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PAUL:

It's everyone's favorite time of year in Jackson, Mississippi, Hal’s St. Paddy's Parade and Festival season. And who better to help tell the parade story than a Mississippi storyteller, a broadcast legend who will serve as this year's parade grand marshal.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places and events that make the City With Soul shine today.

Venerable newsman and ‘looker around Mississippi’ Walt Grayson is here in conversation with my colleague, Yolanda Clay-Moore. Walt is a load of fun and he's literally been to every county in the state. He's charming, to say the least, and the perfect person to embody this year's theme, telling the Mississippi story.

YOLANDA:

I have the distinct honor and privilege to speak to the one and only Walt Grayson. How are you doing?

WALT:

I'm doing well. [I] feel better after that, ‘the one and only,’ I guess that could cut two ways. That's either a, ‘wow, the one and only,’ or ‘thank God there's only one of them.’

YOLANDA:

Well, I don't think it's the latter. So you're good.

WALT:

Oh, well, thank you. Thank you.

YOLANDA:

I’ve followed you for, I can't even tell you how long, but you've been in television and radio for about 40 years. Am I correct in my math?

WALT:

At least, yes. At least, at least.

YOLANDA:

And you started off as a weatherman?

WALT:

I started off as a… yes. As a matter of fact, I started off at Channel 12 as a weekend weatherman while I was still working full -time in radio. And then moved over to do the noon news on Channel 12 for a few years. It was a while anyway, because my full-time job was still in radio. Then Channel 3 had an opening for a 10 pm weatherman, an afternoon reporter. And Burt Case was kind enough to hire me for that about 1984. Yes. Yeah. It's been 40 years.

YOLANDA:

Yeah. I have very, very fond memories of a Burt Case as well. When you started off in your career, did you ever think you would still be here doing the same thing for this length of time?

WALT:

I never thought about this length of time at all or anything. Matter of fact, sometimes at this point in my life, I look back 40 years ago and go, ‘what was I thinking?’

YOLANDA:

Is it safe to say that you've covered every inch of Mississippi?

WALT:

I've been in all the counties anyway. Um, there's a lot to this state. I'll be honest with you. There's lots of counties I've yet to get off the blue roads yet you on the map, you know, much less the gravel roads and the ones that don't even appear. But however, in some of the counties I had been on some of those I blazed trails out through the wilderness.

YOLANDA:

I also had the privilege to ride on the float with you. It wasn’t this past year, but the year before. And when I tell you that I was just in awe of your celebrity. I mean, the people who were yelling your name and just trying to get a selfie, a backward selfie while you're on the float, just to be in the same frame with you. Kind of speak to what that means to you.

WALT:

Well, I'll be honest with you, sometimes I'm surprised. I know people are bound to know you if you've been on the air that long, but you know, the bonus is they know me and they seem to like me, which is maybe why Channel 12 is gonna have me to be on the air as long as they have, but it humbles me really. Jerry Clower said it, I think, best one time when they named a stretch of Highway 49 up in Yazoo City after him. And he says, ‘this humbles me. And now I guess I'm gonna have to walk a little more circumspectly.’ I don't know what circumspectly is, but it sounds good. So I try to walk circumspectly.

YOLANDA:

Transitioning from riding in the float and now being the grand marshal. How does that feel?

WALT:

Well, oh, listen, I'm excited about it. I'm not sure why they picked me other than the fact that I kept jumping up and down the back of the room saying, ‘pick me, pick me, pick…!’ No, they did this on their own. This was kind of a surprise. I'm pleased that they did it. They have their own reasons. I hope they're real good.

YOLANDA:

I can imagine they are.

WALT:

Good. Now I've enjoyed the parade. I think the parade is one of the best things Jackson still has going for it that in no way I can think of has been tarnished by anything. And it's, it's for everybody. And there's nobody turned to a rich, black, white, green, purple, whatever you are. Come on.

YOLANDA:

Yeah. This is the festival everyone. That's for sure. Can you reflect back to when it was Mao's St. Paddy's day? Do you have any reflections about that?

