Capital at Play October 2015

Robert Beatty

Serafina and the Black Cloak p.50

Adrienne Crowther Shine On Brightly p.66

The Free Spirit Of Enterprise

A Grave Responsibility The Business of Death p.24

Happy Hauntings

Halloween Activities in Western North Carolina p.38

Virginia Creeper Trail

A tour through Hallowed and Historic Ground p.80 F R I G H T E N I N G F O L K TA L E S

Hound of Goshen p.22 Scared Stiff p.60

Cluxton Caskets Makes Green Burials Possible p.12

Volume V - Edition X

complimentary edition

capitalatplay.com

October 2015

WHERE YOUR SON CAN BECOME...

A SCHOLAR

Built for And unw

Learn Mandarin or Arabic. Study Biotechnology and Engineering.

Get individualized college counseling beginning in the ninth grade.

AN ARTIST

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AN ATHLETE Find a competitive place on one of our teams.

Or try out disc golf, skiing, and fly fishing.

AN OUTDOORSMAN Kayak the rapids of the Green River Gorge. Bike the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hike the Appalachian Trail.

A MAN

Who puts others before himself; who entertains differences of opinion but stands firm in his convictions; who learns from his challenges and failures, yet still holds himself accountable.

Christ School is a place where your son can grow into a dependable, tolerant, and confident adult.

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MAYBE YOUR BIGGEST HANDICAP IS YOUR BODY

Publisher’s Thoughts

H

alloween is no longer just a time for children to dress as ghouls and ghosts, or for Linus to await the Great Pumpkin. It’s becoming known as one of the largest consumer holidays in America, even if it is still dwarfed by Christmas in the spending category.

According to the National Retail Federation, in 2014, close to 160 million adults participated in Halloween celebrations in America. I felt that this interest and awareness of otherworldly phenomena and close relationship to death—even if in the realm of fantasy—provided the proper context to approach some local business owners that work closely with death, its celebrations, and its inconveniences.

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As you’ll notice on p.24, the article titled “A Grave Responsibility” begins with a different perspective, literally. This is because, as much as death is a part of life, most people aren’t usually interested in discussing it unless they are compelled to do so. I understand that, and can wholeheartedly relate to it. I also think that a realistic perspective on the impermanency of life is a healthy thing. We aren’t going to live forever, and there is nothing wrong with acknowledging that life is a terminal engagement.

This month, I wanted respectfully to share with you the lives of some individuals who are intimately familiar with these notions. However, not wanting to insist that you dwell only on these more serious avenues of enterprise, we also put together some more typical topics for the Halloween season.

To avoid a more in-depth philosophical rant, I’ll leave you with the encouragement to enjoy your journey in life. After all, no one has yet made it out alive.

Sincerely,

Oby Morgan

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October 2015 | capitalatplay.com

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The Free Spirit Of Enterprise

publisher

Oby Morgan associate publisher

Jeffrey Green contributing editors

Amy Cherrix, Leslee Kulba, Dasha O. Morgan, Brenda Murphy contributing writers & photogr aphers

Mondy Carter, Linda D. Cluxton, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Anthony Harden, Marla Hardee Milling, Roger McCredie, Toni Sherwood, Arthur Treff, Shawndra Russell gr aphic designer

Bonnie Roberson marketing & advertising Wren Barnett, Kathryn Dillow, David Morgan, Katrina Morgan, Pat Starnes

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Please recycle.

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Published by Universal Media Inc. PO Box 5615, Asheville, NC. 28813

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The content found within this publication does not necessar ily ref lec t the views of Univer sal Media , Inc. and its companies. Univer sal Media , Inc. and its employees are not liable for any adver tising or editor ial content found in Capital At Play. The ar ticles, photogr aphy, and illus tr ations found in Capital at Play may not be reproduced or used in any fashion without express wr it ten consent by Univer sal Media , Inc.

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| October 2015

this page :

Memorial glass that incorporates cremation ashes. This one is called Celestial Sphere by artist Rick Melby, IL photo by Anthony Harden

F E AT U R E S vol. v

12

CLUXTON CASKETS & CROSSES ABRAHAM CLUXTON

ed. x

50

A TALE OF TWO PASSIONS ROBERT BEATTY

66

FROM TABOO TO CONVERSATIONAL ADRIENNE CROWTHER

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com

9

C ON T EN T S L

o c t o b e r 2 015

of the endanger

Virginia Creeper Trail photo courtesy Abingdon Convention & Visitors Bureau

24

38

80

A Grave Responsibility

Happy Hauntings A few Halloweeen events in Western North Carolina on p.46.

The Virginia Creeper Trail

briefs

events

lo c a l i n d u s t r y

Who Makes Sure You’re Remembered … Or Not?

f r i g h t e n i n g f o l k ta l e s

22 “ I know what I saw.”

The Old Man and the Hound of Goshen

Written by Ghost Of A. Chance

60 S cared Stiff

l e i s u r e & l i b at i o n

34 Carolina in the West 62 The Old North State 76 National & World News

Written by Dr. Vladmir Cutupand-Dropoff XIV

on the cover :

Abraham Cluxton puts the finishing touches on a custom made casket, photo by Linda D. Cluxton

10

| October 2015

c a p i ta l a d v e n t u r i s t

Hallowed and Historic Ground.

90 From parades to “punkin

chunkins” there’s nothing to fear in our October events calendar.

Running Running a business a business isn’tisn’t easy, Running easy, andand as as a leader a leaderit’sit’syour yourjob jobtoto stay a stay ahead ahead business of of the the isn’t eas competition competition and and maximize maximize competition profits. profits.

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Express Express can help can help you you anticipate Express anticipate thethe challenges challengesand andfind findsolutions solutions can help you anticip before before they they threaten threaten youryour before business. business. they threaten your bu Call or Call gooronline go online today today and Call and seesee how. how.

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| October 2015

Cluxton

Caskets

Green Even in Death written by shawndr a russell photos by linda d . cluxton

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com

13

abr aham cluxton

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| October 2015

N

N

detail of a custom made casket

ot everyone is built to take on a profession that revolves around death.

Funeral home directors, headstone carvers, casket makers… some of these owners inherit the family business, others have more personal reasons.

Abraham Cluxton, founder Cluxton Caskets in Asheville, a company that began with his love of woodworking. It came to fruition when he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy 7 years ago. In his new found religion, Abraham discovered frank acceptance of death and immortality as steering forces in daily life instead of the uncomfortable avoidance he sees prevalent in our society. Abraham says, “The concept of death in a traditional view is like sleep because we don’t want to go there. It’s a kind of obsession with immortality, trying to get the physical body to last forever, but you’re just pumping the ground with embalming preservatives.”

Abraham’s upbringing did not lead him down this path directly. His father, Erich Cluxton, has served as a headmaster at several college preparatory schools, including Asheville Country Day School.

He retired in 2014 from Christ School in Asheville, an Episcopal school for boys, after 45 years in education. His mom, Linda Cluxton, is a professional photographer and former vintage motorcycle racer.

His father showed Abraham the skills of carpentry at an early age in his own wood shop. He says, “I had a hatchet and a knife by the time I was five. I also attempted to build a boat that same year. It sank!”

Abraham says with a laugh.

Today, his workshop is filled with wooden spoons, bowls, jewelry boxes, and other small items that don’t make him much money, but provide plenty of pleasure in their construction. He says he might be a “compulsive whittler,” and family members know that for Christmas, they will likely receive wooden spoons—“My mom has jars stuffed full of them.” He also sells walking sticks, toolboxes, benches, urns, plus bows and arrows. In fact, although the name Cluxton Caskets likely evokes images of coffins, the word casket actually refers to any ornamental box that holds valuable objects. Perhaps the typical word association further emphasizes that death is a frightening concept in our world.

While he gives the majority of credit to his father for encouraging him to have a career path, he notes two other early heroes: Davy Crockett and Robin October 2015 | capitalatplay.com

15

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Hood. He describes himself as a “wild creature” growing up, not surprising since he was a headmaster’s child most of his youth. By age 12, he was “set on becoming a skydiving priest,” he says with another burst of laughter, yet it wouldn’t be surprising if that actually happened down the road. He has an unbridled energy despite the busyness of his life and seems willing to tackle just about anything.

Abraham’s interest in woodworking enticed him to accept a forestry internship from a friend’s father in the summers during high school, and this work earned him nearly a full scholarship to North Carolina State University for forestry. He deferred starting his curriculum for a year—perhaps an early indication that this was not the path for him—and spent that time traveling all over America seeking his purpose.

“I took a year off and started out on a serious quest to find some truth in this crazy world, in and around different religions. I went to Hawaii and heard the Dalai Lama speak, lived on an Ojibwa reservation out west, and came back burnt to a crisp with tons of energy I didn’t know what to do with.”

Still uncertain if forestry was for him, he started school anyway and stayed for only one term, “having trouble staying still in my seat the whole semester.” During that time, he met his now-wife at, appropriately, a mountain memorial gathering for a mutual friend. “My heart leapt when I met her, and everything I’d been searching for fell into place,” he says of Rosaura, with whom he has four children: Evalyn, 7; Lydia, 5; John, 3; and Joseph, 16 months.

One year later to the day, they were married and began planning their futures, which included Abraham converting to Eastern Orthodoxy, his wife’s lifelong religion.

He was re-baptized and given the new name of Abraham, which he added to his birth name Reed. “In my early days, I had ‘convertitis’. I was extremely fervent,” he says matter-of-factly. While he still wears his religion on his sleeve, he has since opted to lead more by example. “You carry your cross and live the gospel,” he says. They attend St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Fletcher.

His family urged him to finish school, but his dad had always taught him to make life about three things, in this order: God, family, and work. “I was like, ‘Wait, college wasn’t on your list!’” His choice not to finish and the conversion was difficult for his family, but they remained close. “My parents always talk about unconditional love,” he says.

He and his wife, Rosaura, have lived on her family’s 3-acre homestead ever since, and in the early days, Abraham was able to work odd carpentry jobs and installed solar hot water systems in the winters. “But when kid #2, or maybe it was #3, came, I needed a full-time job,” he explains. One of his connections pointed him to a position at CharGrow making BioChar. For nearly 3 years he worked long days in the elements using a high-heat machine to make the organic soil builder.

“I was grateful for the job, but I was exhausted all the time. So, I began praying again for something that would allow me to have the energy to come home and take care of my family and work in my workshop.”

Now, Abraham spends his d ays work i ng at Smokey Mountain Lumber helping to run the moulding mill and he snags pockets of time to work in his home shop when he can.

Besides paying the bills, the job taught Abraham more about the precision of his craft since they work with increments in the thousandths to produce crown moldings and interior trim. “Before working here, I’d only worked in 1/16,” he says with his ever-present chuckle. It was the same lumberyard he’d previously ordered from until they offered him a job in early 2015.

Considering that he and his wife homeschool their four small children all under the age of seven —plus raising chickens, growing produce, and owning dogs—it’s no small feat that Abraham has a shop full of works-in-progress in addition to his 9-to-5 day job.

As part of their homeschooling, Abraham often shows his children the way things work in his workshop; his 3-year-old swings a hammer, and small projects by his kids litter the space. “I also teach them how to build fires, chop wood, and use tools. We go on nature walks and learn about plants, that sort of thing.” But he does plan to require that they all work in the business—as future “Cluxton Casketeers,” —when they’re older if the business expands. “I’d like to have something to pass down to them, if they so choose, and to give them their first employment,” he says. “It was great that my buddy’s dad was able to do that for his sons and his sons’ friends like me. Plus, I’m not going to push college on them.” Rosaura, with her master’s degree from Appalachian State University might, however.

Cluxton Caskets started from a small nest egg they received from Rosaura grandmother. “We used it to set up our DBA, for tools, business cards, and to print brochures. We’ve since replenished it many times over.” He’s confident that if he keeps it small, he can be profitable enough to support his family fully one day.

“I also teach them how to build fires, chop wood, and use tools.

We go on nature walks and learn about plants, that sort of thing.”

abr aham ’s son, John, in the workshop October 2015 | capitalatplay.com

17

top lef t : Abraham’s son, Joseph, playing in the workshop bot tom lef t : Putting the finishing touches on a casket

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| October 2015

He has even had calls from out-of-state to ship caskets; “But, I mean, why would I? It’s cost-prohibitive to the customer, and it’s no longer a locally-made product. It’s just not the way we want to do things.” He’s also committed to maintaining personal connections with his customers. Recently, he built a coffin for a father of seven and also built seven crosses for each of the children out of the same wood. “We can meet, I can pray for them, they can pray for me, and we can build this relationship.

It’s a wonderful thing.”

He does have a business plan, but it’s more fluid than time sensitive. “I know the steps that need to happen to grow my business, but a lot depends on what’s going on with the family,” he says with a shrug. “So, when a step can happen, we move forward.” The biggest hindrance right now is space, but he sees it as a blessing. “I would love to jump in full-time and just have order after order, but I need to be patient, and I still have a lot to learn about the niche market.”

He’s also opted to make caskets for anyone, though he started with members of the Eastern Orthodoxy community. Neither on his website nor on his Facebook page is his religion stated, even though his beliefs influenced his style of handmade, cost-effective caskets. Traditional Eastern Orthodoxy caskets are six-sided without hinges, but Abraham finds that many customers want a simple four-sided box. Even with these simple coffins, he uses minimal metal fasteners, a growing trend in the green funeral industry. “It’s the future,” he says flatly.

But true to his humble ways, Abraham does not push the green aspect of his coffins, at least, not yet. “That’s an angle I can work as much as I want, but I just try to keep everything I do as natural as possible. I don’t push it because I think it’s what we should be doing anyway. Pine decomposes at the same rate as the human body, so it just makes sense.” However, Abraham has taken small steps to align himself with green burials by providing a Green Burials Resources section on his website.

He recommends Groce Funeral Home, one of the businesses that keeps a Cluxton casket in stock. They, too, showcase a green section on their website. Other listed resources include the book A Christian Ending and several websites, such as Green Burial Council.org, Crossings.net, and Final Passages. org — each with a sustainable burial focus.

The green burial industry is certainly on the rise as interest in sustainability permeates many markets. Today, according to WealthMangment.com, about 50% of people still opt for a standard burial, or one that involves embalming and metal caskets, while another third chose cremation, which creates a lot of emissions. Together, this means that green burials can expand and grow into 83% of the market share. As Jena Levin for WealthManagement.com wrote in May 2015: “Along with the rise of other eco-friendly and natural trends like urban farming, home birthing, locally-sourced produce and producing hormone and antibiotic-free meat, driving hybrid and electric cars, deriving energy from the sun and wind, etc., an increasing number of Americans are seeking green options for what to do with their bodies when they die.”

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 19

Yet, people who seem like the perfect target market for green funerals may cringe when faced with making decisions about their own death. For example, Abraham and his family used to sell produce and flowers at a farmer’s market, and he thought, “‘Shoot, why not bring a coffin?’ I was just naïve about the whole industry. People seemed nice about it, asking questions and reading the pamphlets I brought about green funerals and

vegetables; they don’t want to be confronted with mortality.

That’s why I’ve kept things more low-key since then, mostly word of mouth and relationships.”

In green cemeteries, graveyards are typically unmarked with headstones; instead, natural landmarks and GPS devices lead to grassy, natural areas that add uninterrupted green space to a community. In Asheville, Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Green Hills Cemetery are both considered hybrids since they offer sections exclusively for green burials. The latter says, “Green burial is becoming more popular every day, and we feel it is important to provide a natural burial option.” The Green Burial Council, the industry’s environmental certification organization, only recognizes one other North Carolina cemetery, the all-natural Pine Forest Memorial Gardens in Wake Forest. Green Burial Council, only a decade old, is a nonprofit that has helped shepherd in the ‘death care’ market, encouraging people to take control of their burials by planning early. Abraham agrees. “I had a prospect once say, ‘Uncle Jimmy would love this, but

Currently, Abraham averages 6-8 coffins per year, and he hopes to double that production in the future as the movement gains popularity. pre-planning.” However, the next day, he received a phone call from the organizer who said, “‘Don’t bring that coffin back!’ You could tell she’d received several earfuls, mentioning that people come here to think about love and life and joy, and flowers and

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cemeteries available. New York has the most with eight, and just two of those are categorized as hybrid cemeteries. In fact, owning a green cemetery is part of Abraham’s future goals.

“I’d love to buy a plot of land for that. I think it’s the right thing to do.”

For fun, Abraham and his family like to swim, hike, and fish. “Family time outside is important to us. Our life centers around our home, our kids. After I converted, my focus changed. I’ll sip a beer, but we rarely go downtown. We do try to get to the beach once a year,” he says.

Abraham’s passion for his religion, his family, and his work are inspiring, but perhaps the true value of hearing his story is that it inspires us to think about our own mortality. As Treehugger.com said in a 2014 piece about green funerals, “If you gotta go, why not go green?”

we’re just going to go traditional’ because they thought it was too different, too macabre. That’s why I encourage people to plan their own.”

Besides being better for the environment, green burials are also more cost-effective for both the families and the cemetery.

“The average North American traditional funeral costs between $7,000 and $10,000,” according to Funeral-Tips, but families can save with green options. Cluxton caskets start at $900 compared to the traditional casket that starts at $2,300. Groce Funeral Home lists a green burial plot at $900. Interment fees stay the same, about $800, but saving the expenses of embalming, a headstone, and a burial container can bring the total cost down by thousands.

Currently, Abraham averages 6-8 coffins per year, and he hopes to double that production in the future as the movement gains popularity. He is also adding cabinetry to his offerings so the business can become a full-time endeavor. Right now, the plan is for a much larger workshop than his current 20’x14’ space.

