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No, the title isn't a typo; this is a cache about a flower pickin' Cash.
It's a little known fact that Johnny Cash spent a night in the Starkville City Jail back in the 1960s. He had been in town for a concert on the campus of Mississippi State University. The stories vary, but the general idea seems to be that after visiting several parties and going out for cigarettes, Cash was arrested for public drunkeness as he was "pickin' flowers" in Ms. Copeland's yard (in the general area of what is now a vacant lot at Hwy 82 and Jackson St).
Cash and his band were staying at the Derby Motel, which is now the University Motel. When Starkville police called the motel, owner Vernon Chesteen knocked on the door of June Carter's room. Carter assured Chesteen that Cash was in his room, but when they checked, all they found was an empty room and an open window.
Cash was released from the jail about six hours after his arrest; he packed up his things at the motel, ate breakfast, and left town.
The "Johnny Cash Suite" at the city jail has been retired and is now used as a storage area, but you can still see a small dent where Cash kicked the steel door and broke his big toe during his stay.
Cash wrote the following song about his experience and performed it at San Quentin State Prison on February 24th, 1969:
Well, I left my motel room, down at the Starkville Motel,
The town had gone to sleep and I was feelin' fairly well.
I strolled along the sidewalk 'neath the sweet magnolia trees;
I was whistlin', pickin' flowers, swayin' in the southern breeze.
I found myself surrounded; one policeman said: "That's him.
Come along, wild flower child. Don't you know that it's two a.m."
They're bound to get you.
'Cause they got a curfew.
And you go to the Starkville City jail.
Well, they threw me in the car and started driving into town;
I said: "What the hell did I do?" He said: "Shut up and sit down."
Well, they emptied out my pockets, took my pills and guitar picks.
I said: "Wait, my name is..." "Awe shut up." Well, I sure was in a fix.
The sergeant put me in a cell, then he went home for the night;
I said: "Come back here, you so and so; I ain't bein' treated right."
Well, they're bound to get you, cause they got a curfew,
And you go to the Starkville City Jail.
I started pacin' back and forth, and now and then I'd yell,
And kick my forty dollar shoes against the steel floor of my cell.
I'd walk awhile and kick awhile, and all night nobody came.
Then I sadly remembered that they didn't even take my name.
At 8 a.m. they let me out. I said: "Gimme them things of mine!"
They gave me a sneer and a guitar pick, and a yellow dandelion.
They're bound to get you, 'cause they got a curfew,
And you go to the Starkville City Jail.
Ironically, Cash did play at MSU again in 1970 and gave many officers involved in his arrest free front row tickets to the performance. Starkville now hosts an annual festival to celebrate Cash's symbolic, posthumous pardon by the city and the story of his redemption from drug addiction.
This is a two-stage multi, and you will have to drive between the two stages. The first stage will take you to the motel where Cash stayed during his visit. The coords will put you in the area of a plaque, and you will need to look for some information on that plaque and in the general area to find the coords to the final stage. This cache should be fine day or night, but since the motel isn't in the best part of town, you should be able to get all of the information from the comfort of your cachemobile.
The final coords will take you to a place where you can see the Newell-Grissom Animal Husbandry building where he performed both the 1965 and 1970 concerts and fraternity row where he partied at the Pike House after his concert.
To get the final coords:
N 33 A.3BC
W 088 D.7EF
A= Add 5 to the room number where the plaque is hung
B= Add 2 to the number of stars on the motel sign in front of the building (only count one side of the sign)
C= Add 2 to the number of turquoise diamonds on the motel sign in front of the building (only count one side of the sign)
D= Add 7 to the highest room number you see in the courtyard
E= Subtract 4 from the day on the plaque
F= Add 3 to the month on the plaque
Happy hunting!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Pnfu jnf cvpxva' sybjref, ohg lbh pna fgnl bhg bs gur terrarel.