Waxing Nostalgic about Chapel Hill/Carrboro (Raleigh, Goldsboro: home, buy, high school)

[no kudzu]

I have been reading old threads about the differences between chapel hill and carrboro and have started thinking about the old days when I lived in Chapel Hill.
When my Daddy's last assignment as a Lt. Col in the Army took him to be advisor to National Guard in Raleigh, my mother begged to move to Chapel Hill and asked him to commute. She was originally from Goldsboro and her dream was to live in Chapel Hill so after 20 years of lugging kids all over the world he said yes. That was in 1958. They lived here until 1972 when he got his way and they moved to his home state of Oklahoma.

Mother loved Chapel Hill and always had "liberal leanings" while Daddy hated it because he was a John Bircher and thought the sun rised and shined on Jessie Helms. He used to make us sit and watch Jessie as he gave his commentaries on TV. mother and I rolled our eyes and my father and brother ate it up. I was very young but even then I couldn't buy it.
There used to be a term called Town and Gown which differentiated between university folks and non university folks and usually never the twain did meet. They were seperate social groups, etc. and of course Carrboro was definitely the wrong side of the tracks. literally..
Chapel Hill was considered white collar-professional and Carrboro was blue collar-mill folks and if a Chapel Hill girl dated a Carrboro boy--well---folks did talk. I never heard of a Chapel Hill boy dating a Carrboro girl-publically.
The high schooll was where university Square is now. We could hear the frat music all the time in the spring and a few of us-even in jr. high- used to skip school to attend these parties-well that is another story.
Anyway at lunch time the Carrboro kids would sit under a big shaddy tree and pop each other's pimples while the Chapel Hill kids sat on the wall in our Weejuns and circle pins and say EWWWW. I remember it like yesterday and in a few weeks we are having our 45th reunion.....
So now here I am back in Chapel Hill-actually Carrboro after all this time with my family. We came back for many reasons but mainly for the education of our 6th and 7th children-adopted from VietNam. When I realized I was actually gonna be living in Carrboro I e mailed a dear friend saying "OMG- I'm gonna be a Carrboro kid !"
I've visited several times during the years but was not prepared for the huge changes. Now Carrboro is the IN place to live and thank god there isn't that snobby air anymore. at least not where I can see.And to show how the times have changed a former UNC President's daughter is now married to a great Carrboro guy. It never would have happened all those years ago.
Well thanks for wading thru this and maybe some of you even found it worth your time.

[al_roethlisberger]

Thank you for the great imagery and perspective on how the area has changed