The South is famous for its hospitality. I think in all my travels, my experience in Columbus, Mississippi was a great example. I arrived in Columbus in the evening before I was to begin working with a local client the next morning.
I was in my hotel room when my phone rang. It was the front desk telling me that I had visitors and asking if she could send them to my room. She assured me that she believed it would be safe for me to accept these visitors. Safety, of course, was a consideration for a woman traveling alone. I agreed to see them out of curiosity, if nothing else. When they knocked, I opened my door and was greeted by two clowns. Yes, clowns! They came in my room and did a little skit welcoming me to Columbus and then left. I stood there thinking, “What was that?”
The next morning, I arrived to work with the client (a local Baptist church) and discovered that one of the ladies that I was to train that week was a clown in her free time and it was her and her friend who had visited me the night before. They laughed and laughed the night before wondering what I thought of their performance. What a welcome!
One of the other ladies at the church offered to take me to see the Waverly Plantation and then have dinner with her. The plantation was incredible. We were given a tour by the lady of the house. She was fixing supper when we got there. She put it on the back of the stove and proceeded to give us a great tour. The dear lady who took me to the plantation asked the hostess about the ghost in the plantation. She had grown up in the area and knew about how the plantation had stood vacant for 50 years before it was restored. She said when she was a teenager that the teens would go to the plantation but they never did any damage because they were scared off by the ghost. Our hostess said that, in fact, there was a ghost of a little girl and that she was a friendly ghost but that she was protective of the home. What a fascinating place.
What a wonderful group of people the people of Columbus are. If you get a chance, definitely visit Columbus, you’ll be glad you did.
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