![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100421-LIT1.jpg\")
\nWhittier NC sunrise<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: We had scrambled dreams in our night at Refuge Farm. My sister\u2019s lovely daughter traveled to be with her. My brother, stalwart that he is, dropped his affairs in New England, and made it to Alaska to be with our sister last night. \u201cTelling stories,\u201d were the words he used to sum up his time with her. He said she seemed to be \u201cwinding down.\u201d He had been awake for more than a day to get there, and I hope he gets some rest as this event combines sadness and affirmation. And love.<\/p>\n
Marlow provides context this morning on all our lives, and of the places we lived them. And of family.<\/p>\n
– Vic<\/p>\n
We spent a late July week with my kid sister and her husband on a mountain top near Whittier NC. From this perch, we could see four or five Smoky Mountain ridge lines that lead to the morning sunrise.<\/p>\n
It was no vacation we were taking; it was living. The easy kind. Our week\u2019s nesting place was up so close to the top of the ridge line that only eagles could climb up that high. We would not suffer from a lack of peacefulness and rest.<\/p>\n
Intermittent soft morning rains slipped down through the surrounding forest cover and the smell of mountain trees was so strong that we could almost lick it off the air. No rumble of trucks or autos along the steep, narrow, switchback roads where our abode sat disturbed our serenity. 1000 feet beneath us in a narrow valley and along the sides of the near vertical ridges men swung high tech sticks at little plastic covered balls straining to guide these errant objects into small cups hundreds of yards in the distance. Only those in houses close to the tee boxes or greens heard these swingers\u2019 shouted expressions of occasional joy but mostly those of ignominious failure.<\/p>\n
Our crew wasn\u2019t exactly military in our sense of duty regarding chores except for cooking. Each day my brother-in-law made a stupendous breakfast while W and I did the honors for most of the evening meals, making sure to cook favorites as well as at least two new entrees our hosts had never had. Meals unfolded in deliciously short bursts of labor as parts were spiced, allowed to come to room temp, cooked, sauces made, sides and mains assembled and then plated. Evening meals could take as long as two plus hours to create from scratch since we brought a number of purposely canned, pickled or fresh local produce to serve as the basis of garnishes, sauces, mains or sides.<\/p>\n
Between long stretches of waiting for something to steep, marinate, brown, or cook down, we\u2019d have the last meal\u2019s bountiful leftovers to tide us over.<\/p>\n
During these times, nobody was pressuring us about nothing. So, we got to see things most flatlanders don\u2019t get to see — clouds of hummingbirds marshalling to take their turn at the feeders, raptors soaring at eye level less than 100 yards distant, the rustle of a black bear or two foraging out in the bushes, and really weird looking, monstrous roadside shrooms. It was a beautiful thing.<\/p>\n
Clearly, this was a place city folk could get used to. The un-curtained floor to high ceiling windows of the conjoined dining room, great room and kitchen up front had the immense advantage of allowing guests to see out beyond deep space to beyond infinity. We all could watch what was about to appear in a collective reality.<\/p>\n
The place had cell, internet, satellite TV and landline phone, yet none of us took messages, unless specifically requested. This put us at a distinct advantage over pursuing I.R.S. agents, lawyers and their commercials, irate flatland neighbors, and various urgent problems from places of employment we had left behind.<\/p>\n
Replenishment and refreshment also came easily along with daily trips to mountain valley towns.<\/p>\n
What we saw and heard down there was at times almost quaint in its old timeyness and the ongoing battle between man, his nature and Nature.<\/p>\n
\nWhittier NC sunrise<\/p>\n
As we were departing one small Main Street store in Sylva, we observed a 12-year-old looking lad enter, march to the cash register counter and say forthrightly in a soft Carolina accent, \u201cSir, you don\u2019t know me, but I stole this necklace from here yesterday,\u201d as he handed over the goods. In a flat and calm tone that betrayed his being forewarned of this particular \u201cCome to Jesus\u201d event, the clerk said, \u201cWell, let\u2019s see what we got here.\u201d We closed the shop\u2019s front door behind us, certain that some penitential counseling and chores were in the offing. What a wonderful place and people of the old, old-school natural ways.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100421-LIT2.jpg\")
