[45semi]

"He and his family referred to themselves as "mountain people,"
which was geographically accurate for the area near Fayetteville,
where his folks had been living since the early 18th century."

Sorry to contradict you, I live in 'Fayette-nam'
(what Fayetteville was called during the Vietnam era,
due to so many soldiers from all over the country coming here,
then going straight on to Vietnam.)
Fayetteville is actually part & heart of 'The Sandhills'
The mountains are the far west of NC, then theres the 'Piedmont' which is east of the mountains,
and includes cities such as Charlotte,
then the 'sandhills' start just east of Raleigh, and continue on to the coast.

[CHARLITE]

By "near" I suppose that my father was referring to the western area where his ancestors lived. It was "near," compared to Baltimore. His parents had only recently come down to Fayetteville before he was born, but they were all from the mountains originally.

His paternal ancestors were English. His maternal people were Scots-Irish.

He spoke of all of North Carolina as "home."

Even after he established his business in Baltimore, "home" was still the whole state of N.C. He talked constantly of his early life to age 20, when his mother took the family to Huntington, W. VA. after his father died of typhoid.

So in my child's memory, it was all connected - Fayetteville, the mountain area in the far west of the state, and all of North Carolina. To the day he died in his mid-80's, he always called himself a tar heel. I proudly claim that I'm half North Carolinian, and that Scots-Irish fighting spirit is alive and well, even here on the left coast!

Char :)