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After noticing that Andy was not pictured in the class photos for his class in the 1947 University of North Carolina Yackety Yack yearbook my friend Jimmy gifted me, I researched the matter and learned the same held true for the 1945, 1946, and 1948 yearbooks.

Andy graduated in 1949, so I also checked that yearbook as well. As will come as no surprise, once again, he is not pictured, this time with the senior class. One interesting item to note, though, is that a play that Andy viewed as important in his young career is briefly mentioned. On the Carolina Playmakers page, part of the text states, “This year, in its 31st season, the Playmakers, long famous for its one-act original plays, instituted a policy emphasizing the full-length student-written play. The experiment proved successful with the presentation of EGYPT LAND by Robert Armstrong in the fall quarter.”

Armstrong was a graduate level student who wrote Egypt Land. The description of the play I have read does not seem to match the photo from the production in the lower left-hand corner of the yearbook page, but it is hard to know if this is a captioning error or if the play was a more drastically different take on Armstrong’s source material. Andy Griffith related that Egypt Land was based on the life of the folksinger and guitarist known as Leadbelly. Andy played the lead.

Andy and Robert (or Bob) Armstrong became lifelong friends. After Andy began starring in The Andy Griffith Show, his old friend—who now went by R.G. Armstrong—guest starred as the gruff farmer named Flint in “Ellie Saves a Female” in the first season.

I sought the help of the staff at the Wilson Library at UNC and, while we will never know for sure why Andy did not sit for any class portraits, they did provide some interesting numbers and statistics found in the student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel.

First, the photos were actually taken in the fall quite early in the school year.

Second, the students did have to pay for their photos. In October 1945, which would have been for portraits to be included in the 1946 yearbook, the cost was $4.50 for seniors and $3.50 for juniors, with the student paying all but $1 when they made their appointment and paying the final dollar to the photographer at the sitting. Keep in mind that the average price for a ticket to see a movie in 1945 was 35¢.

Finally, Andy was in no way alone. Either because they forgot, could not afford the photo, or were just too busy, hundreds of students did not get their photos taken for the class portrait section of the yearbook. While the article the library provided was actually from the fall after Andy graduated, it was surely not an aberration. That year near the deadline, about 500 students out of the roughly 4700 enrollment had not shown up to get a photo taken.

By the way, Andy’s friend Robert Armstrong who was likely an upperclassman while Andy first attending and who was a graduate student when he wrote Egypt Land? He never sat for a portrait either!

The gift of the 1947 Yackety Yak yearbook I received from my friend, Jimmy, pictured Andy Griffith as president of the Glee Club yet did not have a class portrait. This led to me looking at other years when Andy attended. As detailed last time, the 1945 yearbook which was published at the end of Andy’s freshman year also showed Andy as a member of the Glee Club. It did not contain traditional class portraits but did have photographs of all underclassmen shot around campus. However, Andy was not in any of those photos.

The 1946 yearbook would have covered Andy’s sophomore year which was when he switched majors from sociology to music. In that yearbook, the Glee Club photo shows a much larger group without the names listed. While it is hard to be completely sure, I believe Andy’s distinctive full head of hair is visible.

This was the first year Andy is listed as an officer of the club. As originally noted, he was president in the yearbook Jimmy sent me. This yearbook from the previous year shows he was working his way up to that position as he was vice-president during the 1945-1946 academic year.

By this time, Andy had also become involved with the Carolina Playmakers, a student theater group that staged several plays and musicals each year. He recalled that he was passing by the building that housed the group one night and, on a whim, signed up to audition for the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, The Gondoliers. He said at the time he did not even know who Gilbert and Sullivan were. He was cast and received good reviews for his solos in the show, which helped convince him to change his major to music.

However, yet again, Andy was not included in the class portrait section.

The 1948 Yackety Yack which follows the 1947 yearbook given to me and discussed earlier covered Andy’s fourth year at UNC. It did not include any distinguishable photos of Andy. If he was still involved in the Glee Club, it had grown so large that is is not possible to locate him in such a large group.

