Just
when it looked like blogger Caleb Pressley of Asheville was glowing white hot
with his amusing countdown series detailing the “five best things about North
Carolina,” he laid an egg with the “great reveal” of his top choice – “the
future.”
Ranked
fifth through second respectively were the North Carolina mountains, Texas Pete
Original Hot Sauce, the Carolina Panthers’ panther statues outside Bank of
America Stadium in Charlotte, and Cherie Berry, who is North Carolina’s
Commissioner of Labor. His rationale for these rankings provided entertaining
reading.
Pressley
fans were less than thrilled, however, with his final essay that announced the
very “best thing” about North Carolina was its future. He wrote: “To accurately
declare the best thing about it is a formidable, if not impossible task.”
“As
good as things have been in North Carolina for the last 2,000 or so years, the
only thing that’s better is our future,” Pressley asserted.
Dagnabbit.
That conclusion seemed a tad flat and a bit of a let-down…noncontroversial and
out-of-character for this usually brash and edgy 27-year-old commentator with
Barstool Sports.
Now,
there are plenty of people – past and present – who as great North Carolinians
have left and are leaving their mark on the Old North State. In their
jumbo-sized book, “Making A Difference In North Carolina,” published in 1988,
authors Hugh Morton and Ed Rankin (both are now deceased) made a good run at
compiling a list.
Dr.
Billy Graham and two Army Generals – George C. Marshall and William C.
Westmoreland – are headliners, along with legends such as David Brinkley,
William Friday, Andy Griffith, Michael Jordan, Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, Charles
Kurault, Meadowlark Lemon, Richard Petty, Arthur Smith, Dean Smith, Bob
Timberlake and Doc Watson.
Other
heroes and celebrities mentioned in more recent articles include stellar North
Carolinians Maya Angelou, Harriet Morehead Berry, Charlotte Hawkins Brown,
Virginia Dare, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Roberta Flack, Ava Gardner, Sugar Ray
Leonard, Dolley Madison, James Motley Morehead, Edward R. Murrow, Kelli
Pickler, William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), James Taylor and Thomas Wolfe.
Surely,
there are scores of other people across North Carolina who are equally
deserving, so Pressley can’t be faulted for not wanting to trump the indefatigable
Cherie Berry.
If
Pressley were to ask “us’ns” in Carteret County, he would learn the “best thing
about North Carolina” is clear as a bell – it’s the Crystal Coast. Who wouldn’t
swear and tear his/her hair to live, work and play here?
The
Crystal Coast is the water sports capital of North Carolina. Our tourism-based
businesses are busy year-round extending the hand of hospitality to guests.
Visit in winter and watch the sun both rise and set over the Atlantic Ocean.
How cool is that?
But
in the interest of “fairness to all concerned,” the great County of Carteret
yields to a 2015 article that appeared in Our State magazine written by
Katie Quine. She said:
“When
I think about my love for North Carolina, my mind always trails to Charles
Kuralt’s speech in 1993,” given at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill to celebrate the institution’s 200th commencement ceremony.
Quine
commented: “His opening 13 words resound deep within my heart, ‘What is it that
binds us to this place as to no other?’”
Kuralt
said it’s not “the memory of dogwoods blooming…our love for this place is based
on the fact that it is…the University of the people.”
Quine
interjected that she believed Kurault’s words applied to North Carolina as a
whole. She asked: “Truly, what binds us to this place of the pine? What makes
us want to call North Carolina home?
Kurault
topped off his speech with these words: “Care about one another…be sensitive
enough to feel supreme tenderness toward others, and be strong enough to show
it. That is a commandment, by the way, and not from me.”
The
best thing about North Carolina – past, present and future – is “her people.”
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