Mississippi

I don’t know if it is valid but I think that it is possible to tell a lot about a place by the attitudes of the everyday people you deal with while transacting daily business such as buying gas and groceries, visiting tourist spots, etc.

The folks I have dealt with here from the check in clerk at the hotel to the volunteer at the National Seashore to the cashiers at the stores I have shopped in have one and all seemed weary if not even a little depressed.

Biloxi is a casino town and the only rebuilding done from the hurricanes seems to have been the casinos. A mayoral race is running now, or at least there are a lot of yard signs up. One of the candidates is running a campaign based on renovating the entire town.

Mississippi is well known to be a poor state and the condition of many of the buildings we have seen reflect that. While rents are low, gas prices somewhat less than we have been seeing elsewhere, the beaches beautiful, and with a pension this would be a reasonably priced place to live I would not want to live here.

Today we will be passing very quickly through Alabama and into Florida. I am looking forward to comparing attitudes.