WALT:

Oh, it was much wilder back in the beginning. I was not there. I was in town the first day they held the parade, but I was not there. I've been talking to Malcolm. That must have been a hoot. You know, they're. He says it was more or less like a bar crawl and there were crazy people that just… Well, JillConnor Browne was in the back of his pickup truck as the Sweet Potato Queen throwing sweet potatoes. It's just a bunch of people walking down the street on a Thursday afternoon at four o 'clock and Malcolm says everybody was blowing their horns, cheering and all that. He thought they were going to get into it, get into the parade. He's like, ‘no, they just want to get out of the way!’

That's when it got moved to Saturday and it’s grown every year. Every time that I've covered it, just it's a fun event. Everybody has fun. I've yet to see a sour face there for any reason.

YOLANDA:

I agree with you. You're talking about telling the Mississippi story, which is the theme for the parade. I mean, you just told us one, but where else in the world can you pass out sweet potatoes, but in Jackson, Mississippi?

WALT:

And people appreciate it. And they don't go ‘bless your heart’ in the bad way. I think that the lesson from this parade is that if you just do something and do it for fun, people who like fun are going to be there. And then you realize, my gosh, that's everybody. You know, I think we've learned a lot about ourselves at the time. We know you're on the same street. Yeah. Not argue. We all be Irish for one day.

YOLANDA:

I preemptively have my green on today. So I have to save this outfit for, for the parade.

WALT:

Yeah.

YOLANDA:

But you know, you spoke to one thing, talking about diversity, that everybody comes together for this time and having a great celebration, but there's something for everyone, right?

WALT:

Oh, there is. You know, the thing that got me is tailgating that goes on. I mean, people come down there the night before and stake lots of real estate. So they'll have enough food to set up a tent and serving tables and things like that. And it's almost like, almost like it's the food and wine festival, but you don't have to pay anything. If you play your cards right, you can go from table to table to just sample. You know, people would be glad to give you something to eat. It's been a homecoming for them, too. People plan their vacations around the parade now. So they all be in Jackson so they can come down and have a good time tailgating. They're having their private good time as well as joining in the public good time that's going on around.

YOLANDA:

Yeah, exactly. You know, you all have a show called My Hometown. And you know, this, this is like a banner for My Hometown.

WALT:

Oh, I think so. This is, this is something that Jackson needs to brag about. It's one of those things: it's not like that a committee could put it together and say, ‘Hey, let's have this parade and we'll get everybody involved and everybody will participate and everybody will love it.’ It was just one of those things that came together spontaneously over the years. I mean, it's been a long spontaneous, but it defined itself as it went. And I think that's why it worked so well. It is more or less, ‘hey, we're going to have this parade, what do y 'all want to do?’ And people showed up and did it.

YOLANDA:

I mean, I can't even put it into words what that means, but we're just so grateful for your personality, for all that you've done for our community and for our state. And we're just so grateful to just have you on the show today. And we just appreciate your time.

WALT:

Well, thank you. I appreciate the invitation. This has been fun.

PAUL:

And thank you Yolanda for that conversation with Hal’s St. Paddy's Parade Grand Marshal and legendary newsman, Walt Grayson.

In case you're wondering, the parade is in its 41st year. It draws tens of thousands to downtown Jackson and it's truly one of my favorite days each year in the capital city. But you'd be missing out if you didn't pregame it.

Starting with the Run for the Rainbow, 5k, 10k half and full marathon. That's Saturday, March 16th. The Nugget League of Mayhem Crawfish Boil is on Sunday, March 17th. Blue Monday is on March 18th. Jazz Night and Rita Brent's Workout Room on the 19th. Comedy Open Mic on March 20th. Lady Teena's Lounge on March 21st. And the Hal’s St. Paddy's Friday Night Bash featuring the Chee Weez plus the Marching Malfunction second line stomp that starts at Cathead and ends at Hal & Mal’s, both on the 22nd.

Whew! Save some energy for the parade. That's on Saturday, March 23rd, including the after party with live music. You can get all the details on all of these events at the link in our show notes.

Soul Sessions is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor. Do you want to know more about all the great work we do to help make Jackson, Mississippi a better place? Well, you can find that at our website, visitjackson .com.

I'm Paul Wolf and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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