Our new column explores fun destinations within a two-hour drive of Bay-Waveland.  This month, the Shoofly visits downtown Mobile and comes up with a fun - and delicious - one-day itinerary!
- story and photographs by Ellis Anderson

Since it's also the final day of Cruisin' the Coast, things are hopping all day long!  End the day with Second Saturday Artwalk's gallery openings and live music from 4–8 p.m.  Celebrate Hot Spots Bay-Tique Boutique (125 Main Street) and Mockingbird Café (110 South Second Street).
- stories by Grace Birch, photographs by Ellis Anderson

Bay-Tique
125 Main Street
Bay St Louis 
228-344-3043

What started out as a little Bay St. Louis beach store with swimwear and novelty items has evolved into a go-to place for lady’s apparel.

Bay-Tique — owned by Jane Alford, who also runs the Carroll House Bed & Breakfast — is the perfect place for Alford to meet new people and explore creativity. 

“We enjoy a strong local following as well as semi-tourists,” Alford said. “We love seeing our repeat visitors who come here on a regular basis. They are here so much it feels like they are part of the fabric of the town.” 

Having moved from Second Street to Main Street means more walk-in foot traffic, as well. 

Bay-Tique is renowned for its original line of souvenir clothing and accessories. Alford's logos, featuring Bay St. Louis, Bay Rat and Go Coastal, are popular with visitors as well as locals. While the boutique is largely centered around women’s fashions, these tees and hats cater to men and children, as well. 

“As I started bringing in lady’s apparel, I didn’t want to lose our Bay St. Louis signature souvenir items,” Alford said. 

As Cruisin’ the Coast descends upon the Gulf Coast, Alford and other shop owners are gearing up for their biggest week of the year.  

“We all count on Cruisin’ and it looks like the weather is going to be perfect this year,” Alford said. “That first week in October we see people doing heavy souvenir shopping, their holiday shopping, people shopping for children and grandchildren. We are stocked up on our gift items.”

Bay-Tique is also stocked up for fall. Cooler weather shopping in a beach town can be tricky. Alford said she had to learn the hard way that heavy coats and thick sweaters don’t fly out the door. 

“We are keeping it light. It’s all about layering in cooler coastal weather,” Alford said. This season look for rich, bold colors like olive, burgundy and gold. Shorter boots have taken the place of tall boots that were popular last year.

“I try not to buy just based on trends,” Alford said. “You’ll find lots of classic finds at Bay-tique.”

Alford’s shop is like a little family with two key employees besides herself. “It took time to get people that I felt comfortable with and that I could count on,” Alford said. “We’ve got a nice little family of three. We cover for each other and count on each other. We are all in it together.” 

In fact, Alford just got back from an extended trip from Richmond, VA to visit with her new niece, Madison Victoria Pratt, or MVP as Alford says proudly. 

“When I came back from being back in town after being gone for three weeks, all my fall stuff was in,” Alford said. “We’ve really hit our stride. l Iooked around and thought, ‘We did good.’” 

Cruise on in to Bay-tique in October to check out their new fall fashions. 

Mockingbird Café
110 South Second Street
Bay St Louis
228-467-8383

For Second Saturday, the BSL Trio — voted the best classic rock band on the coast — will be playing from 6–9pm.  It's a free show and family-friendly!

Coffee shop culture tends to attract creative types. The Mockingbird Cafe takes it a step further: it’s an entire nest filled with creative forces in the kitchen and behind the counter. 
 
Art adorns the walls, the signage, the latte art, the food… it all has a flair, an air of happiness. The Mockingbird team is loving their work, loving their life. In fact, the line between life and work is a beautiful blur.

The staff is close-knit and supportive of each other. The family extends beyond the circle of workers to the customers across the counter. 

“We love seeing the same folks every morning,” said Aryana Ivey. “It’s like our regulars are showing up for work, too.” 

The Mockingbird celebrated their 10th anniversary last month. Owner Alicein Wonderland intended the Mockingbird to be a place of healing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The coffee shop was a place for folks to meet up and talk about what was going on around the Gulf Coast. 

Today, it remains an epicenter of Bay St. Louis. 

“The best way to get to know everyone and to know what’s going on is to work at the Mockingbird,” said Ivey.

The creative minds behind the Mockingbird have the heart for their beloved beach town, but also are well traveled and encouraged to explore life beyond the cozy house on Second Street. 

“Alicein is a great motivator, encouraging, always supporting all of us as artists,” said Ivey, who is planning an adventure to Morocco to further her henna art skills. “I started doing Henna four or five years ago, just started dabbling, and when Alicein decided to do the night market she pulled me out of my shell and told me to get going with the henna.”

Laura Hurt is one of several employees who has been working at the Mockingbird since it opened its doors. Hurt is well known for her coffee-slinging skills, but also the colorful headdresses and headbands she makes from flowers, feathers, sequins, beads, horns and more. 

“Before I started working at the Mockingbird, I had no idea I had any artistic talent at all,” Hurt said. “It all started with Mardi Gras. I saw lots of headdresses and thought to myself that I could do some. Martha Whitney of the French Potager was persistent that I sell them and from there Alicein fueled the fire.” 

At some point Hurt says it was clear that every one of the Mockingbird employees has an artistic talent, and Mr. Atticus’s Night Market was born.

“We at the Mockingbird have formed very meaningful relationships with not only the people we work with, but also the community we serve,” said Whitney LaFrance, who has also been working at the Mockingbird since it opened. “I think that kind of support is truly how we all have the means and the desire to branch out. The open hearts and helping hands that gather around the Mockingbird are an inspiring thing. It provides the kind of atmosphere that allows you to be yourself and share that with others.”

In a recent interview for the Mississippi Museum of Art, Wonderland said, “I love my town in that it’s allowed me to be who I am.” Clearly, the mantra at the Mockingbird is one that encourages discovering and embracing individuals, and celebrating artistic differences and talents. 

“No one here ever quits,” said Hurt. “It’s such a great environment that I’ve never even attempted to find another job. Everything I want, need and love is right here.” 

In a dramatic leap of faith, local performance potter Steve Barney purchases a derelict property with plans to transform it into an artistic hub that will attract people from across the South and fuel the local Creative Economy. 
- story and photos by Karen Fineran, additional photos, Ellis Anderson 

Watch the Mississippi Roads episode that features Steve Barney!
his segment's right at the beginning

He intends for it to be a mixed-use development, which will offer a metal fabrication facility, ceramic studios, makerspace, a front gallery for the artists to exhibit and sell their work, apartments, and office space.  

Barney's long term plan is that BSLCCA will offer beginner and advanced classes in metalworking, pottery, stained glass and other mediums, and that a full schedule of workshops will be offered to the public by artists from across the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. 
​
Barney has gained national recognition for his efforts in the burgeoning movement to integrate Art into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) with respect to children's educational programs.  As the Shoofly highlighted in an earlier edition, Barney is the founder of the STEAMpunk Pottery Project, has created the self-acclaimed “greatest pottery machine in the world,” and performs regularly at festivals and museums across the Gulf Coast.  
​

Barney stated, “This complex represents the manifestation of a dream to create a community makerspace for building things, and to share my passion for STEAM." 

In keeping with the STEAM theme, a wide variety of programs are planned to expose kids to new forms of art, including after-school programs, weekend workshops and summer art camp offerings.

BSLCCA will feature the Bay's most extensive metal-working studio, and will offer facilities, equipment and classes for metal cutting, fabrication, welding (including MIG, TIG and stick welding), forging, sandblasting and painting.   

