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annamcnuff · 7 years

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Cycling into New York City, Via The Bronx

“This could be a complete disaster. Or it could be fun. Either way - let’s be ‘avin it.”

Wise words from younger sibling, Jonty, as he boarded a plane to join me in Boston at the start of the week. This is the sibling that deposited a brown coloured gift in the bath when I was 5 (true story) and the reason I slapped a 9 year old lad when I was 7 (I don’t condone violence in any form. Unless they call your brother “Specky four-eyes.” Then you get buck-wild on their ass).

Yes he’s 27. Yes he’s 6ft 3". Yes he’s far more sensible and grown up than I am. But he’s still my 'little’ brother. And this week it was my task to guide him safely from Boston to NYC.

BEING A TWO

Having ridden alone for 3 months since Lydia left my side at Reno, it was strange to have company again. Contrary to expectation, when cycle touring with another, a real conversation is rare. You mostly develop a form of store-sign Tourette’s, uncontrollably shouting names of places you pass in odd accents. I have no idea why this happens. It’s a new-world phenomenon.

One thing that didn’t change was the level and frequency of singing. In fact, singing levels hit an all time high. For when riding with a partner, it is imperative that everything be expressed via the medium of song. Were you to buy the 'East Coast Hits’ album from this week, you’d enjoy classic tracks such as - “I need a wee”, “My chuddies hurt”, “Where is Lockwood Avenue?” and “Can I turn right, at this Red light?” (Radio edit). Where I was once alone in these musical endeavours, not only did I now have a back-up singer, I also had a percussionist. It turns out that Jonty and I would do very well in a musical round of Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Riding with a member of the opposite sex for a few days also proved rather educational. Too many times I’d set off and find myself alone 100 metres down the road. I’d look back and spot Jonty with his hands down his pants, rearranging 'the furniture’. Apparently it’s all too easy to mount your bike in an excited leap and land on one of your testicles. Who knew?

CAPE COD AND THE WAMPANOAGS

Heading straight to NYC from Boston would have been a little too straightforward, so I decided to indulge in a cheeky side step onto Cape Cod. Here we stayed with Jim and family, and got to talking not about clams, or lobsters or cranberry farms (all things you might associate with the region), but instead we chatted Wampanoag. Wompa-who? Wompa-I’ll explain…

A key trip revelation has been the discovery of US Indian reservations. I knew they existed (I’ve watched Dances with Wolves after all), but I had no idea just how many there were, and how large. In Arizona I spent 2 days cycling through Navajo (Nava-ho) land, which spans over 24,000 square miles. The Cherokee, Sioux, Chippewa and Apache are just a few of the other tribes living on one of the 326 reservations across the US. These areas are 'sovereign nations’. That is, they are countries within a country. They have their own laws and schools, and are governed and policed by separate political forces.

Spread throughout Massachusetts, including Cape Cod, are the homes of the Wampanoag (Wom-pa-nog) Indians. I was fascinated to learn that the spoken language of the Wampanoag died out 100 years ago, but one woman (with the aid of a linguistics degree from MIT) has been working since 1993 to revive it. She’s been successful, and although it’s now her 2nd language, it’s the mother tongue of her 10 year old daughter. Int that just wonderful?

THE ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM

Leaving the Cape and continuing South, we entered the town of New Haven - home to the prestigious Yale University. For those not yet old enough to walk the halls at an Ivy League School, the town offers an alternative - the Eli Whitney museum.

Upon entering, it’s immediately apparent that this isn’t an ordinary children’s museum. It doesn’t follow the standard template - that is, brightly painted walls, carpeted floors and milk and cookies on offer at 3pm. Instead, it treats youngsters as miniature adults, providing a space in which they’re respectfully encouraged to learn under their own steam.

