We want YOU…to send in your pictures!

Email pictures and info of your weddings, fun trips, new babies, parties, anniversaries, accomplishements, and more to auntcicely@gmail.com.  If it’s good news in Cooper-Young, Aunt Cicely wants to hear about it!

Independence Day parade participants line up on the Peabody School parking lot and prepare to show off their stars and stripes. Strollers, wagons, bikes, and trikes were all part of this demonstration of national pride and old-fashioned fun.

Oliver resident Katie Suda hams it up for the camera during an Oliver block party on Saturday, July 17, at the home of block club captains Peter and Diana Owen, and their son Elek.

Violet Elder enjoys a doughnut while mom and dad, Barb and Jason, snap a picture at their massive yard sale on Felix on Saturday, July 10. The Elders will be using the proceeds from their yard sale for their upcoming adoption. Can’t wait to welcome young Elder to the neighborhood!

Robby Huserik pauses for a photo op at the Oliver block party.

Oliver resident Owen McHaney poses with a fireman at the July 5th parade.

Jonathan and Libby Flynt were married in May and moved into the home they purchased on Evelyn after they honeymooned in Hawaii.

CYCA board members Debbie Sowell and Emily Bishop (wo)man the CYCA table at the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market on Saturday, July 10. If you haven’t gotten your CYCA membership yet this year, it’s not too late. There’s still plenty of time to enjoy all the membership benefits and support your community at the same time!

The Memphis Snake Doctors played the patio at Cafe Ole on July 19th for their Margarita Monday music night. CY resident Steve Bishop along with bandmates John Sanders, Gary Wagoner, Greg Taylor, and Tom Stafford will also be playing the race party after the Festival Friday 4 Miler on September 17 in the Bluff City Sports parking lot.

Karen Capps and Kristan Gallaty came out to hear the Memphis Snake Doctors on the patio at Cafe Ole with Kristan’s children Lilly and Jasper.

1.    Joey and Carmen Weaver, of Rembert, added a sweet little boy to the neighborhood!  Luke Judson was born June 18th and weighed in at 8 lbs., 3 oz.

2.    Elzey residents Brontá and Libby Chapman were married on May 30th at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.Congratulations to the happy couple!

3.    Evelyn resident Lyndon Thomas shows off the whopper he caught at his grandparents’ house in Arkansas.

4.    Avery and Paxton Word of Nelson Avenue enjoyed a trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama, in June.  Presumably their parents, Jason and Jennifer, were there too, since someone had to take this cute picture!

5.    John Kinsey, CYCA board president, served up ice cream during the June general meeting on the deck at First Congo.

6.    Kellyn and Kyle Gowen, of Elzey (along with baby Gray, who’s not pictured) took a trip recently to Scottsdale, Arizona, where they climbed Camel Back Mountain.

7.    The birthday girl is attended by her well-wishers at the “Life is Good on Evelyn Avenue” surprise birthday bash for Beverly Greene’s 60th birthday.  Lots of friends from Cooper-Young and beyond attended the party on June 12th at the home of June and Justin Hurt.

9.    Newlyweds Rachel and Dan Henderson of Elzey spent their wedding weekend in May at the summer camp they both grew up going to, and where Rachel’s parents also met!  It rained all weekend, but Rachel and Dan’s family and friends didn’t mind, as they helped the happy couple celebrate their nuptials.

8.    The CY running moms made another good showing at the Zoom Through the Zoo race on May 27.  Pictured are Philadelphia residents Mandy, Micah and Adam Grisham, Heather, Dominic and Vance Caron, of Young, Susan, Josiah and Mason Currier, of Nelson, and Jennifer and Noah Hardesty of Young.

10.  Aaron James of Felix enjoyed the live music and fried catfish at the Old Taylor Grocery during his visit to Taylor, MS.

11.  On June 12, Oliver residents Glen and Shelley Thomas, along with sons, Lyndon and Colin, returned to the spot where it all started — the National Ornamental Metal Museum, where Glen and Shelley were married six years prior.

