As Carstensen replied, "'Spaghetti' is buried in Laurinburg. In 1911, a traveling carnival worker named Cancetto Farmica was killed in a fight. His body was taken to McDougald Funeral Home. Cancetto's father traveled to Laurinburg, paid ten dollars down to have the body embalmed, and said he'd return with the rest of the money and burial instructions. And that was the last anyone at the funeral home ever heard from him. Just in case he came back, however, Mr. McDougald saved the body. For a while it hung from the wall in the embalming room. Later it was stored upright in a box in the garage. Locals, unable to remember or correctly pronounce Cancetto's name, began calling him Spaghetti. He was finally buried in 1972."
According to roadsideamerica.com, "Cancetto became something of a tourist attraction, eventually being visited over the course of sixty years by thousands of people from all over the country. In 1972, a New York congressman named Biaggi learned of the fate of his fellow Italian and raised enough of a fuss to finally convince the funeral home to bury the body. Spaghetti now lies in Hillside Cemetery under a marker donated by the funeral home. He's also reportedly under two tons of concrete, as the funeral home was worried that, due to his popularity, someone might dig him up."
A pair of tickets to the Lumina Theaters is on the way to Carstensen.
Now it's time to reveal next week's Challenge. Here's how it works. Every week we'll pose a trivia question that has something to do with our community or North Carolina. The question might be about something that happened 20 years ago or someone who made the news just yesterday.
If you think you know the answer, send e-mail to chquiz@aol.com, or mail it on a postcard to Chapel Hill Challenge, The Chapel Hill Herald, 2828 Pickett Road, Durham, NC 27705. You also can send us a fax at (919) 419-6889. Make sure you include your name, address and phone number. Answers must be received by Thursday of the same week. Employees of the Durham Herald Co. are not eligible for the Challenge.
Each week there will be a drawing from all the correct answers. The winner will receive a pair of movie passes donated by the Lumina Theater in Southern Village. (Note: Passes may not be valid for certain shows.)
Ready to give it a try? Then study the plants of the Cucurbitaceae family while pondering the following: "If you're in a municipal building, looking at a collection of gourds gathered by a man whose favorite gourd had a picture of himself feeding a hot dog to his pet alligator, where are you in North Carolina?"
Good luck!
