I was asked a few weeks back if I knew of any larger-than-life female figures of bygone eras who played a major role in the history of the local area.  An organization was looking for such a person to serve as an icon for a planned recognition and awards program.  Let me go on record as saying that despite rumors spread by my ageist critics, I didn’t personally know, or date, any women during the early years of Mandeville.  However, a possible candidate did come to mind fairly quickly.  And, I’ll get to that name in a minute, following my traditional random, nonlinear reasoning and writing process. 

          It’s not an easy question however.  It’s certainly not difficult today to come up with countless names of women who have made great contributions in government, science, business, and every other facet of national and community life.   Our parish and municipalities have many female officials in high positions, and many of our local businesses have women in charge.  It also seems like almost...

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               While these Past Tense articles are usually focused on the Florida Parishes, I thought we’d take a little trip south this month, back to the mother ship of many of us northshore aliens.  I justify this by telling myself that the subject matter is appropriate because we are all connected at the hip to New Orleans by many things other than the Causeway.  And, in fact we are – by history, culture, cuisine, as well as geography – much, much more than just a bedroom community.  However, the real reason I’ve chosen the subject is probably more related to sloth.  I’ve resolved to check each of the seven deadly sins off of my bucket list this year, and since I had to travel into the city this month for other reasons, and wouldn’t have to do any additional research, this seemed like a good opportunity to address this particular character flaw. 

            The real reason for my trip relates to an upcoming national conference for which I have volunteered to serve as a guide on orientation bus tours...

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           As I was thinking about a historical subject to write about this month, ugly current events jumped out and grabbed my attention - and the attention of most of the rest of the world as well.  The January 12th earthquake in Haiti has been a lead story in the media for weeks, and is likely to continue to be for weeks or months to come.  Possibly hundreds of thousands of casualties, widespread destruction, starvation, plagues – everything that even the most pessimistic of biblical prophets could have imagined. 

            But Haiti has always been that kind of place – unlucky, star-crossed, hexed, wrong place/wrong time, whatever – for over five centuries, the good people living on this island that was once a beautiful, tropical paradise have had to endure everything that nature and man could throw at them.  And, the bad luck started with someone that many consider a hero, Christopher Columbus. 

            Columbus “discovered” the island of Hispaniola on the first of his four voyages to the Caribbean area, and it was an important base of operations for him on each of his subsequent trips.  As was a best practice of colonial explorers in those days, he enslaved the local population of previously happy Taino, Arawak, and Carib Indians he found, took their gold and other valuables, tortured them, converted them to Christianity, and infected them with European diseases for which they had no immunity.  In just a very few years, essentially all of the native groups were wiped out – their only small measure of satisfaction was that they did manage to send syphilis back to Europe with the Spanish sailors. 

...

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            When the calendar page flips over to a new year – especially as a new decade begins, as is the case in 2010 - it’s a time for serious reflection.  Frankly, however, I have not been real pleased with my reflection lately; that’s the price one pays for being a life-long, committed omnivore.  But rather than making an effort to change and clean up my dietary act and exercise routine this year, I have instead resolved, upon reflection, to militantly resist change, unless that involves a lot of effort. 

            What, after all, is wrong with the way things are?  Will no one speak up for inertia?  Why is it in America that it’s always about the next new thing?  I finally came to understand recently what tweeting and twittering are, and now I find out that they’re on the way out.  Three thousand years for civilization to get from parchment to what seems to be the pinnacle of instant messaging, and poof … the next new thing is gone in the blink of an eye.  The world is whizzing past me like I’m...

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            Time just seems to slip away.  I’ve been meaning to write this article all year, but here it is December and I haven’t.  I suppose I should have planned better, especially since … drum roll please … the year 2009 is the 100th anniversary of professional planning in the United States. (The previous verbiage was voted the third-best introductory paragraph of this issue by Conifer staff.) 

            Now, you might be asking yourself, “What on earth could the words ‘professional’ and ‘planning’ possibly have to do with St. Tammany Parish?”  Actually, issues related to planning have been at the center of contentious public debate over the past two generations as rapid development has come to the area.  Despite this, and the fact that a major portion of most people’s wealth – their homes and other real estate holdings – can be dramatically impacted by planning and zoning, very few citizens really understand the governmental processes involved. 

            We learned in high school civics...

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            I read an article recently about a poll taken to determine which overused utterances used in our everyday conversations annoy people the most.  Near the top of the list, of course, was “you know,” which is the Modern English equivalent of the much older Anglo-Saxon-Germanic-Serbo-Croatian- terms “er,” “uh,” and “hmm.” But I don’t think they should count “you know,” you know.  To me this is just the little spinning hour glass in your cranial computer letting listeners know that there’s some sort of thinking going on and useful information will be forthcoming shortly, or possibly, some day.

             Other common expressions cited were profundities like “well, at the end of the day,” “it is what it is,” and “if you talk the talk, you got to walk the walk.”  I guess the one that conveys the least useful information to me is “it is what it is” … because if it wasn’t, what would it be?  In fact, a recent university study showed that “it is what it is” almost always.  The only time “it isn’t what it is” is in government applications, when frequently “it isn’t anything remotely resembling what it is.”

...

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            There was change in the air last week … at least in the early morning hours, when the temperatures dropped briefly into the 50s.  That’s good news in this part of the country because it means that the many months of hot, humid penance we annually pay for living in a culinary and recreational paradise are just about over.  October is the favorite time of the year for many people, because in addition to being one of the nicest months for weather, it is also the beginning of the brief southeastern Louisiana holiday season that ends (grudgingly) some time around Jazz Fest.  October is the month that we celebrate Mother-in-Law’s Day, Boss’s Day, Moldy Cheese Day, National Grouch Day, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Birthday … I’m seeing a troubling pattern here … as well as Columbus Day and Halloween.

