Quick Stop

30 Jan 10--Left Mississippi yesterday, heading towards Dallas, TX. Passed thru downtown Shrevesport, LA and took a picture of this building just because I thought it was pretty.

Couldn't make it all the way to Dallas, so we stopped in Gladewater, TX, a town we have never heard of but supposedly the Antique Capital of East Texas! And that was the name of the RV Park we stayed in overnight. I took this picture this morning...take note of the degrees.

I have come to realize that I am a fairweather RVer. In my mind's eye I think I always thought that I would be travelling in sunny, warm weather, 12 months a year. And I know there was always a distinction in my mind between "RVing" and "camping". Somehow I thought I would always be on concrete pads, with paved roads throughout the RV park. That was the kind of place we were at in Mississippi, and I tell you it makes a world of difference. This cold, rainy weather is for the birds anyway, never mind when you are in a park with dirt roads. Notice all the mud and puddles. And having to take the dogs out to potty in this stuff is highly stressful! haha

This is me and Fluffy trying to stay warm on the fishing bridge at the park.

And this being East Texas, here is a picture of an oil pump at the gas station we stopped at as we left Gladewater this morning.

A Bit Disappointing! (An Understatement!)

28 Jan 10--Went back to the Governor's Mansion today to take a tour, and learned that this Mansion is the 2nd longest in-use Governor's Mansion in the country (built in 1841), after the one in Virginia. The Governor actually lives in the back of the building, in an addition to the original building, but this building is used for state dinners, functions, and for VIP guests to stay at when visiting.



My 1st disappointment of the day was that they wouldn't let me take pictures. I could see if they had 200 year old documents to protect, but that was not the case. And if they let guests stay here overnight, clearly my camera wasn't going to bother anything. So I was reduced to taking pictures of the pictures in the brochure...the dining room, sitting room, and several bedrooms. They are pretty blurry, but check out the last one. Directly to the left of the fireplace is a square of black and yellow, on a piece of wood holding it up. We were told that it was called a "heat shield", used by the young ladies back in the 1800s to protect their faces from the heat of the fireplace. Back in those days women actually used wax make-up, so some people think it is from this era that the phrase "saving face" come from. (Or so the old wives tale says!).



As we were leaving, Cathy asked if the house was run by slaves back when it first opened, and the tour guide seemed a little caught off guard. She finally said she didn't really know, but thinking back on the period, probably. And then she added "but we don't talk about that"! I think she actually meant only that we don't talk about that during the tour...but when we went other places during the day, the remark was telling. She did tell us something else that was a trip though...to this day, they use "prisoner trustees" to clean and maintain the Mansion. They also use the trustees to cook and serve the guests during state dinners, etc. All I could think of was movies like "Cool Hand Luke"!

As we were on our our way to the Oak House Museum, we passed the Hinds County Court House. On top of the building those are statues of Moses, the giver of law, and Socrates, the interpreter of law.

We also passed Jackson City Hall, built in 1846-47 by slave labor. I don't thinnk I said it before, but Jackson is named after Andrew Jackson, and that is a statue of him in front of City Hall.

So on to the Oaks House Museum, where Cathy and I were the only visitors, and where they use the term "museum" loosely. This is actually a 4 room house that was built in 1853 for the Mayor of Jackson, James Boyd, and his wife Eliza. The house is run by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America...what a name, huh?!



James and Eliza had 6 kids and a boarder who all lived in this 4 room house..and I thought the house I grew up in was small?! The Oaks House claim to fame is that it is one of the few structures in Jackson to survive the Civil War. Our tour guide told us that supposedly both the Mayor and General Sherman were Freemasons, and therefore Sherman made sure the house wasn't burnt. She didn't know if that was true, though.

Another little tidbit was that the house was in Eliza's name. James was often in bancruptcy court, and as Mississippi was the 1st state to allow married women to own property, Eliza laid claim to this house so that James wouldn't lose it. This is James and Eliza and another trundle bed.

And here is what just may be the 1st lunch box! The guide said they used to put warm muffins in it and take it to school.

The couch in the hallway was owned by a man named Herndon, who was a law partner with Abraham Lincoln.

Both the rocking chair and the hat rack are original pieces owned by Eliza herself.

