Four tips to help make it through the holidays in good spirits — despite hanging out with your family!
- by Dr. Christina Richardson

  A Mandeville favorite and darling of the Food Network opens in the Depot District of Old Town.  You'll find the menu at the end of the story, too!
- story by Lisa Monti, photos by Ellis Anderson

The space, which used to house the popular Bay City Grill and later Jack’s, has had a full refresh, with more light and elbow room. The fountain in the center of the room contains flowers now, and the corner near the entrance houses Ginger’s own line of “bling.” As the menu advises: Eat, drink and wear jewelry.

Louie’s roots are in the French Quarter; Ginger’s are in the Irish Channel. She works the front of the house, and he’s in the kitchen. The chef, a former electrician, learned to cook from his grandmother and has cooked for 40 or so years to raves.

When he was featured on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” in 2011, host Guy Fieri called Louie’s grits & grillades “a breakfast that eats like dinner.” [Watch the Food Network video about the Mandeville location at the end of this story!]

As Ginger said: “Food makes a chef. God makes a cook.”

Our opening day lunch was a good introduction to the long menu:  rich, dark chicken and Andouille gumbo, loads of fried fish with sweet potato fries, and two hefty crab cakes coated in crunchy bread crumbs drizzled with a rich remoulade.

The generous fried green tomatoes were topped with poached eggs and the  crispy Leidenheimer bread couldn’t contain all the fried shrimp that came in the po’boy.

The breakfast and lunch menus have plenty to offer. There are seven versions of “Bay” Benedicts alone, including the house specialty: Eggs Nouvelle Orleans starring two crab cakes topped with poached eggs and the chef’s own take on hollandaise. Other options include pancakes and omelets and Depot Festival items served with grits and creamed spinach. You can enjoy breakfast from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Lunchtime offerings (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) include the storied Eggplant Algiers appetizer: a hearty stack of fried eggplant medallions layered with boiled shrimp, crab meat and crab cake, topped with a light cream sherry sauce, and otherwise known as Louie’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Here, also, are gumbo, salads, pasta, steaks, classic fried seafood, po’boys, and the list goes on.

The chef’s special holiday menu will run through New Year’s.

Watch for the rollout of daily lunch specials for $8 (red beans, baked chicken, spaghetti & meatballs, liver & onions and fried fish), Saturday brunch and extended hours in the near future.

Louie & the Redhead Lady is open Monday through Saturday. For now, bring your own wine.

Award-winning columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson looks back on Christmases past while looking forward to this one on the coast.

A great fishing experience doesn't depend on what you catch, according to this local fisher-woman and writer.
- by Rebecca Orfila, photos by Ellis Anderson

By the time cool temps come back to the coast, I will have my launch tasks well practiced without bloodshed or dog paddling in the harbor.  Of course, I will have forgotten everything I have learned by next April, when the specks start running again. 
 
Back to Saturday’s fishing.  After a period of short strikes to the lures but no bites, we started to move west, testing the reefs until we finally turned north at Henderson Point to the mouth of Bay St. Louis.  Still no bites, which remains the mystery of fishing. The fishing forecasts on the Internet need to have their programming checked.  I think I’ve lost 75 hours of sleep this year due to those forecasts. 
 
My catches this year have been legal specks (keepers), juvenile specks (toss back), and monster reds.  I can hook these great grey beasts with the single spot on each side of their tails, but I leave it to my taller and more-experienced husband to land the critter.  Let’s face it: there is a better chance of my losing the prize.  Would you take a chance on possibly landing a big fish or be certain that courtbouillion was on the menu that night?  Hand off that pole to the wrangler.

We wade fish, too, out of Pass Christian.  In the low light of dawn, we throw out our first lines as we walk the edge of the water.  Vehicle traffic on Highway 90 begins to pick up as we glimpse sunlight behind the surface clouds.  Each sunrise is special — a peacock’s tail of colors or a study in cloud formations.  When the colors of morning fade, the sunglasses go on and the real work begins. 
 
The husband tells me that I have my reel on the wrong side of the rod. Trust me; if it were on the left, I would spend most of the day reeling in my first cast.  I am a dyed-in-the-wool righty, and my left hand serves little purpose other than to display jewels and type the keys on the left side. 
 
So, what is the best thing about going fishing?  It is listening to my best buddy relate special fishing stories from his youth.  The best one from 1974 is the one when he and his older sister were out fishing under the train trestle.  Imagine two teenagers, listening to WRNO music radio, and just enjoying the day.  The trestle rumbled, announcing the approach of the regularly scheduled train.  The kids waved up to the train and its familiar engineer.  A surprise that warm day, the engineer tossed something down to their Boston Whaler.  The goods missed the boat, so my future husband jumped in the water and retrieved two Baby Ruth candy bars. I suppose that these days he keeps looking for more prizes to capture out of the water.  Who would trade a day on land for the chance to hear a story like that?

 This month, Daisy Mae (our columnist and registered seizure-alert dog) introduces an organization made up of pets and their peeps who volunteer to make the world a better place.

One of my jobs was to go on emergency calls, like fires. While Tina was interviewing the people I was sitting with any children or elderly people in need of a little emotional support. It was amazing to see how much I was able to calm them down and distract them. A good hug and a head on a lap goes a long way.

As I have related we service dogs are pretty special and I also have the honor of being a therapy animal too. Therapy animals work with a handler/partner to provide support to people who need comfort and help with their therapy, and mental stimulation.

Unlike service animals who can only be dogs or horses, therapy animals can be dogs, horses, cats, rabbits, birds, guinea pigs, llamas/alpacas, pigs and rats. Whoda thunk it!  Please watch this short video on Pet Partners and then I will tell you about our team here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Pet Partners is the parent organization of our own visiting Pet Teams of South Mississippi Pet Therapy Group. I found in my reading that for more than 40 years organized animal- assisted therapy has been helping people in hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living centers, and at other venues. Nationwide more than 11,000 animals visit more than one million people in a year.

Visiting Pet Teams was organized in 2009 and now has 32 active members. Only one, Patsy Thomas, the coordinator is in Hancock County. They are recruiting new members so the program can expand. Ms. Thomas would love to tell you about the program and the requirements for handler and animal. She can be reached at 228.265.0336 or by email.

 Their website gives you information on what is required – they need a friendly animal  with basic obedience training, a clear health record, and training specific to the program. There will be a new member orientation on Saturday, January 9th at 9:30 a.m. at Gulfport Memorial Hospital. Contact Patsy Thomas for details.

