I caught a glimpse of Florence Gilkeson's column of a week ago about renaming the Moore County Airport and the -overly used "Pinehurst" name.

It got me thinking that I refer to Pinehurst as home even though I didn't get my own Pinehurst address until four months ago. What's up with that?

I can remember the time in my life when I realized that even though my address was Bethesda Road in Southern Pines, I in fact was from Pinehurst. I was 8 years old and away at Camp Kanuga for my first-ever overnight camp experience. I had gone with a group of kids, including my sister and Sarah and Elizabeth Upchurch, who were all from Southern Pines.

The first night of camp, we had to go in front of all the campers and tell our name and where we were from. I got so confused when I heard both Upchurch girls say they were from "Pinehurst." I thought I must not have been clear about their address in the past. Maybe Pine Grove Village was in Pinehurst?

But I thought surely my sister would know where her home, our home, was. So I was astonished when I heard Betsy, too, say, "I'm from Pinehurst, North Carolina," with such pride and conviction. I went over it in my head and decided that I didn't want to be the oddball from Southern Pines - no one would have ever heard of that, and everyone would assume that I was a hillbilly from the sticks. (Gasp!)

So I did it. I stood in front of all of Camp Kanuga and stated, with a huge grin on my face, "My name is Ginny Kelly, and I'm from Pinehurst!"

It's been this way ever since. People at all the camps I attended growing up - and the boys we would meet at the beach - all knew my friends and me as the Pinehurst girls, and we loved it.

As Florence said in her column, the -prestige that follows the Pinehurst name is infectious. I'm sure most residents of the area are like me and enjoy the attention they receive when they reference the world-renowned golf resort as "home." Is that a bad thing? Does this mean that I don't have pride in my real hometown of Southern Pines?

It's arguable. But I think that's why over the years my generation coined the phrase "The Pines."

Even if you're from Pinehurst, the umbrella of "The Pines" includes them all: Southern Pines, Pinebluff, Whispering Pines and all the communities in between and out of the way. (Shout out to my Seven Lakes friends.) It's now common to hear a college student at a North Carolina university tell his or her new friends, "I'm from The Pines." And surprisingly enough, most -people know what that means.

But my pride in the Pinehurst name is all about the people. When I was at Appalachian State University in Boone, there was a great contingency of "People from The Pines." Most of us saw each other on a regular basis, helping us know lots of people as our friends became friends and so on and so on.

The Pines had developed a pretty good name for itself around Boone. At parties, people would say something along the lines of, "Let me guess. You're from Pinehurst!" to which I would reply with a smile.

The people from this town have always been a group to whom I was happy to -associate myself. After all, my dearest friends in life continue to be my hometown girls. It's fun to play the Pinehurst "Name-Game" and be able to say, "Oh, yeah - she's one of my good friends!"

But if you say you're from Southern Pines or Aberdeen, the door for the "Name Game" is never opened. The recognition is simply not there, causing more and more people to stop fighting it and finally say "Pinehurst."

So I guess if I had a vote I would not be opposed to renaming the Moore County Airport "Pinehurst Airport." It is definitely the town that warrants the recognition. But, my real suggestion would be "The Airport to The Pines." I'd get on the plane and know exactly where I was headed - home!

Ginny Kelly is an advertising representative with The Pilot. Contact her at ginnykelly@thepilot.com.