Our Southern Souls Sunday: Spookie Dookie, the Blues and Rake Man

Welcome to Our Southern Souls Sunday. I’m glad you’re here. I hope to offer a peaceful corner away from social media, politics, news, and the feeling that the world’s on fire. There are still good people all around showing us better ways to live, and I’ll share some of their stories every Sunday morning.

Holley: “Only one person can have a ‘poopie day,’ and that’s me. I dressed up as Spookie Dookie a month ago. Now, if I’m having a bad day, I put on this costume and ride around Fairhope in my golf cart with Rick Rick, handing out poop stickers and telling people to have an ‘uncrappy day.’ Making people laugh feels so good we kept doing it. I laugh at myself and go home with a better attitude.

Rick: “We’re putting an outhouse on her poop mobile.”

Click here to read Holley and Rick’s story.

Bonus story: Rick has an African Gray parrot named Happy that wakes Rick at 6:30 every morning saying, “Hey boyyyyy. Where you at boyyyyyy?”

“My wife and I had this house in Baptist Town and opened the Back in the Day Museum to show how African Americans lived from 1871 to 1971 in Greenwood. This is how their home would look, smell, and feel. Items in the museum are what folks left behind before moving north for better lives. We have Bibles, tools, and lots of records. There was always music. The blues was a tonic: whatever ills you, blues heals you.”

Click here to read Sylvester’s story.

Flashback

Everyone in Yazoo City knew Cyril Dixon as “Rake Man.” He walked around town carrying a rake, ready to help anyone clean their yard. He did that for years. It was officially Christmas when Cyril put on his Santa hat. But Yazoo lost Cyril this week; he was hit by a vehicle and passed away. 

I interviewed Cyril in June 2022. He talked about his love of music, nature, and his mother. Cyril went to the Catholic church every Sunday and gave me a good sermon.  

Click here to read Cyril’s Story 

The comments on Cyril’s story told even more about him–and that we spell his name different ways. I hope he read these messages to see how much Yazoo loved him. 

“Cyril has worked for my mom for over 30 years and gets her a card at every holiday Mother’s Day, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving. He has watched us grow up our entire lives and I’ve never heard one negative thing from him!”

“Mr. Cybil is an amazing man, I have known him for a long time and he has brought me gifts and cards to my work at least once a week just make sure my week goes well and he is the kind that will stop and check on me every day just to make sure my day is going well and to check on my family I have nothing but love and respect for mr Cybil.”

“He can sing like a superstar and I think he would give anybody the shirt right off his back if needed.”

“He was so willing to help us keep our church looking good, especially with our leaves.”

“Sweet Cereal! He helped my family after the 2010 tornado.”

“I remember when me and my mom moved to yazoo and you came and asked did she need help with her yard you did outta the kindness of ur heart.”

“When I lost my wife on April 11, 1999 Cerial came to the funeral home. He made his way to me. He gave me 3 crumpled dollars and asked me to please buy some flowers for the funeral. He sat with me for over 2 hours that evening; He and I reminisced of the times he helped her in the yard and how she would go out of her way to find him and make sure he’d eaten that day. At her funeral, there was hardly enough room to fit everyone in the chapel, in attendance were dignitaries and even celebrities, but it was Cerial and his heartfelt compassion that touched me to the core. If I live to be 100, I will never forget what he did. That  was 23 years ago, and I’ve still got that $3.”

Thanks for caring about Souls and reading this first edition of Our Southern Souls Sunday. I’ll learn more about making this thing as we go along. If you have suggestions for folks I should talk to, email me at [email protected].  Have a great week!

Lynn

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