 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ~~Cajun Memories~~ Back in the yesterdays of the years of the 40's & 50's.The years when I was a kid it was common to live in the swamp in houseboats miles from the nearest town.If someone needed some supplies they would go into town by boat. But in those days traveling to town was very slow and long. It would take almost a day to go into town and back with an air cool motor because in those days there was no Outboard motor like we have today. I know because I made lots of trips with my dad and my brother to come into town for supplies & to sell crabs at the local Crab docks in Morgan City & Berwick. Today I think about all those trips and all the time it took us and I would say � Hey that was fun� but to a little kid it would be fun. My Dad was a lumberman that worked for the big lumber company. But to make some extra money he was also a fisherman that work very hard at catching Crabs in the summer time. My Dad would catch crabs all-night and cut trees doing the daytime. Life was hard And money was not easy to come by back in those days not anything like today. One day while cutting trees Dad had a very bad accident. He cut himself so bad that he had to give up cutting trees for a living and just be a Fisherman. He had cut his left foot and one of his hand so bad that he was unable to use his hand or walk as well as before. Cutting trees was very dangerous because my mom lost a brother when a tree fell on him. He was taken by boat to Morgan City to see a doctor but because of the slow speed of the boat my uncle bleed to dead on the way in. Life was very hard for the people living out in the swamp. Then one day Dad took us all in to live in Morgan City along the river. At that time I was just a very small baby. I was born in the swamp and was delivered by a midwife. We were all born at home all eight of us.Back then it how it was done.. There was no place to buy grocery or medicine when someone would get sick. No super market or drugs store out in the swamps. Just houseboats tie along the river where everyone knew each other by their first name or nickname. Life was bad living along that river because every year the river would raise to the point that we always had water in the house. Yes I know what you thinking if we live on a houseboat why water in the house? Well after all those years living in the swamp the hull of the houseboat was in need of repair and with no money it was not fix so the houseboat could not float. So each year water would get into our house and we all had to go to my uncle�s house till we was able to go back home. I do remember how we kids had to get into the mud and clean it all from the floors with brooms and mops. Yes living was hard living along the river. But to a young kid it was fun. I love living on the bank of the Atchafalaya River.All the years living there was the best years of my life. We live along the Atchafalaya River till I was 13 years old. Then we move into a house on a street call Franklin Street. We all thought we were big shots. LOL My mom had eight children by that time. My little brother Randolph was the last one to be born on the river. Life was very hard for my Mom to raise us all along the river. My Grandfather was a man who would love to do all kinds of little things that would bring in a few extra dollars. He would take us kids out in his boat to pick the wild grapes growing in the trees along the bank of the river. Then we would come home with a boatload of grapes to make wild grapes wine. Those wild grapes was so sweet but so small that it took so many to make wine. We would pick the grape put them in the boat and eat wild grapes all the way back home believe me it was fun. Grandfather would never sell his wine it was use as medicine and to enjoy by all. He would also take us kids with him to hunt for turtle eggs. We would run along the bank looking for the eggs bury in the sand. We would get hundreds of eggs before leaving for home. We would watch those eggs each day waiting for all the little eggs to hatch into turtles. It was so much fun to see hundreds of little turtles hatching at almost the same time. It was our job to keep the turtles from running away. My grandfather would sell them at the pet store. My grandfather was also known in those days as a healer. A healer was a person who was able to treat someone who was in pain. My Grandfather was a healer for sunstroke. So as the years went by my grandfather pass on the healing to my Mom because he got too old to do the healing anymore. A "Sunstroke"(A kind of apoplexy caused by the intense heat of the sun's rays). Mom would place her hands on a person head with loving care then say prayers over this person. That person would feel the pain leave his head. The Only thing Mom didn�t like from all this was that she would have a very bad headache herself for a day or two after each treatment. Living on the river was other healers who could treat for all kinds of different ailments. Yes I know this sound hard to believe but please remember that in those days it was common to find someone to treat you for just about anything that was hurting you...headache, toothache, backache, kidney, pull muscle, arthritis, colds & stomach pains and so many more. Mom was a very good healer because she treated me for headaches so many time and it always did help me. Living on the river no one would ever go into town to see a doctor it was unheard of because of the cost and traveling by boat to get there. A person who treated someone would never take money for doing it because they believe that if money was received in exchange for the treatment then the treatment would not work, so other things was giving in exchange for the treatment. Mom would have people knocking on her door everyday for her to help someone with a headache. But as she got older then she had to stop doing this because she had a headache all the time, which made her so sick. She never wanted to pass this on to none of us because she didn�t believe any of us was strong enough to take the pain that came from healing someone. So it die with my Mom the day she pass away. Mom was born in 1903 at the time when witchcraft & voodoo was a true way of life back then and still going strong. As a child and as my mom grow older it was all the people was talking about up and down the river. Mom was so afraid of it. She would believe it was possible for someone to give another person a spell to make that person sick or what ever they want to do to that person. When mom was sick she would believe someone had placed a spell on her so she would look around the house till she fine something that didn�t look right. Then take it to the river and thrown it into the river when the tide was going out so it would go out to the gulf then the spell was broken. Yes I do remember Mom doing all this and as kids we helped her do the looking and going to the river. LOL To us children we all thought it was weird to do these things but to the older true Cajuns living on the river it was a way of life. My mom was not crazy or loosing her mind she was a normal person just doing what she believe was right for her and her family. Today there is still Witchcraft & voodoo in South Louisiana but it just not as common as it was back in the days when I was a child. The memories of Mom doing these things is still in my mind like it was just yesterday. Yes, life has change since those days back in the swamps but in my mind I will always be there as if it was just yesterday. In New Orleans you can still find Witchcraft & Voodoo. Please don't ever believe it all in the past because it still alive and still living here in Cajun Memories along the Atchafalaya Swamps. Written By Shirley Couvillier For my Mom & Dad..Agnes & Clifton Percle & My grandfather- Joseph Aucoin |
 |
 |
|
| Please sign my Guestbook..Let me know you was here..Thanks |
| My other web site from the bayous of Louisiana |
 |
| Welcome |