Smoky Mountain Living Feb. 2014

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING

ATTRACT WOODPECKERS | WNC BONSAI | LEGEND OF TOM DOOLEY FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014

Celebrating Southern Appalachians THE

NATURE’S NEIGHBORS • BLOCK PARTIES BUILD COMMUNITIES • WEST ASHEVILLE REDISCOVERS ITSELF • WNC’S BONSAI LANDSCAPE

Meet the Neighbors Nature’s Communal Relationships

THROW A BLOCK PARTY! WEST ASHEVILLE:

Rebuilding a Sense of Community

smliv.com

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014 • VOL. 14 • NO. 1

Model Trains, Model Citizens It’s Simply Southern: A Good Neighbor Always Waves Hello

Make a Date to Dine at Knox Mason & John Fleer’s Rhubarb

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Contents

FEATU RE STO RIES

AROUND THE BLOCK There’s something special about getting together with neighbors for a street party.

Communities are building social capital in this way that harkens back to olden days when people worked together to raise a barn or prepare the harvest.

BY ANDREW KASPER

PAGE

TURN LEFT AT THE LOG

GO WEST, YOUNG MAN

Wild neighbors play integral roles in the ecosystem.

Revitalized Asheville neighborhood attracts hip new residents.

BY DON HENDERSHOT

PAGE

32

BY PAUL CLARK

PAGE

46

38

SOUND OF A TRAIN IN THE DISTANCE Model railroad club lays tracks for a community.

BY MELANIE THRELKELD MCCONNELL

PAGE

54

Contents MOUNTAIN VOICES

DEPA RTME N TS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Explore the history of Haywood County’s Harmon’s Den

MOUNTAIN MUSIC

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Irresistibly hummable tunes and genre-bending sounds from Bombadil

OUT & ABOUT

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Views of Parkway People featured in the Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition

OUTDOORS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Land paddleboarding mixes surf and skate

MOUNTAIN LETTERS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Legend of Tom Dooley lives on

ON THE COVER A male Pileated Woodpecker perches on an aging fence post.

PHOTO BY DEB CAMPBELL DEBCAMPBELLPHOTO.COM

ARTS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

New museum celebrates Earl Scruggs’ and banjo innovation

CUISINE

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Blissful brussels sprouts and deviled eggs with a secret

MOUNTAIN VIEWS Are you neighborly enough?

Good Living

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12 18

22 24 26 28

30 64

Northeast Georgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Crossword Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Select Lodging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

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Á XXX BCJOHEPO DPN Á XXX BCJOHEPO DPN SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

p e rs p e ct i ve s :

FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR

Admittedly, I’m not the first person most would choose to call crying. I tend to be less empathetic, more analytic— let’s figure out how to fix whatever is wrong and do what needs to be done. What makes me good in a crisis makes me a somewhat less than optimal friend.

Unless you’re a friend in crisis, then I’m exactly who you want to call. So that’s what Robin did. As next door neighbors, we typically texted one another to meet on my front porch for an afternoon glass of wine. When my phone rang instead, I knew something was wrong.

“Do you have a fax machine?”

“Um, what? No,” I said.

“Why?” An important letter with an important deadline had been lost in the mail, and as a result, Robin was in a crunch to get paperwork sent to a central licensing office.

But there was an even more immediate problem.

“And Gus is missing,” she said.

Gus was Robin’s beloved, longhaired, miniature dachshund. He was a good dog.

It wasn’t like him to wander off.

Sarah E. Kucharski “I let him out in the yard, and he hasn’t come back,” Robin said. “It’s been two hours.”

She’d already driven circles around the neighborhood calling his name.

“OK, well you work on the fax machine issue, and I’ll look for Gus,” I said.

I went to the kitchen, pilfered my dog Bruce’s supply of treats, put on my shoes, and headed outside. Dachshunds were bred to be hunting dogs, small ones, but hounds nonetheless, used to flush out burrowing animals such as rabbits and weasels. They have good noses. They like treats. Gus was no exception.

Gus also liked sunshine and to wallow in the dirt. I’d gotten only halfway around my house before I found him splayed out on his back in my flowerbed, fallen leaves tangled in his ruddy brown hair, his front paws tucked happily under his chin.

“Oh, Gus,” I cooed. “Your mommy is gonna be so mad at you.”

Still on his back, he fervently wagged his tail in the dirt like a tiny garden broom. With both hands, I reached between the azaleas, seizing his warm, wriggling body around its middle, pulled him into my arms, and walked next door.

Robin was standing in her driveway, her ear pressed to the cordless phone she held in her right hand with the central licensing office on the other end of the line. Her eyes widened as I arrived carrying my furry prize.

A year or so later, Robin called crying again. She’d come home from work to find Gus crawling across the floor using only his

DONATED PHOTO

“What makes me good in a crisis makes me a somewhat less than optimal friend. Unless you’re a friend in crisis, then I’m exactly who you want to call.” front legs. She and her husband were rushing him to an emergency vet in Greenville, S.C., for surgery.

“Can you feed Heinz?” she asked. Heinz was Gus’ “brother,” an affable black lab the size of a small horse with a head solid as a cinderblock. He too was a good dog—as long as you didn’t throw him a ball. Fetch was his favorite game in the world, and his energy knew no bounds.

“Yep,” I said. “Consider it done. We’ll take care of him for as long as you need.”

Robin, her husband, Pat, Heinz and a recovered Gus moved not too long thereafter. And despite a run in with a one-ton Dodge Ram flatbed, little Gus once again survived, but sadly, Heinz suddenly became ill and passed away. Today, Robin and Pat have two little girls, the youngest of which I’ve never met.

With time and distance, relationships change, yet Pat and Robin always will remain our neighbors.

This edition of Smoky Mountain Living is dedicated to neighbors—those in the wild and those in our local communities.

I hope it inspires you to better get to know yours.

— Sarah E. Kucharski, managing editor

WWW.SMLIV.COM

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p e rs p e ct ive s :

FROM OUR READERS

GREAT RESOURCE FOR EXPLORING THE REGION I just wanted to send a note about Smoky Mountain Living. I first learned of the publication a few years ago at the Red House Inn in Brevard, N.C. I have been a huge fan ever since. I particularly love the focus on culture and the arts, but feel that one of the best qualities is that Smoky Mountain Living offers a broad range of feature stories. I’ve recommended it to many because there is truly something for everyone. I am also grateful to your advertising group— I’ve planned trips and adventures based on several advertisements, became aware of businesses I would not have found any other way. Thank you for such an outstanding publication, and keep up the great work!

Catherine A. Raleigh, N.C.

JO HARRIS PHOTO

TOOLS OF THE TRADE The fall 2013 Smoky Mountain Living article about Windsor chair maker Curtis Buchanan was a fascinating and fun article, especially since I have taken a class with Curtis, albeit at another location. I have visited him at his little shop, though. Curtis is quite a character, as are many artisans, and he is fun to be around. I think the article did a nice job of giving the reader a well-rounded idea of what a Windsor chair is and how it is built, as well as the laid-back nature of Curtis Buchanan.

The article doesn’t go into much technical detail, but I really don’t know what your target audience is. In other words, if a housewife is just interested in a Windsor for decorating in her home, she is probably satisfied. But someone interested in the details of the procedures of how to build a Windsor at facebook.com/smliv and would probably be hungry for more. The twitter.com/smokymtnliving. italicized extra information at the end of Fans have access to special the article was also helpful. An “if you promotions and giveaways want to learn more…” section would be a including subscriptions, tickets nice addition to an article like this. This and more! section could include web links and contact info for artisans.

I do remember one photo being captioned incorrectly. The caption stated that Curtis was using one of his favorite tools, the drawknife, when he was actually using a spokeshave. The average reader wouldn’t have picked up on that, though. I am attempting to build Windsors so I happen to recognize the tools. But accuracy is important, as much as it is possible.

Mark S. Canton, N.C.

Connect with us

Submit your letter to the editor by email at editor@smliv.com or by mail to Editor, Smoky Mountain Living, PO Box 629, Waynesville, N.C. 28786. Letters should be exclusive Smoky Mountain Living. We do not publish open letters or third-party letters.

Letters should preferably be 150 to 175 words, should refer to the magazine in general or an article that has appeared within the past two editions. Letters must include the writer’s address and phone numbers. No attachments, please.

Smoky Mountain Living reserves the right to use material at its discretion, and we reserve the right to edit material.

We'll do our best, but due to the volume of correspondence we receive, we are unable to respond to all questions and comments.

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

VOL. 14 • NUMBER 1 Publisher/Editor . . . . . . . . . . . Scott McLeod editor@smliv.com General Manager . . . . . . . . . Greg Boothroyd ads@smliv.com Advertising Sales Manager . . Hylah Smalley hylah@smliv.com Managing Editor . . . . . . . Sarah E. Kucharski sarah@smliv.com Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . Travis Bumgardner travis@smliv.com Graphics . . . . . . . Micah McClure, Emily Moss Finance & Admin. . . . . . . Amanda Singletary Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Greg Boothroyd, Whitney Burton, Amanda Bradley Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott Collier Editorial Assistants . . . . . . . . . . Colby Dunn, Andrew Kasper, Glenda Kucharski Contributing Writers . . . . . Mark Berryman, Paul Clark, Don Hendershot, Joe Hooten, Andrew Kasper, Melanie Threlkeld McConnell, Carroll McMahan, Jeff Minick, Susan Reinhardt Contributing Photographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Deb Campbell, Paul Clark, Diana Gates, Jo Harris, Margaret Hester, Sam Hopkins, Andrew Kasper, Elizabeth Majcher, Melanie Threlkeld McConnell, Margie Metz, Justin Moe Contributing Illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mandy Newham-Cobb Smoky Mountain Living is published bi-monthly

by SM Living LLC. Smoky Mountain Living has made every effort to insure listings and information are accurate and assumes no liability for errors or omissions.

For advertising information, contact Hylah Smalley at 828.452.2251 or hylah@smliv.com.

For editorial inquiries, contact Sarah Kucharski at sarah@smliv.com.

Smoky Mountain Living assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Queries should be sent to Sarah E. Kucharski at sarah@smliv.com. ©2014. All rights reserved. No portion of this magazine may be reprinted without the express, written consent of the publisher.

Smoky Mountain Living is published bi-monthly (Dec/Jan, Feb/Mar, Apr/May, Jun/Jul, Aug/Sep, Oct/Nov) by SM Living, LLC, 34 Church Street, Waynesville, NC 28786. Periodical Postage paid at Waynesville, N.C., and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: please send address changes to Smoky Mountain Living, PO Box 629, Waynesville, NC 28786.

p e rs p e ct i ve s :

ABOUT OUR WRITERS Mark Berryman is an

award-winning columnist from rural Georgia and a managing editor for The Elberton Star.

While he has lived just south of the Smokies most of his life, his grandparents were raised in those mountains, and he still has family there. He is a U.S. Navy veteran who also has spent time working as a camp cook for ranches in Montana, Colorado, and Arizona.

Paul Clark is a

resident of Weaverville, N.C., and has been a journalist for more than three decades. He is currently studying photography and

videography.

Mandy NewhamCobb is a lefty

vegetarian artist and illustrator living right outside of Philly.

Newham is the illustrator of three children’s books: Razzmatazz!, “Bullet” Joe: A Kansas City Monarch, and The Little Brown Hen. She earned her bachelor of fine arts at Florida State University and her master of fine arts in drawing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Colby Dunn

is a freelance writer splitting her time between Western North Carolina and the wilds of Europe. Her most recent overseas home was in Amsterdam. She is a native of Asheville, N.C., and a graduate of the University of Georgia-Athens.

Don Hendershot is

a freelance writer, naturalist and biological consultant living in Waynesville, N.C. He has written in magazines including Our State, Native American Journal, and Smoky Mountain Living. His weekly column, The Naturalist's Corner, appears in The Smoky Mountain News.

Hendershot was nominated by the Roosevelt-Ashes Society for Outstanding Journalist in Conservation 2010, yet his most beloved title is “Daddy” to daughters Izzy and Maddie.

Joe Hooten was

born in Macon, Ga., but spent his formative years surfing the beaches near his home in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. He eventually found his way to Western North Carolina. Hooten taught public middle and high school history in Hendersonville, Cary and then Raleigh for 10 years before moving back to Asheville with his wife and three young kids in 2008. Hooten writes about his all-time favorite hobby—music—for The Smoky Mountain News and Smoky Mountain Living. A second-rate guitarist, he can be found most evenings pickin’ some tunes on the back porch while enjoying the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains.

Andrew Kasper grew up in

a tight-knit neighborhood in Madison, Wi. His family and neighbors instilled in him a love for the great outdoors and a deep interest in community and culture.

As work and travel guided him across the United States and the world, Kasper explored those topics through writing and photography. The latest stop, Waynesville, N.C., on the doorstep of the Smokies, in the heart of Appalachia, has proven to have no shortage of inspiration.

WWW.SMLIV.COM

Carroll McMahan lives

in Knoxville, Tenn., but grew up and works in Sevierville, Tenn., where he currently works for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce and serves as Sevier County Historian. He is the author of two books, Sevierville: Images of America, a pictorial history of Sevierville, published

by Arcadia Publishing Co. and Elkmont’s Uncle Lem Ownby: Sage of the Smokies, a biography of the last resident of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, published by The History Press. He writes a weekly column, Upland Chronicles, a series that celebrates the heritage and past of Sevier County, published in the Mountain Press.

Jeff Minick

lives in Asheville, N.C., where he tutors home-educated students and writes for various publications. He is the author of two books, both self-published: Amanda Bell, a novel, and Learning As I Go, a collection of essays and reviews.

Susan Reinhardt is an

award winning journalist, columnist, and author of five bestselling books, including her latest novel, Chimes from a Cracked Southern Belle. Besides traveling and serving as a taxi cab and debit card to her children, she loves to eat and try new restaurants and recipes. She loves everything about Western North Carolina, from the heartbeat of the city life to roaming the outlying areas, finding charm and adventure.

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p e rs p e ct ive s :

MOUNTAIN MUSINGS

Neighborhoods still found

T

he noises drew me in—laughter and the sounds of pots and pans clanking in a kitchen that always smelled yeasty and delicious from home-baked breads and cakes, chocolate-chip cookies for all nine children and their friends.

This two-story brick house, not huge by any means, somehow crammed this brood and two parents within its frame. Two doors down from our split-level located in a middle-class Spartanburg, S.C., neighborhood, it was the place to go for food, sleepovers or to watch “Gilligan’s Island” and “I Dream of Jeannie” on their color television.

I was seven, and a few of the kids were about my age. I’d guess the years were 1968 and 1969, and Susan Reinhardt while we spent only a brief time there, knowing who lived next door, who lived on the entire street, seemed socially and culturally crucial, almost a guideline for proper manners.

When we first moved in, I’d hear tapping on the door or a ring of the bell, mostly stay-home moms bringing pies and casseroles, welcoming us to the neighborhood.

“Feel free to come visit and have coffee anytime,” they’d tell my mother, and I know while we were in school, coffee and conversations with the mothers on the street became a traditional morning routine after the breakfast dishes had been cleared.

My first recollection of the wonders of suburbia and neighborhoods came from our short time in Spartanburg, when kids weren’t afraid of roaming the streets with cutesy names like Waverly Way or Dogwood Circle. We felt such safety, walking to bus stops many blocks away, our cartooned metal lunch boxes in our hands, our books in satchels, where we waited unsupervised for the yellow bus. I remember one peculiar and precocious little thing, a carrot-topped girl two years older than I who took it upon herself one day as we walked to the bus stop to graphically detail the facts of life.

