Category Archives: folklore and ethnography

Haste Ye Back!

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As the year rolls around we have personal ‘seasons’. For me that includes ‘Festival Prep Season’ when I spend a month or so going around with little post-it-notes on every surface of the bookstore plus virtual ones in my head, all for the sake of Big Stone Celtic, our annual celebration of all things Celtic.

Now in its sixth year BSC, as it’s affectionately known, aims to make the connection between the ‘Scotch-Irish’ of Appalachia and their Celtic forbears. It’s unusual for two big reasons: modeled on traditional music festivals in Scotland, Ireland and Brittany it takes place downtown, using a variety of venues all within 5 minutes’ walk of each other; and it incorporates music, song, stories, workshops, dance, games and food to reflect the culture of all 7 Celtic Nations – Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Brittany, The Isle of Man, Cornwall and Galicia.

This year we are introducing an evening concert on Friday Sept. 27 up at Mountain Empire Community College, and then a full day of events on Saturday Sept. 28. Saturday kicks off as usual with a 26 mile bike race (The Tour de Crackers Neck). There are five music venues (up from three last year!):  The June Tolliver Theater, The Farmers’ Market, The Presbyterian Church, The Mining Museum and The Fox House.

Coinciding with the bike race is a gentler ‘fun bike’ for kids around the town Greenbelt, following the two rivers and meandering past the faces carved into the trees at our local campground. Workshops will be in our bookstore and samples of Celtic food (including Haggis, Cornish Pasties and Irish Potato Pie) will be served at the Presbyterian Church hall.

As if that wasn’t enough the library will also be hosting children’s activities throughout the afternoon, as will Miner’s Park; the ones at the park involve tossing lightweight cabers and getting dirty; the ones at the library involve crayons and music.

Everything is free except the food at the church hall, which is our festival’s biggest fundraiser; food is $5 per plate. Outside this, we are dependent on donations to pay for everything and are especially grateful to the many businesses and individuals who have donated once again this year, economic up-down swings and all.

All the flags in one!

All the flags in one!

The latest iteration of our schedule is up on the festival website but continues to be subject to revision – www.bigstoneceltic.com

Our main guest this year is Iona, a wonderful and very authentic group who play music from all the Celtic Nations. (And we are very grateful that a regional arts organization, PRO ART, has sponsored them!) As usual they will be supported by a wide range of other artists, including our ‘house-band’ Sigean and Doug Bischoff (of former Coyote Run fame). Doug’s wife Heather will be giving a workshop on creative writing.

Finally – not many people get the joke in the festival’s name. Most of the Celtic lands have ancient stone circles or individual ‘standing stones’ dotted around the countryside – big stones!

Y’all come. It’s going to be grand!

The Fastest Way to Piss Off a Community Business Owner

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When a first-time customer walks in, Jack and I  smile and say hi in confidence that this is the start of a beautiful relationship. We’re proud of our bookstore, and its reputation for dealing honestly with people who bring in “old” books for free evaluations. We keep the store cheerfully clean, cozy and welcoming (as opposed to fully alphabetized and sterile, Jack says) whether you’re buying, browsing, or just in for some kitten cuddling.

And yeah, we have a reputation for being cuckoo for cats. It’s a fair cop.

But every once per 300 or so encounters, instead of returning this welcoming smile, the person looks back through squinted eyes and says something like, “You charge $3 for a Western? That’s too much. I can get them at the Goodwill for $1.”

Uh, no, you can’t because our Goodwill NEVER has Westerns, as you well know as a fan of the genre. Goodwill has romances ten for a penny, but no Westerns. Or desirable science fiction.

Once someone picked up a value paperback ($1 each, 6 for $5) and sniffed. “I see you changed your pricing. These books used to be 4 for $1.” (Hmm, you’d think I’d remember that, but I don’t.) “Everybody’s in it for the money these days.”

Or even, “Tell me exactly the value of each book I traded in, because that doesn’t seem like enough credit” when we’ve just given them $20 for a box that includes 27 battered children’s books and 3 Norton anthologies we’ll be selling for a quarter each.

Ask a small business owner if she’s in it for the money, and she will pee herself laughing. Let me tell you, there are HUNDREDS of dollars to be made in used book sales!

No, mom-n-pops tend to be in business as family tradition, or to be our own bosses, or because we literally love and are happy around what we sell or do. We just want a graceful sufficiency existence off the rat race treadmill. Had we wanted to make money, we’d have gone into health insurance.

Sometimes it’s evident that customers consider statements like those above preludes to haggling, but Jack and I see them as flat disrespect for local businesses.  When haggling is done with mutual respect on both sides, it’s actually fun. It is not fun to deal with people who walk in saying they expect us to join the rest of life in ripping them off. Rather kills the kindness instinct, don’t you know.

Still, sir or madam, you have our deepest sympathies, and let us make you a cuppa–or show you the door, as you prefer. ‘Cause we’re not a corporation–no matter what the federal government says, they’re not people until they have feelings. We are real people, with real feelings, and real pride in our work. We respect out customers.

Which is why we don’t take no shit off them, should the occasion arise. Thank you.