Veterans Day Program 2024

 The annual Veterans Day ceremony took place at 10 a.m. at the entrance of the St. Tammany Justice Center in Covington Monday. More than 100 people turned out for the event, which was hosted by American Legion Robert H. Burns Post No. 16. 

Dennis W. Charlesworth served as master of ceremonies, and among the dignitaries speaking were Parish President Mike Cooper, Covington Mayor Mark Johnson, Lucy Vennen of Post 16 Auxiliary, Rachel Shaw with the Daughters of the American Revolution, and Matt Cole with the Marine Corps League.

Video from the Veterans Day Program

Click on the "Play Triangle" to view the video

The guest speaker was Tiffany McGary Cyprian, who told about her organization and how it is meeting the housing needs of homeless veterans in St. Tammany Parish. 

Mia Ditta sang the national anthem and "God Bless America," and the American Heritage Girls led the Pledge of Allegiance. Arthur Bennet Jr. gave the invocation and the benediction. The St. Tammany Veterans Honor Guard took part in the Advancement of Colors, the three volley Rifle Salute and the playing of "taps."

Here are some photographs. Click on the image to make them larger. 

Master of Ceremonies Dennis Charlesworth

The St. Tammany Veterans Honor Guard advanced the colors

The American Heritage Girls led the Pledge of Allegiance

Senior veterans of wars as long ago as World War II and the Korean War were honored

Parish President Mike Cooper and Covington Mayor Mark Johnson

along with Lucy Vennen of the Post 16 Auxiliary

Matt Cole with the Marine Corps League, Rachel Shaw with the Daughters of the American Revolution and Guest Speaker Tiffany McGary Cyprian with the Welcome Ministries Community Home

The three volley rifle salute

The American Heritage Girls group

Mia Ditta sang the "Star Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America"

The oldest two veterans in attendance

The entire group of veterans

A number of tables were set up giving out information about various services available to veterans, as well as book sales by author Allen Oxford shown above.

The Covington Fire Department brought out their big flag

Veterans Day was originally known at Armistice Day. It is a federal holiday observed on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. The event originally marked the end of World War I, which came in the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. 

 

Three Rivers Art Festival 2024

 The two day Three Rivers Art Festival was held on Columbia Street in Covington this past weekend, with hundreds of artists and art enthusiasts on hand, along with musical entertainment and informational booths. Food and drink were also available. 

Saturday was a great day with good weather and a large crowd. Drizzling rain on Sunday thinned out the crowd, but the festivities continued. Here are some photographs from Sunday morning. Click on the images to make them larger. 

Grayhawk Perkins was on hand in the children's tent area. 

 Links to past Three Rivers Art Festival Blog Posts...

Three Rivers Art Festival - 2016

Three Rivers Art Festival Flows Into Covington 

Three Rivers Art Fest Draws Thousands 

Three Rivers Art Festival This Weekend

Good Old Days On The Lake

 In 1970 an article appeared in the St. Tammany Farmer telling about one person's recollections of excursion boats crossing Lake Pontchartrain back and forth to New Orleans. Here is that article. Click on the images to make them larger and more readable. 

Here is the text from the article:

Good Days On The Lake Recalled

C. Allen Favrot, a resident of Covington and New Orleans, nostaglically recalls the good old days when paddlewheel steamers made excursion trips daily between New Orleans, Mandeville, and Madisonville. Recently he brought The Farmer an article about the SS Camellia, also known as the SS New Camellia. written in September. 1937.

The article says the vessel., a famous fun boat, along with others of her era. "share a common quiet grave in the Tchefuncte river near' Madisonville. Their grave is marked dramatically.

Sticking out of the water near the tree-shaded west bank of the Tchefuncte is what is lett of the boat: a leaning wooden walking beam , support, and parts of a piston, smoke stack and paddle wheel. "Below the surface can be seen shadows of the outline of the deck. At low water, a person in a boat can lean out, put one arm into the water, and touch the deck."

This ship was identified as the New Camellia, and the site is just south of Jahncke shipyard at Madisonville. However, a spokesman at Jahncke said the ship was picked up and moved six- or eight years ago.

The Camellia was renamed the New Camellia when it was rebuilt shortly before 1880. Originally, the paddlewheeler was built in Wilmington, Del. in 1852 and christened the Zephyr. It is estimated she was brought South in 1862, during the War Between the States.

After the war, she was purchased by a New Orleans cotton merchant, August Bone, and renamed the Camellia. Under that name, she was active in Gulf and Lake Pontchartrain trade. After being rebuilt in about 1879, she became one of the most famous of the lake excursion boats.

Damaged by a 1915 hurricane, she was still in service as late as 1917.

Tied up at a Madisonville pier after she was taken out of service because of old age, she quietly and unobtrusively sank one day in 1920. While docked at Madisonville, the New Camellia was utilized to accommodate shipyard workers, that business having started booming with World War I. As she grew more decrepit with age. the "boarders" abandoned ship, and a short time later, the New Camellia slipped gradually down into the river.

Another excursion boat, the SS Pleasure Bay, caught fire at Madisonville, was towed away from the wharf, and sank, sometime back in the 1920's.

Madisonville Mayor Eddie Badeaux, when a youngster, worked aboard the SS Madisonville, an excursion steamer. It went out of service here in 1935, he recalls, and was taken to New York City, where, according to Badeaux, it was still in use as a sightseeing boat a few years ago. He does not know if it still exists. The SS Madisonville was originally named the Hanover.

