This season’s major trends include the rustic chic and retro chic looks, and shiny silver and gold are the two big colors. If you want to follow the rustic chic look, incorporate natural elements, such as moss, burlap, pinecones and birds into your decor. The retro chic look harkens back to grandmother’s holiday decorations. To achieve this look, you can string popcorn on the Christmas tree and go to vintage stores to look for retro looking ornaments, said Jade O’Connor, of {swoon} Events.

It may be difficult to decorate every single room within the house, so keep the living room, dining room and entrance decorated to give your home the holiday feel. O’Connor and Ashley Stalvey, also of {swoon} Events, recommend always having some sort of decoration on the mantle, by the fireplace and on the front door.

When decorating though, it is important to keep everything consistent.

“It looks better for the whole house to keep it consistent,” said Stalvey. “Choose one look and carry it throughout the house.”

Having multiple looks, different color schemes and going overboard with the holiday decorations can lead to Christmas overkill, something O’Connor and Stalvey suggest avoiding.

Stalvey and O’Connor also recommend having at least two trees: one for the kids where you can hang their handmade ornaments, and the other you can decorate to your style and taste.

Don’t let the stress of decorating overwhelm you, though. Remember to have fun and bring the holidays into the home.

“I think it’s necessary to give in to the holiday spirit, and have fun and have Christmas balls hanging from the light fixtures,” said O’Connor. “Embrace the holiday spirit.”

From cultural to familial to wacky, various traditions surround the holiday season. Thanksgiving calls for mountains of food, long forgotten family members, and for those lucky enough to be Bulldog fans, a great football game. While everyone else relaxes on the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving, Assistant Head Coach Rodney Garner and his team will be working.  Going home for Thanksgiving is not an option for many players. Coach Garner and his wife, Kimberly Garner, have graciously opened their home, and every Thanksgiving upwards of 60 people spend it with the Garners.

“It’s something that the players look forward to. It’s something that I know my family looks forward to,” said Coach Garner.

Mrs. Garner remembers the first Thanksgiving with her husband and stepdaughter: “It was just the three of us and some Cornish hens. We didn’t even feel like making the whole turkey.” Used to a full house during the holidays, the thought of a solitary Thanksgiving was unbearable.

The tradition also stems from Coach Garner’s memories of being confined to the dinning halls for Thanksgiving dinner when he played football for Auburn. “I truly hated it, so it’s just a way for me to give those guys a sense of being at home with family on that special holiday. Being able to open my home to them and just being able to spend that family time with them,” he said.

The guest list changes every year. The rule is, “you get an invitation once and after that, just show up,” said Garner. “It’s a hodge-podge of people, and I think the players really enjoy it because it reminds them of being around family.”

Feeding such a crowded table can be daunting, but “everyone sort of chips in,” said Coach Garner. His aunts in Alabama, his mother, and his wife’s family in Augusta all contribute to the feast. Everything in a traditional Thanksgiving meal is represented: turkey, green beans, black-eyed peas, dressing, macaroni and cheese, and numerous desserts and side dishes.

Each guest is instructed to “fill in the blank” with their favorite Thanksgiving dish to round out the meal. Garner begins preparation in early November by preparing pans of macaroni and cheese. She makes all of the vegetables and cornbread the night before, and each year the turkey cooking method changes.

Coach Garner’s side of the family makes and freezes big aluminum pans of dressing and most surprisingly, chitlins. He gets his aunt to prepare 40 gallons every year. “I’m still shocked about the number of guys that like chitlins,” said Coach Garner. Without fail, they are the only item that runs out.

Not once has there been a shortage of food. “Somehow, we always have more than enough. It’s definitely a miracle,” said Garner. Any leftover food is donated to the men’s homeless shelter here in Athens. The Garners discovered a few years ago that the men’s homeless shelter is often overlooked during the holidays, so they send all of their leftovers there.

Their day begins around 2 p.m. with guests milling around the house, and at 3 p.m., everyone gathers in the den to bless the food.  The meal is served buffet style with guests trying to wedge in any seat available. “We have tables set up in the basement, in the dining room, in the living room, in the den and in the kitchen,” explained Garner.

When everyone finishes eating, the players and kids move down to the basement to watch football or play video games. Garner’s children look at the players “like big brothers and live playgrounds,” she said. “I think it helps the guys to not be quite so homesick too.”

