One fine fall day each year, usually in October, and always when Auburn is playing on the road, nearby Loachapoka holds their annual Syrup Sopping. The town of less than 200 grows by something like 15,000 percent for crafts, music, visiting and, of course, the local syrup.
Amazing how much this has grown in the last decade or so. Syrup Sopping started in 1972 and it is nothing like I remember from undergrad, at least in terms of the size. It takes an hour just to get down there now.
But, then, Loachapoka has always been a town of extremes. It was a boomtown that became a small town. At one point in the mid-19th century this was the largest town in this part of the state, because of the railroad.
The town gets its name from the Creek Indian, and means either land where turtles live or are killed. The first white settler came in 1836, and the natives moved west, mostly to Oklahoma, some willingly, some by force of treaty or arms.
Jefferson Davis ate in the town, Stephen Douglas campaigned there against Abraham Lincoln. They mustered more than three regiments during the Civil War.
After the depression of 1873, a massive fire that same decade and alternate railways coming online the place all but dried up.
They saw their first airplane in 1917. Imagine how that must have felt to a bunch of farmers.
You just can’t get better syrup from sorghum and ribbon cane, which is the basis of the festival and what brings you back for more. There’s crafts and food and even a little music, but the syrup and the honey, that’s the point.
Over at one of the antebellum homes they set up a gooseneck trailer as a stage. Someone’s 10-year-old son’s band was playing in the afternoon. They were a rock band. Didn’t get to see them, but here is their Facebook page, where you’ll learn they’ve played three gigs. So, they are young, but they have the terminology down.
We did see a bluegrass band, Volume 5 that was quite good. The vocalist could do a fair impression of Dan Tyminski, as the man standing next to me observed “He sounds just like them Soggy Bottom Boys. What was it, ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ That was the name of that song!”
Well, no, that was the movie, which also had a song Tyminski reprised. While he was a little short on details, he had a good ear.
And then Volume 5 thought they’d lighten the mood by covering “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.”
It was about as inspiring as the Auburn game. LSU is good, Auburn is young, can’t block, was on the road with a new starting quarterback in Clint Moseley who noted that “Sulligent’s defense was fast too.” Sulligent being the last team he played in high school. After the game he said he thought Sweet Water was fast, but the top college football team in the nation was in a different league than the traditional 2A high school powerhouse.
Woof.
Auburn will have better days. No one expected anything but a visit to the woodshed this week at Baton Rouge, but still. If not for a garbage-time touchdown this would have been the biggest blowout since 1948. The Truman administration! That’s pre-Shug Jordan.
As it was, the 45-10 loss is merely the biggest since the second George W. Bush administration and the 2008 finale against Alabama. Things got better after that pretty quickly, and they’ll turn around for these guys too.
They’ve survived their stout October schedule, winning two more games in that stretch than many thought they would. There’s talent for the future, but they’re still growing up today. Next week Auburn hosts Ole Miss, who’ve lost 10 conference games in a row. With a win over the Rebels Auburn would be eligible for a bowl game already.
Even still, it was a hard one to watch. LSU is good. And so now I’m looking forward to the inevitable disappointment of the 1 vs. 2 LSU-Alabama game in a few weeks.
