Features

As long as there has been a flat rock, mankind has been using it to make pancakes.

From Day 1, pancakes have been “a good answer to a necessity,” writes Naomi Duguid, co-author of “Home Baking: Sweet and Savory Traditions from Around the World.”

Pancakes, Duguid says, are one of the most improvised foods in the world. It is one of the original fast foods made with cheap, easy-to-find ingredients – flour, eggs, and milk –  which gives pancakes a versatility that many foods just don’t have.

EDGEMOOR – “Two chickens like this!” the ring man shouts as he reaches inside a crate, pulls out the bird and lifts it into the air.

Every eye inside the Dixie Stockyard is on the chicken as the bidding starts. 

The auctioneer immediately barks out a crystal-clear, rhythmic chant trying to coax the most money for the birds from the customers.

Suddenly, the chant ends just as quickly as it started.

“Sold,” he yells. The winning bidder smiles and holds up his number for the bookkeeper to see.

Music has a way of lifting your spirits.

Just ask Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes.

In 1999, their oldest daughter, Shelly, 20, died in her sleep from respiratory failure.

To cope with the loss, Jere, a carpenter for the Los Angeles County school system and Sandy, who was homeschooling their children, Cia, B.J., Skip and Molly Kate, took the family to a nearby bluegrass festival.

There – while listening to Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys – the Cherryholmes found healing.

They also found inspiration and a new calling on their lives.

After 37 years, some things never change.

Fred Adams, Donald Boone, Noland Broach, Jack Sistare, Morrison Thompson and Louie Watts still get together around a well-worn table inside the South 200 Drive-In on Great Falls Highway each morning.

It’s there – between sips of hot coffee, bites of hot breakfast and rounds of warm laughter – the men try to solve global warming and understand cold-hearted politicians.

But one thing has changed about their early-morning ritual.

Restaurant owner Larry Small no longer lets them in.

This week, the mercury in the thermometer is bottoming out.

Meteorologists aren’t predicting a daily high temperature of more than 40 degrees in this portion of the Piedmont.

And during Carolina cold snaps like this one, nothing beats a pair of thick wool socks and a piping hot bowl of soup.

Homemade soups not only soothe the soul, they also ease the pocketbook.

Recent studies show that one of the way American consumers have responded to hard economic times is by altering their eating habits, which includes eating at home more.

A woman battling the emotional and physical side effects of chemotherapy or radiation treatment always needs a special touch.

That’s where Look Good...Feel Better comes in.

Described by the American Cancer Society as a “makeover for the spirit,” the program helps women fighting cancer boost their confidence and self-esteem.

Done quarterly in Lancaster County, the next Look Good...Feel Better class is 2 p.m. Monday at Springs Memorial Hospital.

Write-in campaigns, resigning town council members, a “hiking” governor and long lines at the unemployment office are just four of the issues we experienced in 2009.

We lost some neighbors with the deaths of Sonny Bowers, Bobbie Hagins, Ray Knight and Dick Weisner. These are good people whose lives made a difference. OK, that’s enough of the bad news.

We saw the good in people, too, like the Backpack Buddies, a non-denominational church partnership that makes sure that Heath Springs Elementary School students have nutritious meals on the weekend.

The next few days are the last hurrah.

No, it’s not the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010; it’s the annual college football bowl season.

Between today and Jan. 7, there are 21 televised college football games on the schedule.

You are your friends might not be able to agree on whether Idaho or Bowling Green will win today’s Humanitarian Bowl  in Boise, Idaho.

You might not even care.

The women in your family might be rooting for the team with the prettiest jerseys by opening kickoff. 

In driving around Lancaster, it’s evident that county residents love to deck the halls and yards this time of year. 

Wreaths, bows, candles  and glowing reindeer prove that Christmas is indeed here. 

The home of Linda Deas, at 417 Meeting St., is a beautiful example of that and has been awarded the Yard of the Month for December by the Lancaster Council of Garden Clubs.

Tucked beside businesses, Deas said she sometimes feels that no one notices her house and yard. However, much to her surprise, that’s just not the case.