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Community
SUNDAY, DEC
A stroll down memory la
Echo staff
Above, Old friends Curtis Asher, Bill Bourgeois, Albert “Albie” Asher and Jimmie Ladner Sr. take a walk down memory lane at Bayou La Croix. Below, A new cement bridge h wooden one where the old Bayou La Croix community used to be. Friends Curtis Asher and Jimmie Ladner Sr. recall fox hunting and the legend of a headless songstress who
BY BENNIE SHALLBETTER Staff Writer
Maybe if the federal government and Stennis Space Center hadn’t come to Hancock County the beautiful and wild ai'ea called the Buffer Zone would be full of fast food restaurants and shopping malls, some say. So maybe in a way the Space Center is responsible for preserving the remoteness of the area, others say. But most of the people who lived among the large oaks, pines and pretty berry trees, say the area would	have
remained the same anyway, rural, filled with communities of close knit families and friends who were happy with just the way things were.
Most of the area didn’t even begin to get the modern conveniences, telephone, electricity, and indoor plumbing until right around the time when folks found they would have to move, leave their homes, and make way for the space age. Most didn’t own a television or even have time to watch one. They got most of the news by word of mouth. That probably accounts for the reason that no one knew
from a quarter of a mile away. They would cut a gash in the bark and catch the turpentine in metal or ceramic cups. They worked from daylight to dark.” Asher, though he didn’t live in Bayou La Croix proper, lived nearby on what is now Hwy. 90, but back then the main road was still Old Spanish Trail, he said. Bayou La Croix, with the turpentine still and the Haas saw mill was a center for employment.
Asher is the grandson of John Asher and Victoria Zengarling Asher; and the son of John
Joseph Asher (nicknamed the Big Dutchman because of his 250 pound frame and size 13 shoe) and Mary Garcia Asher. With 11 children in the family there was always work to be done.
“We didn’t have time to go to school; we had to work,” said Mr. Curtis.
The family had a farm where they grew most things they needed like sweet potatoes, corn, other
Waveland and later owned a store that Curtis’ sister Rosie ran for her father while he worked during the day. Firewood was traded for necessities such as coffee, matches and vinegar, and for luxuries such as fruit or rock candy or raisins.
Logs from were sent down Bayou Phillips to Bayou La Croix to the Jourdan, coordinated with the timing of the tides, said Mr. Curtis. In 1923 his brother Albert Eugene drowned there in the bayou.
Out at the cemetery we met up with friends Jimmie Ladner Sr., Myrna Ladner Bourgeois, and her husband Bill. The morning chill was wearing off and it was shaping up to be a beautiful day. “Would you want to take a walk down to
tthe bridge and look at the bayou,” said Miss Myrna. “Its not very far.”
On the way Miss Myrna pointed out the sites that various friends and relatives had called home. Her mother used to make May Hall Berry Jelly from the berries that grew on trees in the low lands, she said, and when she died the family found a five gallon bucket of May Hall Berry juice in the freezer waiting to become jelly.
The under brush was kent clear hv the cattle graz-
and see where our grandparents lived and there’s a confederate soldier’s grave on the land,” asked Myrna. “It’s not very far.” She sent
LOST--PAGE 4B
Right, Curtis Asher as he was in his younger days with his truck on Old Spanish Trail between Nicholson and Waveland Ave.
Below, Myrna Rae Ladner Bourgeois points to the spot where her grandparents home once stood. Brother Jeep grazes cattle on the spot now, but it remains a place of peace and beauty.