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.

Sheri Castle looks to see the cloves of garlic in this stalk of green garlic. Green garlic is a “fleeting treat” Castle said, and will only be available for a few more weeks.
Commons Photos by Sara Gregory

By Sara Gregory
Staff writer

Not even bugs keep Shari Castle from cooking with fresh vegetables.

“If you see a bug, that’s not a bad thing,” Castle said. “It’s just if you see slime — that’s not good.”

Castle, a Chapel Hill food writer and chef who also gives cooking lessons, led a group March 31 around the Carrboro Farmers’ Market and demonstrated how to buy and cook the freshest vegetables.

A Farmers’ Market regular, Castle said she always walks through the market twice.

“You have to go around at least once to see what’s here, and then you go around again to see what you want to buy.”

She had time Saturday to lead the group around the market only once, but Castle stopped the group frequently to comment on the various vegetables being offered by local vendors.

What is offered at the market depends on the season, Castle said.

“This time of year when it’s hot and humid, you get in vegetables with your bolder flavors,” she said. “The strength of flavors goes almost with the season.”

When trying to decide which vegetables to cook together, Castle said to pay attention to what grows together.

“You can’t go wrong with this: what grows together goes together,” Castle said.
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Sandy Barnhart, a UNC-CH employee from Snow Camp, carries the cross with her neighbor, Lexie.
Commons Photos by Meghan Cooke

By Meghan Cooke
Staff writer

On Good Friday, prayers could be heard across Carrboro. But these prayers were not restricted to the pews and altars inside of a church.

About 30 people walked through downtown Carrboro carrying a cross, the message of Jesus’ resurrection and Christian peace.

Beginning the Way of the Cross service in front of the Carrboro Town Hall at 2 p.m., a group from the Episcopal Church of the Advocate, of Carrboro, weaved its way through Carrboro carrying a 7-foot cross, stopping at 14 locations, which represented the 14 Stations of the Cross.

The Way of the Cross is a Catholic and Episcopalian custom that began when Christian pilgrims followed what they believed was the path that Jesus walked beginning from his condemnation to his burial.

Anita Howell, of Chapel Hill, said that she had observed the Stations of the Cross in a church before, but had never done so on an outdoor walk. She said she was glad for the sunny, but cool weather.

“This is wonderful,” she said. “It’s an interesting contradiction between the solemn nature of the service and the gloriousness of the day.”
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Glasshalfull, a new wine bar and restaurant, houses a variety of wines from across the world.
Commons Photo by Allison Parker

By Allison Parker
Staff Writer

From Counoise to Sauvignon Blanc – Carrboro has what it takes to satisfy even the most eclectic wine connoisseur.

Mary Turner, full-time employee at Weaver Street Market, said the market has a variety of wine options available for any type of consumer.

“We see it all – customers who want the best of everything, to customers who want the cheapest wine, and also everything in between,” she said. “But, most of the people in here are looking for good quality wine at a low price.”

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Commons Photos by Robert Matteson

By Justin Smith
Staff Writer

I don’t know why I walked down the middle of the railroad tracks heading north out of Carrboro that Sunday afternoon.

Maybe I was subconsciously inspired by a paper I was writing about Carrboro’s mill town history for an American Studies class.

During my research, I read in a book called “Orange County Trio” that the town started as a small settlement that formed during the late 1800s around a 10-mile rail spur. In the back of my mind, I think I wanted to know what Carrboro looked like today from the railroad tracks.
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By Graham Russell
Deputy Design Editor

“After The Peak: The End of Cheap Oil,” a short film by local filmmaker Jim McQuaid, was shown to the public for the first time in the Carrboro Century Center auditorium at 7 p.m. on April 5.

The 26-minute film looks at a potential crisis for Orange County if gasoline prices break $10 per gallon.

“Fundamentally,” McQuaid said, “this is my attempt to think global but act local.”

The film’s premise is based on the idea of “Peak Oil,” the point when oil production begins to diminish but demand continues to rise. McQuaid and others believe that oil production is currently at this peak, and rising gas prices could bring problems such as food shortages, widespread unemployment and urban crowding.

McQuaid said that he used Orange County as a sort of proxy for America in general, but also that the county is relatively well prepared.

“There are many good things happening in Orange County to deal with these problems,” McQuaid said.

“After The Peak,” starring William Stutts, Jackie Marriott, John Honeycutt, Theo Wormley and Meagan Douglas and produced by McQuaid’s Turnip Video, is presented in the form of a news broadcast of a fictional television station, WNOC News 99, and looks at how high gas prices would affect businesses, schools and even sports teams.

