Atchafalaya Basib People: Chapter 12

DATE:                        1989

INTERVIEWER:      Jim Delahoussaye

LOCATION:              Albert (Myon) Bailey’s house at Oxford Loop, Oxford, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana.

COOPERATORS:   Myon Bailey, Agnes Bailey, Lena Mae Couvillier

Agnes: My Momma’s….I don’t remember where they buried.  But it must be at the Canal because…..I think….

JD:      Now if you can place that where you’re talking about so I can get it on tape and go back and figure it out later…. Where is this canal yall talking about and Napoleonville, and this cemetery? 

Myon: There ain’t no canal there, Jim.   A lil canal right there at the end, there.

Agnes: .Lake Verret.                                                              

Myon: There used to be a beach…..

Agnes:           There used to be a beach there…

Myon: Used to have a big dancehall right on the end. 

Agnes:           Yeah.

Myon: And that road go right to Napoleonville.  That’s when I drove….first time I drove a car that’s where I drove it at.  I wrecked it, a brand new car.

JD:      [laughs]  First time you drove a car, and you wrecked it Myon?

Myon: Run into a stump.  [laughs]

JD:      [laughs]  Wrecked it?  Oh no. 

Agnes:           Ran into a stump.

JD:      How did you do that? 

Myon: Ahhhh.  Don’t ax me.  Happened…..They didn’t have much room, I made some room ….[laughs]

JD:      So, it’s on this road, where they used to go to the beach and to a dancehall on Lake Verret….

Agnes:           And you keep on going…’till you get to, uh, to Napoleonville. [if you start at the lake]

JD:      Ok, and the cemetery is on that road?

Myon: Yeah, on the right hand side, going to Napoleonville. 

JD:      Close to, close to Napoleonville?

Agnes:           They got one in Napoleonville. 

Myon: Not to far from the……

Agnes:           So, I don’t know where my grandpa and grandma on my Momma’s side …I don’t know where they buried.  But I know where my grandma and grandpa buried on my Daddy’s side – Pierre Part. 

JD:      OK.  OK, we can get that.  So Mayon and Mason, you don’t know where they are..

Agnes:           Uhuh. 

JD:      How about, uh, where is your mother buried? 

Agnes:           My Momma’s buried over here, in Franklin. My Daddy’s buried in Morgan City. 

JD:      Your Daddy’s buried in Morgan City.  How about your Mother’s brothers and sisters?  Alvin, and Ivy, and Lydia and ….

Agnes:           They buried in Morgan City. 

JD:      All buried in Morgan City.  You see that makes me it’s possible that your grandparents, their mother and father might be buried in Morgan City.

Agnes:           Might be buried in Morgan City….

JD:      Umhm.  Make’s me think that would be a place to look. 

Myon: Could be. 

Agnes:           Might be buried in Morgan City, there. 

JD:      You know, isn’t it wonderful, how people don’t keep records of these kinds of things.

Myon: No, not in olden times, specially. 

JD:      None of us keeps records.  I could not tell you right now where my grandparents are buried.  I could guess where a couple of em are, and it’s got to be in New Iberia, ‘cause that’s were they were raised, in St. Peter’s Catholic cemetery, ‘cause they were Catholic.  But on my mother and father’s side I couldn’t tell you where they...I mean my mother’s side I couldn’t tell you where they are buried.  It makes me want to go back and find out.  It’s stuff like that…..

Agnes:           Now that you say that, they must be buried in Morgan City because...buried in Morgan City.  They must be buried in Morgan City.

Myon: Yeah, it’s possible.

Agnes:           They must be buried in Morgan City.

Myon: I wouldn’t know. 

Agnes:           I…….so.

JD:      OK, so Myon thinks that all four of his grandparents are gonna be, around in that, Napoleonville.  Why do yall call it The Canal?

Agnes:           I don’t know….

Myon: That’s the way they used to call it, there, Jim.  The Canal.  That’s the name they had for the place, there.  They had a canal there [at one time]. 

JD:      They did have a canal alongside that road?

Myon: Yeah, lil canal, yeah.  Didn’t go too far, but it had a canal.  Campboat would park in there.  Had a restaurant on the end, a dancehall. 

JD:      Did yall ever get any dancing, dancehall thing, when yall were ….?

Agnes: Yeah. At, uh, the Canal. 

JD:      That’s after you were married…?

Agnes:           We went one time before I was married.  I used to go with Uncle Alvin, and them, you see?

JD:      Ohhh.

Agnes:         I didn’t know nobody.  We just danced mongst us. 

Myon: I used to go out with [a] Simoneaux then. 

Agnes:           And, uh…

Myon: Napoleonville. 

JD:      A girl named Simoneaux?

Agnes:           And we went …..I was supposed to have a boyfriend.  I was goin..Veay Daigre, he say I was his girl.  Whenever he tell...I was his girl.  And…met Myon there one night and I went and started dancing with him, and he got mad. 

JD:      Who got mad?

