Atchafalaya Basin People: Chapter 38

DATE:                        January 4, 1996 

INTERVIEWER:      Jim Delahoussaye

LOCATIONS:           At Ida Daigle’s house at Oxford Loop, Oxford, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana

COOPERATORS:   Ida Sauce Daigle

Continued from Chapter 37

 [opens with someone asking what a 15-pound mall is]

 JD:      It’s a big hammer made out of oak.

 Ida:     And it was a part iron, my mall.

 JD:      Iron?  What kind of iron?

 Ida:     I had a oak one, and I put a…a cup, on the end, cause you know, it wouldn’t get messed up when it hit.  Like a cup.  And if Howard Thibodeaux would be livin he could tell you.  He’s the one [make me] the cup.

 JD:      He made a cup, inside the mall, you talking about?

 Ida:     Made a cup…made a cup and fixed it on the mall…that big.

 JD:      Made a cup out of iron?

 Ida:     Out of iron. 

 JD:      And slipped it on the mall?

 Ida:     Umhm.  He connect it on the mall with screws.

 JD:      …and that didn’t mess up the end of your pole as bad, I guess, eh?

 Ida:     Uhuh.  And it didn’t mess up the mall, either.  You know, you drive poles and it mess up the inside.  Howard Thibodeaux…Jesse was…I went cut the block, you see, and Jesse was tryin to bore the hole, I had a big handle on it [2 inches] because I didn’t want it to break.   So, he say…and Jesse couldn’t…Jesse didn’t have the strength no more [after his stroke].  And I was tryin to do it with the big bits…whatever you call it. And I was tryin to do it, you know…make him hold it, and I ..to make a hole in it.  And Howard Thibodeaux come.  He say “What you tryin to do?” Jesse say “That woman would try anything” he say “ I dunno, she’s makin herself a mall” He say “Gimme that thing, yuh”  He put me a iron handle in it , and he put a cup on both ends, and he put the lil screws, you know, to hold…, on both end of the mall.  And he say “When you need it?” I say “I need it tonight”, and he was right back with it too, tonight.   And he put me a iron handle on it and…oh, everybody drove poles with that mall.  They come and ask me if they could use it.  [laughs].  I say “Yah, y’all could use it, but I want it back when y’all through” I say “If not, I’m on go get it!”

 JD:      Oh, it must have been heavy for you to hold and come down, eh?

 Ida:     Jim, I had strength like a bull.

 JD:      And you weren’t that big [she’s not quite four feet tall].

 Ida:     I wasn’t that big but I was strong, cher.  You know them number 3 tubs? And you remember that old wagon Russell and them had?  I picked that…throw that in there like that.  [?] didn’t help me!  But I got ruint.

 JD:      You got ruined?  How?

 Ida:     I tore all my insides.  I tore…in the long run.  I had to be operated on, you know, for my bladder, and all my insides was messed up.   My rectum…that was too heavy for me to lift, you see. 

 JD:      Yeah.  It didn’t hurt you at the time?

 Ida:     Uhuh.  It just…I got older, you see, and I guess it got worse and worse.  I was hurtin.   And all, and…right after Myon died I had a big operation. 

 JD:      I thought it was your shoulder though, it was your insides?

 Ida:     My shoulder too.  [but] that didn’t have nothing to do with my shoulder.  I fell off my porch, there.  And I crushed this yuh.   I got, uh…this here is a plastic shoulder I got…this here.

 JD:      Let me ask you about…crossings?  In all y’alls moving around, I heard you talk about…you used uh…you used bushlines a lot and you did some bentlines…you ever fish with crossings?

 Ida:     Crossing in Bayous Long?  Oh yes. I did.

 JD:      How did you set it?  Let me ask you…how did you set a line?

 Ida:     You set it…you tie one end, you go on the other end and you pull it stiff as you can.  You pull all the slack.  And when you set it, it’s on top the water.  You just leave it make a lil curve.  Because you see, as it goes [it] stretches.  And then you put your…now that, I put my hooks closer, on a crossing, yeah. 

