Archive Record
Metadata
Accession number |
2006.023 |
Catalog Number |
2006.023.002 |
Object Name |
Transcript |
Date |
27 Jun 2006 |
Title |
Girley and Gary Albright oral history interview |
Scope & Content |
Oral history interview with Mrs. Girley B. Albright and her son Gary Albright. The interview was conducted at the Bossier Parish Library Historical Center on June 27, 2006. The interviewer is Ann Middleton. Mrs. Dell Steadman is also present. The Albrights are long-time residents of Haughton and they talk about living and going to school there. AM: The following interview was conducted with Mrs. Girley Albright and her son, Mr. Gary Albright on behalf of the Bossier Parish Library for the oral history project. It took place on June 27th, 2006, at the Bossier Parish Library Historical Center. The interviewer is Ann Middleton. Mrs. Dell Steadman is also present. AM: Um, Mrs. Albritton, tell me about growing up; I know you grew up in a large family, and that your maiden name was Bailey. DS: Her name is Albright. AM: What did I say? DS: Albrittton AM: Albritton? Sorry! Albright. I have it written down. (All Laugh) Girley: [unclear, Bailey married an Albright?] AM: Mm-hm. And you grew up in a large family of children? Girley: Yes. AM: How many children were there? Girley: Nine of us. AM: Oh! DS: Did you, ah, have a twin? Girley: Mama, I had a twin, and Mama had another set of twins. She had two sets of twins. AM: Two sets of twins? Both girls? I mean, both sets were girls? Girley: All of 'em, my mother had, uh, seven, well, she had eleven in all with the ones that's deceased. But she had… the two boys came last. She had two boys and they was, uh… DS: Billy was the last… Girley: …the last child, wasn't he? And they were the last, all the girls…but, two sets of twins. DS: And her name was what? Your twin's name was… Girley: Shirley. DS: Shirley. Girley: Girley and Shirley. Uh-huh. DS: I didn't know the other ones. Girley: Oh, no. She passed away about eight years ago. DS: What was their names? Girley: The other twins? DS: Uh-huh. Girley: Edith and [Erol?]. Uh, Erol died when she was about two years old, and Edith lived to be about eight. DS: Eight. Girley: Eight. DS: I didn't know… Gary: No, and her twin, too…see we're have some double-double first cousins. Her identical twin sister married my father's identical twin brother. DS: Is that right!? AM: Oh, my goodness! Girley: Yes. AM: Genealogists' nightmare! Laughter Girley: Our kids are double first cousins. Gary:We call them doubles, because we married sisters. DS: And your twin Shirley married, him, Albright, too? Girley: Shirley married, uh-huh, Shirley married…uh, Shirley and I married Robert and Richard Albright. I married Robert and she married Richard. AM: Did they live here, as well? Around Haughton? Girley: They, they didn't live here too long. Her husband was in the service, and they moved to New Orleans. AM: Oh, I see. Girley: She had three boys and I had one. AM: Well, what did, what did you all do when you were children? Girley: Oh… AM: As far as playing, and games? Girley: Well, we had a big family. We played and we worked. We worked when we were young. We worked, worked in the fields. We, my dad worked, you know, a farm. And, uh, we had to help with that, and I enjoyed it; I didn't mind it at all. AM: What did you do? What kinds of things… Girley: We picked cotton. AM: Oh, you did? Girley: Yeah! And, uh, oh, I enjoyed it. Working on the farm. Nothing better than the farm life. And we had to walk about a mile and a half to school, every day. AM: And where was the school? Girley: School at Haughton. AM: Uh-huh. Girley: And, uh, well even back before that, I went to school at…well, let's see, I started school at Arcadia, we moved so much and then uh, I went to Gibsland a while. And then we moved to…Cotton Valley, and I rode the, we rode the school bus to Rocky Mount to school. AM: Mm-hm Girley: And then, we were there a couple of years and then we moved to Haughton when I was in the eighth grade. And I finished there. AM: Were there eleven grades then, or, to finish? Girley: Eleven grades. AM: My mother finished with eleven grades. Girley: There were eleven grades then. AM: What do you remember about the school buildings, themselves. The buildings themselves? Girley: Well, we were, we were in the brick building. I think they had a wooden building before the brick. But we, I was schooled in the brick building. AM: Mm-hm. Girley: And just one building sitting there. They, they demolished it, and built these ones there now. AM: So, it still all in the same place, the same site? Girley: Same location, and, uh, all in one…all the grades in one, one building at that time. AM: All eleven grades? Girley: Indecipherable just amazing, isn't it? AM: It is a large school. DS: Her home is right where you and Gary live. Your house was right where you and Gary live at? Gary: I don't think. Girley: It was set over a little bit more. Gary: Now is that the house you were always in, that one right there? Or did you live down the, down south, around the railroad track in Haughton, I thought. Girley: I didn't live there, nu-uh. Gary: Well, where did, where did ya'll, that wasn't where you farmed. Girley: Well, we lived at the Alford place down below Haughton, on the… Gary: What I'm talkin' about, okay, that's what I'm talkin' about, now you went to school when you live in the Alford place. [All, unclear] DS: Like a mile and a half from the Alford place to school? Gary: At least, probably, I think…(to Girly) that's down Camp Zion Road? DS: Yeah. Girley: Well, Camp Zion went about half a mile. Gary: Okay. Girley: But we, we were, let's see… we started there in eighth grade, and we finished Haughton. Gary: And you were still living out