You just never know how outsiders view us in Mississippi

Clarion Ledger ^ | March 24, 2002 | David Hampton

[Dawgsquat]

As Mississippians, we develop a sense of humorous resignation about those who visit our fair state and, to their surprise, find people actually wearing shoes and speaking English.

So, I was amused with a newspaper clipping sent to me by a Mississippian living in Southern Pines, N.C., in which a columnist reported on a recent trip here.

[stboz]

Dear Mr. Winslow,

Come back when you can't stay so long.

(Whisper)And the rest of you all, shut up! The damn Yankees'll hear you, figure what we got and they'll NEVER leave!!!!

[WKB]

Com'on down and enjoy a plate of fried catfish. We grow the best

I've seen dawsquat enjoy fried catfish> He really does ENJOY them.

[Dawgsquat]

Howdy WKB. You looked like you enjoyed them as well. LOL!!! Let's do it again.

[oyez]

Hush up about "Hoochee Mama" night , you hear? If a Yankee goes to one he might not want to be a Yankee anymore. If it anything worse thin Nothernors its a dang Yankee thinking he's a good ole boy.

[Ditter]

I don't think I had any pre concieved ideas about Miss. I am from E. Texas & I thought Miss was just about like E. Texas only farther east & it is. We have driven the Natchez Trace Parkway the past 2 Octobers, from Natchez to Nashville. That covers a lot of Miss. Miss is a BEAUTIFUL state BUT they ever heard of a no smoking section. Smokers sit anyplace they want to in any restaurant, they smoke in stores & I guess, anyplace at all. I found that amazing in 2002, kinda backward, if you must know.

[oyez]

Great thing about moble homes is the dry rot don't smell as bad as them wood houses. Cousin Buford bought one over by the rendering plant. It smells as bad inside ans it does outside.

[oyez]

backward, if you must know.

More like unspoiled if you ask me.

[Dawgsquat]

Don't worry about the smoking. Our Dem legislature is working on that. Dems just love the idea of restricting freedom.

[Ditter]

Nope, the air in the restaurants was definitely spoiled. ;9)

[MozarkDawg]

Fried dill pickles are some of the finest food to ever come out of a catfish house!

I'm originally from California -- the first place Dawgsquat took me to was the River Bend Catfish House here in Yazoo City. I'm HOOKED like a channel cat on the whole meal, fillets, hush-puppies, the works!! Them fried dill pickles cain't be beat, neither!

Been trying to make my own hush-puppies here at home, but they just never come out quite as good as the restaurants. I'll keep experimenting until I get it right.

Absolutely NOTHING wrong with fried food -- 'specially when they use peanut oil! :)

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Ha, that's funny.

When I was in the military, I knew a guy who lived close to a paper mill. He said that there was a constant hamster cage smell of wood chips and a fart smell of steam. Yuck!

[oyez]

Try some green tomato rellish with those catfish. You'll hurt yourself.

[oyez]

Crown Zellerbach had a kraft paper mill in Bogalusa, LA that used to flaver four counties on the Coast. Maybe the worst industral smell is an unsecured rendering plant. Call it death warmed over. It even drives the flies off the country side.

[Kenny Bunk]

Harley, we here Down East want to thank you and all the people of Mississippi for the splendid effort you folks have made over the years.

During my high school years, we learned that Maine had the second poorest economy in the Union. You fellows beat us out every time.

Lately, your population has been booming. Not trying to edge us out, are you?

[eloy]

You can choose to go somewhere else where folks don't have the right to choose what they want to do.

[oyez]

True. The state has been running a propaganda war for years, but what they say about Arkansas is true.

[SuziQ]

When we move around to various parts of the country, we look at it like an adventure...when we have moved into a new area, we dont even try to compare it to where we have lived before...thats not fair at all...we just try to meld into an area of the country, and its ways, its culture, its people, its foods, its language, whatever sets that area of the country apart...its more fun that way, and you get to learn a little something about the area and yourself...

I like to poke fun at MA, where we've lived for the last 14 years, but I have to admit, even I was missing the snow this year! And autumn in New England is like nothing I had ever seen; just breathtaking! The folks here are just not as friendly as they are back home in MS, but once you get to know them, they're all right.

But when the kids have grown and gone, and Sir SuziQ retires to professoring or whatever he wants to do, I'd like to move back South, if only to be closer to our family. Flying or having to drive long distances to see kinfolks is starting to get OLD!

[SuziQ]

I knew a guy who lived close to a paper mill. He said that there was a constant hamster cage smell of wood chips and a fart smell of steam. Yuck!

Ah Yes; the olfactory memory of International Paper in Moss Point (or was it Escatawpa)! And there used to be a brown bubbly foam which floated down the Mary Walker Bayou. Daddy figured it was from the Masonite plant somewhere upriver. The foam is no longer there thanks to some oversight by the State, but the smell of the paper mill lingers (ick!) in my mind!

[wardaddy]

Damn dawg, I'm sorry I missed this one. Nice pic of your homestead entrance....nice front bumper plate.

All those who diss our homestate cn go straight to hell in a bucket!

regards