When I was about 9, we left and my father moved us to LaGrange, a town of about 25,000 that was just coming into its commercial and residential growth spurt in the early ’70s.

Because we couldn’t find a house in a “desirable” neighborhood, my parents decided to build, and meanwhile, we rented a small apartment.

Kids would snag cardboard boxes and “sled” down a steep grassy hill at the high school across the street. We found an old table discarded on that property, turned it upside down and

10

nailed wheels to it, creating a wild cart and taking turns rolling it through our parking lot, as this was before the days of playgrounds and opulent apartment-living amenities.

Before I knew it, two years had flown by, and our fourbedroom, three-bath dream house on Piney Woods Drive awaited. Piney Woods wound and curved for more than a mile or so, and the houses sat on at least an acre of land, so neighbors weren’t stacked on top of each other like rowhouses or those land-starved residences built today.

I met Jane Anne, the only child of a football coach and his Jackie Kennedy-type wife. I was 11, my sister was 9, and Jane Anne was about 8. We three became inseparable. The back and forth between each other’s houses meant no locked doors, and when we’d visit, we’d all but walk right in.

Our parents and Jane Anne’s got together on weekends, grilling out on our patio, rib eyes marinating in garlic and soy sauce, baked potatoes in the oven, salad with Thousand Island dressing in a bowl on the counter.

To this day, we stay in touch.

Now I’m on my own, having divorced, remarried, and bought a house in Fairview four years ago, it strikes me with great sadness how different things are—at least for me. When I moved in, no one brought a pan of cookies. No one came to the door, not even a Welcome Wagon lady. Sadly, I don’t even know the people who live behind me, only their dog, who will venture upon my back deck, its collar jingling with tags.

There’s one man who always scrapes the roads with his tractor when it snows or ices. Another neighbor waves from his truck if he sees me outside. I know the sweet librarian about six houses up the hill, but not well enough to knock on her door for a cup of coffee or to borrow a stick of butter.

It seems we mostly keep to ourselves. Or maybe it’s just me, a mother of two waiting for her daughter to graduate high school, so I can move again, most likely to Burnsville where my husband lives.

He has the kind of neighbors we enjoyed back in the ’60s and ’70s, as the doors are always open, kids roam freely, and parents don’t worry about anything more than calling them home for dinner, just as the sun sets and darkness begins drawing its drapes.

It’s nice to know places like this still exist.

Knowing who lived next door,

who lived on the entire street, seemed socially and culturally crucial, almost a guideline for proper manners.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

13180 Meadowview Square • P.O. Box 601, Meadowview, VA 24361 Restaurant: 276 – 944-5142 • General Store: 276 – 944-5140

The Meadowview Farmers’ Guild General Store specializes in food, crafts and goods from local and regional sources.

Our shop showcases the efforts of over 170 local and regional artisans, each of whom we deal with personally and know by name. We invite you to come in and see their beautiful handiwork for yourself!

When you purchase your gifts from the General Store you’re not only buying a gift, you’re helping to support your neighbors.

www.harvesttablerestaurant.com

WWW.SMLIV.COM

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p e rs p e ct ive s :

MOUNTAIN VOICES

Legend of Harm Teaster shrouded in mystery

BY CARROLL MCMAHAN

E

very day travelers by the thousands weave through the Pigeon River Gorge along Interstate 40 between Hartford, Tenn. and Maggie Valley, N.C. Seven miles from the remote state line, a lone sign points toward Harmon Den. The origin of Harmon Den varies, but the prevailing story suggests it derives from Harmon Teaster, a hard-working logger, husband, and father of 10 children. Legend has it that Harmon ran afoul of the law and hid out in a mountain cave for several years.

Known simply as Harm, Teaster was born in Watauga County, N.C., but his birth is cloaked in mystery—a family genealogical website lists his birth date as March 7, 1846 while his tombstone reads 1850. During the Civil War, Harm’s father, Ransom Teaster, served in the 58th North Carolina Infantry’s Company D, deserted, and, after an absence of about four months, finally returned to duty only to die of typhoid fever in a Confederate field hospital while encamped in Dalton, Ga. Around 1870, Ransom’s widow, Fanny Hicks Teaster, moved to Madison County, N.C., with some of her adult children and their families, including her son Harm, his wife, Susanna “Susie” Hicks Teaster, and their children. To provide for his growing family that grew to include five boys and five girls, Harm worked long, backbreaking hours in the logging camps throughout Madison and Haywood counties.

Though various motives have circulated, most historical reports concur that a man slapped one of Harmon’s children. Whether it was by stabbing, beating

Big Hill Cemetery in Cocke County, Tenn., where Harm Teaster was buried in 1905.

DONATED PHOTO

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

Explore Harmon Den

The entrance to Harmon Den located in Pisgah National Forest.

DONATED PHOTO

Harmon Den Wildlife Management Area was logged heavily in the early 1900s. Timber companies cut away the forest in the Cold Springs drainage area and built logging roads, narrow-gauge railroads, and amenities for logging crews and their families. The destruction finally ended in 1936 when the United States Forest Service purchased the land and operated a Civilian Conservation Corps camp there. The corpsman planted many of the white pines still evident today.

Although Interstate 40 bisects much of the remote area, limited access roads and development keep it pristine and uncrowded. Twenty-one miles of the Appalachian Trail and seventeen miles of other trails afford spectacular views of the surrounding mountain peaks. The network features five horse trails and two additional trails that serve mountain bikers as well.

Max Patch Trail also is part of the Harmon Den Area. The land the trail traverses once was used for grazing sheep and cattle. Max Patch is a favorite destination for hikers of all degrees of endurance. It is a gentle climb across the AT’s southernmost bald to its grassy summit at 4,629 feet.

Whether it was by stabbing, beating the man with a stick, or using his bare hands, Harm murdered the man and hid out in a cave near Max Patch, now a popular hiking destination along the Appalachian Trail.

the following spring and is buried at Mt. the man with a stick, or using his bare hands, Sterling Cemetery in the Great Smoky Harm murdered the man and hid out in a cave Mountains National Park. near Max Patch, now a popular hiking Many generations later, Dean Teaster, son destination along the Appalachian Trail. of Harm’s great-grandson, Doyle, released Harm’s life and that of his family irreversibly “Ghost Town the Movie.” Ghost Town in the was changed. Existence that always had been Sky was a wild-west theme park high atop a day-to-day struggle was compounded. Susie Buck Mountain in Maggie Valley. Doyle cooked for the crews in the logging camps and played the theme park’s first “Digger the provided for the large family as best she could.

Undertaker” from 1961 to 1967. He acted with It is reasonable to assume that family members Herbert “Cowboy’ Coward, who played knew where to find Harm’s hideout, checked “Grand Pappy” in the same show and later on him and provided the outlaw with supplies. starred as the murderous, toothless hillbilly in After living on the lam for years, Harm made “Deliverance,” a role he received thanks to Burt his way across the state line to Del Rio, Tenn., Reynolds, who remembered Coward from and was hired at a sawmill in the Dry Fork area. when the two actors worked together at Ghost Reluctant to reunite with her husband fearing Town early in Reynolds’ career. In the Ghost it would lead authorities to apprehend him and Town movie, Coward played Harm Teaster charge him with murder, Susie stayed in N.C. while Dean played his father’s role as “Digger.”

Although he was nearing 60, Harm still was Adding to Harmon Den’s lore is another working in a sawmill on Oct. 19, 1905, when a account that maintains several male members dangerous thunderstorm brought the mill to a Actor Herbert “Cowboy” Coward portrayed Harm of a local family with the surname Harmon halt. When the crew returned to work, Harm Teaster in “Ghost Town the Movie.” DONATED PHOTO deserted from the Confederate Army and hid opened a valve to fill a steam engine’s boiler; out on the mountain. It could well be only a coincidence that one story however, the sudden rush of cold water into the still hot boiler caused the involves a man with the given name Harmon while the other is about a boiler to explode, killing Harm and two others, Joe Turner and Harve Briggs. family with the surname Harmon. Whatever the origin, it’s the stuff of All three men were buried in the Big Hill Cemetery in Del Rio where which legends are made. their graves remained unmarked for three quarters of a century. Susie died WWW.SMLIV.COM

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What do we see when we look out our windows and doors? Are our neighbors flora and fauna, friend or foe?

To call someone, or something, a neighbor is to apply an ever-changing definition to the family across the street or the family of foxes in the forest. Here, Smoky Mountain Living’s readers share views of their neighbors.

Marg

Elizabeth Majcher • Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, Townsend, Tenn.

Diana

It’s good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for awhile their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices.

For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.

— Maya Angelou

Margie Metz • Little River Trail, Elkmont, Tenn.

Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much.

— Zora Neale Hurston

Diana Gates • Three Dogs

Justin Moe • Franklin, N.C.

Elizabeth Majcher • Fletcher Community Chorus, Fletcher, N.C.

Smoky Mountain Living prominently features images from across the southern Appalachians in each edition. Photo essays adhere to the issue’s overall theme.

Diana Gates • Mayberry, N.C.

Jo Harris • Baby Robins, Kodak, Tenn.

Our April/May edition will focus on foodways. Send your images of foodways— hearth cooking; canning; farming; family diners; or your own interpretation of the theme to photos@smliv.com by Feb. 14, 2014. Submissions should be hi-resolution digital images and include information about where and when the photos were taken and by whom.

Reader submitted photos are unpaid but those selected are rewarded with publication in our nationally distributed magazine.

SML covers the southern Appalachians and celebrates the area’s environmental riches, its people, culture, music, arts, history, and special places. Each issue brings the Appalachians to life.

Published six times each year, SML is a magazine for those who want to learn more about where they live and those who want to stay in touch with where they love.

For more information and to connect with Smoky Mountain Living, visit smliv.com.

d e p a r t m e n t :

MOUNTAIN MUSIC

Always believing in the music

DONATED PHOTO

BY JOE HOOTEN

hile the rolling hills of North Carolina gave birth to the sounds of bluegrass and mountain music, the universities in the eastern part of the state are credited with bringing creative minds together and giving rise to new types of bands that deviate from the traditional and carve out their own distinctive sounds. Thanks to a chance meeting at Duke University nearly a decade ago, the indie-folk sensation Bombadil has become part of this modern movement, making music that’s hard to define but sounds good in its own right.

Band members Daniel Michalak (bass), Stuart Robinson (piano), and Bryan Rahija (guitar) began writing songs and touring throughout the Southeast in 2005. With the addition of James Phillips on drums a year later, the group recorded its first full length album A Buzz. The record garnered rave reviews and earned the band high-profile festival slots, including a gig at Bonnaroo.

But early success was followed by a major setback. In 2009, the band’s bassist developed severe nerve damage in his hand, rendering him unable to play. The band had other musicians fill in for Michalak, but ultimately decided to put its musical efforts on hold until he recovered. The group continued to bide its time, still meeting

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

April 24-27, 2014 Over 130 Artists on 13 Stages

Carolina Chocolate Chocolate Drops Drops Carolina

Alan Alan Jackson Jackson

Tim Tim O’Brien O’Brien & & Darrell Darrell Scott Scott

Sam Bush Bush Band Band Sam

Balsam Balsam Range Range

Peter Peter Rowan Rowan Band Band

Jim Jim Lauderdale Lauderdale

Keller Williams Williams Keller

Steep Steep Canyon Canyon Rangers Rangers

The The Travelin’ Travelin’ McCourys McCourys

Dr. Dr. Ralph Ralph Stanley Stanley & & The The Clinch Clinch Mountain Mountain Boys Boys

The The Kruger Kruger Brothers Brothers

Draw Slow Slow II Draw

Junior Sisk Sisk & & Junior Rambler’s Rambler’s Choice Choice

Della Della Mae Mae

Town Town Mountain Mountain

Sutton, Sutton, Holt Holt & & Coleman Coleman

The Claire Claire Lynch Lynch Band Band The

Dailey Dailey & & Vincent Vincent with with Jimmy Jimmy Fortune Fortune

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twitter.com/merlefest

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d e p a r t m e n t :

MOUNTAIN MUSIC

and writing songs—Robinson even went back to medical school. Once Michalak recovered, Bombadil reunited in Portland, Ore., and recorded another successful album, All That the Rain Promises, before returning to Durham, N.C., last year to make their most recent album, Metrics of Affection.

Metrics of Affection’s peculiar arrangements and lyrical content instantly are heard, but a deeper exploration into the album yields its irresistibly hummable tunes and emotional charge. Bombadil’s music is refreshingly unique and unusual, yet, at the same time, honest and sincere. Elevated beyond the typical indie-folk, the band’s inventiveness derives from its impeccable musicianship, other-worldly harmonies, and transcendence of the ordinary. The music transforms life’s mundane events into uplifting and memorable moments.

Q&A with James Phillips of Bombadil SML: How did Bombadil get its name?

Phillips: A friend recommended it. He was reading Lord of the Rings, and there’s this character in the first book called Tom Bombadil. The power of the ring has no sway over him, and all he does is dance and sing all day in the woods with his fairy wife. We all liked the sound of the word and what it meant, and it stuck.

The band had already been together for about a year before you joined. Tell me how you came to be part of the group.

I was playing in a few bands around Chapel Hill, after college, and keeping an eye on Craigslist. I saw an ad that didn’t say the name of the band, but it was “Durham folk band seeks drummer who can tour full time.” There just weren’t that many Durham folk bands that were touring at that time, so I figured it was (Bombadil). I learned the (songs) beforehand, and we met for burritos, played the tunes, and have been going ever since.

When Michalak’s medical condition forced the band to go on an indefinite hiatus, did you think the group would go on without him?

No, we never thought about continuing without Daniel. We did try to tour and hire someone to play Daniel’s instrumental parts and let him sing, but it never felt right, and his health was still a problem on the road. It wasn’t helping him get any better, so we all just decided to stop. We all focused on other things. I was still

playing a lot of music; we were still writing Bombadil songs. It was never like: “Ok this is over,” it was more like, “Ok this has changed.” During that time I learned how to record music, which has been really helpful for our records; Daniel really

time. Stuart still lives in the house; Daniel and I moved out (laughing). We were recording it in my bedroom and in the living room, so there wasn’t really a break from it. It was work every day on this record. It was a wonderful opportunity, but it wasn’t quite relaxing.

“It started as a

Between the four of you, how does the songwriting happen? Do you write for a specific album or just when inspiration strikes?

Much more when inspiration strikes, but it really varies song-to-song. Sometimes we collaborate; sometimes, someone comes in with a fully formed song. We all write and all are involved in the production.

We’re trying to figure out how to make it more collaborative on our new record.

financial thing. We were seeing friends making records on their own, and we thought that’s got to be a lot cheaper than going into the studio. I realized I really enjoy it.” changed his approach to writing; Stuart got to go back to school for a while, which affected his thinking about a lot of things; and, also it gave us a lot of time to write songs. There are a ton of songs written that we haven’t put out yet.

Do you find the recording process to be a rewarding task?

It’s definitely rewarding, as it has increased my involvement in the recordmaking process. It started as a financial thing. We were seeing friends making records on their own, and we thought that’s got to be a lot cheaper than going into the studio. I realized I really enjoy it.

Metrics of Affection was recorded in Durham at your house. Was that a relaxing environment to create in?

We all moved in together during that

One could argue Bombadil’s sound is not fully set in the folk genre. Where do you see the band’s sound on the next record?

