Hello Everyone, it’s great to see you, and I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to our new subscribers this week, I’m happy that you’re here. It’s been a pretty quiet week here in Mississippi, but a busy one as well. I haven’t done a lot of traveling, but I’ve been to some pretty cool places and met some wonderful people. This week has brought me from Columbus back through to middle of the state with stops in French Camp, Kosciusko and Winona. I’ve spent a couple of nights Cascilla in a pretty rural part of the state with my friend John and his family, and then wound up the week preparing to travel northwest into the Mississippi Delta. Of all the time I’ve spent in Mississippi in the past, most of it has been in the Delta, so it’s pretty comfortable to me. I love it there, and have always been fascinated by the music and the culture. Sadly, I know that poverty levels in the Delta are high, and that this factor contributes to both the music and culture of the region, but I’ve also seen the area develop a reasonable tourism industry in the 15 years or so I’ve been going there, and hope conditions continue to improve for the area’s residents. Regardless of any of that though, it’s always great to be back in the Delta and I look forward to heading that way tomorrow morning.
When we last we spoke, I had just pulled into Columbus, in the far east of the state near the Alabama border. My first impressions of the town were good, but my lasting impressions were even better. I really found it to be a delightful and hospitable town full of history and with surprises around every corner. After posting last week’s This Week, I headed out for a beautiful sunset walk around the downtown area. Columbus is situated on a bit of a hill, which created a wonderful angle for the sun to reach the buildings from. There are some terrific old reddish colored churches around town, and with the sun going down, they glowed red in the fading daylight. I was like a kid in a toy shop as I tramped around town taking my photos, my smile stretching from ear to ear. I stopped in for a quick beer at The Princess, an old theater converted into a bar, pool room and music venue. It was Open-Mic night, and while I didn’t stay for long, the musical traditions of the state were evident even in the amateur performances that night.
Thursday morning I headed into town early and started my day at the town’s Visitor Center, which also happens to be the birth home of Tennessee Williams. Apparently Williams’ father was a traveling salesman so was away most of the time. When his mother was ready to give birth, she traveled to Columbus to stay with her parents. Her father was a local priest, and this house served as the rectory for the church at the time. While it has been restored and altered to suit its current use and was actually moved a block from its original site, it is still a cute and charismatic old Victorian house. There are some wonderful artifacts to be found there, many donated from people associated with either the church or the Williams family, and a very well done timeline of Williams’ life on the second floor. The kind lady working there that morning told me all about the house, the family, the restoration of the home and the town, as well as pointing me towards some of the highlights to be seen there in Columbus.
With my map in hand I set out around the Historic District to marvel at the many stunning antebellum homes to be found there. There wasn’t any real action in Columbus during the Civil War, so many of those homes were never touched by the war and remain intact, though in varying conditions from beautifully restored to “could use some TLC” today. As most of you know, I love these old homes, and really enjoyed just wandering around town. After a few hours in the Historic District, I spent most of the afternoon at the library editing photos. I went out again at around 3:30 to enjoy the twilight hour and take some more photos. I ended up with a LOT from Columbus and hope to get to them in the coming week so you can see what a beautiful town it is. Thursday night was pretty chill. The highlight was a visit to Chunky Chuck’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor for a scoop of their tasty King’s Cake ice cream.
Because the library was only open until 2 on Friday, I spent some time there in the morning, and then went next-door to tour the Stephen D. Lee Home. I’m really glad I did. When I arrived, I was greeted by a wonderful group of people, all of whom had a deep love of history and of this house in particular. I had an amazing guided tour of the home and learned about its beginnings in 1847 as the home of Thomas Blewett. It was passed down two generations to his granddaughter Regina Harrison Lee who was married to Confederate General Stephen D. Lee. Their son eventually sold the house to the city which built a high school next door and used it for their music and home economics classes. The school tragically burned to the ground, but the home was saved and it was then that the Association for the Preservation of Antiquities and the Lowndes County Historical Society stepped in to try and preserve it. It is a beautiful place and I really enjoyed spending some time there and speaking with all of the wonderful volunteers who were there that day. The house is only open for tours on Fridays and by appointment, and is also available to rent for parties and weddings. I think it would be an amazing venue for any special event.
After touring the Lee Home, I headed over to Friendship Cemetery, which has some wonderful historic monuments and graves. I spend a lot of time in cemeteries and the photo I’ve included here is one of my favorite pieces of funerary art I’ve ever seen. Friendship Cemetery is one of several sites around the country which claim the roots of our Memorial Day. After a long stroll around the cemetery, I went for a nice dinner at Harvey’s, which seems to be a local favorite. I enjoyed a nice crab cake salad and a slice of the heavenly Jubilations cheese cake. That night I went back to the Princess for a beer and some karaoke before calling it a night.
