May 2015 - Aiken Bella Magazine

Transcription

May 2015
Aiken
Aiken in
in the
the ‘60s
‘60s Nostalgia
Nostalgia Tour
Tour
pages
pages 14,
14, 15,
15, 18,
18, 22,
22, 24,
24, 26
26
Johanna
Johanna Gibbs,
Gibbs, Beloved
Beloved Coach
Coach
Music
Music and
and Comic
Comic Books
Books
Teen
Teen Hangouts
Hangouts
Miller’s
Miller’s Skateland
Skateland
Laurens
Laurens Street
Street Landmarks
Landmarks
Les
Les Dames
Dames d’Escoffier
d’Escoffier
Inducts
page 77
Inducts Chef
Chef Belinda
Belinda page
The
The Fun
Fun and
and Festive
Festive
Aiken
Aiken Garden
Garden Show
Show page
page 88
Garden
Garden Club
Club of
of Aiken
Aiken and
and SC
SC
Celebrate
Celebrate Milestones
Milestones page
page 10
10
Les
Les Mis!
Mis! at
at the
the ACP!
ACP! page
page 28
28
Johanna Gibbs
cOntents
• Intriguing • Empowering • Entertaining
May Features
Bella Favorites
7
Chef Belinda Inducted into
Les Dames d’Escoffier
3
Ciao Bella
8
The Aiken Garden Show
4
Bella Buzz May Community Calendar
by Stephen Delaney Hale
by Susan Elder
10 Aiken’s Gardener, Claudia Lea Phelps Her Garden Club turns 90
by Susan Elder
12 Dinner with Friends en Blanc,
a Daring Fundraiser
by Kathy Huff Cunningham
1960s Aiken Nostalgia:
14 Music in the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s
by Tony Baughman
15 Lapping the Cap
Hanging out in Aiken in the 1960s
May 2015, Volume 12, No.4
Mailing Address
124 Trafalgar St., SW
Aiken, SC 29801
Publisher
Kathy Huff Cunningham
[email protected]
30 Good Sense Medicine: A Sensible Approach to
Weight Loss
by Zoom Heaton
Advertising
803/439-4026
[email protected]
31 Roots and Wings: Using Rare Moments to Get Closer
by Betts Hunter Gatewood
32 Nutrition Whole Grains. But Aren’t They Carbs?
Contributing Writers
Anna Dangerfield, Phyllis Maclay,
Susan Elder, Tony Baughman,
Sally Bradley, Stephen Delaney Hale,
Karen Guevara
by Cyndi Catts
33 Medical Landscape Bread: Food for Thought by David S. Keisler, M.D.
Graphic Design
Jim Stafford
35 Scene Around Town
by Anna Boylston Dangerfield
18 Record-setting Coach Johanna Gibbs
by Lily McCullough Baumil
22 Remembering Miller’s Skateland
Bella is now online!
www.aikenbellamagazine.com
by Anna Boylston Dangerfield
24 Laurens Street Landmarks
by Susan Elder
?
26 Comic Books
Third in a series about Cartoons, Cartoonists and Comic Books
www.facebook.com/aikenbellamagazine
by Barbara Strack
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Bella Magazine
124 Trafalgar Street SW, Aiken, SC 29801
27 Birthdays and Life Lessons
by Patti McGrath
28 Marcia Harris and Her Love Affair with the Playhouse
by Tony Baughman
May 2015 Ad Directory
3 Monkeys Fine Gifts.............................................. 19
Aiken Community Playhouse.................................. 16
Aiken Artist Guild.................................................... 21
Aiken Garden Show................................................ 12
Aiken Obstetrics and Gynecology Associates .......27
Aiken Regional Medical Centers........................3, 36
Aiken’s Cookin’ with Celebrity Chefs/
Mental Health ........................................................20
AllStar Tents and Events........................................35
Auto Tech............................................................... 21
Barbara Sue Brodie Needleworks..........................28
Be Balanced...........................................................34
Celebrity Waiter Night/The Children’s Place.......... 11.
Chef Belinda Spices...............................................34.
Cynthia Catts, RD, LD, Nutrition Therapist ...........34
DayBreak Adult Care Services .............................. 24
Dinner with Friends en Blanc.................................. 21
Floyd & Green Jewelers...........................................9
Guest Cottage........................................................28
Material Things.......................................................25
National Train Day, City of Aiken............................ 13
Oh, Schmidt! Shelly Schmidt, Photographer..........26
Palmetto Realty Co., Jerry Waters.........................32
Ray Massey, Attorney...............................................5
Richards Furriers....................................................34.
Rose Hill Estate......................................................34 .
Ruby Masters, Mark Taylor Insurance....................34
Screenprint Factory................................................22
Shellhouse Funeral Home........................................4.
Shops on Hayne.....................................................28.
Speakeasy & Eats ................................................ 19
TLC Medical Centre.....................................17, 29, 34
The Stables Restaurant at Rose Hill......................34.
The Tailor Shop......................................................34.
Wayne’s Automotive & Towing Center.................... 31 .
Wealthcare—William Coscioni...............................22.
WKSX-92.7 FM Radio.............................................33
York Cottage Antiques............................................28
Cover images courtesy of Johanna Gibbs
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BELLA MAGAZINE MAY 2015
Ciao Bella!
Reliving Our Youth
There is a nostalgic leaning to this issue of Bella,
deliberately so. On May 15, my classmates from
the Aiken High School Class of 1965 will converge
on Aiken for our 50th class reunion. In their honor,
we planned the contents of this issue to include
“remember when” articles that would bring back
memories of those high school (and earlier) years.
Although, yes, I have taken advantage of my
position at Bella to create an homage to that time
period and my class, many Bella readers often tell
me they enjoy reading about “old Aiken,” so these
stories should please everyone. In creating this
issue, it also struck me that while these stories are of
significance to our class, we are not the only ones to
appreciate that time period. The music of the 1950s
and ‘60s that we grew up with is still played, the
buildings that housed the library and the post office
and Teen Town are still in town—even if they are
used for different purposes now—and the Morgan
Fountain still gaily and daily spouts water at Park
and Laurens.
Reminiscing about the past can be a good thing.
I have attended every class reunion since the 15th,
and discovered that it’s just as enlightening to talk
to classmates I didn’t know well in those days as
it is to catch up with friends I have kept up with.
We have largely dropped the pretenses of “keeping
up with the Joneses” and are content with who we
are and what we have accomplished. This relaxed
approach to meeting
old friends is what makes later reunions very
enjoyable. We find a common denominator in
sharing our joys and woes, and rejoice in surviving
to this age when so many of our classmates didn’t.
(We have 67 photos on our In Memoriam table this
year, out of a class of 379.)
Best of all, Miss Johanna Gibbs is still well
and active in Aiken. Her legacy as a coach was
cemented after our graduation, but we knew and
loved her as our teacher and coach then. How
exciting it is now to learn about her athletic team
honors at Aiken High and USCA since we left
school! We look forward to seeing her at the
reunion.
Chef Belinda
Bella’s own cooking columnist Chef Belinda
has been recognized as an outstanding example in
her field with her recent induction into Les Dames
d’Escoffier. Congratulations, Belinda!
A Full May
Every year, my calendar always bursts with
events for May, and this year is no exception. Aside
from the perennial Mother’s Day, Memorial Day
and graduation celebrations, there are numerous
fundraisers planned to captivate our residents
before they scatter to the mountains and the
beaches.
May begins with Dinner with Friends en Blanc,
a new fundraiser benefiting the Community
Medical Clinic of Aiken County and the Child
Advocacy Center, set for May 3 at a mystery
location.
May 11 sees a reprise of the annual Celebrity
Waiter Night for the benefit of The Children’s
Place, even more important this year because of
the loss of more than half its funding since the
beginning of the year. (see May 11 item on page 4
of Bella Buzz and ad on page 11.)
The Aiken Garden Show will draw a crowd
on May 15-16 at Banksia, and The Aiken Garden
Club will celebrate its 90th year on May 7 with a
luncheon. On the same day, the 85th anniversary
of the Garden Club of South Carolina will be
recognized with a tea at Rose Hill, the home of the
club’s founder, Claudia Lea Phelps.
And let us not forget Les Miserables, the latest
undertaking of our indomitable and admirable
Aiken Community Playhouse, beginning on
May 22.
So much to do, so little time!
Enjoy this beautiful spring and all the activities
fair weather brings our way.
Editor’s note: Bella apologizes to the Beech Island
Historical Society for inadvertently citing the
wrong date for its historical tour in the April issue.
The actual date was April 25, and it was reported
wrongly as the 26th. We sincerely regret the error.
3
bellabuzz
MAY community calendar
Downtown Aiken
May 2
CBC Family Fun Day, Aiken Visitors
Center and Train Museum, 406 Park
Ave, Aiken, 10 a.m.- 1 p.m. Sponsored
by Community Bible Church. Food,
games, bounce houses and more. Free.
May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
Aiken Historic Tour, 10 a.m., Aiken
Visitors Center and Train Museum.
Please arrive at least 15 minutes
early. Advance tickets are sold
through the Aiken Visitors Center and
Train Museum. Call 803-644-1907.
Seating on the day of the tour is not
guaranteed, therefore reservations are
recommended.
Meet a Master Gardener, Aiken
Farmers’ Market, Williamsburg St.
between Park and Richland Ave.,
8 a.m.–12 noon. Master gardeners
are there to answer lawn and garden
questions and identify plants, weeds
and any other mysterious items that
the public brings.
May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
Free public tours of the new St. Mary
Help of Christians Church, 138 Fairfield
St., SE, 1 p.m. Share the joy of St.
Mary’s congregation over the new
church. A volunteer guide will lead
the tour and point out the symbolism
in the various elements used in the
construction. Meet in the front garden
area by the fountain by 1 p.m. A handicapped entrance is available
on the south side of the church.
May 9
National Train Day celebration, 11 a.m.
to 1 p.m. at the Aiken Visitors’ Center
and Train Museum, 406 Park Avenue
SE, corner of Union Street and Park
Avenue. Free event sponsored by the
City of Aiken. Live music, train rides for
children, Story Time in the Park, crafts,
balloons, concessions, gift shop and
more. For more information, call
1-888-aikensc or go online to
www.visitaikensc.com.
Hummingbirds- Nature’s Jewels,
Birds and Butterflies, 117 Laurens St.,
7 p.m. Learn interesting facts about this
incredible bird. See slides of nests and
young, and many species that occur
across the U.S. Discussion of feeders,
food, feeder maintenance and plants
that attract hummingbirds.
4
May 11
Celebrity Waiter Night, $25 per
person (some restaurants may have
higher pricing)). Benefiting The
Children’s Place, Inc. Participating
restaurants: Casa Bella, Davor’s
Café, Grumpy’s, Houndslake
Country Club, Linda’s Bistro, Mellow Mushroom, Newberry
Hall, Takosushi, The Red Pepper
Café, The Reserve Club, The
Restaurant at the Willcox, Travinia
Italian Kitchen, Up your Alley
Chophouse, Wingplace. Call each
restaurant to make reservations. For more information, call Children’s
Place at 641-4144, or visit
childrensplaceinc.org.
Aiken Center for the Arts
122 Laurens St. SW
803-641-9094
www.aikencenterforthearts.org
Hours: Monday through Saturday,
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
314 Chesterfield St. SW
803-642-2020
www.abbe-lib.org
May 2
James Brownlow Art Exhibit of
watercolor paintings in the Aiken Artist
Guild Gallery.
May 4–8
Exhibits by Christine Martin Lizzul, Nick
Mariano, Shifting Plates II, Broken Ink,
and James Brownlow.
May 4, 11, 18, 25
Bottles and Brushes, 6- 9 p.m.
A step-by-step fine painting for you and
your friends. Bring your own snacks,
glasses, and bottle of wine or cocktails.
No experience needed. Cost is $30
per person.
May 12–June 5
Aiken Artist Guild Annual Member
Show. www.aikenartistguild.org
Aiken Artist Guild Member Show
Opening Reception, 6-8 p.m.
Free and open to the public.
aikengardenshow.org or call 803641-6777. (See full story on page 8.)
URS Center for the
Performing Arts
126 Newberry St. SW
Tickets and information:
Movie, 3 p.m. Paddington. Rated PG.
803-648-1438
May 14
May 1, 2
LEGO Club, 4-5 p.m. Grades K-5 can
show off their super building skills.
No registration required.
Robert Smalls: From Slavery to
Congress, 7 p.m. Robert Smalls, an
enslaved African-American, sailed
the Confederate transport ship CSS
Planter from Charleston Harbor and
surrendered it to the Union Navy; full
story of the South Carolinian presented
by Donald Sweeper; third in the Famous
First Americans series.
May 21
May 1–8
May 14
Aiken County
Public Library
Summer reading registration for babies
to rising 12 graders begins. Stop by to
pick up a complete summer schedule
and reading log for a chance to earn
prizes.
May 23
Movie, 2 p.m. Strange Magic. Rated PG.
Aiken County
Historical Museum
433 Newberry St. SW
803-642-2015
www.aikencountyhistorical
museum.org
May 15, 16
The Aiken Garden Show, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.
Begin your day at historic Banksia, the
home of the Aiken County Historical
Museum, where you can see beautiful
creations at the all-arrangements rose
show, purchase unique garden-related
items from vendors from throughout the
Southeast, and learn from speakers
discussing gardening issues. Enjoy a
delicious lunch at the Banksia Bistro
before setting out to tour the beautiful
private gardens which will impress and
inspire you. When the gardens close at
3 p.m., return to Banksia to pick up your
vendor purchases and be entertained
by the Dueling Designers. For show
details and ticket information, visit
Aiken Community Playhouse presents
Boeing-Boeing, 8 p.m. Set in the 1960s,
this French farce features Bernard, who
has three fiancées, each a beautiful
airline hostess with frequent layovers.
Due to unexpected schedule changes,
all three arrive at Bernard’s apartment at
the same time.
May 7
Forbidden Broadway, 7:30 p.m. Just
when Broadway thought it was safe from
the poison pen of funny-man Gerard
Alessandrini, Forbidden Broadway
returns, sharper and more hilarious
than ever. From Annie to Phantom to
Wicked, this fall-down funny, satirical
roast of over 30 Broadway hits features
outrageous costumes, hilarious rewrites
of the songs you know by heart and
dead-on impressions by a stellar cast!
New spoofs include Patti LuPone in
Gypsy, and (from Grease), You’re the
One that I Hate!
May 15
Coffee House, 7 p.m. in the Black Box.
Sit back, relax and be prepared to
experience great conversation, terrific
music, delightful poetry readings, and
other informal entertainment. Nonalcoholic beverages and dessert are
included in the admission price of $12.
Beer and wine will be offered at
a nominal cost.
May 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31
Les Miserables, 8 p.m. except for 3
p.m. matinee on May 24 and 31. In
19th century France, Jean Valjean
is released from 19 years of unjust
imprisonment, but finds nothing in store
for him but mistrust and mistreatment.
He breaks his parole in hopes of starting
a new life, initiating a lifelong struggle for
redemption.
Bella Magazine will run announcements for free for non-profit organizations,
community events, and Bella advertisers. Space may be limited.
Please email event information to [email protected]
by the 15th of the month before the event.
Equestrian Venues
May 1–3
U.S. Polo Association NYTS Qualifier,
Aiken Polo Club, 420 Mead Ave., Aiken,
6 a.m. For younger players this season,
a NYTS (National Youth Tournament
Series) has been added to the schedule.
Contact [email protected] for more
information.
May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
Sunday Polo, Aiken Polo Club, 420
Mead Ave., 3 p.m. Admission to Sunday
games is $5 per person at the gate, or
$25 for a ticket to the Social Tent. Social
members and playing members are
admitted free all season long.
DuPont Planetarium
Ruth Patrick Science
Education Center
471 University Parkway
http://rpsec.usca.edu/Planetarium/
pubshows.html
Tickets and information:
803-641-3654
May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
Larry Cat in Space, 8 p.m. This is a
playful presentation about an inquisitive
cat who takes a trip to the Moon
To the Moon and Beyond, 9 p.m.
Experience the exciting adventures of
Apollo astronauts on the Moon with
young Carol and her dad.
Target audience: Ages 8 and up.
Aiken Regional
Medical Centers
302 University Parkway
803-641-5000
www.aikenregional.com
Support Group Meetings:
AA: Every Sunday and Wednesday
evening, 7:15 p.m., Aurora Pavilion.
Bariatric: 2nd Wednesday, 6-7 p.m.,
ARMC, Bariatric Services, 2nd floor,
room 209; register at 641-5751.
The Lunch Bunch–BereavementGrief Support for Adults: 1st
Wednesday, noon to 1 p.m., ARMC,
Cafeteria Dining Room A.
Tax Planning
Medicaid Planning
Elder Law
Estate Planning
Revocable Trust
Probate
Cancer: 3rd Wednesday, 3-4 p.m.,
First Baptist Church parlor.
CSRA Dream Catchers -Traumatic
Brain Injury and Disability, 1st Monday
every month, 6-7 p.m., Walton Options
for Independent Living, 325 Georgia
Ave., North Augusta; register at
803-279-9611.
Diabetes: 2nd Tuesday, 3-4 p.m.,
Odell Weeks Activity Center.
Registration: 803-293-0023.
