Happy New Year!

January-February 2011

(The Echo of the Gorge is the bi-monthly newsletter of the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Community Center.  The Gerton Post Office has hard copies; The link to this blog will be emailed  to anyone who asks.  The editor needs any news or information you would like to share:items can be e-mailed to lualice@bellsouth.net, or phoned to 828-625-9255.  There’s an Echo pad at the P.O. for jotted notes, with space determining use.)

(UHNGCC Officers: President Margaret Whitt, Vice-president Jim Earnhardt; Secretary, the membership; Treasurer Sylvia Sane. Program co-chairs Mary Kay McAdams and Lynn Morehead. Board Members usually meet second Tuesdays before third Tuesday’s regular meetings. Any club member may attend. Rotating term Board Members are Jean Bradley, Patty Tanner, Lynn Morehead, Mel Freeman; Anita Owenby serves as outgoing president, Margie Owenby is lifetime member.)

NOTE from the PRESIDENT’S DESK

And so we greet another good year and already we have seen cold and we have seen snow. We have had our pipes freeze and burst. Jim Earnhardt has overseen the clean-up and the repair at the Community Center, along with help from Henry Bleiweiss. We had a wonderful turnout at both our Community Thanksgiving meal and our Christmas Party. Club members responded generously to the call for canned goods and non-perishables —we circled the Christmas tree stacks of bags and boxes full of food to go to the Hickory Nut Gorge Outreach food pantry.          

We have "sold" over half of the available windows and both the new front double doors and the back double doors. The windows have been ordered, and, any day now, the installation should begin.
Soon the Board will begin to write another grant application after we determine our next set of "needs" and "wants" for the clubhouse. We have a bright future ahead of us, and I remain delighted to live among you here in Gerton. I look forward to seeing you at our next dinner on January 18.                                  

                                                                        Margaret Whitt
                                                                                    President, UHNG

Neighborhood News

-Hickory Nut Creek Local Foods Store will be closed in January and February, but will reopen March l8. (That’s the day after St. Patrick’s Day!)   If anyone desperately needs anything, Susan Bost at the Trout Lily Market in Fairview will gladly deliver from Fairview to Gerton.

    “If you’re snowbound and need groceries, or not feeling well, call me at 628-0402, for eggs, toilet paper, whatever I can pull from the Trout Lily inventory.  Or I’d be glad to pick items up at Food Lion and deliver to Gerton.”

 (Editor’s note: The delivery service Susan describes above is exactly the kind of service small communities often lack.  Not having this service can often determine whether aging persons can remain in their homes—or not.  Stay tuned for this growing need in Gerton, and see whether it could make a real difference to you.)

  --Asheville Citizen Times anyone??  Susan is considering delivering the paper to the store.  Call her—628-0402—if you’d like to be a regular subscriber. She’s also up for delivery of the Sunday NY Times for any regular subscriber.  Just let her know!

 -POST OFFICE REQUEST: Please add your P.O. Box number onto your address—(l Pond Lane, P.O. Box 68, for example).  OR your mail may be returned to sender without your knowledge.  Make it easier for everybody—use your P.O Number!

-GRADUATION NEWS!  “It is with great pride and pleasure that the Owenby family announces the graduation of Tegan Rebecca Owenby from East Tennessee State University on December l8, 20l2.  Tegan earned a Bachelor of Social Science degree in Mass Communications, with a minor in Criminal Justice and a concentration in broadcasting.  Tegan graduated summa cum laude.

    “A party, hosted by parents Butch and Cheryl Owenby, was attended by her twin brother Alex, Grandmother Marjorie Owenby, and Aunt Anita Owenby, along with other family members and friends for this wonderful celebration of this great event.”

--A RHYME  at the P.O. Echo Pad: this ‘poem’ someone left at the Post Office ‘Echo’ pad is too good to pass up—and Ruth McNair—(who aimed her cell phone at the bear who chased her up a tree during one of her frequent runs, remember?)-- gave permission for this to be published.  ‘Anon’ wrote this:

                        “It’s too bad the bear/ didn’t get Ruth McNair.”

    Then, above the rhyme, another ‘anon’ added “Not enough ‘meat’ on Ruth to make a meal!’”   (Several of us think ‘Anon’ wasn’t serious, and could have written instead, “It’s a good thing the bear/ DIDN’T get Ruth McNair!”  We agree.)   
    

