Fly Fishing the South
312-73
Two locations to serve you ASHEVILLE 252.3005
WAYNESVILLE 251.9721
www.hunterbanks.com
Antique furniture and decorator items, also pieces for you to repurpose. 1659 S. Main St. Waynesville 828-246-9482 Cell: 828-226-1573 312-48
Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2015
HOT PICKS 1 2 3 4 5
arts & entertainment
This must be the place
October 12th - November 23th 2015 Registration Oct. 12th - 16th KICKOFF Monday Oct. 12th 5:30pm to 6:30pm at the Waynesville Recreation Center Monday October 12th • 8am to 7pm Waynesville Recreation Center
Tuesday October 13h • 8am to 7pm Cooperative Extension
Wednesday October 14th • 8am to 7pm Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center
Thursday October 15th • 8am to 7pm Urban Athletic Training Center
Friday October 16th • 10 am to 4 pm The Fitness Connection
More Info: 828-356-2272 mhauser@haywoodnc.net www.healthyhaywood.org
Smoky Mountain News
up and perhaps plant them somewhere else. I rarely ever get back up there, and when I do, I feel like a stranger in my own hometown. While I took off to the west, the south, and everywhere in-between, life continued on in Rouses Point, as it does in all our hometowns, BY GARRET K. WOODWARD as much as we’d like to think time hits “pause” until our triumphant return. And though I left that town, the town itself never left me. I don’t think anyone really appreciates where they grew up until they see that place from another angle. Those unique, singular characters — you can pinpoint them in any town — stick with you, long after you see the city limits sign in your rearview mirror. But, as they say, the more you run away from a place, the more you just keep running into yourself, for good or ill. Leaving Rouses Point was in an effort to see what lay just outside my comfort zone, beyond the barriers of my own consciousness, beyond the confines of my subconscious. I wanted to poke and prod the invisible fences other were either unaware of, or were a tad apprehensive of Lake Champlain, as seen from Point Au Roche State Park in Clinton County, New York. Garret K. Woodward photo getting stung by if their attempt was proved to be futile. Once you get outside of the So, you’re Canadian? fence, you find there is another Not quite, y’all. During my three years fence. There’s always another living here in Western North Carolina, I’ve fence, because that fence is you lost count of the amount of times folks have “today,” while your soul yearns for asked me that question. They want to know Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host an what the possibility of tomorrow where I’m from, how did I end up in Oktoberfest with Barry Bryson & Emporium could, and ultimately will, be. Waynesville, and since when did I pick up a Band at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10. Everybody has their own fence, of southern twang in my speech? The Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will all sizes and ranges. Some want to Ready? Well, my hometown is Rouses have The Dirty Soul Revival (hard rock/blues) jump those fences, others enjoy Point, New York. Six hours straight north of at 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2. the security. It’s how we measure Manhattan, six hours northeast of Buffalo, those fences each morning that situated on Lake Champlain, smack dab on The Shining Rock Riverfest will be held from counts, how we decide, “Well, I’m the Canadian border (45 minutes south of noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, at Camp going to hop over that bastard Montreal), with a bridge in town over the Hope in Canton. come noon.” massive body of water to Vermont (35 minIt has been 12 years since I rode utes northwest of Burlington). Balsam Mountain Inn will have Wood out of that small, Canadian border Whenever I mention being from New Newton, Phillip Lammonds and Henry town. Back then, I didn’t want to York, people immediate think I’m from “The Hipkens as part of their Songwriters in the be defined by it. I didn’t want peoCity,” where I must’ve grown up in some Round series at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3. ple to think I could or could not be Robert DeNiro meets Tony Soprano houseThe sixth annual Taste of Sylva culinary tour capable of something because of hold. They marvel at how a “city boy” found will run from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, in my roots, but it’s those roots — himself in rural Southern Appalachia, where downtown restaurants and in the pavilion at wearing my grandfather’s hunting inhabitants here live within their means, McGuire Gardens on West Main Street. coat, driving his old truck — that help their neighbor, are resourceful, and also have given me the steady foundagrateful to awaken each day in these ancient locked their front doors, while cars were tion to withstand any storm. mountains of mystery and magic. often left running while someone ran into And yet, as time moves along, I find In all actuality, my hometown was more the grocery store real quick. If your snow myself clinging onto the idea of it, of that Haywood than Hollywood, more Big Creek blower stopped working, your neighbor place and time long ago, with my grip than Big Apple. For a town of just under tighter as the seasons and days on the calen2,000 residents, Rouses Point felt large to me would come “bail you out” with theirs. If the power went out, which it did a lot during dar change. For when you’re out here, in the as a kid. It was the main village in an area of those notoriously bad North Country wineveryday chaos of the world, your interaccornfields and open meadows, with the ters, someone would come check on you, tions and reactions are a direct result of looming Adirondack Mountains to the west, where your starting line was. It’s when, and the Green Mountains to the east, in our bowl making sure you had food and supplies. I left Rouses Point when I was 18. In search only when, push comes to shove, where you of land known as the Champlain Valley. of whatever it is I’m supposed to do with my not only see what you’re made of, but also My adolescence was spent riding bikes life, I felt I had to “escape” my roots — pull’em what made you. around town, jumping in the lake when it was hot or playing pickup hockey on the ice when it was cold. It was about tracking down “Those unique, singular characters — you can pinpoint dsimple, innocent mischief and immersing them in any town — stick with you, long after you see oneself in it. My mother always said it was a “Leave It To Beaver” kind of community. the city limits sign in your rearview mirror.” And, in many ways, it was. Folks never
29