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For the Love of Here is a podcast about Dalton, Georgia and life across Northwest Georgia—from local businesses and entrepreneurship to community leadership and hometown pride.
Hosts Erika Mosteller and Lauren Sneary sit down with founders, civic leaders, creatives, and neighbors from Dalton, Chatsworth, Ringgold, and Calhoun to talk about the ideas, challenges, and opportunities shaping our region.
If you care about small-town business, local culture, economic growth, and building a life where you live, this podcast is for you.
Because you don’t need a bigger city. You just need a better lens.
Produced by Here Local Media.
Ep01
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[00:00:00]
Lauren Sneary: Well, hi Erika, how are you doing? Hi, Lauren.
Erika Mosteller: I'm great. How are you?
Lauren Sneary: I'm good. I'm really excited. We've been talking about this for a long time.
We have, which. The love of here podcast. We're here doing the very first episode of it.
Meet Erica and Lauren
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Lauren Sneary: And so I kind of wanted to maybe give our listeners a little bit of an idea of who we are and what we're doing here today. So you
Erika Mosteller: wanna just introduce yourself real quick? Sure. I'm Erika Mosteller. I'm not native to Dalton or Northwest Georgia, but I love it.
I'm one of the biggest. Hype people of this region and it's pl I'm [00:01:00] raising my family. It's where I've started two businesses and I am consistently marveling at the beauty of the natural resources and the people around here. So I'm excited to talk about it and have guests on the show and. Just gush about how much we love this region, right?
Lauren Sneary: Yeah. So, I'm Lauren Sneary. I'll do the same. I'm Lauren Sneary and I grew up in Dalton. I moved away for a little bit and thought that I would not come back, and then I did. And I think we'll dive into that story in a little bit here. But I think when we connected, we found that we both were really convicted that there is so much good, so much interesting good being done in our community and that.
The stories around it were kind of e either fragmented or missing altogether. And so, you know, you approached me about how do we start to put that together? Maybe it looks like a beautiful high quality magazine, which we now have out in print here, magazine. Find it wherever you shop locally or hopefully in your mailbox or on your coffee table.
But you know, we felt like we could do even more beyond that, which I [00:02:00] think is how the podcast came about. So.
Why These Stories Matter
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Lauren Sneary: Every week that we, that we release the podcast, the cadence that we release, it is yet to be determined. But when we release the, the podcast, each episode, we want to connect with somebody in our community who is, you know, doing good, who is moving people.
Who is connecting people to resources or even just creating little pockets of good news stories in our community. And so we wanna connect with as many people, with as much kind of diverse perspective and, and ideas and backgrounds in Dalton or outside of Dalton as possible to help shape our overall view of what kind of place this is to live and to work and to raise a family.
Yeah. And so I think that's, that's the goal each week.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah, that's spot on. And one thing that I've realized as I've been raising my kids, and you know, let's be honest, as you're parenting, you're kind of raising yourself too. So as I have just learned more about life and the people around me. If you love where you live, it shapes who you [00:03:00] are and it's so important to be where your feet are.
But it's hard to do that if all you ever hear is negative stuff. So there there are so many opportunities for good stories. There are so many people doing good stories and you know, we know this as we made our list And as people found out we were doing this, there's some pretty incredible people around the country and the world from Northwest Georgia who are doing incredible things.
And so we're excited to help tell all those stories and just help people love where they live a little more.
Lauren Sneary: That's right. Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: So I guess to get this
Lauren Sneary: podcast and that whole premise that we've just talked about started we're gonna begin by telling each other our Dalton stories, right? So, we'll see how much detail we get into and how much time we have here.
Erica’s Move to Dalton
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Lauren Sneary: But just to get us started, Erika, can you tell me how you arrived in Dalton? How did you get here?
Erika Mosteller: So, we moved to Dalton originally for my husband's work. We swore we would never move to Dalton because we were in bigger cities before. Moving back to Dalton. And then, you know, they say home is where the grandparents are, so that's [00:04:00] one reason why we moved back here.
