Quote of the Day “There is creative reading as well as creative writing.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
It’s too long to cut and paste, so I’m linking a great article by a Mississippi writer that appeared in “Lost” magazine. It is about the author’s and his ARB’s efforts to track down and interview Jan Michael Vincent in rural Warren County, Mississippi. If that name is familiar but you can’t place it, he was a 1970’s era movie star well known for playing the young stuntman opposite Burt Reynolds in Hooper. He was in a lot of other things too, including “The Winds of War.” At some point, things went down the tubes with him. Anyway, I thought it was a great article and wanted to give you the opportunity to read it too. I wish I could’ve been in the pickup with them that day they went looking for him. The pair’s quest is marked by dry humor and a heavy undertone of pathos, and the two, as they often are in life are inextricably linked.
The writer is Alan Huffman who is a friendly acquaintance of mine. His buddy Neil is a friend. Alan is an interesting guy. He’s the author of a book I plan to read soon called “Mississippi In Africa.” It chronicles the experience of a group of slaves freed from Mississippi, who settled in Liberia and established a community based on what they learned as slaves, essentially creating a small version of Mississippi across the ocean. He also wrote “Ten Point” which is a photographic book about his family’s deer camp in Issaquena County, Mississippi. Alan also is the host of a well known and attended pig roast once a year out in the country. The house where he hosts the party (so I am told) is an antebellum home that was transported by he and Neil and probably some others from another county board by board and rebuilt on his family land just as it was before being torn down. I love to talk with Alan because he’s one of those folks who has the quiet, gentle ability to make you feel he can see through dissembling or exaggeration yet exercises no harsh judgment on whatever your thoughts on a given subject may be. The result is conversation at its most refreshing.
Travellinbaen 
Nice TB, I always liked Jan Mike myself. Never woulda guessed he was down this way.
My ancestor, John Ross Wade, also freed his slaves and sent them back to Africa as supposed act of good will.( I think that is what they requested when given choice) His old home is big landmark over by Brookhaven/McComb area. It is called Ross Wade Manor and is on national list historical homes.
I can’t believe I trudged through that whole article and they never talked to Vincent!!!
I am highly disappointed, what a let down.
Zeek, glad you read the article, and I hope it wasn’t a total disappointment. Regarding the failure of the writer to actually make it all the way in to JMV’s house, and my view on it, see the quote at the top of the blog.
That having been said, I was a little let down too.
TB…..that was a great piece…thanks for sharin that with us….i’d like to find other essays written by him….i’m generally a fan of any writer who writes about mississippi….especially when they describe actual places in the state…either current or past….i was just enjoying the detail in his descriptions of the topography, various trailers, bars, people….good piece of writing…he had me all the way through…funny, i didn’t care if he actually talked to JMV or not….thanks again
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I’m with Quail09. It was about the journey, not the destination.
“The pair’s quest is marked by dry humor and a heavy undertone of pathos, and the two, as they often are in life are inextricably linked.” Excellent line, TB. Really.
I know all about the “journey’s more important than the destination” quip. As a fan of Vincent’s I was hoping for a cool story of what he said or did once found,still a good piece.
TB, can’t believe you, had no comment on my ancestor and his humanitatrian effort.