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?Mr. House would sit on the bank of the river for hours hoping to catch a drum. Some times he got lucky and when he?d catch one he?d bring it to the house and clean it and his wife would bake it. At a certain time of the year, folks would gather up their cattle, horses, and hogs and drive them to the river an put them across, as the cane there was plentiful and the animals
would get rolling fat.......I?d go stand on the bank above where they were and watch them. You
could hear that bunch of men hollering and hooping for a mile away and when they?d finally get them all into the water, it was fun to watch. The little pigs with their heads on their mothers backs, the calves and colts did the same way. Then when it was time, they?d go drive them back out. Each man had his own cows, horses and hogs marked (branded) so they know whose was whose. Where sister Emma and Jahue (her husband) lived, their yard fence was only about one hundred yards from the river, just room for a road to run between the fence and the river. Then there was a hill from the house that ran down to a little ravine and then from that branch up on another hill was a big turpentine still where Jahue and an old negro worked. The old colored fellow was so good and kind. I can still remember how he looked, real large. His name was Uncle Batey, he?d dip flowers and branches of little tiny purple berries in rosin. Rosin is the amber residue left after the distillation of oil of turpentine from crude turpentine. Uncle Batey would dip those springs(sic) I carried to him into rosin and that would preserve them for as long as you?d want to keep them. The turpentine still was just a short distance from the house so I?d take coffee everyday around ten o?clock to he and Jahue and Uncle Batey would give me a nickel and I?d ask Emma a dozen time I guess, if it was time for me to take their coffee. I was saving those nickels to buy me a dress. We could get enough material, cotton or gingham, for a dollar those days to make two dresses.?
?Going back to 1914 when I was going to school at the St. Joseph Academy in Bay St. Louis, I just wanted to give the Catholic nuns the credit for being so kind and good to all of us girls. Especially Mother St. Rose (the Mother Superior). She was one of the kindest and sweetest persons I?ve ever known. When (my) brother Jerome was in the hospital in Mobile,
Ala. with his foot broken I got the letter and was crying and she saw me and came right on over and cuddled me to her as if I were a baby and she said don?t you worry for one minute because I?m going to get sister Delphine, sister Regina, and sister Clara and we?re going up to the Chapel and pray for him and you?ll hear from your brother in two or three days. So sure enough here came word from (my) sister Emma in three days saying they had his foot set in a cast and he was doing fine. She and some sisters cried when we left the Convent. She said I wish I would not get attached to my girls like I do every time they have to leave. She called all of us her girls. If any of us got in trouble we?d run to her. I?ve never regretted one minute going there to school, because I learned so many things. They taught me how to patch clothes the neat way, taught me how to dam socks, stockings and suits of cloths;(sic) also to embroider and the embroidery had to be padded first with cotton thread and then go over it with silk thread. That made the butterflies or whatever you were making to be raised up. Also learned how to make net collars and put little balls on and eyelets in. ...We made a mess if it wasn?t but one crooked stitch, we?d have to rip it out and do it til it was perfect. ...When I came home at the end of nine months my daddy asked me did I learn much and I told him no, not very much and he said well you can?t take no-than(he used his Northern brogue) and make something out of it.?