But I remember when I moved here, the people were lovely. I probably met a lot of people in the first month or so that I was here and I rolled out bed, went to Kroger, and saw like 15 of the people that I knew. I didn't even know that many people. And I remember thinking like, where. Am I? And But did you, you liked that?
Lauren Sneary: No.
Erika Mosteller: Oh, okay. No, this was like pre COVID before people, 'cause
Lauren Sneary: I will avoid a Kroger when I have not like, gotten dressed and, and ready for the day.
Erika Mosteller: Totally. And this is pre COVID before people actually like, had Alere wear that looked good. You know, I just like threw on my sweatpants and ran to Kroger for a few things.
Saw. The few people that I actually knew, and I remember thinking, where are we? Where has my husband brought me? What is this place?
Changing the Dalton Narrative
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Erika Mosteller: And the interesting thing was, all these people are very lovely. I'm still friends with many of them, but the story that they passed on to me when I first moved here is that, you know, Dalton's great.
We have great school systems, it's beautiful, the people are great, but there's nothing to [00:05:00] do here. You gotta go to Chattanooga for everything, right? And so I adopted that story. And I never stopped to think if it was true. I don't think these people ever stopped to think if it was true. It was just the story they had inherited.
And so I thought that for a while. And then it's so fascinating that now I am the person who recognizes like, whoa, there's some really cool stories to tell here. We gotta inherit a new story. We gotta tell our kids. The real story of Dalton and the cool stuff that's going on and all the opportunities that are here.
And so yeah, so I love Dalton. We've been here 12 years almost, and I can't imagine living anywhere else. And I'm thankful that this is my home. Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah. I feel the same way. I have a, obviously a little bit of a different mm-hmm.
Lauren’s Hometown Perspective
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Lauren Sneary: Intro to Dalton, which is that I was born at Hamilton Medical Center, so it came straight out the womb into Dalton, Georgia.
Yeah. And so I grew up here. I had the experience of growing up here in the let's call it the nineties. I was barely in the eighties. It was. It was much different than it is today. So I think the narrative that you mentioned that had been kind of an inherited story [00:06:00] is absolutely fair. I mean, really there, I've been in a couple community meetings lately and I hear like, kids from Dalton State or even the high school programs that we're speaking with, and they'll say things like, oh, there's nothing to do in Dalton.
I'm like, y'all have no idea. There really used to be nothing to do in Dalton. And so the mall whether or not that was the case, it, it did feel like that growing up at the time and so. Looking at what we have today, the resources and care that have just been absolutely poured into our community, our downtown in particular, but really all across our community.
It's incredible. There's so much to do now. The food scene, the music scene. Mm-hmm. There's a lot of natural resources out there. So you, it's not, it's not pay to play. You know, there's some conversation about, oh, well there's not a lot to do if you don't wanna like buy a meal or go shopping. But we have all these different trails and trail heads and, and.
Absolutely gorgeous, like natural resources just down the road in the Katas and I mean, it's just a special place. Yeah. And so I really just, I mean, we've talked about this already, but feel [00:07:00] so compelled to help make sure people see that and understand it and, and look at how they can participate in it.
So I guess back to my. Origin story here. I, who is
Erika Mosteller: Lauren
Lauren Sneary: Snake, right? Well, we're still figuring that out. I went to the Dalton Public School Systems. I had a great experience there, but I do remember as I packed up my car and, and I was driving down 41 to get on the interstate to go to UGA with all my belongings in the back.
I remember thinking so clearly. I am never coming back here. I'm getting out. You know, this is so. Exciting. What's next for me? It's not gonna include Dalton. And so, you know, I, I did my degree. I got a lot of great experiences there. One of the things that kind of rooted me in Dalton was that I came home each summer.
I worked for TJ at the Dalton Depot. I'm, I'm, I got deep connections over here in Dalton worked at the Dalton Depot and probably some
Erika Mosteller: really good stories from
Lauren Sneary: the Depot. Depot, absolutely. Some of which I probably am legally not allowed to share. No,
Erika Mosteller: NDA,
Lauren Sneary: the, the Dalton Depot was. Was a place. And I know those of [00:08:00] us who are in the know we, we loved love, love to, to find our community there.
