FROM CAROLINA COUNTRY

Y O U

K N O W

Y O U’R E

F R O M

Carolina country if . . . dried cow piles to find bait for fishing. …you looked under

From Pauline Adcock, Monroe

From Ted Todd, Emerald Isle … Your mama walked to church with all the kids, carrying one and dragging one by the hand. … You had to split wood for mama’s kitchen stove, and no matter how big a pile you split, it was never enough. … You shot rats in the barn with a .22 in one hand and a dim old flashlight in the other. … Your school bus driver was a high school kid, and when you got big enough, you got to be one. … You waxed your car on Saturday, then spent that evening cruising Staley’s Thruway shopping center and Putt-Putt in Winston-Salem, and once in a while made the run to Boar and Castle in Greensboro. … On other Saturday nights, you went swimming with pretty girls at Crystal Lake on Reynolda Road (advertised “For the Better Class”), then on Sunday afternoon you went in the creek at the “red bridge” with the guys. … You begged Vienna Recapping to patch and blow up old inner tubes then spent Sunday afternoon with the gang floating the Yadkin from Donnaha to the old 421 bridge. … You would take a gang to movies at the Skyview Drive-In in the back of a pickup truck with a bunch of folding chairs and park backward in the space. It cost you $1.

From Pamela Young Dees, formerly of Oteen (Buncombe County) … You drank from a mountain woods stream, and your mother said, “Keep that up and you’re bound to swallow a pollywog.” … You walked down to the filling station on the corner for your weekly treat in the summertime: a bottle of Cheerwine, a pack of cheese crackers and a candy necklace. … For special occasions, you ate Silver Queen corn that you put up the summer before. Your grandmother knew just how to make it special. … You played on the old iron washpot that was tipped upside down and pretended it was something from Mars. … After supper in the summer, you played Rolley Bat with your dad and younger brother. From Anne Wright Andrews, Avon … You went to a Dixie Classics game. … Your first ride was on the farm mule named Ol’ Joe. … On a summer night you would grab an old quilt and sleep on the porch swing. … You know what it feels like to go down Slidin’ Rock. … You lived next door to the church and graveyard where most of the graves were family kin. … You put crayfish from the creek in your bathtub.

From Faye Howerton, Creedmoor … You’d go wild strawberry picking, come home and cap those small strawberries. Then for supper you would have strawberry cobbler cooked on a woodstove. From Pauline Adcock, Monroe … You’d be so tired after working in fields but perked up if you could ride the mule home. … In winter you wore underwear made of “outing” material. … You had scrambled eggs and brains on the day the hog was killed. … You had a mess of wild onions in the spring. … To lighten your hair you washed it in Octogen soap and dried it in the sunlight. … Because city folks didn’t tan, you wore long sleeves and a bonnet in the fields. … You knew where all the good wild plum thickets and scaly bark trees were. From Harold Lockamy … You cut tobacco tar off your hands with a tomato. … You remember how to grade tobacco. … You know which tractor had a Select-o-Cruise transmission. … You know what king syrup is. … Your garden was bigger than your yard.

From Bob Poindexter, Franklin … You rode down a steep pasture on a wooden wagon with wooden wheels sawed from a nice round tree. … You fed corn to the chickens through cracks in the kitchen floor. … You set out tobacco plants in the rain to keep from having to water them. … You took eggs and butter to the store to trade for other groceries. … Your mom often said, “You just wait ‘til your daddy gets home.” From Michelle Lewis Williams, Browntown (Greene County) … When you got bit your grandma would tell you to go bring her a “warnet” (walnut) from the tree to put on it. … Your grandma made cold medicine from rock candy and stump hole liquor. … You and your cousins hiked in the woods with your many dogs and came out Lord knows where.

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If you know any that we haven’t published, send them to: E-mail: editor@carolinacountry.com Mail: P.O. Box 27306, Raleigh, NC 27611 Web: www.carolinacountry.com

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26 APRIL 2008 Carolina Country

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3/13/08 9:16:02 AM