If any geographical destination could embrace green burials, Asheville would seem like a frontrunner. In fact, the Green Burial Council claims that just 26 states currently have green cemeteries, with about double that number in total green

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column

“I know what I saw.”

The Old Man and the Hound of Goshen

“I

HAV E BEEN CHASED BY A GHOST DOG, I HAV E DONE SPR AINED MY ANKLE AND LOST MY WART POULTICE. I AM NOT BAD, CONSIDERING.”

ghost of a . chance

haunts the editorial offices of C@P on moonless nights and is said to be looking for a lost paycheck.

In daylight he bears a resemblance to Roger McCredie.

22

— Lee Smith, Oral History

Sumter National Forest occupies most of northeastern Union County, South Carolina. Before it was a national forest, it was plain old rural upland: thorny fields and scrub woods inhabited by deer, rabbits, and the occasional bear and copperhead. There were two largish farms, Rose Hill and Goshen Hill (they weren’t grand enough to be called plantations), and a scattering of smaller ones owned by Jeters, Maybins, Vaughans, and a few others. A section of the Old Buncombe Road, now ragged blacktop, still runs through the forest from northwest to southeast, and there were once little one-store settlements along it — Cross Keys, Santuc, Maybinton— and the dirt service roads nearby. There was, and still is, Ebenezer Church and its ancient graveyard.

It’s important that you know the geography, which is little changed, and where there are places so forested and desolate that it is nearly dark there at noon on a sunny day. According to legend, a fivemile stretch of Old Buncombe Road, from Ebenezer Cemetery to Goshen Hill, is haunted by a huge white dog who pursues but never actually catches travelers.

He is known as the Hound of Goshen, and as the story goes he belonged to a travelling peddler who was accused of stealing, given a perfunctory trial, hanged

| October 2015

near the church, and buried near the cemetery. The dog is said to have died of starvation protecting the grave of his master and later began roaming the road, stalking the members of the lynching party and, in the process, scaring the bejeezus out of anyone who ran across it.

I am ashamed to say I knew nothing of any of this until I was in college and picked up a copy of Bruce and Nancy Roberts’ Ghosts of the Carolinas. One of the stories in that excellent collection was titled, “The Hound of Goshen.” When I saw all of its references to the country of my fathers, I bought the book, brought it home, and asked my father if he had ever heard the tale. It was on a summer evening, and we were sitting on the side porch of our house in Spartanburg in the dark green twilight, with the lightning bugs blinking and the crickets and the katydids competing with each other.

Now I should point out that, to paraphrase what Dickens said about Scrooge, my father had as little of what might be called imagination about him as any man in South Carolina. He was a football legend and a war hero, but he was no storyteller. Or so I thought.

He lit one of the Luckies that would eventually kill him and leaned back in a wicker chair. “Well now,” he began. And this is what he said:

“You know our old place was down from Santuc, right around the corner from that old Ebenezer church. I reckon I was eleven, twelve years old, and I had a pony and one of my chores in the evening was to go down the big lower pasture, where it backed up to the road just a ways from the cemetery, and herd the cows on up to the barn. Now this one time, I was doing that and I saw a cow was missing. This was in the fall of the year and the sun was about set. I didn’t like being down there with it getting dark, but your grandmother woulda skint me if I left a cow out, so I rode on down to where our fence bordered the road and started looking at the bobwire fence we had down there.

“I heard it before I saw it, something behind me running fast along the road. I turned and the biggest, meanest-looking dog I ever saw was running straight at us. There was nothing between him and us but that bobwire fence. The dog didn’t bark, howl, make a sound except his feet running, running.

And his eyes …”

It was full dark on the side porch now and the crickets and katydids seemed to have fallen silent. The Old Man dragged on his Lucky; its tip glowed briefly. In the same low, matter-of-fact voice, he said: “I was scared to death, and the pony – well, he bucked and threw me slam into that bobwire fence and took off. When I picked myself up the dog was gone. Just gone. But I took off running and didn’t stop till I was at the house. I was hollering at the top of my lungs. I musta scared Mama ‘cause she didn’t

HE LIT ONE OF THE LUCKIES THAT WOULD EVENTUALLY KILL HIM... “WELL NOW,” HE BEGAN. say a word about me having lost a cow and my horse both.

I’d been so scared I hadn’t even noticed I was cut pretty bad from the bobwire. She cleaned me up and bandaged me. I slept with the light on in my room that night.

“The horse and the cow came home by themselves in the morning. We had a telephone by then and Mama called everybody in the neighborhood, but nobody owned a big white dog.

But she did tell me it was okay if I wanted to start bringing the cows up earlier in the afternoon. I don’t know if she believed I’d seen what I said I had, but she knew I believed it.”

The Old Man got up and flicked the light switch, banishing the shadows and filling the porch with the light of reason. Then he pulled up his shirt. On his right side, extending from his armpit to the middle of his ribcage, were clusters of small white scars, evenly spaced about four inches apart.

“That’s from where the pony threw me into the bobwire,” he said. “I know what I saw.”

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WARNING: This article addresses some topics that are mostly avoided in polite conversation and often regarded as morbid. If you are uncomfortable with this corporeal reality, then we suggest you skip to p.34 to find stories with a bit more... life.

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| October 2015

A GRAVE Responsibility When You’re No Longer With Us, Who Makes Sure You’re Remembered… Or Not? written by roger mccredie

Death is the central fact of life.

(Damn, that was profound, wasn’t it?)

Other animals know about pain and danger, and they spend much of their existence taking steps to avoid them. But humans, we are told, are the only creatures who actually know there’s such a thing as death, that it happens to everybody and is inevitable; but – and here’s the kicker – humans have no empirical knowledge of what happens after one of us shuffles off this mortal coil. Buys the farm. Kicks the bucket.

Dies.

From our youngest understandings of the world around us, we start trying to come to terms with this greatest of all mysteries. As children we shelve it, except for Halloween (read on) which equals dressing up and begging for candy, or for constant exposure to violence in the movies or on television, where death has little impact or consequence except to help advance the plot and comes across as a sort of temporary inconvenience that the bad guys have to put up with if they’re going to behave that way. As adolescents, of course, we think the concept of death doesn’t apply to us; we’re immortal. By the time we’re young adults, perhaps parents in our own right, we become more aware that someday

this all will end, and we may even be prompted by a sense of responsibility to take out insurance policies. By middle age, we feel the occasional cold breath of mortality on the backs of our necks, and this prompts us to think in terms of legacies, material and otherwise. We draft wills; we may even draw up last instructions – and then we quickly shut and lock the desk drawer (no sense tempting fate). By the time we’re “seniors” we have seen and been touched by our fair share of death, realize that it’s closer to us than it once was, and have either come to terms with it or become preoccupied by it. In either case, by the time we reach the doddering stage, the odds are we have made the acquaintance of the people whose business it is to take care of these things. Those who will ensure our dignified and orderly passage from this world to the next and (as the business of living has become infinitely more complicated than it once was) clean up after us.

When we die we’re dead. Whatever’s ‘Over There’, we’ve gone to it. But we leave behind our bodies, which will need to be attended to, and a number of people who, at our departure, may experience the package of emotions known as grief. They’re going to need comforting and reassuring, and maybe also practical guidance and assistance. Grief, after all, is a two-parter: The mourner mourns not only the departed but him or herself. There’s nothing like the death of somebody, particularly somebody close to us, to remind us that we really are all in this fragile and transitory web of life together.

John Donne, priest and poet, hit the coffin nail on the head: None of us is an island, so forget asking “for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee,” for all of us.

So we are driven by this two-sided mourning to memorialize our dead, not least because, in the back of our minds, we hope somebody will do as much for us someday.

We have done it from early on in our human history, before even the oldest established religions got their acts together and incorporated veneration of the departed into their doctrines. Various types of veneration for those who have passed from this corporeal plain evolved in a myriad of ways throughout the world. The dead were set apart in places that were considered sacred, or special anyway. In earthen mounds, on platforms away from (most) scavengers, under cairns of piled stones. Alternatively, they were burned, whether atop massive wooden pyres or on boats or barges set alight, and allowed to drift with the current into the great beyond. Some kind of ceremony, however simple, accompanied these acts because, also from earliest times, there had developed the concept of a soul – some intangible but inextinguishable essence of the self that survived death and needed to be pacified and provided for.

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 25

hans holbein dances with de ath : The Old Woman, wood block prints, c. 1526. carved by Hans L端tzelburger

26

| October 2015

local industry

Whereas your lowest-class Egyptian was eviscerated, salt-cured for seventy days, and then buried in the sand, his pharaoh was painstakingly mummified, outfitted in a golden coffin set with precious stones, and installed in a beyond-magnificent tomb exquisitely appointed with everything from furniture to eating utensils, personal touches to his otherworldly condo.

Elaborate burial had a different meaning in the Scottish Highlands, where life, like the terrain, was hard. Pomp and circumstance was a relative thing. The old Highland chiefs were usually placed in a simple wooden coffin and the fam-

the verger. Moreover, these individual graves were adorned with memorial markers, usually of stone, which could be inscribed with the inhabitant’s name and dates, ensuring at least a modicum of immortality. Family pride and budget led to varying degrees of elaborateness in both the coffin and the marker; and thus were born the artisan stonecutter, who specialized in tombstones, and a whole new field of carpentry, coffin (or casket) making.* *Semantics aside: The terms “coffin” and “casket” are often used interchangeably to describe the container used to house the remains. Actually, the two aren’t synonyms; they refer to shape. A coffin is roughly person-shaped, having six sides: a headboard and footboard, plus “shoulders and body panels, and is almost always wooden and the interior is usually fitted with a simple cloth lining.” This is the version still commonly used in Britain and much of Europe.

A casket – which can actually mean any sort of chest, from a jewelry box on up— is shaped like an elongated box, usually with rounded sides and a slightly convex lid, and may be of wood or metal, often with elaborate interior furnishings such as pillows and cushioning— a sort of eternal Beautyrest.

“When it shall be death to me,” he directed, “strike a blow of the dirk in my back and put me across the piebald mare and she shall carry me to Loch Linnhe. Bury me with a sword in my fist and my face to the Camerons; I have never turned my back on them.” ily and clansmen, led by a piper, slogged through the wet heather to an appropriate spot, where the clan’s Seannachie or bard, recited the old boy’s lineage and accomplishments for a very long time while everybody pulled their plaids over their heads because some form of precipitation was doubtless falling. (One MacDonald chieftain, on his deathbed, gave specific instructions for his interment: “When it shall be death to me,” he directed, “strike a blow of the dirk in my back and put me across the piebald mare and she shall carry me to Loch Linnhe. Bury me with a sword in my fist and my face to the Camerons; I have never turned my back on them.”)

The rise of settlements, particularly in Western Europe and the British Isles, gave rise to common burial grounds, often centered around a place of worship, which was a common feature of nearly every hamlet; but often in spaces of common ground set aside for the purpose – the beginnings of public cemeteries. First by custom and later by arrangement, individual families came to be grouped together in a particular area or plot. (In the grounds of medieval manors and later on colonial plantations, which were often far from town, family cemeteries near the home became common.) The custom had arisen of burying remains in one-to-a-customer graves, which launched the occupation of professional gravedigging, though this duty, in church settings, was often assigned to the sexton or

Preservation Hall Embalming – the practice of treating a corpse with various substances to delay decomposition – arose from the very human reluctance, fueled by grief and loss, to say goodbye, to keep the deceased in decent shape long enough for everybody to have one last look and see him or her off with a parting glass of strong drink. The practice made a party of the old custom of “sitting up” with the body the night after death and became known as “the wake,” which as we know reached its apotheosis in Ireland, with most of the viewers being as embalmed as the honoree. Anyhow, mummification, as practiced by the Egyptians, the Incas and Aztecs, and the Chinese, was practiced successfully thousands of years ago, but other methods have also been used, employing various solutions and aromatic herbs. (The very word “embalm” means to infuse with “balm,” a healing or preservative substance allegedly found in Gilead.)

But it wasn’t until the later Middle Ages that a group of European scientists known as The Anatomists (what else?) conceived the idea of preserving a body from within, by draining the blood and replacing it in the vascular system with a preservative substance. One of these Anatomists October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 27

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was none other than Leonardo da Vinci, a fact which gave rise to a legend that “La Giaconda” (a.k.a. Mona Lisa) is the portrait of a corpse, one of Leonardo’s specimens, and that her enigmatic smirk is the remains of rictus sardonicus, the expression produced by the tightening of the cheek muscles during rigor mortis.

But the largely unsung hero of embalming-as-we-know-it was a Scottish surgeon, William Hunter, who wrote a paper on the subject that became a must-read for those in the burgeoning funerary trade. Hunter’s brother, John, took things a step further and began actually applying these methods. One fine day in 1775, he displayed a particularly fine example of his handiwork, the corpse of Mary Butchell, wife of a London dentist, in his window. Mrs. Butchell, embalmed, rouged, fitted with glass eyes, and dressed in a becoming frock, was a sensation. Oh, some detractors called John Hunter’s work ghoulish but the majority considered it marvelous; here was a way, for a modest fee, to guarantee that the deceased could be allowed to stick around long enough for a proper send-off without the malodorous consequences of running out of ice.

So with funeral customs codified, professional casket makers in business, and increasingly sophisticated embaming techniques available to the general public, the stage was set for the master of mortuary ceremonies.

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Or, to use the preferred term, the funeral director. “Undertaker,” you see, is not a bad pun; it comes from the perfectly innocuous verb “undertake”: to commit to doing a task – in this case, arranging the details of preparing a body for burial. But the euphemism was eventually insufficient to describe the role of the mortician, which came to include everything involved with laying someone to rest (except for any religious rites, that was the clergy’s department).

“Director” seemed to imbue the mortician’s professional title with

more – er – gravitas and was also more accurate; it included not only preparation of the body for burial but also the coordination of all the elements of the funeral itself: getting the remains where they needed to be and when, coordinating with religious officiants, and overseeing the preparation of the grave itself beforehand and the infilling of it afterwards. As time went by the funeral director not only orchestrated these duties but provided them in-house. He would set up inside a house or building with coffin displays, rooms for viewing the corpse and receiving visitors, and chapel-like areas where services could be conducted. The f uneral home with a package-deal service was born, giving rise to a well-known stereotype, the unctuous undertaker.

He helped the newly bereaved through their time of sorrow as he helped himself to their money by providing more and more finishing touches to inflate the bottom line.

In the late 1940s the British novelist Evelyn Waugh published his savagely funny book The Loved One, a merciless satire of morticians and the industry in general. In 1963 Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death used investigative journalism to lay bare the hypocritical greed of funeral directors as “grief counselors” under whose guidance the cost of an average funeral had risen to a family’s third-largest purchase, after a house and a car.

Obviously they’re not all like that.

Most funeral homes in the United States are, in fact, family-owned and operated, and continue to be so for generations.

Many come to have ongoing, personal relationships with families. When the patriarch of one of the leading funeral homes in my hometown died, his funeral was a model of decorum and understated elegance. The casket, as I recall, was of burnished pecan wood with plain brass fittings. Shortly thereafter, a leading society matron on her own deathbed summed up her funeral directions by saying, “Just give me what Dick had.”

above : Horses and carriages in front of funeral home of C.W. Franklin, undertaker, Chattanooga, Tennessee in the 1890s, photo courtesy of The Library of Congress below : Photo shows funeral for New York Tammany Hall politician Timothy

Daniel Sullivan 1913, photo courtesy of The Library of Congress

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 29

local industry

bath national ce metery, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Juan Avenue, Bath, Steuben County, New York, photo courtesy of The Library of Congress

Ashes to ashes …

Cremation, once associated almost entirely with eastern cultures (India, notably, and Japan, where it’s mandatory) began gaining traction as a viable alternative to burial in the western hemisphere about a hundred years ago. The benefits are obvious.

Cremation is quick, clean, has the blessing of most churches (fire purifies), and ashes in an urn take up little space, whether buried and marked in a cemetery, displayed on the mantel, or used as a tasteful doorstop. In fact, it’s not necessary to keep ashes around at all. Many people leave instructions to have their ashes scattered someplace that has particular significance to the family, or loved ones may elect to do this on their own.

In New Orleans on Ash Wednesday, the day after Mardi Gras, people gather at a certain spot on the bank of the Mississippi River and scatter the ashes of loved ones in the water.

When legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie died, his widow and his son, Arlo, dumped Woody’s ashes casually in the water at Coney Island, and the new widow said, “Let’s go to Nathan’s and get some hot dogs.” Woody would have approved.

This writer’s maternal grandmother, who died five days before Christmas in 1968, was the first of our family to be cremated, done at her request. It was not because she had become forward-thinking in her old age, but because she was notoriously thrifty; with a pencil, some graph paper, and a copy of the family plot in Oakwood Cemetery, she had concluded that if we all henceforth followed her example there would be room for several more generations before expansion would be necessary.

In New Orleans on Ash Wednesday, the day after Mardi Gras, people gather at a certain spot on the bank of the Mississippi River and scatter the ashes of loved ones in the water.

30

| October 2015

In those days there were no crematoria nearby; the local mortuaries shipped remains to a sort of regional facility in Atlanta, which converted the crematee to carbon flakes and sent

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above : Death angel in Weston, Connecticut, graveyard 1937,

photo by Edwin Locke, photo courtesy of The Library of Congress

the results back by regular parcel post. This being the height of the Christmas mail crunch, MaMa got hung up in transfer somewhere around Greenville, and we had to postpone her graveside service until Christmas Eve afternoon, when the rector could squeeze it in between the kids’ Nativity pageant and the pre-midnight mass wassail party. I’ve always felt that MaMa’s spirit must have been seriously annoyed; she was always a stickler for punctuality.

