NEW
Clayton,
Texas
6-29-09Hillister,
Texas
6-1-09 Karnack,
Texas 7-27-09 Leigh,
Texas 7-27-09Pluck,
Texas 6-1-09 El
Campo Post Office Mural
"Rural Texas Gulf Coast" by Milford Zornes, 1939 4-18-09Rusk's
Post Office Mural
- "Agriculture and Industry" by California Artist Bernard Zacheim, 1939 3-6-09
Last
Remaining International Boundary for The Republic of Texas
2-21-09Shreveport's
Victorian Era Architecture
1-22-09
Begins January 2009 | Gerald
MasseyA self-described
Southern Gentleman, Gerald Massey was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1936. He
grew up on a farm near Blanchard, Louisiana, eight miles northwest of Shreveport.
In December of 1954 he began 17 years of employment with United Gas, a Shreveport
based company involved in natural gas production, transmission and distribution
throughout the gulf coast states. Gerald worked as mail clerk, storeroom clerk,
survey crew worker, pipe line construction inspector, and construction warehouse
manager. In these various roles he traveled and worked in Texas, Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, and “a lot in Louisiana.” In his duties he surveyed marshes,
river bottoms, and swamps. Two large milestones in his career were laying a pipeline
27 miles across Lake Pontchartrain and another was the construction of a pipeline
through the marshes, bays, and bayous from south of Houma to Empire, Louisiana.
Gerald
may be unique among his fellow Louisianans for his vast, hard-earned knowledge
of Louisiana and her waters did not involve fishing or boating. He served
in the US Army Military Police at Ft. Knox, Kentucky from 1959-1961.
In
2000 he completed 26 years with Kansas City Southern Railroad. His duties ranged
from track-laborer and section foreman to groundkeeper.
In 1992 he purchased
a "jet ski" which led to the writing of his book: “The Louisiana Boat Launch
Directory.” After finding that there was no such information available from
either the public library or the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department,
Gerald set out to examine and document each of over 900 boat launches, taking
three years to compile the information for his book.
His recreational
use of his “jet ski” covered nine years from age 56 to 65, a time when most people
are winding down. In the course of his travels he made the self-discovery of being
an adventurer and explorer. After logging several thousands of miles across his
home state, he has met and talked to hundreds of people, many of whom have become
friends. He has stated, "Even though I've lived and traveled Louisiana for 50
years (more or less) I never realized there was so much greatness and that I had
been missing so much. For the life of me I can't see why Louisianans need to
go somewhere else if they haven’t first seen their own state. Border to border
– and North of I-10 !"
Gerald is also an avid photographer with subjects
ranging from murals to architectural subjects. His photography extends back to
his railroading days and it was his focus on rural churches which led him to Texas
Escapes via Barclay Gibson’s
photography.
Mr. Massey has been invited to share his work with our readers
through a monthly feature of photo essays. |
