SPEARS Family Narrative

General Notes: 16 Jul 2009 06:15 PM

THIS NARRATIVE WRITTEN BY ROBERT "DEACON" SPEARS
A. G. Spears (1916-1990)
A. G. Spears was born January 12, 1916. He was the third child and oldest son of Greenberry Washington "Buddy" Spears and Malissa Hussey Spears. During the period from 1910 to approximately 1920 Buddy earned a living for his family by working at sawmills in St. Landry, Lone Pine, Blanks, Lavonia, and other small towns and rural communities in central Louisiana. Apparently this type of work was plentiful at that time, and he moved his family wherever the opportunity seemed best. Around 1920 he left sawmill work in order to farm. He did not own any farmland, however, his father, Robert A. Spears, several of his uncles, and an aunt owned considerable property in the community of Centerville along the east (left descending) bank of Bayou Cocodrie. I have no information about the whereabouts of A. G.'s birthplace. He might have been born in any one of the sawmill towns where his father worked, or possibly in the community of Centerville.
In 1922 the Spears family lived on, and farmed as sharecropper, the south end of Marion Spears' place. Marion was Robert A.'s youngest brother, and Buddy's uncle. Malissa's father, A. G. Hussey, (pronounced Heresy) and his wife lived about half a mile north of Buddy's home. Mr.
Hussey was married to his third wife, Dorothy Spears Griffin, who was Buddy's aunt (Robert A.'s only sister). Mr. Hussey was first married to Aliciana Griffin, who was the mother of Malissa and her younger brother, Edward Grossman Hussey.
Aliciana died around 1889, and Mr. Hussey married her older sister, Louisiana Blanche Griffin. They had one child, Jesse James Hussey. L.B. died around 1904, and Mr. Hussey married his third wife, Dorothy, shortly after that. Dorothy was the widow of James F. Griffin, A. and L.B.'s brother. They were married around 1880, and James died around 1904.
Greenberry Washington Spears, Buddy's grandfather, had purchased about 1000 acres of land along the banks of bayou Cocodrie when he migrated to Louisiana shortly after the end of the civil war. G.W. died in 1910, and by the time of A. G.'s birth in 1916 some of the land had been sold outside the family, and the remainder had been divided among G.W.'s heirs.
The Hussey's lived on property that was Dorothy's share of this inheritance. It consisted of approximately 200 acres that was located on the north end of the original Spears property. Malissa's father was about seventy-five years old at that time, and apparently he and his wife wanted someone to live with them. Shortly after 1922 Buddy and Malissa made an arrangement with them to share their home. Mr. Hussey was a confederate veteran and received a substantial pension, so they were reasonably well fixed by community standards. By 1922 the Spears family consisted of Buddy, Malissa, Gussie Lee, Ola B, A. G., Shirley, and Robert. They moved into the Hussey home in 1923. At that time only about 60 acres was being farmed. The remainder of the land was in heavy hardwood timber. Buddy farmed about 40 of the sixty cleared acres, planting cotton, corn, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, and peanuts as well as vegetables to be used by the family. The remainder of the cleared land was either rented to a sharecropper or was left fallow. The arrangement was such that Buddy did not have to pay his father-in-law a portion of his crop as rent.
Sharecroppers usually paid their landlord one-fourth of their yield if they owned their own mules and tools and paid for seed and other necessities. If the sharecropper provided only the labor, then he paid his landlord one-half of his yield. The family agreement was evidently considered to be mutually beneficial, because it lasted for many years. Buddy provided all the needs for the home, such as maintenance, firewood for heating and cooking, and took care of all the chores around the farm, and Malissa did all of the cooking and preparing meals for everyone.
There were no public utilities in that part of Evangeline parish at that time, so life in a home in that area was considerable different from the lifestyle that we are familiar with today. The day usually began with one of the children (ten or older) being roasted out of bed to make coffee for the rest of the family. That was no small task on a cold morning. The cook stove was a wood-burning stove, so he/she had to start a fire, and if it was wintertime he had to build a fire in the fireplace (no he didn't have to rub two sticks together; matches had been invented--ha). After he had served coffee to everyone in bed, the rest of the family arose and started their day.
The lack of refrigeration meant that Malissa had to cook most of the food just before it was served. She cooked three full meals each day. A typical breakfast menu consisted of rice, eggs (if the hens were lying), brown gravy, bacon (if it was on hand), biscuits, syrup, and milk (if the
Cows were producing). The main meal of the day was served at noon, Malissa had to start cooking as soon as she finished washing the breakfast dishes. It only occasionally had a meat dish. There was rice, dried beans, cabbage, turnip greens, tomatoes, cornbread, biscuits, milk, and syrup. Supper was also a heavy meal, and consisted mostly of the noon meal warmed over with fresh biscuits and cornbread added. When milk was available and plentiful, often clabber was served at supper. Clabber is milk that has soured and congealed. It is eaten by adding either syrup or sugar to it. The milk that is available in stores now will not make clabber. When it sours, it spoils and is unfit to eat.
Laundry was a major part of the workweek for the woman of the house. Two galvanized metal tubs, each holding about eight gallons of water, were filled. One of the tubs contained hot water, which had to be heated in the wash pot, a large iron pot that held about twelve to fifteen gallons of water. Although most of the work was done by the mother and daughters, the boys, after they reached about ten years old, had to fill the tubs and wash pot and build a fire under the pot. It there had been plenty of rain the cisterns were full, and they provided the laundry water. If the cisterns were near empty, the laundry operation was usually transferred to the bayou bank, and bayou water was used.
The clothes, usually quite dirty from farm work, were placed in the first tub with hot water. The laundry equipment included a washboard. This is a piece of corrugated metal about twelve by eighteen inches in size mounted in a wooden frame. This device was placed in the tub at about a forty-five degree angle; the clothes were soaped and rubbed against the rough metal to work out some of the dirt. Detergent had not been invented, and the soap that was available was not very effective and was hard on the hands. After most of the dirt had been coaxed out by the washboard, the piece was placed in the second tub where it was rinsed. After rinsing, the clothes were placed in the wash pot where they were boiled for an hour or two. The white pieces were then immersed in a mixture of water and bluing to bleach them. The clothes were then wrung as dry as possible and hung on a clothesline to dry.
This whole operation was hard work and especially unpleasant during cold weather. Washing usually occupied several people for a full day, and the next day was spent ironing most of what had been washed. No electricity meant that the ironing was done with heavy iron devices that had to be heated on the top of the wood-burning cook stove. It is understandable why people changed clothes only as often as necessity dictated. During this time the Spears children were the only grandchildren that Mr. Hussey had, and he was very fond of them, and was probably especially fond of A. G. since he was the oldest boy and named for his grandfather. Mr. Hussey's name was Abram Griffith, and while his first grandson had his initials, he did not share his grandfather's full name.