Lupus: 3rd Thursday of the month,
7–9 p.m., ARMC, Dining Room A
Mended Hearts: 2nd Friday, 10:30 a.m.
to 1:30 p.m., USCA Aiken Business
Conference Center
Pink Ribbonettes: 1st Tuesday, the
American Cancer Society Breast
Cancer Self-Help Group for people
diagnosed with breast cancer; guest
speakers; 10:30 a.m. to noon at
Millbrook Baptist Church. To register,
call Irene Howley at 803-649-9267 or
Diane Hadley at 803-644-3902.
Aiken Cares: 2nd Tuesday, Alzheimer’s
Support Group, for family members and
caregivers, 11 a.m. to noon, Cumberland
Village Library, 2nd floor.
Look Good … Feel Better: 3rd
Wednesday, free program for female
cancer patients actively undergoing or
about to start treatment, 1 to 2:30 p.m.
at the Cancer Care Institute of
Carolina at ARMC. To register, call
803-641-6044.
Teens Under Fire, Aiken Center, 1105
Gregg Hwy, 4-6 p.m. This prevention/
intervention program looks at youth
drug abuse, violence and crime by
exposing teens ages 12-18 to the harsh
consequences of high-risk decisions.
Call Mary Alice Baxter for more
information at (803) 641-2421
H. Odell Weeks Center
1700 Whiskey Road
803-642-7631
May 6, 13, 20, 27
Toddler Time, 9:30-11:30 a.m. Run,
chase and release a lot of energy! This
program allows children to interact with
other kids their age. Equipment and
toys will be provided, however, children
may bring their own toys. Parental
supervision is required. Cost is $3 per
visit, or $20 for 10 visits.
May 7
Annual Aiken National Day of Prayer,
Odell Weeks Activity Center. Music
begins at 6:45 p.m., program at 7 p.m.
Contact Roger Rollins at 803-640-4689
or [email protected] for more
information.
Miscellaneous Venues
and Events
May 1
A Play to Spay featuring Norm Foster’s
Here on the Flight Path, SPCA Albrecht
Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow
Run Road, Aiken, 7 p.m. Proceeds from
the show benefit the SPCA. Beer and
wine will be available beginning at 6
p.m. and again at intermission. Tickets
are sold in first come-first serve order,
best seats first. Tickets are $10. Call
803-648-6863 for tickets.
May 2
1st FOTAS Doxie Derby as part of the
4th Annual Woofstock, Dog, Cats and
Music Festival at the Aiken County
Animal Shelter, located at 333 Wire
Rd., 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Featuring 80-100
dachshunds in 8-10 races. Awards and
“race-off” to crown the overall “Wiener
Winner.” Tickets are $5 each and are
available at Downtown Dog, Aiken
Dry Goods, Palmetto Package & Fine
Wines, Amy’s Mind Body Wellness,
and Tasha Salon, as well as from Doxie
Derby volunteers. Prizes for winners
and winning ticket sellers. For more
information, contact Carole Stamm at
[email protected] or 514-4313.
May 3
Dinner with Friends en Blanc,
6 p.m., outdoor dining under the stars,
benefiting the Child Advocacy Center
and the Community Medical Clinic of
Aiken County. For more information,
see www.dinnerwithfriendsenblanc.com
or call 226-0631.
May 4, 11, 18, 25
Hopelands Summer Concert Series,
Hopelands Gardens, Aiken, S.C. The
41st Season of the Hopelands Summer
Concert Series is held each Monday
evening at 7 p.m. on the Roland H.
Windham Performing Arts Stage.
Admission is free. See complete
summer schedule and more details
about the concert series on page 6.
May 5, 12, 19, 26
Storytime in the Gardens, Hopelands
Gardens, 135 Dupree Place Aiken,
4 p.m. The program will be held in
Hopelands Gardens at the sand patio
Wm. Ray Massey
Tax Attorney
Smith, Massey, Brodie, Guynn & Mayes, P.A.
which is located by the fountains
near the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing
Hall of Fame and Museum. Those in
attendance should bring a blanket or
chair to sit on and snacks are welcome.
A copy of one of the books to be read
will be given free to each family in
attendance to take home. Adults must
accompany children to the program.
May 6, 13, 20, 27
Storytime at the Park, Osbon Park
Center, 346 Columbia Ave. Aiken,
10 a.m., sponsored by The City of
Aiken Parks, Recreation & Tourism
Department.. Story Time at the Park
offers a time for children to be read
a selection of children’s books by a
volunteer. The event includes games
and a healthy snack. You may bring a
blanket or chair to sit on. Each child age
8 and under who attends the program
will receive a free book to take home.
For more information, please call
803-642-7634. This event is free.
The Kempters Bluegrass & Gospel
Concert, Cedar Creek Church, 3001
Banks Mill Rd., Aiken, 7 p.m. Presented
by Care Ministries; doors open 5:45
p.m.; pre-concert dessert competition;
dessert provided, community selects
winners; program 6:30 p.m.; casual
attire; (803) 649-3096, ext. 143.
May 9
Healthy Lifestyle Expo, USC Aiken
Convocation Center, 471 University
Parkway, Aiken, 9 a.m.- 2 p.m.
The event will be filled with fitness
information, demonstrations and health
screenings for all who attend. Health
screenings will be provided by Aiken
Regional Medical Centers and will
include cholesterol checks and much
more. Call 803-641-2860 for more
information.
May 10
The Story of Love concert by M’Aiken
Music, women’s a capella ensemble,
2 p.m. and 4 p.m. at the Aiken County
Historical Museum. Tickets cost $20.
Call Lynn Vandervort at 644-0612; leave
message about whether desired tickets
are for the 2 or 4 p.m. concert.
May 11
Aiken Chamber of Commerce Gold
Tournament, Woodside Reserve Club,
9 a.m. $1,500 will be given away at the
Chamber golf tournament – for the first
$1,000, your pitching arm will be more
valuable than your pitching wedge.
A $500 win will require golf skills.
The annual event recognizes the
[Continued on next page]
Phone
803-643-4110
Facsimile
803-644-9057
[email protected]
www.smbgm.com
5
[Continued from previous page]
importance of area manufacturers and
industries and the role they play in the
local economy. Twosomes will play 18
consecutive holes on The Reserve Club
course. The tournament will begin with
registration at 9 a.m. and a shotgun start
at 10:30 a.m. The cost of the Industry
Appreciation Golf Package is $125 per
person, $250 per twosome. Contact
Emily Sturkie at 803-649-1200, ext. 223,
for more information, or email her at
[email protected].
Outside Aiken
May 1
Cooter Fest Street Dance, Downtown
Allendale, S.C., 7 p.m. Street dance
with East Coast Party Band in the Court
House Square. Visit cooterfest.com for
more information.
May 1–15
North Augusta Student Art Show, Arts
and Heritage Center of North Augusta,
100 Georgia Avenue, North Augusta,
S.C. Reception and awards ceremony
at the Arts and Heritage Center from
5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Parents and the
general public are invited to enjoy the
outstanding talents of local students.
Elementary, middle, and high school
awards, as well as Best in Show, will
be presented at the 6:30 p.m. awards
ceremony. The student artworks will be
on display until May 15, at the Arts and
Heritage Center.
May 2–3
Heritage Trail Pottery Tour & Sale in
Edgefield and Greenwood Counties
at five host studios with 23 potters
selling their recent work, sponsored by
the Greenwood Area Studio Potters
(GASP), originally formed by students
of the professional pottery program
at the Edgefield campus of Piedmont
Technical College. Also featuring the
opening of The Clay Works studio in
Edgefield, a working and gathering
place for five studio potters as well
as space for ongoing pottery classes.
Studios are located off U.S. Hwy. 25
between Greenwood and Edgefield:
pArtners in Clay (Greenwood); Bell
House Pottery (Ninety Six); PKPottery
(Edgefield); The Clay Works (Edgefield);
and Old Edgefield Pottery (downtown
Edgefield). Visit www.facebook.com/
Heritage TrailPotteryTourSale or email
[email protected].
May 2
Cooter Fest, Memorial Avenue in
downtown Allendale, S.C., 9 a.m.
Booths open at 9 a.m. The parade
begins at 11 a.m. with line-up on
Gum Street. Cooter Registration-12:30
Cooter Bowl. Carolina Cooter Race2 p.m. Cooter Bowl. CWA Pro Wrestling
at 4 p.m. in the Court House Square.
Professional fireworks display 9 p.m.
The Pascalina Spring Herb Faire,
semi-annual event, 9 a .m. to 2 p.m.,
3250 Charleston Hwy. (U.S. Hwy 78)
just outside Montmorenci. The event
offers visitors a chance to get out to the
country, see where the farm produce
is grown, learn what is available and
when, and sign up to receive reminders
throughout the season. Also featured
are local folks with lots of useful and
interesting creations. Handmade
baskets, pottery, goards, refurbished
antique cast iron cookware, sand
castings, herb plants and products using
herbs, including goat cheese and goat’s
milk soaps; to name a few. For more
information, contact Linda Oswald at
646-3774.
May 15–16
Hammond’s Ferry Art Walk, Hammond’s
Ferry, North Augusta, 11 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Local area artists and artisans will be
in Hammond’s Ferry to showcase their
works at the second annual Art Walk,
hosted by La Petite Gallerie. Booths
located along picturesque Arrington
Avenue and Phoenix St. in front of
the Gallerie will be selling a variety of
artwork, woodworking, jewelry, pottery
and much more.
The 2015 Palmetto Amateur, Palmetto
Golf Club, 275 Berrie Road SW. 8 a.m.
to 3 p.m. Tournament registration is
now open. Registration fee of $200
will be charged when accepted into
the tournament, but no later than
June 1, 2015. Call 803-649-2951 or
email administration@palmettoamateur.
com for more information.
www.palmettoamateur.com
Blackville Music and Arts Festival,
483 Main St. Blackville, S.C. A festival
centered around music and the arts
on Main Street in Blackville featuring a
parade, car and bike show, live musical
performances, food, art displays. Visit
bmafestival.com for more information.
Coming in June
June 10–13
June 12
May 12 and 26
SRS Public Tour, sponsored by
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions,
12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Participants must
be at least 18 years of age and U.S.
citizens. To register, visit www.srs.gov/
general/tour/public.htm. If registering
online is difficult, call 803-952-9472.
Seats are limited to two individuals per
reservation, and are filled on a first
come, first served basis. To book larger
groups, call 803-952-9472.
Aiken’s Cookin’ with Celebrity Chefs Cookin’ for a Cause, 7–9 p.m., at The
Willcox, 100 Colleton Avenue. Tickets:
$40 per person. Benefiting Mental
Health America of Aiken County.
For more information, call 641-4164.
2015 Hopelands Gardens Summer Concert Series
May
July
May 4 - Southern Thunder Cloggers, sponsored by Vikki Crossland, aikenhomes.com
May 11 - Aiken Concert Band, sponsored by
Security Federal
May 18 - Savannah River Winds, sponsored by
Allegra Marketing, Print & Web
May 25 - Aiken Civic Ballet, sponsored by the
Friends of Hopelands & Rye Patch, Inc.
July 6 - Parris Island Marine Band, sponsored by
the Screenprint Factory
July 13 - to be announced
July 20 - Aiken Singers with Belles Canto,
sponsored by Cumberland Village
July 27 - Aiken Brass, sponsored by STAR Riding Inc.
June
August 3 - Chris Ndeti, sponsored by the
Aiken Driving Club
August 10 - Ft. Gordon - The Decibels, sponsored by Hearing Associates of SC
August 17 - Aiken County Sheriff Department’s
Pipes & Drums, sponsored by Academy for Lifelong Learning at USC Aiken
August 24 - Karen Gordon & Garden City Jazz, sponsored by the Aiken Performing Arts Group
August 31 - Aiken Concert Band, sponsored by Security Federal
June 1 - Mike Frost Band, sponsored by
Cumberland Village
June 8 - The Kelley Family, sponsored by
the Aiken Bluegrass Festival
June 15 - Burns Dance Studio, sponsored by DayBreak Adult Care
June 22 - 4 Cats in the Doghouse, sponsored by
The Willcox
June 29 - 246th Army Band - Army National Guard, sponsored by DayBreak Adult Care
August
All concerts will be held at Hopelands Gardens on the
Windham Performing Arts Stage unless otherwise
noted and will begin at 7 p.m. Admission is free.
6
All those in attendance should bring a lawn chair
or blanket. Alcohol of any kind is strictly prohibited.
Picnic dinners are permitted. Well-behaved pets are
welcome, but must be on a leash at all times.
Handicap parking is available at the Rye Patch parking
lot on Berrie Road and the Hopelands Gardens
Parking Lot on Dupree Place. All other concert
attendees should park at the Green Boundary Club
across Whiskey Road from Hopelands Gardens.
A shuttle from the PRT Ceramics Center parking lot on
Two Notch Road will run to Hopelands Gardens
on July 6.
In case of rain, the scheduled concerts will be held
at the H. Odell Weeks Center at 1700 Whiskey Rd.
in Gym 2.
The Hopelands Summer Concert Series is presented
by the City of Aiken Parks, Recreation and Tourism
Department.
For more information, call 803-642-7631 or visit
www.facebook.com/ExperienceAiken.
Chef Belinda Enters the
International Culinary Society of
Les Dames d’Escoffier
by Stephen Delaney Hale
There’s a star in our midst and it is exciting
to see that Chef Belinda (Belinda Smith-Sullivan
of Trenton) is on a roll, with a steady stream
of business successes, positive publicity and
professional acclaim.
In early April, she was fêted at a dinner
gathering of friends at The Willcox to celebrate her
impending induction into the Charleston chapter
of Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI),
set for April 14.
In her induction commendation from Les
Dames (the premier international society of female
chefs), Charleston LDEI Chapter President Jennifer
of this extraordinary organization of accomplished
women whose primary goal is to mentor and
support food, wine and hospitality professionals.”
Les Dames d’Escoffier is the only organization
of its kind: a worldwide philanthropic society of
professional women leaders in the fields of food,
Members of the Charleston Chapter of Les Dames
d’Escoffier International.
A poster of Chef Belinda and the namesake of the
society, Auguste Escoffier. With Belinda is Linda
Prior Hunley, designer of the poster.
fine beverage and hospitality. The invitation-only
membership society is composed of 29 chapters
across the United States, Canada and the United
Kingdom. The organization was founded in New
York in 1976 by Carol Brock, the food editor of the
New York Daily News as a companion society to
Les Amis d’Escoffier and The World Association
of Chefs’ Societies, known often as Worldchefs, a
global network of chefs associations first founded in
1928 at the Sorbonne in Paris, led by the venerable
French chef Auguste Escoffier.
The Charleston chapter was founded in 2006
and now has a membership of 73 chefs from around
South Carolina. Founded by Nathalie Dupree,
the Charleston Chapter is hosting the LDEI
International Conference this year from Oct. 29
through Nov. 1. (For more information, visit www.
ldeicharleston.org)
Goldman wrote, “I am very pleased to welcome
you to the Charleston Chapter of Les Dames
d’Escoffier! This is an organization comprised of
an incredible network of women hospitality leaders
passionate about improving our community and
teaching the next generation.” Chef Belinda was nominated for membership
by internationally acclaimed chef and cookbook
Chef Belinda
author Nathalie Dupree, widely renowned for
Already renowned in the Aiken-Augusta
starting an entire culinary movement with the
area for nearly a decade for her personal chef
publication of her bestselling cookbook, New
services and her incomparable event planning and
Southern Cooking.
hosting, as well as her regular food column in Bella
Chef Belinda met Chef
Magazine, Chef Belinda opened
Dupree several years ago at
her own “online line” of spice
the first IACP (International
blends about five years ago. Since
Association of Culinary
then it has earned rave reviews –
Professionals) conference she
and sales – at www.chefbelinda.
attended. “Over the years, she
com. But she didn’t stop at having
has taken an interest in my
the world as her market, she
culinary career and subsequently
wanted her spices to run in the
sponsored my membership into
best circles.
LDEI.”
To do that she has labored
Chef Belinda was able
for over two years to see her Chef
to thank President Goldman
Belinda Spices invited to sit on
Chef Belinda Smith-Sullivan
and the other members of
the shelves of both Whole Foods
and Bella Magazine publisher
the Charleston Chapter at
and Southern Season fine stores.
Kathy Huff Cunningham.
her official induction into Les
At last count, Chef Belinda
Dames d’Escoffier in the “Holy City” on April 14.
Spices were in nearly 25 Whole Foods stores in
Afterwards, she told Bella, “It was humbling. Being
Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and
in the same room with women who are considered
three of the very chic Southern Season stores in
leaders and stars in the industry, let alone having
Chapel Hill, Charleston and Richmond.
them accept me as a peer, is mind-blowing.”
Also in this market, Chef Belinda remains in
When asked how this new honor will affect her her first retail outlet, La Dolcé on Laurens Street
future efforts, Chef Belinda said the induction was
in downtown Aiken, “plus I have picked up several
inspiring. “I feel honored and humbled to be a part
local stores around the state,” she said from her
mixing laboratory beside her home where she is
“doing the work of ten people!”
Chef Belinda imports her “raw” spices from
around the world and then mixes them up in her
“top secret” formulas, she said in describing her
passion for flavor.
“I market my blends as an ‘artisan’ product,
meaning I mix them in small batches so the
freshness is not compromised,” she explained. The
mixing and packaging are an artform, combining
exotic and very fresh spices from many sources
she has developed across the globe. A graduate of
Johnson & Wales University with highest honors
in Culinary Arts, she is also certified in Wine
Studies from the Culinary Institute of America in
California’s famed Napa Valley, and she has served
as a chef in North America and Africa.