Once again, Andy was not in the class portrait section. That left only one last possible year to check.

As I had the chance to look through the 1947 Yackety Yack in more detail, I was surprised to see that, while Andy’s portrait was included on the Glee Club page since he was president, his photo was not among the class photos. As mentioned last time, Andy changed majors during his sophomore year and ended up staying at the University of North Carolina an additional year, graduating in 1949. So during the 1946-1947 year, he could have still been considered a sophomore but more likely was a junior. Yet his photo was not in either one of those classes.

This aroused my curiosity. I reached out to Jim Clark to see if he had any idea why that would be, offering my theories that perhaps Andy was unable to afford it or simply was not interested. Jim did not know. I even reached out to Dixie Griffith, Andy’s daughter, but she did not know either.

I then decided to look at other years of The Yackety Yak. Andy said that when he first enrolled at UNC, even though he was a sociology major, he joined the glee club, band, and a choral society. Looking at the 1945 yearbook, Andy was clearly visible in the Glee Club photo which even included a listing of those in the photo. Andy is in the back row, second from the left.

The only band shown in the yearbook was the marching band. While I can not be sure, Andy was likely in that as well since he stated he joined the band. Andy had become proficient on trombone while still in Mount Airy and learned to play other brass instruments as well. There was no separate page dedicated to a choral group, but that could have been an informal group he joined.

The 1945 Yackety Yak did not include traditional class portraits for any class other than the seniors. Instead, all other classes were represented in numerous photos taken around campus, usually with 10 students in each photo. The names, hometowns, and class of each student pictured was listed alongside each photo. Freshman Andy was not among them in this instance, either.

As mentioned, I theorized there was more than one possible explanation. Perhaps Andy just did not care about being included in these photos and so did not bother to show up. After all, in the Glee Club photo in which he is pictured, 29 members along with the instructor are shown while 38 other club members were listed as “not in picture.”  I also wondered whether a student perhaps had to pay to be included in a photo and Andy chose not to do so as he was not from a wealthy family or simply wanted to save his money or thought it could be better spent.  This led me to look at the 1946 yearbook.

As an aside, I will add that there is one other interesting point to note in these yearbooks. It was a different time since the lead sponsor was Chesterfield Cigarettes urging the students to learn their A, B, Cs!

A few months ago, I wrote three sequential posts about a gift I received out of the blue from fellow Mayberry fan, Jimmy Phillips. My friend sent me the 1952 yearbook, Gohisca, from Goldsboro High School where Andy Griffith taught after earning his college degree. Keep in mind that I have not yet met Jimmy face-to-face. He is simply an extremely generous man who thought I would enjoy such a treasure. And he was right, of course.

We were recently preparing to go out of town for a trade show related to my wife’s business. Imagine my surprise when I received another Facebook Messenger inquiry from Jimmy making sure my address had not changed. Jimmy was sending me another package. I told him I would be out of town when it arrived but would have a neighbor put it inside a glass-enclosed sunroom on our house. He didn’t tell me what it was but did say it was over 70 years old. When I said the suspense was killing me, he responded, “Don’t you love a good mystery?”

 

When we returned from the trade show, I learned what Jimmy had sent. It was the 1947 University of North Carolina yearbook, The Yackety Yack, one of the years Andy was a student there. Andy enrolled at UNC in 1944 as a sociology major, a field of study he thought would be helpful to his plan at the time to become a Moravian minister. During his sophomore year, he decided he would rather major in music. The end result was he spent five years at UNC, graduating in 1949. Thus, this yearbook was from his third year at the university.

Whether he was technically a sophomore or junior as a result of changing his major, Andy was the president of the Men’s Glee Club that academic year. Just as he did when he became a teacher, he was going by “Andrew” even though his legal name was “Andy.”

When I contacted Jimmy to thank him yet again for his great generosity, I learned he had won the yearbook by bidding for it on an eBay auction. He made it a point to find the photo of Andy he knew it contained, then boxed it up and sent it as a gift. Jimmy also wrote, “I hope there’s something in it that will help your research. If not, it’s still a neat piece of Andy memorabilia.”

