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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Sweet Home Mississippi
2015-11-08
[NYT] PLUTO, MISS. -- TO move from Lower Manhattan to rural Mississippi is probably the most extreme culture shock available in this country. To do it as an Englishman adds an extra twist. But I fell in love with an old farmhouse while visiting a friend in the Mississippi Delta, bought it for next to nothing, in New York terms, and persuaded my girlfriend, Mariah, to move there with me.

I could keep working as a freelance journalist and maybe get a book out of the experience. She could finish her library science degree online. The city had been grinding us up, and decimating our bank accounts, and we were both ready to live closer to the land.

It was a difficult decision to explain to New Yorkers. They viewed Mississippi as a backwater, at best, and more commonly as a byword for ignorance and bigotry. One woman accused me of being a racist for wanting to live there, even though I was moving to a county that was 82 percent African-American. Most people were genuinely mystified, or doubtful about my sanity, because who in their right mind would choose to live in backwoods Mississippi?
Posted by:Besoeker

#17  Pynchon?
Slowly I turned...
Posted by: Shipman   2015-11-08 23:56  

#16  That's a whole lot of nothing you got, Mr. F. Nicely done!
Posted by: trailing wife   2015-11-08 22:35  

#15  Sorry, grom, ship. Gut nuthin. See if I'm lying.

He libbed where the libbin' ain't zippy,
Till, lo and behold, no more chippy.
Now sing, Tin Pan banjo,
Your droll Yankee canto,
"His missus'll miss Mississippi!"

In Pluto where everything's rotten,
And all ob us darkies picks cotton,
A sentence of Pynchon
Can set off a lynching
And Sundays de Times can't be gotten.

Okay, lemme go duck Shipman over in that other thread...
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220   2015-11-08 22:31  

#14  Sounds like Richard Grant must have read Fred's Phoebe Clayton. Good move.
Posted by: KBK   2015-11-08 19:25  

#13  @ Lord Garth: Nice post. The real estate link definitely made your point. I was born in KC and now living in Tucson. Toured the south for 5 weeks in '98. 2000 Dotcom crash (and an excellent set of doctors) prevented me from moving to either Natchez or Vicksburg. And yes, the MSM + limo liberals still think of the south as it was in the '50's.
Posted by: borgboy   2015-11-08 17:40  

#12  Whel my oRganik ehgs r'at 60 miles out, but it dont takk mur than 40 minutes to'gettm.

When I lived in the city, 40 minutes was called getting out of the parking lot.

My Manhattan (tm) ear plugs. That is EAR. plugs.

Glenlevit. Borrow the car. Here is some furniture. Hate their political views. Fn yanquis. Still welcome to the real world. Grow your own damn eggs then.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2015-11-08 17:34  

#11  Drove through the Pluto area a few years ago on the way to an ongoing weather damage repair project near Yazoo City. It's very 'Delta'.

Inexpensive housing, good food and nice people.

It does tend to flood occasionally and gets quite humid in relation to the northern climes. Y'all can live with that.

All in all, Mr. Grant and 'Mariah' made a decent choice.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2015-11-08 15:05  

#10  Deacon, ditto on the Boston bigot front.

Have a Harvard friend who warned black students about going to NC. Told him to look at Boston's history with bussing and to stop being a bigot.

I had a number of clients in the south and race relations always seemed easier there than anywhere north of the Mason Dixon Line.
Posted by: AlanC   2015-11-08 14:27  

#9   That was classic Mr Shipman.
Posted by: BrerRabbit   2015-11-08 13:41  

#8  Aller yawl overlookin Missipuah way a life, which means partially you sayin Ima forum Missipuh what do you want to drink?

So youz got Ermest Hemmingway who blowed off his own head (but did have a Muriel) but we got William fucking Faulkner, Nobel damn prize winner who kept chunging 'em down until the end. You got Joe Montana. We got MFing Archie Manning who would have kicked his ass in college.

Wymens? Don't geter me started.
Damn Yankees.
Posted by: Shipman   2015-11-08 13:00  

#7  I met a young (late 20's) couple at a the Hale Spring Inn in Rogersville, Tennessee a few weeks ago. It's a bed and breakfast built in 1824 and still in operation as an inn, restaurant, and tavern. They were from Los Angeles and had found out about the inn on Facebook. They told me all their friends pleaded with them to not come here as, being a bi-racial couple, they would be lynched at the worst and beat up at the least. They came anyway and told me everyone they met was very friendly and welcomed them to East Tennessee. They were mildly surprised. When I was working in Boston I had to continually disabuse people of the belief the Beverly Hillbillies was not a documentary. Goebells himself couldn't have done a better job than our "media" at convincing people that the south is a bad place to go.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2015-11-08 12:37  

#6  "amazingly, many of the residents walked upright and communicated via a strange language"
Posted by: Frank G   2015-11-08 10:09  

#5  Their take on rural Mississippi reads as very New York Timesish.
Posted by: JohnQC   2015-11-08 09:44  

#4  They viewed Mississippi as a backwater, at best, and more commonly as a byword for ignorance and bigotry.

Rich coming from New York that now is in low level insurgency conflict between blacks and police.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2015-11-08 08:50  

#3  population of Holmes Co in 1940 ~40k; today ~20k

4 bd, 3 ba, 3200 sqft with carport on 1 acre ~ $60k

Posted by: lord garth   2015-11-08 08:41  

#2  â€˜dating down the food chain.’

... where neigh sometimes means yes.
Posted by: BrerRabbit   2015-11-08 05:50  

#1  Oh boy, oh boy, wait until Zenobia sees this!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2015-11-08 04:16  

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