this is the end

no more only in memphis posts.
loving and making fun of this city has just gotten old.
a final haiku for you, only in memphis. peace out.

east side, west side- main.
don't be a hater- bitches.
yeh, i be ON that.

hurricane gustav evacuees

For real, come the fuck on Memphis shit-bag thieves! Are you kidding me? How could you?

As the Cosby would say "Come on people!"

this was taken from the Commercial Appeal,
article by Jody Callahan.

"One evacuee was carjacked in Memphis about 12:30 a.m. Monday, police said.
The incident happened at Baltimore and Southern.
Two males carjacked a Mitsubishi Galant with Louisiana plates."

west tennessee veterans cemetery

The W.T.V.C. sits on the city dividing line (literally) where Memphis and Germantown meet on Forest Hill-Irene, therefore I still consider it as being in Memphis and wanted to share my experience there on 'Only in Memphis'.


I drove to east Jesus on the Bill Morris Autobahn last weekend (en route to Carriage Crossing, thank you Sephora) and decided to stop and check out the cemetery after I saw an interstate sign pointing me in that direction. It was a really pretty day and it was late in the evening and the sign on the gate said the cemetery was closed, but the gates were still opened. The sun was setting (a dim pink and orange hazy one) and immediately upon entering the park I saw 2 deer. I was the only person there and it was kind of scary in a surreal and comforting way.

The grave markers were beautifully aligned in an attempt to make them all appear the same. I got out of my car and walked around. The names and dates are all engraved in the same font as well as the war they served in and any honors (lots of purple hearts). Some had flowers, some did not, some had wives' names on the back of the grave marker (very interesting indeed) and I started to read the names and think about the Tennessee man or woman each marker represented.

I was overwhelmed with a sense of peacefulness and thankfulness for my own life and for history in general.
Life is good, Life is great.

Isaac "Bubba Lee" Hayes

a haiku for you

oh, you will be missed
you hot buttered-shut your mouth
right on, yeah right on

reefer repair

special thanks to Kimberly and Jerm for sending this one...
only in Memphis baby!

mud island riverwalk

I used to love to go to Mud Island as a child, when it opened the awesome" Riverwalk", which mimics the Mississippi River's path to the Gulf of Mexico. I never see anyone down there anymore, what happened Memphis?

We need to bring the party back to the Island!

another sad Memphis situation

Jessie Dotson is the Memphis man who confessed to murdering the children on Lester Street on A & E's show "The First 48".
The show was edited, and he is presumed innocent until he is tried in court, but that is not why I am writing this post.
I am writing it because I cannot help but look deeply into Jessie Dotson's eyes in the attached photograph.
Perhaps this is due to my obsession with a person's eyes in general.
I have always believed that the eyes are the windows to the soul.

My point is, these eyes tell a sad story, a story that started years before the acts Mr. Dotson played out on Lester Street. As a Memphis City School teacher, these are the stories I see in many of my students' eyes. I often wonder if Mr. Dotson had any positive adult role models as a child. Did he go to a Memphis City School? Did anyone try to reach out to him?

I also wonder how many former MCS students have been incarcerated for violent crimes?
I know no one else cares, but I do.