Happy Fifteenth! If you spent a bunch of money on flowers and chocolates and dinner yesterday, I hope you got some.
Did you know that most V-Day flowers enter the U.S. through the port of Miami? I read that in the excellent Morning Brew newsletter.
It’s National Clementine Day, celebrating one of Memphis’ most dangerous streets. You can see Clementine Rd. to the north as you drive 240 between Mill Branch and I-55. I don’t recommend seeing that street from a more up-close-and-personal vantage point unless you’re packing the nine.
It’s also National Hippo Day.
Stage play When a Woman’s Fed Up is at the Orpheum today. 2:30 and 7:30 shows.
In other Orpheum news, hit Broadway musical Hamilton returns Tuesday and will be in town through March 2.
Congratulations to the Grizzlies’ Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells, both on 2025 NBA Rising Stars champion Team C. The team will advance to the NBA All-Star tournament on Sunday.
Jaren Jackson Jr. will play for Kenny’s Young Stars Sunday, coached by basketball commentator Kenny Smith.
Beale Street Bears notes that Jaren is on track to be named to an All-NBA team this season. If he does, he’ll be eligible for a supermax contract extension this summer. 5 years, $345 million for an average annual value of $69M. Time for the Grizzlies to start paying luxury tax.
The Daytona 500 is tomorrow.
I have another good story about the Memphis Union Mission, told to us in chapel by one of the pastors.
You may have heard that the Union Mission operates a drug and alcohol recovery program called Iron-on-Iron, on a countryside campus called Calvary Colony. It’s on Benjestown Rd. in the area between the Mississippi River and Frayser. To get there from Downtown, you’d go north on Second until it curves right and turns into Whitney Avenue.
Calvary Colony wasn’t always in that location, though. In the 1950s it was on Mud Island.
This was years before the A.W. Willis bridge and the monorail bridge. When new participants signed up for the recovery program, they had to be ferried across the Wolf River Harbor channel by boat.
Why did they move Calvary Colony off Mud Island? Because in that era, nearby Beale Street was booming. On Friday nights, men in the program would jump in the water and swim across to go party on Beale.
Back tomorrow or Monday or Tuesday.
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