With the usual apologies to the list manager and list members not interested.... Warren, Thanks for getting back to me. I thought you were mad at me! Yes, the week of July 4th, 2001. It seems as good a time as any to kick this thing off... we could schedule it for July 4th week, 2005, and all that would happen between now and then is that we'd just get older... if we're lucky! I've had to drop out for a couple of weeks. My aunt died unexpectedly, leaving us to go "home", track down my wandering mother's spare door-key (apparently everyone in town knows where she keeps it!), and open her home to "receive" while simultaneously trying to track her down -- she was off elderhosteling, studying some combination of the Tango and Mississippi Mud... and what a dance do they do, eh? So, it would be good to re-group. I hope you can access through some search function all the "Amens" we have gotten so far. I had been trying to keep a list, and these are the people on it: Shelby Crocker Smith, John Hobby of AR (who can't come but needs for us to find him a Hobby while we're there!), Pearl Weaver, Edward A. Black Sr., Betty Stancil, Vicki Canipe, my mother and me. You make nine! All we need for a successful event is an even dozen. I'm very sure there are others I meant to make note of, but life has been too hectic to get them on my list. If ALL Y'ALL WOULD KINDLY CHECK IN AGAIN, I'd appreciate it. Indicate your family name(s)and whether you are volunteering to represent your family/families on some kind of unofficial, as yet unorganized "steering committee". If we work this right, you do not HAVE to be present to win, but it would be nice! About the meeting place: I'm thinking the Skinner House, the Heritage Center or some similar facility could be a "headquarters" for the gathering. All we need is working restrooms for road-weary travelers, a couple of telephone lines there and a bulletin board; I don't expect they have an actual "staff" to spare, so members of the "steering committee" can man this headquarters. In this place, wherever it is, I see us registering people all week long, updating and providing printed information -- scheduled events can and may change each day as people strike out and find "interesting things" others may want to see the next day -- and giving them OFFICIAL JOHNSTON COUNTY HERITAGE DAY/WEEK NAMETAGS! That way we can track who is there and get home addresses, phone numbers, etc., as well an some idea of where to contact them in an emergency. Probably the only thing we must have is reasonable parking space. We'll put up a few directional posters on utility poles -- if we require a permit for that, we'll pay for it out of the communal fund. The poster-printing, too. The committee will need to have access to a computer, a printer and a copier; each evening we will make a revised list of "what's happening now", and people can come pick it up the next day. I expect as word gets around, a number of people will contact us suggesting people to drop by the "old Smith family farm" or meet interested people with family and county stories to tell at the library. (How many branches of the county library have meeting rooms? Can we tentatively reserve them all? That shouldn't be a hugely busy week! Do they have overhead projectors, slide projectors, etc.?) At some point, we will set the date, time and place for the community lemonade party with whatever food is available locally -- and there may be more than one such gathering. Maybe one for each section of the county on different days. That way the people who come for "Bentonville Heritage Day" but cannot stick around for "Selma Heritage Day" can still meet some others. We should assume we will be met with open arms and yet not be disappointed if we all pass each other like ships in the night. (I'll be the ship wearing the cotton-chopping hat with the blue silk flower! My mother, if she can make it, will be wearing a T-shirt that reads: Elderhostel ROCKS!!! I'll be pretending not to know her. Especially if she brings her "train set".) This is, of course, open to (much) discussion -- I am thinking that simple is better and that the greatest need for any traveler, as I've said before, is an emergency phone number to give the folks back home! There may well be one or more motels with facilities that we could use instead, but I personally would prefer to use this opportunity to become familiar with some of the local places. Anybody can meet in the bar at a Holiday Inn! HINT: We have a lot of bustours through Historic Georgetown. The women of our parish fill their Lent boxes by hostessing authentic Southern mimosa parties for 10 to 40 people for 30 minutes in their old historic morning rooms at $2 a head. (The church also accepts donations of champagne, orange juice and sugar mints!) We figure that works out to about 75 cents per magnolia-dripping "Hey, how y'all?". It eases the pain of having to put on make-up and undergarments. PLUS, if you do "bus