Beach Renourishment #46
What’s truly extraordinary about Vernon’s beach week is that there is no drama.
townie
A Tale of Two Snapshots. January 1952
Through the viewfinder of her Kodak 35, the mother frames her two sons, standing stiffly in the pre-arranged poses she envisioned.
Need a reason for hope? Meet these two Bridge Builders
It gives me a deep measure of satisfaction to announce the winners of the 5th annual Bridge Builders Award.
On grieving: “Life loves on”
On May 6, our community will have a chance to explore coping creatively with grieving when two historic Chapel Hill churches sponsor a community-wide event.
Shop | Save | Support Fundraiser
The Junior League of Durham and Orange Counties’ Shop | Save | Support fundraiser drives traffic to local businesses, donating 100% of money raised toward local community agencies. Participating businesses…
The Dead Ringer
Like a homing beacon from the past, a century-old snapshot appears in the mail from an old cousin.
Ed Johnson, Maker of Men
As I write this piece, it’s official Scouting Anniversary Day, when I am drawn magnetically to this playful snapshot for its deeper contextual meaning.
Night Teacher with Tallulah Cloos
Night Teacher is the project of lead singer-songwriter Lilly Bechtel, whose uniquely moving voice and poignant lyrics have combined with the sensibilities of producer and multi-instrumentalist Matt Wyatt to create…
The Rehabilitation of a Fallen-Away Cellist
During my summer fellowship at National Geographic Magazine in 1998, I met the great Zen photographer Sam Abel.
Two Outstanding CHHS’ers Honored as Bridge Builders
Two Chapel Hill High School graduating seniors are the winners of this year’s Bridge Builder Award for community service.
Honoring our Spirit Mother, Martha Flowers, 96
When Martha Flowers passed, I bet there was a band of heavenly angels out there at the Pearly Gates to welcome her to the heavenly chorus.
Celebrate Earth Day
Join us at the Carrboro Town Commons to celebrate Earth Day 2022! Kids’ activities, including a children’s parade at 6pm—animal and plant costumes welcome, planet-friendly vegan and vegetarian food for…
Saluting Milton B. Robinson and The Harris Herald, Rutherford County’s “Only Negro Newspaper”
Before Black History Month slips away, I want to celebrate the pioneering work of a bold and enterprising young Black journalist, Milton B. Robinson…
55 Years After, the Fall Remains Vivid
Silhouetted against the dawn sky, five mountain climbers — all young men — are bent double despite their youth as they labor upwards painstakingly in the thin atmosphere of 16,000 feet, fighting for every breath.
Road Warriors in the Time of Covid
On the kitchen table sprawls a Rand McNally map of the United States, the size of a college dorm room poster.
West End Poetry Festival
Join us for online and outdoor events at our 2021 West End Poetry Festival. Friday Oct.15 at 7pm is a Zoom Poetry Writing Workshop led by Crystal Simone Smith. Saturday….
One for the Ages
Yes, it’s real. With the safe return Saturday night of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and flight crew of four civilians, I feel good about releasing this extraordinary image,….
Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jog…
Now that we are safely and happily back at home in Chapel Hill and “Greater Carrboro,” we’ve been reflecting on the travel events of August, coined “Mr. Bogey’s and George’s Most Excellent Wild West Road Trip,”…
Mission Accomplished; Toot and Puddle Take Over
Having survived a close encounter with the Sturgis, S.D., biker throng, stuffed animals Bogey and George made it safely this week…
The Further Adventures of Mr. Bogey and George
Readers familiar with A. A. Milne’s classic “Winnie the Pooh” will remember the tale of the “expotition,” in which Pooh leads his woodland…
On the Road with Mr. Bogey and George
By the time you are reading this, Lynne and I will be somewhere in Ohio, on our way to Cleveland, where, by mysterious coincidence, we both lived as 1-year-olds. We are on the road again.
Humiliated in the Garage Olympics
What with the Olympics cranking up this week, it seems appropriate for this scribbler to put my athletic prowess to the test. My…
Hop on Pop
Roly-poly on the beach, a tow-headed cherub clambers on his disarmed father like the man is his personal playground jungle gym. Of all the snapshots hiding in dusty closets glued to old-school, black-paged photo albums from the ‘40s labeled “Snaps,”…
Lincoln High School and Chapel Hill High… So Near and Yet So Far Apart
Nine-tenths of a mile. That’s how far apart the…
Masking Down in the New Not-Normal
For all y’all who’ve gotten your shots, and in light of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new masking guidelines, this week I’m offering…
The Pocket Shrine: Mom in a Matchbox
In my hand I hold a matchbox. The old school kind — wooden matches with cherry red tips inside. But that’s not all that’s in this matchbox, nor is setting a fire its function.
To India With Love
As the pandemic rages across India, I find myself worrying about a perfect stranger. Her name, where she lives, her situation in life now — of these facts I am totally ignorant.
Taking a Busman’s Holiday
With shots in arms and no ill effects and, thus, feeling giddy with liberation, good wife Lynne and I have done what so many other pent-up septuagenarians have done…
Little Big Man 1967
The young boy sits astride his tricycle like a judge holding court. Barefoot, he affixes the photographer with an intelligent, penetrating gaze. Maybe he is thinking…
Roy’s Random Acts of Kindness
It’s there. You just have to look closely. Faded after all these years, the unmistakable signature. Roy Williams.
Easter 1950
All dressed up for Easter Sunday church and holding a Bible, Nick Lauterer, posing heroically in a hand-me-down suit, grins at the camera with confidence and happiness.
You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught
As I was raised in the shadow of World War II and the Korean War, my first childhood impressions of Asians were negative: They were the enemy and to be feared.
Hearth and Home, of Thee I Sing
It’s been raining now for three days straight — that cold nasty chilly winter rain. I’d prefer honest snow any day — the kind we had during my 10 years at Penn State, where Pennsyltuckians understand the…
‘Reelin’ in the Years,’ Senior Night 1984
Last Saturday’s drubbing of Duke on UNC’s Senior Night conjured up a similar image from years past. It is March 3, 1984, and that year’s farewell men’s basketball game celebrated seniors…
She interviewed Gen. Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower in 1947
The young reporter leans into the interview, uncowed by the august presence of the hero of WW II D-Day, General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The year is 1947, and the kid reporter is Chapel Hill’s own Val Lauder, just 21 and already a star reporter for the Chicago Daily News.
Why School Newspapers Matter, and Why We Should Care
When I heard that the Town of Carrboro had proclaimed the last week of February as Scholastic Journalism Week, into my mind’s eye sprang a single photograph from 14 years ago.
Goodbye Dorm; Hello Camper Van
When you hear the term “off-campus student housing,” you’re probably not picturing a college kid living in a camper van. But that is exactly how UNC senior journalism major Andrew Dundas of Fairview, N.C., has chosen to spend his final semester at Carolina.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Friendships
In celebration of Boy Scout Week, let’s unpack this 1953 photograph that captures four of my life-long guy pals and me. New Cub Scout Pack 421 is being formed;
Trash Bag Hazmat Suit Beats HDD
If you’re like me, you are suffering from the secondary malady brought on by the pandemic, HDD. (Hug Deficit Disorder). I am the father/“bonus dad” of five grown children and “G-Pop” to nine grand young’uns…
Hail to the Chief: Walter “Bucky” Horton
By the time you read this on Monday, Feb. 1, Walter “Bucky” Horton might be out fishing, playing golf or pumping iron in the gym. That would be fitting since it’s his day. Literally, Monday, Feb. 1, is officially Police Chief Walter Horton Day…