A Passing

Well, I've been gone for awhile. A dear, dear, friend was killed in a car wreck on the evening of 13 March, and I frankly have not been able to get over it yet. I will be back later, perhaps. Just need time to heal.

Barry

Back When The World Was Real

It's Sleet, Not Freezing Rain

Happy to report that Oxford had a small amount of sleet and no freezing rain to speak of. There you go.

Lovely Snow

There is a lovely light snow falling this morning in Oxford, Mississippi. The flakes are large and dry, not the wet snow type. Just flurries and I doubt there will be any accumulation at all, but still looks beautiful.

Father Winter Visits Oxford Mississippi

By special arrangement by his highness Al Gore, Father Winter paid a visit to Oxford, Mississippi this week. Yes, it was cold lads and lassies. Here at the McCain compound we saw a morning temperature of 11.5 F a couple days ago and it has been below freezing since Wednesday.

I produce the photograph above as evidence thereof; it was taken just off the Square here in Oxford yesterday afternoon. Yes, that lovely fountain is frozen, that is ice. Neat, eh? I think so.

Old Man Winter

I for one am very happy to see Father Winter visit us. I have hopes of fewer insects and other nasties come Spring due to the low temperatures. We have been some three days below freezing, which in my part of Dixie is something these days.

above, my two Manx cats on a much warmer day, they are optimists and like to sleep in the bird bath...

My two black Manx cats were entirely impressed. They set all time records for speed sprint bathroom brakes. Did not take the lads long to go outside, do their business, and shoot themselves back inside. They are clever, they take the chairs closest to the fireplace. Thanks to the help of my son Conar, a strong 14 year old, I have plenty of firewood and the last few days the hearth had a fine fire non stop.

I hope that Father Winter enjoyed his visit and will come back again soon. We miss him. Next visit I hope he brings snow, a good foot or more would be to my liking. I hope it hits on a weekday and the children will have the joy of missing classes and snow.

Barry R McCain
in the wooded hills of north Mississippi, just outside Oxford

The Teoc McCains

The latest attempt by the Establishment Media, or Socialist as I like to call them, to hurt John McCain is the non story of black McCains who are in ‘theory’ descendants of John’s Teoc McCain ancestors. This is a theory which the socialist Left reports thinking that there will be some sort of hue and cry surrounding this 143 year old ‘news.’ I will tell them as they likely don’t know, but people do not care about this story, unless you happen to be a McCain. If you are not a McCain it bores people and shows how small minded and bigoted the Socialist media are. Now, I am a McCain and I am interested in the story, but as an aspect of our McCain history.

Now, I actually know something about McCain kin and relations as I am the administrator of the McCain family DNA project. Yes, that’s right. My project has done Y Chromosome DNA test on many McCains from Carroll County, and the surround counties of Montgomery, Choctaw, Grenada, etc. To date every McCain from this area is a DNA match to each other. Not only that, I located the McCains in Ireland, and we are all a DNA match to them as well. I am working on a book, a memoir right now, which tells of my ‘Finding the McCains.’

There are some facts here the Socialist media do not like to talk about. First the Teoc and Carroll County McCains have always had an excellent relationship with the black community there, yes, even back when there were episodes of racial strife. Why? Because the McCains were active in promoting law and order, there were occasions they put themselves at risk to protect black members of the community, etc., even to the point of backing down mops intent on violence. Not only that the McCains were and are civil. I did not think on it much as a child, but later it struck me, in a McCain home you never heard negative racial comments, slang ethnic words, etc. I have never heard my father say any thing remotely in this line.

Now the old story about slaves, and by the way, my poor McCains lived east of Teoc, we were in the bona fide Mississippi Hill County, and we did not have a single slave and were very small holding farmers, but anyroad, that’s a lame attack on the Teoc McCains. If you think on it, slavery still exists in Africa, in fact our own USA slavery would not have flourished without black slave owners and traffickers in Africa facilitating the practice. Also I do not believe in the Socialist religion of White Guilt. Yep, sorry, I am not guilty, nor are my brothers. In fact I believe the reverse; I think European Americans, especially us Gaelic types, have been pretty damn generous. At the same time I consider slavery beyond barbaric, that it is gone here is a blessing to us all, that's obvious isn’t it? Not to the Socialist Left however as they use it to practice class warfare.

To paint the Teoc McCains with the slavery guilt brush is comical. Look at John McCain today, look at the McCains today. This is another non issue and non story whipped up by the Establishment Media which needs to desperately recruit new writers outside the clique of bombastic left wingers they use now.

