The Chatham News

      

Reporting Activities, Interest and News of the People of Chatham County


News of Chatham

Information

 

  

                                                                                                                

Jeff Davis  photo

Old Chatham . . .

Growth and a murky wet side of the road, along with this old bridge show Chatham’s past just off of Highway 15-501 north of Pittsboro. The old roadbed has been around a long time and still gives us remembrance of the way it used to be.



Randall

Reflects

By Randall Rigsbee


Program keeping music alive in Chatham County

 Launched last month, a new program is teaching interested Chatham County students in grades 3 through 8 how to play banjo, guitar or fiddle.

The Sharpe Store Music (SSM) Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program made its debut February 18 at Goldston United Methodist Church.

It sounds like a terrific program. Not only is no prior music experience is necessary, said Tim Tron, who organized the program in Chatham County and is teaching the introductory fiddle class, it has a lot of side benefits in addition to the musical instruction.

Tron, in a conversation prior to the launch of the program, said those benefits include instruction in a group setting, which can help students overcome nerves; and it instills self-esteem and confidence.

And a huge benefit is it helps keep music alive, particularly a form of music which inherently belongs to people and has been handed down from generation to generation.

That’s what this program is doing and Tim Tron, who learned of the program while visiting the mountains, and all the other volunteers affiliated with it here in Chatham County have done a very good thing.

The program, while in its infancy, already seems to be a success here, with approximately 30 students enrolled.

Interest in the JAM program is growing in other parts of the county, as well., with the state of Virginia is considering implementing the JAM program statewide, according to Tron.

A tribute, in part, to Reno Sharpe, the beloved music-lover who operated the renowned Sharpe Store, a gathering spot for musicians, the program may branch out to include adults. The interest is certainly there, Tron said.

The program could use support, either monetarily or in the form of donated instruments.

Here’s a phone number to get more information about the program or to help it out: 542-8401.



    

At

Liberty

By Milburn Gibbs


Forces of nature nothing to be complacent about

A huge 8.8 earthquake hit central Chile on Saturday, February 27. It was one of the strongest quakes ever recorded though the loss of life was minimal considering the potential for deaths a quake of that magnitude could have.

The quake was centered near the city of Concepcion, Chile.

A tsunami is a giant wave of water traveling at incredible speeds over thousands of miles that is caused by earthquakes either on land or in the sea.

This tsunami was felt as far away as Australia, Hawaii, Mexico, Alaska, California and much of the Pacific Ocean. There was, thankfully, very little damage from the tsunami, which is a wall of water (about six feet high in this case) that has blinding speed and can range over thousands of miles, slowly losing strength as it travels.

I remember being in Hilo five years after a huge tsunami had totally washed away the first four blocks of Hilo’s beach and waterfront on the Big Island of Hawaii in the early 1960s.

I had a friend who was vacationing when a tsunami hit the Samoa and Tonga coasts a year ago when she was in eastern Asia. She said it was the most helpless situation she was ever in. Fortunately, she was able to have enough warning to make it to higher ground.

There is often little warning when a tsunami is coming, although there is a worldwide warning system that has helped alert potential areas that could be devastated.

Nothing can stop a tsunami except time and depleting energy.

In French Polynesia, the Marquesas Islands had the largest wave reported Saturday, where the water towered over 13 feet high.

The speed of a tsunami can reach 600 miles per hour. One can easily see where even prompt warnings are not enough time to reach higher ground in some cases.

A 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed over 200,000 people who had some warning.

Ships are not immune to tsunamis though generally a boat is safer at sea than in port where a direct hit can devastate large ships and small boats alike.

My friend who rode out the Samoan tsunami said it was the scariest moment of her life. Luckily, she still has her life as she ran like the wind to get inland in time.


Joe, java, mud . . . It’s all good

Movin' Around ... By Bob Wachs

Ann Landers used to tell her readers to "wake up and smell the coffee." Through the years I have taken that advice literally.

Today I’ve gotten so good at it I can smell the coffee before I wake up . . . I think.

Coffee, I’m pretty sure, is one of the basic food groups. It is especially good when the weather is cold . . . or hot . . . or sunny or cloudy or windy or . . . well, pretty much anytime.

Except it isn’t good when it’s cold . . . the coffee, that is.

My first introduction to coffee was from my folks. They drank an instant version called Sanka. I’m not sure it’s even made any more. I haven’t seen it on the grocery shelves but I haven’t looked for it, either, having found something I like better. I didn’t consume large quantities of their coffee, having been deemed "too young" to drink coffee.

Later in my young life, having convinced my better half she would have a life full of excitement if she changed her status from being an acquaintance to being my better half, I dabbled a bit with coffee once again. We didn’t have a coffee pot at our little home but Dan McCrimmon had a really big one at his drug store on the busy main street of bustling downtown Pittsboro.

In those glory days I had a fulltime job on the local weekly newspaper (the very one you’re reading now) and Dan’s was a mecca for all sorts of things. There you could get information on all sorts of topics and issues – local news, politics, religion, sports, the price of eggs in China. It didn’t matter; it was all there.

And coffee – the brewed kind. Actually I had gotten acquainted with Dan’s coffee when I was a teenage soda jerk there. We made coffee; I just don’t remember drinking it since chocolate milkshakes were also on the menu.

In those twenty-something days of my life, I’d belly up to the counter, ask for a cup to go, and proceed to dump half a cow and eight shovels of sugar into my order. No doubt, the introduction of the sugar has helped make me the fine physical specimen I am today.

Later I learned to cut back on half the sugar, eventually coming to the conclusion in my mind that just as real men don’t eat quiche (which is a bad thing . . . not the quiche, the not eating it) they also don’t monkey up their coffee with sugar.

Pretty soon, for whatever reason, I was cutting back on the moo-juice as well. Guess it just seemed like a good idea, just like smoking three packs of cigarettes seemed like a good idea when I was doing that. Then one day came the glorious day when I just skipped the cream or milk or powder version entirely.

I was drinking coffee.

Since then, I’m pretty sure that if all the money I have spent on coffee in various forms and places were gathered in one place we could balance the federal budget and still have a few cents left over for a cup, even if it no longer goes for a dime.

Bottoms up.


Letter Policy

Comments from our readers on issues and stories are always welcome.

Letters to the editor should be typed, double-spaced, and signed. Letters, which should be no longer than 300 words, may be edited for length and content.

All letters must be signed and authors must include their address and telephone number (not to be published)

for verification.

Send letters to The Chatham News, P.O. Box 290, Siler City, NC 27344; or The Chatham Record, P.O. Box 459, Pittsboro, N.C. 27312.

 

The Chatham News / The Chatham Record

is Published Every Thursday by The Chatham News Publishing Co, Inc at 303 West Raleigh Street, Siler City, NC 27344, (919)663-3232

Alan D. Resch Editor-Publisher


©2001-2008 The Chatham News Publishing Company, Inc.
By using this site, you agree to the terms of the USER AGREEMENT All material found on www.thechathamnews.com is copyrighted The Chatham News Publishing Company Co, Inc. and associated news services. No material may be reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The Chatham News Publishing Company, Siler City, North Carolina.