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Date: 12/8/2025
Duration: 27:46
Guest: David Nicholson
Listen on Spotify:
Summary:
In this episode, Ed sits down with longtime Henderson County leader David Nicholson for a fun and thoughtful look at local history, community growth, and a few great stories from his decades of public service. David reflects on his career in county finance and his years as County Manager, sharing memories from major projects like the detention center, human services building, and renovations to the historic courthouse.
He also talks about one unforgettable day hosting President George H.W. Bush during the Apple Festival, complete with motorcades, weather troubles, and a surprise trip to Spartanburg’s runway beside Air Force One.
The conversation takes a lighthearted turn as David shares his love for Corvettes, local drives with the Apple Country Corvette Club, and the simple joy of a good home-cooked meal. He touches on area favorites like Pisgah Forest, 12 Bones, Luna, and Flat Rock Playhouse, while offering a laid-back look at growth across Henderson County and how the community has evolved since the seventies.
It’s a warm, story-filled episode with plenty of local flavor and a guest who has seen Henderson County from every angle.
Thanks for tuning in — and keep living local.
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Transcript:
Hey, it's Ed. Thanks again for joining us today. Our special guest is Mr. David Nicholson. I've got no David over the past few years and I just wanted to have him on. He has lots of stories, lots of wisdom. ⁓ He's lived a great life and is still living a great life and he's had a lot of experience here in the area. And I just look forward to talking to you, David, and here and shed some light on some things. ⁓ Thanks for having me, Ed. I'm looking forward to it. Awesome. The past and present. So the biggest thing I've
I've known from stories you've shared is you were county manager for Henderson County. tell us a little bit about that and maybe some things that come to mind. I actually spent half my career in finance and half my career as county manager. I started out as assistant finance director and then became finance director. And I really liked to find, was, County was my thing. I loved County. And then I had the opportunity to move upstairs to be assistant county manager for a couple of years and I became county manager. So.
And I said I enjoyed being County Manager, but it was a whole lot of difference because I learned that in finance everything is debits and credits, black and white. mean, upstairs things are just so very, you know, with politics, you're dealing with people. So it's a whole lot different than being downstairs and financing the cubbyhole where nobody knows where you are. So which did you tend to like better? There are many days on the day. There are many days as County Manager, said, why did I leave finance? Why did I do that? That was stupid, David.
It was doable career, 30 years with Harris County, 30 years today, by the way. today, today. It was January, this is first one I started with the county. So I retired on December 31st. Gotcha. So but I had a chance to do a lot of things, go to lot of places. You know, I was looking just the other day at all the schools in the county and saying, Bill, I helped build that one, I helped did this. And I did all the finance and work for those school projects, Blue Ridge Community College, Party Hospital.
had my fingers in a lot of projects over the lifetime. As county manager, we built the jail, the detention center, sorry about that, the human services building on the Sparburg Highway, the animal shelter on Stoney Mountain next to the landfill. And we signed a contract to renovate the historic courthouse and that's when I retired. So a of fingers and lot of projects over the years. And do you keep track of things going on now at all? Yeah, to a certain extent.
read the paper, kind of keep myself organized and those types of things in the community. But, you know, I don't get involved in things. I've gotten out all that stuff. That's their thing. I made a determination when I left being County manager is I'm not County manager anymore and I'm not going to be involved. People would call me and ask me things and I'd say, Hey, I can tell you what I know, but that's all I knew. I have no opinions on anything anymore. So that's a smart answer. Good answer. So were you there when I met, maybe it was afterwards. I'm trying to think, but like when they did the renovation of main street.
Yeah, I think that happened right before I came to Henderson County. don't. OK, I don't. I remember when it was four lanes, but we'd come over here. But I believe it was finished time I got here. Well, I never knew it was four lanes until a few weeks ago, and that was odd to me. I still can't picture that. Well, there's a long course, lots of stories about how here still got formed. But Judge Mitchell King, who gave the community downtown Hendersonville.