A. G. Spears had no other name than the initials. As he grew up all of his male friends called him John. I don't know who gave him the name, or why. None of his immediate family ever called him anything but A. G.
Grandpa Hussey did no work. He spent most of his time discussing politics with friends who also were idle. He smoked a pipe and took a drink of "shinny" occasionally, and was in pretty good health until his death in 1928. Since A. G. was seven years old, he considered him old enough to learn to smoke, and grandpa took on that task over the objections of A. G.'s mother.
A. G. started school at the age of six at Centerville grammar school.
The school was located about two miles south of the Spears home, and the children walked to school every day. The community of Centerville was made up of families who lived along two roads that followed both sides of bayou Cocodrie. The community extended for about four miles in a generally north and south direction with the schoolhouse approximately in the center. The Spears home was at the north end of the community. North of the Spears home was a similar community called Lone Pine, and to the south of Centerville was the small community of Dossman. St. Landry, a small town, was just south of Dossman. Each of these communities had its own grammar school.
Since all of the homes were located on the road, and the Spears children lived furthers north, they started for school early, and as they progressed down the road children from other families joined them, and by the time they reached school, approximately half of the student body was walking in a group. A similar group approached the school from the south. The schoolhouse consisted of three rooms plus living quarters for two of the three teachers, and accommodated about fifty students in grades one through seven.
When A. G. attended the school from 1922 to 1929 the first and second grades were taught by Mrs. Belle Foreman; third and fourth grades were taught by Miss Morgan; and fifth, sixth, and seventh grades were taught by Mrs. Harper, who later became Mrs. Smith. Each teacher had a separate room that was shared by all of her classes. For example, when Mrs. Harper was teaching seventh grade arithmetic, her fifth and sixth grade students were studying for their next class. This had some advantage in that the fifth and sixth grade students had an opportunity to listen to the seventh grade lessons ahead of time, and the bright ones probably learned something from the exposure.
About half the students in the school were from French-speaking families, and the other half from families that spoke English. The French-speaking children were in the majority and referred to English speaking children as "Americans". They insisted on being called Frenchmen over the objections of the teachers. The term "Cajun" that is now used to refer to them was considered pejorative at that time, and its use was sure to start a fight. Most of the French kids lived south of the school, with only a few French families in the other direction. Many of the families at that time spoke French in their homes, so many of the children started to school without knowing how to speak English. The teachers did not allow French to be spoken on the school grounds, and would punish children for disobeying. Some of the children who would have been in school with A. G. were: Louis West, Horace Leger, Ralph Doyal, Garland Foreman, Milton Monier, Howard Tate, Alwood Dossman, Curley Fontenot, Edison Smith, Lily Vidrine to name a few. At graduation Mrs. Harper gave each boy in the class a pocket watch, and each girl a compact.
Almost all of the children came from farming families, and most had to help out in the fields when there was work to be done. Both boys and girls worked in the fields and did chores, but tradition had established a division of labor that dictated which jobs the girls were allowed to do. Most families were large by today's standards. Five or six children were common, and it was not unusual for a family to have ten or even more children. The boys' chores usually consisted of the work that had to be done around the barn, while girls' work was around or in the house. Bringing in wood for the cook stove and for heating was shared by both sexes although only the larger boys had to saw and split the wood. In the field girls usually were not required to plow but were expected to hoe and pick cotton, pick tomatoes, and gather sweet potatoes. Boys shared all of these responsibilities, and larger boys also were required to pull corn, cut and gather soybean hay, cut sugar cane, and other miscellaneous chores.
Some parents in the community were illiterate, but A. G.'s father had attended school through the fifth grade, and his mother completed the third, so both realized to some extend the importance of education. Some parents in the community kept their children out of school to help with special work such as picking cotton, but the Spears children were not required to sacrifice school for work. While A. G.'s parents appreciated a need for some education they did not have any high expectations for their children. Their idea of an adequate education was to acquire the ability to read and do basic arithmetic, which would equip one to operate a farm and its household, or to learn a trade such as carpentry. It is likely that A. G. was grown before they began to realize the value of a high school education, and even then did not see a need for college in order to earn a living. Most families believed that if the husband provided food, clothing, and shelter for his family that he had discharged his responsibilities, and few families expected more than those basic needs. Prior to 1940, Alwood Dossman was the only person who had grown up in either Centerville or Lone Pine communities who had graduated with a degree from, or even attended, any college.
When A. G. completed the seventh grade there was no high school in Evangeline parish that was near enough for children to attend. The children from St. Landry and Dossman attended high school in Ville Platte when they finished grammar school, but distance and poor roads prevented Lone Pine and Centerville children from attending school there. The closest Evangeline parish high school to the Centerville community was at Pine Prairie, which was about thirty miles away. The roads in the community were nothing more than well-packed dirt tracks that were just wide enough for two wagons or cars to pass, so a trip to Pine Prairie would have been difficult in good weather and impossible in rainy weather.
The communities of Centerville and Lone Pine are located in the far northeast corner of Evangeline parish, and that area was always the last to receive benefits from the parish such as schools, roads, electricity, and phones. The area was more closely associated economically with Avoyelles and Rapids parishes than with Evangeline. Most of the people shopped in Bunkie, and they ginned their cotton in Cheneyville. Since there was no high school for the communities, the Evangeline parish school board must have made an agreement with the Rapids parish school board to allow students from those communities to attend Cheneyville high school. The transportation to the school was provided by privately operated school bus. Mr. Deville owned and operated an ancient model T ford truck with a homemade body that served as a school bus. It seated about twenty students. During the rainy part of the year his schedule was very unreliable, and quite often the bus would get stuck in the mud and never make it to Cheneyville. Each family paid him some amount for each child. The number $2.00 per month comes to mind. A. G.'s two older sisters attended school in Cheneyville. The bus was late so often and the children missed so much school that most of the students did not do well in school and soon lost interest in going.
The science teacher at Cheneyville high, Miss Hays, had a reputation for being a strict disciplinarian and was very intimidating to new students, especially country kids. A. G. had attended Cheneyville School only one or two days when he had a confrontation with Miss Hays. He was probably already afraid of her before he ever saw her, and her appearance left no doubt in a student's mind that her reputation was honestly earned. So when A. G. came in with muddy shoes and trousers from having to help push the school bus out of the mud, Miss Hays gave him a stern lecture on neatness, proving that his worst fears about her were true. His pride or fear prevailed over any interest he might have had in a higher education, and he walked the eight miles back home and abandoned academia forever. Any child who did not attend school was expected to become a full-time worker on the farm. A. G. became an apprentice to his dad, and set about learning how to operate a farm.
