The 'Sip | Spring 2014: The Inaugural Issue

SPRING 2014 a sip of life from the most soulful state

in the South

HOME/LIFESTYLE:

Mid-Century Modern in Natchez

Mint Juleps PORTRAIT:

Marie Davenport

Mississippi to the March

MUSIC:

Taylor & Valley

Organic Mix of Rock, Folk and Love

Also: Growing Hops • H.D. Gibbes & Sons Store • LurnyD’s Grille

All year long, we’re celebrating our rich culture and creativity.

Mississippi is the birthplace of America’s music. You can hear that in my songs. But you can feel it here, at juke joints, back porches and festivals. Check out mshomecoming.com to find out what’s happening. Then join me at the party.

Bobby Rush

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PHOTO BY MELANIE THORTIS

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CONTENTS

features

Page 10

Page 30

Mint Juleps: The Legend of Mint Springs

Taylor & Valley

The mint julep undoubtedly is a Southern treat, and legend has it that the bourbon drink originated at Mint Springs in the Vicksburg National Military Park.

Jackson music duo Taylor and Valley Hildebrand have a raw and real connection to music and each other.

Page 38 Page 18

Portrait: Marie Davenport Mississippi native Marie Davenport, who marched on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 50 years ago, remembers her roots.

Mid-Centur y Modern in Natchez A Natchez couple’s mid-century modern home shines in the shadows of the antebellum landscape.

COVER SHOT

A refreshing mint julep in a traditional Mississippi julep cup.

Cover model: Ned Mitchell.

Photo by Melanie Thortis

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CONTENTS

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departments

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IN EVERY ISSUE 4 « Editor’s Note 6 « Contributors 9 « TheSipMag.com 46 « ‘Sip Trip 50 « The Last ‘Sip

CULTURE 14 | H.D. Gibbes & Sons A century-old store in Learned Contents page photo by Melanie Thortis

26 OUTSIDE 24 | Introducing Nathan Beane Meet The Sip’s Outside editor 26 | Growing Hops A homebrewer’s secret to good beer Contents page photo by Nathan Harms

FOOD

& DRINK

36 | LurnyD’s Grille Burgers on wheels a Jackson staple Contents page photo by Melanie Thortis

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MUSIC

& ART

42 | L.C. Ulmer Real-deal bluesman at home in Ellisville Contents photo by H.C. Porter 45 | Blues @ Home H.C. Porter’s new collection on exhibit

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i t ’s y o u r e x p e r i e n c e Our guests often refer to their Alluvian get-away as “The Greenwood Experience”.

And that’s exactly what it is. No pre-packaged, off-the-shelf hotel visit. We invite you to experience the eclectic beat of a small town resort. At The Alluvian you are encouraged to have a Delta good time – just the way you like it. Take a cooking class at the Viking Cooking School, relax and restore with a luxurious spa treatment at The Alluvian Spa, dine at legendary Giardina’s restaurant or shop historic Howard Street.

Enjoy a quiet, romantic evening in our Terrace Room or howl at the Delta moon.

after all, it’s your experience.

A cosmopolitan boutique hotel deep in the Delta 318 Howard Street Greenwood, Mississippi 866.600.5201 thealluvian.com

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EDITOR’S NOTE

from the Front Porch Welcome to The ‘Sip

Lauchlin has been focusing on the people, places and cultural happenings of Mississippi for more than a decade as a writer and oral historian. She has a degree in Southern Studies from Ole Miss.

Lauchlin was a newspaper reporter for five years and the writer/photographer of a quarterly lifestyle magazine. She owns a marketing business dedicated to branding and promoting small businesses through design and media and is the owner of Front Porch Fodder Publishing.

I suppose you could say this journey started even before I was old enough to write. It was just beyond my grandmother’s front porch, inside her cozy house, high on a Vicksburg hill, where I would plant myself in the corner where magazines, books and catalogs were carefully stacked. I would, quite literally, surround myself with the glossy pages of the dozens of magazines, and I would eagerly inhale the comforting smell of newsprint and coated paper. The photographs, the words and the design struck a chord, and I became a connoisseur of that very trinity.

My love affair with the printed word heightened as I tapped into my own desire to write. And my love of writing seemed to fully transpire once I found the best subject about which to write—home.

I didn’t have to look far to discover Mississippi and its people, traditions, sights and sounds are something to celebrate, something to share. I had the amazing opportunity to study Southern culture, and I discovered Mississippi is about as Southern as it gets.

I now live in the house with the front porch that led me to that stack of magazines in the corner. The Mississippi River flows at my feet and Delta cotton fields are just up the road. My part of the world is rich in culture and rich in story. With a lifetime of studious preparation—traveling back roads, writing about the people, listening to homegrown music and dining on delicious Southern delicacies—I’m ready to do my part to tell those stories.

Just like many things Mississippi, The ’Sip is a grassroots movement—homemade by people who love this place and have a great talent for telling its stories through photos, words and design—the faithful trinity. It’s a fresh, unrivaled look at the people and places birthed from this fertile soil.

Our inaugural issue features a healthy helping of cultural gems from the Capital River Region of Mississippi. From mint juleps and a food truck to a century old store and a married musical duo, The ’Sip strives to capture the essence of Mississippi’s unique character. The journey and celebration continue through the carefully constructed pages that follow.

Take a sip with me.

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PHOTO BY MELANIE THORTIS

Cheers,

From 20 people to 4,000, we can meet your needs and exceed your expectations!

• State-of-the-art technology • Exceptional culinary experience • Quality service • 330,000 square feet For more information, please call Micah Allen, 601.960.2321.

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CONTRIBUTORS

a big thanks to this issue’s talented writers and photographers SCOTT BARRETTA | WRITER Scott is an instructor of sociology at the University of Mississippi, where his courses include Anthropology of Blues Culture. He is a writer/ researcher for the Mississippi Blues Trail, the host of the Mississippi Public Broadcasting radio show “Highway 61,” a music columnist for The Clarion-Ledger and the former editor of Living Blues magazine. He is currently working with filmmaker Joe York on a documentary about the life of bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell.

KATIE CARTER | PHOTOGRAPHER Katie is an award-winning photojournalist and a native Mississippian. She received a degree in news editorial journalism with an emphasis in photography from the University of Southern Mississippi. She was photo editor of The Student Printz, USM’s student newspaper. Katie worked freelance for The Hattiesburg American and other Hattiesburg publications and was a staff photojournalist at The Vicksburg Post. She currently lives in New Orleans, where she is a marketing assistant at an engineering firm. She photographs weddings and portraits in her spare time.

GORDON COTTON | WRITER Gordon, a Vicksburg resident, is a historian, an author, a storyteller and a former curator of the Old Court House Museum in Vicksburg. He earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Mississippi College. He has taught high school history and was a newspaper reporter and columnist for many years.

Gordon has written and published numerous books on local history and culture.

ELIZABETH GREY | WRITER Elizabeth is a native of Hattiesburg. She graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi and worked as a writer for The Vicksburg Post for five years before moving to Jackson in 2007. She now works in media relations and communications.

HICKS WOGAN | WRITER Hicks is a freelance writer based in his hometown of New Orleans. He has written for the The Times-Picayune, The Advocate and New Orleans Magazine. A curator by training, Hicks has contributed research or writing to several museums, including the B.B. King Museum in Indianola and the Mississippi Arts & Entertainment Center, in development in Meridian. He holds a master’s degree in Southern Studies from Ole Miss and a bachelor’s in American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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‘sip team spotlight MELANIE THORTIS PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Melanie Thortis has been capturing life in Mississippi through her renowned, award-winning photography since 1998. A freelance photojournalist and owner of Thortis Photography in downtown Brandon, Melanie’s work has been in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Clarion-Ledger, The Vicksburg Post, The Natchez Democrat, various magazines and the documentary book Mississippi 24/7. A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, she is a member of the Wedding Photojournalist Association and specializes in lifestyle portraits and documentary wedding photography. Follow her work at thortisphotography.com or on Thortis Photography’s Facebook page.

ERIN NORWOOD ART DIRECTOR Erin Norwood is a highly recognized graphic designer, illustrator and art director.

The owner of en8 design, her freelance design business, Erin has been a professional designer since 1996. A graduate of Mississippi State University, Erin has served as art director and graphic designer for agencies throughout the Southeast, including the MSU Foundation, Webz Media, Disciple Design in Memphis and Lawler Ballard Van Durand Advertising in Birmingham. Her work has been recognized numerous times with statewide, regional and national Addy Awards, including 21 gold awards. Her artwork has been exhibited across the state, including the People’s Choice Exhibition at the Meridian Museum of Art. View Erin’s portfolio online at en8design.com.

