People – Page 7 – Mississippi Sideboard

We had a little oyster bar at Parlor Market. That’s how I met Craig Noone; we worked at an oyster bar in Stephan Pyles’ flagship, so with the tiny oyster bar in Parlor Market I got to see how Jackson feels about seafood and oysters. That planted a seed, and when I was leaving City Grocery in Oxford, I decided that Jackson would be a good spot for an oyster bar.

Since the oyster bar is the heart of Saltine, we keep the rest of the menu very seafood-centric, and being in the South, we keep the menu Southern-rooted. Then again being who I am, I like to keep things fresh and creative, to push the envelope. It’s a challenge with this concept because being in Jackson I think we get a little more of the old school mentality here towards Southern seafood, whereas at the Parlor Market, even though it was very much Southern-rooted, it was from the get-go known as a place where you could go and get an off-the-cuff creative meal. Here there’s a bit of resistance to that, so catfish, po’boys, the oysters, the wood-fired oysters, the redfish on the half shell are our top-selling dishes. The more creative dishes are harder to sell. We have an Asian influence in the calamari dishes, which is an ode to Paul Qui, who I got the opportunity to work with while I was at culinary school at the Le Cordon Bleu in Austin. He does a Brussels sprouts dish he’s very famous for that has the same kind of sauce with herbs, mint, cilantro and cabbage. The oysters Lafitte I would say is the most New Orleans-style dish we have, and we put that together while on a trip to Lafitte, Louisiana to fish for redfish, using what we had around us. We went into a little crawfish shack, ordered a couple of pounds, peeled them ourselves and put some on the oysters we had on the grill at the fishing camp. Then we have the white Alabama barbecue sauce, once again playing up Southern dishes. The citrus butter with coriander is a nod to a lot of the garlic butter oysters you’ll find at places such as Drago’s, but a lot brighter and more floral.

This summer when we opened the oyster market was very bad. It certainly wasn’t the prime season for Gulf oysters by any means, and due to different regulations in Louisiana that seek to control the quality of oysters, the only ones that could leave the state were those harvested on refrigerated boats. The oysters go straight from the water into refrigeration and from those boats into a refrigerated facility or on a refrigerated truck to Jackson. That’s a huge expense. There aren’t a lot of people who do that, so we had many customers who were upset because we didn’t have Gulf oysters. When we opened, our oysters were sourced from Virginia other places on the east coast. They were very inconsistent in size, people only wanted the big ones, so it was a struggle. But as the temperatures went down, the oysters have become more available, and we no longer have that issue. We have them coming in literally every single day. I probably get anywhere from eight to twelve sacks of Gulf oysters a day, almost a thousand oysters that we go through, and we get probably another twelve to eighteen hundred from other parts of the country: the Pacific Northwest, Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, all over.

Almost all oysters these days are farm-raised, but oysters out of out of the Gulf are still wild. Even though most of the wild oysters along the east coast were eradicated back in the 1800s, and they introduced new species, some of which were invasive and killed off the native populations, you can still get wild oysters from the Gulf. I’ve heard of some great oyster farm programs in the Gulf as well. Derek Emerson was sharing some great stuff with me the other day; he and Chris Hastings were talking about these oysters off Dauphin Island that are grown in baskets that tumble in the surf, which give the oysters a great shape and salinity, and have almost no mud or dirt because they aren’t on the bottom. The other day a supplier out of Birmingham offered me some oysters called “Bama Beauties”. They were sold out at the time, and they were expensive; they were (my cost) a dollar an oyster, and I’d have to be selling them at almost $3.50, the same price I’d ask for a really high-end Pacific oyster. More gourmet Gulf oysters are starting to pop up, but the challenge will be getting people who are used to $1 or $1.50 oysters from Mississippi or Alabama to buy them.

