UPTOWN
Volume 2, Issue 9 Town of Castalia Dec-Jan 2008
(252) 459-3668
From the Mayor’s Desk
Another year is drawing to an end and I am thankful for the progress we have made. The credit lies with a good work-relation among board members and I applaud them for their diligence. We have attended county and state meetings and workshops and have put Castalia on the “moving forward” list. We are recognized as a town that wants to progress and is willing to take the dare. This has taken good planning, hard work and the most important working tool “patience”. Nothing happens instantly but with patience, good things work out for the good of us all. I appeal to you again to come, get involved, enjoy the ups and downs, the laughter, the tears, the frustration and feel the pride when your see just what makes the wheels turn.
I wish for you all a blessed happy holiday season. May it be filled with love and peace for family and friends and may we enter into the New Year with hope for nothing but the best!
Citizen’s Corner
Let’s take a “Sentimental Journey” with the Mann Sisters: Ella Mae Ward, Ernestine Cannon and Marie Barrett. In the 1930s three little girls were born in the Castalia township to “Rounder” and Lizzie B. Mann.
They were raised on the farm working in the fields and helping with household chores. It was in these conditions that their love for music began; one would start up a tune and the others would join in making the work at hand a joyful chore. When they were old enough their mother had them sing in the church choir and they still are choir members at the Castalia Baptist Church. They admired the McGuire Sisters and patterned their singing after them; their father said they sounded much better. Ella Mae said, “our father loved us and would do anything he could for us.” They recall making their dolls out of corn cobs using the corn silks for hair; these dolls were among other homemade toys. All three girls attended Castalia elementary school and graduated from Nashville High School. They loved the May Day celebration at school, dancing around the Maypole and will never forget the pretty green paper skirts they wore.
All three sisters married but spouses are dead. Ella Mae had one son who was killed in the military. Ernestine has one son now serving in the military in Iraq. Marie has four children all living locally.
Getting back to their love for music; they have performed with the Dixie Humming Birds of Philadelphia, Pa., the Faithful Five Singers of New Port News, Va., sung at the Cotton Club in Newark, N.J., the Celebrity Club in Queens, N.Y., Rocky Mount’s Volcanno and even at the Castalia July 4th. They still sing at Nursing Homes and churches and have participated many times at the Nash Cultural Art Center. In 1992 the late Mary Lewis Foote was directing the Oral History Project at the Nash Art Center and she invited the Mann Sisters to sing “Sincerely, Sentimental Journey and Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” and to participate in the play “Heroes at Home and Abroad”. The show ran for two days and the sisters are very proud to display the personal hand written letter of appreciation they received from Congressman Tim Valentine.
The Mann Sisters are all retired now, Ella Mae still does some part time nursing, and they enjoy fishing, Ella Mae is a football fan, Ernestine loves basketball and they still sing for special occasions. They enjoy their family gatherings and some favorite foods consumed are fish, ribs, chicken and dumplings and collards.
Their love for music lives on, they love Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Willie Nelson, all the oldies and gospel music. They wish to sing you into the holidays.
“They wish you a Merry Christmas
They wish you a Merry Christmas
They wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.”
From the Town
4th of July Committee News
The 4th of July Committee wishes to thank all who purchased our chicken plates in October and our Brunswick Stew in November. As a reminder the committee is still selling raffle tickets. The tickets are $2.00 each. The drawing will be held on the first Tuesday in December (after the town board meeting). Tickets are available at the Town Hall or may be purchased from any committee member. For more information on the prizes please call the Town Hall.
Thank you for your support
Happy Holidays from the committee
Our next meeting is Tuesday, December 11th at 7pm (Meetings are the second Tuesday of each month). Please join us. For more information call Chairperson Ken Rice at 459-2745.
