now in and I am trying to roast it like I have been given the recipe.  Chop off the ends, slice it down the middle length wise, spray it with olive oil, salt them and then roast at about 400 for twenty minutes, shake a little about half way through the roasting. Enjoy... I am going to try it again.  While at the market Ed Gregory relayed some history as he remembers it.  I will put that in next week's column.

Two events are happening in the Ridge during the month of September.. 

1. End of the Summer Sidewalk Sale on Saturday September 9.  Bargains can be found. Participating will be Ridge Antiques and Dry Goods, Olde Treasures, the Nut House, Off the Beaten Path, Stuff and Things, and the Farmers' Market.  Stroll down Main Street, enjoy ice cream from Bank's Drugs, Enjoy the Ridge spring Art Center, dine at Juniper, and as you get ready to leave, purchase some of that sausage from Cone's Meats.  What a day!!!!!

2. Farm to Table and Honey Tasting Event will be September 16th from 5:00 to 9:00PM at The Gables Inn and Gardens.  A dining and entertainment experience to celebrate and support local area agriculture. Tickets are on sale now.

The Ridge Spring-Monetta Band will be having a car wash this Saturday, August 26th at the Ridge Spring Fire Station from  8:00 a.m. to 12 noon.  The cost for a car wash is whatever you wish to donate to the band.  Please come out and support the RS-M Band Students.

More about the Farm to Table and Honey Tasting event: The "farm to table" is an opportunity to raise scholarship funds for future farmers and other students entering into the agricultural field in and to bring focus to the agricultural community in Saluda County. To accomplish this we are focusing on several farmers and Chef Brandon Velie is specifically using them and their products to cook the food. So it is a multi-purpose event. It is to bring awareness and focus to the agricultural community in Saluda County and The Ridge area and also introduce local honey which makes this event a little bit different then the other farm to table events. The money raised will go towards scholarship for the future farmers and young people in Saluda county committing to Agriculture as a profession. The scholarships will be divided up between Saluda High School and  Ridge Spring-Monetta High School. Sponsorships are necessary in order to cover the costs associated with putting on this event so that we can look to making a profit for those interests. Please check out SaludaFTT on facebook.

RIDGE SPRING UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: The Big Red Box (BRB) is overflowing with school supplies BUT always room for more. These supplies will be taken to Ridge Spring Elementary School to help supplement what was not purchased. If you would like to help, please leave your donation on the porch of either the Church or Family Life Center and a member will make sure it makes its way into the BRB! Plans are to contact the School and get the supplies to them end of this coming week. Thanks if you have already contributed.  

The Prayer Box is located on the porch of the FLC. If you have a prayer request, need a call from our Pastor, please use the material there to write it down and place in the box. It is checked right before Service on Sunday.  

Another thoughtful message from Pastor Ashley this Sunday. Don’t look down (i.e. phone, tablet, iPad) look up. That’s where your strength and answers come from. The congregation was treated to a solo song by Pastor Ashley. What a lovely gift. Thanks.

 The Church Council met and plans for outreach and fellowship have been firmed up for the next several months. Join us as we begin the next leg of our faith journey.  Service is 11 a.m. on Sunday unless otherwise noted. We will save you a seat!

Spann United Methodist Church in Ward welcomed new pastor, Rev. Ashley Buchanan, in July.  Her timely messages and beautiful singing voice make for a very meaningful and uplifting worship experience.  Spann always has a warm welcome for visitors. Worship service is at 9:45 every Sunday except fifth Sundays.  (803-430-1314)

Leonard Bell is offering Market Boxes on Thursdays at the Johnston Farmers Market. Each box will contain a variety of, in season, fruits and vegetables as well as offerings from other farmers and artists at the market. If you are interested in ordering a box they are $20 and available for pick on Thursday around 5pm. Please call Mr. Bell at 803-646-2169 or Janet Burgess @ 803-275-8030

Art Center by Joanne Crouch

           Get started on Christmas early with Christmas in August at the Art Center on Thursday, August 24^th from  5:30-7:00.  Using pinecone petals, gold leaf and a gourd to make an ornament that can be used on your tree or displayed year-round.  Cost is $30 ages 10 & up.  You can see a picture on AARS facebook page or our website.  Text instructor, Joanne Crouch at (803)480-0576, call (803)685-5577 or email joanne.crouch26@gmail.com to pre-register for this class.  Pre-registration is required for this class.

     Ridge Spring Rocks!  The Art Center is initiating a movement that takes the simple rock and paints images on them.  The rocks are then hidden around town.  When the rock is found, a picture is taken and put on the group’s facebook page, Ridge Spring Rocks!   The finder then hides the rock for others to find.  If you need help getting started, please contact the Art Center on Fridays and Saturdays from 10-4 for more information.  Please join Ridge Spring Rocks! on facebook.