Erika Mosteller: We should do a podcast on Depot stories. I don't think
Lauren Sneary: we can, Erika,
Erika Mosteller: I don't know that many would raise their hands to share those, but if you valid,
Lauren Sneary: if you would, our email is right. So anyway, I was working every summer.
Staying and Building a Life
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Lauren Sneary: I was bartending, I was waitressing and I would earn enough money to go back and put myself through through school at UGA and, when I came home after that last summer, after I graduated, once again, I was working over there to save money so I could go to grad school. And still the plan was to get out of Dalton.
I stayed in Dalton. I didn't end up going to grad school. I didn't end up going, you know, across the country or across the world and finding some incredible new, you know, journey. I found that the path for me really was here. Yeah, so
Erika Mosteller: that's, that's cool. When we first moved here, Tucker is my husband and he's from here, and I remember we kept thinking, oh, we'll just stay for a couple years.
I mean, it was hard to find a house, which I know we're working on that, but it's [00:09:00] still tricky to find a house in our area, but. Then the longer we were here and the more we knew the people and the schools are fabulous and the parks are fabulous, and there's just so many amenities of all the other places that we've lived.
We've lived in Smyrna, Georgia. We lived in Athens, Georgia. We lived in Macon, Georgia, and there just was not anywhere else that had the opportunities, particularly with the cost of living here, which I know that has changed since we moved back. Obviously, life is more expensive than it used to be. But it's still a whole lot cheaper than it was in those other three locales that we lived, right?
And yet we have these incredible amenities. And it is true that the people make the place, and people always say that, but once you actually dig into the vision for this community and the people who love this community I mean even people from like soul running Club who are. Starting something 'cause they wanna help people get healthy to our local industry who have really invested heavily in the arts and in education programs and literacy programs and outdoor amenities and bur park concerts.
Like all [00:10:00] these things. It's just a cool area that people are proud to live in and, and i'm glad to be here and I'm glad to help tell that story. Yeah, yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Dalton’s Challenges and Momentum
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Lauren Sneary: And I think it's important to say as we are kind of like, you know, fangirling out over Dalton that it dalton's not perfect.
Totally. And we know that. Oh, totally. Yeah. And I think that perspective is, is important to, to have and keep at the table that we, we haven't got it all figured out. There's still, there's a lot of different issues. There's economic disparity, there's cultural differences that we haven't fully navigated yet.
But I think the point is that. We're trying that the, the community is, is coming together in ways that it really, it hasn't, that's taken kind of a few years, even a few decade in some cases to do, but it really feels like the positive energy around philanthropy, entrepreneurship, just the opportunity here is better than ever.
And, and that's so cool to see. And so we wanna highlight that.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah. Well said.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: Agreed. Yeah, definitely not. Perfect.
Lauren Sneary: Okay.
Getting Connected as a Newcomer
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Lauren Sneary: Couple more questions for you, Erika, about your, your Dalton story. And you've already mentioned kind of what's different [00:11:00] about Dalton from other places that you lived, but since you are someone who has relocated, what is your best advice for someone who is relocating from somewhere else?
To Dalton. Mm-hmm. How do you get connected?
Erika Mosteller: Yeah. I do think it's different. So when we moved here 12 years ago, it was not. Super common to have people who moved from outside and chose to live in Dalton. Most of the people who came back to Dalton probably went to Dalton High School or Dalton Public Schools which my husband did not.
So, I mean, he knew people, but it's not like they were, you know, just like best friends their whole lives. So that was a little, it was the only place we'd ever lived where. We were one of the few transplants everywhere else we lived had always been pretty transient and so it was pretty normal just to have people coming and going all the time.
