There's 'something eternal' about N.C. summers

I got suckered into doing one of those Facebook "7 books in 7 days" things. OK, "suckered" is probably too strong; after all, I enthusiastically dove in to it. Books are a passion of mine.

One of the books I chose to highlight is Tim McLaurin's Keeper of the Moon, which is a memoir about his own life growing up around Fayetteville. Seriously, if you haven't read it -- WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

In reflecting on this book, I was reminded of one of my favorite passages ever from any piece of literature. And it's also so timely as we are now in the throes of summer. Yes, it's pretty much ungodly hot these days, but I appreciate that McLaurin could appreciate Carolina summers. To wit:

If indeed there exists a physical heaven, I hope it is patterned after North Carolina between the summer hours of six and eight a.m. The haunting call of doves, leaves jeweled with dew, the glint of sun in oak branches, robins and roosters in duet, fog -- something eternal exists in those minutes that a person carries in memory for life.

God, I love that so much.

This also has me reminiscing about other quintessential "Carolina Summer" things. Here are a few that we've discussed over the years here. Enjoy!

Remembering the Fort Fisher Hermit

Back when the bright lights hit the lake

Are we losing beach music?

The winds of change and the Sunset Beach bridge

Eat your heart out at the Seafood Festival

'The Lost Colony' is thriving

Quick hits: British mayor still looking for 'Lost Colony,' and N.C. toll is one of a kind

Lost Colony found at last?

"An English mayor is seeking to solve one of the biggest mysteries in American history: what happened to the settlers who were part of the so-called Lost Colony, Britain's The Guardian reported Friday.

"Andy Powell, mayor of Bideford, on England's southwestern coast, is convinced the English settlers who mysteriously disappeared from modern-day Roanoke Island joined the local Native American tribe, an assertion he says can be verified with DNA evidence in both America and Britain," according to NewsCore.

"Tales about blue-eyed Croatoans and white men spotted in the tribe seem to support Powell's hypothesis, but historians have never been able to verify what really happened. ..."

N.C. to establish first interoperable toll road in U.S.

"The N.C. Turnpike Authority signed a $5.9 million contract Tuesday for technology that will enable the state to collect tolls electronically on the 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway.

"No cash-collection tollbooths are planned for TriEx, now under construction in Research Triangle Park and western Wake County. The state's first modern toll road will open in RTP in 2011 and in western Wake in 2012. ...

"The contract also will enable North Carolina to collect electronic tolls from drivers who have E-ZPass transponders and debit accounts with turnpike agencies in northeastern states, and from those with transponders that use different technology in Florida, Texas and other southern states," according to reports.

UK mayor to dig for Lost Colony roots

From the North Devon (UK) Gazette ...

THE search for links between Bideford and the earliest American settlers will take the town's Mayor, Cllr Andy Powell, to North Carolina next month.

Mr Powell is planning to join high profile archaeologist Professor Mark Horton, one of the team from the television series Coast, and a small group of Americans on a series of exploratory digs on the outer banks region of North Carolina. ...

Aim of the North Carolina project is to establish whether Bidefordians were among the founding fathers of America.

It is believed some could have been among the Lost Colonists who landed on Roanoke Island in the 1580s- more than 30 years before the Pilgrim Fathers set sail from Plymouth.

The 117 men, women and children disappeared, but it is hoped to establish that they did not perish, but moved on to live with the local native American tribes to become the first permanent settlers of the continent.

In collaboration with an American research group, next month's test digs will examine areas where artefacts have been discovered, including what appear to be Elizabethan bricks - known to have been used as ballast in the ships of colonists - pieces of pottery and even parts of what could be an Elizabethan ship. ...

Through genealogy and modern DNA testing it is also hoped to establish links between people from Bideford and families in America that can be traced back to this era.

After publication of a list of the Lost Colonists' names earlier this year, Barnstaple businessman Philip Milton became the first local person to have his DNA tested.

Although several matches were found with Americans, genealogical research has not yet been able to take these as far back in time as the Lost Colony.