"We will teach classes in metalworking and operate a coop workshop for artists to work on their own projects.”  Barney adds, “During the day we will operate a commercial welding shop to meet the local demand for fabrication and repairs.”

Ceramic arts will also be a major focus for BSLCCA.  The clay studio will include eight pottery wheels, a glaze mixing lab, and other equipment for hand-building.  The kiln room will have three state of the art computer controlled electric kilns, with future plans to include gas and raku kilns as well.

Barney explains, “The City of Bay St. Louis and neighbors in the area have been incredibly supportive of this project. This is a major effort in the revitalization of Washington Street."  

In fact, the Arts of Hancock County, a leading arts advocacy organization with over 200 members, plans to have its offices at the BSLCCA.  

Barney expects to open the center by early 2017.  If you would like more information about BSLCCA, please contact Executive Director Steve Barney at 617-834-0715 or email sbarney@gmail.com.

Barney expects to open the center by early 2017.  If you would like more information about BSLCCA, please contact Executive Director, Steve Barney at 617-834-0715 or email at sbarney@gmail.com.

Award-winning author and syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson reflects on her childhood in Alabama and a trail that sheds light on the state's history.  

Pat Murphy reveals the history of the Bay's popular Beachfront festival, which ran from 1980 to the early 90s.

In the time period of the late 1970s and early ’80s there was very little happening in downtown Bay St. Louis. There were several bars and a couple lunch spots and stores but it wasn't the tourism destination that it has become over the years.

After attending this festival in Baton Rouge, I came home with the idea of trying to make something like that happen in Bay St. Louis. In my mind I was thinking that it would be a great way to draw people into the downtown area. I also was adamant that this festival had to be a free event.

I was on the board of directors for the Chamber of Commerce at the time and it was a pretty easy thing to get this organization on board from the beginning. The first year it was promoted as Downtown Merchants Day and Beachfront Festival. In the years following, the event was rechristened The Bay St. Louis–Hancock County Beachfront Festival.

My idea was to have each participating business pay a fee of $25 to defray some of the costs. The Chamber, the banks and the power companies all chipped in with larger donations of a few hundred dollars. I encountered a few skeptics who didn't want any part of it saying that it would hurt their business. Most got on board right away. The City of Bay St. Louis and Hancock County also helped out in various ways.

The first Beachfront Festival was held on Saturday, June 6, 1980, the first Saturday after Memorial Day. I borrowed two flatbed delivery trucks from my friend Terry Markel and backed them up to each other on Beach Boulevard at the intersection of Main Street. The trucks served as a bandstand.

My idea for this location was that Beach and Main was centrally located and all of the businesses would benefit from it. There were still people who thought the stage should have been closer to them. You can't please everybody.

My band played and was the only band to play. We made the whopping sum of $200. People were dancing in the streets of downtown Bay St. Louis. The event was great, everything that I hoped it would be.

In the middle of the whole thing, the mayor of Bay St. Louis came running up to me ranting about doing it once a month! My reaction was that I thought once a year would work just fine. After it was all over I received a commendation from the city administration thanking me for my efforts and promising future support.

click on any of the thumbnails below to open gallery and read captions

After the first year, we began holding the event on Sunday, which allowed businesses to either open during the festival or remain closed if they chose to.

From the very beginning, because I had seen it done in Baton Rouge, I always felt that the arts and crafts should play a big part. We probably had six or eight craft booths the first year. During the following year, I started going to other festivals and getting craftsmen and artists cards and compiling a list.

I discovered that for the good craftspeople to participate, you had to regulate what type of booths and products you allowed into your show. We put a requirement in place that all products had to be hand made by the artisan renting the booth. There were those who would try to sneak by, but we weeded them out as soon as we discovered them.

It did hurt us some with the craftsmen that the festival was only a one-day event instead of several days. This said, through the years the arts and crafts show became very popular and featured as many as 70 or more artists and craftsmen. My sister-in-law at the time, Kay Johnson, ran the arts and crafts show for me and did a wonderful job. This part of the event would have never happened without Kay's hard work.
 
In 1981 we experimented with two music stages at opposite ends of Beach Boulevard, one at DeMontluzin Street and one at Court Street. This arrangement was entirely too complicated and expensive so it was only done for one year.

​Just handling the logistics — much less financial planning and advertising — in promoting a festival like this is a daunting task. We are talking about a lot of work here, folks. I have to say that it was a labor of love for me but after 1981 I realized that there was no way that I could continue to run the festival by myself.
 
My good friend and CPA Chuck Benvenutti's office was just down the street from my store at the time. After the second year, Chuck joined me in running the event. Again, Kay Johnson was also a huge help with everything across the board but especially with the arts and crafts show.
 
 In 1982 we went back to one music stage centrally located on Main Street facing Beach Boulevard and the scenic waters of the bay. Some were upset because Main Street was blocked at Beach Boulevard but this was the formula that worked best for us through the years. We did eventually construct our own stage using 8x8 wooden panels bolted together and resting on scaffolding.
 
Several years later, in 1986, in an effort to open up the streets, we moved the stage down onto the beach against the seawall at the head of Main Street. The hill going up to the street and sidewalk made a wonderful natural amphitheater but moving and setting up musical equipment down there was a logistical nightmare.
 
From the event's inception, we experimented with other events and competitions associated with the festival. There were catamaran races, mullet net throwing competitions, volleyball tournaments, an annual 5k run, bike trials and, probably the biggest and most popular of all, a bikini contest. Thousands would line up in front of the stage for the bikini contest.
 

It was all good, clean fun with nothing suggestive or lewd about it. The contest judging was handled by the Hancock County Sheriff, the mayor of Bay St. Louis, members of the county Board of Supervisors, and Chamber of Commerce board members.

My passion for collecting old photographs began with the assembling of an antique photo exhibit for the festival each year, which proved hugely popular every year.

In 1983, Chuck and I decided to have a poster designed by a local artist, Laura Feidler, and the festival had prints made to sell. I love the poster but we ended up with about half of them left over. The next year, my friend Elaine Bean designed the poster and we sold them. Once again, the poster is great and I love it but after this year we decided that the festival could not afford to underwrite the posters. In later years Chuck came up with a system of pre-selling half of the posters, which paid for the cost upfront.

Nadine Stamm, Barbara Brodtmann, Nancy Rupp and  others designed really nice posters that were sold in later years. I still have several of my favorite Beachfront Festival posters hanging in my house. I can't say if they're that valuable but they are special to me.

I tried my best to use local entertainment although my friend Duke Bardwell's band did play the second year. My friends Guitar Bo and Ms. Dee were staples, as were Dock of the Bay owner Jerry Fisher's band the Music Company. Keith Hoda and the Country Sounds or the Louisiana Red Hots usually provided some great country music and I did always include my band (a little nepotism here, folks!).

It must be said that none of the bands or sound guys made much money, working for less than half of what they usually made. This event was something that all of the local players and the sound guys seemed to really enjoy doing.
 
One year a band that was going to headline pulled out on the afternoon before the festival was held. There were a couple of anxious hours for me before, at the last minute, I was able to book Texas blues legend Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets featuring Sam Meyers. Luckily, Anson and his band were playing the night before in New Orleans and happy to pick up an extra gig. Anson generously played for about one third of his normal fee.
 
The first Our Lady of the Gulf Crab Festival was held in 1985 on Pete Fountain's property, which is now the location of Chapel Hill. Prior to this, the event had been just another church fair. Brothers Joe and Billy Monti jumped on the festival idea and ran with it. I like to think that just maybe a little of the idea for this festival grew out of the success of the Beachfront Festival.

