Memphis International Airport (MEM) gave a sneak peek of its brand-new Concourse B on Facebook Tuesday, and the modernization project has the new space looking, well, modern.
MEM released several photos, which closely match the renderings of the project it has released over the years. Planning for the modernization project was made public in 2014, the same year demolition began on parts of Concourses A and C.
The project kicked off in 2018. Demolition of the old Concourse B began in January 2019. The latest public budget figure puts the price tag of the new space at around $245 million; no local tax dollars funded the project.
Have a look at the new space in this gallery:
Credit: Memphis International Airport/Facebook
Here’s how airport officials explain just what they hope to achieve with the new concourse:
Consolidation of airlines: Airlines were spread out across three concourses, but the modernization project will move all airline operations to Concourse B. While Concourses A and C will be closed, gates will be retained in these areas to accommodate future growth. Until the consolidation, Concourses A and C will remain fully operational.
• Consolidation of retail, food, and beverage: Retail operations will also be consolidated into Concourse B. This will expose vendors to a concentrated flow of passengers and will likewise provide passengers with more shopping and dining options.
• Higher ceilings, larger gate areas, moving walkways, and increased natural lighting: The modernized B Concourse will provide passengers with more room to move, additional natural lighting, and higher ceilings to create a more open environment. Moving walkways will also help improve the passenger experience.
Memphis International Airport (MEM) just marked its busiest week since December 2019.
Last week, 49,481 people passed through the checkpoint at MEM. That figure is 219 percent higher than the same week in 2020. But it’s still 14.1 percent lower than the same week of 2019.
MEM continues to recover at a faster pace than the national average.
“MEM continues to recover at a faster pace than the national average,” the airport said in a statement. “TSA’s nationwide checkpoint totals last week represented a 24.4 percent decrease compared to 2019.”
Travel tips
Thursday marks the beginning of the six-day, July 4th travel period for the airport. MEM officials expect 41,000 people to pass through the security checkpoint. Peak days are expected to be Thursday and Friday, which could see as many as 7,300 people per day.
For this, airport officials issued these travel tips for passengers flying this Independence Day travel season.
• MEM recommends that travelers arrive at the airport at least two hours before their departure time. The busiest period for passengers is between 4 a.m. – 8 a.m.
• Passengers should check with their airlines to monitor schedules.
• Airlines rather than the airport are responsible for all aspects of ticketing, scheduling, gate operations, and baggage handling. Check with your airline if you have questions about these subjects.
• With the exception of Vacation Express, all baggage claim operations for arrivals are now taking place in the Terminal B baggage lobby. Vacation Express will conduct baggage operations in the A baggage lobby for its weekly flights.
• While baggage claim operations will not be conducted in the A and C areas, the areas will be available as backup if needed. The curbs outside A and C baggage will also remain open for passenger pickup.
• With the expected increase in vehicle traffic outside the B baggage area, passengers are encouraged to utilize the cell phone waiting lot before picking up passengers. The cell phone lot features a real-time flight information display. To avoid traffic congestion, the baggage level curbside lane will be available for immediate active pickup only. Vehicles will no longer be able to park or stage outside the baggage area and wait on arriving passengers.
• The economy parking area may periodically reach capacity during peak travel days. When this occurs, additional signage will be added, and additional parking staff will help direct drivers to available parking spots.
• MEM is also prepared to activate an overflow parking area should the economy, short-term and long-term garages reach capacity. Should this occur, additional parking staff will help direct drivers to this lot. For convenience, drivers parking in the overflow lot may want to drop off luggage and other passengers at the terminal before parking.
Transportation Safety Adminstration (TSA)
• Screening continues to be performed primarily at the B Checkpoint. The C Checkpoint will be opened only during limited hours during peak periods. Hours of operation at the C Checkpoint will vary daily based on demand. Please follow the directions of TSA and airport personnel.
• As a temporary exemption from its “3-1-1” rule (no liquids in excess of 3.4 oz. in carry-on bags), TSA is allowing one oversized liquid hand sanitizer container, up to 12 ounces per passenger, in carry-on bags.
• In order to expedite security screening time, passengers should review the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA’s) list of prohibited items.
• Firearms in carry-on bags are prohibited by federal law. Check your bags before you arrive at the airport.
COVID-19
• The federal mask mandate is still in effect for all U.S. airports until September 13th. Federal law requires passengers over the age of 2 (with limited exceptions) to wear a mask when traveling through U.S. airports, including MEM.
• Passengers without a mask will be denied security screening and access beyond the TSA checkpoint.
• Passengers without a mask may be denied entry, boarding, or continued transport. Failure to comply with the mask requirement can result in civil penalties.
• Complimentary masks are available at the ticketing counters and the TSA checkpoint, and additional masks are available for sale at retail shops.
I had a nice conversation with Parnicka Motton last week. You never heard of her? She is the first and only female to hold the position of mechanic with the city of Memphis. And after a recent promotion, she’s now the only female service advisor with the city, managing vehicle maintenance for two police precincts.
Parnicka (par-neek-a), 44, was raised in North Memphis and taught how to work on cars by her grandfather. She was an only child and says she found refuge in books and cars.
