August 8, 2016

Ridge Spring News

Harriet Householder

Harvest meeting August 9 at 7 pm:  The Harvest Festival will be Oct. 13-15

At the Ridge Spring Farmers Market: There were only seven vendors Saturday. Even though the rains came last week many vegetable gardens were too far gone.  This coming Saturday, George Raborn should have several baskets of peas.  Loris and Bobby Yonce will be back. Leonard Bell was there with fresh produce including corn.  Jerrold Watson had Titan Farm Peaches to. Bubba had sweet potatoes and more.  There were blueberry muffins, jams sourdough bread, and other goodies for sale too. For sale were some of the cutest bird houses and feeders.  David told me of how his friend kept the squirrels out of his bird feeders.  First make sure you have the feeder far enough away from a tree that the squirrel will not use as a way to get to the feeder.  Then cover the post with a PVC pipe. Squirrels cannot climb PVC pipes. If you want to paint it a color to match the post, please do.  Keep checking out the garden in front of Town Hall.  It is free. The sunflowers can be seen from the Market, too.

While I am thinking about the farmers’ market, have you ever heard someone say to go to the bank to get the sweet potatoes?  Mr. Raborn tried to explain it to me and this is what I remember (wrote down).  To make a bank you dig a hole about six feet in diameter and about knee deep.  Fill it with long leaf pine straw.  Place a stick or corn stalk in the middle to make your tent pole.   Fill the hole with a wagon of potatoes and then make a tent with sawmill slats.  Cover with pine straw and dirt to three inches deep.  When it gets cold add more. The dirt on top of the tent is to keep the potatoes from freezing.  Cover the center with a pot to keep the inside dry. Now you will have potatoes all winter long.   Next week I hope to have Daisy Rutland’s recipe for fig preserves.

FYI: I had two humming birds to fly into the back of the shop.  Before I could figure out how to get them out, they got out.  It was a sight for sore eyes to see nature all around.

Keep changing the water in your bird baths to prevent mosquitoes from hatching. 

Narcotics Anonymous will hold meetings at The Ridge Spring Library on Fridays from 7:00 to 8:00 pm.

Reminder of the hours for the Ridge Spring library:  Monday 8:30 a.m. – noon; Tuesday from 8:30 to Noon; Wednesday from 8:30 to 4:30; Thursday from 8:30 until 12:30; Friday from 8:30 until 4:30 and Saturday from 9:00 until noon. 

RIDGE SPRING UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Thanks to the congregation and some community angels, 19 large plastic clothes detergents were delivered to the RS Baptist Church to help with their mission.  Great Job! Also a HUGE bag of beverage pull tabs and many box tops were added to Mt.Calvary’s ongoing missions. We appreciated the churches allowing us to partner with them this summer. The Little Red Bucket has gone back to school and so has the Big Red Box. This month the BRB needs to be full of school supplies!!! These will be delivered to RS Elementary School. A check to help purchase kinder mats was delivered last week. If you would like to help with school supplies, leave your donation on either porch and a church member will make sure they make their way into the BRB!  Unless otherwise noted, church services are at 11 a.m. Join us, we will save you a seat.  The prayer request box is now located on the porch of the Family Life Center. No request is too small, no names necessary. It will be checked prior to services and request added to our list.

RSM Middle School News:  Ms. Brittney Jones is starting a Hula Hoop Club after school!  She needs donations to help make this happen for our kids!  If you can help, please let us know!  Her email is Bjones2@acpsd.net. Supplies needed (they are going to make their own awesome hula hoops!):  decorative duct (Duck) tape, about 300 feet of PVC irrigation tubing at 5/8",  at least 25 connectors for the tubing, and monetary donations.  We cannot wait to see what this new venture will do for our kids!  

Ridge Spring-Monetta Elementary School 2016-2017 Registration is August 8, 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. and August 9, Noon - 7:00 p.m. RSM Mid/High School:  Registration will be held Tues., Aug. 9 from 12 pm to 7 pm. Parents/guardians need two documents that show proof of physical address and mailing address.   Please see the school’s website for more information. 

Homecoming & Revival with Evangelist Howard Allen At Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church will be held Sunday, August 14th, 11:00 am & 6:00 pm Monday through Wednesday at 7:00 pm Homecoming Dinner served immediately following the morning Worship Service Sunday

Kenny Leaphart is also doing pressure washing whatever you need done. He will not do two story homes though.  Contact him at K & L Car Wash or at 803.480.5026.  He has great prices and will give you an appraisal for the job.

Josie Rodgers

School bells are ringing!  Well, they WILL be!  Aug. 15 begins a new school year!  Though it’s sad that our carefree summer days are coming to an end, it is exciting that so many things begin anew!  It’s the first day of being a senior for some!  The first day of high school for others!  The first day of school is always filled with mixed emotions from the pain of the alarm clock to the joy of seeing friends, the anxiety over new teachers and new routines to the newness of book bags and the smell of fresh paper, pencils, and crayons!  My prayer is that everyone has a strong, wonderful start to the school year.  Get ready to learn and grow, change and mature.  Live each day to its fullest knowing that you gave your best and were your kindest.

