Watch wool spun into yarn, smell aromas from open-hearth cooking, or feel wool from freshly shorn sheep when you attend any number of the site's living history programs scheduled throughout the year. Scheduled groups get a genuine hands-on experience making butter or dipping candles for a small fee.
As a part of Aycock Birthplace's 50th anniversary celebration, we will be showing the following movies popular in 1959, the year the site was opened. All these movies will be shown in the site’s Ida H. Williams Auditorium. Admission is free. Popcorn and drinks will be available for purchase:
July 19 The Horse Soldiers. Starring John Wayne. A Union Cavalry outfit is sent behind Confederate lines in strength to destroy a rail/supply centre. Along with them is sent a doctor who causes instant antipathy between him and the commander. The secret plan for the mission is overheard by a southern belle who must be taken along to assure her silence. Based on the true story of Col. Benjamin H. Grierson. 3 p.m.
August 1 Walt Disney’s "Sleeping Beauty". Princess Aurora is cursed by the evil witch Maleficent - who declares that before Aurora reaches her 16th birthday she will die by a poisoned spinning-wheel. To try to prevent this, the king places her into hiding, in the care of three good-natured - but not too bright - fairies. 2 p.m.
August 16 The Mouse that Roared. Starring Peter Sellers. The Duchy of Grand Fenwick decides that the only way to get out of their economic woes is to declare war on the United States, lose and accept foreign aid. They send an invasion force to New York (armed with longbows) which arrives during a nuclear drill that has cleared the streets. Wandering about to find someone to surrender to, they discover a scientist with a special ultimate weapon that can destroy the Earth. When they capture him and his bomb they are faced with a new possibility: What do you do when you win a war? 3 p.m.
September 20 Pillow Talk. Starring Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Tony Randall. Interior decorator Jan Morrow and composer Brad Allen share a phone line. Brad keeps the line occupied all day talking to his girlfriends, which annoys Jan terribly and animosity between them builds up. They however have never met and when by chance Brad sees Jan, he decides to add her to his list of conquests. Knowing however how she feels about him, he poses as an innocent Texan country boy named Rex Stetson to win her, a plan that seems to work. 3 p.m.
October 18 Anatomy of a Murder. Starring Jimmy Stewart. Paul Biegler is a small town lawyer who until recently had been the local prosecutor. When a murder takes place in a trailer park on the outskirts of town, he is asked to defend Lt. Frederick Manion, who admits to killing Barney Quill, a local bar owner who allegedly raped Manion's wife. He now claims temporary insanity. The case is both prominent and lurid. Biegler and his friend Parnell McCarthy, now a bit the worse for wear and given to drink, must find a way to convince the jury when they little or no evidence to support their case. 3 p.m.
November 1 A Double Anniversary and Grand Re-opening. This celebration marks the 150th anniversary of Governor Aycock’s birth and the 50th anniversary of the opening of the historic site. It will also mark the re-opening of the birthplace which suffered significant damage in a fire in January, 2009. The Charles B. Aycock High School marching band will kick off the ceremony. Visitors can meet “Governor Aycock” as he arrives in a horse-drawn wagon to welcome them to his newly restored home. Costumed interpreters will give living history demonstrations in blacksmithing, open-hearth cooking, spinning and apple-cider making. Music will be provided by the bluegrass group Sapony Creek. At 3 p.m. visitors can learn about the “Legacy of Segregated Education” from a three-person panel. At 3:30 special guest speaker George Holding, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, will talk about his office and how the position has changed since Aycock held that post (1893-1897) before serving as governor (1901-1905). Activities will take place from 1-5 p.m.
November 22 The Diary of Anne Frank. Starring Millie Perkins and Shelley Winters. From 1942 to 1944, in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, the 13- year old German Jewish girl Anne Frank lives hidden in an attic of a condiment factory with her sister and parents, three members of another family and an old dentist. Throughout the two years, she wrote in her diary, her feelings, her fears and relationship with the other dwellers. 3 p.m.
December 13 Operation Petticoat. Starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. A submarine newly commissioned is damaged in the opening days of World War II. A captain, looking for a command insists he can get it to a dockyard and captain it. On the way, they find a stranded group of Army nurses and take them aboard. Trying to get a primer coat of paint on the sub, they have to mix white and red to have enough. When forced to flee the dock during an air attack, they find themselves with the world's only pink submarine, still with five women in the tight quarters of a submarine. 3 p.m.
July 27-31 Summer Adventures Camp. Children ages 7-11. Fee is $45 per child. Participants must register and pay in advance. Space is limited. For more information, contact camp director Sarah Pittman at 919-242-5581. 9 a.m.-noon
December 1, 3 Christmas Candlelight Tours. This program will feature Primitive Baptist singers, a shadow play and open hearth cooking. 6:30-9 p.m.