Although I have tried, I cannot predict how many readers will be attracted to a particular post. On a number of occasions, I have researched and written posts that I thought would be of interest to a large audience, only to find the actual number of readers was very low. In other instances, the opposite was true. Nevertheless, I continue to analyze the popularity of posts on topics that have appealed to the largest number of readers of this blog, and today I thought it might be fun to list the top five posts, according to Blogger statistics. So here they are, listed in the order of reader popularity.
Robert Johnson's Grave and a Trip to Tallahatchie Flats, June 16, 2009
"One Night of Madness" - A True Account of the Leon Turner Murder Case,
October 20, 2009
Burel Family - Pennsylvania>Union County, SC>Gwinnett County, GA, March 28, 2009
Uriah Conner and His Descendants - November 19, 2009
The Netherland Family of Holmes County, MS - February 22, 2009
Showing posts with label Tallahatchie Flats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tallahatchie Flats. Show all posts
Monday, October 25, 2010
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Wordless Wednesday - Tallahatchie Flats
Entrance to Tallahatchie Flats, overnight lodging outside Greenwood, Mississippi, and near Robert Johnson's gravesite. (Digital Photo Collection - Privately held by Janice Tracy)
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Wordless Wednesday - Remnants of Wash Days Gone By
Source: Digital Photo Collection (2009) - Janice Tracy
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wordless Wednesday - Bottle Tree
Photograph of Bottle Tree and Country Store at Tallahatchie Flats near Greenwood, Mississippi.
Source: Digital Photo Collection (2009), Privately held by Janice Tracy
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Robert Johnson's Grave and a Trip to Tallahatchie Flats
After leaving the Greenwood Blues Heritage Museum and Gallery, we set out to find Robert Johnson's grave. Although there has been much controversy over the years about where Johnson is really buried, the grave site just outside of Greenwood is believed by many, including Johnson historian and collector, Steve Lavere, to be the actual burial site.
As we drove out of Greenwood on the highway headed to Money, Mississippi ( yes, that is the town's name!) we neared the Little Zion M.B. Church and its cemetery where Johnson is believed to be buried. A Mississippi Blues Trail marker stands on the side of the highway near the cemetery, attesting to the influence of Robert Johnson's music on other Delta Blues musicians, including Son House, Muddy Waters, and Elmore James. According to the marker, Robert Johnson's early and mysterious death occurred in 1938 when Johnson was just 27 years old.
One of a number of Mississippi Blues Trail markers throughout the Mississippi Delta and elsewhere in the State of Mississippi.
Little Zion M. B. Church and Cemetery, where Robert Johnson is believed to be buried. The cemetery is located to the left of the church and is shaded by a number of large, old trees. Johnson's grave is near the back of the cemetery, under one of the largest pecan trees growing there.
The grave stone that marks the grave of Robert L. Johnson, Delta Blues Musician, is pictured above. Followers who visit Johnson's grave often leave flowers and other items to show their devotion to the man and the music that he left behind.
A close-up of Robert Johnson's grave marker that includes a fascimile of words allegedly written by Johnson shortly before his untimely death in 1928. We left the cemetery and headed for Tallahatchie Flats, an interesting new overnight venue near Greenwood. The gravel road that turns off the main highway is marked by a simple black mailbox held up by part of a plow. The name "Tallahatchie Flats" was on the mailbox, so we knew our destination was not far away. Although the actual address does not appear on the mailbox, the physical location of Tallahatchie Flats is 58458 County Road 518, Greenwood, Mississippi 38930.
Situated only a few yards from the mailbox is a large sign, visible from the main roadway, that assured us we were headed in the right direction.
As we continued to travel down the gravel road marked by the mailbox and the sign, we saw yet another sign, this one made out of old-fashioned tin, that guided us around a curve in the
road on the way to Tallahatchie Flats.
As we rounded the curve, we saw a cluster of seven sharecropper cabins that told us we had arrived at our destination. According to Steve Lavere and George Vasquez back at the museum in Greenwood, Tallahatchie Flats is made up of cabins that were moved from their original locations onto this tract of Delta farm land. The location is a short distance from Robert Johnson's place of rest and is used for overnight accomodations for visitors and festival goers from around the world, all wanting to experience the feel of life in the Mississippi Delta. The unpainted and weathered cypress exteriors of the cabins remain unchanged, but the interiors have been "modernized" with heat and air and "indoor plumbing," working appliances, and such, and each cabin has been decorated with furnishings reminiscent of the early-mid 1900s.
Individual cabins have been assigned names that are painted on a wooden marker above each
front door, including such names as "Red House" and "Tush Hog."
