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Ascension Parish Sheriffs; Leaders and Legends of Law |
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"Ascension Parish, with the cities of Gonzales and Donaldsonville, has been recognized as one of the state's fastest growing and richest areas. For many years the parish economy was confined chiefly to the production of sugar cane. Today, while cane is still the most important agricultural crop, many other industries have sprung up. Additionally, the parish's close proximity to metropolitan Baton Rouge has attracted many rural-loving people to build homes and raise families in the parish's ideal communities and commute to their work in Baton Rouge. At the same time it is attracting recognition for a comparatively low crime rate." This information was reported by the Ascension Tourist Commission in January of 1954. The report further extolled the virtues of the law enforcement departments of the parish headed by Sheriff Hickley Waguespack, Gonzales Police Chief Leslie "Red" Bourque, and Donaldsonville Police Chief Leo Mattingly. These leaders were commended for their supreme spirit of cooperation in their mission to provide the parish with the finest law enforcement protection in the state. They remained steadfast to this resolve even in the face of short supplies and an ever increasing growth rate in the population. In fact it was this same resolve that allowed them to, not merely meet the demands of the times, but to greatly modernize and equip the department as never before. It was a job begun far later than optimal, but they were none the less determined and became steadily and undeniably successful. More |
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Resolution of Unnecessary Suffering |
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To suffer or not to suffer, that is the question. And if not to suffer, then how to reach a place or state of mind that replaces suffering with meaning, purpose and joy? During the spring of 2005, the only suffering that concerned me was whether or not I would catch my limit of 25 speckled trout that day. After almost a two hour drive from Prairieville, my brother and I launched his boat at Falgout Canal and headed out to Lake Decade. Soon we were drifting with the current as we sent our lines spinning out over the water. We were talking about global warming and what kind of hurricane season we might have when I felt that familiar tug on my line. Moments later he netted my 16 inch trout. Several minutes after that, I netted a 20 incher for him. The closest we came to suffering that day was having to head back to the dock with our cooler full of trout. In early summer I agreed to go to Houston with two friends for a weekend workshop called "Healing Your Inner Critic." That was the weekend I met Dr. Robert McDonald, one of only a handful of internationally acclaimed practitioners of NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming. His workshop promised to silence the critical voice I heard inside my mind--you know, the one that says I'm not good enough, not smart enough, not attractive enough, the one that warns me not to risk another relationship or try for that new job. I was skeptical that this voice could be silenced, or "healed", in just one weekend. After all, I had been hearing it for over fifty years. More |
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Thoughts From Bully: Because I'm Your, Mom! |
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family photo. It was Easter Morning 1958. My sister Janet and I were dressed to the "T". It was a perfect Sunday morning. The Bunny had shown up with the baskets and they were filled with colored eggs, candy, hog head cheese and that hollow Chocalate Bunny in a box. I swear my sister Donna could eat the back out of her Bunny so slow. It would be June before she made the first nibble that scarred the chocolate on the front of the Bunny. Don't even think about touching those yellow candy eyes. Once she'd start eating the front, she'd start at the bottom and work her way up so eventually she'd just be holding the head in her hand. The ears were last. She'd carry them around and it looked like a brown hotdog. Anyway, back to the photo. Mom had the day going great and she took this photo. Look at my happy little face. A real cutie. Well I climbed in the backseat of the car and crawled up in the back window to look out as we drove to church. This behavior could have a parent incarsirated today. I then took off that hat. She said, "Put it on." I said, "No". She said, "You better or else." I threw the hat out of the window of the moving car. More |
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