| "body"> | | | | or gardeners, and most of the articles and |
| Back in the 1950s, rural communities existed all | | | | features are based on personal experience and |
| across the USA. In fact, more than half of all | | | | know-how. |
| Americans were growing at least some - if not all | | | | Grit has always stood as a symbol of retro |
| - of their own food at that time, and agriculture | | | | culture and has long been a traditional Americana |
| was an enterprise that was as common to | | | | institution, so those who used to sell the copies in |
| Americans as the Internet is to today's | | | | early days are thrilled to see it taking on a whole |
| generation. One of the publications that was | | | | new life in the 21st Century. And while many |
| widely distributed to those farming families was | | | | expected it to go the way of other publications, |
| Grit, a small newspaper that carried helpful and | | | | and either die out completely or sell out |
| practical articles about things related to live in the | | | | completely to more contemporary interests or |
| countryside. And in 2006, the out-of-print Grit | | | | advertisers, the publication has managed to stick |
| paper reincarnated as a magazine, complete with | | | | to its rural roots, continuing to do what it has |
| color pictures and a glossy cover. | | | | always done best. |
| Whereas the original publication was mostly sold | | | | Whereas urban readers might want to find out |
| door-to-door by young people who could purchase | | | | about their astrology predictions for landing a new |
| issues of it and then resell them for a 10 or 20 | | | | job or getting a new love interest, the rural |
| cent profit, the modern version is found in stores | | | | readership of Grit can still depend on almanac info |
| across the nation such as Barnes and Noble. And | | | | that talks about predicting the weather and the |
| although the market demographic has changed, | | | | time of year to plant crops. And while urban |
| the content of the Grit magazine is not unlike the | | | | readers may pick up a magazine to find out the |
| 1950s Grit newspapers. There are articles about | | | | latest Hollywood gossip or New York fashions, |
| things like how to raise rabbits, how to grow corn | | | | those who tend to subscribe to Grit magazine |
| and vegetables and then can them for winter, | | | | may be much more tuned in to the goings on at |
| how to purchase farm equipment, and how to | | | | the state fair, the produce markets. But in the |
| vaccinate livestock. Many of the writers for the | | | | magazine world, it is "to each his own" and that is |
| magazine are themselves farmers, homesteaders, | | | | how it should be. |