Publisher/Editor Lauchlin Fields Photography Director Melanie Thortis Art Director Erin Norwood Consulting Editor Karen Gamble Copy Editor Olivia Foshee Outside Editor Nathan Beane Graphic Designers Erin Norwood Claiborne Bryant Photographers Melanie Thortis Katie Carter Sales Executives Janet Rantisi Cortney Linares The ‘Sip is a registered trademark of Front Porch Fodder Publishing, LLC. The ‘Sip magazine is published four times a year.

Owner: Lauchlin Fields 1216 National Street Vicksburg, MS 39180 601.636.6901 www.thesipmag.com Copyright 2014 The ‘Sip

by Front Porch Fodder Publishing, LLC Reproduction of any part of this publication is strictly prohibited.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM PRESENTS

H.C. Porter’s Blues @ Home

APRIL 1 – AUGUST 2, 2014

The University of Mississippi Museum UNIVERSITY AVE. & 5TH ST., OXFORD, MS

Tues.–Sat. 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

MUSEUM.OLEMISS.EDU 6 6 2 . 9 1 5 . 7 0 7 3

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unique shopping in

DOWNTOWN VICKSBURG

fashion•gifts•home•bridal

1406 Washington Street Vicksburg, MS 39180 601-638-3744 www.sassafrasonline.com

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It ranks right up there with moonlight and magnolias in making the South Southern. ~

PHOTO BY MELANIE THORTIS

It’s the mint julep.

,

the mint springs

It might be served in a tall, thin glass with frost on the outside and droplets of cold water running down, chilling the tips of the sipper’s fingers. But the mint julep doesn’t have to be in a tall glass.

Some serve it in tumblers or goblets, and if one really wants to put on the dog, there’s the silver cup.

Mint Springs Bayou is part of the Vicksburg National Military Park. The waterfall at Mint Springs is about 100 yards east of the National Cemetery entrance. Mint Springs photos by Marty Kittrell.

No matter how you serve it, whatever the container, there’s always a sprig of mint included with the whiskey.

Legend has it that the mint julep’s beginnings were in Vicksburg, probably before the Vicks came, when the settlement was still called The Walnut Hills. Men steering and guiding the flatboats with oars and poles would pull into the shore and tie up at the stream that flowed into the Mississippi River just below the old Spanish fort, Nogales. The cool, pure water from the stream was mixed with their whiskey. Somebody had the idea of adding mint leaves from the herb that grew wild along the banks of the stream. The crushed leaves gave a sweet, pungent smell and taste.

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Thus was the birth of the mint julep.

And, thus emerged a name for the stream—Mint Springs Bayou.

The headwaters are back in the hills somewhere to the east. It never goes dry—it is spring-fed—though after a good rain the stream that meanders through the woods, its banks shaded with a variety of native flora, flows fuller and swifter until it reaches a bluff where its waters fall and splash into a shallow pool, before flowing on to the river.

The waters weren’t just for the relaxation of the men plying the river.

Later in the century the waters were a place where men at war, some in gray and others in blue, came to quench their thirst during the heat and humidity of the Siege of Vicksburg. Portions of an old path winding

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Whether served in a silver cup or a tall glass—or even in a jar—the mint julep will soothe a dry throat and bring relaxation on a summer afternoon. down the steep hills to the spring can still be seen today, a route the Southern soldiers took to the cool waters. There on the other side was the enemy. The men who fought for the North, too, were thirsty, and all men drank in peace, unconcerned about fighting over rights to the water.

In later days, when the land was set aside to be a national park, Mint Springs gained fame by being listed in “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.” Where the waters fell over the bluff a bridge was constructed but the water ran over, not under, it! It was claimed to be the only one in the world.

That was fine until there was a heavy rain, so in later years the bridge was replaced with a more conventional span.

The water also once flowed as a fountain in the Officers’ Circle of the National Cemetery. A series of pipes upstream fed the water into a catch basin where gravity forced it out of an upright cannon barrel in the middle of the circle. The fountain is no longer in operation, though the cannon barrel remains.

In the l920s a group of stockholders headed by Lindsey McGee began the Mint Springs Amusement Park. They built a concrete dam, made a long, arrow-shaped lake, installed bathhouses, diving boards, bateaus, refreshment stands and a manager’s lodge. The lake included areas for swimmers and fishers, and there was music for dancing.

A trolley line that ran from the city up the old Valley Road provided transportation to the amusement park.

There was one thing you couldn’t get there—or not legally, anyway—and that was a mint julep. It was the era of Prohibition when alcoholic drinks were illegal. Crushed mint added a nice flavor to iced tea—but it wasn’t a julep.

By the mid-1920s the park had closed, and the late V. Blaine Russell, journalist and historian who wrote the daily newspaper column “Vicksburgesque,” wrote about 1940 that, “Mint Springs Park is but a shadow of its former self.”

Remnants of some of the buildings remained along with poles where electric light lines once were strung, but the

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lake was filled in, and the stream had narrowed so that Russell could jump across it. He noted, “There is little remaining to tell of the happy crowds which gathered there in the 1923s and l924s.”

That was so long ago. Boats no longer stop at the mouth of Mint Springs Bayou, the path used by Confederate soldiers is almost obliterated, the pipes that supplied the water to Officers’ Circle are a twisted mass upstream, the resort is gone and water no longer flows over the bridge.

Only the bayou—and the mint julep—still exist.

You’re not likely to find mint along the banks today, and the drink is a far cry in appearance from its inception two centuries ago. Unlike the men on the frontier who simply mixed whiskey, water and mint, today’s julep is served with sugar (some granulated, some powdered), crushed ice, syrup and bourbon whiskey. To some it sounds more like a dessert than a drink.

Whether served in a silver cup or a tall glass—or even in a jar—the mint julep will soothe a dry throat and bring relaxation on a summer afternoon.

To find the waterfall at Mint Springs, park near the arch entrance to the National Cemetery on North Washington Street and walk east into the woods, then hike about a hundred yards. The best times to see the waterfall are in the fall and winter.

Don’t take a mint julep with you ~ the place is not designated as a picnic area by the National Park Service.

STORY Gordon Cotton PHOTOGRAPHS Melanie Thortis

If you’re not really thirsty when you place this order, you probably will be by the time the mint julep is ready!

How to Make a Mint Julep n n nn

1 One recipe for a mint julep from Pat O’Brien’s f in New Orelans is quite simple:

• 2 ounces of bourbon • 1 teaspoon of simple syrup or 1 teaspoon of sugar • 4 to 5 fresh sprigs of mint

Crush the mint with syrup in a small tumbler. Fill with crushed ice.

Add bourbon and stir gently until the glass is frosted. Garnish with an orange or lemon slice and more mint.

Another version, also from Pat O‘Brien’s, has the same basic ingredients but instead of a lemon slice uses a cherry. And mixing it? - “With a bar spoon in an up and down motion until the glass is frosted.”

n n nn 2 The late Mary McKay of the Old Southern Tea Room f in Vicksburg had a much more involved recipe: Put 2 sprigs of fresh mint in the bottom of a tall thin glass. Add one rounded teaspoon of powdered sugar and a few drops of water. Use a wooden muddler, and bruise the mint with the sugar and the water, thoroughly. Pour in a jigger of bourbon whiskey. Pack the glass to its brim with finely crushed ice and add one more jigger of the whiskey, letting it trickle to the bottom of the glass. Put a sprig of fresh mint in the top of the glass and serve with two straws. (If desired, the top sprig of mint can be dipped while damp in finely powdered sugar.)

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CULTURE

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LEA RNED, MS

H.D. Gibbes & Sons

Step back in time with a century-old store

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To Visit: H.D. Gibbes & Sons Store is at Pine and Main streets in Learned. It is open from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and lunch is served daily. Dinner is served Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5 to 8:30 p.m.

(601) 885-6833

Cash or check only.

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The worn wooden planks of the front porch, the peeling paint and the sun-faded sign are good indications the old store that is the flagship of a small Mississippi town hasn’t changed much in its 115 years.

Remnants of the store’s early years— antique signs and lanterns and rusted containers are proudly juxtaposed on display shelves with today’s canned goods, hand sanitizer and dryer sheets.

H.D. Gibbes & Sons, or Gibbes’ Store, is by day a convenience store in the quaint community of Learned, a rural town in south Hinds County with fewer than 100 people. Easily, it could be mistaken for a museum—with plenty of history to spare, said owner Chip Gibbes.

“I haven’t bought any of this stuff. It was just here,” he said, pointing out the rare collectibles, such as the general store ladder and original cash register, both still in use. “It functions kind of like a family museum.”

Because Learned “missed its growth spurt” when Mississippi 18 was built and passed the former railroad town by two miles, demands for the store and all Learned businesses, for that matter, dwindled. In fact, Gibbes’ Store is the lone business in this bedroom community, home to nothing more than a few churches and “a farmer or two.” Three blocks from the store is Oakley Youth Development Center, Mississippi’s juvenile correctional facility for children and teens. And, just down the road is Rebul Academy, a 40-year-old private Christian academy.