So. I do feel like now there are all these groups to get plugged in, you know, believe Greater Dalton. Full disclosure, I help with their marketing, but they have a fantastic spot on their website. That's about Dalton and it has all the groups that you can get involved in, in Dalton. So there are reading clubs, there's running [00:12:00] clubs, there's hiking clubs, there's book.
Club, like there's all these different things you can do. United Way has all these volunteer opportunities. So I would just say like, look around you at the places that are open to people. Dalton Brewing Companies, fantastic Third space, like show up on a Thursday night and you know. Run, if that's your thing.
It's not mine, but I can show up and have a beer with people. Right. Probably not gonna run. But yeah. So just look around at all the spaces where people are gathering these third spaces. The mill has some really cool stuff going on. Yeah. Like syno and live
Lauren Sneary: music. Yeah. Like,
Erika Mosteller: I mean, the point is you can find your thing here, you can, whatever that
Lauren Sneary: thing is,
Erika Mosteller: right?
Yeah. So for us, we, you know, we had little kids, so we met people through, through that. And then I feel like when I. Started my businesses. Dalton's a fantastic place for entrepreneurs. So. If you're looking to start a business, definitely come to Dalton. They really support local, and so I feel like that's when we really truly found our people because it was all of a sudden we were around all these community minded [00:13:00] people who also loved Dalton, wanted to leave it better than they found it.
Recognize that it's not perfect, but also like nothing is. So let's work with what we have and try to, to make it better. And yeah. And so now I just, it's really incredible to be. Building something and be a part of moving something forward together. When you walk arms with people and you look around, you're like, yeah.
Like we're make, we're, we're doing our best to, to leave this place better than we found it. And that's pretty cool.
Entrepreneurship in Dalton
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Lauren Sneary: You talked about being a small business owner in Dalton
Erika Mosteller: mm-hmm. And that there's a lot of opportunity for that.
Lauren Sneary: What, what's kind of your perspective on business ownership in, in Dalton? I mean, you've kind of pulled me kicking and screaming into business ownership with your local media.
I've learned a lot. Yep. Thank
Erika Mosteller: you so much. It's
Lauren Sneary: not for the pain apart, but I, you know, I'm just curious. If you have advice for local business owners or when you think about entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurialism, that's
Erika Mosteller: a hard word.
Lauren Sneary: Is that it? Yeah,
Erika Mosteller: that's good. Good job. Laura,
Lauren Sneary: when you think about all of that in Dalton you know, what, what's your advice for somebody trying to get started?
I think there's, [00:14:00] there's a sense that you have to already have connections. You already have to know the right people in the right places. And, and I don't think that's the case, but I'm wondering what your perspective on that is.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah, no, that's a great question. So one thing I've noticed about Dalton and really Northwest Georgia as a whole just.
Side note, we will obviously start this podcast in Dalton because that's our home. But our, our goal is really to start expanding this out into Northwest Georgia because there are just fabulous stories in all these pockets of communities. So
Lauren Sneary: no, great point. Like Murray County is doing
Erika Mosteller: such, such incredible things stuff right now.
Catusa County is too, Gordon County, like our, our neighbors are just killing it, which is awesome because now we have even more opportunities. And that's one thing that we'd really love to highlight on this podcast. And also in the magazine too, is like sometimes. People in Dalton don't even know the cool things in their neighboring county.
So we really wanna help people understand like, hey, you can find cool stuff here, but you can also just drive 20 minutes and find really cool stuff. Right. But that was an aside. So for entrepreneurship when I started my business, I, I mean, I [00:15:00] knew people, but it's not like I was super well connected.
I'm just really scrappy. So I think you know this. That's crazy. It's honestly crazy If I have a vision for something and I'm just really gonna. Keep trying until every door has closed and then I figure out the new vision. Yeah. So that's just my personality. But I will say that what I learned in Dalton is that if people, if you show up and you do a really good job, you do what you say you're gonna do, you treat customers the way that they, that you would wanna be treated.
If they can use somebody local, they will use somebody local, which is incredible.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: Like if they don't have to outsource to some of our bigger neighbors, north and south of us. Then they would rather keep it local. And that's cool because that means there's a lot of market opportunity. We have $11 billion of industry in this town, and that comes with a whole lot of opportunity to serve the people in this community.
