Features

DUDLEY — On any given Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday, the parking lot at Grady’s Barbecue is packed full at lunchtime, as folks in the restaurant queue up for some serious ‘cue. But on the first Friday and Saturday of this month, the gravel lot sat eerily empty; the restaurant inside, strangely silent. This was not, however, a sign that something was wrong. In fact, quite the opposite: The restaurant shut down for two days, while owners Steve and Gerri Grady jetted off to Kansas City, Missouri, for Steve’s induction into the American Royal Barbecue Hall of Fame.

Eighteen-year-old Vinny Varas watches a lot of boxing.

On Oct. 26, over 80,000 people crowded into Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium for the Concert for Carolina, which raised over $24 million for Hurricane Helene relief efforts. The star-studded event featured performances by, among others, Luke Combs, Eric Church, James Taylor, the Avett Brothers, Scotty McCreery, Sheryl Crow, and Keith Urban. But it was one musician, in particular, who succeeded in capturing the essence of what the evening was all about — and that musician was Duplin County’s own Wesko.

Firefighters put their lives on the line to save others. For most, it’s a calling. It’s what they feel led to do. It’s what they train hard to do. And when they answer a call, they’re outfitted, head-to-toe, in protective gear. The job’s still dangerous, but the gear helps.

SEVEN SPRINGS — On the corner of Spring and New streets, a rainbow of colors has seemingly sprouted from the ground, with fire-engine red, royal blue, lime green, and bright-as-the-sun yellow intertwined in a vivid display designed to appeal to both children and adults. This the town’s fully refurbished Community Park.

FAISON — At some point in time (no one knows when), someone (no one knows who) placed a gold-plated firefighter’s axe, beautifully mounted on a wooden plaque, on a shelf in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska — and then, apparently, forgot all about it. But in a story fraught with uncertainty, one thing is for certain: Whoever put the axe on that shelf could never have guessed that it would one day end up in North Carolina, soon to be displayed in Faison’s Fire & Rescue building.

When Natasha Robinson steps inside the Sprinter van that houses the Wayne County Public Library’s mobile unit, she heads straight for the children’s section, plops down on the floor, and sits cross-legged, browsing the book titles in front of her. She’s looking for books to read to the two- and three-year-olds she teaches at the WAGES Stephen and Susan Parr Family Learning Center in Dudley.

Cathy Crumpler and Mary Sholar have one of those joined-at-the-hip friendships, some weeks spending more time together than they do apart. They have shared interests and a shared Christian faith. They celebrate together during the good times and console each other through the bad — and lots of that celebrating and consoling takes place in Crumpler’s art studio, where they spend inordinate amounts of time doing pottery, in a venture they call Duplin Potters/Clay in Hands. Currently, they are preparing for their fourth annual kiln opening, slated for Saturday, October 19.

On a recent Thursday morning, at Carver Head Start on Breazeale Avenue, young Pablo Deleon looked up from a Potato Head toy he was assembling to give a smile and a wave to a reporter visiting the preschool that day. With a grin even wider than Pablo’s, his Foster Grandma, Carolyn Ward, looked on with pride.

When 99-year-old Georgella Green describes her relationship with 68-year-old Towanna Green, she says, “It’s friendship. It’s just like family.” Yet, despite sharing the same last name, the two Goldsboro residents are not literally related to one another; they have become like family through their involvement in the WAGES Senior Companion Volunteer Program.