31 minute read
Special project grants awarded by Haywood TDA
with the town’s appearance standards, but due to the shortfall, the town will either have to pony up the remaining $29,000 or make some cuts to the $250,000 project.
According to the town’s grant application, groundbreaking and project completion would all take place during the month of August.
RICHLAND CREEK GREENWAY
What a difference a few years make — when the Bi-Lo grocery store on Russ Avenue was in operation, its adjoining parking lot was a constant source of pollution and runoff for an otherwise pristine stretch of Richland Creek.
Now that the Mountain Creek apartments are being constructed the pollution and runoff will be reduced tremendously, and thanks to the Haywood TDA, a 12-foot greenway along the banks will connect Russ Avenue to Marshall Street.
The short stretch is expected to bolster trout fishing in the area and is also a critical segment of the Town of Waynesville’s Greenway plan, which once complete would create a multi-use trail from Lake Junaluska down through Recreation Park into Frog Level and Hazelwood.
The $87,781 grant is less than half of the project’s estimated $175,563 cost. Groundbreaking is expected in the next 90 days, and work should be complete by next July.
HAYWOOD COUNTY BIKE PARK
When it was completed in 2021, Haywood County’s 10-year recreation master plan demonstrated that residents wanted more trails, especially for bicycles.
To that end, the county put forth a $1.9 million project that would turn a former landfill into what’s called a pump track, which is a series of banked turns designed to be ridden without peddling but rather through the up-and-down motion of the rider. Pump tracks are cheap, simple to build and are accessible for riders of all skill levels.
The Haywood TDA grant of $150,000 may seem like a drop in the bucket, but the county has already committed $500,000 toward the project. Both will go a long way in helping the 2-mile pump track — the only Red Bull-certified pump track outside of Gastonia — take shape, along with amenities like a playground, pavilion, restrooms and a walking track.
Another $500,000 may be coming from the state’s Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PARTF) once awards are announced next month. As it stands now, groundbreaking should take place sometime next year, with completion in 2025 or 2026.
LAKE JUNALUSKA OVERLOOK AND CONNECTOR TRAIL
As part of a phased plan to improve pedestrian access between the Terrace Hotel, the Susanna Wesley Garden and the former World Methodist Museum (now called the Warren Center), the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center will create a brand-new destination for visitors — a trail connecting them all, as well as a new overlook.
Executive Director and CEO Ken Howle told The Smoky Mountain News that the goal was to create a “seamless” experience for guests.
Once Warren Center upgrades are complete, the venue will be able to accommodate conferences, proms and weddings for up to 240 guests. The $100,000 grant from the Haywood TDA is part of a $250,000 project budget.
Completion is still 18 to 24 months off, but once it’s done the new connector trail and overlook will only add to what’s already considered the most walkable community in Haywood County.
A bipartisan Senate bill intended to help build infrastructure in Buncombe County using room occupancy tax funds sailed through the General Assembly last week, changing the way Buncombe looks at the community that supports its tourism industry.
Initially co-sponsored by Sens. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson), Warren Daniel (R-Avery) and Julie Mayfield (DBuncombe), the bill creates a Legacy Investment From Tourism (LIFT) Fund in addition to the pre-existing Tourism Product Development Fund.
Together, the two funds will now claim 33% of room occupancy tax revenues after operating expenses. Previously, the Tourism Product Development Fund received 25% of room occupancy tax revenues.
The proceeds from the LIFT fund will provide grants or loans to non-profits proposing projects that “[balance] visitor and resident needs,” according to the bill.
Edwards, who is the Republican nominee for the NC-11 congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Madison Cawthorn, called the bill a “noble gesture” on the part of the tourism industry. Mayfield, seeking reelection to her District 49 seat, told The Smoky Mountain News the bill doesn’t go as far as she’d hoped, but that it’s a good step.
Haywood County’s Tourism Development Authority has no equivalent fund; however, it did just recently award $500,000 in grants to six projects that all carry some public benefit.
