Southern fried memories

To say that I've been in a state of culture shock for the last 6 months or so would be pretty durn accurate. It's been hard to accept - that I, a military kid, would have such a struggle adjusting to a new environment. It probably wouldn't be so difficult except for one thing - I don't WANT to miss the place I left!

I don't want to miss living in Charlotte - I never liked the place that much and who wants to admit that they miss living in the South?! But I do, or, rather, I miss the familiar things, the understandings and nuances, the way of life I'd known for so long. You wouldn't think it was a big deal - I only moved to another state, not another country - but it is.

Oregon, the Pacific Northwest in general, is like another country. Portland often seems like another planet. Because I'm now admitting that I do miss NC, I thought I'd make a list of stuff I remember as distinctly North Carolinian, to remind myself just what I left. Some of this stuff is peculiar (perhaps) to the more eastern part of the state but still, here 'tis:

• Pig pickins' ("eat some of that skin, it's good!")
• New trailers going up in Hurricane Alley (because it's so safe)
• An entire free standing building dedicated to dentures
• Tobacco sheds, disentegrating but still in use (ask me about "jumpin' monkeys")
• Soybeans, picked over cotton plants, and corn
• Butchers and meat packers everywhere
• BBQ (with a vingear base sauce only)and sweet tea
• Fences composed of rotting wooden posts and rusted chicken wire
• Produce stands beside peach and apple orchards (best peaches are still from GA)
• Flat, featureless ground with pine trees and sand
• Azaleas and dogwoods - EVERYWHERE
• Year 'round, houses garishly decorated for Christmas
• Insurance agents on every corner
• The Piggly Wiggly
• Bingo parlors!
• Jones Sausage Road
• Sweet Daddy and the United House of Prayer for All People
• Full immersion baptism
  

For more reminisces, see this previous post.