He wanted Main Street wide enough where you could turn a 16 ox cart around in the middle of Main Street. Which you clearly can't do now. So he could come back and say, I want my property back. But that was his one caveat is, you know, I to be able to turn an ox cart around the middle street. That's why it's so wide. Most downtowns are not that wide. Right. Yeah, there's still, well, gosh, I shouldn't mention parking, but there's places to park on the side of the streets and all that. Yeah. Yeah.
I think what I'm thinking of a few years ago, I thought they, maybe it was a beautification they did. And they made it wind a little bit. did, you know, several years ago went through it, renovated all of downtown, the city did, and put more planters out there, more trees, more benches and whatever. And then it actually extended it down a block from first to Allen and kind of a little bit of a look, but it's still the same idea. but here's what's under one whole job and we have a beautiful downtown.
And as I used to travel around to see lots of small towns in Western North Carolina, it's here. So he's got to be the prettiest. really is. I agree. I agree. And in real estate, a lot of people come and love it and say the same thing. And some people, interestingly, don't like it because it's too much traffic in their mind, which is crazy to think that's a whole other story for another podcast. How about one thing I've asked? This is a rabbit trail, but you have a good answer. ⁓ We've we.
We've asked a lot of people their opinion of roundabouts. I personally like the roundabouts and most people say they like the roundabouts. Where do you fit on that? I think in some places they're very useful. ⁓ know, sometimes we cut across through Lowell Park going toward like Spartanburg Highway. Use that roundabout there and it works really well. If I go to Brevard, because you live in Etowah, so it's kind of halfway to go to Lowe's and Brevard, whatever, and I use two roundabouts over there getting over there they're fine.
It does kind of bother me that they're putting four four roundabouts in Laurel Park that just seems to be a little bit of overdone I mean I guess and I can understand the reason behind but in Laurel Park that's little stretch little parks gonna have four roundabouts Sounds a lot to me. I drove through there the other day and that there's a lot of road work going on there is and if you come into town like I do all the time, yes, you something you need to give yourself plenty of time because you may be stuck in traffic for a while and Something I didn't know was
the city or county really is not involved in that. It's a state issue. You know, there, the people just call all the time, especially who moved here from other parts of the country and they would call the county manager's office saying, you know, I got a problem with my road. So I ain't got nothing to do with that. You either see the federal road, like the interstates, State routes, you know, and it's like 64 or whatever. And then, then you have city, city roads.
or Musel Road. So the county has no responsibility for roads at all. that was one headache I never had to worry about. Yeah. And is that normal? It depends on where you are. mean, you go to South Carolina, it's it stopped that case. know, there are no state roads. They're all county roads. Okay. Depends what part of the line you cross. That's what I thought. All right. Very interesting. Huh. Well, tell us something exciting while you were working for the county. Something exciting, Something exciting.
A news for us, Okay. secret, a gem. Yeah, sure. Yeah, one thing was, was really exciting for the counties when during the Apple Festival when President Bush was running for reelection, President H.W. ⁓ Bush was running for reelection, and he came to the Apple Festival. Just for clarification, I believe that's the one that was vice president with Reagan. Vice President Reagan. When Reagan went, he became president. So he's running for reelection, actually gets the bill.
Carter, not Carter, Clinton, Bill Clinton. And he came to here and so first of all, it was a big deal. I never forget Miller's laundry back then. They had it their sign up front. It secret service suits clean for free. But he was going to speak in front of the historic courthouse down on Main Street. So the guy who was chairman of the board then, the county manager, myself, assistant manager then, we went up there to see how the
He was going to build the stage and everything. ⁓ So this little lady and little man came up to us and here's three guys in suits, you know, up there, ⁓ watching the construction. And this little lady came up to us and said, you all with the Secret Service? And I said, man, we're so secretive. I told you I'd have to kill you. But that was a fun day. I actually got to drive in the motorcade.
