Newspaper Page Text
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Thursday, June IS, 2000
Community Living
Bringing back the singing
City, residents plan June Singing 2000
By Alton Bridges
Staff Writer
The “June singing” that was a tradi
tion for almost 70 years before it was
stopped in the late 1970 s will begin
again Saturday evening, June 17, at the
Cumming Fairgrounds.
The singing is scheduled to
begin at 4 p.m., but the start-
ing time is tentative because
so many people are want
ing to participate.
“We ask people
to be a little toler
ant with the ,
schedule,” said K ’
Linda Heard, A1 /
development
coordinator
with the City
of Cumming.
“We have been "
overwhelmed Hl
with groups
and we appreci
ate that. «Msig*g
However, if we
enjoy the music
that has been a tra
dition in the moun
tains since the early ’
1800 s, time will go by in a
hurry. Everyone should
enjoy the singing.
Although there will be a break
around 6:30 p.m. for everyone to eat,
food will be available throughout most
of the afternoon and evening. The
Buford Church of God will have barbe
cue chicken plates with potato salad,
coleslaw, baked beans and hot dogs and
hamburgers as a fund-raiser throughout
the afternoon.
After the break in the evening,
singers who have not been scheduled
will have a chance to sing.
The June
1 lie JUIIC
singings have a long
and proud history
and many people
still remember them,
including Christine
Samples, who
remembers attend
ing as a child.
“We would get
dressed in our
Sunday best, ride down to Cumming in
the back of a pickup and spend the day,”
she said. “I remember the weather was
usually very hot, but everyone enjoyed
seeing one another and enjoyed the
singing, too.”
“My mother carried us to the June
singings from the time I was born until I
became an adult,” said Hazel Hansard.
“After that, I went on my own. After I
j3«il jMk ** r * .9L
111
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rW W K?v
Photo/Tom Brooks
Big Creek Elementary School’s Odyssey of the Mind team includes, from left,
Jonathan Stephens, Josh Butler, Collin Berggreen, Nathan Stephens and
Charlie Durham.
was married, my husband and I contin
ued going until it stopped. At the time
we had nothing else to do so everyone
went. The town was full of people. It
was hard to walk down the sidewalks,
but everyone enjoyed seeing one another
and listening to the singing.”
Recently while browsing through
some old copies of the
Forsyth County
'A
1905 and 1977.
In the interview, Hardin remembered
the June singing as a big event and in the
early years, “[The square] was crowded
like everything.”
He did not “recollect seeing an auto
mobile there at the first one. [The auto
mobiles] began to come in 1910. There
wasn’t many up till then and mighty few
then.”
The 77-year-old Hardin remembered
that M.T. Wallace was responsible for
starting the first singing in the “brand
We would get
dressed in our Sunday
best, ride down to
Cumming ... and
spend the day...
was delayed until
construction of the courthouse was far
enough along to hold the singing.
The singings started and ended with
the life of the courthouse. The 1978
singing was canceled because of the
burning of the courthouse.
Mr. and Mrs. Emory Williams, who
lived in the Daves Creek community,
were married at the singing in 1905.
Mrs. Williams remembered the early
News, I ran across an
article about Walter
Hardin, who was
bom around the
. turn of the past
\ century. Hardin
had a store on
Hwy. 9 north of
Bm Cumming and
gal had not missed
Bl a J une s ’ n ß‘ n 2
BgU since 1905,
BB when the
ggw singings
became a per-
JHB manent event in
Forsyth County.
B The newspaper
F was dated June 22,
1977 and Hardin had
not missed a single
singing for
the 72 years
between
spanking new cour
thouse before the
courthouse was
even finished.”
According to the
article, the June
singing in 1905 was
not held in June,
after all, but on July
5. The first singing
I
• ■
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WE _ W nl 11. &JH
! 11
-tr 1 » TVTI
.7 ■ I
I L _____
Photo/submitted ■
Ebenezer Methodist Church, like many of the churches in rural America at the turn of the 20th century, was warmed
by a wood stove in the winter and cooled by nothing more than open windows and doors in the summer. Left, the har- ‘
vest moon graphic was illustrated by local artist Rick Rennick in 1998.
singings.
“The courthouse yard would be
working like bees,” she reported. “Folks
went from far and near to that singing.
We always carried our lunch.” When
lunchtime came, “most of us would go
to cars, buggies or wagons to eat.”
For June 2000, the City of Cumming
is being joined by the Andean Motor
Company, Ingrams Funeral Home, the
Forsyth County Singing Class and the
Forsyth County Historical Society in
sponsoring the singing.