Pictured above is the larger of the two types of cabins that make up Tallahatchie Flats. This particular one has two exterior doors. Seen in the foreground of the cabin, just to the left of the walkway, is an in-ground pump once used to pump water for cooking and for baths.
Old-fashioned chairs sit on the front porch of this cabin, just waiting for the weary traveler to sit and watch the Delta sun set over endless flat rows of crops such as milo, soybeans, and cotton. A metal washtub is seen hanging on the left side of the cabin was used for many things, including laundry and baths.
Although this rental cabin now has a working stove inside, an antique one sits on the front porch as a reminder of the value of a wood stove. The stove was used not only for cooking, but it was used for heating the house in the winter and for warming bath water pumped by hand from an outside pump and carried into the house. Since electricity and gas were unheard of in most parts of the rural Mississippi Delta until the 1950s, kerosene or " coal oil" lamps were
used for lighting.
An iron wash pot and an old wringer washing machine, sitting on the porch of the cabin above, are remnants of a time gone by when laundry day really was an all-day chore. And that didn't include the time it took to hang all the laundry outside to dry. When clothes lines were not available, wet laundry was often hung on whatever was available, including the fence or porch rails.
The rural store pictured above, also made out of rough cypress lumber, looks just as it may have back in the 1940s. A "Royal Crown Cola" sign can be seen above the steps of the store, a reminder of the many cold soft drinks, all in bottles, that were sold at stores everywhere, even the Mississippi Delta, in years gone by. The only thing missing in this picture are the people who often lingered on the porch or the steps to drink RC, Grapette, Coca-Cola, or Big Red, at the end of a long, hot summer day.
For more information about festivals in or near Greenwood, including Rhythm on the River and Tallahatchie Flats Summer Music Festival, click here.
To visit the website for Tallahatchie Flats, click here or contact Les Shanks at 662.453.1854.
Next Stop: B. B. King Museum, Indianola, Mississippi
Source: All photos are from the Digital Photograph Collection (2009), privately held by Janice Tracy
As we drove out of Greenwood on the highway headed to Money, Mississippi ( yes, that is the town's name!) we neared the Little Zion M.B. Church and its cemetery where Johnson is believed to be buried. A Mississippi Blues Trail marker stands on the side of the highway near the cemetery, attesting to the influence of Robert Johnson's music on other Delta Blues musicians, including Son House, Muddy Waters, and Elmore James. According to the marker, Robert Johnson's early and mysterious death occurred in 1938 when Johnson was just 27 years old.
One of a number of Mississippi Blues Trail markers throughout the Mississippi Delta and elsewhere in the State of Mississippi.
Little Zion M. B. Church and Cemetery, where Robert Johnson is believed to be buried. The cemetery is located to the left of the church and is shaded by a number of large, old trees. Johnson's grave is near the back of the cemetery, under one of the largest pecan trees growing there.
The grave stone that marks the grave of Robert L. Johnson, Delta Blues Musician, is pictured above. Followers who visit Johnson's grave often leave flowers and other items to show their devotion to the man and the music that he left behind.
A close-up of Robert Johnson's grave marker that includes a fascimile of words allegedly written by Johnson shortly before his untimely death in 1928. We left the cemetery and headed for Tallahatchie Flats, an interesting new overnight venue near Greenwood. The gravel road that turns off the main highway is marked by a simple black mailbox held up by part of a plow. The name "Tallahatchie Flats" was on the mailbox, so we knew our destination was not far away. Although the actual address does not appear on the mailbox, the physical location of Tallahatchie Flats is 58458 County Road 518, Greenwood, Mississippi 38930.
Situated only a few yards from the mailbox is a large sign, visible from the main roadway, that assured us we were headed in the right direction.
As we continued to travel down the gravel road marked by the mailbox and the sign, we saw yet another sign, this one made out of old-fashioned tin, that guided us around a curve in the
road on the way to Tallahatchie Flats.
As we rounded the curve, we saw a cluster of seven sharecropper cabins that told us we had arrived at our destination. According to Steve Lavere and George Vasquez back at the museum in Greenwood, Tallahatchie Flats is made up of cabins that were moved from their original locations onto this tract of Delta farm land. The location is a short distance from Robert Johnson's place of rest and is used for overnight accomodations for visitors and festival goers from around the world, all wanting to experience the feel of life in the Mississippi Delta. The unpainted and weathered cypress exteriors of the cabins remain unchanged, but the interiors have been "modernized" with heat and air and "indoor plumbing," working appliances, and such, and each cabin has been decorated with furnishings reminiscent of the early-mid 1900s.
Individual cabins have been assigned names that are painted on a wooden marker above each
front door, including such names as "Red House" and "Tush Hog."
Pictured above is the larger of the two types of cabins that make up Tallahatchie Flats. This particular one has two exterior doors. Seen in the foreground of the cabin, just to the left of the walkway, is an in-ground pump once used to pump water for cooking and for baths.
