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out of here as quick as you can one of the pontoons has shot out from under the boat and its sinking. The pontoon on the side next to the river was the one so it was a good thing it was as that gave us a chance to get out. Sis grabbed her baby out of the play pen and never went across on the planks he had for us but went to jump from the boat to the bank and jumped into fifteen foot of water and Volney happened to be right behind her and he grabbed her by the collar and shoved her and the baby up on the bank. If she had have gone down she and the baby would have gone under the boat and that would have been the end. I have thanked the Lord many many times for saving our lives. So then Stephen and Lilly Mays brother (Buddy) got the boat back up and got everything tightened and in good condition so we never went back on it again. I don't believe,. I just don't remember. Steve took all of the curtains down and brought them to the house and I washed them and finally gave them to my niece in Moss Point (Edith Baxter) she still has them in her dining room. Every time I go to her house and I see the, it brings back old memories. Now I'll tell you how come the pontoon to shoot out from under the boat. Two of Steve's buddies from Picayune, Miss, was running a race on the other side of the boat and they were going so fast until the waves came clear through the side door and went out the other side. So when they saw what they had done they come and helped Steve to get one of the couches out. What was a curiosity, Steve said the next day when he & Buddy finally got the boat up and the pontoon under it, he looked on the other side of the gallery next to the middle of the river and he said every spoon, fork and knives were standing straight up on their ends against the wall. They laughed at me after everyone was out safe. We were standing looking and I said oh! look at my sugar bowl and cream pitcher going floating down the river. As much as if I were sad about it. So then not long after that one night a terrible storm was brewing, lightning one flash after the other and a deck of barges came through and side swiped the house boat, shoved it up onto the bank against a big cypress tree, bent the iron railing in and smashed the porch and I don't remember what all it did do. So then Steve and Buddy went and brought it to Pearlington down from the old Portaman house and tide it up there. So when they went back in about a week to see about it, it had been stripped. All the dishes, pots and even the cabinets were gone and they had used it for a rest room. So then is when they brought it up to Steve's and the remains is still there. But the floors and paneling are as pretty as ever.
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