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| 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.
Yes, I remember. I disagree about "it makes rice fancy eatin" - I think it's "makes right fancy eatin." Also, "there's three ways to boil rice to make it worthwhile" - I don't think I ever understood the words before "to make it worthwhile" but I don't think that's it. Hardly any hits on this. I also grew up on Long Island. I live in North Carolina now. They don't have Carolina Rice.
ReplyDeleteI remember it as right fancy eating too, but remember the other line as it takes three ways to boil rice. I’m 73 and grew up in Brooklyn NY. I still buy Carolina rice sometimes and lately this song comes to mind whenever I cook it
Deletewho sang this jingle, sounds like dinah shore
ReplyDeleteArthur Godfrey vocalist Janette Davis
DeleteI've seen it attributed to Paula Lockheart on YouTube.
DeleteIt never occurred to me who might have sung the song. I grew up in Newark and Carolina is the rice my mother used. It was a side to dinner or the main ingredient I rice pudding.the song has been echoing in my head for several months. I'm 80 and my wife who's from Baltimore and just 72, never heard of it or the song. Also never thought about which Carolina they were referring to.
Deletethere is a video at the bottom of this web page that has it in the beginning of it
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thecarolinagoldricefoundation.org/carolinagoldrice
I also found this youtube video
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrBHL6-5_L0
Yes folks, I'm 74 yrs old, free up also in HemHempstead, Long Island, N.Y..Radio was a huge part of our young lives there. We'd hear this wonderful, iconic as numbers of times!! Being a musician with positive pitch, not bragging, never ever let this minutia out of my musical autoclave!! Sing this to myself constantly, but sans the lyrics, till today!! Always wondered who the sultry, drawl-soaked female voice belonged to!! Thank you all for resurrecting this big of musical history!!
ReplyDeleteSam A. Burkes, now in Phila, MS.