there? You weren't living at that that old house? The only one that I remember. Girley: It's gone, it's gone. The house is gone. DS: Was your daddy ever the barber in Haughton? Girley: My daddy was the barber. DS: I thought so, I thought so. Gary: Bring any if we had any. AM: Oh, yes! Gary: There's a picture of him in his barber shop. Girley: A long time ago! AM: Oh, my goodness! Gary: I don't know whatever all, but what all else we've rounded up, I didn't go through much in there. I don't when you want to see these, you want to see 'em now, or…she brought this book which you probably have. AM: We have that, Clif wrote that. Gary: I thought so. Uh, I don't know what the rest of 'em are. AM: Well, we'll definitely want to get these copied, if it's alright with you. Gary: Sure, it's fine. Copied or scanned, or… [All, unclear] Girley: …and Mr. Harland, and Mr. McConathy, I believe. Gary: Yeah, John McConathy's dad. And that's Archie Smith. DS: Oh, is that right? Is he still living? Gary: I don't know. See, Archie's younger than I was…Archie's, uh, I don't know. I assume he is… DS: I can't…that's Billy Montgomery? Gary: Laughing That's Billy Montgomery! The devil he is. Your representative. DS: Our representative. AM: Oh! Well, we all grow old together, don't we? Girley: He lost a lot of weight didn't he? DS: He did. Girley: He married [unclear]. DS: Mr. Harland… Girley: Yeah, Mr. Harland. And, this is, this is uh, Miss [?] Kilgo, I call her Gatlin. Gary: She was always Miss Kilgo, when she taught me, she was Miss Kilgo…she went when you were there, too? DS: Mm-hm. Girley: Who's the other teacher? Gary: Miss Cox, Bessie Cox. DS: Is that right? Girley: I didn't know her. DS: That's them. AM: You recognize them? DS: Mm-hm. AM: Okay, so if we scan them, then you can… DS: Mm-hm. AM: …okay. Girley: That was in the Haughton Methodist Church. DS: You don't know who, the, in the… AM: And that's the, is that where you, that's where you go to church, now? Girley: Haughton Methodist Church, uh-huh Gary: [Simultaneously, unclear]…Debbie actually had that picture, her mother had some old pictures…and Debbie went through and had that one of the shop, and, uh, as a boy I remember shining shoes in there. Girley: Debbie, my niece. But the Lee Lawrences built that house. AM: How old is it? Girley: Oh, it's old, Lee and Dorothy built it, and, uh, they lived there a long time. DS: We have a picture of that, in the… Gary: I cannot remember that house… Girley: Lee built it, Lee and Dorothy built it. DS: And Mr. and Mrs. Butler lived there. Gary: I cannot remember that house not being there. I'll be sixty-five, I can't remember it not being there. AM: Well, it is an older house then, yeah. Girley: Where's the picture the Butlers gave me? Gary: Butler, it's in there somewhere, I guess, mother. Girley: I don't see it! Gary: You didn't bring it with you? Maybe it's in here… Girley: Yeah, I did. Gary: Oh, let's see, I put the book back in there. Here's a couple down at the bottom. Yeah, he was a school board member. Girley: Yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Butler, they lived…that's the house. And he was a school board member. AM: Is he deceased? Gary: Yeah, yes, I think so, yes. AM: He is? How about Mrs. Butler? Gary: Yes, well last I heard…she was, had Alzheimer's, I think she died before he did. Girley: No, she's not dead. Gary: She's not? Girley: No, she's living with Marie. Gary: Okay, a year and a half, or two years ago, Guillette and them went up for Mr. Butler's funeral. Girley: It hadn't been that long, has it? Gary: Huh? Girley: It hasn't been that long. Gary: I figure it has, too. Probably a year, year and a half, two years time… Girley: Time just flies by. AM: Oh, it does! Girley: But, uh, Jack Gullette and Billy Montgomery were pall bearers. DS: Oh, they were. Girley: And they went up to Oklahoma. AM: They had retired to Oklahoma, the Butlers? Gary: Yes. Girley: The Butlers, Mrs. Butler is originally from there. AM: Oh, I see, I see. And this is… Girley: The Haughton Baptist Church. AM: The Haughton Baptist Church. Girley: Old Haughton Baptist Church. DS: I don't know if I know anybody or not. Girley: We were going to New Orleans. There I am, and there's my sister you would know, and that's Mr. Chandler. She might know a lot of 'em. AM: Why were you going to New Orleans? Girley: Ma'am? AM: Why were you going to New Orleans? Girley: To a convention. AM: Oh, I see. Girley: I visited a sister-in-law and brother-in-law down there, but they had a convention down there. AM: Oh, I see. So did you stay overnight? You probably did… Girley: We stayed two or three days. Gary: I guarantee you they did. (Laughs) AM: That's what I was thinking. Gary: Probably went on a…how did ya'll go, do you remember? How did you go? Girley: We went in a school bus. Gary: School bus, okay. AM: I see the school buses parked there. Gary: School bus. It only took them ten hours to get down there. AM: Probably did. (Laughs) Girley: You recognize [unclear] DS: That is, uh, the Barns girls' grandmother. Walker. Girley: That's Ms., that's Ms. Farrell. DS: Farrell, oh, is that Ms. Farrell? Oh. That's Carolyn Logan's grandmother. AM: Let me see. I was going to try and see a resemblance. Gary: I have a picture of Carolyn Logan in a bathing suit, should I have brought it? (Laughter) AM: Yeah, we'd love that. She's on our library board, you know? [All, unclear] Is she really? AM: Yes, she is. DS: Sutherland is in there. Girley: Let's see. AM: She's a nice lady, she really is. Gary: I should give it to Dell and let Carolyn see it. Lsughter Girley:You know, I have a picture at home, and I can't find it. It had Haughton graduates. I don't know if you wanted… DS: Tommy White has one. I made a copy of it. Gary: He