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

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Here is “Round Seven” 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), and Round Six (September 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 Shirley Harrison-Terrell, Handy

Your family kept a hoop of sharp cheddar cheese on the screened porch in winter, cut a slice into bite-sized pieces on a plate, poured homemade molasses over that, and ate it with a hot biscuit.
You know what mush is. (Pour cornmeal into a pot of boiling water, cook and stir ‘til thick. Eat it like grits.) Some families would let it get cold, slice it in thin slices and fry it. This recipe, believe it or not, is in old cookbooks.
You know that women used a long stick to lift hot clothes from the black wash pot to place into the other black pot to rinse.
Your family kept the square honey dish and molasses and syrup pitcher on the center of the kitchen table along with a jar of jelly at all times
You remember corn shuckings and the “red ear” of corn. If you were lucky enough to find and shuck a red ear of corn from the unshucked corn piled high, you kissed the girl beside you.
You know what a jack pie is. (Dried apples, stored for winter in a white cotton feed sack, later cooked with sugar, vanilla and spices, then put in rolled-out pastry and fried ‘til done. The shape was in a half moon.)
You drove up in your grandfather’s yard for a visit, and if he was outside he would say, “Light and come in.” (Per dictionary, “light,” as from a mount or vehicle). The phrase was used, I suppose, when neighbors came visiting on horseback.
Men you knew sat and whittled a piece of wood with their pocket knives to pass the time of day.
You remember your grandmother using a wooden, homemade butter paddle to beat the water out of freshly churned butter before molding it into a round ball to be placed in the butter mold or put directly into the white ironstone butter dish.
You eagerly waited for May so you could go pick wild strawberries.
July meant picking wild blackberries and getting chiggers all over you in the process.
You have made stitted persimmon pudding.

From Carson Rose, 13, Statesville

You like your fellers with a little bit of Momma’s raisin’ in ‘em so you know that they have a little good in ‘em ‘cause Momma taught ‘em right.
You know that Junior means Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You sign your letters with “love y’alls and come see us soon.”
You know that when Momma says put on your best clothes she means your cleanest pair of Wranglers, the plaid shirt that your grandma gave you for Christmas and your boots with the least scratches.
You read every issue of Carolina Country.

From April Lambert, 17, Erect

You look forward to some kind of festival or parade in a nearby town. (Farmer’s Day for me.)
You know the difference between 4-wheelerin’ and muddin’ and you’ve done both.
Your first word was “Da-Da” and you were trying to say “Dale Earnhardt.”
You’ve done something you don’t want others to know about and everyone knows within the hour and says you shouldn’t have done it and you’re ashamed of it.
You get a car when you turn 16 and you are secretly upset because it’s not a truck. And you’re a girl.
You know “Night Crawlers” are Robbins guys and “High Riders” are Carthage guys, and you know how they became “High Crawlers.”
You go to some spot in a little town to hang out with your friends and know everyone who drives by and you talk about them all. And you secretly look forward to this.
You know guys who brag about the deer they killed and how big their trucks are.
The big talk of the night is whose truck got the muddiest while muddin’.
You can’t get a boyfriend because all the guys you know are like your brothers. And when you do get a boyfriend they all say you could do better.

From Amber Heaton, Goldsboro

Your grandmother would be mad if she found out you cooked instant grits.
You can tell what part of North Carolina someone was born in.
You consider Virginians Yankees.
When a hurricane comes you stay put because you know your house has made it through worse.
You know that Clay Aiken is the best singer in the world, and you don’t see why people call him a dork.
When you are acting wild people ask if you were raised in a barn.
You eat black-eyed peas and collard greens on New Years, and you know that the more you eat the more money you are supposed to earn.
You’re surprised that Wal-Mart is closed on Christmas.
You have actually tried to go to Wal-Mart on Christmas.
You know that if it thunders in the winter you have only a week before it is going to snow.

From Nadine Crocker, Kenly

Your grandmother swept the yard with a broom.
Your grandmother dipped her snuff from a tree with a toothbrush.
You pulled corn, pulled fodder and cut tops from the field corn.
You burned a feed sack to keep the mosquitoes away at night.
The men set cat hooks at the creek at night, got the fish in the morning and had them for breakfast.

From Ronnie in Lexington