2018: Arts Across the East Welcome to another edition of Life on the Pamlico produced by the students of Beaufort County Community College. Our 2018 edition is focused on local arts. Because “arts” encompass a number of creative activities – dance, painting, pottery, theater, and much more – the students studied a wide variety of cultural arts that are connected to our area. In our research, we learned how the dirt beneath our feet hides the prevalence of clay in our state, and how whirligigs became popularized in our state via the urban legend of Acid Park in Wilson. Learning the origins of these arts and mediums helped prepare the students to interview, research, video, and write on a locale, person, or medium-associated local art that interested them. Download the 2018 edition (15 MB .pdf)
Life on the Pamlico is produced as a part of HUM 120 – Cultural Studies,which is offered on Beaufort County Community College’s campus each spring semester. As part of the course, students are taught in-depth research skills that aid them in producing the articles and videos for Life on the Pamlico. Students also receive some first-hand experience working with their research topics. This year’s class learned more about fiber arts by learning and practicing basic crochet stitches.
When it came time to choose topics, each student writer focused on a unique art or artist local to northeastern North Carolina. Some arts, like drama, have a deep tradition in the local community, including the long-standing Turnage Theater in downtown Washington. Other students focused on the connection art and local culture and heritage. Still others found pleasure in writing about fun artistic activities, like the senior dances often held in Beaufort County.
Each student’s contribution to this online magazine and our video achieves is preserving a small piece of the unique culture of our area. We hope you enjoy this year’s edition of Life on the Pamlico as much as we did working on the publication.
Suzanne Stotesbury, Editor
2017: Celebrating 50 Years of BCCC Hello, and welcome to our 2017 edition of Life on the Pamlico. Each Spring semester, I teach a HUM 120 – Cultural Studies course that focuses on the cultural aspects of life in northeastern North Carolina. Through intense research and interaction with our local community, the students work diligently to compile articles and biographies that highlight the unique qualities of the area we live in.
This year's edition is particularly special, as it focuses on a place that is most dear to all of us – BeLife on the Pamlico is produced as a part of HUM 120 – Cultural Studies, which is offered on Beaufort County Community College’s campus each spring semester. As part of the course, students are taught in-depth research skills that aid them in producing the articles and videos for Life on the Pamlico. Students also receive some first-hand experience working with their research topics. This year’s class learned more about fiber arts by learning and practicing basic crochet stitches.
This year provided unique opportunities for our students, as they were allowed to search through archives in the college Learning Resources Center (library). In a world were electronic media dominates, these students were sifting through yellowed documents, black and white photos, slides, and a few even had to learn to use microfilm to gain the information they needed. This was a worthwhile and unique experience for them, and the responsibility of accurately recording the historical and modern elements of the college were always in the forefront of the students' minds. Emily, Kara, Alyssa, Tiffany, Rachel, and Raphael worked diligently for months to compile all the information they needed. They read stacks and stacks of old reports, newspaper clippings, advertising, and even a few past print editions of Life on the Pamlico (which are viewable in our archives) to compile their stories.
These six students set an ambitious schedule of entries in this year's publication. There were some setbacks – a few ideas that had to be reconsidered, a few stories canceled or consolidated – but their vision of providing a glimpse into the history and the modern campus still triumphed in this final draft of the publication. I hope you enjoy reading their final result as much as James, our designer, and I have in assisting these students in creating this BCCC 50th anniversary edition of Life on the Pamlico.
Suzanne Stotesbury, Editor
2016: The Family Business
It's that time again! We welcome you to our 2016 edition of Life on the Pamlico. Over the course of the semester, the students in my HUM 120 - Cultural Studies course learned vital skills to produce material for our publication including research, interviewing, and photography.While this year's edition is significantly shorter than recent editions, Angel, Elizabeth, and Lesly each worked diligently to ensure Life on the Pamlico was ready to be published this year.
This year's focus for Life on the Pamlico was to study the history of local businesses, specifically those who have been owned for many years by one single family. While there were only a few students in the course this semester, each has chosen a business from their community to learn more about. They have composed articles and compiled video to share that information with our readers. Visit our YouTube channel to see this year's videos along with footage from other stories students have written in recent years for our publication.