Though we have only “met” over the internet, Jimmy knows me too well. His gift definitely inspired me to dig into a curiosity I encountered when looking through The Yackety Yak. But that’s the subject of the next several blog posts.

When I travel, I like to seek out different and interesting soda pops or chips I have never encountered. I was recently in Michigan and tried a variation on my norm by buying two types of peanut butter.

These two products are not national brands such as Jif, Peter Pan, or Skippy. They are both were excellent in their own ways.

I had purchased Cream-Nut Peanut Butter before. I had first seen it at Zingerman’s, the fantastic deli I have previously mentioned. The peanut butter is sometimes called Koeze’s after the family company that makes it. Its ingredients are literally roasted Virginia peanuts and sea salt. That’s it. It is not homogenized with emulsifiers so there is a layer of oil at the top of the jar that you have to be careful about when you first open it. You stir the oil back into the peanut butter but inevitably you get a creamier-than-usual peanut butter at first. As you work your way down through the jar, the oil that is no longer there thanks to the earlier servings makes for a dense peanut butter at the bottom. This is not a bad thing. Both are delicious. Cream-Nut is not a cheap product. It was especially pricey at Zingerman’s where I first bought it, I consider it to have been worth the money as you can count on Zingerman’s to curate only the best quality products. It is cheaper to buy it at a local grocery but is still more expensive than the national brands though I would argue it is worth it.

Not long before we went on the trip to Michigan, I had read about another peanut butter that was a fond memory for many Michiganders until a few years ago. Velvet Peanut Butter is made in Livonia, a town near Detroit that also happens to be the hometown of one of my son-in-laws.

Velvet Peanut Butter was developed in 1944 by Paul Zuckerman, an Ashkenazi Jew born in Istanbul. His family immigrated to the United States and Paul grew up in Detroit during the Depression. The new peanut butter was an early homogenized variety and the three freckle-faced boys on the label were part of the advertising campaign. The child’s face was modeled after Zuckerman’s son.

In 1948, Velvet was chosen by the government to provide one and a half million pounds of peanut butter annually for use in schoolrooms across the country. Zuckerman finally sold the company in the 1950s, He eventually bought the brand back as part of a new corporation involved in various foods, but then sold the entire business in 1984 resulting in Velvet no longer being produced. He died two years later.

So for many people of a certain age in Michigan, their favorite peanut butter from childhood was only a memory. However, in 2009, one of those people bought the brand and original recipe and re-introduced Velvet.

The peanut butter is closer to what the national brands produce than Cream-Nut but seems less sweet. I don’t know if the peanuts are actually roasted before being ground, but it does have the taste of roasted peanuts.

While different from one another, both peanut butters were excellent and worth trying if you are in the area.

I recently posted about the Roadside America website and app I contributed a small item to along with several photos. There are several roadside attractions near Mount Airy, North Carolina. In fact, the same website and app list many spots familiar to anyone who has visited Mount Airy.

First, Roadside America literally lists the town itself as a tourist attraction. It also lists individual spots in Mount Airy.

The most obvious are the statue of Andy and Opie erected by TVLand and Wally’s which houses a wonderful gift shop, offers tours in recreations of the Mayberry squad car, and also has recreations of the courthouse, jail cells, and the Darling’s cabin that make for great photo opportunities. 

TVLand erected the original statue of Andy and Opie in Raleigh since it is a large city and the capital of North Carolina. They soon heard from fans about that decision and so erected a second statue in Mount Airy itself.

Wally’s was once a real gas station that was built in 1937 and remained in operation until it became a tourist attraction in 2001. Supposedly—and it would not seem unlikely in the least—a young Andy Griffith would grab a bottle of pop there. The gift shop in Wally’s is known for providing a nice selection of Mayberry gifts at reasonable prices and also has a large selection of old-time candies. I have taken tours in the squad cars a few times and have yet to encounter a guide who was not extremely knowledgable about the town and its ties to The Andy Griffith Show.