We’ve started working on the next record, slowly. I feel like we’re moving away from folk music. We’re just trying to make the music that we hear. Brian is less involved now. The guitar is not dominate.

It’s a lot of keyboards and piano and a lot of harmonies on this new record.

Did you ever think early on that Bombadil would have made it this far?

Yeah, not to sound conceited, but I always believed in the music. I believe we were doing the best we could. “Play at the Cat’s Cradle, that’s where you need to play,” that’s what we always heard. We were scared the first time we did. We thought, “Are people going to show up?”

They did and it was great. You just keep at it and hone your craft and audiences respond to that.

M 20

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

April 24-27, 2014

Alison Brown Quartet

Chris Jones and the Night Drivers

Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen

Todd Snider

Jim Avett

Nora Jane Struthers & The Party Line

The Hillbenders

Featuring: Richard Watson • Alan Jackson • Steep Canyon Rangers • Sam Bush Band • Dailey & Vincent with Jimmy Fortune • The Waybacks • Dr. Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys • Carolina Chocolate Drops • Keller Williams • Donna the Buffalo • Jerry Douglas • Peter Rowan • Jim Lauderdale • The Kruger Brothers • Nashville Bluegrass Band • Sutton, Holt & Coleman • The Duhks • Balsam Range • Frosty Morn • Joe Smothers • Bob Hill • The Claire Lynch Band • The Travelin’ McCourys • Scythian • The Steel Wheels • Alison Brown Quartet • Sleepy Man Banjo Boys • I Draw Slow • Larry Keel and Natural Bridge • Roy Book Binder • Volume Five • Mark Johnson and Emory Lester • High Valley • Niall Toner Band • Lonesome River Band • Town Mountain • Pete and Joan Wernick • Chris Jones and The Night Drivers • Rory Block • Junior Sisk & Rambler’s Choice • The ToneBlazers • Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen • Jeff Little Trio • Della Mae • Missy Raines and The New Hip • Shannon Whitworth • The Hillbenders • Mandolin Orange • Fiona Boyes • The Deadly Gentlemen • Eleanor Ellis • Del Rey • Mary Flower • Andy May • Nora Jane Struthers & The Party Line • Sheila Kay Adams • Newton and Thomas • Mitch Greenhill • Overmountain Men • Riley Baugus • The InterACTive Theater of Jef • Buffalo Barfield • Josh Farrow • Tut Taylor • The Local Boys • Red June • Jim Avett • Timmy and Susana Abell • Jon Stickley Trio • Nu-Blu • WBT Briarhoppers • Carol Rifkin & Paul’s Creek • Kickin Grass Band • Kirk Sutphin • Banknotes • Laura Boosinger • Charles Welch • Mark Bumgarner • Tony Williamson • Amanda and Scott Anderson • Tal Naccarato • Sanctum Sully • Nick Chandler and Delivered • Beth Molaro • Steve and Ruth Smith • The South Carolina Broadcasters • Bill Mathis • Buncombe Turnpike • Bailey Mountain Cloggers • Glenn Bannerman • FHC Smooth Dance Team • Wayne Erbsen • Happy Traum • Jeff Brown & Still Lonesome • BackPorch Bluegrass • Joe Penland • My New Favorites • The Cockman Family • Grits & Soul • Carolina Blue • Kim Robins and 40 Years Late • Mountain Feist • Moore Brothers Band • The Fox Fire • Time Sawyer • Misty River Band • Wayne Henderson • Zephyr Lightning Bolts • Helen White • And many more! See the complete lineup at www.MerleFest.org.

Missy Raines and The New Hip

Donna the Buffalo

www.MerleFest.org

Mandolin Orange

Holly Williams

The Steel Wheels

Larry Keel and Natural Bridge

The Duhks

Mark Johnson and Emory Lester

Darin and Brooke Aldridge

The Deadly Gentlemen

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21

d e p a r t m e n t :

OUT & ABOUT

UNC-Asheville hosts symposium of all things organic

T

he Organic Growers School, a weekend of workshops for beginning gardeners to advanced commercial growers plus a trade show, seed exchange, and silent auction will be held March 8 and 9 at the University of North Carolina-Asheville.

The Organic Growers School draws more than 1,700 attendees, exhibitors and speakers from 18 different states and Canada. One of the largest conferences of its type in the region, The Organic Growers School has served to reinforce Western North Carolina’s role as a regional leader in organic farming.

Participants will learn practical, region-appropriate, organic growing and permaculture skills, as well as homesteading and rural living through classes including cooking and stonescaping. There will be 70 sessions each day for all levels of growers: the professional farmer, the beginning commercial grower, and the home gardener. A hands-on, on-the-farm session for children ages 7 to 12 will be held on Friday, March 7.

Themed tracks for the weekend are as follows: Digging In,

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Gardening, Soils, Livestock, Commercial Farmers I and Commercial Farmers II, Primitive Skills, Permaculture, Herbs, Sustainable Forestry, Homesteading, Cooking, and All About Poultry. New this year is the Pollinators track, in which attendees will learn about creating pollinator-friendly environments and fostering pollinator populations.

The trade show will showcase local farms, gardening suppliers, and cottage industries that specialize in organic products, books and resources for organic growers and permaculture practitioners, and several non-profit organizations with information on related topics.

A seed and plant exchange booth will be open throughout the weekend. Seed saving and plant exchanges are key steps in the quest to preserve genetic diversity and protect regionally adapted varieties. Attendees may bring excess seeds and small plants to share, barter, or trade. Seed saving supplies and recommended readings will be provided.

Registration is $45 on Saturday and $40 on Sunday for those who pre-register by midnight on Feb. 17. An addition $15 will be added to the cost of registration thereafter. Registration for half-day hands-on workshops and cooking classes is an additional $5 per workshop and requires pre-registration. The children’s program is $30.

For more information or to register, visit organicgrowersschool.org or call 828.342.1849.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

d e p a r t m e n t :

OUT & ABOUT

2013 Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition Special Mention winner “Ice Castles,” by Nicole Robinson. Robinson commented: “Ice and Snow blanket the Lump Overlook and the valley below. This is one of the few areas of the Blue Ridge Parkway that remain open during inclement weather.” COURTESY OF THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

Spectacular Smokies images to be on display in Boone, N.C. Submissions to the 11th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition (AMPC) will be displayed March 7 to June 7 at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in Boone, N.C. A partnership between Appalachian State University’s Outdoor Programs and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, AMPC celebrates the people, places and pursuits that distinguish the Southern Appalachians. The competition attracts entries from amateur and professional photographers across the United States and awards $4,000 in cash and prizes.

AMPC has grown into one the region’s most prestigious photography competitions, receiving nearly 1,000 submissions last year and with more than 10,000 exhibit visitors.

This year’s Blue Ridge Parkway Category theme, sponsored by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, is The Blue Ridge Parkway—Parkway People. Photographers are challenged to capture people on the parkway, on the road, in the backcountry, or at any of the parks along its 469 miles. Entries will be judged on creativity, impact, subject matter, center of interest and storytelling—effectively sharing the journey by celebrating people of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The winning image in this category will receive a $500 cash award, provided by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.

For more information, visit appmtnphotocomp.org or call 828.262.2475.

A JURASSIC PARK IN ASHEVILLE, N.C. Through May 18, the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville ventures 65 million years back in time to explore the Cretaceous period with a fully interactive reconstruction of the most complex ancient ecosystem ever created including dinosaur bones and a paleontology field station.

The exhibit features artificially intelligent dinosaurs that roam across realistic terrain and have simulated muscle and digestive systems.

Visitors will be able to experience what it was like to be a dinosaur and experiment with various camouflage patterns, changing dinosaur species and backgrounds to create their own custom designed dinosaur.

For more information, visit ncarboretum.org or call 828.665.2492.

WWW.SMLIV.COM

Zip lines and other high-flying attractions for children have been incorporated into the Historic Banning Mills Adventure, Retreat and Conservation Center. HISTORIC BANNING MILLS PHOTO

BANNING MILLS SERVES UP AERIAL ADVENTURES Nestled in Whitesburg, Ga., Historic Banning Mills provides an extreme adventure with a new two-tiered obstacle course adventure exclusively for children ages 4 and up. The course includes kidfriendly aerial elements, shorter sky bridges, and zip lines.

Historic Banning Mills Adventure, Retreat and Conservation Center is located in the Snake Creek Gorge of Carroll County, Ga. Proceeds from the center’s retreat and adventure treks are used to subsidize educational, leadership and conservancy programs. The center also offers lodging and meeting rooms, a day spa, live birds of prey shows, and two falconry programs.

For more information, visit historicbanningmills.com or call 770.834.9149.

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NOC HOSTS JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

d e p a r t m e n t :

OUTDOORS

Billy Lush boards keep paddlers fit

H

ailing from Southern California’s surf and skate culture, Abe Kiggins was missing a board underneath his feet after taking a job as an athletic trainer at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Sure the calm waters of the Tennessee River made way for stand-up paddleboarding—a sort of surfing that requires a long, stable board that floats and a paddle with which to propel oneself—but it just wasn’t the same.

So Kiggins headed to his garage, and despite having never used any power tools before, went to work sculpting something altogether new. His first design was rather rough, but the extra wide skateboard built out of little more than plywood and wheels showed promise. Kiggins teamed up with someone who could really work with wood and soon he was able to paddle on land.

“We were definitely one of the pioneers in the land paddling inAbe Kiggins demonstrates how to use one of his Billy dustry,” Kiggins said.

Lush brand land paddleboards at the Outdoor Adventure Land paddling Center in Knoxville, Tenn. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO combines a skateboard with a paddleboard. One stands upright on a wide board with wheels and gains momentum by pushing against the ground with a rubber-tipped pole. It’s a sport best suited for parking lots and flat, smooth sidewalks. Given the speed one may reach, riding down hills is not advised, and neither is pushing up one. But if one can’t get to the water one day, a land paddleboard will still provide the same kind of workout, Kiggins said.

Kiggins’ name for his land paddleboarding company is as unique as its concept—Billy Lush. It’s catchy and comes from a character he and his twin brother created one Halloween. Billy Lush thus may not be from Tennessee, but his boards certainly are.

“All of our boards are still hand-shaped here in Knoxville,” Kiggins said.

To push off on a Billy Lush land paddleboard, head to Knoxville’s Outdoor Adventure Center where rentals are available or visit billylushbrand.com.

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The Nantahala Outdoor Center near Bryson City, N.C., will host the International Canoe Federation’s Wildwater Canoeing Junior World Championships on the Nantahala River. The NOC hosted the 2013 ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships in September.

Unlike freestyle paddling, which focuses on acrobatic boat tricks in a confined area of the river, the junior wildwater race will utilize long stretches of the Nantahala River for two different downriver races. One will be an endurance event, which takes place over a four-to-six mile stretch of water, while the other race is a nearly 600-yard, high-speed sprint.

Local favorite Rowan Stuart, holding second place after the junior women's preliminary, digs in to the water during the 2013 ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships in September. Stuart went on to win her division. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO

Organizers are hoping that hosting the Junior World Championships will further establish Western North Carolina, the Nantahala Gorge, and the Nantahala Outdoor Center as one of the world’s top locations for whitewater recreation and competition.

SPRING WILDFLOWER PILGRIMAGE MARKS 63 YEARS The Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage, an annual, fiveday event in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, will take place April 15-19. In all, 146 guided walks and indoor presentations exploring the region’s ecology, cultural and natural history are scheduled, including a variety of wildflower and natural history walks, car tours, photography outings, art classes, and indoor seminars. Most programs are held outdoors in the park, while indoor offerings are held in various venues throughout Gatlinburg, Tenn.

This is the 63rd year the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage, first held in April of 1951.

On-site registration will begin at 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, 2014 in the Mills Conference Center in Gatlinburg, while online registration opens Friday, Feb. 14. Prices ranges from $15 to $75. A full schedule for the 2014 event and online registration can be found at springwildflowerpilgrimage.org.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

d e p a r t m e n t :

OUTDOORS

Smokies on a smaller scale

BY ANDREW KASPER

S

pring arrives by the smallest of measures in the North Carolina Arborteum’s bonsai garden. Sprouting leaves and blooming flowers, the miniature trees that, like their much larger species, lay dormant throughout winter, awaken in the warmer air of longer days. This resurgence of life within the bonsai—and within mountain residents looking to shake loose winter cobwebs—make the season perfect for marveling at these magnificent pieces of horticultural art.

Situated just south of Asheville, off the Blue Ridge Parkway and along the French Broad River, the North Carolina Arboretum is home to one of the country’s most impressive bonsai collections. With more than 100 bonsai trees on display, visitors can spend the better half of an afternoon appreciating the ancient Japanese art form that has taken root in the Western North Carolina landscape.

Unlike many famous bonsai exhibits that tend to lean on the field’s Asian ancestry, Asheville’s bonsai collection has been sculpted and trimmed—just like the trees themselves— into something more Southeast than far East.

“Overall that’s part of the Arboretum’s mission, to help interpret and promote southern Appalachian culture and flora, so bonsai has to be part of that,” said Arthur Joura, bonsai

Bonsai curator Arthur Joura (above) sees the collection as a complement to the Arboretum’s mission. Top: “River of Dreams,” a tray landscape planting. ANDREW KASPER PHOTOS

curator at the arboretum. “We don’t want it to be this separate curiosity on the side.”

Joura intentionally uses plants found in in Appalachian residents’ backyards or along their favorite hiking trails. Trees like American Beech, Eastern Hemlock and Virginia Spyria make their way into his pots where they are bound and manicured into living sculptures of bark and mesophyll.

The Arboretum’s collection also eschews landscape ornaments such as oriental pagodas WWW.SMLIV.COM

and rock gardens, instead recreating bonsai renditions of well known landmarks including Mount Mitchell, the highest point in North Carolina and the eastern United States; Roan Mountain, famous for its rhododendron blooms; and Graveyard Fields, a high-altitude meadow along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Like peering at an ant hill, the closer one looks at the shrunken landscapes, the more one is pulled in, closer and closer, by each intricate detail. And each detail is a testament to the painstaking and labor-intensive task of shaping a normal plant—engineered by years of evolution to grow up, down and out at all costs—into a well-behaved display piece. No small feat, harnessing a plant’s instinct to grow is akin to asking a classroom full of school children ready for recess to hold still for a portrait painting, indefinitely.

Which is why, although spring is an ideal time for those looking to appreciate the beauty of bonsai, nothing says “busy” like spring for a bonsai curator. With the frenzy of seasonal growth, Joura constantly is playing catch-up, attempting to keep numerous bonsai in shape, as shoots haphazardly crop up and branches veer from their plotted course, but Joura wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Spring is the best time of year, and for somebody who grows bonsai it’s the same way,” he said. “All of a sudden, here they are coming back to life, and it really has significant meaning to you.”

For the most part, however, bonsai is a patient art. Plodding towards perfection season after season, artists make use of pruning, coils of wire to guide branches, and pay meticulous attention to the amount of nutrients and water a plant receives. Bonsai is about striking a balance between letting the plant grow like the plant was made to grow, and maintaining the bonsai aesthetic. Joura has projects in the making that he began 10 years ago and he says might not be display worthy for another 10 years.

Some famous bonsai trees have been crafted for centuries—one tree in Japan is said to be around 500 years old—though Joura asserts the age of the bonsai trees is not important. The focus should be on the awe they evoke from their passing admirers. And for that test, there is only one way to administer it.

“You could read a million words about bonsai, written by somebody who knows everything about them, not until you go and see a good one, you really don’t know anything about what it’s about,” Joura said.

