- Next on North Carolina Weekend, join us from historic Kernersville as we highlight timeless traditions around our state.

We'll visit the Scotland County Highland games, take a trip to Corolla, and Bob Garner samples Zimbabwe and fare in Durham.

Coming up next.

- Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by VisitNC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains, across the Piedmont to 300 miles of Barrier Island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] ♪ - Hi everyone, welcome to North Carolina Weekend.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week we are in historic Kernersville.

A charming town between Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

We pick Kernersville for it's rich history and timeless traditions.

And that's the theme for this week's program, whether celebrating history, architecture, family, or even welcoming newcomers to our diverse state, everyone has their own timeless traditions.

First let's start our show in Scotland County, home of some of the first immigrants from Scotland and learn about some of their traditions that are still being shown at the Scotland County Highland games.

[music from bagpipes] - This was the largest settlement of Highland Scots in all of North America until well into the 19th century, and there's a lot of vestiges of that culture and identity, which are still present in our own community here.

- The Highland games of Scotland County bring together clans, athletes, musicians, and basically lovers of all things Scottish to Laurinburg every fall.

And if you love the sound of bagpipes, this is the place to be.

- The beers always good.

- [laughter] And we loved watching the games too.

- [Deborah] The games, of course!

The Highland Games are a real test of strength and agility.

- [woman on microphone] He's gonna have her drive the sheep to the white barrel.

- [Deborah] There's the wheat sheet where contestants try to heave a bale of hay over a 17 meter bar.

The stone put; another test of strength.

[man groans] And of course, the caber toss.

[children shouting] [bagpipe sounds] [cheering] - I think of it as a septethlon of throwing heavy things; seven events, at least, sometimes eight or nine, and it's all heavy stuff, and it's all throwing or tossing of some sort.

- [interviewer] So you need a nice Gaelic ale when you're finished, right?

- Yeah and a lot of sleep and some ibuprofen, maybe.

[inaudible speech on microphone] - [Deborah] But the games aren't limited to men only.

[cheering] - [athlete Katrina] Yep.

It's almost like a, kind of a squat throw where you get underneath the caber and just try to flip it up.

The goal is to get it flipped all the way over, and it's judged on kind of a clock face, so if you throw it and it lands straight over, that's a 12 o'clock, that's the score you want.

If it tips over to one side or the other, you get 11 o'clock or a 2 o'clock, that's not as good as a 12 o'clock.

But, if it doesn't quite go over, then you get judged on the degrees, so like 45 degrees, that type of thing.

But the goal is a 12 o'clock, flip it over, straight ahead.

- [Deborah] On a nearby field, the Queen City juvenile pipe and drum team tune up for the march.

[tuning up] - We just make the pipers and snare drums and bass drums look good.

Like with flourishing.

[band playing] - [Katrina] Oh, it's awesome.

Yeah, it's great here.

They got a lot going on.

It's - it's nonstop bagpipes is what you hear, for sure.

A lot of good food tents.

There's clan tents all around.

So it's really cool just to kind of go around and learn more about your own heritage or even if you're not Scottish, hey, there's a lot to learn about.

And it's very interesting and there will always be bagpipes going on.

[bagpipes] - [Deborah] The 2021 Scotland County Highland Games will be held Saturday October 2nd, on the grounds of the North Carolina Rural Heritage Center in Laurinburg.

For more information, go to Carolina-HighlandGames.com We're in downtown Kernersville, celebrating history, architecture, and timeless traditions.

Another community that places priority on it's iconic locations and heritage, is Currituck County, and it's working to bring those traditions to people who visit the historic Corolla Park.

[peaceful music] - [man 1] Sometimes occasionally you get the hustle and bustle, but man, you come up here and just relax.

- [woman 1] We're the Northern Outer Banks, we're where the road ends, basically.

- [woman 2] Our ocean and our beaches are beautiful.

You can spend an entire day really enjoying yourself here.

Even if you left the beach out of it.

- [woman 1] We've just got a lot of special things here.

- [man 2] That combined to form a place that's unique in all kinds of ways, starting with it's pronunciation.

- [woman 2] Our town is pronounced Corolla.

- Corolla.

- Corolla.

- Corolla, not Corolla.

This is not a Toyota.

- [man 2] But to it's core, Corolla and it's people are welcoming and plenty accustomed to a mispronunciation here and there.

