John Dilbeck And Friends

I’m not going to lie about it.

2009 has been a very difficult year for me, but it could have been much worse.

My home is not the home of my dreams, but it gives me a place to live until I can earn enough to buy or build the home I dream of.

This old house is where my parents retired in the early 1970s. They left Atlanta and moved to Murphy, NC. They loved living here, even when times were tough.

Pop died in the summer of 1991 and Mom died last year, just before Thanksgiving.

Both of them have been on my mind a lot this month.

Mom’s birthday was November 6; their anniversary was November 25; Thanksgiving was a couple of days ago. It’s been a month of memories and being thoughtful about what is important in life.

Both of them worked hard all their lives and were quite a bit healthier and stronger in their latter years than I am now. It gives me something to work towards - better health.

Both of them had serious health problems earlier in their lives and they still managed to mostly overcome them over time.

Pop broke his back when he fell off a crane onto a truck’s roof. For years he could do very little. Still, many years later, he could easily outwork me.

Mom had trouble with her legs for most of her life, but that didn’t stop her from doing what she wanted, until her cancer surgery caused nerve damage and she was no longer able to walk unassisted.

So, I can look back on my illness earlier this year and think “poor me” all I want, or I can continue to do what I can to get around and rebuild my strength.

Sometimes life just isn’t easy. It’s the challenges that make us stronger and help us develop real character.

So, maybe that’s what I’m working on now - character.

Money is tight, but I’ve managed to find something to eat for over 57 years while fending off everything that tried to eat me, so I guess that’s some measure of success.

(I’m not sure who said that originally, but I read it some time back and liked it enough to paraphrase it for myself.)

I love living here in Murphy. Sometimes it’s hard to earn a living here, but other people in other areas have had it tough, too. We do what we have to do to survive.

I’ve decided that I want to help others as I help myself and that’s why I’ve dedicated myself to building the best marketing system for locally-owned small businesses in Murphy, NC. You can see the start of it at Murphy Gold and Murphy Connections. Over time, it will get better and better and I look forward to helping small business owners in our little mountain town market their businesses to a wider audience.

While I may not have all I need right now, I do have a plan and I’m working on that plan every day. It gives me something to work towards and that’s important.

Thanksgiving was an interesting day. I spent the day alone, but I still had contact with family and friends online and over the phone.

Several friends called to see how I was doing and to wish me a happy holiday.

I was in touch with family even though I didn’t see them in person.

I was alone, but not lonely. Memories of past holidays gave me good feelings and I smiled quite a bit during the day.

Even though I may not be able to visit my brother and his family this year, I’ll think of them often.

I’m looking forward to Christmas breakfast at my daughter’s house and spending time with that branch of my family. Christmas will be here before we have a chance to turn around a few times.

Would I have enjoyed a house full of people and a table loaded with traditional Thanksgiving food this year? Of course, I would.

But, I’ve done that many times over the last few decades, so missing it now and then really isn’t such a big deal.

I’m grateful for all I have and I intend to redouble my efforts to rebuild my marketing business to where I’ll be enjoying prosperity instead of mere survival.

As we enter into this major winter holiday season, I hope you’ll reflect on all that you have and all the good memories of times and people who have helped shape your life.

We all have a lot to be thankful for.

All the best,

JD

It’s October and fall is here in Murphy, NC.

The nights are getting cooler and the days are more comfortable. Before long, all the mountains will be covered by trees showing off their best fall colors.

New Businesses

I’d like to welcome three businesses to Murphy Gold this month:

(The complete list is in our Local Business Directory.)

Advertising - Direct Mail Print Advertising: The Green Sheets, owned by Audrey and Tom.

Auto Towing and Wrecker Service: Timco Transportation, owned by Tim Dockery.

Movie Theater: Henn Theatre, owned by Bill Grove.

New Special Offers

You’re invited to take advantage of these new special offers:

Advertising - Direct Mail Print Advertising

Audrey and Tom, owners and operators of The Green Sheets, are happy to offer merchants this special offer: 10% off your first advertisement!

Movie Theater

Bill Grove, owner and operator of the Henn Theatre, is pleased to offer you a Free upsize on any drink or popcorn (get a large for medium price, medium for small price).

We hope you’ll take advantage of these and all the other Murphy Gold Special Offers. You get more for your money by asking for these special offers when you purchase at a Murphy Gold Business. Just tell them you heard about them at Murphy Gold, or, if you prefer, print out the coupon and take it with you to the Murphy Gold business of your choice.

Get the rest of the news.

Go read Murphy Gold News, Issue 2, hot off the presses:

Murphy Gold News, Issue #002 — October, 2009 — More new businesses and special offers for you!

