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Conjure ball captivates as Kirby shares
stories
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| By: Rebecca
Hood-Adams, Lifestyles Editor |
May 20,
2003 |
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Doc Kirby (left) spins a story to the righteous
rhythm of Jimbo Mathus at Saturday night's Conjure
Ball.
| Conjuring last-century spirits and stories even older,
'Doc' Kirby captivated his audience. |
Against a backdrop of Jimbo Mathus' blues, the 85-year-old
Lula native spoke about the settlement of what he deemed the
sweet-spot of the universe.
"This is all ice cream land," he
said, explaining the development of the Delta, where topsoil runs 50
to 100 feet deep. "Clarksdale was particularly favored because it
was on the high bank of the river.
"We had a lot of trouble with
floods back then - no levees in those days - but if you look at the
Sunflower River even today, you'll see how steep the rise and
understand why this land was choice."
But dangerous.
Son of a
country doctor, Kirby recalled the perils of plantation life to
family and friends spanning three generations who gathered at Hopson
Saturday. He explained that the soil was so swampy, malaria so
prevalent, the woods still primordial and untamed, that death was
often the price for a profitable season. Consequently, most of the
Delta was unsettled until after the Civil War.
"My daddy made his
rounds in a horse and buggy," he said, as cameras captured his
recollections for Carnegie Public Library's Mining Your Memories
project. "But the flooding was so bad once when I was a little-bitty
boy that I remember Daddy and his horse had to swim two bayous to
deliver a baby."
For all its physical challenges, the Delta
birthed a lifestyle that, for some, was Eden.
"Hunting, fishing,
partying from one town to the next - once I learned to dance, I was
happy. Greenwood. Greenville. Rosedale. We all knew each other and
got along. "
Kirby, who now lives in Birmingham, is the "K" in
KBH, and one of the developers and designers of the first anhydrous
ammonia delivery system.
"He's been a writer, an architect, an
engineer and a farmer," teased Clarksdale's Guy Malvezzi, "and you
can quote me as saying, 'He's the master of none.'"
Kirby did,
however, prove a master storyteller as he tried to explain "why we
felt superior to people from the hills, even though when it comes to
settling Mississippi, we were Johnny-come-latelies."
"My mama
used to tell me, 'Son, don't brag about being from the Delta. It's
like talking about money in front of poor folks.' "
The rich
land, however, was also the mother of much mythology. Kirby said
that at the turn of the twentieth century, many in this area were
superstitious.
"We had our black witches and our white witches,
women and men," he said. "For some reason, the men were called
'two-headed witches.' They could put a spell on you that would ruin
you for life.
"Like a conjure ball." Kirby's hands rose in the
air to shape an old mojo memory. "It was filled with some kind of
vapors that exploded when they threw it in your yard. Only thing
that'd stop a conjure ball was a frizzly chicken, one whose tail
feathers stood up like a high wind had just hit it.
"A frizzly
chicken was more powerful than a conjure ball. Mostly, I suspect,
because it could peck-up that conjure ball and carry it off to the
woods."
Kirby also shared memories of Hopson's founders.
"Back
then, Mr. Hopson kept a live honey bee hive under glass in his
office," Kirby said. "He used to say he wanted someplace he could
look where somebody was working."
From butterbean hulls on a
doorstep to keep sickness away to the rabbit's foot he believed
helped win a race, Kirby was a living encyclopedia of
folklore.
"I grew up during the last days of the feudal system,"
he said about the time when belief in "haints" and high-cotton
dreams combined to create a unique lifestyle.
"Between all the
hunting and fishing a man could ever dream of, and knowing everybody
at the dance, it was a great life.
"Reckon I'm the only man I
know to ever voluntarily leave the Delta."
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| ©Clarksdale Press Register 2003
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Reader
Opinions |
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Name: Steve
Burnside | |
Date: May, 21 2003 |
Great piece.
Entertaining and a fun look at Delta history. Do
more.
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Name: Lulu Malvezzi
Maness | |
Date: May, 21 2003 |
As usual,
Rebecca, another wonderful article. It was such fun
having Doc come back "home" and tell his wonderful
tales. Thanks for sharing his stories to all. We have
heard them for years, and they get better and better the
"younger" he gets!
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| Number of
Opinions: 2 |
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