Welcome to Pembroke. Join us as we spend a typical day in this Robeson County town.

Around the table at Linda's Restaurant, they call Ray Lowry "the wizard."

"He knows everything," said Lowry's friend Willie Harris, drawing laughter from the group.

The men are regular visitors to the E. 3rd St. restaurant, one of Pembroke's favorite meeting places.

Lowry, Harris and their friends gather at the restaurant to talk about the day's news. They drink coffee as they pass around a newspaper and comment on the stories.

"(Lowry) furnishes the paper. That's why we let him sit with us," jokes Harris.

A Robeson County native, Lowry is retired but still works a corn and soybean farm.

Lowry said most of his friends and relatives live in the Pembroke area. "It's my roots," he said.

"I like the climate and the close proximity to the beach and the mountains," he said.

And when Lowry needs to learn the scoop on local happenings, he knows where to go.

"You can find out anything on any subject you can think of right around this table," he said.

The exercise starts early at the FirstHealth Center for Health and Fitness.

Doors open at 5:30 a.m., said employee Mary Stone, and it's not long before the exercise cycles, swimming pool and treadmills are in use.

Stone said most of the center's members are from Pembroke, Maxton and Rowland. Many stop in for a workout before they head to work.

On a recent morning, Denene Smith was pedaling an exercise bike. The news from CNN was being broadcast on televisions mounted from the ceiling.

Smith, a nurse who rents a suite at the center, said she works out most days. She usually arrives at 7 a.m. and tries to get in about 45 minutes of exercise.

"There are several regulars who come every day," Smith said. "They come early, early, early."

Smith said the University of North Carolina at Pembroke has brought change to the town. She sees that as a good thing.

"Growth is good; you don't want to be stagnant," she said. "I think it's at a pretty good pace overall."

A radio blared on a cool and sunny morning as Cassidy Oxendine and Jason Fields painted the window frames of a house on Lowry Road.

The two work for Crawford Oxendine Home Improvement, a company owned by Cassidy Oxendine's father.

The workers have been renovating the 1920s-era house for more than four months, they said. They said the owner plans to open it as a bed-and-breakfast inn.

Oxendine said his father started the company about 30 years ago. After Oxendine finished high school, he joined the business.

"I like being able to get out there and work by myself without someone looking over me," Oxendine said. "You get to enjoy these pretty days outside working."

Oxendine said the company has been getting plenty of work, despite the sluggish economy.

"Business here has been pretty good," he said. "We can't really tell much about the recession."

Marlon Locklear sat in a chair at T-Classics Barber Shop on Normal Street, getting a haircut from owner Tony Winston.

Locklear is a weekly visitor to the shop, which Winston has owned for about five years.

"They do good work," Locklear said. "He knows how to cut it."

Winston said a lot of his customers are regulars. Most of them are students at UNC-Pembroke.

Ernest Bratcher was waiting his turn in the barber's chair. Like Locklear, Bratcher is a regular at T-Classics.

Bratcher, a food salesman, lives in Red Springs and works out of Zebulon. Although it's a little out of his way, Bratcher said he makes it a point to get his hair cut at T-Classics.

Bratcher said Pembroke has changed a lot over the years. Most of that change has been driven by the growth of UNCP, he said.

"Pembroke is growing and right now, change is good," he said. "You've got to grab onto the wagon when it comes through, and the college is the wagon."

A show at Givens Performing Arts Center forced David Underwood's scene-painting class to take its act outside.

"I made a little mistake with the calendar," Underwood said. "I thought the theater was free, and it isn't."

Five students from the UNCP class were working on a loading dock outside the performing arts center while the show went on inside.

The students were making "stain sticks," applying different colors of stain to lengths of wood. The name of the color is written on the opposite side, and the students refer to that when deciding what color to paint props.

"There's nothing wrong with messing up; you learn from your mistakes," Underwood encouraged the students.

Annette Glenn, 23, is a senior in the theater program. She calls herself a "techie."

"I'm currently directing a play. I've also done sets, lights and some casting," Glenn said. "I basically do everything you see on stage, except act."

Glenn, who is from Asheville, recently directed a performance of the play "Proof" at Givens. She will graduate in May and is looking for a job now.

Annie Ruth Bullard was waiting on customers at her store, Eaglefeather Arts and Crafts on W. 3rd St.

The store, which Bullard has owned for 10 years with her sister, Janice Locklear, features native American paintings, jewelry, pottery and other products.

"My aim when I opened the store was kind of to showcase local art, because there really was not a native art store," Bullard said.

Bullard said business is particularly good when a Lumbee powwow is in town. Dancers buy jewelry and other items to dress up their regalia, and out-of-town visitors shop for souvenirs.

