Troop C earns high marks
April 26, 2016
MEET JUSTIN ‘KEGG’ ST. PIERRE
April 26, 2016
What with the blood-struggle taking place on the national stage of the presidential election and the economic crisis Louisiana finds itself in, and the side show of the Legislature’s attempts to make sense of it all and find us a way out, it is easy to forget that there are so many kind and gentle aspects of life here in the bayou country that bear honoring and our attention.
Some people are better than others at this, and one good example is Tom Butler, who for 26 years now, has run the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building.
They are the people responsible for some of the excellent examples of wooden boat restoration that can be seen at Nicholls State University.
A lot of the work done by the center is behind the scenes, research that involve running down information on the various boats that are part of the heritage and culture in this part of the world.
The research largely takes place on the Nicholls campus. But the showpiece of it all is in what used to be an automobile dealership in Lockport, fronting Bayou Lafourche, which is a body of water a number of the boats that are the topic of said research have traveled.
A boat is a boat is a boat, you might say. But bear in mind how back in the old days, a boat was all that and more. It was what people used to make a living, and if they were not involved in fishing or trapping as a commercial venture, it was what you used to feed your family, coupled maybe with a vegetable garden and, if you were lucky, a cow.
The coolest thing about the center is that people actually come to this place and build boats. Today, in 2016, they build boats from scratch. And then there are the boats that they restore, the ones that maybe were found as debris in a yard, that turn out to be living pieces of Louisiana history.
A lot of people got to view all of this Saturday, when the aromas of boiling crawfish were entwined about the flat, tingly smell of hamburgers on a grill, the food purchases all going to help pay for this unique little example of what happens when people have passions. Throughout the center there were living, breathing examples of the stuff people still do here that was once taken for granted maybe, like carving decoys. A few local carvers and some from a little farther away answered questions patiently. Outside, on the bayou side, the guys from the Houma Regional Military Museum were giving free rides on a landing craft, and other volunteers were showing off their beautifully restored motors, of a type some of us visiting had never before seen, but were state of the art in their time. Some of these boats, with their freshly varnished, spicy-smelling hulls, were a beautiful compliment to it all. A few of the owners obligingly took folks for rides on them.
A visit to the festival reminded me that I need to visit Lockport a little more often. It was a shame that the Bayou Lafourche Folklife and Heritage Museum was not open when I was there. But if it was I would have been sure to stop in. Across from the center is the Bayou Playhouse, where director Perry Martin and other local geniuses have staged excellent entertainments.
All of this took place at the junction of the Company Canal and the bayou, which has a whole story to tell in and of itself.
The point is that there is treasure in so many of our little communities, and Lockport is among them. And we still in our communities have people that run festivals like this, with such a strong local flavor. If the wooden boat center sounds like something you might want to help out or visit or maybe take part in, their phone number is 985-532-5106. But now about those crawfish … heavenly, delectable crawfish…
Cal Kingsmill of New Orleans (left) carves a decoy at the wooden boat festival in Lockport Saturday as Larose carver Dean Savoie looks up from his work and talks with a visitor at their booth about the delicate craft.
