Our State editor shares Carolina recollections

When Elizabeth Hudson, editor of Our State magazine, is out and about tootling around and making her rounds in coastal North Carolina, she works up an appetite for good seafood.

 

The platters typically come with four choices, she says. “Broiled, grilled, fried or steamed, and none of those is the wrong decision.” 

Hudson grew up in Randolph County, N.C., and now lives in Greensboro, which is the hometown of Our State. She believes that fish on a plate “looks like summer – golden and crispy, salty and warm.” 

In Carteret County, two of Hudson’s favorite meals are soft-shell crabs at the Sanitary Fish Market & Restaurant in Morehead City and the oyster-scallop-shrimp combo plate with fries at Amos Mosquito’s in Atlantic Beach.

 

She’s also mighty fond of the shrimp burgers at the Big Oak Drive-In, located in Salter Path. It’s customary to use the hood of your car as a makeshift table at Big Oak. Add a side of onion rings and a chocolate shake, Hudson suggests.

 

Hudson has compiled a collection of 35 essays that she has written for the magazine into a small booklet titled “Silver Linings.” It’s available for purchase through the online Our State store. 

In her “Wish List” essay, Hudson takes us back to a time “when we were young” and “the wishes were easy.” Remember sprawling out on the living room floor with the “600-page Sears catalog and a pad of paper?” 

Hudson’s list began: “Metal shoe skates, Hot Wheels, an Easy-Bake Oven…the Walkie-Talkie set with a Morse code button to send secret messages…Chatty Cathy.”

 

“Then, the wishes changed, grew up. A World Book Encyclopedia set, a telescope, a Casio digital watch, a Princess phone with the glow-in-the-dark dial, a wool dress coat for church.”

 

With adulthood, the wishes changed yet again, Hudson said, toward practical things like “a can opener, the start of an orange-and-yellow Pyrex collection, a socket-wrench set…money” for groceries, rent and heat. 

The wishes that really mattered, though, were for time spent with family and loved ones doing things together. 

Switching gears, Hudson’s father had a cure for her every childhood ailment – Pinwheels. They were chocolate-covered marshmallow cookies with a graham-cracker base, made by Nabisco.

 

“I didn’t even have to eat one to feel better,” Hudson said. Just knowing that there was a stash of Pinwheels in the kitchen was good enough. 

Today’s Pinwheels just aren’t the same. A good substitute is a box of Mallo Cups by Boyer. Savor the whipped marshmallow crème center surrounded by milk chocolate and coconut…and feel better fast.

 

Elizabeth Hudson revealed that she was born at 12:01 a.m. on November 1 – just a few ticks on the clock after Halloween. For her 9th birthday, Elizabeth asked her parents if she could go trick-or-treating instead of having a family birthday gathering. Certainly. 

Elizabeth’s mother drove her to the Roses store in Asheboro. Elizabeth selected her costume – Snow White. 

She told her readers: “Mom lets you wear the mask home. The eyeholes on the mask fall a little too low, and the glasses that you have to wear don’t fit well underneath….”

 

On Halloween night, a friend’s mother drives a few young trick-or-treaters to some neighborhoods in town. Elizabeth collects her treats in an orange plastic pumpkin basket. Tootsie Rolls, Sugar Babies, Milk Duds and Dum Dums, mostly. 

It turned out to be the best birthday ever, because when Elizabeth returned home, her family was waiting…to eat chocolate cake and sing “Happy Birthday” to Snow White.