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Franklin’s Christmas lighting contest will be Dec. 14.
There is no registration. Residents should turn on lights by 6 p.m. for judging.
The judges will compare exterior decorations only, including those visible on the interior from outside and from the street. Judges will not enter the property to view the side or back yards.
There will be four residential sections and one business section. Committee members are not eligible to participate.
First and second place will be awarded in each section and winners will be announced the next day. Awards will be presented at the City Council meeting Dec. 19 at 6 p.m.
For more information contact Barbara Simmons, 337-828-6305 or bsimmons@franklin-la.com.

Bambi Head Start dads and granddads learned firsthand how much fun being holiday decorators with their kids can be.
As part of St. Mary CAA’s Fatherhood Initiative, on Dec. 1 nearly 30 Bambi dads and granddads of every size, shape and height were seen laughing and smiling with washable paint brushes, glitter, crayons and glue bottles.
Amongst the loud chatter of excited three-, four- and five-year-old children as their dads lifted each of them up to place their ornament on the Christmas tree, could be heard little voices saying: “Come on Paw-Paw!” “Pick Me up Daddy!” and “Higher Daddy!”
Bambi Head Start site manager, Louise Pierre, said she loved watching the happy chaos surrounding her, and says dads take pride in helping and showing their love. “The CEO, (Almetra J. Franklin) and I have discussed on more than one occasion how we are always eager to have programs where the dads can come and be a part of the educational process”, she said. “Our dads truly come whenever we call. It can be anytime of the year, and some of them will even take off from work to be present and active with their child/ children.”

By CASEY COLLIER
First female judge in the 16th Judicial District, Anne Simon spoke Tuesday of the marriage of her judgeship and her writing career at the weekly Franklin Rotary meeting at the Forest Restaurant.
Born in the eastern United States, educated at Wellesley College, Yale University and Louisiana State University Law Shool, Simon moved to south Louisiana 50 years ago.
Now 15 years retired, she travels, visits with family, takes walks with her dog and writes novels based on her experiences in Acadiana, and on the bench.
Simon has written three novels, and is working on a fourth.
The first three all have the same dedication: “Dedicated to everyone who works in the American system of justice—a flawed system, but the best as yet devised by man.”
Her first novel was Blood in the Cane Field. The second and third, were: Blood in the Lake and Blood of the Believers. All of which, are available on Amazon.com.
“I was a general jurisdiction trial court judge,” said Simon, “which means, I handled everything from broken refrigerators to first-degree murder, and I had more than my share of capital first-degree murder cases. I don’t know why, but I did.
“Each day, whether it was the broken refrigerator case, or the first-degree murder case, I watched the human condition in a parade before me. I saw the tragic condition—one mistake and a life ruined. I saw the comical—a witness caught red-handed, spinning a complicated lie. I saw the weird—a citizen of his own sovereign state, persuaded he could roam the free sea of Lake Martin irrespective of wildlife regulations. And I saw the disgusting—a 15 year old truant girl found in the apartment of a 50 year old man, sat before me, displaying the wares she had peddled. That girl spelled for me, the name that her mother had given her: But’ty. Did she have any chance?
“All the time that I worked, I had a secret. I would go home at night and write-up some of these things that I had seen—descriptions of the people and descriptions of the area; and I kept three files: One file was labeled, ‘St. Mary,’ one file was labeled, ‘St. Martin’ and one file was labeled, ‘Iberia.’”
Simon explained that she didn’t do anything with the nightly notes contained in the three files while she was a judge, for two reasons. The first reason, she said was, “It is not ethically permissible for a judge to promote anything for money… as if I would decide a case differently because somebody bought a twenty dollar paperback.”
The second reason, she said was that she didn’t know how to put together a novel. “I got books from the library, and I read them,” Simon said, “the little nerd that I am, you know, had to read how to do it. And I had a set of CDs. There’s one on the Great Courses that tells you how to write fiction. But still, the projects never got off the ground.”
Then, one day, Simon had a conversation with her daughter-in-law, who teaches writing. She invited Simon to join her writing group, and it was there that Simon decided to write her first crime fiction novel.
Simon said of being invited to join the group, “Sometimes I think she did that for cover, to criticize me. But anyway, I was grateful, because they did (criticize) and they were merciless, and that’s what it takes. Not too many people want to tell me what to do. That’s the problem with being a judge; people don’t want to rub you the wrong way. But, that group was merciless, as I said, and I learned so much.”
