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to mississippi and back, part 1
photos by jerone anderson
recently i had a chance to go on a road trip to oxford, mississippi -- the mythical land inspiring william faulkner's yoknapatawpha county, where in 1962 the african-american veteran james meredith had to fight for admission to ole miss university to become its first black student, and overly caring waitresses call you honey when serving fried catfish with hush puppies.
driving southwest we left ohio to enter kentucky. follow me to hodgenville in central kentucky to find close by the place where abraham linconln was born.
what you see is an exception: a sign telling where you are. the more south you, the harder it was to find road signs. only after driving down roads that seemingly end into nowhere for a while this entrance sign almost magically pops up to congratulate you on finding the destination of your quest. welcome to the almost empty abraham lincoln birthsite.
this memorial houses a log cabin that resembles the kind of cabin lincoln lived in during his early childhood. unfortunately, the memorial is built so tightly around the cabin that it didn't make sense to take pictures inside. by the way, the steps leading up to the memorial equal the number of years lincoln lived (56).
the place that gives the farm its name: this sinking spring was the water source of lincolns' farm. because of storm damage from the ice storm that roughed up also ohio in january, visitors could not go down to the little cave.
all that was left to do was zooming on the picturesquely trickling down water with the soft green mossy background. 
historical markers, brochures, and a museum -- showing a typically informative but uncritical and patriotic movie of the lincolns' time in kentucky -- offer oodles of details on the life of lincolns family such as the property boundary fights that forced them to leave sinking spring and to journey further west, the kind of chores little abe had to do, and his joy in telling stories to his friends from a tree stump that served as his first stage.
on the way out of the national site i saw another of these cleverly built zig-zagging settler style fences. they always strike me as typically u.s.-american. together with the many big trees, the slightly hilly terrain, and the trails for hiking they provide a pretty piece of land to the eyes and feet of the curious visitor who enjoys an attraction out of way that didn't seem to be overrun by tourists.
to mississippi and back, part 1: a pretty piece of land -- where lincoln was born
to mississippi and back, part 2: the romantic south -- oxford & ole miss
to mississippi and back, part 3: unavoidably ubiquitous -- the world of william faulkner
to mississippi and back, part 4: honey, sweetie & fried fish -- our southern food history
to mississippi and back, part 5: mammoth cave: "the world's largest network of natural caves"
to mississippi and back, part 2
photos by jerone anderson
recently i had a chance to go on a road trip to oxford, mississippi -- the mythical land inspiring william faulkner's yoknapatawpha county, where in 1962 the african-american veteran james meredith had to fight for admission to ole miss university to become its first black student, and overly caring waitresses call you honey when serving fried catfish with hush puppies.
anticipation of spring. whereas in ohio we are still fighting with cold spells, grey skies, and rainy days, oxford mississippi greeted us with yellow, red, and pink blossoms. the prim and proper campus of ole miss is romantically pretty with its old architecture buildings featuring front pillars, wrap-around porches, and inviting rocking chairs. in the evening almost every house had soft glowing orange lights on doors or windows. th
and there was even evidence of some southern quirkiness that reminded me of the novel midnight in the garden of good and evil by john berendt, specifically the dog-walker with the invisible dog. In oxford, a local bank specifically considered the needs of their (in)visible companions.
to mississippi and back, part 1: a pretty piece of land -- where lincoln was born
to mississippi and back, part 2: the romantic south -- oxford & ole miss
to mississippi and back, part 3: unavoidably ubiquitous -- the world of william faulkner
to mississippi and back, part 4: honey, sweetie & fried fish -- our southern food history
to mississippi and back, part 5: mammoth cave: "the world's largest network of natural caves"
to mississippi and back, part 3
photos by j.a. & author
recently i had a chance to go on a road trip to oxford, mississippi -- the mythical land inspiring william faulkner's yoknapatawpha county, where in 1962 the african-american veteran james meredith had to fight for admission to ole miss university to become its first black student, and overly caring waitresses call you honey when serving fried catfish with hush puppies.
if it is in the studio of an artist in the tiny town of taylor about 15 car minutes south of oxford,
a barely visible short cut between two town square houses,
or on a park bench next to the city hall of oxford,
the city of oxford, mississippi, and its surrounding area will not let you forget its probably most famous inhabitant: writer william faulkner. again, searching for his home turned into a small odyssey as a lack of signs but presence of confusing historical markers prolonged the quest.
but that's not his house, which by the way is just a cross one of the many fried chicken fast food chains. faulkner's home is further from the city center, tucked away in a forest named after him.
