This November, Barbara Gragg will have run the honey stand on U.S. 221 between the Grandfather Mountain entrance and the Blue Ridge Parkway for 60 years. Fifty-five of those years were with her husband, Floyd, whom I first became acquainted with years ago when I would see him playing his banjo at the honey stand to draw in and entertain tourists. “Floyd passed away in four years ago,” Barbara says. “I used to play the guitar. But since Floyd died, I don’t play anymore.”
“Mr. (Hugh) Morton (owner of Grandfather Mountain) would come by every day to check on us.” And with reason, as there has been a long-standing relationship between the Gragg and Morton families. Floyd’s granddad ran the toll booth on the Yonahlossee Road, the present day U.S. 221, which connected Blowing Rock and Lenoir. The “turnpike road” was built by Mr. Morton’s grandfather.
Because of the longstanding Morton – Gragg relationship, Floyd and Barbara were allowed to establish and maintain a honey stand since the late ‘50’s near the Grandfather Mountain entrance.
Barbara is a native of Morganton; she never knew her parents as they had both passed away by the time she was five. She went to live with her granddaddy in Marion and became the youngest of a lot of 10. Barbara remembers, “Everyone in the family played music, mostly fiddle, but grandpaw put a guitar in my hands because he couldn’t stand the noise that was coming out of my fiddle.”
Music led her to meet her future husband, Floyd, a marriage of 58 years until his death in 2014. In that time everyone in Avery County and surrounds went to the Singing Ground (Singing on the Mountain) as it was one of the biggest social events of the year. She was 18; Floyd was 20; the rest is history.
Barbara and Floyd worked all their lives; music was reserved for nights and weekends. “We went everywhere”, as Barbara describes their musical lives. “Once we got our kids educated, the honey stand would become a ‘permanent job’ for the tourist season. It was more profitable back then. When Floyd brought out his banjo, the tourists bought out their money.”
