Oh, Oxford! What If?

I’m in Mississippi for the next several days, invited by the state to brainstorm about the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast in the state. About 100 designers, architects and others (I would be in this ‘other’ class) along with local and state officials are taking part in the event. I’m sure that I will have some interesting items to blog on along with incredible photos to share with you. Stay tuned.

But, I wanted to blog on something else as I was riding on the plane today to MS. Did you see that the finalists for the National Book Awards were announced yesterday in Oxford, MS at Rowan Oak, the secluded antebellum home of William Faulkner? One-time local resident and author John Grisham made the announcements. It was only the second time that the National Book Foundation made the announcements outside of New York City. It is nice that they have discovered that there is land west of the Hudson River. Harold Augenbraum, the foundation’s executive director said, “Why should we stay in New York when we’re a national organization?” What a revelation!

Oxford is one of my favorite agurbs® and I’ve written about it extensively. It really gets the concept of developing a “sense of place” about itself and as a result is a mecca for many people who are fleeing bigger cities.

Mayor Richard Howorth, who is also owner of the town’s legendary Square Books, a business he returned from the east coast to start on the square in downtown Oxford, introduced Grisham. His bookstore acted as a lynchpin in restoring downtown Oxford to a vibrancy that it has not seen since the first cotton boom. In his remarks, Grisham recalled his early days as a lawyer in DeSoto County, MS, when he would often find an excuse to drive the hour to Oxford to hang out at Square Books or sit on the front porch of Rowan Oak, thinking about Faulkner’s career and wondering, “What if…..?”

What if….your town could find a unique niche, just like Oxford….or could do something to fix up its downtown….or build that school….or get yourself identified by the national media? What could happen to you?