July 23, 2018

Ridge Spring News

Harriet Householder

Alumni of Ridge Spring-Monetta High School 1958-1968   Monetta or Ridge Spring High School Alumni: We had three wonderful reunions that became simpler, more intimate and so good for us all.  We have so much to be proud of and what good memories we do have of those years in high school. Sara Rutland, class of '60,was going to chair this upcoming one.  Sara lost her husband Maxie Rutland, class of '56, in April 2017.  This has left her with no desire to do the reunion.  I have led three and cannot do another one. We need a new chairperson to lead the next one. If you are willing to volunteer please contact Sara or me.  A lot of classes are having their own reunions, and it may be time for us to discontinue the five year reunion.  If anyone would like to take on the chairmanship, please let me know by Halloween.  Otherwise we will discontinue these reunions.  We had good times, though, so cherish the memories. Contact: Harriet Householder at hfhouseholder@gmail.com

Watson Reunion Cancelled: Unfortunately, the Watson Reunion has been cancelled for this summer. We will look forward to rescheduling at a later date. For more information, contact Joe Watson at 803-685-7815 or joewatson@comporium.net or Mary Watson Edmonds at marywedmonds@gmail.com or 803-790-7780.

The Harvest Festival planning is in fifth gear heading down the stretch. We have a NEW website (www.ridgespringharvestfestival.com) for everyone to visit and find the necessary participation forms and sponsorship/advertising information. We would like to thank all of the sponsors that have contributed so far and want to remind all of the businesses that we can only fund the Harvest Festival with their sponsorship dollars. The top sponsor will be the parade grand marshal this year and will have a prominent spot on our website and booklet.

HF Beauty Pageant is returning.  It will be held on September 22 beginning at 2:00 PM.  There are five categories in the Junior Division and four categories in the Senior Division.  You can download the application at the web site.  There are other applications, too, if you want to participate in the other activities, such as the car show, craft show, cake and pie contest and more. 

  We have at least 6 BBQ teams signed up for the BBQ Battle for the Ridge. The top 4 BBQ cook teams at the top of the points standings will be at our competition this year! There will be a ceremony for the former BBQ King of Ridge Spring where their flag will be lowered, folded and presented to the team during the awards. Top prize this year... $1000, a trophy and the team's flag flown above the town for a year! Spaces are limited and there are early sign up incentives for teams to save money.

We are saddened to see the shop "Off the Beaten Path" closing.  It added so much to our town.  It will be hard to replace those charming people. 

The Ridge Spring Famers' Market Report:  The produce was abundant.  Again three vendors had corn, tomatoes, and more. Peaches were available. Watermelons cantaloupe, peppers, and a small amount of okra were available.  George Raborn hopes to have peas this coming week. Sherald Rodgers will have no more corn, but Titan Farms and Leonard Bell will still have some this coming week.  Day's Honey will be back in two weeks. String beans, butternut squash, cucumbers and zucchini were available too. The tomato varieties included heirloom, cherry, grape, yellow, purple, and the red ones we are used to..  The family needs to get the hives  producing the honey.  The Rustic Rose Paint Brush will be back August 4.  When I get to the market I always seem to need help getting set up.  The tent, purchased from the grant we received from AgSouth, takes four people to set it up.  Vickie Miller and her aunt are early customers and Vickie always is in the right spot to help me set up everything. They helped again this past Saturday, but I need to mention Aunt Martha Stoudemire's name this time.  Left it off last week The positive attitude that is at the market is a joy to experience.  Do come by and visit.

At the Farmers' Market we had a new vendor selling Tupperware, Diane Taylor.  She will be back or a representative will be there this coming Saturday.  I had forgotten how much I liked Tupperware and had to buy some.    They have updated all and developed new products. She certainly has good deals.   I was impressed.

We did get to talking about bachelors and widows and how they survive.  George Raborn lost his wife and now he notes that bachelors just put the clean clothes on the extra bed and not worry about folding them and putting them up.  Why wear out the cabinet doors.  When he was young and lived on the farm, they threw nothing away.  They would even put the dishwater in with the slop and feed it to the pigs. 

RIDGE SPRING UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: BiG Red Box:  The BRB will be collecting school supplies for RSM Elementary School.  The List will be posted on the porch of the FLC.

There will be a bucket on the porch of the FLC to collect dried Caroyla Markers. These will be recycled.  No church service on July 29th.

Art Center in Ridge Spring by Joanne Crouch:

Anne Hightower-Patterson White, watercolorist, will have an intermediate-advanced class on Fri, September 14^th and Sat, September 15^th from 10-4.  Cost is $130 and must be paid before September 10^th.  Pre-register at the Art Center on Fridays or Saturdays from 10-2, or contact Joanne Crouch @ (803)685-5577 (leave message)  or by email joanne.crouch26@gmail.com.

      Two pottery classes are planned by Kim Ruff.  A small casserole class will be held on Monday, September 10^th from 6:30-8:30.  Cost is $35 and includes glazing and firing.  On October 15, a clay Christmas tree class will be held on October 15^th from 6:30-8:30.  Cost is $35 and includes all firing and glazing.  During  Kim’s class, the students will be allowed to make additional small pieces to use all the clay that is allotted for the class.

