Used To Be's in the Delta

Guess I've reached that milestone in life where you begin to reflect on years past.  Don't tell my mom because she'll think I'm waiting for the latest list of who's who in the obituary column.  Not me, don't want to find my name on that list!

I'm  a member of a Facebook group, "Remember Growing Up In Belzoni".  Everybody has such fond memories from that town.  I spent the tender years of my early teens there.  Riding bikes to where you needed to go, scouting with Mr. Howell and Mr. Lister, baseball being the major summer thing, and winter treks in the snow to the Indian Mound for a day of sledding.

Heart of the Delta
Reflections of days past in Belzoni have gone full circle.  The town's slogan was and is that it is "The Heart of the Delta".  Years ago, as you would approach the town from either direction on Hwy 49, you would see in the distance the sign, on tall poles that crossed the highway at the Jackson Street intersection.  Mr. Lister worked for MP&L and he was the pole climber that replaced the blown bulbs.  Eventually MDOT had the sign moved to the side of the road, and over time it came into disrepair  and torn down.  The Facebook group is working on the idea of bringing back the sign on the roadside for my generation  to enjoy, but also as a reminder to future generations of what used to be.  I hope they succeed!

Catfishing
In the South, cotton was certainly king.  In the 1970's it began to lose its luster.  A few innovators in Humphreys County came up with the idea of taking marginal crop land and turning it into ponds for the purpose of raising catfish.  The idea caught on, and Humphreys County became known as the "Catfish Capital of the World".  Catfish farming led to feed plants and processing plants.  They even developed an annual event, the Catfish Festival, that is held each spring.

During trips back to the Delta, you knew where you were by a mere glance at the roadside.  Soybean fields had been replaced the fish ponds.  Occasionally,  late at night you could see the glow of the spotlight, where a worker was checking the oxygen levels in the water.

Eventually this industry hit it's peak then gradually began to decline.  Along with cheap foreign imports, the costs of production took its toll on the industry.  The ponds that once we're full of activity were abandoned.  Some of the ponds have been repurposed back into soybean fields now that crop prices have risen.  On a recent ride through the Delta, I noticed crews are in some places removing the levees that were built to hold the water.

Small Town USA
As young people in the Delta grew into adulthood, most followed their dreams and moved on to larger cities and even out of state.  What they left behind and reminisce about now is almost gone.

These towns thrived on mom and pop businesses.  Each had several drug stores, small grocery stores referred to as "Chinamen Stores", clothing stores, hardware stores, and even variety stores like the Ben Franklin five and dime.

Back in the day, very few of these towns were open for business on Sunday, in honor of the "blue laws " of the time that limited what could be sold on that sacred day.  Some communities even had a tradition of closing the stores each Wednesday afternoon so that the shopkeepers could have time to take.care of personal business.

The lifeline in these towns was the rail line that typically cut through the center of town.  Every kid in town owned a penny or two that had been flattened by a passing rail car.   I spent many an afternoon climbing the piles of lime that were delivered by rail in Inverness.

Four Lane Highways 
All of these Delta towns were connected by a system of two lane highways.  Eventually, in its infinite wisdom, the State of Mississippi began a construction project to replace and expand these two lane paths into four lane divided highways.  To achieve this, the project would have to "bypass" the town centers of these communities.  The daily traffic of cars and trucks were to no longer be slowed down by the one traffic light in town.   This and the increasing prices on fuel was the beginning of the end to mom and pop gas stations where you got full service treatment at the pump, along with oil changes and new tires for the car.

The People
Probably the biggest thing one misses from the Delta are it's people.

On road trips through the Delta you knew you were "home" simply by passing an oncoming car on the two lane roads.  A simple wave of the hand meant you had arrived.  My wife once asked me "who was that?"  I would just grin and reply with one word, "Home"!

Conversations were not merely a "hello" or "goodbye ".  Chats would go on for minutes at a time.  How's your "mommanem"?  How much rain did you get?  Wonder who will be having babies after that last power outage?  And on and on it goes.....

They say all this goes away through progress.  Maybe it's time to implement a little de-gress.  Start with that little hand jesture.  I'm all in, what about you?