CAROLINA RICE

I went looking for a picture of a Carolina Rice bag, and found
this nice picture.  Looks like it was a postcard.

Do you remember the radio jingle for Carolina Rice? I do. You must sing this in your head with a sultry female's Southern drawl:

I come from Carolina so pardon my drawl.

I’m here to mention long grain rice to y’all.

It makes rice fancy eating – tasty and so nice.

For quality and nourishment it’s Carolina Rice

There’s three ways to boil rice to make it worthwhile:

Pressure cooked, Southern, and Oriental style.

Serve it in a dozen ways, take my advice.

Nothing’s economical as Carolina Rice.

The jingle has been running around in my mind for weeks. Radio programs in the 50’s had regular sponsors, and that ad was played every morning while I was on my way to school in the limo – yes, a limousine – that the school district had hired to transport kids from our new Long Island development.

I still dream about that walk home from that school when, later on in my time there, I’d missed the bus home. Why did I miss the bus? I don’t remember, but in my dreams the walk seems like a trek across the Gobi Desert. In those days getting to and from school was my responsibility. Mothers didn’t drop everything to ferry their children to and fro as they do today.

I googled the route from school home: just two miles, but seemed like forever, especially since I had to pass the cemetery. I wasn’t really too scary for me because my best friend’s grandfather was the gravedigger there, but still.

What brought all this up a while ago was an item on the list of possible topics for community magazine issue for September: National Rice Month. I did write several other articles for that issue, so I may do up a “normal” essay on rice, especially the rice grown here in South Carolina, for next year’s magazine.

  

Meanwhile, I hope I’ve gotten the jingle off my mind for a while.