A Car Show on Lum Guffin’s Homestead
My fascination with the life of Bartlett bluesman Lum Guffin is well-known, all the more so as I walked past his house for years with …
History
“If You Love It, Do it Everyday”: Glenview Murals in Memphis
Glenview, a neighborhood of single-family homes along Lamar Avenue southeast of downtown Memphis was one of the first historically-white neighborhoods to open up to African-American …
The Mason Family Reunion: Great Weather, Good Food, Fun and Fellowship, But No Musicians
Predominantly-African-American towns in Mississippi have a tradition of annual “days,” named for the towns, in which there are live performances, and in which people from …
Great Blues and Barbecue in Coldwater, Mississippi
Memphis is known for great barbecue, but strangely, barbecue is rarer in Mississippi, so when a new place appeared in the town of Coldwater, in …
Fisherville and Cordova, Tennessee on a Summer Afternoon
The Fisherville and Cordova communities in eastern Shelby County, Tennessee are among the few places in the Memphis area that have retained something of their …
A Rapidly Vanishing Rural Past in Fayette County, Tennessee
Fayette County, in the part of West Tennessee that we might call the state’s Delta region, was for most of its history a highly rural …
Friday Night Dinner at The Biscuitry in Bolivar
Periodically, I receive sponsored messages in my Facebook timeline, and on one afternoon, a message from a restaurant called The Biscuitry caught my attention. The …
A Great Dinner and Fun at Barretville’s General Store
Shelby County, Tennessee is largely dominated by Memphis and its suburban satellites, but it was not always so. The county had a long past as …
All On A Mardi-Gras Day: “I Run Through Water and Swim Through Mud”: Black Indians Uptown
The gangs of Black Indians (sometimes called Mardi Gras Indians) who appear in elaborate costumes on the streets of New Orleans on Mardi Gras, St. …
A Day With the TBC Brass Band in New Orleans
With my birthday falling on Monday December 2, I decided to celebrate a day early by going to New Orleans for the Dumaine Street Gang …