duty", you don't have to put your house on the Historic Tour of Homes but every 10 years! FUTURE GOAL: a Heritage Visiting Program modelled after the AARP's house-swapping vacation program: distant relative wants to attend; JCNC relative offers lodging at his home (initially at a fair price with no exotic meals!); distant relative returns to wherever home is and invites JCNC relative to spend a few days with his family. They become friends and exchange seasonal greetings and also get to travel and see the country. All learn to cook decent (yellow) grits and properly fry up delicious Johnson County ham! I asked you if you would receive and disburse "voluntary dues" to cover communal expenses. Here I wish to repeat the proviso that you will not be asked to account for this money and you have the express permission of all who send money to you to take it and run off to some tropical island. Send a copy of this to your CPA and watch her do double backflips! The last thing I want to spend my precious time in JCNC doing is listening to a damn boring treasurer's report! I will spend more this winter buying band booster club candy from schools I can't even locate and "church dinners" from people I don't know whose food I would never eat than this Heritage Day thing could ever cost! (And so will all y'all!) Once you say "OK" and give us a snail-mail address, I suggest we who are interested each send you $10. That should cover some basic expenses, and if it doesn't, say so and we'll send another $10. Maybe you should regularly e-acknowledge receiving checks so we'll know nobody has e-robbed us. Another proviso: everybody should be compensated for his expenses, period!, and his time if possible. This isn't a charitable organization, and we're not out begging money to find a cure for Ancestor-Worship! All things not paid for this way will be paid for by participants. I also want an opinion from you, the "steering committee", and the Heritage Center staff as to the best way to subdivide the county. It seems to me that the families are so intertwined that it would be impossible to attempt any organization by family name alone. I've been wrong before, so this wouldn't be the first -- or last -- time. {Most recently, I wrongly assumed that we would never, ever get 10 inches of rain in 3 hours on a flowing tide!) There may be a way to organize by location, dividing the county into its natural geographic areas AND THEN identify these areas by current and historic names. EXAMPLE: To me, Four Oaks is a recognizable community with places I want to drag my kids at gunpoint to see and photograph. That area would include, if only anybody would locate them for me, Blackman's X-road where my grandfather was born; Hannah Creek and the Juniper Swamp, place names which occur in family deeds and wills; and such cemeteries as those apparently located (by Roberta Walker Butler) all over the area near Bud Massengill's house. Bud Massengill is dead, so I propose that it would be a function of the "steering committee" to find out who now lives there and tell him/her/them about our plans in hopes that total strangers unexpectedly found tromping through in search of these old cemeteries will not be shot and might even be allowed to use the "facilities" and eat a picnic lunch under a tree. Each area of the county can be defined in some similar terms as being of interest to each family easier than each family can be assigned to an appropriate area of the County, where the "historic sites" are. It also seems that each interested rootswebber should be able to be get basic information from the knowledgeable people in JCNC. The Heritage Center staff already knows these people; they probably call them "board members". Can the staff identify the "home boys" and make the interested rootsweb members' e-mail addresses available? Can they assist in initiating contact? EXAMPLE: HC staff knows that Mrs. Johnston County Smith is interested in Heritage Day/Week activities of particular interest to the Dallas Texas Smiths, who plan to attend. She knows where all the bodies are buried and can give directions, but Mrs. Smith does not "do" e-mail. The staff can offer to receive mail addressed to her from interested rootswebbers, and she can answer those that interest her. This is ONLY about plans to attend the Heritage Day/Week, and Mrs. J.C. Smith's sole commitment, unless she wishes to do more, is to help the staff write an e-mail message which gives her suggestions on places to go, people to see, etc. This is probably all the safeguarding we need to do for consenting adults, but it does buffer Mrs. J.C. Smith from feeling obliged to have every single Smith relation who ever passes through Smithfield over for dinner! [And if I were Mrs. Smith, I would attend the festivities wearing a nametag which says "Hi! I'm MRS. JONES FROM WEST ORANGE POPCICLE, MONTANA!] Well, it's Wednesday, and I have a script to write and a drama class to teach. Life is good. annie