Day 5 Mississipi - Drive to Clarksdale, via Tutwiler

Today started slow enough - woke up about 7:00 am and pack up. I checked out of Tallahatche flats. Checking out means dropping off the keys in a wooden box on the porch of the "office". I had to run because it scared a bunch of wasps out of the box. My GPS directed me to turn on Rd 332, which turned to gravel in about a mile and then to red dirt in another mile. It was so rough, that I was afraid I was going to tear up the rental car, so I turned around. I took some good guesses and got to highway 49 north and saw a sign for Clarksburg. I drove for a while and was getting hungry, so I was watching for any place to eat. At about 11 am I was driving through a little town called Tutwiler and saw a tiny place called Big Pappa's Soul Food. I walked in and was warmly greeted by Miss Maxine. She recommended the ribs. I got baked beans, slaw, fried okra and toasted white bread.

Miss Maxine and me (wiping BBQ sauce off my hands)

The only other person the the place turned out to be the town artist - Larry Grimes. He made "Yard Art". He came and sat down and started talking. About the first thing he said was " I'm not psychic, but I'm a good judge of people - you're a religious man aren't you?" I said I was and he started talking. He hardly stopped for the next 3 hours. He insisted I drive with him out to his yard, because he had a cross he wanted to give me. He had about a 10-acre junk yard full of "Art" and yet-to-be art. He made yard statues - bluesmen with guitars, martians, Indians, airplanes with blades made out of old fans, and just about anything you could think of - all made out of mufflers, tin, car parts, appliances, and anything "People just throw away".  American Pickers was coming on Saturday to film at his place. He gave me a cross, an old fiddle, and a Mississippi license plate. He drove me into old Tutwiler and showed me the grave of Willie "Sunny Boy" Williamson and introduced me to a few of his relatives. We drove around several of his favorite sights. He ended with an admonishment that I visit him at the "Po Monkey" for music on Thursday night. He said it would be full of all kinds of people, "Black, white - it don't matter, They'll even let a boy from California in!"   I got out of there at 3:30 pm.

Larry at his Art Studio

His newest work - John Deere tractors made from old sewing machines

Mural in Tutwiler showing info about Sunny Boy Williamson

I finally made it into Clarksdale and got checked into the Cotton Gin Inn at the Hopland Plantation. This place also has shacks, but I decided to stay inside the Gin. The rooms are nice, with air conditioning and a balcony that looks out over the yard and shacks. It was about 95F outside.

Below the rooms, inside the main part of the old Gin is a big music venue, shops and a bar/restaurant. The place is just covered with blues and music memorabilia. They've got a bunch of old guitars down there for guests to play. I grabbed one and did my best 3-bar blues for the five people that were inside. I wouldn't say I got a standing ovation, but it was fun to be on the same stage that has had so many blues giants.

I took advantage of my air-conditioned room and took a nap. My first real nap since I have been here. I got up around 6:00 pm and went down stairs. I saw a couple from NY that I had met at the other shacks and they were heading into town for dinner (supper here), I jumped in with them and we went to a place in town Abe's BBQ. I had BBQ beef, beans, cornbread, slaw and sweet tea. It was great!

Tomorrow I plan to just bum around town and get pictures of all the beautiful colors I see.... and eat of course! 

Day 4 Mississippi - Driving the Countryside (and a bit about bugs)

I slept in a little today to make up for the sleep I missed last night chasing catfish. I drove up to Wildwood plantation (folks here pronounce it without the first T - planation). I photographed the churches I saw along the way. I'm sure that most anywhere in the Country, if you drive far enough, you can watch the socioeconomic situation change. Here, you can see it in a mile. I saw mansions with columns and then a mile down the road I saw shacks with their laundry on the line. It was even more pronounced in the church buildings. A GoogleEarth search shows about 100 churches in a 10-mile radius. Below are a few that I photographed.