Green burials: The deceased as compost Unless we’re cremated we eventually decay. Despite the best efforts of the embalmer and hermetically sealed casket makers, moisture and maggots will eventually have their way. This truth, along with a serious concern for the welfare of the planet and the burden of paying for delaying the biologically inevitable, is what drives the current upswing in “natural” burials. The proponents of green burial take seriously the Ash Wednesday admonition, “Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.” Go ahead and rot like every other creature. You won’t know the difference (or won’t care) and recycling yourself will enrich the soil and make a contribution instead of being one more burden a tired and used-up Earth has to bear.

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The funeral observance may be traditional and elaborate or small and intimate; whichever, it’s the body preparation and the manner of interment that make the difference in natural burial. Those things are kept simple and, well, natural. No embalming fluid or disinfectant is used and the body is placed in an easily biodegradable coffin, usually of untreated wood, or even just in a cloth shroud, and committed to the ground.

Not even the cemetery scene is necessary. Burial can take place almost anywhere— under a favorite tree, in a pretty patch of woods, down by the river— provided local and state regulations are followed. Both clergy and professionals have expressed approval of the green approach to burial, saying it has much to recommend it in terms of practicality and even spirituality.

Whistling in the graveyard: The Halloween industry

photo courtesy of The Library of Congress

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three boys on porch steps cutting faces in pumpkins,

This isn’t the place for a detailed history of the origins and traditions of the one day of the year, in many western cultures, that by common custom has become a now cross-cultural acknowledgment of our mortality and a festival in honor of

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departed souls. In fact, direct your attention to p.38 if you want to talk seriously about that topic. But suffice to say that Halloween has now extended itself into an entire season, like Christmas, and in fact is now second only to Christmas (in America anyway) in terms of money spent on it. Furthermore, over the past 30 years or so, it’s the adults and not their kids, the trick-or-treaters, who are fueling the popularity of Halloween.

Masked parties, where grownups can lose their inhibitions by concealing their identities, have generated a huge demand for costumes; adult-size costumes are right there next to the kids’ at Target and Wal-Mart, and costume rental shops now stock outfits and accessories that would rival the resources of many theatrical companies. Do you want to be Marie Antoinette?

Napoleon? Caligula? No problem. Just be prepared to pay a couple of hundred bucks to express your inner self.

For the well-appointed All Hallows Eve house, there are artificial cobwebs, orange twinkly lights, creepy figurines, and enough special effects equipment to equip the same theater’s props department. And it all crops up, beginning about Labor Day, on the shelves of hardware and home furnishings stores.

Wiccans and Pagans, who have become established and recognized religious groups, take Halloween much more seriously.

This is the feast of Samhain, the beginning of the Celtic New Year, dedicated to reflection, paying homage to one’s ancestors, and reaffirming our present place in the natural world and our eventual assumption of the place they’re saving for us on the other side of the veil.

Psychologists, theologists, anthropologists, and several other –ists are fond of pointing out that Halloween/Samhain celebrations simply provide a coping mechanism for dealing with the inevitability of death, and business analysts point out the marketing benefits of capitalizing on our tendency to pursue fun and humor as an antidote to our subconscious death-anxiety.

The same, of course, can be said of the reverence and superstition that for millennia have surrounded our caring for the dead.

That’s fine.

All those –ists probably whistle nervously in the graveyard, too.

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CAROLINA in the

WEST [

news briefs

Hear Ye Now the Appalachian Expert watauga county

Appalachian State University, nestled in the mountains of Boone, has long suffered topographic seclusion. That will soon end by partnering with Raleigh-based Microspace Communications. Primarily, Microspace’s satellite transmission services will be used to broadcast the school’s live sports events. Content captured will be readily available for national networks and cable channels. Appalachian State’s associate director of Broadcast Operations for Athletics, David Jackson, says Microspace’s flash studio will not be monopolized by sporting events. It will be made available for any of the school’s or community’s programs – so any “Appalachian expert [with] something deemed newsworthy” will be able to reach

]

a national audience. Microspace has been in the satellite transmission business for twenty-five years. Other clients include Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to putting the Appalachian State brand in front of more people, the arrangement with Microspace will allow the school’s students to learn creative communication arts alongside talented professionals.

Harrah’s Uses Second of Three Casino Licenses for Cherokee cherokee county

Harrah’s $110 million Cherokee Valley River Casino and Hotel opened September 28th in Murphy. The 50,000-sq-ft game

floor, equipped with 1000 slots and 70 table games, will be a quarter the size of Harrah’s casino down the road in Cherokee. Both are owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and operated

by Caesar’s Entertainment. Harrah’s wants to make the new spot more of a daytripper attraction, drawing clientele from Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Atlanta.

The hotel will have 300 rooms, with neither restaurants nor suites. The new complex won’t have a spa, conference center, or a mini theater for live events.

The casino, however, will be home to Starbucks, Nathan’s, Panda Express, Papa John’s, and Earl of Sandwich. General manager Lumpy Lambert projects the new casino will employ 800-900 people on a $32-39 million payroll. To put that in perspective, Murphy’s entire population in 2013 was 1,618. Patronage projections run between 1 – 1.5 million annually.

In 2013 the Cherokee casino did $153 million in business, drawing four million visitors. Tribal members get a cut of revenues, which totaled $7700 apiece in 2012. Deeming the casino an economic engine, the North Carolina Department of Transportation invested $10.2 million to build an approach off I-74, and the tribe will spring $800,000 for new sewer lines.

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| October 2015

Asheville

A Creative, Spiritual Space

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the old north state

national & world

other musicians on tour, discovering new ways to integrate art, craft, spirit, emotion, responsibility, and business.

henderson county

Gospel and soul recording artist Lizz Wright debuted on Concord Records September 4. At 35 years old, the native of Hahira, Georgia, is telling media outlets like Ebony and NPR that her move to Western North Carolina played a large part in her creative process. The album, Freedom & Surrender, explores endings and beginnings in life and love. Losing control of a car as it slid 300 yards on an icy mountain curve, only to be saved from falling over the edge by a young tree, made her yearn to rethink life. She walked away from a failing marriage and hopes of raising a family. In the refuge of the mountains outside Hendersonville, she took time to reflect. She wanted to put down roots into a place with a community she could love. She now seeks amazement in the small things in life, and that’s what she says powers her creative process. She says its been inspirational getting back in touch with nature and learning from her neighbors who embrace the simple life. Her touring schedule is booked in the United States through mid-October, after which she will play several Northern European venues. Wright enjoys collaborating with

Learning How to Control Fire... Again buncombe county

The Smoky Park Supper Club will soon open. The restaurant’s shell was built in three and a half days out of nineteen shipping containers. The club is located on Riverside Drive in the River Arts District, providing easy access to those who want to bike, hike, boat, or drive to dinner. The restaurant features views over the French Broad River, but its most remarkable feature will be a Le Panyol oven.

The oven is unlike other wood-burning stoves in that, once heated, it is so efficient it can continue cooking for hours after the fire is extinguished. Le Panyols are made of terre blanche clay, one of the best-known heat-retaining materials. The stoves have been around since 1840, but they remain rare. Partner Mark Rosenstein has experience with Le Panyols, having one at home.

It’s a step in a primitive direction, having to haul wood, wait hours for the stove to warm, and then constantly monitor and maintain temperatures throughout the day.

carolina in the west

But Rosenstein insists food cooked with radiant heat is superior to edibles blasted and cooled between thermostatic limits in conventional ovens. He and Executive Chef Michelle Bailey have been clocking times and mapping temperatures in the stove for months. Since Rosenstein is a farmto-table guru, the restaurant will feature local trout, lamb, and vegetables. Seventy percent of the cooking will be done in the Le Panyol.

The Journey of Oil Independence Begins with a Single Drop avery county

Avery County is the proud recipient of two new bins for collecting used cooking oil. They are located in the Avery County solid waste transfer stations in Banner Elk and Newland. They join forty-some bins already placed throughout Western North Carolina by the Cooking Oil Recycling Program (COR). In addition to providing bins, COR offers education and outreach on why cooking oil should be recycled. The collected oil will go to the Blue Ridge Biofuels plant in Newton, North Carolina, where it will be processed into clean-burning biodiesel. In two years

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of operation, Blue Ridge Biofuels has diverted 14,700 gallons of used cooking oil from sewers and landfills, enabled the production of 16,300 gallons of biodiesel, and spared the atmosphere 150 tons of CO2. The small decreases in dependency on foreign oil and air and water pollution are accompanied by significant savings for public works departments. COR is funded by the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources.

Blue Ridge Biofuels sells to, among other local companies, Hickory Nut Gap Farms, Living Roofs, Gaia Herbs, Navitat Canopy Adventures, the Organic Mechanic, and Warren Wilson College. Users claim biodiesel is superior because its quality is consistent and gas mileage improves.

New Light Shines Through a Long Forgotten Window henderson county

Hendersonville photographer Walter Arnold has been traveling the country for five years photographing scenes of the abandoned and forgotten Americana.

Subjects include; rusty chairs at the counter of a hollowed-out diner, dusty bowling pins in an empty alley, the insides of planes in airport graveyards, and the peeling paint at Mason’s Castle which has been vacant since it was built in 1908.

Arnold has a knack for capturing derelict melancholy at unusual angles with striking contrast. He assembled a best-of collection for a 128-page coffee table book, The Art of Abandonment. Arnold spearheaded all of the photography, writing, and designing; but he consulted several publishers to make sure the self-published book would be a quality work of art. He launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $7,500 for publication of the first 1000 copies, and in the first day, he reached 47 percent of his goal. Five days later, he surpassed it. When the campaign ended a month later, he had raised $31,330 from 369 backers, all of whom would receive an Early Bird autographed copy for $10 36

| October 2015

off the $59 retail price. Collector’s editions are available in clamshell cases for $175. Books should be delivered around November, in time for Christmas.

People in This Glass House Throw Pottery transylvania county

The Brevard Chamber of Commerce and the Transylvania Arts Council were on-hand for the ribbon cutting for Rachel S. Rogers’ Artsi Glass, a 3–D fused glass studio. Rogers’ creations are made by layering different colors and types (sheet, textured, rod, stringer, frit, and powder) of glass. During the creation process, the work is kiln-fired multiple times at temperatures up to 1600oF. A blow torch may be used for detailing. Rogers will also be creating pottery in the studio. The kiln was specially designed by Olympic Kilns to handle both pottery and glass.

Rogers discovered the 3–D fused glass medium in 2012, and returned to her roots in Western North Carolina to find inspiration from nature. Before that, she worked out of Mudslingers Pottery and Glass Studio, which she opened in 2004, and taught over 1500 students. Rogers earned a B.S. in business education from Western Carolina University. Her partner, John F. Piel, has been an entrepreneur since age 12, when he sold “Big Fat Juicy Worms” to Chicago fishermen. With degrees in biology and chemistry from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, he now maintains the equipment in the studio. He also styles frames for Rogers’ art from salvaged wood, and he studies and experiments with thermochemistry.

He’s developing techniques for slumped glass as an art form.

Try This Gadget with Your Drone buncombe county

GoWorx is trying to raise $8000 in a Kickstarter campaign for its new gadget,

N RVI SE

FreeRide. The camera accessory allows the user to attach smartphones, with or without the case, simply and securely, to anything, anywhere. Designer Ryan Klinger’s company started developing the product eight months ago. Having interviewed hundreds of photographers, cinematographers, and extreme sports enthusiasts, Klinger learned most of them owned multiple camera mounts. All of them were using smartphones, and none had a way to attach their phones to their mounts, although most wanted to do so. GoWorx purchased and tested everything on the market purporting to address the problem, finding all products unsatisfying. Some were too heavy, some wouldn’t stay attached, and some were good for only one arrangement. After fifteen prototypes, the designers, photographers, and action enthusiasts at GoWorx came up with the hardy and versatile FreeRide. Designed with impact-resistant polycarbonate, stainless steel, and urethane padding that won’t deform, the accessory can photograph under freshwater and saltwater. It attaches to traditional camera mounts, bicycle handlebars, or even drones.

GoWorx designs and manufactures accessories for GoPro HERO cameras. Last year, they ran a successful crowdsourcing campaign for the handheld mount GoKnuckles.

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Exhibit Highlights Regional Craft in Global Economy buncombe county

The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design (CCCD) is hosting an installment to analyze the international designer-maker movement. It will explore how features unique to the area inform global trends. Academically, the scene is what follows the industrialization of the New South and then skill shortages caused by deindustrialization. The exhibit, dubbed Made in WNC, opened September 4, and it will run into early 2016.

Featured will be products from twenty-four studios in the region.

The designer-maker movement is characterized by small-batch artisanry combined with state-of-the-art technology. The installation will address not only the artistic side of creation, but the pragmatics of industrial production. A lot of the items are designed for millennials and marketed through social media.

Visitors ought not to expect traditional crafts from Appalachian sewing circles. Blue Ridge Chair Works markets in the Far East and the Netherlands. Ashevillian Billy Moore’s label, Cause & Effect, sells to Jack Spade and Club Monaco. Alex Matisse’s East Fork Pottery just collaborated with Calvin Klein Home in developing a line of ceramic vessels. The CCCD grew out of efforts by the University of North Carolina and HandMade in America to preserve and explore the place of, and potential for, local traditional crafts in emerging markets.

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October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 37

t weetsie Ghost Train on Main Street

,photo courtesy of Tweetsie Railroad

thomas wolfe man from the LaZoom Haunted

Comedy Tour, photo courtesy of LaZoom

38

| October 2015

hendersonville Trick-or-Treat Street,

photo by Edgar Ward

L leisure & libation

children

in the corn, photo courtesy of Eliada Homes

darkus k night

photo courtesy of Tweetsie Railroad

HAPPY HAUNTINGS The thrills and chills of Halloween make family entertainment frightfully popular (and profitable) for area businesses. written by jennifer fitzger ald October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 39

leisure & libation

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| October 2015

usan Sertain has a different perspective on Halloween than most of us. As the owner and designer of The Costume Shoppe located in Asheville, she finds herself at her busiest during October.

“The impact of Halloween on the business is very strong, and October has always been our best month,” she says. “Next, is our Christmas Santa rentals followed by, of course, the Easter Bunnies!”

Sertain waits each Halloween to see how late the very last customer arrive, searching for a costume to wear to that night’s party.

“There is always a frantic flurry, flying in the door around 7:30 or 8:00 on Halloween evening, with the challenge that the party has started and ‘What am I going to be?’”

These last minute shoppers are not a surprise when one considers the record number of people who now celebrate Halloween. The National Retail Federation reports that more than two-thirds of Americans will buy Halloween costumes this year, with total spending for the holiday on costumes, decorations, candy, and more estimated at $7.4 billion.

Sertain says that the average rental at The Costume Shoppe is $45, with the most popular costumes being pirates, vampires, and zombies.

“My favorites are always the (costumes) folks have built in their living rooms with cardboard and hot glue. I love seeing the creativity and imagination.

I’ve always tried to have things at The Costume Shoppe that anyone could use in their creations like feathers, sequins, buttons, fabric, trims, and the always popular $2 bin. So much awesomeness to play with!”

As with any business, Sertain faces challenges and her business has changed over the years since it first opened in 1981.

“There continues to be a noticeable effect on the costume business across the countr y from the temporar y Halloween pop-up stores and, of course, from online costume stores. Internet use is increasing and has a huge, challenging effect year round.

“The business has changed a great deal over the years. In 1981, when it was started by Valerie Naiman, it was in an old house on Broadway where the Daily Planet is now. I moved it to Haywood Street to a much larger building with better parking. We were there for six years, then I moved it to downtown on Lexington, hoping for more foot traffic, and I was there for six years.

“I no longer have my shop set up as a store front on Lexington. I now have a year round booth and makeup counter at

L all costume shoppe photos by anthony harden

The Downtown Market, 45 South French Broad, and I love being a part of that group of collectors, artists, and designers.

“My costume rental business is at my studio in Woodfin, and I meet customers by appointment for rentals and also so that I can work with customers to create their costumes and art-to-wear fashion.”

Sertain, the owner for 13 years, opens her studio once a month for a “Shoppe Poppe Up” and will be open for three weeks in October for those searching for the perfect Halloween costume.

This month, she will be busy costuming ghosts and goblins of all ages in Asheville.

“The Costume Shoppe is an icon here in Asheville and is in position to be purchased and re-established as the go-to place for all your year-round costume needs. It is loved by many, and everyone who has lived in Asheville awhile has memories of going to The Costume Shoppe as a kid and now bringing their own kids in for school projects or parties.”

susan sertain

k ayl a be avers , a local

model, shopping

The Costume Shoppe Retail at Booth #100 Downtown Market, 45 South French Broad, Asheville, North Carolina, 28801 >> Rental by Appointment at Riverside Business Park >> 828-252-8404 >> costumeshoppe.net October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 41

leisure & libation

Take a Ride

written by marla hardee milling photos courtesy tweetsie railroad

on the Ghost Train

42

| October 2015

L Imagine a big skull on the front of a train with steam coming out of its nostrils and mouth. That’s a scene that will greet visitors this month at Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock, when engineer K.C. Bones steers the #13 locomotive into darkness. This is the 26th year for the park’s Ghost Train.