His school years ended in 1929 when he was 13 years old. His maternal grandfather, A. G. Hussey, had died in 1928, and his paternal grandfather, R.A. Spears, died in 1929. He was old enough to have remembered both grandfathers well, and it is likely that Grandpa Hussey had considerable influence on him since they lived in the same house. Before his death Grandpa Spears visited in their home occasionally, and the grand children all visited with Grandpa and Grandma Spears from time to time. Grandpa and Grandma Spears lived about halfway between school and the Spears home. Most of the school kids stopped by for some of Grandma's cookies on the way home from school. Shortly after Grandpa Spears died, Grandma Spears came to live with the Spears family.
The floor plan of the Spears home looked something like this:
!---------!
! PORCH !
! !
/---\\ !----------- ---!-------! Cuddy Room*
/ \\ ! ! ! <---------
! ! ! KITCHEN !-------!
\\ / P !
\\___/ ! O !
^ !-----------------! R !
! ! DINING ! C !---\\
CISTERN ! ROOM H ! \\
! ! ! <----
! ! !_____/ CISTERN
!_______ !_____!__ __!_______ ________!
! ! ! !
! ! ! !
! !
! !
! BEDROOM ! BEDROOM ! BEDROOM !
!___ __________!_____________!_______________!
F ! ! ! F
I ! ! ! I
R ! ! ! R
E ! ! ! E
|---! ! BEDROOM & LIVING !---|
| BEDROOM ROOM |
|---! ! !---|
P ! ! ! P
L !_________ ___________!_________ __________! L
A ! ! A
C ! PORCH ! C
E !______________________________________________! E

*I have never seen the term "cuddy room" used elsewhere, and no other family in the community used the term. The room was a pantry where flour, lard, canned goods, and other miscellaneous items were stored. The dictionary defines it as a small pantry or storage area.
**There were five levels of sophistication among the homes in the community. The category one home was built of rough lumber, had wooden shutters instead of glass windows. There was no inside ceiling to the walls, and there were cracks in the floor. There was no separate dining room. They often had a tin roof. There was no brick fireplace, and the only source of heat might be the kitchen range or a chimney and fireplace made of clay. Category two homes were different from category one in that they had wood shingle roof and a brick fireplace for heating in winter time. They had glass window panes instead of wooden shutters. Category three homes had inside ceiling on the walls, and often the walls were papered. They had screens on all doors and windows. Their floors were made of tongue and groove lumber, so there were no cracks in the floor. There was a separate dining room. Category four homes were similar to those in category three except there were doorknobs on the doors. Category five homes had a living room or parlor that was not also used as a bedroom. The inside walls were papered with a patterned wallpaper, and the exterior was painted. None of the homes had running water or electricity until the middle thirties, and then only some of the category five homes had a "Delco" unit. This consisted of a bank of six volt storage batteries with a gasoline engine driving a generator to charge the batteries. The engine started automatically when the voltage dropped below a certain value.
The lighting consisted of a single bulb--probably about 60 watts--hanging from the ceiling, and would be considered poor lighting by our present standards. However, the single bulb was far superior to a kerosene lamp. Centerville Baptist church had such a lighting system that was installed in the late thirties. Prior to that time some of the better homes had tried a gas lighting system that was fueled with carbide. One of the homes burned because of some malfunction in the system, and the scheme was not used again in the area.
The house had been built in three stages. The original house consisted of only the two front rooms, and they were made of poplar logs that had been split in half. The split side of the log faced the interior of the house. These logs were about twenty feet long, and they were very nearly the same diameter from one end to the other. The trees from which they came must have been very tall. So although A. G. was not born in a log cabin, he was raised in one. The kitchen and dining room were added next, and were separated from the house by some distance. This was a common practice, and the purpose was to isolate the heat produced by the kitchen from the living areas of the house. During the winter the kitchen was the warmest place in the house, and quite often was the gathering place for the family on a cold day. The three bed rooms were added next when the family outgrew the space.
The house was in category three**, meaning that it had: glass windows, floors without cracks, brick fireplaces, overhead ceiling in all rooms, inside ceiling on the walls of all rooms except the kitchen and dining room, and screens on all doors and windows. Since there were so many cracks throughout the house, the screens were more effective in keeping out chickens than as a defense against flies and mosquitoes.
If there were any laws regarding school attendance they were not enforced, because a very small percentage of the graduates of Centerville grammar school attended high school. Since A. G. was not attending school he was expected to work full-time on the farm. He learned to handle most of the jobs that had to be done in raising and gathering crops. Although there was a great deal of work to be done, there was also time for leisure, and a thirteen year old boy had lots of time for fishing and hunting.
Bayou Cocodrie was close-by, and at that time there were plenty of fish in it, and these fish made up a good part of the diet of many people in the community. Although the area was thickly wooded the deer population was small, and other game had been depleted because earlier generations had disregarded game laws. It was very rare occurrence for someone to kill a deer. There was an adequate supply of squirrels, rabbits, and game birds, and the young boys became skilled early in life at hunting them. Most people still did not pay much attention to game laws, so the game population continued to be depleted for some years until the laws were more strictly enforced. These activities along with swimming in the bayou accounted for most of the fun for youngsters. All of the kids learned to swim at an early age, and A. G. was one of the better swimmers. The boys in the community would gather at a spot along the bayou near Uncle Marion Spears' place. A large patch of high weeds grew between the bayou and the road giving them all the privacy they needed for skinny-dipping. Their swimming skills developed without the help of a coach to teach them the proper fundamentals, so their style was natural and did not resemble the form of a swimmer who had learned the proper technique. Instead of swimming low in the water as trained swimmers do, the upper body rose higher out of the water as speed increased--like a motorboat. The technique served them well, but they would probably not have fared well against a properly trained swimmer. During that time, most girls did not get an opportunity to learn to swim. A few years later this was changed and the boys had to learn to wear swimsuit or short pants when they swam.
Prior to 1929, there had been plenty of day work and the price of cotton, the major cash crop, was high enough for farmers to make a decent living from farming ten or twelve acres of cotton per family. Although few farmers were even aware that a stock market existed, the crash in 1929 affected the entire economy, making jobs scarce and lowering the price of cotton. Even though the price of necessities also dropped, most families experienced financial difficulties. The Spears family was probably affected by this less than most families in the community. Grandpa Hussey had been a civil war veteran, and received a pension for that service. His oldest son, Edward, had died in the flu epidemic during World War I, and he also received an income from his insurance. He had arranged his pension so that his widow continued to receive it after his death. I do not know how much the pensions amounted to, but as the price of commodities fell, the pension increased in buying power. Aunt Doff, his widow, continued to live with the family, and she contributed some to the household expenses. The family raised most of the food they ate, so their living expenses were not very great. Grandpa Hussey owned a car when he was alive, and Aunt Doff continued to keep one after his death. Not more than one in ten families in the community at that time owned a car. Buddy was the only driver for the car until A. G. became old enough to learn.
