Cypress tree Prosper Vauclin was born in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana in 1906, at a time when the South, especially South Louisiana, was still recovering from the Civil War. It was a difficult time, for most people life was a daily struggle just to survive, a struggle to provide food and shelter for their families. The […]
Campti Main Street During the summers of the 1940’s I would spend several weeks in Campti, Louisiana, about 10 miles north of Natchitoches, staying with various uncle, aunts and cousins on my mother’s side of the family. The main street of the town was Edenborne St; very short street, with only a dozen shops and […]
Jim Jack Occasionally in the numbers of men one person will stand out representing a trait or character. Such was Jim Jack. He stood out among men and can be described as hard working, dependable, honest and above all, loved children, just a good person. As long as I can remember he had the same […]
In the winter of 1952 my father took me duck hunting on some property we own at the end of Bayou la Butte near the town of Du Lac. The Houma Navigation Canal had not been built and we had to go from Houma through Bayou Pelton to Grand Caillou Bayou and then down Grand […]
Percy Viosca Percy Viosca Jr. was one of the first native born Louisiana naturalists and was considered the father of the wildlife conservation movement in Louisiana in the early 1900’s. He was a Tulane University graduate and later taught at Tulane. He must have formed an acquaintance with Uncle Langdon Gaidry who was attending Tulane […]
(The witch doctor) At the end of what is now Trevor Ct. in Houma, was the little three room shotgun house of Mr. Lovance Hebert, our local Traiteur , witch doctor (in Louisiana French). The house was typical of its time, made of cypress wood, unpainted with a tin roof. On the front facing the […]
In 1962 I had planted three hundred pounds of seed potatoes on the newly cleared property on the Coteau Road near the Introcoastal Canal. When potatoes are planted the success of the crop is measured in a ratio of how many pounds were planted and how many pounds were harvested. That year we made 22 […]
I recently restored a 1928 Chevrolet truck that had been on Volumnia Farm since purchased in 1928. The 1928 Chevrolet truck This truck played an important role in the operation of the farm during the Great Depression years, 1927-1939. During the depression sugarcane prices dropped and farms had to be innovative and diversify to survive; […]
In the mid 1980’s animal fur became unfashionable and the fur prices dropped; many fur dealers and fur trappers were put out of business. During the 1800’s and early 1900’s alligator hunting was very profitable and alligators populations were so reduced that by the mid 1900’s Louisiana had to prohibit alligator hunting. By the 1980’s […]
Carencro, 1988 – Drying nutria hides There was something about the marsh that drew the Cajun people, that pulled on their very soul to a life in tune with nature, where they became a part of nature, part of the Marsh. Fur trapping in the marshes was an important aspect of the people’s lives and […]