And so I'm just thankful that. I get to be a part of that and I never thought my business would be hyper-local, but it's turned out that way because there was an appetite [00:16:00] for it and it just is a really good fit with my personality and my mission, my sense of mission in general. Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: I know this is turning into just like a me interviewing you thing, but I have so many questions for you that I think are
Lauren Sneary: super relevant for this
Erika Mosteller: audience.
Lauren Sneary: So one more question for
Have You Ever Wanted to Leave
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Erika Mosteller: you is, have you ever thought about leaving? Yes. Okay. Yeah, let's dig.
Lauren Sneary: In
Erika Mosteller: The first five years we were here, they were hard. I mean, it's hard to come into a community that is so tightly knit and that has, I mean, people who've, their friendships literally started with like each other's grandparents, you know, and so that's hard to come into and then feel like you can.
Break into that now. People are friendly, they're nice, but just, you know, that was one of the hardest things that we have encountered and we've moved around a lot. Our friends used to joke every Christmas, like, where are you now? 'cause we'd always have to update our address. Just grad school jobs, all the things.
So that was hard. And we did think about like, okay, it's a little bit hard to put down roots here at this point. So should we go somewhere else? But one of the things that kept us here is the [00:17:00] proximity. So you can literally get anywhere in 15 minutes in Dalton. There's a little more traffic now than we moved here, but it's still pretty dang good.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: So I can get from, you know, I could get to my kids' schools, I could get to the grocery store, I could get to downtown. I can get to parks all within like 10 or 15 minutes, which. That's just unheard of. We had moved from Smyrna and you know, it's 30 minutes minimum anywhere that, yeah, you go there, which we were used to, but, so that was incredible.
The cost of living was great. Our utilities company, shout out to Dalton Utilities. They do advertise with us, but also I love working with them.
Why We Stayed
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Erika Mosteller: And just, you know, the culture and the opportunities here. It was cool. So we decided to stay.
Dalton Opportunities
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Erika Mosteller: There's also this is a Lauren Sne original line from a chamber video that she made.
If you can imagine it, there's a job in Dalton for you to do it. I'm pretty sure somebody at the chamber wrote that for me. It might have actually, I
Lauren Sneary: dunno.
Erika Mosteller: Anyway, but yes, that it's true though. There are so many opportunities in Dalton and so we just realized like, why, let's stick it out, let's.[00:18:00]
Figure it out. And I'm so glad we did because now the more we've dug in, like it's just incredible. The people are incredible. The school systems, my kids go to Dalton Public Schools and Whitfield County schools are incredible. Christian heritage is incredible. Like we have a phenomenal education infrastructure.
We're not in higher ed yet, but like what I know of Dalton State and GNTC also incredible. So the fact that we only have like a hundred thousand people here and that we have all of the amenities that we have. We decided that was just kind of silly to leave.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: For that. Like let's just figure out how to have a better lens.
Right. I heard that's in a magazine somewhere. So.
Craziest Story Setup
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Erika Mosteller: Lauren, I, I wanna know your craziest Dalton story.
Lauren Sneary: Oh, no, let's
Erika Mosteller: keep it PG here,
Lauren Sneary: because remember I grew up in Dalton.
I know.
Erika Mosteller: So there's a, there's a couple decades, let's say a couple decades of stories. Yeah. So you have a lot of Dalton stories. But I do wanna know, like, maybe the better way to phrase it is what's the, the thing that you wake up every day and you're like, wow, this is Dalton because it's [00:19:00] so different than how you
Lauren Sneary: grew up.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
Food Scene Glow Up
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Lauren Sneary: It's gotta be the food scene.
Erika Mosteller: Hmm.
Lauren Sneary: So. Yeah, growing up in Dalton it was, I mean there's always been a history of these. Sure. Of, I mean, I don't listen, if I could bring Shoney's back, like if I won the lottery, Shoney's is coming back. Yeah. Like that salad bar after church. That was the vibe.
