Dingbatters, once again….

Wiktionary defines “Dingbatter” as a “dialectal North Carolina term meaning  uplanders who come Eastern North Carolina. It is used by residents of eastern North Carolina, including those of Beaufort, to refer to anyone further west than Morehead City. I’ll get to that later.

It’s been some interesting times since we last posted. We’ve been back to Morehead City several times, mostly for me and my docs. I’m doing ok…just need to get my meds regulated, and I’ll leave it at that. Kendra is in her last contract, working up until the last of December…I think she is looking forward to the end of this contract, and I’ll not say more about that. Her LuLaRoe clothing business continues to grow, and we both like that.

A couple of weeks ago, my brother-in-law, Dean, asked if I’d like to go to Oak Island and have lunch with my old friend and former sergeant, Jeff S., and some of Dean’s old trooper buddies.  It is over a 2 hour drive from Dillon SC to Oak Island, and I told him I may not be able to do it.  He said it was only an hour by air. Dean is a private pilot and owns a 1961 Piper Colt 2 seater plane. He offered to fly down to Dillon County Airport and pick me up. I has been several years since I’ve been up in Dean’s plane so I jumped at the idea.

At first, we thought we were going to have to postpone  the trip because Dean’s plane wouldn’t start. But after an hour, he found the problem….loose wire on the starter. Tightened it up, and he was in the air. He landed here in Dillon, picked me up, and we were on our way to Oak Island. It was quite a bumpy ride…windy, but it was a nice, clear day.  You could still see some standing water from the hurricane/floods. We landed in Oak Island with 7 to 14 mph winds, but it was a smooth landing, none the less.  It was good to see Jeff again, he lives in Oak Island. Even though we talk occasionally via phone, we haven’t laid eyes on each other since 2012 when we both retired from the police department.  Here’s some shots of the trip.

The first one is me and Jeff, second is something Dean took a pic of…I believe it’s solar panels. The third is Jeff and Dean in front of Dean’s plane. The fourth is the old Rockingham Speedway.  It was a great trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now, for the dingbatter stuff.  When we first  moved to Morehead  City, we found out we were dingbatters….that’s what the “Down East” people called us. There are other names like “did-dots” which means basically people from anywhere other than Down East who can’t understand the Down East dialect. We’ve been there long enough to where we can understand it some.  If you want to know what I mean, click on this link Down East Brogue, and listen to them talk. This dialect is spoken from east of Beaufort, up through the Outer Banks area….but generally stops north of Hatteras Island, as north of Hatteras…Duck, Currituck, etc., have been taken over by the rich and famous.  This post  is in no way meant to make fun of the Down Easters….they are a hard working people, who (for the most part) are honest as the day is long. Most have been there all their lives, as well as their families, for generations.  If you want to know anything about fishing, or boat building, you ask the Down Easters.

I said all that to say this, we’re becoming  dingbatters again…we’re hanging up the traveling shoes, parking the camper, and moving back to Morehead City on a more permanent basis. Kendra has accepted a position in the ER at the local hospital there. We decided this for two reasons…I needed to be near my docs for a while, and her business is expanding and we needed more room…there is definitely more room at home, than here in the camper. I may post from time to time on what we are doing, but there won’t be as many updates as there were. I do appreciate all the followers and comments…this has been quite the journey.

I’ll let you know, closer to the time of leaving here where we are, exactly what is happening.

Until then….

 

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