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OPINION
Creston News Advertiser | Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Ingredients of a happy life Johnell has trouble breathing now, is tethered to oxygen much of the time and has endured pneumonia repeatedly in 2015. His eyesight is gone. Yet he seems to see important things clearly. When I speak to him on the telephone, it’s as if he just returned from winning a million dollars at the Indian casino, or, better, reeled in a record catfish from Louisiana’s Henderson Swamp. Johnell is happy, exuding the kind of satisfaction you cannot fake. “You’re coming Christmas, right?” he asks, but it is more of a directive than question. “Jeanette’s making a seafood gumbo.” His enthusiasm would lead a stranger to believe it’s for the first time. Jeanette makes chicken-and-sausage gumbo a lot during “gumbo weather,” though not in
King Features commentary Rheta Johnson
hot months, when only restaurants and the uninitiated do. She never puts chicken in with seafood, or chicken and sausage with the shrimp, unwritten rules that divide the Cajun version from the rest of the gumbo world. But when Jeanette makes a seafood gumbo, it’s an occasion. It’s like alerting the media that Picasso is about to unveil a painting, or Louis Armstrong play a song. I imagine the bells from Henderson’s little church pealing through the sugarcane fields. If I have a Christmas tradition,
it’s putting my feet under the Latiolais’ table near the edge of the Atchafalaya Swamp. They have moved into a smaller house recently, but the amazing smells and welcome are exactly the same. Good times roll. Jeanette will rise before light and make her roux, tending it the way a good mother tends a sick newborn. The roux should be the color of the swamp, she says, and the tedious process of getting it there without scorching is not for the impatient cook. She is a beautiful woman, and even in bluejeans and a T-shirt she evokes another era, her fine skin unblemished and milky, her silver hair a halo. I guess when people brag on your saintly ways you feel compelled to live up to that, because Jeanette spends her life doing things for others and then
denying she’s done anything at all. “Mais, no, Rheta,” she’ll say if I dare compliment her, as an almost pained expression crosses her beatific face. The first Christmas I spent in Henderson on a houseboat, I resisted having the main holiday meal with our good but new friends. I figured that honor should be reserved for family. But I agreed to come late in the day for leftovers, and I offered a rather anemic contribution, a pecan pie or some such. I am no Cajun cook. We ate ham and pot roast and Cajun dressing, which is rice full of well-seasoned pork. We ate Jeanette’s inimitable potato salad. There were white beans and fluffy white rice, too. Green vegetables were limited, culinary lagniappe. The next year I was there at
what’s called in the South “the first table.” And I knew better than to offer to cook anything. Coals to Newcastle, costume jewelry to Liz Taylor. For eight subsequent years I waited impatiently for the phone to ring and Johnell’s voice to say, “Gumbo’s ready!” This year, once again, I’ll be tucking a bib and waiting to hear that happy man say those words. It’s a clarion call to Jeanette’s Christmas miracle. *** Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s most recent book is “Hank Hung the Moon ... And Warmed Our Cold, Cold Hearts.” Comments are welcomed at rhetagrimsley@aol.com. (c) 2015 Rheta Grimsley Johnson Distributed by King Features Syndicate
President Obama said support for Donald Trump is a racist reaction to him HOLLYWOOD — God Bless America, and how’s everybody? Donald Trump solidified his lead in the GOP polls in New Hampshire Monday while Ted Cruz stayed atop in Iowa. The winnowing process has begun. Senator Lindsay Graham dropped out of the race Monday, moments after Steve Harvey declared he was the next President of the United States. The Miss Universe Pageant was marred Sunday when host Steve Harvey misread the cue card and crowned Miss Colombia the winner when the winner was Miss Philippines. It got worse a few moments later. He dug himself even deeper into the hole when he added that ISIS has been contained. Colombia’s president ripped Steve Harvey for taking the Miss Universe crown off the head of Miss Colombia on TV and placing it on the head of Miss Philippines. We all know what’s next. Right now, Steve Harvey is holed up in his house like Scarface, waiting for the Colombians to answer. Donald Trump tweeted if he hadn’t sold Miss Universe in September that Sunday’s screw-up would never have happened. His absence helped some contestants. For the talent portion of the pageant, the winner, Miss Philippines, escaped from a locked cargo container in less than forty seconds. Donald Trump demanded an apology from Hillary Clinton Monday for saying ISIS was using Trump’s campaign speeches as a recruiting tool. That’s not quite true. What ISIS is doing is using Trump’s older speeches to learn how to be fabulously successful in real estate with no money down. Russian president Vladimir Putin surprised the world’s journalists at Putin’s annual end-of-year
