Let's go to the Festival on the Square

Lake Chatuge and the mountains that surround it.

This coming weekend, we will set up a booth at the Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC where thousands of people will pass through and see fine crafts and outstanding original art by men and women from all over the south. This festival has grown tremendously since I first attended in 1995. I can't walk around the square where all the tents and booths are set up without taking home something. One year it was raining and I was not feeling well, but I did go to the festival and bought a barbecue plate to take home. 

On several occasions in the past our writing group, the NC Writers' Network West, set up a booth and many local writers and poets brought their books to sign for visitors. I furnish the tent, table and chairs but I can't take all that down town and put it up alone. This year, Joan Gage, poet and blogger and her man, Rob, will do the heavy lifting. Another writer, Deanna Klingel, will help set up and she will be in the booth all weekend. Karen Holmes, outstanding poet from Atlanta will be at the table on Saturday afternoon along with Carole Thompson who wrote a beautiful poetry book, Enough. 

The anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, will be on sale. This book contains stories, poems, essays by authors from all over our region. I am proud to have a story in this book which also contains poetry by two poet laureates and is dedicated to Byron Herbert Reece, a highly regarded mountain poet who lived in the early part of the twentieth century. 

I hope that visitors to the festival will take time to visit the shops and businesses around the square. If you like crafts of all kinds, we have Busy Hands which sells work done by many local crafts people. Be sure to drop in at the local ice cream soda fountain next door to Tiger's Department store. 

I learned today that the CCCRA, a community group that is striving to save and update our historic courthouse, is having a trash to treasures sale right across the street from the square - where the Phillips and Lloyd Bookstore used to be.

I'm taking some of my "stuff" down to be sold.

Molly and Me is a fun place to roam around and look for special items once used but ready for a new home. And don 't forget to drop in at Joe's Coffee House and Wine Shop. They will be open this weekend. Sit outside on the covered porch area or inside with your friends. 

Music rings out from the Gazebo all weekend - cloggers, fiddlers, and one of my favorite groups, The Pressley Girls, will be on hand to sing their mountain harmonies.

Whatever you do, if you come to Hayesville this weekend, 11-12 of July, come by the booth to speak to me and our other writing friends. I'll be there Saturday morning and Sunday. Our Clay County Historical and Arts Council is sponsoring this festival. Many thanks to all the volunteers who work so hard to make this festival a big success every year. 

Ten Most Stressful Cities - Not Hayesville

I couldn’t help but notice that Hayesville, NC was not mentioned in the Ten Most Stressful Cities in the country this week.


That is one of the reasons we moved here. Tiny town, in a small county in the mountains where we felt we were in a time warp. Back to the late fifties, I thought.

And even now, fifteen years later, I love this quiet, laid back lifestyle. I don’t know how folks live in a big city. Barnes and Noble book stores, Target, nor fancy restaurants are worth the traffic, the lack of neighbors who reach out and care, and the knowledge that the good people of the town outnumber the bad and the good folks are there for you.

While my sister in Atlanta likes the anonymity of shopping at Publix where nobody knows her name, I enjoy going to our one supermarket and running into several people I know. Recently I saw Alice, my neighbor, with an older woman who turned out to be the mother of Alice’s partner. Immediately we began talking, and soon I found that Dot was from near my mother’s home town. Within the next few weeks Dot was signed up for one of my classes. Now she and I are friends all because we met in the supermarket.
I doubt I’d ever have met her if we had been in a big city store. I doubt I would have known Alice was my neighbor.

Yesterday my sister from Atlanta visited me. Before she left to go home I noticed a low tire on her car. We drove down to Rich’s garage. He has been extremely helpful to me since my husband passed away. Although he was busy, he stopped and removed the nail and plugged her tire.

“Five dollars, Ma’am,” he said. “It’s going to be fine.”
And soon she was on her way.

Although we know each other and know more than we need to know about each other, the folks in our town are not malicious in their gossip. At least I’ve not found anyone to be so. Most of the talk regards concern for each other. “Have you heard that Alma is back in the hospital?” I overheard a woman asking a man in line at Ingles. “Yes, she fell last week and I think she might have a broken leg.”

Best of all, I can travel anywhere in our county and feel safe. I don’t know of any “bad” neighborhoods. People are open and friendly. They smile and speak to me when I meet them on the street or in a store even if we don’t know each other personally. We see each other around town and feel we know each other.

