Life in Mississippi, through the eyes of a transplant from California

I could write a whole series of posts on things I’ve noticed that are different here in the Delta, but here are a few:

Oh, the humidity! It is April, and 74 degrees outside. In California, this would be a lovely day.  Less so here, where it is also 71% humidity.  Andrew’s going to have to live in the pool in the summer.

Our water is brown, even after going through the Brita.   Apparently, there are so many cypress trees around with roots in water, they have stained the water brown.  I’ve been told it’s been tested for safety over and over and it passes every time, it’s just still brown.

People acknowledge each other in passing, and say “hi”, “good morning”, “how you doin’?”, or simply nod (it’s a specific kind of nod, too).

Employees of Walmart are occasionally friendly and helpful.

Kroger is the only grocery store.

If people are talking about a meal that involves meat, chances are it is either barbecued or fried.

There’s a bank, a money-order/check-cashing place, nail salon, and photo studio in the Walmart Supercenter.  You can tell it’s Friday because there is always a line of people at the check-cashing place.

(Maybe this is true elsewhere too, but I first saw it here.) About half the mannekins at JC Penney are “plus-size”.

I don’t think we ever really have patients who don’t have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or some combination thereof.  I’ve also seen several patients in the two months I’ve been here who are having open heart surgery (CABG) and are in their 40’s, early 50’s.

There are far more birds around (or maybe it’s partly that I can hear them chirping and singing more with less traffic noise?).

People (my age!) have never heard of Groupon.

The traffic lights are all on a schedule, none of them are triggered.  This also means that what time I get to work varies, sometimes significantly, because of how I hit the lights.

Jackson is a little over 2 hours away from Greenville.  San Diego is usually about 2 hours from Orange County.  The difference?  Driving to Jackson consistently takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes, and you’re moving the whole time!  Also, there are highways, but no real freeways til you’re basically on the outskirts of Jackson.