Memories (U.S. National Park Service)

July 9, 2026

76. Marie Dupre

Transcript

Jim Colley (00:04): Hello again. This is Jim Colley and we're visiting On Memories with Mrs. Marie Dupre. Ms. Dupre, welcome to the show. We're awful glad you're here. I understand you've been in teaching and working in education around here most of your life.

Marie Dupre (00:19): Yes, I have.

Jim Colley (00:21): How long did you teach in Natchitoches Parish?

Marie Dupre (00:24): I taught 47 years in Natchitoches Parish.

Jim Colley (00:26): Gosh, when did you begin?

Marie Dupre (00:27): I started teaching in 1927 and retired in 1952.

Jim Colley (00:34): Well you're still a spring chicken then, aren't you?

Marie Dupre (00:36): I certainly am.

Jim Colley (00:38): I'll bet you are. Did you go to school here yourself?

Marie Dupre (00:41): I went to school at... it was called St. Joseph Elementary School at the time. Then I went to a public school in Montrose, Louisiana. Professor Thomas was the principal. The dear Professor Thomas that stayed at Natchitoches Central so long.

Jim Colley (00:59): He came up to Natchitoches Central after teaching in Montrose?

Marie Dupre (01:02): After teaching in Montrose.

Jim Colley (01:05): He was the principal at that school then?

Marie Dupre (01:05): Yes, he was.

Jim Colley (01:06): Well, did you live real close to the school?

Marie Dupre (01:07): No, I didn't. I had to walk sometimes. Sometime I had to ride. I had a little horse was named Nell, and I rode the horse to school. And some days I walked to school.

Jim Colley (01:18): How long a walk was that?

Marie Dupre (01:20): Oh that must've been six miles or longer.

Jim Colley (01:23): You know now, I always hear folks saying, "Back when I was young, I had to walk six miles to go to school," but that's true, huh?

Marie Dupre (01:31): That's really true. Then when I was teaching in Chopin, I taught at Springhill School in Chopin, I had to walk there. I walked many a Sundays from Chopin to Cloutierville to the St. John's Catholic Church to mass and back.

Jim Colley (01:48): Hmm. People traveled on their feet most of the time back then, didn't they?

Marie Dupre (01:52): They certainly did.

Jim Colley (01:53): I don't guess many people had ponies they could use.

Marie Dupre (01:56): Well, quite a number of people had ponies, but of course, children went to school walking. Maybe some of the boys sometime rode the ponies.

Jim Colley (02:04): But you were lucky, you had a horse named Nell?

Marie Dupre (02:07): Yes, I was.

Jim Colley (02:09): After you got through at the St Joseph's School, where did you go?

Marie Dupre (02:12): After I finished from St. Joseph's School, in the elementary school, for eighth grade, I went to New Orleans in the public school one year. Then I went to Xavier Prep Catholic School. Then from Xavier Prep to Xavier College, the university now. I also went to Wiley College and took extension [inaudible 00:02:33]... from Southern University.

Jim Colley (02:34): Boy, you've had a lot of educational experiences. Saint Xavier was... where was that?

Marie Dupre (02:39): Xavier is in New Orleans, Louisiana. I caught a many foals trying to learn to skate since skating was the fad then. Roller skates.

Jim Colley (02:49): Oh, is that what you did for recreation?

Marie Dupre (02:50): Yes, I did quite a bit of that for recreation.

Jim Colley (02:53): And if you didn't know how to skate?

Marie Dupre (02:55): You just fell.

Jim Colley (02:55): That's right. What was dating like when you were in New Orleans? Could you go out with a boy?

Marie Dupre (03:04): Well, I went out once or twice. Of course, I had an old aunt that didn't like... Quite like old people do, when you were dating, they want to know who it was, where were you going, here, there and the other. It wasn't like the students of today, walk out the door and say I'm gone. Or maybe don't say that and go ahead anyway. But, I enjoyed it. I had quite a number of friends. Of course, I went to a number of football and basketball games, because I had one little friend that was all tied up in basketball and football, and he got all the tickets for me, so I went to the games.

Jim Colley (03:40): That was pretty handy. You were talking before we began taping about going to school in the Isle, now what was the Isle?

Marie Dupre (03:51): The Isle is this little settlement in Melrose just on this side of the river from the Melrose Plantation. It was called the Isle. And this is where St. Augustine's Catholic Church is located. This St. Augustine Catholic Church, this land was donated... the church was donated by Saint Augustus, Saint Augustine. It was known as Grand-pere Augustine.

Jim Colley (04:16): Grand-pere Augustine. When was that?

Marie Dupre (04:19): [foreign language 00:04:19]. Oh, that was way back centuries ago I'd say. I don't remember the exact date, so I won't try to.

Jim Colley (04:28): I bet there was a lot of stories about him.

Marie Dupre (04:30): There was a lot of stories about him. He's buried in this cemetery. So is his wife.

Jim Colley (04:36): What kind of man was grand-pere?

Marie Dupre (04:39): Well, grand-pere was, I think from what I read about him, he came from a... He's Spanish descent, Spanish and American descent. He came from Santo Domingo, from the islands.

Jim Colley (04:58): So that whole part of Melrose and the Cane River country is interesting to me. You were talking about the Isle and the Isle got its name from a little piece of land that looked like an island down there. And now that's called the Iberville. How did that get its name?

Marie Dupre (05:19): More or less, much as I know about it, I think this portion of this cemetery and this land in there is between a bayou. There was a Bayou Brevelle. So it gets this Isle Brevelle from this bayou, from this Brevelle between Cain River, which is where the church is located on Cane River, between this and Highway 1 out at Montrose, there's a bayou. This bayou goes all the way down and falls into Cane River, down below the Isle. And then it comes all the way up and somewhere around Cypress or further than that, this bayou.

Jim Colley (06:01): So what we know is Isle Brevelle is actually the combination of two names, the name for the Isle and the name for Bayou Brevelle. That's real interesting. Ms. Dupre, we're going to take a minute for People's Bank and Trust to give us a good word. We're grateful to them for sponsoring this. We hope you'll stay listening and come back to us after this word from our sponsor.

(06:26): This is Jim Colley, and we're back visiting On Memories with Mrs. Marie Dupre. Ms. Dupre, when you grow up in families and you have parents. They always give you a lot of advice. What kind of advice do you remember getting?

Marie Dupre (06:42): Well, I remember getting advice from my father. He always said to us, "I'll send you to school, for you to be independent, for you to help yourself. And of course, I don't want you to let this land get away from you. That's yours, keep it until you die." And that we have tried to do. We still have our home place.

Jim Colley (07:06): That's quite a thing. I guess I remember my parents by the kind of advice they give, and your dad said, get that education and hold onto the land. And you did both. That's quite a thing. Education was pretty important for folks growing up then. You've been around and in education in Natchitoches Parish for a long time. And you've seen a lot of changes, I'm sure. What kind of changes have you seen that strike you as is most important?

Marie Dupre (07:38): Well, I would say that the youth of today seem to not realize that an education that will help you more than just going along without one. Course they usually say, "Oh, this person didn't have an education. He has a better job than I have." But that doesn't always hold water. I think the youth of today should try to elevate himself as high as he can and continue to do a better job after he gets an education.

Jim Colley (08:21): What do you think of all these Women's Lib movements? Describing when you went off to college and came back and started teaching you were involved in some liberated women's activities way back then.

Marie Dupre (08:35): Well, I think to a certain extent Women Lib is in its place. But I wouldn't say that in every phase of life that a woman should be taking the lead.

Jim Colley (08:54): A lot of women have kind of held the South together. When people rewrite Southern history, they talk about the women who got out, and plowed the fields, and taught the children, and cooked the meals. That was pretty much a part of life, wasn't it?

Marie Dupre (09:09): Yes.

Jim Colley (09:10): Mr. Dupre, do you ever remember seeing a car for the first time or getting to own a car? What was your earliest memory about cars?

Marie Dupre (09:20): My earliest memory about cars might've been before the 30s. I think I had a car of my own, which was a Ford. And of course, they were a lot different from the cars of today. They moved much slower. They weren't such beautiful...

Jim Colley (09:50): Didn't have all those-

Marie Dupre (09:50): Didn't have all those gadgets on them as the cars of today.

Jim Colley (09:54): Not quite as comfortable I'd guess.

Marie Dupre (09:56): No, not quite as comfortable because I'm sure they didn't have any air conditioning in it. Didn't have any heat.

Jim Colley (10:03): The air conditioning wasn't... didn't have any windows.

Marie Dupre (10:06): Didn't have any windows in [inaudible 00:10:08]...

Jim Colley (10:09): But that was quite an improvement, wasn't it?

Marie Dupre (10:11): It certainly was.

Jim Colley (10:11): Everybody needed cars if they could get them. Ms. Dupre as we finish up this time, let me ask you about the church you're a member of. Which church is that?

Marie Dupre (10:21): I said it was then called St. Joseph's Catholic Church, but the name changed after all of this transposing of the picture and all of that. Well, this changed the St. Augustine Catholic Church. And this Saint Augustine Catholic Church, I was christened there or baptized if you want to say. I made my first communion there. I was confirmed there. I was married there and on August the 16, I celebrated my 25th anniversary there.

Jim Colley (10:56): My goodness. Little parish churches like that are just kind of at the heart of everybody's life that lives around them.

Marie Dupre (11:03): And you ask about remembering how we went about funerals. In those days, the bodies were carried to the church, and they will wait at the home. Then they were carried to the church in a wagon probably drawn by mules or horses or what have you.

Jim Colley (11:23): And then the funeral service was held there in the church.

Marie Dupre (11:27): The funeral services were held in the church.

Jim Colley (11:29): And then you just walked out the door and you're right in the cemetery.

Marie Dupre (11:30): You walked out the door and you walked in a cemetery. Then probably after, after the funeral, the family went to the home and had dinner or whatever it was.

Jim Colley (11:44): But little old parish churches were real important to folks. And a lot of life got lived there.

Marie Dupre (11:50): Yes.

Jim Colley (11:50): Ms. Dupre, we're so glad we visited with you today.

Marie Dupre (11:54): Maybe I told some tales. Some of those people be calling me.

Jim Colley (11:58): Oh, they won't mind hearing those tales.

Jim Colley interviews Mrs. Marie Dupre about growing up in Natchitoches Parish, getting an education, and becoming a teacher.

July 2, 2026

75. Monroe Roberts

Transcript

Hubert Laster (00:01): This is Hubert Laster. And this morning we're visiting with Mr. Monroe Roberts. We're pleased to welcome you to the show, sir.

(00:10): Good morning.

Monroe Roberts (00:11): Oh.

Hubert Laster (00:12): You're supposed to talk.

Monroe Roberts (00:13): Yeah. Hello.

Hubert Laster (00:17): Mr. Roberts has been a minister for 55 years.

Monroe Roberts (00:23): That's right.

Hubert Laster (00:23): He's 92 years old now.

Monroe Roberts (00:25): That's right, next Saturday.

Hubert Laster (00:28): Fixing to have a birthday.

Monroe Roberts (00:29): Yeah.

Hubert Laster (00:30): We were talking earlier about your boyhood and you were going to talk to us about the way it was on the farm.

Monroe Roberts (00:40): Yeah. Well, I grew up on a farm. My father was a farmer and we thought we had a good time, but I suppose as the generation now look upon it as a hard time.

Hubert Laster (00:55): How's that?

Monroe Roberts (00:56): We knew no better. We made our own bread, syrup, produced our own milk and butter, and most everything had to come from the ground, farming. There were no money in circulation much, very little money when I grew up. We just had to make it for our own selves.

Hubert Laster (01:19): What kind of good times did you make?

Monroe Roberts (01:21): Well, the good times when we were all well, and that isn't most of the time. We didn't hardly know what a doctor was in our home. We grew up, 11 children, father and mother were pretty good doctors themselves. [inaudible 00:01:40] medicines [crosstalk 00:01:41].

Hubert Laster (01:40): Did they make their own medicines?

Monroe Roberts (01:42): No, they'd buy it in the store. Sometimes they'd make a remedy for malaria, something.

Hubert Laster (01:49): Do you remember what they made?

Monroe Roberts (01:51): Kind of a tonic, they called it. Made of a bark. Bitter bark with a little, what we call liver regulator. Or black draw.

Hubert Laster (02:00): Black draw, okay.

Monroe Roberts (02:04): Yeah.

Hubert Laster (02:04): What about school?

Monroe Roberts (02:06): Well, I remember the first day I entered school. I was five years old. That morning, that Monday morning, there's a hundred pupils there. They ran from 25 age down to five. One teacher, one auditorium. They were building near homemade, except the flooring was lumber.

Hubert Laster (02:29): Now, where was this near?

Monroe Roberts (02:31): That was Harmony community below [Provencal 00:02:33], three miles. In Ward Seven, [Natolish 00:02:37] Parish.

Hubert Laster (02:38): And what did they teach you, just the three R's?

Monroe Roberts (02:40): Well, I had different, we called it classes. They call it grades now, of course. Wanted to ask me what grade I was in, I wouldn't know what they're talking about. We called it classes. Different classes.

Hubert Laster (02:55): How far did you go? In education?

Monroe Roberts (02:58): Three months of the year is all we ever.

Hubert Laster (03:00): Three months out of the year?

