Tag: Brian Garner

When the Christmas holiday season starts in Fairfield County, things start happening — the Town of Winnsboro lights a Christmas tree in Gazebo Park following the Christmas Parade, the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce begins promoting Shop Fairfield First and the Fairfield County Museum opens its doors for the Holiday Open House.

During this annual event, the public tours the Museum, enjoys sumptuous holiday refreshments and listens to the sweet sounds of the season. The Museum is decorated to the nines with fresh greenery by several discerning women from the local gardening clubs. It’s a glory to behold.

This year’s Holiday Open House will be held Sunday, Dec. 8 from 4-7 p.m. When the Town of Winnsboro Christmas parade ends, turn your steps toward the Fairfield County Museum to hear music provided by the Johnson Family String Quartet, the distinctive sounds of Christmas music on bagpipes, provided by our community’s own “proper piper” Brian Ogburn and the lilting vocal talents of Kerry Matthews, accompanied ably by Lauren Livings on piano.

This musical feast continues as you will also hear a trumpet duet by Hal Frish and grandson Aaron and the Halfway There Quartet, composed of Lynne Douglas, Susan Miller, Jeanie Roundy and Beth McFadden. And the evening’s musical finale happens when everyone joins in a sing-along of carols with Susan McLane playing tunes on the 1854 Rosewood piano in the parlor.

Come for the music, stay for the food. It was at one of these Open House events that your faithful scribe was introduced to the taste of room-temperature Brie on crackers. You are sure to find something savory or sweet to please your palate.

But the event is about more than great food, Christmas carols and beautiful seasonal greenery, believes Pelham Lyles.

“This is a Winnsboro tradition,” she said. “It’s Fairfield’s kick-off to the Christmas season.”

She added, “this event is all about our community coming together, everybody participating, creating, enjoying. It’s a warm spirit – sort of like going to the Post Office in Winnsboro in the mornings where everyone is friendly, and people always open the door for each other.”

This Christmas season, Pelham Lyles and her museum volunteers are opening the door for you. Please come inside and celebrate the season with the community.

Dear readers, this will be my final column for The Voice. The Man About Town is moving on to new challenges in a full-time position at another newspaper. I have enjoyed bringing you news of community events both historical and cultural from Winnsboro, Ridgeway and Blythewood and I hope that some of my columns have inspired you to attend a new event, join an organization or give of your time as a volunteer to one of our many agencies that depend on volunteer assistance to make our communities a better place. It’s been a great joy to share some of my discoveries with you. I have appreciated the opportunity The Voice has given me to write. Thanks, Barbara and James. It’s been a blast.

I spent Monday evening with some very dedicated people. We have lots of folks dedicated to helping their fellow folks in need, but the people I met with are dedicated to helping the four-footed members of the community. They are the members of the Hoof and Paw Benevolent Society, created several years ago to support the work of the Fairfield County Adoption Center. Since then, their work has expanded to the surrounding areas including Blythewood.

Shirley Locklear, president of the Society, explained it like this: “We create opportunities to help animals in shelters and within our community,” Lockair said. “We host adoption events, sponsor spay and neuter clinics, help abused animals in whatever ways we can and we hold educational events and fund raisers to accomplish our goals.”

You might have seen their booth at Rock Around the Clock or other community festival.

Close to the Society’s collective heart is the Cat House at the Fairfield County Adoption Center where they make a special effort to find homes for cats who end up at the Cat House for whatever reason. And the group is always on the lookout for grants and funds to support their efforts. Member Doris Macomson, representing the Blind Dog Rescue organization in Rock Hill, reported that Fairfield County could be one of the beneficiaries of a $100,000 grant recently received by the Humane Society of Charlotte for a feral cat program. The trap-and-release program would include humanely trapping the county’s feral cat population, sending the cats to Charlotte to be spayed and neutered, then releasing them back to the areas where they were picked up.

The Society, along with the Fairfield Adoption Center, recently sponsored a low-cost spay and neuter clinic for Fairfield County and surrounding areas where some 200 animals have been spayed or neutered. The group is also planning to hold a rabies clinic in the community and, more immediately, go door to door to inform pet owners about a recent rabies scare in the county and about the dangers posed to their pets from rabid raccoons and other non-pet animal types.

