Here’s how it works. The Our State staff spends months – sometimes up to a year – on an issue. Stories are assigned, the writers and photographers do their work, and the editors edit. Our designers and production team put the pages of the magazine together. Our sales staff works with our advertisers, and our circulation team talks to you – our subscribers – every day. So, when a new issue arrives in our offices in Greensboro, there is a lot of cause for celebration.

This month, we did it up right. To celebrate our May issue and its seafood theme, we dined – on hushpuppies! The staple side dish put us all in the mood for summer, seafood, and a journey along the Carolina coast in search of both.

Oysters in the Raw
For Carolina Shuckers owners Michael Waller and Kirk Davis, eating a raw oyster is nothing new. Pop open the oyster, add a splash of lemon juice, a dash of cocktail sauce, and down it goes. Our State’s associate editor Leah Hughes, who wrote this month’s story on Michael and Kirk’s business of making ornate oyster knives, knew she couldn’t leaving the interview without trying one.

“It was about 10 a.m. and they offered me a raw oyster,” Leah says. “I’d never eaten one before. ‘Oyster culture’ as Mike and Kirk describe it is about bringing people together, standing in the backyard with bushels of oysters on a long table, telling stories and laughing. That’s just what I tasted in that raw oyster.”

YouTube Sensation
Many of you may remember “Carolina Camera.” It aired on WBTV in Charlotte in the 1970s and ‘80s, when reporter C.J. Underwood toured the Carolinas and interviewed anybody with a story. This month, we take a look at that series, which has been resurrected by WBTV by John Carter and Christine Nelson. Thanks to the internet, even those old stories have found a new life online. One segment featuring Rufus Hussey, “The Bean Shooter Man,” has been viewed nearly 4 million times on YouTube. Click here to enjoy it!

Out & About around North Carolina
Each month, in our Dates & Events section, we share some of the many things to do around North Carolina. If you take a look this May, you’ll notice a little something different. Not only will you find an “Editor’s Pick” among the events, you’ll also see which events Our State magazine will be attending. So, as you’re out and about, stop by our booth or table at these events. Say hello, share a story idea, and visit for a while. We’ll be glad to see you!