EN ROUTE
Beads, rubber balls and hula hoops fly during Krewe of Denham Springs parade
Troy Landry will roll Feb. 7 as grand marshal in the Krewe of Diversion Mardi Gras Boat Parade. The parade, hosted by Louisiana Friends Fighting Childhood Cancer, starts at noon along Diversion Canal. Proceeds from the parade benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Check out Livingston Parish library schedule
Here are a few events planned at the Denham Springs-Walker Branch. For more information, call (225) 686-4140 or visit www mylpl.info.
This Predator Plant papercraft is designed for teens to learn fun facts about carnivorous plants and to make art that shows how unique those plants are. Registration is not required.
n 10 a.m. Feb. 7: Craft & Go Saturday (all ages). On the first Saturday of every month take part in crafting projects at the library Each month features a brand-new project, and with the library providing the supplies.
n 2 p.m. Feb. 10: Valentine Heart Décor (ages 18+): Create a colorful Valentine heart out of straws and twine. Registration is required. Student rodeo coming in this month
BY RICHARD MEEK
writer
n 5:30 p.m. Feb. 5: DIY Heart Tote Bag (ages 18+). Come by to share the love, get creative and take home a functional and stylish tote bag. Whether you’re crafting for a loved one or treating yourself, this is the perfect way to add a personal touch to your Valentine’s celebrations. Registration is required.
n 6 p.m. Feb. 5: Predator Plant Papercraft (ages 13-18). Create a chomping Venus’ flytrap clip.
The Southeast Louisiana Junior and High School Rodeo will be Feb 27-March 1 at LamarDixon Expo Center in Gonzales. Action starts at 7 p.m. Feb. 27, 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Feb. 28, and 9 a.m. March 1. Rodeo athletes in fifth through 12th grades from all of Louisiana will compete. Admission is
BY RICHARD MEEK Contributing writer
PHOTO BY RICHARD MEEK
Rachel Henry, left; Dean McDowell center; and Connor Woods prepare gumbo ingredients at the 14th Bird & Sausage Gumbo Cook-off Jan. 31 at the Livingston Parish Fairgrounds.
PHOTO BY RICHARD MEEK
Historian Sam Hyde mixed a gumbo of humor, facts and perhaps a little bit of his own speculation during his presentation
The Edward Livingston Historical Association’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America Jan. 17 at the Livingston Parish Courthouse.
Queen Susan Hazleton rides on the royal family float Saturday during the Krewe of Denham Springs Mardi Gras parade.
More parade photos.
STAFF PHOTOS BY MICHAEL JOHNSON A member of the BeignYAYS marches with the group during the Krewe of Denham Springs Mardi Gras parade along Range Avenue on Saturday in Denham Springs
Livingston teams ready for final push in last weeks of basketball season
Now that February is here, the regular season for high school basketball season has hit its home stretch.
For girls teams, there is about two weeks left while the boys finish will take close to three weeks, but Livingston parish has teams in the mix for just about all of the local districts.
Charles Salzer SPORTS ROUNDUP
One of those is district 8-3A, where the Doyle boys team would be considered the favorite. The Tigers are currently the No. 3 team in the Division III nonselect power rankings, and have won nine of their last 10 games. Overall they are 20-5, and they moved to 2-0 in district after a 60-38 win over Amite on Friday
Doyle’s biggest remaining tests appear to be its games this week with games at Albany on Tuesday and at home against Springfield on Friday. Albany (15-11, 2-0) and Springfield (15-9, 2-0) are both highly-regarded in the power rankings, and they have district and playoff aspirations of their own.
“It’s a huge week for us, and I guess for all three teams, probably,” Doyle coach Daniel Kennedy said Saturday “Having the games back-to-back, wanting to stay in the top four of the power rankings, and on top of that with both of them being district games it’s a big week.”
Albany and Doyle split two meetings last season, but Tuesday’s contest will be their only regular season meeting. The Hornets who compete in Division II non select for the playoffs, are 9-3 since the start of the new year “Albany is always really tough,” Kennedy said. “They have some talented players and coach (Chris) Beckman always has his kids ready to play I hope we can show up on the defensive end and find a way to make a few more plays than they do. It should be a really good game.
Doyle has already faced Springfield twice this season. It picked up a 56-48 win in the first round of the Livingston parish tournament, and then edged the Bulldogs 67-66 on Jan. 2 in the French Settlement tournament.
