Columns

While visiting with some interesting people that were touring our Mansfield Female College Museum I found that they traditionally had a Christmas Yule Log insert for their gas fireplace. That night when I got home the first thing I did was get a fire started in my real fireplace. After I could tell it was going good I put the biggest piece of my split firewood on top. Of course it didn’t last long, much less all night like the old Yule Logs were supposed to. Its two-hour interlude falls far short of the tour group’s fake Yule Insert that probably stayed in from Thanksgiving until New Years. The main consolation I have though is that the next Yule Log I select will be completely different from the last one. Another thing I enjoy about my fireplace is kindling and starting the day’s first fire and keeping it going until bedtime satisfies my inner-firebug.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11 (NKJ). We are all familiar with the nativity scene showing the holy family and the “Three Wise men” or “Three Kings”. As a twelve year old boy I could have written up the story with a great deal of confidence but with further study and reading how much do I really know about the Magi? Where did they come from? What was the star they followed?

We had a wonderfully festive time at the Annual Grand Cane Christmas Parade a couple of weeks ago.

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Public schools have been an integral part of DeSoto Parish life for over one hundred and fifty years. Grand Cane in October 1894 was made a public high school. On April 3, 1895 Mansfield became a high school. The State Board of Education approved Keachi and Stonewall as high schools in 1898.

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DeSoto Parish was a very ever be considered an area for water commerce being situated primarily in the hills between two rivers, the Sabine to the west and the Red River to the east. Of course, originally DeSoto reached from the small Sabine River to the larger Red River. By the time DeSoto was developing into a large cotton exporting parish Red River Parish was formed in 1871 and all fertile bottom land to Bayou Pierre was given to Red River Parish.

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Evaporated or Condensed Milk?

I’ve always had a problem remembering which one is the sweetened one and which one is only condensed, ... or is it evaporated? See what I mean?? While studying up a little on these two I found out that Evaporated Milk was discovered by a French scientist Appert in 1795 while he was working on various food preservation methods. He boiled the fresh milk to reduce it by sixty percent then canned it. Here in American in 1856 Borden and Nestle both came up with a version of Appert’s evaporated milk using extra sugar to help preserve the milk calling it “Condensed Milk”.

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With the 2020 Presidential Election now almost over and controversy raging over the results perhaps a little historical recounting of the Electoral College would be in order. Once upon a time the Electoral College was not controversial. As some of the States became heavily populated they felt they were not being represented as they would like to be. They wanted the Constitution changed to reflect the election of the President and the Vice-President by popular vote. They argued that every State Governor is elected by popular vote.

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Deja’ Vu All Over Again

One of my favorite “Yogi-isms” quote from the great Major League baseball player and coach. When analyzed they made no sense but you intuitively knew what he meant like, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over” used in many sports games that are very close and go down to the wire. And I want to tell you about the adventure Susan and I had in Arkansas last week but first I need to correct a mistake I made on the ‘Chicken Beignets’ column. It seems that I mis-heard Susan’s recounting of how she and her Mom made dumplings ... NOT canned biscuits but Bisquick Flour Mix. She said, “Now they (my readers) are gonna think really crazy” - So remember it’s mix not cans!

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Our nation has a long, rich tradition of thanking God for his blessings. We know very little about the first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims celebrated in Plymouth. We do know it took place in 1621 sometime after the autumn harvest. More about this particular day later in this article but let’s look at earlier times in our history where Thanksgiving was practiced.

Well hello everybody!! How was y’alls Veterans Day? Veterans at MNC were recognized in a big way! Wow! Thank you Mansfield Elementary for making our special day even more special. Those posters were made with a lot of love and we absolutely loved them. Our Activity Director Osterhaudt made sure everything came together by throwing us a party on this special day. That gal can throw a party to! We had so much fun! Thank you Veterans for all your service.

Hey!! Does everybody know about the Christmas Parade in Grand Cane on December 5, 2020? Well, mark your calendars and be sure you attend. We are in the process of putting together a float. Y’all know we’re gonna be throwing all kinds of goodies, too! We have some special things in mind, but you’ll have to be there in order to get one. Can’t tell you what it is, but you’ll see!