Reflections: There's No Place Like Oxford

Enjoy our “Reflections” post — one of many vignettes and stories featuring memories of days gone by. This installment is from Bonnie Brown, longtime University of Mississippi employee. 
If you would like to contribute your own Reflections story, send it, along with photos, to hottytoddynews@gmail.com.

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I love Oxford!  What’s not to love? It is pure Southern charm wrapped up in a picturesque setting complete with an old-fashioned town square.  People are welcoming and kind.  
I was standing at the check-out counter at Home Depot recently, and it occurred to me that I was close to where I first lived when I arrived in Oxford in 1972, Ewing Trailer Park. In fact, the row of mailboxes for the trailer park was located just about where the Wal-Mart service station is now. There was a diner next to the trailer park in front of the former Johnson Motor Inn (where now stands Newks and Pet-Smart)  and would become the much-loved Ruby Chinese Restaurant a few years later.  

It was at this diner I had my first meal in Oxford. I ordered the “meat and three” lunch which included fried okra. I had never eaten okra, fried or otherwise, but thought while in Rome . . .  It was delicious! I loved it and still do. My first trip into town was pure pleasure. There it was, the Courthouse Square. My eyes drank in the quaintness of the town, and my ears picked up the Southern drawl of its residents. I was bothered, however, while listening to the local radio station I heard the announcer mispronounce Lafayette, or so I thought.  
I soon found employment at Ole Miss. I was welcomed there as well. My first couple of weeks on the job was stressful as with any new job. My boss was a junior professor himself fairly new to the School of Pharmacy at Ole Miss. He was intimidating and wouldn’t you know it; I got the flu shortly after beginning my new job. I have never been so sick.  High fever, aches and I kid you not, my hair hurt. I struggled and for four consecutive days had to call in sick. I was certain I would lose my job. On Friday, I dragged myself out of bed and to work.  

When I arrived, my boss looked at me, pronounced that I looked “like hell,” slapped his hand to my forehead to check for fever, and ordered me to go home. I expressed my concern that I couldn’t lose my job and he scoffed and again ordered me home. I am pleased to report that I didn’t get fired and worked extra hard to prove my worthiness. I loved the Pharmacy students, and soon they were calling me “Miss Bonnie,” a title that has endured throughout my career at Ole Miss. They weren’t aware that even though I was working and had a young child that we were the same age. I am proud to still be friends with many of them.
As a young bride, I first met Mississippi-born husband’s 80-something grandfather when we were dispatched to pick him up from his assisted living facility and return him to my in-laws’ house for lunch. I was seated in the backseat of our car when Granddad got into the front seat and without even turning around to make my acquaintance, looked into the rear view mirror and said, “Where you from, Sister?” A voice not sounding like my own responded, “Ohio.”  To which my husband chimed, “Southern Ohio,” as if that might redeem me somehow. I’m happy to report that Granddad and I got to be great friends and he forgave that I was a Yam Dankee.  
Yes, I grew up in southern Ohio, but I immediately loved Oxford. Yes, it was small, but there was Neilson’s, a Big K, Freds, a very small Kroger, and Sneed’s Hardware, as well as the iconic James Food Center, all very adequate for my small town life. I delighted when my children had that musical Southern accent and truly delighted that my grandchildren have an even more pronounced Southern accent. In fact, my firstborn granddaughter Piper told a story when she was four about her little pre-K friend who hurt her feelings and she “cried and cried and cried” drawing out those unmistakable Southern vowels as only a Southern Belle, albeit a small Southern Belle, can.

Through the years, Ole Miss provided my husband and me with employment, my children a college education, and now my grandson is attending Ole Miss.  We were surrogate parents to many, and our extended family has grown through the years.  They come in all colors, from all backgrounds and we are so proud of them.  My husband declared it was time to retire when he began teaching the children and in a few cases, the grandchildren of the students he taught as a young professor.  
I retired from a job where I dealt mostly with students who were in academic distress and wound up in a job dealing with scholarship students as their mentor.  Such a contrast,  and yet similar in many aspects.  
I have lived a profoundly blessed life.  When I was young, I imagined my future in great detail.  I could have told you exactly what my house would look like, what I would be doing (I planned to be a teacher), and that I would have five children.  Not one single thing worked out as I had imagined.  I have two children, both sons, of whom I am very proud.  Not a teacher but for my entire career, I had the privilege of being around college students, and my house didn’t look anything like the one in my well-planned future.  
Oxford is a magical place. I still love The Square, and I am still in awe each time I walk around the campus and rejoice that I am fortunate enough to live here. Yes, I am annoyed with the traffic and parking woes, the inconvenience of constant construction, and I often feel that I need to become reacquainted with Oxford as it has grown so dramatically in the last 20 years.  But I can’t imagine living any place else. How about you?

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