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Danny Heitman AT RANDOM
Zydeco with breakfast a great way to start a weekend
My wife’s birthday arrives each June, when small summer road trips seem like a good way to celebrate. Our destinations are often no more than a couple of hours away, which allows us to make other plans back at home.
Those short hops have connected us with different parts of Louisiana over the years, reminding us that this corner of the world isn’t just one place, but many For one birthday, when our kids were small, we traveled to a bamboo nursery in Washington Parish. Light rain fell as we parked our van within a thicket of towering canes and waited for the weather to break. We all felt, I think, as if we were resting within summer’s deep, green heart.
A couple of years ago, I toasted my wife’s birthday at West Feliciana Parish’s St. Francisville Inn, a lovely old Victorian house that’s been reimagined as a lodging and restaurant In the quiet creak of the floors, we could hear the past murmuring its little secrets.
For my wife’s birthday last month, we rose early packed the car with mugs of coffee, and drove to Breaux Bridge for zydeco breakfast at Buck & Johnny’s, a restaurant and performance venue that serves up eggs, biscuits, hot cakes and live zydeco music each Saturday Folks often arrive early to wait in line for the doors to open at 8 a.m.
Eavesdropping on the other customers who gathered outside was an entertainment in itself. One woman noted with pride that her mother’s recent confinement to a wheelchair hadn’t stopped their social life.
“We just wheel Mama wherever we go,” she said, “and we pass a good time.”
Another regular mentioned that not long ago, she had followed her zydeco breakfast with more dancing down the road.
“It was 4 in the afternoon when I looked at my watch,” she sighed. “I wondered where that Saturday had gone.” Saturdays seem to float by easily at Buck & Johnny’s, where we were handed a cocktail menu as we took our seats. You know you’re in Louisiana, I thought to myself, when a
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BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer
Brittany Bowman walks across the Sarto Old Iron Bridge to work each morning.
The walk from her home to the Adam Ponthieu Grocery Store and Big Bend Post Office Museum, where she works as the manager takes about six minutes.
It’s the same bridge where she and her cousin spent childhood summers jumping an iron blockade to play on its rotting planks crossing Bayou des Glaises.
That was in the 1990s, when only a sign stating “Historic Bridge” along La. 1 at Moreauville pointed drivers to the deteriorating structure that once stood as an Avoyelles Parish landmark at the halfway point of the 40-plus-mile loop that is La. 451. The bridge has been there since 1916.
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The Adam Ponthieu Grocery Store and Big Bend Post Office Museum stands across La. 451 from the Sarto Old Iron Bridge in Avoyelle Parish’s Big Bend community. The museum not only tells the story of the bridge but also the history of the surrounding communities.
Why does Covington have world’s largest Ronald Reagan statue?
BY JULIA GUILBEAU Staff writer
At 9 feet tall and 1,300 pounds, a bronze statue of the 40th president of the United States has for years served as a record holder of sorts, towering over those passing through the Covington’s Tammany Trace Trailhead The larger-than-life statue of Ronald Reagan, who stands with a smile and a salute, is reportedly the world’s tallest — 2 feet taller than those in the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda and Budapest, Hungary What’s Reagan’s special connection to the northshore city? There really isn’t one. The former Republican official and Hollywood star never visited Covington during his eight years as president, though he did make several stops in New Orleans.
The memorial’s creation instead starts with Patrick F. Taylor, an oil tycoon, Louisiana philanthropist and close friend of Reagan. The pair’s friendship dates back to when Reagan was still California’s governor and was sparked by their mutual love for cowboy boots, according to Patrick Taylor’s wife, Phyllis Taylor After Reagan died in 2004, Patrick Taylor set out to find a way to commemorate him in Louisiana, offering to pay for a monument in his honor That dream came true in 2008 when the bronze Reagan was officially placed in Covington.
“The donation of this beautiful statue commemorates the deep friendship the Taylors had with President Reagan,” then-Mayor Candace Watkins said in a TimesPicayune article, written the day the statue was officially erected. Taylor, however, never got to see his grand project finalized. He died three years before the memorial was complete. So why Covington?
St. Tammany, like much of Louisiana, had flipped from its former Democratic leanings by 1980, transforming into a GOP stronghold where Reagan easily won in that year’s election. And in the decades after Reagan’s presidency, support for the GOP and Republican officials only
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STAFF PHOTOS BY ROBIN MILLER
The Sarto Old Iron Bridge crosses Bayou des Glaises along La. 451 in Avoyelles Parish’s Big Bend community near Moreauville. The bridge was built in 1916 and served as an escape route for community residents during the Great Flood of 1927. The bridge was restored in 2011 and visitors are allowed to walk across it.
STAFF PHOTO BY JULIA GUILBEAU
A large bronze statue of Ronald Reagan, titled ‘An American Hero,’ overlooks the Covington Tammany Trace Trailhead
AT RANDOM
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waitress offers you an old-fashioned with your grits. As the designated driver, I opted for a tamer beverage, but the atmosphere was intoxicating enough. The featured band, Horace Trahan and the Ossun Express, drew a diverse crowd of young and old, everyone happy to share the floor I love the up-tempo spirit of zydeco, which always sounds like it’s poised to take flight.
