A Wonderful Way to Live

One of the neatest things about living in such a small, slow moving community is that one learns to appreciate the little things in life, like the seemingly simple triumphs of the people around us.

Ruth has both legs in braces and walks with a walker, but she still manages to do her handiwork and set up at craft fairs. Denny had a stroke, can barely speak with only a limited vocabulary, and has limited use of half his body; yet he manages to fabricate beautiful decorative iron pieces that his family helps him sell. Ginny uses her faith to fuel her inspirational artwork, and has recently begun marketing, along with her artwork, her deceased husband's book on spiritual healing.

Greta gracefully handles all the grief of the folks who miss her husband, Junior, more this time of year than at any other time. He died while preparing for the Autumn Gold Festival one year ago, but she still managed to handle all the vendor bookkeeping and communications for this year's fest. Ralph, Junior's first cousin, best buddy, and blood brother, and the husband of Greta's sister, successfully chaired the festival as he has for decades, even without his faithful friend.

Elaine walks with two crutches, but her hands stay busy with some of the finest cotton crochet work in Coker Creek. Clarinda, dealing with the loss of the jobs of both she and her husband, cranked up her sewing machine the night between the two days of the festival to make sure she had enough merchandise to last until the final potential customer had passed through the exit gate. And, of course, there's Jack, who continues to plug along on his stories, with his manual typewriter, to the light of kerosene lamps.

The mountain folk honor those who overcome hardships by accepting all willing workers as fellow travelers. There's an expectation that we all do whatever we can do, no matter what curve-balls come our way. It's wonderful to see so many persevering, including the many Ruritans who are well past the prime of their bodies, but still stout of soul. They combine their strengths every year to raise funds to put back into the Coker Creek community. What a wonderful way to live!

Fall Fun In Our Forest

What a fabulous festival we had this year! The weather was absolutely perfect with dewy mornings, cool enough for sitting and sipping hot cocoa and coffee around early morning bonfires. The afternoons were sunny and warm, with just enough breeze to keep us from overheating; although it was a bit capricious in blowing our posters around. But, not to worry, good mountain women always travel with duct tape.

Our over-the-hill neighbors were beneath a tree just behind me with their horseshoe and other iron art. They are the quintessential farm family with three generations all working toward keeping their house in order. There were four generations until the death of a grandmother last year. Lots of crafts, cooking, and canning go on in that house, and lots of wood cutting, gardening, and welding goes on outside and in their outbuildings. Their granddaughters are already in training, helping with everything from picking peas to helping at the sales tent.

The twelve-year-old Cassie is never still, volunteering at one booth and another, from selling raffle tickets benefiting Quilts For Kids to assisting with gold panning at the booth of her twin schoolmates. Even with all this, she managed to be voted the Autumn Gold Festival Queen, which is judged on Early American costume authenticity and poise, rather than beauty and popularity. Since her granny didn't even know about the festival until half an hour before sign-up ended, this miracle was assisted by Cassie's guardian angel Nancy and a vendor selling authentic costumes. Cinderella's fairy godmother never had better magic!

Crafty Dave, originally from Coker Creek, but now living in the same Atlanta suburb as my daughter, donates the most adorable white, flop-eared rabbits as prizes for the festival princesses. He takes special orders, so I'm hoping he'll make me some as grandchild Christmas gifts.

Jack's friend came up from Copperhill to help him hawk his book. We were delighted that he asked us to put her up for the weekend. This is how old-time mountain people put their friends up; they wouldn't ever ask someone that they didn't accept as their own family to welcome one of their friends. The added benefit of us housing his friend is that Jack finally made his way over to our house for supper. We've been inviting him for four years, but mountain folk don't like to impose. Now that he knows the way, there'll be no excuse for him not being a regular at our table.

Some of the coolest old equipment is actually working on the fairgrounds: a grist mill grinding grits and cornmeal; a free-standing power water pump on a wagon, powered by a tractor motor, with an old-fashioned well spout; an actual crank-powered sewing machine joining quilt fabric bits together. Another bit of equipment that's pure whimsy on the part of a loving Paw-Paw is the firetruck tricked out as an ice cream and root beer float production unit. How delightful is it to be a kid standing at the end of a conveyor belt coming off the rear of Paw-Paw's real firetruck, receiving you favorite frozen confection, made by Grandma and Paw-Paw?

