These aren’t your everyday, ordinary, run-right-out-in-the-middle-of-the-road squirrels. Compared with the gray squirrel, its ubiquitous cousin, the Eastern fox squirrel is twice as large, with a foot-long bushy tail and a variety of color schemes — all gray, all black, black and white, red and gray — that border on the exotic. The largest tree squirrels in North America, fox squirrels are the only ones strong enough to open up a green longleaf pinecone to get at the seeds inside. For many years, a fox squirrel lumbering along a longleaf forest floor was a memorable sighting in parts of eastern North Carolina, but our familiar flatland rodents might be getting neighbors from over the hills. Recent reports of fox squirrels in Ashe, Alleghany, and Watauga counties suggest the species’ Midwestern race could be making a move over the border.
In North Carolina, spring brings the scent of fresh-cut grass and memories of helping Dad mow the lawn.
Nostalgic burger joints are like time machines, delivering something extra special that keeps us coming back.
This tiny city block in downtown Greensboro once had a gigantic reputation. Not so much for its charbroiled beef patties — though they, too, were plentiful — but for its colorful characters and their wild shenanigans.
In the 1950s, as Americans hit freshly paved roads in shiny new cars during the postwar boom, a new kind of restaurant took shape: the drive-in. From those first thin patties to the elaborate gourmet hamburgers of today, North Carolina has spent the past 80 years making burger history.