The idea of working as a team with your pet is cool. Helping people is even better. Ms. Thomas told me about a visit to a lady who was non-responsive in a nursing home. When the dog and her partner entered the room the woman spoke and asked to pet the dog. Autistic children often speak their first words to a therapy animal.

There is some real magic in this three-way relationship of animal therapist, the handler, and the person visited. Ms. Thomas said that helping motivate people to move past a trauma or to just feel safe and loved is a big part of what the program is all about.

Ms. Thomas said that when a volunteer visits a nursing home, they “bring a bag of pennies and leave with a bag of gold.”  Here is the Google website for Visiting Pet Partners – look through it and the photos and think about being a partner with your pet for people who need you.

NEED TO KNOW INFO:  
If you're featured in one of the pictures below, feel free to copy it onto your computer and share.  If you're posting it somewhere like Facebook, a nod to the Cleaver is much appreciated.  These images are low resolution for faster internet loading - which means they won't print to best advantage.   Click on the link below the slideshow title to purchase prints or high resolution files (if available). 

The Arts, Hancock County, the dynamic non-profit organization, puts on this annual themed costume ball to benefit their outstanding community art programs and events.  High resolution prints and files can be purchased from this online gallery.

The second annual parade and festival by the Friends of the Hancock County Animal Shelter and the Sea Coast Echo.  High resolution prints and files can be purchased from this online gallery.

High resolution prints and files can be purchased from this online gallery.

Click here and scroll down for archived 15 Minute slide shows

Bay St. Louis fire chief Pam San Fillippo gives some sound — and easy — advice to follow to keep your homes and families safe during this high-risk fire season.

 If you think you’ll wake up in time to get out safely if a fire starts when you’re sleeping, think again. You probably won’t. That is a fact. 

The most important thing you can do in preparing for the holidays is to have working smoke detectors in your home.  If you have them, do you know for sure that they work?  Do they have fresh batteries?  If you have wired detectors attached to an alarm system, have you tested it recently?  NOW is the time to do so!  If you need help checking your detectors, give us (or your local fire department) a call. We’ll be happy to come check them. Also, if you do not have a monitored fire alarm system, please consider getting one!  Too often we see devastating fires that could have been caught when it was small, well before it got out of control, if only there had been a monitored alarm system in use.

PLEASE be careful when using space heaters. NEVER leave them unattended, and be especially careful with them around pets and children.  You should already have a plan for keeping your outdoor pets warm this winter. We’ve seen too many people who have lost everything they own, and their pets, from fires caused by a space heater.  If you can’t bring a pet indoors, give them a good shelter out of the wind and lots of hay or blankets, and fresh (unfrozen!) water.  Never put a space heater in an area where there are blankets, hay or flammable liquids.  NEVER place heaters close to anything that can burn or melt.  Always leave at least three feet of empty space around and above a space heater. Never put it on carpet or rugs, or near curtains, furniture or bed covers.

If you haven’t already had your fireplace checked and cleaned, don’t wait; do it now.  If you have a wood-burning fireplace, it should be cleaned each year before use.  Gas fireplaces should be checked, and gas lines inspected by a certified plumber.

If you aren’t 100 percent sure if what you are doing is safe call us and ask for a supervisor or a chief officer.  We’ll be happy to come take a look, give advice, and answer questions.  That’s why we’re here, and that’s how we’d rather get to know you.
For more information on winter and holiday safety, visit this link.

Wishing you a happy and safe holiday season from the Bay St. Louis Fire Department!

Sleeping, eating and celebrating life:  things folks in Bay St. Louis have always enjoyed - past and present!  In this installment of Pat Murphy's book-in-progress about historic Bay St. Louis, you'll get an in-depth look into our community's past!

Click on any of the images below to enlarge and see captions.  You can advance to the next one by pressing the forward arrow on your keyboard or on the image. 

The Hotel Reed was the upscale full-service hotel in Bay St. Louis during my youth. This hotel closed and became a nursing home around 1960. This grand old building at the corner of Ulman Avenue and North Beach Boulevard lay vacant for a time but burned in a mysterious fire. The business originally opened under the name of the Hotel Weston in about 1926. This was shortly before the wooden car bridge was built in 1927 and 1928.

There are stories that there were two entities competing for the location of the new car bridge. For a period of time the new bridge was planned to run from the end of Dunbar Avenue in Cedar Point over to the Delisle area north of Pass Christian. The Gulf Hills Hotel and Resort was constructed on the north side of the bay based on this version of the plan for the bridge, but another entity apparently had more clout and the new bridge was built at the corner of Ulman Avenue where the new Hotel Weston was located.  This hotel had 50 luxury rooms complete with private baths, a grand combination dining and ballroom, a swanky cocktail lounge, and even a swimming pool. There was other lodging in Bay St. Louis at the time, but Hotel Reed was the pinnacle of what Bay St. Louis had to offer as far as lodging went.

There were several rooming houses where one could rent a room by the night or longer.  When I was a child Ms. Daisy Bordages rented rooms in her home on North Beach Boulevard next to The A&G Theatre. This boarding house was originally established and run by Mrs. F. C. Bordages (Ms. Daisy’s mother) and her daughters Daisy and Lucy.

Mrs. Douglas “Babylove” Bourgeois ran an a boarding house named the Answer in the second block of Union Street next door to Fahey Funeral Home. This rooming house catered mainly to young female schoolteachers in the 1930s and ‘40s. In those days there was a clause in female schoolteachers’ contracts stating that their employment would be terminated if they married. The Answer did offer catering for group luncheons, bridal showers and the like held on the premises.           
                              
 Ms. Carmelita Saucier also rented rooms at her house back on Necaise Avenue at the corner of St. John Street close to St. Rose Catholic Church.

The motels out on Highway 90, other than several “tourist courts” with individual cabins, did not open until the 1950s or later.

The Benignos ran a nightclub, restaurant and tourist court on highway 90 and Drinkwater Road across from Hancock Medical Center on the property where Wendy’s and Knight’s Inn is today.  Later Mr. John Benigno ran a praline shop and rented cabins. These cabins eventually were moved behind The Knock Knock at Highway 90 and Waveland Avenue.
There was another restaurant, bar and tourist court named the Pines Cabins on Highway 90 just before it curved into Ulman Avenue. This was located where the Bay St. Louis City Hall stands today. The Pines was run by Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Armitage.

William Muller was proprietor of a restaurant, bar and tourist court (cabins) on Ulman Avenue closer into town. This business was also run by Charlie and Bernice Flink, under the name Flink’s House of Gifts. Later in the early 1960s this location would house one of “Daddy” Ray Kidd’s restaurants and bars. By the time Mr. Ray opened this location the cabins were abandoned and falling apart.

