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During the 1960s into the 1980s,Cherokee County was represented in festivals and fairs across the region– by a clogging square-dancing team known as “The Carolina Sweethearts.” The team was never called that by any of the participants. To them, it was simply “The Sweets.”
The group was created by Bobbie Stalcup, wife of longtime Murphy Police Chief Pete Stalcup, and usually included the participation of their children – Charlotte, Billie and Pete Jr.
Starting first as a roller- skating team, the concept was quickly changed to clogging team, providing a unique summertime activity for Cherokee County youth during a time there was little organized or supervised recreation.
The number of youth involved was impressive. Eight couples for an elementary team, eight more for an intermediate team, and eight for a senior team meant 48 dancers. Throw in alternates, new members, siblings and parents, it was not surprising if a practice would see 70-80 on hand.
The Rock Gym was often used, and practice was required, as the Sweets found themselves in regular clogging competitions in places like the Hubert Haynes Mountain Youth Jamboree in Asheville, The Hendersonville Apple Festival, The Georgia Mountain Fair and many one-time celebrations and events.
Practice paid off, with the Sweets teams bringing home numerous awards, both as a team, and with individual members entering and winning single clogging events.
One highlight of Sweets membership came in 1970. A Miami attorney saw the Sweets dancing in the all-day clogging competition at the Georgia Mountain Fair. The Sweets did not win, but the attorney was impressed by the Sweets members’ clean-cut appearance, smiles and enthusiasm.
He invited the group to perform at the Dade County Youth Fair in Miami as guests of the 4-H club there. The sponsors thought clean-cut kids would be a good influence on the Miami youth, where the appropriate dress for a 17-year-old male lent toward shoulder-length hair and hippie influences.
To ensure the clean-cut appearance, all male dancers on the trip were required to get even closer haircuts prior to the trip.
At the youth fair, there would be a performance, and the Sweets were free until the next performance to enjoy the fair. There was no blending in, the boys with ultra-short hair, white pants and red shirts, the girls in multi-petticoated dancing dresses. More than once members heard, “That’s them. The clodhoppers.”
The culmination of the trip was marching in the Super Bowl parade, and an appearance on country music singer Bill Anderson’s live show.
As members neared high school graduation, they would age out of the Sweets, but the friendships forged there continue today for many.
Bobbie Stalcup received little but trophies and thanks for the time and devotion she gave to the members of the Carolina Sweethearts. But in 1996 at the Stomping Ground in Maggie Valley, more than 20 Sweets were on hand to witness a well-earned award, Bobbie Stalcup was inducted into the Clogging Hall of Fame.
Some might say the Sweets clogged to preserve the old-time mountain clogging tradition. The truth is something different.
In a rural county with little summer activities, the Sweets required an equal number of boys, and girls. Parents felt more comfortable with their daughters participating in a supervised activity. Boys, on the other hand, usually joined the Sweets because that was where the pretty girls were. Trips to festivals, overnight trips to Asheville, were icing on the cake.
The Carolina Sweethearts made a positive indelible mark on hundreds of Cherokee County youth. The next time you talk to a native Cherokee Countian who lived here in the 1960s and 1970s, at the bank, at the police department, at a car lot or a post office – or even perhaps a columnist for the Cherokee Scout – ask them, “Were you a Sweet?” Don’t be surprised if they were.
More than a few marriages began with a boy and girl meeting through the Carolina Sweets. I know. My wife Debbie and I met dancing as Carolina Sweethearts.
Bruce Voyles’ local history column runs every other week in the Cherokee Scout. Email him at RoadsLess Traveled@cherokeescout.com.