Senior defensive end, DeAngelo Tyson, has joined the Garners for Thanksgiving each year since arriving at UGA in 2008. “I enjoy going to Coach Garner’s house for Thanksgiving because it’s such a family environment,” he says. “Most of us don’t get to go home for Thanksgiving, so it’s nice to have a place to go where you feel comfortable and can enjoy each others company,” Tyson explains.  Furthermore, Tyson thinks that the Garners provide a home away from home during the holidays.

Garner most appreciates the players pulling out and setting up all of her Christmas decorations. “The reason we decorate kind of early is so we have time to enjoy it.” If the season goes well, Christmas will be interrupted by bowl games.

Even after players graduate, the Thanksgiving tradition leaves a deep impression. Former players send Garner messages on Facebook saying they are returning, how much they miss attending, or reminders to save a turkey leg. “It’s fun to see the guys come back. That let’s me know that they really appreciated it,” she said.

This Thanksgiving crowds descended on homes across Athens, and in one house, a large, very extended family gathered, as Coach Garner explains, “to be together and be thankful” because on Thanksgiving, they’re not Georgia football players, they’re just family.

At Children’s Hospital in Atlanta, a wide, contagious smile spreads across the face of a patient as she becomes an anchor in a broadcast news segment. She has briefly escaped her daunting reality of a lengthy hospital stay and numerous tests and treatments. Nearby, another patient is enthralled with his role of radio D.J. as he uses state-of-the art equipment.

Pediatric hospitals are filled with cutting edge medical technology, but normally hospitals do not also house professional media equipment that is accessible to children. But thanks to the Ryan Seacrest Foundation, impressive, interactive multi-media centers, named “The Voice”, are available for patients to explore at both Children’s Hospital in Atlanta and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The Ryan Seacrest Foundation aims to enlighten, entertain and educate patients through the creative outlets of media. “The Voice” serves as an encouraging, fun distraction from long days spent confined to a hospital bed undergoing countless tests. Celebrity guests are frequent visitors to the center, and they offer special performances and loving attention to the children.

Journalism students, including Grady College students, intern with “The Voice” and gain applicable career skills and a rewarding experience. “I’ve had too many amazing experiences at “The Voice” to count. I really can’t put into words how amazing it is to see these kids who come in so shy and often sad or discouraged and see them completely transform by the time they leave,” said Katie Sorrels, a Grady student and current intern with “The Voice”.

Ryan Seacrest, a celebrity in the entertainment arena and host of American Idol and E!News, formed his foundation as a way to positively impact the lives of sick and seriously injured children. Seacrest’s parents and sister share in the philanthropic efforts, vision and expansion of the Foundation with each family member also serving as a team member. Meredith Seacrest, Seacrest’s sister and Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Foundation said, “We are already in the works with Children’s Hospital Boston and Children’s Hospital of Orange County to bring our entertainment program to these leading pediatric facilities.”

Clearly, Seacrest’s stardom and success has not gone all to his head, as his generosity is giving sick children the opportunity to become stars and shine at “The Voice”. While celebrity status, within the hospital, may ensue for many of these young stars, “The Voice” offers much more then fame – namely, courage to fight, belief in themselves and the hope for a bright, healthy future.

To contribute to The Ryan Seacrest Foundation, visit www.ryanseacrestfoundation.org. “Your generosity will help us lift the spirits of sick kids and provide a positive and entertaining form of distraction,” said Meredith Seacrest.

Jamey Thaw will take the reins of Athens Regional Health Services, the parent company of Athens Regional Medical Center, at the end of the year, stepping into the role of president and CEO as Jack Drew retires from a 29-year career leading the Athens hospital.

Before he agreed to take the job as the president and CEO of Athens Reigonal, Thaw had the same job at Broward General Medical Center and Chris Evert Children’s Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a combined 716-bed tertiary public facility with a trauma center, neonatal services and five accredited residency programs, as well as a palliative care fellowship program.

A native of Mt. Vernon, N.Y., has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in health administration – both from University of South Carolina in Columbia.

He met his wife Rebecca while both were working on their master’s in health administration at USC.

The Thaws have two daughters, Jillian, 22, who recently graduated from Emory University and Olivia, 20, a sophomore at Louisiana State University. They also have two dogs – Piper, a Siberian husky and Zoe, a cross between a Maltese and a poodle.

One night in late October, the couple delivered 120 pizzas to hospital employees working the night shift. They planned to visit a morning shift, bringing biscuits to all the hospital workers.

That’s the kind of couple they are.