By the mid nineteen fifties The Phillips 66 Truckstop and Travelrest  Motel  were open out on two lane Highway 90 between Nicholson Ave and Waveland Avenue. This was located just west of the present location of Markel Building Supply. The truck stop is long gone but the motel is still in operation.

Sometime in the mid-1960s the Driftwood Motel opened complete with a swimming pool in Bay St. Louis on Highway 90 just east of Scafidi’s Wheel Inn and Service Station.
Another larger motel, a Best Western (complete with cocktail lounge and restaurant) was constructed at the intersection of Highways 90 and 603 in about 1966. This motel would become a Ramada Inn a couple of years later.

It would eventually be purchased by the Milford Lady family and renamed the Waveland Resort Inn. Mr. and Mrs. Lady, with their sons Jim, Steve, and Bill purchased this landmark in 1976 and made major improvements and renovations over the years. Eventually it became a Holiday Inn and in more recent years the Coast Inn, and is still owned by Bill Lady.

Many of the grocery stores operated in Bay St. Louis actually did business under three or four different names through the years. It seems that when one established grocery store relocated another grocery would open in the same location under different ownership.

W. L. Bourgeois
In the early 1900s W.L. Bourgeois’ original grocery store was on North Beach Boulevard in downtown Bay St. Louis. Later the store moved to Main Street, where Hancock Insurance Agency was later located and where Ellis Real Estate is now. W.L. Bourgeois had the original Jitney Jungle franchise before Mr. Joe Scharff. W.L. Bourgeois also served as a Bay St. Louis city commissioner at one time. Along with W.L. Bourgeois there were several other groceries in the downtown area during the 1930s and ‘40s. Mr. George DiBenedetto’s father Joseph ran a grocery on Beach Boulevard for a number of years. There was an Ashton’s Grocery (also known as Coast Self Serve) that operated in the Echo building at the corner of State and North Beach before my grandfather’s business moved into the space.

Scharff Fine Foods/Jitney Jungle
Mr. Joe Scharff was a good friend of my grandfather Stevenson. In fact they were next-door neighbors on South Beach Boulevard in the late 1940s. Mr. Joe came to Bay St. Louis with his wife and son in 1931. His father owned a grocery store in Memphis that went under during the depression. He opened a grocery store at the corner of Toulme and Main. Originally this building had housed Gardebled’s Drug store and later Joseph Bontemps’ Grocery.

The building had been empty when Mr. Scharff bought out the lease along with some of the old fixtures and opened his store in April of 1931. Mr. Scharff added onto and renovated the 220 Main location and eventually constructed a new building for his Jitney Jungle franchise at Main and Second Streets. A few years later he constructed a larger Jitney Jungle at Second and DeMontluzin Streets. This building later became Bay Technical Associates and now is the location of the Bay Waveland School offices.

C & S Food Store
C & S stood for Carter and Scafide and was located on Blaize Avenue across from the railroad depot. Mr. Charlie Carter (married to Mary Scafide) and John Scafide were the proprietors of C & S. Eventually I think it was mainly the Carters who ran this grocery business. At one time C & S was one of the main groceries in Bay St. Louis and enjoyed a large trade with the Bay St. Louis locals. C & S was one of about five grocery stores that existed in the depot area during my youth.

Wilmer’s Food Store
Another grocery located close to the railroad depot was Wilmer’s Food Store. This grocery was run by a man named Wilmer Thibaut. The building stood at the corner of Third Street (Blaize Avenue) and Sycamore. The location is now a church parking lot. Mr. Wilmer Thibaux, who was the proprietor, was very well thought of in the community. I have heard stories of kindness and generosity he showed to people that the community never heard about. Mr. Joe Scharff’s son Robert told a funny story that Mr. Wilmer related to Mr. Scharff, who was the proprietor of Scharff’s Fine Foods and then Jitney Jungle.

It seems that Mr. Wilmer observed one of his customers inserting a glass jar of mustard into her very ample purse. Thibaux arranged with one of his cashiers to “accidentally” knock her purse off of the counter onto the concrete floor when she checked out, breaking the mustard bottle. Neither Mr. Wilmer nor the customer ever said anything further.

Pitalo’s
In 1936 Mr. Anthony Pitalo, Sr. moved from Biloxi and bought Renike’s Grocery and opened Pitalo’s Market on Third Street. In 1955 when his son Buddy got out of the service Mr. Pitalo constructed a new building on the site of the original store and gave the business to his son and son in law, Gilbert Gayaut. Buddy left the business in 1960 to go to work for St. Stanislaus as a coach. Buddy’s mother and her son-in-law Gilbert ran the business with Gilbert eventually becoming sole proprietor. Gilbert Gayaut ran Pitalo’s Market until retirement in 1982 when the business was sold. Pitalo’s operated for about two more years after it changed hands but eventually closed. The building is now used for antique storage.

Joe Loicano’s (A & J Food Store)
Mr. Joe Loicano went into the grocery business in the spring of 1934 when he purchased a store at the corner of Necaise Avenue and St. John Street from his father, Anthony Loicano. In 1936 Mr. Joe moved the business just down the street to the corner of Necaise and Easterbrook. In 1949 when Mr. Joe Scharff moved out of his 220 Main location and into his first Jitney Jungle store at Main and Second Streets, Joe Loicano moved his grocery business into the 220 Main location.

By the late 1950s, Mr. Joe had moved his business into a larger building down Main Street at the corner of St. Francis Street. This was directly across the street from the Triangle Café building. Mr. Bert Estapa ran a bicycle and lawnmower shop as well as a gas station in this old building. Mr. Joe Loicano’s building at one time was the location of Ferdinald’s Bakery. Later J. E. Loicano ran Loicano’s Health Club in this building. Now the location houses Blue Rose Antiques.

Mr. George DiBenedetto’s father, Joseph DiBenedetto, ran a grocery store on South Beach Boulevard named DiBenedetto Fine Foods. The business was adjacent to the railroad tracks. Later his son, Mr. George, had his television and appliance business in this location.
Mutchler & Ashton Coast Self Serve Grocery was located at the corner of State Street and North Beach Boulevard at 200 North Beach. This store was in business during the 1930s into the ‘40s. When they closed in 1943, my grandfather Stevenson moved his business into this location.

