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We never got to brush our teeth. Mama and
Daddy said you had no business going down
to the dentist unless you had to get a tooth
pulled. What saved us was that we didn’t get
sweets and never got drinks.”
So Patty took a bath and packed up all of
her stuff by the time Gary came to pick her
up. “Mama and Daddy didn’t know a thing,
and Mama went off like a top! Daddy was OK.
We just had to go on back there and get the
chicken houses ready because we was getting
chickens on Monday. My sister Margie made
her wedding dress,” remembers Teresa. “Me
and Lisa was going round and round in the
bedroom saying, ‘We get the bedroom. We get
all the beds.’”
With a household of ten to feed, the family
cleaned their own chickens. Once the chicken
truck would pick up the chickens, the family
would gather the ones left behind. “We’d
have the clothesline slam full, and Mama’d go
through cutting their heads off,” shares Teresa.
“We’d have to skin them before they got cold.
If you ever tried to skin a cold chicken…you
don’t want to do that”
Mama canned food all summer long from
the family garden. The girls kept the fires going
under the big bushel tubs outside; once the
canning started, the family would can, can, can.
Although Mama and Daddy were tough on
the girls, a cherished memory remains their
family summer vacations! “Every summer
we went on vacation,” begins Teresa, “and we
stayed seven days at the beach! Those were
the seven days we got the cleanest that we
ever was because we got to stay in the ocean.
Mama and Daddy always took another family
with us on vacation. They’d rent a big house,
play cards and cook big breakfasts. After we
kids got the table cleaned off, then we got to
go to the ocean and stay all day long. That’s
the only time I got to wear clean panties and
the only time we spring-cleaned the house.
Before we left, the yard had to be cleaned like
we wasn’t ever coming back.”
Christmas brought gifts of an orange, an
EIGHT SISTERS continued
apple, a tangerine, two pieces of stick candy,
some orange slices and some of those little
chocolate drops in the stockings every year.
“Christmas was good, but our beach vacation
was the best!” exclaims Teresa.
How the stories of the good old days flow
like laughter around the kitchen table. Just as
dinner times transition into new households,
the memories are put away as the dishes after
washing. Blending the perfect ingredients
into A Taste of Old, A Taste of New, Teresa
breathes a sigh of relief, “The cookbook has
given me the satisfaction in knowing that if
we pass, then we’ve left something behind.
It’s not what you take with you, it’s what you
leave behind. We have left a heritage that will
be around for years and years and years.”
Olivia agrees, “To help secure this legacy
for the world to know about the wonderful
women that I grew up under—I am so happy! I
would not be the strong woman I am today if it
had not been for those eight sisters!”
In summing up the chapters of so much life
lived, the words boil down to one—strength!
Teresa encourages, “If you wake up weak,
then you just talk to a sister, and she’s going to
flip you. All of our lives, Mama and Daddy told
us we would amount to nothing. We would
accumulate nothing. We would be nothing.
Every single day they preached that made us
even more determined to become something.
We didn’t waller in the slop bucket; we got up
and worked hard. My sister Kathy was made
to quit school at fourteen, but she overcame!
She became the first woman to graduate
from taxidermy school at MCC. She got her
GED, earned her CNA I & II. She became a
Hospice nurse. She never let the fourteen
year old break her; the hard times made her
stronger. She flipped all the disappointments
into positives.” Every single sister has done
the exact same thing—they have found the
courage to become strong, like the coffee
around the breakfast table.
Best of all, the sisters live within thirtyfive
minutes of each other and celebrate both
their similarities and differences within the
pages of the cookbook. Teresa shares, “All of
us are blessed. We can drive. We can walk. We
are all pretty much healthy.”
Inviting all locals to enjoy a drive over
to Shady Spot Next Generation Hemp in
downtown Robbins, Teresa and Olivia will
make you feel at home in their little shop
offering a chance to buy the cookbook. For A
Taste of Old, A Taste of New, get to know the
eight sisters from Spies. ☐
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Come visit Next Generation Hemp Shady Spot Farm in Robbins, NC.
Growing up with his two older brothers, Rich
lived with his dad who was a single parent
serving as both mom and dad. Rich smiles,
“My dad was a great representation of God the
Father as he loved us sacrificially and cheered
us on! We were addicted to sports and became
competitive in everything from football,
baseball, basketball, tennis and track to water
skiing and snow skiing.”
The most cherished memories remain
growing up on the Shenandoah River where
the Culp boys would water ski in the morning,
play tennis all day and then ski again at night.
When the River was as smooth as glass in the
morning light, the brothers enjoyed skiing
with friends and family. Always welcoming an
ever-changing menagerie of visitors, the Culp
home remained the epicenter of action. From
those early days onward, Rich understood his
game plan and tells, “I wanted to go to the
Naval Academy, become an officer, retire after
twenty years and then become the athletic
director of my high school. That was my
twenty-five year plan.”
Loving pick-up basketball, Rich
experienced a night of unchartered terrain
that launched a new mission. “One night in
particular, in the spring of 1981, during my
sophomore year,” Rich remembers, “we were
playing basketball at a Christian school. In
the middle of the game, a man came out and
called half-time. I thought this guy was the
lamest person I had ever met. Who calls halftime
in the middle of a pick-up basketball
game?!? Oddly enough, he was the pastor
of the church who shared the Good News of
Jesus Christ, and I trusted Christ that night
on a basketball court.” From laughing at the
pastor to becoming one, Rich acknowledges
the providence of God.
From high school graduation to completing
four years at the Naval Academy in Annapolis,
Maryland, Rich was commissioned as a
Second Lieutenant into the Marine Corps,
in 1988. Stationed at Marine Corps Air
Station in New River, NC, Rich served as a
commanding officer for three of his six years
of service. While a commanding officer, Rich
also became a student pastor. He recalls, “By
my second year in the Marine Corps, the Lord
really got a hold of my life and called me into
full-time ministry. I loved the Marine Corps,
but God’s call was undeniable.”
While involved in world-wide ministry,
Rich visited his little hometown church, where
he saw this cute girl named Jenny and laughs,
“I didn’t have the nerve to say anything to
her the first weekend. I went back another
weekend, and I still didn’t have the nerve
to talk to her. On the third weekend, my dad
actually asked her out for me; the rest is history.”
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p.32 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. No. 141