The Extra Mile Podcast
State Senator Lydia Chassaniol

(Paul) Welcome in to another edition of the Extra Mile podcast presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. I'm MDOT, deputy director of Public Affairs, Paul Katool. And as always, I'm joined by my co-host, Will Craft. He is the director of public affairs at MDOT. And Will, it is summer travel time.

(Will) It is.

(Paul) We want Mississippians to get out on the highways, on the interstates and explore the great state of Mississippi. There's plenty to do, see, hear, eat. And with that in mind, we are here in Greenwood, Mississippi, to speak with State Senator Lydia Chassaniol, and she chairs the Senate Tourism Committee. She represents District 14, which is Talla, Carroll, Grenada, LaFleur, Montgomery, Panola, Tallahatchie, and Yalabusha Counties. Senator Chassaniol, thank you so much for hosting us. First of all, tell us where we are in Greenwood. Tell us about the building.

(Senator Chassaniol) You are in a wonderful historic building on Howard Street in Greenwood. My husband's cotton office has been here for many years. He's retired from actively selling cotton, but he is still maintaining his office. And this used to be a bank in days gone by, and now it's been renovated, and it's used as an office building. So, I think it's wonderful that you came to this historic site and that we were able to visit.

(Will) It's very neat. He was even giving us some context, some history, and some old stories from back in the day looking at some of the old pictures and things.

(Senator Chassaniol) Yes.

(Will) He said his grandfather being the first ever president of the Greenwood Cotton Exchange back in 1927.

(Senator Chassaniol) That’s absolutely true. Here's a painting I actually did for him, years ago that shows his grandfather, and the famous chicken will Edwards, when they were working together years ago. Chicken Will was famous for his grilled chicken. And he I think he fed the entire Delta Council one time.

(Paul) Wow.

(Senator Chassaniol) He was that good a cook. And so well, well loved.

(Will) It's very neat, very neat.

(Senator Chassaniol) Food and delta and cotton and good times all just roll together.

(Paul) Love it.

(Will) And as you mentioned, we are proud to be here. So, this is part of your district?

(Senator Chassaniol) Yes, absolutely. This is in my district. And there's probably a vote for me sign somewhere around here.

(Will) I'm sure I think we probably passed one coming in. That's right.

(Senator Chassaniol) I hope so.

(Will) Well, Ms. Lydia, again, thank you so much for joining us, taking time, and hosting us. It's really neat to be here in this cool space. We'll get into kind of some of your legislative services. It's obviously not your first rodeo. Been doing it for a little while since 2007 in the Senate.

(Senator Chassaniol) That's correct. I’ve been in the Senate, since 2007, so I've put 17 years of service in.

(Will) In blink of an eye, too.

(Senator Chassaniol) And it's been - yes, it has gone by very quickly. And it's been wonderful to be able to serve the people. And the only committee I've ever chaired is tourism, so if you ask me questions outside of that committee, I might have to call somebody. May have to phone a friend for help.

(Will) Fortunately, that is exactly what we want to talk about, tourism and all of your efforts. I know that you've been working on all kinds of stuff. You mentioned a couple of really cool, fun things that you guys are working on right now.

(Senator Chassaniol) That's right.

(Will) Let's hear about them.

(Senator Chassaniol) Well, let's see.

(Will) Specifically one that you talked about, the culinary travel.

(Senator Chassaniol) Yes. Yes. You know, Mississippi has some of the finest food in the nation.

(Will) We agree.

(Senator Chassaniol) If you don't believe that, you can always see where we rate amongst the folks who are probably the heaviest in the nation, that shows that we've got good food, and we like to eat it. But I've been talking with some people, specifically Dr. Darrell Jones and Dr. Rachel Carter, who are two professors at Mississippi State University. And I am an Ole Miss girl, but I want everyone to know I'm happy to work with people from all our universities. And Dr. Jones and Dr. Carter and I are trying to put together an idea that will actually teach people how to cook Mississippi cuisine. There are several programs in other countries. Bali, for example, has a program where the matriarchs of families will bring tourists in and will actually show them how they cook for their families, and teach the people the technical and the true way to prepare that cuisine. So, I think that's extremely exciting. We're looking at the opportunities to partner with towns all over the state. For example, the cuisine in northern parts of Mississippi are totally different from Delta food and certainly different from the food along the coastal areas. So, my idea is the longer we can keep people traveling around Mississippi on our roadways. Thank you very much MDOT.

(Paul) Yep, there we go.

