I met people when we lived down in Raleigh who'd ask where I grew up, and I'd say about two hours west of Asheville, and they'd say they didn't know there was any North Carolina two hours west of Asheville. It was in many ways an isolated place.

I love my State, because her people have been good and kind to me, and because her sky is above my home, as it will be above my grave.

....mountains. They stand at every view, like a mother offering a blanket in which to wrap everyday life and shelter it from useless. dreads. In june they are walls of white rhodendron blossom. In autumn the forests set themselves afflame with color. Even winter has its icy charms.

North Carolina was where you could have Thanksgiving and feel like it was Thanksgiving.

Even with the fact that I grew up in North Carolina, 'Jim Rash' just screams 'Southern boy.'

I grew up in a university town in eastern North Carolina - what's called Tobacco Road. It was very rural.