Monroe Roberts (03:01): Three month of out the year. And some years, no funds, there was no school. Went sometimes two year without any school.

Hubert Laster (03:01): My goodness.

Monroe Roberts (03:10): But when we did, we got three months. And we'd get over so far in the books we had the speller, the reader, the geography, and the history. And other books and writing, and we'd get so far in the book about half, maybe the three months. They'd shove us along pretty fast and make us study them days and measure off the ball game and played at home and then home ground, but couldn't leave home for a game, but we studied and hard lessons. We took our books home with us, teacher made us take our books home, learn a lesson at home, and then the school would be out. And of course, we'd forget a lot and we'd have to come way back here. But the next three months we'd go a little further. And the next three months, the next year we could go a little further. We finally got through what we call the first history and geography and speller. And then we'd get a higher one.

Hubert Laster (04:12): Yes, sir. Well, the other nine months out of the year, you just farmed or what?

Monroe Roberts (04:16): Yes. We farmed for a living, that's right. And me and my brother walked six miles to a school the year we didn't have any. Our father, quick as we got through with our crop, we had to walk until led by the crop, we had a little gentle horse. We both rode that horse six miles when we didn't walk to school in the other community that had a school and we didn't. Yeah.

Hubert Laster (04:44): Now where was the big town then that you went to for supplies?

Monroe Roberts (04:48): Provencal.

Hubert Laster (04:48): Provencal.

Monroe Roberts (04:51): Four miles.

Hubert Laster (04:52): You went by horse and wagon?

Monroe Roberts (04:55): No. You couldn't buy a wagon there. They didn't sell wagons. We had a little nack to get our wagons, [Capon 00:05:00] Brothers wagons.

Hubert Laster (05:01): Capon Brothers?

Monroe Roberts (05:02): Yeah, my father both bought a few brand new wagons and my first recollection as long as he was able to work, drive a team of wagons.

Hubert Laster (05:14): You come from rather large family.

Monroe Roberts (05:16): Yes. 11 children of us.

Hubert Laster (05:19): But you had a bigger one, right?

Monroe Roberts (05:24): Yeah.

Hubert Laster (05:25): How many do you have?

Monroe Roberts (05:25): 12 in all.

Hubert Laster (05:28): 12 children. How'd you support them all?

Monroe Roberts (05:32): I don't know. The Lord just helped me some way, I guess. I guess something provided. Sometimes I didn't see where was the next ration was coming from, but it would be there. We wouldn't starve. We might near lived on bread and syrup or getting out of debt, getting my mortgage paid off on my place. I bought land, put it under a mortgage, till I paid for it at 10 percent interest and I had a pretty hard time getting through it. But I got us all through and we didn't starve, we done pretty good.

Hubert Laster (06:09): How much did you pay an acre for it then?

Monroe Roberts (06:11): I paid a dollar and a quarter.

Hubert Laster (06:14): Dollar and a quarter.

Monroe Roberts (06:15): For 160 acres. And I paid $500 for an improved 40 acres with virgin timber on it and a little house, a little homestead house, which is here.

Hubert Laster (06:28): Yes, sir. You were talking about in the wintertime and you had all your children around you and how y'all kept warm at night.

Monroe Roberts (06:37): Well, we kept, we had Chamblin fireplace in both ends of the house and tell you the truth, we worked most of the time to keep warm. But when we didn't and it rained and we couldn't get out at work, we'd just keep them old fires going.

Hubert Laster (06:53): Just keep those old fires going.

Monroe Roberts (06:54): Find pine knots all over the woods here and we'd cut our hardwood, billets of wood, help keep the house warm. Keep the doors closed, you keep a warm house. We didn't freeze.

Hubert Laster (07:04): I don't guess so. A lot of love, [crosstalk 00:07:06] lots of love. We need to take a break right now for a word from our sponsors. We'll be right back in just a moment. In case you've just joined us, this is Hubert Laster visiting with Mr. Monroe Roberts on the Memories program. And we were just talking about your smokehouse out in the back that you don't use anymore, but how it used to be.

Monroe Roberts (07:31): Yeah, used smoke my meat in it. Kill my hogs, salt it down, hang it up back there and smoke it. Green Hickory. Give it a good flavor. Usually putting now just boxes and barrels and things in, about all I use it for now. The old smokehouse, still have it though. Wouldn't tear it down for nothing.

Hubert Laster (07:55): You talking about those old wooden barrels?

Monroe Roberts (07:57): Yeah.

Hubert Laster (07:57): They got flour in them?

Monroe Roberts (07:59): Yeah. Flour come in them. Yeah. I have one yet.

Hubert Laster (08:04): How much flour?

Monroe Roberts (08:05): Well, there's 196 pound in a barrel.

Hubert Laster (08:08): And how much did you pay for it?

Monroe Roberts (08:12): I bought two barrels once for $3 and 75 cents a barrel, 196 to the barrel. Pound.

Hubert Laster (08:21): Prices have changed, I think.

Monroe Roberts (08:22): Yeah. So.

Hubert Laster (08:24): You saw the first roads in this parish, didn't you?

Monroe Roberts (08:28): Saw what?

Hubert Laster (08:28): The first black top roads?

Monroe Roberts (08:30): Oh yeah, yes. Not too long ago in this community.

Hubert Laster (08:34): How was it before then?

Monroe Roberts (08:35): Well, it was a gravel road before that, then before that a graded road. And then first of all, my first recollection, just an old road without a grader on it or anything else.

Hubert Laster (08:46): Who did the repairs on it?

Monroe Roberts (08:48): The citizens, community worked their own road. The old system with no pay. Had an oversharer party, some of his hands, you got them out there, spade and access to other things, cross cut saws, and we worked the roads so wagons could get over.

Hubert Laster (09:08): What about when you hit a bayou or something like that?

Monroe Roberts (09:11): Well, if there was no bridge at all, we tried to make the ford as good as we could on both sides so that sometimes they had to swim in, if they had a horseback, even with a wagon [crosstalk 00:09:26] swimming across it before there was no bridge.

Hubert Laster (09:30): Did you cut the wood and make a bridge if possible?

Monroe Roberts (09:34): The parish would build a bridge. Even my first recollection, if it was extreme in its size, contract it out to somebody that knew how to make a bridge across the streams and the parish would pay for that.

Hubert Laster (09:50): What about holes in the road? How'd you repair them?

Monroe Roberts (09:52): [crosstalk 00:09:52] fill them up with spades, pine tops, and dirt on them with spades. Build them up so the wagons could get over. And there's plenty of them too, I want to tell you.

Hubert Laster (09:52): Lots of them.

Monroe Roberts (10:03): Lots of them.

Hubert Laster (10:05): I guess those little wagons just made holes, huh?

Monroe Roberts (10:07): Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It cut down. It was narrow, it was narrow you know.

Hubert Laster (10:07): Uh-huh (affirmative).

Monroe Roberts (10:12): It's called a butcher knife wagon just because they're narrow tire. See, that's where they're making them wider later on, but my first recollection is narrower and narrower and they'd cut down, go hub deep-

Hubert Laster (10:28): Yes, sir.

Monroe Roberts (10:29): [crosstalk 00:10:29] right in the center of the wheel. And you're almost hub deep. Mule and oxen. My first riding in wagon, an ox wagon, I went to church in an ox wagon.

Hubert Laster (10:43): Tell me something. Were those old springboard seats, were they comfortable or was it more comfortable to ride in the back?

Monroe Roberts (10:48): In where? In the school house you mean?

Hubert Laster (10:50): No, on the butt boards. Wagons.

Monroe Roberts (10:54): Oh, well my father and mother would always have a spring seat front. We'd sit down in the wagon and about three hours, take the end gate out. We was going to church or anywhere else, hang our feet out. We can jump out if we wanted to, play around and gather flower, and come jump back in, that ox was going, tugging along.

Hubert Laster (11:14): Pretty slow.

Monroe Roberts (11:15): Oh, we had a lot of fun.

Hubert Laster (11:17): Were the oxen a little slow?

Monroe Roberts (11:19): No, they'd walk on along. You could hurry them or you could slow them up either one. Well, I had a yokel option train and you'd have a little rope on them. Speak to them like one of us, and they'd mind it. Yes sir.

Hubert Laster (11:31): Well, besides church, what were big occasions back in those days?

Monroe Roberts (11:37): Well, the school and the church was the main things with us.

Hubert Laster (11:43): What about holidays?

Monroe Roberts (11:45): Well, we'd always take off holidays unless it was Thanksgiving sometime we would Thanksgiving, but my father wouldn't make us work on Fourth of July unless we wanted to. Ever so far behind at our work, he let us off the Fourth of July if we wanted to get off. That was the main day with us.

Hubert Laster (11:45): And Christmas?

Monroe Roberts (12:03): Christmas is the biggest day of all, greatest day of all, Christmas Day. And we looked forward to that from one year to the next. Felt it would never come when we were growing up because we looked forward to hanging up our sock and Santa Claus coming down the chimney and filling it up for us.

Hubert Laster (12:24): And he always did.

Monroe Roberts (12:25): Always did. Well, we thought it was Santa Claus. We didn't know any better and we would have surely been hurt if somebody that said there wasn't no Santa Claus.

Hubert Laster (12:35): I guess so. Did you celebrate Thanksgiving then?

Monroe Roberts (12:39): Well, not particularly as I spoke a while ago, like we did Christmas and Fourth of July. I don't know why. Everybody doesn't, seeing it's a great beginning and a great holiday for America if we just come to know it and appreciate it, like we ought to Thanksgiving Day. The last Thursday in November is the day that in 1620 our Pilgrim fathers landed, I believe and began settlement of America.

Hubert Laster (13:14): How many were there?

Monroe Roberts (13:16): 101, they left on the Mayflower from England. Of the 101, one man died on board and one was born. So it threw over the same amount as they landed as they left with.

Hubert Laster (13:34): And from that time until now it's still growing.

Monroe Roberts (13:41): Oh yeah, yeah. I guess it is. I guess it is. I guess it is. I think our country leads the world in most everything, America. We certainly have been blessed, doubly blessed because it was a good start. Our Pilgrim fathers come seeking, not wealth, but they were seeking God.

Hubert Laster (14:11): And they found him.

Monroe Roberts (14:11): They found him. And we've been here ever since and this country has moved along faster in progress than any nation under the shining sun because of that.

Hubert Laster (14:23): Didn't you tell me that you received a special award for preaching?

Monroe Roberts (14:29): Yeah. I'll show you that in a few minutes, I have it up there on a wall.

Hubert Laster (14:31): What was it for now?

Monroe Roberts (14:33): Well, they gave me one, the first one was a honor day, where they gave me $700 in cash besides other things. And all of them gathered in the little church I serve here in the community. Then my birthday just followed that and the state, from even headquarters, [Alexandra 00:14:53], were some state men here with five churches and their pastors here, gave me a celebration day for my birthday. Two in too much time.

Hubert Laster (15:03): And that's for being a minister of the gospel for 55 years.

Monroe Roberts (15:08): Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

Hubert Laster (15:09): And you're 92 now.

Monroe Roberts (15:10): That's right, that's right.

Hubert Laster (15:12): So quick arithmetic, that's, you've been doing it since you were 33.

Monroe Roberts (15:15): Yeah, that's right. I believe it's 33.

Hubert Laster (15:19): Mr. Roberts, we've enjoyed visiting with you.

Hubert Laster interviews Monroe Roberts about growing up in Natchitoches Parish in a farming family, attending school, and preaching.

June 25, 2026

74. Minnie Lee Odum

Transcript

Dan Banuska: Today we travel back in time with Ms. Minnie Lee Odom after this message from Peoples Bank, our sponsor. Ms. Odom, we are very happy to have you with us on Memories this morning. Could you tell us a little bit about your own personal history, where you grew up and about your family?

Minnie Lee Odum: Well, I grew up partially in Catahoula Parish, it was then, it's now LaSalle Parish between Tullos and Urania is where I was born. But we were very unfortunate there in losing my... typhoid fever that so many people did have in those days, we lost my oldest sister on the second day of August, and then following on the 24th day of September, the next month we lost my mother. And so at the time of that, that I had already taken down with the fever myself, but we had the doctor that rode by the house and he'd come in and I had gotten to where I could walk, but by being almost propped, because it takes all the strength out of your limbs, you just don't have any strength left hardly. And so then that was why that first spell I had was just after my sister had passed away and then my mother was living, but then my mother had it also and I was up so I could just walk around.

Dan Banuska: So you were the nurse really in the family.

Minnie Lee Odum: Yes, and my father and one older brother and one younger brother.

Dan Banuska: What time in history are we talking about?

Minnie Lee Odum: Well, that would've been almost 1905. It was around in 1905 that we lost my mother and my sister.

Dan Banuska: That was quite common then, too.

Minnie Lee Odum: Yes. Oh, yes. So many people and so many of our young people passed away that we knew so well and that were friends of my older sister, especially. She was six years older than I was and I had a brother and then I had lost a little brother just with the childhood. So people not understanding conditions, some troubles and all the children had, my mother used to say, if we'd known then as we knew even when I was a child, we could have saved my little brother, but had the doctor, and didn't know how to treat him.

Dan Banuska: What was the treatment that they gave at that time?

