By Loretta Humble, Around the Town
Lots of nice news around town this week. Of course, the big news is that Alexis Faith, daughter of Jessica and Mark Crye, arrived Friday morning. She weighed 6.5 lbs. and is 19.5 inches long. I do not know why those statistics matter, but people seem to want to know. The main things are these—she is beautiful, as would have been expected, and mother and daughter are just fine, and are already settled in at home.
Alexis’s expected arrival was the final straw that convinced Jessica and Dottie to close their great little shop, My Favorite Things. We all grieved about that. But we are regrouping and we will be fine. We’ve agreed to have coffee and sweet tea down at the Flagg House. If I need to remind any of you, the historic Flagg House houses the Historical Society and the Chamber of Commerce. It is basically a gift to our community from Kenny Andrews, who paid for it, and continues to fix it up and support it, and from Pat Isaacson, who gives her life, and some of her own resources, to tending it. It is a beautiful place and we are working on the idea of making it more conducive to small and larger group gatherings. We need some couches and chairs that are a little elegant-looking in order to fit in with the house, but are sturdy and comfortable, so no one is afraid to sit on them. If you know of some that might be donated, or sold for an affordable price, please let us know.
Also, maybe we’ll still get to meet for coffee at the former Favorite Things building. The new folks going in there are doing extensive remodeling, going to open up the whole back of the building. The Cryes had fixed up the front half of the building beautifully, but had just used the back for storage, as the floor was caving in, among other problems. These guys are fixing that. And while they won’t be serving food for a while, I do believe there will be coffee and a nice place to drink it. Maybe even a goody if we are lucky. By the way, last time I asked, they hadn’t decided what to name it.
Down at the Bartlett House, the wonderful ruin with the legendary gardens the Garden Club is restoring, great things are happening, much of it through the effort of Cheryl Kietscheraski who has adopted the place and brought her family in to help her. She is going to be planting a rose garden next week. But we got a great boost last week when Acme Brick sent over a crew of four men and a little bulldozer, headed by Rick Vieregee. They uncovered and brought back to be restored big hunks of brick and mortar that had fallen off the porches, and had been dumped at the edge of the property.
The folks out at Long Cove, the fabulous development just north of town, have taken an interest in the property, and have proposed to pay for major clean up and securing the house to keep vandals out. And not just boarding up the windows, but securing it beautifully, with ironwork that fits the style of the house.
Plus, the narcissus are just gorgeous right now. Please drive by and take a look.
It’s fun to watch Kay Asher and Shelly Fugit get ready for the Funky Junk affair Country Chicks are going to have at Harvey Hall this weekend. Last week they had their booth framework set up in the parking spaces outside Country Chicks, practicing how to set it up fast. Kay hopes she can get all the shops and our upcoming events a lot of publicity out of this.
And we do have a lot of things coming up—Cornbread Festival, Art Garden Tour, Knife and Tomahawk Gathering, Big Bass Tournament, and some other stuff I forgot, but I’m out of room. Anyhow, they are all more than a month away, so I can talk about them next time. And the next.