Family Times and Ties

I just returned late Monday night from a wonderful trip to Rome, Georgia.  I met my boyfriend’s parents and actually got to see how a true family is.  It kind of reminded me that family ties go further then current family.  I posted the song because it reminds of where most of the blood in my family lays.   

What I mean by this is that I can trace my grandmother’s families back 400 years.  They have been in America since near the beginning.  I can trace my father’s line to 1832, but no further.  I do not even want to trace my mother’s family.  That would be like trying to look at a tree with a great big trunk and very puny little limbs. 

Of my descent, I am Scottish, Irish, French and German from my father’s side, and what I can gather about my mother’s side is Scottish, Irish and Choctaw Indian.  So imagine a fiery, cold temper with the love for the storytelling.  That would be me. 

About my trip to Georgia, I had found out that my boyfriend’s father’s side had settled in Georgia with a good many generations.  My family was in surrounding counties up until the mid 1960′s when they migrated to California and stayed there.  All of my family in Georgia is distant and have married into other families.  It was kind of creepy to find out that I may be very distantly kin to my boyfriend through marriage.  But if thought in the grand scheme of things, the United States population is kin to each other in some way or another.

Recipe for Body Scrub

I have been making natural recipes off and on for about five  years just experimenting.  It has recently come to my attention that my recipes are actually pretty successful.  I have tried all of them on myself and have learned the correct amount of what ingredients to use by trial and fire. 

 

*3/4 cup of sesame seed oil

**1 cup of sea salt, preferrably baleine

***6 drops of essential oil(s)

* denotes footnote

1)  Take a good sized bowl and mix the oil and salt together well.  Let sit for five minutes to let the salt absorb the oil. 

2)  Add essential oil(s) and combine well. 

3) To store, keep mixture in an enclosed jar in a cool, dry place. 

4) When using, apply to dry skin before a shower in circular motions.  Sit near a shower to quit from making a mess.  Remember not to use if you have any cuts or scratches.

5) Take a warm bath or shower to remove. 

* any type of natural oil can be used.  For example, extra virgin olive oil, grapeseed oil, etc. 

**sugar can be substituted and it is also gentler on the skin.

***to use oils, remember to match the oil to the mood you want and to divide them evenly if using more than one.  For example, Lavender is used for calm.  Cloves are used for stimulation, same as cinnamon.  Lemongrass or orange oil can be used for a refreshing experience.

Paint a Picture, Mississippi

When you first think of Mississippi, what comes to mind?  Could it be the idea of racist rednecks or cotton?  Do you think about the poverty rate or how Mississippi is the most obese state in the Union?  Maybe you are thinking that this state has nothing and is just but a big wasteland. 

But Mississippi is not this big wasteland that everyone believes she is.  She is unique.  What makes Mississippi what she is is not in the big high rise buildings like in New York City, or her folk art center, like Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Her uniqueness tantalizes the senses; sight, touch, taste, sound, smell.  When that state line is crossed, you know you are here. 

It’s that smell of red clay and true, blue Mississippi mud.  It is the smell of fresh, cut grass on a Greenville street right after a raging rainstorm.  The smell is in the sizzle of fried chicken about to be pulled from the oil or sweet iced tea fresh from the pitcher.  Go down a local backroad asking small town folk where that best fried chicken or sweet iced tea can be found and get pulled fifty different ways.  Everyone here has their opinion on what smells the best. 

Now, sound can be heard everywhere.  It’s all around.  The wind blows through the trees swaying the willow branches and knocking pine cones to the ground.  It is the pinging of water against a pan sitting far too long underneath the faucet in grandma’s sink.  But how is this different from anywhere else?  The sound is in the sizzle of that same chicken in the grease on the stove.  The air is clean and carries the hit of the baseball against the metal bat all around.

When it comes to Mississippi, everything connects for a profound sensory experience.  All the senses must be used to fully understand and appreciate her beauty.  Mississippi’s core is her people and who make their home on her land.  Her history is bloody and savage, but it is her past.  That past has painted a big black and white image of her present and it is all lumped together in a bad representation. 

Less than two generations ago, crosses were burned in the front yards of people’s homes.  Innocent men, women and children were killed because their skin color was different or they thought differently than the norm.  It is now two generations forward, and thet perception still stands to some.  Some of the outside world still perceives Mississippi’s inhabitants as trigger happy, illiterate rednecks because of the iamge painted years ago.  This is not what is true.  Mississippi has a slow way of life, but that does not make her people slow-minded.  Traditions and beliefs are hard to change, but the mind itself is not immune to the passage of time and history. 