[View with PicLens]

CY Society wants YOU… to send in your pictures!

Email pictures and info of your weddings, fun trips, new babies, parties, anniversaries, accomplishements, and more to auntcicely@gmail.com.  If it’s good news in Cooper-Young, Aunt Cicely wants to hear about it!”

1.    Dee and Bob Sanders of Young Ave recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in their hometown Columbia, SC to renew their vows and have a party thrown for them by their three children! The minister officiating the ceremony is a family member of Dee’s, and he actually married the happy couple the first time around too. Here’s wishing you love birds another happy 25 years!

2.    Evelyn residents Glen and Shelley Thomas spent a week in May down by the river as members of The Pit & The Pigulum II cooking team. The team participated in the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest for the 10th+ year. They didn’t place this year but had a great time trying!

3.    If you’ve seen large packs of women jogging around the neighborhood lately don’t worry – it’s just the CY running moms! Three of the moms, Ozge Kovarik of Nelson and Heather Caron and Jennifer Hardesty both of Young, put their training to the test at the Youth Villages 5K on April 17th. Keep up the good work, ladies!

4.    On Sunday April 25th the residents of “New Elzey” in Cooper-Young Place gathered for their annual Spring Picnic. It was no surprise that the weather made them move it into the garage of the block captains, Brian Fiorino and Mike Taylor, since the same thing happened last year. But, the weather couldn’t get this bunch down—about half of the street’s residents showed up to party, eat, and talk about upcoming events in the neighborhood.

5.    Wendy Sumner-Winter of Oliver just earned her MFA in creative writing, with a nonfiction concentration from the University of Memphis. Photographer Amanda Dent captured friends Zack Adcock, Wendy, Nick Collins, and Karen Hegelson, all of CY(ish), at a party in Wendy’s honor on May 8th. Other CYers in attendance were Jenny Lederer and Benjamin Wise, Amy McDaniel and Bill Spicer, Danna Greenfield, and Mark Ramsay. Not pictured, but very proud of her mom, is 5-year-old Virginia Grace Sumner-Winter, who recently received an honor herself -—“Most Improved Student” at Richland Elementary!

6.    Mike Parnell of Young recently won two gold metals and two bronze metals for swimming in the local Senior Olympics. Mike practices and trains at local YMCAs. Right now, Mike is gearing up to compete in the state competition, which will be held in Nashville this summer. Good luck, Mike!

7.    Tony de Velasco, Cox resident and assistant professor of rhetoric in the Department of Communication at the University of Memphis, has published a book entitled Centrist Rhetoric: The Production of Political Transcendence in the Clinton Presidency. Tony’s book offers a reassessment of conventional judgments of the Clinton presidency through a close analysis of key speeches from 1991-1996. Good to know we have some smart cookies in the hood!

8.    Sharron and Rex Johnson recently remodeled their Philadelphia house, taking it from a one-story, two-bedroom house to a two-story, one-bedroom house featuring lots of entertaining space downstairs and a spacious master suite upstairs. The Johnsons, who did much of the work themselves, were featured in Memphis Fix Magazine and joked that they did the renovation to ensure that none of their offspring move back in!

9.    On May 19, members of Neighborhood Church hosted a backyard cookout to thank members of the community who have participated in the various activities the church has held during in its three years in Midtown. More than 50 church members and other friends (including a swarm of kids!) ate, drank, and made merry on a lovely spring evening in Josh and Ginger Spickler’s Nelson Avenue backyard.

[View with PicLens]

Attention all long-time CY residents!

Jason Whitworth of 2038 Young Avenue is looking for a lady! But not just any lady – a couple of years ago during the Cooper-Young Festival an older lady walked by his house and stopped and told him that she had lived in it in the 1950’s and had her wedding pictures taken on the front porch steps. He would like to contact her about seeing the pictures or possibly getting copies, but has forgotten her name. Anyone know who this mystery lady might be? If so, contact Jason at jgwhitworth@gmail.com.