Don Nelson interviewed the Thaws recently about their decision to come to Athens, what they like about the Classic City and what they see as their future here.

AM: How would you describe your management style?

JT: I would probably describe it as more casual than formal. I try to recognize that the (staff) are the real heroes. It’s a humbling experience to walk in and see what they do. When we visited with staff (Oct. 26) we went in the neonatal intensive care unit where there was little baby there that was 1.2 pounds. My only goal and Rebecca’s (in that visit) was to thank the staff for what they’ve done and what they do. I’m at the bottom and they’re at the top, and they’re the ones that make a difference in people’s lives. We realize these people work awfully hard and sometimes not in the best circumstances. So my style is simply to be incredibly in awe of what they do I guess. And to be accessible – to be on a first-name basis and open to them calling me and emailing me, which they do, and to make sure I’m respectful and get back to them.

AM: What else does Jamey Thaw like to do in his time off?

JT: Truth be told, and this may be kind of hokey, but I prefer spending time with (Rebecca). You know, being empty-nesters for a couple of years. We’ve gotten some time to be together and to go on the town and visit the culture here. We do enjoy dining out, and we like to travel on occasion. I’d like to start playing golf again.

AM: How do you like Athens compared to the West Ft. Lauderdale community in Florida where you lived?

JT: I don’t know that there are any words we could say as to how much we love Athens and the Athens community. We went back (to Ft. Lauderdale) a couple of weeks ago and were preparing for the move, and for people who were born in Athens or who have been here for a while, they don’t realize how wonderful it is until you go somewhere and you realize there are no smiles, no hand shakes, no friendliness. We love Athens. We’re excited. We’ve purchased a home in Clarke County. We’re excited about that.

AM: I understand you’re a foodie?

JT: I like to eat. I can say that. If that fits that description, then I would say yes.

AM: I think of a foodie as someone who not only likes to eat, to cook, to read about food and all aspects of food. So you’re a cook?

JT:  I enjoy it. Yes. It’s fun. It’s therapeutic for me. We enjoy it. The kids have grown up in a culture of trying different things, and I don’t think there’s anything they wouldn’t try. We’re kind of adventurous.

AM: Did you have times where you would get in the kitchen and all of you would cook together?

JT: And now too, though the older they get the more they want us to do it for them. And we’re a good fit. Rebecca’s a good baker and a dessert maker, and I’m not, so it’s kind of synergistic there. And the kids are kind of in there too, so it’s a lot of fun. The big thing is we’d cook every Sunday where we’d have the family dinner.

AM: Do you like experimenting with new recipes?

JT: Sure, we’ll try something and when it doesn’t turn out, I don’t take it personally that I didn’t do a very good job. So we’ll try anything, pretty  much.

AM: What’s your favorite thing to cook?

JT: Oh, I can’t answer that. (Turning to Rebecca) What do you think?

RT: His short ribs are awesome. He cooks for two days for his short ribs. They’re amazing. (The recipe) is from a famous chef in New York City.

AM: What’s the chef’s name?

JT: There’s a restaurant called Daniel Boulud. I owe all this to my father, who has passed away for a number of years now and he was born in the Bronx, but he was very much into gastronomy. He never cooked a day in his life, but he always enjoyed going to the restaurants. When we grew up we were 15 minutes away from mid-town Manhattan, so I was exposed to everything from pizza to French food.

AM: Rebecca, you managed an urgent care clinic in Florida before moving to Athens, Do you plan to look for a professional position in Athens?

RT: No. I would like to dedicate my time here to being a support. I would like to be involved in the hospital in various aspects that are needed, whether it’s the foundation or just projects. And I would like to be involved in the community as well. Again, the whole concept here is community, and it’s not just Athens Regional, it’s Athens, it’s Clarke County, it’s the area. We see our roles here as being community based as well. I’d like to do as much as I can to become involved and help out as much as possible.

AM: Rebecca, you’re into fitness aren’t you? What got you into exercise?

RT: It was a lifestyle change that I made a decision about 11 years ago. I said, “OK, the kids are getting older and I’m going to concentrate on my health.” We just gradually integrated some more healthy decisions in cooking as well as fitness and exercise. I became certified as a group fitness instructor, and I actually taught classes in Florida at LA Fitness. I may teach here eventually, but I’m enjoying just participating.

AM: What type of exercise to you enjoy?

