Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Depot

 This c. 1920 one story clapboard building has been covered with vinyl siding according to the National Register of Historic Places inventory for the Downtown Delhi Historic District.  It is described as

...low-key Colonial Revival detailing.  Modillions outline the roofline and gables of this long, rectangular building.  Each end is prominently articulated with gable end returns and a lunette shaped ventilator.  Located slightly off center on each of the long elevations is a gable also accented with end returns and modillions.

The Old Missouri Pacific RR caboose 13497 is displayed at the depot (waymarking.com).  

Like many towns throughout Louisiana, Delhi owes its existence to the railroad.

First in operation as the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas, established in 1861, the line was dismantled by 1863 due to the war (csa-railroads.com).  The Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific was incorporated on December 1, 1879 and operated until 1926 on the Vicksburg to Shreveport route (Mississippi Rails: Mississippi's Railroad History & Heritage).  The line was served by Illinois Central Railroad in 1966 (LSU Libraries Digital Collection), and is currently serviced by Kansas City Southern rail.

Stairway on West First Street, Delhi, Louisiana

Have you heard the one about....?

...two "seasoned" women keeping a baby?

  

It gave new meaning to the phrase "I'm too old to do this."  This little 8-month old charmer is my great-great niece, and Sis and I took a road trip to spend a couple of days with her oldest daughter and family.  When I had first seen the baby at Christmas, she mostly screamed if I tried to interact with her or hold her.  Isn't it amazing the changes that come with a few months of development? 

 

Although we mostly hung out at the house and took care of baby niece, we ventured out one afternoon to the grocery store to pick up items so I could cook supper.  I recall taking my baby to the grocery store plenty of times during my mommy days, but wow!  It took Sis and I both and all hands to keep this little tyke in tow...and she does not even walk yet.

 

Aah, break time at last!

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Torties

 I was getting worried, and trying not to worry.  One day I had come out and found all the kitties gone from the front porch.  I know feral cats need a "back door" and to stash the babies where predators cannot find them--at least, hopefully.  I had heard them mewing one day at 'suppertime' and spotted them amongst the leaves and vines that cover the fallen tree in the front yard.  Then the rains came.

It was a low lying area under the tree, and I feared they would drown if Mamas did not get them moved in time.  I need not have worried.  After the rain stopped, I went out to find them gone from the second home in their short lives.  I knew they were somewhere around the kudzu by J's parked car as the mamas would come from that direction to eat when I put out food, but I could not see them. 

Then came the day I spotted them...under the edge of the tire under my car shortly after I arrived home.  A stern lecture was delivered to mama cats and I moved them from under the car and back to the basket on the porch.  Before I even got the third kitten out from under the car, Mama was dragging one out of the basket and back that direction.  Frankly, she was having a hard time as the kitten was not at all cooperative over having been pulled out of a warm soft basket instead of under car on a rock driveway and now being dragged down a sidewalk.  Cats--were they raised in a barn or what?

I scooped it up (I know, I violated the non-interference with feral cats clause in the contract), put it in the basket with its other two siblings and moved the basket, which is inside the mesh and metal frame leaf bag from the lawnmower to provide better shelter and support from collapsing) over by J's car, next to the kudzu.  I figured if she was going to drag them all back, I could at least make it less traumatic.  (I know, I am thinking like a human, and not like a cat.)

Happily, all 3 mamas and all kittens seem to be satisfied with the basket near the kudzu, protected by a fence and a car, with 47 different escape routes.  Mamas rotate in and out of the basket to share nursing duties, groom kitties who venture out of the basket, and stand watch a few inches away.  Using the zoom lens, I was able to catch a brief glimpse of them late this afternoon.  Several days down and counting...

Elvis' first school

 East Tupelo Elementary constructed in 1936 on Lake Street.

Magenta Leaves at Lawhon Elementary School