By Emily Bishop

Aunt Cicely is taking a much-deserved break this month but will be back in the June issue with new tales to tell about what has been happening in our neighborhood. She left us with these great photos from the Easter egg hunt on March 27th at the community playgound at Peabody School. Folks from the Neighborhood Church invited all the neighbors in Cooper-Young  to the playground, where they hid about 1,000 eggs and held three different age-
appropriate hunts for the children. Families 
came with picnic lunches and enjoyed visiting and watching the excitement. Photos with the Easter Bunny were a highlight of the day.

1.    Josh Spickler with his son, Patrick, who is keeping an eye on the big furry bunny.

2.  Asuka and Evan Yow of Walker Avenue

4.  Calvin Leitzell of Nelson Avenue

4. Ozge Kovarik with her boys, Darrin and Asher, checking out their basket of eggs.

5.  Adrianne Braun with daughter Cecilia Ross in her blue Easter bonnet.

6.  Members of this fall’s entering kindergarten class at Peabody:  Walt Spickler, Adam Grisham, Maddox Kelley, Meredith Lareau, and Charlotte Blondis.

[View with PicLens]

By Emily Bishop

With $11,505 in income and $800 in expenses, this year’s auction cleared a profit of $10,705 for the CYCA. The highlight of the evening was during the live auction when a bidding war broke out over the painting by Mollie Jaye Riggs, which was featured on this year’s poster. Terry Lawrence and Becca Dickerson were unaware that they were bidding against each other at first, but once Becca realized it was Terry, she challenged how high Terry was willing to bid for the artwork. When she asked if Terry was willing to go up to $1,000, he replied that he wanted to, but his limit was $800. With true civic spirit and generosity, Becca said if Terry would bid $800 for the painting, then she would donate $200 to the CYCA. The painting “Life is good in Cooper-Young” now has a home with Terry and Cynthia Lawrence. Becca Dickerson and Terry Lawrence have the admiration and gratitude of all who witnessed their generousity at the event.

A long list of volunteers work on this event each year, and, for their help, we are truly grateful. Justin Willingham stepped in as our auctioneer for the live auction and did a fantastic job. Our thanks go out to Tiger Bryant, Phillip Stroud, and the entire staff of the Young Avenue Deli for hosting this annual event and providing the food and soft drinks. Thanks to D. Canale for donating the Bud Light and Southwestern Distributors for donating the Hook and Ladder beer. We also thank Camy’s Pizza for providing the delicious cheesecake for dessert and Bluff City Sports for donating the t-shirts for the volunteers. Thanks to all the festival vendors who donated the items for the auction and especially the artists who donated their artwork for the live auction.

[View with PicLens]

By Aunt Cicely

Hiya, sweeties! As you read this, ‘ol Aunt Cicely will either be cashing in my neighbor Gladys’ April pension check because Duke went all the way, or weeping over a busted bracket. Frankly, I like my chances—that old biddy has a blind spot when it comes to the Big Ten. But enough about March Madness…we’ve still got some catching up to do from February!

The 3rd Annual Cooper-Young/Peabody School Chili Cook-Off was a rousing success, raising almost $1,800 (twice the amount of last year) for enhancements to the Peabody playground and bringing around 300 people to the Peabody cafeteria on February 27th. Rene Erickson and the Midtown Chili Bombers ran away with both the “Most Unusual Chili” and “Judge’s Choice” awards. The “People’s Choice” award went to John Shoemaker of Houghton Mifflin Publishers for his “Textbook Chili.” Nicole Hogan, a Felix resident and Peabody parent, won “Best Vegetarian Chili,” and Mrs. Berryman and the Peabody Cooking Club won the “Best HOT Chili” honors. For the second year in a row, the block club with the most participation at the chili cook-off was Nelson Avenue (Cooper to Barksdale), and Ms. Magbee’s first grade class won a pizza party for having the most Peabody students represented. Whew, that’s a lot of prizes! Oh, but we’re not done . . . special thanks goes to the “celebrity” judges: Neisey Bobo, Peabody parent and owner of Ching’s Wings; Craig Blondis, future Peabody parent and owner of Central BBQ; and Kym Clark, midtown resident and Action News 5 anchor.