 

The site/app also lists The Andy Griffith Museum and provides a separate listing for the Chang and Eng exhibit about the famed “Siamese Twins” who lived in the area for many years and are buried nearby.

 

 

 

Floyd’s Barbershop is also listed. This longtime Mount Airy fixture was not really called Floyd’s long ago, of course, but was re-named to take advantage of the tourist trade that has developed around Mount Airy. The well-known barber Russell Hiatt passed away a few years ago but was always friendly with the constant parade of Mayberry fans who came into his shop.

Mount Airy’s granite quarry made the list since it is the world’s largest open-face granite quarry. 

Andy Griffith’s childhood home is another listed attraction. The exterior is available for viewing from the street easily enough, but the interior is not. It is operated as a bed and breakfast annex of the Hampton Inn. (The breakfast part is just that you can drive to the hotel to have their standard breakfast offerings.) The house has been expanded since Griffith lived there. What is now a small bedroom on the back of the house was originally a porch. I have been lucky enough to stay there. The house had various Mayberry paraphernalia hanging throughout and was stocked with a collection of episodes to be watched.

Room 109 at the Mayberry Motor Inn is the last individual attraction listed. The room holds a large number of items that once belonged to Frances Bavier who played Aunt Bee in the series.

Amazingly, Snappy Lunch is not listed individually. It sounds like I have another tip and photos to submit!

While not directly in Mount Airy, another interesting sight can be found in nearby Thurmond, North Carolina. Along a country road is a trio of Baptist churches that look like Russian nesting dolls. The smallest church was the original. When the congregation outgrew it, a larger church was built on the land next door but the original building was kept for church activities. As the congregation grew, a third church was built larger than the second, with the two earlier buildings again not demolished. The end result is a novel sight.

Regular readers know that I have posted about Hillbilly Hot Dogs, a fine eating establishment in Lesage, West Virginia on the route between Cincinnati and Mount Airy that would definitely qualify as a roadside attraction.

 

There is one more attraction not far from LeSage that reminds one of Otis. A life-size pink elephant in Barboursville, West Virginia!

Before the Mayberry Day-by-Day Flip Book Calendar, I used to joke that I was a published author and photographer due to a paragraph I wrote and a few photos I took being used in the great website and even better app, Roadside America. 

I have always been a fan of unusual “roadside attractions.” If time allows, I am not averse to driving out of my way a reasonable amount to see one. I have especially fond memories of my old college roommate, Dick, and I driving down to visit our good friend, Jim, in Lexington. The three of us had attended Mayberry Days together the first time I ever attended in 2006.  On a whim, the three of us drove from Jim’s all the way to the excellent Moonlite Bar-B-Q in Owensboro, Kentucky, nearly a three-hour trip each way! It took much longer than that, though, due to us detouring multiple times to see roadside attractions.

One of the few apps of my phone that I have paid for—and it was worth every penny—is the Roadside America app. They also maintain a useful website but it is not as extensive as and can’t compare to the app when traveling.

Roadside America invites users to submit tips for attractions not already on the website and app. My friend Barry, the co-founder of The Gomer and Goober Pyle Comic Book Literary Guild, had submitted a tip and called my attention to it or I am not sure if I would have even realized it.

In 2014, I submitted a tip through the app that was eventually published, along with some photos of a unique sculpture outside of a wonderful diner near Cincinnati called Sugar and Spice that is open for breakfast and lunch only.

One of the restaurant’s specialties are thin, wispy pancakes. The sculpture is a pig balancing a plateful of pancakes while sitting on a larger stack. Smaller pigs bearing breakfast items circle the base of pancakes. Cincinnati has a long history tied to pork and many years ago was sometimes nicknamed “Porkopolis.” The city used to avoid the name but now embraces it, even running the Flying Pig Marathon every year.

Only one photo I submitted is used on the Roadside Attractions website which is more limited than the app. The phone app includes two photos I took, as well as others of the sculpture later submitted by other users.

