Confused about...SOUTH Jackson area

[auntbee]

Don't be discouraged, Claude. You will be fine in Raymond. I wouldn't put up burglar bars, but that's just me. I still have friends who live in South Jackson, but I have to agree that I wouldn't go there at night. I saw in the paper this morning that they have been promoting that B.B. King and Morgan Freeman were going to build clubs on Farrish St., but spokes people for both of them have denied it. I imagine that will discourage some local investors knowing they aren't coming.

[SouthernForSure]

I grew up in South Jackson during the 1940's and 1950's at which time the term "South Jackson" generally referred to areas adjacent to Battlefield Park, Terry Road, and South Gallatin Street. It was sometimes called "Dudaville" by residents of other parts of Jackson. From our house I walked many blocks to George School during my six elementary school years and walked across town to Enochs Junior High from grades seven through nine. Jackson was my oyster and South Jackson was its pearl. I delivered newspapers (the now-defunct Jackson Daily News) throughout my high school years and my route included our immediate neighborhood as well as some outlying motels such as the Alamo Plaza and the Redwood Inn. My favorite South Jackson restaurant was called the "Night Owl Café" on Terry Road just a few blocks from our house and it was a great place to go after school to play the pinball machine while listening to the juke box play the greatest music this side of heaven. Battlefield Park was within walking distance for swimming, sandlot football, baseball, shuffleboard, and tennis. And no cell phones to distract us: the kids in our neighborhood communicated with each other face-to-face! During my 41 years in academics (five major universities, six different states) following my departure from South Jackson, I have experienced life ranging from gated communities to mountain resort communities to big cities of the Northeast and Midwest. While I know nothing about what life is like in South Jackson today, I do know that I would take nothing for my eighteen formative years growing up on the streets of South Jackson, Mississippi back in the 1940's and 1950's.

[Jardine8]

To clarify, I think I have it referred to as "Doodleville" rather than "Dudaville", though it would be easy to make that mistake based on how some people might pronunciate it. Thank you for the story, though. It is depressing to hear how much the city has changed since then.

[GrandviewGloria]

Originally Posted by Jardine8

To clarify, I think I have it referred to as "Doodleville" rather than "Dudaville", though it would be easy to make that mistake based on how some people might pronunciate it. Thank you for the story, though. It is depressing to hear how much the city has changed since then.

Well, there's Dudaville, and there's Doodleville.

An older friend whose first 'real job' was as a department store decorator at the once-fabulous Metrocenter Mall (Sky City: Southern and Mid-Atlantic Retail History: Metrocenter: Jackson, MS), told me that 'South Jackson People' were the sweetest, nicest people in town. "Particularly Alta Woods People. They were so kind and nice, it was hard to believe. 'Naaaaw-uth Eeee-yust Jaaaaaahhhhhkk-suhn People', on the other hand, were impossible snots to deal with - just the WORST."

But that was at the end of the Seventies, and the dawn of the Eighties - long after the days of SouthernForSure's idyllic boyhood. Things had changed in South Jackson. A sparkly new Jaguar was sitting on Wedgewood teacups, at the entrance to the Metrocenter McRae's Department Store, and that same store was about to locally "launch"/"sponsor"/"introduce" the fabulous new movie, 'Can't Stop the Music', featuring Bruce Jenner (packin' a roll of dimes), and Steve Guttenberg (packin' a roll of Mardi Gras doubloons - or maybe Ritz Crackers...), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmoUEX1Rd44 (I think the contrast with Guttenberg is why Jenner, so woefully outclassed, finally just gave up and switched genders). Well, that gigantic cinematic flop was supposed to mark the Debut of the Eighties. In reality, it just marked the Death of the Seventies (and surely, by association, hastened the death of McRae's, in '06). Gee, that was a long time ago. Odd that a certain rabbit-faced blonde thought she could snub me, as late as '08, in the fitting area at the tailor's. (Maybe it was the shock and humiliation of no longer having an entire multi-store alterations department at one's beck and call?) (...which leads me to wonder if 'Sohndra' experienced shock and humiliation, once she no longer had the catering department of her own family's chain to ring-up, when she needed some orchids, or some hors d'oeuvres, sent up to The Castle.) .

Oh... But back to Dudaville... My source from the glory days of Metrocenter once relayed (in tones of disapproval, mais c'est bien entendu!) something which was, back then, a humorous (and not very nice) truism around Jackson, about the THREE TRIBES. The first of the Three Tribes were The Duda ("Do da bus stop here?"). The next tribe were the U'mon-back (Riding garbage trucks, their job was to yell to the driver, "U'mon-BACK!"). Last, there were the Motees (Circulating among diners at Morrison's and Piccadilly, the would musically intone, "Mo tea?", "Mo tea?"). Could The Duda have been the genesis of Dudaville? (...or, maybe, vice-versa?).

As for the reputation of Doodleville, I can only offer this 1970s anecdote from the adolescence of my alter ego (Me, as I would have been, had not Cosa Nostra moved into the state, around WWII, and driven my Great Grandmother's 'House of Negotiable Affection' out of business.) Back in time... back in time, to a parallel dimension... blurry... blurry..... //www.city-data.com/forum/24172933-post2.html

[madison2013]

Oh look someone's trying so hard to be funny

[GrandviewGloria]

Francis, it's always such a relief to hear from you, and know that you're still around, after Bitsi gave me that terrible shock.

"It looks like you've lost your little friend." She said this out of the blue, and didn't put it into context with words like "City-Data" or "stalker" or anything. And so I was thinking she was talking about somebody I cared about.

She takes her old clothes and tchotchkes to a pitiful woman in the cheap seats over near City Hall, who throws yard sales (the only Obama supporter she's ever met, of any race. "I think she's white, too, although I'm not sure, what with her meth addiction eating her collagen, and then her ballooning to four hundred pounds afterward, and all, I can't really tell..."). Bitsi may be generous in her mitzvoth, but she's never pretended to be nice. Good thing she has a hedge fund, because her personality can be a tad challenging. But the girl is a pretty good sleuth, and she and Babette had pretty-much decided you were "That pitiful boy" over by the home of "her project", who was waking up that whole neighborhood with his muffler - UNTIL.

"Well, if by 'wife and children', he meant 'the dogs and my Mom', then he totally fits the profile of some disgruntled male who'd feel threatened by you."

Well that was a while back, and we figured we knew exactly who you were. But then, it seems he went in the back yard and... well... something bad happened (and you know Madison County: all sorts of things are made to look like other things, and the truth about what happened can never be ascertained, any more than we'll ever know the truth about what Andrew and Jim had going with Gene and Costco...).

But the long and short of it is that the first time you reappeared with your insults, I was overjoyed. It meant you weren't "That Pitiful Boy", and you were OK (well... you were as OK as you're ever likely to be).

Sweet Angel Wing, remember that every moment is precious. You do know that, don't you?

[JacksonPanther]

Do any of you realize this thread is 7 years old? The OP has likely moved on or died years ago.

[Jardine8]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

Do any of you realize this thread is 7 years old? The OP has likely moved on or died years ago.

Yes, I knew that it was an old thread but since it was bumped by another poster, I decided to post a response to the guy that bumped the thread.

[SouthernForSure]

A 1982 book by David Evans entitled Big Road Blues (University of California Press) suggests on page 136 that although South Jackson was commonly referred to as "Doodleville" the correct name is "Duttoville" - named after a Catholic Priest named Father Louis A. Dutto. The lyrics of song entitled "Doodeville Blues," written in the 1930's, mentions several geographical areas of Jackson including Farrish Street, Mill Street, etc. Take a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMujsqpeshg