If you close your eyes and try to visualize Santa Claus or the New Year’s baby, chances are the image in your head would match the ones created by commercial illustrator, J.C. Leyendecker.

On Tuesday, January 10th the Northeast Georgia History Center visitors will be able to learn more about how Leyendecker “nationalized” American culture by creating images for those characters and others during the early 1900s.

Steve and Rebecca Gurr will present, “Leyendecker and the Saturday Evening Post,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the History Center, 322 Academy St. NE in Gainesville. The discussion is free for center members and $3 for everyone else.

“My wife and I have been collecting his work for years,” Steve Gurr said.

“We like magazine illustrations and were attracted to his style because it was very dramatic. You can recognize it anywhere.”

In addition to an informative talk, the Gurrs will also portions of their personal, Leyendecker collection.

Although Leyendecker was a commercial artist — his illustrations for Arrow Collar are said to be the foundation of modern advertising — many people have come to regard his creations as artwork.

Norman Rockwell may be one of the most celebrated “Saturday Evening Post” illustrators, but his predecessor and mentor was Leyendecker.

According to Gurr, Rockwell was even a pallbearer at Leyendecker’s funeral.

“He learned a lot from him. Leyendecker was responsible for 300 or 400 Saturday Evening Post covers,” Gurr said.

“He did all of the covers for the holiday issues.”

On the first issue of the year, Leyendecker would use the magazine’s cover and the New Year’s baby to depict the “personality of the time.”

“Whatever the big topic of the day was, he’d put the cherub baby in that world event,” Gurr said.

“There’s one about income tax, one about World War I and even one about women’s voting rights.”

Flowery Branch, GA – Downtown Flowery Branch is the place to be on December 3, 2011!  The fun and festivities begin at 9 AM at Flowery Branch United Methodist Church, where kids of all ages are invited to have Breakfast with Santa!  After breakfast, children can bring their decorated bikes, trikes, skates, wagons, or anything else on wheels and roll down Main Street in our Jingle Bell Roll and Stroll Kids’ Parade at noon.  Registration for the Roll and Stroll Kids’ Parade will begin at the Methodist Church at 10:30AM with line-up to begin at 11:30AM.  ALL CHILDREN ARE WELCOME TO PARTICIPATE!

At the conclusion of the parade, Main Street will be filled with arts and crafts vendors and holiday performers.  The historic depot will be filled with Christmas trees for auction and a ginger bread house contest to benefit Shop with a Cop.

Several businesses in down town will host story tellers and Fifth Row Center will perform A Seussified Christmas Carol at 3:00PM and 7:30PM.  Tickets for the play are $15 for adults, $10 for children and seniors, all other events are entirely free of charge.

Please visit the festival website for more information. Click HERE.

The cafe is located just one block from the Amtrak station and offers a wide variety of home cooked favorites. Daily specials include chicken and dressing, fried green tomatoes and squash casserole. They also grill burgers, fry up chicken tenders and even prepare a few salads for those looking to trim their waistline.

Owner, Chad Vaughan says he opened Big Bear Cafe because he thought the area lacked a good place to have breakfast – judging by the crowd at lunch, if breakfast is there most popular meal – you better go early to grab a seat – try one of the vintage bar stools at the lunch counter where you can sneak a peek into the kitchen.

Being the fearless lunch mates we are – we opted for a bevy of treats from the daily specials menu including the “bean of the day” – white soup beans – aka – navy beans.

Check out the photos below to see for yourself why Big Bear Cafe is worth the trip.

Click HERE to see their menu.

Big Bear Cafe

893 Main Street, SW
Gainesville, GA 30501770-538-0272

Open Monday-Friday 6am-3pm
Weekly motorcycle ride in Saturdays 7-11am

Chad Vaughan and one of Big Bear's sweethearts

Hibernate for the winter after the chicken/dressing

Cop a squat at the lunch counter and visit w/locals

Grab breakfast and hop the train to Atlanta

Grizzly of an appetite? Chad's got you covered

Veggie plate...mac and cheese, bean of the day, squash and tomatoes

Rodney Miller and Jerome Beggs, two farm boys at heart, had a passion to turn their love of farming into an enjoyable hobby.  Rodney was raised on a full-time farm in southern Illinois.  Currently Rodney continues a 1500 acre row crop operation in his home state.  Jerome was raised on a much smaller part-time 40 acre operation in East Alabama.  And to the men’s surprise, their wives have welcomed the hobby and frequently pitch in with a woman’s touch, making it truly a family affair for Rodney, Kendra, Jerome and Tina.