I never considered opening anywhere but Fondren. This is where I spend all of my free time; this is where my friends seem to gather, where I run into people I love. I thought with all the other great restaurants, we could create a wonderful restaurant scene here. Of course, there already was, but I wanted to jump into the middle of it. Duling Hall wasn’t my first choice, though when I first moved to Jackson, before the Parlor Market opened, Craig took us to Duling Hall, and I walked over to the space that is now Joan Hawkins Interiors and thought it would make an awesome restaurant. Fast-forward to last year when I was looking for spaces, I was actually looking for a house, so I looked on State Street and Mitchell Avenue, but we just couldn’t make anything work. I talked to realtor Mike Peters and told him I wasn’t totally committed to a house, and he walked me through this space. With all the original brick, windows and floors, it just came together, I couldn’t be happier, and I can’t imagine it anywhere else.

I put this restaurant in the hipster capitol of Jackson, and I anticipated my friends and younger people, but I have more of an older demographic. It’s really mixed. I do get some people from out-of-town due to the great articles in “Southern Living” and “Garden & Guns”, but for the most part it’s really different from my expectations. I’ve thought about how the restaurant will evolve a lot. Things are still up in the air as we try to keep the house packed and discover what will drive people in to build our lunch business and early weekend business. The craft beers have really picked up more than I thought it would before we opened. It was always going to be a bar that focused on craft beers. We have thirty-one draughts. At first wine and cocktails were ahead in the mix, but soon the craft beers began outselling them. So we’re pushing that envelope and advocating the craft beer scene in Mississippi, which has growth spurts as well as growing pains.

The creative food is where I feed myself, it’s what I enjoy doing and why I love being a chef, but I have to ask myself if it’s right for here. Whereas I used to be able to put anything I wanted in front of people at Parlor Market, people would try it because it sounded interesting and love it and embrace it, that’s a struggle here. It’s a learning curve on the floor and in the kitchen, and though because of the long hours I work it feels like I’ve been here for five years already, we’ve only been open for six months. I have to keep reminding myself that.

February 15, 2015October 30, 2024

Prep for Hal’s St. Paddy’s

Hal’s St. Paddy’s Parade draws thousands to Jackson, and for over 25 years Charly Abraham has played a pivotal role in bringing the spectacular procession to life. In this interview, Abraham shares his insights into the behind-the-scenes happenings that come together to bring about Jackson’s signature annual event.

When do the organizers begin to put the parade together? Is a schedule in place by now?

Not really. Malcolm and I might mention it once or twice from April to December if we happen to see each other. Malcolm usually comes up with a theme and a Grand Marshal before the New Year starts. We really try to have everything as far as the public is concerned (theme, Grand Marshal, application, route) in place by the second week of January. The smaller details are covered as we can find the time. Remember that this event isn’t anyone’s main job; we do it because we love it. By the way, the official trademarked name of the event is “Mal’s St. Paddy’s Parade”. I see it called every possible variation, but it actually does have its own title.

Who are the primary people involved in the actual development and eventual operation of the parade?

Keep in mind that the parade is a multi-legged creature, with the big parade, the race, all the children and family events and the post-parade street dance. For 20 years or so, I pretty much ran it all. Since I am no longer at Hal & Mal’s (or in Jackson for that matter), my role has gradually diminished, a change that makes me happy. My life at Delta State University is so busy I have minimal time for anything else – particularly since the parade doesn’t fall on spring break week any more. As it stands now, I run everything from 7:00 a.m. until the end of the parade. My staff consists of Bob McFarland, who runs all of the kids’ events, Elton Moore, who handles all vendors, and Chuck Bryan, who handles float lineup. Captain Steve Bailey with the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office oversees security in the lineup area and at Hal & Mal’s. Of course, the Batson folks at the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children handle the parade registration, and are there to check in participants as they arrive. All of these people have all been with this thing as long as I have, so they know their jobs extremely well. In fact, if we all do our jobs right in the planning stage, everything runs like clockwork. I don’t actually do much on parade day except handle the few problems that arise and make a few command decisions. I like to go watch the pet parade at 10:00 a.m.; it’s my favorite part of the whole event. Since I no longer work at Hal & Mal’s, when the parade is over, my role is over, and everything switches to Commerce Street. For the last couple of years, Arden Barnett has booked the street dance, and the folks at H&M’s handle all the logistics of the post-parade events. Hal & Mal’s is also in charge of the Friday night parade, which has never been my responsibility.