Founded by William Brown (trained in child development) and Sally Hill (trained in design) The Eli Whitney is founded on a notion of 'essential experiments’. The discovery method, trial and error, it has many other names. Sally and Bill believe that you learn by doing, not watching. You screw things up. You get messy, noisy, break things, but eventually you find a solution. The individuality of experimentation is a central theme, and although classes are structured, there’s no set list of things you should and shouldn’t learn before you 'grow up’.

It’s an incredibly unusual place - one that nurtures and indulges the naturally inquisitive mind of a child. It provides a platform from which kids can develop an understanding of how the world around them is put together, and plants the starter-seed for a lifetime of exploration.

Perhaps I was so struck by The Eli Whitney because this the way I’ve always liked to learn (just ask my Mum and Dad). Perhaps it’s because it bases itself on the very thing I tell anyone and everyone who asks me why I embarked on this trip. As children, we’re curious. We’re excitable. We’re willing to tell people what we want to be, to try in spite of everything else, to get messy and wind up in a right royal pickle. All too often something happens in adulthood that stops this process dead in it’s tracks. We let the belly of our fear-monster get fat with regret and missed opportunities, and above all, we stop asking questions. We stop believing that there’s a unique and individual solution to just about anything if we just … keep going.

RIDING INTO NEW YORK CITY

Full of inspiration, and with my inner-child rekindled, we left New Haven bound for New York. Riding into the city was …. unforgettable. I knew it was going to be ugly, I’d figured as much, and been warned on top of that. Still, it had to be done. So we rolled up our sleeves and waded headlong into the urban jungle.

Twenty miles out, North of the Bronx in New Rochelle, we got 'stuck’ in a traffic jam. Quite an impressive feat when on a bike, non? Here commenced three hours of using every sense possible (including my sixth one) to avoid being run off the road. I didn’t take it personally. The swearing, honking and bumper dodging weren’t reserved solely for us after all - although I’d wager that we had more car doors opened in our faces than most.

The only way to describe the Northern Bronx is as an assault in the senses. It’s like a scene from The Fast and The Furious (one through six) collided with Tooting high street, in the midst of an M25 traffic jam. And I’ll make no bones about the fact that it made this white middle class chick feel a little uneasy. More because Jonty and I stood out like a sore thumb. And then because a man made a beeline for us at a traffic light just to say “you two be careful through here”. Fabulous.

We could have found another way in. We could have taken a ferry over to Long Island, and gone in via Queens. But who knows what different traffic treats lay in store that way. Plus, really, it’s just like mushrooms, Blue cheese, olives and frogs legs - you can’t say you don’t like something until you try it. I won’t be using my holiday to go back to The Bronx next year, but at least I’ve experienced it. Ain’t no regret in that.

So we took three and a half hours to ride the last 20 miles (a new record), but eventually we made it to Downtown. Jonty was safely delivered to his awaiting girlfriend, Kate, and so ended my duty as a big sister for the time being.

This is my 3rd visit to the city that never sleeps. I’m a huge fan of the crazy place and so excited to come back with a purpose. I’ll be seeing a few more touristy sites whilst here, visiting a local school and meeting the guys from Right to Play USA before rolling out again on Tuesday.

To you all from The Big Apple, farewell until next week.

McNuff out :)

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the-record-columns · 8 years

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Feb. 8, 2017: Columns

A road trip with Carl White...

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

Some time ago, I took a road trip with Carl White on one of his Life in the Carolinas episodes.

The stated purpose of this trip was to find an item of television memorabilia for one of Carl's friends, a bluegrass musician from Salisbury, N C named Tom Isenhour. While that may sound like a simple thing to do, the collection Tom houses at his home is simply incredible.

He has rooms full of bluegrass history with everybody who has ever been anybody well represented, and everything from the outfits they performed in to gold records. Another part of his home houses a collection of television related items which focus on he and his wife's childhood.

This is area for which we were looking to find something Tom didn't already have—and that was an ambitious project. Carl, being an ambitions man, however, looked forward to the challenge.Well, to make a long story short, we took off one morning in a 1946 Chevrolet courtesy of Rex Brown of Moravian Falls and ended up in Pilot Mountain at an antique store.