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d e p a r t m e n t :

MOUNTAIN LETTERS

Dooley legend continues to fascinate

BY JEFF MINICK

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley, Hang down your head and cry, Hang down your head, Tom Dooley, Poor boy—you’re bound to die.

L

ong ago, when I was learning fractions and diagramming in elementary school, when I played sandlot football in the fall, baseball in a friend’s front yard in the spring, and Civil War in the woods behind our house all summer long, fighting Yankees and riding merrily alongside Jeb Stuart and his cavalry, I heard the Kingston Trio sing of Tom Dooley. The song played on a jukebox in Grady’s Café in Boonville, N.C. Twenty-five miles west of Winston-Salem, this small town with its single stoplight—it still has only one light—was the birthplace of a romance between a boy and a song. I loved that ballad then, and I love it now.

Over the years, I have read, in a haphazard way, several accounts of the life and legend of Tom Dooley, all of which provided different insights into his character, his trial, and his hanging for murder. The most recent of these examinations—and certainly the most comprehensive—is John Edward Fletcher’s The True Story of Tom Dooley: From Western North Carolina The True Story of Tom Dooley: Mystery to Folk Legend.

From Western North Carolina Fletcher brings an interestMystery to Folvk Legend by John ing set of skills to his writing.

Edward Fletcher. Charleston, S.C.: He is not a professional histoThe History Press, 2013 rian, but instead he has spent his life in the fields of science and mathematics, having taught in various universities, worked for Lockheed Martin and the National Institute of Health, and engaged in various research projects. Using his research skills coupled with an amateur interest in genealogy, he meticulously examines Laura Foster’s murder and Tom Dula’s trial and execution for that murder.

Writers, including Fletcher, use both the name Dula, which was

26

Tom’s real name, and the name Dooley, which is from the ballads, to describe the protagonist. Fletcher is related to the Melton and Foster families, who were in turn intimately involved in the story.

Several aspects of this book should attract readers interested in the legend of Tom Dula and in the post-Civil War South. First and foremost is Fletcher’s careful use of court records and personal reminiscences of the time to recreate the murder and subsequent trial. He takes apart the tangled personal and sexual relationships among Laura Foster, Ann Melton, Laura’s distant cousin Pauline, and Tom, showing with some certainty that Laura was killed because she had passed a case of syphilis to Tom, who in turn infected Ann. The result was that both swore vengeance against her. Like a detective, Fletcher takes us step by step through the crime and its aftermath, carefully documenting each event. He also looks at the reasons for the legend that cropped up around this murder and ends his book with a discussion of the folk songs that followed Dula’s hanging.

What also is admirable in The True Story of Tom Dooley is that Fletcher speculates about possible motives, but he always makes perfectly clear that it is speculation. Did Ann Melton kill or help kill Laura? She had a history of violence and knew where Laura was buried, yet Fletcher states that we never can really know what part she played in the crime. Did Tom Dooley deserve hanging? Fletcher shows us that witnesses and evidence point to him as an accessory to murder, but there was no irrefutable evidence that he committed the murder himself. Fletcher admirably extends this same reserve—the reserve of a good historian, the unwillingness to pass judgment without the necessary facts, the ability to recreate events without forcing conclusions—to all the people in this book.

Finally, in the last two chapters of The True Story of Tom Dooley, Fletcher examines the myths and outright lies about Tom Dula in ballads. Those who know of Tom Dula through the Kingston Trio will be fascinated to follow the evolution of their song. Ludlow Music, which had copyrighted a book of folk songs John and Alan Lomax collected, successfully sued the Kingston Trio for recording the traditional folk song. Though the suit was settled out of court, the principle that a collector could “own” an American folksong will strike many readers as somewhat strange.

In addition to a lengthy bibliography, Fletcher includes a good number of photographs, ranging from pictures of local landmarks in North Carolina’s Wilkes, Caldwell, and Watauga counties to those of documents and people involved in the trial.

Readers interested in local history, the post-Civil War years in Western North Carolina, a well-written account of a murder trial, and a good story will find many pleasurable moments in The True Story of Tom Dooley.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

Fletcher admirably extends the reserve of a

good historian—the unwillingness to pass judgment without the necessary facts, the ability to recreate events without forcing conclusions—to all the people in this book.

Foxfire

Museum

& Heritage Center

Experience Southern Appalachia as recorded and documented by the students of Rabun County, GA—and shared with the world through The Foxfire Magazine and The Foxfire Book volumes. Visit the legacy they created in honor of their families and neighbors over 45+ years.

Home of the Foxfire books– our newest:

45th Anniv.

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Museum gift shop offers regional folk pottery, home-made soaps, knitted & woven textile crafts, Foxfire books and related titles on history, plant lore, skills & trades, more! ;HRL <: [V 4V\U[HPU *P[` .( ;\YU VU[V )SHJR 9VJR 4[U 7HYR^H` 6UL TPSL \W MVSSV^ [OL IYV^U ZPNUZ [[[ JS\½VI SVK Â&#x2C6; -

The Art & Soul

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NORTHEAST GEORGIA MOUNTAINS

FEBRUARY

8 â&#x20AC;˘ Fasching, 7PM-11PM, Helendorf River Inn & Conference Center Front Room. Helen Chamber of Commerce, 706-878-1908, www.helenchamber.com.

15-16 â&#x20AC;˘ Annual Fireside Arts & Crafts Show, 10AM-5PM, Unicoi State Park. 706-878-2201.

15 â&#x20AC;˘ Treat Your Sweet for Valentineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day, 6:15PM â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8PM, Yonah Mountain Vineyards. Please call 706-878-5522, www.YonahMountainVineyards.com.

16 â&#x20AC;˘ Behind the Scenes Tours, North Georgia Zoo, 706-348-7279, www.northgeorgiazoo.com.

20-22 â&#x20AC;˘ Helenblitz Mini Cooper Car Show, Helendorf Inn. The Helenblitz Charity Event is a family friendly event. There will also be social events, RC car races, opportunities to show oďŹ&#x20AC; your MINI, and the charity auction. 706-878-2271.

21-22 â&#x20AC;˘ Sylvan Valley Celtic Weekend, Sylvan Valley Lodge, 706-865-7371. www.sylvanvalleylodge.com.

MARCH

15, 22, 23 â&#x20AC;˘ Swinging in the Vines Music Series, SauteeNacoochee Vineyards. 706-878-1056, www.sauteenacoocheevineyards.com.

22 & 23 â&#x20AC;˘ Spring Wine Highway Weekend, Various area wineries, 706-878-9463.

29 â&#x20AC;˘ 25th Annual Trout Tournament, Helen Chamber of Commerce, 706-878-1908. Open to all ages. Entry fee includes two raďŹ&#x201E;e tickets for all entries and a tournament tee shirt for the ďŹ rst 200 entries. Fish the Chattahoochee River for cash prizes in tagged ďŹ sh. www.helenchamber.com.

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d e p a r t m e n t :

MOUNTAIN ARTS

Denim designer draws inspiration from his genes

M

arc Nelson may not be a real person, but the designer jeans that company owner George Marcus Hall makes are the real deal.

Located in a warehouse on the east side of Knoxville, Tenn., Marc Nelson Denim is one of only a handful of companies to sell Americanmade jeans. Knoxville, like much of the South, once was a bastion of the textile industry.

“My family worked at the Levis plant,” Hall said.

However, the textile industry went the way of overseas outsourcing.

The community, and the nation, lost the commodity of having something made in the U.S.A. George Marcus Hall However, the skills Hall’s family had used in the textile mills were passed down— Hall’s mother taught him how to sew when he was just a young boy. When he got to high school, he took tailoring classes, and he furthered his design studies in Los Angeles.

Hall works in high-end, small batches, much like artisan foods. It’s not about quantity; it’s about quality. His first run of jeans numbered only 214—and they were only for men.

Hall wanted something he himself could and would wear.

His grandfather greatly influenced Hall’s sense of style and gave the company half its name. In his own dark wash jeans, a grey, tailored military jacket over a plum-grey shirt, striped purple socks and black leather lace up shoes, Hall is dapper but comfortable. Now Hall has expanded his line to include women’s wear.

“Women shop more than men,” Hall said with a smile.

His target market isn’t the consumer who buys something cheap, wears it out, and throws it away. Rather he designs for those who appreciate something well made and made locally.

His care for each pair of jeans is evident in the process. Rather than creating one model that is simply enlarged or shrunk to make different sizes, Marc Nelson uses a separate pattern for each size, which improves the product’s fit. But for the right price (around $250-$350), one can have a completely custom pair of jeans right down to the denim, pocket linings, and rivets. Marc Nelson jeans run from $160 to $290 a pair for men’s 28

Marc Nelson Denim makes jeans with America in mind.

SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTOS

Hall works in high-end, small-batches, much like artisanal food. It’s not about quantity; it’s about quality. and $205 to $250 for women’s. The company’s Limited Edition Café Racer Jacket in leather goes for $795.

Marc Nelson Denim can be found in stores in Knoxville, Asheville, Atlanta, Kapaa, Hawaii, and New York, or for a more genuine experience, customers can head to the company’s warehouse headquarters at 206 Randolph Street where denim samples and red, white, and blue spools of thread line the walls and seemingly antiquated heavy-duty sewing machines sit threaded and ready to sew.

For more information, visit marcnelsondenim.com or call 800.605.9782.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

Storytelling at its Carolina Best

FAMED PICKER GETS HIS OWN CENTER This fall, during the week of Earl Scrugg’s 90th birthday, an interactive museum showcasing the life and region that inspired his music opened in Shelby, N.C. The Earl Scruggs Center brings new life to the 1907 Cleveland County Courthouse through exhibits and performances that highlight the people and places influential in the evolution of bluegrass music.

Scruggs was an innovator on the banjo, popularizing an upward, threefinger picking style that was original and unmistakable. He and Lester Flatt recorded “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” a bluegrass number that became a hallmark of the famous television show, The Beverly Hillbillies.

“The Ballad of Jed Clampett” spent 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country chart—even landing at No. 44 on the Billboard Hot 100. Following its release, the recording helped bring bluegrass into the American mainstream, redefining the banjo’s appeal across genres.

For more information, visit earlscruggscenter.org or call 704.487.6233.

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CRAFT CORPORATION NAMES NEW LEADER Handmade in America, a non-profit community and economic development corporation dedicated to handmade craft and asset-based rural creative placemaking in Western North Carolina, has named Glenn Cox as the organization’s new executive director.

Cox has more than 20 years of professional community and economic development experience in Memphis, Tenn., and rural West Tennessee. While not a Western North Carolina native himself, Cox’s mother grew up in Swannanoa and her family roots trace back to the late 1700’s and the earliest settlers of the Swannanoa Valley. His great-uncle Hardy Davidson was an early member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild.

“HandMade is the perfect blend of my professional passion for community and economic development with my personal love of craft art and deep respect for artists and artisans,” Cox said.

For more information, visit handmadeinamerica.org.

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d e p a r t m e n t :

MOUNTAIN CUISINE

A newfound appreciation for much-maligned veggies

A

n obelisque serves little purpose other than as a landmark, many erected well ahead of a need for such a landmark, as city planners attempt placemaking by making a place seemingly important with strategically monumental monuments. Yet others age past their use, marking a place that no longer exists in the collective conscious.

The Vance Monument in downtown Asheville, N.C., erected in 1897, has stood, strong as the granite blocks from which its made, as a memorial to Zebulon Baird Vance, a U.S. congressman who twice was elected North Carolina’s governor during the Civil War. Vance is reputed to have done more in support of religious freedom, particularly in relation to the Jewish faith, than any other American statesman. The monument that bears his name at the crest of downtown Asheville’s well-traveled Biltmore Avenue is thus a monument to our nation’s founding fathers and our most crucial rights as citizens.

It’s also now a monument to Brussels sprouts and cauliflower—at least to me, anyway. These two maligned, misunderstood members of the Brassica oleracea family long have drawn ire, provoking even those of us who eat our green peppers raw and our okra stewed to turn up our noses and push our plates away. However, at John Fleer’s newest restaurant, Rhubarb, the chef celebrates these humble winter vegetables and thus has made a believer out of me.

Let me be abundantly clear—I do not like cauliflower, and, at best, I’d come to tolerate Brussels sprouts. It’s not my mother’s fault. Cauliflower or Brussels sprouts never were served dried out or cooked until it squooshed. My father, eldest son to Polish-Czech parents living on Chicago’s South Side, was vegetable adverse, prone to choosing potatoes in any form, so cauliflower and Brussels sprouts simply never were in our house. I’ve been waiting for Brassica like these.

Halved and roasted such that tender outer leaves give way to a satisfying crunch, Fleer’s Brussels sprouts are cast like a handful of gems across a bed of hearty lentils and onion cassoulet, in which a single, crown of cauliflower, seared and caramelized to tenderness is nestled. Though the flavors are multi-layered, the vegetarian dish (vegan without the cassoulet) remains unfussy and honest.

Much of Rhubarb’s menu is this way—simple ideas that are well executed with quality ingredients. Diners will find products incorporated from some of region’s most recognizable names such as Alan Benton, Sunburst Trout, Lusty Monk Mustard, and Looking Glass Dairy, while other purveyors operate under the “local” label. The menu changes “based on product availability and the whim of the chefs.” Welcoming in the new year were starters including wood-fired broccolini and a Berber pie of Benton’s Prosciutto and local fig-rhubarb jam; entrees of tile fish with marrow beans and braised pork osso bucco; and desserts of a rustic apple, walnut pastry with oat crumble and fanciful turn on a creamsicle served atop tiny slices of grilled poundcake.

Fleer, raised in Winston-Salem, N.C., was a religion and philosophy major at Duke University, studying abroad in Venice when Europe’s 30

Plancha seared cauliflower glazed with fall seed pesto and served with stout brined, wood-roasted onion cassoulet and Lusty Monk and Busy Bee roasted Brussels sprouts are among the standout dishes at Rhubarb.

“culture of food” awoke in him. He began working in kitchens to put himself through graduate school at the University of North CarolinaChapel Hill. However, it was to the Culinary Institute of America that Fleer ultimately was called.

Today, the James Beard Foundation has named Fleer one of the “rising stars of the 21st Century,” and he’s thrice been a finalist for the foundation’s “Best Chef in the South” award.

want to go?

Rhubarb is open 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday at 7 Southwest Pack Square in downtown Asheville. For reservations or more information, visit rhubarbasheville.com or call 828.785.1503.

In spite of the culinary awards Fleer has collected, Rhubarb remains accessible. Rhubarb welcomes diners to Family Meal—a three-course dinner served at three eight-top tables at a cost of $13-$15 per person. The idea is that all 24 diners will not know one another at the start of the meal, but that by the end they will have connected, experienced something unique, and had something wonderful to eat. The last Family Meal of 2013 featured Cruze Buttermilk and Cornbread Soup, Country Captain Chicken Over Anson Mills Grits, and Pastry Chef Ashley Capps’ family favorite peanut butter crunch bars.

— By Sarah E. Kucharski

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

TESTED AND TRAVELED, ONE OF KNOXVILLE’S OWN COMES HOME Knox Mason, located on South Gay Street in Knoxville’s historic Old City, blends sleek, modern style with traditional Southern charm in a perfect reflection of its chef and owner, Matt Gallaher.

Knoxville-raised, Gallaher spent his early years helping in his mother’s tearoom, Miss Emily’s Fine Foods, but he never planned to become a chef. He earned a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Tennessee— which didn’t feel right—and was working in catering when another chef recognized his talent and took him on as an apprentice.