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Town Web Site
Check out the town Website. The Website address is:
townofcastalia.com
Citizen’s Corner
Meet Lynwood “Pee Wee” Harper
Pee Wee was born on October 10, 1923 in the Castalia township (known now as the Landfill Rd area) to Nobie and Mildred Harper. He had two sisters Betty and Catherine and a brother who died at 2 months. Pee Wee attended school at the Castalia School through the fifth grade; says he is like Lil Jimmy Dickens as he got the rest of his education ”out behind the barn”.
When he was ten years old his parents died and the family was split up, the girls went to live with grand parents and he stayed on at the home place and stayed a good deal of time with Mr. Murray Braswell. Pee Wee and his friend Joe Braswell did farm work for Mr. Morton Joyner; primed tobacco for 40 cents a day with a promise to be paid on Saturday which never came he says. On Saturday Pee Wee and Joe would catch a chicken put it under their arm and thumb a ride to Rocky Mount. They would sell the chicken at Sexton’s Feed & Seed Store for enough money to go to the picture show and buy some popcorn.
After an attempt to join the Navy and Marines, turned down because of being color blind, Pee Wee joined the CC Camp; he was placed in the fish and wildlife division where he served about twelve months. At the age of 18 he was drafted into the army and served during WWII in England. He fought in the invasion of France at Normandy, he served in Germany and Austria. Pee Wee received a purple heart, four battle stars and a citation for bravery above and beyond the call of duty.
Upon leaving the army Pee Wee returned to Rocky Mount and began working a Cockrell’s Garage under the G. I. Bill of Rights training. He also worked for Alan Mim’s Ford. In 1947 Pee Wee married Dorothy Harris and they had six children. In 1950 they moved back to the home place in the Castalia township. In 1955 they moved into the Castalia town limits. Pee Wee operated a garage on Red Bud Rd for 25 years and worked for Braswell Milling Co in Nashville for 18 years. He served in the Castalia Volunteer Fire Dept for 25 years, being the fire chief for part of the time. He served 4 terms as a Castalia commissioner and is a member of the Castalia Baptist Church.
In 1995 Pee Wee’s wife Dorothy passed away leaving a void in his life. While coping with this he met and married Louise Leonard and they reside at 9537 Main St. They have a regular lunch date each week with friends Jody and Sylvia Braswell and according to Sylvia they can’t assist anyone else on that day.
Pee Wee says his favorite foods are barbecue, fish, shrimp, pineapple cake and ice cream. He is a coffee drinker. His health is fair after by-pass surgery and he gets about slowly and carefully, he had been declared legally blind and is very appreciated for the services offered for the blind through social agencies. Pee Wee is an ardent auto racing fan; his favorite racer was Daryl Earnhardt, now he says he pulls for anyone driving the chevies.
His advice to his fellow citizens is to work hard and save as much of your monies as possible. Also if your life is not right with God you need to make it so.
History of Christmas Traditions
Enjoy reading about the holiday traditions we are so used to and how they came to be.
Merry Christmas
12 Days of Christmas
It is said that the traditional Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written as a secret teaching tool to instruct children in the meaning of the Christian faith. From 1558 to 1829. Roman Catholics in England were, apparently, forbidden from openly practicing their religion. So, this carol was devised to get the message across without upsetting the Protestants. Here is the broken code, thanks to this contribution from Guyneitha
Passage Hidden definition
My true love
Me
Partridge in a pear tree
Two Turtle Doves
Three French hens
Four calling birds
Five gold rings
Six geese a-laying
Seven swans a-swimming
Eight maids a-milking
Nine ladies dancing
Ten lords a-leaping
Eleven pipers piping
Twelve drummers drumming God
The Christian
Jesus
The old and new testaments
Faith, hope and love
The four gospels
The first five books of the Bible
The six days of creation
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
The beatitudes
The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
The ten commandments
The eleven faithful disciples
The twelve points of the apostle creed
Feliz Navidad
Candy Canes
During the 17th century, craftsmen created white sticks of candy in the shape of shepherds' crooks at the suggestion of the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. The candy treats were given to children to keep them quiet during ceremonies at the living creche, or Nativity scene, and the custom of passing out the candy crooks at such ceremonies soon spread throughout Europe.
