Monday, September 7, 2009

Labor Day in Mississippi

I have lived in Atlanta almost 22 years, and it somehow became a "tradition" that I always went home to my parents house for Labor Day. When I first moved here, I worked in the retail world and it was the last long weekend before you started gearing up for the holidays. I was a nice time to go home. Although it was often been a time when bad things happened, several years ago on this weekend, my grandfather had a heart attack that he never recovered from and last year my dad died on this weekend. My mom was really glad of the company. Joe and I did a lot of little odd jobs for her. She is feeling much better, it is almost 3 months now that she has been off of the chemo and is doing much better. My mom has quite a bit of land that she rents out to one of the local farmers, he puts his cows to pasture there in the summer. I enjoy watching them, it reminds me of when I was growing up and we had all kinds of cows, pigs, chickens and other assorted farm animals. We also visited the newest attraction in Corinth, the Corinth Contraband Camp. Corinth is a very historical town from the civil war, the Battle of Corinth, the Battle of Shiloh (which is only about 20 minutes away) and the Battle of Farmington. (Is it no wonder I like historical fiction.) I really didn't know what a contraband camp was, it is where slaves would come, after leaving their masters to be protected by Union Soldiers during the war. I don't think a lot of protection actually went on. The site is still under construction. There are 6 bronze statues that show what live was like in the camp the eventually there will be a cabin and interpretative signage. It is one of the few camps still in existence today. The statues are really nice, and they were done by local artists. We had a great weekend, visiting with my mom and various relatives. Back to the grind tomorrow.

4 comments:

Pat / Silver Thimble Quilt Co. said...

Sounds like a great weekend. Andy would love to visit the Civil War historic places..Maybe one day.

Pat
Thimbles weekend is 4 days away.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that you had a good visit with your mom and sorry about your dad. I hope she is feeling better.


My dad also passed away around Labor Day, so, it also has a different feeling.

Liz

Micki said...

It sounds like you had a lovely visit with your parents. I hope that they are better soon!
Micki

SueR said...

Sounds like you had a good trip home, even if there were some bad things that happened. Sorry about your mom, hope she is on the mend. Have fun with the Charm Party Tote. I made one too, and it's become my knitting bag. I added an extra pocket on the inside too.