Another annual milestone has been achieved. We did not celebrate much, just ate dinner with son James and his lovely wife, Joan and family. They got new living room furniture.
It was ham and potato salad plus fresh asparagus. Quite delicious or as James would say, "Yummy."
Yesterday was moderate. I went for my walk and my wife, Judie, cut the old Lantana down. The roots had already sprouted new leaves. We are seeing new life everywhere, the oaks are budding out, the Clematis is putting out shoots, Iris' putting up buds and the Daffodils are about finished. Spring is here. Even the peach tree has budded out and now leafed out too. Soon the grass will start growing and lawn mowing will be in the offing.
I have the battery out of the lawn tractor being charged. And I got a new drive belt for it too. I guess I will have get on with installing the belt. Judie will be anxious to cut the grass. Need to change the oil in the weed eater too, it is a four cycle powered one. This will be its first oil change. I have already changed the oil in the lawn tractor, so except for the drive belt it too is ready to go.
Next mile stone is a class reunion in New Roads. May 17 will be 50 years since I graduated from high school. Next one of those will be LSU in 2013 - 50 years since I graduated from there.
Back recently at LSU and notice all the oak trees from my day now had the low long branches of Live Oak Trees. It is quite impressive with those trees around the old parade grounds. I doubt todays cadets even know that the area in front of the campanile is a parade ground. Any rate those oak trees are now more than 50 years old perhaps more like 75 years old. They are just really getting going. The Stonica Oak, out on Pointe Coupee Road, is said to have been there when Bienville passed by in 1703! And it is still growing!
Texas has the Charter Oak but it is just a kid compared to the Stonica Oak. It is right next to the deBara house, partially restored. The deBara house is one of the few houses dating from the Galvez era of Louisiana when it was under the Spanish flag. I am sure that the house's location is because of that very tree.
Later.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Swap Meet
Today begins the Weatherford AeroModelers Society (WAMS) swap meet. It is held at Hall Middle School in Weatherford, TX, in the cafertorium. WAMS rents the area, sets up tables, charges admission, sells food and radio control advocates come in by the droves.
Tables are rented and the rentee gets to sell his wares, old models, new kits, engines, radios or whatever he/she wants to sell. The crowds mull about looking at the goodies for sale. Other stuff gets sold too, like ball caps, T-shirts and . . . .
It runs to about 9:00 PM tonight and starts at 8:00 AM Saturday morning. At noon Saturday, we start the auction. Folks get to put whatever they want up for auction and that goes until all is sold. We take a 10% commission off the sales.
We also give away a nice radio/receiver/servo package too. When you pay in, you get a raffle ticket for the door prize.
I have the food court duty. We sell principally hot dogs with chili, soda pop, coffee and vairous other goodies like Brownies. We make about $500.00 off the food. And it keeps the folks there to look, bargain, buy and sell their "stuff." It is a lot of fun and a well attended event.
Then we have a "float fly" in May to pay back the folks that come. The float fly has a modest landing fee, but we give away drinks and food. Contributions are accepted and we have yet to lose money on the deal. But there are always a couple of folks that really do take advantage of us by eating up a storm. But that's okay.
I'll be dead tired by the time it is over with. Good comradery, fun but lots of work too.
Tables are rented and the rentee gets to sell his wares, old models, new kits, engines, radios or whatever he/she wants to sell. The crowds mull about looking at the goodies for sale. Other stuff gets sold too, like ball caps, T-shirts and . . . .
It runs to about 9:00 PM tonight and starts at 8:00 AM Saturday morning. At noon Saturday, we start the auction. Folks get to put whatever they want up for auction and that goes until all is sold. We take a 10% commission off the sales.
We also give away a nice radio/receiver/servo package too. When you pay in, you get a raffle ticket for the door prize.
I have the food court duty. We sell principally hot dogs with chili, soda pop, coffee and vairous other goodies like Brownies. We make about $500.00 off the food. And it keeps the folks there to look, bargain, buy and sell their "stuff." It is a lot of fun and a well attended event.
Then we have a "float fly" in May to pay back the folks that come. The float fly has a modest landing fee, but we give away drinks and food. Contributions are accepted and we have yet to lose money on the deal. But there are always a couple of folks that really do take advantage of us by eating up a storm. But that's okay.
I'll be dead tired by the time it is over with. Good comradery, fun but lots of work too.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Birthdays are passed by . . .
Well all of our birthdays have past by with us not looking to much older. Judie keeps religious track of all the birthdays: the boys, their spouses, the grandchildren, the nieces and nephews and the great nieces and nephews. That's a lot but I am almost sure she can, without batting an eye, give you their birth dates. They all seem to fall between the first of the year and mid March.
