My dad's home is for sale and currently under contract. The building of this home was a labor of love for both of my parents for nearly 50 years. When the sale closes it will be like the end of an era and like the initials that were long ago carved into a tree from the lone inhabitant of the area before us, we leave the home and land that my parents loved so much. I wrote this to my dad this morning for Father's Day.
Dear Dad:
I could have bought a fancy card, but it would not have had my words in it. As things wind down for you in North Carolina, I wanted to express what going there has meant to me in my life.
The view of the Smokies...
We first came to Round Mountain to stay at Deer Lodge. Coming from FL, going there meant we traded the flat landscape for mountains and the beaches for forests. It was always very beautiful to me. I remember Deer Lodge like yesterday. I recall the Thanksgiving we had up there with the Stomires and how you dads took us for a hike to get us out of the cabin. How cold it was and how we were looking for the pot rocks, some India location. How cold and wet it was and how we got lost in the mountains and how lucky we were to get home.
I remember doing a science project and how I could collect samples of lichens and other things not available in FL, and how I was able to feel like an explorer looking for them along the creek next to the cabin.
I was thrilled to find real arrowheads from the Indians who used to occupy those mountains so many years ago. I had fun shooting a 22 rifle before the church camp was located down below. I remember arriving to the cabin and having to use a machete to cut the grass and how we had to remove the remnants of mice in the toilets…it was not fancy but somehow it was like the most amazing place.
The house that Dad built from the ground up. He had many friends over the years that helped.
It was isolated. No TV. Radio was limited to old country music. On a good day, we could hear Paul Harvey tell us stories. Songs would crack us up. I really hated country music in those days. It was painful and there were no computers, no Internet, no phones, and no iTunes. When we were there, we were in Nature and sometimes we never heard another car or the voices of other people…I do not even think we saw planes in the sky but we did see the richness of the full Milky Way. I loved those nights laying outside and looking up and seeing all those stars. It was magical.
I remember the storms and the lightning. I never have experienced lightning like that any place else. It strikes right around the cabin. It was frightening. I remember the time we went there for Girl Scouts and the lightning shocked mom and another scout. But they were ok. I remember card games into the night, the various friends and family who made their way there. Especially after you bought the land at 96 Arrowhead Ridge and started to build your dream. Everyone had a hand building it. Even Wally helping you to fix the roof.
The walks to the falls were amazing. Rock Creek was always an effort…but worth it. Not been there for too many years to count. I remember when Uncle Eddie was stung by a bee but left his Epi pen up at the cabin and I ran all the way back and returned…The Green Hole was no less wonderful. A real treasure to find and enjoy on a hot summer day.
Then there were the excursions, Biltmore House and the ice cream for a nickel a scoop. Those were the days. Sliding rock was a favorite I loved sharing with my kids. Even just a drive through the mountains. I got my first hiking boots at the old general store in Rosman, which was like turning back to an age gone by. I remember how the butcher there was cutting from whatever section of the cow and you lucked out if it was a rib steak. I loved Burton’s Store, and Bunny Bread and Sourwood Honey. Mr. and Mrs. Burton are long since gone, as is their store…but it was fun to go there. I remember Mr. Looney. He seemed so old at the time and his language was so different using mountain people speak for so many things but you could figure out his meaning. He was an interesting guy. I loved the Stromire’s old cabin and the view from it as well and I loved trips to Ashville and Brevard where I could buy a new book to read because reading was about the most interesting thing to do when I had my fill of nature.
As the years went by and I grew to be a teenager, I did not appreciate going up into isolation so much and the long 10 hour overnight drives were a lot for me. Not sure how you guys did that. I would not like to do that myself even now. One year I had won a part in a local theater in Cocoa Beach, but I had to quit because we were going to be gone for a month or so. I remember being angry. I remember taking a walk by myself and sitting near the pond where there was a place where you could holler and make it echo. I picture that moment often in my mind’s eye like yesterday when I want to remember the feeling of peace and isolation. Round Mountain was one of the most isolated places I have known and that is not a bad thing. It taught me how to chill out. Not sure kids today will ever know this. The only more isolated place I have been other than this was the Rangeley Lakes in Maine. That place is like 50 or more miles from nowhere and the nature was amazing and it made me remember Round Mountain. It takes a special person to love these places and remember times long gone by.
You built the cabin for our family to enjoy over the years and we got spread out all over the country and we kids did not get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked to. What you also did, and may not know it, is all those summers when your grandkids came to visit, you gave them such great memories that they talk about to this day. I know I was very grateful that you helped me out in the summers both in FL and NC with the kids and our family reunion time there years ago was priceless. I wish I had been able to travel there more…but it was not meant to be mostly due to the realities of cost and later for time.
However, the impression it made upon me over the years, especially in my youth, were many. Thank you for showing me this place, the peacefulness that it is, and that a man can build his own place from the ground up. I mean who even does that these days and YOU DID IT. Dad, happy Father’s Day from the bottom to the top of my heart.
Love, Lisa