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I recall seeing the Dixie Dregs there back in the day but it was a long time ago. Met Mike Strong later and he’s still the only person born in Bermuda I’ve ever known. Interesting guy.
Archie of Troll's - Chapel Hill, Carrboro, & UNC
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donbosco
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I saw the Dixie Dregs there as well. Vassar Clements too and Brice Street and a band called Razzmatazz. Those are occasions that I recall though the name might have been changed to The Mad Hatter by the time that I saw those acts.
My wife lived in Bermuda for two years and worked at an oceanographic institute. Her Carolina roommate was from there. We visit them fairly often. It is a truly 'lovely' place. And to be there with big-time Carolina fans (roommate married another Bermudan who went to Carolina) is great.
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“It’s a Bermudaful day!” Was my favorite! My sister had her second marriage there and my dad sent us siblings to surprise her.
Carolina was playing
Pretty sure it was the 1984 game vs. Arkansas? But the game was only on at the north end of the island and I got there at the end when lost but memory is a sketchy resource.
Hated the Arkansas coach and his lizard taint boots!
donbosco
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Bermuda actually has a historic connection to North Carolina that dates back to shipping. Wilmington is the closest US port to the island.
During the Civil War with Wilmington being one of the last Confederate ports still open (somewhat) after the Union closed down the vast majority of shipping, blockade runners staged from Bermuda mainly. There is a Civil War Museum on the island in fact that focuses on that relationship.
During the Civil War with Wilmington being one of the last Confederate ports still open (somewhat) after the Union closed down the vast majority of shipping, blockade runners staged from Bermuda mainly. There is a Civil War Museum on the island in fact that focuses on that relationship.
donbosco
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We didn’t know much what to do with Disco in #DeepChatham. Frankly, the whole Tar Heel State had some adjusting to do. My first recollections of a particular sound filtering into that world are from the school year 1974 with Kool And The Gang - “Jungle Boogie,” Average White Band - “Pick Up The Pieces,” and Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting.” In the Summer of 1975 I attended the Belmont Abbey Basketball Camp with my Chatham Central High hoops teammates and I very clearly remember KC & The Sunshine Band’s “That's The Way I Like It” and “Get Down Tonight” along with Earth Wind and Fire’s “Shining Star” dominating the radio play among the boys in the dorm and on the court during those transistor radio days.
By the time we were back in school for senior year (‘75-‘76) music was sufficiently scrambled as to pit The Sylvers’ “Boogie Fever” with Stephen Stills and Neil Young’s “Long May You Run,” and Charlie Daniels’ “The South’s Gonna Do It Again” in the competition for the CCHS “Class of 1976 Song.” “Long May You Run,” thankfully, won the day but not by much.
Arriving in Chapel Hill in August of 1976 after spending summer weeks with cousins at RAF Woodbridge in England, with a goodly amount of time listening to permutations of radical — to me at least — broadcasts on the Pirate stations, Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg, I had heard some sounds there that were mainly unnamed and fitfully germinating that would quickly boom (bloom?) into Punk and New Wave. I’d been inexplicably tuned in to David Bowie since 1974 and followed along when the glam-rock of ‘Diamond Dogs’ briefly morphed into the disco leaning ‘Fame.’ Bowie was a modern Mozart.
In Chapel Hill I imprinted on two very different college party scenes that first year — the dorm-rat and fratty duet of Kirkpatrick’s Bar and The Shack, and, across a parking lot, the lit-up dance floor, cosmopolitan disco glitz of Mayo’s ‘Bacchae.’ (Troll’s came later) An occasional weekend back in Chatham introduced me to a raucous scene I never fully explored but have heard-told many tales of — The disco paradise of ‘Crash Landing’ in Southern Pines.
It was also during that time that I made my personal discovery of used records. With great joy I dug into the into the bins (thank you @Dennis Gavin) at The Fair Exchange. There, everything from novelty to deep Delta Blues came into my life.
I also tuned into the forward projections in the very air (thank you WXYC) and even bravely started hitting the smokey little clubs where live music was happening (thank you Town Hall/Mad Hatter and Cat’s Cradle).
Jukeboxes were a thing and that could mean that in the college bars of Chapel Hill that you were at the mercy of the tastes and emotions of friends and strangers alike. Likewise, in the dorm, stereos battled and genres clashed. Most radio stations weren’t fully tracked into genres yet and potpourri was the disorder of the day. The Walkman was in the future (‘79) so we were all still stewing in the goulash of the collective soundscape. So many tunes to love, to hate, to space out to. I can’t say if the ‘70s had the greatest music - but that decade without a doubt was an utterly unplanned and anarchic mashup.