At 20, she became a deputy jailer at 201 Poplar but, after seven years, decided the work wasn’t for her and found a job at Wackenhut, where she worked in security for several years. That work didn’t inspire her either. Then she got a break: A manager at Jiffy Lube took a chance on her, and she found herself working on cars, at long last. She moved up to assistant manager but, after six years, again wanted more. “There was no place left to grow there,” she says.
Then she saw an ad for an automotive tech with the city. “I was a 42-year-old Black woman applying for a job that had never been held by a woman,” she says. “I got the job in October 2019. I’ve been promoted twice this year, and I’ve never looked back. This is my passion, and hard work has paid off for me.”
Parnicka Motton (Photo by Bruce VanWyngarden)
It’s a great story. I’m telling it because I think Parnicka Motton’s determination to find fulfilling work can be instructive when we look at the current employment situation. Much has been written about how employers, particularly in the service industry — hotels, restaurants, delivery, etc. — are now unable to fill positions for room service, janitors, servers, dish-washers, and other lower-salaried jobs.
In Tennessee, and in 26 other states, GOP legislatures decided the reason employers can’t find workers is that people are staying home and living off the fat $300-a-week unemployment check that comes from the federal government. Combined with $250 a week in other benefits, an unemployed person can make a magnificent $26,000 a year. No wonder these folks aren’t rushing back to clean hotel rooms or wash dishes, the pols said. We need to cut benefits immediately. So they did.
It’s not working, at least, not so far. In Missouri, where benefits were cut on June 12th, there has been no uptick in job applications. In fact, a June 27th New York Times article reported that in states that have abandoned the federal benefits, responses on job postings were actually below the national average.
So what’s going on? For one thing, I think there are a lot of Parnicka Mottons out there, people driven to find a fulfilling career. And many of them discovered something about themselves while staying home during the pandemic. Namely, they don’t want to spend their lives doing crap work for crap pay at a crappy workplace.
Most of us have moved through lots of shit jobs. Before getting my first journalism gig at 30, I worked as a janitor, night watchman, hay-hauler, shingle-carrier, brick plant worker, seasonal harvest worker, house painter, and school bus driver, to name but a few. I was single, playing in bands, and not particularly career-driven, but I learned a lot about what kinds of jobs I didn’t want to spend my life doing.
I think a lot of people during the pandemic, maybe for the first time in their lives, got the space to think about their jobs, about how they’d been spending 40 hours of their lives each week. And I think many of those folks decided they wanted more control of how they spent their waking hours on this Earth.
If you’re going to try to make it on $12 an hour, why not try doing something on your own? Side hustles became gigs. Food trucks blossomed. Small businesses emerged. People decided they didn’t want a boss. They discovered that controlling your hours cuts down on childcare, commuting, and other expenses.
The pandemic opened a lot of people’s eyes to new possibilities. And chasing possibilities is what life should be all about. Just ask Parnicka Motton.
Sly Stone performs at the Harlem Cultural Festival, a concert series of the same caliber as Woodstock, but long buried in music history until now.
One of the highlights of Woodstock is Sly and the Family Stone’s volcanic performance of “I Want to Take You Higher.” Framed against the jet-black 3 a.m. sky, Sly Stone’s feet never seem to touch the stage as he leads 400,000 hippies through the five-minute rave-up. That moment cemented his musical legend.
But it wasn’t the first time in August 1969 Stone played to a six-figure audience. Earlier that month, the Family Stone showed up unannounced at the Harlem Cultural Festival, a six-week concert series that took over Mount Morris Park in New York City every Sunday afternoon. Playing in front of a mostly Black crowd, Stone was just as electric as he would be at Woodstock. That performance was also captured on camera, but instead of being edited into a groundbreaking documentary of the counterculture’s high-water mark, the footage ended up moldering in the basement of TV producer Hal Tulchin for 50 years, along with 48-hours worth of performances from artists like B.B. King and Stevie Wonder.
The footage was rediscovered in 2012 by producer Robert Fyvolent, who for years searched around for a director to take on the challenge of making a Woodstock-like film until he finally got a yes from an unlikely source. Questlove, the drummer for the Roots and bandleader on The Tonight Show, had never helmed a film before, but he brought some very important skills to the table. First, he is a scholar of American music and wrote Soul Train: The Music, Dance, and Style of a Generation. He already knew many of the people involved, so he had the ability to put the show in context for the audience. Second, he was an obsessive maker of mixtapes in his youth and now regularly performs as a DJ, so he knows how to arrange a playlist for maximum impact.
I have long been of the opinion that some form of musical training is a key ingredient for a filmmaker because a sense of rhythm and timing is invaluable in the editing suite. Questlove’s Summer of Soul proves my point. Painstakingly assembled from the Harlem Cultural Festival footage and interspersed with interviews from performers and audience members, this is one of the greatest concert films ever made. When it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this January, it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award. Contacted via Zoom during the virtual awards ceremony, the shocked Questlove said he didn’t even know the festival gave out awards.
