12/29/2010
Berea College was founded as the first interracial, coed school in the South. Their mission is admirable – a prestigious college in which only low-income, high-achieving students are admitted. Tuition is free, except all students must work for the college – usually through their craft program. The craft culture has spread to the entire town and it is now one of those artisan hubs.
We started by visiting the college and its Log House Craft Gallery. This is where students sell their wares – apparently. Like many “small town secret gets big” places we’ve seen the Log House has gotten very big. Now it sells crafts from all over Kentucky, so it was hard to tell what items were made by students (if any) and which by professionals. It would have been nice if the distinction had been made. We were genuinely interested in seeing student work. Regardless, purchases do still help offset tuition, so that’s still good.
I must mention the two girls who were working at the store. They both seemed as though they were contemplating ending their own lives – if they didn’t fall asleep first. I asked one of the girls if she was a student. “Yeah,” she said. Then she yawned. I wasn’t too surprised. As romantic as Patricia makes this college sound, would I expect the students to be that different from anywhere else?
After our college experience we took a nice walk in the downtown art district, peeking into artsy ceramics and pottery places. Strangely, there were two chocolate places across the street from each other – “The Chocolate Factory” and “The Fudge Factory.” One was run by a man, the other a woman. Laura figures they were a divorced couple trying to stick it to each other.
We capped off the afternoon by eating leftover Christmas dinner in our car. Pretty classy, huh?
I have an old classmate who is a professor at Berea. She says the chocolatiers are employer and former employee. Yes, it's personal.
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