RT: I like a variety. I like zumba. The Fight Club at Omni is a lot of fun. I have a personal trainer that I’m utilizing. I like weight training. For a woman, that’s very unusual, but that’s probably my favorite. I really like resistance and weight training. I like it all, boot camp, you name it.

AM: What are your observations of Athens in the few months you’ve been here?

RT: I really like the energy and kindness. People are happy, and it’s nice to see smiles no  matter where you go. I like to tell the story about the post office. It’s not very often you go into the post office wherever you are in the country and the people are nice. I had an experience here where they were just as nice as could be and that made a huge impact on me, because believe me, there have been some instances I have witnessed at post offices that were not very nice. Little things like that and people, anybody willing to help strangers is nice.

AM: Is there anything here in Athens you’ve particularly enjoyed doing?

RT: We go out to dinner alot. We are in a temporary furnished condo, and we use that as an excuse to go out to dinner a lot. And it’s fun because we haven’t had a meal out in Athens that we didn’t like. That’s incredible.

JT: Or service. I mean, again, I  know we’ve harped on this, but coming from a little different part of the United States, and then coming here, it’s not a subtle difference. The people in the area in Clarke and Oconee and Northeast Georgia, we just thank them so much for their hospitality and their graciousness. It’s just wonderful. We’re spoiled. They’ve spoiled their customers.

“It was a natural thing for me to be a Bulldog fan,” said Barbara Lucas, who grew up in Watkinsville and married former UGA lineman standout Cicero Lucas nearly 49 years ago.

Cicero played as a Georgia football guard and fullback from 1955 through 1958 and won UGA’s William K. Jenkins Award for most valuable lineman in 1957. The sterling silver tray Lucas received for that honor joins a comprehensive menagerie of Georgia memorabilia that the Lucases showcase in the recreation-room basement of their home at The Georgia Club. The displays include some of Cicero’s high school football accolades as well.

The Lucases use what they call the Bulldog Room, or Georgia Room, for entertaining, and at least once year they host a UGA home game get-together there. The elaborate collection in the room comprises framed football jerseys, prints by cartoonist Jack Davis, a button collection, scrapbooks and a compilation of almost every football program since 1970. Some of the pictures on the walls of the Bulldog Room date back to the 1960s and 1970s.

Barbara created her UGA button collection using buttons with the team logo from every game and each item bears the date and where the game was played. The buttons are displayed on a mat made out of lapels.

The Lucases also boast a framed print they bought on Bourbon Street in New Orleans for UGA’s 1980 National Championship game against Notre Dame. It’s a drawing few people have seen, Barbara said.

“It’s got all 11 (football) players in a buggy with Herschel Walker sitting in the middle and with (defensive coordinator) Erk (Russell) and (head coach) Vince (Dooley) driving the horse,” she said. “In back are 11 tombstones with each name of the teams we beat.”

The Lucases had stored all their Bulldog material in boxes at their previous house, where they had lived for 35 years. They moved to The Georgia Club six years ago after Cicero retired from his job with state government. During the eight months that their new home was being built, they began sorting through the boxes, making scrapbooks and framing the memorabilia.

They love tailgating and attend all Georgia’s home games, Barbara said.

“I think I’ve missed one game in Athens in 48 years,” she said.

They held their home game house party last year the Friday night before the Tennessee game, and this season likely will host their annual soiree before the Mississippi State game, Barbara said. They usually do their tailgating after the games, depending on what time the contests start.

Asked to what she attributes her strong feelings as a fan, Barbara said, “Tradition, of course, to have family that played, but there’s also that closeness and uniqueness of a small college town.”

By Joe VanHoose

Harold Henderson has one of the few soul food restaurants open on Sundays, but the after-church crowd isn’t driving the business.

“The church crowd’s good, but college students are who fill this place up,” said Henderson, the owner of Food for the Soul on Broad Street. “They come in here looking to recover from the night before. They’re in here all the time.”

That’s one of the advantages of living in a college town. Restaurants like Food for the Soul, Peaches, Chonell’s, Weaver D’s and Wilson’s fill in the gap for students longing for their mothers’ home cooking.

Call it soul food, country food or just home cooking. They all make up the same genre — fried and baked meats, too many vegetables to squeeze on one plate and a homemade roll or biscuit.

Ever since the University of Georgia opened, home-cooked meals could be found in Athens, starting out inside actual homes. It used to be hard to find a boarding house that didn’t have a full kitchen on the side.

The boarding houses are gone now, giving way to stand-alone meat ‘n’ three restaurants all across Clarke County. And while students stay in apartments and dorms now, they still like to get their homemade meals.

