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Free Pizza Downtown in One Hour! Oh, and BTW the Oral History Project is Coming to Winston-Salem

WFDD is holding a press conference in about an hour to officially kick off the first day of the StoryCorps oral history project that will be in residence here in Winston-Salem until March 21st. If that doesn't excite you this might: Mellow Mushroom's providing free pizza at the kickoff.  From the press release:

88.5 WFDD, the National Public Radio affiliate licensed to Wake Forest University, will hold a press conference this Thursday, February 26th, at 11:30am, at Winston Square Park. The press conference will officially kick off opening day of the StoryCorps national oral history project, in residence in Winston-Salem until March 21st, 2009. While in Winston-Salem, StoryCorps will be collecting the stories of everyday residents of the Piedmont Triad and surrounding region. These stories will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and some may be selected for broadcast on WFDD, as well as National Public Radio.

At 11:30am, Mayor Allen Joines will read a proclamation officially renaming North Marshall Street between Second and Fourth Streets "Honorary StoryCorps Boulevard" for the duration of StoryCorps's visit. Remarks from WFDD General Manager Denise Franklin and StoryCorps Site Supervisor Sara Esrick will follow. The first two interview pairs of the day will be present. H'tuyet Rahlan, a member of Greensboro's Montagnard community will be interviewed by her sponsor; and James Ballew, a well-known area piano tuner, will be interview by a long-time friend. The Mellow Mushroom will provide pizza for attendees.

StoryCorps's Airstream trailer, now a sound-proof recording booth, arrived in Winston-Salem last night. Parked in Winston Square Park, near Winston-Salem's iconic Sawtooth Building, it makes for a striking visual. 88.5 WFDD is proud to partner with StoryCorps to bring the mobile recording booth to the community. It is an honor for our area to be selected as a stop on the national tour.

Lest You Think all Sheriffs are Old, Fat or Both

 Who's that strapping young fellow pictured to the left?  Why that's Forsyth County's first duly elected sheriff, one Will Flynt who served as sheriff from 1850-1854.  Is it just me or does he look like he's 12 in that picture?  More photos like that can be found at Digital Forsyth. (Picture courtesy of the Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection)

Biff-Burger Drive In

I was doing a Google image search on "winston-salem" when I stumbled across this picture and link to a page about the not-so-recently demised Biff-Burger Drive In chain.  According to the website the picture was taken in 1963 and the store was located at 845 Silas Creek Parkway (formerly known as Corporation Parkway).  Anyone remember the drive in?

1898 Williamsburg City Directory

Check out the image of the 1898 City Directory for Williamsburg, VA to the left (click on it to enlarge; Source College of William & Mary).  You'll notice no phone numbers or addresses for the individuals listed and the existence of a "Yellow Pages"-style advertising section, which means that the format for the phone book existed even before the phone.  Head to the College of William & Mary  SWEM Library website to see more manuscript and rare book samplers.

History of Religion

I came across this very cool site called Maps of War (via Boing Boing) and found the map you see below.  It depicts the spread of various religions throughout recorded history.  This is a fantastic tool to grasp both the historical relevance of religions and their scope.  You'll notice that in the grand scheme of things Christianity and Islam are "johnny come lately" and their spread has largely occurred in the recent past. 

Name this Dude

Can you name the guy pictured to the left?  You can probably guess that the portrait was taken in the 19th century but that's the only clue I'm going to give you.

Give up?  The answer can be found here at Dana Blankenhorn's excellent blog.

American Charters

On its website the National Archives has made available high-resolution, downloadable images of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and The Declaration of Independence.  Always important reading, but particularly these days.

Presidential Health

Here's a website that details all the illnesses suffered by the Presidents of the United States.  A surprising number suffered gunshot wounds, and apparently our healthiest President was Jimmy Carter who only has severe hemorrhoids listed.  George W. Bush also has hemorrhoids and his possible experimentation with cocaine is listed as well.

Pop Quiz: US Constitution

Okay, no cheating.  Here's a pop quiz about the US Constitution.

• How many articles does the US Constitution have?
• How many amendments to the US Constitution are there (as of December, 2005)?
• When was the last amendment ratified?

I could make it easy and give you the answers, but instead check out this page that has the text of the Constitution in its entirety.

Use the comments to tell me how you did. BTW, I failed miserably.

One More Reason Winston-Salem is a Great Place to Live

The whole silly "war on Christmas" thing that's been going on so some guy (John Gibson) could sell his book and Fox News could jack up its ratings has had an unexpected, but pleasant effect on me.  I've read more in the last two weeks about the history of celebrating Christmas in America than I've ever read before, even in my religious education classes at Capital Lutheran High School West in Arlington, VA.  I was reading this Slate article when I came across this paragraph:

Observance of Christmas, or the lack thereof, was one way to differentiate among the Christian sects of Colonial and 19^th-century America. Anglicans, Moravians, Dutch Reformed, and Lutherans, to name just a few, did; Quakers, Puritans, Separatists, Baptists, and some Presbyterians did not. An 1855 New York Times report on Christmas services in the city noted that Baptist and Methodist churches were closed because they "do not accept the day as a holy one," while Episcopal and Catholic churches were open and "decked with evergreens." New England Congregationalist preacher Henry Ward Beecher remembered decorative greenery as an exotic touch that one could see only in Episcopal churches, "a Romish institution kept up by the Romish church." (Emphasis on Moravians mine).

You'll notice that the Moravians were one of the Christian sects that celebrated Christmas all along.  Winston-Salem is located in what was originally a 100,000 acre Moravian settlement called Wachovia, and is currently home to historic Old Salem.  Anyone who's lived here for at least one Christmas can attest to the fact that the Moravians have been practicing the art of celebrating Christmas for a long time.

For evidence you only need to attend a Moravian Christmas Candlelight Lovefeast to get a sense for what I'm talking about.  I could try to describe it, but it is beyond my capabilities as a writer.  Just take my word for it and if you're ever near a Moravian church on Christmas Eve make sure you attend.  What I can say is that you get the feeling that this is what Christmas is all about.

Chalk that up as one more reason that living in Winston-Salem is great.