Destinations

Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden is accepting entries for the fourth annual Shutterbug Photography contest, part of the annual Art at the Garden celebration.The contest is open to any amateur photographer. Adults and youth will be judged separately.

Pictures can be submitted in six categories: plants, water, architecture, people, wildlife and events/celebrations.

All submissions must be 8-inch by 10-inch prints; electronic files will not be accepted. Participants can submit only one picture per category.

All photographs must be taken at the garden.

Winners will be announced in early February. Winning photos will be displayed in the garden’s Visitor Pavilion during February. The first-prize winner in each category will receive a one-year garden membership and $25 to The Garden Store.

Entries can be sent to Attn: Marketing Department, 6500 S. New Hope Road, Belmont, NC 28012. The deadline to enter is 5 p.m. Dec. 31.

For details and entry forms, visit www.DSBG.org or call 704-825-4490.

RETARDED GRANDPARENTS ( this was actually reported by a teacher).

After Christmas, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school. One child wrote the following :

We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a big brick house but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Florida . Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass. They ride around on their bicycles and wear name tags because they don’t know who they are anymore . They go to a building called a wrecked center, but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now, and do exercises there, but they don’t do them very well. There is a swimming pool too, but in it, they all jump up and down with hats on.

At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it.  He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out.

They go cruising in their golf carts. Nobody there cooks, they just eat out. And, they eat the same thing every night: Early Birds.

Some of the people can’t get out past the man in the doll house. The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wrecked center and call it pot luck.

My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too. When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out so they can Visit their grandchildren.

Former students, teachers and friends of East Belmont met recently in the Life Center of Part Street United Methodist Church for a fundraising rally.

We can’t think of too many cool things to do sometimes. Neighbors from all over Belmont have taken on several preservation activities of the “old” Belmont. This project to erect a monument to the East Belmont School comes on the heels of the successful opening of the Belmont Historical Society, and the Reid Community’s annual festival.

When the discussion of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan was going on, the term “neighborhood preservation” was thrown about. These projects contribute to neighborhood preservation efforts and we feel they should be supported.

Get out and be active in your neighborhood. There are plenty of stories to share with us all, young and old, newcomers and natives.