Hurrying Spring

Folks at the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center are ready for spring and judging from the turnout on Feb. 12 and 13 for the “Hurry Back Spring Fling” event, so is everyone else.

“We had a good time. People braved the weather,” said Heritage Center marketing director Nancy Williams. “I think people are tired of staying in and wanted to come out. That’s why we called it ‘Hurry Back Spring Fling.’ We had about 200 people here and, considering it was snowing that day, I wasn’t complaining.”

This wasn’t the first “Hurry Back Spring Fling.” Inclement weather hampered the initial event the last weekend in January. “It snowed that weekend, and only one of our authors showed. Rather than cancel it, we held it and attendance was light, so we decided to have it again later,” Williams said.

Chef Walter Lambert from WATE-TV Channel 8 was at the Heritage Center on Feb. 13 and was signing autographs in his cookbook and talking with people. Lisa Horstmann, a children’s book author/illustrator with titles such as “The Great Smoky Mountain Salamander Ball” and “The Wee One” was on hand. “She was signing books and talking with folks, and we had several children talking with her,” Williams said.

The marketing coordinator said the second event went over well. “We had open hearth cooking out in Cardwell Cabin. They were cooking cornbread and giving out samples,” she said. “We had free admission. We showed our in-house movie called ‘Piece of Ground’ in the auditorium, and we had free refreshments.”

Williams said that even with snow coming down, it appeared folks were just ready to get out. “The Saturday of the second event, we had some 200 people. I think it had gotten to the point where cabin fever had set in, and they were ready to come out. We were really glad they came,” she said. “We had something for them to do, and we all had a good time.”

© 2010 blounttoday.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.