Good gawd, ya'll, grits have gone Up
Town.That's right!
Americans
eat about 100 million pounds of grits each year. And that' s not all
consumed south of the Mason-Dixon line. In fact, grits are eaten in
every state of the Union, usually by Southerners who have been
transplanted there.
Anything as
popular as grits deserves its own annual festival. So each April the
good folks of St. George, S.C., stage their annual World Grits
Festival which draws tens of thousands of grits lovers, and some of
the curious, to their town about an hour west of Charleston.
The highlight of the
festival has to the Rolling in the Grits competition. A kiddie pool is
filled with cooked grits and contestants dive in and coat themselves
with as much grits as possible in 10 seconds. Contestants wear big
hats and loose pants with lots of pockets because the person with
the most pounds of grits on his or her body wins the $75 first
prize.
Thousands of words have
been written about grits, some of it not always flattering, but at
least one true lover has written a Song To Grits... Here are the
opening lyrics from that song by writer Roy Blunt Jr.:
When my mind's unsettled,
When I don't feel spruce,
When my nerves get frazzled,
When my flesh gets loose--
What knits
Me back together's grits!
