Things that make you go mmmm... Mississippi 11/10-13/12

Last night at dinner folks were telling tales of their youth. Wild tales. Not too much different from my tales. It is incongruous with the way they look. Similar to my experiences and yet different.

On the way home from dinner I commented how dark it was driving on Mississippi side roads. It is dark with few lights and lots of trees. Very dark. I am not used to such darkness and such country. It is like being out in Amish country at night – very disconcerting for me. I am used to the city with lights and action. Everyone must be like that, right. Wrong. Deanna said it felt just like home where she grew up in rural New Jersey. Very dark, very country, very quiet. No wonder she know so much about stars, she grew up with them! Driving down this dark road brought her back to her childhood. A different perspective based on experiences that are very different from my own.

The moral of the story: Stop making assumptions and listen more to what is really going on. Or else you miss the spirit, the essence. I will get more out of the trip when I open to what is being sent.

We have guests traveling with One September, Jay and Sandy. New people traveling with us remind me it is necessary to define some terms I use often:

·         Docktails: Cocktails and appetizers on the dock
·         Looper Midnight: 9pm; couldn’t possibly be because docktails start at 4:30pm, could it?
·         Looper Gold: quarters for the laundry
·         Waterbugs: those annoying little bass boats that zip around us without regard for wake or general safety
·         Slicker than owl shit: Isn’t that the coolest?

Eating in the South. It is easy to say the food is fried, no liquor served, and country food is simple. That about covers it. Or does it?

This week we ate out on Friday night 11/9 in Fulton MS and Saturday night 11/10 in Smithville MS. Both restaurants were described as some of the best in town.

We walked into the Midway Restaurant at the Midway Marina in Fulton MS at about 6:30. Kermit was really hungry so despite the fact we purchased a ton of food that afternoon we went out to eat with Judy and Michael from One September with the idea that Kermit could eat faster than I could cook. Ok, whatever. The rest of the crowd gathered on Sareanna for something grilled and wine.

The restaurant is simple looking on the inside – linoleum floors, high peaked roof – I think this is a pole building like a pole barn, those stackable high backed chairs found normally at hotel conference rooms, paper table clothes, silverware in wax paper sleeves, and a salad bar like we used to see in the 80s with a sneeze guard and everything. No pictures. That would be rude. Let’s start making assumptions. Then let’s look closer.

The waitress was friendly. When asked what to order, she said really fast, “the whole fish”. What? Despite what people say about southerners we have a lot of trouble understanding them because they talk really fast. She repeated. We did not expect this. An entire fish? Not gonna happen. Her next favorite was the catfish filets. We didn’t want to order the catfish because it was catfish and we didn’t want to eat fried food again but she said it was the thing that made the servers’ mouth water. They bread it and fry it themselves every day. The other fried fish was also nice but came already frozen and breaded. Not the same. Almost everything on the menu was fried anyway. How could we resist? So we ordered the catfish filets. And the fries. And the hush puppies. Let’s get the salad bar please to balance some of that grease.

So we went to the salad bar. Romaine lettuce, fresh as can be. It must have been cut that afternoon. Fresh vegetables. Homemade macaroni salad – not that heavy mayo stuff that comes from GFS. Mmmmmm…. It was good. Not at all what we expected.

Dinner took a long time to come so we had time to look at the crowd. Families eating quietly. Folks saying hello across the room. Quiet chatting at the salad bar. As I walked to the salad bar I saw something odd on a man’s plate. I excused myself and asked what he ordered (with a big smile to hopefully counteract some of my rude northernerness). He said it was fried chicken liver, would I like one? When was the last time someone offered you food off your plate? He probably said, “bless her heart” after I declined and walked away but I thought he was sweet and so nice.

The food came. OH MY GOSH was it good. It was crunchy with a simple cornmeal batter, not greasy and so so flavorful. Catfish fried like this just melts in your mouth. Unbelievable. Even the fries were better and the hush puppies (I only ate 1 – I still have to fit into my one pair of jeans) just floated.

We waddled back to the boat very satisfied. Not at all what we expected. Not by a mile.

