By Bill King
I have a confession to make. I love barbecue. I can’t go much longer than a few days without a dose of that smokey-smelling pork slathered in sweet-red sauce with a touch of tabasco to add tingle to my tongue. Here in the south, we have five major food groups, which include fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and hickory-smoked pork. In some places, a fried apple-or-peach pie might even slip in there as a sixth! I enjoy all kinds of barbecued meats, including chicken, brisket, or ribs, but a crispy slice of outside pork is my all-time favorite. I can’t remember when I first learned to love slowly-smoked meat, but it couldn’t have been too long after I stopped drinking milk from a bottle!
I have eaten in some famous barbecue places and wondered why. I have also eaten in some unknown hole-in-the-wall barbecue joints and wondered why not.
In the 80s, when I lived in Georgia, I discovered a newspaper columnist/humorist named Lewis Grizzard and Sprayberry’s Barbecue. I subscribed to The Atlanta-Journal and Constitution Newspaper in those days. The Sunday edition of that thing was so big you needed a forklift to pick it up off your driveway! One of the things I loved about that newspaper was Lewis Grizzard’s columns. While I did not agree with all of his views, his southern sense of humor usually had me laughing out loud…sometimes until I cried.
Grizzard grew up in Moreland, Georgia, just down the road from Newnan. In Newnan was a barbecue place named Sprayberry’s. Sprayberry’s barbecue was Grizzard’s favorite. I don’t know how often he ate there, but enough that they have a Lewis Grizzard special on the menu. His special included a barbecue pork sandwich, onion rings, Brunswick stew, and sweet tea. For at least the last 35 years, when I passed through Newnan, Georgia, I rarely passed through without stopping at Sprayberry’s.
A couple of Saturdays ago, I decided it was time for a Lewis Grizzard Special, but much to my major disappointment; I couldn’t find Sprayberry’s. I got off Interstate 85 at Exit 47, just as I always had. I had been there so many times that I knew exactly where it was…until it wasn’t where it was. I drove up and down the street several times but could not find it. I thought my eyes were playing a trick on my barbecued-starved stomach when I realized that a convenience store was sitting where Sprayberry’s had been. The new convenience store had no smokestack. Never buy barbecue from a place that doesn’t have a smokestack.
My mind instantly went back to the title of one of Grizzard’s books. He published 25 of them in his lifetime. I own a copy of most of them. One was titled, “Elvis is Dead, and I Don’t Feel So Good Myself.” In 1994, at the age of 47, Lewis Grizzard himself died. Certainly, with no disrespect intended, I thought about writing a book and calling it “Lewis is Dead and Sprayberry’s Has Closed.” Then I decided it would be much less work to just write this column.
Fortunately, there were 2 locations of the famous barbecue restaurant in Newnan, and the old original one is still open. I have often heard it said, “When God closes one door, He opens another one.” I do believe that is true. Sprayberry’s closed one great barbecue place, but they didn’t have to open another one…it had been there all the time. Sometimes, the truly important things in our life (and not even barbecue) have been there all along; we just don’t always know it!