The youth of our area make me proud. Young men open doors for me and are gracious when they do. In a restaurant, eating alone and doing some writing, I was surprised to have a young man who worked there come over and begin a conversation. He was curious about my writing, and soon he was seated and telling me about his life, his problems and his decision to go to college in the fall. I don’t think this would ever happen in a big city. First of all, I’d not likely become friendly with a teenager in Atlanta. I wouldn’t be comfortable. Our crime rate is low in our little town. Not like the city I moved from in Georgia. When I go back there to visit, I’m warned to hold my purse close to my side and keep an eye out for anyone around me. No one ever says that in Hayesville.

I hired a couple of local high school boys to move some furniture for me, a heavy chest had to go downstairs and another moved upstairs. They resisted the twenty dollars I paid them saying “This is too much. You don’t have to pay us that much.” Respectful and generous -- someone instilled good values in these boys. 

I am a small town girl, a rural life girl, a person who loves the open spaces, fields of green that go on and on until they reach the trees along the creek. When the sun is setting over the mountains and glistens pink on the lake, I offer my thanks for the life I have in this wonderful place.

Arts Expo - Saturday, Nov. 7, Hayesville, NC

Saturday, November 7, the Clay County Historical and Arts Council is hosting an Arts Expo in Hayesville, NC. Our writing organization, NCWN West (Netwest) will have a booth there and we are invited to read and sign books during the event.
The hours are 10 AM until 4 PM.
Our readings will take place at 11:00 a.m. and at 2:00 p.m.
We hope we have a good group of listeners so please come out to the Truett Memorial Baptist Fellowship Hall downtown Hayesville and support our arts. You will enjoy your visit and meet writers and artists of all kinds. Rob Tiger and some of his group will be playing music during the day.

Tell your friends to come. I'd love to meet them and sign my brand new, hot off the press, poetry book - Now Might as Well be Then - Published by Finishing Line Press and edited by Leah Maines. Great people to work with at Finishing Line. My book is lovely and I am quite proud.

Those who ordered books from me will be receiving them next week. I am also taking orders on Saturday and will have books on hand for folks to pick up for those extra Christmas gifts. The price is $12.00 and I will be so happy to sign one for you.

Veteran's Day Story in Clay County Progress

Once again I am proud of one of my students, Ash Rothlein, who wrote an essay that will be published this week in our local newspaper, The Clay County Progress. Ash served in WW II and has begun (in his mid-eighties) to write his memories This story is most fitting for Veterans Day.

While he never hesitates to shower me with appreciation for his beginning to write, I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to know Ash. A gentleman, the like seldom seen in today's world, he shepherds his classmates to meetings held about every three months, as they share new memories. Unlike some war veteran who never want to speak of the war, Ash decided to tell of  his recollections in touching and sometimes humourous stories.

We learned more about the kind of man our friend was in his youth, and our eyes filled with tears when he took us back to a battle field in Europe and the sentiments he continues to feel about that day.

If  you live in the Hayesville, NC area, pick up the Progress and read Ash's story. And if you have memories you have been meaning to share, get out the paper and pen or get to your keyboard. Don't wait another day. No more excuses. Write now.

Coffee with the Poets

Many thanks

to

Kathryn Stripling Byer, poet Laureate of North Carolina for speaking and reading her poetry at Coffee with the Poets in Hayesville, NC recently. The atmosphere was casual and comfortable in Crumpets Dessertery at Phillips and Lloyd Book Store in the historic little mountain town.

Kathryn, who grew up just a short drive from my home in southwest Georgia, answered questions, and then said she wanted to hear from the local poets who had brought poems to read at open mic.

Mary Mike Keller hosted the session and gave each person a chance to share a poem with the Poet Laureate of North Carolina. Elizabeth Rybicki, owner of Phillips and Lloyd Books, served a delicious cake and candies all in Valentine's Day colors.

As the Clay County Representative for NCWN West, I organized this monthly event a couple of years ago, before I became the NCWN West program Coordinator. From the beginning poetry lovers throughout the community put the time and date of CWP on their calendars, and came to enjoy reading or listening to others read poetry.

We plan to gather again March 11, second Wednesday, at 10:30 AM to listen to outstanding poetry by Nancy Simpson and Janice Townley Moore. The theme of the day will be birds and we are asked to bring "bird" poems that day. If you are in the area, be sure to drop by.