Up & Coming Weekly

December 27, 2011

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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A New Year's Tradition Continues by TERI MEDINA If 2011 wasn't the year you were hoping it would be, put 2012 on the right track by attending the Black-Eyed Pea Dinner on New Year's Day hosted by Cumberland County Register of Deeds Lee Warren, Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West and Ed Grannis, retired District Attorney and N.C. Department of Transportation board member. The din- ner is at the Crown Coliseum Expo Center from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. The Black-Eyed Pea Dinner has a tradi- tional Southern New Year's Day menu of black-eyed peas, candied sweet potatoes, collard greens, barbeque and bread. Each item includes symbolism and meaning dat- ing back for generations. Black-eyed peas are a Southern symbol for luck. The legend dates back to the Civil War in Vicksburg, Miss., when the resi- dents of Vicksburg were under siege and starving. They had the luck to find black- eyed peas to help survive starvation, securing the legume's place in history and tradition. Sweet potatoes are a symbol of strength through strong roots. Collards symbolize money and pork is symbolic of progress — because pigs root forward rather than backward like some barnyard animals. This is the 19th year that Warren has hosted the event, but the Black-Eyed Pea Dinner has a history that dates back to Sheriff Ottis F. Jones, who served Cumberland County for 14 years through the 1970s and '80s. Warren explains, "Back in the early- to mid-'70s, there was a black-eyed pea dinner that was put on by our former sheriff, Ottis Jones and local attorney, Willis Brown. Well, Sheriff Jones died in 1987. The event stopped with him." After Warren took office, he wanted to show his appreciation to the community. "I believe it was in 1993, I was talking with my father and a friend of mine named Owen Spears. Owen was a member of the N.C. General Assembly. We were talking with my father about things we'd like to do, since we both held political office, to let people know we appreci- ate them and that they would not just hear from us every four years. My dad said, 'Well you should bring back the black-eyed pea dinner.' So we did and we've been doing that ever since," said Warren. A sampling of the tasty fare from last year's black-eyed pea dinner. As time has moved on, so have the hosts of the dinner. "Mr. Spears stopped serving in the (North Carolina) house about 1996 and at that time, Ed Grannis, who had been the district attorney here since the early '70s, came on board with me. The two of us hosted until last year when Ed retired. Billy West was elected district attorney, so Ed and I invited Billy to be a part of the dinner," Warren said, adding that "It's always been very well attended. We've had the lieutenant governor attend on a number occasions, a number of council of state and representatives to the legislature have come, so have Congressmen. We always have a very big time." The event takes months of preparation and "a lot help from a lot of our friends" to serve close to 4,000 residents, said Warren. The hosting families cook the food, starting days ahead of time. It's been well worth the effort, according to Warren, "There are people who have been attending this dinner for 18 or 19 years. It's a tradition in our community. After each dinner my wife and I will say, 'Well, so- and-so didn't make it this year. I think this is the first they've missed it.' We always are happy to see people year after year." The Black-Eyed Pea Dinner is open to the public at no cost. TERI BALLOUGH MEDINA, Con- tributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomingweekly. com. A Cheeky Defense of Christmas by JOHN HOOD One of the ironies of the holiday calendar is that Christmas follows closely after Thanksgiving. Many of the Pilgrims and Puritans who helped make Thanksgiving an American tradition were appalled by, and opposed to, the celebration of Christmas. One of my ancestors, the pioneering Connecticut publisher John Tully, made a big stink about the issue back in the 1680s. Tully's defense of Christmas came not from an outsider, however, but from someone with strong marital ties to the Puritan aristocracy. The tale begins not with Tully but with the Puritan settler Nicholas Danforth, who arrived in Massachusetts in the early 1630s. A surveyor by trade, Danforth was a major landowner in Cambridge, an original member of its church, and in 1635 served as its representative to the Massachusetts legislature. Danforth, who was my 10th great-grandfather, also served on the panel that created what would soon be known as Harvard College. The Danforth family was to play a significant role at Harvard, and in the public life of Massachusetts, for generations. America's first printing press arrived at Harvard in 1639. Shortly thereafter, Danforth's son Samuel enrolled at Harvard College. Among his academic inter- ests was astronomy, which perhaps explains why Samuel began using the Harvard press to publish his annual almanac in 1646. His four editions — 1646 through 1649 — constitute the oldest-surviving run of American periodicals. Meanwhile, Nicholas's daughter, Lydia Danforth, married a Connecticut Puritan named William Beaumont. It was their daughter Mary Beaumont who brought my eighth-great grandfather, John Tully, into the picture by marrying him in 1671. Tully, who had immigrated to Connecticut from England, began publishing his Tully's New England Almanac in 1681. It was one of the most-read journals in the English colonies. I don't know if Tully received assistance or inspiration for his publishing venture from his wife's uncle Samuel at Harvard, but it wouldn't sur- prise me a bit. Tully published his almanac until his death in 1701. Actually, the last issue appeared posthumously in 1702. His main claim to fame was stylistic. According to an 1897 New York Times account, Tully was the first American to give almanacs WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM "a humorous tone, and his witty remarks and anecdotes were widely read." Tully's 1698 almanac also featured the first print illustration ever published in America. You can see Tully's humor at work in one of his most famous causes: challeng- ing the Puritans' edict against Christmas. During the early decades of the New England colonies, Puritan authorities forbade the celebration of Christmas — and discouraged even mentioning the holiday in public or in print. But in the late 1680s, Tully decided to challenge the Puritan aversion to Christmas in the pages of his almanac. In his 1687 edition, Tully printed CHRISTMAS DAY in big, bold letters on the page for December 25. He also printed the names of other Anglican holy days that Puritan governments had attempted to suppress. The following year, Tully went even further to tweak his critics. At the end of his 1688 almanac, he included a series of satirical predictions for each month. The December pre- diction made poetic references to the holiday: This month the Cooks do early rise To roast their meat & make their Christmas pies… Poor men at rich men's tables their guts forage With roast beef, mince-pies, pudding & plum porridge. A silly verse, yes, but Tully's purpose was a serious one — to challenge the misuse of government authority to regulate the gatherings and traditions of free people. He followed up his poem with more provocation. "This month," he wrote, "money and rum will be in great request; and he that hath the first shall not fear wanting the latter." Tully concluded one of his predictions with this suggestion: if it didn't come true, he wrote, readers should "light tobacco, or make bum-fodder with our observations." In other words, John Tully was inviting any critical readers to use his almanac for toilet paper. Cheeky, huh? JOHN HOOD, Columnist. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com DEC. 28, 2011 - JAN. 3, 2012 UCW 15

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