Polly Gott at the Madison County Arts Council’s Exhibition of her Watercolors, Marshall, 2022.
Peter and Polly Gott are legends in Madison County and beyond. They moved to the Shelton Laurel community in the early 1960s and began their lives as homesteaders, musicians, log home builders, parents, and revered members of the community. My earliest memory of the Gotts was at Dellie Norton’s house in Sodom. Dellie’s long driveway was lined with about 30 cherry trees and Peter and Polly, along with their two children, Susi and Tim, arrived one Sunday afternoon to pick cherries. But first came visiting. They unloaded instruments from their van and proceeded to offer those of us gathered on Dellie’s porch a concert. Dellie and her sister Berzilla sang ballads.
After a time, they packed their instruments and Peter climbed high into the trees and proceeded to pick buckets of red, yellow and black fruit that he lowered to the ground that Polly and the kids sorted and loaded into the van. For me, relatively new to the community, it was an early lesson on community relationships.
Polly is an artist, a gifted painter. It’s perhaps her first love and her studio high on the mountain overlooking the white rocks of Shelton Laurel is brimming with amazing renderings of the world around her. Leslie and I bought one for our daughter Kate who, living on the west coast, wanted a memory of place. A perfect gift.