A few weeks ago, I planned to take a day off from anchoring the 4 p.m. news on WJTV.
I drove up to Leflore County to do a story about the bridge over the Tallahatchie River in honor of Bobbie Gentry’s song, “Ode to Billie Joe.” The song was about the boy who jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge on or about the third of June on “another sleepy, dusty Delta day.” When I told news producer Zach Mason that I planned to find the bridge Billie Joe McAllister jumped off, his face told me he was waiting for me to finish the sentence. Only, I had finished. If he knew the song (which I assumed everybody did) he’d have understood the whole story. But evidently, he didn’t know the song. So, I quickly counted on my fingers how many years it had been since 1967 when “Billie Joe” came out. I was shocked. I didn’t realize. No wonder Zach didn’t know the song. He wasn’t even born yet. His parents probably weren’t either!
The fair is a mile marker in our year. As is the third of June. Both uniquely Mississippi. But more and more, you must explain what they are to the younger folks as time runs on by.
The first time I realized that time runs while we just walk was back in the1980s in my capacity as a weatherman. I was invited to talk to a group of third graders about severe weather. We discussed tornadoes and where to go to stay safe and then we shifted to hurricanes. I told them about Hurricane Camille (August 1969) as if these youngsters were as familiar with it as I was. “Mister, we’re not that old,” filtered up from the giggles.
I bring all this time-passing stuff up because in just a few weeks it will be time for the Neshoba County Fair again. It can’t be a year already? But like the saying goes, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” And when you live long enough, you discover you don’t even have to be having fun for time to fly.
The fair came up when a friend of mine who does freelance media consulting put me on a conference call with a political advisor friend of his, and the conversation turned to the fair and how this will be an exciting year because of the national elections. Everybody remembers after Ronald Reagan announced he was running for President his very next speech was at the Neshoba County Fair. (You DO remember that, don’t you? Or should I count years again?) And ever since then, the fair gets an unusual amount of attention during election season.
By the way, I was told all those political posters nailed on the light posts at the fair all go up in one day. The poster posters line up and get a signal and then it’s the Neshoba County Fair free-for-all as everybody shoots for the best spots first.
The fair is a mile marker in our year. As is the third of June. Both uniquely Mississippi. But more and more, you must explain what they are to the younger folks as time runs on by.
