September 11 in the Blue Ridge Mts

A glance at the event calendar for September shows that there are a pile of interesting things to do in Smallwander towns in the Blue Ridge Mountains this weekend.

In North Carolina, Blowing Rock celebrates Railfan Weekend 2010.  Take a journey back in time with Tweetsie’s coal-fired locomotives. One train will re-create the historic era of the narrow-gauge East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, and another will carry visitors on a wild west adventure. A weekend pass, which costs $48 for adult and $33 for children ages 3-12, is required. For more information, visit here.

A little further south, Saluda hosts the 2010 Town BBQ. Built on a tradition started by a local general store owner, the Saluda Town BBQ is held each September. For more, visit here.

In Virginia, Floyd hosts Music at the Pine.  George Penn Sr. and his Cream of the Crop Blues Band will be rocking the Pavilion with a mix of 60’s soul and blues.  Advance tickets  are $6 and are available at the Pine and the Republic of Floyd Emporium. Call the Pine at (540) 745-4482 for more information or visit here .

Marion is holding the 8th Annual Smyth County Patriot’s Day Commemoration, celebrating its Colonial past at Town Hall with live patriotic music, special guest speakers and a tribute to the troops, veterans and emergency service personnel. Admission is free. For more information, call (276) 783-4113 or visit here.

And, don’t forget that Appomattox, VA is the featured town this month.  Get a Smallwander Club card and receive 15% off at the Babcock House B & B.

The Hillsborough Jazz Festival: “Celebrating Billy Strayhorn”

The Hillsborough Arts Council presents the first annual Hillsborough Jazz Festival. The festival will take place on Saturday, September 25, 2010 at a very special venue…The historic Moorefields estate is an idyllic historic homestead on 84 beautiful acres just a few miles from Hillsborough, NC.  Find directions here.

This years theme is “celebrating Billy Strayhorn” to honor jazz legend, Billy Strayhorn. Strayhorn is best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. What is less well known is that he has family history in Hillsborough… Read more about Billy Strayhorn.

Here is the lineup:

12:00-12:30     Ed Moon Trio

12:35-1:00        Sawyer-Goldberg Jazz

1:10- 1:45         Laura Ridgeway

2:00-2:45          Magic of African Rhythms

3:00-3:45          Equinox

4:00-5:00          Lois Deloatch

5:00-6:00          John Brown Quintet

Jazz and You! workshop announcement!

The Hillsborough Arts Council is very pleased to be able to offer a unique opportunity for the community to take part in a Jazz workshop the morning before the Jazz festival!  Based on the Jazz for Young People Curriculum developed by Jazz at Lincoln Center, the primary goals of this lecture-demonstration are to share, teach, and celebrate jazz music!

Details and registration information are available here.

Admission

Save $5.00 per ticket by ordering in advance! Purchase tickets online here today. General admission is just $10.00 in advance and 15.00 at the door, with lawn seating. Parking is free.  You can also pick up tickets at the Sportsplex or at the Hillsborough Arts Council office in Hillsborough:

220 S Churton St

Hillsborough, NC

Tryon Little Theater announces cast for “MonkY Business”

Tryon Little Theater director Richard Sharkey announced his cast for their first musical of the 62nd season.  ”MonkY Business” is a “Heavenly musical comedy” by Todd Mueller and Hank Boland, with music and lyrics by Gregg Opelka.

“MonkY Business” is the story of 5 monks desperate to keep their St. Bernard monastery from the hands of a land developer, with plans to convert it to “Bernie’s Casino Royale.”  With songs such as “Celibacy,” “The Mohair Rag,” “Satan’s Place,” and “My Brothers Keeper,” the Men in Brown rent a religious radio station (”WGOD-the Word of God…in Stereo!”) to conduct a radiothon fundraiser.  What unfolds is plenty of mayhem, mirth, and a miracle.

The cast of 5 male singers consists of Guy Winker (Abbott Costello), Mark Monaghan (Brother Brooks), Lavin Cuddihee (Brother Clarence), Jack Carruth (Brother Lee Love) and Pat T Peake (Brother Forte).

