Hi Everyone, I hope this week’s This Week finds you all well. It’s almost February and I see spring at the end of the tunnel. It’s been a good week out here on the road, my first full week in Mississippi, with plenty of things to keep me occupied. I’ve visited some cool small towns, learned somefascinating history, eaten at some wonderful restaurants and caught up with friends old and new. It’s been good to be back on the road. Before I get started recapping my week for you, I want to give a big Thank You Shout Out to Todd, one of my subscribers, who sent me a huge list of recommendations for my time in Mississippi. Many thanks, Todd, your recommendations will come in really handy in the weeks ahead.
After leaving y’all last week, I did make my way out to the tiny town of Jacinto. The town was founded in 1836 and named for the Battle of San Jacinto in the Texas Revolution. It became the county seat of Tishomingo County and a stately two-story courthouse was built. In 1869, Tishomingo County was divided into three counties, Tishomingo, Alcorn and Prentiss, and the county seat of the new, smaller Tishomingo County was moved to Iuka. The town declined to the point where the courthouse was sold for scrap. Thankfully some concerned citizens stepped in to save the courthouse and the town. Nothing is open there in the winter, but it was still neat to wander around the courthouse and some of the buildings. It was really quiet and pleasant and there are a few houses and cars around so it’s not quite a ghost town, but it’s close. I did get a bit of a scare when I stood on my tip-toes to get a glance through the window and saw a life-like mannequin inside the courthouse. My heart jumped out of my chest.
From Jacinto, I headed down to Brices Crossroads Battlefield and wanted to visit the small Mississippi’s Final Stands Interpretive Center but unfortunately they had recently sustained some tornado damage. They were working hard to get the building back together and I wish them well with it. They hoped to have the center reopened this week.
I proceeded on to Tupelo and saw the tiny scrap of Tupelo Battlefield which is still preserved by the Park Service. It really is just one lot on a corner downtown with a memorial stone and a couple of cannons. After a quick stop, I made my way up onto the Natchez Trace Parkway and out to the Visitor Center just north of town. The Natchez Trace Parkway traces the old walking path of the same name which traverses the entire state of Mississippi. In a time before steamships, river travel on the Mississippi River was only one-way – downstream. People would float their flatboats full of goods down river and then sell them for scrap and walk for several weeks back up the Trace from Natchez to Nashville. There are places you can see parts of the original trail much how it looked 200 years ago. I enjoyed the park film at the Visitor Center, and a nice long chat with the volunteer manning the desk. She is a traveler herself, and spends several months at a time volunteering as a campground host or something similar in State and National parks around the country. She was really enjoying seeing the country in her retirement years and planned to keep doing it as long as she was able.
Tupelo is probably most famous as the birthplace of Elvis. I have been to his birthplace and Tupelo Hardware, where his mom bought him his first guitar, many times over the years on tour though, so I could skip them this time through. The weather was taking a turn for the worse, and I headed back into Tupelo in time for dinner at the famous Johnny’s Drive-In, one of Elvis’ favorites. I got their “Doughburger” which was really pretty similar to the slugburger I had in Corinth, although this one was better. They closed early while I was having my dinner and by the end it was just me and Elvis in there. It was a fun stop before I called it a night.
Thursday morning I tried to get the sewer pipe on Shadow Catcher fixed, but the place I went didn’t have the parts and it would take some time to get them if they ordered them. They tied it up real good though, and hopefully it will hang in until I get to Jackson where I know I can get it fixed. From there, I headed down the rainy road to Oxford. I had planned on visiting a few things along the way and taking some photos, but the weather was not cooperating in that regard. I arrived in the early afternoon and headed straight to the library to try and get some work done.
That evening I went downtown and met my friend Tracy and we went to see the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, a live radio show which comes out every week on both Mississippi and Alabama Public Radio. It was a really cool show with two musical guests, Short in the Sleeve and The PRLVG and a reading by author Ashley Wurzbacher from her book Happy Like This. I enjoyed listening to Ashley talk about her experiences and the similarities she felt between her hometown in Northwest Pennsylvania and her current home in Birmingham, Alabama. Beyond the actual physical similarities which stretch the length of Appalachia, the old steel-town-fading-into-the-21st-century image is certainly something I can appreciate. It was also cool to be there at Off-Square Books, one of Oxford’s great bookstores. After the show, Tracy and I went to have a few drinks at The Blind Pig and talk about travel and the blues and life in Mississippi until late into the evening. It was a lot of fun.
