Changes come to Cleveland during the month of May. Once the semester ends at Delta State most of the students leave and the town more or less goes into hibernation. There is actually a noticeable drop in traffic around here from May through August. At the same time, most of my faculty friends will be…
Last week something special happened. I traveled to Anaheim, California for Star Wars Celebration. Some of you might a little surprised to read that, but yes I am a huge fan. Mark Hamill calls us the Ultra Passionate Fans and the term definitely applies to me as you shall see below. First a bit of…
Last time I wrote about how isolated Cleveland, Mississippi is and how odd and unambitious many of its people are. Paradoxically one of the great things about living here is the community. Unlike most Delta towns, Cleveland attracts a substantial number of transplants. Most come here to teach at Delta State, though Baxter, Faurecia,…
One of the first things I noticed about the Delta was how isolated it is. The nearest large city, Memphis, is over 100 miles away. It is also here that ones finds the closest national airport. The only chain stores around are Kroger, Walmart, and various fast food resturants. Even the major internet service…
Last week something unusual happened. It snowed in Cleveland. By snow, I mean white stuff fell from the sky, reached the ground, and stayed there. Such an event is rare. A colleague said we haven’t had accumulating snow for 8 years. So I made a point to appreciate the day. Needless to say, Delta State…
All photos courtesy of Nathan Schiff unless otherwise noted. Courtesy of Emily Jones Recently I had a very unique and rewarding opportunity courtesy of the Delta State University Archives. It was called “Dim Sum and Then Some”. As the name implies, there was food. More specifically, about 30 of us traveled to the Asian Palace…
The Atlantic recently ran an article about the Delta. Titled “How White Flight Ravaged the Mississippi Delta” it chronicles how the out migration of affluent white residents has hurt the region. The tl;dr version is: a lot. Driving through the Delta feels like stepping back in time. This part of the country feels frozen in…
A few weeks ago there was an interesting op-ed from the Advocate titled “No, the South Isn’t a ‘New Frontier’ for LGBT Rights”. The authors points out that there are plenty of people already fighting for those rights, but they don’t make the news (although the Campaign for Southern Equality did so last week) ….
Social life down here tends to go as follows. There will be long periods of little activity. Then all of a sudden there’s an event or two and the whole town comes out. One of those happened last week. On Thursday the Chamber of Commerce held the first ever Cleveland Bites Food Festival. It attracted…
This past week I was at the Mississippi Library Association conference. While my main purpose in going was to present a poster it was nice to see friends both new and old. It was also a chance to revisit a city I’d been to only briefly over Memorial Day weekend 2013. You might remember the…