The three of us were riding together on our way back from doing a live “Your Home Town” episode in Brookhaven for our “Daily Sip at 3:30” show.
The three of us were riding together on our way back from doing a live half hour “Your Home Town” episode in Brookhaven for our “Daily Sip at 3:30” show on WJTV. My co-host, Ken South, was one of my passengers along with our producer, Zach Mason. Both Ken and I have done television shows going around the state showing what we’ve seen. Ken’s segment, “South Bound” ran for many seasons on WJTV. I host “Mississippi Roads” on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. So, Ken and I were comparing notes on places we have been.
I am really fond of Tishomingo State Park. The old Civilian Conservation Corps cabins remind me of a past I never experienced, except in stories the “old folks” told after supper at Grandma’s house in Fulton.
We sort of dwelled on northeast Mississippi for a while — Corinth, Iuka, J.P. Coleman, and Tishomingo State Parks. Ken remembered Borroum Drugs in Corinth and the slug burgers. I remembered the Old Courthouse Museum in Iuka. It houses lots of family records and census data along with artifacts. I did a story there several years ago. When I’m in an old building, I sometimes ask, more or less as a joke, is it haunted? The genealogist I was interviewing told me, “No. I’ve never seen a ghost. But if I did, I’d probably ask him who his grandfather was.”
I am really fond of Tishomingo State Park. The old Civilian Conservation Corps cabins —built during the Great Depression — remind me of a past I never experienced, except in stories the “old folks” told after supper at Grandma’s house in Fulton. The stories were about our pioneer ancestors who settled in that part of the country. I particularly like to slip up that way in fall or winter. Usually there aren’t so many other people around that time of year, and I can build a wood fire in the fireplace.
I guess I should have told Ken about one of our summer stays at Tishomingo. That was when Miz Jo taught me to cuss.
We were shooting several days’ worth of “Mississippi Roads” shows in that area. Instead of getting a motel room, I got us five nights in one of the old cabins at Tishomingo State Park. The first day we shot our story in whatever town it was, and then, Jo and I headed to the peace and quiet of the park. That night was wonderful. There was no television and no cell phones, just the breeze on the screen porch and the crickets.
The second day we feverishly shot two shows because bad weather was coming later in the week. I was looking forward to the cabin that night. No television, no telephone, just the breeze and the crickets.
The third day we dutifully did our filming for another show, and Jo and I headed back to Tishomingo Park to the cabin, the side porch, the evening breeze with no television, no telephones, just the crickets.
That’s when Jo said, “If I hear one more d – – n cricket!” She never said exactly what she’d do. I knew better than to ask.
So, I put her in the car and took her to the Walmart in Iuka, so she’d feel more at home.