Friday was another gloomy day, so I headed back to the library to try and catch up on a few things. That evening I met up with my friend John and we went for a wonderful dinner at Snackbar, one of Oxford’s better known restaurants. John is a Mississippi native who I worked with for several years at my tour company back in the early 2000s. He is back living in Mississippi with his wife and two kids. It was amazing to meet his wife and catch up on what he’s been up to, and the food was really good as well.
Saturday I had some personal things to catch up on during the day, but that evening I headed out for dinner to the wonderful Taylor Grocery, about 15 minutes from the Square in Oxford. I had heard about Taylor Grocery from just about everyone I’d talked to around town, so it was definitely a must-see place in the area. It was going to be a double bonus too because one of my friends, Luke Fisher, was playing there that night. I met Luke last year at the Third Street Songwriters’ Festival in Baton Rouge and was looking forward to meeting up with him when I was in town. He lives in Oxford, and plays at Taylor Grocery pretty regularly. I arrived just as dusk was settling in, and took a few photos of the outside before it got too dark. Luke introduced me to Larry, who helped people park and was quite the local character. He and I sat in the parking lot for a while talking about the weather and his time in the old town. Then I headed inside and Luke introduced me to Lynn, the owner of Taylor Grocery for the last 20 years. He was also quite a character, but very friendly and welcoming. He and his wife get out and travel around the country a bit in the summer, so we had a lot of travel tales to swap about the places we both liked and where we will each be headed next summer.
Eventually I took a seat and enjoyed some wonderful catfish - the specialty of the house - and some delicious potato salad and collard greens. My friend Tracy joined me and we had a nice time chatting and enjoying the food, atmosphere and Luke’s music. We left about 7:30, and Luke invited me to breakfast the next day since he was going to be playing until closing time.
I met Luke Sunday morning for an early breakfast at Big Bad Breakfast or BBB in town, another Oxford institution. The food was really good but I really enjoyed being able to catch up with Luke and learn more about his personal story.. Luke is a really interesting person who’s lived an interesting life, and we were there for a couple of hours. These days he enjoys writing songs and spreading love and joy through his music, something I try and do myself through this blog and my photography. We had a really good time.
After breakfast, I went and took some photos around Oxford Square. The weather wasn’t great, but it wasn’t raining and I was afraid it might be my best chance to get some shots without getting wet (it wasn’t). I also stopped into Square Books, another iconic Oxford institution, and one of the most beloved bookstores in the country. I have to say, it was definitely one of the best bookstores I’ve ever been in. With extremely well curated sections on history, the South and American roots music, I found hundreds of books I wanted to read. Somehow I managed to escape without buying any though. as I really do have enough books to last me for a while.
For lunch, I joined Tracy at TriBecca Allie Cafe in Sardis, about a half-hour from Oxford. Tracy is the Senior Copy Editor at PMQ Pizza Magazine, so is a real authority on pizza. She told me in no uncertain terms that TriBecca Allie has the best pizza in Mississippi, and maybe in the whole South. On her recommendation, I tried their Magnolia Rosa Insalata pizza, something I probably wouldn’t have chosen myself. Sometimes you have to trust the expert though, and I’m glad I did as it was the best pizza I’ve had in a long time. Tracy regaled me with stories of her pizza-related travels around the world. It was a wonderful meal in a wonderful place with great company. It seemed a little out of place in tiny Sardis, Mississippi, but it really was worth traveling for.
It had been a busy weekend, so I took a long and much needed afternoon nap and then spent the rest of the evening catching up on some work. I got some photos edited and started looking at the week ahead and the places I want to hit here in northeast Mississippi.
Monday I took off early for Holly Springs which is about 45 minutes northeast of Oxford. It was the first sunny day I had had in a while, so I wanted to take full advantage of it. Holly Springs is a cute little town with a lot of history behind it. I stopped in and met Jamie at the Visitor Center and picked her brain for some great spots around town to take photos. She was wonderful to chat with and definitely gave me some cool recommendations. I wandered around the main courthouse square and marveled at the amount of work being done in Holly Springs. It is always great to see a small town in the South which is growing instead of shrinking and improving instead of deteriorating. I was there for a good chunk of the day and hope to get some of those photos edited this week for you to see.
