Margrethe Ahlschwede (margahls@utm.edu) from 192.239.150.210 at 09/29/98 10:41AM
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    In 1964, Kay Riddle, a specialist with the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service, was my introduction to Southern women. She, I, and a multitude of other home economics specialists along with the Extension administrators, all worked together in Ricks Hall on the N.C. State University campus. It seemed to me that nearly everyone in the building had ancestors who had come to the Carolinas with Sir Walter Raleigh. My job with the Extension Service was to edit all the home economics and 4-H bulletins. After I had been at work a week or two, Kay Riddle told this story: In a news release announcing my arrival, I had been identified as Margrethe Plum Ahlschwede. As the story goes, the secretary who duplicated the news release saw the name, rushed down to the home economists’ coffee-time, and said, “What in the world am I going to call this woman? All I can say is Plum.” And Kay responded, “Let’s just call her sugar.” Is there any reason to ask why I like living in the South?