Starkville to Oxford

After sleeping on it I decide to go North to Oxford. It seems farther north then I would like. It lies about 70 miles just south of Memphis. Seems like that would be pretty cold during winters. Although nothing compared to Vermont. The trip up is uneventful except for the fact that I end up on the wrong road. I have never come across this before but my map is miss labeled. Either that or the state switched route numbers for some reason. I happily barrel through the countryside for an hour before I realize I am now 40 miles further west then where I was supposed to be. Once finally straightened away I see a sign along the road “Caution Bridge freezes before road” That is not something I want to see. That means things freeze up here. Freezing is bad. I am in Oxford that afternoon. I do a quick drive through the main part of town and conclude things look very promising. Just off the square…this is another one of those towns set up as a square…. I find an old looking hotel. The location is perfect so I go in to check it out. The lobby is plastered floor to ceiling with various promotion photos of bands. Most are autographed. There is an Indian woman behind the desk and I ask her what this is all about. She says that the previous owner was a huge music fan and would go up and get the photos from all the groups he saw in town over the years. They decided to leave them up when they bought the place. Very cool this is looking better all the time. It is a one-block walk to town. I sign reads “bicycle friendly town” I pass buy a trash can on the sidewalk next to it is a separate one that reads “ oxford recycles – cans and bottles only” more good signs. The main square is really nice. Prosperous, I count 3 bookstores another really good sign. I see they have one those local free papers that are basically a “ what’s happening” thing. In my home town we call it the advocate. It is a paper largely dedicated to art and music. The thing is chock full of all kinds of music and events. There are lots of restaurants on the square. Lots up on the second floor like in New Orleans. Tables out on the balconies, ceiling fans above them. Very nice stuff. There is a lot of construction going on. Just down one of the side roads is a new condo complex. There is a sign saying “ mill area” and that is what they have done. They have taken the old brick mills and revamped them to be condos, which looks good as they fit in the landscape and they have added sort of matching touches to the town architecture. There is also another big building being totally redone. The guy in Starkville was correct, compared to his town, this is haughty. I have been to many very wealthy places in this country. This town is not like that. It certainly has a lot of money but it is not inaccessible the way places with real money are. It feels a bit like downtown Northhampton MA, for those of you who know that town. I pass a music hall with list of shows posted. This must be where that guy at the hotel got all the pictures. I see “Modest Mouse” is playing but sold out. Oxford is a college town. The University of Mississippi ( Ole Miss ) is here. I take a drive down through the campus. It is unbelievable. Really nice, big oaks in the center of what is basically a small city. The place is mobbed with students walking to and from classes.
I drive around the outskirts of town. The area is nice. Unfortunately the town was burned in the war and has lost most of all the really cool homes that I am sure used to be here. Everything seems very accessible in this town. Even the sprawl area is set up well. It runs just outside of town along one road. If you wanted to go to McDonalds you could walk there from main street but you don’t see of feel that the sprawl. It has its place, which is secondary. Here the center of town is the heart of the town.
That evening I walk up into town and start considering my options. I randomly walk into a pub and they have a stage there with a built in sound system. There is a band setting up. Hard to believe as it is a Tuesday night but this town is totally into the music scene. Not only because of the college but I suspect that all those people who are trying to make it in Memphis must come down here too. Of coarse I had to stay. 2 acoustics and a mandolin. A guy with a great deep voice. Dylan, John Prine the Dead. What more can I say. I closed the place. Oxford 5 stars.

Vicksburg to Starkville

This morning I have to make a choice as to where to go next. I had originally thought I would go up to Clarksdale, which is straight North on RT 61. I was not really expecting to find Clarksdale to be a great town to live in but it is supposedly the home of the blues. They have a museum and a lot of blues clubs according to what I read. I’d like to see those but I am feeling like I may be falling behind. I decide to head across the state to Starkville.
I will pass through a number of towns on the way that I wanted to look at.