we had to find out that his forest is just as mythical and confusing as i found reading his stream of consciousness novel absalom, absalom! (1936). after trying to detect some trail on different unbeaten paths that kept petering off into scrub or creeks, we gave up and headed for a building we could discern behind the trees. unfortunately we had to trespass a piece of private property in order to gain access to a public road again. our goal to take the short cut through the forest that allegedly connects the campus of ole miss to rowan oak "by leisurely 20 minute walk" failed miserably. again our theory that signs and markers are seen to be only for wimps was confirmed. maybe that is where still today the frontier spirit lurks...
lucky enough we started off from rowan oak and already got a good look at the place before we got lost. nestled next to the forest with several different gardens, a couple of sheds, stands the house faulkner lived for over thirty years between 1930, when he purchased the then called "Bailey Place,"* and 1962, the year of his death. he named it rowan oak.
it's a beautiful place that is not visible from the small road that on a corner piece turns into a dirt road, faulkner's drive way. his house was built by colonel robert sheegog, an irish immigrant farmer who came from tennessee. when he built the greek style architecture, oxford was a frontier town. the curator of rowan oak said faulkner bought it for a rather cheap price since in the 1930s nobody wanted to buy old, antebellum houses that reminded people of an inglorious past.
faulkner moved in with his wife, estelle, and her two children from a previous marriage, malcom and victoria. a few years later their daughter jill was born. estelle liked to paint and her water colors are displayed in the house. in her bedroom an aisle hints at her artistic hobby.
faulkner's office on the first floor still shows most of the things that where in there when he used it. it also became his bedroom when after a riding accident he couldn't climb the stairs to the second floor anymore.
the most prominent detail in his office is the plot outline on the wall for his novel a fable (1954), which won a pulitzer price and a national book award. the curator of rowan oak said he wrote the outline on the wall because the paper sheets he had attached to the wall before with his notes kept being blown off by the wind. estelle was not home but on vacation far away, so he decided to write on the wall.
curious about faulkner's works you'll find enough choice of his many books in the probably nicest book store in oxford located at the picturesque oxford town square. a whole section is dedicated to him.
here we go, old friends greeted me from the shelves: absalom, absalom! (1936) and light in august (1932). and so much more to explore.
for your further exploration of rowan oak and faulkner in oxford, see the dedicated rowan oak website of the university of mississippi which comes with a virtual tour. by the way, the university owns faulkner's house since in 1972 jill faulkner sold it to ole miss.
to mississippi and back, part 1: a pretty piece of land -- where lincoln was born
to mississippi and back, part 2: the romantic south -- oxford & ole miss
to mississippi and back, part 3: unavoidably ubiquitous -- the world of william faulkner
to mississippi and back, part 4: honey, sweetie & fried fish -- our southern food history
to mississippi and back, part 5: mammoth cave: "the world's largest network of natural caves"
---
* all information about rowan oak and its rooms comes from a brochure about the place published by the university of mississippi: william faulkner's rowan oak.
to mississippi and back, part 4
recently i had a chance to go on a road trip to oxford, mississippi -- the mythical land inspiring william faulkner's yoknapatawpha county, where in 1962 the african-american veteran james meredith had to fight for admission to ole miss university to become its first black student, and overly caring waitresses call you honey when serving fried catfish with hush puppies.
fried fish, fried eggplant, fried cornbread, fried sweet potato, fried chicken, fried...it seemed that pretty much everything Is fried in mississippi. this -- not unexpected -- greasy southern cuisine was accompanied by honeys, sweet peas, and sugar. not in our dishes but along with them as these are the preferred titles waitresses give you when swarming around your table asking uncannily often if you think everything is alright.
ready to eat? -- an incredibly tender if somewhat tasteless breaded and deep-fried catfish filet with baby hush puppies, baked beans, and cole slaw as sides. i was told by an expert hush puppies eater that they are usually bigger: they are balls of cornbread that is deep fried and eaten with maple syrup.
we found this simple, unhealthy but delicious meal in the tiny town of taylor, about 15 car minutes south of oxford. lonely planet led us there. we had hoped for an out of the way forgotten place. out of the way it was, as usually no signs and lots of driving through the middle of nowhere until to hit it, forgotten it wasn't. whole bus loads full of people arrived and lined up for a seat in the diner style run-down decoratively but charmingly old building.
it's called taylor grocerys and offers a rather simple menu.
along with music from a corner stage.
apparently it is not enough to eat fried catfish and fried chicken...
people also love to sing about it.
to test the even more commercial end of southern food, we found ourselves a huddle house, a popular fast food chain in the region, which serves: "hearty helpings" with biscuits and sausages "smothered in gravy." and smothered in honey and darlings, an address common in mississippi. as sweet as the waitresses where, their presence was a bit eery for my taste, especially when during to unrelated incidents they spied on how much tip we would give. in the huddle house, the waitress asked out right: so honey, how much tip to you wanna give me?
