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This Month:
MISSISSIPPI SEEN by WALT GRAYSON
America's hottest holiday
My oldest aunt told me that her mother (my grandmother) made the comment long ago that the older you get the more the cold and heat hurt you. My aunt said she didn’t understand what grandmother meant at the time. But now she does.
When my aunt was telling me that, I didn’t really know the full meaning of what she was talking about, either. Now I do. So it’s hard for me to gauge the feel of the summer heat and automatically attribute it to global warming, or just to my aging.
But it’s July and it’s supposed to be hot. That’s the fun of the Fourth of July, trying to cool off. Nowadays that could simply mean staying indoors and watching TV in the air conditioning. But when we were kids, cooling off took special measures.
On especially hot days, Daddy would buy a big block of ice, put it in a wash tub in the middle of the room and blow a fan on it so the coolness would wash the room in the breeze. Mama said when she was a child and it got so hot they couldn’t sleep some nights, Granddaddy would dip his hand in a bowl of water and flick fingertips of droplets into the air in their bedroom.
Evaporating water does cool, but I bet it didn’t help much. I do pretty well under air conditioning and a fan blowing on me. Let either not be working properly and I consider myself to be roughing it.
On the Fourth of July, growing up in Greenville, we’d gather the family and some of the neighbors at our house, and several ice cream freezers would show up. Not the sissy electric kind, either—the hand-cranked kind. We kids would want to take a whack at turning the crank. I had a hard time getting it to budge. The whole freezer would want to turn. Daddy would grab it back and make it look easy.
There would be enough watermelon for everybody to eat their fill and then for all the neighborhood boys and us cousins to have a watermelon war with the leftovers. Then, we’d get the garden hose and have a water war that served the purpose of rinsing off the watermelon goo.
We lived close enough to the levee that we could climb up on top of the house that night and watch the fireworks being shot from the water front on Lake Ferguson, down at the end of Main Street.
After the close of one of those summers when school started again and we were studying American history, I was astonished to learn that Independence Day wasn’t celebrated holiday-style in Vicksburg, like we celebrated, because Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863, to Union Gen. Grant in the Civil War.
The years mellowed Vicksburg to the point that, after World War II, even it started getting into the swing of celebrating the Fourth. Now, there are as many kids with firecrackers in Vicksburg on July 4 as in any other American town.
But it may be worthwhile to take the family, especially the kids, on an excursion this July 4 through the Vicksburg Military Park, or Corinth, or up to Shiloh or someplace like that for a local history lesson. Our children aren’t nearly as close to the war that defined this country as we were when we were youngsters.
And since just about everybody’s car is air conditioned, a road trip would be a lot more comfortable than hand-cranking ice cream on the front porch.
Walt Grayson is host of “Mississippi Roads” on Mississippi Public Broadcasting television and the author of two “Looking Around Mississippi” books. For ordering information, visit www.epaofms.com.
GRIN 'N' BARE IT by KAY GRAFE
The rocky road to Vermont
You are cordially invited to take a little trip to the northeast where lobsters are king of the rocky coastlines and Vermont maple syrup is the mainstay in local recipes. My husband once again planned a perfect trip (on paper) and chose the perfect month, May (suggested by New England’s chamber of commerce). We loaded up the camper, including Sugar and her toy basket, and headed to Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts, by way of Washington, D.C.
My husband and I were in a state of Utopia: We looked forward to the trip, our health was good and cheerfulness ruled our attitude. Utopia is a strange phenomenon, however, with a will of its own. It’s exactly like life—unpredictable.
We left Thursday, the last day of April, and were followed by tornado-like storms that swept across the country. My husband and I agreed not to let a tornado or two spoil our trip. We spent the second night on the road in Wytheville,Va., under a canopy of oak trees and rain. Dandelions covered the green rolling hills.
That was where the trouble started. Sugar’s black hair got wet and was enveloped in nature’s display. She attracted blooms from the oaks and freshly cut fescue grass like love bugs to car bumpers. Instead of relaxing by an outdoor crackling fire, in the rain, we spent our time brushing and pulling the mass that clung to her long schnauzer skirt. She was yelping in pain as my cheerfulness plummeted. Our friend Charley Calhoun had given us hearty logs that burned despite the rain. We watched from the window.
On Saturday, Washington welcomed us with another round of hostile winds and rain. We camped at College Park, Md., and took the Metro (a very clean subway) into the city. On the Metro we jumped off (you have to hurry) and landed at the major historical sights—a neat way for us to tour Washington. Our umbrellas were glued to our hands. This yearly trip has become a tradition. Normally without rain.