With 15 years of culinary experience, Gallaher applied to be a prep cook at the renowned Blackberry Farm resort in nearby Walland, Tenn. Instead, in an intense trial by fire, he was put on the line. Four years later, he was offered a job cooking for country star Martina McBride while she was on tour. It was supposed to be a short-lived adventure. It ended up being nearly five years—Gallaher toured the world, working for various artists (Neil Young was one), cooking meals in a new location with new suppliers and new ingredients nearly every day.

But when Tennessee’s governor, Bill Haslam, asked Gallaher to come home in 2011, he said yes, becoming Executive Chef of the Tennessee Residence. The experience motivated Gallaher to finally open his own restaurant, Knox Mason, where spicy pork rinds, deviled eggs with rooster sauce and chow chow, and crispy duck leg confit, and seared Sunburst trout with Anson Mills farro risotto, butternut squash and smoked Cruze Farm creme fraiche are stand outs. There’s even a Benton’s bacon infused whiskey with fig vermouth and housemade bitters.

Knox Mason is open 4 to 11 p.m. (dinner service stops at 9 p.m.), Tuesday through Saturday. Sunday brunch is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, visit knoxmason.com or call 865.544.2004.

d e p a r t m e n t :

MOUNTAIN CUISINE Fred’s Favorite Brussels Sprouts

Bourbon-Marinated Flank Steak

If you had asked me a few years ago what my favorite brussels sprouts recipe would be, I would have laughed and toldyou there was no such thing as a good brussels sprouts recipe. This one changed my mind, and all credit goes to Kyle Wilkerson. Now I can’t wait for brussels sprouts to come into season, and I eat this dish nearly once a week through the late fall and winter.

Grilling a flank steak is the perfect Saturday night dinner because it’s easy and, if you’re lucky, you’ll end up with leftovers for stroganoff or a main-dish salad later in the wek. A hint of bourbon adds sophistication to this easy Eastmeets-South steak marinade.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Water 1 pound brussels sprouts, trimmed 3 garlic cloves, minced 4 slices heavily smoked bacon, like Allan Benton’s from Tennessee, diced 2 tbsp olive oil Kosher salt and finely ground black pepper A few lemon wedges

¼ cup hoison sauce 1 tbsp honey 1 tsp cayenne pepper 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 tbsp bourbon 1 (1 ½ to 2-pound) flank steak

Fill a 3-quart saucepan about half full of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, add the brussels sprouts, and cook for 4-5 minutes. Drain the brussels sprouts and run them under cold water for a couple of minutes, then allow them to dry on paper towels. Place the bacon in a cold sauté pan and cook over mediumlow heat until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan, leaving the fat, and drain on paper towels. Add the olive oil to the pan and increase heat to medium high. When the fats begin to shimmer, throw in the sprouts and cook until they begin to caramelize, about 15 minutes. Be sure to shake the pan occasionally so that all side of the sprouts and browned. When the sprouts are tender, add the bacon. Season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Remove from heat and season with lemon juice. Serve hot.

Wisk together the hoison sauce, honey, cayenne pepper, garlic, and bourbon in a small bowl. Place the flank steak in a glass baking dish large enough to hold it in a single layer or in a large, resealable freezer bag. Add the marinade and turn the steak over several times to coat it.

Cover if using a glass dish and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or marinate at room temperature for no more than 1 hour.

Heat a gas grill or prepare a charcoal fire for direct grilling. Remove the flank steak from the marinade and grill for 10-15 minutes per side, depending on thickness (when you poke the thickest part with your finger, ti should feel like it’s beginning to get firm).

Remove from the grill and let stand for 10 minutes. Slice the steak diagonally across the grain and serve.

From Fred Thompson’s Southern Sides by Fred Thompson and published by the University of North Carolina Press, Inc.

From Bourbon, a Savor The South cookbook by Kathleen Purvis and published by the University of North Carolina Press, Inc.

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Naturally neighbors

Broadly speaking, symbiosis describes any interaction between species.

Commensalism is a relationship in which one organism benefits and the other organism is basically unaffected.

Mutualism is a relationship in which both organisms benefit, and parasitism is a relationship that benefits one organism while adversely affecting the other.

But unlike traditional human neighborhoods in which the whole block knows who the good and bad neighbors

BY DON HENDERSHOT

“Hummingbirds as pollinators are always easy to explain.

The hummingbird is obtaining a source of food, and the plant is contracting a dependable pollinator who will be there no matter what the weather.”

What makes a neighborhood?

Many old-timers envision a place with friends just down the road ready to lend a cup of sugar or watch the kids for a few hours.

But the concept of a true — Fred Alsop, ornithologist and neighborhood is much more professor of biology at East Tennessee State University complex than outdated imagery of groomed lawns and white picket fences. Upon closer inspection, “neighborhoods” actually exist all around us, in big cities, little towns and even in places one would never think to look—like nature.

One enlightening way to think about neighbors and neighborhoods is to use the natural world as a guide.

Neighborhoods correlate to ecosystems that are populated by neighbors functioning in one way or another to facilitate nature’s life cycles. In fact, the term neighborhood can be stretched to fit any natural aspect of Earth, big or small. Within Earth’s giant ecosystem exist a multitude of smaller ecosystems, and inhabitants are neighbors of one kind or another.

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

are, biologists eschew such anthropogenic terms when describing neighbors in their ecosystems. It’s not for humans to say whether it was a “good” hawk or a “bad” hawk that caught the squirrel and ate it.

Though predator-prey relationships, or even parasitic ones, are an integral part of nature, there are many natural interactions that we might consider to be more “neighborly.”

Birds provide an easy to observe example of mutually beneficial relationships in nature. Pileated woodpeckers are the largest woodpeckers in the United States and favor heavily wooded forests with large, mature trees into which they drill looking for insects, especially carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle larvae. Male woodpeckers carve out their nests in dead trees, then seek to attract a female to raise a brood. Once the nest is abandoned, smaller birds like chickadees, nuthatches, and bluebirds in turn nest in these holes their metabiotic hosts made. Even owls or raccoons may make use of the abandoned tree cavities.

Though pileateds are territorial birds and do not migrate, they are more tolerant of their neighbors in winter.

Seeds generally are dispersed by wind and water, but there is a host of plants that depend on animal pollinators and seed dispersers. Dr. Fred Alsop, an ornithologist and professor of biology at East Tennessee State University, is the author of numerous field guides, a series of Smithsonian handbooks on birds and the Smithsonian Birds of North America. Most people readily accept hummingbirds as pollinators but may not be aware of how important they really are in this role, and how neighborly that role really is, Alsop said.

“Hummingbirds as pollinators are always easy to explain,” Alsop said. “The hummingbird is obtaining a source of food, and the plant is contracting a dependable pollinator who will be there no matter what the weather.”

The ruby throated hummingbird, one of the most common hummers in the East, favors flowers with warm colors and tube-shaped corollas such as this Trumpet Creeper. DONATED PHOTO

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Some hummingbirds are so specialized to a particular flower species or flower group their beaks have coevolved to match the length and shape of the flower, Alsop said. One of the most striking examples of this is the Andean swordbill and the ornithophilous passionflower. The swordbill has a beak more than five inches long, corresponding with the long corolla of the passionflower. The resident hummer in the East, the rubythroated, is more of a generalist, Alsop says, but it still favors flowers with warm colors and tube-shaped corollas.

“Jays are great dispersers of acorns and promote the distribution of oak trees with their caching of nuts in the fall for their future use. Some are not found and germinate into oak seedlings,” Alsop said. “Some mammals that eat big fruits with hard seeds such as opossums, raccoons and bears pass the seeds through their guts and disperse them in their droppings.”

Dr. James Costa, director of the Highlands Biological Station and a professor and researcher at Western Carolina University, points to the phenomenon of obligate mutualism, which indicates that neither species can survive without the other. Case in point, the yucca plant and the yucca moth survive through this manner of co-existence in this. In other words, this is a neighborhood that wouldn’t exist without close neighbors,

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Dr. James Costa, director of the Highlands Biological Station, goes to great lengths to collect catepillars for research.

except the neighbors in this neighborhood have lived side by side for more than 40 million years.

Each spring yucca moths emerge from underground cocoons to DONATED PHOTO rendezvous on yucca plants. The females collect pollen from the yucca flower, using their specialized tentacles, and make a moth line to another yucca flower where they deposit their eggs, visit the stigma of the flower to deposit a small amount of pollen, and emit a pheromone to let other moths with eggs know that eggs have already been deposited. This is critical because if too many eggs are laid in any one flower the yucca plant will abort that bloom. Female yucca moths adjust the amount of eggs they lay based on the pheromones present.

Some ants even go so far as to care for other animals, cultivating special relationships with aphids, tree hoppers, and certain caterpillars—these insects all produce nutritional secretions that are valuable to the ants. Aphids and treehoppers produce honeydew, a sugary secretion produced from the sap they feed on, and the caterpillars have specialized nectary organs that produce amino acids. Meanwhile, the ants provide

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

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Make some pileated friends Pileated woodpeckers are striking birds with bright red feathers atop their head. Though some homeowners may consider the birds a nuisance due to their noise and tendency to seek out insect-infested wood—which might include a house’s eaves or deck posts—the birds are very beneficial to the environment, controlling insect populations and creating nesting sites for other birds and small mammals.

Attracting woodpeckers is a matter of allowing dead trees to hang and rot, typically called a snag, which creates a buffet of bugs and easy nesting. Suet also is a powerful woodpecker pull, particularly suet that includes black oil sunflower seeds. Also consider landscaping with trees and shrubs that provide cover, perches, and berries such as oaks, pines, holly, and dogwood.

DEB CAMPBELL PHOTO DEBCAMPBELLPHOTO.COM

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

Golden mane moss, also known as Sullivant’s or shaggy maned-moss, is listed as a rare species in North Carolina. It lives on branches of old red cedars.

“Perhaps this relationship

DONATED PHOTO

protection services—tending and fiercely defending the aphids, hoppers and caterpillars from predators in exchange for the secretions.

Visitors who descend upon the Great Smoky Mountains National Park every spring for the Annual Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage owe a debt of gratitude to ants, Costa said. Many spring wildflowers have a mutualism with ants, he said. The plants produce special nutritious bodies attached to their seeds that the ants harvest, and in so doing, the ants carry off the seeds, spreading the plant. The phenomenon is called myrmecochory.

Similarly, birds are notorious seed spreaders.

“Perhaps this relationship is one of our major problems with invasive shrub spread,” said Dr. Dan Pittillo, professor emeritus in botany at Western Carolina University, author, environmentalist and advisor to several organizations including the National Park Service and the North Carolina Nature Conservancy. “They spread the seeds of plants like multiflora rose, privet, Japanese honeysuckle, certain viburnums and winged euonymus that are notorious invasives across the landscape of Western North Carolina,” Pittillo said.

One of the most common mutualistic plant relationships is between fungi and vascular plants. “Most species of woody plants will have mutualistic connections with the fungus that support the fungus with nutrients and aids the plant with absorption of the minerals needed for growth,” Pittillo said. “In

is one of our major problems with invasive shrub spread. They spread the seeds of plants like multiflora rose, privet, Japanese honeysuckle, certain viburnums and winged euonymus that are notorious invasives across the landscape of Western North Carolina.”

— Dr. Dan Pittillo, professor emeritus in botany at Western Carolina University

certain herbaceous plants, especially orchids, there would be no establishment without this fungus connection.”

One such example is the golden mane moss that lives on branches of old red cedars. The golden mane, also known as Sullivant’s or shaggy maned-moss, is listed as a rare species in North Carolina. He has found it on Cedar Cliff in Jackson County and said that it has been reported from seven other mountain counties in the state. It seems that sometimes, even in the wild, neighbors just need somebody to lean on.

So while it may not be correct to say that there are “good” neighbors and “bad” neighbors in the natural world—it’s easy to see that there are certainly neighbors that are good for one another.

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Gather

the Block

Sometimes the best way to build community is to throw a party

BY ANDREW KASPER

The historic courthouse in Waynesville, N.C., frequently becomes the site of street dances and festivals that attract locals and visitors alike. MARGARET HESTER PHOTO

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 â&#x20AC;˘ ISSUE 1

DONATED PHOTO

A

neighborhood rises and falls with its social capital, its sense of community crucial to its day-to-day success as a desirable place to live, to its ability to organize against threats such as crime or unwanted development, save a struggling commercial district, or prevail in the

face of natural disaster. When a community cares about itself, it shows.

Yet a community is not created simply by proximity. It takes a movement, sometimes repeated movements, movements that, if one looks closely enough, might even resemble dancing, dancing in the streets. It matters not what one wears, just as long as one is there.

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The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival has been an entertainment draw in Asheville, N.C., since the 1920s. DONATED PHOTO

t was an old-fashioned block party that reignited the passion in a community on the north side of Knoxville. Happy Holler had its heyday in the 1940s and 50s, and then fell into decline with dilapidated and vacant buildings, crime, and vagrancy.

When the Evans family opened Friends Antiques and Collectibles, it was one of only four on the block, along with the Time Warp Tea Room, a scratch-anddent furniture showroom across the street, and a small appliance repair service that had been around for 25 years.

After six months of solid sales, Rick Evans’ daughter and wife had the idea to put on a customer appreciation day. The family hit the pavement, met with the other business owners, formed a planning committee, lined up food vendors and planned out an afternoon of fun. Evans said they even contacted the City of Knoxville and attempted in vain to receive a permit to close the street.

A street closure for a party not sanctioned by the city is hard to come by in Knoxville. Officials urge residents to hold their events on private lawns, at park shelters, or other public facilities so as not to interfere with the flow of traffic and prohibit emergency vehicle access. Aside from the city’s large “official” festivals, only a handful of small block parties are given the green light to stop traffic each year.

However, the Happy Holler folks didn’t let the lack of a permit get in the way of their customer appreciation day and went ahead with their party anyway. Much to organizers’ surprise, the first Hollerpalooza drew crowds of people, effectively closing down the road anyway.

“We had over 2,000 people here on a Saturday for the first event,” Evans said.

The turnout forced the city to play catch-up and send police to the scene to do traffic and crowd control. Needless to say, the city picked up the phone to call block party organizers prior to the next year’s event asking how they could help.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslan, who was Knoxville’s mayor when the city denied Happy Holler’s request to close the block, even traveled from Nashville to apologize for not being more cooperative the first year, Evans said. But by then, the event had

“[Gatherings] create all these occasions for people to work together to get to know each other. It’s a clever idea as a way to sort of get people to pay attention to each other and community development occurs as a byproduct.”

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— Tony Hickey, professor of sociology at Western Carolina University

already proven itself a success. Attendance climbed to more than 3,000, then 4,000 the year after, then 5,000. Evans eventually stopped keeping track.

“We sort of quit counting because it was nothing but people,” he said.

But the block party was a success in bigger ways too.

Someone bought and renovated the whole row of stores across the street from the Friends antique shops. In the past eight years, Evans said seven new businesses have moved onto the street, including a very popular bar and restaurant.

“Thursday, Friday and Saturday you can’t park within two blocks of Happy Holler,” he said. “We’re very proud of it.”

While there are tangible benefits of a street gathering, Tony Hickey, professor of sociology at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C., says there’s something about a block party that is more important yet harder to recognize taking place behind the scenes—the building of social capital. The academic term is used to describe the value of interactions and relationships between neighbors and fellow citizens. Much like one needs financial capital to build a house or start a business, one needs social capital to draw community interest in a school bake sale or persuade a neighbor to loan out his or her lawnmower.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

Plainly put, organizing and participating in cooperative events like block parties and other social gatherings builds community.