The first crop of corn was harvested in 2008 on the site of what now is The Buford Corn Maze.  Just a 5+ acre field produced a crop that the full time farmer in the mid west would call failure, but not these two guys.  They took great pride and enjoyment in tilling, planting and harvesting the first row-crop farming this area has seen in years. 

The 2010 crop was approximately 50 acres of corn and 35 acres of soybean!  All were in small acre plots that were discovered by Rodney simply riding through the community and meeting people who were excited about having their land shining once again with crops “as Grandad used to do”.

Even though Rodney and Jerome initially got quite a few strange looks as they drove their large tractors and equipment down the county roads of Gwinnett and Hall Counties, they now get friendly waves from residents as they are now acknowledged as
true stewards of the land we are all blessed with.

Visit their website HERE!

Need directions? Click HERE.

From Petit Le Mans to the Suzuki Superbikes, if you like it fast, then Road Atlanta is the place to be.

Fuel your need for speed, get behind the wheel at their driving school.

www.roadatlanta.com

CLICK HERE to visit their website!

Located just a short drive north of Atlanta, you will find a one-of-a kind unique, fun destination for the entire family. Interactive Neighborhood for Kids, Inc. (INK), located in Gainesville, Georgia, is a hands-on Children’s Museum where children can role play and learn through practical experiences about being a banker, grocery store clerk, doctor, dentist and much more. All exhibits are designed to provide a unique experience and to actively engage young minds (not to mention, it’s just plain fun!).

INK is a hot spot for a variety of school field trips, church groups, mom’s groups, day care centers and home school students. If you are interested in bringing your school or group to Interactive Neighborhood for Kids, click here to contact us.

Also, to help you prepare your group for your visit, download our educator’s guide and Group Visits Information Form with great information on the exhibits at INK.

Call us at 770-536-1900

Or visit our website HERE

Story courtesy of Brandee A. Thomas, Gainesville Times

Although she could’ve asked for a new doll or bicycle, a Charlotte Snyder is asking for something much simpler for her birthday.

Instead of gifts, the 6-year-old is asking people to purchase a milkshake.

Charlotte, who has cystic fibrosis, has decided to host a milkeshake-a-thon in lieu of a party for her seventh birthday.

The fundraiser benefitting The Cystic Fibrosis Society will be held noon to 5 p.m., April 30 at Pier 29 on Lanier, 9420 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville.

The society is a nonprofit whose mission “is to assure the development of the means to cure and control cystic fibrosis and to improve the quality of life for those with the disease.”

Cystic fibrosis is a chronic disease that affects patients’ lungs and digestive systems.

According to restaurant personnel, $3 from every $3.59 milkshake purchased will be donated to the nonprofit.

Milkshake-a-thon
When: 5 p.m. April 30
Where: Pier 29 on Lanier, 9420 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville
Cost: $3.59 per milkshake

Meet the Filmmaker Receptions

Gainesville State College Continuing Education Building - Room CE 108

Tickets (includes reception):
$7 Adults;
$5 Students/Seniors

Series Tickets:
$38 for 6-Film Series

The Arts Council, Inc. and Gainesville State College are proud to present a screening of Kristy Andersen’s feature film “Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun,” as part of the South Arts Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers at the Gainesville State College Continuing Education Building – Room CE 108 on Thursday, March 17, 2011.

Meet the Filmmaker:
Following a screening of her feature film, “Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun,” Kristy Andersen and the audience will engage in a discussion about the film and her work as a filmmaker. A reception with the filmmaker will be provided by The Holbrook of Lake Lanier Catering Services.

Synopsis:
Flamboyant, scandalous and unpredictable, writer Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was the first black anthropologist in the United States. Born to former slaves, she embraced black culture and chided race champions for their angry diatribes. She was strongly criticized by the black male intelligentsia for her failure to take a political stance, and died in poverty and obscurity. This documentary includes rare footage of black culture shot by Hurston in the 1920’s and 1940’s, as well as interviews with Maya Angelou, Henry Louis Gates and Alice Walker.

