First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
October 4, 2018
Lafourche shines a light on domestic violence in October
October 4, 2018
When I entered Golden Meadow elementary school there was no free school bus transportation or hot lunches or free anything. There were no floor or ceiling fans and it got hot long before summer vacation began. Heat for the entire school was generated by a coal blast furnace.
During the winter months the children of fur trappers were given books and allowed to leave school to join their parents.
Huey Long, who was elected Governor in 1933. had delivered on his promise to give students free school books and he was loved in South Lafourche.
Most homes, including ours, had three pictures hanging on the wall. Jesus Christ. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Huey Long. Same even added a fourth. Mr. Sears and Mr. Roebuck. (Their catalog was a necessity in every Cajun home and when it became too worn to read it was used for hygienic purposes which I can’t discuss here.)
How did we getto school or eat lunch? At that time our neighbor. Mr. Earn ire St Pierre, had converted an old truck, added benches and covered it with tarpaulin And voi la, we had a school bus!
He would charge a dime per person but the truck would break down often In those cases, he would shout. “First to third graders, stay in the truck four to seven, get out and walk; eight to eleven, get out and push.” Ifs amazing how we ever made it to school.
Silver dimes, as we called them, though I doubt there was any silver in them, were the “coins of the realm’, since that’s how the shrimp pickers were paid. Every home had a roll or two of “silver dimes and sometimes no other cash at nil I know—I was there.
Mr. it Pierre was a World War 1 veteran, tough but fair He had lost a son. Pennington, to leukemia. “Penny’ was our playmate, a little older hut we loved him.
Mr. St. Pierre was also mattre de balle’ (a bouncer) at the Saturday night dance at Rebstock’s dance hall where Ma Ms SA SA ; (Mrs. Elueia Collins who was Nicholls’ Chef Randy Cheramie’s great-grandmother and the local midwife), would sell ice cream an the front steps. The band was usually the Triche Brothers (later known as the Dufrene Bros) and the ladies would bring their children who would sleep on the benches while they danced.
When a fight would break out. as they often did, Mr. St Pierre would break it up and make them schedule a rendezvous Sunday morning under a street light he had installed by his house. This was next to our house and my mother would dread it because the fighters would often come and wash off the blood at our cistern’s faucet.
Since there were no cafetrias or hot lunches, the families would pack a lunch for their children. When my mother could not, mostly on meatless FRidays. she would give me 15 cents to buy a ten cent fried potato sandwich from Mrs. ‘By Tan-next to Rizan’s grocery store, and an M B.C. ‘pop rouge for a nickel (A good red “pop” story corning soon.)
Sometime I would pass up the soft drink to buy a nickel Dixie cup of ice cream with a movie star picture on the lid. I always wanted a cowboy hero, but it was usually some yucky star like Greta Gorbo.
On Saturdays there was the 10-cent movie matinee with a news reel, travel log, (which we would boo), a aerial (which we called a “continue” picture). Dick Tracy or Flash Gordon, a comedy (we cheered when it was The Three Stooges). a cartoon, (my favorite was Porky Pig), and a cowboy picture such as Ho pa lone Cassidy. Durango Kid or always the favorite. Gene Autry.
Back home we read the “Funnies adventore; Tim Tyler’s Luck and Captain Easy Pro-historic: Alley Oop. Tear ]jakers: Apple Annie (later called Mary Worth) and Little Orphan Annie. (Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ‘ ya tomorrow M. but Broadway for her was way in the future).
Until next week remember, the meek shall inherit the Earth, but not the mineral rights BYE NOWW
CAJUN STORIES!
In this week’s column, Mr. Leroy Martin takes as back into the 1920s and 1930s – a time when he was a Cajun boy growing up in Southestiern Louistana Mr. Leroy’s columns are among the more popular pieces in our weekly paper. This sincertty of his stories strike with local readers.