Now on to my class reunion for St. Joseph's Academy in New Roads in May. St. Joe's is no more, it has reinvented itself into Catholic High School of Pointe Coupee. CHSPC had granted itself all the history of Catholic education in New Roads and indeed, all of Pointe Coupee. Well that's not so bad, Pointe Coupee is not that big locale. While it is not the proverbial "wide spot in the road" it is a cross roads on the lake. Time has not passed it by, but time does move slower there - and that's not a bad thing at all.
So we are to gather up for a Catholic Mass and get together after in the Parish Hall. The Parish Hall is a nice meeting facility, it is built on the grounds of the old St Joe gym. I recall the erection of that gym, it was pre-fabricated wooden structure, a product of the WW-II that never got erected by the military. The community literally raised the money to obtain that "kit" if you will, and then the community had to erect it. I was in the third grade and we had a window that looked out toward that spot. It had been a play ground with large (at least to me in those days) swings. The swings were removed to my dismay, but I got to watch the bull dozers pull up the beams. They, the beams, were laminated by being bolted together.
Think of 2 X 12s being bolted to together to form the beams. They were pretty massive. about a foot across in thickness. Any rate we had a gym. But while it was on church property and under the control of the good nuns, the Sisters of Saint Joseph Medaille, it really did belong to the community. So our arch rivals, Poydras High School, the public school's name was Poydras, used it also. Poydras had an auditorium, but no gymnasium. St Joe had a gym (and it could be used as a sort of an auditorium) but no auditorium and Poydras did not have a gym at that time.
The "Gym" had a stage, and I recall many Christmans pagents (with horror), graduations and proms held in that facility. Not only were the basketball tournaments held there but so was the 4-H convocations for the parish (all the schools).
Madame Joe Tumenello, a character of New Roads, gave the Church a large strip of land that today contains the Catholic grammar school and the high school. The school is a private school, open to all, not just Catholics but any that will pay to attend. It has also is totally integrated and boast of many black graduates today. While nuns still teach in the grammar school, none teach in the high school. It is lay teachers and sometimes the local parish priests also teach there. Make no mistake, there is still religion taught in the school but it is largely run and controlled by lay personnel.
Old Saint Joe's and the gym are gone. A bank stands on old St. Joe's turf and a parish hall stands in place of the gym, in many respects still doing community service. Poydras closed as high school years ago and is now an object of restoration by the parish historical society. It has been restored in part and now houses some offices and the auditorium is back into use (due to a generous contribution from a former graduate that went on to be multi-millionaire).
So after Mass we will collect and reminisce about old times and what has past by in our personnel histories. I missed the last reunion because I was stationed in California at that time. It was not an expense we could afford in those days, just to travel back for party of sorts. I later learned I was probably the only one to miss it. Sad, because some of our class are no longer with us. At least one of us is gone forever.
We will make this reunion. One every 50 years is okay. I did mention it is the 50th anniversary of our graduation, didn't I? Oops, I did not. Long time, right.
Now on to my class reunion for St. Joseph's Academy in New Roads in May. St. Joe's is no more, it has reinvented itself into Catholic High School of Pointe Coupee. CHSPC had granted itself all the history of Catholic education in New Roads and indeed, all of Pointe Coupee. Well that's not so bad, Pointe Coupee is not that big locale. While it is not the proverbial "wide spot in the road" it is a cross roads on the lake. Time has not passed it by, but time does move slower there - and that's not a bad thing at all.
So we are to gather up for a Catholic Mass and get together after in the Parish Hall. The Parish Hall is a nice meeting facility, it is built on the grounds of the old St Joe gym. I recall the erection of that gym, it was pre-fabricated wooden structure, a product of the WW-II that never got erected by the military. The community literally raised the money to obtain that "kit" if you will, and then the community had to erect it. I was in the third grade and we had a window that looked out toward that spot. It had been a play ground with large (at least to me in those days) swings. The swings were removed to my dismay, but I got to watch the bull dozers pull up the beams. They, the beams, were laminated by being bolted together.
Think of 2 X 12s being bolted to together to form the beams. They were pretty massive. about a foot across in thickness. Any rate we had a gym. But while it was on church property and under the control of the good nuns, the Sisters of Saint Joseph Medaille, it really did belong to the community. So our arch rivals, Poydras High School, the public school's name was Poydras, used it also. Poydras had an auditorium, but no gymnasium. St Joe had a gym (and it could be used as a sort of an auditorium) but no auditorium and Poydras did not have a gym at that time.
The "Gym" had a stage, and I recall many Christmans pagents (with horror), graduations and proms held in that facility. Not only were the basketball tournaments held there but so was the 4-H convocations for the parish (all the schools).
