A Dinner-A Breakfast- A Pot Luck Lunch

It was a lovely buffet dinner punctuated with lots of laughs as various of the townspeople told tales on each other from 'back in the day'.

Finally, a meeting with the famous Dot, along with Dean and Amanda.  

Dean with his older brother, Jerry, who went through some very major surgery two days later. ( Jerry is recovering slowly and is expected to go home soon from the hospital.)

After dinner I walked down the main street of Robeline, enjoying the sunset at dusk and wishing the weather would cool off a bit.

Or just rain for Pete's sake!

I parked in Dean and Amanda's driveway for the night so I could follow Dean the next morning to Dot's famous breakfast. Biscuits,  cream gravy,  homemade jams and great conversation--it just doesn't get any better.

  George, Me, Dot, Dean, Terry, Kenny (all Lamberts)
What a lovely, and loving family and much is attributable to Dot's warm and inviting personality.  Thank you, Dot, for inviting me and to all of you for making me feel welcome.

From the breakfast I headed to the Lambert town Cemetery...

And made stops at my father's grave,

Aunt Amy Jane,

Grand Father, Andrew Jackson, and...

Grandmother, Ethel Thompson.

There are still stories to be learned and maybe I will hear them someday,


This 'Quest' is not over, and has been rewarding beyond all measure.


There are still personalities to discover such as
Great, Great Grandfather Isaac Lambert.



After the church service there was a potluck lunch and more shared stories.

I met another cousin, Arthur 'Junior' Lambert and his daughter.  Arthur told me my father was a 'real rapscallion'.  But, before I could learn more, Junior was called away by someone else. 


Mary Doolittle Jones, the town matriarch, remembered me from the year before and made me promise to come back.  I would love to.


Finally, I said my goodbyes and took one last drive through the little country towns of Robeline and Many...

Then headed back to Ft. Worth.  Aunt Louise and I were flying to Hawaii to visit my sister who lives on the big Island.  We would be celebrating Aunt Louise's 93rd birthday.

Robeline Parade

"Do you see the parade yet?"

It was the same weekend a year earlier when I arrived in Robeline on the 'Quest' to find my father's family.


There was a parade that day too--It is the weekend of the Robeline Heritage Celebration.

The entire town and much of the parish (county) turn out for the candy, beads, camaraderie....



and pretty girls.

It was during the parade the year earlier that I encountered the first Lambert cousin and from there I met Dean.

The following day was the Lambert Town Cemetery Family Reunion and Dean and his wife, Amanda, arrived at the cemetery to hand me a packet of information that traced the Lamberts back for generations.


On this weekend I planned another visit to the Lambert Town Cemetery and hoped to meet more cousins...

 Plus I wanted to just enjoy the small town feel of the festivities.

I was looking forward to a community dinner that evening that would be held in one of the local churches.


But the truly big event would come early the next morning when I planned to join the brothers at Dot's house for biscuits & jam.  I still had not met Dot (another 2nd cousin) who hosts this breakfast for her brothers every Sunday morning. 

But I was well aware that this was a 'special invitation' not afforded to everyone, and I truly appreciated the honor of this opportunity.

There was one huge drawback to the day--

The heat and the humidity were unbelievably horrible.

If I ever entertained thoughts of living in Louisiana again those thoughts dissipated with the passing parade.


I accept that there is no ideal climate anywhere in the world, but all the same---air should not be thick as molasses.

Hodges Gardens

I called Dean Lambert as soon as I arrived in Many, La. and he invited me to stop by the police dept. to say 'hello'. 


Dean has been a loyal follower of the blog now since we met a year ago, he is a policeman and is also the cousin (2nd, twice removed) who gave me volumes of information on the Lambert genealogy.

He told me about this lovely garden park a few miles south of Many so I decided to spend a few hours exploring the area.

True to my reputation as 'Typhoon Toni', the rain followed but it only seemed to enhance the garden.

Dean and his wife, Amanda, invited me for a dinner of gumbo, boiled shrimp and 'death-by-chocolate' cake.  Oooh!  If you are going to find some long-lost cousins you can't do better than finding them in Louisiana. Dinner was wonderful.

 

At this moment I am working on the blog on a different computer and I cannot seem to make it do what I want.  That is not unusual for me--I seem to be glitch-prone and borderline computer illiterate.  But I am running way behind in postings so you readers out there will have to enlarge the photos for yourselves.  I know, it's a tough life.