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PUBLISHED
ONLINE APRIL 30,
2026
• VOL. 8,
NO.
18 |
Content
produced by WINGATE
LASSITER unless
credited otherwise
Click on the
highlighted link to e-mail
the editor
Here's a drone's-eye view of
a portion of last year's Ham
& Yam street fair in the
heart of Downtown
Smithfield. (DSDC photo)
Here
comes Ham & Yam
edition #40
Annual
festival crams
everything into a single
day
 And
that day is this Saturday,
the second day of
May. It starts with the
annual 5K Run and Piglet
Stampede timed races
followed by musical
entertainment on three
outdoor stages, a street
fair with more than 250
vendors hawking all sorts of
goods and services, and the
Smithfield Kiwanis Club's
ever-present ham-biscuit
station.
Mixed in with
all that is a return of the
Southland Car Club's show on
Market Street, pig races, a
sweet-potato cooking
expo, a wood carver
creating life-sized
sculptures of Smithfield's
new baseball mascots ("Hammy
T Biscuit" and "Sweetpotato
Cassie"), pony rides and
kids' games, an adult play
zone with "escape room
games" and "Gelly Ball and
VR rides." What's that? you
may ask.
Explains festival organizer
Heidi Gilmond: "Gelly
Ball is a game like paint
ball, where
teams play 'war'
against each other in a
course but instead of
shooting with paint balls,
they use gelletin balls
that dissolve in a day or
so. Same kind of
fun, but lots less mess
and it's safe for the
environment. VR rides are
virtual reality rides. You
sit in a chair and put on
a virtual reality headset
(and) it feels just like
you're riding actual
rides, like roller
coasters."
Musical
entertainment all day
long on three stages
 This
year's lineup of musical
entertainment is extensive.
One of the performing groups
is The WEJ, a local rock 'n'
roll band centered around
three brothers: William,
Emery, and John (sons of
Smithfield's Emery and Kim
Ashley). They'll be
showcasing a variety of
musical styles from 3 to 4
p.m. at the Neuse River
Amphitheater. Word has it
they'll be playing one of
their newer originals,
entitled "Pine Trees," which
they describe as "an ode to
North Carolina" and its
history.
The day's celebration winds
up with a free concert at 7
p.m. at the amphitheater by
Sister Hazel, a nationally
recognized Southern Rock
band.
VIEW
the day's complete
schedule with a map of
events and
performances>
 The
first Ham & Yam Festival
came together in April of
1985 and featured an
honest-to-goodness showdown
between the famous
country-ham producers of
Smithfield, Virginia and
Johnston County's smaller
ham houses. That year's
competition produced a draw,
with our Smithfield laying
claim as the "Uncooked Ham
Capital of the World" while
the Virginians won for "Best
Cooked Ham." The country-ham
judging faded away after a
couple of years, yet Ham
& Yam has endured
nonetheless – despite an
interruption in 2020 and
2021 because of the
coronavirus pandemic.
The Ham & Yam Festival's
establishment was one of the
early products of the
Downtown Smithfield
Development Corporation, a
non-profit organization
guided by business leaders,
property owners, and
residents of nearby
neighborhoods. Ms. Gilmond
is its executive
director. LEARN MORE
about DSDC on its
website>
What
about Saturday's forecast
calling for much-needed
rain?
As of this
morning it looks like a 70%
chance of showers here with
a high of 59. Rain chances
are much less on Friday and
Sunday with highs in the
upper 60s. Darn.
In a
drought, no doubt; but
how dry has it been?
A thunderstorm
rolled through Smithfield
shortly after midnight but
it left just 0.25 inches in
the rain gauge at Cornell
Cox's Backyard Weather
Station in South Smithfield.
That brings the total for
April to just 1.04 inches –
a month that normally
averages 3.69 inches,
according to U.S. Climate
Data. Our rainfall
total of 7.20 since the
first of 2026 is now 7.26
inches below the four-month
normal.