“We were able to win both, but any time you play a team multiple times, especially a good team, its gets harder and harder,” Kennedy said. “It should be another good game, for sure.”
Winning both games will go a long way toward Doyle hanging on to its current spot in the power rankings. A top-four rating carries with it a first-round playoff bye and a guaranteed secondround home game, a scenario the Tigers hope will be the start of a deep playoff run.
Charles Salzer covers Livingston sports for the LivingstonTangipahoa Advocate. To reach Salzer, email livingston@ theadvocate.com.
Livingston Parish Fairgrounds.
Berlin Guerin nearly 15 years ago that has grown into a popular community event.
“It’s gumbo weather,” Dean McDowell exclaimed as he helped prep some of the ingredients.
For some contestants, the cookoff was about testing their culinary skills against others; for others, it was supporting the veteran organizations the event supports; and for some, it was simply a family competition.
“I don’t care about winning; I just want to beat my brother-inlaw,” joked Tasha Mears, of Watson, whose tent was situated next to her cooking rival and relation Dave Flauss.
Watson admitted she even brought in a ringer, close friend Melissa Durocher, of Thibodaux. Mears was originally scheduled to compete in the cookoff a few years ago but a conflict forced her to cancel. Flauss took her spot, spawning what has become a friendly rival.
“He and I compete cooking gumbo and all I want to do is beat him,” Mears said.
“I don’t think she can,” Fauss countered with a bit of his own trash talk.
Contestants cooked a gumbo consisting of sausage, turkey and duck. Originally, 33 teams registered but Coxe said temperatures
kept away half of the competition.
“I am grateful for the people who turned out,” Coxe said. “The weather is against us; Mardi Gras is against us.”
Enthusiasm remained high, however, as gumbo connoisseurs sampled each gumbo, sometimes more than once.
“I came out to enjoy the good
food,” Brian Blake, of Watson, said adding that next year he hopes to be a contestant. “Sometimes I taste (an array of gumbos) and think I can do better,” he said, adding he is “pretty much set in my way” of cooking.
His wife, Vickie Blake, perhaps already putting on her game face a year in advance, said their visit also had a strategic twist.
“It’s kind of a scoping out the competition, looking at their equipment, what people bring,” she said.
“I like tasting the different types of seasoning that we don’t use,” Vickie Blake admitted. “It is kind of interesting to taste the different seasons that we don’t have and compare.”
And even as the steam continued to rise from the smoking pots, forming low-hanging mini clouds over the sun-splashed fairgrounds, the overriding consensus was that good gumbo is rooted in the roux. And beyond that?
“I can’t tell you that,” Brian Blake, who has been cooking gumbo for more than two decades, said, before Vickie Blake revealed that her husband drops in some okra, always a favorite in the Louisiana dish.
Proceeds from the cookoff benefit Honor Flight Louisiana, Baton Rouge Soldier Outreach and Books for Boots.
Email Richard Meek at livingston@theadvocate.com
PHOTOS BY RICHARD MEEK
Amateur testers wasted little time identifying their favorite offering and gathered Jan. 31at that site at the Bird & Sausage Gumbo Cook-off at the
Tasha Mears, of Watson, right, sneaks in a taste of the gumbo she and Melissa Duroucher prepared at the 14th Bird & Sausage Gumbo Cook-off.
Brian Blake, left, and Vickie Blake enjoyed a taste of a south Louisiana staple.
A puff of steam helps warm Dean McDowell as he cooks.
the United States, Sam Hyde offered an alternative and perhaps little-known theory that there were actually 14 original colonies.
And the forgotten colony?
According to Hyde, it was what is known today as the Florida Parishes that include Livingston and Tangipahoa parishes.
“How many of y’all, when the football coach was teaching you American history reading from the textbook, how many learned there were 14 colonies?” Hyde asked attendees at the event that was sponsored by The Edward Livingston Historical Association.
None raised their hand.
Hyde, a native of northern Tangipahoa Parish who has extensively studied the history of the Florida Parishes and is the director of the Center for Southeastern Louisiana studies, said one reason the idea of a 14th colony has failed to gain traction is because it did not fit the image of what he called the “Grand Americana,” which is traditionally used when discussing the American Revolution.
He also pinned part of the blame on “Republican synthesis.” He said scholars have accepted the notion that Republicanism is what motivated the American Revolution, citing such ideals such as taxation without representation.
“What is a republic?” he asked.
“Can it be a dictatorship? A democracy?”
