Confetti Park Children's Workshop

Tag: ted lindsay

  • Storytime: Lafitte’s Restless Ghost narrated by Ted Lindsay

    Storytime: Lafitte’s Restless Ghost narrated by Ted Lindsay

    You’ve heard of Pirate Jean Lafitte, a French pirate who gained infamy in the bays and swamps off the Gulf of Mexico. He lived from 17080-1823. He is often featured in tales of treasure hunters and is part of many legends from Louisiana and Texas.

    Here is one that takes place in Laport, off the coast of Galveston Bay… in the 1800s, many years after Lafitte;s death. We learn thatt he ghost of the smuggler continually wanders the earth searching for a worthy inheritor. Only when he finds a person who is worthy can he at last rest.

    The story is narrated for you by Ted Lindsay of Mooringsport, La.

    We begin with a weary travel who is approaching an abandoned house at dusk, and he enters it to take shelter from the cold wind. He can hear the waves tearing at the bluffs of Galveston Bay…. After stabling his tired horse, he enters the old house and builds a fire for comfort.

    He wakes to find a strange man standing over him, who beckons him to follow. The weary traveler, in a stupor, is so commanded by the presence and entreaty in the eyes of the stranger that he does….

    The strange man says to him,

    “Here more gold lies buried than is good for any man. All you have to do is dig, and it is yours. You can use it; I cannot. However, it must only be applied purposes of highest beneficence. Not one penny may be evilly or selfishly spent. Do you understand?”

    I said “Yes.”

    Then the visitant was gone, and I was shivering with cold.

    What happens next? Listen to the full story as featured on Confetti Park!

  • Storytime: Little Orphan Annie Ledbetter, the Laughing Dog

    Storytime: Little Orphan Annie Ledbetter, the Laughing Dog

    This is not Annie, but it looks like her. I will try to find a picture of her and share it soon.

    Three friends reminisce about rescuing a dog off a highway on their pilgrimage to Lead Belly’s grave.

    With Ted Lindsay, Katy Hobgood Ray, & David Ray

    It was hot. VERY hot. Dave, Ted and I finally remembered this fact about the day that we rescued Annie Ledbetter off the side of a country highway, because we recalled that the little pads of her paws were burned off by the heat of the asphalt.

    Little Orphan Annie Ledbetter, the Laughing Dog, was a medium sized solid black mutt who had been abandoned on the Blanchard Latex Road in rural Caddo Parish in northwest Louisiana.

    We know she was abandoned because she was running back and forth along the road cut through the rolling piney woods, sticking close to shoulder, waiting and barking, and terrified. We passed her in our truck on our way to visit Lead Belly’s grave, and agreed that were she still there on our way back, we would try to rescue her.

    The headstone for Annie Ledbetter in Shiloh Baptist Church. The woman must have been  loved in her lifetime. And so was the dog who came generations after her.

    We spent some time in the grave yard at Shiloh Baptist Church, looking at the old headstones, including Lead Belly’s grave (a place we all visit several times a year) and noticing all the Ledbetter descendants in that yard. Ted was captivated by a head stone that had the name ‘Annie Ledbetter’ etched upon it. He loved that name.

    We piled back into Dave’s white pickup truck and headed back to Ted’s house in Mooringsport. There was nothing save pine forest, or the occasional dilapidated shack or mobile home every half mile or so.

    We all kept our eye out for the little black dog. As we rounded a gentle bend, we saw her.

    She was there. Sitting on the side of the road. Waiting. For what? For who?

    Dave pulled his truck over and he and Ted and I scrambled out of the car to approach the little black dog.

    She was panicked and terrified, and bared her teeth at us. Yet she wouldn’t run away. You could see she was desperately in need of comfort. She would chase after us a few feet when we would retreat.

    We didn’t give up. We had nothing more pressing on this sunny day than to save this life. We didn’t chase her. We gave her time and space and hung out in the back of the pickup truck and waited for her to get comfortable. The wind blew gently through the tree tops. Cars were few and far between.

    Dave finally got the bright idea to coax her with water. He went to his truck, pulled out a big frisbee and poured in cool liquid from his water bottle. He put it on the ground outside the truck and sat just inside with the door open.

