Butte La Rose et Les Entourage

Bonjour!
Imagine that! After 62 years of being gone from here, Gerline Barras’s mind still wonders back now and then to her childhood roots and thanks God for where she was born in her “Belle Catahoula!”
Gerline, who lives by Lufkin, Texas, called me last week. Hearing a voice ask if I remembered my cousin Gerline Barras? I could not believe after all these years that she had remembered me at all! Voila!
She explained that she keeps up with us through my column. She brought me back to when I was 9 years old. That was the last time I saw my cousin. Unashamed, I cried my happiness to her over the phone. You never stop loving your people. It was so wonderful to hear from her again. We talked with laughter!
Her sister Irene lives at a nursing home close by. Memories came gushing back to those days of old when she and my sisters, Ruby and Cecile, Mildred Blanchard, Margaret “Tut” Blanchard and Shirley Doucet, among a few other girls from here, all ran together. They were tom-boys fearing nothing or no one.
Our little town was productive even then. Tut is a memory machine of those long ago times. I remember in admiration watching lots of things they’d do together. They were my idols and of course they were too mature to hang around with une enfant as I.
They were all pretty girls and “well mannered.” Ha! Where you might see one alone, the others were close by. I did call Tut telling her Gerline called. She can’t remember the last time she saw her. Ain’t it funny how time slips away?
Then she and I began reminiscing. Tut said when she was 6 years old their gang would go to the famous and popular Borel’s Restaurant on the banks of the Catahoula Lake. People would come from far to enjoy the boiled delicious large blue point crabs fished from the lake. And the girls danced among each other to the band’s music. Customers were so thrilled on how cute and well the girls danced with timing and rhythm and thought how beautiful and unique these children were that they would throw nickels and dimes on the dance floor for them. A nickel back then was like a $5 worth today. The restaurant was within hundreds of feet of where they all lived. Tut recalls when she and husband Harry won a waltz contest.
They often crossed the bridge walking to the levee. I remember when the REA electric company had cut a path to the levee from the bridge bringing electricity to the Hickembottom family. Before that path had been cleared, one day the girls went walking, jumping over cut trees and branches having the fun of their lives. That was until a skunk snuck up behind them. Fearing what was carrying that smell close behind they ran for dear life until it was out of sight. I remember sitting on our porch hearing their unforgettable merciful piercing screaming and watching their heads bobble up and down from jumping scaring off their enemy. The skunk probably got a heart attack and died from their screams.
And then there was the Horseshoe Club as they reached their early teens. Played there was the Willis Touchet and his family band. No curfews were needed. Want to keep in touch? Got her number!
Seniors! Go for it! Remember my eye problems last year? I told my kids I would no longer be driving at night. The middle line on the road crossed and the glare of oncoming traffic became extremely difficult. Don’t let your eyes come to this point. I placed my vision in the hands of my choice at the Azar Eye Clinic. I followed their instructions, had three very simple but important surgeries. My next follow up appointment is on July 2015. I’ve come a long way Babe!
Bonne journée!

–Cousine Hélène
337-228-1714
helenboudreaux@juno.com