Before I leave Louisiana behind, there are several people and incidents that I feel compelled to include before I move on to Arkansas.
I had two very loyal and dedicated employees that deserve recognition before I move on to another era. Mrs. Myrle Lanclos worked for me for nearly twenty years before her retirement. She was the most valuable asset that I had available to me during my entire business experience. She is the most stable woman that I have ever met in my entire life! She never had a bad day, nor did she ever have an exceptionally good day. It seemed that every day was just like any other day. She arrived for work at exactly 9:00 A.M. each morning, she left for lunch at exactly 12 Noon each day, she got back from lunch at exactly 1:00 P.M. every day, she drank exactly one cup of coffee every day about 2:00 P.M., and she left at exactly 5:00 P.M. every day of her extensive career! Myrle never ran out of things to do. If we were busy, she did whatever needed to be done and she did it very well. If we were not busy, she always found something to keep her occupied. She could dust, she could clean the bathroom, she could mop the floor, she could do anything that needed to be done! She was a Godsend! She had earned my implicit trust, and my admiration of her qualities exceeds my vocabulary. Myrle was with me through the good times and the bad times, and she was always supportive whatever the circumstance. Every businessman should be so lucky to have a Myrle Lanclos working for him!
I had one more young lady who worked for me for the last two or three years before I closed the business. Mrs. Roslyn Comeaux Bouton was also an excellent employee. She was very energetic, and loved to take on new challenges. She worked just as hard as Myrle, and she was also just about as good with the customers. Again, I had a person that I trusted without question, and that in itself is worth so much as it relates to peace of mind! These are two very honest women, and I feel very fortunate that each of these two people touched my life! I will be forever grateful to feel the warmth that statement allows me to feel!
I cannot possibly include all of the people who enriched my life in Louisiana, and I regret that I cannot include each and every one of those people in this format. There are, however, a few close friends that I need to mention. It would be disrespectful to leave these people out, however, it may be just as disrespectful to leave out so many others!
The first person that I am compelled to mention is, of course, Captain Thoville Smith. I later nicknamed him "Walker" as a result of an episode of echolalia. The name stuck, and I called him "Walker" right up to his death. He and I had so much in common, each of us was a man of principle, and we would not even think of compromising our integrity! We were both hard workers, skilled in our respective fields, and we both loved to fish. He always fished with a cane pole and live shiners, and I always fished with a fly rod, an adjustable cork, and a "Slaters Jig"! One day we were looking for some good water off of Bayou Boutte, and he was dragging his line in the water as I idled by some brush tops. Suddenly, he pulled in a fine sized Sac-Au-Lait. The water was somewhat murky, so had he not caught the fish, I don't think I would have even tried that canal. I stopped the engine in order to put the trolling motor over, and he pulled in three more fish before I was set up. We fished that canal all day long, and at the end of the day we had nearly 200 Sac-Au-Lait and Bass! It was a good trip indeed! Another afternoon "Walker" and I were fishing a canal off of Little Bayou Long, we had stayed there practically all day, because the fish never really quit biting. I knew it would take about 20 minutes to get back to the landing, so we stayed as late as we could. Just before we were ready to leave, a man in a grossly overpowered boat flew past us. I knew that he was lost, because it was a dead end canal. I took my line out of the water, and used the trolling motor to block his passage on his way back. I sat in the front seat with my arms folded and my feet propped on the deck. "Walker" lit into the man verbally as he was forced to slow down. He gave this man a tongue lashing that I am quite sure he remembers through this day! Sailors are salty, and he had certainly fought his way all the way to the top!
As I said, I always fished with a Jig. One morning while fishing a wellhead in the marsh, "Walker" started pulling in Sac-Au-Lait right and left! I frantically worked my jig all around the structure, but I could not even get a bite to save my neck. Finally, I got so frustrated at watching his success that I ripped my Jig off and changed over to shiners. We caught fish around that structure until every single fish in the school was in our ice chest! I must admit that it hurt to take off the Jig, but it felt mighty good to catch such a nice mess of Sac-Au-Lait!
I only wish that I had the time to tell his story, but it has all been recorded and hopefully his son, Theo, will have it published someday. It is so remarkable that a boy from Mermentau, Louisiana, ran away from home when he was thirteen years old, and stowed away on a ship docked in Port Arthur, Texas. He worked his was up from cabin boy to captain in the merchant marines more quickly than any other person in the history of that institution. He sailed with the British in World War I, because he was too young for the Americans to take him. After the war he had a hell of a time proving that he was and American. He walked on the Great Walls of China when he was only fifteen years old, and when World War II broke out the Americans allowed him to sail on tankers hauling gasoline. He was torpedoed and sunk twice in the North Atlantic, and he was one of a handful of sailors that survived! He walked across Africa, and he claimed that he left a "bleached streak" in his wake! He led an amazing life, and I will never forget how much I dearly treasured his friendship! I wept at his funeral, and I think of him so often. I only wish that he had had the chance to visit with us in the Ozarks, he would have rediscovered paradise in the pristine woodlands and crystal clear lakes and rivers. I hope to see him again one day, and if that happens, we will have much to catch up on!
