This week I interviewed Dawn Perkins, owner of the Shoppes on the Alley, 215 Trenton Street, a boutique offering a wide assortment of foods, clothes, Louisiana items, and other goods, including the books of the Bard of the South! There is something here for everyone!

With approximately 40 vendors inside, the Shoppes is open from 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday! Trenton Street is a popular tourist destination, and as they discover our downtown, the Shoppes is sure to draw tourists in to discover more about Louisiana. One of Dawn’s vendors/workers is Angel, who was responsible for this Riverfest award:

Inside the Shoppes, one will see these vendors:

Here is a list of the vendors and the products they offer!

I wish you good shopping!

Last Thursday, April 10, I kept a promise to visit the Point Coupee Museum on the banks of False River. The purpose of my visit was to research a future historical novel titled, False River. The museum is open 7 days a week from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The docent, Harry Portier, was so knowledgeable!  Here are some photos I took with notes .

8348 False River Rd, New Roads, LA 70760

Here is pitcher and pan and a chamber pot, which Cajuns called,
pot de chambre.

A large mortar & pestle for grinding corn. In French
it is, mortier et pilon.

A petite mortier et pilon for grinding herbs, spices, etc.

A wash pot and board with an agitator stick.         Here is a pie safe using cheesecloth.
Cheesecloth had many uses in 18th Century Louisiana, especially used as mosquito
netting.

Sugarcane has long been big business in this region.
The sugarcane harvester was invented here, which
greatly increased production. Read the following slide:

Here is a very old church pew from the region. Here, a chair with a leather seat. They used
wet rawhide that shrunk until the seat was tight as a drum! By the way, all the chairs I saw
were smaller than what we use as folks were smaller then.

A wall that used bousillage, a mixture of Spanish Moss
and clay to fill in wooden walls.

This, my friends, is a trundle bed. A smaller bed under the top bed
would be pulled out for company. There were three types of mattress
stuffing used through the years: corn husks, Spanish moss, and
feathers!

This is a corn husk mop (floor scrubber)! Here’s a crib with cheesecloth netting,

Here’s a historical map of False River, the Oxbow that the
Mississippi River left behind.

Here is a spinning wheel.  And here is a loom. It and the trundle bed are the two oldest
house items in the museum. The loom was shared in the community. Women would make
their cotton thread, and weave their cloth. Men would come and take the loom apart (it
was solidly built with wooden pegs, like everything in the house) and move and assemble it at the next home, who already had her thread prepared, Amazing!

This was my little adventure into Point Coupee Parish, New Roads, Louisiana. I hope my little adventure inspired you to visit there someday,

Rickey Pittman
A Bard of Acadiana