Tarheel Postcard
Not long ago, I was showing a group of friends one of my calendars which has the Web address for this blog on the front cover. One of the guys said, “Who’s this ‘Tarheel Rambler’ guy?” When I said, “Me,” he laughed and said, “You can’t be a Tarheel, you’re a Damn Yankee.”
When I first came to North Carolina, one of the first things I learned…courtesy of one of the directors of the family counseling program where I was interning…was the difference between a “Yankee” and a  ”Damn Yankee.” A “Yankee” comes to North Carolina to visit. A “Damn Yankee” comes to North Carolina and buys property and stays. By virtue of the fact that when I got married I became part owner of a house in North Carolina, I guess I do qualify as a “Damn Yankee.”
I got to thinking about my self proclaimed title of Tarheel Rambler after that conversation. I’m not sure when it happened, but I think of myself more of a native of North Carolina than of Illinois…certainly more so than a native of Wyoming, where I was born. And in fact, my ancestors came from Virginia and Illinois before moving west to Tennessee and eventually Illinois. So in some ways, my moving to North Carolina was kind of a homecoming.
The fact is, I have lived in my current home longer than I’ve ever lived anywhere in my life. I’ve mentioned in previous posts that my family moved around a lot when I was growing up. And after I got married and started my own family, there were several moves as well. The longest I ever lived in the same house, prior to the one I live in now, was seven years. And that was a former convent in Illinois that was the only available rental housing when I returned to Illinois from Wisconsin in 1977.
I guess that probably plays a big role in why I think of myself as a Tarheel. This has become home in so many ways. Another unique experience for me was meeting someone with my last name who was not related to me. That had not happened in the previous 50 years of my life. And amazingly, this is the first place I have ever lived where I haven’t had to spell my last name to most people after telling them what it is. Back in Illinois, even after pronouncing and spelling my last name, people tended to add letters as if I didn’t know how to spell my own name and made a mistake when I spelled it for whoever needed the information.
So for all practical purposes…at least as far as I’m concerned…I’m a Tarheel. Just don’t expect me to root for the basketball team with the same name. I’m a Big Ten Fan, particularly the Purdue Boilermakers. Even when I lived in Indiana, I was a Hoosier by location, but don’t ever accuse me of being a fan of the Hoosiers…that was blasphemy!
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