CEDAR MOUNTAIN NEWS FOR THURSDAY 4-20-23
BLOOD DRIVE
Among the blood donors on Saturday was 18-year-old Alexander Bravo (pic) who drove to Cedar Mountain with his mother from near Clemson, South Carolina. It took them over an hour and they didn’t like the twists and turns of Greenville Hwy coming up the mountain. It was his very first donation. He had tried to get an appointment closer to home in his time frame and Cedar Mountain was the closest. Alexander is scheduled to attend Lander University in Greenwood, SC starting this summer and wanted to start his donation schedule before then. He plans to major in technology.
Alexander was understandingly a bit nervous. When he was interviewed he said he hadn’t eaten that morning and was told he couldn’t donate on an empty stomach. Not wanting to make another trip the Red Cross allowed him to have his post-donation snacks and drink before donating. He got through it all with a smile on his face and was proud to receive a Red Cross T-shirt as a souvenir. We wish him the best of luck in college
30 folks signed up for the blood drive last Saturday at Cedar Mountain F/R.
CEDAR MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY CENTER
Our next potluck will be held Monday, May 8th. You are asked to please have your dish to share on the serving tables by 6:15 pm so everything is ready to go by 6:30 pm
GEOLOGY PRESENTATION
Following our potluck, Geologist, Quintin Overocker, of Brevard College will discuss the geology of our area and the Brevard Fault. He won’t focus exclusively on the Brevard Fault but intends to discuss the Geology of the Southern Appalachians and Caesar's Head area.
Mr. Overocker earned his BS in Geology from Western Illinois University and MS in Geology from the University of Tennessee. After college, he was a Grade Control Geologist at the Stillwater Mine in Montana, the only platinum and palladium mine in the United States. Currently, he is currently the Registrar and adjunct Geology instructor at Brevard College.
Items to share at the potluck need to be on the serving tables by 6:15 pm so that serving can begin promptly ad 6:30 pm. The presentation will begin at about 7 p.m.
ALEEN STEINBERG AND CEDAR MOUNTAIN MEMORIES
Submitted by Patricia Stahl
In 1962 the Cedar Mountain Scrapbook reported that eighty-four families were living in the community and that Sherwood Forest contained twenty homes, a combination of permanent and summer residences. DuPont, with the manufacture of silicon beginning here in 1958, was undergoing an expansion and would in two years transition to the manufacture of medical x-ray film. And in the summer of 1962, Aleen Steinberg and her family arrived for a visit to Cedar Mountain. A special relationship between Aleen, the local and summer residents, and the countryside had begun. Saturday mornings in the summer of the 1960s often began with a trip to the Curb Market, the small building still located near the Community Center. The local farmers sold their produce and the women baked cakes, bread, pies, and cinnamon rolls to sell and increase the household income. Pillows, aprons, and flowers from home gardens were available for purchase. This was a social occasion and also, a gathering place for the community. Aleen recruited memories of the curb market from others and shared Lucius Schweikert’s recollections in an email from April of 2019. “Speaking of the curb market, I always remember looking forward to the days it was open and all the goodies! Vegetables, fruits (raspberries), pound cakes (Caramel cakes), Poke bonnets, and many crocheted treasures. Maybe they did remind me of the beautiful dogwoods!!! But the BEST and most important was the waiting with everyone for the doors to be raised up!!! How exciting! Waiting with anticipation wondering what would be there? As a child, it was a glorious, simple, and just what we did on Community Center Curb Market day. Gathering up our much used peach baskets and heading down the then quiet Hwy. 276 to visit with everyone, summer and local folks. This was a time for Mamma to catch up on any news also. As I think back, it was generational also.
