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

Download this August 2004 article as aPDF

Here is “Round Five” of your insights into how to know if someone is from North Carolina. You may also want to check out Round One (February 2004), Round Two (March 2004), Round Three (May 2004) and Round Four (July 2004).

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 Jessie Brown, Harmony

  • You know that Texas Pete is made in Winston- Salem, not Texas.
  • You remember giving nickels and pennies to bring the USS North Carolina home.
  • You tell someone you ate soakie for breakfast and they know what you’re talking about.
  • Your supper is cornbread and a glass of milk.
  • You know how many salad greens to cook in order to make a mess of greens.
  • You know what sawmill gravy is.
  • Opossums and raccoons eat all of the cat food or dog food off of your front porch.

From Jeannette Williams

  • You have ridden in the back of a pick-up truck in the cool of the morning to go work in the tobacco fields.
  • You get green thumbs every summer from shelling peas and butter beans.
  • One of your relatives makes muscadine wine.
  • You remember catching June bugs and tying strings to their legs.

From Mark Scott, Randolph EMC member

  • You know what red horse suckers are and have eaten them. (They are large bottom-feeding fish that migrate into freshwater streams in the spring to spawn.)

From Rosa Myrick

  • You sit on the pisen instead of the porch.
  • You say bed kivers instead of bed covers.
  • You sop flour bread with molasses.
  • You have eaten battered and fried pig feet.
  • You have eaten the seeds inside May Pops.
  • You have chewed rabbit tobacco.
  • You say ‘lasses puddin’ rather than gingerbread.

From Sabrina Lyons, Bostic

  • I can’t teach ya, but I’ll learn ya quick.
  • You ever took a bath in the front yard in a tin tub.
  • You rolled down a hill in a barrel.
  • You blowed a tar, or caught somethin’ on far.
  • You know a cheer ain’t something you do, it’s something to sit on.

From Michelle Gryder, Statesville

  • You get a kiss when he’s got a little chew.
  • You go mud slingin’ after a good rain.
  • Your first movin’ wheels was a lawnmower.
  • You’d rather drink out of a mason jar, than a cup.

From Rick Henson, Cashiers

  • A brown bag is a poke (or, if you’re educated, a paper sack).
  • The highlight of your Saturday is going to get a dope and a moon pie.
  • You would rather cook your potatoes whole un- peeled in the coals of an outside fire.
  • You know the exact distance of back yonder and over yonder.
  • Your husband’s, son’s and daughter’s birthday or Christmas presents are a registered blue tick, black and tan, and plot pup.

From Joyce Blythe, Waxhaw

  • You know that “3” and Earnhardt are synonymous.
  • You meet someone and ask before ending the conversation, “What church do you go to?”

From Ted Auten, Concord

  • You call a garden-hose a hose-pipe.
  • Youens (pronouonced “yew-ins”) and y’all have the same meaning.
  • Sure and shore are the same word (as in “I shore do miss my dog”).
  • You have heard of wampus cats.

From Chris White

  • While growing up, you had Sunday shoes, a Sunday coat and Sunday britches.
  • You’re a registered Democrat but always vote Republican in November.
  • When you went to Greenville or Rocky Mount you thought you were in the big city.
  • Parker’s Barbecue in Greenville and Wilson was considered fine dining.
  • When growing up, Saturday night TV consisted of “Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling” followed by the “Porter Waggoner Show” and “Hee-Haw.”
  • You didn’t get spanked, you got whupped.
  • You’ve stayed home from school to watch the ACC basketball tournament.

From Eugene Dodge, Vale:

  • The ladies figuring your electric bill at the co-op office have to take off their shoes first.
  • The co-op’s meter reader carries a wad of tobacco in his cheek for protection against vicious dogs, and he can hit either of your dog’s eyes with a spit of tobacco from a distance of 10 feet.
  • The co-op’s district manager asks you how you like his new suit, and he is wearing a pair bib overalls.

Hope DiStaola, Union Power member 

  • The kids have a day off from school because it might snow.
  • You go to the 4th of July parade every year to watch tractors and horses, and you know everyone on the tractors and horses.
  • You wave at everyone you see when you’re driving  even if you don’t know them.
  • You know what a tractor pull is.

From La Donna Cummings, Pittsboro

  • You put on your shoes for company, and they take theirs off at the door.
  • You give good directions using landmarks but can't remember the name of the road.      
  • Your kids ask Santa for some salt lick and a bow.
  • Your sons get a summer haircut so you can see the ticks.
  • People are not fat, they’re healthy.
  • Your husband tries to claim his dogs on his taxes.
  • You always say, “Yes, ma’am.”
  • Squirrels are used for target practice with sling shots loaded with acorns.
  • Your dad doesn’t like the Internet “cause it’s no good for fishing.”

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