As soon as I can I get off the highway and on to the backroads. I wind my way North of Jackson. Here the backroads are all great. 55mph is no problem and they are practically empty. My perception of Mississippi was that it was an extremely poor state. I suppose it is on a scale measured against Connecticut or California, however it seems like it would be quite cheap to live here so that scale is a bit scewed. The homes out here are modest, and yes there are junky trailers and shot gun shacks sometimes, but frankly it looks pretty similar to a lot of Vermont. Just very rural. A person could do a lot worse then living in rural Mississippi. I feel comfortable here very much like home. The first town I get to is Canton. A sign proclaims “ home of Nissan” I didn’t actually see where the plant is. The main sprawl area is busy and nasty. I press forward to the downtown area and park. Unlike the other towns this is built in a perfect square. In the center is a huge municipal building and then a street ringing it with buildings on all 4 sides facing in. I go for a walk around town. There are a number of large Antique stores and I poke through them. My wife and I collect art glass so I am pretty well versed in what the prices are in the Northeast. I was hoping to find bargains galore down here. This is not the case. If anything the prices were somewhat higher. E-Bay has become the great equalizer in collectibles. I can’t go anywhere anymore and find under priced stuff. The central town is OK but it is clearly struggling. There is no vibrancy to it. Some businesses are closed. They only open 4 days a week. I look for a place to grab lunch and there is only one place on the square. There is a bar in there, but it is not really a bar. Doesn’t look like they really cater to that. I pull up a seat anyway as opposed to getting a table. If you’re alone and you want to talk to someone or meet people you have to go to the bar. At the very least you have the bartender to talk with. Within a second I get the usual “where you from” Turns out Dad is behind the bar helping out. His son has just opened the place several months ago. Kid went to culinary school so this is his shot. This guy is friendly likes to talk. We chat about the area while I eat “the hammer” which is what the chef’s specialty sandwich was called. I am not positive what type of meat it was exactly. Perhaps a pork and ground beef mix. It was a huge ball of greasy meat covered in some cheese sauce and onions. Also came with oil soaked fries. The hammer totally hammered me for the next 8 hours. Anyway, Dad told me I should go to the town of Oxford, said it was very nice.
With a belly full of “the hammer” I continued up the road. The next stop was a town called Kosciusko. The old town sits quite a ways from the sprawl part. This I have found can be good or bad. In this case it was bad. Kosciusko is built on the same circle the municipal building idea. The buildings are all still standing but frankly the main town is dead. Numerous vacant stores. Again many simply not opened 5 days a week. I saw a drugstore and went in to buy some toothpaste. The shelves were bare. They had one of everything. Not like one of everything in the world. I mean literally one item. Like if you wanted a toothbrush they had one toothbrush, if you needed another for your kid? Sorry that will be in next week. I am sure everyone buys all their toiletries down at the 24hr CVS wedged between the truck stop and Applebee’s. Oh well you can’t fight progress. I am out of here.
Starkville is the home to Mississippi State University. As such I was hoping to find a young intellectual vibe there. The town is set up as one long main street. I pulled in and tried to get a hotel room right on main street but it was $110 a night and I just couldn’t justify it. I found another really sketchy place a couple streets back called the Regal. It was probably built in the 1950’s had a total dive bar next to it. Now normally I would think this the perfect spot, but I have this rental car and my computer. I thought I should pass. I wandered around town for a while. Things looked OK but there was really nothing that indicated anything cool in this town…where are the students? I popped into a number of outwardly nice looking second story bars. They were fairly empty. Big college sports bar things inside. The bar was sticky if you leaned on it. The bathrooms had holes punched in the Sheetrock. Happy hours were drink till you puke prices. I never really liked this scene even when I was 20 but seeing as it was the only game in town I sat down and tried to look youthful. After failing at that, I got talking to the guy next to me. Now you should never judge a place just speaking to one person, but he loved the town. Said it was growing at leaps and bounds. He told me they were all very excited about this new huge mall going in out by the highway. We watched some sports for a while. I asked him if he had ever been to Oxford. Yes he said, he hated it very haughty. Hmmm….that makes two recommendations. I finished up and headed for the “real? town to get a hotel. It was right next to CVS so I could get that extra toothbrush and across the street from some faux Irish Pub. The food was good. The young ladies at the bar kept me entertained. If you can’t beat them……