This is the second-hand story from my friend Tom in Arizona. He has, he tells, he

sends me emails and is good enough to share stories with me from his travels back

to Louisiana and some second-hand stories and things he's experienced that are

quite interesting. My mother had an aunt named Eileen who married into a Scottish

clan that lived near the little town of Bernice, Louisiana. Eileen was quite a

colorful character and she and her husband and many of the family up there were

notorious for being involved in moon shining and other kinds of activities in

the old days. Of course in those long gone old days just about everyone in the

area were involved in some shenanigans just trying to supplement their

income from farming to make ends meet. The family were early pioneers that

settled in the area and what later became the town of Bernice in 1899. They

also settled and occupied some parts of the land from Bernice to the Arkansas

border 15 miles north. They were a large rambunctious family when I knew them

and my mom and I visited regularly in the 1970s to the early 1980s. I've got a

chicken squawking out here. It's kind of nice this morning and I've got my door

open. It's mist and rain and not too hot and of course when I open the door the

chickens all gather around it can help it. Back to the story. Eileen was already a

widow when I was a kid. She had a couple of daughters and sons and there were

already several grandkids on the scene plus numerous cousins that were around

my age. Almost every weekend there was a big clan gathering at her house with

her being the matriarch and she held court in her kitchen. On any given weekend

the gathering could amount to 20 or 30 people and Eileen lived in a big and

...