The American South: A Sense of Community

by Mary Lamb

The South is not simply a geographical region; it is an animated history lesson with roots deeper than the wild fig. The culture is one of honor and pride. Most importantly, the sense of community in the South has created a unique region that has not been replicated, based on the travels of my new friend, Adrian Harper. To gain a deeper understanding of the culture in the South, I need look no further than across the table at lunch to receive first-hand accounts that explicitly articulate the uniqueness of the region. My history lesson was portrayed through the life of Adrian. Listening to the stories of his life was pure music to my ears that gave me a confirmation of why I am raising my own children in the South.

Blue Ridge Mountains

Adrian was born and raised in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As he recounted stories of his life, I got an entirely new perspective of life in a community. After serving in the United States Navy for twenty years, it was the purity of the people that called Adrian back to the American South. He and his wife, Odessa, chose to spend their retirement years in North Carolina. The South is saturated with small towns and neighborhoods that emulate the stereotypical idea of a close-knit culture. The pride of being a Southerner is a unique trait, and the melody of his words filled my heart like the sugar in sweet tea. Adrian explained that “with people in the South, they’ll tell you what they think to your face, but in the North and the West, they will be all smiles until you turn your back” At first I took offense, until I realized that he wasn’t putting down my Northern heritage, but rather attempting to educate me on his love for the Southern culture and a love for the sense of community.

Emancipation Proclamation

The sense of community is shown in large gatherings and intimate family affairs. It is a sense of oneness that radiates through the entire Southern region. When Adrian told me the story of his great grandfather becoming a free man after the Emancipation Proclamation, the fact that he took on his master’s name and remained employed by him was a great example of the sense of oneness and unity in this culture. Adrian did not speak with any negativity or animosity when recounting the events of his past. Instead, he tenderly shared information with dignity, in spite of the hardships created by slavery and segregation. I recognized his optimistic attitude as another illustration of a Southern gentleman.

In the foothills of North Carolina where Adrian and Odessa grew up, a certain tone was used in rearing children. The idea of “it takes a village to raise a child” could have been the motto in Southern neighborhoods, as the people easily bonded in a unique manner. Adrian illustrated this by saying, “It didn’t matter whose parents caught you doing something wrong. They would take it upon themselves to grab a switch and teach you a lesson.” This same principle held true with mealtime for when food was on the table; whoever was around was welcome to eat. Hospitality of the South was exactly as portrayed in the saying “Come a stranger, leave as family.”

The best cooks include a little fatback
to add flavor.

In the South Sundays were special days for social and family gatherings. After attending church services, people would congregate on the lawn and make plans for afternoon activities. Adrian explained that church members took turns hosting the pastor and his wife for Sunday dinner. Delicious fried food is a staple in Southern gatherings. In the North, much cooking is done with vegetable oil, but in the South food is fried in “fatback.” My Northern roots left me stunned as Odessa explained that “fatback” gives the food its flavor. She said, “I loved just frying it up until it was crispy.” Although the Southern tradition of frying “fatback” until it was crispy may sound foreign to some Northerners, it was not foreign to me. During my father’s childhood, he would fry the fat from bacon, sop the grease up with a slice of Wonder Bread, and fry the bread until it was crispy. Some styles of preparing and eating food overlap from region to region. However, when gathering together to eat a meal, one must be in the South if livermush, black-eyed peas, cornbread, and fatback-fried chicken are the main entrees.

Meals are more than eating food in the South. Meals are opportunities for deeper lessons about life. The Southern culture holds respect in highest regard. The concept of respect is more significant that “yes, sir” and ‘no, ma’am.” Respect is preached to children from birth and children are taught to respect one another. Adrian told me of the times when the pastor and his wife came to Sunday dinner. The children were expected to show respect toward the adults and the parents showed respect toward the children. Adrian’s father expected the children to eat what was prepared for their guests. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the President of the United States at the table; my children will eat at the table next to him,” explained Adrian. This example illustrates a beautiful sense of honor that his father had for his children. This story emphasized both the idea of respect and equality for all people. Possibly, this concept dates back to the freedom of slaves in the South, as Adrian mentioned, several times, the idea of separate, but equal. The people of the South have been deeply affected by this concept. It is as if a slow, melodic rhythm beats within their soul and perpetuates the values of each person rooted in the South.