​Whether this in fact is true or not is immaterial because The OLG Crab Festival has grown through its 32-year existence to be one of the premier festivals in this area. A lot of good people work very hard year round to present this festival every year on 4th of July weekend.
 
No matter how hard you try with these events, it is absolutely impossible to please everyone, and there are always differences of opinion. You can count on some people getting mad. It's a fact of life that there are always those who want to tell you how things should be done and everything that you are doing wrong. It was my experience that most of these suggestions usually benefited the parties who were making the suggestions.
 

Chuck and I always told people, "This is not a democracy, it's a dictatorship." The festival barometer was the saying, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." (Thank you, Mr. Spock.) In retrospect, our dictatorship always seemed to serve the event well. The festival was a huge success despite its few critics and naysayers. This event expanded and grew in size every year for the first eight years.
 
It's amazing to me now when I look back at the old newspaper clippings and photographs covering this event. Downtown Bay St. Louis was wall-to-wall people, literally thousands of people on the streets, more people than we had ever seen or thought possible!

In August of 1985 I closed my business on Main Street and went to work in Gulfport. My intent at the time was that Chuck and I would continue to run the Beachfront Festival.  When 1986 festival time rolled around I was deluged with phone calls during the workday. This was normal fare for me at festival time, especially in the last weeks before the festival.

After about two weeks of this my boss called me in and had a serious discussion with me. After this discussion I realized that my job and running this event might not be compatible. However, I lost the job later in the year. Chuck Benvenutti and I continued to run the festival with the next year being the biggest event yet.

The Beachfront Festival was growing and getting bigger and bigger each year. Chuck Benvenutti and I talked after the festival that year and decided that it was approaching the time to turn over control of the event. For a couple of years, the downtown merchants association had been murmuring that they should be the group who ran the festival.

Chuck and I finally agreed and turned over control, all financial records and the bank account to the merchants association. We wished them well and the merchants group began running the event in 1988.

In 1988 the bikini contest was changed to an old-fashioned male and female swimsuit contest. In 1989 an admission fee of $2 per adult was instituted and the festival was no longer the free event that I had founded.

After promoting the Beachfront Festival with more emphasis on family fun, the arts and some wonderful children's events like a children's art village, the merchants association decided to give up presenting the festival after several years. The Chamber of Commerce made an effort to put it on for a year or two but after 1992 the Beachfront Festival ceased to exist and faded into a distant memory for most.

I make no judgment whatsoever concerning the eventual demise of this festival I had initiated. I'd be the first to admit that this event was truly a monumental amount of work for the very few people involved. I realize that it was a labor of love for me but certainly not for most. I am still adamant that the event would have been almost impossible to put on with anything other than one or two individuals making all of the decisions.  

If I had to do it all over again, there's not much that I would change. It was great, great fun, a lot of wonderful memories and something that I'm extremely proud to have created and been a part of.

Unfortunately today, the Beachfront Festival is just a very distant memory for the many locals who were here at the time and an event that most newcomers have no idea ever occurred in streets of downtown Bay St. Louis.

The Bay Life dream becomes a business - and a reality - for shop owner and president of the Old Town Merchants Association, Janice Guido.
- stories and photography by Ellis Anderson

So it’s not surprising that her shop, Bay Life, is filled with a selection of art, décor and tableware that has most shoppers wanting to linger longer.  The overall statement is one of relaxation and restoration.  The soft aqua wall color, the enormous windows and the historic brickwork create a perfect backdrop for the shop offerings. 
 
There’s a special focus on Mississippi made art and products too.  Best sellers include the Oxford line of Soy candles, bath and dish towels by Hanging By A Thread,  a colorful throw pillow line by Little Birdie and A La Luna jewelry, made just up the road in Petal, Mississippi.
 
Local artists are heavily represented too, with oyster shell ornaments, crosses and frames by Michelle Savoy, bold paintings by Tehle McGuffee of Gulfport and Tracy Stieffel’s woodblocks and pewter cutouts. 
 
Since sharing meals is a main component of life in the Bay, Bay Life carries lots of tableware.  Caspari’s line of placemats, napkins and greeting cards are some of Janice’s favorites – and she’s found that customers share her enthusiasm.  Maurice Milleur’s pewter tableware has been a coast mainstay for decades, and now Janice represents him as well.
 
Like any great Southern hostess, Janice works hard make shop visitors relax and feel at home.  She orchestrates the music, the colors, and even the scents that greet shoppers.  And it’s all selected with one thing in mind. 
 
“I’ve lived a very stressful corporate life and a lot of my customers are the same,” she says.  “So I’m trying to create a fun and peaceful place where they can slow down for a minute, and maybe even leave here feeling inspired.”

It’s a strategy that’s worked for Bay Life.  Opening on Second Saturday in March 2015, the store may be young, but it has already established a large and loyal following.   In addition to a large cadre of long-time locals, the shop’s customers include many people who live in New Orleans or other regional cities and have second homes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Janice says that a lot of her customers have become friends. 
 
That’s to be expected from someone who has spent most of her career working in the home and hospitality industry.  She was born and raised in Natchez, where her father owned an insurance and home-building business.  She has fond childhood memories of accompanying her father to home construction sites.  “He believed everyone needed a good place to live.”
 
Janice attended St. Mary’s Dominican in New Orleans, graduating with a double major in history and education.  Along the way, she spent a full year with Loyola in Rome, an experience that broadened her perspectives. 
 
After stints teaching and selling real estate, she found her true niche in the hospitality field – mostly in New Orleans.  For nearly thirty years, Janice worked at sales and marketing for some of the most famous hotels in the U.S., including the Windsor Court New Orleans, the Le Meridien New Orleans, the Fairmont/Roosevelt New Orleans and the Willard Intercontinental in Washington, D.C.  She ended her hotel career at the famous Royal Sonesta Hotel in the French Quarter after helping to launch the Irvin Mayfield Jazz Playhouse and Restaurant Revolution.  While her jobs may have been stressful, she found that making people feel at home came naturally.

In 2001, while working at the Windsor Court, she purchased her first house on the coast, in the Garden Isles neighborhood.  

“We had a boat and would go explore all the bayous.  It was only about an hour away, so I could get back quickly if there was a hotel emergency.  But being on the coast made it easy to forget everything. 
 
“I’d traveled all over and realized that the landscapes here were as beautiful as anything the East Coast had to offer.   I fell in love with it and made a plan.”
 
Janice’s plan was to eventually retire, move to the Bay full time and open a gallery/gift shop. 
“I held that dream in my heart as I as finished out my career,” she says.  “I wanted to be my own boss.  And I love it.  I count my blessings every day.”
 
One of those blessings is to be able to compare notes with her sister, Gail, owner of Silver Street Gifts and Gallery in Natchez.  The two go to market together and share sales tips with each other.  Their mother gets in on the act too, as her daughters swap ideas and talk about new products they’ve found. 
 
The last few years have been busy ones and Janice and her partner have renovated and added onto their historic cottage on State Street in Old Town.  In addition, soon after opening her shop, Janice was quickly tapped as president of the Old Town Merchants Association.  So while there hasn’t been much time lately to explore the bayous by boat, Janice is completely contented. 
 
“I thought I would miss New Orleans more than I do,” she says.  “I’m so happy here.  My Bay life in reality is even more wonderful than the dream.” 
 

From tracking Monarch butterflies, to counting birds, to monitoring water quality, volunteers of all ages are helping make a difference through the Citizen Science program coordinated by the Pascagoula River Audubon Center.  

At the end of the story, you'll find info about the Hancock County October bird count and learn how you can help!
- story by Lisa Monti

The Pascagoula River Audubon Center connects people to nature through its citizen scientist program, headed by Erin Parker. The center offers monthly training on different topics at no cost involved except the $8 admission to the center for non members.

