The Most Uncommon, Un-southern, “Southern” Area

by Sarah Bowman

Are all the towns in the South similar? As my grandmother, “Ahmoo,” and I discussed her experiences as a Southerner, we compared the Sandhills to other “typical” southern areas. The “outside changes” here have made the Sandhills a most uncommon, un-southern, “Southern” area.

It comes full circle between generations; for example, Ahmoo and I walked the same path to school, only many decades apart. If not for a northern influence of the Sandhills area, we may not have been able to share that neat experience. Our family has been in the Sandhills since the eighteenth century, and according to Ahmoo, “Not much had changed in those 200 years. I suppose before this wave of change, the majority would agree that the area was indeed an established, typical town of the South, by and large an agricultural area, and during that time, most surrounding areas in North Carolina were just that.”

However, Ahmoo told me that when the “money culture” from up North came to the Sandhills, the locals began to notice just as many similarities as differences. The two intellectual communities were similar. “Everybody had a Bible, a Shakespeare, and some other classic.” Because the area had a large population of writers and poets, publishers and press from up North frequently visited the Sandhills. She also told me, “I knew this because my mother’s cousin was a publisher of The Sandhills Citizen,” which was one of many local papers.

The new resort and the local farmers had other common interests such as card games as well as hunting with their horses and dogs. One example of a benefit gained was transportation; the railroad now had the ability to support both the local shipping of produce and transporting of tourists to and fro. The outsiders brought new foods, religions, and entertainment. My Ahmoo said, “There was either home entertainment or church entertainment. Suddenly, we could go have fun in public at the theater or whatever.” With similarities come differences. In this case, it was imaginably difficult to make such significant adjustments.


“With the establishment of Fort Bragg in 1918 came a lot of displacement in the agricultural industry, and it brought many different cultures from all over America.” Following the Great Depression, people went to work in textile mills, which changed the culture from agricultural to industrial. As for politics, the South was essentially Democratic with few members of the Republican Party. “There was not usually a primary local Republican candidate at all until the outside influence brought in the Republicans.”

Furthermore, the Sandhills was greatly influenced by northern outsiders, as well as money. Prior to the “invasion,” “The Sandhills was used to a classic way of life; priorities were to go to the feed store, the drug store, and the bank — a farmer’s life.” That soon changed to a more relaxed lifestyle entailing golfing and horseback riding. The area was manipulated to say the least. While it is still considered a southern town, it varies from what we typically know as “Southern.” “In comparison to other small southern towns, Sarah, the Sandhills has character unlike most others; this area is more of a vacation location with seldom, old, southern charm. If this is the ‘Southern’ one is used to, then it may not be outrageous to consider it just as equally southern.”

In doing this assignment, Ahmoo and I made fantastic connections to our pasts, and we learned that our two very different generations ultimately came a full circle. Perhaps, had it not been for the outside changes made to the Sandhills, she may not be living two doors down from the house she grew up in, which is next door to the house my dad built when I was a baby on his grandfather’s land. Although we might lack certain values or morals, she and I have many things in common, possibly an effect caused by the environment we grew up in, an old, originally southern town that was almost entirely revamped by outside entities. We shared lots of wonderful stories, and I learned how incomparable the Sandhills was to most usual towns of the South, and Ahmoo had a chance to revisit her past growing up in the most uncommon, un-southern, “Southern” town.

Works Cited

Bowman, Gay. Personal interview.13 Sep. 2012.



Note: Sarah Bowman, who is from Robbins, NC, is pursuing an associate's in arts degree at Sandhills Community College.

The Town Time Forgot

By Christy Evans

Nothing is more interesting than learning about “how things used to be” — that’s exactly what I did by interviewing my mother-in-law, Emma Jane Brown Evans. Born on October 4, 1950 in Robbins, NC, she was the younger of two children of W.C. and Denese Brown. According to Jane, life growing up in this small southern town has not changed very much over years.

"The biggest thing about our town I remember from my childhood was a huge sense of community. Everyone looked out for each other, and love your neighbor was our code of life.” When growing up, about 15 kids on her block always got together to play in the streets, go to the movies, and go trick-or-treating every Halloween. “You didn’t have to worry about the meanness then that you have to look out for now. It was a God-fearing town.”

The event in the South that had the most effect on her life is the integration of schools. Until 1965, she attended school with only other white children; however, when entering the tenth grade, integration began taking place in Robbins. The all-black school closed, and all the students from it began attending North Moore High School. For her, this wasn’t an issue, but some seniors who were graduating made huge deals by “taunting the lower classmen about having to share their school with people of color.”

According to Jane, when she was growing up, her parents did not raise her to be prejudiced but to love everyone. However, not everybody in town shared those beliefs. Even though integration was going on in the schools, it wasn’t going on in the neighborhoods. No black families were allowed to live inside the city limits of Robbins. “If a house was for sale and a black family tried to buy it, then someone else in the community would buy it first so that the black family couldn’t.” She also said, “As far as I know, that still happens today. I guess that some things will never change.”

Like most other Southerners, family and church were very important. Parents taught and instilled values and manners in their children. A child was expected to show respect to elders and address them properly. Another important element of her childhood was church. “That is where you were supposed to be on Sunday morning, and if you weren’t then Grandma would show up at your house afterwards wanting to know why.” After church every Sunday, family dinners consisted of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and homemade biscuits. It was a time to sit down with family, enjoy their company, and catch up on everyone’s lives. Teenagers weren’t allowed to date until they were sixteen, and “women had more respect for themselves by not letting everything hang out. Churches and their preachers pretty much ran the town.”

Jane’s parents brought her up with the mindset that attending college was a must, not an option, and that’s what she did. She started at Sandhills Community College, got her associate in arts degree, and then transferred to UNCP where she received her teaching degree. Jane said, "Education is a must to survive in the world today, not only in the South but all over."

One last nugget I learned is how Robbins seems to be “stuck in the past.” According to Jane, neighboring communities describe Robbins as “the town time forgot” because even as everything in the world has changed, Robbins still stays with the simpler way of living.

The changes in life — and resistance to change — are so interesting. My mother-in-law taught me that some of the “good ol’ days” are still alive in our neighboring communities, and we should hold on to as much of Southern culture and value as we can.

Work Cited

Evans, Emma Jane Brown. Personal interview. 5 Sept. 2011.

Note: Christy Evans, who is from Aberdeen, NC, is a nursing student at Sandhills Community College where she is pursuing an associate in arts degree.