I had a secret service agent beside me and two members of the press behind me. We picked him up in Asheville and he took him to lunch at a family's house in Asheville, then drove him down here. It started raining while he was speaking. And so we got him back in the cars and we loaded up our, in my case, my folks who were riding with me, took him to the Herschel Airport and they brought in Marine One to have him to pick him up with the, ⁓ there at the airport. Well he got,
They got him into the airport and everybody was so nice. Everybody we went to the campaign, the White House, we're all just really nice people except one young guy who was just a pain to deal with. And so we were all standing with all the drivers, just everyone talking about how much they hated that young kid. When he came running back to us and said, get back in your car. I said, we're having to bring him back because he can't fly in the weather because the weather was so bad. So they brought him back. We all loaded back up again and headed down I-26 to Greatville-Sarpenburg Airport where Air Force One was parked.
Now, first of all, coming down here, all the roads are closed, right? No, nobody get on the interstate except for motorcade. Well, going to Spartanburg, there was no, there were people passing us because they didn't know. It was unplanned. It was unplanned. And then Ashfield Airport was probably was big enough to allow. So we're going down the road. First of all, this car came flying by and I saw my six-year-old, you know, getting these talking to his sleeve where these microphone wasn't.
And I said, it's okay. I know him. He's a sheriff's deputy. He's sheriff's deputy. he got back and he said, he's okay. He was just flying down the road. And so we actually tried to drive right over the tarmac, right next to Air Force One. ⁓ And that was a really interesting day. So, but they left so much stuff. We had a... ⁓
whole bunch of offices and spaces for them. They left all their paperwork, all their information, all their notes, everything. that was an interesting day. get to see the President of Limousine, Marine One, Air Force One, those black Suburbans that follow the President. You don't want to mess with those guys. I'm telling you, they take their job very seriously. That was an interesting time. That's really cool. Yeah. So how does it work with Marine One? It just didn't feel...
wasn't safe to have passengers, but it flew back obviously. I it flew back some point. I don't know how long it was there. But they ship those things all over the world. So, know, they ship his cars, they ship his ⁓ helicopters. They're used to it. Yeah, that's always amazing. I've heard stories of how they have multiple, you know, situations and it's just, it's a big fleet almost that flies around. a YouTube video yesterday, Jay Leno garage.
And he actually brought President Limousine to him and let him see that. that was, and they were opening the doors showing how thick those doors are and how the glass works. I it let you look inside, they wouldn't, they let you kind of see some of the features of the beast. That's cool. Does that mean you're friends with Jay Leno? No, Jay Leno's garage. It's a podcast. You've heard of podcasts, haven't you? Yes. I was just thinking that'd be fun to have Jay Leno as a guest if you did know him. Thanks, David.
So you mentioned cars, that's a rabbit trail for us. Tell us about ⁓ something to do with Corvettes, I think. When I was just a kid, I loved Corvettes. I don't want boys to do this now, but we made model cars. know, about this big a model car. I did Army trucks. I did your Army trucks. I mean, I always did Corvettes because I thought they were neat things. In fact, I even made one that won a candy apple red.
and it won the best in show when I was just in elementary school. Highlight of my youth was winning a award for a car. So, I always loved a Corvette, but I never had one. And I had the opportunity about six years ago to buy one for the first time. And so I bought it and just loved it. I enjoyed it. Found out there was a Corvette club here in town, which I didn't know it even existed. And so...
They invited me to go on a ride with them. We went to Cashier's for lunch one day and just nicest bunch of people. So we actually joined the Apple Country Corvette Club. And I've been in lots of organizations over my career and things I've been involved in. my wife was a dental hygienist. She said she was in her little office with her patient and that's what she did for eight hours every day. So she wasn't involved with but she'll tell you, she loves being part of the Corvette Club. The people are so nice and you we...
We do one or two trips a month to a restaurant somewhere for a drive and then we have a monthly meeting and then sometimes we just have meetups where we go to a brewery, winery, to a restaurant and just meet up there for the fellowship of it. And when that happens, how many are going? Well, it depends. We'll have as many for crews. We go to Little Switzerland, you'll have 20 cars maybe. Wow.