The Losers
LAKE JUNALUSKA OUTDOOR RECREATION AREA AND STUART AUDITORIUM IMPROVEMENTS
The first application, for improvements to lakeside recreation facilities and activities, would have garnered $100,000 toward a $700,000 project that would have replaced the shuffleboard courts with an open-air pavilion suitable for rental by groups holding class reunions, family parties and other events.
Included in the proposal were another series of amenities near the pavilion, including new shuffleboard courts and other family-friendly diversions like cornhole, bocce or ping-pong. The mini golf course was in line for an update, as were pedestrian walkways with access to the site.
The second, improvements to the iconic Stuart Auditorium, would have provided $100,000 toward a $250,000 slate of improvements designed to bring the 109-year-old venue into the 21st century while yet maintaining the historic nature of the space.
The facility, which has hosted everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to Balsam Range, needs refurbishment of the stage, restoration of the outdoor deck, updates to the bathrooms and a punch list of minor items like broken windows, doors and lights. Relocation of A/V equipment to the floor from the crow’s nest was also a high priority.
Howle told SMN on July 1 that the Lake had already been moving on the projects anyway, and will continue to do so.
SULPHUR SPRINGS PARK IMPROVEMENTS
Similar to the situation with Lake Junaluska, Waynesville was successful with one grant application, but saw another application rejected.
Sulphur Springs Park, located on the former grounds of the historic White Sulphur Springs Hotel, is a small parcel of open ground owned and maintained by the Town of Waynesville. The only part of the hotel that remains is the spring house — actually, a dilapidated gazebo that houses the natural spring.
Of late, the town’s historic preservation commission has redoubled efforts to enhance the site with a $4,500 commitment to its restoration, along with a $17,500 grant from the Mib and Phil Medford Endowment fund.
The town’s $22,000 one-time project fund request would have provided for the rehabilitation of the spring house, along with stream bank restoration, signage and a small outdoor amphitheater for cultural or educational events.
The Lake Junaluska Assembly didn’t get everything it requested, but will still see some improvements funded by the Haywood TDA. File photo
CHESTNUT MOUNTAIN PARK RETAIL AND VISITOR CENTER
Unique among the nine grant applications was the Town of Canton’s — namely, because it was rejected, making Canton the only TDA zip code not to come away with at least some of the TDA’s $500,000 of special project funding.
Canton made the biggest ask — $200,000 for continued improvements to what has rapidly become the crown jewel of Haywood County’s outdoor recreation attractions, Chestnut Mountain Park.
The money would have been used for a mixed-use retail establishment on frontage adjacent to the park that the town would then lease out to concessionaries.
According to the application completed by Town Manager Nick Scheuer, the project would have resulted in the construction of an elevated platform upon which retailers would have placed four or more 40-foot shipping containers, offering bike and fishing equipment rentals, a taproom, restaurant, retail, restrooms or even a visitor center for the park.
Although the Haywood TDA did spend the $500,000 that it said it would, Collins told Haywood County Commissioners on May 2 that the TDA may decide to designate more funding for special projects in the future.
When asked about the future of the Chestnut Mountain Park project, Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers said the town would likely continue to pursue it.
“My understanding is yes, but in a different way,” Smathers said, “and I’m hopeful we’ll get the chance to reapply.”
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR
Both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly approved the state’s $28 billion fiscal year 2022-23 budget last week, but as Gov. Roy Cooper nears the halfway point of his final term, he’ll now have to decide whether or not to veto the proposal, which does not include what’s become his signature issue — Medicaid expansion.
“North Carolina is emerging from the pandemic stronger than before, and we will sustain that only if we invest in a strong foundation for our people: A quality education, good jobs and infrastructure, and access to affordable healthcare,” Cooper said in a May 11 press release attached to his own budget proposal, which included Medicaid expansion.
The House and the Senate each passed their own proposals for expansion, but ultimately could not agree on which to advance.
Expansion aside, the proposed budget represents a 7.2% increase from the previous biennium, increasing the rainy-day fund’s balance to nearly $5 billion and setting aside an additional $1 billion in anticipation of a recession.
State employees will see a 3.5% pay increase, teachers 4.2% and non-certified public school employees either 4% or a raise to $15 an hour, whichever is greater. Entrylevel teachers will also see an increase in starting salary. Overall, education spending is up nearly 7%.
