We were up and about early today, but took our time getting ready. The breakfast offering was all but empty at 8am, but we picked up fruit, water and a yoghurt. The Delta Blues Museum didn’t open until 10am and not too far to travel. The first stop of the day was to take a picture of The Crossroads which is in an area of extreme poverty. One man shuffled towards Matt, and then hovered near the car so I chatted to him and gave him enough dollars for food. He was older and clearly vulnerable and there were many others like him.
Our navigation tool TomTom failed to find the museum, so we fired up Google maps and our new mobile wifi which located it after a couple of wrong turns. The building was again in a deprived area surrounded by smashed up buildings. Many dogs were exploring freely in the road, with men sitting in doorways and waving to passing cars. Distinctive in this state is that with every interaction we have, the women are referred to as “mam”, yes mam, thank you mam.
Similar to St Louis, a street separated both extremes within the community. When taking local pictures a van filled the air with a loud, deep base of a song which penetrated solid objects. We heard it long before the van made an appearance.
The Delta Blues museum itself was great, but we were unable to take photos. I made a few notes to refer to in this blog and many of their stories were poignant.
I now know that a Mandika Kora has a harp like sound.
A Blues Singer called Sam Chatmon lived just east of Vickburg (where we are staying this evening). His father was a fiddler, an ex-slave who lived until he was 105.
Robert Johnson has three headstones in three different locations across Mississippi, He was reportedly poisoned at the Three Forks Store.
Koko Taylor (originally Cora Walton) lived from 1928 to 2009 and a great Blues singer. She was inspired to change her name from her love of chocolate and the stages she performed at.
Bessie Smith was paid 37.50 dollars for her Okeh records and died in poverty without a headstone until Janis Joplin and Bessie’s friend Juanita Green purchased one for her in 1970.
Doris Carr was a talented Blues performer, singing in her husband’s band until he forced her to stop as he didn’t like the way other men looked at her.
We read about many Blues singers or bands, too many to list here, but many stood out such as BB King, Misty Blue and Muddy Waters.
We saw a lovely sign which read: The Blues had a baby, and they named their child Rock & Roll.
We then had a long journey to the hotel, but stopped for a library and caught up on world events via wifi. We passed cotton fields with controlled burning.
As I am writing this, we are watching a programme of “Finding Bigfoot” on Animal Planet. We are living in a different world.
