You Know You Grew Up In North Carolina If

When going on a date in the springtime you and your sweetheart went frog gigging.

You think herring roe is better than caviar.

When you were a kid, if you were too sick to go to Sunday School, you were too sick to play with your friends on Sunday afternoon, and you were not allowed to go to the movies, play cards, or board games that involved dice on Sunday.

Your Mama sometimes bought produce from the back of a mule drawn cart on Saturday mornings and a quart of cream from the cream man. In spring she whipped the cream and made strawberry short cake with fresh strawberries.

You and your friends played hide-n-seek in the cloud of insecticide pumped from the back of the “fogging machine” on summer evenings, and you know what a fogging machine is.

You knew of at least one relative who had a licker still.

You remember when small fountain Coke cost three cents, a large cost a nickel. A nickel pack of Nabs had four nabs in it and was square.

You remember the first Hardees in Rocky Mount, and fast food was really fast.

When you were a teenager you learned if you packed enough folks in a convertible and drove through the car wash the people on the bottom wouldn’t get wet.

The family doctor made house calls and gave you candy after he gave you a shot.

Your daughters’ wedding receptions were pig pickings.

You know you only eat oysters in the months with an R in them.

You know what pot liquor is, and that it can nourish the baby if your milk goes dry.

The corner convenience store sells pickled pigs feet in a jar right next to the one with the giant dill pickles.

You can look at a field and tell whether it is planted with soybeans or peanuts.

You believe the Outer Banks is the next best thing to heaven.

You believe North Carolina owns the sky and that’s why it’s called Carolina Blue.