I like scrapple and headcheese and various sausages. And spam at least once a year.
We did live in Georgia for a couple of years in the early-mid 60s. I am more familiar with "corn meal mush" rather than grits or polenta, but overall they are very similar other than some differences in the grind and/or type of corn or seasonings (sweet or savory??). With school lunches everyday there were hush puppies, not something I find myself craving.
One of my favorite pantry (that is, no fresh) breakfasts is fried spam and cornmeal mush served with maple syrup. You make the mush the night before and cool in a bread pan, then make slices the same size/shape as your spam slices and fry both until a nice crisp on the outside.
In general, I like all the hot grain breakfast cereals -- Maypo or Ralston or Cream of Wheat (or rice) or just rice with milk, oatmeal is just fine. For cold breakfast cereals, I liked Buc Wheats but those are no more.
Is hard for younger people like my son to understand when many of us were young, there simply weren't the fast food options there are today and that some things they take for granted were once exotic. Like pizza! That was ethnic food before Shakey's and Pizza Hut came along...