William Sheffield
September 1, 2017
SLMA September – Childhood obesity
September 1, 2017
Last week, Historical Columnist Leroy Martin introduced us to his granddaughter Camille, who wanted to know about some olden days school stories for a school project.
This week, the PaPa/grand-daughter conversation continues.
Camille: “Pa Pa, We both fell asleep. Continue the stories.”
Leroy: “It was that boring, huh? Where’s Dot? (Camille’s grandmother, but everybody calls her Dot).
At the time, Dot was streaming ‘Gunsmoke,’ although she falls asleep and never gets past year one.
Leroy (cont): “Camille, did you know that when Dennis Weaver quit as Chester, Ken Curtis took over as Festus? Leonard Sly had a singing group called The Sons of the Pioneers’ and Curtis replaced him before becoming Festus. Sly changed his name to Roy Rogers and became a movie star.”
C: “PaPa, what’s that got to do with your school days?”
L: “Well, I had a tin Roy Rogers lunch box.”
C: “That qualifies you.”
L: “Did you know that ‘Gaby’ was called ‘Windy’ when he was sidekick to Hopalong Cas-sidy and that Roy Rogers had Trigger’ stuffed and mounted for his museum?”
C: “PA! PA!”
L: “Sorry! I got off the ‘Happy Trails!’ Get your pencil ready.”
C: “We don’t use them. I’ve got a recorder.”
L: Huh? Pencils are now obsolete? Well, I told you how I could only speak French when I entered school and there were no iPhones UPhones, iPads iTunes, MeTunes, WiFi, HiFi, high five, Internet or Outer-net. We used pencil, paper and sometimes a typewriter.
C: “They’re called keyboards, now.”
L: “Hush! We didn’t get electricity until 1937, so I had to study by a kerosene lamp (we called it coal oil and it cost 15 cents a gallon.) We had no public school buses, so we got there the best way we could. Our neighbor, Mr. Esmire St. Pierre, years earlier had bought an old truck, put benches and a tarpaulin and charged 10 cents a day for school transport. The truck broke often and Mr. St. Pierre would yell, ‘first to third graders, sit. Forth to seventh graders get out and walk, and high schoolers, get out and push.’
“He was a tough dude who had fought in France in World War I and was the bouncer at the Saturday night jitney dance at Rebstock’s dance hall.”
C: “What’s a jitney dance?”
L: “You’ll have to look some of these things up on that intercontinental keyboard thing you carry around.”
C: “It called a computer, PaPa, like the one sitting on your desk.”
L: “OK, it’s a computer. So in those days, school had no cafeteria so you brought your lunch. I had the cutest Roy Rogers lunch box…!”
C: “You told me that already.”
L: “Told you what?”
C: “About the Roy Rogers thing.”
L: “Oh! You could also buy a 10-cent sandwich at Mrs. By Yan’s lunch counter in Roy Rizan’s store next to the school. Since we Catholics didn’t eat meat on Friday, she sold us a fried potato sandwich. A few years back, the Catholic Church reversed the rule and said you could eat meat on Friday. Millions of Catholics got their “meat rap” charge expunged, including me.”
C: “No meat, but fish, crabs, crawfish, oysters, lobster, etc., what a tough penalty.”
L: “I didn’t make history, just trying to teach you about it, but it’s a losing cause.”
C: “Maybe if you threw in a few cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians”
L: “We didn’t have any, but I remember an episode I had with the law. A law had passed making it a crime to speak French, but a friend and I were speaking it when two men came behind us. One said, ‘My boss is Craig Webre, my partner is Frank Smith, My name’s Friday. If you’re Leroy Martin, I am booking you on a 43501— speaking French on School ground.’ – ‘Dum Da Dum Dum’.
C: “Where did that music come from?
L: “I don’t know. Every time I tell my story, that music follows me around, like a net over me.”
C: “A trawl net?”
L: “More like a small net you drag. ‘Dum Da Dum Dum.’ See? There’s that music again.”
C: “It makes no difference PaPa. I just got a text. The teacher said they couldn’t find enough old people, so I can make my story about anything. I’ll write about my cat.”
L: Fine, that will further your education. See you tomorrow. ‘Dum Da Dum Dum.’ There’s that music again. Maybe I can sleep it off.”
BYE NOW!
CAJUN STORES!
Historical Columnist was asked about his school days in the 1930s and 1940s and his conversation with granddaughter Camille is quite entertaining.