The lineup for the six-week concert series is spectacular. Nina Simone’s set is dangerous and brooding. A cherubic-looking B.B. King is at the top of his game. David Ruffin, at that point separated from The Temptations, shows the exquisite range of his voice could hold up on its own. From the beginning, Questlove shows an uncanny knack for picking the best moments; the film opens with Stevie Wonder playing a drum solo. Did you know Stevie Wonder was a kick-ass drummer? I didn’t. Later, Wonder is shown being a punk to the MC, and you realize that the incredibly poised musician you just saw tear up the keyboard was still just a kid. Questlove spends a lot of time on the 5th Dimension’s polished harmonies, with Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. talking about how they came to make a hit out of “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In” from the musical, Hair, and making a case for them as one of the greats of the era.
The climax of the film has deep Memphis roots. Sunday, July 13, 1969, was gospel day at the Harlem Cultural Festival, headlined by Mahalia Jackson and the Staple Singers. Backing them up was the Operation Breadbasket Orchestra and Choir, led by Memphis saxophonist Ben Branch. A year before, Branch had been one of the last people to talk to Martin Luther King Jr., who requested Branch play “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” Onstage in Harlem, Jesse Jackson introduced the song, but as the band swelled, Mahalia Jackson found herself overcome with emotion. She tapped a young Mavis Staples on the shoulder and asked her to take the first verse. Staples, who idolized Jackson, found herself unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight in front of 100,000 people and rose to the occasion in stunning fashion. Then, the two women share a mic for a transcendent moment. It’s a performance that takes its place among Hendrix at Monterey Pop, Queen at Live Aid, Bowie at Glastonbury, Prince at the Super Bowl, and Beyonce at Coachella as one of the greatest ever captured on film. Words fail, as they often do, to express the power of this music.
One of the most frustrating things about investing can be FOMO — fear of missing out. Most new investors pick their positions by looking at the highest returns in previous periods and buying whatever did the best. Then they engage in an unfortunate game of leapfrog, getting drawn in by the next hot investment after it’s already gone up.
This outcome-oriented thinking not only produces poor returns; it’s also extremely discouraging. It’s the reason that after a setback, investors often start thinking about the markets as an unreliable casino and hang onto their cash, to their long-term detriment.
In a way, capital markets are a casino — but the rare one that is in your favor in the long run. Nobody can guess what will happen this month or year, but if history is any guide, it’s hard to be worse off in the markets as the years turn into decades and the growing earning power of thriving companies begins to manifest in your account.
It’s all about your mindset. Here are three simple statements that process-oriented — and successful — long-term investors tend to believe:
1. For any set of stocks or funds, just one will perform the best over any given period, and sometimes even the best one will go down.
2. Despite statement number 1, investors should stay invested and diversified through good markets and bad, even though much or all of their portfolio will miss that one best thing. They should not chase extreme performance no matter how tempting it may be.
3. Looking backward, investors shouldn’t regret number 2, even if they had a good guess about what would do best or if they see questionable choices of irresponsible investors rewarded with huge windfall profits.
While it’s difficult not to wish for a windfall, here are a few ideas that might help you avoid short-term regret once you’ve made the correct long-term choices:
1. Understand that the market outcome for a given period is just one of countless ways things could have turned out. A more conservative allocation might annoy you when everything is going up, but when things go wrong it can be a lifesaver. You never know, in advance, what will go wrong in the economy (COVID-19 anyone?).
2. To jump in and out of speculative bets successfully, you have to nail the timing perfectly, twice. You have to get in near the bottom and get back out at or near the top. Getting either decision right is hard. Getting both right is almost impossible. No matter what they say, your friends or people you read on the internet are not consistently successful at this in the long-term.
3. The kinds of investments that are likely to double or triple in a short time are also usually the kind that can go to zero very quickly. Believe it or not, if you can just average 20 percent returns a year, in the long run you will be one of the best investors in the world. There’s no reason to swing for the fences all the time.
4. Your investments are irreplaceable once you reach a certain career stage and age. A 20-year-old could lose their life savings on a speculative stock and make the money back in a matter of months. A 60-year-old looking at retirement would dramatically impair their lifestyle if they lost a big chunk of their nest egg. There’s just not enough time to accumulate money and get it working in the market to ever recover past a certain point.
Most new investors think the outcome is all that matters and compare their results to the hottest stocks and benchmarks to inevitable disappointment. A process-oriented investor can be confident they made good choices before even seeing the results. A process-oriented investing mindset can help you with the most important thing — staying in the race.
Have a question or topic you’d like to see covered in this column? Contact the author at ggard@telarrayadvisors.com. Gene Gard is Co-Chief-Investment Officer at Telarray, a Memphis-based wealth management firm that helps families navigate investment, tax, estate, and retirement decisions.
You won’t be melon-choly when you visit Priddy Farms. (Photo: Julie Ray)
Spencer Priddy’s farm sits on 24 acres in Bartlett, Tennessee. When the tree farm where his family got their yearly holiday tree in Millington closed, he thought, “I can do that.”
That was 23 years ago. Priddy has created a successful pumpkin and Christmas tree farm by researching best practices and proper planning. He started getting requests for a summer event and decided to roll out the inaugural Watermelon Festival this year. The summer festival features giant waterslides, bounce houses, a petting zoo, hayrides, and watermelons.
Animals like the watermelons, too. Be sure to share some with Chocolate Chip, Oreo, Clara Belle, Sherman, Dolly the Llama, and Pork Chop — just some of the miniature horses, pigs, and assortment of other friendly farm animals. Some of the animals are even rescues, like Nigerian goats, Biscuit and Butter. And some have unlikely allies like Mr. Peabody and Ms. Scarlett, a pair of peacocks who share their pen with a white rabbit.
