Elwood and Sandy Fearrington enjoy a late breakfast at Country Junction on Weaver Street. The retired couple drives to Carrboro from their home near Jordan Lake for this “little treat,” Sandy said.
Staff photo by Leah Szarek

by Leah Szarek
Carrboro Commons Writer

The Moulin Rouge print on the wall says French bistro. The porthole windows suggest a fresh catch. The Korean husband and wife duo behind the counter imply a more exotic cuisine. But the squat building on Weaver Street bears the surprisingly appropriate name of Country Junction.

The menu is all Southern country-fried classics, and this unassuming spot in the heart of Carrboro really is a bustling crossroads, a place where people from all walks of life come together over the $2.99 Breakfast Plate.

“Try their Chuck Wagon, it’s delicious,” said CW route bus driver Joyce Wilson.

This tip conjures up images of a flour dusted Southern grandmother dishing out old family recipes, including Wilson’s favorite, which is a sandwich of breaded beef with mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato.

Co-owner Kim Lee, looking out from under a bold sweep of electric blue eyeshadow, could not be a more unlikely purveyor of buttery grits and Chuck Wagons.

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by Shera Everette
Carrboro Commons Writer

Heart-covered vases and rose petals decorated the tables where 60 senior citizens enjoyed their Valentine’s Day Party on Friday, Feb. 8. There were refreshments, door prizes and most of all fun.

The Carrboro Red cHatters celebrate Valentine’s Day with a party hosted by the Carrboro Department of Recreation and Parks.
Photo by Shera Everette

“This is the social event of the season,” said party-goer Gail Moriarty of Carrboro. “It’s just so great to be able to get together with my friends on an occasion such as this.”

The Carrboro Recreation and Parks Department hosted its annual event at the Century Center. Mickey Mills and Steel, a Trinidad native and Carrboro resident, serenaded the crowd with reggae music and his rendition of Bobby McFerrin’s famous song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” which brought some of the seniors to their feet.

“It’s a day to rejoice and to have a good time,” Mills said to the crowd. “It’s Valentine’s Day, a time to have love and be happy.”

Dana Hughes, the event coordinator and a recreation supervisor with the Carrboro Recreation and Parks Department, said the party is a great way to honor the older adults of Carrboro.

“It’s pretty neat,” Hughes said. “Most of the time they are very appreciative of the entertainment and afternoon snacks. They enjoy spending time with their friends, and it’s just a great outing.”

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by Leah Szarek
Carrboro Commons Writer

Locked in a battle with the wind to collect the most leaves, the sweatshirt-clad man looked up from his rake with a start at the beep of the bus’s horn.

“Go to my house and rake mine when you get through,” the bus driver ordered him through the closed window, prompting a chorus of laughter and “yes, ma’ams” from the handful of passengers occupying the blue bucket seats behind her.

Chapel Hill Transit bus driver Joyce Wilson has a smile and a dose of advice for all of her passengers on the CW line, which connects Carrboro and Chapel Hill.

Photo by Leah Szarek

Joyce Wilson, better known as “Miss Joyce,” has been driving the CW route from the Jones Ferry Park and Ride Lot to the Pittsboro Street Credit Union for only four months, but she is already a Carrboro institution. The Merritt Mill Road resident said she loves the town and her route.

“I have a mix of people—students, elderly, little children,” she said, contrasting the CW line with her former route while deftly making the left turn from West Main Street onto Weaver Street one February morning. “On the T, it’s mostly just students.”

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MISS JOYCE

Miss Joyce dispenses a running stream of advice on cold cures (“Drink plenty of fluids. Orange juice is the best.”), the Carolina basketball team (“It took them two losses to make them stronger. Hold your heads up, boys.”) and fine dining (“You going to Country Junction today? Try their Chuck Wagon — it’s delicious.”). Her pronouncements are often punctuated by one of her cell phone’s several sing-along ring-tones, including the Black Eyed Peas’ anthem to the female body, “My Humps.”

Miss Joyce said it’s impossible to get bored on her 16 runs between Carrboro and Chapel Hill.

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by Evelyn Greene
Carrboro Commons Photo Editor

Zombies invaded Carr Mill Mall last week, but don’t be too alarmed. These zombies only exist on paper and as latex creations.

Wootini, a store in the mall, launched an exhibit Friday, Feb. 8, based on the soon-to-be -released movie “Sick and the Dead.”

