Comments by dixiecrat
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Posted on November 9 at 8:41 a.m.
Wow -- didn't know Co-Lin was so Veteran friendly! Funny -- they'd never even call me back when I was trying to get a job there -- and I had "veteran" all over my resume. What a load of hogwash!
Posted on October 28 at 3:01 p.m.
Oh, yeah -- and I loved all the sectarian bickering! I knew we liked things old timey around here, but that's seriously "old school" -- the Catholics are tearing down Protestant churches! Run -- they're bringing back the Spanish Inquisition, too! Where's the "Know Nothing" Party when we need it? Maybe we can revive the local chapter!
Posted on October 28 at 2:56 p.m.
Oh, what a Great Day for Natchez (Not)! Long Live Historic Preservation in Natchez! When does a building become historically significant enough to merit somebody doing something about it? Lots of folks said FBC wasn't really a historic property -- it was only built in 1921. What if some well-meaning developer of, say, the 1882 Natchez building boom said that about all those old pre-1861 (read "antebellum") buildings? Out with the old, in with the new -- right?! Geez, the hypocrisy and mypoia around here is simply staggering.
Posted on October 26 at 8:48 p.m.
Get a Life -- the building with the gaping hole on Homochitto belongs to one Robert Johnson, Esq. -- yes, that's right -- the elected official Rob't Johnson who has represented our fair city in both the State House and Senate (even though he lives full time in Jackson). Hhhmmm... funny no one ever talks about that or cites him for "demolition by neglect," eh?
Posted on October 24 at 9:48 a.m.
OK -- for all you well-meaning citizens out there (who were apparently sleeping through Civics 101): Just because someone lives in a gated community doesn't mean it's trespassing to enter through the "pearly gates" without a particular individual's permission. Obviously, Dawes got the code from some other home owner(s) who lived in the gated community (who probably didn't care too much for the good doctor themselves). And guess what? In most such instances, you can hand out the code to any one you please -- the pizza delivery boy, your friends from church coming over for a bible study, who ever you choose -- if you live there it's your home. It's not like you need permission or are sworn to secrecy and have to have a secret squirrel decoder ring or something. What? If you illicitly pass out the number is the home-owners' association going to put you on double-secret probation and stick plastic forks and pink flamingos in your yard or something? What if the cops or fire department need to get in for an actual emergency? Just because Natchez doesn't have a single gated community is no reason to be lacking in basic common sense. A gate to a subdivision is a public deterrent put in place by a group of private individuals -- not some plutocratic oligarchy with the force of law behind them. Besides, since when did it become trespassing to serve a summons to Court on someone? OR to knock on someone's door for any reason -- passing out tracts for a religious denomination, selling vacuum cleaners, whatever. Geez Louise, people -- get a grip. To serve summons in the sovereign State of Mississippi you need to be 18 years old and not a personal party to the suit. That's all. Dawes could've served it himself all day long -- he just chose to play it safe and use local law enforcement (it also sends a much stronger message). Next time try to think about what you're saying before you post -- remember the old saying about "opening your mouth and removing all doubt" -- that's why you're allowed to "preview your comment" before you post it!
Posted on October 14 at 10:48 a.m.
"Observing" -- have you never heard the quotation "Those who do not know their past are doomed to repeat it?" How many times does Natchez have to bang its head against a brick wall before it figures out the obvious? Did you even read the 1941 Time Magazine article I posted? The gist was that the Mayor was bragging about all this "Commerce" and "Business" and acting like "tourism" and the "Garden Clubs" were nothing but a sideshow. So where is all that great industry the article talks about now? A ski-manufacturing plant, a tire factory, sawmills, bustling trains and smoke stacks (read the once and future IP -- the "Holy Grail" of Natchez heavy industry) -- how much of that is still here? None. Nada. Zilch. But guess what? The Garden Clubs are still here -- and the Tourists. For some unknown reason they keep coming -- Yankees, Texans, Fellow Mississippians, Southerners of all Stripes, Foreigners -- literally from the Ends of the Earth. I met a Dutch couple in Louisiana last week and where were they headed? Straight to Natchez! All the way from Europe. And is there a single entity that caters to foreign tourists in this town -- a single placard that says "Welcome -- we're glad you're here"? No. As the Riches of Monmouth famously opined tourism exists in Natchez in spite of Natchez. I've never seen such an anti-tourist "TOURIST TOWN" in my life (it's like we're even ashamed to be called that). We didn't even have a "Welcome to Natchez" sign to let tourists know they were here until two years ago and then it took a private entity (the Rotary Club) to even do that. No leadership. No civic pride. A neurotic schizophrenic sense of self-loathing (NO, No... we don't want to be a charming Southern tourist town... we want to be Pittsburgh or Detroit!!! [since you see how well those iconic industrial giants are doing these days]). Constant political in-fighting and self-promotion by individuals at the expense of community. That's what Natchez is known for in and around "these parts." Thank goodness the tourists haven't found out yet!
Posted on October 14 at 9:31 a.m.
Check it out -- excerpt of Time Magazine article (ca. 1941)! Some things never change (or do they?)...
