Standing on the street corner, eyes closed, head tilted skyward, my ears consumed the sounds of the day. Cars whizzing by, dogs barking, wind swirling dried leaves across the sidewalk. A faint greeting, “How’s your mom and ‘dem?” I did not immediately realize it was directed towards me. The second time I heard it, “How’s your mom and ‘dem?”, the volume had been turned up. Peering through the maze of azalea bush branches, I see a weathered old man, straw fedora sitting percariously atop his slightly tilted head. I fear the wind, that whips my hair, will claim the hat as its own. It only slightly rises, quickly stayed by a long-fingered, weather-wrinkled hand. We share smiles; a tip of the hat, and a nod end the encounter. Sunglasses raised, I squint into the glaring afternoon sunlight – shuitters tap the cypress siding, protesting the intrusion by the breeze, on the side of the Queen Anne cottage. I realize I am channeling the essence of the Historic District of Thibodaux, LA – “Where yesterday welcomes tomorrow.” (City of Thibodaux, LA)
Originally setteled by French and Spanish Creoles, Thibodaux quickly became home for Acadian exiles during the mid-1700’s. Nestled along the banks of the Bayou Lafourche, Thibodaux was established, in 1796, as a trading post between New Orleans and the Teche country. (State Library of Louisiana) Orginally named Thibodeauxville, after Henry C. Thibodeaux the donator of two square miles of land for the development of the village in 1820, is now home to approxiametley 15,000 people. (2010 Census) Thibodaux’s Jackson Street reflects much of the rich history that makes Thibodaux unique.
In 1847, Judge George S. Guion (he would later become the father-in-law of Francis T. Nicholls) donate...
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...e location for the railroad depot, steamboat landing, and a steam sawmill. In 1823, Captain Ferdinand Streck traded on the Bayou Lafourche via a small boat. In 1825, Streck brought the first steamboat into the bayou, eventually owning the largest steamboat “Decatur”. A typical commerce run would take four days, roundtrip, and began in New Orleans, ventured through Donaldsonville, and finally down the Bayou Lafourche. Many boats traveled this route, bringing to Thibodaux showboats, photography boats, and zoo boats.
Now standing on the Jackson Street Bridge, having made my way down this historic street in Thibodaux, I once again hear the voice, “How’s your mom and ‘dem?” There is no alarm this time, no seeking the source. Capturing the essence of this quaint, sleepy bayou town, it’s easy to see how Thibodaux has earned the nickname, “Queen City of the Parish.”
New Orleans was founded to be a port to the world – with its intersection at the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, it was a great location for world trade. However, it was also a cesspool of disease, floods, and other problems. Despite this, the city was a major economic powerhouse and the city grew and prospered despite of the problems.
The book Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?, written by independent journalist and private investigator Ethan Brown, tells the horrific true story of the bayou town of Jennings, Louisiana located in the heart of the Jefferson Davis parish. During the four year duration between 2005 and 2009, the town of Jennings was on edge after the discovery of the bodies of eight murdered women were found in the filthy canals and swamps. The victims became known as the “Jeff Davis 8.” For years, local law enforcement suspected a serial killer, and solely investigated the murders based on that theory alone. The victims were murdered in varying manors, but when alive they all shared many commonalities and were connected to
The United States acquired the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, thereby gaining control of the Mississippi River, and its watershed at the golf of Mexico. The U.S. government realized how important this was and its potential of becoming a great trading post. By 1812 this area called New Orleans grew as expected in size and importance. In peace it was a commercial outlet and trading center of the western United States.
In 1784, the King of Spain consented to allowing the Acadians to settle in Southern Louisiana. However, when the Acadians arrived, they had some issues with the French aristocracy who didn’t really want them there, so this caused the Acadians to head west of the city of New Orleans into unsettled territory.... ... middle of paper ... ... Southern Quarterly 44.3 (2007): 68-84.
Farmers who lived west of the Appalachian Mountains shipped all their surplus produce by boat down rivers that flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. In a treaty of 1795, Spain agreed to give Americans the "right of deposit" at New Orleans. This right allowed Americans to store in New Orleans, duty-free, goods shipped for export. Arks and flatboats transported a great variety of products, including flour, tobacco, pork bacon, lard, feathers, cider, butter, cheese, hemp, p...
