By CLARA CARTRETTE
News editor

With a drought hanging heavy over us and another N.C. Yam Festival in the making last week, Tabor City folk didn’t know whether to pray for rain or fair weather.

As is always the case, God knows best what we need and this time he gave it to us. It rained all around festival events, but the show went on.

And what a show it was! The Taste of Tabor was a class act, hosted on the beautiful eastern shore of Lake Tabor by Billy and Judy Douglas, with assistance from next door neighbors Al and Suzette Leonard. The two beautiful homes and lawns were the perfect setting for the outdoor event, which was attended by a record 560-plus people. A gigantic white tent and a couple of smaller ones barely accommodated the crowd. Skies cleared for the event and it didn’t rain a drop.

The Craig Woolard Band had people on the dance floor early and late as the crowd stayed much later than usual.

Friday night’s rain hampered a new event, Tailgate on Main, but from all reports it was a lot of fun and will probably be held again next year. As I drove home from work Friday night I wondered if the parade and other Saturday events would be washed out. “It would be nice if it cleared up about 4 a.m.,” I thought to myself. Don’t know when it cleared but Saturday was overcast, providing a cooler, perfect day for the parade and all other events.

It was a long parade, followed by a couple of dozen siren-blowing fire trucks and rescue vehicles. I counted 55 four-wheel units behind the fire and rescue vehicles and more than 20 horses, some pulling carts and wagons.

The sweet potato giveaway has become a rite of passage, and as soon as the parade ended the crowd swooped in on several bins of sweet potatoes beside the railroad and pretty soon they were gone. Sweet Potato Santa Claus Paul Hathaway had come through once again.

The art show in the Baptist Church fellowship hall was an interesting showcase of talent for ages kindergarten through adult. A display of sweet potato art by youngsters had the most creatively dressed sweet potatoes I’ve ever seen.

Best in show winners were Thomas M. Cutchin of Whiteville, photography, with a photo titled “Dockside;” Mark Bannerman of Whiteville, professional art, with an acrylic painting of a tobacco sale titled “Learning from the Master;” and Barbara Lin, drawing, titled “Iggy.” Student winner was Elizabeth Lay of the Academy of Arts, Sciences and Technology at Myrtle Beach, “Self-portrait with a Fan.”

On to the cook-off, where Anitta Martin of Tabor City took best in show in the adult division for a white chocolate sweet potato cake. Ashley Spivey won best in show in the student division for Pecan Sweet Potato Roll. She is a student at South Columbus High School.

Then came to Tabor City High School reunion, an annual Yam Festival event organized by Richard Wright when the school consolidated with Nakina and Williams Township high schools to form South Columbus High School. The Beth R. Woody Auditorium was nearly filled with graduates from as early as 1928. Adelaide Hicks Bell, who will celebrate her 95th birthday on Dec. 18, is a 1928 graduate and a retired teacher. She paid tribute to her mother, the late Martha Hicks, who taught for 37 years. She said she “taught on Monday and died on Tuesday” in 1962.

Jane Smith Patterson, Class of 1957, gave the keynote address, noting that what she learned in Tabor City schools has carried her through life. She served in Gov. Jim Hunt’s cabinet for eight years, has been a university chancellor, executive director of the E-NC Authority and several other prestigious positions.

After discussing seven things she learned at Tabor City High, she suggested that if all graduates wrote seven things they had learned it would make a wonderful book.

Jimmy Garrell, Class of 1953, and Joe Garrell, Class of 1960, provided vocal entertainment, accompanied by Margaret Jo Jernigan Willoughby, Class of 1952.

Between the aforementioned events I was able to witness a “train robbery.” A couple of Confederate re-enactors boarded the train, which Carolina Southern Railroad provides for the entertainment of Yam Festival attendees, and “captured” a young passenger and “robbed” all the women of their jewelry.

The re-enactors’ cannon kept everyone on their toes all day, as loud booms were heard throughout town.

These are only a few of the exciting events that brought thousands into Tabor City last Saturday as the 2007 N.C. Yam Festival went into the annals as one of the best yet.