MERIDIAN(S)
When the urge is overwhelming, you owe (pay) attention to it, and so I did. Nine miles south, I crossed the Chunky river and began my final approach into Meridian, MS proper, I started thinking of this place. Really no more than a stretch of interstate to me, yet still, I fought the urge to pull over on the side of the interstate to start writing.
This is how I find myself at the only Starbucks in town, the 50th ounce of coffee for the day, warm. A cool breeze. The tallest building in town, a hotel it turns out, above me. Me, unaware that I'd driven up to it. Me getting out of the car wondering where that tall building I always saw from the interstate was. Look up. Look up.
I've spent one night in this town since 1989. Once. When traveling for business. I know nothing of it, other than it sparked an urge to stop. To listen. To capture.
And so. Here I sit. On the corner of 22nd Avenue and 6th Street, doing just that.
If asked "do you think you're different than most people?" I'd say yes. When peppered with the follow up, "Why?" I would point to this. This willingness to do this exact thing. To stop in a town and write a bit. To think a lot. To connect the dots. I have a little margin. I will take this time.
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My first memories of Meridian had the same view, albeit from North to South as our family made its way to Long Beach, MS in 1978. Our new home. I remember it only for one reason. My address. Well my former address, our family having just vacated 21450 Meridian, Grosse Isle, MI. Meridian. This is familiar. I will remember this place.
My previous Meridian, forming most of the memories of my short life. The basement of toys, a deck built by my grandfather and dad, boats in the driveway, a blizzard and building a snow fort (just a hole really), the woods, a fireplace, gerbils. I remember standing across the street from it a couple of years later at our old neighbors house, wanting desperately to walk across the street and knock on the door. "I used to live here." I'd say. They'd let me look around. See what they'd done with the place. Instead, I stood in the neighbors front yard staring across the street, sobbing uncontrollably. Feeling something I now know as "loss".
Meridian(s). Different. Related.
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In my teens I came to this Meridian for swim meets from time to time. Once for state meet I think. The team going to the movies together and watching the first Aliens which would have made this 1986. I have driven through this city 50 times since and I think of that movie excursion every time. The theater no more. It's been a flea market and a now a church I think.
We always stayed at a Holiday Inn up on the hill. The aforementioned '86 trip, my friend Jay picked me up in his moms red BMW on the last night and we drove around 1986 Meridian until midnight, listening to INXS, Listen Like Theives and this band called REM. The time honored practice of teenagers, "looking for parties" yielded the same successes as it would in coming years. Aka. Nothing.
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My senior year another weekend here for a "convention" of a high school fraternity I was in. My mom, a last minute chaperone bailing out 2 guys who got a DUI. For high school we were pretty advanced in some ways. Planning a trip for the weekend and somehow getting away with 50-100 high school kids having a party at a hotel and having a meeting or two. Spectacular when you think about it.
Kinder, gentler. Times. Good times.
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Today the trip from the interstate to the tall building was short. The visible population mostly black, then all of a sudden lily white. Noticeably so.
The city palpably small, like most small southern cities, seemingly shifted to the interstate where none of the character that's left can transfer to the people and car's plummeting through it at 80 mph.
Before I am done I look up the definition of Meridian. Like most times when I look up definitions I find delight. Like many words, we get to a working definition that's close but not always accurate. I'd landed on "a line of separation". Not quite.
The first most recognized one is:
"a great circle of the earth passing through the poles and any given point on the earth's surface."
But I like this one better.
"a point or period of highest development, greatest prosperity, or the like."
Under a tall building on a Monday with a hot cup of coffee, I sit and smile, and think.
This could be the greatest prosperity....or the like.
#hugsandhi5s
