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As kids, we used to go hang out in front of the tour homes and tell the tourists that we were "moss hangers." Yep, we'd tell them we were paid to hang the moss up in the trees!
Gary Walker
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Natchez… I will always remember the oak trees all around the mansions.
The friends… some around others gone, but all unforgettable. We thought things would always be the same there in our spot far from the great big world. The Eola Hotel, Tops Grill, Sears on Main Street, McCroreys, News and Novelties, Burns shoe store, Benoit Bros, Ullmans, the Clark, The Baker Grand, Red Balls, The Super Store, Kents, S H Kress, The Natchez Democrat, Rebel Barber shop, Stevens, Home Bakery and on and on. All of these places hold memories.
The high school dances on the Eola roof. The late nights after the football games at the Eola Grill. The baseball games in Duncan Park and Liberty Park. Mrs. Clinton at Braden Elementary and the Veterans Poppies she had us go out and sell. Coach Red Owens, Coach Zizi and his hickory paddle famous at Martin, Miss Cox and the Wizard of Oz (I was the Tin Man).
Marches, riots, bombings, murders, boycotts, tension, hatred, racism, burnings, we saw all of these things before they became commonplace around the world. The 1960's saw change of many ideas in our little corner of the world. These memories are vivid in my mind, but cloudy.
Things change and when you make those trips to the home of your childhood it seems that you always search for something you just can't find. Like being thirsty and you can never get enough to drink. Is it the people no longer there? Is it that you have changed? It's all in your memories of long ago it's never as good as you remember it! Oh nothing can compete with fond memories and no one can take them away.
Paul Nosser
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I guess Natchez has to change, with age, as we all do, but I will never forget the good times at South Natchez when my friends and I would sit in front of the school during lunch and stare at the old, pretty white house across the street and the beautiful oak trees in their yard. We would share stories about what it was like to live there and how pretty their yard was, especially in the springtime. If you look at the new Super Wal-Mart now, you will notice ONE untouched tree with a bench. Wouldn't we look strange sitting on that bench in the parking lot remembering the OLD DAYS...(Has anyone been seen sitting there)?
What a shame....
Tammy (Kelly) Wroten
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I have been away from Natchez for over thirty years now, living in the snowy north. But memories always linger. Sometimes I can grasp the essence of the cool fall ground, under the magnolias. I can hear the river, the boats, and see the Christmas decorations waving across Main Street on a rainy night.
Natchez seems to be a place of which novels are made, a place of eccentric characters who failed to hide family secrets in closets. Those characters remain inviting and gracious. Sometimes I think of the genteel spirit of the south, with longing.
My neighbor, my friends, and my schools shaped my attitudes and beliefs and grounded me. But isn't that what any childhood place does? I think so. But then the memories of the river, the magnolias, the oaks, the juke joints, the cemeteries, the houses, the characters, the smells (including IP), the theaters, the restaurants, the Pilgrimage, the Christmas parades, the church spires, and the people - all a little unique, possessing a gravitational pull that says, "This is where you belong. This is where the heart lingers."
I then remember that one cannot go home again and that what was once is no more. The essence remains, and of that I am happy.
Joe G
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I graduated from Natchez High School on Homochitto, class of 1959. Ms. Grace Livingston was our class sponsor. I remember Sing-Song (days are here again). The winner of sing-song was given a banner. At the last moment, when the banner was to be presented to the winner, someone would come on the stage and announce that the banner had been stolen by (i.e. the juniors). Then, someone would come shouting on stage with the banner. I remember that Mrs. Strahan kept a perfectly quiet study hall in the auditorium...200 or so kids...It was quiet because Mrs. Strahan made Walter Ketchings, Hudson Chadwick, and Holty Warren sit up from next to her desk. Mr. John Jenkins was the band director, and Coach Van Steward ran the football team. Margaret Martin and Mr. Obie Brown are the principals I remember most.
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In a place where history matters.... Ain't it funny how little folks care about the past? Check out the pictures Old Times There Are Not Forgotten and Gone But Not Forgotten. What a loss...
Sometimes it was nice to just go sit in the stadium stands and look at the field. Perry Lee Dun, Clyde Adams, Red Owens, Tony Byrne, Robert Dearing, just a few names that echo through the tunnel. The Band, The Rebelettes -- The sound of Go Go Go Rebs Go and the drum cadence. The voice of The Rebels Billy Priester.... A place of memory.... A first date, a homecoming - a place gone with the wind.
Larry Bass
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