Heebie Geebies

It is another smolterin' day in Natchez, Mississippi. At least I'm not the only one who is all sweaty--everyone is. This morning I got to go do a little overtime and help out at Junior Ranger camp. It was the first day of Week #2, and there are some funny kids this week. My job was to help them with the scavenger hunt which sent them all over the Melrose grounds looking for clues. At the end of the hunt, we took them through Melrose. The group that Angie and I took through the house was obsessed with ghosts and "spirits." This little kid named Lil' Herm (no joking!) said, "Man, this house gives me the heebie geebies! Are you sho' there ain't no ghosts in here?" I said, "Yes," to which another kid replied, "Yeah right, the ghosts just don't scare you adults. Their job is just to scare kids!" I told them that we already had the Ghost Busters check it out, but they didn't believe me.

Today for lunch I went to the Donut Shop where they make two types of food: doughnuts and tamales (random). I thought I'd give their tamales a try, and they were awesome!! I also got this doughnut thing called a pine cone, and it has chocolate-caramel frosting and pecans in it--talk about yummy! After the Donut Shop, I went to Wal Mart and ran into all four of the missionaries serving here in the area (two of them are assigned to Natchez and two to Vidalia). I was standing in the customer service line to return something, and the elders came up and said hi to me. So we were chatting for a minute, and one of them said that it's only the second week of the month and he's already almost out of cash. I jokingly said, "You've got to put a curb on your gambling so you can save up some food money!" The elders laughed, but then this very old gentleman in front of me in line turned around and said very seriously, "Boys, you should not be gamblin'." We all said, "Oh, we were just joking around. We don't gamble." Then the elders and I finished our conversation and they went off to go grocery shopping, but the gentleman in line proceeded to speak with me for the next ten minutes about the evils of gambling. He said, "That's the devil's money!!" I just nodded my head and said, "Mmmm hmmm" to everything he was saying. Then he said, "However, if I were to go there and win me a whole lotta jackpots, then I could give half of it to the Lord. It would be taking it from the devil and giving to the Lord!" Thankfully, at this point it was his turn to go up to the cash register. Lesson learned--don't joke with the missionaries around older guys at Wal Mart.

Also today, I went to this store called Sports Center. I was just looking around, and then I heard someone say, "Canwehepshumpin?" I didn't know that the person was talking to me, so I just kept browsing, but then I heard it again: "Canwehepshumpin?" I looked up and saw one of the store workers standing there looking at me. I said, "Sorry, what was that?" I finally figured out that he was saying, "Can we help ya with somethin'?" You see, compared to people like that (almost everybody here), I definitely do not have a Southern accent!