“We do cater to a lot of college students, but not exclusively,” said Ruby Kelly, who runs Chonell’s. “We even feed some fraternities and sororities sometimes.”

Kelly has a secret about Chonell’s that she’s not quite ready to give away. But Shonda, a fellow cook at the 16-year-old restaurant, dropped a hint.

“Chonell? That’s a made up name, you know,” she said. “It’s just something we came up with.”

“Well, it’s not a specific person,” Kelly added. “We didn’t want to highlight any one person. We all had to work together to make this place work. I guess we’ll reveal the true meaning later.”

Faux name aside, a few details offset Chonell’s from the other soul food restaurants in town. Like all the rest, the restaurant serves up all of the fried meats and slow-cooked veggies.

But Kelly has something a little different on the menu: Chicken ‘n’ waffles. The combination of sweet and savory has proven itself to be a hit with those brave enough to try it.

“We had a lot of people coming in that didn’t want cornbread or a biscuit, so we just put a waffle on the plate,” Kelly said. “Everyone seemed to like it.”

Kelly also cooks her more conventional food a little different, too. She doesn’t go heavy on the butter and salt, but her green beans and mac ‘n’ cheese still pack plenty of flavor.

She has a simple rule: Don’t put anything on your customer’s table that you wouldn’t put on her own. She also has an old newspaper article enlarged on one of the walls that links Southern food to long life.

If the stories Mike Strickland tells are true, there could be some validity to that article. Strickland’s Restaurant has been in business for more than 50 years, first in Downtown Athens and — for the last 16 years — on Atlanta Highway in Bogart.

The change in address hasn’t changed the clientele. Actually, a few regular diners have been eating at the restaurant since day one.

“Our regular coffee table starts at about 7 a.m. every morning,” he said. “You’ll have lawyers, accountants, farmers, retirees, just people from all walks of life here.”

That’s the case at all of the soul food restaurants in town. The love for fried chicken and pork chops crosses all ages, races and professions.

None of these restaurants have anything more than old, simple furniture, a few antique signs and landscape pictures on the wall and bottles of hot peppers in vinegar on the tables. There are no wait staffs to take orders.

But there aren’t waiters and extravagance around kitchen tables either, Henderson points out. These institutions don’t have a lot of trained chefs.

They just have a mother’s touch.

“My mother and sister and I were just good cooks at home, so we just ran with this,” Henderson said. “We get all kinds of people who come in and tell us how good the food is.

“We have our good days and bad days. But there are a lot more good than bad.”

Clarke County boasts at least nine restaurants that serve soul, country or home cooking buffet style:

Chonell’s Home Cooking

Food for the Soul

Honey B’s Deli

Peaches Fine Foods

Plantation Buffet

Strickland’s

Talk of the Town Country Cooking

Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods

Wilson’s Soul Food

Noah Saunders bends his work to create human expression

By John W. English

“Wire is an untapped medium,” Noah Saunders began the conversation in his home-gallery-studio in Normaltown.  “I like the way wire feels and that I can bend it into human expression.”

Saunders’ living room walls are covered with his small and refined portraits in wire.

“I start with a portrait in mind and try to express his or her mood.  I use lines to create a three-dimensional effect and to create feeling.  I begin with the eyes and take an idea as far as I can at the moment,” he explained.

Saunders said his work process is similar to how Paul Klee once described it —  “taking a line for a walk.”

“I don’t do drawings in advance,” Saunders said. “I just start and see where it goes, where happenstance takes it.”

“Each piece takes almost a month to create,” Saunders continued.  “There is no soldering — the construction is based simply on tension.  I just discovered 17-gauge wire, which has memory. I can bend it and it will hold its shape. I use smaller-gauge steel wire for details and shading and sometimes use copper wire for hair.”

Saunders said his portraits are Athens archetypes, including the post punk set — men with earrings and soul patches and women with frizzy locks. He also studies models in contemporary fashion magazines and classic sculptures by Michaelangelo and Rodin.  He said he never places restrictions on the final form of a piece — some are round, some square, some free-standing on a base and some suspended from the ceiling.

Saunders said he has been working with wire since he first saw a replica of Alexander Calder’s Wire Circus in the fifth grade.  He began working with pipe cleaners and quickly switched to wire.  At age 16 he was asked to make two life-sized crucifixes for Alabama churches that had been destroyed by racist arson.