We all waltzed in a lively circle, a carousel conjured from a few smiling souls who had decided to start their weekend with a spin around the room. My wife’s Apple watch had recorded 3,000 steps after a few minutes that had also included its share of two-steps and jitterbugs. We’d had a small workout and raised our spirits, too. I don’t usually dance at breakfast, but life would surely be better if I did. Email Danny Heitman at danny@dannyheitman.com.
guilty for feeling relief that she was no longer suffering, even though, or more likely because, I knew that death was the only way to end her pain and suffering. I
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grew, especially in Covington.
By 2003, then Covington state Rep. Michael Strain and St. Tammany Parish Council member Marty Dean had convinced the Louisiana Legislature to approve the naming of a stretch of U.S. 190, from La. 25 through Covington to the parish line, as Ronald Reagan Highway
That recognition stood out to Patrick Taylor when he was on the hunt for a place to memorialize his friend, Phyllis Taylor said.
“Patrick said, ‘Well, they’re going to do that, you already have some recognition for President Reagan, then why not have his monument there as well?’” she said.
But before he could formally choose Covington as the statue’s home, Patrick Taylor died from an illness in November 2004, halting the project for several years.
Phyllis Taylor who took over Taylor Oil and the family’s philanthropic foundation, was approached again years later by
felt guilty because I felt like I was wishing for her to die when all I really was wishing for was an end to her pain and suffering. When she was alive, even
Sculptor Patrick Miller right, and Covington council President Trey Blackall untie a securely belted 1,300-pound Ronald Reagan sculpture after its transport from Ponchatoula in 2008.
Covington officials who hoped to feature a bold tribute to Reagan at the city’s proposed trailhead She presented the plan to the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation board members, who agreed to bankroll the statue’s creation.
A lasting tribute
The statue of the former president was sculpted by Bedico artist Patrick Miller and completed in March 2007 for $110,000. It was officially placed at the trailhead in
though she was unresponsive, I felt like I could still do a little something to make her more comfortable and feel safer I could also continue to apologize for the times my behavior was not what it should have been.
After her last breath, I lost that ability and it really hit me hard. Every harsh word and behavioral misstep came back to haunt me. Even though they were unintentional and I had apologized many times and she had forgiven me and had forgotten, it haunted me then and it haunts me still.
The long goodbye is tough, but the last goodbye might be even tougher — Bienvenu lives in Prairieville.
Human Condition submissions of 600 words or fewer may be emailed to features@ theadvocate.com. Stories will be kept on file and publication is not guaranteed. There is no payment for Human Condition.
June 2008.
These days, Reagan’s lookalike peers over a small amphitheater built at the trailhead, a conventional sight for most locals despite the city’s liminal connection to the past commander in chief.
Covington Mayor Mark Johnson said the statue still serves as a classic Americana symbol for the town’s residents.
“During Trailhead concerts, it always warms my heart when I see little boys climbing up the Reagan statue, then jumping off and tumbling on the ground,” he said in an email.
For Phyllis Taylor, the statue stands as a reminder of her husband’s desire to honor who he considered to be one of the American greats.
“One of the things that Patrick said in one of these many emails that I think is so fitting, and it also explains why he wanted to do this. He said, ‘Ronald Reagan’s unique ability to disagree without being disagreeable with Democrats, Republicans, critics and the media is sorely needed in our state at this time. We are all Americans, and he was the greatest of them all.’”
There were holes in the bridge when we were kids,” Bowman said. “And it was blocked off on either side.”
Today, the bridge has been restored and is open to foot traffic. Its story is told by historic markers placed along the highway by the Avoyelles Parish Police Jury, state of Louisiana and the Atchafalaya Basin Heritage Area. But there was a time when the bridge stood alone, its story fading with the years
The Big Bend
The community surrounding the Sarto Bridge is called Big Bend, named for a large curve in Bayou des Glaises.
“Do you know why they call it Bayou des Glaises?” Bowman asked
No.
“‘Glaises’ is French for glass, and when the water is still, it looks like glass,” she continued. “It reflects everything.”
That’s the story Bowman was told while growing up. Other accounts interpret the word’s meaning as clay, referencing the soil found along the bayou’s banks.
But Bowman’s translation is locally correct, because it’s the community’s, handed down from generation to generation
The bayou once served as a boat route for transporting cargo to small communities And the bridge? It served as the main connection from Sarto Lane on one side of the bayou to what is now La. 451 on the other.
The bridge provided an easy route for farmers to nearby communities. It also served as an escape route.
Bowman grew up hearing stories about how area residents often had to evacuate when water overflowed from the river trinity of the Mississippi, Red and the Atchafalaya — and how the iron bridge was built high across Bayou des Glaises to circumvent floodwaters.
She remembers stories about the biggest levee break of them all from back in 1927, when Bayou des Glaises bore the brunt of the trinity’s combined forces.