Before attending Johnson & Wales, Belinda
worked in the corporate world as Global Training
Manager for Coca-Cola for the continent of
Africa. Before that, she was an airline stewardess
for American Airlines, where she “caught the bug”
to become a pilot. Today, she is a licensed pilot
and lives on a private airport close to Aiken with
her plane in an oversized garage that functions
as a hanger for her Beechcraft Sierra airplane,
christened Skybaby. The hanger also houses
her Department of Agriculture-approved spice
production lab.
She has become so successful at her marketing,
no doubt due to the quality of her product, that
those “small batches” might require some help soon
as Chef Belinda’s spices catch on with good cooks
around the area and the country. But for now, she
does it all with one part-time helper.
Eleven of her unique spice blends can be found
at the OpenSky network, https://www.opensky.com/
chefbelindaspices, an online mall of high-end stores
and products, giving her much wider exposure to
stylish cooks everywhere.
“If you go to OpenSky, you will see hundreds of
stores. A lot of extra traffic is directed to my store
being affiliated with OpenSky,” she said.
What’s next? “The Fancy Food Show, of
course!” she laughed. She is already gearing up
for her June trek to New York City where she has
reserved a booth at one of the top food shows in the
United States to promote Chef Belinda Spices. At
her side will be her husband Dan, cheering her on.
Contact Chef Belinda (Belinda Smith-Sullivan)
for Chef Belinda Spices at 803.552.6450 and
[email protected]. Read her Flying
Foodie column in every issue of Bella and also her
Flying Foodie blog at flyingfoodie.blogspot.com.
See all of her services, including Chef Belinda
Spices at www.chefbelinda.com.
Stephen Delaney Hale
is a freelance writer in Aiken
and a regular contributor to
Bella Magazine.
7
The Aiken Garden Show
has a (Metaphorical) Flower
for Every Pot
by Susan Elder
For more than 10 years the Aiken Garden
Show has delighted plant lovers from across the
Southeast. This year’s show will be held May 15-16
from 9:00 till 4:00 p.m. at Banksia, the former
Winter Colony residence that is home to the Aiken
County Historical Museum at 433 Newberry
Street SW. Experienced and novice gardeners alike
will come away inspired.
This year’s chair, Tommie Culligan, told Bella,
“I really do think this is our best show yet. We have
fabulous gardens, great speakers, vendors from as
far away as Pennsylvania and Indiana with a variety
of things to offer garden lovers, and a well-known
author who will be here for a book signing.”
technical director of a major chemical corporation.
He has a passion for improving ways of growing
plants, maintaining yards and gardens in optimal
condition and teaching others how to do the same.
On Friday and Saturday afternoons, two
“Dueling Designers,” will match their personal
creative skills to create their own plant and floral
designs in a funny, deceptively competitive way.
A Book Signing and a Rose Show
There will also be a book signing by Betty
Montgomery, author of A Four-Season Southern
Vendors
Vendors offer everything from tropical plants
to perennials, garden tools, vegetables, birdhouses,
jewelry, decorative metalwork, pottery, stained
glass, outdoor table linens and books. In other
words, there’s something for everyone.
Speakers
The gardener who likes to listen to the experts
for gardening advice will want to spend Friday or
Saturday afternoon in the company of some of the
gardening world’s movers and shakers:
Robert “Buddy” Lee is the inventor of the
reblooming Encore® Azalea. With more than 30 years’ experience in nursery management,
breeding, propagation, and new plant development,
Buddy currently serves as Director of Plant
Innovations for Plant Development Services, the
introducers of Encore Azalea, the Southern Living®
Plant Collection, and the new Sunset Western
Garden Collection.
Lisa Kessler is a North Carolinian now
living in Augusta who was raised in a long line of
farmers and gardeners. She currently does small
scale lavender and herb farming with emphasis on
sustainable practices. Lisa sells goods farm-direct
through Augusta Locally Grown. A Physician’s
Assistant before she retired, Lisa likes to blend her medical understanding with her product offerings
and classes, with particular emphasis on herbs.
Karen Oliver is a native of Louisiana and has
lived in the Augusta/North Augusta area with her
husband, Henry, for the past 25 years.
She is a Lifetime Master Gardener, a Master
Flower Show judge for National Garden Clubs,
and is currently a District Director for the Garden
Club of South Carolina. She has held multiple
garden club positions in Georgia and South
Carolina. Her special interests in horticulture
include development of a woodland garden which
is certified by the National Wildlife Foundation,
water gardening and teaching her grandson how
to enjoy nature. She also has a great interest in raising chickens.
Alvin Bey has a Master’s Degree in
Chemistry and is a retired research scientist and 8
rain would wash the sandy soil into the street below.
The house — in the Victorian farmhouse style
— was built right away. That was the easy part.
Most homeowners would have been overwhelmed
by the problems the landscape presented. But Gene
Eidson is a restoration ecology professor at Clemson
University and director of the Urban Ecology
Center based in Aiken. For him, reviving the soil
and restoring the land to its previous possibilities
was right up his alley. The landscape became his
green infrastructure laboratory. Doug Rabold was
raised on a crop and cattle farm in Pennsylvania. He
has always had an eye for design, so he helped with
the gardening and coordinated the hardscaping.
The first thing that Eidson did was to bring in
400 native tree seedlings and plant them around the
property. He also planted seedlings of Green Ash
trees, which grow fast and offer good shade to act
as “nurse trees.” As the seedlings grew, so, of course,
did the weeds. The weeds were turned loose to grow
and die, or were cut down with a string mower.
The decaying weeds built up the soil just as they
would in a forest. Just as natural succession occurs
in the wild, it occurred in this landscape. The soil
improved, and with the addition of four retaining
walls and terraces, many landscape and stormwater
Author Betty Montgomery
Garden, and an all-design Rose Show put on by the
Aiken Garden Club Council and the Augusta Rose
Society.
Garden Tours 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
For many who attend the Aiken Garden
Show, the highlight of the show is the chance to
tour some of Aiken’s most attractive gardens. This
year’s tour offers a variety of gardens; some are
on small landscapes, others are on acres of land.
Some landscapes are newly established, others have
been in progress for years. Some are professionally
designed; others simply spring from the owner’s
passion for plants.
A Formal Garden Surrounded by
an Urban Forest
One of the highlights of this year’s garden tour
is the delightful landscape of Gene Eidson and
Doug Rabold. The two men purchased the acreand-a-half plot of land in Kalmia Hills in 2002.
Surrounded by homes that date from the 1950s,
this particular spot had not been developed and
offered many challenges. In 2001, the previous
owner had cut down all but a dozen trees and
graded the land so that the topsoil was turned
under. Newly introduced fill material had created a
rather inhospitable sandy soil surface. The slope of
the neighborhood and the road meant that a hard
In the Eidson-Rabold garden, terraces
offer places for relaxing as well as spots
dedicated to plantings.
challenges were addressed.
In choosing landscape features, Eidson and
Rabold wanted to reflect Aiken’s iconic gardens.
There’s a low serpentine brick wall in homage to the
wall at Hopelands Gardens. A round, sandstone
wall, like the wall in Morgan Circle, surrounds
a butterfly garden. A pair of brick, round, raised
beds echoes the front beds at The Willcox Hotel.
A linear wetland, bog and pond, like those at
Hopelands, provide wildlife habitat and stormwater
treatment.
There’s also a vegetable garden that’s as tidy as a
formal flower garden, and a lilac bush that actually
produces lilacs – an unusual occurrence in Aiken.
The Eidson-Rabold garden alone is worth the
price of the ticket, but there is so much more to see,
including four other gardens, in town and outside
as well.
Join your fellow gardeners for an informative
and inspiring two days, while you help the Aiken
Garden Club Council raise funds to maintain the
historic Doll House in Hopelands Gardens, one of
Aiken’s garden gems.
Oh! And don’t forget lunch at the Banksia
Bistro, open Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to
2 p.m.
Tickets
Garden Show tickets can be purchased online
at www.aikengardenshow.org in advance by credit
card through May 14. Tickets purchased online
will not be mailed but will be held at the Banksia
entrance to the show. Please print out your online
receipt and bring it with you to the registration
table at Banksia.
Augusta.
Tickets purchased at the show will cost $25;
credit cards will be accepted for these day-of tickets.
For more information, call (803) 641-6777.
Susan Elder is a former
elementary school teacher and
garden writer. These days she
spends her time babysitting for her
adorable granddaughter.
Enjoy lunch at the Banksia Bistro.
Tickets will be available at the advance price of
$20 paid with cash or check at the following retail
outlets through May 14: Cold Creek Nurseries,
Material Things, Palmetto Nursery, Plum Pudding,
Nurseries Caroliniana, Jim Bush Flower Shop
in North Augusta, and Bedford Greenhouses in
9
Aiken’s Gardener:
Claudia Lea Phelps
Her Aiken Garden Club Turns 90
by Susan Elder
Nature has blessed Aiken with a bounty of
of the Garden Club of South Carolina. Mrs. Phelps globe together in the 1920s. (Photos and movies of
green. With our tree-lined streets and manicured
that trip can be seen online at the USC website.)
became the first and only Life President.
medians, carefully maintained Hopelands Garden,
Soon after that, Miss Claudia Lea Phelps (Mrs.
Luckily, Garden Club of Aiken members
and the natural beauty of Hitchcock Woods, it is
Phelps’ daughter) donated her “Moving Picture
have collected boxes of information over the years,
not surprising that some of Aiken’s early residents,
Projector” to the club. The club purchased a motor
with booklets, photos, and minutes from the first
folks who had arrived in Aiken seeking warmer
for it (there was $143.75 on hand for the project)
meeting at the Phelps’ home. The first year was
climes, chose to join together to share their love
and agreed to lend it to organizations around town,
dedicated to the study of chrysanthemums. The
of gardening. The City of Aiken and the State of
such as home demonstration agencies, Student
secretary was asked to write to a grower in New
South Carolina owe much to those early citizens, in Jersey to find out information and prices of hardy
Club, and other civic organizations for educational
particular, Mrs.
use only – not for gain.
single-flowering
Claudia Lea
varieties. Then
Phelps.
Parkway Beautification
The Garden
Mrs.
Around 1956, Miss Claudia Phelps organized a
Club would
Sheffield
present a trophy drive to clean up and a planting program to improve
Phelps was
at the fall flower
born Claudia
show for the best
Wright Lea, in
exhibit of 10
September, 1872
varieties.
in Wilmington,
The Aiken
Delaware, the
Garden Club
daughter of
must have
Preston Lea,
devoted a lot of
governor of
their meeting
The Aiken Garden Club had an early interest in recycling and composting
Delaware.
time to the
In 1892 she
discussion of
The old Aiken Hospital grounds would be barren except
for The Aiken Garden Club
married Sheffield Phelps and they soon had three
garden shows. Almost every set of minutes in those
children, William Walter,
early days mentions something of the next show,
Claudia Lea, and Eleanor
where it would be held, what awards would be given, Aiken’s parks and parkways. The group was named
Sheffield. The family had
and how much would be paid for the awards. Many the “Co-ops.” A group of about 40 garden club
members (probably including some ladies from
settled in Teaneck, New
of the early shows were held in the garden at Rose
other clubs) started in front of the (old) hospital
Jersey, but wintered in Aiken Hill, or sometimes across the street in the Aiken
on Richland Avenue and worked eastward toward
in the estate known then,
Prep Auditorium.
and now, as Rose Hill.
Roses in that era were
After only 10 years of
categorized only by color: pure
marriage, Sheffield Phelps
white, pale pink, pure red, and
died, and Claudia decided to yellow. Today they would likely be
remain in Aiken with their
categorized by type of rose: hybrid
children. She turned her
tea, polyantha, shrub, or old garden,
Claudia Lea Phelps
energies into gardening, and
for example.
(Mrs. Sheffield Phelps)
she
went
about
the
task
of
Aiken’s Gardener
Some issues never go away
creating the extraordinary
By 1932, The Garden Club of
gardens at Rose Hill. Mrs. Phelps became an expert
Aiken had become quite interested
at growing and later judging camellias. She also
in the beautification of the city.
amassed a huge library of books about horticulture
Two members gave a program
which she donated to the Thomas Cooper Library
titled Helping Aiken Grow in Beauty
at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
and Eliminating Eye Sores. One of
Plantings at the old Aiken Hospital on Richland Avenue
Founding Mother
their first targets was the entrance
In 1924, Mrs. Phelps’ passion for gardening
to Aiken from the west. Garden Club members
town. Out of that group under Miss Phelps came
inspired her to organize The Garden Club of Aiken, and other citizens were concerned about the
the Aiken Park Commission. The commission
an organization that remains active today, over 90
unsightliness of the roadsides.
depended almost entirely on private contributions,
years after its founding.
and over the years of its existence has planted and
The club’s website states “Our club is dedicated High Tech
maintained thousands of flowering plants and trees
to promoting the love of gardening…Ever mindful
around Aiken.
An interest in what must have been thenof traditions of the past, members of the Garden
Around that same time, The Garden Club of
modern technology prompted the ladies of the club
Club of Aiken plant our present day gardens with
Aiken
contributed several hundred dollars in the
to collect admission to the flower shows of 25 cents
hope and look forward to creating a flower-filled
cleanup
and replanting of a triangle park bounded
that would go toward the purchase of a “lantern
future.”
by South Boundary, Chesterfield, and Whiskey
for slides.” Later, the ladies encouraged the Garden
Mrs. Phelps also had a vision for a large body
Road, known as Whitney Park. There were 145
Club of South Carolina to begin a collection of
of garden clubs in South Carolina – a club made
azaleas, three large day lily beds, and other trees
slides to be shared by clubs around the state. Even
up of garden clubs across the state. She invited
planted there. The remains of this park can still
today the club has kept pace with the currents
representatives from active clubs to meet at Rose
be seen today, and the daffodils planted there
technological trends. It is one of a handful of clubs
Hill. Records say the women were thrilled to
are among the first signs of spring along South
with its own website.
be invited to this stately home, and in 1930, the
Boundary. The Park Commission still exists.
The Misses Claudia Phelps and her sister
Garden Club of Aiken became a charter member
Today, parkway maintenance is a budgeted item
Eleanor Sheffield Phelps (later Wilds) circled the
10
currently working on a memorial garden at Banksia,
and they maintain the flower beds in front of the
library.
Anniversary Celebrations
Whitney Park
paid for by the City. Tree and flower funds come
from other accounts.
The Mission Continues
Today, The Garden Club of Aiken continues to
have programs presented by experts in horticulture,
and members take quite seriously their mission to
“promote the love of gardening,” while participating
in projects on local, state, and national levels.
Members participate in hosting and decorating
the Doll House in Hopelands Gardens. They are
On May 7, The Garden Club of Aiken will
celebrate its 90th anniversary with a luncheon at
The Green Boundary Club, and that afternoon The
Garden Club of South Carolina will celebrate its
85th anniversary with a tea at Rose Hill.
Many garden clubs exist today in Aiken.
Membership is mostly, if not entirely, made up
of women. Some clubs, like The Garden Club of
Aiken, are “federated” and work with state and
national garden clubs on projects to benefit places
outside Aiken. Other clubs are less involved and
simply gather once a month to enjoy brunch or tea
and talk about diverse subjects loosely related to
gardening. What all club members have in common
is the pleasure they take in the beauty of the garden
and, especially, the debt they owe to Claudia Lea
Phelps – Aiken’s Gardener.
DIAMOND SPONSORS
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions
Floyd & Green Jewelers
CPSG
PLATINUM SPONSORS
Alberici
AREVA
CB&I AREVA MOX Services, LLC
GOLD SPONSORS
Aiken Pest Control • Aiken Standard • Bechtel • Centerra-SRS • EDTS
Hilti • Hutson-Etherredge Companies • Maxwell Law Firm
Meadow Hill, LLC • Mike & Sara Wood • Palm Beach Tan
Parsons • Southeastern Tool Company, Inc. • Superior Air Handling
The Honorable L. Andrew Siders • Wise • Yearout Industrial, LLC
SILVER SPONSORS
MAY 11, 2015
*$25 per person
To benefit Children’s Place, Inc.,
a therapeutic childcare program
for abused, neglected & at-risk kids.
Aiken Aviation Enterprises, Inc. • Aiken Ophthamology/Carolina Surgery
Center • Atlantic Broadband • Cherry Bekaert, LLP • Designer Builders, Inc.
Elliott Davis Decosimo, LLC • First Citizens Bank • Gibson’s Pressure Grouting
Gillam & Associates, Inc. • Kelly Sanders • M. Timmerman Photography
Palmetto Partnership • Precision Machine Works • Security Federal Bank
Savannah River Remediation • State Farm Insurance – Collette Ball
Warneke Cleaners • Whiskey Road Storage
BRONZE SPONSORS
Aiken Dental Associates • Allstate – Tom Young • ASCO Valve Manufacturing
B&S Machine Tool • Clay & Donna Jones • Clif & Donna Webb
Dr. L. Randy Shelley, Jr. • H.G. Reynolds Co., Inc.
Equus Events & the Goddard Family
Everett Johnson Roofing & Construction Co., Inc.
Johnson, Johnson, Whittle & Lancer Attorneys, PA • Julie Ziegler, DMD, LLC
Rusty & Donna Findley • SCG&E • South Aiken Physical Therapy
Southern Bank & Trust • Spa-go Day Spa • Sports Plus Physical Therapy
V
E
N
U
E
S
11 Dinner with Friends en Blanc, a
Daring Fundraiser
by Kathy Huff Cunningham
All Aiken loves a party.
And Dinner with Friends en Blanc promises to
be one of the best of 2015.
