Jackson, Mississippi has a population of almost 150,000 people, and I saw none of them today. That’s an exaggeration, but only just. The streets were as empty as the ghost towns in Utah and Texas. I walked around downtown for about an hour and only saw three or four other pedestrians. Occasionally, a car would drive by. For the most part, Jackson is silent.
I would guess the pandemic hit the town especially hard, and I’ve read inflation is especially high in the South as well. The boarded-up buildings and closed businesses are not ancient remnants—they seem fairly recent occurrences. It’s not unpleasant here; I don’t feel unsafe like I did in parts of Washington and Oregon, or unhealthy like I did in northwestern Arkansas. It doesn’t feel soulless or condemned. It feels empty, like a shed snakeskin. There’s potential here, and nobody around to fulfill it.
The first two restaurants I tried were closed. The third stretched the definition of a restaurant. The outdoor seating was normal, but inside were a row of folding chairs, a trash can, newspaper clippings on the wall, and two windows into the kitchen. The walls were painted orange, and a floor-to-ceiling window looked out into a parking garage. It felt like the waiting room at an oil change shop. The catfish plate, which I took back to the hotel, was just fine, but I will remember that restaurant forever.
The weather is warming up, so this may be my last night in a hotel for a while. I’ll enjoy the sheets and the shower, if not the expense. I’ll see you in Louisiana.
Amazing, what you found in Jackson. Jeff and I drove across the state once on our way to NM, but did not stop. Your description of the restaurant is so sad, combined with the rest of what you wrote about Jackson. Sounds dreadfully lonely. There is a lot of poverty in the south, and especially in Mississippi. I think you will find more energy in Louisiana. We stopped there once on our way home from NM, at a Texas Roadhouse in Shreveport. Noisy but good food. Sat at the bar because otherwise there was a wait for a table. We made the mistake of parking under a tree in the parking lot and found the car covered with bird poop when we went back to it. it was so bad we had to go looking for a car wash. Love, Grandma
Maybe one reason Jackson seems so deserted is the ongoing water crisis in the city caused by antiquated plumbing and sewage disposal, the floods last summer and fall, lack of EPA inspectors, political paralysis, etc. etc. etc.
If you suspect that Mississippi Republicans got that way because there’s “something in the water,” you’re probably right. If Jackson seems deserted to you, one cause is probably a lack of potable water. It’s somewhere where “… even the dead are dying of thirst.”