And, hey, nothing goes better with chili than beer (though, not in an elementary school). Joe and Susan Currier of Nelson Avenue enjoyed their fair share of Guinness while touring Ireland in February in celebration of Joe’s graduation from his PhD program last year.

Moving on into March, Young Avenue hosts with the mosts Dee and Bob Sanders held their first Oscar party—guests came dressed to walk the red carpet running down the Sanders’ sidewalk or as a character from a nominated movie. Cooper-Younger Kathryn Schurch won the winner predictions and tied with Toad Hall owner Dana Whitehead on Oscar Bingo.

And nominated for most prolific CY author of the year…Burke’s Books owner Corey Messler! Corey has two new novels out, including Following Richard Brautigan and The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores. Burke’s will be hosting a signing for Corey on May 6th.

Over on Elzey, little Gray Gowen, son of Kellen and Kyle Gowen, celebrated his first birthday on March 10th with a cupcake as big as the kid himself! Hope you shared that thing, Gray!

Here’s one ‘ol Aunt Cicely missed a while back—Cora Constantin was born to Jenni and Andrew Pappas and big sister Elena of Cox Street on October 29th. She decided to come 3 weeks before her due date but was still a respectable 7 pounds, 11 ounces.

And bringing another baby girl to the neighborhood were Leah and Josh Hillis of Evelyn. Rebecca Blair was born on March 6, weighing in at 5 pounds, 11 ounces. Welcome home, girls!

And now I’ve got to go get my face paint on for the first Blue Devils game of the tourney…lucky my hair’s already the right color! See ya, sweeties!

Email news of any CY happenings to auntcicely@gmail.com…don’t forget the pictures!

1 – Rebecca Blair

2 – Cora Constantin and big sister Elena

3 – Joe and Susan Currier

4 – Gray Gowen

5 – Corey Messler (photo by Chole Messler)

6 – Dee and Bob Sanders

7 – Kathryn Schurch and Ty Legge

8 – clockwise, Daniel Martinez, Rodney Nash, Haynes Knight, Rex Johnson, SharronJohnson, and David Merrill. AKA, Stone Soup Social Club

9 – Rene Erickson and the Midtown Chili Bombers

There’s “snow” stoppin Cooper-Young!

By Aunt Cicely

[View with PicLens]

Hiya, sweeties—is it spring yet?! As I sit here poking away at my typewriter, the snow is coming down, and my heat bill is going up. If this keeps up, ‘ol Aunt Cicely is going to have to get herself one of those snazzy blankets with the sleeves…whaddaya’ call it? A snuggly? I think the leopard print one would look right nice with my rhinestone house shoes!

The snow today isn’t much to talk about, but that surprise snowstorm on February 8th had everybody out building snowmen and throwing snowballs. Chey Fulgham of Nelson (and manager of Grace restaurant) got out with his camera to record the event—thanks, Chey!

And speaking of getting out…a group of a dozen Midtown Mamas didn’t let the cold keep them in. They hit The Beauty Shop on February 11th for a night of eating, drinking, and not wiping noses or giving baths! It was discovered that the women present represented a total of 19 kids—18 of whom are boys! Parents of daughters in Cooper-Young, you’d better be making plans for bars on their windows in about ten years! Apparently about half of the group of mamas decided they had overindulged in The Beauty Shop’s tasty offerings, because they made a pact to train together for the Youth Villages 5K in April. Good luck, ladies!

And (of course), we have yet another new mama on Nelson. Rachel Lyles, along with new papa, Matt Lyles, welcomed little Allen Jefferson (yes, another boy!) on January 29th. Actually, “little” isn’t really the word to describe Allen—he weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs., 8 oz. at birth! Allen will apparently be starting at tackle for the Nelson Avenue football team!