It begins with a mystery location, not to be
revealed until a half-hour before party time. That
means more than 400 guests will receive a text or
email Sunday, May 3, at 5:30 p.m. Then, in their
“ready, set, GO!” mode, they’ll set out for the justlearned party site, purportedly only 18 minutes
from the intersection of Whiskey and Pine Log
Road, where they have a 6 o’clock date with a
daring new fundraiser.
What sets this event apart from others is that
all guests are required to carry out the “en blanc”
theme: everything must be white! From the guest
(and dog) attire to tabletop decorations, white rules
the evening. “This event calls for pre-planning with
a big splash of spontaneity,” said chair Betty Ryberg.
Add the French words en blanc, meaning
“in white,” and dynamo Betty Ryberg, who has
spearheaded the event, and Dinner with Friends en
Blanc is pre-ordained to be an outrageous success.
There is risk associated with this first Dinner
with Friends en Blanc. It relies on fair weather and
will be held outside, rain or shine, at the mystery
location. In addition, there is no ticket attendance
cost; it relies on the goodwill of attendees to make
donations that night equal beneficiaries are the
CMAC and the Child Advocacy Center, that
have shared in the whirlwind efforts to launch the
event in the short time frame of two and a half
months. The two have been paired before as threeseason beneficiaries of Ryberg’s last phenomenal
fundraiser, Dancing with the Aiken Stars, which
ended in 2013.
Local Twist and Aiken’s Dynamo
“Dinner with Friends en Blanc invites and
excites community sharing … sharing a meal,
sharing a festive approach to picnicking, and
sharing an adventure of the mystery location,” said
Betty. “The gathering of friends, singles, couples,
groups, gives everyone a sense of belonging and the
connected tables are a sign of how each of us in this
community share a blond and really belong together.
“The awareness of our belonging and the bond
of the evening brings attention to the Community
Medical Clinic and the Child Advocacy Center,
Inspired by a similar event begun in Paris more
than 25 years ago and also carried out in various
American cities, Dinner with Friends en Blanc
has a local twist. For the past three years, Dinner
with Friends has been a fundraiser benefiting the
Community Medical Clinic (CMAC) of Aiken
County. In that incarnation, chaired by David
Stinson, generous Aikenites hosted dinner parties
where their invited friends made donations to the
clinic.
12
Our Community Bond
Betty Ryberg, Jane Hattensen, and Mallory Holley
surround David Stinson. They are all dressed en blanc
(in white) to promote the new fundraiser Dinner with
Friends en blanc. All serve on the event committee.
and keeps us centered on our sense of
challenging, but we’ve become
community and how we thrive when
creative in working with clients
we help each other,” she continued.
in linen and cotton, in shorts,
Attendees will bring their own
five-pocket pants, T-shirts, and
tableware, silver, glassware and
even suits. It’s helped our sales
decorations to the party site—even
too. There are plenty of white
their dogs, if leashed, well-behaved
shirts out there, but hardly
Charley en blanc
and dressed in white. The outdoor
anyone has white bottoms. In
event differs from other similar
the past couple of years, white
events elsewhere in that tables and chairs will be
pants have taken off, and this event gives men the
provided and already set up for registered guests.
encouragement to wear them for more occasions
While guests can pre-order and pre-pay for dinner
than just Easter or on the golf course,” said Danny
from three vendors (Newberry Hall, The Willcox,
Minolfo, co-owner of Lionel Smith Ltd.
or Mint Julep)—whose trucks will be on-site
for guests to claim their meals— many others
Art, Wine, and Prizes
are collaborating on creative dinner themes and
The event is underwritten by major sponsor
presentations. The food itself is not required to
Aiken Regional Medical Centers. An art auction
be white, but everything else on the table must be.
will be conducted as part of the evening, and also
Slight variations toward ivory or silver are allowed.
an unusual beverage selection process. Sponsored
Many community shops have joined the
by GlaxoSmith Kline, the Wall of Wine is a unique
excitement by merchandising their white wares to
approach to wine selection where $20 will earn
show support and encourage creative thinking en
the buyer the right to choose a numbered cork
blanc. And clothing stores have seen spiked sales for corresponding to a bottle on the Wall of Wine.
white garments. “This event is a great opportunity
While most of the wine will be good quality table
for the people of Aiken to show their creativity.
wine, some of the bottles will be valued at $200 luck
Working with one theme like white can be
is the determining factor.
Prizes will be awarded to guests for best attire
(“dapper” and “natty” are words used to describe the
sartorial splendor expected from attendees); best
tabletop decorations, and best menu.
The original concept of Diner en Blanc in Paris
grew out of a desire for friends to gather, share,
dine and reconnect. They chose an outside space,
brought their own tables, chairs, and picnic, and
dressed in white so they could find each other.
With variations, the idea has been adopted by New
York City, Chicago, and other American cities as
well. Aiken’s take on the concept is unique and
well suited to the spirit of adventure and creativity
of local residents, who have also embraced such
enjoyable evenings for the support of local charities.
For more information, visit
wwwdinnerwithfriendsenblanc.com
13 1960s Aiken Nostalgia
MU
S
’6
14
s,
50
s
The young man
catapult “Little
fished into his pocket
Miss Dynamite”
and drew out two
to national
shiny coins.
prominence
THE 1
N
I
Carefully,
and yield hits
IC and ’7 9
he scanned the
both on the
0
0s
rows of tiny
country and
typewritten
pop charts.
cards. Marvin
Many in
Gaye. The
Aiken
Temptations.
would
The Four
remember
by
Seasons. The
her
Tony Baughman
Supremes. All his
performing
current favorites
at local civic
were there. So many
gatherings.
choices, but what to
choose? Finally, his eye
Dancing the
landed on just the right song,
Twist; Imitating
and he smiled.
James Brown
The young man dropped the coins
As
the
innocence of the 1950s gave
into the slot and pressed the buttons on the
way
to
the
1960s,
a
young
grocery clerk named
old Rock-Ola.
Ernest Evans, born in Spring Gulley, S.C., and
“Hold me. Hold me. Never let me go until you’ve
raised in Philadelphia, sang his signature song on
told me ... ”
Bandstand – and the world took notice. Evans
The young man looked at the booth, where
would take on the stage name Chubby Checker,
his best girl sat with her elbows planted on the
and “The Twist” would start to break out at sock
red checkerboard tablecloth. He winked, and she
hops after Aiken High, Graniteville High, North
smiled. It would be a very good night indeed.
Augusta High, and other football games.
It is impossible to tally just how many
Up the coast in New York City, an explosive,
thousands of times that scene was played out in
wavy-haired singer born just down the road in
burger joints, drive-ins and other popular hangouts
Barnwell took to the stage at the Apollo Theatre
around Aiken County in the earliest decades after
in Harlem and recorded his seminal Live At The
the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll. But it would be a safe
Apollo album. Some old soldiers who in their
estimate to say that a common thread would run
youth had crossed the river into Aiken from Camp
through the soundtracks to just such encounters.
Gordon would have remembered a young James
Brown dancing for change long before he would
Listening to Elvis and Brenda Lee
become known as “Mr. Dynamite,” “the Godfather
The 310-square-mile “bomb plant” on the
of Soul” (and other monikers) and take the music
edge of Aiken was just two years operational when
world by storm.
a handsome kid from Tupelo, Miss., shook and
Jukeboxes around Aiken in the early 1960s
shimmied his way into the national consciousness.
spun with songs imported south from Detroit
Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel was a fixture on
on the Motown label, like Shop Around by
car radios tooling down the street, en route to
The Miracles and Please Mr. Postman by The
the Hornet’s Nest or to go parking down by the
Marvelettes. Within another couple of years,
Highland Park Golf Course. Add to the mix the
these would be joined by imports from across the
wailing guitar of Chuck Berry and the flying fingers Atlantic, as Aiken certainly would not be immune
of Little Richard across his 88 keys, and teenage
to the rising fever of Beatlemania and the British
hormones were sure to rage.
Invasion.
Such was the allure of rock ‘n’ roll.
After school, television sets across America
From The Shag to the Beatles, and
would spring to life with 90 minutes of Dick Clark
Psychedelic Music
and his American Bandstand show, bringing the
Kids from Aiken who escaped to Edisto Beach
infant genre – and teen idols like Ricky Nelson,
Bobby Darin and Frankie Avalon – right into living or the Folly Beach Pavilion would have shown off
their best Shag steps to Stay by Maurice Williams
rooms. The fervor would translate to the lively
& The Zodiacs, the Atlanta Tams and other groups
chatter and dancing down at the A&W Root Beer.
Three years earlier, just as the SRP was coming who played there at the pier. Those otherwise
landlocked would have dreamed of a beach getaway
on-line and long before anybody had ever even
while dancing to the Beach Boys on their transistor
heard of Elvis, folks in Aiken tuned into WRDW
radios alongside the shores of Richardson’s Lake or
Channel 12 would have heard young Brenda Mae
while listening to the Righteous Brothers’ Justine
Tarpley make her debut on the local Peach Blossom
and watching Raquel Welch make her screen debut
Special TV show. A quick change of stage name to
in A Swingin’ Summer at the old Fox Drive-In.
“Brenda Lee” and a chance meeting with country
As the 1960s waned, Beatlemania and Motown
great Red Foley at the Bell Auditorium would
magic gave way to psychedelia and “flower power”
and folk-rock anthems crying out for peace under
the heavy cloud of Vietnam. Jimi Hendrix and the
winds of change would blow even a few teenagers
from Aiken north to Woodstock. But back at home,
in the relative lingering innocence of Teen Town,
the classics – Wilson Pickett’s In The Midnight
Hour, Arthur Conley’s Sweet Soul Music and other
enduring soul favorites – were kept alive.
While the rest of the country was observing the
“Summer of Love,” according to Aiken Recreation
Department records, August 1967 saw five dances
held at Teen Town and even a Battle of the Bands
hosted by the Aiken Jaycees. The winning group,
called The Intruders, included (among other area
notables) Archie Jordan, Stewart Harris, and the
late Mike Stewart – all of whom went on to work
in Nashville and collect No. 1 hits as successful
songwriters. (A group called the Mod VI finished
second with an “anti-soul” sound influenced by
psychedelic groups such as the Byrds and the
Chocolate Watchband.)
Music Moves on
As the 1970s dawned, America was emerging
from the pain of Vietnam and the disillusionment
of Nixon and Watergate. Soft rock began to
populate the radio dial on WBBQ and other local
radio stations in cars parked at the Tastee Freez or
Sno-Cap Drive-In.
By the mid-1970s, the disco beats of Barry
White, Isaac Hayes, KC and the Sunshine Band,
and the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
dominated the radio and the jukebox at Pizza
House, Aiken Bowl, and other popular hangouts.
Popular though these danceable beats were with
some, the musical excess of the 1970s would be
wildly maligned and reviled by many.
From the 1950s to the ‘70s, from the Aiken
drive-ins to the Cinema and Mark II downtown,
from the innocence of Teen Town to the more adult
fare of the Silver Fox at the Holley Inn, from pizza
places to auditoriums to backyard barbecues, music
was an integral part of growing up in Aiken and the
coming-of-age in the shadow of the “Bomb Plant.”
Tony Baughman is a writer, broadcaster, actor and
filmmaker who has lived in the Aiken area almost his entire
life. His professional experience
includes seasons as a writer and
editor at the Aiken Standard,
as publisher and editor of The
Citizen News in Edgefield and as
managing editor of the TimesGazette in southern Ohio. He
has hosted popular Oldies and
Beach Music radio shows on
WKSX 92.7FM, and he has
recently served as associate producer for independent films
produced by New Daydream Films of Charlotte, N.C.
Hanging Out in Aiken in the ‘60s
by Anna Dangerfield
The decade was the ‘60s and across the nation,
sit-ins, protest marches and great changes were
occurring.
Presidential names grabbed the headlines:
John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard
M. Nixon. McNamara, Viet Nam and the draft
also commanded attention. Unfortunately, so did
assassinations: John F. Kennedy, his brother Bobby,
and Martin Luther King Jr.
Difficult topics presented stark contrasts to the
simplicity of TV shows of the time like The Donna
Reed Show, and movies like Beach Blanket Bingo.
No matter the seriousness of the decade, fun
was to be had and teens knew where to find their
friends for a good time. Perhaps Aiken did not offer
the myriad hangouts of larger cities, but most teens
agree it was a fabulous town in their youth.
Favorite Hangouts
In a recent survey of Aiken High School
graduates, most respondents listed their favorite
hangouts as the Sno-Cap Drive-In (Sno-Cap), Teen
Town, A&W Root Beer Drive-In, and the Hornet’s
Nest. Others said that Aiken offered many fun
places to swim including Richardson’s Lake, the
Outing Club, Johnson’s and Scott’s Lakes, and
the Fermata Club. Almost everyone agreed that
watching the Aiken High Hornets play at Hagood
Stadium on Friday nights was a must.
Betty Kennedy Sanderson, Aiken High School
(AHS) Class of 1967, said, “Aiken did not have a
whole lot of places to hang out back then in the
‘good old days.’ The Sno-Cap was the place to
be—or rather circling it round and round after
the games. I loved to go to all the football games,
though I didn’t know what was happening. I just
loved to watch the guys in their football jerseys!”
Lee Quinn Cavanaugh (AHS 1964) said that
Teen Town was another safe place for friends to
meet on the weekend. “We’d sit in a booth with
the other girls hoping to be invited to dance. It
had a well-stocked concession stand and plenty of
loud music to dance to. Friday night football was
the place to be. Some people actually watched the
game!”
Trips to
Augusta for dinner
(pizza) and a movie
were date nights
that Betts Hunter
Gatewood (AHS
1965) remembered.
City Billiards
A favorite
hangout of teenage
boys was the pool
hall owned by
A.R. (Amidee
Rose) Edwards.
According to his
nephew, John
Edwards, who now
lives in San Diego,
“A.R. needed my
The Secret Recipe
Mike Allen bought City Billiards in 1994 from
Truman Paige. “In December 1993, I told Truman
that I wanted to buy the store,” Mike said. ”Let me
work here and he agreed that if I still wanted to
buy it by January first, we’d sign the papers. Two
weeks into December, I gave Truman a deposit. I
kept working with him and when Christmas came,
I knew he was going to shut down for a week, so I
told him that he needed to give me the Chili Recipe
since we were getting close to January first.” He said,
“You haven’t given me all the money yet. I’ll give you
the chili recipe for $150,000, and the keys to the
restaurant for free.”
The deal was done! And that original secret
recipe? Hidden deep inside Mike’s wallet resides
a folded piece
of yellow paper
containing the
recipe. “Truman
gave it to me and
told me to guard
it with my life,”
Mike said. “I told
my then-wife,
that if I ‘fell out,’
to get my wallet,
then call 911. I’ve
turned down a lot
of money for it.”
“We have four
Pool Sharks in this Christmas party photo include: Tommy Gibbs,
pool tables now, but
Dale Bales, Cowboy Kneece, Catfish Kneece, Harry Heath,
pool doesn’t make
Art Gregory, Ken Allen, Jimmy Mayenschein, Philip Johnson,
a lot of money
Henry Hall, David Bales, Roger Williamson, Tom Lucas, Johnny
so we turned
Eargle, A.R. Edwards (holding Old Spice Box), Gerald Kaney,
our attention
Buddy Holley, Skipper Perry, Johnny Maloney, Merritt Nimmons,
Freddie Wells, Phil Orsini, Tony Osbon, Joe Shores, Steve Talbert,
towards food. We
George Cole, Freddie Wells, Golden Castro, and Andrew Kitchings.
(Photo courtesy of Mike Allen and Skipper Perry)
dad’s help with the
pool room, so my
mother, father and
I moved to Aiken in
1960. A.R. had started
the pool hall probably
in the 1950s and it was
located behind Aiken
Drug for about five
years before it moved
to its current location
on Richland Avenue.
The first location had
about eight to 10 pool
tables, while the second
place, where it is today, had about 12 to 14 tables.
“I was the rack boy for a long time,” John said.
“It was my first job, and I made $2 per hour and ate
all of the hot dogs I wanted. That was a lot of money
for a 12-year-old kid. There was a chili recipe, but
I don’t know it. There was also another pool room
located by the old Patricia and Rosemary theaters.
“There was always gambling in the pool hall
for guys who wanted to shoot for money. It was
very out in the open. This pool hall was not just for
high school boys but older men as well, some even
coming from Augusta, with money to be made.”
sell 60,000 both
chili dogs and
cheeseburgers a
year,” Mike said.
Over the years,
Mike has heard
many stories from
his patrons. To
explain the photos
accompanying
this article, he
said, “A.R. used
to give free beer
on Christmas Eve.
Photo courtesy of Mike Allen
Before the beer ran
out, the guys all felt bad for getting it for free, so
they ran out and bought A.R. an Old Spice Gift
Box as a thank you. When he died, he had a closet
full of Old Spice.”
The menu has been expanded to include
chicken and fish and numerous other items, and the
pool hall now serves as a family restaurant. Even
women have been allowed since 1974!
The Sno-Cap Drive-In
Brenda Lee (AHS 1969) started dating
her husband, Rob Shellhouse (AHS 1967), in
November of her freshman year. “Our hangouts
included dancing at Teen Town to some really great
bands. Rob swam at Scott’s Lake close to his home,
and I swam at Highland Park Country Club while
the rest of my family golfed,” she said.