Five other families whose names might fit with the list had now also come forward, said Mr Powell. DNA test kits had been sent for from a laboratory in Texas, which would also test them.

A high-tech search for the 'Lost Colony'

From The Virginian-Pilot (via the Greensboro News & Record):

"... In the quest for the Lost Colony, the vanished 1587 English settlement on Roanoke Island, archaeologists have conducted numerous explorations in Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, digging and surveying and scanning and scoping.

"But they've never used high-tech radar tomography that can produce 3-D images out of data collected from 6 feet, more or less, under ground.

"The refined technology, which can also use sound and light waves, gained early fame when inventor Alan Witten used it to help locate fossils from a 120-foot-long dinosaur — called 'seismosaurus' — in the late 1980s in New Mexico. The find was fictionalized in Michael Crichton's 'Jurassic Park.'

" 'This is fantastic, cutting-edge technology,' said Eric Klingelhofer, vice president of the First Colony Foundation, in a telephone interview. 'I am eager to see the findings and then compare them with what we know of the archaeology of the site.' ..."

As am I. Any North Carolinian educated in its public schools knows the story of the "Lost Colony." The N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh recently completed an incredible look at the story, mostly from the point of view of John White's magnificent water colors.

Just what happened to the colony will probably never be decided, no matter what kind of technology we now have. But it is quite a mystery. Were the colonists just simply killed? Did they assimilate into Native American culture (and become the Lumbees or perhaps the inhabitants of Crusoe Island?) One legend has it that Virginia Dare, the first European child born in the New World and the namesake of this group, became a white deer.

Lost items at 'The Lost Colony'

Thankfully, the show must go on ...

"Sorrow mixed with relief as staff from the outdoor drama 'The Lost Colony' gathered Tuesday to figure out what was destroyed -- and what was fortuitously saved -- when a fire ripped through the historic Waterside Theatre early Tuesday," writes the News & Observer.

"The blaze was reported at 12:35 a.m. by a resident. It gutted one of the production's most valuable resources, the costume shop containing 70 years of new and vintage costumes, fabrics, designs and memorabilia. Two equipment sheds were also destroyed.

"But the amphitheater and sets were spared, production designer William Ivey Long said in a phone interview Tuesday morning. And some of the most valuable costumes were at other sites. ...

" 'I'm still in the stunned stage,' said Long, a Broadway designer and five-time Tony Award-winner who has worked with the drama for almost 40 years. ..."

Click here for more.

Outdoor drama is 'thriving'

One of North Carolina's great cultural treasures is "The Lost Colony." The outdoor drama -- the nation's oldest -- is celebrating 70 years this year. Audiences continue to flock to the show on Roanoke Island despite "bugs, summer heat and high-priced gas," according to the Charlotte Observer.

"The story is about 120 English men, women and children who tried to start a colony on the Outer Banks in 1587. The colony's disappearance remains one of history's great mysteries," says the paper.

"The two-act play -- set in England and Roanoke Island -- distilled the story of their struggles into a blend of music, song, dance and poetic dialogue. ..."

The article states that in 2006 there were 180 outdoor plays in 40 U.S. states, with North Carolina leading the way with 11, the most of any state.

"From the Appalachian tale 'Horn in the West' in Boone to Raleigh's 'The Amistad Saga: Reflections,' which dramatizes a slave ship mutiny in 1839, the plays cover wide historical ground. [Note: We recently lost Fred Cranford, a dear family friend and author of one of the longest-running outdoor plays in the state, "From This Day Forward."]

" 'The Lost Colony' came first. Written in 1937 by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green, the play 'holds up the ideals of American democracy,' said Laurence Avery, a UNC Chapel Hill English professor. ...

"Green, who died in 1981, grew up on a Harnett County cotton farm. He taught philosophy and drama at UNC. He expected the show to run for one season. But it drew national attention. President Franklin Roosevelt saw the production. So did his wife, Eleanor, who became a champion. New York Times drama critic Brooks Atkinson gave it a glowing review. ..."