Tar Heel State, NC kind of sticks on ya... (how much, university)

[dansdrive]

I was going to update my thread on the NC weather
but I'd only ditto yesterdays and it would suffice for tomorrow
and the day after that, with the occasional rise and fall of the
mean temperature. The constant is <SUNSHINE> in case
you are from out of the state and wondering.

So I decided to look into a more gooey subject and that is
Tar as in Heels if your from NC, or on the roof or road if you are not.
So why or why are we known as Tar Heels. Our UNC university system
is based on principles of higher education and heels full of tar?
For the new comers as I once was this may peak your interest
and may actually stick in your memory or a quick wash with alcohol
or petroleum based cleaner and it will be gone.

Anyway it runs, tar that is, here goes. According to the NC State's
official web site (its the unofficial ones that gets all the hits, Drat,
Double Tar Drat) , it dates back to the Civil War and General Lee.
No not that General Lee that Daisy, Luke and BO drove in. The real
one stated, "God bless the Tar-heel boys," they took the name". I
copied the web page so you can see read where I got the quote.
Official State Symbols of North Carolina

But that sounds so logically, of coarse I must not question a General
after all. It also has to do with all the pine trees and when they use to
burn up their branches it use to create a tar-like substance from the pine
sap. This would stick on ones feet and depending on how much you
got on determined if you were really stuck there in place yelling for a
non Tar Heeled person to remove you, or you just kept
walking and tracked the tar stains onto the early settlers wooden porches
or floors. I don't think they had recycled plastic bottle fiber carpets in
the mid 1800's, maybe they did but GREEN back then meant a whole another
thing and that is for a future post!

Maybe our founding NC father's were just way ahead of their times and
knew that if one got tar on their heels they would be prone to stay awhile.
IMHO this is exactly where we are today, people come look around from all over this great country and land up sticking here for one reason or the other.
May the Tar on your heels be ever present and your need to remove it ever
so light!