Barbecue King Headlines History Talks At Library

NEWTON, NC – UNC TV’s Bob Garner will headline spring offerings at Catawba County Library in Newton. The noted food critic, a regular on “North Carolina Weekend,” will discuss our state’s barbecue culture and how it developed at 2pm on Sunday, March 21 at the Main Library. The program is free and open to the public.

Garner is the author of North Carolina Barbecue: Flavored by Time, an exploration of North Carolina’s long-standing affinity for barbecue. The book was published in 1996 by John F. Blair publishers and is now in its sixth hardcover printing. He also wrote Bob Garner’s Guide to North Carolina Barbecue, a restaurant guide published in 2002. He has made several appearances on the Food Network as well as Good Morning America and the Travel Channel’s “Road Trip.”

Garner is just one of four speakers scheduled to talk history at the library this spring.

A two-part series on early American textiles will be presented on two successive Tuesdays by Melinda Herzog, executive director of the Catawba County Museum of History. Woven into History will include an illustrated talk about early American linens, quilts, coverlets and other domestic textiles at 5pm on March 2. A week later, on March 9, Herzog will return for a quilt identification session at 5pm. Audience members may bring up to two quilts for pattern identification and dating at the second program.

Later in the season, Richard Eller will discuss his 2008 book, History of Piedmont Airlines: 1948-1989, at 5pm on May 18 at the library. Eller, a history professor at Catawba Valley Community College, will cover the humble beginnings of the company in Winston-Salem to the buyout by US Airways 21 years ago.

Popular speakers Sidney Halma and Dr. Gary Freeze will share the podium on June 8 with “How High Was the Water, Mama?” a look at two historic floods in Catawba County, 1916 and 1940, disasters which left a permanent mark on the region. Original film footage of the 1940 event will be shown. Halma is former executive director of the Catawba County Museum of History. Over the years he has collaborated with Freeze, Catawba College professor of history, on several published volumes of local history.

The library has copies of the Garner and Eller books in the library system as well as several works by Freeze and Halma including Volume 2 of The Catawbans which covers the two floods. To check availability of these or other items in the collection, check with any library branch or go on-line: http://www.catawbacountync.gov/library.