Carolina On My Mind

I have so many great memories of Thanksgiving.

That’s probably because they all involve a giant plate of food and Pecan Pie, the greatest pie of all-time.

For today’s edition of “Let’s look back at life in the 80’s”, we head back to 1989.

For Thanksgiving that year, a couple of my fraternity brothers and I headed east to the Carolinas.

We were there to visit a pair of our brothers who were spending a year at school on the east coast.

Our trip started in Raleigh-Durham at North Carolina State to see our buddy Lou.

For the big feast that year we had exactly nobody to cook for us and no places to go.

So we had to find one.

And find one we did.

But it wasn’t easy.

Pretty much every place we tried was loaded with all the fixins, but out of tables.

Enter Shoney’s.

The southern version of Denny’s.

$10 later we were full.

Including the pie.

From there it was onto Columbia to see brother Tad at The University of South Carolina.

The 227-mile drive from one Carolina to the other took about three-and-half hours.

Of course, I don’t remember that, but that’s what the internet just told me.

Howard Stern hadn’t invented satellite radio yet, so we had to rely on actual conversation to help the miles pass.

I also brought a USA Today newspaper with me.

After memorizing EVERY box score, two or three times, I finally transitioned to the news section.

When I got there, I’m sure I read a bunch of stories about your typical news stuff.

But there was one story that caught my attention.

Dateline:  Siler City, North Carolina.

In the story it said that Francis Bavier had just been admitted to a Siler City hospital.

My friends were more puzzled than sad with why I was bringing that news to their attention.

“Do you know who that is?,” I said.

Of course, the answer was no.

So I informed them that Francis Bavier was Aunt Bee.

Not my Aunt Bee, but OUR Aunt Bee.

From the Andy Griffith Show.

Now none of us knew Mrs. Bavier, but we all knew... and loved Beatrice Taylor -- better known as Aunt Bee.

As if it was on cue, within moments of reading the article, we just happened to see a sign on the highway.

WELCOME TO SILER CITY, NORTH CAROLINA.

Come on, what’s the chance of that?

A moment later, we saw a sign for a hospital.

How many hospitals could there possibly be in Siler City, North Carolina?

Well, we now know the answer is one.

Two, if you count the animal hospital.

I quickly convinced my friends that it was our civic duty to go visit Aunt Bee and give her our best wishes.

So we followed the “H” signs until we got to the “H”ospital.

When we got there, we headed up to front desk.

That’s where I informed the receptionist that we were there to visit “Aunt Bee.”

The lady working there thought we were crazy.

And we probably were.

But it’s the thought that counts, right?

Well, within a few minutes, probably seconds, she pointed us to the room where Aunt Bee was resting.

I can still feel my heart pounding today as it was then while we made the walk to the room. 

I know we meant well, but I really wasn’t sure what we were going to say or quite honestly how we would be received.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), we will never know.

When we got to the room, there was a guard standing outside.

He informed us that Mrs. Bavier wasn’t taking any visitors.

I’m sure I asked again, but the result was the same.

If I remember correctly, we waited a few minutes, asked the guard to give her our best wishes and then we headed back to the car.

She died about two weeks later.

I later learned that Mrs. Bavier avoided fans and interviews “like the plague”.

So it’s probably better we stopped where we did.

The rest of the trip was great, but 21 years later, it’s our 30-minute detour to Siler City that we still remember most.