Happy New Year!

We just finished up playing for First Night Williamsburg, one of our favorite concerts for the year. December 31st was a misty, rainy evening for the crowds that came to the campus of William & Mary and historic Williamsburg to hear the 40 or so performers. Molasses Creek shared the stage with Celtic rock band Coyote Run at the Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall and giving performances at 5:00, 7:00 and 9:30 PM.

Our entourage set off for Williamsburg on the 8:00 AM Ocracoke-Hatteras ferry on a misty, rainy morning unsure if or how long the 40 minute ferries would run (they tend to shut down if visibility is low). Highway 12 also had quite a bit of water on it as we made our way north. Despite the winds, this water came from the heavy rains the night before rather than overwash. Construction vehicles were already hard at work in Rodanthe at the spot where heavy surf always washes away the dunes. We have heard rumor that the beach house featured in Warner Brother’s “Nights in Rodanthe” movie had been sold to a new owner who plans to move the home out of harms way and renovate the interior to match the layout from the interior scenes from the movie (previously a Hollywood set creation). A couple of months ago after a significant noreaster, this beach house was again standing in the middle of ocean surf. The state had apparently condemned the dwelling and given the owners a deadline to move or tear down the house. Rumor has it that the company that moved the lighthouse has been contracted to handle the relocation.

Gerald Hampton and his wife Beth met us (Fiddler Dave, Gary, Marcy, Lou, and baby Charlotte) at the theater for load-in and sound check early afternoon. Gerald brought his new stand-up bass to the performance. Although he has been only working on it for 4-months, his progress has been phenomenal! He said that the biggest challenge has been switching between the biggest instrument and the smallest one (mandolin). We tried to keep him on his toes during the concert and he successfully made it through three sets without cramping up.
We loved seeing so many familiar friends and fans. What a wonderful way to break in the new year! Strolling around historical Williamsburg, sipping hot Cider, smelling the woodburning fires and conversing (even singing) with the colonially costumed residents of the town caused us to give thanks to that endearing human spirit that inspires all of us to share our creative sparks with our communities and the world. We are now traveling back to Ocracoke with full bellies (thanks to a New Year’s breakfast at the Chickhominy Inn, complete with blackeyed peas for good luck), Molasses Creek wishes you the best for this upcoming year.

Molasses Creek’s March Madness Northern Tour!
While the rest of the world dreads and avoids snowy weather, Molasses Creek is taking advantage of the Ocracoke Island offseason to travel north to see what this white sfuff is all about! Hope that you folks will spread the word about these upcoming dates. Check out the Molasses Creek calendar for details!

Love ya folks!
Molasses Creek

Molasses Creek at First Night Williamsburg

Hey there folks,

Just wanted to let you know about an upcoming Molasses Creek performance off of Ocracoke Island. Come on out if you are in the area. We would love to see you!

Thursday, December 31 ~ Molasses Creek in Concert at First Night Williamsburg, VA. Shows at Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall. Shows at 5 PM, 7 PM, 9:30 PM. http://www.firstnightwilliamsburg.org

Hope to see you there! Happy new year!
--
Soundside Records
http://www.soundsiderecords.com

Molasses Creek
http://www.molassescreek.com

Deepwater Theater
http://www.deepwatertheater.com

Ocrafolk Festival
http://www.ocrafolkfestival.org

Ocrafolk School
http://www.ocrafolkschool.org

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Ocrafolk School and Fall Concert Activities

The Ocrafolk School had a successful run this last week on Ocracoke Island. This year's classes included Island Cooking with Debbie Wells, Pottery with Wes Lassiter and Rhonda Bates, the Ocrafolk Sampler with Philip Howard, David Senseney and Rob Temple, Making Ships in Bottles with Jim Goodwin, Island Photography with Ann Ehringhaus, and Songwriting with Marcy Brenner. Over thirty participants came from off of Ocracoke to participate in the food, music, and celebration of Coastal Heritage.