You don’t need a scientific background, just an interest in our coastal resources and creatures that share it with us. “We do the training for you,” said Parker. The most time you’ll spend is three hours per month.

Like bird watching? Sign up for the National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count, the longest-running citizen science project that started in 1900, or monitor the birds on our front beaches during migration seasons.

If you’re interested in the water quality where you live, volunteer to help scientists keep tabs on our waterways. There are two in Hancock County that are monitored monthly: Magnolia Bayou near the Yacht Club and Watts Bayou. The testing sessions take about an hour to complete.

“Anyone can be a citizen scientist, from a kid to a senior. They are able to contribute regardless of experience,” Parker said. “The equipment is pretty minimal and the protocol is pretty straight forward.”

Volunteers learn first hand about the natural world and get the satisfaction of knowing they are contributing data so we can get a much fuller picture of what’s going on in the world.

Find more information about the center and the volunteer opportunities at http://pascagoulariver.audubon.org or email Parker at eparker@audubon.org.

Audubon Coastal Bird Survey-
Hancock County Fall 2016 Schedule
 
 
Washington Street Pier, Bay St. Louis-Hancock, Audubon Coastal Bird Survey
Site Description: This site has a sandy beach shoreline, ending at Washington Street Pier, which has rocky jetties on either side. Reddish egrets, ruddy turnstones, and a variety of plovers and sandpipers are common on the mudflats directly adjacent to the jetty. The opposite side of the road has mature live oaks and suburban yards which attracts common suburban passerine species such as mockingbirds, crows, and blue jays.
Meeting location: Washington Street Pier and Boat Launch. There is ample parking available near the pavilion.
 
ACBS Site Coordinator: Judy Reeves, judyjreeves@gmail.com
(Note: Contact ACBS Site Coordinator to participate and verify schedule)
 
Schedule:
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
​7:00 AM--8:30 AM
Saturday, October 29, 2016
7:00 AM--8:30 AM
 
 
Ladner Pier, Waveland, MS-Hancock, Audubon Coastal Bird Survey
Site Description: This site has sandy beach on either side of a large pier, with rocky jetties on either side. Reddish egrets, Ruddy turnstones, and a variety of plovers and sandpipers are common on the mudflats directly adjacent to the jetty. The opposite side of the road has mature live oaks and suburban yards which attracts common suburban passerine species such as mockingbirds, crows, and blue jays.
 
Meeting location: Ladner Pier (parking area) 125 N Beach Blvd, Waveland, MS 39576
ACBS Site Coordinator: Barbara Bowen (602) 319-0538 or bbwilletslp@yahoo.com, (Note: Contact ACBS Site Coordinator to participate and verify schedule)
 
Schedule: Friday, October 14, 2016
7:00 AM-8:30 AM
 
 
Bayou Caddy, Bay St. Louis, MS-Hancock, Audubon Coastal Bird Survey
Site Description: This site has a sandy shoreline, and many artificial pilings, jetties, and structures. On the other side of the quiet street, you can often see a variety of blackbirds on the power lines. There is also a marsh system across the street, where bald eagles and a variety of herons and egrets are often seen. The sandy shoreline generally has large groups of small shorebirds foraging on the tide line. The artificial structures have gulls, pelicans, and terns. 
 
Meeting location: Silver Slipper Casino (parking lot), 5000 S Beach Blvd, Bay St. Louis, MS 39520. Ample parking is available.
 
ACBS Site Coordinator: Ned Boyajian, nedrbo@gmail.com  (Note: Contact ACBS Site Coordinator to participate and verify schedule)
 
Schedule:
Monday, October 17, 2016  
7:00 AM 8:00 AM
 
 
Buccaneer Beach, Waveland, MS-Hancock, Audubon Coastal Bird Survey
Site Description: This site mostly consists of a seawall, with limited areas of sandy shoreline. Many jetties and artificial structures exist, where pelicans, eagles, ospreys, terns, and gulls perch. The shorebirds are condensed onto the small patches of sandy shoreline. The opposite side of the road has many perching birds of all varieties on mature vegetation. Some sections have productive marsh habitats, so marsh birds such as herons, egrets, sparrows, and wrens are common.  
 
Meeting location: Corner of Forest Street and South Beach Blvd, Bay St. Louis, MS 39520. Limited parking available on the shoulder of the road.
 
ACBS Site Coordinator: Ned Boyajian, nedrbo@gmail.com, (Note: Contact ACBS Site Coordinator to participate and verify schedule)
 
Schedule:
Monday, October 17, 2016
9:00 AM 10:00 AM
 
*To sign up online to become Audubon Volunteer, please visit us at https://app.betterimpact.com/PublicOrganization/fb88f60d-ae22-4234-a99a-51c2607450d9/1

The grocery store you'll want to go to when you're hungry:  chow down on a great selection of fresh deli menu items and then do your shopping!
- story by Lisa Monti, photos by Ellis Anderson 

“Breakfast is a huge part of our business in the deli,” said Elizabeth Acquistapace, who oversees the kitchen at the family-owned store. The Acquistapace family also has a supermarket in Picayune. All five of the Acquistapace siblings, including her husband, Ethan, are involved in the stores, from the building design to the day-to-day operation.

After the breakfast rush, the staff starts preparing the daily hot lunch specials, which also bring in a hungry crowd. On a recent Saturday, the choices were barbecue ribs, pork sausage, brisket and red beans along with sides including fried okra, smothered cabbage and sweet potato casserole with praline topping. The red beans, made from the Acquistapace family recipe, are flavored with store-smoked sausage, bacon, and ham hocks. 

Sandwiches (including muffulettas) are popular. Construction workers favor the hamburger combo with cheese and a side of fries.

If you want a generously stuffed poboy—served hot or cold—you can choose from oysters, shrimp, catfish or roast beef. Elizabeth said the roast beef with rich gravy has a big following. “It’s a whole fresh eye of round roast that simmers for hours. It’s truly a homemade roast beef,” she said.

The French bread for the poboys is baked in the store but here’s a tip: if you’re a fan of crispy Leidenheimer bread, just ask for it. 

A variety of pasta dishes provide an alternative to fried foods. “We’re making our own fresh pasta with free range eggs and fresh semolina,” Elizabeth said. The family patriarch bought the three pasta machines in Italy. The pasta is served with sautéed zucchini, Italian sausage and homemade pesto.

Everything sold is made in the store, and there’s enough variety that the menu stays basically the same, though sometimes you’ll find meatloaf or chicken and dumplings. The variety gets smaller in the evening but you can still get a satisfying supper up until 8 p.m. or so.

A recent summertime lunch treat tells a lot about the deli’s use of seasonal fare. “We had a short Creole tomato season but we had some pretty hot house tomatoes,” said Elizabeth. “So who can pass up a tomato sandwich on white bread with mayo, salt and pepper?”

Even though the price of ingredients fluctuates, one thing is steady at the deli: the prices. The 6-inch roast beef poboy is $5.99. A breakfast plate is $2.49. The lunch plates start at $5.99. “We try to keep it as reasonable as we can to give our customers good value,” she said.

