News-Record.com

A story appeared June 5 how Sheriff Andy Taylor and Aunt Bee on "The Andy Griffith Show" may have been named for a Greensboro couple, Bill and Lydia (Buzz) Taylor, brought several emails and calls came about another Griffith link to Greensboro.

Remember the recording started Griffith on the road to the big time, "What It Was with Football"?

In the 1953 monologue, Griffith tells how he wondered through the woods and came upon a stadium (had to be Kenan at Chapel Hill) that he called a cow pasture. He said convicts in striped shirts ran up and down the field watching men hit each other and throw each other to the ground. Police stood by and watched the mayhem and did nothing, he said. And at one point, Griffith said, "I spilled my big orange drink,'' Griffith said.

Bob Anderson, retired from Jefferson-Pilot Corp. (now Lincoln National), says Griffith, a Mt. Airy native and 1949 UNC grad, recorded the monologue before an audience at the old Jefferson Standard Employees Club.

The club, with a rustic clubhouse, stood until a few years ago stood on 400 plus acres on New Garden Road. The land has since been developed.

Anderson says Griffith came out and did a funny monologe about "Roman & Julliet," followed by "What It Was Was Football."

"All the laughter you hear came from Jefferson Standard employees," Young says.

There is some thinking the recording became vinyl in a studio in the basement of the old Harvey West Music Store. The store at the time stood at West Market Street and Commerce Place downtown.

If anyone has any knowledge of a Harvey West connection to the "What It Was...." let's hear from you.