Saturday morning I took a few last photos around town and then said my goodbyes to Columbus. I really enjoyed my visit and exploring such a wonderful and quiet historic city. Heading out of town, I made my way west along 82 to Mathiston, and then hopped on the Natchez Trace Parkway from there. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and a nice cruise along the Parkway was really great. Heading south, I stopped in at the small community of French Camp for lunch at the Council House Cafe. This cafe is run by the local French Camp Academy, a Christian live-in school set up to help children in difficult situations. They provide education, extracurricular activities, art and music instruction and experience working in the cafe and bed and breakfast up the road. It seems like a pretty great place, and it sure was a delightful lunch stop. I’ve never heard of anyone known for their BLT and club sandwiches, but that’s what I was told so that’s what I went with. I also ordered a bowl of potato soup which could have fed a family of four. The sandwich was great, but the soup filled me up so much I ended up taking 3/4 of it with me for dinner. After lunch, I took a nice stroll around the small community before jumping back on the Trace and heading on to Kosciusko.
Kosciusko, named after the infamous Revolutionary War hero from Poland, was another delightful small town. I spent an hour or two taking photos around the courthouse square, again with the beautiful fading daylight of winter in Mississippi. Although it was Saturday evening, it sure felt like Sunday to me. It was so quiet and peaceful there with hardly a soul around. Kosciusko is such a cute town, in fact, that I got my tripod out after dark so I could keep taking photos. Satisfied with what I had, I headed out to McDonalds and got a couple of hours of work done, and then went back downtown for a quick beer at Outfielders Sports Bar on the Square, a really nice little bar with a very friendly and welcoming staff.
I slept in a bit on Sunday, and then headed back downtown to take a few more photos of Kosciusko in the morning light. If Saturday night was quiet, Sunday morning it felt like a ghost town, but in the best possible way. I hung out there for a while and then headed up Route 35 to Route 51 and on to Winona. I had no intention of stopping in Winona, but the sign pointing towards the Historic District reeled me in. I was sure glad I stopped. Winona is another historic town which just calls out to the photographer in me to stop, even for a minute. I really enjoyed the still-active train station, and the downtown area surrounding it. Winona was also pretty quiet on a Sunday, but it was another beautiful day and I was glad to be out in the nice weather. At one point, I looked up the block and saw someone else with a camera taking photos of the town. For a moment I thought I was in some other dimension and was actually looking at myself since I so rarely spot another photographer in towns like tiny Winona. I took a few more photos, and then looked up and he was gone.
I continued walking around the downtown area and spotted him again. I commented on the weather and we chatted for a few minutes. His name is Brent and he was out trying out a new lens on this wonderful day. He offered some suggestions of places worth photographing in the area, some of which I hope to see in the next week or so. One which really intrigued me was a memorial built in an old cemetery in which the local Lions Club had picked up the old broken tombstones and reassembled them into a memorial for those buried there. It wasn’t too far away, so I thanked Brent and headed that way. As I was walking up the hill to the memorial, he came up in his truck to chat some more. He had looked at this website, and thought it was pretty cool. He gave me his card, and it turns out he owns his own photography business, Richardson Photography and Video, and wanted to share some more of his favorite spots in the area. I wrote them down and look forward to visiting them, whether on this trip or in the future. It’s always nice to meet another photographer in the field and to get some local intel on the area.
The memorial was really touching but the day was waning quickly, as winter days always seem to be doing, so I headed on up the road. As I pulled through the tiny community of Duck Hill, I was once again forced to stop by my inner-photographer. An old business strip was just too photogenic to pass up. While the light was all wrong, it was such a wonderful scene I tried anyway. From there I headed up to Grenada, where I found some gas at $1.96 a gallon, and then headed on to Cascilla.
Last week I had mentioned my friend John who used to work with me at my tour company and took me out for dinner in Oxford while I was there. He invited me to come and stay for a couple of days and that’s how I found myself in deeply rural Central Mississippi. I love getting off the beaten path, but usually I’m still sticking to numbered roads of some sort. Getting to John’s place took me off the numbered roads and onto the real backroads of the state. Even though it was only 20 minutes from Grenada, it felt like it was hours away. It was nice to feel the weight of civilization lift as I drove into the country with its clean air and forested roads.
When I arrived, it was nearing dusk again and I hopped on the back of John’s ATV and we headed just down the road from his place to his parents’ place for the Super Bowl. It was so great to meet his family and friends and to be included in the festivities of the day. I have to say how lucky I have been to catch up with old friends in each of the states I’ve visited so far and how it’s always been the highlight of my stay. It’s always remarkable to me when I sit down to plan out my visit to a state and figure out how many people I know who are from there. Again, it’s a part of this whole plan of looking at each state I visit in isolation and what I find along the way. I’ve found that I can go to all the towns and bars and coffee shops in a state and still not get the same experience as spending even one night with a real local in their home. It’s really special and I can’t thank John and his wonderful family enough for providing that experience for me in Mississippi. We had a wonderful Super Bowl feast of burgers and potato salad, with big pitchers of sweet tea to drink. There were also baked beans, and I can truthfully tell you they were probably the best baked beans I’ve ever had. Then there was strawberry shortcake and banana pudding and some kind of gram cracker chocolate brittle which was to die for. You can tell what the highlight of my Super Bowl Sunday was. There was football too, of course. The game was a good one, and I enjoyed it, but I really enjoyed the company more. Lots of people came and went throughout the evening and there were lots of stories to hear. Mississippians, generally speaking, are excellent storytellers, and I enjoyed listening to stories from lives lived in these hills. It was a truly wonderful night. After the game, we headed back to John’s place and chatted for a while before turning in. He had to be up early, and I was pretty tired myself.
