Checkers, anyone?

What fun to visit markets (and the DUMC Pumpkin Patch extravaganza on South Main) this time of year and see the many kinds of ornamental pumpkins and gourds.  If you have plenty of the small ones, be sure to get out your checkerboard and try your luck.  Seems like one player had a distinct advantage in the game pictured here!

On a more serious note, Around Davidson today brings news of weekend events with the Pansy Sale at NMHS and a Lions Club eyeglass collection and broom sale.  Also, we discover a YouTube video about Main Street regular  Richard Blackwelder and a Noteworthy Note about DIB Middle School.

(l-r) James Davis, Regene Williams-Vann, Jenn Steen, Matt Ramsey, Mudra Patel, and Zach Cannon

PANSIES AND MORE

The Annual Pansy Sale is this Saturday from 9-noon at North Mecklenburg High School (NMHS).  Follow the signs through the parking lot to the greenhouse area.  According to horticulture teacher Stephanie Anderson, you will be surprised by some of the changes the students have made.

Enthusiastic students in the program will be on hand to help you with your purchases and carry your plants to your car.  There will be an abundance of pansies and snapdragons.  In addition you can add snake plants, holiday cacti, pumpkins or other tropicals and perennials.  Quite a selection but a word to the wise:  Arrive early.  Shoppers are waiting in line before the sale begins and flats of pansies go fast.

MEET GENE AND JEAN DAVIS

Almost two months ago my email included a photo of Lake Norman Lions Club member Gene Davis presenting much needed school supplies to Cornelius Elementary School.  Keeping this email in mind, it seemed appropriate to visit with Gene and learn more about his concern for students and his Lions Club work.

Gene Davis (center) presents current Principal James Garvin, (left) Assistant Principal Elizabeth Brammer (r) and two unidentified Cornelius Elementary School students with much needed School Supplies. (Photo: NJ “Dee” D’Oria-Cornelius/Lake Norman Lions Club)

What a delight to spend a few hours one morning last week interviewing Gene Davis and his wife, Jean, in their apartment at The Pines.  (So easy for other residents to remember their names … and also to remember them since they hold hands everywhere they go.)  Married for 44 years, Gene grew up on a tobacco farm near Winston-Salem.  The second of nine children, he was driving tractors from the tender age of six and riding in the saddle since his family had a number of Tennessee walking horses.  Following college, Gene taught sixth grade in Winston-Salem and met another teacher named Jean.  Jean grew up in Lenoir and after a “proper” courtship, married Gene in 1966.

The Davises soon settled in Cornelius and lived in the same house on Washam Potts Road for 30 years before moving the The Pines in 2002.  They call their move “their gift to their son, Jon Davis, so he and his wife, Gennine, and grandchildren, Jack (11) and Sally Maxwell (8) can visit anytime from their Davidson home and not have the worry of “elder care.”  Jean retired from teaching in 1990 following years in the elementary classrooms of Matthews, Long Creek and Huntersville.  She loves to read, walk and spend time with grandchildren.

Gene moved from the classroom to administration when he earned a master’s degree from Appalachian State University.  He was principal at Cornelius Elementary for 11 years, Pawtucket for four, Statesville Road for three and finally Davidson Elementary for five years before retiring.  He is now an officer in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School personnel group.

Lifetime educators are Gene and Jean Davis

Gene and Jean are longtime members of Huntersville Baptist and for 25 years managed the church’s library.  Now they are active at The Pines with the greeting card sales, flower committee and the notification committee to start a phone tree in case of snow, ice, power outage, etc.  They love the Davidson Greenways and try to walk 2 ½ to 3 miles daily.

Hard to imagine that Gene Davis has time for Lions Club but he has been a member of the Cornelius/Lake Norman Lions Club since 1972 when former Cornelius Mayor Harold Little brought him to a meeting.  This year the small group of 12 very active members collected four huge boxes of school supplies for Cornelius Elementary – hence the photo.  The club meets the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 7 p.m. at The Cookhouse Restaurant on Torrence Chapel Road in Cornelius.  To get involved, call Angelo Lorusso Jr. at 704-962-7576.

This Saturday the club is sponsoring a collection box for old and unwanted eyeglasses at Cashion’s Quick Mart (I-77 at Exit 28, next to the ABC store) from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.  The eyeglasses collected will go to a regional Lions’ recycling center to be cleaned, sorted by category and distributed worldwide.  (Great idea to clean out that drawer of old prescription or reading glasses no longer in use.)  As a bonus when you drop off your donation, you can come home with a new broom.  There will be a wonderful assortment of indoor/outdoor “models” plus Mini-brooms decorated for fall and winter.

Get your pansies and come home on Route 21 to stop at Cashion’s and say hello to Gene Davis.  And next time you see this hale and hearty couple with the “same names,” walking in town, be sure to say Hello to Gene and Jean!

Richard Blackwelder

RICHARD

Thanks to Boo Hess who sent a link to a documentary called simply “Richard,” on You-Tube.  This 2008 film from Billy Hill productions features longtime Davidson resident Richard Landon Blackwelder.  It runs almost 11 minutes and is wonderful to watch.  Employees of The Soda Shop, where Richard spends a good deal of time, are featured as is Ken Norton of Raeford’s Barber Shop.  Ken has known Richard, born in 1936, since he was a child.  Also mentioned is Mike Mittleman who has been Richard’s “behind the scenes mentor” for decades.

You will recognize Richard from this video.  He walks downtown in Davidson daily from his home at the northern edge of town.  His belt is a bit too long and socks are mostly absent from his attire.  He loves to spin a yarn and from an early age was fascinated by trains.  (Rumor is that his classmates at North Mecklenburg High School wanted him to appear on the “$64,000 Question” but the show did not have a “train category.”)  Even today he can name all the stops on the Charlotte-Washington route – in order!

Oh, the tales Davidsonians can tell about Richard!  He is a “fixture” in our town and a symbol of how a community’s caring and concern can protect a very independent resident.  Be sure to watch the Davidson “portrait” video from the following link. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opbSo_uIzs8)

(For more about Richard, see the February 1999 article by Paige Williams “One man’s family,” in The Charlotte Observer. You can look it up free in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s online newspaper archive. You’ll need to login with your library card number.)

NOTEWORTHY NOTE

Each of the above items in some way concerns education.  Stephanie Anderson is making a difference with horticulture at North Mecklenburg High School.  Gene and Jean Davis spent their entire careers in education at the classroom and principal levels, including Davidson Elementary before the new school was built.  Richard Blackwelder started at the old Davidson Elementary and graduated from North Meck.  Now the old Davidson Elementary, which is currently Davidson International Baccalaureate (DIB) Middle School, is on the chopping block.

Education makes a difference and the age of the building holding the classrooms should not.  There are numerous buildings at Davidson College and at Chapel Hill, not to mention Ivy League schools, that are well over 100 years old.  The quality of the teachers and students plus the desire to learn is what makes these institutions outstanding – just like DIB.

Jenny Langford’s letter to Peter Gorman is worth reading.  (Oct. 9, 2010, letter to the editor, “Davidson IB’s success is in its diversity, not ‘privilege.’“) Close Davidson IB?  Costs too much to run, student body is too small, building is too old is what we hear from downtown. Those arguments pale when one considers that  DIB is the shining star in the Charlotte Mecklenburg school system.  What a shame the school board can’t recognize that and leave an excellent program alone.  Instead they seem hell-bent on “fixing what is NOT broken!”  What a shame for our town to lose our school and the memories we all have from years of learning in that proud brick building on South Street.

Send us your news

Have news for Around Davidson? Write to Brenda Barger at hbarger@bellsouth.net.