Newspaper Page Text
HARRIS BLACKWOOD
Community Editor
The Devil’s
in the Kudzu
bi Georgia, the legend says
That you must close your windows
At night to keep it out of the house.
The glass is tinged with green,
even so,
From the poem "Kudzu"
By James Dickey
1 believe in the devil.
Now, I am most assuredly anti
devil. But I know that he is real.
The devil has come to me in
many forms. The
devil has come to
me as a roll of
wallpaper and as
a bucket of paint.
There is nothing
worse than trying
to re-do a room
with a demon-
I *T
possesed roll of w allpaper or can ot
paint.
Most recently, the devil has
come to me in the form of kudzu
My wife and 1 reside on a tract
of land that has one of this area’s
finest and most well established
crops of kudzu in the region.
I have attempted to face this
demon head on I have used a chain
saw, a machete, and my father-in
law’s lawn mower ... mine wasn't
strong enough.
I decided that before I con
quered this monster. 1 needed to do
a little research.
Juanita Baldwin, a nice lady
from Kodak. Tenn., has written
three volumes on kudzu Her most
recent, “Kudzu in America." tells
pretty much everything you want to
know about kudzu and several
things you might not care to know.
1 called Juanita one morning at
her house. 1 had the picture of
Juanita living in a kudzu covered
cottage in Kodak.
Not so.
"If 1 had kudzu growing in my
yard, I would move," said the
author.
"Kudzu was brought into this
country to celebrate the centennial
of the United States in Philadelphia
as a gift from the Japanese," she
said "They planted it in their pavil
ion and it made the papers all over
the country. People began to want
the kudzu plant It was a huge mar
ket for nursery people."
She went on to tell me all the
great uses for kudzu.
The most valuable usage is for
kudzu powder or starch. It is used
in Japan as a primary ingredient in
candy and confections It comes
from very mature roots.
It sells in health food stores for
15 to 20 bucks a pound
I was writing all this down, but
at the same tune. I'm thinking, I've
got a gold mine in the back yard.
I've got kudzu roots as big as my
leg. I could build a little kudzu mill
and nice folks would come by and
get a bag of Blackwood’s Old South
Kudzu Powder I would put pictures
of my daughters dressed in hoop
skirts on the bag. Sort of like
Martha White.
Keep on talking Juanita, I’m
really listening.
She told me that the blossoms of
the kudzu plant could be used to
make a tasty jelly. Another popular
use is making purses out of kudzu.
I don't know anything about mak
ing purses, but I’ll send off for one of
Juanita’s books and suddenly I’m an
entrepreneur with three hot products.
By this time next year, every fashion
able woman in this neck of the
wixhls will be carrying kudzu.
What else can you do with it
Juanita?
“Most people are stunned to find
out that 90 percent of the wallpaper
that comes from the orient is made
from kudzu,” she said.
I thought for a moment about
my ill-fated experiences with wall
paper and I realized I would be con
tributing to a miserable day for
some poor soul trying to hang a roll
of kudzu on their wall.
For a few moments, I was seeing
dollar signs. Now I'm just seeing
green, kudzu green.
Now where is that chainsaw?
Harris Blackwood's column
appears Sundays in the Forsyth
County News. Send comments to
life styles <d> forsythnews. com.
Forsyth life
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Drawings courtesy of YMCA
Architect’s rendering shows the exterior view of the planned Forsyth County Family YMCA. Drawings below, in descending order, show
the planned wellness and strength training center, aquatics center, and group fitness and aerobics facility. Officials must raise $2.5 million
in the current campaign to begin construction by late summer.
Fund drive
for sl4
million
facility
under way
By Harris Blackwood
Community Editor
Mention the YMCA and you’ll
get a variety of responses.
Pop culture often conjures up
memories of the 'Bos disco quartet.
The Village People, and their signa
ture song about the "Y-M-C-A."
For others, there is a memory of
Mayberry Deputy Barney Fife, who
often ventured for leisure travel to
Raleigh, with hopes of getting a cor
ner room at the “Y.”
The YMCA has been present in
Forsyth County since 1996, with a
number of athletic and camp pro
grams. However, officials with the
Metro Atlanta YMCA are hopeful
that by late this summer, construction
can begin on a sl4 million YMCA
complex located in the Vickery
neighborhood on Post Road in south
Forsyth.
“We are optimistic that we will be
able to complete our campaign in the
next several months and break
ground by mid to late summer," said
Dan Pile, group vice president for the
YMCA.
“It will take about 10 months to
build, so we believe by mid-2005 we
will have the *Y’ open.”
Pile said that the programs at the
YMCA are different from offerings
at county and city recreation depart
ments.
"We have two different philoso
phies and both are good,” Pile said.
“The Y is specifically designed
around developing character. We
consider our programs as vehicles to
drive the mission of our work. The
outcome is building character and
building leadership skills in young
people and providing a wholesome
quality of life for families.
Recreation is our vehicle, not our
outcome.”
Pile said that the YMCA pro
grams will complement the work of
the recreation agencies.
The “Y” is a membership-based
organization, however. Pile said that
no one will be turned away because
of an inability to pay.
“Membership fees foster and pro
mote ownership, buy-in and support
See KMC4, Page 8B
ForeythCounty New—Sunday, Apri 18»20M
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