Sunday, December 21, 2008
A ride to remember
My visit to Cameron Parish, where nature yields both incredible beauty and stunning challenges, was as uplifting as it was sobering. I won’t forget it.
Nature will have its say
Gifts of the sea
The refuge ends at the Gulf of Mexico at a lovely beach of coarse, pale sand. Except it isn’t sand at all, but the tiny remnants of countless wave-worn shells. The queens enjoyed picking among the abundant in tact shells, some as big as grapefruit.
Labels:
Cattle Queen,
Cotton Queen,
Frog Queen,
Fur Queen
Not so fast
Trying to squeeze through a narrow cut-out in dense marsh,
Refuge Manager Perry (left), the Cotton Queen Brandy Matulich
(far right), and the Fur & Wildlife Pageant director Vicki Little
(near right), found themselves stuck and listing to one side—
not a problem except for being miles from true terra firma
with a lively alligator population calling the marsh home. But
with Scooter adding his muscle and talking Vicki through
driving while he and Guthrie gave a good heave, the airboat
and its passengers ended up free in the end.
Labels:
Cotton Queen,
Fur and Wildlife Festival
Faster than a speeding bullet
While visitors are welcome to certain parts of the refuge in
specific months, able to do crabbing and crawfish trapping,
only the staff have full access to the 26-mile coastline via
airboats, which are powered by enormous airplane engines.
The Fur Queen arranged for her guests to zip through the
marshland at thrill-ride speed aboard airboats like this one,
which she shares with the Frog Queen.
Labels:
Frog Queen,
Fur and Wildlife Festival,
Fur Queen
Guardians of the kingdom
The Fur & Wildlife Queen is a rare queen who represents not just an industry or town but an ecosystem. The refuge that is part of her domain is protected, preserved, and studied by a
team of biologists, including Philip Trosclair—better known as Scooter—who grew up nearby, interned here as a teen, got his degree, and returned for his adult career. At left, he shows an alligator skull found in the mud. The institutional memory rests in the experience of Refuge Manager Guthrie Perry, who has worked here for decades, and written books based on his research. Here, Perry introduces the visiting queens to the refuge, describing the challenges it currently faces.
Labels:
Cameron,
Fur and Wildlife Festival,
Fur Queen
Smile pretty
The Fur queen’s next stop led her peers to the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge, 76,000 acres of marshland. Home to ducks, geese, spoonbill, egrets, deer, armadillo, muskrat, nutria, and mink, among other species, the refuge is perhaps best known for its alligators. But at the visitor’s center, your first greeter is this madly grinning coyote, which was bagged in the refuge. Chelsea tries to match his smile with some killer whites of her own.
Used to be my playground
The final stop in our tour of damage
and recovery areas were the old
school grounds. The original Cameron
schools plot had multiple buildings,
including the auditorium where the
Fur queen was crowned each year.
Rita wiped all that out, leaving only a
cement footprint, where you can still
see the outline of the aisles once
walked by audiences for school
plays and concerts. After the
schools were rebuilt in one building
a few miles away, the old school
grounds became the festival site—
until Ike roared through this year,
not only blasting the festival site
but leveling the new school.
With board members homeless and
the town struggling to rebuild, the
festival has been cancelled until 2010.
Movin' on up
One regulation put in place after Rita was that all houses must be built at a specific elevation or manually elevated at levels ranging from 4 to 12 feet (depending on the zone), yielding an unusual landscape of new homes perched on stilts of various materials (concrete block and brick mostly, though some are wooden). One re-builder christened the result with the amusing title at far left.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Debris
Many residents have not yet been able to return and their empty wrecked homes stand as a testimony to their loss. Houses are spray-painted with their street addresses (though the houses themselves may not have ended up where they stood before the storm) and the owner’s names, a poignant reminder that these were once neighborhoods. FEMA has become something of the hand that giveth and the hand that taketh away; after initially offering money for newly homeless residents who’d had no insurance, FEMA has recently issued a new map prohibiting the rebuilding of property in 80% of the parish, leaving residents with literally no place to call home again. The state is appealing the ruling.
Battered
After volunteering in
the morning, the queens
headed deep into Cameron
Parish, where the hurricane
aftermath is evident
everywhere. 1800 of the
homes in the Parish were
destroyed by Ike, with the
majority of homes in the town
of Cameron wiped out.
This came just three years after
Rita destroyed 90% of the town.
the morning, the queens
headed deep into Cameron
Parish, where the hurricane
aftermath is evident
everywhere. 1800 of the
homes in the Parish were
destroyed by Ike, with the
majority of homes in the town
of Cameron wiped out.
This came just three years after
Rita destroyed 90% of the town.