 JD:      How close, you think?

 Ida:     I guess about three foot, three and a half foot.  Because you see, them fish…they swim against the current all the time.  And that hook is there.  Then they can see it…they get hooked.  But I fished that, that cove that,…where they just stopped up, there, how you call that …where they put that levee there, on the end of it?  Oh shit, I know the

 JD:      The Crevasse?

 Ida:     No no.  it’s way down there.  Where we used to cross to go across the lake.  It’s not the crevasse…they stopped it up just a while back, not too long ago. 

 JD:      Thibodeaux Chute?

 Ida:     A year ago.  No no.  Further than Thibodeaux Chute.  Oh shit.  I don’t remember the name of it.  But anyway, it was deep in there.   And the fish wasn’t bitin in the lake at all, so I told Neg, I say “Neg, let’s go over there and put crossings out” I say “Maybe they’d bite in there”.  “I ain’t gone go there” he say. 

 JD:      About when was that…you were doing this, about when?  Your children were grown?

 Ida:     Yah.  Yeah.  That was…, after my children was all grown, almost all married…[that] I wanted to do this.  They just stopped it up about a year ago, two years ago, that chute.

 JD:      I’m trying to remember what the name of that was.

 Ida:     Edward can tell you.  Edward fished in there too.  And I went in there an I put some crossings out.  I put six.  And I baited em good and I come on home.  Neg was still baiting in the lake and not catching nothing.  So, the next day, I told him, I say “Neg, you comin today?”.  “No, I ain’t goin go over there”.  Well, I say “I’m goin see what I got”.  And I say “If I’m not back” I say “at dark” I say “come see for me”.  Because if I had fish I was gone put some more [crossings].  Then I met Edward and Lena Mae in there.  And me and Edward and Lena Mae murdered them fish in that chute.  You ought’a seen that!  You ought’a seen the fish on them crossings.  Each hook Jim, sometime it was a small one, but it was a fish.  Each hook, they had some.  And I fished in there and I come back with my…I had great big wellbox in my boat, and my boat was wideon, and I had that thing plumb full to the top on just one run.

 JD:      You had an outboard at that time, I guess?

 Ida:     Yeah, I had a 25 horse outboard.  And uh, so I met Edward and Lena Mae.  And Edward like to went crazy with my fish!   “Momma” he say “We gone…[if] Ida catch some fish, we can too”.  Boy they started putting out crossings.  So, the next day when they were ready to leave the called me.  Shit, I was done gone, I was over there, me. And uh, we went the next day, and the next day was better.  And they had a current, a good current in there.  In the lake they didn’t have no current, Jim!  No current.  A lil breeze, your boat would go up [upstream].  And that was a mess.  But they had current in the chute.  It was wide too, you know.  I put almost a pound and half [of nylon main line] to the crossing.  And Edward say “this is wide” he say “ I don’t know if we gone have enough line”.  So, I had a ball in my boat, I say “You can use that one” I say “…you want to”.  I say “I done put mines out”.  He say “How many crossins you got?” I say “ I put six yesterday, and I put two more today”[laughs].  And, then the water started comin up, I had to go pick up…but they still had fish in there. 

 JD:      How did you handle your line?  Uh, when you already had hooks on it?  How did you handle your line when you picked up?

 Ida:     I hooked…I pick up my hook and I hang it on the side the tub.

 JD:      So, you would hang it on the side the tub?

 Ida:     Yeah, and then when I was ready to put em out, I’d hold it like this and I’d get to a hook I’d catch it.

 JD:      You’d hold it…you’d hold the line so it would come off of your finger and the line would come out the middle of the tub and when you’d get to a hook you’d unhook it and throw it? 

 Ida:     Yah, I’d unhook the hook.  And in no time I had a crossin out. 

