Category: Tar Heelia

1. In what North Carolina city was a UFO reported in 1897?

2. What 1947 non-fiction best-seller includes the line, “The first thing I saw in North Carolina was a sign outside a group of bungalows, Motor Court — Morally Pure’ “?

3. When John Lawson trekked through the Piedmont in 1701, he noted that the trees were so tall that his party “saw plenty” of these birds “but pearch’d upon such lofty Oaks, that our Guns would not kill them, tho’ we shot very often, and our Guns were very good.” What were the birds?

4. According to Mayberry deputy Barney Fife, “You go read any book you want on the subject of child discipline and you’ll find every one of them is in favor of. . . . “

5. What famous book of poetry describes “the sounds and inlets of North Carolina’s coast, the shad-fishery and the herring-fishery, the large sweep-seines, the windlasses on shore work’d by horses, the clearing, curing, and packing-houses”?

Answers below

1. Wilmington. According to the Wilmington Messenger, which headlined its account, “Was It an Air Ship?” hundreds of citizens spotted the “remarkable brilliantly lighted” object as it floated above the city, creating “a sensation among all classes of people.”

2. “Inside U.S.A.” by journalist John Gunther.

3. “Turkies,” as Lawson spelled it in his journal.

4. “Bud nipping.” “Nip it in the bud” (or “nip it”) was one of Fife’s favorite expressions, being used in at least six episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show.”

5. “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman — who never visited the state.

Does the title sound a little familiar? That’s because it’s a parody of the famous novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. This court case, while not as famous as the title it refers to, is certainly just as intriguing.

In 1899, Mr. Martin Smith of Burke County was the key witness in a trial of embezzlement against Chris Detter. Mr. Smith had called on his friendly neighborhood witch doctor, Dr. Deilan (aka Detter), to assist with a troublesome witch problem. The witch doctor assessed the situation and concluded that Mr. Smith’s sister was bewitched along with the entire house.

The solution

1. Burn down the house!

As the Smith family watched their home burn to the ground, the witch doctor stood by with a large stick to defeat the fleeing witches. Unfortunately, these rather clever witches escaped through the chimney and possessed the family’s hog.

2. Strike the hog!

Mr. Smith once again did as the witch doctor ordered and struck his hog on the head to expel the witches from the hog. The first strike didn’t do the trick, so the witch doctor ordered a second which killed the poor, delicious looking hog. Luckily, the hog’s head and shoulders had not been touched by the witches. Mr. Smith slaughtered the hog and the witch doctor took the tainted/meatiest parts thus saving the Smith family from death by bewitched meat ingestion. The hog was gone but the witches remained.

3. Move out of town!

Mr. Smith once more put his faith in the witch doctor to rid his family of these pesky witches once and for all. The only action left; buy a new house and leave town. The witch doctor found a suitable, witch-free house for the low price of $240. Of course, the doctor didn’t bother to tell the Smith’s that the real cost was only $165.

In the end, the Smiths were rid of their witches and Chris Detter (Dr. Deilan) was rid of his freedom.

“Strange Case of Dr. Deilan and Mr. Smith” The Asheville Daily Gazette (Asheville NC). April 11, 1899. p 3.

During the days leading up to Halloween, North Carolina Miscellany is posting articles from North Carolina newspapers about one of our favorite Halloween characters, the witch.

“Do witches ride horses?” One man posed this question to the Greensboro Record in 1911 looking for an explanation as to why his horses’ hair was knotted every morning. He took care to comb out their manes and yet when he checked in the morning, the manes were so badly tangled again no comb would help. The man was skeptical of the explanation he received as a child that the tangles were due to witches riding the horses at night and tying their manes and tails into knots. The query was subsequently posted in several other papers across the state. See this reprint from The (Charlotte) Evening Chronicle for the explanation to this man’s life long question.

The Evening Chronicle (Charlotte, NC.). January 17, 1911. p 4.

1. In TV commercials in the early 1970s, who sang, “Hurry on down to Hardee’s, where the burgers are charcoal-broiled”?

2. When it opened in 1965, this 29-story skyscraper was the South’s tallest — what was it?

3. Among the failed early ventures of this future fast-food pioneer was a motel and restaurant in Asheville that opened in 1939 and closed a couple of years later. Who was he?