Up to 1928 the Spears household consisted of Buddy, Malissa, Gussie Lee, Ola B, A. G., Shirley, Deacon, Marshall, and Aunt Doff. These nine people somehow were fitted into the house plan shown above. Every room except the kitchen and dining room had a bed in it, and this was common practice throughout the community. Only category five houses had a living room.
Gussie Lee married in 1928 and moved out of the house, but at about the same time Grandma Spears joined the family. Leland Dossman and Gussie Lee lived in Pineville where Leland sold and delivered cane syrup that was manufactured by his Uncle Laurent Dossman. For some reason, perhaps because of the depression, Uncle Laurent went out of the syrup business around 1932. At any rate Leland was without a job for a while, and they came to live with the Spears family. The household then consisted of Buddy, Malissa, Aunt Doff, Grandma Spears, Ola B, Joy, A. G., Shirley, Deacon, Marshall, Gussie Lee, Leland, and Jerry. There were a total of thirteen people living together in the home. Malissa probably had some help with the housework, but she took care of most of the cooking. I have heard her say many times that that period was the happiest time of her life.
Since A. G. had left school, he was expected to become productive around the farm. His dad was still actively engaged in farming, and A. G. became his apprentice and learned to handle a team of mules, plow, cut firewood, and all the chores that are necessary to run a farm and feed thirteen people. That period was the deepest part of the depression, and cotton, the main cash crop, sold for about six cents per pound. About fifteen hundred pounds of raw cotton is required to produce a 500 pound bale of lent cotton (cotton with the seeds removed). The farmer received approximately six cents per pound for cotton when he had it ginned, and perhaps five dollars for the seed. A good cotton picker could pick around 300 pounds per day--a very long day--but many of the pickers were lucky to get 100 pounds in a day. At an average of 200 pounds per picker it would take seven days to pick a bale of cotton. In a good year farms in the
Centerville area yielded a bale per acre.
The cycle of work required to produce a bale of cotton consisted of preparing the land for the seed, planting, thinning the cotton plants to about one every six inches, cleaning out the grass with a hoe, plowing the field at least five times to control the grass, and then picking it and hauling it to the gin which was eight miles away. My estimate is that it would probably require 300 man hours to produce a bale of cotton. This comes out to about ten cents per hour in a good year. But since cotton was the only cash producing crop this rate of pay was further diluted when the labor required to produce the other crops and run the farm was taken into account. In years when the weather did not cooperate, even this low pay could be reduced to near zero. The Spears farm usually planted about ten acres of cotton, so in an average year they could depend upon getting a yield of eight bales, or $240.00. When the price of cotton dropped so low, the federal government instituted a plan to limit the amount of cotton that farmers could plant in order to reduce the amount of cotton on the market, and hopefully bring up the price. Each farm was given an allotment, and was not allowed to plant more than that. I'm not certain how this was enforced, but I suspect if an allotment was for ten acres and the farmer attempted to sell fifteen bales, he would probably have had to explain how he produced so much. When the plan was first started, farmers were forced to plow up their excess acreage and were paid for it by the government. This was probably the first time that farmers had had any interference from the government, and it is not surprising that they were disturbed by the new rules, and couldn't believe their good fortune when the government actually paid them for plowing up and not raising cotton.
One source of amusement and relaxation for the family was the radio. Radios began to appear in the community in the early and middle thirties. Our family, although not the first, was among the first in the community to own one. Again, this was bought by Aunt Doff. There was no electricity so the radio was operated from a six volt storage battery and a 90 volt "B" battery. One or the other of the batteries would always seem to run down just when a very important program was about to come on. The auto battery could be recharged, but the "B" battery was not rechargeable, and had to be replaced when it went out. Every evening after supper the entire family, including cousin Dorothy's family, would gather around the radio and listen to a few of their favorite programs. The favorites of country people included Lum and Abner, Amos and Andy, and Pit and Pat. Amos and Andy was one of the oldest serial type radio shows. Someone said that when Marconi invented the radio, the first thing he heard when he turned it on was Amos and Andy. These were comedy shows with two main characters and several less important supporting characters. The reason for bringing this up now is that I remember a comedy skit by Pit and Pat that had to do with the government's farm program that paid farmers for not producing certain products. The skit went something like this:
Pit: I got a letter from my Uncle Nicodemius today, and he's doing fine.
Pat: What do Uncle Nicodemius do for a living?
Pit: He don't raise hogs.
Pat: I don't wants to know what he don't do. I wants to know hat he do do.
Pit: Well, that's what he do do for a living--he don't raise hogs. The government pays him to not raise hogs, so he don't raise hogs.
Pat: What kind of hogs do he don't raise?
Pit: Uncle Nicodemius don't raise only the best breeds of hogs.
Pat: How many hogs don't the government pay him to not raise?
Pit: He don't raise about a hundred hogs.
Pat: What do Uncle Nicodemius not feed the hogs that he don't raise?
Pit: He don't feed them corn.
Pat: Where do he get the corn that he don't feed his hogs that he don't raise?
Pit: Uncle Nicodemius is a big farmer, so he don't raise corn that he don't feed to his hogs that he don't raise. Next year Uncle Nicodemius is gonna do even better. He not gonna raise two hundred hogs. And on and on. All of this done in blackface dialect, which was acceptable at that time.
Homes that had a radio usually had an antenna about two hundred feet long and mounted on the highest poles they could erect. There were not many radio stations around the country at that time, but we could hear stations from all over such as WLS, Chicago; KDKA, Pittsburgh; WHO Des Moines; KCMO, Kansas City; WOAI, San Antonio; WWVA, Wheeling, W.Va.; and of course WSM, Nashville. Every Saturday night the whole family stayed up until ten or eleven o'clock listening to the Grand Ole Opera from Nashville.
There were lots of fifteen minute adventure shows that came on in the late afternoons. Some of these were "Jack Armstrong--the All-American Boy", "Orphan Annie," "Sergeant Preston of the Mounties and His Dog King", and etc. I don't ever remember A. G. listening to these shows. Since we didn't get a radio until around 1935, when he was 19, he had probably outgrown them. He always read a lot, however, I'm afraid his reading list didn't include the well-known authors or many book-of-the-month club selections. He leaned more toward such classics as "Wild West Weekly" magazine. The heroes in these stories were hard-riding, gun-toting cowboys who spent their time protecting honest, but helpless, ranchers against dishonest tinhorn and cattle rustlers.
