The Oddfellas Cantina logo sums up the city of Floyd, Virginia. Drawn in the style of “American Gothic” by Grant Wood, the logos on the graphic show three men standing side by side: a farmer dressed in a bib overalls holding a hoe; Jerry Garcia, as well as a businessman in a suit with a bowler hat. Co-existing in Floyd, farmers who have worked on the land for several generations, hippies who have begun to enter the “business,” and businessmen who are reviving Floyd’s economy. Retail stores in Floyd seem to serve all three cultural cohorts: there is a Hardware & Farm store, a mix of real estate companies and banks, a natural foods store, bookstores, cafes and clothing stores selling paint binders to equip the hippie army.
If you are looking for a “home”, “knock-stoppin”, “deep breath”, a break from city life, nothing compares with Floyd, Virginia.
Floyd has a permanent population of only about 500 people. In the center of the city there is one traffic light. This is the only traffic light in the district that I can add. Nevertheless, Floyd became the de facto mountain cultural center. It hosts the Floydfest World Music Festival, the Floyd Fandango Beer and Wine Festival and the Floyd County Arts and Crafts Festival. Regular music and cultural events at two Floyd wineries and weekly events at the Sun Music Hall and at the Floyd Country Store.
Whenever we have guests at home, we go to Oddfellas for dinner. I have never been disappointed with the food at Oddfellas, and I was the food snob. Restaurant decor is eclectic: furniture, artwork and dishes are all “mix & match”. The chef describes the cuisine as "Appalachian Latino," and the food is absolutely beautiful. Oddfellas live music will range from Irish to the old time to jazz.
One warm Friday night, Jill and I and our housewives ate lunch at Oddfellas, and then spent several hours wandering around the shops and streets of Floyd. On Friday evening, when the weather is warm, Floyd is filled with bluegrass musicians crowded in the street corners. If you are standing on the corner of Main & Locust, you can hear that banjo and violins are coming at you from several directions.
The center of all these bluegrass activities is the Floyd Country Store, where on Friday evening Jamboree joins bluegrass musicians from several states. We entered the store and looked at their bluegrass cd collection, listening to the performers on the stage and watching the dancers "bend" on the dance floor.
Our guests from Los Angeles experienced culture shock, and I found it funny. Between the bluegrass music, the mountain roads and my pick-up truck, they were surprised out loud if my whole life I was not a cleaner. What they did not understand was that here, in Floyd, we all get along fine, no matter where we come from.