“That was the first glimpse at the power of my art,” he recalled.

A couple of years later on a trip to Munich he discovered German Expressionist art and realized that wire could be as serious a form of artistic expression as wood block, drawing or etching. So, he committed himself to working in wire and began to “sculpt the people and postures of everyday life.”  He also acknowledged that because wire has no art ancestors, he has more freedom to experiment and play.

Saunders said he’s interested in the diversity of expressions he can create.

“Observing a piece from different angles will show different aspects of a person and slightly different emotions.  Shadows also will give off different expressions.

“For me, creating is an experience,” he reflected.  “I’m totally involved in the process. My ultimate goal is harmony. If a finished piece also looks pretty, that’s all the better.”

Saunders said he works sitting on the floor in his basement studio, and that he sticks to a five-day-work schedule, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.  “That’s my magical period to work,” he said.

Now 31, Saunders said he’s been creating wire art for 15 years and is really happy that people like what he’s doing.  He’s been in shows at Aurum Studios, Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation, HOFP Gallery in Columbia, S.C., the Michael Carlos Museum at Emory University, and several galleries in Atlanta and elsewhere. He’s also just sold a piece to Athens Academy to be installed in a new building.

Tricia Ruppersburg, of Aurum Studios, admires the magnetism of his work.

“When Noah’s pieces are in our front window, they really draw people into the store to look at them more closely,” she said.

In recent times, Saunders has been expanding his oeuvre and has begun to make jewelry in brass and ceramic pots.  His handmade pottery is distinctive in more than one way; not only do they have copper bands and bases, but they also come with “Imaginative Geography.”  On his website, Ancient Ephemera, he constructs a whole “ancient” universe about each piece and its “dig site,” which is both academic and playful.  He also enjoys the open-based community reaction to his pottery and its fanciful mythology.

“The interpretation of the work comes from the viewer,” he said.

Saunders, who grew up in Atlanta, moved to Athens 11 years ago and has high praise for his adopted hometown.

“It’s cheap to live here, accessible, easy to meet people and do creative ventures with other artists,” he said. “I make art full time these days and am free to play and create the world I want.  Life is abundant in Athens.”

Anyone seeking a weekend day trip that doesn’t require a lot of driving but does offer a two-for-one deal can’t go wrong heading to Oglethorpe County and visiting Crawford and Lexington.

Only about a 12- and 15-mile drive respectively east from Athens along U.S. Highway 78, Crawford and Lexington — Oglethorpe’s county seat — are small towns with historic architecture, interesting shops and businesses and some very unique outdoor excursions.

Incorporated in 1778, Crawford — representing the larger of the two towns — houses a population of about 900. Though Crawford has fewer points of interest to draw visitors, the small town nevertheless is worth a stop for its historic homes and buildings, small shops and a great new restaurant.

“Alon’s in Crawford, (opened earlier this year) has become the real talk of the town and in Oglethorpe County,” said Linda Helmly who runs Oglethorpe Fresh in Lexington. “Alon’s has put a new face on food in Oglethorpe.”

Run by chef Alon Wilson, who prepares fresh meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, the small cafe generally serves his own style of American food.

Other Crawford eating establishments include Papa’s Pizza to

Go, No. 1 Chinese and Chili Dogs.

Whether you eat in Crawford or not, check out the old train depot which is undergoing renovation, said Linda Parrish who handles tourism for Oglethorpe County and runs the 1818 Greek Revival Hummingbird House bed and breakfast on Church Street in Lexington.

The old Crawford depot houses the Oglethorpe County Chamber of Commerce and serves as a community meeting space.  Parrish expects the renovation of the area around the depot to include constructing a pavilion and park . The spot will serve as a stop on the Firefly Trail, a rails-to-trails walking and biking route between Union Point and Athens.

While visiting Crawford, you should also stroll down Woodlawn Drive and admire the old Crawford Baptist and Crawford Methodist churches which stand side by side and face a tree-sheltered park-like area featuring several large stone picnic tables. Several beautiful historic homes also can be viewed farther along Woodlawn.

On the south side of Hwy. 78, Park Avenue affords another quick tour of a variety of historic houses and buildings, including an old school house being renovated and used for local theatrical productions.

There are not many small shops to explore, but The Art Place on Hwy. 78  in downtown Crawford is worth dropping in.

In the few miles that separate Crawford and Lexington, there are several more quick food options — Bell’s Food Store, Subway, Blazers, and the Fried Chicken Express.