brought it to her to try to identify the people in it. DS: I gave it to Julia McCormick, and she's tried to get 'em identified. Gary: Okay. Girley: Well, I identified a lot of 'em. You know what I'd do, I would find one, and I marked it, [unclear] and then I'd go back and look again. I'd find, I'd identify that, when they come to you, you know? AM: After you've looked at them… Girley: Quite a few of 'em. DS: Elizabeth Bigby…Elizabeth Bigby was in there. Girley: Elizabeth? Gary: Bigby, mother. DS: Ward. Gary: Elizabeth Ward. Girley: Mrs. Bigby was in there, and um, Virginia, I believe, Virginia Ward; and Mr. Lowry was in there. DS: Yeah, he was. Girley: And Mr. Rusheon. DS: And that M…her name was Beard, but… Girley: Vada Beard. No not Vada… DS: I can't remember her name. Girley: What was her name. DS: That's Sherry Beard's mother. Gary: Oh, okay, yeah, okay, I know who… [All, unclear] AM: Well, didn't Vada, that name come up with Mrs. Pepper? DS: Vada Baird and Mrs. Pepper were cousins. AM: Oh, okay. Girley: She was a McGee married to a Beard, but I'm trying to think of a different name. AM: It'll come to you. (Laughs) You mentioned Mr. Lowery, Dell has, has shared with me that you worked for Mr. Lowery in his store. Girley: I worked for his son. AM: You worked for his son. This, this Mr. Lowery in the picture, you worked for his… Girley: He was the principal of his school. AM: Oh, I see. Girley: I worked for his son fourteen years at the store. AM: Well, tell me about the, the students coming…skipping their lunch hours and coming over to the store. Girley: Yeah, they would, they weren't supposed to leave the school…a lot of 'em would come eat there. AM: What did they buy instead of eating their lunch? Girley: Well, just the regular things; drinks, and candy… AM: Potato chips? Girley: Like that, mm-hm. AM: And did you enjoy working at the, the store? Girley: Yeah, I enjoyed it, I really did. It was close to my home, and I could go home and see about my mother and dad. And then worked two nights off? AM: Well that's great. You must've, you worked there for fourteen years, you said. Girley: Uh-huh. AM: What else…did you work on Saturdays? Girley: Yes. AM: Six days a week? Girley: We had to work Saturday. Gary: Five and a half days a week, right? Girley: Well, no, we worked all day Saturday. Gary: Five and a half days a week, you took a half day off on Wednesday, you closed the store at noon. AM: Oh, did all the stores do that? Girley: Oh, well there wasn't any more out there. Gary: Now, when I was there, there were four stores open in Haughton at one point in time. Girley: John didn't have one at that time. Gary: Ah, Mr. Lowery's, Mr. Heard's, Mr. Skinner's, and Mrs…uh, Mr. Lawrence. Girley: Forgot about Mr. Lawrence… Gary: That's right, Mr. Lawrence…he was barely open, but yeah…but there were four, I don't know if they all closed on Wednesday or not. Girley: They sure did. Gary: Did they all close? Girley: Huh? Gary: Did they all close on Wednesday, I don't remember. Girley: No. Gary: Just Mr. Lowery closed every week? Girley: Everybody did what he wanted to. (Laughter) Girley: John, uh, John closed on Wednesday at noon. And eventually, he closed all day long. Gary: Okay, yeah. Girley: And, uh… AM: This was a mercantile store? Uh, what did you sell? Girley: Uh, groceries. AM: Groceries. Girley: Yes, ma'am. AM: And what about the other stores? Where the groceries, or did they sell other things? Gary: Really, basically, groceries. Girley: Most of 'em were groceries. Gary: Basically. Now Mr. Heard's at one point in time was probably closer to a mercantile, but he wasn't 'cause he had some old stuff back there at that point in time he didn't. I remember he had, I do remember Mr. Heard had the, uh, the old gasoline tanks where you pump the gas up into the glass to measure it, then gravity ran it back down. AM: Oh, I remember those. Gary: I remember that, after the others had, I guess, electric ones, I guess, I don't know. DS: You didn't pump gas, did you? You didn't pump any gas at Lowery's store? Girley: Yes, uh-huh. DS: Oh, you did? Girley: Yes, I did. Uh-huh, yes…if it was necessary, I did. Uh-huh. AM: What else did you do? Gary: And of course they uh, another thing I remember that I remember, that, uh, as a matter of fact, the mayor of Haughton worked for them. They used to deliver groceries as I recall and, uh, and they would deliver, right? Billy Joe Maxey worked there, as a matter of fact. Girley: Well… DS: Joe Henry did. Gary: Did Joe Henry work there awhile, too? Girley: Yeah, Joe Henry worked there, he sure did. (Laughter) Girley: And Billy Joe, Billy Joe Maxey, and, uh, little Pete Martin… DS: Yeah, Pete Martin. AM: Are these are all people we've been trying to get in touch with, aren't they? So, uh, Mr. Maxie is definitely hard to, to get… DS: The mayor. AM: …to come in. Girley: Yeah, uh-huh. Billy Joe… AM: But we're trying. Girley: Billy Joe worked there, he, I mean, when he married. He was, uh, courting Kathryn, and he married while he worked at the store. DS: He lived behind the store, didn't he kind of? Girley: Yeah, they lived behind the store, uh-huh. AM: Behind the store in another building? Girley: Mm-hm. Yeah, it's a house behind the store… AM: Because a lot of times people would live upstairs over a store, or just in the back of the store. Girley: Yeah, Uh-huh, Yeah, Mm-hm. But, uh, they…it was a separate house they lived in. AM: Now, when your parents…when they died, did you stay in the house that they…you moved? Girley: Uh, my father died, and I moved to Baton Rouge to live with my son…moved down there. AM: Mm-hm? Girley: And, uh, I had a sister on either side of the house, and my mother stayed in the house there about a year, and they took care of her. And