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Here is “Round 49” 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)

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 Nicole Wooten

• You went to a settin’ up that was in the front room of the deceased’s house.
• You store unused furniture in the barn out back.
  
• You know everybody at the local grocery store on Saturday morning.
  
• Your mama jokingly says dinner will be “air custards and wind pies.”
  
• All your aunts and uncles have middle names that you use every time you address them.
  
• You’re familiar with the word “to-be-sure.”
• Any soda is a “drank.”
• Your family reunion was held at the church fellowship hall.

From Brenda Palmer, Monroe

• The day you killed hogs, you cut the fat into small pieces and put it in the cast iron wash pot to boil. This is called “rendering” lard that you could use all the next year for frying.
• You made lye soap in the same wash pot, using Red Devil lye and old cooking grease. This soap was good enough to cut tobacco tar off your hands and feet.
• The children had to clean the chittlins when they got home from school on hog killing day. Then you made your own sausage and stuffed it into the chittlins.
• You wanted to do homework instead of chores.

From Elizabeth Dyke, Vale

• You played jackstone.
• You made a grasshopper house out of weeds

From Phyllis Grant, Statesville

• You heated water in a wash pot to use in a gas-powered washing machine.
• Your mother put bluing in the rinse water to make the white clothes whiter.
• You stomped molly pops to hear the loud noise.
• To float in the creek, you used 2 ½-gallon oil cans with lids.
• Your mother rolled your hair with strips from a brown paper bag.
• At Christmas your home had a 4-foot tree with one strand of lights. And your daddy put foil from a cigarette pack around a bulb that was not burning on that strand of lights to make them all burn.
• Before going to school in winter, your brother checked his rabbit traps or “gums.”
• You drew water from a well with a windlass.
• Your family had a square sign with the numbers 25, 50, 75, and 100 hanging on it. Whichever number you put at the top indicated how much ice you wanted the ice man to leave.
• Your mother saved green and gold stamps for prizes.

From Douglas Mozingo, Stantonsburg

• You would sit in the living room in the winter with the doors and windows shut and still feel a cool breeze coming through the cracks in the walls.
• Your ma made cush for breakfast.
• You were afraid to go out after dark because the “kitty mouse” might get you.
• You bush-hogged your ditch banks in the winter with a swub blade.
• Your pa made you a swing in the old oak tree made from a truck tire and old plow lines.
  
• You were scared to death if your ma or pa said they would skin you alive if you did something wrong.

From Sandy Divers, Hertford

• The town trash collection man brought his horse and two-wheeled cart into your back yard to collect the trash from each trash can.
• You ran down the middle of the street on hot summer days behind the slow-moving ice truck so you could grab a few small pieces of ice out of the back to suck on.
• A farmer drove slowly down the streets of your small town, calling out “Watermelons”! And you ran home and begged your Mom for 10 cents so you could buy a watermelon.

From Kay Walker, Cherryville

• Summer vacation was planned around revival meeting and Vacation Bible School.
• Saturday night traditions were the fish camp and “Hee Haw.”
• You’ve eaten from a watermelon that was burst open in the garden.
• Mockingbirds woke you up at 2 a.m.
• You made mud pies and put them in the driveway so that your daddy could run over them when he came home from work

From Alice C. Alexander, Davidson

• You collected chicken feed sacks until you had enough to make a dress.
• You sprinkled your clothes and ironed with a gas iron because you had no electricity.
• You played on a grapevine swing in the woods and ate hickory nuts.
• You made ice cream in a lard bucket with chipped ice in a water bucket.

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