JoCoYo

So like, everyone around Johnston county knows about the Howell theater. Right? Did you know about it hosting a world premiere? Do you know what’s under the Smithfield Wal-Mart parking lot?

October 12: Pretty important day for all of us, especially if you’re in a boat in the Atlantic or a plane in the Pacific. Or if you recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Soda bottles, peanuts, root beer, and “soft” drinks. In this episode, we’re going into soda history with a Johnston twist.

An episode of full circles and radio waves. Things don’t really change as much as we think they do.

Have you ever looked at a map of North Carolina and noticed how it cuts out into the sea? Do you ever see how Johnston county seems to be in a bull’s-eye for hurricanes because of it? Well, it ain’t just hurricanes that come after us.

But if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need. From cars to highways to little piggies to alcohol, the good citizens of Johnston County have nearly always displayed a strong independent streak.

Dirt track racing in Johnston had a world famous observer one Sunday. You’ll have to hear it to believe it.

So, what in the world do Hulk Hogan, Ted Turner, and Sylvester Stallone have to do with Johnston County?  Just a man and his will to survive. It's the Eye of the Tiger, man!

Ahhh, dueling and politics. Like a hand in a glove for a large part of American history. North Carolina and Johnston County know it well. A dusty street at high noon is not necessary.

A quarantine-inspired episode. We've been here before. In fact, the similarities run much deeper than just a disease outbreak. The last time we had something like this, there was another Bernie Sanders-type guy running in Democratic circles, too.  But there were also some pretty glaring differences, too. Some of them involved a healthy bit of Marrow.

Making a constitution Is apparently not very easy. Maybe that’s why we do it so rarely. But leave it to Johnston county to try to find a way to be involved in the creation of two.

Vampires, Frankenstein, zombies, ghosts, and "Acid Park"???? If you grew up in the 70's-90's in Johnston County and surrounding areas, you heard of "Acid Park". You heard stories, horrible to tell and terrifying in content, but they were no different than the stories about these monsters of legend. This is an episode on the things that make us afraid, with a JoCoYo twist.

What do Captain Marvel, the Cold War, Amelia Earhart, astronauts, the Rudy Theatre, and a pet rooster have in common? Answer: One amazing "force of nature" of a person, Myrtle Thompson.

This episode continues the story of the Norris family from the previous episode "Little Runaway". Leaving home seems to be family trait with these guys. This is a story of one Norris that didn't like the outcome of the American Civil War. So, he left...and took 20,000 people with him. In 2020, their descendants haven't forgotten him.

Every kid talks of running away at some point, don't they?  Well, here's an 11 year old who did. He entered a life at sea and got embroiled in the first naval battle in colonial history. And there was this path...

A massive hurricane, George Washington, the acquisition of Florida, and a counterfeit operation. All here.

Sometimes we aren’t very smart. In fact, sometimes we’re pretty stupid. To me, stupidity is when you’re well aware of the existence of something but you deny it because you just don’t want it to exist. This is the story about how Johnston almost stupided itself out of a community college.

It seems that everybody wants to move to Johnston county. I mean, look at all the subdivisions. And those of us that have lived here for a long time have most certainly heard the new people ask us what did we do for fun here before they came. They think they brought it. Well, here’s your answer…

How often have you thought about the soil under your feet? How often have you thought about people that thought about the soil under you feet that was once under their feet? How often have you thought (in the famous words of the Talking Heads), "How did I get here?" Same as it ever was. Actually, not really. Once you find out about the soil under your feet, you may to yourself, "My God! What have...

Once, Johnston County lost 10% of his population in 20 years. And they never came back. And I can’t really blame them. Some of them were duped but they all knew exactly what they wanted to do.

Slavery was/is bad. That's indisputable. It's disgusting, immoral, and it's a stain that we will carry with us as a nation, and particularly the South, forever. The Southern leadership was wrong to try to preserve it and they were wrong in how they treated the Freedmen afterwards. The behavior was reprehensible and shameful. Johnston County gave nearly 1/3 of all of its men to fight for the Confed...

It’s got to be incredibly difficult to amass any amount of political power without being at least a little corrupt. Or rich. You can be one without the other, but it comes down to money. In a situation Like the politics of Johnston in the early 1910s, Not having it is deadly to your political future. One man learned that the hard way.

At the close of the American Civil War, some saw an opportunity to make the South a better place. A whole new world, so to speak. The reality sits back, waiting to crush a dream.

This year's World Series is over and a miracle happened. A baseball team from Washington somehow won the big one. Heck, the fact that any professional sports team from Washington won a championship is near-miraculous. Well, baseball wasn't always this big. In its purest form, baseball was small, like the towns that formed the teams. Sometimes, we had players that made it big. Maybe you've heard of...

In our stories of how the towns of Johnston came to be, we see that a lot of their existence was either by sheer fortune, or the whims of outsiders, Or both. So many of our communities That did not receive the fortune of a railroad were actually more cohesive And therefore better candidates to become municipalities than the ones that did receive railroad depots. This is the story of a few.