To keep their business going, Chip and his wife, Mary Bell, turned to their love of food and entertaining.

Lunch has been available for 25 years, but, in the past five years, Gibbes’ has be-

come a hot spot for dining and gathering on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Steak, lamb chops and seafood paired with homemade potato and vegetable concoctions that would delight a seasoned foodie come served on a doubled-up Chinette plate.

“It is by far the best food I have eaten off of a paper plate,” said William Furlong, who drives about 30 miles from Vicksburg for Gibbes’ grub once a week. “I love the simplicity of the food and the extreme high quality. The steaks are amazing. They cook on a charcoal grill, which gives the steaks a flavor hard to find anywhere.”

Mary Bell said she is surprised by the overwhelming response to the family operation.

“Feb. 23 marked our fifth anniversary— who would have ever thought?” she said.

“I’m very proud of the job we’ve done and the reputation we’ve established.”

Chip is the fourth generation of the Gibbes family to own and operate the store. While the look—both inside and out—has changed little, the business has evolved to suit the needs of the customers, visitors from across Central Mississippi who drive to experience the century-old treasure.

The store was built around 1891 and purchased by Chip’s great-grandfather in 1899 as a furnishing merchant store, one of four in Learned. The rural “furnishing” merchant provided seasonal credit to families with supplies.

“Back then, country banks dealt in goods, not money,” he said. “It was very important to the economy, because it was hard to borrow money.”

The store offered pretty much everything the people of Learned couldn’t create or grow—sewing accessories, auto parts, coffee, flour.

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The experience

“ of family-style dining makes it interesting. You never know who will be seated next to you. A couple sat next to us one time, and they did not know that the Gibbeses accept only cash or checks. The gentleman was embarrassed and even more upset when they told him there was no ATM in Learned. Chip and Mary Bell offered to send him a bill for dinner, but I picked up their check. The guy tracked me down, called and sent a thank-you note. I told him to pick up a bill for someone next time he was at a restaurant. It was the kind of thing that only happens in Mississippi.”

~ WILLIAM FURLONG,

“We had anything you couldn’t make, and if it wasn’t here, you probably didn’t need it,” Chip said.

In the 1930s, Gibbes’ Store became more of a general mercantile store and, during World War II, changed to be a commissary for farmers who bought supplies there and used the building for storage.

“Little by little, the concept of the convenience store came along,” Chip said.

Gas, chips, hamburgers, cold beer and soft drinks pulled from the old-timey cooler are the going items for locals and travelers until the weekend rolls around.

Visitors experience top-notch cuisine and a different, if not unique, dining experience. They gladly wait their turn—often grabbing a cold one from the cooler and passing the time on the front porch—to sit among strangers at one of the long pine “community” tables where food is served.

“It’s amazing how far people will drive,” Chip said. “I guess it’s the nostalgia of the old store. It’s just a day gone by—it’s a very relaxed atmosphere, and it’s not pretentious.”

In fact, that gritty nostalgia is a big draw, so much so, Chip said, that some customers criticized him for adding heating and cooling to the wooden building that often was unbearable for dining in the heat of the summer or the cold of the

a Gibbes regular

winter. And, just as he keeps the Chinette dinnerware, he wouldn’t think of bringing in cloth napkins to replace the rough paper towels found on rolls on each table.

They are, after all, part of the Gibbes experience.

“We try to keep it unique,” said Chip, a friendly, white-haired 66-year-old who tends the grill and greets customers. “The hardest job is not to change it so it loses its character. We could make it more efficient, but it wouldn’t be H.D. Gibbes & Sons.”

William, who regularly introduces family, friends and work colleagues to the Gibbes experience, agrees: “You can’t make this stuff up.”

The Gibbeses even have been offered money for the likely century-old cobwebs that hang from the beaded, heart of pine ceiling—proof that the store’s customers are fascinated with its authenticity.

Although the food—meat cooked on a charcoal grill and side-dishes perfected through generations of recipes and a history of hosting weekly dinner parties—is a large part of what keeps the old place hopping, it’s not what Chip wants his family legacy to be.

“We’re much more proud of it being a store,” he said. “We’re a store that happens to serve food.”

STORY Lauchlin Fields PHOTOGRAPHS Melanie Thortis

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Southern Charm and

HOME COOKIN’ It’s like

MISSISSIPPI 101 Walnut Hills Restaurant is the one place you MUST eat during your visit to Vicksburg!

Award-winning food served in a beautifully restored classic home.

1214 Adams Street, Vicksburg • 601-638-4910

www.WALNUTHILLSMS.com mag.com 17

Marie Davenport ijk ‘freedom is not free’

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Mississippi native marches on to spread message of equality across the world

WASHINGTON, D.C.—It was a hot August day 50 years ago in Washington, D.C. The sea of people was so thick that the whites, blacks, Asians and Indians holding hands could hardly move. Ambulance sirens sounded, yet the atmosphere was peaceful—and freedom was in the air.

“It was a celebration,” said 76-year-old Marie Davenport, one of the estimated 300,000 people who gathered for the 1963 March on Washington to heed Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic call for civil and economic rights for black Americans.

“We didn’t know what kind of history it would be, but we knew it was something that would never, ever be forgotten. So, we all came—black, white, all people. We held hands together. We sang together. We prayed together.

And, we marched together. And, I think, on that day, people felt united. It was a cause this country needed, because it showed people could come together.”

The march, one of the largest political rallies for human rights in the United States and the stage for King’s renowned “I Have a Dream” speech, was only the beginning for Marie, a black Mississippian brought up to love and respect all people.

“Every time I think about it, it takes me back. But, for me, it didn’t end there. The March on Washington, for me, probably just allowed me to be more and more convinced that I had to get out and do something and not just talk about it.”

Marie, who after the March moved to Germany as a teacher with the U.S. Department of Defense, has traveled the world teaching Dr. King’s philosophy, an extension of her upbringing in Mississippi.

As a young child in Claiborne County, Marie began working the cotton field on her family’s farm. At age 6, she was retrieving water for her family in the field, and by “7” she was picking cotton.

< continued on page 21

stone of hope LEFT: The Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial in Washington, D.C., is a place Marie Davenport visits often to remember the teachings of the Civil Rights leader.

THIS PAGE: Marie Davenport, a Claiborne County native, sits in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and reflects on the 50 years since the March on Washington.

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we shall overcome TOP LEFT: The Abraham Lincoln Memorial at night. This is where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stood when he addressed thousands of people taking part in the March on Washington.

TOP RIGHT: Marie Davenport holds out a medallion from a necklace she purchased 50 years ago at the March on Washington.

BOTTOM: Marie Davenport walks along the perimeter of the Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial, filled with quotes from the Civil Rights leaderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s famous speeches.

“I learned the value of work. I learned the importance of work,” she said. “I think it gives you a sense of who you are and a feeling of self-worth when you can earn your money.”

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Marie had a 20-minute walk on a gravel road to the one-room school designated for black children in her community, near Utica. As she walked, a bus full of white students, sometimes calling names to the black children through the window, would speed past.

“The racial overtures that I had at that time were mostly from the white kids who rode the bus to school, and they would just say silly stuff outside of the bus to us, like ‘Cows, cows,’” Marie said.

Respect for other people, regardless of color, was instilled in Marie by her grandmother, Bettie Davenport, a no-nonsense, strict, yet loving caregiver to the entire community. “Mama,” as she was known, raised Marie.

Largely due to her grandmother’s maternal role in the community and her family’s sustainable lifestyle of growing and making what they needed, Marie experienced very little hatred from her white neighbors.

“I lived in a community where, even the white people, they were all friendly,” she said. “We knew white and black people were segregated. The difference was we were friendly.

There wasn’t this feeling that we don’t like you in our community. I never had a feeling they didn’t like us.”

While Marie, the great-granddaughter of a slave, didn’t experience racism to the degree King often cited around the South, she was aware she was living in a land of separate and unequal. That became even more apparent when she was 12 and her grandmother told her she could no longer be friends with Deanna, a white girl with whom she played since she was 8. That is also when Marie was instructed to call her friend “Miss Ann.”

“Your parents taught you—black and white kids—‘This is where the line is and this is what you do and this is what white people do,’ and so I grew up under that,” Marie said.

As an eighth-grader at Midway Junior High, Marie wrote a speech on a typewriter her grandmother bought for her. Marie addressed the teachers and students of the all-black school using words that proved she was wise beyond her years. The speech young Marie gave was almost prophetic.

“Yes, time marches on and we, the sons of a cruel and heartless society, march along with it,” she wrote. “The sun promises a much brighter day for tomorrow. We have not begun to realize the blessing our God has for us. We are not resting on our laurels, we will continue to march wherever civilization goes. We the Negro race will be there to give a good account of ourselves.”

