Lew Powell

A Pause That Failed To Refresh

The expression “It’s a long time between drinks,” coined during a meeting between the governors of North Carolina and South Carolina, became so widely known it was quoted by both Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson.

During Reconstruction, Gen. Dan Sickles refused to allow an adjournment that would have delayed the states’ formal acceptance of new voter registration laws. James Orr then remarked to Jonathan Worth, “The governor of South Carolina feels constrained to say to the governor of North Carolina that in these military cabinet counsels there is a mighty long time between drinks.”

Game Wardens Weren’t Welcomed

In 1903 the General Assembly  empowered the Audubon Society to enforce the state’s game laws. By 1909 the society’s administration of the laws  — as well as the laws themselves  — had led more than half the counties to opt out. Resistance to hunting and fishing restrictions of any kind remained strong, and it  was 1926 before the legislature established the State Game Commission.

Take A Test Drive For The Governor


The recently-passed “cash for clunkers” bill isn’t government’s first try at encouraging motorists to trade up. In 1938, as the automobile industry struggled to free itself from the Depression, Gov. Clyde Hoey asked North Carolinians to do their part during National Used Car Exchange Week:

“The accumulation of used cars in the hands of automobile dealers throughout the United States has reached such proportions that it is difficult to sell new cars. . . .

“It would be a very great stimulus to all kinds of business if the people of this State would… discard the old cars which have about served their period of usefulness and replace them with some of the used cars which are available or a new car, as they may see fit.”

Another ‘No. 1’? Well, We Were Hoping

The origin of this pinback button puzzled me for several years, until I stumbled onto the story while looking up something else in the North Carolina Collection reading room. (Not the first time for that experience.) Clue: The year was 1946. Can you identify it?

What, no takers? Clue No. 2: It was part of a campaign that also included the song “It’s All Up to You (to Make North Carolina No. 1 in Good ——).”