“Monky Business” opens Nov. 11 for 8 performances at the Tryon Little Theater Workshop, 516 S. Trade St. Tryon,NC 28782. Performances are 8pm Thursday through Saturday, and 3pm Sunday matinee.  Tickets go on sale at the TLT Workshop box office two weeks prior to opening.  Box office hours are 10am-1pm Monday through Saturday. Call (828) 859-2466 to leave a message or E-mail:  tryonlittletheater@gmail.com. Visit their web site at www.tltinfo.org

Season tickets for Tryon Little Theatre may be purchased for $55, a savings of $10 over individual ticket prices.  Other shows and performance dates are: “Welcome to Mitford” Sept 23-Oct 3, 2010, “Oliver” Feb 11-20,2011 and “Done to Death” April 28 to May 8, 201

Tryon, NC: Town of the Month

Tryon, NC is the town of the month for August. If you decide to visit, stay at the Butterfly Creek Inn, and get 15% off with a Smallwander Club membership. This cool B & B is also nearby Saluda and Landrum.

Pittsboro First Sunday Falls on July 4

Noon- 4:00pm

Spend part of your Independence Day at Pittsboro First Sunday! Over 30 local artists and craftspeople will be selling their wares while Johnny Wilson of “The Big Time Party Band” will be the beach music DJ along with some special guests. Enjoy free lessons from the Chatham Area Shag Association and then browse the unique shops, galleries, and local eateries of Historic Downtown Pittsboro, NC. They will even have hot dogs and homemade ice cream! Visit
Pittsboroshops.com for more information.

June Smallwander Club News

The Smallwander Club is off to a great start! More than one hundred new folks signed up for complimentary individual memberships last month. We also have more new participating business members, including PITTSBORO TOYS and THE URBAN SAMPLER, located in this month’s featured town, Pittsboro. PITTSBORO TOYS carries a truly unique array of locally-made, organic toys, and THE URBAN SAMPLER features home furnishings, accessories, and whimsical and stylish gifts of all kinds. And both businesses offer unconditional discounts of 15% to all Smallwander Club members. So join the Smallwander Club [here], enjoy a visit to the charming town of Pittsboro, and save some money on unique and elegant merchandise while you’re there!

The Smallwander Club is rapidly becoming the premier resource for travelers who wish to patronize locally-owned and operated businesses while visiting charming small towns. Our website makes it incredibly simple to locate these towns and search among those towns for amenities, attractions, and events in them. You can join the Club here, but even if you don’t elect to take advantage of the free membership, you can still use the website to plan your weekend and weeks-long getaways!

Siler City’s Third Friday Art Walk

Siler City’s Third Friday Art Walk will be held from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm on Friday, May 21st in the downtown historic district.

Siler City is a charming small town in central North Carolina, 48 miles west of Raleigh, 20 miles east of Asheboro, 22 miles north of Sanford, and 32 miles south of Greensboro. It is a town of 8,500 people, settled in the 1750s and chartered in 1887. It became a major stop on the Greensboro to Sanford rail line in 1884. The Chatham Rabbit Market, the largest supplier of rabbits to the world, was located here.

Siler City’s Third Friday Art Walks are fascinating and festive events. The town has a thriving art scene, and the pieces shown can be negotiated for sale if you would rather display in your home and office works of your own choosing rather than settling for reproductions of famous pieces.

The North Carolina Arts Incubator is located in five buildings in the historic district. Thirteen artists make their works here, in media ranging from traditional oil and watercolor painting to pottery, glass, wood, fabric and fiber. All will be open for viewing and sales.

The Chatham County Camera Club will feature photographs made by Wilton Brown, and will also display a wide range of photographs of the sites and scenes of the town through its history.