4. What Mary Chapin Carpenter hit grew out of her annual visits to the Outer Banks?

5. In 1930 Currituck County philanthropist Joseph Knapp founded the More Game Birds in America Foundation. By what name is the organization known today?

Answers below

1.  Cass Elliott, formerly of the Mamas and the Papas.

2. The Wachovia building (now Winston Tower) in Winston-Salem. Today that distinction belongs to the 60-story Bank of America headquarters in Charlotte.

3. Colonel Harland Sanders. He thought he could repeat the success of his Sanders Court in Corbin, Ky., but a combination of wartime rationing, stiff local competition and tourist-poor winters proved insurmountable.

4. “I Am a Town.” (“I’m a town in Carolina, I’m a detour on a ride / For a phone call and a soda, I’m a blur from the driver’s side.”)

5. Ducks Unlimited, which now has 700,000 members worldwide.

1. After suffering facial cuts in a 1974 crash at Charlotte Motor Speedway, what driver ordered the ambulance crew to make sure a plastic surgeon was standing by at the hospital?

2. A UNC basketball star of the ’90s shares his name with Gomer Pyle’s drill instructor — what is it?

3. How many North Carolinians who died in the Spanish-American War are not commemorated with public monuments?

4. The Union forces who captured New Bern during the Civil War were led by a man now more widely remembered today for his contribution to the lexicon. Who was he?

5. True or false: In 1978, North Carolina’s chapter of the American Cancer Society was the only one in the country not to support the Great American Smoke-out.

Answers below

1. Marty Robbins, better known for such country and western hits as “El Paso.”

2. Vince Carter. Sgt. Carter (played by Frank Sutton) was introduced on the 1964 episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” that served as the pilot for “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”

3. None. Ensign Worth Bagley is honored with a statue in Raleigh, Army Lt. William Shipp with an obelisk in Charlotte.

4. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, whose whiskers set a new style, first as “burnsides,” then as “sideburns.”

5. True.

It’s October! That means Halloween is almost upon us. During the days leading up to Halloween, North Carolina Miscellany is posting articles from North Carolina newspapers about one of our favorite Halloween characters, the witch.

In the past if you didn’t know anything else about witches, you at least knew about the witches’ bridle. This magic bridle was used by a witch to turn an unsuspecting man into a horse. The witch would sneak in while her victim was asleep, put the bridle on him and proceed to ride him wherever she pleased until finally returning the victim to his home, sore and exhausted. Sounds like the perfect excuse to sleep in!

“Superstitions in the Cumberland Mountains.” The Wilmington Dispatch Sept. 1, 1915. p. 8.

1. What innovation made by Warner Stamey of Greensboro in the 1950s soon became common at barbecue joints across the state?

2. Who were the 23 Charlotteans who appeared on the cover of Life magazine on July 9, 1951?

3. Jesse Helms teasingly sang “Dixie” to what fellow U.S. senator during a 1993 Capitol Hill elevator ride — Strom Thurmond, Ted Kennedy or Carol Moseley-Braun?

4. What event do the state’s ACC basketball fans remember as “Black Sunday”?

5. In a 1951 magazine article, sociologist Vance Packard described what North Carolina county as “the bootleg capital of America”?

Answers below

1. Stamey added hushpuppies, a staple at fish camps, to his menu. Before, barbecue was typically served with white bread or rolls.

2. Debutantes — “looking as gracious as any ante-bellum belles.” Inside, Life devoted a four-page spread to Charlotte’s recent challenge to “the social supremacy” of Raleigh.

3. Moseley-Braun. Two weeks earlier, the black Democrat from Illinois had thwarted Helms’ effort to renew a patent for a United Daughters of the Confederacy insignia that depicted a Confederate flag. Most recently Helms, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, temporarily held up Moseley-Braun’s nomination as ambassador to New Zealand.

4. On March 11, 1979, St. John’s and Penn came to Raleigh and posted two of the biggest upsets in the history of the NCAA tournament. St. John’s, the 40th and last team selected, beat No. 2 seed Duke, and Penn of the Ivy League came from behind to beat No. 1 seed North Carolina.

5. Wilkes County.