 JD:      Now, you see, other people did that a different way.  They didn’t hang the hooks on the side the tub, they just let the hooks in the bottom…

 Ida:     Yeah, but it makes it better [her way].  You got to untangle that, you know.   It takes too much time.  [but her two sons are experts at the other way].  But, believe me, I fished in there and Russell was workin, him, and when he come back I wasn’t home.  He told his daddy “Where’s Momma?”  He say “Momma’s in the lake” say “you know where she’s at, before you ax”.  But they didn’t know where I was at.  I didn’t even tell em.  I didn’t tell em.  One time in the lake, the water was comin up, and the fish was bitin in Raymond’s Cove.   And I went in there, and I was putting lines out.  I went headfirst…

 JD:      Tightlines?  Tightlines in Raymond’s Cove?

 Ida:     Yeah.  Tightlines.  On the side.  [?]  drawed a lil pole.  But this here I had tied on a tree.   And the tree broke.  In the bayou I went,  headfirst. 

 JD:      You couldn’t swim?

 Ida:     No indeed.   What happened.  I held on [to] a lil bitty limb, way smaller than my finger.  And uh, they had another one on the side, I reached over and I…I broke it, and my boat…the wind was north, it was a cold day in July [figure of speech, it must have been in the winter], and my boat was goin away from me so I throwed that lil limb and it stayed caught…

 JD:      On your boat?

 Ida:     Yeah, and I pulled the boat back to me and I got in it.  But when I got in and I realized what could’a happened to me I got so weak…after I got in the boat.  I wasn’t scared before.  And uh….  You know I was by myself in yuh, and I know they got 12 foot of water…

 JD:      Oh yeah, when the water’s high.

 Ida:     And I got back home, I was wet.  Jesse started laughing at me, I say “If you’da been in my drawers, you woudn’ta laughed”.  I say “Podna, I fell overboard in the…in the deep water…I say “about 12-foot, maybe better”.  He went…he told me they didn’t have 12 foot, being that I had saved myself.  I say “Oh yeah, they is”.  He cut a…he cut a 15-foot pole and he went in there and they had…he barely touched the bottom with the pole he had.  Well, he say “ I believe you now”. 

 JD:      Well, you know, even if it had been six feet it would have been too deep.

 Ida:     Yeah, but I wasn’t scared Jim.  I knew the Lord was with me.

 JD:      You used to catch fish in Raymond’s Cove?

 Ida: Russell had made me a big, heavy paddle.

 JD:      Big cypress paddle?

 Ida:     Yah. Jim, one night we was…I was going to my line, had went and caught my bait.  You know how you do before dark.

 JD:      Castnet?

 Ida:     And they had a lil fog.

 JD:      Castnet?  Throwing a castnet?

 Ida:     Throwing a castnet, yeah.  And my line was straight across…

 JD:      Across where?

 Ida:     Across…you remember where the boat landin [public landing at Myette Pt.]…well, but now it growed some…I mean, it filled in a lots.  But I had a row across, clean across, from one side to the other. 

 JD:      That big hole there was there by the boat landing?

 Ida:     Yeah.  In other words, you could go up to…up to Charenton…. Well, in that part, and it was wide.  And I had a row of line there clean across.   And one night I caught my baits, and I went to my line, and

 JD:      What kind of bait were you fishing with?

 Ida:     Uh, lil…lil bitty shad.  The lil ones, though, not the big ones. It was foggy. [laughsI I had went and dip my bushes, they didn’t have no shrimps.  And I had to go throw the castnet after dark, to catch me some baits

 JD:      So y’all used to make swivels, I understand.

 Ida:     Oh yeah.  I still got some.  I don’t make em no more, though.

 JD:      Do you have any at all?  Could you give me one or two?

 Ida:     Yeah.  I got some for souvenirs, I mean…I’m on have to look, though, Jim..  I usually had some dragging all over, but I’m not making em no more. 

 JD:      Where did you learn to make those things?

