Page 33 - Barbecue News Magazine SEPT 2020

bedroom to this day. Roosevelt is enshrined on top of Mt Rush- more where he can forever look out over the land he loved and re- member the starry nights at Elkhorn Ranch sitting near the chuck wagon campfire and enjoying a barbecue dinner. B.Q. Score 7
27-William Howard Taft, 1909-1913
Taft was hand-picked by Roosevelt as his replacement and was the only person to serve as a US President and a Chief Justice to the US Supreme Court. He also served as Secretary of War and was the Governor of the newly acquired Philippines Territory. Taft was the last president with a mustache the first president to be buried in the Arlington National Cemetery. He was the first president to own a car and the last to keep a cow at the white House. He was president when New Mexico and Arizona became states, making him the first president over the 48 contiguous states. He started the parcel post system and Department of Labor and passed the income tax amendment. He was responsible for planting over 3000 cherry trees that attract thousands of picnick- ers to the national mall each spring.
Taft like sports and was a championship wrestler, he threw out the first presidential pitch in 1910 to start the baseball season, and its been repeated by every president since then and the first to take up golf. He was the biggest man to hold the office, over 6 ‘tall and weighing in at 332 lbs and would often fall asleep during meetings and at social events. He lost seventy pounds after leav- ing the White House and said he hardly ever remembered being president.
Taft eating habits are just as famous, he would consume a large steak every morning for breakfast and often another for lunch and then another for diner. He always loved his steaks grilled the same way over an open flame. One his first official trips to Geor- gia he was treated to a state diner
sitting president to visit Europe and to make a national broadcast over the radio. He installed a projector in the White House to watch movies and he aslo helped pass the 20th admendmet phoibiting the sale of alcohol. He was born in the south and did very little to help civil rights movement but he did advocatcate for womens right to vote and helped pass the 19th admendment. He was the only president to have a PhD.
Wilson guided the country and the world through WWI during his second term and won the Noble Peace Prize for helping form the League of nations. During the war he promoted greater swine pro- duction and started a “Keep-a-pig “ and “Meatless Mondays” to help the war effort. Wilson health deterated during his second term with complications and died a few years after leaving office. The end of WWI triggered the Great Mirgration where half a mil- lion African Americans moved
out of the south and into northern cities. They brought with them many cultural tradi- tions including Blues music and a healthy taste for barbe- cue.
Wilson seemed very disinter- ested in food causing his doc- tors to be concerned about his health. He was admidingly very fond of Smithfeild Smoked Hams from his native Virginia. B.Q. Score 3
29-Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1921-1923
Harding died of a heart attack just two years into his presidency. He owned the local newspaper and led a front porch campaign
from his home in Marion, Ohio. The town’s residents would help make the almost 5,000 daily visitors as comfortable as possible by providing lodging and serving meals known as “Harding’s barbe- cue”. It was said that Harding’s good looks and celebrity indorse- ments helped capture the first female vote in a presidential election.
This was during the prohibition but thanks to the bootleggers and the mob people had no trouble finding alcohol, including at the White House. Harding would have regular stag poker nights and serve bourbon, smoke cigars and grill bratwursts and frankfurters for his guests.
The world was at peace, there was full employment, higher wages,
in Atlanta that included a south- ern specialty, barbecued possum. He also was pleasantly surprised when treated to some Georgia Barbecue Sauce, the first com- mercially bottled barbecue sauce in the US. Toy manufactures as- sumed that the Roosevelt Teddy Bear craze would dry up after its name sake left office. They de- signed a stuffed and not so cud- dly “Billy the Possum” to take Teddy’s place. On another trip he took to Georgia his menu was re- ported to be “grapefruit, potted partridge, broiled (barbecued) venison, grilled partridge, waf- fles, hominy, hot rolls, bacon, and more venison”. Taft continued to come to Georgia every year and would make sure he visited Clem Castleberry in Augusta, who bet- ter known as the commander of ‘cue and the Barron of barbecue. B.Q. Score 6
28-Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921
First bottled BBQ sauce was served to Taft
Wilson won the election after of the split of between the republi- can party and Roosevelt’s Bull Moose thrid party. He was the first
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Camping with Ford, Edison, Harding, and Firestone
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