- We're used to it.

Even my mother says Corolla and I've worked here forever.

- [man 2] In addition to their beaches, Corolla and Currituck County are perhaps best known for wild horse tours, but the area has many other attractions.

And four of them are located within steps of each other at historic Corolla Park.

- People can just come park their car or come by boat.

They can climb the lighthouse.

They can see whalehead.

They can go to the wildlife center in the Currituck Maritime Museum.

- We are a destination location, and a lot of people don't realize what made us who we are here.

So this park, this whole park as a whole with all the entities really tells our story.

- [man 2] A story told through four special places each with its own significance.

Let's start with the most prominent, which also happens to be the tallest and the oldest.

- [Meghan] The Currituck Beach Lighthouse was first illuminated in 1875.

It illuminated the last dark space on the Atlantic Ocean.

It's 162 feet to the top of the building and it has 220 steps to the top.

- [man] Even if you're completely out of shape, you can still come up here cause there's plenty of places to stop.

You can stop at each landing, learn a little bit about the lighthouse, catch your breath.

Then when you get up here, it's a million dollar view.

- [Meghan] We don't rush people out of the lighthouse.

So you get to the top, you can spend a while just thinking and enjoying life.

- [Mark] You get up here that you don't have a care in the world.

Even if you come up twice a day, you're going to see a different view, you're going to see the colors change in the ocean.

- [man] Between eighty and a hundred thousand people visit the Currituck Beach Lighthouse each year, and when they're finished, many of those folks stroll over to another historic attraction, just a few hundred feet away.

- [woman] The Whalehead Club is a 1920s era house museum.

It's a lot larger than it looks from the outside.

It's a five story building 21,000 square feet.

People do compare us to Biltmore and they say Biltmore the Outer Banks.

- [man] And like the Biltmore estate, the Whalehead Club was the creation of a wealthy family for the Northeast.

Edward Knight Jr. and his wife Mary Louise envisioned the whalehead club as a coastal retreat and hunting lodge.

Construction was completed in 1925 with the full restoration coming about 20 years ago.

- [woman] It's just in a beautiful setting.

I mean all around us with the sound.

What we're known for is our art nouveau style.

There's very bright colors in the rooms, like the kitchen is candy pink.

It's just a happy place.

We do a self guided audio tour on iPods with different stops, and people can go at their own pace.

- [man] The waterfowl and other wildlife in the area were a huge draw to the whalehead and other hunt clubs in the early part of the 20th century.

That heritage is still on full display, just across from the Whalehead at the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education.

- Most people that come in look around and go, what is this place?

And they come to find out that we have an outstanding gallery.

It'll take you through all the parts of the county, people, places.

And of course, one of the most outstanding Mid-Atlantic decoy collections around.

At some point in our future, we'll be back with our programming, which will include things like fishing, crabbing, archery, kayaking, and sound sampling, and give them little Pluff mud between your toes.

- [man] The community is focused on its coastal heritage and culture is front and center at the newest attraction at historic Corolla park, the Currituck Maritime Museum, which opened in the summer of 2021.

- [man] We're going to be showcasing in the museum right around a dozen historical boats that were all built here in Currituck, different styles that were used here.

We have a series of AB screens around the museum that tell different stories about boat-building, about hunting, fishing, decoy carving.

Those stories have really been captured, you know, through some historical perspective, but then also through continuing traditions that we're still doing.

- [man] Giving modern day visitors and perhaps even some full-time residents, a more complete history of Corolla and a greater appreciation for how the coastal community has evolved over the decades.

- [man] There wasn't a road to Corolla from Dare County until 1984.

So the only way to access Corolla was by boat or four wheel drive vehicle.

It's a totally different world here now than it was back then.

So getting to tell the story of how we got where we are is a really unique experience.

- [Deborah] For more information on the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, the Whalehead Club, and so many other attractions in and around Corolla, head to VisitCurrituck.com.

Isn't this house amazing?

It's called Korner's Folly.

And it's certainly the most famous house in Kernersville.

It was built in 1880 by artists, Jule Korner, and it's got a lot of architectural oddities.

Let's go take a tour.

[mischievous music] Suzanna, tell me about the person who lived here.

- [Suzanna] Well, his name was Jule Korner and he was, by all accounts, a very interesting individual.

