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Here is “Round 41” 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)

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 Charlene Campbell, Bladenboro

• You call your cousin three miles down the road to see if the mailman has run yet.
• Your granny puts on a pot of greens to make pot liquor for curing your cold.
• You use grease from Sunday’s fried chicken to season your collards or greens.
• Your frying pan is called “the spider.”

From Dwayne Fields, Seven Springs

• You know who Slim Short was and wept when he died not long ago.

From Kelli Reece, Morganton

• You went squirrel hunting with your daddy, and it was so cold that you warmed your hands with the heat from the squirrels in the bag.
• You caught horny heads and suckers in the river near your home.
• Fall of the year meant looking outside on a Saturday morning and seeing a deer hanging from the tree in the yard.
• When it would snow your daddy baked sweet taters and parched peanuts on the heater in the house.

From Virginia Dare R. Hollowell, Long Acre

• Three generations of your family graduated from Pantego High School and now it’s demolished in the name of progress.
• When the big yellow/orange school buses start to roll in the fall, the ditch banks are dressed with goldenrod, and the pink, blue, wine and white of the morning glory winds itself up brown cornstalks.
• You are related to every native in the county.
• You’ve watched the sun rise and set over the Pamplico, and then watched the moonbeams dance a path across the same ol’ river.
• Everyone smiles and speaks, whether they know you or not
• You walked carefully around the wild persimmon tree in the fall so the fruit did not squish between your toes.
• You played Roll for the Bat, Red Rover, Hide and Seek, Fruit Basket Turn Over, Button Button, Sling the Biscuit, London Bridge, Drop the Handkerchief, and Poor Kitty with your cousins in the front yard.
• With your dime, you bought a 12-ounce Pepsi and a nickel candy bar, then divided it three ways for a tea party with your sister and aunt.

From Edna Ruth Mercer, Beulaville

• It always was a joy for the Raleigh man or the Watkins man to come by with their products.
• You went to the State Fair on the school bus.
• You listened to “Lone Ranger,” “Grand Ole Opry” and “Portia Faces Life” on the radio.
• You courted in pick-up trucks or squeezed in with two other couples in a car.
• You used homemade corn shucks on a handle to scrub an unpainted porch.

From Barbara Church, Alleghany County

• A big Saturday night date was sitting on the porch in the moonlight listening to the “Grand Ol’ Opry” on the radio through an open window.
• You had to start a fire in the woodstove to thaw water for making coffee.

From Vickie Blue, Cameron

• You learned how to use molasses when the sugar you got with ration stamps ran out.
• You ate the same food for breakfast, lunch and supper.
• You wore cardboard for insoles in your shoes.

From Vivian Watts, Garland

• You know who Homer Briarhopper is and watched his program every morning at 6.
• Homer Briarhopper ran out of gas in front of your house one time and churned your homemade ice cream while you went to town to get a can full of gas. You yourself were a local celebrity for a month after that.
• Your grandparents would say “hen town!” or “drat!” instead of swear words.
• Your Granny kept a fire and plenty of sweet potatoes in the fireplace, and you thought yourself rich to pull one from the fire with a poker, wipe off the ashes, slice it down the middle and put butter on it.
• You remember when syrup came in a can and was so thick it would stay on a fork.

From Rosita Jones, Dallas

• You looked forward to August and Big Meetin’ time (revival).
• You know what riding in the rumble seat means.
  
• When company came, you kids took note of your behavior or words if you heard Mama clear her throat and look in your direction.

From Bob Comer, Statesville

• You remember when and where you drank your first Pepsi, the first time you tasted and liked eastern Carolina barbeque, your first steak ordered in a restaurant, and the good meals at Mrs. Todd’s Boarding House.

From Gene Clemmer, Bessemer City

• You know what Mama Peg and Peggy are.
• You know what a pressing club is.
• You have played Ring-a-Le-Bow.
• You know someone who is sharp as a briar.
• You know how hard it is to dig a 4-by-4-by-6 outhouse hole in red clay.
• You get a whuppin’ in school and don’t let your daddy find out.

From Jill Lambert, Lexington

• You can see someone that looks like Elvis jogging down the road on your way to get ice cream and hot dogs at the country store.
• Your neighbors’ second form of I.D. is the kind of dog they have. (“You know: the house with the three beagles in the front yard.”)
• You can easily taste the difference between a scratch-made cake and a “homemade” cake from a box.
• You know what someone means when you’re leaving their house, and they say, “Don’t forget the old dog bed.”
• The smell of fresh-milled lumber still seems sweet even after years of working in a saw room.
• You have risked your life trying to save a crazed emu.

From Worth Younts, Trinity

• As an elementary school pupil you saved all your dimes to help bring the USS North Carolina home.
• You played corncob ball all summer in the barnyard with your cousins Jerry, Johnny, Woody and Hob.
• You picked blackberries all day and scratched chigger bites all week.
• As a little kid you had to say a “speech” every year for the church Christmas pageant and you couldn’t wait to be old enough to be a Wise Man and a Shepherd.
• You went to your aunt’s house to play with your cousins and wound up having to help shell butterbeans all day.
• You hated to work in your parents’ garden but now you can’t understand why your kids hate helping in yours.
  
• One of your favorite singing groups was Homer and Jethro.
• Your grandma kept a fresh supply of country ham and homemade biscuits in her pie safe all year.
• One of your favorite days of the summer was when the Bookmobile came down your road.
• The one TV in the neighborhood was brought to your grandparents’ house that night in March 1957 when all the neighbors gathered to watch the NCAA championship between Carolina and Kansas.

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