Southern Documentary Journal

A blog by Houck Medford
Journal

Dixie Classic Fair celebrates 129 years of tradition … where everyone’s a hero

[portfolio_slideshow] Since 1882, farmers, homemakers, and families have been plowing the isles of the entertainment and paddocks of family agriculture and livestock to celebrate the fall cornucopia of Piedmont North Carolina.  Originally held downtown in the Brown's Tobacco Warehouse at Main and Fifth Streets, the Fair was once known as the Piedmont Tobacco Fair to coincide with the harvest season of the region's main crop and industry - tobacco. Food and its consumption have become one of…

0 Comments
October 3, 2011
Journal

Looking for the best tomato … sandwich

A summer joy of mine is feasting out on an-of-this-world tomato sandwich whose juices run down the non-lickable inside of your fingers and drip from your chin as you devour one.  This is  presuming that you started with a great tomato.  I might live in the wrong decade or the wrong place, but I am having a tough time just finding predictably the necessary first ingredient - a great tomato.  When I was growing up, a great tomato was…

0 Comments
October 2, 2011
Journal

Carl Galie wows Winston-Salem with mammoth exhibit ….

photo credit: Marshall Tyler   L-R: Kevin Adams, Patty Adams, Carl Galie, K.B. Medford, Houck Medford Carl Galie, renown North Carolina conservation photographer, has documented the vanishing beauty of the coal country, focusing his attention on the devastating effect mountaintop removal of coal is having on our nation’s water resources. Carl was awarded the first Art For Conservation Grant in August 2010 for his work on mountaintop removal.  Additional sponsorship has been provided by Appalachian Voices,…

1 Comment
September 21, 2011
Journal

Sliding Rock still has it allure …

When I growing up as a Boy Scout in the early sixties, a venue that was always popular and a highlight of the summer was the trip to Sliding Rock, outside of Brevard in the Pisgah National Forest.  It was always combined with a meritorious hike - minimum five miles -- to satisfy a merit badge requirement or equivalent in rank progression.  Then, you parked on the side of the road, scrambled down the bank;…

0 Comments
September 15, 2011
Journal

Migrant Workers vs. Migrant Medfords

I was caught by an image in my native county this past weekend when I passed by this migrant home (it's tomato picking time) in the Cruso Valley of Haywood County. The immediate image appeal was the backlighting, the colorful clothes hung on a chain link fence, and a flash-back to having spent time in the Third World.   The children playing on the other side of the chain-link fence retreated instinctively to inside their…

1 Comment
September 12, 2011
Journal

Triathletes featured on new hospital interstate billboard in Winston-Salem …

(L to R: Greg Warren, PA; K.B. Medford, PA; Don Heck, MD; Robert Preli, MD) The business of health care attracts individuals who want to be healthy, and such is the case as evidenced with four  health care professionals from Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem.  These athletes participated in the Lake Logan International Triathlon on August 6 at the Lake Logan Episcopal Center near Canton, NC.

0 Comments
August 24, 2011
Journal

We don’t have kids ….

Some one that we met for the first time over the weekend asked us if we had kids? I used to hesitate and stutter because whatever answer I may have given might come across as an editorial on my virility.  We are actually very proud of our only child -"Mr. Guinea"  - who never asks for money, keys to the car, nor puts his dirty clothes in the laundry basket.  When we are away and he does…

0 Comments
August 23, 2011
Journal

The Second Coming ….

When I went to school, I could carry everything that I owned in the trunk of my car; but my mother reminded me later that it took more than several car trunk fulls to get me home. My wife and I celebrated to some small degree being a part of a new school arrival with the delivery a "care-package" to Katherine and Emily Shields ... a duct-taped over-stuffed box and not one, but two new…

0 Comments
August 22, 2011
Journal

Super Kid Volunteers!

The added value and quality of life enhancer for any competitive athletic event are the volunteers.  Whether it be a foot race, bike race, or triathlon venue, the event is always gauged as a success or not by the quality of volunteer support.  Race promoters are always concerned about "do I have enough volunteers?"  For the Lake Logan International Triathlon, volunteer support is the best I or anyone that I spoke with has ever encountered…

0 Comments
August 10, 2011
Lake Logan International Triathlon 2011

Lake Logan International Triathlon Unparalleled for Location

The Lake Logan International Triathlon preparation begins before sunrise. The original triathlon at Lake Logan celebrates its 6th anniversary as part of the Lake Logan Multi Sport Festival.  The international distance race has quickly become one of the premier races in the Southeast, attracting athletes from across the country. Lake Logan and the Lake Logan Episcopal Center may be the most beautiful triathlon venues in the country.  The swim in this pristine mountain lake has a unique…

0 Comments
August 8, 2011