NORTH CAROLINA IS JUST DIFFERENT, #1 (Cheri)

. . . and by that, I mean from California!  No reason to alienate our new neighbors and potential friends.

I've kept a running list of differences to talk about, but Mark's post of yesterday prompted me to start with a discussion of . . .

The Freeways  The NC freeways are uniformly well-maintained.  No picture, however, as a shot of a smooth road surface is something that only a traffic engineer would appreciate.

To reiterate what Mark pointed out yesterday, there are so many flowers, as in thousand-yard planted beds of bulbs in the spring.

The picture above was actually published by the Tampa Bay Times, in an article pointing out that local commissioners were suggesting that they follow North Carolina's lead.

Here are several published on a local NPR web site after the 2012  Wildflower Awards were announced:

Quakers  There are a lot of Quaker churches here.  The Society of Friends church was apparently the first organized Christian religion in North Carolina.

Okay, that was cheating, I admit it.  I'm not like Mark, taking his own pictures for all of his posts!

Interestingly, being a practicing Friend would probably be quite consistent with many people's current attempts at self-improvement through meditation, as that seems to be what their worship sessions consist of.

Here in Winston-Salem, the historical focus is on the Moravian Church.  It's actually surprising that we've noticed Quaker churches, because practically half of all the local churches are Moravian.

Cemeteries  There are lots.    Almost every church has its own cemetery, which necessitates systems for tracking down where-in-the-heck Great Aunt Lucy was actually buried.

Our own Forsyth County has 127 cemeteries.  Next-door Yadkin County has 89, which kind of matches the number of people living there.  Sampson County has 918 cemeteries, and fewer than 60,000 residents.