Chapel Hill/Carborro History

[Zoo_View]

The Rat was never good. It’s just perverse nostalgia.

Our Mom hated to cook. Absolutely hated it.

It wasn’t like Dad traveled throughout the year (he was a professor - he had to be on campus - and, those first few years he was an untenured assistant professor); in the late ‘60’s and early, early ‘70’s he was off to Goddard Space Center most UNC breaks, some weekends, and good hunks of the summer doing research.

But, when Dad was gone, we ate out…..cheap eats; but, in a restaurant.

With Mom, we’d hit Lum’s (beer-steamed hot dogs; Lum’s became something something and then Colonel Chutney’s; and, is now Pantera Bob’s), The Rat (I LOVED the Cave Room and the Cheese Bowl (aka, Lasagna), Tijuana Fats, and there was a “Greek” restaurant on West Franklin (somewhere between 411 West and Lantern).

 

[altmin]

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?

I always thought Swain was a dining hall before it got converted into WUNC studios and classrooms.

 

[Granville]

Our Mom hated to cook. Absolutely hated it.

It wasn’t like Dad traveled throughout the year (he was a professor - he had to be on campus - and, those first few years he was an untenured assistant professor); in the late ‘60’s and early, early ‘70’s he was off to Goddard Space Center most UNC breaks, some weekends, and good hunks of the summer doing research.

But, when Dad was gone, we ate out…..cheap eats; but, in a restaurant.

With Mom, we’d hit Lum’s (beer-steamed hot dogs; Lum’s became something something and then Colonel Chutney’s; and, is now Pantera Bob’s), The Rat (I LOVED the Cave Room and the Cheese Bowl (aka, Lasagna), Tijuana Fats, and there was a “Greek” restaurant on West Franklin (somewhere between 411 West and Lantern).

Leo’s?

 

[donbosco]

@altmin - you are quite right and I am wrong (I’ll have to dig a bit more on AG’s dorm).

Swain Hall was initially used as dining hall from 1914 to 1940. It could accommodate between 460 and 500 at its fullest capacity, and was “designed for future expansion.”[75] The building was nicknamed “Swine Hall,” a comment on the “quality of the food and the deportment of the diners” eating there.[76] Additionally, the building known as the Abernathy Annex, located next to Swain Hall, was designed to be dressing facility for those working in the kitchens of Swain Hall. It was probably built in the same year.[77] In 1924 the building caught fire, majorly damaging the kitchen and main dining room. After the renovations that followed the building was “as nearly fireproof as possible,” and could then seat 750 students in the dining room. The construction was completed by contractor T.C. Thompson and brothers and architect Atwood and Nash, and cost $11,240.86.[78] The building was reconditioned again in 1936 at a cost of $10,000.[79]



By 1940, even the enlarged building was “signally inadequate” for the demands of the student population.[80] Rather than renovating Swain Hall again, a new dining facility was built in January 1940, Lenoir Hall.[81] Swain Hall was converted to offices, and by 1946 was used by the University’s Extension Division, the Communication Center, and the Photography Library. In 1952 a transmitting tower was installed on the roof, indicating the building as the future home of WUNC radio.[82]

The UNC Department of Radio became its own entity in 1947 when it separated from the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Picture.[83] The WUNC campus radio station was housed in in the basement of Swain Hall by 1953. The station mostly played classic music and educational programs during its three and a half hours of night sets, with one of the most popular programs being “Let’s Listen to Opera.” The music was introduced by announcers who occasionally read breaking news. Former announcer Carl Kasell remembers one instance in which a win by the basketball team over rival North Carolina State was announced during programming.[84] In 1954 fire escapes were added to the building, and the following year television channel 4 began airing from the building.[85] The hall was again renovated by architect Edward Lowenstein, AIA before it was damaged by another fire, this time thought to be set deliberately.

Swain Hall - Names in Brick and Stone: Histories from UNC's Built Landscape

By Kimberly Oliver Situated near the northwestern edge of UNC’s campus, Swain Hall is often seen as an unremarkable building that bears the name of a remarkable man. It stands as a second-class monument to a man who the university adored and then scorned. It is far from being a campus landmark...

unchistory.web.unc.edu

PS - fascinating Life of David Lowry Swain (and Ella) at that link too.

 

[finesse]

Our Mom hated to cook. Absolutely hated it.

It wasn’t like Dad traveled throughout the year (he was a professor - he had to be on campus - and, those first few years he was an untenured assistant professor); in the late ‘60’s and early, early ‘70’s he was off to Goddard Space Center most UNC breaks, some weekends, and good hunks of the summer doing research.

