Dedication of the Mississippi Monument, Vicksburg Military Park, Nov.13 1909.

“One summer when Rawa was visiting us, Amos drove us over to Vicksburg to see the Civil War military park. Bama and Mama spent most of the day screaming at Amos to be careful driving around all the steep hills in the park. I believe it was on the Fourth of July and one of the hottest days on record. We drove on across the Mississippi River to Tallulah, Louisiana, where they were having a big celebration on the Court House lawn. Some country woman was sitting on a bench nursing a baby and Mama was horrified that she would do this in public and told us not to look.”

And it’s still hot in Vicksburg on the 4th of July, as I’m sure it was in the 1863 summer that Bigma’s brother died there, and the day Amos careened around the park with a load of Evanses, and the day that Sara and Russell first took me there as a small child, and the 4th of July, 1986, when Sara welcomed her fourth and last grandchild, James Evans Miller, into the world. Happy 25th Birthday, Jim Dandy, and Happy Birthday, America!