If you're from North Carolina...You should know this:
North Carolina is one of the most populated (9,250,000)
and geographically longest, in the old South. From Manteo in the east to Murphy
in the west, North Carolina is 500 miles long, making it the longest state east
of the Mississippi . (Measured east-west.)
The Biltmore Estate has the largest privately owned home
in the United States. The main house, modeled after a French chateau, has 250
rooms and more than 33,000 square feet of living space. Built between 1885 and
1898 by the George Vanderbilt family.
Before Jamestown, Va. (1607) or Plymouth Mass. (1620) was
even thought of, Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island became the first English colony
(given the impetus by Sir Walter Raleigh) in the new world in 1585.
The first American born in the New World of Caucasian
parentage and European heritage happened here on Roanoke Island at Fort Raleigh,
which was a little girl named Virginia Dare. Dare County, in eastern NC was
named in honor of her.
Pepsi Cola is ours, developed and first served in New
Bern, N.C. in 1898 and unless you've had one in a clear ten ounce glass bottle,
with a slight crust of ice on top, you have missed a real treat. Try pouring
about half a pack of salted peanuts into one sometime.
North Carolinians, native or adopted, say "ma'am and
sir" and call their mothers "mama" and their fathers
'daddy".
They know that 'y'all' is perfectly good English and
never means just one person. 'Fixinto' is perfectly acceptable, too. 'Didjaeat'
is an invitation to lunch or dinner; (or supper as we like to call it and y'all
can too...if 'yountoo').
And if y'all don't like the way we talk, you can just
jump back into your car and I-95, I-85, I-77, and I-40 will take you right back
to where ever you may be from.
We have a Long history of developing some of the world's
greatest athletes. We gave the world 'Sugar' Ray Leonard, Michael Jordan, David
Thompson, Lou Hudson, Bobby Jones, Bob McAdoo, Walt Bellamy, Jim 'Catfish'
Hunter, Gaylord Perry, Jim Beatty, Sonny Jorgensen, Roman Gabriel, Wray
Carlton, Charlie 'Choo Choo' Justice, 'Meadow Lark' Lemon, Trot Nixon, Enos
Slaughter and Josh Hamilton.
If you don't know
who these people are, you ought to find out before you go to bed tonight. Just
Google'em.
The Golfing Hall of Fame is located in Pinehurst, NC and
the greatest and toughest golf courses in US golf are also found here.
The NASCAR Hall of Fame is also newly located in Uptown
(or downtown for non-native Charlotteans). The stock car Hall has some
fantastic new digs for the recently State approved Sport of Stock Car Racing as
North Carolina’s favorite Sport.
The first powered flight by the Wright brothers happened
at Kitty Hawk , NC on the outer banks.
Fontana Dam is the tallest dam in the Eastern United
States, at 480 feet high just SW of Asheville high in the mountains.
On autumn Saturdays, every Fall, the Carolina blue
faithful will gather in Chapel Hill for another rendition of 'What it was, was
football' made famous by Andy Griffith while he was a student at UNC.
NC State fans gather in Raleigh to see and hear the
Wolfpack howl, while Duke and Wake Forest pull their devilous and demon like
shenanigans on the gridiron in Durham and Winston-Salem respectively.
In the winter we play and follow College basketball,
where between the three of them, UNC, NC State and Duke share 12 national NCAA
Championships in the sport of Round ball.
The Highest mountain tops east of the Mississippi are
found in western NC with Mt. Mitchell at 6,684' being the tallest among many taller
than any other state east of the Mississippi and if all were flattened NC would
be larger than Texas.
Prior to prohibition NC was the nation’s largest wine
producer and it is now rebuilding a huge wine industry with wineries from the
NC coastal plain to the NC mountains. Here we come California!
Yes, we are better than California with which we share
everything geographically, except for Redwoods, deserts and fault lines. Thank
Heaven.
Charlotte with its more than a million and a half people
(sometimes called Metrolina) is the leading banking city in the South and
second only to New York in the entire US banking industry.
In 1864 Sherman burned parts of Raleigh and North
Carolina on his March to Richmond and Washington after waging his war of
attrition in his infamous march to the sea through the Deep South.
We're called the "Tar Heel State" because our
confederate troops during the Civil War were said to stick in a fight better
than other southern troops by none other than Robert E. Lee. The NC Rebel
troops were a proud lot that proclaimed they "were the first at Bethel,
the farthest north at Gettysburg and the last at Appomattox"!
The last Southern Port closed by the North's blockade of
the South's Seaports during the Civil War was Wilmington and Fort Fisher at the
mouth of the Cape Fear River in 1865. The Battle of Bentonville, NC, fought
March 19-21, 1865, was the last full-scale action of the Civil War in which a
Confederate army was able to mount a tactical offensive campaign against Gen.
Sherman on his way through the Carolinas towards Richmond, Va.
We produce some of the best peanuts, pecans, and poultry
found in this country.
The High Point/Thomasville area is a US leader in the
production of famous furniture and it hosts the Annual US Furniture Merchandise
Mart.
The best pork barbecue in the world comes from our
Carolina pits. We are also the leading pork producer in the US. Yes, God
intended for iced tea to be served "sweet." And yes, Grits are one of
the major food groups. Mustard, Collard and Turnip Greens are too.
Elvis wasn't ours, but other singer/musicians were, Randy
Travis, Ben E. King, George Hamilton IV, Crash Craddock, Thelonius Monk, Ronnie
Milsap, Donna Fargo, Earl Scruggs, Don Gibson, Stonewall Jackson, Doc Watson
and Charlie Daniels are and so is author Thomas Wolf, who wrote 'Look Homeward
Angel'. And I still miss Andy of Mayberry every day.
Born in Smithfield, Ava Gardner may have been North
Carolina's prettiest and most famous movie star. Every North Carolinian and
citizen of the USA needs to visit Salem, the sister city of Winston to see how
colonial Moravians put their talent and work ethic to work building this early
Carolina city into the treasure it is today. This work ethic turned an entire
generation of Tar Heel people into the best employers and employees in this
great land developing a great textile, tobacco, seafood and furniture industry.
Because of our extensive coast line of over 300 miles,
and even more extensive shore line of over 1,000 miles, Sea Oats, Pelicans,
Shrimp boats, Shrimp and Oysters are held high in our thoughts as peculiarly
ours even though many states also share these same attributes. In the seafood
industry, a type of southern fried seafood served in southern restaurants, is
called Calabash Style and is named after the southeastern most NC village of Calabash.
Proud, decent, honest and unpretentious people are our
heritage that is reflected in our State Motto, Esse Quam Videri, which means To be rather than to Seem.
And lastly, North Carolina ain't exactly heaven - but it
will do until I get there.
Can I Hear an AMEN!
~ Author Unknown
The flag of North Carolina shall consist of a blue
union, containing in the center thereof a white star with the letter
"N" in gilt on the left and the letter "C" in gilt on the
right of said star, the circle containing the same to be one-third the width of
the union. The fly of the flag shall consist of two equally proportioned bars;
the upper bar to be red, the lower bar to be white; that the length of the bars
horizontally shall be equal to the perpendicular length of the union, and the
total length of the flag shall be one-third more than its width. That above the
star in the center of the union there shall be a gilt scroll in semi-circular
form, containing in black letters this inscription "May 20th 1775,"
and that below the star there shall be a similar scroll containing in black
letters the inscription: "April 12th 1776".[5]
It bears the dates of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (May 20, 1775) and of
the Halifax Resolves (April 12, 1776), documents
that place North Carolina at the forefront of the American independence
movement. Both dates also appear on the Seal of North Carolina.[1]