But, when Dad was gone, we ate out…..cheap eats; but, in a restaurant.

With Mom, we’d hit Lum’s (beer-steamed hot dogs; Lum’s became something something and then Colonel Chutney’s; and, is now Pantera Bob’s), The Rat (I LOVED the Cave Room and the Cheese Bowl (aka, Lasagna), Tijuana Fats, and there was a “Greek” restaurant on West Franklin (somewhere between 411 West and Lantern).

Lum's became a convenience store owned by Tommy Gardner. Behind that was an open shed which is where Tom Robinson first started selling fish on the weekends before he opened the place in Carrboro.

The Greek place was Leo's and was right across from the Cave. I think part of it became an art supply store. In 1970, they served the earliest breakfast in town starting around 6:00 which was important after the all night poker games.

The owner once asked me if I were Greek. I've got the hair color and vaguely the complexion and when I walked in a friend called me Nick which was my nickname, you might say, at the time. There were 5 of us in the group with the same first name and that's a shortened version of my last name and a common nick name for the males of my family.

Not all, though. My dad went by Kate and my grandfather on that side by Sam. My dad's name was Kater (No, I don't know why) and my grandfather's was Charles M. . Apparently , in the first decade of the 20th century, it morphed into C.M. and then into Sam. I remember being surprised that Samuel was not part of his name.

 

[altmin]

@altmin - you are quite right and I am wrong (I’ll have to dig a bit more on AG’s dorm).

Swain Hall - Names in Brick and Stone: Histories from UNC's Built Landscape

By Kimberly Oliver Situated near the northwestern edge of UNC’s campus, Swain Hall is often seen as an unremarkable building that bears the name of a remarkable man. It stands as a second-class monument to a man who the university adored and then scorned. It is far from being a campus landmark...

unchistory.web.unc.edu

PS - fascinating Life of David Lowry Swain (and Ella) at that link too.

I ran a theater company out of Swain while I was at UNC, performing in a black box theater carved out of one of the studios - so I have spent an unhealthy amount of time in that dank building. The walls of the space were initially exposed yellow fibre glass held in place by chicken wire. We painstakingly covered the chicken wire in what seemed like miles of black cloth and then put up painted 1x4's to hold the cloth taught. This was 1996 and I think I still have fiberglass in the sleeves of the leather jacket I wore at the time.

It was rumored that the floor of Studio 6 (it has some other name now, but that was the name of the black box at the time) was several feet of poured concrete to get rid of the sound of echoing footsteps which drove some diva of the WUNC television era crazy. I can't imagine public radio/ the University would have the funds to rip apart the building, reinforce just that one room and poor extra concrete, but that's what one of the ancient engineers the comm department inherited from the TV days claimed.

Before I had keys to the outside of the building (only inside keys at first) the external doors were locked which was extremely rare back then. We had a matinee that day and it was a weekend. Instead of calling public safety and try to convince them to open the building - I did the more natural thing - break in. From years of hanging banners on the balcony, we knew the windows in the offices above the balcony were painted so many times they couldn't properly lock. Normally we would take a ladder and go on the balcony to hang them, but the ladder was locked inside. Somehow, and I still not sure how I managed this, I climbed the corner pillar of the brick overhand like a ninja and went in through the window to unlock the building.

 

[altmin]

Repairing the second hand theater curtains we inherited to cover the appearance of the black cloth walls, with 1x4s, which though better than the yellow, didn't look so great on their own - as you can see - the 1x4s gave it an unsightly unsmooth look.

 

[altmin]

I do have an Andy Griffith story though. Now I did not witness it, so it's all hearsay, but I think enough did where it could be believable. The director was not well liked though, so it could have been made up though to disparage him. I believe it was the Fall of 1998 and one of the Drama department theater groups was putting on "Lion in Winter" in Old Playmakers. During an evening rehearsal, some actors became distracted by a man (and maybe others?) lingering in the back of the theater. The director stopped rehearsal and yells across the building "Sir can I help you?" and the man replied "Well I used to spend a lot of time in the building, I just saw it was open and wanted to take a peak in." The director yelled back "Well this is a closed rehearsal, you need to leave!"

After they did, one of the actors said to the director "Do you realize you just threw Andy Griffith out of the building?"


I also learned that in his brief stint as a high school teacher, he taught Carl Kasell.

