Non-laboring Labor Day 2009

We went to the mtns on Labor Day.

I normally LABOR on Labor Day - usually around the house getting a plethora of projects either started, only to remain in various states of incompletion for months on end; or complete a few that have been hanging over my head.

Not this year.

This year we played.

First, we went to Table Rock State Park, where I have spent lots of time in the distant past, but not so much in the last 16+ years. Matter of fact, Melinda commented that she & I had never been there together.

Well, we have now.












With the kids.










We hiked the Carrick's Creek Trail, which is really quite astounding for Melinda with her current back issues.






















We had ourselves a picnic lunch and then headed up through the mtns to Brevard, which holds one of the most fun little toy stores in the Southeast . . .








Two stories of sheer childhood bliss.









Etch-a-sketch fun:
























Paddle balls:























Toys from a bygone TV era:
















Army men:















Marbles:























And then there's the slot-car track:































































Of course, I appreciate the real plaster & lath as well as the hardwood floors in the old downtown shops:
































































There are just some fun details on the streets, like giant toy wooden soldiers and the gumball machine:































I even found a pristine tool set just like one my brother had as a kid - one that my kids never saw anything but bits & pieces of and they managed to lose or destroy the remainder of what was passed along. I couldn't believe the price tag on the thing!!!!!!







































We were just about tuckered out, as evidenced by my most energetic boy's exhausted stance:
























But, we still had one more errand to run.

APPLES!


















Hendersonville was a wee bit crowded, due to the Apple Festival, but we skirted that and headed to our favorite apple stand for the season's final haul of Honey Crisp's. Good thing, too, because the sky was ready to loose a storm of epic proportions on us, but we just managed to get turned onto I-26 before it caught up to us:

I love cool old things

I think finding old things is just super cool. Old, empty bird's nests; old houses (especially the ones turned into waterfront cafe's in Instanbul); old bricks; old shoes; old barns; old ferry boats; old rocks (OK, not too many new ones around); and old books.

My latest favorite is an old book I found buried in the recesses of our attic back when it was temperate enough to actually go up there. The Political History of Slavery - that's the official subtitle, the whole title takes up the entire page - written in 1858. Quite an insight into the history and the machinations of several countries prior to the upheaval that split a nation only two years after it's publication. I really have no idea how it got to my attic. It was with a bunch of other old books that belonged to my great-uncle, Rumsley T. Bennett who was lost at sea during WWII. This book was re-printed in 1969, so I know it wasn't his. I'm left scratching my head trying to figure out how it got to me. Most of the other old books up there went to people such as my sons' math teacher who will appreciate Plane Geometry much more than I. One went to an elder at church who has a serious affinity for reading only dead authors.

One of the other present favorites is the old truck pictured here and found over at a local farm.