It was 88 degrees and humid. Folks were eating fried catfish and hushpuppies and listening to bluesman Terry "Big T" Williams sing about the delta, while the Governor of Mississippi greeted old friends. Just another day in park - New York City's Central Park.
Like every Mississippi governor since 1979, Haley Barbour showed up Saturday for the annual New York Mississippi Picnic in Central Park. The event was established 26 years ago by Rachel McPherson after she moved to New York for graduate school from Monticello, Miss. . .
McPherson, who also founded the New York Society for the Preservation of Mississippi heritage, says has 5,350 Mississippians with New York City addresses on her mailing list.
Link.
It's a nice story, but it's more evidence that our country's regions are getting watered down into a homogeneous whole. That's sad. Of all people, we would have thought Mississippians were among the most rooted in our country. One picnic a year can't repair the intangible damages.
