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built three for me, and then I learned myself. Built them out of cypress. So then, I think I had about ten skiffs when the ?47 hurricane come along.
Guerin: And you rented them by the day?
LaFrance: Yes, by the day, a dollar and a half a day.
Guerin: And you sold bait?
LaFrance: No. There was no bait. Those old fellows, they would come down from Picayune, They had that little old four hp motor and they?d go down the river down there and catch croakers and stuff like that. I didn?t get no bait until ?53 when I bought the boat and I started handling bait. I had to build as I got the money. When I got the money, then I?d build. I?d build a skiff, I?d build a wharf or whatever. Then, in ?48,1 started working for the county.
Guerin: Well, the ?47 hurricane did you some damage?
LaFrance: Cleaned me out.
Guerin: The boats just disappeared?
LaFrance: The boats come up here next to Port and Harbor in there and before I could get there - I had an old Model A - and before I could get it out - Mr. Arceneaux got it cleaned up and running for me, somebody went in there and set the woods afire. {I lost} all the boats except one skiff I got out of there. It burnt it all up. So I started off again, working on the house, building boats, and I went to work for the county in 1948.
When I first started, the first two years, Joe Jones (?) got elected. Mr. Murphy was supervisor for years and years, but old man Joe Jones (?), he come out and he run, and the roads were so bad, you couldn?t hardly ... halfway to the house, bogged down, had to go to the house, get the wheelbarrow, go down there and get the car out. So I met Mr. Jones in the courthouse, so he reached in his pocket and said, ?Son, I want to give you five dollars, and I want you to campaign for me.? I said, ?Mr. Joe, put your money back in your pocket. One thing I want to ask you. If you get elected, will you build roads?? He said, ?By Golly, I sure would.? He was as poor as I was. He had an old Whippitt out there and I think it had two flat tires out there outside the courthouse, but he got elected. He got elected. So he took office January 1948.1 got done trapping in February. So I went back to the courthouse, and he said, ?What are you doing?? I told him I got done trapping and pulled up my traps and he said, ?Get yourself a couple of fellows and go to work.? And I had that truck I was telling you about, it was brand new. So I got two fellows, and we started off, cutting bushes and stuff of that nature, you could hardly get through the roads. They had tore most of them away, Lower Bay Road going into Pearlington, White?s Road and all of that. A horse and wagon could hardly go through that. So, I worked for a year and a half like that. So one day we was down in Pearlington working, putting a culvert in for a lady there, and a fellow by the name of Tom Wright - he come out there, and we
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