These are a few of my favorite things...

Part Two

Apr 09, 2023

If you read last week’s blog post (or even if you didn’t), today I am continuing the journey of celebrating some made in North Carolina products.

Texas Pete: The year was 1929 and Sam Garner and his three sons, Thad, Ralph and Harold, all residents of Winston Salem, North Carolina, had invented a spicy new red pepper sauce. But what to name it?

A marketing advisor suggested “Mexican Joe” because the spiciness reminded him of some Mexican food he had tasted. But Sam Gardner refused, saying he wanted an American name. So Sam moved across the border to Texas, glanced at his son Harold whose nickname was Pete and christened the new hot sauce “Texas Pete.” The label boasted a cowboy because cowboys like Hopalong Cassidy and Tom Mix were the popular heroes of the 1930’s. The Texas Pete Cowboy is still promoting the hot sauce which is ranked as the third best selling hot sauce in America. Do you have a favorite?

Putt-Putt: There was no such thing as “miniature golf” until Don Clayton of Fayetteville North Carolina created Putt-Putt in 1954.

Today Putt-Putt (or other mini golf courses by different names) are played throughout the world. When the first Putt-Putt golf course opened, it only cost 25 cents to play a game round. Every official Putt-Putt course (it is now a franchise) is built to exact specifications and standards. They pioneered the use of a high-grade outdoor carpet used in all Putt-Putt Fun Centers and many other places.

The great thing about Putt-Putt is that it can be enjoyed by the entire family. Yes, skill helps, but even as a child you might luck out and get a hole in one.

Universal Product Code: Now this I never knew until I saw that list in AVL Today: the UPC or barcode was created in Raleigh, North Carolina by IBM employee George Laurer.

A number of people and companies had been working on a code that could be scanned at shopping checkouts, but it was not until late 1969, when IBM at the Research Triangle Park (RTP) in North Carolina assigned George Laurer to determine how to make a supermarket scanner and label.

Laurer, first designed the bar code as a circle, but realized it couldn’t work because printing presses in that era often smeared the codes as the paper left the printing stations, leaving the bar codes unreadable. This was less of a problem with vertical lines, so that's what Laurer decided to use.

In late 1970, the first UPC-marked item ever to be scanned at a retail checkout was a 10-pack (50 sticks) of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum, purchased at the Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, at 8:01 a.m. on 26 June 1974. The NCR cash register rang up 67 cents. There were other bar-coded items in the shopper’s cart but the gum was the first one picked up at the checkout. A facsimile of the gum packet went on display at the Smithsonian Institution's American History Museum in Washington, D.C. This museum also holds one of the first 10 scanners used to scan bar codes at the supermarket.

I don’t think we think much about UPC barcodes today as they are everywhere. Though many see UPC barcodes as “museum-age technology” as we move into QR codes (I am never thrilled when a server tells me to pull up my menu using the QR code). But UPC codes are in no way obsolete as, even in 2019, it was reported that UPC barcodes were being scanned more than 6 billion times each day.

Bojangles: My nephew Patrick who lives in Los Angeles always has the same request when his plane lands in North Carolina: Take me to Bojangles! Is it the sweet tea, the fried chicken or the biscuits? Maybe all those.

Launched in Charlotte in 1977, Bojangles specializes in cajun-seasoned fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits and primarily serves the Southeastern United States. Even though Bojangles is still a mostly regional chain, those of us in its region are grateful.

Wikipedia shares that Bojangles became truly famous in 1989 when its restaurants remained open as Hurricane Hugo struck the Carolinas since most other fast-food restaurants had closed.

My husband, a Pennsylvania native, does not see the appeal as much as I do, but he didn’t argue when we ordered a big BO box for a picnic last summer when our children and grandchildren were visiting.

What time is it? It’s BO time! At least it is in North Carolina.

So there ends this little journey into North Carolina history. I know there are other things that could be on this list but it has been a fun way to look at what has emerged from the state I love.

One other suggestion: If you are ever in Raleigh, North Carolina, it is really worth a trip to the North Carolina Museum of History. They won’t serve you Texas Pete and Bojangles chicken but you will see excellent exhibits and learn more about some of the legendary figures—including the notorious pirate Blackbeard, First Lady Dolley Madison, adventurer Daniel Boone, Scottish heroine Flora MacDonald, Lumbee folk hero Henry Berry Lowry, educator Charlotte Hawkins Brown, and basketball great Michael Jordan—who have all called North Carolina home. It’s definitely worth a visit.