Kernersville Traffic: ‘Round and ‘Round We Go
When I was a kid the Reid family lived off NC 66, about three miles north of Horneytown. Our house was several miles from Kernersville, and we only came to town to buy hog meal from the FCX store (where Caudill’s is now) and to get haircuts. Roy Marine was my last town barber. He charged a dollar.
Every now and then on haircut and hog meal day, Dad and I would eat hot dogs at Charlie Snow’s. Back in those days the only traffic light in Kernersville was at Main and Mountain streets at Pinnix Drug store, across the street from the Bank of Kernersville. I’m not a history buff, but I do know that Kernersville was named after the Körners and Horneytown was named after the Horneys.
And that Horneytown didn’t have any stoplights, barbers, banks, hot dog joints, drug stores, or places to buy hog meal. It still doesn’t. About the only thing there is the Horneytown Fire Department, the butt of many jokes over the years.
Other things Horneytown doesn’t have are mattress stores, nail salons and roundabouts. Kernersville has cornered the market on those. Which begs me to ask the question: How can Kernersville support so many nail salons and mattress stores?
And the roundabouts are a whole ‘nother story. Kernersville has four. There are two out toward Colfax, one on Bodenhamer Street and one on Old Winston Road adjacent to the new Lowes Foods. That’s the one where a friend of mine saw a lady circling the other day; ‘round and ‘round she went, he recalls. He believes she may still be circling it.
I’ve noticed people coming to a complete stop at these roundabouts instead of just slowing down and yielding. As for the one on Bodenhamer, I’ve seen 18-wheelers drive right over it without even slowing down.
Some people call the “island” on Union Cross Road at I-40 a roundabout, but it’s not. It is known as a “diverging diamond interchange.” There are only five others in the State, and in much larger cities.
This thing is really confusing. If you’re not careful, you can end up heading to Greensboro or Winston-Salem (“Honey, we ain’t on Union Cross Road anymore”) or to jail (if you drive right through the middle of it).
Anyhow, traffic around Kernersville has become a nightmare. Maybe that’s why so many mattress stores have sprung up here.
Raymond Reid can be contacted at rreid7@triad.rr.com