Minnie Lee Odum: Well, for the malaria it was calomel and quinine. And I learned to do that about as good as any of them did because my father did it. And if he had to be gone, because he was a very busy man there being... we were 10 children, we were not quite all living at the same time because we'd lost my little brother before I was born. He was just older than I was.

And by this time, the 10 had been born, the time had come on and my youngest sister now was not a year old when my mother and sister passed away. And so it meant that my father had many responsibilities. He had the farm and we never did have... well, we never did have colored people on our farm at all. It was done by white people, but you couldn't get real reliable white people. When I say they didn't always live up to their word, you'd have just verbal understandings.

And we always had the family store next to us and did the furnishing there and for the people in the surrounding area. So they would get on time, they'd call it on time, put it on the book. And I could, and it doesn't sound like much now, but I have a book where it's over $6,000 that was put on the book that never was paid. Not 1 cent of it at all.

Dan Banuska: What kind of wages were people making at that time?

Minnie Lee Odum: Oh, that was 50 cents a day and money was a real good rate.

Dan Banuska: What could you buy in 50 cents at that time?

Minnie Lee Odum: Oh, of course, the truth about it is if you took care of things, you didn't buy very much. We didn't buy anything except coffee and flour and sugar. We raised everything else that we ate, all the potatoes and all the vegetables and we canned. I remember when we had the first canning machine, we used to put in jars, but we had a canner that we did it at home. And then we could have anything, you see. But you can't can everything by jars. I learned a great deal then that there's botulism that comes in and you can't get the germs that would grow in certain foods by just cooking it in open flame. You had to have pressure.

And it was only when we had pressure that we could save, for instance, butter beans. They just couldn't be kept. My own eating, it wouldn't have mind, it wouldn't have been bad. But some people just think if they don't have butter beans, they're missed a great deal. Well, my father did that. He got the families working on the place and we had about usually four or five families. And that meant that they used our stock. We had the stock and fed them and took care of them because everything was the one horse plow. It was all done in that way. And then with the hole that you hold, there were no cultivators.

In fact, Papa put in the little cultivators that we had that had to be mule-drawn. We had mules and we'd a pair of them to draw to do this. Cultivating have all the little plows that went along and not only in the hills, in the upright parts, right where the seed was planted, but in the middles too, cultivate that, and keep the grass down. And then my father was an estimate of timber. He could go ride through the woods and see some timber. I can see him now and I've ridden with him a lot of times. I liked it. And I have some land now in Winn Parish that we used to go over to see about it. And he had looked at that tree and he'd said, there's so many board feet in that tree.

Dan Banuska: That's a real art, isn't it?

Minnie Lee Odum: Uh-huh. Yes. And he knew that. So he estimated timber for the Urania lumber company at that time. That was something. And everybody in that section knows that certain people that I could name their names this morning. I had the experience not very many years ago, and my second brother who was living where he is now, that we went over and one of the Harteners was there. And while you just thought we had been childhood playmates all the time, he says, oh, we're so glad to have you all come in. Let me get these old pictures down here that used to be made when you all walked from that place up to Urania to where we went to school about three months in the summertime.

Dan Banuska: Let me interrupt you at this moment for a message from our sponsor, Peoples Bank. Once again, this is Dan Banuska and we are talking with Ms. Minnie Lee Odum on Memories.

Minnie Lee Odum: Well, of course, in taking care of everything, everything that you ate, all the vegetables, and we had vegetables the year round. We didn't just have vegetables in the spring and let it go down, but there had to be your collards or your winter cabbage and there had to be onions. And then your fall potatoes and the sweet potatoes of course had to be dug before the frost fell too much. They couldn't get bitten by the frost and we'd bank them so we'd have potatoes until all through the whole winter. And then-

Dan Banuska: What does banking potatoes mean?

Minnie Lee Odum: Banking, well, you fix a good a spot and have dirt in there and then put a lot of hay down and then start putting the potatoes in and getting it filled up. It was in like a wigwam in that shape. And just wigwams aren't there to fill them up to a point. And then they'd put more hay and then have boards that you'd lay against that and get them all covered up well, and then dirt would be shoveled and put over that and leave one place right in the front where you could always get in and get out your potatoes.

Dan Banuska: So farming and living then was a real art. You had to make sure that you had vegetables and fruit for the whole year.

Minnie Lee Odum: Yes, because it wouldn't do, we all knew that you couldn't live without vegetables. That's the most we knew about it, didn't know much of the composition. It was after then that I studied foods and learned of proteins and carbohydrates and fats and the minerals and the vitamins and all that came later. But there was something built up in my father and mother that just knew that had that through their lives, that they had to have fresh vegetables and they had to have meat. But instead of having a market that you went to, there were no markets. I know at that time, if there were any in Alexandria and Monroe, they were the closest ones. I'm not quite certain if there'd be any there because when we got beef, we only got beef two or three times a year. And then my father was always fattening a yearling, getting it, put it up and feed plenty of corn and the hay and all that it needed, and then killed that and divided it out among the people in the community because-

Dan Banuska: So the beef then had to be-

Minnie Lee Odum: Killed at home.

Dan Banuska: Killed and distributed and eaten immediately.

Minnie Lee Odum: Yes, it did, because there was no way of keeping it. But then the pork was different because it could be-

Dan Banuska: I'm going to interrupt you at that time because I want you to tell the story of pork on the next Memories. But before we conclude this Memories, I want you to tell briefly the first time that you tasted iced tea.

Minnie Lee Odum: Yes.

Dan Banuska: You tell me that story.

Minnie Lee Odum: Well, we had some friends who we hadn't known them so very long, but we were invited there, my older sister to have dinner with them one evening and with Mary and Ida. Name's gone from me. But anyway, it was something. Of course, I was all eyes, I always was, if anything food was about. And so when they had put this ice in their glasses, and of course, we had plenty of water from cisterns that had been made perfectly clean by somebody going on a rope down and washing them out and catching the cold water and it was snowing at the time, and we kept our cold water that way, but there was no ice. And anytime we had ice, it would be when people were very sick and maybe we could get the train to stop and let you have a piece of ice off of the train. But I tell you, their father was a Section Foreman and they could get ice. And so when they served us tea and we drank it, but I couldn't say that we were so very fond of it.

Dan Banuska: That was something that we, I guess, take for granted today having ice. Ms. Odum, it's been my pleasure having you on Memories today. And like I said, I plan to have you back again and we're going to talk about a story that you told about pork. We would like to close each Memories program with information that might be of particular value to the senior citizens.

If a taxpayer was blind at the end of a tax year, he is entitled to an additional exemption of $750. Let me repeat that. If a taxpayer was blind at the end of a tax year, he's entitled to an additional exemption of $750. If you have any further questions about this matter, please stop by and talk to the folks at Peoples Bank. They'll be glad to have you out.

I have a personal favor to ask of you. If you like Memories, call the people of Peoples Bank, or better yet, stop by and tell them personally. If you are over 60 and you have some memories you'd like to share with your friends in Natchitoches, call Peoples Bank 352-6404 or 352-8343. Or call KNOC, 352-9596. Or you can also call the Retired Senior Volunteer Office, 352-8647.

Dan Benuska interviews Minnie Lee Odum about growing up in Catahoula Parish, typhoid fever, managing a farm, canning, collecting timber, banking potatoes, and the first time she tasted iced tea.

June 18, 2026

73. Melvina Washington

Transcript

Hubert Laster: Good morning. I'm Hubert Laster, and this morning on the Memories program, we're going to be visiting with Mrs. Melvina Washington. We'll be back in just a moment after a word from our sponsor.

We're back again. Mrs. Washington, a lovely lady. She has been in Natchitoches Parish all of her life and she's 72. And you're not going to believe this, folks, but this woman does not look 72, she looks about 50 maybe. But anyway, this is Mrs. Washington.

Melvina Washington: How are you?

Hubert Laster: How are you?

Melvina Washington: Fine. How you doing?

Hubert Laster: Doing good.

Melvina Washington: Well, that's good.

Hubert Laster: You were talking about, you were born on the Bermuda?

Melvina Washington: On the Bermuda.

Hubert Laster: Uh-huh.

Melvina Washington: That's where I was born until I was 11 years old.

Hubert Laster: That's down on Cane River.

Melvina Washington: Down on Cane River, right. And when I was 11 years old, they gave me to my grandmother. Before she gave me to my grandmother, I was going to school. We had to go to school. We didn't have but three months' school, and in the three months maybe I'd put in a month. And we had to cross Cane River on a raft. You don't know what a raft is, do you? It was two logs with a board across it. And we had-

Hubert Laster: A boat?

Melvina Washington: Boards, you know.

Hubert Laster: Oh, boards, okay.

Melvina Washington: Boards across it. And we had to go get on that raft to cross the river in front our house to go to school. Now, I was going to school at St. Paul, it was at the church. It wasn't no schoolhouse then, it was at the church house. And that's where I was going to school. Well, I went to school there a couple of months until time to work. And when it was time to work, I had to stop and help pick cotton or either stop to help hoe. But I was real young, but I've been working all of my life. And when I was 11 years old, my mother had married. She gave me to my grandmother, and my grandmother and them all took down with the flu. And I was the only one didn't have the flu. All the people around in the neighborhood was down with the flu. And I would go around from one to another and fix soup for them and make tea. The kind of tea, in them times old people would have mint tea and they'd have another kind of tea, what they call horse mint tea. They would go out and gather these weeds and dry them and then make tea when you'd be sick with a cold or the flu. And that's what I had to do.

Hubert Laster: What kind of weeds are these?

Melvina Washington: Well, it's a kind of tall weed, it's kind of light, you know. Really, I almost forgot, really, how it grow, but anyhow, it had a lot of leaves on it. It was horse mint. And I would take that and boil it and make tea and give. When they'd give out a thing, they would give me a little money to go to the store and get things: a little lard, sugar, and coffee, and rice to have to fix lunch for them. And I would go, but they wouldn't let me in the store.

Hubert Laster: Why not?

Melvina Washington: Because the flu was quarantined, the place was quarantined, and they wouldn't let nobody in the store. You would go and stand on the outside and then you'd tell them what you want, and they would fix it and bring it and sit it out on the porch, and you'd put the money down and they would set the stuff and you'd pay for what you went after. And I would get on the horse and take it back to the house. You could get five cents' worth of lard, five cents' worth of sugar, five cents' worth of coffee, and five cents' worth of rice, which was 25 cents. And that's what I would take and have to cook food for them and go around. And I never did take the flu. And my uncle, I would help him work. I'd get out in the woods, we'd saw down trees, cut up wood, and tow it to the house. And when time to break up land, I would go and help him. We would take sticks and beat cotton stalks, you know the cotton stalks now what they plows them?

Hubert Laster: Yes, ma'am.

Melvina Washington: But them time we would have to take a stick and beat them down. And I would help him beat that. Well, when he would get ready to plow, I would run a turning plow with a turn of two foot in the middle, and he would come behind with a middle buster and bust it open and build up the row. And after we would get the land broke up and it'd be time to plant, well, he would go down in the middle, go down the row, and bust it open. And I'd go behind him and drop the seed. I'd drop corn and cotton, you know. When it was time to plant his corn, I would step, drop the corn all the way down. And he would come behind when I'd stepped, dropped, and cover it up.

And I would do that, and when 12:00 come, I would go home and I would help fix dinner, help fix lunch. And if they didn't have nothing for lunch, they would put me on a horse again to go to the store and get something. And in five minutes' time, you would imagine where I was living, where I had to go. And I didn't use no saddle. I'd just throw a pad on the horse and I was gone. The horse was named Nellie, and me and Nellie would go to the store, and I would be back time enough to get lunch ready.

Hubert Laster: Sounds like you wore old Nellie out.

Melvina Washington: Well, I tell you, me, Nellie really went. And I would help him haul wood. I would help him pick all the cotton, I'd help him load up the wagon and take it to the town up until I got old enough to marry. And I worked for myself from 11 years old. I've been going for myself since I was 11 years old.

Hubert Laster: We need to take a break right now. We'll be back in just a moment. If you've just joined us, we're visiting with Mrs. Washington this morning, and she's going to tell me something about what she was referring to earlier, about middle busters and turning plows and juniors. What is this all about? Tell me about it.

Melvina Washington: Well, a turning plow, that's a plow with just one blade on the side. And you turn, go down on one side of the row, and throw that foot to the middle, and you come back on that other side and throw that foot, another foot right where you threw the first one, and you come back with the second one. And it'd leave a ridge right in the center, and you'd come back with the middle buster. And when that middle buster come down-

Hubert Laster: Did it have two blades on it?

Melvina Washington: It had two blades, two like wings. You know?

Hubert Laster: Uh-huh.

Melvina Washington: And that foot would bust that center out and would throw that foot on each side, and that'd build up the row. That's what the way you had to get to plant your cotton.

Hubert Laster: Now, which one of these plows dug deep?

Melvina Washington: A middle buster.

Hubert Laster: Okay.

Melvina Washington: The middle buster was the one dug deep. And when the stuff grow, come up, we would take a junior and a little, it had about six little teeth, little small teeth on it. And you would go beside the row and your junior would break that crust loose before you'd get ready to hoe the cotton or the corn. And that's the way I had to do all of my days. I've been doing it all of my life. I never had found nothing too hard that I can do. Up until now, I'll try. At my age, I'll try to do some of it now. And we would pick our cotton. I'd help load the cotton, take it to the gin when cotton time, and when time to pull the corn, well, I would go with my uncle with the wagon, and he was on one side and I was on the other pulling corn and throwing it in the wagon and bringing it to the barn.