Any parade in any municipality requires the cooperation of local authorities, notably law enforcement and sanitation. As Mal’s St. Paddy’s parade has grown, how have the organizers’ relationships with the city of Jackson developed?

We have a great relationship with the city. Henry Brown is the special events coordinator with the Jackson Police Department and the city. I’ll chat with him several times by phone starting around October and meet once with the city special events committee. The city folks pretty much know their job, which is huge, and they handle it well. They seal off the city to most traffic early in the morning and handle traffic control all day. Once the parade leaves the lineup area, it is completely in the control of JPD; it is no longer our event. They secure the parade route to protect participants and observers. In addition to JPD, City Services puts out a mile of barricades, and Sanitation starts sweeping the streets as soon as the last float leaves. Trustees from the County Farm come in early on Sunday morning and clean the area around Hal & Mal’s and the Fairgrounds. We also hire an independent cleanup crew to hit any hot spots. It is important that every trace of the parade be gone by noon Sunday.

What are the biggest headaches year-to-year, and how do you deal with them?

The biggest headache without a doubt, year in and year out, is insurance. Fewer and fewer companies write event insurance, and the price is astronomical.

How many krewes are involved in the parade? Are most of them associated with businesses or are they private groups? Where are they from?

The parade is limited to 50 floats, and we usually end up with about 47. I guess you can call them all krewes. There are also the marching krewes that have been with us forever: the O’Tux Society, which is Malcolm’s krewe, is the only local men’s marching krewe. Some years an all-male krewe from the Gulf Coast shows up. There are mostly female marching krewes; the oldest is Krewe of Kazoo, then the Green Ladies, and a recent addition, nugget league of mayhem (lower case correct). A few are businesses, but most are just groups of people having fun. Almost all are from the Jackson area. In election years, there are usually several political candidates. Governor Barbour used to bring his horse group. That was actually kind of cool. I should also mention the Knights of Columbus Color Guard; they aren’t exactly a “krewe,” but they have been in front of the parade for as long as I have been around.

How do the representatives of the parade krewes work with the organizers? Is there a set marching order for the krewes or is that order determined on a year-to-year basis?

We have one “float” meeting every year that I conduct about a month before the parade. Every krewe is required to have at least one representative there. I go over basic rules, particularly any new rules, discuss problems of the previous year and try to answer questions new krewes may have. Most of the krewes have been around so long they can answer the questions better than I can. As far as parade order, only the color guard, bands, Grand Marshal and marching groups at the very front are pre-programmed. Otherwise, the float order depends on arrival time: the earlier you get there, the closer to the front you are.

Have the specifications for the size of floats, personnel and vehicles been hammered out?

Absolutely – many years ago. The rules and regulations and the parade application are all included in a package available at Mal’s St. Paddy’s Parade and at various other places around the ‘Net. I post it on Facebook every year as well. Floats are inspected in the lineup area by representatives of the Jackson Police Department, the Jackson Fire Department and the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office. They are checked for safety violations, skirting, fire extinguishers, driver’s licenses, insurance, etc.

What role do the people at Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children play?

The Batson folks are wonderful. They play a role in the lives of Mississippians every day. They treat our children in Mississippi for severe illnesses and injuries regardless of the family’s ability to pay. But your question is about the parade. The hospital gang has several roles. Tena McKenzie, who runs the Office of Development there, is the central data center for the parade “Players” list, which is a group of about 40 people who have roles in one way or another. That would include sponsors, media people, all the city services, the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Mississippi Museum of Art; the list goes on. We have two luncheons where a great deal of behind-the-scenes work takes place, where we all meet face to face. The hospital, as I mentioned earlier, also handles registration for all krewes. Their people are present bright and early on parade morning and check in participants in the lineup area. They also bring a large group of people to run the “city sweep,” which is maybe the most important part of the parade. The city sweep consists of vehicles, golf carts, radio vans, employees, volunteers, patients, Star Wars characters, and anyone else who wants to play, and leaves the lineup area 30 minutes before the parade starts. They pass the bucket for donations and sell t-shirts, just about anything to raise money. I encourage everyone to take an extra fiver or larger, to drop in the bucket; you can’t beat this cause. The hospital also manages the race, and they are the beneficiary of the event as well.

