Jackson, Pearl, & Meridian Mississippi, Birmingham Alaba

[momopi]

Things I've observed:

* Bad neighborhoods in the South do not always have the same obvious indicators found elsewhere. You won't find graffiti, bars on windows, check cashing places, bail bonds, etc. The neighborhood can look deceptively normal to an outsider. My client's office WAS in Jackson, but they moved to Pearl after too many incidents. The last was when one of their employees stepped outside and was hit over the head with a wooden board from some nut job who wanted his wallet.

* Instead of Barnes & Noble they have Books a Million with "Joe Muggs" inside (instead of Starbucks).

* Southern hospitality is still alive and kicking, people here say "come and stay" instead of "welcome to XYZ, now go home".

* The folks here are very nice and a little slow, except when they're driving. The nice lady who speaks real slow in person will cut you off on the road.

* It's actually hard to find Southern cooking in the restaurants here (other than fast food). But I suppose if you eat Southern cooking at home every day, you'd want to go eat Mexican food at Chilli's when you dine out. I had to go eat chicken dumplings at Cracker Barrel. @_@;; The hole in the wall places here that locals say is good, I wasn't as impressed with their po' boys.

* In retail stores and restaurants (does not necessarily reflect rest of demographic), the white people here are wider than the blacks.

[momopi]

I finally got around to uploading the photos from my trip to Alamo & Memphis TN. If anyone is an Elvis fan, I visited Graceland and took some photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/momopi/AlamoMemphisTN#




Elvis was probably the most well known performer in his era. If you look at the interiors of his house, I think a good part of it would be considered modest by today's McMansion standards. Back then the bathrooms and closets were kinda small. Today the new home buyers want giant walk-in closets and bathrooms the size of a bedroom.

[NorthAmericanguy]

Cool^^