The Raleigh Street Gallery will also be open, showcasing works of painting, pottery, jewelry, and slate. In addition, custom-made works such as bird houses and feeders, canes, clocks, purses, soaps and lotions, baskets, toys, scarves, oil lamps, hats and hair bows, furniture, pens, racks of all kinds, and pillows will be shown. It will host a Memorial Day celebration. World War II veteran Ed Theobold will alternate playing his trumpet and giving demonstrations of the lost art of Morse Code.

The Peggy A. Fullington (PAF) Gallery, located in the Arts Incubator, will display works of local artists. Next door, in The Courtyard, the band “Too Much Fun” will play, and you can dance to your heart’s content.

At Mina Beana’s Cafe, blues rock artist Rob Matthews will be performing, and here you can enjoy a relaxed dinner, snack, or cup of coffee from Mina’s special menu.

You can also shop for locally-grown produce and some baked goods during the Art Walk. A smaller version of the Siler City Farmers Market will be set up outdoors next to the Against His Will building.

Make a special effort to visit Pat Dawson’s Paperbacks Plus, at 208 E. Raleigh Street, right in the middle of the action, where Smallwander Club members enjoy a 15% discount. Pat was the first in Siler City, hopefully of many, to become a participating business member of the Club.

The full range of locally-owned businesses can be seen on the Siler City page of the Smallwander Club website.

See you in Siler City on the 21st.

Launch of Smallwander Club

Smallwander.com proudly announces the official start of the Smallwander Club. We’ve launched this new venture in order to secure significant discounts for Club members at small-town, locally owned inns, hotels, and B & B’s; restaurants, cafes, and bistros; museums; theaters; small wineries; craft breweries; special events and historic sites; golf courses, and at many excellent retail sellers. [A requirement for business membership in the Club is that the business must be locally owned, located in a small town, and a non-chain, non-franchise establishment.]

Individual membership in the Smallwander Club is currently offered at no charge. Simply sign up here. Then use the Club website to search for a charming small town to visit, and for interesting things to do in that small town. Say you wanted to visit Edenton, North Carolina, a beautiful small town of 5,000 people located next to the bay of Albemarle Sound. The Club website lists the various amenities the town offers. In the Accommodations category, notice that the PACK HOUSE INN is a participating business member of the Smallwander Club [it's listed in red capital letters, and thus immediately identifiable as a Smallwander Club participating business]. Rates at the inn range from $99 to $129. If you hover your mouse over the PACK HOUSE INN’s listing, you’ll see the discount offered to Smallwander Club members pop up. In this instance, the discount offered is 15%, so as a Smallwander Club member, you’ll save between $15 and $20 each night you stay. [And please note that the PACK HOUSE INN is one of the top B & B's in North Carolina!]

The Smallwander Club has just getting started, and we don’t yet have many participating business members in the Club. This will change quickly. Our initial efforts have been focused in Hillsborough, North Carolina, which is where our headquarters [such as it is] is located. If you view the Hillsborough page, you’ll see many participating business members that offer a variety of amenities. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll feature many many more participating businesses in a wider range of small towns, and your Smallwander Club membership will be even more valuable to you.

So if you haven’t yet received your Smallwander Club individual membership in the mail, please go to the website and order your free card. Signup is fast and easy. Your membership will be good throughout the year. Please remember, it costs nothing, so even if you don’t use it at all, you’ve lost nothing. And we will be grateful to you for  being part of the growth of the Club!

Small Town Sexy author shares book excerpt

by Kim Huston

author of SMALL TOWN SEXY

www.smalltownsexybook.com

Have you ever found yourself waking up in the morning, just seconds before the reality of the new day sets in, and just wished during the night, a time machine had taken you back to being twelve-years-old again? I do—and quite often. At that age, the most important decisions I had to make in a day were where I would ride my bike and what I would make for lunch.

Except for the birth of my daughters, my childhood days in my small town of Bloomfield are probably the most memorable experiences of my life. Those days were so simple, so innocent, a time where no one talked about “being stressed” and the word “multi-task” was not in our vocabulary.