In the wake of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, North Carolina legislators pushed for a dramatic increase in school safety spending, including an additional $32 million in grants to support safety equipment and training as well as students in crisis. School resource officer spending will increase by more than $40 million, and an additional $15 million has been earmarked for elementary and middle school SROs.
A series of threats to the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities this past February, including Fayetteville State University and Winston-Salem State University, prompted an additional $5 million in funding for cybersecurity and bomb threat prep at the state’s HCBUs.
More than $880 million has been set aside for water and wastewater infrastructure projects, alongside $250 million to cover possible project cost overruns due to inflation. There’s also a small $5 million increase in the GREAT grants program for rural broadband.
One element of Cooper’s proposed budget did make it into the General Assembly’s proposal, a $1 million appropriation to the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina to identify megasites that could host advanced manufacturing facilities.
Public safety spending is also on the rise, increasing nearly 4% over the last budget. An additional 13 magistrates, 11 assistant district attorneys and more than 130 judicial support and clerk positions will be funded if the budget’s approved.
On the local level, there was much anticipation over how much state funding Haywood County and the Town of Canton would receive to aid in the recovery from historic flooding that took place in August, 2021.
The scale of the damage was initially estimated at more than $300 million, including private property. The Town of Canton suffered catastrophic losses to major infrastructure including police, fire and town hall.
Given the town’s relatively small annual budget, replacing the multi-million-dollar facilities would have resulted in substantial property tax increases, however Haywood County’s Rep. Mark Pless said in a release that he’d worked to secure more than $23 million.
At least $8 million will go toward repairing damaged buildings and the town’s playground. The appropriation is separate from a $9 million previous allotment intended for repair of water infrastructure damaged un the flood.
Another $5 million is set for use on debris removal, mostly outside the town’s municipal boundaries.
Yet another $5 million has been lined up to help farmers affected by the flood, which came just as many summer crops were ripening in the fields; famously, thousands upon thousands of green peppers littered streets and riverbanks from just south of Canton through Clyde. The money will be administered through the state’s Agricultural Crop Loss Program.
There’s also another $5 million for bridges and roads destroyed in the flooding. The funding is earmarked for private roads and bridges not covered by previous reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Unrelated to the flood, an additional $5 million was appropriated to a separate crop loss program for a freeze that affected crops last April, and $150,000 has been allotted for baseball and softball facilities in Bethel.
As part of the state’s overall public safety spending, Pless said that some of the funding would result in an additional assistant district attorney for the 43rd prosecutorial district as well as another assistant clerk for the Superior Court in Haywood. Since 2020, the judicial system has been hobbled by a backlog of cases due to COVID-19 shutdowns in the court system.
Pless also secured $3 million for a wastewater treatment plant in Yancey County.
“Our office is pleased with the appropriations for these important projects and positions,” said Pless. “We have been working hard this session to listen to the needs of the district and secure funding based on those needs and suggestions. While we did not secure all of our requests, we will continue to advocate for them in future budgets.”
Gov. Roy Cooper will now have to decide whether to veto the budget, which does not include Medicaid expansion.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
Haywood commissioners seek HHS board applicants
The Haywood County Board of Commissioners is seeking applicants to fill the following positions on the Haywood County Health and Human Services Agency Board of Directors: • A veterinarian member, to begin serving upon appointment. Requirements for the position are that the candidate have qualifications as a veterinarian and reside in Haywood County. Current and retired veterinarians are encouraged to apply. The candidate will be filling a four-year term that begins upon appointment. Upon expiration of the initial four-year term, first-term members are eligible to reapply for a second four-year term.
• An optometrist member to begin serving upon appointment. Requirements for the position are that the candidate have qualifications as an optometrist and reside in Haywood County. Current and retired optometrists are encouraged to apply. The candidate will be filling a four-year term that begins upon appointment. Upon expiration of the initial four-year term, first-term members are eligible to reapply for a second fouryear term. • An engineer member, to begin serving upon appointment. Requirements for the position are that the candidate have qualifications as an engineer and reside in Haywood County. Current and retired engineers are encouraged to apply. Upon expiration of the initial four-year term, first-term members are eligible to reapply for a second four-year term.
