Mother Nature sure has been kind to us this winter giving us warmer than usual weather, possibly a result of global warming. Let’s just hope she doesn’t send Jack Frost on a mission mid-month to blow a blizzard our way with cold and ice and swirling snow. If that happens, all the plants and trees that are blooming early will get nipped with his icy finger tips.
Spring’s arrival also means it’s time for the traditional trek to Leslie, the charming community just east of Americus, to the Dogwood Antique Show and Sale. This is the 28th year the Town and Country Garden Club has staged the event and I don’t believe I have missed a one. You can’t see everything in one visit, and I have to go two or three times because you can usually find something you didn’t see the first time around and you get another opportunity to visit their tearoom again to enjoy more delicious sandwiches, salads, and home baked goods the garden club members make.
The Dogwood Antique Show and Sale is March 17, 18 and 19. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday.
The annual event has been extremely beneficial for the community through the years because funds raised from the show have gone toward many beautification projects in Leslie such as keeping the downtown planters potted with new plants and flowers as well as the flower beds at the city entrance signs, says Jane Wilson Abernathy, vice president of the garden club. “We also contribute to the Christmas lighting fund and the Friends of Leslie as well as provide recreation for youth at the Leslie Men’s Club pool,” she said.
On the state level, funds from the show and sale have been provided to Garden Club of Georgia projects and used to help the State Botanical Garden, Garden Therapy as well as here at home with projects of the Sumter County Federation of Garden Clubs.
Jolie Ledger, show chairman, says this year’s antique dealers are from all across the southeastern states and will have something unique for everyone to want to take home. Some returning favorites are W. Malcolm Perry Antiques, Leslie; Malcolm and Phyllis Argo; The Silver Source; Angevines; My Checkered Past, Small Treasures (estate jewelry); KB Treasures; Cottage Antiques and the Mule’s Tale with Mike Messner who will bring stained glass, caned furniture and other antiques; personalized items by Amanda Donnelly and Shonya Bone of Rustic Chic Antiques promise to have something different and interesting.
Ledger thanked the many sponsor/patrons who she says are the backbone of what makes the event happen. “Our members work so hard by working at the Civic Center all three days besides bringing their homemade food and desserts.” Some of these items include Thomas Harrell’s barbecue and Brunswick stew, homemade chicken salad, pimento cheese sandwiches, and mouthwatering desserts: pecan and apple pies, chocolate, caramel, Key lime and red velvet cakes.
Garden Club members other than named above are Laura Joyner, President Phyllis Tucker, Lynn Larsen, Angie Kaylor, Toni Deriso, Betsy Estes, Luellen Pace, Anne Perry, Barbara Perry, Melissa Rees, Barbara Mitchell, Beth Usry, Mary Beth Usry, Hannah Daniel, Mandee Donnelly, Adalyn Wilson, and Nancy Miller.
Meanwhile, Grace Durham of Edinburgh, Scotland, who grew up in Americus, is here visiting Dr. Gatewood and Cindy Dudley at their farm for several days, arriving tonight. I look forward to seeing Grace and hearing all her news. Grace’s late parents, Dr. Bon and Nina Durham, years our senior, were the only two people we knew when we moved here in the early 1970s. They graciously welcomed us and took us under their wings, and I will be forever thankful. I learned to “bloom where you’re planted.” And I have loved living in Americus.
What a clever idea. Nancy and Mark Hayes were in College Springs, Texas, last weekend, going especially to visit their son and daughter-in-law, Will and Allison Hayes, for a clever “gender reveal” announcement. Will and Allison are expecting a baby in July but didn’t know the baby’s gender. The couple kept the sealed envelope holding the “tell-tale” sonogram unopened and asked a friend to safe guard it. As friends and family gathered for the announcement at their home, multiple balloons filled with all pink (for a girl) or all blue (for a boy) confetti was pinned on a board. Their friend then opened the envelope, silently reading the results and removed all but one balloon from the board. Suspense mounted. It was time for Will to load his bow and arrow. He hit his target, bursting the balloon and thousands of pieces of pink confetti rained down as everyone cheered, “It’s a girl.” The baby’s great-grandparents are Richard and Shirley Reese of Americus.
Unfortunately, a nasty cold and cough sidelined us from joining Americus Rotary Club members for the wine tasting at the new Wolfe Creek Winery Thursday night. We were definitely disappointed; however, my good source tells me who was there and includes Rotary President Reda Rowell and husband Kelly Rowell, Gail and Thurston Clary, Angela and Rene Smith, Virginia and Marion Franklin, Jeannie and Steve Stanfield, Candy and Lou Riccardi, Nancy and Jim Herron, Sam Adams, Kenny Sawyer, Julie Higgins, and Cindy Pryor.
-Leila Sisson Case lives in Americus.