When I was satisfied with my time in Holly Springs, I headed back to Oxford and had some marvelous weather for photography when I arrived. I spent the rest of the evening walking around and really enjoying taking photos. It’s been a while since I’ve had plenty of time and really good light to shoot with. When it finally got too dark to shoot, I stopped in for a quick beer at Rooster’s Blues House so I could sit outside in the cool-but-not-cold evening overlooking town. I was getting hungry, so I headed down the steps and around the corner to Ajax Diner, another name which seemed to come up a lot in conversation. I was sure glad I did. I had chicken and dumplings, and their’s was about the best I’ve had. It was their broccoli and rice casserole which stole the show though. It was all really good, and it had a cool atmosphere as well.
Tuesday morning I made a beeline for Rowan Oak, the one-time home of Oxford’s favorite writer William Faulkner. It was a beautiful but remarkably humble home and I really enjoyed my visit and speaking with one of the people working there. I also got a kick out of the fact that Faulkner had the same lights in his dining room that my mom has in hers, and the same telephone we have in our basement. Feeling inspired, it was definitely time to make my exit from Oxford although I had a wonderful stay there. I made one last stop to see the Confederate Memorial on the campus of Ole Miss. They have voted to move the statue from the center of campus to a more appropriate area in a Confederate cemetery. I was quite impressed, however, at the interpretive sign on the statue which explains very briefly some of the history of the statue and its place in Ole Miss history, both the good and the bad.
Finally waving goodbye to Oxford, I headed down highway 7 to the adorable town of Water Valley. First a stagecoach stop and then a railroad town, today Water Valley is another growing town in Mississippi’s Hill Country. I really enjoyed taking photos of the downtown area, and learning about their economic resurgence. If you’re interested in how they turned it all around, THIS is a great little article. I also loved making a stop into Turnage Drug Store, a pharmacy now being run by its fourth generation. They have a fantastic old soda counter in there, and the mirror looks like it’s a hundred years old. After a nice chat with the wonderful lady at the Chamber of Commerce, I had to hit the road as I had some distance to cover before dark.
I enjoyed my nice long ride through the Hill Country. Most of the time I’ve spent in Mississippi in the past has been in the Delta, which is pancake flat. The northeast of the state is a wonderfully hilly region with some definite ties into Appalachia. I passed through the town of Paris, but there wasn’t the ubiquitous Eiffel Tower replica there. In fact I sneezed and missed the town altogether and had to turn around and check it out a second time. I went through the logging community of Bruce (“Where Money Grows on Trees”), and then zipped on into Starkville, Mississippi’s other University town (Mississippi State). I got in right at dusk, and had a pleasant walk around downtown. I enjoyed some Thai food for dinner, and then went to Starbucks to try and catch up on some work.
The rains came overnight, but today has been surprisingly pleasant. The clouds cleared around lunchtime, and there’s been blue skies ever since. The sun is shining on Eastern Mississippi today, and I’m grateful. I started my day in West Point, with the hopes of visiting the Howlin’ Wolf museum there. Unfortunately, as all to often seems to be the case, the museum was closed. There was a phone number to call posted on the door, which I did, but by the time the volunteer got back to me I was already gone. I decided to take a little walk around the downtown area, and started taking photos. As the sun came out I took more photos, and ended up really enjoying myself there. West Point is a cute little city and while there isn’t much there, I had a great morning and will get you those photos sometime this week. On my way out of town, I stopped in at Jubilations Cheesecake Cafe for a slice of this nationally famous treat. I must admit, it was pretty darn delicious.
By then it was time to leave West Point as I had every intention of visiting the historic Waverly Plantation on my way to Columbus, This was one of the historic homes in Mississippi which was at the top of my list. Unfortunately, when I pulled up I saw that they are redoing the roof, so it is currently closed during the week. It was just going to be one of those kind of days, so I decided to catch a short afternoon nap instead.
Pulling into Columbus, I found another beautiful, historic Mississippi city, with plenty of awesome old buildings to photograph. I popped into the library to finish off this post, and then I’m going to try and go get some shots before sunset.
That being said, I’m going to close this week and get back out there while the sun is shining. I’ll be in Columbus for the next day or two, and then I’m going to do a swoop south and west and end up over in Greenwood. By the time we meet again next week, I’ll probably be somewhere in the Delta. I’ve got a lot of photo editing to do this week too, as I try and catch up on all of the cool places I’ve been, so expect some good photo posts this coming week as well. I’m determined to get some writing done as well, both on my book and on my podcast. I hope you all have a wonderful week out there wherever you are, and I hope you get some sunshine to enjoy. Until next week then, I’ll be right here in Mississippi. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you then.
-Mike