One of the special events in this year's retreat was a traditional Old Drum dinner hosted by Merle Davis. This meal consists of Red Drum fish, boiled and crumbled on a pile of potatoes with mixings of bacon, green onions, hard boiled eggs, and a hot vinegar sauce. After instructions by Merle Davis and John Ivey Wells, the Ocrafolk School commenced to feasting and then sat back to enjoy music from the Ocrafolk Opry. Molasses Creek, April Trueblood, Marcy Brenner and Lou Castro, Jamie Tunnell, Wes Lassiter, and Lachlan Howard all gave stellar performances.

The school finished up on Friday, October 30, and Halloween came quickly on its heels. Trick-or-treaters streamed down Lighthouse road to gather up goodies from the Down Pointers. Around 8:30 most of the ghouls had made their way home to duck out of the sites of roving bands of eggers (these youths mainly target each other). As the kids retired for the evening, adults emerged to participate in Halloween parties at Howard's Pub and Dajios.

Molasses Creek Performs at Public Radio East's 25th Anniversary Concert

On Sunday, November 9th, Molasses Creek joined Public Radio East host Finley Woolsten and friends in a benefit concert for Public Radio East at Orringer Auditorium on the campus of Craven Community College in New Bern. The roster of entertainers also included Down East Baroque, Andrea and Phil Owens, Lightnin Wells, and Margaret and Wayne Martin. The concert was a great success. Public Radio East is planning to play selections of the concert over the air and may release the concert as an upcoming podcast. Keep posted so that you can hear the "Dumb Jokes" Song with Finley and Molasses Creek. Not to be missed!

Happy Spring!

The signs are everywhere… trees are budding out, the azaleas are preparing to bloom, visitors are walking the streets, restaurants are opening… spring has sprung on Ocracoke!

After a long winter of limited options, islanders and visitors now have a complete menu of dining opportunities. Howard’s Pub, Pony Island, Flying Melon, and the Café Atlantic are all back in business for the season. For dining al fresco on these beautiful spring days there’s Smacnally’s or the Creekside Café. Thai Moon carry-out is open, and so is Ocracoke Pizza Company. Jason’s, which served the island well in January and February, then closed for a month for some R and R, re-opened April 10th. The Back Porch will open as soon as they complete their recent renovations – the addition of a new façade and more indoor seating. Ocracoke Coffee Company is brewing up the caffeine each morning at 7am, and the new kid in town, Riley’s (in the former Mango Loco), is open seven days a week.

Ocracoke’s wonderful and unique shops are stocking the shelves with new merchandise and opening their doors for another season.

Ocracoke’s Newest Shop Recycles Old Stuff for a Good Cause



Everyone is excited about the newest shopping opportunity on the island – Village Thrift! The thrift shop, which shares its space with Blue Door Antiques (an old favorite that is back and better than ever!), will support the Ocracoke Youth Center by selling donated items, t-shirts and sweatshirts, and homemade bags.

Village Thrift is the brainchild of Paula Schramel, owner of the Blue Door and a member of the OYC board. (She’s also the mastermind behind the Ocrafolk Festival Silent Auction!) Paula and the rest of the OYC board hope the thrift shop will provide an ongoing source of income for the Youth Center and bring in money for the non-profit organization from visitors as well as residents.

The two shops occupy the retail space attached to Ocracoke Coffee Company that formerly housed Java Books. (Ocracoke still has a wonderful independent bookstore – Books to Be Red.) The Blue Door gets 2/3 of the space and Village Thrift takes 1/3; Paula manages both with no cost to OYC. The shops are open 8am to 4pm, seven days a week. Paula will work five days a week and volunteers will fill in on her days off. With low overhead costs, Village Thrift should bring in a steady income.

Paula says that local response to the thrift store has been tremendous. She has already accepted many items, including some generous donations of furniture.

“The timing is right in this economy for a thrift store,” she said. “And we want to be ecological and encourage recycling and reuse. People won’t have to take stuff to the dump to get rid of it.”

The idea of creative reuse isn’t new on Ocracoke. Many residents fondly remember Cork’s Closet thrift store, which thrived for years. Most locals have a good story about finding just what they needed at the dump – affectionately known as Ocracoke’s Wal-mart, or “Jail-mart,” since it’s next door to the jail. And in the old days, islanders found uses for shipwrecked lumber and the flotsam and jetsam washed up on the beach.