How is media involved in the development of the parade?

Media is mostly donated. The Clarion Ledger has been a corporate sponsor for many years, so Sherry Lucas always gets first shot at news stories. When they had more people working, they would take an active role in events. Now they really don’t have the personnel to do as much. Radio stations are given access to anything they want. We don’t actually buy radio time, but we welcome their involvement on whatever level they want. Most put vans or other vehicles in the parade or help with the city sweep. The Jackson Free Press always has extensive pre-parade coverage, and Portico Jackson usually has a green-themed issue in March. The local TV stations differ from year to year. Some years they are all over it, some years they don’t seem interested. I suspect that has to do with ever-changing news directors and reporters who aren’t familiar with the event. WAPT has recently been a sponsor for the Children’s Festival.

What lessons in human nature have you learned in your many years of working on the parade?

To be honest, I have had nothing but good experiences working on the parade. Everyone wants it to succeed and remain a part of Jackson’s culture. That includes the city of Jackson’s administration. Everyone comes to have fun, including the parade organizers. Anytime there is a crowd of forty or fifty thousand people in one location there are bound to be a few people misbehaving, but those types of problems seem to be minimal.

January 27, 2015March 12, 2025

Greenwood: A Resting Place Downtown

There’s a green place in the heart of Jackson where roses bloom and a Summer House rests beneath the city skyline, a place to have a quiet lunch, a leisurely walk and a chance to recharge batteries during another day at the office. You won’t be disturbed; those many around you there lived their lives to fruition years ago. You will be in a place to contemplate your own life and expectations in Greenwood.

Greenwood Cemetery is Jackson’s largest green space; much larger than downtown’s Smith Park or old Battlefield Park in south Jackson. It is bounded on the east by West Street, on the north by Davis, the west by Lamar and the south by George. Each of these streets has its own story and each was part of the early city. They have changed in nature but not their boundaries or how it all came about when the city was founded. Those interred within these grassy perimeters of Greenwood were influential in the early city and responsible for building it to maturity. They are not ghosts, they are history, and you will have a chance to know them better. Let’s begin.

The cemetery itself, part of a federal land grant which also established the City of Jackson as the official site of the Capitol of Mississippi on November 21, 1821, was formally designated by an act of the State Legislature effective January 1, 1823. The original six acres were known simply as the “graveyard” and later as the “City Cemetery”. Some referred to it as the “burying ground”. An early map (1822) showed the area west of what is now West Street as vacant land indicating that originally the cemetery, while in Jackson’s original plan, was not yet officially within the city limits. The cemetery is shown on an 1845 Jackson map as the Grave Yard, encompassing 11.8 acres. The future extension to its present size is shown in squares 6N, 9.64 acres and 7N, 9.77 acres on this map. Its formal designation as Greenwood Cemetery was adopted in 1899, and it was listed on the National Register of Historical Places as a Mississippi landmark in 1984.

Greenwood Cemetery contains the graves of seven Mississippi governors, 14 Jackson mayors, six Confederate generals, six state Supreme Court justices and 27 clergymen. It is the final resting place for over 100 unknown Confederate soldiers whose lined markers may be seen easily from the West Street side. According to Greenwood Cemetery Association board member Peter Miazza, “Jackson pioneer Logan Power said there are altogether about 600 Confederate soldiers buried in the Confederate graveyard. We have names of about 500 of them, but do not know exactly where each is buried.”

“There were no sections for any group,” Cecile Wardlaw, executive director of the cemetery Association says. “Many old cemeteries were divided into sections by race or religion. Greenwood never was. Catholic, Protestant, or atheist, black or white; everybody just got buried. ‘Born in Ireland’ appears on many of the oldest stones.”

Time well spent with Mrs. Wardlaw and Mr. Miazza in May 2013, provided a wealth of information on the early days and development of the cemetery. “There are 330 unmarked graves at the original south end of the cemetery,” Mrs. Wardlaw related, “with the estimated number of all graves today being 5,000.” The oldest known surviving marker with a date is Governor Abram Marshall Scott who died June 12, 1833. There are an estimated 2,200 monuments posted on the Find A Grave website and Jacksonian Linda Robertson is in the process of doing a monument survey.