“It can be any of those,” Hyde said. “A republic is the form of government which forms most people the best.” Hyde, also a professor of history at Southeastern Louisiana University, said during the Revolution set-
tlers believed that America’s time for kings was over and they were motivated by “people power.” He said the one colony that did not buy into that movement and remained the loyal outlier was the modern day Florida Parishes, explaining settlers from the other 13 colonies had rebelled against the king and committed treason.
“It did not fit; it did not look good,” he said He said one reason was the area from what is now Livingston Parish to the northeast was too far away and also called the argument that the Florida Parishes
AROUND
Continued from page 1G
Sicilian festival seeks vendors
The Independence Sicilian Heritage Festival is March 13-15.
The festival is looking for food and craft vendors. Visit indysicilianfest.com to see forms.
Learn something new
Be sure to visit southeastern.nbsstore.net/life-longlearning-livingston-center
to find and register for
classes such as chair yoga and Zumba, watercolor stained glass and technology subjects.
Cornhole in Walker
Play cornhole every Friday at the Walker Community Center The weekly tournaments are $10 for the lower division and $20 for the upper division. For information, call (225) 305-7183.
Send news and events for Livingston and Tangipahoa parishes to livingston@ theadvocate com by 4 p.m. Friday or call (225) 3880731
were too new “bunk.” He said that region had been a part of the colonies for more than 10 years.
“And not to mention the fact that it was immediately adjacent to the colonies,” he said. ”It literally bordered Georgia so it was right there.
“The Florida Parishes were subject to the same laws; it had the same commander.”
Hyde said economics played a significant role in the Florida Parishes’ loyalty, noting people from other areas were traveling down the Mississippi River, to Louisiana, to trade their goods. He said timber trading had become particularly lucrative because of high demand in the expanding Caribbean Islands.
Additionally, traders were selling Indian corn in the Caribbeans.
“They were making money,” he said.
He said Florida Parish settlers had no religious or political purpose, contrary to the Puritans who settled in the northeast or Virgin-
ians who were looking to find gold, get rich and move back to England.
“The people who were settling down here were worrying about their farms; they just thought differently they chose to remain loyal,” he said, adding as their reward many people received land claims from 200 up to 1,600 acres from the British government.
He said this area quickly became known as a haven for loyalists who were persecuted in other areas but knew safety awaited in what was then the western end of the new country
‘The March of Galvez’
The event also featured the dedication of Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau’s famous painting “La Marcha de Galvez,” or “The March of Galvez.” The painting commemorates the unity, courage and multicultural heritage that shaped the history of south Louisiana.
“History is so important and I really enjoyed learning about my own state’s histo-
his presentation, historian
ry,” Joyce Fox, who braved cold and rainy weather to attend, said. “The painting depicts so much emotion and it will help people appreciate the freedom we have.”
Kathy Henderson, who previously worked in the courthouse, said history is what one learns and not to
spent time
repeat the mistakes of the past. “I think this is very important because you need to know our history and pass that on to our children,” Henderson said. The painting will hang outside of the one of the courtrooms.
After
Sam Hyde
talking with those who attended the Edward Livingston Historical Association’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.
PHOTOS BY RICHARD MEEK
Judge Matthew Belser left, and Judge Brenda Bedsole Ricks unveil Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau’s painting of ‘La Marcha de Galvez’ that was presented to the citizens of Livingston Parish during The Edward Livingston Historical Association’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America at the Livingston Parish Courthouse on Jan. 17.
Steve Estopinal, a member of the Sons of the American Revolution Color Guard, displays how to load the type of rifle used in the American Revolution.
A rider on the float for Big Mike’s bundles up during a cold and windy Krewe of Denham Springs Mardi Gras parade.
A classic Chevy pick-up truck rolls along
A member of the Flamingeauxs marches in the parade.
A dog rides in a truck during the Krewe of Denham Springs Mardi Gras parade.
Two young paradegoers use a blanket to catch the various items being tossed from floats.
STAFF PHOTOS BY MICHAEL JOHNSON
A rider throws a handful of rubber balls during the Krewe of Denham Springs Mardi Gras parade along Range Avenue on Saturday Jan. 31, 2026 in Denham Springs
Denham Springs High Homecoming Queen Juliette Meyer-Bertheau rides on a corvette.
Hula hoops and beads ride along on a Livingston Parish Sheriff car while leading the parade.
A krewe member walks along to place beads on people along the route.
DENHAM SPRINGS MARDI GRAS PARADE