{"id":1061,"date":"2024-06-25T01:35:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T01:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2024-05-05T14:11:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-05T14:11:39","slug":"the-mississippi-south-of-winona-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=1061","title":{"rendered":"The Mississippi South of Winona [2013]"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mississippi South of Winona<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarksdale, for example, a little south of Memphis, near The Crossroads of Highways 61 & 49, is a wonderful mix of Black & White but jarring sensibilities.  For starters, Clarksdale is in Coahoma County, the poorest county in Mississippi – and Mississippi the poorest of 50 states.  Then there\u2019s the old Five and Dime store, now a brightly lit Wi-Fi caf\u00e9 with condos on top, the only<\/span> place open on Yazoo Avenue (the main street) \u2013 even though it\u2019s 2 o\u2019clock on a Friday afternoon.  But right at the edge of town at the end of main street\u2019s 3 block run, just on the other side of the tracks, is Red\u2019s Juke Joint.  Here\u2019s the story of those 12 hours, written-up in under three pages.<\/p>\n

First we noticed the desertion.  Then we saw the Wi-Fi caf\u00e9 was open.  Then we found the only motel in town had a room to rent, so back to the caf\u00e9 with a room for the night.   As we\u2019re parking, this sombrero wearing skinny old white guy comes running <\/span>up.   \u201cOh hey!   <\/i>I see your from Minnesota \u2013 your plates \u2013 just wanted you to know you can rent the condo upstairs!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lorraine<\/a>

In Memphis we also visited the spot MLK was assassinated<\/p><\/div>\n

Rich and I, two retired guys, were on \u201ca talking with the locals\u201d trip, taking Hwy. 61 all the way from Winona to New Orleans.  Our goal was to uncover the cute lady historian working at the local history museum – who we never found by the way \u2013 but we did meet some great people while looking, including the poet laureatress<\/i> of urbane St. Louis and the Kellogg\u2019s Corn Flakes strikers in Memphis.  But on to Clarksdale because we\u2019ve heard about Red\u2019s.<\/p>\n

This sombrero fellow, then, in one breathless minute, discloses that he grew up in Wisconsin, oversaw plantations in Honduras for a living, loves the Blues, has made one of the upstairs condos (which he owns) into an art museum, voted this last election for the first White Mayor of Clarkdale in 40 years, and \u201cfor sure, you really want to meet my girlfriend Maddy and I hope you want to stay here tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

We disclosed we already had a room \u2013 \u201c. . . maybe tomorrow night \u2013 but yes let\u2019s see the art museum.\u201d  While touring the art museum, we learned so much more about Win (the sombrero fellow) \u2013 he kept chattering away \u2013 and the stuff we learned just about made us want to barf so much we couldn\u2019t wait to leave.  Rich and I only had one rule (besides not getting into each other\u2019s hair) and that was to always count to ten before discussing any of the locals we met.  1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u2026..Win was a proud white supremacist with a machete from Thailand amongst his ancient art work collection.  His collection worthy of mid-town Manhattan  \u2013 befitting someone fancying himself living the life of a plantation owner, even today, \u2013 \u201c. . . but boy!\u201d he told us, \u201ccan these boys play the Blues right here in the old cotton fields back home!\u201d<\/p>\n

I was already at the door, ignoring his yippy dog, Maggie (wearing a bow tie), when Win started wielding the machete, telling Rich \u201cYou don\u2019t know anything about Thailand!  The reason they lasted so long as a country is because they are such a vicious people!\u201d  Rich, despite my cautioning otherwise, had been trying to dispassionately let Win know we thought he was a racist pig.  Rich leaves with me, telling Win \u201cIt\u2019s because the Thais knew how to win the peace without fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomorrow:  The Next Few Hours<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mississippi South of Winona Clarksdale, for example, a little south of Memphis, near The Crossroads of Highways 61 & 49, is a wonderful mix of Black & White but jarring sensibilities.  For starters, Clarksdale is in Coahoma County, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1061"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1897,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions\/1897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}