ENPages
Alabama
Joe Vaughn and Family AL-60 Bayou La Batre, Alabama
Ila B. Prine Mobile, Alabama.
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LIFE IN A SHRIMPING AND OYSTER SHUCKING CAMP
On the south side of the bayou in the little town of Bayou La Batre, Ala., is a camp that houses the families who work in the Dorgan, McPhillips Packing Company. The approach to the Camp from the paved county highway, is over an unpaved road [begin strike through] on [end strike through] along [begin strike through] whose sides [end strike through] which are the factory and the houses, or camps of the workers.
The camp itself is made up of two long houses and several smaller ones, near the edge of teh bayou. The two long houses are built alike, both having a long porch running the entire lenght of the front side. The buildings are partitioned so that ten families can live in them. each family having the use of part of the porch, which has steep steps leading to the ground. The structures are hight off the ground, so that the water can not get into them, when the bayou overflows. The work place is bleak and bare
[begin strike through] The place is bleak and bare, and with the efforts that the people are making to eke out an existence [end strike through]
On the edge of the bayou, facing the camp are six hogpens built of slabs of wood. In between each of these are outdoor privies.
Wandering around the camp were a few scrawny chickens that looked as though a slight puff of wind would blow them away. They were picking at the oyster shells that were spread over the ground in front of the camp house nearest the water.
In the end compartment of the long camp house nearest the
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Alabama Life in a Shrimping and Oyster Shucking Camp 2
bayou, live an old man, seventy-seven years of age, and his wife, who is sixty-seven. This man is Joe Vaughn, whose father came directly from England to Canada, where he was married to a Canadian Frenchwoman. Joe's mother. Joe left Canada when a very small boy, and came to New Iberia, Louisiana, where he lived for sixty-three years.
Joe, who is of medium height and weighs a hundred and sixty pounds, is very erect for his years. His hair is gray, and he has soft brown eyes. Joe said he farmed while living in New Iberia, but has also fished all his life, living as he has lived on the seacoast. His wife, Ezora, is a French native of Louisiana who cannot speak English. Ezora is a tall, thin, dark-skinned woman, whose hair is still black, even though she is sixty-seven years old. She looks like one who has had a hard life.
Joe was preparing the ground just back of the camp to plant English peas. When he was asked [begin strike through] to give some information [end strike through] about planting lore and superstitions, he smiled broadly and said:
"Just a minute, I'll come in the house where we can talk,"
Joe climbed over the slab fence and came around the back of the camp to his apartment.
He asked [begin strike through] the writer [end strike through] me to come in, and have a chair. When we were seated, in walked three women and several children, to find out what was happening. Joe never introduced them, but sat complacently and began to talk. In a few moments one of the women said something about her mother sitting in the door way, between the bedroom and kitchen.
Ezora smiled and spoke in French. It was then that Joe said:
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"This is my wife Ezora and how old do you think she is?"
When I replied, that I thought she must be in her sixties from what he said about his own age, he then said that she was sixty-seven, and explained that she could not speak a word of English.
Joe said that he had lived on the sea coast, but [begin strike through] he also [end strike through] loved to farm also.
"The people here often say I'm a lucky old man, because everythink I plant grows but that ain't it, I plants according to the moon. Now let me tell you, never plant on the increase of the moon for the plants will be big and healthy but there wont be any vegetables on them. The time to plant is on the decrease of the moon. That is why I'm working so hard to get my English peas planted now, 'cause it's on the decrease of the moon. I usually has some kind of vegetables to sell, but this year it has been so dry I hasn't got anything now.
"B'fore coming to Bayou la Batre I farmed in New Iberia, Louisiana, but I hunted plenty, too. I has killed over threehundred and thirty-five deer in my life. In 1919 I killed sixtysix deers in twelve months time. I always kept a pack of hounds in New Iberia, b'fore times got so hard. Miss, a dog has got almost as much sense as a person. When hunting with them, I carried an old horn to blow, and I had them trained so that when I wanted them to come offen a trail, I'd blow three long blows, and them dogs knew to come to me."
Just then one of the women who had come into the room, spoke up and said:
"That was the way mama had papa and us children trained, and
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when she wanted us, she sold blow that old horn."
Joe paused a minute and a sad expression came over his face, and said:
"I'll tell what happened one year before leavin' Louisiana. I had a fine dog, part houn' and half bird dog. One day he an' my boy lef' the house together an' after a while the dog come home, an' it was a pity to hear that dog, an' we knowed somethin' was wrong, an' shore enought the nex' day we foun' our boy drownded in a canal. A dog has railly got sense, an' you can learn them just like a person. I kept that dog thirty years."
"You know, there's times for all things. Lots of people don't b'lieve in a lot of things, but don't never start anything on a Friday, 'cause it's shore bad luck. Another thing don't never go fishing on the decrease of the moon, 'cause fish wont bite on the decrease, they seems kinda weak, but on the increase they bits hard.
"I believes in dreams, too, for just as shore as I dream it comes true. One time I bought my wife a sewing machine, an' every night before the man would come to get the money on it, I would dream about it, an' I knowed to git up and get that money, so it would be there when that man came.
"Another dream that always comes true, was, when I dream of silver money, the children would get lice in their heads. You know where there's lots of children, they's always gettin' them. We had ten children, five boys and five girls, but there is only five living now."
Then he turned to the two women standing by the bad, and said:
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"These here are my girls, an' their children. We always gits rid of the lice though, by gitting sage an' make strong tea, an' take fat from chicken an' put in the tea and rub that on. The grease kills the nits as well as the lice, an' the tea makes the hair have new life an' color. I'm a great believer in the home remedies, because them remedies do not wok on the blood like the medicines these days. We uses the 'divine healer,' but you've got to believe, b'fore he can do you any good. There's only a certain one learned in healin', but this man can stop blood any time. Once they was a man that the doctors had given up, and this healer cuored him, an' they give him papers to go 'round healing'.
"Some of the home remedies we uses, is cobwebs with raw sugar on it, to stop bleedin'. Tobacco is good for wasp stings, bumblebee stings and the honey bee sting. Just take a chaw out of your mouth an' put it where you've been stung, an' it will kill the sting right now. I tell you there is some good in every kind of a weed in this world. You take rabbit tobacco is good for colds and fever. Make a tea out of it and drink it. There's the mullein leaves, they make good cough syrup. Take them an' boil down with cherry bark and pine chips, and then put a little honey in it. Another thing, you can make a poultice out of mullein leaves for croup. But the best thing for pneumonia, is take hog hoofs, and scorch them brown to where you can crumble them and boil into a tea, and that'll cure pnuemonia, when nothing else wont.
"Another thing I does when the children get the earache, you see, I smoke a pipe, an' I blow the smoke in the ear, an' that stops the ache. For malaria we goes into the swamp and get black jack roots and' put in gin."
One of the daughters began to laugh when Joe was talking
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