Madame Joe Tumenello, a character of New Roads, gave the Church a large strip of land that today contains the Catholic grammar school and the high school. The school is a private school, open to all, not just Catholics but any that will pay to attend. It has also is totally integrated and boast of many black graduates today. While nuns still teach in the grammar school, none teach in the high school. It is lay teachers and sometimes the local parish priests also teach there. Make no mistake, there is still religion taught in the school but it is largely run and controlled by lay personnel.
Old Saint Joe's and the gym are gone. A bank stands on old St. Joe's turf and a parish hall stands in place of the gym, in many respects still doing community service. Poydras closed as high school years ago and is now an object of restoration by the parish historical society. It has been restored in part and now houses some offices and the auditorium is back into use (due to a generous contribution from a former graduate that went on to be multi-millionaire).
So after Mass we will collect and reminisce about old times and what has past by in our personnel histories. I missed the last reunion because I was stationed in California at that time. It was not an expense we could afford in those days, just to travel back for party of sorts. I later learned I was probably the only one to miss it. Sad, because some of our class are no longer with us. At least one of us is gone forever.
We will make this reunion. One every 50 years is okay. I did mention it is the 50th anniversary of our graduation, didn't I? Oops, I did not. Long time, right.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Another Year . . .
Yep, another year has past. I am another year older, getting older than the hills so to speak. Yesterday was my 68th birthday.
Judie and I were reminiscing the other day. How did a couple from a small south Louisiana town get so far away from our roots? We have moved 17 times, lived in Europe, California and Ohio not to mention Arizona and Texas - Virginia too. Part of that was my military career but part was where the work took me after my military days. We are settled in now in Texas, the last work location and a fair place to retire.
Texas, Weatherford, Texas, places us close to our grandchildren and within reach of New Roads, LA - our home town. We travel back to New Roads and Pointe Coupee Parish a couple of times a year. Sometimes more often but never less than twice a year.
Weatherford is an interesting town, about 20,000 souls where "Yes ma'am" and 'No ma'am" are still commonly used but the community is hard up against Fort Worth. A great deal of the locals work in Fort Worth, many at Lockheed-Martin. We have a junior college, a rodeo arena and high school that looks like a junior college. And we are in the middle of the Barnett Shale gas boom - gotta a well on every corner and pipelines running all over the place. But it fuels the economy, and while the rest of the nation is hurting, the "now hiring" signs are out here.
Lake Weatherford, a man made lake for power plant cooling and drinking water, reminds me of False River. The land around it belongs to the city but is leased out to various users. There is one marina and lot of what I describe as camps. Some elaborate structures and some, well you know, camps. It looks like the island side of False River. So it attracts me as if it were home.
The city has leased the land under the lake for gas exploration. Well, not so much exploration, as it is for development. Everybody already knows the gas is there. We are a couple of blocks from the lake (an therefore own our land) and have leased our mineral rights. We are hoping as they drill for gas under the lake, they will drill under us too. We know the gas is there, there is a well across the street, one to the southwest and a couple to the north. So it is a matter of time but I hope the gas does not run out by then.
Met a fellow the other day that had five acres under production. He said he got a check for $2,000 for one month's production. Well, you know, take everything with a grain of salt. I am sure he got a check for $2,000 but knowing how these companies pay you, it could have been for the last year's production. No matter, it is an indication of the boom times around Parker County. We just want a little taste of it.
Another wet day. Heard it rain two or three times last night. Must have been substantial rain, as this house is extremely well insulated. Hard for heat to get out and hard for sound to get in. Not raining now but everything looks wet. Thought Spring was here and we had two snows in four days. That is very unusual, we often get one mild snow in the early part of the year, but not two and not so much as we did the second time. We got about 3 inches and little farther north of us got 6 to 9 inches of snow. Gone in couple of days but we really did not need precipitation in that manner. Al Gore's global warming is sure pretty cold.
Later.
Judie and I were reminiscing the other day. How did a couple from a small south Louisiana town get so far away from our roots? We have moved 17 times, lived in Europe, California and Ohio not to mention Arizona and Texas - Virginia too. Part of that was my military career but part was where the work took me after my military days. We are settled in now in Texas, the last work location and a fair place to retire.
Texas, Weatherford, Texas, places us close to our grandchildren and within reach of New Roads, LA - our home town. We travel back to New Roads and Pointe Coupee Parish a couple of times a year. Sometimes more often but never less than twice a year.
Weatherford is an interesting town, about 20,000 souls where "Yes ma'am" and 'No ma'am" are still commonly used but the community is hard up against Fort Worth. A great deal of the locals work in Fort Worth, many at Lockheed-Martin. We have a junior college, a rodeo arena and high school that looks like a junior college. And we are in the middle of the Barnett Shale gas boom - gotta a well on every corner and pipelines running all over the place. But it fuels the economy, and while the rest of the nation is hurting, the "now hiring" signs are out here.
