Covington

Our last day in Covington was mellow.  The weather was nice and warm.  We had breakfast and then went to meet yet another cousin, “Miss Katie” who lives in Covington.  She is a former dance teacher at the local college.  She lives in the same house she was “born and bred” in.  Orginally made in 1830, it was once just 4 rooms, kitchen and outhouse in the back.  Since then new rooms have been added on to the house, the kitchen in 1905.  The storm took down the new awning they had just built 3 weeks before, but other than that they escaped Katrina relatively unharmed. I wandered around her property and took a lot of pictures – that place was fabulous.  Miss Katie has defintely southern charm and I really enjoyed meeting her. When you would ask a question, the answer would often be “Yes mam’m” or “No sir”. I found two large crosses in her backyard, Miss Katie said they came from the land next door, when it was owned by a convent and was a nun graveyard. The convent sold the land and moved all the nun’s bodies but kinda forgot about the crosses. People were sneaking in and stealing the crosses. Miss Katie took the last two but no one ever claimed them.

A new use for an outhouse

We met up with the rest of the “family” at 6 at the graveyard. I found a few gravestones, one was the mother of my great-grandmother (I knew her and she died when I was 12). There was another ceremony and the actors started the play again. As I walked to the car, I saw the actor playing Guyol sitting by the tomb. We snuck away and went to a dinner place “Coffee’s Boiling Point” where the 18 of us talked loudly, had good food and just enjoyed the company. We are all from such varied walks of life and location (Louisiana, Texas, Ohio and California) but it was interesting to meet them.