Mayor William Joseph Byrne of sleepy Natchez, Miss. (pop. 15.296) is a man who likes a fine grimy factory smoking up Southern skies, freight trains bumping and clattering musically on jasmine-scented nights, all the noise, payrolls and progress that come with industrialization. Last week Mayor Byrne was an unhappy man, for commerce was dislocated. The struggle that Natchez has dreaded for four years had begun in earnest: the two garden clubs of the town were in open battle.Natchez citizens heard the sinister sound that is produced only by the flouncing of hoop skirts to the accompaniment of a sniff of disdain.
Ten years ago the famed Natchez Pilgrimages began. There are 40-odd fine old homes in varied stages of repair and restoration within six miles of Natchez, and at the low point of the Depression, Southern homeowners discovered that visitors were still willing to pay a fee to inspect them. In no time the Pilgrimage was an institution. Each spring pretty girls in hoop skirts and pantalettes flounced over the pavements, rode about in carriages that quaintly messed up traffic. (By unwritten law, males who dressed up one year were let off the next.) For $2 a visitor could get a conducted tour through five stately old mansions. The Pilgrimages became big business. (This year Natchez expects 30,000 visitors, who will spend an average $10 apiece.) Four years ago homeowners found themselves outvoted by non-home-owning garden clubbers, split off to form the Pilgrimage Garden Club in opposition to the Natchez Garden Club. Year in and year out, in a period known as the Great Compromise, the ladies divided the houses, the tourists, the money and the spring, while all Natchez wondered whether a Pilgrimage so constituted could long endure.
This year one Pilgrimage began before the other ended... . Last week the Natchez Club secured a temporary injunction against its rival, alleging that the Pilgrimage Club's extension of time was an unfair attempt to capitalize on the Natchez Club's enterprise and publicity.
The sheriff edged up to Pilgrimage Club headquarters, ordered the furious clubwomen to strike their banners, silence their band, close up their mansions. Next day the Pilgrimage Club ladies asked that the injunction be rescinded; the judge acquiesced, gave the rivals five days to plead their cases.
Mayor Byrne, who likes to talk about Natchez' new tire factory, her ski-manufacturing plant, and her romantic sawmills, was out of town. On business.
Posted on October 14 at 9:18 a.m.
ILES FOR MAYOR! Everything he said was spot on target. What about this idea -- Natchez will be celebrating its 300 YEAR ANNIVERSARY in five years or so (As a side note, it seems funny to me that we always say "Founded 1716" -- the year the French built Fort Rosalie. But why did they build it -- for what strategic purpose? Could it be to protect the large number of French citizens who had already settled here in conjunction with the opening of a permanent trading post in 1714?). This should be the biggest thing that ever happened to Natchez (well, aside from that War Between the States thing... and the Yellow Fever epidemic... OK, the biggest thing RECENTLY). When we remembered the sesquicentennial of the Civil War all across the South in 1961 that was a big deal, when AMERICA had its bicentennial in 1976 it was also big news. Recently (in 2007) the Commonwealth of Virgina celebrated its 400th anniversary with much fanfare and events all over their state. We're one of only a handful of cities in this whole part of the world that can claim 300 years of unbroken history as a town (a few hundred more if you add the Native Americans in there). And what are we doing about it? I've heard nary a word as of yet. But this is the kind of thing that takes special steering committees and state-level involvement and coordination with entities like the National Park Service and possibly even foreign governments (remember when the Spanish Consul came a few years ago -- might as well get the French and British back here, too; and even though they were practically wiped out as a tribe, the Natchez were absorbed by several others -- somebody needs to be calling Oklahoma, as well). A five year plan is completely in order, just to get it all done, and someone needs to get it started. Maybe by then we can have a revitalized pageant ready for the Tricentennial, a revitalized Under-the-Hill (remember how it was back in the 80s down there?), another grand old home open for tours (Arlington was one of the Pilgrimage Originals), and a revitalized town that embraces its identity as a tourist mecca (or a tourist mecca-that-could-be) and gives up on the 1950s pipe dream of heavy industry. Heck, maybe we'll even have GREG ILES for Mayor!
Posted on October 11 at 5:22 p.m.
How sad. Sounds like Soviet Russia -- let's rewrite history and program the children to believe it -- what fun! I wonder if the kids were taken Under the Hill to the infamous "Corral" where all those "freedom loving" ex-slaves were rounded up by their Union "liberators" and herded into the open-air livestock pens down by the river? Of course, the true historian will recall that's where the "contraband" slaves were confined in Natchez while their new "masters" decided what to do with them; all the able bodied ones were forcibly conscripted into the Union army. But what about the rest? Oh yeah, let's see -- several thousand of them died due to the unsanitary conditions in the "camp" and lack of sustenance provided them by the occupying Union Army. Dang it! I hate it when facts and history have to go and ruin a perfectly good fairy tale!
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Posted on November 9 at 8:49 a.m.
Oh yeah, they left out the part about Louis Winston being a hero in the War Between the States. Maybe it's because he's one of thousands of Southern blacks who fought for the Confederacy. Oh, now I see -- that doesn't fit in with your "pseudo-soviet" rewriting of history -- sorry about that... What a bunch of hypocrites... !
On Turning Angel's tale highlights tour