FIELD NOTE 001 / CAMERON PARISH / JULY 2026
Booth’s Grocery
We weren’t looking for Booth’s Grocery.
We were looking for a restroom.
On our way to Rutherford Beach, we noticed a car parked outside an old country store and pulled in, hoping someone might still be there.
The store was closed. For good. It had been for a while.
We could have gotten back in the truck and kept driving. Instead, we walked onto the porch.
THE CONVERSATION
Someone
was inside.
Not running the store anymore—just moving stored things around. Earl Booth Jr. welcomed us in anyway.
What started as a quick stop became a conversation with Earl Booth Jr., a few photographs, and the beginning of the first Field Note of Parish & Plate.
THE PLACE
It didn’t feel abandoned.
It felt remembered.
The building still carried the feeling of a place where people had gathered every day. Behind the counter were photographs, newspaper clippings, certificates, handwritten notes, and small pieces of a life that had unfolded in public.
That is how places like this survive. Not only in photographs, but in the people willing to tell their stories.
DEPARTURE
Some places don’t ask
to be remembered.
They simply keep showing up.
We found a restroom later. What we almost missed was a story.
FROM THE NOTEBOOK
Field record
With thanks to Earl Booth Jr. for sharing his afternoon and his family’s story.
- Place
- Booth’s Grocery, Grand Chenier
- Parish
- Cameron
- Visited
- July 2026
- Interview
- Earl Booth Jr.
- Photographs
- Mallory Stanford
- Status at visit
- Permanently closed; archived story
This is a record of our visit, not an invitation to enter the property. No passport stamp is offered at this closed location.