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Writer's pictureMike Durkin

Magnolia State of Mind

Around University and Oxford, Mississippi

November 2019


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“Tell about the South.

What's it like there.

What do they do there.

Why do they live there.

Why do they live at all.”


Hotty Toddy

Gosh Amighty

Ghosts of Mississippi Burning

This house yells Hotty Toddy






Cultural Mecca of the South

Magnolia State of Mind

There is no Tom Cruise here

No game shows

The past is never dead, it’s not even past.

You had me at Hotty Toddy


Blues

Food

Writing

Trails

Football


There is more to Oxford than the big game






Hop on the Double Decker

Past never escaping us

British rule never escaping us

The pen and page

The ink

The novels

The poems

The short stories

The literary legacy is alive and well






Football and writing

The pens our footballs

The writers our players

The publishers our coaches

The page our field

The novel our game

Imagine Faulkner getting tackled

Imagine Manning writing poetry


“Talk, talk, talk: the utter and heartbreaking stupidity of words.”






History repeated

History repeating

History beating

Written history

Rewriting history

Our own histories

Controlling our histories

Denying our histories

Selected histories

History deep fried

Smothered in sausage gravy and etouffee

Embracing histories

History repeating

The past is never dead, it’s not even past.

Is history our southern identity?






Jim Dees broadcasting on Thacker Mountain Radio Hour

With the house band the Yalobushwhackers


Tigers and Rebels walking in the Square


Faulkner’s legacy with each writer after him

Yoknapatawpha

YOK-na-pa-TAW-pha

water flows slow through flat land

Jefferson

Lafayette

Chickasaw





Southern Gentility

Suits and khakis

Dresses and boots

Beads

Ties

Tie me up

Thai chicken salads

Oriental chicken salads

Rings

College Rings

High School Rings

Championship Rings

Engagement Rings

Wedding Rings

Divorce Rings

Freedom Rings





Burns Methodist Episcopal Church in Freedmen Town

Community Heritage

Larry Brown’s legacy just as strong


“Sunday just came down like a nine-pound hammer ... it was tainted with the closing-in feeling of the loss of freedom. Because after the sun went down, it came back up on Monday morning. And you had to go to work five more days. And it sucked.”


Traffic backed up for blocks on Lamar, University, and Jackson






Causes lost

Clauses cost

Tenders with Abner’s sauce

Did you get your library card yet?

Save water, drink beer

Cool ranch

Shrimp and grits at City Grocery with that amazing Original Grit Girl grits

Music at Proud Larry’s

Catfish cakes at Ajax with that jalapeño tartar sauce

Big Bad Breakfast bacon

Having a black and bleu burger while listening to the blues






Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery

But it’s our history

You can’t erase our history

Histories repeating

The past has passed

Is the future recalling our pasts?

Where does the present fall into that?

Forging new legacies

Remembering the past

Misremembering the past

Reconstructing the past

Our collective memories


“Memory believes before knowing remembers.”





Caught caught caught

Our pasts are caught

The walleye is caught on the rocks

Our jack on the rocks

Our marriage on the rocks


Catch and release us from this hold

Although a fresh fish dinner can be the climax of a great fishing trip, more and more anglers have come to realize that quality fish populations can only be maintained if catch and release angling is practiced.


“Memory believes before knowing remembers.”





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