Sunday Obsession: Travelers in Search of Vacancy by Karen Clark Rasberry

The Gilchrist County Journal Christmas on Main Street 2016 (Left to right, Yours Truly, Cynthia Kay, Mrs. Cindy Jo, and Mrs. Mary Ann) 

One of the people that I will hold near and dear to my heart until the day I die is Mrs. Cindy Jo Ayers. She is my former boss at The Gilchrist County Journal. Despite the fact that she is closer to my mama’s age, we just clicked right off the bat. She, like me, enjoys traveling, good food, family, and all things Southern. When I worked at the Journal, I always loved to see what she was writing every week in her weekly column, “Just Southern.” Typically, she tells either a story of times past, or some current goings-on in her life, or talks about her sweet family, and follows that with a weekly, mouth-watering recipe. Working with her, she could have me in a pure trance when telling me her stories. Mrs. Cindy Jo was honestly one of my biggest inspirations for this blog. She, along with getting to see all of my Trenton folks, is something that I dearly miss to this day…even though I have been at my current job for four years now.  

Mrs. Cindy Jo and Mrs. Karen Gore (L to R) at Teresa Miller's Tea Benefit.  Photo Credit: Cindy Jenkins Umpleby.

**Author's Note: Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of Mrs. Cindy Jo, as many times she's behind the camera.  So I had to use one I found online from a benefit for Mrs. Teresa Miller.  Photo credit goes to Mrs. Cindy Jenkins Umpleby.**

The Laurel Mercantile

I told you that to tell you this. When visiting Laurel Mississippi in December, we went to the Laurel Mercantile. As mentioned in my travel post a few weeks back, the Laurel Mercantile was quite something. They’re items are made up of local items, Mississippi-made items, and American-made items. While looking through the store, I ran across a book that was written by the owner’s mother, who had been a columnist for the Laurel Newspaper for years and years. In reading this book, I was struck at how very much her writing style reminded me so much of Mrs. Cindy Jo's. It’s Southern to the core, and even though I was born in the 80s, it made me nostalgic of a simpler time, long ago. A time when children had vivid imaginations, and played outside all day during those long Summer days. A time where you helped your grandma pin patterns to fabric, and sat shelling peas with your grandpa. I was lucky enough to remember some of these simple times spent with my grandma, mama, and daddy. I appreciate those sweet memories. 

The book, Travelers in Search of Vacancy by Mrs. Karen Clark Rasberry, is made up of short stories that are only made up of about 4-6 pages each. At first, before realizing that it was more of a memoir, it felt like a compilation of her columns. For those of you who enjoy Mrs. Cindy Jo’s writing, you will love this book as well. It can be found on Amazon and Books a Million (two of the sites I looked up while writing this blog post), but you may also try the Laurel Mercantile website, as that would bring some revenue to the beautiful town of Laurel.