THE LAND OF STEEL MAGNOLIAS

Scene-Early morning sunrise traveling down a paved country road-looking across the bayou and black lake and seeing the profile of hundreds of eerie, but beautiful Cypress trees in the early morning shadows. Sally Fields, alone in her car-crying after losing her baby-her only daughter to complications from diabetes.

I watch "Steel Magnolias" about once a year and love it and laugh and cry every time I see it-such a great representation of women from the South. We traveled to Natchitoches last night to visit with The Thompson's and traveled down this famous road where that scene was shot on the way. A classic movie about women and the relationship they enjoy and the south. Natchitoches is the town where the movie was shot and the movie home of Sally's family has a big sign in front of it "The Steel Magnolia House". This is a historic city in its own right, but the movie brought even more fame. You pass the river front where the Easter picnic was held on Front Street. Historic buildings, beautiful architect, moss draped trees, and as many iron trellises as you will see anywhere abound in the beautiful little town. They have done a good job of keeping the Wal Mart, Lowe's, etc. etc. out of the middle of all of this "Old South" beauty. They were beginning to put up the Christmas lights for the famous "Christmas Festival" that draws 100,000 and more to the little town on the Cane River. The month of December will find Natchitoches changed from the quaint little lazy southern town into a bevy of Christmas festival activity. They have turned the lovely, local festival that you see in the movie into a month long money making feast. Money can ruin even the best of institutions.

To travel from Ruston to Natchitoches you begin your journey down 167 S which is a federal highway that is busy and well traveled. BC & I take the short cut-"through the woods" once we get to Quitman about 10 miles outside of Ruston. For the next 40 miles, until you get back to civilization about 10 miles from Natchitoches, you are in the backwoods of Louisiana. The trees hang eerily over the highway forming a tunnel of foliage and leaves turning the beautiful colors of fall. Mile upon mile with no sign of civilization. You begin to wonder why there was a need to build a road out in the middle of no where. On the way home in the deep dark that only comes miles away from civilization, you are on the constant watch for Mr. Deer who would inflict serious damage to your car if he popped out in front of you. There are pockets of houses occasionally and you see a lone house-always at the end of a dirt-single lane-road, but you mostly see TREES. No crops, no pastures, just mile upon lovely mile of the majestic beautiful trees that grow in this beautiful part of Louisiana. What a delightful trip! I even enjoyed driving home {my eyes are better in the dark}, while perched on the edge of the driver's seat, hands in the correct position, in tense anticipation of what would be around the next curve in the black on the night. Mile upon mile of curves and hills in the moonless but star filled night made for a trip home that would have equalled any tension filled movie anticipating what might be out in the pitch dark, just beyond the beams of your headlight!

"I don't know about the rest of you, Honey, but your hair is holding up great" Dolly Parton to Sally Fields in the poignant scene at the cemetery.

Only with long term friends of many decades, like The Thompson's, can you pick up just where you left off when last together, even when it was as long ago as June. What a treasure God blessed us with when he put us together all those years ago.

No activity today, Babs & I are on the way to Shreveport and to Sports Spectrum for more goo in anticipation of runs to come, as well as various other shopping stops.