Columns

In small towns like ours, Memorial Day arrives quietly. There are no towering parades or grand ceremonies, no television crews or crowded city squares. Instead, it comes in soft ways — a flag placed carefully beside a headstone, a wreath hung on a courthouse door, the low hum of a hymn drifting from a Sunday service. It’s a day that settles over the community like a gentle reminder: freedom has a cost, and some paid it in full.

Here in DeSoto Parish, Memorial Day isn’t just a date on the calendar. It’s personal. It’s names we know, families we love, stories we’ve heard at kitchen tables and church potlucks. It’s the quiet pride of seeing a veteran straighten a flag, the way older residents pause a little longer at the cemetery, the way children ask questions that make us stop and think about the sacrifices behind the holiday.

Unusually cool nighttime temperatures exacerbate Pythium diseases in Louisiana vegetables

Following recent heavy downpours, Louisiana has been experiencing cooler-than-usual nighttime temperatures — conditions that are highly conducive to Pythium diseases, which are harmful to vegetable crops.

Raj Singh, LSU Ag-Center plant doctor and horticulture pathology extension specialist, said growers across the state have reported disease problems with their vegetables, especially those in low-lying areas of fields.

Pythium species thrive in wet soils and low temperatures, Singh said. Commonly known as water molds, Pythium species are soil-inhabiting, fungal-like microorganisms that are known to cause damping-off, root rot and cottony leak on a wide variety of vegetables as well as annual ornamental plants.

The diseases also may occur when seeds are planted too early in spring, are planted too deep or when old seeds are used, Singh said.

LSU AgCenter workshop trains educators to bring school gardens into the classroom

Across Louisiana, school gardens are increasingly used as outdoor classrooms, providing students with hands-on learning in science, nutrition and food systems. To support this work, the LSU AgCenter is hosting its annual Farm to School Garden Leadership Workshop later this month in Baton Rouge, offering educators training to build and sustain school gardens while integrating them into classroom instruction.

Hosted by Seeds to Success: The Louisiana Farm to School Program, the four-day workshop combines practical gardening instruction with interactive lessons designed to help educators turn school gardens into teaching tools across the curriculum. Participants explore seasonal planting, garden management and strategies for using gardens to support instruction in science, math, English language arts and other subjects.

As this writer has stated many times in the past — History can take many forms. Today’s article primarily concerns a man that few in DeSoto Parish know or remember, Travis Spears. He and his wife were born here in the early 1900’s and he went to work in the oil fields in the 1930’s for the Standard Oil Co. After working in the drilling or production end for 15 years he was sent to Standard Oil’s South American Division in Venezuela. There he worked his way up to management in production. He and Mrs. Spears moved back to Mansfield with their 5th grade son, Travis, Jr. and they built a nice home on Hwy. 84 West near where Jeff and Jill Heard presently live. Travis, Jr. later became an M.D.

AgCenter Heirs’ Property Education Initiative Strives to Help Rural Communities

When Leah Carter visits rural towns across Louisiana in her role as the LSU AgCenter’s community and economic development specialist, she makes it a point to ask residents what issues they believe are holding their communities back.

People respond with the same answers over and over: Blighted housing. Run-down downtowns. A lack of economic opportunity and civic pride.

As Carter has learned, a common thread binds these problems together in many communities. Properties — whether vacant land, houses or commercial sites — often have sat in states of decay for years not because there’s no interest in cleaning them up, but because it’s unclear who owns them.

“Sometimes the properties are owned by someone out of state,” Carter said. “And so you may have this dilapidated building, and no one knows what to do. Some people don’t even realize that they own property.”

Dear Rusty: I am 63 years old, and about to apply for my Social Security benefits. I am self-employed but only working part time. I know about Social Security’s annual earnings limit but recently I learned I must also be concerned about a monthly earnings limit of $2,040. My questions are: 1) How do I find out if I will be subject to a monthly earning limit of $2,040 per month? I thought it was only evaluated annually.

2) If I choose to cancel Social Security within the first year or after, what are the penalties? Would I have to pay them back for the whole amount for the whole time that they paid me? Which makes no sense, since I have been paid into SS since I was 13 years old.

May 8th, 2026 is the 81st anniversary V-E Day. Victory in Europe and Surrender of the Germans.

December 7, 1941 is the declared a “Day of Infamy” when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The American navy fleet was at anchor there on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. On this Sunday morning at 7:55 am while many of the servicemen were at breakfast and some still in bed Japanese dive bombers bearing the symbol of the rising sun burst through the clouds. Within seconds the sky was full of their war planes dropping bombs on our ships. The bombers were followed by fighters called Zeros with their machine guns strafing the brave U.S. sailors who rushed to their guns. Senator Jackson B. Davis was stationed there and tells of the fighter planes flying so low you could see the smiles of the Japanese pilots. The attack left 2400 dead, 1200 wounded, 18 ships sunk and 300 American planes destroyed.

Spring Cleaning (Body, Home, and Spirit)

Spring cleaning has a reputation for being loud and exhausting. It shows up with trash bags, checklists, and the pressure to do everything all at once. But the season itself tells a different story. Spring doesn’t rush. It unfolds slowly, one leaf at a time. That’s why a gentle spring cleaning makes far more sense.

Start with the home, but don’t declare war on it. A few small things will be enough to begin with. Open the windows and let the fresh air do its work first. Sunlight has a way of showing us what truly needs attention—and what doesn’t. Instead of tearing through every room, choose one room, or if time is short, one small space each day. A single drawer. One shelf. Clear out the catch-all basket by the door that somehow holds everything and nothing at the same time. When you work slowly, you finish lighter instead of defeated.

Southern folklore is a combination of beliefs, myths, charms, superstitions, and many more things. It has been a way of life in the South for many years. Southern folklore usually deals with the unsophisticated folks, a category that most of us fit into if we were truthful. The sayings varied some from one region in the South to another as the older generation came up. Some say that it is a dying art.

An old saying about folklore is “You can get a Southerner out of the South but you can’t get the South out of the Southerner.” Imaginary tales are one form of folklore. One old man used to tell about the 1949 tornado the came through western and central DeSoto Parish. He said, “The twister was so strong it pulled the water well right out of the ground. It blow so hard it made the road straight and scattered the days of the week so bad that Sunday didn’t come around until late Tuesday afternoon.”

Handmade, Heartmade

There’s a certain satisfaction that comes from fixing something instead of replacing it. You don’t really notice how rare that feeling has become until you experience it again — needle and thread in hand, hammer tapping a loose board back where it belongs, or fingers working dough, fabric, or yarn into something useful.

Making things with your hands changes your pace. It forces you to slow down just enough to pay attention. And maybe that’s why it feels so grounding.

For generations, handmade wasn’t a hobby — it was just how life worked. Clothes were mended because you needed them tomorrow. Blankets were pieced together because winters came whether you were ready or not. Bread was made because somebody had to feed the household. No one called it “handcrafted.” It was simply necessary.