DATE: 1974
INTERVIEWER:
LOCATION: Albert (Myon) Bailey’s house
COOPERATORS: Myon Bailey, Agnes Bailey, Putt Couvillier, Dorothy (Dot) Couvillier
JD: Peach Coulee, you talking about?
Putt: First bayou on the right hand side when you go up there. They got a canal.
JD: There wasn’t no levees in those days.
Putt: Well, they got some big shell hills where people been digging for money up in there. They supposed to have money buried there.
JD: And what…what did they say about it? What kind of things they had goin on?
Putt:
Well, the Old Man told me you couldn’t make coffee, or nothing. You put a coffee pot on the stove? Something would slap it plumb off the stove,
you know? You wasn’t watchin, first
thing you [?]. You try…Mother try to
raise bread, anything, they say they go back they got a fingerprints push the
bread down. And she’d be washin clothes
or something, she go inside, come back something dump all her clothes
overboard. Dump the tub
JD: And that was just in that one place?
Putt:
That was up in Peach Coulee.
Today, people still go there with [?], lookin for money. The Old Man told us one night they
had a strange woman…momma
JD:
This was your father
Putt: No, it’s, I don’t know what kin it is to the Old Man, but…
Dot: They just call her aunt [?].
Putt:
It was some kind of relationship…other words, said for em both to be there
JD: She stood outside the mosquito bar, you see?
Putt: In the house. And, never know where she come from. And the Old Man told me that, now I don’t know, now. And he was pretty…pretty straight. But, maybe that’s just a mirage, you know, I don’t know. But, they claim, all them old people that used to live back then, they tell you about it. Even old man Steve Stevens, out there, they tell you about it.
JD: Stevens, where is he?
Putt:
He live over there in Charenton.
I think he used to live…the Carlines for sure. The old Carlines, you know? Up on the levee. They know something about that; they can
tell you. Mr. Doozie Burns used
to be good at telling that. Other words, back in them days, it was…it
was…people…got so bad they had to move they camps out of there. They couldn’t live there. They couldn’t keep nothing. They [the “ghosts”] didn’t want
nobody there. Well, they got
people diggin money,
JD: Now, what did you say about…about walkin off the stageplank? And …
Putt: They claim they had a spot there, every time you walk off the stageplank you could hear money rattle. Just like a pile of change, you know? And, when you’d step over that place. So, they drove a shaft down there one time, they say, and sound like they hit a chest. Other words, like it just spilled. And they’d go to digging, you know? They’d dig, that’s how they start digging for money. They could hear the money rattlin. They never could find it. I wish you could talk to some of them old people, I’m just goin by what the Old Man told me.
JD: Yeah, you say the Carlines would know something about that?
Putt: I think they would. Some of them old people around Charenton. Some of them old heads, you know?
JD: Well, I wonder if Willis would know some of those old people over there.
Putt: Willis Broussard, he come down from St. Martinville. He most probly know some of them old people, you know? But, I don’t think he heard some of them stories about what used to happen here.
JD: Yeah, but he would know the old people, I was wondering. Maybe he could tell me who they were.
Dot: I guarantee you Aunt Tee Nug could tell him somethin!
JD: Now she’s one we ought to talk to. How old is she? Is she 90 yet?
Dot: No, she’s 88, I believe.
JD:
Now, what’s her history? Was she
born
Putt: Aw, she’s been all over the Bayou, podnah.
Dot: She worked like a man. She raised her kids.
JD: I mean who…who are her kids?
Dot:
Arthur S
JD:
So, all the S
Putt: Yeah.
JD:
Now, who was her husb
Dot:
That was Joe S
JD: He was a fisherman?
Putt:
Yeah, he used to fish,
JD: That must have been late though, that wasn’t early in his life? That must have been late in his life.
Putt:
He used to fish for a livin, that’s all he used to do. You see, Henry S
Dot: Yeah.
Putt:
Henry S
Dot: He’s a tremendous fisherman.
JD: And he lives in Morgan City? Who would know him well?
Dot:
Edward [Couvillier] knows him well.
Arthur S
JD:
Now, Arthur S
Putt: Yeah, I think it is his uncle.
JD:
So that would be…his father’s brother.
That would be Joe S
Putt:
Yeah. He used to run a…run a…fishboat.
They had about three of em at different times, you know…that I
can recall. But they used to have Mertile
Theriot, they used to have Henry S
JD: Jew? Jew Robert? That was his name? He used to have a…
Dot: He’s dead.
Putt: I don’t recall Jew Robert’s dead!
