How Far Can I Get from Home?
I interviewed a Mississippi economist yesterday who told me my home state’s labor force has grown all of .1 percent since 2000 — .1 percent. This economics gig is still foreign territory to me, but even I can see it’s hard to prosper that way. The economist said people just aren’t moving to Mississippi the way they are to other Southern states, including tough ones like Alabama. He said they’ve got no reason to go to Mississippi, or at least very little reason.
Though I see friends of mine hanging on back in Rankin County, I’ll likely never join them. That’s a bittersweet fact of life for me, and I suspect for any number of people who now live and work far from where they grew up.
Anyway. Sarah Goodyear sent over this account by someone fleeing Hurricane Gustav this week. Loki followed the unraveling Katrina situation three years ago. This time he says his family met with troopers blocking the highway exits in my state — the universal code for “keep moving, partner.” We might ought to find a way to say welcome, y’all.
Bonus:
Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster
The Gambit’s wonderful New Orleans blog
Tags: Mississippi, New Orleans
-- Filed by Laura Conaway
September 4th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
It is good to know that, after all this time in the big city, you’re still a woman of the country.
Completely OT, but something from the Auld Sod has been tweeking me. How does a “Conaway” end up in Mississippi? I can understand McConnell, Adams, Jackson, or some other such Scot-Irish name, but not Conaway. I often figured that such an emerald-sounding name as that would have been stopped at the Louisiana border, but, obviously, I’m wrong.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I think I’m sort of your typical Scotch-Irish mix, with whatever else they threw in along the way. One part of my family, the preacher side, came in through Virginia and includes distant luminaries like John Adams.
The rest seem to have just sprung from wherever there was any red dirt — Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
OK, Texas & Louisiana makes sense. I know a few Conaway’s from both places.
Your familial link to John Adams is impressive. He seems to be a forgotten Founder, but I’m glad to have watched the HBO series. I didn’t know about his work as an ambassador.
I know; I’m now O-OT.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:36 am
The stats are proof positive that now is the time to buy land in Mississippi. Someone will discover it soon enough.