A. G. was probably older than sixteen before he saw a movie. After our lifestyle had advanced to a point where we had occasional transportation to Bunkie on Saturday nights he began to see a few movies. His taste in movies and the bill of fare at the Bailey Theater in Bunkie were consistent with his literary preferences. His heroes at the movies included: Tom Mix and his horse Tony, Bob Steele, Tim McCoy, and John Wayne in his early days. All of these movies were "B" grade products. The higher grade Gary Cooper or Randolph Scott western was usually shown during the week when country people were not in town. After the movie some of the kids might have an extra dime to buy a coke and hamburger. Often on a Saturday night after the movie a friend, Alwood "Snookem" Dossman or Marion "Biscuit" Spears would spend the night with A. G. From my cot in the same room I could lie and listen to them reviewing every detail of how the cowboy hero rescued the girl and put the culprit behind bars. When they
had exhausted their movie review, they often discussed some of the heroes
in the western magazines they had read.
Although the farm was pretty self sufficient, $240.00 per year was still a very meager income for thirteen people. Among the items that had to be purchased were: flour, sugar, coffee, rice, salt, lard, kerosene for lamps, and of course everyone had to have some clothes. The children went barefooted until they were in their late teens, even in the winter time. The Spears family was actually better off than many others in the community. Aunt Doff had her pension, and although I never knew how much it was, it amounted to a substantial sum in that economic environment, and she contributed at least $25.00 per month to family expenses. So this more than doubled the total income.
Many families did not have the luxury of being able to buy flour and sugar. Every family raised corn on their farm, and by the end of October everyone had a barn full of corn that was expected to last most of the year. The corn was used for feeding farm animals, and all during the week as the corn was shucked to feed the mules, the best ears--those without any sign of weevils or fungus--were thrown into a special pile to be used for making cornmeal. A ritual was observed around the Spears house once a week when this corn was brought into the house and members of the family would gather around to shell the corn and prepare it for grinding. Every family carried a sack of corn to the grist mill every Saturday to have it ground into cornmeal that would be used to make cornbread. The man who owned the little general store in the community also owned a grist mill, and he was busy every Saturday grinding cornmeal for his customers. He took a small percentage of the meal as payment for his services. Many families could not afford flour, so they substituted cornbread, and had flour bread only on rare occasions.
Cane syrup was a major staple for most tables in the community. Our family probably used fifty gallons of syrup a year. In addition to being used as an important food, many families used it as a substitute for sugar in sweetening coffee. One has to like coffee a great deal to drink it when it has been sweetened with syrup. The syrup was made from sugar cane that almost every family grew on their farm. There was a syrup mill in the community whose owner charged each customer a small percentage of his syrup for crushing the cane and cooking the juice to make syrup. Making good cane syrup is an art that not everyone can acquire. If the juice is not cooked enough, the syrup will turn sour, and if it is cooked too much or at too high a temperature it will crystallize and make rock candy.
It was in this economic climate around 1933, when A. G. was 18 years old, that the Spears family launched their carrot program. During the winter months when the field would have been idle, several acres of carrots were planted. I don't know if this was done on their own imitative or if there was a government sponsored program to encourage farmers to depend less on cotton for their incomes. The program was quite successful, and I suspect that its success was mostly due to Leland's work. The acreage that was planted produced a bumper crop of prime grade carrots. Leland had had experience selling syrup to grocery stores all over central Louisiana, and he made good use of it in selling the carrot crop. Probably no one else in the family would have had the self-confidence that was required to sell the product to stores in the area. The carrots had to be pulled up, washed, tied in bundles of approximately eight carrots, and hauled to market. The washing and tying operation took place on the bayou bank where there was plenty water. Since this was a wintertime operation, it was not a very pleasant task when the weather was cold. The bundles were stacked in a trailer that was towed by the family car. The major market was in Alexandria--probably because Leland was more familiar with that area, having worked it with the syrup business. As far as I know the entire crop was sold at a good profit. Our carrot venture was similar to the Blue Bell ice cream commercial that says that "we eat all we can, and sell the rest".
While the carrots were available Mamma prepared them for meals in as many ways as she could think of. Not many in the family liked them very much, and everyone ate them under protest. She made a carrot pie, similar to a pumpkin pie that was tolerated by everyone but after we quit raising them no one ever insisted on buying carrots for the regular fare. Producing a crop of carrots was not near so labor intensive as was cotton, so that made it even more attractive even though labor was not valued very highly. I believe that was the only year that the carrots were raised, and I don't know why it wasn't pursued further since it was so successful. Possibly it was because Leland and his family moved out of the house the next year. Being able to take advantage of an opportunity such as that was possible for the Spears family while it was not possible for some less fortunate families to do so, because they had no transportation to get the product to market. As far as I know the Spears family were the only ones in
the community who took advantage of the carrot bonanza, but several families began to raise tomatoes as a marketable crop. An acre or acre and a half was a typical amount of tomatoes for each family. Tomatoes were also quite labor intensive. The seeds were planted around the first of February in what was called a hot-house. When the plants emerged, they were transplanted into a cold-frame. The cold-frame was made by building a wooden frame about twelve inches high around a mulched area about twenty feet square. This was covered with a cloth impregnated with linseed oil to protect the plants from sleet and cold weather. On a cold night, a kerosene heater might be placed inside the enclosure. When the weather was right and the plants had reached the proper size they were transplanted to the field. When they had grown about ten or twelve inches high, a four foot stick was driven in the ground beside each plant and the plant was tied to the stick with a short piece of string. Following this operation the plants had to be suckered two or three times before they began to produce. While all this was taking place, they had to be hoed and plowed several times to keep the grass and weeds from taking over. The fruit was picked just before they turned pink, and sold to a wholesaler. Several pickings could be made before they advanced to a stage where the fruit ripened on the vine, and the ripe tomatoes were then picked and sold to a factory that made catsup. The tomato crop provided additional cash for the family, although I don't know what price was received.
By the time A. G. was seventeen years old he was able to handle all the responsibilities of the farm. It was about that time that his father's health began to fail badly. He began to have difficulty in breathing. This was the onset of emphysema, which grew progressively worse as time passed.
Aunt Doff bought a new car every two or three years, and A. G. was taught to drive, and did quite a bit of driving for the family.
