314 Singing Valleys 



Too, these stalwart forefathers of ours lived before civiliza- 

 tion had advanced to the point of setting a drug store on 

 every corner to sell bicarbonate of soda to Americans whose 

 diet of refined cereals is already low in vitamins B and G. 



What the Piedmont peoples need is not less corn but more 

 milk. Less saleratus, and more foods rich in these vitamins 

 which sodium bicarbonate destroys. Cows and truck gardens 

 would do a lot to lift the health rate. So would two dozen 

 tomato plants in every yard. One eminent dietician has figured 

 that "three cents' worth of milk or yeast in the daily diet would 

 wipe pellagra from the face of the earth." 



So don't blame corn. 



In the deep South they call it "yaller bread." And this may 

 mean a raised loaf in which corn meal is mixed with rye and 

 wholewheat flours, pones, dodgers, thick corn bread with a 

 buttery brown crust, or the kind that is poured thin on a 

 griddle or a dripping pan in the oven and baked in a crisp, 

 crunchy sheet. Whichever way you make it, it has its points. 



Nothing so distinguishes the Northern from the Southern 

 woman as the way each approaches woman's most pressing 

 problem. The Northern girl sets out to get her man by com- 

 peting with him, or with some other girl where he can have 

 an unobstructed view of her success. The Southern girl wastes 

 no time on competition. She plays charm. Nor is her charm 

 limited to a flower in the hair, languishing smiles and marsh- 

 mallow coquetry. While diverting her quarry's attention with 

 these, she brings up an overpowering flank attack. She feeds 

 him. Not as science and the Northern girl who has been to 

 a college where they believed in vitamins say he should be 

 nourished. But as every male, deep down in his secret, greedy, 

 infantile soul has longed to be fed. 



Of the ten million or so American women who extraverted 

 their appetites for romance by following the Windsor love 

 affair, probably only those born south of the Mason-Dixon line 

 gave full credit to the stories of southern dishes which the 