“It’s important for pet owners to not leave water and feed bowls outside that could attract raccoons and other animals that might carry rabies,” Macomson said. “Eating from the infected bowls can lead to pets becoming infected.”

The Hoof and Paw organization is more than a little busy these days speaking for those who have no voice. They are dedicated to the welfare of the animals, and they need other animal lovers from Fairfield, Blythewood and surrounding areas to join their efforts. Membership in the Society costs only $12 per year (“just a dollar a month,” as Shirley Locklear points out.)

Check out the details of the Hoof and Paw Benevolent Society on their website, www.hoofandpawsc.org and see their Facebook page hoofandpaw(space)sc or contact Shirley Locklear at 803-633-0061.

The Hoof and Paw Benevolent Society meets the first Monday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at the Fairfield Memorial Hospital conference room.

Round about this time every year, folks in Fairfield County, Blythewood and beyond get a strange gleam in their eyes. They tie on their napkins and head to the Town of Ridgeway where an important little to-do called Pig on the Ridge has been known to happen. This is the festival’s 15th consecutive year.

Pig on the Ridge provides a great event for the community, raising funds to support community projects. Most especially, the festival funds Christmas gifts for needy children in the community. Founding committee member Tom Connor estimates that over the years Pig on the Ridge has funneled about $130,000 into the Ridgeway community – toys for the kids, much needed equipment for the fire department, Welcome to Ridgeway signs for the town and major contributions to the restoration of the Century House.

Pig on the Ridge 2013 begins on Friday, Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m. with the cook teams showing off their cooking skills with their best Friday night no-pork dishes until about 8:30. Fistfuls of tickets that can be exchanged for samples of these delights go on sale Friday night for $1.50 each. Many a food fan will be wandering up and down the Cotton Yard, grazing their way along the booths. The tickets can also be redeemed for barbecue on Saturday. According to Tom Connor, there will be 78 cook teams from South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia competing during the Saturday barbecue contest.

A shag dance will be held from 7-10 p.m. over on Palmer Street and a street party from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. will kick off on Dogwood Drive.

But let’s admit it; Pig on the Ridge is all about the ‘Que, and mighty good barbecue it is, too. On Friday night, the cook teams will receive their supplies of whole pigs and Boston butts for the next morning’s contest. They’ll begin cooking and smoking their butts and pigs that night and will probably be up all night tending to them. Connor said he anticipates about 1,100 Boston butts will be cooked and 16 butterflied whole hogs.

On Saturday, judges certified by the S.C. BBQ Association (yes, there really is one) will judge the barbecue in all its forms beginning at 9:30 a.m. Bill Rogers, one of the SCBBQA founding members and a certified judge since 2005, reckons he has judged about 30 contests around the state and is a regular guest at Pig on the Ridge.

“Pig on the Ridge is one of the oldest and most well-respected barbecue contests in the state, particularly because you have a mixture of amateur and professional cook team categories. The judges will be coming from across the state,” Rogers said.

He said there will be a good variety of types of ‘Que, including vinegar-based, mustard-based and the traditional Texas ketchup-based.

“Good barbecue is like good wine; you should eat what you like,” Rogers said, though he recommends that barbecue eaters tend to step out of their comfort zone and try different styles. He also said good barbecue will have the “bark,” the browned outside of the meat showing the cookers know what their ‘Que is all about.

On Saturday, children’s activities will also crank up and craft booths will line the streets. But what will have most folks salivatin’ and standin’ is the sale of barbecue, which will begin once the barbecue judging has been done. Folks will have a chance to load up on the best barbecue this side of Memphis. DJ Don Prioleau (one of the Pig on the Ridge organizers), along with other local talent, will provide music to buy barbecue by.

At 10 a.m. the classic/antique car display on Dogwood Drive will open to receive visitors who want to gaze at Detroit’s finest from days gone by.

But remember, this festival is all about the pig, and you’ll be reminded of that at about 12:30 noon when the hog calling contest starts. Then at 1 p.m. our brave emergency workers and public safety workers will receive a much-deserved salute and the classic cars and bikes will take part in a cruise-by and Pig on the Ridge 2013 will be capped off at 2 p.m. with the awards ceremony. After that, the barbecue that you purchased that day will be your only reminder of two great days in Ridgeway, unless you were lucky enough to take home a trophy, or some great local crafts. See you in line!

