by Maura Lin | Mar 13, 2024 | Timeline Stories
The black cat summoned me — and hastened my departure months afterwards. I was weary and thirsty that late September day in 1928 as I trudged up Main Street. I passed the attractive Gray Rock Inn, but I knew it was beyond my means. However, just north of the inn, I...
by Diana Brittain Thompson | Feb 23, 2024 | Timeline Stories
You know you belong to a time and a place when your name is printed in a book. For my mother and I, the place was Asheville and the book was the Genealogical Study of James Brittain of Buncombe County. This hefty volume is filled with thousands of descendants, though...
by John Senechal | Feb 19, 2024 | Timeline Stories
The sun was hot on the back of her hands as Betsy Teague pushed her 9-month-old daughter in a pram in the city square by the Vance Monument. A wide brimmed hat kept her face shaded in the midsummer heat. Her 6-year-old son Paul was beside her, hoping for a hot dog...
by John Senechal | Jan 8, 2024 | Timeline Stories
“Should I take a nicer dress?” Melissa Duncan checked herself in the mirror and frowned. She worried about her weight, her hair, her shoes. The next day, at a reunion in Asheville, she was going to meet Michael’s larger family for the first time. She wanted to please...
by Melanie McGee Bianchi | Nov 19, 2023 | Timeline Stories
Chapter II: The Dry Ridge Diviner According to Catesby’s mama, the Dry Ridge Diviner was a sorry old vamp. She was that, and she was other, less mentionable things. It was true the diviner wore so much face powder it was hard to tell her age, though she kept her head...
by Alli Marshall | Oct 26, 2023 | Timeline Stories
i. FIRST CRESCENT It was Marin who signed for the certified letter. The owner of the house had died and the family would be selling it so the estate could be divided evenly between the owner’s four children. Marin and their housemates had until the end of the month to...
