Bilbo drank beer from a Go-Cup

            So you thought that lovely old Hobbit in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books was from Middle Earth, eh?

            Think again.

            Recent evidence reveals Bilbo Baggins, the star of “The Hobbit” and a minor character in “The Lord of the Rings” hailed from the Bayou State. Now, where exactly in Louisiana Bilbo lived is still unclear.

            We’re found a Bilbo Street in Lake Charles, in Louisiana’s southwest corner. Even more shocking — but perhaps appropo — is the Bilbo Baggins Pub in Bossier City, just east of Shreveport.

            When you think about it, hobbits hailing from Louisiana makes sense. Usually peace-loving people who only want to eat, drink and tell funny stories. Yeah, I can see Bilbo and Frodo strolling through the Shire with a go-cup alright. They probably even have little parades as well, throwing useless crap made in China from tiny ponies. 

Breakfast with wintering Texans

The holidays aren’t just about Santa on Galveston Island. On this Texan barrier island south of Houston, the holidays have gone to the birds. Every year Galveston offers a “Breakfast with the Sandhill Cranes” to observe the tall birds in their natural habitat. This year, the event happens from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 14 and 15, 2013, at Moody Gardens Golf Course.

Credit: Barbara Rabek

First, there’s a breakfast and presentation about sandhill crane behavior, then a tour of the island’s West End where the birds hang out. Keanna Leonard, education director at the Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska, will present a mini-workshop titled “The Private Lives of Sandhill Cranes,” designed for beginners and experienced birders alike.

“They (the island’s cranes) are absolutely stunning, standing 3 1/2-feet  to 4-feet tall with a little red cap,” said Julie Ann Brown, executive director of the Galveston Island Nature TourismCouncil.

Sounds like they’re in the holiday spirit for sure.

And there’s more to this avian event, Brown added.

“After breakfast and the presentation, all participants will be invited to go on a ‘crane crawl’ to visit previously scouted crane ‘hotspots’ on the island’s West End,” she said. “We’ll have experienced birders with spotting scopes at each site on hand to answer questions. Participants can meander in any order and at their own pace to view the ‘wintering Texans.’ It’s a great way to kick off the holiday season!”

Upcoming events include the Sea Turtle Saturday and Sea Turtle Saturday for Kids on Feb. 8, 2014, and FeatherFest 2014, an all-inclusive bird event April 10-13, 2014. For more information on any of these events, visit www.GalvestonNatureTourism.org.

Yodeling in the Georgia mountains

            Helen,Georgia, is an adorable mountain village. What’s unique is that Helen is not. The entire town is patterned after an alpine village.

            It all began in 1969 when three businessmen brainstormed on how to turn the north Georgia community into a tourist destination. They enlisted the help of artist John Kollock, who sketched visions of Helen based on Bavarian mountain villages he witnessed while in the service in Germany. The idea was adopted and Helen transformed into something right out of the Alps.

            One of the best times to visit Helen is during the holidays, especially if you’re lucky to coincide with a snowfall. Visitors can enjoy the sixth annual Christkindlmarkt, a German tradition where the center of town is filled with booths offering specialty gift items and culinary treats Nov. 29-Dec. 1 and Dec. 7-8 in the Helen Market Platz. Santa and Mrs. Claus Santa sleigh into town via horse-drawn carriage during the Annual Lighting of the Village beginning at 6 p.m. Nov. 29 in downtown Helen.

            The Festival of Trees begins Nov. 27 at Unicoi State Park and Lodge, an affordable and family-friendly state park that offers a lodge, cabins, dining area, hiking trails and plenty of outdoor activities. The festival lasts until Dec. 14.

Joe and Tina Smith
of Serenity Cellars
with Dolce Bello    

            Get a two-for-one on Dec. 7 when the Helen Christmas Parade winds through downtown Helen beginning at 2 p.m. and the Annual Christmas in the Mountains LightedParade at 7 p.m. in nearby downtown Cleveland.

            Sticking true to the German theme is Kinderfest with its activities for children Dec. 7, 14 and 21 in downtown Helen.

            For the shopper, the area offers German-styled Christmas gifts, Appalachian artwork and crafts and several wineries, such as Habersham Winery, Serenity Cellars (make sure you sample the decadent chocolate Dolce Bello) and Yonah Mountain Vineyards, home to Georgia’s only wine cave. For an elegant meal, Bernie’s Retaurant in nearby Sautee Nacoochee serves up fine dining and pairs dishes with locally produced wine.
           To help plan your trip to the Alps of Georgia, visit www.HelenGA.org.

City photos courtesy of Alpine Helen-White County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Visiting the dead in South Louisiana: Obligation, atonement or fun?

Diane Roberts, a professor of literature at Florida State, believes the South is obsessed with the supernatural because of our conflicted past.