Marie did dream of a better life for herself, which included leaving the farm in Mississippi. In 1956, upon graduating from high school, she moved to Toledo, Ohio, to live with some extended relatives. There, she had her own room with carpet, a real bathroom and television. She was a long way from the farm, her shack and no electricity.

“I never wanted to go back to the farm after arriving in Toledo,” she said. “I often tell people I didn’t know I was poor, and I really mean that, because everyone around me lived like me, so I didn’t know that meant, ‘I was poor.’ We had food, and I went to school and I worked in the fields.

And, I thought that’s how you lived. I didn’t know anything different until I left the South.”

Marie lived in Toledo for six years and, to her surprise, experienced prejudice—just in a different way. Though everything was integrated—unlike the South—she and other blacks received “looks” and were treated differently.

“It’s just that my living condition was different, and a lot better,” she said. “The family I lived with was a black family, but they were quite wealthy. So I didn’t sense the same poverty that I did when I lived in Mississippi. ”

After finishing beauty school in Ohio, Marie was ready to move out on her own. She contacted a friend in Washington, D.C., and said, “I’m on my way.”

She arrived the summer of 1962 and was able to land a job at a dry cleaning business. She was there one week before taking a job shampooing hair at an all-white beauty salon.

“Even though I had a license, beauty salons weren’t integrated, so black people didn’t work in a white salon.

They worked in black salons,” she said. “But, I was always interested in learning how to do everybody’s hair. I’ve never been the type of person who felt limited.”

Not long after her daughter, Maria, was born, she started working at Albert’s Beauty Salon, another all-white salon run by a Jewish man. The owner wanted Marie to become manager, so she went back to school and did just that.

“Once my employer made me a manager, a lot of whites who lived in the community didn’t like it. They threw eggs all over the shop. They bombed the place,” she said. “But, this went on for a short period. And, of course, I didn’t quit. It’s amazing how it just kind of subsided.”

It was there in 1968, in that beauty shop, as Maria was shampooing a customer’s hair that she heard the news that Martin Luther King Jr., had been assassinated in Memphis.

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“I tell you, the feeling that night—it was so deep and so—I was horrified when I heard that Dr. King had been shot,” she said. “When Dr. King was assassinated, I was angry. I felt threatened. So, that particular night, I was washing a customer’s hair and I decided I had to leave that beauty salon. Everybody around me that night was white, and I felt that I didn’t want to be there. So, I told my boss, I said, ‘I’m leaving…I have to get out of here.’”

As she walked later along 14th Street and Florida Avenue, she was witness to the D.C. riots, her city’s destructive response to the untimely death of the Civil Rights hero.

To recount that experience nearly makes her weep.

“What I saw was smoke and burning and people—it was a very sad time for me,” she said, choking back tears.

King’s death came almost five years after Marie stood, united with people of all backgrounds, listening to the beloved leader speak of justice for all.

“I’m just thankful that I had a chance to be part of that,” she said. “And, I will always carry Dr. King’s method throughout the world—no matter where I go.”

Marie was given the chance to begin spreading his message beyond the American borders after she learned about the opportunity to teach overseas.

“Because I always wanted the best for my daughter, I thought,‘Wow—to go overseas—this would be great,’”she said.

So, in 1974, Marie went to Frankfurt, Germany, where she taught English at Frankfurt American High School and started a cosmetology department. While there, she put Dr. King’s tools to work and ended a case of de facto segregation in the American military beauty salon in Frankfurt, home to some 6,000 Americans.

“Black people had one little area to go to get their hair done and, of course, the whites who went in the beauty salon could go out front and get their hair done,” she said.

“So we had a community meeting about that. I personally took a job for one week at that beauty salon.”

Marie’s successful fight led to the U.S. government hiring a trainer to teach all of the hairdressers to style hair for all, black and white.

“That situation definitely helped change that,” she said.

Marie is frequently asked to speak to groups in Germany about her role in the Civil Rights Movement in America.

She continues spreading King’s message.

Through it all, even while living overseas, Marie returned to her former Mississippi home—about every two years—until her grandmother died in 1984. Those frequent trips made Marie realize the value of her connection to her community, so she continues her pilgrimages home.

“I still see it as my home, and I tell people that’s where I’m from,” she said. “I’m still proud of being from Mississippi. That is my home. That’s where I belong.”

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On her last visit, about two years ago, she brought her husband, Rudi Schneider, a German she met while overseas.

She was proud to be able to show him a Mississippi that has moved forward from the place recalled in Dr. King’s speeches as one of the “valleys of despair.”

“When I got off the plane and I saw that the airport had been named for the Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers—it was extraordinary. I was so amazed,” Marie said. “This was the beginning of a positive feeling of coming back to Mississippi.”

She visited the 1867-built Second Union Church, the church she once attended and the burial site for her greatgrandfather Tom Scott, a slave who fought in the Civil War. His name is listed on the wall of the African American Civil War Memorial in D.C.

Though still living in Germany since retiring from teaching, Marie and her husband often make trips to their second home, in Maryland. Marie takes advantage of the 45-minute Metro ride into D.C., taking art lessons at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and visiting monuments and memorials that help mark Marie’s personal history. She frequents the monument that pays homage to her hero and inspirational leader.

The Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial, dedicated in 2011, is near the Tidal Basin, the reservoir between the Potomac River and the Washington Channel close to where Marie joined the March on Washington 50 years ago. The statue of a reflective King, noted as the Stone of Hope, juts forward from a Mountain of Despair, which denotes King’s challenge for freedom for all. A wall of quotes by King encircles the statue.

“It’s tall. Dr. King was not that tall,” Marie said of the familiar memorial. “It says something about him—he’s taller than all of us. What he did stands tall. It’s amazing when I come, there’s a sense of reverence.”

Marie was one of 20 March participants selected to wear a red ribbon during the 50-year anniversary celebration in August. She wishes, she said, she could thank Dr. King for the hope he has given people across the world.

“I think his method of nonviolence stood out among the rest. Dr. King’s philosophy, I think, was the most successful way,” she said. “I do believe it is a way to bring about change.

And, his message has been carried throughout the world.”

And, it’s working—even in Mississippi, she said.

“I see a change. I’m happy about that. Somehow, I believe we are growing closer together as a people in this country,” Marie said. “We have to be willing to go out of our space to do something to help someone else. And, that’s how we get to know each other.”

STORY Lauchlin Fields PHOTOGRAPHS Melanie Thortis

Her husband, Rudi, agrees.

“We live Dr.King’s dream~ black and white together” , he said. living the dream Marie Davenport and her husband, Rudi Schneider, sit in the courtyard of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

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Warren County’s do-it-all outdoorsman shares his outside adventures

[

Nathan Beane lives and breathes the outdoors.

]

A native of South Arkansas, Nathan’s love affair with everything outside came from his grandmother, an avid outdoorswoman who canned chicken and identified trees with Nathan under her wing.

Nathan started training horses and bow hunting when he was 14 and old enough to get his learner’s driving permit. Using the land he worked, the young woodsman started fishing and hunting regularly. After high school, Nathan attended community college on a scholarship and fell in love with learning.

Not long after he chose to major in engineering, he switched to forestry so he could be outside. He had a full ride to the University of Arkansas at Monticello, a small logging town that was home to the only forestry school in his home state. Following a professor, Nathan went to West Virginia University, where he earned a master’s in forestry and a doctorate in forest resource science. The day he defended his thesis, he was offered a job as a research forester at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, where he has worked since March 2011.

Nathan and his wife, Heather, looked for a house that would suit his long list of outdoor hobbies and satisfy her love of cooking. They landed on a seven-acre stretch of wooded land with a house that had an updated cooking area.

“I wanted the woods. She wanted the kitchen,” Nathan said.

Beane Farm, as their land off Mallett Road has been dubbed, is home to three dogs, a cat and 14 chickens. Nathan also has raised two hogs on his land. His other outdoor hobbies are seemingly endless—beekeeping, fishing, gardening, wood-turning, training a squirrel dog, growing hops, composting, brewing beer and making mead, and hunting bears, alligators, turkeys, hogs, deer and squirrels.

Nathan is all about doing a lot with the little space he has and on a budget. For instance, he fashioned an incubator for his chicken’s eggs out of a Styrofoam cooler and a few other gadgets—all for $8.

Nathan will share his many outdoor adventures as The ’Sip’s Outside editor.

LEFT: Nathan Beane with his dog Katie.

Photo by Melanie Thortis

OUTSIDE

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VIC KSBURG, MS

Growing Hops

Nathan Beane shares his secret to homebrewing

Hops are bitter flowers growing their way into homes across Mississippi. A sweet reward can result, too, now that it’s legal to brew your own beer! I mean, it’s a step in the right direction, since Mississippi was the last U.S. state to legalize homebrewing.