Mrs. Wardlaw told of how the roses came to be inn Greenwood.. “Local horticulturalist Felder Rushing donated the roses you see along the paths which he obtained from the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas. He did some work for that establishment and instead of getting a fee, he came back with a truck and trailer load of roses. He did that for two or three years and master gardeners helped him plant them. He will not tell us the names of the cuttings but only to say ‘they are there for people to enjoy’”.

The city owns the cemetery, but much of the maintenance is done by the Greenwood Cemetery Association which also raises funds to repair and perform landscaping work. Volunteers in this organization have provided more than 600 hours of service since the beginning of 2013. They have been aided by local Boy Scouts, AmeriCorps and the Phi Theta Kappa honorary fraternity at Mississippi College. Boy Scout Troop No. 1 (St. James and St. Andrews Episcopal Churches), performed volunteer work at the cemetery during the spring. The Brookhaven Monument Company is the primary source of stone repairs. The old section (south end) of the cemetery was not plotted since the “burial ground” was not officially a part of the city when first put to use. As the cemetery expanded northward, surveyors had difficulty putting in roads since bodies were buried haphazardly rather than in organized rows.

A number of Jackson’s first families have been interred in Greenwood Cemetery. Marion Dunbar, first pastor of Mt. Helm Baptist Church, is there. It was named Helm because Thomas Helm contributed the lot for the church to be built and also gave the church some money to help with construction. According to its website, Mt. Helm, Jackson’s oldest African American church, began in 1835, with several enslaved African Americans who worshiped in the basement of the First Baptist Church. It became a separate body in 1867, the year the 13th Amendment was ratified. A modern version of the church structure may be seen today at 300 E. Church Street near the west side of the cemetery.

Other Jacksonians of note include Millsaps College founders Col. William Nugent, Bishop Charles Betts Galloway, and Dr. William Belton Murrah, who served as the college’s first president; Dr. Lewis Fitzhugh, first president of Belhaven University and father-in-law of Dr. Murrah; founders of the Baptist Hospital, Harley R. Shands, M.D., and John Farrar Hunter, M.D., and Rev. John Hunter, pastor of First Presbyterian Church (1858). Monuments are plentiful for many early Jackson families including the Yergers, Spenglers, Greens, Poindexters, Lemons, Virdens, Henrys, Miazzas and, of course Miss Eudora Welty.

In addition to Miss Welty (d.2001), other Belhaven residents buried in Greenwood Cemetery include Henry Muller Addkison, local hardware dealer (d.1974), Lawrence Saunders (more on him later), R.H. Henry, owner and publisher of the Daily Clarion and Clarion-Ledger (d.1891), and James H. Boyd (d.1882). Boyd, the owner of what is now The Oaks home on North Jefferson Street, was a former mayor of the city and his home was the site of the conception of Mississippi’s first “Decoration Day”, which became known nationally as Memorial Day.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — The Summer House

Monuments range from barely noticeable to imposing. In the circle by the cemetery’s Summer House, is the monument of Rev. Amos Cleaver, an Episcopal priest, who died in October 1853 from yellow fever. Five years after his death, some women took up money for this monument. The exact location of his grave is unknown so his marker was placed where it is today. The widow Cleaver had a girl’s school in a frame building where St. Andrews Episcopal Church stands today at S. West and E. Capitol Streets. In 1854, she sold the school to the state for its first school for the deaf. There is also the “Weeping Lady” (Sarah Ann and George Lemon plot), the Hilzheim lot framing structure, which looks like a church, and the “Angel Tombstone” in the Poindexter lot.

Perhaps the most interesting monuments have stories associated with their namesakes. What’s in a name? We shall soon see.