 EXERCISE Class Report Card: Since May 2010, we have walked a total of 1,142 miles. (Good for us!) Cumulative total winner is Diane Field with 143 miles. Second place is Jean Bradley with 124 miles. Current quarter winners: a tie: Joan Erskine and Diane Field with 60 miles each.  (Editor’s note: piling up miles is not so much the point as keeping fit, or fitter. Participants report more energy—better sleep—better moods!)
                    

          New Window News from The Community Center!

          TWENTY new windows for the Community Center building have been ‘bought’ and dedicated in memory or honor of someone near and dear to the donors.  In addition, two double door sets have been dedicated in memory or honor of special people.  Of the 41 windows to be replaced, 21 remain to be ‘dedicated’—though they are paid for by The Jenirve Foundation whose December $l0,000 gift covers the window purchase, but not the ceiling and floor insulation so badly needed.

 If you’d like to help pay for the new windows—soon to be installed by Windows of the World in Asheville—Treasurer Sylvia Sane @ UHNGCC at Box 222, Gerton, NC, (28735), will gladly accept your $200 check, and record for whom you’d like the window named.  (Remaining windows are all in the serving area where we line up for food in the summer.)   As a 501 © 3 organization, your gift to the Center IS tax-deductible.  (What a buy!!)

The David Erskine family learned of David’s brother Jim passing on.  Jim lived in Tampa, Florida, and was aged 71.

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Life in Gerton- As I See It

I am enjoying life in the country here just a few miles from downtown Asheville. I get a peaceful feeling each time I start up the mountain road and love it when I cross the Continental Divide and see the sign that says –Welcome to Gerton.   I also loved my time where I could walk to downtown from my home. But the time came when I wanted a different experience of living in the mountains. I love being able to look out every window and actually see woods and mountains. I have neighbors but their houses are off through the trees and I am happy not to look out my window directly into someone else’s house, as I did living downtown.

When I first decided to move here I remember many asking me – why do you want to move way out there away from everything? “Moving away from what?” I asked them and myself? I felt then and now I know I was moving towards things to be closer to nature and that which brings me back to my grounded place of centering and balance in my life. I was trading the pavement for pine trees and the noises of the city to the noises of nature. My porch with all of the feeders has become my own bird sanctuary.  I watch their daily journey to and fro to feed and then disappear for the night. I know they will return in the morning as I awake to their songs and watch them fly from trees to feeder and back again and again until they are satisfied. It reminds me of how I feel coming and going from my home to work and back.

 The trees that once nestled around my house have lost their leaves and left me with the view of mountains from every window.   There is also a small stream that runs below my house and although I cannot see it, I hear it daily and the sound comforts my soul. I can walk in either direction from my house and find marked hiking trails, and more are being made as the land around me is part of the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy.  There is a post office and a fire department just down the hill, and a community center with a newly opened health food store.

 I enjoy the monthly potlucks that I attend and getting to know others in the community.  I now feel that if I needed help from my neighbors, all I have to do is call. I remember living where I did not even know my neighbors’ names although they were just on the other side of the wall when living in apartments or condos. There is a real sense of community here. Although I am aware that many readers of The Echo have lived here for years and are already aware of this, it is very evident to me I am the new kid on the block. This is a new experience for me and maybe it will rekindle one in you as I write about living here. It must be like a child seeing the snow for the first time and trying to explain to its parents who have seen snow for many years.

In December I actually got snowed in a couple of times and it was delightful--although I must say I am learning more about frozen pipes, how to keep your well from freezing, and to being sure to have a pair of boots on hand. The first morning I awoke to snow I heard laughter outside and to my delight discovered that the hill beside my house is the favorite neighborhood place to sled.  I must remember to keep hot chocolate on hand to offer them to stop in for some warmth after they slide by. This winter wonderland reminds me of a William Sharp quote I like: “There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.”

Oh no - I did not move away – I moved towards ME and my serenity and peace here in these mountains I love to call home. And tonight as I sit listening to the wind blow outside, the snow is glistening off of the Christmas lights and the cold of winter settles in.  I too will settle here and continue planting my roots where I may grow with the trees and stories of this land. I love sharing in the daily wonder of life in Gerton, and for that and much more, I am grateful! I look forward to what the New Year brings. Happy New Year!                      Deborah Pustorino                                                                                                                                                

                     (Debbie, a new resident of Gerton, has lived in Virginia, New Jersey, and North Carolina.  She works at Grovewood Cafe in Asheville., and is enrolled at A-B Community College.  Her photographs greatly pep up this issue!)