then she went to Maryland to live with her son awhile. And, then my sister bought the old house and demolished it, at that time. AM: Oh, she demolished it. Did she rebuild on the site? Girley: Uh, they just, it's just open. She's got a…her daughter's got a little, watcha' call 'em? Gary: Little temporary type building. Girley: There…they didn't rebuild. AM: And then, how long were you all in Baton Rouge before you came back? Girley: Oh, I lived in Baton Rouge…I worked in D. H. Holmes for twenty four years. AM: You did!? Oh! D. H. Holmes…it was 'the store' of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I was sad when they sold. Girley: After, after Dillard's bought it, I worked for three months and I quit. AM: You did? Was it very different from working for Holmes? Girley: Well…Holmes treated us better, I thought. AM: Well, Holmes was a family-owned business, wasn't it? Girley: Yeah, uh, they were…Dillard's…was going to make us work the…retirees, I had already retired, I just worked three days a week. AM: Uh-huh? Girley: And, uh, they were going to make us work at night. AM: Oh. Girley: And Holmes didn't make us work nights, the retirees. AM: Uh-huh? Girley: So, I quit…after Dillard's had it about three months. AM: And, then, then you moved back to Haughton? Girley: Then, uh, let's see. AM: Not, not then. Girley: Well, let me say…when did I come back to Haughton? Gary: About eight years ago; seven or eight years ago. Girley: Well, I lived, I lived down there about, about ten years after I retired. Gary: Seven or eight years ago. Only after Aunt Shirley died did you come back. AM: I'm sorry, when who died? Gary: Her twin sister. AM: Oh, when your… Gary: They, uh, lived together there in Baton Rouge from about ten years after they…[unclear] AM: Uh-huh? Girley: And so after she passed away, I came back to Haughton. AM: Oh. Well did you like living in South Louisiana? Girley: Yeah, I liked it, uh-huh. AM: It's a fun place. Girley: Oh, oh, you're from down there? AM: I spent most of my adult life in South Louisiana. Girley: Oh, you did? AM: Yes. Girley: You like it? AM: I love it. I love it. I have two children who live there. DS: [unclear] AM: You know, when you think about it; there's no other place in the United States that has it has it's own distinctive kind of food, maybe New York or San Francisco; but New Orleans does. Gary: Yeah. Girley: Yeah. Gary: As a matter of fact, we may have three or four different areas in this state, geographic areas in this state where the cuisine is markedly different than it is in others because true Acadian, or true Cajun country, uh, in the triangle there around Ville Platte and all around there is different from New Orleans. New Orleans is a little more continental, and a little, you know, more sophisticated. But they definitely have…distinct…uh,… AM: They have their own kind of cuisine. But, yes, I loved it. Went there soon after I graduated from Northeast Louisiana State College. (Laughs) Long time ago. Gary: They're no longer the Indians either, are they? Girley: That's Monroe? AM: Monroe, yes. I, well, I graduated from high school in Rayville. Girley: Rayville? AM: Yes. Girley: Did you know Margaret Smith? AM: Uh, it sounds familiar…I haven't been back for a long… Girley: Her father was the postmaster there for… AM: Oh, I've heard my mother speak of him. Girley: Mm-hm AM: My mother's deceased, now. Girley: She married my nephew… AM: Oh, is that right? Girley: Yeah, the live in Monroe. AM: It's a small world, it really is. Gary: You're too young probably…to know anyone with the nickname 'Cookie', did you? AM: Cookie…? Gary: I know what her married name is, I don't know what her maiden name is. AM: What's her married name? Gary: Joe Stanton, she's a nurse at Schumpert. She graduated from Rayville, too. AM: How old is she? Gary: I don't really know, it's not nice to ask a lady how old she is… AM: Oh, you can ask me, it doesn't bother me. Girley: Who are you talkin' about? Gary:Cookie' is…[to Girley] oh, you don't know her, a friend of mine… Girley: Oh, oh, I'm sorry Gary: …out in the single world. 'Cookie' is, uh… AM: Wait, I knew a 'Cookie'! Gary: I'm about to be sixty-four. Sixty-five. AM: Well, I'm sixty, so… Gary: So, 'Cookie's' probably a little younger than I am, but… AM: We had a 'Cookie', but I can't remember her name, last name. But there was a 'Cookie', you know, right around the time I graduated. Girley: Uh-huh. AM: Maybe not in my class, but…uh, right around that time. Um…[to Girley] when did you graduate from Haughton? Girley: I graduated from Haughton. AM: When? Gary: When. AM: What year? Girley: Thirty-two. AM: Thirty-two. You said that already. I'm sorry… Girley: Yes, with, uh…we had a class of sixteen. AM: Sixteen? Girley: Sixteen. AM: Wow. Girley: That's counting all the boys and all the girls. DS: Can you, can you remember their names? Girley: Mm-hm. DS: Tell me some names, give us some names. Girley: Well, let's see, sometimes I get to…let's see, the boys were Jack Clayton… DS: Oh, it was? Girley: …Cassius Brandon Bird, Barton Cagle, Herbert Gant, and, uh, Dalton Thompson, and, uh, let's see…Marshall Madden. DS: Madden, Mr. Madden was in there? The Madden at Princeton? Girley: No, Marshall Madden. They lived down there at the, on the, watcha' call it? The little [unclear] camp down there? Gary: Uh, Jones Road? Girley: Yeah, Jones Road. Gary: Okay. Girley: And, uh, there's one more…I… DS: What about the girls? Girley: Oh, the girls…it was, let's see; Betsy Chandler, and Dora Barnes, and Drew Brewer and Thelma Coleman, and Bernice Body, and Alma Worley, and Shirley and me. I believe that's about all the girls. AM: And they're all deceased now, but you? Girley: As, far as I know, I just wondered if they are… AM: