Memories, as the Barbra Streisand song goes, &8220;Like the corners of my mind. … &8221;

It&8217;s always been fascinating to consider how the human brain works. Some memories are as clear as the northern sky on a cold February morning, others as murky as the Mississippi River.

First kiss? Easy. Katherine Fortenberry at the skating rink, turned dance floor. The year is fuzzy, but the moment burned in the memory banks forever.

First bicycle? Sure. A BMX look-alike from Sears. It had the number &8220;7&8221; on a panel between the handlebars.

First Natchez Pilgrimage? Hmm.

The little gremlin in my head races through all of the filing cabinets. He&8217;s been digging for days now, without a shred of luck.

Logic tells me it was the 1993 Fall Pilgrimage when I first came to Natchez, but who knows, really.

Besides being a bore, digging through the newspaper&8217;s archives would defeat the purpose of this column. That would be looking back. This morning, I&8217;m thinking about the future, looking forward.

Last weekend, the normally solo Cooper household was busy &8212; I&8217;m still single, but may be able to locate Katherine for references on demand. The house was filled as I played host to the first partial family gathering in Natchez.

Mom, Dad, my sister and one of her daughters came for a visit on the last weekend of the Natchez Fall Pilgrimage.

The weather was gorgeous and the bright day made chauffeuring around the clan all the more fun.

We saw three houses that day, but one stood out as most memorable &8212; the Governor Holmes House.

Through my years at the newspaper, at one time or another, I&8217;ve been fortunate enough to be in almost all of the usual tour suspects.

Natchez has amazing houses filled with incredible history.

Of all the houses, however, some of my favorites are the ones that are not open for business every day.

Houses owned and operated as daily tourist spots are great, but sometimes lack the personal charms of ones in which are still homes. Somehow those seem more connected to history.

I&8217;ve been at Routhland when the Ratcliffes spoke to visitors about the family furnishings. I strolled through Twin Oaks when the late Dr. Homer Whittington sat in a chair welcoming visitors into his home.

But in all those years and in all those houses, I saw something new and interesting last Saturday. What I witnessed was a subtle twist on the sometimes-staid tourism talk &8212; realism and a sense of Natchez as a whole, not just one house.

As we stepped up to the Governor Holmes House, owner Michael Cates along with his friend Kurt Bartley greeted us. Both were dressed in period costume.

Cates entertained and informed visitors with his description of not only the house and its 200-plus years of history, but also what the neighborhood was like and how Natchez&8217;s streets looked decades and decades ago. The visitors were enthralled.

The group was led inside where Cates&8217; wife Eugenie continued the tour.

In a charmingly matter-of-fact way, she described the house and its contents before doing something unusual, but much appreciated.

She talked about Natchez&8217;s greatest asset &8212; its people.

I broke the cardinal rule of newspapering that morning by not having a notebook with me, so I couldn&8217;t write down exactly what she said.

But Eugenie told the visitors that in addition to the great houses Natchez features, the city also has amazing people, merchants and artisans, too.

This rug was purchased at a shop, Darby&8217;s, downtown, Cates said, gesturing to the crowd&8217;s feet. Some of our furniture had been in our family for years and needed to be refinished, she continued. A local antiques refinisher did the work, she said.

As we shuffled into the dining room, it occurred to me that it was the first time that Eugenie and Michael Cates&8217; house had been on tour for quite some time, but they understood the future of Natchez tourism better than some of the veterans.

Kevin Cooper

is associate publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or

kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com

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