Simon went on to discuss her yet-to-be titled novel, its status toward completion and the difficulties concerning its compilation.
“I’m trying to write something now about the year 1839, in this area, particularly New Iberia, though Franklin does figure into it very much because that’s the stop of the steamship before it reached New Iberia.
“That year, F. H. De Perriere obtained a charter for Newtown, which became New Iberia. His story is dramatic. His parents were murdered by slaves in a rebellion in Saint-Domingue, in Haiti, and he, as a small child, was taken out.”
That was also the year there was a regular route of steamboats that went out of New Orleans, up the Teche and passed by Franklin, but stopped at New Iberia, because beyond New Iberia, “the Teche was full of scags and trash and what have you,” Simon said. “The people in New Iberia stole a lot of the cargo that had come through Franklin, and that was the cattle for Lafayette, and whatever.”
“In 1839 also, a slave of the De Perriere’s, named Felicitae, nursed during the Yellow Fever epidemic, and she nursed very successfully using old folk medicine from Haiti,” Simon explained. “Her ways were successful and she became beloved, and when she died, it is said that the town shut down to walk in her funeral procession from St. Peter’s to the cemetery. Unfortunately, when I started on this, I didn’t know that I had kicked an ant pile. There are about 300 descendants of the De Perrieres, and they all have their own story, their own folk-lore, and they don’t agree.”
But then, she said, “A blow came to me about three weeks ago: One of them opened a Facebook page to gather all these stories. So, now there are going to be even more stories that don’t agree. I don’t know what I am going to do with this thing. But, I may have an idea. I think I may have a way around that. That’s what I’m going to do for the next year.”
Simon closed by saying that since she can’t be a senior in college again, studying history, she intends to write historical fiction, if she can ever get the De Perrieres to settle on one story that they can live with.
“So, that’s my post-career career,” Simon said. “Does anybody have any questions?”

Patterson and Berwick High schools were led on the All-District 8-3A football team by a combined 10 first-team selections.
Patterson had six first-team picks, while Berwick had four.
The Lumberjacks’ first-team selections were: quarterback Dajon Richard; running back Dontre Nicholas, offensive lineman Zach Burke, defensive lineman DeAndre Diggs, linebacker Treylon Bennett and defensive back Jaymioun Butler.
Berwick’s first-team selections were wide receivers Kenan Jones and Josh Carver; defensive back Barrett Hover and place kicker Seth Canty.
Patterson had five second-team selections: wide receiver Irvin Celestine, offensive lineman Brad Beaubouef, offensive lineman Javin Turner, linebacker Jaylon Jennings and defensive back Drew Lucas.
Berwick had three second-team selections: quarterback Mitchell Sanford, running back Josh Jones and defensive back Lucas Hatch.
Patterson had six honorable mention selections: Kai Schexnayder, Austin Harden, Tron Clark, Reginald Tarver, Kemiah Jones and Kam Nicholas.
Thirteen Panthers earned honorable mention status: Cade Thibodeaux, Kenny Rhodes, Matthew Legendre, Tavaris Howard, Denver Jenkins, Collin Louviere, Noah Alhayek, Seth Giroir, James Crawford, Hunter Seneca, Keyon Singleton, Hayden Seneca and Tristan McGonagill.
Kaplan swept the individual honors as running back McCaylon Thibeaux was named Offensive Most Valubale Player, while linebacker Rhett Menard is the Defensive MVP. Kaplan’s Stephen Lotief was named Coach of the Year.
On the Academic All-District 8-3A squad, Patterson had two players selected, while Berwick had three.
Patterson’s selections were Burke and Beaubouef, while Berwick’s were Jerry Crowe, Hatch and Thibodeaux.
