There was a time long ago when I would pack my little girl in her car seat and whisk away. Away to another place just for a brief moment. It was another time and another place. The time was 1987 and the place was the Mississippi Delta. I used to love to vacate the house while Hubs #2 slept the day away. Never did he know his daughter and I were wondering the back roads of Mississippi. We were on an adventure I would tell my Angel Child. "Adventure?" she would ask. "Yes" I would reply. I could hardly wait to hit the Delta. Suddenly it was as if you dropped off a cliff. You had arrived in Yazoo City. Yazoo City is where they filmed Steel Magnolias.
For those of you who do not know it the Delta is a place between the mighty Mississippi River and the Yazoo River. The soil is so black and rich it can just about grow anything! As soon as the white man found out he chased off all the native Americans. Brought in slaves to work the rich soil and produced cotton. Yes King Cotton as it was called in the old days well before my time. You can still find cotton grown here and there but it isn't king here anymore. Yazoo City was the jumping off place for us. Yep it always felt like we were floating away on a raft to a slower time. Some claim the sky is bluer here and the sun more yellow than anywhere else in the world. From the air the Delta appears as if it were a giant patchwork quilt edged in orchards like lace. Such a pretty place.
My Angel Child and I would drive thru the Delta in search of what she had to offer this time. I remember once she and I stopped in Clarksdale, MS where Hwy 49 crosses Hwy 61 at this little hole in the wall place. I had been told by a client that if ever there try their Red Beans and Rice. As soon as I walked into the joint you could have heard a pin drop! Even the band in the back quit playing. I was the only white person there. But that didn't phase me! I just sit down at one of the tables and waited. Finally one of the ladies came over. "Honey?" she "Don't you want to go somewhere else?" "No" I replied. I told her that I wanted to try some of her Red Beans and Rice. I explained to her that their food was known as far away as Jackson. She smiled flashing her pearly whites. "And what would your baby like?" I'm hear to tell you that was the best I have ever had. Can't remember the name of the place but I can tell you they also have the best Blues you will ever hear and they treat you like a Queen! I could have sat there all afternoon listening to them play but we had places to go. Of course if Hubs #2 had known I did that he would have took my head off! Oh well what he didn't know made me stronger! lol
With our bellies full of "good eating", we would continue on our journey towards Memphis, TN. or perhaps return towards Jackson, MS. Didn't matter everytime we drove up the Delta it was a different experience. I remember getting behind the trucks taking their cotton to gin. They would be overflowing with cotton. And we would be stuck behind them forever it would seem. Didn't matter to us! We were on an adventure, remember? lol Sometimes we would pull over and pick up the loose pieces of cotton that had fallen off the back of the trucks that laid along side the road.
Dotted up and down Hwy 49 there were flower nurseries. Often we would return from one of our excursions with a pot of Hens and Biddies or a new Day Lilly to add to our collection. Always building memories as we drove on to the next little town. I wonder is Hwy 49 still 2 lane or have they changed it to 4 lane. I hope it is still a slow lazy 2 lane highway.
They tell me the mighty Mississippi flowing over her banks into the Delta. I wonder about those people I once met long ago. Will they be ok? Will they survive in that flat Delta land? The last great flood of 1937 was a hard one. The area is so depressed. There are no jobs unless you work on one of the plantations but even those are few and far between. Most of the young people have moved on, those that can work a days work. Leaving behind the elderly to care for the young. I've seen what a flood can do. I've seen what a tornado can do and I've live thru enough hurricanes to know the damage they cause. My prayers go out to those people.
But I know that someday I will load up my car and head towards that Delta one more time with anticipation of some "good eating" and what ever else I may find. Until then the Delta will be hard at work repairing herself as only she knows how.
Thoughts
