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PASTOR MICHAEL LEN NAVERRE

Pastor Michael Len Naverre, 59, a native of Morgan City and resident of Thibodaux, died Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019, at St. Elizabeth Hospital & Medical Center in Gonzales.
Visitation will be Saturday from 9 a.m. until services at 11 a.m. at Siracusaville Recreation Center. Burial will follow in Morgan City Cemetery.
He is survived by his wife, Pamela J. Naverre; a daughter, Dwan Naverre, both of Thibodaux; a son, Michael Naverre of Houma; two grandchildren; his father, James Naverre Sr.; five brothers, James Naverre Jr., Kelvin Naverre, Mark Naverre and David Naverre; two sisters, Ruth Naverre and Patricia Guidry, all of Morgan City; and a host of other relatives.
He was preceded in death by his mother.
Jones Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

FLORA LEE MORRIS COLEMAN

Flora Lee Morris-Coleman, 75, a native of Berwick, died Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019, at St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center in Round Rock, Texas.
Visitation will be Saturday from 9 a.m. until services at 11 a.m. at Little Zion Baptist Church in Berwick. Burial will follow in Berwick Cemetery.
She is survived by four children, Tracy Mingo, Erin Mingo-Hunt, Sonja Mingo and Tremayne Coleman; three siblings, Booker Hollins Jr., Belinda Hollins and Beverly Granger, all of Morgan City; nine grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and a host of other relatives.
She was preceded in death by her father, stepfather, mother, four sisters and one brother.
Jones Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

ROSEMARY AGNES BLUM BIRD

Rosemary Agnes Blum Bird, 70, a resident of Berwick, died Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019.
She is survived by two children, Gina Reed of Berwick and Ethan Pretre of Las Vegas; her stepchildren, Kathy Keiffer, Johnathan Pretre and Michael Barth; six grandchildren; and six great- grandchildren.
She w as preceded in death by her parents, two husbands, a grandchild and a great-grandchild.
Visitation will be 2-6 p.m. Monday at Hargrave Funeral Home. Dismissal will follow services.
Hargrave Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Jim Bradshaw: South Louisiana has its own kind of holiday feast

I‘ve said it before and I’ll say it again, one of the things that we should be thankful for at Thanksgiving is that in south Louisiana we can do it up better than practically anywhere else.
To begin with, most of us come from big, close-knit families and our celebrations reflect that.
We don’t even have to worry about that old taboo of not discussing politics at the dinner table. Political “discussion” has been part of our tradition at least since Huey Long’s days, and probably before that.
Second, we are a fun-loving people and know how to enjoy a festive day ─ perhaps especially at Thanksgiving, since most of us are still close enough to our agrarian roots to understand the hard work involved in creating a harvest worth celebrating.
And what a harvest it is.
We raise cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, and rabbits. Ducks, geese or venison from the wild are always holiday favorites,
Want fish? Name a variety and we can probably pull it from the Gulf or a bay or a river or a bayou.
Lots of our vegetables come fresh from a backyard garden. What can we grow?
Beans, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, corn, cucumber, eggplant, greens of all sorts, mirliton, okra, onions, peas, peppers (hot, mild, take your pick), squash, tomatoes, turnips, watermelon, yams, and just about anything else we can think of.
Satsumas and lemons are ready to pick, and surely we’ve still got some fig or pear preserves that we put up this summer.
And don’t forget to put out the mayhaw jelly.
Best yet, we know how to cook these things in ways that are envied but seldom properly emulated.
It’s been that way from the beginning, you’ll remember. The Pilgrims thought they were feasting, but they couldn’t even spell courtbouillon, and to their misfortune, had never heard of etouffee, gumbo, or sauce piquante, which I would certainly prefer to a recreation of the Pilgrim’s meal.
Folks who study that sort of thing say there were plenty of wild turkeys in New England in Pilgrim days, but they were scrawny things; a Pilgrim looking for a good fat bird would probably pick a swan instead.
They had corn, but their “dressing” was boiled cornmeal pounded into a mush. They might have sweetened it with a dab of molasses, but they’d run out of the sugar they brought with them.
There were more turnips than potatoes. Mussels and curds were the likely seafood item, boiled and unseasoned, of course. They did have a fat pumpkin or two, but no flour or butter to make a crust for a pumpkin pie.
Contrast that with the first feast of the Acadians, who were in old Acadie years before the Pilgrims sighted Plymouth Rock in 1620.
The first Acadians had a big feast during the winter of 1606-1607, and, according to a diarist, made the table “groan beneath all the luxuries of the winter forest: flesh of moose, caribou, and deer, beaver, otter, and hare, bears and wildcats; with ducks, geese, grouse, and plover; sturgeon, too, and trout, and fish innumerable, speared through the ice.”
The venerable historian Francis Parkman adds that, “Of wine, in particular, the supply was so generous that every man in Port Royal was served three pints daily.”
The only thing missing was a football game to doze through once the deer, beaver, sturgeon, trout, and wine had been finished off.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, “Cajuns and Other Characters,” is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.

