The Comfy Corner

So I grew up in a little ole town called Asheville in the little ole state of North Carolina. Nestled in the heart of the Appalachian mountains, Asheville is quite atypical of your average Southern town. It is littered with hippies, drum circles, and gays. Every single store downtown is local (except for a subway and an Urban Outfitters). Growing up there, however, I was always in the suburbs of Asheville which is just the opposite. It is all chain restaurants and Wal-Marts (we have five!!) and since my dad hates hippies and dreadlocks (he claims that the bugs will jump out of their hair and get in his food... pah! Asians...) we never ventured downtown where all the fun was. So I avoided developing an "Asheville personality." Since then, I have fled North Carolina and planted myself in New England and only recently am I beginning to feel this strange urge to embrace my hippie, Asheville roots. I'm being brought back to the days when I would sweat with the hippies in a barn doing the contra dance to fiddle music (no joke, every Thursday).

This summer I have purchased a pair of John Lennon glasses, I tie dyed a shirt for the first time, and I wear bandanas on a regular basis. I am literally seeking out hippie clothes! And on this hunt, I found the coolest place on the planet. It is called, "The Fantastic Umbrella Factory." It is a little Rhode Island hippie village with a cafe, several shops, green houses, the most awesome collection of vintage sunglasses, and goats and emus that you can pet and feed. Basically, Asheville in a bottle. Strangely, I felt very at home and very much at ease in that environment. Perhaps this is me trying to develop a unique personality in my journey into adulthood. But, I think it is more the freeness and openness that comes with the hippie lifestyle. I'm not REALLY becoming a hippie. No dreadlocks for me. And I like Starbucks. But, I also like incense. And I like tie dye. My family will be so disappointed. But to them I say, shut up.