Think of hops as the secret to a magic potion, as they are the essential ingredient for beer and offer a distinct flavor and powerful aroma. My curiosity about homebrew began when I moved three years ago from the mountains of West Virginia to the Deep South of Mississippi. I had forgotten about the humidity that was so familiar during my Arkansas upbringing. With my return to a sticky glue-like climate came a whole new set of interests, possibilities and hobbies. I was fixed! So began my adventure of all things homebrew-oriented—albeit before it all became legal. Rules, what are those?

Most folks prefer to call me an extreme hobbyist—a collector of pastimes, if you will, or at least that’s my unspoken profile. I’ll take what I can get. Upon moving to Vicksburg, a constant quest for newfound interests, including gardening, beekeeping, raising chickens and even wild hogs landed me—or, more appropriately, my quaint, country home—the

PORTRAIT BY MELANIE THORTIS

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NATHAN BEANE THE ‘SIP OUTSIDE EDITOR

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colloquial nickname, “Beane Farm.” I like it, though, as it’s a common welcome from friends who ask, “How’s Beane Farm?”—you know, like saying, “How’s your mama and them?” The nickname is quite appropriate, because, even as a child, I enjoyed small-scale farming with my dad. Heck, I even set my parents’ yard ablaze—twice—while attempting to burn the garden brush for fall planting. But, that’s not important. I was only 15. Fortunately, today, I’m blessed with a sweet and devoted wife who approves of my treasured rubbish and quietly submits her days plowing up gardens and dusting rustic shelves of wildlife trophies from outdoor adventures. I will forever own her—I mean, owe her.

Sadly, hops are not commonly found in American gardens and are generally grown commercially and restricted to areas with cooler climates, such as the Cascade Valley of Washington State. I soon discovered, though, that hops could flourish in almost any climate in North America, even here in Mississippi—big news to a forester and avid gardener. So I did what any hobbyist would do—dove head-first and tried my hand at growing hops for our local homebrew club, Delta Brews.

So began the creation of a hops vineyard in my own backyard. I envisioned creating such a vineyard that it would emulate walking into a miniature tropical forest where twining vines came alive and crept to the sky like wild beanstalks. Wild is an exaggeration, but it’s amazing to know that hops have been desired by adventure-seekers, as evidenced from centuries of use as a preservative for beer.

With few documented entries before the second millennium, archaeologists guestimate via radiocarbon dating that hops have been around since as early as 949 A.D. That’s right, hopped beers are our friend and have been so for a very long time. Even more than 1,000 years ago, Anglo-Saxons revered hops as an essential ingredient to savor and preserve a good brew. With that, approval is granted for my addiction to hops.

With homebrew legalization finally endorsed in Mississippi on July 1 of last year, many “illegal” brewers gave a sigh of relief as their hobby was made legal. Last year’s celebrations on the Fourth had never been so satisfying—talk about freedom! I’d say producing 100 gallons of homebrew a year is just the kind of freedom worth bragging about. Now, if we could just find a way to legalize the making of a few batches of distilled whiskey, life would be Utopia. Beware stillyoungsters, as homebrewing activities are limited to those 21 or older.

I waited my turn. Fair is fair.

Anyone can grow hops, but, first, one must buy into the root of the matter, the rhizome. Rhizomes bare the roots and serve as storage during dormancy—similar to an iris. Unfortunately, though, the plants are unlikely to be found in your neighbor’s front lawn. An online order is the way to go; it’s the best advice I can offer. But plan ahead because when the rhizomes arrive, they’ll be ready to go down in the ground.

The day we constructed a hop trellis at Beane Farm, the driveway was lined with trucks, cars and SUVs revealing the collective effort such an event demanded. The almost ceremonious burial of rhizomes and trellis construction was, in fact, an important and exciting event. The hordes, my faithful friends, were at my beck and call and all brought homebrew to share. That’s when I knew I had the best friends a guy could hope for, and there was no turning back. This mastermind plan was in full motion. We were creating a hops garden come hell or high water.

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We replaced expensive, galvanized steel posts with the largest bamboo Vicksburg had to offer. Cheap? Maybe. But I like to think of myself as resourceful. Using post-hole diggers, saw-horses, power tools, and fresh homebrew, we erected four 22-foot bamboo poles in the ground, with 2-feet anchored below ground level with quick-setting concrete.

For each side of the trellis, two poles were paired together at the top for added strength. This ensured that our hefty vines wouldn’t send the contraption crashing down. Between the two poles on each side, a small space was maintained to allow for a horizontal bamboo pole to slide freely. This way, the horizontal pole could be raised and lower at will, making both the support string mesh tying work and future hops harvest feasible from the ground.

After saturating the concrete mix, a cursory view of the erected trellis was splendid. It looked great and was built on a budget—music to my ears. With our precisely cut bamboo trellis support at the crest of a hilly slope and the hops rhizomes planted at the base of the small hill, a maximized length from which our fast-growing hops could suspend was allotted. Using the “hills and hollows” terrain at my property to our advantage, this setup provided more than 25 feet for the hops to grow using only 20 feet vertical height.

What types of hops to select was the big question. After researching the many varieties of hops that would grow in Mississippi, I settled on Cascade hops, a variety frequently used in homebrew recipes and, as reports indicated, one that performs well in the Southeast. Our club planted eight hops rhizomes that March day, and we used fresh compost supplemented with chicken manure to give them the added boost to produce a worthy first yield.

As the evening turned to darkness we all gathered on the back deck for a drink. I sipped on a Rye Stout while also drinking in the atmosphere and satisfaction of having such great friends to assist in building such a contraption in only a few hours. I still recall our discussions in anticipation for how much hops yield we could expect in the first year. Savor the moment. And, we did.

Six months flew by faster than my birthday. Before I knew it the hops was twining up the rope mesh and had reached the top where the horizontal bamboo pole held them. In fact, many of the vines curled and wrapped themselves at the top begging for additional room to grow—in one growing season! On hops harvest day we collected, weighed and vacuum-sealed the fresh hops, and immediately placed them in a freezer to maintain

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freshness. As a scarce yield is typically reported, we were thoroughly excited to harvest a total of 9 ounces of hops— plenty to brew a five-gallon batch of beer. Specifically, we performed a brewing demonstration at the Vicksburg Farmers’ Market fall market Nov. 2. The American Homebrew Association calls it Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day. Our club always offers community members opportunities to partake and, on that day, we used our fresh hops to brew an American Blonde Ale. What a blast it was to see how a locally grown plant could be readily put to use by members of the community where it was grown—ideal for a farmers’ market.

Today, Delta Brews has roughly 20 dedicated members who meet monthly to share homebrew and discuss our intricate, fascinating and addictive hobby. We have club members who specialize in brewing lagers, stouts, IPAs and a few members who regularly ferment other libations, including wine, mead and even sake. Many members of Delta Brews have received state and regional recognition for brewing some amazing “to the style” beers, while a select few have gained national recognition.

In addition, a recently formed women’s-only club, Barley’s Angels, has evolved and includes several female Delta Brews members. It’s a nationally acclaimed group, but the only chapter in Mississippi is in Vicksburg. They also meet once a month, and perform food/ beer pairings to identify which beer styles complement best with certain meals. It’s definitely worth attending; just be sure you don’t have a Y-chromosome, “‘cause men ain’t allowed.” I tried.

Collectively, Delta Brews and Barley’s Angels offer a wonderful pastime in Vicksburg and have gained sensational notoriety in homebrewing communities across the state. It’s the happening thing ‘round these parts. And now that homebrewing is legal, we anticipate the hobby to grow even more.

It’s a perfect Saturday event to relax, hang out with friends and enjoy a cold brew while folks boil up their next favorite style.

If you’re interested in homebrewing your first batch, share one you’ve perfected over the years, or would like to grow hops in your own backyard, contact me at outside@thesipmag.com.

Glasses up!

STORY Nathan Beane PHOTOGRAPHS Nathan Harms

CITY OF VICKSBURG

BUSINESS O P E N

George Flaggs, Jr. Mayor

(601) 631-3718

F O R

Michael Mayfield

North Ward Alderman

601-631-3770

Willis Thompson

South Ward Alderman

(601) 634-4507

â&#x20AC;˘

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Taylor & Valley Mississippi music duo meets in the middle with organic mix of rock, folk and love

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Taylor and Valley Hildebrand have chemistry—and it shows every time they perform, she with her banjo and stand-up bass and he with his guitar and soulful voice. It also shows when they talk about each other.

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The musical duo has been married for about 18 months, but Taylor and Valley have been soul mates since they sparked their musical chemistry.

“There’s a spiritual connection that happens when you play music with somebody that you connect with,” Valley said. “It’s making love with our clothes on.”

The duo’s love for music and their even more apparent love for one another is as real and raw as the poetic melodies that effortlessly flow from their stringed instruments. That on-stage spark makes these veterans of the Jackson music scene quite a musical power couple.