 TOWN'S
COSTLY NEW RESTROOMS ARE
NOW IN SERVICE
Across
Front Street from the Neuse
River Amphitheater is a new
restroom building that raised
eyebrows when its cost came in
at more than $450,000. But it's
a very nice facility on the
inside, and town officials say
it will only be open during
authorized events at the
amphitheater like Saturday's Ham
& Yam concerts. Most
of the project's cost was
covered by a $300,000 state
grant with the balance coming
from federal funds received by
town from the American Rescue
Plan Act (ARPA) adopted by
Congress during the COVID-19
pandemic.
TEACHERS
GET "FLAME FOR LEARNING"
AWARDS
 James Johnson,
an agricultural mechanics
teacher at North Johnston
High School, was named
Johnston County's "Teacher
of the Year" at last week's
32nd annual "Flame for
Learning" awards gala. The
other finalists (right
to left) were Rebecca
Reeves of Smithfield-Selma
High, Moesha Gonzales of
Swift Creek Middle, and Lena
LeBoeuf of Swift Creek
Elementary. This year's
competition had 218
nominations from 15 schools.
(Johnston County Public
Schools photo)
A
coming together of
Johnston's United
Methodists
Ministers and
congregants from a number of
United Methodist churches
gathered at Smithfield
Community Park last Sunday
afternoon to reaffirm their
commitment to denominational
cooperation: (left to
right) in front –
Phyllis Thornton, Elizabeth
UMC; Carolyn Sims, Pine
Level and Sanders Chapel
UMCs; Kim Lamb, Horne
Memorial UMC; Heidi Seifert,
Christ the King UMC; Meagan
Matthews, Centenary UMC;
Sherri Smith, Horne Memorial
UMC; in back – Adam
Charville, Four Oaks UMC;
District Superintendent
David Joyner; Ramon Wycoff,
Elizabeth UMC; Billy Sander,
Princeton and Westwood UMCs;
Steve McElroy and Lori
Higgins, Centenary
UMC.
WHAT'S COMING UP
Smithfield
native writes about
growing up in 1940s-60s
 A
Ham & Yam "side show"
from 11 a.m. till 1 p.m.
Saturday at the Johnston
County Museum is a
book-signing by Smithfield
native Annie Cheatham (known
as "Anne" when she was
growing up here). Her memoir
is entitled The Baby's
Gotta Have Somethin':
Glimpses of a Southern
Childhood – described
as "a collection of
coming-of-age stories from
the 1940s into the early
'60s when Smithfield was
primarily a tobacco-market
town."
One of Ms. Cheatham’s favorite
memories centers around a big
Brunswick stew fund-raiser for
the Smithfield Garden Club in
1954. The stew was made with
“a little of this, and a
little of that” – including
possum, she discloses in one
of the chapters. In
celebration of that chapter,
the museum will have on hand
samples of Brunswick stew
(sans possum) from various
local restaurants. Tasters
will be encouraged to vote for
their favorite.
The
Johnston County Museum is
located at 329 E. Market
Street. Museum hours are 10
a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday-Saturday. Admission is
free of charge.
"Resource
Fair" for military
veterans at JCC Saturday
The
Johnston County Veterans
Service Office is hosting
the event to link
veterans, active-duty
military personnel, and
their families with
health-care services,
education resources, job
opportunities, and other
community-based helping
hands – from 10 am.
till 4:30 p.m. in the
Great Hall of the
auditorium at Johnston
Community College. For
more information, call the
Veterans Service Office at
919-989-5067.
County
Commissioners to meet
twice on Monday
The
Johnston County Board of
Commissioners will meet in
regularly scheduled
sessions at 10 a.m. and 6
p.m. Monday at the
Courthouse.
