Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy was my favorite meal growing up. When my wife and I are on the road, we often stop at a Golden Corral (none in our area). I ALWAYS!!! have the fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. Watermelon in the summer was viewed as a big treat and thoroughly enjoyed by everybody I knew in my all-white environment.
When I started reading the jokes about how blacks like fried chicken and watermelon, my response was a puzzled, "I thought everybody like fried chicken and watermelon?" I never met anybody who said they didn't.
I like fried chicken, blackeyed peas, collards, & watermelon.
“Ice cold watermillion” is what we kids called it, & eating it meant that the family was able to afford it. Then from the backyard cookout we headed for the local Dairy Queen. In an older car that ran like a champ because Dad knew how to maintain it.
Nobody felt “poor”, for some reason.