Family business took over North Augusta block
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
Posted March 31, 2009 3:57 PM
James and Lena Bush bought the Bush house in 1920. They built Bush's Flower Shop next door in 1921.
BeBe Holeman fondly remembers when the street in front of her childhood home was dirt and full of potholes.
"It rained and we'd play in the water," she said.
The yellow house at 109 Pine Grove Ave. was surrounded by trees that have long been cut to make room for pavement and power lines.
"My daddy put the sidewalk down, mainly so we could skate," she said.
Holeman's parents, James and Lena Bush, bought the house in 1920 for $3,000. They also bought the parcel next to it, on the corner of Pine Grove and West avenues, which is known for Bush's Flower Shop.
Bush's Flower Shop is touted as the oldest continuously-operated business in North Augusta.
James got the idea for the shop shortly after he bought the properties. As a postal worker he noticed residents ordered pansies from companies in the north, Holeman said.
There were no florists in the area at the time, so in 1921 he built a one-room building in the empty lot next to the house and began selling mail-order flowers.
"It went so well he decided to open as a greenhouse," Holeman said. "The shop really started as a greenhouse."
James, who knew very little about gardening, bought a book and learned how to grow roses. The property was previously a cow pasture, which left the soil rich enough to produce a beautiful rose garden. James also ordered flowers that couldn't be grown locally.
"I think most of our carnations came from Denver," Holeman said. "I remember many a time getting in the car and going to the post office to pick up the shipment of things from Denver."
The house across Pine Grove Avenue belonged to the O'Keefes, who were kind enough to allow James to plant sweet peas, dahlias and other flowers in their back yard.
The area is now a parking lot behind Ming Yat Restaurant.
Lena ran the flower shop and lived in the home after her husband's death in 1966.
After Lena died in 1996, daughter Jeanette Bush lived in the house and ran the business until her own death in October.
"Jeanette left me the shop," Holeman said. "I didn't intend to go back to work at 76 years old," she added with a laugh.
Holeman said the shop will remain in the family.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
http://natoday.augusta.com/node/5235
Monday, May 4, 2009
NA Homes: Carolina Oaks
Turn of the century home now bed and breakfast
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
Posted April 7, 2009 6:42 PM
Carolina Oaks, located on Carolina Avenue, was built in 1906.
Rachel Franklin has a few unanswered questions about the history of her bed and breakfast, Carolina Oaks.
When she bought the property she knew that George Murphy built the house and only lived in it six months because he "did not like the little house being built next door," Franklin said.
Gradually, through her own research and information given to her by people who remember previous owners, she has been able to piece together the story of her home.
Carolina Oaks was built in 1906 on property that was once owned by the city's founder, James U. Jackson.
The Guess family has been, to date, the home's longest residents. The family lived in the house from 1907 to 1968.
In their honor, Franklin dedicated one of the home's three guest rooms to them by naming it the Guess Room and decorating it in a simple, old-fashioned décor.
Simple floral sheers frame the window above a queen bed adorned with a bedspread in the same pattern.
"I really wanted this one to be Grandma-looking," Franklin said.
Ryerson Guess, who lived in the house with his grandmother, his wife and two daughters, died in 1925, leaving the four women to share the residence.
Through pictures and information passed to her by people who remember the house, Franklin learned that the house had a second story porch.
It was removed because it leaked, she said. Recently, she found out it also had an awning on the front, which Franklin said she'd like to replace.
During the 29 years the Dolittle family lived in the home, from 1970 to 1999, they covered the floors in blue carpet. Franklin learned they also installed heating and air conditioning.
Many of the home's features are original. The fireplaces worked until 1999; Franklin had them restored to working order.
Most of the light fixtures in the home are original, including matching sconces that once flanked the bed in each of the rooms.
Until heating and air conditioning was installed in the 1980s, the house was heated by a stove in the foyer and a window unit in the second floor stairwell.
Franklin plans to install bathrooms in each of the bedrooms. The home has only one bathroom upstairs that guests must share.
Franklin said that when she started looking at houses for her bed and breakfast, she wasn't interested in this house. Then she saw the inside.
"We walked through it, and this was it," she said. "We just knew this was the one."
This is a continuing series that features historic homes of North Augusta.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at (706) 828-3909 or lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
http://natoday.augusta.com/node/5287
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
Posted April 7, 2009 6:42 PM
Carolina Oaks, located on Carolina Avenue, was built in 1906.
