ON THE MOUNTAIN: Sugar Britches and Ms. Lilly's Closet...

Evening crowds filling THE MOUNTAIN
(taken from SUGAR BRITCHES' balcony)

As the anticipation closed around us, THE MOUNTAIN came to life.  All the little spots that Feathermaye and I  had explored and wondered about filled with goods, art of all sorts, unique finds, and a lot of genuinely happy people, ready to do business, or just have a good time.  Money, really doesn't matter to most of these folks; they are not driven by profit; it is a by-product of their collective effort, as well as the help they give each other.

Laurie Zieber owns SUGAR BRITCHES
Come twirl your way through
Ms Lilly's Closet

I've previously told you about the "Amazzzing Mzz Z" (Laurie Zieber), a force of nature and a fine example of the best of Southern Womanhood, with both the gentile manners one might expect, yet in clear possession of a mind so open to the whys and wherefores of the world around her--by that, I mean the people she loves to meet and share her vision with (Just about everyone, until proven otherwise) regardless of the obvious differences an individual may come with, Laurie is always ready to listen, and share...and TWIRL.

Ah, but Mzz Z is also an artist with, like so many here, a clear vision that encompasses many mediums.  Sugar Britches is the building that first drew her to THE MOUNTAIN.  "Place just spoke to me..." She said, as Feathermaye and I stood in the empty lanes of 'Lazy Daze Junction' and 'Purple Peacock (ave?)'.

The building has housed a few other business dreams and visions.  They come and go here on THE MOUNTAIN.  Laurie, just like all the others who have stepped onto the face of this little East Texas hill, felt the thrill of the youngster she last was, just before becoming an adult becomes so important, and life in the Dallas suburbs absorbs all the child away while puberty, and society take away the wonder of life, replacing it with routine, hard work (usually for someone else) and finally, pushes dreams like Laurie's from the back burner to the back of the closet and out of sight.

As adults we realize that all our childhood dreams were always missing something: the ability to THINK like an adult, while experiencing the magic a child keeps as they open themselves to the world around them.  Their early experiences remain... A primordial call, so strong that it keeps a gnawing seed of desperate want to remind us all: that we left something dear, something precious behind us, someplace back with the child we once were.

I've heard a lot of tales about this hill: (Indian burial ground, right over a few intersecting magnetic ley-lines, and filled with legends, the flavor of the Old Wild West, built by the Lost Boys (No tape measure or level needed here!) and guided by the dreams of people who come to find what they left behind... Long ago.

If you are one of the folks who feel called by something entirely irresistible when your first set foot here, take your time.  Talk to all of us, you'll find you are looking, virtually, at a mirror of what's going on inside your heart.    Resist the need to pull back.  We understand, we smile, nod, and enjoy seeing another kid-at-heart overwhelming the facades that you've learned to hide your child away within, safely protected.

Most up here understand that you still hold tight to something so big that it has gnawed the back of your brain since you first qualified for a driver's licence, or played your last football game, or that day, when you were so, so young, and lost someone very, very dear.  We all remember when it happened...

If you are not filled up with this... whatever it is... just enjoy your time here and think no more about the smiling, happy people around you, other than how sincerely nice they are.  Buy something, or not.  Success on THE MOUNTAIN is not measured in dollars made, only in friends met, relationships established, and a balance that settles over the heart, pushing back the stress of the world below.  Sure, we make a few dollars, mostly enough so we can keep coming back, every first Monday of the Month.

Laurie Z is one of those smiling people.  She brought 'TWIRL' to THE MOUNTAIN.   And, Laurie's vision, in the form of Ms. Lilly's Closet has now formed into reality, sifted carefully from the heart of her own inner child.  She knew it was something too big to hold inside.  Now the women on this hill are TWIRLING, because they felt that girlish feeling, from a time when they ran barefooted through a field, or sparked to the first cute boy they every saw, or went off to college on Daddy's money... Name it, it is your memory.  We already know you own one; it itches to get out, a constant reminder that life has gone very far away from such dreams and childish wishes--dang-it-all.

Amid the shoot outs and the artisans and special food found here, Laurie's vision collects in this little corner of 'stage one' on THE MOUNTAIN.  Here, they dance in the streets, crowd's look on as Laurie, and (jumping into the pool, much to my own surprise) my own little Feathermaye, climb ladders for that extra-special shot--she usually won't do such a thing--firing off frames with her camera, the smile covering her pretty face is like the sun blinding my eyes; it's all I can see.  She's Twirling...

AS I WRITE THESE WORDS, Laurie is directing a group of women from Dallas who've all come to remember their Sorority days in College.  They are no longer 40-something executives, in this moment they are wild, free, ready to go into Ms. Lilly's closet (famous for always keeping special clothes for any little girl to come play dress-up).  There they find the characters they want to be for just a little bit, a moment of memory that leaves them seeing memory motes; they bat them away like gnats as they drive back to the city, where the real world sucks away such dreamy feelings.  But, for a while at least, and for a while after, they are carrying their own TWIRL, and they will come back again to TWIRL with others, because Laurie's vision, her own TWIRL, is all about giving it to everyone else.

Will she make her fortune on this hill?  Does TWIRL hold her key to the future?  Laurie could care less.  She already knows.  If she gives, the rest is already taken care of.  Things like TWIRL are meant to have a place where anyone can go and find it.  Wives TWIRL in the streets, husband watch and grin, unable to wipe away the fact that they too, are TWIRLING around all those old feelings, sparking again to the girl they once knew and perhaps, have been missing for a long, long time.  That's what TWIRL has to offer.  It's right here, on THIS MOUNTAIN, waiting for you.

OF course Sugar Britches is a business too.  Such things are taken as simply as possible, mostly because it allows Laurie's group to talk with you, to identify your TWIRL, or to encourage your own wishes to find something up here that calls to your own dreams.  It's okay to TWIRL here, everyone understands.
There are several Photo Packages to choose from with a minimal sitting fee up front (you'll see all that as you walk up).  Laurie knows you'll want to take a little TWIRL back home.  She won't care which, she just hopes you take your TWIRL out there and share it, pointing others back to where you found it... Again.

Me too!

We also TWIRL with music, and authors (yep, me too!) reading or talking about their work; painters of all types sharing ideas, finding kindred souls that they've needed to be near, if only to still the normal loneliness most of us feel as artists--no one else understands, do they?  Pappy, and other fine sculptors, hammer and chisel away, or spark arcs off of the metal they are forming, molding clay for the final details of a monumental statue, working for donations to pay for the brass to pour into the mold the clay will form.  Art is happening here, and commerce.

The town below is filled with thousands of bargain hunters and vendors with things found everywhere and brought back to the oldest Flea Market in the US.  This was once the frontier stop for trappers and traders to come and meet, back when a homestead was miles from the nearest neighbor.  Remaining sane in those days meant packing up a few things and going to the camp meeting to swap and trade.  Often, trades are made without any cash at all.  Remarkable to find exactly what you had no idea you were looking for, in the hands of someone who has no idea why they found it, much less bought it, but have brought it here, none-the-less.


Y'all need to plan for your next "First Monday of The Month"!

We've got lots more pix and stories about this place coming!

S

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