Tales from the road: Mule Day, Elvis and a massive Rebel flag

Miss Sarah showed us around the dandy museum. Here, she stands before
the "Mule Day" dress display. (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

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Before we enjoyed grub at the excellent Mount Pleasant (Tenn.) Grille — love the overstuffed chicken salad sandwiches! — my friend Campbell Ridley and I made a beeline into the museum next door. I love small-town museums such as the one in Mount Pleasant — birthplace of Sam Watkins of Company Aytch fame — because they typically have displays you’ll never see in those big-city museums.

The "Bigby Greys" flag display.

In a museum in an old mill in Edinburg, Va., for example, I once admired displays for a gigantic hornets’ nest from the old Wetzel property and a hand crank paddle assembly from Mr. Dove’s apple butter stirrer. The Mount Pleasant History Museum didn’t disappoint either.

On the second floor, “Miss Sarah” — the wonderful museum docent — captured my attention with displays for the “Mule Day” queen dress and Elvis impersonator outfit. I also enjoyed the antique birthing chair, which I’m supposed to show Mrs. B someday, and the multicolored quilt hanging on a wall.

The Elvis impersonator — supposedly Elvis’ ACTUAL FAVORITE IMPERSONATOR — is said to have appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and later left his glitzy outfit behind in Mount Pleasant after skipping town.

Anywho, Maury County (Tenn.) is the “Mule Capital of The Known Universe” — every April, Columbia, Tenn., even holds a Mule Day, an event you must attend at least once. Campbell — an early 80ish farmer with an endearing sense of humor — often regales me with tales of his aunt, who once led a Mule Day parade, and his dad, who was an actual Mule Day king.

You Civil War buffs would undoubtedly appreciate the display of the massive, well-preserved flag presented in 1861 by the ladies of Mount Pleasant to the “Bigby Greys” — a local unit of roughly 100 soldiers.

“When they meet the foe, we feel secure,” reads the motto on the flag.

The “Bigby Greys” became Company C of the 3rd Tennessee, who sent the flag home because as we flag aficionados know, only regiments were permitted to carry colors. U.S Army garrison troops stationed in Mount Pleasant later confiscated the flag. 

Let’s keep history — and overstuffed chicken salad sandwiches — alive. 👊

Mount Pleasant (Tenn.) History Museum.