RIDGEWAY — A special event combining the casual style of jeans, the sound of bluegrass music and the taste of barbecue will help supply some vital needs in the Fairfield Memorial Hospital ER. The BBQ, Bluegrass and Bluejeans Benefit will be held at The Farm at Ridgeway (north of Blythewood), on Saturday, Oct. 12 from 6-9 p.m.

Dawn Catalano, Executive Director of the Fairfield Memorial Hospital Foundation, said the event is being held for the second year at The Farm, an elegant barn designed as a working stable, but renovated by Larry and Eileen Sharpe of Blythewood who purchased it with an event venue in mind.

“It’s the perfect venue for us,” said Catalano. “Larry and Eileen have renovated it beautifully. It’s spacious and comfortable. We’ll have tables both inside and on the veranda at the back side of the barn which has a beautiful view of the paddocks, woods and pond. The feel is both casual and elegant at the same time. The event was so successful here last year that we wanted to come back.”

The barbecue will be provided by the official S.C. State Barbecue Champion for the past two years, the “Can’t Quit Smokin” team of George King and Gary Freeman of Ridgeway. Live music for the event will be provided by “Total Denial,” a homegrown S.C. bluegrass band. And there will be ample room on the newly bricked stable floor for dancing, Catalano promises.

Additional entertainment for the night will be live and silent auctions. Dr. Mack Hughes will emcee the live auction, assisted by WIS-TV anchor Dawndy Mercer Plank , that will include signed footballs from Clemson & USC, hotel and Bed & Breakfast stays, an Edisto Beach condo weekend, a new BMW for a weekend, many art objects, jewelry, restaurant certificates, golf rounds and baked goods. There is even a miniature horse for auction. It will be stabled outside during the evening.

Proceeds from ticket sales and the auction will fill a number of important needs in the hospital’s emergency room, such as a portable vital-signs monitor. Tickets are $30 each or $50 per couple (kids under 10, $10; kids under 6, free). Tickets may be purchased at First Citizen branches in Winnsboro, Ridgeway, Blythewood and the Village at Sandhills, Summer Day Gifts in Winnsboro, Blythewood Visitor’s Center, and the hospital lobby. Or mail a check for tickets to FMH Foundation, PO Box 1156, Winnsboro, S.C. 29180. Tickets will also be available at the barn door on the evening of the event.

So buy a ticket, pull on your jeans and add a little bling for a great evening of bluegrass music, dancing on the barn floor and some of the best barbecue you’ve ever eaten . . . and you’ll be helping others at the same time.

For additional information, contact Catalano at 803-608-5510. The Farm is located just north of Blythewood at 3248 US Highway 21 South in Ridgeway.

There are lots of things to see and do at the annual Rock Around the Clock festival in Fairfield County, but for many, the reason to turn their wheels toward Winnsboro this weekend is the annual RATC classic car show. And the main reason for the popularity of the show is Sam Edenfield.

Edenfield has been the “go-to-guy” of the car show since the festival started about 15 years ago. In fact, while he was being interviewed for this column, he got a phone call from someone in another state wanting to know how to put on a car show. When it comes to car shows, Edenfield is known throughout the Southwest as “the man.” He doesn’t call up a car club. He calls up the top car owners and builders in the country.

The Rock Around the Clock car show has become well-known because of Edenfield’s ability to attract these stellar car owners and builders. This year, he snagged Chris Ryan’s custom 1953 Cadillac convertible, ‘Root Beer Float’. The Caddy placed second in its class in the Ridler Award Show, the most prestigious car show in the Hot Rod and Custom car world. Ryan, based in Ninety Six, S.C., is the owner of Ryan’s Rod and Kustom. The Caddy will be featured later in the month on a two-hour special episode of Powerblock on SPIKE TV. This is a chance to see the car up close before that program airs on Oct. 19 and 20. It’s not unusual for Edenfield to reel in this level of prestigious custom cars.

Over the years the show has become increasingly popular, drawing classic car enthusiasts from several states. Edenfield remembers when Rock Around the Clock started (then called Festival in the Park.)

