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sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 8PM
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thu10AM - 7PM
fri10AM - 9PM
sat10AM - 9PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 8PM
sat10AM - 8PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 7PM
sat10AM - 7PM
sun11AM - 6PM
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wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 8PM
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sun11AM - 6PM
What a difference a few decades make! The images of New York City were taken in 1970 (Bernard Gotfryd, Library of Congress) and in 2018 by Afif Ramdhasuma (from pexels.com). Earth Day has been celebrated on April 22 since it was established through grassroots efforts in 1970. It was a response to increasing concerns caused by smog (intense air pollution caused mainly by exhaust fumes), Great Lakes at risk of dying from pesticide runoff and waste dumping, and rivers that caught on fire (the Cuyahoga River in Ohio famously caught fire in June of 1969). It was also the year when monumental legislation was enacted to address all kinds of environmental concerns. ...read more
At Home | Inspiration
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If it’s true, as they say, that seeing is believing, then we at Mast Store would like to propose another entry to your quip collection: Doing is moving. “Doing” not only requires movement - “doing” moves you both physically and emotionally. ...read more
Local Flavor | Mast Family Favorites | Travel
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What is a library? It’s a big building with lots of books in it. But wait, it’s so much more. The library is a gateway to your wildest dreams, a place to learn, a place to imagine, a place to make friends. Today’s libraries are repositories of books, but they also are places to get help to learn to read or improve your reading, to improve your math skills, to listen to a performance by a string quartet, to watch a movie, to refine your crafting skills, and to gather with fellow writers. Yes, libraries are SO much more. ...read more
Adventure | Inspiration | Mast Family Favorites
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... Our favorite foods! Food is universal because everybody’s got ta eat! And the last two months of the year are filled with more than their fair share of family meals, work gatherings, special outings to favorite restaurants, tins filled with homemade cookies and fudge, and the anticipation of food traditions handed down from generation to generation ...read more
At Home | Recipes
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Even before we bought the Mast General Store, we were taken by the beauty of Valle Crucis. We’ve heard people describe the drive out Broadstone Road as traveling through a time portal. In the 1970s, fields in the river bottoms would be filled with tobacco, cabbage, or high with hay to feed cattle that were grazing in the summer pasture. ...read more
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The lucky few who have seen the Earth from a different perspective – astronauts - all echo the same viewpoint upon their return. Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut and the first human to go to space, commented, “Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it.”
Behind the Scenes | Inspiration
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As you can imagine, doing your holiday shopping in the early 1900s in Valle Crucis or really any mountain town was a little different than today. While you could place mail orders, they didn’t arrive in a couple of days, and you couldn’t just hop in a car and head to the grocery store for a broad collection of foods to prepare the feast. Christmas in the Appalachian Mountains was more centered on family and the simple gifts of friends, food, and long-held traditions.
We leafed through wallpaper books filled with packing lists and receipts for the Mast Store from years between 1905 and 1920 to see what was filling the shelves. Of course, we found orders for horseshoes, castor oil, and pencil tablets, but we also found orders filled with raisins, figs, baker’s chocolate, coconut, granulated sugar, oranges, and chocolate candy and mints. These were all important because if your neighbors came by “serenadin’,” which is a little like caroling with a little bit of mischief mixed in, you had to invite them in for a treat.
A common gift for children to find in their stockings on Christmas morning was a few pieces of candy, some nuts, and an orange. We can pick up these treats anytime, but for a kid in the mountains, it was like winning the lottery. Sometimes, after the Christmas pageant at church, each child would have a “poke” to take home. The brown paper bag was filled with an apple, an orange, some candy, and perhaps a small trinket.
A few interesting items included Fascinators (small ladies' hats made of silk, lace, or netting) ordered from E.W. King in December 1902, aviation caps in December 1911, Wrigley Chewing Gum with 100 calendars from December 1905, coconut bonbons, P-nut Butter Dandies, and Rainbow Cream Fudge from November 6, 1915, and 144 calendar plates with the inscription Compliments of W.W. Mast, wishes you a Merry Christmas and sells everything. Valle Crucis, NC from December 1915.
While the gifts under the tree and in stockings may have changed a bit over the last 100-plus years, visiting with family and friends over the holidays remains a long-standing tradition.