In addition, this year's edition features photo essays that share a little bit about the business history in Beaufort and Martin Counties. Have you ever wondered what that old sign was for? Well, you can find out as our students have researched the history of several signs for local businesses, some that have persisted over the years and others which may have faded from memory. Hopefully, you will find the sign you are looking for in our collection. This was a fun project for the students as they were able to learn more about those signs they pass every day as well as a piece of their local history.
A final thanks goes to you, our readers. James and I receive many emails and phone calls each year about Life on the Pamlico. Your encouragement and curiosity is invigorating, and the praise elevates our students' own understanding of their skills. Thank you all, and we hope you enjoy this year's edition of Life on the Pamlico.
Suzanne Stotesbury, Editor
2015: Working on the Water Some people call it work; others call it love. Regardless, living on the water in Eastern North Carolina is a part of every day life. It has a certain nostalgia for those who have moved away, but those who have established a lifetime on the Pamlico and other waterways of North Carolina, it is home.
Welcome to our 2015 edition of Life on the Pamlico. We are very excited to share some new stories about living and working on the water in this year's edition. Water culture in Eastern North Carolina has many unique elements, and the students of HUM 120 – Cultural Studies have worked diligently to illustrate them for our readers. This year's stories feature fishermen and crabbers, businesspeople and even some history of the pirates who visited North Carolina years ago.
This edition continues a tradition of stories that illustrate life along and near the Pamlico both in print and video form. This year our students have worked particularly hard – interviewing and re-interviewing, recording and re-recording — to get best video clips and information. James E. Casey, our designer and video editor, has been working with individual students to update our media and video, while in class, we have been putting particular focus on writing and research. This year, the students have been very intrigued about the past of their publication, even working on a hidden gem for this edition – a flashback to a 2001 interview that has never been published in Life on the Pamlico before.
As you read the 2015 edition, we invite you visit our video archives on YouTube. Thank you all for your interest in Life on the Pamlico. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have working on it.
Suzanne Stotesbury, Editor
2014: East Carolina Eats Hello, and welcome to the 2014 edition of Life on the Pamlico. For this edition, students in my Cultural Studies class studied the culture surrounding food in Eastern North Carolina. Food is a defining quality in the Southeastern part of the United States, and in Eastern North Carolina, the tradition of gathering around the table for Sunday dinner carries a special significance.
Over the course of the semester, my students have honed their research and writing skills. They conducted interviews both on and off camera, and the video clips from these interviews can be viewed on our YouTube page. Within the pages of this edition, you’ll find copies of generations-old recipes as well as a glance into more than one kitchen.
Traditions, family, and food all go hand-in-hand in Eastern North Carolina. In the pages of this text, you will learn about the origins of favorite Southern dishes and a secret family recipe or two. Thank you for joining us for the “East Carolina Eats” edition of Life on the Pamlico. Enjoy!
Suzanne Stotesbury, Editor
2013 Welcome to the 2013 issue of Life on the Pamlico. New and exciting things are happening with our publication, and we are happy to share them with you!
Students in my Cultural Studies class at Beaufort County Community College this Spring semester have worked very hard writing biographies and stories of local interest for this year’s edition. Over the course of the semester, they have learned and implemented in- terview and research skills to bring the very best to this edition of our publication.
A new addition to the Life on the Pamlico repertoire is video, an addition suggested by James E. Casey, our designer. Take a moment to view the preview, using interviews the students conducted. Additional videos of the full interviews are available on our YouTube page. It is the staff’s desire to include more multimedia elements in future editions.
Students wrote stories on a wide variety of topics this year. Inside, readers will learn about the life of a family of fisherman from Belhaven, Washington business owners who bring a different type of cultural flair to the area, and how one octogenarian couple continues to build a thriving relationship in Pinetown. A successful saxophonist shares a story of his unique relationship with his instrument, and the tales of farmers, teachers, and home- makers who have lived in Eastern North Carolina have all been preserved by the articles written by the students in this course.
