Seven Springs festival Saturday
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on June 3, 2007 2:00 AM
SEVEN SPRINGS -- The seventh annual Ole Timey Days Festival will be held Saturday in downtown Seven Springs.
The festival is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and last as long as the crowd does. Sponsors are the town board's Ole Timey Days Festival Committee and the Seven Springs Area Historical Commission. Main Street will be blocked off from vehicle traffic, and only pedestrians will be allowed during the festival. Parking areas on the other streets will be designated, and volunteers will help point visitors in the right direction.
Mayor Steve Potter, a member of the Festival Committee, said vendors are coming with plenty of food. A pig cook-off will be held, with barbecue available after the judging. There will also be pie baking contest, and slices of pie will be sold.
The Carolina Cruisers car club out of Kinston will have a display, and in keeping with the "ole timey" theme, there will be an antique farm equipment display.
The festival will have commemorative T-shirts, baseball caps and visors showing the river bridge, the church on the hill above town and the boat ramp.
Seven Springs is the oldest town in Wayne County.
It was named Whitehall for much of its early history and was the site of a Civil War engagement in 1862.
Karen Mozingo of the Historical Commission said she is expecting at least 150 re-enactors for both sides of the war to start arriving Friday. She said 10 cannons are coming with their crews, infantry, Navy and provost guards, which were the law enforcement officers like the military police are today.
The encampment will be open to the public from 10 a.m. until 4 pm. Saturday. There will be demonstration during the day, and the re-enactors will re-create the Battle of Whitehall Saturday at 2 p.m. and provide night fire at 9 p.m.
The Tar Heel Civilians club will show how people lived in the 1860's. Club members will do spinning with the wool that has been sheared from sheep, washed, dyed with everything from weeds to beetles and finished as yarn. The finished products like socks and scarves will be on display .
There will be blacksmithing, tool-making, housewares and dinner bells, period cooks and a period doctor on hand.
There will also be entertainment during the day with the eastern N.C. mountain dulcimers.
Several speakers will tell about the area's American Indian heritage, the role that the Battle of Whitehall played in the Civil War and how soldiers and women dressed during that time. There will also be a presentation about Joseph Hargove, an American Marine left behind in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.