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I came home last night to find a message on my answering machine that went like this: "Surely you are not out letterboxing in the rain today?!" Yep, we were! We met a letterboxing family that lives near Asheville, NC. They graciously showed us around to some of the local letterboxes. We began at the bagel shop where the family had hidden a box called, "My Favorite Breakfast", mmmm. We had some great coffee and bagels and planned our route for the day. After a couple of loacl park stops, where all of our children had a great time playing together, we headed to Riverside Cemetery. This is probably the biggest cemetery we have ever seen. (Not that we've seen many cemeteries.) It was also the most interesting. The letterbox here was a tribute to a man who had helped another man out in the civil war, we are still researching that story. The 'matching' box is at the grave of the other man in Charlotte, NC. Zebulon Vance, former governor of NC and Thomas Wolfe are also buried here. We saw a Jewish cemetery, where many of the tombstones were in Hebrew, a Greek cemetery and a soldier's cemetery. There is a walking tour of this cemetery that we plan to take when it is not raining and cold! From there, we headed to Thomas Wolfe's home in downtown Asheville. It was actually the boarding home his mother ran that he grew up in. The kids favorite part was the playhouse his father had built for all of the kids to play in. They wanted to play in it so badly!! We took a tour of the visitor center museum. At the front desk we received a Thomas Wolfe scavenger hunt to take with us into the museum. It was very informative. I learned that the above angel really had little to do with Thomas Wolfe, even though it is the icon that seems to represent him! It was a headstone his father ordered for a woman who is buried in Hendersonville. The title of his book, "Look Homeward, Angel' is a line from a Milton poem, not a reference to that angel. I want to read that book now. In this fictional work, he describes life in a small town that closely described Asheville and its people. In fact, many folks were so sure he had written about them, that they were angry with Wolfe's portrayal. But when Wolfe's book was a best-seller, Asheville forgot and made him a hero instead! After finding the letterbox here, we did go and visit the angel, anyways. I am sad for the woman who's grave the angel sits on. Nobody remembers her when they see that angel, their thoughts are on Thomas Wolfe. |
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