“You can take a train ride to the watermelon patch,” says Priddy as he motions to the back 20 acres. “But it’s not really watermelon season around here yet. We brought these watermelons in for the festival until ours ripen.”
The festival has a garden gnome theme and is open Wednesday-Sunday through August 15th.
“Call me patriotic,” says Priddy. “We stuck some flags in our summer decorations, too.”
Fall will be here soon enough, and Priddy is busy planning a new corn maze for the upcoming season to add to the Haunted Woods attraction.
Watermelon Festival, Priddy Farms, 4595 N. Germantown, Bartlett, Tennessee, July 1-August 15, Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Friday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m, Saturday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m.-7 p.m., free-$8.
Spend the Fourth with Elvis. (Photo: Courtesy of Elvis Presley Enterprises)
Recently, a young co-worker asked me if Graceland was cool or cheesy. The answer is both. Seriously, the ’70s were total cheese. You just can’t get past that. But talk to any Memphian and they have an Elvis story — either about their parents, grandparents, or friends who had a brush with Elvis. And that’s pretty cool.
So, if you are a Memphian, the upcoming Fourth of July holiday might be just the ticket to get your cool cheese on when Graceland throws their All-American 4th of July Weekend event.
Elvis Presley Enterprises states, “Graceland is so excited to celebrate America’s birthday with friends, family, and fans.”
Aren’t we all, in some form or fashion, a friend, family, or fan of Elvis Presley — if not directly, by proximity? Plus, Graceland knows how to throw a party. On Saturday, events range from a $25 Ultimate Elvis Tribute concert by Bill Cherry to a $500 Hidden Graceland Tour. On Sunday, you can attend a Gospel Brunch for $50 or a private barbecue dinner reception for VIP and package holders. The finale is free and open to the public, with fireworks set to Elvis music.
VIP and package tickets are $346-$1,200 and include special perks, access to Graceland, including the interactive and special exhibits, and most of the Fourth of July weekend events except for the Hidden Tour of Graceland.
Sounds like a great staycation for America’s birthday. There is nothing more American than Elvis, rock-and-roll, fireworks, and barbecue.
All-American 4th of July Weekend, Graceland, 3717 Elvis Presley, Saturday-Sunday, July 3-4, free-$50+.
Everything you order at Jim Lord’s Mac Daddy Food Truck includes macaroni and cheese.
“That’s the focus,” Lord says. “In different variations and different ways to serve it and eat it.”
The idea was to do one thing “and do it well.” And, he says, “Who doesn’t like mac and cheese?”
Lord, 55, rotates four flavors at a time from his collection of 15 mac and cheese flavors, including pulled pork, smoked jalapeño with bacon and cream cheese, and the vegetarian Mother Earth — smoked mushrooms, caramelized onions, and goat cheese.
It all began when Lord whipped up some macaroni and cheese for his Pigs Gone Wild Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest team.
The company he worked for at the time asked him and some barbecue teammates to cater a function. Lord made chipotle mac and cheese, pork mac and cheese, and other variations at a “mac and cheese bar.” People kept asking him, “Do you have a store?”
Lord then did “grab-and-go” mac and cheese in little containers for holiday events. That evolved into 20 to 30 6-pound pans for functions.
He thought he might do a food truck whenever he retired from his job at USA Cheer. That plan moved up when going on the road came to a halt during the pandemic. “A trailer popped up,” he says. “It was too good to pass up.”
He began “building out” the trailer on weekends. “It took three months to build. We launched it before everything opened up.”
His mac and cheese recipe isn’t based on one single recipe. He just knew he had to make it consistent, which is something he learned from his mother and grandmother. They also taught him to add or change ingredients. “You start with a recipe and make it your own. You tweak it.”
Lord began cooking “very early,” he says. “My mom divorced when I was about 8, so she went to work full-time. As a growing boy who was hungry, I had to figure out how to cook.”
In addition to his roster of 15 flavors, Lord also has “a good six or seven” others in his head.
One of his favorites that he makes is his Cajun Mac. “It starts with making an actual roux as a base. Not just béchamel. The flavor comes through everything.” It also includes shrimp, sausage, and crawfish. “Everything you love about New Orleans,” he says.
Customers order the macaroni and cheese in 4-ounce scoops, which they can mix and match.
Lord also sells mac and cheese egg rolls. “It’s a regular egg roll wrapper. We fill the egg roll with mac and cheese and deep fry it and serve it with chipotle aioli.”
And you can get a Macarito — a mac and cheese burrito. “We take a tortilla wrapper and wrap it like an egg roll and put it on the grill. It has the little grill marks on it. You can hold a beer in one hand and a mac and cheese burrito in the other hand.”
Lord’s wife Ginger, his son A.J., and A.J.’s friend Dylan Nixon help him in the truck.
“Food is a passion of mine. And it’s something I’m able to turn into a hobby/job. I have a full-time job. This allows me to do that on my own terms and still keep it fun. I do it when I want to.”
