Like many small towns that have an annual event, a kind of signature celebration to attract visitors, hopefully ones with some money, Pineville has its Mountain Laurel Festival. Residents are encouraged to participate of course. 

The Festival begins with a street parade featuring high school bands, and floats. Included in the festival is a gala ball, a semiformal dance, held at the school gymnasium. I never attended the ball; I was too young and couldn’t afford a ticket, and I couldn’t dance. I did hang around outside once to listen to the band. The main attraction of the festival is the pageant that takes place at Laurel Cove. 

I’ll tell you about one particular event at Laurel Cove. 

“Mom, are we going to the festival today?” I asked.

“No”, she said, “Your daddy has to work, and I don’t feel up to walking that far”.

“Mind if I go?”

“No, but be careful, there’s a lot of cars on the road today.” 

Laurel Cove is about two miles from town in Pine Mountain State Park. A gentle brook flows alongside the shaded trail from the parking lot to Laurel Cove. Wild flowers bloom along the trail. Mountain laurel predominates in early May.  

“The laurel is in fine bloom this year” a man said.

“Yes, better than usual”, came the reply. 

Mountain laurel is a usually small shrub that grows in acid forest soil. It is found along the edges of forest open to clearings, and on rocky knolls. The blossoms are unusual, growing in clusters, 

“Look,” said a lady getting a close look. “They look kind of like tiny Chinese lanterns.”

“Notice the rich pink color,” said another.

Upon arriving at the amphitheater people were claiming their seats to wait for the program to begin. First time visitors said words like “Beautiful,” “Magnificent”.

Eons ago a little stream, storms, wind and snow began eroding a swath down the mountainside, until the amphitheater was formed. It has left on one side of the stream a sheer rock more than a hundred feet high as a backdrop for the theater, and gently sloping ground reaching the forest on the other. 

The CCC boys had busied themselves modifying the nature of the land to create a showplace. Their work provided a stage at the base of the cliff. The stream was dammed to form a narrow reflecting pool in front of the stage. A footbridge spanned the pool at center stage. Mountain laurel outlining the front of the stage was kept low so as to not block the view. Larger plants grew behind the stage. Wherever the layers of rock in the cliff joined, the edges rounded through millennia of erosion, moss and wild flowers grew and laurel clung to the scant soil between. Lichens darkened the face of the rock. At the top of the cliff the usual forest vegetation could be seen. It was a vivid tableau, indeed. Seating was made from large planks supported by boulders at each end. A center aisle gave access to the stage.

While the crowd was still gathering members of the Transylvania college symphony orchestra began filing in taking their seats on stage.

“Sure is a fine day,” someone said, “not a cloud in the sky.”

“Yeah, it’s a nice warm day,” said another, “And feel that cool breeze. It’s perfect. Looks like the ladies got dressed up in their finest spring outfits. Glad it aint too hot for ‘em.”

Once assembled, the orchestra began playing light classical music. It was a delight to hear. I had never heard live symphonic music before. That’s when I fell in love with the symphony orchestra. Since then I have gone to symphony concerts any time I could.

It’s hard to remember the program, but there were some speeches and so forth. After a while the music resumed and beautiful young women attractively attired in long dressed filled the stage. I had never seen so many pretty faces at one time. One of these beauties was to be crowned as queen of the Festival.  They were all students representing their colleges.

“Is that the governor down there?” a woman in the audience whispered.

“Yeah, that’s him, Ruby Lafoon, if you mean the one that’s uglier than a mud fence,” said a man next to her.

“That’s who I mean. He’s going to crown the queen,” said the woman. “He’s gonna kiss her too.”

“I’ll bet she keeps her eyes shut,” said the man.

The ceremony went along as planned for a time. Tall trees around the cove allowed only a small window to the sky. The bit of blue sky that was visible yielded to a little white cloud. The sound of distant thunder didn’t seem to bother anybody.

“Nothing to worry about, Honey,” said a man reassuring his wife.

Very soon however, before the ceremonies were finished, the little white cloud was replaced by a huge black one. And the rain followed immediately. It was no gentle shower. It was a downpour. People scurried for cover, but there was no cover save for the forest that soon became very leaky. It was no time before everybody was soaked to the skin. Some of the fleet-of-foot had started racing toward the parking lot, a quarter mile away. Most everyone else realized they couldn’t get any wetter and stayed put for an orderly exit.  Then the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started. The sun came out and again it was a beautiful day, but the show was over. Or was it?

“Oh, just look at my hair!” the woman said in disgust. “It’s hanging down my neck like a wet mop.”

“Look at my skirt. It has shrunk!” That was heard from a number of women. 

Looking around I could see many others with the same problem. The weather had been perfect for the ladies to don their woolen spring wear. When the wool skirts got wet they began to shrink and the ladies tugged at the skirt to restore its length. But the more they tugged and squirmed, the more their skirts shrank. It was a comical scene. The slips under the skirts didn’t shrink. There they were, the skirts above the knee, the slips below. Finally a woman noticed the other women, and started laughing. 

“You should see yourself. You’re sure a sight,” she said.

Taking notice of the others, the object of the laughter also began to laugh and said, ”Looks like we all have a new style in our tunics.” 

The laughter became contagious and by the time they reached the parking lot almost everybody was in good humor and having lots of fun. It turned out to be not such a bad day, after all.