About the Film:
Jump at the Sun is the first feature length documentary on Zora Neale Hurston. With footage of Zora, and her actual voice singing and talking, it’s a tour de force. Chock full of her anthropological footage shot or produced in 1927 and 1943, it swells with an honest verve, never losing its melodic pace. Today there’s no question that Zora is a major force, a race champion, one of the greatest writers of her time, and a pioneer in feminist perspective and philosophy. The film puts to ample use the blues and folk music that Zora gleaned with musicologist Alan Lomax, and includes Zora’s explanations of African-American tradition and verse. The film is narrated by S. EPATHA MERKERSON and stars ZORA NEALE HURSTON as herself as well as KIM BROCKINGTON as Zora Neale Hurston. Also featuring MARCELINE HUGOT as Mary Margaret McBride. Featured Interviews include conversations wtih ALICE WALKER, MAYA ANGELOU, DOROTHY WEST, and HENRY LOUIS GATES.
Produced and Written by KRISTY ANDERSEN
Directed by SAM POLLARD

About the Filmmaker:
Kristy Andersen has worked in the broadcast television industry since 1975. In 1989, her interest in Hurston was galvanized and started her on an 18-year journey. At the time, many of Zora Neale Hurston’s works were out of print. Through collective efforts with the Library of Congress, she uncovered a cache of 45 minutes of Hurston’s film footage.  Through research at the Smithsonian Institution, Andersen brought to light field materials titled “Folktales from the Gulf States,” the basis for Hurston’s book “Mules and Men.”  These materials later became the first major new book by Hurston in more than 40 years, “Every Tongue Got to Confess.”

About Zora Neale Hurston:
Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American folklorist and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Of Hurston’s four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays, she is best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Hurston was the fifth of nine children. Her father was a Baptist preacher, tenant farmer, and carpenter, and her mother was a school teacher. Her family moved to Eatonville, FL, the first all-Black town to be incorporated in the United States, when she was three. Her father later became mayor of the town, which Hurston would glorify in her stories as a place black Americans could live as they desired, independent of white society. Hurston spent the remainder of her childhood in Eatonville, and describes the experience of growing up in Eatonville in her 1928 essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”.
Hurston was sent away to boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida, but was eventually expelled for failure to pay tuition. She later worked as a maid to the lead singer in a traveling Gilbert & Sullivan theatrical company. In 1917, Hurston began attending Morgan Academy, the high school division of Morgan College in Baltimore, Maryland. It was at this time, and apparently to qualify for a free high-school education, that the 26-year-old Hurston began claiming 1901 as her date of birth. She graduated from Morgan Academy in 1918.
When Hurston arrived in New York City in 1925, the Harlem Renaissance was at its peak, and she soon became one of the writers at its center. By the mid-1930s, Hurston had published several short stories and the critically acclaimed Mules and Men (1935), a groundbreaking work of “literary anthropology” documenting African American folklore. In 1930, she also collaborated with Langston Hughes. Her last published novel, Seraph on the Suwanee, notable principally for its focus on white characters, was published in 1948. –Courtesy of Wikipedia

Independent Filmmakers Series Corporate Sponsors:

The 2010-2011 Southern Circuit is a program of South Arts. Southern Circuit screenings are funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and local partner organizations. Special support for Southern Circuit was provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She and her husband operated a dry cleaners in the area and she also worked at Chicopee Mills and “moon-lighted” as a school bus driver for Hall County. Sue was a tireless worker who enjoyed having a job to do. She also balanced her life with a healthy amount of relaxation and competition.

She was well known for her awesome Chocolate pies and Banana Pudding which she would share with her family and celebrity friends such as Rhubarb Jones and Jerry Glanville, She was an avid Bowler who was inducted into the Georgia Women’s Bowling Hall of Fame and was the Georgia Bowler of the Year. She was well known throughout the bowling circuit and the racing circuit.

Sue and her husband Paul, and her sons Billy and Lynn were a “racing family” and could be found at the race track anytime there was a race. Whether working, bowling, or at the track, Sue gave it her all. Never at a loss for words Sue will be missed by her family and friends.

Sue would have wanted her family and friends to “go bowl or see a race” and enjoy life.

Those wishing to send online condolences may do so by clicking HERE.