“We also always attended the Friday night
football games at Hagood Stadium,” Brenda
said. “Sometimes we sat in the bleachers with our
friends and other times Rob was responsible for the
ambulance that was close by, as the funeral home
provided the only ambulance service at that time
so we watched the game from an ambulance! (Rob
later completed mortuary school in Atlanta.) After
the games, we made multiple laps around the SnoCap before finding a parking space and ordering our
cheeseburgers and fries!”
The Sno-Cap opened for business in December
1961, located next to Piggly Wiggly on York Street,
and offered sandwiches, hamburgers, fish, and
chicken. Their advertisements bragged, “Just a short
drive from where you are.” While there was service
“on the curb,” this Aiken-owned and -operated
drive-in also supplied excellent people-watching.
Lee Quinn said, “Many of us would pile in a car to
cruise the Sno-Cap while circling the parking lot in
hopes of getting a glimpse of the latest heart throb.”
Betts agreed. “We went to the Sno-Cap drive-in for
root beer floats and drove around to find the ‘best’
spot where the cute boys were parked.”
Teen Town
Local newspaper articles from the ‘60s reported
that the Aiken Teen Town was built in 1953
through contributions given by interested parents
and students. Another article suggested that it was
built by the students of Aiken High who decided to
build a place where they could gather on Friday and
Saturday nights. It was named Teen Town.
[continued on next page]
15 home Fermata, which is a musical symbol meaning
rest or pause. She established The Fermata School
for Girls which opened in 1919 with classes held
on the third floor of their house. The school
expanded, and in 1921, Mrs. C. Oliver Iselin
joined Mrs. Hofmann in supporting the school.
They acquired the home of Colonel A.R. Kuser
on Whiskey Road and nine acres of land where
the school then functioned. The main buildings
of the school burned in 1941, leaving only the
school’s gymnasium and pool. In 1952, these were
purchased by a few Aiken residents interested in
turning the property into a social club. They named
Aiken Teen Town - Photo by the late Joe Lista
the club The Fermata Club after the school.
Whatever the true origins, the Teen Town
“On summer weekends, the Fermata Club was
on Morgan Street behind the then-Aiken County
our destination. We lived there, including swim
Hospital provided countless hours of fun for Aiken team practice both in the morning and evening
teens in the 1960s. (Today, AHS
when the pool
graduates laugh about how Teen
wasn’t open
Town has kept up with the years. It is
to members,
now home to the Aiken Area Council
then hanging
on Aging.)
out all day
Teen Town was led by a high
at the pool
school student mayor and council,
and tennis
and supervised by Sergeant Virgil
courts with
Wilkins of the Aiken Police
friends.” Betts
Department. They planned the
Hunter said.
dances for the high school students.
“I was on a
Bree McKellar, Ann Urban and Billy
swim team at
Grice all served as mayor.
the Fermata
At one time, membership cards
Club, life
could be purchased for 50 cents, with
guarded,
admission of 50 cents for members
and taught
and 75 cents for guests. Sometimes,
swimming
admission was as high as three dollars
lessons so the
Aiken Teen Town - Photo by the late Joe Lista
per person. Local and out-of-state
summer was
bands played, including the Tams,
pretty much
the Intruders, Maurice Williams, and Doug Clark
pool time. We traveled to meets together, played
and the Hot Nuts. Eventually, Girl Scout meetings, cards between events, and enjoyed cheering each
church basketball and other classes were held there. other on,” Karen Olsen Edwards (AHS 1965) said.
The Fermata Club
There were many places to swim in Aiken
and one of the favorites was the Fermata Club on
Whiskey Road.
Most Aiken history lovers know that Josef
Hofmann was an internationally renowned Polish
pianist, whose house was on the west side of
Laurens. He and wife Marie Eustis called their
16
Fond Memories
“I have fond memories of the Fermata Club
from the early 1950s through the early 1960s”, said
Brad Kuhn (AHS Class of 1963). “Almost every
summer day, many friends and I would ride our
bikes to the club and spend all day there, swimming
(lessons and team practice and pool games), playing
tennis, or just hanging out with a brief intermission
for lunch.
“Sometimes in the afternoon, we played tennis
until we became very hot, so back to the pool we
went to cool off. One strict pool rule was that all
had to rinse off in the shower before swimming.
The shower was freezing cold on a hot day, so we’d
try to jump in the pool unshowered and undetected
by the lifeguard. These violations often led to the
punishment of sitting out for an hour, a badge of
courage of sorts. The reason for the shower was
that in the early years, the pool had no filtration
system. Showers helped reduce the contaminants
in the water. Every Wednesday night the pool was
drained, cleaned and refilled, ready to reopen the
next afternoon.
The Fermata Swim Team was quite successful
in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. The boys 15/16
year-old-relay team, John Bebbington, Todd Lewis,
Rayner Handley, and Brad Kuhn were the S.C.
state champions in the 220-yard freestyle relay at
the state meet in Columbia in 1961.”
Thomas Olsen (Class of 1962) said, “I was
seen on the diving board at the Fermata by one
of the guys from the Aiken Swim Association
who ‘recruited’ me to join the dive team at ASA.
Fermata did not have an appropriate board for
diver’s training for competition so there was no dive
team as part of the swim team. I won an event or
two along the way and was in competition at Maxey
Greg pool in Columbia in the late ‘50s and early
‘60s.
“I remember the achievements of the Fermata
Club team and think it would have been interesting
to see how well Aiken would have done at the state
level had they combined Fermata and ASA teams,”
he said.
The Music
Bonnie Dietz Coward (AHS 1966)
remembered her favorite hangouts as date nights at
the basketball and football games, and also hanging
out at friends’ homes. “Playing and singing the folk
music of the era was a big part of my teen years,” she
said.
Though the music of this time included
performers like Elvis, The Four Tops, The Beatles,
The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, and the
Supremes, folksingers such as Bob Dylan, Arlo
Guthrie, Joan Baez, The Kingston Trio, and
we could enjoy. Church league basketball kept us
occupied on Saturday mornings.
“We ordered cherry Cokes in Aiken Drug
at six cents—a nickel for the coke and a penny for
the cherry splash. Hand-cut fresh French fries were
15 cents. I have many delightful memories,” Karen
said. “It seems like life was much like Happy Days
when we grew up in Aiken in the ‘50s and ‘60s.”
winners, two National Honor Society Scholarship
finalists, and 36 seniors who graduated with honors.
They also celebrated their football Coaches Dawsey
and Fraser and the team for its win over North
Augusta for the first time since 1949.
Other coaches such as Lowrimore, Gibbs and
Liles led their teams to local, county and state
honors. The teams kicked, tossed, putted and ran
their way to honors and were cheered by Hornet
mascot, Gary Fleetwood.
Seniors looked forward to their edition of the
Hornet yearbook under the guidance of Editor
Cheryl White, and also to the senior class play,
Bermuda Day, pep rallies, Junior-Senior Prom, and
lighting up a Lucky Strike outside the cafeteria in
the smoking area.
Class Officers, President Charles Tope,
Vice-President Tim Coffey, Treasurer Gwynn
Willis, Secretary Diane Hanna, and Student
Council President David Meadow guided the
students. Director of the Band Mr. William T.
Slaughter set the beat, and the seniors also marched
to the directives of AHS Principal J. O. Willis.
Participation in their clubs guided some seniors
into future careers. Beta Club; Quill and Scroll;
German and French Clubs; Future Secretaries,
Farmers, Teachers, and Nurses; Folk Singing; Art;
Science; Dramateers; and Young Patriots were some
of the clubs available.
The ‘60s were tumultuous, chaotic, and
interesting. The Aiken High Seniors in the Class
of 1965 discovered fun, meaning and friendships in
their year that was Better Than Ever!
Better Than Ever! Aiken High’s Class
of 1965 Celebrates 50!
WAKN Radio Station - Photo by
the late Joe Lista
Simon and Garfunkel were also important. In the
summer of 1969, more than 400,000 young people
attended the Woodstock music festival.
The Aiken High School Seniors Class of
1965 danced to the Four Tops’ I Can’t Help Myself,
and the Temptations’ My Girl while Elvis was
Crying in the Chapel and the Rolling Stones sought
Satisfaction. When their feet were not moving, they
watched movies at the Cinema Theater on Laurens
(that had replaced the Rosemary Theater) and the
Fox Drive-In, including Cary Grant’s Father Goose,
Anna Dangerfield lives in Aiken
and is the proud grandmother
of three grandsons. She enjoys
spending time at her family
beach home on the South
Carolina coast and traveling
with her husband Tim. She also
enjoys researching and writing
about Aiken history.
Cinema Theater - Photo by the late Joe Lista
Happy Days
Karen said, “Friday night dances were the
highlight. Barb McIninch, Sherry Wilson, Donna
Crenshaw, Pattie Driggers and their families were
square dancers on the weekends, dancing at the old
Memorial Auditorium. The guys they danced with
were from other square dance clubs and that’s what
made it so intriguing.
“Church youth groups were important. Barb
and I went to the youth groups at St. John’s and
First Baptist. We sang in the youth choir, went on
youth retreats and did mission activities together.
Church hay rides in the fall were a bit embarrassing
for us girls since we usually didn’t have a date
(much less a boyfriend) to cuddle with. At least the
bonfire and wiener roasts were group activities that
Cheyenne Autumn with James Stewart, and How the
West Was Won.
They ate burgers at the Quik-Burger and
Tastee-Freez, listened to WAKN radio, purchased
bracelets at Holmes Jewelers or a car at Burgess
Motor Company, clothes at Owen-Surasky, Slotin’s,
JB White’s, Belk’s, and Julia’s, and sports equipment
at Aiken Sporting Goods, and sought help with
their flip hairdos at Chesterfield Court.
Some of their news came from Diane Wolf and
Kathy Urban, Co-editors of the Teen Times weekly
page found Friday morning in the local newspaper
and sought advice from columnist Minard Hulse,
later revealed to be David Graham.
They celebrated the intelligence of their 11
Merit Finalists, two National English competition
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17 Record-setting Coach
Johanna Gibbs
by Lily McCullough Baumil
In
January of
this year,
a Southern
California
high school
girls’ basketball
coach was suspended
after his team defeated
a rival team by a score of 161-2. Many criticized
the coach for running up the score and not taking
out his starters until the third quarter. Others
argued that losing is a part of competition, and that
mismatched games are a reality in sports.
When asked what she thought about the
incident, Miss Johanna Gibbs said that she could
see both sides of the situation. She told the story of
the year her Aiken High School Lady Hornets won
the state championship:
“In 1973, we had a good nucleus of talented
players and athletes. In 1974, the team played for
the state championship as sophomores and juniors.
As a member of the first class
to graduate from the (then) recently
constructed Aiken High School*
on Rutland Drive in 1954, Johanna
Gibbs enrolled at the University of South
Carolina. She never considered attending
any other college and remains a dedicated
Gamecock fan to this day, attending or watching
on television as many Carolina sports events as she
can.
Miss Gibbs was born in Aiken at the old Aiken
Hospital on Richland Avenue. As the first George
family grandchild, Johanna was probably used
to getting her own way. Her father, Tom Gibbs,
wanted her to enter the medical field, but she always
knew she wanted to coach.
Approaching her graduation from college in
1958, Gibbs said she “had no intention of coming
back to Aiken. Everybody was going to Florida
to teach.” At the time, A. J. Rutland was the
Superintendent of Aiken Attendance Area One
schools. His son Jerry attended USC, and he and
Johanna were
good friends,
often riding
to and from
Columbia
together.
One
weekend
when Gibbs
was home
from school,
Mr. Rutland
asked her
what she
planned
to do after
graduation.
Gibbs’ Aiken High’s 1975 AAAA Championship Basketball Team
“Why
That game was the only one they lost that year. In
would you want to go to Florida? Before you do
1975, the Aiken High girls won the state AAAA
that, you come see me,” he said.
championship.”
Gibbs did indeed go to see Superintendent
Gibbs noted that the girls on that team had
Rutland. A Florida school district had offered her
lost only four games in their playing career. They
a position at the elementary level, and while Gibbs
were used to winning. Often, the team would get
was certified to teach in grades K-12, she preferred
ahead of its opponent by a considerable margin.
to teach older children. Mr. Rutland offered her a
Gibbs would bench the first string and allow girls
job at Aiken Junior High School, and she ultimately
who didn’t play much to get in the game. But this
traveled back and forth to teach at both Aiken
was a disadvantage for the starters who would be
Junior High and Kennedy Middle schools on
competing in postseason and championship games
different days of the week.
and had to stay sharp.
In
“I would feel bad, but if you’ve cleared the bench
1963, Gibbs
and player number fourteen is scoring points, what
transferred to
do you do?”
Aiken High
School to teach
and to coach
Miss Gibbs Stays in South Carolina
girls’ basketball.
If you were a girl who attended Aiken Junior
Since no playoff
High School, Kennedy Junior High School (now
system existed at
Kennedy Middle School), or Aiken High School
that time, several
in the 1960s and 1970s, the chances are good that
of Gibbs’ teams
Miss Gibbs was your physical education teacher at
claimed state
some point along the way. And if you were on the
AAA titles on
girls’ basketball or volleyball teams, you would have
their undefeated
called her Coach Gibbs.
18
records.
After the iconic 1975 season that brought home
the state AAAA trophy, Gibbs was receptive to a
change and another challenge. The University of
South Carolina in Aiken hired Gibbs in 1976 to
inaugurate the women’s basketball and volleyball
programs.
Records at USCA
If her success at Aiken High was legendary,
her success at USCA was similarly remarkable.
Under Gibbs, Lady Pacer basketball teams amassed
a record of 92 wins and 45 losses, and in 1981, the
team earned a berth in the National Association
of Intercollegiate Athletes (NAIA) national
tournament.
An extraordinary coach by any standards,
Gibbs is quick to acknowledge, “If you don’t have
the horses, you can’t go to the Derby.” And horses
she had. Even the mascot of USCA was the pacer
horse, since Aiken was and is a premier equestrian
community. Gibbs was quickly off to the races,
bringing together several of her 1975 championship
Aiken High players to play for the Lady Pacers.
Faye Ryans Norris was one of those former
Hornettes to play for Gibbs at USCA. She now
coaches girls’ basketball at Dutch Fork High School
in Irmo, South Carolina. Her teams have won three
consecutive state AAAA championships, and her
Faye Ryans Norris and Coach Gibbs
2012-2013 team was ranked fifth in the nation.
After graduating from Aiken High School, Norris
went to Augusta State, but she transferred to USC
Aiken to play for her former high school coach.
The opportunity to play for Gibbs again also
prompted Dru McPherson Nix to leave the College
of Charleston and re-join Norris as a teammate at
USCA. With two of her 1975 Aiken High School
players at the helm, Gibbs had the makings of
another dynasty. Norris went on to become the
first All-American at USCA, and she and Nix were
inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
According to Norris, “Ms. Gibbs taught us
the emotional, physical, social, and spiritual side of
being a complete athlete. She not only coached me
in the game of basketball, but she has also coached
me on how to be a caring coach, mother, and
grandmother.”
Norris and Gibbs would have been watching
the recent women’s NCAA tournament with
more than casual interest. The Lady Gamecocks
of the University of South Carolina in Columbia
made it to Tampa and the Final Four in April of
this year. After a heartbreaking one-point loss to
Notre Dame, sophomore standout Alaina Coates
promised that this (USC) team “one day will
be national champs.” If that happens, a little of
Coach Gibbs will be with Coates and the team
on the podium, since Norris started with Coates
in the eighth grade and coached her for five years,
including an undefeated 29-0 season as a senior.
to do.” Still, Gibbs says, she worked with great
teachers and students and, as for her stay at Silver
Bluff, “It was an amazing experience.”
Gibbs told of the summer she earned her
master’s degree in administration and counseling
from The Citadel. She and longtime friend
Henriann Goddard had always enjoyed spending
time at Folly Beach, so they decided to combine
business and pleasure by working on their graduate
degrees while staying at their rented beach house.
The Citadel allowed them to take a double load
over the summer, so they took three courses each
session—an unimaginable total of six courses over
a period of only two months. “I don’t think my
feet touched the beach all summer,” Gibbs recalled
wistfully.
Fortunately, there is more time for leisure now,
as Gibbs enjoys retirement in her lovely Colleton
Avenue home. When she spoke with this writer,
Gibbs had recently returned from a cruise to the
Dutch Antilles.
Her Legacy
“Every team I have coached knows or has heard
my high school coach’s name and the things she has
taught me,” Norris acknowledges. “Her (Gibbs’)
legacy will live forever.”
After such a career, it is no wonder that Gibbs
is still thought of as “Coach.” Gibbs laughed when
speaking of The Rev. Dr. Ray Litts, Nurture Pastor
at St. John’s Methodist Church. “He calls me
Coach. When he introduces me, he says ‘Coach
Gibbs, as in three Halls of Fame.’ ”
Those three Halls of Fame include Gibbs’
1982 induction into the Aiken County Sports
Hall of Fame, along with Benny Chavous, Cally
Gault, Bobby Knowles, and Mary Tope. She was
similarly honored by the South Carolina Coaches’
Association of Women’s Sports (SCCAWS) and
served as the first president of that organization.
In 2007, the University of South Carolina Aiken
created its Athletic Hall of Fame. The initial group
of 13 inductees included Gibbs, Faye Norris,
baseball great Roberto Hernandez, and others
representing the fields of basketball, volleyball, and
golf.
During her five years at USCA, Gibbs coached
both girls’ basketball and volleyball (there was no
assistant coach). A typical day included teaching
physical education as an assistant professor in the
morning, coaching basketball from two until four
o’clock and volleyball from four until six o’clock.
