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On a cold Friday afternoon some 30 years ago, I hitched a ride down the Calumet Cut with my wife’s uncle, Harry Lee Wiggins, to him and my father-in-law’s trapping camp for the weekend. Harry had a small shrimp boat called the Sea Biscuit that was big enough to haul gear, groceries and yes, my small family, too.
This was pretty much our weekend routine back then. I’m grateful today for Mrs. Flores putting up with me. It’s hard on a spouse, especially with toddlers, trying to make sure they have everything they need for a few days, miles away from home.
By contrast, I was out playing in the marsh much of the time. When I wasn’t duck hunting, I’d walk canal banks, jumping rabbits. I’d also go out and shoot a few nutria to help out my father-in-law during trapping season. Those were glorious days to be in the prime of your life taking on the challenges of all things in nature.
This particular weekend also happened to be New Year’s, so I’d get an extra hunting day. The only problem was one of those cracking northers blew in overnight with a sideways rain and a temperature that eventually dropped into the 20s. It was miserable, to say the least, and no one got up Saturday morning to hunt ducks.
When 11 o’clock rolled around, I was starting to go stir crazy. Everyone was sitting around half asleep on the couch, chairs and floor not wanting to go outside in the frigid cold. The wind was blowing so hard you practically had white caps in the bayou.
Harry Lee was feeling antsy like me, because that’s when he said, “Who wants to go duck hunting?”
He told us all the front was passing and the ducks would be flying to feed in the middle of the day. I was the only one who volunteered.
The camp was located in Leopard Bayou, just off Wax Lake, and there is a little piece of marsh in the middle of the lake they call Goat Island. Harry Lee had been shooting nutria on the island when he discovered two little ponds divided by a narrow strip of marsh with a couple of muskrat hills. The ponds were covered with duck feathers where they’d been eating and preening.
Harry Lee knew ducks and suggested I sit on those hills and use the natural cover to conceal me. No sooner had the sound of the Lycoming engine of his airboat drifted away, ducks were flying into the ponds. Big ducks – with green heads. And in no time, I limited.
I had braved the elements and felt strong and glorious. This is what manhood feels like.
Now, to change things up, one year ago on Jan. 8, at the age of 60, I suffered a heart attack. The temperature started out in the 20s that morning, and once again, I was in the marsh. This time, I wasn’t shooting waterfowl. Instead, I was banding snow geese with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries with the intentions of writing about it.
When the rocket net fired, all of the volunteers raced to the net site about 150 yards away. I was wearing my insulated chest waders, several base layers of clothing and my heavy waterfowl hunting coat, plus carrying two cameras.
About half way, I stopped running. I had tightness and pain in my chest, found it hard to breathe and felt both nauseous and dizzy. I knew something was bad wrong, but I was on a mission to capture a story. Pride wouldn’t let me quit, so I pressed on without saying anything to the others half my age and finished the job.
At one moment, I mentally said to myself, “I’m going to die right here on Cameron Prairie in front of all these young people.”
The next three hours would be some of the hardest my wife ever endured during our 33 years of marriage. I called her and said I was driving home. My logic was I was over an hour from the nearest hospital in Lake Charles, and I didn’t want to wait for an ambulance.
What doctors found was I came down suddenly with Atrial Fibrillation. The A-fib caused a blood clot to strike my heart, causing minor damage. I never smoked, seldom drank, had the blood pressure of a teenager and heart rate of an athlete. I also worked out regularly and mostly ate right. If I have a vice, it is I do love sweets.
One of my biologist friends with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said, “If you would have put John Flores in the same sentence as heart attack, I’d never believed it.”
The bottom line: 2017 was a tough year for me. I was in the hospital three times, went through two heart procedures and been on and off more medicines than I care to say.
Right around November, my heart specialist, after looking at yet another EKG, said, “I like this. I’m happy. This is what we were waiting for. Sometimes it takes time to heal.”
I’m writing this because there are no New Year’s resolutions for me. I realized in 2017 a couple things: I’m no longer in my prime, so I need to quit acting like I did 30 years ago. The second thing is there is no promise of tomorrow.
None of this means I’m heading out to pasture. On the contrary, in 2018, I’m just not going to try to be first up the hill anymore. From now on, as long as I get there, I’ll be good with that.
I’m also going to continue to chase the best outdoor stories I can find again. I’m going to take my grandsons fishing. I’m going to try and mentor some younger lads, if I can convince them to put away their iPhones for a while. But, mostly, I’m going to endeavor to live life and try to enjoy every moment. I hope you will, too, in 2018.