Rachel Franklin has a few unanswered questions about the history of her bed and breakfast, Carolina Oaks.
When she bought the property she knew that George Murphy built the house and only lived in it six months because he "did not like the little house being built next door," Franklin said.
Gradually, through her own research and information given to her by people who remember previous owners, she has been able to piece together the story of her home.
Carolina Oaks was built in 1906 on property that was once owned by the city's founder, James U. Jackson.
The Guess family has been, to date, the home's longest residents. The family lived in the house from 1907 to 1968.
In their honor, Franklin dedicated one of the home's three guest rooms to them by naming it the Guess Room and decorating it in a simple, old-fashioned décor.
Simple floral sheers frame the window above a queen bed adorned with a bedspread in the same pattern.
"I really wanted this one to be Grandma-looking," Franklin said.
Ryerson Guess, who lived in the house with his grandmother, his wife and two daughters, died in 1925, leaving the four women to share the residence.
Through pictures and information passed to her by people who remember the house, Franklin learned that the house had a second story porch.
It was removed because it leaked, she said. Recently, she found out it also had an awning on the front, which Franklin said she'd like to replace.
During the 29 years the Dolittle family lived in the home, from 1970 to 1999, they covered the floors in blue carpet. Franklin learned they also installed heating and air conditioning.
Many of the home's features are original. The fireplaces worked until 1999; Franklin had them restored to working order.
Most of the light fixtures in the home are original, including matching sconces that once flanked the bed in each of the rooms.
Until heating and air conditioning was installed in the 1980s, the house was heated by a stove in the foyer and a window unit in the second floor stairwell.
Franklin plans to install bathrooms in each of the bedrooms. The home has only one bathroom upstairs that guests must share.
Franklin said that when she started looking at houses for her bed and breakfast, she wasn't interested in this house. Then she saw the inside.
"We walked through it, and this was it," she said. "We just knew this was the one."
This is a continuing series that features historic homes of North Augusta.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at (706) 828-3909 or lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
http://natoday.augusta.com/node/5287
NA Homes: Fearey House/Old Chamber
Old chamber location heart of Presley Realty ideals
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
Posted April 14, 2009 4:17 PM
The Fearey House was built in 1900.
A framed copy of the original city plan of North Augusta hangs on a lime green wall inside Presley Realty.
The plan, and the wall color behind it, hearken to 1900s when 302 Georgia Avenue was built.
The quality of the workmanship, a tangible example of the ideals of the Victorian era, drew Joel Presley to purchase the property a year ago to house his real estate and development business.
His business, which involves helping people achieve goals with land that can involve legacies, sets a tone with an authenticity of the old ways of doing business, he said.
"This house is at least a little indication of what used to be," he said.
The house was built for John H. Fearey, a jeweler, who died two years later.
According The Augusta Chronicle archives, W.H. Rountree bought it and in 1906, sold it to Tom Butler for $2,000.
The Butler family occupied the house for about 75 years. Presley said his father and his aunt knew the Butlers and had been to the house, which sparked his interest in the property.
In 1981, Katherine "Miss Kitty" Butler sold it to Kathy and Terry Sullivan. First, however, she extracted a promise from them that they would leave the brick walkway intact because her father laid it when she was 16.
By that time, the house had deteriorated and parts were condemned. The city would not condemn the whole building, which gave the Sullivans the time they needed to restore the house, according to the article.
They discovered heart pine molding, carved oak mantles and brass doorknobs that were all original to the house. Some of the bricks, stamped "LeClede Crown St. Louis," were salvaged from the Robert E. Lee, a sunken Savannah River steamboat.
Today, those bricks still decorate the front walkway.
After the Sullivans' tenure, the house opened as a restaurant, The Back Porch, in 1987. However, the Greater North Augusta Chamber of Commerce bought it from the Royal Boutique frame shop in 1999, according to The Augusta Chronicle .
Members of the Chamber painted the interior, repaired shutters and installed new steps to the porch.
When the chamber announced plans to move to its current location on West Avenue in late 2007, Presley saw his chance to buy a well-preserved piece of North Augusta's history.
The original features that the Sullivans fell in love with more than 25 years ago endeared Presley to the home, as well.
"I love heart pine, and this house was the only one left on this part of Georgia Avenue that had not been altered significantly inside," he said.
In the year he has owned the house, he has painted the interior with colors that might have been used in 1900, restored some of the woodwork, pruned and shaped some of the older shrubs on the property and restored some of the hearth.
