Mississippi Delta - grace grits and gardening

Whirlwind Trip to the Farm

May 5, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Two weeks ago, John, my sister and I made a whirlwind trip back home to the farm. It was John’s first time back in years, and if he were the type to post comments on my blog, I know he would back me up on this—he was fully entertained and slightly amazed at all the things we managed to cram pack into three days.

After a delayed flight, a drive from Little Rock plagued with typical I-40 road construction and severe thunderstorms, we picked John up at the Trolley Stop Market in Memphis (long story) and headed straight to the Riverlawn Country Club in Osceola where everyone truly knows your name. The Bat (my mother) was already entertaining people in the bar. Ahhhh, the familiarity of home. We even stumbled into what was left of a wine tasting. Bonus: Although massive storms moved through, the Bat Cave maintained power. A rarity.

Friday morning began with a trip to Newcomb’s in Osceola because what’s a trip home without a visit to Newcomb’s? Incomplete. When we were kids, Newcomb’s was a drugstore and gift shop rolled into one. Although the drugstore part is gone, I can still hear druggist Jimmy Lynch teasing my sister and me, “Girls, I talked to Papa Creecy today, and he said to buy whatever you want. Just charge it to him.” Bonus: While there, I bought a really cute shirt and saw Mrs. Byford, my Rivercrest Accounting teacher who somehow looks even younger now.

After a quick visit inside the Mississippi County Museum in Osceola and a chat with photographic artist Jason Stark at Osceola Printing (check out his amazing photography on Facebook), we headed to Dyess for the Johnny Cash VIP Tour (read more here if you haven’t already). Bonus: Saw old friends, met new ones including members of the Cash family, ate incredible fried chicken courtesy of Whitton Farms.

Saturday morning began with an early morning hike around the rice field, which will actually be planted in soybeans this year, crop rotation and all… After exploring Wildwood Antiques in Etowah (what an intense, amazing collection in the middle of the Delta), we headed to lunch at Wilson Cafe with high school friends.

The oyster bisque was extraordinary. As was the Nice Salad (I love that name) and the Donut Bread Pudding (we shared).

And check out these Billy Moore Folk Art paintings on display at the cafe. We bought the middle one!

After a tour of our friends’ country house (yes, we invited ourselves over because it’s okay to do that back home), we managed to watch the Dallas Mavericks game at the Bat Cave. (Television watching at the Bat Cave is always tricky…) Then it was over for cocktails, appetizers and an overall fun evening with my college friend Craig F. and his wife Beth who recently renovated his grandmother’s home in Osceola. Let met just say, southerners know how to pull together an impromptu spread. Bonus: Their home is amazing, and they promised us first right of refusal if they move back to Memphis. John may be a bit concerned about this.

Somewhere in all that we managed to go back to the country club—Friday night I think? Bonus: When our server discovered he was out of Momma’s favorite pink wine, he drove into town to buy more for her. That doesn’t happen in Dallas.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Cheers Theme Song

I was dying to be back in the South, where the livin’ was easy, where the fish were jumpin’, where the cotton grew high.”
― Johnny Cash

a look inside: Johnny Cash Boyhood Home

April 28, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

I’m practically related to Johnny Cash. Not really, but sometimes it feels that way. In the 1970s when Daddy bought the farmland next to the Cash home place in Dyess, Arkansas, we became connected. Instantly. It doesn’t matter that we were never properly introduced or that the Cash family had already sold their land. The soil has a way of connecting people. Like blood.

I think Johnny Cash would agree.

When Dr. Ruth Hawkins and Arkansas State approached Momma about donating or selling a portion of our land to the Johnny Cash restoration project for parking and whatnot, we hem and hawed around wondering, what would Daddy do? Then we decided to donate it anyway. It just felt right.

Johnny Cash Boyhood Home

That donation scored us an invite to the VIP Inspection Tour last Friday, a sort of preview before the August grand opening. (Really Momma was invited, and the rest of us tagged along as her entourage per usual.)