Colonels repeat as Southland Conference Champs

The No. 23/23 Nicholls State University football team won its second consecutive Southland Conference championship after a chaotic, thrilling 28-27 victory over No. 22/21 Southeastern Louisiana in the River Bell Classic Thursday night in front of 10,071 fans at Strawberry Stadium. The Colonels (8-4, 7-2 SLC) regained the lead with 1:30 remaining when Chase Fourcade found Dai’Jean Dixon down the sideline for a 57-yard touchdown catch, and the extra point by Gavin Lasseigne put Nicholls up 28-27. Southeastern (7-4, 6-3 SLC) drove inside the Nicholls’ 2 before Kevin Moore III knocked the ball away from Lion quarterback Cole Kelley trying to ...

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Diversity of cultures collide at SEOPA Conference

Indore, a city in the State of Madhya Pradesh in Central India, is a long way from Oxford, Mississippi. In fact, some 8,431 miles away, according to Google Maps.
Oxford happened to be the host city of the 2019 Southeastern Outdoor Press Association’s Annual Conference in late October. And, one of the recipients of the Lindsay Sale-Tinney Award and the Toyota “Let’s Go Places” Awards from the Outdoor Journalist Education Foundation of America happened to be from Indore.
Anushtha Agrawal, 23, grew up in Central India preparing for engineering in the 11th and 12th grades. She later realized that she liked meeting and talking to people and was very much interested in communication, so she began exploring a media career.
Agrawal did copy writing, started learning French, took a photography course, all of which lead to her ultimately earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electronic Media. However, it didn’t quench her thirst and passion to learn more.
By the fifth semester of her undergraduate program, she knew she wanted to pursue a Master’s degree in the arts of some sorts. Additionally, Agrawal wanted to see how the educational system worked outside of her country.
As a result, Agrawal, who tells everyone just to call her “Anu,” is enrolled in the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York or CUNY.
It was by happenstance, while at CUNY, Agrawal read a newsletter that listed some scholarship opportunities. One being an organization (SEOPA), who offered outdoor communication scholarships.
Not knowing or realizing the outdoor communication scholarship was hunting and shooting centered, Agrawal, who is vegetarian and someone who follows her cultural Hindu traditions, applied online and completed the required essay. Moreover, much of her experience of U.S. culture was framed in the lifestyle of New Yorkers and not those of the Deep-South.
Agrawal, who considers herself to be open-minded, said, “I just applied without expecting anything — without knowing about fishing and hunting, and I knew nothing about the South, obviously. I just saw it in Clint Eastwood movies. That’s how it was, but I never visited the South.
“I was very nervous, honestly,” Agrawal continued, “because I come from an environment which is very protective and never thought about guns or pistols. We see them in action Bollywood movies — you know — they are using guns, like you don’t even feel somethings happening when they use it.”
One of the activities SEOPA members participate in during the annual conference is a “shooting day,” where corporate sponsors will demonstrate the latest firearms or perhaps ammunition. This year’s conference showcased Sig Sauer’s M17 9mm military sidearm and the P320 M17 commercial version, along with Winchester Active Duty ammunition.
Additionally, members also were introduced to Mossberg’s MC1sc 9mm subcompact pistol, which is built for concealment and weighs only 22 ounces when loaded. And finally, Winchester provided plenty of 12 gauge shot shells for attendees to participate in as many rounds of five-stand as their shoulders could take.
All of the shooting activities took place and were showcased at the state-of-the-art McIvor Shooting Facility at Charles Ray Nix Wildlife Management Area in Sardis, Mississippi.
When Agrawal was in the 10th grade, she notes she fired a rifle for the first time at a military summer camp in India. The conditions of the program were far more formal than the SEOPA shooting day activities, where under close supervision students were guided and taught by their instructors to shoot from sitting and prone positions on the floor.
“This was more straight forward and don’t be worried about it,” Agrawal said. “So, I was very nervous when I saw the pistols, because I just saw them in movies and never talked about it. I don’t come from that background. But, I just did it because I always feel bad if I didn’t do something when I had the chance. I was very nervous, but at the same time the other side of me empowers and overshadows my nervousness.”
When it came to shooting a shotgun during five-stand clay target activities, Agrawal was again apprehensive and initially handed the firearm she was provided back to one of the range supervisors, not wanting to participate.
“I took it and then gave it back,” Agrawal said. “But, again felt like if I go back home, not doing it, I feel like I’ll have a regret that I didn’t even try it. And, then when I did it — it was really fun.”
During the four-day conference, Agrawal also observed and drew critical distinctions between cultural norms here in the United States by talking to people she has met over time in both New York and now the Deep South.
She points out after living in one state how it was easy to generalize the entire United States as being culturally like New York, for example. However, much like her own country India, Agrawal learned there are regional differences state to state in the United States, both urban and rural. She found southerners polite and warm. What’s more, the people behave much like those back home in Indore.
Agrawal, being a vegetarian, drew no conclusions other than to have an open-mind when it came to animal rights after talking with those in the organization who explained the purposes of hunting to her.
“I like learning about things, so I don’t have a feeling about it yet,” Agrawal said. “I like listening, so I’m not on the side of animal rights activists — like what I see in the news. But, when I came here, I talked to other people I met and traveled with and they gave me a different perspective. Because they lived in forestry areas and for some it’s a survival instinct when possibly crops go bad — you have to do it. For someone it’s easy to say, ‘Oh this deer is so cute,’ but maybe for someone that lives and deals with that problem, it means something different.”
Citing a great divide between north and south and noting the central part of the country back home in India being very different, Agrawal feels she still needs to explore and try to understand what she likes and doesn’t like about the United States. Also, she’s trying to learn how states function.
From traditions and culture where shooting and hunting occurs, Agrawal says she still is trying to digest what’s she’s learned so far. For someone with such a different background growing up, a conference such as SEOPA can throw a lot at an individual in four short days.
What’s the one take away Agrawal felt she got from winning a scholarship to attend the 2019 SEOPA conference?
“I don’t come from a hunting region with firearms — it’s very easy for me to maybe judge or something,” Agrawal said. “But I didn’t do that because I met people who gave me these reasonable arguments who showed me why they do it, because there is a reason behind it. So, I think this caused me to be more open-minded about the whole concept of being in the United States.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Flores is The Daily Review’s Outdoor Writer.

