A Korean War Veteran, Bluegrass & Barbeque, and the Dillard House

It was a picture perfect day. The weather, music, food, and new friends we made all came together for one of those memorable events that, as we say in the South (the South of the United States, that is), “doesn’t get much better than that.”

It was the weekend of the 21st Annual Dillard Bluegrass and Barbeque Festival, held in the beautiful mountains of North Georgia, and like hundreds of visitors from the Southeast (and South Korea) who enjoyed America’s quintessential “mountain music," we tapped our feet, slapped our knees, clapped our hands, and sang along with the feel-good, Appalachia-inspired tunes. People from every walk of life and age group - young, old, hippies, church-goers, yuppies, cowboys, and a myriad of combinations of the above - kicked up their heels and had a good ole' fashioned time. When they weren’t singing, they were eating: barbeque. Award-winning, cooked-all-day barbeque.

At some point during the festival I met Marvin and Norita Smith.

Mr. Smith, wearing his Korean Veterans cap, immediately caught my attention. After introducing myself and telling him how much I enjoy living in Korea, he told me he’d served in the US Army and was sent to Korea in 1953. He spent most of his time in Busan - or “Pusan" as he called it - and was shocked when I described the port city as modern, high-tech, and beautiful. That’s not the way he remembered it.

He said one of the happiest days of his life was when he was told the armistice had been signed. For him it meant one thing: he could go back home - to America. Mr. Smith and his wife now live in Florida, and like me, they love Bluegrass and barbeque. I thanked Marvin for doing his part to help South Korea defeat communism and assured him that the citizens of the Republic of Korea are grateful for what he did for them. The expression on his face and the twinkling in his eyes when I told him all this was the best part of the day.

The next morning, we had what’s known in these parts as a “country breakfast” (we’d spent the night at the Dillard House, an inn founded in 1917 which is now a hotel complex with 92 guest rooms and suites and over 28 cottages). The all-you-can-eat feast of biscuits, bacon, sausage, chicken, eggs, gravy, pancakes, and of course, grits, was "Good eatin’!” Awesome, no other way to describe it.

Thanks to the Smiths, the musicians - especially the guys of Balsam Range - and the festival volunteers, we had a great time.

See you next year in Dillard . . . and could you please pass the grits?