After the screening, three local activists spoke to approximately 200 attendees on sustainability and local solutions to rising energy costs.

Former Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas CEO Simon Rich echoed many of McQuaid’s ideas. “When we become one teaspoon short,” Rich said, “I foresee social chaos much worse than what was in Jim’s film.”

Eric Henry, president of apparel company T.S. Designs and a sustainable energy advocate, talked about how his company is building its own alternative energy sources and urged others to do the same.

Transportation planner Patrick McDonough praised the concept of a “walkable” community, such as Chapel Hill’s Southern Village, emphasizing how this would help in a time after Peak Oil.

McQuaid plans to release “After The Peak” on DVD in June.

By Meghan Cooke
Staff writer

Eddie Smith has sold his handmade pottery at the market for the past three years.
Commons Photos by Meghan Cooke

The Carrboro Farmers’ Market kicked off its 29th season Saturday, March 24, at the Carrboro Town Commons on West Main Street as local farmers and crafts people sold everything from fresh tomatoes to handmade cedar furniture.

Market Manager Sheila Neal said that Saturday’s market was the busiest she has ever seen it on an opening day. She said that on average the market receives about 2,000 visitors per Saturday. The market’s peak season in July will bring about 60 vendors to the Carrboro Farmers’ Market.

Such large numbers do not detract from the friendly community atmosphere. Melanie Raskin, a market volunteer from Carrboro, said she felt as if she could pick right up on conversations with market-goers she had last seen in December, when the last market season ended.

It is this sense of community that brings many people back to the market each year.
Joan Holeman, who sells tomatoes, lettuce, flowers and herbs from Flat River Nursery and Farm in Timberlake, N.C., said that she sees many repeat customers since she became a regular vendor 15 years ago.

“But I also see a lot of new people every year,” Holeman said.

Eddie Smith, who began his third year at the market Saturday, sold his homemade pottery. He said that there are people he sees every Saturday, who he calls the “constitutionals.” He contributes the market’s success to the quality of the goods available.

“If you compare it to what you can get at the store, the eggs taste better, the chicken tastes better; everything tastes better,” Smith said.

So what’s new this year about the market?

Lori Febbo says she and her sons are regulars at the Carrboro Farmer’s Market.

“T-shirts!” said Raskin as she displayed the pale green shirts with the Carrboro Farmers’ Market logo.

Raskin also said that she saw some produce at Saturday’s opening she had not seen in previous years this early in the season, including strawberries.

Neal said that there are plans to begin using a wireless system that would allow customers to swipe their debit or credit cards to pay for market goods just like they would in a typical grocery store. There are also plans to participate in Electronic Benefit Transfer, a system allowing people eligible for food stamp or cash benefits to buy products from the market.

“It’s a great way to make food more available to all of our community,” Neal said.

Creating a sense of community is one of the major goals of the Carrboro Farmers’ Market. All of the vendors at the market live and produce their goods within 50 miles of Carrboro, Neal said.

“It’s a passion for most of the people here,” Smith said referring to all of the local crafts people and farmers who bring their products to market each week.

It must be that same passion that keeps Ruth Sanford in her kitchen from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in preparation for the Carrboro Farmers’ Market.

Sanford, who has been living in Carrboro for about 40 years, brings homemade pies to sell at the market. Her flavors include pecan, cherry, coconut, apple, sweet potato and even sweet potato pecan pies.

The pies completely cover a small table and plenty more lie stacked in the truck of her car, but they disappear quickly.

“People are so friendly and they get fresh, good stuff,” Sanford said.

Lori Febbo, a Chapel Hill resident, comes to the market on a regular basis to buy vegetables for her 4-year-old son’s garden, but said she usually leaves with quite a few extra items.

“We have a lot of favorite things here,” she said and laughed as she balanced her infant, flowers and preserves.

“It’s a nice way for the community to come together,” she said.

The Carrboro Farmers’ Market will be held every Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon until Dec. 22. Starting on April 11 and running until Oct. 17, the market will also be open on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. And beginning on May 3, the Southern Village Farmer’s Market will open on Market Street in Chapel Hill from 4 to 7 p.m. every Thursday until Aug. 30.

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By Liz Thomas and Kristen Pope

Cliff Collins, owner of Cliff’s Meat Market.
Commons Photos by Liz Thomas

Cliff’s Meat Market has been a Carrboro staple for 34 years, but Cliff Collins’ meat marketing journey started way before his store opened.

Located at 100 West Main St., Cliff’s is in the heart of town, just walking distance from the Carrboro Century Center and Weaver Street Market. If Carrboro were a boneless steak, Cliff’s would be the juicy pink center.