The Health and Human Services Agency Board meets the third Tuesday of each month (except July and December) at 6 p.m. at Health and Human Services. For more information about the duties and authorities of the HHSA Board, visit: https://www.haywoodcountync.gov/261/Health-HumanServices-Agency-Board .
The application deadline for all three positions is 5 p.m. on July 29, 2022.
Application forms may be downloaded from the “How Do I … Submit Volunteer Board or Committee Application” section of the county website at haywoodcountync.gov/9/How-Do-I or picked up from the County Manager’s office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, at the Haywood County Courthouse, third floor, 215 North Main St., Waynesville.
Completed applications may be returned to the County Manager’s Office or attached to an email to Amy Stevens, Deputy Clerk to the Board of County Commissioners, at amy.stevens@haywoodcountync.gov.
For more information, contact the County Manager’s Office at 828.452.6625.
Waynesville VFW hosts community food drive
VFW Post 5202 in Waynesville will host a community food drive from 10 a.m. until noon on Saturday, July 9.
During the food drive, there will also be a cookout, and anyone bringing five canned food items or more will get a free hot dog or hamburger.
The drop-off location is at 216 Miller St. in Waynesville. For mor information, call 828.456.9346 or send an email to vfwrg5202@yahoo.com.
With an iconic observation tower and sweeping views, Clingmans Dome is a popular destina-
tion within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. NPS photo
Tribal Council to consider supporting Clingmans Dome name change
BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER
During its July 14 meeting, the Cherokee Tribal Council will consider a resolution that calls for Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, to revert to its traditional Cherokee name of Kuwahi, which means “mulberry place.”
At 6,643 feet, Clingmans Dome is the park’s highest point and the third highest mountain east of the Mississippi, with a summit observation tower offering spectacular 360-degree views that on clear days can stretch past 100 miles. It’s a popular destination for the park’s millions of visitors and the starting point for the 1,175-mile Mountains-to-Sea Trail.
According to the resolution introduced by tribal members Mary Crowe and Lavita Hill, it’s also a sacred place to the Cherokee people, saddled with a name that pays homage to a racist figure in American history.
“The history of the renaming of Kuwahi to ‘Clingmans Dome’ shows that the name of Clingman was designated by a proponent of scientific racism (Guyot) on behalf of an avowed racist (Clingman), in an action that was disrespectful to Cherokee people, culture, history and tradition,” the resolution states.
According to the resolution, Kuwahi was a place of special significance to the Cherokee, visited by medicine people to pray and seek guidance from the Creator, referenced in oral teachings and stories, and used as a refuge by Cherokee seeking to evade removal during the Trail of Tears.
It was renamed Clingmans Dome following the 1859 surveying expedition of geographer and professor Arnold Guyot in reference to Thomas Clingman, who at the time was a U.S. Senator representing North Carolina. Not only did Clingman, who lived most of his adult life in Buncombe County, lack any substantial ties to the Cherokee people, he was an avowed racist who left the Senate in 1861 to fight for the Confederacy, rising to the rank of brigadier general. The resolution also refers to a manuscript that Guyot published titled “The Earth and Man: Lectures on Comparative Physical Geography in its Relation to the History of Mankind,” in which he “links continent locations, topography and climate to the superiority of certain races.”
“The name Clingman is not derogatory in and of itself, but the history shows the act of changing the name of Kuwahi to Clingman’s Dome was racist and the racist action should be acknowledged and corrected,” the resolution states.
The resolution goes on to cite numerous examples of instances in which other mountains and landmarks named for Western figures have been rechristened with indigenous names or names that honor indigenous history. These include restoring the traditional name of Uluru to the Australian landmark previously called Ayers Rock and the U.S. government’s 2015 decision to adopt the indigenous name of Denali for the Alaskan mountain previously known as Mount McKinley.
