Frosty Mornings and Windswept Nights

Written By: Stuart Ferguson | Issue: Winter 2025

Stuart Ferguson is a local historian, armchair traveler, and irrepressible raconteur. He reviews books for The Highland Hiker, which maintains an extensive collection of local literature.

Come winter, “the streets of Highlands do not automatically fold up, only to be opened by the first flowers of springtime … Frosty mornings and windswept nights do not curb the enthusiasm people have for this charming mountain town.” It was true in November 1986, when editor and beauty-shop owner (now realtor) Betty Holt said it in the Highlands Magazine, and of course it’s true now.

The short-lived monthly Highlands Magazine was only published for a year or so – nobody involved can remember exact dates. Advertising manager Scott Paxton gave me five issues before he moved to Atlanta. He recently said the magazine was started for the “advertising revenue stream,” and to get the word out on local businesses and activities; The Laurel now fills that role.

Most of the articles were by the talented Ms. Holt. She wrote about local restaurants including On the Verandah, and Hildegard’s (now Wolfgang’s), and others that have receded into myth like the Frog and Owl Café (our first gourmet dining spot, down unpaved Buck Creek Road when it opened in 1971) and The Mountaineer on Main Street (hamburgers $1.95). The articles weren’t reviews, but rather portraits of the businesses and their owners. Each issue also had a local hike excerpted from the Happy Hiker’s (as it was then) Day Hike Guide and a list of lodgings and antique stores.

Betty profiled artists such as Philip Standish Read, and craftspeople like the blind woodworker Sylvia Sammons and log-cabin builder Tommy Chambers. But Betty tells me her all-time favorite article was on Pat Schmitt – “a multi-talented lady with a vivid imagination” – who staged a daily soap opera of life-sized mannequins outside the front of her “Old Red House” on the Dillard Road.

But it was “The Saga of the Stuffed People” starring her home-sewn friends (dressed in Fibber Magee’s finest) that got the attention; people drove by every day just to see what was happening. Characters were Jaspar, Herculena, Tondalena and Throckmorton Rockbottom Feathershovel IV; supporting players included French Chef, Golf Pro and the French Maid. They played bridge in front of the Old Red House every Monday. The Stuffed People got married and had affairs. Highlands Country Club invited them to play in their Pro-Am tournament. Pat told Betty that “the soap opera … represents what life is really all about – caring, laughing, loving, working and living in Highlands!” This wonderful lady died at home in the Florida Keys last summer. Her memorial service there is on January 12 – which would have been her 100th birthday.