Cell phones would not have been necessary as my mom always knew where I was, and never worried about me heading off on my bike as I set out on a new adventure on the country back roads. I so often long for these vivid images to come to life again, and I am once again at home, hanging out on the corner with my friends, just deciding which direction to take and what we are going to do. Nostalgia is a very powerful feeling.

I have not found one universal term for the way people think about their small towns; I have found however, by just talking to people about their childhood and their small hometowns, there is, without a doubt, a smile that comes across their face with every memory. What I have learned is that Small Town Sexy means different things to different people depending on the kind of life they have led and the experiences they have had.

Small Town Sexy is:

• Realizing you are a small town addict, and not wanting an intervention.
• Knowing that despite your size, you can still conduct big business.
• Celebrating your heritage for all to see.
• Knowing that the size of your town has no merit to its success.
• About people coming back, and others discovering small towns for the first time.
• Getting involved in the decision-making process.
• Enjoying the thrills of your big city neighbors.
• Embracing the unique individuals who make up community and accepting the fact that not everyone is into small town life.

I find myself back to that one essential question, what is Small Town Sexy? It now has become quite clear:

First, Small Town Sexy is a feeling. It is that feeling that comes over you when you close your eyes and think about your life there. It’s a nurturing calm that for an instant takes you back to a “good place.” A place where the air was clean, the sky was blue and was never measured by size but by the quality of life you led.

Second, Small Town Sexy is people. Though we are scattered from coast to coast, there is a connection, a kindred spirit if you will, that makes us all part of this wonderful small town society.

Who are the people that make small towns sexy?

• We are mothers, fathers, teachers, students, doctors, volunteers, and entrepreneurs.
• We are rich snobs and we are rednecks.
• We have GEDs and MBAs, we are retired and on unemployment.
• We live downtown, on farms, in mobile homes, and sometimes at the end of dirt roads.
• We drive cars, trucks, hybrids and four-wheelers and we have been known to drive a tractor to our senior prom.
• We have old money, new money and some of us have no money at all.
• We are all the people of Small Town Sexy.

Small towns are some of the most inviting places you will ever go. They are places where people still ride bikes, and not because it’s the “green” thing to do, but because it allows you to see things that can’t be seen from the windows of cars.

Small towns are where the smell of freshly mowed grass lingers for what seems like blocks, and where people know your name in the local hardware stores, and all you have to do to pay is say “charge it.”

In small towns you will find old signs still painted on the sides of barns, stores that close at five o’clock and a church on every corner.

A small town is like a favorite song playing on the radio. You just can’t get it off your mind no matter how hard you try. They are not ritzy or glitzy, but are simple and genuine just like the people who live there. They are small in size, but enormous in spirit and are always alive and full of personality.

Can you live a happy, SEXY life in a small town? You can live a happy, sexy life in any town. I don’t think the size of the community you live in is going to determine whether you are happy or not. There are too many other factors that will do that for you. Are you in a happy relationship? Are you financially stable? Are you healthy? Those things get you up in the morning and help you sleep at night, not particularly the town you are waking up in. But, loving where you live and the environment that surrounds you every day, has everything to do with your peace of mind.

Let’s face it; chances are many of you will never move to a small town. That’s absolutely no problem—we understand and we love you anyway. If you don’t plan to live in small town America, let me encourage you to do the next best thing. Step away from the computer, turn off your TV, get out of your office and get away. Get away to the amazing “Byways of America” and experience the wonderful world of small towns. Life happens fast. Don’t let it pass you by.

Do I ever wonder, what if? What if I got a “do-over” and had the chance to change my decision about coming home to small town America after college? I wouldn’t be honest if I said it doesn’t cross my mind on occasion, but I have never regretted that decision, not once. Especially, when I look out my “window to the world” and see this truly unbelievable slice of heaven looking back at me. My days in small town America would not be complete without scenes I see each day out of my window, including the shopkeepers preparing for another day of business, the stay-at-home moms talking as fast as they’re walking, and those wonderful men, hurrying into the local diner for a morning of local news with their coffee.

