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| The First and Only MATT HERITAGE TRAIL Motor Coach Tour is history. |
| Genrerally speaking, there were two reactions to Mississippi and some of its more interesting residents on the first and last Matt Heritage Trail Bus Tour. One is that although you may think you know what clinical obsession is, you don't really appreciate it until you see it. The second reaction was the realization was that Faulkner didn't need a great imagination. All he had to do was write about the people he saw around him. Mostly (as Ellen Ball from UConn and Don Clayton from Washington University demonstrate at left), the reaction was laughter and having a good times with friends from around the country. We started with an unscheduled trip to the grand bazaar of the exotic that is Graceland. Some folks hadn't quite finished their gift shopping so we put in some mall time before heading south for a look at Jerry Lee Lewis's ranch in Nesbit. I had called ahead and discovered that Jerry Lee has shut down his gift shop for some reason, so there really was no need stop. Graceland Too awaited. |
People kept asking me what Graceland Too is. I kept saying that there are some things that can't be described, only experienced. Graceland Too would be one of those. There really isn't anyway to describe or explain Graceland Too, and its proprietor, Paul McLeod. Many have tried. All have failed. |
| Even though the house is currently undergoing renovation, Bill allowed us a quick look at the house's most famous attribute--an out line of the novel, "A Fable", Faulkner's last book, that is written on the wall of his writing rooom. Wearing what he said was an old tweed jacket that had belonged to Faulkner, he told us some of the lore of the house. Afterward, Jeff Alford and Perry Moulds showed us some of the more historic buildings on the Ole Miss campus. Curiously, none of the dormitories I lived in were mentioned. Hmmm. We finished off our visit to Oxford with a short shopping expedition to Square Books on the Oxford Square. As is the case with practically any bookstore anywhere, it left the crowd wishing we'd had longer to browse. By the time we got to Batesville, it was dark and we were running late. The folks on the bus were deprived of seeing churches and schools I attended and ditches I played in as a child. Maybe next time. They were treated (literally) to a short visit from my poor,old mother, who (at Kim Francis's earlier request) made brownies for us. We really needed more food. Along the way to Clarksdale, I pointed out the bridge the Billy Joe McAllister might have jumped off of (had he been a real person) and the site of the old cotton gin that had been dismantled and carted off to Los Angeles to become the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard. When we got to Clarksdale, I pointed out the infamous "Crossroads of the Delta" where Robert Johnson and the devil duelled for Johnson's soul. I believe that both Robert Johnson and Satan are both real, but somehow, the details of this story just never made sense to me. We saw rather more of Clarksdale than we wanted before we got to Madidi, the restaurant owned by Morgan Freeman. Happily for us, Morgan was dining "in house" that night and few of our group said hello. He promised us that he'd come up to our private room and say hi, but didn't. I NEVER LIKED HIM!!! Seriously, his restaurant was as pleasant as he is. It took forever to get served, ut we all had a good time waiting--and waiting. (Oddly enough, even though the food was slow, the drink orders from the bar came really fast. The leisurely meal at Madidi meant that we were two hours late getting back to Memphis. By the end of the day, we were all good friends who had seen just enough of Mississippi to wonder why Faulkner got a Nobel Prize for fiction. |
| After wondering what the hell just happened, we moved on to Oxford, home of the University of Mississippi. Within the last year, Oxford has been ranked as the number one retirement community in the nation by Fortune and one of the ten best college towns in the country by GQ. We saw why It deserves both rankings and is a pretty nice place for people in between as well. At Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner, we were met by Jeff Alford, Vice Chancellor for Public Relations at the university; Perry Moulds, major gifts officer for the College of Arts and Sciences; and Bill Griffith, the gregarious curator. |
| "So who WERE all those people?" GUESTS Ellen Ball, U of Connecticut Mary Sue Cheeseman, U. of Cincinnati Elena Cerri, U. of Pittsburgh Don Clayton, Washington U. Vicki Clayton, St. Louis Karyn Connolly, Albany Michelle Dodenhoff, Tulane Chris DeWolf, Tulane Kim Francis, U. of Cincinnati Betsy Gellert, Albert Einstein Dana Grossman, Dartmouth Abe Habenstreit, Albert Einstein Janet Honeycutt, U. of Arkansas Matt Isch, U. of Cincinnati Linda Karr, U. of Cincinnati Maggie McDonald, U. of Pittsburgh Mark McKeown, Tulane Sally Millett, Atlanta Linda Nine, U. of West Virginia Nancy Nungesser, New Orleans Joshua Waggoner, Tulane Betsy Waters, Medical U. of S. Carolina Butch Waters, Charleston Charlotte Zamjahn, Wake Forest AT CRACELAND TOO Paul McLeod IN OXFORD Jeff Alford Bill Griffith Perry Moulds IN BATESVILLE Anne Isch IN CLARKSDALE Morgan Freeman BUS DRIVER Fred Driggers |
| I wondered who Mr. McLeod would ambush with his serenade. I couldn't imagine that it would be Anke from Columbia. . |
| By the way, this is what the dark room in the house looks like in the light. All of the photos you see are some of the 225,000 visitors to Graceland Too that Mr. McLeod has photographed over the years. The perfectly chaming woman with the orange hair, green shirt and big mouth in this photo is my wonderful New Zealand friend, Bridget "Fifi L'Amour" Venning. Fifi is as adorable a person as you'll ever hope to meet, but she tends to verbalize anything that happens to pop into her brain at any given time. After her first visit to to G2, she walked out onto the front porch and shrieked, "I'm f****** speechless!" Ever since, I've considered that to be the only appropriate response. |
| I think this is most of the group. |
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