(Senator Chassaniol) The longer they will stay here, and this is beneficial in a lot of ways. As you probably know, Mississippi has, in my experience, had a lot of bad press. And if you want to make friends with people, give up something good to eat, sit ahead and let them get to know you, let them visit with your family. What could be a better way to introduce people to the real Mississippi?

(Will) I love it.

(Senator Chassaniol) So, Viking Range Corporation, which is situated here in Greenwood, many people know about it. Just down the street a little farther, I'll drive you past there in a minute. They have the Viking Cooking School. They also have The Alluvian Hotel, which is right across the street that has a wonderful restaurant affiliated with it. Many people come to Greenwood for the experience of the Viking Cooking School, for the experience of staying at The Alluvian, eating in that restaurant, going to the spa across the way. I mean, it's a nice getaway. And of course, since I cook all the time, I have Viking products in my kitchen and I'm a cook. I actually enjoyed cooking at a restaurant years ago. And it's wonderful that we have these products in Mississippi and these opportunities. What the Viking Cooking School does is take people who've come for a getaway, and it's more of a social experience than a real culinary immersion, like Mississippi culinary immersion, but it does give people an opportunity to cook, have fun, share meals sometimes with people they know, sometimes with people I've just met.

(Will) Yeah.

(Senator Chassaniol) So this culinary experience to me is a great seller for the State of Mississippi.

(Will) I would participate even not being from out of state.

(Senator Chassaniol) Here's the deal. I think the Viking Cooking School is booked up like a year in advance.

(Will) Oh wow.

(Senator Chassaniol) So, if you wanted to just join, maybe you and your wife or you and some friends wanted to join. My goodness. You’d have to book a year in advance. Now, a lot of people don't plan that far ahead, but I'm delighted that that business is so good.

(Will) Yeah.

(Senator Chassaniol) And that people are enjoying the experience of coming and cooking on really fine equipment, made right here in Mississippi, and that we're able to promote our state and a positive social experience like that.

(Will) I love that.

(Senator Chassaniol) So that's part of what's going on. But the culinary tourism, stay tuned, we're going to meet with some executives from Viking and also Dr. Carter and Dr. Jones. And we're going to see what we can put together and then work with our towns to further this experience and moving on. And, you know, if we can get a plan together, I'm going to ask for some funding because not only is it a good way to bring tourist Mississippi, it is a good way to sell Mississippi in a very positive light.

(Will) I agree. And it kind of jumps right into the next product initiative you were talking, telling me about. This kind of that town-to-town marketing that you see.

(Senator Chassaniol) Thank you for reminding me of this. When I was newly elected to the Senate, Blake Wilson was over the Mississippi Economic Council and he gave a talk to all of the senators and he said, of course, he's from up in the Northeast, he said, “you know, Pennsylvania has a great plan for promoting their tourism.” My ears kind of perked up. He said they have the Amish country, and said every town Chamber of Commerce, since the Amish people aren't allowed to advertise, the Chamber of Commerce will say, oh, see this authentic Amish bakery or see this authentic Amish farm. And not only will they promote that town, but they say ten miles down the road there is another Amish attraction. So, they are continually moving people down the road. And as people go and stop, they are once again having a cultural experience that's positive. They're having a fun time. I mean, when tourists want something fun to do, something interesting to look at, a good meal, and a safe place to stay. And it's pretty simple because once they have those things in place, they'll either come back or they'll send their friends this way, which is good. I think Highway 82, their town to town marketing, and of course my district is in the middle of Highway 82, from Columbus to Greenville, think of all the things we have to show, and this is a good road. Thank you MDOT. And you have a college right there in Columbus. Guess what? Another college right there in Starkville. There's lots of tourism attached to sporting events, the sort of cultural events that colleges frequently host. I heard Merle Haggard in Starkville, Mississippi before he passed away. That was very cultural. Then along this way, we also have the blues markers and blues trail. And when you get to Indianola, guess what? There's the B.B. King Museum. Even Greenwood, Mississippi, right here has a wonderful museum of the Mississippi Delta. I was just visiting out there last week. It's incredible what- they put on a little show called “The 3rd of June, Another Sleepy, Dusty Delta Day.” Does anybody know what that's from?

(Will) I think I've heard that before.

(Senator Chassaniol) They made a movie about to0 “Ode to Billie Joe,” famous song from a Mississippi Girl. And Eden Brent who is a terrific singer from Greenville, came and performed. People brought lawn chairs. The catfish guy brought his food truck up from Itta Bena. We all had a great time, and it was just a wonderful time of fellowship, music and celebrating our culture in a very positive way. But all of this is on Highway 82, and you get over to Greenville, good Lord, you've got the Mississippi River and never been in one, but I hear the casinos. I'm teasing. Of course, I've been in a casino, I chair tourism. You know. So also, all these churches along this way are fabulous. And I have often thought if I could get some of these church groups together and do a stained-glass tour, imagine the things that people could see. Just here along Highway 82, and that's just one little slice of Mississippi.

