where on earth is catahoula?

CATAHOULA LAKE, some say Lake Catahoula, is a small mysterious lake in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, at the western edge of the Atchafalaya Basin. Not to be confused with the much larger lake by the same name in the northern half of the state, the narrow and picturesque lake has long been regarded as sacred, and a legend of its violent birth has attached to it.

catahoula lake

THE INDIAN SUMMER of flowers of which you have ofttimes dreamed is just any day along Catahoula Lake. Boughs are always leafy there, and blossoms are ever fragrant.

first chapel

THIS IS THE ONLY surviving photograph of the exterior of Catahoulas first chapel, as far as I know. Originally located on the western shore of the lake near where Harold Granger later had his store, the chapel was moved in the 1920’s to a triangular piece of property at the heart of Catahoula. In 1951 the worn-out chapel was replaced with the building that would become St. Rita Catholic Church.

stillness is the move

MANY OF THE PATIENTS I treat were injured on the job, or through the negligence of others, so I end up participating in three or four depositions a year. The first few times, even though I understood intellectually that the deposition wasn’t about me, that it wasn’t me who was on trial, that I’m merely providing information, it still felt like I was on trial. The clipping of the mic on your shirt edge, the so-help-you-god oath, the videographer, the transcriptionist, the stacks of folders on the table — it’s hard not to be at least a little afraid, particularly when you realize that every word you speak is going to be precisely recorded. But now that I have quite a few depositions under my belt, I’m not so awed by them anymore. I used to dread them. Now I kind of look forward.

august

musical confessions, part 2

MY SECOND DISASTROUS vocal audition — magnitudes of order more disastrous than my high school show choir audition — was for a student-organized musical at Rice. Sid Rich College was staging Man of La Mancha and Karen and I went to the tryouts together one evening after dinner.

mounds on lake larose

ON THE BANK of Lake LaRose, within sight of one another when not obscured by foliage, are three mounds on property of Mr. Robert Martin of St. Martinville, La.