Grand Isle, a town in Louisiana, and New Orleans, a city in Louisiana. For Chopin’s life, a
Nous sommes Acadiens. (We are Acadians.) Some outsiders see us as a quaint, virtuous people, spending a great deal of time singing, dancing, praying, and visiting? (Conrad, 1978, p.14). Others see us as independent and unsophisticated. We see ourselves as fun-loving, carefree, happy, proud people who have a great love for our culture. The Acadians were French settlers of eastern Canada who were exiled from their land in the 1750?s. The Acadians are known to have settled in the southern bayou lands of Louisiana around that time. The Acadiana people acquired their nickname, ?Cajuns,? from those people who could not pronounce Acadians correctly. Due to the opinion that Cajuns were ?different?, they lived close together and became isolated from others in Louisiana. They have since developed their own distinct characteristics which make them unique and unlike no others in the bayou state. Family, music, housing, food, marriages, and ?traiteurs? were all a part of the simple but challenging lifestyle of the Cajuns.
Initially, all incoming Acadian immigrants arrived in New Orleans. They were met by a tepid Spanish government that was eager to relocate the settlers to more rural areas. These included the regions north of New Orleans along the Mississippi River, as well as the prairie lands of Southwest Louisiana. The Acadians newly settled into the river basin soon found difficulty in growing their familiar crops of grain and cool weather vegetables. The heat and humidity required t...
“ In 1764, a French fur trader Pierre Laclede established a trading post on the western bank of Mississippi, which grew into St. Louis. The village included ; La Grande Rue, now First Street, Rue de’ L'eglise , now Second Street and Rue Des Granges, now Third Street. The village became the center of commerce with furs as the main source of exchange for goods”(Historic Laclede's Landing in Old Saint Louis). Laclede Landing’s is considered to be the birthplace of St.Louis because of this.
The Mardi Gras Indians have been a tradition that has lived on in new orleans for many years, the secrecy of the indians is what has made the mardi gras indian such an event, the mardi gras indians do not plan parade times or even publish any documentation. The Mardi gras indians do not take order from no one, and it because they believe in such belief due to years of harassment and it empowered them as much as their ancestor did back in the days of enslavement, I became interested in the Mardi gras Indians because of how elegant and colorful their costume were, the amount of time and energy to create a costumes and how they do not get any sort of profit and solely create them because of tradition and because of many of the old resident trying
It went through a couple changes of ownership over the next century, until it was finally sold to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. It quickly became a major port town a cultural center, and was one of the largest cities in the United States until 2005, when it was only haphazardly evacuated before being flooded by Hurricane Katrina. This natural disaster killed hundreds and, while 80 percent of the population had returned within five years, it still has yet to reclaim its former glory
It is very clear that New Orleans is a culturally diverse city then and now. Race has played a significant part in how people are accepted into the American society of acceptance. The Jim
St. Anne’s has played a major role in developing the city of Detroit and will continue to do so in the future. However, the structure of St. Anne’s is continuing to wither. The Church has been through eight restorations since its original founding. (Gay, 98-99) Throughout the inside of the Church, ceiling damage and plaster falling off walls can be viewed. The withering features of St. Anne’s Parish describes “who we are” in Detroit. St. Anne’s is a beautiful work of art that is falling apart because there is a lost sense of appreciation. St. Anne’s is filled with hand crafted statues and ceiling painting that would be considered magnificent in other cities, but are however viewed as a sign of the past in Detroit.
This ends our tour through Hell. It's funny. I kind of like this area because it reminds me of New York, but it lacks that "savoir-faire." It's more like "New York meets the third world", or what would have happened had the Spanish, and not the English, taken New Amsterdam from the Dutch.
Sitting on the porch waiting for Michele, tall, southern, red haired and fiery, I have to do much needed laundry at her house where the wash is free and the dryers do not charge by the minute. I am down to my second and third wearing of jeans and socks are scarce so sandals in cool weather are necessary. Basking in the delicious intoxicating sunlight, this is one day in the unusually cold Florida February that my toes are not blue and numb from wearing sandals. I rest my twenty-two-year-old English filled head against the siding on the porch and wonder; “Does it get any better then this?”