            
"Ghosts can be a metaphor and the South has a history of grinding poverty, slavery, war and genocide of native people," she said in a recent Associated Press article. "We are collectively very guilty and haunted by our past in this region."

           
I’m a native of New Orleans, where we have a deep relationship with the dead, but I don’t see it as atoning for our sins. For centuries death existed within a short arm’s reach for South Louisiana residents, whether it was yellow fever, hurricanes or a bad sinus infection. People routinely died in great number.

            
Because of the high water table, the dead were buried above ground in tombs and mausoleums. These “cities of the dead” remain throughout town, which is why we spruce them up on All Saints’ Day, the day following Halloween. Christians appointed Nov. 1 as All Saints’ Day to honor the departed Saints of the Catholic Church, plus try to convert those elusive pagans who won’t quite honoring Halloween.

            
On La Toussaint, a Catholic Holy Day of Obligation on Nov. 1, we would visit our deceased loved ones and decorate their tombs, perhaps giving the vaults a white wash job, weed the grounds around them or add wax flowers. As a child, it was a chance to play in the cemetery, even having a picnic on the tombs, but the day means more than that.

           
“…just like Ash Wednesday, the day after Halloween, All Saints’ Day, is the time to gather and reflect upon the meaning of life and death, of mortality and immortality and how quickly we pass from one to the other,” writes David Cheramie in Acadiana Profile magazine.

            
Call it an obligation or a chance to rectify our past, but visiting the dead on All Saints’ Day is a natural holiday for South Louisiana residents. But then, most days are.

Weird South is written by Cheré Coen, who loves long-standing Southern traditions.

Ducks, beer and ghosts in cemeteries

            I was in Jeanerette, Louisiana, this past Saturday doing a gris gris bag demonstration and signing copies of my new book, “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” at the Jeanerette Museum. The latter book makes people want to share their ghost tales and I’m more than happy to oblige.

            We discussed personal ghost stories and old plantation tales of residents throwing themselves from second story windows. But wasn’t there something about the old Beau Pré house, someone asks?  Everyone nodded but the house, which was owned by the town’s founder, John W. Jeanerette, and which withstood Civil War skirmishes in the area, is no longer there. In fact, the house is long gone and a cemetery erected in its place.

            A cemetery, I inquired? This was too good.

            Indeed Jeanerette’s former plantation, which John Jeanerette purchased after success as a store and saloon owner, was titled Beau Pré, French for a lovely pasture or meadow. Later it was called Pine Grove Plantation (didn’t Americans realize that those French names were more romantic?). Part of the house was used for postal service — Jeanerette was the town’s first postmaster — so people sent letters care of Jeanerette, which is how the town got its name.

            But back to that cemetery. The Beau Pré Memorial Park Cemetery lies on the property where the old home stood, at 7605 East Old Spanish Trail in Jeanerette. The 12 acres include above and below ground burials, plus a mausoleum. Throughout the property are live oak trees dripping with Spanish Moss, a small pond and — like the name suggested — lovely pasture fronting the languid Bayou Teche.

            Which is where I found my ghost.

            He wasn’t a Confederate or Yankee soldier, specters rumored to be haunting the place. Instead, he was a reptile from another era, a link to the time of dinosaurs. A nice sized alligator was sunning himself along the pond’s edge, enjoying the solitude that a cemetery could offer.
       I thought, “Only in Louisiana would one see such a sight,” but then Florida may have a few gators visiting the dead as well. And then I spotted the grave of Robert Francis Bourg, a Vietnam vet whose loved ones decorated his tomb with duck decoys, Mardi Gras beads and beer. I can’t imagine finding such an image anywhere else — with an alligator to boot! 

Gone but never forgotten

            

Our loved ones may be gone, but they are not forgotten. In the South, you’ll find cemeteries filled with trinkets, wind chimes, religious statues, non-religious statues, toys, fishing poles, solar lights and much more. Here’s a couple from cemeteries throughout the South.

Saints fans even in death

            We love to decorate our cemeteries in the South.

            Along the Gulf Coast, tombs are mostly above ground due to the high water table that makes it difficult to place our beloved departed into soil. Visitors will find simple crosses denoting graves or elaborate tombs that resemble small homes. In New Orleans, we call these collections of above-ground tombs “Cities of the Dead.”

            With all this grave architecture, it’s no wonder people like to enhance them a bit. And in South Louisiana around All Saints Day (Nov. 1), residents spruce up their family tombs and give them a fresh coat of whitewash as well.

            So throughout this month of October, we’ll be spotlighting some interesting tombs we’ve found over the years.
            At right is a grave found in St. Louis No. 3 in New Orleans, just outside of City Park. Not only did “Mother” get her share of Mardi Gras beads, but a nod to the Saints as well. The living ones who play football in the Superdome, that is.