Across the Mississippi into Arkansas

Neighboring Southern States

When Cliff and I went on our eight-southern-state tour in 2015 I learned that you can actually get around many of the southern states fairly rapidly, except for Texas and Florida, and that each state has something to offer. But perhaps the one thing many of the southern states offers is talent, in both writing and music, and much of it reflects what is uniquely American. One can still hear the Irish influence on much of the music, especially in the fiddle tunes. My own father played the fiddle and it was not a great jump listening to him play than it was listening to some of the Irish music I've listened to as an adult. 

In the South, it is inevitable, when you get a porch full of musicians and they bring out their instruments, you will get banjos, acoustic guitars, fiddles, bases, mandolins, steel guitars, and other uniquely Southern instruments. When they come together in the folk music capital of the world, Mountain View, Arkansas, you can move from porch to porch, to the gazebos in the park, kind of like you can in New Orleans, moving from street to street in the French Quarter and no sooner does the strains of music from one group die away than you begin to hear music from another group...When the weather is fine and it's a Friday night in Mountain View people in this small town of about 3,000 people will play in the late afternoon, into dusk, and on into the night.

It is not clear just what part of the White River this
is, But it runs in the northern part of the state in the
mountainous region.

One my friends who is a Southerner by birth hopes to move back to Mountain View, which was her home for many years. Sherry White and her husband have an expansive and beautiful property on the outskirts of Las Cruces, New Mexico, but she is planning to move back to her roots. I've not talked with Sherry in several years, but she enjoys reading this blog and often comments to Cliff about its content. Sherry is active in Las Cruces, and one of her perennial avocations is the Renaissance ArtsFaire in Las Cruces. 

After 44 years, the Renaissance ArtsFaire has perfected the art of this annual event. Set for a weekend beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at Young Park,  whether a repeat customer or a first-time faire goer, here's something to be aware of going into each year's event. Several courts attend the annual Renaissance ArtsFaire, but there is only one official court. Queen Chérie de la Décolletage, played by Sherry White, has been reigning over the Merry Court of the Sherwood Oak for 25 years. Her court of about 25 is made up of ladies in waiting, knights, and the Bawdy Balladeers (who entertain the queen), which now includes a harpist. 

She and Cliff talk about property, and Sherry wants to buy a home in the country around Mountain View, which lies in the Ozark Mountains. It's a beautiful part of Arkansas, and it is near Batesville, Arkansas, and both towns are near the beautiful White River that runs through that part of the state.

And really, Mountain View is just a hop, skip, and a tank of gas from Columbus, MS, about a six-hour drive. You can stop in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and eat a real Southern bowl of gumbo and cornbread in the town square cafe.

Thrilled with My Neighbors

Sometimes I've felt lonely, but then this...

I had become overwhelmed with my yard work, not because I didn't feel I could do it, but that the incessant rains had come and spring sprang and despite the rain (or because of it) the plants and bushes and grass and vines just kept growing.

But little did I know that people in the neighborhood had actually been watching out for me. Yesterday, they came by, one by one, and just started working in my yard. They had talked about it with one another, but only mentioned to me that they would be by yesterday...

Front of House Before the trimming.
Kristie is on the left. Beth is on the right.

This is the front of my house, the front porch, and what you see is the west flowerbed, which is just overgrown. Vines have climbed up through the roof eaves. My neighbor Kristie is on the left and my neighbor Beth (from one street North is on the right. When I got a knock on my front door yesterday morning, I opened it to see Beth down the steps and clipping vines.

Front of House
showing flowerbed on
the right side of the
porch.

And here is the East flowerbed to the right of my porch, before the work was completed. The other flowerbed on the right, while not as overgrown is full of vines and bushes that only hides the house.

While Beth and Kristie were working I got out my lawnmower and mowed the grass in the front yard. I later ran the string trimmer around in places. Their help inspired me to work. It did not feel so overwhelming, and it sure increased my already strong feeling that here in the South neighbors care about their neighbors. But it's more. It's their humanity and kindness. In fact, as we were working the couple from next door came out and talked to us on their way for a walk. Keep in mind this is during the pandemic, and so we all visited with each other from our respective distances. One of my first friends just on the other side of the next-door neighbors also came up for a visit. Sharon and I go all the way back (as friends) to when I first arrived and we encountered each other before dawn, when she would take her dog out for a walk.

Here are two more pictures of the result of the work.

This is Sid who
lives on the other
street across from Beth

Notice how all the large bushes that were obscuring the porch are now gone. Kristie worked for hours to cut the bushes and pulling off the vines, and then Sid, the man in the orange shirt from one street over came back with Beth when she took her dog home and he helped do cutting, down into the depth of the flowerbed. He worked a concrete birdbath disk from the undergrowth and we struggled to get it onto the porch where it sits, waiting to be cleaned. I will need to get down in the flowerbed (which is mostly volunteer trees that grew up in the bed from the roots that slithered underground from the neighbor's street across the driveway. But this is the South; it's wet, warm, and everything grows without having to be coaxed. So I hope that with all the neighbors' help I can take it from here and dig the plant out of the flowerbed, and turn it into just grass, as I did with the flowerbed on the rightsize of the porch under the window.

This is after the East side of the front yard was done In all, I just wanted to show how helpful, kind, and friendly people are in my chosen town in the deep south.

And here we are in the month of memorial celebrations; one origin story for Memorial Day involves Columbus, MS, which was a hospital town during the Civil War, and even when Union soldiers took over the town, the towns people opened their homes and their hospitals to the wounded and Friendship cemetery to the war dead—both Union and Confederate...