There were several other groceries located in the depot area in earlier years. The Boudins ran a grocery at the corner of Third Street and Washington where the mechanic shop is now located. Mrs. Boudin also ran a nursery and used to sell bedding plants. At one time in the mid-1930s there was a Quality Food Store that was run by a Mr. Blaize on South Beach close to Washington Street. “Uncle Louie” Schwall ran Uncle Louie’s Cash Grocery in the early 1940s at the corner of Main Street and Old Spanish Trail.

Bay St. Louis, like most small towns on the Gulf Coast, had an abundance of bar rooms. Trapani’s Knock Knock, Marquez’s, and Benigno’s, along with many others, were all very much a part of downtown. There were many more like Martin’s Bar, that were destroyed when the 1947 hurricane washed away about a third of the beachfront businesses. There is a story about Martin’s Bar during the 1947 hurricane that while the hurricane was raging and eventually would wash away the entire back half of the building, Dick Dailey, the bartender, was still serving customers at the bar in knee deep water. The rest of the building eventually collapsed down the hill.

At this point I’ll talk about a few of my favorite old taverns in Bay St. Louis.

Trapani’s Knock Knock
Topping the list would have to be Trapani’s Knock Knock Bar and Bingo Hall. The Knock Knock name comes from the practice of knocking on the table when someone bingos. This business was established by Mr. Anthony Trapani, Sr. around 1935. The original business was named the Dutch Kitchen. It was close to the corner of Waveland Avenue and Highway 90, near a turpentine distillery and workers camp that existed off Waveland Avenue. This location was really pretty far out in the country at the time.

Mr. Trapani had gasoline pumps with a restaurant and bar. The family lived upstairs above the operation. In 1937 Trapani sold the business, moved into Bay St. Louis to Main and St. Francis Street, and opened the Triangle Café (now location of Unabridged Architecture). Mr. Trapani moved to 120 North Beach in 1939. The building was heavily damaged in the 1947 hurricane and was totally renovated. By this time, the proprietor was Frank Trapani, the older son of the Trapanis.

Frank was a veteran and German prisoner of war camp survivor. Upon his return to Bay St. Louis after the war, Frank ran the business with his father, who died in 1953. Frank’s nickname was “Cat,” which he got from his well-known greeting “Where y’at cat?”

Trapani’s Knock Knock was completely destroyed along with everything else on the water side of Beach Boulevard in Hurricane Camille in August of 1969. Trapani’s was always very special to me because I used to go in there with my dad when I was a kid. This place was also the location of my first professional (we actually got paid $10 each) band job on New Year’s Eve 1965.

Frank Trapani rebuilt the bar and bingo hall after Hurricane Camille on family property at the intersection of Highway 90 and Waveland Avenue and reopened around 1971. Frank operated in this location for many years and finally died in December of 1996. The Knock Knock is still open under different ownership in this location and is still quite popular.

Marquez’s
Eddie Marquez originally opened his bar on Hancock Street between Kellar and Sycamore streets and would eventually move to the location that I knew as a child on South Beach Boulevard across the street from Mauffray’s Hardware. Mr. Eddie Marquez’s place was another classic Bay St. Louis cocktail lounge.

This was more of a cocktail lounge than a neighborhood bar like Trapani’s. Marquez’s was further down Beach Boulevard away from Trapani’s, closer to the railroad tracks. Mr. Eddie Marquez worked at the post office in Bay St. Louis as well as running his cocktail lounge.  After Mr. Marquez’s bar was totally destroyed in Camille, Mr. Eddie’s was the first establishment to build back on the water side. Eventually he sold the lounge to the Dan B. Murphy (no relation) family who operated Dan B’s until it was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

Benigno’s
There were actually two establishments run by different Benigno brothers. One was on Highway 90 at the corner of Drinkwater where Wendy’s now stands. Benigno’s Tavern was run by brothers Norman and John Benigno. Mr. Benigno also had a tourist court and rented cabins to travelers on a nightly basis. In the 1940 Bay High yearbook, the business ad mentions the bar and dance floor.

The Benigno’s that I grew up in, Benigno’s Bar, has always been located on Blaize Avenue opposite the railroad depot in a strip of old storefronts. In 1940 Mr. Norman Benigno was advertised as the proprietor but by the time that I remember, his brother, Sam Benigno, was operating the bar. This place is still one of the classic old neighborhood bars in Bay St. Louis.
Benigno’s was another one of my father’s hangouts. Daddy would take me into Sam Benigno’s at a very early age and, like Trapani’s, I’d sit up on the bar, drink a root beer and eat peanuts while the old man drank a couple of beers. Mr. Sam was a first class southern gentleman and was always well mannered in a white shirt and tie behind the bar. Mr. Sam and his brothers were all fellow Knights of Columbus along with my dad.

 This bar is still in business and in its original location across from the old train depot, and is run by Mr. Sam’s grandson, Joey Dedeaux. It is now a restaurant and bar named Little Joe’s and is one of the hot spots of the depot area.

Bertucci’s
Bertucci’s was on Ulman Avenue and Highway 90 next to the Bay St. Louis Police and Fire Department. Originally this establishment was run by Mr. Willie “Pops” Bertucci and was later run by Mr. Willie’s daughter Amelia. Bertucci’s had its heyday in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Compretta’s
Compretta’s Bar was at the corner of Main Street and Highway 90 in the property that now houses the Shell Station. I think it was owned by Dick Cue, who was the Shell jobber in Hancock County.  Mr. Norman Compretta ran this bar when I was a young boy. Before Mr. Compretta the bar was named Craddock’s Tavern and they sold Shell gasoline from pumps out front. By the time Mr. Compretta had the bar Cue had built a Shell service station just to the west of the bar on part of the property (I worked pumping gas at this station in the early ‘70s). Eventually all of this was bulldozed to make room for the mega Shell station convenience store that is now there.

Bennie French’s Tavern
While technically not a Bay St. Louis bar, Bennie French’s was just a short two-mile jaunt across the Bay Bridge on Henderson Point. Since this bar played such an integral part in my life (and the lives many others) as a teenager, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk a little about it

I probably started going into Bennie French’s when I was 16 years old, although I didn’t have the nerve to try to buy my own beer for another year or so. By the time I reached 18 I was a regular.  Bennie’s, like Trapani’s, was where everybody hung out and made the scene.  Bennie’s had pinball machines, bumper pool tables and pool tables and was the place where the younger crowd hung out.

