Stories shared by Lin

Each summer Ann, Priscilla, and I would travel by greyhound bus to New Orleans to spend one week with Rita and Uncle Harold. Each time Dad would tell us "not to stay too long in the sun" so that we would not get "sun burned." When Mom and Dad would return the next Sunday to pick us up, the three of us would be hurting and red from too much exposure to the sun. Dad would talk to Rita and ask how could she allow us to stay in the sun too long, but all was well when we would visit City Park together. Dad would talk to the hippos and the hippos would sound back. One time one hippo had a stain on its bottom. Little did we know that it was sick and had diarhea. When the zoo keeper explained the reason for the stain, the hippos began to demonstrate how the stain was made. We screamed and quickly left that part of the zoo. What a laugh we all had over that hippo!! I remember trips to City Park at least once a month with Rita and Uncle Harold.

Rita and Dad had a wonderful relationship with tricking each other with each visit. Rita throw fire crackers inside while Dad slept on the floor in the front room. Dad ran outside and chased Rita around the house with the water hose. At Christmas Rita bought Dan her godchild a toy train engine with the loudest noise. Dad was sleeping later than usual because of the midnight Mass, and Rita turned the toy train on in his bedroom to wake him up. What wonderful memories of Rita and Dad and their many tricks on each other!!!

When the Firemen's Fair and Parade were approaching, Momma Naquin and Mom would sew the horse blankets, ribbons, and bows for the riders in the parade. The cloth flour sacks were used for the blankets on which the different colored seam binding ribbon were sewn around the edges of the blankets. The same colored stain ribbon bows and sadges were sewn for each rider. I would stack the cards left over from all the seam binding used for this project. Momma Naquin and Mom worked so hard to make these blankets, ribbons, and bows look so professionally made. Truly the women supported their men who were the firemen for Thibodaux!!

Many afternoons when we returned from school, Mom would bake sweet cornbread and we would snack on this before doing our homework or outside play. The house would smell so warm and sweet. What a memory to cherish!

I can remember Dad with his brothers telling jokes and stories in our back yard either for the fourth of July or for Labor Day. One holiday the Naquins came over and the next holiday the Constants would come. This was almost every year we would get together with our cousins in our back yard.

Each Sunday during the summer months the family would go to Mass, Mom went to early Mass and Dad and the older girls would go to 9 AM to sing in the choir. After the 9 am Mass, we would swim in the KC pool. Usually we were the only family and so the pool was all to us. Oh, we had such a good time swimming with Dad. Mom did not get in the water because she did not swim, but she did wear a bathing suit. Mom had swimming lessons in the 70s and Keith Beniot was the instrutor with several ladies from the Oakley Street neighborhood. Mom had a great time and she did swim with her friends with Keith supervising them.

Favorites Stories shared by Ann:

1. Every Good Friday we would go crawfishing in Chackbay, La. We loved to sing and did sing all of the time, especially when we were riding in the car. So, when we started to sing on Good Fridays, Mom would remind us that we weren't supposed to sing on Good Friday. That was one of the hardest things we had to keep from doing.

2. Every few years we would take a trip to Jacksonville, Florida to visit Aunt Leah, Mom's sister and her family. Dad would lay a board across the hump in the back of the car so that our legs would have some relief from the long trip. But, we were still crowded with Mom and Dad and six children in the car. But we have fond memories of our trips. Also, Mom would make us (the girls) matching shirts to wear while in Florida.

3 I also remember that when we went somewhere, Dad would have a six-pack of beer and would get us one six-pack of canned drinks. Mom would say to him, "My honey, does that make since that you would have six drinks and we would have six drinks for the seven of us.

4. On the Fourth of July, Mom would make homemade ice cream. Many times it was peach ice cream. We had a crank ice cream freezer and would have to take turns cranking it.

5. Mom would make homemade crab cakes. Our friends would love to come over after a pep rally and eat with us.

6. Mom baked two chickens every Sunday. We had rice and gravy, field peas, rolls, green beans and corn.

7. At Christmas time, we didn't have stockings with our names on them. We used some of Daddy's white socks. We always had an apple, an orange, nuts and candy in the stockings.

8. Many times when Dad would come home from work, he would take us to Badeaux's while he was turning in his orders. We would get to play on the typewriters and adding machines. We always got a sample of candy for a treat.

9. We went to Grand Isle every summer and rented a cabin. We caught crabs on the beach and also with a trout line as we still do on our reunions to Grand Isle today at Miss Pet's camp.

10. Mom and Dad and the whole family came to Dayton, Ohio when Wade and I lived up there. We took them crawfising in the Miami River. We used a seine net and could walk across the Miami River. We boiled them in Zaterain's crab boil. Wade and I caught crawfish many times while in Dayton.

11. We had many animals when we were growing up. We had many chickens, rabbits , a kitten (Snowball) and ducks. We never had a dog. When one of our animals would die, we would gather in the back yard to bury the animal. Dad would lead us in the singing of the song we would sing in the church for a funeral Mass. It was in Latin.

12. We also made many trips to visit Dad's cousins , Rita and Uncle Harold in New Orleans. We would go to City Park and ride the train around the park or go to the Audubon Zoo. During the summer, Priscilla, Linda and I would spend two weeks with them. They would bring us to movies, ride the streetcars and also Ponchatrain Beach for some of the shows and rides.

13. We also would go crabing in Dulac.

14. During the summer months, sometimes we would go to work with Dad on his routes.

15. When Dad and Mom would come to Baton Rouge for a visit, Dad would always throw a slice of gum out of the window to our children.

16. Dad would say, "You know what?" and we would say "I love you Big As The Moon". He would then say, "You beat me."

17. When we would be going swimming, Dad would say "Don't get wet!!!"