This the local "Mega-church" in Greenwood. It is a spectacular building that spans about a city block. The parking lot takes up about another whole block. The top of the steeple is probably 150' in the air.

This a more modest church in town. Very pretty with beautiful lawn.

This church is about 4 miles out of town,. It is a steel building with a gravel parking lot.

This church is about 8 miles out of town. The whole building is leaning a few degrees. It's got a propane tank for heat and I can see 3 window air conditioners. 

I'm sure you can see the progression here. There's a big change in 10 miles of driving, but as the Word says, where two or three gather in His name, He is there....  I'm sure that is true no matter the condition of size of the building.

Now I want to talk about bugs, because I'm still itching from all the bugs that bit me last night. The fireflys and butterflies are really cool, but the others are just scary. There was a swarm of bugs around the little porch light that looked like a small tornado. There are grasshoppers the size of sparrows. Some of them are as pretty as butterflies when they fly. Junebugs are everywhere after dark. I know they are harmless, but they are so big and hard that they just creep me out. The sound like a rock when the smack the windows. There are wasps of every color and dragonflies of every size. I must just be a big sissy, because I drove into town to buy some repellent and they didn't sell it. Even as I sit on the porch typing this with no light on, there are things crawling across the LCD screen that make me shiver.... big bugs with eyes that look around and tails that have an ominous wiggle. Good night - I'm going inside.

Look at those fangs and look how he dwarfs all the other bugs!

Day 3 - Sunday, Church and Catfishin'

I went to church this morning at Riverside Baptist Church, in Money Mississippi. The little old church was small and really pretty. It had 2 rows of pews and stained glass on every window. It had about 30' ceilings with exposed beams. There were about 20 people in church, but it was pointed out that a couple of families were away for the Memorial day weekend. Pastor Butch preached a great sermon. He has a really smooth style, very articulate and a relevant message. He mentioned that his sermons are so great that people come all the way from California to hear them. Most everyone already knew I was from California, and they got a good laugh out of it. They took the time to pray for folks in the congregation, servicemen overseas, people affected by the floods, and many others by name. We sang several hymns and it was an enjoyable service. Most everyone came to talk to me after the service.

For lunch I had Crawfish pie. It was about 6 folded pies stuffed with crawfish and vegetables in a dark red gravy. As I like to say - It sho' am good!

I met a wonderful family of folks in the evening that were running a bunch of trot lines in the Tallahatchie river. I went along in their little boat to check the lines. We left just before dark and the river was beautiful. It got a more interesting after it got dark and we were trying to dodge trees in the river when it was almost pitch black. They talked a lot about stories like, "Remember when that big water moccasin fell in the boat?" and "Dont tell Rawge why I only got 9 fingers". We caught a lot of big catfish, some of them as big as 30 pounds. I got a few nice pictures, but there were 4 of us in a small boat, so I was mostly dodging tree limbs and trying to stay dry from all the fish splashing. Tyler, the guy in the front that was checking the hooks and putting fresh bait was chewing Copenhagen. While standing on the front of the moving boat, he spit on the little baitfish that were dangling from the hook. His accuracy made me jealous.

Tallahatchie River at dusk

After we finished running the lines, we went frog giggin'. You spot the bull frog's glowing eyes on the bank with a light. Then they ease the boat into the bank. You have a choice to try to hit it with the gig, but a surer catch is to gab it with your hands. The only problem is that snake eyes and frog eyes look identical. The guy in front would gig a frog and then fling it in the back, by me. Of course you can imagine that every time it came along with " On no! Its a snake! Its a snake!!" just before it landed by my feet in the dark.

Anyway, we caught a mess of fish and had a great time. And I saw my first Fireflys!
Thanks Tyler, Adam and Cody!