Oh, you don't know? Girley: No, I don't…where they are, you know? AM: Mm-hm. Girley: Now I wondered, I wonder, how you'd get in touch and find out where they are…I don't know. AM: Does Ms. Pepper know? Would she know? DS: She thinks that she's the oldest graduate of Haughton. AM: Okay. Gary: I thought my mother said, I thought you said that Ms. Pepper told me that you were probably the oldest graduate of Haughton, you said there was somebody else that was older. Girley: Well… DS: It's a Ms. Milner. Girley: It was Jessie Milner. I think Jessie Milner finished there. She is alive. Jessie's about ninety five years old! Gary: Okay. Girley: She's the oldest then, if she's still living. If she finished at Haughton. AM: She wasn't in your class? Girley: No, she wasn't in my class. AM: But you think maybe she graduated before you? Girley: Yeah, mm-hm. AM: And she's alive? Girley: Yes, she's alive, uh-huh. DS: She married the Mr. Milner… Gary: A. L. Milner? Girley: A. L. Milner. DS:She was a Horton! Girley: She married John Madden, the first time…she's a Horton and married John Madden and he died, and then she married A. L. Milner. DS: And, and…um, she, her mind comes and goes. Girley: That's what somebody told me it did. Gary: Yeah, okay. Girley: I haven't seen Jessie in a long time. DS: Uh, Barbara Horton, Barbara Horton is married to a Riley, and she's in touch with…Jessie is her aunt. Girley: I see. DS:...and she goes up to see her all the time. She said maybe we could have an interview with her… Girley: In her presence and you could…mm-hm. AM: Yeah, we hope that works out. DS: I hope it does. AM: We'll be going to the niece's house…and she will have Ms. Jessie there. Girley: Yes. Well I hope so. AM: I hope so, too. Uh-huh, be fun. Tell me some of your earliest memories of going to the Methodist church. Girley: Well…uh, we didn't go to church when we lived out in the country…and I didn't go to Methodist church until after I came back to Haughton and Gary was about four years old, before I started to the Methodist church in Haughton. And I went there about twenty years until I moved to Baton Rouge and then I came back. AM: Came back? Girley: Mm-hm. AM: You always come back to your roots don't you? (laughs) DS: Most of your family were Baptist, weren't they? Girley: Yeah, mm-hm. My sister was. DS: Betty was, I know. Girley: My mother was Methodist, and Shirley and me; we're the only ones, the rest of 'em was Baptist. DS: Were they, is that right? Bennie was Baptist. Girley: Bennie, E. L., yeah, they were all Baptist. AM: Did you have dinner on the ground at the church? Girley: Oh, yes we used to have…and now we have them going on at night. Laughter Gary: Not on the ground anymore… AM: No, inside where it's cool. (laughs) And the bugs aren't in everything. Girley: At night. AM: The whole church goes? The whole church will go? Girley: Yes, at our church, we have dinner, and then we have music after that, and sometimes we have guests come in and sing for us. If not, we just have a singing ourselves. AM: Oh! Well that's nice, that's really nice! Yeah. When you were a child, when you were still living at home, did you have, ah, transportation, or did you; you walked to school, you said. Girley: We walked to school. Mm-hm. AM: Where there any buses? Girley: Well, you know Laura and I talked about that, 5 of us lived at the end of that road… DS: Yeah, I know that… Girley: …and they drove a bus, but they didn't come by our house; we had to walk. I don't know why. AM: Huh. Girley: And Laura was about six years old, you know? DS: Mm-hm. Girley: Yeah, we walked to school. But, I, I didn't mind. I guess I got used to it. Laughter Gary: What happened if the weather was bad, you didn't go? Girley: Huh? Gary: What happened if the weather was bad, you didn't go? Girley: Well, daddy just took us…maybe we took, in the wagon, or a horse. Gary: Okay. AM: We used to tease my mother, and I'm embarrassed about it, now…we'd tell her, every time you talk about walking up to Mann School, that was the name of the school, the distance got longer, and the holes in your socks got bigger! (Laughter) Now I wish I hadn't said that, but… Gary: And the snow got deeper! AM:Yeah, and the snow coming down the back of her neck! (Laughter) Girley: Yeah! Well we were small we lived in the country. And my daddy barbered in Arcadia, and we had a buggy…and, had a horse. And, uh, we would ride in the buggy in the back… AM: Uh-huh. Girley: …and uh, then another time…then my oldest sister, my twin, and me, and daddy; and we had two horses and one of us rode behind him, and the other two, and we rode horses to school. AM: Oh, that must have been…you thought you were 'big stuff'! Girley: Exactly, and, uh, he wouldn't get off from work till later, till after school. So, we had, when we live in Arcadia we had a colored woman that used to stay with us and [unclear]. So, then, after we moved we wait for daddy, we'd go to her house and wait till he was off work to go home. AM: Oh, all right! DS: Gary, tell us about how Haughton's changed… AM: Oh, yes! DS:...in our time. Gary: Well, I was still thinking…didn't you tell me as a girl, I don't know if it was Haughton or not, or Arcadia, though; that you all used to move all the furniture out of the, out of one of the rooms and dance? Girley: Oh, in Haughton, yeah! AM: You had a Victrola? Girley: Used to have country dances. Gary: Where'd the music come from? Girley: Oh, and the girls played the, picked the guitar, we used to have a lot of fun! Gary: You moved the furniture out? Girley: Yeah! We cleaned the room out, and just… AM: (Laughs) That sounds like fun! Girley: Yeah, but you know what? Like I said, people think that they have to have a lot of money to have a good time, but we