The village will be getting more lively this week as the Rugby Commissary is scheduled to reopen on Tuesday (with post office services resuming). There are also several activities scheduled for this weekend - English Country Dancing on Friday night, a volunteer work day for cleaning the Community Building on Saturday, and the Community Potluck on Saturday night.
See Calendar below for details of this weekends events.
FIRE HALL BURGLARIZED AGAIN
Community Input Needed
By Tom and Benita Howell
Someone broke into the fire hall yet again last Saturday or Sunday and disabled both of the fire trucks stored there. This is at least the third time the fire hall has been burgled during the past year.
Items stolen from the fire hall include an air compressor; chain saws; hand tools including an expensive penetrating nozzle for getting between layers of siding in fires; all gasoline in the trucks (siphoned); electric cords to a number of small appliances, including computers, stored in the fire hall (apparently for the copper); four batteries in the fire hall and two in a truck parked outside; a truck radiator (again probably for the copper); radios; chain saw fuel mix and bar oil; other items that we have not inventoried. A number of large and small appliances (refrigerator, microwave, computers) will have to be carted to the dump, because the power cords were cut off so close to where they enter the appliances that a splice cannot be effected.
Benita writes: The building needs to have a much stronger door and lock system before it makes any sense to replace what was stolen, but the fundamental problem is location. The fire hall is sitting in a very accessible area with no one near enough to see or hear suspicious activity or heed an alarm siren. At present, the new four wheel drive medical response truck which does double duty as a brush fire pumper is safely parked in our carriage house. Both main fire trucks for structure fires are out of service because of this latest theft of $10,000 worth of equipment. We need a more secure alternative location for the fire hall if we hope to end these repeated thefts and provide protection for the core Rugby area. Any suggestions?
Tom writes: I concur with my wife that the present fire hall location is insecure and cannot be made secure. Bob Monday, who lived across the street, is deceased and his house is unoccupied. The trailer across the highway from the hall is gone. The trailer at the corner of Rugby Highway and Brewstertown Road is apparently occupied, but residents there have no view of the fire hall. The fire hall lies 19 feet below the highway there; Brewstertown Road, which became Rugby Highway, was raised that much when the Clear Fork bridge was installed. It is also rather difficult to get the trucks onto the highway because of the steep driveway.
Volunteers Needed Saturday
By Jody Hester
We need volunteers this Saturday, March 5 to help clean the Community Building to get ready for the quilt exhibit – please help if you can. We will work from about 9 am until 3 pm. A light lunch will be provided. If you can bring cleaning supplies and a broom, that would be helpful. We will provide a couple of vacuum cleaners. We will be cleaning windows, getting cobwebs off ceilings, cleaning bathroom floors, dusting, etc.
We will also need volunteers for the actual Quilt Exhibit which is scheduled for Friday and Saturday April 8 and 9. Please let me know if you can help any those days at jonell@deeceelabs.com. The volunteer needs are similar to those for Spring Festival, plus we will need volunteers in shifts at several homes.
Thanks to all of you wonderful Rugby volunteers!
Mary Ann Lovett’s Brother
By Lavonne Gibbs
Benita alerted me to the news that National Public Radio was running tributes about Mary Ann Lovett’s brother, Tom DeBaggio, who died recently.
Mary Ann had shared with several of us the story of her brother Tom's book and news interviews as he dealt with early onset Alzheimer’s. We have his book in the Christ Church Friendly House library if someone is interested in reading it. To read more about him go to http://www.npr.org/2011/02/22/133971224/Alzheimers-Advocate-Thomas-DeBaggio-Dies .
In an e-mail to Charles and me, Mary Ann wrote "Most of us wish that we would make a contribution to those we know...he made impact on many that didn't have any face to face personal contact with him. It is amazing to think that he wanted to make a difference, to let folks know what Alzheimer’s is and it's many colors...and obviously he has, if even that station (NPR) would want to send the message across the country."
Crafters/Artists Invited to Apply for Festival
Area craft folk and visual artists are invited to apply for juried booth space at Historic Rugby’s Festival of British and Appalachian Culture, set for May 14 and 15.
This year’s Festival will highlight the first “Pickin’ at Rugby” Bluegrass competition on Saturday, May 14. Pickin’ at Rugby contestants will be judged in both Youth and Adult divisions with cash prizes. Individuals and Bands should call as soon as possible for registration information. Sunday performance highlights this year include the return of the traditional Irish Band, David Coe and The Appalachian-Irish Band; old time music man Tony Thomas accompanied by Judy Carter; Tim and Liz.
Crafts and arts will be demonstrated and sold both Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm Eastern Time in booths set up around Rugby's historic grounds. A limited number of indoor booths are also available.
After judging, cash and ribbon awards will be made to exhibitors and demonstrators in a number of categories.
The Festival booth fee is $60.00 for each outdoor booth and $80.00 for each indoor booth. All are approximately 12'x12'. There is no fee for electricity in an indoor booth. No commission is charged on sales. Entries are juried through photographs or slides that must be submitted with the application or digitally.
