Holiday Spirit

Merry Christmas!

If I say that enough, maybe I'll get in the holiday spirit. I'm getting there. Being in the mountains with a dose of snowflakes helped me. 

Does that help you?

How about this? The reason I was in the mountains, the reason for the season?

Here we are, several members of my church, me on one end, my husband on the other. The purpose of our being at Newland United Methodist Church was to serve a meal to the people of their small Appalachian town. Hurricane Helene tried to squelch the joy of Christmastide. She might have walloped a blow, but she didn't destroy the spirit of recovery. Helene arrived in late September, so by now the immediate needs of the mountain communities have been patchworked enough to get by. What the people need now, now that winter is setting in, is sustained support that warms their hearts as well as their tents or damaged homes. A good, warm lunch fits the bill.

The Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church has worked tirelessly to aid in recovery. Many of our own churches were damaged, yet we reached out to others first, to assist in any way we could. For years congregations across the area prepared flood buckets and sent them off to hurricane-stricken areas, never imagining we would be the ones who one day needed them. Helene struck on a Thursday night. Here we are the following Monday, in the dark from lack of power, packing flood buckets to send. 

So many of us worked with our neighbors to clear brush and remove downed trees from roofs. We checked on each other and took meals to those who had no electricity. Our minister called each member of our congregation for a wellness check, asking what we could do to help them recover. One member pulled a trailer stuffed with clothing and household items we collected to Asheville, the largest city that Helene devastated. Another collected hay for farmers who lost their supply to the floods. Another delivered wood to a Tennessee state park for the locals without heat to help themselves to a wood supply. 

Happy birthday Jesus. This is our church's present to you this year. Matthew recorded your comment about this in chapter 25, verse 40: 

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 

Merry Christmas to all,

Catch of the day,

Gretchen

Recovery

On the list of things I never thought I'd see in my community, a FEMA disaster recovery center sign ranks up there at the top. 

I thank God that I do not need to stand in line for hurricane recovery assistance. We never lost electric power, so I didn't suffer like many around me. I don't drive the back roads of the county, so I have no idea of extended damages. I listen to others tell their stories, and yes, even though we are on the edge of major destruction and not as broken as the counties farther west, our people need help. 

For several weeks I have heard helicopters flying over my house, like the one I hurried outside to capture in this photo. These metallic birds of paradise were taking things to other, more needy places. But not to us. We have been helping those more hurting than ourselves. My community is taking survivors food, clothing, and flood buckets, and now blankets and wood for heat since the first snowfall has graced our beautiful mountains in the past few days. 

I've been so concerned about those in the mountains that I ignored my own back yard...people who lost their homes due to trees landing on their roofs...people who had no water because the electricity was off, and therefore their well's pump couldn't operate...people who lost everything in their deep freeze (that was my mother's words for the big, white box in our basement). We are a rural community. This time of year, our freezers are filled to the brim with summer harvests and butchered cows, but the joy of eating the fruits of our sweat-filled labor just won't happen this year for some of us. Food prices are high enough, so my friends who depended on saving money through home-grown deliciousness will not have that to fall back on to stretch the weekly paycheck. FEMA, those people DO need you. Thank you for being here.

As we drove past the main entrance of the county health department (FEMA ground zero) to loop around and take these pictures, I saw a line of cars waiting for the clipboard-bearing workers to bring forms to them. Sad occasion. My heart goes out to them. This, the extension of government for the people, is necessary help for those who are desperate. Tax money at work. 

Catch of the day,

Gretchen

Lingle School

Much of what I write on this blog is about western North Carolina and its beauty, its history, its people. The world has seen all this melt away in one evil swipe from Hurricane Helene. My husband and I were fortunate that we had no trees crush our cars or power lines fall in our street. We didn't lose power, only cable and internet for five days, mere inconveniences compared to what I saw on the news. 

On the third day after the hurricane hit, we ventured out. Our aim was to check on Tuttle State Forest, which we had heard through the facebook grapevine, had sustained major damages. Saddest of all I saw was this schoolhouse.

This is/was Lingle School, established 1867. It was renovated and placed at the state forest for display and safekeeping. Imagine the hurricanes this building weathered in its span of existence. Until now. A tree found its way down and landed square on the roof. With the accompanying deluge of rain, the inside artifacts were damaged. Hopefully some can be salvaged, but for now, no one dares enter the building. 

