Table Top Event at Depot raises funds

Jon Planovsky's table top themed "the Male Gourmet" (foreground) included a small kettle grill with a fogger and realistic hamburger and hotdogs at the Historic Salisbury Foundation Table Tops Event at the Salisbury Depot. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Frank Montgomery's "An ark to save the animals one by one" at the Historic Salisbury Foundation Table Tops Event at the Salisbury Depot. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Mike Miller's "The great Salisbury Monopoly Game" table at the Historic Salisbury Foundation Table Tops Event at the Salisbury Depot. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Cliff Sorel's ""Scotch and Cigars" table at the Historic Salisbury Foundation Table Tops Event at the Salisbury Depot. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Bruce Wilson's "Male Artists of Salisbury" at the Historic Salisbury Foundation Table Tops Event at the Salisbury Depot. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

By Shelley Smithssmith@salisburypost.com

Men in Salisbury have "gone wild" this year for the Historic Salisbury Foundation.

This year's theme for the annual Table Tops fundraising event was "Men Gone Wild," with 18 different themed tables on display at the Salisbury Station, all decorated by men.

The preview party, sponsored by Food Lion, was held Thursday night, and the tables will be open to the public Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Among the tables was "The Male Gourmet," by Jon Planovsky.

The table featured small aluminum garbage cans in the center of each plate filled with pretzel sticks, plastic plates and cutlery, beer with cozies, barbeque tools, barbecue sauce smeared across rolls of paper towels, and in the center of the table was a small grill, with smoke rolling out from under hamburgers and hot dogs.

"With the men doing tables this year, I knew the tables would be more masculine," Planovsky said. "For the male gourmet, I thought about the classic male, and how we don't do dishes."

Planovsky also thought of a typical backyard barbecue for his idea.

"If it don't make a mess, it ain't worth eating," he said.

"Me-Maw's Attic," decorated by Bob Rusher, featured antiques found in his grandmother's attic.

"They all came out of the attic, are all ancient and authentic," Rusher said. "It's been a long time since I was able to sit down at that table and eat, and it's nice to bring back some of those memories."

Rusher said that he participated in this year's event not only to dust off Memaw's items, but to help the Historic Salisbury Foundation.

"I wanted to help, and this was a good way to do it," he said.

A table decorated in sterling silver and Faberg eggs belonged to Chad Morgan, titled, "Imperial Easter."

The table focused on "Easter with the Czar," Morgan said. He has been collecting Faberg eggs since he was a teenager.

This year's event made Morgan's seventh table in the history of Table Tops.

"I've had the theme in mind for three or four years," he said. "It's kind of a comeback to what I've done in the past.

"It's manly with the czar theme, but a bit more ornate."

Morgan's place settings featured sterling silver chargers that held Faberg egg china he has collected since 1997.

The Faberg egg place card holders he purchased when he was 14.

"This is my favorite event in town," Morgan said.

Morgan's table also featured photos of Tsarevich Alexis and the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

A "Take me out to Fenway" table by Tom Wolpert and Joe Lancione featured peanuts, Cracker Jacks and popcorn, along with a 2010 schedule for the Boston Red Sox, and the chairs were adorned with T-shirts.

One T-shirt read, "Choke, the official soft drink of the New York Yankees," and looked similar to the classic Coca-Cola logo.

A table focusing on Italian engineers by Jim Carli, who is a full-blooded Italian engineer himself, featured plates with hand-sketched illustrations of great inventions by Leonardo da Vinci and others.

The centerpiece was a Full-Flo Coolant Flange, which Carli himself designed in 1965, and is used to this day to cut through brick.

"I've always been partial to da Vinci and Brun-elleschi," Carli said. "The Italian engineers designed and built one-of-a-kind machines."

Chris Blumenthal of Food Lion decorated a Super Bowl table featuring Colts and Saints plates and napkins, a football-shaped charcoal grill, chips, drinks and a blue tent over it all.

"The tent is the wow factor," Blumenthal said.

One Salisbury-friendly table, "The Great Salisbury Monopoly Game," was decorated by Mike Miller and featured large cutouts of classic game pieces — a thimble, top hat and iron. It also featured County Commissioner Tina Hall clinging to the bars in jail.

Fulton Street was Salisbury's "Boardwalk" spot with Confederate Avenue as "Park Place."

"In the past, some of the most creative and exuberant tables have been by men," Jack Thomson said. "I'm impressed with all of them this year. They (the men) all get my admiration from doing it. Some have even spent the entire day here setting up."

Bob Bailey, chairman of the 2010 Table Tops event, said this year's male takeover was a good choice.

"The women have been doing it for about 13 years, so we figured, why not let the guys take a turn at this thing," Bailey said. "The guys have really outdone themselves, and have come up with some really neat ideas."

Other table themes included "The Sporting Life" by Bob Timberlake, "Blue and Gray" by Luther Sowers, "Faithful Friends: An Ark to Save the Animals One by One" by Frank Montgomery, "Tools, Toys and Boxes" by Steve Drinkard, "Men and Their Balls" by Randy Padavick, "Honoring the Meleagris Gallopavo — Our Noble Feathered Friend" by Robert Van Geons, "Scotch and Cigars" by Cliff Sorel, "Male Artists of Salisbury" by Bruce Wilson, "Shades of Africa" by Jack Errante, "Preserving Our Habitat" by Edward Clement and "Music, the Universal Language" by Bob Clement.

You can visit the Salisbury Depot on Saturday for a closer look at the tables and to help out the Historic Salisbury Foundation.