Home is where the hurt is
The banner at right is hung on the Christmas tree in the children's room of the Calcasieu Women's Shelter, where the Fur Queen was joined by the Frog and Cotton queens for a morning of community service, helping do clean-up, sorting children's toys, and doing small home repairs in the women's rooms. Hearing from a shelter staffer that a woman is abused every 9 seconds somewhere in the country really made an impression. As Brandy, the Cotton Queen (far right), said after meeting several of the families housed there, “I realized how sheltered I’ve actually been.”
Labels:
Cotton Queen,
Frog Queen,
Fur Queen
Sometimes you feel like a crown, sometimes you don't
A Fur Queen has to enjoy the outdoors, even if she’s never picked up a gun or skinned a wild animal in her life. Lauren Naquin shows both sides of the Fur Queen lifestyle here: dressing up for formal events and dressing down to head into a nature reserve, as shown, where she has swapped her crown for noise-canceling headphones to board an airboat on the day she showed us around.
Labels:
Fur and Wildlife Festival,
Fur Queen
Cameron Parish: Home of the Fur & Wildlife Festival
Cameron Parish, Louisiana, is the largest of the state's parishes in land mass—1900 square miles—but second smallest in population, with just over 8,000 residents. It’s endless combination of open prairie, vast marshes, and bayous make it a sportsman’s paradise, and the natural home to the Louisiana Fur & Wildlife Festival. Since 1955, the festival has involved skeet-shooting, nutria-skinning, oyster-shucking, and more. But not this year: Hurricane Ike has wreaked so much havor, the January 2009 festival has been cancelled. This week, the Fur queen invited several of her fellow festival queens to come see her Parish anyway, both in its devastation and its natural splendor.
Labels:
Fur and Wildlife Festival,
Fur Queen
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
When the clown poops out, it's time to go home.
The thrill of victory?
Among the more challenging events were the satsuma race--in which three entire satsumas (like mandarin oranges) are eaten at once--and the kumquat stuffing, in which as many kumquats as possible are stuffed into the competitor's mouth (though not consumed). The respective winners were Jenna Levert, Gonzales Jambalaya Queen (left), and Blaine Nielsen, the current Orange Queen (right), though these were victories neither could celebrate with a smile, for obvious reasons.
Labels:
Gonzales Jambalaya Queen,
Orange Festival
Go speed racer, go!
Heart attack on a plate.
The Queen Mother only wears a hat in England
Politicians love to talk about "soccer moms," but Louisiana has a special breed of its own: Queen Moms. These are the moms of festival queens, who often drive their daughters all over the state and, in some cases, put in nearly as many hours on behalf of their festivals as the queens do. One Queen Mom--as her lapel pin identifies her--is Dawn Childs, mother of Queen Cotton Brandy Matulich. Dawn always has her camera with her, which makes her one of the Mamarazzi (one of my favorite terms), and the Orange Festival photos here are all hers.
Labels:
Cotton Queen,
Dawn Child,
Orange Festival
Into the woods
Not just for breakfast anymore: Plaquemines Parish Orange Festival
The Plaquemines Parish Orange festival is a 62-year tradition unbowed by hurricanes, including Katrina, which wiped out its original hometown and cost citrus growers 10 million dollars in losses. Though Buras, in the southern end of Lousiana's southermost parish, is still recovering, the festival continues to the north in Belle Chasse. This year's festival drew thousands this past weekend for a high-spirited time symbolized by Blossom and Man-Darin, the roving mascots (top left). Signs everywhere proclaimed "Think Orange" and there were plenty of citrus-themed activities, including orange races and citrus cook-offs, as well an art competition, whose winners included the maker of the all-fruit carnival scene below, which features terrified kumquats clearly desperate to get off the ride. (Top photo: Orange Festival. Bottom photo: Dawn Childs.)
Serious Sparkle
You might think an 8-tier Living Christmas Tree big enough
to house 20 full-grown adults might be enough stage decoration
for one event, but when the forty-plus visiting queens took
the stage at the Miss Festival of the Bonfires Queen pageant,
they completely out-dazzled even the enormous tree.
Though the queens are gone now, the bonfires burn this weekend
and Christmas Eve, so there's still time to find your way
to Lutcher for a view. (Photos: Dawn Childs)
It's all fun and games till someone loses a pie
Being good sports, the visiting queens--
some having traveled from hours away--
made of the best of being trapped inside,
with old school games and silly fun,
including the classic pie-in-the-face
trick, as the Catfish Queen demonstrates below.
(Photos Dawn Childs)
some having traveled from hours away--
made of the best of being trapped inside,
with old school games and silly fun,
including the classic pie-in-the-face
trick, as the Catfish Queen demonstrates below.