He said he is not impressed with newer homes because many times they have "stick-on" features that are supposed to be something that they're really not.
"I like things that are authentic, that are what they appear to be. This house is that, and it has survived."
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
http://natoday.augusta.com/node/5311
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
Posted April 14, 2009 4:17 PM
The Fearey House was built in 1900.
A framed copy of the original city plan of North Augusta hangs on a lime green wall inside Presley Realty.
The plan, and the wall color behind it, hearken to 1900s when 302 Georgia Avenue was built.
The quality of the workmanship, a tangible example of the ideals of the Victorian era, drew Joel Presley to purchase the property a year ago to house his real estate and development business.
His business, which involves helping people achieve goals with land that can involve legacies, sets a tone with an authenticity of the old ways of doing business, he said.
"This house is at least a little indication of what used to be," he said.
The house was built for John H. Fearey, a jeweler, who died two years later.
According The Augusta Chronicle archives, W.H. Rountree bought it and in 1906, sold it to Tom Butler for $2,000.
The Butler family occupied the house for about 75 years. Presley said his father and his aunt knew the Butlers and had been to the house, which sparked his interest in the property.
In 1981, Katherine "Miss Kitty" Butler sold it to Kathy and Terry Sullivan. First, however, she extracted a promise from them that they would leave the brick walkway intact because her father laid it when she was 16.
By that time, the house had deteriorated and parts were condemned. The city would not condemn the whole building, which gave the Sullivans the time they needed to restore the house, according to the article.
They discovered heart pine molding, carved oak mantles and brass doorknobs that were all original to the house. Some of the bricks, stamped "LeClede Crown St. Louis," were salvaged from the Robert E. Lee, a sunken Savannah River steamboat.
Today, those bricks still decorate the front walkway.
After the Sullivans' tenure, the house opened as a restaurant, The Back Porch, in 1987. However, the Greater North Augusta Chamber of Commerce bought it from the Royal Boutique frame shop in 1999, according to The Augusta Chronicle .
Members of the Chamber painted the interior, repaired shutters and installed new steps to the porch.
When the chamber announced plans to move to its current location on West Avenue in late 2007, Presley saw his chance to buy a well-preserved piece of North Augusta's history.
The original features that the Sullivans fell in love with more than 25 years ago endeared Presley to the home, as well.
"I love heart pine, and this house was the only one left on this part of Georgia Avenue that had not been altered significantly inside," he said.
In the year he has owned the house, he has painted the interior with colors that might have been used in 1900, restored some of the woodwork, pruned and shaped some of the older shrubs on the property and restored some of the hearth.
He said he is not impressed with newer homes because many times they have "stick-on" features that are supposed to be something that they're really not.
"I like things that are authentic, that are what they appear to be. This house is that, and it has survived."
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
http://natoday.augusta.com/node/5311
NA Homes: Central School
North Augusta Homes - Central School
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
Posted April 21, 2009 4:20 PM
The original Central School is located on Aiken Avenue, about a block from Our Lady of Peace Catholic School.
Behind the Our Lady of Peace Catholic School Annex on Aiken Avenue sits a piece of North Augusta's history.
In 2004, local historian Wayne O'Bryant opened the doors to what he thought was a gray cinder block storage building.
What he found was an old schoolhouse.
"I had gone in there to get some Christmas decorations and noticed the boards and the stove, and started asking questions," he said.
O'Bryant discovered that the building once housed the first and second grades of the old Central School. He wrote a manuscript about the school and hopes to one day get a plaque to commemorate it.
The Central School opened in 1926 and, along with Second Providence Baptist Church, was the hub of the African-American community of Summerhill, he said.
The original Central School was a wooden building that sat where the Our Lady of Peace Annex building now houses it's middle school.
The annex on Aiken Avenue was built in 1935 to house the first and second grades.
Central School shared the little annex building with the Summerhill Work Club, which was made up of members of Second Providence.
A deacon of the church and member of the club, Alfred Frazier, encased the building in cinder block in the late 1930s.
The original Central School building across the street was torn down to make way for the brick building that is on the site now.
The Rev. Nathaniel Irvin, who pastors Old Storm Branch Baptist Church, remembers starting the school as a first grader in 1935.
He remembers cold mile-or-so walks to school, and when he got there, cold classrooms. He sometimes had to help make a fire to heat them. There was no indoor plumbing, but outhouses. Their books were passed down to them from the white schools.
"A pitiful lunch," he said. "Pinto beans and rice most times."