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The Hildebrands have cultivated a blend of Valley’s old-time bluegrass

and Taylor’s rootsy rock-n-roll, an organic combination of two old souls.

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The two began playing music together about six years ago when Taylor asked Valley to play bass on his first solo record.

“Taylor’s stuff was more, to me, rock-n-roll,” Valley said.

“I had to turn up my instrument way louder. Everything I had done was acoustic and just porch music. For him, it was downscaled. We were coming from two different levels and styles.”

“We met in the middle pretty good, I thought,” Taylor said. “It was good. I learned a lot form Valley about where she was coming from musically, and I think she probably learned some stuff from me.”

Valley, deeply rooted in traditional, old-timey music, said it was the “feel” Taylor put into his songs that she learned.

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“Traditional music is like stories. It’s like storytelling. It’s a song that’s like a poem. It’s predictable. It has its rhythm and it never really leaves that,” she said. “Taylor plays these very melodic songs with feel, and it’s not like math. You have to just feel it and that’s where you play, which is a real different thing.”

Taylor, a Jackson native, began playing music in high school, when a friend sold him a guitar for $50.

“I found out I could kind of sing a little bit maybe,” he said. “And, I just fell in love with doing it.”

“I just kept doing it and being in bands. By the time I got past 25, I felt like I could really do something, so I started taking it seriously—like quit-my-job taking it seriously,” Taylor said.

Ready to set out on a new path and record a solo album, he was introduced to Valley, a single mom with a nursing career and two bands that played throughout the Jackson area.

Valley grew up in Brandon and started travel-nursing after completing nursing school. While on a job in Asheville, N.C., she picked up a banjo. It was Mike Seeger, half-brother of folk legend Pete Seeger, who taught her to play.

“I met him at a square dance at this little-bitty college during the cake walk, and he had this extra banjo,” Valley said. “He basically gave me a banjo and said, ‘You can borrow this as long as you want to.’”

While travel-nursing, Valley followed the music and found fiddles and banjos wherever she went.

“I would look up old-time circles, and I would find these groups of people that just met and played these traditional songs,” she said. “You immediately have a circle of friends and this community. You’re immediately family because you play traditional music.”

Valley moved back to Jackson in 2004 and started a high-energy, old-time string band called The Scramblers.

Soon after, she joined The Hot Tamales, an all-girls bluegrass band, and a country blues group, The Dixie Nationals.

Taylor and Valley’s meeting and subsequent musical partnership blossomed into a full-on relationship with a realness that resembled the music they were creating.

“It connects and swirls up like, I don’t know, like tie-dye—like a recipe,” Valley said. “It just makes something. And, you can’t predict who that’s going to be with and you can’t force that. It just happens.”

Shortly after the two joined forces, they teamed up with a few other musicians—three other songwriters, a mandolin player and a drummer—to create a project called Horse Trailer.

“We had four songwriters in the group, and we just started learning each other’s songs, basically. And we played, and it went over really well. We played Thacker Mountain in Oxford, the Oxford Rhythm & Blues Festival. We opened for the Drive-By Truckers,” Taylor said. “We had a blast doing it.

It was just a really great time in the Jackson music scene. It was a magic summer.”

Over time, band members either moved or had babies and Taylor and Valley got married, so Horse Trailer came to a slow halt. Now, the couple performs mostly as a duo, either performing Taylor’s solo set or songs from Valley’s folksy Little Miss So and So, a batch of songs she put together to play at farmers’ markets and festivals.

The once-a-week performances have turned into onceor twice-a-month shows now that the couple stays busy co-parenting Valley’s girls, 8-year-old Ruby and 6-year-old Pearl. Taylor has returned to teaching and Valley is in graduate school to be a woman’s health nurse practitioner.

Even though the performances aren’t as frequent, when Taylor and Valley hit the stage, the crowds still come to experience the organic song-stylings of Jackson’s favorite married musical duo.

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He spent endless hours honing his songwriting craft until it started to come naturally. While he worked full-time as an elementary school teacher, he played in bands with friends—first, one called Slim’s Kitchen, followed by Passenger Jones, a band he played with for eight years. Then the time came when he believed music could be a full-time gig.

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“I think, definitely, we’ll record another record in the future. Now, things are different. I kind of had to grow up and be normal. I find it challenging to find time to sit down and be creative. I love where I am in my life. It’s the best time in my life ever. I’m married to this awesome girl. I got two great kids, you know. What else could I ask for,” Taylor said. “But, I still love music. So, I do a lot more listening now than I do writing. I think all that listening will help me write another record, because you know, you draw from all that stuff.”

Taylor seems to have a knack for drawing on life and love through the lyrics he pens. His album, Nena, named for his grandmother, was inspired by a box of letters exchanged between his grandparents when his grandfather was overseas during World War II.

“They did not have a perfect marriage, but they definitely loved one another. The way they spoke to each other in these letters, I feel like is kind of a lost art,” Taylor said. “People don’t talk to each other like that anymore. So, I decided to write a record based around that—about these two characters.”

Nena recounts a powerful love story that is no far cry from the passion that explodes on stage with each passing glance between Taylor and Valley as they sing and play their hearts out. It’s that connection between each other that makes what they do as musicians a somewhat magical experience.

“We fell in love with each other.

We’re very attracted to each other —physically and emotionally,” Valley said. “It makes something.

It made something that—I don’t know what it really sounds like, because I don’t know that we really listen to it a whole lot, but it definitely feels amazing to do together. It’s a language that we have together. It’s good stuff.”

STORY Lauchlin Fields PHOTOGRAPHS Melanie Thortis

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FOOD & DRINK

JAC KSON, MS

LurnyD’s Grille

Belly up to not-so-basic burgers on wheels

Order up!

LurnyD’s Grille, Jackson’s original gourmet food truck, is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday at Smith Park, 302 Amite St., in downtown Jackson. For information, call 601-906-9480. lurnydsgrille.com twitter.com/lurnydsgrille facebook.com/lurnydsgrille

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Lauren Davis once read that 75 percent of food truck owners have no formal restaurant experience. So, in October 2012, when he was at a crossroads in his career and the City of Jackson had passed an ordinance to allow food trucks, he decided to give it a shot.

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After perfecting backyard grilling recipes, plundering through heaps of research and studying marathon episodes on the Food Network, Lauren opened LurnyD’s.

The truck, named after Lauren’s nickname, is a mainstay at Smith Park, only a block from the Mississippi Governor’s Mansion in downtown Jackson, and it also rolls around the metro area for special events and catering jobs.

With Jimmy Hendrix and Led Zeppelin blaring from the speakers from the groovy mobile restaurant that once delivered potatoes, LurnyD serves up made-to-order specialties for every burger connoisseur.

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“I like to swap up the menu a bit and try new things. I‘ve got to keep it interesting.” ~ LAUREN DAVIS of

Just a glance at the menu—a burger topped with peanut butter and bacon or one topped with French onion dip, chips and a pickle — likely will make the driest of mouths salivate. On a lucky day, customers might catch a special consisting of an Asian-inspired burger served on a “bun” of Ramen noodles.

A little too adventurous? Fret not. The classic cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato and grilled onions is to die for. And don’t forget the fresh, hand-cut fries.

Lauren plays a daily guessing game on prep work and how much he thinks he’ll sell for the day.

“When it’s gone, that’s it. But that’s the nature of the business.

Any restaurant has that problem,” he said.

Diving into the food truck world has been a more affordable way to break into the food business than a brick and mortar restaurant, but Lauren said that doesn’t mean local chefs and restaurateurs treat him any differently.

“The reception has been great. I’ve even worked with a few local chefs on some pop-up restaurants and let them hijack my truck for the day,” said Lauren. “We’ve done an Asian pop-up, and a ‘crazy grilled cheese’ pop-up. I’d like to do one that is all about fries with all sorts of different toppings.”

LurnyD’s

LurnyD’s is open for lunch most weekdays when weather permits, and the line starts forming shortly before noon.

The patrons are mostly men and women dressed in their downtown business best, looking for a little something different and some fresh air during their lunch breaks. First-timers study the menu, while Lauren knows the regulars’ orders by heart.

Everything is made to order while the customer waits.

“Obviously the weather comes into play with a food truck, which can be good or bad,” he said. “The best thing about a food truck is that it’s mobile, and we can move wherever we want as long as we have a permit.”

Although the future of his journey in the restaurant business is uncertain, Lauren said he knows he’s enjoying the food truck lifestyle and has no plans to make any changes anytime soon.

“It’s a lot of fun. It’s something different, and it gives people an option besides the usual, which is cool,” he said.

So who’s up for a Krispy Kreme burger?

