This story — about the Christmas Open House at the new Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center — will be our first attempt at bi-lingual reporting. Here goes ….
Translation for motorcyclists:
The next time you’re thrashing your Ninja through the North Georgia mountains on Route 129, stop by the fancy new Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center before you try to kill yourself passing Goldwings and Road Hawgs on Route 180.
Translation for motorists:
The next time you’re dodging lunatics on crotch rockets flaunting law, order and anything resembling sanity, try to pull into the fancy new Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center on Route 129, near Vogel State Park, without being broadsided by flocks of crazoids on Kawasakis or herds of lawyers on Harleys.
If you haven’t been near Vogel State Park recently, you probably cannot imagine where the the fancy new Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center is … because it wasn’t there the last time you drove by. It’s there, I promise you. It’s on Route 129, just a tad north of Route 180 and/or Vogel State Park.
The center honors the life of (you guessed it) Byron Herbert Reece. Here’s a bio from the center’s website:
Byron Herbert Reece lived and wrote in the Choestoe valley of North Georgia. He lived the life of a small farmer, on land his family farmed for generations. He was lucky enough to attend high school and college, and went on to be a published and respected poet and novelist. His most prolific years were between 1938 and 1955, and saw the publication of four books of poetry and two novels. Financial success as an author and good health eluded him and he died in 1958, at the age of 40.
His legacy lives on as a respected Georgia author. The Byron Herbert Reece Society formed in 2003 to increase awareness of his work through programs, publicity and development of the Reece Farm into a destination to learn about the poet and mid-twentieth century farm life.
(Mr. Reece and I share only one aspect of literary greatness: financial success has eluded us both.)
Now that you’ve heard of the Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center, be sure to go there on Saturday, December 1st, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM for their Christmas Open House.
Visitors will have free admission to all exhibit areas during this period. Refreshments will be provided and several door prizes will be drawn.
This will be the Reece Center’s last open day until April, 2013. Come and help usher in the spirit of the Christmas season, before the venue is closed after their first season of operation.
Georgia author Terry Kay will be present for signings. Kay has won four Georgia Author of the Year awards. The most recent award came this year in the short story category for his book, The Greats of Cuttercane. Three of Kay’s novels have been made into Hallmark Hall of Fame movies, including To Dance with the White Dog, starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. His books will be available for purchase or you may bring books authored by him for his signing.
The Gift and Craft Shop sells books by and about Reece and others on subjects pertinent to Appalachia, along with homemade and handcrafted:
- jewelry
- baskets
- soap
- scarves
- wooden bowls
- pottery
- ornaments
- quilts and
- Reece Farm embroidered towels and pillows.
The Reece Farm and Heritage Center is another gem in North Georgia’s crown. We wish them well.