All the best,

JD

I’m going to preface this by saying that since I was a teenager in high school I was very opposed to the war in Vietnam. I still hold that view.

Even so, I’ve never been one of those people who took it out on the people who served in the military in Vietnam.

It has been a long time since I really thought about the Vietnam War and that all changed this week.

The Cherokee Scout ran a series of articles about local people who served in the war and I was moved enough by one of them that I called him and thanked him for what he did. We had a pleasant conversation for the next 20 minutes. I already respected him a lot, but, now, even more.

(I won’t mention any names. This was between him and me.)

I was never in the military, but I worried about the draft all through high school.

Unlike many of my friends, I was not drafted, but they were and quite a few of them went to Vietnam.

On Friday, October 9, 2009, I went to see The Moving Wall in Murphy, NC.

(I uploaded some photos of The Moving Wall in Murphy, NC on MurphyConnections.com.)

Every volunteer I saw was friendly and helpful.

After walking down the flag-bedecked path to the Wall, located right next to the River Walk, we arrived at the booth where all guests were asked to sign the register.

I think one of my cousins was killed in the war, but he was not a close cousin and I didn’t know his name. When one of the volunteers asked if I was looking for anyone in particular, I told him my cousin’s last name. He looked in the huge book and found a number of people with that same name, but none of them were from the Atlanta area. So, I wasn’t going to look for a particular name on the wall.

(After talking with my brother this afternoon, I realized I was thinking of the wrong branch of the family. He told me the name of our cousin who died in Vietnam. I’m going to try to get back to the Moving Wall before they leave and see if I can find his name.)

I spent a few minutes just standing there looking at it.

The Moving Wall is longer than I thought, but only half as long as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

I started walking down the Wall and looking at the names. At first, there are only a few names on each panel, but as you approach the center of the memorial, there are more and more names until the panels are full.

It affected me more than I thought it would. Even though I didn’t know anyone whose name was on that memorial, I had to stop along the way and read a few of the names and realize that these were real people who served and died in Vietnam.

Every now and then, someone would leave something stuck between two of the panels or something at the foot of the monument. There were photos of the people who had died, a few flowers, and even a pair of boots.

By the time I reached the end of The Moving Wall, I had tears in my eyes. I had to sit on one of the River Walk benches and let it all sink in.

At that moment, I had an entirely new way to look at the Vietnam War, and this time it was personalized by the names I read on that wall. Now, I understand the photos I’ve seen of people who visited the actual memorial in Washington.

I don’t know anyone on that wall, but others have friends, relatives, and people they served with memorialized there.

I felt a level of empathy for not just the names on the wall, but for the real people those names represent and for all the people who knew them.

It’s not just 58,000+ names, it’s hundreds of thousands of people who were personally affected by the war and the tragedy of so many lives cut short.

As I left, I stopped and thanked each volunteer I saw for helping to bring The Moving Wall to Murphy.

I realized that I was lucky and so were my friends. Of all the people I know who served in the Vietnam War, all of them came home alive. Some were radically changed and others were seriously wounded, but none of them died there.

Not everyone was that fortunate.

These words do not really represent how deeply I was moved by visiting the memorial, but they’re the best I can do.

I want to thank the Marine Corps League #1011, all the volunteers, and the sponsors, individuals, and businesses that contributed to bring The Moving Wall to Murphy.

If you haven’t visited, yet, you still have a couple more days.

All the best,

JD

If you look at the home page of this blog or read the RSS feed, it looks like I’ve been a lazy boy for the last month or so.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

I’ve been working behind the scenes to fix a major problem, update a large site, and bring a new site online.

My goal of bringing the new site online by July 1 was delayed about a week, but I’m making progress with it, again.

Dumped by Amazon

In the last week of June 2009, I received a notice from Amazon.com that they were terminating my affiliation with their associates program.

To say that I was surprised would be a huge understatement.

To top it off, it had nothing to do with me. I was dumped because I live in North Carolina and Amazon.com dumped all their associates in the entire state in one fell swoop.

This was done in anticipation of changes in the NC tax laws that had not been passed nor gone into effect!

I’ve been a proud associate of Amazon.com for about 13 years, but, after this, I’ll never recommend them to anyone and I won’t buy from them. I’m done with Amazon.com.

Rebuilding a large site

As a result of being dumped by Amazon.com, I have started to remove all links to their site. This is going to take me months to accomplish. I have links to their products on just about every page of most of my sites, and some of them have over 1,000 pages.

It’s a second-level priority, right behind building a new site, because I don’t want to send them any customers with no possibility of receiving a commission for my work.

I’ve removed links from most of my blogs, but modifying my static sites will take much longer.