(Photos Dawn Childs)
Labels:
Catfish Queen,
Festival of the Bonfires
Another sign of the times.
This is the sled made by the Hurricane Queen. (Yes, there's a Hurricane Festival. It strikes me as being in the "if you can't beam 'em, join 'em" spirit.)
(Photo: Dawn Childs)
Charlie's Angels meet Martha Stewart
One tradition is for the visiting festival queens to build sleds big enough for them to ride in down the levee. Here, the queens show their crafty skills, wielding glue guns like weapons of mass creation. The fruits of their labors were sleds themed to match their home festivals but, sadly, the levee races were rained out, which meant the only sledding was done on a gymnasium floor. (Photos: Dawn Childs)
Burn, Baby, Burn: Festival of the Bonfires
Lutcher, Lousiana (population 3,600) is home to one of the state’s most visually arresting traditions: the festival of the bonfire. This weekend, 18-foot tall log pyres will rise alongside the Mississippi levee, and each night, a different one will be set ablaze. This is a prelude to Christmas Eve, when 100 such bonfires will illuminate the levees throughout St. James Parish, a tradition that local legend says grew out of a need to light Santa’s way through the Bayou. The festival period actually started two weeks ago with Bonfire pageant day, when visiting festival queens (including Fur, Cotton, and Cattle, pictured) came from around the state to kick things off.
Photos left and right from Nola.com and Dawn Childs, respectively.
Photos left and right from Nola.com and Dawn Childs, respectively.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Meanwhile, back at home...
As I take a break from my trips south
for my third book, I am at home in
time for my second book,
A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays,
to return to book stores. Readers of
A Little Fruitcake will discover
why I'm so interested in small town
festivals--my own roots are in a town of
2,000 people in rural Maine, which is the
setting for the book. The 12 stories
in this book are all set around Christmases
as I battle with my grandmother and the
rest of my clan over how Christmas
should be. A Little Fruitcake was a Today
Show holiday gift pick last Christmas
but, as a seasonal title, has been hibernating
ever since. Now that the holidays are here,
it's available again, and I'm back to spreading
the word. It's a good glimpse of my affection
for small town traditions and my sense of
humor, both of which I hope to bring
to the new book.
for my third book, I am at home in
time for my second book,
A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays,
to return to book stores. Readers of
A Little Fruitcake will discover
why I'm so interested in small town
festivals--my own roots are in a town of
2,000 people in rural Maine, which is the
setting for the book. The 12 stories
in this book are all set around Christmases
as I battle with my grandmother and the
rest of my clan over how Christmas
should be. A Little Fruitcake was a Today
Show holiday gift pick last Christmas
but, as a seasonal title, has been hibernating
ever since. Now that the holidays are here,
it's available again, and I'm back to spreading
the word. It's a good glimpse of my affection
for small town traditions and my sense of
humor, both of which I hope to bring
to the new book.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Community Service Field Notes: Traveling Wall in Sabine Parish
The Traveling Wall replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial came to Many, Louisiana last week and was hosted by Sabine Parish; Kelli Sepulvado, shown here, visited the Wall in her role as Sabine Parish Fairs & Festival Queen. Sabine Parish had 12 soldiers whose names are among the more than 58,000 inscribed on the wall, including a Zwolle High classmate of Kelli’s dad. Kelli’s uncle served in the Vietnam War but came home safe, which cannot be said of the loved ones of some of the families she visited with in her time at the memorial. On the final day of the visit, 50 veterans arrived by motorcycle in a group and rode a procession around the wall in honor of the soldiers. Kelli describes the entire event as making her feel both “proud and sad that so many have given their lives.”
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Community Service Field Notes: Miss Sulphur Heritage and the kindest cut of all
hair out for over two years, not as a style choice,
but as a community service. This fall, she had 10
inches cut off to donate to the non-profit organization
“Locks of Love,” which provides wigs for children
who have lost their hair due to illness. As reporter
Lee Peck of KPLC TV told viewers, this is the
second time; Erin first donated hair to Locks of Love
almost three years ago, and she planned for this
second haircut almost from the moment the first
was complete. That’s quite a vision—a donation
two years in the making. But Erin says that getting
new hair is “a life-changing experience for those
children, and I just had to step in and do what I could.”
Friday, November 21, 2008
24 hours
Festival queens are usually insanely busy,
juggling school, work, volunteer events,
and queen duties. In this photo from
earlier this fall, you see glimpses of
that life for Chelsea, the Frog Queen.