Coach Johanna Gibbs
That schedule, combined with games, tournaments,
and recruiting, was very stressful. In those days,
Gibbs said, “There was no gym (at USCA).” Her
teams had to practice at Aiken High and Odell
Weeks. As for recruiting, Gibbs had to “go out into
the student body to get people to play,” she recalled.
Assistant Principal and
Another Degree
After compiling the best winning percentages
in both women’s basketball and volleyball in the
school’s history, Gibbs left USCA to become an
assistant principal at Silver Bluff High School.
She recalled that the new school was made up of
students from three areas—North Augusta, New
Ellenton, and Jackson. From the outset, Gibbs said,
the student body came together and “the kids were
so proud” of their school. “Sports played a major
role” in unifying the student body. “The football
team even had a winning season that first year.”
As for her move into administration, Gibbs
smiled as she admitted that the new assistant
(principal) “got stuff other principals didn’t want
Keeping in Touch
Gibbs, by her own admission, “stays busy.”
She is an active member of St. John’s Methodist
Church, she loves to read and to watch sports on
TV, and she coaches a water aerobics class. Family
is important to her. Between Gibbs’ four greatnephews and Goddard’s 11 nieces and nephews,
there are numerous sports and school activities to
keep up with and attend.
The contributions she has made to the sports
she has loved, played, and coached all her life have
made Johanna Gibbs a household name in South
Carolina women’s sports. But Gibbs seems most
happy and most proud when she speaks of her
former team members. In addition to Faye Norris,
Gibbs recalled two other members of the Aiken
High 1975 championship basketball team, Dru Nix
and Nessie Harris.
Harris went on to be a two-time All-American
at the College of Charleston and then played
professionally for the Minnesota Fillies. Nix also
went to the College of Charleston but came back to
play basketball and volleyball for Coach Gibbs at
USCA where she was named Most Valuable Player
for both teams.
[continued on next page]
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19 Johanna Gibbs
[continued from previous page]
Norris, Harris, and Nix continue to exert
an influence on high school athletics in the state.
Norris currently coaches and mentors young
players, and both Nix and Harris work in the
office of the South Carolina High School League
in Columbia. There, they have an opportunity to
work every day with coaches and players at the
high school level, making, as Gibbs notes, “a great
contribution” to sports and sportsmanship in the
state.
That contribution is gratifying for Gibbs, who,
Norris said, “did not only care about us during our
basketball season or while we played in high school
or college; she is also still concerned about us now
as adults.”
Echoing that sentiment is Nancy Davis
Thorne, who served as the Lady Hornets’ manager
during the 1965 season. Thorne said that Gibbs
was “very supportive of everybody, not just the
players.” When Thorne was a student at Florida
State University, she received notes from Gibbs,
who “kept up with everybody.” During college,
Thorne was employed as a circus performer during
the summer at Callaway Gardens in Georgia. One
day, Gibbs happened to be in the audience. She
asked Thorne what she intended to “really do” with
her life. Gibbs suggested that Thorne come back to
Aiken to teach at her alma mater. Thorne did just
20
that, fell in love with the profession, and is currently
a highly respected and decorated social studies
teacher at South Aiken High School.
Gibbs is in frequent demand at Aiken High
School class reunions, and she expects to attend the
50th reunion of the Class of ’65 this month.
Recalling one member of that graduating class,
“who shall remain nameless,” Gibbs told about the
day her Aiken Junior High team was playing a game
at home. The leading player was devastated when
she discovered she “didn’t have her bra.” Whether
it was a certain bra or a garment that brought
her luck, Gibbs doesn’t know, but the player was
adamant that she “couldn’t play without her bra.”
Gibbs suggested the girl call her mother and ask
her to bring it, but Mom was already in the stands.
Finally, one of the other girls—who didn’t expect
to play—offered the starting player her bra. Crisis
averted, the game commenced.
And, knowing Gibbs, her team almost certainly
won.
Lily McCullough Baumil is
a graduate of the College of
Charleston with a degree in French;
she also holds a Masters in English
from The Citadel. After retiring two
years ago from a 35-year teaching
career, many of those years at
South Aiken High School, she
became the author of Lord, What
Shall I Say to Them for Thee?, a compilation of her father’s
(The Rev. John McCullough) sermons and meditations
during his years as pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. Her new novel, a mystery for teenagers set in Carcasonne,
France, is due out in June as a hard cover book and also an
e-book. The mother of two and grandmother of two, she is
married to Barry Tompkins. All photos courtesy of Johanna Gibbs
*The land on which Aiken High School was
built was part of the farm owned by Johanna Gibbs’
grandfather, Demetrius “Mett” George.
21 For Health’s Sake, Roller Skate!
Remembering Miller’s Skateland
by Anna Dangerfield
Stanley Miller Sr. and his wife Mary Elizabeth
Stanley and Stan ran the business, while Mae
(Mae) Heppe Miller moved their three sons to
sold the candy. (She was descended from the Heppe
Aiken in the 1940s. The family left their hometown Brothers, candy makers with three stores in the
of Gloucester, New Jersey,
Southeast, the original store
then moved to Savannah and
on the boardwalk in Ocean
later, to Charleston. Stanley
City, Maryland.) Son Bill
Sr. inspected ships in the
had skated since he was six
port city shipyards, while
years old and was a floor
son Stanley Jr. (Stan) helped
manager at a Charleston rink
design them.
before the family’s move. He
When they moved to
provided skating lessons after
Aiken, the family business
working his
they started provided not only
day job with
a livelihood for the family,
SCE&G.
but also hours of safe fun and
Stanley,
memories for area teenagers.
Mae,
and
Stanley, Stan, and Mae Miller
Stan split
the profits three ways from the
Division of Labor
skateland.
The Millers built Miller’s Skateland on a
69.34 acre-tract of land that they purchased on old
Airport Road, just off Park Avenue, in August of
1945. The tract extended around the skateland and
wound behind the site where the Cannon House
Florist is today.
Built by Stanley and Stan, Miller’s Skateland
opened in 1953. An October Aiken Standard
and Review stated: “It opens tonight when
Mayor Charles M. Jones cuts the ribbons to
allow patrons and spectators on highway 78 into
the 5,000-square-foot steel and concrete block
construction building. The (northern rock) maple
floor accommodates more than 150 skaters, and
rental skates, a full-time skating instructor, and a
snack bar are available.”
At the Rink
When excited teens entered the rink, they
selected their appropriately sized skates from the
Millers’ vast inventory. While the owners stored no
shoes—the skaters placed them under the benches
set against the walls—they did issue tickets to hold
jackets and coats.
Work on the skates was accomplished in-house
with wooden wheels upgraded as the technology
changed.
In 1960, the Aiken Skating Club was
reorganized for adults. Club members skated once
weekly at the skateland, and children were allowed
if accompanied by their parents. According to a
recently found journal, the Miller’s Skating Club
was started in June 1965. There were 999 members
in 1965, with 1848 members recorded during the
year 1971.
Handwritten signs were frequently posted on
the front door: Too cold—closed…Beginning skate
class includes skates and floor 50 cents…New Year’s
Party.… Halloween Party… Skate Dance Lessons…
Learn how to Waltz, 14 step, fox trot, tango, polka,
others…private parties by appointment. Newspaper
ads claimed: For
health’s
sake, roller
skate!
Music
played
from 78
records
and later,
from tape
reels, usually organ
music, not modern pop.
And special nights
included “Bank night on
Monday” and “Tacky
Party where you dress
in hobo style.”
In 1963, the
business was
announced in the
newspaper as Aiken
Skateland, formerly
Miller’s Skateland,
and according to a
Miller granddaughter, business dwindled
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and the skateland closed perhaps in the 1970s.
Cleaning House
About three years ago, Bill Miller’s daughters
(Stanley and Mae’s granddaughters), Nancy Boling
and Gloria Smith, began the process of cleaning
out the skateland, their grandparents’ home behind
it, and the two-story barn located on the property.
They shared a lot of
memories with each
other as well as with
their brother Butch and
their mom, Alice Burgess
Miller.
Recently they
moved their finds into the
old skateland building
and began to sell various
items. “It’s a full-time
job to go through this
stuff and get rid of it,”
Nancy said. “We have
literally dug things out of
the ground in the barn,
while wearing gloves and
masks. I’ve loved going
down there. We’ve taken
out the things that were
valuable and important
to us.”
In their work, they
found many things from
the skateland. “The
crystal ball and the
bulk of the skates were
sold when they closed
the business,” Nancy said. “But we have all of the
whistles from the floor guys, all of the business
licenses, many individual wheels, Granny’s Heppe
Brothers candy boxes, and a large coin collection
that included silver dollars that came through the
rink.
“My grandparents and Uncle Stan were very
private,” Nancy continued. “You could not even go
into their bedrooms. But they were good people.
They were also tight. If they could find a way to save
a dime, they would. They kept everything they ever
owned. They didn’t need garbage pickup, because
they never threw anything away.”
The girls have also found much of Stan’s
equipment and clock parts that he used in the
furniture refinishing business he moved into the
skateland after it closed. “He enjoyed making
furniture, but making clocks was his passion. He
made about
10 each, both
grandmother
and grandfather
clocks, and
about three
banjo clocks.
He enjoyed old
things including
Civil War
guns, which we
sold. He was
a genius, and
we discovered
letters from
many people, including Winter Colonists, who
complimented his fine work,” Nancy said.
Skating Stories
Many people who came to the sale at the old
skateland shared their stories of skating in their
youth. One man said, “I used to come in with 50
cents. I’d pay for the
skates, then get a drink
and candy. When I ran
out of money, I’d search
under the benches for the
penny loafers that held
dimes.”
Jimmy Rhoads was
another who skated in
the ‘50s. “My brother
met his wife there. He
thought she was pretty,
asked her to skate and
after a while, they got
married. I had a lot of
friends from Graniteville
who skated there. We
went any time we could
and practically lived out
there. I had my own
skates, but when we
moved to Graniteville,
someone stole them and
the case. They had trio
skate dances where two
guys skated with one girl,
one guy on each side, and
then they had a couplesonly dance. One night, a big guy started to fall and
grabbed the rail to steady himself, and half the rail
fell down. We all stopped skating and helped the
Millers put it back. Best times we ever had were out
there. The Millers were always very friendly, and
we loved all of them and they seemed to like us. We
were one big happy family.”
Don Walling was a skater in the ‘60s. “I skated
a lot of weekends,” he said. “My Herron friends
taught me to skate. We worked a lot of private
parties. People came from Wagener, Montmorenci,
and Beech Island. We were ring guards and we
picked people up when they fell and kept them from
going too fast. We felt like family. All of the Millers
were good people, and I think they enjoyed running
it. Stan was a good guy and played the old records
like Elvis, polka, and the waltz. At the recent sale,
they had 78 records that had never been opened.
The floor is still in good shape and some of the
bleachers are still there. This skateland kept kids
out of trouble. In a way, it was a sport. I enjoyed
going out there.”
Karen Olsen Edwards said, “We went roller
skating there all through junior high years. My
friend Barb and I had skating skirts and wore
matching ‘pom-poms’ on our white boot skates.
We did the bunny hop, grand march, and the hokey
pokey on skates. The ‘reverse skate’ was the big
challenge. Strange that we did all this to organ
music!”
The Property
Not only is this large tract of land where many
of the Millers lived and the site of Miller Skateland,
but it was also the site of a circus. Harry, the first
son of Stanley and Mae, had encephalitis, which
left him mentally challenged. He loved elephants
and Mae allowed a traveling circus to set up behind
the skateland for Harry’s benefit, as well as that of
other kids in Aiken. She also took such good care of
Harry that he lived until the age of 42, twice as long
as predicted.
“The building and all of the available land are
currently under contract,” Nancy said. “Perhaps
we’ll hold a reunion after all of the stuff is sold and
before it is all changed.
“We have photos and would love to see the ones
that others took. We could all share memories. We
have been told that many videos were taken in the
rink, too. We’d love to see those,” she said.
Sharing memories with her sister Gloria has
reminded them of the times that both used to
skate—Nancy with her own skates adorned with
pom-poms and Gloria when she was in the first and
second grades. And though their brother Butch
couldn’t skate because of the aftereffect of his
polio, Nancy is convinced that he invented the first
skateboard. “He took a board and put wheels on
the front and back and sat on it, and pushed himself
around on the floor,” she said.
Reliving memories of her grandparents and
family have been very enjoyable to Nancy. “The
skateland was one of the best parts of my life,” she
added.
All photos courtesy of Nancy Boling
Anna Dangerfield lives in Aiken
and is the proud grandmother
of three grandsons. She enjoys
spending time at her family
beach home on the South
Carolina coast and traveling
with her husband Tim. She also
enjoys researching and writing
about Aiken history.
23
Laurens Street
Landmarks
If Aiken had a Main Street — that is, a street
called “Main Street,” — it would be Laurens, the
street named for the County of Laurens, for the
South Carolinian who succeeded John Hancock as
president of the Second Continental Congress.
A century ago and more, Laurens actually
was referred to as Main Street, or “uptown.”
“Downtown” was Park Avenue, once called
“Railroad Avenue” because it ran alongside the train
tracks before they were rerouted through the “cut,”
where the tracks (and trains) still run today.
Nearby the spot where Laurens Street and Park
Avenue converge are three structures significant in
Aiken’s short history.
The Morgan Fountain
In the center of the Laurens and Park
intersetion stands the Morgan Fountain, Aiken’s
iconic fountain statue of a boy and girl holding an
umbrella (identity unknown). It was first dedicated
in the early part of the 20th century to honor
Thomas Redman Morgan, mayor of Aiken
from 1899-1900.
The fountain is dedicated to Morgan
in honor of the work he did to help beautify
the parkways, though there is little other
information around to verify that fact.
We know that between 1877 and 1900,
the Aiken Town Council authorized the
planting of about 500 hardwood trees along
the streets and avenues. Three other Aiken
mayors have been linked to the planting of
the “Avenue of Oaks”—Herman Warneke,
Julian Salley, Sr. and Herbert Gyles. One
can assume that the combined efforts of
all these men, including Thomas Morgan,
resulted in the breathtaking aisle of live
oaks that South Boundary travelers
experience today.
Today, Aiken boasts 176 parkways
that average more than an acre each. Trees, shrubs
and grass abound in an area that covers more
than 16 square miles. Not only are the parkways
beautiful, but many have also been landscaped using
new environmental practices that capture and clean
storm water and require a minimum of irrigation.
The first Morgan Fountain was damaged by
a storm in the 1930s and was replaced in 1963. A
marker was later added to commemorate Morgan’s
contribution to the city he served.
The Old Post Office
Photo courtesy of Shelly Schmidt
24
by Susan Elder
On the southwest corner of Morgan Circle
sits a handsome building many still call “The Old
Post Office.” An example of Jeffersonian classicism,
this building stands as one of downtown Aiken’s
finest architectural achievements. Savannah River
Nuclear Solutions, the prime contractor for the
Savannah River Site, occupies the space these days,
and its website tells us something of the history of
the building:
In 1905, Aiken native and U.S. Representative
Theodore Gaillard Croft, along with some other
Winter Colony residents of Aiken, introduced
legislation in Congress and received $50,000 to
build a post office in Aiken.
The architect was James Knox Taylor, and
Photo by Susan Elder
Ambrose B. Stannard led the construction which
began on June 30, 1910. It’s said that the U.S.
Treasury Department paid $45,618 for the project
which was completed in 1912. It featured all the
modern comforts and embellishments, including a
“New York-style revolving door,” steam heat, large
Palladian windows, 19-foot ceilings with inlaid
dentil work molding, terrazzo floors with marble
inlay, a rotunda with a concave domed ceiling, a
spiral staircase, and secret passageways.
The Post Office served the City of Aiken
from 1912 to 1971. Since then, it has been home
to many local businesses. In the 1950s Senator
Strom Thurmond had the basement renovated
for his Aiken office. Aiken Technical College and
the Aiken Area Council on Aging both used it
briefly, Attorney James Green and later Attorney
Strom Thurmond, Jr. and S.C. Representative
Tom Young were also tenants. In 1995, Aiken
photographer Todd Lista purchased the building
for his photography studio. Currently, the
graceful landmark is leased as the downtown
office of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, which
installed wireless connections and conference
rooms to accommodate modern business needs.
The basement offices are home to Marriage and
Family Therapist Ellen Ebenhack Miller and Ann
Whitten’s The Learning Lab.
The Dibble Memorial Library
Just down the block and across the parkway
from the Old Post Office stands the Dibble
Memorial Library, which later became part of what
we know as the Aiken Regional Library System.
In 1880, the Aiken Library was established.
It was a subscription library maintained by its
members. In 1926 that library was reestablished as
the Dibble Memorial Library. At the time of his
death in 1921, Henry Dibble was chairman of the
Aiken Library Board and had left provisions in his
will for a library building. Library board members,
along with Mr. Fred Post, enlisted the help of the
great comedian Will Rogers, who came to Aiken to
give a performance to raise funds for the project. It
is said that that the largest number of millionaires
ever assembled in Aiken came together for that
performance.
The Dibble Memorial Library, then only two
rooms, was home to Aiken’s library for years. In
the early 1950’s, the influx of Savannah River Plant
residents meant the library needed more books and
more space, and the Dibble library was enlarged.
As the City of Aiken’s library grew, rural
areas surrounding Aiken also expressed a need for
books. In 1935 a pioneer library demonstration was
sponsored by the County Council of Farm Women.