It’s also “so much fun, really, creating it and watching people’s reactions. If you’ve never had a mac and cheese egg roll, your first bite is life-changing. It’s so much fun to see that.”
Lord eats his mac and cheese every time he’s in his truck. “You have to test it. It hasn’t gotten old yet.”
And, he says, “If I make a little too much, then that becomes dinner.”
To find out where Mac Daddy will be, go to Lord’s @macdaddymemphis social media pages.
Welcome to summertime in Memphis, Tennessee. It’s hot. It’s humid. The unforgiving sun is shining like a diamond. But the city’s opening back up in ways we only could have dreamed of this time last year. Whether outdoors or in, there’s fun to be had — and ways to cool down. Snow cones, refreshing cocktails, canoeing, swimming, and more await to make this summer the best one yet.
Assignment: Drink Beer
Summer is for beer. Cold ones are just better on hot days. That’s science.
The pandemic kept us on the porch for much of the summer 2020 beer-drinking season. Those annual traditions — like cookouts, concerts, and baseball games — all easily melted behind daily worries of a cruel illness that took so much more than just our summertime fun time.
For most, COVID-19 worries have now melted and those summer traditions have priority seating. We know what we missed last year, and we now know just how important that fun stuff — like drinking summer beers with your friends — really is.
To ensure you don’t regret missing a moment this summer, here is your Memphis summertime, beer-drinking assignment sheet.
Enjoy a cold one to take the edge off during an inning at AutoZone Park. (Photo: Courtesy of AutoZone Park / Facebook)
1. Drink light beer at AutoZone Park.
Beer and baseball is the winningest combo since pork shoulder and dry rub. Let’s face it, they belong together.
You absolutely can grab an IPA (and probably other styles) at the park. But the magic of the park and the game is really made with a light American lager, like Miller Lite. It’s simple, dependable, and when it’s served ice-cold in a big plastic cup — don’t ask me how it works but — the summer spell is cast.
2. Drink a fruity sour beer watching an outdoor concert.
Drinking to livestreams in your pajamas cannot compare to dancing to live music in your bare feet. We’re back at it this year with tons of live music events guaranteed to be packed and to boogie-oogie-oogie you from your socially distanced funk-ola.
Fruity sours are summer-perfect. They’re different, light, sweet, sometimes mouth-puckeringly tart, but predictably transportive. Like dancing in a crowd in 2021, sours will make you say, “Whoa. This is different. But I like it.”
3. Drink an epic hazy IPA at your favorite taproom.
Your favorite brewery’s taproom was closed last year. You couldn’t try the crazy beer with the crazy name that would never make it to grocery-store shelves.
Now that you can, you may not know that the national haze craze — the wave of hazy IPAs — has pooled securely in Memphis breweries. Call me a hazy boi all you like, but these beers are great.
They’re soft and sometimes sweet. Here, they show off the real creativity of Memphis brewers, the diversity of flavors these talented folks can concoct from one style.
Show up and order the hazy. Then you’ll know what’s up with a trendy beer that’s crazy-Instagrammable. (Shoot your glass with the sun behind it. And your local brewery will thank you.) — Toby Sells
Make your backyard the perfect home for more than just rubber duckies — no need to mow your lawn. (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)
Create a Yard for Wildlife
Tired of mowing and maintaining a lawn? I was, too. That’s why, a few years back, my wife and I began transforming our Midtown backyard into a natural habitat that attracts birds, hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. By using native and easy-to-care-for perennials, our main chore each year is to cut them back in the spring, fertilize them, and watch them grow and blossom. And as a bonus, it’s beautiful.
Our native black and blue salvia flowers, butterfly bushes, bee balm plants, daylilies, lantana, orpine, and even basil and thyme flowers attract hummingbirds better than our feeders do, though we have a couple of those, as well. The flowers also bring in bees and butterflies of every variety throughout the summer and fall. We keep a bird feeder filled with seeds year-round, which keeps the cardinals and finches nesting nearby.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) offers guidelines for making your yard a sustainable environment. The five keys are: food (plants and feeders that provide nectar, seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, foliage, pollen, and insects); water (birdbaths or other sources); cover (bushes, trees, and tall grasses); places to raise young (ditto the bushes, trees, and tall grasses); and sustainable gardening practices (no chemicals). If you’re into that sort of thing, you can apply to the NWF for a sign to put in your yard when you think you qualify.
We don’t have an official sign, but by midsummer our backyard is filled with life and beauty that brings us enjoyment throughout the day. By July, our fig tree is an all-day party. (Pecking order: blue jays, robins, cardinals, then assorted little guys and squirrels.) We have thrilling aerial “battles” between bumblebees, hummingbirds, and dragonflies as they jockey for position on the blooms. And our butterfly variety is second to none.
Sound good? Get started today. Dig up your lawn, start planting flowers and bushes, and just say no mow. — Bruce VanWyngarden
Say hello to ice cream in a cocktail: Global Cafe’s Peaches and Cream. (Photo: Samuel X. Cicci)
Beat the Heat With Sweet Summer Treats
Where I come from, humidity doesn’t exist. So it’s understandable that this former desert-dweller constantly needs a way to stave off all that excess water vapor when the Memphis summertime rolls in with its 90-plus-degree temperatures. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to temper the heat wave, and many of them just so happen to come out of Memphis’ booming food scene. Here are just a few ways to keep it cool while the sun is shining.