According to the National Confectioner's Association, in 1847 German immigrant August Imgard used the candy cane to decorate a Christmas tree in Wooster, Ohio. More than 50 years later, Bob McCormack of Albany, Georgia supposedly made candy canes as treats for family, friends and local shopkeepers. McCormack's brother-in-law, Catholic priest Gregory Keller, invented a machine in the 1950s that automated the production of candy canes, thus eliminating the usual laborious process of creating the treats and the popularity of the candy cane grew.
Joyeux Noel
Christmas Carols
The early Christmas music compositions are regarded as chants and hymns. The original carols referred to a circle dance which did not have any singing - that came later. As the church struggled against the influences of pagan customs, the singing of carols was barred from sacred services. However, outside the church, Nativity carols were written and became popular. Nearly all were simple folk songs created by people from the countryside.
Saint Francis of Assisi is credited with bringing carols into the formal worship of the church during a Christmas Midnight Mass in a cave in Greccio, in the province of Umbria in 1223. It's said that the music sung that night was more akin to what we know as carols than to hymns. Carols enjoyed further development and popularity when they were used in the mystery plays of the Middle Ages.
Wandering minstrels traveled from hamlet to castle, performing carols in the distant past. In later years, villages had their own bands of waits. Waits were originally watchmen who patrolled the streets and byways of the old walled cities keeping guard against fire and singing out the hours of the night. During the holiday season, they would include some carols for the people along the way. Eventually the term was used to describe groups of musicians who sang and played for various civic events during the Christmas season.
Happy Christmas
Poinsettia
During the holiday season the favorite flower in the United States is the poinsettia, with its beautiful, red, star-shape. It is called the "Flame Leaf" or "Flower of the Holy Night" in Central America and was brought here over a hundred years ago by Dr. Joel Poinsett, our first ambassador to Mexico. Most of the poinsettias used now come from California.
The legend of the poinsettia comes from Mexico. It tells of a girl named Maria and her little brother Pablo. They were very poor but always looked forward to the Christmas festival. Each year a large manger scene was set up in the village church, and the days before Christmas were filled with parades and parties. The two children loved Christmas but were always saddened because they had no money to buy presents. They especially wished that they could give something to the church for the Baby Jesus. One Christmas Eve, Maria and Pablo set out for church to attend the service. On their way they picked some weeds growing along the roadside and decided to take them as their gift to the Baby Jesus in the manger scene. The other children teased them when they arrived with their gift, but they said nothing for they knew they had given what they could. Maria and Pablo began placing the green plants around the manger and miraculously, the green top leaves turned into bright red petals, and soon the manger was surrounded by beautiful star-like flowers.
Frohliche Weihnachten
Rudolph
1939 Copywriter Robert L. May of the Montgomery Ward Company created a poem about Rudolph, the ninth reindeer. May had been "often taunted as a child for being shy, small and slight." He created an ostracized reindeer with a shiny red nose who became a hero one foggy Christmas eve. Santa was part-way through deliveries when the visibility started to degenerate. Santa added Rudolph to his team of reindeer to help illuminate the path. A copy of the poem was given free to Montgomery Ward customers.
1949: Johnny Marks wrote the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Rudolph was relocated to the North Pole where he was initially rejected by the other reindeer who wouldn't let him play in their reindeer games because of his strange looking nose. The song was recorded by Gene Autry and became his all-time best seller. Next to "White Christmas" it is the most popular song of all time.
