This morning finds the old Bears Butt waiting for Sherry to get home from a meeting at her work place…todays meeting is one that surprised almost all the employees of the local redneck culture store “Smith and Edwards”.  I suppose at this time I should tell you about this store, some of you might not have ever heard of it.

Smith and Edwards started out just after World War II as a War Surplus store.  A dream of one Mr. Smith and another Mr. Edwards.  After the war there were tons and tons of items that had been made in preparation to supply the troops, things like helmets, canteens, knives, uniforms, blankets, mess kits, cans of canned heat, C-rations (food), sleeping cots, medical items…the list goes on and on and on and on, and because the war was over, the government needed someplace to dispose of all this good stuff.  So along came Mr. Smith and Mr. Edwards and bought a bunch of it up and made it available for sale.  As a youngster in the middle 50’s, it was my favorite store of all.  For just a couple of bucks I could come out of there with a whole bag full of “necessary items” to meet my outdoors and scouting needs.

Smith and Edwards sign says “We have everything you want…If we can find it”, and believe me, they have a lot of things in there that makes you wonder why they have it, and if by chance you go in there for something and you can’t seem to find it, don’t give up, keep looking because somebody else may have picked one up and set it down in another department.  Just keep looking.

Today they don’t have so much war surplus, but they still have the department that carries a lot of that sort of thing, it is made up of surplus military stuff from many countries, not just the U.S.  They even have an outside lot full of old trucks and trailers used to transport troops and gear.  Plus, a ton of other stuff that they have gathered up over the years, everything from pipe to baskets.  The outside lot is worth wandering around looking at even if you have no need for any of it.  You will see some things that will make you scratch your head and wonder just what it is and what it could have possibly been used for.

A few years back, at a company party, one of the boss’ was giving a speech and said he liked to listen to the customers and when he heard a good statement he would write it down…this particular year he overheard a “one sided” conversation from a lady on a cell phone…here is how part of it went…”Well, I’m here in Smith and Edwards…what was that?….Oh, well, it’s sort of hard to say…I guess the best way to describe it is…It’s an Ikea for Rednecks”!!!!

That should give you some idea about what this store is all about.

Well, they are about to go HIGH TECH on us…yessireee bobby…they have created a new department and have hired a lady to run it…they are going “On line” and soon you will be able to purchase goods from them.  This means they will be expanding and adding a shipping department and who knows what else.

So todays meeting is about “customer service”…at least that is what Sherry has been lead to believe…we will find out when she gets back…in the meantime I have prepared a little breakfast for her when she gets home.  Sausage patties, fried potatoes from diced baked potato leftovers from the other night and when she gets home I’ll fry up an egg, pour up some milk for her and orange juice for me and there you have it…breakfast.

With some time on my hands I came in here to write up what you have been reading and I got curious just what other people eat for breakfast.  It was quite interesting what I came across…Breakfast in the South…Now I have tried Grits before and I just could not get the hankering for their taste and texture, but I won’t bad mouth them, they just were not something for me.  Most of the breakfasts I found on line include them but the most curious is some of the other things I saw that are cooked up for breakfast in the South…Biscuits and gravy…yummy to me…I could eat that!  Batter fried chicken gizzards…Oh Ya!  That would be good!  Corned Beef Hash…Had that and it’s super good, especially served with catchup!  Country fried steak…Great stuff right there…!Country ham!  That speaks for itself!  Cracklins.   Maybe for a snack.  Fatback…I’m not sure about that…never tried it.  Fried pork chops…I could do that every morning!  Hog head cheese and/or hog jowls….Naaa!  It just don’t sound right to me…especially for breakfast…I think I’d rather have a bowl of grits.

Some of the other things I found on the breakfast menu seems more to be an afternoon or evening meal to me, but I suppose if it meets your fancy go for it.

Fried chicken, fried squirrel, fried frog legs, Salmon patties and  deep fried fish….They all sound great, but I’d rather face a frog leg later in the day myself.

One thing I didn’t see on the breakfast menu for Southern style eating was pizza…That will come soon enough.

Bears Butt

June 11, 2013