Growing up
on a Linville farm with several brothers provided Fred Franklin with endless
fun. But with all the adventures of raising animals, causing boyhood havoc and
fishing and hunting in the rural woods was the abuse he suffered at the hands
of an alcoholic father. Franklin relates his childhood, and the pieces of his
father’s life he managed to research and gather, in his memoir, “Souvenirs of a
Childhood Interrupted” (Dog Ear Publishing).
He begins with the summer of 1973
when his own life took a similar turn. As he paused driving home late one
night, after drinking all day barbecuing, then at a state-border bar, Franklin
recalls his childhood and the forces that brought him to that day. He first
describes what he’s come to learn of his father committing murder and being
sent to prison. When his mother and siblings couldn’t support themselves, even
with the help of her parents, Franklin’s grandfather appealed to the judge to
let Floyd Franklin out early. The appeal was granted.
What really happened that day when
Floyd killed another, and his reasons for later physical and emotional abuse
inflicted on his children and wife, are unclear. It’s this lack of rationality
that haunts Fred Franklin for years. It was through this memoir that he
achieves some form of clarity, and forgiveness, that helps him heal.
Franklin pens a well-written,
captivating story with “Souvenirs,” although it’s not an easy story. He recalls
his childhood in vivid detail, and residents of the Linville area will surely
recognize places and people.
Frankin is a retired field office
manager for a national pipeline construction company.
Correspondences: Une
Fete
Darrell Bourque, Dayana Stetco and
J. Bruce Fuller read from recent works of Yellow Flag Press from 3 p.m. to 5
p.m. Saturday, June 18, at NuNu Cultural Arts Collective in Arnaudville.
“Correspondences: Une Fete” will include before and after visits to Little Big
Cup and Grand Coteau Bistro, live entertainment at Bayou Teche Brewery and
shopping and art exhibits at NuNu’s.
Bourque is a former Louisiana Poet
Laureate and is releasing his second chapbook, “Where I Waited,” in The
Louisiana Series of Cajun and Creole Poetry. Stetco is a ULL English professor,
founder of the interdisciplinary theater ensemble The Milena Group and
co-editor with Rita Costello of “Bateau Ivre, a Journal of Performance,
Literature, and Art.” Her collection of plays, “The Falling: A Trilogy,” was
released by Yellow Flag Press this past spring. Fuller, editor and publisher of
Yellow Flag Press, is a Louisiana native and the winner of the Swan Scythe
Chapbook Contest for his chapbook “Flood.” Fuller received his MFA from McNeese
and his Ph.D. from ULL and is currently a 2016-2018 Wallace Stegner Fellow in
Poetry at Stanford University.
Yellow Flag Press has been part of
the Vision Verse Project in Lake Charles and has published area poets Toby
Daspit, Stella Nesanovich and Elizabeth Burke.
Southern bookstores
I love a bookstore with a cat;
nothing like perusing the book aisles and pausing to inflict love on a feline.
At Alexander’s Books at 2001 Congress St. in Lafayette, there are cats
everywhere. There are also books everywhere, from genre fiction and gardening
to art books and Louisiana history. Since Alexander’s is a used bookstore, you
can bring in books as credit toward books purchased at the store. Just give
yourself plenty of time, because there’s lot to peruse and plenty of ears to
scratch.
Book events
Aimee Broussard, author of
“Picnics, Potlucks & Porch Parties” cookbook, published by Quail Ridge
Press of Mississippi, will host a cooking demonstration from noon to 1 p.m.
Saturday at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans. Also at
the museum, Father William Miller will offer a pre-Father’s Day tasting and
exploration of beer and Greg Reggio, one of the 3 Taste Buds behind Zea’s, will
host a tasting with beers from Zea Brewery beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Rouses Culinary Innovation Center. The event is
free with museum admission. Miller is the author of two books, “The Gospel
According to Sam: Animal Stories for the Soul” and “The Beer Drinker’s Guide to
God: The Whole and Holy Truth About Lager, Loving and Living.”
Erin M. Greenwald discusses and
signs “Marc-Antoine Caillot and
the Company of the Indies in Louisiana Trade in the French Atlantic World” at 6
p.m. Thursday at Octavia Books, New Orleans. Greenwald is curator
and historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection and the editor of “A
Company Man: The Remarkable French-Atlantic Voyage of a Clerk for the Company
of the Indies.”
Cheré Coen is the author
of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette,
Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country.” She writes Louisiana romances under
the pen name of Cherie Claire. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.
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