Memories of Maggie at 50 -- from Reba at Ghost Town to snakes at Soco Gardens
Jul. 23—Our little girl Maggie is all grown up. In fact, she's now a quinquagenarian, which is a fancy word for someone who has turned 50 years old.
The Maggie in question is the Haywood County town of Maggie Valley. Incorporated as a municipality in 1974, Maggie is celebrating her 50th birthday in 2024, with a big party last week at Maggie Valley Town Pavilion to mark the half-century milestone.
This fine publication has been sharing folks' memories of Maggie Valley over the years, and your friendly neighborhood columnist is taking this opportunity to share a few of his own.
As a cub reporter fresh out of journalism school in 1983, I covered the Maggie Valley Board of Alderman as one of my many beats, meeting local legendary figures including Mayor Jim Miller, owner of Soco Gardens Zoo; aldermen Kyle Edwards, founder of the Stompin' Ground, billed as the clogging capitol of the world, and Al Pinto, restaurant owner and automobile salesman; and long-time town manager Al Matthews.
I visited the Stompin' Ground as I worked on stories about the then-fledgling Folkmoot festival. And Miller's Soco Gardens Zoo would become a frequent destination later in life, as we'd take our young children to check out the variety of animals housed there.
Son Will, who had a fascination with dinosaurs, was especially enamored of the collection of snakes and loved being able to help hold a giant python. Daughter Neva...not so much.
One of my favorite Maggie memories came in the summer of my first year at The Mountaineer. I had the opportunity to venture up to Ghost Town in the Sky where country music group The Statler Brothers was filming a television special.
In addition to the Statlers, already country music royalty for the hits "I'll Go To My Grave Loving You," "Flowers on the Wall" and "Bed of Roses," Ghost Town played host to long-established industry star Mel Tillis and a fresh-faced redhead named Reba McEntire. Both Tillis and McEntire graciously took time out of their schedules for interviews conducted by a young reporter whose musical taste leaned more New Wave of British Heavy Metal than boot-scooting boogie.
McEntire had been working in the music business for about eight years and was on the cusp of the type of superstardom reserved for those rare individuals readily recognized by only their first name. At the time we spoke, she had two No. 1 songs on the country charts and had been nominated for her first Country Music Association female vocalist of the year award.
"Right now, we need to do as much work as we possibly can," Reba told me in her distinct Oklahoma drawl. "We need to do concerts and we need to be on television as much as we can. We need to be in the public's eye as much as we can while we're hot."
The story's headline proclaimed "Reba McEntire's headed for stardom." As this newspaper's contributor Kathy Ross pointed out to me as she stumbled across the article while researching for a special publication about Maggie's 50th, that prediction proved accurate. Now, if I could just pick the winners of sporting events...
Another Maggie memory found me and a handful of Mountaineer colleagues parked on stools at an upstairs restaurant and pub. If I remember correctly, the place was called Michael's.
I decided that evening to emulate blues rocker George Thorogood. I called the bartender and said, "Look man, come down here." He got down there, said, "What you want?" "One bourbon, one scotch, one beer," I replied.
I enjoyed the trio of adult beverages so much that I thought I would do another round. That was a huge mistake. The next morning, I had the worst hangover of my life. Never again.
From breakfasts at Joey's Pancake House and Pop's Place to an anniversary dinner at J. Arthur's (always bring the children!) where Margaret and I were serenaded by a singing waiter, from the canoe full of cold beer at Legends to sliding down the hill at Tony's Tube World, from Police Chief I.C. Sutton to moonshiner Popcorn Sutton, from trying to learn how to ski at Cataloochee Ski Area to visiting the newly renovated Cataloochee Ranch, and from the Blue Ridge Parkway to the majestic elk of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Maggie has been an important part of my life for the roughly 40 years I've called Haywood home.
Here's to her next 50!
Bill Studenc, who began his career in journalism and communications at The Mountaineer in 1983, retired in January 2021 as chief communications officer at Western Carolina University. He now writes about life in the mountains of Western North Carolina.