Old-fashioned chairs sit on the front porch of this cabin, just waiting for the weary traveler to sit and watch the Delta sun set over endless flat rows of crops such as milo, soybeans, and cotton. A metal washtub is seen hanging on the left side of the cabin was used for many things, including laundry and baths.
Although this rental cabin now has a working stove inside, an antique one sits on the front porch as a reminder of the value of a wood stove. The stove was used not only for cooking, but it was used for heating the house in the winter and for warming bath water pumped by hand from an outside pump and carried into the house. Since electricity and gas were unheard of in most parts of the rural Mississippi Delta until the 1950s, kerosene or " coal oil" lamps were
used for lighting.
An iron wash pot and an old wringer washing machine, sitting on the porch of the cabin above, are remnants of a time gone by when laundry day really was an all-day chore. And that didn't include the time it took to hang all the laundry outside to dry. When clothes lines were not available, wet laundry was often hung on whatever was available, including the fence or porch rails.
The rural store pictured above, also made out of rough cypress lumber, looks just as it may have back in the 1940s. A "Royal Crown Cola" sign can be seen above the steps of the store, a reminder of the many cold soft drinks, all in bottles, that were sold at stores everywhere, even the Mississippi Delta, in years gone by. The only thing missing in this picture are the people who often lingered on the porch or the steps to drink RC, Grapette, Coca-Cola, or Big Red, at the end of a long, hot summer day.
For more information about festivals in or near Greenwood, including Rhythm on the River and Tallahatchie Flats Summer Music Festival, click here.
To visit the website for Tallahatchie Flats, click here or contact Les Shanks at 662.453.1854.
Next Stop: B. B. King Museum, Indianola, Mississippi
Source: All photos are from the Digital Photograph Collection (2009), privately held by Janice Tracy
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Greenwood Blues Heritage Museum and Gallery, Greenwood, Mississippi
The next stop on our Delta Tour was the Greenwood Blues Heritage Museum and Gallery, located in the building in the photo above. If you are unfamiliar with Robert Johnson, he is the Delta Blues musician who allegedly "sold his soul to the devil" in order to become the greatest guitar man ever at what is now the intersection of U. S. Highways 49 and 61 known as the "crossroads." Robert Johnson's life and music career ended early, at the age of 27, allegedly under mysterious circumstances at Three Forks, a store and club near Greenwood.
The first floor of this beautifully renovated building houses the Blue Parrot Cafe and Veronica's Bakery. The restaurant had been on our list for dinner on Monday evening, but we were disappointed to find out that it was closed on the only evening we were in town. We did buy chocolate chip cookies from the glass case of goodies at Veronica's Bakery to take with us when we left Greenwood. The only word for the cookies - divine!
On the second floor is the museum and gallery, accessed by a single flight of stairs.
In addition to green historic markers that are posted along Mississippi's highways and byways, a new set of markers, blue in color, now mark places that are significant in the state's Blues History. The marker pictured above is one of the new markers and can be seen outside the building above.
Those who participated in the renovation of this three-story brick building in Greenwood's Historic Downtown District are memorialized on this plaque outside the building.
As we ascended the stairs, we knew we were at the right place when we saw this poster of the King of the Blues, Robert Johnson.
Once we reached the second floor, we were cordially greeted by George Vasquez, Steve Lavere's son. George's friendly smile and his knowledge of his father's thirty-something years collection of Robert Johnson records and memorabilia made our visit to the museum a very pleasant one. As he gave us a personal tour of the museum, he answered all of our questions with the ultimate in expertise and patience. Although George is a Californian who moved to Greenwood specifically to work with his father in getting this important blues museum established, we immediately decided that he is also a "Southern Gentleman." Thanks, George!
Memorabilia housed in glass showcases line the walls of the museum. Interestingly, these antique wooden glass cases and storage drawers were once part of an old drug store in Greenwood and now add to the uniqueness of this extensive collection of records, books, and other memorabilia.
Although the contents of this one-of-a-kind museum are the personal collection of Steve Lavere, there are a few new items for purchase in the small museum "store" area.
As we were about to leave the museum, Robert Johnson's loyal and longtime fan, Steve Lavere, "the man behind the museum," appeared at the head of the stairs. With the permission of both Steve and George, I snapped this final picture of them with another fan of Robert Johnson, my husband, who is standing in the middle. With Veronica's cookies in hand, we left the Robert Johnson Museum headed to check out a new venture described by George and Steve as "Tallahatchie Flats."
Source: Photos are part of a Digital Collection (2009), privately owned by Janice Tracy
Next Stop: A Pictorial Visit of Tallahatchie Flats
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