Is Mississippi Fat, Ugly, and Stupid? (Jackson, Biloxi: real estate, school, college)

[LiveLoveLaugh]

With your way with words, I don't think you will ever find what you are looking for.

[At1WithNature]

Originally Posted by LiveLoveLaugh

With your way with words, I don't think you will ever find what you are looking for.

can you please elaborate? that doesn't seem to make much sense...

[teachertype]

Originally Posted by at1withnature

can you please elaborate? That doesn't seem to make much sense...

lol

[aiangel_writer]

Our fair state is beautiful in the eye of the beholder.

Our weather is really quite nice, one must get past the high humidity during the summer months but it is possible. We use a lot of a/c.

Even as far north as Tupelo, our winters are not really bad as far as many cold days in a row. Sometimes we get a dusting of snow, and I know I really enjoy it, simply because it is something we don't see every winter.

The people are some of the most friendliest you will ever find. Expect a wave most every time you meet a car, especially in rural areas.

Education is something that has been addressed in recent years, and the under preforming schools are being helped greatly. Teachers have incintives to move to underachieving schools via better pay in a few areas. Quality of life for many students has increased, but with the recent down trend in the economy I expect the Delta to really be hit the hardest, and they are one of our poorest areas in the state.

YEs, teacher pay is not on scale with other states, but our cost of living is much cheaper as well. My mother in law recently retired, was a teacher her whole adult life, and the money actually was pretty good for her, yet she was one of those teachers who wanted to teach because of the children, not the money. She has a very handsome retirement and is living prety well.

Ahh, our gentiel Southern Belles can be quite the knockouts. Don't know who told you otherwise, but there are many great looking gals as well as guys in our great state. We didn't corner the market on beauty or ugliness, but it seems the scale might be in favor of beauty.

Oxford is a pretty great town, with Batesville just down the highway and Tupelo about an hour away, and Memphis is not that far.

Actually, unless there is a specific reason for flying into Jackson, I would choose another town/city to fly in. Jackson is 4 hours from Tupelo, and about that distance from Oxford.

Hope I helped .

[At1WithNature]

Great post aiangel_writer, I was thinking I might fly into Memphis but then I was thinking that I really want to see mississippi's famed Gulf Coast. I've done a lot of research and the casinos/night life sounds pretty entertaining down there. I'm sure I can find great things (parks, places, and people) to do up north around Tupelo as well. I am going to visit. It will be much cheaper than most of my vacations. I'll just rent a car and pay for gas mostly.

teachertype, what is so funny???

anyways, thanks for all the great posts. Mississippi sounds like a great place to see in person. That will be my next step.

[Robert_J]

Originally Posted by At1WithNature

Great post aiangel_writer, I was thinking I might fly into Memphis but then I was thinking that I really want to see mississippi's famed Gulf Coast. I've done a lot of research and the casinos/night life sounds pretty entertaining down there. I'm sure I can find great things (parks, places, and people) to do up north around Tupelo as well. I am going to visit. It will be much cheaper than most of my vacations. I'll just rent a car and pay for gas mostly.

Tunica (which is 20 miles south of Memphis) is the 3rd largest group of casinos in the US. No it isn't Las Vegas or Atlantic City but 20 years ago it was just cotton fields.

You can always take highway 61 from Memphis all the way down to the coast. It's quite a drive but there are casinos along the way. And dozens of interesting places to stop as well. There are blues museums in Clarksdale and Leland. If you want play the blues, you can sell your soul at the crossroads just like Robert Johnson did. I would also check out Alton Brown's 2nd season of Feasting on Asphalt (Food Network) because he took almost the same route stopping at little out of the way places. There is even a Muppet museum in Leland (Jim Henson's home town).

Then make your way up the other side of the state. The delta and non-delta regions are very different.

[Senor Boogie Woogie]

Mississippi has different areas that are different demographically and geographically. I consider myself a Mississippian because I went to college there and lived and worked in several other places.

There is the Delta region by the Mississippi River. The poorest part of the poorest state in the country. Really, not much has changed here except for the casinos, which has made an impact. Still, cotton is king, even in 2009. All of these counties have a high black population, probably upwards to greater than 70% black in some areas. a lot of these families, black and white have been there for generations, literally since before the civil war in most cases. There are even Chinese Americans who have lived there forever (imagine Mao Zedong speaking southern with an Ole Miss hat on) and have kept their community alive.

I was a casino dealer in Tunica County Mississippi, working for various properties including the Horseshoe, what was the Grand, and the old Harrah's (the pink building next to Sam's Town). Most people who work in the casinos do not live in Tunica, but commute from Southhaven, Memphis, or other towns in the Delta. There was even one guy who drove all the way from Oxford to work. The casinos there are pretty interesting and it is fun to go there and see all the freaky people. The Gold strike casino's hotel tower is the tallest building in Mississippi.

