Georgia Green Stamper – Georgia On Her Mind

For a 100 years, maybe 200, my Owen County family relied on growing tobacco for their economic health. Of course, they did not know how unhealthy smoking was for their bodies, but even understanding that as I do now, I am stunned that within a handful of years, six bent barns have come to stand empty.  Fertile fields lie fallow. And the mammoth tobacco auction warehouses that once dominated towns like Carrollton, Cynthiana, and Lexington have become, like dinosaurs, extinct overnight.

I hadn’t thought about hominy in years, much less eaten it, until last week when I was wandering in the Mega-Mart.
I stopped in my tracks when I spotted it hanging out on a bottom shelf near the back of the store. I felt like I’d bumped into an old friend, and so I picked up a can to say hello.

I used to think that grass chiggers stalked everyone’s childhood, but to my amazement, I’ve run into people from other parts of the country who don’t know about them. By rights, the chigger should be our official state insect — if we must have one. After all, the epicenter of the parasite’s international breeding grounds lies in Kentucky, possibly on our Owen County farm. But no, Kentucky bestows that dubious honor to the Viceroy butterfly, an elegant bug, I admit, but why should personality and good looks dominate every election?

“You know what I’m craving?” he asked.
“No, what?”
“That green gooey stuff they serve with fajitas in Mexican restaurants. What’s it called? I can’t think of the word — ”
“Hmmm — well, darn, I can’t think of the word either. If you hadn’t asked me I could have thought of it, but now that you have, it’s flown right out of my head. But it’s made from avocados.”