      Hours of operation at the Art Center are Fridays and Saturdays from 10-2. There is no admission fee.   Join us for our membership meetings on the first Thursday of the month at 6:30.  Check out our face book page at Art Association of Ridge Spring& Gallery

Josie Rodgers

We are so excited to announce the groundbreaking of the new RSM HIgh School on Aug. 17 at noon!  This event has been a very long time coming, something our community has longed for and deserved for many years.  The location will be beside RSM Middle and will face Trojan Road (how perfect!).  Plans are to open the school by the fall of 2019.  Join us for this historic and exciting event!

Distinguished Young Women of SC:  Our local DYWs are spending this week with host families and a roomie in Lexington.  The young ladies will participate in various events throughout the week including a trip to Riverbanks Zoo, a visit to Columbia College, time with the Boys/Girls Club, a Lexington Blowfish baseball game, a tea party, a luau, and a cowgirl event.  More importantly, these ladies will focus on how becoming their best selves involves giving back to their communities and our world to make it a better place.  Competitions for scholarships will take place July 27-28.  Local DYWs are Sara Miller, North Edgefield DYW; Jenna Crase, South Edgefield DYW, and Annalee Rodgers, Saluda County DYW. 

Many thanks to Katie Warnken at Sara's Fresh Market for helping us create a lovely gift basket for Annalee's DYW host family.  It included fresh peaches, jam, butter, BBQ sauce, peach cider, and peach salsa. What a perfect gift for a family! 

We had a girls' lunch at Juniper last Friday (me, my mom, my oldest daughter--Anna was having her senior portrait).  It was shrimp and grits for all.  Chef never disappoints! Fresh stewed squash accompanied the dish.  It was delicious!  I enjoy going to Juniper because I get to talk to people I know, and I always peek back in the kitchen to see what current and former students are working! 

Get ready for the Saluda County Farm to Table & Honey Tasting on Sept. 29 at 6:00 pm.  This event is a fundraiser held to raise money for scholarships for local students interested in careers in agriculture.  Partners with the Saluda County Farm to Table Committee are the Saluda County Chamber of Commerce, the Town of Ward, the Gables Inn & Gardens, and the Clemson Extension Service.  Two scholarships were awarded to local youth this past May:  Darren Abney, RSM High, & McKenzie Maffett, Saluda High.  Tickets are $60 per person, $100 per couple, or $400 for a table of 8.  Tickets may be purchased by visiting Saluda FTT on Facebook or by emailing SaludaCountyFTT@gmail.com.

Review from David Marshall James:  "South Toward Home:  Adventures and Misadventures in My Native Land" by Julia Reed

   Reading Julia Reed's collection of "Garden & Gun" essays on Southern culture is like sailing down a Mississippi Delta Road while the daylight is sucked into the West, the shadows filling with the myriad voices that sound and resound through the flat fields of cotton.

   Those constitute the soundtrack of her life and her writing, along with the music heard live and recorded, especially as blasted from the car radio or eight-track tape player.

   The author's essays usually wind up at humorous junctions, although that's a natural result of her senses and sensibilities, not some forced "corn pone" (to borrow her terminology) shtick.

   She's most affecting here in her "Personal Notes" section of recollections, of growing up in Greenville, Miss., of boarding school in Madeira, Virginia (where the infamous Jean Harris was headmistress), of Georgetown University and early jobs, including that of roving Southern reporter for "Newsweek," under the editorship of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jon Meacham, who provides an erudite introduction to this volume and its author.

   Nevertheless, there are personal asides in all of these pieces, some of them repeated for good measure.  Call them "chestnuts in her repertoire."

   Reed comes across as a person you would want to be seated with at any yawn-inducing or otherwise uncomfortable social occasion, a person you would follow around at a party, surreptitiously or otherwise.  She'll bum cigarettes for you (band drummers are excellent sources in this "no, no, nicotine" era, she notes), and she'll dance when everyone else is picking wallflowers. 

   It'll be a cryin' shame if Julia Reed doesn't write at least one novel (I picture a slew of Fitzgeraldian Delta parties, such as the ones she describes herein), with forays to New Orleans bars and Mississippi River sandbars, as incomparably unfathomable and irresistible as a jar of Delta corn tamales.

Harriet's Garden Tips: If you are thinking of a fall vegetable garden, here are some ideas of seeds to plant: carrots, broccoli, lettuce, greens such as mustard, turnip, and collard, radishes, winter squash, and more.  There will be some bedding plants coming along in September and October, too.  Check out bulbs for soon we will be planting.    Keep deadheading.  Drop the dead blooms in the flower bed to see if they will reseed for next year.  My Rose Campions do.

REMINDERS

June-August: Ridge Spring Farmers Market

July 29: No service at RSUM Church

Ridge Spring Library hours: Mon. Tues. 9:00 - 12:00; Wed. Thurs. Closed;

            Fri. 10:00 - 4:00; Sat. 10:00 - 1:00.

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

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

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

Every Friday & Saturday:  AARS hours 10 – 4 or by appt, free admission

Every first Tuesday of the Month:  AARS meets at 6:30, 685-5783

Every 1^st Thursday:  Audibel Hearing Center

Every Friday:  Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings 7-8 pm at The Ridge Spring Library

Every 4^th Saturday:  The Helpful Hands Food/Clothing Bank