Monday I got some work done in the morning, while taking advantage of the laundry facilities offered to me. I worked on this post for a bit while my wash was in. In the afternoon I headed down to Grenada to have a look around. It’s a nice little town, and John tells me that the downtown is undergoing a nice revival and they enjoy going there for dinner sometimes. While I was in Grenada, I also ordered some new shocks for Shadow Catcher as John had a friend who was willing to help this traveler out and replace them for me. Winston is quite a character, who loves hunting squirrels and tinkering with things, and he’s a real wizard with mechanics. He’s one of those guys that just seems to instinctively know how things work and can probably fix anything. I really enjoyed talking with him and we jawed for a few hours over the next couple of days.
Unfortunately when the shocks came in, the front ones weren’t right, so I had to hang out around Cascilla for another day. On the other hand, the weather took a serious turn for the worse with hail in the forecast and a chance of tornadoes, so John’s brick house was infinitely better than my van in such conditions. Perhaps the good Lord saw fit to send the wrong shocks and keep me out of the weather for the day.
Tuesday afternoon, after dealing with the shocking shock situation, I borrowed John’s truck and headed down to Greenwood. I took the old Money Road, which is probably one of the more interesting roads in the state. It was along this road that Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market once stood. This was the store at which 14 year old Emmett Till supposedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant while he was in town visiting his relatives. Bryant’s husband and his half-brother later kidnapped Till, beat him and murdered him, tying a weight around his neck and dumping his body in the Tallahatchie River. Despite overwhelming evidence, the men who killed him were acquitted. Till’s mother bravely had an open casket and allowed the press to come to his funeral back at home in Chicago, and the story and photos would lead to increased support for the civil rights movement. As if the story isn’t bad enough, on her death bed, Carolyn admitted to making the whole thing up, and that Emmett had never actually whistled at her at all. The store that once stood there is now just a ruin, but there is a marker on the Mississippi Freedom Trail placed out front.
Further down the Money Road is the Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church, where you can visit the grave of legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson. While I hope to write more about Johnson in the next week or two, he was an amazingly talented guitar player and songwriter who has inspired generations of musicians. He spent most of his life as an itinerant musician, playing juke joints all over the eastern US and Canada. Tragically, right when there was a chance he might have hit it big, he was poisoned and died when he was only about 27 years old. He was buried near where he died, and today his grave is a part of many peoples’ blues pilgrimages to Mississippi.
Finally, the Money Road passes WABG AM960, a rural radio station in the midst of a cotton field and another truly Mississippi site before leading into Greenwood. I’ve spent a bit of time in Greenwood before and always really enjoyed it. This time I stopped into the Welcome Center for a chat and spent the rest of the day taking photos. The weather really wasn’t great for photography but it wasn’t raining either so sometimes you need to count your blessings. I enjoyed my time in Greenwood and will hopefully be back in a few days to get some better photos in clearer weather. After a busy day, I headed back to John’s place on the hill. It’s been so great catching up with him. We share a huge group of common friends from our years in the tour business, and it’s been fun trying to remember some old names from the good old days. There aren’t a lot of people who don’t work in the industry who can truly understand what it’s really like on the inside, and it’s always great to sit and chat with someone who just understands.
Wednesday, my shocks finally came in right, so I picked them up from Andrew at O’Really Auto Parts in Grenada. By now, we’re on a first-name basis and I appreciate all his help in sorting this out. I dropped them off to Winston so he could work his magic and spent the rest of the rainy, grim day editing photos and working on this post. I’m about to head back into Grenada to pick up a few things and stop by the library to post this and maybe work on another Snapshots post for the next day or two.
Tomorrow I’m off towards the Delta and hope to be listening to some sweet Delta Blues tomorrow evening in Clarksdale. This week I will spend a little bit of time in the Delta checking out some of the places I haven’t made it to in the past. From Clarksdale I’ll head to Cleveland and then back to Greenwood, out to Greenville and then down the Mississippi River. By this time next week, I hope to be in Vicksburg but as always only time will tell. Either way I’m looking forward to a great week of amazing music, history, food and all the other things that make Mississippi such a magical place to be.
Thanks, as always, for reading, and I hope you’ll continue this journey with me. I’ll see you right back here next week. Have a wonderful week wherever you are and I hope you’re all staying warm and dry out there.
-Mike