This view shows more damage, but note that the well beside the schoolhouse survived quite well, as well as a well could do. So did the outhouse behind the school...both well and outhouse are non-functional, only for educational purposes.

   

Not so fortunate, however, was this construction outhouse, that was, on the day before the hurricane, quite functional. 

Tuttle Educational State Forest is in the process of adding a full size classroom building. Fortunately, it had little damage beyond the outhouse beside it for construction workers.

Losing Lingle School is sad, but in the wider scope of the extreme losses in the region, it is a small sadness. No one was killed. No one was injured. The history of the school is preserved in other venues. Perhaps the building called Lingle School will be salvaged to rebuild. Perhaps not. For now, we wait.

Catch of the day,

Gretchen

Uplift North Carolina

Thank you Uplift North Carolina for your support of the Gamewell History Museum. I was present yesterday when Justin Vertefeuille, a videographer working with Uplift NC, visited the museum where I have been volunteering. 

In our preplanning stage, I developed a list of shots I wanted him to take in order of priority. How to decide what was more important to our town's history than another, I never figured out, but I made a stab. School wall? Sport center? Veteran display? Family history notebooks? He filmed it all both inside and outside our beautiful one-room museum. We do pack a lot in there.

With the input of many others, I wrote the script to voice over the video. We were limited to ninety seconds. How could I get an overview of two hundred-plus years into ninety seconds!!! I had timed it by reading the script aloud and had to cut out a great deal. I didn't realize I would be the one actually recording it, but I was. The museum itself is located beside a busy five-lane highway, so the noise level was too distracting. Instead, we went inside the town hall into the conference room, which was practically soundproof, and recorded there. The first taping came in six seconds too long, the second three under.

So it's a done deal and in the hands of the editor. When it is finished, I'll post it here for you all to view. I can't wait.

Catch of the day,

Gretchen

Friendship

I have been blessed through the years to have an abundance of friends. When I was in Girl Scouts many years ago, I learned a sweet song with lyrics that describe friendship: 

Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, but the other gold. 

I love making new friends. They are silver and I'm not just talking about the color of their hair, but their value. There's another saying about friendship, an Irish Proverb:

There are good ships and wood ships, ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are friendships, may they always be.

But some friendships are simply unique. They are golden in their value. One golden friend has been my BFF since fifth grade. We laughed back then. We told each other secrets that no one else knew. We went our own way after high school, she moved to Germany and then Ohio, but we reconnected later and have seen each other on a semi-regular basis. We still laugh. We still tell each other secrets that no one else knows. 

Another golden friend visited me this summer for a two-week stay. We did have some fun!! 

With my friend Sara

One thing I convinced her into doing was a recording of our friendship. We went to a studio at the HUB, the Hudson Uptown Building and spent a little time with each other and a microphone. We did this courtesy of the Mitford Museum has developed its own StoryCorps program. Read what they say in their introduction:  

Our mission: to help us believe in each other by illuminating the humanity and possibility in us all — one story at a time.

Isn't that a grand aspiration! They are actually preserving history by recording people's stories. I've been trained to run the recording equipment, but I wanted to be on the speaking end of the process to see what it was all about. So when Sara showed up, I announced to her that we were going to record a bit about our friendship. This recording is now with the Mitford Museum's collection. The final product is at the Library of Congress Folk Life Center, and it is  online at the Mitford Museum's site!!! Click on this link to check it out. Okay, so you might find a little TMI while you are there, but you will get to know what a deep friendship is all about.

While you are there, check out the other recordings. I ran the equipment for the two Patterson School selections. They were in connection with the fly fishing books I wrote. The interviewer, Alen Baker, is working with the Patterson School Foundation to develop a fly fishing exhibit at the school.

For those of you who are interested in preserving stories from your past, come on down! Bring someone near and dear to you. It's a simple process, loads of fun, and precious to those who listen for years to come. 

Catch of the day,

Gretchen

There's a New Museum in Town

I have turned into a history buff. Sure, I tended in that direction all along, but now, in my ripe old age, I appreciate the study of the past. It helps me make sense of what is happening now. 

That's why I have been involved with the Gamewell History Committee ever since 2005. To set the record straight, I am not "from" Gamewell, North Carolina. I've lived here more than half my life, so I do feel as if I belong. The community has welcomed me to be one of them, so I assume I can rightfully call it home. 