\nSmoky Mountain smoke<\/p>\n
We drove along US 74 most every day, up and down its mountain ridge lines that were fun to navigate and whose narrow flatlands were irregularly dotted with old timey junk stores, flea markets, Cherokee Indian souvenir shops, local artisan pottery workshops and sales shacks, and junkyards filled with oddities and scrap. One such hard-by-the-roadside digging site for mountain rocks and shale for local home building up along mountain sides was in a never-ending battle with the local kudzu. This stand-off had been ongoing for some time as the enterprise\u2019s old haul trucks, when they were no longer of further use, had been left off to the side. One victim we\u2019d been tracking the past three years likely has one year left before the Asian weed finishes it off.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100421-LIT3.jpg\")
\nMan vs Nature — Kudzu Wins<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100421-LIT4.jpg\")
\n1950s era Cherokee reservation motel along NC route 19a;
\njust down this narrow curvy road was another old motel whose front sign commanded
\n\u201cDeath to bumper humpers!\u201d I almost crashed I was laughing so hard.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100421-LIT5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
W, brother-in-law and kid sister under the Bridal Veil waterfall along NC route 28<\/p>\n
One last item but with no photo due to circumstances not under my control — we were barreling our way to our Savannah home surprisingly fast though I-26 construction zones when one electric road sign shouted this warning to us: LANES SHI:T AHEAD. I smiled upon recognizing that there would be no censorship of that South Carolina author\u2019s speech, political or otherwise, possible.<\/p>\n
In tribute to this week, its salutary effects, and our life going forward, here are a few last thoughts about life going forward.<\/p>\n
It was good to see them western Carolina hills baby, it’d been a long long while
\nW and I’re both a whole lot older, had enough of pandemic time
\nThings\u2019ve become a whole lot different now since those long past good ol’ days
\nAnd we’re seeing some troubles
\nSince the country went and split onto its separate ways
\nMaybe we’ll say hello to each other at some other time instead
\nCause we’re hunted by the thought police,
\nAnd my ex and maybe family think I\u2019m dead<\/p>\n
Some social media nobody likely spread the rumor that maybe I\u2019d lost my life
\n‘Least that’s the way I think it happened and what I told my W(ife)
\nNow here I was still showing up again and talk\u2019s getting’ round
\nBut I can\u2019t see me leaving this Coastal Empire town
\nIf they think that I want trouble
\nThen they’re crazy in the head
\nCause I ain\u2019t wanted by the real police
\nI don\u2019t give a shit if the ex and the millies think or want me dead<\/p>\n
They never call or write me, so to them I just up and disappeared
\nNone of them know what\u2019s happening
\nWhere I\u2019ve been for all these years
\nNow if trouble’s what they\u2019re lookin’ for
\nCause trouble’s where they been
\nAnd I can see the kind of trouble they could get themselves in
\nThey better pay attention to every word I said
\nCause I ain\u2019t wanted by the real police
\nI don\u2019t give a shit if some think or want me dead<\/p>\n
So goodbye to them, and I’m glad we got to talk
\nBut I’m faithful to my W and I don’t ever break the law
\nI don’t know where we\u2019re headed for
\nBut we know where we\u2019ve been
\nWe’re Smokies refreshed and we\u2019re back to our Savannah ways again
\nAnd I ain\u2019t wanted by the real police
\nI don\u2019t give a shit if any think or want me dead<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2021 From My Isle Seat
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Editor\u2019s Note: We had scrambled dreams in our night at Refuge Farm. My sister\u2019s lovely daughter traveled to be with her. My brother, stalwart that he is, dropped his affairs in New England, and made it to Alaska to be with our sister last night. \u201cTelling stories,\u201d were the words he used to sum up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22236"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22243,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22236\/revisions\/22243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}