Browsing: OurMSVoices

Easter is almost here! Since it falls a bit early this year, you might not have your usual prep work done for your family Easter celebration. But don’t panic. Just tell everybody to bring their favorite food, a dozen dyed or plastic, candy-stuffed eggs, and you’re good to go.

For those of us that are older (definition withheld), many of our fondest memories are that of simpler times and experiences with the characters that defined small towns. That was certainly true for me growing up in southwestern Louisiana where those characters shaped my view of the world and how simple acts were common.

Last Saturday, I got an early morning text saying, “Don’t forget, we need to be at church tonight at 7:00”.
Wait, what? Understand, I truly love my church, First United Methodist of Pascagoula, but I’m pretty much a Sunday morning guy. Saturday nights, I’m usually going out to eat, watching some ball game, visiting with friends, or just chilling at the house.

That’s one of many reasons why I love writing for Our Mississippi Home (OMH). We offer our readers an extensive, well-rounded collection of news and information about real people and places from all over the Hospitality State. 

Nothing heralds the hope of Spring in Mississippi like those beautiful yellow daffodils bravely poking their heads through the cold (often frost-laden) bare ground of the highways and byways of our state. 

One cold evening about a year ago I was making an impromptu drive to see my oldest son who was, at the time, attending Mississippi College in Clinton.It had been a long day and adding an unexpected 7 hour round tripper from Mobile to Clinton and back that night did not go towards filling the deficit of joy I was currently experiencing, not even a little bit. 

It’s finally February again, the month for lovers – lovers of baseball. 

Yep! Over the next two weeks, every high school and college baseball field in Mississippi will fill up with players, coaches, and fans, eager to begin another season of America’s National Pastime.  

In the remote corners of rural northeastern Mississippi, where layers of ice still cover the roads, a sense of community shined through before the sun did. Friends and neighbors who were tired, cold, and restless rose to the challenge and exemplified hospitality and care at its finest.

Baseball wasn’t invented in Mississippi but that’s what my childhood was infused with, baseball, and lots of it. 

Can you believe we are at the end of the year? I will say— 2023 has been quite a year. It seems to have passed by with the blink of an eye! From belly laughter with loved ones to tears shed secretly, if I could describe 2023 in one word for the state of Mississippi, it would be “forward”. 

My Mama Katie was a true Mississippi woman. Born in 1904, she lived all 98 years of her life in this state, and she epitomized the Mississippi tradition of true hospitality.

The values and traditions that are engrained in me from growing up in rural America, more specifically, rural Southern Mississippi, are something I don’t think about every day but, they are never more apparent than when I travel back home to Lucedale, Mississippi for the annual family Christmas gathering.

There’s that great line in the final scene of “A Christmas Story” when Ralphie, clutching his Red Ryder b-b gun, says, “the greatest Christmas gift I had ever received, or would ever receive”. I’ve always liked that quote, as it speaks not only to the joy he had with the b-b gun, but also to how Christmas memories like that can stay with us forever.

oday is a day that many of us will gather with our family, friends, and loved ones to celebrate Thanksgiving. The holidays tend to usher in an attitude of gratitude by allowing us to reflect on what we are most grateful for.

On our ever-growing list of things to be thankful for this year, I’d like to also include the state of Mississippi.

Anyway, whether some of us like it or not, school IS back in session, so I thought it would be a good time to reflect  upon some of the best/favorite teachers I had throughout my educational process in the Pascagoula School System. I’ve decided to begin with a commentary about an instructor who was probably the most exceptional classroom educator I ever had, then give bullet point comments about several others, starting that group with grade school and going forward.

I grew up in Poplarville, Mississippi. A small town that got its first redlight after I moved away to college.