Two weeks ago when my sister, Junie, visited, and we had a little chat about our childhood. I told her I had pictures of some of the places we were talking about. She said she would like those pictures. I found some and scanned them and posted them on Facebook for all the family to have for their own family histories.
I posted a Blog entry on Saturday, June 21, 2014 titled "DeRidder". The "DeRidder" blog entry has pictures with it so I will not repost those pictures. It is about where I lived as a child.
I posted another Blog entry on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 titled "My Mother's Childhood Geography". I only put maps marked with locations in this Blog entry so I will post pictures that would fit with that Blog entry.
In 2002 I made a trip to Louisiana to check on my parents. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer that year and I needed to see how things were going for them. These pictures were all taken in September 2002 during that visit. My parents took me on a driving tour to see sites pertinent to their lives and mine.
Here are some pictures with a little explanation about them:
This is my mother in her garden. Mom grew up on a farm. They raised what they ate. Mom's parents each had their own garden and each garden was huge. Papa talks often of how Mimi was really a 'daddy's girl'. She stayed close to her dad and learned lots from him. My mother grew three gardens each summer due to the length of the Louisiana growing season. This garden was in their back yard at their home in Blanchard, Louisiana. Even though Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's during this year, Papa rotatilled her garden as usual and she enjoyed puttering in it but it was just not as productive as before. Still, I'll treasure this picture of mom doing what she loved so much.
When our family moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, the meetinghouse of the Shreveport Ward was only a few blocks from our home. Eventually the congregation outgrew this smaller building. We had building fund raisers to gather the monies needed to build a new building. One of those was making a record of our choir and selling it. I remember making ribbon roses and we sold them as lapel pins. The congregation supplied a percentage of the money needed to build the new building and Church headquarters supplied the remaining amount. Once funds were in place, the members donated as much of the labor as they could to build the new meetinghouse. This picture is the building we built. By the time Claude and I moved from Louisiana in 1971, there were two congregation and the stake offices using this building. It also contained a Family History Center for anyone to come and research their family history.
This picture is the first apartment my parents lived in after they were married. It is located in Leesville, Louisiana.
Across from their first apartment was a small train depot. Inside this depot was a little cafe. My parents liked to go their to have a meal.
This is the entrance to Ft. Polk, Louisiana. This is part of my history. After I graduated high school I wanted to strike out on my own. Enjoy my independence. I did not go to college. I did have a friend at church who was a little older than me. She moved to Shreveport and she and I decided to rent an apartment together. We found one in Bossier City, Louisiana. Joyce Clark had a boy friend who was stationed at Ft. Polk. Each Sunday after we finished our church service, we would get in my Volkswagon Beetle and head to Ft. Polk so Joyce could see her boy friend. While Joyce appreciated this opportunity as she had no car, I could feel a little like a 5th wheel. Then Claude was stationed at Barksdale AFB. He was single and would join us in these little trips. While Claude and I were sitting on a picnic table on Ft. Polk, I stood up and moved directly in front of him. I reached out and grabbed the big guy's face and planted my best kiss on his lips. That was a very forward thing to do. I just wanted him to know how I felt so there was no confusion. He left Connie in Utah when he went into the Air Force. He had known her all his high school years and they made a lovely couple. However, I was sure in my heart that Claude and I belonged together. It was a very forward moved that paid off and the result has lasted through 44 years of marriage with many more to come. See what one little kiss can do???
Papa drove us to Rosepine, Louisiana. Talk about a dot on the map. Papa found the location of the church meetinghouse we attended when I was a little girl. We found a plant that us kids used for food when we played. Not sure what kind of plant this is but the berries and leaves made great pretend food. We did not eat this, just pretended. My mother is holding the plant. The congregation that met in this church was have been called the Rosepine Branch because there were not enough people to be a ward. The building was an old refurbished Army barracks with an outhouse for a bathroom. While the building was gone, the out house was still standing. Mom searched the site and found some of the bricks on which the building would have rested. She took one and I brought it to my home when they moved from Louisiana. These pictures are of the site of the building and the outhouse through the trees.
When we lived in DeRidder, Louisiana, I attended DeRidder Elementary School. The picture below is of this school. I attended all of first grade and a portion of second grade before we moved to Shreveport, Louisiana. To get to school I rode a school bus from our home in the country. (See the 'DeRidder' Blog post)
Papa worked in this building. It is the Bell South Telephone Company. I remember being very, very young and the employees went on strike. I remember carrying a picket sign and walking up and down in front of this building. The building was full of panels of telephone lines. I do not know how anyone made heads or tails of all those lines, but they did.