"If they come in here, they always come back when they're back in town," Bullard said.

Bullard, 61, a retired school teacher and librarian, said she thinks business would pick up if more of the boarded-up storefronts in the downtown were occupied.

Meanwhile, Bullard said she thinks things will be better in the near future.

"Christmas is one of our better times," she said. "That's when we really do well."

David Brooks watches as veterinary assistant Mary Sealey cleaned a Chihuahua's teeth at Pembroke Veterinary Hospital on Prospect Road.

The dog was under anesthetic. "He's counting sheep," Brooks said. "You can't get one to say 'aahh' long enough."

Brooks treats every kind of animal except snakes at the clinic. Most of the animals are dogs and cats, but occasionally, a more exotic breed makes an appearance.

One woman called about a chicken with a broken leg.

"I said, 'Bring him in. We'll take a look,' " Brooks said. "Lo and behold, it had a broken leg."

Brooks said he was able to treat the animal, which the woman kept as a pet.

Another time, a woman found a box turtle she wanted to take home to California. To meet health requirements to transport the animal across state lines, the woman needed to complete a form that specified the exact breed and sex of the turtle.

"I called the people and said, I don't know the sex, I don't know the breed. I just know it's a box turtle," Brooks said.

Lunchtime business was brisk at Papa Bill's Old-Fashioned Barbecue.

Cars were lined up several deep at the restaurant's drive-through. Walk-up customers ordered their barbecue, ribs and other food at the front window.

Some took their food home. Others ate at picnic tables outside the restaurant or in a detached dining room.

The restaurant on N.C. 711 is popular with UNCP students. Two of them, Kendra McDuffie and Tonita Prince, were sitting in the dining room.

"It's real good," said McDuffie, a 22-year-old senior. "The barbecue sandwiches are great."

McDuffie is from Sanford. Prince is from Fuquay-Varina. Both are biology majors who met when they became roommates at the university.

Although Papa Bill's is a favorite of the students, they said there really isn't a lot for college students to do in Pembroke.

"We usually go to Lumberton or Fayetteville," McDuffie said.

Scotty Locklear sits in his oversized pickup in front of the Lumbee Tribal Housing Complex site, eyes fixed on his laptop.

"We're catching up," says Locklear, job site superintendent for the large Robeson County construction project. "We've been behind a great portion of the job, but we're slowly picking up."

Indeed. Things are taking shape inside the 19,000-square-foot circular building on the outskirts of Pembroke on N.C. 711.

Walls are almost painted, and plumbing and electrical work are in the final stages as more than 30 construction workers appear on task.

The groundbreaking ceremony was in the spring, and Locklear says the target date for completion is Nov. 30. The building will be the home of four tribal services, which are now in four separate places.

Locklear explains the building's unusual design is of a turtle, with its domed shell, long jutting neck and head, legs and tail. It symbolizes strength and long-suffering steadiness.

"If you fly over the building, you'll be able to see really well that it's a turtle," Locklear says.

Six kids are in flight as they cling to the Sky Runner, a popular playground apparatus that looks like a giant spinning umbrella.

One by one, they lose their grip and tumble onto the soft ground that cushions their fall from about two feet up.

No harm, only laughs and squeals from the classrooms of students who were treated to a field trip at Pembroke Recreation Complex on this perfect sunny fall day.

The day began with an Indian storytelling festival at UNC-Pembroke as students took part in Native American Month, explain teachers from Union Elementary School.

Storytelling was followed by the playground visit for more than 100 kindergarten through fourth-graders from various schools.

Playtime lasted more than two hours before students from Union Elementary and Maxton's R.B. Dean Elementary boarded their buses in organized fashion, tired from their day filled with activities.

That gave the 55 fourth-graders from Rowland's Southside/Ashpole Elementary the Sky Runner all to themselves. Wipeouts and all.

Pauline Thomas mutes the sound on the TV when the phone rings. The Jim Belushi movie will have to wait.

"You want the word 'Olivia' in purple? A yellow shirt?" she asks the person on the other end.

"OK, XLs," she says, repeating the shirt size of the order.

Thomas is the owner of Copy Cat Printing, but she says her daughter, Dale Thomas, does most everything, including running the machines.

The Thomases' shop used to be closer to UNC-Pembroke, but they have since moved onto the main drag of N.C. 711 or E. 3rd Street.

Every inch of the store is utilized. Printing machines, boxes of merchandise, paper products are everywhere.

About a dozen T-shirts that say things such as "Pembroke 1st Baptist Church 2006" hang from a carpeted wall near the front counter.

Tribal election is coming up on Nov. 17, giving the Thomases plenty of work with fliers, T-shirts, lawn signs and what ever the candidates request.

An old church pew in the front of the store is used for customers waiting for their orders - or for those who just stop in for a visit.

