JoCoYo

"Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery" - Jack Paar

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

-Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus"

Here's to you, Rabils, Abdallas, Josephs, Davidians.

For more on the topic after listening, check out NCSU's Khayrallah Center for Lebenese Studies

Being accessible is a blessing and a curse. It can bring in money, ideas, friends, family.

It can also get you killed.

(At least) Three times, Johnston's location on travel routes resulted in war coming to it. Once was a massive explosion, another was a plane crash that narrowly (just a few miles) missed disastrous results, and the third...well...wow.

That could have been pretty bad.

Salem, Massachusetts and Smithfield, North Carolina have waaay more in common than meets the eye.

Colonial era? ✅

Dependent on a water source?✅

Strong early religious presence? . ✅

Witches?

?

😳

German POW's...here?

Whatchoo talkin bout?

Here. In Johnston. Multiple times.

She would be the first to tell you that you didn’t have to protest, you didn’t have to hold up signs, you didn’t have to picket, And you didn’t have to go on strike. If you really wanted to change something, you had to just simply get to work. And, boy, did she work.

Have you ever heard of Pineville in Johnston County? You can be forgiven if you haven't.  It wasn't really a community. It was the name of one of the only plantations that Johnston County had. But, wow. This plantation produced a couple of pretty important people...and moonshine.

Maybe it was something in the water.

Johnston County's musical heritage is rich. Richer than most of us know. Heck, it's richer than I knew just 2 weeks ago.

Country legend...One of the most legendary country artists ever. No kidding. 

A rising country star.

A gospel legend.

A blues legend.

And a...classical composer???

What??

We need a Johnston County Musical Hall of Fame.

This is Part 1 of a series that shows just how Johnston's strongest connections to its neighbors came to be. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, so many things (and people) outside of Johnston, wove the web, so to speak. This episode sets the stage for soooooo many connections and tells the story of a barefoot traveller...

Johnston county has seen different crops be in control of every aspect of life. Or the lack of them, anyway. Most recently it’s been tobacco. But its history has been shaped more by the boss that it did not have.

There are many places around the country where celebrities have met their end prematurely. Rarely does a place have two. Welcome to Smithfield.