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Progress & Review 2011 THE FUTURE OF THE ALBEMARLE FROM THE GROUND UP Two area festivals celebrate big cash crops By ROBERT KELLY-GOSS Albemarle Life Editor You might say it’s a case for any reason to throw a party But two festivals named for two distinct crops in the Albemarle region seem to do more than offer a good time. They do in fact celebrate the production of a tuber and a pea family favorite, the peanut. The Potato Festival and the Peanut Festival have been area favorites for de cades. Each festival, one in Elizabeth City and the other Edenton, offers dis tinctly different activities but both have one thing in common — a good time. In Elizabeth City, the cel ebration of the potato goes back to 1940 when it was promoted by a 240-mile motorcade. The purpose was to bring together peo ple for one big celebration, including a parade, march ing bands, a beauty contest crowning the potato queen, and dancing to the sounds of the big bands. The festival was such a success that organizers, ac cording to Daily Advance reports of the day, pulled off a second year of festivi ties. But World War II was just on the horizon and Elizabeth City would put off celebrating its favorite cash crop until 1950. In 1950 another motor cade rolled through 11 towns, recruiting an esti mated 10,000 people from nine area counties. En thusiasm for renewal of the festival was high in Elizabeth City and shops displayed signs and flags welcoming the hordes. See FESTIVALS, 18 FILE PHOTO The Battle of the Bands, competi tion is part of Chowan County’s annual Peanut Festival, which this year will be held on Oct. 1. V % ''ti %W cl FILE PHOTO Jesse Vick uses a scroll saw to make Christmas ornaments during the 52nd annual Albemarle Craftsmans’ Fair at Knobbs Creek Recreation Center in Elizabeth City, Oct. 29,2010. Valued crafts reflect a farming past By ROBERT KELLY-GOSS Albemarle Life Editor Basket weaving, broom mak ing, canning, cornhusk dolls and quilting; these are just a few of the craft skills celebrated by ar tisans these days. These skills, however, were once necessary to the farming families that popu lated the Albemarle, or any rural region. “It- wasn’t anything special to them,” says Lisa Winslow, presi dent of the Albemarle Crafts mans Guild. “It’s what they did. It’s how they survived.” Once upon a time, farm fami lies largest relied on subsistence living. If they needed it, they grew it, or made it. “They didn’t have the money to buy these things,” says Win slow. But life changed for many farm families. They either took on jobs off the farm, or left farming altogether. Their handy crafts were no longer something they found necessary, and the skills that were once passed on one generation to the next began to fade into history But women like Elizabeth Byrum, Gladys White of Emily Harrell understood the signifi cance of those crafting ways. They worked to keep the skills alive for a new generation, one that would celebrate the artistic aspect of something that was likely taken for granted by farm families. Women like Byrum discovered that the North Carolina Exten sion Agency was not only offer ing agricultural assistance, but also working to keep these old craft ways alive. In a 2008 inter view with The Daily Advance, the then 89-year-old Byrum re calls going to Gates County’s extension office to learn some of those old crafting ways. Byrum, like White and Har rell, would eventually bring oth er people into the fold and they would make up the beginnings of the Craftsmans Guild. The crafts used by farm fami lies are not only celebrated as works of art, but they are also recognized as culturally and his torically significant, according to William Ferris, Ph.D., a pro fessor of folklore at the Univer sity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ferris, in an interview for the celebration of the 50th anniver sary of the Craftsmans Guild, explained that the preservation of such crafts not only keeps the history alive, it also keeps the skills that have been passed from one generation to the next intact. “Everything is at risk,” said See CRAFTS, 19 Wi / y ',4- % ' ri: } /“> STAFF PHOTO BYTHOMAS J.TURNEY The vineyards at the Cotton Gin in Jarvisburg, shown Tuesday, opened in 2008. Vine yard owner John Wright said he grows 10 varieties of grapes on about 14 acres. Wine making on the rise By WILL HARRIS Sports Writer Wine making in the Albemarle area is rather new. However, wine making in North Carolina is hun dreds of years old. According to the North Carolina P«partment of Commerce, North Carolina is the home of the nation’s first cultivated wine grape — the scuppernong. Giovanni de Verra- zano, a French explorer and naviga tor, discovered the grapes in the Cape Fear River Villey in 1524 and first noted the fruit in his logs, surmising t. See VINEYARDS, 22 Photographer, bird house builder use barns for art BY TOBY TATE Correspondent To Elizabeth Bateman of Perquimans County, an old barn is more than just a ram shackle building waiting for a wrecking baU; it’s a piece of history. “When I see something old I wonder, ‘OK, who lived there? What did it do? How old is it?’ I could see an old tree in the middle of a field and think, ‘I bet there used to be a house there or a farm,”’ Bateman said. For Bateman, old barns are more than just a disappear ing piece of the landscape. They’re subjects for her art. Bateman has been snap ping photographs of old barns, among other subjects, for the past ten years. Over f STAFF PHOTO BY BRETT A. CLARK Local artist Elizabeth Bateman displays several framed samples of photographs she’s taken of old barns, Tuesday, Feb. 22. showing her photographs at local art galleries and been fortunate to seU several of the last year, she’s also been i them. “I love photography and I just wanted to share it with See A^, 18
The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City, N.C.)
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March 6, 2011, edition 1
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