Arkansas Blog

That's just not right.

I prefer the ones with wings and the handy disposable applicator. I see them advertised on Dr. Phil every day.

I'm very much the daily lurker here and seldom post, but today I must.

I was in Starkville, Mississippi, over Memorial Day Weekend, and had asked my cousin if he was familiar with the delicacy. This boy, who has thrived on boiled peanuts most of his life, gave me a clueless look; he was unaware.

However, on my way back to the Ozarks on Monday, we stopped at that very Helena-West Helena Exxon. I had gone to the restroom, and as I came out, my nephew came over to me and said, "You have to see the most disgusting food item ever." He led me to the Kool-Aid pickles. There were two large jars (plastic, I believe): One of the red variety (strawberry or cherry ... I can't remember), and there was the other, containing a yellowish fluid, with the hand-written label "lemon-lime."

"We just started selling those last week," the clerk told me in a drawl known only to the Delta region.

But, no, I didn't try one. As a rule, I don't eat free-floating food with hand-scrawled labels from mysterious sources at convenience stores. But, somehow, I felt like I had seen something as magical as the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. (And speaking of the woodpecker, I must add that not much later, we had a delightful lunch at Gene's Barbecue in Brinkley. The restaurant is laden with Ivory Billed Woodpecker paraphernalia, including a postcard that has unintentional B-movie overtunes with the caption, "I'm still alive!")

Clarification: I reread the Eat Arkansas food blog, and see that it was the Brinkley Exxon that there was a Kool-Aid pickle sighting. My sighting was at the Helena-West Helena one. So, make that at least two places in Arkansas, both at Exxons.