“It’s hard to believe, but when we started October was not a big month,” said Cathy Robbins, Tweetsie’s marketing director. “We were trying to think of something to get more people in and came up with the ghost train idea. We were really one of the first in the country to do anything with Halloween on a larger scale, and I still don’t know of anyone else who has a haunted train.”

Monster Mountain Hunt is the theme of the Ghost Train this year, with monster hunters and news media covering monsters in the dark woods as the train rolls past. The Ghost Train runs on twelve Friday and Saturday evenings from late September to Halloween night, from 7:30 pm to 11:30pm. The park is open during the day from 9am to 6pm before the Ghost Train events. “A lot of people do both. They leave and come back,” said Robbins.

While Tweetsie has always prided itself in offering fun for families, the suggested age for the Ghost Train, Haunted House, and Freaky Forest is age eight and up.

“For younger kids, we have Professor Peppercorn’s Black Light Puppet Show, trick or treating, and rides,” said Robbins.

Tickets are limited for Ghost Train runs because they cater to the guest experience. Right now, you can ride the train whenever you can get a seat, but due to its popularity they are considering timed tickets to board the train.

Ghost train tickets are $34 regardless of age, but children aged two and under are free.

Ghost Train Halloween Festival: Fridays and Saturdays, through October 31 From 7:30-11:30pm >> 877-893-3874 >> tweetsie.com

A Reason to SMILE! Meg, Age 29 I never thought I could have straight teeth, but the advances in Invisalign and the wonderful staff at Blue Ridge Orthodontics made it all possible!

Sara, Age 13 Thank you for sponsoring my field trip to the Barrier Islands, we learned so much and it was so fun! Oh, and I love all the colors I get to pick for my braces!

Debbie, Mother of 2 Blue Ridge Orthodontics shows an incredible amount of compassion and kindness both in work and for patients.

We are so thankful for the girls’ smiles that will last a lifetime!

Start Treatment in October and we will donated 10% of fees to the Susan G. Komen foundation. Visit brosmile.com for details.

Call 828.687.0872 for your FREE consultation! brosmile.com T. Luke Roberts, DMD, MSD | Karla Alvarado, DMD, MS 2 Walden Ridge Dr. Suite 50, Asheville, NC 28803 October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 43

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| October 2015

$2.2 billion o n c a n dy t h i s y e a r

(Projections per the National Retail Federation)

L

Get Ready for a Fright written by

marla hardee milling

The amount spent on Halloween can seem downright spooky as you watch dollars drain from your bank account.

Consider these figures from the National Retail Federation: In 2014 the average person spent $77.52 on Halloween and total spending reached 7.8 billion dollars.

Of that 2.8 billion went to costumes for adults and kids, and another $350 million for costumes for their pets. Toss in Halloween decorations, candy, and greeting cards and the costs keep climbing.

W hat is it about Halloween that draws such attention? We turned to Joshua Warren for the answer. He’s an internationally renowned paranormal investigator, author of many books including How to Hunt Ghosts, creator of the Haunted Asheville Tours, and owner of the Asheville Mystery Museum.

“We love Halloween for the same reason we love movies, TV shows, and good books,” said Warren. “It gives an opportunity to escape from ordinary reality. When you don a disguise and run out into the night, it becomes an interactive fantasy. One can be a superhero, a mischief-maker, or a seducer. It’s role-playing accepted by the mainstream at large. Of course, it also provides a rare opportunity for us to openly discuss dark, ghoulish, and taboo topics that are usually only associated with the weird. Knowing that it’s okay to scare each other for a holiday appeals to the roller-coaster thrill-seeking types.”

While Warren has investigated many so-called haunted places, including being hired by the Grove Park Inn in 1996 to investigate tales of a resident ghost known as “The Pink Lady,” he says one of the most unnerving experiences he has personally had was near Helen’s Bridge, which is one of Asheville’s most famous haunts atop Beaucatcher Mountain.

“They say a grief-stricken woman named Helen hanged herself from the bridge after her daughter burned to death in a fire,” explained Warren. “A

narrow road passes beneath and locals always claimed you could stop your car below, roll down the window, and call “Helen come forth” to see her ghastly apparition appear. Being an especially foggy and creepy night, around 1am I foolishly decided it was a good opportunity to test the tale.

“There wasn’t another car, or soul, in sight as I eased my silver Chevy Lumina to a stop,” he continued. “I rolled down the window and spoke with authority: ‘Helen come forth… Helen come forth..

Helen come forth!’ Instantly the alternator died on my car. I didn’t have a cell phone back then, and I had to roll my car off to the overgrown shoulder of the road. I’ll never forget heading on foot all the way down that silent mountain, the fog seething around me to the nearest payphone on Tunnel Road. As I walked from under the bridge, clear human footsteps suddenly crackled in the dry leaves behind me, following me at a steady pace. I had long decided my research that night was done, and I high-tailed it down the mountain without ever looking back.”

Warren says his Haunted Asheville tours always sell out around Halloween.

While he says it’s an excellent time for paranormal phenomena to manifest, he also admits that some experiences are based on expectation. “People want the paranormal to manifest. The mind is an important factor in stimulating many paranormal phenomena,” Warren said.

Whether imagined or real, he does pay attention to reports he gets from customers who take the tour. “After almost every tour we do around Halloween, I receive phone calls and emails the next day,” he said. “Inevitably, someone will say, ‘A ghost followed me home after the tour last night.’ Recently a lady said she woke up at 4am after taking one of my tours to find a hooded, 7-foot-tall being, cloaked in black, standing at the foot of her bed.

I’d say she got what she paid for!”

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October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 45

leisure & libation

Halloween activities across Western Avery County Beary Scary Halloween: October 31 Beary Scary Halloween in Linville from 10:30am – 3:30pm.

Celebrate Halloween at Grandfather Mountain with crafts, nature programs, trick or treating, and a costume contest >> 828-733-4337 >> grandfather.com

Buncombe County LaZoom Haunted Comedy Tour: Ongoing Explore Asheville’s strange, sometimes sordid past. >> 828-225-6932 >> lazoomtours.com

Haunted Asheville Ghost Tours: Ongoing >> hauntedasheville.com

Hickory Nut Gap Farm: Month of October Hickory Nut Gap Farm offers activities and fun for families and visitors of all ages – animal barn and goat walk, corn maze, pumpkin patch, trike track, hay climb and rope swing, apple picking, cider press, nature walk, and picnic areas. Kiddie cart rides, hay rides, and horse rides are offered Saturdays & Sundays from 11am – 4pm. Tickets for rides must be purchased in addition to regular admission. >> 828-628-1027 >> hickorynutgapfarm.com

The Rayburn Farms pumpkin patch: Saturdays in October Buy some pumpkins and a pumpkin pie. >> 828-424-5109

Eliada’s 2015 Corn Maze: Through October 31 This year’s theme is “Soaring to New Heights!” This design features an airplane, air balloon, and bird, all in keeping with the newest feature, a giant jumping pillow. 100% of proceeds help care for the 300 children who come to Eliada Homes annually for services and care. Hours: Wednesdays and Thursday 9am – 3pm; Fridays 9am – 8pm; Saturdays 10am – 8pm; and Sundays 10am – 6pm. Located five minutes from downtown Asheville. >> 828-254-5356 >> EliadaCornMaze.com 46

| October 2015

Swannanoa Valley Museum’s Historic Haunted House Tour: October 23 and 24 Explore the Terry Estate, or “In the Oaks,” a historic treasure in Black Mountain. The estate was once famous for the lavish prohibition-era high society parties thrown there. The tour features exhibits of photographs and objects from the museum collection, as well as guides dressed in ’20s attire offering historic interpretation of this grand estate. Guided tours begin are every 30 mins from 5:30 – 8pm. The cost is $25 for members of the Swannanoa Valley Museum and $30 for non-members. >> 828-669-9566 >> swannanoavalleymuseum.org

Trick-or-Treat at Haunted Museum: October 31 A free (donations appreciated) event for children from 10am – 8pm, at Swannanoa Valley Museum. >> 828-669-9566 >> swannanoavalleymuseum.org

Howl-O-Ween Pet Parade and Festivities in Downtown Black Mountain: October 31 Costume contest at 2:30pm. Parade at 3pm on Town Square. >> 828-669-2300 >> blackmountain.org

Clay County Punkin Chunkin: October 17 and 18 Pumpkins take to the air in Brasstown. >> 828-389-3704 >> ncmtnchamber.com

Haywood County Pinhead’s Graveyard: October 2, 3, and 8, November 1 Enjoy this outdoor haunted house. >> 828-670-8228 >> pinheadsgraveyard.com

Treats On The Street: October 31 Downtown Waynesville, merchants offer treats to young children from 5 – 7pm. >> 828-456-3517 >> waynesvillenc.gov

L

North Carolina: Henderson County The Myers Haunted House: Weekends October 2 November 1 >> 828-708-2190

Haunted Farms: Weekends October 2-31 Includes the Woods, the Farm, and the Haunted Hayride. >> 828-702-7911 >> nchauntedfarm.com

Trick or Trail 5 Mile Run and One Mile Spooky Sprint: October 30

Your business trip shouldn’t start with a road trip Start with a

From 6 – 9pm in Hendersonville. Limited entries - only 300 spots. Headlamps are required for this event. >> eventbrite.com/e/trick-or-trail-5-mile-run-one-mile-spookysprint-registration-17413410981

Trick-or-Treat Street: October 31 Main Street in Historic Downtown Hendersonville, merchants offering trick or treating. Halloween costume contest and dance party from 4-7pm.

Frequent Daily Flights ALLEGIANT | AMERICAN | DELTA | UNITED

>> 828-233-3216 >> downtownhendersonville.org

Jackson County Highlands Downtown All Hallows Eve Celebration: October 31 On Main Street Highlands from 6 – 8pm. >> 828-526-2112 >> highlandschamber.org

Pumpkin Patch: October 30 From 5 – 7pm at Cullowhee Recreation Park. Costume Contest immediately following; Fun Run at 7:30pm. >> 828-293-3053 >> rec.jacksonnc.org

Treat Street Sylva: October 31 >> 828-586-2719 >> mainstreetsylva.org

Dillsboro Trick or Treat: October 31 Get candy from around downtown Dillsboro from 5 – 7pm. >> www.visitdillsboro.org October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 47

leisure & libation

Macon County Deal Farms Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch: October The corn maze is open Friday – Saturday from 10am – 9pm; Monday – Thursday from 9am – 6pm by appointment or corn maze only general admission. >> 828-524-5151 >> dealfarms.com

Rutherford County Park in the Dark at Chimney Rock State Park: October 24 From 7:30 – 10pm. A nocturnal family-friendly fundraiser to benefit the Friends of Chimney Rock State Park organization. >> 828-625-9281 >> chimneyrockpark.com

Pumpkin Fest in Downtown Franklin: October 24 Street festival along Main Street with crafters, famous pumpkin roll, live music 9am – 4 pm . >> 828-524-2516 >> pumpkinfestfranklin.com

Pumpkin Run 5K-Run/Walk: October 24 9am at Tassee Park, Franklin. >> 1-866-372-5546 >> franklin-chamber.com

Dal Kawa DK Hendersonville, NC

312 Kanuga Rd Hendersonville, NC 28739 Phone: (828) 692-7519 www.dalkawa.com

48

| October 2015

Swain County Corn Maze, Hayrides and Pumpkin Patch at Darnell Farms: October With a Haunted Corn Maze the week of Halloween. >> 828-488-2376 >> darnellfarm.com

Downtown Trick or Treat Bryson City: October 29 From 4 – 6pm in downtown Bryson City. >> greatsmokies.com

L Peanuts Pumpkin Patch Express: Weekends October 3 - 31 Enjoy the ride, play games, pick out your own pumpkin, and meet Lucy and Snoopy on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. >> 800-872-4681 >> gsmr.com

Hauntober Weekend and Haunted Trail: October 11-15

Transylvania County Heart of Brevard’s 33nd Annual HALLOWEENFEST 2015: October 31 From 10am – 10pm in downtown Brevard >> 828-884-3278 >> halloweenfestnc.com

At Fontana Village >> fontanavillage.com

Haunted Cherokee: October 25 - November 1 This is a fundraiser for the Cherokee Historical Association. >> hauntedcherokee.com

Masquerade Dinner Train on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad: October 31 All aboard at 8:30pm. >> 800-872-4681 >> gsmr.com

Watauga County Blowing Rock Halloween Festival: October 31 All free and open to the public in downtown Blowing Rock. >> 828-295-5222 >> blowingrock.com

Downtown Boone Boo: October 31 From 4:30–6pm in downtown Boone. Entertainment, games, arts and crafts, trick-or-treating with the downtown merchants, >> 828-268-6280 >> downtownboonenc.com

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 49

Tale Passions

OF TWO

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Robert Beatty’s journey from cloud computing innovator to New York Times Bestseller. written by arthur treff

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photos by anthony harden

robert be att y October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 51

robert be att y working on the Serafina and the Black Cloak book trailer

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erafina and the Black Cloak is a middle grade mystery thriller that takes place in the Vanderbilt mansion. The villain is a cloak-wearing specter who is making children vanish. Here’s the real-life mystery: How can the author of this best selling novel for young readers also be a wildly successful high-tech entrepreneur?

More importantly, how did this versatile businessman find success on two such different professional fronts?

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The mystery was solved when we spent some time with this Fletcher, North Carolina resident. We discovered that he — like all the entrepreneurs we write about — is driven by a singular fascination with business. But Robert Beatty has followed two passions: the power of the computer to bring order to chaos, and the therapeutic power of writing.

Founder and CEO of Plex Systems, a company that provides management information systems to manufacturing companies worldwide, Beatty was the chief architect of the ‘Plex Manufacturing Cloud.’ He was a pioneer of cloud computing. (Plexus has been renamed Plex. For more information visit www.plex.com.)

Robert has written ‘Serafina and the Black Cloak’; a mystery novel published by Disney/Hyperion that is #2 on the New York Times Bestseller list and into its second printing.

Early Years Robert’s mother read two or three books a week, so he too became an avid reader. His genre was fantasy: Tolkien, T.H. White, anything containing swordplay. At age 11, he complained that he’d run out of books to read. The answer was an old electric typewriter. ‘Here, play with this,’ his mother said.

“I knew this was something I had to do,” says Robert, “I felt it the first time I sat down to write.”

Young Robert began to write but was not content with short stories, instead he wrote books. Robert discovered that he loved the process. He’d lose himself in a world of his own creation.

It was cathartic; he felt happy when writing. His first passion was born.

Robert’s second passion had multiple inspirations. His father gave him a TI-99 computer. It was the early days of computing, and Windows did not yet exist. To make a computer do something worthwhile, the user had to program it for the task at hand. Robert taught himself to code and loved it. As his command of computer languages grew, he realized that he needed a bigger computer.

Aided by one of his former teachers, Robert was granted access to a local college’s mainframe computer, which gave the him a huge advantage as he continued to teach himself computer coding. By the time he entered college he was fluent in six programming languages.

Young Robert’s mind was opened to the real-world possibilities of computer programming when he was shown two applications of its power. During a visit to the energy conglomerate his father worked for, he saw a large control panel. A network of rudimentary computers controlled the extensive network of natural gas pipelines.

At age 15, he was hired as a part-time draftsman by a local company that built automated assembly lines. While drawing these complex systems, Robert found that he had a knack for identifying potential problems and optimizing workflow. He was satisfied, keeping the job until he went to college.

When Robert wasn’t studying or working, he was writing. He began corresponding with publishing houses in search of a book deal (and collecting rejection letters).

Michigan State Robert observed that the successful people in Detroit were engineers, so he majored in mechanical engineering with an emphasis in computer science.

He also took some literature courses, and continued to evolve as a writer. College also raised his awareness of environmental issues, and he indulged his love of nature and his concerns for the environment by writing about it.

As an experienced draftsman studying mechanical engineering, Robert had no trouble securing a co-op job with a

local manufacturer. MSP was a metal forging house that made specialized parts for the auto industry, and he drafted parts and tooling for them.

Shattered Illusions Although MSP hired Robert as an engineer upon graduation, he was frustrated.

“In school, I was learning about factories of the future,” says Robert, “but the place I worked was a factory of the past….it was chaos.”

During his first year on the job, Robert had redesigned a part MSP was manufacturing, so he drew it and asked the shop to make him some samples he could test. If they worked, he’d propose the changes to Ford.

The next day, he discovered that the parts had been made all right, but due to miscommunication, his untested, unapproved parts had been shipped to Ford. It was an engineer’s nightmare.

Robert stormed into the office of MSP’s owner and president, Richard McDermott, and said, ‘This place is crazy! I quit. There’s no automation, no accountability, no one communicates. I want to go work for a real company.”

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com

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Richard listened to Robert’s frustration. In the course of the conversation he discovered the young man had programming skills. So he offered Robert a new job — fix MSP.

Genius Unleashed It was a dream come true; the chance to create his own communication system. Robert threw himself into the task with the same dedication with which he pursued everything else in his life.

He went through MSP, department by department, learning every person’s job. He documented their role, and observed how work progressed among departments. Armed with measurable data, he wrote computer program segments to automate information flow.

Positions were added and consolidated, some departments were eliminated entirely. After 18 months of 90-hour workweeks, Robert had done it. His custom communication system was called Plexus. It was one of the first systems of its kind; that are now known as ERP systems.

By implementing Plexus and the latest management techniques, the MSP team transformed the company. Their standing on Ford’s preferred supplier list rose from number 24 to number 2.

The Plexus system was running MSP, and Robert’s standing in the company rose as well.

