COURSEY • HARRELLS F E R R Y • PA R K V I E W • MILLERVILLE •
OLD JEFFERSON • SHENANDOAH • TIGER BEND • WHITE OAK
THE SOUTHEAST
ADVOCATE T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
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W e d n e s d ay, Au g u s t 27, 2025
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Danny Heitman AT RANDOM
A beach trip reminds me of life’s possibilities In their trips to the beach each summer, my children first learned about the largeness of the world, a place big enough to hold their dreams. Wide blue waves stretched to the horizon, inviting them to look toward distant places. My daughter and son live far away these days, each one near a different shore at opposite ends of the country. Parenthood no longer asks me to be a beach dad, and there have been some summers when my swim shoes and ice chest stay on the shelf. But this year, I felt a need to enlarge my sense of the world, too. My daily routines, normally a comfort, were making me wonder what might lie beyond my quietly ordered life. When my sister-in-law invited us to the Gulf Coast for a few days, I quickly agreed. I always reward myself after the long drive to Florida by dipping my bare feet in the waves before I unpack. As dusk softens the day, I inch closer to the tide, the sea’s salty fingers tickling my toes while I laugh and make friends with the ocean again. On that first evening, I kept my ankles in the surf until the lights in all the beach condos slowly winked on, a constellation of families getting ready for dinner. Nearby, a young man and his sweetheart were using the last moments of daylight to get their engagement picture taken on the beach. These seaside photo sessions have become a romantic tradition along the Gulf Coast for many couples, but I never get tired of seeing them. There’s something hopeful about watching two lovers pledging themselves to each other at the ocean’s edge, radiant with joy as they stand at the bright lip of eternity. The next morning, I slathered myself with sunscreen and went deeper into the water, up to my shoulders, as I staggered through the waves like a drunkard winding his way home. I was so still for an hour that a few gulls stopped by and kept me company, maybe convinced that I was a log. They seemed suspended as they hovered over my head, like model airplanes hung by thread. With age, I’ve come to understand that I don’t have to be in the ocean to savor it. Sometimes, we enjoyed the water best from our balcony, sipping coffee while the sea moved in and out, its steady heartbeat slowing our own. What I liked most, I think, was watching the open sky through the big window near my reading chair. In the shifting view, I could see the day work through its many moods.
STAFF PHOTOS BY JAVIER GALLEGOS
Band director Jeff Seighman, left, looks at the marching drill chart while assistant director Eddie Hirst yells commands to the band during practice at Walker High School on July 29.
Marching through sunshine and rain, a Louisiana high school band finds its rhythm BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer
collective cheer rises from the yard lines to the top of the tower where Jeff Seighman and Eddie Hirst stand with their megaphones. This final run-through marks the end of outdoor band camp — and what band kid wouldn’t cheer for that? No more standing at attention in the early morning August sun. No more sweat-soaked shorts and Tshirts. No more counting the minutes between water breaks. Then again, none of the 165 members of the Walker High Band of Legacy are complaining — or moving slowly, though Seighman and Hirst know they’re tired. “Last time,” Hirt said, signaling the drum major to clap out the count. Seighman takes this as his signal to put down his megaphone and ready his hands for applause. “Our first home game isn’t until the third weekend in September, so it’s going to be a long time until they hear someone clapping and cheering for them,” he said. And when the band finishes this last sequence, Seighman does just that — claps and cheers with Hirt
Band director Jeff Seighman smiles as he paces the field during practice at Walker High School. following suit. They’re not placating their students; they really mean it. These kids had been dedicating their mornings to the practice field and their afternoons to the school’s band hall since July 21. The daily grind has paid off after eight days, because the band is a good place going into football season. Is it perfect? No, but what is? “The point is they’re marching and playing better that when we started out eight days ago,” Seigh-
man said. “And they’ll get better when school starts.” He dismisses the band for lunch, following the kids to Walker High’s band hall, built in 2018 with design input from Seighman. The facility is equipped with two instrument rooms that double as separate changing rooms for boys and girls before practice and on home game days. Once school begins, after-school
ä See BAND, page 2G
ä See AT RANDOM, page 2G
What is the story of peculiar statues in Jackson Square? One of four statues located in the corners of Jackson Square in New Orleans. The statues are part of an 1850s-era attempt to restore the square. STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER
BY RACHEL MIPRO
Contributing writer
A reader was curious about a quartet of statues in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The question: “In Jackson Square, there is a set of four statues in each corner, not exactly hidden, but also not obvious. They represent the seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. However, they don’t seem to be
placed in a logical order. What’s the story with these statues? They look older than the other statuary in the park.” In the corners of Jackson Square, four often-overlooked statues hark back to a grand 1850s-era attempt to restore the square to respectability. The four white marble statues, possibly some of the oldest in the city,
hold a myriad of significance. Historian Buddy Stall, in his book “Buddy Stall’s New Orleans,” claimed they were the first statues in the city to be displayed outdoors, with the exception of cemetery statues. “The placing of the city’s first statues,” Stall wrote, “was apparently not considered a big deal by the city fathers or the
ä See STATUES, page 2G