trees sit submerged in what looks like green muck. We detour off the parkway for several miles to Court- house Square in Canton, popular for its Christmas lights and festivals. It’s centered by the mid-nineteenth-century Greek Revival domed courthouse, but the square’s most notable attraction is the Canton Film Museum, a corner red-brick building with a second-story New Orleans- style railing balcony. The museum features the actual sets of the 1995 John Grisham movie, “A Time to Kill,” starring Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock and Samuel L. Jackson. The first floor was made to look like a Mississippi diner, while the second floor houses the dark-walled office with brown leather chairs used by McConaughey’s char- acter, a lawyer. “In it you’ll see his diploma from The University of Mississippi School of Law—they issued him one for the movie,” explains Jo Ann Gordon, Executive Director of the Canton Convention & Visitors Bureau & Film Office. “The upstairs, where you can look out over the courthouse green, is what really sold the production designer on making the movie in this building.” A few doors down, the My Dog Skip Museum has photos, clippings, a desk and chairs, and
even a stuffed stand-in prop of “Skip” used in Willie Morris’ “My Dog Skip,” another movie filmed in Canton. Back on the Trace, we stop briefly at the Jeff Busby camping area at milepost 193. At 603 feet above sea level, it’s one of the highest points in Mississippi and the highest on the parkway. We drive on to Tupelo, the birthplace and a childhood home of Elvis Presley. Oppo- site the domed City Hall building, a bronze statue of the king of rock ‘n’ roll—singing with his hand extended— duplicates his stance in a famous 1956 photograph shot at a Tupelo homecoming performance. Along Main Street is the Tupelo Hardware Company where Elvis bought his first guitar in 1945. The 10-year- old Elvis and his mother Gladys actually entered the store to buy a bicycle. “They came in through the same front door you came through and they stood on the very floor you’re standing on right now,” explains store employee Howard Hite. “Elvis walked past the bicycles and stopped in front of this counter because he spotted a .22 rifle hanging on the wall, and he decided he wanted the rifle instead of the bicycle. His mother said absolutely no.” Hite says an upset Elvis was eventually calmed down by a longtime store employee and friend of the fam- ily who suggested a guitar instead. “So he reached over
12 COAST TO COAST FALL 2014
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