OPTION A, YOU ARE A:

Flower Child

A squat gray building on Clinton Boulevard hides a seven-acre spread of trees, grasses, and hundreds of perennials, annuals, and naturalized bulb flowers. This Eden of Jackson is Mynelle Gardens. The lush property gets its name from Mynelle Westbrook, the daughter of wealthy parents who created the gardens in the 1920s just for her. During World War II, the U.S. Army shipped recovering soldiers on buses from nearby Foster’s General Hospital to the shady spread for relaxation and inspiration. Today, supervisor Betty McRee says people still come by the busload for a day at the gardens. “It’s soothing to just sit out on the benches under the trees,” she says. “You can hear the fountains, and the water’s just like music.”

For your own day of therapy, get up early: The grounds open their doors at 8 a.m. during the winter. In January, catch the gardens’ ornamental cabbage, pansies, and camellias what McRee calls the “winter roses”—in full bloom. Bring your own packed lunch and eat inside a wooden gazebo, thick with Chinese wisteria, or in the shade of a buckeye tree. You can cross between any of the garden’s small islands via arching iron bridges. Got the perfect plant for the Mynelle Gardens? You can bring along a flower or shrub to donate, then help workers plant your plant. Just give the management plenty of warning before you arrive: McRee says gardeners need a few weeks to find the perfect spot for your bloom. (601) 960-1894

OPTION B, YOU ARE A:

Bookworm

“The house was on a slight hill…covered with its original forest pines, on a gravel road then a little out from town,” author Eudora Welty wrote in her memoir, One Writer’s Beginnings. You can assess the Pulitzer-winning fiction writer’s description of her house yourself in Jackson.

Mary Alice White has the perfect credentials to run the house/museum, which celebrates its centennial this year. For one thing, she’s the late writer’s niece. “One of my favorite memories about Eudora is that she loved her garden so much that when she visited New York City, the thing she missed most were her camellias,” White says. “So her mother, Chestina, boxed up some of the camellia blooms and shipped them to Eudora in a package during the winter.” Tour Welty’s garden—and see the camellias for yourself—as part of a guided tour of the house and grounds.

Archivists worked to restore the house to look the way it would have when Welty was alive. Her favorite books rise haphazardly on tabletops and chairs. The floral armchair she loved sits near the front window, and framed photos of friends like writer Katherine Anne Porter cluster in her bedroom. Listen near the window and you may just hear “the clear, searching, repeating sounds of piano practice,” as Welty wrote, that frequently drifted “in through the open windows of my upstairs room where I sat at the typewriter working.” (601) 353-7762

OPTION C, YOU ARE A:

Fisher King

“Bass, catfish, gar,” Doss Shropshire says, ticking a list off his fingers. “You name it, we’ve got it.” As manager of the Main arbor Store on the Ross Barnett Reservoir, Shropshire knows fishing comes easy in Mississippi. Head 15 minutes north of Jackson, and you can spend a day at the 33,000-acre reservoir trying out a popular pastime: crappie fishing.

Originally built as a flood-control project for the Pearl River, the reservoir boasts more than 100 miles of shoreline and is hock-full of some of Mississippi’s best crappie (pronounced “croppy”) stock. During winter, officials draw down the reservoir by about a foot and a half, so there’s a bit less room for the fish to hide from you.

Call the Main Harbor Store to snag Shropshire for the day; the Jackson local works as a nautical jack-of-all-trades, from taking tourists out on the reservoir to acting as a Sea Tow service for stranded boats. Bring your own tackle and let Shropshire steer you to the hot spots for crappie activity on the lake. Bait your hook with baitfish or jigs, then toss a line out from your seat in the boat. Whether you fish for fun (toss ’em back) or for food (Southerners like to deep-fry their crappie), don’t exceed the 30-crappie daily limit.

Shropshire’s best advice? Don’t let the January cold keep you away. “With crappies, the nastier the weather, the more they seem to like it,” he says. (601) 853-0683

OPTION D, YOU ARE A:

Rights Winger

The black community’s struggle for equality permeates almost every church, school, and house in Jackson. Learn more about that struggle by picking up the Civil Rights Driving Tour pamphlet at the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The tour covers four different geographical areas of the city. Start at the Smith Robertson Museum. The cream-colored 1894 building was Jackson’s first public school for blacks. Follow the tour’s detailed instructions—“Turn right on Dr. Jessie Mosley Drive”—or skip sections altogether to focus on neighborhoods.

Don’t miss the Farish Street Neighborhood Historic District. Characterized by wide stone streets and redbrick sidewalks, the area served as the heart of Jackson’s black community and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Further north, visit the home of Medgar Evers; the civil rights activist was shot and killed there in 1963. Though tragic, Evers’ death spurred change. Soon after, President John F. Kennedy asked Congress for a comprehensive civil-rights bill, which his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, signed into law the following year.

Just make sure you have a companion handy who can read the directions aloud if you’re behind the wheel; Jackson’s winding roads and thick woods can confuse visitors. The payoff is a street-side view of American history in progress. visitjackson.com

Lay of the Land

GET THERE

Fly In Jackson-Evers International Airport (jmaa. com) lies about 10 miles east of downtown.

Get Around Visitors can easily stroll through downtown Jackson on foot. To get around the city, hop aboard a JATRAN bus, part of the city’s public transportation system (jacksonms.gov). Adults ride for $1.50, kids under 14 for 75 cents.

Get Away You’ll need a rental car for the Civil Rights Driving Tour and to get to the Ross Barnett Reservoir and Eudora Welty’s house. Pick one up at the airport or ask your hotel concierge for help.

DO THERE

Jan. 5–19 Listen to live gospel singing, watch local acts in a talent show, and grab a spot to see the second-largest parade in the country during Jackson’s two-week long Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration and Parade. (601)-960-1090

Jan. 18 Find something old, new, borrowed, or blue at the Mississippi Bridal Show and Expo, where you can sample catered food, attend workshops from bridal consultants, and watch a fashion show of bridal dresses take over the runway. msbridalshowandexpo.com

Feb. 5–11 World champion cowboys, barrelracers, and bull-riders invade Jackson when the Dixie National Livestock Show and Rodeo stampedes into town. mdac.state.ms.us