Cliff greets everyone who walks into his store, remembering familiar names and faces. And new customers are likely to find a connection with Cliff because he is so involved in the town of Carrboro.

To Cliff, hospitality is the central part of his business. As a one of nine children, he is all about personal relationships. He opens the door for customers, shaking their hands and asking about their days.

Cliff calls the chance to meet new people a “blessing from God” and the reason he stays in the meat business.

“I could do other things and make more money,” he said.

But he knows his calling is in the meat market.

Cliff first came to Carrboro after flunking English at Pittsboro High School. Since he had to take summer school in the morning, his only option for a night job was pumping gas in Carrboro.

“This one guy who I pumped gas for said, ‘I want you to come work for me,’” Cliff said. “I had hair like Elvis Presley’s. I guess I looked sort of like a redneck, but he hired me anyway.”

That man was the owner of Andrews-Riggsbee grocery store, located on Main Street near where The Speakeasy is today.

When school started in the fall, Cliff, a senior in high school then, had to beg his guidance counselor for permission to do work-study. Five years later, Cliff was meat manager and people knew him by name, Cliff said.

“It was a decent salary, I got to meet new people and was able to eat good,” he said.

He attended college for one year at Central Carolina Community College to study industrial maintenance, but he was doing so well bringing home the bacon in the store that he realized his future was working with people, not studying textbooks.

Cliff prepares cutlets for a client’s dog’s birthday.

Cliff wanted to open his own meat market, and bought Hardee’s Grocery, which was at the same location as his store today, by selling his tractor, his pick-up truck and his motorcycle to make the first payment.

When deciding what to name his store, he realized his greatest asset was the fact that his customers trusted his name. At the risk of sounding conceited, he settled on simply naming the store Cliff’s Meat Market, he said.

Cliff said he grew up in a time when he saw meat vendors cheat their customers by aiming at profit instead of providing quality goods. He says he emphasizes honesty in his dealings with people, because his repeat customers are the basis of his business.

He remembers the first customer he called his “own”, a woman who he met while managing the meat market at Andrews-Riggsbee. She had a reputation for being a particular and difficult customer, Cliff said, but due to Cliff’s sociable personality, he looked forward to waiting on her.

“Now I’m waiting on her grandchildren,” Cliff said.

Cliff’s niece, Jerri Roberson, works full-time behind the cash register, and Cliff makes a point to hire bilingual staff to accommodate Carrboro’s growing Hispanic population, he said.

Working in the meat business since his teenage years, Cliff continues to watch the town grow and develop. He said his customers vary from “people walking the street to Roy Williams to William Friday.” He even remembers when John Edwards used to come into the store, Cliff said.

Cliff has deep connections with the community. He lets friends borrow his truck to transport meat for their church cookout, shares staff with fellow local business-owners and has a fiery opinion about the preacher who sold the church that is now the Carrboro Century Center.

Dabbling in real estate on the side, Cliff rents out apartments next to the store. He puts his maintenance schooling to work by remodeling and making improvements to his store.

With changes in the meat industry and in the culture of the town, Cliff offers what the customers want. He sells more organic meat now and even fills requests for organic dog cutlets, he said. Like the strong bamboo skewer holding together the medley of meat and vegetables, Cliff’s offer a community connection that even vegetarians can appreciate.

Even with Carrboro’s changing flavor, the friendly faces and down-home atmosphere make Cliff’s a Grade A staple of the town. Having marinated for 34 years, Cliff’s Meat Market adds a spice to the delicious environment of Carrboro.

For more information, check out http://www.cliffsmeat.qpg.com/.

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By Sara Gregory
Staff writer

Husband and wife John and Nancy McIlwee promenade around the Carrboro Century Center at the 5th Annual Victorian Ball on March 24.
Commons Photos by Sara Gregory

Gayle Robinson walked toward Chris Imershein during intermission to ask for his hand in the next dance.

He said yes, and she penciled his name on her dance card.

“You’re a brave man to schottische with me,” she said.

When the music started, Robinson and Imershein danced the schottische, a partnered country dance similar to the polka, at the 5th Annual Victorian Ball held at the Carrboro Century Center March 24.

Hosted each year by Imershein’s Triangle Vintage Dance, the annual ball is a showcase for Victorian dance – dances such as the waltz, the polka, the grand march and the schottische that have grown back in favor more than 100 years after their heyday.

Throughout the night women in corsets, white gloves and full dresses took dances from elegant men in tuxedos and tails – and from other women.