For something a little different from your standard ice cream cone, hop out to Cordova or East Memphis for a refreshing take on the sweet confection. Poke World serves up rolled ice cream, a dessert originating from Thailand. A regular ice cream base is poured over a freezing stainless steel surface and, once solidified, scraped off and formed into thin rolls. It’s both novelty and familiarity all at once, rounded out with other sweet toppings. Celebrate the season with the Summer Love, covered in bananas, strawberries, and whipped cream.
Down Summer Avenue (or one of its other four locations), Memphis’ very own paleteria always comes through in a pinch. La Michoacana serves up paletas, a popsicle derivation originating from Mexico. But these popsicles pack an extra punch that’s a cut above the usual frozen sugar water. Paletas are usually made from fresh fruits like mangos and strawberries or from creamier ingredients like chocolate. The bright, swirly combinations of fruity goodness will have your head spinning with brain freeze because it’s just so good. Devour at your own peril, but no one leaves La Michoacana unsatisfied.
But if a little more zing is needed in a dessert, just head on over to Global Cafe and let Juan work his magic behind the bar. The food hall’s cocktails always pack a punch, but go with this year’s seasonal drink, the Peaches and Cream. It comes as advertised, fresh California yellow peaches pureed into silver rum and topped with whipped cream. It’s basically ice cream in a cocktail format, and all the better for it. I stopped at one, but the urge to grab several more sits right there, dangerous and tantalizing.
These sweets are best in moderation, saved for a truly hot summer day. But there’s plenty more out there, of perhaps the Jerry’s or MEMPops variety, so get to exploring. — Samuel X. Cicci
Do you feel your temperature rising? Cool off with “King of Karate.” (Photo: Courtesy of Elvis Presley’s Graceland)
Day at the Museum
It’s a sidewalk sizzling Memphis summer, and after a year-plus of social distancing and livestreaming digital events, I’m ready to resume one of my favorite air-conditioned(!) pastimes — strolling leisurely through one of the Bluff City’s museums.
With recently debuted and soon-to-open exhibits at many of the museums in question, one would be hard-pressed to find a better time to take in some fine art, history, or pop culture.
The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Overton Park has too many exhibits to give a full accounting here, but “Persevere and Resist: The Strong Black Women of Elizabeth Catlett” and “Memphis Artists In Real Time” are two worth a closer look. Opening later this month is “Eggleston: The Louisiana Project” featuring work by Memphis photographer William Eggleston.
Over at the Memphis Museum of Science & History (MoSH for short, though old-timers might know it as the Pink Palace), museum marketing manager Bill Walsh says, “Our ‘Machine Inside: Biomechanics’ exhibit and Sea Lions: Life by A Whisker giant screen movie make MoSH the perfect place to cool off this summer and explore science, history, and nature.”
Meanwhile, further east, the Dixon, with its gardens and museum galleries, offers an equilibrium between indoor and outdoor activities. “We love to offer ways for visitors to beat the heat,” says Chantal Drake. “Cooling off in the museum is an enjoyable and educational way to get out of the heat. Summer exhibitions at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens highlight local artists, a centenarian artist, and our founders, Margaret and Hugo Dixon.
“Although it’s summer in Memphis,” she continues, “the shady spots in the garden are perfect for a picnic where visitors can top it off with gelato from Zio Matto at Food Truck Fridays.”
Meanwhile, at Elvis Presley’s Graceland, David Beckwith says, “Graceland officially kicks off the summer with the All-American 4th of July Weekend. The two-day event will include concerts, parties, a barbecue, a gospel brunch, special tours, and more, all capped off with an Elvis-themed fireworks spectacular.”
That’s just the tip of the hunka, hunka iceberg, though. The “Inside the Walt Disney Archives” exhibition, which opens July 23rd, celebrates the legacy of the Walt Disney Company archives, with behind-the-scenes access never before granted to the public. Currently open is the “King of Karate” exhibit. Included in the pop-up exhibit’s collection will be Presley’s personal karate gis, his seventh- and eighth-degree black belt certificates, and the original handwritten script for his 1974 karate documentary, The New Gladiators.
Stax Museum would like to share its “Solid Gold Soul” with you. (Photo: Jesse Davis)
Finally, at Stax, they’re celebrating their archives with “Solid Gold Soul: The Best of the Rest from the Stax Museum,” which opens Friday, July 16th. “‘Solid Gold Soul’ showcases the museum staff’s favorite objects that are not part of the permanent exhibits and, with the exception of Isaac Hayes’ office desk and chair, all items are on display for the first time,” says Stax’s Jeff Kollath. “Highlights include rare photographs of the Bar-Kays, Otis Redding, and Isaac Hayes; stage costumes worn by members of Funkadelic and the TSU Toronadoes; and rare vinyl records and photographs from the recently acquired Bob Abrahamian Collection.”