“Villagers’ use of salvaged materials goes back almost 300 years,” Paula said.

She’s also happy to find a new home for The Blue Door. Originally opened in 2001 in an old house on Lighthouse Road, The Blue Door was a popular antique and gift shop for six years. Paula closed her shop so she and her husband Michael (co-owner of The Flying Melon restaurant) could start a complete historic renovation on the old house, where they now live.

The new Blue Door will carry a selection of antique china, pottery, quilts, jewelry, paintings and more. There will also be some affordable used and antique furniture. Paula will consider taking big-ticket items on consignment if she has available space in the small shop.

The Outer Banks Community Foundation (www.obcf.org) recently awarded a grant to OYC for start-up costs for the Village Thrift. The grant monies are paying for custom-built shelving and storage units, three exterior and one interior sign, a donation box for inside the store, advertising in local papers (which OYC is getting at a discount), and Village Thrift t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts to be sold in the shop.

The OBCF grant also pays for bright green stickers for the Village Thrift items.

“We don’t want any confusion about inventory, between what’s the Blue Door’s and what’s the thrift store’s,” Paula said. “Everything that’s donated will go to the Youth Center and have a Village Thrift sticker.”

Paula expects that traffic flow from the coffee shop, which has upwards of 500 customers a day in the summer, will be good, and that locals will stop in regularly to see what’s new.

“Our inventory will change daily,” she said. “You never know what we might have.”



Spring Cleaning Fever!

Ocracokers have been mightily busy preparing cottages and businesses for the new season. Ocracoke’s Junior Girl Scout trop decided to pitch in and do their share of spring cleaning. They recently completed their Community Clean-up badge with a service project at Ocracoke Child Care. The Girl Scouts washed the center's windows and screens, and scrubbed all the classroom chairs.

This was the fourth clean-up project for the Junior Girl Scout troop. They participated in the Big Sweep beach clean-up and the Beta Club village litter pick-up last fall, and spent a day in January cleaning all the toys and furniture in the Methodist Church nursery.


Sydney Austin and Karla Perez scrub the chairs from OCC


Bricia Moreno, Caroline Temple, and Mattie Rose work on cleaning some outside toys.

Armchair Travel at Ocracoke Library

Ocracokers who didn’t get off the island this winter could at least live vicariously through some of our friends and neighbors who represented us in the big, wide world. To promote the library as a place to explore the unknown without leaving the comfort of your own home, Ocracoke Friends of the Library had a Travel theme for their March 31st annual membership meeting.



Emma Lovejoy was one of three presenters who shared stories of their world travels. Emma spent 11 months over 2007-2008 in Denmark as an exchange student with the Youth for Understanding program. She's pictured here with maps, photos and souvenirs of her trip. Riggs Ellis gave a talk about her travels in Peru with her daughter Kate Plyer. Linda Austin came down from Hatteras (where she’s the secondary school’s librarian) to share stories about traveling to Europe and Guatemala, and biking the Allegheny trail from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.

Ocracoke Friends of the Library is a non-profit organization that supports and promotes literacy and the love of reading. Membership is $5 a year for individuals and $10 a year for families. Membership forms are available at the library.

Island Kids Go to Washington!


The students

Not everyone was an armchair traveler this year. Ocracoke High School’s entire student body and most of the faculty took a fantastic weeklong trip to Washington, D.C. this spring. The kids toured the Presidential Monuments and the Capitol Building, and visited the Smithsonian Institution, Holocaust Memorial Museum, National Zoological Park, and Ford's Theater. They also attended an NBA game between the Washington Wizards and the Chicago Bulls.

The big news of the week was when three students, Aaron Caswell, D.J. Lukefahr and Samantha Vander Myde, were accidentally left behind at a Metro stop when the rest of the group boarded the train. It wasn't long before they were all reunited, but it made for good adventure story.



