Most of my ancestors arrived in colonial America from Scotland and England, and they settled in coastal Carolina. My grandparents and their grandparents were farmers in Brunswick County. My maternal grandfather taught me to fish from the pier at Holden Beach. He also taught me to “clean” fish—under the shade of a mimosa tree, where he used a large wooden cable spool as a work table. Like the strong gulf current that runs northward toward New England, life carried me to the North Carolina mountains. Only when I visit my family who are still coastal dwellers, and I smell the salt marsh, do I realize I’ll always belong there. When winter comes and snow blankets these old mountains, I’m most aware that as beautiful as it is, this place can never fully be home.
