Chris and I drove to Newton on Sunday for the opening reception of an exhibit on Hilton pottery that has been curated by my younger brother, Tim Blackburn. Tim has a keen interest in Catawba Valley pottery and has amassed a truly remarkable collection. One of his specialties is pottery made by the Hilton family, especially Auby and Maude Hilton and decorated by their very artistic daughter, Ernestine Hilton Sigmon. He put together an exhibit for the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove last year, and now he has an even larger exhibit at the Catawba County Museum of History in Newton. Many of the pieces are from his collection, but also borrowed some from other collectors and Hilton family members. The Hiltons lived the Blackburn community where my family has lived for generations.
The museum is in the old courthouse on the square in Newton. You can click on the photo to see it. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the pottery. I was worried that the glass cases would prevent good photos. Tim expects to put together a DVD with photos. I can't wait to see them. (On a side note: Chris has a few pieces that are Hilton pottery, too -- pretty, blue-edge pitcher, sugar bowl and frog, plus a milk crock.)
The reception was nice. Besides my parents and my brothers, Tim and Richard, and my nephew Ben, I saw my uncles Grady and Kenneth Crump (my mother's younger brothers) and my cousin Edward Crump. I also visited briefly with my high school classmates Jackie and Ted Yoder. Our 35-year reunion is coming up! To tell you the truth, that thought is truly freaking me out!
In other news, we had a short computer crisis with Jake. His laptop's screen went dark Saturday. The only way to get that fixed would be to send it away for at least 10 days, and, of course, he can't live without his computer for 10 days. So we decided that he should buy a new monitor, which he did. He plugged it into his laptop, and now he can work. When he comes home for the summer, we'll take his laptop for repair.
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