On the afore-mentioned trip with my college friends, I used the app to locate a Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Kentucky’s state capital, Frankfort. The tip had been written by the Roadside America editors themselves instead of a user. I was surprised there were no photos of the memorial which is a giant sundial, so I submitted photos of that as well which were eventually used.

The app is so extensive, it is unusual to find an attraction not on the app or on the app without photos. Still, I am glad that my being published now includes the Mayberry Day-by-Day Calendar and a soon-to-be-released traditional book about The Andy Griffith Show and not just my single paragraph tip!

 

 

 

Last week, I posted about The Mystery of Al Becker. Thanks to Jim Clark and Neal Brower, we learned who the real Al Becker was. My post also called attention to the use of the same name more than three years earlier in an episode of The Real McCoys.

I recently have also wondered about the likelhood that there was a real Mendelbright that either Everett Greenbaum or Jim Fritzell actually knew. The writers used the name on several occasions in The Andy Griffith Show.

The name first appeared in the third season episode “Man in a Hurry.” When the stranded Malcolm Tucker wanted to use the phone on a Sunday afternoon, Andy told him he was free to try but it wouldn’t do him any good. Andy explained, “See, the Mendelbright sisters visit by phone every Sunday afternoon. Everybody knows about Maude and Cora and they let ‘em use the phone for a good three or four hours.” Andy said the sisters were in their 80s so it was hard for them to get about and Maude lived in Mayberry while Cora lived in Mount Pilot.

By the way, while not canon since it was not part of the actual episode storyline, the Mendelbright sisters also figured into the commercial ending which was an advertisement for Sanka Decaffeinated Coffee, a product of the series sponsor, General Foods. In the commercial, Andy was in the living room with Malcolm unable to call Wally’s as the Mendelbright sisters were still on the line. Andy tried to trick them into hanging up by saying it was an emergency as he had run out of Sanka Coffee and needed to order more. They misunderstood and each said they had not run out while pointing out that Sanka was caffeine free causing Andy to finally give up. He then picked up a jar of Sanka and broke the fourth wall by speaking directly to the audience to encourage viewers to enjoy Sanka. “Try Sanka Coffee in the ‘nice to hold’ new jar. The coffee for folks who love good coffee. Outstandingly good coffee!”

Three episodes later, the name Mendelbright appeared again, this time in “Class Reunion.” (This episode was actually the fifth filmed after “Man in a Hurry” but it was aired just three episodes later.) As the episode opened, Andy was helping Barney move a trunk into storage in his garage since Barney’s landlady insisted he remove it from her cellar. Barney explained his landlady needed the space to grow mushrooms after seeing an advertisement on how to “[g]row mushrooms for fun and profit.” Andy then commented that Mrs. Mendelbright was full of ambition. This was the second use of the name Mendelbright and the first time the audience learned the name of Barney’s unseen landlady.

Just six episodes later in that same season, the name appeared yet again, this time in “The Darlings Are Coming,” the same episode which introduced the mountain family. When the Darlings were first seen, they had pulled up to a horse trough in town. It was engraved with the name “David Mendelbright,” the dates 1870-1933, and the words, “Let no horse go thirsty here.” The episode offered no further explanation as to who David Mendelbright was, though the phrase about horses is in quotation marks, indicating it is a quotation of Medelbright’s.

The original script for this episode of The Andy Griffith Show offers a bit more information. First, it is of interest that this engraving was not a random name created by the prop master or one he might have used on his own, perhaps having heard it from the previous episodes. The name David Mendelbright, the dates, and the inscription seen on the trough in the episode were all provided verbatim in the script, though the writers envisioned the words inscribed on a bronze plaque affixed to the trough. The script specifically described the structure as “a permanent concrete watering trough donated by one of the town’s founders many years ago.” Since this reference to David Mendelbright being one of the town’s founders was not reflected in the episode as aired, it is not canon, but it is a great piece of Mayberry trivia.