Mr. Bennie was a very old man but still sat down at the end of the bar in his wheelchair. His second wife, Izella, worked behind the bar along with an old guy named Cleve Nichols who helped out and cleaned up the place. Cleve was an old alcoholic who would go on a bender every once in awhile. He rode a big old bicycle with a basket on the front. When Cleve would get drunk Ms.Izella would say that he went to the Bahamas. For a long time I really thought that he went there on vacation! He was kind of grumpy and short-tempered but always seemed to like me, and was nice to me.

Ms. Izella and Mr. Bennie had an old poodle name Tessa, who would pick up beer cans. When a beer can would fall off a table and hit the floor, Tessa would come running, pick it up, carry it to the trash can and drop it in!

Izella called all of the kids that hung out there “her kids.” Izella’s athletic grandson went on to be pro-football superstar Brett Favre. In many ways Ms. Izella was like a surrogate mother to me and I was definitely one of “her kids.” I used to refer to her as my barroom mom and I was so very honored when her daughter, Bonita, asked me to speak at Ms. Izella’s funeral when she passed on.

There were, of course, many other bars in the area. Around the corner from Bennie French’s on the side of the Henderson Point overpass was Bouvier’s, which always was a much rougher  place. On Coleman Avenue in Waveland there were Villere’s, Bea Georgi’s (later to become Charles & Ramona’s), Haverty’s, and the Tophat (where occasionally Dixieland great Papa Cellestin would perform).  Back of town there were Oswald Gilbert’s legendary Krack Bar and The Big 5 Club. Out on Highway 90 there was Wilma’s Block House, Jerry and Mary Ladner’s (later Doug’s Mardi Gras Lounge) as well as Joe and Shirley Richardson’s Flamingo. Up north in the Kiln there were Melva’s and the Cowshed, along with Roy Koenen’s place.

As I said earlier, as far as bars went, I don’t really think that the Bay St. Louis area was much different from anywhere else.

Six new firefighters join the Bay Fire Department after rigorous physical and academic training.  Chief San Fillippo congratulates and welcomes them to the team!

These new firefighters are the future of the fire service, and the future leaders of our department. They will be responsible for leading the next generation of firefighters and preparing them for the tough job ahead.

They have chosen a career that is as dangerous as it is gratifying. They will see terrible things happen to good people; they’ll feel frustration and anger, and they’ll second guess themselves and wonder if they could’ve done more. But they will also do good and great things — things that no one else could or would do — and they’ll have many successes.

And even when they can’t “fix” the problem, just their presence will provide comfort to someone who is hurting or afraid. The boots they have to fill are bigger than they know, but I have no doubt that each of them is up for the challenge.

Congratulations to (in photo, from left):

Firefighter River Hayden

Firefighter Michael Guitreau

Firefighter Gary Maurice, Jr.

Engineer/EMT Gary Catalano (center, not in uniform)

Firefighter Derrion Elzy

Firefighter John Glidden

Firefighter De’Sean Reece (kneeling)

The "hyper-local webzine" with the goofy name is celebrating its first year as a full-scale publication - with some pretty surprising, and far-flung, fans.  It's been a fantastic year, Thanks Y'all! 
-story and photos by Ellis Anderson

The oldest artists' co-op in Mississippi will celebrating twenty years of providing studio space to some of the state's most creative people during its annual Open House in November.
- story and photos by Karen Fineran

The 20th Annual Open House/Studio Sale of the Bay Artists Co-Op (415 South Necaise Ave.) takes place November 21-22 (Saturday from 10am - 4pm and Sunday 11am - 3pm).  The studio, not normally open to the public except by appointment, opens its doors one weekend each fall for an up-close look at the works of the artists inside.  A wide array of striking art will be on display, including pottery and clay sculptures, paintings, and jewelry.  You will have the opportunity to speak with the artists about their inspirations and techniques, and learn from live demonstrations throughout the weekend.

A cooperative simply is a business or organization that is owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services.  Started in 1994, the Bay Artists Co-Op is the oldest artists’ cooperative in the state of Mississippi.  Manager and founder Regan Carney began this one, shortly after she moved to Bay St. Louis from Los Angeles in 1992.  (A native New Orleanian, Carney was then working from an artist’s cooperative in L.A.’s Artist District.)   Like many others before her, she was enraptured by the natural beauty, serenity, and safety of the Gulf Coast.

Now that she had found her home, she tackled the project of organizing an artists’ cooperative in this town that would help foster the growing arts community here.  She hunted through town until she found the perfect building to rent, and a small group of other artists eager to share the space and form a cooperative.  Other founding members included other award-winning  artists like Vicki Niolet.

The artists share the monthly rent and utilities of the building (based upon the square footage of their studios inside) and may also share use of the large electric kilns inside.  Over the years, the size of the co-op has ranged from as few as three artists to as many as twelve at a time, and has included clay artists, sculptors, painters, jewelry artists, and metal artists.

In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina’s formidable storm surge partially destroyed the building and completely destroyed the equipment, supplies and art works inside, Carney stepped up to the task of rebuilding the co-op.  Along with some of the volunteer groups staying in town at the time, and with the assistance of grant money from the Mississippi Arts Commission, Carney and her friends and family scoured and repainted the building, and repaired the extensive structural damage to the walls and roof.  (Her husband, fellow co-op artist Mark Buszkiewicz, was nearly killed when he fell from the roof rafters to the cement floor twenty feet below).  About eight months later electricity was restored to the building, some of the artists whose lives had been so disrupted returned to work in their studios there, and the co-op went on.

The 4,000 square foot building surprises and welcomes on the inside with its high, open-raftered ceiling, cinder block walls, and large windows and open doorways that allow for generous sea breezes.  It has an open and flowing layout, with common facilities down a wide central aisle (electric kilns, clay recycling station, storage shelves) and is sectioned off into separate work studios for each of the resident artists (including a sizeable “clean room” for painting and other mediums that may require a dust-free environment).  Studio resident Sadie, a gentle-natured black cat who survived Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in the same studios, lounges about on the cool concrete floors and greets visitors.  

Currently, the artists at the co-op number eight, including Carney.  The other studio artists are clay artists Barney Adams, Gayle Andersson, Mark Buskiewicz, Lynne Harris and Jeanne Pertuit, and painters Janet Densmore and Kathleen Higgins.

Carney’s work has been shown at numerous galleries in Bay St. Louis, Long Beach, Biloxi and Ocean Springs, and can currently be seen and purchased here in town at Gallery 220 and Lawson’s Studio.  Carney offers pottery classes (both throwing and hand building) four days per week.  She recently offered a clay wind chime workshop, and is looking forward to offering her Christmas clay ornament workshop in December.  Other co-op artists also offer workshops and classes; the best way to learn about these opportunities is to speak to the artists during the open house about their work and their instructional techniques.

