The things that pop into your head....
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
United States
June 1, 2017 11:42am CST
This morning we went to Georgia (just 30 mins. from our rental in NC) to a bakery - and it was so worth the trip! After that I wanted to stop at a place called Smoke in the Mountain Pottery. I saw their website and it looked interesting.
It was in the middle of nowhere and the owner is a bearded friendly old cuss who says he's lived there his whole life and never locked a door. As we glanced around we didn't notice any electric running to his property...It was a "Dueling Banjos" spot to be sure. And that reminded us ....
When we first moved to Sevierville, TN in 2001 I found us a nice little job delivering the local phone book...it was the most time consuming and horrible job ever! I think by the time we were finished we owed them money. Anyway....that was a week of our lives we couldn't get back!
Our last phone book took us from a paved road, to a gravel road to a dirt road to the middle of a field with a broken down trailer and several dumpy out buildings that were hardly usable. There was no electric lines that we could see.
We were not allowed to leave a phone book anyplace but on the porch of a home. As we pulled closer to the 'home' the old toothless dude approached us and my husband handed him the phone book. The man was overjoyed....he practically did a dance. We left as fast as we could and then we really started laughing as we got a safe distance away. He obviously had no phone...there was no phone line and I bet dollars to donuts he had no cell phone.
That phone book probably went the way of the Sears catalogs!
Photo is mine of the local phone book for this area in NC.
Select Page Smoke in the Mountains is the pottery studio of Rob Withrow, located in Brasstown, NC, just down the road from the John C. Campbell Folk School. ContactPhone 1-828-835-3506Email robwithrowpots@gmail.comAddress 146 Jenkins Branch Brasstown NC 28
15 people like this
15 responses
@rebelann (117223)
• El Paso, Texas
2 Jun 17
everybody's happy @AbbyGreenhill
I kinda miss those ole phonebooks, oh well1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
2 Jun 17
@rebelann old phone books and old regular phones and peaceful days and people getting along I miss all those things.
1 person likes this
@LeaPea2417 (40029)
• Toccoa, Georgia
1 Jun 17
The phone book we get for our town and surrounding area is ok, but I always think the way it is arranged, makes it kind of hard to search through properly. When I visit my parents in Atlanta, I forget and then remember how FAT that telephone book is! Big city phone books outdo the small town phone books , bar none!
1 person likes this
@LeaPea2417 (40029)
• Toccoa, Georgia
1 Jun 17
@AbbyGreenhill Yes, the one here is mostly yellow pages.
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
@LeaPea2417 People like my husband, who don't use a computer, depends on the phone book.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
When we lived in NJ we had a huge phone book, it took a while to adjust to these small ones. I think most now are just yellow pages.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (189838)
• Boise, Idaho
2 Jun 17
How funny! The dear old Sears catalogs. Good use.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
2 Jun 17
We could have been in trouble with the pone book guy....we were lucky he wasn't crazy.
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
1 Jun 17
I bet the guy was happy for some kindling! He probably used it in the fires he surely made to keep himself warm.
As for that shop, it might be somewhere I'll have to go and see. I bet it would be beautiful!
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
1 Jun 17
@AbbyGreenhill I was referring to the landscape when I said beautiful.. My bad.
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
@ScribbledAdNauseum Oh OK LOL!!!
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
Beautiful isn't the word, his photos look much better than the place looks in person...but it was worth seeing and now I have two unusual mugs.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
Yes, that's what we thought also. WE are lucky we got out of their alive - moonshiners are very common and they don't like strangers!
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39265)
• Gouverneur, New York
1 Jun 17
@AbbyGreenhill so I have heard. Sounds a little like the movie Deliverance.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
2 Jun 17
I think you are probably right. Later on once the phone book episode was far behind us we realized we could have been shot pulling into his property!
1 person likes this
@BettyB (4117)
• Summerville, South Carolina
2 Jun 17
@AbbyGreenhill You're right. I see why you gave up that job.
@suziecat7 (3349)
• Asheville, North Carolina
1 Jun 17
Some folks around here are pretty isolated as well. Love the pottery - very cool.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
NC has a lot of isolated areas for sure. Thank goodness this guy had signs along the way or we never would have found him.
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
1 Jun 17
This place you are describing here reminds me (thankfully) that there are still places that are truly America..and peaceful..
I laughed my head off about that phone book delivery to that man that danced at getting it.
Believe it or not, I knew some people like that in the great Ozarks..memories are grand.
I looked at the awesome site there..I saw one photo of the woods, a bunch of cars and that beautiful pup. I was there looking at it.
Makes me want to run the heck out of this place here.
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
His website is quite beautiful. I don't think he designed it... but the inside of his little store area didn't look quite a nice and clean as in the photos on the site! This is another adventure we'll laugh about for years. I wish I had the nerve to take photos of the place. I didn't want to be pushy LOL!
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
1 Jun 17
@AbbyGreenhill Yeah know what you mean Abby..gotta think different when in the places.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
@TiarasOceanView I can't wait to get home and use my new mugs and think of that place!
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502429)
• Italy
2 Jun 17
@AbbyGreenhill You are right, it is marked "since 1988", but it is of last year. We also still receive the phone book every year and it is every year smaller.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
2 Jun 17
@LadyDuck We do use ours, sometimes searching online for someone/something doesn't cut it and I can find what I want in the phone book.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
2 Jun 17
The one in the photo? It is from 2016. We get a local phone book every year. We have always rec'd a phone book in the south, not big ones like we had back in New Jersey of course.
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (91068)
• United States
1 Jun 17
I didn't even think phone books existed anymore but someone dropped one off on my porch just the other day.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
Phone books exist, but they are quite different then the old ones. I think ours has 30 pages.
@Courtlynn (67089)
• United States
1 Jun 17
Yeah .. not sure what he would need the phone book for.. aha.
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
We still laugh abut that day!
@SchibbledAdNauseum - that probably wasn't his first choice since it was summer.
1 person likes this
@Courtlynn (67089)
• United States
1 Jun 17
@AbbyGreenhill Yea i wasnt thinking using it for a fire..
@Mike197602 (15504)
• United Kingdom
1 Jun 17
I watched that film...didn't like it, but the music was ok
Never been to the US but it does confuddle me sometimes...arguably the greatest technological nation on earth and yet you have people such as you describe living in nowhereville with no electic etc
I think it is because I don't truly understand the SIZE of the US compared to the UK...I do on one level but not on some others.
Never been to the US but it does confuddle me sometimes...arguably the greatest technological nation on earth and yet you have people such as you describe living in nowhereville with no electic etc
I think it is because I don't truly understand the SIZE of the US compared to the UK...I do on one level but not on some others.1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
1 Jun 17
Phone books have almost become extinct. Imagine that.
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
They are small but common around here. I use ours many times.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
1 Jun 17
Not sure if the dump he lived in had one. It was not a very nice place.
1 person likes this