The Saunders Stone

Lawrence Saunders was a professor at the deaf school which was then across the street from his mother’s house near Barksdale and North State Streets. On Christmas night in 1895, he dressed as Mrs. Santa Claus to entertain the students. Saunders was on his way to the school and stopped by his mother’s home to show her his costume but the front door was locked. He let himself in through the back gallery. The only person home was his nephew who awoke to discover a strange presence. He shouted “Stop or I’ll shoot.” Unfortunately, Lawrence, being deaf, did not hear the warning and was killed by his own kinsman. It is never good when you shoot Santa Claus.

The Little Dog Tombstone

An unnamed small girl lived in Jackson during the mid-1800’s. Her family moved from the capitol city to Oxford where the child died. She was buried in the Simms plot which may be seen north of the summer house to the right of the circle. It is said her small grief-stricken dog would not leave her grave and died at its foot a short time later. His likeness remains to guard his mistress through the portals of eternity – faithful to the end.

The Good Samaritan Monument

Dr. Samuel Cartwright was well known for his work and writings to control the great Yellow Fever and cholera epidemics. During the Civil War, he was charged with getting rid of dysentery in the Confederate military camps, but he contracted dysentery himself and died in 1863. The carving of the “Good Samaritan” on his tombstone attests to his sacrifice and may be seen on his marker today.

My Dog Skip

A movie scene, filmed in Greenwood Cemetery, was based on Willie Morris’ 2000 novel My Dog Skip, and represented the witches’ tomb in the Yazoo City Cemetery. It depicted one of the characters going out among the tombstone to sit down and drink booze. Also, a replica of the Helm mausoleum was constructed for the movie in which the bootleggers stored their moonshine. There is no written record, however, of these spirits raising other spirits or sharing their company for the evening.

Lorian Hemingway’s Ghosts

The granddaughter of novelist Ernest Hemingway came to Jackson in 1999 to write an article on the 1966 Candlestick Park tornado. While here she participated in a ghost tour in Greenwood Cemetery, which was conducted and scripted by Jo Barksdale, much to the delight of a number of children.

The Tallest Monument

The stateliest monument in the cemetery looks eastward toward the sunrise. It is said its tenant was fabulously wealthy, controlling more cotton land than anyone outside the country of Egypt. He died in New Orleans in an area made famous by Josh White’s folk ballad “The House of the Rising Sun”. No one knows exactly to what extent the sun rose on that occasion, but it does make for fascinating speculation. Following his death his wife donated $5,000 to the church. Perhaps a wise investment.

Early Jackson family descendent Peter Miazza says “If you want to take a short tour to visually observe evidence of the history of Jackson and the leading citizens of the State of Mississippi, there is no better place to learn than Greenwood Cemetery.”

They are all here, diverse in their lifetime but equal in the eyes of God. Within the 22 acres of monuments and memories lie those who preceded this day, and share its common ground. There are the wealthy and the pauper, the slave and his master, the business owner and his clerk, the patriarch and the child. There are the physicians, the barristers, the judges, the politicians, the writers and artists, the entrepreneurs and the indigents. There are the prominent with their success and their secrets. There are the unnamed and the unknown. There are the wretched and the rascals and the Good Samarian and the faithful dog. There is Everyman. As Albert Einstein once said “Before God we are equally wise and equally foolish.”

As you walk the paths of Greenwood Cemetery, contemplate the rose shaded spirits around you. Feel their presence. You, like them, are part of our city’s heritage and its destiny. While our own lives are but a flash of light in the darkness of creation- a short string, the deeds of those who sleep around us endure forever. It is one final reminder that beauty is at our fingertips and that we are not alone.

Sources and suggestions for more information:

Most of the material in this article was obtained from an interview with Greenwood Cemetery Association Executive Director Cecile Wardlaw and board member Peter Miazza on May 9, 2013. Other sources include:

1) Greenwood Cemetery brochure
2) Wikipedia Encyclopedia
3) Walt Grayson’s Look around Mississippi (WLBT-TV, 4/24/12; 12/26/12)
4) Jackson, A Special Place by Carroll Brinson (1977) P. 49 (map)
5) Mt. Helm Baptist Church website

Interested readers might also wish to consult:

* www.greenwoodcemeteryjackson.org
* Find-A-Grave website
* The Old Cemeteries of Hinds County (1811-1988) by Mary Collins Landin

December 29, 2014