Last month, the National Park Service announced that Mount Doane in Yellowstone National Park would now be called First Peoples Mountain to honor the many tribes with significant cultural and historical ties to the land. Gustavus Cheyney Doane, who the 10,656-foot mountain was previously named for, was the military general who led the 1870 massacre of a band of Piegan Blackfeet people.
As submitted, the resolution calls for an application to be prepared requesting that the U.S. Board on Geographic Names consider the name change. Tribal Council would have the opportunity to review and approve the application prior to its submission.
The resolution appears on Tribal Council’s July 14 agenda. Should the body approve it, it would go to Principal Chief Richard Sneed’s desk for a signature prior to becoming effective.
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Ingles Nutrition Notes
written by Ingles Dietitian Leah McGrath
WHAT’S THE UNIT PRICE?
If you’re a savvy supermarket shopper, you probably already know what the unit price is. This is the cost or price per unit of a specific item. The unit price is displayed on the shelf tag underneath the item along with other information like the total price and the product code. The unit referred to could be per ounce, per pound or per piece ( as in packaged fruit or vegetables). When you are in a section of the store with multiple types of similar products from different manufacturers, comparing the unit price can help you figure out which is the best deal. It’s easy to get distracted by packaging and claims on packaging, so comparing products based on the unit price can help you save money.
Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN Ingles Market Corporate Dietitian @InglesDietitian Leah McGrath - Dietitian
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July 6-12, 2022 Storytellers like Gary Carden help preserve Appalachian lore.
Cory Vaillancourt photo, Micah McClure photo illustration
Gary Carden Returns to The Liar’s Bench
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR
When the snakes around here want to go somewhere they put their tails in their mouths and contort themselves into the shape of a bicycle tube and roll like a wheel until to stop they straighten out tail-first and stick themselves in a tree which then swells with venom and a man cut one down once and had lumber enough not only for his house but also a barn and a chicken coop however his wife wanted him to paint it all red and the turpentine in the paint drew out the venom from the wood and caused the lumber to shrink back to regular size and he managed to get the cows out of the barn but the chickens did not survive.
That’s exactly the type of tongue-in-cheek banter you’d hear outside barber shops or post offices across much of rural America in the early 20th century.
It was called “the liar’s bench.”
Long before the internet, social media was an in-person affair. Ardent greybeards gathered at the liar’s bench most days, duping tourists with stories of milk snakes or puke buzzards and befuddling naïve young schoolchildren with make-work errands, just for a laugh.
In the 1940s, Jackson County native Gary Carden was one of those children, rushing off to the hardware store to retrieve a boardstretcher or to exchange lefthanded nails for righthanded ones.
Eight decades later, Carden is still preserving this great American tradition of storytelling, infusing it with the regional canon of Appalachian lore — a body of work that is rapidly disappearing amid a culture in the throes of transition.
But the stories and songs of the Smokies don’t just live inside his head. He still sees his grandfather in the front yard sharpening an axe, sparks flying through the crisp evening air. He still smells his granny’s breakfasts cooking on the stove. He still hears the noonwhistle at the papermill blow, and thinks of the father he never knew and the mother who left and never came back.
“I ’ve been dreaming lately sometimes,” Carden says, sitting on the side porch of the house where he was raised and still lives. “It’s a pleasant dream. I come out here and blow out the street lights and they go out all over the holler and the pavement rolls up and the dirt comes back and the trees grow up and I’m back home.”
Born somewhere in Sylva in 1935 — nobody seems to remember where, exactly — Carden has watched the town grow up around him. His earliest memories are of standing up in the passenger seat of Uncle Albert’s car as they cruised around a Main Street that had two-way traffic and no telephone poles.
“He was a ladies’ man,” Carden said of Albert. “He would drive up to Maple Springs and there was a little dark room up there with a jukebox in it, and people would dance there in the dark. I would show out at the drop of a hat, and he had girls that would ask me to sing and I would sing and they’d clap their little hands.”
Carden has no memory of his father, who ran a service station in Moody Bottom called Hap’s Place until he was murdered by a wood alcohol addict in 1936. Carden’s mother left when he was two.
“She was one of those Blanton’s Business College people, and she was going to become a secretary and then get a room and get a job and then come and get me and we were going to live in Knoxville,” he said. “She never came back.”