Since farm work is cyclical, there are periods of several weeks at different times during the year that farmers have quite a bit of leisure time. Preparing the land for planting starts around the latter part of February, and work continues at a fast pace with a lot of sweat and long hours until July when the crops are left to ripen in the field. Around the latter part of August or first of September the cotton is ready for harvesting and another period of intensive work starts and lasts until latter part of October or November. During the slack periods the farmer is free to do pretty much as he pleases. These periods are often used for cutting firewood and other similar chores. There is also some leisure during this time that is spent in swimming, fishing, hunting, and group activities. Boys were able to participate in these things much more than girls.
Some holidays were observed, but some that are important to us today were very much ignored. The New Years holiday was not a big event, but usually someone would shoot a shotgun several times around midnight. Mardi gras was a popular and festive time. The young men in the community would coerce their mother or sister to make them a gaudy costume. These were usually made of bright red, yellow or green, and included a mask that covered the entire face. A group of about twenty on horseback would get together at one end of the community, elect a captain, and ride down the road on one side of the bayou and back on the other. There were usually two groups. One was called the "up-the-bayou" Mardi gras that was made up of mostly protestant "Americans". The "down-the-bayou" group consisted mostly of "French" Catholics. Both groups sang chants as they proceeded on their route. The French group sang in French, and were more colorful. There was usually some drinking, and it was the responsibility of the captains to keep the two groups from meeting on their routes. If they did meet, and the liquor had flowed freely enough, there would very likely be fights. Each group would visit every home in the community. They would make their horses prance around in the yard--especially if there were young girls in the family--and ask the homeowner for something that would be used to make a gumbo that night. They were usually given a chicken, guinea, file', or rice. After the riders had made the complete circuit they would meet at a prearranged location and make a big pot of gumbo. The gumbo was usually made in one or more wash pots. The community would gather, eat gumbo and party for most of the night. The up-the-bayou Protestants attempted to curtail the drinking, and often would not allow music at the party. If that were the case the party-goers had to content themselves with playing party games that they played at the church socials. The down-the-bayou catholic group were not quite so conservative as their neighbors. They allowed controlled drinking and usually had a musical group that was made up of fiddle, guitar, and accordion. At times they would declare a school holiday, and allow the children to make up costumes and have their own parade. The children were not allowed to ride horses, so they walked from house to house. A. G. rode Mardi gras on several
Occasions.
Easter was always celebrated. Families would save eggs for several weeks, and these eggs would be boiled and dyed, and each child was usually given about a dozen eggs. The purpose of the egg baskets was to promote an egg "fighting" contest. One contestant would hold an egg in his hand with the pointed end up, and only the very end exposed. His opponent would peck at the exposed end of the egg with one of his own. If you were playing for keeps, the victor took the broken egg. Our family were not allowed to play for keeps. The person who boiled the eggs attempted to place the eggs in the water with the pointed end down. This caused the insides of the egg to collect in that end, and would make that end harder to crack. Guinea eggs have a much harder shell than chicken eggs do, and quite often someone would try to substitute one of those in a fight. That was, of course, considered unfair.
Sometimes Memorial Day was celebrated. It was called Decoration Day then, and if it was noticed at all, the people in the community would decorate the graves in the cemetery. Sometimes there would be a picnic on Independence Day, and sometimes the family would go fishing. No one ever used fireworks to celebrate. Labor Day was mostly ignored, as was Halloween and Thanksgiving. Christmas was celebrated much as we do now with gifts for the children. There was often a program at church, and would include a Christmas tree with everyone drawing names and giving gifts. Fireworks were very popular for the Christmas celebration. There were no public displays, so each individual had to provide his own.
Because his poor health prevented A. G.'s father from doing heavy manual labor, he elevated himself to the position of C.E.O. of the enterprise, and gave A. G. the position of Chief Operating Officer. During this time A. G. received no wages. Being fed and clothed was his incentive for working.
At some point during his growing up, probably around his 18th birthday his father allocated an acre of cotton to him. This acre was worked along with the rest of the crop, and A. G. received the income for his own use. I recall that one of his first big purchases was a shotgun. It was a pump gun that served him well for many years, and might still be in his family. The gun was quite a prize because most boys, if they had a gun at all, owned a single-barrel. He was not selfish about it, and I remember that he allowed me to use it from time to time after the newness wore off.
A. G. did quite a bit of hunting and fishing, and was considered pretty much of an expert at both sports. Squirrels, rabbits, and birds were about the only game that was available in the local woods. In earlier years game laws had been ignored by most people in remote areas such as Centerville, and uncontrolled hunting had depleted the squirrel population. It was unusual to bag more than six squirrels in one hunt, and A. G. more often than not got about that many, while I was lucky to come home with more than two. Rabbits were more plentiful, and were hunted quite a bit during the winter months.
Hudy Foreman gave A. G. a pup from a Collie that he owned. The sire was a large mongrel that lived next-door. Tray looked more like his father, and grew up to be quite a good rabbit dog, and he lived with the family until he died of old age. When A. G. was ready to go hunting he could get Tray's immediate attention by operating the action of the pump gun.
Quite often boys in the neighborhood, such as the Leger family would get together for a rabbit hunt, with each boy bringing his dog, which he thought was the best rabbit hunter in the world. The dogs would range through the underbrush until they scared a rabbit out of his hiding place, and then the chase was on. More often than not a rabbit will run in a large circle, so one of the hunters would remain near the place where the chase started in the hopes of seeing the rabbit as he returned to his nest if he managed to elude the dogs. At times the rabbit would try to escape by getting into a hollow tree. Although a rabbit cannot climb a tree, he can manage to get far enough up the inside of a hollow tree to get out of reach of the dogs. When the rabbit is treed the dogs all gather around the tree frantically barking until the hunter arrives. The hunter cuts a stout flexible branch and pushes it up the hollow toward the rabbit. When he makes contact with the rabbit he twists the branch until it becomes entangled in the rabbit's fur, and then he pulls him out and dispatches him with a sharp blow the back of the neck.
Possums and coons were hunted at night with the same dogs that were used for hunting rabbits in the daytime. The dogs would locate the game by smell, and chase him up a tree. The dogs would stay at the base of the tree and bark until the hunter came. The hunters used a lamp that was powered by carbide pellets that produced a flammable gas, which in turn produced an adequate light. He would then shoot the animal out of the tree. The pelts were salable but the boys seldom got enough to make it worthwhile.
In addition to fishing in the bayou, some members of the family usually went fishing two or three times during the year in nearby lakes. There were two favorite fishing places in the area. These were Cocodrie Lake and Tiger Lake. Tiger Lake was a small, low, muddy, swampy area that collected drainage from its immediate area. The fishermen fished from the bank or a fallen log, or waded out into the muddy water to a convenient stump. The water was usually very muddy but was well populated with catfish and perch of various types. Most people would now refuse to eat the fish from such an environment, but they were acceptable at that time, and they tasted quite good and never poisoned anyone as far as was known.
