On A Curious Coincidence and A Gritty Story: Hagood Mill Corn Enjoyed by Washington Baha'is, Too

Apparently a recent blog entry, namely, the one about Mutale and Jarrett, was grist for the mill for my friend Tim. It got him thinking about a Naw Ruz celebration a few years back. Gritty story. -gw

George -
Wow, I have to hand it to those cute/scary puppets at Disneyland : It really is a small world after all. I read on your fascinating blog about a Zambian woman finding a mill in Pickens, SC, which provides good quality coarsely-ground corn, also known as grits. Well, George, my dear friend (I'm curious to see how much you edit this. That's right, I'm curious, George .) you have eaten those very grits! It was at my home on March 21, 2004, at our annual Naw Ruz breakfast . It seems that a guitar-making acquaintance of mine was volunteering at the Hagood Mill in Pickens, SC, at that time, demonstrating instrument making and other traditional crafts. The mill is operated in conjunction with the local museum. He sent me a package of their grits, which are indeed excellent. I attach a photo of Harold at the mill as well as one of me serving the grits and one of you singing "Zipidee-Do-Dah." Indeed, it was a memorable "grit-together."

- Tim

{Photos in order: "small world hyenas," uploaded on March 22, 2005 by pamusc93 on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic; Mutale and Jarrett at the mill, http://mutsal.blogspot.com/2007/12/year-in-big-usa.html; "curious george," uploaded on April 24, 2007by youngdoo on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic; rest of the photos are from Friend Tim, of the Guild of American Luthiers - that's Tim serving the grits.}

[I will amend this post with these comments received by email today 12/27/07. -gw

Dear George,

My father and Jack Folger started restoring Hagood Mill in 1973. The Folger family had given the mill to Pickens County in the hopes that it would get Pickens away from the Civil War and into the world community. I promised Mister Folger and my dad I would do my best to keep their dream going. Well, it sure does get frustrating sometimes, but every once in a great while I accidentally come across something that seems to make all the trouble worth while.

My dad told me that the only thing he accomplished in WWII was helping to kill a quarter million old men, women, and Children. He believed his hands had to be good for something that would bring peace to this world. I am glad he succeeded. Hagood Mill is one of the few places in Pickens County where people of all races and religions are welcome, and it has been a long hard road getting it open to the public.
Glad there are people out there enjoying the grits of our labor.

Harold Wayne Turner

P.S. It is truly a small world with two kinds of people good and bad. Thank our creator for the good and the bad. He gave them the mind to think for themselves if they only would. ]