Members
of Aiken
County Home
Demonstration
clubs obtained
$300 from
the County
delegation to
demonstrate the
use and need of a
traveling library
in rural Aiken
County.
Soon, money
for a bookmobile
was appropriated.
Headquartered
in the County
agricultural
building, it
Photo by Susan Elder continued as the
County Library until 1950, when it joined forces
with the Dibble Memorial Library, and the Aiken
TOTAL ReTAIL
LIQUIDATION
SALe
BOLT FABRIcS
FUNITURe and
AcceSSORIeS
LIghTINg
and MORe
County Library Commission came into being.
Branches were established in Belvedere, Jackson,
New Ellenton and Wagener. Then in 1960 the
Nancy Carson Library in North Augusta joined
the Aiken County and Regional system. Eventually
four counties, Aiken, Barnwell, Bamberg and
Edgefield, were joined in the ABBE regional system.
The Dibble Memorial Library and the County
library, having merged, eventually outgrew the
Dibble Library space. In 1974, the library was
moved to Banksia, the current home of the Aiken
County Historical Museum. Later it was moved to
the building that was once the Aiken Institute and
later Aiken Elementary School, where it remains
today.
There’s plenty of history in that short half block
just north of the railroad track on Laurens Streetand more to come. Don’t miss the SRS Foundation
Museum that has recently moved into the Dibble
Library. Exhibits there chronicle the history of the
Savannah River Project.
Material Things is
Re-Imagining Itself
into the Future!
Follow us on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/materialthingsaiken
for Material Things Re-Imagined details.
We have exciting plans! Our whole staff is looking
forward to continuing our dedication to customer
service, inspiration, and providing decorating
resources for your lovely home.
After 22 years, change is good!
Schedule a quick design appointment with
any of our staff if you need help taking advantage
of this huge opportunity!
www.materialthingsofaiken.com
Centre South Shopping Center
752 Silver Bluff Road • Aiken, SC 29803
9:30–5:30 Tues–Fri • 10:00–4:00 Sat
803-643-3701
25
COMIC BOOKS
Part III in a series about Cartoons, Cartoonists,
and Comic Books
It’s a sure bet that members of any high school
graduating class in the 1960s were well-versed in
Greek and Scandinavian mythology, given their
fondness for Uncle Scrooge McDuck and his
nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, that trio that
illustrates exactly how wild phonics can get into the
English language.
The Scrooge McDuck evolution is a story of a
meandering career. Scrooge’s creator, Carl Barks,
was a Disney Studio in-betweener. At the studio,
the workflow went like this: a senior artist drew the
key poses and an in-betweener drew the intervening
panels to give the illusion of movement. Barks
became a fixture of the Donald Duck line, but left
the studio in the 1940s, allegedly because the airconditioning bedeviled his sinuses. Barks moved to
the desert and Western Publishing picked up his
duck stories. He worked his way through a series of
protagonists until he drew Uncle Scrooge, a huge
success.
Uncle Scrooge’s
Far-Reaching Influence
How huge a success, in terms of influence on
American culture? The rolling-boulder scene in
Raiders of the Lost Ark was an homage to Uncle
Scrooge and the nephews’ perilous treks in search
of treasure, according to Stephen Spielberg’s
introduction to Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge
McDuck: His Life and Times, the 1980 collection of
Barks’ work.
How huge a success, in quantifiable terms?
Forbes Magazine ranks him as #1 on its Fictional
Fifteen, which periodically lists the wealthiest
fictional characters. In 2013, Scrooge topped the list
with assets estimated at $65.4 billion from “mining
and treasure hunting.” I’d love to see the algorithm
that converts seven fantasticatrillion dollars and
26
by Barbara Strack,
Guest Writer
sixteen cents to 2015 dollars.
Other Fictional
Incidentally, Ri¢hie Ri¢h is Rich Guy # 7
at $5.8 billion on the same Forbes list, just ahead
of Christian Grey at $2.2 billion—50 shades of
illustrated capital, y’all. Ri¢hie started as a poor
little rich boy, from a wealthy family that had two
of everything money
could buy, and a
mansion to hold it
all. But by the time
Baby Boomers were
spending their nickels
and dimes on comic
books, the Ri¢hs’
butler, Cadbury, had
morphed from servile
factotum to gun-toting
tough guy as Ri¢hie took up adventuring.
All this adventuring brings to mind the
superheroes who came to prominence in World
War II as good struggled mightily to defeat pure
evil. Enter Batman, Superman, Captain America,
the Green Hornet, and the Atom.
up in 1960s
Aiken.
Nuclear
radiation was
treated seriously
in comic books,
too. Surely some
member of the
Class of 1965
still has a Gilbert
U-238 Atomic
Energy Lab set?
This chemistry
set included a
comic book, Learn How Dagwood Splits the Atom!
in which Blondie and Popeye assist Dagwood in
harnessing the power of atomic energy. The comic
book’s introduction was written by Lt. Gen. Leslie
R. Groves; yes, that Leslie Groves, chief of the
Manhattan Project.
Comic Characters and Nukes
Superheroes persisted into the Cold War
era, and radiation exposure is a recurrent theme.
Superman’s one weakness is Kryptonite, the
radioactive debris from his destroyed home
planet; the Man of Steel is vulnerable without
lead shielding. Spiderman got his spidey sense
and web tricks when Peter Parker was bitten by a
radioactive spider. The Atom was the alter ego of
physics professor Ray Palmer, who used a fragment
of a white dwarf star to shrink himself to subatomic
size. All of this was eerily familiar to kids growing
Barbara Strack, a technical
writer who lives in Aiken and
Mooresville, NC, takes her
cues from Gloria Glad, the
redhead who loved Ri¢hie
Rich but disdained the
mansion and its glittering
contents.
Birthdays and Life Lessons
by Patti McGrath, Guest Writer
As I approach yet another birthday, I think
how nice it would feel to be in my late teens
or early 20s again. Not for the reasons you
may think. Yes, it would be nice to have my
younger, thinner body. Yes, it would be nice to
live without the physical and emotional scars
that have developed over the years. But the real
reason I wouldn’t mind being young again is that
I miss seeing life through rose-colored glasses.
There was anticipation with every day! I
always awoke thinking today might be the day I
would get a wonderful job, meet a great guy, or
find a new friend. I was still figuring out who
I was and what I wanted out of life, so in my
search I explored everything.
First Love, First Kiss.
Who doesn’t remember the thrill of first love,
the excitement of that first kiss, and the fun you
used to have hanging out with your friends? There
was always somewhere to go or someone to see.
I thought everyone was trustworthy. I gave
people the benefit of the doubt. When people said
they would do something, I believed them. I had
my whole life in front of me and the world was my
oyster. The world hadn’t beaten me down in any
way. It never occurred to me I wasn’t special or that
I couldn’t meet any goal I set for myself.
I wasn’t emotionally guarded. When I fell in
love, I fell hard. When I dreamed, I dreamed big.
When I thought of my future, I thought of a perfect
life.
What Happened?
But over the years, Life happened. I have been
in love, and I have also been devastated by it. I have
been lied to, cheated on, and treated as if I
were insignificant. I have been called horrible
things, told I was “stupid” and “definitely not
good enough.”
In my career, I have been told I’m overqualified and under-qualified. People have
tried to intimidate me. I’ve had to learn office
politics. I’ve had jobs I hated and work I loved.
It took until I was in my mid-30s to finally
figure out who I was and what I wanted to do.
Growing up, it turns out, was highly
overrated. Nothing turned out the way I
thought it would. But would I change my life
if I could? Absolutely not. It is the good and
bad things over the years that have made me who I
am, and I’m pretty satisfied with the person I have
become.
The truth is we all seem to forget the awful
things about being younger. Yes, we may have
had rose-colored glasses, but I wouldn’t trade my
40-something brain for my 20-something body.
When you are young, you are still figuring life out,
which is exciting but scary. You haven’t yet learned
how to read a situation, or when to speak up or
when to be quiet. You don’t have life experiences yet
so you have nothing to help gauge your decisions.
dreams, and take action to reach my goals.
Now, am I saying that since I’m older I
have life figured out? No, of course not. I am,
however, happy with my life. Are there things I
want to change about myself? I think everyone
has something they’d like to change, including
me. The great thing is that I’m older and wiser
than I was before. Being young was great, but
being older is even better. I know which friends
are real, what love is true, and what possibilities
life still holds.
So, happy birthday to me! I may not be a
spring chicken anymore, but I look forward to
each and every day. Just because you aren’t a
kid doesn’t mean you don’t dream anymore, and it
certainly doesn’t mean you can’t have fun! Here’s
to making every day memorable and enjoying life.
It doesn’t matter what your age is when you decide
happiness is your destiny.
Lessons from Aging
Patti McGrath has lived in the
CSRA
almost her entire life. She
has worked in public relations and
marketing for over a decade and
is currently Director of Marketing
at USC Aiken. She is also a
freelance writer.
Things I learned while growing up and growing
older? I learned self-esteem is important because
you accept only the love you think you deserve. I’ve
learned no one can make me feel insignificant or
intimidate me without my permission. I’ve learned
that if I don’t believe in myself, no one else will.
I’ve learned what I want people to be may not be
who they are. I’ve learned I have to put feet to my
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27
Marcia Harris and
Her Love Affair
with the Playhouse
It’s a dreary Sunday
and vice-president of
afternoon. Thunder
the theater’s board
rumbles in the distance,
of directors. She has
and a steady rain is tapping
chaired almost every
on the roof of the Aiken
standing committee
Community Playhouse.
required for the dayMarcia Harris is in the
to-day management of
theater’s second-floor loft,
the community theater.
awaiting a small band of
She has been an actor,
volunteers to start digging
director, stage manager,
out props and costumes
set designer, costumer,
for her next production.
mentor, artistic director.
She is surrounded by
The theater bug
hundreds of brightly
first bit Harris when
colored dresses and floppy
she watched her sister
hats, scuffed shoes and
perform in a high
fur-collared overcoats,
school theatrical troupe
all silently awaiting their
that entertained in
Marcia Harris
next appearances on the
elementary schools
Playhouse stage.
around suburban
Seeing Harris perched here against the racks
Washington, D.C. A few years later, Harris
overflowing with gaudy polyester, one cannot help
followed in her sister’s footsteps, joined the high
but wonder: How many of these costumes has
school acting troupe too, then carried her love of
she donned over the years? How many different
the stage on to Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C.,
characters have been brought to life by her?
where she majored in theater and English.
After college, Harris auditioned for a
Why Does She Do It?
professional theater company in the Washington/
Just what inspires Marcia Harris to spend her rainy Baltimore area and earned her Actor’s Equity union
Sunday afternoons and countless other weeknights
card, but she soon confronted the harsh realities of
onstage and backstage here at Aiken’s community
trying to make a living wage as an actor. That led
theater?
Harris to graduate school and a master’s degree
“I love it,” said Harris, a fixture on the Aiken
in speech pathology, which in turn brought her to
stage since the mid-1970s. “Whether I am sitting on Aiken in 1977 to work for Hitchcock Rehabilitation
the floor painting. Whether I’m directing. Whether Center.
I’m cleaning bathrooms in the old place, I just love
Joining the Playhouse
it.”
Within a year, Harris was treading the boards
Over the years, Harris has worn many hats far
beyond the felt ones in the costume loft at the Aiken at the old Aiken Community Playhouse at Virginia
Community Playhouse. She has served as president Acres Park in her first production here, Neil
by Tony Baughman
Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers. By the 197980 season, she had directed her first production at
ACP, John Patrick’s comedy, Lo and Behold!
Harris said she hasn’t a clue exactly how many
productions she has directed at the ACP, but to
each one she has tried to bring what she believes are
her two best qualities as a stage director: vision and
patience.
“They have to go hand-in-hand,” she said. “I
have a vision for my shows and the patience to get
my cast and crew as close to my vision as I can. Of
course, sometimes your vision changes as you go
along.”
“Bring It!”
The most rewarding aspect of directing a stage
play, Harris said, is watching actors grow and
stretch their talents. “I always say to folks, ‘Bring it.
Bring whatever you have and I will tell you if that’s
Marcia at “work”
not where we want to go.’ If somebody doesn’t bring
it, either you’re not creating the right environment
as a director, or they’re not the right people for the
roles.”
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For her latest production at the Aiken
Community Playhouse, a cast of more than 50 local
actors and singers most certainly will have to “bring
it” to successfully stage one of the most revered
musicals ever, the epic Les Miserables.
Based on the sprawling 1862 French novel by
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables — or Les Mis, as it is
sometimes affectionately dubbed by theaterphiles
— was first produced in 1980 at the Palais des
Sports in Paris. It features music by Claude-Michel
Schonberg, with original French lyrics by Alain
Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. The current English
language libretto is by Herbert Kretzmer.
Something for Everyone
The sweeping narrative of Les Miserables also
appeals to both the director and the English major
in Harris. “It has everything in it for a story. There
is something for everyone in it, with simple themes
that are repeated and turned around, and it’s a story
of humanity. To a certain extent, we all identify
with it,” she said. “So, when the music is as good
as this is, it carries you along. It sweeps you up and
gives you the full range of emotions you can have.”
Long-running Classic
Les Miserables made its London West End
debut in 1985, then premiered on Broadway in 1987
and ran for 6,680 performances until May 2003.
The show was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and
won eight, including Best Musical, Best Book and
Best Original Score. It also has seen two Broadway
revivals — in 2006 and a current production that
opened on Broadway in March 2014.
Set in early 19th century France leading to
the Paris Uprising of 1832, the musical follows the
life of French peasant Jean Valjean and his fight
for redemption after being imprisoned for stealing
bread to feed a child. The production includes
more than 50 musical numbers, including the oftperformed I Dreamed A Dream and On My Own.
Harris said she “had a feeling for this show,”
and no matter how often she has heard certain
songs in “Les Miserables,” she is still profoundly
moved.
“I auditioned 100 people for this show, and
when Brad King came in and sang the first three
notes (of Bring Him Home), I was bawling,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter who’s singing it, as long as they
don’t murder it, I hear those first three notes and I
am a blubbering idiot.”
that King and West have faced off before in the
2010 ACP production of Frankenstein: A New
Musical.
Lisa Tharp-Bernard portrays Fantine, Devon
Hampton plays adult Cosette and Brienna Grover
stars as Eponine. The popular comedic characters,
Monsieur and Madame Thenardier, are played by
J.C. Crider and Betsy Wilson-Mahoney.
“There is a good mix of very young in this show
and people who have been on this stage for years,”
Harris said. “We have a load of talented people. It’s
a representative sample of what we in the greater
community have to offer, and I think they tell the
story of Les Mis in a compelling and beautiful way.”
Rehearsal at the Playhouse
In fact, for the Aiken production of Les Miserables,
the music is, as they say, “the thing.”
“My vision for this is not for a full-blown
production with all of the props and all of the
furniture and all of the stuff,” Harris said. “From
the very beginning, I saw this as a cross between a
full-blown production and a concert version.”
Veterans Fill Roles
Jim Moore, longtime director of the Aiken
Heart Show benefit, serves as assistant director to
Harris. They are joined by Strom Thurmond High
School drama/chorus instructor Steve McKinney as
music director.
ACP veteran Brad King portrays the central
character Jean Valjean, who is pursued throughout
the musical by a relentless police inspector named
Javert, a role sung in the Aiken production by Jerry
West. Longtime fans of the Aiken stage may recall
The Aiken Community Playhouse production of
Les Miserables opens
May 22 for eight performances: May 22, 23,
29, and 30 and June 5-6 at 8 p.m., with matinee
performances at 3 p.m.
on May 24 and May 31.
Call 803-648-1438 for tickets
Ticket Prices
Adults: $25
Senior Citizens (60 and up): $20
Students: $15
Children: (under 12): $10
Photos by Tony Baughman
Tony Baughman is a writer, broadcaster, actor and
filmmaker who has lived in the Aiken area almost his entire
life. His professional experience
includes seasons as a writer and
editor at the Aiken Standard,
as publisher and editor of The
Citizen News in Edgefield and as
managing editor of the TimesGazette in southern Ohio. He
has hosted popular Oldies and
Beach Music radio shows on
WKSX 92.7FM, and he has
recently served as associate producer for independent films
produced by New Daydream Films of Charlotte, N.C.
29
Good Sense Medicine
by Zoom Heaton
A SENSIBLE APPROACH TO WEIGHT LOSS
Are you working out more than you ever have
before and eating less and less and still can’t lose
those unwanted pounds? Do you feel like you’ve
been on every diet out there and your weight keeps
fluctuating? Do you find yourself frustrated,
depressed, and maybe even angry?
Weight loss is not simply reducing caloric intake
and increasing activity level, because weight gain
is a symptom of something not working properly
in the body. The body is composed of various
systems that influence our ability to burn or store
fat. When these systems are out of balance, weight
gain creeps up and taking off weight becomes
more of a challenge. Last month I discussed some
pharmaceutical options for weight loss, but I have
found that long-lasting weight loss begins with
understanding the root cause and nurturing the
body back to balance.
Weight gain is caused by imbalances of
hormones and nutrients, accumulation of toxins in
the bowel and liver which do not allow stubborn
fat to be released, and stressors in the mind and
body. Thus, we find ourselves faced with “stubborn”
weight and fat, which are resistant to calorie
restriction and exercise.
Hormones
The main hormones responsible for weight
gain are insulin, cortisol (stress hormone), thyroid,
estrogen, testosterone and progesterone. Excess
insulin has several biochemical effects that
contribute to obesity. Insulin directly stimulates
production and storage of body fat. It also directly
interferes with the breakdown, transport and
burning of body fat. Too much insulin secretion
over a long period of time has an adverse effect on
other hormones like cortisol and growth hormone
resulting in increased appetite, increased body fat
and decreased muscle mass.