didn't have any money, but we had so much fun! AM: And you just, you made snacks, or food to eat, and just danced? Girley: Just enjoyed it, uh-huh. AM: But then you were Methodist, huh? (All Laugh) Gary: They could've been Catholic. AM: Well, sure, sure! Girley: Well, we would, like I said, we cleaned the room, and we had our house this week, and then had another house, you know, around…to just have a lot of fun. AM: Did you have guys to help you move the furniture, or did you girls do it yourself? Girley: Well, my daddy consented for us to have it, so they… AM: They'd help you move it…and then you'd have to move it all back in afterwards, and next week you'd go to the next house. Girley: Back then, it was kind of sparse anyway, it didn't, didn't take too long to move it…(All Laugh) AM: Oh, I can see that at my mother's…growing up…house. Yeah, you were going to tell us about changes in Haughton. Gary: I know that, probably if you think about it, 'course, you know, it's different from the standpoint there used to be four little stores there. Uh, and things I remember as a child were basically it was, uh, 'course as a child you'd think of it more that way…you, you knew everybody, you knew every family. I don't know everybody now, I tend to my own business. AM: Well Haughton has spread out, a lot. Gary: Yeah, but you knew everyone there, and, uh, you did the, uh, I guess the usual things. You just, you played, and uh… DS: I remember… Gary: The stores that I remember…that I remember some really, to me, probably weird things just stand out…and some people have never seen it probably, but the way they used to pick up the mail all the time. Girley: They had transportation, when we don't have it now. Gary: Well, that's right, they did. They had, uh…they would hang the mail bag on this apparatus. And the train would never stop, he'd come by and the hook would hook the mailbag, and hook… AM: Oh, I've heard!...I've read about it… Girley: Somebody out there would flag… Gary: It was Mr. Lee that, uh… yeah, but if you flagged it, it wouldn't stop, you could get on the train and ride to Shreveport. And Mr. Lee was the man, that was his job. He'd go to the post office, the post office was right over there where that washateria is now, I think, didn't it? It was over there next to Mr. Herb's, in that area. And, uh, he would bring the mail out there before time for the train, and he would hook it up on this apparatus, and the train would come by and hook the mail, and throw the mail off, that was mail for Haughton. AM: Mm-hm? Gary: As, they, uh they never stopped. AM: And so Mr. Lee had to know ahead of time, if someone needed to get on the train? Girley: Well, he… Gary: Well, you'd be out there early, you knew the train came through around noon or something, so he'd be out and he'd get his red handkerchief and flag, the, flag the train. Girley: My father was in the nursing home in Shreveport, and every Wednesday afternoon when we closed the store, I would catch the train and go to town to see him. And, come back at five o'clock with the train. Gary: Or the bus. The bus was an hour later. Girley: The bus. We had two ways to go then, and don't have any ways now, hardly. (All Laugh) Gary: The bus would come through early in the morning. The bus would come through about eight, if you wanted to spend the whole day in town, right. And it would come back about six. The train would come through about noon, and come back about five. [All talking, unclear] DS:...ride the train into town, see the movie… Gary: Hey, I can remember that, I can remember taking a buck and a half, and you get round trip transportation on the train, and I had an…my aunt, and a grandmother on my father's side that lived not far from the train station…and I could walk. I think you let me start going by myself about eleven. Ten, or eleven, or twelve… Girley: Yeah, uh-huh! Gary: …or something like that. I would go to town, walk down and spend some time with them, go walk up to the Strand or the Don… DS: Pay your way in. Gary: Pay my way in…and if, uh…I actually had money to buy pop…I think it'd be about fourteen or fifteen cents to get into the movie, probably. AM: Oh, I remember. Gary: And, uh, you could buy popcorn, and such as that. AM: See Gene Autry, or… Gary: That's right. AM: Roy Rogers… Gary: And it certainly wasn't like it is now, you know, no one comes into a movie into the middle of it now. As kids, heck, we'd go into… [All, unclear] Gary: …you could see it over again if you wanted to. But Haughton itself, um, the physical changes are not a great many, other than in the outskirts, and we lived…as a child, I lived right down in the big middle, of what's called downtown Haughton. AM: Where in…where in relation to, uh, Louis, do you live? Gary: Lewis is across the railroad track on the other, I'm just…as you go around that last set of 'S'-curves right before you get to the, to the school… AM: Yes, uh-huh. Gary: I live in a little trailer right there on the corner. I was raised right there in that spot, too. AM: Uh-huh. Gary: Right next to it. I think, I think [unclear] the old house is gone, but that's where I was reared…uh, right there. We used to walk to school, uh, and (to Girley) you said they weren't allowed to leave school, but I was always allowed to leave school, 'cause I never ate a meal there in the cafeteria in my life. AM: Oh, you went home, then? Gary: Walked home and had lunch, yeah! Girley: Never did…my mom cooked bowls of pinto beans, and cooked bread, and he just ate it….