      The Art Center is open on Fridays and Saturday from 10-4.  Come and enjoy the work of local artist. 

Josie Rodgers:

All Aiken School District employees gathered at the USC-Aiken Convocation Center for the second annual pep rally.  Schools represented themselves with various spirit items and cheers and chants.  The very large crowd enjoyed some very special guests, including our very own Melvin Gibson of RSM High.  We all love us some Melvin!  Now everyone is ready to kick off the school year as the students arrive Wednesday! 

RSM High: The True Blue band will have a car wash this Sat., Aug. 26, at the Ridge Spring Fire Station from 8 am to noon.  The band members will be taking donations instead of charging a price.  Please come out and support the RS-M Band Students.

The Trojans opened football season at home last Friday hosting the B-L Panthers.  They lost 40-16, but are ready to get back on the gridiron this Friday as they host the Saluda Tigers for Military Appreciation Night. 

Review from David Marshall James:   "Ava:  A Life in Movies" by Kendra Bean and Anthony Uzarowski

   How fitting that Ava Gardner portrayed both Pandora and Venus in the movies-- an earthly goddess playing real ones.   To think, she hailed from near-poverty, born and raised in the midst of eastern North Carolina tobacco country.  However, she came from a loving family who watched over the youngest child and baby sister.  When she was summoned to MGM in Culver City, California, at age 19, her sister and frequent future companion, Bappie, accompanied her.

   It was through a window display in Bappie's husband's New York City photography studio that an MGM executive discovered her.  After a mercifully silent screen test in New York, she was hired as a starlet-in-grooming.  After all, Leo the Lion didn't need glasses.

   From the outset, Ava's career proved far from conventional.  Mickey Rooney, then the no. 1 movie star in the World, took one look at her and flipped.  Ava became the first of many Mrs. Rooney's, rather reluctantly.  He pursued her relentlessly and that was that, for a brief while.

   Bandleader Artie Shaw soon followed Rooney as Ava's no. 2 husband, after his brief union with Lana Turner, Ava's good friend and fellow MGM-er.  Meanwhile, the studio's voice coaches managed to eliminate the more untenable aspects of Ava's thick-as-grits Southern accent, although, throughout her life, her friends often spoke of her "sweet drawl."

   The studio really had nothing for her-- Turner and Hedy Lamarr were its reigning glamour gals-- so they loaned her out to other studios.  But, when she and newcomer Burt Lancaster clicked in 1946's "The Killers" from Universal Pictures, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer sat up straight at his famous white desk.

   The role that finally put Ava into The Big League at Metro came, oddly, in a musical-- the 1951 version of "Show Boat."  Lena Horne and Dinah Shore were both hot for the part of Julie Laverne, which had been beefed up considerably for Judy Garland, whom MGM fired just before production began.

   (Garland would have a great "eff-you, MGM" moment twelve years later, when she gave a for-the-ages rendition of "Ol' Man River" on her CBS-TV show.)

   For the next five years, MGM placed Ava in one blockbuster after another.  Thus, a full decade had passed before her true arrival at the studio.

   Also blockbuster-y was her third-- and final-- marriage, to Frank Sinatra.  Their tempestuous wedlock held for just a few years, but their love carried on until Ava's death at 67.  As Tina Sinatra recalls, her father and Ava spoke on the phone several times a week until her death in 1990, from which she says, "He never recovered."

   This magnificently photo-illustrated volume overseen by the talented Kendra Bean, with a well-researched text by Anthony Uzarowski, will remind readers just how goddess-y Miss Gardner could be.  Her couture often dazzles, too, her image offering a bittersweet reminder that Hollywood glamour died some decades ago.

   The text illuminates her many film accomplishments and international friendships-- including Princess Grace of Monaco, English poet Robert Graves, Ernest Hemingway, and Tennessee Williams-- as she lived abroad for more than 30 years, mostly in London.  Ava Gardner is buried beside her parents in Smithfield, N.C., where one can visit the Ava Gardner Museum.  As Truman Capote reflected, "Sooner or later, all Southerners return home, even if it's in a pine box."

Harriet's Garden Tips:  Still have some parsley left.  Looking at my flowering pots, I see that many of the annuals have bit the dust, but there are a few that have remained strong.  Geraniums, vinca, zinnias, Persian shield, the dark colored potato vines, and a few more have done well..  Time to start thinking about fall

REMINDERS

All Summer Saturdays: Ridge Spring Farmers' Market

Sept. 9: Ridge Spring Sidewalk Sales Event

Sep. 16: Farm to Table Event

October 14: Ridge Spring Harvest Festival

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; Sat 9-12

Ridge Spring Library Toddler Time Mondays at 10:30