OPS Museum Opens for Another Season



The OPS staff worked hard to get the museum ready to open this year. The building’s interior was painted over the winter, several maintenance projects were tackled, and some of favorite exhibits have been spruced up a bit. The OPS Gift Shop offers a nice selection of local books and, of course, music by Soundside Records musicians! The beautiful new quilt, donated by the Ocracoke Needle and Thread Club is on the bed and raffle tickets are available!

Admission to the Museum is free. It’s open Monday – Saturday, 10am- 4pm, and closed on Sundays. Quilt raffle tickets are $1 each or six for $5. The drawing will be held at the Fall Membership Meeting in November.

Stay tuned…

The Ocrafolks just got together and gave a wonderful performance at the annual Spring Festival Fundraiser – we’ll have pictures and details in the next blog post…

In the meantime, enjoy the nice spring weather and don’t forget to plan ahead for the 2009 Ocrafolk Festival June 5-7.

Spring is on the Way!

Ocracoke has finally had a taste of some sweet spring weather, and not a moment too soon! The warm sunshine got island folks out in their yards and at the beach, and now that a few shops and restaurants are opening, it almost feels like the season has begun.

But before we rush into thinking it’s summer already, we still have some nice winter moments to savor.

Bathing Beauties

Some people think we’d don’t get any tourists her in the winter, but that’s because they’re only thinking about the two-legged kind. Ocracoke’s beaches are a popular winter resort area for harbor seals that come down from colder waters up north. They’re pretty shy, so you can’t get too close, but our librarian Ingeborg Frye got some great shots of this sunbathing sea critter.





Variety Show Was a Great Success



On February 27th, the Ocracoke School gym was packed as the audience eagerly awaited a special Ocracoke Variety Show sponsored by the Ocracoke United Methodist Women. Marcy Brenner and Lou Castro organized the show, Gary Mitchell ran the sound, and community members volunteered to perform, set up the lights and chairs, and provide goodies for the bake sale.

The evening began with a puppet show by Linda Garrish and her puppeteer crew including Arleen Burley and children helpers. Other performers were Martin Garriah, Aaron Caswell, Jack Willis, Melissa Garrish, Mandy Jones, Gary Mitchell, Dave Tweedie, Molly Lovejoy, Caroline Temple, Emma Lovejoy, Katie O’Neal, DeAnna Locke, Manda Collis, Lulu Perez, Sundae Horn, Jamie Tunnell, Kati Wharton, Roger Garrish, Leslie Gilbert, William Gilbert, Bob Winslow, Samantha Styron, David Styron, the Ocracoke United Methodist Youth Band and the Last Rebels of Rock.

The benefit show raised $2300 towards repairs and renovations on the Church Rec Hall. The Methodist Women are trying to raise $60,000 for the Rec Hall, and have raised nearly $40,000 so far. They hosted two Sunday dinner fundraisers at the Rec Hall this winter, which together brought in $2700.

The Methodist Women had a new roof put on the Rec Hall, and the next step is to stabilize the building with a new foundation and replace the floor. The Rec Hall building was originally part of the WWII Naval Base on Ocracoker, and was moved to the church property in the late 1940’s. It has served the community in many capacities over the years. As well as being used by the Methodist Church, the Rec Hall has also been used as a temporary classroom for the school, as a meeting place for community organizations, as a meeting place for the Catholic community, and it is rented out to the public for showers, birthday parties, and wedding receptions.


Leslie and William Gilbert


Lulu Perez


Mandy & Melissa


Ocracoke Methodist Youth Choir


Women of Ocrafolk (Sundae Horn Lead)


The Last Rebels of Rock


Roger Garrish


Samantha and David Styron


Caroline Temple, Molly Lovejoy & Fiddler Dave


Ocracoke Methodist Choir

The Ocracoke Youth Center Also Put on a Show!

On March 2, Ocracoke Youth Center presented a one-act play for children, written and directed by artist-in-residence Cynthia Mitchell and performed at the Ocracoke Community Center. "Backyard Adventure" starred 5th graders Kevin Perez, Eldon Robinson, Deana Seitz, Caroline Temple and Chris Zito, high school junior D.J. Lukefahr, and adult performer Phyllis Wall.

