Memories of Life in Cashiers

Written By: William McReynolds | Issue: July 2024

(l to r): Jennifer McKee, Amelia Golcheski, Ann McKee Austin, Robert Gleason of The Cashiers Historical Society; Seated – Author Bud Hyatt

Robert W. “Bud” Hyatt spent an idyllic boyhood in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s in Cashiers, roaming the forests and countryside, hiking up Chimney Top, Whiteside and Rock Mountains, and enjoying the opportunities at High Hampton.

A descendant of Barak Norton, one of Whiteside Cove’s earliest settlers, the grandson of Doug Bradley, High Hampton’s longtime caretaker, Bud is related to some of Cashiers’ founding families.

Fortunately for us, Bud is a good storyteller with a fine memory for the people and places, sights and sounds around the place we now call home.

His stories, some 100 of them, have been brought together by The Cashiers Historical Society into a delightful book—an important historical record – entitled Keep a Good Backlog on the Fire – Memories of a Cashiers Valley Boyhood. The title recalls preserving the home hearth in the winter; the whole book kindles warmth and affection year-round in our own down-home hearts.

Bud’s remembrances include what it was like walking to and waiting for the school bus in the snow and when Mam traded her wood burning stove for her first electric stove. The occasional trip to Sylva was “a big deal,” full of wonder and delight. This is a time capsule: There’s nary a mention of TVs, smart phones or social media.

The lyrical text sings like a country song, full of poignancy and longing. The reader goes with Bud down country roads full of memories of places and people, some now passed. This was their time.

If you’re a lifetime local, this book will call you out. If you grew up here–working, perhaps, at High Hampton in season, going to the local schools, making lifelong friends–this is a fine remembrance of your life. Expect a close encounter with self. Nostalgia never had it better.

For the rest of us, those Cashiers and Plateau residents who grew up elsewhere and moved here later in life, Bud’s book tells you where you have landed. Wherever you were, you are here now and Bud tells you where here is. These local kids climbed the same mountains before us, admired the same falls and scenic overlooks that we now enjoy, and in this book we experience the beauty of our geography and culture anew through them.

Bud Hyatt is a fine likeness of rural, mountain Americana. Appalachian Americana. Smokey Mountain Range. This is our history: first person and heartfelt. This is a lived history. The book reads like Bud is sitting in a rocking chair near an open fire, talking intimately to you. Expect longing, even melancholy. Enjoy the stories. These are our stories.

The Library of Congress will be quick to add this telling to their catalog, cross referenced under America Remembers, Appalachia, Western North Carolina, Cashiers, and Robert W. “Bud” Hyatt.

Thank you, Bud, for remembering us.