Of course, there are more Memphis museums to explore. The views from the Metal Museum’s bluffs are worth the trip, and every Memphian needs to visit the National Civil Rights Museum — preferably more than once. The Withers Collection Museum & Gallery on Beale is a personal favorite, and its deceptively small size in square footage is no hindrance to the breadth of Memphis life on view, as captured by the lens of photographer Ernest Withers. Whether it’s culture, history, science, or just powerful air-conditioning you seek, Memphis’ museums make for some special summer fun. — Jesse Davis
Paddle away from your responsibilities this summer. (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)
Paddle Your Cares Away
For this former Boy Scout, summer means it’s paddling season. While crafts like kayaks, canoes, or stand-up paddle boards take a bit of skill to keep under control, it’s not a steep learning curve, and the rewards are enormous, including the sublime quiet of such boating: All you hear is the dip of your paddle in the water and whatever the environment offers.
The environment can be spectacular if you make the short trip out to the Ghost River, a section of the Wolf River. Unlike parts of the Wolf in and around Memphis, the Ghost River section to the east has not been dredged and is dominated by cypress trees rising solemnly out of the unhurried flow, complemented with abundant wildlife, flowers, and grasses.
As Mark Babb, co-founder of Ghost River Rentals (ghostriverrentals.com), puts it, “Thanks to the efforts of the Wolf River Conservancy and others in the late ’80s, there is no erosion. It’s a Class 1 river, with a mild current. But we won’t go down the river with a chain saw and clear out the vegetation to make it an easy trip. We want to keep it natural. And when these trees fall across the river, they help to restrict the flow to prevent the erosion so it doesn’t become channelized or become a steep-banked river, like you see in other sections.”
As a result, Babb’s boat rental service recommends having at least one experienced paddler per boat. “A paddler needs to know how to steer a boat,” he says, “how to re-right their boat, how to avoid the tree limbs, how to portage over and around the downed trees.” Or one can spring for a guide to lead a group through the area.
Another option is to stick closer to the city. “When it comes to inexperienced paddlers, we recommend Kayak Memphis Tours (kayakmemphistours.com), which my son started. They offer canoeing and kayaking on the Memphis harbor and at Shelby Farms, including full moon floats every month, and July Fourth fireworks viewing out on the harbor.” — Alex Greene
Order a Wedding Cake Supreme for a summertime dream at Jerry’s. (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Cool off at Jerry’s
With apologies to Mungo Jerry and his song, “In the Summertime”: In the summertime when the weather is high — you can choose from 100 flavors at Jerry’s Sno Cones.
That also goes for fall, winter, and spring. And you can get hamburgers, chicken tenders, and other food items at either of the Jerry’s locations (1657 Wells Station Road or 1601 Bonnie Lane in Cordova).
Owner David Acklin was a customer before he owned the business, which he believes opened in 1967. “I used to go there when I was a teenager,” says David whose favorite flavor was — and still is — blue raspberry.
He got to know the owners L.B. and Cordia Clifton, whose son Jerry was the namesake of the business. The Cliftons became his “replacement grandparents,” says Acklin, who was 18 when he lost his grandfather. Acklin worked at a printing company at the time, but he also worked for the Cliftons for free after he got off his other job.
Acklin eventually bought Jerry’s Sno Cones, but he continued to work at the printing company. “I used to change clothes at red lights. Take off my tie and put on my shorts. … I used to wear penny loafers. I’d pull my socks off and slide into my flip-flops.”
There would already be a line when he got there at 3:30 p.m.
Acklin remembers going outside one July. “The line went straight out around the sign and two houses down.” He asked a kid in line to count the people. “So, 220 people.”
What’s the most popular snow cone flavor? “Wedding Cake Supreme. It’s red wedding cake and it’s got vanilla ice cream running through it.” — Michael Donahue
(Photo: Fortune Vieyra / Unsplash )
Summer in the Streets
Memphis has enough parks and playgrounds and other open space to accommodate a generous amount of summer recreation. And there are things to do off-campus, as it were.
The Bluff City has historically not witnessed the street stickball or other hazardous pastimes of so much big-city urban legend elsewhere, although the city’s sidewalks still work for hopscotch, and, with proper caution and adult supervision and sufficient notice to the neighbors, a children’s game or two undoubtedly gets played in the quieter residential coves.
As it happens, the streets are literally ideal for one particular form of recreation, which also has numerous utilitarian aspects. That would be bike-riding — if performed in the numerous lanes provided and plainly marked out along the margins of city streets and roads and carried out with sufficient attention to the rules of safety, particularly the wearing of helmets. Memphis has a variety of clubs for cyclists, and these groups generally provide for training and both spontaneous and carefully structured events.
As it happens, the simple act of walking and, with special care for fellow pedestrians, running are the most basic, easiest, and least expensive of street pastimes. Here, too, the largely common-sense rules of safety, such as attention to crosswalks and traffic lights, is called for.
Luckily, the Memphis Runners Track Club and other groups organize races and fun runs during the warm-weather months, and these, in cooperation with city government, take place along pre-planned and sectioned-off routes. The charge, when there is one, is nominal.
The often-overlooked Mud Island Riverwalk is technically not a street attraction, but it is outdoors, free of charge, and — in the oft-abused phrase — educational with its evocation of the city’s larger landscape, with enough DIY potential to appeal to the liberated spirit.
And, as veterans remember about the Jakob Dylan street concert of some 20 years ago, a serendipity stemming from a Beale Street opening, once in a while we have the good fortune of some free music. Maybe we’ll get lucky again. — Jackson Baker
Coach Rob Snowberger
Swim!