Agnes:           Veay Daigre.   He got mad, so, I kept goin with Myon. 

JD:      You let him go and went with Myon.

Agnes:           Yeah.  He took my ring and he throwed it and I ain’t found my ring until today.

JD:      OHHHH!  What kind of ring?

Agnes:           A lil ring I had, with a lil green stone, and….

JD:      He had given to you, or...?

Agnes:           Yeah.

JD:      He did? 

Agnes:           Yeah, he had give me that ring. 

JD:      Well, you must have been his girl if, uh….he gave you a ring.

Agnes:           I guess I was, mais…

JD:      Gahh, you were fourteen years old.

Agnes:           He got mad at me and threw my ring, and, that was it.  Then Myon started comin aroun

JD:      [to Myon] I bet you didn’t even give her a ring, did you?

Myon: Sho didn’t.  [laughs]

Agnes:           Don’t give me no ring. 

JD:      Didn’t have to, hunh?  You were big enough man not to have to give her a ring, hunh?  [laughs]

Agnes:           Aay, yi. 

JD:      What kind of music did they play at that dance hall? 

Myon: They had good bands there! 

JD:      What yall call good music?

AB:     Oh, French bands. 

JD:      French bands?

Myon: Bands, different bands all the time.  Was a big place.  Big crowds there too. 

JD:      Mostly fishermen? 

MB:     No, mostly people from Napoleonville, all over, Jim. 

JD:      From towns?

Myon: Yeah.  [?] .people from…..skidder camps not too far across, on Lake Verret there.  Lot of people there. 

JD:      Yall lived at the skidder camps? 

Agnes:           We lived there a long time.  That’s where Yank’s born [her sister], right there….

MB:     They had a dance one night; I had a fight.

JD:      You did?

MB:     Yeah, oh yeah.  I was a fightin fool in my time.  [laughter]

JD:      Where you talking about, they had a dance at the skidder camp?

Myon: mmhmm. 

JD:      And you had a fight there?

Agnes:           Yeah.

JD:      And what were you fightin about?

Myon: My sister.

JD:      Your sister, what, somebody, somebody wasn’t bein a gentleman?

Agnes:           Yeah.

Myon: Correct.  Yeah, he wanted to act bully. 

JD:      That was Angelina?

Myon: Naw, naw.  Eula.

Agnes:           Eula.

JD:      Eula.

Myon: ……outside, but settle it right fast…..

JD:      [laughs] So yall went outside and tangled up?

Myon: Oh yeah. 

JD:      Galee.  [to Agnes] How could he get to be a nice old man like he’s, like he’s talking, like he is right now

Myon: Look, I had temper then.  Didn’t take long to raise it, too.  Didn’t do the right thing.  Course I wasn’t dirty, now, I wasn’t pickin no fights.  I wasn’t…..

JD:      But you’d take offense.

Myon: Awwww, right fast. 

Agnes:           And…her, she was kind of wild, you know. 

JD:      Eula was?

Agnes:           You had to watch her. 

JD:      Well, if he had that much trouble with Eula, [pause]   Who came in?

Agnes:           Lena Mae.

JD:      If you had that much trouble with Eula, you must have had a time with Elmira [Nine, his half sister

Agnes:           No, …..

Myon: I wasn’t around when Elmira come up.

Agnes:           No, Elmira was a year old when we got married.

JD:      Ohhhhh.   …….at a good time.  [laughs][garbled] So Eula wouldn’t turn em away quite fast enough for you, she was a lil bit too, too nice.

Myon: She was kinda wild. 

JD:      And that poor boy you went out and fought, it probly wasn’t all his fault. 

Myon: Yeah…he was putting on.

JD:      He was, hunh?

Agnes:           He was a show off.

Myon: He want to show off.  I dunno.  That boy was dancing with my sister, and he wanted to cut in.  The other boy didn’t want. 

JD:      Unhunh.

Myon: He got kind of smart, in there. 

JD:      Uhhunh.

Myon: So, I went there and settled the thing.  Maybe I shouldn’t, but I went.

JD:      You took care of everybody.  All your life you been takin care of everybody.

Agnes:           Yeah. 

JD:      One way or the other.  [pause]  Learn all kind of good things.  [to Lena Mae] We been tryin to figure out where your great grandparents are buried.  And we got it...we got it pinned down pretty well where we think we know where they are. Four of em, probably Napoleonville, two of em .. probly, well, all your people probly Napoleonville, half of hers probly Morgan City and half of em probly also Napoleonville. 

Lena Mae: What about your grandma [to Agnes]?  In Fourmile Bayou.

Agnes:           Yeah, but…

Myon: Buried on the Canal. 

Agnes:           I’m pretty sure that’s where they buried. 

Myon: I’m pretty sure that’s where they buried.  …that’s where everybody …..the bayou buried they people, and they had a church, they had a cemetery.  Half of the time they had to bail the, the grave, to put em down. 

JD:      It was filled with water?

Myon: Yeah.