Day 2 - Itta Bena

This morning I took a walk from the back of my shack, about a mile along the Tallahatchie river, to the Zion Baptist church to visit the final resting place of Robert L Johnson. He was a pioneer of the early Delta blues. He tried to play blues in the Greenville area with some of the other early blues pioneers, but they sent him home because he wasn't any good. A couple of years later he returned and folks were amazed at his incredible new talent. Legend has it that he traded his soul to the devil at the crossroads outside Clarksdale, for his new abilities. A truer possibility is he went home and practiced for two years, but that isn't nearly as interesting.
He played the juke joints around here for a few years and recorded some great music. One night the wife of one of the joint owners took a liking to him and was flirting. Later that night, Robert accepted a drink that was bought for him by a patron. A short while later he became sick, presumably from poison. He was taken to a hospital in nearby Baptist Town, but eventually died.

"A jake-legged preacher said some words and they put 'em in the ground"

 That spot of ground is in Zion Baptist Church's graveyard (or any one of the other church cemetaries that claim to have the grave marker).

It was a really weird thing, that after I walked back to my shack and grabbed my guitar, I could jam all over every blues lick. I was like lightening.... OK, I made that part up. I'm still horrible!!.

 I had to buy a cheap guitar in a pawn shop because Continental airlines wanted to charge me $235 excess baggage to bring mine along. I got this one fairly cheap because it need some work. I brought along a new set of strings and enough tools to give it an overhaul. It plays pretty well now...as well as I can play it anyway.

I drove over to Itta Bena. On my way I passed the WABG Radio Station. I was just waiting for an old boy to offer me $5 to sing into a can.

I visited the Itta Bena cemetery and met an older gentleman that was putting up flags along the fence for Memorial day. He told me all about Itta Bena, which means "Home in the hills" in the native American language. He also showed me his Granpa's grave stone. He died in the "war between the states": He showed several other relatives and told me about their lives. I asked him about recommending a place to eat. He said there wasn't any place he'd recommend.

I went ahead and drove into Itta Bena, I parked and walked around the downtown. I met Miss Charlothe. She owns a shop that makes plastic flowers. She closed up and walked me around to show me some of the local sites. She introduced me to a dozen people and we stopped at a little place and ate pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans and drank green cool-aid that was so Sweet it was almost too thick to sip.  

I ended the day with a steak dinner and polished that off with a big piece of their Lemon Ice Box Pie

My little shack away from home

Tallahatchie Flats

The shacks are a great piece of history

Sitting on the porch at night was classic Mississippi :)

Mississippi Delta Day 1

I started this blog so I could share my trip to Mississippi. I have wanted to visit the Delta since I was a kid, but as many things go, I had to wait until I was 50 years old to get it together. I get asked all the time - Why Mississippi? Fireflies, catfish, big rivers, pork chops, black-eyed peas, fried okra, pecan pie and it was the first long word I learned to spell- That's why. My plan is to meet as many folks as I can and to acctually hands-on experience as much as I can. I plan to take a lot of photos and share some of them here. Thanks to Rhonda and my friends for making it happen.

It was a bit of fun to get here- I got on a plane at midnight, flew all night, then rented a car in Jackson and drove 100 miles to Tallahatchie flats. I drove the small roads, but kept hitting detours because of flooding, After getting turned back a couple of times, I stuck to the main highway and got here about noon. My shack is pretty cool with a nice portch on the front and back.

 I took a drive down one of the little roads to a town called Money. There's a little store there that was the scene of some of the worst of Mississippi's past. It is where a young African American boy, Emmett Till, was killed and there was a long trial, news media, KKK and such. But, as everyone here tells me....that was a long time ago and things have changed.

While I was there, I met an older gentleman that told me about some of the history. He invited me to his church for supper that evening. I had a great meal of quail, slaw, bisquits, and butter beans! I met some great people and had a really fun time in their fellowship hall. Pastor Butch took me over and showed me their sancurary.  We talked for about an hour. Great Folks.

I ended up passing the evening on the porch of the next shack talking with a couple from Holland. They were very interested in about everything American, especially music.  They were on the way the next morning to Graceland.