The boats had large dining rooms, spacious dance halls and top orchestras. They carried hundreds of passengers to St. Tammany beaches and woodlands for picnics, outings. swimming parties. etc. The departures from New Orleans were usually from Milneburg or Spanish Fort.

Other lake-faring boats included the Southland, Charles Dolive, Minnie 13, Margaret and Susquehanna. The lake crossings started early in the 19th century, and ended sometime in the mid or late 1920's. And with that ending went a delightful era of light-hearted fun and gaity, when the livin' was easy. and geared to the tempo and speed of the paddlewheelers.

It must he recalled that automobiles were fairly scarce in the 1920's, and there were no bridges connecting the Orleans side of the lake to the north side. Slow-moving ferries operated at Rigolets and Chef Menteur connecting poorly constructed roads. The old Watson-Williams bridge at Slidell was only a dream and the Causeway was an "impossibility" folk didn't dare dream of.

Following the steamboat excursions came the old NOGNRR's week-end pleasure junkets to all St. Tammany points, from Slidell to Folsom, carrying hundreds of passengers at special round trip rates.

That, too, eventually ended, along with all other train passenger service.

So the era of the passenger trains, like that of the lake and river steamboats, passed into limbo. Which recalls the present fight to save the SS Delta Queen Mississippi river paddlewheeler running from Cincinnati to New Orleans as a passenger vessel. It has been outlawed because it's wooden super-structure is considered a fire hazard.

St. Tammany Farmer Newspaper

August 1, 1970

For more information see these links:

The Life and Death of the New Camelia Lake Steamer

Former Mandeville Resident Recalls Early Days

Slidell High Tigers 1954

 The 1954 Slidell High School Tiger Team. Click on the image to make it larger. 

Children's Museum Re-opens in Mandeville

 The Children's Museum of St. Tammany opened the doors on its new location on U.S. Hwy. 190 just east of Mandeville this past Thursday, October 31. The larger space has been outfitted with many of the educational panels and favorite activity areas from the previous location at Koop Drive, plus new exhibits and fun learning sections have been added. 

It is located in Suite A  at 813 Florida Street, in the building that also has the Triple Nickel Grill, S&S Consignment and St. Francis Thrift Store. 

While the old favorites are back, the Market complete with cash register and shopping carts, the boat surrounded by crabs, and the art activity center, there is also now a large gathering room for parties and meetings. Lite Zilla will offer a new light-filled experience, and the shadow wall will delight children with multi-colored shadows. 

The Museum is open from Tuesday through Friday,  10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and then on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The world globe is in the front window

The trees are standing tall

The play diner and the fishing boat have been launched.

The "Natural Wonders" exhibit has come indoors and expanded with additional displays and exhibits. 

This exhibit shows the many different stages of pumpkins

A reading space for kids and parents

The Market has been expanded. One little girl visiting this week not only went through the market, filling her cart and then "checking out," but after that she went over to the dining table set up and proceeded to start "boiling crawfish."

Plenty of art materials

Two real artists easels have been placed into service

Many of the panels from the old location on Koop Drive have been brought over and re-arranged to make a whole new experience. Children's Museum staff helped paint backdrops and scenes on the walls. 

There's a coral collection, a seashell collection, and a brand new "light table" that helps illuminate animal skeletons. One display shares the importance of seeds and how they are planted. The lighthouse is still a center focus point, and half wall panels with artistic wood cutouts encase one section of the museum. The additional wall panels will provide space to hang new exhibits and showcase artwork as it is produced. 

They have succeeded in taking every panel and piece of the former location and re-arranging it into a new museum space with even more learning opportunities. 

The organization is now partnered with the St. Tammany Public School System's Talented Art Program, so there will be even more emphasis on developing artistic talents in young visitors. Those efforts will include designing, creating and hanging "butterflies" from the ceiling of the new space. 

There is also additional space for offices for staff members, a welcome feature.

A mini stage complete with puppets

The Children's Museum of St. Tammany getting it in high gear

The Children's Museum will eventually move into a building at Pelican Park, with growing interest in providing STEM type activities. Its original location was proposed next to the Cultural Arts Center on Interstate 12, but those plans never did materialize. The originally planned gallery layout is being implemented as much as possible in the new location. For the past several years, the museum was located in a building on the opposite side of Tammany Trace from parish facilities on Koop Drive between Abita Springs and Mandeville.  

For more information:

Children's Museum Facebook Page

Children's Museum Website

Childrens Museum of St. Tammany

Children's Museum Offers Natural Wonders Section

Wings & Wheels at Abita Airport

Saturday, November 2, was a Family Fun Day at St. Tammany Regional Airport, just east of Abita Springs on La. Hwy. 36. The "Wings & Wheels" event brought out a number of visitors and aviation enthusiasts. 

A line of vintage trucks and automobiles were on display, the vintage bi-plane was taking folks up in the air, and the skydivers were also on the scene.

There was a DJ spinning music, food trucks to provide lunch, and even educational table displays from the Federal Aviation Administration. Here are some photographs. Click on the images to make them larger. 

Curious youngsters learned about aviation. 

Educational exhibits were on display. 

Food trucks were brought in to provide lunch.