Carthage

The theater is just a shell of what it had been.

Could this be the house my father rented for

$10.00 a month?

After 50 plus years much had changed in the small town of Carthage, Mississippi. I lived there with my folks when I was 7 years old. After our stay in New Orleans, we traveled to Carthage by way of Baton Rouge, Natchez and Vicksburg. What an exciting, fun and eventful ride. The years had changed the area around Carthage to some extent but I found my memory of the town was somewhat intact.

The town, like a lot of small southern communities, is built around the court house. The streets surround the court house with businesses and buildings lining all sides. Driving into the center of town immediately brought back the memories of when my folks would take me into town

The movie theatre is now just a shell of a building; I can remember seeing a poster out in front of a cowboy movie of that time period which was being featured. The Ben Franklin 5 and dime is gone and the Piggly Wiggly grocery store has moved two blocks away.

The Carthaginian, the weekly newspaper, is still printed in the same building and next to it I remember the optometrist's office where I received my first pair of reading glasses when I was seven.

It was raining, and although it was a Saturday afternoon, we were the only people on the square. I remember the square as always busy with traffic and people.

The drive down North Pearl street allowed me to locate the site where my Uncle Bill and Aunt Lois McMillan lived. I know the house was destroyed by fire after their deaths, but I did find where it was located.

We found the site near where my father rented the house for $10.00 a month. A dilapidated structure could possibly have been that house.

I could not locate the house in the pasture behind the pond. The pond more than likely had been filled in and the house gone.

What I noticed was that where there were houses in isolated pastures and farms there were now homes built closer together, as they are almost everywhere.

I'm surprised the Piggly Wiggly survives. On the road into Carthage, we saw a Wal Mart. I can only believe that the stubborn resolve that is so prevalent in the South to maintain tradition is the very thing that maintains the grocery store.

I realize there is probably a need for the big box stores, it is a shame that these same stores have brought about such a dramatic change in our rich traditional past. Very sad.

We couldn't stay long and even if we had had the time to explore the rural areas, the roads that crisscross the farm land make travel so confusing, I don't know that I could even find the old farm stead or any of the places in which we lived.

The grammar school is moved and I'm sure the town has become a bedroom community for Jackson, 40 miles to the south, but is was a treat to be able to return there, if only for a very short time.