Of course, Cooper-Young is also home to another kind of babes altogether…the type that show up on the Memphis Flyer’s annual “hotties” issue! Congratulations to Cora Pitt and Dan Russo, both of Nelson down by the Parkway, for being officially recognized as “hotties” in the February 11th issue of the Flyer!

And still hot after all these years…Carol Bickler turned 50 and celebrated with a surprise party at Bosco’s. Carol and her husband, Bill Jackson, own Midtown Hardwood & Tile and live on Walker.

Another CY business owner, Ben Smith of Tsunami, was recognized at the Memphis Restaurant Association’s annual banquet in February as Restaurateur of the Year.

In other CY business news, the new furniture store on Central, Worlds Apart, hosted an open house during the February Cooper-Young Night Out. Employees Bess Mitchell, Martha Hollis, Megan Stout, and Neely Carter welcomed customers in to see the wares.

Welcoming another new business to the neighborhood were Beth and Steve Pulliam from the east end of Evelyn who were on hand at Blue Fish, soon to known as The Reef, for its opening night with a table for ten. Steve and Emily Bishop and their neighbors from the west end of Evelyn Avenue also enjoyed an evening at the oyster bar.

Well, sweeties, ‘ol Aunt Cicely isn’t really an oyster gal, but I do like a good Bloody Mary, so think I’ll check out brunch at The Reef soon. Anybody want to join me? I’m a great date up until about the third round when I start taking out my dentures and doing baby impressions. Always seems funny at the time.

Send news and pics of CY happenings to auntcicely@gmail.com!

Bringing parties, praise, bicycles, and babies together

By Aunt Cicely

[View with PicLens]

Hiya, sweeties! Well, it’s February, and love is in the air! At least I think that’s love…could just be my neighbor Gladys’ cheap perfume. Anywho…since it is a month for lovers, we’ll kick things off with news of a wedding I missed a few months back.

Robin Steele and Mike Harris of South Cox tied the knot at the Memphis Metal Museum on November 14th. Lots of friends from the neighborhood were on hand to celebrate with the happy couple, who enjoyed a two-week honeymoon in Australia.

And while we’re talking down under, the fearless former leader of Revolutions Community Bike Shop, Anthony Siracusa, wrote us from Melbourne around Christmas time to report in on his travels as part of the Watson Fellowship he won to study bicycle cultures around the world. He’s visited Denmark, Amsterdam, and Australia so far, and in the next six months, will travel to China, Guatemala, Mexico, and Colombia.

A little (okay, a lot) closer to home at Christmas time, Josh and Ginger Spickler of Nelson Avenue (along with several of their friends from Neighborhood Church) hosted the 2nd Annual “Think Globally, Party Locally” event on December 19th to raise money for global clean water initiatives. This year, more than sixty friends from Cooper-Young and beyond joined in the fun and raised over $600 that went directly to Living Water International for water projects around the world. ‘Ol Aunt Cicely always likes a good party, but I can certainly get on board with partying for a cause!

But a party just for partyin’s sake is good too…Moving on into the new year, Jacinda and Sam Johnson of Oliver hosted the Prosperity Dinner 2010 for their Celtic Pint Night regulars group of Rene’ Erickson, Casey Cummings, Rodney Nash, Aaron James, and Jacinda’s longtime hometown friend, Jamie.

And then there are the folks who won’t be partying anytime soon! Jason and Jennifer Word of Nelson, along with big sister Avery, welcomed baby boy Paxton Clay on December 28th. For those of you keeping track of such things, Nelson Avenue between Cooper and Barksdale is about one boy short of being able to field its very own 5-and-under football team!

Finally, in the kudos department, Michael Taylor of New Elzey has joined the local chapter of the Interior Design Society, a group of interior designers and decorators specializing in residential design. Michael, ‘ol Aunt Cicely could use a little help at her crib…what can you do with an avocado green Naugahyde love seat, my collection of shot glasses from all fifty states, and a life-size velvet Elvis? Call me!

Send all the Cooper-Young news that’s fit to print to auntcicely@gmail.com. Don’t forget the pictures!