a magic
carpet ride Reflections on The Persian Carpet’s journey as its owners prepare to close the showroom and pivot their business
T
he Persian Carpet is closing its doors to the public after nearly 50 years. This iconic landmark, with a camel in each bay window, straddles the Durham County-Orange County line, standing sentinel over travelers on the corner of I-40 and Hwy. 15-501. What started as a small dream for owners Doug Lay and Nelda Lay grew into a diverse and thriving business renowned locally and internationally for its dedication to the art of fine rug weaving. Doug, “a country boy” from Mississippi, and Nelda, “a Southern belle” from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, met at Louisiana State University in 1958 when he passed through a class registration line where she was working. Doug was instantly smitten and got right back in line, patiently waiting for a chance to ask her out. Nelda’s datebook was already full for every football game that semester, but she found an opening for him. On one of their first dates together, she agreed to ride through a bayou in a flat-bottomed boat, clutching a burlap sack that she was instructed to open each time Doug grabbed a bullfrog from the banks with his bare hands and thrust it in the bag – a decidedly more interesting outing than a football game. 32
chapelhillmagazine.com
September/October 2023
Doug and Nelda married in 1961. They moved to Chicago, where he pursued a doctorate in anatomy at the University of Chicago. In 1962, Doug was selected by the Field Museum to participate in a mammal collecting expedition to Iran, which proved to be a pivitol moment in the trajectory of their lives. Over the next 20 years, Doug made 18 trips to Iran to further his zoological research. In the