Happy Birthday Hannah!

Our baby is now 17 years old! How can that be?!? Since Hannah and I planned to be in Grove City on February 15, her actual birthday, Willis and I celebrated with her on Tuesday February 12. (The closest available day; Wednesday is busy with church activities and we were leaving after school on Thursday.) It’s the first time in Hannah’s life that she has not had at least one sibling here for the celebration. For Willis and me, I’m thinking it’s like the declining side of the bell curve of raising our children. Back in 1986 just the 3 of us celebrated Nathan’s first birthday. Now here we are, 22 years and 4 children later, with just the 3 of us celebrating Hannah’s birthday!

But let us move along to happier themes! On the ACTUAL DAY we arrived in Grove City and following the orchestra concert—more on that in a future post—we enjoyed cake and ice cream with friends in Bethany’s dorm. Thank you to Josh for the cake artistry!

The New Mississippi License Plate

I am fascinated with license plates. I admit it. Since I was a little girl, my families—birth and present—have searched the license plates of our fellow travelers. There are questions I would like to ask: why are you here in this part of the country? Are you just passing through or have you recently moved here? I wonder HOW you arrived to this place (especially if the license plate is Hawaii—pretty rare, but my niece Janel did spot one in California one time!—or Alaska, since I understand traveling the Alaskan Highway can be quite the adventure) and I wonder if you are here for business or pleasure, for a celebration or due to a sorrowful situation. Clearly all these questions would indicate I am more interested in the people in the car than in the license plate itself!

As we drove in to Mississippi earlier this month, we noticed that the Mississippi license plate now displays a lighthouse in place of the magnolia blossom which has adorned the plate for many years. (Ten, I’ve just learned.) Well, it’s a nice design but not something that would quickly pop into my mind if I was doing one of those word-association tests. Maine, perhaps, but Mississippi? Not so much. Six hours later, we turned on to Beach Boulevard in Biloxi. Driving west, trying to figure out how to find Keesler Air Force Base—I had printed out some directions, but they were in a bag behind Willis’s seat in his car and I was riding in Nathan’s car with Hannah driving; sigh!—we drove past a lighthouse! Could it be THE lighthouse, the inspiration for the lighthouse on the new license plate? Could it be since the lighthouse weathered Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it was chosen as the new license plate symbol? As it turns out, the answer to both questions is in the affirmative. To quote Joe Blount, Commissioner of Revenue: “This tag design is intended to be a reminder to us of all those who lost so much from Katrina, to serve as a symbol of our citizens’ commitment to recovery as well as a symbol of our gratitude to all Americans for their prayers and generous support.” (http://www.mstc.state.ms.us/mvl/cartag.pdf)

A Visit to the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Now that Nathan is able to have a car AND go off base AND wear civilian clothes on the weekends, we planned a trip to Biloxi, Mississippi to visit him. And take his car! And all his clothes! Of all the people in our family, Nathan is really the only one who has it in his nature to travel light: everything he owns can fit in his car, a Mitsubishi Lancer. The first weekend in February, Willis, Hannah, and I drove down on Friday—Hannah drove Nathan’s car quite a bit of the way—and basked in some warm Gulf weather. We drove back north through—and into—storms on Sunday.

Saturday was a great day to be together. We enjoyed walking out on the pier into the Gulf of Mexico, and we observed floats and bands preparing for a Mardi Gras Parade in Gulfport. We shopped at Wal-Mart and at Sam’s Club. Willis and Nathan went into a casino to have his money cashed out (not sure if that’s the right expression, but oh, well! A jar of nickels and a jar of dimes became $298.00 in dollar bills no matter what it’s called.) We ate lunch at Taco Bell—Nathan had not eaten at Taco Bell since November—and dinner at Emeril’s Gulf Coast Fish House. (Actually, it’s just plain wrong to speak about those two restaurants in the same sentence……sorry! The meal at Emeril’s was a delightful culinary experience; the “unique food masterpieces” were a feast for the eyes as well as for the palate.)

We were so glad to spend time with Nathan and see that he is content with his Air Force training.

A Massachusetts Yankee in West Tennessee

As we anticipated a visit to West Tennessee from Bethany’s friend Josh, we considered what points of interest we could share with him here in the rural Mid-South. Quite frankly, our area of the country can’t compare with New England when it comes to historic sites, museums, or heritage areas. The little state of Massachusetts itself—boasting an “it’s all here” slogan on its website—contains eight National Historic Sites, four National Historical Parks, one National Recreation Area and one National Seashore, and those are just the ones under the administration of the National Park Service! Let’s see…………..in West Tennessee we have the Davy Crockett Cabin/Museum in Rutherford, the white squirrels in Kenton, and Reelfoot Lake, home of bald eagles and cypress knees. (Perhaps a visit to the lake would be of some interest considering Reelfoot Lake, covering 25,000 acres, was formed by the New Madrid Earthquakes in 1811-1812, quakes which “rang church bells 1,000 miles away in Boston, cracked sidewalks in Washington, D.C., and rattled china in the Colorado Rockies. “) But I digress.

Josh did visit, and we did greatly enjoy getting to know him better, and—no surprise to any of us—Bethany and Josh did find plenty to see and do. A trip to Memphis included a tour of the Gibson guitar factory, the Peabody Hotel ducks, Beale Street, and a glimpse at Graceland! On Friday we traversed the Mississippi River into Missouri to eat Chubby’s BBQ in Hayti and visit the levee (which protects the town from flooding) and H S Smith Funeral Home in Caruthersville. To quote Howard: "All good things come from or go through Pemiscot County." For what more could we ask?