Digging For Treasure

In the old days families buried their trash on their properties. I am lucky enough to live on the old family property and it is just  short walk up the hill to a place where I can spend hours digging for the past one sliver of glass at a time.

I like to go hunting after a good rain storm. It tends to wash up stuff and send it down the hill a ways. After the latest storm I took a walk on a brisk afternoon just to take a look. I saw various pieces of broken bits of clear glass and found an odd little blue flattened piece sliced in half, needless to say this went into my pocket. Next I found an old snap; pocket. A sliver of an old glass marble, this was exciting because I loved finding marbles. It always leads me to think of which one of the ancestors once rolled that marble between their fingers as a kid. I saw an orange piece buried partially in the dirt, with an oyster shell as my shovel I dug up a whole marble, YAY! Found a green sliver of glass, it would be nice in my jar of glass pieces; pocket. I was getting cold and was about to head back when I spotted a piece of buried metal. I sat and dug and it broke into all kinds of pieces, finally producing a nondescript hunk of something.This went into the heap of stuff on the side for later. Getting ready to leave I ran my hand across the fine clay sand once more and as I did so something popped up. I pulled it out and saw a heart shape. Automatically I realized it was a rabies tag. Thinking it was my own dog's lost tag, I put it in my pocket.
 As I was walking back to the house I took out the heart and realized it was very thin compared to modern rabies tags, could it be very old? Did they have heart shaped rabies tags in the past? I hurried inside to clean it up and see. I was so excited to see as I washed the dirt and grime off, that I could make out engraving. So a little baking soda and vinegar were applied, and now I could make out the date 1953! Awesome!! So some ancestor's dog possibly a hunting dog lost his tag all those years ago and here I find it all these years later. After much cleaning with lemon and salt it is now back to it's copper color, and can be read fully. It will be used in a craft project with a vintage glass bottle for show. Can't wait to get started.
     To me this kind of treasure is better than finding gold!

'dis and 'dat

     'Lagniappe' is a little something extra, at least this is the way MaMaw always explained it when we were kids. The term is used most often here in the Gulf Region of Mississippi and Louisiana. So when I was thinking of naming this blog I immediately thought of the term Lagniappe. Because that's what your gonna get here. A little something extra, whether it be good recipes, tales of the past or just a gumbo of whatever interesting things I can find.
      Home......Did you know that here on the Mississippi Coast we have the longest man made beach in the world? The Gulf is literally at our doorstep. The people here are of hardy stock, descendants of the original French Settlers, those who also founded New Orleans....you know the place most people think of when they think of good food, Mardi Gras, Jazz, and people who speak with that Creole French accent. Well, then welcome to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where you will find the same thing an hours drive away from The Big Easy.
     Hurricanes........oh, yes, we do have those, the kind you drink and the kind that blow........Most people think we are all crazy for staying here especially after Hurricane Katrina wiped our beloved Coast away. Well, we pulled together as a people when we were forgotten, we took care of one another while New Orleans got all the media attention. Although they received drastic flooding from the broken levee system....WE had the brunt of the storm!  What we had looked like the end of the world. There was once a beautiful beach front lined with gorgeous antebellum homes and magnificent oaks, glittery casinos, a large port where ships came in and out with cargo......Now it is all gone for miles inland, flattened like toothpicks thrown down by a giant hand called Katrina........I imagine it was what it would be like if a nuclear bomb went off. Yet, here we are, rebuilding slowly... it is after all our home.
     Food.........  if you were raised in the Gulf you most likely know how to make a proper roux!! We like our food rich and spicy! The Gulf and rivers provide us with plenty of seafood, and the piney woods with plenty of game. One thing we know is how to eat good!
     Fun........ So you want to go to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras??? Well, we have Mardi Gras right here on the MS Coast. Nothing better than King Cakes, and screaming your head off for a neck full of plastic beads, Throw me something!!!!!!!
     Heritage.........folks around here know how to celebrate their heritage. They have a reenactment of the landing of D'Iberville each year, which started it all. This is the reason New Orleans is even New Orleans. They came here first!!! We are all the same people. The Gulf Coast is a different place from the rest of the states of Ms, La, Al, and Fl. We are all bound by the same rich heritage of the Native Americans, French, Spanish and Africans that settled here.
      So,,, if you like good food, good stories, and history,,,, you might wanna stick around awhile...

Also, for a wonderful collection of family history, as well as an extremely large family tree, visit my website @ http://milyla.tribalpages.com
And for my collection of family stories http://www.freewebs.com/lagniappe/