In 1835 they kicked the Cherokee out of North Georgia. The Cherokee were bound by their treaty with the British king, so in the War of 1812, the Cherokee sided with their treaty ally, Britain.

This angered Andrew Jackson, so like Trump, when he became President, he took revenge.

Also, 14 years before the California gold rush, the 49ers, America’s first gold rush was in Dahlonega, Georgia…Cherokee territory.

After the Trail of Tears, white people moved in to furnished Cherokee homes and harvested well tended Cherokee fields. The Cherokee were wealthy and well educated….looting the Cherokee nation was lucrative.

65 years later, the forests had no deer and the streams had no fish. Optimistic towns like Diamond, Georgia had no diamonds.

People became poor. There were no more Cherokee to loot.

In my grandfather’s home, they had never heard of popcorn. Field corn was their bread, ground corn grits was their breakfast gruel, and corn whiskey was the path to profit.

My great grandmother would pull coals from the fireplace and upon these coals she set a cast iron skillet. Without oil, she put dried grains of field corn in the pan and toasted them…making parched corn.

Parched corn was homemade snack food. My grandfather went to school with a handful of parched corn in his coat pocket.

As a child, I enjoyed parched corn…we even made some on fireplace coals.

Now, marketing professionals have renamed parched corn into “corn nuts” and added flavors like ranch or chili-lime.

Corn nuts …just regular corn which doesn’t pop because it isn’t popcorn.

Progress is fascinating….but even more fascinating if you have prospective.