Topical humor Argus Hamilton
press conference in Moscow last week by praising Donald Trump as a brilliant and talented leader. It was easy for Trump to seduce Putin into being his follower. He had him at eminent domain. Las Vegas police arrested a woman who drove her Oldsmobile onto the sidewalk and ran over tourists at high speeds on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday. The city reacted quickly. Today in Las Vegas the odds are posted at two-to-one that you can walk one block between two casinos without a problem. The Las Vegas melee Sunday added to public fears of sudden violence after San Bernardino’s shooting spree. It’s just too dangerous to let Syrian refugees in the U.S. At least under dictator Bashar al-Assad, they got an advance warning that an attack was underway when the parakeet died. Hillary Clinton enjoyed a good debate performance in New Hampshire Saturday. However, she now faces blowback from the fact-checkers over one of her claims. It appears that Hillary Clinton went a little over the top when she blamed the Benghazi attack on Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim video. President Obama spoke to NPR in Hawaii Monday where he lectured Americans not to get too excited about ISIS. He’s more interested in his vision of America. That’s why he’s in the one state where it’s warm enough to play golf in December that he’s not likely to run into a Confederate statue.
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2014
Letter to the editor
Thank you to the Creston community From Adam Leith Creston
While not everyone has kind words to say about Creston, I can honestly say that I am proud of where I live and where I grew up. The support that fellow firefighter Mick Landers and I have received in the past few months has been amazing and overwhelming to say the least. My accident has opened my eyes to just how many caring and loving people we have in our small community. It has also shown others just how above and beyond the Creston Fire Department (CFD) will go when two of their own are in need. I joined the fire department shortly after returning home from the military. The fire department gave me the sense of brotherhood and camaraderie that I had experienced while serving in the military, which is one of the biggest reasons I joined the CFD because I love that structure in my life. The men and women on the Creston Fire Department are my second family. The love and kindness that they show means
the world to me, and I can say that this is true for Mick and his family, too. Not only did CFD put this benefit together, but they also helped maintain operations around our houses, like raking leaves and cleaning gutters. The men and women on the CFD are some of the most respectful, outgoing, generous people you will ever meet and I’m proud to call them my family. Now on to the supporters and donors of the benefit: I cannot thank you enough for what you gave in donations. My family and I will be forever grateful. I hold the utmost respect for each and every one of you who has helped me as I continue on this road to recovery. The first responders of Afton Fire Department, ambulance crew and the emergency department at Greater Regional did an outstanding job when responding to my accident and stabilizing my condition before transferring me to Des Moines. Thanks to my family and friends who have done everything they possibly can for not only myself, but my wife and son. Thanks for the countless personal donations
and those by our community businesses and surrounding community businesses. Thanks to Burnt Reynolds BBQ for the wonderful food served at the benefit, and West and Frey Auctioneers for donating their services. Last but not least, a special thank you to Lee and Shawna Freeman, Tyler and Jenny Mahan, Ron Jolly and Eric Shawler for initiating this. I was told the night they visited Mick and me in the hospital they all went to Applebee’s and came up with the idea to do the benefit for us. After brainstorming they presented it at our monthly meeting at the fire station and it was approved by all who serve the department in a unanimous decision. The benefit has provided me the opportunity to focus on my recovery without the worry of getting the medical bills paid. So from the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every last person who has helped me through this trying time. I cannot say enough how much your kindness and generosity means to me. This truly is a wonderful community and a place I’m glad to call home.
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