We went to the Clark Community (see the 'My Mother's Childhood Geography' Blog post). In this community is the Clark Family Cemetery. I have several pictures of headstones of family members. I am only posting a few of them. All the actual pictures I will keep in my personal family history. This first headstone is for Margaret Fisch. Margaret was born 13 February 1928 and died 20 Dec 1932 in Starks, Beauregard, Louisiana. She was the second child born to my mother's parents. My mother was the baby and was born in 1929. They had an older brother, Clifford, born in 1926. When they were children, the family was cleaning the yard and burning brush. Margaret was wearing a little dress as all little girls did all the time in those days. The tail of her dress caught fire and she was very badly burned. Gramma Fisch made the children's clothes and underwear. She had no elastic so she used strips of a tire inner tube for the elastic. When Margaret was burning that rubber melted and burned into her little legs. This cut off the flow of liquid up and down her little body. She was in agony for several days before she died from these burns. It was very traumatic from Gramma Fisch and the family. From that point forward, Grampa Fisch insisted that my mother wear pants. This was not something done by girls during those years. But my mother wore pants or overalls all the time with the exception of one dress for school and one for church.
The next tombstone is for Clarence Clifford Fisch. This is my mother's father. I loved this man. He had a head of snow white hair all of my life. He had no teeth and wore no false teeth. He loved okra and my Gramma Fisch would boil it and he would simply swallow it. He also loved peanuts but couldn't chew them. Gramma Fisch would grind them up in this hand meat grinder she had and then mix them with sorghum syrup and form them into balls that were soft enough for him to gum into. I loved those peanut balls. Grampa Fisch also liked to chew tobacco. He would cut off a strip from the little brick he carried in his overalls. Then he would let us kids twist it a bit so it was softer and then he could chew on it with his gums. He kept a spit can (an empty coffee can) by his chair so he could spit in it every now and then. We learned early on to leave those cans alone and to be very, very careful and not accidentally knock them over. Grampa Fisch lived in Wyoming at one point in his life. He would round up wild horses, tame them and train them, then sell them for income. Grampa Fisch was born 8 February 1886 in Marietta, Washington, Ohio and died 12 June 1977 in Louisiana.
Then we have Laura Cordelia Clark Fisch's headstone. She is my mother's mother. She was a character. She never cut her hair. It was always gray and long. Every Saturday she would let it down from the buns she wore it in, shampoo it and brush it dry. Then she would make three braids and wrap them together at the bottom back of her head and pin them to her head with long hair pins. It would stay that way for the next week. She was a good Southern cook. I loved her sweet potato pies. She also made a really good tomato soup out of cherry tomatoes that I have never been able to replicate. She saved and laundered the sacks that feed came in. These sacks were out of printed cotton fabric. She would carefully iron these big rectangles of fabric and match them by printed pattern. My mother would go through them and pick the ones she wanted to make clothes for us girls. We had some lovely dresses and play outfits made out of flower printed feed sacks. Gramma Fisch was born 30 December 1896 in Starks, Louisiana and died 28 November 1979 in Shreveport, Louisiana.
This headstone is for Clifford Herbert Fisch. He is my mother's older brother. Uncle Clifford was an amazing uncle. He was full of energy. He drove a Jeep without a top. He would come to Gramma Fisch's in that Jeep when we visited and pile all of his kids (Sue, Jean and Burton) and me and my sisters in that Jeep and take us into the woods for a bouncy ride where there were no roads. There were also no seat belts which would be a definite no-no in today's world. Uncle Clifford was trying to take some kerosene from a storage tank and fell into the storage tank. He was overcome by the fumes and drowned in the tank. He was born 23 October 1962 in Casper, Natrona, Wyoming and died 19 October 1961 in Bancroft, Beauregard, Louisiana.
This picture is my mother in the Clark Family Cemetery.
We then drove to Fields, Louisiana. That is where the Hyatt High School is located. My mother attended and graduated from this school. She started school a year early. She really wanted to go to school as a little girl and Grampa Fisch went to the school and talked them into letting her start a year early. Mom did well in school.
When I was part way through second grade in DeRidder, Louisiana, my father was transferred to Shreveport, Louisiana. My parents rented this home until they purchased the home we would live in the remainder of the time I lived with them in Shreveport. This home had a big old bathtub that sat on claw feet. I remember thinking that was exceedlingly cool. We were in this home over Christmas. Some man came to our door in a Santa Claus suit and gave each of us kids a piece of candy and asked us what we wanted for Christmas. It was a different age and we thought nothing bad of this. It was just a fun thing that was done in this neighborhood. To the right of the home in the picture and on the corner was a little convenience store. Mom sent me there to get her some soda pop. It came in glass bottles in a cardboard holder. I was running home and tripped and fell. One of those bottles broke and I cut my wrist with it. Still have a tiny scar there.