After perusing thousands of square feet of treasures, Carl spotted a child's Davy Crockett outfit from the 1950s in what appeared to be in perfect condition. This is where I came in, to help with the negotiations—those folks were really proud of Davy. So, after a vigorous round of... “If they ask 10, they want 8, they'll take 6, it's worth 4, so you bid 2...”--Carl was the proud owner of Davy Crockett and accessories—and I got a beautiful five gallon embossed water jug while we were at it.On the way to Tom Isenhour's home, we made a detour down to Banks Street in Salisbury and spent the afternoon with another character like no other, Clyde Overcash.

I had met Clyde several years ago while researching with Jerry Lankford the Otto Wood story, and, after introducing him to Carl, he gave us a tour of the four historic homes he owns and an impromptu lecture on the history of the area and the Civil War prison site just across the railroad tracks.

This prison was designed to hold 2,000 prisoners but ended up with over 12,000 before the end of the war.

Again, a step back in time that was wonderfully educational.We made a couple of more stops on the way to Tom Isenhour's house and ended up there about dusk, I do not have room to tell you what a collection Tom has, but suffice it to say it makes The Record's Museum on Main, as we like to call it, look like a picked over yard sale.

A welcoming host, Tom gave us the two-dollar tour and it was a bargain. He has several of the Nudie suits (named for the man who designed them) who many of us will remember as the type of outfit worn by entertainers like Porter Wagoner. After a while, we ended up I the “TV Room.” At that point, Carl excused himself and went to get Davy Crockett.

When he returned and presented the outfit to Tom, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. He smiled and freely admitted that he didn't have this outfit, but quickly went into the history of the TV show and the outfit about which he was very knowledgeable. One of the most interesting things he reminded us of was the fact that actor Fes Parker played both Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone on television and in the movies. Then Tom walked over to one of the cabinets and retrieved an old cardboard box wrapped in plastic.

When he uncovered it, it was the exact box for the outfit Carl had found. Tom gingerly opened the box—and, sure enough, it was empty.Tom pointed out that the boxes were also hard to come by and he had bought this one several years earlier with hopes of finding the outfit another day.

He was happy. It was as though he had found a piece to a big puzzle he was looking for.

I am going want to talk more about the boxes things come in next week, but for now I just want to remind you that the the road trip piece titled “The Collectors,” will be airing this weekend on Fox 46 in Charlotte which is channel 5 on cable in Wilkes, as well as WFMY in Greensboro and all the other stations which feature Life in the Carolinas. Keep watching for the new episode of Life in the Carolinas which will featuring Wilkes County's own Apple Festival, Carolina in the Fall, and Wilkesboro's “Troutacular” fishing event, and two others about Wilkes are in the making.

The Beatitudes

By LAURA WELBORN

I am struggling with all the dissention in our world, and find myself at odds and going back to my mediator skills of seeing both sides of every situation along with recognizing that no one person is right just different perspectives on issues. I recently heard a sermon referencing the “Beatitudes “- that gave my both sides perspective a lift and calming of heart so I thought I would share some of it with you.

“We all see the world from our own lens- however wide or narrow that is. It’s part of our limitations of being human. We see it through the lenses of our temperament & our life experience and there’s nothing inherently wrong or evil about that. The trouble is when we think that our perspective is absolute- when lose awareness that we’re human and limited. That’s when we are at risk of making God in our own image, instead of letting it be rightfully the other way around.

Luke’s gospel presents a different version of the Beatitudes and in a way there is contemporary version in a song by Bruce Springsteen. He wrote these lyrics in a song called “The Land of Hope and Dreams”: From the Album Wrecking Ball released in 2001.

This train carries saints and sinners 

This train carries losers and winners 

This train carries lost souls 

this train dreams will not be thwarted 

This train faith will be rewarded 

this train carries broken-hearted 

thieves and sweet souls departed 

This train carries fools and kings 

This train, all aboard

And then he concludes:

Meet me in the land of hope and dreams.

