bras for bros

The cashier at the Guess store was ringing up my purchase — a pair of jeans — and asked me for my phone number. I hate all those "reward" card systems usually (they reward the merchant more than the consumer in my experience) but I remembered that I'd already signed up in a moment of weakness a couple of years ago, so I went ahead and gave her my number. "Who knows?" I thought to myself. "I might save a few dollars."

the one with the snowman

THERE’S A COLOR photograph of a snowman in my family’s front yard, a small square print stamped JAN 73, three-and-a-half inches by three-and-a-half inches, a thin cream border around.

plumcot please

Favorite email today:

"Sorry to bother you but I'm a freelance journalist and I have been asked to do a piece for the food section of MSN about unusual fruits.

sunday in catahoula, 1952

Miss Dot (Doris Bourque Boutte) the young woman on the left licking the paddle of the ice cream maker, remembers the moment this photograph was taken in July of that year.

holy isn't only in churchwater . . .

. . . and haloes don't hover over only saints.

don thornton & me

Mr. Thornton was my gifted/talented teacher from 1984-1987. He taught me creative writing, acrylic painting, drawing, mobile-making, computer programming and much more.

history of st. rita's church

     Near the calm waters of Catahoula Lake, under the majestic oaks of its banks, the Indians were succeeded by the Acadians, a handful of courageous and religious people; despite their hard work in the Atchafalaya Basin, trapping, fishing, farming, they kept looking at the bright side of life and transmitted to their children their religious and cultural heritage.

death in ecstasy

     Life on planet Bubbles wasn't easy. I remember when we first landed. Our problems started when we were trying to land for the first time. We could not find a place to land. The whole planet was covered with bubbles. That's how the planet got its name.

young writer's award

A 12-year-old seventh grader at Catahoula Elementary School was recently named a winner in the 1985-86 National Young Writer's Contest.

moonrise, sandy cove

cane harvest tradition revived in catahoula

Teche News

Wednesday, January 22, 1973

Mrs. Tootie Guirard

In the old days, and of course, before television, folks had more time for having their own fun instead of looking and listening to others enjoying theirs. Also, they enjoyed many celebrations which we are so quickly forgetting and which our children know nothing about.

sugar cane statement

This is a receipt my grandfather received when he brought his crop of sugar cane to the mill for processing in 1948.

the assist

THE JAPANESE PLUMS were so orange, so ripe, but the lowest branches drooping over the gate had already been picked clean. Only a tantalizing cluster at the tip of a high branch — beyond my reach, I imagined, even with a running leap. I tried anyway. I’d just finished a twenty-minute walking meditation, and I was feeling in the zone.

sue bourque

catahoula, 194?

photo courtesy elaine courville darby

what the water moccasin swallowed

WHEN I SLICED the water moccasin’s long belly open and looked inside we learned it was an elf the snake had swallowed. Poor elf. Whom I’d apparently also sliced open when I ran my scalpel down the water moccasin. Oops. I’d carved the little guy in half almost—a gash from his nose to his navel.