Respect, equality, and a close sense of community truly portray the special qualities of Southern culture that remains alive today. The deep historical roots of the region have created an area of the United States that deserves to hear songs of praise. Whether it is clans of neighbors who watch out for one another or folks gathered around the Sunday table, the people of the South have formed a culture of purity and unconditional support for one another that can be recognized throughout the world. I am honored to raise my children as true Southern people.

Works Cited

Harper, Adrian. Personal interview. 1 Feb. 2013.

Harper, Odessa. Personal interview. 1 Feb. 2013.



Note: Mary Lamb, who grew up in Michigan within French-Canadian and Polish cultural connections, is pursuing a nursing degree at Sandhills Community College.

A Time to Remember

by Moneé Bratcher

“Mother was the most important aspect of my life. As far back as I can remember from the first day I was born, my mother was always the center of my life. At the early age of three I noticed that my mother was a loving, caring, and a hard working woman. She loved my father, sisters, brothers, and I,” said my 56-year-old grandmother, Mama as I called her, as she looked me in the eyes reminiscing about her past.

“Moneé, I was taught at a young age to be independent,” said Mama. Either you become independent or you might get lost in the daily family-school shuffle. There were a total of seven children in her family, five girls and two boys. My grandmother was the third child of five and because there was a huge gap between four older siblings and her, she had to learn quickly in order to keep up with them. This might have been her first lesson in becoming independent and developing her personality.

“I remember my mother, my older siblings, and I had to get up early in the fall mornings to catch a truck to go pick cotton in Scotland County. It was cold and rainy on the back of the truck to the cotton farm and we had to use quilts to stay warm,” said Mama. My grandmother said that once they arrived at the cotton field they had to check in at the Masters barn and gather sacks to pick the cotton. The cotton industry was significant in the South during the 1950s because it was large part of the agriculture system.

“As a five-year-old I didn’t think that cotton picking was important. I considered it hard work for my family. We did not receive much money for our daily work on the fields; we were only paid 25 cents per 100 pounds of cotton. Backbreaking work and no money,” said my grandmother in frustration. Today that cotton plantation has become a productive well known winery, Livingston Winery.

From my grandmother’s perspective cotton picking taught her that getting an education is the key to a better life and a way out of the South. However, getting an education in the segregated South was not easy. For example, my grandmother had to attend a segregated school, she received second-hand books from the white schools, and rode one school bus that for all K-12 students. In the late 1960s the southern schools began to integrate in the South. My grandmother integrated at Pine Forest High School with hundreds of other black and white students.

I asked my grandmother if integrating with white students made her feel uncomfortable or was it a challenge. She stated that she didn’t feel uncomfortable, but she knew that it was going to be a challenge to make good grades. “A challenge that I faced in the classrooms of Pine Forest was that a white teacher called on all of the white kids and refused to call on me. I knew that I had the right answer, Moneé, that was the first time I felt the sting of a prejudiced white teacher,” said Mama. Mama, how did you feel when the white students called you “Nigger”? “It didn’t make me feel good because no one wants to be called out of their name, but I didn’t let it destroy me because my mother taught me never to be afraid and to be my own person, and to speak what I feel and think.”

“Throughout my living experiences in the South of my 56 years, I have learned to live and be happy and take life seriously, realistically, and logically. At the end of the day I felt like I have accomplished what I have set out to due. With my educational experience I can now be a customer at the winery on that cotton plantation — and not a cotton picker.”

Work Cited

Ingram, Juanita. Personal interview. 2 Feb. 2012.

