JJ’s and Sarah’s Table Miles 7855-7930 October 1

Holly Springs, Mississippi Miles 7945-7985 October 3-5

Brian, Bobbie and I have driven to Holly Springs, Mississippi so Bobbie and I can meet Leanne’s parents. Leanne and her three children came to Liberty a few months ago to meet us. We all fell in love. Brian and Leann plan to get married this coming June and move to Missouri. Bobbie and I can’t believe our good fortune. We will have all three of our children living nearby. Already we have son-in-law, Ed, and granddaughter, Laura. Soon we will have daughter-in-law, Leanne, and grandchildren, Jennifer, John and Anne. Now Bobbie and I have come to Holly Springs to meet Ed and Joanne Bounds, Leanne’s parents. We want to be sure that they are comfortable with their daughter and grand children moving away.

Holly Springs is the county seat of Marshall County, Mississippi. Buford Furniture Store is in the middle of the block on the east side of the town square and looks out at the clock tower atop the courthouse. Buford Furniture was started by Joanne’s grandfather. Joanne and Ed (Joanne calls him Sonny.) met when they both were students at Ole Miss in Oxford, Ed’s hometown, just 30 miles east of Holly Springs. They have owned and operated the store now for years.

A comfortable and welcoming spot is the store. Townspeople come in to sit and talk. The grandkids come and go many times a day and see their grandparents regularly. In our three days in Holly Springs, Bobbie, Brian and I adopt the same routine and feel right at home.

City Café sits on the southeast corner of the town square at South Market and Vandorn streets. Vandorn runs in front of City Café. A sign on the front door reads: The Only Two Places to Eat THE CITY CAFÉ and Home.

I take the first booth just inside the door and sit facing the street. Ed told me I should order biscuits and gravy, with ham and grits. As I’m eating, someone in the booth behind me asks, “Where you ridin’ today?” I have propped my bike on the sidewalk by the front door. I turn and meet Patrick Casey and four year old Zachary. “Not far. We’re here visiting for a few days.”

We get to talking. Patrick’s father-in-law rode the MS-150 in Tupelo recently. Patrick’s wife is expecting a little sister for Zachary. “She may be here this weekend,” Patrick says. Zachary says, “Her name is Autumn.”

A granite monument stands on the courthouse lawn across the street, an American flag on a pole just behind the monument. South Market Street is wide as a football field where it runs between the courthouse and the businesses that line the street east of the square, Buford Furniture being one of them. Cars park diagonally on both sides of the street and also in the middle. A horizontal line of cars also park in the middle of the street. The Buford Furniture delivery truck is parked here.

Booker Hardware is a couple of doors down from Buford Furniture. Booker’s window is filled with assorted ancient implements and antiquated devices that draw attention and invite inspection but find little modern use. The window works its magic on Bobbie and me, and we step inside. Boggess Hardware lives. It has been transplanted from Liberty to Holly Springs. The long shotgun building has the same wooden floor and tin ceiling. The same cluttered counters. The same wooden drawers along the wall. The same eclectic assortment of all imaginable devices and dodads. And you can buy just one of anything. And staffed by two or three people who know where everything is and how everything works.

This town of 10,000 is about 30 miles east of Memphis, Tennessee. Many of the buildings facing the square are painted in yellows and blues and browns. In front of every building American flags on metal poles hang at about a 20-degree angle toward the street, interspersed here and there with a Mississippi flag.

Every morning when he opens at eight o’clock, Ed Bounds puts a rocking chair on the red brick sidewalk to either side of his store’s front door. Passers by can sit and rock for a spell. More gracious people than Ed and Joanne are hard to find. The whole town is this way. Everywhere we go people speak to us. Eyes meet. Smiles come easily. Body language is relaxed. Comfort and ease abound.

The wide brick sidewalk passes in front of all businesses on all four sides of the town square. The sidewalk is covered and the cover supported about every 10 feet by black metal beams some 12 feet tall with wrought iron lattice work running along the top. From each beam hangs an American flag. Big flower pots filled with beautiful flowers sit at the base of each support beam.

Catfish and frog legs are the specialty at the restaurant in Red Bank, a few miles from Holly Springs, where Ed and Joanne take us all to dinner Saturday night. Then for Sunday lunch, Leanne drives us to a soul food oasis just off the town square. A two-hour stop at Graceland Too is followed by a lasagna dinner Leanne cooks for us at her parent’s house.

Over dinner we have ample opportunity to regale those who missed Graceland Too with tales of a man possessed and a house that defies description. Blue Christmas trees and gold lions sit in front of the house. Open 24-7, any number of people may appear at any hour for a tour. We ring the bell. The door opens. Elvis is everywhere. Floors, walls and ceilings. Up the stairs. Overhead. Under foot. And our guide, the man who built this Elvis shrine, mumbles nonstop about millions and billions of dollars and famous people who have come and are on their way. “I gave my wife a million dollars to leave so I could be alone with Elvis. I named my son Elvis Aaron Presley McCloud. I was alone with Elvis in his crypt.” Interspersed with these are other outrageous comments.

Applying a mutant model of the five degrees of separation paradigm, McCloud tells us, “Elvis is connected to everybody and everything.” He then invites us to name a person, place or thing so he can demonstrate the Elvis connection. None of us chooses to participate in his delirium. We cut him short after two hours and hurry to the car and erupt in spasms of uncontrollable laughter.

I ride a little each day. Not much, though. I want to spend as much time as possible with these dear people. Leanne drives us to Oxford for a look around Ole Miss Saturday afternoon. Before leaving Holly Springs we stop by Phillip’s Grocery to sample their famous hamburgers. Friday afternoon we go to the pep rally at Marshall Academy, the school Jennifer, John and Anne attend. Friday night we all go to Marshall Academy’s football game with West Memphis Christian so we can see John play. We rendezvous at the store in our coming and going to all these places.

We leave for home Monday morning. Reluctant to leave. Glad we came. Anxious to be home. Wanting to come again. “Dear hearts and gentle people.” I can’t remember the rest of that song, but these words come to mind as I’m thinking about our visit to Holly Springs and Buford’s Furniture Store.