Dot: Yeah, he’s dead.
Putt: Well, he used to run a fishboat.
JD: Well, you would say then, from what you can remember about the life back in those times, that…let’s say you had to pick out, for instance, in life today…if people had to pick out…you told em, “Alright, now, pick out the three…three most important things that you think of right away, when you think about living today. Things that affect your life, the greatest, living today. People would probably say first of all automobiles, cars. Cars, you agree? It’s part of our way of life. We all got a truck or car or something, it’s the way we make our livin, bring our fish, whatever. Electricity, you heat your house, you do your cooking most of the time, you…your refrigerator, your lights, everything is around electricity. Alright, now, back then in those days, you switch that same idea back to the old days we been talking about, you would probably have to say that one of the most important things in your life back then was a fishboat, wasn’t it?
Dot: That’s right.
Putt: Bring all your groceries. That’s the only means you had!
Dot: Bring your groceries…
JD: It made your living for you, ‘cause it bought your fish…
Putt: You sold your fish.
Dot: And it also brought news, you see? News of things happenin other places.
JD:
It would bring the news. Now
would it…would they…would they stop
Putt:
No, they never leave that fishboat.
They’ll stop,
JD: Why? How come they wouldn’t tie up to your houseboat for you to unload your fish?
Putt:
Well, he wouldn’t have time for all that…to stop
JD: Well how…would he just throw a anchor overboard, or something like that?
Putt: Throw a anchor, or tie to a tree.
JD:
Like across the canal from the houseboats, right? And everybody’d have to put their fish in
their skiffs and,
Putt:
Yeah. He had them old cotton scales
hanging up there, you know? And he had
a old round thing [like a big scoop hanging from the scales to put the fish
in], he swing em over your boat
Dot:
And not only that…Momma used to order material to make our clothes. They used to buy feed, you know, for
hogs or something…called feed sacks. They were made…they were cotton…it was
cotton, but they had all kind of prints, you know? Like lil flowers, checks. Well, they’d buy it like that
JD: All your underclothes were made out of yellow cotton?
Dot: Well, sure, I didn’t have …
JD: Did she make your bras for you too?
Dot: Right. Right.
JD:
Boy, I would like to see a bra that was h
Dot: No, it was all cotton.
JD: So, the thing had to fit! It really had to fit. Son-of-a-gun!
Putt: Old Jesse Higgins, the onlyest man…he had a slot machine on the boat.
JD: A slot machine! Now you don’t mean the same Jesse Higgins that’s right here, right now, sellin…buying fish?
Putt: No, the Old Man.
JD:
His father.
Putt:
The one that died. He died about a year
ago. But he had a slot machine. When he was up there in front [of the boat],
my brother, the one that got drownded in 1959, well, he used to
get back there
JD:
Well, how big were these fishboats, Putt?
Put a size on one,
Putt: Jim, it’s built just like, a…a…they had gasoline boats. I was so small, you know, I didn’t know too much about boats. I believe they had gasoline motors.
JD:
You mean like a old Ford motor they would pull out of a car
Putt: Yeah. Buick or Model…old Model A’s is what they used to use. Old Model A motors. In other words, it’s a flat six, or something like that. You know, them old time. Far as the boat, they had the wooden hurl, and now the most weird boat…
JD: Yeah, but how were they shaped? You say there’s a wooden hull, but were they bateau shaped? Or…?
Putt: No, they was…they was lugger style.
JD: Lugger style? Like a Lafitte skiff?
Putt: Well, they had…they’r round to take the waves, like. They wasn’t no flat bottom boat.
JD: OK, so it was built more or less like a small shrimp boat, you might say?
Putt:
Yeah. I think the one had the
most…biggest boat, I’m not sure…I couldn’t even give you a size one it, you
know? In other words, they had all
their groceries stacked up around the motor.
They had shelves you know, inside the cab they had all the c
JD:
They had a nice long cabin on it,
Putt:
Cabin to put, you know…right in front the cabin they had they iceboxes. And you used to…I can remember where the
c
JD: Would you say that those boats were probably 30, 35 feet long?
Putt: Hmmm. Yeah.
JD:
And they were built more or less like a small shrimp boat? Like a lugger shrimpboat. Like Joseph’s shrimpboat that he’s got right
now? Or like Arthur S
Putt: Yeah. Now, they say they had one weird one. I ain’t never see it, one of the biggest ones. They call it the Monopoly [Monarch] , I believer, the Monople, or something like that. I think, I don’t know if it wasn’t Mertile Theriot, had that one. I don’t know. I don’t remember. But it…the only one I can remember is old Jew Robert, and Jesse Higgins. And sometime them fishboats, I think, would try to run a race to try to get one another’s business.