There are healthy options too, with a full salad bar in the back of the store (by the seafood counter).  For $4.99 a pound you can make a meal-sized salad with fresh fixings - including chicken and on occasion, boiled shrimp.  
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Breakfast and lunch is prepared seven days a week. You can call ahead (228-466-2610) to see what’s cooking and enjoy your meal at the counter in the front of the store where there’s complimentary Community Coffee. And check out the freezer section next to the deli for chicken and Andouille gumbo, bisques, soups, and casseroles. 
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Walk through one of the loveliest resting places in Hancock County with Becky Orfila, who introduces some town residents who are long passed from this earth. 
- by Rebecca Orfila

With evidence remaining of storms, winds, and time, this peaceful graveyard is the resting place for approximately 2,000 individuals. The cemetery is owned and managed by Our Lady of the Gulf Church in Bay St. Louis. A simple walk through this cemetery brings one closer to the resting places of many families from Hancock County.

Several graves predate the 1872 dedication date. Blanche Teresa Scull died in 1852. The 15-year-old was the daughter of Hewes Charles Scull and his wife, Louisiana Philipana Scull (they were cousins) of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Blanche was attending St. Joseph’s Open School when she died. She is buried in St. Mary Cemetery, in the northeast corner of the Sisters of St. Joseph plot. (Plot: N10-26:  see how to find the gravesite by number at the end of this article). 

Nicolas Caron/Carron was buried in St. Mary in 1859. Nicolas was married to Ursule Justine Saucier, the daughter Phillipe Pierre Saucier, Sr. In the 1850 U.S. Census, it was reported that Caron had properties valued at $9,000, making him a member of the top five wealthiest men in Shieldsboro (N09-01). 

The first burials following the cemetery dedication in 1872 by Father Henry LeDuc — with the blessings of Bishop Richard Oliver Gerow, Diocese of Natchez — were for Sisters Estelle Astier (1872), St. Peter Elder (1874), Ellienna Alloid (1878), and Louise Felicity Robinson (1880). These initial interments established a dedicated plot for the Sisters of St. Joseph (N10-03). In the Bishop’s report, “Catholicism in Mississippi,” published in 1939, the Bishop refers to St. Mary Cemetery in several places. 

The death and burials of the Very Reverend Florimon J. Blanc and the Very Reverend Aloise van Waeberghe are recorded in Bishop Gerow’s report. The Bishop’s statement identifies that Blanc and van Waeberghe were interred in a vault at “Calvary,” which was an underground vault and aboveground monument located at the intersection of the east/west trending cemetery road and the first right-side roadway. 

One undated historical plat map has survived and a circular area is identified in handwritten script as Calvary. The circumference of Calvary measured 36 feet in circumference or 23 ft in diameter. No aboveground evidence of the Calvary remains and it is unknown whether an underground vault and burials exist. It is likely that the Calvary was destroyed by one of the major storms in the area.

A familiar name in Bay St. Louis, Clement Robert Bontemp, was interred at St. Mary in 1918 following his death from battle wounds received at Chateau-Thierry, France (N02-15). His military grave record shows he was born Nov. 6, 1893, Bay St. Louis, MS and served in the sixth regiment of the U. S. Marines during World War II. The American Legion Post 139 in Bay St. Louis was founded in 1923 and named after Bontemp.

The Italian Society Mausoleum has one of the largest funerary structures in St. Mary Cemetery. The Society vault is Italianate in style and marks a section dedicated to the entombments and interments of society members. 

A member of the engineering and maintenance crew of the Delta Steamship Line ship, the SS Del Sud, Funston Mauffray died on April 27, 1959 (S07-23d). The ship was only 11 days out of port at the time of his death. Two weeks later, Mauffray was buried at sea (South Pacific). Mauffray was 39 at the time of his death and was a 1921 graduate of St. Stanislaus.

Jerry Costollo was a brakeman on a train of 18 loaded cars near Birmingham when the locomotive engineer failed to stop and ran into another train on the rail, killing Costollo, the engineer, and a train mechanic. The story of the railroad accident was telegraphed and published in the May 18, 1891 issue of the New York Herald. A worn memorial stone dedicated to Costollo is placed near the graves of Mary and Hanora Costollo (N08-15).

A grave maker on the north side of the cemetery captures the eye in the vivid sunlight. An elegant white marble headstone marks the grave of Arsene Bontemp Estapa (N02-02). Though stained with green moss and dirt, what is unique about this headstone is the brightness of the marble and the depth of the engraving. Her place of birth is inscribed in graceful print and in the musical voice of the French language — “ne a la Baie S. Louis" (from Bay St. Louis). She died on October 10, 1875, in Hancock County, Mississippi. 

It goes without saying that there is an otherworldly nature to cemeteries. Whether it is based on our religious beliefs or our distance from decades or centuries of local life, the more we learn about cemeteries, the more they contribute to our understanding of the history of humans.

Information regarding burials and purchasing plots in St. Mary’s should be directed to the Our Lady of the Gulf rectory at 228-467-6509.
​

The Hancock County Historical Society surveyed and recorded St. Mary Cemetery, which is divided into a North and South sections, beginning with Necaise Street. 

​To find a gravesite, start on the main road through the cemetery and walk westward counting row numbers, beginning with #1.  Based on the location data provided above, find the proper row.  For example, Funston Mauffray is buried in S07-23d.  To get to his grave, walk seven rows west then turn south. Counting gravesites southward, Mauffray will be buried in the twenty-third gravesite, along with other family members. 
 
Information regarding burials and purchasing plots in St. Mary’s should be directed to the Our Lady of the Gulf rectory at 228-467-6509.

Holly Lemoine-Raymond shows how to make raised garden beds from recycled pallets - in just a few hours.  

Whatever your reason for wanting an above ground garden, I hope you will enjoy the ease of building one of your very own. The supplies you’ll need are listed below. ​

Let’s get our hands dirty!

You may want to start with prepping your pallets. I stained my pallets with an espresso colored stain, but you can leave yours natural or paint it whatever color you’d like. It’s your pallet.  If you do decide to paint or stain the pallet(s) be sure to use an environmentally safe exterior paint that can withstand water seeping through the landscape fabric and soil. 

Step 1. Using your Miter saw cut the pallet in three equal pieces. 

• No measuring is necessary.
• Be sure you end up with three pieces that have the same number of “facing” slats.
• Flip the pallet over and make those same cuts on the backside of your pallet. 

Step 2.  Disassemble your pallet(s).

• Pull the pallet pieces apart into the three sections you created from step one.
• Remove the slats off the backside of the two end pieces.
• Carefully remove the blocks & slats from the middle piece.
• Set the blocks & slats from the middle piece aside for later use.

Step 3. Detach the blocks from the slats taken from the middle piece

• Using a chisel and hammer, wedge the blocks from the slats being careful not to break the slats. The slats will be the sides of the box.
• The slats removed from the centerpiece will be used to cap the ends of the box.

Step 4. Build your garden box

• Use the centerpiece as the bottom of your garden box.
• Use the two end pieces as the sides of the box.
• Secure the sides and bottom using a nail gun or screwdriver. 

Step 6. Cap the ends of your box with the leftover slats using the pieces left over from blocks.

​

Step 6 - Attach the feet

• Using the blocks you carefully removed during the disassembling of the pallet(s) create your box’s feet.
• Secure with decking screws to the bottom of the assembled garden box.

Step 8. Prepare for planting!

Once the pallet box is assembled you will need to place the landscaping fabric inside the box and secure it with staples. (I highly recommend using a staple gun if you have one.)

Now that you have the box prepped, it’s time to add the soil. I used a mixture of planting soil and compost to fill my beds. With a rake and a light sprinkling of the garden hose make sure to smooth out the mixture. 

You are ready to plant some seeds. 

What you plant in your raised garden bed is up to you. Remember that whatever you plant will have different needs for lighting, shade, water, nutrients, and daily care. So placement of your garden box is essential. 