I actually enjoyed the tour of the house, but before we got started with that we were shown a 20 minute film that was supposed to give us a little history and background of the house, but ended up being a little history and a lot of opinion by the speaker/narrator. For instance, he told us that Jackson was nicknamed "Chimneyville", because it was burnt and occupied by Yankee soldiers 4 different times. He said that although this house survived, the Yankees burned the town in celebration of their military victory over what was essentially a town of civilians. He stated that although no order was given to burn the city, no soldier was ever prosecuted or held accountable for doing so. He also stated that during Reconstruction former office holders like Boyd were not allowed to vote or hold office again, and that Reconstruction was never about rebuilding the south, but instead was intended to subjegate the southern people.

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When the movie ended and the tour guide re-entered the room, totally unprompted she stated "You hated it, didn't you?!" I said that no, I didn't hate it, but that it was disappointing to me that some people just couldn't let go of something that happened 150 years ago, and that I was surprised that in a place like this, in all liklihood run by very educated people, it was sad that they would perpetuate such animosity. Acting all "evolved", she stated that she has had several people before us basically say the same thing, and that she has told the "Dames" they should change the film, but that it was expensive to do and she didn't know when they would do it. From there she stated that some people had lost a lot post-civil war (meaning whites), and how did she say it tactfully, but that "we have a lot of blacks here that don't want to let go of slavery." So, in other words, she was blaming blacks for how the whites felt! I wanted to remind her that whites hadn't gotten over something that ended over 150 years ago, while blacks had only gotten the right to vote 50 years ago...but I decided to hold back.

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This is a flag with 31 stars that would have been flown back then, and that is our guide holding it.

So seeing that the tours of the Govenor's Mansion and the Oaks House didn't take that long, Cathy and I decided to drive over to the Medgar Evers House that we had seen promoted in a Jackson brochure. It was only maybe 10 blocks from the Mansion, but seeing as we were not familiar with the area, we ended up going thru block after block of what can only be described as the scariest place I have ever been.

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No matter if we turned left or right, what we saw was house after house, probably 7 of every 10 in a block, that was a burnt out shell. I felt like I was in Nagasaki, Japan after the bomb, or South Africa during the height of Apartheid. All the drivers who passed us and the few people we saw on the streets were black, and I must admit I was afraid. I wanted to take some pictures to show you, but I was afraid I would get caught. I was also ashamed. Ashamed that I was afraid, and ashamed that American citizens were living in such squalor. I swear that if you were to see a documentary on this area, you would never believe that this was in an American city.

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And then we finally got to the Medgar Evers house. And other than this sign at the end of the street, or the sign posted on the front of the house, there was no indication that this man ever lived. This is an empty house in a lower-middle class neighborhood, no sign on the lawn, no monument to him, no Museum like the Boyd's house, just a sign tacked onto the bricks of the house out front. And then I thought of the tour guide at the Mansion saying "we don't talk about that", and the narrator of the film talking about Yankees and Reconstruction, and the tour guide at that house talking about how "blacks couldn't let go of slavery", and I was ashamed again.

On our way back to the RV we came around the reservoir from the other side...that is the RV park in the 1st picture. And the 2nd picture shows a boat pulled up to someone's apartment. And the next pictures show a bunch of house boats...quite a few had satellite dishes on them so I guess a lot of these people live on these boats full-time.

About 200 feet down river were these house boats...I figured they were the "lower end" to the previous boats "upper class".

Mississippi is known as the "Magnolia State", for all its magnolia trees, shown here in the middle. The 1st plate is the old plate, with a Magnolia flower on it. The 2nd plate shows the new plate, issued after Hurricane Katrina to commemorate all the lighthouses off the Mississippi coast lost to the hurricane.

We stopped to watch some guys fishing, and I told this kid I would make him famous if he let me take his pictutre with his newly-caught fish.

And finally, this is the rented trailer of a woman we met in the laundry room the 1st night we got to Jackson. She lives in this maybe 22 Ft trailer with her 3 young kids, husband and dog and while they are looking for a house to buy. She obviously has a good sense of humor, and displayed it when telling us that they had just announced on the news that Walmart was laying off 11,000 people at their Sam's stores. She said "you know the country is going to hell when Walmart starts laying off, why even China walks with a limp when Walmart is doing poorly"...that totally cracked me up, so I will leave you with that laugh.

