From Azaleas to Zydeco: My 4,600-Mile Journey through the South

I’m Only 75

I’m Only 75 Lake Chicot, the largest oxbow lake in North America, is located in the southeastern corner of Arkansas just before you get to the Greenville Bridge which crosses the Mississippi River. An oxbow lake forms when a river bend gets separated from the river. In this case, Lake Chicot used to be a big bend in the Mississippi River, but around 600 years ago, the river cut a new channel. Now the former river bed is a lake almost threequarters of a mile wide and twenty-two miles long. It’s huge. When you see it from a plane, Lake Chicot looks like a big “C” of water which contrasts against the surrounding checkerboard of farmland. Just past Lake Chicot, the Mississippi River Bridge comes into view. It’s a new bridge and much higher than the old one; it may well be the highest point from Crowley’s Ridge some one hundred miles upriver to Yazoo City which is at least seventy-five miles southeast. During the great flood of 1927, the Mississippi River was one hundred miles wide at this place. Driving the highway, you forget how impoverished the Delta really is. Once you arrive in a town, the poverty hits you. After Memphis, Greenville is the largest place in the Delta. The 2010 census counted 41,633 residents, but its population has since decreased. Decrepit convenience stores and motels litter Greenville’s outskirts. Rather than maintaining or fixing a building, developers seem to simply move down the highway and build a new one. A shiny new Holiday Inn Express contrasts with the nearby rusting and deteriorating buildings. 227 Greenville is the undisputed center of the “tamale trail.” Twelve of the forty-four stops on the Mississippi Tamale Trail are located around here. Tamales, along with fried catfish, are true Delta cuisine. Tamales are cornmeal dough, filled with pork, beef, or perhaps turkey, and some spices. The meat is browned or boiled. Then everything, cornmeal and meat, is wrapped up in corn husks and simmered in bundles of six or so. Tamale-makers keep their spices and spicing techniques secret. Some just spice the meat; others spice everything, even the water the tamales simmer in. Tamales are sold at convenience stores, gas stations, mobile homes, and small shops throughout the Delta. For more on these wonderful treats, see the Southern Foodways Alliance’s website on the Tamale Trail, www.tamaletrail.com. As they say around here: Tamales “shore are good eatin.’” Downtown Greenville’s main street is nice. (Not typical for the Delta.) Getting to downtown from the highway, however, requires going down streets with severely deteriorating residences and unkempt lawns. But Washington Street, the main street, is wide, clean, and well-maintained . Most of the store fronts are maintained, and one in particular, S. Goodman’s, appears to be doing very well. I went into Goodman’s and found that they had plenty of merchandise to sell, mostly clothing. It’s hard to believe that it competes with the Wal-Mart on the highway. But it does—and good for it. At the other end of Washington Street stands Jim’s Cafe. Jim’s has been around awhile. I stood outside the door debating whether to go inside. It was after 2:00 and I was afraid they wouldn’t be serving this late. I had intended to eat tamales whenever my Journey intersected the Tamale Trail. But I took a chance on Jim’s because I had made a bet with myself that the waitress would call me honey or hon. That doesn’t sound like much of a reason, I know, but when you’re traveling alone, you find you often make wagers with yourself. Anyway, Jim’s wasn’t closed: It stays open until 3:00 p.m. But Jim didn’t have much business. There was a table in the back with three old men talking, a table of two young people who left soon after I sat down, two waitresses, and me. Plenty of room in a restaurant that could seat upwards of eighty to a hundred people. 228 With plenty of seating options, I took a table where I could keep track of the conversation at the other tables. The talk was mostly about politics, and clearly they didn’t approve of President Obama’s recent actions. I fully expected to hear a racial reference. I...