Something else you may want to consider is how much space your plants will need. Make sure you read (the seed package) before you seed! Know which plants will require deeper and/or wider rows. In one box I have tomatoes and strawberries. In another box I have herbs and lavender. 

I have six raised garden boxes filled with different plants for my family to enjoy. Check out my first harvest of strawberries…. I can’t wait to watch my garden grow!
​

Thank you for reading our column. I hope you enjoyed learning how to create your very own raised garden! Even more, I hope you will enjoy building your own and reaping what you sow!
​

September 17, 2016
photographer:  Jessica Lumpkin,Grace Photography

Greg Matusoff, the only fire-fighter/fashion columnist in the country (if there are more, we want to meet them!) explains how to define your personal style and double your wardrobe options in the process!  

The same idea can be applied to fashion — beach casual, rock & roll or grunge, bohemian, bombshell, American classic, preppy, artsy, Italian chic, mod or East Village.  These terms don’t confine you to a predefined look, but rather act as a guide.

Ideally, you'll come up with your own theme; one of my favorites is “disheveled preppy.”  The name might conjure images like bed-head, mismatched argyle socks, and a crisp pink polo button-down.  But again, my style is not yours.

So what is yours? Come up with a couple ideas, two or three themes that you identify with and then head to your closet.  Pull out items that you think fall under that definition.  You'll be surprised at how many outfits you can come up with. 

​And you'll also be surprised at how multi-purpose/multi-theme many items are.  Simply by changing your belt, shoes, and a few accessories, you will almost double your choices.

Your definitions can always change, and it's really more of an evolution.  The more that you do this the more it will become second nature, and the easier it will be to come up with new themes.
​
As you start to create outfits, it's always a good idea to record what you've come up with.  One of the fastest and easiest ways to do this is to stand in front of the mirror and photograph it.  (These are not Instagram, Facebook, or narcissistically indulgent selfies!) Create a digital library of your outfits.  Make a folder on your phone (mine is appropriately called "clothes") and keep track of your outfits there.

As your clothes folder grows, so will your confidence.  When you are pressed for time or simply "don't have a thing to wear," pull up your photos and you'll have instant inspiration or you can just recreate something that you've worn before.

In the end, we should all feel good about our own personal expression and live an inspired life.

Next month:  Shoofly publisher Ellis Anderson gets a fashion makeover from her own closet.

If you'd like to be considered for a free fashion makeover in a future issue or if you have fashion/style questions for Greg, write him at fashion@bslshoofly.com  

In this sensory-rich piece, take an afternoon walk where the land meets the sea in Waveland and contemplate the world of the orb spiders. 
- by story by James Inabinet

Suddenly she jerks forward, hopping hurriedly, poking her beak repeatedly into the water then lifting her head high, evidently swallowing whatever she caught. Above and behind her I see pelicans in the distance, seven of them, floating in the air like synchronous swimmers. One breaks off, hovers for a few seconds, then falls gracelessly into the water.

I turn back north, look for and quickly find goldenrod spires near the ground, not quite ready to flower (which would portend autumn at least a moon away). Lavender-violet meadow-beauty is there too and tiny yellow sunflower-looking beggar ticks. Behind and above these are groundsel bushes, many covered with pepper vine, so much so that the vine appears to be a bush. A spotted dragonfly lands on one. Below it I see a patch of Indian blanket, reddish ray flowers rimmed by bright yellow. I reach over to pick one for my hair and am startled by a buzzing cicada that I apparently startled. It almost hit me!

I stand tall to look beyond these edge plants at the marsh behind. With blurry eyes I see brownish-buff punctuated by splotches of yellow-green. Farther back the marsh gives way to trees, tall pines high, hardwoods below. From left to right the trees become more distant. On the left I can pick out distinct trees. On the right I can only make out the blurry, grayish outlines of the tallest ones.

A train suddenly emerges between marsh and forest that appears to be running on top of the marsh grass. I didn’t know the railroad tracks went through there. Every now and again a gust kicks up that audibly rattles brown seed pods of partridge pea to my right. Seconds later the leading edge of that same gust animates the marsh grass as a visible wave reminding me of wind blowing across wheat fields abutting Colorado mountains.

I leave the beach and drive to the old wildflower trail in the Pass. Not 50 feet down the trail I run into a spider web of golden silk, its maker a huge goldish spider with black-banded legs. She scurries higher to get away from me. I look ahead and see another down the trail a ways.

If there’s truth in “for everything there is a season,” then it’s spider time. I created a lunar calendar after observing nature for 20 years, one that recognizes moon phases vis-à-vis monthly changes throughout a year. Right now it’s late in the “Moon of Orb Weavers Return.” During this moon, many orb-weaving spiders that seemed scarce over much of the year have inexplicably returned in great numbers.

I have watched spiders closely, observing unique and distinctive behaviors that, taken together, I call “spiderness.”  Even if far away and blurry, spider behavior can be instantly recognized even though you might not be able to say why. Many behaviors are easy to describe, like web behaviors: emitting strands out of their body, manipulating them with their front legs round and round. Some catch a bug and leave it where it lands. Others don’t, like a reddish orb weaver near my shop that caught a katydid last week. After subduing it, she wrapped him up and carried the bundle up to a crossing branch. Then she took the web apart, eating a strand at a time. I could hardly find her an hour later up there sitting quietly.

Other forms of spiderness aren’t so easy to describe. Even spiders that don’t weave webs perform distinctive behaviors that shout spider!  Maybe it has something to do with the way they move around, the way they lift their legs high, one then the other. It reminds me of a man in a business suit who mimics spiderness when walking through a puddled parking lot.
​

Wine connoisseur Anna Speer explains the science of wine glasses.  Don't miss Anna's recommendations for Steals (around $10), Deals ($15 range) and Splurges($20 - $40 range) - all locally available in the Bay-Waveland area!

"But Anna, what does any of this have to do with wine?"
​
I'm getting there. Let's talk about all the upcoming Halloween parties we will be attending in the near future. Libations will, no doubt, abound. Red wine, white wine, mysterious punches bubbling with dry ice and sparkling with effervescence . . . But how to serve them? Red solo cups? Certainly. Champagne flutes? Check. But why does it matter? It matters a great deal, friends, but perhaps not for the all the reasons you might expect. 

For most of the wine world, the qualities of the vessel directly relate to optimizing the character of the wine. The most visible and influential of these attributes is the shape of the bowl, the part of the glass that actually holds the wine. The bowl contributes to shaping the aroma of the wine. After sight, smell is the primary sense with which we experience wine (you remember this because you've been paying attention over the last few articles, right?), making this particular vessel characteristic exceptionally important. 

Wider, rounder bowls mean the wine comes into contact with more oxygen. This increases the aromatic qualities in the wine, which is particularly important for big, red wines like Cabernet, Merlot, Zinfandel and Red Burgundy. Air contact can help to temper higher alcohol content as well, which is an added bonus for those of us who dislike the sting of a "hot" wine.

On the other end of the spectrum, narrower bowls decrease air exposure. Too much oxygen can, in fact, overpower and dull the delicate tasting notes present in light reds and white wines. Heavier wines such as Pinot Noir and fully-oaked Chardonnay can stand up to a medium-bodied vessel, but true light whites like Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio show best in a narrower bowl. When it's time to toast the winners of this year's Halloween costume contest, be sure to pick up a flute of Champagne; the extreme narrowness of the glass keeps your bubbly . . . well, bubbly.
​

Another distinction between wine glasses is the shape of the rim of the glass. The most common type is a tapered rim, which helps hold wine aromas right at the top of the glass, near to the taster's nose and mouth (#helpful). 

