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TODAY'S ISSUE
Mary Kistner's legacy is 50 acres of teaching woodland
By Joyce Freeland
Special to GwinnettForum.com

APRIL 22, 2005 -- Mary Kistner was determined that the 50 acres of woodlands, pastures, and gardens that she and her husband owned on a dirt road outside Snellville would never be subdivided. She wanted the land to be preserved forever and enjoyed by school children and the public.

In keeping with her wishes, the Gwinnett Open Land Trust has scheduled its first nature and art lecture series - with a strong emphasis on gardening and garden design - at the Kistner Center this spring. All events are free to the public. Children are welcome.

On Saturday, April 23, at 10 a.m., Tara Dillard, the TV host of the Better Gardening Show on CBS46-WGCL, who worked with Mary Kistner in designing the gardens surrounding her home, will speak on "The Vanishing Threshold." She will use photographs of Mary Kistner's arrangements of furnishings, objects, art, and the view of the gardens and pastures from each window to explain Mary Kistner's intentioned approach to life, art, and nature.

On Saturday, May 14, at 10 a.m., Cynthia Guay, the director of education at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, will explain the role of nature and wildlife in the watercolors of this Southern artist. Walter Anderson designed art pottery for his family's business, the Shearwater Pottery on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but preferred to spend long stretches of time on the small barrier islands off the coast, rowing out alone and sleeping under his rowboat to be as close to nature as possible. He is known as an artist who loved nature more than art and had a particular affinity for birds and other wildlife.

Ms. Guay will be leading two hands-on art and nature sessions with six classes of Gwinnett County schoolchildren on the Thursday and Friday before her presentation on Saturday for the general public. During the Saturday event, the Gwinnett Open Land Trust will sponsor an outside art activity for children focusing on Walter Anderson and butterflies. This hands-on activity was a big hit at a museum event earlier this year.

The Gwinnett Open Land Trust is pleased that its partnership with the Walter Anderson Museum is already producing great art and nature lesson plans which incorporate the AKS curriculum requirements for Gwinnett County's public schools. The land trust's board wants to make it as easy as possible for Gwinnett school teachers to schedule field trips to the Kistner Center.

Cynthia Underwood, who runs Pike Family Nurseries' "Play in the Dirt" program for elementary school students, will be offering that program next year at the Kistner Center for home schoolers. For more information, she can be contacted at 770-921-1022 or by e-mail at cunderwood@pikenursery.com.

The final session in the lecture series, "From the Ground Up," is set for Thursday, May 19, at 1 p.m. Dr. Richard Ludwig, who teaches landscape design at Gwinnett Tech and is a popular speaker at Southern Living gardening events, will give garden design tips for the beginner to the advanced gardener.

For more information on the Gwinnett Open Land Trust and the spring nature and art lecture series, please call me at 678-428-7849 or visit the land trust's web site at www.gwinnettlandtrust.org.

Directions: The Kistner Center is located at 2689 Lenora Road. The following driving directions start from the center of Snellville. the intersection of Stone Mountain Freeway (U.S. Highway 78) and Scenic Highway (Georgia Highway 124). If coming to that intersection from Atlanta on Highway 78, turn south on Highway 124. If coming from Lawrenceville on Scenic Highway, cross U.S. 78 and continue on Georgia124. Almost immediately, turn left at the traffic light for Henry Clower Boulevard. At the next traffic light, turn right on Lenora Church Road. 3.7 miles later, turn left on Lenora Road. The Kistner Center is the third driveway after Lenora Road becomes a gravel/dirt road.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Variety of culinary choices await you at DeKalb market
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

APRIL 22, 2005 -- Not too many years ago, lots of Gwinnettians would trek every few weeks to DeKalb Farmer's Market, first when it was on North Decatur Road, and later at its present location on East Ponce de Leon Avenue.

They went for both freshness of produce and fish, and for the exotic. You mingled with people from many nations, as the Blazer boys, Robert and Harry, smiled at the people flocking in. You felt when shopping there that you were a participant in a "happening."

Later the Blazer boys went their individual ways, with Harry opening up his own market, first in Alpharetta, then in Gwinnett. Local residents no longer had to make a trip to Decatur, but found at Harry's Market much of the freshness and exotic that the brothers had before.

Eventually, Harry found his business taking a nose-dive, with today's Gwinnett's Harry's now known as Fresh Foods. But, somehow, it's not the same.

Recently we went back to the DeKalb Farmer's Market, finding it much like it was before, except only better in many ways. There's still the whirl of busy shopping carts bumping into one another, amid a catalog of languages bouncing off your ears. It's still quite an experience to shop at the Market, something like nothing else in Atlanta. My daughters, when they are in town, particularly like it for the variety of spices, many not available or not as fresh as at the DeKalb Farmer's Market.

Prior to pushing a shopping cart around the other day, we experienced another part of the market: its cafeteria. It is one of the best we have tested in this area, and certainly is relatively inexpensive. All this works if you do not mind eating in quite a hubbub of activity. White tablecloth dining room it is not, instead being a combination of either take-out foam containers or plastic plates on a tray, and wooden or porcelain-topped tables.

