Date:  Sat, 30 Sep 1995 12:56:55 -0500

From:  Gerald Walton <vcgw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SUNSET.BACKBONE.OLEMISS.EDU>

Subject: Re: 3rd Candy Bar (H****** Oilers Fans, Take Note) (fwd)



--=====================_812509015==_

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



>Obviously, Nashville is more of a (chocolate|peanut|marshmallow) focal

>point than I realized. All the way to New York!



I happen to have the _Encyclopedia of Southern Culture_ in my office. If the

scanner worked and you get this dos version, here is the entry on Goo Goo

Clusters.





--=====================_812509015==_

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



Goo Goo Clusters

"A Good Ole Southern Treat," announces the six-pack box of Standard Candy

Company's Goo Goo Clusters. Often advertised as "the South's favorite candy"

and "the Goodest Bar in town," the Goo Goo Cluster has been a candy staple in

the Nashville, Tenn., area and throughout the South for over 70 years.First

created by William H. Campbell in Nashville in I9I2, the Goo Goo Cluster is a

combination of caramel, marshmallow, peanuts, and pure miLk chocolate. (Re-

cently the company has been making Goo Goo Supremes, which substitute pecans

for peanuts.} Though the packaging and distbution techniques have changed with

modernization and company expansion, the ingredients, cooking methods, and

essential southem identity have remained the same.



The Goo Goo Cluster has been a curiosity since its origin. One account says

that Campbell settled on the name because his son, only a few months old at

the time, uttered those words when first introduced to the new candy. Another

version suggests that Campbell was struck with his son's first utterance and

decided it was an appropriate name. Whatever the true version, Standard Candy

Company has contended for years that a Goo Goo is the first thing a southem

baby requests.Along with the Goo Goo, the company, founded in I901, produces the

ever-popular King Leo stick candy, a staple in many southern homes and a common Christ mas treat and gift.

Since I968 the Grand Ole Opry has been singing the praises of the GooGoo, sharing

the wise culinary advice with those in attendance and reaching thousands more

over W S M radio. So closely associated is the candy with the Opry, some have

suggested that "Goo" stands for Grand Ole Opry. Grant Turner continues to let

listeners know how to order the candy by mail, encouraging them further with

the familiar slogan: "Go Get a Goo Goo.... It's Good."

Tom Rankin Southem Arts Federation Atlanta, Georgia

Margaret Loelo, Wall Street Journal l8 December I982; John F. Persinos, Inc.

(MaY 1984).

--=====================_812509015==_

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"





--=====================_812509015==_--