Brockton McKinney stands in front of the Sick and the Dead Wall at Wootini located in Carr Mill Mall. McKinney, co-director and co-writer of the film holds “Rodney” a mask used in the movie

Photo by Eve Greene

Wootini is known for its art exhibits, and Michael Maher, of Carrboro, N.C., the store’s owner, said that these types of events draw large crowds from all over. “Heck, the last one was so awesome we had people fly here from California and wait four hours for us to open,” Maher said.

The “Sick and the Dead” exhibit is likely to draw more local traffic to the store. “All these pieces are from people who had something to do with the movie,” said Brockton McKinney, of Carrboro, N.C., founding member of Magic Twanger Productions, the company behind the movie. The exhibit includes pen and ink drawings, colorful posters and work by artists such as Chris Moreno of Studio City, Calif.; Bo Fader, of Carrboro, N.C.; and Laurie Shipley, of Chapel Hill, N.C.

Aside from viewing the art, people visiting the gallery can learn about the cast and crew’s ideas and inspiration. Maher asked the crew to create a “behind-the-scenes board to show people how things came to be.” Visitors can also view the trailer and an excerpt from the movie on a television nestled among bloody zombie legs, torsos and even a head fondly nicknamed “Rodney.”

Before “Sick and the Dead,” Magic Twanger Productions had only made short films, so McKinney was thrilled when they were offered the chance to make a full-length movie. They were given the opportunity to make “a low-budget, no-budget kind of indie zombie movie,” McKinney recalled. “It was pretty much a dream come true.”

After three months of writing the script, the team began filming at the end of 2006, thinking they could finish within six months. “We didn’t know what we were getting into,” McKinney said. “We had never shot anything over 20 minutes before.”

“Sick and the Dead” was filmed primarily in Carrboro, Chapel Hill and other Triangle locations. Finding stores and buildings that would allow filming was difficult and caused some on-the-spot rewriting and location changes. Creating sound effects to simulate knives whizzing through the air and zombie skulls being smashed also proved more difficult than the crew expected. Using anything from pumpkins filled with meat to fishing poles, the crew turned McKinney’s front yard into a sound-effects studio. “It’s OK, we’re making a zombie movie,” McKinney recalls yelling at one point to reassure a passing jogger.

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By Sara Gregory
Staff writer

Earth Day celebrants usually invoke the image of nature and Mother Earth.

At Saturday’s annual Rock the Baby family festival, though, the emphasis was on the bounty of mothers’ milk.

“We’re here to celebrate the greatness, the coolness, just all that is wonderful about breast-feeding,” said Pam Freedman, an event organizer.

“There’s nothing more green than breast-feeding,” Freedman said.

The event, planned by the La Leche League of Chapel Hill and held at the Carrboro Town Commons, featured live music and vendors to help families learn more about breast-feeding.

“It’s a good way to raise awareness and money to support the cause,” said Sadie Bauer, a mom who joined the group of mothers when she became pregnant with her first child. “The goal is fun.”

The fundraiser started five years ago.

“We started thinking, ‘What do we like to do?’ And we started with listening to music with our families and went from there,” Freedman said.
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By Elsa Hasenzahl
Staff Writer

“This shift is really good about camaraderie. It’s nice having that group right there. and it really is like a family,” said Morris. Shift B fire fighters, left to right, Josh Hughes,
Brian Sykes, Larry Mann, and Stephanie Morris.
Commons Photo by Elsa Hasenzahl

Even though women have made strides in the fight for gender equality, there are still professions that currently lack female representation. One of these is firefighting.

Stephanie Morris, 27, is the only female firefighter at the Carrboro Fire-Rescue Department and has been there for almost seven years.

Morris said that her dad was in law enforcement while she was growing up in Durham, so she has seen the gender changes in the field. In the 1970s the situation for females was much worse, with women having to deal with things like sexual comments.

Nowadays, Morris said that the situation has improved, but females still have to prove themselves more than males.

“You don’t want to come across like you’re here to be with the guys, but that you’re here to actually be here,” Morris said on working in a male-dominated profession. “It’s about how you prove yourself from the get-go.”

Larry Mann, a fire driver at the Carrboro department, said that it is not any different working with a female firefighter.

“We treat her like any other one,” Mann said.
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By Kristen Pope
Staff Writer

Anyone driving down Weaver Street easily could miss Sparrow and Sons Plumbing.
With just a small white sign in front of a historic yellow house, only the trucks with the company’s name and logo in the back give away the fact that there is a thriving business operating out of the old mill home.

But maybe an old home is the perfect setting for Sparrow and Sons. Owned by several members of the Sparrow family in a sort of co-op, the company is just as much a slice of down-home as it is a business.