“We didn’t have enough space for people coming to the festival to park, let alone space to show off the cars,” Edenfield said. When the Town Clock became the main fixture of the festival, Edenfield suggested closing off Congress Street for the car show. That’s where it remains today.

Edenfield works on the show all year long, spending hundreds of hours attending car shows across the South, finding out what’s out there on four wheels and inviting owners and builders to participate in the show.

But Edenfield said he has a long list of people in the community who make the show successful – “my kinfolk and friends – I couldn’t do it without them,” Edenfield said.

He also gets a lot of support from local businesses that contribute items for “goody bags” that Edenfield distributes as prizes.

This year, Edenfield’s efforts have pulled in cars from Georgia, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina and elsewhere for festival goers to ooh and ahh over.

Edenfield said he loves his ‘job’ managing the car show at Rock Around the Clock.

“I can talk cars better than I can talk anything else,” Edenfield said with a smile. And you’ll know why when you see the parade of top custom cars cruising down Congress Street during the Rock Around the Clock parade Friday evening. They will also be on display all day Saturday.

“Bring your cameras and snap some pictures,” Edenfield said. “And the car owners welcome questions and comments about their cars. That’s what they came for.”

Make plans to attend Rock Around the Clock this weekend and take a spin around the car show. You’ll see some classic examples of style on four wheels.

A special event will be held during halftime at Blythewood High School’s football game on Friday night. The school and Richland District 2 will honor the former athletes of Blythewood’s historic Bethel High School.

It seems hard to believe now, but in the early 1950s and 1960s, school integration had not yet taken place and segregation was the order of the day. In Blythewood there was both a high school attended by white students, the original Blythewood High School, and a high school attended by black students, Bethel High School. Both schools had football teams, though they never played each other. Both schools were closed as high schools in the 1970s, and the students from both Bethel High School and Blythewood High School were integrated into Spring Valley High School as one unit.

Now the District, as well as members of the Bethel-Hanberry Athletic Alumni Association (B-HAAS,) are seeking to honor those former athletes from Bethel High School.
B-HAAS president Larry Griffin played on the Bethel High School football team in 1969 and 1970, and he was quarterback in 1970. But he graduated from the integrated Spring Valley High School. Griffin explained that the idea to honor Bethel High School came out of a movement last year to honor several closed historic schools — Bethel, Richtex, Lexington-Rosewald and Lakeview.

“This is what you’d call a football legacy,” Griffin said. “Bethel was chosen as one of the four schools to be honored because we already had a viable and evolving athletic alumni association.”

After Bethel High School was closed, it became a middle school, then a junior high and then Bethel-Hanberry Elementary School, which it still is today. The original Blythewood High School is now Blythewood Academy.

Griffin has been working with his fellow B-HAAS members to locate former Bethel High School athletes. According to the B-HAAS flyer, the former athletes are invited to a pre-game tailgate Friday night from 4-7 p.m. sponsored by the Association. Bethel players will be introduced to the current Blythewood Bengals football team prior to the game and will accompany them onto the field for the pre-game warm-ups.

This celebration is not a case of an old wound being healed, but of former players returning to their roots and showing their kids and grandkids where they came from, said Griffin.

“The biggest thing I want to stress is that some of these guys haven’t been back (in the community), some have not been on the new BHS football field and some of these guys have never had any accolades since they left school,” he said.

Part of the reason why the players haven’t receive the accolades they deserved was because a lot of the history of Bethel High School was lost in the transition to Spring Valley High School, and a lot of those former Bethel athletes lost touch with the community and the school that was no longer there. To them, it was a closed chapter of their lives. Griffin has worked diligently to find any and all school memorabilia, but many of the artifacts are missing and presumed thrown away.

He has also been trying to get the word out to those Bethel athletes that are still around, he said.

But the B-HAAS isn’t about just strolling down memory lane. The Association works to be a force for good in the Blythewood community in the here and now.

Writes Griffin, “The Bethel-Hanberry Athletic Alumni Association has already been instrumental in providing financial assistance to both school and community. The group’s commitment toward securing the Bethel High School legacy is . . . demonstrated by their . . . annual scholarships to Richland District Two students.”

