A Toast To Water Valley’s Move-In Moms
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
I usually write my columns on Monday mornings. But here I am writing on a Sunday morning because this time tomorrow I will be dropping my one and only oldest child off at college. Admittedly, “off at college” is only twenty minutes away in the very next town where my child already spends 90 percent of his time… but it still counts! After all of my former decades working in the restaurant industry on the Oxford Square and talking a lot of smack with co-workers about the crowds during Ole Miss Move-In Weekend, here I am now — one of those
Move-In parents and soon-to-be annoying a Square waitress with my very presence.
To their credit, though, the Move-In parents were never as bad as Game Day parents. Game Day parents had nothing to do except consider themselves entitled as they roamed about the Square with money in their pocket.
Move-In parents, on the other hand, were budget-conscious, spent most of their time on campus and were very, very busy. Once they eventually got to the Square at the end of the day, they didn’t care what they ate —as long as it was accompanied by an alcoholic beverage. The younger sibling would sit there eating a giant cheeseburger, probably contemplating the advantages of their new position in the family dynamic while the parents clinked beer bottles across the table, toasting that there’s one less kid in the house.
Now, this was my experience serving Move-In parents on the leisurely playground that is the Oxford Square. I imagine anyone working at the Oxford Walmart has a completely different take.
Speaking of Walmart, I made the rookie mistake of going there to buy my college-bound son a couple of throw pillows for his dorm room. My son saw the pillows and asked why they were brown instead of “Ole Miss colors.” In retrospect, this was a fair question. He then asked me why he would need a throw pillow at all. As much as being a boy-mom has been the greatest gift of my life in that boys are low-needs and always there to help me lift heavy furniture, I do wonder what it would be like to have a girl child who would innately understand the value of a throw pillow. It’s difficult to explain in words the value of cute décor. It must be felt in the abstract sense. It’s easier to explain concepts like quantum entanglement, justice-versus-revenge, or the Holy Spirit. If you can’t naturally grasp why you need a cute throw pillow, then I’m not sure there’s much I can do for you.
While not my aesthetic, I must admit that it pains my artist heart a little to not be able to decorate my boy-child’s Ole Miss dorm room with the maniacal creative fervor that the Ole Miss girl-moms annually manifest. I think the brown throw pillows may have been my attempt at a 1980’s fish camp aesthetic but, alas, it was vetoed. I’ve got one more son to try this on in three years when it’s his turn. Maybe he’ll take the bait and accept my throw pillows.
For whatever school or job your kid is leaving home for, here’s a toast to all of Water Valley’s 2025 Move-In moms and caretakers! And a second toast for when the kid eventually moves back home and then moves out again!