He got his start as a photographer and a fine art painter, but he switched to interior design and decoration.

- And why is this called Korner's Folly?

- Family legend has it, there was a farmer who was passing by in his wagon, and he said 'That building will be Jule Korner's Folly', meaning a foolish or expensive mistake, but it also can mean a piece of architecture that is very unusual or whimsical.

Jule being the kind of eccentric man that he was, really took that name and wore it as a badge of honor.

And he called this place Korner's Folly.

I'd say the most fascinating things about this place are the variety that you can see.

[music] So we are here in the children's playroom.

Watch your head.

So this room was actually created when Jule divided the room below horizontally, forming two rooms and really small, cozy spaces for his children to play.

So here we are in the library.

- It's a tiny library in some respects.

- It is.

And if you can believe it, it actually used to be a stable.

- Oh, really.

- There are very few closets actually, and there are none in this room.

There's a whole room over here called the private dressing room.

So here we are in cupids park theater, you can see the many amazing murals that are here on the walls.

- The little stage!

This is crazy.

- Yes.

Jule converted this room from his bachelor billiards room to a stage and a space for his wife Polly Alice and her juvenile Lyceum.

Jule's wife, Polly Alice, was really instrumental in creating a program for young children and Kernersville.

She would write the plays, make the costumes, Jule, the painter of course, would do the scenic design and Polly Alice even learned to play the cello so they could have a family orchestra.

Jule Korner lived his life in a really unapologetically creative way, up until the very end of his life.

He took a house that was originally 11 rooms, and after he got married, it became 22 rooms and he never stopped tinkering.

Even upon his death bed.

He was imagining new uses, new rooms, new furnishings for his beloved folly.

- [Deborah] Korner's Folly is at 413 south main street in Kernersville.

And it's open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

For more information, give them a call at [336] 996-7992, or visit them online at kornersfolly.org.

Another must see when you come to Kernersville, is the Paul scene botanical garden, the plants and flowers here come from all over the world, as do many of the dishes in our next story as Bob garner recently sampled some from Zimbabwe at the popular Zweli's Restaurant in Durham.

- [man] Zweli's culinary aim is to bring you the adventure of food from Zimbabwe and other neighboring African countries in the Southern part of the continent.

The focal point is the woman many call Chef Zweli.

- Really the flavors that I cook is basically everything that I grew up eating.

Every thing that my mom taught me back home is what I introduced to the community.

- [man] Have a look at these beef ox tails and pickled onions, slow cooked for seven hours.

- [Bob] Of course, ox tail has beef bones in the middle of it, and you hear the old saying the closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat, and this is really sweet, wonderful meat.

I just could not even describe how tender and how velvety that meat is.

In a collard centric state like North Carolina, talking about different ways to prepare collards can almost seem like heresy, but trust me on this.

This is called Doby style collards, delicious peanut butter style sauce.

Mmm.

I'm telling you, like I say trust me, that is wonderful.

This is called jollof rice.

And as you can see, it's a flavorful blend of rice and sauce and spices.

I've had this before and it is wonderful.

This seems pretty mild when you first put it on your palette, but then the heat kind of grows on you a little bit.

Well within the boundaries though.

Boerewors is a Zimbabwean sausage made of beef and pork that would show up in a bring your own meat cookout.

Guests roast their sausage on a stick over the fire.

Mmm.

Now that's some of the best char-grilled type sausage I've ever had, has very much of a smoky grill taste.

Mmm.

That's spectacular.

Samosas are another African food that found their way to the Caribbean and to central and south America.

They have small platters of both beef and veggie samosas have a little sauce there with it, and I'm not sure which one this is.

Mmm.

Just come in and let the mystery get ya and just reach in there and go for it.

That is absolutely wonderful.

When a carbon monoxide leak displaced many residents of a Durham public housing complex in 2020, Zweli's used volunteers and staff to prepare nearly 50,000 simple individual meals for families in temporary hotel accommodations.

- People care how much you care, you know?

Yes.

As a business, yes, we're selling food or we're making money, you know, but that's not what it's all about for us.

You know, we were not rich folks before we got into this business.

We were community driven folks.

- [Bob] That isn't going to change and the food, oh my.

