MARSHALL, TOWN OF MARVELOUS PEOPLE
This evening I drove out to Marshall to join Susie in looking at the opening exhibit of the Madison County Arts Council of new art works in a variety of media by local artists.
The art show was worth visiting but best of all was meeting Marshall artists whom Susie knew. Marshall is a small town on the steep bank of the French Broad River about twenty miles from Asheville. People in Marshall know and greet each other. Marshall is the county seat of Madison County, “Jewel of the Blue Ridge”, where mountain families have lived for generations.
Traditional Marshall is a very rural and conservative place, but at the same time Marshall’s beauty attracts wealthy retirees from far away, young people who want to live a simpler rural life, and entrepreneurs opening small businesses. Often these people are escaping urban or suburban America and include lots of artists. It was mostly the artist community at the art opening. Just down the street the Depot, the former railway station, was filled with the original families of rural Madison County listening to old time mountain music.
After looking at the paintings and talking to people Susie and I ate at the Marshall Jail restaurant in the old county jail, now a hotel, on the bank of the French Broad River. And then we walked along the railroad tracks which run on a narrow strip between the backs of the buildings on the Main Street and the French Broad River.
On our way back along Main Street we ran into Karl Koga who grew up in Hawaii and Japan and who lived for years in Raleigh. He visited friends in Marshall, fell in love with the town, and after looking for a building to buy found a two story brick building where he lives on the top floor. The bottom floor was a movie theater with comforatable sofas at one end and all kinds of interesting objects on the other. We began talking with him on the street and he invited us in. I took a bunch of photographs.
Karl is the kind of interesting person, refugee from urban America, whom you are likely to meet in Marshall. Our visit with him was the high point of the evening.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 