10 Quirky Tidbits About the Holler

I've compiled a list of ten weird facts about Frog Pond Holler. Hopefully, you've not heard them before. If you have, but your mind is anything like mine, you probably forgot anyway.

1. You can not buy real American cheese here. You can buy those pseudo cheese "singles," logs of pepper jack cheese and bags of generic shredded cheddar, but no plain, sliced American cheese. You have to drive from 20 minutes to a half an hour to find any.
2. Frog Pond Holler was once the home of large, thriving hotel. People came from miles around to partake of the magical, curative waters that flowed from the ground into the bath house, where you could fine relief from arthritis, fatigue.. pretty much anything. Two hotels have mysteriously burned to the ground in that same spot and it's now home to the spa, where you can sit in tubs on the creek bank. The land was once the home of the tribal medicine man, probably Cherokee. They say the hotels burning down was his revenge for the white man taking his land. Employees at the spa ground swear that tub #7 is still haunted by the old seer and they fight over who has to clean it after dark.
3. I know of two churches, just outside the city limits, that still don't have indoor plumbing. It's not completely barbaric though, I noticed one of the outhouses had a fresh new coat of white paint and some pretty flowers painted on the ladies side.
4. Yesterday, I was involved in a conversation that included the sentence, "ain't she the one what was married to that preacher who was over one of them snake handlin' churches, then got bit real bad and died? They say that's when she lost her mind."
5. The folks from "Southern Living" magazine were down at the Grab n' Go (and go and go) the other day, taking pictures for an article. Ya'll might wanna look for it. (Hint: it's not really called the Grab n' Go)
6. The old timers here swear by squirrel head gravy. They say the brains are the best bit. When I first heard about it, I thought they were messin' with me, but no. It's serious business. I can get ya'll the recipe if you want, but I'd rather not.
7. While you have to cross a mountain to get in or out of Frog Pond Holler, the town itself is at the lowest elevation in the county. The temperatures here are at least 5° warmer than those in Big City. We can be stuck in town because of snow, have schools called out and not have a flake on the ground anywhere. Weirdness.
8. The movie "Songcatcher" was filmed near here and featured performances by some local musicians. Other films shot in the area include "Patch Adams" "Cannonball Run 2" and "My Fellow Americans." The television series "Christie" was about a mission school just up the road from here, on the way towards Scary Hillbilly Town.
9. Our little town is home to an unusually large population of Manx cats.. or at least.. some Manx kitties got in the gene pool a long time ago. If you have a girlie cat in Frog Pond Holler and she has kittens, there's a good chance at least one will be born without a tail. If you're lucky, you'll get a couple that look like full blood Manx, with a jacked up hind end and bunny feet.
10. There's a railroad trestle just visible down the river from the bridge that leads you in to town. Years ago, a train derailed there, falling into the river below. Divers were sent down to recover some of the wreckage, but the water was too deep and murky. They never found the train cars. It's now known as Deepwater Bridge. It's a popular game among the river folk, to leap from Deepwater Bridge and try to out swim the water snakes that hang out there back to shore. Not my idea of a good time.

I hope ya'll have enjoyed this little peek into Frog Pond Holler. Sometimes I just wanna gather ya'll up, put you on a bus and take you on a tour through town. Maybe someday we'll do that. We'll call it: "Mahala's Hillbilly Adventure."

Happy Humpday ya'll. Hump it like yo' mama showed ya. We'll talk again real soon.

Later Taters.