BS: Yeah. I am still here!

Subject:
From: GUEST,khandu
Date: 01 Dec 00 - 11:32 PM

I have,due to necessary departure, been separated from my computer for a week or so, (worse yet, from my rare and precious jewel, Chekhandu!) and I have missed the Mudcatters. I wanted to get some input in so I came up with this lame thread. And I am damned proud of it!

I know the 'cat needs, perhaps even CRAVES, maybe even DEMANDS to hear from their Mississippi division, therefore, I am here to fulfill that need. I know many of you are awed by my magnamity, but, hell, that's just the kind of guy I am.

I have been concerned that in my absence, Spaw has been allowed to run rampantly unchecked. This has been a disturbing thought.

Unfortunately, your Mississippi division must be away from the 'cat even more. I ask for SOMEONE to fill in for me in my absence and curb this dear, yet somewhat disturbed, human's excesses.

Seriously, y'all be good and I shall return in a week or so.

khandu

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: Troll
Date: 01 Dec 00 - 11:35 PM

You've been gone?

troll *snik snik*

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: Gypsy
Date: 01 Dec 00 - 11:45 PM

I was concerned! Thought that mississippi had fallen off the face of the earth!

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: GUEST,khandu
Date: 01 Dec 00 - 11:45 PM

I have been gone all my life.

khandu

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: GUEST,khandu
Date: 01 Dec 00 - 11:49 PM

Gypsy, Mississippi has never been on the FACE of the earth.

It has always been on the earth's ass.

khandu

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: Banjer
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 12:05 AM

Khandu, I beg to differ....If the Good Lord ever wanted to give the earth an enema, Florida is where the tube would get inserted.

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 12:08 AM

Well Gypsy, as I've said often here before, Mississippi is the end of the earth, and that ain't no shit, but in reality, our friend khandu is on an archeological expedition of sorts. You've seen those folks scouring the Civil War battlefields with metal detectors looking for spent minie balls and bullets haven't you? These bullets are of great historical value and khandu and his metal detector will be on a great bullet search covering another historic battlefield, the campus of Ole Miss.

Bright college days we sing to thee
Those noble years that quickly flee
Bright shining moments of our youth
When we can see the truth.
We'll miss the cafeteria, that's crawling in Wisteria.
We'll miss the classrooms where we learned,
And effigies we burned.
My girl was only seventeen, when she was chosen "Riot Queen,"
These memories we'll ne'er forget,
God bless you Ross Barnett.......
We're going to miss Ole Miss.

He will also be researching the genetics and inbreeding characteristics that resulted in a small pocket within his state producing the likes of William Faulkner, Shelby Foote, Harper Lee, Eudora Welty, and Truman Capote, while the rest of the place produced two and a half million guys named "Bubba."

I was a bit worried, glad you checked in my friend. Be careful and we'll see you soon.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: flattop
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 09:17 AM

Thanks for the informative post Spaw. When the man with the sexiest cow in Mississippi disappears for long periods folks can't help but wonder, perhaps even get a little jealous.

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: GUEST,khandu
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 04:18 PM

I reckon y'all hoity-toity boys up yonder in the north think we are a bunch a hicks down here in Missersippi. My brother, Bubba, and his wife/my sister-in -law/cousin, Susie Molly are jist plain burnt up over y'all's attitudes. I told em y'all jist didnt know no better, cause all them media pepole make us look bad and all y'all believe what you hear on them TV contrapshions. And my daddy, Big Daddy, and his new girlfriend, Aunt Ruby are gonna sue them Tv people for defamation for makin all us look bad.

My other brother, Bubba joonyer, aint so wurried bout y'alls attitudes, cause he says if yall aint frum Missersippi yall aint frum shit.

Bubba joonyer is a wise feller, dont ya think?

See yall in a week or so!

khandu

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: flattop
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 04:51 PM

Mississippi, You're on My Mind
by Jesse Winchester

I think I see a wagon rutted road
with the weeds growing tall between the tracks,
and along one side runs a rusty barbed wire fence
and beyond there sits an old tar paper shack.

[CHORUS]

Mississippi, you're on my mind,
Mississippi, you're on my mind,
woh, woh
Mississippi you're on my mind.