Lexington, with a population of about 260, serves as the county seat of Oglethorpe County and was incorporated in 1806. Visitors can spend a few hours taking in the historic structures in the heart of the small town and venturing to several places of note relatively close by.

Helmly and Parrish have both been working to help revitalize the commercial strip into a “mini-mall” in downtown Lexington, and they  have concentrated on marketing the town for tourism business.

The core of retail businesses comprise “antique” shops that present a mix of merchandise.

Lexington Antiques, run by Ronnie Boggs offers more furniture, and probably represents more of a true antique shop, Helmly said.

John’s Sordid Past offers surplus goods and some vintage items. Two Sister’s Antiques sells antique pieces and gift items, but also provides pecan cracking. Main Street Treasures, Jim’s Junk Shop and Century House Antiques also provide some interesting shopping.

Adding to the mix of downtown shops is Helmly’s Oglethorpe Fresh Heritage and Art Co-Op which serves multipurposes, including as a meeting place and as a repository for books on Oglethorpe County history. The store also carries arts and crafts from Oglethorpe residents. Visitors to the store may discover decorative eggs, spun and dyed wool, paintings, beeswax candles and other handmade goods.

Oglethorpe Fresh also hosts craft classes in bead artistry, canvas art, music lessons and more, Helmly said.

“The whole concept of Oglethorpe Fresh is to promote local art,” Helmley said.

Across the street, she has organized the Oglethorpe Fresh Farmer’s Market which is held each Saturday during the growing season.

By Chris Starrs

Although Susan Wilson admits she doesn’t have a green thumb and adds that the conditions in her yard aren’t exactly conducive to growing things, she’s been gardening up a storm this year.

The longtime director of the Garnett Ridge Boys and Girls Club, Wilson joined with close to a dozen area families earlier this year to work on a community garden in the neighborhood. She said that several families involved in the small garden have children who are Boys and Girls Club regulars.

“I signed up for a plot because I wanted to have a garden at my house, but my yard is terrible for gardening, and I’m a terrible gardener because I always forget to water,” Wilson says. “I was hoping that this way, if I took kids over to garden that I’d remember to water.”

The Garnett Ridge garden is one of eight sites in Athens-Clarke County under the developmental eye of the Athens Land Trust, which received a $287,000 federal grant — to be used over a three-year period — to develop neighborhood vegetable and flower patches.

Other garden sites in the Athens area — several of which already existed before the grant was sought and received — include Hancock Corridor; the Brooklyn Community Garden off Hawthorne Avenue; Boulevard; Hill Chapel Baptist Church at West Broad and Hancock; Smokey Road, off Danielsville Road; the Pinewoods Community; Riverwood Apartments off Tallassee Road; the Athens Community Council on Aging on Hoyt Street; and a garden worked by sustainable-living devotees Athens Permaculture near Broad Street.

“The focus of the grant is to create opportunities for growing food in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods throughout the county,” says Kate Austin, Athens Land Trust’s community garden coordinator. “Our program offers support through materials and to cover start-up costs of gardens.”

A national trend

The community garden concept isn’t a novel one, as the American Community Garden Association reports that there are more than 18,000 community gardens in the United States and Canada. What was pleasantly surprising to Austin — who works with Athens Land Trust horticulture advisor Dani Adams — was how rapidly several Classic City neighborhoods were eager to be part of the initiative.

“It has come together quickly,” says Austin, who earned a landscape architecture degree from the University of Georgia last summer. “It’s a very exciting program, and it’s wonderful to be able to go to communities and talk with community members about the possibilities and knowing we have resources to help with the startup of gardens. That’s such an obstacle at the beginning — where do we begin, how to design, how to build beds.”

Besides working with grant money that came via the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the local community garden movement has been ably supported by the state’s Cooperative Extension Service, Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful and UGA’s Horticulture Department.

“We have some wonderful community partners working with us,” Austin says. “We’re working with the Cooperative Extension Service and Amanda Tedrow, one of the agents who runs the master gardener program and does a lot of outreach in community. We also work with Athens-Clarke County Beautiful, which operates the Tool Shed Program, a tool-lending program for community groups interested in doing projects.

“And the Horticulture Department is a community partner; David Berle is a professor there, and he’s done a lot of work on community garden organizations and is actually the author of the grant proposal. He’s been very involved.”

