Chapel Hill/Carrboro Reminiscing & Missed Connections

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The spring of my senior year in high, after I had been accepted at UNC, I borrowed my grandfather's car and drove up to Chapel Hill to spend the weekend with my brother and see the campus. I drove up to Estes Park Apts Friday afternoon and knocked on my brother's apartment door. No answer. I figured he was out somewhere, so I ate (Mom 'n Pop's Ham House, IIRC) and went to a movie, "Little Big Man," starring Dustin Hoffman. After the movie, 9 pm showing, I tries again. Still no answer. I knew it was too late to drive home, so I slept in the backseat of the car.

Next morning I got up, tried again, but still no one at home. So I drove to campus and sort of aimlessly wandered around for a couple of hours. Then I drove home. When I arrived home a day early, my father asked what had happened. I made up some story about seeing everything there was to see in two days and decided to come home early. My father's response was to tell me that my brother had already called to apologize and disclosed he had forgotten about me coming and had gone to the beach with some friends. And as karma often does, my brother got separated from his friends before he found out where the one friend's beach cottage was and had to sleep on the beach.

Later, my brother told me that his then girlfriend, with two other girls, also lived at Estes Park and had seen me knocking on his door and sleeping in the car. He scolded her for not inquiring about me and not letting me sleep on the couch in their apartment. But it was all for the good, because I don't think my little 17 year old heart would have survived being asked by three hot college girls to spend the night with them.
So I'm guessing you were class of '75 ?

Where did you live on campus ?
 
So I'm guessing you were class of '75 ?

Where did you live on campus ?
9th Floor, Hinton James. Actually had a hiatus in the middle for four years in the Army because I ran out of money and did not want to work 40 hours a week while going to college full time. The GI Bill educational benefits made a big difference in my life. Lived off campus the final two years.
 
I’d have guessed wearing sandals would have been required for scenesters.
Doc Martens, vans or Chuck Taylors. Fluevogs if you were stylin. Sandals were for hippies. In the 90s there was very little Venn diagram crossover b/w Chapel Hill scenesters and deadheads. That anyone would admit at any rate.
 
Had a tab at Trolls! Sam had us sign a check and kept a tab on the back of it. If it got over $60 he'd write it out and cash it.


Can you tell me where Sam was supposedly buried?
If I'm not mistaken Cynthia was the better half and ran Bub's, one of my favorite haunts. She was a guy trapped inside a girl's body😙
Cynthia and Sam married and she opened The Last Refuge...was on the top floor of the Trolls building. An attempt at Fine Dining. Last I saw her she was running a place out at Southern Village called The Town Hall Grill...that was probably 15 years ago. Gary Crunkleton was one of her bartenders there.

The story goes that Sam had arranged with the guys putting the upper deck on Kenan to pour his ashes down into part of the cement structure they were laying. Sam was well known for saying "Anybody can be a Carolina basketball fan but it takes a Real Tar Heel to stick with Carolina football." So Sam is there at every home game.
 
He eventually ran for mayor of Carrboro did he not ?

I know that a lot of people called him Mayor but I am pretty sure he never ran at least seriously. He was an artist and an inebriant of some acclaim. He could be found in Trolls or Kirkpatrick's pretty often but might wander into practically any place (Tijuana Fats' for example). He lived in Carrboro with his mother until he passed away in 2014. I gave him a few rides home over the years and he lived in that neighborhood back behind Fitch Lumber. Part of his legend is that he once turned down The New Yorker when they accepted one of his paintings for a cover because they offered too little payment. He certainly could draw some beautiful bar napkin art.
 
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