Scooching Over to Make Room
There’s nothing warmer than a hearty breakfast on a cold morning, especially when it comes with a side order of small-town hospitality. Just ask Steve and Marie Cortes.
On a trip from their home in Florida one cold January morning, the Corteses decided to pull into Ellijay, Georgia, a town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains about 90 minutes north of Atlanta. They parked in the thriving town square not far from the old-fashioned clock tower and walked into the Cornerstone Café, only to find it jam-packed. Just as they prepared to take their bellies elsewhere, one of the diners motioned them over. “We can make room,” he said. In fact, several diners scooched over until there was enough space for the couple to pull up two chairs at the end of a table. Breakfast, and camaraderie, was served. “After an hour, we had made too many friends to count,” Steve says.
The hospitality may have surprised the Corteses, but Ellijay is famous in these parts for taking care of others. When an epic thunderstorm roared through the town in July, dozens of residents were trapped in their homes by fallen trees—or unable to stay in their homes at all. Without even being asked, neighbors offered neighbors food and comfort. “This is the most amazing place I have ever lived! Every time I think about it I actually get emotional,” one woman wrote on Facebook. “Thank you for coming to
my house, picking up my generator, working on it, then bringing it back to my house at 10 p.m. and hooking it up for me. Thank you for the delicious chicken and dumplings and fresh pineapple.”
Trees connect many folks in this town of 1,700—Ellijay bills itself as the apple capital of Georgia. For the most part, the folks who pick the Granny Smiths, Fujis, and Honeycrisps are workers from Mexico and Central America. In some towns, the welcome mat might have been pulled out from under the new arrivals. But the people of Ellijay have made room. The Gilmer Learning Center now teaches English as a second language, while the Catholic church offers Mass in Spanish. A charity fashion show and auction are also in the works, with the proceeds earmarked for the farm families.
“I came to the United States from Mexico not knowing any English, and I’ve always felt very welcomed by my peers and the teachers in the community,” says Maria Gonzalez-santos, 21, a biology major at the local community college.
When Gonzalez-santos’s father was picked up and held at an ICE detention facility after his work permit had expired, community members did everything they could to lend the family a hand. “People were constantly checking up on us, asking if we needed help paying bills, transportation, food—people who my dad has worked for, several of my teachers, and my employer as well,” says Gonzalez-santos. “Regardless of their political stances, we’ve always felt support here. I am very thankful for this community. It’s shaped me into the person I am today.”
Ellijay’s spirit of acceptance has a way of getting into people’s blood. It happened to Steve and Marie Cortes too. The couple that was just driving through town those many years ago felt so welcomed that they wound up moving to Ellijay. They even opened a store—whimz, a children’s clothing boutique. It is located right next door to the Cornerstone Café.