This year’s edition also includes stories based a little farther away from the Pamlico River area including a Martin County urban legend, a bed and breakfast in Greenville, and non-profit organizations in the area that strive to help others. Please read on to learn about these and other pieces of the cultural heritage of life on the Pamlico and Eastern North Carolina. The students, staff, and I hope you enjoy reading this edition of Life on the Pamlico.
Suzanne Stotesbury, Editor
As you read this year's issue, download a copy of the Life on the Pamlico theme music written and performed by local string band Carolina Still, and sit back and imagine the quiet, easy flow of the Pamlico.
2012 Welcome to the 2012 issue of Life on the Pamlico.
Students in my Cultural Studies class this Spring semester have worked very hard writing the biographies in this issue. They interviewed their subjects many times in order to preserve the memories they have for generations to come.
In this issue are many stories about those who have lived in Eastern North Carolina. Some were born here—some were born abroad—and some were born in other states. But they all spent time living here.
You’ll enjoy a fascinating story about an Italian immigrant who eventually decided to bring his family to Washington, NC, and provide authentic Italian food, and support for local athletics, to the community. Also, read about a woman born in the mountains of Virginia, whose father was the first farmer to breed Angus cows and buffalo to market Beefalo!
All of the stories within document hard working, persevering, family-oriented people who recognized the value of religion and community while raising their families—without the luxuries of life we now enjoy. Relive their Lives on the Pamlico.
2011 Welcome to the 2011 issue of Life on the Pamlico, the second edition of our new online, digital format.When we first discussed a redesign of the LOTP publication, we had only begun to realize the possibilities that a purely digital format would afford. It is a paradox of sorts, in that technologies so thoroughly alien to many of the subjects here, have become such an asset in preserving these glimpses of the past.
With this edition, we have reproduced not only images of the people profiled here but also some of the documents—records of marriage, employment, publications—which serve to flesh out the lives chronicled in these pages. As a design prinicple, we have tried to balance a modern, magazine-style layout with the vintage aesthetic of a shoebox full of old photos, spread out on the kitchen table.
But above all, the varied experiences sketched out in this edition, whether of profound hardships or manifest joys, speak together of a complex past that we would do well not only to remember but also to celebrate: the rich culture of Life on the Pamlico.
Welcome to the 2010 issue of Life on the Pamlico – a journal of oral histories from residents of coastal North Carolina. This issue is a continuation of a tradition at Beaufort County Community College that dates back to 1981.
Originally published in paperback, LOTP is now published exclusively online. Earlier issues have been digitized and are available in the Archives.
The format has changed from a question and answer style to biographical narratives. Students in my Cultural Studies college transfer class spent this fall semester interviewing residents of our area (most of whom are relatives) and wrote their stories to preserve the richness that was their way of life – for generations to come. Find a comfortable chair, pour a glass of sweet tea, and learn about how life used to be – Downeast Style.
Dr. Charles Boyette, Man of Many Hats
Picking Sans and Ducks in Hyde County
Henry Hudson's Half Moon Sails Again
Mr. Jim Blanton, Retiring President of BCCC
Miss Ella Bonner, School teacher
Mr. & Mrs. Albert Jones of Blounts Creek
A Photographic Essay of Bath
Summer 1985 Mrs. Bertha Webb of Plymouth
John A. Wilkinson: Attorney and Man for all Seasons
Winter 84-85 Washington Collegiate Institute, 1913-1930s
An Old House in Hyde County
The Holiday House of Washington
Spring 1984 Carolina Seafood Company
Vernon Waters of Pinetown
The Wahabs of Ocracoke Island
Winter 1983-84 The Grande Ole Bayview Hotel
Robert Hodges, Potter
Looking Back With Annie Elizabeth Guthrie
Looking Back: Phate Hodges Remembers Old Times
Summer 1983 The Curse of Bath Kirby Avery Skins an Otter Baseball in Beaufort County--An Old Timer Remembers Mr. "Tee Wee" Blount Describes the Jamesville Easter Monday Herring Festival A Concise History of Ocracoke Island
