Blogger’s Note

This post contains two versions of the same story. You can start the video below and hear the same words, see the same pictures as you would if you decided to read my traditional post below. If you decide to read this post you can listen to the background audio track from the video by clicking on the audio button below the video. This music is the classical guitar work of Don Goldenbaum which he played at Robin’s and my wedding.

Watch the video:

Video Link: Click on the arrow to start the recording. You can watch full screen by clicking on the small box in the lower right hand corner.

Or listen to the classical guitar music of Don Goldenbaum as you read.

Audio Link: Click on the arrow to start the recording.

Or simply read the story in the usual way.

Our Brasstown neighbors

We worried. We fretted. Then in mid-July, we learned that the Clay County Schools in Western North Carolina hired both of us!!! John Ramsey, the director of the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, had encouraged us to apply to the county schools and helped ensure that our applications were reviewed. Hayesville Elementary School principal Bobby Birch interviewed us in early June, questioning us carefully about our intentions – were we expecting to “educate” the county residents or did we want to actually live in Clay County? Drawing on our experiences in Little Milligan, we passed the interview! For years our new Clay County neighbors would help us continue our story.

On August 20, 1969 we loaded a U-Haul trailer, including my book collection of over 1,000 books! We climbed into our old Land Rover, and drove to Brasstown. On this map my arrow is straight but the road wasn’t! Today it’s 186 miles – an easy 4 hour drive. But in 1969, old Hwy 64W was a mountainous, narrow, twisting all-day drive that terrified us as the heavy trailer pushed our jeep down the steep winding road. The brakes held and we arrived at the Folk School where we rented a small farmhouse. We’d found our new home.

Perhaps this next map gives a better idea of the remote mountain region Robin and I would call home. We lived in Brasstown, population 50. Hayesville, population 600, was nearly 30 minutes drive away on the old hwy 64. There was no direct road – we had to drive through Warne to get to our school in Hayesville. Murphy, population 1600 – the westernmost city in North Carolina – was our regional center. Our friend Dave Peters wrote the song “Two Hours from Anywhere” to highlight our remote location. Still, it became Home.

Our neighbors built our story

The mountains of Clay County are beautiful. Like the mountains of East Tennessee. This is the view from near Standing Indian mountaintop, at 5500 feet, on the border of Clay County.

For over 20 years we would experience the awe of these mountains and the communities that dotted the valleys. But it was our neighbors who made these mountains our home. Each neighbor offered us their story and in doing so, helped us build our own story.

Dub and Murray Martin

Dub and Murray were our closest neighbors. Their farm adjoined our home at the Folk School. Dub taught me to grill steaks of his homegrown, grass-fed beef with pats of butter on top. He taught me about moonshine and how to homebrew beer. Murray taught woodcarving at the Folk School. She guided Robin toward weaving using wool dyed with native plants. She helped Robin appreciate the local culture and folklore.

Dub also guided me up the mountain to his TV antenna where he showed me how to setup, connect, and oriente the antenna for best results. The proof was immediately shown on his little battery operated B&W TV set. I borrowed that little set several times.

The Wilsons, Ellie and Monroe

Ellie’s friendly voice was everything to us. She patiently explained so many events and helped us deal with so many school issues. I still treasure a signed copy of her book, My Journey to Appalachia. It is one of my prized possessions.

I spent hours in Monroe’s shop learning about wood. Gentle patience was his teaching style. I’d bring projects to him after I’d built them and he’d show me how to varnish or lacquer each properly.

I learned to turn bowls under his tutelage – though I was never able to learn to sharpen his chisels properly. He had to do that task for me!

This is the only bowl I turned on his lathe that I still have. Occasionally I wonder what happened to the others, l but I know this was my best.

Joe and Ginny Kiraly

Joe and Ginny were retirees who lived a bit out of town. Special people. They took us under their wings. We played cards, ate meals, and hiked with them. Joe was a retired landscape architect who knew the common and Latin name of every plant we ever saw. Robin learned all those names from him. Ginny and I ignored Joe and Robin and made up our own names – all yellow flowers were “butter dishes!”

Joe was a master gardener and taught Robin the basics. But he gave us so many of his home-grown vegetables that she really didn’t need to grow her own garden. She just liked to do so. Again, like I did with Monroe, I spent hours in Joe’s shop learning to properly use tools – especially a radial arm saw which became the cornerstone of my own shop.

“Downtown” Brasstown

Downtown Brasstown is a wonderful place. Back then we had two gas stations / general stores plus a third long-abandoned store. All three were great places for just hanging around. Here are two townies, hanging around the abandoned store on an Easter Sunday!

And here’s another hanging arounder in one of my favorite pictures ever!

The dahlia lady

Not far out of town was another favorite place – the dahlia lady‘s small farm. Just as I never became the master craftsman of my woodworking tutors, Robin tried but never did learn to grow dahlias.

But she loved them – so she bought them here! Often lots of them.

Bass and David Hyatt

Perhaps Bass and David deserve an entire post – so many stories, so many memories.

I’ll start with David – a delightful rascal if there ever was one. David delivered the mail in the entire Brasstown district. Sometimes, while we were teaching, he’d simply open our door and walk in. He was especially interested in Robin’s cookies and was fond of telling her that he preferred her chocolate chip cookies to her oatmeal cookies – he advised her that she should make the chocolate chip ones more often. And more of them each time so he could take a handfull of them along on his mail route. He had a sweet-tooth!

Bass was also free with advice. He once walked in and found me washing the dishes. He hemmed and hawed around and then told me, “It’s too late. There’s no hope for you!”

Bass and David raised pigs. One day at dinner Robin remarked that his pig farm smelled and he was polluting her air. Bass looked her in the eye and said, “Well, your cigarettes are polluting my air.” Robin looked at him, at her cigarette, and snuffed the thing out. She instantly stopped smoking completely – cold turkey. Never smoked another one. And spent the next several years gently prodding me until I was finally able to kick the habit.

Bass and David both lived in modern homes. Mom and dad still lived in the old homestead where Bass and David were raised. Here’s David in front of the Hyatt homestead.

Bass and David did their farming on the family land. Raised “white-faced” Hereford cattle and pigs. Here are some of the smelly old pigs.

Here’s the pig barn and outbuilding. The old guy pushing the wheelbarrow? That’s old man Bass, age 79. It’s David playing with the dog while his dad works on their farm!

Here’s old man Bass. Into his 80’s, he could work me into the ground. I know – I worked as a farmhand for almost two weeks while Bass the Younger was in the hospital. I fed the cattle, not on horseback as I imagined, but using a tractor with a front-end loader. I checked and fed the hogs, and mended fences in the rain. All under the supervision of Bass the Elder!

The elder Green

Here’s another elder cut from the same cloth. Dale Green. We’ll meet him in a later post, but I wanted to show a second example of the guys I’m trying to emulate as I turn 78.

Allen Stevenson

I believe Robin and I were the first of the outsiders to move into the tri-county area centered around Murphy. But soon we were followed by numerous others. Here is Allen, who moved to a farm in Graham County. He started an educational program for inner-city students from Atlanta on that farm.

Bob and Gretchen Fink

And here are Bob and Gretchen Fink working on the house they built nearby.

In all, the western mountains of North Carolina were a rich and vibrant place.