The impressive affair began as it should with an old-fashioned southern picnic—fried chicken, mashed potatoes, collards, black-eyed peas, cornbread, peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream. The fabulous StillBillys, a rockabilly band from Northeast Arkansas, set the tone with music from Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, and of course Johnny Cash.

Picnic lunch provided by Whitton Farms and Tyboogie’s Cafe

The Dyess Administration Building, which by the way strikes an uncanny resemblance to Elvis’ Graceland, has been beautifully transformed into a first-class museum detailing the settling of Dyess Colony under the Works Progress Administration. Oral histories, photo displays and original artifacts profile the acute struggles borne by families who paved the way for us.

Dyess Colony Administration Building

A whole slew of Cash family members attended this shindig, traveling from Tennessee and beyond, including Cash’s youngest daughter, Tara, and siblings Tommy and Joanne who were born in Dyess and lived in the house. Addressing the crowd, they cracked jokes and shared memories. In short, they were down to earth and grateful for the transformation and preservation of their home place.

Really, they seemed like regular Mississippi County folks. And they traveled in grand style too.

Joanne Cash Yates (motorcycle) and other Cash family (pickup).

But now for the highlight of the day…Johnny Cash’s boyhood home has been restored and furnished with period pieces, some donated by the Cash family, others donated by area friends.

Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, Kitchen

Although I’ve been down the gravel road and seen the house too many times to count, I sensed a difference on this special day of commemoration. The very land felt hallowed—not only because Johnny Cash came from such a simple place, but because anyone survived such hardship wrought by the Great Depression and flood of 1937.

Walking through the cramped hallway, I sensed the loss of a time when modest spaces were filled with large, close-knit families who struggled and celebrated together. Working. Sleeping. Eating. Praying. And in the case of the Cash family, making music.

Johnny Cash’s bedroom

Gazing out the window across delta gumbo, the same delta gumbo Johnny Cash longed to escape, I understood the source of his music. The brutal, raw honesty of the land is what inspires me to write.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

At a very early age…I was very aware I was part of nature—that I sprang from the soil. – Johnny Cash

How High is the Water Mama – Johnny Cash

Grand Opening for this Arkansas State University Heritage Site is scheduled for August 16, 2014. The site will be open on a limited basis and by appointment for group tours beginning in late April 2014. Click HERE for additional information or phone 870-972-2803.

Wilson, Arkansas

February 3, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

I’ll admit it. When the Wilson family sold out to Gaylon Lawrence Sr. and Jr. in 2011, I was skeptical. And worried. Lee Wilson & Company was as much a fixture in our little corner of Northeast Arkansas as the Mississippi River. Before my Daddy started farming, he worked as an accountant for Lee Wilson & Company. We lived in Wilson, Arkansas on tree-shaded Washington Street.

How could a total stranger just waltz in and buy up one of our towns? Our cutest town. The town where my high school team played football on Friday nights while I cheered from the sidelines.

Well it happened alright to the tune of $150 million. And so far, from what I’ve seen (and I’ve seen the chocolate chess pie at the Wilson Cafe) the change is a very tasty thing.

The Wilson Cafe (at the former Tavern location which still holds a sweet spot in my heart) is serving up marvelous homestyle food like 3-inch thick meatloaf smothered in cream gravy with sweet potato pie for dessert. And it isn’t just the food that has me blogging. The entire experience was a treat—clean, understated decor, walls lined with original paintings from local artist Norwood Creech, attentive wait staff willing to move us three times as our group continued to grow… Really, for a moment, I forgot I was home in the Delta.

Over one hundred years ago, Robert E. Lee Wilson created a vast empire from Mississippi Delta swampland. The effects of his vision have been far-reaching, affecting the entire region and country, affecting me. Change is often unsettling and difficult, yet Lawrence appears to be enhancing Mr. Wilson’s original vision, breathing life back into the charming town. And he’s only just begun. Additional plans including a private charter school and relocation of the Hampson Archeological Museum which houses a huge collection of pre-Columbian artifacts.

For the first time in a long time, Wilson is attracting first-time visitors, but perhaps more importantly, Wilson is bringing people back home.