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The Lutcher High Bulldog Basketball team began their season on a winning note after defeating Abramson and Moss Point Ms. in a pair of non-district games.

St. James Parish School’s Maintenance Department in partnership with ABM, our contracted custodial service company, will host a jacket drive which will run through December 17, 2024.

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING: I decided to shop easily this year. I’ve always been interested in the Polar Express train ride and have always wanted to go. So, I decided this year was just right for that. I’ll take six great nieces and nephews all age 7 and under. So that I don’t lose any children in the city, their parents and grandparents will go with us, too. So, Santa is leaving them each a train ticket and their parents also get a map to the train station so that we can board the train that will take us to the North Pole. Christmas gifts these days are a lot different from those we receive years ago. I tried to remember the presents I received over the years. I had to look that up to help me to remember. Gifts of the 50s - I bounced to life in the mid 1950s. The top toys of the time were metal spinning tops (those with the lights and sounds came later), plastic figures of cowboys, Indians and soldiers (my brothers had these). I had paper dolls and one of my favorite gifts ever, a kaleidoscope. There were the traditional jacks, marbles, yo-yos, hula hoops and Mr. Potato Head. I was safe with jacks as long as I didn’t leave them out to be stepped on by Mom or Dad. Then I would be in Trouble, with a capital T. I liked Color Forms and building characters or filling in a drawing with the corresponding stickers that could be removed and placed somewhere else. My brothers had Matchbox cars and we learned to copy the comic strip on leveled mounds of Silly Putty. Gifts of the 60s - Barbie made her debut in 1959, followed by her friend Ken in 1960. Since they were seen by some to be sexy and perfectly formed, another company introduced us to Midge, her friend Skipper, and their friend Scooter. There also was a doll named Tressy whose hair grew. Imagine that! Howdy Doody was a big hit at the time and kids told Santa they wanted a freckled doll like their idol, or a Howdy Doody watch. Other gifts of the time were Pick Up Sticks, the metal spiraling ring toy called Slinky, and Gyro Wheels. Those were colored wheels that were suspended on parallel metal tracks. With a slight upward and downward movement of the wrist, the hand-held device rolled quite smoothly on the metal track. We had one or two Lite-Brites over the years. When they first came out, the lighted box cost just under eight dollars. The black paper into which colored plastic pegs were inserted to form a lighted picture cost less than three dollars. Favorite baby dolls included Chatty Cathy, the first talking doll. She cost less than sixteen dollars and the Walking Doll with moveable legs could be purchased for eight dollars. In response to Barbie for girls, there were G.I. Joe dolls for boys. They were dressed in camouflage and wore dog tags. For those who didn’t like Barbie or G.I. Joe, the other option was a troll doll, with your choice of hair color or size. The top Christmas song for 1960 was “Please Come Home for Christmas” by Charles Brown which is still the favorite of many. Gifts of the 70s - Advance the calendar ten years and our home stereo systems were playing either “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by the Jackson Five or “Merry Christmas Darling” by the Carpenters. There’s no doubt that Santa’s sack was filled with Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Shrinky Dinks, which was concerning for our parents when we asked to use the oven to shrink our creations, a Talking View Master, Etch a Sketch and those dangerous Clackers. Two three- or four-inch heavy plastic balls hung at each end of a rope. At the center of the rope was a clip to hold on to. The object was to eventually maneuver the balls fast enough for them to “clack” at the bottom and at the top. What was in the middle was the operator’s arm. One miss of the “clack” and the operator received a mean blow to the arm followed a few days later by a whopping blue or black bruise. Other favorite gifts were all things Strawberry Shortcake, a Spirograph, Pet Rocks or Weebles, the small arced bottom figures that wobbled but never fell down. Teen and adult gifts that topped the favorites list were Polaroid instant cameras, mood rings, the first Mr. Coffee automatic coffee brewers and pocket calculators that sold at the time for just under $400. Those who really wanted to make a fashion statement wore the first digital watches, some of which also had a built-in calculator.