Asheville
Flying into Binghamton’s Johnson City airport and the trees are bare and gray and the green pines sprinkled with snow. It’s still winter here in the northeast, early spring. Stanley’s leaning against the wall - one knee up - leaning back with his hand on grandson Nathaniel’s shoulder and he points and Nathaniel breaks out in a toothy smile like Sponge Bob. He’s chirping like a happy bird as we slip past the sliding door outside into the cold. The car smelt bad from cigarette smoke. I’d forgotten. I’ve been away in Asheville, North Carolina for a week. They hardly smoke at all down there. I saw one woman - the same woman twice - huddling in a corner outside the Kress Emporium on Patton Avenue, smoking. The building is full of individual stalls of high quality craft and art. It costs $400 a month to rent a hundred square feet of floor and wall space. There was a waiting list.The owners of the space take a percentage. It was crowded and the tourist season...