The open house is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday at 415 S. Necaise Avenue, across the street from the St. Stanislaus football field.  Refreshments will be on hand, as will live blues and folk music by Ivory Bill, featuring Billy Ray Hammons and David Sallis.  For more information, contact Regan Carney at (228) 216-0210 or Regancar@bellsouth.net.

Party with these practical pieces for your holiday gatherings - by Martha Whitney Butler

Collecting Interesting Tableware

So often I find interesting tableware that you don't see gracing the modern-day table. Salt cellars and butter pats are a couple of highly collectible and functional items that a lot of people choose to collect. They come in many different designs and forms. The salt spoons are often sterling silver and can be purchased with the salt cellar or separately. Both of these things have what we call a master salt or a master butter dish. These pieces usually match and are larger than their tiny minions. If you do place these on your table, you may choose to educate your guests on their intended purposes.

I once had a dinner party where I sat out my “good” butter pats by the bread plates. As I was cleaning up afterwards, I noticed several of my guests had used them as individual ashtrays. Close, but no cigar! I don't know why I thought they would make the connection that the pats matched the master butter dish but it just did not connect at all. #Fail! Another potential fail: leaving your sterling silver salt spoon in the salt cellar! The salt corrodes the silver almost overnight, so unless you're trying to instantly antique it, remember to remove it.

Salt and Pepper Shakers

We generally have an everyday pair that we get a lot of enjoyment out of, but in a world of automatic grinders, these guys are often overlooked. For an elegant holiday table, a pair of sterling shakers would shine brightly in the landscape of tableware. To mix it up a little, use a salt cellar and an individual pepper shaker, or go with a ceramic design that matches your china or table theme.

Serving Dishes and Serving Pieces

During the busy holidays, we’re usually more focused on actually getting the food prepared than we are with how it looks on the table. We often overlook the tinfoil casserole pans and pie dishes during all the commotion, but they tend to stick out like a sore thumb among the finery. Transporting the green beans from a Tupperware container that a relative brought and into one of your beautiful Herend vegetable dishes is not a cardinal sin. In fact, that relative might want their Tupperware back before they leave!

And for heaven’s sake, don't fumble the pecan pie with inappropriate utensils. Instead, invest in a nice pie server with some character. If you really want to get serious, pair the corresponding silver pieces with the right dishes. For example, asparagus tongs with asparagus and a tomato server with tomato slices. These odd pieces are both fun to collect and very useful.

Use this time of the year to add some intriguing pieces to your collection. I guarantee that you will bring them out for every special occasion and celebration. Put a sterling silver fork in it and be done!

Find out how to register your live oak trees - and how it helps protect them for future generations of Hancock County residents.
- story by Ana Balka, photos by Ellis Anderson

When you contact the county at the link listed below, Shawn will come to measure and document your tree or trees, register it with the Hancock County Historical Society, and give you the paperwork to register with the state. Currently there are approximately 425 live oaks registered in Hancock County. The Hancock County Historical Society site lists qualifications for registration here. Lately, Shawn reports, there have been a couple of updates to the registration process.

First, there is now recognition for undersized live oaks. If you have a tree that is under the 113-inch circumference qualification for registration with the state, but you still want to recognize and name it, you may register it with Hancock County. The tree’s information will be kept in Historical Society records.

Second, the Historical Society is updating information on trees that were on the records from before Hurricane Katrina. The society wants to know if these trees still stand, and at the owner’s request will remeasure trees, update records, provide owners with new documentation, and provide paperwork for registration with the Société des Arbres. Contact the society as well if your tree had a plaque that has fallen off, or if your tree is registered only with the Historical Society and not with the state.

Shawn stresses that preservation includes more than just not cutting down trees; it is also about tree maintenance. The cutting of major limbs can expose trees to parasites, or weaken and make them more vulnerable to leaning and eventually falling in heavy winds. She also notes that shaving limbs from one side of a tree to make room for a structure that is too close can render a tree unbalanced. “With increased development, we are often seeing building expansion or construction of new structures too close to existing trees,” Shawn says. 

Tree roots are also vulnerable, says Shawn. “Heavy equipment travels over the root system in the construction process, and extra fill dirt gets shoved on top of exposed roots that have been happily existing there,” she says. Some trees, she says, survived Katrina only to die from suffocation or root damage due to fill dirt and excessive machinery traffic during reconstruction.
           
Bay St. Louis’s tree ordinance requires a permit to cut or prune any limbs from live oaks and magnolias whether they are registered or not. To get a permit for the cutting or pruning of these trees, residents may go to the Building Department at City Hall, pay a $50 fee, and get an appointment for the city arborist to come to the site for tree inspection.

The Historical Society and Shawn Prychitko recommend contacting treeregistry@gmail.com with questions or concerns about construction in the vicinity of live oaks, and to find out how to assist in promoting greater live oak protection in Hancock County.

This month, Daisy Mae (our columnist and registered seizure-alert dog), introduces Jackson Galaxy, Animal Planet Host, who explains how kids and cats can coexist peacefully and playfully! 

In addition to his show on Animal Planet, Mr. Jackson’s website,  highlights animal rescue and shelter programs that save and place pets in good homes. His 501 (C) 3 Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of at-risk animals by transforming the places they live and by helping the people who care for them.

He also works to make sure that placements “stick” by teaching pet parents how to work with their pet kids. Add human children to the equation and you have an opportunity to teach two different species how to live together in harmony and how to avoid having tails pulled or getting scratched.

With young people in the household, learning the basics of cats and their natural behavior will make for happy everybody. In this video, entitled Cats and Kids Go Great Together, Mr. Galaxy share his thoughts on good relationships. The critical elements are to supervise kids and cats at all times, to teach your children empathy towards all living things at an early age, and to learn the basics of cat body language.   One of the keys to good placement is matching personalities of the cat kid with the human kid (children size or grown up kid).

Our partnership with cats goes back a long time.  Feline DNA suggests that the domestic cat has been with humans from their wild counterparts in the Middle East nearly 10,000 years ago. Anyone who has spent time with a cat knows that they are more mysterious than the household dogs.

Do cats think of their owners as parents? Siblings? Friends?  Rubbing around our legs when they greet us, cats are signaling that they regard us as friendly but at the same time slightly superior to them. When living in a family group, kittens rub on their mothers, females rub on bigger cats. The reverse rarely occurs.

Why do cats sometimes suddenly bite or scratch the person who is petting them? You have most likely missed a warning sign. Most cats love to be petted but only for a short while. Flattened ears and a slight switch of the tail lets you know that it is time to stop.

