Have you ever seen HGTV’s hit renovation show, Home Town? I guess you could classify it as a reality show that documents Erin and Ben Napier as they renovate historic homes in their hometown of Laurel Mississippi. My wife LOVES it! I do too, but let’s keep that to ourselves for now. All kidding aside, it really is a great show. I think one of the reasons I enjoy watching is that Erin and Ben are authentic people. I feel like if I met them in person, we could easily become friends. They seem to love their quaint little town and all the people who live and work there, unconditionally. I admire that. Smalltown America deserves to be acknowledged, celebrated, and appreciated… especially for the weird things that happen in them.
Six months ago, we took a trip back to my own hometown – Hopewell, Virginia – to visit my grandma for her 90th birthday. On the way back, my wife suddenly shot up out of her seat like a circus freak getting launched out of a cannon. She had just realized that we were going to drive right past Laurel, Mississippi. She pled with me to stop. Pretty pretty pretty please. Giddy as a school girl. We needed to stop for lunch and gas anyway, so I said why not! It was literally right off the interstate.
First stop, Laurel Mercantile. The Mercantile is a shop that sells home decor, handmade soaps and lotions, floral wallpaper and prints, silverware, mugs, local art, books – you name it. Nothing weird to talk about here, so moving on.
Next, we decided to take a stroll through Downtown on foot. We wandered past charming shop after charming shop. Murals painted on the sides of buildings. Small parks with tons of personality… and artificial grass? Don’t know how I feel about that one, but it was vibrant and lively and had a level of detail that most towns don’t even consider. They have done an incredible job updating many of the old shops, giving them a much-needed facelift.
One thing I definitely didn’t expect to see that day was Mario, from the Mario Brothers. I turned a corner and there he was in real life. I know what you are thinking… it was a guy dressed up in a costume. Nope. That is incorrect. I wish I had a photo to show you, but I promise you he was not pretending. Red shirt, denim overalls, a red painter’s hat – He was not trying to draw attention to himself… just going about his everyday life, blissfully unaware of the fact that he was the doppelganger for an iconic Nintendo video game character. You don’t see that everyday.
From there we meandered over to Laurel Little’s Arabian Theater. I can’t recall if it was before or after we went to that location, but a Sheriff walked over to us and asked if we had seen a man wearing a Saints jersey. We hadn’t so he quickly moved on, but then another sheriff ran across the street to meet with the other officer. It wasn’t until they took off running that I started to realize we were witnessing the beginning of A Man Hunt on the mean streets of Laurel. Say what?!
Two unusual encounters would have probably been enough to make the stop worthwhile in my book, but the wackiness didn’t stop there.
Because we didn’t know if the guy who was running from the Sheriffs was a serious threat like an axe murder or just a Merchantile shop lifter, we hoofed up the hill in the opposite direction and ended up cutting through a street that went right past the court house. I was studying the architecture of the court house building, when low and behold, Colonel Sanders in the flesh walked across the street. He was a spitting image of Mr. KFC, no kidding. If it wasn’t him, then it had to be the professor from the WaterBoy movie that Bobby Boucher (Boo-Shay) beat up for laughing at him and his mama. You didn’t see that come, huh?
I’d say we spent about an hour and a half getting a feel of the area. At the furthest point away from where we parked, the sheriffs reemerged. We heard yelling, feet pounding the pavement, rushing and scrambling in the distance. I don’t know if they ever caught that guy, but kudos to the officers for not giving up.
By this point, we were all starting to get hungry, so we started looking for a local restaurant that could seat a family of five comfortably. That didn’t happen. Everywhere we went was packed, so we eased our way back to the parking lot in front of the Mercantile. We decided to spend a few more minutes driving around to catch anything we might have missed on foot. I don’t know what street we were on, but the excitement was not over yet! We had been keeping our eyes peeled all day in hopes that we would spot the production crew for the show. All our hoping, praying, and finger and toe-crossing finally paid off when we saw a sheriff’s car fly by… followed by a man carrying a massive camera on his shoulder sprinting to his car. As a producer, I know for a fact that the camera guy was not working for the local news and no local videographer could ever afford to buy a rig like that. He was definitely with Home Town. Pretty cool, huh!
Laurel Mississippi is five and a half hours away from where I live. Would I have planned a special trip just to go there if we were not already driving past – probably not. But now that I have been there… I am so grateful that we did stop. The memories we made as a family will last a lifetime. I wouldn’t trade them for the world.
Think about this the next time you are planning a family trip. Disney World and Universal Studios had to pour hundreds of millions in to their Star Wars and Harry Potter experiences to make them special… but in Laurel – stuff just happens!
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