Now back to the imagery perception, Mississippi’s history over the past hundred years can be told through her music.  Many notable musicians and bands come from here, many including B.B. King and Elvis Presley, just to name a few.  But the Mississippi Delta created delta blues which is the precursor to the modern blues movement.  Ultimately, it is the birthplace though most people would not want to admit it.  As the colorful legend goes, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil back in the 20′s at the corner of 49 and 61 in Clarksdale to gain a few notable guitar licks.  Nowadays, we know this is not true, but it is a good story to carry on.  To describe blues, it is that slow, sultry combination of foot tapping with voice and the twanging guitar that tells of hot, humid nights and the slow cadence of crickets in the flat land fields. 

If a road trip were taken through Mississippi, anything worth finding cannot be found by going down the interstate and hitting a left on Frontage Road in Jackson for a few miles.  To find what is worth finding, one must look and ask.  It is safe to be specific and curious.  Do as Robert Frost did and take the road less traveled.  One is bound to end up at a honky tonk or blues bar eating a greasy hamburger and listening to the guitar pickers of the day.  Watch that blues picker as he bends that low E string as he plays the rhythms of his forefathers.  Although slavery is long since silenced, deep in his memory are the old songs sung by his ancestors in the cotton fields on hot days to pass the time. 

In the present, the music has evolved from the Delta blues of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters to the hip gyrations of Elvis Presley in the 50′s and 60′s.  They have influenced the modern day rock sounds of Three Doors Down from Escatawpa near the coast to Saving Abel from Corinth in the northeast corner of the state.  Stopping at another bar, one is bound to hear a town band recreate the sounds of Mickey Gilley and Mississippi’s own toker, Jimmy Buffett.  One might also hear the moanful renditions of Tammy Wynette and watch the tears falling into the beer listening to a Conway Twitty look-a-like.

Chinese anyone?

Monday afternoon, I went out with some friends to get Chinese at the local buffet.  If you know me really well, you know I cannot go a month without getting Chinese. 

This is not what this post is about. 

My friends and I have all graduated high school and college in some form within the past five years.  During our little escapades with chopsticks and General Tao chicken, we got into the conversation of living in Mississippi.  Now let me recap, for the past year I have been working on a little side project between school and work called “Think Mississippi.”  This project plays host that not really a lot of people know what is here in Mississippi or its history without personally being here.  Nadine, the friend who is originally not from here, asked me how to the project was going.  This is how the conversation went:

“It’s going great.  Still doing research though.”

“I still don’t know why you’re writing about this place anyways.  There’s nothing here.”

At this point, our friend Amber entered the conversation.  She was born and raised in Mississippi, but has never set foot out of the state. 

“I mean, seriously, Leann.  There’s nothing here.  That’s why I wanna get outta here as soon as I can.”

That conversation caused me to do an about face in my mind about “Think Mississippi.”  Through my research and those little sentences, I’d come to realize that the main problem is not people outside of Mississippi being uneducated about this state.  The real problem is her own people being oblivious to her charms and what she has. 

Now I can’t say that I’m not guilty of saying that I wanted to get away from here, but since high school five years ago, I’d prefer to live here, especially during these tough economic times, rather than packing up my car for parts unknown with no money.  Before high school, I wanted to move to another state and get as far away from here as I could, because there was nothing to do or see.  It was so boring.  I had the same attitude as a good half of the population of Mississippi has.  I later learned with what little age I’ve gain that wisdom and knowledge soon follow most of the time. 

In the coming post, I hope to have an excerpt of the “Think Mississippi” essay written and finished for your to read.

Job Hunts, Economy and Gas! Oh My!

I graduated a month ago from college, and started my job hunt soon after.  I have not had bad luck, but it has not been good either.  With my newfound adulthood, I have gained a fledgling insight.  I know I’ve spent nearly two hundred dollars in gas and other expenses driving two hours to this town or thirty minutes to that interview.  On these little forays into Mississippi, I have asked questions to myself, how will I afford rent if I have to move to this place?  How will I be able to pay for gas?  I know that I would be paid by my job, but would that, once the economy settles, get better so that I can afford to pay my meager bills. 

Now on a different note, as the economy falters and gas crawls steadily up, I kind of wonder, why?

As a general consensus, the American people blamed George W. Bush for the gas crisis last summer when it went up to nearly $4 a gallon here in Mississippi.  Now gas is at a steady crawl up again, and who do we have to blame?  It’s not just our governments or blaming ourselves.  Starting at a local level, it is illegal to price gouge, but gas station owners do it anyways until they get caught.  For example, in Batesville, now I do not know if this is price gouge or not, but two gas stations off of the North Batesville exit charge $2.59 respectively.  Now in town, the price ranges anywhere, the last time I got gas, from $2.28 to $2.49.  Why would two gas stations charge ten cents more then their competition in town? 

To a more national level, according to the Bloomberg Report published today, the price on crude oil per barrel was $68.  Now using some simple math, $68 divided by 50 gallons per barrel equals out to $1.36.  According to AAA, the national gas price is $2.61.  Why would gas prices be hiked up $1.25 more than the proposed price per gallon from the barrel?