27May2008 A lesson in Sparta NC

Left Roanoke and ate up what seemed to us many miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Not even a week into our drive, it felt as if we have been on the road for a long time. Considering we arrived the US on 5May, drove to Ithaca for Ro’s wedding, then went to Washington, New York and down to Baltimore, we have been away for quite a while.
We visited the famous Mabry Mill – an old gristmill at least a couple of hundred years old. Later on, we got to the Blue Ridge Music Center and admired its open-air auditorium. It was late afternoon and the musicians have left for the day. This only made us more determined than ever to seek out where bluegrass bands played.

We stopped at the Allegany Inn for the night. It is in Sparta NC, a small town with a population of 2800. The people were extremely friendly. We were not used to this effusive openness and it was embarrassing at times.
We asked to eat at a local restaurant. Brown’s Family Restaurant was just the place to be. It reminded us of a typical char-charn-tang (Cantonese version of a greasy spoon). We chowed on fried pork chop and steak, with coconut cake as dessert. Service was warm, relaxed and unhurried. Everything happened with a smile.

Later that evening we paid four dollars each to join a dance at the Allegany Jubilee. Remember seeing dance halls with mostly old timers in ten gallon hats on TV? That’s what it was. The band’s blue grass music caused our feet to start tapping even though we wanted to sit quietly in a corner and gawk. Fat chance! The other dancers insisted we join in. So, it was the line dance, the shuffle, whatever – they taught us really well. We got to talk with some of these new friends. They were very candid. Like elderly people all over the world, some had bouts with cancer, others lost their husbands or wives. Not a few also lost loved ones that served in Iraq or Afghanistan. However, these people were not there to moan their losses. They were dancing energetically with new partners. Some of the men were dressed to the nines. We will always remember the octogenarian in a heavily embellished red cowboy shirt. It had huge red rhinestones and nickel silver ornamentation for collar points. All this plus his bolo, he looked really swell. Thank you ‘Spartans’ for making our stay a truly enjoyable and memorable one. We learnt something about growing old – do not moan, just get on with it!

Distance traveled 142.6 miles


To be successful, one had to be a jack-of-all-trades - Mabry was at once a blacksmith, a miner, a farmer, a carpenter and he ran a mill that ground corn and sawed lumber; the mill, est 1910 n retored in 1945, is the most photographed site on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Do enlarge these photos to see how beautiful the place is and appreciate the efforts put in by the National Park Services to keep conditions pristine

Can't help including this shot of the millrace which directs water to power the wheels

Again this needs amplification to show the what's going on inside the mill.


What is this picture doing here? People ground bark from the oak and hemlock trees with this horse drawn mill; the resulting 'liquor' from mixing with water, will tan hide! How clever!

Remains of what was once a moonshine operation; my maternal grandmother knew how to make wine from fermentation of rice, similarly most settlers knew how to make liquor from corn; they allowed cornmeal, malt, sugar and water to ferment in barrels (a couple in the photo); after a few days, the fermented mesh, called beer, was heated in copper stills - see the white conical top container sitting on a small furnace lined with rocks, with a tube attached? The tube piped the alcohol vapour, cooled by water directed from an icy stream into a jug - of moonshine! Settlers either drank or sold it, I know what my granny did!


(Sigh)...it was so peaceful


Don't have anything to show of people playing blue grass music! Its a shame as the communities along the Blue Ridge Parkway are the epicenter of this genre; this music originated as a blend - those of early settlers with roots in the United Kingdom with that of Black slaves; it evolved over time, its development depended on the virtuosity of its instrumentalists - fiddlers, banjo and guitar players - and singers. We have only a poor shot of a poster, through a glass case, showing what a concert looked like; we decided not to show shots of the empty amphitheater, impressive as it was - it looked too lonely! We bought discs of blue grass music and recommend that anyone interested in music evolution do so too. The shots taken whilst dancing to the music in Sparta's Allegany Jubilee didn't come out right. In an effort to be non-intrusive, we didn't use the flash.

Some say green is the most restful and soothing color, our eyes smilingly agree.

This little guy - about a foot and a half long (45cm) wandered onto the road and a local resident (there were farms in this area) managed to move it back to a safe area. Remember - Don't Touch the Wildlife


Green is not the only color on the Blue Ridge Parkway