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This Month:
MISSISSIPPI SEEN by WALT GRAYSON
Rodney is a river town again
I don't think it wants to be. Not this way, anyway.
We’ve been out looking at the Mississippi River the past few weeks. River watching is something I grew up with in Greenville. We always had a spring rise on the Mississippi, some years higher than others. After school and on Saturdays, we’d ride our bikes over the levee and see how high the water had risen. It got exciting those years when the back water rose high enough to cover the low spot in the road out to the houses along Lake Ferguson. Bow fishers would shoot fish with arrows as they swam across. Or just reach down and catch them with their hands. We’d ride our bikes through the flooded roadway until it got too high. I recall it being kind of tough trying to peddle through foot-deep water.
The high water was just a giddy curiosity to us kids back then. Another toy to play with. We hadn’t been around in 1927. And I put off until it was too late getting on videotape some of the stories one of my uncles had about the Great Flood. He never shared our light attitude about high water.
The closest I ever came to drowning was during spring rise one year. We were probably 13 or 14 years old when me and a friend of mine from the neighborhood tried to "Huck Finn" it across a bar pit. We used a raft made from planks that had floated loose from a wooden walkway that normally sat on top of an oil pipeline. The pipeline stretched from where they unloaded barges, through the bar pit and over the levee to the bulk storage plant on the other side.
We poled out about 15 or 20 feet from the bank before we flipped the thing. I bent over and grabbed the sides with my hands and went under, still holding on, standing upside down under water before I turned loose and sputtered to the surface.
When I climbed back on board, my soaked friend was laughing. I don’t know if it was from nerves or if he just didn’t grasp the situation. Either way, Mama never found out about it. I don’t think. If she did, she never said anything. And Mama wasn’t one to keep silent about such things.
Every spring as the water started marching up the levee, another of my uncles would jab a stick into the ground, indicating how high he figured the water would be the next day. Every time I tried it, my stick floated away.
So, imagine how surprised I was as we were leaving Rodney the other day. We had stopped on the side of the road so Ms. Jo could get a close look at some flowers, when a fellow stopped and asked how high the back water was. I told him I didn’t see any back water, it was all out front. He glanced at my Rankin County tag, smirked that I probably didn’t know anything about high water anyway, and drove off.
Don’t know anything about high water! I’ve seen it from the inside out!
And I also know that the Mississippi River deserted the promising river port town of Rodney, about halfway between Vicksburg and Natchez, late in the 1800s, making it more or less a ghost town. And that every now and again the Mississippi comes back, flooding houses and churches and making Rodney a river town again. Although Rodney could do without it.
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
Two peas in a pod
The speech was over and I silently thanked the Lord that I didn’t drop my notes or knock the microphone off the stand, and especially that He put the words in my mouth. As some people know I don’t often think before I speak. I need all the help I can get from above.
My husband and I drove home from Columbia last Wednesday night; as we drove we talked about my talk. First United Methodist Church in Columbia invited me to give an after-dinner speech at their “Wonderful Wednesday” gathering. The invitation was prompted by my column in Today in Mississippi.
I asked Mary Sturdivant, chairman of the event, “What subject do you have in mind? A spiritual testimonial, embarrassing moments, forgetfulness, dogs?”
“That’s up to you.”
Wow! If she only knew the weird subjects I pull out of a hat. So I chose the title “We Are Two Peas in a Pod Living in a Variety of Soils.”
I felt a need to describe my writing style. Today in Mississippi is an exclusive news publication for rural electric cooperative members, with a circulation of over 450,000. Wow! Even so, many city dwellers have not read my column.
My writing, I began, is most often stories about true situations and events that happen to me and people I know. I give an explanation or opinion, but the story is also a reflection of you. We live in the same state and share a likeness, though our soils vary.
Remember the crayon story? Some crayons are sharp, some dull, some pretty, some have weird names and have different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
We may not agree on our presidential candidates or what college football team to pull for, but we have a code that most Mississippians understand: a happy attitude.
What is a happy attitude? “A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery even on a detour.” (Not original).
I believe that Mississippi is outstanding. (Look at Our Homeplace on page 3). Granted, I’m a native, but I’ve lived in five other states and traveled in all the states except Alaska and Hawaii.
Our strongest likeness as Southerners is how we view religion. Do you agree? Most of us belong to a church. We are God-loving people with faith. Sadly, you can’t say that about the world, or even some parts of the United States.
Mississippi may rank toward the bottom as the poorest state in the union, but we are the most charitable state per capita in the United States. I believe that is due to our strong faith and our compassion for all people.
Our happy attitude leads to hope and faith.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1-2.
At First Methodist Church in Columbia, I talked about events that occur in our crayon box, like when my skirt fell to the floor in Sunday School; forgetting I had the program at Woman’s Club; my friend’s dog who took a vacation without him; and mud pies.
I didn’t mention my husband’s unfinished projects and the dent in my new car that I didn’t make, and the kitchen fire that wasn’t my fault. He was relieved.
Write Kay at 2142 Fig Farm Rd., Lucedale, MS 39452 or e-mail kaygrafe@bellsouth.net.
SOUTHERN GARDENING by NORMAN WINTER
For blooms 'til frost
Many gardeners want plants that will bloom right up until frost. Some
past options have been New Gold lantana or the award-winning Diamond Frost euphorbia; now gardeners can add Sun Parasols mandevilla to that list of summer-long bloomers.
Mandevillas also have the common name Brazilian jasmine. As that name suggests, mandevilla is from Brazil. It is related to the allamanda vine, with its yellow, bell-shaped flowers, and to plumeria, the flowers used to make leis in Hawaii.
For years, the most popular variety of mandevilla has been Alice du Pont, which produces loads of large, pink, bell-shaped flowers on a vigorous vine. The dark, glossy leaves have a leathery feel. If you have seen a big, pink-flowered vine climbing up a neighbor's mailbox, this was probably the plant.
This year, however, look for the new Suntory mandevillas by the name of Sun Parasol. The Sun Parasol has the most deeply saturated red on the market, and everyone has fallen head over heels for its velvety flowers.
The Sun Parasols line has nine varieties, including Dark Red, Crimson and Giant Crimson. You also will find Pink, Cream Pink and Giant Pink.
Those of you who like white will ppreciate the Sun Parasols Giant White. The other two varieties are Sun Parasols Pretty Crimson and Sun Parasols Pretty Pink. They are somewhat compact because of branching and shorter internodes.
As with almost every other plant I write about, mandevilla will die if it does not have well-drained soil. For best flowering, mandevillas need to receive at least six to eight hours of sunlight a day.
Since they are vigorous vine and flower producers, mandevillas need
small doses of fertilizer every two to three weeks. Use a balanced, water-soluble fertilizer or time-released granules. Maintain moisture during the hot, dry times of the summer. A prolonged period without water may prove fatal to the plant.
Try growing mandevilla in a large hanging basket and let it climb the long chains. A lime-green sweet potato vine flowing out of the basket will help show off the mandevilla. Try intertwining mandevilla with the iridescent blue-flowered Blue Glory thunbergia.
The Sun Parasols mandevilla is a must for lattice structures around the house. Its ability to climb 12 to 15 feet and bloom until fall make mandevilla a champion. Treat mandevilla like an annual or give it winter protection.
Before bringing mandevilla indoors, know your goal is simply to hold the plant until the next planting season. It will probably drop leaves because of lower light conditions.
In the spring, you can repot or plant it in the landscape and resume the
fertilization program. Tropical plants are some of the best options for plants with five or six months of continuous bloom. Mandevillas, like the Sun Parasols, are at the top of that list.
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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