Carden was raised by his paternal grandparents in Sylva and busied himself with the popular entertainment of the day — comic books and radio dramas.
During high school, Carden’s grandfather tried to get him to take over the oil truck he used to deliver fuel to rural mountain homesteads, telling him he was a “queer young’un” and that he was going to have a hard time making a living.
“I was a lousy driver. I did terrible things. I tore the doors off of the oil truck. I spilled gas. I did everything I could do to really upset him, and it wasn’t working out very well,” Carden laughed. “I read comic books. I had imaginary friends. I was just a strange young man and that’s all there was to it.”
Fate would intervene when Carden’s principal, a man named Galloway, asked him where he was going to attend college after graduation. Galloway told Carden that he could find him a vocational rehabilitation scholarship to attend Western Carolina University, if his grandfather would let him.
His grandfather told him that if he wanted to pursue higher education, he could “graduate” to a neighboring cornfield.
“He always said, ‘You got bad blood Gary Neil, you got it from your mother. You’ll never amount to anything,’” Carden said. “And my granny had a little litany — ‘Marriage can’t help you. Education can’t help you. You can’t do anything. You’re doomed. You got bad blood.’”
Carden persisted and ended up as a day student at Western, commuting from Sylva to Cullowhee until he was able to move into the dorms and take a job washing lunch trays in the chow hall.
Initially interested in teaching, Carden gravitated towards the theater department and became a drama major, much to the chagrin of his grandfather.
“I’d been coming home to get my clothes washed and every time I did, I told him what I was doing and the fact that I was in plays and the fact that I had friends and the fact that I was writing and that I edited a literary magazine,” Carden recalled. “I think he still didn’t understand it. I was a little something different than he expected.”
During his senior year, Carden lost his scholarship because the vocational rehab program didn’t approve of his major. The situation appeared dire until an unlikely hero emerged.
“My poor old granddaddy went to the bank for the first time in his life and borrowed money for me to finish that year,” Carden said. “You know, he was worried about me. He still thought I was strange, but he said, ‘Finish it up and I’ll pay for it.’”
In 1958 Carden taught school for a year in Waynesville, which he said was “awful.”
Again, fate intervened during a chance meeting with a football coach who was home doing grad work at Western. The man recruited Carden to a Cartersville, Georgia, high school where he taught English and drama for five years and met his first wife.
Not long after they married, she began acting strangely. He’d come home in the evening only to find her hiding in the closet, behind the clothes.
She’d get in their car and drive it off until Carden would get a phone call from some stranger, hours later, saying she’d run out of gas in some godforsaken place and to come get her.
One night, he woke to find a pistol pointed at his head, his wife deliberating whether to kill them both, or just herself.
The final blow came on a Thanksgiving Day outside Culberson, Georgia, 10 miles southwest of Murphy.
“There’s nothing there but a steep hill and a bridge and a general store and a phone
— Gary Carden
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Gary Carden stands near the grave of his father some time in the late 1930s. Donated photo
CARDEN, CONTINUED FROM 11 booth and when we topped out that hill, I looked at the speedometer and it was 55, and it went to 60, 65, 70, and it just kept climbing,” he said. “I looked at her and she winked at me and we hit the bridge. She meant to kill us both. She didn’t succeed.”
Lying there in a daze with the windshield wrapped around his face, Carden could hear the faint strains of a hymn being sung from a big-tent revival across the street. Eventually, two men came over.
“They’re dead,” one said.
“No, the man moved a little,” said the other.
The two men walked down to a phone booth and called the funeral home. Workers dragged Carden and his still-unconscious wife from the wreck, and laid them out on the road. Carden mustered up the strength to ask the workers to take them to the hospital.
“Sir,” one said, “we’re not allowed to haul living people.”
After the divorce, Carden began working for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, telling his stories in a much more impactful way — as a grant writer. He reckons he spent about 15 years there.
“I loved it,” he said. “Unemployment was really bad. When the tourists came in the summer, the economy was good, but when they left, Cherokee was an abandoned place for the winter. None of that’s true anymore. The casino changed all that. Hell, bingo changed all that, but back when I worked there, they got a new school, a hospital, a library. And they loved me.”
