Where the Dogwood Blooms

A few days ago I shared the old Bradham homeplace in Chinquapin, down in Duplin County—the house where Caleb Bradham was born before he went on to New Bern, opened his pharmacy, and created the drink the world would come to know as Pepsi-Cola. Y’all showed that little piece of forgotten North Carolina history a lot of love. That same farmhouse has another story, though, and i...

When the weather starts turning cold, I get a little homesick for Haywood County. I start craving foggy mornings, mountainsides dressed in every shade of red and gold, woodsmoke curling out of chimneys, and those long walks in crisp mountain air.

The post Soco Falls<...

A few weeks ago, my friend Ellie sent me a photograph. At first glance, it looked like the kind of old picture you might find tucked inside a family Bible or sitting in a box at an antique shop. An old house. A yard covered in fallen leaves. Two young men sitting out front, dressed in the fashion of the day, looking a little stiff and not too sure what to make of the camera.<...

There’s something about a cotton field in October that makes you stop and look twice. Ride down a two-lane road in eastern North Carolina this time of year, particularly through Sampson County, and you’ll see what I mean. Row after row of white cotton stretches toward the tree line, looking for all the world like somebody laid a blanket of snow across the fields before winter...

Every marriage has a few arguments that will never be settled. Duke or Carolina. Eastern-style or Lexington-style barbecue. And in our house, there’s one more question that apparently requires a lifetime of debate: whose ghost light is better?

The post The Vand...