The Comeback Kids

There’s no place like home. Even if it takes moving away to discover it

By Casey Suglia     Photographs by John Gessner

Something about home calls you back. Maybe it’s the sweet scents of the kitchen during the holidays or when spring blooms at the top of its lungs. Backyards lock away memories as if they were bank vaults, and porches welcome them in like old friends. We’re not the same place we were a quarter century ago though our collective history lingers in the pines like an autumn fog. If success is passion, it can be found in many places, wearing many faces. But, it seems, it’s never quite as cherished as it is at home. The people portrayed on the following pages grew up here, built a life there, then came back to us. They have used their wings and kept their roots. They’re The Comeback Kids, fresh from working for companies large and larger, in cities big and bigger. Yet, their lives led them to where everything began.

Anthony Parks spent his childhood in the early 70s riding bikes and skateboarding in downtown Southern Pines. Now, he’s the one who watches the kids go by — or, more often, stop in. His father, Harry, owned the gas station on the N.E. Broad and Connecticut Avenue. Many a day included a trip to the Ice Cream Parlor, the Broad Street institution (then and now) Anthony owns 30 years later.

After graduating from The O’Neal School in ’93, he attended college at the University of North Carolina—Greensboro where he studied business. “I had a plan that I would come back and run the family business,” Parks says, who worked at his father’s convenience store from the time he was 10 years old. “But after two months of being away, I knew that I was definitely not coming back. I liked being in a bigger city and being close to things.”

First in Greensboro, then Winston-Salem, Parks found himself learning the ins and outs of the restaurant industry from local entrepreneurs, Chris Lester and Kayne Fisher who opened Natty Greene’s Brewing Company in 2004. After two years of running restaurants, he decided Winston-Salem wasn’t the optimal place to raise a family and began to miss the pace of small-town life.

Anthony returned to Southern Pines in 2002 with the intention of opening a pub. But when Karen and Larry Daugherty, the owners of the Ice Cream Parlor, heard that Parks was looking to run something, they thought he would be the perfect person to succeed them. He bought it and immediately fell in love with his customers. Parks regularly sees people he grew up with bringing their kids into his restaurant. “You never know who will walk through the door,” Parks says. “It was too perfect of a full circle.”

Although Anthony’s back, some city influences still show. Parks helped begin the First Friday concert series and stays active in the community and local business associations, preserving the town that means so much to him.

“I owe everything to this town,” Parks says. “It’s important for me to give back.”


Amity Aldridge moved to Southern Pines with her family when she was in the second grade and spent her childhood jumping on the trampoline in the backyard of the family home on Indiana Avenue, just around the corner from the house on Ridge Street where her mother, Emily Matthews, grew up. A ‘94 graduate of Pinecrest High School, she studied marketing at the University of North Carolina—Wilmington where a friend and a plan led her to Atlanta, Georgia.

“I had set my sights on New York City,” Amity says, “so I was ready to be in a large city. When you’re from here, you can’t wait to get out. But, living in a big city made me appreciate my small town.”

In Atlanta, she worked for the furniture company Havertys in their media and marketing department before moving to Raleigh in 2000 to work at the Tate Advertising Agency and to be closer to family. She met her husband, Freddie, and through clients of the Tate Agency made a connection with her future employer, Carolina Canneries Inc., where she’s worked for the past 14 years.

The job with Carolina Canneries allowed Amity to locate wherever her heart desired and that place was Southern Pines. In 2004, she and Freddie moved back and started a family. Amity and Freddie are parents to three daughters, 10-year-old Georgia and 8-year-old twins, Harper and Lyla.

“We made the decision to start having kids and felt strongly we wanted to be closer to my parents,” Amity says. “I wanted them to grow up in the same place and in the same way that I did.”

Quite literally. In 2006, Amity and Freddie moved back to the same house on Indiana Avenue in Southern Pines where she grew up.

“The height charts from when I was a kid were still in the home and the same trampoline was still in the backyard,” she says. “It was weird but very cool. We renovated it and made it our own.”

The family outgrew the childhood home, but remain surrounded with memories. Her daughter’s kindergarten class at Southern Pines Primary School was the same room where Amity went through the 5th grade.