It's a slow time of day at the Lumbee Drive-In, the third-generation-owned, one-stop shopping store on N.C. 711.

Only six people are in the convenience store - all of them related in some way or another, says Michael Collins, 30.

Janice Britt, the cashier in the convenience store, is the only person who's not related. But after seven years behind the counter, she's an expert when it comes to Lumbee Drive-In genealogy.

Next door, the Lumbee Drive-In laundromat is empty. The gas pumps out front are silent, and no one is getting beautiful at the hair salon.

Two people are in the restaurant, both have been working in the kitchen and in the dining room since early in the day.

The oversized glass tip jar on the counter is empty.

Owner Janice Lowery doesn't use the dead time to rest her tired feet. Instead, she removes stacks of Styrofoam cups from the shelves and wipes the shelves clean.

Lowery and employee Helen Oxendine have gotten busier over the past few weeks when Lowery decided to keep the 36-seat restaurant open from 3 to 8 p.m. for dinner. It's something that was done in past years, but had been abandoned for serving breakfast and lunch only.

The three-meal shift makes the work day more than 12-hours long, since the doors open at 6:30 a.m.

"It's slow," Lowery says about her dinner numbers, "but it seems to be picking up."

The automatic scoring machines over the eight bowling lanes are turned off in David Blank's bowling class.

The UNC-Pembroke adjunct professor in bowling wants his students to know how to keep score.

Pencil and paper with little square grids are used in the class. Definitely old school.

Twenty students signed up for the class that meets once a week for 50 minutes at the student center.

Today, students begin to drift in as Blank sits at a table and cuts the bowling scorecards into individual sheets for each student.

Blank says the class also is about teaching bowling etiquette. For example, he says, the bowler to the right always has the right-of-way.

Students will be tested on scoring and the rules later in the semester.

Eight weeks into the class and Blank says he's impressed with some of the scores. One student rolled a 179.

"I'm not a professional bowler or anything like that," Blank says. "I know enough to get them started, but if they want to get really, really good, they will have to go somewhere else."

The day is winding down at Kim's Klassy Kuts and Tanning in a small strip mall off N.C. 711.

Owner Kim Hunt and fellow stylist Lydia Chavis are working on two women. The customers' chairs are arranged close to each other, which is inviting for beauty-shop chatter. But at the end of the day, quiet time seems more appropriate.

Chavis' client, Charlene Locklear, sits with her arms folded across her chest and legs folded at the ankles. Her eyes are closed as if to say, "I've had a long day."

Hunt's client, Joe Sampson, drove from Lumberton for color and a cut. She, too, sits silent.

The only movement comes from Kim's 10-year-old son Zachary Oxendine.

Nearly two weeks after Oct. 31, Hunt decides it's time to pack away the Halloween decorations.

Young Zachary climbs on the empty work stations and pulls plastic orange decorations from the mirrors. Edwin Sampson, a 17-year-old friend of the family, helps in the task.

It won't be long before plastic pumpkins are replaced with candy canes.

The 50 or so screw guns are collecting dust.

"There's no need for them," says Theresa Ward, who is working alone in Pembroke Pawn on Union Chapel Road. "Sheet rockers are out of work in this economy."

DVD players are a dime a dozen. Make that $10 for one.

"But just a few years ago they sold for $40 to $50," Ward says.

Not too many people want Ninetendo Gamecubes or Playstation 2s, either.

"They're out-of-date," Ward says.

Seven TVs of all sizes sit behind the counter. None are flat-screens. A couple of them might need digital converters.

Boomboxes have gone bust.

But some merchandise sells fast, says Ward.

Firearms, in particular.

Ward, who has worked at the pawn shop for more than seven years, walks to a gun rack where seven rifles are on display.

She says she particularly likes the Sears 20-gauge shotgun as she rests it on her right shoulder, admiring the craftsmanship.

"I recommend every female have a firearm," Ward says.

The early-evening dinner crowd is scattered throughout the dining room, filling about 13 of the 66 tables in Sheffs Seafood Restaurant and Catering.

The noise level is low and echoes in the vast space in a room that seats 225 at capacity.

But by 6:45 p.m., the place is alive as more than half the tables are filled. The wait staff darts from one table to the next. The frequent sound of the railroad train from the nearby tracks adds to the energetic ambience.

There are families of four, seniors, business associates and what look to be couples on first dates.

Fried shrimp, coleslaw and hush puppies are the choices for most.

"We have a lot of regular customers," said waitress Christina Oxendine, while juggling the demands of her six tables of customers.

"We have a lot of people who come in from Laurinburg."

The manager at the front desk tells someone he's happy to see the place busy tonight.

"That's because we have beef tips and salad for $8.99."

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