And I would help him unload the corn, and I would help him, sometimes it'd be night when we'd get ready to load our cotton. I'd get out there at night and I'd help him load cotton until 10:00, 11:00, 12:00 to get the cotton ready to haul it to the gin. And I was working for one bale of cotton and 12 bales of corn.

Hubert Laster: Now, how much was one bale of cotton worth?

Melvina Washington: $12. That's what I got out of a bale of cotton. And corn was 25 cents a bale. And you know how much that was, 12 times 25. That's what I got out of it, and I was living with them. But they was taking care of me, and that was for me to support myself with my clothes and my little school, and they would feed me. I didn't have to worry about food. They would give me all the food I need and take me. And I was raised in church. And that's where I was raised, I'd go to Sunday school every Sunday morning and come back home and eat dinner and go back for church for service that day.

And I never was a person to get out and go this place and that place, another place. When I'd go to church and Sunday school, I would come back home and I'd be happy. We'd get out in the yard and play. Run and play, and I'd have friends who'd come and visit me and we would have a good time, and I enjoyed it. And I worked with them up until I married in 1924.

Hubert Laster: So how old were you then?

Melvina Washington: I was 18 years old.

Hubert Laster: Okay.

Melvina Washington: When I married.

Hubert Laster: So a good age getting married?

Melvina Washington: Yeah. I married at 18, and me and my husband been together ever since. I have never left out of his house one day of my life. I've been right there with him. Raised my children, I raised four, I had four, two boys and two girls, and I raised five grandchildren.

Hubert Laster: How many years have you been married now?

Melvina Washington: 52 years, from 1924.

Hubert Laster: Oh, my, my.

Melvina Washington: And I have been right there with him ever since.

Hubert Laster: That's past what is the golden wedding anni-

Melvina Washington: Golden wedding anniversary.

Hubert Laster: My goodness.

Melvina Washington: That's what I have.

Hubert Laster: Paul Harvey ought to know about you.

Melvina Washington: Well, that's what it was. And I have never been no disagreeable, no, with nobody. I have got along with everybody I met, white and colored. I have friends know me sometimes and I don't even know them, because I love people and I love to be friendly with people everywhere I go. I'm not a stranger.

Hubert Laster: Well, you're not to me any more.

Melvina Washington: Not anywhere I went, I wasn't a stranger. That's my life. My children all grown and gone, and I've got one little granddaughter with me. She's 10 years old. I raised four and they done all got married and gone. I got 19 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Hubert Laster: My goodness. Sounds like a good time when you have a family reunion.

Melvina Washington: Yeah. Well, I've been wanting to have one. We have to have time. When they come home in the summer visit, I enjoy them.

Hubert Laster: Well, it's been an enjoyable morning visiting with you.

Melvina Washington: Yeah.

Hubert Laster: We have to go now.

Melvina Washington: Okay. I enjoyed being with you, and I hope that I'll be able to come back again. Thank you ever so much.

Hubert Laster: Thank you. If you would like to share your memories with us, would you please call the Retired Senior Volunteer Program? That number is 352-8647. This is Hubert Laster, wishing all of you a very pleasant, good day.

Hubert Laster interviews Melvina Washington about growing up in Natchitoches; crossing Cane River on a raft; stopping school to help pick cotton; tending to flu victims; turning plows, middle busters, and juniors; going to church; and on being married for 52 years.

June 11, 2026

72. Louis Nardini

Transcript

Dan Benuska: Today we travel back in time with Mr. Louis Nardini, or BB Nardini as he is more commonly known to his friends in Natchitoches. Mr. Nardini is the author of two books, My Historic Natchitoches, and No Man's Land, The Story of El Camino Real from Natchitoches to San Antonio. We'll be right back with Mr. Nardini after this message from Peoples Bank, our sponsor.

Mr. Nardini, welcome to Memories. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself, when you were born?

Louis Nardini: Well, now I was born February 10, 1914, and I've spent all my life here in Natchitoches.

Dan Benuska: Where were you born in Natchitoches?

Louis Nardini: Well, I was born on Sibley Street, at least that's where my house was then.

Dan Benuska: Can you tell me when did the Nardinis come to Natchitoches?

Louis Nardini: They came to Natchitoches... The first Nardini Rayfield Nardini, Sr. Came to Natchitoches about 1846. Now he and his marriage... it gives... his parents came, well, in island of Catania, Italy.

Dan Benuska: Why did he come over here?

Louis Nardini: Well, he came over here. He was engaged to Soldini. He had to work for him four years to pay for his passage over here, and after four years he was clear.

Dan Benuska: What kind of work did he do for Soldini?

Louis Nardini: He was a cabinet maker and a furniture maker, and also a bricklayer. Dan Benuska: For those people that don't know who Soldini is, could you perhaps just say a word?

Louis Nardini: Yeah. Soldini was a man, the contractor that come in that it was backed by Trezzini to a certain extent, and he built some of the houses like the Dunkelman house and the LeMay house, and I believe the home that Sadie Taylor lives in. I'm not sure about that one.

Dan Benuska: What did your, I guess, great-grandfather or grandfather-

Louis Nardini: Grandfather. He was my grandfather.

Dan Benuska: What did he do after he worked as a cabinet maker for Soldini?

Louis Nardini: Well, he went in the business for himself, then. And, of course, all he got from all his labor. He also was able to swing with the times in Natchitoches. It established a grist mill. He actually bought a steamboat. It was sunk, and he got that boiler out of it and the machinery out of it, and he had a grist mill here in Natchitoches.

Dan Benuska: What time in history are we talking about?

Louis Nardini: We are talking about now about the 1870s. And then, well, he did gin stay work, certain amount of blacksmith work, and then mostly his business was in bricklaying. That was about the time a lot of brick work was done around Natchitoches, and I have one brick that came off of the Vienna plantation where they built houses for what was slaves at first and then later on is sharecroppers.

Dan Benuska: That's a memory for you then?

Louis Nardini: Yeah, it's a memory for me because one brick after he lay all the bricks, the last brick that he put out on the top of the chimney, he wrote Nardini on it.

Dan Benuska: That's quite a souvenir.

Louis Nardini: And I have one of those bricks.

Dan Benuska: Now, you told me also that you were related to the Bloodworths.

Louis Nardini: The Bloodworths-

Dan Benuska: And a story about a levy. Can you tell me about the Bloodworth Levy?

Louis Nardini: The Bloodworth Levy was Alfred Bloodworth. Now his mama was Ann Bloodworth. They own that property now, which is known as Northwestern State College campus. And the old lady, Ann, the original, the widow of James Bloodworth, Sr., came here to Natchitoches in 1820, and in 1830, her son... She was living up there what we known as the Bullard house. It's really the old Ann Bloodworth house. Bullard, all he did after he got into it— I'll get into that later— was build some rooms on the side of it, but that is an old Ann Bloodworth home.

Dan Benuska: Where was the levy?

Louis Nardini: The levy was right down on Mill Street. Now every time someone crosses that levy, they owe somebody something.

Dan Benuska: When was the levy completed?

Louis Nardini: It was completed in 1830

Dan Benuska: And there was, you said a toll levy?

Louis Nardini: It was a toll levy. Instead of having a bridge there, this was a toll levy. Everyone going across that, the people who walked across had to pay a penny and then it graduated up. I think you could cross anything for 15 cents, but all that is on records at the courthouse of how he got permission to build a levy. The size of the levy at water level was 40 feet, and at the top of it was 20 feet across.

Dan Benuska: What can you see of the levy there now?

Louis Nardini: The levy is Mill Street, that part of Mill Street where College Avenue ends and you go around.

Dan Benuska: Okay.

Louis Nardini: That is the levy today. There should be a marker there because it's a hundred and something years old now. Now, for example, Alfred Bloodworth had a son, Mack Bloodworth, who lived at Grand Ecore... who later he lived at Grand Ecore. Now everybody crossing that, the city didn't buy that road from him, and they started the procedure of buying it, but they only paid down so much and they never completed the sale. So everyone crosses that levy owes [unintelligible 00:06:11] in Campti. [unintelligible 00:06:13] she's the son of Moses Alfred Bloodworth... daughter of Moses Alfred Bloodworth. They owe her money for crossing that street now.

Dan Benuska: That's something that no one knows about. Let me interrupt you at this time, and we'll have a word from Peoples Bank, our sponsor. Again, this is Dan Benuska and we are talking with Mr. Louis or BB Nardini as he is known, on Memories. Mr. Nardini, one of the things that you told me, some very interesting information about some of the early laws in Natchitoches. Some of those laws were the early pollutants laws. Could we talk about those for a bit?

Louis Nardini: Well, that's a point there. That early pollutants law is this. We didn't even know we had a word such as pollutants back there then.

Dan Benuska: When was this?

Louis Nardini: But it is a pollutants law, and it's written pollutant, and that was in 1816, and it concerned the privies in Natchitoches. All those people would build their privies over ditches, and then when the rain came, it would flush it all down to the lower end of the ditch. Now, one in particular was this ditch that was formed between Second and Third Street. The ditch is still there, but all people up above, living up above built their homes over the privy. Now it all went down Horn Street during the rain.

Dan Benuska: So that Horn Street wasn't a good place to live?

Louis Nardini: Horn Street was a drainage ditch.

Dan Benuska: Right.

Louis Nardini: And of course that was right in the business section of town then, what was business section. Horn Street was bridged in several places and then it had an odor about it, naturally.

Dan Benuska: Right. You mentioned that the privies were sometimes called Louis the 14th.

Louis Nardini: Louis the 14th, the house of Louis the 14th.

Dan Benuska: Can you say why? Tell us why?

Louis Nardini: That goes back earlier. When the people first came into the area in 1700, and a little bit earlier and so on up while they were stuck here, boats gone. They had to root hog or die then, and the only way they could get back at the king was called it the little outhouse, the house of Louis the 14th.

Dan Benuska: Right. One of the things that you told me was about a soldier that had come to town with some money and really-

Louis Nardini: That's another pollutants law [unintelligible 00:08:52]. Now he had $85 on him.

Dan Benuska: What year was this?

Louis Nardini: That was a little bit later on. That was about in the 1830s.

Dan Benuska: Okay.

Louis Nardini: Now he came to Natchitoches, got drunk, I guess. Anyway, he was drowned in [inaudible 00:09:14]. Well, the judge then decided they had to bury this man, and so anyway, his bill come to the actual cash he had $85. To get him out, and they fined him for polluting the stream.

Dan Benuska: For dying in the stream-

Louis Nardini: Dying in the stream, polluting it, and they fined him for it, and that's what the charges were against, and naturally he was guilty of it. He didn't know it, but he was guilty of it. Then there were several about the area that died in this area, not knowing where the people come from or what they had on them. You could get a $14 lawsuit or a $60 lawsuit or a $2 lawsuit, whatever cash you had, that's what they took, and then it was brought in the court, then they buried you.

Dan Benuska: Could you tell me... You mentioned an interesting story about a man who was fined $25.

Louis Nardini: That was one of the Prudhommes down Cane River was racing his horse up what is now Jefferson Street coming into Front Street because Natchitoches always had a front street, see, and he was fined $25 because his traffic could hurt someone. He could run over a dog or something like that. On the same bill, on the same page in that book at the courthouse in the sheriff's business, as a fellow killed another, he was fined two and a half.

Dan Benuska: So if a man killed somebody-

Louis Nardini: So if a man had run across someone and killed him, his fine would've been less than it would've been if he had just been caught for speeding.

Dan Benuska: Mr. Nardini. I see we're running quickly out of time. We have about one minute, and you mentioned something to me about a famous tree in Natchitoches. Could you tell briefly about that?

Louis Nardini: The old live oak tree there in Natchitoches, it's at the corner of Second and St. Denise Street. Now that tree there used to be back there when I was a kid, and maybe before that, was just a meeting place for people and someone come into town or something while they could just stand around by that old oak tree and sooner or later who they were looking for would pass that. It was kind of a rendezvous oak.

Dan Benuska: So that old oak tree is the oldest thing in Natchitoches.

Louis Nardini: The oldest thing in Natchitoches, I believe.

Dan Benuska: Well, let's end at that point. If you're looking for something that reaches far back in history, go stand under the old oak tree. Mr. Nardini, thank you for being on Memories, and I look forward to having you back again. We would like to close each Memories program with information that might be of particular value to the senior citizens. This information is in terms of making a will. A will aids in estate planning, so as to help you escape excessive estate taxes. Plan on making your own will. If you have any further questions about this matter, talk to the folks at Peoples Bank. They'll be glad to help you out. I have a personal favor to ask of you. If you like Memories, call the people at Peoples Bank, or better yet, stop by and talk to them personally.

If you're over 60 and you have some memories you'd like to share with your friends in Natchitoches, call Peoples Bank 352-6404 or 352-8343. You can also call direct to KNOC 352-9596 or the retired senior volunteer office at 352-8647.

Dan Benuska interviews Louis Nardini about growing up in Natchitoches, his family, the Bloodworth Levy, early laws in the area, fining a dead man for pollution, and the oldest tree in Natchitoches.

