The first things I remember are frosty Carolina mornings with a cheery fire crackling in my mommas big black wood cook stove. I remember snow flakes as big as goose feathers and the moon the color of new made country bu*ter and a night sky like diamonds against black velvet reaching from horizon to horizon. I remember when the biggest problems in my barefoot life were sand spurs and red ant hills. I remember sitting with my grand-daddy on the front porch and watching the last of that magnificent southern sun bleed away into the twilight sky. I remember Sunday school and kneeling at the cross and trying to imagine what God looked like; Sunday dinner, short pants, hair cuts and a little puppy my daddy brought home to me and I remember love. I remember steam puffing, fire breathing, awesome 10 wheel locomotives and the conductor's watch looked as big as one of my grandmothers biscuits. I remember my mother smiling in a red and white checkered dress and Christmas
always seemed so far away. Yes, I remember you Carolina, grand old lady of the south. I remember you as home. One of the memories that stays on my mind about an old southern lady that I left behind, is a ramshackle bridge where the deep river winds and an old two-lane blacktop through the tall long-leaf pines. Carolina, Carolina You're hard, but you're hard to forget. I still remember the magnolia nights and goosefeather snow flakes in the gray morning light; sandspurs and puppies and red autumn leaves and the warm lights in the clear night on a cold Christmas Eve. Carolina, Carolina You're hard, but you're hard to forget. Carolina I knew you before the highways got to you and I loved you as one of your own and I still do Carolina, Carolina You're hard, but you're hard to forget You're hard To Forget