Mule Train! The Mountain Heritage Festival occurs annually (except in the annus horribilis of 2020) at Western Carolina University. It features mountain crafts, singing, dancing, and general good fun.
A team of Cherokee from the nearby reservation play a spirited game of stickball, "the little brother of war." It involves wrestling as well as running, tossing the ball with the stick, and so forth.
If you enlarge the signs in this photo, you'll find that it is a blacksmith next to and working with a Cherokee coppersmith. The blacksmith produced traditional Scottish arts, including knives, swords, hammers, and chain mail armor. The collaboration between them mirrors that of the Scots immigrants and the Cherokee on the frontier, where the two communities were very close.
Naturally there was bluegrass, gospel, and other mountain music.
Finishing the day with chicken grilled over the coals.
Good ol' Mountain Heritage Day. Been to several of them over the years.
ReplyDeleteWas it a big affair, or did it look like it was smaller in size than normal? My younger brother won the 'baccer' spitting contest one year.
They definitely no longer have that spitting contest. :)
ReplyDeleteI’d say it was a little smaller than before, but people are just getting back into doing things again. Too, as you’d expect from a heritage festival, the older people are the core of it. They’re the least likely to be coming out to such things.
Was there a revenuer shoot? Like a turkey shoot, but different?
ReplyDeleteThis could be a triathalon event - drink a half pint mason jar of shine, race 10 miles down a country road in a flathead Ford, and have a revenuer shoot at the end. The order could vary, of course.
Turkey shoots usually reward you with a turkey for being the best marksman. Nobody wants to be ‘rewarded’ with a revenuer. :)
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