A stereotype, ever how unfair and unflattering, comes into existence for a reason. OR… is conjured up in the dank musty “methed-up brain” of a deranged board monkey. Using the local universe as a typical model, no local academic community is more stereotyped than that carney sideshow asylum over in Chapel Hill…. unless maybe it’s…….
Unless it’s that bunch o’ bricks between Hillsborough Street and Western Blvd in West Raleigh….. or The Gothic Rockpile in West Derm.
I’ve yet to meet “a Dookie” who was “Jewish and from New Jersey”. A silk-stockinged lawyer, an America’s Cup promoter, a few real estate moguls, some “real doctors” (MD not PhDs) ….. several are Methodists and/or backsliders from various Protestant sects; but no rabbis or mohels from Newark or Teaneck.
I know one Wuffie who is a for-real farmboy… born & raised on a farm in Beaufort County who, I betcha, can too milk a cow, slop a hog and plow a straight row from the cab of a John Deere. He has worn “classic Brooks Brothers” as long as I’ve known him and now plows the rocky fields of The NC General Assembly.
I know more than a few Engineers with Wolfpack allegiances. None of who “drive trains” but rather conceive, design, and oversee really complicated buildings and other stuff. All seem to have their own teeth and none “go barefoot” unless relaxing at “da beach”.
And there’s this one Demon Deacon I know. He not only “dances” but could likely win a shagging contest at da beach. He IS a Baptist so that is true to that stereotype.
Which brings us back to that carnie sideshow asylum on the Far-Left edge of The Triangle if you’re looking down at a map…. or if you’re conducting a political focus group. It was already a nest of slithery anarchist snakes and such when I was matriculating but that never stuck to me…. or to those I kept in touch with in the ensuing decades.
Back in the day, jocks and scraggly hippies didn’t exactly hang around together. They still don’t much.
I do have a few ideologically confused friends “over there” whose acquaintances I very much value…. and with whom the subject of politics is permanently off-the-table. I also have friends “over there” whose raging Conservatism makes me seem middle-of-the-road. We’re talking waaay right of AgentPierce-types. YIKES!
Heck… I even know about 50 Chapel Hillites who totally buy into that whole Christmas, Easter, Baby Jesus stuff according to King Jimmy….. not according to Robert Seymour and his squirrely cult.
This was all a set-up to tell you about – Brent Milgrom and The Flag. From growing up around Rocky Mount; then going to UNC and living in Charlotte, Brent learned a thing or two about commercial real estate and has done “right well” for himself.
Like all of us, Brent’s has been a fly-paper life where some of everywhere and everyone stuck to him and made him who he is today. Patriotism and Love of Country becoming integral to him. PLUS… Brent is Forever A CAROLINA JUNCTION BOY !!!
Taking showers with Danny Talbot through high school also left an impression on Brent; but that’s a story for another day.
Patriotism in Kenan Stadium has always defied “that stereotype” of Chapel Hill as a nest of very angry anarchists who prefer Marx and Mao to Founding Fathers. I’ve been on hand for a dozen or more Fly-Overs and everyone was accorded oohs, aahs and wild applause from the assembled Heel fans – everyone one.
UNC ROTC students are used in each Tar Heel team intro and later introduced to the fans….. ALWAYS being enthusiastically applauded often with SOs. Pilots of the fly-overs usually are also introduced at half-time to SOs.
The Star Spangled Banner is always “stood up for” and at least 93% of ballcaps are removed and held oe’r hearts until “…… of the brave!” Kenanites do NOT do that “RED” glare thingy.
I realize applauding fly-overs is normal at football games…. but maybe you thought not “normal” at Chapel Hill football games. YES, it is normal there too.
Among 60,000 people, there’s likely a few spiders & snakes but they are at least smart enough to know when they are vastly out-numbered. They slither back to their “7 constipated people protesting something” mini-rallies in Carrboro.
Yes…. announcing “there will be a fly-over on Saturday” DOES often draw out a few spiders and snakes from “central casting” to bitch and whine in the local media. One once claimed the noise “disturbs my organic vegetables”. True story.
There has always been an American flag enpole at Kenan but not REALLY prominent. So, my good friend Brent Milgrom decides Kenan Stadium needs “a REALLY BIG American Flag proudly flying from a very high flagpole”. So Brent, checkbook at the ready, tries the polite “go thru channels” route and, of course, a bureaucratic pinhead say “No, you can’t do it”. This was three years ago. Do I really have to tell you what pinhead said “No”? I didn’t think so. ☺ …… so.
Former linebackers are tough. Brent calls #23 Don McCauley who’s known to be purty good at breaking tackles and getting into the End Zone. With #23 running interference thru the naysaying pinheads ….. Brent, and Kenan, finally got the Flag last month. Aye Zigga freakin’ Zoomba!
Over in the NE corner sorta near the Bell Tower. Sure, other stadiums have similar ones….. Ohio State’s “Horseshoe” comes immediately to mind.
Old Glory now flies proudly high amid those fabled pines of Kenan Stadium….. thanks to Brent Milgrom. Likely pissin’ off some but delighting many more.
When you’re driving into Chapel Hill from now on… look up and find Brent’s Flag and you’ll know where to find either Kenan Stadium….. or a Bob Evans Restaurant.
