Hot Grits

From the Wild Style school. Well, I'm exhausted. I've worked pretty much non-stop for the last two weeks and am now ready to collapse into a collapsible state like some kind of fold-up recumbent bike at Sharper Image. But first, a vignette, for Saturday night was Fish n' Grits night at work. This is me talking to the lovely Tracy, who scrubs pots with her massive, chocolate arms, never takes off her hornrimmed glasses, and walks compulsively when she's not on the job:

Me: Tracy, staring at these grits all night long, there's only one person I keep thinkin' of.

Tracy: Who's that?

Me: Sam Cooke.

Tracy: You must be thinkin' of Al Green.

Me: Oh. Was it Al Green?

Tracy: Who that lady throwed hot grits on?

Me: Yeah.

Tracy: Oh yeah. You thinkin' of Al Green.

So, for the record, the story goes that Al Green and Mary Woodson were the best of friends, since way on back. Mary, however, wanted more than a platonic friendship from Green. And so. She, being somewhat mentally precarious and he, having informed her that he wished only to maintain their "friend" status in lieu of kicking things up to the next (i.e. romantic) level, were fated to an impasse. The impasse led to one of the most notorious incidents in rock n' roll history.

On Oct. 18, 1974, Mary Woodson was sleeping over at Al Green's guest house (in the backyard of his "main house") when she was overwhelmed with strong emotion. She stole into Green's house with a big pot of hot grits, hid in his bathroom, and, when the singer entered and disrobed for his nightly shower, threw the hot, sticky, napalm-like grits all over him. While Al Green writhed in agony, Mary Woodson ran off to another room, where she ended her life via self-inflected gunshot wound. Green suffered 3rd degree burns on his back, stomach, & arms. Those close to the artist have said that he was deeply distraught for a long, long time about the whole thing.

Who wouldn't have some regrets about a situation that results in getting hot grits thrown upon one's naked body? Too, he lost one of his best friends. That's a double whammy. I guess I confuse Al Green and Sam Cooke because Sam Cooke was gunned down while he was wearing only a robe and one shoe. No grits involved in that assault, though. An overall gritless incident. But damn all the double whammies in life anyway.