Other festival activities will include more British Isles and Appalachian music and dancing, historic building tours and demonstrations of chair making, broom making, quilting, basketry, pottery, spinning, weaving, woodcarving, blacksmithing, lye soap and honey production and much more. For booth applications and further information call 1-888-214-3400 or email rugbylegacy@highland.net. Website is http://www.historicrugby.org/
Thanks to Benita and Tom Howell and Carrie Thornthwaite for their help with the newsletter for the last two weeks. The newsletter is now back to its usual schedule. If you have stories or photos for the newsletter, please email them by 5 p.m. each Sunday.
We have been away visiting Cambodia and Vietnam, fascinating countries with incredible beauty in spite of the challenges of wars, genocide (Cambodia) and poverty.
The photo on the left was taken by George during our overnight boat trip at Halong Bay in northern Vietnam, an area known for the incredible beauty of its many small islands. A few days before we got there, 11 tourists were drowned while taking an overnight trip on another boat!
The photo above shows Angkor Watt in Cambodia, the largest religious building in the world. It was built in the 12th Century as a Hindu temple but later was, and still is, used by Buddhists. It is part of the much larger Angkor World Heritage site, some of which is still covered by jungle.
BIRTHDAYS
March 4 - Glenda Drogich
March 5 - Kathy Hicks and Ryan Erickson
March 6 - Steve Logan
CALENDAR
Rugby is in the Eastern Time zone
Tuesday, March 1 – Commissary reopens and post office services resume.
Friday, March 4 - English Country Dancing 7 p.m.
Saturday, Saturday, March 5 – Community Potluck 7 p.m.
Saturday March 19 - English Country Dancing 7 p.m.
Friday, April 1 - English Country Dancing 7 p.m.
Fri. and Sat., April 8 and 9 – Rugby Quilts Exhibition, "Rugby Quilts: Past and Present." Displays of old and new quilts, quilt appraisals and bed turnings are all on the program. There's even a film: "How to Make an American Quilt." Reservation information at http://www.historicrugby.org/
Friday, April 15 – History Night Annual Dinner at Grey Gables. Willie Beatty, president of the Fentress County Historical Society, will talk about Buck’s Mill.
Saturday, April 16 - English Country Dancing 7 p.m.
Rugby Book Group - The next book is Jonathan Franzen’s best selling novel “Freedom.” Here is a link to a Wall Street Journal review of the book. http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/08/16/jonathan-franzens-freedom-review-revue/ A date, time and location have not been set, but you can find the book now and start reading.
February 2011 – Historic Rugby Winter Hours: The Schoolhouse Museum will be open Monday – Friday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern (weather permitting). Weekday and weekend historic building tours can be arranged with advance reservation by calling the toll-free number, 1-888-214-3400. Lodging will be offered throughout winter on a self-catering basis. The Café, Visitor Centre and Commissary (including the Post Office) will be closed for repairs and rearrangement. Normal operations will resume sometime in March.
Quilters Group - Wed. and Sat. 2 – 4 p.m. at the Friendly House
By Linda Konig
A few times a year I hear eerie screaming screeches at nightfall that seem to be made by a half-cat-half-bird or I'm awakened in the night by shorter unearthly screechy screams guaranteed to raise every hair on your head. Sometimes I hear them in summer, sometimes in winter. No, they don't sound like a woman's scream, and, no, I don't think I'm being haunted.
I'm pretty sure I'm hearing two different kinds of owls. Thanks to recorded bird calls you can hear on the computer, I learned last year that those indescribable longest screamy-screeches at nightfall are the screams of a Barn Owl. I've gotten fairly used to hearing one in the vicinity of The Lindens and Wren's Nest at dusk, and once or twice I've heard them near my house. Though Fred Oliver and I searched all the old barns and deserted outbuildings around Rugby last year, we didn't find any Barn Owl nests. Then I learned that, though they will nest in barns, etc., they actually prefer holes in trees. Last fall, I learned that Barn Owls are becoming endangered in Tennessee, so we're lucky to have them.
And what about those shorter more squawky screeches we hear sometimes in the night? In a book that Donna Heffner and Annie Patterson recently gave me called “Owls Aren't Wise and Bats Aren't Blind,” I read that Barred Owls, our most common owl, make many varied vocalizations, not just “Who-cooks-for-you,” their most common call and the easiest to learn. Yes, they make short squawky calls in the night. I heard one in my front yard a few nights ago. When I went to the front door, it retreated to the woods. A few seasons ago, I learned first-hand the rapid wild and excited calls they can make when a nest of them is startled. I inadvertently got too close to a nest of young ones behind Wil and Carrie's house one night when I was walking back to look for frog and salamander eggs in the closest wet-season puddle on old Bella Vista Road. Warner Shedd, the author of the book Donna and Annie gave me says they sound like a pack of monkeys when frightened. I thought it sounded like “Wocka-Wocka-Wocka” repeated franticly over and over. I made a diplomatic retreat. However, the most interesting sound they make is like a woman's scream! More about this in next week's “Nature Notes.”
This Week’s Editor: Rick Murphy