Gardening expert

Berle says that during his time as a UGA instructor, he often has included a community service component in his courses to address local poverty issues. The North Carolina native, who served as a county extension agent in his home state before moving to Athens a decade ago, has perhaps the most experience of anyone in town on community garden matters.

“I didn’t invent the community garden concept or anything like that,” Berle quips. “I started getting asked to come to several elementary schools, and some schools either already had gardens or seemed interested in the idea, so we tied that in with the community service aspect. For the last couple of years I’ve done more and more things in partnerships with the Athens Land Trust, which had an interest in community gardens before they got this grant. So two or three years ago, things started coming together.”

Berle and his students have had a hand in all eight of the gardens developed by the Athens Land Trust’s grant, and he says the neighborhood plots often bring disparate groups together for a common cause.

“The idea of getting people within a community working together is always good,” says Berle, who this summer taught a class in sustainable food production. “It’s people thinking about their community in a different way. People see a garden growing and get ideas — in some communities, the gardens have encouraged people to set up their own gardens at home. The community gardens seem to be something that gets everybody interested.”

Spirit of cooperation

Wilson adds that she enjoys seeing the spirit of cooperation at the Garnett Ridge garden, where participants are growing tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, thyme and watermelons, among other produce.

“I love seeing the different families working in the same garden,” she says. “I think that helps people meet each other that might not otherwise and get to know each other better. A lot of families have gardens at their house, but it’s nice to have a garden in its own area where people can work together and learn more about gardening and share what they know. Over time, better bonds will be built between the families — they’ll get to know each other better and get to share what they’ve grown.”

Although plenty of resources are available to community gardeners, there’s one supply — water — that a number of gardens don’t have easy access to. Because the Garnett Ridge garden is located near a recently developed soccer field on a plot of land that went mostly unused, there’s no nearby water source for the garden.

“At Garnett Ridge, water has really been a challenge because the site is far away from any structure so it’s hard to set up things,” Austin says. “We have rain barrels out there, but along a wooded area, it’s tough to catch rainwater. … for the success and longevity of that garden, we’re going to need a reliable water source out there.

“We really have to find a long-term solution that will be economically feasible and efficient,” adds Wilson.

“The Boulevard community garden has similar issues,” Austin says. “Members have been bringing their own water in and Georgia Power had agreed to set up a rain barrel for them so water is being captured. But as involvement and interest grows in that garden, there’s a need for even more water.”

Food for thought

Although it hasn’t yet been developed, a special community garden is planned for the new campus of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, which one day will move from its downtown location to property the church purchased on Epps Bridge Road. The “Mary Garden” won’t create produce, but it is expected to provide food for thought.

Jean Bertrand, a St. Joseph’s parishioner and assistant dean for academic affairs for UGA’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, says the garden concept was hatched by a group of women who attended a church-sponsored retreat four years ago and have remained together for monthly prayer meetings.

“We were looking for a service project for the new church and we decided to have a garden, which we’re calling a Mary Garden,” Bertrand says. “We’ve raised about $4,000 through our annual yard sale. We want to create a space that’s peaceful and beautiful and gives people a moment to sit down and reflect, and we want to dedicate it to Mary.”

Bertrand adds that another parishioner has offered to construct a grotto on the grounds of the new church, which she thinks would be an excellent location for the garden.

With a tremendous startup in place, Austin envisions even more community gardens springing up in the years to come.

“We’re absolutely looking at our next set of community gardens to help get started,” says Austin, who would like to develop a market garden for the sale of fruits and vegetables harvested. “We have some proposed sites that haven’t quite gotten there yet.

“We’re looking out for other community members interested in having a community garden in their area. We’ve talked to folks over in the East Athens area about having a garden, possibility near the East Athens Community Center neighborhood. That’s an area we’ll be looking at next.”

Name: Cassie Pickrell

Hails from: Thomson

Experience: Rye Bar is her first bartending job; started in November

Signature shot: Pineapple upside down cake shot, a Rye Bar specialty Signature drink: Her own invention, the Sassy Cassie — vodka, peach schnapps, banana liqueur, orange juice, pineapple juice and cranberry juice; shot or drink

Best part of bartending: Interacting with people and getting to know them; making sure they are having a good time; and enjoying the live music.

Worst part of bartending: Having to kick people out who are too drunk or misbehaving

Career goal: Speech therapist Likes: football games, live music; sunning in the summer; people watching; specialty shops; exploring and trying new and unique places

Favorite color: black

Favorite movie: “Billy Madison” Wants to go to: Australia