Supersizing, Writing, and Revising

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Plexus as a Product In 1995, Robert and Richard formed a new company; Plexus Systems, LLC. The software was already in demand due to the buzz created by MSP’s transformation, so the new venture did incredibly well. It yielded 35% to 40% annual growth and 30% profit increases in the first few years, rare for a startup.

“I got up in front of all these Progress experts and said, ‘Forget about what you’ve been doing, what we’ve been successful at, we’re going in a completely different direction.

Forget the language you’ve taken 10 years to become experts in, we need to change. We’re starting from scratch!

Who’s with me?’”

Armed with increased MSP revenue and Plexus, Richard began buying up and turning around distressed manufacturing companies. Robert was sent in to “Plexus-ize” them, which was the same process he followed at MSP: organize and document one department at a time until the company was healthy.

It worked. MSP grew with each acquisition, and Robert learned more about the value of Plexus as a tool for transformation.

Throughout this productive business cycle, however, Robert continued to write novels, tried to get them published, and collected more rejection letters. His writing needed as much attention as his day job, but free time was scarce.

“Things could be going really well for me on the software business side of things,” says Robert, “but if I didn’t write, I felt like I was wasting my life, like I wasn’t doing anything 54

worthwhile. Writing makes me happy. It’s not a stress reliever as much as a sense of purpose.”

US Manufacturing Cultural Shift Plexus hit the market at the perfect time. It was the mid-1990s and American companies were trying to emulate their Japanese competitors, whose quality and cost control were unassailable. Shrewd American CEOs realized that systems like Plexus could help streamline manufacturing, making them more efficient and competitive.

Robert’s new company was busy and prosperous. Each Plexus customer received a custom-designed software suite, many of which were well above $1M in price. Plexus had a staff of computer engineers on payroll, but key ingredients of each customer’s system had to be created by Robert. Realizing that this wasn’t scalable, he cloistered himself for several weeks to figure out the solution.

Robert’s Crystal Ball

Isolated from day-to-day interruptions, Robert realized that a software platform could be written to function as a common backbone, with triggers that could be tailored for specific needs. To the customer, Plexus would still appear as a specialized software platform, but in reality, all customers would be using the same common data center.

The new system also resided on a server accessed via the Internet. Customers no longer needed expensive computer hardware, or the staff to support it. The term was not yet coined, but Robert’s idea would come to be known as cloud computing.

Robert knew that if he could foresee this, so could his competitors. In the near future, selling custom software, like Plexus, would be dead. Robert knew he had to turn Plexus around, and quickly.

above : Robert Beatty with his 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year award below center : Robert Beatty’s United States Patent for Plexus Systems

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com

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Cloudy with a 100% Chance of Resistance Robert called a company meeting to outline his plan. Life was good at Plexus Systems. The product was in demand, the employees were well paid, their future looked secure. The Plexus System was written in a computer language called Progress.

Robert’s engineers were all master level Progress programmers.

His new cloud computing model would require that all of them learn a new Microsoft language called Sequel Server. It was akin to the engineers being Jedi Knights, and Robert was asking them to step over to the Dark Side.

“I got up in front of all these Progress experts and said, ‘Forget about what you’ve been doing, what we’ve been successful at, we’re going in a completely different direction. Forget the language you’ve taken 10 years to become experts in, we need to change. We’re starting from scratch! Who’s with me?’”

Only one employee raised his hand; it was his first day on the job. The rest thought their boss was crazy.

Even in this cutting edge, entrepreneurial company, a paradigm had become deeply rooted. Engineers can be stubborn, but Robert remained calm and led by example. He began designing the system by himself and eventually won over his engineers one at a time.

Cloud Surfing By 2005, Plexus Systems was transformed; all their products were in demand and ran in the cloud. The company was profitable and growing. Robert felt that he had accomplished 56

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exactly what he set out to do: develop a software tool that would revolutionize manufacturing, and people wanted it.

He had worked very hard for 20 years and loved every minute.

Plexus had gone beyond automotive and was also working in the defense and aerospace markets. The company was in its growth phase. The work to be done fell at least as much on the marketing, accounting, and legal departments, as well as to Robert’s strengths in technology and manufacturing.

Life Intervenes At the same time, Robert’s wife, Jennifer, learned she had cancer. It was a wake up call; a stark reminder to Robert that if he focused too intently on one aspect of his life, he would sacrifice the others.

Together he and his business partner, who had his eye on acquiring a large new manufacturing company, decided to sell the majority of their shares in Plexus to a private equity firm.

Richard bought his next company, and Robert had the time and money to slow down and care for his wife and two daughters. He decided that he couldn’t stay in Detroit for fear he would be sucked back into his former life. The Beatty’s moved to Asheville in 2005. Jennifer made a full recovery, and Robert was free to dedicate more time to writing.

It is important to note that throughout his business career, Robert Beatty didn’t just write his stories in a vacuum. There was a method to his self-taught curriculum. When a book was finished he gave manuscripts to anyone who volunteered to read

them and sought their feedback. He welcomed their critique.

Robert believed that all criticism moved him closer to his goal of becoming a successful writer.

While at Plexus, he had little time but more money. Robert attended seminars taught by the most successful editors and authors in the business. He stopped writing to publishers directly, but attended conferences where he pitched his story to literary agents for feedback.

The sights… the seasons…

the lifestyle.

Finding His Audience By the time the family arrived in Asheville, Robert had written fourteen novels and received over 500 rejections, but still he soldiered on. His daughter Camille came into his study one night and asked if she could read what he was working on.

“No honey, this is for grownups.”

“Oh, okay, Dad.” A few days later she reappeared.

“Now can I read what you’ve written, Dad?” “No honey, this is strictly for grownups.”

The next night, Camille returned, plopped down a tattered manuscript, and asked, “What’s this?”

“That’s something I wrote a long time ago, when I was a boy.

I don’t write books like that anymore.”

“Well, you should because I read it and love it! Write more books like this!”

The manuscript was called ‘Lioness’. To his girls’ delight, he rewrote the tale. He shopped the title to literary agents and for the first time in his life the rejections were much more positive; his self-taught writing education was getting results.

Robert then decided to write a brand new novel that his daughters would want to read, and he sought their feedback extensively. The story was named, Serafina and the Black Cloak. In addition to depicting a dark villain who terrorized the Biltmore House of the past, it contained lessons about rejection, acceptance, love, and courage.

At his family’s encouragement, Robert attended a conference in New York called, ‘Thrillerfest’. He eagerly pitched Serafina to 10 agents that day; all of them wanted to represent the book.

He selected the agent with the most experience selling to the large publishing houses.

Disney Hyperion (an imprint of Disney Publishing Worldwide) purchased Serafina, a giant accomplishment. But when Robert researched the trends in the publishing world, he soon learned that even books with big name publishers don’t always do that well; 99% of published books die in obscurity.

“I was determined not to let this book die.”

In the early years of Plexus, Robert hadn’t paid much attention to sales and marketing, but he learned his lesson.

He now knew that marketing was as critically important as the product itself. He applied his business experience to the

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project and mapped out the book’s marketing plan. Much of the buzz would be created via social media and would center on a video book trailer.

Robert hired Asheville’s Bonesteel Films to produce a book trailer for the novel, filmed at Biltmore Estate. Robert’s eldest daughter Camille (15) coordinated social networking content,

It is important to note that throughout his business career, Robert Beatty didn’t just write his stories in a vacuum. There was a method to his self-taught curriculum.

while his middle daughter Genevieve (13) played the role of Serafina, and his wife made the key costumes.

The plan worked: Serafina and the Black Cloak received thousands of new Facebook followers per day. The book was released nationally on July 14, and within the first week, Serafina became #4 on the New York Times Bestseller List. (As of this writing, it’s been on the list for five consecutive weeks and has risen to #2.)

Book sales were impressive, which prompted Disney/Hyperion to do two things: sign Robert for two more novels and expand Serafina into a series.

Return to Manufacturing The Beatty’s do not have a television in their home, so when the girls want to learn anything new, Robert is fully available, and the sky’s the limit. When daughter Camille became bored with taking things apart to see how they worked, Robert suggested that they build something new together.

“Let’s build a robot, Dad!” was her reply.

The family launched the robot project with the trademark discipline Robert brought to his business career. As an experienced software programmer, he found learning a new software

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language easily. However, they all had to teach themselves how to machine metal parts and design robotic control circuits. The Beatty team also had to learn how to make and assemble circuit boards.

The robotics project is chronicled in a blog, www.beatty-robotics.com. The girls are having a blast. Their Mars Rover clone has garnered the attention of science museums that want rovers of their own. Beatty Robotics now has a backlog of purchase orders to fill, keeping the girls and their dad busy.

be att y and his daughters,

Genevieve and Camille

Epilogue In Detroit, Robert helped create factories of the future, and in Asheville he and his family continue to build robots and write books. There are clearly good things to come.

What will happen in the Serafina sequel? Will there be a movie? Where will this family’s robotic business lead them? In many ways their tale is just beginning.

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column

Scared Stiff

Two Tales of Harrowing Asheville Hauntings

N

O CAMPFIRE? NO PROBLEM...

Step right up if you dare, and leave your inhibitions at home.

This quaint mountain town is full of terrors that have nothing to do with traffic. Something wicked this way comes, if only you know where to look. But mind your step dear reader, the dead walk among us...

Down Went the Jimmys

dr . vl admir cutupand dropoff xiv

​ aZoom Bus ​ L haunted tour guide AKA: Mondy Carter.

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They say we have too much entertainment. All you have to do is reach into your pocket and a device will give you any movie, music, or any connection you might want. I put it to you that when we don’t have a high level of entertaining possibilities our base instincts come crawling like sugar-starved over indulged toddlers looking for a fix.

Case in point: In 1835 James Henry and James Sneed were convicted of stealing horses. At that time a few thousand people lived in Asheville. When those two were sentenced to be hanged, ten thousand people showed up. They traveled from all around for days to attend, a testament to how bored people were. It was either watch two men die or another day of hard work.

It was a celebration, too. People arrived the night before and essentially tailgated. There were songs, dancing, and, ironically, the occasional horse theft.

What was it like for those two men the night before their execution? Hearing the brouhaha outside and knowing their impending doom brought so much joy could have planted the seeds of future hauntings.

They were being made an example of. An example

| October 2015

that sometimes justice was arbitrarily vindictive.

The next day the two were brought from their holding cells at the courthouse jail. They were put on a cart and made to sit on their own future coffins as they were paraded down Broadway Avenue towards the gallows. After being brought up to the platform, and before moving on with the rest of the death sentence, the two were given the opportunity to address the crowd. James Sneed said, yes, he cheated at cards; yes, he cheated on his girlfriend; and if he had filed taxes, he would have cheated on those as well; but he claimed never to have stolen a horse and he defied his accusers to say otherwise.

The man who had accused both James’ only turned and walked away. Now the crowd got excited because the moment was at hand. The thought of two men dying gave life to the mob. The blood lust rose to a kind of mass hysteria. Hoods were placed on their heads and nooses about their necks. Last rights were read, but the condemned would be hardpressed to hear it over the screams of delight from the animalistic throng. The executioner pulled the lever. Then fate turned the cruel to the macabre. The hinges of the trapdoors were stuck with blood and

urine from previous hangings. Because really, who thinks to clean a gallows? It’s not like they had OSHA. The reluctant hinges forced the doors to only open slightly.

Instead of snapping their necks, the nooses only strangled the two. It was said that the men appeared to be tap dancing as they tried to find some surface to stand on.

The audience was at first stunned to silence and then roared with laughter. Their blood pressure increased trying to overcome the cinch of the noose so the hands of the doomed swelled to the size of their heads. Hilarity turned to horror as the two transformed from men to blue deformed monsters. The dancing pushed the doors down and the show came to a twitchy conclusion. Some cheered and others vomited.

James Henry and James Snead were buried only sixty feet from where they were hanged. The crowd looked at each other and knew they were guilty too... of losing their humanity.

Legend has it that on dark nights when the fog rolls into town at the corner Woodfin and Broadway the clopping of hooves can be heard and the swing of a trap door.

I don’t think that’s the ghost of the Jimmys. It’s the shame of a mob that needed video games.

The Jackson Building Ghost Speaks

I made it to the top and that became my ruin. You know what’s really bad? I don’t remember my own damn name. It wasn’t distinct; an apostle plus a surname related to some archaic one like Smith or Joiner. When I was alive people feared my name.

I’m sure it was only spoken in whispers like Black Beard. Banking in the 1920s was a lot like being a pirate. You found a lone target and plundered it. In ‘29 I lost everything, including my will to live. I went out big, too. It takes guts to swan dive from the top of the Jackson Building. I really could have used the target that’s there on the sidewalk now. Half of me landed on an Edsel; what a mess.

The story is that I’m just a face that appears in the window near the top floor, but when people really see me...they don’t talk about it. You might think being a ghost is pretty fun. You can scare people, which is hilarious. The key is to draw them in by provoking their interest. Appearing as a little girl in a night shirt, facing away is becoming predictable. Everybody knows on the other side of that long unwashed hair is a fleshless skull. I have more style. Who isn’t going to come closer to a meowing kitten poking its head out of a paper bag? The kitten retreats into the bag, and I step out of the shadows shrieking with my bird beak nose and bleeding eyes. That moment of terror is my current addiction. It’s also the downside of this existence.

What else do I have? Outside of the time I spend training kittens: nothing.

There is no life to being a ghost. Once, I tried to have a conversation with a demon.

He was in possession of a guy in jail next door. So awkward! He kept accidentally falling into the patter he would use on the possessed.

I’m all: “It’s pretty fascinating how Asheville has changed in the last eighty years.”

And he’s like: “It really is because...everyone is talking about you behind your back.

You need to stab them in the stomach!”

I’m like: “Dude! You’re not making any sense.”

I end up doing a lot of eavesdropping on the living. I’ve listen to people longer than I was ever alive. I follow their stories like soap operas. Sometimes I become too involved. I start to care. That freaks me out. The face of genuine emotion makes me panic. I’ll create an evil fart smell and break up their conversation. Both will think the other is guilty, but I know...it’s the only contribution I can make.

Hurtling towards the pavement all those years ago I thought I was escaping frustration and pain. Turns out, I was prolonging it. Odd, when I was rapidly heading to the top of my industry I was essentially doing the same thing.

From Concept to Reality...

Imagination has no Limits 312.618.4024 18 BROOK STREET SUITE 102, ASHEVILLE NC 28803 ROBERTALLANDESIGN.NET October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 61

THE OLD

NORTH

STATE [

news briefs

Shifting Sands wade, nc

The Cumberland County Commissioners recently approved the re-zoning of 65 acres on Claude Lee Road from Rural Residential to Conditional Agricultural for sand mining. The site was selected following drilling results suggesting the sand is considerably deep.

No one appeared before the planning board to complain. Sand mines are not uncommon along the Cape Fear River; nineteen are currently operating in the county, and thirty-four have already been reclaimed, turned into lakes or covered with vegetation. The mine will be operated by McDonald Materials, Incorporated. American Materials and GS Materials also have “borrow source operations” in the area. GS’ Lake Pits Mine is now considered semi-active,

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]

providing only on-demand sand for local projects. Common uses include making glass and concrete, underlaying roads and other construction, filling bunkers, and preparing sites for football fields.

North Carolina Study at Forefront of Cancer Research

in a million times. Fortunately for life on earth, there are two proofreader proteins, dubbed MutS and MutL, that give the nucleotides a second chance. Weninger and Erie applied single-molecule fluorescence to discover the process. MutS slides along a newly-formed chain. When it finds an error, it locks and changes shape so MutL will bond with it. The MutL then changes shape to attract another MutS, and the process continues to “coat and nick” the defect, reducing replication errors to something more like one in a billion. Mutations in MutS and MutL are associated with at least some cancers.

The researchers believe learning about how the proteins are supposed to operate will be key to finding a cure.

Rich, Vibrant Paisley

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Keith Weninger, of North Carolina State University, and Dorothy Erie, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have made headway in the search for a cure for cancer. As it turns out, once the infamous DNA double helix splits, the nucleotides, adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine, sometimes goof and bond in the wrong places. They do this about one

Durham-based custom fabric maker Spoonflower raised $25 million for innovation and international expansion.

North Bridge Growth Equity and Bull City Venture Partners led the investment drive. Spoonflower is an online site where customers may upload their own designs or select from a seemingly never-ending catalogue of lush and vibrant swatches

designed by independent artists and made available on commission. The customer next selects his fabric, wallpaper, or gift wrap medium. Spoonflower then applies the print, cuts, packs, and ships the custom material. Globally, the digitally-printed textile market is estimated to conduct $12 billion in business a year.

Spoonflower has grown 433 percent in the last three years. Last year, it earned $15.3 million and added 83 employees.

It now employs 150. Spoonflower began operations in 2008 in a single room of a sock mill. Since 30% of orders come from abroad, Spoonflower will soon open an office in Berlin.

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carolina in the west

national & world

JELD-WEN has been slowly and quietly moving its North American headquarters to Charlotte from Portland, Oregon. In 2012 JELD-WEN did not renew its sponsorship of the Portland Timbers’ soccer stadium, which bore its name. Since then, the 23,000-sq-ft. office in the Ally Center in uptown Charlotte has become the company’s global headquarters. The company began as a conscientious family business over fifty years ago. In 2011, to avoid going under during the housing crisis, it sold majority ownership, valued at $871 million, to Onex Corporation, a Canadian private-equity firm.

