Hill Country Living
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
Last week, in my first self-appointed duty as a newly approved board member for the Water Valley Main Street Association, I advertised in my column the upcoming “Wine Down” event in downtown Water Valley. And, true to character, I got the date wrong. I advertised the date for last year’s Wine Down event.
But to attend the Wine Down event that I advertised you will need a time machine which you do not have. So, hear ye, hear ye, listen up everybody: The real date for the 2025 Water Valley Main Street Association Wine Down event is Friday, February 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. You can order your wristbands online or get them at the event itself. I’m scared to write any further about the Wine Down event for fear of getting something else wrong so I will move on.
I don’t have much to report this week as I have been sick and laid out on the sofa. I hear that flu and Covid have been raging through whole towns, but I’m not so sure that’s what I’ve had.
I know the chances are very likely that it was one or both of those but my illness just felt like a classic 1980s childhood cold. It brought back memories of “The Price is Right” showcase, instant grits hot from the microwave, and the smell of my Strawberry Shortcake doll’s hair. I had a retro illness that requires a daytime soap opera and a crocheted afghan to heal – not one of these new-fangled viruses from the internet.
I’m one of those rare people who has managed to avoid Covid for the past five years and I’ll tell you my secret — if you never test for Covid then you never get it! You just get colds or have allergies which you diagnose yourself via declaring it so. Easy as that! I don’t recommend this approach to anyone who comes in contact with people but if you are like me and work entirely alone, aren’t a caretaker to a vulnerable person and live with immune teenagers who defy health odds on the daily then, hey, why not?
Last week, I found that I was able to devote a whole day to actual, honest-to-goodness rest because my kids are now self-sufficient teenagers (unless they need a quesadilla at which point they revert to helpless infants.) For one entire day, I didn’t go to work and committed myself to the sofa. I watched Season 2 of “Alone” where the contestants survive on their own for extended periods of time in the coastal Alaskan wilderness, try to find food and avoid being consumed by bears. I think this show cured my cold. I felt great not having to survive on consuming one deceased sea snail a week.
My rest didn’t last more than a day because the next morning the hunters in Carroll County found Jimmy Jay Lee’s remains on Country Road 65 off Highway 82 near Winona. This meant I had to sit up and be an armchair detective all day. Pretty much all of Lafayette, Yalobusha, Grenada and now Carroll County, are thankful to the hunters for reporting what they found and to law enforcement for their steady, devoted work on Jay Lee’s case. We are all rooting for his case and his loving family.
Y’all stay healthy out there and I’ll see ya at Wine Down on February 28!
