New Albany Saturday morning, lots happening after the storm

Some guessed as high as seven or eight inches, but nobody seemed to know for certain how much it rained Friday night, June 19, 2015, in New Albany.  Most home rain gauges only hold five inches of water, and many of them were overflowing. A dramatic storm with pounding rain and strong, confused winds and plenty of lightning and thunder. Parts of  Highway 15 and the streets near the intersection of Bratton Road and Park Plaza were briefly under a few inches of water.

Approaching the Biscuits & Jam Farmers Market on the left bank of the Tallahatchie River, Saturday morning, June 20th, one hoped the site hadn’t washed into the river the night before. It hadn’t.

The crowd was a little less than at some other times, but more than 300 people showed up to eat biscuits and jam and buy produce and listen to music played by Amy and Luke Fisher and Keven Guyer. Biscuits & Jam is held every Saturday morning during the summer, 7:30 – 10:30 a.m.

Fresh tomatoes at Biscuit & Jam Farmers Market.

Double bass, upright bass, contrabass, bull fiddle, doghouse base — it has a lot of names, beautiful to look at, nice to hear, Amy Fisher plays it many Saturday mornings at the Biscuits & Jam Farmers Market.

A short distance away portions of the Park-Along-the-River were under several inches of water, and the  Tallahatchie River ran fast and full.

Tallahatchie still full Saturday morning, and, from the pushed down vegetation, it was clearly much higher during Friday night.

At the New Albany Tennis Complex, with the evening’s rain dried by the morning sun, tennis games were underway. Some observers chose to watch from the shade of the pavilion, but many others were scattered over the complex, enjoying the morning. We noted the lack of water problems in the complex, a sign of excellent engineering and construction, considering the tremendous amount of rain that fell just the night before.

Southpaw serves

Saturday morning tennis

Watching in the shade from pavilion at New Albany Tennis Complex.

A few blocks east more free music started at noon on Tanglefoot Plaza. It was the last Live@Noon of the season. As always there was plenty of free food at the Live@Noon event sponsored by the New Albany Main Street Association. The music was exceptional:  Bonfire Orchestra, the popular “wedding band” from Tupelo played for two hours.

It’s a song so old that nobody knows who wrote it. The first known recording was made in 1934. The British rockers The Animals had the biggest hit ever of “House of the Rising Sun.” Their version was number one in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Finland, Canada and Australia in 1964. It’s been recorded by more artists that one can count: Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leadbelly, Woodie Guthrie, Joan Bias, even Andy Griffith. The Bonfire Orchestra played their version of “Rising Sun” Saturday morning on Tanglefoot Plaza.

If you didn’t make it to Tanglefoot Saturday morning, here’s a sample of Bonfire.

Enjoy: