Published: March 28, 2008 10:46 am            

Progress: Moments that life, Times are made of

Normally, three pretty ladies sitting for a hairdo wouldn’t make headlines as they talk about neighbors and dish on new recipes. It’s doubtful a Sunday school class, a gathering of the FBLA or a choir rehearsal would prompt us to pull the plug on the press or schedule extra deliveries either.

But, these are the things life and today’s Princeton Times are made of. For about six weeks every year, the Princeton Times staff seeks out these small moments that carry big meanings, and we use our headlines to tell the tales that shape who we are as a community in between the new businesses, sensational court cases and controversies that usually score the bold type and above-the-fold layout spots.

We put them together in one big edition we know as the annual Progress section, and you all see as a super-sized copy of the Times that hopefully lands on your doorstep or in your paper box the last Friday of every March.

Today, it’s our pleasure to present the 2008 installment of Progress, a look at the home we share from as many different angles as we could manage and built on the idea that a strong foundation of people, places, businesses, faith and more craft the Community Cornerstones that keep us all together.

This year’s journey to a complete Progress section has taken some winding trails and meandering tales, but the end product is a piece we’re proud to say we made.

Each year, there’s at least one story or photo that takes me by surprise and inspires me to stop and appreciate the moment inside the frantic pace an extra edition creates.

This year, my writers and I were blessed with good stories, great people and intriguing ideas as we plugged along on this project we call Progress.

Personally, I enjoyed the happy, spirit-filled harmonies of the J.H. Easley Tabernacle Men of Standard, got an early glimpse at Hunnicutt Field enhancements, explored careers in engineering with WomenTech, and took a tour of international politics with Model UN ambassadors from Iran, Ireland and more.

I walked away with a little girl’s sticker heart when I covered a Sunday School session at Johnston Chapel, and was reminded that thinking we can helps us all go a long way after touring the new Cornerstone Family Church.

But, my most fun Progress story this year had to be the two hours I spent in Pat’s Beauty Shop, where the conversation was as lively as the spry little ladies who walked slowly but thought quickly.

Amid fluffy hairdos and the fast talk of friends who have known each other forever, there was the stuff days are made of, and there was a lot of laughter too.

That was particularly present when Nancye Mann shared the tale of how she spent a short stint as a professional singer during a church trip aboard a boat named for General Lee or Washington, “or one of those other fellows.” Somehow, a joke that she was “going to get a gig” and a simple request for live music ended in her singing a few lines of her favorite Vern Gosdin tunes.

“I think it was ‘This Ain’t My First Rodeo,’ and ‘If You’re Gonna Do Me Wrong, Do It Right,’” she said.

Inside the walls of the tiny shop attached to Pat Wilson’s house, appointments were memorized and time was calculated by marriages made and broken, babies born and friends lost.

There, conversation mattered almost as much as the curls. A standing appointment appeared as cathartic as a session with a counselor, and the right lipstick and earrings ranked right up with air as necessities for a life properly lived.

During my afternoon stay with Wilson and the lovely ladies who keep her business booming, there was one photo I loved.

The reasons are somewhat selfish, but nonetheless true.

I snapped a candid shot of retired school teacher Arline McPherson reading that week’s copy of the Princeton Times as she waited for warm air and brush curlers to work their magic on her short locks.

Instantly, I knew that picture would tell my story of this year’s Progress section because it is a solid reminder that even our Community Cornerstones find support, information and ideas inside the places that lead us along our life paths. That one photo included a longstanding business that has been a mainstay in hundreds of lives over the last 35 years, a newspaper that has carried stories of a city since 1961, a sweet spirit who dedicated her career to teaching, a place where friendship thrives and all the intangible, invisible bonds that require us to see with our hearts.

There’s no way we could capture every Community Cornerstone or spotlight each deserving story in the 36 additional pages you’ll find inside this Princeton Times, but we hope the tales we wove touch you in some small way and serve as the start of a bright day.

After all, they set the foundation for the future as Community Cornerstones.

Tammie Toler is Princeton Times editor and general manager. Contact her at ttoler@ptonline.net.

        

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