What do teachers want parents to know?  Teachers love your children and seek the best for them.  Teachers set high standards for students because they believe in each and every student’s ability to be successful.  Teachers want open lines of communication with all parents, not just parents of those students who may be struggling or getting into trouble.  Teachers need parents’ support and trust.  Teachers want to know when something is going on with a student so that they can build rapport and better professional relationships with their students.  Please don’t coddle your children, especially the older ones.  They need to learn about responsibility and consequences so that they may grow to be adults who are self-sufficient and trustworthy. Remember, teachers are not in education for the 6-figure pay or summers off (don’t get us started on everything we do in summer!).  Educators teach because they love children and care about the future of our youth.

What do parents want teachers to know?  We know that your class is important, but it’s not the only class for the students.  Many of our children play sports or are involved in other extracurricular activities, so please be thoughtful with homework assignments.  Even those who don’t play sports may have siblings who do, causing the family to be on the road a good bit.  Please let us know when our children are not performing up to their potential or are misbehaving, but also please let us know when they are excelling or being especially kind.  Get to know us and our children; we all have a story. If you need something, please let parents know.  Many of us may not be able to provide financially, but we can serve in other ways.  And we thank you for educating and loving our children. 

Trojan football kicks off Fri., Aug. 19 @ Batesburg at 7:30!  Go Trojans! Beat those Panthers!

Review from David Marshall James: "The Untidy Pilgrim" by Eugene Walter

   After recently reviewing the late Eugene Walter's cookbook, "The Happy Table of Eugene Walter," I became curious about his sole novel, "The Untidy Pilgrim," which won the Lippincott Fiction Prize Contest for Young Novelists in 1953.

   One of the most joyful rewards of book reviewing is discovering a now-overlooked gem, such as Jetta Carleton's "The Moonflower Vine" or this, which could be termed a "coming of age" story.

   The protagonist-- we never learn his name, although we're certain we do-- has come down to Mobile from the Alabama up-country during the then-present, in order to work in a law office in preparation for pursuing his studies.

   He's staying with cousins, the Morelands, while their golden child, Perrin, is writing poetry and living bohemian-ishly in New York City.  Meanwhile, the MC (main character) suffers the flirtatious foolishness of the Morelands' emerging daughter, Lola.

   A good half-a-lifetime ago, the Moreland cousins and the MC spent a seminal summer at their Uncle Acis's farm on nearby Bayou Clair.  During that time, Perrin proved to be the MC's bete noire, so he's eager to vacate Chez Moreland before the golden child's announced return.

   So he lands in the wrought-iron-balconied abode of a family friend, Ninette Fifield, former Queen of Mardi Gras in Mobile and ongoing bon vivant.  "Fiffy" is watched over by a black couple, Fern and Tony, who live in a house on the property and who serve as cook, maid, butler, chauffeur, and general caretakers of both Fiffy and her aging abode.

   Shortly after the MC's settling in Chez Fiffy, she receives a visit from a great-niece, Philene, of New Orleans, who's a bit of a female Perrin.  Indeed, hot times aplenty erupt when Philene and Perrin join forces, reinforcing one another's worst character traits.  They hop a train to New York, leaving the MC hurt and bewildered.

   After following them for awhile, the MC returns to Alabama, heading directly to Bayou Clair and his Uncle Acis, who has recently taken a young bride, a contemporary of the MC.

   Yet the foursome-- including Acis's longtime housekeeper, Modena-- are soon joined by Fiffy, Fern, Tony, and Mobile artist Kosta Reynolds, plus a near-mummified aunt of Acis's bride.

   The novel glows as this house party rolls at the bayou.  Suddenly, the reader is one foot in Eden, one foot in the Forest of Arden.  We feel as if we've stepped into Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music."

   The novel remains deliciously Southern from beginning to end, as the MC speaks in an idiom-laden patois that would drive a foreign translator bananas.  Some of the phraseology will make you smile in remembrance of the conversational nuances of loved ones long since gone to glory.

   The narrative style carries an awareness of sound, and the ways in which words may move a story, slow or fast.  The heavy Gulf Coast nights are filled with summer symphonies, human-tempered in the city but back to nature on the bayou.  A nighttime gathering at the Mobile train station transcends into a sense-rendered scene, full of sights, sounds, and smells.

   The author composed poetry, short stories, plays, and film scenarios, but never another novel-- unless one lies buried among his papers, or tucked behind some gold-lettered, leather-bound books in a private library, perhaps in an iron-balconied abode shadowed by live oaks, wearing their Spanish moss like so much graying hair.

Recycling Center Hours

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 1-7; Saturday 7-7; Sunday 3-7

Closed Tuesday and Thursday

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

Narcotics Anonymous: The Ridge Spring Library on Fridays 7-8 pm

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

2^nd Tuesday:  Harvest Festival

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