Champagne And Chitlins
The feaster* gathered around the holy jar
and snore they'd eat chitlins in Ciormany on
Thanksgiving.
Now that slcaming pols of sausage,
livennush. backbones and ribs, flanked
by pans of crisp cracklins. are in ihe
offing, it's an appropriate season to
recognize Roy Wilder. Jr., popular lob¬
byist. author of ‘‘You All Spoken Here."
former state official and advisor to Gov.
Sanford, as having been one of the
foremost foreign missionaries of the
North Carolina chitlin faith.
In World War II. Lt. Wilder, on leave
from the New York Herald Tribune at
presidential request, propagandized
chitlins in London, then promoted the
first champagne and chitlin strut ever
held on the Western Front. Later, in
true apostleship he gave freely of the
Tar Hell delicacy to converts in Korea
and Vietnam.
Newspapers, Tune magazine, the
comic strip Pogo and the Air Force
Diary and Magazine duly recorded
Wilder’s furtherance of the chitlin
persuasion.
bmdon Reunion
His evangelism began in early 1944
at a wartime reunion in London of three
Spring Hope natives — Allen Barbee,
now speaker pro tern of the N. C.
House of Representatives; the late
William W. Speight, prominent Green¬
ville attorney; and Wilder.
With doting care Wilder had taken to
Hngland a half gallon jar of chitlins
packed by his mother. The trio gathered
for the strut in the apartment of John
A. Parris of Sylva. now a senior editor
of the Asheville Citizen, who was then
with the United Press.
Corndodgers were made from meal
Parris had found in Scotland, and Allen
was "trusted" with the cooking. Of the
event Wilder later w-rote: "Soon the
aroma wafted over the room. We drew
deeply of the wonderful odor. Now and
then someone would yell. ‘Ain't it hell!
Chiltins in London! Man. this is finin’."
Armed with only one pint of bour¬
bon. to start each took a one ounce
drink, then filled the bottle with water.
It was refilled after each round so that
nobody was shorted.
"When the chitlins were done."
THE STATE. NOVEMBER 1984
Hi, Itll.I.Y ARTIIt It
Wilder said, “we ate them, smacking
tenderly over each ensp. brown morsel
And all the while we kept watering that
little pint of whiskey to make it last
longer. . . . .We were certain that
neighboring Londoners, awakened by
the unique scent of cooking chitlins,
decided in cold and sudden sweat that
surely, at that moment. Hitler had
sprung a secret weapon."
Two other Tar Heel natives arrived
late. They were E. C. Daniel of
Zebulon. then on the New York Times.
and Donald F. Seawell. of Jonesboro,
who was on President Eisenhower’s
staff. Daniel has now retired as chief
of the Times’ Washington bureau, and
Seawell. former publisher of the
Denver (Col.) Post, is founder and
chairman of the board of the Denver
Center for the Performing Arts.
Wilder says the latecomers "weren’t
mad that the chitlins were all gone, but
Victory Feast
Hal Boyle, the widely read wartime
columnist of the Associated Press cov¬
ered the next evangelistic effort in pan
this way:
" ‘A quart of chitlins from home!’
whooped Wilder in Normandy, just
after the June 1944 invasion. He had to
explain to damyankecs around that
chitlins sent over by his mother arc
highly savory to homesick gentlemen
from below the Mason-Dixon Line.
"Being on the move. Wilder together
with Lindsey Nelson, a Knoxville
newspaperman with the 9th Infantry
(now a CBS sports announcer), and
Don Whitehead of the Associated
Press, gathered round the holy jar and
swore a great oath on the memory of
Stonewall Jackson. ‘Wfe’ll eat chitlins in
Germany on Thanksgiving. . . . .’
"But they couldn't get together.
Though Wilder carried the jar in a
padded box through France. Belgium.
Holland. Luxembourg and on the re¬
treat at the Battle of the Bulge, it was
not until March. 1945 when the Army
crossed the Rhine at Remagen that it
was time for a chitlin strut .
"Wilder woke up the army cook at
I Coni in ued on page 30,
Charter member» ot the Normandy Beachhead Chitlin Strut Association. pictured in Eushirc hen. Germany.
April. 1945. include (left to right): Roy Wilder, of Spring Hope. NC: Lindsey Nelson. public relations offi¬
cer for the 9th Oi vision, which trained at Fort Bragg (in year» tmee regarded among the be»t sport* writers);
and Don Whitehead, war correspondent in World War II and Korean War. winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for
reporting,
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