Welcome to the 'Bers! (9/17/2020)

I’d like to cordially welcome all of you wonderful readers to my favorite time of year. I call it “The bers”. I really wish it would also be “brrrr,” but it is what it is in northeastern North Carolina. I love this time of year the most, but I have things I like about all times of the year.

In the spring, I like flowers that make me sneeze, green grass that makes me sneeze, and trees that make me sneeze. I’m allergic to spring, but it’s pretty.

In the summer, I like the food. I like the time with my kids without so many extra things happening. I don’t much care for the seemingly endless summer here, honestly, because the heat is not the heat of my childhood. It just can’t be. 

But then come the ‘bers! September with it’s cotton candy sunsets! There are promises in the occasional cooler breeze that summer does, in fact, end here. I love the new beginning of school and the return to the things we enjoy doing. Soccer at the recreation department starts again soon (carefully) and my oldest will play his last season before aging out. Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts have kicked off again (though it’s open to join anytime)! It’s a true time of fresh starts in so many ways. My husband even has a birthday this month, though he doesn’t think 2020 birthdays count. I agree! I haven’t even used this age.

October comes with (hopefully) a reason to wear clothing that looks like fall. I love sweaters, boots, and scarves, which is really just winter wear here. I’m super hot natured, so I love the chill in the air. Halloween is likely slimmed down this year. That’s ok. I remember when it was one day, but then every church, school, and organization started doing a thing and I became burned out on Halloween long before the 31st even arrived. I’m looking forward to just one event out and some time to watch a funny, spooky movie with the family.

The day after Halloween -BOOM- it’s Christmas, y’all! I’m kidding, because I truly love Thanksgiving, but the merging of the holidays is something I can no longer deny. November deserves a nod of being a wonderful month itself. I’ll make a special note of it here later on. Hopefully 2020 doesn’t take it out.

Craig and I won the reverse lottery with our children. They are fantastic, but both of them were born in December like some kind of sick joke. We are so blessed and so poor by January, just in time for my birthday. Yay.

As we sit in September looking ahead, overwhelmed by this year and, once again, by the emergence of Pumpkin Spice Everything, I raise my coffee cup to you all. May we embrace the ‘bers and finish the race set before us strong!

Be Kind, Please Rewind! (9/10/2020)

I’ve been on a bit of a nostalgia kick in this column recently, so I felt I had to continue that with another nod to my childhood. Back in the 80’s, my dad had continued the business of my grandfather, D&W Engineering. You may remember (if you’re older than me) that those letters were for Dail and White. Murray Dail and my grandfather, John, worked on farming implements and jacks. Eventually, D&W Engineering was a hardware store. ECHO chainsaws and weed eaters were in the front room of that old farmhouse. 

In the mid 80’s, it took a surprising, modern, (and somewhat odd) turn by also becoming the very first video rental store in Perquimans County! Quite possibly the only video store with a hardware section anywhere.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: It is SO COOL that Ashlea grew up getting to watch all the VHS movies of the day! I am here to tell you that it is just not true. My parents were very parental and I was too young to watch the great PG-13 movies of the 80s. In a cruel twist of fate, by the time I was 13, the store was closed and the videos were gone. 

I do have some great memories of those days, though! I did see quite a lot of movies. I can honestly say that I have seen every single John Wayne and Cary Grant movie made, which is a bit different for my generation. We had a section of new releases and I saw many of the age appropriate titles. My sister and I watched every single thing Disney had out on VHS tape. 

There was a horror movie section with a terrifying Freddie Kruger stand-alone figure that was taller than a 3rd grader. He lurked in that part of the store and it felt like his eyes moved to watch me. *Shiver*

With the rise of VCR movies, gaming systems came along! We had a real Nintendo system with the power pad, two controllers, and the Zapper. The joy of video games without the internet! It was so fun playing Mario Bros and so many other games, if they weren’t being rented at the time. I tell my kids about these things and they think I’m joking. Then they go back to a streaming service and talking to friends on gaming console headsets. Reader, we live in the future.

One of my jobs, as a young student of marketing and victim of child labor, was to move the movies around when no one was in the store. Do you ever wonder why stores are constantly irritating you by rearranging the merchandise? You can’t quickly find what you need and it’s frustrating. The goal of a store is to keep you in for as long as possible. So while you were hunting for the movie you wanted to rent, you usually found a second or third as well. Smart, isn’t it? Remember what you tell your kids. I learned that at nine years old. It’s pretty irritating to me as an adult, so I’m kinda sorry.

When I wasn’t slaving away my youth by frustrating customers, I was playing with a cat. My grandfather had found a black cat years before and she was family. She lived in the video store and was often a surprise greeter to customers by jumping on the counter. I remember having to retrieve the cat because some customers were very superstitious. What they didn’t know was that this kitty was funny and drooled when you rubbed her head, but she wasn’t the slightest bit spooky. However, the Freddie Kruger in the next room was spooky!

To The Market (9/3/2020)

Farmers’ markets are a fun thing these days! It’s no wonder, fresh veggies are so delicious and make the best meals. I was blessed to grow up around many gardens and a produce farm!

You may remember the remnants of the market you see in the photo. Hurricane Isabel ultimately tore down the shed-like structure with a pecan tree growing up inside it on Edenton Road Street. That 100 year old tree went down in those winds and that was the true end of an era.

I remember some grand days though! It started long before me. In fact, I’m not entirely sure of when the market began, but I know my great aunts, Mildred & Marion, worked the market as kids during the depression. The farm belonged to my great-grandparents, John Jr & Maggie White. Great-granddaddy had a suit for church and suits for farming. His son, my grandfather, John III, would work the farm with him and Mildred and Marion would wait on customers with great-grandmother. Eventually, they were all joined by my dad, John IV, and uncle Mike. Daddy has told me stories for years about the horrors of spooning beets and threatened to send my sister & I to the field ourselves. Amanda and I did end up in the field sometimes, but it was just to pick and eat strawberries!

There was an old jeep that we filled with veggies to be driven up for sale. I wasn’t very big in those days, but I remember carrying a big basket of beans to the front. It was a hefty load I could barely move! Between customers, we’d sit on great-grandmother’s front porch and snap beans. I’d listen to two great-grandmothers and two grandmothers talk as we snapped. On hot days, we’d get a watermelon and cut it on the back of the Jeep and dribble juice down our shirts. Watermelon sugar sticky was the look! Uncle Mike challenged us to spit seeds the farthest. 

We had peaches in the orchard as well. Those trees would get so full of peaches, the limbs would snap sometimes. I’m not even sure how many different types of apples were grown, but I know I ate too many green ones once with my cousins. 

I enjoyed seeing customers. Many knew me, but I didn’t really know them. I’ve heard stories years later of the many people who saw us kids growing up in the big yard under the pecan trees.

In the fall, they’d ask about squash, maybe rutabagas. When there weren’t sweet potatoes in the back, I’d hide in there playing games with my cousins. 

There weren’t many animals on the farm, mainly cats and chickens in those days. I got eggs with great-grandmother, but I didn’t care much for the rooster that hung around sometimes.

A box of collards was $5. I know this well because when I wanted expensive things, Daddy would say, “Do you know how many boxes of collards that is?” Not just the price, you see, but the growing and the cutting on cold mornings before school. Collards are always the best after a good frost. “Do you know how many boxes of collards that is?” is a loaded question, for sure. It’s a family saying, one asked of him by his own dad. I recently used it on my own children to much confusion. 

I guess the market days are really over. Just that particular market though. I promise, there are many hard working produce farmers that still know the value and hard work behind a box of collards.