(Photos above)

State Rep. Beryl Amedee said Monday that she doesn’t know when a special legislative session will be called to tackle next year’s anticipated budget shortfall, for which the estimates start at $1 billion.
Amedee and other legislators don’t even know if such a session will happen before the regular session starts March 12, or after the session ends by June 4, or even if Gov. John Bel Edwards will call any special session at all.
If Edwards does, Amedee told members of the St. Mary Industrial Group at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City, “I expect it will be frustrating and entertaining – entertaining for you, more frustrating for me.”
Amedee, R-Houma, previewed the 2018 legislative session – the regular one required by the Louisiana Constitution. That session seems sure to be dominated by the “fiscal cliff,” the expiration of temporary sales taxes at the same time the 2018-19 fiscal year begins July 1.
The constitution prohibits passage of deficit budgets, so Edwards, Amedee and other lawmakers must look for some combination of budget cuts and revenue increases that will work fiscally and politically.
The governor, who was hammered over his tax hike proposals during last year’s budget crisis, said Dec. 20 that he won’t call a special session for February unless a consensus on taxes develops by Jan. 19. The Associated Press quoted Edwards as saying the $1 billion target would require cuts too “nasty” to swallow, especially in health care and education.
The AP said Tuesday that Edwards offered a bit more wiggle room to lawmakers. He said he won’t hold firm to the Jan. 19 deadline.
“If we’re making progress and we’re just not quite there by the 19th, I can extend it,” Edwards told the Press Club of Baton Rouge. “But you can’t extend it indefinitely, for just purely logistical reasons. We have a certain window when the special session would fit” between Mardi Gras and the start of the regular session March 12.
House Speaker Taylor Barras said he’s optimistic the two sides could reach a tax deal for a February session but might need time beyond next week. He said House lawmakers need more details about the governor’s tax proposals. Barras and the governor met Monday to continue talks.
In Morgan City, Amedee said Edwards has been more forthcoming with the media than with legislative Republicans about his roadmap.
She said she knows of no Republican, even in the party leadership, who has received specifics about the governor’s budget plan.
Edwards’ “nasty cuts” language means “whichever cuts make the public cry loudest. That’s what will be in the plan.”
Amedee said some in her party might go along with a continuation of a half- or quarter-center sales tax, “but only if it’s tied to reform.”
So far, she said, Democrats have proposed or helped enact little in the way of the reforms she’d like to see.
Those include an “Ohio checkbook” transparency provision that would require state financial dealings to be posted online. She’d also like to see some real budget cuts, rather than just reductions in proposed increases, as well as Medicaid and pension reforms.
Another possibility: a state constitutional convention that would put local governments more in control, and responsible, for local projects.
“We still operate under the Huey Long model that sucks everything back to Baton Rouge,” Amedee said.
The constitution might also be amended to give local governments a local option on the homestead exemption rather than imposing it statewide. For most local governments other than municipalities, the homestead exemption protects the first $75,000 of a primary home’s market value from property taxes. Conservatives often complain that the exemption pushes too much of the property tax burden onto businesses.
Amedee also was able to provide some good fiscal news.
November was the third consecutive month of local job growth, she said.
The 51st District that Amedee represents, and which covers the Morgan City area of St. Mary plus portions of Assumption, Lafourche and Terrebonne, has attracted $39 million in new investment, resulting in 303 construction jobs and 384 other jobs.
In a state where government revenue depends heavily on energy revenue, the rig count was up by 12 in 2017, and the price of oil seems to have stabilized at about $60 per barrel. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast is for prices to remain at the $60-65 level through 2018.

September 8, 1930 -January 7, 2018
Evelyn Morrison, 87, a native of Morgan City and resident of Patterson, passed away Sunday, Jan. 7, 2018, at Teche Regional Medical Center surrounded by her family. Evelyn enjoyed dancing, music, camping and was an amazing cook.
Evelyn is survived by her four children, Kevin Morrison of Morgan City, Wayne Morrison and wife, Julie of Morgan City, Terry Morrison of Morgan City and Kim Crouch of Morgan City; five grandchildren, Heather Gagliano of Morgan City, Rod Morrison and wife, Kimberly of Morgan City, Casey Gros and husband, Boogie of Labadieville, Keith Michael Crouch and wife, Kristi of Morgan City, Kourtney Chautin and husband, John of Patterson and special grandson, Carlo Gagliano; and 13 great-grandchildren, Carson, Gracie and Nicholas Gagliano, Hannah and Julia Morrison, Bree Gros, Ian and Mia Crouch, Kaiden, Kailie and Kynzlie Crouch, Zane Lacoste, and Bentley Chautin.
Evelyn is preceded in death by her husband, Sterling Morrison; parents, Edmund and Lydia Boudreaux; grandson, Randy “Roo” Morrison; five sisters, and seven brothers.
The family requests that a time of visitation be observed Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Morgan City from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. followed immediately by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m. Evelyn will be laid to rest in Morgan City Cemetery.
Arrangements are under the direction of Hargrave Funeral Home in Morgan City.