The players gave two performances; a matinee for the Kindergarten through 3rd grade classes, and an evening show for the community. Ruth Toth provided refreshments for a reception following the evening performance.

Ocracoke School art teacher Kitty Mitchell designed the set with the of high school students Echo Bennink, Virginia Downes, Leslie Espinoza, Cassandra Hagins, Mitchell Ibarra, Molly Lovejoy and Maddie Payne. Ocracoke shop teacher Roger Meacham and D.J. Lukefahr built the set platform and Emma Lovejoy designed the programs and posters.


DJ Lukefahr


Chris Zito, Phyllis Wall, Deanna Seitz


Kevin Perez & Caroline Temple


SHH!!

"Backyard Adventure" was made possible in part by a grant from the Beaufort Arts Council.

Ocracoke School Spirit Week and Homecoming

Homecoming week at Ocracoke School is a week of fun, culminating in the presentation of the Homecoming Court and the last high school basketball game of the season. The kids get to dress up all week – each day has a different theme – all to help get them excited about Friday night’s main event.


Superheroes


Superhairoes


Root for your favorite team!


Wait!? Are there three of them?

The festivities start at 4:30 with a hot dog sale, followed by relay races and basketball games played by the youngest Ocracoke Students. Those 3rd and 4th graders can really play some ball! The 5th – 8th grade league (two coed teams) played a close game, which was a warm-up for the 8th graders who would get another chance to play later in the evening with the high school.



Then it was time for the Homecoming Court – a chance to admire all the handsome young men and beautiful young women. Each high school girl is paired up with a boy to escort her (the teachers are the matchmakers) for the Homecoming Court presentation.



High school science teacher Jennifer Garrish introduced each couple and told a little something about them, mostly funny tidbits and inside jokes provided by the students. After the presentations, the Homecoming King and Queen, and Prince and Princess are crowned. (The entire student body gets to vote for the royal winners during school on Friday.) Everyone poses for pictures, and then it’s time to clear that floor again for the big game – Ocracoke boys v. other Ocracoke boys.

Homecoming isn’t an official conference game, but a fun community effort. High school boys who aren’t on the team suit up and play and the 8th graders get their chance to participate, too. Not to get too sappy about it or anything, but Homecoming, like the Variety Show and “Backyard Adventure,” is yet another example of Ocracoke’s smalltown spirit at its best.





What Are Your Plans For Old Quawk’s Day?

You mean you don’t know what Old Quawk’s Day is or even who Old Quawk was?

Well, time was when no O’cock waterman would go out on March 16th, in remembrance of Old Quawk. Old Quawk was an eccentric soul, who lived on Ocracoke about 200 years ago. He set out to fish his nets one day when the wind was a-gustin’ and all the other fishermen were staying safe at harbor. Quawk refused to let a little blow scare him, and, raising his fist at God in defiance, he went to sea – and never returned. March 16th was set aside as a bad luck day for fishing and sea travel, and O’cockers stayed in port even if the weather was perfect.

Here at Soundside Records, we’re not superstitious, but we’re a little bit stitious, so we think you should keep to the harbor, tell some sea stories and drink a toast to Old Quawk this Monday!
For more about this legend, check out Philip Howard’s story: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news040300.htm.

New Music From Soundside Records

Last week we promised you about John Golden’s newest CD, and here it is:



“Minstrel of the Times” by Ocrafolk Festival regular John Golden has a haunting, melancholy tone throughout. The album brings together some of John's favorite folk, Americana, and bluegrass songs. Augmented by many of John’s talented musician friends, the album brings out the best of his rich, mellow voice and folksy acoustic guitar and banjo style even if it does rather conceal his cheerful and upbeat disposition.

“Time to Learn,” written by Tim O’Brien, is a beautifully mournful song about dealing with the death of a loved one. The “high lonesome” voice of Gary Mitchell (who sings harmony throughout the CD) and exquisite fiddling of Dave Tweedie combine to make this song hard hear without having to wipe the old spectacles.

