Topic: F. Scott and Zelda Visit the Mountains
I was reading about how F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda had an eventful visit to my home town of Asheville, NC from 1935-1936. Some accounts say he was trying to recover from tuberculous, while others say he had acquired a taste for gin and was trying to kick it by what was known at the time as the "beer cure". Unfortunately he drank about 50 ponies of beer (a pony is 12 ounces) and for some reason this cure didn't work for him. Meanwhile, Zelda had been diagnosed as having chronic schizophrenic. She was checked into a local mental institution, Highland Hospital, which treated the mental illness by using less medications and focused on a good diet, exercise, and the "mountain air". She would live there the rest of her life which ended in 1948. F. Scott left the mountains for Hollywood in 1937 and seemed to have recaptured his gift, but died in 1940 while he was writing The Last Tycoon. This story inspired me to write this song about their visit long ago. Here is a link if you want to have a listen: https://soundcloud.com/jets60/f-scott-and-zelda-visit-the
F. Scott and Zelda Visit the Mountains By Jeff Gilpin
...and yet a Washington Commanders fan (unless they change their name again) ...long story...HTT...C