Progressive communities recognize the concept and invest heavily in developing their social networks, Hickey said.

“They create all these occasions for people to work together to get to know each other,” he said. “It’s a clever idea as a way to sort of get people to pay attention to each other and community development occurs as a byproduct.”

A community that block parties together, sticks together.

Early Appalachia had its own kind of block parties. Though they may have been building a barn rather than purposefully building social capital, groups gathered to get something accomplished and have a little fun. Rob Ferguson, a visiting assistant professor in the history department at WCU, said Appalachian farm owners would go to great lengths to entice as much help as they could get.

“If you’re building a barn on your land, you’d invite all your neighbors, and then you’d have a bunch of food and play music,” he said.

Music was at the center of most of the early Appalachian gatherings—a phenomenon that holds true to this day as evidenced by the numerous community jam sessions held across the region. Before television, radio, computers, and other forms of diversion became household items, mountain residents

jumped at the opportunity to get together to play music.

“If there were a fiddle or a banjo around, people would gravitate in that direction,” Ferguson said. “Anyone would show up.”

Instruments often were crude and homemade, he said—banjo heads were made from dried cat gut, and players used little more than waxed string to pluck a tune, or a washboard on which to scratch a rhythm, but the result was that most everyone had some kind of instrument at hand.

Like block parties gave way to more organized festivals, so musical jam sessions spawned more events like Asheville’s Rhododendron Festivals, which later became the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, first held on the 1920s.

In addition to mountain music, other Appalachian cultural icons, like moonshine, were popular at old time gatherings.

When the corn harvest came in, corn-shucking parties would invite all hands to pull the husks and silks from the cob. A bottle of moonshine hidden somewhere near the bottom of the pile provided the motivation to keep shucking.

Many small towns in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee are reviving these time-honored techniques to lure local residents and passing tourists back to Main Street and local businesses. Though it appears none have gone so far as to promise bottles of moonshine, downtown and merchant organizations are throwing block parties and festivals with the

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Asheville, N.C.’s Shindig on the Green (above) brings people downtown to dance and sing throughout the summer. Below: Sevierville, a small town en route to major tourist destinations in the Great Smoky Mountains, capitalizes on the traffic with the Bloomin’ Barbecue & Bluegrass festival.

MARGARET HESTER PHOTO (ABOVE) • TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF TOURIST DEVELOPMENT PHOTO (BELOW)

promise of mountain music, good food, and a good social time.

During a time when much commercial activity is in conducted in shopping centers on the outskirts of town, cultural street festivals remind people that there is a community to be found. Such block parties and festivals have become main attractions in little towns like Waynesville, N.C., which closes down portions of its historic Main Street several times a year for various events including street dances, an international festival in July associated with the Folkmoot USA International Dance Festival, and the Church Street Arts & Crafts Festival and Apple Harvest Fest in the fall.

In Sevierville, Tenn., the Bloomin’ Barbecue & Bluegrass Festival was created as a way to get tourists to notice what the small town—Dolly Parton’s hometown—has to offer. Though the town boasts fewer than 15,000 residents, an estimated 12 million pass through on a yearly basis, heading to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or its neighboring sister cities of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. And what better way to get people to stay and visit than rope off a few blocks downtown and show them a good time at an Appalachian barbecue and bluegrass street party?

Despite the tremendous influx of visitors, Sevierville still manages to keep its small town Appalachian feel.

“We call ourselves ‘your hometown in the Smokies,’” said Bob Stahlke, spokesman for the city of Sevierville. “While we’re a big town in terms of having a lot of tourists, we’re a small town

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

in terms of the community.”

Major productions designed to attract tourist dollars typically draw support from local governments. However, a group of citizens in Franklin, N.C., called Venture Local, began organizing monthly block parties aimed at local residents last summer. While the town already puts on a whole slate of seasonal tourist events, including a fall bike ride, a bluegrass festival, a Christmas event, and more on Main Street, Venture Local’s goal was to remind Franklin’s own local population to head downtown on a more regular basis.

Matt Bateman, one of the group’s leaders, said it’s too easy for locals to hop in the car and head out of town without giving a second though.

“We’ve become so disconnected in our thinking,” he said.

“Whether its heading out to Walmart to do some shopping, why not come downtown first to see what’s happening?”

The monthly events drew people downtown and thus were an incentive to keep businesses open. Yet there was an undeniable community building component that Bateman said was special to see. While most evenings downtown Franklin shuts down even before the street lights come on, Bateman said that on nights of Street Fest, Main Street came alive as people filled the street and engaged in friendly chatter.

“With all the things going on the world, if our communities

are going to survive, we’ve got to come together,” Bateman said.

“If socializing on a Friday night starts it, then so be it.”

Growing up in Philadelphia in the 1970s and 1980s, Jon Fillman remembers when it was easier to get people together. All it took for a block party to start on a slow, summer Sunday was a couple of neighbors, portable grills, and cars strategically parked at each end of the street as traffic barricades. Kickball, music, and the aroma of slow-cooked supermarket meats gave the embattled city pavement and the street’s residents a break.

“It was very impromptu, it kind of just happened,” said Fillman, who now works for the City of Asheville. “The parents decided they would close the street and just closed it. It was kind of a different time back then.”

Things have changed over the years. Part of Fillman’s job is permitting special events, street festivals, and neighborhood block parties—and today he frowns on illegally parked cars for a block party or otherwise.

Permits help Asheville keep track of its activities. Since the mid2000s, the city averages more than a dozen neighborhood block parties each year, though surely there are more neighborhood parties that skirt the $50 permit needed to close a street.

Betty Sharpless has lived in a small H-shaped neighborhood on the north side of Asheville for 30 years or so. Sharpless’ home is on the neighborhood’s short connector between two, larger

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The Goombay Festival is one of Asheville’s unique gatherings that truly captures the block party feel. DONATED PHOTO

parallel roads. But the little road disconnected neighbors more than it connected them, Sharpless said.

“The people on the left side didn’t know the people on the right, and I thought we should know each other,” she said.

Trapped in the middle of strangers, Sharpless decided to take matters into her own hands. She spent $50 on a permit and went from house to house passing out flyers, assuring residents that the April 1 date was not a Fool’s Day joke. The biggest hiccup the inaugural party? Getting people to go home at the end of the night. Sharpless considers those $50 the best she ever spent.

The party’s success created a block party tradition. Sometimes multiple parties are hosted each year, as the neighborhood’s short connector road fills with sandboxes and water gun fights for the kids, and grills, beer, and bean bag toss for the adults.

While the events are great for residents’ social calendars, their impacts are most noticeable during the rest of the year. People now recognize one another’s faces, remember names, and participate more often in other neighborhood functions such as baby showers, Easter egg hunts, and Halloween trick-or-treating.

“People were living within four houses of each other and they didn’t know they lived within four houses of each other,” Sharpless said. “(The party has) helped it be much more of a community.”

While a small block party made Sharpless’ little north side neighborhood a more cohesive community, Asheville as a whole leans on much larger events in fostering its citywide community.

From the Brewgrass Festival to Downtown After 5 to Shindig on the Green, there’s some sort of festival, party, or large-scale gathering happening for nearly a third of the calendar year.

The YMI Cultural Center’s block party is recognized as one of the rising stars. The Young Men’s Institute has been a hub of African-American culture in Asheville since 1893, when George Vanderbilt financed the center’s construction for the black workers employed at the Biltmore Estate. The YMI provided

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“Every community needs to have a block party. It brings the community together.”

— Sharon West, chairwoman of the YMI Cultural Center

night school for adults, a day school and kindergarten, Sunday School, bath facility and a library. It had a gymnasium, doctor’s office, drugstore, reading and meeting rooms, sleeping rooms and a swimming pool.

Two years ago, the YMI Center held it’s first block party as a kick-off event to its signature Goombay festival—an AfricanCaribbean food, arts, and culture event held on Market and Eagle streets in downtown Asheville. The block party was a huge hit.

Although the YMI Cultural Center put Goombay on hold for a year to celebrate the organization’s 120th anniversary, they brought the block party back and drew throngs of party goers.

“The environment—it’s not inhibited by walls of a building, where you have to be really careful about ‘don’t break this, don’t knock down this,’” said Sharon West, chairwoman of the cultural center’s board of directors. “It’s a place where people want to be.”

West said the block party quickly has become a tradition that will last into the foreseeable future. When people converge from all over the city to a single block to celebrate cultural diversity and enjoy a good time together, a special moment has been created. Much like Sharpless on the north side of Asheville, West also touted the merits of a middle-of-the-street celebration.

“Every community needs to have a block party,” West said.

“It brings the community together.”

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Kaylee Cubeta adds an artistic touch to a cake at one of Haywood Road’s most beloved businesses, Short Street Cakes.

PAUL CLARK PHOTO

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

West Asheville Reinventing itself by reviving the community it always had

BY PA U L C L A R K

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Tommy Sellers holds a photograph of the Haywood Road building he and his parents lived in when he was a child. PAUL CLARK PHOTO

hat used to be known as “Worst Asheville” now attracts young people who are fixing up neglected Craftsman-style cottages and bungalows, having chosen smaller floorplans with personality and a yard in a walkable community over sprawling houses in designer-planned neighborhoods. West Asheville teems with parents pushing strollers and relaxed retirees out walking their dogs.

The community’s resurrection came about

after a downturn that quite literally put West Asheville on the wrong side of the tracks.

West Asheville is one of the hottest things going in Asheville right now. It’s where much of Asheville’s funkiness still rings true, serving as a gateway to the River Arts District, where one find’s quintessential hangouts like The Wedge, a small brewery that has done an excellent job of convincing people that it’s cool to hang out in a scruffy yard by the railroad tracks that run parallel to the river. The neighborhood Italian restaurant, Nona Mia, relocated from a strip mall off Patton Avenue to Haywood Road, West Asheville’s main thoroughfare, which is

also gives its address to the Lucky Otter burrito joint, Urban Orchard Cider Co.’s press and tasting room, the breakfast-only Biscuit Head, and Sunny Point Café, where the tiny dining room is packed seven days a week.

“Sunny Point used to be Lisenbee’s Place, a little beer joint type of place,” said Tommy Sellers, who grew up in West Asheville and went on to serve as an Asheville City Council member. Mr. Lisenbee, who had a watch repair shop in the other half of the building, used to go bear hunting with Seller’s father, and afterward, they’d stop by the bar for a cold one. The Mothlight, a new music room that

“People started buying these old homes that were gems and taking the aluminum and vinyl siding off and bringing back the character that was always there. The new owners wanted what the old owners had— a sense of community, as well as convenience.

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attracts A-list touring bands, used to be Rose’s Five and Dime, Sellers said. What is now West Village Market in the Bledsoe Building was French’s Five and Dime.

Sellers’ family owned a building near the fire station. As a boy growing up in the ‘60s, Sellers loved to sneak into the West Asheville fire station with his buddies whenever the firemen had been summoned away on a call.

The boys would run upstairs and slide down the brass pole the firemen used to get quickly from their quarters to the trucks. But the firemen, who had learned to grip the pole with their forearms to keep it smudge-free, would know the boys had been there by the smattering of small fingerprints they left behind.

His family of six—he, three brothers, and their mother and father—all lived in an apartment above his father’s cabinetry shop and mother’s coin shop. Sellers didn’t know much about the rest of the world, but he knew every inch of Haywood Road. West Asheville was solidly working-class back then. Just about everything people needed existed along

everywhere. That changed, though, in the 1950s when the state built a bridge over the French Broad River, bypassing Haywood Road and rerouting traffic to Patton Avenue.

As businesses started migrating to Patton Avenue, West Asheville began to wither.

“People like my mom and dad grew old, and businesses closed,” Sellers said.

“Children didn’t have the same passion to keep the family businesses going. People died out, and children moved away.”

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, crime rose and property values fell. The broad sidewalks that lined West Asheville’s once-vibrant neighborhoods were empty. People shopped at the Asheville Mall, on the east side of town.

One by one, the lights at small, family-owned businesses along Haywood blinked out.

Sellers and fellow long-time reside Dale Groce refused to stand idle. They and other business people lobbied the city for help. The city came through with money for Christmas lights, which attracted people to West Asheville. Then, while Sellers was a city councilmember, Asheville opened a police

“Cathy and I kept walking down Haywood Road and saying, why isn’t anything happening here, because we saw all these young families,” Stearns said at the bakery recently over a hot bowl of soup. She and Cleary began looking at property. What they found was more than what they were looking for—a great place for a baker but an owner who wouldn’t sell it to them unless they also bought his other property next door, the Bledsoe Building. The location would make for a true community gathering spot, so the women sought backing from some entrepreneurial spirits.

“It’s pretty amazing that, at 28 years old, we were able to find investors,” Stearns said.

“We didn’t even have any restaurant management experience.”

West End Bakery opened in 2001. Just a stone’s throw away, West Ashville residents Lu Young and Greg Turner opened Westville Pub in 2002.

“There wasn’t a whole lot going on around here then,” said Drew Smith, Young’s son and the pub’s general manager.

“People are building neighborhoods on the west side in a new way, in a sustainable, walkable, livable kind of environment.

—Jodi Rhoden, Short Street Cakes

the road. Husbands bought gas at the Esso station, where attendants also checked the oil and cleaned the windshields. Wives walked to the A&P, Colonial, and Winn-Dixie for groceries, or they shopped at Brown’s Market—now home to Harvest Records.

“It was just your local grocery store that actually delivered groceries by bicycle,” Sellers said. “You’d call it in, and they would get your order together and bring it to your front porch.”

Sellers could earn a quarter or two sweeping up sawdust in his father’s cabinetry shop, and he’d get another 50 cents or so by selling the sawdust to Brown’s Market, where Mr. Brown would toss it on the floor of the store’s butcher shop.

“So I was an entrepreneur at 10 years old,” Sellers said.

For a quick bite, Sellers and his friends would head to the soda fountains at Ideal or Bennett’s drug store.

“A hot dog and a cherry Coke probably cost you about a buck,” Sellers said.

At barber shops, shoe repair, hair salons, doctors, restaurants, garages and churches, West Asheville’s residents saw each other 50

substation on Haywood Road. Residents felt safe again, but decades of neglect still showed.

Houses in the surrounding neighborhoods needed a lot of work, but they were exceptionally affordable.

“People started buying these old homes that were gems and taking the aluminum and vinyl siding off and bringing back the character that was always there,” said Austin Walker, a commercial real estate agent who lives in West Asheville. The new owners wanted what the old owners had—a sense of community, as well as convenience.

“One of the major draws was that you could be downtown in your favorite restaurant in six minutes,” Walker said. “In 10 minutes you could be mountain biking in Bent Creek or driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway and even be on your way to Waynesville. These were all key pieces of the West Asheville experience.”

In the ‘90s, Krista Stearns and Cathy Cleary had a small bake-and-deliver business and heard from customers how nice it was to have something so good made close to home. The two set up tables at street gatherings to see if West Asheville would support a real bakery.

They got an overwhelmingly positive response.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

Oh, but how things change.

“Those young leaders took a chance on West Asheville,” Groce said.

More than a decade later both West End Bakery and Westville Pub are bastions of West Asheville’s by-the-bootstraps success.

