The Cotton Belt
The Cotton Belt |
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Good mornin' blues, I woke up this mornin'
It is a further paradox, but socially understandable, that this region of the river also contains the greatest concentration of river casinos. The complex of casinos around Tunica Mississippi (Grand Casino pictured above) dwarfs anything else like it on the river. I spoke for some time with an old wise woman there in Mississippi who told me one horror story after another of lives destroyed by the casinos. She talked about the casinos running on the welfare checks of the poor. It saddens me that human nature permits such aberration; that some of us can degenerate into leeches that prey upon those most defenseless among us. I can't imagine how those people who own and operate the casinos can live with themselves. They know what they're doing.
Memphis is the dividing line between the North and South. The South is a culturally distinct segment of the country. For someone from say Buffalo N.Y. or Lansing MI., visiting the South can be like visiting another country. They eat crawdads and boiled peanuts, they talk with that delightful accent we've all heard caricatured so often, and some of them bury their dead above ground. Now, the other reason I like visiting the South is the food (this may also have something to do with my feelings of comfort). If you're going to visit the Mississippi River and you happen to be interested in sampling the local culinary specialities, for heaven's sake go south--it's no contest. Fried fish is one of my favorites and I've eaten fried fish in dozens of restaurants all up and down the river. (There's a splendid fried fish dinner right at the end of the road in Venice LA. at the Riverside Restaurant). Now, to give credit where it's due, I must admit I ate a terrific beer battered fried fish dinner in Wisconsin at the Harbor Bar right across from Red Wing MN. The fish was as good as any I'd eaten in the South, but when I asked the waiter for a bottle of Tabasco sauce, he brought me one of those generic knock off sauces. When I objected, he shrugged and told me one's the same as another--utterly barbaric. That simply couldn't happen in the more civilized South.  The river in the Delta is hard to find. The Delta is sparsely populated south of Memphis. Between Memphis and Vicksburg, a distance of 350 kilometers (220 miles), there are only two cities of any consequence actually on the river, Helena with a population of 17,000 and Greenville with a population of 45,000. The land on either side of the river is flood plain, which, protected by the levees, is committed to agriculture. The banks of the river itself are often swampy and heavily forested. You can't see the river from the road because of the levee, and the roads generally stray quite a distance from the levee. When you do get access to the levee and climb over it, the river may still be out of sight behind brush, swamp and trees. The river here is fully matured; it's big, powerful and dangerous with a swift churning current. The banks are completely covered with revetment material to stabilize the river's position. Otherwise it would be carving out a new channel for itself every few months. In the above photo you see a Corps barge shoring up the revetment on the Arkansas side of the river. (This photo taken in the Fall of 1999 shows the river level unusually low).
 The best thing about visiting the Delta is it's rich culture both current and historical. Birthplace of The Blues, the Delta is the place to go if you want to hear the best authentic music this country has to offer. Memphis is truly "music city America." B.B. King himself has a restaurant on Beale Street in downtown Memphis where you can hear the country's best artists any night of the week. For fans of The Blues or Gospel music (which I happen to be), a visit to the Delta is like a religious pilgrimage. The biggest and best Blues festivals of the year are held in the Delta. The annual King Biscuit festival in Helena brings in tens of thousands of fans. Likewise there's the Medgar Evers Festival (which moves around), The Sunflower River Blues Festival in Clarksdale and the Delta Blues Heritage Festival in Greenville. Catching one of these can easily be the highpoint of your year. Speaking of Greenville, consider this list of writers: Hodding Carter, William Attaway, William A. Percy, Shelby Foote, Angela Jackson, Walker Percy, Ellen Douglas, Brooks Haxton. That's a small partial list. Greenville, right in the middle of the Delta, is the cradle of the South's literary heritage. There's no better way to spend an afternoon in the Delta than to head for the Percy Memorial Library in downtown Greenville and settle down with a good book.
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Blues how do you do?
Extending from Memphis down the river to Vicksburg Mississippi is the region commonly referred to as the Mississippi Delta. Home of the Blues and King Cotton it remains today the poorest region of our country. It is an immense paradox that this part of the country that is physically so fertile, and has proven so culturally fertile as well, is still shackled by the most abject poverty that can be found in the United States. The photo above was taken on the river road south of Tunica Mississippi. It is no exaggeration to say that people can be found here in the Delta living in shacks made from the shells of old RVs, wood scraps and cardboard.
The poverty you see in the Delta is everywhere. You can't travel through the Delta and miss it. It's different than the poverty we have in major cities. You could come visit us in St. Louis, tour around and see the city's major attractions and never be burdened by having to look upon your fellow human beings awash in misery and despair. We do have the poor here in St. Louis, we just have them nicely tucked away in the city's slums, which you can avoid. In the Delta there's no avoiding the poverty. I'm not sure about this, but it seems to me that it's a little healthier to rub elbows with the poor on your street every day, than it is to segregate them in a slum and then just drive around them seemingly unaware they exist.
Personally, I really enjoy visiting the South. Memphis is my favorite big city on the Mississippi. The South has a certain feel to it that my poor words can't adequately describe. When I'm in the South I feel comforted. Even the earth itself has a special feel in the South; the soil is so rich--like it will grow anything. I'm not sure I should admit this, but when I see a freshly plowed field in the Delta I get this urge to lay down and roll around in the dirt. I swear the plants grow happier and healthier in Southern soil. Visit the South in October when the cotton harvest is ripe and the fields are a joy to see, puffy white like an early wet snow; you'd swear it's too beautiful to be real. Visit the Delta in late March when the Wisteria and Azalea are in full bloom and be dazzled.