June 4, 2026

71. Lou Robertson

Transcript

Hubert Laster: Good morning. This morning on the Memories Program, we're going to be visiting with one of our most senior, senior citizens, Lou Robertson. We'll be back in just a moment after a word from our sponsor. Good morning. You've just joined us. We're about to visit with Mama Lou Robertson. She is a wonderful lady. How old are you?

Mama Lou Robertson: I was born 18 and 73, January the first.

Hubert Laster: That makes you how old now?

Mama Lou Robertson: I'll be four years old at this coming new year.

Hubert Laster: Four years old, like a car you're going to start over at over a 100000 miles. 104 years old. And, you're a good woman.

Mama Lou Robertson: Good [inaudible 00:00:46]. Ask all these nurses what I is, they'll tell you.

Hubert Laster: Where were you born?

Mama Lou Robertson: I was born in Montgomery, Louisiana. That's my native home.

Hubert Laster: I see. And, who was the family that you lived on their property?

Mama Lou Robertson: Hat Gray and Martin Gray. But my daddy wasn't Martin Gray. My daddy was a Collier. He was a white man.

Hubert Laster: I see.

Mama Lou Robertson: I never did see him, but I knowed his sister and his brother, but I never did see him. He got killed at a coffee house in New Orleans.

Hubert Laster: In a coffee house in New Orleans?

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes, sir.

Hubert Laster: Is that a bad place?

Mama Lou Robertson: I don't know, sir.

Hubert Laster: Okay.

Mama Lou Robertson: I don't know what he'd done, but they upped and killed him.

Hubert Laster: Tell me about growing up, what you remember about when you were a child. What did y'all do?

Mama Lou Robertson: What job was...

Hubert Laster: What did you do when you... You grew up on a plantation-

Mama Lou Robertson: Well, when I was 10 years old, mama started me to cooking. My mama started me to cooking and I'd cook. I can cook. I'm a good cook, but I can't read and I can't write. But, I'm naturally a good cook.

Hubert Laster: Naturally?

Mama Lou Robertson: Naturally a good cook.

Hubert Laster: You were talking about buying your own land?

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes, sir.

Hubert Laster: How did you do that?

Mama Lou Robertson: I took the money out of my pocket.

Hubert Laster: How did you earn the money?

Mama Lou Robertson: The governor was paying me.

Hubert Laster: The governor?

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes, sir.

Hubert Laster: Paying you money for what?

Mama Lou Robertson: Well, I was living, live on. And my washing and ironing bought the lumber and stuff and paid for my house. I didn't take the government money to pay for my home. I took it out of mine. I was washing and ironing.

Hubert Laster: What did you do with the government money?

Mama Lou Robertson: I live on it, eat on it.

Hubert Laster: Oh, I see.

Mama Lou Robertson: That's what they give it to me for.

Hubert Laster: Oh, I see.

Mama Lou Robertson: Well, I got governor money here. There's two checks at this office up here, and I don't get nothing but just... Now, I have to sign to get four bits. I sign to get four bits and I got two checks. Well, my old folks pension check before I left home was $100, and they done raised my social security and raised my old folks pension checks since I've been up here.

Hubert Laster: When you bought your land in Montgomery, how much did it cost you an acre?

Mama Lou Robertson: $10, one acre, one acre.

Hubert Laster: $10? And, how much did your house cost you?

Mama Lou Robertson: $500.

Hubert Laster: Didn't you tell me about the man that built the house, what he said about you?

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes, sir.

Hubert Laster: Would you repeat that please?

Mama Lou Robertson: Well, I'll tell you, I bought the lumber and I bought the land, and I paid for my house with washing and ironing. I washed for a heap of people, and I could do some nice washing and ironing.

Hubert Laster: Is that right?

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes, sir.

Hubert Laster: What did you use for starch?

Mama Lou Robertson: Starch?

Hubert Laster: Starch. How did you starch the clothes?

Mama Lou Robertson: I made starch and starched them, and let them dry and ironed them.

Hubert Laster: How did you make the starch?

Mama Lou Robertson: Put on a pot and let the water boil, and pour the starch in that and stirred it up.

Hubert Laster: Have you ever heard of using flour for starch?

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes, sir.

Hubert Laster: How do you do that?

Mama Lou Robertson: You take that flour and you mix it up good, and let that water boil and pour it. Pour it in there and just stir it until it gets thick as you want it, and then you quit.

Hubert Laster: Do you put grease in it or anything?

Mama Lou Robertson: No sir, I don't put grease in it.

Hubert Laster: The one lady was telling me you put grease in it.

Mama Lou Robertson: I didn't never put no grease.

Hubert Laster: Well, I believe you.

Mama Lou Robertson: I never did put no grease.

Hubert Laster: You said that you cooked.

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes sir, I'm a good cook.

Hubert Laster: Did you ever work for anybody as a cook?

Mama Lou Robertson: I cook for ladies. I just worked, you know, when they'd call me. The old lady would be sick and her daughter would call me to cook for them, and the daughter say, ain't that nice.

Cooked greens, I can cook greens, and make anybody eat them. Snap beans, I can make anybody eat them. But, these snap beans and greens here, you can't eat them.

Hubert Laster: Is that right? Is it bad food?

Mama Lou Robertson: We never got no meat for dinner.

Hubert Laster: You'd eat a lot of greens? Do you eat collard greens?

Mama Lou Robertson: I eat all kinds of greens, but they got to be cooked right. There ain't no grease cooked in them greens. There ain't no grease cooked in them butter beans. There ain't no grease put in them peas.

Hubert Laster: You're talking about bacon grease?

Mama Lou Robertson: No kind of grease.

Hubert Laster: Yeah, but to make them good, you put bacon grease in them.

Mama Lou Robertson: They don't put no kind of grease in them. The water, just as clear. It's just that greens what makes that water green, and that, potatoes, I add grease and all that liquor.

Hubert Laster: Could you give me your recipe for greens? How do you make greens if you were going to make them?

Mama Lou Robertson: I take some meat, and let that meat boil.

Hubert Laster: Salt and meat?

Mama Lou Robertson: Let it boil good, half fat and half lean. Put that in, and let it boil good. And, I put some moisture in my greens, nice and clean. I put them in there and let them cook, and I don't cook no water in them. I cook them dry.

Hubert Laster: And, how much grease?

Mama Lou Robertson: I put a piece of meat in there.

Hubert Laster: Oh, and that gives the grease off?

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes, sir. I don't put the grease. I put some meat in them.

Hubert Laster: It takes a long time to cook, doesn't it?

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes, sir.

Hubert Laster: But, it's worth it?

Mama Lou Robertson: That's what I'm talking about. That stuff, I'm telling you.

Hubert Laster: I believe you.

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes.

Hubert Laster: We need to take a break right now, and we'll be back in just a moment.

If you've just joined us, we're visiting with Mama Lou Robertson. Tell me about your mother. You said she was a doctor.

Mama Lou Robertson: She sure was a doctor. There's one man that called her, him and his wife called my mother, and told her to come, that the baby was sick and it wouldn't nurse the breast, and come and see what she could do for it. Mama said, well, if you let me do, give it what I want to give it, I'd had her suck before I get the oil in it. Mama give it to Calma, and she went to work. She said, I'll give it oil when I come back. And the baby was nursing when mama come back to get the baby, it's oil, help her sleep. He said, but look here. Same [inaudible 00:08:17], and that's a good doctor.

Hubert Laster: And what did she give the baby now?

Mama Lou Robertson: Calma.

Hubert Laster: What were some of her other medicines that she gave people?

Mama Lou Robertson: Well, for your back and your head, she would take, tell the truth. She'd take camphor and turpentine, and put those brown peas to reach back here, slam down to the end of your back.

Hubert Laster: From your neck all the way to the end of your back.

Mama Lou Robertson: And when you'd be there a minute or two, your backache would be gone. Your head, she'd take brown paper, put the pepper on it and black pepper and put it back in your neck and it'll gone.

Hubert Laster: Just go away. Just like that.

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes sir. And my son, I don't care how bad you had a hiccup. My oldest son, Tory Johnson, he was in a band. A preacher had a hiccup three weeks, night and day. He couldn't sleep with hiccup. I said, Reverend, I said, what's the matter with you? I've been had this hiccup for three weeks, night and day I can't sleep. I said, well, my son can kill that little known thing.

He said, well, I wish you'd tell him. But I called him. He come, come to the bed. He says, Reverend, what's the matter? Says, I've got the hiccup so bad. He just hiccup-in. He said, hand me your hand. He handed him his hand. He stood up there. He got his hand, said “where are the hiccups?” Said, “I ain't got none.” See, and they will have no more.

Hubert Laster: Did your mother teach your son to do this?

Mama Lou Robertson: Huh?

Hubert Laster: Did your mother teach the son to do this? Yeah.

Mama Lou Robertson: Don must have taught him. My children was Christians, but they died.

Hubert Laster: Was your mother a Christian?

Mama Lou Robertson: All of them. My stepfather and all.

Hubert Laster: How did she acquire this knowledge of medicine?

Mama Lou Robertson: I reckon the Lord showed it to her. Well, they had me in the hospital. In Natchitoches, for the arthritis. I couldn’t use this hand and I couldn't walk. And they kept me in there six weeks, and they discharged me. I couldn't walk or use this hand, but I went home. I had a dream, said, get you some doctor's tissues, antiseptic, and pat it, wet your hand, pat it on them joints and said, you'll get all right. I'm done sure. So I didn't know to go back to the doctor no more. I cured myself. Well, that and the Lord showed me what to get.

Hubert Laster: Is everyone in your family like this?

Mama Lou Robertson: Yes, sir. I converted my daughter next to my oldest daughter on her sick bed. Her husband, she was with a baby. The husband kicked her in the side and the doctor had to take it and he brought it to my house, brought her to my house, and the doctor told him to tell me to put her feet and leg in some hot water, hot as she could bear, and bathe and put her to bed.

And he said, "No, you ain't going to put her to bed." I said, "Who?" I said, "This is my child." I said, "Ain't no care in the unit. That's your wife. I think she'll never get out of here until the Lord take her." And so after he left, he said, she said, "Mama." I said, "what is it baby?" She said, "I don't want to go to hell when I die." I said, "Well, if you repeat the words that I pray for you, you'll get religious this evening." But I went to praying for her. She must have had a bond right on the Lord. I prayed and I prayed. I got my prayer and I was walking out the door praying.

She said, "Oh mama.” I said, “what is it, baby?” She said, “come here. I got something to tell you." She said, "Look at my hands. My hands don't look like they used to look. Said when my eyes is close to death, I'm going home to rest." I says, "Thank God."

Hubert Laster: Ms. Robertson, we've enjoyed visiting with you and if there's any way possible, I'll be back again to visit with you again.

If you would like to make a tape recall, please, the Retired Citizens Volunteer Program at 352-8647. This is Hubert Laster, wishing you all a very pleasant day.

Hubert Laster interviews Lou Robertson about growing up in Montgomery, her father’s death in New Orleans, buying land at $10 an acre, cleaning laundry and cooking for a living, her recipe for greens, and her mother’s work as a doctor.

May 28, 2026

70. Lou Ivy pt. 2

Transcript

Hubert Laster: Good morning. This morning on the Memories Program, we're going to have a return visit from Mrs. Lou Ivy. We'll be back in just a moment after a word from our sponsor.

Good morning to you. This morning, Mrs. Lou Ivy from Coldwater has graciously consented to tell us a little bit more about her life. Because her last tape was so excellent, we've come back again. Tell me about when you were growing up, what you used to do for pastime and work time.

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Well, we didn't have any pastime except on Sunday or when we had company, because there's work to do all the time. My stepmother was in awful bad health and I had a new baby brother or sister about every two years. I used to say she had the children and I had to tend to them.

I was the oldest one of the children, and my sister was younger than me. She didn't have no patience. And she had one of the children and would tend to it, rocking it. Where she'd pinch it or something, make it cry and I'd have to take it.

And the way I studied my spelling, I'd get the rocking chair and that baby in my lap and I'd rock and spell the word and make a song out of it. Sing it to put it to sleep. And when I got ready to work my arithmetic... It wasn't called math then, it was arithmetic... I'd sew on the floor, this old wooden floor. You could see the chickens through the cracks. And put the baby between my legs that way and put my paper and pencil out here and do my math or English if I had any diagramming. Or write a story from a picture, whatever I had to do, and hold the baby.

Hubert Laster: How many cows did you used to milk a day?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Each morning, each night, milked from seven to fifteen cows.

Hubert Laster: What kind of cows? That's a lot of milk, isn't it?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: No, it's not a lot of milk because they were beef cattle type. They didn't give much milk. They were [inaudible 00:02:31] cows and you had to take a pole to beat them to get a cup of milk from each cow. Of course, we had more milk than we could use. And milk we didn't use, I'd give to neighbors, hands was on the place. Pop always worked a couple of half hands and a monthly hand. Well, we'd give milk to our neighbors and then give it to the chickens, the hogs, whatever.

Hubert Laster: Bunch of well-fed animals, I suppose. You built a chimney or you know how to build a chimney.

Mrs. Lou Ivy: I helped build, I don't know... Five, I know of. I remember helping build five.

