The Scenic Road Home

Last Wednesday Sheila and I took our usual route to Joneborough, Tennessee for the National Storytelling Festival, mostly along Interstate highways 75, 40, and 81. That was a mistake. Those highways sometimes seemed more parking lot than freeway. By the time I'd deposited Sheila near the Library Tent where Donald Davis would present his usual pre-festival evening program, found and parking spot, and walked several blocks back to the tent, Donald was already being introduced.

So when it was time to come home we decided we'd take the scenic route. Our host, John Vogt, suggested we follow state highway 81 south from Joneborough to Interstate 26 to Asheville, NC. From there we consulted Siri and followed her route through southwest North Carolina back to Georgia.

It took us, with several stops, a good bit longer, but what a gorgeous drive on an equally gorgeous fall day.

Here is a photo log of the day

The fog creates an eerie and very different view off the front porch of this beautiful home this morning.

The fall colors seem intensified by the fog.

At an overlook in Tennessee but near the North Carolina line...

... three nice ladies offered to take our picture.

A few miles farther along we stopped at the North Carolina welcome center.

The welcome center had a nice collection of artwork that included this folk art made of found objects.

It is difficult for me to come within sight of Lake Junaluska without a sentimental stop .  Today took about an hour for huge single scoop each of Cappuccino Crunch ice cream at the gift shop and a slow drive around the lake.

We drove slowly through Nantahala Gorge enjoying the scenery but without stopping till we came to Pattons Run Overlook.

At Pattons Run Overlook I recorded this sign to add to my growing photo collection of "Signage that may some day inspire signage at Arrowhead". 

The Nantahala at Pattons Run Wass beautifully decorated with stained-glass-like sourwood and maple. leaves...

...and great light...

...on the water.

One Last day of Storytelling in Jonesborough

Under Construction

 

On our way up to breakfast I had to take a picture of this inviting room we pass through. John and Diane built this wonderful home themselves and made much use of architectural bits and pieces they found. For example they built the bookcases to use the glass doors they bought separately.

The sunrise over misty hills is gorgeous this morning.

While we await our breakfast we enjoy the view.

Not a painting.

John's German pancake (more like a soufflé) is an annual treat. It is served with cooked apples from the farm, vanilla yogurt, sausages, OJ and coffee.

Our fellow guest Nancy with Diane: breakfast is served.

Jonesborough Homecoming - Friday in the Creekside Tent

under construction
 

Sam Payne, Emcee

Our Atlanta/Cuban star storyteller/author, Carmen Deedy

Josh Goforth, master musician of Sodom (no Gomorrah), NC

Jeff Doyle, one of this year's "New Voices".

Sam Payne introduces storytelling legend, Elizabeth Ellis.

Our emcee for the afternoon was Corinne Stavish.

A Howl of Hallelujahs

 Sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith create gorgeous harmonies with roots in folk and bluegrass and bits of music from around the world. Sheila and I sat in the Library Tent on this cool Thursday evening and soaked up the beauty of their 90 minute mix of songs and their stories of Rising Appalachia. 

They started with a mesmerizing a cappella blending of Appalachian traditional song "Bright Morning Stars" with a Costa Rican Song, "Boktiwak"

Bright morning stars are rising…

Day is a breakin’ in my soul

Oh where are our dear mothers…

They’re down in the valley a’ singin’

Day is a breakin’ in my soul

Oh where are our dear fathers…

They’ve gone up to heaven a’ shoutin’

Day is a breakin’ in my soul

more later

Home to Jonesborough

The first full week in October is, for me and Sheila (and a few thousand fellow storytelling/listening enthusiasts) a very special time every year. Since 2009 we have always planned to be here in Joneborough, Tennessee for the National Storytelling Festival. Since 2013 we have always planned to be at Storybrook Farm, the beautiful bed and breakfast enterprise of John and Diane Vogt. Then came the pandemic. In 2020 and 2021 we had to attend "virtually". But we are back. John and Diane have retired and closed the B&B, BUT have invited us to stay this year anyway!

Tonight Donald Davis, the dean of American storytellers, gave us a little over an hour of his stories of growing up in Waynesville in the mountains of North Carolina. I had heard most of those stories before, but still enjoyed every minute. Wetting his pants in first grade. Knocking out his classmate's tooth in second grade. Trips to the principals office in junior high and high school. Skipping school with the valedictorian and salutatorian senior year. Stories of embarrassment, mischief, and love. How wonderful to get to know his teachers and classmates and feel his appreciation for each of them.