Cooper Challenges Western Sky Financial

Secret Exodus from Portland

raleigh, nc

charlotte, nc

The Wall Street Journal announced JELD-WEN intends to go public. The company is working with Barclays BCS and Credit Suisse Group AG to put together a $4 billion IPO. JELD-WEN sells windows and doors marketed as high-quality but affordable. It employs 20,000 with locations in over twenty countries. In its last fiscal year, the company did $3.5 billion in business. Over the last few years,

Special Superior Court Judge Gregory McGuire issued a temporary injunction against Western Sky Financial and affiliates of the high-interest lender. The lenders had argued that because they were affiliated with a Native American tribe they could operate in North Carolina, in spite of interest rates well beyond the state’s limits for usury. Rates as high as 342.86% had been charged. The order prohibits the lenders from advertising,

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offering, or entering into contracts with North Carolinians or attempting to collect payments on loans already made. It further prohibits the lenders from reselling loans made to North Carolina residents or engaging in other attempts to make it look like the loans were not made to North Carolinians. Attorney General Roy Cooper challenges Western Sky’s position, claiming it is a business owned by an individual who happens to be a member of a tribe; not a business run to benefit any particular tribe. If Cooper prevails, the injunction will become permanent, and Western Sky will have to cancel its loans to North Carolina customers, issue refunds, and cease operating in the state.

Rightsizing the Vision pinehurst, nc

Stonehill Pines, a luxury resort featuring two golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, is going on the auction block.

In 2009 the Foxfire Village Council approved annexation of 1490 acres nchfor nd bru(PUD). e k e e w a Planned rUnit Development ving w se would Noresort The include up to 1050 homes, a 250-room Ritz-Carlton hotel, nch end bru k e e w g 120,000-sq-ft. of conference space, and vin Now ser 90,000-sq-ft. of commercial retail space.

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the old north state

Though not necessarily part of the plan, which was to be fulfilled in four phases, a 20,000-sq-ft. spa, amphitheater, and boat house were other uses allowed with the rezoning. Stonehill Capital of Florida paid $19.7 million for the property, and the first of four phases of construction was to begin in 2010. The development was supposed to lure 1300 more residents to the Foxfire Village, but it didn’t.

Now, the ownership group is dissolving and CBRE Auction Services is taking over. Bids will start at $4000 per acre or $5.9 million for the entire property.

A $200,000 deposit is required to participate in the bidding. The property is being marketed as prime for another resort or recreational purpose, or timber harvesting for the short-term.

Interest in Military Blimps Rises

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A surveillance blimp that could become widely used for Department of Homeland Security purposes, test-flew successfully at TCOM’s Center for Excellence in Elizabeth City. TCOM is the world’s only vertically-integrated manufacturer of aerostats, or tethered blimps. The TCOM 12M Tactical Aerostat is equipped with advanced sensors for Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI) provided by Logos Technologies, LLC. Logos’ Simera system, weighing 40 pounds, covers over 36-square-miles in a 360-degree panorama in high-definition. Images are recorded continuously with immediate rewind capability. The aerostats are compact and portable, well-suited for rapid deployment and retrieval. They can carry a payload up to 60 pounds, and they can endure missions of up to five days. The aerostat-sensor combo could find applications for law enforcement, emergency response, and private surveillance. They could also temporarily replace downed communications towers.

Reminding You to Choose Happiness apex & durham, nc

Happy Fix® debuted its Adult Sippy Cups at National Girlfriend’s Day by the Vines, a one-day festival held at Doyle’s Vineyard. A lead-up press release only divulged a mystery item would be unveiled. The cups are transparent, but rather than having boring, concentric cylinders like a normal thermal cup, the Adult Sippy Cup features an inner cup shaped like a wine glass. The cups are sturdily built with acrylic, and they hold 10 ounces. The corporate logo, “HPY,” and the phrase, “My Happy Fix,” are printed on the exterior. This is but the latest product in a line of gear output

by Happy Fix. The company has trademarked the phrase, Happy Feels GoodTM. Its mission is to remind everyone “that happiness is a choice that’s always within reach.” President Stacy Menzies started Happy Fix because she wanted to make the world a better place. In addition to selling stuff to jog folks out of a blue malaise, Happy Fix has a MeetUp Group in the Triangle area for those in search of motivational speaking.

Not What, but Who Yuno wilmington, nc

Andre Walters walked away from a great job running the legal office of the Charlotte Bobcats to start Yuno. Yuno, the name derived from “the people you know,” combines online shopping with social media to reward people for talking up products to their friends. Yuno partners with retailers, like Macy’s, Best Buy, and Foot Locker, that cooperate because they appreciate the promotion.

Users of Yuno create a virtual showroom of their favorite items from the vendors. When a user buys a favorite, he gets a 2.5% commission deposited in a PayPal account and word goes out to the user’s followers. When the alert

stirs a follower to make a purchase, the user gets another reward. A beta version of Yuno registered over 1000 users in a week, and a pre-launch attracted 20,000 users. Yuno launched for real at the end of August. Walters, now 35 years old, will be competing with Amazon, eBay, and direct sellers for a share of the $237 billion online sales market.

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Whistleblower Joe Vincoli has sued North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Carolinas Medical Center for fraudulently collecting tens of millions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid. The federal lawsuit faults the two hospitals for artificially inflating costs by providing employee health benefits through a company they own, MedCost. Medicare reimbursements run commensurately with what hospitals pay in wages and benefits. Another claim alleges violation of federal requirements that hospitals disclose when benefits are paid to companies they own. Vincoli served from 2006-07 as director of managed care at NC Baptist, where he was responsible for negotiating costs with MedCost and other payers. He filed the suit in 2009, but details could not be made public due to investigations pertaining to the US Justice Department’s consideration of joining the suit on Medicare’s behalf. The story hit the news circuit September 2nd after the Justice Department opted out.

Vincoli filed a similar complaint against Carolinas HealthCare System, MedCost’s other co-owner, in 2010. That followed a 2009 suit filed by NC Baptist employees alleging MedCost was not serving their interests. That case was settled for $5.4 million, with the federal Department of Labor ruling afterward the employees were indeed in the right. The Federal False Claims Act entitles whistleblowers uncovering fraud against the government to up to 35% of losses recovered.

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FromTOTaboo Conversational Shining a Light on Artistic Memorials

written by marl a hardee milling

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| October 2015

|

photos by anthony harden

cer amic cremation urn

Sacred Dance by artist Louis Colombarini, Dowelltown, TN October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 67

metal urn by Julia Burr, Black Mountain

S

ometimes Adrienne Crowther will do a little side glance before she slides a secret packet into the hands of an artist during a meeting.

“I think, ‘If people ever knew what we are doing in this coffee shop,’” she says with a laugh.

The contents of the envelope contain traces of what’s left of a vibrant life—a vial of ashes that once was a living, breathing human with hopes and fears and aspirations just like everyone else. Now, their body has been transformed to dust, and Crowther works to help families create artistic objects to honor the lives of those lost and comfort those who are left to grieve.

Crowther, who spent eight and a half years working with the Asheville Arts Council, including two years as director, now works in her North Asheville home. Sunlight streams through the windows as a cat jumps in Crowther’s lap demanding attention. Colorful artwork brings the home to life amid ornate objects often associated with a taboo subject—death. Crowther owns Shine On Brightly, a webbased business that provides handcrafted cremation urns, jewelry, memorial books, and photo collages.

She started the company in 2008 with a vision of promoting local artists in a way that fills a new niche. The next three years became a period of what she calls “stop and go,” as she found herself immersed in her own grief process. A year after launching the business, her husband died. Nine months later, his sister, who was her best friend, passed away. A year later, she grieved losing her mom.

“I know our society has been extremely afraid of death and people don’t want to talk about it,” said Crowther.

“Really, in my mind, I guess because I’ve had all these big losses, I think ‘Wow, that’s your grand finale,’ why not do something that’s really meaningful and reflective of the spirit of that person. That’s really my passion.”

These personal experiences gave Crowther a deeper understanding of what customers need, and she chooses artists based on those who also have a caring, compassionate spirit and the willingness to do some hand holding 68

| October 2015

cer amic urn Spiral by artist

Sang Roberson, Taos, NM

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 69

cer amic urn

by Tom Turner, Mars Hill

pandor a -styled Cremation

Bead with ashes infused by artist James Yaun of Asheville

as family members go through the experience of choosing the best urn or other item. Some of the pairings have been so successful that lasting bonds have been formed, including vacation invitations.

When customers go to the website at www.shineonbrightly.com they can choose from urns that are ready for shipment from the artist, or place a custom order. Urns range in price from $110 to $5,000, with pendants costing, on average, around $200.

“I have 30 artists [14 are in the Western North Carolina area], so I can offer different product lines and styles,” said Crowther. “I’m kind of like a matchmaker between artists and

fabric urn by artist Julie Mullin, Raleigh

clients. I have one clay artist in the River Arts District named Kat McIver and she’ll have long conversations with the client.

She’s very intuitive about picking up on things that are important about the person who is being memorialized.”

Julia Burr, a metal artist in Black Mou nt ain, a lso provides custom designed cremation urns through Shine On Brightly, and she says the interaction with those mourning their loved ones has really enriched her life. One woman came to her who had been carrying around her motherin-law’s ashes for two years. She had never found an urn she felt worthy until she saw Burr’s work.

“She told me that no matter where her mother-in-law went, she always had her knitting with her. I asked if she had any of her knitting needles.”

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Cremation Questions

adrienne crow ther

How many people are cremated each year?

Data available through the National Funeral Directors Association reveals that cremation was chosen for 45.4% of deaths in 2013. By 2030, that number is expected to climb to 71%. In contrast, the percentage of burials was 48.7% in 2013 and expected to decline to 23.2% by 2030.

Why is cremation an increasingly popular choice?

The cost comparison is one of the most popular reasons for choosing cremation. The average cost of a burial, including embalming, casket, and vault, is more than $7,000. The price of cremation is, on average, less than half that price. Traditional burial also requires more land resources.

How unique are the urns sold through Shine On Brightly?

While the business helps match artists and customers to create custom designs, they also showcase other urns and pendants on the website that can be replicated. “My whole thing is anti-mass produced,” said Adrienne, “So even though some of the artists [that I work with] can make the exact same urn, there’s always a little tiny tweak that’s different and it was made by somebody’s hands and their intention behind it.”

Adrienne points to a pottery vase hand painted with flowers that can be created using the person’s favorite blooms. She then stops to pick up a woven, brightly colored urn. “This one is fabric where you can take clothes of a loved one and recycle into an urn,” she said.

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hand - painted cer amic urn

Daisies artist David Voorhees from Zirconia, NC

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| October 2015

“I like to get a feel for a person and what might be symbolic of that person,” said Burr. “She told me that no matter where her mother-in-law went, she always had her knitting with her. I asked if she had any of her knitting needles.”

The woman sent her several sets of needles, and Barr chose some wooden ones that appeared to be the most worn. She created a long, metal cylinder and mounted the needles on top. The urn and needles are positioned horizontally. “It wound up looking like a Japanese vessel of some sort,” Burr said.

Another woman who had been caring for her husband’s ashes for a long time also commissioned Burr to create something special. The man was Todd Skinner, who was very famous in the climbing world and died in a rock climbing accident. Through talking with the wife and kids, Burr realized they were the part of his life that kept him grounded even as he took on the challenge of climbing to greater heights. She sculpted an outdoor urn featuring a steel root system that cradles a globe—his ashes were contained in the globe.

Life at the Death Cafe While death has long been a topic that many people avoid, Crowther says more baby boomers are starting to open up. There’s more interest in DIY funerals where people pick up the ashes from the funeral home and plan their own service, green burials, and other alternatives.

She says event planners are starting to work on funeral plans in the same fashion as weddings. There are Elvis funerals and celebrations with party favors, such as a CD that has a playlist of songs loved by the deceased.

“I will hear a song on the radio and I tell my kids, ‘Put that on my playlist for my memorial’,” Crowther says with a laugh. “We did this when my husband died. He was a big blues fan. My daughters burned CDs and we handed them out. It was called Hugh’s Tunes.”

Death Cafes are popping up where people discuss their experiences, fears, and hopes. “The guy who started the Before I Die Project, his daughter died and he’s put a lot of thought and energy into the dying process,” explained Crowther. “He started some death cafes that meet at Dobra Tea and they discuss their ideas and feelings and experiences and fears. It’s a forum to discuss death.

Others are planning dinners with a death theme—those are popping up around the country.”

While Shine On Brightly has reached a point where the business is profitable, Crowther says she is invested in it because it’s her true passion and she enjoys helping others when they are often at their most vulnerable. She listens and allows them to process their feelings and emotions as they talk about their loved one and how to

top : Pandora style Cremation

Bead with ashes infused by Asheville artist James Yaun

middle : Hand-bound Guest Register Book with Clamsell Box by artist Mary Carol Koester of Asheville bot tom : Vortex Glass Cremation Pendant with ashes infused by artist James Yaun

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 73

remember them in a way that celebrates their life. “I have to remember that what I’m offering isn’t just place your order and get it shipped out. I’m really talking to people and having a lot of personal interaction. It’s really service—much more than e-commerce,” she said.

Before arriving in Asheville in 1998, Crowther focused on her love of music and dance while raising two daughters in Newport, Rhode Island. “I taught piano and choreographed children’s performances and plays. I’ve always been involved in the arts,” she said. Her husband was a tugboat captain and would fly to work, usually in the Gulf of Mexico, work three weeks, and fly back home. They had numerous reasons for wanting to leave the Northeast and heard recommendations from some of his tugboat buddies to check out North Carolina because of the Outer Banks.

“Once we zeroed in on North Carolina everybody who knew us said, ‘You guys belong in Asheville,’” said Crowther. “We took the kids camping here. We all wrote mission statements, the kids, my husband and I, and when I look back it’s describing Asheville to a

“T”—progressive community, beautiful nature, artistic—so that’s pretty cool.”

Asheville has also been a place of healing for Crowther. She’s happily remarried, and her daughters—both grown now—are making a good living working in the arts. One recently embarked on a three-year arts conservation program in London. The other daughter does stylistic work for photo shoots, TV shows, and movies. She lives in Brooklyn.

“I heard this Procol Harum song called “Shine On Brightly.” I’d never heard it before, but apparently it’s really famous. I loved that title. I thought, ‘That’s it! I just named my company.’”

Crowther developed valuable aesthetic skills working with artists when she was at the Asheville Arts Council, but her new business has forced her to become very good at math to tell

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a potter or other artist how big to make an urn. She says for a person weighing 200 pounds at death, they will need an urn that can hold 200 cubic inches, if the family intends to store all of the ashes. A cup of ashes is 14.4 cubic inches, so she has to do the math. Some choose to divide ashes into smaller urns, sprinkle some, use some for jewelry, and even share among family members.

It’s a daunting task to compete with the big operations who crank out large quantities of cremation urns and then spend a lot of money on SEO and Google Ad Words. Shine On Brightly has grown organically through repeat customers, word of mouth referrals, and by people stumbling upon the website after searching for something a bit different. While a name that has “cremation urns” in the title can drive SEO, she chose a name with heart.

“I wanted something really uplifting and would imply it could shine on forever. I was visiting my sister in Kentucky and I went for a run,” she said. “I heard this Procol Harum song called “Shine On Brightly.” I’d never heard it before, but apparently it’s really famous. I loved that title. I thought, ‘That’s it! I just named my company.’ Once I established a presence on the web, I was contacted by their fan club. They said, ‘We love your name.’

I get a lot of traffic from their fan club, which is really funny.”

As far as partnering with funeral homes, Crowther says Groce Funeral Home in Asheville has been very supportive of her business, but most funeral homes are owned by large corporations who insist on using their traditional suppliers. However, she says younger funeral home directors, and particularly women, are searching for more artistic alternatives like the products showcased on her website.

While Shine on Brightly has been successful online, Crowther dreams of having a gallery space in the future. “I have a lot of out-of-towners who call and say ‘We’ll be in Asheville this weekend. Do you have a gallery?’ I wish I did,” said Crowther. “Blue Spiral 1 has been really wonderful to me and allowed me to have two juried shows there. We had a panel of local, well-respected art people who juried the pieces. Each show lasted about six weeks. I had a comment box and a lot of people said, ‘Thank you for bringing this to light and making it not as scary.’”

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UPDATES FOR

&

NATIONAL WORLD [

news briefs

Siemens Electric Freight arlanda and gavle, sweden

With the help of Swedish transit authorities, Siemens will be developing a new truck power system it calls eHighway.

Batteries are not economically feasible for freight trucks because their weight would lead to astronomical fuel costs, and having to stop all the time for charging would make delivery times prohibitive.

Costs of batteries, at least, are starting to become reasonable. Until another watershed development in battery technology breaks, Siemens is preparing a test course for running trucks with overhead wires, like streetcars. It should be ready for twenty four months of testing within another year. It is hoped that hybrid trucks could connect to overhead wires on main arteries and detach for tributary “last miles,” while running at full speed.

]

The technology is already used with mine cars and light rails. The truck wires are being explored as Sweden’s railroad structure is maxed out, urban centers suffer poor air quality, and more regulations demand emissions reductions.

Hardening of the Arteries

with the knowledge that British water companies spend 15 million English pounds a year clearing fatbergs, challenged Seers to develop a new U-bend pipe while completing a degree in design and engineering at Brunel University. The first system consisted of a series of filters in the U-bend. But a new design has a basket to collect solid waste thrown down the drain, and two filters to separate the water from the oil. The chemistry of the filters is proprietary. The oil is diverted to a plastic jar, which can be detached and emptied, and only the water goes straight to the sewers. The only drawbacks are the system, called Berglar, slows the flow of water, a problem Seers says can be solved, and it costs 25% more than traditional U-bends.

london, england

Real Food, Real Fast

James Seers was inspired when a whole residential block in Kingston upon Thames couldn’t flush their toilets. The problem turned out to be a fatberg, 95% the circumference of a 2.4-meter-diameter pipe. A fatberg is a solid aggregation of the grease people are constantly told not to pour down drains. The road blockages and nasty smells that followed, combined

A fa st- fo o d re st au ra nt , E at s a , spares customers human interaction.