Hubert Laster: How do you build a chimney?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Well, you cut a place out, not quite as wide as those two windows. I'd say those windows is two foot, that's four foot. You'd cut a place outside the wall about, oh, I reckon five-foot high. And then in the floor you'd come out. We always made a big hearth. Some people say hearth, some hearth. I don't know which is proper. And then we'd build a box where they cut this out under the house and fill it up with dirt and rocks and fix it slightly back that way.

And then we'd get [inaudible 00:04:13] pine posts that's taller than the house, about two or three foot taller than the house, and put outside there. And have four of them, one on each side nailed to the wall. And then posts holding them put the other two out there. And then we'd cut a tree down and make boards, because we didn't go to sawmill and buy boards because there weren't many sawmills around. We'd split our own board. And after we'd fill this box up with dirt, Pop would take the wagon and go to what we'd call chimney dirt. Just any dirt won't make a chimney. You have to go to a kind of pin-oak swamp and get that kind of dirt. And then he'd make a big box and work it up that we'd all get in there with our feet barefooted and work that dirt up.

And have moss. He'd go to the moss hills and get the moss and bring, and got that dirt worked up. You'd get that moss and a big double, a handful of that wet dirt. Mix up moss in it, make it a cone shape. It wasn't hardly, you couldn't call it a loaf of bread. And they were called cats. These things that she made the chimney. These sticks then, that we had rived out of pines, oak, whatever was handy for us to nail them to these posts and lay these cats over these sticks like that. And to keep it going on up until you got it to the top with the cats.

Hubert Laster: Okay. You'd have to put rocks in it, right?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: No, you didn't put no rocks in it.

Hubert Laster: No rocks at all?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: No, it just had moss. And if you couldn't get the moss, I have helped build them with hay before it was cured.

We'd always build a fireplace in the house, a way out. Saw up a log, and we always built a big fireplace. So we'd now cut such small wood and make it slanting. And so if we'd go to bed at night, the logs wouldn't roll back on the floor.

And we'd go to bed with a good fire and next morning we'd have plenty of big coals there, and get in our kindling wood at night and just put on the kindling and blow. You had to be saving matches back then. And each one of the children had their certain evenings to do up the kindling and get the wood in on the porch.

And I never did tell my children but the first time what to do. And if they happened to forget it, I'd go their said time. If it happened to be Leroy's time to get up the kindling, I'd go wake him up and he had to go out in the deep frost or some snow and get the kindling and bring it in next morning. And believe me, they'd never forget it but one time.

Hubert Laster: So that's how you make a chimney? I didn't know. I'm glad you told me.

Mrs. Lou Ivy: And build a fire back in there, you see, out of the house. The fire wasn't in the house, but the heat, you know, come back in the house. And you've heard mantle boards where it was always put a shelf over the top. And if you didn't have a big grandfather's clock, you had them big striking clocks and they'd sit on the mantle. And people didn't have living rooms then. That big room, the fireplace room they called it then, was so big they had two beds in the, what we called a living room.

Hubert Laster: So it was a living room and bedroom?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Bedroom.

Hubert Laster: I see.

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Besides the other bedrooms.

Hubert Laster: We need to take a break right now and we'll be back momentarily. In case you just joined us, we're visiting with Mrs. Lou Ivy down Coldwater way. We were talking before about how to make a chimney. Now my next question to you is how do you make sure that the smoke doesn't come back into the house?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Only way I could explain that is it's narrow at the top and it's going up. And I guess it just wouldn't turn and come back. I couldn't tell you that.

Hubert Laster: It's wide at the bottom, then?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: A whole lot wider at the bottom. And it goes up.

Hubert Laster: How much above the rooftop did the chimney-

Mrs. Lou Ivy: About three feet above the rooftop. Most people would build it and they'd gable in. And after that it had to be a taller chimney. But in later years, the last few chimneys were built it on the side and didn't have to [inaudible 00:10:08]

Hubert Laster: What about things falling into the chimney? Did you have anything to catch it?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: No. I didn't know was you needing. We never had no trouble.

Hubert Laster: Well, I don't guess you needed it then. You were talking about a Model T hood?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Yeah, we'd always, if we could find one, we'd put it inside the chimney so that when you throw the stick of wood in, that wouldn't gouge a little hole in the dirt.

And we'd always have to cure the chimney before we could build a big fire in it. And curing it is keeping a little slow, slow fire in it for several days. And where it wouldn't dry out fast.

Hubert Laster: I see.

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Bake in that.

Hubert Laster: These chimneys that you build like you're talking about, once they're cured, are they hard like brick?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Yeah, they're hard like brick. If you just put them big sticks of wood in there and throw them in, it wouldn't bust the chimney. I had them without these Model T hoods in them. And once in a great while we'd have to patch it in summer, a little hole maybe or something. But they were...

Hubert Laster: They were all right?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: They were all right.

Hubert Laster: Good.

Well, right before you went to bed at night... Changing the subject... What did you do for pastime? Or was there any time?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Yeah, we always had time because after dark we couldn't do much outside. And in the fall and the wintertime, we'd always gather plenty of hickory nuts and walnuts and burst them before dark. Have a big pan, sit around the fire and eat hickory nuts. Or we'd have parched peanuts. And in the summertime we'd play games like with corn or peas, play hull-gull or draw pictures or rigging-

Hubert Laster: What's hull-gull?

Mrs. Lou Ivy: Everybody'd have so many grains of corn or peas. And say like you give them twenty-five, and I'd put one or two or three, whatever went into my hand. And I'd say "hull-gull," like we was playing to you and you'd say, "How many?"

No, let me see. What you would say, I'd have peas or corn and a great pinch of corn in my hand, and I'd say, "How many?" to you. And you'd tell me. If I had five in my hand, you would say seven, well, you'd have to give me two.

And if I'd had ten in my hand and you said four, well you'd have to give me six. And the one that used up all the corn first, the one that had the most corn when we quit playing, won the game. Most of the grains of corn.

Hubert Laster: It sounds like a fun game. At the time anyway.

Well, Ms. Lou, it was very enjoyable visiting with you today.

Mrs. Lou Ivy: ... having you here. Because it seems like the children have enjoyed listening to it because that's why they all was calling me. My neighbors was, when they played the wrong tape when you supposed to play my tape.

Hubert Laster: Thank you.

I don't know what to say. To our listeners out there, if you have memories that you would like to share also, would you please call 352-8647 and I'll be most happy to record them. From the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program and myself, good day.

In a follow-up discussion, Hubert Laster interviews Lou Ivy about taking care of her stepsiblings, milking cows, how to build a chimney, pastimes, and childhood games.

May 21, 2026

69. Lou Ivy pt. 1

Transcript

Hubert Laster: Good morning. I'm Hubert Laster, and this morning on the Memories Program, we're going to be visiting with Aunt Lou Ivy. We'll be back in just a moment after a word from our sponsor, Peoples Bank and Trust.

Hi. We're visiting with an incredible woman. She is... Well, she's incredible. I'm just going to let her talk to you, Aunt Lou.

Aunt Lou Ivy: Well, I was born in Texas and lived there about three years.

Hubert Laster: Wait a minute, when were you born?

Aunt Lou Ivy: In 1897. And we come to Louisiana in a covered wagon. My papa had a horse and mule, and we had to camp out and come across Sabine River on the ferry boat and we stayed there all night. The children, there was me and my sister and baby brother, and we slept in the wagon. Papa and mama slept under the wagon.

And we come to Victoria and Papa traded a mule for 40 acres of land and then homesteaded 80 acres. And when they had to work to pay for the land, had two houses on it, and when we didn't have any garden to pay for it, he cut wood because there were no electricity in the little town of Victoria. He cut fire wood and stove wood for everybody. And to pay for the land, he cut this wood, as I said, and we had to save every penny we could.

And we had cornbread and water for dinner and supper and breakfast when we had no vegetables. And sometimes he'd go in the woods and kill a deer and bring it home and we had some of the meat. And he sold the venison to the people in Victoria community, their town. And we paid for the land.

And I had two more brothers, but each one of my brothers died and it was just my sister and I. And then my mother died when I was five years old and I stayed with my aunts until he married again. And after he married again, he sold Victoria Place and went to Robeline and bought what was known as the Wynn Place.

I think that Mr. Jack White was the first person that had that place I knew anything about. And we stayed there and I went to school at Robeline, my sister and I. And when we rode a wagon, two mules pulled the wagon, and when it was bad weather, all the girls and boys that was big enough had to get out and help the mules push the wagon up the hill. And finally we would be so muddy when we got a home, Papa cut a trail from our house, across the pasture and would come in close to the colored schoolhouse. And we could always beat this school bus there and we wasn't so muddy and nasty.

And when I was in ninth grade, I married. I run away and married. My Papa didn't know nothing about it.

Hubert Laster: What did you do when he found out about it?

Aunt Lou Ivy: Well, I'd already left. We went to Brother Middleton's there in Robeline, got married. My husband's name was Roy Horn. And Papa, he come through Robeline... The people, some of the old people tell you now, and everybody would see and ask where I was and they'd tell them they didn't know because, naturally, they didn't know. And he got so mad about it.

Then, my husband and I had two children. He died in 1918 and I worked some. I had just one child then. My oldest little girl died just before her daddy died. And then in... Then, I've got my pages, I guess, cold. I can't read them. Married Tom Aida then, and we had eight children and times were sure hard back then. That was during Depression.

We didn't have enough to open the land. My papa already died and this was his estate and it was divided up, and was no house on the place. So we had to buy old barns and old houses and things to build a house. We just built a frame and moved in.

And, well, you couldn't get a job. My husband walked for weeks and weeks and couldn't get a job. He said you'd have to kill a man to get a job during that time.

Hubert Laster: I've heard that. We need to take a break and let's come back and talk about the Depression. If you've just joined us, we're visiting with Aunt Lou and she's going to tell us about the Depression as she knew it.

Aunt Lou Ivy: Well, we had a large family. We built the frame house, we moved in and put partitions in with the lumber. Built a fireplace. We had eight children, and we would work all the land that was cleared on my strip that I inherited. And at night we'd put the children to bed and go down next to the cleared and we'd clear land and save the poles and trim them up until we got a good piece cleared. And then two or three nights every night, we'd go work til 12:00 and come home and go to bed, and get up next morning before daylight.

After we got a good bit cleared, then we'd set the brush piles apart to see how to dig post holes and build a fence with the poles. And we had one horse and we raised good-sized crops. And the children, as soon as they'd come in from school, they changed the clothes and got them something to eat. If there's anything in the garden, it'd be onion blades and a piece of corn, and right into the field they'd go. And we always bought meal flour in sacks, and I'd save the sacks and made underclothes for the children out of them. And when we'd pick our cotton, we'd take the cotton sacks and make our towels out of them. And you can guess they wasn't very soft. They were not the towels we have today.

Hubert Laster: I don't guess so. Kind of rough on the skin.

Aunt Lou Ivy: Before we went on the WPA though, him and the two older boys would strip cane for a gallon of syrup a week.

Hubert Laster: Now, wait a minute. What is stripping cane?

Aunt Lou Ivy: Stripping cane is cutting it with big knives, cutting the leaves off the cane, haul it to the mill to make syrup out of it.

Hubert Laster: Uh huh, okay.

Aunt Lou Ivy: And we got a gallon a week for the work. And the syrup, you couldn't get over six bits a gallon of syrup after it was made. So, you know, we didn't have very much money and we didn't buy any luxuries at all. We bought our coffee and sugar and after we got to farming, we had biscuits on Sunday morning. And the rest of the time it's cornbread that we'd raised and carried to mill.

Hubert Laster: You know, I've heard that if you're going to go out in the fields and plow, that you better have a piece of cornbread with you. Don't take no biscuits. A piece of cornbread. Is that right?

Aunt Lou Ivy: I reckon it's pretty true because I eat a whole lot more cornbread than I have biscuits. But we finally got enough open land where we didn't have to work on a rent land or rent land from Miss Maude Valentine. We rented land from Mr. Wesley [unintelligible 00:11:05]

Hubert Laster: Oh, don't worry about it.

Aunt Lou Ivy: Oh, one little neighbor bought the house on Westlake... part of Mr. Wesley Sanders' land. And he was so tight, he wouldn't let the children eat the blackberries on the end of the road. He'd say he wanted to save them, but him and his wife, neither one ever picked them and he wouldn't let us have water out of his well. We had to carry our water to the field with us.

Hubert Laster: Sound like a tight old man. I don't think I'd want to work for him.

Aunt Lou Ivy: Well, we got his land a little cheaper to work for him, but we had a hard time of it.

Hubert Laster: I think I have worked for people like that. Well, we have really enjoyed visiting with you, but it's time to go now.

Aunt Lou Ivy: Well, it was nice to have you.

Hubert Laster: If you would like to share your memories with us, would you please call the Retired Senior Volunteer Program? That number is 352-8647. This is Hubert Laster wishing all of you a good day.

Hubert Laster interviews Lou Ivy about traveling to Louisiana in a covered wagon, her father trading a mule for forty acres of land, eloping, building a house, her memories of the Great Depression, and clearing land.

May 14, 2026

68. Leatter Dupre Coutee

Transcript

Jim Colley: ... Memories with Leatter Coutee. We'll be back-

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Put Dupré on that. Put Dupré on that.

Jim Colley: All right.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Because you know who my ancestors were.

Jim Colley: We'll be back with her in just a moment after this word from Peoples Bank & Trust.