Sort of. For the longest time, they called him “Unake.”
“It means ‘White man,’ but it loses something in translation,” Carden said. “It’s an insult.”
Once, during a particularly dry spell during which Carden’s grant applications hadn’t exactly been bringing home the funding the Cherokee expected, he got it into his mind that he wanted an Indian name. When they announced it during tribal council, everyone laughed. Later, he found out it meant something on the order of, “huge thunder, no rain.”
Call it a tragicomedy if you like, but Gary Carden’s life has been filled with the sort of accolades that place him among the pantheon of Appalachian literary giants.
He won the Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year award for a 1999 collection of stories called “Mason Jars in the Flood.”
Emmy Award-winning documentarian Neal Hutcheson called Carden the “chief inspiration” for his 2005 PBS documentary, “Mountain Talk,” which focused on the unique Appalachian dialect that Carden’s teachers tried to rid him of nearly all his life.
Also an accomplished playwright, Carden has seen his work performed across the country, including “The Prince of Dark Corners,” which became a feature film on PBS.
In 2012, after a career that also featured stints teaching at Brevard College and LeesMcRae College in Banner Elk, Carden was given the prestigious North Carolina Award for Literature.
Carden’s latest project, however, hearkens back to the days of the The Liar’s Bench, a regular performance event he curated in Cullowhee some years back that evokes all of the drama, the wit and the wry humor of a bygone era.
“Originally there was a little bench or a couple of chairs in every little community in Western North Carolina and in other states, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia. It’s where people sat and talked to each other. They were usually what my grandmother called loafers, the community’s ne’er-dowells, people that have no purpose in life,” he said. “There’s an old guy and maybe a World War I veteran sitting there and people remembered a Confederate that used to sit at one in Sylva. They just sat there and talked to each other, and they stopped people and told them things.”
Told them things — lies, mostly, in the style of Mark Twain or Harold Felton, who wrote of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe. The concept of the liar’s bench isn’t uniquely Appalachian, or American, but the stories told in rural America seem to hold a particular flair.
“I started The Liar’s Bench to rescue old and lost beliefs, customs, language, diction, everything that is sliding away — bring it back! Make it respectable again! Sing the old songs,” he says, with trademark theatrical flourish. “Do you know about that snake that rolls down the hill with his tail in his mouth?”
Nowadays, Carden mostly spends his time in that house his grandfather built a century ago, entertaining visitors when they come and talking to a cat named Priscilla when they don’t.
“Haunted” isn’t quite the right word to describe the atmosphere of the place; crammed with books and photos and mementoes, there’s literally a story everywhere you look.
He remembers crawling into Uncle Albert’s bedroom at night to retrieve the stack of comic books that he’d then spend hours reading.
He remembers where his grandfather’s coffin sat during his wake.
He remembers gazing at a portrait of his mother, stashed away in the attic — one of few keepsakes he had of her until she eventually did come back, later in his life. His grandparents wouldn’t let her in the house, so she stood out in the street, calling to him. They walked around for a while together, mother and son, sorting it all out, and then she was gone.
He thinks that one day, he too will haunt this house, fading into the sepia-toned fabric of an Appalachia that barely exists anymore.
“I’m a part of the story, you know. I’m here,” Carden said. “For a long time, I wanted to leave. For a long time, I tried to leave but I’m past that now. I’m pleased to be here. This is where I’ll finish up.”
Want to go?
Join Gary Carden and friends Randy Flack, Paul Iarussi and Jon Zachary for The Liar’s Bench — an evening of stories and songs, history and folklore — on Tuesday, July 12 at the Jackson County Library at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Reservations are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited, as are complimentary refreshments from City Lights Café. Special guest Neal Hutcheson. Call 828.586.2016 to reserve your seats today. Sponsored by The Smoky Mountain News. “I started The Liar’s Bench to rescue old and lost beliefs, customs, language, diction, everything that is sliding away — bring it back! Make it respectable again! Do you know about that snake that rolls down the hill with his tail in his mouth?”