The familiar blues number “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers features the robust vocals of Katy Mitchell. John and Katy’s voices fit together well – and you’d never guess that someone so young could have a voice that sounds like thirtysome years of hard livin’. The Hugh Prestwood song “Ghost in this House,” made popular by Alison Krauss, features a hauntingly pleasing harmony by Marcy Brenner.

For a CD of sad songs, this one just about has it all from rodeos (“Saddle on the Wall”) to coal mining (“The L & N Don’t Stop Here Anymore”) to the Civil War (“Manassas in the Rain”). Pour yourself a strong one, grab a box of Kleenex and order a copy here.

2009 Ocrafolk Festival Artwork is Unveiled

2009 Ocrafolk Festival Poster Image by Kitty Mitchell

By unanimous decision, festival organizers chose Kitty Mitchell as this year’s artist for the 10th Ocrafolk Festival poster and t-shirt design. Now, Kitty may possibly be the busiest woman on Ocracoke, what with teaching grades K-12 at Ocracoke School, co-directing the School Music Club and Pep Band, organizing the annual Arts Week at Ocracoke School, AND working on her National Board Certification as an art teacher. She graciously agreed to be the Festival artist, as long as she could submit something she’d already painted. We ended up with six possible designs – all of them beautiful – so Dave Tweedie let people vote for their favorite. This lighthouse was the clear winner. (A few stubborn people are still holding out for the heron… maybe next year?) The quote on the back will be “I'll hoist my sails and set my ship back here to Ocracoke!” from the musical “A Tale of Blackbeard” by Julie Howard.

Soundside Records Winter Projects

During the busy summer months on Ocracoke, everyone plans and schemes about all the time they’ll have and all the projects they’ll get to come winter. Why does winter seem so long when in the beginning, but not long enough when it’s halfway over and the projects aren’t even started?

Not everyone has procrastinated through January and February, and in this blog post we’d like to highlight one Soundside Records folks who’s working hard to check some items off on his to-do lists.

Gary Mitchell, a.k.a. Guitar Gary of Molasses Creek, a.k.a. Recording Studio Executive and Engineer Extraordinaire hasn’t been idle this winter, or at least that’s what he wants us to think. He’s been keeping busy in Soundside Studio with some interesting recording projects.



A new recording is hot-off-the-presses! The latest CD from Soundside regular John Golden is Minstrel of the Times. John was accompanied in the studio by the “usual local gang” of Soundside musicians, and also an import – his friend Jeff Morris on electric guitar. Jeff traveled all the way from Denver, CO to record with John and Gary.



Minstrel of the Times is rumored to be John’s best album yet. We’ll tell you more about it next week, but meanwhile, you can be the first one on your block to order one from the new and improved Soundside Records website.

Gary has two new Ocrafolk ensemble CDs in the works. One is the highly-aniticpated Women of Ocrafolk CD, which will feature local performers Marcy Brenner, Jamie Tunnell, Sundae Horn, Katy Mitchell, and April Trueblood. We don’t want to give anything away, but rest assured that you’ll hear some of your favorites from the Women’s Opry and maybe even some new ones you’ve never heard before. Gary promises the CD will be ready and available at the Ocrafolk Festival in June.

The above-mentioned songstresses, along with their male counterparts, are working on an festive Ocrafolk Christmas album. Yes, we’ve been talking about this for years, and as Gary admits, it’s hard to find time to record Christmas songs during the holiday season and even harder to be merry and bright, holly and jolly-ish, in mid-February. He’s thinking of setting up a Christmas tree in the studio just to keep people in the mood. He’d like to promise this project will be done for the Festival, too, but, well, he needs a little encouragement. So, if you can dredge up some Christmas spirit as we’re heading into spring, please let Gary know you want an Ocrafolk Christmas album!

Some other Soundside projects include a recording of storyteller and Ocrafolk Opry performer Lou Ann Homan, talking about her travels following in the footsteps of the great poet Robert Frost, and an album by acclaimed guitarist Danny Gotham of Chapel Hill.

Ocracoke Preservation Society commissioned a unique recording project from Soundside Studio. Gary transferred a 1965 LP recording of Theodore Rondthaler’s Commencement Address to the Ocracoke School Class of 1965 to a digital archive and burned CDs for OPS and some of the ’65 grads.



