You Know You're From North Carolina If...

Various links

Here is “Round 26” of your insights into how to know if someone is from North Carolina. You may also want to check out

If you can think of anything to add to this list, send it to us:

E-mail: Carolina.country@ncemcs.com
Mail: P.O. Box 27306, Raleigh, NC 27611.
Phone: (919) 875-3062.

From Ann Latimer, Emerald Isle

When someone says, “I thought we already treed that coon,” you know the issue has been settled.
You went barefoot all summer and needed shoes two sizes bigger when school started back.
Your uncle dared you to hold your hand in the mountain spring water five minutes for five dollars, and you couldn’t do it.
You can tell the difference between the call of a whippoor-will and a chuck-will’s-widow.
You cried in relief when your daddy’s bird dog found his way back home, dragging a chewed rope around his neck.

From Steve Frye, Beaufort (formerly of Lexington)

You know that Arthur Smith’s group was the Crackerjacks.
You know that Brother Ralph and Cousin Phud were the “Counselors of the Airwaves.”
You worked as an offbearer in a sawmill.
You’ve been a sacker in the back of a combine.

From Paul Stinson, Stallings

You lined up on Saturday night at the Center Theater to see “Abbot and Costello.”
Your papa made good blackberry wine and used it only for stomach aches.
Your mama said papa had more stomach aches after the wine was made.
In the wintertime you smelled a little rank by Saturday when you bathed in a big wash tub by an open fireplace with the fire blazing to heat your water in a big black kettle.

From Norma Jean Auman, Asheboro

You were watching “The Rifleman” on Saturday night and your dad said, “Set down over yonner or I’m gonna whoop your hine en.”
You couldn’t wait for the feed truck to deliver once a month so you could climb on it and pick out the prettiest feed sacks for your next dress.
You walked a mile to Auman’s Corner Store on Sunday afternoon to buy an RC Cola for a nickel, BB Bats and Mary Jane candy for a penny each.

From Jane Oliver, Creston

You played the game of pulling the heads off violets by hooking the flowers together. Whoever pulled off the head won.
You can make a sound like a crow by putting a long blade of grass between your thumbs, then blowing through your hands.
You held the cow’s tail while your mom milked it so the tail wouldn’t slap her in the face.

From Tammey Bentley, Watauga County

You toted your groceries home from the Smithey store in a poke bag.
You used the same poke bag (wet, folded and stuck up under your upper lip) to stop a nose bleed.
You knew you were in big trouble when your mama hollered out your full name.
You know that having money “put back” means you have a savings account.
You’ve seen the Brown Mountain Lights.
You know what “messin’ and gommin’” means.
Your grandpa treated your bee stings with tobacco juice from the Red Man he chewed.

From Betty Duncan, Winston-Salem

You know not to eat ice cream too fast, because it will freeze the roof of your mouth so you can’t tell what flavor it is.
You carry a load of wood, stacked from your waist to your chin, to put in the old iron cookstove, then scoop the ashes in a bucket to dump outside on the compost pile.
Once in a coon’s age your mom took you to the corner store and let you buy a 5-cent Nehi orange pop that you tried to make last all day.
Your grandpa’s knees buckle but his belt won’t.

From Bill Bailey, Greensboro (formerly of Thomasville)

You went to Aunt Annie’s house and slept in that cold, cold room where you layered quilts on to the point that you couldn’t move.
You could skip stones on the lake and get more skips than anyone else, because you knew the secret was in the shape of the rock and the angle you threw it.
Fish nipped your back while you were swimming in the lake.
You know the smell of the corn that you throw to the chickens as they make low contented sounds until they started fightin’ over a pile of corn.

From Lil Davis, Canton

You carved your first boyfriend’s name in a tree.
You raked leaves in the fall and shoveled snow in the winter to earn change for a banana split.
You swam the stream with your friends, then look to see who would have the most leeches on your body when you came out.
During World War II you saved all of the tinfoil wrappers to roll into a ball to get into the movies free on Saturdays.
Your mom put cardboard cut-outs in your shoes when you wore holes in them.
You yelled and touched “Gotcha Last.”
At school you made your own paste out of flour and water.
You walked a mile with your wagon to the nursery to buy your mama Easter plants with your own money from shoveling snow.

From Douglas Mozingo, Stantonsburg

You learned to swim in the creek with two gourds, one under each arm in a gunny sack.
You stacked hay on a pole in the field, then put bags on the top to keep the rain off.
Daddy gave you 35 cents to go to the movies on Saturday evening and you could even get popcorn and a Pepsi.
You worked at a filling station 60 hours a week and earned $35.
You waited until your grandpa came out of the barn so you could sneak in there and take a sip of his grape wine.
You couldn’t wait to go to the store with Papa so you could get candy called “7 for a penny.”
You sat on a piece of wood on saw benches so your ma and pa could saw it up for the cookstove and heater.
You would cut “liddard splinters” from a pine stump and limbs to use for starting “fars.”

From Caroline Higgs, Franklinton