Cocodrie Lake is a much larger lake that is located just south of LeCompte in a large low area that is fed by springs. Its water was much clearer and it held a wider variety of fish. It was not possible to fish from the banks with any success, so fishermen had to rent a boat to get to the fish. I might add that there were no reliable outboard motors at that time, so usually there were two or three people in a boat, and each had a paddle. Cocodrie is the source of bayou Cocodrie that runs through the community of Centerville.
Bayou Cocodrie was to that community what the Nile was to ancient Egypt. Although many families had cisterns or wells, the bayou was the only source of water for some. It furnished water for drinking, laundry, cooking, and bathing, and provided a livelihood for some families who were fulltime fishermen. It served as a bathtub and swimming pool during the summer months for everyone, and during periods of drought it provided a backup water supply for those people who had cisterns and wells. Later it became a irrigation water supply for local rice farmers.
Although the family made two or three fishing trips to these lakes every year, A.G. probably fished almost every day during the leisure periods and set out lines every night on which he often had a catfish the next morning. The result of his hunting and fishing expeditions provided extra protein for the family diet.
The family always had plenty food, although there was not always as much variety as they would like. The only refrigeration was an icebox that was visited by the iceman about three times a week, and its capacity was not great enough to keep any large supplies of food. No attempt was made to keep any large amount of perishable food.
Hogs were raised on the farm, and each winter there were usually several ready for butchering. Usually two or three hogs were killed and butchered at one time. This was a family affair with everyone doing his part. A fire was prepared under the wash pot that had been filled with water. A barrel was set up near the water pot, and when the water was hot, either A. G. or his dad killed a hog by shooting it or hitting it in the head with a large hammer, cut its throat, and hung it up to allow the blood to drain from the carcass. A barrel was tilted at about a forth-five degree angle and filled with hot water. As soon as the carcass was ready, it was plunged head-first into the barrel of hot water. After about a minute in the water the operation was repeated for the other end. Timing was an important factor. If the hair was not stripped off immediately it would "set" and would then be impossible to get off, and would have to be shaved off with a knife, and that was not acceptable. The carcass was hung up and relieved of its inner organs. A great treat for all of the kids was to get the "melt"--which was the name we had for what I believe was the spleen. This was roasted on a stick over the fire. It tasted a little like liver but not quite so strong. Of course it always tasted better cooked in that manner than it would have if it had been cooked in the kitchen.
While the kids were enjoying this feast, the grownups were cutting up the carcass. Some parts of it were cooked immediately, some were given to neighbors, and other parts that lent themselves to preservation were placed in a barrel with a layer of coarse salt between layers of meat. At times the intestines were saved and cleaned. Some of the meat was cooked, ground, and stuffed into these to produce sausage. When sausage was made they were usually preserved by smoking. They were hung in the smokehouse, a fire was built under them and smothered down so it produced only smoke. They were left to cure in this manner for several days. Occasionally the fat from around the intestines and other parts of the hog was used to make soap. This was done by mixing the fat with ashes, lye, and perhaps other ingredients and cooked in the big iron pot. Through some mysterious process it somehow produced a foul smelling soap that was used for laundry. It was not a really good soap, and would never be able to compete with modern detergents.
Beef was never preserved in salt, so only a small amount of it could be kept on hand, and that only for a few days. In order to have fresh beef during the year, the community organized neighborhood butchers. A group of a dozen or more families would form a club with each family raising a steer that was to be butchered during the year. Then every week or two they would have a butchering at the home of the family who was furnishing the steer for that week, everyone would help out with the butchering, and each member would receive a portion of the meat. In that way everyone had a fresh supply of beef throughout most of the year.
Most families owned one or more milk cows. The Spears family owned three such cows that were milked twice a day when they were producing. When cows were not producing milk they were expected to fend for themselves for food, and they were allowed to graze along the roadsides or in the woods on any land that was not fenced. Just before the cows were ready to produce a calf, they were kept in the barnyard and fed a special diet of cottonseed hulls and cottonseed meal. The hulls were cheap and provided bulk, and the meal was a source of protein that helped to ensure a healthy calf and later on to provide a good milk supply. A.G learned to milk cows at an early age and this became part of his daily chores.
One cow typically produced about three gallons of milk per day. This milk was strained through a fine screen to eliminate any trash that might have fallen into it, placed in a bowl and kept in the coolest place available. Cream would rise to the top overnight and would be skimmed off to be used for coffee, cooking, table, or for making butter. Every family owned a churn, and this became another of the endless chores that had to be done. The cream was placed in the churn and agitated for what seemed like an interminable length of time before it finally became butter.
The social and spiritual life in the community was centered around the Baptist church just down the road from the Spears home. There was never a full time pastor who lived in the community. The preachers usually were religion students from Louisiana College in Pineville. On Saturday afternoon he would ride a bus or train from Alexandria to either Cheneyville or Bunkie where some member of the church would pick him up and bring him out to his home. A church service was held Saturday night, and Sunday morning we would have Sunday school and preaching, followed by Training Union (BYPU) and another church service Sunday night. The pastor would spend Saturday night and would eat his meals with some member family.
The church began in the late twenties, and services were held in members' homes until the church building--a small frame structure-was built. The main building was portioned with curtains to provide separate Sunday school rooms. For a number of years preaching was held only once a month, and later increased to twice a month. Sunday School and Training Union was always conducted on those Sundays when there was no preaching. The Spears family, like most in the community, planted an acre of cotton for the church. The proceeds from the acre was given to the church, and unlike the character in the novel "God's Little Acre" the member did not always give God the acre that produced the least cotton. Aunt Doff was one of the financial mainstays of the church because she always tithed, and her contribution was always substantial.
The Sunday school and Training Union classes held a number of socials for the young people in the community. They would gather in the church yard in the evening and play party games and have food and beverages. These gatherings were not restricted to church members, and all the young people in the community attended. This was quite a concession by the parents of catholic families, because at that time the priest would have forbidden his parishioners to attend services or social functions at a protestant church. These socials were held for all ages, and games that were appropriate to each age group were played. The young adults--intermediates and seniors in BYPU and Sunday School--were allowed to play party games such as Dance Josie or Sandy Land where singing a chant was required, but they were not allowed to dance to music. These games allowed the boys and girls to hold hands, and the older teenagers would pair off after the party was over so the boys could walk the girl's home.
Parties were also frequently held in homes where small groups would gather and make home-made candy and popcorn, talk and play games. These get-togethers were about the only opportunity that young people had for courting, and probably many engagements were made under these circumstances.
Although the family had a car, it was very rare for A. G. to pick up a girl and take her on a date the way boys and girls do now. He probably felt lucky to have the price of a movie ticket for himself, so his courting consisted mostly of escorting girls home from church.