Next, we drove to Salisbury, Vt., and took residence in a RV park for several days. My husband, now my tour guide, had planned a scenic 80-mile drive using Stewart Green’s book on New England. It took two days to absorb the unique old homes and picturesque countryside. A trek into a wooded area took us to Robert Frost’s log cabin, where I stood and “tried” to recite “The Road Not Taken.” I imagined him in the cabin watching the snow fall and writing his poetry. I did take a sizeable rock that was part of the foundation—a reminder of his home. Don’t tell anybody.
This drive took us across a 17th century covered bridge, waterfalls and well preserved 300-year-old homes. We stopped to visit The Waybury Inn outside Middlebury where “The Bob Newhart Show” was filmed. (Remember Larry, Darryl and Darryl?)
Our next campsite was in Shelburne, Vt., near Burlington. We also used it as a base camp. During one of our scenic drives, we took a ferry across Lake Champlain to Essex, N.Y., another good sight for southern eyes. Yet, it was raining and cold. We couldn’t do anything about that, so we bundled up, went full speed ahead and ferried back to Shelburne. Here, we bought Sugar a doggie raincoat.
I wished for a warm sunny day—forget Utopia. Oh, I got laryngitis and lost my voice—my tour guide simply grinned. Please stand by, there’s more to come next month.
P.S. There are no billboards in Vermont to clutter the landscape—or direct you to Walmart.
Write Kay at 2142 Fig Farm Rd., Lucedale, MS 39452 or e-mail kaygrafe@bellsouth.net.
SOUTHERN GARDENING by NORMAN WINTER
Shasta daisies shake up the summer garden
It’s easy to love Shasta daisies, but when they look like shredded coconut on top of round cupcakes, they seem good enough to eat.
Last week we filmed a Southern Gardening segment in Mississippi’s hot Delta at the Wister Gardens in Belzoni. It’s called The Delta’s Garden, but the readers of Mississippi Magazine recently honored Wister as Mississippi’s Best Garden.
There in the gardens the daylilies were doing their part to steal the show, but there was one combination I found absolutely riveting. The Ice Star Shasta daisy was paired with Knockout shrub roses.
If you’ve never seen Ice Star, you might not recognize it as a Shasta. Shasta daisies are among the most loved perennials in the country, and they are included in more weddings than you can imagine.
It’s odd that we talk so much about varieties of other perennials but go generic when it comes to the Shasta. In recent years we’ve seen new selections like Angel Daisy and Darling Daisy; Becky was recently selected Perennial Plant of the Year.
Other popular selections are Snow Cap and the dwarf selections Silver Princess, Little Miss Muffet and Snow Lady, the All-America Selections winner. But the Ice Star takes honors for being the most unique-looking Shasta selection.
Shasta daisies have the potential to be around for a long time, so it really pays to prepare your soil. Choose a site with at least six hours of sunlight. In the South, the flowers should get a little late afternoon shade during the heat of the day.
The soil should be fertile and well-drained; soggy conditions in summer or winter simply will not work. If you have tight, heavy clay, incorporate 3-4 inches of organic matter like compost or humus and work your soil to a depth of 6-8 inches.
Shastas are great about giving you more plants, so divide in the fall, spacing them 12-15 inches apart. Make this a yearly ritual to keep those glorious blooms coming at their best.
There are lots of landscape possibilities besides combining them with Knockout roses. Another garden I saw featured them with Harlequin Blue scabiosa, or pincushion flower, and Beacon Silver lamium.
The lavender-blue partner Harlequin Blue scabiosa is no slouch, producing blossoms that are almost as intricate as Ice Star’s blooms. Gardeners are beginning to realize the groundcover-like ability of the Beacon Silver lamium, which has showy variegated silver leaves with green margins and light purple flowers.
Shasta daisies are cold hardy from zones 4-10, which means most of the country can relish in their beauty. You may be asking yourself why you
don’t already have Shasta daisies. While I will decline from pointing fingers lest I look in the mirror, the answer may lie in our desire for instant gratification.
Shasta daisies are most often sold as healthy, green transplants that will turn into majestic beauties later in the season. This is really how we should buy all of our perennials, but the desire for instant color leads us down another path.
While varieties like Ice Star may be for the connoisseur, the Shasta daisy is certainly a great choice for the garden.
Norman Winter is an MSU Extension horticulturist at the Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center in Raymond, Miss. His Southern Gardening columns are available at www.msucares.com. |
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