2018 Dec 15, Leipers Fork Christmas Parade Leipers Fork, Tennessee

Hubby and I rode to Leipers Fork to attend the Christmas Parade, it was one of the biggest crowds I had ever seen.

The crowd at Leipers Fork Parade 

John Snider(Bo Duke) from Dukes of Hazzard was the Grand Marshal. John rode atop a replica of the Bright Orange General Lee #1 from the Dukes of Hazzard Show (1979-85).
Followed by the Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane's Police Car.

John Snider Grand Marshal 

Kid Rock came riding in a White Car that had a bull horn on the front grill, packing guns on both sides of the car. The backside on the tire covering was Hank Jr. Kick Rocks & Michigan Plates 64 Nudie. With shotgun, horses, and horseshoes on the trunk, fenders, and bumper.
The kid was dressed in White trimmed in gold wearing a black hat drinking a Coolers Light beer.
The guy from American Pickers came riding in the parade in a Polaris Jeep.

Kid Rock and his granddaughter

We saw a Grinch 

Cindy Lou-Who 

Santa Clause in his sleigh with Reindeer 

Hubby and I stopped at Jack's Restaurant in Lawrenceburg for breakfast. I ordered a sausage and cheese biscuit.
Hubby ordered a big breakfast.
We arrived at Leipers Fork around 11:00 AM set up our chairs and walked around taking pictures and talking to local shop owners.

Christmas Ball hanging from the ceiling at one of the local stores also in the attic area was a Manger Scene 

People already had a chair set up in front of Pucketts Grocery a local restaurant 

fireplace a warm cozy spot 

Cowboy boot Sign

There were several portlets set up but not near enough for the crowd.
Where we sat were a couple of firepits with marshmallows and gram crackers to make smores.
It was nice to sit by the fire it was an overcast day with temperatures around 50+ degrees with some sun.
At the portlets, I met a woman who was building a house in the Leipers Fork area. She said we have 2 dogs and 2 cats and they were renting in the Nashville area but were originally from Atlanta, GA.
I also met a woman wearing a Mad Hatter hat, she was covered in Christmas rope, bells, and balls.
She gave me and the woman next to me a bell. I tied my bell on my tennis shoe and everywhere I went I would hear bells, I forgot it was me that was ringing.
I met a family from near Dickson, TN, she said she was an artist and he was a landscaper (from Nashville until he married). They had two children and they had never been to the Leipers Fork Parade. I told them they were in for a treat. They were waiting to eat at a local restaurant and when the parade began they came and stood nearby. The man said after they ate that the kids rode horses in the fields and there they saw Kid Rock.
The little girl said she wanted one of the bears that were going to be thrown out during the parade. Both she and her brother caught two each.
They left after the bears were thrown out.
Hubby and I both made smores but they sure were messy. The parade began around 2:30PM  and lasted until about 4 or a little after the sun was setting and it was beginning to get dark. The cleanup crew began to clean up all the debris left from the parade and the crowd. Hubby and I sat by the fire pit as we watched a steady stream of cars leave the grass-filled parking area.
A young man stoked the fire and we warmed our hands and bodies.
A man with his daughter was warming up at the fire pit. We were talking about the Shoals area that we were from and the man said that he had a friend that played in a band that played at the Shoals Marriott.
We finally braved the traffic and began our travel home.
At 5:22 PM we stopped at Panda Express in Sring Hill.

End of the parade and the sun was setting 

We ordered broccoli and beef, honey walnut shrimp, orange chicken, chow mein, egg roll, and 3 creams cheese Rangoon.

We ordered broccoli and beef, honey walnut shrimp, orange chicken, chow mein, egg roll, and 3 creams cheese Rangoon.

At 7PM we stopped at Big Lots in Lawrenceburg for some bread and Archway gingerbread cookies.

(I love me some gingerbread cookies) we bought three bags and a bag of Archway gingersnaps. 

We were home around 7:30, took a hot shower, put on my pajamas, crawled into my warm bed, turned on the TV, and were asleep in no time.
Hubby had a great day, it was a little on the cool side, overcast, and the sun tried to sneak out a time or two. Saw John Snider, Kid Rock, and the guy from American Pickers. Made a few new friends, ate some good food, and had a safe trip home.

From Mississippi to Memphis Miss US 61 South Haven, MS

Bottom 

Miss US 61

From Mississippi to Memphis

The bright lights of Beale Street and the promise of musical stardom have lured blues musicians from nearby Mississippi since the early 1900s. Early Memphis blues luminaries who migrated from Mississippi include Gus Cannon, Furry Lewis, Jim Jackson, and Memphis Minnie. In the post-World War II era, many native Mississippians became blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll recording stars in Memphis, including Rufus Thomas, Junior Parker, B.B. King, and Elvis Presley.

B.B. King 

Elvis Presley 

From Mississippi to Memphis

From Mississippi to Memphis

Top 

Memphis blues was discovered by the rest of the world largely via the works of Beale Street-based bandleader W. C. Handy, who began using blues motifs in his compositions shortly after encountering the music in the Mississippi Delta around 1903. By the 1920s many musicians from Mississippi had relocated here to perform in local theaters, cafes, and parks. The mix of rural and urban musical traditions and songs from traveling minstrel and medicine shows led to the creation of new blues styles, and record companies set up temporary studios at the Peabody Hotel and other locations to capture the sounds of Mississippians who came to town to record, such as Tommy Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt, as well as some who had settled in Memphis, including Robert Wilkins, Jim Jackson, Gus Cannon, Memphis Minnie, and Joe McCoy.