Note: Moneé Bratcher, who is from Raeford, NC, is pursuing an associate in arts degree at Sandhills Community College as a SandHoke Early College High School student.

Grandma’s Journey from North to South

By Tramaine Pride

My grandmother has lived through some of America’s most interesting decades these past 65 years. She was in school when desegregation began, angry when “King” was killed, saw man go to space, bought herself an iPod, and has lived to see the first black president in Barack Obama. In our interview I asked her about these events and others that happened during her lifetime to understand a Southern black woman’s view of them when they happened. Bringing up these events brought up an immense amount of memories and stories which led to us having a two-day interview because apparently “our family tends to be a bit longwinded.” Although born in the North, she has used Southern values of church and family to overcome the daily challenges that she has faced.

My grandmother is the youngest of five children who all were born in North Carolina with one exception — her. Her father, a New York native, wanted to move his family up north so his children would have a “better chance on life” rather than one in North Carolina where he had had many problems as an African American. After my grandmother was born, the family stayed in New York until she was around ten years old when her parents divorced and separated. Although her oldest brother and her father stayed in New York, she moved to the South during a time she described as hectic. Though she had heard about desegregation, she didn’t pay it much attention because she had gone to school in the inner city with all “colored” people her whole life. She always knew race was an issue growing up, but she is admittedly ignorant to marches and protests that I was so eager to find out about. “You just didn’t want to stir up any problems down here,” she explained.

She grew up in North Carolina in a single-parent home with two brothers and a sister; everyone in the family played their parts in helping support the family. Her mother did her best and taught them how to use the water pump and how to handle their business in the outhouse. She wasn’t used to the Southern way of life after living in New York. She told me that her mother kept chickens and that she learned to catch, kill, pluck and cook a chicken with great goory detail. Reflecting on this practice she laughed at my face and told me how lucky I am to have Food Lion now. Though the chores and living were harder in the South, “You did them because you had to for your family, and that was true love. I did all that because we had to, and I loved my family; mean as she was, I love my mama.”

During high school she worked for the Pinehurst Resort (“The Hotel”) as did most of her classmates and neighbors from Taylortown. Her oldest brother went into the Army, the other brother went back to New York for college, but she and her sister stayed in the local area after high school working and “courting.” She had fun partying on the “hill” in Taylortown and being the center of attention for the local male population. My grandmother was married four times total and is currently still with her fourth husband. She tells me the reasoning behind these marriages was because “It was the right thing to do. Marriage was how you stayed in a relationship with a man. One did not just move in and live together because you were in love; it was a sin called shackin’ in the church I was raised in.”

Her second husband, my grandfather, was “real country boy” raised in West End North, Carolina, by some “Indians and white folks,” she says with a laugh, “Why you think your mama’s so bright?” In that marriage she had four children and was a true housewife. “I cooked like my mama, I cleaned like my mama, and I loved hard like mama too.” She learned about root medicines and home remedies from my grandfather’s Native American mother. My grandmother was suspicious of some of those practices like most southern blacks; she referred to them as “witchy.” She took her family to the same A.M.E. Zion Pentecostal Church that her mother went to in Taylortown. The church was what kept and still keeps the family together. She made her children sing in the choir and attend Sunday school, they were all christened there, and she had three of her four weddings there too. Her two children who are married, my aunt and uncle, were married in the same church. Life was pretty much the same from generation to generation, her children had children, and I was subsequently raised in Taylortown.

We discussed some changes such as her interaction with white people. For a long time she didn’t deal with white people outside of being a service to them. Most of her adult life she either worked for or served white people, many from the North. She served these rich victors who came to Pinehurst for golf and recreation while she was young and later served and nursed them when they were old in the retirement and nursing facilities in Pinehurst too. In her early ‘50’s still working in nursing, she decided it was time for a change, and that change was her education. Growing up in the South she “didn’t care much about school as much about making money and helping the family survive. That’s just how everybody did it; you worked and survived but never really elevated yourself beyond that.”

