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How did Mamma ever find this place? Simple - not wanting to go back to Mandeville after Grandma's death - she just got on the L & N train heading to unexplored territory (understatement, if ever there was one) .	When the	train made the	first stop after
leaving the Louisiana	state line	(we had	already	"visited" most of
Louisiana - McDonoghville, Gretna, Baton Rouge (for Huey Long's funeral), Alexandria	("Alex" to us) ,	and Pineville where the
Gallinghouse cousins	lived) -	it was	a place	called Clermont
Harbor, Mississippi. There were thirteen or fourteen houses there, all occupied by Ladners and Garcias, and a grocery store-post office operated by Mr. Lozes (Lo-Jay) . He was so old that the town must have come into existence so someone could receive mail. There was one empty house right on the harbor. It was large enough (Mamma made a mental note of its possibilities). It belonged to a lady in New Orleans who never used it. Her name was Miss Ellsworth and the grocer-postman was only too happy to supply the needed information - address, phone, etc.
Even tho1 it had not been used in years and people were not flocking to rent it Mamma looked upon it with a sense of urgency.
She had to hurry and make contact before the opportunity passed -after all, "opportunity only knocks once".
What a waste of time, when time was of the essence! Mamma had to content herself looking over the house (Mr. Lozes had a key) until a commuter train went to the end and returned.
Miss Ellsworth was delighted to rent it for $150.00 for the season, May through Labor Day. Mamma's mind always operated two days in advance. It didn't take much to sell the idea to Aunt Mildred Ose Thorning. Her mother had died and she and Uncle Georgie were rearing her sisters. They could afford $50.00.
The first experiment in communal living was born. The Ose clan - Aunt Mildred, Uncle Georgie, Margie, Beulah, Helen (and Vivian) and the Gallinghouse menagerie - Mamma, Daddy and the four of us settled in, but only after darling Aunt Susie (no children), a pharmacist who could only come on the weekends, offered to pay the other $50.0CK_?^	n-A*..*
And the ^Lord s&id, "LET 'THERE BE LIGHT'.
Even without electricity the house in Clermont seemed a great bargain. Where else could two ladies, who had nothing more to do than take care of eight kids, relax just catching crabs, cooking meals and keeping the oil lamps burning and the wood-stove filled? Eventually a three-burner kerosene stove was part of the "powerless" house. Then, wonder of wonders, enough families (natives and "wealthy" New Orleans weekenders) made it possible to gualify for electricity.
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