Cofounders Scott Drummond and Tim Young deemed cashiers a “weak link” in fast-food processes, so they eliminated them. Eatsa customers order on their own phones or with an in-store iPad. When the meal is prepared, it ‘appears’ in a box

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that lights up and displays the customer’s name. The only visible employee is a concierge, available to help older generations navigate the world of Apple. The restaurant serves customizable quinoa bowls, as a balance between consumer choice and costs. Quinoa is a complete protein that is cholesterol- and gluten-free. It is served up with various combinations of healthy vegetables and yummy, international sauces. Bowls cost $6.95. If all goes as planned, Drummond and Young will be serving real food real fast and growing to McDonald’s proportions. Major chains like McDonald’s and Panera Bread are now test-driving kiosks and additional kitchen automation in light of looming minimum wage increases.

So Long Jetpack Hello Hoverboard los gatos , ca

Arx Pax, a manufacturer of maglev hoverboards, has announced a partnership with NASA. In April the company raked in capital with a Kickstarter campaign in which it sold prototype Hendo boards for $10,000 each. The boards were modeled by skate legend Tony Hawk, who glided along a copper-plated pipe. Normal maglev

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systems employ electrodynamic systems in both the track and the object to be levitated. Hoverboards use what Arx Pax cofounder and CEO Greg Henderson calls Magnetic Field Architecture. The EM drive system, providing thrust and directional control, is located only in the levitated object, allowing the board to skim along any conductive surface. The low cost of Henderson’s system would be attractive to municipalities who balk at maglev’s prohibitive, tens of millions of dollars per mile costs. At 40 watts per kilogram levitated, it’s a couple orders of magnitude weaker than other systems. Requiring lots of batteries, the hoverboard has a life of seven minutes between recharges. Until the big earthbound problems are solved, there’s outer space. Low gravity and metal-shell space vehicles are just perfect for Henderson’s technology to batch-launch CubeSats; satellites as small as 10cm2, to fly in formation and track weather systems, or to cast a magnetic net to collect space debris.

Virtual Organization boston, ma

Cloud storage is great for clearing hard drive space, but it is proving problematic in situations when data requires

national & world

near-instantaneous access. Data can’t move faster than the speed of light, so Laz Vekiarides and Ellen Rubin figured they could at least triage the flow. To achieve greater efficiencies, their company, ClearSky Data, has created three tiers for data storage. The first tier will be for the approximately 10% of hot data corporations need to access quickly and regularly. Time-critical data will be cached geographically near the users, in a corporate data center for example, for access with less than two milliseconds of latency. Data accessed at moderate levels will be stored at a data center managed

by ClearSky within 120 miles of the user interface and filter through the local center. Archival data would be stored in the least expensive public cloud of the customer’s choice, where latency rates typically run around 70 milliseconds.

What You Resist Persists santa fe, nm

Knowm, Incorporated, announced it has commercially-available memristors with bidirectional, incremental learning capability. A memristor is a resistor that changes its physical properties, and thus its resistance, in response to voltage impulses. The feat had been deemed

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impossible by IBM and HP, which had both sunk fortunes into the quest. That is, it remembers the voltage. Previously, experimenters could not get memristors to demonstrate the combination of properties needed to achieve effective on-chip learning. Knowm’s memristor has achieved a combination of properties that founder and CEO Alex Nugent had been trying to develop for over a decade.

In a process known as Anti-Hebbian and Hebbian (AhaH) computing, Nugent and colleague Tim Molter pair memristors in different architectures, emulating neurological synapses or adaptive weights in machine learning algorithms. AHaH nodes enable synaptic learning states that can work as logic functions or classifiers. The interactions of memristor pairs with applied voltages and each other are fundamental to pattern recognition and inference. Knowm is currently seeking funding and partnerships to advance AHaH computing and build the first generation of kT-RAM to put memory and processing on a single chip.

Green Giant on the Move parsippany, nj

B&G Foods, Incorporated announced it will buy General Mills, Incorporated’s Green Giant frozen food and the Le Sueur canned vegetable lines. B&G will pay $765 million in cash. General Mills put the brands up for sale earlier this year in light of under-performing sales. The company recently recorded a $260 million impairment charge against Green Giant while still touting its potential. The main reason cited for lower-than-anticipated profits was American consumers’ preference for frozen vegetables without any sauces. B&G President and CEO Bob Cantwell believes his company can give new life to Green Giant, as it has to other aging brands that were fading in popularity. The acquisition marks B&G’s entry into the frozen food market, which is also tapering. B&G hopes to succeed by doubling up on marketing

“better and fresher” products to millennials. Until recently, B&G specialized in shelf-stable snack products.

Stop the Bleeding basel, switzerland

Roche announced a drug developed by Genentech has received breakthrough therapy designation from the US Food and Drug Administration. The designation was created in 2012 to allow expedited development and review of drugs when preliminary tests indicate they could substantially out-perform the best products on the market. Currently, patients treated for hemophilia with drugs supplied by Novo Nordisk and Baxalta tend to develop inhibitors that reduce the efficacy of those agents. Early tests of Genentech’s ACE910 showed reduction in bleeding in hemophiliacs with and without inhibitors. Phase III trials are scheduled for 2015 and 2016.

Hemophilia medications currently constitute an $11 billion market.

Crude Oil Prices Fall new york, ny

August 21st, crude oil prices fell below the $40/barrel mark for the first time since March of 2009, if only for a few hours. At the time, the average price of gas in the country was $2.63/gallon, compared to $3.44 twelve months prior.

Prices had fallen for eight consecutive weeks, having reached a high of $61.43 this year. Last year, prices topped out at $107.26. Low prices are attributed to United States production exceeding global demand as OPEC nations aren’t slowing down, either. Production was averaging 9.4 million barrels a day, compared to 31.5 million barrels/day from OPEC nations. One would have to go back eighty years to find a similar volume of United States oil held in storage. In fact, some analysts claim current stockpiles won’t clear until 2017. Almost all United States oil companies have

pulled back on exploration, anticipating low prices for the long-term. Year over year, Chevron shares have dropped 40 percent; Exxon’s, 26. Offshore drillers have suffered more. On August 31st, following an announcement that the Energy Information Administration had overestimated output, and word that OPEC was willing to talk about scaling back production, Bloomberg reported the greatest three-day surge in oil prices in twenty-five years. That, of course, was followed by reconsideration by OPEC. Oil prices are now expected to remain between $40 and $60/barrel for the rest of the year.

You’ll Want to Marry Your Job los angeles , ca

eHarmony is going into the headhunter business. Marriage counselor Neil Clark Warren co-founded the online dating service after seeing how people with certain personality differences couldn’t stay together and be happy. In light of surveys claiming 70% of Americans are unhappy with their jobs, Warren hopes his personality-matching algorithms can work some mojo in the office. Big, online recruiters, like Monster and LinkedIn, don’t deal with personal compatibility issues. Elevated Careers, as Warren’s recruitment service will be called, will use over 100 variables in its attempt to grow copacetic working environments.

It is now accepting listings and resumes, although it will not launch until 2016.

With job satisfaction missing in so many people’s lives, Warren, who believes the rewards will be worth paying to play, forecasts the new feature will account for sixty percent of his company’s business within three years. eHarmony transactions account for about half of the $2 billion/year online dating business. The online job search market is a $6 billion/ year industry.

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capital adventurist

the tr ail crosses several bodies of water,

including the south fork of the Holston River and Whitetop Laurel Creek

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| October 2015

THE

Virginia

Creeper TR AIL written by toni sherwood

A Tour Through Hallowed & Historic Ground

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com

81

capital adventurist

A

landmark steeped in history, the 34-mile Virginia Creeper Trail beckons cyclists of every skill level. What began as a railway has since been converted into a well-maintained path, welcoming hikers, bikers, and horses.

Although the ‘Virginia Creeper’ is also a native plant, the name originated from the old railroad days.

“There used to be trains that carried supplies up Whitetop Mountain,” Chris Lowe, general manager at the Martha Washington Inn & Spa explains, “It’s a tedious road with lots of switchbacks. The engines would barely creep up the side of the mountain. That’s how the trail got its name.”

The trail begins behind the Martha Washington Inn & Spa in Abingdon, meanders through the quaint town of Damascus, and winds its way to the peak of Whitetop Mountain to a breathtaking vista.

happy tr ails “A group of us have been going up to Abingdon for 13 years now,” Asheville resident Lynn Kieffer says. Each year, Kieffer and a group of friends make the 2 hour drive from Asheville to Abingdon on Halloween weekend. “Abingdon is the perfect distance for a getaway,” Kieffer says. “It’s very tranquil up there; it’s a real respite.”

The group includes an array of successful professionals: surgeons, hospital administrators, pharmacists, dentists. “There are about 10-14 of us who go up every year,” Kieffer says. It was Dave Schroeder, a cardiologist in Asheville, who initiated the tradition.

“We all like to exercise; we like biking,” Schroeder says.

“There are great restaurants, and we love going to the plays.”

“It began as an excuse to celebrate David Schroeder’s birthday,” Leon Elliston explains. “I’ve never missed a trip.”

Rather than hauling their bikes with them, most of the group rents bicycles from the Virginia Creeper Trail Bike Shop. “We’re mostly road bikers,” Kieffer says, “but you need a hybrid bike for these trails.”

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| October 2015

the l ast Virginia Creeper train ran in 1977, and

rail stations can still be found along the trail, now in use as visitor centers and public restrooms.

Although Elliston doesn’t consider himself much of a cyclist, he enjoys riding the trail. “It goes through pastures and along the Laurel River; it’s just beautiful.”

One very appealing aspect of this trail is that it can accommodate every fitness level.

Cyclists looking for a challenge can take the trail from Abingdon to Whitetop Station, and then ride all the way back for a rewarding 64-mile route. “We met a local man in his 60s who does that ride every day,” Kieffer says. “You’re exhausted by the end of it.” The most difficult leg of the route is the mountain ride to Whitetop Station.

“You can get all the exercise you want, but it doesn’t kill you,” Schroeder says. “Except the ride up Whitetop, that will kill you.”

Elliston says he has ridden a few miles up, but never gone to the peak. His favorite option is to take the trail from Abingdon to Damascus, have a leisurely lunch, and then return. “Abingdon to Damascus is fairly flat, or you think it is until you start heading back,” Kieffer quips. “Still, it’s very doable for average cyclists.”

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 83

capital adventurist

But for those who want the adventure and sightseeing with little physical exertion, there is a fun option for them, too.

“We have a private service to drive people to the peak of Whitetop Station,” Lowe says. “We can fit ten people and ten bikes. We drop them off and then pick them up in Damascus.”

Abingdon native Donnamarie Emmert has done the 17-mile downhill ride several times.

“Even if you’re completely out of shape, the only time you’re going to get insulted is the last mile,” Emmert quips.

The Virginia Creeper Trail Bike Shop is open seven days a week to shuttle cyclists to Whitetop Station and pick them up in Damascus.

b e yo n d b i k i n g Whatever route you choose, when the cycling day is done Abingdon has a lot to offer. For one, it is home to Virginia’s state theater, The Barter Theater.

Founded in the depression-era, The Barter Theater allowed citizens short on funds to barter for their theater ticket with produce, eggs, or whatever they had to offer. These humble beginnings resulted in a professional repertory theater that houses a full-time staff and a company of actors. Famous alumni who got their start at The Barter before going forward to illustrious careers include Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, and Ned Beatty.

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one of 47 trestle bridges on the trail

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“The town of Abingdon has a population of 9,000 or less, but over 160,000 people come through to attend shows at the theater,” Amanda Livingston, marketing manager of the Abingdon Convention and Visitors Bureau, says.

This October the line up at The Barter Theater includes the seasonally inspired I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, a comedy thriller

by Peter Colley, and Curtains, a murder-mystery musical comedy.

“The Barter Theater is such a treat,” Kieffer says, “We always go to a play on Friday night.” They always wear Halloween costumes, another tradition. They choose a theme based on the play they are going to see, and they keep their costumes secret from each other until the big night.

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Famous alumni who got their start at The Barter before going forward to illustrious careers include Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, and Ned Beatty.

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The group stays at The Martha Washington Inn & Spa, which was originally built as a private residence in 1832. Over the years it has been transformed into a women’s college, a makeshift hospital, a rooming house for actors performing at the theater, and, finally, a hotel. Miraculously, the original brick residence still comprises the central structure of the modern-day hotel. “We’re a small hotel,” Lowe says. “We have 63 rooms, so we can really cater to our guests.”

“The Martha Washington is so accommodating,” Schroeder says. “They give us a room for our birthday party. We can store our bikes there and you can walk to everything.”

Its red brick structures, white columns, and porches that span the length of the building are reminiscent of the Old South. Yet, there are modern accommodations including a heated salt-water pool that is open year round, spa services, and a Jacuzzi to help soothe tired muscles. There is also a restaurant, Sister’s American Grill. “The restaurant is wonderful,” Kieffer says.

Another landmark you won’t want to miss is The Tavern; built in 1779, it is the oldest building in Abingdon. “The ceiling has these low wood beams that make you feel like you’re stepping back into another century,” Livingston says.

Always a tavern and inn, the building was also the first post office on the Western slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The original mail slot can still be seen from the street. The Tavern has transformed over the centuries into a bank, bakery, general store, and barbershop to name a few, but today it is a restaurant serving intercontinental cuisine. Weiner schnitzel, Jambalaya, and Peppercorn Encrusted Duck are all on the eclectic menu.

Livingston also recommends visiting Wolf Hills Brewing Company, a craft brewery situated in an old icehouse built in the 1800s. Their beers are all inspired by local history and landmarks. Offerings include the namesake Creeper Trail Amber Ale and the Fightin’ Parsons Pale Ale, named in honor of early settler Reverend Charles Cummings, who was known to rest his rifle on the pulpit during sermons.

If hiking is your thing, there are hundreds of miles of trails accessible in the area around Damascus and the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. The Appalachian Trail travels right down the main street in Damascus.

s p ook y s tor i e s Legends and tales are part of the local culture in Abingdon.

With family ties dating back as far as the 1800s, myths and facts intertwine into an oral history handed down generation after generation.

One intriguing landmark that has spawned legends is an underground tunnel beneath Main Street. It runs between The Barter Theater (which used to be the town hall) and the Martha Washington Inn & Spa (a hospital during the Civil War). The tunnel entrance is still visible via the Barter Theater’s backstage tours. “It’s a dirt and stone tunnel that is now collapsed,” 86

| October 2015

virginia creeper tr ail runs 34

miles through beautiful southwest Virginia, from Abingdon to Whitetop Station near the North Carolina border

the tr ail’s gentle grade

and smooth surface make it accessible for all ages October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 87

capital adventurist

Livingston says. “Rumor has it they used it to smuggle arms to Confederate soldiers. There’s a legend about a soldier being caught and shot in the tunnel.”

If you want to delve into the area’s rich oral history, don’t miss the ‘Abingdon Spirit Tour’. The two-hour walking tour begins at the gazebo of the Martha Washington Inn & Spa, continues to The Tavern, and ends at The Barter Theater. “I hit all the spots,” Emmert says.

Emmert has been guiding the Spirit Tour for 19 years. The tour is a mixture of tall tales, historical facts, and ghost stories, delivered with Emmert’s enigmatic and engaging style. “Dry history and facts are a little dusty,” Emmert explains. “The way I tell it, it’s gossip.”

Emmert grew up hearing these stories - some closer to the truth than others. She has picked up bits and pieces of information over the years and intertwined them into her tour. One of her favorite stories involves two controversial local legends: Steven Alonso Jackson and Gordon Rife. “This is the first story I ever remember hearing. My mother told it to me on car trips,” Emmert recalls. The two men had an ongoing feud, purportedly over Rife’s interest in Jackson’s wife. “Jackson murdered him in cold

blood,” Emmert says. But exactly how it happened is where the tale gets murky.

Emmert continues to investigate the facts of this story, from courthouse records to old newspaper accounts. “Someone invariably has something new to add to it,” Emmert says. “I’ve

Legends and tales are part of the local culture in Abingdon. With family ties dating back as far as the 1800s, myths and facts intertwine into an oral history handed down generation after generation.

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heard six or seven different versions. It just keeps getting better and better.”

After so many trips to the area, Schroeder has his own tales to tell. “Rumor has it slaves are buried under the trail,” Schroeder says. “And as you ride along it you see apple trees, which are

| October 2015

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not native to the area. When people rode the train they would eat apples and throw the cores out the window, and now they’ve grown into trees.”

The Martha Washington Hotel Inn & Spa themartha.com The Barter Theater bartertheatre.com

g r o u p g e taway Although the entire group enjoys cycling, eating at great restaurants, and going to plays, Schroeder says the key to their longevity is flexibility, allowing time for everyone to do their own thing. “There’s no way to herd all these cats together,” Schroeder quips.

But what keeps them coming back to the same destination every year is the friendly community spirit they find along the Virginia Creeper Trail. “People are nice. They let you pass through their private land,” Schroeder says. “You open and shut the gates as you ride through.” Once his bike broke down and a stranger with a truck offered to drive him back. “He wouldn’t even let me pay him anything,” Schroeder says.

