My Mother's Childhood Geography...

Spent a little time last week looking at maps on my cell phone trying to locate exactly where my mother lived as a child.  As Papa's memory gets a little worse all the time, I really want to glean the pieces I can be sure are correct.  While I remember what my mother's childhood home and surroundings looked like really well, I could not have driven there at all. So out came the cell phone and we started to search.

Thanks to Google Maps we found the exact location.  Here is the map of the Clark community.  My mother, Virginia Mae Fisch, was raised in the Clark community.  Her mother's parents are Elizabeth Ann Ashworth and Archibald (Archie) Clark.  

Off Hwy 109 was the Gene Nelson Road.  Going east on the Gene Nelson Road you come to a turn in the road to the north.  Just before that turn on the right was a lane.  I remember it as being long but Papa said it was not that long. My memories are from childhood and things have a different proportion then.  However, I remember distinctly a large section of tall pine trees to the right as you drove down the lane from Gene Nelson Road.  Then a big field that Grampa Fisch grew crops in also on that right side driving toward their home.  The left side of that lane was a huge pasture in which a bull and/or a big mule lived. The lane opened into a large dirt area in front of the house.  

The house I Blogged about before.  If you sat on the front porch, the yard was completely fenced in on the home sight.  To the left of the house from the front porch was the smoke house (such a yummy smell there. Outside the fence and just inside the pasture was an out house.  No electricity or indoor plumbing in this home.  Sears & Roebuck catalogs were the toilet paper.  On the walk to the outhouse in the corner of the yard were fig trees. I love fresh figs and strawberry preserves made with figs and strawberry jello.  I do not care at all for Fig Newton cookies.  

Beyond the smoke house and outside the fence on the left side of the house as you sat on the front porch was Gramma Fisch's garden.  She had the enormous strawberry patch from which we could eat all the strawberries we possibly wanted.  There was also a huge pecan tree from which my love of pecans came.  We always had lots of pecans for baking or just eating for snacks.

Behind the house was another enormous garden.  That was Grampa Fisch's garden.  He also had a big pig pen at the corner of his garden near the gate from the fenced in back yard to his garden.  This was a really good place because old garden produce could be tossed in to feed the hogs. 

The back yard had Satsuma oranges and pomegranate trees.  A Satsuma orange is like a tangerine, easy to peel and just a few seeds.  There was also a pump that you primed and then pumped the water you wanted to use in the house for cooking, cleaning or taking a bath.

Along the right side of the house as you sat on the front porch were trees.  We just played there as children, I don't remember any of them bearing fruit or nuts.  The other neat thing along the right end of the porch was a big old water tank.  The gutter from the front porch let the water run off into this tank and it was always full of water.  Just a reserve source of water for the family. A delight to watch as a child when it rained and water ran into the tank.

Outside the fence on that right side of the house was the barn and barn yard and a garaged with a hen house built like a lean-to on the back of the garage.  I remember gathering eggs with Gramma Fisch.  I remember climbing into the hay loft and finding peanuts mixed in the straw.

That was Laura Cordelia Clark and Clarence Clifford Fisch's home.  I always remember them as being old.  But very healthy and took care of everything in a home and farm that size.  They lived there until I was older and my mother moved them to DeQuincy to a little home with a big garden but a lot less for them to care for.

If you continued east on Gene Nelson Road and came to the left turn in that road, you could take a lane to the right down to the Archie Clark Family Cemetery.  My parents and I drove down that a few years before we moved them to Kentucky.  I took pictures of the headstones.  I will post them another day.  Just map duty today.

If you didn't turn down Archie Clark Cemetery Lane, you would be at Aunt Rachel's home. Elizabeth Rachel Clark was Gramma Fisch's sister.  She was married to Levi Ashworth. The home they lived in was the original home of Elizabeth Anne Ashworth and Archibald (Archie) Clark, her parents.  Aunt Rachel had a huge tree in her front yard that dropped its fruit on the ground prolifically in its season.  My mother was very definite about us not picking up or playing with the fruit.  It stained your hands and clothes a deep purple that didn't come out of clothes and took a long time to come off your hands.  Somehow I think it was a mulberry tree but I could just not be right about that.

I remember a family reunion of sorts at Aunt Rachel's one time.  She had a big old hound dog that was roaming around her yard with all these people there.  One man was standing talking and, as I watched, that dog walked up, raised his hind leg, and peed all over this man's leg.  As a child I was sure that was the funniest sight I ever saw.

As you continued north on Gene Nelson Road you came to a nice new little home for its day.  This was the home of Pearl Etta Clark and Dewell Bosby (Pink) Barrow.  Aunt Pearl was also Gramma's Fisch's sister.  She had a sweet round face with a lovely smile.

As you drove north on Gene Nelson Road you came to Park Barrow Road on the left.  This was named after Uncle Pink's family.  It would take you back out to Hwy 109.  

The Gene Nelson Road crossed over Hwy 109 and continued west to Old River Road.  If you turned south on that road and went down a way, you would come to Uncle Clifford and Aunt Billie's home.  Uncle Clifford (Clifford Herbert Fisch) was Mimi's only brother.  He died young when he fell into an oil barrel trying to steal some oil for his home.  I believe it was kerosene.  Uncle Clifford and Aunt Billie had three children Sue, Jean and Burton who were our ages and with whom we loved to play.

Mom went to Hyatt School in Fields, Louisiana.

It was about 8 to 10 miles from the Clark community.   We also visited this site a few years prior to moving my parents to Kentucky.  I have pictures of the school which is still in use today.  I'll post all those pictures another time.

  

There, now the geography is down and that feels good.  I need to do this same things with Winnfield where my father was raised a good portion of his childhood.