    Ted and I watched from behind the truck as she warily approached the water. She sniffed, and then desperately started drinking. We gingerly approached, and soothingly talked to her. She didn’t run….. She cowered, and then she gave in. She gave herself over to what fate would bring. Ted put his hands gently on her, and next thing you know, he had scooped her up and put her into the back of the truck. We climbed in to sit with her while Dave drove the truck back to Ted’s house.

    She was a lapdog for the rest of the night. Hugs and snuggles and food and water and campfire light and music. A frisky, wiggly, joyful dog emerged from the fearful creature, just like that.

    Little Orphan Annie Ledbetter was full of joy, happy to be alive, happy to be loved.

    She lived out the rest of her happy life with Ted there in those woods.

     

     

  • Music Medley: Mississippi Fishing

    Music Medley: Mississippi Fishing

    Confetti Park: A music medley celebrating the great Mississippi River

    Mississippi River alluvial plain
    Mississippi River alluvial plain

    Hi everybody! Enjoy this new medley of family friendly songs created in Louisiana. This episode of Confetti Park, which airs in its entirety on the lucky radio stations listed below, has songs that kids and the grownups will love, that reflect the unique culture of Louisiana and the American South.

    Today’s special episode features songs celebrating the great river that courses through our lives: the Mississippi River. The very ground beneath our feet was created by this river, over thousands of years. It is so much a part of our culture. Listen up!

    Songs featured in this episode, in order:

    Lazy River – Danny Barker
    Joke of the Day – Tuna Fish
    Riding Down the Mississippi River – Ted Lindsay
    Roll On Mississippi, Roll On – Richard Piano Scott
    Frère Jacques – recorded at Nunu in Arnaudville, La.
    Rolling Down The River – Johnette Downing and Jimmy LaRocca’s ODJB
    Mary Don’t You Weep – Renzi Center
    Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Kaylin Orleans Ruffins and Kermit Ruffins

    Also featured in this episode, the Storytime feature Brer Rabbit and the Peanut Patch by Dianne De Las Casas, and a music memory from John Doheny.

    About Confetti Park

    The Confetti Park hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!

    Subscribe on iTunes

    The radio program version launched on April 4, 2015 in New Orleans on WHIV FM and is supported by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation and Music Rising at Tulane University.

    Current broadcast schedule:

    A full list of Confetti Park stations (and a map) is available at https://confettipark.com/podcast/

    Community radio stations, interested in carrying Confetti Park? Contact Katy Ray.

     

     

  • Storytime: Foolish John, A Louisiana Folktale narrated by Ted Lindsay

    Storytime: Foolish John, A Louisiana Folktale narrated by Ted Lindsay

    jesterFoolish John is a literal-minded character who appears in American folk stories as a fool who always gets things right somehow. In Louisiana folk tales, he was called Jean Sotte, and he had many misadventures that resulted in happy outcomes despite all of his foolish interpretations of situations.

    A later year character who might have been inspired by the Foolish John stories is America Bedelia: “Everyone loves Amelia Bedelia, the literal-minded housekeeper! When she makes a sponge cake, she puts in real sponges. When she weeds the garden, she replants the weeds. And when she pitches a tent, she throws it into the woods!”

    In this Foolish John tale, which is narrated by Ted Lindsay of Mooringsport, Foolish John is sent by his mother to sell a cow hide. What does he do? He strings it up on a tree, like a sail blowing in the wind above the woods. The misadventure continues from there, leading to great riches for John.

  • Music Memory from Ted Lindsay

    Music Memory from Ted Lindsay

    Ted LindsayTed Lindsay is a musician from Moorinsgport, Louisiana. A veteran, gold-record winning songwriter who spent several years in Nashville, Ted is a go-to bass player in north Louisiana today. He regularly performs with blues musicians Buddy Flett and Jerry Beach, and he has been a member of the core band at the legendary Monday Night Blues Jam in Shreveport for over 20 years. Ted is also a longtime member of the Friends of Lead Belly, a group of musicians dedicated to promoting the legacy of Huddie Ledbetter. And he is a teacher at the Renzi Education & Art Center in Shreveport.

    Ted shares a music memory with Confetti Park about hearing the Beatles for the first time.