Like it was such a good time. Honestly, RIP Shoney's. So I think though that it was the, the local food scene is so different. It was really only chain restaurants and it was that level of chain restaurant. I'm not gonna call any, any others out by name that are still around. 'cause you know, there's, we got local management and that's great.
But just. Incredible. I mean, like we've got Marico Camaron downtown that has like a unique take on, on Mexican food. And we've had, we've had Mexican restaurants and a history of Mexican cuisine in Dalton for a long time. And, and other Latin American cuisines as well. But there's just more than ever.
And, and they're just, and, and some of them have such unique [00:20:00] spins. There's like a new Cuban place. There's all. Kinds of flavors here. Mm-hmm. And it's also well done. And I love to see how those small businesses support each other. Like I see them hyping each other up on social media, which is so cool.
Yeah, we actually have. Two food influencers in Dalton now.
Erika Mosteller: I think
Lauren Sneary: I know, right? And we are
Erika Mosteller: killing it. What carpet capital Munchies. Is that
Lauren Sneary: what it's called? Dalton Bites. Dalton Bites is one. There's somebody doing a Dalton diary and she's just going around and like
Erika Mosteller: Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Experiencing like some of the amenities in Dalton.
Like y'all, we have influencers now.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah, we have made it.
Lauren Sneary: Oh my gosh. And.
Cocktails And Nightlife
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Lauren Sneary: Like if you are somebody who wants to go have a cocktail after work it. And when I grew up, which I wasn't having cocktails then obviously, but after real school day, there really wasn. I mean, there was the depot and obviously I needed you to come there for my livelihood so that I could serve you and you could tip me for my service.
But I think now there's three or four different places with really like specialty cocktails. The rooftop bar at the carpentry has those cool bubbles. True igloos. I think the [00:21:00] official term is igloo. My, my kids call them bubbles. And the gallon goat with, you know, got outdoor seating. Such a cool vibe inside.
Erika Mosteller: Wait, okay. Pause. What's your favorite drink of the gallon goat?
Lauren Sneary: It's the espresso martini. I know. That is so basic. Well, mine, but I love it. Well, mine mine's
Erika Mosteller: a French 75,
Lauren Sneary: so it's Okay. Also kind of basic. I know. So that's awesome. Yes, we're
Erika Mosteller: not fancy. Yeah,
Lauren Sneary: yeah.
Erika Mosteller: So anyway, that's, I mean, I could,
Lauren Sneary: I
Erika Mosteller: could
Lauren Sneary: and should probably list out.
A hundred more of
Erika Mosteller: these
Lauren Sneary: awesome local spots.
Local Dining Guide
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Erika Mosteller: Tell them about what you did. This was Lauren's brainchild in our magazine, which shout out to our magazine. You should subscribe and if not, you can check it out, the digital issue online. But tell them what you spent. Hours compiling the guide. Yes. Yes. Harder than I thought.
Lauren Sneary: So we have
Erika Mosteller: more options than we
Lauren Sneary: thought. That's exactly right. It's more than 100 completely locally owned, locally managed restaurants. And we put them into a guide that is on online. It's in all of the copies of our magazine, in fact, because there are so many, we we're actually gonna have to start in future print editions of the magazine, making that a smaller list that are just our restaurant [00:22:00] guide partners who are kind of sponsored participants in that guide.
But the full list is still online and it's more than 100. And it's all kinds of categories. It's pizza, hot dogs, Latin American food, Asian food. Mm-hmm. Desserts, bars bakeries.
Erika Mosteller: Right.
Lauren Sneary: Like a bunch of bakeries. Oh. And they're good too. It's incredible.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah. My office is now across from Highline Bake Shop.
Oh. Which is dangerous. 'Cause I end up with cookies every week.
Lauren Sneary: Right. Why not? Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: And sourdough from small batch. We're set.
