Well, it’s about time to see my friend, Glenn Bolick’s book appear in bookstores. Two years in the planning and publishing seemed like a long time, but when all’s said and done, we’re thinking how short two years has been.

Glenn’s plan for the book was a tribute to his upbringing, and that it is. It’s full of fun. Appalachian fun, that is. He says people think he talks funny, because he shortens words when he speaks. He points out how everyone in his community spoke the same. Therefore, he captures the spirit of his life and times as well as that of his parents and grandparents.

Readers will love the stories of his elementary school years and of his adventures taking dinner to his Daddy’s sawmill crew. Glenn and his siblings had many memorable times  in the one-room school house built at the top of the ridge. None of the students were happy about sitting in a drafty (often cold) wooden building where all the grades were taught in the same room. Glenn related how some of his teachers were “real mean” and gave plenty of whippings.

Glenn and his brothers, Lester and Boyd, had the duty of getting two or three peck buckets packed to the top and taking them to the men working at the sawmill set over the creek. Their mama included various kinds of pies and sweets. Glenn and his brothers had themselves a time figuring out whether to fight off temptation or snitch a piece of pie.

Glenn and I agree that the southern Appalachian accent should be saved. Some of what people think is southern is a combination of colloquial speech, old English brought from England in the 1700s, some ignorance of standard English, and sayings referred to as idioms.

Bolick has interspersed at least two hundred sayings throughout the book and relates stories about some of them. There are at least ten dedicated to each occasion he talks about in the book. This is what he says about his hometown of Blowing Rock; The town was so small they had to widen Main Street so they could put a white line down the middle.

If This Ain’t True, Grits Ain’t Groceries is certainly good for a lot of laughs, but it’s also a sentimental read for those who enjoy going down memory lane with one of America’s great raconteurs.

The book is available from major chain stores and independent bookstore, especially in the Appalachian mountains. Black Bear Bookstore and Appalachian University Bookstore in Boone, North Carolina.