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Award for
Creative Excellence - 2002 International Film & Video Festival,
Redondo Beach, California |
In 1973 Milly and Al McCanless bought one
hundred and sixty acres in Seagrove, North Carolina and set out to make it
in life as farmers. Such a move would be a challenge for any young couple
and so it was for Milly and Al, but it was also an adventure which showed
their sincerity and commitment to living a life that everyone, at some time
or another, wants but few really realize.
It takes a lot of courage to turn a dream into reality, and when you do,
darn it, it's no longer a dream! That's when the family dogs reveal another
side of their nature and kill the two goats you bought. The same two goats
you had named after
your aunts Agnes and Genevieve. Or the nameless cow who, with a wild kick of the bucket, scattered
fresh milk on the ground day after day. In
dreams milk cows don't do that, and they don't provide the meat for dinner
either. But, this one did. Goats, who managed to survive the dogs,
provided the family with milk from here on out.
   
But life on the farm also provided memories that dreams are made of. Three
children, all boys, came in quick succession. (A daughter, Fiva, was born
later) Three distinct personalities who managed to grow up together as one.
They were born into freedom. The farm was their playground. It was their
world, and when they left it later in life to pursue their own adventures
they realized it was also their home. So, they've come back. Not to farm,
but to continue turning out hand-painted and crystalline pottery. The
McCanless family began
making pottery in 1983 when Milly needed miniature dishes for a dollhouse. She couldn't afford the dishes that were for sale at the time
so she took a pottery class at Montgomery Community College and worked her
way down from regular pots to miniatures. Soon, Al began to help paint the
miniatures and he worked his way up from miniatures to regular pots.
And so opened the 14th pottery shop in Seagrove. A shop that has truly added
to the pottery tradition of the area. And as to life in that part of the
world one need only experience the hospitality and kindness of the McCanless
family and listen to the music they play to realize that life really doesn't
get much better than this.
But you never know what's up around the bend. So, we'll keep looking, and
measure the future with the past, and where we've been: at the end of a
gravel road off Dover Church Road in Seagrove, North Carolina
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