Boldog Karácsonyt
North Pole
Thomas Nast established Santa's workshop and official residence at the North Pole in four different drawings between 1879 and 1886. On January 4, 1879, Harper’s Weekly published "A Christmas Post," showing a girl putting a letter in the mailbox, addressed to St. Claus, North Pole. The sketch titled "The Shine of Saint Nicholas" published on December 31, 1882, showed good children at the North Pole; Santa was seated on a box with the inscription "Saint Nicholas, North Pole." Harper’s Weekly on December 19, 1885 published "Santa Claus’s Route," a sketch showing two children looking at a map of the world and tracing Santa's journey from the North Pole to the United States. Finally, in "Santa Claus and His Works," printed in Harper’s Weekly in 1886, Nast showed Santa and his workshop at Santa Clausville, North Pole. In 1869, American writer George P. Webster published Santa Claus and His Works and took up this idea, explaining that Santa's toy factory and "his house, during the long summer months, was hidden in the ice and snow of the North Pole". Although his name did not appear on the cover, the seven color illustrations were provided by Nast, who gave us a look at the red and white suit of Santa. Many of the illustrations in the book were colorized expansions of the woodcuts from Harper’s Weekly.
Sheng Tan Kuai Loh
Thought for the Season
Somehow, not only for Christmas, But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others, Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing, The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart’s possessing, Returns to you glad.
--John Greenleaf Whittier
Recipes
These recipes were submitted by some of our town residents for your enjoyment during the Holiday Season.
Sweet Potato Cake submitted by Ms. Savada Minton
1 cup cooking oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs separated (use yolks for glaze)
2 ½ cups self rising flour
¼ tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups sweet potatoes (cooked)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Combine first 3 ingredients and add 4 tablespoons of hot water. Mix well. Add flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well.
Add sweet potatoes, vanilla and nuts. Place in 2 or 3 round cake pans and bake at 350 degrees until done.
Glaze
1 can of carnation milk
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter
4 egg yolks
1 ½ cup coconut 1tsp vanilla extract
Mix first four ingredients in a double boiler stirring constantly until thickened; remove from heat and add coconut and vanilla.
Spread on layers and side of cake.
Banana Split Cake submitted by Becky Height
5 Bananas 2 Cans crushed pineapple, drained
2 Sticks of margarine 1 Large container of Cool Whip
2 cups Graham cracker crumbs 1 cup Chopped nuts
2 Eggs 1 Small bottle of cherries
2 cups Powdered sugar
Melt 1 stick of margarine; add cracker crumbs. Mix well. Spread mixture in bottom of pan. Beat together for 5 minutes eggs, sugar and margarine. Spread over graham cracker crust. Cover with sliced bananas and pineapple. Cover with Cool Whip. Top with chopped nuts and cherries. Chill overnight.
Cheese Apples submitted by Virginia R. Murphy
1 can White House sliced apples 1 Stick of Margarine
1 cup Sugar ¾ cup Flour
8oz Velveeta
Spread apples in bottom of casserole dish. (I cut my Velveeta and margarine in chunks and put in microwave for about 1 minute to make creaming easier) Cream together margarine, sugar, flour and Velveeta. Spread on top of apples. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until brown on top.
Mound Balls submitted by Nene Leonard
1 Box Confectioners Sugar 1 cup Chopped Nuts
1 Can Eagle Brand Sweetened 4 (3 ½ oz) Cans Coconut
Condensed Milk (14 ½ oz) 1 (12 oz.) Pkg. Chocolate Chips
1/4 cup Melted margarine 1 Square paraffin
Mix sugar, milk, margarine, nuts and coconut together. Chill. Butter hands and make small balls. Place on waxed paper and chill again.
Melt chocolate chips and paraffin. Dip balls into chocolate mixture, using toothpicks. Store in refrigerator.
Chocolate Chess Pie submitted by Nene Leonard
1 ½ cups Sugar 2 Eggs
3 Tbsp Cocoa 2 Tsp Vanilla
½ Stick Melted Butter 5 oz Can of Carnation Milk
Mix all ingredients and beat really, really well. Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a soft firm.
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