Madewood Plantation

How's Bayou? Distributary tactics

Paddlin' Madeleine home?  (Photo: Paddle Bayou Lafourche)

"It's a distributary of the Mississippi River, my dear," the sweet, scholarly Bennington professor gently admonished a Madewood staff member several years ago. "Bayou Lafourche distributes water from the river, don't you see?" But, of course. How could [...]

How's Bayou? Acting your age, part I

A gift from Gustav ...

Some things just never get done. Back in 1964, during our first months at Madewood, we were certain it was just grime that kept the silver doorknobs from glistening in the morning sun when we opened the front [...]

How's Bayou? The cuisine of yesteryear

Shawn Henderson, 20, a student at the John Folse Culinary Institute, serves up a trout dish at The Bistro.

Thank God frog legs weren't on the menu. I'd just read that the John Folse Culinary Institute, scheduled to move ino a spectacular new 30,000-plus square-foot campus facility in 2013, was currently sharing space with biology labs in [...]

How's Bayou? Dirty dancing and Mardi Gras

In John Clemmer's 'The King's Float Passes', beads fill the panel, but the dolls at the bottom of the crowd are plastic, not plush toys.

My wife Millie never could understand where the ankle-deep mud at La Casa de los Marinos came from. The floors were concrete, and she never actually saw any mud. Besides, many of the mid-1960s socialites who mingled with the sailors [...]

How's Bayou? Royal residuals

Harewood House, near Leeds (Yorkshire), England, has flanking side wings, just like Madewood.  But it's MUCH bigger.

When English royalty comes to call, it's prudent to check the facilities.

How's Bayou? What a way to go

The author's father, on the right, with Aunt Evelyn & Uncle Ryan in Whitesboro, Texas, in 1910.

Your obituary is the world's last chance to get even with you. Just ask my father, who would have turned 105 this week on December 28 -- or Osama bin Laden, if you're dashing around the other place asking [...]