Grew up in Baltimore County and we used the term grit at my high school.

I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and we definitely referred to a certain group of kids as grits. They wore black leather jackets, listened to Poison and Def Leppard, smoked cigarettes, and the girls used lots of hairspray on their bangs.

Anonymous wrote:Grew up in Portsmouth. "Grit" = rednecky.
As in "look at all those grit-craft flying Confederate flags out on the water for Haborfest."

[b]Thanks for the blast from the past OP!

Not all grits were rednecky though. There were plenty of city grits.

Anonymous wrote:We had grits in mid-1980s Howard County. Lots of Led Zeppelin tshirts, feathered hair, surly looks, and smoking.

I tend to think of this as the quintessential late 70s early 80s teen.

Anonymous wrote:Went to FCPS decades ago and “grit” was a non-PC term to describe the lower middle-class whites who lived in small houses in areas like Pimmit Hills or near Falls Church HS. Wayne and Debbie territory.

Really? I’ve never thought of the term grit as a put down or non- pc. They called themselves that. It was just like being a punk or skater.

Anonymous wrote:And I'm not talking about the food, but a type of person. It's a word that was ubiquitous when I was growing up, but I've never met anyone outside of SE Virginia that knew the phrase.

I'm from Silver Spring and there were two dominant groups: Freaks and Grits. The Grits were leather jacket wearing, beer drinking, creepy to girls types and the Freaks were denim jacket wearing, pot smoking, cool, mellow types.

Anonymous wrote:Grew up in Portsmouth. "Grit" = rednecky.
As in "look at all those grit-craft flying Confederate flags out on the water for Haborfest."

Thanks for the blast from the past OP!

And, they usually listened to southern rock or heavy metal.

Grew up in Portsmouth. "Grit" = rednecky.
As in "look at all those grit-craft flying Confederate flags out on the water for Haborfest."

Thanks for the blast from the past OP!

We had grits in mid-1980s Howard County. Lots of Led Zeppelin tshirts, feathered hair, surly looks, and smoking.

The term was used in mid-70s PG County.

Anonymous wrote:Grit was used here in school in the mid-80’s.
Referred to the kids wearing jean jackets and into metal, smoking, etc.
First heard it in 1983, Springfield here.

Yes jeans jackets, long hair,

Central Illinois. Grits was a common term even in the late 1970s. Described the kids who were the outsiders, but not in a trendy sense but the 'gritty' sense--smoking, teen pregnancy, messed up families. Lower-middle class. Not necessarily farmer's kids as they were generally more self-confident and disciplined.

"Greasers" was probably a pre-grit term.

Went to FCPS decades ago and “grit” was a non-PC term to describe the lower middle-class whites who lived in small houses in areas like Pimmit Hills or near Falls Church HS. Wayne and Debbie territory.

I grew up in the Baltimore are during that time and I know the term.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I grew up in Chesapeake and this was a big thing when I was in middle school in the early nineties. The grits then were the kids wearing flannel shirts, combat boots, black eyeliner, etc. There were two main groups then - the grits and the preps.

No punks/alternative kids?

At my college there were:
Punks/alternative kids
The white Greeks and their hangers on. They would have been Preps in HS
The AA Greeks and their hangers on.
The fundie Christians
The Internationals
Grits
Jocks
CS nerds
College republicans
Marching Band
ROTC
Non-Greek affiliated super-rich kids/druggies
Gays and their hangers on (didn’t include lesbians)
Political AAs (two groups: the more moderate was Black Student Union, I can’t recall the radical one and its name changed at least twice over four years).
Theater majors
ABCs not in CS
Lesbians and radical straight feminists.

There was some overlap, but I remember certain sections of the quad looking like a scene from a cheesy teen movie.