Worlds Apart, Living Right Next Door

Chapter Six. The Thrift Store.

Lala’s Emporium is a thrift store on the outskirts of Marshall, North Carolina. It is owned and run by a mother and daughter team, Kathy and Alanna Gerace. They sell the kinds of things you would expect in a thrift store. Quirky coffee mugs, cute water glasses, sweet signs, including one with the peace dove transposed on a ceramic map of the United States. They have a sign on their front door - the rainbow sign - with “every one is welcome here,” each word written across each color of the rainbow. It makes people angry. “People see the sign and just walk away,” Alanna says. Or they come in and tell her how angry they are that she has such a sign on the shop’s front door.

Alanna is 26. She moved here from New Jersey with her parents when she was eight. She has always felt like an outsider. Kids are mean and ruthless she says. They used to taunt her - “Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a llama” - because her name is Alanna. “Silly things,” she says, “It’s just, it doesn't end after you get out of school in this area. It’s kind of cliquey.” She never truly settled in. Now, she lives in South Asheville. Thirty minutes away by car, but worlds apart.

Her parents live not too far from the thrift store, on a quiet cul de sac with a breathtaking view of the mountains never too far away. The first time I meet them, I am out on a canvass with Judy Major. They are delighted to see her. Alanna’s father wants to show us his favorite yard sign which he pulls from out of the garage: “Not Voting is the #1 Cause of Unwanted Presidencies. Please Exercise Your Right to Choose.” It’s written in all-caps, red, white, and blue, and three images of a baby Trump wrapped in diapers run across the middle. They are definitely Democrats, although, Kathleen says, they were not truly political until “Donald Trump came on the scene.”

I ask Kathleen what it’s like to live as a Democrat in the midst of this mountain of red. “It doesn't really affect our personal lives too much,” Kathleen starts to say, “although I say that, but it has, because quite a few of our neighbors are very conservative, and we have kind of pulled away…,” “…and they’ve pulled away too,” her daughter adds. When Trump got into the White House, Kathleen says, “they didn't hide it anymore.” Trump flags, christian nationalist flags and, says Alanna, “really hateful flags like, ‘Get Joe and the Hoe,’ and ‘Joe and the Hoe have to go.’”

Kathleen and her daughter almost speak with one voice. They finish each other’s sentences, adding to each other’s thoughts.

Alanna says they are conflicted as business owners. They don’t want to polarize the community, but “at the same time, the community needs a loud voice…,” Her mother picks up, “especially in this election. We just feel that it's so important that our voices be heard, because a lot of people don't have the right information. They think they do and they don’t." Alanna continues, “There are so many people that can be very deliberately and harmfully affected by electing Donald Trump again. It’s just something we can't afford to be too quiet on anymore.”

The back of Alanna’s car is covered in bumper stickers. There are some beauties: “Empathy is Cool,” “Y’all need science,” and, possibly my favorite: “Fine. Biden. But this is bullshit.” She doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. Kathleen says her daughter wasn’t really into politics before Trump. Yes she paid attention but not like this. “She has found her voice in this election.”

They talk about how Trump’s mendacity has given license to others running for office to show off their extremes. “Even our governor’s race is scary,” Kathleen says, (“Don’t get me started on the governor,” Alanna says), “Trump has made these people feel entitled to go out there and do their thing and be all of that and think they are going to get elected, and that, oh my god, that scares the heck out of me.”

Mark Robinson is the current Republican lieutenant governor and is running for governor. A christian conservative, he disparages the LGBT community, has wished, openly, for days in the distant past, when women couldn’t vote, and has blamed and shamed women for getting pregnant in the first place, (“you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”) He had, at one point called for an all out ban on abortion in the state but has since said he would allow a ‘heartbeat,” ban, (i.e. when the fetus is 6 weeks). In September, CNN reported that Robinson spent time on a pornography website, where he professed to being turned on by transgender sex, wished that slavery still existed - said he’d “certainly buy a few” - and, possibly the clincher, described himself as a “black nazi.” (Robinson has denied these allegations. Trump, who not too long ago described Robinson as “Martin Luther King on Steroids,” has distanced himself from the Robinson campaign).

Locally, Alanna sees hope. Younger people from across the political divide are getting together and talking to each other, even when they disagree. Other local businesses also display the rainbow flag on their storefronts. In the same strip mall, there is now a free and confidential overdose prevention service (something Alanna believes wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago).

And, for all the anger around the rainbow sign on their storefront, there are those who do express their gratitude for displaying this sign. “I love that we're a thrift store and I love what we do,” Alanna says, “But if we can be a safe space for people to come in and take a breath and know that they're going to be okay here, then that’s…” and her mom continues, “… and not judged, and not poorly treated, it makes a difference.”

Both Kathleen and Alanna are well aware that many in the community don’t like that they are so “loud,” as they put it. “That’s not something that I'm ever going to be sad about,” Alanna says. “It’s more important to be an open, welcoming part of the community than to care about offending people that hang on to that hatred.”

Addendum: Since meeting Kathleen and Alanna in August, as the world knows, their county, Madison County, in Western North Carolina, and the city of Asheville, have been decimated by Hurricane Helene. It is truly heartbreaking to see. The stories coming from the region about those who have lost loved ones particularly so. Kathleen and Alanna are safe although, as Alanna wrote, “we are heartbroken and a little shell shocked to see our home so broken.”

If you would like to support the people of Madison County, today I point you to the free and confidential overdose prevention service that has space in the same strip mall as Lala’s Emporium. They are Holler Harm Reduction and you can support them at this link. Thank you.