 Ida:     I learned that by myself.  Jesse used to make the straight ones, Jim.  And the fish would pull out [separate the two parts of the swivel].  So, I say, “No” I say “There’s another way to make those things” I say “You lose all you fish”. 

 JD:      The fish would pull em open?

 Ida:     Uh, they get bent.  Watch, I’m on show you.  I got a bunch in yuh. 

 JD:      How did you make those, how did you make that? 

 Ida:     With the pliers…with pliers.

 JD:      How did you make that lil bitty…that lil bitty…uh

 Ida:     With the end of the pliers.  Here, I give some for souvenirs. [she gives me one of the swivels she used to make].

 JD:      Well, that’s what I want…just for… I want to make a…I want to describe…that’s enough, that’s enough.  Yeah, I want to describe em on paper and…

 Ida:     I keep em for souvenir.  I still can make em, but I ain’t got no sales for em. Because, you know why?   I can’t get the good material to make em anymore.

 JD:      What kind of material?

 Ida:     It takes the pure galvanized Jim, and you can’t find the galvanized nail and you can’t find…what they got [now] is covered with galvanize but you bend em, it crack and they rust.  So, that’s why I quit makin em. 

 JD:      That’s a pretty little swivel.

 Ida:     I used to make that for a dollar and a quarter a hundred.

 JD:      Is that right?!

 Ida:     I sold a lot.  At Oscar Lange…at Myon there too though.  I used to sell…send that by the 4000, at Oscar Lange.  And in three days he didn’t have no more.   Now I can make em with stainless steel, if I got em.  That I could sell.  But they wouldn’t give em…they wouldn’t give em for a dollar and a quarter.  But I can’t find the nails.  I could find the wire, but I can’t find the nails. 

 JD:      So, you learned this yourself? 

 Ida:     Well, sure.

 JD:      You learned to make the double.  You learned to make the double-wire, yourself.  But where did they learn to make single wire?

 Ida:     Yeah.  You see, this is a nail.  This the nail. And I make the wire.

 JD:      What I’m tryin to…what I’m trying to learn is, you learned to make the double wire, but before it was made as a single wire.

 Ida:     It…it broke my pliers that I used to make em with.  But I got another pair.  Somewhere.  EJ had said he was pliers in a tackle box…But anyway, these is the one I used to make all the time.  EJ broke em…he broke em with the…Now, believe me, believe me, I made those. 

 JD:      Well, to make this lil…to make this lil…to make these lil ends, right here, the lil pieces right there?  How did you turn that into make this lil…?

 Ida:     You see, this here…it was small right here [the ends of the needle nose pliers].

 JD:      It was even smaller than this? 

 Ida:     Oh yeah, yeah.  Smaller than this.  This here come out pointed, pointed.  And I used to make this.  And I used to bend em in there with the small…but the nail I used to do with this. 

 JD:      You know, that’s something to be able to do that. 

 Ida:     Jim, I wish I’d have to show you how many of those things I made. 

 JD:      But now you learned to…you invented making the double wire like that…but they used to make the single wire…where did they learn to do that?  Do you know?

 Ida:     I don’t know where they learned.  But I know that they didn’t…they didn’t do it right, for sure.  They pulled…you see…they… they…straight wire.  They’d make that eye, one of em, then they’d take it and bend it over like this, then they’d pass the nail [thru the eye just made in the wire], they when the fish…a big fish would get hooked, he’d pull that…he’d pull that apart.  And that don’t…

 JD:      The double wire doesn’t. [simple but amazing] 

 Ida:     If I could get the…if I could get the good stuff I’d start all over again.

 JD:      Well, even if you can’t get the good stuff, what I’d like to do is get you some nails and some wire…I know it wouldn’t…not to use, I’m talking about, but I’d like to see you make some, if you don’t mind.

 Ida:     Well, I got some.  I got some wire, but this here pliers broke now. 

 JD:      Well, we have to get you some more pliers.

 Ida:     I got a pair, but I don’t know…I don’t know where they at. 

