(Waterflood 8) Good times and a ureter operation in Jena.

Jackie and I had some good times in Jena. We were there about a year and a half. One time Jackie and I drove to Nashville, Tennessee and spent several days. We took a tour and we saw lots of music shows.

We had visitors from California. We almost always took them to Natchez. There were several old plantations. One plantation was downtown (General Grant had slept there) and also had a nice restaurant. I remember a huge live oak that shaded a whole lot.

Jackie and I took to the catfish restaurants. Some were way out in the country. The ceiling of one was covered with notes and money that were pinned in place. One was a note from the Tennessee Plowboy, Eddy Arnold.

We went to one affair that featured wild game gumbo. All of the meat in the gumbo was meat from the wild animals in the area.

We made many trips to the mall in Alexandria. We usually ate at the Piccadilly Cafeteria. I would get crawfish étouffée. I did not know that in the future that Kerry and John would be excellent cooks of crawfish etouffee.

I just heard this story. It is very sweet and poignant. Kerry was a young lady with two young children. She was busy and had lots to do. I believe that she received a small amount of money for attending the trade school where John taught. He would have been an administrator of the school. He told Kerry that if she became tired she could lay her head on her desk. John has sorta been telling Kerry similar things for 36 years now. (I have been told that John told this to Kerry because she was recovering from major surgery at the time. Still a nice thing to do.)