I couldn't (or didn't) resist taking home a couple of adult bibs, made with colorful fabric on one side and terrycloth on the other. The Italians and Cajuns in New Orleans could make good use of these for eating spaghetti and barbecue shrimp. This is in addition to all the people we know with bed and wheelchair bound relatives and friends, and those who don't want jelly from their drive-thru biscuit breakfast to be worn on their ties or blouses to their important business meetings.

A booth of pure whimsy was run by a couple, she a painter and her husband an "imagineer." Many of Santa' sleigh stuffers came from this couple, from mice made out of rocks, to a piece of landscape stone transformed into a colorful Koi pond by the power of the painter. The husband's imaginings come to "life" made me laugh out loud, like the walking cane with a putter as its handle and the Harry Potter wands. His spears and arrows were so well-done that I dared not purchase them for the wild one's on our Christmas list. Talk about "putting an eye out!"

The Ruritans sold out of food each day. The barbecue is donated by a fellow in Knoxville, and is my favorite food at the fair. Trusty Richard stood and collected the cash for eight hours each day; I just don't know how he stays still so long. He says he occupies himself with people watching, and there were a lot of people to peruse.

This is fall festival season, so there will be other fairs in my and Jack's future, like the Buzz Fest next weekend at Kefauver Park and the Tellico Plains Leaf Turning Festival two weekends from now. We live in a great hub for fest hopping; along with the Buzz Fest we'll be attending Charlie and Deborah's chili cook-of next week-end with one of my high school buddies. And hopefully, Jack's friend will come back.

Fall is really great fun around here even without factoring in all the leaf-peeping and overnight guests.

The Real Heart of Our Home

Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Autumn Gold Festival in Coker Creek, The Buzz Fest in Madisonville, they're all, not only opportunities to sell Jack's book, they're also great people-watching venues. I don't know about most folks, but the thing I like most about being in crowds is learning what makes other people tick. I don't always like what I find deep down in their souls, but I want to know what they value before I invite them into my home or my heart. A devil you know is easier to run from than a devil hiding behind a smile.

Did you ever notice that you can tell a lot more about people by observing how they treat others than you can by sitting across a table one-on-one with them? Crowds give so much camouflage for eaves-dropping and observation. I just love that!

When Richard and I met, I refused to allow the friend that introduced us to give him my address or phone number. Our early courtship was conducted as "parlor dates" where I could observe him in action with a vast array of people: his colleagues, my family and my friends. That's the way I insisted that my daughter date her future husband, and that's the way I had Richard court me. When he passed muster on all those tests, I invited his family and friends in to critique me.

Richard's family and friends are still not sure what to make of me, and Richard and I have been together for twenty years. I think they don't like as much hot sauce as Richard does, but then again, they never lived in Louisiana. My family and friends love Richard, not only for his sumptuous salads, but also for his enjoyment of all the life they bring into our otherwise too-tame world.

We have one of my favorite nieces visiting now, and next week we'll enjoy her along with one of my dearest high school buddies. A man has to be mighty sure of himself to actually enjoy hosting a hen party. My daughter used to call Richard our elf when she'd come down with her two little girls for a month on the lake every summer. The lake house is gone and the girls are almost grown, but Richard continues making memories for all who come through our door.

Long live Maison Richard...wherever his home may be!

Country Craft Fair

The Second Weekend in October is always the most exciting in Coker Creek; for many years this has been the weekend of the Autumn Gold Festival, the Ruritan Club’s featured fundraiser. Ruritan is sort of the rural version of the Civitans, Lions Club, or Kiwanis Club. Their sole purpose is to foster strong family and community connections in the most rural areas of our vast and wonderful country. For forty-one years, this fine group of folks has been putting on a cross between an old-fashioned county fair and a fine folk art, music, and food showplace and market.

A highlight of the festival is always the queen contest, held on Sunday. Unlike many festivals that award God-given beauty, the Coker Creek Queen Competition honors our American heritage by awarding prizes to those who present an era from our nation’s history in costume and demeanor. Winners have ranged in age from babies-in-arms to a ninety-year-old woman who wowed the judges with her ensemble that she had worn in the 1930s.

Bill Schaaf, our local gold prospecting guide provides panning lessons, and wagon rides around the extensive grounds are available to all. The children love the petting zoo, as well as the wide open spaces to wander and observe various artists at work. The fabulous bands, perform on the main stage each day.

