Thursday, May 26, 2011

Making a splash in the big city

 

 

 

Yesterday, Gus and I had an appointment with TEACCH (an autism program that teaches parents educate their kids for life) so we decided to make an afternoon of it in Asheville, the "big city" about 40 minutes from Brevard.
Asheville is funny. There's a bumper sticker that says "Keep Asheville weird" and that pretty much sums this town up, I think. If you stand at any street corner in Asheville, you are bound to look out of place if you are simply wearing a T-shirt, jeans and a pair of sneakers - unless you sport a tatoo..if you don't have one of those you are definitely in the minority.
Anyways, while stand at your street corner of choice you will be able to experience everything from grey braids, hippy flouncy skirts, robes, Indian sitars, gay insignias, chanting, tribal tats, piercings and lots and lots of other dramatic ways of self-expression.
Asheville, is all organic, all PC, all recycled and repurposed, respectful of all that is different to such a degree that normal is the new minority.
It's a trip. And if you can I highly recommend it. It is an endless bounty in people and stuff watching.
One of Asheville's premier sights, however, is Splashville, which sits right smack in front of the county court house and catty corner to the Asheville Fire Station in a beautifully appointed park named Pack Square.

I don't know anything about Splashville other than that it is a ton of fun, easy and completely free. Gus spent two hours running through the jets of water (they turn on and off in a seemingly unpredictable manner, sometimes sending the kids on a wild goose chase, othertimes "surprising" an unsuspecting kid or parent to the great delight of everyone that is camped out around.
I met a Dad, who wrapped his Brand-name wifebeater shirt around his head to get relief from his great head of dreadlocks, whose daugher, Sunny, took a liking to Gus - whether he liked her back or no. I met a Mom with more tatoos than I have shoes, whose toddler daughter's name was Lutz (I asked, just to make sure, that's the spelling..."interesting" I said in my brightest intonation) I met a Mom, who immediately began sharing her favorite yoga teacher and studios with me (my arm muscles make people think I do more sun salutations than I ever actually do...it's a nice problem to have), and I met a Dad, who made the Middle-East Process sound so boring, I wanted to go end it all (that one I only had to listen to, he wasn't talking to me but a friend, who looked as bored as I felt).

Sun-tired we took a little walk around town, ate hormone-free, happy and grass-fed food at a local eatery and then met our TEACCH team for an evening of making and talking about box skills.

Our big city is a hoot - from every angle.
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