Jaybird and Junior were atop a world of gar mania and were soon as wealthy as Johnny D. Rockefeller and Andy Carnegie. But still, they were just good, honest ole country boys at heart, and agreed that they should share their great fortune in some way. So, they decided to establish a university.
After choosing an ideal location, Good Grief, Mississippi, a sleepy, dusty Delta town, the population of which never numbered more than a few hundred folks, they met with the municipality’s mayor and other prominent citizens. Junior laid the proposal on the table and explained that because Good Grief was a quiet, secluded, picturesque village, it would offer an ideal environment for a center of learning.
Jimmy Reed's Jay's Gar Ponds:
Parts 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6,
My friends and fellow Garvillians...
Well, as one can readily imagine, a whole lot of cogitating on the part of the Good Griefians wasn’t needed to realize what a windfall had descended serendipitously upon them. They even took the proposal a step further by renaming the town Garville. One fine spring day, all the dignitaries met on the town square and the atmosphere was jubilant and festive as each speaker stepped to the bunting-festooned podium. When it was Junior’s turn to speak, he rose eloquently to the occasion.
“My friends and fellow Garvillians, we have come to dedicate a portion of this great town as a place for educating future generations, a place of learning for a resource even more precious than gars: our young people. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
“The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we are doing here, for Gar University graduates will journey all across the globe, developing enterprises that will mean employment, security, profitability, productivity, and a better way of life for all … not unlike what the gar industry has done for this once impoverished region. Let us therefore dedicate ourselves to the great task remaining before us.”
With that, Junior stepped down from the podium and along with Jaybird, shoveled the first two scoops of dirt in the groundbreaking ceremony. The assembled mass of onlookers roared and clapped in approval, the band struck up a tune entitled “Gar Extravaganza,” written especially for the occasion, and a parade with Grand Marshall Jaybird waving proudly, as the first float, shaped like a giant gar, began making its way down the thronged streets of Garville.
Before the next academic year began, Gar University was completed. From the ornate, arched front gate, through serene tree-lined promenades, to manicured parks, football fields, tennis courts, golf courses, swimming pools, to dormitories, to edifices of magnificent architecture erected for all the various educational disciplines, to the grand amphitheater for the performing arts, it was a university like no other on earth.
And because Junior had an academic bent, being the moon-eyed daydreamer he was, the townspeople approved unanimously his appointment as chancellor. After all, his great vision brought to reality that which funded the university’s establishment: Jay’s gar ponds.
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