STORY Elizabeth Grey PHOTOGRAPHS Melanie Thortis

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Mid-Century Modern in

Natchez

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PHOTOS BY HEATHER KEARNEY

Simple Style in the Shadows of Southern Splendor

When

JAMIE AND HEATHER KEARNEY decided to return to their native Mississippi from Reno, Nev., the couple began their house search in Natchez, notorious for the two dozen or so antebellum mansions that fill the historic, quintessentially Southern landscape.

When Jamie, a GIS analyst, found work in Natchez in 2005, he and his wife, Heather, each searched online to scout real estate listings in the city.

Comparing notes, they discovered that, separately, they had zeroed in on the same house—a mid-century modern home on a shady street between U.S. 61 and the Mississippi River and a mile south of the historic downtown.

While the stately homes in Natchez—Auburn, Rosalie, Longwood and Stanton Hall, to name only a few—bring tourists year round to dote on their history and beauty, this nameless mid-century modern home a century younger is a rare, yet less predictable gem.

“I felt so lucky to find this house in Natchez, and, because I loved the house so much, I was desperate to get it,” Heather said. “When I found a house that was built in that style, I thought, ‘That has to be the house I have.’

We looked at some Victorians downtown and some other houses, but this one was the standout for its style.”

“We fell in love with it the first time we saw it,” Jamie agreed.

The house, which turns 50 this year, sits in the shadows of Gloucester, the oldest of Natchez’s grand homes, built in 1803. The Kearneys’ house is the only mid-century modern on the street and one of only a handful in Natchez. While history most definitely surrounds the Kearneys’ mod home, it also has its own, albeit relatively short, history.

The home was built by James and Catherine Meng, who, as a young couple in the 1960s, noticed, as they flipped through the pages of House Beautiful magazine, an advertisement for the Mark 58, an award-winning, California ranch-style model home. Donald Scholz, the Ohio designer behind the Mark 58, founded Scholz Homes Inc., after World War II to help meet housing demands for returning GIs.

The Mengs presented the magazine to an architectural draftsman in Monroe, La., who adapted the floor plan to fit a one-acre lot the couple had purchased in Natchez. They hired a contractor-friend to build their 3,200-square-foot residence, which has four bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a basement beneath the kitchen and den and a two-car garage in the front. On Halloween 1964, the Mengs moved in and stayed for 30 years, raising four children.

Heather and Jamie, who have been at home in their mid-century modern abode for nine years, are the fourth owners. The two have put the house on the market and are, quite frankly, a bit mournful they have to leave their beloved home. They intend to move to a family farm in Lawrence County, three counties east of Natchez, to raise dairy goats and make and sell cheese.

“I wish I could pick it up and take it where we’re going,” Heather said.

Their Natchez home is decked out with furniture and accents that fit the popular, yet timeless, mid-century modern style. Fiestaware dishes and designer Eames chairs, both iconic symbols of the home’s era, are touches the Kearneys added to their period home.

modern living TOP: Heather and Jamie Kearney stand outside the front doors of their midcentury modern home in Natchez.

BOTTOM: Jamie and Heather Kearney view the original blueprints of the home they purchased in Natchez in 2005.

Photos by Katie Carter

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“I always liked this style—the clean lines,” Heather said. “Once we got the house, I made an effort to seek out some vintage pieces and some reproduction pieces.”

Another part of the appeal was the relative youth of the home, she added. It’s what allowed her to meet the original owners and learn about her home’s roots.

Over BLTs and Frito pie at the Malt Shop, a 1955-built food stand on Homochitto Street that also stands as an icon of mid-century Natchez, Jamie recalled how, about three years ago, he and Heather met Catherine Meng by chance. The setting was, go figure, an antebellum mansion. The Kearneys were at a wedding at the Elms, one of Natchez’s many historic homes, when a mutual acquaintance tapped one of them on the shoulder, pointed at Catherine, seated a row in front of them, and said, “That’s the woman who built your house.” The groom, it turned out, was Catherine’s nephew.

The Kearneys invited Catherine, who still lives in Natchez, back to her former home on Gloucester Road.

Upon her visit, Catherine entered the home, a mailing tube under her arm with the home’s original blueprints. She unrolled them on a table in the kitchen, and she, Heather and Jamie bunched up. Pointing and talking, asking questions, together they charted the last half-century of the house they’ve called a home.

“It’s wonderful to know that someone else has enjoyed the house like we did,” Catherine said.

The Kearneys, much like the Mengs, have enjoyed entertaining in their home, which features free-flowing space and floor-to-ceiling windows that bring in plenty of light. Across the threshold and the foyer of lemon-colored walls and blue slate floors is a grand view of the massive, tree-lined backyard, perfect for games of crochet or Frisbee, Heather said.

With such an airy common room, and with only a sliding door separating the room from the backyard, the house is great for parties, Catherine Meng added. She and her late husband, James, known as Catty, used to entertain more than 100 guests at a time. The Mengs’ children, who are now grown with children of their own, remember their childhood home as one filled with music. Catty, who died last year, liked to play the piano in the living room upon arriving home from work.

Catty was always working to customize his abode. He owned a veneer mill, and as lumber arriving at the business caught his eye, he culled it for his family’s home. He picked out century-old cypress for the deck that overlooks the backyard. A good batch of walnut went toward one of the bedrooms. Cherry wood became the wall paneling and the cabinets of the den and kitchen, the Kearneys’ favorite spot to hang out and visit.

“We live in the kitchen,” Heather said.

The room swims in sunlight, warm with the glow of the cherry wood, and through every window comes the green of trees. The kitchen blends into the adjacent den, allowing the couple to spread out across the two rooms, some combination of their four dogs nearby.

“Large openings of glass, extensions of porches and decks, and this honesty of materials and simple craftsmanship instill a casual, comfortable interaction of this modern theme with the natural setting,” said architect Doug Lum. “It has celebrated, I believe, to be an excellent understanding and expression of the true intent of this modern form.”

The simplistic style and efficiency—built-ins providing ample storage—and the emphasis on nature are major themes of the home that drew the Kearneys to the house.

It also doesn’t require a lot of upkeep. For instance, the Kearneys refinished the home’s original parquet floors instead of replacing them.

“We didn’t want to be weekend warriors, always having to work on an aging house,” Heather said.

The red color of the front doors is striking to approaching visitors. The Mengs decided the original orange doors didn’t suit them, so they chose a color that signifies good luck in Asian culture. Each of the doors boasts a brass pineapple—another touch of the Pacific and an American colonial symbol meaning warmth and welcome.

Upon their recent visit, the Kearneys and Catherine Meng stepped out of the kitchen and onto the back deck, where the afternoon weather was gorgeous and they could take in the rolling lawn, the lofty oaks, the banana and palm trees and a Japanese magnolia.

The Kearneys discussed the future of their house.

“I hope the next owner will appreciate it for what it is and not try to change it too much,” Heather said.

“It was the perfect house for us.”

STORY Hicks Wogan PHOTOGRAPHS Katie Carter

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ELLI SVILLE, MS

L.C. Ulmer

Bluesman brings home his talent and his stories

I

In 2001, bluesman L.C. Ulmer settled in Ellisville, Mississippi, after more than 50 years of working and playing music in places as far flung as Cuba, Los Angeles and Alaska. Somehow, though, the talented, energetic and charismatic musician, now 85, had evaded broader attention.

Since returning to Mississippi, he’s become a favorite on the local club and festival circuit, cut his first CD (“Blues Come Yonder” on Hill Country Records) and has traveled extensively, most recently to Israel.

“Oh, man, they wanted me to stay over there forever,” L.C. said.

“If I hadn’t had a home of my own I’d still be over there. Them folks love music over there.

“I saw everything that I read about (in the Bible) and more, too.

I went to King Solomon’s temple, David’s temple and I went across that Dead Sea. And me and a camel got into it”—a reference to a traffic encounter with a group of Bedouins in a desert.

Back home in Ellisville, L.C. keeps busy, offering private guitar, bass, piano and banjo lessons to more than 60 students. He also plays harmonica, kazoo, mandolin and fiddle, and his tidy home is crowded with vintage instruments. His skills with his hands are likewise reflected in the collection of cars he’s restored and continues to drive regularly —a 1955 Dodge Royal, a 1966 Dodge Polara and two vintage pickups.

L.C. is remarkably spry and agile for his age, which he attributes to his strict diet—largely fresh vegetables and fruit— and his lifelong enthusiasm for working hard. He was born in 1928 in Stringer, about 20 miles north of Ellisville, and grew up farming on a plantation with his six brothers and seven sisters.

L.C.’s father, Luther, played guitar and harmonica, and by age 9, L.C. was playing guitar together with family members on the front porch and at fish fries and “breakdowns.” Local white musicians, including the “father of country music,” often joined in.

“The famous Jimmie Rodgers out of Meridian, he used to come

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to my daddy’s porch with his gallon of whiskey and they would play music I don’t know how long. I was little, but I ain’t gonna’ forget.“

An important early influence was the Hattiesburg-based street musician and slide guitarist Blind Roosevelt Graves, whose 1936 recordings with the Mississippi Jook Band are recognized as some of the first “rock-n-roll” songs.