Over the last couple of weeks, I completely rebuilt JohnDilbeck.com. This is one of my oldest and largest sites. In the process, I deleted several hundred pages that were out of date or no longer relevant.

Rebuilding the site was something that I’ve planned to do for a while, but being dumped by Amazon.com was the catalyst that motivated me to take action as quickly as I could.

My affiliate marketing business has taken a hit

After the world economic downturn last September, my marketing business has been hit hard by a big reduction in income.

This was not entirely unexpected, but the suddenness came as a surprise.

Since December, I’ve been making new plans to shift a part of my marketing efforts from affiliate marketing to helping locally-owned small businesses in Murphy, NC attract new customers and enticing existing customers to come back, again.

Murphy Gold is live

To do this, I worked for six months to plan how to accomplish these goals and started planning a new site.

Although there is still construction debris all around and parts of it still need a fresh coat of paint, Murphy Gold is now live.

I still have a lot to do on that site, but I’ve been working at it diligently. I’ve researched over 2,000 keyword phrase combinations and have been doing the initial traffic building work.

I’m not ready for a grand opening announcement, but I’m hoping that one will be forthcoming in a couple of weeks.

Back to my cave…

In the meantime, I’m going back to my cave in the mountains of western North Carolina and I’ll be working all hours of the day and night to get everything on my to-do list done as soon as possible.

One of these days, I’ll be able to write on this blog more frequently than I’ve been doing over the last several months.

Act on your dream!

JD

On Saturday, September 5, 2009, Heritage Partners of Cherokee County will host the Ninth Annual Heritage Walk and Festival in Konehete Part, Murphy, NC.

Local area artists and crafters are invited to visit the Heritage Walk and Festival website and download an application form in PDF format. (See the left column right next to “Arts & Crafts Show” for the link.)

Original artwork, hand-made items only. No imports or commercial goods will be approved.

No electrical service will be provided.

$25 application fee.

Your completed application form and check must be received by the August 8, 2009 deadline.

Today, I have spent some time pondering this question:

Is buying local a form of protectionism or is it something that is truly good for our community?

I can argue for both sides of the question, but I’m coming to believe more strongly that buying local is truly good for our communities.

I was reading several blogs on the topic this morning and was going to write a post with my thoughts on the topic on this blog, but decided it would be more suitable as the start of a discussion on the Murphy NC 28906 social networking forum.

So, instead of writing it here, I’ve created the new forum topic: Why are local businesses important?

I’m specifically wanting to discuss this with people interested in our Murphy, NC community, but others who have constructive thoughts on the topic are welcome to join our discussion either there or by commenting here.

More and more, as time passes, I’m becoming concerned with the economic health of our towns and cities and feel drawn to do whatever I can to help local business owners learn to use the new tools that are coming available to help them promote themselves and their businesses.

In doing so, we’ll also be promoting our towns, local organizations, and people who are working hard to make a difference.

What do you think?

Act on your dream!

JD

“Funding Secrets to Start, Expand, or Buy a Business,” a free workshop, will be presented on 5/21/07 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM in the Patterson Building at the Tri-County Community College’s main campus in Murphy.

The instructor is volunteer SCORE business counselor Jerry Chautin. He has over 30-years business lending and commercial real estate financing experience. You can e-mail him for details at JKChautin@aol.com.

Pre-registration is required and space is limited. Please call Cecelia Crawford at 828-835-4318 to reserve your place.

Admission Is Free To September 4 Heritage Walk and Festival in Murphy, NC

What began in 2001 with fewer than 100 souls braving the pouring rain to take a “heritage walk” through historic Murphy has blossomed into a 4th annual series of events coming Saturday, September 4, 2004.

Last year over 3,000 people turned out for a day long celebration of traditional mountain music, arts and crafts, blue ribbon memories of the county fair, and the heritage walking tours with characters from times past. Produced by Heritage Partners of Cherokee County in collaboration with a host of volunteers and sponsoring organizations, this year’s Heritage Walk and Festival features:

• The Heritage Walk — historic trade and commerce tours departing at 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m.; pyramid tours departing at 1:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. from the Old LandN Depot

• The Cherokee County Heritage Fair — blue ribbon competitions in the traditional home survival skills, special events and community exhibits on display at the Old L and N Depot and outdoor county fair tent (9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
• The Appalachian Heritage Crafters Show — area artists and crafters on the Railroad Street festival grounds, behind the Old LandN Depot and Hackney Warehouse (9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
• Mountain Song — all day live stage performances feature traditional bluegrass, old-time and more on the Railroad Street festival grounds, behind the Old Hackney Warehouse (10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
• Becky and the Robber of Buckhorn Ridge — one act play performances by the Murphy High drama students, based on Jean Bravick’s story of pioneer life in Cherokee County’s 1840 Valleytown (First United Methodist Church at 11:00 a.m., 12:00 noon, and 1:00 p.m.)
• Cherokee County Historical Museum’s Heritage Day — a celebration of pioneering history and Cherokee Indian culture, on Peachtree Street
• Farmers Market
• Food Vendors
• Pocket Parks Collectibles Fair
• rides and activities for children
• and more.