“West Asheville is blowing up,” said Liz Sea, celebrating the end of the semester’s exams at Sunny Point Café with two girlfriends from the University of North Carolina-Asheville. She said many of her friends have moved to the area, in part due to what her friend Audrey Howarth observed— West Asheville’s community seems “much less touristy” than downtown Asheville.

Indeed, Haywood Road still has a grocery store, a coin laundry, mechanics, and hair salons tucked in alongside churches and banks.

“People are building neighborhoods on the west side in a new way, in a sustainable, walkable, livable kind of environment,” said Jodi Rhoden, owner of Short Street Cakes, having arrived to work with bags full of tacos from a local shop for her staff. “I myself just moved here from downtown and can walk to my son’s school, to work, to eat, to get a drink.”

“This community kind of vibrates with

Krista Stearnes (from left), Cathy Cleary and Lewis Lankford stuck their necks out when they opened West End Bakery more than a decade ago.

PAUL CLARK PHOTO

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

me,” said Michael Akers, a native of the Czech Republic who owns a bagel stand in West Asheville. “It’s my kind of people— artists, working class, kind of a shared community all mixed together.”

At Battle Cat Coffee Bar, Kisha Blount was outside with others, enjoying the unimpeded sun on an otherwise cold day. She was drawing and writing in her journal, in which she sketches out ideas and impressions, often a prelude to the her large-format, cold-wax oil paintings. Blount moved from the small town of Murphy, N.C., to West Asheville last spring. Blount is honest about her realization that some of the community’s attractors are also becoming detractors.

“Everyone is an artist or a massage therapist or a yoga instructor or all three,” she said, laughing. “It’s almost cliché, but it’s a safe haven. That I dig.”

People in West Asheville are protective, almost defensive, about their community, she says. “It’s like having a sibling—only you can talk about your sibling, no one else can,” she said. “Same with West Asheville—if you’re not from here and you have a complaint, keep your mouth shut.”

West Asheville has become so well established that many residents now identify themselves as living in “east” West Asheville (east of Interstate 240, on the river side) and “west” West Asheville (west of I-240, toward Patton Avenue). Stearns at the bakery was talking to a friend of a friend in town recently who was looking for a home in the community.

The woman said she thought she needed to live in east West Asheville.

“And I’m like, ‘Wow, it’s really just one street. Does it matter what end you’re on?’”

Stearns said. “I would hate to see West Asheville become too polished and gentrified.

It wouldn’t feel authentic. I’m OK with not every inch of it being developed.”

However, the cheap, affordable housing Sellers remembers has been so successful in attracting new residents that now the “G” word—gentrification—is indeed being thrown around. The concept concerns Ann Silver, a longtime Asheville resident who was watching the shop at Pro Bikes recently.

“Everywhere the prices have gone up,” she said. “Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a lot of young, liberal folks with their children pretty much everywhere I go around here.”

Following Asheville’s all-things-beer trend, Pro Bikes is building a bar in its inner sanctum. A small bar called The Brew Pump recently opened inside a gas station down the road. And the Oyster House Brewing Co. is located across the street.

In many ways, West Asheville is a distillation of Asheville, said Gordon Kear, who opened Altamont Brewing Co. in 2011.

The enthusiasm the larger city has for fresh food and local businesses is a bit more intense in West Asheville, he believes.

“People starting out with nothing and trying to make something, Asheville does that, but West Asheville is a smaller community, so it’s easier to see here,” Kear said. “Being able to walk or bike wherever we need to go is one of the things that helps us be a neighborhood.”

Like Silver, Kear has noticed the influx of mothers-to-be and moms with young tots in his restaurant. Why so many and all of a sudden, he can’t say, but he’s happy because it shows how desirable the community has become.

“It’s not a rich area, as far as people’s income is concerned. But it’s rich in people’s quality of life,” he said. “I don’t see any signs of this neighborhood stopping.”

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The Smoky Mountain Model Railroad Club maintains four different layouts, and runs primarily Lionel-type O gauge trains. They hold regular work sessions and open houses.

SAM HOPKINS PHOTO

Finding friends on the local line Model railroad club connects generations with a love for train transportation

BY MELANIE THRELKELD MCCONNELL

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Think of it as somewhere over the rainbow.

You know the place, only this time not in Oz, in Waynesville, N.C., on Frazier Street, behind the Sagebrush Steakhouse parking lot, in a non-descript building thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 60-feet long and maybe half as wide. This is where the bluebirds sing, where happiness prevails.

Model trains zip along 200 feet of track, through villages, farms, cities, and industrial sites, all set against backdrops of blue skies and puffy white clouds.

Whistles blow and smoke puffs rise as

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 â&#x20AC;˘ ISSUE 1

engines, cars, and cabooses wend their way through slices of classic Americana. The level of detail in these vignettes is astounding: a garden, a sty with muddy pigs, an industrial park, coal cars, water towers, city buildings, people, grass and more.

Even the Frosty Bar has customers.

It’s a community in miniature, train tracks connecting picturesque neighborhoods just as they connect generations to their shared love for a bygone era. Nostalgia drew Smoky Mountain Model Railroad Club members together. A few met at church, while others heard about the club online, but trains captured each member’s imagination.

“We lived in Miami and we’d go down to the beach. I was three or four years old and my dad taught me how to draw trains in the wet sand,” said Sam Hopkins, one of the club’s founding members. “I just drew boxes and circles and triangles and worked my way down the beach.” He got his first train, an American Flyer, in 1949 when he was 5 years old.

Harold Clackett’s first train was underneath the Christmas tree when he was 5.

“It was on a 4-by-8 piece of plywood we put on the bed,” Clackett said. “We’d take the board up and put it on the bed and run the trains. When it was time to go to bed, we’d take the board off and take the trains off.”

The train’s mechanical components were an introduction in the way things work.

“It was a steam engine, so there were a lot of moving parts on the outside that were fascinating,” Clackett said. “We had one switch where we could back the train in and uncouple it and do things like that. It had two gondolas, one box car, a crane and a caboose.”

The club’s resident “youngster,” Josh Scott, is 15. The Thomas

“What we tried to do with [the large] layout is show what the trains did. We have the coal and the lumber and the oil, and these were giant things. This is what made this country grow and it was the train that connected it all.”

— Harold Clackett, Smoky Mountain Model Railroad Club member

the Tank Engine television show started his love for trains, and now he is building the website for the Tallulah Falls Railroad Museum in Rabun Gap, Ga. “I’ve loved trains since I was 2 years old,” Scott said. “I love the pure awesomeness of them, the raw power behind them. I love the raw steam locomotives. There’s something about those engines that romance you, and the history is just amazing.”

Club members’ mission is to share the joy of model railroading.

Their workspace is filled with four different layouts, one of which is a kid-friendly, hands-on Thomas the Tank Engine set. The group, which runs primarily Lionel-type O gauge trains, holds work sessions from 7 to 9 p.m. every Tuesday night and public viewing sessions from 2 to 4 p.m. the second Sunday of each month.

“What we tried to do with this particular layout is show what

From left: Sam Hopkins, Harold Clackett and Ed Rynning, members of the Smoky Mountain Model Rail Road Club, prepare their operating layout for a recent open house.

MELANIE THRELKELD MCCONNELL PHOTO

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“I love the raw steam locomotives.

There’s something about those engines that romance you, and the history is just amazing.”

— Josh Scott , Smoky Mountain Model Railroad Club member

the trains did,” Clackett said of a 50-feet by 30-feet operating layout, the club’s largest. “We show a farm with cows and how trains picked up milk. We have the coal and the lumber and the oil, and these were giant things. This is what made this country grow, and it was the train that connected it all.”

The club, now in its third location after building sales forced members to move, has spent the past year designing and painting backdrops, building tables and wiring electricity, skills they say they learned as part of this lifetime hobby.

“We really wanted to get this set up so we could invite the community to come in and see what a big layout is like,” Clackett said.

One of the club’s important activities is community outreach.

Members enjoy teaching children about construction, modeling, painting, history, research and photography. Ed Rynning of Maggie Valley became the club’s resident electrician after Hopkins had hired him to do some work.

“I’d keep hearing them talk about taking the trains to retirement homes, so I thought ‘I’m going to stick around these guys. This is something I’d like to see,’” Rynning said.

Trains used to be more common and integral components to our nation’s transportation. Troops in World War II traveled by trains that also carried a lot of supplies, Clackett said. “[Nursing home residents] associate trains with when they were children, when they rode on trains,” Clackett said. “It just connects to them right away. One woman saw our Santa Fe and remembered riding the train. She said, ‘That’s a Super Chief.’ ” Club members’ favorite story is one about a nursing home resident who rarely smiled, until the trains showed up, Hopkins said.

“A nurse pointed to an elderly gentleman sitting in a wheelchair with his face just beaming like a little boy watching the trains. She said, ‘See that man? This is the first time we’ve seen him smile in eight or nine months here.’ The trains always have a positive effect on people. We look at events like this as our primary ministry,” Hopkins said.

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Above: Kyle Murphy of Waynesville, with his niece, Eden Murphy, 3, her twin brother, Brayden, and their grandmother Sue Doggett of Clyde at the Christmas layout at the Smoky Mountain Model Rail Road Club.

One of the club’s primary objectives is community outreach.

MELANIE THRELKELD MCCONNELL PHOTO (ABOVE) • SAM HOPKINS PHOTO (BELOW)

SAM HOPKINS PHOTO

Explore the world of model railroading BRYSON CITY, N.C. The Smoky Mountain Trains Museum is adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad depot. The museum features a collection of 7,000 Lionel™ engines, cars and accessories, an operating layout, children’s activity center, and gift/toy shop. The collection dates back to 1918 and includes such classics as the 1934 Blue Comet Passenger set and the more recent Joshua Lionel Cowen Challenger steam locomotives. Admission is free with every GSMR train ticket.

Museum hours frequently change based on GSMR train schedules. Visit smokymountaintrains.com or call 800.872.4681 ext 7050 for more information.

CHATTANOOGA, TENN. The famous Chattanooga Choo Choo Historic Hotel is home to the Model Railroad Museum, which features the 174-feet long, 33-feet wide (at its widest point) model railroad. The railroad includes more than 3,000 feet of track, 320 structures, 150 switches, 120 locomotives of all types, 1,000 freight cars, 80 passenger cars, three major yards, two small yards, and four

passenger stations. This model railroad exhibit ranks as one of, if not the largest, in the world open to the public. The model railroad was built in HO scale, which is 1:87, meaning 87 model boxcars hooked together would equal the length of one real boxcar, according to the website. More than 50,000 man-hours were spent to make the layout, which portrays Chattanooga and the Cumberland Mountain country. Visitors take a self-guided tour to learn about the history of Chattanooga trains.

Hours of the Model Railroad Museum are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Admission is $3 for children age 3 to 12 and $5 for adults and children 13 and older. For more information, visit choochoo.com or call 800.TRACK.29 (872.2529).

JOHNSON CITY, TENN. The George L. Carter Railroad Museum at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City is a relatively new museum in the area.

Opened in 2007, the museum features three large operating layouts in three different scales. The museum’s displays include historic prototype railroad memorabilia, toy trains and model railroading locomotives, rolling stock and structures. The museum is named for George Carter, who built the Clinchfield Railroad through 275 miles of mountainous terrain to carry coal from Eastern Kentucky.

Operating hours for the museum are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturdays. For more information, call 423.439.3382 or visit etsu.edu/railroad.

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c ro s swo rd :

ACROSS THE MOUNTAIN

Across 1 5 7 9 10 13 14 16 17 19 20

22 24 27 30 33 35

South Carolina neighbor Vanished Chevy Belair, for one Showing concern for others Making a friendly gesture Working Relationship of trust and happiness Dish with melted cheese It keeps a hot drink warm (2 words) Football score Insects that have a mutually dependent relationship with aphids and tree hoppers One of Snow White’s dwarves ____ ville, NC city Western NC town commonly referred to as “papertown” Where flowers grow Compass direction Open events for all the neighbors in an area (2 words)

MARGARET HESTER PHOTO

Down 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 11 12 15 16 18 21 23 25 26 27 28 29 31 32 34

Little lizard Sharing word Happy to give to others Kind of current, abbr.

Pops’ pop The folks next door ___, shucks!

Wanderer It’s what’s left Granny or slip ____ Flying authorities, for short And so forth All the china __ call Boundary Say hello to!

Taxi “The Matrix” hero Symbol of strength Visit Calcium symbol Canadian province initials

Answers can be found on page 63. By Myles Mellor • ilovecrosswords.com

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d i re cto r y :

SELECT LODGING OAK HILL ON LOVE LANEBED AND BREAKFAST Awarded Best in the South by BedandBreakfast.com, Oak Hill on Love Lane features “The service and amenities of a fine hotel in the quiet comfort of a B&B.” Each luxuriously appointed room in this historic 19th century home is equipped with hypo-allergenic bedding, fine linens, fireplaces, flat screen TVs, private en-suite baths and wireless internet access. Enjoy 24-hour access to the Butler Pantry, daily maid service, nightly turn-down service and a full 3-course gourmet breakfast. Within walking distance of historic downtown Waynesville.

244 Love Ln. • Waynesville, N.C. 888.608.7037 • oakhillonlovelane.com

THE WAYNESVILLE INN GOLF RESORT & SPA

This resort has been welcoming visitors to the mountains with southern hospitality since the 1920s. Traditional resort amenities include historic and mountain view lodging, 27 holes of championship golf, restaurant and tavern, plus outdoor event space and pro shop. The location provides convenience to shopping, skiing, fishing, hiking and more.

176 Country Club Dr. • Waynesville, NC 800.627.6250 • thewaynesvilleinn.com

HEMLOCK INN This historic inn, set just off Main Street in downtown Blowing Rock, is only steps from shopping, restaurants and event activities. Eighteen unique rooms, including suites with fully-equipped kitchens. All rooms are non-smoking.

Rooms feature private baths, cable TV, air conditioning, phone services, microwave ovens, refrigerators and WiFi. Take away the unnecessary stress and time spent planning your vacation by taking advantage of a variety of packages offered throughout the year.

Downtown Blowing Rock, N.C. 828.295.7987 • hemlockinn.net

SMOKETREE LODGE Smoketree’s cozy atmosphere and prime location allow its visitors the choice of enjoying the peace and solitude of the Blue Ridge Mountains or the opportunity of partaking in the many activities available in the High Country!

11914 NC Hwy. 105 S. • Banner Elk, NC 800.422.1880 • smoketree-lodge.com

BOYD MOUNTAIN LOG CABINS AND CHRISTMAS TREE FARM Featured in 2011 Southern Living Best Weekend Getaways .

Enjoy a peaceful country setting in charming authentic log cabins, 1—4 bedrooms, located on 130 beautiful acres. Full kitchens, wood burning fireplaces, Wifi, & A/C. The cabins overlook the Smoky Mountains, our Fraser Fir Christmas tree farm, 3 stocked fishing ponds ,flower and vegetable gardens. Hiking trails to the top of Boyd Mountain, volleyball, basketball and badminton, swimming hole in the creek, sledding in the winter. Open every season.

Waynesville, N.C. 828-926-1575 • boydmountain.com

CABINS AT SEVEN FOXES Five beautifully appointed cabins nestled in the Land of Waterfalls in Lake Toxaway, NC. Guests rated 5 stars on TripAdvisor. Open year ‘round; pet friendly.

Lake Toxaway, N.C. 828.877.6333 • sevenfoxes.com

NANTAHALA VILLAGE Nantahala Village offers a variety of lodging, restaurants, and activities within minutes of Bryson City, the Nantahala Gorge, Fontana Lake and other area attractions.