Marion "Biscuit" Spears visited with our family quite often, and often for extended periods of times. He was treated as one of the family, and he worked in the fields along with the other kids and took care of his share of the chores.
When Marion was going to high school, Uncle Jim--his father, and Daddy's brother--lived with his family along the banks of bayou Boueff between Cheneyville and Bunkie. Although they lived in Rapids parish, Marion attended school in Bunkie, while the rest of the kids attended Cheneyville School and rode a school bus. Marion had no transportation, so he hitch hiked to school and back home every day. After he graduated from high school, which must have been around 1932, he came to live with our family and stayed with us for several years.
There was always a friendly competition between him and A. G. They tried to beat each other picking cotton, pulling corn, or any other tasks that they did together, as well as trying to outdo each other in swimming and other sports. Biscuit was the stronger of the two, but they were about equal in endurance. Biscuit could chin himself using only one arm, which is not an easy task.
Cutting firewood was, while not enjoyed by everyone, was welcomed as a different type of work. We would drive a wagon, pulled by a team of mules into the woods behind our house, A. G. would pick out a suitable tree and direct the way it was to be cut in order to make it fall clear of other trees and into an area where it could easily be sawed up into blocks about 14 inches long for stove wood for the kitchen or about 24 inches long for wood for the fireplace. A.G. and Biscuit always tried to "burn out" the other when they were sawing firewood. Both of them could pull a cross-cut saw as fast as they could operate it. As soon as they finished one cut they immediately started on another without a break. They seemed to be able to continue this contest indefinitely. I took care of miscellaneous things that had to be done, but might occasionally be forced into some heavier work. Even after I got older I was never able to keep up with either of them in sawing. Nor could I pick as much cotton as either of them could. Because of these and other similar character traits the family always accused me of being lazy. I don't ever recall having anything but honest intentions, so I like to think that my poor performance might simply have been caused by a lack of the necessary skills.
Around 1932 after Daddy became too ill to do very much work, and before he believed that A.G. was mature enough to handle all the work, he hired Munson Burke, a young man from Cheneyville, to help out with the farm work. I seem to remember a salary of $12.00 per month. He lived with the family just as if he was one of us. He was about 20 to 25 years old at that time. He worked for us for no more than two years.
Munson was replaced when we added another member to our extended family. Daddy's older sister, Aunt Sally, had married Edgar Fruge (Fru'-jay). Aunt Sally died in 1930, and Uncle Edgar moved to New Orleans. He must have become unemployed due to the depression and was unable to find a job, so he came to live with our family. He was treated as one of the family. He was fed and given shelter, and in return for this he worked long hours in the field and other chores. Daddy gave him an acre of land similar to the agreement with A. G. where he could raise cotton that provided some income to buy his clothes and other necessities.
Our family always seemed to be able to take in one more member without causing any major problems. Uncle Edgar lived with us for several years, and although he was much older than A. G. and Marion, he worked alongside them and attended many of their parties. A.G. and Biscuit were old enough to call him Fruge just as Daddy did. To me and the younger ones he was always Uncle Edgar. He courted one of Daddy's cousins, Alice Spears Ware. They later married, had their own home, and continued to live in the Centerville community until he died in 1956.
With the passage of time the economy began to improve slightly, and the price of cotton rose, giving farmers more income. As A.G. grew older, Daddy allowed him a larger share in the income. Snookem Dossman and A.G. were always close friends, but they did not see much of each other while Snookem was away at college. After he graduated from Southwest Louisiana Institute in Lafayette--now USL--they began to renew their friendship, and on one occasion A. G., Snookem, and Biscuit made a trip to New Orleans in Snookem's car. J. B., Biscuit's brother, and I hitched a ride to Baton Rouge with them. He and I spent a week with J. B.'s cousins, and rode back with them on their return trip. With a little more money available, A. G. began to have more access to the family car, and was allowed to use it on dates. The dating was mostly done in groups. I was not old enough to participate, but he, Biscuit, Shirley, Thelma Sadler, and others in the community were allowed to drive to Bunkie for a movie on Saturday night. With more access to the car, he was able to extend his field of operations, and sometime in 1938 he surprised everyone when he showed up at church one Sunday night with a pretty blonde girl who didn't live in the community. This was Ivy Walker, who lived in Chicot. I don't know how they met. I and the kids who were attending school in Chicot knew Ivy. She and I were in the same class in school. A. G. never went out with other girls after
that date, and it soon became apparent that this was going to be a permanent arrangement.
Daddy had known Ivy's dad and his brothers when he was younger, and everyone knew her dad's brother, Billy Walker, who was the rural mail carrier for many years in our community. So it wasn't as if she was a complete stranger.
As I recall, Biscuit went with A. G. at times when he called on Ivy, and I believe that her sister Sylvia and Biscuit went along on dates. Parents always felt their daughters were less likely to get into trouble if they were with a larger group. When they became engaged, it was decided that A.G. would continue farming on our place. I suppose that he and Daddy must have arranged for some adequate income for him and his new family from the farm, but I don't know what it was. We built a house for the bride and groom on the farm just behind the family home. My recollection of the house was as follows and might be off in some details. It was a category one house. It was a square frame building divided into three rooms and a small porch, and was built of rough pine lumber that was bought from a local mill. The windows had wooden shutters instead of glass panes. The walls were single thickness, made up of 1 x 10 boards nailed vertically to the framework. The cracks between the boards were covered with 1x4 boards nailed to the outside of the house. I don't remember whether there was an overhead ceiling or not. The floor was also of rough lumber, probably 1x6. The cracks in the floor could not be covered the way they were in the outside walls, since that would have made a very uneven floor, so as the lumber dried and shrunk cracks appeared in the floor. This provided welcome ventilation in the summer but harsh, cold drafts in the winter. The family made the boards for the roof from cypress logs that had been dragged from the bayou where they had been buried in the mud for many years. The logs had sunk to the bottom when timber companies used the bayou for transporting them to their mills. Although the house seems to have been very crude by today's standards, it was similar to many other category one homes in the community, and respect for families living in these homes was equal to that for families in the category five homes.
A. G. and Ivy married in 1939, and shortly after that I left home to make my mark on the world, so my first hand knowledge beyond that point is sketchy, but the family remained in that home while the first children were born. By that time Daddy's health had deteriorated to a point where he was not able to work at all, so A.G. did all of the work on the farm. Oil was discovered in the general area in the late thirties, and this provided farmers with jobs when they were not working their crops. During the early forties A.G. and Ivy left the Centerville community and moved to Pointe la Hache where the rest of their family was born and grew up.