 JD:      Well, not now, no, Ida.  Later on.

 Ida:     I just want to show you the pliers.   But Jim they don’t work like that, they don’t work like these yuh.  They got a red handle.  They might be in my pan, watch.  I got my pan right under here. I believe I got em in my pan.  [finds some things] Look all the wires I got in yuh. 

 JD:      Oh, so you cut the lil wires first of all? 

 Ida:     My pliers not in yuh, though.  See, that’s without the nail.  [She bends two eyes in the short wire].  I was makin em, I was sellin pretty good.

 JD:      You make this while the wire is still like that?  You make the two little ends?  You make the curl on the ends first.

 Ida:     [still looking for pliers]  I made some a while back.  I sold a few hundred.  But they don’t last.  It’s not the right kind of wire.   It’s not the right kind.  It rusts like no time.  I’ll find em and next time you come…

 JD:      I just want to see how you make it, I want to watch you make one.  Do you happen to have a plastic bag here?  A lil Ziplock plastic bag, or something like that? 

 Ida:     I believe I got a brand new one in yuh. 

 JD:      That’s good, can I have it?   I want to put these in so they don’t get lost. 

 Ida:     I bought me some more [pliers] Jim, but they don’t work like these old pliers.  There…this is what you call “la courache” [never did find out what she meant].

 JD:      Ida’s gonna show us how to make those, uh, the wire.

 Ida:     You see…

 JD:      I didn’t see you, do that again.

 Ida:     Watch, I’m on show you this end now.   You see, you got to come back with it, you see?   Now you catch it like this.   Now, this is big…the eye is bigger…the eye is big, you see [because the pliers are too big].  Yeah, and if you could get some stainless steel, Jim.  [she makes the wire part, has no nail] You got strength in your hands, you can make you some money…you can sell em, at $7.00 a hundred. 

 JD:      Now, you put the nail…

 Ida:     Put the nail in there, and then you bend the nail.  Put your nail,  you pull it tight, then you catch it.  Bend it over.  Ain’t got no nails in yuh.  Sheee, I used to cut this pan here full, I mean full and before dark I was ready to sell em.

 JD:      How did you uh, how did you measure your wires, just by eye?

 Ida:     Just by eye.  I just take my wire and I go plop, plop, plop until I had the pan full.   And watch…you can take this whole pan here Jim...and I don’t measure nothin.  They all the same length.  [about three inches long].  You can take all of em [and measure] and put em all the same.  You see that’s the way…

 JD:      That’s before the nail is bent…where did this old can come from?  [she is working out of what looks like a very old canned-ham can, maybe a two or three pound ham].

 Ida:     This?  I worked at the boarding house [at the Oaklawn sugar mill].  That thing must be 33 years old.  They bought one of these hams, and uh, I saved me the can.   [been using it] ever since.  It was easy for me, being it was high and I could put a lot...but I’d like to…I’d like this thing here to talk, to tell you how many [laughs]…

 JD:      I would like that too.

 Ida:     …how many schwivels that that pan held.   I want to show you how you catch this.

 JD:      Now she’s gonna bend the nail for me.  [does].  That’s it huh?  You keep a rag on your hand when you working with that, uh…

 Ida:     Yeah, you got to…yeah…because if it slip I catches your skin, and it…I put something, a rag, or paper or something…

 JD:      So, she wraps her forefinger, when she bends a nail, she wraps her forefinger in a rag or something like that.

 Ida:     Yah.  I used to do it before, but I’d keep my hands sore.   The head of the nail catches there. 

 JD:      Boy, that is really neat!  Now, you uh, you invented the double loop, right here.  But how…how about the single loop?  When do you think…who…who?

 Ida:     The single loop…I, I, it’s not me.  I didn’t…I didn’t never did make none.  I can make em, Jim.  But watch, I’m gonna show you.

 JD:      But I’m wondering where they came from?