You don't need no ticket 

All you got to do is just get on board

I don't know what Springsteen’s belief system is but I find this to be an incredibly spiritual song. It’s a prayer to rally around our common humanity, and maybe the hardest part about that is having to look into the mirror and make peace with the sinner, the loser, the fool, that we see there. And then allow God to bring our broken hearts and our lost souls into God’s embrace. That’s the surprise ending- saints and sinners, losers and winners, kings and fools- does not mean us and them…it just means us.

And that’s the surprise ending in the kingdom of Heaven too. My theology professor used to say there isn’t a single one of us who isn’t going to get to heaven and not be offended by who else got in with us.” Inserted from Ann Dieterle’s sermon, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

The True Face of Christendom

By EARL COX

Special to The Record

With anti-Semitic incidents on the rise in America and Europe, it is imperative that Israel knows who her true friends are. It’s sad and disturbing that anti-Semitism in the West originated with the early church fathers. How could this be? Jews and Christians share a common heritage: both are people of the Book; both our Scriptures confirm the Jews as G-d’s chosen people, whom He loves, and to whom He promised the land of Israel by everlasting covenant to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their descendants.

Sheep or Goats? The Christian Divide

These foundations of the faith should be no-brainers. Yet a deep divide emerged in Christendom beginning with the First Century church fathers. Its two main issues were the authority and interpretation of the Bible, and God’s love and plan for Israel. It’s an anomaly that the cultural/political church has a history of anti-Semitism—especially mainstream denominations such as Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists and others.

Cultural, politicized Christianity has spawned “politically correct” positions that conflict with biblical truth. For example, the false doctrine of replacement theology teaches that the church has “replaced” Judaism, that Jews have no future in G-d’s plan, or sovereignty over Israel and Jerusalem; thus all G-d’s promises and blessings have become the church’s exclusive domain. Nothing could be further than the truth. Replacement theologians squirmed in 1948 when the Lord returned the captivity of Zion and Israel was reborn in a day!

Here’s a sampling of how poisonous anti-Semitism infiltrated the early church: Justin Martyr, who called Gentile believers the “new” Israel, wrote: “The Jewish Scriptures are no longer yours, they are now ours.” Irenaeus: “The Jews are now disinherited from the grace of God.” Tertullian: “God has rejected the Jews in favor of the Christians.” Eusebius: “The promises of the Hebrew Scriptures are now for the Christians and not the Jews—but the curses are for the Jews.” The Emperor Constantine exhorted separation from the “despicable” Jews. Jerome stooped to degrading terms, later borrowed by the Nazis and Muslims. Augustine’s sermon “Against the Jews” deeply impacted Martin Luther, who advocated setting fire to Jewish synagogues and schools, destroying Jewish homes and prayer books, forbidding rabbis to teach, and confiscating Jews’ cash and treasures. Despite his faith, Luther’s writings inspired the horrors of the Holocaust.

Bitter Roots, Poisonous Trees

Over time, some denominations unabashedly began to subordinate the Bible to political views, as liberal mainstream seminaries taught false doctrines such as replacement and liberation theologies. In the latter, Jesus is seen as liberator of the poor and oppressed. In this worldview, Palestinian suicide bombers blow themselves up only because they’ve been oppressed and historically wronged—remove or restrain their Israeli oppressors and they’ll live in peace—despite being brainwashed from cradle to grave to hate and kill Israelis and other “infidels.”

Last year, the Presbyterian Church USA called for BDS based on Israel’s “human rights abuses” and “militarized violence” against Palestinians, without condemning Palestinian terrorism. For these leaders, BDS is justified due to Israel’s alleged violation of Palestinian human rights. Yet they fail to address the PA or Hamas’s violation of human rights of their own people, or Israel’s legitimate need for self-defense.

