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the baby so instead of her going over on the plank walk she decided she'd jump across so when she did she jumped into the 15 ft of water but as luck would have it, Volney was right behind her and he grabbed her by the dress collar and pushed she and the baby up on to the bank. What caused the pontoon to shoot out from under the boat two boys were running their boat out in the middle of the river for all it was worth and big waves came clear through the side door and rocked the boat so that it shook the bolts out from under the pontoon next to the river bank. When the boys saw what had happened they came right on over and helped Steve to get one of the couches and a few other little things outs. But later when Steve and Buddy, his brother-in-law got the boat up they got the old high back rocker out and that's all they saved then but later they got the refrigerator, stove and a few other little things out. The funniest thing I ever saw was when they got the houseboat up every knife, spoon and fork was standing upright against the wall of the side gallery just as if they had been placed there. So then a short time after that it had another accident. One night when it was storming and lightning one flash after another a bunch of barges came through and ran into it and shoved it out onto the bank into a large cypress tree and tore the side porch up and bent the railing double and did a lot more damage and we never got a penny for all the damage that was done. Then Steve and Buddy towed the boat up to Pearlington, Miss and tied it up down below the old Pointevent place. The right pronunciation for Pointevent is (Porterman) the next time they went to see about it some one, I imagine it was a bunch of boys. Anyway all the cabinets had been torn out and gone, all the cooking utensils were gone and worst of all they had used the living room for a rest room so Steve cleaned it all out and he and Buddy brought it up to his place, so it has been parked there for close to 30 years. So now Steve has bought 90 acres of land right between two bayous where the bayous come to a point and both of them run into the Pearl River. So he's got the houseboat fixed up with new porches all painted and as new as ever. Willie has been diseased now for 13 years.
Steve said Mamma; I'm going to have it in the water before long with that same old rocking chair on the front porch and you can sit and fish like you used to. But I'm afraid my fishing days are over as I'm 93 years and nearly five months old. I find I'm not quite what I used to be 49 years ago. I have 76 grandchildren, that is grand, great and
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