The committee amassed all kinds of photographs and family histories. We visited graveyards and recorded their histories. We interviewed citizens, many of whom have since passed away, but their words are preserved, there, in notebooks.

From the beginning, we knew there would one day be a building to house what we collected. That day came. We finally have a home for our collection, and here it is. Well, here it was back in the forties and fifties.

This building started as a store called Sunny Side. What better name could it have been? It's a name that warms my soul. It was the local go-to place for various sundry items where children relished visiting the store for their penny candies and men stopped in on the way home from work to pick up fifty-pound flour sacks, saying to jot it down on their bill. They would pay when the furniture factory paid them. They were trusted because that's how people did business way back when.

The store sat empty when the Anderson sisters were no longer able to maintain it. Big box stores in nearby Lenoir and low-cost gasoline drew shoppers away, and no one took over the establishment. Many of the display cases were sold to the famed Mast General store in nearby Watauga County. Most recently shoppers can drop in at either of two Dollar Generals located three miles in both directions. Who needs Sunny Side when there's a Dollar General instead? (Sad question.)

The building next served as the town hall soon after Gamewell was incorporated in 1981. The town outgrew that space and eventually built a beautiful structure adjacent to the store that better fit their needs.

The museum is the flat-topped part of the town hall complex

However, this little one-room former store/town hall perfectly fit the museum's needs. We moved in boxes of accumulated information (might I say boxes and boxes) about the history of western Caldwell County and the town of  Gamewell. People took notice and donated even more relevant items. We arranged displays and set a date for the Grand Opening, April 28, 2024. 

If you build it, they will come!!! 

The Gamewell Museum will be open on the second and fourth Sundays of each month or by appointment. Call the town hall at 828-754-1991.

Next up, Mother's Day at the Museum. I'm hoping mothers will find themselves in the many pictures we have on display and tell the stories behind them. Here's one sample:

Bring your mothers. You might learn something.

Catch of the day,

Gretchen 

An Eclipse to Remember

Eclipses come and go and the world goes on. 

Although I wasn't in the totality range, I was determined to catch my fair share of yesterday's heavenly display. I dug out my leftover solar eclipse glasses from 2017 and made reservations at Grandfather Mountain, a park about an hour's drive from my home, ten minutes as the crow flies. I figured if we were atop a mountain, we'd be closer to the sun and have a clearer view in case of cloud cover in the foothills below. 

Don't let that picture of my husband and me fool you. As the eclipse heightened, the temperature dropped and by the time it was over I was bundled in a flannel shirt and my husband had on a sweater. 

The cold didn't seem to bother these three!

We weren't alone on the mountain since Grandfather decided to take advantage of the occasion and sponsored all kinds of solar and animal-related activities. We rode up the winding (extremely winding) road with good friends of ours, but were stopped halfway at the education center parking lot below the peak. The upper parking lot was already packed with cars and the road blocked. 

So we found a spot in the lower lot and set up a tailgate party with the rest of the overflow. There were car tags from across America, all joining with us in a corporate moment of unity. Humanity was getting a glimpse of the wondrous world of creation.

So was the animal kingdom. My friend and I walked the trail to visit Mildred, the bear, or rather, since Mildred herself died thirty-some years ago, a variation of Mildred. 

Eclipse? What eclipse?

She was sound asleep, as were the cougar and the otters. Was that the norm for their afternoons or did they think night was coming on? The birds certainly did. They roosted and chirped just as they do when evening approaches. The eagle swooped past us on the way to his sleeping spot. 

The highlight of the day was driving to the peak as the eclipse waned. By then those who arrived earlier to grab a spot were long finished with dealing with keeping their children from falling off the cliffs. We easily found a parking spot. 

Years ago I had brought my own children to the swinging bridge that is the major attraction of the park. As I crossed, my son shook the bridge to scare me and I swore I would never again walk on that bridge. 

I did walk out three steps on the bridge before I turned around. Just for perspective, here's the same bridge from the parking lot.

I suppose that lone person left to himself was soaking in the beauty and awesomeness of the day and didn't want to give it up. Another view, from afar:

Bridge and bear notwithstanding, we had a blessed eclipse experience. Using our glasses we witnessed a quirk of nature that is awarded to the world only on rare occasions. It also reminds me that eclipses come and go and the world goes on. We paused yesterday and breathed the beauty surrounding us. Today we go back to our daily routines. Refreshed.

What a blessing!

Catch of the day,

Gretchen