Jackson, MS

27 Jan 10--Before we went to see downtown Jackson, I thought I would show you guys how I had to get up on the RV roof yesterday...Julie and Fifi seemed to think it was a funny subject, so here goes the explanation. As you can see from the first picture, the ground drops off from the back of the RV, so the ladder that is attached to the RV is even higher than normal. As you can see in the second picture, my foot reaches the 1st step, but at 54 I am no longer strong enough to heave this fat butt up the back of the RV. So, necessity being the mother of invention, I got our step ladder and my problem was solved!!! As you can see from picture #4, Cathy had no problems, due to her long legs and skinny body!!! (Cathy hates that I make her take these stupid pictures!)

Early this afternoon we drove into Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, to see the capitol buildings and whatever else we could see walking around. I say capitol buildings because Jackson has had 2 different capitol buildings--the original was built and used from 1839 to 1903, and the current one has been used since then.

The old capitol building is now a museum, originally the Mississippi History museum, but now really a history of the building itself. They covered a lot of the stuff that happened in the building, but the History Museum that was moved out is still under construction, so anything they have on MS history is here.

Shown below is the front and back of the same building. The front and sides of the capitol building were covered in stucco made to look like stone, while the rear of the building back then faced a swamp and was not considered important, so they left the bricks bare.

Directly to the right of the Old Capitol Building was a huge memorial to those who died for the Confederacy. At the base of the statue, inside the gate, is a statue of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy during the Civil War.

And directly to the left of the Old Capitol is a War Memorial to all those who served in our various wars.

So this area was quite an eyeful. Like I said, the Old Capitol itself was mostly a history of the building, but they did have some displays on things that happened in the building, like Constitutional Conventions, Secession votes prior to the Civil War, Poll taxes, etc. They even had a display showing how the "Keeper of the Capitol" lived in the building to make sure he was there to open and close the building.

Mississippi has had 4 Constitutions, and this display was talking about how the 1890 Constitution was more conservative than the previous one in 1868. The 1868 Constitution gave all males the right to vote, while the 1890 Constitution instituted Poll taxes to preclude blacks and poor whites from voting. When the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1920, that meant that women in Mississippi now had to pay a poll tax, too. The poll tax was not repealed until 1968!

In 1849 the first discussions of Secession from the Union took place in the Mississippi House. Here they told us that Mississippi was the 2nd state to secede from the Union. Knowing now that Florida was 3rd...who was 1st??? Anyone know?

Another display explained that, like Texas, Mississippi has a constitutionally weak Governor, with offices like the Lt Governor directly elected by the people. Also, the legislature only meets 90-125 days a year, so for Congressman and Senators, it is a part-time job. I wonder if it is like that all over the country? Or is it mostly just southern states?

These are pictures of the House Chamber from the Gallery (middle picture).

Here are some "Firsts in the nation" for Mississippians to proud of. I especially liked the Married Women's Propery Act and the University for Women.

Here are some pictures of the Senate Chamber. This really was a very pretty building.

We left the Old Capitol Building and walked a few blocks to the current Capitol Building, passing a few things of note along the way. Here is the 1st skyscraper in Jackson.

And here is the Governor's Mansion...we are going to take a tour of this tomorrow morning.

When was the last time you saw a phone booth like this? If ever? Looks British to me.

Here is the United Methodist Church, on one corner across the street from the Capitol.

And here is the First Baptst Church...across a different street from the Capitol. This is the biggest church I have seen since the Vatican! haha No kidding, the 1st picture shows you the front of the church, while the 2nd picture shows the back of that part of the church connected to another part of the church across the street. We spoke to 2 security people who worked there and they said this church actually owns 8 city blocks of property and has 10,000 members, including 2 former governors and a former US Senator (Trent Lott).

This is the new Capitol building, in use since 1903 and even more beautiful than the Old Capitol. Leading up to it is a replica of the Liberty Bell and then a monument to the women of the Confederacy. I had to wonder how that makes black Mississippians feel?

The inside of the building is gorgeous...mostly marble and lots of stained glass. When you walk in you are in an open circular area that reaches all the way to the ceiling. Directly across from the entrance is this stairway leading up to the Senate and House Chambers, Governor's offices and Supreme Court.

This was the ceiling above the staircase.

And this is the shortest door to a ladies room we have seen. They must have been really small back in 1903!