the Old South

Today we drove through Mississippi. Mississippi appears to be mostly forest. Much of our way followed the Natchez Trace, an old trail that had been used by the Indians and then by traders, who would float their goods down the Mississippi River and then walk back home. There were various ancient sites of interest along the way, but otherwise nothing but trees and small clearings. It was quite beautiful.

One of the things we saw was an old plantation home that had burned down. All that's left are the corinthian columns standing in a giant rectangle. It was very odd walking among these columns, as if you were at an ancient Greek ruin in Mississippi.




We also visited a couple of ancient Indian sites. I hadn't realized that there was anything left of pre-Columbus civilization. They're just grass-covered mounds, nothing too exciting. But there were signs that explained about the culture a bit. It reminded us of visiting ancient Saxon sites in Germany.

We arrived in Natchez (rhymes with MATCHES), Mississippi, in the afternoon. Natchez is in the midst of its annual "pilgrimage", when people dress up in Gone With the Wind outfits and open their homes to the public. We toured the largest octagonal house in the US. Only the ground floor was finished before the war, and the rest is just a facade with bare wood inside. Quite cool.

The finale of the day was a play called "Southern Exposure", which takes place during the pilgrimage. It was a comedy, supposedly making fun of the rich old families. But the audience - mostly old women - laughed most at the jokes against Northerners. Meanwhile, we seemed to find the anti-racism commentary much more entertaining than they did.

With love from Natchez,

Sarah