In some ways, I like the Delta. Great food there, catfish, bbq, soul food, southern cooking. Yes, people are fat in Mississippi because our food is so good. I will say for someone who is not from there, you might be bored to death. Clarksdale is an OK sized town. Someone on this board was saying to stay the hell out of Greenville.

I went to college at the University of Mississippi. Didn't really care for the school or the town. In the summer, Oxford is a ghost town. I guess if your idea of fun is to be in a town with 10,000 plus transient college kids roaming about,(kids driving BMW's with Greatful Dead stickers on the back windoww, puke.) it might be the place for you. The countryside is actually pretty, especially when you go east towards Ponotoc and places thereof. I knew someone who lived in Booneville Mississippi, which is close to the northeast corner of the state. Unlike the Delta, this area is mostly white, it reminded me more of Middle Tennessee than Mississippi. Tupelo is supposedly a nice town.

Don't know much about the Mississippi Gulf Coast, except that the beaches aren't that great. I liked Biloxi the time I was there and even tried to get work in one of the casinos there, but it did not pan out so to speak and then Katrina came and changed the dynamic of the place. I will say that the day I was looking for a job, (at Winn's Beau Rivage, the bastids!) was one of the HOTTEST, HUMID, sweaty, awful days ever. It was actual torture to be out in the sun. Must have been 100 F with over 80% humidity. To steal a line from Matthew broderick "It's Africa hot down there!"

Lived in Jackson, Mississippi for awhile. Jackson is not that bad, more or less stay east of State St (Hwy 51) and you will be OK. Clinton, Madison, and the other suburbs are pretty decent. There is the Ross Barnett Resovior if you are into boating or fishing. i worked in Vicksburg for a while, but commuted from Jackson. I like V-burg, but it was kind of a dumpy, poor town whose best days seem to have been behind it. However, it wasn't that bad of a place, and I thought about getting a place there. Didn't happen.

Never really been to Starkville or Hattiesburg except for passing through. Stopped at the Meridian bus station going to Alabama once. There is an Indian ran casino called "Silverstar" outside Philidelphia.

Still, Mississippi is so poor that someone who makes 10 bucks an hour is middle class in most of the state. That wont change anytime soon.

[carolinajack]

Originally Posted by At1WithNature

Don't get me wrong, i just needed a catchy subject line. For years, I have been researching Mississippi and would love to live either in the Oxford area, Hattiesburg area, or the Clarksdale area. From what I have read, as I have never been, is that Mississippi has the weather and the people that I want. Plus, they have the laid back lifestyle that seems so promising compared to the gloomy worn out chicago that I am used to.

I ask this question, with a silly tag line, because every time I tell someone about moving to Mississippi (even on message boards) they always respond how it is fat and they don't have any pretty girls like the big cities do. They bring up Mississippi's test scores. Surely, not all of Mississippi is like this. Right?

I'm not looking to hang out with rocket scientists. all i want is a few acres and a southern belle to enjoy the mississippi lifestyle with. misssissippi's low population, despite its' size, shouldn't deter young people from moving there. Right or Wrong?

not any more than Michigan, Pennslyvania, New York or La--where the cities have been considered the sesspools of the US-Detroit, the fattest -philadelpia and detroit, Drop out rates the highest-new york, philadelpia, dc, etc

[LexusNexus]

Originally Posted by At1WithNature

Don't get me wrong, i just needed a catchy subject line. For years, I have been researching Mississippi and would love to live either in the Oxford area, Hattiesburg area, or the Clarksdale area. From what I have read, as I have never been, is that Mississippi has the weather and the people that I want. Plus, they have the laid back lifestyle that seems so promising compared to the gloomy worn out chicago that I am used to.

I ask this question, with a silly tag line, because every time I tell someone about moving to Mississippi (even on message boards) they always respond how it is fat and they don't have any pretty girls like the big cities do. They bring up Mississippi's test scores. Surely, not all of Mississippi is like this. Right?

I'm not looking to hang out with rocket scientists. all i want is a few acres and a southern belle to enjoy the mississippi lifestyle with. misssissippi's low population, despite its' size, shouldn't deter young people from moving there. Right or Wrong?

I have often heard Chicago being referred to as the "new Mississippi." So in a sense, you won't be leaving home.

I say knock yourself out. We all choose our poison.

[At1WithNature]

so chicago is fat, ugly, and stupid?

is that what you meant by chicago being the "new mississippi?" that's cool, i kind of agree with that. chicago's a great city but when you're in it every day you get tired of it. plus the weather is cold but the people are colder!