             And, as every school boy knows, October 28, 1785 was the birthday of Bernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville, or “Stinky” as his little playmates called him.  Actually, they probably...

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  I received a second letter from a reader this month, and I can’t tell you how much this encourages me.  As it was written in a different color crayon from the first, I can only assume this means my readership has doubled – publisher, please take notice!   

              This one begins, as did the first, with, “Dear Mr. So-called History Person,” and ends immediately thereafter with, “What about Fort Pike?”  Now, when a reader has taken the time to think about a question and couch it in a way that so concisely and incisively cuts to the very heart of the matter, it is difficult for even an orthodox procrastinator like me to ignore it for very long.

            First, a disclaimer: I was in the Air Force.  We didn’t have “forts.”  Like the Navy, we had “bases,” plus the occasional “station.”  Now bases, as in “home base” or “base camp” are just what they sound like.  Air and naval forces hang around these locations until there’s work to be done, but go elsewhere to engage the enemy...

             Today’s article is prompted by a reader question, to wit, “Dear Mr. So-Called History Person: I’m told that the east branch of the Pearl River was chosen as our border with Mississippi because an empty whiskey barrel thrown in upstream emerged from that stream’s mouth. What do you think?” Well, I do have a so-called answer, but first a little gratuitous information.

 

            As every schoolboy knows, Louisiana is shaped like a boot. Well, maybe more like an orthopedic shoe … with the toe blown out … that needs half-soling because of coastal erosion. Located on the U.S.’s soft underbelly, it looks like the eastward-pointing foot of America, just as the Midwest is our heart and the east coast is our face to most of the western world. Using this same anatomical analogy, I’m not sure what that would make California, but it is the last place in the Lower 48 to see the sun shine every day. I have been asked not to discuss what other states might, or might not, represent.

 

...

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This July 4th, we celebrate our country’s 233rd birthday. Now some would argue that the real birthday should be July 2nd when the Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain, not July 4th when they approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence. Some might argue for August 2nd, the day a majority of the members of Congress actually signed the printed document.   Some might choose September 17th, the date in 1787 that our Constitution was adopted and we officially became the United States of America.   I suppose one could also pick May 29th, the date in 1790 that Rhode Island became the last of the thirteen original states to ratify the Constitution. But why quibble? Let’s get on with it. July 4th has been chosen, the hot dogs and fireworks have been purchased, and we have plenty to celebrate.

 

We indeed have been truly blessed by history. Our greatest legacy has been the Constitution itself, but we have also been richly endowed by nature. Where would...

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Many of you – even those who are extremely familiar with Old Mandeville – are probably unaware of the insidious plot by printers and office supply companies to periodically change the names of streets in this historic old area. This ploy, which effectively forces all elements of local commerce to completely replace their letterhead stationery and business cards every few years, has for too long gone unreported in the press. With this issue of the Conifer, this shameful conspiracy of silence ends. Let others focus on corruption, financial crises, pandemics, threats to national security, yada, yada, yada – we are taking the battle for truth to the streets.

 

This perhaps disjointed thought came to me a few weeks back as I was listening to extremely interesting and educational talks given by Sally Reeves and Robin Perkins in connection with the celebration of the 175th anniversary of Bernard Marigny’s land auction in 1834. While Mandeville was not incorporated officially until 1840, Marigny’s...

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For the last several issues, I’ve added a little blurb with my article asking for recommendations on subjects related to St. Tammany history to address in future articles.  I’ve done this because I consider it the sacred duty of a public-spirited, community-minded, first-amendment-focused publication like the Conifer to provide such educational content for those who have nothing else to read with their five-dollar coffee.  Also, I was running out of ideas and thought this might be an easy, painless way to get some new ones.

Much to my surprise, I have received some!  Many of these actually seriously suggested future topics, while other suggestions, frankly, were offensive, and in some cases, I suspect, anatomically impossible. 

One of the serious ones came from a Slidell reader named Charles Neuman, who was very interested in the subject of brick making in St. Tammany Parish.  He asked a number of questions - both technical and historical - about this industry, and it would take someone with far more expertise than I have to answers the questions completely.  I will, however, try to pass on a little general history about brick-making that addresses some of the subjects raised.

...

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For the last several issues, I’ve added a little blurb with my article asking for recommendations on subjects related to St. Tammany history to address in future articles. I’ve done this because I consider it the sacred duty of a public-spirited, community-minded, first-amendment-focused publication like the Conifer to provide such educational content for those who have nothing else to read with their five-dollar coffee. Also, I was running out of ideas and thought this might be an easy, painless way to get some new ones.

 

Much to my surprise, I have received some! Many of these actually seriously suggested future topics, while other suggestions, frankly, were offensive, and in some cases, I suspect, anatomically impossible. 

 

One of the serious ones came from a Slidell reader named Charles Neuman, who was very interested in the subject of brick making in St. Tammany Parish. He asked a number of questions - both technical and historical - about this industry, and it would...

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When I was growing up, my family wasn’t into organized religion much. My brothers and I went to the local Methodist church, but my parents had moved to New Orleans from Georgia and I’m not sure which faith they’d been brought up in. They seemed pretty normal, however, and I don’t think it involved snakes and gibberish (not that there’s anything wrong with that if participants from all species are consenting adults).

With little fanfare, the City of Mandeville is rapidly approaching an important milestone – its 175^th birthday. “But how can that be?” you might ask. “Didn’t we celebrate its 150^th birthday in 1990? I’m not saying that Mandeville officials would cook the history books, but that doesn’t seem to add up – I keep coming up with 169; how about you?”