(laughs) AM: (Laughing) I was, I was thinking about that the other day. Gary: I'd walk home all the time, uh, the Methodist Church was still there, the Baptist Church; the old one was there, as a child. I remember the library before the old Masonic Hall was there, because I always read a lot, even then. Girley: I do, too. Gary: It was the bottom of the Masonic Hall. That old white building there, next to… DS: Do you still read? Gary: [unclear]…as a matter of fact it's in the car, I'm returning it…I just read Michael Crichton's new one, it was good. Uh, I don't read as much as I used to, but I still read. And, then, uh, but, as a child, we did the usual things; we played in the woods, and then, uh, you had some friends, that, uh,…[Bernie Isum?] had, they had their hay lofts and stuff and we'd play in the hay, and we'd just do whatever, I guess. Play ball… Girley: And Larry Butler lived right next door to us, and he and Leonard were good friends, and they played a lot together. Gary: And then there'd…you know, a couple of girls a year or so older than me which was always pretty bad. (All Laugh) AM: Did they get you in trouble? Gary: [unclear]…yeah. And, then, uh… AM: This Dell? Gary: That Dell right there! AM: Oh, you're blushing Dell! Gary: Dell, I won't tell it all. (Laughs) DS: Uh, Bernie Isom said that Virginia thought that Betty and I had taken Bernie, and she'd never forgive us for that. Girley: Betty who? DS: Raines. Girley: Well, did you know she was our church a couple of [unclear]… DS: I know she was, she's with her sister…her daughter, right now. Girley: Oh, she is? DS: Uh-huh. Gary: Who, Betty? DS: Mm-hm. She was staying with Frances, and she…her daughter needed her to come there, so she went up there. Her husband died, you know. Gary: No, I wasn't aware of it. DS:'Bout five years back. Gary: But, uh… DS: And she…can't seem to get over it. Gary: It was a, it was, it was a good place to grow up. I remember things that other people wouldn't remember. I loved to play checkers, I learned to play checkers…I used to go with the old men; Mr. Lee, and Mr. Skinner. But you go behind the meat counter in Mr. Skinner's store, and he had two ale kegs turned up and you play…and, and after awhile the old men would let you play checkers with them, you know, if they didn't have anybody else to play. But then you, you play checkers and you hung around with the old men, um, I could walk to the gym at school, and, uh, I liked to play ball. And, we used to break in there… DS: Didn't you play on a team that won state? Gary: No, no, no, that was after me. DS: After you? Gary: I was there, uh, probably my senior…. DS: That was… Gary: …either my junior or senior year, uh, is the year Jack Gullet came to Haughton, and that's the year [unclear] coach. We were coaching maybe a couple of years, I think, Coach Gullet one year, I think. DS: Mm-hm, mm-hm. Gary: And, I was, whenever, uh, you called about this, I got to thinking, I said, I can't even remember, all my teachers. I can't even remember my third grade teacher for some reason or other. DS: I can remember mine! Gary: [unclear]…I know Ms. Leverill Elson was my first grade teacher. Girley: Who? Gary: Leverill Elson. Ms. Neighbors was my second grade teacher. DS: Ms. Vada Baird was… Girley: Ms. Jones. Gary: I don't remember Ms. Jones very well. I thought surely I would remember…they were both teachers, and I thought surely I would've remembered them, 'cause we always thought of them as being mean. I thought I would've remembered them. Okay, so it was Ms. Jones, then, and then Ms. Smith, Ms. Hansford, uh, Ms. Swindle, and Ms. Toupe. Uh, were my, through seventh. And high school, other than… DS: Ms. Kilgo…and Ms. Cox Gary: Ms. Kilgo, and Ms. Cox Girley: Ms. Johnson, Zeigler Gary: Who? Ms. Zeigler. Yeah, she was music teacher wasn't she? Yeah, that's different about school, too. We all had to go to choir once a week, or something. DS: We did. I, I always say to Ms. Zeigler… Gary: I remember… DS:...she taught me how to sing. (All laugh) Gary: Coach Rayburn, Coach Harland, Coach Gullet…and, and Ms. Kilgo, and I don't remember…Pete Atkins, I remember, yeah, Mr. Atkins. And, uh, that's about it, that's the only ones I remember. Maybe they [unclear]…Ms. Pepper started off. I started off one year in biology with Ms. Pepper. DS: Ms. Tilley. Gary: Didn't ever teach, didn't ever take anything. She taught business, though, didn't she? Uh, but Ms. Pepper got pregnant with her first child, and she left, and Zip Moreland, the principal, finished out that year in biology. DS: He taught me. Gary: Did he? DS: Mm-hm. Gary: And, uh, other than that, and the school itself was, uh… DS: I remember the football field… [Girley and Ann in background, unclear] Gary: Yeah, the backfield, I do, too. Well, I sure do…that backfield. DS: When I went to teach at Haughton, they wanted to go to the football field, and I said, the backfield. Gary: The backfield, yeah. Yeah. And of course we had a study hall in those days. I remember that. And, we… DS: You'd read and read and read in study hall. Gary: Uh, had study hall. AM: Or get in trouble Gary: And then of course we had, we had football, and basketball, and track, uh…I don't think we had a baseball team, not that I remember. DS: Nu-uh. Gary: And, uh, you know, it was just, it was a good place to be. It wasn't bad. They did…later you find out of course it was a small school. They had twenty-four in my graduating class. Hadn't improved much since my mother graduated. DS: (Laughs) Gary: Had twenty-four and we were still a Class B school. AM: And now, there are… DS: It was two-hundred and something. Gary: Yeah. Girley: Yeah. AM: It's really grown. DS: It has grown. Girley: [unclear] is about a hundred, I think…well, I said, Gary, I gave Gary a quarter for his allowance. And I would be at John's, and I'd look across to that Mr. Hearn's and he's sitting on the steps drinking a drink, he wouldn't buy from us. (All laugh) Gary: Mr. Hearn had that big ol' porch to