And they're all just following each other. Just following each other. That's cool. It's hard to keep together that many cars. ⁓ But I think we had 14 that went to Cashears, Glenville just a couple of weeks ago. and we kind of got separated a little bit, but that was okay. We we got, we all caught up at the restaurants. Yeah. And somebody in the back might intentionally try to slow down so they could drive faster to catch up. Well, that's sometimes, sometimes people will drive too fast, get in line, stay there. But, but it's, it's a lot of, but we're supposed to have a radio.
Now, not everybody's got one, but you know, so you can communicate with in the front with somebody in the middle and somebody in the back. So we kind of all know where we are. So back in the old days, my dad had a CB radio and the person in front had the front door person. The middle is a rocking chair. Okay. And the person in the back was the back door. Okay. Keep an eye on everything. There you go. Do you all ever race when you're going somewhere? No, that's too bad. No, no, no, no, no, no, ⁓
Mean you can have a son of a push it every so often is the Corvette but I learned a long time ago that that Policeman would love to stop and give a ticket to a red Corvette and My first one in my the one I've got now are both red Corvettes. Gotcha. know, it's like, you know, give me a ticket Give me a ticket. So I don't I do not push it So the Corvette Club do the tell us about that real fast. So they what ages are those cars? Yeah, we've got
know, the core mounts are by generation. The C1s are the original core mounts, the 53, 55, 58, 59, whatever. And then you get into C2s, the early 60s, which had a little different look to them. And then you get into C3s, and that's when they became more muscle cars. they became, you and so, know, like the 63, excuse me, 63 is the one has the T-top.
You've seen that one. They did it for one year, but that's all they did it for. So that's the C3. And then to go all the way back, so mine are both C6s. My first one was a 2006. Now my one is a 2013. It's the 60th anniversary Corvette. then the next year they had a company, well actually the very next year, besides mine, they came out with a C7. And now the ones that are brand new are C8s. So they make, every 10 years they change the look.
little bit to a whole lot. I it went from the C7 to the C8. mean, that's a massive change. It went to a mid-engine Corvette, whatever. But it's a whole different Corvette. And what size engine is yours? Mine's an NS3, which means about 470 horsepower. Wow. Eight cylinder? Oh, yeah. Are they always eight cylinders? What kind of question is that, Of course they're eight Are they always eight cylinder? Yes. Okay.
For some reason I thought I heard of a six cylinder Corvette. I would say, don't know. Some of the early ones, the C1, C2s may have had a smaller engine. But once you got into C3s, trust me, they're all VH. Or now, they're mid engines. They're trying to compete with Porsters and those type of things. I'm not sure what they are. They're a whole other world. Have you ever had a Tesla drive up next to you in one race? No. No, but you know, have some friends who own Teslas and they tell me they will absolutely fly.
But, you know, I, Mustangs are the worst ones. Now my wife has Mustangs, I have to be nice to her. But, ⁓ Mustangs will get with Simon, they start revving that engine. going, I don't have to rev an engine, I own a Corvette. That could be a bumper sticker. I know, I know. That's awesome. Yep. All right, so one thing I always like to ask people is about food in the area or places to go see. So if you have guests in town.
⁓ Is there anything you recommend? Hey, you got to go see this or we got to go check this out. This is a beautiful area Okay, and if we watch your pocket pockets, I'm always interested in what they talk about the restaurants They always recommend to people and should I talk all the time that that we don't go out a whole lot with the seven for that Corvett club We don't go out a whole lot to eat. We're more home bodies in fact I've got a whole box of meat being delivered today that will cook at the house over the next month and a half and so on but ⁓
You know, I think our favorite restaurant has become 12 bones over in Arden. is so went over there a couple of Saturdays ago and we drove to the park lunch. My wife said, we need to come back here. said, yeah, we do. They have great sides. Oh, they're baked beans to die for. That's so good. so that's really, we enjoyed that. Luna in lower park. We like to go there and we live real close to the Edelweiss Valley country club. And so, yeah.