(Will) Drew actually mentioned how beautiful one of the churches were as we were coming into town today.

(Senator Chassaniol) They are. We have extraordinarily beautiful churches all along Highway 82 from Columbus to Greenville. And so, I'm just holding these examples up to you. There are plenty more places that we can talk about.

(Will) Those are good ones.

(Paul) No doubt. So, we're talking about summer travel, be remiss. We didn't mention MDOT’s travel Resources, the MDOT traffic app and MDOTtraffic.com. Jump on there, get to where you want to be safely, delay free. So, you mentioned some things to do in the area, talk about other parts of the state. Where are your favorite places to visit?

(Senator Chassaniol) I was just recently led a delegation to two towns south of here. We went to Ocean Springs because I think that's a really cool place. As I mentioned, I'm a painter. I taught art for a long time, and the Walter Anderson Museum is in Ocean Springs. Well, if you want to see a real treasure, that's a great place to go. Plus, we were looking at Ocean Springs from the standpoint of what's good about a small town. Ocean Springs is near, just across the bridge, Biloxi, where all the glitter and glamor is. But they're not the casinos in Ocean Springs, but the towns hoppin’. They have 60 restaurants in this little town. They have a wonderful, walkable shopping district. There's some cool- We stayed at a place called the Roost, a friend of mine is the manager. He used to work for a large casino but got burned out with all the- during covid, I think he was actually having to make beds. So, he's now the general manager of the roost and that's a quaint boutique hotel in Ocean Springs. Had a great time there, did some- they sent some people over. Judy Young, who's head of coastal Mississippi Tourism, sends some guys over in vintage cars, sixties cars, and the guy that took me for a ride was driving a Mercury that was just like the cool car that a guy I dated in high school had. So, it was it was deja vu all over again, as they say. It was a wonderful experience. The coast is a great place to travel, but I always want folks to see the commonalities we have. Ocean Springs goes to the Gulf of Mexico. Greenwood, we've got rivers here.

(Will) That's right.

(Senator Chassaniol) Greenville, go to the really big river. As the head of the Walter Anderson Museum said, the Mississippi River is America's Nile.

(Will) That’s right. And that's a cool, cool way to think about it.

(Will) It is.

(Senator Chassaniol) We're hoping we can collaborate and maybe do some work with that museum and our museum and maybe put together some collaborative projects. So that's something we're working on. The other place we went recently, same group of people. Laurel, you know what's happened to Laurel? If you've got a TV, you've turned it on, and Hometown is the show. We were invited to come for their 100th wrap party. The 100th building that home or office, they're doing a little of everything down there. I mean, everyone, we need to clone the neighbors. Things that they have done for Laurel, Mississippi, it's just extraordinary. It's extraordinary. They've taken what they have, fixed it up, and now people from all over the world are watching this program and they are coming to Mississippi. A lot of people want to move there. They found it at the housing market, let's say, oh, I have $1,000,000 to spend that would buy you a mansion in Mississippi. In California, you’d probably get a doghouse. So, you know, these people are excited to come here and we're so nice. Laurel also has a good food filter. We ate lunch at a place called the Buzzards Roost.

(Will) Oh, wow.

(Senator Chassaniol) Yeah. And that was the coolest place. My favorite appetizer I've had in a long time, and listen to this, fried chicken skins. They were delicious.

(Will) Oh, I could get with that.

(Paul) That sounds good.

(Will) Yeah.

(Senator Chassaniol) I mean, you talk about making lemonade out of lemons. Who wants to eat the chicken skin. Well, you go to the Buzzard’s Roost, and you'll go back for some more. They were great.

(Will) I think I could be for that.

(Senator Chassaniol) Yeah. So that was super. And, you know, they have a food truck culture in Laurel, which is good. One of the best things I saw, though, is they have kind of a greenspace area. And we were walking up to the workshop where they do a lot of the work on the buildings. You know, they'll do a design piece for one of the houses that they're redoing. And I said, this green space is artificial turf. Turf, is it? They said, yep. I said it looks kind of different, what are those markings on there? Oh well it is previous life, this astroturf used to be the practice field for LSU, and we bought it from them.

(Will) Oh wow.

