Poplar Hill Farm Interview Essay

Excited to make my first visit to Poplar Hill Farm, in Jefferson County, Mississippi. Little did I know that I would fall in love with this rural community and many years later be asked to do research work with some of the most wonderful people, that became friends. Armed with hundreds of questions, anticipation and youthful curiosity. Open and receptive to all the stories, they were willing to share, trying to understand their life and the lives of their ancestors, what I did not know was the men I was about to interview over the next few days the last two men to have known Delaney Jackson. October is usually the time of year when the intense heat of Mississippi is waning and cooler conditions are welcomed. I arrived at the Fayette …show more content…
I then asked did the citizens of Fayette just stop by to visit, sharing town gossip, and move along... again told no way they were far more sophisticated than that. After visiting a bit with Dr. White, I decided to call Cousin Willie Jackson, Sr. I introduced myself again (as we had met at a previous family reunion) and told him I was in town and looking for his daughter "Doll" Veola. He explained that she had gone to town and would not be back for a while, panic must have set in. Still excited about my visit he sent his son, Ned to lead me out to the farm. In retrospect, I would be far more sensitive to his concerns (I was a white woman from Chicago coming to his home deep in the segregated south). Ned knew that this city girl had never driven the backwoods, he proceeded to drive like he was at the "Indianapolis 500" down the road that led to the house. And true enough, I had never driven in a rural community nor dirt roads, huge logging trucks on the left, no road to the right, and finally crossing a bridge that was built before the Civil War a true and real experience of real