the first things i remember are frosty carolina mornings with a cheery fire crackling in my mommas big black wood cook stove i remember snow flakes as big as goose feathers and the moon the colour of new made country butter and a night sky like diamonds against black velvet reaching from horizon to horizon i remember when the biggest problems in my barefoot life were sand spurs and red ant hills i remember sitting with my grand daddy on the front porch and watching the last of that magnificent southern sun bleed away into the twilight sky i remember sunday school and kneeling at the cross and trying to imagine what god looked like sunday dinner short pants hair cuts and a little puppy my daddy brought home to me and i remember love i remember steam puffing fire breathing awesome 10 wheel locomotives and the conductor s watch looked as big as one of my grandmothers biscuits i remember my mother smiling in a red and white chequered dress and christmas always seemed so far away yes i remember you carolina grand old lady of the south i remember you as home one of the memories that stays on my mind about an old southern lady that i left behind is a ramshackle bridge where the deep river winds and an old two lane blacktop through the tall long leaf pines carolina carolina you re hard but you re hard to forget i still remember the magnolia nights and goose feather snow flakes in the gray morning light sand spurs and puppies and red autumn leaves and the warm lights in the clear night on a cold christmas eve carolina i knew you before the highways got to you and i loved you as one of your own and i still do 