When I was about 13, my parents were running a trailer park, with about 32 trailers, a bunkhouse (which is now home) that housed about 25 men, and even had 50, in 2 separate shifts, at one time and a little apartment. One of the tenants was actually the sheriff of a county, somewhere in MS. He came here for work....on a pipeline (now I always wandered how he didn't get in trouble for spending half his time in Louisiana, working on a pipeline). Well, one day we went on a road trip to see 2 separate former tenants, in MS and the sheriff's wife sends the girls to the store for pasta, so we invited to go for the ride. Okay.....I'm a Cajun. My whole life has been connected to a bayou. I go up the bayou or down the bayou. If I walk in the woods, I'm walking away from the bayou, toward another bayou and I know the name of that one too. So here I am, in a pine forest, on a dirt road, going in circles, real fast, in a jeep, driven by a girl, maybe 2 years older than me. I didn't know where the (*^& I was. I kept looking at my sister. I figured we'd be Okay because she was the sheriff's daughter, but I couldn't believe it really took that many turns and twists to get to the store. All I ever did was travel up or down the bayou. It comes back to me everytime I leave my comfort zone.
Also, the property owners here, mostly own very long, narrow pieces of property, bordering the bayou. When I see property maps from non-bayou regions, the shots are rather strange in shape, but thats cool. Its just it looks like you'd need right of ways to get to your house, etc.
I don't know how y'all navigate, except that y'all have the area memorized and know exactly where to turn off. Our streets are numbered, rather than named, so its obvious that 153rd street will come before 154th. Also, I don't know if I'd ever get used to calling the region I live, ______ County, because I live in Lafourche Parish.
There is actually an area in Tylertown MS that has a growing number of my people. My godson bought a house on 10 acres there, which he would have had to pay much more for the same house on a 1 acre lot here.
I think the small town folk are just leaving because the town has grown too much....too many houses, businesses and vehicles. Used to be you could take some beagles and go rabbit hunting in the sugar cane fields, but now less cane and housing subdivisions are in its place. Same thing with cow pastures. Used to walk in there with a wheelbarrow, to collect fertilizer for the garden and now a bunch of brand new mansions are there.
I don't know what I'll do because right now, seems I'm tied, but I can certainly buy some woods with DS to have a get away, even if we do have to take his teepee when we do it.
DS talks about me and him going in half....either legally owning it all that way or separating it with a surveyer. He says,"We can put Poppa all the way on one end of the property in a nice little shack, set up just for him and you can live all the way on the other end." One thing at a time.
Of course, I keep hearing about men getting laid off.....something is going wrong with the oil field apparently. Gotta just hope the bottom doesn't fall out for everyone here. Things are already getting bad enough as it is.