Experiences i n the Middle of Nowhere

Over the past several months, I have tried to embrace my surroundings. Sometimes I am not successful and succumb to the boredom of life in a small town. I am still transitioning to life in small town Mississippi but having found a great group of friends has definitely helped. Anyways, back to embracing my surroundings . . .I have been trying to find things in and around the middle of nowhere that I have never had the opportunity to experience. A few months ago I attended the Miss Ole Miss Pageant. (Technically, it's called Miss University, but I like Miss Ole Miss better.) Never having been to a pageant, it was definitely an experience. The place was packed, and Miss Mississippi who had just finished in the top 5 at Miss America was there to help crown Miss Ole Miss. It was definitely an experience I had not had the pleasure of knowing prior to living in the middle of nowhere.This past weekend was another one of those experiences. I traveled with some friends to the Mississippi Delta. For those who don't know much about the Delta, let me give you an idea: flat farmland, extremely rural, generally poor, and historically racially segregated (think Emmet Till for all you who know your civil rights history). Pretty much, when the average person thinks Mississippi, they probably are thinking of the Delta. It is beautiful and sad place all at the same time.

This trip to the Delta did have a specific purpose and destination in mind: Belzoni - the catfish capitol of the world and self proclaimed "Heart of the Delta." You're probably asking yourself why a group of grad students would travel to the Delta, and you'd be partially be right if you guessed it was to see where all the history we'd been reading about actually took place. However, this particular weekend it was also to enjoy the Catfish Festival. It was definitely a good time. We got to eat some catfish, see the crowning of Miss Catfish 2007 (Miss Catfish 2006 was prettier though), and get our picture taken with Captain Catfish. Unlike the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival which is one of my all time favorite festivals, there was not any catfish (or strawberry) beer or jam, but I did get boiled peanuts. Delicious. After we'd gotten our fill of the Catfish Festival, our trek continued on into the Delta.

From Belzoni, Cleveland was the next stop: home to Delta State University and the Fighting Okra. I really wanted a Fighting Okra t-shirt, but alas the bookstore was closed. While I could find an Ole Miss t-shirt at the local sporting good store, I could not find a Fighting Okra shirt there nor at Wal-Mart. Damn.Next stop on the whirlwind tour of the Delta: Clarksdale. Although the Juke Joint Festival was going on, we decided to save that for next year and just get some of President Clinton's favorite tamales. Little known fact - the Delta is known for it's tamales. I know I never knew that before moving to Mississippi. There's even a Tamale Trail. Crazy, I know.

And so ended my Mississippi Delta day, but not the adventures for the weekend. The Student Programming Board sponsored a step contest, wing-eating contest, and a performance by Nappy Roots on Sunday night. Does anyone else see the irony in all that? While I didn't stay for the wing-eating contest or the concert, the stepping was pretty fun to watch. It was probably the whitest step show ever considering it had Ole Miss sororities doing choreographed booty dances, but the fraternities and sororities that actually knew what they were doing were awesome.

And thus ended my weekend. Did I mention it was my birthday? Pretty good birthday weekend, dontcha think? Check out picasa for pictures.