Good morning again. This is The Memories Program, and we're visiting with Mrs. Coutee. Now what did I leave out of your name that you wanted me to say?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: D-U-P-R-E, with an accent on the E.

Jim Colley: And so people will know who your ancestors were?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: That's right. That's right. That's right.

Jim Colley: We were visiting about Melrose and the Cane River Country, and you were talking about the 24 Mile Ferry.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Yeah, that's right.

Jim Colley: Tell me about that.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Okay, 24 Mile Ferry was just on the other side of JB. And Paul Dupré used to charge 10¢ a fare to go across it.

Jim Colley: Now that was on the Cane River?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Right here. Right there on Cane River. Right there.

Jim Colley: Right here south of Melrose?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Right side, right side next door to JB there. Right there, right there. Right between Colleen and JB.

Jim Colley: So it cost-

Leatter Coutee Dupre: There was a store there, a billiard room there. That's why it's called the B-Yard. They always called the B-Yard. It's a billiard room there too, a store. There was a grist mill, corn mill, you know. And on this side was Paul's uncle. He had a big blacksmith shop. His name was Sobren Dupré. He had a blacksmith shop, he had a sugar mill, and he had cattles, horses, buggies. A buggy in those days was a luxury. That was a luxury. Very few people had buggies in those days.

Jim Colley: Now what time are we talking about?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: We talking way back 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, all the way down the line.

Jim Colley: So there was a little community here called the Billiard?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: The B-Yard was the store.

Jim Colley: B-Yard. Ah.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: The B-Yard, that's the billiard room. They all used to play. Women didn't go there. Men only went there. But they had the women went in the store part, just separated. And there was a big mansion there. Charles Dupré's mansion was painted white and green, and there were six cedars in front of that house. [inaudible 00:02:10] cedars painted white. The bottom was painted white. Painted white. Then the store. Then the store.

Jim Colley: So that was quite a little community there?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Oh yes, it was like a small village in a way, because the houses were near together. And [inaudible 00:02:24], just below that, he also had a sugar mill. Made syrup. You cook syrup long because you have sugar. That's the idea. He was down there. And as a child of five years of age, when I'd hear the boat call, I'd grab my grandmother by her hand. She said, "Don't bother me, I'm..." In French, she would say to me, " [foreign language 00:02:45]."

And I would grab her by the hand, and, "Let's go on the bank. Let's go on the bank and see the boat in there. Let's go see it." And she'd go with me, sit on the bank, and we see those big people, those big husky men unload the boat right in front there. [inaudible 00:02:59], right there. The merchant was there.

And the dances used to be at the Perrine's house.

Jim Colley: Now wait a minute, don't get to the dances. Tell me about those boats. Were those the big river steamboats?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Oh yes. Those boats, these come from New Orleans. They delivered the stuff for the people. They took the cotton from here and brought back the merchandise. That's how they would do.

Jim Colley: And you remember seeing those boats come up here?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Oh yes, in 1905, sure I do.

Jim Colley: Did they turn around here and go back? Or did they go-

Leatter Coutee Dupre: I don't know. Now that I don't remember.

Jim Colley: You just remember-

Leatter Coutee Dupre: I remember seeing them unload. I used to love to watch them unload. And no matter what my grandmother was doing, I'd bother her. She'd fuss with me, but she would take me. And take me aside. "Let's go see. Let's go see. I say to her." And she'd grab me by the hand, "[inaudible 00:03:46]," said, "[foreign language 00:03:47], you're bothering me," she would say. And we'd go and we'd go.

Jim Colley: But she always went with you.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Oh, she wouldn't let me go on the bank alone. Oh, no.

Jim Colley: How often did those boats come up from New Orleans?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: I think about once or twice a month. I'm not quite sure.

Jim Colley: So it was a special kind of occasion when they came up?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Oh, yes. People used to order things from New Orleans, and wait for the boats to come home to get their stuff.

Jim Colley: What would you order from New Orleans?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: I didn't order. The store. We'd get from the store. The stores would order them. But I remember my grandmother telling me, my grandfather, Sobren Dupré used to go very often with the boats, him, and buy things and bring back for his family. A lot of people did that, you know. A lot of them did go back with the boat. A lot of them did. And they'd come back, and a lot of stuff for the family.

Jim Colley: Ms. Coutee, we're going to take a break right now for Peoples Bank & Trust, but we'll be back in just a moment.

This is The Memories Program, and I'm Jim Colley. And we're visiting with Ms. Coutee about Melrose Community down Cane River. What did folks do back in the early 1900s for recreation?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Well, we had dances, private parties, private dances, private parties. Sometimes we'd dance on lemonade and cake. Sometimes we'd have popcorn balls. Sometimes, it was pralines. And during Christmas, it was eggnog.

Jim Colley: Oh, boy.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: They'd dance too. And we used have that. We always had that during Christmas.

Jim Colley: Where were the dances held?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Different place. Different homes. Oh, different homes.

Jim Colley: But always in a home?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: In a home, yes. Different... There were no halls yet then. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

Jim Colley: Where were the very best dances held?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: At Dupré's. Dupré, J Dupré. That was the best dances there. It was, that house was enormous house. Way up in the daytime, there was a great big parlor. For dances, they'd move the furniture out, and the dances were there. Cousin Edward used to play the music there. And that was the best dances of all there.

Jim Colley: So that was the top society?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: That was the top society. When you were invited there, you were somebody. Oh, yes.

Jim Colley: Now who was that person, where the dances were held?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Dupré, J Dupré. He was married to Perrine Metoie, the ex-daughter-in-law of [foreign language 00:06:06]. Because her first husband was Garcian. And then he was, Garcian... She was Garcian's third wife. But she was my uncle's second wife, my great uncle's second wife. That's my grandfather's brother.

Jim Colley: I bet she was an interesting person.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: She was. She was a rather strong, masculine woman. Very strong and masculine. And when she spoke, she spoke. And wherever she went, she carried her seven sisters with her.

Jim Colley: Uh-oh.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Oh, yes. She used to go play for the Cajuns on Little River. She'd play for anybody. She'd come across that river, and in her buggy, and she'd pick Louise, her husband's niece, or me, sometime both of us. We want to go. We'd go with her. And she'd go to the woods, and we'd say to her, "Cousin [inaudible 00:06:54], aren't you afraid?" She said, "Not long, I got my Seven Sisters with me." Oh, she carried a gun, no worries.

Jim Colley: So she was safe with her gun?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: She called it her Seven Sisters.

Jim Colley: And she called that gun her Seven Sisters?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Seven Sisters.

Jim Colley: And that was all she needed?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: That's all she needed. And believe it, nobody didn't monkey with her either. Nobody monkeyed with her. A man, nobody. They didn't monkey. Frankly, a lot of the Caucasians didn't monkey with her either.

Jim Colley: Nobody did.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: No, no, no. Not her, not her brother, not her father.

Jim Colley: Where did the bands come from?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: There were no bands. She played.

Jim Colley: Who played? She played?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: She played.

Jim Colley: On the piano?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: No, no, on the fiddle.

Jim Colley: On the fiddle?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: No, she had a violin, a beautiful violin. I know what they'd got it when her house burned down. She played. And sometimes she'd have somebody accompany with her on the guitar. I don't remember who it was anymore, but she, with her a violin.

Jim Colley: So she hosted the party and she provided the music?

Leatter Coutee Dupre: And she made them behave too.

Jim Colley: She was the bouncer.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: That's it.

Jim Colley: All rolled up into one.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: That's it. My husband was telling me, Manlow tried to behave bad. And Manlow is a big six-footer. She threw him down the steps.

Jim Colley: Whew. That was something else.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: But I remember Zickel and Adams. I think it was Zickel and Adams. Zickel Dupré, a relative, a grand-nephew. And Adams [inaudible 00:08:14] had started to fight. She told them don't fight her ballroom. And they wouldn't listen. So she just took to them, dragged them to the front porch. She knocked their heads together and threw them out.

Jim Colley: Whew. Well, we were glad to visit with you this morning. We're all out of time, but we'll come back and see you. And we thank you for being on The Memories Program.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: Oh, good.

Jim Colley: We'll see you later.

Leatter Coutee Dupre: All right.

Jim Colley interviews Leatter Dupre Coutee about the 24-mile ferry, watching the steamboats unload, the Melrose community, dances at the Dupre’s, the “Seven Sisters”, and her formidable relatives.

May 7, 2026

67. Joseph Leggett

Transcript

Jim Colley: Good morning. This is Jim Colley. And we're visiting this morning in the home of Mr. Joseph Leggett. Mr. Leggett, we're glad to be here. And we'll be talking with you in just a few moments, after this word from Peoples Bank & Trust, our sponsors. This is The Memories Show. My name is Jim Colley. Mr. Leggett, we're glad to be with you.

Joseph Leggett: I'm glad to have you.

Jim Colley: Thank you. When were you born, sir?

Joseph Leggett: I was born October the 8th, 1899.

Jim Colley: Before the turn of the century.

Joseph Leggett: That's right.

Jim Colley: Where were you born?

Joseph Leggett: At Georgetown, Louisiana in Grant Parish.

Jim Colley: Do you remember much about growing up in Grant Parish?

Joseph Leggett: I remember more than, the real sentimental things to me happened mostly in Caldwell Parish. My father moved up there when I was about three years old, and I lived there till I was almost 10. And then he moved back to Grant when his health began to fail him.

Jim Colley: What do you remember about growing up in Caldwell Parish? What was life like?

Joseph Leggett: Well, I remember the first year it started me to school. I remember that. And we had to walk three miles. And there's a hornet's nest on the side of the road. And the big boys would stir them up there and let them get us little fellas. That first year, I just went what I wanted to. I'd go with the older kids to school, and when I got tired of it, I'd just go home. I wasn't but six years old, but I'd go make that three miles by myself. I didn't go back until the next day.

Jim Colley: What did you think of school?

Joseph Leggett: I just thought it looked more like a playground than anything else to me then, when I was that little, because there wasn't much to the studies, you know. And we always, you seemed to live so far from the school [inaudible 00:02:14]. I didn't ever get to go to school very much up there, because I was closer to the school after I come back to Grant Parish. And I done most of my school days after coming back to Grant.

Jim Colley: Was school just a one-room schoolhouse with one teacher taking care of everybody?

Joseph Leggett: Yes, that's the way it was. I remember now, Miss Boatner, she'd give me the only lick in school that I ever got.

Jim Colley: Is it fair to ask you what you did to get that licking?

Joseph Leggett: Yes, it's plenty fair. I thumped a paper ball at a girl.

Jim Colley: Oh, I bet you gave girls a lot of trouble then, huh?

Joseph Leggett: Yeah, I was pretty bad after the girls.

Jim Colley: But the teacher just didn't catch you very often?

Joseph Leggett: That's the only time. That girl, she picked up that paper ball and carried it up there and showed it to her.

Jim Colley: And pointed you out?

Joseph Leggett: Yeah, and pointed me out.

Jim Colley: You didn't think-

Joseph Leggett: She just come back there with that big long switch and give me a rap over the back.

Jim Colley: Not much said about it after that though?

Joseph Leggett: No. That's the only trouble I ever had, serious trouble.

Jim Colley: Well, that's not bad at all.

Joseph Leggett: I thought that I had done pretty good. When I was in Caldwell Parish, when I wasn't but six, seven years old, I had me a girlfriend.

Jim Colley: Ah.

Joseph Leggett: And her mama would make her come see me every day.

Jim Colley: Her mother would make her come see you?

Joseph Leggett: No, she'd make her mother bring her to see me every day.

Jim Colley: That's not bad. What did your father do?

Joseph Leggett: He was a farmer.

Jim Colley: Do you remember much about farming?

Joseph Leggett: Well, I remember pretty much about them farming. I didn't do none of it because I was too young. He died when I was 10 years old, and that ended the farming.

Jim Colley: So did you ever spend any time out in the field with him?

Joseph Leggett: Yeah, everywhere he went, I was with him. He didn't go nowhere without me.

Jim Colley: What'd you grow, cotton?

Joseph Leggett: Yeah, he'd grow cotton and then feed stuff, corn, potatoes, everything like that.

Jim Colley: Did you remember your grandparents? We were talking before the show about your grandparents in the Civil War?

Joseph Leggett: No. It's too bad, I don't remember my grandparents on either side, because I wasn't but 10 years old, as I said. And they was all dead before I remember. But I used to love to set up at night and listen to the tales that my mother told about what went on back there. Now them, they had some days back there. Is it all right to tell what happened back then?

Jim Colley: Yeah, let's hear some of those stories.

Joseph Leggett: Well, sir, my grandfather, he dodged the war, that war. He didn't believe in slavery. He had already freed his slaves, and he wouldn't go to war. And he lived four years in a hollow tree.

Jim Colley: Oh really?

Joseph Leggett: Yeah, he did. He lived four years in that hollow tree right across the river from where he lived. And every Saturday evening, he'd come across the river, and he'd shave and clean up. So first one another would come and stay with him, you know. And in that country there was five John Nugent's.

And his nickname was Stickum John. And there was John Buckskin, and John Whistle Britches, and different Johns. I remember Buckskin John, he lived with him a while. And so, one time there was a man living over in that tree with him by the name of Carney. And he had him and his wife, and they were both a young couple. And they come across the river like they always do. And Carney, he shaved, cleaned up first. And after he got through, my grandfather started.

