FROM CAROLINA COUNTRY
Y O U
K N O W
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Carolina country if . . . old bathtub to your cousin’s 4-by-4 so you can ride in it.
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From Krystal Sykes and Carolyn Batts, Burgaw
From Jill Couch Lambert, Lexington … Your local roadside is dotted with hand-painted signs for deer corn and apples, pygmy goats, yard sale Saturday, 4 good used tires and John 3:16. … You figure you’re dining at the right place when all the parking spaces have lots of oil spots like where you park at home. … You exterminate the winter’s stacked wood in the shed with the old pickup’s morning exhaust. … Another person can tell what you’ve been up to when you tell them who you went to see: Dave (automotive), Larry (gas & grocery), Roy (muffler), Gill (grill), Tom (seafood). … The old badminton set has played many family reunions but now graduated to “bat swatting” and “wood boring bee bashing.” From Krystal Sykes and Carolyn Batts, Burgaw … Your granddaddy hangs a lawnmower from a tree so he can work on it. … You and your cousins take one of your grandaddy’s old tarps and use it as a clip and slide. … You wear cowboy boots with your shorts during the summer.
From Nancy Cross, Goldsboro … You know that eastern North Carolina barbecue has nothin’ to do with red sauce and is eaten on a bun with coleslaw. … You know what a pig-pickin’ cake is. … School is cancelled because of a threat of snow. From Laura Tiller, Denton … You use two cinder blocks and an oven rack for a grill to cook out. … To cook meat, you dig a hole, put hot coals in it, put meat wrapped in tinfoil in it and bury it for a couple hours. … You know what “going across the river” means. … You walk or ride bicycles in the streets all night without your parents worrying. … You use a five-gallon bucket with rocks in it for a Christmas tree stand. … Your Christmas tree is a cedar that you found while walking around outside. … Everybody calls your dad “Pappaw,” even if he’s not. … The first thing you look at in the newspaper is the arrests, because usually there’s a family member in there. Then you look at the obituaries.
From Jennifer Cox, Franklinville … Stepping outside your house on a Saturday morning in early fall you can hear the wail of a chain saw echoing through the woods. … Within a 5-mile radius of your home there are at least 200 Rouths, Pughs, Johnsons and Cox’s. … You pick cockle-burrs off your dog and cat. … Eating oyster stew once a year is a tradition at your Uncle Tom’s and Aunt Janet’s. … You wear plastic bread bags over your shoes when you play in the snow. … Your aunt’s name is “Ain’t Pearl.” From Rick Roldan, formerly of Halifax County … You know that “you n’ yours” means family as in, “How’s you n’ yours?” … Every local band you know has “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Freebird” in their arsenal. … A karaoke night is not complete until someone sings “Friends in Low Places.” … You know that spotlightin’ a deer is cheatin’. … You measure your daughter’s suitor by his best point count, and if he drives a Chevy or a Ford. … You know that if it ain’t more than four points it ain’t really a good one.
From Cindy Linton, Blounts Creek … You know how many folks a mess o’ collards or a mess o’ fish will feed. … You know how much “right” is, as in “right much,” “right far,” “right nice” or “right expensive.” … You love the way the river just smells so good some days. … You live on a road called Possum Track. … The word “do” sometimes stands for “if so.” For example, “Are you too hot? Do, I’ll turn the fan on for you.” … You know “a toddy for your body” is a little nip your Daddy and Grandaddy took under the shelter behind the grading room about mid-afternoon on Sunday. … Your idea of relaxation is sitting on the pier drowning a worm, watching the mullets jump and listening to your young’ns laugh and play in the water.
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26 MAY 2008 Carolina Country
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4/15/08 3:39:43 PM