In the span of 24 hours, she finished
working an 8-hour shift at her job in
the mall, woke up early for a full-morning
Buddy Walk with Down's Syndrome
children, went rock-climbing (in banner,
no less) just to see what it would be like,
went home to pack up her regalia and
drive to another city, and then headed
off to attend that city's festival ball regalia.
juggling school, work, volunteer events,
and queen duties. In this photo from
earlier this fall, you see glimpses of
that life for Chelsea, the Frog Queen.
In the span of 24 hours, she finished
working an 8-hour shift at her job in
the mall, woke up early for a full-morning
Buddy Walk with Down's Syndrome
children, went rock-climbing (in banner,
no less) just to see what it would be like,
went home to pack up her regalia and
drive to another city, and then headed
off to attend that city's festival ball regalia.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Presto change-o
One of the fascinating elements of the evening is that the Queen wears the same dress as all the Queens before her—literally. It has adjustable seams and pieces that fold down or out as necessary, so that when her successor is crowned, both Queens are whisked away to a room where a seamstress stands by to help speed the dress exchange. The new Queen returns to begin her reign literally wrapped in history. This year’s queen, Blaine (shown at right), loves the festival so much, she ran for this crown four times—and, finally, it is hers.
Princess practice
Each girl competing for the crown has her own young attendant, who wears a white formal and sits up front for the entire ball. The youngest participants of all are the Orange Blossoms, shown here with orange sashes at the waist, one of whom is shown reacting to the chill of air conditioning in a sleeveless dress.
Minding their manners
The entire Ball is very ritualized, with escorts and attendants, formal wear and even a traditional way to wave a scepter (in front of you, sweeping left to right and then back). The attendant presenting herself to the outgoing royalty with the required curtsy is the granddaughter of Popich, the first king. Kari, the Queen shown here, is the sister of a past Orange queen and daughter of a past president.
Return of the King
The King’s Coronation Ball, which crowns both
the new King and the new Queen, is now held in
the English Turn Country Club, which may well
be the nicest venue any of the festival queens
will see for months. People who grow up in
Plaquemine’s Parish see the King’s Ball as both the
party of the year and a family tradition. The first
King, Tom Popich, attended 42 years after his
crowning, and more than 20 of his successors
joined him; they were easily identified by the
heavy silver medallions around their necks.
Plaquemine's Parish Orange Ball: A grand tradition
It isn't all cattle yards and pig barns for the festival queens. The Orange Ball is held in a country club outside New Orleans, but it wasn't always that way. The ball's celebrants all hail from Plaquemines Parish, which was almost completely flooded during Katrina, as all the ring levees gave way. Buras, the original hometown of the festival, was wiped out: its water tower collapsed into itself, the civic center was smashed, and homes were leveled. But the tradition of the Orange Festival is so important that the community, while rebuilding and heartsick with loss, held the festival anyway, but in Belle Chasse, 50 miles away (though still in the same parish). 107 days after Katrina, they proved they wouldn’t let one storm change history. Nights like this one are proof of their spirit.
Monday, November 10, 2008
So long and thanks for all the Frogs
Belle of the Ball
Candy queens
I think I detect a theme here...
Stevie, the Gueydan Duck queen, graces an enormous duck decoy that might be upstaged by the duck mascot, with its feathered headdress, riding in the truck pulling her float.
Labels:
Frog Festival,
Gueydan Duck,
Rayne
Brighten the corner where you are
You might not think an RV would be the most glamorous locale but if you're a festival queen getting ready for your big parade, you can make do. Chelsea's family had set up camp by the festival grounds, cooking ribs and gumbo, and offering her a home base close to all the events. Here, she gets dressed for the Grand Parade.
Duty calls, round two
This year, several photographers thought that simply holding a frog wasn't good enough, so Chelsea and her Teen Queen Kelsey were pressed to eat frog legs on camera as well. It's not really their fave--bbq burgers are much preferred--but they played along, with samples from the local Jaycees booth. (For the record, the Jaycees' frog legs were delicious.)
Duty calls
Oh, pioneer!
At Frog Derby, the crowds were entertained by this irrepressible dance troupe from neighboring Crowley. The first time I saw the International Rice Festival dancers (at the Rice Ball last month), I was surprised when the line up of young women appeared to contain a man. It was explained to me that the group, formerly known as the Ricettes, had been all-female for many years until he signed up, and the name had been changed to reflect the new gender diversity.
Frog Derby 5: The good Grandpa
Frog Derby 4: Ups and downs
Frog Derby 2: Meet the toads
Frog Derby 1: Suit up
Byron and Monica Foote, parents of Frog Derby contestant Maddie Guidry, help her dress up her frog Pete in the costume she has made for him to wear in the competition that kicks off day two of the festival. Maddie, like the other competitors, has a costume of her own: checkered tops and caps, with white shorts and shoes, intended to evoke races of the equine, not amphibious, sort.
Dancing by moonlight
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