Michael Sparrow is in the fourth generation of Sparrows to own the plumbing company. His great-grandfather started the business in 1952 after working for another local plumbing company.

“(It’s) probably one of the oldest local businesses around,” he said.

His father, Jerry Sparrow, who owned the business before Michael Sparrow, retired at the first of the year. Now Michael Sparrow owns part of the store in a sort of co-op with four other family members, including his brother, Jonathan.

The business was located on Rosemary Street but has been in its Carrboro location for more than 40 years, Michael Sparrow said.
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By Kristen Pope
Staff Writer

Bron Skinner holds 2-year-old Ellie Sawin as she yells, “wake up pig” while touring Chapel Hill Creamery during the Piedmont Farm Tour Sunday.
Commons Photos by Justin Smith

Warm weather and sunshine made for the perfect Earth Day weekend, and many Carrboro and Chapel Hill residents celebrated by spending a day out on the farm.

The 12th annual Piedmont Farm Tour gave local residents a chance to enjoy the beautiful weekend by getting out in the country and getting a hands-on look at the beauty and power of nature.

Thirty-four local farms opened their gates on April 21 and 22 to teach visitors about sustainable farming and where their food comes from.

Sponsored by Weaver Street Market and the nonprofit organization Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, the Farm Tour has become an Earth Day tradition for many and is one of the CFSA’s biggest fundraisers.

Visitors could pay admission at each farm or buy a “Support Local Farmers” button that served as admission for the entire tour. Farm Tour maps, which were available at many locations in Carrboro and surrounding areas, guided visitors in planning their routes during the tour.

Amy Eller, director of communications for the CFSA, said the tour typically draws about 2,000 visitors.

The Carrboro Commons also went on the tour, visiting two of the farms closest to Carrboro.
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By Allison Parker

Staff writer

George Rubinstein, native of Ukraine, studies Russian and English book translations.
Commons Photo by Allison Parker

U.S. History, Women’s studies, Wicca, Paganism. Only in a bookstore can you find this much diversity in one place. From Nice Price Books to the PTA Thrift Shop, Carrboro satisfies even the most eccentric reading desires.

PTA Thrift Shop

Walking through PTA Thrift Shop in Carrboro, I come across a man in a corner, meticulously comparing Russian book titles on paper with their English counterparts on the shelf.

“I like to read but this is my profession,” said George Rubinstein, resident of Chapel Hill. “I buy English books and compare Russian and English languages.”

He said the differences in the ways people communicate fascinate him. “I like to see how ideas are rendered in other languages.”

Rubinstein, originally from Ukraine, moved to Monterey, Calif., where he taught Russian at the Advanced Language Institute. “It’s the largest language school in the world,” he said.

Although Rubinstein said he loved the cool ocean weather in California, he moved to Chapel Hill in 1999. “My son is a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, so he wanted me to move here so I could be closer to him,” he said.

Rubinstein pursued his love of language at the University. “When I came here, I got in touch with the UNC Department of Slavic Languages,” he said. “I’m working in Cognitive Lingustics, which is the way we shape our thoughts through language.”

Kevin Smith, resident of Mebane, is a frequent book shopper at PTA Thrift Shop. “I come here for the variety and low cost,” he said. “I never feel guilty about paying 25 cents for a book.”

While classics and spiritual books interest him, Smith said he has also purchased textbooks for school at the store. “I’ve saved about $120 buying textbooks from here.”

The PTA Thrift Shop has a half-price book sale on Mondays during the month of April. Hardbacks are two dollars, trade paperbacks are $1.50 and pocket paperbacks are 50 cents.

Regardless of your interests and budget, Carrboro has plenty for every book lover to choose from.

Nice Price Books

It is 9:45 in the morning, and Crayton Wanders waits patiently outside of Nice Price Books in Carrboro.

“We open at ten,” he said. “If you stick around, you can talk to someone who works here in about ten minutes.”

Wanders has been a faithful employee at Nice Price Books in Carrboro for nine years. “I’m an errand boy and do maintenance stuff for the store,” he said.

Wanders said he loves to read and listen to music. “I mainly stick with Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas and W.B. Yeats,” he said.

The friendly people at Nice Price Books keep Wanders around. “I work here because it’s such a friendly atmosphere,” he said.

The Book Market

Located in a cozy corner of Carr Mill Mall in Carrboro, The Book Market is an independently-owned bookstore that has been around for 20 years.

From general fiction to classics, romances to cookbooks, the store has something to satisfy all reading tastes. Although The Book Market is a used bookstore, they also sell new books by local authors. The store is unique in that it supports these local authors and sells artwork by local artists.