Lastly in this Wine Glass 101 crash course is the absence or presence of a stem. The easiest way to think about this difference is to consider your motives. Casual or formal? Tasting or drinking? Porch or restaurant? The purpose of the stem is to keep the drinker's hand away from the bowl, thus preserving the integrity of the wine by avoiding extra external warmth. Now — to insert my own bias — how many of us causal drinkers actually grasp our wine glasses by the stem, rather than by the bowl?

*crickets*

Anyone?

Unless you are performing a formal tasting or are savoring a really exceptionally wine, there is no reason to feel like you must purchase high-end stemmed glassware. Stemless tumblers serve our everyday purposes just fine as long as you watch the temperature of your wine as your hands warm it. 

Wine glasses, in my opinion, should be an expression of the wine they hold as often as possible. This requires striking a balance between function and art. A favorite wine glass is much the same as a favorite coffee mug. The texture, weight, design and heft of the glass is just as important to your wine experience as the bowl depth, rim structure and quality of glass, not to mention the quality of the wine within.

Sentimental connection also plays a role. In the mountain town where my family has spent many autumns, there is an artist, Garth Mudge, who creates freeform, hand-blown wine glasses at Winthrop Glassworks. Each one varies in color, size, thickness and texture. I buy a new one every time I visit. They are durable, unique and useful reminders of a place where Octobers are cool, crisp, wet and wonderful.
​

Anna's recommendations for Steals (around $10), Deals ($15 range) and Splurges($20 - $40 range) - all locally available in the Bay-Waveland area!

Here's a locally available taste of my home state:

Steal: Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2015, Charles Smith Wines. Focused, clean sweetness.

Deal: Columbia Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2015, Chateau Ste. Michelle. Bright, ideal with oysters.

Splurge: Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2013, L'Ecole. Classic profile, coffee & sage.
​

An in-depth look at "The Fire This Time:  A New Generation Speaks About Race," edited by acclaimed coast author, Jesmyn Ward.
- by Carole McKellar

The following are a few of the 18 contributors to “The Fire This Time”:

​Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wrote “The Warmth of Other Suns,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. Subtitled “The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” this beautifully written book earned a place of honor on my bookshelves. Wilkerson wrote a short, powerful essay titled “Where Do We Go From Here?” which culminates with, “We must keep our faith even as we work to make our country live up to its creed. And we must know deep in our bones and in our hearts that if the ancestors could survive the Middle Passage, we can survive anything.”

Natasha Trethewey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. Poet Laureate, has deep roots in the Gulf Coast that feature in many of her poems, including the one she submitted to the collection titled “Theories of Time and Space."  Click here to watch the video of Trethewey reading the poem.  

Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian-American writer and author of the haunting novel, “Claire of the Sea Light,” has written fiction and nonfiction for both children and adults. Mother-daughter relationships, a recurring theme of Danticat’s prose, featured in the final essay in this collection, “Message to My Daughters.” She tells her daughters, “Please know that there will be times when some people might be hostile or even violent to you for reasons that have nothing to do with your beauty, your humor, or your grace, but only your race and the color of your skin. Please don’t let this restrict your freedom, break your spirit, or kill your joy.”

To escape the wrath of his stepfather at home, Garnette Cadogan started walking the streets of his native Jamaica. Those streets could be violent, but nothing prepared him for walking through the streets as a black man in America. In New Orleans, where he attended college, and later in New York he learned not to wear certain clothes, stop suddenly, stand on the corner, or run. In his essay on walking, “Black and Blue,” he talks about his awareness that his actions may provoke alarm simply because he is a man of color.

In addition to the introduction, Jesmyn Ward wrote an essay titled “Cracking the Code.” She recalls ordering genetic testing kits for her father, her mother, and herself. Her father was 51 percent Native American, and her mother was 55 percent European. Jesmyn was 40 percent European, 32 percent sub-Saharan African, 25 percent Native American, and 1 percent North African. She “understands the world through the prism of being a black American,” but she pays homage to other aspects of her heritage, such as a love of French films, “Doctor Who,” and the poetry of Pablo Neruda. Her essay was humorous, but it left me questioning perceptions of race.

I’ve written about the writers whose works I’ve read and admired in the past, but some of the contributors were new to me. While at the Mississippi Book Festival on August 20, I attended a panel moderated by Ms. Ward featuring Kiese Laymon, Honorée Jeffers, Garnette Cadogan, and Kima Jones. At the time, I was reading “Long Division” by Mr. Laymon, and found it laugh-out-loud funny. His essay, “Da Art of Storytellin’, A Prequel,” is a loving tribute to his grandmother, but his humor is amply evident.

I found all the essays in “The Fire This Time” well written and thought provoking. These are indeed a group of talented young writers, and I look forward to reading their future work. I think James Baldwin would be honored that his book inspired this collection. He said, “You write in order to change the world. ... If you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.” 

Race is an uncomfortable topic for many people to discuss openly, but America must reconcile its violent past if it is to change the future. In a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 69 percent of Americans said race relations are generally bad. That’s unacceptable if we want our nation to fulfill its promise. 

Some other books written by African American writers that I have enjoyed recently:
“Another Brooklyn” by Jacqueline Woodson (Harper Collins, 192 pp.)
“Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau, 176 pp.)
“Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi (Knopf, 320 pp.) (Gyasi was born in Ghana and grew up in Alabama)
“The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, 320 pp.)
“Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems” by Robin Coste Lewis (Knopf, 160 pp.) (2015 National Book Award winner; her family is from New Orleans)
“The Fishermen” by Chigozie Obioma (Back Bay Books, 304 pp.) (Born in Nigeria, Obioma teaches creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Finally, from “Salt” by Nayyiral Waheed (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 258 pp.) (I love these poems):

even the small poems mean something. They are
often whales in the bodies of tiny fish.

Why you won't find some of the South's best recipes online:  Collectibles expert Martha Whitney Butler reveals the tried and true sources - collectible cookbooks. 

If you think about it, Mrs. Butler is not going to embarrass herself by submitting a dud of a recipe. The ones she submits are for the most beloved, tried and true, consistently-pleasing dishes. The (sometimes-too-honest) feedback that her friends and family have spooned out over the last forty years is folded into each culinary composition with careful consideration.

Other local cookbooks to look out for are produced by Junior Leagues and Junior Auxiliaries. Those broads over at the Junior League would wear white after Labor Day before they submitted something off the side of a box. That’s what makes these particular cookbooks so trustworthy. These gastronomic assemblages of nonpareil regional cooking represent the palate of an entire community, and they WILL NOT disappoint. If you see one, don’t hesitate to grab it. You’ll be able to identify them easily, as they’re usually the ones with ragged covers and stains from the years of reference they endured.

Living close to the gastronomical capital of the U.S., there’s no shortage of fantastic publications out there authored by our favorite Chefs de Cuisines from New Orleans. I can’t help but get tickled every time I see Justin Wilson smiling from the cover of one of his Cajun cookbooks. I’ve referenced him twice already, if you haven’t noticed.

Paul Prudhomme will take you on a glorious exploration of Cajun Cuisine (and inspire a little melancholy since he recently passed away). Frank Davis lit up a conversation that I had with my husband just last night while Emeril was staring up at us from the coffee table.

Food is important in this house, with my husband being a chef. It’s really about all he talks about - there are food sermons every night in this house, and the cookbook is his Good Book. Even though he doesn’t ever follow directions (or ask for them), he uses the books as a guide for ingredients and inspiration and often quotes his Gospel of Gumbo this time of year. ​

His other sacred chef's go-to is a historic French encyclopedia of food wine, and cookery called Larousse Gastronomique by Prosper Montagne - purchased in a Bay St. Louis Old Town shop. The preface written by the maitre de cuisine, Escoffier, is particularly compelling and assures us that this book is pretty much the Webster’s Dictionary of food and recipes.

