Greensboro Daily Photo

Old Mills and Holy Days

Greensboro was built on the textile industry and was, for most of the 20th century,  a world leader in the industry. Our city was especially known for cotton, denim, flannel & corduroy. Greensboro's Cone Mills was also known as the largest manufacturer of denim in the world. The above photo was taken of a mill in the Yanceyville area. 

The sun breaking through the clouds and the three large smoke stacks evoke the image of three crosses on this Good Friday. Most Christians will celebrate Easter this weekend.*  Church crosses will be draped in black today and many people will be out for  prayer vigils.  It is funny how, when pondering Easter, items, including textile mill smokestacks, seem to appear in threes.

In addition to the church events this weekend, the community is gearing up for many Easter egg hunts. One of the biggest will be the Greensboro Country Club. Their hunt starts at 8:00 am on Saturday morning and over 6,000 eggs will be hidden. That is a lot of eggs.  The Piedmont/Triad Farmers' Market will also have an egg hunt, as will the North Carolina Zoo, Burlington, Winston-Salem, Old-Salem, and more. From lay to secular, Christian/Jewish or other, whatever you do this weekend, we hope your time is memorable.

 

*Orthodox Christians have one of their latest Easters this year. Their Easter will fall on May 5th.

Mushrooms & Mosquitoes

Well, we start the week in Greensboro a little wet from the weekend....

With the rain came mushrooms and mosquitoes. The above white mushrooms snuck their way into our compost bed, which, at the moment, is a little heavy on coffee grounds and scraps from garden produce- not to mention soggy. Our compost pile is the perfect host for mushrooms that like a dark, warm, moist, nutrient-rich environment.

We are the first generation in our family incapable of conclusively determining whether or not mushrooms are edible. Those relatives from the "old country" would be mighty disappointed with the offspring of their offspring for not having mushroom identification skills. We do know that we have always been told to STAY AWAY from solid white mushrooms.

North Carolina has several biology and agricultural programs with mushroom experts, mycologists. To name a few, in North Carolina there is a lot of research and classification being conducted at Duke University (see here & here); NC State (see here) and, at Greensboro's very own NCA&T University (see here) do research and have active extension services. At NCA&T, Dr. Ormon S. Isikhuemhen specializes in mushroom biology and fungal biotechnology. NCA&T's School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences maintains a "how to get started" website for edible and medicinal mushroom farming in North Carolina. They work closely with farmers setting up mushrooms as a cash crop. How wonderful that a university works closely with the community to develop sustainable agriculture. See their great website here. Maybe we'll head back out and pick a mess and get them identified; that is, if we can brave the mosquitoes! We may get lucky and find some truffles!

Victory Baptist Church

Victory Baptist is an independent Baptist Church at 810 Meadowood Street, just down the road from Costco at Wendover. We couldn't find out much about the church as it doesn't have a website. However, according to Wikipedia, independent Baptist churches generally adhere to conservative Baptist beliefs. They are independent from the authority of denominations. Less than 15% of those who consider themselves Baptists are independent (reference).

Victory Baptist's marquee slogan this week is thought provoking, "Preach the gospel. If necessary, use words." 

We feature something spiritual every Sunday. If you are interested, see our other entries here. Also, please know that many people search our Sunday data base. For places that have websites, we link back. This is a great opportunity for those who are seeking to find you-- a great opportunity to bring in new members. We encourage you to not only have a website for your church, synagogue, temple, house, hall, etc. but also to provide a description of your beliefs as well as a short history. Sometimes it is necessary......... to use words.

Midway Auto Sales

For as many used car lots as we've been in lately, you'd think GDP was looking for a used car. That is not the case; however, when that magical 10 minutes before sunset strikes on a glorious, golden evening, we cannot help but to stop and admire the beauty overhead. Such was the case last night at 8:22 pm on West Lee Street at the Greenway. We went to see the greenway and were disappointed that the brilliant display of color was not working. Instead, the panels were all white. However, the sky was beautiful in that part of town and made stopping all worthwhile.

If you look closely, you will see three chairs on the corner of Midway Auto Sales at 502 West Lee Street. This is the very spot where, during business hours, you will likely find the owner and employees sitting to solve the world's problems with a good friend, prospective customer, or both. You may recall two and a half years ago when we took a photo of Sprinkle Gas Station, just down the street from Midway (see here). Well, they have the requisite chairs on the side of the building-- a real must if you are an old-time southern business. You've got to be willing to sit and develop a relationship with people who come your way. Fellowship and friendship are at the very core of the success of these old-time businesses. We'd love to be a fly on the wall and listen to just what gets communicated in those three chairs! Happy Thursday folks. Time permitting, consider driving or biking around town and seeing just how many businesses have their chairs outside.... almost as important as hanging a name shingle.

J is for Juvenile Diabetes

Juvenile Diabetes, or Type 1/insulin dependent diabetes, usually presents itself before age twenty. Diabetes affects the body's ability to use glucose. In healthy bodies, insulin-- a hormone--  helps glucose enter cells where it is used for energy. 

The above photo, taken at the Reenactment of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, is somewhat misleading as being overoverweight and eating excessive fat and sugar is not a cause of juvenile diabetes. However, a balanced diet and weight control are helpful for diabetes management.* Additionally, avoiding empty calories and excessive caloric intake does help prevent Type II, adult-onset diabetes which is presenting itself in younger and younger children. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimates that one in three children born in the year 2000 or later will develop diabetes at some point in their lifetime (reference). As a society, we have got to do a better job of modeling healthy eating for our children; seeing that they eat nutritious food, exercise, and maintain a healthy weight.

We're sharing today's post with ABC Wednesday and our cause for J is Juvenile Diabetes. Consider getting involved with or donating to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

* Get more information on diabetes, from a local Guilford County source here. If you are interested in the cuisine of the original 13 colonies, start here.

A is for AIDS

In this week's parade, the Challenged by HIV/AIDS Ministry marched along Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive making people aware of the fact that people who are HIV positive in Greensboro can find a warm and inviting community to not only help them work through issues related to the disease, but also to live a full and productive life once diagnosed. The ministry educates, trains, supports, loves, and ministers to people affected and/or infected by the disease. Additionally, they offer over a dozen opportunities for service and community involvement. In an nutshell, they teach people HOW 2 LIVE POSITIVE. The group meets in Greensboro and in Kernersville (info here). Higher Ground, the Triad Health Project and Winter Walk for Aids (info here) are other interfaith ways to get involved and to find support. 

As for GDP, we're starting another ABC Wednesday Round. Previously, we've featured A-Z streets of Greensboro. For the last series, we shared A-Z people of Greensboro. This round, we're not so sure we can commit to a theme. Themes require EXTENSIVE preplanning, as opposed to random photos one stumbles upon while walking through life. Having said that, if we can loosely translate "causes" to mean anything worthy of caring about, we might try A-Z causes. For A, we could have featured adoption, (public) art, animals, alumni associations. A-Z Causes?......!

At any rate, Aids awareness, support, community involvement, and quality of life are causes worthy of featuring. So, drumroll, for ABC Wednesday, Round Ten, Week #1, A is for AIDS. (Go here for GDP's previous posts and HERE to see what others around the blogosphere are posting). This week, there are some FABULOUS entries for the letter "A" from angels to aviation; however, at least for the first 65 entries, we are the only blog to pick "AIDS" (or to commit to a theme)-- all the more reason to do so.