 Ida:     I don’t know.  I don’t know.  Watch how Jesse used to make em.  [she does it].  Now you see, he used to put his nail in there, and put his stageon on the end.  Put his stageon on the…on the nail.  But this here, when the fish would catch…big fish…it would do like this.

 JD:      It would bend it down?   And open it up.

 Ida:     And I told him, I say “There’s something wrong” I say “Look at this schwivel here” . [the right angle of the wire bends open and the eye pulls open, separating the two parts of the swivel] , and I say “I think I can fix it better than that”.  [laughs].  He say “Well, I be darn” He say “What a head!”. [laughs] ..  “What a head!”  He say “I ain’t never thought about that!”. 

 [she shows how she brought the two ends of the wire together with an eye in each and passed the nail through both eyes, makes a triangle of the wire]. 

 JD:      And that’s perfect.  That’s perfect.  It gives the nail [head] a place to turn and it gives you something to tie your line onto. 

Ida:     That’s right. Yeah.

JD:      Oh, that’s wonderful!

Ida:     But this is not the right kind of wire.  It lasts a while, Dean [Henson] say about three weeks to a month, maybe a month and a half.  But it’s not good wire.  You can tell.

 JD:      Dean was using these?

 Ida:     Yeah, Dean bought some from me.   And all over in Charenton they bought some.  But then I broke my arm and the doctor told me not to strain my arm.  EJ told him that I was making schwivels.  And he wanted to know what kind of schwivels, so EJ had to bring one over there to show him.  And he say “Well, don’t bend them nails with that arm”.  I can do it Jim, but…

 JD:      You say…you say that…that…uh, you don’t know where that…you don’t know where that single…started…

 Ida:     No.  I don’t know how…all I can tell you…Jesse used to make em, a long, long time ago.  Way before we got married. 

 JD:      But when you started fishing as a girl at eight years old, did they make…did you have those swivels?

 Ida:     No.  Not like that.   We had the straight ones.  ..  My daddy, I believe, knew how to make em.  I believe my daddy showed Jesse how to make em too.  ..  Because they didn’t fish with no schwivels.   No, just with straight stageons. 

 JD:      Oh, well, you talking about for bushlines?

 Ida:     For bushlines, for straight lines, whatever, a pole line whatever.

 JD:      They didn’t fish with swivels?

 Ida:     No.  They didn’t fish with that.  Just a long stageon. 

 JD:      Well, when did they start fishing with swivels, you think?

 Ida:     When my aunt started makin em, that single. 

 JD:      Your aunt started makin em?  What aunt was that?

 Ida:     That…that’s uh…her name was Florence.  It was…we used to call her Aunt Nini. 

 JD:      OK, Florence, that was…that was Blaise’s sister.  That was your daddy’s sister.

 Ida:     Yah.  That was a Sauce. 

 JD:      Florence, she made the swivels, eh?

 Ida:     She made the schwivels.  She made the straight ones.  But I was the first one that ever made these Jim.  The double schwivels.  I could’a sold my patent if I wanted.  I didn’t want to sell it, because, I wasn’t gone get enough money, you know, to last me my years of life, so I didn’t want.  I couldn’t a made no more, you know, after…unless I’d a made it hid and then if they’d a caught me they could’a done something.  But I didn’t want.

 JD:      Who was interested in buying your pattern?

 Ida:     Eh?  At the factory, wherever…. the pattern place, I don’t know where it’s at.  I didn’t want to mess with it.  [laughs]  I told Jesse “I ain’t gone mess with them people”.  I say “They can put me in the pen, maybe”.

 JD:      For making em yourself after that?  If you sold it.  If you sold it and then made some after that…

 Ida:     Yah.  That’s it.  And I told im “I ain’t messin with them”.  Jim, they got coffee yeah, if you want some. 

 JD:      Uh, I don’t believe, thank you.  So, your aunt Florence made the straight ones, and you say they didn’t fish with swivels, but then they started fishing…somebody started fishing with swivels?

