I also am familiar with North Carolina geography, having lived in Wilmington for 24 years. And I've been to the Outer Banks which is where I assumed Owens set this story.
I have to say that whenever characters mentioned going to Asheville like it was the closest big city, it really irritated me. It's rural coastal Carolina in the 1950s. Interstate 40 didn't exist so they'd have to drive country roads and two lane highways to get there. It would take 10 or 12 hours at least.
Nobody in that little town would even think of going all the way to Asheville to buy a bicycle. Or to get a suit from the Sears and Roebuck store.
There are plenty of other aspects of coastal North Carolina she got wrong--hurricanes and the fact that it does get cold there in the winter.
Anyway, you'd think she'd have looked at a map of the state before sending everyone to Asheville.
I have to say that whenever characters mentioned going to Asheville like it was the closest big city, it really irritated me. It's rural coastal Carolina in the 1950s. Interstate 40 didn't exist so they'd have to drive country roads and two lane highways to get there. It would take 10 or 12 hours at least.
Nobody in that little town would even think of going all the way to Asheville to buy a bicycle. Or to get a suit from the Sears and Roebuck store.
There are plenty of other aspects of coastal North Carolina she got wrong--hurricanes and the fact that it does get cold there in the winter.
Anyway, you'd think she'd have looked at a map of the state before sending everyone to Asheville.