In 2016, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on the United State to end aid to Israel and “enable an independent Palestinian state.” It also adopted a resolution calling for divestment from Israel, so as not to “profit from human rights abuses.” ELCA group Isaiah 58 promotes a book recommending Islamic sharia law as the remedy for Israeli “occupation.”

Evangelical Support for Israel

Though liberal seminaries are seedbeds for anti-Semitism, most evangelical Christians study the Bible free of political interference. After all, Christian support for Israel is Biblical, not political.

Evangelicals are the largest consistently pro-Israel block in the United States. A Pew Research Center poll found that 82 percent of white evangelicals believe God gave Israel to the Jewish people, compared to less than half as many Jewish or Catholic Americans.

The true face of Christendom is the tens of millions of evangelicals who demonstrate their love for Israel with no hidden agendas, believe G-d gave Israel to the Jewish people, respect and obey the Bible as the ultimate written authority, and know that G-d always keeps His promises. How can any true Christian love Christ but not love His family and His land?

A Tiny Travelers Chapel and a few maybes

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

It was on a visit to Conway, S.C., and an afternoon of exploring the history of the area with local friend Larry Biddle that I become aware of the Travelers Chapel on Hwy 501.

I have known Larry for some time, and he always has something new for me to see and learn about when I visit. That’s just one of the reasons I like Larry and his wife, Jenny. They celebrate life every day, and they also place a high value on an awareness of history.

On this trip, I had a business meeting, and afterward, Larry and his friend, Mike, joined us at Eggs Up Grill near Horry-Georgetown Tec and Coastal Carolina University, I’m a fan of both schools. I remembered meeting Mike and his wife a few years earlier in Murrells Inlet. Larry invited Mike to share information about the history of the Travelers Chapel.

As the story goes Conway chiropractor Dr. Gaylord Kelly was traveling in Washington state in 1972. It was on that trip that he come across a small chapel and he thought it would be an excellent thing to have the same thing back home for travels and locals alike.

Dr. Kelly returned to Conway with a postcard about the tiny church, and he visited with Rev. Emory Young, and he too liked the idea of building a little travelers Chapel. Before long the idea was shared with others in the community, and it would eventually become a community effort to build what is believed to be the first tiny Travelers Chapel in the Carolinas. Today it is reported to be the second smallest in the nation.

I was fascinated with Mikes telling of the story. However, it was when I had the opportunity to read some of the notes and letters from travelers that I realized just how special the stop on 501 had become for so many people. After eating we followed Mike to the Travelers Chapel to see for ourselves. I was surprised that I had not noticed it before. I am sure I had driven by it many times over the years. I suppose we see things when we are supposed to. It is very well maintained and I would guess about 150 square feet.

The Chapel is always open and free for all. The Chapel and grounds are taken care of by a dedicated group of volunteers who care deeply about the cause. There have been many weddings and even a funeral in the space that can seat up to 12, but for the most part, travelers seem to stop for a time of quiet reflection and meditation.

Many people take the time to write a letter to God. I must admit that I felt a bit odd reading letters that I knew were not addressed to me. However, it was not long before I begin to connect with some of the words emotionally.

Some notes expressed gratefulness, some were to benefit others, some were funny, and some were tearful. Maybe that’s a bit of what it’s all about. Connecting and relating to each other. Maybe that’s what happened to Dr. Kelly when he visited Washington state in 1972, perhaps the words and the purpose of the place got to him, and he just had to tell others about it. Maybe that’s what inspired Rev. Young and the community to come together, and maybe that’s what has inspired the volunteers over the past 45 years.

Just maybe that’s what happened, and if so I think I understand.

Thanks Larry for introducing me to yet another great adventure!

Carl White is the executive producer and host of the award-winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In the Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its eighth year of syndication and can be seen in the Charlotte viewing market on WJZY Fox 46 Saturday’s at 12:00 noon. For more on the show, visit www.lifeinthecarolinas.com, You can email Carl White at [email protected].

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