She says her children and grandchildren were her inspiration to focus on her education. She attended community college and received an associate in arts degree with honors and elevated her pay and status. She credits her family for helping her along the way. In high school I remember helping her to use a computer and prepare presentations and spreadsheets. She had white classmates who have become her white friends now. “I took me long enough,” she says with a smile. When I asked her did she think race was still an issue even with Obama as president, she responded, “It’s really a beautiful thing how far we’ve come, and I hope y’all just love on each other till all that’s gone.”

My grandmother was uprooted from the North and was raised in the South. Her life has seen many changes in culture over the years and she has changed hers along with it. But the Southern ideals such as church and the importance of family are still how she will live forever.

Work Cited

Baldwin, Toni. Personal interview. 8 Sep. 2011.



Note: Tramaine Pride, who is from Southern Pines, NC, is a university transfer student at Sandhills Community College where he is pursuing an associate in arts degree.

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.

Back Then

by Allison Strohacker

I always wondered how different life was when my dad was raised in the South compared to my experience thirty-two years later. I always wanted to know what it was like in the “good ol days.” When I sat down with him for this interview, he told me about school, being raised in the South and what has really changed since the 1960s.

My dad, Allen Buie, was born on April 23rd, 1955 in Vass, NC. My grandparents Johnnie and Irene Buie were both raised in Moore County. He has two brothers, both born and raised here. One lives in Carthage and the other in Michigan. He and his brothers were raised in the same house grandparents live in now. The house my dad was raised in is five minutes from mine. “In the South, many people don’t go too far from home.”

In the 1960s, he attended Vass-Lakeview Elementary School. The teachers were strict and used a paddle. According to him, they were not shy about using it and when a student was sent to the principal he wasn’t afraid either. At school, one teacher taught every subject until you were in the sixth grade. Just like many of the schools at that time Vass was an all-white school. However, when my dad was in the fourth grade three African-American girls were enrolled in his class, and he can still remember their names.

My dad was raised that you respect yor elders. They were older, wiser and always had the best stories. Dad said now elders aren’t considered any of these aspects. He said there isn’t really a respect for anything like there used to be. Sunday used to be a day of respect. Sunday was God and family day. He thinks now people are too busy and fast-paced. He notices that back in the day people moved more slowly. He said it seems like time moved slower, especially in the South; you waited and were patient. There was no instant gratification. “When it happened, it happened.” Nobody knew what it was, but when it happened they knew.

Next, we talked about how time spend during summers has changed. My dad worked in tobacco every summer from age five-eighteen. At first he started working on my great-grandfather’s farm in Cameron. He said that’s what you did in the summer. Nobody sat in front of the TV and played video games. You worked. “If you weren’t working in the fields, you were working on your grandpa’s farm.” Now in the South you don’t see any children working in the fields or farms.

Next, he told me the major differences he has seen between his generation and mine. At first when I asked him so what’s so different about the South, he said, “Everything!” First, the family unit has changed. When he was growing up, there was a mom, dad and children. There were no single moms or teenage moms. Also, family time was valued. Children loved spending time with their family. Now it seems like we can’t get away from them fast enough. Another difference he saw were children these days. When he was young, he spent all his free time outside. No matter what -- children were outside. No one sat inside on beautiful southern days and watched TV. “There were only five channels anyways.”

During this interview, I learned how different it was when my dad was raised in the South compared to my experience just five minutes down the street. I also learned that there are lessons that I was taught that my grandfather taught my dad. I learned that the South has changed drastically. The schools have changed, the way families are built was changed and the way children play has changed. I also learned that there are a lot of Southern customs that still hold true today and will for many more generations.

Work Cited

Buie, Allen. Personal interview. 6 Feb. 2011.

Note: Allison Strohacker, who is from Vass, NC, is majoring in early childhood education at Sandhills Community College.