“My hope for this weekend event is that the alumni of the school will come out to see their athletes honored,” Griffin said. “We are going to tour the former high school at noon on Friday – sort of a ‘whence you came’ thing, to where the school is right now. Then we’re going to visit Town Hall where there will be a proclamation by the Mayor. Then we’ll tour at the new high school, which is a ‘whence your kids and grandkids came’ thing.

“About all the alumni athletes have remaining from their high school days, now, are their memories,” Griffin said. “B-HAAS plans to give them one more memory — that of standing together on the field at Blythewood Stadium as they are honored for the days when they were high school athletes.”

Friday’s Schedule of Events for Bethel High School Athletes

12 p.m. – Tour Bethel-Hanberry Elementary

1 p.m. – Proclamation by Mayor at Town Hall

2 p.m. – Presentation to Town at Doko Manor

3 p.m. – Tour Blythewood High School

4-7 p.m. – Tailgate at BHS Stadium

7:30 p.m. – Game Time

Halftime – Bethel High School Athletes honored

Everyone adores kittens and puppies, but adult strays are generally an unwanted, unloved lot. You see them all the time – darting from a fast-food dumpster, hungry, thirsty, scared, lonely and frequently in pain from injuries and disease. Since they aren’t someone’s pet, they become unwanted nuisances.

But what can you do? They aren’t yours.

No, but their mom or dad might be yours if you didn’t have your cat or dog spayed or neutered.

For a limited time, the Fairfield County Animal Shelter and Adoption Center in Winnsboro is offering pet owners in Fairfield County, Blythewood and beyond very low cost spaying and neutering for their cats and dogs. On Wednesdays, veterinarian Robert Chappell and his assistant, Tiffany Walley, travel from Fort Mill to the Center where they perform the surgeries, by appointment, for only $30 for cats and $55 for dogs.

“Anyone can take advantage of these services at these prices,” said Chappell. “It’s not just for low-income families. Our goal is to cut down on pet over-population and animal suffering.”

“The over-population of strays, especially cats, is a very big, costly problem in Fairfield County,” said Janice Emerson, adoption coordinator with the Fairfield County Adoption Center. “Every day, we get calls to put humane traps out for cats that people don’t want roaming their neighborhoods, and people are always bringing litters of kittens to the shelter because they don’t want them. While we would much rather they bring them here than leave them in a cardboard box somewhere along the road, the solution to unwanted strays is to have pets neutered.”

Emerson said most people don’t realize how many cats one cat can produce. An average litter is three to four kittens. And, surprisingly, cats can begin having kittens at an early age, as young as 6- to 7-months of age.

“Every cat the shelter can get neutered,” Emerson said, “is one less cat contributing to the cat over-population problem in the county.”

“This time of the year, the stray kittens that were born last spring are about ready to begin producing more kittens,” Dr. Chappell said on a recent Wednesday morning as he checked on his patients as they snoozed in the recovery room of the Center following their surgeries. “If we can make a dent in the number of female cats by getting them neutered, that drastically reduces the chances of over-population. And we want to help put that dent not only in Fairfield County but in the surrounding areas.”

Dr. Chappell said the neuter procedure is like outpatient surgery in human medicine. After making an appointment, the pet owner drops off the pet between 9-10 a.m. at the Center. Pick-up is between 3-5 p.m. that same day. Dr. Chappell generally performs 8-15 procedures at the clinic each Wednesday.

To schedule an appointment, call Janice Emerson at the Fairfield County Animal Adoption Center at 803-815-0805.

The Pine Tree Playhouse has a reputation for delivering interesting dinner theater entertainment, and this time is no different. With their current production, they deliver fantastic entertainment and a killer dinner. Literally.

“Murder, Medium Rare” is an interactive mystery dinner theater.

“When noted cookbook author and food critic Marjorie Richmond is murdered at a dinner in her honor, everyone’s a suspect,” says the play description. “Was it her much younger, henpecked husband Jeffrey, Chef Roberto or one of the invited guests? This mystery allows audience members to test their powers of observation as they vote for their favorite killer candidate.”

