Washington County Native Starts Website Honoring Area’s History

Published 12:39 pm Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Quoted from website http://doyoumuumuu.com/: Perez writes:  This little variety shop will sell you hair pomade AND a Luther Vandross cassette tape. Also,ice."

Quoted from website http://doyoumuumuu.com/: Perez writes: This little variety shop will sell you hair pomade AND a
Luther Vandross cassette tape. Also,ice.”

Angela Perez, a Plymouth NC Native, has a started a website called “Do You Muumuu?, honoring Southern culture and heritage.

Perez explained some aspects of the site.

“I grew up in eastern N.C. in Plymouth and then spent most of my adult life in the Raleigh-Durham area, where I went to undergraduate and graduate school.  I moved away from the South at various times.   The blog initially started out as a “magazine” for women – to address the ins and outs of weight gain and loss, love, and fashion.   Friends and readers often pointed out to me that I had a very distinct Southern way of expressing myself and point of view.   Whenever I have moved out of the South that “way” always became glaringly apparent, particularly to people who had never spent much time around anyone from the South.

Perez’s accent and mannerisms often were a novelty act or a source of wonder.

“When I was in graduate school at Duke University – where most of the students are from the northeast –  I tried to hide my Southern accent and disown my history.  A few years ago, I decided to embrace it and be myself.   Exploring what it means to be Southern in this day and age is much more important to me than what type of Spanx covers up a 20-pound weight gain,” said Perez.

Perez’s father still lives in Plymouth so she tries to visit him as often as she can and stay with him and her step-mother for long weekends.

“The last 3 or 4 times I visited, I drove around to look at the schools I attended, houses we’d lived in – and on those jaunts, I was stunned at how run-down and dilapidated Plymouth looked since I was in high school in the late 80s.    The poverty is glaringly apparent at every turn, literally.  So many of the places where my family went to shop or eat are boarded up or crumbling and in many cases falling to the ground.  Even some of the grand old homes and buildings that had true historic significance were rotting to the ground,” said Perez.

Seeing this decay broke Perez’s heart .

“This last time I visited my dad – over Labor Day weekend – things had deteriorated even since I was there a few months before.  I felt compelled to take pictures of all the old places (and even of the well-kept ones) while they still exist.  It was really a personal journey – for nostalgia sake – but once I saw what I’d captured on film, I wanted to share that history before it’s gone forever.

What was particularly interesting this weekend was that during my exploration of Plymouth, I was amazed how much black history is in that town and yet it was so rarely talked about or discussed while I was growing up there.  I learned more about African-American contributions to the county over this past weekend from historical markers than I did my entire childhood.

The fact that there are still thriving communities despite the lack of jobs and the persistent economic depression – well, that’s worth talking about.  A lot of people discount Washington County as a place to spend any time – but there’s a lot there if you look closely,” said Perez

Perez explained the larger purpose of her website.

“But more than just good cooking, I learned the value of community, through the family-unit, through the church, through the school, through the little-league games, you name it.   Those things served as protection and as a way to have an identity.   These days, that need to find a community to cleave to and be a meaningful part of is even stronger than ever.    I hope that my journal of the American South can help us get back to some of those old ways and build and maintain communities, communities that are not only proud of those histories but that want to preserve, maintain and share it.    My heart and memory are with Washington County and the nearby counties I fished in with my granddad so that seems as good a place as any to start,” said Perez