Historic cookbooks like this provide a lot of insight on how and why we prepare things the way we do. A lot of gastronomes of great tend to reference their grandmother’s or mother’s cooking in regards to certain dishes.  I find that I mostly cook out of nostalgia. Recreating happy memories through the food on my table is something I do every year. 

 I call my grandmother every year to get her grandmother’s blackberry cobbler recipe. Even though I’ve memorized it by now, I just like to call her to tell her I’m making it and that I love her. Food will make you do that.

One of my favorite cookbooks, Mandy’s, is an example of a character formed from the memories of an author’s favorite cooks growing up. These types of cookbooks not only bear the heart and soul of a chef and author, they reveal the most intimate and loving aspects of the meals.

Even if we’re away from home, we can still take those recipes with us. Minutes after I posted an Instagram photo of a book I was selling - The Junior League of New Orleans: The Plantation Cookbook - a Waveland native living in South Carolina bought it. That’s the power of good cooking. It’s something that never leaves us and sticks to our insides like a perfectly prepared dumpling. We long for it and the notion of it resides within us forever.

Be on the lookout for these gastronomic gems this season, especially if you love regional fare. They are scarce and get snatched up fairly quickly at estate sales and by eager sister-in-laws.

I once had a customer who bragged to me of her mother’s estate, “My sister-in-law got the jewelry, but I got the cookbooks and recipes.”

They’re THAT important! If you really want to stumble on a gold-mine of great recipes, shop at your local bookstores and antique stores. After all - behind every great meal is an even greater cookbook.

How a Dust Bowl girl wound up seventy years later as one of the most beloved residents of a Mississippi Gulf Coast town.
- story by Pat Saik

Hancock County Historical Society’s Cedar Rest Cemetery Tour has brought the spirit of Halloween to Old Town Bay St. Louis every year since 1993.  5:30 - 8:30pm, Monday, 10/31.

–story by Ana Balka, photos Ellis Anderson and courtesy Hancock County Historical Society archives

The first official tour took place in 1993, making 2016 the 23rd annual tour. The only years the tour didn’t happen were 2005, due to Katrina, and 2015, because of storms. In the spirit of tradition (as well as a continuing desire to prevent Halloween vandalism), the tour always happens on Halloween night, regardless of what night of the week it is.

The tour now functions primarily (according to literature provided by Eddie Coleman, society newsletter historian and editor) to preserve and pass on knowledge of the area, to provide an annual community function that promotes the society, and to accept donations for its upkeep. 

HCHS needs volunteers, including 10–12 actors to play historical characters, 10–12 cemetery guides, and also volunteer hosts for the night’s gathering at society headquarters, the Kate Lobrano House at 108 Cue Street. Visitors may meet there for hotdogs, homemade snacks, and punch after they’ve completed the tour. Volunteers are also needed to set up candles and mark the path through the cemetery. 

Volunteer actors are required to be HCHS members, but guides and hosts may be people who are interested but have not yet joined. “This is a way members can support the society through the year,” says Coleman. “We [also] accept donations of cookies and cupcakes and things like that to serve when people finish the tour.” 

A unique aspect of this tour is that all characters represented are buried in Cedar Rest cemetery, not simply historic figures from the area at large. Also of note: entrance to the tour is free, though donations are gladly accepted. 

Kate Lobrano, 1871–1921, whose former home is the society’s headquarters, is the only historical figure who has a permanent place in the tour’s cast of characters. Jackie Allain, Second Vice President on HCHS’s Board of Directors, who along with Eddie Coleman organizes the tour, does annual research to determine each year’s characters. 

“I think the most interesting one that I came up with was the Yellow Fever Victim,” she says. “We do know there was an epidemic in town and many people died, but we don’t know where they’re buried.” (The HCHS website shows that the first cases of yellow fever in Bay St. Louis were confirmed on October 17, 1897, and the fever claimed at least a half dozen lives in the area that fall.) 

A broken-down rocking chair once sat undisturbed outside the Society’s front door in honor of past member Dorothea Martin, whose character in the first few years of the tour was the “Nearly Departed,” and who was positioned in that chair at the cemetery gates with the donations basket. Katrina destroyed Dorothea’s home and she went to live with relatives in California, but she remained a member and stayed interested in the Hancock County Historical Society until her death in 2007. 

Society member and Bay St. Louis resident Karen West portrayed Hancock County’s first librarian, Louise Crawford in 2013 and this year conveys the story of Ella Ioor, Bay St. Louis Postmistress 1885–’94. “I love being able to find out about these people,” she says, “and I love looking up period costumes.

“It was just fun to stand up there and tell people about it. I enjoyed sharing what I learned about them.”
A relative, possibly a niece, Karen recalls, of Louise Crawford even approached and said she appreciated Karen’s portrayal.

Organizers Jackie and Eddie say that at least two more actors (male or female) are needed for this year’s character portrayals, as well as several cemetery guides and Lobrano House hosts. Those who portray historic figures will get plenty of information and a script to go on. Interested volunteers can call the Lobrano House at 228-467-4090 or stop by from 10–12 and 1–4 any weekday.

The HCHS has a good reputation nationwide for the scope of its records, for its broad membership, and for its ongoing digitization project, which seeks to make files available to all via its website. The cemetery tour plays a major role each year in keeping this and all HCHS resources available to the citizens of Hancock County. 

Coleman anticipates a busy night this Halloween. “This is something that you can do on Halloween that’s not just trick-or-treating, and it’s not a scary thing — the kids can come and learn about the history of the area.” 

Waveland Alderman Jeremy Burke keeps us up to date:  Have your say on how the state allocates $750 million in BP funds, good news on the Waveland audit and Halloween on Coleman. 

Leah Holland, an auditor from Wright, Ward, Hatten and Guel, PLLC presented the fiscal year 2015 audit report and gave Waveland the best financial bill of health she could, an unmodified opinion. Holland praised the City of Waveland for their fiscal conservation and fiscal responsibility.

According to the report, the city has done a good job of budgeting. Waveland had $2,983,243 in the unrestricted general fund as of the end of the fiscal year 2015, which is over four months of expenditures.

The larger sources of the city's revenues were: state and federal aid, $6,112,879; sales tax $2,305,186; property taxes, $2,013,860; franchise fees, $259,820. Sales tax collected from fiscal year 2014 to 2015 increased by 4 percent. Spending your money locally at Waveland shops and restaurants is a great financial benefit to the financial position of Waveland. 

The audit report did note a small number of flaws that Waveland needs to address. Mrs. Holland did indicate in her presentation at the meeting that she believes all of the flaws in the audit have already been addressed. 
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The taxpayers of Waveland certainly had their money well managed in 2015. This is a testament to the hard work that many do in all Waveland departments.
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Attention all ghosts and goblins. Waveland invites you to the annual Halloween Bash on Coleman Avenue Monday, October 31, 5:30–7:00 p.m. There will be tricks, treats, face painting and many other surprises! This is a family-friendly event that children of all ages will enjoy. 

To make this an even better event, we invite residents and businesses to set up on Coleman Avenue and hand out candy. If you are interested in setting up a booth or being a part of the event, please contact Raquel LaFontaine at Raquellafontaine@gmail.com (cell 228-493-7246) or call Waveland City Hall at 228-467-4134.

A 1936 cottage that was deemed only worthy of a tear-down makes a stunning comeback with a visionary new owner.
- story and photographs by Ellis Anderson