As proud North Carolinians, we hold certain truths to be self-evident. Consider them tacit additions to our state’s constitution. For starters, we’re First in Flight. (Sorry, Ohio.) Also, blue isn’t just blue here: It’s Carolina blue, or it belongs to that other school 10 miles down the road that shall not be named by this UNC-CH alumna — at least not without a fury of expletives to follow. Then there’s our tongue-in-cheek mantra that really functions as our unofficial state motto: North Carolina is the “vale of humility between two mountains of conceit.”
Oh do we ever have a complicated history with our neighbors in every which way — Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia — so much so that it’s permanently notched within our borders.
What funny things, state lines. Unlike out west where the borders are straight and the states are boxy, there are many snags in our Southern fabric.
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Good read!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteHistory Channel had some show a few years back "how the states got their shapes" or something like that which dealt with these anomalies. Michigan lost about 20 miles from it's southern end because Ohio wanted Toledo, Notre Dame college in South Bend may well have been in S. Michigan rather than Indiana had this not taken place. Michigan got the Upper Peninsula instead of Wisconsin as compensation for this loss. Noticed driving up Interstate 69 from Indianapolis to Lansing how the last 20 miles of Indiana really does feel like a different state, the landscape suddenly begins a drastic change to woods and pothole lakes from agricultural land, felt like it didn't really match the rest of the state.
ReplyDeleteFascinating. Thanks.
DeleteWell, Charleston is, after all, the place where the Ashley and Cooper rivers join to form the Atlantic Ocean, so it was only fair that we let you be First In Flight.
ReplyDeleteMy sister was born in Winston-Salem, so I guess I have to be somewhat nice to North Carolina.
- Charlie
:) Here's to the Land of the Long Leaf Pine....
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