Columns

Let’s get shakin!!!

When you think of Louisiana you think of cotton, sugarcane, rice, even corn, but how about blueberries?

Absolutely, especially if you are over 40 years old and from DeSoto Parish Louisiana.

It conjures memories of the Blueberry Festival, half the town covered in Blueberry signs, teens picking blueberries in the summer for extra money, and even the Blueberry Cafe.

Those days are all but memories now, or at least for most, but all is not lost. Louisiana still produces amazing blueberries and has blueberry farms, several right here in DeSoto Parish like Hillcrest Blueberry Farms in Gloster, Louisiana. Hillcrest was even featured in Southern Living Magazine.

Blueberries have a short season, and we are sadly coming to an end for this season but if you hurry fresh ones are still available for another week or so and even after that you can get them frozen.

The Hot Cat

When I first moved “all the way across town” , which actually was only a little over a mile, I brought to little black yard cat I had with me. Transporting this cat who had just wandered into my yard a year or so ago and was just now tame enough to pet was one of my main concerns about the move. However, she made the trip well and made herself right at home in the new yard and promptly had a litter of five kittens. By adoption and attrition and her abandoning the last remaining kitten I ended up with the pick of the litter a black and white male I called “Mister Tux” because of his white chest. He stuck around until he discovered girls then left to search them out and has been gone for over a year.

For many years this writer has had wonderment and doubt about General Edmund Kirby Smith, Commander of the Tran-Mississippi Department of the Army of the Confederate States of America, stationed in Shreveport, LA, which was then the Capitol of Louisiana. According to most accounts he rarely got out of his office on Spring Street. Even though he was credited with repulsing the much larger Union Army under political General Banks he never came near his commanding General Richard Taylor at the Battle of Mansfield. One Civil War writer said that Taylor won the Battle of Mansfield in spite of Kirby Smith!

God Even Uses Six Year Olds

My friend Cassie is a single mom with a sixyear-old daughter. Cassie began attending church regularly about 2 years ago, and her daughter attends with her every other week. Cassie was finding it difficult to get back into the routine of getting up early and get out the door in time for church. She was finding it more difficult to ignore her daughter asking twelve times if it was time to go to church on Sunday morning.

Most people have a varied interest in history – some are interested just in facts, some in historical fiction, some in trivia. The writer, as some of you may know and have followed this article, has little interest in historical fiction, but accurate trivia is different.

The Best Thing

When I was a kid we’d play a game on those long family vacation trips called “The Best Thing” and it was fun because even the parents got involved. With my Mom being a schoolteacher and all she made sure the game was structured and had some developmental opportunities. For instance she’d say, “Son, what was the best thing about last week (or about school or about the trip so far)?” And whomever was chosen got to pick the next person so that everyone could be involved. My Dad wasn’t very enthusiastic about participating but grudgingly was after a warning glance or two from The Mom.

If you are a reader of this column it has become apparent that I like to research the life of an early leader of this town. Such is the case of the subject today – Marmaduke Ricks. A person with a name like that would have to work extra hard to succeed and Marmaduke did just that.

He was born March 24, 1828 in Greene County, Ala. to Josiah and Sallie Gandy Ricks one of ten children raised on a farm. He came to Mansfield in 1849 and after working for others he purchased a farm. In 1858 he went into the mercantile business and in 1862 he joined the Eleventh Texas Regiment where he served honorably during the Civil War.

Marmaduke returned to Mansfield and opened a new business. He was elected Mayor of Mansfield for several years and elected to the Police Jury in 1888. In 1859 he had married Mary Williams from a prominent family. After giving birth to one son Mary died and Marmaduke married Laura McFarland, another lovely lady, who bore him four children.

Erma Bombeck: A Feminist or a Woman Just Trying to Raise Her Kids?

My mother was a feminist. I can’t blame her though, I really can’t. She was born in 1940 the oldest of 4 girls. Her father sent her to college even though his friends told him he was wasting his money.

My mother wanted to be an accountant. Her guidance counselor at Kansas State University told her that she couldn’t. Women could only be teachers, secretaries, or nurses. My mother fainted at the sight of blood so she chose to be a teacher. When I majored in Accounting and earned my CPA license, my mother was literally bursting with pride. I am sure she felt I accomplished several milestones that she was denied.

WANTED! WANTED!! At last Sunday’s DeSoto Historical Society meeting we invited Leonard Gresens to speak to us. He is from Shreveport, La., is our Token Expert in this area, and had a very interesting talk for us.

I remember the tokens that the downtown trollies used and the old video arcades used to use tokens in the game machines but I did not know that back in frontier days many establishments used these coin-like replicas in everyday business. Mr. Gresens told us that the Token System helped local trade by providing a reliable coinage supply to make change, promoting the establishment that issued them, offering an incentive to enhance pay and trade. For instance, if you bought a whole roll of Shreveport Transit Tokens you would get a few extra. If you received Tokens as a supplement to your pay you could redeem them for full price at certain neighboring establishments or redeem them for a percentage of the face value at any local business.

Bird Watching

I’ve always enjoyed watching birds and learning the native different types in places I’ve lived. I guess with my Dad and Grandfather being County Agents and sharing their knowledge of birds with me made me appreciate them more. I like visiting with John Rambin who’s an avid watcher, too. He sees more meadow and open field birds than I do since I live over near the pine woods on Laura St.

Just the other day I’d filled the feeders with the Fruit & Nut Blend of bird feed I use from Tractor Supply and was taking my first water break on the back patio when I noticed the first visitor, a Downy Woodpecker. I have Red-Belly Woodpeckers a lot but this new Downy was a treat to see. I decided to start counting and keeping a list of all the different visitors at the feeders that day.