In the decade following World War II musicians from around the Mid South descended upon Memphis, and their interactions resulted in the revolutionary new sounds of R&B and rock ’n’ roll. Riley King arrived from Indianola and soon became known as the “Beale Street Blues Boy,” later shortened to “B. B.” Many of King’s first performances were at talent shows at the Palace Theater, 324 Beale, co-hosted by Rufus Thomas, a native of Cayce, Mississippi, who, like King, later worked as a deejay at WDIA. King and Thomas were among the many Mississippi-born artists who recorded at Sam Phillips’s Memphis Recording Service, where Tupelo’s Elvis Presley made his historic first recordings for Phillips’s Sun label in 1954. The soul music era arrived with the Stax and Hi labels in the 1960s, and again many Mississippians were at the forefront: Stax’s roster included Little Milton, Albert King, Rufus Thomas, and Roebuck “Pops” Staples, while Hi producer and bandleader Willie Mitchell, a native of Ashland, oversaw recordings by soul and blues artists Otis Clay, Syl Johnson, Big Lucky Carter, Big Amos (Patton), and others with Mississippi roots.

WC Handy Statue on Beale St Memphis, TN 

The revitalization of Beale Street as an entertainment district, beginning in the 1980s, resulted in new performance venues for Mississippi natives including Daddy Mack Orr, Billy Gibson, and Dr. Feelgood Potts. The Mississippi-to-Memphis blues tradition has also been promoted by the Center for Southern Folklore, radio stations WEVL and WDIA, and labels including Inside Sounds, Icehouse, Memphis Archives, Ecko, and High Water. Mississippi has been well represented in the Memphis-based Blues Foundation’s International Blues Competition and Blues Music Awards (formerly W. C. Handy Awards), and thirteen of the first twenty artists inducted into the foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 were born or raised in Mississippi.

Brunswick Recording Company “Fourth and Beal” Cannon and Woods “The Beale Street Boys

Jim Jackson, Rufus Thompson (at microphone), and Furry Lewis (right)became Memphis music icons after moving here from Mississippi. They all settled in Memphis prior to 1820.

The Handy Sheet is from 1917.
In 2003 WC Handy awards, Sam Phillips with four of the Blues legends is recorded in the early 1950s. Seated, from let are Ike Turner, BB King and Little Milton (all natives of Mississippi). Standing with Phillips is Memphian Rosco Gordon. Phillips also recorded Little Junior Parker Howlin' Wolf, James Cotton, and Doctor Ross, among others Mississippi bluesmen.
Beal Street at night the late 1930s.
WC Handy Shown at a parade held in his honor here in 1953 came to Memphis form Clarksdale, MS. The park is a block north of this marker was renamed for him in 1931.




Ecko Records, founded by Mississippian John Ward in 1995 became a leader in the soul-blues market with releases by Mississippi natives including Ollie Nightingale Sheba Potts-Wright, Denise LaSalle, OB Buchana, David Brinston, and Lee "Shot" Williams.
High Water Records under the direction of Dr. Davis Evans at the University of Memphis documented more traditional blues.

Beal Street as it appeared in the summer of 1944.

Welcome to one of the many sites on the Mississippi Blues Trail 

Visit us online at www.MSBluesTrail.org 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/146489606/b.b.-king

2017 May & June Music in Wilson Park with a variety of entertainers

May 3,  

Music in Wilson Park with Joseph Baldwin- Hubby and I ate lunch at Rosie's Mexican Cantina.
Granddaughter played in the fountain and danced to the music

Joseph Baldwin

Granddaughter played in the fountain

Granddaughter, Ava helped hubby work on the fence in front of the swimming pool.
 She would hand him a tool, he would say thank you and she would reply Welcome!

May 10, 

Music in Wilson Park with Shannon Knight - I had an appointment at Bone & Joint to get an X-ray of both knees. The doctor put a Cortisone shot in my right knee. We left music in Wilson Park at 12:45PM

Music in Wilson Park with Shannon Knight

May 17, 

Music in Wilson Park Cadillacs 11:30-1:00PM 1:30-2:30 Listen to Dolores Hydock's storyteller, "Through the back door, the music that bridged the Bayou"

Storytelling with Dolores Hydock

Storytelling with Dolores Hydock

Music in Wilson Park with Cadillacs

May 24, 

Music in Wilson Park with Mitch Mann 11:30-1:00 The park was wet with all the rain so everyone that came sat in the center of the park where there was concrete. Bought pizza from Pizza Hut and took it home to eat.
no pictures

June 7, 

Music in Wilson Park with Drum and Drummer 11:30-1:15PM Hubby and I ate lunch at Taco Bell and then Academy Sports where Hubby bought some Crocs and a large ball (for exercise)

Drum and Drummer 

We missed music in Wilson Park on June 14 and 21.

June 28, 

Hubby and I went to music at the park to listen to Gary Nichols.
 I was feeling great and I went be-bobbing across the street to use the restroom at the library. I popped my right leg down onto the pavement not thinking and I went from feeling like a sixteen-year-old to a one hundred old woman.
I made it across the street and to the restroom.
When I went to wash my hands my right leg would not move. I stretched it several times and had to stop several times before I made it back across the street to the park.
This being said,
you can not always judge a book by its cover. Because if someone looks great, and acts great, it does not mean that there is not something wrong with them. By looking at me earlier yesterday morning I was walking normally and by afternoon I needed a cane.
You don't have to be old to have health problems, and each of us needs to be kinder and more thoughtful to others. I think we tend to forget about these things until it happens to us.
After the music ended we rode to the Co-Op where hubby purchased a new riding lawnmower.
My knee was still giving me a fit so I waited patiently in the van which took over 30 minutes.
The lawnmower was loaded onto the trailer and followed us home. 
I lay on the sofa for the rest of the day.
My knee was much better the next day.