In an age of Internet Time, T-1 messaging, fast forward and site-surfing, it is easy to forget the marching rhythm of reality in an earlier age. In a contemporaneous thread, involving a fictional riverboat race down the Mississippi, an anxiety to complete the story, which had grown long, resulted in a great collapsing of time, the race just begun being completed without due regard to the stately dimensions through which the authors hastily jumped.

It is worth pausing to reflect on the places through which such a riverboat would have to pass, traveling the mississippi, for the trail is extraprdinarily rich with singing names, each one of which represents lifetimes of labor and love, sex and treachery, fortune and misery in the building of it, new hopes and lost fortunes in the tides of history. Bear with me a moment and consider the following track of place names through which a riverboat would pass, if it set out from Saint Louis, Missouri, and traveled through the junction with the Ohio at Cairo, Illinois and downward through Arkansas, Tennesee, Mississippi, Louisiana, to finally land its cargo in New Orleans.

Every one of these place names is real, with honest and dishonest people living at it, except for a few which are riverine tributaries which your riverboat would pass en route. Consider the music of them, and the mysterious singing of language and passion and history that coincided in each one, to produce a human community under a single name in each.

You cannot fast forward the Mississippi, folks, for it would be a disservice indeed to miss these places and the people who made them on your way:

Kimmswick MO
Sunnyside MO
Sulphur Springs MO
Bushberg MO
Harrisonville Landing IL
Crystal City, MO
Kemper Landing IL
Isle du Bois Creek, MO
Brickeys, MO
Frenchman's Creek, MO
Kellogg, IL
Mudds Landing, IL
St Jude Acres, MO
New Bourbon, MO
Fort Gage, IL
Old Kaskasia, MO
Chester, IL
Claryville, MO
Missouri Chute, MO
Point Rest, MO
Degognia Creek, IL
Grand Eddy, MO
Seventy-Six, MO
Starland, MO
Loimbach Landing, MO
Brunkhorst Landing, IL
Lovejoy, MO
Running Lake, IL
Mocassin Springs, MO
Hamburg Landing, IL
Flora Creek, MO
Soakie Creek, MO
Juden Creek, MO
Old Clear Creek, IL
Cape Girardeau, MO
Dutchtown Ditch, MO
Thebes, IL
Zewapata, MO
New York, MO
Miller City, IL
Powers Island Chute, MO
Price Landing, MO
Big Lake Bayou, MO
Cairo, Ill
Wickliffe, KY
Carlisle, KY
Columbus, KY
Three Ponds, KY
Dry Lake, KY
Bayou de Chien, KY
Dorena Landing, MO
Running Slough, MO
New Madrid, MO
Portageville, MO
Harvardsville, MO
Caruthersville, MO
Kinfolk Ridge, MO
Boothspoint, TN
Midway, TN
Hickman Landing, AR
Tomato, AR
Rush Slough, TN
Lower Forked Deer Landing, TN
Daniels Point, KY
Osceola, AR
Cotton Slough, TN
Cold Creek, TN
Ballard Slough, TN
Sugar Creek, TN
Black Cat, AR
Brinkeley Bayou, TN
Island Forty, TN
Redman Point, AR
Bear Creek, TN
Ash Slough, TN
Loosahatchie River, TN
Memphis, TN
Bauxippi, AR
West Memphis, AR
Decker Bayou, AR
Old Horn Lake Bend, TN
Blue Goose, MI
Zanone Bayou, AR
Indian Creek, MS
South Alligator Bayou, AR
Mhoon Landing, MS
North Tunic, MS
Cessions Landing, MS
Mozart, AR
Beulah, MS
Wargo Landing, AR
Hobson Chute, MS
Catfish Point landing, MS
Lucca Landing, AR
Eutaw Landing, MS
Mound Landing, MS
Little Boggy Bayou, AR
Port Anderson, MS
Black Bayou, AR
Greenville, MS
Luna, AR
Refuge, MS
Wayside, MS
Dredge, MS
Eminence Bayou, AR
Soso Bayou, AR
Gassoway, LA
Homochitto, MS
Jack Falls Canal, LA
Lake Providence, LA
Transylvania Chute, LA
Fitler, MS
Arcadia, MS
Stamboul, LA
Wildcat Bayou, LA
Talla Bena, LA
Milliken's Bend, LA
Cypress Bayou, LA
Walnut Bayou, LA
Duck Port, LA
Paw Paw Chute, MS
Vicksburg, MS
Speed's Addition, MS
Hennessey's Bayou, MS
Redbone Creek, MS
Big Bogue Desha, MS
Yucatan Ditch, LA
Bayou Brun, LA
Choctaw Bayou, LA
Buffalo Bayou, LA
Waterproof, LA
Gurro Ridge Chute, MS
Argent, LA
Canebrake, LA
Blueskin Creek, MS
Cammarary Bayou, MS
Languedoc Creek, MS
Natchez-Under-the-Hill, LA
Vidalia, LA
Carthage, MS
Esperance Landing, LA
Running Bayou, MS
Glasscock, LA
Bayou Cocodrie, LA
Union Point, LA
Buffalo River, MS
Coochie, LA
Crooked Bayou, LA
Red River Landing, LA
Brake, LA
Sugar Lake Bayou, LA
Cow Head Bayou, LA
Racourci, LA
Morganza Landing, :A
Stonewell Plantation, LA
Pointe Coupee, LA
Alligator Bayou, LA
Anchor, LA
False Bayou, LA
Yattan, LA
Mulatto Bend Landing, LA
Poplar Grove Plantation, LA
Baton Rouge, LA,
Beaulieu, LA
Nicholson Estates, LA
Lukeville, LA
Sardine Point Settlement, LA
Eliza, LA
Saint Louis Plantation, LA
Bayou Marichac, LA
Bayou Goula, LA
Sunshine, LA
Cannonburg, LA
Belle Helene, LA
Philadelphia Point, LA
Bruly McCall, LA
Smoke Bend, LA
Uncle Sam, LA
Convent, LA
Batree, LA
Bayou des Acadiens, LA
Saint James Parish Canal, LA
Tchatchchou Bayou, LA
Sport, LA
Godchaux Canal, LA
Tigerville, LA
Lucy, LA
Mount Airy, LA
Laplace, LA
Killona, LA
Gypsy, LA
New Sarpy, LA
Destrehan, LA
Luling, LA
Lone Star, LA
Good Hope, LA
Avondale, LA
Bridge City, LA
New Orleans, LA