So you think you know North Carolina…. No. 7

1. True or false: After the U.S. declared war on Germany in 1917, more than 100 percent of eligible N.C. men signed up for the draft.

2. Until the mid-1950s blacks were barred from Freedom Park in Charlotte, unless the men were laborers or the women were — ?

3. During a 1987 promotional tour a Concorde supersonic jet landed in what city — and was stranded by an 11-inch snow?

4. What controversial song was first performed in Fayetteville in 1969?

5. Although best known as a Pulitzer-winning playwright and creator of the outdoor drama “The Lost Colony,” Paul Green also worked as a Hollywood screenwriter. A line he adapted for Bette Davis in “The Cabin in the Cotton” (1932) she called her favorite. What was it?

Answers below….

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. True. Many young men, eager to be included, apparently lied about their age.

2. Nannies of white children. Black children were never permitted. Among Harry Golden’s suggestions for addressing segregation: the “Rent-a-White-Baby” plan, allowing blacks to visit parks and to attend events such as concerts.

3. Asheville. After an overnight delay, the one-time charter flight took off for London.

4. “Okie from Muskogee.” The name of the town had caught Merle Haggard’s eye while on tour, and he quickly spun it into a semi-serious tribute to “a place where even squares can have a ball” and where “We don’t burn our draft cards down on Main Street.” It went over big with his test audience: Fort Bragg’s NCO club.

5. “I’d like to kiss you, but I just washed my hair.” Green picked up the line from the novel of the same name by Harry Harrison Kroll.