My Southern Friend in Room 808B

by Edilene Del Valle

It was not another typical day at Carolina Rehab Center, as I went straight to room 808B to visit a very special friend. When I opened the door, he was waiting for me. Although I noticed he looked little bit tired, he looked happy to see me. Henry Gainey, a special friend to me, has been residing at Carolina Rehab Center for about six years. When I met him last year as I started working in this nursing home, I became interested in his Southern roots and upbringing. As everyone would imagine, he has many stories to share. With his vivid memory, he went back in time to his family connections, social matters of growing up, and educational values that helped to build this great person he is today. Listening to him talk about his culture was an experience that I will never forget.

Henry Gainey was born in February 2, 1945, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He had four sisters and five brothers. Since I have never seen anyone from his family visit him, I asked about his family connections and if siblings were still alive. He answered, “No, they all died from cancer, and this disease sadly has passed on through generations from my grandparents to my mom and later my siblings.” He continued, “I’m the lucky one, besides losing my left eye when I was eight years old, I’m healthy with few problems, but I didn’t inherit the disease.”

So Gainey, I asked, “Are there any favorite times you had with your family?” He said “Christmas was the time when all my family, sisters, brothers, mom and daddy sat together and decorate a live Christmas tree!” The tree couldn’t be artificial, for it was his family tradition time to connect. He remembered times when his parents would go around searching for a live tree to put in the living room. He brought this tradition into his own family. Though he believes a lot of things have changed since his childhood, Christmas is still the best family time ever. He said his brothers and sisters were so happy decorating the tree that they didn’t even think about the presents. He remembered his mom cooking a lot of food, but the best of all was her “jelly cake.” His mom never told them how she used to bake the cake, for she would say “it is a surprise.” He said, “We were so happy with a plain cake covered with jelly and unfortunately, now Santa Claus had better bring a laptop for Christmas; otherwise, Christmas is not Christmas.”

“Our culture is changing daily,” he said. “Kids no longer respect their parents like before.” I couldn’t agree more! He said that his parents used to give to them daily duties. For example, the girls would clean and cook, and the boys would clean outside. They would have to do it well in order to get their allowance. He explained to me that the way he grew up; he learned how to be disciplined and how to valued money. The same happened with the rest of his family. During our briefly conversation about social matters as he grew up, he said his parents taught him how to pay for his own college and then paid off four cars between ages 22 and 30 --things he doesn’t believe that anyone is concerned about today as he commented, “They are more concerned about getting things and accumulating debts.” In his case, when he decided to go to the university, he had no debts and still he has no debts. I thought that was unbelievable. He agreed and said, “I believe if parents would teach how to value money when they are kids, we would have better economy and more graduates, don’t you think?”

After graduating from college in Fayetteville, he moved to New York City. He started working, saving some money, and applied at the New Jersey City University for its mental health consultant program. He said that he didn’t want to move from North Carolina, but he wanted to pursue his dream and work with young and adolescents with mental issues. Between school and work, he met his wife. In six years, he finished his degree program, got married, and decided to move back to N.C. I asked him if he thinks that he could have accomplished everything he wanted if he was 22 years old again. He said, “I grew up in a family that doesn’t believe in debts, so the answer for your question is that I would have accomplished all my goals. Yet, I don’t believe that today people are serious about education like I was.” I thought he had a very interesting point of view because he was raised believing in education and he knew that going to school was the way to reach his goals. As he continued to say that nowadays, people are “fighting to keep their culture and values alive,” I approached him with a controversial topic and added my point into our conversation, “American culture is getting mixed, larger, and diverse.” Gainey agreed with me that there are more immigrants now than before. I asked if he likes the idea of having a more diverse America. He said sadly, illegal immigrants are taking more opportunities of what our land offers rather than true Americans and it feels that true “Americans” are forgetting to fight for their culture.