I’ve not mentioned SO much — so many songs and artists. If you listen closer next time you’re doing your grocery shopping chances are you’ll catch some strains of once-controversial ‘70s hits and near-hits. Really. Try it.
#OTD (Sept. 13) in 1952, Randy Jones-The Cowboy-was born in Raleigh. After Enloe High, NC School of The Arts, and UNC, he headed to NYC. Jones was a member of The Village People from 1977 thru 1980 and they say that he still performs — and lives — in Greenwich Village. Village People’s Cowboy Hailed from Raleigh
BTW, if you want to catch up with Mr. Jones check out this 2023 interview/article by David Menconi: Pop Icon: The Village People’s Randy Jones - WALTER Magazine
donbosco
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“Surplus Sids is Closing
Anyone going past 309 East Main in Carrboro may have noticed something has changed at Surplus Sids. We are sorry to share that the beloved surplus store is closed for good. A Carrboro mainstay since 1988, Surplus Sids has been the source of countless halloween costumes and other fascinating items, some of which are military collectibles.
The owner, whose name is not Sid (It is Barry Keith) has encountered some medical setbacks that make it impossible for him to run the business any more.
I came upon Nicky Keith and Mason Henderson, child and child in law of Barry’s, outside the store Tuesday as I rode by and stopped to have a talk. In addition to Barry’s health, the shop was also impacted by flooding from Chantal that has caused damage to some of the inventory. Family and friends are now facing the gargantuan task of dealing with the contents of the store.
The porch of sids with a red sign and garbage cans
The ‘front porch’ of Surplus Sids as it looks today
Barry, the self proclaimed “EMPEROR OF CARRBORO” : A person who turned being a pack rat into a business.
Barry was often found at the back of Lapin Bleue, and – in fact – the day I spoke with his family that is exactly where he was. He is being looked after by friends and family.
The family has set up a GoFundMe, to help with the costs of managing the closimng of the store and setting up Barry in a new living situation to meet his current needs.
Share your Sids stories with us”
donbosco
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I know this is a stretch but Andy Griffith lived in Chapel Hill (I always heard Swain Hall was his dormitory) and graduated from Carolina. Hope this is OK.
It is hard to fathom what a non-North Carolinian could think of ‘The Andy Griffith Show.’ It premiered when I was 2 & closed when I was not quite 10 (April 1, 1968). It is also hard to know what the show has done FOR North Carolina and North Carolinians. When the character of Sheriff Andy Taylor first appeared, in an episode of ‘The Danny Thomas Show,’ he was more a bad cop than a good one and in some early episodes of his own show Griffith continued in that role - as an opportunist and trickster. But that’s not the Andy that we know now that Griffith made a conscious move away from that representation by the second season. That’s a good thing for us all - if any of you have seen ‘Face in the Crowd’ you know the kind of malevolence that Griffith could muster up. Thankfully Sheriff Taylor stepped away from that and toward the honest, wise, and thoughtful lawman that we love.
The show has never been off the air and you can binge it today on TVLand. PlutoTV has an All-Mayberry channel I’m told. It can come very close to a meditative experience for me to watch even a single episode - two can approach Zen.
I’m aware of the show’s shortcomings - it is Uber-white (though there were African Americans guesting over the years to a small degree), often, but not always, chauvinistic, and while ostensibly set in the 1960s, utterly without any true historical context. There are also a lot of stereotypes, not the least of which is that of the rather dim-witted country bumpkin. The Briscoe Darlin family certainly added to Appalachian hillbilly stereotypes. All of THAT said, Pharmacist Ellie and Helen Crump were strong women refusing to live traditional lives — that skeet-shooting woman was too. And think about the forgiveness - Otis’ drunkenness, all flavors of meanness and jealousy, even the self-centered self-absorption that was growing then and today so dominates our society - it seemed that at least somebody received some exoneration by the end of every show. Even ‘Old Ben Weaver.
Historian Gary Freeze has argued that as Sheriff of Mayberry and the county - remember Andy goes out of the confines of Mayberry on visits, most memorably to the home places of The Darlings and the silver-throated Rafe Hollister - that Andy Taylor represents government. He goes farther to say that in this, Andy Griffith, the actor, has injected The New Deal, activist and problem-solving, of his Mount Airy childhood into the show. Sheriff Andy Taylor is exactly that kind of force in Mayberry. Freeze has also suggested that as Tragic Theater is to Greece so is ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ to North Carolina and popular US culture.
It is a Tar Heel gift to America.