VIEW the
agendas once they're
posted on the county's
website>
Town
Council faces a light
agenda next Tuesday
The
Smithfield Town Council
has a short agenda for its
regularly scheduled
meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday
at Town Hall. As a result,
the council is likely to
resume deliberations
toward crafting a town
budget for fiscal 2026-27
that begins July 1.
VIEW
Tuesday's agenda once
it's posted on the
town's website>
Flags
for Heroes lets you
honor one of your
choosing
Returning
to the campus of Johnston
Community College for
another year, Flags for
Heroes is a project of the
Central Johnston Rotary
Club that will post more
than 150 American flags
flying in honor of heroes
selected by families,
businesses, and community
supporters. Flags will be
on display from May 21
until July 9. Sponsorship
orders must be received by
May 11.
Originally launched in
2020 to honor first
responders during the
COVID pandemic, the event
has grown into a tribute
recognizing veterans,
active military personnel,
police officers,
firefighters, health-care
workers, teachers,
parents, mentors, cancer
survivors, and others
whose everyday acts make a
difference.
Each sponsored flag is
mounted on a 10-foot pole
and includes a
personalized medallion
naming the hero being
honored. Sponsors keep the
medallion after the
display as a lasting
tribute.
Proceeds from Flags for
Heroes support Central
Johnston Rotary’s
partnership with Launch
JOCO, which encourages
entrepreneurship and
supports emerging
businesses in Johnston
County, along with other
Rotary community and youth
initiatives. To learn more
and to sign up, visit the
event's website>
DEATHS AND FUNERALS
Click on the
name to read an obituary,
usually posted by the
funeral home:
Here's the
closing scene from last
weekend's dedication of
Downtown Smithfield's mural
honoring the heritage of the
Tuscarora Nation,
pre-colonial inhabitants of
the coastal Carolinas:
A WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE
EDITOR
A
fitting prequel to
nation's 250th birthday
party
"The mural
acknowledges that we endure,
that we are still here,"
declared Stan Locklear, one
of the present-day leaders
of the Tuscarora Nation at
last Saturday's dedication
of a stunning mural recently
attached to a wall next to
the Third Street entrance to
the Johnston County
Courthouse.
The Tuscarora were the
dominant human inhabitants
of our region of Eastern
America when European
settlers arrived on the
scene seven centuries ago.
They were eventually
overwhelmed and subdued by
the lighter-skinned
immigrants from across the
Atlantic Ocean, and over
time were mostly forgotten
by us newer Americans.
And yet they're still here,
Tuscarora leaders reminded
us at Saturday's observance,
which included talks in
their native language as
well as in English for
understanding by most of us
in attendance.
Created by Brian Lewis, a
Greensboro artist who also
did the striking Ava Gardner
mural at her museum just up
the street, the Tuscarora
mural includes important
symbols of the Tuscarora
people's cultural identity:
water, sun and moon, eagle,
bear, wolf, corn, beans,
squash, eel, beaver, sand
turtle, deer, snipe, and a
"three-squared wampum belt"
representing the Neuse, Tar,
and Roanoke rivers.
The mural's creation was
made possible by an
America250NC grant from the
state's Department of
Natural and Cultural
Resources and by the County
of Johnston through its
Heritage Commission and the
committee in charge for
Johnston's celebration of
the nation's 250th birthday
this summer.
We'll make a big deal then
about the the birth of the
United States of America
brought to life by the
Declaration of Independence
and the Fourth of July, yet
it's appropriate to look
beyond that celebration to
foundations of our
civilization laid down by
the Tuscarora Nation and
other peoples we identify as
Native Americans.
 Pictured
beneath a portion of the
Smithfield mural are the
artist, Brian Lewis
(right), and Robert
Chavis, one of the
Tuscarora leaders who was
instrumental in bringing
this masterpiece of art
and history to life (photo
from the Johnston County
Heritage Center).
MISS
A PREVIOUS EDITION?
You'll find it
in the Weekly Sun
archives>
the SMITHFIELD
WEEKLY SUN
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