 Ida:     Yeah.  My aunt started makin em, straight.  But they wouldn’t put it two [in the middle of the] stageon.  They’d put the swivel on the line and then they’d tie the stageon on the schwivel. 

 JD:      Oooh.  They’d put the swivel on the line. 

 Ida:     Yeah, that’s how she’d make em. 

 JD:      And they looked just like the one that you just showed me just now, they put a lil eye at the top…

 Ida:     That straight…that straight one that I showed you. 

 JD:      And why did she put…why did they put it right on the line, you think? 

 Ida:     Gawd knows.  I don’t know.   I guess it was [worked better?].  Aw, I don’t think it was, me, I wouldn’t want to put none.

 JD:      Well, you had to tie the main line through the swivel, I mean…?

 Ida:     They tied the…the main line to the nail, to the end nail, you see, [she works to make a swivel like the one on the main line].  Now you see, this is a straight one.  Now, they’d tie this here to the line.  They’d take the main line and pass it in here, you see?  They’d pass it over the schwivel like this.  And you had…and then they’d come back and put they stageon and the nail.

 JD:      But that meant that you had to make up…you had to make up…

 Ida:     That’s right.  That was double work.

 JD:      You had to make up your line first.

 Ida:     That’s right.  Make up your line first. 

 JD:      Put all that…swivels on the main line.

 Ida:     And then come back and put the stageon on. 

 JD:      And then when the swivel would rust, you didn’t have anything left.

 Ida:     Didn’t have nothing.   Well, you take uh…me, I can get a sewing machine…I’m not lost, Jim.  I’m 77 years old.  I still can make a living for myself.   I can sew.  I sewed things for people around here, that they didn’t believe me I had make it.  I can sew, I can paint, and I can do a lot of lot of things.  But I don’t want to do these things, I want to go fish, fish my line. 

 JD:      You still want to fish?

 Ida:     I fixed my line yesterday.

 JD:      You got some line ready to go?

 Ida:     No, not to go in the lake, for here. 

 JD:      Oh, you want to go fish [in the bayou with a rod and reel].

 Ida:     I fixed my line.  Look, I put me two hooks on there.  You know what I did the first time…I had never throwed a rod and reel before.  I went at the end of the wharf, me and Neg, and I was throwing…throwing my rod and reel, and the hook caught me…went clean on through [her hand, but the point didn’t go through].  I thought Neg was gonna die [laughs]. 

 JD:      That was right here?  In the bayou?

 Ida:     Yeah.  In the summer, there.  I say “Just let’s go get me a pliers”. “You don’t want a plier, you don’t want a…” I say “Don’t you tell me I don’t want a pliers”.  Annie come, she heard him.  Annie come on the wharf.  I say “Annie you got a cutting pliers?”  I didn’t show her what I had in my hand.  “Yeah” she say “I got a pair”.  Well, I say “Go get it for me”.  When she come back I…I finished passin the hook throug.  And I cut it [off].  I told Neg, I say “I can’t pull it” I say “I got this holding it”.  [he said:] “I ain’t pullin nothing!” I throwed the pliers to Annie and then I pulled it out.  Oh, he like to died, cher.  [laughs].  I say “Neg, that’s just a hook” I say “You was a fisherman”.  Jim, I’d do that in the lake and cut em [cut the barb off of a hook in her hand] and fish all night.  He… Neg, get all excited, him. 

 JD:      Did y’all ever fish at night in the old days?

 Ida:     Oh yeah, Jesse used to fish and I used to fish with im.  ..  We fished crabs…

 JD:      How about lines?

 Ida:     Eh?  Lines, we fished crabs, fished lines, we caught frogs, we hunt alligator.  Until he caught…he killed a 12-foot alligator, and I helped him pull it in the boat and I didn’t have no place to sit down [laughs].  So, then he say “You better stay home” I say “What you gone do with a big alligator like that by yourself?”  He say “I’ll drag it, I got to tow it”.

