hagan714

For those of who moved away and still miss Louisiana I really enjoyed this article. Maybe it's because i did not live in New Orleans but on the North Shore long before it became what it is today. disappointing. guess i am a country hick at heart after all.

Life on the Mississippi: Tramon Williams Remembers Growing Up on the Bayou

Growing up in Assumption Parish, Louisiana, there wasn't much for Tramon Williams to do.

"Playing sports: That's all you can do," Williams said. "There ain't that much to do down there. It's an old country town."

Assumption Parish ("parish" is the Louisiana term for "county") is 365 square miles of sugarcane plantations and bayou 70 miles west of New Orleans. Napoleonville, the parish seat and location of Assumption High School, is a town of about 700 people on the banks of Bayou Lafourche.

Napoleonville has a 19th-century courthouse, an above-ground cemetery in the courtyard of St. Anne's church, one red light, a bank, a hardware store, a gas station and a few government buildings and churches. Belle Rose, Williams' hometown 10 miles up the road/river, is slightly more populated but has even fewer amenities.

When Williams was in high school 15 years ago, the Dairy Inn on the outskirts of Napoleonville was the only local restaurant. A highway truck stop offered sausage and biscuits for breakfast, hamburgers and shrimp burgers for snacks after football practice. For "real" fast food, Assumption High students like Williams had to go to Popeyes in not-so-nearby Donaldsonville. The nearest movie theaters were in Thibodaux, 18 miles to the south, or nearly an hour north in Baton Rouge.

"There's only two highways to get in and out: Highway 1 on one side of the bayou and 308 on the other side of the bayou," Williams said of his hometown. "That's it. It was as simple as that."

Life on the Mississippi: Tramon Williams Remembers Growing Up on the Bayou | Bleacher Report

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins