THIBODAUX, La. (AP) - Sixty-seven-year-old Danny Foret maintains the Laurel Valley Plantation Museum and Store, cuts the grass, restores the equipment, tends to the animals and will even lead a tour or two.
But don’t call him its curator.
“People say that, yeah,” he said, laughing. “I’m just a volunteer. I do what I have to to keep the place going.”
Foret’s smiling face greets visitors to the museum and the largest surviving 19th and 20th century sugar plantation left in the U.S. He can often be seen wearing a straw hat, riding around on a lawn mower at the property outside Thibodaux.
The Houma native has been volunteering at the museum for the better part of nine years.
“I mainly open the store and keep it operating,” Foret said. “I cut the grass and do a little maintenance work around the place. In the summer it’s mostly grass cutting. We wait for the harder chores in the winter. It’s not as hard on us then.”
The store holds tools and farm implements used in sugarcane cultivation, plus locally made arts and crafts. The plantation has nearly 60 original structures.
Before he began volunteering at the museum, Foret worked for Texaco for 32 years, on various jobs including meter specialist and automation technician.
Despite living less than a mile from the museum, Foret said it took him “20 somewhat years” before he ever visited.
After he retired, Foret used to walk along Laurel Valley Road, which runs adjacent to the museum and connects visitors to the Choctaw community. He’d occasionally stop and talk to Paul Leslie, a semi-retired history professor at Nicholls State University who helped preserve the museum.
“He’s the one that really got me interested and got me to come,” Foret said.
He’d drop by once a month. Then once a week. The every other day. Now, he’s there just about every day.
“I liked it more and more. I’ve always been shy, and it seemed like this place helped me get away from my shyness and talk to people,” he said.
The museum attracts tourists from all over, including Europe. Most out-of-town visitors are from France or French-speaking Canada.
“The only regret I have is not being able to speak French. That’s one thing I would like to work on,” Foret said.
Foret said he loves the freedom of working there. The store’s owners have allowed him to fix, maintain or create as he sees fit.
He said he and Leslie have cleared brush in the field where the animals now roam and along a tree line by a canal behind the store.
Shortly after he began volunteering, they talked about adding animals to the museum.
“I started with chickens and we’ve gradually got up from there,” he said. “They had animals before (Hurricane) Katrina, but they lost so many volunteers it was too hard for Paul to keep them by himself.”
Foret said he loves caring for the animals and watching children play with them. They include pigs, chickens, ducks, quail and Foret’s favorite, the goats. Mr. Gobbles, a massive turkey, is a local celebrity.
“He’s something,” Foret said, laughing. “He’s been in the newspaper for three years: ’The turkey that survived Thanksgiving.’”
When he’s not volunteering at the plantation, Foret can be found at dance halls across the state. For the past four years, he’s been taking Cajun and Zydeco dance classes. He’s danced in Lafayette, Gonzales, New Orleans and Morgan City, as well as Houma and Thibodaux.
Though Foret said he dances to lose weight, good Cajun tunes grab him.
“It just turns you on and you’ve got to move,” he said.
Foret said he’ll continue to volunteer at the plantation for as long as he can.
“As long as they don’t kick me out or sell the place I’ll be doing OK. It’s the best job I’ve ever had. I think if I was to stay home I would be a couch potato, sit and watch TV and fall asleep. But here it keeps me active, makes me feel good.”
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Information from: Daily Comet, https://www.dailycomet.com
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