Irvin attended the school for six years, and said the name of the school was changed to the Summerhill Annex in the 1960s.
Desegregation in the 1950s closed the Central School, and the little annex on Aiken Avenue was given to Second Providence, where many of the Summerhill families attended.
It is now predominantly used for storage.
This is a continuing series that features historic homes and buildings in North Augusta.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor @northaugustatoday.com.
http://natoday.augusta.com/node/5363
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
Posted April 21, 2009 4:20 PM
The original Central School is located on Aiken Avenue, about a block from Our Lady of Peace Catholic School.
Behind the Our Lady of Peace Catholic School Annex on Aiken Avenue sits a piece of North Augusta's history.
In 2004, local historian Wayne O'Bryant opened the doors to what he thought was a gray cinder block storage building.
What he found was an old schoolhouse.
"I had gone in there to get some Christmas decorations and noticed the boards and the stove, and started asking questions," he said.
O'Bryant discovered that the building once housed the first and second grades of the old Central School. He wrote a manuscript about the school and hopes to one day get a plaque to commemorate it.
The Central School opened in 1926 and, along with Second Providence Baptist Church, was the hub of the African-American community of Summerhill, he said.
The original Central School was a wooden building that sat where the Our Lady of Peace Annex building now houses it's middle school.
The annex on Aiken Avenue was built in 1935 to house the first and second grades.
Central School shared the little annex building with the Summerhill Work Club, which was made up of members of Second Providence.
A deacon of the church and member of the club, Alfred Frazier, encased the building in cinder block in the late 1930s.
The original Central School building across the street was torn down to make way for the brick building that is on the site now.
The Rev. Nathaniel Irvin, who pastors Old Storm Branch Baptist Church, remembers starting the school as a first grader in 1935.
He remembers cold mile-or-so walks to school, and when he got there, cold classrooms. He sometimes had to help make a fire to heat them. There was no indoor plumbing, but outhouses. Their books were passed down to them from the white schools.
"A pitiful lunch," he said. "Pinto beans and rice most times."
Irvin attended the school for six years, and said the name of the school was changed to the Summerhill Annex in the 1960s.
Desegregation in the 1950s closed the Central School, and the little annex on Aiken Avenue was given to Second Providence, where many of the Summerhill families attended.
It is now predominantly used for storage.
This is a continuing series that features historic homes and buildings in North Augusta.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor @northaugustatoday.com.
http://natoday.augusta.com/node/5363
The River House/The Davenport House
A month or so ago I began a series for North Augusta Today about historic homes and buildings in the city. I've written several stories during the two years we've published about North Augusta's history. This has been a fun endeavor for me.
North Augusta homes
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
When Poi Cohen and Achana Janritranont first laid eyes on the Davenport house, they knew it was the perfect place for their Thai and American restaurant, River House.
"When you walk in, you feel a good spirit in the house," Cohen said.
She believes that "good spirit" comes from the house's original owners, Joe and Ethel Davenport. Joe, especially, was a helpful person, she said.
The Davenports built the house on the corner of Georgia and East Clifton avenues in 1905, a year before the town was founded. Cohen and Janritranont wrote a brief history of the building on a flyer they give to guests.
According to that history, Joe ran a small print shop behind the house.
He was also a pharmacist who sold a concoction he called "Frog Pond Elixir," which was said to cure everything from colds to constipation.
From 1910 to 1920, Joe served as North Augusta's fire chief. He reputedly slept soundly as the Hampton Terrace burned to the ground in 1917.
His own house was struck by lightening in 1934. The subsequent fire destroyed the second floor of the home, which was never rebuilt. The central hallway of the house may have contained the staircase at one time. It has been closed off and now houses the restaurant's kitchen and front foyer.
The original lady of the house, Ethel, became the first woman elected to the North Augusta town council. However, her gardening skills gained her more notoriety than her politics.
She was an avid gardener. The daffodils that lined her walkway still welcome patrons of the River House.
In 1988, the house was sold to Brenda Gibson, who opened B.C. Davenport's, a restaurant she operated until Cohen and Janritranont bought it in 2008.
Cohen and Janritranont said they wanted to make the house cleaner, brighter and fresher, and accomplished that by repainting the walls. They added a fifth room to the back of the house. The bathrooms and another dining room are located there.
Cohen and Janritranont said they have no plans to change anything, except maybe the paint in a few years.
They like the building's character.
