The kindness of strangers

Dyke Little, Brookford Cotton Mill,
where my grandmother first worked.

Last week I took a field trip to the Catawba Valley, where my grandmother was raised and where Mill Mothers opens.  I was overwhelmed with kindness everywhere I went.  In Glen Alpine, Morganton, Brookford, and Hickory, people told me stories, bought me meals, invited me into their homes.  Special thanks to:

-- my cousin Debbie Chapman, who gave me good directions.

-- Dyke and Jackie Little, my lunch companions and guides in Brookford.  Dyke is the author of Brookford Memories. 

-- Jane Hogg, proprietor of the Inn at Glen Alpine, the former home of J.D. Pitts, the man who built and, for a while, owned most of the town.  From the sumptuous Queen Anne Room -- lace curtains, beaded bedding -- I looked out toward the South Mountains, toward the farm where a hundred and ten years ago my grandmother was born in a small, weatherbeaten house without electricity or running water.

-- Mary Haller, Charles Graham, Mike Roper, and the entire breakfast crowd at The Depot Restaurant.

-- Nancy and Bobby Arrowood, and Nancy's third graders who worked with her on a history of Glen Alpine.

-- Betty Fowler at Old Mill Antiques.

-- Robert Pruett at the History Museum of Burke County.