(Paul) Wow.

(Senator Chassaniol) And put it down to is that our greenspace? So, I thought, hey, how sustainable is that? Otherwise, it was gone into a junk peep somewhere and yet they put it down and now tourists from all over the world are walking on it and they repurpose things. And that's what we need to do more of in Mississippi.

(Will) That's pretty neat in that.

(Senator Chassaniol) Isn’t that cool?

(Will) I tell you; we just keep finding out all these fun facts.

(Senator Chassaniol) Yeah.

(Paul) Love it.

(Senator Chassaniol) These are places that aren't in my district, but the folks are wonderful and, you know, they're doing all sorts of good things all over the state. But that's just two examples I wanted to share with you.

(Will) And those are great.

(Paul) Fantastic.

(Will) Absolutely. And then just, you know, we're talking about summer travel and running around and favorite places, favorite things to see. What about our favorite food spot?

(Senator Chassaniol) All righty, boys. I'm so glad you asked. We are going to leave here shortly and go to my favorite place in the world, the Crystal Grill. It’s right here in Greenwood, Mississippi. I think Cat Cora, who is a famous Mississippi chef-

(Will) Yeah.

(Senator Chassaniol) is on one of those programs, The Best Thing I Ever Ate. She said it was the lemon icebox pie from the Crystal Grill.

(Will) That's what we've heard.

(Senator Chassaniol) Yeah. The Balance family's been doing this for a long time. And of course, my husband, Ben Greenwood, eats there frequently. I think they sort of keep the spot open for.

(Will) We can't blame him.

(Senator Chassaniol) Yeah, but the food is good, and that's what I like about it. It's hometown, it's real cuisine. And if you go there today, the gumbo or the vegetable soup or the salad, well, it'll be the same if you go back in six months or a year. That's the beauty of it, consistency. And, you know, that's what people want most tourists don't pack a lunch for a week's trip somewhere. And so, we're trying to get people circling around in Mississippi. A lot of times people will come into Memphis Airport and rent a van. Asian people do this a lot. There are all these cool places in these towns where you can rent a loft apartment for a couple of days. They'll come in from Memphis, Circle around, visit the B.B. King Museum, come over here, visit the Alluvian, and they keep traveling around and then finally, after they've gotten down to the coast, they'll fly back home. Now you can fly out of a good Mississippi airport on the coast, the Gulfport, Biloxi airport is very nice. It’s an international airport. Or if you want to drive over into enemy territory, go right over to New Orleans and you can fly out of there. But we want folks to come here, have a positive experience, and then go back and say, gosh, those people in Mississippi are great.

(Will) Yah.

(Senator Chassaniol) And I haven't even talked about Natchez or Vicksburg yet. But, you know, they're both great, too. So, we've got a lot of river, got a lot of cool things to see all along the way. East Mississippi, I would be remiss if I didn't say Marty Stuart to me is just the greatest thing. He has taken Philadelphia, Mississippi, put his money where his mouth is, and he's fixing that place up. He's got the Congress, the country music is my friend Jennifer Branning, who is the senator from over there, has been very supportive of his efforts and it's got to get people traveling all around. We have the country music trail, which I'm on their commission with Blues Trail. We have we have literary geniuses from Mississippi. So, any time people says, oh, you don't have any culture in Mississippi, you just think, well, you don't know what culture is. We got lots of it. We want people to come see it-

(Will) That’s right.

(Senator Chassaniol) -and travel on our good roads that MDOT prepares for us.

(Will) Absolutely.

(Paul) There is no doubt about that. We love the great state of Mississippi. Visit Mississippi, as they say.

(Senator Chassaniol) Yeah.

(Paul) So, we, you kind of touched on music a little bit. So, we've got one more question for you. Favorite musician, band. concert. What do you have for us?

(Senator Chassaniol) Oh, well, I've got so many favorite musicians course I love Marty Stuart, he put on a one man show for some of us legislators at a theater in Philadelphia back during the session. Everybody knows that Marty is a genius as far as music history and country music history, because he worked with the great Johnny Cash, but he has his own band, The Superlatives, and they are superlative. But having said that, Marty got up there, He had two guitars, one to get from Hank Williams Junior, one had belonged to Johnny Cash, and he had a mandolin. You know, usually Orange Blossom Special, for you country music folks, is played on a violin because, you know, you can do all that, he played it on the mandolin. And I thought, good heavens, I had no idea what a virtuoso this guy was.

(Paul) Oh wow.

(Senator Chassaniol) I mean, his fingers were smoking when he got through.

(Will) Oh, yeah, right.

