Walking In Memphis...Not Such A Bad Idea

It's been just over four months since my arrival in Memphis (the city I used to refer to as "The Land of Pork and Poverty") and much to my surprise life here in the capital of the 'Mid-South' region has grown on me. Perhaps its the amazing group of friends from work, the low cost of living, the Southern Charm, non-existent traffic, the chance to live in-town (as opposed to exile in suburban Virginia) and the feel of a small town community in the midst of two million citizens.

I'd hoped to gather pictures from a greater variety of Memphis' many neighborhoods but yesterday's walk through the Downtown and South Main Street yielded so many photo opportunities that I'll save Midtown (where I live) for another entry.

For those of you that have been following the entries for the past few years you may remember "Colonial Glory, Diversity Story" about Penang, Malaysia. Once a booming company town during the rapid expansion of the British East India Company, Penang is filled with the symbols of a once shining past but as global politics and economics shifted fortunes elsewhere, the once thriving city became only a testament to a great past; Memphis is much the same. Once the trading epicenter for all of the area's cotton production, Memphis thrived on the traffic of goods from it's advantageous position on the Mississippi River. Up until the 1970's Memphis rivaled even Atlanta for supremacy as the South's major city. Though several large international corporations maintain headquarters here (FedEx and International Paper) there has been a general knowledge drain from the city, especially over the past 10 years. For now though I'll enjoy the graceful decay of a city that time forgot.

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