[CHANGED LOCATION, SITTING DOWN TO EAT AT DOT’S AND PUTT’S HOUSE at Myette Pt.]
Putt: Boy, uh, Momma used to make deep pan biscuits pretty near every morning for breakfast for us. For dinner she made pancakes, for supper…
JD: Now was that the usual bread you ate?
Putt:
Biscuits
Dot: Momma made white bread. Every other day she’d made enough for the next day. But she cut em about this wide [one inch], put lard on it. And black pepper.
JD: Black pepper? On it?
Dot: And that was good! Or she’d put syrup on it. But we always had our white bread in the evening, either syrup or lard…
Putt:
We used to have some days, Jim when we was living out here…you take a good
clear night in the wintertime? My
brothers, they’d have to wait till after dark
JD: Why did you have to wait till after dark? There were people guarding that cane?
Putt:
Well, it was against the law, you see?
In other words, nobody’s supposed to go in the fields. Back then I believe they had the German
slaves [German prisoners of war?], you know what I mean? Chopin the cane by h
JD: That was big fancy thing, eh?
Putt: Oh man! You talk about something. We had us a us a cane party! [laughs]
Dot: We used to chew tar.
JD: Where did you get the tar?
Dot: Well, they all had some…always had, see, they always did have some tar. Either for lines, or…
JD: That’s right, you had to tar all that cotton that you used for your lines.
Dot: And we used to chew tar.
JD: Boy, I bet it kept your teeth clean, too, didn’t it?
Dot:
It did. I think that’s why I still…my
teeth are still good. I told the
dentist that,
JD:
Well, uh, that’s another thing I want to ask you. There’s so many things I would like to
know. And so many things that can be
used on that tape. Because it’s things
like…that people would like to know about, that there ain’t but one place to
get it,
Dot: Not necessarily, no. But, Jim, we never did go to a dentist. When we had a tooth needed pullin, Daddy’d pull it.
JD: Are you serious?! Myon pulled teeth?
Putt: He done pulled some of mine. He can tell you about it. He done had some pulled, too.
JD:
Myon pulled teeth? Reach up there with
a pair of pliers
Dot: Right.
JD:
While they were infected,
Dot: Yeah! That’s when they had to come out.
JD:
Is that right?! No anesthetic? Just reach up
DOT: Up until the time my brother [Milton] got killed Daddy [did a lot] He was tough. He’d take things in stride. And I guess this…this [the accident] was a little too much. To us he seemed like a boss, you know…we [consulted] him with everything, you see? And not just us, I mean that’s everybody [everybody along the levee, 20 families]. They looked to him like the boss, you know. But that’s the way everybody looked to him, you know?
JD:
Myon is just kind of…some men,
Putt:
Jim, I seen the Old Man…you seen these big blue point crabs, over
here? [?] …a crab line, a fly
line. Go over there
Dot: That’s the difference, you see, you could buy your supplies so much cheaper. Now, 30 cents a pound ain’t nothing according to what the uh…what you have to pay for your everyday needs.
Putt: You know I was thinking about the day we moved over the levee, was the day Russell and them was gettin married. We just had pulled our camp off the barge. Russell Daigle?
JD: Yeah.
Putt: Same day, his weddin day, we just finished [taking] that camp off the barge. The day before that. And we was settin there, waiting for [?] truck to pull [?]. That’s how long we stayed on the water…[?].
Dot: That’s when we got in trouble.
JD: When what? When you got in trouble? When Putt moved over this side? No, you [Dot] were on this side before you [Putt] got here.
Dot: I know, that’s when he started noticing [her]. [laughs]
Putt:
Know what the Old Man would do us sometimes?
Cooking a chicken on Sunday…close the chickens up at night, all go in a
coop. Sunday morning, want to eat a
chicken, had to get out there
JD: What kind of cooking? What did you used to make out of it?
Putt: Chicken stew, gumbo. Fried.
JD: You didn’t do roosters too often?
Putt: Well, depend on how many roosters you had. Sometime you use a hen if you ain’t got enough roosters to cook. And uh, Momma’s steady hatchin them eggs out all the time, you know?
When I was goin to school, I had to have eight eggs for breakfast. Evrery morning. Momma would pick up three and four dozen eggs a day. Lot of chickens, nice chickens.
JD: Did you feed em or leave em wild?