The seats in front of the main stage are always a welcome resting place, whether there are programs on stage or not. Festival fans of all ages enjoy the break from all that walking as they munch on a great lunch of local mountain favorites like funnel cakes, a bowl of beans with cornbread, barbecue, fried pickles, and all manner of home-style country cooking and confections.

Power tools are always a reliable man magnet, and isn’t the tractor the ultimate personal power plant? The farm boys (and girls) and aspiring back-to-nature boys (and girls) will be enthralled by the array of vintage tractors and wood working artists around the grounds. While homemaking partners peruse the latest in folk art, the keepers of the land can be dreaming of woodworking, whittling, and plowing.

So far this year, I've hauled home several pounds of festival ground grits, a couple of pop guns for a friend's grandchildren, and some jewelry to give as gifts. Jack sold over a dozen books, and our over-the-hill neighbors sold almost all the horseshoe doo-dads they brought to the fest. This is definitely country craft fair at its finest, and tomorrow is another day.

Sacred Silence

There's something sacred about being in an enclosed space
Surrounded by forest, river and just past dawn dappled light.
With the soothing sounds of my niece's knitting needles
As we glide through the early morning mountain mist.

Click, click go her stitches, whir whir go my wheels
We're heading down the mountain with few words between us,
Companionable silence a respite from our initial intensity.
We've not said close to all that there is to share between us,
But even love needs a silence to settle into the soul.

Small Town Serendipity

I love making memories as we putter through our lives, basking in the process of every minute of every day. Today, I took my precious deceased younger sister's daughter to do some of my favorite things in the world. While stopping by the Coker Creek Welcome Center and Post Office to get a first-hand look at the University of Tennessee motif quilt that the Quilts for Kids group will be raffling at the Autumn Gold Festival this weekend, we got a chance to visit with and get hugs from Pastor Lynda, who had just met my niece the night before. We were also able to say hello to Barbara and Betty working in the quilt display area.

As we were leaving, I got a chance to thank Marsha, once again, for the generosity she and her husband Bill had shown my niece's daughter in a gold panning adventure on a summer visit. And to top it all off, Adam drove in to collect his mail; so my niece got to meet the husband of the artist that made a quilt that she had purchased on her first visit to Coker Creek. Then, we proceeded to the deck overlooking the Tellico River rapids to enjoy one of the fabulous paninis made by the sisters at Kats Deli. I love the whole sister thing they have going there, along with everything else about their place, including the fall color reflecting in the river.

At Kats, we ran into Judy and Rick , two of the most accomplished people in these parts. They told us that my Richard is, one again, a poster boy. It seems that Rick and Judy were shooting photos and video footage for publicity of Volunteer Federal Bank for the Tellico Plains website, and Richard ended up in one of their shots that we can all enjoy at Tellico-Plains.com.

This isn't the first time Richard has been featured in publicity shots. He's been doing volunteer work for the World War II Museum in New Orleans since before it opened its doors as the D-Day Museum. His countenance adorns a display at the museum, and he was even on a documentary shot at the museum, highlighting the Higgins boats . It really tickles me when these things happen to Richard, who spends his life attempting to avoid the spotlight. (Needless-to-say, he doesn't read my blog.) Upon pulling up the Tellico Plains site, I was very relieved that he hadn't dressed in his "homeless" look before going to the bank on picture day. He's such a stud muffin!

My niece and I then went on to our local Wal-Mart, the closest place in these parts, to develop photos and purchase display supplies. It was time to begin the display board that I promised the Quilts for Kids ladies would be ready for this weekend's festival. When I went to retrieve the finished photos, the clerk was laughing at the coincidence of recognizing two of the quilters in my photographs as two of the store's employees. Talk about small-town life! Maybe I'd better start behaving myself before I ruin my reputation.

Salving the Suffering

Jesus fed the bodies before preaching to the souls;
His desire to bring joy was big and bold.
He comforted the suffering before speaking of the sin.
Wherever He walked, wholeness moved in.
He changed water to wine to help celebrate
The sanctity of bonding with one's anointed mate.
So let us be joyful, and embrace one another
After seeking forgiveness from our sisters and brothers.
We may not be able to forgive all others' sins,
But we can help relieve the fear that lurks within.
The generations that are wounded by those before we came
Can be held by us in The Creator's name.
Jesus showed us the way to minister to each other
Helping heal the children honors our father and mother.