Lake Weatherford, a man made lake for power plant cooling and drinking water, reminds me of False River. The land around it belongs to the city but is leased out to various users. There is one marina and lot of what I describe as camps. Some elaborate structures and some, well you know, camps. It looks like the island side of False River. So it attracts me as if it were home.
The city has leased the land under the lake for gas exploration. Well, not so much exploration, as it is for development. Everybody already knows the gas is there. We are a couple of blocks from the lake (an therefore own our land) and have leased our mineral rights. We are hoping as they drill for gas under the lake, they will drill under us too. We know the gas is there, there is a well across the street, one to the southwest and a couple to the north. So it is a matter of time but I hope the gas does not run out by then.
Met a fellow the other day that had five acres under production. He said he got a check for $2,000 for one month's production. Well, you know, take everything with a grain of salt. I am sure he got a check for $2,000 but knowing how these companies pay you, it could have been for the last year's production. No matter, it is an indication of the boom times around Parker County. We just want a little taste of it.
Another wet day. Heard it rain two or three times last night. Must have been substantial rain, as this house is extremely well insulated. Hard for heat to get out and hard for sound to get in. Not raining now but everything looks wet. Thought Spring was here and we had two snows in four days. That is very unusual, we often get one mild snow in the early part of the year, but not two and not so much as we did the second time. We got about 3 inches and little farther north of us got 6 to 9 inches of snow. Gone in couple of days but we really did not need precipitation in that manner. Al Gore's global warming is sure pretty cold.
Later.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Fast Trip Home
We charged over to New Roads to attend the annual family corporation business meeting. Well, really a family get to gether, with good food and short business meeting. It is always a pleasure to get back to False River and green country that surrounds it, and to see the family. Someone new always shows up, this year it was Jack Gonzales, a third generation family member from California.
We dined at Morel's on False River, feasted at the old plantation house, and had good fast food ala cat fish from the Tiger Drive In. Much to much food, we even ate at the casino in Marksville on our way home.
Found New Roads growing as usual. Odd name for a region filled with French, Spanish and Cajun history. Times in the past people tried to make "New Rhodes" or "St. Mary's." It happened to be a location where a new road to the Mississippi River intersected with the lake - False River. Anyway it dates back more than a 100 years and is today the parish seat of goverment. The parish is named Pointe Coupee.
Pointe Coupee Parish is one of the oldest settled places in Louisiana and indeed, the Mississippi River valley. There are marriage and other documents recorded dating from 1774 - that's before the Revolutionary War. A quick internet search of "Pointe Coupee" will render more information than I can write about here.
My family, the Morrisons, show up a few years before the Civil War - 1856 to be exact. My ancestor is Jacob Haight Morrison, originally from New York State. He knocked around New Orleans since the 1820s and eventually acquired a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish. He named it after his childhood home in New York, Brunswick. Today the old house on Brunswick is gone, that's another story. My branch of the family, the heirs of Walter Christian Morrison, still own part of Brunswich and that plantation is named Angeles Plantation.
Angeles Plantation is about 700 acres more or less, fronts on the mighty Mississippi River. Some of it was inherited out right by Walter Christian, and some acquired over time. Today it is a family corporation and is owned by the heirs in proportion to their branch of the family. Owners are found all over the United States from California to Louisiana.
We dined at Morel's on False River, feasted at the old plantation house, and had good fast food ala cat fish from the Tiger Drive In. Much to much food, we even ate at the casino in Marksville on our way home.
Found New Roads growing as usual. Odd name for a region filled with French, Spanish and Cajun history. Times in the past people tried to make "New Rhodes" or "St. Mary's." It happened to be a location where a new road to the Mississippi River intersected with the lake - False River. Anyway it dates back more than a 100 years and is today the parish seat of goverment. The parish is named Pointe Coupee.
Pointe Coupee Parish is one of the oldest settled places in Louisiana and indeed, the Mississippi River valley. There are marriage and other documents recorded dating from 1774 - that's before the Revolutionary War. A quick internet search of "Pointe Coupee" will render more information than I can write about here.
My family, the Morrisons, show up a few years before the Civil War - 1856 to be exact. My ancestor is Jacob Haight Morrison, originally from New York State. He knocked around New Orleans since the 1820s and eventually acquired a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish. He named it after his childhood home in New York, Brunswick. Today the old house on Brunswick is gone, that's another story. My branch of the family, the heirs of Walter Christian Morrison, still own part of Brunswich and that plantation is named Angeles Plantation.
Angeles Plantation is about 700 acres more or less, fronts on the mighty Mississippi River. Some of it was inherited out right by Walter Christian, and some acquired over time. Today it is a family corporation and is owned by the heirs in proportion to their branch of the family. Owners are found all over the United States from California to Louisiana.
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