Download this December 2008 article as a

Here is “Round 50” 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)
• Round Four (July 2004)
• Round Five (August 2004)
• Round Six (September 2004)
• Round Seven (November 2004)
• Round Eight (January 2005)
• Round Nine (February 2005)
• Round Ten (March 2005)
• Round Eleven (April 2005)
• Round Twelve (May 2005)
• Round Thirteen (June 2005)
• Round Fourteen (August 2005)
• Round Fifteen (September 2005)
• Round Sixteen (October 2005)
• Round Seventeen (November 2005)
• Round Eighteen (December 2005)
• Round Nineteen (January 2006)
• Round Twenty (February 2006)
• Round Twenty-one (March 2006)
• Round Twenty-two (April 2006)
• Round Twenty-three (May 2006)
• Round Twenty-four (June 2006)
• Round Twenty-five (July 2006)
• Round Twenty-six (August 2006)
• Round Twenty-seven (September 2006)
• Round Twenty-eight (October 2006)
• Round Twenty-nine (November 2006)
• Round Thirty (December 2006)
• Round Thirty-one (January 2007)
• Round Thirty-two (March 2007)
• Round Thirty-three (June 2007)
• Round Thirty-four (July 2007)
• Round Thirty-five (August 2007)
• Round Thirty-six (September 2007)
• Round Thirty-seven (October 2007)
• Round Thirty-eight (November 2007)
• Round Thirty-nine (December 2007)
• Round Forty (January 2008)
• Round Forty-one (February 2008)
• Round Forty-two (March 2008)
• Round Forty-three (April 2008)
• Round Forty-four (May 2008)
• Round Forty-five (June 2008)
• Round Forty-six (July 2008)
• Round Forty-seven (September 2008)
• Round Forty-eight (October 2008)
• Round Forty-nine (November 2008)

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 Rachel Widener Bentley, Lenoir

• Grandmother’s house IS over the river and through the woods.
• The local convenience store parking lot is crowded on a weekday morning with hunters in camouflage, orange toboggans and ATV’s, loading coolers with ice.
• You can buy a hunting rifle, hardware, bait, order a custom pizza with extra cheese, eat a hand-dipped vanilla ice cream cone and lay 20 minutes in the tanning bed at the local general store 11 miles away from the nearest strip mall.
• The general store owner will follow you to the parking lot with his camera to take a photo of your 8-point trophy buck or that 10-pound catfish to be posted on the Wall of Fame inside the store.
• September Sundays are pre-reserved for church homecomings at lunch and the singing of visitors and guests later in the afternoon.
• It’s that time of year when the produce stand along the highway flips their one sign over to show “Apples & Pumpkins.” The other side says “Cantaloupe & Watermelon.”
• You always serve coleslaw with catfish or perch, homemade cornbread with pinto beans, and sweet iced tea with every meal.
• Your waitress knows what livermush is and recommends it served with scrambled eggs and bacon.

From Rhonda Enloe, Rutherfordton

• You remember seeing Sunday dinner running around the chopping block without its head.
• You wore bread bags on your feet in the snow.
• You worried about falling down the hole in the outhouse.
• For a nickel, you filled up a bag with BB Bats, Kits, and Mary Janes at the service station.
• When your mama cooked squirrel, you and your siblings fought over who got the brains.
• You took a brown paper bag of biscuits to the garden to eat with warm tomatoes right off of the vine.
• You went to your neighbors place to watch television because you didn’t have one.
• You laughed when you figured that if your uncle ever put a bathroom in his house he would probably order it from Sears and Roebuck, and that is exactly what he did.

From Dena Cherry, Lincolnton

• You had to say goodbye to your pet pig because your family would be having him for a meal soon.
• Your Mamaw gave you scissors when you were 6 years old and let you cut and roll her hair.
• You had to sleep with so many layers of quilts and blankets on the bed that you couldn’t move.

From Betty Jean Hollowell Gazurek, formerly of Chowan County

• You knew your labor was needed in the fields when your dad brought home new straw hats.
• Chickens could go under your house in search of insects, and you never had termites.
• You didn’t want to do your chores, so you said you’ll do them “prezney.”
• You rode on top of cornstalks on a horse-drawn cart.
• Mama drew your foot outline on a sheet of paper to take to the general store to buy your shoes.
• Eight of you shared two old worn-out bikes.
• You liked your broomstick skirts and pinafores.

From Jeanne Harris, Belmont

• Your mama would bring home an 8-by-10 box of Krispy Kremes, and you learned to enjoy this early treat with a speckled blue pot perking with fresh Gill’s Hotel special or Eight-O-Clock coffee. Then Mama would nap or doze until you were off to school, and you walked with friends, past the mill, the lumber yard, the sock mill, and the downtown general store, drugs and sundries, Iris Theatre, Cohen’s and Belk’s.
• Your shower was a garden hose strung over a clothes line with a sheet or blanket for privacy.

From Irma C. Laird, Raeford

• You were told to “play purty” when you argued with other children.

From Martha Estep, Denver

• You know boiled peanuts are best from a crock pot that appears unclean.
• You have to ship Cheerwine to a soldier in Iraq.
• The neighbor’s pig meets you at your back door when you return from a trip to the store.
  
• You have to take Bojangles chicken to your family Up North.
• You were baptized in Lake Norman.
• You know what camp meetin’ is, and you know it’s called a tent not a shack.
• You know it is impossible to eat just one grit.
• Your tighty whities are stained orange from swimming in the red clay-tinged lake.
  
• You don’t care what’s in livermush or liver pudding, you just know you like it.

top