Papa's Geography...

The 4th of July we brought Papa and Tiny out to the house in Sadieville.  As I drove him out I explained how I have Blogged about where I lived as a child in DeRidder and the place Mimi lived and went to school as a child.  I told him I really wanted us to make a list and locate on a map the locations of the places where he lived as a child.  He was very happy we would get to record that information for him.

Papa's parents, Carl Edward and Claudia Clementine Shaw Lawrence, moved to Fabens, Texas before he was born. They were headed somewhere west and Gramma Duck (Claudia) went into labor and they stopped in Fabens for her to give birth to her last child, Vernon Nelson Lawrence (Papa), my father.  They staying in Fabens until Papa was about 5 years old.  Then they packed everything they owned in a old truck, loaded the family minus Uncle Harold, who married and stayed in Fabens, inside and on top of their belongings and headed back to Alabama/Mississippi.  Aunt Vera (Papa's sister) became very ill and they stopped in Arkansas for her to recuperate.  They retrieved Granny Hamm from Louisiana to nurse Aunt Vera back to health.  Lacking any funds to continue their journey or to provide a way for Granny Hamm to return to Louisiana, they simply loaded that truck and headed to Louisiana to return Granny Hamm to Winnfield.  The family stayed in Louisiana from that point forward.

While in Winnfield, Louisiana they lived in 10 places, many of which were rent free because no one else wanted to live there.  Grampa Duck (Carl) fell while working years before onto a cement floor landing on his head.  This injury limited his ability to work almost completely.  The family consisted of Carl and Claudia and their children, Marvin, Salty (Wendell), Vera and Vernon.  The map above shows the locations of these 10 places.

When they arrived in Winnfield, they lived with Aunt Ozzie.  She lived right in Winnfield and eventually a little church house was located across the street from her home by the railroad tracks.  They only stayed with Aunt Ozzie a couple of weeks.  Aunt Ozzie's home is bottom dot on the map along Hwy 84 where there is a curve and Hwy 167 goes north.  The top dot is where the church house would have been.

From there they moved to the Basil Smith home which is located at the bottom of the map.  It was located on the Old Alexandria Road (Parish Road 605).

Their third residence was the Bright Place.  There were two Bright brothers, Charlie and Arthur.  Arthur lived in town.  The Bright Place Papa's family moved into was the home of Charlie Bright.  It is out the Frank White Road (Parish Road 784) and across the Port de Luce Creek. 

The fourth residence for the Carl Lawrence family was the Broomfield Place.  It is located on Hwy 34 which is the road to Atlanta, Louisiana.  

The fifth location was the Swimming Pool Place.  Basically, the pool was abandoned and the building used for changing clothes and offices was what the family used for a home.  It is also located on Hwy 34 but more into Winnfield proper.

Next the family moved to 'The Twenty'.  The Twenty was a piece of property 20 acres in size that was owned by family members.  A different family lived on each corner of The Twenty.  Aunt Annie (Carl's sister) and Uncle Jim (the brother of Claudia's 1st husband, Bill Conner) lived on one corner.  Another corner had the home of Velvert Conner.  Velvert moved and Carl and Claudia and kids moved into his home.  It is out Parish Road 604 which is also the Old Alexandria Highway. 

The seventh place the Lawrence family moved was the Parker Place.  It was located off Hwy 34 or the Atlanta Road between The Twenty and the Smith Place. 

Next the Lawrence family moved to The Bank's place.  There is a road from Hwy 84 going south that is today called the Country Club Road. It goes from Hwy 84 south and then turns east and ends at Hwy 34 or the Old Alexandria Road.  When you get to the southern point of this Country Club Road, if you continued on a little road and then turned and went up a hill you would find the Bank's Place.  When Papa was a child, this Country Club Road was called the Dickerson Dairy Cutoff Road.  There was actually a Dairy located closer to the Hwy 84 end and not far from that dairy would be the final home for the Lawrence family.

The ninth place they moved was back to Velvert  Conner's home on The Twenty.

The tenth and final home for this intrepid little band would be on the Dickerson Dairy Cutoff Road not far from the dairy.  They actually built themselves a home there.  This is the home I remember Gramma and Grampa Duck living in when I was a child.  The home was mostly made from lumber left over from the building of the new school in Winnfield.  It was a team effort.  As you faced this home, on the left down a path was a little home built for Marvin and Margie and their children.  As the years passed, Uncle and Aunt Margie moved into Gramma and Grampa Duck's home, abandoning their home, and Gramma and Grampa Duck moved into a trailer home set to the right of the home the family built as you faced that home.

This tenth home was the one they lived in and Gramma Duck fell when stepping out onto a porch that had been removed and broke her hip.  She healed but she always waddled when she walked, hence the name 'Gramma Duck'. 

That is Papa's geography.  It feels very good to get that all straight in my head.  I wish I had understood this map when we took Papa to Winnfield last year.  But I'm happy I have it down correctly now.