Saturday night 11/10 in Aberdeen MS (the marina with the entrance straight out of the comic strip Pogo) we took the courtesy cars to Smithville MS to have dinner at Atkins Steakhouse. I mentioned this in my last post too but I didn’t do it justice. We drove for 40 minutes in the dark, dark country (or just like home in New Jersey as Deanna says!). It seemed impossible that there would be anything out here much less a famous restaurant. But we turned a corner and in the complete darkness was a wooden building with one light on the sign that says “Atkins Steakhouse”. A beacon of civilization in the dark, dark night. I know I am being overly dramatic but it seemed odd to me.

We walked into find a huge crowd of folks paying for carryout. It was about 6:30 or so on Saturday night after all. On the table next to the door were 6 9x13 aluminum baking trays like I bring to bake sales filled with home baked cakes. Not what we expected.  The ceiling was made out of 4x8’ pieces of plywood held together with a silver metal superstructure. The walls were plywood paneling and the chairs were folding chairs like in a church basement. Not at all like any famous steakhouse I have ever seen.

This is a picture inside the restaurant of Michael (far right) taking a photo to send to his sons of the first steak he has eaten since 1982!! He enjoyed it too. We are taking him to the dark side! That is Judy, his wife in the middle, and Sandy, their guest on the left. I thought it was rude to take a photo of the restaurant so this will have to do. You get an idea of the size of the room and the interesting paneling on the wall.

Judy and Michael Hechtkopf at Atkins Steakhouse in Smithville MS.

No alcohol, again. Just ice tea and soda. But then the food arrived. Simply the best salad dressing in the world. They make their own! Baked potatoes that are crispy and soft at the same time with a hint of salt. And the steaks – perfectly cooked filet for Kermit and ribeye for me. Mmmmm….. Not at all what we expected.

Looks can be deceiving.

Sunday 11/11 we continued down the river to Columbus MS. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny. We stripped down to t-shirts for the first time in ages. I even put on shorts! This marina is also a jog around a bend, just in front of the Stennis Lock and Dam at Mile 334. We are now 120 miles into this 450 mile journey.

You see the most interestiing things written on bollards in locks these days! Stennis Lock, Tenn-Tom

The marina is owned by a great fellow, Chuck, and his daughter helps with the lines at the gas dock. We filled up with gas and got a much  needed pump out. Our slip was close to the land in a really long covered slip. It was at least a 60 foot slip because the 60 foot Viking next to us was not sticking out! The rest of our crowd docked at the other end of this dock in an uncovered slip. This is important because overnight it rained very hard and got cold, again. We were protected from the thunderstorm!

We got the courtesy cars and all 10 of us headed over to the most famous attraction in this really famous town – Waverly Mansion. We thought this was just another ante-bellum home. But we were wrong. Again. Appearances and assumptions can be deceiving.


The entrance to Waverly Mansion is a very tiny National Historic Marker attached to a small gate near the river. You walk through the gate up a pea gravel walkway past the biggest oldest magnolia tress in Mississippi. It is really big.

Walkway through Waverly Mansion, West Point MS



Waverly Mansion, West Point MS

Owner of Waverly Mansion, West Point MS

You can see this lovely old mansion at the end of the walk. The grass is trimmed but the landscape has a wild look to it, like it has recently been tamed but only just.

A nice lady about my age opens the door and comes down the steps to greet us in a friendly, soft, southern voice. She starts talking about the house and it becomes clear that this is another surprise. We thought this would be just another old house tour like The Hermitage in Nashville or Montecello or something. We were wrong. Our tour guide was the owner of the home! You can't take pictures of the inside but I snapped this photo of our group standing in the big entrance. Notice the huge 4 story foyer?

George Young and his wife built this home in 1852 for their family of 10 children and 1000+ slaves who worked over 50,000 acres of cotton. This was one of the biggest plantations in the deep south. They shipped all sorts of goods all over the world, right from the dock at the end of the road. The family owned the home and land until the last of the 10 children died in about 1913. Then a dozen or so grandchildren and great grand children argued about the will and property disposition for years while the home was deserted.

It became the local haunted house. People who stop in on dares from local sororities and fraternities during pledge time. Kids would come to get some quiet time with their sweeties. And so on.