I think I hear a noisy old John Deere
in a field specked with dirty cotton lint,
and below the field runs a little shady creek,
and there you'll find the cool green leaves of mint.

{CHORUS}

I think I smell the honeysuckle vine,
the heavy sweetness like to make me sick.
And the dogs, my God, they're hungry all the time
and the snakes are sleeping where the weeds are thick.

[CHORUS]

I think I feel an angry oven heat,
the southern sun just blazes in the sky.
And in the dusty weeds, an old fat grasshopper jumps.
I wanna make it to that creek before I fry.

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 06:50 PM

I spent a month in Mississippi one week in 1964... well, it SEEMED like a month)...(civil rights march)..(I was in Hattiesburg the night of the first Clay-Liston fight)

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: GUEST,khandu
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 07:23 PM

Bill D., You actually made it out ALIVE!!!

In 1964, the life span of a civil rights marcher in MS. was VERY SHORT. Especially, if the marcher was a white northener. A Cofo worker was considered lower than chitlins. The summer of 64 was a terrible time for Blacks and Civil Rights workers in the south.

I lived in Indianola, MS during the Clay-Liston fight and I remember Clay shouting, "I'm pretty" after the fight.

Those days were hard, but a lot of positive changes began then.

khandu

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 07:39 PM

yep...a group I was with was stopped by a police car waking to a meeting that night...2 cops & a BIG kid got out..we talked our way out of a confrontation, but I asked later why the fillback for the football team seemed to be riding with the cops..

"Oh," the locals said, "don't you get it? Too much news getting out about cops beating up marchers...so if anything 'happens' now, they just say this 'helpful' young fellow stepped in to aid the law...and they pretend to fine him."

but...you are right, things did start to change..(I also spent a week in McComb a few months later, and it was relatively quiet)

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 08:09 PM

True khandu, they did. Four years after Bill, I was in Mississippi as part of the Voter Registration Project as an SSOC volunteer. I love to take shots at MS, but probably no state has had to come so far and on a level of progress scale, no state has done as much. They were hard times and turbulent times everywhere, but the states of the Deep South took the brunt of the publicity. It can be reasonably argued though that the open bigotry of the culture was easier to protesst and to change than the hidden and cloaked bigotry of many northern cities. Many speculate that it is the reason that King did so well in the South but fared badly in Chicago and Detroit.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 09:06 PM

yeah, 'spaw...I went to Mississippi, but Wichita, Kansas where I lived, was at that time a VERY highly segregated community...still has some problems

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: flattop
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 09:26 PM

So, khandu, how does your Mississippi compare to Jesse Winchester's memories which he may have written while he was freezing his ass off up here in Canada? Do you have a Mississippi clique that I can join and spend next winter in a warmer climate? I've never been to Mississippi but I already like the place - Mississippi you're on my mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: GUEST,khandu
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 11:41 PM

The mid 60's were hard times. A strange era. I was born here and was reared with some racial prejudice. However, I must have had a vitamin deficiency or something wrong with me. I just never saw things the way of my peers.

In Nov. 63, I was in my 6th grade classroom when it was announced over the intercom that Kennedy was dead. Everyone in my room actually cheered...except for me. I cried...for the loss of life, for the shocking applause of my class mates, for the loss of innocence.

To me, that was the day the music died. Bitter reality invaded my childhood, and showed me that there were dark clouds lurking behind my blue skies.

Those times were hard on all. Change has occured. Some good, some bad. But, at least, it is different now.

khandu

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: Troll
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 11:58 PM

I remember that day, khandu. I was is Salt Lake City. I drove up to Rosalie Sorrels' house to see if she'd heard the news. She had and was too upset to talk.
I went down to Grogans Saloon, which was closed, but Grogan let me in. A few of the regulars were there, drinking quietly.
After a while Rosalie and her husband, Jim and Utah Phillips showed up and we sat and drank beer. As I recall, no one had much to say.
It was a gray time in my life.

troll

Subject: RE: BS: Yeah. I am still here!
From: flattop
Date: 03 Dec 00 - 09:22 AM

Jesus khandu, that's not the day the music died. Good music is often about feelings and pain. You have lyrics there khandu, you just haven't written them down. Bill has one too, Two Cops and Big Kid. Troll also has a lyric about that sad day. It starts like this:

I went down to Grogans Saloon It was closed but Grogan let me in