(Senator Chassaniol) It was that good. One of my favorite musicians is somebody is going to help me with a fundraiser in Winona this next month, her name’s Akela Huddle. She used to be my attorney at the capital, and she got lured away to do some lobbying for a power company, but she's also an extraordinary musician. So, she is volunteering to come and help us raise money for a new animal shelter.

(Will) Okay.

(Senator Chassaniol) I mean, isn't that great? We're going to do dinner and a show for FIDO. I’m the cook, Akela is the musician, and the people that belong to the animal advocacy group are going to wait the tables and wash the dishes. I said, If I cook this stuff, y'all are cleaning up.

(Will) That's a fair deal. That's a fair trade, I got to say. So, Marty Stuart, you talking about him, so Rick, his and Ricky’s guys worked back in the day. Kentucky Thunder, some of those bluegrass specials was kind of my introduction into music.

(Senator Chassaniol) Yeah.

(Will) That's kind of where I fell in love with bluegrass and country at my grandmother's house, listening to some of those.

(Senator Chassaniol) It's the purest blues, purist American music.

(Will) And exactly as you said that I can remember, just being blown away, kind of astounded by, this before I even started playing guitars and music myself. How does he move his hands that fast? You know?

(Senator Chassaniol) Well, I'll have to say this. This is always my joke. I used to play flute and piccolo, and when I was in high school, my mother was going to send me to an all-girls school up in northeast Mississippi. I'm not going to name it because I don't want anybody to say, well, she don't want to go there. But I didn't think I would fit in. Let me just put it this way. So, the band director from Ole Miss came running around the high schools, auditioning for people, and he said, why don't you audition for the band at Ole Miss? You might get a scholarship. I went up there and auditioned, got a scholarship, said, Gee, mama, I'm sorry, I've already signed the scholarship to go to Ole Miss so I can't go to the college you wanted me to go to. But it was great when I was there. Archie Manning was the quarterback and we-

(Will) Oh, yeah.

(Senator Chassaniol) Archie was on the field four quarters, and I was out there at halftime, so it worked it out.

(Will) Entertainment from the get-go.

(Senator Chassaniol) I had a wonderful time. So yes, I'm very appreciative of music and the opportunities it has afforded me.

(Will) That's awesome. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I guess to kind of close up, Paul if you have anything else, absolutely. But one thing I did was want to mention, as you sort of alluded to, but we have learned since we got here, I did not know about the art and background that you had. And so, we actually propped up an original piece right here behind.

(Senator Chassaniol) Oh, that's right.

(Will) That we have stolen, I don't know, we're attempting to buy right now. We're going to take this back to for the podcast room. But an original piece, I had no idea. Very pretty work.

(Senator Chassaniol) I have done a couple of pieces of art for my husband besides the one of his grandfathers and the famous chicken Will Edwards. that is the Tallahatchie Bridge, you know, Ode to Billie Joe.

(Will) That’s right.

(Senator Chassaniol) Billie Joe jumped off the Tallahatchie River Bridge. Well, standing on this, this is a print, actually, I think it has the painting somewhere else.

(Will) Right.

(Senator Chassaniol) But standing on this bridge are my husband and one of his longtime friends, Luther Wade, who actually played football with Archie Manning.

(Paul) Oh, nice.

(Senator Chassaniol) And a couple of years after this picture was made, I had to paint it from a little tiny Polaroid that they had. The bridge fell in. So, I'm glad I did the painting because the bridge is no more.

(Will) I thought so, too. It's just a neat- and it looks really cool, and I'm excited.

(Senator Chassaniol) I'm so glad. Yes. Please take that back.

(Will) We are. We absolutely are.

(Senator Chassaniol) I want y’all to have a print and I'll sign it for you.

(Will) Perfect, yes, we’d love that. We're going to get you to sign our board here, too.

(Senator Chassaniol) With pleasure.

(Will) Perfect.

(Paul) Thank you, ma'am. So, Senator Chassaniol, thank you so much for coming on the show telling us about the wealth of cultural assets in the state of Mississippi. There are many. Thank you so much for joining us.

(Senator Chassaniol) Oh, it was my great pleasure. Look, Mississippi is the best place on earth. Come see us.

(Will) Yep.

(Paul) Absolutely. That's a great message. We'll just wrap things up right there. Thank you to our listeners, our viewers for tuning in to the Extra Mile Podcast. You can watch and listen to episodes by visiting goMDOT.com/theextramile. Follow us on social media @MississippiDOT is the handle. We’ll wrap things there. Remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi highways.