“From this point, you are standing 4 miles from the Atchafalaya River, 5 miles from the Red River and 8 miles from the Mississippi River,” she said “So, when it flooded in 1927, this location was in the wrong place at the right time.”
The water rose so quickly that it obliterated the community of Naples.
“Some workers from Italy settled there and named it for their home,” Bowman said. “It had a school and businesses, and it was just wiped completely out. It’s still underwater.”
Today the stories of Naples and other lost communities are preserved just across the bridge. Photos of the doomed community are dis-
played alongside those of other rural settlements in the Ponthieu Museum across from the bridge at 8554 La. 451, where Bowman readily shares their stories with visitors who find their way to this spot that is seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
The Police Jury finally closed the bridge in 1989, first blocking traffic with creosote poles, which were later replaced by iron barricades.
So, things were different in the days when Bowman and her cousin played on its rotted deck. Vegetation obscured the barricades, making the bridge the perfect place for unmonitored adventures — adventures neither girl confessed to their moms.
The museum’s story
Bowman stands in the center of the bridge, gazing at the water She turns and walks to the museum, whose interior reflects its days as a general store. The former post office once occupied the screened room at the right of the entryway, where residents picked up their mail from the boxes lining the walls.
Meanwhile, shelves and counters alongside the museum’s main floor are filled with old tools, bolts of fabric and examples of goods once sold to rural residents. Most artifacts were donated by locals.
A side door leads to a gathering room, where visitors can watch a video about the history of Big Bend. This space also is where
the museum hosts activities for local kids on weekends and during the summer — including outings like cane pole fishing.
Bowman has a calendar of upcoming activities scheduled for locals to enjoy in the 98-year-old store named for its longtime owner and postmaster, Adam Ponthieu, who bought the business in 1946.
Ponthieu served as postmaster until 1994. He donated the store to the La Commission des Avoyelles in 1996, then headed by Carlos Mayeux. The agency later changed its name to the Avoyelles Parish Tourist Commission.
Ponthieu’s donation came after the Sarto Old Iron Bridge became the state’s first bridge to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Both the store and bridge were restored in 2011 through a collaboration between the commission and the Police Jury The jury later added a wooden observation deck on the levee for bridge and bayou viewing.
Finally, the combination of the bridge and museum stands as the centerpiece of the Bayou de Glaises Cultural District, the only such district within the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism encompassing a rural area instead of a municipality
“We started our own cultural district about 2018,” said Natalie Roblin, who co-founded the district with her mom, Aloysia Ducote. “It covers the area from the Atchafalaya bridge
in Simmesport and goes through Hamburg, Moreauville and makes the Big Bend loop, which connects those communities.”
Roblin and Ducote also formed a nonprofit attached to the cultural district for fundraising, grant applications and event planning.
“Over the last couple years, we’ve really become a close partner with this museum,” Roblin said. “It’s the central tourism hub for this particular area We’re doing our best to unite our resources to preserve the history of our community.”
The flood changed everything
Speaking of history, the store didn’t begin at its current location
“You know, the museum isn’t the original store,” Bowman said. “The first store stood a couple of miles away It was destroyed by the flood. This store, where the museum is, was built in 1927 after the flood.”
The Great Flood left nothing but devastation in its path. Water rose quickly as people scrambled, with livestock and equipment in tow, to higher ground on the other side of the bridge.
Then came a second break.
“The levee broke on this side and flooded everything,” Bowman said “When you look at how high the bridge was built over the bayou, you’ll get an idea of how high the water was. The water came up to the bottom of the bridge and stayed there.”
There was no Federal Emergency Management Agency, and government assistance was minimal, if any
“People were told to go home and rebuild,” Bowman said “So, that’s what they did.”
The store did its best to fill in the gaps for what the land couldn’t provide. Locals often paid for cornmeal, fabric and coffee with fresh eggs, produce, milk or other goods from their farms.
“I feel like we can tell the history of the flood the best because of its significance in this area,” Bowman said “This is the area that was hit the hardest.”
And with that in mind, Bowman is working with the cultural district to plan a 2027 centennial commemoration of the Great Flood.
“We wouldn’t call it a celebration,” she said. Yet, in many ways, it is a celebration — a celebration of the resilience of a rural community whose story is marked by a bridge that served its farmers, saved the lives of many and was the setting for a few childhood adventures along the way The Adam Ponthieu Grocery Store and Big Bend Post Office Museum, 8554 La. 451, Moreauville, is open from 7:30 a.m to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, noon to 4:30 p.m. Sunday and by appointment on Monday and Saturday The Sarto Old Iron Bridge is open during daylight hours seven days a week. Admission is free. For more information, call (318) 500-4036 or email bigbendmuseum1927@gmail.com. Email Robin Miller at romiller@ theadvocate.com.
STAFF PHOTO BY ROBIN MILLER
The Adam Ponthieu Grocery Store and Big Bend Post Office Museum is set up to reflect its history as a general store for Avoyelles Parish’s Big Bend community
