COFFEE HOUR
I moved to Marshall partly to be able to walk across the bridge over the French Broad River to the town and to sit in Zuma’s coffee shop where I could drink coffee and write on my iPad and see people that I knew. But instead I’ve holed up in my apartment with a view of the rock face to my left and Marshall beyond the French Broad River to the right with a coffee cup in front of me. I have been too cheap to spend $3.50 for a cup of coffee and a refill at Zuma’s when I can make two cups of coffee here in my apartment for 10 cents with coffee from Aldi. But the $3.50 at Zuma’s is actually not for the coffee, it is for permission to sit for two hours in a warm coffee shop with the voices of people all around me in a beautiful setting provided by and paid for by Joel, the owner, who has recently rebuilt Zuma’s after the flood. $3.50 is well worth the marvelous space.
But this week I have gone over there a couple of times and sat for a couple of hours. I sip slowly and stretch a cup of coffee over an hour. But I don’t like luke warm coffee, which is what happens to a cup of coffee after 15 minutes. So I take my battery powered Ion mug, which keeps coffee hot for an hour and a half, with me.
This Saturday I discovered was Open Mic day which fills Zuma up with family members of performers who all buy drinks. Not only was it Open Mic day but it was a young woman’s birthday and her family had brought chocolate covered cupcakes for everyone who was there, including me. The performers were all lively and performed well, one on a ukelele while another sang. I videoed a number of them from my perch at a high table at the side of the room, using a little plastic fold out credit card sized tripod which let me video while continuing to type at the same time.
OPEN MIC
https://share.icloud.com/photos/09dWhlLyknJuLcLCXmOKnrnAA
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0957-UTWBDz5cJt5tjBHhf75w
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0acrVYAGW1JCf2_zFYpDWSJ_w
SHIRLEY
And then in the late afternoon I went with Susie over to the artist’s studios in the old high school on the island, newly renovated after the flood a year ago, which is at this end of the bridge. I went to the open house of two studios. Shirley, who lives in Capitola, my building, has a number of looms and teaches classes in weaving. Some of her pieces were on display as well as those of some of her students.
TRISH
And just down the hall was Trish’s studio. Both Shirley and Trish lost equipment and things they had made when the Studios flooded and filled with mud a year ago. Trish’s letter press was damaged and all her wooden type pieces dirtied which are in the process of being slowly cleaned. Trish has made her studio into two rooms. One is her letterpress workshop with the letter press and all of her metal and wooden letters. In the larger big room she has set up tables where groups can come for Meet and Make, weekly. People sit around the two tables with all kinds of materials and artist paints and colors provided and work on projects and talk to each other. It is a wonderful idea.
Just down the hall is Primrose’s studio with a tea tent where the concert with saw playing was held a few days ago. The inviting warmth of all three places represents for me what small town life offers.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 