The Curb Market was definitely more than just a building!!!!” Aleen enjoyed sharing her memories of her early years here and getting to know the local and summer families as she continued to visit Cedar Mountain and eventually became a yearlong resident. She was invited to outdoor gatherings like the meals of fried cabbage and ham prepared in large cast iron skillets during the autumn hog roundup, the preparation of Brunswick stew and the supper that followed in Buck Forest and summer evenings on the screened porches of the summer homes built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. She hosted gatherings on her porches with tea and her homemade pound cake and ginger cookies. She met Dallas Baines, a native resident and teller of tall tales, Markley and Corrie Jones, Dick Garren and Paul Jones, hunter and outdoorsman. Paul took Aleen and her family on a long hike below Caesar’s Head, promising lunch along the way. Arriving at an old campsite, he built a fire, pulled out a hidden frying pan, cooked up slices of salt pork and sandwiched it between two slices of bread. She always declared this as one of her most delicious lunches. She began to lead hikes, meeting with the young people at the Hi Bunyan Store and heading off to spend the day at Raven Cliff Falls, Corn Meal Shoals or High Falls. These young people, many of them from our summer families, enjoyed Muddy Sneakers moments with Aleen long before she became one of the founders of the outdoor educational program that benefits children today. During her adventures in Buck Forest, today’s DuPont State Recreational Forest, Aleen gained an appreciation for the natural beauty of this place that would lead to her work in the protection and accessibility of the area as public land.
Aleen reminisced in emails and conversations about swimming in Stone’s Lake, the fried chicken suppers at the Community Center, the Saturday night square dances in the Robin Hood Barn at Sherwood Forest, the bonfires and sledding on Bonnie’s Hill after a snowstorm, and the songs shared in the McGaha Chapel. She sat on the Community Center Board for many years and on the 2011 Cedar Mountain Sesquicentennial Committee. The two-day celebration took place in the Community Center and the Rocky HillFamily LifeCenter, featuring artifacts that Aleen encouraged residents to share. On many Easter mornings, Aleen and her friends and family could be found covered in parkas and blankets on the front rows of Symmes Chapel or Pretty Place for the sunrise services on Easter morning. She described the congregation and singers there on one very cold morning as the “frozen chosen” and ended her description of the event with these comments. “The Cantata was memorable, with music, solos, and a rap-like beat that carried my spirit to the sunrise that was coloring the Eastern sky. Afterward, the breakfast left no one wanting. The crowd gathered in the Camp’s dining hall for country cooking at its best, fruit, juice, eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, grits, potatoes, and sausage gravy on homemade buttermilk biscuits. We came, we thawed, we ate, we gave thanks for the neat little community of Cedar Mountain and people that care.”
After a community gathering at the Cedar Mountain Community Center last fall, Aleen suggested that one of our 2023 programs should highlight the changes that have occurred here throughout the years and that “old timers” should be invited to share their memories. In August of this year, at our monthly potluck and meeting, we will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the construction of the Cedar Mountain Community Center with photos and stories. Old timers will be invited to share memories of this “neat little community of Cedar Mountain and people that care.” Aleen was one of those special caring and loving people that helped to make this community what it is today, and we appreciate her dedication and hard work.
SHERWOOD FOREST LADIES' GOLF
League results for April 17: It was cold and windy to start on the back nine, but who could complain on a beautiful, sunny spring day? Seventeen women played a game of Par 3s (scores on par 3 holes only counted). Winner: Roz Banks. Low net: Louise Stroup. If you haven't come out to play this season, what are you waiting for? It's fun and we don't bite! Join us next week at 9:30 for registration and 10 a.m. for the start.
AROUND THE HOUSE by Linda Packer Young
TERRA NOVA
My honey and I attended the authentic Indian dinner prepared and served by Nanthana Vaiyapuri and her husband at the Terra Nova Center on Reasonover Road in Cedar Mountain Sunday evening. (pic) We loved the very spicy and tasty vegetable coconut curry that Nanthana served. Several other Indian items were served and the dinner ended with a wonderful mango dessert.
Following supper, we were treated to meditation with singing bowls. Besides their traditional use for meditation, Tibetan singing bowls are used for deep relaxation and muscle regeneration, to relieve pain in the joints, muscles, shoulders, etc. Nanthana then danced a few of the beautiful and graceful East Indian dances for us. It was a delightful end to the evening.
