Posted in Artifact of the Month, Tar Heelia on July 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
This silver plate, the July Artifact of the Month, was a gift to a UNC employee of uncommon loyalty. In 1914, Chapel Hill native Mittie Pickard began working at the UNC Medical School. She was the first woman to work at the school and its first medical technician. In an interview later in life, she […]
Posted in Tar Heelia, tagged asheville nc, e w grove, grove park inn, grove's tasteless chill tonic, pow camps, teapot dome scandal, warren g harding on July 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Happy 100th to the House that Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic Built. A cornucopia of anecdotes in the Citizen-Times (hat tip, John L. Robinson) points out that the Grove Park Inn prevented Asheville from becoming tuberculosis sanitarium to the nation, gave refuge to Warren G. Harding during the Teapot Dome Scandal and even served as a […]
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged andrew kasper, billiards, franklin nc, pool halls, smoky mountain news on July 13, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
“A 1948 law aimed at wiping out the scourge of billiards — by declaring pool and alcohol consumption mutually exclusive pastimes — was struck from the [Town of Franklin] code this month in a 5-1 vote by the town board. “Until now, Franklin… prohibited swearing, trap doors, hidden stairways, panels and secret devices that could […]
Posted in DigitalNC, From the Stacks, History, Postcards, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on July 11, 2013 | 13 Comments »
I was searching for some information on the Remember Cliffside website several days ago when I stumbled upon a story about the Goat Man. Reno Bailey, the creator of Remember Cliffside, recalls from childhood a man who used to pass through town with a wagon pulled by goats and made money by taking photographs of […]
Posted in On This Day, tagged asheville nc, elvis presley on July 10, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1975: Visiting Asheville for the first time since 1955, when he was a warm-up act for Hank Snow, Elvis Presley performs three times in three days at the Civic Center — and shoots out the television in his motel room. The episode occurs during a month-long binge of bizarre behavior in […]
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged chapel hill nc, constantine sedikides, john tierney, nostalgia, university of southampton on July 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
“Not long after moving to the University of Southampton [England], Constantine Sedikides had lunch with a colleague in the psychology department and described some unusual symptoms he’d been feeling. A few times a week, he was suddenly hit with nostalgia for his previous home at the University of North Carolina: memories of old friends, Tar […]
Posted in From the Stacks on July 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Somethings never change, but other things surely do. Real estate agents have traditionally been a newcomer’s source of information about neighborhoods, housing, and financing for home purchases. The North Carolina Collection recently received a map of Raleigh and Cary that was distributed by Merrill Lynch Realty in 1985. Along with information on roads, streets, neighborhoods, […]
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged 1948 presidential campaign, charlotte north carolina, dorothy thompson, dwight macdonald, glen taylor on July 7, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
“At a ‘Town Meeting’ in Charlotte, North Carolina, broadcast by ABC radio, [Progressive Party vice presidential candidate Glen] Taylor debated [critic] Dwight Macdonald and syndicated columnist Dorothy Thompson. Macdonald accused [Henry] Wallace and Taylor of appeasement; Thompson was less kind: ‘The Communist Party — let’s tell the truth — initiated the movement for Wallace’…. “[Thompson's] […]
Posted in On This Day, tagged civil war nc, fourth of july, new bern nc on July 5, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1862: Private D.L. Day, Co. B, 25th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, writes in his journal while on duty in New Bern: “The Fourth was celebrated with salutes from the forts, batteries and gunboats morning, noon and night. There were gala times in Camp Oliver last night. A huge bonfire was set from […]
Posted in Literature, New Books, Tar Heelia on July 4, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
When I travel abroad, I often checkout the local bookstores to see if they carry books by any Tar Heel authors. I am used to finding translations of blockbuster novels by Kathy Reichs, Nicholas Sparks, Orson Scott Card, or Patricia Cornwell. There were some of those in a bookstore in Bratislava that I went in […]
