Moot Thoughts & Musings

We're back from our nice little vacation to Natchitoches, LA (pronounced NAH-kuh-tish). It is about a five hour drive from New Orleans, and we stopped at LSU on the way so I could go to class. We really enjoyed the sunny drive up.

The other couple, Len and Christy, from our church who had arranged everything and invited us along were already at the B & B when we arrived. The hostess/owner was a warm chatty lady and told us all about the house, which is one of the oldest in Natchitoches, built sometime in the late 18th c. Several years ago an architect restored it, by hoisting up the original Creole structure and building a story underneath it, which, constructed out of stones, almost felt like an above ground cellar. There were the two bedrooms that we and Len and Christy used that both had access to the large balcony, and there was a master suite with its own bath. The owner lived elsewhere, but she left breakfast rolls and pastries and milk and juice in the little fridge in our room, so we could eat at our leisure. It was very homey and relaxing. It felt more like I was staying in someone's house rather than a cozy hotel (as some B & B's do). The backyard had a fig tree with ripe figs that I could pick and which are very tasty. I also saw the hugest grasshopper I have ever seen in my life. It was about 3 inches long and had pretty orange wings. I took a picture of it, much to the amusement of the lady.

I had no idea how historic Natchitoches was. It was settled as a French outpost in late 1700's, and was central in trading routes and local diplomatic relations, wh. included French, Spanish, Americans, Texans, Mexicans, and several local native American tribes. The town is on the national historic register or something like that. That is probably why there are so many B & B's. What else can you do with beaucoup houses on historical register? Another point of fame for this small town is that it is the site for the filming of "Steel Magnolias". In fact, we had a pleasant view of the backyard of the house where the wedding took place from the balcony of our house, and the house we were staying in served as dressing rooms for the cast. So, despite the fact that this movie is around 15 years old, there is still quite a bit of memorabilia to this small claim to fame around town.

Our July 4th was nice and peaceful. After spending a lazy morning watching CNN's coverage of the new Constitution Center in Philly, for the reason of trying to catch glimpses of Philly, we decided that it was too hot to walk around and so piled into the car to tour around the countryside. Our first stop was the Fort St. Jean Baptiste, right outside of town. I didn't realize it was a replica at the time, so I was rather marveled by its well-preserved condition. We didn't linger too long, though, hopping back into the air-conditioned relief of the car. Throughout the countryside were reportedly quite a lot of plantations, so we decided to go have a look. Many of them were closed, and actually, many of them were quite small...just the size of a normal single family, two-bedroom home. Nevertheless, though, they were all quite charming, and the drive itself, winding around the Cane River, was relaxing. We did stop at a couple, the most notable of which was Melrose Plantation. This one was the largest of all of them. It had several buildings and a largish main house. The mistress of the place during the late 19th/early 20th century was fairly well-educated and felt the geographical remoteness of her station, so she invited several writers and artists out to the plantation for a place to work free of charge. Their only duty was to talk to her about their work. Such notables as Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Audobon were among her guests. A slave woman, Clementine Hunter, was to clean up after the artists and began saving what was left of their discarded tubes of paint, and she began to paint on whatever she could find from pieces of cardboard to old window shades. She painted her world, the work of the fields, picking in the pecan groves, going to church. It is vivid protrayal and visual documentation of life from the slave's perspective. Her work has also become valuable pieces of folk art. She died in the 1980's at the age of 101.

After winding our way back to the town of Natchitoches, we relaxed and ate supper venturing out at dusk for fireworks. There was a "festival" consisting of about three booths. It was very small-towny feeling. We enjoyed watching the people in their comfortable surroundings enjoying each other. One thing I have always been fascinated with at fireworks gatherings are those little glow-in-the-dark plastic necklacey things. Of course, I can appreciate my parent's financial prudence in not buying those things, but nevertheless, I just think they're such a fun commodity. As if reading my mind, Christy bought one for her and for me, and we got great delight from them, waving them around, and winding them around our arms. After finding a place on the curb to watch the show, though, the novelty wore off and we gave them to the kids sitting in front of us, who were beginning to get a bit restless and looked they could use a bit of diversion to get them through the remaining minutes until the fireworks started. The display over the river was great. I always like to look back at peoples faces, looking up with smiles with the reflection of red and green and other bright colors flashing on them. I always forget how loud fireworks are, too. But as always, I loved the fireworks.

Saturday morning, we again had a lazy morning watching TV. We thought we might walk around a bit before leaving. There was a very small market that we went to, but it was too hot to do much else. We went out for lunch in order to try a local Natchitoches item of culinary fame...the meat pie. As fried things generally are, it was pretty yummy. After lunch, Chris and I went on our way and drove the 5 hours back, entirely in the rain. We had a nice time, but it is always good to be back home.