Columbus, Mississippi

Back when I took this photograph in 2007, I stood on Main Street in downtown Columbus, Mississippi and wondered what it would be like to live there, to work at The Commercial Dispatch, to return to my roots as a small town community journalist. It was a fleeting idea; I didn’t know anyone at the paper and didn’t figure they would talk to me if I walked in the door.

But it stayed in the back of my mind, always whispering, “This could be it. You would love this. This could be home.”

And now, it is.

Yes, I’m crazy busy. But by some strange stroke of luck, I landed exactly where my spirit has always wanted to be. Life is funny sometimes. I wandered the country and saw so many things, but what I really wanted was to take root and find home.

Some days, I look at the word “Mississippi,” stare at the intricate scroll of the letters, smile at the childhood spelling mnemonic (M-I-Crooked Letter-Crooked Letter-I-Crooked Letter-Crooked Letter-I-Hump Back-Hump Back-I), and think, what a beautiful, beautiful name.

What a beautiful, beautiful place to work — and live.

Music: Goin’ to Mississippi by Magic Slim and the Teardrops (video)

_________________

About the image

The sun rises on the offices of The Commercial Dispatch Aug. 8, 2007 on Main Street in Columbus, Miss. The Dispatch, a family-owned and operated daily newspaper, is headed by editor and publisher Birney Imes III and covers Columbus, Starkville, Miss., and the Golden Triangle. The paper was formed by the merger of The Commercial and The Dispatch in 1922 and has a daily circulation of 13,586 and a Sunday circulation of 14,695. (Photo by Carmen K. Sisson/Cloudybright)

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Carmen K. Sisson tagged Architecture, city, Columbus, Main Street USA, Mississippi, writing