I also have an extraordinary friend in Ricohoc, Louisiana. Donald Landry became a customer of mine in the early 70's, and we immediately struck up a great friendship. Don and his wife Shirley planted 15,000 citrus trees on his place in Ricohoc, which is just to the west of the Calumet Cut or Wax Lake Outlet. They planted each tree manually, and when they began to bare fruit, the orchard looked like a sea of gold. Don expertly sprayed and fertilized each tree, and just as they were beginning to make money with the fruit a killing freeze wiped out the orchard. Every tree needed to be bulldozed into a huge pile and burned. The entire experience was heartbreaking! I was nearly ten years later that Don had the courage to plant more trees. This time he installed an irrigation system that was to be used to spray the trees during a killing freeze such as the one that had wiped him out before. He planted on a smaller scale, and I think that he is just now beginning to make money-farming fruit once again.
It takes a special person to tolerate the antics that I put Donald Landry through. I loved to get up very early on Saturday mornings, go to the store, do all of my paperwork, and then drive down to Donald's house by 3 A.M. I would bang on the door (Shirley worked nights as a nurse at the hospital), and Don would just get out of bed, unlock the door, brush his teeth, and turn the coffee pot on. We would sit at the Kitchen table until after dawn discussing everything under the sun, and shortly after daylight, I would go back to my store. Before I left I usually went on to his back porch near US Hwy 90 and pee off of his porch. This made him somewhat uncomfortable because he was afraid that someone would think that it was him! One morning, about 2 A.M., I showed up at the door, and I realized that Shirley was not at work. It surprised me, because it was her night off. I reluctantly banged on the door, and Shirley just unlocked it, turned and went back to the bedroom (without even looking at me), and mumbled to Don that I was there to see him. He had not even heard any of the proceedings, and as he suddenly awakened and saw me in the bedroom doorway exclaimed, "what in the hell are you doing in here?" He was shaken and startled by my appearance and puzzled as to how I had gained entrance to the house. He had not heard Shirley when she had gotten out of the bed to let me in! Through all of that, we remain close friends today! Don and Shirley are great folks, and I avidly recommend that you stop in to visit with them any morning at 2 or 3 o'clock! Be sure to tell them that I sent you!
Ervin "Joe" Vaughn, is another friend that I cannot leave out of this story either. He and I went back long before I moved to Centerville to open a pharmacy. We had played softball together while I was in college. He is one of the shrewdest "money making " men I have ever known! His knowledge of investment is as sophisticated as one person's could ever hope to be! He did not finish college, but as usual, he had a contingency plan for early retirement. He retired from Exxon at an early age partially because of his frugal ways and his willingness to sacrifice at a young age in order to reap the benefits when he got a little older. The "Sheik", as I affectionately called him worked in tattered clothing at Exxon, and when college boys went back to school, he talked them out of their clothing. This included their shoes; he claimed that he wore anything from a size 7 to size 11. He always made it a point to take a crap on company time using company paper; this saved him a specific amount of money that I feel sure he had calculated out over a thirty-year period. The "Sheik" and I would fire a football around in the pharmacy. I could rifle the football with deadly accuracy over expensive gifts and glassware, and he could catch anything I could throw his way! I guess we were both crazy, but we did manage to have a good time when together!
Another person I cannot forget to mention is the late Lou Ethel Hawkins. She was my housekeeper for at least twenty years. She was a jolly gal to say the least, and another dedicated employee. She was as honest as any person I have ever known, and she knew exactly what needed to be done, and she did it without complaint and with great ease. Lou Ethel suffered from asthma, and one night while Joan was working at the hospital, an ambulance brought a black woman in who was in acute respiratory distress. Joan helped the E.R. crew work on this lady until the code was finally called. When the mask was removed from her face, Joan was shocked to find out that it was Lou Ethel! She had worked for us that morning, and suddenly she was dead! God, she left a tremendous void in our lives!
The late Reverend Henderson Climax was another of my really close friends. He prided himself on growing the largest cabbage in St. Mary Parish each and every year. He was a fine black leader, and a very fine gentleman. I only wish that I had had more time to know him, he died not many years after I moved to Centerville.
Two more ladies were near and dear to my heart; Ella V. Robertson, and Lillie Belle Williams. These two ladies took care of all of the babies born out of my Centerville marriages. They were very responsible, loving, and devoted women! I will forever remain grateful for the love that each bestowed upon the children that called me daddy!
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