“Ladies and ladies should feel free to dance together,” Imershein said. “Especially in the Civil War era, when the men were off fighting, you had ladies dance with ladies.”

Attendance at Saturday’s ball was representative of the range of individuals vintage dance attracts, Dawn Imershein, Chris’s wife and co-instructor, said.

“We have one student who’s 11, and then all the way up to people in their 60s,” she said.
Dawn said that dancers are attracted to vintage dance for a variety of reasons and that all have favorite dances.

“It really does depend on the person,” she said. “Some people find Victorian waltzes really hard, but once you get the hang of them, they can be a lot of fun.”

This was Robinson’s second Victorian Ball, and she said she enjoyed last year’s ball so much she decided to come back.

“I do swing dance, but I hadn’t done vintage dance before,” she said. “They’re easy dances to pick up if you have a sense of rhythm.”

Robinson’s favorite dance is the Victorian waltz.

“When it’s really done well, it’s beautiful,” she said.

Making the transition from other social dances to vintage dance is common, and, like Robinson, many at Saturday’s ball started with other forms of dance.

Dawn got her start in contra dancing, and she met Chris at lessons. She said when she saw him at swing dance lessons, she knew she had to get to know him.

“It was the kind of thing where I saw him doing both things and knew there was something,” she said.

Chris introduced her to vintage dance, and the two had been dating for a month when she helped him plan the first ball.

Now married, the Imershein’s have a three-month-old son whom they brought to Saturday’s ball. He spent the night watching from the sideline, just as Chris did when he was growing up.

“My mom used to bring me to dances all the time,” he said. “Mostly I’d just sit and read a book.”

Chris said he didn’t really begin to appreciate vintage dance until his classmates at Duke convinced him to take lessons.

Ball host and dance instructor Chris Imershein gives directions to dance the Bohemian National Polka.

“They kind of dragged me along,” Chris said. “But I ended up enjoying myself and took other classes.”

When he isn’t dancing, Chris mans the microphone, calling out steps to the dancers.

As the ball’s host, Chris is responsible for ensuring the night runs smoothly, a night he’s been planning for since last year’s ball.

With Dawn, Chris heads Triangle Vintage Dance. He started the group six years ago after moving from Connecticut, where he danced professionally with a traveling vintage-dance troupe.

When he moved back to the place he said he has always considered home, he couldn’t find a group to dance with.

Chris said that vintage dance has a following in the South, but that the biggest followings are in the Northeast and California. Chris credits Richard Powers, a dance instructor from Stanford University, for the latest wave of popularity.

“That is kind of where it started,” he said.

But back in North Carolina, Chris still wanted to dance.

“So he just said, ‘Well, I’ll have to start my own now,’” Dawn said.

In its six years, Dawn said Triangle Vintage Dance has grown into core group of about 20 dancers, in addition to the many more who take classes at the group’s two studios.

“A lot of this just takes a core mass of interested people to get things done,” she said.

Triangle Vintage Dance offers a dance on the second Sunday of every month, with a beginner lesson for the first hour followed by Victorian, Ragtime and Swing dances.

They also offer weekly classes for beginning and intermediate dancers.

At the ball, Dawn moves through the room giving instructions. She joins a line to lead it in the Grand March, and later, she stands along the side, nodding her head while calling out instructions as the line of dancers spirals in a giant circle.

“Keep spiraling until you get to the center,” she yells. “Then you can stop spiraling.”

Skill level is as varied as participants’ favorite dances. Some couples floated effortlessly around the room, seemingly unaware of other couples struggling to keep pace.

Dawn said the group encourages both those familiar and unfamiliar with vintage dance to take part in the ball each year.

Sophomores Alex Gorham and Oliver Sherouse at Duke University said they found out about the Victorian ball after taking lessons from the Imershein’s before a Viennese ball held at the school in December.

Sherouse said the dances were not difficult to learn.

“It’s easy to pick up at a level you can have fun with,” he said.

The ball also attracted a following from outside the Carrboro area.

John and Nancy McIlwee, of Raleigh, brought friends Larry Blasco and Helen MacDonald, of Salisbury, Md., with them to the ball.

John said he loves Victorian dances like the Bohemian National Polka and the Spanish Waltz, but his favorite type of dance was Ragtime, the style in the early 20th century that boasts of such dances as the tango and the fox trot.

“The proximity of the dances, the music, the tempos – it’s much quicker and more upbeat,” he said.

John said an interest in vintage costumes led him and his wife to vintage dance lessons years ago.

Now the two are part of Chris and Dawn’s group.

“We’re very interested in the Victoriana time period,” John said. “The food, the dress – just everything about it. It’s all just so much fun.”

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