Why do cats knock objects off tables and shelves? Some are really just clumsy and others bat things off tables just to get your attention or because they do it for their own entertainment. In our household Ginger will hop on a table and you will hear scoot, scoot, crash. He seems to find this very amusing.

Why do cats climb into boxes, especially those that are too small? Cats love to feel protected and hidden, especially when they are taking a nap. Cardboard boxes are just dandy for felling secure. Why they pick boxes that are too small is a mystery.

Here are some things you may see but don’t know the why of:

• Licking cats of the same size and status grooming each other. This behavior helps the cats bond and reduces the potential for aggression. It is a genuine demonstration of affection.
• Kneading.    This is what kittens do to stimulate their mother’s milk. In adult cats this is affectionate behavior and the person being kneaded is seen as being in a superior, mothering role.
• Lying on its back with belly exposed.  This is one relaxed cat that trusts you and its environment.

Dog lovers may not agree that cats make excellent pets and companions but our household of dogs and cats disagree. Dogs and cats teach your children to take care of and nurture other living things. We make you healthier and happier and bring you joy.

If you have a cat in your life you will find as Yogi Berra said “ You can observe a lot just by watching”. If you don’t have a cat in your life, consider adding one to your family. You will have a built in stress reducer. Just watch this video and you will be convinced.

Well gentle reader, keep your tail high and your feet dry.

Love, Daisy Mae

 With more than 200 cemeteries in Hancock and Harrison counties, these lovely last resting places are also home to art and history.
- by Rebecca Orfila, photos by Ellis Anderson and Rebecca Orfila

PH is the examination of the history of your locale through research and “on the ground” exploration.  It invites the public to examine the historical nature of streets, buildings, cemeteries, and people associated with local history or families.

Cemeteries are either public or private.  The large military and sometimes older city cemeteries are maintained by local, state, or national governments.  Private cemeteries are maintained by private cemetery associations, owner families, or churches.  There can be restrictions regarding access times and animals like dogs on cemetery grounds.  Before visiting a private, family, or public cemetery educate yourself on the days and hours of access.

The first activity is to identify research questions.  What interests you?  Which are the oldest cemeteries in a specific area?  Which have the oldest burials?  Where are the former leaders of the community buried?  Is there a trend of deaths during certain years that could connect to years of disease or weather events?  Are any monuments written in a language other than English?

Practical historians can find the same information on their own by connecting with resources available from the Hancock County Historical Society (HCHS) and their onsite records and references, local history libraries, plus Internet resources like Ancestry.com (public and private genealogical resources and family trees), Genealogybank.com (old newspapers), FindaGrave.com, and other genealogical resources such as USGenWeb and Rootsweb. Based on the invaluable work performed by members of the Hancock County Historical Society plus USGenWeb and FindaGrave, we know three of the 65 Hancock County cemeteries are recorded in the Fourth Ward: Waveland, Fayard, and Gulfside Assembly.  With these resources, it is possible to become well versed on the inhabitants of a cemetery prior to a field visit.

Our research for the oldest burials in the Fourth resulted in finding Francois Favre, who died in 1873, in the Fayard family cemetery (private).  Favre was born in 1797 in Haute-Savoie, France, and served as a private in the 18th Mississippi Militia during the War of 1812.  In Waveland Cemetery (public) off Dufour Road, a small grave dates to 1886 and holds the remains of one of three infants of the Dorsey family.

With names and dates in hand, a visit to local cemeteries is in order. So what are we looking for during our field trip?  As in our initial research, we will be on the lookout for persons of interest such as family members, local families or persons (such as the burials identified above), or people important to the history and development of the local community.

An additional activity in your review of a cemetery could be the identification of symbols seen on memorials and monuments.  Symbols and figures on or around gravestones present more about the individual than simple names and dates seen commonly in modern monuments.  Common symbols seen in cemeteries include the Christian cross, the Star of David, broken columns (a life cut short), a crown (soul’s achievement and glory of life after death), a dog (symbolic of a good master), dove (innocence and peace), and the weeping willow tree (perpetual mourning and grief).

There are three common forms of containment of the deceased in local cemeteries: gravesites for interment, mausoleums for aboveground, and columbariums for ashes contained in urns.

Whether engraved or not, the architectural styles and materials of monuments such as head- and footstones also inform our understanding of history with the aesthetics of art and design.  In other words, we can tell the approximate age of a headstone by becoming familiar with architectural styles of an era.  During the late 1700s and early 1800s, flat, horizontal ledge stones were popular and easy to engrave.  As technology improved, monuments became vertical and symbols and information about the interred was added.

The placement of graves within a plot may relate to religious beliefs or cultural traditions.  Most Christians are buried facing east, though it is popular on our coast to be buried facing the beach.  One funeral director told me that there is a tradition of a wife being laid to the right of the husband.

There are many cemetery tours along the Mississippi Coast this season, even after Halloween.  Take an educational and fun tour of a nearby graveyard and celebrate local history for yourself!

Please note:  The use of ground-penetrating radar or metal detectors should be approved by the cemetery owner or management prior to use.  Remember that any excavation or the removal of materials in a cemetery without the permission of the cemetery owner and the gravesite owner is considered vandalism or theft.

Things are lively all day and start hopping from 4-8pm.  The November “Hot Spots” are Antique Maison Ulman Mall & Tea Room (317 Ulman Avenue) and The Shoe Boutique (126 Main Street, inside of Maggie May’s Gallery).  Read about them below!

- by Lisa Monti and Christiana Richardson

• Bay High School, which ranked 13th out of 249 high schools in Mississippi for statewide testing scores, has the highest graduation rate on the Mississippi Coast and the third highest rate in the state. And for the last three years, it's also had the lowest drop-out rates in the three coastal counties. 
• The school won the Bronze Award among Best High Schools in America for four years, according to US News & World Report. The 2014 graduation class of 135 were awarded $5.5 million in scholarships.  In 2015, 114 graduates pulled in an astonishing $8,374,566 in scholarship offers, setting a new record at the school and topping last year's record by nearly $3 million.
• Forty-five percent of students go on the attend two-year community college and 35 percent attend four-year universities.
• Scholarship carries over into athletics at Bay High, where all varsity team members have a 3.0 or higher grade point average. Recent honors include award winning efforts by the dance team, basketball and soccer teams, cheerleading squad and tennis team which keep crowding the school’s trophy cases.