And while he was shaving, they looked and seen the cavalry coming down the road. And he made out like. He did run outside. And my grandmother said, "Oh, don't run, John." Says, "They'll kill you. They're too close." He says, "Well, I can give my partner a change." And he run outside and they hollered, "Halt, halt," and all that kind of stuff.

So Carney, him and his wife had went down on the river bank, right close to the boat. And his wife, she went way around, come down the road. And they was questioning her, said, "You got a husband?" She said, "No," says, "I'm just an orphan girl lives here with these people." But she told my grandmother after they left, said when he heard them hollering, said he just didn't wait for the boat. Said he just rolled over in that river and swum across to their island. That island, I'll tell you, they named it Stickum's Island. And that's what the name of it is today.

Jim Colley: Did the cavalry catch your grandfather at the house?

Joseph Leggett: Yes, they caught him at the house. And he had this horse belonged to his partner. He was a race horse. And he was a trick horse too, and he'd do all kinds of tricks. So he had planned a place in mind up the road to make his getaway. So up about close to Rochelle, he come to this place in the road where it was just a zigzagging. And he had that horse, his head right towards home, and he stuck spurs to him. And he went around the bend so fast, they began to holler up ahead, "Shoot him, shoot him." And his lieutenants, they had a man with every one. His lieutenants said, "Shoot, hell, in damnation. How can I shoot him when I can't get sight of him?"

And they never even went back after him, at all. They just let him go. He went on back, got back home, and my grandmother said that when she seen him coming down the road, said, "That horse didn't look like his four feet ever went to the ground." Said, "It looked like they just stayed up there under his chin." He just come run up to the gate, throwed the reins over the pickets, and going in says, "You got that coffee hot?" She said, "No, I ain't thought about no coffee." He said, "Well, heat it. I ain't going nowhere until I get some coffee."

Jim Colley: He had had enough of an escape right there. Mr. Leggett, we're going to pause just a moment and take a break for Peoples Bank & Trust. But we'll be back with you after this word from our sponsors. This is Jim Colley and we're visiting with Mr. Leggett on The Memories Program. We're looking now at a grocery list that your father used?

Joseph Leggett: Yeah, my father made that-

Speaker 3: That's [inaudible 00:10:39]-

Joseph Leggett: ... grocery bill.

Jim Colley: This was dated, gosh, in 1906. And it's on a piece of old ledger sheet. And we're looking at some grocery prices from back then. Those are really memories now, aren't they?

Joseph Leggett: Yes, they are.

Jim Colley: What's the one you find most interesting on there?

Joseph Leggett: I don't know. I couldn't read it without my glasses. I read with glasses and I can't see it.

Jim Colley: It says here that 27 pounds of bacon sold for $2.10 cents. I can hardly believe that. Here's 19 pounds of bacon for $2.40 cents. Now here are 10 yards of cloth, a dollar. Those are old prices, aren't they?

Joseph Leggett: Yes, that.

Jim Colley: It's hard to remember when they were that. I guess you spent most of your life in Grant Parish?

Joseph Leggett: Most of my life, yes.

Jim Colley: What did you do there?

Joseph Leggett: Well, after I got big enough to work, I worked on the railroad. I went to work on the railroad when I was 14 years old.

Jim Colley: How long did you work for?

Joseph Leggett: I worked about 18 years.

Jim Colley: That's quite a while.

Joseph Leggett: Yeah, up until the war, the second war, when they got to where they didn't use no men much in the second war. They just cut the force down to where we just make about a dollar and a half, a day and a half a week. And I quit the railroad then. And I moved over to Natchitoches Parish, over there in Provençal. That's where my wife's people lived. And from then on, over there I just used my daddy-in-law's team and cut wood and stuff like that for the people.

Jim Colley: We've got time for one last memory, Mr. Leggett. Do you remember anything special about growing up that you want to share with us?

Joseph Leggett: Yes. I'd like to say that my father was a cotton farmer, and I call myself, helping him do everything he done, I went with him. He'd go pick cotton. I'd go down there with him and pick three or four handfuls and put them in his sack. And then I'd get a straddle of that sack and ride it the rest of that half a day.

Jim Colley: That was some help, wasn't it? Riding on that sack.

Joseph Leggett: That's right.

Jim Colley: Mr. Leggett, we've enjoyed visiting with you in your home. We appreciate being here and we thank you for sharing your memories with us. And we hope that some of those folks who are listening to this show will call in and tell us they have some memories to share with us too.

Joseph Leggett: They surely ought to have as good of ones that I have.

Jim Colley: Thank you very much and Peoples Bank & Trust and I thank you for calling in and wanting to share your memories with us. We hope you have a good day.

Jim Colley interviews Joseph Legget about growing up in Caldwell Parish, walking three miles to school, listening to his mother tell stories about his grandfather during the Civil War, his father’s grocery bill, working on the railroad, and helping his father pick cotton.

April 30, 2026

66. John Rubin

Transcript

David Dollar: Good morning. My name is David Dollar, and we're glad you've joined us for Memories today. We're going to visit with Mr. John Rubin of Natchitoches, and we'll begin our program right after this message from our sponsor, Peoples Bank and Trust Company. Hello, once again. In case you're just joining us, this is David Dollar. We're going to visit today in the home of Mr. John Rubin, with Mr. John Rubin of Natchitoches. And Mr. Rubin, why don't you start things off for us this morning. Just tell us a little bit of background information about yourself.

John Rubin: Well, what I know, I know the first steamboat come through here.

David Dollar: You saw the first steamboat that came through here?

John Rubin: Went to look at it.

David Dollar:

When did it come through? John Rubin: It come through, I was about five years old.

David Dollar: How old are you now?

John Rubin: I'm 84. I'm 84.

David Dollar: 84 now so you were born in what year to save me from subtraction.

John Rubin: 1892.

David Dollar: 1892. July the 4th.

John Rubin: July the 4th. Oh, I tell you. So you're celebrating almost right in line with the bicentennial this year, huh?

David Dollar: Must be.

John Rubin: Tell me about the first steamboat that you saw. What do you remember?

John Rubin: The first steamboat come through here Georgiana Bass.

David Dollar: Uh-huh.

John Rubin: Jessie Kay Belle and the Muskova. Them the three I saw. You see, I was in Cloutierville then I was living down in Cloutierville-

David Dollar: Right.

John Rubin: ... then. My daddy gave me away when I was about five years old, and I stayed with Dr. Scruggs.

David Dollar: I see.

John Rubin: Came over there in Cloutierville.

David Dollar: What do you remember about the steamboat?

John Rubin: Yeah, I was there in Cloutierville.

David Dollar: What do you remember about it, though? Was it big?

John Rubin: Oh yeah, two-story high. The Roberta was two-story high.

David Dollar: Why did the steamboat decide to come through here then? What was it that brought it through here?

John Rubin: They all loading seed and cotton.

David Dollar: Oh, the cotton. Loading up-

John Rubin: Cotton and seed right down here.

David Dollar: And it was going what to Shreveport or New Orleans there?

John Rubin: Going to Shreveport and New Orleans.

David Dollar: Unloading, all those kinds of things. You say you were living down in Cloutierville. What kind of things did you do when you were growing up?

John Rubin: I just stayed with Dr. Scruggs. I'd hitch up the buggy and drive him to town. If he want to come to town to see a sick person, I'd go with him.

David Dollar: Right. So you were sort of a handyman with him then?

John Rubin: With him, yeah.

David Dollar: Helping the doctor make his rounds and things like that. It's real interesting. Tell me about some of the things. You mentioned you've got a sister that's had a little prominence here lately.

John Rubin: Yeah, my sister, she, called her Clementine Hunter.

David Dollar: And she's still down the river, isn't she?

John Rubin: She's still down Cane River.

David Dollar: Do you remember ever watching her draw or things like that?

John Rubin: No, sir. I never did stay there and watch her draw.

David Dollar: I guess, it was sort of interesting though, looking back on it too.

John Rubin: Oh yes, sir. It was interesting.

David Dollar: Did you ever do anything like that, try to express yourself?

John Rubin: No.

David Dollar: Anything like that? You too busy driving the doctor around, I guess.

John Rubin: That's right.

David Dollar: I see. What were some of the things that you and, well, brothers and sisters, all the folks you grew up with, what were some of the things y'all did around the house?

John Rubin: Mama would ask us to do something. She'd tell us to do something if we wouldn't do it, but she ain't got do us nothing until that night. When that night come, we saw her.

David Dollar: Saved it up for you, huh?

John Rubin: Yeah, she saved up that up for at night.

David Dollar: And then next time-

John Rubin: One night she told me, she said, "John," she said, "you see this sun?" I said, "Yes." She said, "Well, you know what I mean." I said, "I know what you mean." She said, "All right." So I stayed late playing with them boys, and I went on in, knocked at the door. She said, "Who that knocking at my door?" I said, "This your boy." She said, "Oh, no." She said, "That's a man. You can't come in here." I said, "Well, where I'm a sleep, Mama?" She said, "I don't know, under the house. You ain't coming in here." And I didn't get in.

David Dollar: You didn't make it home by sundown, did you?

John Rubin: No, I didn't make it home. She told me. And I was sorry.

David Dollar: I bet, so.

John Rubin: I thought I was done with it, you know. The next day, she got that switch and put on me.

David Dollar: You had forgotten about it and she hadn't.

John Rubin: No, she hadn't.

David Dollar: I guess mamas are like that all over the place.

John Rubin: Right.

David Dollar: Let me interrupt you right here. We need to take a brief commercial. We'll be right back on Memories again. Visiting with Mr. Rubin this morning right after this message from People's Bank, our sponsor. Hello once again, in case you're just joining us, this is David Dollar visiting in the home of Mr. John Rubin today. Mr. Rubin, we were talking about all sorts of things here just now, getting whippings and things like that. Talking earlier, you told me about you had kind of a funny incident about going to school, beginning your education. Why don't you tell us what happened?

John Rubin: Well, I went one day in my life to school and Dr. Scruggs taught me the Bible at night.

David Dollar: So you only went to school one day?

John Rubin: Just one day. That's all.

David Dollar: Well, what was it that made you stop going to school?

John Rubin: Pulling my nose and ears.

David Dollar: What, the teacher?

John Rubin: The teachers did. And I just quit.

David Dollar: She was sitting there messing with you or something. How old were you when you first went?

John Rubin: I was about seven years old.

David Dollar: And just didn't see much sense in that foolishness she had going on, pulling ears and such.

John Rubin: Oh, no.

David Dollar: But you said that you learned to read and write from Dr. Scruggs.

John Rubin: Yeah. From Dr. Scruggs.

David Dollar: The doctor that you were helping. I see. Going back... Well, skipping a few years. What are some things, when did you move to Natchitoches from Cloutierville is what I'm trying to get out.

John Rubin: About '28, 1928.

David Dollar: 1928. What were some of the things you did around here? You lived such a full life?

John Rubin: Just farm that's all.

David Dollar: Just kind of farming around?

John Rubin: Farming around. And I work in the yard around here, 20 yards a week, I'd cut.

David Dollar: My goodness. Had a busy week. Sounds like it.

John Rubin: Oh, yeah. Every week.

David Dollar: Every week.

John Rubin: 20.

David Dollar: 20 all the time. Golly. What are some of the biggest changes you can remember about Natchitoches growing up here and living here for so long?

John Rubin: I worked at the oil mill down here for about five, six months, and I worked at Normal [Inaudible 00:06:59] College.

David Dollar: Oh, you worked at the college too?

John Rubin: Oh, yes.

David Dollar: I guess the college and the town both have really changed a lot since you first moved here.

John Rubin: They changed plenty.

David Dollar: Well, that sounds good. We're getting on a little bit late in the program here. You've got a real special closing memory for us and I want to save some special extra time for that. Found out Mr. Rubin was kind of pulling our leg a minute ago. I asked him if he did anything ways of expressing himself like his sister, Clementine Hunter did, and he said no, but I found out since that he plays a harp. And as his closing memory today, Mr. Rubin's going to give us a treat on the harp like he used to do a while ago. Why don't you go right ahead, introduce it or do whatever you need to do.

MUSIC: (music)

David Dollar: All right. That was one of my favorite closing memories I've ever heard. Mr. Rubin, we thank you for joining us today.

John Rubin: Yes, sir.

David Dollar: Very much. We thank you folks at home for listening. If any of y'all have memories that you'd like to share or someone that you think would be good on the program, why don't you give us a call. We're using the Retired Senior Volunteer Program office and their number is 352-8647. We thank you again for joining us. We thank the Peoples Bank for bringing this program to you.

David Dollar today on Memories visiting with Mr. John Rubin, we thank you for joining us and have a nice day.

John Rubin: Thank you, sir.

David Dollar interviews John Rubin, brother of folk artist Clementine Hunter, about growing up in Cloutierville, watching the riverboats, dropping out of school, and driving for Doctor Scrubbs. At the end, he treats us with some harmonica playing.

of 8

Memories Podcast

Episodes

76. Marie Dupre

75. Monroe Roberts

74. Minnie Lee Odum

73. Melvina Washington

72. Louis Nardini

71. Lou Robertson

70. Lou Ivy pt. 2

69. Lou Ivy pt. 1

68. Leatter Dupre Coutee

67. Joseph Leggett

66. John Rubin

Contact Us

Episodes