So the name Mendelbright was used in “Man in a Hurry,” then “Class Reunion” three episodes later, then “The Darlings Are Coming” six episodes later. All three episodes were written by the writing team of Everett Greenbaum and Jim Fritzell, the same writers who gave us Al Becker as discussed previously. Greenbaum and Fritzell also wrote the fourth season episode “Up in Barney’s Room” where the viewers got to actually see Mrs. Mendelbright.

Was there a real person named Mendelbright that the writers were making an inside joke about by using the name? It seems likely though we will probably never know. Neither Jim nor Neal had any inside information from their dealings with Everett Greenbaum, so there is no way to be sure. Of course, it could simply be a name the writing team just liked the sound of and decided to use a few times, but I like to think it had some further meaning that will remain a Mayberry mystery.

The Andy Griffith Show premiered before I was two years old. While the first new episodes I would have been old enough to remember were color ones, I also remember seeing the black and white episodes in reruns.

Another series I remember through reruns is The Real McCoys, though I was so young my strongest memories are really just the dinner bell being rung at the beginning of the show and the way Grandpappy Amos walked.

I know that the shows shared a huge number of guest stars. Mayberry’s Mayor Pike was also the veterinarian Doc Thornton on The Real McCoys. Frank Myers who had a Confederate bond in Mayberry was the McCoy’s neighbor, George MacMichael. There are many more examples. Not to mention that Dick Crenna who played Luke McCoy went on to direct eight episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, including the classics “A Date for Gomer,” “Citizen’s Arrest,” and “Opie the Birdman.” When you saw a barn in the early Mayberry episodes, it was the McCoys’ barn since The Real McCoys was filmed on the 40 Acres Backlot just like The Andy Griffith Show.

As a result, I have been gradually working my way through the run of The Real McCoys. I recently watched a third season episode titled “Grandpa Fights the Air Force” in which Grandpappy Amos sneaked onto an Air Force base because he was upset about the planes that kept flying over his farm creating sonic booms.

In the episode which aired on September 15, 1959, Amos’s grandson, Luke, and his wife, Kate, went to the Air Force base to try to find Grandpa but were immediately held for questioning. The dialogue of note was:

Kate: You see, our grandpa ain’t the type of person that goes around lookin’ for trouble, but, well, he always seems to find it. Like that time back home in Smokey Corners, he…

Provost Marshall: Back home where?

Luke: Smokey Corners, West Virginia. Population 307. Queen City of the Moccasin Creek.

Kate: You know your snakeskin bookmarks?

Provost Marshall: No, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.

Kate: Well, they’re all made right there.

Luke: Why it’s knowed as one of Smokey Corners’ biggest success stories. This fella Al Becker started that whole industry with one old snake and a big idea.

Al Becker! Hey, I recognized that name! Later in the episode, Amos was caught and questioned in an interrogation room by an Air Force officer. When Amos was asked where he was from and answered Smokey Corners, the officer couldn’t find it on the map. Amos said it was about 57 miles south of Wheeling, then added:

Amos: You turn left where Moccasin Creek empties into Tadpole Swamp. That’s our resort area. Tadpole Swamp’s famous for mud baths. Cures just about anything that ails ya’.

Officer: (still having trouble finding it on the map) Maybe I better start back at Wheeling again.

Amos: Ya’ wanna’ watch out for snakes if you’re muddin’, though. But if you do catch one, Al Becker will give you 10 cents for it.

Mayberry fans will remember that in “A Date for Gomer,” which was first broadcast on December 9, 1963, Andy was trying to make small talk before the group, which included Gomer and Thelma Lou’s cousin, Mary Grace, left for the Chamber of Commerce dance. Chuckling throughout, Andy was telling a story about a collie dog that had just been shaved for the summer who came into Norman’s Groceteria.

Andy: Well, Al Becker happened to be standin’ there right at that minute… Y’all know Al Becker.

Helen: I don’t.

Thelma Lou: I don’t know him either.

Andy: (to Barney) Well, I know you know ‘im.

Barney: Al Becker? No, I can’t say I do. But that ain’t important, Ange. You go right ahead.