With school back in session and leaf season waning, October is a great month to experience Abingdon. The only wild card is the weather. “It can be hot or cool, you never know,” Schroeder says. “Last year we had three inches of snow.”

The Tavern abingdontavern.com The Virginia Creeper Trail vacreepertrail.com Wolf Hills Brewing wolfhillsbrewing.com The Virginia Creeper Trail Bike Shop vacreepertrailbikeshop.com Abingdon Spirit Tour; October 16,17,18, and 21-30.

No reservations required. Meet at the gazebo of The Martha Washington Hotel Inn & Spa at 7:15 pm. $15.

For more info call the Abingdon CVB (276) 492-2236.

The curtain rises on another day

in historic Abingdon.

How will you spend iT? Catch a performance at

bArter theAtre. pedal along the scenic

VirginiA creeper trAil. sample the cuisine including

locAl beer And wine.

888.489.4144 · visitabingdonvirginia.com October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 89

events

october

EVENTS october every friday and saturday

Ghost Train Halloween Festival 7:30pm-11:30pm Tweetsie Railroad 300 Tweetsie Railroad Lane, Blowing Rock, NC Engineer Casey Bones will conduct spooky nighttime rides on Tweetsie’s 26th Annual Ghost Train®, and smaller trips will be offered at the Creepy Carnival.

Non-rolling attractions include a haunted house, the Tweetsie Palace Spooktacular, Halloween shows, a 3-D maze, the Black HoleTM, the Warp Tunnel, the Freaky Forest, and, certainly, trick-or-treating.

Tweetsie cautions the Haunted House, Freaky Forest, and Ghost Train may be too scary for children under eight. Most attractions are ADA accessible. The train leaves every half hour from 8pm onward.

The gates close at 10pm.

> Admission: $34, 2 and under Free > 800-526-5740 > tweetsie.com october 3

Thomas Wolfe Birthday Celebration 9:30am-4:30pm Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site 52 North Market Street, Asheville, NC Curators will be celebrating author Thomas Wolfe’s 115th birthday with cake and special tours of Old Kentucky Home free to North Carolina residents.

Asheville’s favorite son is considered a major American novelist, whose celebrated contributions include, Look Homeward, Angel, Of Time and the River, You Can’t Go Home Again, and The Web and the Rock, and numerous shorter works.

>Tickets: $5 > 828-253-8304 > wolfememorial.com

october 3

Farm City Day 10am-4pm Jackson Park - 801 4th Avenue East, Hendersonville, NC Founded in 1955 by the Agricultural Cooperative Extension Service and Kiwanis International, Farm City Day celebrates the interdependency of rural and downtown livelihoods. It seeks to knock down stereotypes and bridge the two cultures, fostering mutual understanding and goodwill. Annual highlights are exhibits of farm equipment, ancient and modern, tractor pulls, a petting zoo, and a fishing pond.

> Free > 828-697-4884 october 3 - 4 , 10 -11, 17-18

Fall Colors of Grandfather Mountain 1-2pm Grandfather Mountain 2050 Blowing Rock Hwy, Linville, NC Park naturalists will walk visitors through beautiful trails resplendent in fall color. Participants will be introduced

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| October 2015

to the various species that adorn the trail. And, as an added special bonus, they’ll learn the many reasons why leaves change color and secrets behind what causes red, yellow, or orange. Hikes are included with admission to the park.

Programming may be canceled in the event of inclement weather.

> Admission: Senior (60+) $18, Adult

(13-59) $20, Child (4-12) $9, Toddler (0-4) Free > 828-733-2013 > grandfather.com

october 8 -18 Music of Chicago 8pm Flat Rock Playhouse Downtown 125 Main Street, Hendersonville, NC Thursdays through Sundays, October 8-11 and 15-18, the happy, psychedelic fusion rock-pop-jazz of the band Chicago will be featured by popular demand. Extra matinees will be held on Saturdays. Bring back the feeling of those carefree summer days when you were first turned on to the saxophone of Walter Parazaider, the trombone of James Pankow, and the trumpet of Lee Loughnane. Four decades later, those

guys are still with the band, but this is a tribute performance.

>Tickets: $25 and up > 828-693-0731 or 866-732-8008 > flatrockplayhouse.org october 10

Oktoberfest 1-6pm Downtown Asheville Woodfin Avenue, Asheville, NC This festival stands out amongst a busy season of fall festivals in the area.

Where else in these parts will you hear an alphorn band, spy frauleins dressed like the St. Pauli Girl and Hans in his lederhosen, or get to check out hats ranging from the Viking helmet to the feathered Robinhood felt cap. Events will include a stein race, pretzel toss, stein hoist, and keg-rolling contest.

There will staples like bratwurst, kraut, and... what’s that? Oh, yeah. Beer! A commemorative sampling stein comes with the purchase of each ticket. The event is expected to sell out.

>Tickets: $40 > 828-251-9973 > ashevilledowntown.org/oktoberfest

october 10-11

Carolina Bonsai Expo 9am-5pm Sat & 9am-4pm Sun The North Carolina Arboretum 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way Asheville, NC A host of miniature trees and landscapes will adorn the arboretum’s Education Center. The trees represent juried displays from bonsai clubs spanning the Southeast. Workshops and free demos will be provided by master artists.

Visitors might also enjoy the arboretum’s permanent Bonsai Exhibition Garden, a world-class landscape showcasing bonsai with Southern Appalachian flair.

> Parking: $12 and up > 828-665-2492 > ncarboretum.org october 10 -11 Oktoberfest 10am-5pm Sugar Mountain Resort 1009 Sugar Mountain Drive, Sugar Mountain, NC The event features Bavarian cuisine including brat w urst, k nockw urst,

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events

Free Sewing Classes with a new sewing machine purchase

sauerkraut, strudel, and pretzels, and will be available starting at 11am both Saturday and Sunday. Artisans,craftspeople and other food vendors will open their booths at 10am each day.

An Oktoberfest isn’t complete without the sounds of an Oom Pah Band.

Yodeling, accordions, Alpenhorns and dancing will entertain from noon until 4pm both days.

For The Love of Sewing:

> Free admission, parking and shuttle > skisugar.com/oktoberfest october 11

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7:30pm Blue Ridge Community College Concert Hall 180 West Campus Drive, Flat Rock, NC T h e H e n d e r s o nv i l l e S y m p h o ny Orchestra will celebrate sounds of the season, featuring Saint-Saens’ “Danse Macabre,” written in the days before creepy was cool. Other seasonal classics will be performed. Virtuoso violinist Brian Lewis will lift spirits to brighter places with Autumn from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and “Fire,” from Michael McLean’s Elements.

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| October 2015

>Tickets: Adult $35, Student $5 > 828-697-5884 > hendersonvillesymphony.org october 11

5th Annual Boone Heritage Festival 10am-4pm Hickory Ridge Living History Museum 591 Horn In The West Drive Boone, NC The public is invited back to the Revolutionary War era for a taste of what it was like in Appalachia. Re-enactors will be marching. A pewterer will be at work making eating utensils and toy

soldiers, spinners and weavers will be working on textiles, ladies will tat lace, and men will keep their rifles in good condition. Kids are invited to create down-home crafts of the season and handle traditional mountain music instruments. Storytellers will abound to spin tales of old.

> Free > 828-264-2120 > booneheritagefestival.com october 15 & 17

Joe & Angie 7pm

Peterson Amphitheater Tryon Fine Arts Center 34 Melrose Avenue, Tryon, NC Catherine Gillet will direct a staged reading of her work about an endearing romance between two quirky characters.

Patti D’Arbanville and Elvin Clark lead the cast of talented actors.

> Admission: by donation > 828-859-8322 > tryonarts.org october 15 -18

Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands 10am-6pm US Cellular Center 87 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC The biannual event is back and bigger than ever. Two hundred vendors will fill two floors of the venue formerly known as the Asheville Civic Center.

Featured media include clay, fiber, g la ss, leather, met a l, wood, and mixed. Genres span the traditional to cutting-edge. Twenty-thousand visitors attend the events now in their 68th year. The fair is sponsored by the Southern Highland Craft Guild, a nonprofit, educational organization

formed to bring artists together in an old-fashioned, collaborative way. The fairs help further the mission.

>Tickets: Adult $8, Child (0-12) Free > 828-298-7928 > southernhighlandguild.org october 15 -18

41st LEAF Festival 7am-midnight Lake Eden, 377 Lake Eden Road Black Mountain, NC It sounds like you’d be strolling along the streets enjoying the fall colors. But this year’s LEAF will be a weekend packed with New Orleans funk. It’s the Big Easy without the riverboats. Performers have been booked to set the mood in support of the people and traditions that survived Hurricane Katrina, ten years later. LEAF strives to build community by connecting cultures through celebration.

See website for ticketing options.

>Tickets: Single Day $40-60, Full Pass $168. > 828-686-8742 > theleaf.org october 15 - 31

Fall Leaf Peeping 8:30am-5:30pm Chimney Rock State Park 431 Main Street, Chimney Rock, NC The middle of October is usually the peak of fall color in Western North Carolina. Chimney Rock State Park invites the world to take it all in high atop the rock with 75-mile panoramas overlooking Lake Lure and the foothills to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Those more interested in details can enjoy nature’s tiny wonders on scenic hiking tours. There will be plenty of opportunities for guided and unguided explorations of the area’s flora, fauna, and geology. Fall color reports will be updated frequently on the park’s website.

> Admission: Adult $15, Youth (5-15) $7, Toddler (0-4)

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events

october 17

Valle Country Fair 9am-4pm NC 194 Across From Holy Cross Church & Valle Crucis Conference Center, Valle Crucis, NC

305 A Airport Road, Arden, NC 828.687.8770 | novakitchen.com

This tradition, held at the height of fall color on the third Saturday of October, is described as an overgrown church bazaar. Unlike the typical fair designed by merchants to attract tourists, this one is an authentic Appalachian community gathering to celebrate harvest season. Visitors can expect handmade crafts, home cooking like Brunswick stew and apple butter, mountain music, warm country smiles, and crazy family fun. Over 11,000 attended last year. The festival stays true to its roots, donating proceeds to the compassionate community ministry of Holy Cross.

> Admission: Free, Parking: $10 & up > 828-963-4609 > vallecountryfair.org october 17-18 Lake Lure Arts & Crafts Festival 9am-7pm Arcade Plaza Memorial Hwy 64/74, Lake Lure, NC This festival is held in scenic, historic, downtown Lake Lure, across from the beach at Arcade Plaza. Seeing the famous landmark, with its arches and red roof set against mountain views, is worth the trip. A hundred artisans and crafters will be present to exhibit their creations. Media include glass and mosaics, painting and graphics, pottery, metal, and fiber. Food vendors, musicians, and activities for kids will be on hand too.

> Free > 828-625-4683/ > lakelureartsandcraftsfestivals.com

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| October 2015

october 17-18 38th Annual Woolly Worm Festival Banner Elk Elementary School 185 Azalea Circle, Banner Elk, NC Nearly 170 crafters, foodies, and entertainers will provide the backdrop for over 20,000 visitors. The real attraction will be the Woolly Worm Race. You may bring your own worm (a fuzzy brown and black caterpillar, technically the larva of the Isabella tiger moth) or purchase one for a small fee on-site. Worms will climb strings in heats of 25, with a grand finale on Saturday at 4pm. The winning woolly worm will receive $1000 to share with its owner and be granted the distinct privilege of forecasting this winter’s weather. Tradition has it that the blacker the worm, the colder the winter. Proceeds will go toward community programs.

> Admission: Adult $5, Child (7-12) $3, Toddler (0-6) Free > 828-898 5605 or 800-972-2183 > woollyworm.com

october 18

Hardlox Jewish Festival 11am-4pm Pack Square Asheville, NC Congregation Beth HaTephila and the City of Asheville invite the public to sample Jewish foods, like matzo ball soup, potato knishes, and corned beef on rye, or join an Israeli dance, and see what Jewish crafts look like. There will also be chances to learn about the Torah and the meaning behind Jewish holidays and festivals.

> 828-253-2282 > hardloxjewishfestival.org

october 20

Ed Kowalczyk 8pm New Mountain Asheville 38 North French Broad Avenue Asheville, NC You may remember his remarkable voice on hits by the band Live like “Pain Lies on the Riverside,” “I Alone,” and “Lightning Crashes.” The band has since split up, but lead man Ed Kowalczyk will be performing an acoustic version of Live’s album Throwing Copper for a small audience in Asheville.

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>Tickets: $35 > 828-785-1701 > newmountainavl.com october 22 - 24 WNC Fall Harvest Days 8am-5pm WNC Agricultural Center 1301 Fanning Bridge Road, Fletcher, NC It’s show-off time for International Harvester and Farmall equipment. More than 250 vendors will be exhibiting and selling parts, toys, memorabilia, fruit and vegetables, and “odd stuff.”

There will be a tractor parade daily at 2pm, weather permitting; a tractor pull Saturday at 10am, rain or shine; and kiddy pedal pulls Saturday at noon. The event is presented by the Apple Country Engine and Tractor Association.

> Admission: Adult $8, Child (0-12) Free > 828-698-5312 > applecountry.org october 24

Bearfootin’ Art Auction 2:30-5pm Historic Downtown Hendersonville 145 5th Avenue East Hendersonville, NC

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October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 95

events

Tryon Fine Arts Center presents

Did you ever want to own one of the painted bears on Hendersonville’s sidewalks? The folk art creations might make a perfect anniversary gift or a unique decoration. Past auctions have collected over $180,000 for local charities. This will be the last chance for photo ops with this year’s bears.

> 828-233-3216 > downtownhendersonville.org october 24 - 25 Trick or Trail 6pm Guion Farm, Dupont State Forest 1400 Staton Rd, Cedar Mountain, NC This is a 5-mile race through twisty trails in the woods. A 1-mile Spooky Sprint will be available for those preferring speed to endurance. The catch? It will be dark. Participants will be required to wear a miner’s headlamp, available for purchase. Event organizers indicate some spooky things may be lurking out there ready to spring. Participants are invited to run in their costumes.

Sonny Knight and the LaKerS

Saturday, november 14, 2015 8 pm

Tickets: $35*

Soul, R&B – Sonny Knight: an epic journey from karaoke to international acclaim – new york times 2015-2016 Main Stage SeaSon • Annie Moses Band, Saturday, October 3 • Sonny Knight and the Lakers, Saturday, Nov 14 • A Night in Old New Orleans, Friday, Feb 5 • A Moon for the Misbegotten, Friday, Mar 4 • Franc D’Ambrosio’s Broadway, Saturday April 23 season sponsor event sponsors Main Street Insurance Group Insurance and Benefits Consulting Since 1898

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34 Melrose Ave, Tryon 828-859-8322 tryonarts.org * price includes 6.75% nc admissions tax and vendini ticketing fee.

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> Registration: 5k $23.15, 1k $13.65 > 828-684-0812 > eventbrite.com october 24 - 25 Weaverville Art Safari – Studio Tour 10am-5pm Participating Studios in Weaverville & Barnardsville, NC Over thirty-five artists will open their studios to the public.

Visitors will set their own agendas and tour as they please along the fall-colored mountain roads of Weaverville and Barnardsville. A variety of media and genres will be showcased.

Participants will get to chat with the creators, some of whom will be giving demonstrations. A ticketed ($10) kick-off party will be held at the Weaverville Town Hall the night before the event. A map with briefs on the participating studios is downloadable from Safari’s website.

> Free > weavervilleartsafari.com october 24 - 25 Scenic Flights Over Asheville 10am-6pm General Aviation - Asheville Regional Airport, Asheville, NC

Once a year, the Western North Carolina Pilots Association gives members of the general public a chance to view the fall color of Western North Carolina from lower altitudes. A dozen highly-experienced pilots will be taking passengers to the skies. The 15-20 minute jaunts offer rare views of the Biltmore Estate, Grove Park Inn, Mt. Pisgah, and Mt. Mitchell.

The trips are unique in that there are no regular commercial sightseeing flights over Asheville. The event is a fundraiser for the organization, which promotes aviation safety and education.

>Tickets: Adult $50, Child (0-12) $25 > flywncpa.org october 31

Downtown Boone Boo! 4:30-6pm Watauga County Library 140 Queen Street, Boone, NC Kids in costume are welcome to enjoy games, crafts, and trick-or-treating with downtown merchants and participate in a parade from the library to the Jones House Community Center. The event is designed for those who prefer a safe and silly Halloween among old and new friends.

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If your organization has any local press releases for our briefs section, or events that you would like to see here, feel free to email us at events@capitalatplay.com.

Please submit your event by the first day of the month preceding your event.

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The all-new BMW 7 Series

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For model year 2015 or later vehicles sold or leased by an authorized BMW center on or after July 1, 2014, BMW Maintenance Program coverage is not transferable to subsequent purchasers, owners or lessees. Please see bmwusa.com/UltimateService or ask your authorized BMW center for details. ©2015 BMW of North America, LLC. The BMW name, model names and logo are registered trademarks.

October 2015 | capitalatplay.com 99

Autumn..... What a Wonderful Time Of Year. Let Ingles Be Your One Stop Shop For All Your Fall Favorites! Whether It’s Delicious Deals For Your Outdoors Picnic or Tailgating For Your Favorite Football Team, Carving Pumpkins, Baking Pies, Sweet Goodies For The Little Trick-or-Treaters, Thanksgiving Dinner, or Supplies, Snacks, and Lunch For Your School Goer, We Have Everything You Need!

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