where in the world is belzoni?

A few years ago, U-Haul added lots of new trailers to its fleet. On these trailers were post cards of several different United States cities. At this moment I can not remember what the other cities are but one of them is

Belzoni, Mississippi.

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Belzoni is the county seat of Humphreys County, Mississippi. Humphreys County with a population close to 10,000 is a rural, agricultural area. It has been known as the Catfish Capital, Heart of the Delta, the Most Southern Place on the Earth. It was a happening place when cotton was king, but not so much anymore. It is more often recognized as being either on the top of lists or the bottom depending on what the lists are measuring like the highest poverty level, lowest high school graduation rate, highest infant mortality rate, you get the picture.

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I am from this county. I grew up in a small, more like tiny, town close to Belzoni. Population 200 and that is probably counting large family pets. My parents still live there. Some of the people I love the most are there. The people who shaped me are there. Some of the best teachers and role models are there. A wonderful way of life is there trying to hold out with many things working against it. I frequently say "it is a wonderful place to be from and it's nice to go back and visit."

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It makes me chuckle that U-Haul chose Belzoni. It is a county sport to not only see the Belzoni U-hauls but get your picture taken with them across the country. The local paper is frequently printing pictures of Belzoni residents on vacation standing by a U-Hall with captions like "The Brown Family recently vacationed in Texas" or pictures of people connected to someone from Belzoni like "Sam Brown, uncle of Bill Brown, in Austin, Texas".

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I wasn't able to actually get in the picture with the U-Haul but my caption could read: {Kim Sue, daughter of Slick & Kathy, gdaughter of Finn, sister to Kacey in Southaven, Mississippi}