Ghost walk follow-up

I wasn't sure if we'd make it or not, but the kids voted at the eleventh hour to go on the Waxhaw ghost walk. We met up with the others outside Waxhaw UMC. I have no training in estimating crowds, but I suppose there were about 100 people give or take a few. Most everyone in attendance were adults or teens, but there were a smattering of younger kids throughout the crowd.

Cecilia Neal led us on the ghost walk where she passed along tales of death and true crimes that are still apparently leaving their mark on Waxhaw today. She started out with a story from a house that once stood at the Waxhaw Farmer's Market regarding a father who just couldn't take his four kids anymore and hung himself out the window. (By the way, these are just my recollections so some of the details may be off. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

Upon hearing this, my wife and I exchanged glances as we weren't sure our kids (youngest in kindergarten) needed to be hearing about stuff like this. But thankfully it didn't appear they were listening real closely and the stories didn't seem quite so bad for the most part.

My youngest was cold and tired, so he only lasted about 25 minutes and spent the rest of the time waiting in a warm car with my wife. My oldest and I lasted one hour before heading home.
My goal next year is to hear the entire thing.

But it was definitely interesting to hear about the apparitions floating around Waxhaw. We heard stories of them from Stewart's Village Gallery, the old surf shop, and a slew of tales from the stretch of businesses starting with the used book store.

Donna took some photos during the ghost tour and posted them here. I personally haven't examined them closely, but it wouldn't surprise me if a specter popped up in one later upon closer examination.

By the way, the Union County Weekly had an article on the walk before Friday. It contained a handful of interesting tidbits on Waxhaw, including this one:

Many may be surprised to learn, according to Neal, that one of our nation’s last witch-hunts occurred in Waxhaw. In the 1700s, the townspeople accused Nancy Craighead of witchcraft after her preacher husband died. To arrive at a verdict, those in charge dug up his body and forced his wife to touch his skull. A finger bleed would be proof of her true witch identity. Lucky for Craighead, her finger never bled, and town leaders dropped the charges.

Santa Picture Groupon

Since we moved to the Charlotte area, we've been getting pictures with Santa at Carolina Place Mall in Pineville. The Santa there has been the same since 2003, so we've been going back year after year.

This weekend there's a Groupon deal for a photo package with Santa at Carolina Place Mall, Concord Mills Mall, or Monroe Crossing Mall. So if you plan on getting your Santa picture at any of those locations, you may want to consider the following deal.

$11 for Photos with Santa Claus and a Dasher Print Package ($22.99 Value)

The Dasher package gives you (1) 5 x 7 and (2) 3.5 x 5 pictures for $11. We've always just gotten the single 5 x 7 in the past and while I don't remember the specific price, I seem to think it alone was over $11 in years past.

This deal expires Tuesday at midnight, so there's still a couple days to get it if you're interested.

WAA Monster Bash @ Kensington tomorrow

The Waxhaw Athletic Association is having a Monster Bash for youngsters this Saturday at Kensington Elementary. I had planned to take the kids there, but it appears the family schedule is already booked for these hours.

If you're looking to drop the kids off and get some dinner with your sweetheart, it sounds like a win-win for everybody involved.

South Providence update

Here's my belated update on Rick Giarla's rooftop fundraiser from a couple weeks ago. From an Elizabeth Belk update over at the Waxhaw PTA Facebook page over a week ago:

THANK YOU to everyone who was able to help support Rick in his effort to raise money for South Providence School this past weekend. He raised right around $5000.00!!!! What a great thing for this school and the kids.

A little way off from the $30000 goal, but in this economy it is still a significant chunk of change I bet South Providence appreciates immensely.

The fundraiser web page is still up, so I imagine you can still contribute if you haven't already done so.

Village Scribe on candidates

The Village Scribe, a blog that focuses on Union County politics, has put up an election guide. It is also one of the handful of select sites I link to on my sidebar. The site is run by Mark DiBiasio, who freelances at the Union County Weekly as well.

Without further ado, here's his guide as it currently stands:

If you visit his actual election guide and hover your mouse over the icons, you can see what each of them mean. I recommend doing so because it's not necessarily clear as to what each mean. For example, the recycle symbol does not mean Gary Underwood is the greenest candidate.

Ideally, it'd be nice to get further explanations for some of these icons, because it likely isn't clear to many how a candidate gets tagged as "developer friendly" for example. If you visit, check the comments where Phillip Gregory recently wrote a defense against being labeled as such.

Otherwise, based on the current guide, which has changed slightly from a week ago, it appears Mark is leaning towards favoring Daune Gardner for mayor and Sean Poccia and Mike Stewart for town board. Of course, he hasn't broken out a "thumbs up" for any Waxhaw candidates, which would be an official endorsement.

I'll try and check back to see if anything changes before the election.

Waxhaw bouncing back

WCNC has an article on the small business atmosphere in Waxhaw, which has improved. A snippet:

Mayor Daune Gardner says Maxwell's was one of the first to start a new business movement in the quaint downtown.

"A couple years ago we had over a dozen empty store fronts on Main Street. Last year we had seven. This year now we have two," added Gardner.

Here's the corresponding video clip from which the article derives, which stars the mayor and some of the newer local businesses.

UPDATE: How was the candidate forum?

Unfortunately, it appears Jim was unable to broadcast the forum from the Waxhaw Woman's Club so sickies like me will likely never know how it went down. Unless someone else made a recording of the event.

So any thoughts on how things went, not just for the potential mayors, but also for the potential board members?

If you have trouble commenting, just drop me an email and I can add the comment for you.

UPDATE 9.52a: I heard from the mayor yesterday and this was apparently the format of last night's forum, for those who weren't able to witness it firsthand. This seemed the ideal post to include this information.

Moderated by the League of Woman Voters. They will accept questions prior and will choose which to ask in the forum. There will be no direct questions from the audience and no debate between the candidates. Each question will be given to either the mayoral or commissioner candidates and each will be given an equal amount of time to respond. Some questions may be given to both sets of candidates.