• The Hancock County School District’s testing scores ranked second out of 249 high schools and the high school was a top performer for three years in a row.
• Hancock’s graduation rate was in the top 5 for the Coast and the top 15 percent of all districts in the state.  The 2015 graduates earned $6.1 million in scholarships. Among 2015 graduates, 48 received highest honors for 4.0 and greater grades; 36 students earned honors for 3.5-3.99 averages.
• More than half of the county’s high school grades enrolled in two-year community college and 36 percent opted for four-year universities.
• Outside the classroom, Hancock High students earned honors for band, dance, art, basketball, Junior ROTC, football, volleyball, fast pitch softball, bowling, golf, track, tennis, cross country and swimming.

• Accolades go to the county’s private schools as well. At the all-boys St. Stanislaus, approximately 90 percent of 2015 senior class earned college scholarships totaling more than $10.5 million. SSC seniors were accepted into 84 colleges and universities.
• Our Lady Academy is a parochial school, the only all-girls Catholic high school in the state. The class of 2015 had an average 25.7 ACT scores  -  higher than state and national averages.  OLA’s 34 graduates in the class of 2015 earned more than $2,685,000 in scholarships, averaging $79,000 per graduate.
  

Take a look at this amazing documentary created by students from Bay-Waveland Middle School, Bay Saint Louis! This documentary was created for the 2015 Literacy Forum held at their school. The focus of this forum was the Civil War.

An avid biker who's a new resident seeks out some challenging territory, finding few hills, but lots of other charms to keep him happily engaged.
- by John Dumoulin

If you're a novice, though, the Bay is the perfect place to ride. It's flat, there's little traffic, and the town's sharp angled intersections, canopied tunnels of live and red oak, and lush, overgrown vacant lots promise two things: there's a surprise around every corner and you're sure to get lost the first time out. Old town from Highway 90 deep west into Waveland is a warren of 100-year-old historic homes, 1950s brick ranchers, and California beach bungalows that would impress Malibu celebrities. But as Dr. Seuss wrote in his last philosophical book, "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."*

Trek around the Bay during the day and you'll see one-level skyscrapers with elevators, beautifully manicured slab foundations, white-hulled Boston Whalers punctuating dark driveways to nowhere, and tens of construction crews resurrecting homes out of brambles. It's like watching the Travel and History channels at the same time. You'll pass the Bay's world-famous cerebral Zen Garden beaches and learn about pirate houses and world literary figures like Pearl Rivers.

The South Beach's boardwalk, especially, will take you as far as you have the energy to go. At dusk down the boulevard, invisible community piers are circled above and below by lights and reflections like a string of bright pearls around the neck of a beautiful ghost.  If the night promises a new moon, the water will likely be speckled with flounder boat lanterns, so many that it's hard to see where the water stops and the dusk's horizon begins to show off the starred night sky.

The veteran, retired 4th Warder may prefer a simple pedal of vacant thought and a single-minded goal like completing the block so she can get back to the Saints game. But for working stiffs like me, a ride around the Bay is an opportunity to multitask.  And I don't mean catching up on the latest Dow Jones podcast or a text-n-drive email search. Those are old school.  Bike any time of the year and you can pre-soak your laundry while still wearing it. And the longer you ride, the more of this multitasking you can get done.  During June and July, ride at exercise speeds and you can use your shirt (and your teeth sometimes) to seine the air for the not-so-elusive love bug, the Gulf Coast's equivalent to Dr. Doolittle's famous "push me-pull you" two-headed natural wonder.

I've found, too, that if you put a roll of quarters in each sock, they serve as leg weights. The coins make my calves look like Popeye's, but when I get to the end of the road — usually the western-most end of South Beach Boulevard — and drop the coins in the slots at the Silver Slipper, the ride back seems a breeze! Also, I like to drag a garden rake behind me on Highway 90 just after the Bay St. Louis Mardi Gras Parade. The longer I ride and the more beads I collect, the harder the workout.  By the time I reach Waffle House, I'm thirsty and dragging a sea anchor the size of a Honda Fit, which forces me to stop — usually in front of Pops Corner Pub. Nothing lazy about this Magnolia, if you know what I mean!

No, you'll be hard pressed to find an exercise hill in Bay Saint Louis for a real work out. My advice is to try the entrance up St. Charles Street from South Beach first then "jump the hump" at the track at Central. Once you can do this without shifting from first to second gear you're ready to tackle the Matterhorn of biking in St. Louis: the Bay St. Louis Bridge.

A report from Hancock Tourism Development Bureau - looking back at the month of October and ahead to the holiday season! 
- by Latonja Ervin, photos by Ellis Anderson

Hancock County Tourism Bureau had a wonderfully successful fall. We started the season with the Hancock County Fair (September 23-26) and the St. Rose de Lima Food and Music Festival (October 3).

These events were advertised on radio and TV by the Hancock County Tourism Bureau with a grant from Visit Mississippi.

We kicked off October with a live broadcast of WGNO’s “News with a Twist.” This broadcast covered the greater New Orleans area and south Louisiana. The show aired live at the Bay St. Louis Train Depot on October 7 after the production crew spent several weeks filming highlights of Bay St. Louis attractions. Some of the highlights were dining on the bay overlooking our award-winning municipal harbor, inspiring art in St. Rose Church, and charter fishing in the bay.

This event was sponsored by the Hancock County Tourism Bureau through a grant from BP.

Just a day later, Tourism geared up for the Gulf Coast’s biggest event: Cruisin’ the Coast 2015, October 5-10. Hancock County event days were Wednesday in Diamondhead (with the “Blessing of the Classics”) and Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Bay St. Louis.

This annual event brings over seven thousand cars to the area and generates revenue for gas stations, restaurants, retail business and car repair shops. This year’s event broke the record with over 7,600 cars. We can’t wait to top the record next year!

Bay St. Louis events were sponsored by the Hancock County Tourism Bureau and Cruisin’ the Coast.

Next we look forward to the holiday season with the Christmas parade on December 5. The parade will take you on a magical holiday ride though all the snowflakes in Old Town Bay St. Louis, ending in the Depot District with the “Snowflakes and Sugarplums” festival. The fest will be from noon–5 p.m. and will feature holiday music, Santa Claus and live music by Roman Street. For more details go to www.mswestcoast.org, on the Cleaver Community Calendar page - and on the Cleaver's Upcoming Events page! 

A prize-winning children’s author, schoolteacher,  classically-trained pianist and part-time professor of songwriting and American Sign Language, Yvette Landry from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana makes our souls shine with her music. 
- by Rheta Grimsley Johnson