one of the most interesting and diverse menus we found in the ajax diner at the oxford town square: sweet potato fries, catfish with turnips (the dark green leafy content in the small bowl in the lower left-hand corner), and fried egg plant (on my plant). the turnips taste a bit stronger than spinach but are tasty, the eggplant had to struggle against its the strong flavor of its fried breading. unfortunately we missed out on the sweet potato fries. by the way, i made the mistake to naively order tea once -- to battle a cold -- and my comeuppance came to in the form of (overly) sweetened black ice tea.
the other interesting dish we tried was jambalaya and i hear there are many versions of it. they always seem to involve a mixture of rice or noodles with fish and vegetables. it reminded me a bit of the spanish concept of paella. our jambalaya came from another oxford eaterie close to the town square. it was served with pasta, tiny crawfish pieces, baby shrimp, and bell peppers with a piece of corn bread that appeared to be self-baked. this was the only time we ate that the fish was not breaded and deep fried.
everyone is tempted by a goooood fish fry. but after about three rounds of catfish, crawfish, and shrimp, we decided to try an oddity on the way up north that we saw in a report in a regional newscast.
right at the border between mississippi and kentucky by nashville, some northerners are trying to overcome the fried catfish obsession off their geographical peers by offering chicago-style deep-dish pizza. the eatery is easy to oversee along a long highway and away from the usual business district its "eat here" poles. the waitress told us they've been open for about a year.
so we took the chicago-style deep dish as that seemed to be the best price per portion. little did i know...
about the monster crossbreed of a cheese cake and a normal sized pizza that arrived and took up 80% of our table. the monster was filled with cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, mushroom, cheese, sausage, cheese. red onion, cheese, bell pepper, cheese, peperoni topped by triple cheese.
it fed us for the next couple of days while camping out in mammoth cave national park, our last stop before heading up north again (into healthy eating territory).
to mississippi and back, part 1: a pretty piece of land -- where lincoln was born
to mississippi and back, part 2: the romantic south -- oxford & ole miss
to mississippi and back, part 3: unavoidably ubiquitous -- the world of william faulkner
to mississippi and back, part 4: honey, sweetie & fried fish -- our southern food history
to mississippi and back, part 5: mammoth cave: "the world's largest network of natural caves"
to mississippi and back, part 5
photos by jerone anderson
recently i had a chance to go on a road trip to oxford, mississippi -- the mythical land inspiring william faulkner's yoknapatawpha county, where in 1962 the african-american veteran james meredith had to fight for admission to ole miss university to become its first black student, and overly caring waitresses call you honey when serving fried catfish with hush puppies.
before returning to ohio from out trip to mississippi we stopped at mammoth cave national park located in central kentucky.
according to the united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization (unesco) mammoth cave is "the world's largest network of natural caves and underground passages." the list of cave tour is indeed long and we had only had time to pick one: the historic tour with its original natural entrance.
the vastness of the "rooms" we walked through was amazing and hard to capture in photos. a but jerone managed to shoot some that will give an impression. he had not only to battle the darkness but also the strict instructions by the ranger about putting down the camera: "only on man-made objects." it wasn't helpful that many banisters were round and that he needed long exposures.
remnants of saltpeter mining shortly after the cave was rediscovered in the late 1790s. before paleo-indians used the cave over 10,000 years ago, one of them was found with food left overs in his stomach.
vastness was followed by tight passages. we had so squeeze through "fat man's misery" (the official name of this part of the cave above) and downstairs without bumping our heads on the ceiling (below).
along the tour we saw kidney shaped pits created by water streaming vertically down in place where gaps in the the limestone and shale of the cave layers above did not seal up the water.
the most prominent man-made object in the cave: a restroom in midst the cave blending perfectly into its natural environment,
almost hard to discern on the outside from the rest of the cave. this friendly ranger herded us along as we were almost always dragging behind because of the high expose times needed to take pictures. he told us stories of stephen bishop, a famous slave and mammoth cave tour guide who began giving tours when he was age 17 in 1838. bishop was the first to explore many mile of the cave by himself, helping himself over pits and gaps with ladders.
a high metal stair construction led us back into the outer world, where we finally started the last leg of our trip to reach athens, ohio, after about another six to seven hours of driving.
to mississippi and back, part 1: a pretty piece of land -- where lincoln was born
to mississippi and back, part 2: the romantic south -- oxford & ole miss
to mississippi and back, part 3: unavoidably ubiquitous -- the world of william faulkner
to mississippi and back, part 4: honey, sweetie & fried fish -- our southern food history
to mississippi and back, part 5: mammoth cave: "the world's largest network of natural caves"
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