Sunday, February 10, 2008

Ireland, Mississippi Delta, it's all the same


The summer after Heath finished medical school we went to Ireland with some of Heath's family. What a place. We wound around country roads, we stopped to look at water or trees or the beach or the ruins of a keep. We roamed the Burren. We saw Druid burial sites. On one of our best days we visited the Allwee Caves (http://www.aillweecave.ie/). At the center of the road leading to the caves there is a cheese shop. The cheese shop housed a bakery as well. We enjoyed a sunny picnic lunch of baps and wine. (A bap is a sandwich made from homemade rolls, homemade cheese and homemade chutney.) As I sat there drinking wine, eating fresh cheese and taking in new sights I was fairly sure that there is nothing at home anywhere close. I maintained that thought until today.

My mom had surgery on her ankle last week and has been homebound. Today she felt like getting out and I talked my family into doing a baloney run. We left Yazoo City and headed down the levee in Panther Swamp. We stopped and threw some rocks into the channel, we saw a weir, we listened to some of my dad's Mississippi Folklore. We wound around levees and dirt roads and forgotten highways until we got to Holly Bluff. At Mike's Grocery in Holly Bluff dad, Heath and Jacob went in and got us a snack. We had saltine crackers, hoop cheese and baloney. As we sat in the middle of that little Delta town I realized that maybe there are some universal truths:

Home is just as pretty as far away if you remember to look at it.

If you forget to look for a long time, sometimes home is the prettiest place in the world.

Hoop cheese, baloney, crackers and mustard make a damn good delta bap.

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