During the summertime, we love to go down there, especially for lunch and sit out there and watch the golfers golf. You're eating outside. It's got good food. It's not fancy, but it's got good food. So we enjoy doing that. I've been there once and it was a nice experience. So I look forward to you inviting me again. We'd love to have you and your beautiful wife come have lunch with us. So what about any areas out towards Etowah Brevard, like outdoor stuff you recommend people to go see?
Of we're, you know, being halfway from here and in Bavaria, actually Pensacola Forest, you know, we love, we love to to the forest. mean, you know, when we, when we were dating, we, we were in the forest all the time because we both lived, we were in Transylvania County, my wife and I. So we, we enjoyed, uh, we enjoyed the forest. right now lots of waterfalls there. Lots of waterfalls in people aren't aware. Lots of waterfalls and beautiful ones. And the problem is it's hard to get to see them anymore because there's so many people who drive it up there, uh, came through there here just a few weeks ago.
And about lunchtime or whatever, you couldn't get near the waterfalls. was just so many cars parked along the road. It's like sliding rock. It's the same way. I you know, I used to love to go to sliding rock and enjoy that cold water. But, but, but now it's it's almost too many people. So I remember hearing hunger games recorded some of their film out in Pisgah Forest. Hunger games was filmed in Western Carolina. Um, that's the Mohicans.
Yes. There have been several films. Locally, a movie called Heavy Weights that was filmed here. There have been several movies that have been filmed around here over the years. They go back to 50s when one called Thunder Road was filmed here. So I'm back with Robert Mitchum. This community has had lot of films and TV work done here over the years. And just one last year or year before with... Well, she just passed away.
was over at camp off of Little River Road, not Pendleton, Penic- geez. Pinnacle? Camp Pinnacle had a- what's her- lady's name. She just passed away, famous actor. Anyway, she was there. They just filmed a year, year and a half ago. But Heavyweight, I think was Camp Tonawanda. Another thing I always encourage people to do is go to the Flat Rock Playhouse. We love the Playhouse and we've been going to the Playhouse since I-
I came with Harrison County in the mid 70s and still love to go there. We don't catch every show because as you know, we go to our place in North Pearl Beach sometimes, so don't catch every show there. But ⁓ we always enjoy it. It's just a quality production and the staff's wonderful. I've seen Broadway plays and they're great. I love being on scene and playing on Broadway. But I'm amazed when I...
walk out of that theater and say, this is Henderson County, this is Flat Rock. I mean, what a blessing we've gotten into Flat Rock. And it is called, isn't it? Called North Carolina State Theater or something, I I think, I think locals, some are probably quite a few locals forget it's there, but you're correct. It's a great place. We went to a matinee here a couple of weeks ago and it was packed. I mean, it was absolutely packed for a matinee. I mean, so looking forward to the Christmas show. mean,
If you've never seen the Flat Rock Christmas show, you need to go. Cause it's, I mean, it's just so well That's good to know. I've never been for the Christmas show. go see it. It's great. And we, we buy our tickets for the Christmas pay the week they come out because we like to sit down front. So we actually have front rows in the middle front seats for the Christmas that we do every year. We want to be on the front row to be able to see the actors. That's very cool. and sure. We'll just cause off the
before we started recording, David shared he was Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. So that's your claim to fame. Yeah, long, long time ago. It was fun. was a local, little local theater company. Got a lot of young children, youth to be involved in plays. We never had, mean, Playhouse is the whole other world. I it's Broadway quality things. But this was just local theater. And I still have, again, that's been a long time ago.
But I still have somebody who stopped me on the street. So I was in that play with you. Wow, that's awesome. And I actually did two or three other ones with them. But tell you, tell you one, for some reason, I got came famous primarily because it was in the paper. They have, I have the picture of me in bed with playing Golda. so the guy, the thugger said, he said, I've got a picture of you in bed with another woman. I said, but you put it in the paper for everybody to see. So it's not a big secret. That's hilarious.