Lauren Sneary: So yeah. All that to say that's probably the starkest difference. Yeah. I mean, growing up, if you, especially if you wanted to like order something in, it was pizza and pizza only, and it was chain pizza.
Erika Mosteller: Right.
Lauren Sneary: So
Erika Mosteller: Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: I know we love the food scene too, but you're right. Even in the 12 years we have been here, it has changed dramatically. Yeah. Which is awesome.
Lauren Sneary: So thank you guys for starting your restaurants. Yes. For all
Erika Mosteller: of who are doing that. It's so good. Yeah. Okay.
Favorite Thing People
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Erika Mosteller: So let's talk about your favorite Dalton thing.
I know we let Lauren loves the food.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah. I know this is so cliche, it's gotta be the people, and you've talked about this already. Mm-hmm. And honestly [00:23:00] that's deep rooted in Dalton.
Erika Mosteller: Mm-hmm.
Lauren Sneary: Because I have close friends that I've known since kindergarten, elementary school who I are still my best friends to this day.
Probably 10, 20 people. I'm married to somebody that I have known since kindergarten. I really, I felt so connected to the people that are in this community that are building this community. I remember in at UGA you'd tell somebody, oh, I'm from Dalton. They'd be like, you're from Dalton. I know so and so from Dalton.
I know 20 other people from Dalton. It was just like Dalton felt like. It felt like your favorite sports team. It felt cool to be a part of
Erika Mosteller: Team Dalton.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah. And so I, I think, I really hope that everybody is still kind of bought into that. 'cause it's, it's about who we are kind of together, not just who we are individually.
And Dalton has such a good hold on that I think, and, and I think has a history of developing really good, smart, cool people who go on to do really good, smart, cool things.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah. Yeah. I just saw that [00:24:00] several of the. Graduating seniors at Dalton High School have gotten some pretty impressive scholarships, and those are just the ones that I saw on social media.
I'm sure we'll hear the same thing from our other education institutions in town, right? Like it's just incredible. We have. We have a lot of people doing some cool stuff. So did I steal yours? Is that your favorite
Lauren Sneary: Dalton thing?
Erika Mosteller: Probably actually no, I'll get to mine. Okay.
Trading Local Culture
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Erika Mosteller: But first I just wanna say this about the people.
'cause this is funny to me. So I'm from technically a small town, Taylor's, South Carolina. My dad refused to pay city taxes, so he made sure that we were between the city lines of anywhere, which is hilarious to me.
Lauren Sneary: I don't know enough about taxes to understand what
Erika Mosteller: you just said. I don't really either, but I just know that like, people are always like, where are you from?
And I'm like, oh, kind of Taylor's kind of Greer. Close to Greenville. But anyway, all that to say, we did not have a strong sense of like, oh, you have to shop local.
Lauren Sneary: Oh yeah.
Erika Mosteller: And I, when I got to know my husband or now husband, we were dating. I remember I would come up here to Dalton to visit and my mother-in-law would always talk about quote unquote trading local, well, I [00:25:00] like to trade local.
Well, I like to make sure I'm trading local. And I, at first it took me a minute, 'cause she used the word trade, but then also I was like, oh wow. Like people go out of their way. To shop at locally owned stores, restaurants. It's just cool. And I didn't grow up with that. And I think that speaks to kind of what you're saying, like this idea of Team Dalton, let's support it.
Yeah. Support. Mm-hmm. Like if we can, let's make sure that we're shopping local. Which I just think is really cool.
Mountains And Outdoors
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Erika Mosteller: My favorite thing about Dalton, I do love the people, but I have to say it's. the Mountains, which I know technically if you're from a place with big mountains, you call these hills. But I'll never forget the first time I came to Dalton and I crested the interstate right at, I think it's Rasacca which beware of the cops.
They like to get you there. But and I, there's just this beautiful view of all the mountains and I remember thinking, wow, this place. is Beautiful. And I mean, Greenville is it, we have mountains, so it's beautiful in Greenville too, but it's not the same. The topography is not the same, and the, the way that you can view them is not the same.