“It’s hot, and you need a pool!”
That’s how the classic Memphis commercial for Watson’s announced the beginning of summer. When the thermometer creeps upward, nothing is better than splashing in a pool or diving into a lake. But first, you should learn to swim, says Rob Snowberger.
As a swim coach for 50 years and the owner of Coach Rob’s Pool School, Snowberger has taught tens of thousands of Memphians to swim. “Drowning is the second-largest cause of accidental death, after car accidents,” he says. “It is the leading cause of death among preschool children. Below 3,000 deaths is considered a ‘good year.’ Seventy percent of those preschooler deaths take place in the backyard pool, which is the focus of our swim school — trying to avoid that catastrophe.”
Snowberger says it’s never too late to learn to swim — his oldest beginning student ever was 72. Children as young as 18 months can start learning, but the coach says most kids don’t develop the physical coordination needed until about age 3. “Swimming is a very complex feat. You’re kicking your legs, moving your arms, controlling your breathing. You’re turning your head in sequence with your arms. Dribbling a basketball is an easy skill, compared to all those things.”
Is it okay to jump in Memphis’ most famous body of water, the Mississippi River? “Oh, hell no!” says Snowberger.
Swimming in swiftly moving water is extremely dangerous. The Mississippi might look lazy on the surface, but that hides some of the strongest currents in the world. With those currents come all the debris that washed into the river as it traveled from Minnesota to Memphis. Swimmers run the risk of being struck by debris or pulled under by those currents.
Luckily, there are plenty of places to get wet, from public pools to backyard splashes to lakes. Snowberger says if you have small children, avoid the inflatable arm floaties and invest in a good life jacket with a strap between the legs.
And have fun! After all, it’s hot out. — Chris McCoy
UPDATE: Bobby Rush to play Levitt Shell on July 2nd
The blues is all about perspective. Think of how many classic songs of the genre urge you to take a step back and reflect, either on what’s plaguing you or on your good fortune. “The blues ain’t nothing but a botheration of your mind,” Blues Hall of Famer and Grammy Award winner Bobby Rush sings in “What Is the Blues?” — and just by saying it, he’s inviting us to contemplate. “I think, therefore I’m blue,” he seems to say, and every witticism, wry observation, and double entendre in his catalogue seems to confirm it.
So it’s been clear to anyone paying attention that Rush was a doctor of philosophy long before he received an honorary doctorate from Rhodes College in May. Now, with the publication of his autobiography, I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya: My American Blues Story, written with historian and composer Herb Powell (Hachette Books), it’s clearer than ever that Rush is a thinking person’s bluesman.
The title itself suggests a kind of meta-awareness. If you ain’t studdin’ someone, you’re not “studying” their hogwash. You’re not letting anyone’s claptrap worry you. In high-falutin’ terms, you’re not letting them frame the situation with whatever catastrophe (or gossip) they’ve cooked up.
It’s worth spelling out in a literal way because, as you read Rush’s book, you have to connect the dots yourself. He shows meanings by example. “I started lying about my age when I was 12, becoming 15 overnight — and I ain’t never looked back,” he writes on page one. “If you can’t give me a pass on that, then I ain’t studdin’ ya.”
It’s playful, heady stuff, and it captures Rush’s manner of speaking. Co-writer Powell wisely steps back and lets Rush’s voice unfold in true storytelling mode. And nearly every word reveals his poet’s eye for detail, the eye of the songwriter who’s wryly observed human behavior for decades.
“The sugarcane stalks were just starting to turn yellow in late September,” the book begins. “I looked at the back of Daddy’s hands as he massaged the stalk. The contrast of his boot-black skin against the greenish-yellow leaf looked like the stark colors that I only saw on the shelves of the general store.” With such vivid language, Rush is especially eloquent on the subject of his parents, and it’s clear that his father, a preacher and “a true bookworm,” played a large role in Rush’s philosophical bent.
The philosophy includes many hard-won lessons on the deadly absurdities of race in America — “White Devils, Green Money,” as one chapter puts it. Rush doesn’t paper over the injustices of growing up in the South; nor does he let such prejudices define him. He clearly ain’t studdin’ ’em; rather, like his father, he carries an indomitable dignity that has helped him weather the good times and the bad.
Yet, the man who emerges from these pages is a man of great faith and hope. Yes, his faith is of the Baptist variety, deeply informed by his father, but it’s also a secular faith in the more progressive side of the American Dream, a faith that justice is worth pursuing.
As it happens, and with impeccable timing, his more secular faith as a citizen is about to get some extra play, just a week after his book’s release. As a capstone to his many years as a visiting scholar in the arts at Rhodes’ Mike Curb Institute for Music and on the eve of his July 2nd show in the Shell Yeah! Benefit Concert Series at the Levitt Shell (originally scheduled for July 1st), Rush is releasing the single “America the Beautiful,” by Bobby Rush and the Curb Collective, featuring Eddie Cotton. The funky redo of the patriotic classic is a collaboration between the artist and students from the Curb Institute at Rhodes College that “pays tribute to our musical roots and celebrates our collective sounds as a nation.” Watch for Rush and his students to perform it live at his Levitt Shell show.