What's the biggest song in there? it the I Were a Richmond? Yeah. I Were a Richmond. La dee da dee da dee da. There you go. And did you have the little hat and everything? I had the hat, you know, I danced. I have no rhythm, but I danced. I told you, Tevye's in every scene that plays up to. So I had a lot of lines that I'm forcing my daughter, when my daughter's telling me, learn my lines. So. That's awesome.
I learned better, not by reading, but by repeating things. Repetition. That's how I learned the lines. am horrible at memorizing. I would, I think in college, was in, thankfully I sang some songs, but I only had a few lines and I'm horrible at In case you don't know, Ed's a marvelous singer. mean, and he and his family, we just enjoy, we go to church with them.
when we have the opportunity to hear you and your family sing, which is such a blessing to us. Thank That's very kind. We don't share that on the podcast. We'll edit that out. And David's a great singer as well. I've sung next to David for years. So, all right. So you told us about some food. You don't go out to eat a lot. What's your favorite thing to make at home then? Mac and cheese. I love my wife make make beans. Fact that I'm looking forward to.
make some baked beans for our family get together here coming up next week. but we'll make about everything. I got this box of beef, chicken, pork, mean, just a whole mixture of stuff. So grill some, but you know, do some on the stove top, some in the oven. So, and then we're gonna do a pork roast tomorrow. So. Wow. And I didn't ask, but are you from Hendersonville? Oh gosh, no. Okay. Born and raised in Canton, Ohio. And that's where I get my, as you know, how.
We're gonna stay away from the college football conversation. You don't have anything to talk about anyway. But both my parents are from western North Carolina originally, two hours west of here, just this side of Murphy. everybody we knew was from the south, everybody we went to church with was from the south. And so when I had the opportunity to move back, I moved back and then my parents came down a couple years later. But I lived in Brevard for a while, lived in Nashville for a while.
came over here. So we've been here since 76. So a long, time. Yep. And you've seen a lot of changes. A lot of changes. Someone asked me, doesn't they? What's the biggest change? I said that you saw over your years. When I first came to Herron County, every other car in the summer had Florida license plates. Now they all have North Carolina license plates. And that's because our population went from 40,000 people when I came with Herron County to, well, I don't know what it is now, 120, 130. Yeah, I think it's around 120.
So people are saying more more time here. When I did the 2000 census, trying to convince people to say that they lived here for six months and one day, but they lived in Florida for less than six months, they wouldn't admit it because income tax in Florida. So they didn't want to admit they actually lived in Harris County for more than that.
That's really interesting. I've never heard a number. So 40,000 to like 120. That's huge. Well, you just drive around and look. Yeah. You know, I mean, you look at all the homes that are being built around here. It's just, mean, every way you look, you all of a sudden you go down the road and here's a new housing being built. Yeah. I'm, I'm a little bit more surprised lately. I mean, there was a lot of destruction from the hurricane, but right now it's not destruction, but I'm noticing lots being cleared out, treed lots being cleared out for some homes being built.
That's that's newer to see. Yeah, there's quite a few honestly Yeah, and people would come to we'd have public hearings on zoning issues or land development issues People would come to there and say, you know, you know, we don't need more people in Harris County said When'd you move here? mean, it's just it's gonna happen So it's just how you manage it and that's it That's the stuff for the city in the county the other municipalities here to manage that we go we're gonna have growth We're continuing to grow. I absolutely believe
continue to grow. He says, how do you manage that? And it's nice to see ⁓ influx of younger families too. It's not just retirees, which I think is traditionally in the past. So yeah, it's a good thing. Yeah. So David, thank you for taking time. ⁓ We've discussed food. We've discussed some of your career on Henderson County. I think we could do a round two, maybe in the spring. You have a lot more you could share with us. Maybe even wear your Tevi outfit. That'd be fun.
I had to turn all that back in. Had to turn that back in. We could Photoshop it. ⁓ okay. It's amazing what can happen. anyway, thank you. I appreciate your friendship and I thank you for taking time and for y'all listening and watching. Thank you and keep living local.