I know that my life at age twelve is gone and my memories are all that I have of those good times. Because today, in reality, the buildings seem smaller, the Tobacco Festival is gone, and there is a whole new set of girls standing on that infamous corner watching the cars go by just waiting for the moment when they are old enough to leave. And if they are lucky, and the passion in them is as strong as mine, they, too, will find their way back to small town America just as I did.

I am not sure I have lived my best life yet, because I have a lot of life worth living, but what I am sure about, is that the life I look forward to living will be in small town America. And that, my friend, is Small Town Sexy.

Jim Thorpe, PA

I could say a lot about the small towns in the coal-mining area of northeast Pennsylvania.  I am a product of the region–my grandparents came over from Italy to work as laborers in the mines, and eventually settled in the towns of Pittson and West Pittston.   Pittston welcomed laborers from southern Italy, and West Pittson welcomed the higher-standing northerners, at least that’s what my Aunt Rose tells me.  One of my grandfathers was from the north and one was from the south, so they settled in the appropriate towns, separated by the Susquehanna River.  Regardless of their class, both grandfathers worked in the mines, and, in the case of  my mother’s father, Cesare, died in them.

I’ve been traveling to this region during the holidays for my entire life to visit with my extended family, but I’ve never done much exploring beyond the homesteads.  However, this past Christmas, an old friend from high school said he would be in the area.  Rick and his wife Anna would be visiting Anna’s family in Hometown, PA.  Since we both liked to explore historic small towns, Rick suggested meeting up in the nearby Jim Thorpe for lunch.

The first thing you assume when you visit Jim Thorpe is that the town’s namesake, the famed Native-American Olympian and overall sportsman, was a native of the town.  You would be wrong to assume that.  The town, originally named Mauch Chunk, was looking to rename itself to attract businesses in 1953, the year of Jim’s death.  After negotiations with his widow, the town “bought his remains,” erected a monument, and renamed the town in his honor.  He was from the midwest, although he did attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in nearby Carlisle, PA.

Jim’s name was pretty well-known around that time, but I have no idea whether the scheme caused a positive blip in the economic health of the town.  Now, what I really want to know is how they got their original name, Mauch Chunk.  Can someone help me with that?

There are several other historical nuggets that really caught my attention during my brief visit here.  One of the trials of the Molly Maguires took place in Jim Thorpe.  The Molly MaGuires were a secret organization of Irish men who banded together for protection during the conflicts the miners had with mine bosses during those days.  In the late 1800s, labor unions were on the rise because the workers needed to improve working conditions–12-hr workdays, child labor, fires, etc.  The mine bosses would use mine police and private security forces, such as the Pinkertons, to control strikes and the overall population, and the miners would counter with their secret organizations.  Anyway, there was a whole lot of violence in those days.  The MaGuires would probably be considered terrorists in today’s terminology, since they were a little on the rough side, handing out coffin notices and such.

Anyway, they were infiltrated by a Pinkerton detective, and several of them were eventually brought to trial for murder.  Four were hung near the old prison in Jim Thorpe, which still stands.  One of the executed man’s hand prints is reputedly still on the wall of the prison there, in some way proving his innocence.  There is a Sean Connery movie about them, called the Molly Maguires–it’s worth seeing if you are into this kind of stuff.

Anyway, we ate lunch at Flow, which is located in the Carbon County Cultural Project.  Lunch was good, we had a pizza appetizer, and I had a veggie burger and some coffee.  The waitress was very nice as she explained all she knew about the shocking truth that Jim Thorpe never lived here.  The Stabin Morykin Gallery adjoins the restaurant. The building is an old wire mill, which later became a silk mill and dressmaker’s factory.

There are a few B&Bs and hotels in town and other interesting restaurants.  This town is very picturesque, running along a mountain ridge on one side and a stream on the other.  One other cool fact about the town is that they have a gravity railroad, which served as the model for the first roller coaster.

We would definitely like to offer them smallwander membership.  There are several other nearby towns that are worth visiting as well.  Stay tuned as we explore this region further.