Berwick leads area contingent at state swim meet

Tri-City Area swim teams began action at the Allstate Sugar Bowl/Louisiana High School Athletic Association State Swim Meet Wednesday at SPAR Aquatic Center in Sulphur. In Division III, Berwick and Morgan City will compete, while Central Catholic will swim in Division IV, all in preliminary competition Wednesday. The finals in each division will be held Thursday. Berwick will bring the area’s largest contingent with four individual boys’ competitors, two girls’ individual entries and three boys’ and girls’ relays apiece. In individual boys’ action, senior Luke Orlando is seeded No. 14 in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:26.38 and he is ...

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Berwick, CCHS both win their season openers

The Berwick Lady Panthers girls basketball team won their season opener against Centerville 49-30 at home Tuesday. Lay Bertrand led the Lady Panthers with 38 points, while Lily Eues scored eight. Bronwyn Colbert added two points, and Emily Lousteau scored one. Berwick (1-0) will return to action Thursday when it travels to face Erath. CCHS defeats Ascension Catholic Central Catholic defeated Ascension Catholic 57-46 in Donaldsonville in its season opener Tuesday. Yani Johnson led Central Catholic with 25 points. Other Central Catholic scorers were Laurielle Bias, 10; Charlotte Callais, eight; Caitlyn Picou, seven; Lexi Landry, six; and Brie Johnson, one. Central Catholic (1-0) will return to ...

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CCHS sweeps top honors on all-district squad

Central Catholic High School swept the individual honors on the All-District 2-V team as senior Yani Johnson was named the league’s Offensive Most Valuable Player, and Latashia Wise is the district’s Coach of the Year. The Lady Eagles, who finished district play with a 4-0 record, had two first-team selections, senior setter Katie Hoffpauir and senior outside hitter Ava Nicar. Central Catholic had one second-team selection, senior outside hitter Lexi Landry, and two honorable mention picks, senior libero Symone Wiggins and junior middle blocker Kennedy Grizzaffi. Below is the complete team District Coach of the Year: Latashia Wise District Offensive MVP: Terre’yan Johnson 1st Team All-District: —Senior ...

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