Country Roads

WHEN? Wednesday · February 20 (today's first post)

WHERE? Rural South Mississippi · find us on the map

Making our way northward from the Gulf Coast, we traveled along South Mississippi's rural roads around Wiggins, Brooklyn, and Carnes, in the area where Wendell's maternal grandparents lived.

Sights along the way:

A FEMA Staging Area with so many abandoned Katrina trailers that I couldn't even estimate how many. Since the site's entrance signs discouraged visitors, we didn't stop to investigate.

A horse-and-buggy SHARE THE ROAD sign similar to those we encountered in Kansas last April. We never did see a buggy.

Mississippi celebrity storyteller* Walt Grayson is as kind as he is knowledgeable — and even answers his own emails. Realizing that he's probably covered this territory, I asked him if this area of the state is home to any Amish families. In his classic style, Walt promptly responded to my question – and then some:

"A family of German Baptists lives out that way. They have similar beliefs as the Amish. No electricity, no telephone, no cars. I guess gas prices don't bother them. But they don't get far from home that way.

Actually, one of the daughters is a world traveler. Takes flights all over from what I understand. I just don't know for sure how she gets back and forth from the airport."

Not Amish, but Amish-ish. Walt's intriguing explanation encouraged me to poke around on the Internet a bit more, where I ...

• Learned more about the Old Order of German Baptist Brethren
• Stumbled upon some charming National Geographic video coverage of the German Baptist community in neighboring Hot Coffee
• Discovered a 5-step explanation on How to Share the Road with Horse Buggies

*So much more than a storyteller, Walt Grayson is well-known around Mississippi and the Mid-South for a number of reasons:

• Host of Look Around Mississippi on Jackson's WLBT
• Host of Mississippi public television's Mississippi Roads
• Author of Today in Mississippi's excellent monthly column, Mississippi Seen, as well as a number of books.
• Stays in demand for speaking engagements statewide. I was fortunate enough to attend a 1990's mortgage bankers seminar at which Walt was the guest speaker.
• An ordained minister: Metro Christian Living's January 2007 issue included an excellent feature on Walt, The Storyteller Tells His Story.