Crawfishing in the Ditch

This photo shows a group of youngsters enjoying an afternoon of crawfishing in their neighborhood ditch. This photo was taken in the early 1970's.

Warren Salles Addresses Historical Society

In 1997 Warren Salles, owner of the Star Theater in downtown Covington, spoke to the St. Tammany Historical Society about the history of that theater, others in the area, and his family's association with theaters in New Orleans for the past several decades. 

His presentation touched upon the many memories of people in the area who grew up going to movies at the Star Theater as well as the many live stage shows offered. 

CLICK ON THIS LINK to hear an MP3 audio recording of that historical society presentation.

The Home of Elvis Presley

Just up the road a ways from St. Tammany Parish, three hundred and seventeen miles to be exact, sits the boyhood home of Elvis Presley. I stopped by there one afternoon to visit, not knowing what to expect, but it was a great place to spend a relaxing couple of hours, with a landscaped garden, a small fountain, and a modern building filled with items reflecting the life and career of The King.

Most of it dealt with his early life and upbringing in the Mississippi town of Tupelo, where he bought his first guitar and things like that. It was interesting, sad, and inspiring all at the same time. 

It focused on the actual house he lived in, one of the cars that he had ridden in, and a statue of Elvis as a youth, a far different Elvis than what we remember in the latter stages of his career. I enjoyed walking around the grounds, thinking about his meteoric rise to fame and what all of that meant to him, his family, his friends, and the music industry itself. 

Then two bus loads of Japanese tourists arrived, and I chose to quietly ease on down to the parking lot, get into my truck, and leave. Here are some photographs. 

The historical marker

The visitor's center

The Young Elvis statue

The boyhood home

Pat Brister and Family

A few years back Pat Brister asked me to take a portrait of her family. She was thinking about running for public office at the time. Now she is St. Tammany Parish President. 

Wooden Boat Festival Celebrity

Here's a picture of Frank Davis and his fans at the Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival

Not A Clue

Well, here I am, scanning the 14,000 negatives and slides that I have gathered over the years, and I come across a picture of a clown and a little girl on a bicycle. I have no recollection of why I took this picture and what it was all about. Not a clue. Maybe some kind of community bike event. It's a great picture, people were having fun, but it's still a mystery.

Sunshine Garden Map

Pictorial maps of buildings are a little tricky, since you have to take the roof off to show what's inside and taking the roof off sometimes makes it difficult to see what the building looks like. Not so in the case of when I drew a map of the inside of Sunshine Garden health store back when it was located on Boston Street in Covington.

Click on the image for a larger version. 

The business is now located on Jefferson Avenue just north of 21st Avenue. Its phone number is still the same. 

The History of Southeastern Louisiana College

In 1969 I was assigned the job of writing a brief history of Southeastern Louisiana College in Hammond, where I was a journalism student.A week later I had produced an extremely long feature article going way back to the very beginnings of the college. 

The article, as long as it was, was printed in the student newspaper almost intact, and the local newspaper, The Hammond Vindicator, liked it so much they decided to print a shorter version in their own newspaper. So here it is, as it was published on March 20, 1969, in a  somewhat shortened format.

The beginnings of Southeastern involved several key figures, leaders in the community, who knew how to put it all together and make it happen for the good of those thousands of young people who have attended there over the years.

Click on the images to make them larger. 

Trophies Among Stripes

An interesting picture results when you put a number of bright silver trophy cups on a table with a striped table cloth. Click on the image to see a larger version. 

Failed Map Projects

Not all pictorial map projects were a success. Here are a few maps that were never finished or published. Some of them never got past the rough layout sketch. Either the business community wasn't interested or the demand for the map was not sufficient to pay for the printing.

The B&B Portraits

This photographic assignment called for a delicate balance among the building, roses which had to be a part of the photo, and a young lady. The pictures were to illustrate the down home charm of the Roses and Lace Bed and Breakfast, a new business whose owners were working hard to transform a magnificent old residence into a wonderful new place for travelers to spend the night. Here are the photos. Click on them to see a larger version. 

Breath-taking Scenery

Bring a lot of film (or memory cards) whenever you visit Colorado. There are many great views to photograph (see below), especially high in the mountains, where each new vista takes your breath away. No, seriously, at 10,000 feet elevation, the air is pretty thin and you get short of breath real fast. 

Click on the images below to make them appear larger.

The Illustrated Shed

Here's how to spice up that old backyard shed. 

A Seat By The Window

Put together a sunny morning, a light breeze, and a cozy cafe in downtown Asheville, NC, and this is the kind of scene you get. Click on the video window to get it going. 

New Orleans City Park Pictures

Every April I treat myself to a photographic excursion to New Orleans City Park, primarily in and around the Botanical Gardens, but also around the ponds, sculpture garden, and oak shaded picnic areas. I also try to ride the miniature train around the perimeter of the park. Here are some pictures from one of my recent visits to the park. 

City Park was almost destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and I was very glad to see a huge citizen effort to clean it up, fix up the damage, and get it back to being a functional park with large crowds every weekend 

Water Barrier

You wouldn't think a row of creosoted pilings would keep water hyacinths at bay, but apparently it helps, as this picture would indicate. 

Columbia, MS, Pictorial Map

In 1986 I drew a pictorial downtown map of Columbia, MS. It was one of my favorite map projects, because not only was it well-received, but the newspaper there was kind enough to take part in the project by selling advertising spaces for the businesses and printing the map in the newspaper free of charge. They combined the map publication with some other special promotion they had going on, and I was able to print the souvenir copies of the map myself for sale to individuals. It was a win-win situation. Here is a copy of the map. 

Donkey Basketball

There are a million ways for high school student groups to raise money for their organizations. Here is one of them. Click on the image to make it larger.

When I got the call to go take pictures of this event, I think I said something like "you've got to be kidding."