And, it’s all free.

The public is invited to come out, and all festival guests are encouraged to park in town and walk to all events. Visit heritagepartners.org for more information.

The Scenic Circle

New Day Trip Guide Scheduled for Release September 4 at Heritage Walk & Festival in Murphy, North Carolina

Imagine a 50-mile radius circle drawn around the Cherokee County courthouse in historic Murphy, NC, and something to find your way to the outdoor wonders of that area. Heritage Partners of Cherokee County is pleased to announce its first publication of The Scenic Circle, scheduled for release at the September 4 Heritage Walk & Festival in Murphy. First in a series, the guidebook provides directions for easy day trips to mountain balds, lakes and rivers, waterfalls, trails and other outdoor attractions to be explored in the northwest quadrant of The Scenic Circle. And, as the first edition is coming off the presses, destinations for future editions are already being assembled for the northeast, southwest and southeast quadrants.

Elizabeth Carter, a part-time resident of Apalachia Lake who has a number of published trail guides to her credit, volunteered her time and energies to author The Scenic Circle. Enthusiastic about her soon to be full-time home, Carter is quick to say “the economics of heritage and ecological tourism are so important to our community, and the outdoor attractions of this beautiful mountain region are certainly something to share and celebrate.”

The OEO Small Growing Opportunities grant program agreed, having provided funding for the project’s first publication. Jonathan and Tammy Fleischer of The Computer Workshop in Murphy lined up to do the layout, photography and printing of the guidebook. Jonathan looks back with a smile about preparing for the publication, saying “we ventured out as a family and found every site on the map. It was really neat to see so many places we’d always heard of, but never knew much about or even how to find them.”

Copies of The Scenic Circle will be on sale for $3 each, or 2 for $5, at the Heritage Partners booth on September 4 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. by the Old L&N Depot. Author Elizabeth Carter will be there to sign copies of the book between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

All proceeds benefit the nonprofit works of Heritage Partners, proud sponsors of The Murphy River Walk Project, the annual Heritage Walk & Festival, the annual Holiday Taste of Cherokee County Home Tour, the historical children’s story set in 1840 Valleytown — Becky and The Robber of Buckhorn Ridge — and most recently The Scenic Circle outdoor day trip destinations guide series.

For more information about Heritage Partners, visit heritagepartners.org.

The one day event will be held on Saturday, September 4 from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm at the Old L&N Depot, Railroad Street Park and the Pocket Parks in the historic town center of Murphy.

Produced by Heritage Partners of Cherokee County, the annual event began in 2001 with the Heritage Walk and a group of 100 enthusiastic walking tour guests. Last year’s festival events drew more than 3,000 people and organizers are gearing up for an even larger crowd on September 4.

More information is available online at:

http://www.heritagepartners.org/hwf.htm

and in Murphy at the Appalachian Heritage Crafters shop on Hwy 64 West, the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce on Hwy 64 West, and The Pickled Parrot in town on Valley River Avenue.

For more information, artists and crafters may contact Claire Groff at 828-837-9636 or by email at clairepg@aol.com; all other vendors and exhibitors may contact Barbara Darling at 828-837-9636 or by email at daraff@dnet.net

“Our volunteers and sponsors are looking forward to the big day. We hope everyone will come out and enjoy this celebration of our local history and heritage of music, artistry, craftsmanship and traditional home survival skills,” said event director and Heritage Partners president Barbara Hughes.

Community clubs and individuals interested in entering the products of their home canning, baking, quilting, vegetable and flower gardening skills in this year’s Heritage County Fair blue ribbon competitions and exhibits may contact Jessica Roberson at the Cherokee County Cooperative Extension Service at 828-837-2210 or by email at jessica_roberson@ncsu.edu for more information and registration details.

This year’s Heritage Walk & Festival includes the Heritage Walk tours, the Appalachian Heritage Crafters Show, the Heritage Music Festival, the Heritage County Fair, produce and plant growers, food vendors, and special fun for children.

Admission to all events remains free of charge and open to the public.

Heritage Partners is an all volunteer, nonprofit organization building on the heritage of Cherokee County — North Carolina’s first, last, and finest place to be.