JD:      Well, in those days they had a lot of trouble with that, I believe.  The caskets, in high water would come out of the ground.  They had that problem, I remember, in uh, in New Orleans.  They had a lot of problems with that. 

Myon: Mostly Fourmile Bayou people, that’s where they buried their people at.  That’s the closest town they had, there. 

Lena Mae:      Napoleonville?

JD:      Yeah. 

Myon: Between Napoleonville and the lake. 

Agnes:           At the Canal. 

Myon: [to Lena Mae]  We call it the Canal.  The road goes to Napoleonville.  They had a… on the right hand side they had a church and cemetery. 

Agnes:           But I definitely know that my grandma and grandpa is buried……No, grandma Tia and grandma Laurent, [correcting] grandpa Laurent.  They buried in Pierre Part. 

JD:      Yeah, that’s what you said, Pierre Part. 

Lena Mae:     Granpa Claiborne buried in Morgan City.

[jumbled]

JD:      We had figured that out from where most of their children are buried.  We were right.

Lena Mae:     You see, I remember when she died.  They had the campboat, they waked in his house.  Tied up in Morgan City in The Pit.  That’s where they had the wake.  That’s why I know they buried in Morgan City. 

JD:      So, you think, uh, Fannie Mae was her name, right?  And Claiborne also, you think he’s buried there too?

Agnes:           Yeah.  Well, I don’t remember when he died. 

JD:      OK, where ….

Agnes:           I’m sure they buried together. 

JD:      I imagine so.  Where do you think in Morgan City, would the cemetery be?  I mean, there might be several…

Agnes:           Oh no, I know where the cemetery’s at. 

JD:      You do?

Myon: Only one cemetery.

Agnes:           Yeah, you, you go over the railroad track, and when you go over the railroad track ….you can see the, uh…

Lena Mae:     Way down there, you, uh, …cemetery.  Know where the bowlin alley’s at? 

JD:      I wouldn’t, uh…I would have to find all that, but yeah, where’s the bowlin alley?  And then it’s where from the bowlin alley?

Lena Mae:     They got a bowline alley, and then they got a school.

Agnes:           You turn right by the school and you gone see the cemetery. 

JD:      It must be in the old part of Morgan City instead of the…in other words on the right side of the…. the south side of the highway instead of the north side.  OK, away from the lake.  On the other side from the lake. 

Lena Mae:     Behind the tracks, for sure. 

JD:      That, you see that way, we could go ….and if we can find where they’re buried we could get dates off the tombstones, probly, about when they were born.  And that’ll give us some, some good information.  I would like to get that if I could for all sixteen….

Agnes:           Yeah, because I know my daddy’s got it marked on the cross.  For sure. 

JD:      I don’t know…did everybody get stones in those days? 

Agnes:           Some of em had crosses.  Different….

Myon: Most of em.

JD:      Crosses out of wood or out of stone? 

Agnes:           My daddy’s out of cement. 

JD:      OK, so it would still be there.  Hopefully.  Do yall know if anybody is takin care of those graves now?  

Agnes:           I don’t know.  They had a, grave, uh….was takin care of it.  Long time ago.  I don’t know now. 

JD:      I wonder how those graves get taken care of. 

Lena Mae:     Well, they got a caretaker in there…

JD:      But I mean the, the, tomb itself. 

Lena Mae:     Oh, I don’t know. 

Agnes:           They got a house way in the back of the graveyard….

Lena Mae:     Yeah, but what he’s talking about, like grandma Claiborne and them, they ain’t nobody there to take care of them graves.

JD:      To paint em, and to see what ….falling down, whatever

Lena Mae: Yeah

JD:      “But us” you talking about the children?

Agnes: kids, yeah. That’s Lena Mae doin that [making a noise].

JD:      Nervous.  ….There’s a book comin out that I want to get a copy of, that yall might be interested in, uh, I dunno, me comin over here and reading some of it to you, or something like that.  It’s coming out this month, and iit’s called, uh, I forget the name of it.  A fellow up the canal, up the levee by the name of Greg Guirard.  He’s been working with people, and, photography for a long time.  He also works a lot with these movie people who want to come down and do filming in the Atchafalaya…he shows em where to go and the people to talk to and all that.  He’s a friend of mine, and he’s written a book that involves stories from 25 interviews with people who’ve lived all their lives in the Basin, who were fishermen.  Would yall like to hear some of those stories?

Lena Mae:     Sound interesting

Agnes:           If you willin to read…

JD:      Oh, I would love to come and read to you if you want to hear, right?  I don’t want to come and force it on you if you don’t want to hear, is what I’m sayin.  Because what it might do, you see, is it might, for my sake, the selfish part of this is it might help you remember some stories from your ….your past.  You might not have reason to think about it [otherwise].  I know stuff like that does it for me.  I’m gonna get a copy of that book and, um, if Myon doesn’t want to hear it, we’ll kick him outside [laughs].   I’m on have to go folks, what time is it getting to be?  Five oclock.  Oh yes, I have to be back at my Mother’s house to eat.