Jonesborough is not my hometown at all. But arriving here, especially after this long absence, feels a lot like coming home.

Old Leaves: Extra Innings

I have been into extra innings in my life for eight years now. Sheila and I were in Jonesborough, Tennessee for the Natiinal Storytelling Festival when I passed my Daddy's record for Days on Earth. We will be back there this evening for our first In-Person NSF since the pandemic began. 

Here is what I wrote on October 5, 2014...

Extra Innings

The little boy in the creek is my daddy, Charles Columbus Shaw. He wasn't breathing when Lillian Ophelia Wilkerson Shaw delivered him on May 21, 1919. Lillian's step-mother Mattie Wilkerson took up the baby and breathed into his little mouth and started those lungs supplying oxygen to his heart as they continued to do for 24,668 days including 17 leap days and that partial day, December 3, 1986 when a blood clot stole him from us. Today is my own 24,668th day. Sometime in the next few hours -- or maybe already since I was born just after midnight on my birthday -- I will have surpassed him in one category, perhaps the only one. I will have lived longer. Who knew growing old happens so quickly?

My father's father, Grady Columbus Shaw, also died at 67. I passed his record several weeks ago.

I like to think that perhaps I got my longevity genes from my mother's side of the family. Ruth Baird Shaw is 91 and still driving, blogging, publishing books, challenging me and others on Facebook, and, if she gets a chance occasionally, preaching.

Grady and Charles Shaw certainly were deserving of more days, and we could have used their wisdom, humor, love, and support many times in the intervening years. Who knows why I get the extra innings? But I have them. However long they last, hours, days, months, or years, I swear by those two strong supporters of mine, that I will do my best to use my bonus revolutions around earth's axis, actively, purposefully, consciously, and with an acute awareness of my undeserved but much appreciated blessings. And just maybe I'll accomplish a little good along the way.

Gleaning Facebook: Saturday at NSF

 The fellow who wrote the following Facebook post saw the same three tellers I did in the courthouse tent this afternoon, Susan, Bil, and Andy. I hope he won't mind me sharing his words. I don't believe I have ever seen/heard such consistently good storytelling here before. I miss some of my favorites like Ed Stivender, David Holt, Carmen and John, Elizabeth Ellis, Kevin Kling, Suzi Whaples, Barbara McBride Smith, Jim May... I could go on. But I have met new favorites, especially Peter Cook, a deaf storyteller who is hilarious, creative, and sometimes touching. This afternoon he told of deaf folks and WWII starting with deaf students taking cover in Honolulu as Pearl Harbor was bombed, a deaf guy trying to pass as hearing so he could serve in the army, deaf people collecting money to help supply our troops, and of the German deaf people being liberated after horrible mistreatment by the Nazis.

-------------

Greg Weiss

National Storytelling Festival 2015

Saturday, October 3

What a day, what a day!

Once again, Susan Klein cast a spell over the audience with her first person tellings of Medusa and Beauty & the Beast. She opened Pandora's box or a treasure chest...or both, as she brought a richer, more complex understanding of these "simple" stories to her lucky listeners.

Bil Lepp's stream of comedy consciousness took us on a runaway rollercoaster ride through Half Dollar, WV and the lives of various public officials (the game warden, a chain smoking high school health teacher...), as seen through the lens of his teen posse. Every word of it was God's truth (insert lightning strike here). By the way, he is the first teller I've seen in Jonesborough who was notably disappointed that a train did not roll through town behind our tent during his set...the train tunnel was significant location in his story.

In Nonfiction Andy, a set as poignant as it was mirthful, Andy Offutt Irwin took us on a personal journey that answered the existential question, How did I get here? In this sixty minute memoir, he shared moments from college days, family life, his broad performance background, giving us a deeper appreciation for the person behind the stories. His genuine affection for those here and gone came through powerfully, if at times irreverently, as he impressed upon us the vital importance of extending kindness to all whose lives we touch. This was one of my all-time favorite sets in my 15 years attending the National Festival. By the way, Andy got Bil's train.

After a filling day of stories, I shared dinner with good friends from St. Louis at the Dining Room. Delicious food and delightful company.

And there's more tomorrow.