Atchafalaya Basin People: Chapter 30

DATE:                        December 28, 1995 

INTERVIEWER:      Jim Delahoussaye

LOCATIONS:           Recording made mostly in a moving vehicle on a trip from Myette Pt. to Napoleonville, Attakapas Landing and Pierre Part, Louisiana. 

COOPERATORS:   Edward Couvillier, Lena Mae Couvillier, Agnes Bailey, Joe Sauce, EJ Daigle, Carolyn Delahoussaye

Continued from Chapter 29

 Agnes:           But this is the place that had destroyed…that tornado had destroyed.  And that’s been long, long time ago.

 Lena Mae:     Before they moved off of Lil Pigeon. You remember?  Uncle Si[sp?] and them was still livin on Lil Pigeon.

 Agnes:           It’s been a LONG time, I know.  It destroyed the…everything.

 Lena Mae:     Me and Tot…Tot and them was older than me.  We used to go to Lil Pigeon I remember Uncle Si[sp?] dug that storm shelter?  And we used to go play in there…me and Tot and whoever else was there…Alfreda....

 Agnes:           You see, that was a campboat cabin back there, I betcha. 

 Lena Mae:     Yeah, two of em. 

 Agnes:           Yeah, big campboat. 

 Lena Mae:     That’n there about the size of grandma and thems camp. 

 Agnes:           Yeah.

 Lena Mae:     The one [a picture where] …grandma and grandpa standing on the side? 

 Agnes:           Yeah. Some pretty flowers…red and white.

 Lena Mae:     Yeah, they sure kept up [the cemetery grounds] the graveyard.

 [Carolyn comes back into the van and is shivering with cold]

 Carolyn:        They found it.

 Lena Mae:     They found it?  How many?

 Carolyn:        They found one, and uh, oh man, I’ll never get warm again!  Uh, but there was also an Edward Albert Sauce, I mean Edward Joseph Sauce.  Do you know who that was?

 Lena Mae:     Edward Joseph Sauce…that would be Uncle Bill.

 Carolyn:        Well, his grave had a rosary on it and some flowers.  It looks like somebody’s been taking care of it. 

 Lena Mae:     Well, somebody’s taking care of it, I know. 

 Carolyn:        And it’s right next to…your grandfather. 

 Agnes:           I don’t know if she’s living yet.

 Lena Mae:     Aw yeah, Tante Bet (?) yeah she’s livin. 

 Carolyn:        Oh, you see, so his wife is still livin?

 Lena Mae:     Oh yeah!  You see, how long Uncle Bill been dead?  I guess about 15 years?

 Agnes:           Oh, more than that! 

 Lena Mae:     I don’t think so, Momma.

 Agnes:           Oh yeah!

 Lena Mae:     …if it’s on the grave.

 Carolyn:        It’s on the grave but I was so cold…

 Lena Mae:     You see, they had one child.  Him and Tante Bet had one child.  And then this child got married.  I think before he got to see his granddaughter was born [he died].   I saw her twice.  Somebody else died…her and her son and the lil girl.  They lil girl come down.  His wife was big, she was a big ole woman. Uncle Bill’s son’s wife, she’s a big, big woman. 

 Agnes:           That’s all they had, that boy.

 Lena Mae:     That’s right.  And the boy had a lil girl.  That’s what I’m telling you…the only child they had.  I’m sure she’s got something to do with it, that grave [being] kept up.

 Carolyn:        Oh, it’s kept up, let me tell you.  There’s a blue rosary hanging inside the cross, and there’s flowers, and…

 Lena Mae:     They might of come put that there for Christmas, you know?   What’s his name?

 Carolyn:        Edward Joseph Sauce. 

 Agnes:           And they call him Bill, they call him Bill for short. 

 Lena Mae:     Everybody had…everybody had a nickname in them days.  And it shouldn’t be that.  They should be called by they real names…

 Carolyn:        But…it’s ok if the nickname was like the real name, you know?

 Lena Mae:     But when they die they put the real name on there and then you don’t know who’s who half the time.   [laughs]  Jack Sauce and them?  The whole family go by nicknames, the whole family.

 Agnes:           Yeah, Uncle Joe had em all…TPut and TNut and …

 Lena Mae:     Poo Lawd, he had a nickname for all of em.  No, I didn’t get out [of the van to walk around the graveyard]  this time Carolyn, I couldn’t of took it I don’t believe.

 Carolyn:        It’s bitter out there! It’s bitter out there!, and the wind’s blowing.  It picked up a little, you know? 

 Agnes:           You see Jim was looking for an old campboat,

 Lena Mae:     You see that campboat over there, that big one on this side?  The green one with the white chair on the porch?  That’s about the size campboat that my momma’s momma and them was living in, and my grandma’s house that she had on the bank was shaped just like that.

 [people return to van, all talking at once] [back on the road]

 JD:      I didn’t expect to find…I didn’t expect to find all four people [?], course we never did see Thibodeaux but you’re saying that they’re…they’re on top of each other, right? 

 Lena Mae:     …still got Grandma missin.  Uncle Bill might be buried on top of Grandma, now…

 [summarize:  In Catholic cemetery in Pierre Part we found the graves of Larnce Sauce and Edward Joseph Sauce (Uncle Bill)]

 [sounds of breathing trying to warm hands]

 Carolyn:        Well, Agnes, the house that you live in now, that house is bigger than my grandmother’s house was.  My grandmother did not live on the water, but she lived in a little…he house could have been on the water very easily.  My grandmother made bootleg whisky.  [laughs] She was something else! 

  Lena Mae:      Look how red Edward and EJ get when it’s cold!  [laughs]

 [talk about nicknames]

 Carolyn:        His name was Edward Joseph, but they called him Bill.

 [talking about the names they found just now on the graves. Confusion about the names on the graves, use of “Joseph”. Comments about people being buried on top of each other]

 Fini