So anyway, I get to drive down Tibbs [00:26:00] Road every day to get to my house. I live near Tubbs and I'm just like driving beside this beautiful mountain. Yeah. And then I pull into my street and I can just like see this beautiful mountain. No, it's ridiculous. It's where I live. It's gorgeous. Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Yep.
Erika Mosteller: And I can drive 15 minutes and go to Hag Mill, lake Park and just like.
Walk a four mile loop around a beautiful lake and see all these mountains, like, it's just wild. Like it doesn't feel like you're on vacation because I work full time and have three kids. But, but it kind of like, it does kind of help your system see beauty all around you if you have the lens to see it.
Yeah. Which I didn't, when I first moved here, I didn't pay attention to it.
Lauren Sneary: Oh, interesting.
Erika Mosteller: And I would like, we would go to Blue Ridge or wherever, which I still love going to those places, but it's only in the last three-ish years that I've recognized. Oh. It's here all the time. This natural beauty to inspire us and help us feel just like something's bigger than us.
Yeah. But also just this sense of like peace that you see when you see all of this.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Touch Grass Reset
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Lauren Sneary: Anytime I'm really like, I'm like, I am extra stressed out. [00:27:00] I am, you know, frustrated with my kids more than usual. I am overly, you know, worked up about something going on at work. If I just go outside Yeah.
For a few minutes. As the kids these days say if I touch grass. Right. Literally. And, and we have so much opportunity for that here. It's wild.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah, I would say I do love the people, but
Lauren Sneary: yeah,
Erika Mosteller: all the close, like we could go kayak on my lunch break. Like, what the heck? I could go to,
Lauren Sneary: honestly, what the heck?
I am not kayaking on my lunch.
Erika Mosteller: Okay. So I've only done it once, but I thought to myself while I did it, 'cause it took me 10 minutes to get there. Yeah. I rented a little kayak, I do kayaked for like 30 minutes and then went back home and I was like, why do I not do this? Right,
Lauren Sneary: right. It was
Erika Mosteller: amazing. So, yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Okay.
Next Guests And Stories
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Lauren Sneary: So, thank you by the way for sharing that story. Same. I hope this was interesting to some people out there who may or may not know us.
Mm-hmm. I think, but
Erika Mosteller: we hope y'all can relate
Lauren Sneary: Yes. That
Erika Mosteller: you also have Dalton stories and maybe it'll even make you. Think about
Lauren Sneary: your Dalton story, that you're thinking about your Dalton story because great segue. The next steps on this podcast are that we wanna [00:28:00] bring other people on who have great Dalton stories.
And that's really the only requirement, honestly, for a guest in, in our mind on this podcast is, is somebody who has a Dalton story and wants to tell it, and there's value in the telling, you know? And so, in the next episodes here, we'll be bringing people on to do just that. So,
Erika Mosteller: but we also love when you guys email us.
Or message us on Instagram and say, Hey, we have a story for you. We get those emails all the time and it has been phenomenal stuff. Yes. Like really cool stuff. And you'll see some of it in our upcoming magazine issues, but also just if you have a, a person that you're like, man, they have a great story. Yes.
Have them on your your show. We would love to hear from
Lauren Sneary: you. Absolutely. Or if you wanna be on like, let us know. True.
Erika Mosteller: Yep.
Lauren Sneary: Love to have you.
Where To Find Us
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Lauren Sneary: Okay, so all that said, where can people find us? Erika,
Erika Mosteller: we would love for you to follow us at Be Here dot Dalton on Instagram, at Hear Magazine, on Facebook or at Hear Local media on LinkedIn. If you're a LinkedIn person. Or you can go to our website, hear local [00:29:00] media.com and you can find out about all.
The different things that we offer, including Lauren's dining guide and also subscribe. So if you, if you haven't gotten a magazine it's been so fun for us to put that, that together, it's all local. The printers, photographers, graphic designers, writers, everything is local. And we would love for you guys to get to enjoy that.
So you can subscribe or you can pick it up around town. Okay? Come back and see us next time.