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The Spirit of Highlands
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2015/01 - Winter | Photograph By: Highlands Historical Society
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As we celebrate another new year a decade and a half into the millennium (seems like only yesterday we were anticipating the year 2000), it’s interesting to reflect on the growth and change that have always been a balancing act for Highlands.
Some residents observe that this sleepy village, built upon generational land ownership, is shifting toward an investment property market.
Longtime resident Walter Taylor, now deceased, once said, “You used to look down on a cornfield or a cabbage patch and hear cow bells or horses. Now when you climb down Yellow Mountain in the winter, the ridges are covered with houses. The town has grown so that Highlands will never get its old charm back.”
Yet local people have to survive and do so largely because housing sales, renovations, property management, and all the jobs that attracts have boosted the economy. Sticky wicket, growth!
But how has that affected the heart of people? John Cleaveland, when he was on Highlands’ Land Use Planning Committee, said, “This is a slow, sleepy town. The people still make Highlands. They’re friendly. They welcome people with open arms.”
Olive Crane, at 95, had this take on Highlands’ transition into the 21st century as she ruminated on the good ol’ days: “We went to the store every two weeks to get coffee, sugar, flour. Potts had a store. Luke Rice had a meat market. We used to cut ice off Mirror Lake to keep things cold. We washed flour sacks and used them to stuff quilts and make clothing from them. We traded what we growed on the farm for a pack of green coffee. It hadn’t been parched. You parched it yourself and ground it.”
Yes, times have certainly changed. All I can say is thank goodness for a Buck’s latte.
As Ran Shaffner so astutely commented in his book, “Heart of the Blue Ridge, Highlands, North Carolina,” “Whether the town would ultimately fall victim to the overdevelopment and overpopulation that has tarnished other golden isles of paradise or managed to retain enough of the quaint charm and natural
beauty that has attracted “good citizens” over the years to fight for its preservation as a place where people love to live or visit, the two opposing forces of exploitation and preservation stood in the balance, prepared in the doorway of the new millennium to make or break the town.”
So Happy New Year, one and all. May the spirit of Highlands ne’er be broken.
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