Citizen's Journal

Stories featured in the Citizen Journal pages are from local residents in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough... the communities of Orange County, North Carolina. Read these stories and learn why our residents love the area, and what they appreciate most about its beauty. Please enjoy the favorite experiences of some of our citizens.

For citizens interested in submitting a story, contact info@visitchapelhill.org.

Great Music and Local Flavors

March 07 2008 by Bill Smith

I came to Chapel Hill as a student in 1967, and have pretty much always had an address here ever since. I loved the fact that the town was full of people who felt no need to conform to ordinary rules of behavior. You couldn’t do that in New Bern in 1967. I’ve worked in restaurants pretty much the whole time I’ve lived here. I began cooking seriously in the mid seventies and the next thing I knew I was a chef.

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A Great Place to Start Your Second Life

March 07 2008 by Daniel Wallace

I’ve lived two lives. In the first life, I was a boy in Alabama, and in the second I was a man in Chapel Hill. This is where I was when my father died, and when my son was born. In the basement of a house a half-a-mile from Franklin Street is where I wrote my first published novel, and one night—let’s say it was a Wednesday—I met the love of my life at the last place I ever expected to… a bar.

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A Creative Place To Call Home

March 07 2008 by Gordon Jameson

My wife and I first visited North Carolina in 1991 while on vacation. There was something special in the air that made us decide if we ever left California, North Carolina felt like a good destination.

Two- years later we sold our house in Los Angeles, put everything in storage and headed east. We stayed in a friend’s house in Winston-Salem and one day someone told us to check out Chapel Hill. I remember driving down Franklin Street in the historic part of town on a fine day and thinking, “I’m home.”

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Hillsborough:  A Charming Mix of Personalities

March 07 2008 by Gretchen Lanier

What I love about Hillsborough is its charming mix of personalities. We are a funky vintage community, mixed with classic antique trimmings; we are where down-home farm-town meets friendly, relaxed not-quite-uptown. We’re hiking and fishing in the morning and music and arts festivals in the evening.

There is a sense of energy here, knowing that you are a participant in history.

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Home Grown in Chapel Hill

March 07 2008 by Katherine Demby

I have lived in Chapel Hill all my life and cannot think of a place I would rather live. Chapel Hill has all of the qualities of a big city with the feel of a small town. There seems to be something for everyone. It is a center of diverse culture with performances from the likes of Cirque de Eloize, the Khmer Arts Ensemble, and many other groups that come to Memorial Hall every year.

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