The current owner Mr. Snow and his wife owned an antique store in southern Mississippi about 90 miles away. A peddler stopping in their store and told a story about visiting this old mansion in West Point MS that was all deserted but still containing lots of original antiques. So dad and mom visited and decided to by the house and 40 surrounding acres in as-is condition. They moved their 3 children in, ages 12, 7, and 5 (our hostess). There was nothing there. Possums lived in one room. Bats lived in another room. Lots of plaster was missing. The plaster trim as home for dauber wasp homes. But all windows except 2 were intact, all built-in cabinets were intact and the stairway and railings were still in place. The family completely restored the entire mansion. They painted, plastered, and landscaped their little hearts out. Then they furnished it with their own collection of antiques.

Our hostess is the youngest daughter who is now about my age. She lives there in the Egyptian bedroom on the second floor. Her dad, the original owner, lives in the bedroom next door.

This is a symmetrical building with 2 rooms on either side of a huge entry way that is open on both ends. The building is 4 stories high with windows and porches open on every level to attract every breeze that might come its way. The top story is gives a 360 degree view of the entire plantation, allowing the owner to watch the goings on at all corners of this large operation. The 3^rd story is a series of little doors called trunk rooms. Visitors would arrive with huge trucks that would be emptied in the bedrooms and then the trunks stored in the trunk rooms until the person left. I imagine the scene in Gone With the Wind where Scarlett goes to that barbeque and the women take naps on the second floor while servants take trunks upstairs.

There are 4 rooms on the first and second floor in each corner of the building. This gives each room two walls of windows so every room gets a breeze. Each of the four rooms on each floor is 23x25’. One the first floor front is the dining room and parlor and library along with the master bedroom. The second floor has 4 bedroom including the ghost room. Every old mansion needs a ghost room!!!! The Snow family heard this little girl all the time calling out for her mama. She followed Mrs. Snow around but never talked to her. She took a nap every afternoon in the summer leaving a little indentation in the bedspread. She described how a tv show about ghosts came to film one week causing much disruption for the family a few years ago.

Our guide said she thinks the ghost protected the house. It is unbelievable that such a valuable building was left in such good shape and nothing but the furniture was taken. The walls were covered with notes and signatures but nothing was broken, not even the windows. That must be a very nice ghost to take such good care of the house!! We couldn’t find any more background on the ghost. Maybe you can?

The grounds are stately but a little wild. I guess it was so overgrown they needed machetes to break through when they moved in. Mr. Snow has been working on the landscape for the last 50 years, still transplanting boxwood from the original plants. All the slave quarters are gone, although she knows where the foundations show the buildings used to be, in family groups at the back of the property for house servants and in the cotton fields for field slaves.

We asked about the exterior paint which was peeling. She put out bids for contractors to scrape and paint. The lowest bid is $35,000! That seems way low to us. The building has only been painted twice. Once when it was built, and again when the Snow family  moved in 50 years ago. And it looks amazing, albeit a little weathered.

Another experience that was not at all what we expected and more!

We cooked on the boat after visiting the mansion. On Monday after the rain stopped we toured Columbus MS. This is the home of Tennessee Williams and Eudora Welty. Faulkner lived nearby too. Williams home was moved downtown to function as the town welcome center. The group was less interested than I so I couldn’t read all the interesting stuff about him in the two bedrooms upstairs. I need to find out more!

I finally found an Old Navy and bought a second pair of jeans. I leaned my original pair in the corner and gladly put on the new pair. You will be glad to know that I have not gained weight and the jeans fit better than ever! Yippee!! I think I will have another piece of pie!!

Dinner last night (Monday night) at Hucks, another famous restaurant in Columbus. Very upscale. Good food, although not fried. Go figure.

It was VERY cold this morning. I think it was in the 20s. No amount of new jeans make this kind of cold acceptable. I am wearing a cami, a t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a wind shirt, and a jacket with gloves and a scarf plus thermal socks with my boat shoes. Kermit has a watch cap on. And we plan to anchor out tonight so Kermit has to do the whole dog-in-a-dinghy thing with wet feet. This will be fun!!

Today is a big workday. We need to get to Mobile in 5 days so we will travel 50+ miles each day plus probably one big day. More later.

I will add more pictures and update further in a few days. We are entering a part of southern Alabama with lots of banjoes and very little Internet. So until then, be safe!!