828-488-9000 • nantahalavillage.com

A Place to Pause at 5,000 Feet

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find us on facebook Accepting Reservations for our 33rd Season, Opening April 27, 2014

Waynesville, N.C. • 800.789.7672 • TheSwag.com All-inclusive accommodations and fine dining • 30 miles west of Asheville 60

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Chosen by readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine as the #2 Best Small Hotel in the Unites States, the secluded hideaway itself consists of 250 private acres. The main lodge and cabins, consisting of 15 rooms, are built of 17th and 18th century hand hewn logs and local field stone. Join us for our 30th season to experience just how remote, rustic, refined and remarkable it can be at 5,000 feet. 3 gourmet meals are served daily, with turn down service each evening.

Waynesville, N.C. 800.789.7672 • theswag.com

THE LODGE & LOFT AT SHOJI Unique & private accommodations for 2 to 6 people. 10 minutes from downtown Asheville, N.C., and 2,500 feet above stress level.

Asheville, N.C. 828.299.0999 • shojiretreats.com

A Blowing Rock Tradition

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Discover the magic of the Blue Ridge Mtns.

Walk to downtown shopping and dining Easy driving to many area attractions 18 uniquely designed and decorated rooms

828-295-7987 www.HemlockInn.net 134 Morris Street Blowing Rock, NC

SUMMERFIELD INN

Black’s Fort Inn Bed & Breakfast designed for privacy, relaxation and convenience. Located on a little over nine acres and looks as though we are out in the country with mountains and hills surrounding us, but we are less than five minutes from the Barter Theatre, Virginia Creeper Trail, shopping areas, local attractions, and some of the best restaurants in the country. Decorated with beautiful antiques originally purchased in the 1940s. Some of our rooms having been decorated with the French Country style or with a Victorian style.

Abingdon, VA 276.628.6263 • blacksfortinn.com

800.627.6250 | TheWaynesvilleInn.com 80-13

Be pampered with sumptuous breakfasts, beautiful gardens, high speed wireless, chocolates, green lodging and more.

Located in the historic district, Summerfield Inn is the perfect home base for exploring all that Abingdon, Va. has to offer.

101 Valley St. NW • Abingdon, VA 800.668.5905 • summerfieldinn.com

BLACK’S FORT INN BED & BREAKFAST

Overlooking the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains.

112 Guest Rooms, 2 Restaurants, Spa, and 27 holes of Championship Golf.

Perfect for Vacations, Meetings, and Weddings.

YOUR GUIDE TO REAL ESTATE IN HAYWOOD COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA

176 COUNTRY CLUB DR. | WAYNESVILLE, N.C.

Smoketree Lodge

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THE SWAG COUNTRY INN

11914 Hwy. 105 S. Banner Elk NC 28604

828-963-6505 MountainHomesNow.com WWW.SMLIV.COM

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UPCOMING

February Winter Heritage Festival Take a step back in time to the Appalachia of the past at the Winter Heritage Festival. Hosted by the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, it’s an opportunity to learn about the Smokies, from thousands of years hence right up to today. There will be presentations and programs throughout Townsend and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that celebrate the culture of the region, as well as the natural history of the picturesque landscape.

There will be chances to learn at lectures and workshops for things like photography, plant identification and other skills, as well as the requisite musical offerings of any good Appalachian festival.

Best of all, it’s all free, apart from meals, which require reservations and a fee.

Feb. 7-8, Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, Townsend, Tenn. gsmheritagecenter.org or 865.448.0044.

Fire and Ice If the Valentine season gets you down, you can nurse your broken heart back to health the next day with a hearty helping of chili and maybe a turn around the ice rink (though perhaps not simultaneously). In the charming mountain hamlet of Blue Ridge, Ga., the locals are putting on a chili cook-off called Fire and Ice for the fourth year running. The chili, of course, will bring the fire, while ice carving, ice skating and ice cold beers and wine provide the ice. There are also activities just for the kids, so don’t worry, it’s appropriate for chili lovers of all ages.

February 15, Downtown Blue Ridge, Ga. blueridgebusinessassociation@yahoo.com or bestofblueridge.biz.

to both the smaller Appalachian dulcimer and its larger cousin, the hammer dulcimer. It’s free and open to the public, but any donation you make goes to the upkeep of the town’s historic courthouse. It’s a great chance to see a beautiful instrument with a delightful local history get the spotlight all to itself.

March 21, Downtown Blairsville, Ga. unioncountyhistory.org or 706.745.5493.

Southern Conference, whose members include Appalachian State University, UNCG, The Citadel, Western Carolina and seven other southern schools, will hold their tournament in Asheville this year to determine who walks away with the 2014 conference championship title. So while March Madness grips the rest of the nation, you can get in on some basketball madness of your own during the three-day tourney. As a bonus, major venues around the city—like the famous Biltmore House— are offering discounts and specials for tournament-goers.

March 7-10, U.S. Cellular Center, Asheville, N.C. socontravel.com, 877.FAN.ROOM or follow @SoConSports on Twitter.

April Marble City Comic Con While in the past, comics conventions have been a niche for the nerds, that’s true no longer. With bigscreen blockbusters skyrocketing the world of comics back into the mainstream, more and more regional conventions, like Knoxville’s Marble City Comic Con, are popping up for fans to come together and gush about their favorite characters, or simply marvel at the costumes crafted by superfans that have become the trademark of such events. At the MCC, you can buy comics and memorabilia, mingle with artists, writers and actors, get some insight into their creative process with panel discussions and of course, show off your great costume. There will also be a premiere screening of Quite A Conundrum, a horror flick written, directed and produced by Knoxville’s own Thomas Phillips. As a bonus, the full cast will give a panel discussion as well.

April 11-14, Knoxville Convention Center, Knoxville, Tenn. marblecitycomiccon.com or shannon@marblecitycomicon.com.

Shamrock Dulcimer Blast As far as bluegrass instruments go, the banjo has always gotten a lot of love, but on the sidelines is the lesser-known dulcimer, whose beautiful ringing tones are native to these mountains. If you’d like to learn more about this storied instrument, and hear some master strummers at work, head down to the hamlet of Blairsville for their Shamrock Dulcimer Blast, a full day devoted

Living History Day

SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO

March Southern Conference basketball It may go without saying for the rabid sports fans among us, but again this year we get a rare chance to catch the regional powerhouses of university basketball facing off against each other. The

SYLVAN VALLEY CELTIC FESTIVAL Helen, Ga., is usually renowned for its connections to Germany’s Bavarian region, but once a year, it sets its sights slightly further west for the Sylvan Valley Celtic festival. Hosted by the Sylvan Valley Lodge, it’s a weekend for the Celtophile in you, with two days full of traditional music, dancing, food and drink. The acts on tap cover the musical heritage of all the British Isles, plus the Emerald Isle herself, along with a nice mix of Southern and Appalachian influences to give it a more local flair. The lodge is also offering packages for accommodation, so you can turn the festival into a musical mid-winter getaway.

February 21-22, Sylvan Valley Lodge, Nacoochee, Ga. sylvanvalleylodge.com or 706.865.7371.

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See the days of pioneer Appalachia brought to life by local families and residents as the Foxfire Museum & Heritage Center hosts its yearly Living History Day. Adults and children will be decked out in 1800s period clothing, showcasing almost every facet of mountain life from 200 years ago. Cooking simple food in a stone fireplace, crafting wood furniture with hand tools, blacksmithing in a coalfired forge, one-room schoolhouse classes covering the Appalachian “three Rs” (Readin’, ‘Ritin’, and Religion), short church services, old-time kids’

Emerald Rose (pictured) and many other bands will perform during the Sylvan Valley Celtic Festival. DONATED PHOTO

games, live traditional music – with such a lineup (and likely more) you’ll forget your iPhone for the day and see yourself in the shoes of the hardy folks that made the majestic Southern Appalachians their home centuries back.

April 12, Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center, Mountain City, Ga. foxfire.org or 706.746.5828.

backdrop of Highlands, whose remote location only adds to her dazzling beauty, especially when spring has just sprung.

May 15-17, The Bascom, Highlands, N.C. collectivespirits.com or 828.787.2882.

Crossword answers Puzzle is on page 59.

Racks by the Tracks

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND RECREATION

In Kingsport, the word ‘track’ usually refers to the nearby Bristol Motor Speedway, but once a year, Racks by the Tracks makes it all their own with a craft beer festival that draws thousands of music lovers and microbrew connoisseurs each year.

Though the lineup for this year hasn’t been released as yet, last year’s headliner was country heavyweight Diamond Rio, so you can expect big things from this year’s roster, as well. And of course, the real star of the show is the smorgasbord of handcrafted brews that come from around the region and the nation. There’s also a good selection of chili, and the proceeds will help benefit worthy causes like Relay for Life and local food banks and humane societies.

May 17, 500 West Center Street, Kingsport, Tenn. racksbythetracks.com or 423.863.3998.

Easter egg hunts, foot races, a sunrise service and plenty of other activities for all ages are held yearly on the grounds of the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center. LAKE JUNALUSKA PHOTO

Easter at Lake Junaluska

Easter has always been a focal point in the year at Lake Junaluska – it is a Methodist retreat center, after all. But in addition to the more reflective events, like the annual lakeside sunrise service, there’s also a 5k and a 10k to get your heart pumping and an Easter egg hunt for the littlest celebrants. In fact, Lake J is a kid’s Easter dream, with a Saturday full of Easter egg decorating, face painting, yo-yo balloons, games, prizes, and a fun run just for kids. For the grown ups, the meditative experience of sunrise service will be followed by a hearty breakfast buffet, a chapel service for the later risers, and a lunch to round out the day. There are also lodging options, if you’re looking to make a weekend of it.

April 19-20, Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center, Lake Junaluska, N.C. lakejunaluska.com/easter-schedule or 828.452.2881.

May Collective Spirits

Wine lovers can celebrate the coming summer with a weekend of wine tastings, private wine dinners featuring world class wines and celebrity chefs, and even a gala and auction to cap off the three-day affair that is the Collective Spirits. It’s a food and wine festival that also doubles as a fundraiser for The Bascom, Highlands’ own visual arts center. If the delicious wines and, of course, their pairings, aren’t enough to entice you, it’s all set against the

Some of the region’s finest musicians gather at the Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park each year for Gathering in the Gap.

GATHERING IN THE GAP Tucked away in Virginia’s far western corner is Big Stone Gap, where bluegrass pickers, singers and players gather each year for the Gathering in the Gap. There are competitions, jams and performances celebrating southwest Virginia’s deep heritage of bluegrass and old time music. There’s also a healthy handful of nonmusical Appalachian heritage on hand, with workshops, quilting displays, and of course, food and drink to enjoy as you listen to the musicians weave their own musical tapestries. Last year, there were even inductions for the Southwest Virginia Walk of Fame, and John Carter Cash made an appearance for a book signing. There are also children’s events planned for the youngest bluegrass aficionados, all against the rolling Appalachians in springtime bloom.

May 24, Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park, 10 West First Street, Big Stone Gap, Va. gatheringinthegapmusicfestival.com or 276.523.1322.

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MOUNTAIN VIEWS

BY MARK BERRYMAN

A

nyone raised in a small town or rural community grew up knowing his or her neighbors. One knew the neighbors’ names, waved as they came and went, spoke if they were within earshot, and took food to their house when someone was sick or in the event of a death. Sadly, time seems to have changed our behavior, even in rural areas. If we’re lucky, we might know our neighbors’ names, but that’s about as far as it goes—and even then it often takes seeing the writing on the mailbox.

I was convinced that I too didn’t know my neighbors. It seems I spend all my time at work or in my home with the curtains pulled. I began to wonder who my neighbors are and what they’re like.

I stepped away from the computer, walked to my neighbors’ house, and knocked on the front door. It was my father who answered the door.

“Hi, Dad. What are you doing here?”

“I live here,” he said, raising one eyebrow.

Okay, so maybe that didn’t really happen, but you get my point. Most of us fall far short of the Biblical definition of the “good neighbor,” and we’ll probably never hear a State Farm commercial cheerily chiming, “Like a good neighbor, [insert your name here] is there.”

It’s not that I never had a good example of a good neighbor while growing up.

There were my grandparents, Pop-Pop and Meemaw. Meemaw delivered food to the sick or bereaved, sent cards, and kept up on all the neighborhood gossip. If something happened in her community, she would hear about it and pass it on to the next person in the gossip chain. If nothing was happening, one of the ladies would get creative and heat up the phone lines anyway. I didn’t say MeeMaw was perfect, but she was a good role model.

Pop-Pop would sit on the front porch or out in the yard on a swing after the day’s work and chores were done. Their house, a small, white, clapboard house with green trim, sat about 50 yards off of a lesstraveled, tar and gravel country road. Pop-Pop would sit with a battery-operated transistor radio by his side and a mason jar full of iced tea in his hand, listening to an Atlanta Braves baseball game.

When a car occasionally happened down road, Pop-Pop would throw up his hand and wave. Most

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Most passersby were locals who knew Pop-Pop would be there and thus wave back—all but one that is.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

MANDY NEWHAM-COBB ILLUSTRATION

Neighbors should be neighborly, even if Kenny Rogers isn’t

passersby were locals who knew he would be there and thus wave back—all but one that is.

Singer Kenny Rogers owned a place a few miles on down the way and would pass by my grandparent’s Smithonia Road home along the way. Pop-Pop always recognized Rogers’s Ford Bronco, would wave, and say, “Hey, Kenny!” Of course Kenny Rogers would never hear his name called from such a distance, and Pop-Pop knew it. He also knew Kenny Rogers never looked to the side and never waved. Not once. All the same, that never stopped Pop-Pop from performing his “neighborly duty.”

My grandparents taught me that one doesn’t stop being a neighbor just because one’s neighbor has refused to be one back.

It’s a lesson I have to keep reminding myself of even today.

During my middle and high school years, Mrs. Hendrix provided the perfect example of what a neighbor was supposed to be. Her son Danny, my brothers and I rode the bus to school together. We often played basketball together too, as Danny’s dad had installed a basketball goal on a security light pole that was in their yard.

But, by virtue of being a neighbor, Mrs. Hendrix herself also was among my friends. I’d walk the 100 yards or so to the Hendrixs’ brick house, knock on the side screen door under the carport, and take a seat on the green, vinyl-covered couch just inside the door facing the kitchen so that Mrs. Hendrix and I could talk. Though it was nothing more than small talk, we could go on for well over an hour if we let it until eventually she’d say, “I need to fix Harold some dinner,” which was my cue to leave.

Thought I really can’t recall any particular thing Mrs. Hendrix ever said to me, I can say she always greeted me with a smile, and that a true neighbor makes time to slow down, sit a spell, and listen.

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NC Apple Festival Labor Day weekend Flat Rock Playhouse mid-April thru late-December North Carolina Mountain State Fair early September Music On Main Street June thru late-August, every Friday Street Dances July thru mid-August, every Monday Art On Main first Saturday & Sunday in October Farm City Day first Saturday in October

800.828.4244 historichendersonville.org

LIFE as it was meant to be LIVED, NATURALLY. Eventually you come across a place that captures your soulâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; a place that reminds you of the pure joy in the simple pleasures in life.

Chinquapin is a 2,000 acre, private community rooted in a conservation ethic located about 10 minutes from Cashiers, North Carolina.

Call today to set up your own personal visit to Chinquapin.

chinquapinnc.com info@chinquapinnc.com 828.743.4507