Last, but certainly not least, is (drumroll, please)… a new Molasses Creek album! It’s going to be fantastic and will include fan favorites that haven’t been recorded yet and all-new originals that no one has heard! This is a transition album for the band; Kitty Mitchell is phasing out so she can have more time to paint, while Marcy Brenner is phasing in, joining husband Lou Castro who joined Molasses Creek two years ago. Gerald Hampton, who plays mandolin with the band when they tour, will also be on the new CD. The new CD will be available at the Ocrafolk Festival in June.

Gary’s Not the Only One Keeping Busy…

Busy Bees (Quilting Bees, that is)

The Ocracoke Needle and Thread Club meet twice a week to create beautiful quilts, most of which they donate to worthy causes. (They make a commissioned quilt once in awhile to earn more money for fabric and batting.) They are currently working on three new quilts – a Crazy Quilt will go to OPS for their annual quilt raffle, a Block Party quilt will be raffled off at the Ocrafolk Festival, and another Crazy was commissioned by Needle and Thread Club member Rosemary Wetherill as a gift for her granddaughter.



‘Way back in December, a very special quilt was donated to the Ocrafolk Festival. Festival fans and artisans Rita Horn (Sundae’s mom) and Jill Malone of Columbus, Ohio sewed a traditional Ocracoke Cracker pattern – with a twist. They turned it into a Christmas Cracker! Using only holiday fabrics with holly on them, (except for one red fabric with anchors, in honor of Ocracoke’s maritime history) Rita and Jill started a new quilting tradition.

The Christmas Cracker was raffled off at the Ocrafolk Christmas concert in December. It raised $270 for the Festival and the lucky winner was Reggie Mosser, who is delighted with her quilt. She says she’s still using it everyday while she and her husband are on Ocracoke.



And speaking of her husband…his name is George Brown and he’s an incredible photographer. George and Reggie rented a cottage on Ocracoke for four months this winter, and he’s been shooting pictures all over the island. You can see some of his stunning work at his photo blog, www.pixadilly.com, where he posts one photo a day. Sundae Horn wrote a story about him and his work for Island Free Press. Read her article here.

We Told You Kitty Was Busy…

Duck Stamps

Here’s a small sampling of the artwork that her students have painted for the annual Junior Duck Stamp Contest. Started in 1989, the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest is sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of a curriculum that teaches students about wetlands habitats and the waterfowl that live there.

Each year, over 27,000 students nationwide participate in the contest, and the winning entry is used as the official Junior Duck Stamp, available at the U.S. Post Office for $5 each. The proceeds are used to support conservation education, and provide awards and scholarships for the students, teachers, and schools that participate in the program. The artwork will be judged by grade level, and state finalists will compete at the national level.


by Waylon Underwood


by Matteus Gilbert


by Kyle Tillett


by Diana Perez


Brandon O'Neal


by Caroline Temple


by Ashley Zito

Pep Band Celebrates End of Season

The Pep Band, a.k.a. The Last Rebels of Rock, directed by Kitty Mitchell and Lou Castro, played the halftime show at all the home games this year, and they’re also slated to perform at the Variety Show on February 28th, the school talent show (tentatively scheduled for May 22) and the Ocrafolk Festival.









Farewell to a Friend


Lawton Howard & Fowler O'Neal play some tunes

We are sad to announce that a beloved Ococker passed away on January 28th. Fowler O’Neal was a sailor, a fisherman, a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, a traveler, a reader, a hunter, a teller of tall tales – and a maker of meal wine.

Rob Temple has this to say about the meal wine: “A few years ago Philip Howard and I decided to make up a batch of Ocracoke meal wine just to ensure that the time-honored tradition wouldn’t die out. Fowler was our historical expert on the subject and not only made sure that we observed the right procedures but also kept us constantly entertained with recollections of his own youthful exploits. But he always strictly refused to sample our product. Philip and I often lamented not having known him in his “drinking days.” Fowler will be greatly missed by all who had the good fortune to know him.


Fiddler Dave, Philip Howard, Fowler, Captain Rob Temple & little Lachlan