When I was a teenager, I didn’t always feel like I fit in my hometown. Somewhere around 9th grade, I found a squad, but they were other dreamers, and bookworms, and folks who just barely walked the line between goody-two-shoes AND rebels. I left for college and the big wide world really thinking I’d never be back… not because I wanted to live in a big city, or move away from my family (I wanted NEITHER of those things) but because I wanted a posse of like-minded, similar interested folks and thought I could find them somewhere else.
I DID find those wonderful, fun, amazing people in various places I’ve lived (how did I get so lucky?) but now my people are spread around the country from San Francisco to Virginia to Atlanta as we’ve all migrated closer to our own families and roots. Now I’m home again, and I’m pretty excited to say that Laurel may not have been what I thought it was all along. Or maybe it was, but a crew of dreamers, artists, and big thinkers stayed behind, working little by little to make it into the town and community they’d always wished for.
Either way, Laurel, Mississippi is buzzing these days. HGTV has come calling, there are artists opening up shops downtown, there’s a butcher for heavens-sakes… and in a community that’s always had pretty stringent blue laws and fairly negative mindsets about social drinking, Brett and I are BEYOND pumped about what’s happening in the old radio station.
It turns out that some super interesting folks from Jones County have been home brewing beer for about three years, and JUST opened up their own brewery. Their beer is sold all around the southern half of the state, but the BEST part is that on Saturdays they open up for tours. For $10, you can get a tour (or two), a Slowboat brew glass, 36 ounces (!!) of their good, strong, local beer, and unlimited hanging out in their cooler-than-cool space.
Our Delta friends Jamie, Bobby, and their year-old baby Maggie Mae came for a visit a few weekends ago, so Jamie could run in Laurel’s Ultra Marathon (seriously? how did I NOT know we had a 50 mile trail run in this town?) and we took them to Slowboat. Jamie, the photographer at Jamie Hardin Photography, got some great shots of the space and the happenings, and shared them with me. I’m pretty sure that other folks like me are unaware of the awesomeness happening in Laurel, so it feels important to tell the world! Thanks Jamie for these shots, and folks, if you need a great family or wedding photographer in or around the Delta, clearly, Jamie is someone to ring up! 😉 
Ok, back to this awesome Laurel spot. ON top of the fun company hanging around and the delicious, a-typical brews, if you’re lucky, my long-time buds Juice and Candice will be slinging sandwiches from their gourmet food truck, Backroad Bistro (their own spotlight is coming soon on MoG so stay tuned) and the sunshine will be abundant while you sip and chill out on the picnic tables out back, surrounded by old graffiti and kids who run around with sidewalk chalk.
If it’s rainy, they have picnic tables INSIDE too, plus fun board games (BOARD GAMES! HOW DID THEY KNOW THIS WAS MY FAVORITE THING!) and I’m guessing there’ll be some music in the near future.
I honestly can’t tell you how having a super cool place to hang out with people we like that ALSO has plenty of safe space for our little guy and his friends to run around is truly the best thing ever. How many small towns can say that they have a place like this? I think we’re planning to spend nearly ever Saturday from here on out at Slowboat, and I hope you’ll come join us. Maybe I’ll challenge you to a game of bananagrams or Settlers of Catan…you just never know. 😉
The tour guide!
The brew master
Makes me wish for a road trip to MS…and an evening among friends.
Oh my! I didn’t realize this was your blog until I saw the pic of your ‘lil man. This is so very awesome. Big things are happening in Laurel and all you cool, young folks should be commended for your vision and enthusiasm. Hope to see you and your sweet “W” soon.