Sunday's Sermon from Tupelo

When will it be okay to hail from the South?   When you flip through your kazillion television channels, do you ever get the feeling that southerners are the last group of folks that it's okay to lampoon as a a matter of course?   Now I'm not saying that we all don't deserve a little satire and ribbing now and again.   What I'm wondering is...who's telling the rest of the story?

When a southern character appears in a television show, do you expect him or her to act in a certain way?   Are you 99.9% sure that the conflict of racism will feature in 99.9% of the plot?   I'm speaking hyperbolically here, I know.

When a southern character does not appear in a television show, do you wonder where he or she is?   How cool would it have been to have a Mississippian for a physicist on "The Big Bang Theory"?   Way cool.

Specifically, what's it like to be from the Mississippi Delta?   Before the casinos rolled into town in Tunica, Tunica was the poorest county in America.   It's okay.   Read that sentence again.   Can you imagine being a citizen of the poorest county in America?   I'll bet we've all been exposed to impoverished communities, but the poorest?   I know that "poor" doesn't always mean "miserable."   On the other hand, what does it feel like to wonder what the future will hold when you are a child in such a town?

This brings me to a legion of Swiss bikers.   Really, it does.   Hang in there.   You've heard about highway 61...the Blues Highway.   Well, basically there's old 61 and middle-aged 61.   If you visit today, you will travel the latter.   There are plans to create a new 61.   Guess which hallowed blues site was in the path of this new plan.   Dockery Farms...possible birthplace of the blues.   Yes.   Now, this sounds incomprehensible to us.   How could this be?

 

Here's my opinion on the matter.   When your state always seems to be on the bottom rung of the ladder and when you're fighting to keep your head above water in an area that is suffering severe economic depression, perhaps you are not thinking clearly.   Where was the community outrage?   Perhaps they were uninformed, broke and preoccupied with the daily business of living.   Perhaps they never got the message that their culture and heritage was of great value to the world outside their doorstep.   I imagine that it's easy to misjudge your Mississippi town's importance when you are living that far below the poverty line without a direct link to the rest of the universe.   Here come the bikers in Cecil Vick's article, "How Swiss Bikers Saved the Blues."

"...a group of 30 bikers from Switzerland arrived at Dockery Farms on Harley-Davidson motorcycles to stage a blues sing-in and to support the preservation of the Dockery site and buildings... The Swiss bikers had traveled to America, rented bikes in New Orleans, and were touring Delta Blues sites. They spent the entire morning protesting and singing the blues--often in German. Biker Phillip Franchiser told the Bolivar Commercial that Dockery is a very important and well known blues site to European blues fans: Dockery Farms is very prestigious in Switzerland. It’s a big mysterious legendary place. Anyone who knows anything about the blues knows about people like Charlie Patton and Will Dockery. I’m really glad to be here.'"

Dockery Farms is safe for now.  New 61 will skirt the site.   You may find it using the free Blues Trail app.   The Blues Trail Markers are designed to help bring money into the Delta.   Unlike the grey plaques that dot our main highways, these markers were placed off the beaten track in order to bring money and visitors right to where history was made.

If you do get to visit the Mississippi Delta, you'll fall in love with the people right away.   They are friendly and genuinely happy to see you, especially when you tell them that you are enjoying their town.   If you have been blessed with some disposable income, spend freely and always tip a little extra when you can.   If you are unable to visit and are looking for a charity to support, Dr. Luther Brown gives glowing recommendations for Mound Bayou's Sisters of Mercy.


Being a student and a tourist has kept me from blogging, but I'm going to get back to letting you know the highlights as soon as I can.   It will probably be all out of chronological order, but as we know in the South, the past is never past.   It's just that Dockery Farms and the marginalization of the poor, rural South's contributions to American culture were on my mind this morning.   You know what they say about a prophet in his own land.   Sometimes we need to remind those lands that we value their people and history.   


Can I get an amen?