Based on some comments on this blog by those who watched today's airing of The Price is Right (a long-running game show currently hosted by Drew Carey), Possumneck, Mississippi, may now be a household word! It seems someone on the show was a resident of Possumneck, a small community in Attala County, Mississippi. For more about Possumneck, check out this link to a post I wrote about the area four years ago on this blog:
http://mymississippimemories.blogspot.com/2009/02/dark-corner-of-possumneck.html?showComment=1369937884026#c1273541278791028495
It really is a small world, isn't it? And thanks to the visitor on The Price is Right, it's existence is now known about throughout the world! One reader wanted to know where she could get a T-Shirt? I aim to please my readers, so do you think I should have some made?
Showing posts with label Possumneck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Possumneck. Show all posts
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The Dark Corner of Possumneck
Something that makes Mississippi special is that a few of its towns have rather unique, and often even strange-sounding names, such as D'Lo, Egypt, Hot Coffee, Itta Bena, and Yazoo City, and any number of others that I won't list here today. Now this is not to say that each of these towns doesn't have a specific and often even an historical reason for its name. This scenario is actually no different for other cities in the United States, or, for that matter, the rest of the world. But a few Mississippi towns may have names that qualify as "one of a kind."
Take Possumneck, for instance. Now you may not have heard of Possumneck. In fact, not every Mississippian even knows about Possumneck. But I would wager that almost everyone who has lived for any length of time in Attala County knows exactly where Possumneck is located. This community got its name from the shape of the area of wooded bottom land that it covered. And yes, it probably did have a rather substantial marsupial population that roamed its dense woods over a hundred years ago. Maybe it still does.
Apart from its rather strange-sounding name, Possumneck was well-known for another reason. It was in this area of Attala County around the turn of the 20th century that a few of the county's less than "reputable" businesses decided to set up shop. And it was for this reason that Possumneck also became known as "Dark Corner." Because the timber business was thriving in that area of Attala county in the early 1900's, the community known as Possumneck eventually grew large enough to maintain a post office. But when the Great Depression caused sawmills in the area to shut down, the less than reputable businesses that no longer had paying customers also closed their doors or moved on to more profitable locations across the Big Black River. The post office soon closed, and today Possumneck is but an extinct town with only a blurred memory of its somewhat colorful past.
Take Possumneck, for instance. Now you may not have heard of Possumneck. In fact, not every Mississippian even knows about Possumneck. But I would wager that almost everyone who has lived for any length of time in Attala County knows exactly where Possumneck is located. This community got its name from the shape of the area of wooded bottom land that it covered. And yes, it probably did have a rather substantial marsupial population that roamed its dense woods over a hundred years ago. Maybe it still does.
Apart from its rather strange-sounding name, Possumneck was well-known for another reason. It was in this area of Attala County around the turn of the 20th century that a few of the county's less than "reputable" businesses decided to set up shop. And it was for this reason that Possumneck also became known as "Dark Corner." Because the timber business was thriving in that area of Attala county in the early 1900's, the community known as Possumneck eventually grew large enough to maintain a post office. But when the Great Depression caused sawmills in the area to shut down, the less than reputable businesses that no longer had paying customers also closed their doors or moved on to more profitable locations across the Big Black River. The post office soon closed, and today Possumneck is but an extinct town with only a blurred memory of its somewhat colorful past.
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