 JD:      How’d y’all kill it?  With a rifle?

Ida:     Eh?   With a rifle.  Boy, you talk about a idea…that thing was big as this table here…was fat! 

 JD:      In the Basin y’all caught that?  In the swamp?

 Ida:     Uhuh.  On them lil bayous back of, uh, Blue Point Canal.  Them lil bayous, you know, they got all kind of lil bayous back there Jim.  You would be surprised, you go back there [and see].  That’s where we killed him at, right at the mouth of uh…the lil bayou that comes to go into the…Lil Bayou Long. On a lil mud flat.  We killed him.  We was muddy from head to toe before we could pull that thing in the boat. 

 JD:      Y’all caught him on a line, or…or hook?

 Ida:     No no.   We saw him and he shot him.   He was on a mud flat, you see.  Didn’t sink.    And we dragged him in the boat.  We had seven big alligators in that boat that night.

 JD:      So y’all would just hunt em, just like that, just to go out and find their eyes on the water at night? 

 Ida:     Yah.  And we’d kill em, and we’d skin em and sell the hide.  And frogs.  We had…we had two sacks of frog in the boat and seven big alligator in there, and me and him [laughs].  I had a light on my head, just like he had there. 

 JD:      What kind of light?

 Ida:     The headlights.

 JD:      With battery?

 Ida:     Yeah.  The battery, we’d hang the battery on our side.   Oh, I wasn’t going in the boat without my headlight. 

 JD:      Is that the batteries that were round?  The were round like…

 Ida:     Yah.  But, I got one on my light now, like that.

 JD:      The same kind?

 Ida:     I got a light that I use around the house to see.  I keep my battery on it.

 JD:      Y’all fished lines at night.  Why did y’all fish lines at night? 

 Ida:     Because sometimes they bite at night, and sometimes they bite in the daytime.  It…it depends how the tides workin.  You gotta watch the tides all the time.  Me, I used to get up at midnight and go to the boat landing to see [if] the tide was goin down.  And if I’d see the tide was goin down, I’d go back home and get my stuff ready and I’d pull out.

 JD:      So, fish would bite on the falling tide?

 Ida:     On the falling tide. 

 JD:      Now that would be in the summertime when you could that when the water was low, huh?

 Ida:     Yah.  I never did fish much in the winter.  I went frog hunting…I went alligator hunting and all in the winter, but not too much fish in it [winter].  I fished crabs in the winter, because you know, back there at night.  Whatever would do better, I was there.

 JD:      Well, did you take Russell with you out…Russell was, uh…

 Ida:     I took Russell until Russell was about…maybe 15, 16 years old.

 JD:      He fished with you?

 Ida:     He fished with me.

 JD:      That’s funny though.   That’s funny because…

 Ida:     He didn’t care about the boys.  [she had five, one drowned]

 JD:      He didn’t show em how to do all that stuff…about how to fish or anything?

 Ida:     I showed em how to do everything those kids know.  Really!  If they want to talk…sit down and talk to you…and the way it goes, well if it wouldn’t a been for Momma, those kids would’a been in a heck of a fix. I even showed em how to iron, Jim.  I even showed EJ how to sew shirts on his…on the sewing machine.   I showed him how to make pies.  I showed them how to make biscuits

 IDA: Let me show Jim somethin.  Gimme the pencil.   Look, this is the way you put a bushline pole.   Now, you…you see, if you put it…if you don’t put it like this, it wraps around.  But if you put it like this, you see, it hangs in the water.  This is your bait, right here.  [laughs]  You see.  You drive your pole so they don’t come and wrap around and get loose.

 JD:      Now, you usually didn’t need a mall for that?  You could drive the pole by hand? 

 Ida:     This…well, some places you can, but some places you need a mall. Because you can drive it a lil bit Jim, and if you got a big fish it’s gone… it pulls it until it wears it out, you see, and then it goes, pole and all.   So, you got to have a good pole. 

 Continued on Chapter 39