 

[altmin]

Actually the student of Andy Griffith thing is apparently false.

http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/morton/index.php/2013/04/wait-wait-is-that-carl-kasell/

'Kasell confided that Griffith later helped him with a more appropriate application of face paint, and that Griffith was “a big, big help” during that season. (Kasell’s high school drama teacher was Clifton Britton, not Griffith as is often incorrectly stated on numerous web pages.)'

 

[Ddseddse]

Leo’s?

Besides teapot spagetti and ramen that I made in my dorm, my devastatingly poor go tos were the bucket of bones, the free Hare Krishna food (always left mildly disappointed i wasn't proselytized to, nope, just nice people and free food), and the Greek Grilled Cheese (with Chili) at Hetor's.

 

[finesse]

Speaking of the Rat, I just found a nice piece of flank steak on sale. Might have to see if I can duplicate the Double Gambler. I know there's a recipe on line somewhere.

 

[grimes70]

Our Mom hated to cook. Absolutely hated it.

With Mom, we’d hit Lum’s (beer-steamed hot dogs; Lum’s became something something and then Colonel Chutney’s; and, is now Pantera Bob’s), The Rat (I LOVED the Cave Room and the Cheese Bowl (aka, Lasagna), Tijuana Fats, and there was a “Greek” restaurant on West Franklin (somewhere between 411 West and Lantern).

So my age addled mind has hit a roadblock. There was a restaurant that had cheap, not great steaks amongst other things that was down towards Sloan's drugstore. It was the Caolina something. Grill maybe? 1970ish.

Any y'all old folk remember?

Thx in advance.

 

[Ddseddse]

Speaking of the Rat, I just found a nice piece of flank steak on sale. Might have to see if I can duplicate the Double Gambler. I know there's a recipe on line somewhere.

Where, if you don't mind my asking? Not to turn this into the Foodie thread, but I love flank steak but it's gotten so damned expensive, not just inflation, it used to be a third of the price of NY strip but is now damn near the same.

 

[finesse]

Carolina Grill. I think you got a small, like 6 oz sirloin, a salad , fries or a baked potato and tea for a buck eighty five. My orientation counsellor took us the first day on campus.

At lunch, they had three chili dogs for a dollar. I don't remember if fries and a drink came with that or not but I think so. I loved their hotdogs. Had a good breakfast as well. Only place in town that crumbled the sausage and scrambled it with the egg like God intended when they made a sausage and egg sandwich.

 

[donbosco]

So my age addled mind has hit a roadblock. There was a restaurant that had cheap, not great steaks amongst other things that was down towards Sloan's drugstore. It was the Caolina something. Grill maybe? 1970ish.

Any y'all old folk remember?

Thx in advance.

Carolina Grill. Lunch for me there was often four chilidogs with fries and a co-cola but they also had a cheeseburger steak. We used to all put a quarter on the table then look to see the bottling location on our drink. The farthest away got the pot.

The guy that made the hot dogs was right up front where you ordered and he made them before your very eyes. He was a speed machine. I can see him now in his apron with a paper restaurant hat balanced on top of his afro.

Yep, the 1970s.

 

[finesse]

Where, if you don't mind my asking? Not to turn this into the Foodie thread, but I love flank steak but it's gotten so damned expensive, not just inflation, it used to be a third of the price of NY strip but is now damn near the same.

I caught a manager's special at Walmart. It was around 5.89 a pound.

For most of what I do, I actually prefer skirt steak or flap meat. I don't even know where to look for flap meat and skirt steak has gotten rare and expensive.

 

[05C40]

Carolina Grill. Lunch for me there was often four chilidogs with fries and a co-cola but they also had a cheeseburger steak. We used to all put a quarter on the table then look to see the bottling location on our drink. The farthest away got the pot.

The guy that made the hot dogs was right up front where you ordered and he made them before your very eyes. He was a speed machine. I can see him now in his apron with a paper restaurant hat balanced on top of his afro.

Yep, the 1970s.

IIRC, the Carolina Grill, back in the early 1970's, sold a punch card that cost $9, but could be redeemed for $10. A 10% discount on good cheap food. Seems like I got one every week, but I'm sure it was less frequent than that. I always left my tip in cash. Well, not cash, but in coin. Always ate at the counter.

 

[donbosco]

Once a very busy entrance in the very heart of downtown Chapel Hill.

 

[finesse]

That's somewhere around the back of Amber Alley, I believe. It was the closest way to Franklin from the old parking lot on Rosemary.

 

[donbosco]

That's somewhere around the back of Amber Alley, I believe. It was the closest way to Franklin from the old parking lot on Rosemary.

Nope. You may not be old enough nyc.