Columns

Over 90 years ago on June 25, 1917 there were 14,000 U.S. troop ships that landed in LaHarve, France to join the Allied fight against the Central Powers in World War I. The United States had been reluctant to enter the “Great War”. Most Americans viewed it as a European fight and wanted no part of it. President Woodrow Wilson had won election in 1916 on the slogan “Keep US out of the War!,” but German aggression with submarine attacks against American ships soon turned public opinion. Wilson and American realized we could not stay neutral with world peace being threatened.

For the past 14 years, Molly Usrey has called the DeSoto Parish Extension Office her second home. Molly began her career with the LSU AgCenter in January 2008. She and her husband, Tom, moved to DeSoto Parish where she filled the role as a 4-H Livestock Agent. During her time with the LSU AgCenter, Molly has filled many roles. Some of which include Poultry Superintendent at the State Fair of LA, LSU Northwest District Livestock Show Superintendent, and the LSU Northwest District Horse Show Superintendent. Molly also served as Parish Chair of the DeSoto Parish Extension Office after the retirement of Mr. Chuck Griffin.

In the early 1930’s times were stressful in some ways like today but in a different kind of way. Huey P. Long, Governor of Louisiana, felt the need for a more jovial spirit and humor. As the Great Depression became more stressful Long started a little word battle with the Governor of Georgia and the Editor of the Atlanta Constitution. The proper way to eat cornpone or cornbread with soup or milk or potlikker. Long contended the proper way was to dunk the cornpone in the “potlikker” which you younger readers may not know was the juice from boiled vegetables like mustard, turnip or collard greens cooked with salt and pepper and fat pork. The above concoction was a favorite meal of most southern families.

WOW...these weeks sure do come quickly! Where does time go? In the blink of an eye, I’ll be living IN MNC and some other activity director will be writing about me. That’s a thought I think I’ll skip ...let’s move on from that, ha ha!

The weather...nah ain’t gonna talk about that either!!! It’s just disrespectful outside. Let’s talk about fun things! Today at MNC has been fun. We celebrate residents’ birthdays the last Thursday of each month. Today was THAT day. We had our July Birthday Party.

We gather in the cafeteria and have either sausage, cheese, pepperoni pizza, or a combo of all that. We have soft drinks, and we have cupcakes, cookies, brownies and several types of desserts. The residents really enjoy the pizza because its something they don’t get to eat often so we splurge and make them happy! We all laugh and talk as we eat all the goodies.

I must confess-I get so confused about Facebook prayers. “Please pray” I just don’t really understand. What am I praying for? I have read Stormie O’Martian’s book The Power of a Praying Wife. It’s truly life changing. I believe in the power of prayer-I truly do! So, I don’t enjoy “just praying”. I need more details!

Romans 8:26 tells us “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words”. Once again, God convicts me by telling me that it’s okay that I don’t know how to pray for this person-my prayers are still needed.

Let’s get shakin!!!!!!

There are few dishes that are both Cajun and Creole, but both have different variations of similar dishes.

I’ve always made what I considered “traditional” Louisiana foods, but it wasn’t till my years of living and working in different parts of South Louisiana I really learned the differences.

One of the simplest differences between the two cuisine is Creole food typically uses tomatoes and tomato-based sauces while traditional Cajun food does not.

Cajun food is rustic.

Cooking anything found along the Bayou. It is a combination of French and Southern style cooking. Think of one-pot dishes; jambalaya, rice dressing, boudin.

Ya’ crawfish boil is another Cajun culture creation!

You’ve read when I relate stories about my Mother who loved being a teacher. It was truly her calling and I know for a fact that many loved her because she was such a good teacher. She told me one time that the Teacher had to know more about the subject she was teaching than anyone else in the room. And, I didn’t understand until I was selected to teach the Young Adults Sunday school class I attended back in the day.

What made me think about this was when I attempted to change my morning shaving routine. I’d purchased a cheap set of razors and they didn’t have the same endurance or capacity that my better ones had. Instead of shaving in three sections of my face I now had to do six … what a pain.

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!