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History comes in several forms - about people, places, happenings, & etc. Today’s topic is about things most citizens of DeSoto have heard about but have never actually seen - at least not in use - a “Brush Arbor”.

Brush Arbors were used by our early settlers for one of two purposes. The early arrivals by wagons used brush arbors for temporary homes. After traveling from the Carolinas, Alabama or Mississippi and cramped in a wagon for several months it felt good to live under a brush arbor where you could stretch your legs and walk around.

This writer has been repeatedly asked how certain area towns received their names. Let’s start with a little information about Louisiana.

Louisiana was discovered 27 years after Columbus landed in the New World in 1492. Robert de La Salle, early French explorer named Louisiana for Louis XIV, King of France. Ten different flags have flown over Louisiana. The original Louisiana territory comprises all or part of several different states. All ten flags will not be named in this article but the first flag was Spain’s ‘Leon and Castile’ flag by DeSoto in 1541.

My 15-year-old niece Sadie recently asked me what it was like being a kid in the 80s and early 90s.

“Well,” I said, “people knew each other better. Kids couldn’t hide behind a screen and say whatever they wanted. You had to pick up the phone and call, and sometimes your heart would beat out of your chest while it rang.”

I told her that teens hand-wrote notes to each other on loose leaf paper. They folded the notes in a specific type of triangle where one corner would tuck neatly into another corner, creating a neat little compact envelope.

We didn’t write “LOL” but we did write “LYLAS” (Love Ya Like a Sis).

If something was cringeworthy or someone was picture-worthy, it didn’t matter. There were no phones with a camera to document anything. It was just in someone’s memory and you had to take another kid’s word for it.

8 Facets of Homemaking - Get Ready for the Sparkle!

Although there are many facets of homemaking, there are eight basic categories that seem to take priority. Why call them ‘facets’? Because a homemaker really should be labeled as one of the most precious gems - a diamond.

Facets # 1: The Home - Homemakers take pride in their home. In their skills tool box, they find ways to reduce the amount of time they clean through organizing, decluttering, and delegating chores to both reduce the time spent cleaning, and as a way to teach their children how to be healthy, happy, productive adults.

Facet #2: Meal Planning - Meal planning is one of the great organizational skills of a homemaker. Having a meal plan takes the guess work out of meal time, and helps the homemaker prepare healthy, frugal meals for her family.

The Fifth Annual Women of Heart Conference, “Daughters of the King” will be held on September 25, at Grand Cane Baptist Church from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

The speaker will be Amy Sutton Ricketts and music for Praise and Worship will be provided by the Grand Cane Baptist Praise Band.

Ladies are invited to attend an inspiring evening devoted to our God. You will be served dinner and then led in praise songs and finally word from a Lord-lead woman, Amy.

Tickets are $25.00 and seating is limited, so get yours early. For more information call 318-773-7460 or email mdillard01@yahoo.com. T-shirts are available from Altered Grace Boutique in Grand Cane (see order form for more information).

Grand Cane Baptist Church is located at 1008 Fifth Street in Grand Cane.

“Then they that gladly received His word were baptized and there were added unto them about 3,000 souls.”

We were in a church like this once. It was the First Baptist Church in Gueydan, LA. God began to move in that church; the spirit fell on the members and a great sweeping spirit of revival fellowship began to take place, especially in the evening. Great crowds began to come back on Sunday evenings. Testimony, prayer, praises and hymns glorifying the Lord occurred. Prayer meetings that would last into the night, even an all night prayer meeting took place. A great Revival followed in the Baptist Church and Methodist Church, and also reached into the Catholic Church. Scores were saved and many baptisms took place, some even occurring in Lake Arthur. I met with about 100 men in one church and had a great prayer meeting with them in that church.

There was a symphony of sound on the patio last night. The rhythmic crescendodecrescendo of the cicadas played back-up for the tiny treefrogs with giant voices. A handful of mockingbirds added their croon to the moonlight mix, and the new owl periodically added his percussive hoot. I say he’s new, but I don’t really know that. I saw him for the first time a few weeks ago, perched on a limb and watching the dog and I do laps around the block. He watched us intently, hooting each time we drew close to his tree, as though calling out encouragement.

That was the first time I’d heard him, but now I hear him often. I don’t know if he just moved into the neighborhood, or if he’d been there all along and I hadn’t noticed. That happens sometimes. We tend to see what we’re looking for and hear the things we listen for.

B a j a Shrimp vs. Shrimp Scampi

I picked up a good looking seasoning packet for Baja Shrimp at the Grocery. Thinking of making these on Friday night I thawed out one of my quart baggies of 12/16 ct. gulf shrimp. I noticed that the box preparations called for a pound of 16 ct. but I figured I was close with the amount I had so I used the entire packet of the seasoning mix ... big mistake. Even Susan with her COVID numbed senses of taste and smell thought they were too strong - soooo I decided to do a little research to see if I could improve on this new dish.

The early settlers of this area were a very hardy group - primarily those from the Carolinas and Georgia with exceptions of the St. Denis group along the Bayou Pierre composed of Spanish and French. Today’s article is going to discuss the Anglo-Saxon Group, which settled the northern half of the parish.

The first settlers came to the area primarily by covered wagons with the cows tied behind the wagons and the boys driving the hogs behind the cows. Normally it would be thought that driving hogs would be impossible but history tells us that hogs soon learned to follow behind the wagons and cows without trouble. Sometimes, however, it was necessary for the older boys to go back behind in the event of the pigs getting tired and wanting to wallow around in a mud hole.

One of my chicks has flown the nest.

Two weeks ago, we moved our oldest son Reece into his dorm at LSU. He’s studying Economics and Philosophy in the Ogden Honors College with dreams of becoming a lawyer and a professor.

In the months leading up to his move-in day, I tried to soak in the sound of his footsteps booming down the wooden stairs, the way he played Grateful Dead’s “Brown-Eyed Women” beautifully by-ear on the piano in our living room, and his casual, deep-voiced “Love y’all” when he was leaving to go hang out with friends.

I made the mistake of listening to Katrina Kenison’s “The Gift of an Ordinary Day” on YouTube.

Our foyer turned into an Amazon warehouse full of dorm-room musthaves.

Even so, when the morning came to drive to Baton Rouge, I wasn’t emotional, just hyper-aware that “the day had come.”

We spent six hours moving him into a dorm that made my first dorm seem like Angola.