Tarboro!

It is only 1 month shy of our anniversary and we took the gift of a B& B weekend in Tarboro NC given to us by Myron's childhood friends.

We spent a wonderful weekend at the Inn on Main Street in Tarboro, NC.

First and foremost we must reiterate that the weather in NC is sublime! As usual the days are sunny and warm with big puffy clouds and the evenings are cooler with tantalizing breezes and fragrant air.

We left around 3:30 from our new house on 22 Pinestraw Way in Durham on Friday for the 1 hour 20 minute drive to Tarboro. Driving in NC is also wonderful….. you can always predict the time to travel the distance because there is no traffic. Route 64 out to Tarboro is totally empty and newly paved. It is the road we travel when we drive to our house in Nags Head on the beach in always exactly 3 hours and 15 minutes. So we are quite familiar with the trip.

We arrived in the sleepy but major historical town of Tarboro to be greeted by our hostess with a bottle of champagne! Our dear friends added that to the already exceptional gift and we promptly did some required “porch settin’” with the bubbly and watched the world turn on white rocking chairs at this architecturally interesting turn of the century B&B.

A few souls strolled by and always raised a hand and shouted “howdy” to us on the porch. Good Southern hospitality was apparent.

Myron even waved and yelled “hello”…. Can you believe it?

We took a walk around the 14 acre historic common and were amazed at the stately oaks, elm and magnificent magnolias. Statues and monuments to the C.S.A. were evident here and there. Yes, the C.S.A is the Confederate States of America.!

We took a picture of the statue of the Confederate soldier who exemplified those who were lost during the War of Northern Aggression and discovered later from a book on Tarboro, that someone had shot the statue in the butt!!! So of course here is the picture to prove it. If you look carefully, you can see the bullet lodged in his steel butt! Of course Washington slept in Tarboro for one night on his Southern Tour.

Shortly after our walk we headed out to our first meal at ON THE SQUARE! We passed the Colonial Theatre which is being renovated and had to snap a shot of the coming attractions. What a hoot! We really felt like we were back in the 40’s with this walk down Main Street….

Nevertheless, the meal was terrific! We have had nothing better in NYC! What a discovery in the heart of agrarian Eastern North Carolina. Myron had a Pear Salad and Pork Tenderloin with a sauce he felt compelled to sop up with his bread. I had a most amazing wilted Romaine salad with goat cheese and North Carolina Black Drum with Oyster and Bread Pudding…. YUM! Black Drum is a local coastal fish that is sweet and delicate. We had Strawberry Shortcake and Chocolate Molten cake for dessert and weaved our way back to the B&B , sated to the max.

In the morning we awoke to sun streaming through the shutters and got up ready to bike, walk and discover the rest of Tarboro.

Our hostess made a terrific breakfast which we took out on the porch. Bananas Foster with Kahlua cake and a Croque Madame …. a French grilled cheese with a poached egg on top with Hollandaise…. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The sun was shining and we were eating on a table with a white table cloth on a magnificent porch in 70 degree temperature…. The next morning we breakfasted with 2 other guests we met and had Eggs Benedict! Just amazing… as you can see!

After breakfast we got our bikes out and decided to bike around the Common and up and down the 45 small blocks of streets that were quiet and sleepy but hosted many historical homes on the National Register.

Many Victorian homes had been renovated and boasted classical color schemes and all with wrap-around porches. From our readings we discovered that the Eastern Coastal area of North Carolina is very hot and humid in the summer months. Unlike the Coast and the Piedmont area ( Raleigh) and the mountains to the West, this area is still and hot and humid in the deep summer. Porches were necessary in the pre air conditioning days as the inhabitants would sit on the porches, burn rags to keep the bugs away, and retire to bed only after the house had cooled down late at night. Every house boasted an expansive porch with white- washed rockers and porch swings. Many houses were for sale at rock bottom prices, but one has to understand that the economy had always been based on cotton, tobacco, and sweet potatoes. Things had changed. As an agrarian community, poverty and simple pleasures were more the norm.

It is important to also note that the town of Princeville, Pop. 2000, which is adjacent to Tarboro. Pop. 11,000, is a historically totally African-American town since it was incorporated by freed slaves after the Civil War. It is one of only 2 towns in the entire country that is totally populated by African Americans and governed exclusively by them as well. Tarboro itself seems equally represented by both races and all seem to be quite comfortable with living as neighbors and friends… very nice to see.

We discovered cotton fields, tobacco fields and cooperative sweet potato fields in our walk after biking and drifted down to the Tar River. Only 10 years ago, the Tar River flooded Tarboro and Princeville during Hurricane Floyd. But now it was a sleepy low muddy river where kayakers and fisherman share the stillness of the overhanging vines and the loamy banks.

We then took a drive to Greenville only 20 odd miles away. Greenville is the home of Eastern Carolina University and we wanted to check it out.. On the way back we photographed the tobacco fields which were ready for harvesting to then dry in the huge barns where sharecroppers tended the fires to dry the massive leaves. Cotton was also visible but isn’t ready to harvest until the middle of October.

When we returned to the B&B we met another couple who had arrived from Philadelphia.They were on their way to South Carolina and discovered from reading the Philadelphia Inquirer that this B& B was one to stop at…. I am sure it was the same article that Ruthie read and clipped for us.

We had dinner together at ON THE SQUARE and drank wine on the porch till late in the evening.

On Sunday morning we rose to another spectacular day and shared breakfast on the porch with our new found friends.

From a historical, weather and relaxing point of view, this was one terrific weekend.

Thank you Ruth, Howie, Mike, Hope and Neil… we enjoyed every minute.

Anna and Myron

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