Now as a McCain I do have an interest in the black McCains of Teoc. I’d like them to participate in the McCain family DNA Project. I think it would be great if they did, and if they are a match, then I could give them their paternal history back to Medieval times, which I think would make excellent chat around the supper table. That's not a little thing to give a family. They might like to know of the days when the McCains rode in galleys on the Irish Sea, to see the McCain homes in Ireland, and to smell a turf fire on the hearth. The McCains have good traditions.

Barry R McCain © 2008

The Fall of 1980, Terry, Mississippi

Fall of 1980

The dying shadow of an ancient oak
Is filled with the night’s cold,
White crystal lace,
Dawn lingers,
Escaping for a moment,
Brazen face
And his warm breath and warm smile…

Barry R McCain © 1980

Collards and Turnips

The recent hurricanes that have plagued the South do have some benefit here in north Mississippi. My fall crop of turnips and collards are thriving on the grey wet days produced by the storms.


The eating of greens is I think is one of the standards of measure of a Southerner. If you are not only from the South, but of the South as well, you eat them. Who among us has not had a nice bowl of greens, sprinkled with a little pepper sauce, a buttered wedge of cornbread cooked in a cast iron skillet on the side?


I am happy to report even my children, all thee of them enjoy their greens. Like some bizarre cult from Vulcan we surely must appear to outsiders. Mustards, collards, and turnip greens, we love them all. They are easy to grow, insanely good for you, soothing, good basic Southern fare.


We prepare them very simply, cooked in salted water to which a little oil is added. We don't add ham hocks or any meat to ours. Ours have a very clean taste. You serve them with what we call some pot liquor, which is the liquid they are cooked in. Some folk like to sprinkle a few cut red oinions on top.




Children, eat your greens...




Barry R McCain

Mississippi Wabi Sabi

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept and term; it is, as this Mississippian sees it, the Japanese art of realising beauty in imperfection and profundity in Nature, in her cycles of birth, growth, decay and death.




photo, Debi McCain

Wabi-sabi is found in celebrating and enjoying authenticity above the mass manufactured, in looking to the Craftsman’s work with its uniqueness and slight imperfections rather than that of the stamped out mass marketed; wabi-sabi is to celebrate the cracks and scratches and marks of time passing and our memories. It is warmth and life in a mysterious world that can be cruel.

A way of looking at the world that acknowledges we are visitors here children. Embrace wabi-sabi… the grey hairs, the wrinkles, the weathering and frayed edges of life and things. See the beauty in your life, yes even the dent your son put in the back door moulding. It is the subtle waiting to be noticed, beauty waiting to be discovered in your everyday life and things.

When you reach your middle age you will be very happy or not, you will have realised the concept of Wabi-sabi or not. Wabi-sabi is life on this earth. It is going to the Farmer’s Market instead of Wal-Mart… do you see?

Barry R McCain © 2008

A Pint of Guinness

Well, here I am back in the wooded hills of north Mississippi after two weeks in Ireland, one of which spent in the Ballybofey/Stranorlar area. My host was local historian, poet, and writer, Ivan Knox and his lovely wife Letitia. We were up and down the Finn Valley, to Drumboe, on to Whitehall, down to Castlefin, out to Port Hall and StJohnstown, and then over to Donegal Town, etc. all several times over. Our mission was to visit many of the McCains and their kin throughout the district, which we succeeded in doing. A large Howdy to Jonathon McKane and Mrs James McKane in Drumbo, to James and Irene McKane at Whitehall, to Iain and Joyce McKane at Port Hall, and to the many other McCain relations I visited. It was great also to visit McKane’s Corner and see the lads that still come there for the craic.

I was up in Letterkenny briefly to do be interviewed by Shaun Doherty. The highpoint of that visit was getting to meet Fr Shane Gallagher, who was in the Highland Radio studio being interviewed himself. He’s an impressive young priest and the sort of fellow that makes you have hope for our future. In these days of rapid secularisation of society, it takes courage and grit to walk the path less travelled, to stand for something good, yet Fr Shaun has done just that; our prayers and best wishes to him and his family.

Ivan Knox did inspire me. His knowledge and love for Finn Valley people and their traditions impressed me. One focus of his energy has been the bringing back of the Mummer traditions. This I found fascinating, because in my part of the Diaspora we used to also have Mummers. It has fallen off nowadays, the enormous weight of modernity often pushes aside these wonderful folk customs that mean so much when you stop and think on it and also add to our quality of life. I am going to take a page out of Ivan’s book and see if I can awaken a Mummer tradition here in north Mississippi.

Lastly, I’ll leave y’all with a puzzle. The prize of a pint of Guinness here in Mississippi runs around 2.25 Euros. In Donegal it runs around 4.20 Euros. Figure that one out for me please.


Barry R McCain © 2008
Oxford Mississippi

Barry R McCain can contacted at; barra@ms.metrocast.net