Doing the radio show every afternoon has been a blessing in many ways. It allows me to interview fascinating people and travel all across the state of Mississippi doing live remotes. This Thursday, I’ll be in Corinth, Mississippi for the 25th Annual Slugburger Festival. It’s a lot of driving for one day, but it’s worth it. It’ll renew my love affair of Mississippi as I visit one of my favorite towns.
The old joke is that “News” is what happens between the reporter’s house and the office. My travels throughout the years (first being an ambassador for the paper and now working for the radio station) have given me an education I could have never received from a textbook. You can’t serve a community unless you know it. Seeing and meeting the people of Mississippi have made me a better observer and commentator. And hopefully the talent I’ve encountered will rub off. I always joke with my friend Wyatt Waters that I pray that his talent will infect me like a virus. (no luck so far!)
I just finished Winston (Forrest Gump) Groom’s excellent account of the Battle of Shiloh. (Shiloh 1862). I wish I had the time to zip up to Shiloh and see the battlefield. But I look forward to stopping in Borrum’s Drug Store (Mississippi’s Oldest Operating Drug Store and Soda Fountain) and checking out the Native American and Civil War artifacts. I look forward to a Slugburger (the part-meat, part meal burger developed to stretch meat and costing only a nickel –or a slug.). I’ll cross the railroad intersection that Gen. Ulysses Grant was willing to risk so many men’s lives for. I can’t wait to see the Confederate statue on the Courthouse grounds that inspired this story. And then back on the way home, I’ll wave at Guntown, Tupelo, West Point, Starkville and Carthage as I head back to the house.
We live in an amazingly interesting place. If you haven’t had a chance to get out and explore it, I highly recommend it.
P.S. The headline is a tip of the hat to Willie Morris — and man who created sense of place on the page better than any author I’ve ever read.
We were in Corinth not long ago. Made our required trip to Borrums. Love to travel the backroads and see the small towns in Mississippi. Things you don’t see when you travel the interstate but of course sometimes that’s necessary just to get from one place to another in a hurry. Safe travels to you.
Moved to Corinth in 1973 for my job, great small town Mississippi.