"Me and my partner came in and fell in love with the place," Cohen said.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
http://natoday.augusta.com/node/5375
North Augusta homes
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
When Poi Cohen and Achana Janritranont first laid eyes on the Davenport house, they knew it was the perfect place for their Thai and American restaurant, River House.
"When you walk in, you feel a good spirit in the house," Cohen said.
She believes that "good spirit" comes from the house's original owners, Joe and Ethel Davenport. Joe, especially, was a helpful person, she said.
The Davenports built the house on the corner of Georgia and East Clifton avenues in 1905, a year before the town was founded. Cohen and Janritranont wrote a brief history of the building on a flyer they give to guests.
According to that history, Joe ran a small print shop behind the house.
He was also a pharmacist who sold a concoction he called "Frog Pond Elixir," which was said to cure everything from colds to constipation.
From 1910 to 1920, Joe served as North Augusta's fire chief. He reputedly slept soundly as the Hampton Terrace burned to the ground in 1917.
His own house was struck by lightening in 1934. The subsequent fire destroyed the second floor of the home, which was never rebuilt. The central hallway of the house may have contained the staircase at one time. It has been closed off and now houses the restaurant's kitchen and front foyer.
The original lady of the house, Ethel, became the first woman elected to the North Augusta town council. However, her gardening skills gained her more notoriety than her politics.
She was an avid gardener. The daffodils that lined her walkway still welcome patrons of the River House.
In 1988, the house was sold to Brenda Gibson, who opened B.C. Davenport's, a restaurant she operated until Cohen and Janritranont bought it in 2008.
Cohen and Janritranont said they wanted to make the house cleaner, brighter and fresher, and accomplished that by repainting the walls. They added a fifth room to the back of the house. The bathrooms and another dining room are located there.
Cohen and Janritranont said they have no plans to change anything, except maybe the paint in a few years.
They like the building's character.
"Me and my partner came in and fell in love with the place," Cohen said.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
http://natoday.augusta.com/node/5375
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Pigeon racing
Yep. You heard me right. I was digging through old stories I'd written for sports and ran across this gem I wrote in April 2006. I promise, I'd only forgotten for a minute.
I wish you could see the reactions I get when people hear that I wrote about this. I always tell them, it really was a fascinating story. It's not like football or baseball, where a sports reporter is expected to know all the ins and outs of the sport. Writing about obscure sports like this was refreshing. Questions like what? why? how? flowed quite freely and an hour and two glasses of Boll Weevil tea later, I had more than enough material to write a story that makes people still say, "You wrote about what?"
It should be noted that this story ran during Master's Week.
Computers aid in pigeon races
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
This weekend, sports fans all over the world will be watching for eagles on the greens of Augusta. But at least 11 will be watching the blue above for different types of birdies: homing pigeons.
The Georgia/Carolina Racing Pigeon Club has members in Louisville, Ga., Thomson, Beech Island, Wagener, and Monetta, S.C., as well as Augusta.
Saturday, one member will drive 200 miles to release nearly 150 birds. The winner will be the bird who averages the fastest time to reach his home.
"They've all got a natural instinct to get home. We just use it to compete," said Tom McPherson, who has been a member of the club on and off for more than 20 years.
At first blush, the sport sounds simple enough: release the birds - around 10 to 15 per member - all at once and the fastest time wins. But in practice, it's much more complicated than that.
The birds fly home to their lofts rather than to a central location. Because the lofts are located so far apart, it would be impossible for the birds to reach their individual finish lines at comparable times. Therefore, each bird is required to wear a band around its leg that has something similar to a bar code on it.
The band is scanned as the bird crosses a sensor located in the entrance to the loft, marking the bird's time of arrival into a clocking device. A Global Positioning System determines the longitude and latitude of each loft in the club as well as the release point, and those measurements are used to determine a bird's average speed in yards per minute from the release point to its loft. After the race, each member of the club brings their clocking device to a central location, where the information is downloaded into a computer program specifically designed for this purpose. The program uses all of the gathered information to determine the winner of the race.
The unusual thing about racing pigeons is that winning is not necessarily determined by the athletic ability of the birds.
"Everybody's birds are about equal," McPherson said. "The care they receive is not equal, and that's where you can get the advantage on somebody is to take better care (of your birds)."
The pigeons are fed twice a day and given medication and vitamins. Their lofts must be kept very clean in order to keep the birds free of such pests as fleas, ticks, mites, and flies - anything that might pose a danger to the birds.
And though the birds have a homing instinct, they still must be trained. Young birds receive training with short flights around the loft at first, typically for 30 to 45 minutes per flight.
