Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Today, the land is still dusty. The crops are no longer exclusively cotton, but expanding into soybeans and rice, among others. The roads are paved now, but many are pocked and the litter at the sides is reminiscent of Africa. This is still one of the poorest parts of the States. In some parts it is desperately poor. Some of it is heartbreaking to see. 

A fellow we spoke to in Atlanta on hearing we were driving down through Mississippi suggested we should: “Drive fast and shut your eyes.”  We didn't. We are moving slowly and starting to feel the pain. 

The Blues Commission is doing its bit. They have set up this Blues Trail with its excellent museums, information boards and plantation details, highlighting the Blues legends and lores, encouraging tourists. A really excellent one is the B B King museum in Indianola,  B B's last resting place. We spent half a day there. And some tourists are coming, though not enough yet. 

It is not all about the Blues. There are some extraordinarily picturesque parts, too. Some of the porches of some of the homes look as though they come straight out of an issue of Southern Living. If they can look this beautiful when the trees are bare, how they must revive the spirits when the trees are green. 

Others reflect different circumstances. But, when all is said and done, not even the weather cooperates to make life easy in these parts. When you come across one of the local typhoon shelters it reinforces all the circumstances out of your control that make life hard when you are poor. 

Then, we drive slowly over the Tallahatchie Bridge, looking down into the brown muddy waters lying limply below. Bobby Gentry’s Ode to Billy Joe seems, bitterly, to capture the tragedy of much of it all:

It was the third of June,

another sleepy, dusty Delta day.

I was out choppin' cotton 

and my brother was balin' hay.

And at dinner time we stopped,

and we walked back to the house to eat.

And mama hollered at the back door 

"y'all remember to wipe your feet."

And then she said she got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge

Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Choctaw Ridge is just over the ways as we cross.

Dry dusty land, but proudly productive

Pocked and littered with trash

Many cottages are boarded up, simply too hazardous to live in

Advertising BB

Beautiful barn on a bayou

So much Southern charm

Even in winter some homes are lovely

A pretty pair 

Some are incredibly tidy

Some are not. So many folk here spread their possessions far and wide across their property. 

Storm shelter for the entire community with its own generator at the side

Looking down from the Tallahatchie Bridge