CityView Magazine

C F C Cape Fear Crematory, Inc. More cost effective than traditional burial We offer private family viewings Compassionate support during your grieving process Affordable cremation services available 24 hours a day Serving eastern NC for more than 30 years A Special Place F S TEDMAN Stedman's Soda Shop serves up smiles BY BRYAN MIMS opposing lanes of traffic unite — and then you see the light. Whether it's red or green, you'll still ease off the gas because of traffic coming in and out of the Food Lion or the Family Dollar or the Hardee's. Highway 24 is now a two-lane road divided by nothing more than bright yellow But then the mighty road bends, the great grassy divide funnels to nothing, the www.capefearcremation.com 6765 Sandy Creek Road Stedman, NC 28391 910.323.8898 SHOPPING Coffee Conversation The most popular breakfast spots & CityView GUIDE Fayetteville's Lifestyle Magazine Winter Issue 2010/2011 www.CityViewNC.com Gifts for everyone CityView Fayetteville's Lifestyle Magazine | www.CityViewNC.com Tables that are the toast of the town PARTY GIRL Living it up Downtown Spring chickens Hens in Haymount cleans house Clutter organizer Buster A home Why we love our city Great things about Fayetteville Sweet deliveries Uncle George's Pies USO Series The Vietnam years PART TWO OF OUR Tasty barbecue you can eat on the go Inside Fayetteville Your guide to local events Plus Regional planning Implementing change On the move Summer is relocation season Special Dogwood Festival Issue INSIDE CV APRIL12.COVER.indd 1 3/20/12 6:22 PM Urban farm fun in the city lines. The trees are now real trees, distinctive trees, tall and short trees, rather than a continuous wall of pines of equal height. Loſty loblolly pines cast pools of shade over yards of centipede grass and ranch homes of brick. Bright green tobacco fields roll out from the highway toward distant woods and barns. I look out the window and watch the rows pass in split seconds as if they're blades of a fan spinning before my eyes. My five-year-old son, Silas, is riding shotgun in my Chevy pick-up truck. We CityView April 2012 Fayetteville's Lifestyle Magazine | www.CityViewNC.com May/June 2012 ride on past the pond pillared with cypress trees, their buttresses naked in the low water. On past the yard with miniature white-and-black lighthouses that proclaim "Praise The Lord" and "Jesus Loves You." On past the beige brick sign that reads "Town of Stedman." And, on the bottom, almost as an aſterthought, are these three words: "A Special Place." No grandiose claims. No best this or best that or world's greatest or world's only. Just … a special place. Silas and I are here to see what makes Stedman such a special place. We cruise CityView Get 8 Issues per year of CVMAYJUNE12cover.indd 1 delivered to your door www.CityViewNC.com 910.423.6500 or visit us at for ONLY $24 CALL TODAY 48 | September/October • 2012 4/20/12 8:11 PM on past Draughon's Supermarket, a community landmark that closed in Feburary aſter nearly 36 years of serving everything from liver pudding to pig's feet. The state bought out the business to widen Highway 24. On past Johnson's Florist and Wedding Chapel. On past Stedman Elementary School. Then I spot two words that are irresistible: soda shop. The rooſtop sign looks like something from the days when we were driving DeSotos and Nash Ramblers and listening to a young, gyrat- ing hotshot on the radio named Elvis. But walking into the Stedman Soda Shop, we sense a freshness about the place. The décor is bright and the signs on the wall show you that the people who work here have a sense of humor. Here's one: "Gone Crazy. Be Back Soon." It's too late for breakfast and too early for lunch, but that doesn't much matter. or the first few miles heading east out of Fayetteville, Highway 24 is big, wide and boring. It's four lanes with a wide strip of grass in the middle and a narrow band of pines on either side to buffer the fast lane from any signs of human life on the landscape. I find Belva Maxwell, a Stedman town commissioner, at a table sprinkling pepper on her eggs and grits and country ham. "You can still have breakfast aſter hours because they take care of you here," says Linda Guedalia, who's sitting across from her. As tempting as that juicy ham looks, I order a side of "home-style taters" and a couple of lemonades. Crystal Ezzell, the mother of "four beautiful daughters," has been the owner of the soda shop since February, the latest in a long line of owners since the 1950s. "Breakfast and lunch and that's it," she says. "The people. I love the people. I'm a CityView Military and Real Estate Issue May/June 2012 CityView Dogwood Festival Issue April 2012 CItyView Toasting Winter Winter Issue

• Cover