We are a stressed-out society. Cortisol
production is through the roof for most of us, and
cortisol in excess creates fluctuations in insulin
levels (highs and lows). Insulin highs promote
fat storage and insulin lows create “crashes,”
stimulating symptoms of food cravings, severe
fatigue, headache, and dizziness.
With age, thyroid function declines.
Sometimes your lab results for thyroid may
be within the “normal” range, but may not be
in the “optimal” range for your metabolism.
Sex hormones like estrogen, testosterone, and
progesterone also decline over time, creating
imbalances resulting in estrogen dominance and
weight gain.
Inflammation
Inflammation can contribute to weight gain
and obesity by activating the stress response
and cortisol levels. It also impairs insulin
metabolism and increases the activity of the
enzyme aromatase, which converts testosterone
to estrogen. In men, this results in increased fat
around the midsection, loss of muscle mass, and
possibly breast development. In women, excess
estrogen can impair thyroid hormone metabolism
resulting in slow fat burning. Inflammation can
be triggered and perpetuated by infections, stress,
food sensitivities, nutrient deficiencies, and toxin
exposure. Consuming excessive amounts of refined
30
carbohydrates and foods rich in arachidonic acid
(beef, pork, dairy fat, egg yolks, shellfish) have an
inflammatory effect. The gastrointestinal tract is a
site of a lot of inflammation due to problematic food
and the presence of trillions of bacteria, yeast and
even parasites. Gut health is vital for weight loss to
occur.
Nutrients
Each hormone requires specific nutrients for
activation. For example, your body may have plenty
of thyroid hormone but without iodine to activate it,
it does not work. High dose nutrients on board are
paramount for proper hormone functioning. Most
of us are deficient in vital nutrients for our body’s
proper functioning due to consuming genetically
modified foods that have been stripped of nutrients
during manufacturing.
Natural ways to get your
balance back
Detoxify
As we age, we accumulate various toxins in
our body from food, medications, environmental
pollutants and various other exposures. The
accumulation of toxins in the bowel, liver, and
tissues creates a toxic and acidic pH which will
not allow fats to be released even with adequate
exercise. Detoxification is the removal of these
toxins and is an essential step for weight loss.
Identifying and addressing the underlying
causes of weight gain
By figuring out the root cause of your weight
gain, you can begin to help yourself win the battle
of the bulge. Listen to your body and pay attention
to those signs and symptoms. Is it thyroid, diet
related, hormonal imbalance, nutritional deficiency,
too much stress, inflammation, a medical condition,
or a combination of any of these factors?
Balance your hormones
Get your thyroid checked; decrease stress to
minimize cortisol secretion; balance your eating
to minimize insulin fluctuations; and get your
hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone,
DHEA) checked if you think you are entering
peri-menopause or menopause. Weight gain and
holding on to stubborn weight in peri-menopause
and menopausal phases are challenging battles for
women. However, an imbalance of any of these
hormones can make weight loss an uphill battle.
Diet
Choose foods that are natural and whole. Eat
more vegetables and less refined and processed
foods. Eat high quality meat (no hormones) and
fish (wild caught vs. farm-raised). Paying attention
to your body’s response to food is key to helping
your body to heal enabling it to let go of unwanted
pounds. For example, tomatoes may have a neutral
effect on one person and an inflammatory effect on
another, creating bloating, rash, upset stomach and/
or diarrhea. Strive to eliminate inflammatory foods
causing these symptoms in order to restore your
body’s natural balance.
Nutritional restoration
Deficiencies in nutrients necessary to break
down fats can be an obstacle in weight loss.
Nutrients like B-vitamins, chromium, L-carnitine,
Co-enzyme Q-10, lipoic acid, iron, magnesium and
manganese are essential for proper metabolism
of fats and carbohydrates. Nutrients necessary
for proper thyroid function include iodine, zinc,
tyrosine, selenium and copper.
Herbal supplements can help to restore
adrenal health, easing internal stress and restoring
proper metabolism. Many herbs and foods such
as turmeric, oregano, garlic, green tea, blueberries
and ginger contain bioflavonoids and polyphenols
that limit free-radical production in the body.
Be cautious in choosing your supplements, for
supplement quality is not all the same. Some
supplements can be harmful due to added fillers
that can interfere with metabolism or even have a
carcinogenic effect long term.
Exercise
Research has shown that exercise helps to
reduce weight. Moving your body based on your
tolerance on a regular basis can help your sluggish
metabolism and improve strength and durability.
Over-exercising or exercising too hard or too long
can stress the body, creating inflammation and
deterring your weight loss efforts. Choose exercises
such as walking, yoga, and Pilates to develop
strength, flexibility and coordination.
In conclusion, diets don’t work long term.
The keys to long-lasting weight loss and a
healthier you are 1) paying attention to the signs
and symptoms your body is giving you, and 2)
nurturing your body to restore your body’s natural
balance with rest, healthy eating, and nutritional
replenishment. Get tested if you suspect hormonal
imbalances to find out where the dysfunction
lies in order to correct it. Then weight loss can be
permanent.
Zoom Heaton is the owner
of TLC Medical Centre Inc.,
an Independent Community
Pharmacy and Medical
Equipment facility located at
190 Crepe Myrtle Drive
off Silver Bluff Road. A
pharmacist, she is a graduate
of the University of South
Carolina. She is a Certified
Diabetes Educator and is certified in Immunization; she
is also the chief compounding pharmacist at Custom
Prescription Compounders, LLC, inside TLC Medical
Centre, Inc., specializing in Bio-Identical
Hormone Replacement Therapy and
Women’s Health. Saliva testing is available
at TLC/CPC. Call 803.648.7800 or visit
nooneshoerx.com for more information.
by Betts Hunter Gatewood
Using Rare Moments to Get Closer
A small miracle happened recently. We found
a free parking space with no limit on time only two
blocks from our destination. I was taking our 5- and
7-year-old granddaughters to a play in downtown
Charleston where any parking, much less free, is
rare on a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon.
But I digress. Because of this anomaly we
were in our seats ready for the performance almost
15 minutes early. After getting comfy, both girls
(about one minute apart) asked if they could play
a game on my phone. Now don’t get me wrong, I
have children’s games downloaded and there are
certainly times when we use them for harmless
distraction, but I chose not to allow it at that
time. Instead, we used the time to talk about what
we expected in this play, their experiences with
substitute teachers, what was happening at school
this week, how the latest birthday party went, what
their favorite ice cream flavors were at the moment,
and so on. In those 15 minutes I learned a few more
interesting facts about these two amazing children.
(Grandparents gotta brag, it’s a genetic tendency.)
Brief Encounters
This started me thinking about how
sometimes in the briefest of moments we can take
advantage of time with our children at whatever
age. Well-placed questions, comments, opinions,
etc., can start a conversation that will help them and
us expand our knowledge of each other. With the
crazy, busy schedules we all keep, these moments
are precious and have to be consciously built in so
that they happen. And the absence of technology,
TV, earbuds, phones, and texting creates an
opportunity for conversation. This means that
we adults, as well as our children, must turn off
these amazing devices to tune in to our amazing
offspring.
Sometimes we think we have to have hours
of “meaningful conversation” to really know each
other. If this happens, great. However, if we are
waiting for these hours to occur, we are likely to
be disappointed. As our lives revolve around work,
athletics, church, and family activities, we need
to consciously look for the more realistic, short
opportunities to connect with our children.
bore everyone to death, but look for some moments
when you can take advantage of the captive audience
and share some ideas, concerns, information,
feelings, and see if anyone reciprocates. If not, at
least you have planted the seeds. We parents never
know when and where they will sprout. Turn
down the radio, ask that everyone take out their
earplugs, and you will enjoy a few minutes to share
some thoughts.
You will find more small, special moments you
can capitalize on in your family’s schedule when you
start looking for them. Enjoy the special nuggets of
knowledge and insights you gain into each other’s
inner thoughts and concerns as you and your family
continue to grow and mature.
Mealtime and Car Sharing
Family meals are a wonderful time to share
important, even if short, comments on our days.
Even if you cannot manage eating together every
night, it is worth it to strive for a few nights a week
when you are all together around the table. What
you eat, as long as it is healthy, is not as important
as what happens while you are together. One family
I know puts all their muted cell phones in the
middle of the table (that’s right, mom and dad too)
while they eat so no one is texting or answering a
call.
Riding in the car together, whether on a short
errand or a longer trip, is also a great opportunity
to talk a little while. You don’t have to overdo it and
Betts Hunter Gatewood is
a National Board Certified
school counselor with 28 years’
experience in elementary and
middle school counseling.
She holds an EdS degree
from USC and has authored
or co-authored four books on
school counseling strategies and
activities. She and her husband
are the proud parents of three adult children and have four
granddaughters and a grandson.
31 Nutrition
by Cynthia F. Catts, RD, LD, Nutrition Therapist
Whole grains: But Aren’t they Carbs?
to the cooking water or use an organic
vegetable broth to cook them in.
Gluten-free whole grains such as amaranth,
buckwheat (kasha), corn, millet, oats, quinoa, rice
and teff are exceedingly healthy carbohydrates to
keep in a healthy diet whether you are trying to lose
weight or not. In fact a recent meta-analysis looking
at more than 400,000 human subjects revealed
the heart healthy benefit of including rather than
excluding whole grains from the diet.
Many of my clients don’t know what to do with
whole grains or how to keep them from causing
bloating and flatulence.
Here’s some advice:
• Soaking or sprouting grains may improve
digestibility. Placing the grains in a
fermented liquid like kefir can offer
probiotic benefits.
• Add flavored tea bags, herbs, or ginger
In the interest of avoiding pastas made of grain
flour, consider the following:
• Noodles made from lentils, mung, red or
black beans are loaded with protein and
fiber.
• Kelp noodles are very low in calories. They
have a mouth feel of noodles and can be
eaten warm or cold.
• Tofu shirataki noodles made from
konnyaku (yam cakes made from a
Japanese plant’s root) and tofu. Around 20
calories per cup taste amazingly similar to
good old fashioned white pasta.
• Making veggie pasta with spirelli is fun and
delicious. I use the spirelli with zucchini
but it can also be used with carrots, and
yellow squash.
Bottom line: Eating well is only confusing
because of the conflicting diet claims out there and
the way “Big Food” markets to us. There is pretty
much always a difference between a fast weight loss
diet and a healthy diet for disease prevention. A
diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, roots, fruits,
nuts, seeds, protein, and liquid oils has been proven
time and again to be the way to eat for longevity and
good health.
A licensed Clinical Nutrition
Therapist practicing in Aiken,
Cyndi Catts, RD, LD,
sees clients who desire
individualized programs to
address weight reduction,
metabolism measurement,
menopause issues, cholesterol
and triglyceride-lowering,
blood pressure management,
and diabetes management, in
addition to eating disorders, anti-inflammation, and cancer
prevention. Self-referred patients are welcome, as are
referrals from medical personnel. Cyndi is a graduate of
Florida State University in Food and Nutrition and has done
graduate work at (now) Augusta State University. A longtime
contributor to BELLA Magazine as a nutrition columnist,
Cyndi can be reached at [email protected] and
803-642-9360 for appointments.
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32
MEDICAL
LANDSCAPE
by David S. Keisler, Jr., MD
About 10,000 years ago one or several of our
ancestors discovered that certain parts of wild
grasses could be eaten as a reliable food source.
This would have happened during what we call the
paleolithic period. Paleolithic people were hunters
and gatherers. The advantages of being able to eat
and digest grasses are many, as described in Michael
Pollan’s book, Cooked. Ruminants, or mammals
that possess more than one stomach, can digest
most parts of grasses, such as the stems and blades
of grass. But humans such as paleolithic man could
only digest the seeds.
The seed is the most nutrient-dense part of
the plant and is also the only part of the plant that
humans could digest. Seeds were roasted or toasted,
probably on a rock near the fire and then later
ground between rocks, probably boiled in water
and consumed as a porridge. This meal supplied
proteins, vitamins, minerals and calories. If wheat
seeds were made into a porridge or mash and then
spread on a hot rock next to the fire, this cooking
method could produce an unleavened flatbread.
Yeast and Baking
About 4,000 years later and probably
somewhere in Egypt, a form of porridge which had
been set aside and therefore contaminated with
naturally occurring yeast was noted to appear lively
with bubbles. It expanded or appeared to increase
in size and was then probably placed in an oven of
some sort and the first loaf of bread was baked. It
was subsequently discovered that bread was more
nourishing than mash or porridge and since then,
the seeds of wheat and other edible grasses have
helped to nourish paleolithic man’s descendants.
Examples of edible grasses include wheat,
corn and rice. In these grains, solar energy has
been converted into food for humans. The ability
of humans to develop digestive enzymes which
aid in the absorption of wheat’s starches and other
nutrients allowed us to survive. Planting seeds
enabled us to alter the environment through the
cultivation of wheat by tilling the soil and planting
those seeds.
Bread:
Food
for Thought
bran and germ have been removed. White bread is
less nutrient-dense and high in starch and therefore
has a higher glycemic index compared to whole
wheat bread.
Someone noticed that the switch to white
bread seemed to coincide with a rise in the Western
chronic diseases of diabetes, vascular disease,
and stroke. Around 1940 the U.S. government
encouraged “fortified” bread and therefore vitamins
were added to replace some of the nutrients
removed through the milling process which had
caused a whiter flour and therefore whiter bread.
The desire for whiter bread is nothing new
or modern but was present in Roman times many
years ago. It was thought to be healthier than whole
wheat bread. The Romans thought that whiter
bread was a reflection of a higher social status.
Gluten: Latin for Glue
The proteins glaidin and glutenin are precursors
to the wheat protein gluten. When wheat flour
is combined with water or moisture, a “mesh of
proteins known as gluten” is formed, according to
Pollan’s Cooked. The word gluten is derived from
a Latin word meaning glue. Gluten allows bread
dough to be shaped and stretched making it ideal
for trapping air as bread rises. Yeast in bread dough
transforms the sugar glucose into carbon dioxide
which is trapped by gluten. That allows bread to
rise. Without gluten, bread would not rise.
For human beings, no crop is more important
than wheat. One fifth of our diets can be attributed
to wheat. More than 550 million acres of wheat are
planted worldwide. Unfortunately, some people are
allergic to wheat. [This disease, called celiac disease
or gluten intolerance, will be discussed in a future
article.] Gluten, the important protein that allows
for several of bread’s characteristics, may cause an
inflammatory injury to the upper digestive tract
in as many as 1 in 120 to 1 in 300 Americans. The
treatment involves avoidance of wheat. This is not
always an easy thing to do, because wheat is present
in many foods, particularly prepackaged foods.
Some diets such as the Paleo Diet recommend
avoiding all grains even if there is no allergic
reaction. Modern milling techniques have rendered
a nutritious source of food into perhaps an
unhealthy one, such as in the case of refined white
bread. If you are not gluten intolerant then consider
whole grain flour as a healthier choice.
For more than 10,000 years, grains have
nourished us physically, and for more than 2,000
years, bread — at least in metaphor — has
nourished many of us spiritually. Solar energy
sustains us. Rearranging nature’s gifts is not always
a healthy choice.
Dr. David Keisler was an Army
brat who lived all over the USA
and North Africa. A graduate
of the Citadel and the Medical
University of South Carolina, he
trained in the U.S. Army where
he was a GI fellow and then staff
physician in San Francisco at
the Letterman Army Medical Center. He is board certified
in internal medicine and gastroenterology and is a partner
with Aiken Internal Medicine. An Aiken resident since
1983, he and his wife Jane have two daughters and five
grandchildren nearby.
Stoneground isn’t New
For several thousand years, wheat was ground
by stone mills producing a nutritious loaf. Stoneground flour contained the whole wheat products of
bran, germ, or the embryo, and the nutrient starch,
or endosperm. Bran is the coat or covering container
of the seed. It is nutrient-dense and contains
fiber and essential fatty acids, as well as proteins,
vitamins, and minerals. However, the essential fatty
acids can spoil, causing rancidification.
The inside of the seed contains the endosperm,
a starch that supplies nutrition for the plant. This is
the part that eventually becomes flour through the
milling process.
Wheat germ, or the embryo, is the reproductive
part of the plant that allows growth. The germ is
rich in polyunsaturated fats which may oxidize and
therefore spoil. Removal of the germ prolongs the
storage time of flour.
White Flour is Less Nutritious
White flour became more popular as compared
to the darker whole wheat flour. White flour,
through sifting and milling with roller mills,
therefore has become less nutritious because the
Frank Davis In The Morning
Tony B In The Afternoon
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33
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34
The 100 Women Initiative Dinner
Featuring speaker Dave Pelzer
Benefiting the Child Advocacy Center
USCA B&E Building
April 14, 2015
Alex and
Vicki Neupert
Speaker Dave Pelzer with Charlotte Holly,
chair of the 100 Women Initiative
Cyndi Catts and Dede Dohse
Jennifer Pearson and Susan Morrow
Ellen Priest, Georgina Riley, Brenda Musick-Chase
Danielle Mooney and Lysa Miller-Dupre
Greg Robinson and
Betty Wilson
Kathy and Jack Clemmens
Lou Ann Ainsworth,
Jane Popeil, Barbara Walcher
Karla Brown and Paula Luther
35
36

May 2015 - Aiken Bella Magazine

Transcription

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