“We have a great cast – some of our favorite Pine Tree Players – Andi Phipps, Marcie and Bill Wedding, Brian Garner, David Brandenburg and everyone’s favorite funny man Richard Gary Baker,” Murder mystery director Teresa Reed said. “I am especially excited to have two new actors in our cast, Matt and Jessica Shealy.

“Murder, Medium Rare is fun for the cast because they get to interact with the audience. I’m sure the audience will have as much fun as the cast.”

For the dinner entre, guest detectives will have a choice between roast beef or chicken. Each will be accompanied by Prince Edward vegetables and a cheesecake dessert. Somewhere between the entrée and the dessert, guests will witness the events leading up to the murder, see the murder happen before their eyes, interrogate the suspects and, ultimately, solve the case and catch the killer.

The two-night production is a fundraiser for the Pine Tree Playhouse and the Winnsboro Woman’s Club.

Murder is on the menu Friday, Sept. 27 and Saturday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. Tickets for this dinner event are $30 per person or $50 per couple. Seating is limited, so reservations are required. Reservations can be made by calling 803-422-3524 or by emailing andi.phipps@yahoo.com with your contact information, the number in your party, which night you’ll be attending and your entre preference of chicken or roast beef.

Now, get your Sherlock Holmes hats on and your knives and forks out. It’s gonna be delicious!

Brian Garner has been a member of the Pine Tree Playhouse group since 2004. He is cast member of Murder, Medium Rare.

Readers, your humble scribe is not a runner. You can take one look at me and deduce that. The only time I ever run on purpose is when someone is chasing me. But I understand there are those of you out there who enjoy running, who do it for . . . fun. Well, have I got a fun run for you – it’s the Fourth Annual Blythewood Labor Day Run featuring a 10K run, a 5K run and a 1-mile Kid’s Fun Run. It takes place at the Blythewood Middle School on Sept. 2. It’s hosted by the Blythewood Middle School PTO and Eggplant Events Production, said the school’s PTO President Leanne Thompson.

But the fun actually begins the evening before, on Sunday, Sept. 1, at the Town Hall park amphitheater where the Barefoot-n-Reckless band will present a free concert for the runners and public from 5-8 p.m. Two of the four members of the band are Blythewoodians – Jim Graddick on mandolin and Dave Holder on bass. The popular new band will entertain with Americana, bluegrass, country and rock. Food vendors will be on site. And from 5-7 p.m., as the music plays on, runners can pick up their packets nearby in the park.

Bright and early the next morning, race day packet pick-ups and race day registration begin at 6:30 a.m. in the Blythewood Middle School gym lobby. The 10k will start at 7:30 a.m., the 5k at 7:40 a.m. and the Kids’ Fun Run at 8:40 a.m. All three races start and finish at Blythewood Middle School. The 10K and 5K routes are USA Track and Field certified courses and will take runners through Longcreek Plantation, a beautiful residential area of Blythewood, as well as the rural areas surrounding Blythewood Middle School. The 10K runners will enjoy a mixture of flat areas and hills with views of Lake Columbia and the Longcreek Plantation Equestrian Center. The 5K runners will love the flat, scenic course in the historic Round Top area of Blythewood. The 1-Mile Kids’ Fun Run will take place around the gated perimeter of the middle school campus.

Cash prizes of $50 will be awarded for male and female overall and master winners. Overall second and third male and female and first, second and third male and female in the following age groups will also receive signature Blythewood Labor Day Run awards : 10 and under; 11-14; 15-19; 20-24; 25-29; 30-34; 35-39; 40-44; 45-49; 50-54; 55-59; 60-64; 65-69; and 70+.

“This is the largest fundraiser of the year for the middle school,” Thompson said. “Previously this was a fundraiser for the school’s orchestra. The proceeds from this year’s event will go toward a digital school sign next to the building and toward creating a field trip scholarship fund for economically disadvantaged students. This is also a great way to get the community involved. Last year we had 400 runners. We’re hoping to have 500 this year.”

To register or for more information, visit www.BlythewoodLaborDayRun.com. Those wishing to volunteer before, after or during the race should contact the event coordinators at info@eggplantevents.com.

All kidding about running and chasing aside, this sounds like a great event that the runners among you should enjoy. And don’t forget the free concert on Sunday, which you will enjoy whether you run or not.