Below are the complete teams:
2017 District 8-3A
First Team All-District
QB, Dajon Richard, Jr., Patterson; RB, Macaylon Thibeaux, Sr., Kaplan; RB, Malik Criner, Jr., North Vermilion; RB, Dontre Nicholas, Sr., Patterson; WR, Kenan Jones, Sr., Berwick; WR, Josh Carver, Sr., Berwick; TE, Dane Wisendanger, Jr., Kaplan; OL, Austin Stelly, Sr., Kaplan; OL, Aaron Hebert, Sr., Kaplan; OL, Jax Harrington, Jr., Erath; OL, Zach Burke, Sr., Patterson; OL, Eli Dubois, Jr., North Vermilion; DL, Drake Griffin, Sr., North Vermilion; DL, DeAndre Diggs, Sr., Patterson; DL, Quintlan Cobb, Jr., Kaplan; DL, Omari Akebulan, Sr., Abbeville; LB, Rhett Menard, Sr., Kaplan; LB, Treylon Bennett, So., Patterson; LB, Logan Roy, Jr., Kaplan; LB, Payne Touchet, Sr., Erath; DB, Ryan Broussard, Sr., North Vermilion; DB, Barrett Hover, Jr., Berwick; DB, Jaymioun Butler, Jr., Patterson; DB, Mason Granger, Sr., Erath; Athlete, Trae Case, Sr., Kaplan; Return Specialist, Matt Roden, Sr., Kaplan; PK, Seth Canty, So., Berwick; Punter, Mason Granger, Sr., Erath; Offensive MVP, McCaylon Thibeaux, Sr., Kaplan; Defensive MVP, Rhett Menard, Sr., Kaplan; District Coach of the Year, Stephen Lotief, Kaplan.
2017 District 8-3A
Second Team All-District
QB, Mitchell Sanford, Jr., Berwick; QB, Garrett Becker, Jr., North Vermilion; RB, Braylon Romero, Jr., Kaplan; RB, Josh Jones, Jr., Berwick; RB, Mason Granger, Sr., Erath; WR, Luke Frederick, Jr., Erath; WR, Irvin Celestine, Jr., Patterson; TE, Cooper Derouen, Sr., North Vermilion; OL, Brad Beaubouef, Sr., Patterson; OL, Justin Mayard, Jr., North Vermilion; OL, Anthony Demarco, So., Kaplan; OL, Javin Turner, Jr., Patterson; OL, DeShawn Campbell, So., Abbeville; DL, Jax Harrington, Jr., Erath; DL, Tyler Stelly, Jr., Kaplan; DL, Larry Kelly, Sr., Erath; DL, Kieran Shelvin, Jr., Abbeville; LB, Caleb Jagneaux, Sr., Erath; LB, Jaylon Jennings, Sr., Patterson; LB, Kevin Dennis, Jr., Abbeville; LB, Kade Hebert, Sr., North Vermilion; DB, Kendrick Baudoin, So., North Vermilion; DB, Drew Lucas, Jr., Patterson; DB, Drake Abshire, Jr., Kaplan; DB, Lucas Hatch, Sr., Berwick; Return Specialist, Tavion Menard, Jr., Abbeville; PK, Reed Renfrow, Jr., Kaplan; PK, Hunter Hulin, Jr., North Vermilion; Punter, Darian Duhon, So., North Vermilion.
2017 District 8-3A
Honorable Mention All-District
Kaplan: Hayden Hebert, Michael Lotief, Ashton Gaspard, Beau Matthews, Lane Marceaux, Nathan Sistrunk and Dillon Hargrave.
North Vermilion: Joel Pigron, Creed Rudd and Michael Pereida.
Abbeville: Zhyeathin Shelvin, Channing Spears, Hunter Verrett, Garrett Hebert, Chance Porter, Dominick Nunez, Jesiah Angeles, Kalun Domingue, Tavis Briggs, Christian Alvarez, Dieon Williams, Junus Derouen and Noah Vaughn.
Patterson: Kai Schexnayder, Austin Harden, Tron Clark, Reginald Tarver, Kemiah Jones and Kam Nicholas.
Erath: Hunter Collins, Curtis Cormier, Zach Domingue, Matt Domingues, Gage Hebert, Luke LeBlanc, Johnny Nguyen, Nick Nguyen, John Pupera, J.P. Touchet and Lane Toups.
Berwick: Cade Thibodeaux, Kenny Rhodes, Matthew Legendre, Tavaris Howard, Denver Jenkins, Collin Louviere, Noah Alhayek, Seth Giroir, James Crawford, Hunter Seneca, Keyon Singleton, Hayden Seneca and Tristan McGonagill.
2017 District 8-3A
Academic All-District
Erath: Mason Granger, Jean-Paul Touchet, Payne Touchet, Tanner Harris and Caleb Jagneaux; North Vermilion: Cooper Derouen; Patterson: Zachary Burke and Brad Beaubouef; Kaplan: Lane Marceaux, Rhett Menard and McCaylon Thibeaux; Berwick: Jerry Crowe, Lucas Hatch and Cade Thibodeaux; and Abbeville: Kalun Domingue, Garrett Hebert and Dominick Nunez.