Sheila’s family
Sheila’s extended family held a big family party for the 4th of July out at one cousin’s house just outside Rayne LA. They had an awesome set-up – an above-ground swimming pool, a separate tent for the barbecuing, a covered car port for the food and chairs, out of the sun, and a huge industrial fan under the carport to keep the hot humid air moving. There was a big lawn for the kids, and a small climbing structure, with hunting camouflage hung in streamers on it. There must have been several dozen people there, not counting all the kids, and Sheila assured me that this year was a small gathering – they have been known to have up to 50-60 people and more, all related!
It was a quintessential 4th of July – good food everywhere, and lots of it, kids running everywhere, adults hanging out in the shade and talking, the guys talking sports and hunting over by the barbecues, with beers in their hands. There was never any lack of things to watch or lack of someone to talk to. Perhaps our favorite time of the day was the huge volleyball game in the pool. I counted 18-23 adults in the pool (you have to check out the photo gallery to see the pool size), and maybe 5 small children around the edges, and the game went on for literally hours. People rotated in and out for bathroom breaks and to get another beer, but that’s about all. When the volleyball players got cold and wrinkled from so much time in the water – about 8:30 at night, they finally adjourned for more food and fireworks. We dragged ourselves home about 10 p.m., ready to just fall into bed.
Frog murals
Before things really started hopping, Sheila’s older sister Ruthann grabbed us for a quick ride into Rayne to see the frog murals. Calling itself the Frog Capital of the World, Rayne has dozens of murals painted on walls throughout the city. Most of them depict frogs in one form or another, but many of them are beautiful historical renditions of Rayne’s past. We got the whirlwind tour, and would have loved to go back on our bikes and take our time to see them more slowly, and look for ones we hadn’t seen. We really appreciated Ruthann showing us the sights! Take a look at the photos in our photo gallery.
St. Joseph’s cemetery
After seeing the Rayne murals, Ruthann took us by the St. Joseph’s cemetery. In Christian tradition, graves are laid out in an east-west position, with the east metaphorically representing the beginning of life with the rising of the sun and the west metaphorically representing the ending of life with the setting of the sun. For some reason, these graves were laid out in a north-south position rather than the east-west. Too many people had been buried before the mistake was discovered, and the expense and trauma to the families was too great, so the graveyard was left as is.
Robert Ripley had a famous newspaper cartoon early in the 20th century, and the graveyard caught his attention, causing him to mention it in his cartoon. Recently the graveyard has been mentioned again as an attraction in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” and people come from around the world to see the only cemetery in the Judeo-Christian world that faces north-south rather than east-west. The cemetery is really interesting – we would have loved to spend more time there as well, but the heat was intense, and the party was waiting! We did get some good photos of the graves.