As ready as she was to be in a big city, she’s comfortable being out of one now.

“It’s a trade off,” she says. “I love running into people I’ve known my whole life and supporting the businesses of people I grew up with.”


Angela Sanchez’s love of food and wine took her all across the Southeast but, ultimately, would lead her and her partner, Chris Abbey, back home. Sanchez grew up on her family’s farm between Carthage and Whispering Pines and graduated from Union Pines High School in 1992. She studied Political Science and American History at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill but dreams of attending law school changed during a trip home.

“I worked part time in a small wine shop in the Village of Pinehurst during my summers,” Sanchez said. “When I graduated I felt that I needed to work before going back to school.” At her boss’s urging, Sanchez applied to be a distributor for a wine and beer company in the Raleigh area. Working in a fully stocked warehouse, she was thrown headlong into the scene, selling wine and beer to restaurants and bars throughout North Carolina.

At a party thrown by a mutual friend Sanchez met Abbey, a ‘90 graduate of Pinecrest High School. The rest is history. The two moved to Charleston, South Carolina, in 2002, where Sanchez continued to work as a distributor and Abbey worked at the Medical University of South Carolina in the gastroenterology lab for almost 12 years.

“It was a beautiful place to live,” Sanchez said. “But the dynamics changed, and we knew we needed to be back home. There was a pull to get back here.” They wanted to be closer to family and found a way to make that happen — a Southern Whey.  The original owners of the Southern Pines cheese shop and provisions store on N.E. Broad Street wanted to sell, and Abbey had gone to school with one of them.

“There was also a desire to own our own small business and not work for anyone else,” Abbey says.

Abbey and Sanchez customized the business to their personalities. Fresh eggs, cheeses, and provisional goods from farms and businesses both local and across the state are sold in their display cases.

“It is fun to educate people on what we do,” Sanchez says. “We love to support local items, make things in-house, and see people coming in just for that.” Sanchez’s family farm, which is still going strong, contributes flowers, eggs and vegetables to be sold at Southern Whey.

“We love being a part of the change in the community and seeing that change,” Sanchez said. “We’re so happy to be close to family and be a part of the farm.” Sanchez and Abbey started doing seasonal pop-up dinners, highlighting local produce, chefs, and their talents.

“It is a way for everyone to show our life experiences, the things we’ve done over the years, and put it out together,” Angela says.


Marc Subin took an educational tour of the Southeast and a professional one of Manhattan, before finding the perfect match in his past. The son of recently retired orthopedic hand surgeon, Dr. Glen Subin, and dermatologist Dr. Diane Subin, Marc grew up in Pinehurst playing competitive tennis with his older brother, Eric, and younger brothers, Bert and Brian.

“I really enjoyed growing up here,” Marc says. “Looking back, this was the perfect place.”

After graduating from The O’Neal School where he played varsity tennis, Marc spent a year at the University of Miami in Florida before transferring and graduating from Clemson University. He followed that with a degree from the Charleston School of Law.

“I went from a class of 99 students in high school to being one of 10,000 in college,” Marc says. “There wasn’t much of a culture shock but Charleston just felt bigger.” New York definitely was.

In the fall of 2013, Marc passed the New York State Bar and joined his older brother at their uncle’s law firm, Subin Associates, LLP, a group of personal injury lawyers who have been in the business more than 50 years.

“I wanted to go to New York City and experience what my life would be like there in my 20s,” Subin says.

Working for a personal injury litigation firm in a Broadway office was far different from sitting in a classroom off Airport Road. “My days were very busy with no downtime,” Marc says. “I was doing different things but spending my time in court all day. Up there, 9-to-5 doesn’t exist. There is so much going on all of the time and such a high volume of cases coming in.”

After being in Manhattan for three years, Marc was ready for a change and moved back to Pinehurst in 2016.

“I had grown accustomed to being from a small town and started to miss North Carolina and the parts of home that suited me. I’m spending more time outside, living a slower pace of life,” he says. “I will never complain about driving again.” In February, Marc took and passed the North Carolina State Bar and has joined the firm of West & Smith LLP.

“I envision myself being here for the long term,” he says. “The experience I had in New York will help me here. This is a great area to practice law, and I am excited for the future.”

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