Mountain Renaissance Man
Bolick keeps traditions alive

By Jason Reagan

The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Renaissance Man as someone “who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences.”

In terms of the arts and sciences that have fueled human life in the western North Carolina mountains, Glenn Bolick defines a unique version of the Renaissance Man.

Glenn Bolick spins his craft. Photo by Marie Freeman

Whether it’s Appalachian music, wood-fired pottery, storytelling or sawmilling, Bolick continues to preserve a unique brand of mountain living that echoes throughout a deep hollow that has been in his family for more than 100 years.

To round out his many interests, Bolick at 68 also pitches a mean softball in the Watauga County Recreation League and can still smack a few liners into right field.

Down in the Valley
From his family home in the Bailey’s Camp community, just south of Blowing Rock, Bolick — along with his wife, Lula — operates both a modern and rustic pottery ensconced in a collection of old-time buildings he has raised over the years to give the operation, Bolick and Traditions Pottery, a homey look. Every building is decorated with old farming implements and metal signs as well as a cornucopia of handmade bowls, mugs, pitchers and jugs. Festive orange, ceramic pumpkins leer at visitors to the pottery showroom — a one-story walk-up resembling an old country store.

Bolick’s love of tradition even extends to the bathroom — he collects traditional outhouses. Three non-operational mountain latrines are lined up near the main buildings greeting the hundreds of visitors who visit Glenn and Lula’s business every year.

In the middle of this “town” of mountain nostalgia, Bolick stands on a rock and dirt floor inside his workshop deftly cutting decorative holes into several unglazed pieces.

Bolick provides the wider community with a living history lesson with every story he tells and every piece of wood he cuts at his sawmill.

Beginnings
Born in 1939, Bolick grew up in the midst of a 250-acre tract owned by his great-grandfather, Marcus Bolick. Although the family land was eventually subdivided and sold among relatives, Glenn eventually bought back the family home and now lives in the 114-year-old main house. He would later add the workshops and public store.

Bolick remembers a childhood of labor and simple fun.

“We used to dig roots and herbs to buy our school clothes,” he said. The family would sell their finds Wilcox Pharmaceutical which now houses Wilcox Emporium in Boone.

Although he is now known for pottery, Bolick grew up in a sawmill family — that’s where he found his first work away from home.

“When I got big enough to work at the sawmill, that’s what I did,” he said — big enough meaning 10 years old. Traveling to Burke County where his father worked, Bolick “toted” water for his sister, who made a living cooking three meals a day for the sawmill workers.

He would later return to sawmilling as a hobby after a successful start to the pottery business.

In 1962, while working on a rock-crushing crew near Asheboro, N.C., Bolick first met Lula Owens at Tommy’s Drive-in and Grill.

“I met and married her in the same year. I only dated her about three months. I had traveled around for while and I’d already filled my wild oats.

His marriage also helped cement his life’s work.

Potter’s Tale
“Her daddy was one of the famous potters down in that area,” he said, referring to M.L. Owens of Seagrove — then known as the pottery capital of the Southeast and home to about 200 potters.

The couple decided to join in the family business. “I thought I try it awhile and see how I liked it,” Bolick said, “I was so fascinated when I first saw it.”

Bolick began his career by stacking would and finished product for Owen and taking care of three or four wood-fired kilns.

Although Bolick now uses an electric kiln, he still maintains a wood-fired one as well so “we don’t forget how to do it.”

Back in the 60s, he learned to make pottery in his spare time using a manual kick or treadle wheel.

They earned a set amount per item and could often earn $30 day at a time when most factories paid $30 per week.

In 1973, the Bolicks opened their own pottery operation on the old family home place back in Watauga County where they raised a family and passed on the tradition — in fact, daughter Janet now operates Traditions pottery next door with her husband, Mike Calhoun as the sixth generation in the business.

The family also operates Bolick Pottery and Traditions Pottery in the Martin House on Main Street in downtown Blowing Rock.

On the last Saturday in June, the Bailey’s Camp site hosts Heritage Day and Wood Kiln Opening featuring various crafters, music, demonstrations in sawmilling, log splitting and corn grinding.

Although Bolick still loves his pottery, he admits he’s recently been focusing on a return to his first love, sawmilling.

He recently donated an antique sawmill to the Monroe Brothers Foundation in Rosine, Ky. in an effort to restore the childhood home of bluegrass legend Bill Monroe. He also continues to provide demonstrations locally.

Still Time for Music
In addition to his pottery business, Bolick finds time to attend festivals as well as hosting one every year at his home shop. His love of music dates back to childhood when he recalls absorbing song after song on his family’s battery-operated radio — electricity wouldn’t come to the house until later. While attending Bailey’s Camp Baptist Church, Bolick was introduced to shape-note singing and three-part harmony.

Locally, Bolick can be seen playing at the Jones House in Boone on occasion and at various jam sessions — filling on the guitar and harmonica as well as the banjo.

On the second Sunday of each July through the last Sunday of September, Bolick hosts Mountain Music Jammin’ from 2-5 p.m. (cloggers are also welcome).

A Story to Tell
Just as the radio sparked Bolick’s interest in music, the pre-television airwaves also launched him into the world of storytelling.

“I learned a story from Tex Ritter off the radio. I told it at school in a talent show about a dog name Ole Shorty,” Bolick said, adding the name “Shorty” stuck as his nickname for years.

With noted local storyteller Orville Hicks, Bolick continues to keep the tradition alive through regional workshops and festivals. In 1998, he was named as an honorary member of the N.C. Storytelling Guild and has won several folklore awards. Bolick’s book “If That Ain’t True, Grits Ain’t Groceries” is currently on sale at the pottery stores.

For more information
Bolick Pottery and Traditions Pottery are both located on Bolick Road just south of Blowing Rock off Blackberry Road as well as in downtown Blowing Rock. For more information, call (828) 295-3862 — e-mail at sales@traditionspottery.com, on the Web at www.traditionspottery.com.