Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 6, 1994 TAG: 9402060022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Long
Down in the steamy kitchen of the Elks National Home, four cooks prepared 180 pounds of chitterlings, or chitlins, as lawyers, doctors, businessmen and farmers gathered in the tower for cocktails on a recent Friday night.
This, the 95th meeting of the Blue Ridge Chitterling Club, ran the same way the previous 94 did - drinks, a chitlin dinner with coleslaw and cracklin' cornbread, followed by bawdy jokes.
"Do you ever go and just have fun?" asked William Pickett, the Elks Home director and club member. "There's not much left of that anymore. This is a time when [members] can just sit down and relax and talk to their friends."
They don't sponsor community events. They don't have a softball team. They gather just to eat and enjoy fried and boiled pork intestines.
These 45 men meet four times a year to consume the delicacy. It's an exclusive men's club - a new member can be inducted only after an old one dies or becomes inactive. That's provided he meets the prerequisites - he likes chitlins, and he's a "perfect gentleman," according to the club's official history penned by Glenn Ayers, a history teacher at Staunton River High School.
Dewey Fortune, a retired Central Fidelity banker, came as a guest for two years before he earned membership in 1974. "I was blackballed four times," he said. "They didn't know I was a country boy who loves chitlins."
He loves them so much that he drives from Tazewell County - about 185 miles - to attend meetings.
Cooking chitlins
Fletcher Johnson has been cooking chitlins for the club since it began in 1970. This was his last dinner before he retires after 42 years as a cook at the Elks Home.
He and three other cooks - Juanita Ridgeway, Anniemae Payne and Eileen Skinner - explained their secrets for cooking the perfect chitlins.
The intestines come in 10 pound buckets. The cooks figure about 2 pounds of fresh chitlins per person.
The ones to be fried are dipped in egg and milk batter, then sprinkled with salt and pepper. The boiled ones are cooked for a few minutes. Total preparation time is about two hours.
After club members devoured their chitlins - tradition demands that members should eat one liberal yard with an extra foot for each cocktail consumed - the cooking crew was recognized with a standing ovation.
"The chitlins have never been better than they were tonight," said Chief Chitterling Eater Edward Lovelace as he called Fletcher to the head table for a proper farewell. Lovelace, a dentist, voiced his hope that Fletcher would return to cook the chitlins, thanked the cook for his years of devoted service and presented him with a gift certificate.
The evening's stories
Buzz Cooper delivered both the prayer before dinner and a chitlin story or two to a newcomer.
He hasn't always appreciated chitlins. His mother, who used almost every other part of the pig, did not allow chitlins in the house when Cooper was a child, he said. He was 60 before he tasted one.
Seems another time, a member took home some leftovers for his wife. But the cat stole the chitlins before the wife could taste them. The cat didn't eat them - it buried them.
These stories sounded tame compared to the jokes that followed later. "We usually tell a lot of lies and dirty stories," said Cooper, a recently retired insurance salesman.
And they did. "How many men are sleeping on their stomachs at night?" asked former Corning Glass salesman Marshall Dyson, referring to the Bobbitt trial.
Jokes that can't be retold in these pages were met with peals of baritone laughter echoing off the walls of the Elks Home dining room.
One of the most celebrated rivalries is between former Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney Harry Garrett and Dean Wilkerson.
Although Garrett arrived after the last chitlin slid down a throat, he still managed to hurl a few good-natured barbs at his close friend.
Wilkerson, retired from the hardware business since 1975, said the ribbing is a part of his friendship with Garrett. "We've been at it for a long time," he said. "He's always pretending to kick me out of the club."
A glimpse at minutes of past meetings confirmed Wilkerson's statement. "HWG complained that he did not want his name associated with DW," the minutes read. "However, the chief-vice told him that if he wanted continued support from the four banks in town, and prominent people to be witnesses for him in his shaky court cases, he would do well to sit down and be quiet. He tucked his tail and became very humble."
The rivalry started when Garrett was Commonwealth's Attorney and Wilkerson's store, Northside Supply Company, was robbed. Wilkerson told the court he was disappointed all his money couldn't be returned.
Later, Garrett got his chance to respond.
Wilkerson was driving a van back from South Carolina when he accidentally ran over a duck. On learning of Wilkerson's accident, Garrett had a warrant issued charging Wilkerson with killing a duck out of season.
Jim McCabe, an engineer with Groendyk, is one of the club's founders. He remembers meetings where chitlins weren't the only steamy things.
Seems some belly dancers used to join the fun from 1975 to the early 80s. "They'd come around and the guys would slip them dollar bills," McCabe said.
From the top
Ayers, the history teacher, organized a 20-page document covering the club's origins and philosophy four years ago. The history section faithfully traces the humble beginnings of the club from a splinter group of a New London club to its present size and condition.
In 1970, the Bedford members split from the New London group - The Original Chitterling Club of America - after an undescribed philosophical disagreement.
Almost 35 members met at the Thaxton Community Center and named their gathering The Blue Ridge Chitterling Club of Virginia.
It wasn't long before the chitlin eaters moved to the Elks Home. Seems the Community Center was owned by two local churches, which didn't appreciate the club's bringing alcohol to the meetings.
Jim McCabe was voted the club's first vice-chief chitterling eater and is the only surviving club member who has held the top three positions.
Of the original 34 members, only 15 remain, he said.
Guests are allowed at three of the yearly meetings. Paul Elso, one of the Elks Home national directors, was a guest at the recent meeting. He'd never had chitlins before, but finished off two helpings. "He done good for a virgin," one member said.
"I've eaten a lot of parts of a hog," Elso said, "but tonight was a different pleasure."
by CNB