The food is superb. And the selection is immense. We went back after dining and simply counted the offerings:

Note that I put the salad bar last. Yep, that's no misprint, but 66 (by my count) different items included on the salad bar. That's what I had, though I did include a roasted chicken breast, and when they weighed it, the total was $3.55. (All items are weighed, and cost $2.99 per pound, though any of the Samosas cost an additional 75 cents.)

Back to the salad bar: It's hard to remember all that was included, from leafy types of lettuce and spinach as the beginners, to other items to add to your plate, from tomatoes to okra and walnuts, to mushrooms and onions and olives.

Next time you're ready for the exotic and tasty, and you need to load up on some staples for your pantry, it's a short drive from Gwinnett, and still an important link to the world of food at the DeKalb Farmer's Market.

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today's sponsor is Howard Brothers, which has outlets in Duluth, Norcross and Oakwood. John and Doug Howard are the owners/operators of the Howard Brothers stores, which specialize in hardware, outdoor power equipment and parts and service. Major trade brands are a hallmark of Howard Brothers. And did you know that Howard Brothers is the largest seller of Stihl products in the United States? Visit the web site at www.howardbrothers.com.

The Kiwanis Club of Duluth will hold its 16th Annual Golf Tournament Thursday, May 12, 2005 at St. Marlo's Country Club in North Fulton County.

Kiwanis is an international service organization dedicated to helping children in need. Last year the club raised over $19,000, which was distributed to programs supporting children's issues in Duluth and the Gwinnett Community.

Come enjoy a day of golfing, food, fun and prizes! Get a hole in one and you may win a new Mercedes C230 or test your putting skills in the putting contest. Compete for the longest drive and closest to the pin prizes. There will be first and second place team prizes. All prizes will be awarded at the awards banquet that evening.

The club is seeking corporate sponsors for this tournament, and would appreciate any support your organization can provide. Please visit www.duluthkiwanis.org for more information.

ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBIT
4/22: Andrews Raid was good drama, but changed very little

The Andrews Raid of April 12, 1862, brought the first Union soldiers into north Georgia and led to an exciting locomotive chase, the only one of the Civil War. The adventure lasted just seven hours, involved about two dozen men, and as a military operation, ended in failure.

In early spring 1862 Northern forces advanced on Huntsville, Ala., heading for Chattanooga, Tenn. Union general Ormsby Mitchell accepted the offer of a civilian spy, James J. Andrews, a contraband merchant and trader between the lines, to lead a raiding party behind Rebel lines to Atlanta, steal a locomotive, and race northward, destroying track, telegraphy lines, and maybe bridges toward Chattanooga. The raid thus aimed to knock out the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which supplied Confederate forces at Chattanooga, just as Mitchell's army advanced.

On April 7 Andrews chose 22 volunteers from three Ohio infantry regiments, plus one civilian. In plain clothes they slipped through the lines to Chattanooga and entrained to Marietta; two men were caught on the way. They traveled eight miles to Big Shanty (present-day Kennesaw), chosen for the train jacking because it had no telegraph. While crew and passengers ate breakfast, the raiders uncoupled most of the cars. At about 6 a.m. they steamed out of Big Shanty aboard the locomotive General, a tender, and three empty boxcars.

Pursuit began immediately, when three railroad men ran after the locomotive, eventually commandeering a platform car. Two of them persisted in their chase for the next seven hours and over 87 miles. First suspecting the train thieves to be Confederate deserters, the pursuers acquired a locomotive at Etowah Station. Aware they were being chased, Andrews's men cut the telegraphy and pried up rails. Murphy and Fuller switched locomotives-they used three that day-picked up more men, and kept up the chase. The train thieves tried to burn the bridge at the Oostanaula River near Resaca, but the pursuers were too close behind, so close that at Tilton the General could take on only a little water and wood. At about 1 p.m. it ran out of steam two miles north of Ringgold, with the Southerners, aboard the Texas, fast upon them. The Confederates rounded up all the raiders. Only eight of the 20 (Andrews among them) were tried as spies and executed in Atlanta. The rest either escaped or were exchanged.

Though it created a sensation at the time, the Andrews Raid had no military effect. General Mitchell's forces captured Huntsville on April 11 but did not move on to Chattanooga. The cut telegraph lines and pried rails were quickly repaired. Nevertheless, the train thieves were hailed in the North as heroes. The soldier-raiders received the Medal of Honor; one, Jacob Parrott, was its very first recipient. Neither Andrews nor the other civilian was eligible.

In the postwar years several raiders, notably William Pittenger, published thrilling recollections of their adventures. In Atlanta, William Fuller testily challenged Anthony Murphy over who was in charge of the train pursuit. The escapade made its way into film with Buster Keaton's silent comedy The General (1927) and Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase (1956.) That a failed historical footnote should kindle such drama fairly attests to the Civil War's emotional impact.

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it."

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