Once they are accustomed to entering the loft, they are taken farther and farther away to practice finding their way home in preparation for the races, which begin at 100 miles at the start of the season and end with a 500-mile race at the end of the season.
Some birds do get lost at races of more than 200 miles, and because the owners can't be with them, they often don't know exactly what happened to them.
"If you do a good job of training them, then when you lose a bird like that, it's because of the elements," said Johnny Hutcheson, the Georgia/Carolina Racing Pigeon Club's press secretary, adding that hawks tend to be the biggest threat to the pigeons. Because of the time and care lavished on the birds, the owners agree that losing one hurts. But they said that it is just a part of the sport.
Hutcheson said that pigeon racing is the ideal family sport, because anybody can participate.
"My grandson helps me continuously with my loft, and we have a ball with it," he said.
At the local level, it is not done for the prize money. One must compete at the national level for that.
"This is just for the entertainment and enjoyment," McPherson said.
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/040606/oth_76291.shtml
I wish you could see the reactions I get when people hear that I wrote about this. I always tell them, it really was a fascinating story. It's not like football or baseball, where a sports reporter is expected to know all the ins and outs of the sport. Writing about obscure sports like this was refreshing. Questions like what? why? how? flowed quite freely and an hour and two glasses of Boll Weevil tea later, I had more than enough material to write a story that makes people still say, "You wrote about what?"
It should be noted that this story ran during Master's Week.
Computers aid in pigeon races
By Lisa Kaylor Staff Writer
This weekend, sports fans all over the world will be watching for eagles on the greens of Augusta. But at least 11 will be watching the blue above for different types of birdies: homing pigeons.
The Georgia/Carolina Racing Pigeon Club has members in Louisville, Ga., Thomson, Beech Island, Wagener, and Monetta, S.C., as well as Augusta.
Saturday, one member will drive 200 miles to release nearly 150 birds. The winner will be the bird who averages the fastest time to reach his home.
"They've all got a natural instinct to get home. We just use it to compete," said Tom McPherson, who has been a member of the club on and off for more than 20 years.
At first blush, the sport sounds simple enough: release the birds - around 10 to 15 per member - all at once and the fastest time wins. But in practice, it's much more complicated than that.
The birds fly home to their lofts rather than to a central location. Because the lofts are located so far apart, it would be impossible for the birds to reach their individual finish lines at comparable times. Therefore, each bird is required to wear a band around its leg that has something similar to a bar code on it.
The band is scanned as the bird crosses a sensor located in the entrance to the loft, marking the bird's time of arrival into a clocking device. A Global Positioning System determines the longitude and latitude of each loft in the club as well as the release point, and those measurements are used to determine a bird's average speed in yards per minute from the release point to its loft. After the race, each member of the club brings their clocking device to a central location, where the information is downloaded into a computer program specifically designed for this purpose. The program uses all of the gathered information to determine the winner of the race.
The unusual thing about racing pigeons is that winning is not necessarily determined by the athletic ability of the birds.
"Everybody's birds are about equal," McPherson said. "The care they receive is not equal, and that's where you can get the advantage on somebody is to take better care (of your birds)."
The pigeons are fed twice a day and given medication and vitamins. Their lofts must be kept very clean in order to keep the birds free of such pests as fleas, ticks, mites, and flies - anything that might pose a danger to the birds.
And though the birds have a homing instinct, they still must be trained. Young birds receive training with short flights around the loft at first, typically for 30 to 45 minutes per flight.
Once they are accustomed to entering the loft, they are taken farther and farther away to practice finding their way home in preparation for the races, which begin at 100 miles at the start of the season and end with a 500-mile race at the end of the season.
Some birds do get lost at races of more than 200 miles, and because the owners can't be with them, they often don't know exactly what happened to them.
"If you do a good job of training them, then when you lose a bird like that, it's because of the elements," said Johnny Hutcheson, the Georgia/Carolina Racing Pigeon Club's press secretary, adding that hawks tend to be the biggest threat to the pigeons. Because of the time and care lavished on the birds, the owners agree that losing one hurts. But they said that it is just a part of the sport.
Hutcheson said that pigeon racing is the ideal family sport, because anybody can participate.
"My grandson helps me continuously with my loft, and we have a ball with it," he said.
At the local level, it is not done for the prize money. One must compete at the national level for that.
"This is just for the entertainment and enjoyment," McPherson said.
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/040606/oth_76291.shtml
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
