Sunday Morning Coming Down

Sunday was a beautiful day for October. The temperature climbed up into the mid 70's. The trees are changing colors. Driving down the tree-lined streets of Topeka, Kansas, the orange, and browns and reds with the strong sun shining through them made the trees almost, but not quite, appear to be on fire. It was warm, with a slight breeze. The warmth, and the breeze and the firey color of the changing leaves and the bright, yellow light of the sun gave you a feeling like you would imagine the subject of Johnny Cash's song "Sunday Morning Coming Down" felt as he walked around his neighborhood smelling frying chicken and watching kids play.

I had to head out to the Wal-Mart to get knee pads for Courtney's volleyball practice. Her brownie troop went to a corn maze on Saturday night, and she stayed over with a friend. Niko and Cody had gone with their boy scout troop to the Cosmosphere space museum down in Hutchinson early Saturday morning and were not expected to be back until after three. So I went down to the Wal-Mart and picked up the knee pads and headed to the Mater Dei grade school gym to meet Courtney for her volleyball practice.

Mater Dei grade school used to be Holy Name grade school. It was a K-8 school until the Holy Name parish and the Assumption parish merged, Holy Name school became Mater Dei grade school serving K-5 and Assumption school became Mater Dei middle school serving 6-8. It's been quite a change for the kids, but the boys like it better because now they get to travel from class to class like a real middle school. They adjusted fairly well with a couple of bumps in the beginning.

But this Sunday...was a great Sunday. After volleyball practice Courtney and I went to the Dillon's and picked out some pumpkins for carving. It was nice; with her mom in Lawrence, and the boys in Hutchinson, it was just her and I. We hollowed out her pick of the pumpkins and carved it up. She chose a design that looks like a bat sitting on a jack-o-lantern. It was good times...just my daugher and I...hanging out, carving pumpkins on a Sunday in October in Kansas with the sun shining bright, a slight breeze keeping the edge off the heat and the trees that looked almost as if they were on fire.

Drivin' to the delta

The drive down to Mississippi was uneventful. I didn't get pulled over for doing almost 75 most of the way down. It took me just over 10 hours to arrive in Oxford. Of course, Oxford doesn't seem to believe in street signs, so in that fairly small sized town, it took me another hour to find my sister's house.

With my little Honda Insight, I only had to stop and fill up the 11 gallon fuel tank once. I had to stop for bathroom breaks twice, so I had to empty myself more than I had to fill up the car. I got an overall average of 60 MPG heading down to Oxford. The first tank got much better mileage than the second tank. I'm not certain why though. I stopped south of Sikeston, MO, I think around Matthews or Marston, but don't fully remember exactly where. At that point my average MPG was about 66.

From there my mileage went downhill fast until getting through Memphis. It seemed almost like southern Missour and NE Arkansas is all uphill getting to Memphis. Once through Memphis though, I hit the beautiful rolling hills of northern Mississippi.

They really did a great job in Mississippi with I-55. Giant trees line each side of the highway. You really can't see any commercial businesses from the highway. Everything seems to be about 1/4 to 1/2 mile off the highway. I reminded me of driving through Alberta, Canada - which has a similar setup for the highway I was driving on up there. I did stop at a service station in Sardis, Mississippi to put my home brew on ice and get a hot cup of coffee for the final leg of the trip.

One thing I noticed about Mississippi is the lack of noise. Maybe it was being away from the three kids squealing and squaking at home, but I think it was more. There seemed to be less noise over all. Less background noise. No sirens, very limited traffic noise. I noticed it first at my sister's place, and at her mother's place, and at the funeral home. So I don't think it was something specific to one location or area since all three are in different parts of the delta.

Bad news from the Mississippi delta

I always thought it odd when you'd hear that someone died suddenly after a long bout with some disease or other. My thinking was, if the person had been battling with whatever disease he or she had for weeks, months or even years; then how sudden could it have been when they finally passed on?

My sister's father, who'd been fighting the big "C" was given six weeks about two months ago. We knew it was going to happen, but when it did on Sunday, it still felt sudden to me.

The best way I can think of to describe it is like going through a haunted house at Halloween. You're walking through the house, you've been startled and surprised at each corner you turned. It's dark and you are approaching another corner. You know with an uncanny certainty that someone will pop around that corner and go "BOO" and you will be startled and jump, and possibly even let out a little "eek." You know this is a fact, and you steel yourself against it. You straighten your back and put on your best John Wayne, or Bogart or Eastwood face, and you approach the corner with confidence knowing that this time...this time you will not jump or exclaim 'eek'. But then you round the corner the ghostly white painted face and the black robe jumps out and says "BOO" and you jump all the same. Not because you were actually scared or surprised it happend, but because you can't help it. Even though you knew it was coming, when it finally got there, it was still...sudden.

So, I am taking time from work and drive down to Marks, Mississippi for the funeral. But don't get me wrong. I'm looking forward to the trip. I haven't seen my sister in several years so it will be nice to catch up some. Sadly, it seems the only times I visit her in Mississippi are for life-changing events (the last time I was down there was for her wedding back in '94 or '95). I like Marks, I spent spring break with my sister in Belen, Mississippi (about 5 miles west of Marks) back in college. It was a great place. I have fond memories of the Gulf service station in Marks where we bought our 16 oz bottles of beer and played pool in the back room (this was back when the legal drinking age was 18). And of the "bring-your-own-bottle" bar with gaps in the wood plank floors and chicken wire protecting the band. Not to mention following some fellow named Rosebud out to the airstrip so he could drag race with some other fellow (whose name escapes me at the moment). And then after Rosebud gets arrested (for drag racing on the airstrip) going to wake up the local judge for a bail hearing right there on his front porch. It was all very small town, very...Mayberry. I thought I was from a small town here in Topeka, but that's nothing compared to a place like Belen where the only named street is the county highway that runs right through the center of it, or even like Marks where the general entertainment on a weeknight (when the bring-your-own-bottle dance joint is closed) is playing pool in the back room of the Gulf station.

I'll be very interested to see how much of it has changed, and how much of it has stayed the same. I wonder if I get arrested, can we still go over and wake up the judge to set bail for me on his front porch, in his bathrobe?

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