At 14, L.C. left home to build railway trestles across Lake Pontchartrain and was soon playing at juke joints. He moved to Kansas City in the late 1940s and, in the mid-1950s, put his bags down in Holbrook, Arizona, a desert outpost where he entertained travelers and met such traveling musicians as Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole and Fats Domino. L.C. still carries in his wallet the musician’s union card he was issued in Hollywood in 1957 and a photograph of the mother of multiple of his children. She was a Puerto Rican whom L.C. brought to the United States after a visit to Havana. He eventually settled down in Joliet, Illinois, where he ran an automotive shop and towing service, and he played at local clubs as a “12-piece” one-man-band.

L.C.’s broad repertoire includes many early blues, gospel and country classics, but he’s also adept at creating his own songs, sometimes creating impromptu lyrics.

“I say if you play music you should travel,” he said. “You’ll see a lot of things you can make a song about. That’s why I can make songs up all night long and just roll them right off.

“Once I was here in Laurel, way years ago. I was playing the guitar and a millionaire came up and got me, carried me to his house. He got in a big old chair, said, ‘Everything I point at, I want you to make a song out of it.’

“First thing he pointed at was his shoe, I had him covered.

Next thing was a plate on the table, I had him covered. Next thing was a cookstove, I made a song out of that. Next thing he pointed at—I thought I never would make a song out of that— one of them pipes he smoked. I had to study quick, but I made a song out of that. When I left I had four hundred dollars.”

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“I say if you play music you should travel. You’ll see a lot of things you can make a song about.

That’s why I can make songs up all night long and just roll them right off.”

~ L.C. ULMER,

musician

Despite having traveled around the world, L.C. Ulmer would rather be no place other than back home in Ellisville, where he’s become a celebrity.

“I never left here to stay, I just went to make money,” he said. “It’s my home, and anything I want, all I have to do is point my finger and folks will go get it. If I want to go somewhere people will pick me up and drive me.”

He still travels regularly on his own, taking one of his vintage cars to visit his grandchildren in Texas and Alabama, or to the blues mecca of Clarksdale, where he’ll often camp out for a week. Another inspiration for his travels is romance.

“I’m gonna tell you what I used to do. Someone would say, ‘Man, I was just up in New York. There were some pretty women up there.’ By tomorrow night I’m gonna’ be up there. I went everywhere folks said there was pretty women, ‘cause I wanted to see ‘em too!

“I’ve have saw a lot of excitement in my day, I’m thankful to God that I had a chance to see it.”

STORY Scott Barretta PHOTOGRAPHS H.C. Porter

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H.C. PORTER

“L.C. Ulmer”

H.C. Porter’s Blues @ Home Now on Exhibit

H.C. Porter’s exhibition of portrait paintings and oral histories documenting 30 living Mississippi blues legends, is on display at The University of Mississippi Museum at University Avenue and 5th Street in Oxford. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The exhibit will run through Aug. 2. Admission is $5 or free with current membership.

For more information, call 662-915-7073. hcporter.com/bluesathome

facebook.com/bluesathome

L

L.C. Ulmer is one of 30 living Mississippi blues legends featured in artist H.C. Porter’s Blues @ Home series, a collection of mixed media portrait paintings and oral histories currently on exhibition at the University Museum at Ole Miss in Oxford through Aug. 2.

Blues @ Home is a traveling exhibition that showcases the blues in Mississippi through the legends themselves. Powerful paintings are paired with compelling oral histories that allow viewers to hear the rarely told personal stories that make up this state’s blues heritage.

Blues @ Home is about seeing the blues through the performers—the real-life characters who have made Mississippi the iconic place where the blues was born.

Blues @ Home is a tribute to the rich cultural heritage of Mississippi. It gives a raw and honest portrayal of Mississippi’s current legacy through the deeply rooted legends of this unparalleled

blues landscape. H.C. Porter gives an exclusive, down-home look into the inner sanctum of each musician. From living rooms and chicken coops to home studios and juke joints, the paintings and oral histories go beyond the music to give visitors a truly human experience, revealing the grit and spirit of each blues legend.

This collection shows that the blues goes beyond the bounds of what outsiders might think a blues performer is supposed to be. The blues today is about people from all walks of life who came to the blues under a variety of circumstances—a white woman who learned blues piano from a hard-living local black musician; a music professor and Fulbright scholar; the son of juke joint owners; and the heir of the legendary drum and fife music.

Blues @ Home allows visitors to see the blues through the faces of the legends who carry the torch for Mississippi’s blues legacy.

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THE ‘SIP TRIP

take a weekend roadtrip

The Tomato Place 3229 Hwy 61 South Vicksburg, MS 39180 (601) 661-0040 thetomatoplace.com

First Presbyterian Church-Port Gibson 605 Church Street Port Gibson, MS 39150 (601) 437-5428 fpcportgibson.com

The Old Country Store and Restaurant 18801 Highway 61 Lorman, MS 39096 (601) 437-3661

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ILLUSTRATION BY ERIN NORWOOD

Windsor Ruins Leaving Port Gibson, travel south on Hwy 61 (aprox. 6 miles) to Hwy 552. Look for Windsor Ruins signs. Exit right on Hwy 552 and follow signs to Alcorn State University (aprox. 6 miles). Turn right on 2-lane, Hwy 552 West.

Travel about 5 miles to Windsor Ruins, located on the right.

Supported in part by:

Created by Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh in collaboration with Family Communications, Inc. (FCI), the producer of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE).

TRAVELING EXHIBIT

JUNE 7-SEPTEMBER 14 HAVE FUN ALL SUMMER LONG! FRIDAY, JUNE 6 (5:30-8:00 PM) How People Make Things: Members-only* Preview Night *Become an MCM member for exclusive after-hours events!

SATURDAY, JUNE 7 HOW PEOPLE MAKE THINGS GRAND OPENING & Question It? Discover It!: Fun in the Sun (10 AM - 2 PM) TUESDAY, JUNE 17 (3:30 PM) Tinker with Tuesday: Slingshot Demo JULY 7-11 WEEKLY SUMMER CAMP How People Make Things: Inventor’s Workshop Camp TUESDAY, JULY 15 (3:30 PM) Tinker with Tuesday: Oil Spill Simulation Connecting science to real world problems

AUGUST 4-8 WEEKLY SUMMER CAMP Kitchen Chemistry Camp

THE MISSISSIPPI CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

SUMMER 2014 SPONSORED BY:

2145 HIGHLAND DRIVE • JACKSON, MS

www.mcm.ms

TheSipMag April-July14 MCM 7.375x9.625.indd 1

3/25/14 10:04 AM

T M R

THACKER MOUNTAIN

RADIO SHOW words & music every Saturday night

ON MPB AT 7 HEAR MISSISSIPPI ON THE RADIO www. thackermountain.com

MCHAN NEW RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION AND REMODELING

sip414.ai 1 4/2/2014 9:22:12 AM

L i ke u s o n Fa c e b o o k Fo l l ow u s o n i n s t a g r a m @zsazsasgifts

Licensed Residential Builder, Electrician, Plumber, and HVAC 601-529-3263

••• www.mchanconstructionllc.com

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P photo by Melanie Thortis p TH OR T I SP HOT OGRAP HY.C OM

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VICKSBURG The Key to the South

VISIT

THE KEY TO HISTORY

Vicksburg’s key position on the mighty Mississippi River set the stage for one of the most defining episodes in American history: The Siege of Vicksburg in the Civil War. You can relive that history in our museums and tour homes and the Vicksburg National Military Park which has been named the Mississippi Tourism Attraction of the Year.

We’ve got it!

THE KEY TO ENTERTAINMENT

The music of the Mississippi Delta is known around the world. Many venues and festivals throughout the city present live music – blues, country, rock. You’ll want to take the family to see Gold in the Hills which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest continuously running show. We’ve got it!

THE KEY TO SHOPPING Shops along Washington Street are filled with wonderful gift and specialty items that range from fun and funky to fantastically fashionable. You’ll love our antique and consignment shops! Find great deals at the Outlets at Vicksburg and the Vicksburg Mall boasting national retail favorites. We’ve got it!

THE KEY TO DINING

The Vicksburg menu includes Southern and international favorites, steaks and seafood. How about some fried green tomatoes with crabmeat hollandaise sauce, Southern cheese grits or a Cuban BBQ or a bountiful buffet? We’ve got it!

THE KEY TO ADVENTURE With sweeping views of the Mississippi River, Vicksburg perfectly blends Southern culture and heritage with exciting modern-day attractions. Whether it’s nature viewing, fishing, hunting, golfing or picnicking you want, we’ve got it!

Scan this QR to visit our mobile site and get your keys to Vicksburg. www.VisitVicksburg.com