Andy then stopped, explaining the story wouldn’t mean anything if they didn’t know him. Barney then kept the awkward situation going another moment, saying aloud, “Al Becker… Nah, I can’t place him.”

A quick check of the credits revealed that both “Grandpa Fights the Air Force” and “A Date for Gomer” which aired more than three years later had both been written by the writing team of Everett Greenbaum and Jim Fritzell. This convinced me that the use of the name Al Becker must have had some significance to one of them since they bothered to use it in two different series. I had never sen any reference to it in any of my books on The Andy Griffith Show and a Google search was unfruitful, so I reached out to someone I knew had an actual relationship with Greenbaum. Jim Clark is a noted author of several fine books about The Andy Griffith Show and is the founder of The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club.

I asked Jim if he knew whether Al Becker was a real person and if so, who he was. Jim confirmed Al Becker was an across-the-street neighbor of Greenbaum’s when he was growing up in Buffalo, New York! Jim also mentioned that he never asked Greenbaum about whether Al may have contributed his last name to Sam and Lily Becker in “Quiet Sam,” but it seems a safe bet that was also the origin of they last name.

By the way, as I mentioned earlier, there were many character actors who appeared in both series. In the fifth season episode “Banjo-Playing Deputy” on The Andy Griffith Show, one of the workers who was stealing purses at the carnival where Jerry Miller had worked was played by Lee Van Cleef. And one of the sentries who Grandpappy Amos sneaked by to get on the Air Force base and then searched for him? Played by Lee Van Cleef, of course! When Van Cleef appeared in The Andy Griffith Show in 1965, he later said that year he was on the verge of giving up his acting career. But he was then cast that same year in Clint Eastwood’s For a Few Dollars More directed by Sergio Leone. Van Cleef’s anti-hero role made him an international star.

One other last point. A groceteria is an obsolete term for a self-serve grocery store, meaning Mayberry had, at least for a time, another store other than Foley’s down the street from the courthouse.

The six posts I have made (including this one) about good burgers in Cincinnati is in no way meant to be all-inclusive but they are my personal favorites. There is one other that I especially enjoy, but I will discuss it in a later post since it really is located in greater Cincinnati and not the Queen City itself. This last burger is from one of my favorite restaurants in town—period.

CWC, the Restaurant is an outgrowth of a popular cooking blog called CWC, which stands for Cooking with Caitlin. Between chef Caitlin Steininger and her sister Kelly Trush, they have posted dozens and dozens of “how-to” cooking videos. They’ve been seen doing local television spots, have run pop-up shops, and ran a food truck while their restaurant was being readied.

There are not many guarantees that can be made with restaurants, but I can absolutely guarantee that you cannot go to CWC and not feel welcome. While Caitlin does the food, her effervescent sister Kelly is the host and manager who greets you. What a treat to go to a restaurant where you are made to feel that they are happy you are there from the moment you step in the door.

Part of the difference is that Caitlin and Kelly are both working moms and everyone knows moms are the best cooks. They have created a work situation that makes being mothers raising kids while also running a restaurant work. CWC is only open Friday and Saturday evenings and for Sunday brunch.

The intimate restaurant is located in the Wyoming neighborhood of Cincinnati and serves amped-up comfort food. Their signature burger is a great example.

I am always game to try burgers with lots of interesting toppings, but on the other hand, if there are too many toppings you basically can’t taste the burger. CWC’s Char Cheddar Burger is a burger genius in its simplicity that allows you to actually taste the high-quality beef. The generous, hand-formed burger is not topped with traditional slices of cheese. Instead, it is placed atop a generous bed of fries and a heaping ladle of decadent cheddar sauce is poured over the patty.

While Caitlin serves lots of other dishes and has a menu that changes periodically, she sometimes has homemade Oreos available for dessert. These handmade cookies are literally as big as your palm. And naturally, they are served with a glass of milk for dunking!

If you are ever in the area during their limited hours, I cannot recommend CWC, the Restaurant highly enough. You will leave not only with a satisfied appetite but feeling like you just had a meal with good friends who care for you.