- [Deborah] Zweli's kitchen and catering is at 4600 Durham chapel hill Boulevard in Durham.

And they're open Monday through Saturday from noon to 9:00 PM.

For more information, you can call them at [984] 219-7555 or go online to Zweli's.com Here at the Kernersville museum, you can really take a look back in time.

These old tobacco barns were actually donated to help create an outdoor historical exhibit.

Another timeless tradition is devotion to family and there's a hardware store in Newburn that's a perfect example of that.

Let's join Heather Burgiss of My Home,NC on a visit to Mitchell's Hardware.

[country music] [crickets] [piano music] - [Winnie] It's really neat in the store in the morning.

I mean, it's so quiet and you're by yourself.

We're out there on the streets before anybody else, and it's just us on the sidewalks.

And I feel my dad the most when I'm out there.

- [Lindsay] We definitely feel his presence.

- [Winnie] He was known for being on the sidewalk.

We're there because of our dad and because of his passing, but Lindsay and I both love Mitchell's so much and there's no place else we'd rather be.

[water] - I think growing up Mitchell's with a second home for us.

- Good morning, have a good day.

My name is Lindsay Smith.

Good boy.

Good boy.

- [Winnie] My name is Winnie Smith and our home is the new Bern North Carolina.

We are both co-managers and co-owners of Mitchell's.

It's a family business.

It's always been a family business.

It started as a livery stable, actually.

- [man] They wanted to share this wonderful photograph that we have in our collection, at the historical society, to my knowledge it's the second location of Mitchell's hardware.

- [Lindsay] The Mitchell family started it in 1898.

Our father, Greg Smith, purchased it from his uncle Harold Towten, about 11 years ago.

He cared about downtown and the success of downtown.

- See the pictures and the emphasis on family.

And so you guys have not moved those that bad.

- Oh, no.

What intrigued Dad about the store mostly was helping people.

He thrived off of that.

It wasn't just a hardware store.

It was a community hub.

- Everywhere we go in New Bern people talk about your dad.

Is that - - Everyone in New Bern has their own story about how he affected them.

And even though it's hard for us to hear those in a way, like, we hear one every day.

So it is a beautiful thing because every story is beautiful.

I don't think there was ever a question that we weren't going to come here and just continue building what he built.

- A lot of the customers and regulars, you know, they come in still to this day, not only to give their condolences, but to thank us for being there and for keeping the store open.

- The people that knew dad really well said to our face, you're not your father, but whatever you do, you'll do it because you know what's right.

And you know what works for you and you know what he would have wanted.

- Hi, awww.

- It's like, speaking to this piece.

- You can pick it up.

- [Lindsay] He really wanted to carry North Carolina made products or United States products, at least.

- Now that the falls coming, this coat, this is called a horn street.

That's what I call it.

- [Winnie] And working with Joyce Facey, who does all of our pottery and all the other vendors - [Lindsay] I don't know, it just feels natural and kind of what we think we're supposed to do.

You know?

- [Winnie] We want to hold the same values and stay true to what Mitchell's has always been known for.

- She loves my name tag.

This is hers now.

- We've had a lot of hard times but the community, our family, our friends, we wouldn't be where we were today without them.

Winnie and I really didn't know what we wanted to do when dad passed, as far as where he would be buried.

Christ Episcopal Church is the center of downtown, and it was just so beautiful.

The thought of dad staying here in some way, and right now he's under these beautiful moss covered trees downtown where people, you know, can visit him or, you know, just knowing he's near in some sort of way is just kind of peaceful to us and a lot of people downtown.

My daughter's one and she's in there making people smile.

So it's just full circle, you know, it really is.

He was just the happiest man alive.

You know, he felt so fulfilled.

And because of that, we do too, you know, that's why we can go on living because we had such a wonderful dad, honestly.

That it makes all this worth it.

- [Deborah] Mitchell hardware is at 215 Craven street in New Bern and they're open 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday through Saturday.

For more information, give them a call at [252] 638-4261, or find them on Facebook.

Well, that's it for tonight's show.

We want to thank the town of Kernersville for hosting us.

If you love history, architecture, or tradition, this is definitely well worth a visit.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember, you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org Have a great North Carolina weekend, everyone.

Good night.

[music] ♪ - Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by VisitNC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains, across the Piedmont to 300 miles of Barrier Island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

♪