First Posted: 8/21/2009

I recently attended a meeting for the Downtown Lumberton Association and learned quite a bit! First, I learned that the downtown area is a one-stop shop for anyone planning a wedding. Who knew? Looking for a location for a wedding or party?
There are several places downtown. How about a beautiful wedding in front of the fountain in the plaza or a gorgeous wedding in the library garden, or a lovely wedding next to the river?
There are a few places downtown for the reception, how about using the Osterneck Auditorium or one of the two restaurants downtown that have banquet rooms.
You can find your wedding dress, bridesmaid dresses, groom and groomsmen tuxedoes, rings, flowers and catering all downtown.
You can also get your wedding license downtown.
Want to purchase your first home for that new bride, you will need insurance.
All of this can be found downtown in walking distance of just a couple of blocks of each other. You can even check out a book at the library on wedding planning! Think of the poor sore feet that mothers of the brides have had to deal with in the past. Well, no more!
Downtown Lumberton has some other great things going on as well. The Carolina Civic Center has shows in its beautiful newly restored building.
There are movies on the plaza which are a lot of fun. There was the night on the town that brought a lot of people out.
There is an upcoming yard sale that will take up the whole plaza Labor Day weekend. I enjoyed the Alive after 5 music concerts. Wish there could be more of those! Maybe close off the streets downtown and have a street dance with a disc jockey around the fountain?
Anything we can think of to get people to come down and enjoy each others company. Im all for it! You know what a social creature I am. Well, I hope I can give my 2 cents worth for this association. Ill do my best.
My children and I recently had the honor of being allowed to see some of Dick Taylors antique cars. I was amazed. My children were star struck. My younger son, Billy, was taking picture after picture of the various cool cars that Dick was so nice to show the boys.
After I tore the children reluctantly away from Dick and his beautiful cars, all the way home and for the next hour all we talked about was cars.
Billy eagerly wanted to get on the computer and look up all the cars that he had seen so he could learn all about them. Several of the pictures he found online, Billy swears are the actual cars that Dick owns. Thank you, Dick, for giving the boys a real treat!
I would like to thank the following Robeson County residents for donating several books and materials to the library: Horace Stacy; Don Terrell; Tim and Jackie Standt; John Townsend and James Fagan. Thank you so much for remembering the library and giving us your wonderful donations.
The following authors were kind enough to send in copies of their books to our library: Paula Deen; Eileen Wilks; M.E. Kemp; Cheryle Robinson and Anne Rice.
The following publishers also sent boxes of books to the library: Annick Press; Lerner Publications; Park Literary Group; Moon Child Books and Walker Book Limited. Also, Garda Parker sent a box full of office supplies, including pens, pencils, paper, folders and highlighters. Thank you all for your generosity and thinking about the library during these hard economic times!

Tina Stepp is the director at the Robeson County Public Library and can be reached at (910) 738-4859 or [email protected].