The June Singing 2000 will be
Saturday, June 17, from 4-9 p.m. at the
Cumming Fairgrounds featuring a wel
come from Mayor H. Ford Gravitt; mod-
Big Creek Elementary’s Odyssey
team attends world championship
By Amanda Johnson
Special to the Forsyth County News
The characters in the movie “Baby
Geniuses” have nothing on six kids from
Big Creek Elementary School.
Last weekend, after months of prepara
tion and preliminary competition, die
school’s Odyssey of the Mind team made it
to the world finals, held at the University of
Tennessee in Knoxville. First- and second
graders Charlie Durham, Collin Beiggreen,
Josh Butler, Katie Kuhlhorst, Nathan
Stephens and Jonathon Stephens finished
20th, placing them among the brightest,
most innovative students in the world.
Odyssey of the Mind, or OM, is a pro
gram for students from kindergarten
through college designed to challenge them
mentally and help them develop effective
problem-solving skills. The OM process
lasts all year. First, the team chooses one
long-term problem to work on from a list
of five different challenges.
There are problems to engage all differ
ent kinds of students. Some of the prob
lems are theatrical in nature, some involve
building vehicles and machines, and others
are technical like the one selected by
this year’s team at Big Creek.
Big Creek Elementary sent seven teams
to competition this year, but the winning
team worked on the problem called
“Shrinking Structure.” Their challenge was
this: to build a balsa wood structure
between 9-1/2 and 10 inches tall, which
would shrink to between 8 and 8-1/2 inch-
erators Jimmy Fagan, Boyd Parks and
Jeff Bagley; a reflection on June
singings from Gerald Blackbum; a his
torical account from Mrs. Winnie
Tailant; and several performances,
including the following:
• Soloist Dr. Melissa McGinnis
• Trinity Worship Center Church of
God Choir (John Barrett, director)
• Amicalola Falls Baptist Church
Choir (Andrea Ford, director)
• Soloist Carol Anderson
• Piedmont Methodist Church Choir
(Tom Bartow, director)
• Just Three
• Buford Church of God Choir
(Rodney Cundit/Shawn Tanner)
Theyplaced 20th
out 0f52 teams in
their division.
99
es when it was crushed. Then, the crushed
structure would be tested to see how much
weight it would hold. The structure itself
could weigh no more than 15 grams the
weight of four nickels. The only materials
the team could use were balsa wood and
glue, and they could spend no more than
$75 on all their materials.
But building the structure was only part
of the challenge. The team also had to
write an original skit that centered around
the idea of shrinking. They performed the
skit while the weight was piled on the
structure. The entire process lasted less
than eight minutes. f
Big Creek’s team chose “Shrinking
Structure” at the beginning of the 1999-
2000 school year, and they started prepar
ing immediately. The students had to do all
the work themselves. Coaches Lisa
Stephens and Sharon Durham could teach
and advise the students, but they could not
do any construction or preparation.
Big Creek’s team put their structure to
the test at their region competition on
March 25 at Greater Atlanta Christian
School. At competition, the team not only
presents the solution to its long-term prob-
Scenes from graduation: I
Celebrating the Class of2oool g 1
pagesbißß
• Christ the King Lutheran Church
Choir (Jack Brolin, director)
• Mayfield Baptist Church Choir
• Harmony Grove Baptist Church
Choir (directed by Karen Martin)
• Living Water
• Silver City Adult Choir (directed by I
Roger Slaton)
• Goss Family Singers
• Haw Creek Youth Choir (directed
by Pam Power)
• Happy Christian Trio
• Parks Trio
• Soloist Jon Heard
• Soloist Evelyn Castleberry
• Soloist Terry “Chief’ Frady
• Forsyth County Quartet.
lem, but must also participate in a sponta
neous problem, where the team is given a
problem or question it has never seen
before and has two to three minutes to
respond. The scores of the long-term and
spontaneous problems are combined to get
the team’s total. The Big Creek team’s
structure held 250 pounds in the long-term
competition, and they earned exemplary
spontaneous scores. They finished second
at region competition, arid they advanced to
the state finals, which were held in
Milledgeville on April 15.
At state, Big Creek’s structure held
even more weight, finally breaking at 385
pounds. Again, the team finished second,
qualifying them to attend the 21st annual
Odyssey of the Mind world finals, held last
weekend at the University of Tennessee’s
Thompson Boling Arena.
The contest really was a world competi
tion, with teams from China, Singapore,
Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Australia,
Belgium, Hungary, the United Kingdom
and the Bahamas, among others. Big
Creek’s team met students from all over the
world, and they enjoyed trading lapel pins ,
with the other teams.
Big Creek’s OM team fared well.
Competing with other students from
kindergarten to age 12, they placed 20th
out of 32 teams in their division. Their
structure held an incredible 440 pounds
before breaking.
With kids like these, it’s easy to see
why Big Creek Elementary is a state
School of Excellence.