The next picture is Queensborough Elementary School. When my parents rented the home above, Junie and I attended this elementary school for just a few months. I remember learning to sing "Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go" in this school. They also gave each student a hygiene chart. Junie and I brought ours home and Mimi put them up in the bathroom. You marked each day when you brushed your teeth and took a bath. We rode the school bus to this school. Neffie was not old enough for school yet. I was in 2nd grade and Junie was in 1st grade. Neffie would say, "I want to ride on the cool bus!" Papa still laughs about that phrase when we talk. One day we took Neffie with us to school for Show and Tell.
Papa's new position at work was at the Bell South Telephone Company in Shreveport and it was in this building. Now, if you look at the far end of this building there is a driveway. You can't see it here but it is there. One day my mother pulled into the broad driveway and parked the car. She left us in the car and went in to tell Papa something or take him something. We were told to sit still in the back seat and not move. There was no such thing as car seats for children in those days. She was inside for a bit and my normally obedient self became exceedingly curious. I climbed into the front seat and started to play with the steering wheel. I pushed or did something that put the car in neutral. It began to slowly roll backward. The is just the slightest angle to this driveway and that car took full advantage of that angle. The car finally stopped across the street in the yard of the people who lived there. No way to hide that one from my mother when she came out. I don't remember any punishment. There must have been something but I really don't remember anything but the terror of that car moving and me not know what to do.
The school below is C.E. Byrd High School. This was the high school me and my sisters graduated from in Shreveport, Louisiana. Our school mascot was the yellow jacket (wasp) and our school colors were purple and gold. Purple has always been my favorite color.
The summer between my junior and senior year I attended Vera Nell Beauty School. After graduation I set to work full time to complete my course in cosmetology. I took my exams and passed and started to work at El Capitan Beauty Salon. Vera Nell Beauty School was owned by Vera Nielson, a member of our church. The actual school was on the second floor. The big classroom was on the left side of the 2nd floor in this picture. The window at the front on the right is where a long row of styling stations were located from the front to the back of the building. This was where we actually fixed hair on customers who knew they were paying for someone in training to style their hair. As we progressed, we moved downstairs along the right end of the building to a salon where patrons knew you had more skills but were still in training. The bottom left side of the building where the Coke machine is located was an actual beauty salon run by Vera Nielson's children. They were world class stylist who often participated in competitions winning lots of awards and prizes.
The picture below is Claude and my first apartment. It looked a little different. The porch with the lawn chair on it was actually a closed in front porch of our apartment. This apartment was infested with roaches. My father came over and sprayed for roaches but the next door neighbor did nothing and those little critters just went under the wall into our apartment. It was impossible to get rid of them. It was at this apartment that Claude proposed to me. I moved into this apartment after Joyce Clark married Owen Foshee leaving me the need to find a less expensive place that I could afford on my own. This apartment was it. Claude was supposed to come and visit one evening and he didn't show. After it was obviously way passed the time I expected him, I started to call to see if he was at other locations. He eventually showed up on my doorstep and when I opened the door he blurted out, "Will you marry me?" Poor guy. Of course I said, "Yes!" We called his mother to tell her. Her response, "Oh hell Claude!" Hmmmm...left me a little concerned. In fairness, Claude had dated Connie for 4 years and then proposed to her. The family knew her, she was from Utah and would have been a great daughter-in-law. Bonnie didn't know me and, as any mother would be, was concerned. Then we went to tell my parents. They just said, "It's about time. We knew this would happen. It was just a matter of when."
We moved from this apartment into the home in the next picture. This home was divided into 4 apartments. Our apartment was on the first floor on the right side of the picture from the front porch to the back of the building. We had the original large front room and the dining room behind it was our bedroom. Claude loved it because it had a big ceiling fan over the bed. The breakfast room was next and it stayed a breakfast room when the home was turned into apartments. Then the kitchen. We had parking spots in the back of the building instead of a backyard. This home was only 5 or 6 blocks from where my parents lived. Neffie was still at home and she loved having Claude around. He was like a big brother to her. Mimi and Papa would not let her come visit unless she was invited. They didn't come unless they were invited. This was very generous on their part and allowed Claude and I to enjoy that first year of marriage. This home was actually owned by the Arlene Herring who taught me piano lessons.
That is all the family history pictures for this Blog. Lots of history in these pictures. Feels good to get it all recorded.
No comments:
Post a Comment