sit on over there…I do remember one instance I do recall as a child, uh, the politicians used to 'stump'… DS: Used to what? Gary:'Stump'. DS:'Stump'. Gary: And, uh, literally over there, I believe it was Russell Long running for senate, I remember him giving me a nickel. I said even they were buying votes back then… (All: Oh, yeah!) Gary: …made an impression. But a nickel was, you know. I remember soft drinks were a nickel, and, uh, then they went up to six cents. DS: Bubble gum was a penny! Gary: That's right, 'course we could make a…if you were short on money, you could hit the ditches and find enough empty bottles… AM: Empty bottles, yeah! Sure! To turn in. Gary: And I do recall when the Elstons, as a child, when the Elstons had that old store Mr. Skinner later took. DS: Mm-hm. Gary: That on Saturday mornings, they would hand crank ice cream. DS: Ice cream. Girley: They used to make ice cream. AM: Oh, my. DS: And as Julia McCormick was coming in, she was Elston. Gary: That's right. AM: Okay. Gary: But I remember they used to do that, and then old store of Mr. Skinner's, the only other thing I remember about inside that store there, is they used to sell those, uh, Jack's Sugar Cookies. They were about that big around… AM: Oh, I remember those! Gary: And they were in a big ol' plastic type container…it sat there, it would never fly today. AM: No. Gary: But, uh, you know, they used to, used to sell those for a penny a piece. AM: I remember those, too. I can almost taste them. (All laugh) Gary: They were, uh…it's changed a lot. I think we had sixteen girls and eight boys. DS: It was a big class. AM: In your graduating…? DS: We had twenty-five. Girley: Really? What year did you finish? DS:'Fifty-seven. Girley:'Fifty-seven? Gary: I'm trying to think, you were two years older than me. You must have started earlier. DS: I don't know. (All laugh) Gary: I was 'fifty-nine. And, uh, 'course a lot of those are scattered and gone, too, I guess. DS: Oh, they have. Gary: I saw one of the Ramby twins not too long ago. Forget where it was. DS: Ah…they stop by my house, when Kay comes down to see Fay. Girley: …Kay lives in Colorado, doesn't she? DS: Yeah, and Fay lives… Girley: Well, Fay is the one that married… DS: John David. Girley: No…yeah! Kay married… Gary: Stacey Patterson. DS: Stacey Patterson. Girley: Stacey, yeah. AM: Are these all Haughton residents and graduates? Gary: Well, not now. But they used to be, yeah. AM: Used to be. Gary: Well, went to school there… DS: They were our good friends of Iola's before she died. Gary: Right, Iola and I were in the same grade. DS: They stopped by to see me. Girley: Well, that's good, I'm glad ya'll…well do they have children? DS: Uh, Fay has a boy…living in Florida, now. He's…he's some kind of forester. He does tomato plants… Girley: Yeah, uh-huh. DS:...for somebody. And, uh, Kay has a daughter who, she can hardly see. Girley: Oh, really? Well, that's terrible. Well, now, where does, where does, uh…Kay lives in Colorado; where does Fay live? DS: Fay lives in Farmerville. Girley: Farmerville? DS: Uh-huh. Girley: Where her daddy and mama lived. DS: Jack owned the place. Girley: Yeah, I remember. DS: And James goes up there to see them. Girley: Well, I see…yeah…I see James here and there. AM: People seem to keep in touch, in this area. Gary: [unclear]…it's a small place, and you just kinda…there are very few in my graduating class that I ever see. AM: I never see anybody in mine. Girley: I think it's an isolated place… DS: I do, too. Girley: …I don't know my neighbors, it's a shame. I can spit on their house, but I never have conversation with them. [All, unclear] Girley: It grieves me! Gary: Times have changed. DS: I agree. Gary: And some days, you don't want to know your neighbors. AM: Well, that's true…that can be true. Gary: Just a nice a lady in society…I read somewhere in my Sunday School book…you get to where you don't talk to anybody, no conversation. You go to the pump, you pump your own gas, you don't talk to anybody. You go through…automatic…you don't talk, no conversation…oh, I don't like it. AM: I know, from just personal, when I go home, you know, I'm by myself, except for my pets. Girley: Yeah! AM: I don't talk to anybody. Girley: It's just, it's just…I don't know. AM: Well I appreciate so much, both of you coming in. Gary: You going to scan those, or… AM: Well, our scanner is Reggie…and he's late. DS: Could, could I keep 'em and bring 'em to you later? Gary: Sure. DS: I prom… AM: She's good for her word. Gary: Or you can call me, and I'll come get 'em, 'cause I'm up and down the road all the time, anyway. And I don't know if you're, ya'll got the historic calendar? AM: No. I've never seen it… Gary: I don't know where this…my mother had it in her stuff…they show pictures in there of various places in the parish. AM: No, we don't have this. DS: We'll scan it… Girley: Scan it…okay. [End of interview] |
People |
Albright, Gary Albright, Girley Bailey Atkins, Pete Baird, Vada Barnes Bigby, Elizabeth Bird, Cassius Brandon Black, Tommy Brandenburg, Patrick Cagle, Barton Clayton, Jack Cox, Bessie D. Elson, Leverill (Mrs.) Gant, Herbert Gullett, Jack Harland Heard Hearn Henry, Joe Isom, Bernie Kilgo Lawrence Lee Lowrey, John Madden, Marshall Martin, Pete Maxey, Billy Joe McConathy McCoy, Julia Milner, Jessie Leola Horton Montgomery Montgomery, Billy Wayne (Rep.) Raines, Betty Ramby, Fay Ramby, Kay Riley, Barbara Horton Rusheon, Ted O. Skinner Smith, Archie Thompson, Dalton O. Ward, Virginia Franks |
Search Terms |
Alford Place Camp Zion Road Jones Road |
Interview date |
2006-06-27 |
Interview place |
Bossier Parish Library Historical Center |
Interviewer |
Middleton, Ann |
Recording media |
Cassette Tape |
Inventoried date |
2024-04-22 |