Columns

When French and Spanish explorers first arrived in this area they found a thriving culture established by the Caddo-Addai and the Caddo Nachitosh Indian Tribes. The two tribes were part of the larger Caddo Indian Group. They were a semi-nomadic people meaning they lived in an area for a few years and moved to better hunting and fishing when those were thinned out. During the several years of living in one place they built homes of poles and thatched grass wall and roofs similar the shape of a beehive.

The Caddo men were not particularly bad fighters except when attacked. The women were expert weavers of rugs and pottery makers. Both men and women tanned animal skins into clothes. However, the early French explorers said the women were better at tanning hides than the men.

As I write this, we are about a week into selfdistancing due to Covid-19. My three kids are being h o m e - schooled, I haven’t left the house except to make a

Kroger run, and life as we knew it before the coronavirus quarantine is no more.

Even though this sometimes seems like the Twilight Zone, I fully recognize that it’s true and that it’s redefining priorities and perspectives.

When this is over, I know I won’t be the same.

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Yes, … there – I said it. I apologize for thinking that I had invented a new Italian dish as in the B r o d o Classico or Pasta Broth that I wrote about a few columns back, Mi Dispiace’. Although as a disclaimer, I did mutter that the simple broth I thought I had invented couldn’t possibly be new and surely should have been discovered earlier. AND, yep - it had; In 1550 in Northern Italy and called Tortellini En Brodo. When I sent the original column out by email one of my earliest readers and oldest friend, Janis from South Louisiana, pointed out that when she lived in Italy there was a broth like the one I had “discovered”.

With the interest in the preserving of the Nabors Trailers Sign headed up by David Calhoun it appears appropriate for a historical article to be written about W.C. Nabors, the owner and founder of the Nabors Trailers Company. W.C. (Will) Nabors was born in Naborton, La. on Dec. 16, 1877. There aren’t many people living today that knew Mr. Nabors personally. This writer knew him but not on a social level.

I am going to try and unpack this monster of medical terminology and global business into two articles that we country folks can understand.

There is s phenomenon known as a “Chain Reaction or Chain Effect or Domino Effect,” which is the cumulative effect when one event sets off another, and so on. Sometimes the results are similar, and sometimes it ripples. This is known as a “Ripple Effect,” which is not cumulative (broken up with delays). For example, a ripple can be created when a same-sex marriage may have little impact on friends, but it can cause a ripple effect on family members. The same with a divorce of a husband and wife—little impact on friends but a big impact on the kids. Some viruses on the global economy cause Ripples and other Dominoes.

A continuation of “Old DeSoto and Mansfield” from last week’s article will be the theme this week. Many of our citizens never realized there was a gunpowder factory in Mansfield located on Franklin St. It was a successful factory that made powder for shotgun shells and dynamite. The DuPont Company bought up the smaller plants like the one in Mansfield to get a monopoly on the business.

During the depression years a program was developed under F.D.R. to put men to work. The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) was formed. The program built the old swimming pool in Mansfield and the old Mansfield High School brick Gymnasium. Several other schools in the parish got gyms; however, they were made of wood.