Putt: Turn em wild, they always come back in uh, in the chicken house in them nests. They come back. You give em a lil corn, just to keep em around the house, you see?
Dot: You know Jim, it was hard doin that [living like that], but I wish many times I could go back.
JD: Why?
DOT: Cause kids today don’t know the value of nothin. They get too much.
And
we were raised, when you did have a nickel, you hold onto the nickel until you
had something [important to spend it on].
And today, you give a child a nickel and he’s insulted.
JD: I think we agreed that a nickel then…a nickel then was worth at least 25 cents today. At least. So, if the same thing…you give a child a quarter today, what do they do with it?
Dot: used to take us to the movie show on weekends. We bought our ticket, we bought candy. Come back. But I take mine to the movie today, I got to go buy a bag full, you know? [of candy] and popcorn besides.
Putt: When the Charenton Beach was open. …on Saturdays, sometimes…we’d pass a collection here on the Point [Myette Pt.]. Everybody livin on the Point would put up two dollars. Buy beer and pop and ice it down in a washtub, and we’d get [?] a jukebox, and put it in a fence.
JD: In a fence?
Putt: Yeah, you know, where nobody…you put a nickel in there and you’d press a button, you see? Nobody could tear it up. And they was every Saturday night, we’d go dance. Sometimes four and five [o’clock, come back in the morning]…come there and…In other words after the place closed [the Beach concessions?], we bring out our stuff, you see? We had it all marked, you see?
JD: Who?
Putt: Everybody!
JD: What did Myon and Agnes say about these girls comin back at five o’clock
in the morning?!
Dot: They was with us!
Putt: Even the babies, we bring the babies, and everybody!
JD: You mean yall all…everybody?!
Putt: The whole caboodle. We’d go up there and dance all night.
JD: Well, would Myon and Agnes dance?
Putt: Yeah, one of the best. Everybody’d go together.
JD: Everybody’d go and have a good time at the same time!
Putt: Everbody’d go together.
Dot: Not a bit of trouble.
Putt: Leave there, almost all the lights be out. You know, everybody dance till daylight. Then when we come back, they all come back together.
JD: Every Saturday night?
Putt: I tell you what, very few Saturdays we missed.
Dot: If it was raining too much, then we couldn’t get up there.
Putt: Those times we go around [by Bayou Teche]…go around that way [instead of going directly down the levee].
JD: And then, Sunday, of course, you went to church and rested up?
Dot: Not necessarily, ‘cause it was a good while before we got a church.
JD: But at least you rested up on Sunday, and the men all went back to work Monday morning. Boy, I tell you, that’s a clean way of doing things, like that, you know?
Dot: That’s the way we courted.
Putt: Them old…[when] them old jukeboxs break down, you’d run one of them cars in the middle of the dance floor, open the doors, and catch Grand Ole Opry.
JD: Run one of those cars into the dance hall?!
Putt: Yeah. Right up into the dance hall. You see, it was open. It was a great big old [room, roof ?] on the beach.
Dot: Is it still there?
Putt: They got piles [pilings]. They just got a lil piece… [of it left]
JD:
It’s fallen down
Putt: Yeah, drive that old car up in the middle of that floor and turn that…catch a brand new [?] you know? …run out of money, dance by the radio.
Dot: And that was fun! We had a good time. And we’d all dance with each other, you know? Edward…Daddy…Daddy would dance with us young girls.
[talking about dances elsewhere and kids today]
JD: They don’t have anything to do, Dot.
Putt: Well, they sure ruined this, Charenton Beach, by letting that go down.
JD:
Well, Putt, I don’t know if they ruined it by letting it go down, or whether it
just would never have been the same again. Because when you got television,
Putt: I guess the drugs is what ate that up, you see, dope?
JD: I’m sorry that Charenton Beach is not there anymore, but I’ll tell you the truth, [?], it served its purpose. It was there for a long time…
Dot: Yeah. Momma would go there when she was…
Putt:
They used to have walks [warfs?], Jim, way out in the lake. They used to have walks, you know, the Old
Man
JD: They could see the lights on the other side of the lake?! [from Blaise's Canal].
Putt:
They had wharfs way out there for you to tie your big boats. And the Old Man would take that old
bateau
But he couldn’t fish out of that big boat, you know? That was just like a automobile. [?]
JD: It was like, your transportation…that’s what it was. Well, you say “when the weather wasn’t too bad” [to get to Charenton]; didn’t anybody have horse and buggies or anything like that?
Putt:
Well, Oaklawn was the only place had some horses. Like when Momma
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