By Kirk Ross
News & Opinion Editor
This is the year that our little town of Carrboro turns 100.
The community existed for years prior, of course, first as a collection of businesses and homes around the railroad spur and later as the incorporated town of Venable.
On March 3, 1911, the community’s name was changed to Carrboro and we began a century-long journey to become what you see all around you. It’s been a remarkable journey through a remarkable century extending from a time of mules and privies to one of fiber optics and a surge of “urban farming.â€
Come March, we will have our first formal celebration, and on Carrboro Day, which is May 1 this year, there’ll be a larger-than-usual shindig commemorating the anniversary.
A lot of citizens and officials are busy planning these events, and we’ve no doubt they’ll be splendid and very Carrboro.
But, to be honest, this was not the best of times for the town to throw a party, and the budget is a little tighter than many had hoped.
Still, we look forward to publishing updates on the plans for the festivities and will encourage your attendance with great enthusiasm.
In the meantime, The Citizen would like to solicit our readers to contribute their ideas – big, small, earnest and whimsical – for the celebration of all things Carrboro.
We’d also like our readers, especially you old-timers, to contribute anecdotes and reminiscences about our town and the characters that have inhabited it along the way.
It will be our delight to publish your stories, along with any guidance you might wish to offer those in officialdom as they prepare for the centennial. And perhaps your idea will garner enough popular support to be folded into the festivities.
So don’t be shy. Send your thoughts and ideas on the subject to the email or snailmail addresses listed below.
As always, we’ll print the ones we can and pass the others around the office to amuse our hard-working staff.
u u u
We neglected to tell you that the gorgeous photograph of a cardinal in the snow that graced the cover of this month’s MILL, folded into last week’s Citizen, was the masterful work of local shooter Stan Lewis. You can see Stan’s work at stanlewisphotography.com
4 thoughts on “Your ideas sought for Carrboro celebration!”
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It is true, the times are changin and to celebrate is usually and important thing to do when there is a reason. I simply suggest celebrating the ways in which Carrboro has been a leader for the community, which means doig something more meaningful than celebrating the past, but taking a step forward instead.
The issues we face have yet to be fully defined, and the lenght to which citiczens will have to go to adapt lifestyles with resorce availibility too are unknown. In such times, to spend money on actions and materials that will be carried away by the ether and garbage trucks is not the message we should be planning to deliver to our community. We should think about the vibrance of change and the creativity of our community and tap into that and fuel an inspiring moment of civic engaugnment.
This celebration must be an investment in the thinking that will see Carrboro through to another 100 years. Further more, Carrboro and her people can send a message to surrounding communities, that the time to grow as a people is upon us and together was must celebrate the opportunity we have to be the change that is so desperatly need in every community across the country.
I don’t mean to be over dramatic but it is my education in Urban Planning and Sustainable technologies that provides me with the perspective to see the importance of every action in this new year. The time of limitless resource in coming to an end. Today is upon us, and tomorrow will made by our action right now. We have learned what it is we need to do, now we must orginaize and inspire our community to put our knowledge into action.
Let us celebrate change this March, and tell the people of the bright future Carrboro has before her, and show that the first steps have been taken.
Thank you for concidering my words. Please feel free to contact me for anything.
Andrew Eisenberg
*100 little-known facts about Carrboro past and present, with accompanying cartoon map.
*100 quotes from oldsters, newbies, college kids and townies regarding our town.
* 1 interesting fact per year for the past 100 years.
*100 reasons to love the place.
Fellow Carrborators (Carrberrians?):
Let’s create some kind of time capsule — maybe set up a video booth for quick comments from citizens, put ’em on a DVD, add a few things that represent our fine community (a copy of the Citizen, a photo of Bruce dancing at the Weave, a sandwich from Neal’s, a little Eiffel Tower) and then put the whole thing in a safe place to be opened in another hundred years.
There’s no place like it~
Happy birthday Carrboro!
We, hoopdrum, would love to offer something with hoops and live music to the festivities!
Thanks,
Julia