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Spring Weekend in Ruston
Submitted by: Jim Ford - 10/07/09 3:06 pm

Spring Weekend in Ruston
This May I went to my hometown of Ruston to see my daughter, tool around my old college, and eat some good crawfish at my old fraternity - Hurricane 2009. Debbie went with me and we had such a great time. It's funny how my friends in Ruston say how much it has changed or grown because of a new fast food restaurant or someone built a house. But to me, it's pretty much still the same old americana small town that I love and remember as a kid. We headed down after work and met up with Haley at the Dixie Baseball Complex.

Haley has played softball for the last 4 years and keeps getting better and better. They don't seem "quite" as scared of the ball, the batting and fielding is MUCH better than the old days of them dancing on the bases and picking flowers while the ball rolled by. I caught these shots of Haley chatting it up in the outfield, hanging with her bud in the dugout (boy are those girls LOUD screaming and chanting), batting, and waiting to run to second base. The pitcher hit 2 girls in the prior two innings and I told Haley to suck it up, be tough, the pitcher wouldn't hit her, and that it doesn't hurt anyway. Very first pitch... BAM! Hit her in the side/back. She turned around to me with tears in her eyes and I felt both terrible and proud as hell. Cause she wiped her eyes and took her base. Poor thing! She got a bruise from that one.

I love that old baseball park. I played there for years as a kid on Century 21 Realty and Napa Motor Parts. Had so much fun and learned much more. I'm tickeled to death that Haley loves doing many of the things I like to do. We practice softball in the spring and summer to get her ready and I try to get down to at least one if not two games each spring. The softball portion of the complex is newer and a pretty exciting place to be on a Friday night. After the game, we took turns getting pictures with Haley on the field.

As tradition when I visit Ruston, I took Haley and Debbie to Pontchatoulas, my favorite restaurant for some good cajun food, drinks, and shooting pool. We love it and have been going there for years. I rack up the balls and let Haley practice as much as she wants, spotting the balls for her, giving her tips on holding the que stick, and generally teaching her pool while having a great Daddy/Daughter time together. We really love to cut up together and you can see it in our faces below.

We ended up seeing lots of people I knew from childhood, as par for a visit to your hometown. Growing up a big Saints fan, I couldn't help yelling out the obligatory "Who Dat!?" after making a good shot on the pool table. Debbie had a great time too. Finally you see me making a fool of myself hulking out after another good shot. Dang, 2 good shots in one night? Oh yeah baby.

Saturday morning we took a drive to Louisiana Tech's campus where I showed Debbie my old haunts. Howard Auditorium has special meaning as my Dad worked there for 27 years as a guitar teacher and I would walk from my grammar school to his office everyday for years. Tech engraves a brick with your name on it after graduation and installs it in a pathway in front of the student center so I couldn't resist taking this picture of mine. Hey, it represents a huge chunk of time and money in my life. Debbie looked great by these flowers in the quadrangle, and of course, here I am goofing off as usual in front of the clock tower. Watch my disco moves!

We spent the rest of the weekend at the ATO house eating crawfish and then on to Johnny's Pizza Sunday morning before heading home in Arkansas. Ruston has so many memories for me as a child. The most important thing to me now though, is that my beautiful daughter lives there and we get to share so many things together... making new memories.

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