There has been an incredible amount of philosophizing over Mayberry - one angle being the Urban-Town-Rural trio in which the city (Raleigh, Mount Pilot - hurried businessmen and crooks - smokey-breathed hussies) is a place to be, at best, cautiously dealt with. So too must one be wary of the deep woods and mountain hollers (“It’s me it’s me it’s Ernest T!). While both places yield lessons and even good things it’s the (small) town where goodness and yes, forgiveness, thrives.
Of course some of you have deep thoughts on Mayberry. On Gomer, Barney, Aunt Bee, Opey, and Otis. The Philosophy of Floyd, the Profundity of Howard Sprague, and the Gospel of Goober are each somebody’s favorite point of view on a given day. I could go on with the Mayberry Thoughts. Here’s a link to a some thoughts from Andy and Public Health that a lot of folks enamored with ‘The Good Ole Days’ in Sheriff Taylor’s county would do well to consider. https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/article254146273.html
In 1972 I was in high school and the strangest, most unexpected thing happened — Aunt Bee (Francis Bavier) moved to Siler City — a synchronicity almost beyond comprehension since the town was often mentioned (why I do not know) on the show. That same Christmas, along with everyone in the Chatham Central High School Concert Choir, I appeared in a Christmas Pageant with Ms Bavier as our surprise guest star, completely stunning all of #DeepChatham. I’ll write more of that halcyon moment eventually I am sure.
And speaking of music — that song, written by Earl Hagen was actually titled “The Fishin’ Hole.” It was Hagan that so beautifully and memorably whistled that tune that evokes such sublime sentiments and is so deeply lodged in our collective memories. Many years ago while living in Guatemala, I would sometimes walk along whistling the song in the same way that I often wore a “North Carolina” sweatshirt — in hopes that it might spark a chance meeting with a kindred spirit. One afternoon as I passed by a shack-like cantina on the outskirts of Antigua — yes, whistling “The Fishin’ Hole,” — a fairly well-sotted expatriate rushed out from the darkened doorway, lured by the sound. We met and I stepped inside to enjoy a Liter of Gallo Lager and talk a bit of Goober, Gomer, and Floyd the Barber. I met other folks because I whistled that theme as well.
#OTD (October 3, 1960) ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ debuted on CBS. 8 months earlier Griffith intro-ed Andy Taylor in an episode of ‘The Danny Thomas Show.’ Griffith was straight man to Mayberry, a mythos based ‘to a degree’ on his hometown of Mt. Airy, NC. The show closed at #1 in ‘68. Premier of an American Classic, The Andy Griffith Show
Ever wonder where Helen Crump and Miss Ellie went to college? Howard Sprague?
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I would shop Poor Richards back in the 70s as an undergrad. My hazy memory is that the owner retired and a former employee took over the store. I guess that was Sid aka Barry Keith ?
“Surplus Sids is Closing
Anyone going past 309 East Main in Carrboro may have noticed something has changed at Surplus Sids. We are sorry to share that the beloved surplus store is closed for good. A Carrboro mainstay since 1988, Surplus Sids has been the source of countless halloween costumes and other fascinating items, some of which are military collectibles.
The owner, whose name is not Sid (It is Barry Keith) has encountered some medical setbacks that make it impossible for him to run the business any more.
I came upon Nicky Keith and Mason Henderson, child and child in law of Barry’s, outside the store Tuesday as I rode by and stopped to have a talk. In addition to Barry’s health, the shop was also impacted by flooding from Chantal that has caused damage to some of the inventory. Family and friends are now facing the gargantuan task of dealing with the contents of the store.
The porch of sids with a red sign and garbage cans
The ‘front porch’ of Surplus Sids as it looks today
Barry, the self proclaimed “EMPEROR OF CARRBORO” : A person who turned being a pack rat into a business.
Barry was often found at the back of Lapin Bleue, and – in fact – the day I spoke with his family that is exactly where he was. He is being looked after by friends and family.
The family has set up a GoFundMe, to help with the costs of managing the closimng of the store and setting up Barry in a new living situation to meet his current needs.
Share your Sids stories with us”
Until two weeks ago I had been a proud citizen of the Peoples Republic of Carrboro since 1982. I drove by Surplus Sid's frequently. I often wondered if today's undergrads patronized Sid's like we did Poor Richards back in the day.
sringwal
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I am sorry to hear that Sid's is closing. I was never a frequent shopper at Sid's, but I have stopped by a handful of times over the years just to see it, and occasionally, to shop. Most recently, I was there a couple of months ago - and was struck by how much more cluttered and mildewy it was, even by Sid's standards. It was difficult to even navigate through the store. I cannot imagine what the cleanup must be like. It was a one of a kind store.