In conclusion, this was one of the best conversations I have ever had with Mr. Gainey as I called him “My Southern Friend in room 808B.” I have learned from a true Southern, as time passes us by, that it is important that each of us maintain our family connections, true values, beliefs, and more importantly our culture, so we can pass on to generations that are to come.

Work Cited

Gainey, Henry. Personal interview. 29 Jan. 2011.


Note: Edilene Del Valle (who was born in San Paulo, Brazil, and now lives in Fayetteville, NC) is majoring in health and fitness science at Sandhills Community College.

In the Words of “G-Ma”

by Krystal D. Smith

I always wondered what the South was like when my grandmother was little. Was life on a farm more enjoyable than living in the city? Was family as important as it is today? Or was everything the same but only a little different? I found all that out when I sat down with my grandmother who was given the name Betty Rita, but I call her grandma or “G-Ma.” She was born in a town of Raeford in North Carolina. One of the few women in my family whom I look up to, she has southern tendencies just like every other southerner, but by growing up in the South, she has faced a lot of hardships that have molded her into the person she is today.

She was conceived in New York but born in North Carolina. She explained that her biological mother was a singer at a night club in New York, and one day she decided to move to North Carolina when she became pregnant to be closer to her family. She wasn’t used to the slow pace of the South; unfortunately, there weren’t that many jobs like in New York; she was stressed all the time about money, so she didn’t have time to take care of my grandmother like she wanted to. Later, my “G-Ma” was adopted when she was six years old by a lady down the street. “Back then you didn’t have to sign papers just to adopt children; you just simply gave them to someone else,” she stated. By being given away to Mrs. Frances whom she would soon call Mama, she learned things that she wouldn’t have learned from her real mother. For example, she learned how to catch food, make remedies, and ride horses. She started picking cotton and tobacco at a young age. She showed me the scars on her leg from the cuts she got while in the field. “If I had to choose between living in New York or here, I would choose here. I learned about survival. That’s the difference between then and now. You kids now run; we couldn’t run away when rough times came. We had to sit there and get through it.”

Education was important when my grandmother was young, but it also depended on the circumstance. For example, if students didn’t have enough money to buy books, then they most likely dropped out of school. “I thought I was hurting them by not going to school, but I ended up hurting myself.” Because she didn’t have the education to get a high-paying job, she moved to Long Island, New York, when she was in her early thirties. There she worked as a “housekeeper for a rich white lady for two years,” she said. This was the right time to ask her the difference between the North and South. “New York life was too fast. You had to keep up with everyone; there was way more crime there than here, and everyone wasn’t as friendly as the people back home.” Because she didn’t like the job, she moved back to the South and began working at the Burlington Mill. She worked there for twenty years while being a single mother and juggling the responsibility of raising two children.

My grandma had two twin brothers born a little after she turned nine. She was happy that she wasn’t the only child anymore. It made her proud that she was a big sister to them. “In my time, family was really important. We all stuck together and we were always there for each other.” For instance, when she got into fights at school, her brothers were always there for her. Even her cousins were there; no one could ever mess with just one person of the family without everyone getting involved. She explained that some didn’t even have to be a part of the family; everyone who lived in their area was like family to them. “Nowadays families and neighbors are against each other. They don’t want to be around each other. It makes me sad to see families break apart over the littlest things.” I really understood what she meant. Now people have to fend for themselves; they can’t really depend on their family to help them when they’re in need.

By asking my grandmother these questions, I have learned a lot about her and my culture. Sometimes people have to take risks in order to make things happen. School is still important. Back then people didn’t struggle as much as they do now; anyone during that time could easily get a job, but now they have to have an education to get a good-paying job. I took into consideration about what my grandmother said about families not being close like they used to, and it breaks my heart to know that it is true. “People need to come together and help each other, and they need to stop being against each other.”

Work Cited

Purcell, Betty Rita. Personal interview. 29 Aug. 2010.


Note: Krystal D. Smith, who lives in Raeford, is pursuing an associate’s degree in nursing at Sandhills Community College.