Friday Jottings - GRITS

No, not the food that hardly anybody except a Southerner thinks IS a food! Being a born-and-bred Southerner, now of the Appalachian persuasion, I am partial to grits as a side dish to scrambled-just-right eggs, bacon, and buttered biscuits and almost any kind of jelly, jam or preserves. But the word, GRITS, all caps, is explained in the below column. I love the South and never had any desire to live elsewhere. So you can call me most anything that isn't nasty, but meant to be derogatory and I don't mind. I'm comfortable in my Southern skin and proud of my family and heritage. I certainly don't mean other places are not worthy of being proud to be from, I wish everyone the same feeling of rootedness and pride. I wrote the short piece below several years ago. I would really like to know the origin and veracity of the Grandma story.
GRITS Since I was born and raised in rural Georgia, I guess I might be a Georgia Cracker. I’ve lived in Northeast Tennessee far longer than in my native state though so I guess I’m a Hillbilly Georgia Cracker. I like to think maybe Tennessee is in my genes. My mother used to tell us a story (probably apocryphal) about her mother, my Grandma Vera, who was supposedly born in Tennessee somewhere around Chattanooga. The family migrated to Georgia maybe around the late 1800’s or early 1900’s when Grandma was a tiny baby. Traveling along a river, perhaps the Chattahoochee, either the small family was on foot or the wagon overturned and Grandma fell into the water. Bundled up as babies were then, she was fished out safely and the journey continued. Grandma grew up and bore thirteen children of her own, my mother being the oldest. No one I’ve asked can vouch for the veracity of this story, but I like it. I love all of the USA and would like to visit more of it than I have up to now. But I’m proud of my Southern heritage (mostly) and do not wish to live anywhere else. Being female and one of a family with five GRITS, you could say I’m a Hillbilly Georgia Cracker GRITS! I like acronyms. Below are three of my favorites.
"YANKEE"
Y'all Ain't No Kin to Everybody Else
"YAARTEO"
Y'all Are All Related to Each Other
GRITS
Girls Raised in the South